Chapter 70: The Way to Receive Attention
Shaiven, the queen of the Vampire country, White Tooth.
One of Shaiven’s generals, Juenler, used to be a Troll. But now he was a Vampire. Juenler remembered the moment he became a Vampire. At the time, slavery had been prevalent in Golden Eye, the country of the Nixes. And the slaves came from the enemy countries, such as the Renards’ country, Red Fruit, the Satyrs’ country, Danyum, and the Trolls’ country, Asbestos. Juenler had lived a normal life in his village until they got attacked and captured by the Nixes, and he was taken away as slaves.
At first, he did everything he could to regain his lost freedom. However, he had been sold somewhere far in Golden Eye, where the higher class Nixes lived, so it was hard to regain his freedom. Those who had been sold with him were killed as they plotted a rebellion, so he gave up on everything and lived as a slave. He certainly thought there would be no more change in his life going forward.
It had been the inception stage of civilization, and his life was simple. Juenler would have to walk for more than a month to get back to where he used to live, but since he didn’t know the exact location, he believed he wouldn’t be able to ever return.
Very few people had horses or other animals to ride on, and even fewer could draw maps. Juenler had already gone through a big change in life after becoming a slave, so he thought he wouldn’t go through something like that again. But Juenler was wrong.
Although civilization wasn’t fully developed, it was surely in the process of developing. Juenler had been working as a servant for a noble Nix, who was one of the warriors involved in establishing Golden Eye and thus had high status. The noble Nix was bad-tempered and treated all non-Nix species harshly.
Juenler forgot about the Intertwined God who hadn’t saved them even when they were being attacked by the Nixes. At one point in time, Juenler came to believe in the Nixes’ god, the Unseen Origins God, and prayed for freedom. But because nothing changed, he stopped believing in any god. However, one day, the existence of the God of Blood and Rotten Meat became known, and a rumor that the god’s proxy was going around attacking and killing the nobles had spread. Upon hearing the rumor, Juenler made up his mind.
‘I decided not to believe in gods anymore, so I won’t put my faith in the new god, the God of Blood and Rotten Meat. Because no god answers prayers. But…if that god helps me first…I will devote my life to them.’
He didn’t expect much since greater expectations led to greater disappointments. However, when all the commotion outside woke Juenler from his sleep in the corner of the stable, the only place where he could rest for a bit, he saw a Nix woman standing at the open stable door. She was dragging the dead body of the Nix noble with one hand, and the blood gushing out from the neck of the dead body drenched her all over. At the smell of blood, the thought that she was the apostle of the God of Blood and Rotten Meat came to Juenler.
As Juenler rambled a player to the God of Blood and Rotten Meat, the Nix approached him.
“Who are you to seek the God of Blood and Rotten Meat?”
“I am a servant of that Nix nobleman.”
“Then are you praying because you’re sad about this Nix nobleman?”
“No.”
Juenler shook his head.
“I was happy about the death of that Nix nobleman and praised the God of Blood and Rotten Meat.”
The Nix drenched in blood then said, “...Alright. You deserve to receive the power of the God of Blood and Rotten Meat.”
Then the Nix held Juneler and bit his neck. The Nix’s name was Shaiven, and Juenler then followed Shaiven around the continent and helped expand the Vampires. He was with Shaiven when they attacked the three fortresses at different locations, and he was later chosen as a general and assigned 4,000 soldiers to attack the capital of the Nix’s country.
When attacking the capital, he was honored to have God enter his body. And so, Juenler became Shaivan’s most trusted general.
Shaivan had divided the 4,000 soldiers at the moment; 2,000 soldiers headed north and south to conquer the other five countries and make them obey the Vampires, and the other 2,000 soldiers headed east and west beyond the borders of the five countries in order to attack the Lizardman country, Black Scale, and the Gnolls’ country, Joint. Among the troops, Juenler was in charge of leading the group attacking Black Scale, White Tooth’s next target.
However, in Juenler’s perspective, the other general’s seemed to be acting strange. Whenever the Vampire army looted villages during their regular supply run, a messenger would come. The information that Juenler received would cover the current status of each troop, and this time, he was informed that the three other troops were barely moving forward.
Shaiven had certainly urged the troops to move along, and the generals had said that they were trying their best while making excuses, such as the enemy’s movements were unusual, the soldiers were too fatigued, and that they were wondering if they should go around the terrain.
And so Juenler was also forced to stop his troops. If they didn’t move forward at the same time, the overall pressure they would inflict on their enemies would lessen, and if they pushed too far, the enemies could launch a joint attack.
‘We need to take control of all the other countries on the continent when we have a higher chance of victory. What are the other generals doing?’
Juenler stayed put at the village they had finished looting for a while.
