It’s been a few days since Verc tore through the City of Zore and left.
And since that bloody afternoon at the dungeon entrance, chaos has taken root in the city.
The power structure that held the city together for decades was gone in the blink of an eye. The City Lord was dead. Most of the local barons were dead. Even the promising young knights, the pampered sons of the kingdom’s elite families, were mostly corpses now.
Those few low-ranking nobles who had managed to stay away from the dungeon entrance were now paralyzed by a deep, shivering terror.
They didn’t dare step outside their mansions. They stayed hidden in the shadows of their own homes, convinced that Verc was still lurking somewhere, waiting to finish the job.
In the middle of this disaster, Elianna found herself with a weight she never asked for.
She had no choice but to take control of the situation. As a Saintess of the Radiant Church, she was the only person left with enough authority to keep the citizens from panicking and the remaining city guards from deserting their posts.
A day after Verc had made his grand exit, Kael and the rest of the pursuit team finally dragged themselves out of the dark depths of the labyrinth.
They looked like they had been through hell. Their armor was dented, and their faces were pale.
And it was at that moment that the truth finally hit the public like a physical blow. The person they were looking for wasn’t just a criminal or a rogue mage. He was a vampire.
The word alone carried enough weight to make people lock their doors at night. Vampires were supposed to be legends, myths from a dark past that had long since been purged by the Church. To have one walking among them was a nightmare come to life.
Elianna, Kael, and their small circle remained mostly silent about Verc’s true identity. They didn’t tell the public his name. They just confirmed that the attacker was indeed a vampire, but they kept the details buried.
They were all still feeling a heavy, confusing conflict in their heads. Not only because they were still trying to process the fact that their traveling companion was a monster, but because they weren’t even sure if anything they knew about him was the truth.
Of course, the news of the city being attacked by a demonic being— a vampire that everyone thought was extinct— spread throughout the kingdom and the empire in a flash. It was like a wildfire that couldn’t be contained.
And in just a few short days, the response arrived...
The [Imperial Soldiers] from the empire marched through the gates of the city. They were a sight to behold, draped in heavy steel and carrying the banners of the Emperor. They had used expensive high-tier magic and rare artifacts to cross the distance to Zore at an impossible speed.
They weren’t the only ones who came to investigate the disaster. On the very same day they arrived, the [High-Rank Paladins] from the main headquarters of [The Radiant Church] got to the city as well.
Two major powers from powerful factions entered the fray.
And Elianna, acting as the temporary lord of the city, was the one who had to receive and greet them all.
She stood in the City Lord’s former office, feeling the immense pressure of dozens of powerful individuals staring at her.
Given that she was the Saintess and the one with the most authority who knew the whole story about Verc, the [Imperial Soldiers] and the [Paladins] immediately started asking questions.
They were relentless.
And Elianna... She told them everything that had unfolded.
She started with the trouble that happened back in the inn, explaining the fight with the noble children. She went all the way through the events in the dungeon from Kael, ending with the moment Verc escaped and revealed his true nature as a vampire.
Elianna told them just enough to satisfy their curiosity, but she shared no personal information about Verc. She didn’t tell them about his habits, his kindness to Onyx, or the way he spoke when they were alone. She kept the boy she knew separate from the monster they were hunting.
But just then— SWOOSH~
The atmosphere in the room shifted.
"Everyone stationed at the entrance was killed. The Lord is dead. The Knights are dead."
The captain of the [Imperial Soldiers] spoke up. He leaned forward in his chair, his eyes looking at Elianna with full doubt.
"How come you’re the only one who survived that encounter? You were standing right in front of him, were you not?"
He asked that, his gaze boring into her.
You would have expected the [Paladins] to jump to her defense. They were members of her own church, after all. But instead of defending their Saintess in this hostile situation... They also looked at her with suspicion. To them, her survival was a question mark.
"..."
Elianna couldn’t help but feel a sharp surge of annoyance and deep frustration at their coldness. She had been the one keeping this city from falling apart for days, and this was how they treated her.
But she kept a straight look on her face.
"The vampire deemed me as a significant problem to his escape. He stated that he would be risking his life just to fight me."
She stated, her voice steady and clear.
"The vampire mumbled that its only goal was to escape the city, not to die in a fight with a Saintess. Because it didn’t want to risk a clash with me, it chose to flee into the darkness instead of attacking."
She answered with that lie, hoping they wouldn’t see through the cracks.
"But why did he kill the leader and the knights so brutally? If his goal was just to escape, why take the time to execute them?"
The captain followed up, his voice getting louder and more aggressive.
"I have no idea. I am not a demonic being. I don’t know what’s going on inside of the twisted head of a vampire."
Elianna replied, her tone sharpening.
"You were right there. Why didn’t you go after him? Why did you just stand there and watch him walk away?"
Slowly... the whole situation became a one-sided interrogation for Elianna.
The captain kept pushing and pressuring her with question after question. All that was left was for him to officially accuse Elianna of being in cahoots with the vampire.
But with a poker face and a perfectly calm attitude... She didn’t give him an inch.
"I tried to pursue him, of course. But the vampire was using a lot of weird skills that I had never encountered. He was remarkably great at escaping."
Elianna responded to all of the questions without blinking.
So in the end... the captain had no choice but to let it go for now. He didn’t have any evidence to prove she was lying.
"A replacement for the last lord is with our main force. He will be here by tomorrow. You can now stop acting as a lord. Your services are no longer required."
He said that to Elianna, looking a bit annoyed that he couldn’t break her. He then stood up and prepared to leave the office.
But before he fully walked out the door—
"As expected of the fake Saintess... Incompetent."
He mumbled that under his breath, but he made sure the words were loud enough to reach her ears. His voice was full of pure disdain.
"..."
Elianna kept quiet. Her face remained as calm as a frozen lake, but under the heavy wooden desk, her hands were clenched into tight, white-knuckled fists. The insult stung more than she wanted to admit.
"You should return to the main church immediately. You need to report to his holiness about this failure."
Just then, the leader of the [Paladins] told that to Elianna. His voice was cold, lacking any of the warmth usually shared between members of the same faith.
Elianna looked at him, and with a small, stiff nod of her head—
"I was already planning to do that... However, can I ask what you will be doing now?"
She replied with that, her voice hollow. The leader looked at her straight in the eyes, showing no emotion. Then as he stood up from his seat as well—
"We’re going to track and go after the vampire. It is our holy mission and our primary responsibility to hunt them all down until the world is pure again."
He declared that with a straight and confident look on his face. He looked like a man who was certain of his victory.
He didn’t waste any more time after that. He turned on his heel and immediately left the room, his men following close behind him.
Elianna was left completely alone in the office of the previous City Lord. The silence of the room was heavy.
She looked up at the dark wooden ceiling, feeling a sense of exhaustion she couldn’t describe.
’I don’t know what to do anymore.’
Then she mumbled that in the silence of her head.
... ... ...
*****
Meanwhile, as all of that political drama was happening back in the city—
TAK-
"..."
Verc had arrived at the outskirts of what looked like a destroyed village.
The scene before him was one of absolute desolation. The houses were mostly piles of charred, black timber and collapsed stone walls. There wasn’t a single roof that hadn’t been caved in or burnt away.
"What the hell happened here...?"
Verc asked to himself, his eyes scanning the carnage as he walked toward the village.