Chapter 148
[The Witch Who Commands a Thousand Shadows]
‘Hmm. No matter how I look at it, this seems like a rare-tier indicator.’
As I gazed at the name sparkling red, I was giving it some very serious thought.
Having a holographic effect is usually a good thing, right?
The first and second candidates had sedate blue lettering, while only the third was emitting a distinctly reddish glow, so wasn’t this an indication that it was SSR-grade?
However.
‘……Wait. Could this mean it’s dangerous?’
Games sometimes use red to indicate warnings or dangerous monsters, too.
Once that thought occurred to me, I felt a little uneasy.
But after thinking it over carefully, I decided that wasn’t it.
To a vampire, red was less a dangerous color than a delicious one.
For example, Korean beef blood pudding, hawthorn tanghulu, human blood, and so on.
Every one of those was delicious.
More importantly, every servant summoned through [Servant Summoning] so far had shown tremendous loyalty toward me.
‘……Even so, I should summon Katarina.’
Safety first. Yes, yes.
Then, the Witch Who Commands a Thousand Shadows. Let’s shorten that to Thousand Witch. Let’s pull her.
Just as I was making up my mind, I suddenly felt a little spiteful toward the system.
It had even upgraded [Servant Summoning] as an enhancement, letting me choose from three.
If it makes just one of them flash and blatantly says, “I’m good~,” then what’s the point of choosing?
‘Tch. It’s not like I’m a child. I can make good judgments on my own, you know?’
It was at that very moment, while I was grumbling inwardly to myself.
Pop.
As if it had never been there, the red glow abruptly vanished, and all three candidates’ names returned to the exact same blue.
‘Uh, whaaat……?’
It really disappeared?
No, I was only kidding!
Now I really won’t know which one is good in the future…!
No, my method of identifying SSRs!
Just as I was feeling dejected, regretting having needlessly mouthed off.
Sparkle, sparkle—!
[Witch Who Commands a Thousand Shadows]
The third candidate’s name began shining red again, as if deliberately showing off.
“……”
I glared at the system window floating in the air.
‘Ugh. Are you seriously making fun of me?!’
Still, trying to engage in a battle of wits with the system would only hurt me.
Enough with the pointless nonsense.
Even from a rational perspective, choosing the third one was the right choice.
At present, the shadow branch of my [Blood Grace] skill tree had not even unlocked its second tier.
Katarina had an abundance of abilities in the blood arts branch, but only the first tier of shadow abilities was unlocked.
And yet her name began with [Witch Who Commands a Thousand Shadows].
This had to be a shadow-branch servant, no matter what.
‘All right. I choose you.’
To prepare for the unexpected, I called Katarina into the room via telepathy.
When Katarina arrived, I confirmed the third candidate without hesitation.
['Servant Summoning' is being cast.]
Shraaash—!
Fresh blood gushed from my wrist and began taking shape.
A familiar sight I had already seen many times.
At last, a new servant appeared.
She was a beautiful girl with long, flowing black hair and neatly trimmed bangs.
She wore an elegant purplish-black dress and resembled a noble young lady.
What stood out most were the tiny bat wings sprouting behind her shoulders, near her shoulder blades.
The girl slowly opened her eyes.
Her red eyes swept across the room before meeting mine precisely.
She flashed a sly smile.
“Ohoho……. This girl has appeared in response to your summons. You must be this girl’s master, then, yes?”
“Indeed. My new servant, welcome.”
The girl lightly gathered the voluminous hem of her skirt and bent her knees in a formal curtsy.
“This girl shall devote herself to your service.”
‘Whew, she really is a good kid.’
Relieved, I immediately activated [Emotion Eye].
But then.
Ding!
[The level difference is too great.]
[Emotions have been blocked.]
‘……Oh?’
A message appeared.
‘Amazing! Doesn’t this put her at Katarina’s level?’
I was no longer the useless version of myself from the past whose [Emotion Eye] got blocked at the slightest thing.
My level was 52 now, so I could check the levels of almost any powerful person.
And yet, the fact that her emotions were still blocked proved that the Thousand Witch was no ordinary being.
There had definitely been a reason her name flashed red.
With my heart pounding, I opened the [Blood Grace] interface.