It was the middle of the day. The second generation Vampires, known as the upper class Vampires by the players, were greatly affected by sunlight and silver, so they slept where the sun wouldn’t reach them. However, Juenler had been unable to fall asleep due to the concerns he had about advancing forward. So when the door opened, he immediately reacted.
“...Who is it? Is it Sang-Hwan?”
Juenler called out to his adjutant, who used to be a Human, but there was no answer. Their silence ended up saving Juenler. A ray of sunlight hit Juenler as the door cracked open. Fortunately enough, he only got a slight burn on the back of his hand, and he quickly avoided the sunlight. Then he pulled out the knife under his pillow and threw it at the source of sunlight.
The ray of sunlight disappeared. The knife had pierced through the heart of a Satyr woman and killed her. Juenler saw what had fallen at the Satyr’s feet and realized where the beam of sunlight had come from.
“...A mirror?”
It was a bronze mirror that had been thoroughly polished. Then Sang-Hwan, who covered his whole body with a cloth, belatedly arrived. Sang-Hwan then prostrated himself before Juenler.
“I’m sorry, general. One of the food supplies ran away, and I disturbed your sleep, didn’t I?”
“It’s fine. I hadn’t fallen asleep anyways.”
“Are you having difficulty sleeping?”
Sang-Hwan ordered the soldiers outside to clean up the dead body and entered the room. The relationship between the two was that of a general and an adjutant, but they also had deep conversations with each other.
Juenler then said, “I don’t know what the other generals are thinking.”
“I knew you would be concerned about that.”
“Yeah. What if the other generals are plotting a rebellion with their troops…”
Sang-Hwan shook his head.
“I don’t think so. You’re aware, aren’t you? How they feel about the one who bit and infected them.”
“That is right, but…is there any other reason you can think of?”
As Juenler asked the question, some fourth generation Vampires came to remove the dead Satyr at the door and left.
Sang-Hwan watched them go and said, “...Not everyone follows the will of the God of Blood and Rotten Meat.”
“I know that. That Satyr woman probably believed in the Life Proving God.”
“No, that’s not what I meant.”
“What did you mean then?”
Sang-Hwan seemed hesitant to speak his mind. With difficulty, he said, “There are those among the Vampires who don’t believe in the God of Blood and Rotten Meat.”
“What?”
Juenler never imagined that could be possible, so he was bewildered.
“How…do such people exist? We know that the gods live while deceiving us. And there are even some who have been abandoned by their god once. Only the God of Blood and Rotten Meat has cared for us, yet there are people who don’t believe in God even after they became Vampires?”
“...Yes,” Sang-Hwan said, “But not every Vampire was turned willingly.”
“...What the—”
“I’m sure the Bloodsucking Queen carefully chose you, the other generals, and the ones who were first to receive the bite. She probably only chose those who would follow the God of Blood and Rotten Meat. However, the generals and others who were the first to be turned probably weren’t as careful as the Bloodsucking Queen. And the second generation Vampires would have been less careful than them. Not everyone has the same experience as you.”
That, however, didn’t convince Juenlar.
Juenler sprang to his feet and said with angry eyes, “Then we should hurry and find those who don’t believe in God. Since they would be the ones preventing the troops from moving forward. We should hurriedly send a messenger to the Bloodsucking Queen as well, and…”
“Take it easy, general.”
“Why?”
“They might not necessarily be the problem.”
“Then are you saying that there are also Vampires like them among the generals?”
Sang-Hwan nodded.
“There’s no way of knowing if it’s all three of them, or only a couple or one. However, some generals might sympathize with the soldiers and think that there’s no longer a need to advance forward.”
“But you would know since you’re a Vampire too. We love…the ones who bit us.”
Sang-Hwan nodded. The one who had left the scar that would forever stay on his neck was Juenler.
“But general, you can’t just obey everything the one you love says.”
“No way.”
“Everyone had been abiding by the Bloodsucking Queen’s orders in order to live. After all, they had become Vampires and thus everyone’s enemies. Now that White Tooth has been established, however, they are likely picturing the new world to come.”
“New world?”
“Yes. Have you never imagined a continent ruled by White Tooth? By that time, you would have to compete against the other Vampire generals to rule over better land, and in order to win that battle, it is obvious that you would need more soldiers than the others. And that is why the generals are making excuses to the Bloodsucking Queen to explain why they haven’t been advancing and why their soldiers are dawdling.”
Juenler wanted to argue against that, but he had to admit that Sang-Hwan was right. The problems weren’t the other generals.. He had been too stupid.
“Is that so? Everything makes sense now after listening to what you said. I won’t punish you for insulting the other generals.”
“Thank you.”
