Banreung Expedition (7)

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁣⁠⁠⁠⁣⁠⁠⁠⁠⁣⁠⁠⁠⁣⁣⁠⁠⁣⁠⁠⁠⁣⁠⁠⁣⁠⁣⁠⁣⁣⁣⁠⁠⁣⁠⁣⁣⁠⁠⁠⁣⁠⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁠⁣⁣⁣⁠⁣⁠⁠⁣⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁣⁠⁠⁠⁣⁠⁠⁠⁠⁣⁠⁠⁠⁣⁣⁠⁠⁣⁠⁠⁠⁣⁠⁠⁣⁠⁣⁠⁣⁣⁣⁠⁠⁣⁠⁣⁣⁠⁠⁠⁣⁠⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁠⁣⁣⁣⁠⁣⁠⁠⁣⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁣⁠⁠⁠⁣⁠⁠⁠⁠⁣⁠⁠⁠⁣⁣⁠⁠⁣⁠⁠⁠⁣⁠⁠⁣⁠⁣⁠⁣⁣⁣⁠⁠⁣⁠⁣⁣⁠⁠⁠⁣⁠⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁠⁣⁣⁣⁠⁣⁠⁠⁣⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁣⁠⁠⁠⁣⁠⁠⁠⁠⁣⁠⁠⁠⁣⁣⁠⁠⁣⁠⁠⁠⁣⁠⁠⁣⁠⁣⁠⁣⁣⁣⁠⁠⁣⁠⁣⁣⁠⁠⁠⁣⁠⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁠⁣⁣⁣⁠⁣⁠⁠⁣⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁣⁠⁠⁠⁣⁠⁠⁠⁠⁣⁠⁠⁠⁣⁣⁠⁠⁣⁠⁠⁠⁣⁠⁠⁣⁠⁣⁠⁣⁣⁣⁠⁠⁣⁠⁣⁣⁠⁠⁠⁣⁠⁣⁣⁣⁣⁣⁠⁣⁣⁣⁠⁣⁠⁠⁣⁠“Are you telling me this is all the remaining force?”

Chashan felt like tearing his hair out. To dwarves, their hair was something precious received from their parents, and it was not to be cut or plucked carelessly.

Therefore, for them, wanting to pull out their hair was another way of saying they wanted to die.

“Honestly, this is your fault, boss. In the first place, you got distracted torturing those human bastards….”

His subordinates openly criticized Chashan’s incompetence. Chashan had wasted time torturing the human caravan members, so it was largely his fault that he had failed to gather the troops.

But to point that out openly. That was possible because Chashan was currently a guest commander of Dwarven Arrow.

The one who defied Chashan was an officer of Dwarven Arrow, but he was not Chashan’s direct subordinate.

He was merely the commander of the detached force that Dwarven Arrow had sent to Chashan to smooth out the drug supply network.

“Are you saying I was wrong? You don’t know what kind of bastard Azadine is! Think about it. A man who defeats us dwarves in detail! And you dare blame me just because there were somewhat heavy troop losses while facing a bastard like that?!”

“Then that makes it even more your fault, boss. If you had considered the enemy’s capabilities, should you not have prioritized the bigger task over petty revenge?”

The commander of Dwarven Arrow sharply criticized Chashan.

Azadine’s group was strong enough to crush dwarves? Then that, too, was Chashan’s fault.

His words were actually reasonable, so Chashan could only open and close his mouth like a crucian carp and could not properly argue back.

“Hey. By any chance, can you use Foresight-Bird magic instead of Earthkeeper magic?”

Chashan, having run out of words, turned to the Earth-Resonance Keeper sorcerer.

The Foresight-Bird Spell was magic that created a bird-shaped spirit body sharing one’s consciousness and sent it flying into the sky to observe the surroundings, and it was close to blue and black magic.

It was difficult magic for dwarf sorcerers, who mainly enjoyed using destructive magic and earth magic.

“Are you disregarding the magic of an Earth-Resonance Keeper? I clearly warned you properly, did I not?”

The Earth-Resonance Keeper sorcerer expressed his displeasure. He had clearly warned them that the troops were engaged with something and that their numbers were decreasing.

Since the troops had indeed been lost, just as the Earth-Resonance Keeper sorcerer had said, he had reason to feel wronged.

