Chapter 26
Meanwhile.
At the heart of the human ranch, the control room.
The place from which every tragedy committed in this underground facility was directed.
Within that gloomy space stood a vampire.
“Hmm-hmm~ Hm, hmm~”
A jaunty hum.
His hips swayed this way and that in time with the tune he hummed.
The vampire man was utterly absorbed in himself.
Clatter, clatter-.
Was he working on something?
Both hands moved busily.
He repeatedly picked up and set down various tools.
Whenever his hands became dirty, he washed them with clean water.
“Good, good... It feels good today, doesn't it?”
A satisfied expression.
The ordinary scene was almost languid.
Just as the man was enjoying his hobby...
Bang-!
“Director!”
Another vampire came rushing into the room.
The man absorbed in his work furrowed his brow.
He seemed irritated that his concentration had been broken.
“I distinctly remember telling you that no one was to come in while I was working.”
“S-sorry! But this is an urgent situation...!”
“Do you want to die?”
“N-no, no! I have committed a crime worthy of death!”
“Haa... What is it? What is the problem this time? Did someone cause an accident?”
The man let it slide by exercising patience.
The one called the Director fiddled with his tools.
That alone made the vampire before him break out in a cold sweat.
“Th-that is... an invasion! Enemies have attacked the ranch!”
“What? Did the information leak? How did they find this place?”
“I don't know. More importantly, they have already taken down nearly twenty of our men...!”
“Taken down? Vampires who have drunk their fill of human blood? Did an entire knight order come marching in?”
“N-no! It's not that...”
“What? Then how large is the enemy force?”
“The enemy force consists of two! One human and one vampire, presumably...”
Wham-!
Before he could finish speaking, the vampire's head burst like a balloon.
It was the Director's blood manipulation.
He had manipulated the flow of blood to cause an explosion from within.
Brain matter caught in the blast scattered in all directions.
“......”
Splatter-.
The torso collapsed onto the floor after it.
The Director looked down at him coldly.
As though he were looking at incomprehensible garbage.
“Only two? And they lost nearly twenty of them to a human?”
Tsk-.
The Director clicked his tongue irritably.
“You fucking idiots. You drank all that blood, yet you can't even handle one unexpected situation.”
Useless bastards.
The Director exhaled an irritated breath.
Half his irritation was directed at his incompetent subordinates, and the other half at the intruders.
He had been interrupted in the middle of having fun.
“Not a single one of them is to my liking.”
He set down his tools.
The Director rose to his feet.
“I always have to clean up the shit, don't I? Fucking hell.”
Twitch-.
When he kicked the chair once, something on the table moved.
As though a broken life were struggling, hideously, to stir itself into motion.
A bright-red lump of flesh lay atop it.
“It was just starting to feel good.”
A work of art.
It was the Director's artistic hobby.
It had once been human, but it was so ruined that its form was difficult to recognize.
Its skin had been peeled off, its organs removed, its heart exposed...
Perhaps the most horrifying part was that it was still alive in that state.
A refined hobby.
“Shall I finish the rest after I get back?”
The lump on the table.
In front of it stood a great many lumps of the exact same shape, arranged as decorations.
The Director gazed lovingly at the gallery he had created.
Then he turned and left the control room.
“Hmm... Come to think of it, those intruders sound pretty strong. I should have listened to a little more of the explanation.”
The Director drew a heavy liquor bottle from inside his coat.
Its original contents had been emptied out, and the bottle was filled with human blood.
He opened the cap and drained it in one go.
Gulp, gulp-.
The potent blood essence spread down his esophagus and throughout his body.
His taste buds rang sharply, and a dizzying pleasure washed over him.
At the same time, it felt as though every cell in his body had come alive.
The source of his power seethed within him.
“Khh... I suppose it doesn't matter.”
In his current state, he would not lose to anyone.
The Director was no ordinary vampire.
He had a faint admixture of pureblood in his veins.
One of his distant ancestors had belonged to a collateral branch of the royal family.
He was twice as strong as other vampires, and had now consumed human blood as well.
“It might be fun to capture them and turn them into works of art.”
The Director had no intention of losing.
The Director walked along, humming the same tune.
“Hm, hmm~”
But he did not anticipate it.
He never imagined that he would be unable to touch his tools again.
***
The Director left the control room and walked down a long corridor.
Before long, his footsteps came to a stop.
As though he had discovered something.
“......Oh?”
Across from him.
There, by coincidence, stood the person he had been eagerly searching for.
“I didn't expect you to come looking for me first.”
“......”
A human.
It was a boy wearing a grotesque mask.
The Director's eyes gleamed with interest.
“How strange.”
Contrary to what he had heard about the boy being dangerous, he could sense nothing from him.
Not even a trace of magic, sorcery, or demonic energy reached him.
He did not even have a muscular build.
He looked frail.
