Elrod Forest was a vast forest in the northwest of Calderic.
It was in Calderic’s territory. It was one place that remained in its natural state since civilization blossomed on this huge fantasy continent.
In Calderic alone, there were many large and small cities in the Overlord’s territories and the other nine Lord’s territories. However, there were still lands that remained abandoned on the outskirts.
Oh, it’s shaking badly.
And that meant that the road to Elrod Forest had not been reclaimed at all, unlike the roads to cities and such.
I looked at the other side of the carriage, which was shaking more violently than usual, keeping my expression expressionless.
The vampire sisters sitting with Asher, leaned on each other and had fallen asleep.
A few days had passed since we started heading from the city of Domihawk to Elrod Forest.
It was the same journey as always, but if there was something different, it was that the two vampires were accompanying them.
“···”
I gazed at the two sleeping sisters.
Rubika was obviously trying to act more like an adult as she was an older sister, but looking at them like this, she was just a child sitting side by side with her sister.
Asher, who was sitting next to them, was also looking at them with strange eyes, but when our eyes met, she looked away as if hesitating.
She probably thought of her dead brother as she looked at the vampire sisters.
Then Asher muttered and said;
“Can I ask the Lord something I’m curious about?”
“···?”
My eyes widened in surprise.
Because she had never asked me anything before.
“Go ahead.”
“That… No, Sir Ron has been looking for places like ruins until now.”
Asher stuttered and asked a question.
During the journey, I told them to call me by my first name, not the title of ‘Lord’.
But Asher rarely called me in the first place, so she looked unfamiliar with using my name.
But why did she suddenly ask that question?
“It’s just that I’m curious what your purpose is for doing that.”
Ah… that’s it.
She is asking that now too.
I was continuing a very fruitful journey, finding and absorbing the mysteries, but I didn’t consider Asher’s point of view, so it was natural for her to wonder what the hell I was doing.
Besides, the reason she’s following me as an escort right now was because of my promise to make her name known all over the continent.
However, what I was doing was not like something a Lord would do, so maybe she was frustrated in her heart right now.
I’m going to do a lot of things in the future, that’s what I said to her…
But I didn’t mean to say anything like that.
Even after completing this journey and returning to my territory, there were still piles of obstacles to overcome.
In particular, the Invasion of the Demons, the Hero of Santea, the Succession of the Holy Sword…
These events were too big to plan anything right now.
Anyway, when the next Lords’ meeting comes, the Overlord will probably trust me enough to order me to do something.
Once I found all the mysteries in Calderic, I had to think about the overall situation.
I felt sorry for Asher, but I hoped she would wait until then.
I thought to myself and said.
“I’m looking for something. I know you’re curious, but I can’t tell you what it is yet.”
“···”
“Don’t worry. I’ll definitely keep the promise I made to you.”
“···Yes?”
Asher blinked, as if not understanding what I said. Then she said, “Oh,” and nodded.
“I was just curious. I never doubted what Sir Ron said.”
“···”
My conscience pricked me again because of her undeniable trust.
I slowly looked out the window.
As the sun was rising in the middle of the sky, the carriage stopped for lunch.
The sisters, who had been asleep, also woke up.
The menu was meat, soup and bread as usual.
Baros finished getting his meal quickly and sat down to eat in a suitable place, while Rudica stopped eating the soup and looked at Rubica.
“What is it, Rudica? Do you want blood?”
Rubica immediately noticed her sister’s condition and raised her arms.
But Rudica hesitated and just looked to the side where I was sitting.
I opened my mouth.
“It’s okay, come here.”
Then Rudica looked at her sister once more and approached me as if she had been waiting.
Rubica put on a puzzled expression as Rudica clenched my forearm and sucked blood as if it were familiar.
“Ru, Rudica?”
It was the first Rudica drank my blood after Rubica joined the party. For her, it must have been an embarrassing sight.
“What are you doing, Rudica? Come and drink your sister’s blood. Don’t do that to our benefactor.”
But Rudica shook her head and continued to focus on drinking my blood.
Seeing that, Rubica had a shocked face. It looked just like how Baros had looked the last time.
“You, you. You always said that my blood was the best…”
···Why did I have a feeling that I was the bad guy in this situation?
Seeing her crying and muttering, I became embarrassed and just asked.
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“Are you okay without blood?”
Although older than Rudica, Rubica was not yet a fully grown vampire. I wondered if her vampire instinct was running wild.
As I wondered about that, Rubica stared at me, swallowing her saliva.