‘Crazy…!’
When I saw the result, I felt as though I had opened the shell of a soy-sauce-marinated crab and found it filled to the brim with shimmering orange roe.
[Shadow - Shadow Step, Veil of Night, Shadow Materialization, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???, ???
……]
Unlike Katarina, whose tree was densely packed with blood arts, this girl’s shadow branch was filled to an astonishing degree!
‘She’s a shadow-version Katarina!’
There were still a great many Graces locked away.
A servant this extraordinary deserved a suitably splendid name.
As it happened, I had one name I had chosen long ago.
“From now on, your name shall be Carmilla.”
The name of a famous vampire.
It suited her old-fashioned appearance and noble-young-lady air perfectly.
“Carmilla……! Car. mil. la ♪”
The girl rolled her name around in her mouth a few times, then smiled brightly.
“It is a name this girl likes very much. Thank you ever so much!”
“Mm. I’m glad you like it.”
I looked at Katarina, who had been silently observing the situation beside me.
“This is Katarina. She is my first servant and the highest-ranking.”
Katarina stepped forward and spoke calmly.
“I am ‘Yu’ Katarina, my lord’s first servant.”
Katarina was accustomed to new servants appearing, but perhaps because she had instinctively sensed that Carmilla was powerful, her gaze was slightly sharper than usual.
But far from shrinking under that gaze, Carmilla smiled brightly and delicately lifted her skirt.
“Heheh. It is a pleasure to meet you. May this girl call you Senior Katarina?”
“As you wish. Just do not forget proper etiquette when serving our lord.”
“Of course. This girl has no intention whatsoever of causing our master any trouble.”
The conversation flowed smoothly.
‘Whew. Looks like we got off to a good start.’
Relieved, I briefly explained the current hierarchy of the servants to Carmilla.
Katarina, Siyeon, Lili, Sera, Dark, and Namgung Yeonhee.
And Carmilla, who had just been born.
In other words, among my direct servants, Carmilla was currently the youngest.
‘Good. Then I should introduce her to the rest of the family too.’
I took Carmilla to the living room.
The first person we encountered was Siyeon.
“A new servant….”
Siyeon stared intently at Carmilla’s face, then nodded.
“I’m Yu Siyeon. Nice to meet you.”
When Siyeon offered her simple greeting, Carmilla responded elegantly.
“Ohoho. This girl is pleased to meet you as well, Senior Siyeon.”
Carmilla’s gaze shifted to the shadow beneath Siyeon’s feet after they finished greeting each other.
“……?”
“Hmm~. It seems Senior Siyeon can come and go through shadows.”
Siyeon’s normally expressionless eyes widened slightly.
Carmilla had seen right through it at once, even though Siyeon had not used her ability yet.
“You can tell?”
“Shadows are this girl’s very close friends.”
Carmilla winked and smiled.
Just then, the sound of hurried footsteps approached.
“Waaaaaaaaah! Another little sister!”
Lili came running like a flying squirrel, her eyes sparkling.
It seemed she had heard the news from her room thanks to [Bat’s Senses].
Lili circled around Carmilla, inspecting her, then her eyes lit up as if something had caught her attention.
“Wings! She has tiny wings!”
“Oh my.”
“Lili, can I touch them?!”
“Ohoho. It is all right if you touch them gently.”
The moment permission was granted, Lili carefully extended a finger and poked the wing.
Flap.
When the wing gave a little tremble, Lili jumped up and down.
“Whoa! It moved!”
Carmilla smiled gently as she watched the innocent Lili.
“But Senior Lili was born before this girl, was she not?”
“Yep!”
Lili proudly puffed out her chest.
“Lili’s the big sister!”
“Heheh. I see. So you are Big Sister Lili.”
“Big Sister Lili……!!”
Lili was absolutely delighted.
Next was Sera.
“N-nice to meet you…. My name is Sera.”
Sera bowed deeply at the waist, looking nervous.
“It is a pleasure to meet you. This girl is called Carmilla. She looks forward to getting along with you, Senior Sera.”
“I-I look forward to it too……!”
“Please feel free to speak casually.”
“N-no! Lady Carmilla, you can speak casually too…….”
“This is how this girl speaks casually.”
“Ah…….”