The clown was the first to speak.
“A pleasure to meet you.”
“Judging by the greeting... I suppose I haven't mistaken you for someone else.”
“I imagine I am the one you're looking for. If you were searching for an intruder, that is.”
“I knew it~! Your presence is so faint that I was confused.”
“I hear that often.”
Weakling.
The only thing that did concern him, if anything, was the weapon in his hand.
A gleaming silver dagger, infused with an unknown amount of divine power.
It seemed that was what he had used to carve up his subordinates.
“Good grief... These pathetic idiots lost to someone like that?”
His brow furrowed irritably.
No matter how he looked at him, the boy seemed like nothing more than a brat relying on a powerful weapon as he charged in.
“Hmm.”
He looked around.
The acrid smell of burning hung thick in the corridor.
Several slaughtered vampires lay strewn across the floor.
Their arms and legs had been cut off, their eyes seared, and only their lives remained clinging to them.
They looked as though killing them would have been the kinder option.
“Haha... You have a pretty fiery taste, don't you?”
The Director spoke playfully.
His red eyes assessed his opponent.
‘Well... The weapon does look pretty strong, but I doubt he made this mess all by himself.’
Come to think of it, they had said there were two intruders in total.
The other one was a vampire, they had said.
Then was that one the real threat?
This guy was the underling, and that vampire was apparently the leader.
‘If I rough this one up first, the other one will show up on its own.’
Until then, perhaps he could leisurely torture him.
He had no intention of letting him die peacefully, not after the crime of interrupting his leisure time.
The Director approached at an unhurried pace.
“I'll play with you for a bit, kid.”
“Good. I have been meaning to discuss a great many things with you as well.”
“Oh?”
“You said you were the Director, correct? The manager overseeing this ranch.”
“Oops, did those guys tell you all that?”
“They kindly explained everything.”
“Honestly... Those fucking idiots are no help.”
The Director let out a short laugh.
Slowly clenching his fist, he tossed a question at the clown.
“I have one thing I'm curious about, too... Where did the companion who came with you go?”
“I asked my companion to take care of another area. I decided to deal with you alone.”
“Kid. It's good to have spirit, but too much of it becomes poison.”
“It isn't really spirit.”
“Then what is it?”
“I didn't want to show you. It looks like things are going to get rather gruesome. My master always pretends to be strong, but they are actually rather delicate. So I would rather show them only the pleasant parts, if you don't mind...”
“Pfft... Gruesome? Things are going to get gruesome? What in the world are you planning to do?”
The Director sneered.
“Have you completely lost your mind? You must be, if you're spouting this kind of nonsense.”
“Hehe, perhaps I have.”
The clown responded matter-of-factly.
The Director quietly put force into his planted foot.
He had been itching to beat the boy down, then pull out his organs.
“Kid, this isn't a place for you to puff out your chest. Not when you're relying on a single good weapon, either.”
“Oh my, you caught me? I did add a bit of bluffing...”
“It's all right, it's all right. I'll turn you into one of my works, too.”
Boom-!
He lightly kicked off the ground.
Perhaps from the excessive impact, the floor caved in.
At the same time, the Director's compressed body shot forward like an arrow.
Fwoosh-!
A form tore through the air and appeared in an instant.
The Director had already reached the boy's very nose.
“Die!!”
And he thrust out his fist.
The clown did not even seem to react; he merely stood there.
The fist would soon connect, and the boy's face would be smashed to pieces.
It was then, just as the Director became certain of victory.
Click-.
A small sound rang out.
“......?”
The Director's fist veered wildly off course.
No, even calling it a miss was embarrassing.
Its trajectory had shifted as though something had shoved it aside.
Whoooosh-!
The fist cut through empty air for no reason.
The air burst, leaving only the crack of displaced air ringing out.
‘What...?’
The Director was bewildered for a moment.
Meanwhile, the clown merely stood silently in place.
All he had done was casually swing his hand to the side.
But there had been no force behind it whatsoever.
It was a limp movement, like he had merely waved a feather.
“Ha.”
The Director gave a hollow laugh.
He thought he had made a mistake.
He concluded that his fist had not been deflected, but had simply missed.
And with good reason: it was impossible for an attack to be blocked by a movement like that.
“Maybe I'm getting old... My body isn't doing what I tell it to. I actually made such an absurd mistake.”
“Was it really a mistake?”
“Be quiet, will you? Luck like this doesn't come twice.”
His fist clenched once more.
This time, he did not hold back at all.
He unleashed a full-power blow, even whipping up a spray of blood around his fist.
Yet when he swung it at the clown...
Click-
“What...?”
It was the same this time.
The attack veered away from the boy.
The fist left not the slightest mark.
The Director's previously beaming expression stiffened slightly.
“Luck has favored you twice.”
“......”
The clown casually tossed out a single remark.