And she shook her head in my amazement.
“···I’m fine. I’m a grown vampire, so I can stand it.”
It didn’t look like that though, but I didn’t want to ask for more because I didn’t want a scene where these two vampire sisters were stuck on both my arms, drinking blood.
Then Baros stepped forward and said to Rubica;
“Hey, vampire. If you want my blood….”
“No. It smells bad.
With the same reaction as Rudica before, Baros grew a little pale again.
Apparently, the blood of an elf was not appetizing to a vampire.
After that, the trip went smoothly.
And as time passed, we finally arrived at Elrod Forest.
The others and I stood still for a moment and looked around the entrance to the forest.
It was a forest with that kind of spooky atmosphere because the trees were much larger than the trees from the ordinary forest.
The Elrod Forest here was just a huge forest that was not that known to the world.
The many mountain ranges and forests that existed on the continent were not individually named.
It was just that the vampires living here called the forest by that name.
“Then let’s go.”
Except for Baros, who had to protect the carriage, we immediately set out into the forest.
I don’t know how long it will take.
The forest was so large that it was impossible to know how long it would take to find the vampires.
Still, I wasn’t worried we wouldn’t be able to find it.
As long as we kept moving deep into the forest, we would eventually run into them somehow.
And I also bought an expensive compass from Domihawk because I thought we could get lost.
Compared to a normal compass, it was a pair that showed each other’s location. It was not a magical item, though, but probably something made of a material with properties similar to a magnet. Because this was a fantasy world.
Anyway, the other one was with Baros, so there would be no problem going back.
“It’s kind of spooky.”
As she was walking through the forest, Rubica looked around and said.
The trees were so large that the sun was obscured, so it was a dark forest overall.
I suddenly got curious and asked.
“Do vampires hate sunlight?”
Even during the day, they walked well under the sun, but I wondered if they hated it or something.
Rubica looked at me curiously and shook her head.
“No? It’s not. Rather, I hate darker places like this.”
Right. That solved one question.
It would take quite some time to wander around the forest to find the vampire tribe, so I brought plenty of food.
However, they also supplied food through hunting. Of course, the hunting was up to Asher.
And, of course, not only ordinary beasts but also monsters appeared.
Kuung.
A huge boar fell to Asher’s sword and became a cold corpse.
It was quite disgusting to see tiny thorns all over its body.
Among the monsters that appeared in this forest, there were definitely some that I did not know.
This was because the Elrod Forest itself was an unfamiliar field that had hardly been explored in the game. When I met vampires in related quests, I just passed by it for a moment.
“Wow…”
Rudica’s eyes lit up as Asher quickly defeated the monster and watched the other retrieve the sword.
Because she had never seen Asher fought.
Rubica, who had seen the massacre at the auction house, seemed to be a little afraid of Asher.
“How can I be as strong as you?”
At Rudica’s question, Asher scratched her cheek in embarrassment.
“You just have to train.”
“How do you train?”
“···Swinging the sword without a break every day. And also fight against stronger opponents.”
It didn’t seem easy to explain to a child.
Rudica nodded and shouted.
“If I live here, I will train every day! I have to become stronger to protect my sister and my new friends!”
“···”
At those words, Rubica also had a gloomy look.
Asher looked at the sisters with a slightly pitiful look.
She also had a past when her clan was annihilated, so she could understand their experience.
Anyway, it was already the third day after we started wandering around the forest like that.
“···”
As we were walking down the forest road as usual, I felt something approaching us quickly.
Asher and I turned our heads in that direction.
From afar, I saw a figure leaping over the branches of the trees and sprinting towards us.
Even from a distance, the other’s image was clearly visible through my super sensory.
A man with dark hair, red eyes, and dressed like a hunter suitable for the forest.
【Lv. 51]
Vampire.
A vampire.
The level seen above his head was quite high at 51.
The vampire we were searching for had finally appeared in front of us, and I felt joy, but I was also a little nervous.
Then the vampire landed on a branch of a nearby tree, stopped and looked down at us. I also stared at him.
Naturally, in the eyes of the other person, friendly feelings were not visible at all.
“Humans… and vampires?”
The guy who was looking at us asked in a slightly confused voice.
“What are you? Why did you come into this forest?”
It must have been a very unusual situation for him.
No one usually came to such a deep part of the forest in the first place, but if the unexpected visitor was a combination of a human and a vampire.
I asked him, perplexed.
“Are you from the vampire tribe of Elrod Forest?”