Sera, a former medieval commoner apprentice knight, became especially stiff in front of Carmilla, who gave off the air of a noble young lady.
Despite being much higher in rank, she was still intimidated by Carmilla.
‘It’ll take them a while to become close.’
Smiling inwardly, I approached the next one, Dark.
“Grr?”
Dark, who had been lying face-down on the floor, spotted Carmilla and tilted his head.
Dark’s gaze went to Carmilla’s wings, while Carmilla’s gaze went to Dark’s wings.
A brief silence passed.
“Graaang!”
Dark puffed himself up and spread his wings wide to show them off.
Carmilla clapped her hands softly in admiration.
“Oh my. You have wings far more magnificent than this girl’s.”
“Grr!”
Dark snorted proudly, looking extremely pleased.
Carmilla casually added,
“This girl looks forward to your guidance as well, Senior Dark.”
“Grr?!”
And finally, Namgung Yeonhee, my last direct servant.
“Master. Who is this…?”
“She is a new… uh… disciple.”
Yeonhee, too, was looking with fascination at Carmilla’s exotic clothes and tiny wings.
It seemed strange to her that, having been the youngest just moments ago, she suddenly had a junior.
After exchanging names, Namgung Yeonhee gave a formal fist-and-palm salute.
“I look forward to working with you, Junior Sister Carmilla.”
“This girl is the one who should be asking for your guidance, Senior Yeonhee.”
Carmilla also grasped her skirt and greeted her elegantly.
Carmilla suddenly tilted her head.
“But Senior Yeonhee, you call our master ‘Master’?”
“That is right. Master is the one who bestowed the Blood Demon Divine Art upon me.”
“The Blood Demon Divine Art…….”
Carmilla looked at me with intrigued eyes.
“Our master truly is someone who knows so many things!”
‘……Sorry. I don’t know what that is.’
Feeling guilty, I quietly looked away.
Next came greetings with Aunt Suyeon and Ha-eun, Katarina and Sera’s subordinate servants, respectively.
Aunt Suyeon came out of the kitchen with a gentle smile.
“Oh my, you’re a new member of the family. My name is Yun Suyeon.”
Then she added, with perfect naturalness,
“Are you hungry? Shall I make you something?”
“……!”
For the first time, Carmilla’s expression, which had been relaxed the entire time, seemed slightly flustered.
Food at the very first meeting.
It seemed she was not accustomed to the warmth of a Korean auntie.
“This girl is quite all right. She is not hungry yet.”
“Really? Then let me know whenever you get hungry. If you’re one of the True Ancestor’s family, you’re family to me too.”
“……Family.”
Carmilla quietly repeated the word.
“Heheh. This girl shall remember those words with gratitude.”
Beside her, Ha-eun waved with her eyes shining.
“Hello! I’m Song Ha-eun. Nice to meet you!”
“Ohoho. This girl is pleased to meet you, Lady Ha-eun.”
“Wow, but you’re really pretty……. Your clothes are so pretty too, and your hair is so long! And those tiny wings are super cute!”
Carmilla glanced over her shoulder at the wings behind her.
“Are this girl’s wings so fascinating?”
“Of course! It’s my first time seeing actual bat wings like that…… Ah.”
Ha-eun glanced at Dark, who was lying beside the sofa.
“Well, there are dragon wings.”
“Grr!”
Dark flapped his wings, flaunting his presence.
Carmilla let out a small laugh.
“It seems that someone with this girl’s appearance is not particularly special in this place.”
Thus, the introductions with everyone in the estate ended peacefully.
‘What a relief.’
I had worried that her speech and atmosphere might mean she had a somewhat prickly personality, but unexpectedly, she was gentle and got along well with everyone.
As expected, all my servants are good kids.
Just as I was congratulating myself,
“Master.”
Carmilla called out to me.
“What is it?”
“There is one thing this girl is curious about.”
Carmilla slowly looked around at the servants gathered in the living room.
“All your servants look very strong.”
“Hehe. Of course they do.”
I lifted my chin proudly.
Right. Our kids aren’t the sort to be looked down on anywhere.
“Then…….”
Carmilla lightly placed a finger against her red lips and smiled seductively.
“Would it be all right if this girl tested her strength once?”