Chapter 311: My Favorite Hunter.
Sigh.
A woman's weary and aching sigh resounded in an abandoned church, the woman was in what appeared to be a secret church room.
The woman with Japanese features was wearing only simple shorts and a black bra that barely held her bulging breasts.
"I shouldn't have fought alone..." She spoke as she held the wound on her abdomen. She was using a first-aid solution, but the wound wasn't closing, and she was too tired to use her powers right now.
"Yes, you shouldn't."
"Ugh, can't you just support me, Master?"
"I am. A Master's duty is to point out the disciple's mistakes."
"Ugh." The woman had no way of replying to the man's words.
She tossed the blood-soaked rag into the trash and grabbed another.
"I hope this doesn't leave another scar." She spoke as she looked at the wound on her abdomen and placed the cloth on her wound.
"...agh..." She held back her groan of pain.
"Well, it's not like an extra scar is going to make a difference." Abe-No-Seimei commented as he looked at the wound on his disciple's 6-pack abdomen.
If Mizuki wasn't who she was today, a very experienced warrior, a warrior who'd fought since she was little and a good user of Onmyo magic, she would have died a long time ago from the amount of blood that she'd lost.
She had lived so long, thanks to the support of magic and the heroic spirit, so much so that she could no longer be considered human.
She was a human... a better human.
A superior human.
'The body tells the story of its battles.' That was Abe-No-Seimei's thought when he saw the scars on Mizuki's body.
She had several scars that didn't heal well. Just in the abdomen area, she had three scars, she had 6 more scars on her back.
With two of them being small stab wounds from traitors who had tried to kill her in the past.
"Cough, Cough." She coughed up black blood on the floor.
"It seems that the healing process is working…although it's taking time."
"Losing the hunters' magic was a big blow—." Abe-No-Seimei wanted to keep talking, but with just an annoyed look from Mizuki, he was silent.
"I will not use that false god's magic." As someone who grew up in ancient Japan, she was a believer in the Gods of Shinto Mythology.
It wasn't for nothing that she used her powers in battle, and, even when she became a general of the Inquisition, she never used that organization's magic.
The magic only acted as a form of support for her body, making her stronger and with a better ability to regenerate.
And in betraying the organization, she completely lost access to those powers.
After all, from the beginning, she had no 'faith' in the god of that organization, they just got together because they had a common interest.
"... Even if the organization had its flaws... The resources it had were plentiful."
"Just that resurrection magic would be of great help, and you got your arm back because of that magic."
"Flaws...? That's a funny way to put it." She spoke in disdain.
"Experimenting on humans, experimenting on vampires, and using both races to create abominations that shouldn't exist."
"Recruiting children, brainwashing them to fight for your cause."
"...You call that a flaw?" She spoke in a cold tone of voice.
"...." Abe-No-Seimei was silent with a cold face.
"The world is not black or white, my disciple. You know that."
"Yes, I know. But nothing justifies the death of children."
"... That is true." Abe-No-Seimei replied after looking at his disciple for a while. Then he closed his eyes and couldn't help but smile a little.
It was because of Mizuki being who she was, a woman who had similar ideas to him, that he was so supportive of her.
Even in his time, at the time, he was considered the strongest Onmyou mage…
He'd never killed children or used children to fight Oni.
Although... That mercy of his didn't apply to the Oni.
When he invaded a village of Oni, none survived.
And it was this teaching that he taught his disciple.
... But when coming into contact with that monster.
She was changing...
Just a few days ago, when she was hunting a Vampire that was wreaking havoc, a Vampire that was preying on humans in the dark to steal the blood of its victims.
She followed the Vampire and killed him, but the little Vampire boy, who was not even the age of a 1-year-old, was spared.
The little boy was that Vampire's son, and apparently, the Vampire was hunting humans because his wife died at the hands of the Hunters.
He needed blood for his son's needs.
This originally wouldn't have been a problem if the woman who was that man's wife was alive. After all, with the ritual's magic, they could easily supply each other's and their child's needs, and they didn't need to hunt humans.
Mizuki knew that, and because of that...
She hesitated. She couldn't turn her blade on a child; she had done it many times in the past without thinking, but now...
She hesitated, she didn't kill...
She even helped that monster because of a useless feeling like paying a favor.
'She has become defective.' Abe-No-Seimei looked at his disciple with a small light of disapproval in his eyes.
"…Are you still hesitating?"
"..." Mizuki's body trembled as she heard what her master had said.
"We won't talk about it."
"They are Oni, Mizuki."
"They must die."
"...." Mizuki looked at her Master with an angry glint in her eyes:
"So that kid who could barely pick up a sword was someone I should kill too!?"
"Yes." He spoke the cold, raw truth, a truth she had known for a long time:
"If you don't kill them, they will come back and seek revenge. When you kill a tree, you mustn't forget to pull out the roots... Because one day, it will come back."
"...That wouldn't be a problem if that Vampire hadn't lost his wife!"
"If his wife were alive, he wouldn't need to go hunting humans to give his child a chance at living!"
"Do you not understand?"
"By not killing the child, you left a seed of destruction for all humans in that region."
"..." Mizuki bit her lip. Of course, she knew that she knew that very well. She saw it happen once in the past.
But it was not like she liked that fact.
"...fuck." She clenched her fists in frustration.
'Because of that, feelings towards monsters are not necessary. Feelings cloud your judgment, and because of your foolish decision, you would put other humans at risk.' Abe-No-Seimei thought to himself as he shook his head.
When a Vampire child loses their parents and is affected by bloodlust, they will eventually go berserk and damage everyone around them.
A Vampire who fights for blood is dangerous... no matter what age.
Because of this, when Hunters go after vampires who have children, they make sure to kill the entire family.
