157 085. Ruppel Olfolse -3 Part One

Blood began shooting out like fountains in front of the royal palace’s entrance.

Desperate screams rang out as spikes of blood mercilessly impaled the Paladins on guard.

The Vampires immediately ripped into the corpses of the Paladins, and drank their blood before injecting demonic energy into their victims.

Just as the Vampires began roaring out with demonic laughters, the corpses reopened their eyes. The dead Paladins were reanimated into zombies as they staggered back up their feet.

“Ahaha! Lord Ruppel, what should we do now? Do we force our way into the palace itself? Or…”

“I told you, didn’t I? Just slaughter whatever you come across. Actually, you guys should just remain here and act as distractions. If you see any livestock around, kill them and turn them into zombies. That’s your role.”

“Eh?”

The Vampires all formed troubled expressions at that order.

Second Imperial Prince Ruppel continued tilting his head. “So what are you trying to say?”

“…”

“You won’t do it?”

The boy’s unflinching crimson eyes were issuing an absolute command. The ends of his lips might be currently curled up in a grin, but the muscles around his eyes remained the same as before.

His chilling expression prompted an outbreak of cold sweat to flood down the backs of the Vampires, and they hurriedly bowed their heads.

“W-we shall obey.”

“Of course you will. Yup. You should’ve done that from the beginning, you know? Besides, I never planned to make you do something impossible in the first place. I just want you lot to buy me some time, that’s all. When Oscal and White show up, just turn tail and run away from here. In the meantime, I will…”

Ruppel snickered insidiously as he stepped into the royal palace.

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“…Sneak into this palace and steal my little brother’s body.”

White, who was sitting on the opposite side of the table, flinched in shock and stared at me.

He looked puzzled by the sudden change in my attitude. “What’s gotten into you, Allen? Why all the…”

Clang-! Clang-! Clang-!

Suddenly, sounds of bells and horns meant to warn the palace’s residents urgently rang throughout the structure.

Torches were being lit up from various places in the palace, and the Paladins were hurriedly rushing off to somewhere.

It was at this point in time that knocking sounds came from the door. Oscal Baldur opened the door and peeked his head in. Which only served to amplify my worries even further.

“It seems that some Vampires have decided to raid the palace,” Oscal informed us.

“Tsk.”

Just to be sure, I activated [Mind’s Eye] and checked out the boy’s status.

[Name: Ruppel Olfolse.

Age: ???

Attributes: Rotting body, a Progenitor Vampire. Peerage of marquis granted by the Vampire King. Massive demonic energy reserve, ability to manipulate blood, cruel and vicious personality.

+ Argh, my body is rotting away. I need to acquire a new body immediately! And soon, I shall take over Ruppel’s body and…]

My jaw dropped to the floor. “F*ck me sideways.”

6

I became utterly dismayed.

Are you seriously telling me that the very bastard White had been scouring the whole continent for the past eleven years had just strode brazenly into my proverbial front yard?

No, hang on a second here. That bastard looked like a little kid. Even if that thing stood right before White, he still wouldn’t be able to tell whether it was a Vampire or not.

I stared at Ruppel and wondered if I should call for White and Oscal. Oscal wouldn’t have any problems, but would White really be able to kill that thing without hesitation?

Just as I began pondering that quandary…

I couldn’t help but notice that both Charlotte and Harman were now standing in front of the red-haired ‘boy’. And some distance away, there they were, Dark Elf Tina and the company of hashashins providing her with protection.

I figured that they were evacuating Tina to a safer location. But during their journey, they had run into the wandering boy Vampire and stopped in their tracks after finding the latter to be way too suspicious.

Charlotte and Harman seemed to be interrogating the boy and were walking up to the Vampire.

That undead monster was a bit too challenging for the two of them to handle.

I glanced at the world tree again. Back when I had to utilise the powers of both Amon’s skull and the staff multiple times against Rahamma, that tree’s recovery ability greatly reduced the backlash of the relics to a manageable degree.

I remembered back to when I killed the Black Dragon, and then summoned Amon’s grimoire.

Although it was rather uncool to clean up the crap left behind my father, I still figured that taking care of this loose end would be for the best in the long run.

Besides, I also wanted to find out by how much the world tree’s powers could lessen the backlash from using Amon’s relics, too.

And so, I opened Amon’s grimoire.

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