Chapter 122
Since she’d been brazenly hurling insults, Ian personally drove a stake into Camilla’s other thigh as well. Once enough manners had been drilled into her, Camilla bowed her head and her lips trembled.
"W-We can reproduce, but we don't have sexual desire, so giving birth like humans is basically impossible.... Even if we did give birth, a vampire still wouldn't be born...."
"Then?"
"A ghoul. Only after being killed by a vampire and then slowly evolving can one become a vampire...."
"Hmm."
Ian mulled over her words, idly swinging his leg.
That ghouls could become vampires was already known. It was famous enough that there was no way he wouldn't know it. But he hadn't expected that to be the only method. He had thought there must be something else, but to think it was all just evolution. If Darwin had heard that, wouldn't he have been delighted?
"Then what's your origin? In modern terms, a progenitor? Does such an entity even exist?"
"...Báthory Erzsébet, Gilles de Rais, and Vlad III. Those three are basically the progenitors."
"Those are the famous vampires who actually existed. But I remember those three all lived in different eras."
"Because it was inherited."
Camilla let out a strained breath and continued.
"The first vampire wasn't a living being at all, but merely a pool of blood. Just living, moving blood. It traveled all over Europe, turning humans into vampires."
"..."
"That first one was an unnamed homeless man, but he didn't really have any intelligence, huff.... So even among vampires, we don't count him as the first. The first was Gilles de Rais."
"He was French, wasn't he. So that was when he first appeared."
"The progenitor slowly brainwashed Gilles de Rais's biological mother and turned her into a bloodthirsty beast. That even affected Gilles de Rais while he was still a fetus. Gilles de Rais's savage and filthy tastes were all because of this—"
"I'm not all that interested in your history, so just summarize it."
Ian cut Camilla off and pressed the now-loaded pistol against the back of her head. Camilla swallowed and nodded.
"...After Gilles de Rais, the progenitor acquired intelligence on a level comparable to humans. Using the Hundred Years' War, it scattered blood that was practically a split-off part of itself across Europe, and that blood infiltrated human bodies and turned them into ghouls. Then it slowly made them drink blood and evolve. Because that gave a higher chance of producing a stronger individual than mutating them the same way as Gilles de Rais."
"So there aren't really any entities like a true progenitor or original vampire, then."
"...Right. Though there are nobles we call first-generation vampires. Their main stronghold is in Greece...."
"You're pretty fluent. You're so obedient it's almost making me wonder if you're lying."
Ian let out a snort and tapped Camilla on the head with the muzzle of the pistol. Though she ground her teeth at the humiliating treatment, she didn't put up any further resistance. Even a damn dog passing by would know who was in charge here.
"...I'm only telling the truth. You can check for yourself."
"Forget it. It isn't important information anyway. Satisfying my curiosity is enough."
Ian brushed back his hair and slowly stood up. Her back, which had been pinned under his weight, finally relaxed again, and Ian sat down in the chair and opened his grimoire.
"Where are the other vampires besides you right now?"
"...I don't know."
"..."
Ian's expression went cold. Sensing that chill of killing intent, Camilla hurriedly added more.
"D-Do you think all vampires are close with each other? You mages are always desperate to kill one another too! You're even more sinister than we are!"
"Mm, that's true."
Ian readily agreed. Honestly, she wasn't wrong.
"Then do you know anything else?"
"...I know their names, at least. I can tell you that much."
When Ian tilted his head as if to say go on, Camilla moved her lips with difficulty.
"...There are two of them, one woman and one man. The woman is from America, and her name is Caroline. The man is from France, and his name is Arthur."
"What do they look like?"
"Caroline is a blonde white woman with red eyes. Arthur looks like an ordinary Black man. His head is shaved."
"Purpose for coming into Korea?"
"Expanding our influence. The three of us are all after the same thing."
Expanding their influence, huh.
Maybe the intelligent vampire he'd encountered at the club was their doing too.
If so, the one with the greatest power among the three would definitely be the one who had released the vampires at the club. After all, they had let loose not ghouls, but creatures that had evolved into vampires to some degree. They were surely stronger than Camilla, who was merely pretending to be a child in a backwater place like this.
'Tracking them won't be easy. If they can evade the cartel's information network, they're definitely using some kind of trick.'
There were alchemical items for tracking, but confirming a location from just a name and a face was impossible. If he could find out, the cartel would buy it for a fortune, but too bad.