However, from Chashan’s position, the sorcerer had not clearly told him what had attacked them, and had merely said….

‘I heard the sound of fighting.’

‘So the troops decreased.’

‘See? I was right, wasn’t I?’

Chashan did not like the Earth-Resonance Keeper sorcerer, who gave such worthless information. He was only giving information that did not help with strategy or tactics at all.

But then, suddenly, something flew between Chashan and the Earth-Resonance Keeper sorcerer with a fluttering sound.

“Huh?”

Chashan touched his cheek with his hand. Blood was flowing.

“What is this….”

Something like a small bird was flying around. There were so many of them that the sound of their wings began to grow louder and louder.

The startled dwarves turned toward the source of the sound, and a swarm of bats was flying in from the eastern sky.

“Damn it!”

“Kill them!”

The blunderbuss soldiers all raised their weapons at once. Then, at that moment, a dwarf appeared before them.

“Stop! You fools, are you planning to shoot your master?”

When he shouted, all the blunderbuss soldiers flinched in surprise.

“Master?”

While they were flustered, the bats gathered, and behind them appeared a dwarf wearing luxurious clothing. He was a dwarf dressed like royalty, wearing black silk clothes with ornaments embroidered in gold thread and jewels hanging from them.

“Chashan. You lost many troops. You foolish bastard.”

The dwarf who appeared counted the number of remaining soldiers as though looking at his own possessions, then glared at Chashan.

But was Chashan not trembling before him?

“Your Highness Kalzmati….”

“Y-Your Highness.”

Chashan’s cousins, the dwarf sorcerers, all prostrated themselves before the figure who had just appeared.

The one who had appeared before them was Kalzmati, a prince of Banreung. He was the true master of Dwarven Arrow.

The Banreung Kingdom was the most despised existence among the Eight Yaegas Kingdoms.

In the past, when the Yaegas God tribe descended upon the Hubris Continent, they caused eight Quartz Thrones to take root in the earth and descended through them as their medium.

In six of those kingdoms, the Yaegas God tribe took their thrones without much difficulty, gained power from them, and fought and defeated Nether’s envoys and the Naga Empire of the Kurt Pantheon.

The problem was two kingdoms, Banreung and Ausander.

The thrones of Banreung and Ausander had appeared in dwarf and elf territory respectively, and the Yaegas God tribe formed alliances with them to reclaim those thrones.

The reason the dwarves and elves, who had served Nether’s envoys and the Naga Empire, were incorporated into the order of the Yaegas God tribe even after the Naga Empire’s fall was because of the covenant from that time.

Afterward, Ausander changed into territory of the Yaegas God tribe, but Banreung became a united kingdom, taking the form of dwarf bloodlines and Yaegas God tribe bloodlines governing state affairs in alternation.

Because of that, the Banreung Kingdom was an alien existence within the order of the Yaegas God tribe, and because of that, it suffered discrimination from other countries.

To the already self-righteous and vengeful dwarves, this became a reason they could treat the entire world as an enemy.

The dwarves made drugs and plotted a plan to make the whole world sick with them.

In other words, the activities of Dwarven Arrow were a national policy carried out under the sponsorship of Banreung’s dwarf royal family.

Of course, officially, Dwarven Arrow was merely a criminal organization founded by Chashan, which he had later lost real power over to other subordinates.

Even if the damage caused by it spread, the Banreung Kingdom simply feigned ignorance and pretended they could do nothing about it.

But now Prince Kalzmati of Banreung had personally come all the way to the Sandokar Gate.

“Chashan. Your incompetence truly moves me. After all, you newly remind me every time of the fact that I am ignorant about this world.”

“Your Highness….”

“Rest assured. Even incompetent fools like you will be useful now.”

Kalzmati said so arrogantly as he stroked up his beard.

At that moment, bats gathered beside him and transformed into humans, elves, and dwarves.

‘They’re vampires!’

The dwarves were horrified when they saw the things that had appeared beside Kalzmati.

“Pardon me, Your Highness. But these people? Could they perhaps….”

Vampires had the ability to bewitch and control those whose blood they sucked.

