Chapter 227: 121. Aihrance’s Underground Labyrinth -2 (Part One)
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Aihrance’s nobles inside the royal palace became restless.
Vampires? Such monsters were hiding somewhere inside their royal palace?! Something like that hasn’t happened to the queendom of Aihrance that managed to protect her peace for the past fifty years.
The nobles immediately lodged their protest to their queen.
“Your majesty, there’s no basis for such a thing.”
“That’s indeed correct, your majesty. These are merely unfounded worries, that is all.”
“Ahaha! This is somewhat embarrassing, if I say so myself. We’ve come here under the pretext of holding a celebration for our hero, but to think that her majesty would lose our trust in this manner.”
“Yes, you’re correct. I’m saddened by this development.”
The nobles shook their heads as if they were disappointed about something, and continued to voice their displeasure.
However, a certain section of their ranks were shuddering away in anxiety at the moment, instead.
‘B-but, how come…?!’
‘Why is the Seventh Imperial Prince in this place?!’
The blood-creations ‘manufactured’ by the Progenitor Vampires, the ones wearing the facade of regular humans, opened their eyes wider in shock.
They were now taking in the unexpected sight of the Seventh Imperial Prince having a meeting with Queen Rox Aihrance.
They initially thought that the boy’s face seemed uncannily familiar, only for the realisation of him being the Imperial Prince of the Theocratic Empire to dawn on them.
They gathered here after believing that this occasion was to recognise and celebrate the ‘hero’ responsible for saving the city of adventurers, Elusha. Queen Rox issued the summons to everyone so they came here hoping to build new bridges, but now, they were staring at the number one most dangerous individual that all Vampires had to avoid at all costs.
‘Dammit, to think that I’ve fallen for a trap dug out by measly livestock…!’
One of the blood-creations began biting his nails.
Just to be on the safe side, he launched an investigation of his own on the identity of the hero of Elusha, but never in a million years did he imagine that the queen would openly request the boy prince like this.
The Vampires glared at Queen Rox, rage quickly filling up their eyes.
“Ah, filtering out the Vampires, you say? But, even though I am an Orichalcon-ranked adventurer, I don’t have the power to ferret out any hidden Vampires.”
The Imperial Prince said some things that hinted at his refusal.
The Vampires hiding among the nobles breathed a sigh of relief at that.
This was a fortunate turn of events. Which actually made some sense since an Imperial Prince wouldn’t have any reason to aid Aihrance in the first place.
And this development should prove to be a good one in the long run. Queen Rox would surely lose some of the aristocracy’s trust through this incident.
If her authority was weakened, then it’d only make it easier for the Vampires to…
“Ah, but I do have a pretty sharp intuition. Oh, yes.”
“…”
The Vampires flinched in surprise and raised their heads.
The moment they instinctively focused their stares on the Seventh Imperial Prince, he too looked right back at the gathered nobles.
The corners of his lips were curling up now. The light in his eyes considerably sharpened as if he was searching for some ‘game’ to hunt.
The Vampires froze up on their spots and began recalling a certain communique that came to them not too long ago.
-Watch out for the Seventh Imperial Prince.
The communique clearly stated this.
-It’s unknown what method he uses, but he…
Right at that moment, their gazes met.
The Seventh Imperial Prince immediately pounced.
-…has a way to ferret out Vampires.
He suddenly threw himself at the nobles’ ranks. The latter group didn’t even have enough time to scream in fright.
The Seventh Imperial Prince grabbed hold of a head belonging to a noble, then forced the individual down onto his knees.
“Uh… Uh?!”
The Vampire’s brows shot up high and he quickly looked up at the boy prince.
The Seventh Imperial Prince hadn’t done anything yet. All he did was stare down at the Vampire as his eyes burned in the light of madness.
As soon as the emotion called ‘fear’ engraved itself deeply in the Vampire’s bones, he began screaming desperately, “P-please, spare me! I’m not a Vampire. S-soldiers, what are you doing?! S-stop this insolent person!”
The royal court knights and magicians flinched in shock before moving to try and stop the Seventh Imperial Prince.
However, Queen Rox slammed her staff down and prevented the royal court’s soldiers from acting any further. “All of you, stay your hands.”
The Vampire quickly shot a glare at her and urgently cried out, “Your majesty! This is completely insane! This action goes against the laws of our own nation!”
“We are currently in an emergency situation. Do you not know what kind of end our neighbouring kingdom, Lome, had experienced?” Queen Rox scanned the nobles present in the audience chamber and continued on, “Because of the civil war caused by the Vampires, their king lost his life while the siblings waged a bloody war against each other, leaving over a tenth of their citizens to become an undead. I am also informed that all of these incidents were the handiwork of the dragon slayer who used to serve their royal court.”
“E-even if such incidents happened, our peaceful nation has…!”
“Please receive the inspection of this Orichalcon-ranked adventurer. I shall take all responsibility.”
Queen Rox quietly closed her eyes, demurely gathered her hands near her heart, and bowed slightly. The nobles expressed their discontent again but didn’t raise their voices anymore.
It was simply because they too were afraid. If ‘Vampires’ were indeed hiding among the nobles, then no one knew when they would get ‘bitten’ to death, that’s why.
The Vampire shifted his gaze back to the Seventh Imperial Prince.