After all, without parents to provide for their child's needs, the child just becomes a ticking time bomb that will explode when it gets hungry.
A fucked up world.
Because of that, because of situations like this, all Vampires want to live in Nightingale.
The home of Noble Vampires.
"Because of that, I finished the job you couldn't." Abe-No-Seimei spoke with a twinkle in his eye.
"Master!?" Mizuki couldn't believe what she'd heard from her master.
"A Vampire who can have children, that child was a Noble Vampire, not even that you realized... The damage he would do if he went Berserk would be far worse than an adult Vampire plebeian."
Usually, pure-blooded Vampires, those Vampires who were already born as vampires, didn't come out into the human world when they were children.
Either they remained in their Clan until adulthood when they reached 500 years of age, or they remained in Nightingale.
Mostly an entire family of Noble Vampires, something must have happened, some circumstances that made them leave Nightingale or separate from their Clan of Noble Vampires.
Every great country in the world would always have a great Clan of Vampires behind it.
An example of this was the Clan that helped the Yakuza to be who they were today.
Vampires who worked from the shadows and, over time, gained influence through the Mafia and now had enough property and economic power to do whatever they wanted.
Left alone, these vampires could wreak havoc.
Because of this, Hunters were needed.
The very same Japanese Vampire Clan that Mizuki destroyed in the past was a perfect example. They used the power they got in society to bring in virgin humans and use their blood like cattle.
If Vlad, The King of Vampires, saw the sight of those Japanese Vampires using humans as livestock on some kind of farm, he would call them barbarians.
The practice of kidnapping humans for their blood was common in Nightingale, but the circumstances involving humans were completely different.
In exchange for their blood of humans remaining a virgin until the age of 25, Nightingale financially supported any kind of business these humans wanted to do.
You are a virgin orphan child, and in exchange for living a life of luxury, you would only have to give your blood daily to Vampires.
A fair exchange. Vampires had nearly infinite riches because of their long lives, so helping humans in exchange for their blood proved more efficient than treating them like farm cattle or in a jail-like cage.
Give them food, give them riches, support them in whatever they want as long as they are not harmful to Nightingale.
And in exchange for that support, all they should do is give some of their blood.
An almost perfect solution to the problem.
Why almost perfect?
Well, like everywhere else in the world, there was a social class to distinguish the 'blood' of humans.
The blood of a non-virgin human was considered waste.
The blood of a type-O virgin human was the most common, and they would receive support privileges accordingly.
For example, they would receive an allowance of $50,000 a month but would not have full support from Nightingale.
Now, if you own a rare blood type, blood like RH Null Blood, The Golden Blood,
Or the AB blood type that, despite being rare like RH Null Blood, they would lose a lot compared to the aforementioned.
If blood type RH was the top tier for vampires,
AB blood would be the runner-up.
But even if they were the runner-up, it didn't matter. You would get 100% Support from Nightingale.
Do you want to start a company and need funds? Do you want to help someone? Do you want riches? What is your wish?
Just be born with rare blood, the rarer your blood...
Nightingale will invest in you.
This method caused the Nightingale vampires to view the practice of raising human livestock as something that was barbaric.
There was no benefit in doing so. You would just have a bad reputation with other species and lose business opportunities.
Vlad, if he wanted to, could have an unlimited supply of human blood, and these virgin humans could also become his soldiers if he needed it.
As a 5000 year old Progenitor, he only needed to give a drop of his blood to a virgin human and Voila.
A powerful 500 year old level Noble Vampire would be born.
If the human were a non-virgin, they would be born with mediocre potential, but by being blessed by a Progenitor, they would still have Vampire strength of about 100 to 200 years of age.
And this was something that Victor didn't know. As a Progenitor, he could create noble vampires from non-virgin beings.
But the quality and potential would be completely different from a human virgin.
Because of this, Victor's Maids had such great potential.
Speaking of Victor...
"Hahahaha~." A light laugh echoed in the place.
"That annoying voice..." Abe-No-Seimei narrowed his eyes.
"He is here." Mizuki felt a little relieved that it wasn't another Vampire.
Mizuki opened her eyes in shock: '...Relieved? I? About a Vampire?' She was seriously thinking she'd gone crazy now.
The lights began to flicker as if the light was going to go out at any moment.
"People like you are important in this world, Mizuki." Victor's voice echoed throughout the room.
"Beings who have doubts and ask what is right and wrong, beings who are skeptical of what is said by others, beings who doubt the words of Spirits who have been dead for thousands of years are important." Victor's body slowly started to walk through the wall and was seen by both of them.
"..." Abe-No-Seimei felt that Victor's last words were towards him.
"Because of that, I value our alliance so much." He spoke with a small smile on his face.
"...Y-You?" Mizuki pointed at the man in shock, and words couldn't come out of her mouth. He was completely different.
His appearance, his eyes, his long black hair that was longer than she had seen it in the past, hair that looked like it had a life of its own because, despite no air circulation in this place, his hair was floating around until slowly, his hair shortened to the same haircut he had when she met him for the first time.
His whole atmosphere changed, becoming more calm and peaceful. He didn't have that dangerous atmosphere he had in the past.
'Is it because he found his wives?' Mizuki tried to deduce this change of atmosphere.
But she couldn't use her head for long, considering that she was bewitched by his face.
With just one gentle look from him, she felt her entire existence tremble.
He was handsome...dangerously handsome...
badump, Badump.
Gulp.
Her heart pounded like it were several horses running inside her as she swallowed hard.
Never in her entire life had she seen someone as perfect as he was.
"Hello, Mizuki. I came to visit my favorite Hunter…" He looked down at the woman's ripped abdomen and saw her wound.
He looked around and saw several blood-soaked cloths:
"Well, looks like I've arrived at an interesting time, doesn't it?" He flashed an amused smile.