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Solomon moved at once within the darkness, gripping the
‘Five opponents.’
Solomon kicked off the ground. Without hesitation, he held the familiar potion in his mouth from his waist.
“Too bad, your mom’s not here to protect you anymore!”
The three remaining bottles of
A trump card that let him land ambushes twice while invisible. This was no time to save it. This was exactly what he’d kept it for.
Even so, Solomon held it in his mouth and didn’t swallow it.
‘
He simply activated the level 2 invisibility spell like that.
‘!’
In an instant, Solomon’s body melted into the air. With Solomon’s high Mind modifier, the veil’s debuff effect grew stronger, and the vampires couldn’t pinpoint Solomon’s location while he was invisible.
In that situation, a strike drove down from behind.
Chwaaak!
An ideal ambush, the most certain kind you could drive in from invisibility.
“Kieeeek!”
A vampire’s scream rang out. The Sun Ruby Blade, imbued with
Of course, the extra damage that detonated as a multiplier from ambush and Bleeding was a bonus.
‘Does it count as Bleeding from the first hit?’
He couldn’t be sure. Even so, the feel of the blade tip digging into a vampire, the destructive force etched through his fingertips… was different.
Chwaaak!
One vampire’s body exploded in the darkness, giving off flames so clearly blazing you could see them. Even then, Solomon didn’t stop. Just as that attack broke invisibility and his body was about to be revealed.
“Found you, you rat bastard!”
Gulp.
He swallowed the invisibility potion he’d been holding in his mouth, and his body melted into the air again.
‘
Even so, his position had already been exposed, so he needed to swap positions quickly.
‘To deal with one vampire, the Sun Ruby Blade and Darkblood Sword are enough.’
Solomon quickly used the level 1 spell combo and moved behind another vampire.
‘Four left.’
Chwaaak!
Also, while under the Highest-Grade Invisibility Potion, he could ambush twice.
He drove the blade in without hesitation.
“Kkeuaaaak!”
The blade stabbed into the vampire’s body was pouring out a red, sunlike radiance that couldn’t be hidden even by the blood and shadow within the Darkblood Sword. It probably had additional damage effects against the vampire race, or something like that. A destructive power that couldn’t be explained by Solomon’s own strength alone.
Nothing changed.
And Solomon’s body, moving through
‘Was this spell always this effective?’
At the same time, he realized it. Everyone has their own nature, from birth. Good Constitution, strong mind, deft hands, and so on. That wasn’t something you could choose by will.
That wasn’t the case for Solomon.
From the moment he existed, his character had been optimized to an extreme for the narrative of strength. Not wasting a single stat point, built to pull optimal efficiency, maximum efficiency, as an assassin and a mage.
This was the result.
Solomon’s high Mind, which acted as a bonus for
The other spells were no exception.
Solomon’s body, designed solely for the narrative of strength, for the optimal build.
“You gnat-like bastard…!”
Chwaaak!
Before he even had time to spit curses, the blade in the darkness drove down again. Thanks to the radiance rippling from the Sun Ruby’s tip and the Darkblood Sword’s synergy, the vampire’s body burst apart on the spot as if exploding.
“Hoo.”
In three rounds, he had taken down three vampires. Two remained.
Thankfully, the fight didn’t continue.
The surviving vampires vanished within the veil, melting into the darkness.
‘They’re damn good at running.’
So Solomon also withdrew
“……!”
The elder was already dying to a vampire’s claws. The bleeding was severe. Solomon approached too late, but the elder waved an arm as if telling him not to mind it.
“Don’t… worry about me.”
“The wound is deep.”
“It’s simply time to go see the old ancestors.”
“…I see.”
Solomon nodded calmly. The old orc elder, tattoos inked all over his body, continued in a weak voice like an ember’s wick burning down.
“You should… pursue your own gain.”
Gain. Solomon fell silent. As an assassin of Hotel Snark who moved only for his own benefit.
“Pursuing gain… isn’t a bad thing.”
“…….”
“Just don’t let that gain… become evil.”
“I’ll remember.”
That was as far as the conversation went. At some point, the elder’s breath had stopped.
— Hic… sniff.
At the same time, a crying sound was heard.
— Waaah!
‘The heart in the bottle….’
The heart in the bottle was crying like a baby sobbing. Even so, there was nothing else to do. Solomon rose in silence.
As he was about to leave the now bloody Archipelago, the Blood Moon Tribe’s guild hideout, now a hellscape.
What faced Solomon in front of him was…
“Oh, there you are.”
