3 bar menu

Volume 5 Vampire Tea Party Part 13

That is a long-cherished dream of all who were frightened of the Demon Lords and the power that they possess.

「Your Highness Lamia, please, listen to me: now that Queen Leticia has become such a monster, you are the only remaining member of the royal family who can guide the rest of the Vampire clan. Without you to guide us on our road toward the future, we will definitely lose our way and the sight of that which is truly important for us: the future of our entire race. So no matter what happens, you cannot allow yourself to die here, you hear me?!」

「. . . . . . . . . . . !!!」

Lamia bit on her lip so hard that blood came out of it, and the taste of it has helped her in calming down. The royal family is not just politicians and monarchs. It is a symbol of an entire Vampire race comparable to a Community’s flag. Once the authority held by such a symbol, which has continued to exist for such a long time is lost, they will never be able to recover it ever again.

「Lady Lamia, please. . . . . . I need you to make a decision right away.」

「. . . . . There is nothing to be thinking about here. Guide me to where the other survivors are.」

Lamia said while nodding her head. In her current situation, that was the only choice left for her.

「The surviving members of the clan have set up a camp on the ground where they could monitor the Giant Dragon’s movements. The battle with the rebels has already been exhausting both physically and mentally, but once they learn that your Highness is alive and well, the morale will surely rise up. The road ahead might be hard and arduous, but please, Lady Lamia, you have to be strong for now.」

Carla motivated her while clenching her own fists hard. She might be trying not to show it, but it was obvious that the battle must have taken its toll on her as well. So in order to psyche herself up, Lamia slapped both of her cheeks with her hands. This is the moment for her to fulfill her duty as the member of the royal family. She might not be able to fight on the frontlines with the same prowess as those who were born and trained to be warriors, but if there is something that she can definitely do as a princess, it would be leading her subjects as their leader.

Preparing herself for departure, Lamia looked back at the aerial citadel and the rampaging Giant Dragon only once, because she knew that if she looked at them once more, she might not have been able to do what needed to be done.

「Wait for me, dear sister. I will. . . . . I will definitely come back and save you!」

And with that oath, the two Vampires began to distance themselves from the Giant Dragon as its roars became so intense that they could easily shake up heavens and earth, drowning the sound of Lamia’s words so that they never reached Leticia’s ears.

* * *

All thing’s considered, their outlook was far too naïve.

It will not be an exaggeration to say that this was the day when the problems of the Vampire clan began.

On that day, the word that the Vampire Queen has become a Demon Lord got out to the world, and the Storytellers and Poets, delighted at the birth of the seed of a great new story, sang their songs and spread the anecdotes around Little Garden.

Of the day when the Vampire cannibal was born.

Of Vampires that are immortal monsters.

And of The Impaler, The Demon Lord who killed his enemies by skewering their hearts with stakes.

Their songs were spreading out like wildfire, leaking even to the Outer World and many parallel worlds. In some of the, Vampires became depicted as cannibalistic monsters who even feasted on corpses, while in others they became the root and the source of all other monsters.

Lamia was doing everything in her power to stop the scandal from escalating any further than it already did, but once the Poets and Storytellers start their creative fever, only a handful of people could hope to actually stop them.

In response to the numerous scandals involving vampires, the plans to implement the 「Floor Master」 system, a system that would appoint the single strongest individual in the North, South, East and West Side as their guardians have been put on the backburner, and a different organization meant to combat the threat of the Demon Lords was born: a gathering of the strongest Gods of War from every mythology with their representatives responsible for guarding each Side of Little Garden. That strongest group of warriors will later grow up to be known as 「The Heavenly Army」. However, they were nothing but battle-focused maniacs who had very little to do with the ideal that the Vampires held: to bring piece and prosperity to the residents and the Communities of the lower floors.

Initially, the Vampires that managed to survive the massacre tried to fight back against the slanderous songs that were accusing their Queen of being a monster, but the more time passed, the colder the world was looking at them and their claims that what the Poets and Storytellers were spreading were nothing but lies. Whether they liked it or not, the fact that Leticia Draculea, The Vampire Queen has turned into a Demon Lord brought the dark clouds over the Vampire clan’s future. And in the middle of the fight against such a storm, Lamia always repeated these words to herself like a mantra, a spell that was meant to protect both her and Leticia:

. . . . . My dear sister is not a monster the Poets are making her out to be.