“Don’t you worry, oh dear important noble. I’m only going to inject a bit of divinity deep inside your skull, that’s all. If you’re a regular person, you will become really healthy. However, if you really are a Vampire…” The Seventh Imperial Prince grinned coldly with his eyes. “You’ll burn down to ashes.”
What kind of a crazy, nonsensical situation was this?!
Not only was Queen Rox present, this boy who was also standing before everyone’s eyes happened to be the Seventh Imperial Prince of the empire.
Even if people used to call him a mangnani, he should still be careful with every single little thing he did when he was out in public, but to think that he’d act so impulsively like this…?!
“Y-your highness, Seventh Imperial Prince! This is insane, sir! This act borders on diplomatic discourtesy so I urge you to…!”
What the Vampire said just then roused up stunned reactions from the unaware nobles. A portion of them began murmuring at the mention of the Seventh Imperial Prince.
“Seventh Imperial Prince, you say? But… where is he?”
The Vampire shed thick cold sweat drops.
The Seventh Imperial Prince leaned in closer and whispered into the Vampire’s ear, “Didn’t her majesty say it? I’m just an ‘adventurer’. And this is merely an act perpetrated by a lone adventurer.”
“S-such an unreasonable…?!”
“Your majesty, Queen Rox of Aihrance.”
Queen Rox looked at the Seventh Imperial Prince after he called out to her.
He said, “For my reward as an adventurer, are you willing to grant me anything?”
“As long as it’s within my authority, yes. As long as it doesn’t harm our nation, I’m willing to grant anything.”
“Well, in that case. Your request…”
The Seventh Imperial Prince began amassing divinity in his hand.
The Vampire’s body caught on fire, starting from his head which was still gripped in the boy prince’s hand. A brilliant burst of flames rose up to illuminate the nobles’ faces as a desperate screech rang out.
The Imperial Prince let go and the Vampire ungainly flailed about as his body continued burning away.
The boy prince leisurely bowed at the queen and finished the rest of his sentence, “…I shall accept it, your majesty.”
The nobles watched this unfolding spectacle with hardened expressions.
As for the other Vampires, they had already fallen into the clutches of fear by now.
‘…Marquis Kirum was right.’
‘The Seventh Imperial Prince can accurately differentiate Vampires from regular people. We must relay this news back to Count Timong!’
‘He must’ve come here after sniffing out our scent! Our hidden branch in this queendom is in danger!’
The burning Vampire finally fell on his knees before collapsing on the ground. “S-save… me…”
Along with a bone-chilling ‘Puff!’, his whole body completely disintegrated into piles of ashes.
The Vampires hiding among the nobles shed a bucket full of cold sweat.
Their current opponent was strong enough to hunt down two ‘marquis’-class Vampires. There was no way that these blood-creations could resist such an individual when they weren’t even Progenitors. Escaping from here would also be impossible.
‘In that case…’
‘We only have one option left!’
The Vampires strengthened their whole bodies by rousing up their demonic energy.
They began shooting a glare at Queen Rox.
‘We must take the queen hostage!’
The Vampires leapt out from among the crowd. They revealed their true colours and pounced on their new target – from their fangs jutting out of their mouths to their sharp claws, and even their hideously contorted faces with veins bulging out…
“Kiiiiaaaaahk!”
They screeched out monstrously and were about to reach Queen Rox, but then, Alice stepped in front of them.
She sucked in a deep breath before punching powerfully, shattering the skull of a Vampire.
A series of quick-fire heavy punches from both her right and left fists flew out and the incoming Vampires were blown apart one by one.
‘…What the hell?!’
‘We never heard that there was such a girl in the empire before!’
The Vampires had heard about the boy prince’s escorting knight that used a sword, but this would be their first time finding out that a fistfighter Priestess was also a part of his company as well.
Just as the Vampires stopped rushing in and started hesitating, a loud gunshot reverberated throughout the audience chamber.
A holy bullet cleanly penetrated through a Vampire’s head.
The Seventh Imperial Prince was leisurely smiling away while holding a musket in one hand.
The Vampires remaining within the ranks of the nobles could no longer even entertain the idea of resisting anymore.
Somehow, this place had turned into a ‘spiderweb’. Resisting would only result in their quick death.
There was no escape.
Queen Rox stared at the piles of ashes shaped like a corpse before turning her gaze away. “Is anyone still feeling dissatisfied?”
She glanced at the rest of the nobles.
The members of the Aihrance nobility maintained their silence and continued to exchange their gazes as they gradually created some distance from one another.
Those nobles who enjoyed close ties with the Vampires felt an icy chill run down their spines. They wordlessly scanned their surroundings and began suspecting everyone nearby.
Irrefutable proof had shown up before their very eyes.
And it was the same thing as letting them know that a national-level threat had emerged from the darkness.
However, several brave ones among the nobles cautiously stepped up. One of them, still dripping in cold sweat drops, stared at the piles of ashes before turning to look at Queen Rox. “…Your majesty, were you expecting to see this sort of result today?”
“Yes. We have detected several unusual happenings taking place within our borders, so we had begun suspecting it. We simply didn’t have proof until now, that’s all.”
“Which means we are indeed in an emergency situation.”
The peace that lasted for fifty years had been shattered at this very moment. When the nobles realised this truth, they shifted their gazes over to one specific person.
They were now staring at the Seventh Imperial Prince.
“How do we ferret out the rest of the Vampires, your highness?”
That one question managed to drain all remaining colours from the Vampires’ complexions.