Could Kalzmati perhaps be controlled by vampires? Chashan asked while harboring that doubt, but the vampires who had appeared beside Kalzmati bowed to him with utmost devotion.

Then Kalzmati’s eyes glowed red. Kalzmati, too, was a vampire, and surprisingly, the ones gathered here now were vampires of lower rank than Kalzmati.

In other words, Prince Kalzmati had been a vampire far earlier, for a very long time.

‘Impossible! I have seen this prince since before. No, a high-ranking vampire can hide his identity. But if so, why is he revealing his identity now?’

Chashan’s mind became complicated. Perhaps the reason Prince Kalzmati was openly revealing that he was a vampire like this was because the conditions had finally been formed for him not to hide his identity anymore.

That was how he had to understand it.

Indeed… Prince Kalzmati opened his mouth joyfully.

“At last, the research on Elemental Wailing has ended, so I shall share its results with you.”

When Prince Kalzmati stretched out his hand, countless bats surrounded Chashan and the dwarf sorcerers.

“Huh?!”

“N-No!”

“Do not resist! That will make it harder for you to mutate!”

Prince Kalzmati’s sharp voice commanded them. At that command, the blunderbuss soldiers flinched in surprise.

To dwarves, whose class system was powerful, the command of Kalzmati, a prince, was something that could never be ignored, even if the fact that he was a vampire had been revealed.

However….

“You vampire bastards!”

For the soldiers of Sandokar, the story was different.

The County of Sandokar was also part of the Banreung Kingdom, but they were not dwarves; they were people who served the Yaegas divine royal family.

Since vampires had flown in and gathered before their eyes, there was no way they would stay still. The soldiers fired crossbows from atop the gate barricade and attacked the vampires.

-Thwack!

When the crossbows hit the bats, Prince Kalzmati clicked his tongue.

“Mere humans dare….”

When Prince Kalzmati raised his hand, a gust of wind erupted on the barricade of the Sandokar Gate.

“Huh?”

“U-Uah….”

“Wail!”

Along with Prince Kalzmati’s eerie voice, the soldiers exploded. Magic stones grew from their bodies and destroyed them.

“Kkeoeok?!”

“Kkiaaaaaah!”

The soldiers screamed. Elemental Wailing, that horrific disease, had broken out at once.

“E-Elemental Wailing?!”

The dwarf sorcerers were shocked by the tragedy unfolding before their eyes.

Controlling Elemental Wailing to freely obtain magic stones had been Banreung Academy’s long-cherished desire.

Of course, outwardly, they claimed they were researching Elemental Wailing, an incurable disease, to cure people, and that they certainly did not intend to profit from this disease.

But Prince Kalzmati was freely causing that very Elemental Wailing, was he not?

“Aaaaaaah!”

On top of that, Prince Kalzmati leapt at those whose bodies had partially hardened from Elemental Wailing and turned into magic stones.

And he became a blood-starved monster and attacked them.

The bodies of humans who could not control themselves because magic stones had sprouted from their limbs broke apart. The outside was stone, but fresh blood sprayed from within. Prince Kalzmati seized those humans and drank their blood.

At the sight of the blood-starved monster quenching his thirst, the dwarf blunderbuss soldiers also came to their senses, but it was already too late.

The bats attacked them. The startled dwarves, surrounded on all sides by swarms of bats tearing at their flesh, slapped them with their hands, rolled on the ground, and crushed them under their bodies, but the bats attacked without fear.

As dwarves were being bitten by the bats, Kalzmati leisurely walked among them while the vampires he had brought looked them over.

“Good. I shall share my blood with you. Be grateful that you have become members of a great bloodline.”

They cut their wrists with daggers and poured the flowing blood onto the fallen dwarves.

When this ritual was carried out, a gust of wind descended from the sky and began injecting magic into them.

As the magic released by Elemental Wailing erupted and became a vortex that struck the dwarves, they rapidly transformed into vampire spawn.

Usually, to become a vampire, at least twenty-four hours of mutation time was necessary, and even then, about half died from shock. They failed to withstand the shock of mutation and merely became corpses or burned away.

However, the magic of Elemental Wailing being injected now was assisting that horrific mutation.

“Now, with this, you have become fully my tools!”

Prince Kalzmati laughed loudly and began attacking the humans of Sandokar.