It was a handsome man with long black hair down to his waist. Wearing a blood-red suit, standing at the center of many vampires who still kept their manners. Among them were the two who had been wounded and fled just now.
Like examples of an unforgivable failure—skewered through like meat on blood stakes.
An absurd pressure pours out from his very existence.
As a result, it wasn’t hard to guess the man’s identity.
[An Unwinnable Foe]
The Chairman had arrived.
“…Chairman Vlad Țepeș.”
“It’s an honor that you know my name, Mr. Solomon.”
“The honor is mine.”
The man in the blood-red suit, Chairman Vlad Țepeș, bowed toward Solomon with a gentle smile. At a glance, he carried refinement and manners—the so-called “dignity of a chairman.”
“Lately, the name echoing through this city—yours—has also drawn no small interest from me.”
“How flattering.”
Solomon replied, deliberately calm.
“To be honest, I was planning to name you for a few contracts. I believe we could become quite decent Business Partners.”
As he said that, Vlad Țepeș produced something from his coat. Was he going to attack out of nowhere? No.
“Please take it.”
“…….”
It was a business card.
───Vlad Țepeș, Esq.Chairman of the BoardWALLACHIA ENGINEERING & AETHERWORKS CO.“Vita ex Sanguine. Machina ex Ferro.”───
Absurdly grand. Honestly, he couldn’t even tell what kind of squiggly writing it was.
“Life comes from blood, and machines come from iron (Vita ex Sanguine. Machina ex Ferro). That is the motto of our Wallachia Co.”
“Got it.”
“Now then, shall we bring our formal conversation to a close?”
Finally, the main point. The kind that came only after a mind-numbingly boring preface befitting a corporate chairman.
“What do you want? Honestly, I can roughly guess.”
“It’s what you’re guessing.”
Chairman Țepeș spoke, flashing sharp fangs within his gentle smile.
“As you know, I have a great interest in that innocent, pure, and guiltless heart.”
“Then why not just take it by force?”
Solomon asked back calmly. In this situation, honestly, even Solomon had no answer. And there was no reason to cherish that heart while risking his life.
“The situation has actually become a bit complicated.”
“Complicated?”
“I’m the type who values the aesthetics of evil quite highly.”
“…….”
The aesthetics of evil.
“As a curator who collects and preserves this world’s evil, I bear the responsibility that befits it.”
At those words, Solomon’s expression hardened coldly.
Those who collect and preserve this city’s evil.
The existence before him was never someone else’s problem to Solomon.
“Black Museum….”
“Shh.”
Chairman Țepeș raised a hand to his lips and whispered carefully.
“It wouldn’t be hard to rudely take what’s yours by force, but honestly, it’s far from ‘dignified.’ It goes against my aesthetics as well. And besides…”
Țepeș continued.
“As long as the Geas protecting you is functioning, I can’t do that either.”
“!”
Without even a presence, he was suddenly behind Solomon, bringing his fangs to Solomon’s nape, as if truly regretful.
A chill ran down his spine.
At the same time, he understood. The other threat the elf broker Yuria had foreseen. The City Council’s Geas that would protect him from that threat. This was what it had been for. In the end, her foresight had hit the mark.
‘Beelzebub and Vlad Țepeș.’
Black Museum, a mysterious society that claimed it would collect and preserve the evil of this city and world. In that sense, the man before him carried the formality befitting that evil.
“So please, I would like to make a proposal at this point.”
“What proposal?”
“Carry out one contract for me.”
“…Why should I?”
“Because it is well worth doing.”
Vlad Țepeș said with a polite smile.
“If you carry out that contract, I will relinquish the heart without hesitation.”
A proposal that was blatantly suspicious and hard to trust.
“And if I refuse?”
“As I said, I’m a very patient vampire.”
“…….”
Patient. It wasn’t hard to guess what that meant. The City Council’s protective Geas would last three months. From a vampire’s perspective, that would be a span like a mere instant.
“Fine. But you also have a ‘promise’ to keep.”
“What promise?”
“A promise that what I do won’t contribute to your evil.”
“That’s an amusing thing to say.”
Hearing that, Vlad Țepeș chuckled as if he’d heard a funny joke.
“Of course. At times, good and evil are vague, and the boundary between gain and evil is even vaguer… but in this case, I can say it is relatively ‘not evil.’”
He answered after laughing.
“Then, shall we go together?”
“…Where?”
“There’s only one place.”
As if escorting Solomon politely to his stage.
“My empire, Wallachia Co.”
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