Chapter 40.2: Blood Magic (3)

At my words, the chieftain only fell silent.

Now that a Lord had come to the forest, she must be feeling a great sense of crisis right now.

I went straight to the main topic.

“I have a story I want to tell you. Would you like to hear it?”

“···Story?”

“I came to this forest to take the vampire sisters, but I also have another purpose. It’s about the ‘blood crystal’ of your tribe.”

The vampires looked at me in amazement.

They wouldn’t have expected that the word ‘blood crystal’ would come out of the mouth of an outsider who came to the forest out of nowhere.

“How do you know about the ‘blood crystal’?”

The chieftain, who had come to her senses, now looked at me with hostile eyes.

Blood crystal.

It was the biggest trouble that the vampire tribes of the Elrod Forest currently harbored.

I couldn’t remember all the details of the background, but I remembered some important things roughly.

Ancestor Gascalid.

A time in the past, far before the tribes settled down in Elrod Forest.

Among the ancestors of these tribes was a powerful vampire.

He was an evil and ferocious vampire, unlike his descendants, who became a peaceful tribe. He was more like the current Sixth Lord.

He was defeated by an unknown archmage and was mortally wounded, and in the end, it was said that he died at the end of his life.

The death of a vampire did not differ from the death of other creatures. The bones and flesh rotted, and the body returned to nature.

However, he tried to maintain his existence until the moment of his death, not letting go of the lust for life.

That’s how ‘blood crystal’ was created.

A stone in which the soul and blood of Gascalid are sleeping.

I think one of the elder vampires explained how that was possible in the game, but I couldn’t remember. It was just a setting anyway, so it didn’t matter.

The important thing was that the descendants took care of the evil stone that was like an image of Gascalid.

Along with the prophecy that the day when Gascalid was resurrected was the day the tribe would be destroyed, they had been performing rituals for generations to quell the blood crystal.

But the problem was the aftermath of the ritual.

A ceremony in which the blood of the chieftain, who inherited the blood of Gascalid, sacrificed their own blood to calm the blood crystal.

It was a ritual that not only sacrificed the blood, but also ate away the vitality and spirit of the person who performed it.

In a word, the chieftain of the Elrod Forest was destined to be short-lived the more they performed the ritual.

Even now, it was barely sealed, so they couldn’t move it anywhere, and it would be irresponsible if they left it alone and left the forest.

Without being able to do this or that, the tribes of Elrod Forest had been squeezing the lives of the chieftain for generations.

And the reason I came to Elrod Forest was to solve that problem.

My purpose was to gain the vampire’s ‘blood magic’ ability that could be obtained in solving it.

“I know your ancestor, Gascalid.”

Now that we’re ready to talk to each other, it’s time to speak up.

The chieftain, who was staring at me, widened his eyes at those words.

“What just…?”

“It’s the reason I know about the cursed thing your ancestor placed on you.”

I unravelled the story I had envisioned in my head.

“Halion, the chieftain sealed the blood of Gascalid himself. Do you know?”

“···”

“If you are a chieftain, of course you know, since the records of your ancestors remain. I had a relationship with him, and he entrusted me with a request. One day, when the time is right, I was asked to completely annihilate the blood crystal.”

“Hold on, wait.”

She stopped me from contunuing. She had obviously become increasingly confused by my words.

“So… you mean a few hundred years ago when our ancestors were still alive?”

“Yes.”

At that, Asher looked back at me with a slightly startled expression.

Of course, it was a lie, but even if it was true, there was nothing wrong with it.

As you can see by looking at the Lords, for the superhumans who have crossed their boundaries in this world, the basic lifespan of a body was several hundred years.

I spoke with a slightly solemn face.

“I came here to keep that request. So, guide me to the place where the blood crystal is.”

It’s very absurd, but it’s hard not to believe it.

Or how would an outsider know about blood spririt and their ancestor?

I waited for the chieftain’s answer.

She, who had a complicated face as if in agony, bowed her head.

“I’m sorry, but you don’t have to.”

···Huh?

“This is a matter for our clan. I can’t just listen to a few words and leave the matter of blood crystal to an outsider. I’m sorry if everything you say is really true, but if you care about us, please go back.”

The return was a resolute refusal.

I was a little embarrassed because I didn’t know that she would give me a knife-like refusal.

“No, sister. We need to hear more of the story…”

Rather, the chief warrior, who had been more hostile towards me, panicked and stopped her.

“Goodbye then.”

She bowed to me once more and turned around firmly.

I looked at the back with a bit of embarrassment and then opened my mouth again.

···At least, I couldn’t come this far and just give up.

“Then I’ll have to force my way in.”

At my words, her steps stopped.

Then she looked at me with a hardened face.

“Actually, I don’t need your permission. This is an oath between me and your ancestor, and it must be kept.”

“…Even though I said that you don’t need to?”

I said shamelessly in a cold voice.

“Yeah. So, if you don’t want more clashes, lead me to the blood crystal. I don’t want to see the blood of the descendants of my dead friend flow here.”