Boom!
"Huh?!"
A small explosion erupted right in front of the man as he tried to strike my shoulder with the automatic knife. Though the blast wasn’t strong enough to disarm him or prevent the attack entirely, it bought me just enough time.
Tap-tap-tap!
"Damn it!"
Using the moment Princess Mezzlen had created, I dodged the man’s swinging blade and dashed towards the rest of the party. He immediately began chasing after me, but there was no way the two men behind me would let him get far.
Clang!
"Where do you think you're going?"
"...You won’t even touch a single finger on Lilith."
With the sound of swords clashing behind me and the reassuring voices of Ethan and the Hero, I carried Mezzlen over to Cerista. Her condition was clearly dire, so healing was the top priority.
"Saintess! Please, start healing her immediately!"
"Y-yes, right away!"
As Cerista cast her light to assess the situation, it became clear just how bad Mezzlen's condition was. Her right hand was missing all five fingernails, brutally ripped out, while her left hand had a broken nail embedded in her flesh, evidence of an attempt gone wrong. The pain she must have endured was unimaginable, especially for someone as sheltered as her, and it was no wonder she was a tearful mess.
"Sniff... sob..."
"It’s okay now, Princess Mezzlen. We’re here, and once we get out of here, everything will be fine..."
"Cl... Clean..." she muttered.
"What?"
"Cl-clean... sniff... sob..."
She struggled to cast a spell, moving her hand towards her lower body. That’s when I noticed why she was so desperate to use a Clean spell.
Shhh...
"I’ve already taken care of that for you, Princess. Please, just rest now."
"Mm... sob..."
With a wave of my hand, I quietly used a Clean spell on her lower half. Despite her terrible condition, she was still concerned about maintaining her dignity. As soon as I cast the spell, she relaxed and passed out from exhaustion.
"Saintess Cerista, how is she?"
"...It’s not good. Not good at all..."
"What do you mean?"
"She’s lost too much blood... I can heal the damage to her nails, but she’s bled too much... Her condition is critical."
"...I see."
Blood loss was something magic in this world couldn’t easily heal. In this world, blood carried not only life but also magic and divine energy, and using divine magic to regenerate blood would only cause incompatibility with the body’s existing blood. Even with transfusion magic, it required someone of the same blood type.
'And here, blood types are more complicated than back home.'
In this world, magic compatibility and divine energy made transfusions far more delicate. Only certain characters shared compatible blood types. For example, I knew that I shared the same blood type as the Hero, and Seraphine shared hers with Silena.
But as for Mezzlen, I remembered that no one in the Hero’s party had a compatible blood type with her. The original story never involved a transfusion for Mezzlen, so it was never an issue before...
'Things are getting messy...'
Unlike with Seraphine’s kidnapping, finding someone to perform a transfusion was going to be difficult. We needed to get out of here quickly to find someone compatible and let her rest in a more secure place.
'...That blood in the bucket is unusable now.'
Even though it came from Mezzlen herself, using unsanitary blood like that would only make things worse. As we prepared to leave, I discreetly cast a magic arrow at the bucket, shattering it.
"Hah... You pathetic creatures... Fine, then. I’ll—"
Whoosh!
"—drink this princess's blood and—"
Crash! Splash!
"...What?!"
It seemed I’d just skipped an important phase of the boss fight. In the original story, the villain was supposed to drink Seraphine’s blood and enter a second transformation. But with my arrow, I destroyed the bucket, eliminating that possibility.
As the villain stood there, shocked, Ethan and the Hero took full advantage, overwhelming him. Without the final phase of his plan, they quickly gained the upper hand.
Slash!
"Aaaagh! I... I will never forgive this... Not even in hell will I forget...!"
"Lilith, what about the Princess?!"
"We need to take her to the church immediately! She’s lost too much blood, we don’t have time!"
"Alright! I’ll carry her—"
"No! Ethan, you and the Hero need to take that body outside! We must drag it out into the sunlight!"
"...What?"
"Do as Lilith says! We need to take it outside, now!"
"Alright... Fine, I’ll do it!"
"Aaaaaagh!! Stop!! No! Not the sun! Not the sunlight!!"
This chapt𝓮r is updat𝒆d by ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom.
Even though the situation was urgent, I couldn’t leave the vampire to regenerate. This was the only way to finish it for good.
⁎ ⁎ ⁎
Sizzle!
"Aaaaaagh...!! Let me go! You wretched brats!! Aaaaaaaagh...!!"
Under the sunlight, the vampire’s body writhed as it was dragged out by Ethan and the Hero. For such a named villain, set to reappear in the fourth arc of the game, his end felt anticlimactic. In the original story, he would have escaped during the chaos of rescuing Seraphine and returned later, stronger. But I felt an odd sense of satisfaction in finally burning him under the sun.
But there was no time to dwell on it.
"Does anyone here have CS-UR blood type?!"
As we rushed Mezzlen to the church, I shouted out, hoping to find someone who could donate.
"CS-UR! Does anyone have CS-UR blood?!"
"L-Lilith, I think we need to hurry to the church. Maybe they have blood stored there..." Cerista suggested.
I wished things could be that simple, but I knew better.
The church was often low on blood supplies in this world. Unlike the four main blood types back on Earth, the blood types here were tied to both magic and divine energy, resulting in dozens of possible combinations. It wasn’t a matter of rarity; there were simply too many types.
"...Bl-blood... h-help..." Mezzlen’s voice was faint, and it sounded like her life was slipping away.
If only I had the same blood type as her, I could have used a transfusion spell, but fate had paired her with the Hero instead. For the first time, I cursed that fact.
Somehow, we managed to reach the church and rushed her to the nearest medical room. The priests used death-prevention magic to keep her alive for now, but it was a temporary measure.
"Her condition is critical. If we don’t find CS-UR blood soon, the spell will fail within two hours."
"If only we had CS-AR blood... We might be able to use it as a temporary solution!" Cerista added, panicking.
"Unfortunately, we have neither. One of our priests does have CS-UR blood, but their divine energy is too potent for Princess Mezzlen’s body to handle. It would cause a rejection..."
"Agh, no..."
Why? After coming this far, why did it have to end like this?
Had I wasted too much time dealing with the vampire? But if I had let him go, he would have returned in the fourth arc, killing more people. Yet, maybe... maybe Mezzlen’s life was more important than faceless characters in the future...
"Lilith."
No. The real problem was that I hesitated. I should have acted faster from the moment I sensed something was wrong this morning. If only I had been quicker, Mezzlen wouldn’t be lying here, on the brink of death.
"Lilith, snap out of it!"
"...Sniff, sob...!"
Ethan shook me, trying to bring me back to my senses, but I couldn’t control my emotions. In the original story, Mezzlen doesn’t die.
After the rescue of Seraphine, Silena uses transfusion magic to save her. Of course, in the original story, others like Lise, Karamir, and many of the Auguste family staff don’t survive...
I thought I had changed the story for the better, saving everyone I could. But now, it seemed all I’d done was shift the tragedy elsewhere, allowing others to suffer because of my actions.
"...Did you say Princess Mezzlen’s blood type is CS-UR?" a voice called out.