Ian let out a long sigh, drove the last stake into the sole of Camilla's foot, which was starting to regenerate again, then took out his phone and called the cartel.
Before the ringtone could even sound twice, the other side answered.
[Hello. I'm Goyang, the Cartel service desk attendant. How may I help you?]
"The request to deal with the high-ranking vampire is complete. I captured her, so send a vehicle here right now to haul her away."
[Confirmed. The base service fee is 2 million won. However, since it's a vampire's residence, a danger surcharge is added, bringing the total to 3.5 million won.]
"There's some bloodstains too. I want those cleaned up as well."
[Please tell us roughly how large the place is. The price varies depending on the area.]
"About a single ordinary room. Roughly the size of a studio apartment."
[Then an additional 700,000 won will be added, bringing the total to 4.2 million won. Is that all right?]
"Yeah. Process it now."
[Payment received, thank you. The payment has been completed, and our staff will depart immediately. Please wait just a moment.]
Ian answered that he understood and put his phone back in his pocket. When he shifted his gaze, he saw Camilla crawling around on the floor.
She must have used the phone call as a chance to put some distance between them, but with her lower body almost completely disabled, she couldn't get far. Ian clicked his tongue and grabbed Camilla's leg as she tried to open the door, dragging her back.
"Nggh!"
A pained groan escaped her lips. Seeing a tiny girl's body bleeding and groaning was a pretty bizarre sight, but Ian didn't care. If he thought of the thing inside as a vampire that had drained hundreds, even thousands, of people, any sympathy he had been feeling would quickly wither away.
After all, a monster was a monster. It could never stand on the same level as a mage.
Ian stomped on Camilla's back and slowly thought about whether there was anything else to ask. But nothing appropriate came to mind.
At best, they were ordinary questions like how many humans she'd devoured or how many ghouls were in this area. Since he had already captured her, there was no point in asking them.
So Ian gave up on asking without any lingering regret and put a cigarette between his lips. Then Camilla looked back at him and muttered with a slightly frightened expression.
"Y-You're going to hand me over to the cartel?"
"Yeah."
"D-Do you know what happens to mystics who get caught by the cartel? They're tortured alive. They use them as research material. I-I don't want that."
"Is that so."
"It isn't 'Is that so'! P-Please, just let me go this once. I'll do anything. Really, anything. W-What, don't you want anything? Desire. Yeah, sexual desire! For humans, sex is one of the three basic desires. I can give you as much as you want—"
"Vampires can't feel most emotions. At most, anger, irritation, and murderous intent are all they can feel. Bloodlust, pleasure, and pain were things they learned in order to survive."
Ian cut her off and looked down at her coldly.
"Still, they can learn emotions and mimic them. That's how they blended into human society."
"..."
"A famous line. It's one of the papers written by the Clock Tower itself."
"...Damn Amy. So it's that bitch's paper."
The pitiful expression Camilla had been showing a moment ago vanished without a trace, and she muttered with nothing but anger and killing intent.
"How does a Korean mage know about that paper?"
"I happen to know someone who has a lot of books from the Clock Tower. Her name is Lee Seo-ah. Know her?"
"Sounds like a whore's name."
"Like Camilla's any better."
Ian let out a snort and kicked the stake embedded in Camilla's thigh. Her wound split open, and hot blood poured out.
"Kkhh!"
"A bloodsucking mosquito bastard dares to humiliate a mage?"
Ian rose from his seat, crouched down beside Camilla, who was crawling around like a larva, and opened his grimoire. The snow-white grimoire responded to his will.
"You didn't listen when I told you to stay still, so I suppose I have to keep my promise."
"...Hah, do whatever you want. Vampires don't feel fear anyway."
"That's right. But does it really not exist? Maybe there was never a situation that could bring it out. Or maybe the possibility existed, but it never blossomed."
Ian's eyes sparkled in the moonlight.
It was not a beautiful light. Instead, a much murkier, deep ink-black gleam flowed like spilled ink along the beam of light.
"Then shall we run an experiment to see which it is?"
"...Crazy mage—mmph?!"
"We don't have much time, so let's get started right away. This is my first time experimenting on a living mystic like this too, so I'm a little unpracticed. So let's hurry, hurry."
Ian shoved the pistol into Camilla's mouth and tilted his head while peering into the grimoire.
"Should I recreate everything except the brain for now?"
He didn't wait for an answer. He also didn't explain what re-creation meant.
He let go of the pistol, tapped Camilla on the forehead, and murmured with a serious expression.
"Be reborn."
Crack-crack!