Previously
Ludvic is infuriated to find that Bivar has abandoned his subordinates and fled the castle. Ariella surprises Ludvic by revealing she can sense Bivar's unique magical signature and the lingering resonance of his invisibility spell, allowing her to track him through the forest.
‘There is no longer any hope for Ludvic’s domain.’
Every plan he had laid had unraveled, laid bare for all to see. However much of a fool Ludvic was, now that matters had reached this point, he could never be trusted again.
‘Exile is the only way!’
His chosen destination was the neighboring territory ruled by the Demon King Dellac. Of course, under normal circumstances, Dellac would never accept a vampire like Bivar.
The retainers serving Ludvic’s territory were already notorious for their depravity. They were individuals cast out to this impoverished borderland, each bearing one fatal flaw or another.
Even so, Bivar had something of great value to offer.
‘I hold all the secrets of this territory.’
Moreover, Ludvic’s domain was no longer what it used to be.
Even the neighboring Demon Kings, who had long looked down on this backwater, would soon have to keep a wary eye on the new power rising within it.
‘The Demon King Ludvic’s new contractor.’
By all accounts, she was no ordinary human.
She had overpowered him in the council chamber with sheer magical pressure, then laid a trap to hunt him down like a wild beast.
‘Demon Kings are bound to be sensitive to any shifts in neighboring lands!’
With Ariella’s appearance, Ludvic’s domain was set to undergo drastic changes. The surrounding Demon Kings would want nothing more than to crush Ludvic’s domain before it could suddenly expand.
‘What if I hand them the means to weed out that sprout before it takes root?’
Through the words of Bivar himself, who until recently had stood at the very helm of Ludvic’s domain.
He was certain of it.
‘This information will fetch an exorbitant price.’
Naturally, the price he demanded would include asylum, his personal safety, and advancement in Dellac’s lands.
The neighboring Demon King would accept such a bargain. Thus Bivar remained confident—confident in his survival.
Still, that did not mean he took any pleasure in his current plight.
‘The wealth and power we built over generations… collapsed overnight!’
Having to abandon everything he had built and start anew was enough to stoke his fury to a boil.
‘How our family suffered to secure its grasp on this land… Ungrateful wretches!’
Bivar firmly believed that the vast fortune his family had amassed was the rightful reward for their bitter toil.
‘Yet an upstart Demon King who hasn’t even reigned a year, and that filthy human…!’
Those two had shattered the golden monument he had so painstakingly erected. And in such an utterly absurd manner.
‘I settled this land far earlier than any of them, and now they dare draw their blades against me? The insolence!’
Ludvic’s territory belonged to the Demon King in name only; there was not a tree or blade of grass beyond the reach of vampire influence.
And family property belonged to Bivar. In truth, the territory was practically his own.
A blood-red gleam flashed in his eyes.
‘I will have my revenge, without fail!’
Bivar envisioned a future drenched in blood. He knew the precise weaknesses and military vulnerabilities of Ludvic’s domain.
Once he laid it all bare before the neighboring king, Ariella… that wicked woman would be the first score he settled.
‘I won’t give her an easy death, that much is certain.’
Then it would be Ludvic’s turn.
With all its critical military secrets leaked, the Demon King’s realm would crumble helplessly.
‘The fool should have just kept following my directions as he always did!’
If that idiot had simply remained blinded and deafened, endlessly running across the battlefields, things would have been so much simpler.
Until now, Bivar had been able to meddle with state affairs as he pleased, precisely because the Demon King was constantly away patrolling the borders.
That idiot would never have known the truth.
Every time he began to turn his attention toward internal affairs, the Orcs would raid the borders as if on cue…
· · ·
Bivar’s train of thought stopped dead.
Roooooaaaar—!
From behind him as he fled, a dense pillar of fire erupted from the darkness of the thick forest without warning.
“Khhk!”
Instinct alone propelled Bivar to leap aside. Scorch marks and searing heat tore right through the spot where he had just stood.
“Aaaargh!”
The heat was so intense that his garments blackened and caught fire, his flesh scorching despite having avoided a direct hit.
A ghastly shriek tore from Bivar’s throat.
He lost his balance and crashed to the earth. Yet another pillar of fire surged forward, aimed straight at him where he lay.
Eyes widening in terror, he threw himself aside once more.
He tumbled violently across the rough dirt.
Rooaaar—!
The pillar of flame tore across the bare ground, charring it to cinders. A moment’s hesitation, and he would have been roasted alive.
‘I-Impossible… This can’t be real!’
As his invisibility spell shattered, Bivar was exposed in all his wretchedness.
He was covered in black burn marks, caked in forest mud and crushed weeds, reduced to a truly miserable sight.
With no time to care about his wretched state, Bivar glared in one direction with feral eyes.
Rustle, rustle—!
Amid the fallen leaves raining down from the previous shockwave, a man strode out from the shadows. It was the one presence Bivar had never wished to face here.
“…The Demon King!”
It felt as if the sky had caved in upon him. Bivar simply could not fathom what was happening.
‘This cannot be! How did he find his way here?’
Elaborate, complex spells like invisibility were the specialty of vampires. No one in this territory had the ability to wield such magic, nor did anyone possess the skill to track it.
Ludvic? Out of the question. While his destructive fire was singular in might, his grasp of other magical arts was utterly mediocre.
Richmond? That skeleton cared for nothing beyond his narrow administrative duties, and Bivar had successfully deceived him all this time by playing upon that obsessive nature.
Besides, invisibility spells fell entirely outside Richmond’s sphere of interest.
‘If it wasn’t the Demon King, and it wasn’t Richmond, then who could it be?!’
Just then, Ludvic’s cold gaze settled upon the dumbfounded Bivar. A quiet thought crossed Ludvic’s mind.
‘Naturally, he wouldn’t be able to imagine it.’
How he had managed to track him all the way here.
In truth, Ludvic’s pursuit of Bivar, for all its urgency and weight, had not been without a touch of comedy. He had carried Ariella on his back like a small child the entire way here.
Because he needed to trace the faint magical remnants lingering near the forest floor, he could not take to the skies and had been forced to run.
To his credit, he had not grabbed Ariella by the scruff of her neck as he once had in the human world, nor folded her across his arm like baggage; this, at least, was progress. Past experience seemed to have yielded some fruit.
Even so, from Ariella’s perspective, the ride had been far from pleasant. Although he was carrying her on his back, the sheer speed at which he sprinted left her breathless and dizzy.
Yet Ariella had quickly recovered her wits, stretching out her fingers from atop his back and calling out directions like a rider commanding a steed.
“Left! Over here, right! No, not there, a little further! I said not there! Run while listening to me! Can’t you see where I’m pointing?”
Just as Ariella’s shrieking had begun to wear on his ears, a clear trace had finally appeared before him.
Footprints were forming upon the ground in real time, marks the invisibility spell could not conceal.
At that moment, he had set Ariella down in the forest, told her to hide well, and unleashed a pillar of flame toward the suspicious area without hesitation.
The noisy tracking pursuit seemed to have succeeded. The target’s invisibility had been stripped away, and now he was tumbling miserably across the ground right before their eyes.
Grrrr—!
The vampire parted his lips.
His mud-streaked cheek twisted, sharp fangs baring from his mouth.
“Demon King… No, Ludvic!”
Facing his lord, the traitor showed not a shred of remorse, but bared his sheer malice and enmity instead. The king looked down upon him with unwavering eyes, his resolve hardening beneath that cold stare.
“Bivar.”
A single word condensed countless thoughts and emotions. There was no need for further words.
The moment the Demon King leveled his sword,
the enemy made a sudden, desperate move.
END