“Instead…” Juenler said, “...let the whole troop know that when the sun sets, we will start advancing forward. I will show the Bloodsucking Queen that they aren’t the only kinds of generals there are.”
***
“I get that the Vampires have a weakness,” Crampus said to Sung-Woon. “But how would we use that weakness? Despite their weakness, we just found out that they only stopped advancing in a moment of confusion. Wouldn’t they start moving at some point?”
“You’re right. One of the troops will move soon. It seemed that they had stopped marching when they noticed all the other troops halting their march. When I went over the history of the generals, one of them seemed particularly obedient.”
Crampus then asked, “They’re going to move again? Then that weakness is for sure useless…”
“No.”
This time, Wisdom replied in Sung-Woon’s stead.
Wisdom then said, “Knowing the behavior of the Vampires allowed us to predict their next move. For example, through a Miracle, we could control the Vampire generals and make them move to a certain location we want, or we can make them stop again. And we can buy some time by providing the generals with excuses. If we delay the supplies of the Vampires that way, that would be enough to destroy their army. They would become each general’s soldiers rather than one united army.”
“Thanks for explaining for me, star head.”
At Sung-Woon’s words, Wisdom replied with a slightly angry tone, “This isn’t a star.”
“What is it then?”
“It’s the biggest dodecahedron out of the Kepler-Poinsot polyhedra.”
Sung-Woon was silent for a moment. “...Um. Sorry. I’ll be more careful next time.”
He decided not to ever say anything about Wisdom’s head in the future.
Sung-Woon continued to say, “It’s as Wisdom said. If we continue to drive a wedge between them, each general and their subordinate middle class Vampires may take the lower class Vampires following them somewhere else. They would think they are safe as long as they stay inside White Tooth since they wouldn’t run into any enemy armies… But we won’t use that strategy.”
“Why not?”
“It takes too long. The scattered Vampires would continue to loot the many villages of your species in the land of White Tooth, and the damage will be severe even if you are to recover the land later.”
Wisdom nodded his dodecahedron.
“Then what method are we going for?”
“I think the opposite will be better.”
“The opposite?”
“We’ll gather them together again.”
With his lion mask, Jang-Wan tilted his head.
“Gather them together? I’m curious about the reason, but I’m more curious about how.”
“It’s simple. They’re confident that they could face all of us here. They would be looking everywhere without a particular order, so we can make them focus on me.”
“Focus?”
Sung-Woon balled his hand into a fist and raised it.
“I’ll give them a hard flick on the forehead.”
***
“General! Wake up!”
“...What is it? It still seems early.”
Juenler, who had fallen asleep after ordering Sang-Hwan to gather the soldiers, woke up rubbing his eyes.
Then Sang-Hwan replied, “It’s the enemy troops!”
“Enemy troops? Who? No, we’re within Danyum’s borders, so it must be the Satyrs.”
“It’s not.”
“It’s not? Then who?”
“It’s the Lizardmen of Black Scale. And they are very close by.”
From far away, the Lizardmen army carefully approached White Tooth’s Vampire army while the sun was still up. Although the Vampires could see during daytime, the guards were somewhat sleepy since their circadian rhythm was that of a night owl. And by the time the Vampires noticed the Lizardmen, Black Scale’s army had gotten quite close.
As the Vampires made a fuss in the village, Yur, who had been hiding in the bushes, said to the warrior next to him, “Have you heard of Tatar?”
“Oh, yes. Of course.”
Tatar was the warrior who defeated ten Trolls by himself. Now it was known that he had been doing greater work on the southern archipelago under Larkak’s orders.
Yur smiled and said, “I always work hard, but there are many warriors who do great things. Much more than a couple of them. And I don’t get as many opportunities. I’m gonna rise above Tatar’s reputation since there are some Trolls among them.”
The warrior laughed at Yur’s remark because he thought it was ridiculous.
“Well, aren’t you the head of the generals and the best warrior already? You don’t need all the titles.”
“Hmph. Speaking like a real amateur. Do you know what it takes to be the best warrior?”
“Hm. I don’t.”
Yur laughed and said, “You need to be greedy.”
***
Unfortunately, Yur failed to fulfill his greed.
The Lizardmen warriors heard what Yur said, and they all killed as many Trolls as they could, claiming that they wanted to build the same reputation as Tatar. Yur was robbed of all the Trolls he had targeted. And in the end, Yur had only killed nine Trolls.
Yur raised the last Troll he killed, general Juener, and grumbled to the warriors, “This is the leader. Doesn’t this count as two heads?”
The warriors passing by laughed.
“How could it be counted as two when there’s only one head?”
“Captain! It’s still one Vampire. Give up.”
“Damn it.”
News of the great victory of the Lizardmen army spread throughout the continent. And of course, it also reached Shaiven.
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