Sometimes fiercely, sometimes calmly. Taking one step at a time, Lamia was doing everything she could to dispel the dispel the disgrace that her sister has befallen into. Her efforts, however, were all meaningless. Or perhaps it will be better to say that it was counterproductive, because when it comes to Poets and their songs, it does not matter whether they are right or wrong. Their songs are considered to the “absolute truths”. They are the fourth strongest species of Little Garden, holding in their hands the power to modify the facts of the infinitely expanding other worlds without anyone ever figuring out that the true course of history has been altered. But perhaps the worst of all was the fact that they were all hedonists focused solely on pursuing their own pleasures and interests. Normally that fact did not cause problems, but once they catch wind of a subject that really interests them, they will pursue it and sing about it without even stopping to consider whether they are doing the good thing or a bad thing. Thanks to exactly that, the false truths about Vampires have been etched into the minds of the people across the myriad of worlds, turning their noble forms into hideous ones.

If only all the sins and curses were to be pinned on Leticia alone, the rest of the Vampire clan would have a real chance at reviving their true image at one point in the future. But such an outcome was not what the survivors wanted.

. . . . . My dear sister is not a monster the Poets are making her out to be.

And so, the Poets sand about Lamia and her attempts at protecting the honor of her beloved sister in the ways that further ridiculed the Vampire Clan. And her devotion and passion she was putting into fighting them only served to add fuel to the fire.

As a result, the curses that Lamia, the royal family and the vampires as a whole were too numerous to count them all as they were spreading not only from the Western Europe to the Far East, but across the rest of the Outer World as well, giving birth to the folklore of the Vampires upon which their image in the modern world and its culture and literature was based, turning them from noble warriors into bloodthirsty monsters. And still, even after suffering through all of that, Lamia continued to repeat the same words, over and over again.

. . . . . My dear sister is not a monster the Poets are making her out to be.

She was still saying those words with unwavering conviction and tears in her eyes as she protected her kind and noble image against the world who sang nothing but slanders about her, which was breaking her heart every time she heard the new gossip being spread around.

In order to protect her sister’s prestige, Lamia accepted the curses and grudges directed towards Leticia onto herself, which in the end granted her the power and Divinity comparable to that of hundreds of thousands of Evil Spirits. If her Divinity was not sealed away during the {Paradox Game – Omnipotence Paradox}, it was entirely possible that her power would have grown even further, transcending even the territory of the Almighty and the Omnipotent

But the price she had to pay for that was exceedingly high. Her beautiful white skin was replaced by scales, and her jewel-like crimson eyes lost its light. And in the end, she was even cursed with a curse that would make her devour her own child.

That child-devouring curse was the final nail to the Vampire clan’s proverbial coffin. Since the last surviving member of the royal family has been cursed to consume her own child, the rest of the clan had no choice but to sever all ties with her. As a result of that, the Pureblood’s Vampire’s Community was also forced to disband, and those who managed to survive Leticia’s slaughter lived their lives quietly in the Vampire’s Hidden Village, and Lamia chose to seal herself away so that she would never devour her child, thus protecting the continuity of the royal family.

Then, after she was sealed away, for the first time in her life, the Vampire princess, who turned into a monster after taking the curses which were meant for her sister into herself. . . . . . . cursed the world.

“Life has its ups and downs. . . . the royal bloodline was also destined to perish one day, because such is the fate of all living beings. But nothing. . .  nothing and no one deserves to perish in such a cruel, destructive way.”

Her subjects and her brethren, who were fighting for justice alongside her disappeared one by one, swallowed up by a maelstrom of ugliness and ridicule, and all that she could offer t0 them. . . . . was a single tear to mourn such a ruthless ending.

A part of Lamia wanted to blame the entire world and everything within it, be it good or bad, for the misfortune that has befallen them. But she knew that if she did that, she would turn into a Demon Lord as well. And if their race produced a Demon Lord across two generations in a row, that would spell doom for those Vampires who lived their lives in quiet seclusion now. As the last member of the royal family, Lamia wanted to avoid such an outcome at all costs. She, a foolish leader who failed to live up to her status and expectations that others had for her, wanted to do at least that, to fulfill at least that one, single duty she had left.

Swallowing that last bit of bitterness that was swirling around in her chest, Lamia Draculea sealed herself off completely. But even though she was crying tears of resentment, inside of her heart she never stopped smiling. . . . . and wishing for good fortune and happy, fulfilling lives for the rest of her family.