The Undead King of the Palace of Darkness

She moved her body as freely as she could before it was eaten away by the disease — no, even more freely. Her brother did gymnastics a lot, but Mirele understood his feelings well enough. Even Mirele, who had only been sick for a few years, couldn’t stop feeling happy. There was no doubt that her brother, who had literally felt helplessness until the day he died, felt even more joy.

She felt a tremendous exhilaration at the smell of blood and the presence of a battle. A towering fortress. She felt no fear for the countless murderous intents that were aimed at her from there either.

The bat that her brother had sent was squeaking above her head. There was no full moon tonight. It wasn’t the time when vampires could reach their full potentials but it was enough.

The five senses of vampires can handle a large amount of information. They can see in the dark as if it were a day, but they’ll never be blinded by a blazing fire. They can pick on the sound of a needle falling, but they will never have their eardrums rupture from a loud sound. They are sensitive enough to even feel the flow of the wind, but they’re not weak to stimulation.

In other words, they’re perfect. They have countless weaknesses, but if they take in the information properly and pay attention, they will never have to worry about surprise attacks. It seemed that her brother had continued to fight without caring about his body being harmed, but Mirele didn’t have such a philosophical view yet. And the aversion to being wounded was always in the corner of her mind when blood rushed to her mind due to her combat instincts, dampening them. She lightly dodged the incoming counter-attack of arrows and threw the wooden cannonball. The castle wall made of stone was solid, but if she kept at it, it’d eventually collapse.

The reason why Mirele wasn’t transforming into a wolf was partly because a humanoid form had more maneuverability, but it was also to avoid killing the opponents too much. She crushed a few towns in search of their main base and killed a little too much. If their numbers were reduced, the profit from incorporating them into their army would also decrease. It was one of the things she had to reflect on in the strategy against ‘Demon King of Evernight’.

If she kept on throwing trees, the moat would soon fill up, the enemy would despair and start making noise — there was still a while until dawn, but she wanted to go home as fast as possible.

Flaming arrows were fired and pierced the trees. They were trying to buy time by burning the forest and reducing the number of objects she could throw. It was an underhanded move. Mirele pulled out the burning tree and threw it a little higher. The burning tree disappeared beyond the outer wall, followed by the screams carried by the wind.

By now, the opponent should have become aware of Mirele’s intentions.

“Brother, is it about time they tried using my weaknesses?” All of Mirele’s tactics were based on the information she had gotten from her brother. Imagination was her specialty. That was the only thing she could do when she was bedridden – but she never thought she’d be able to use it in combat one day. The bat above her squeaked in response to her question. It was so cute, that Mirele couldn’t help spontaneously breaking out into a smile.

Transformation of separate parts of the body was something Mirele couldn’t do yet. There was a rank difference between Mirele and her brother and there was also her lack of experience. It might’ve been good to borrow a single bat after she defeated the Demon King of Evernight. Since she would only be borrowing a separate part of his body, her brother’s main body would weaken, but even Mirele was able to attack the fortress just by herself. Her brother wouldn’t have any problems.

Just as she was thinking that —– a powerful flow of mana suddenly passed through her field of vision. The world that seemed like daylight was enveloped in darkness all at once, as if a curtain had descended.

She didn’t lose consciousness. She still had limbs and she could feel the wind caressing her cheeks. In other words, this was–

“The reason why the Demon King of Evernight is called so…”

Ordinary magic didn’t work on vampires. In other words, this was something that affected the surrounding environment itself rather than Mirele. They saw that the situation was becoming worse and made their move. The outside world being dark even though she had her eyes open, was a sensation from when she was alive and it somehow felt fresh.

The hearing of Mirele, who had regained her spirits, caught the sound of the wind and footsteps. I see, so they can see their own troops. It was a spell she had never heard of, but magic was always something that was greatly influenced by one’s own qualities.

Mirele was looking down on him a bit, but he was a terrifying King. If she were a human, there would be nothing she could do. If she were a human, that is.

She evaded the arrows flying at her with high speed only by using her ears and the signs of the wind. Even If her vision was blocked, it was easy to find the location of the enemy with her vampire five senses.

Of course, she also had the confidence to engage in a close distance fight while unable to see. Mirele Noah – was the first vampire of the King of the Palace of Darkness. She didn’t intend to tarnish the name of that King.

She sharpened her senses more than usual and sensed the location of the assailants. There were almost no footsteps. They were probably dark elves. But there was no problem. Mirele’s hearing wouldn’t miss even the sound of the needle dropping.

Dark elves surrounded Mirele.

Sound. Odor. Skin sensation. The moment she tried using everything to sense their movements — Mirele sneezed with all her might.

That should have been impossible. Vampires didn’t sneeze. She sneezed again right in front of the dark elves that attacked her almost at the same time. She couldn’t endure it. She suddenly felt something lukewarm on her cheeks and touched it. It was water. No, it was— tears. Mirele was crying at the moment. Furthermore — like a waterfall too.

Mirele just barely evaded the sword that was swung down on her, despite being highly confused. However, a tingling pain ran through her skin which hadn’t even been grazed.

And, Mirele realized everything. This phenomenon was—

“Garlic odor?!”

“You are the enemy of my brethren, vampire!”

She ducked to evade the invisible yet sharp slash. Something flew from the sword and stuck to her skin, causing intense pain. Her brain was dizzy with a strange fever that differed from her fighting spirit. Her eyes hurt. For the first time, Mirele turned to evading with no regard to appearances. The sword was not made from silver. To begin with, such precious items like silver swords hardly existed in the countryside like this anymore. It wasn’t a fatal wound.

But, these people— had coated their swords with garlic juice. She was completely taken by surprise. She had thought that the enemy would only use silver or the flowing water. To think that it would be garlic of all things— She remembered something that her brother had said before with a serious expression.

‘Mirele, all of our enemies will take advantage of our weaknesses. Be careful during combat. They did some unbelievable things to me, like using a cruciform sword. If you’re unlucky, they might even use garlic cut in the shape of a cross as a sword.’

At that time, Mirele had thought that it was a joke and chuckled but it wasn’t a joke.

These men – didn’t have a shred of a swordsman’s pride.

She could understand a silver sword or silver arrows. But to put garlic on them ――?

Vampires had many weaknesses, but even if they were all considered to be weaknesses, there was a difference in so-called significance between them.

Garlic was undeniably one of the weaknesses of vampires, but it was not fatal weakness. Even if she was cut with a sword that was coated with garlic juice, it would only cause her severe pain, but it wouldn’t stop her from regenerating or kill her. It was different in nature from silver.

But even so— this was the worst attack. It was harassment. She evaded the attack while desperately trying to breath through her tears and runny nose. She couldn’t concentrate due to the itchiness and pain that was assaulting her. She couldn’t muster up strength.

While her mind was a mess from her first experience, she instinctively sensed just the signs of the silver arrows flying at her and evaded them.

“It’s working, it’s really working! Keep attacking!”

She felt like replacing her whole head. She felt like washing all of her insides with water. What had she even done wrong?

At that time, Mirele understood for the first time why her brother had said that being a vampire wasn’t easy either. She wished they fought her fair and square.

Something with a terrible pungent odor fell from above. She sensed its shape from the sound and the air.

It was garlic tied with strings. This was too cruel.

As if encouraged, dark elves swung their pungent-smelling weapons at Mirele, who rolled around while sneezing.