The Fallen Vampire-Chapter 261 - Chapitre : Dark Beast Rising?

It took Baro an unnecessary amount of time to finally sit down.

Previously, he took his time carefully observing all of the strong faces in the room. Though he recognized most of them from the sketches he had seen beforehand.

Ja'Zaki Ssri.

Kyoen Tsuchigumo.

Aja Druj.

And Ayame Garou.

To no surprise, each of the dark rulers looked like they were far from thrilled to see him. Their dislike was a mutual sentiment.

He watched as Vermeil took a seat beside Ayame without reservations. He at least expected the werewolf queen to growl or show her teeth or something.

"Strange bedfellows, eh...?" He directed his gaze towards Vermeil.

"You don't pick your in-laws." She shrugged in response.

At most, Baro thought that Vermeil might've ingratiated herself into becoming one of Ayame's advisors given her former ties to human society.

Hearing that she had worked her way up to a daughter-in-law in the span of fifty years was certainly... a change.

He recalled that Vermeil's defection occurred when she accompanied the hero Vance at one of his camps. Apparently, the werewolf princess was held there as well.

'What a strange place to meet a date... Maybe I should try it one day.'

While contemplating, Baro felt something tickle the nape of his neck.

He whirled around suddenly, while generating a strange green power in his hand.

Leopold, Kohaku, and Kuro were all still standing a fair enough distance away and did not seem to have moved.

But Baro was absolutely sure he felt something just now. He wouldn't find it strange at all for the group of fallen to start picking on the human in the room.

He scoffed loud enough for everyone here to hear him. "Very amusing, now-"

"The New Kings of Creedos expect your full cooperation in this delicate matter... My, that is a mouthful. And so disrespectful to boot."

When Baro turned back towards the fallen rulers, he saw Ayame sitting there with his parchment scroll in hand—the one he definitely hadn't given to her yet.

"When did you-"

"Those heroes of yours certainly are full of themselves, aren't they? Boldly sending declarations to territories they're on shaky ground with when their control on their own lands is nearly paper-thin."

Ayame looked up and it was clear that despite her light tone, she was not so amused.

She has long heard by now that the Heroes had seized power from the former human king and had effectively taken the nation under their control.

This, of course, was in response to the discovery of their abusing the quintessence of this world in order to fuel their cultivation.

They had managed to wrest power from the nation while simultaneously spreading the idea to the populace that all claims being brought against them were slander spread by none other than the former king himself.

Belief surrounding these claims was shaky. The former king had accrued a lot of good faith during his tenure. As a result, the kingdom was in a seriously unstable period.

The werewolf queen couldn't believe they were actually trying to throw their weight around with her when they had more than enough on their plate as is.

She didn't believe that the humans were afraid of old stories for even a second. That just wasn't their nature.

Aja plucked the letter from Ayame's grasp and read over it from front to back.

"I've come across the hero of shadow and the hero of land once or twice before. You expect me to believe either of those two blockheads could have written something as coherent as this..?"

Baro's brow twitched and his permanent smile threatened to crack. "Now, Lich Queen... That's not a very nice thing to say about someone, is it?"

Aja placed her elbows on the table and leaned forward with a cold look in her eyes.

"I'm afraid that my manners have left me along with my emotions."

"Ah, I see. Must come with the territory then."

In just an instant, the tension within the room doubled, and the temperature dropped to below freezing.

"How confident."

Ja'Zaki finally chimed in for the first time today. He lounged back in his chair cooly, with his hands interlocked behind his head.

He stared at Baro with a slight twinkle in his eye and a small smile on his lips.

"You speak rather freely and without reservations. Almost like a man who knows his life is guaranteed no matter what he does."

The hairs on the back of Baro's neck stood up. Nevertheless, he showed his same, flat and innocent smile.

"Well, I'm just assuming my continued well-being is a given, no? You dignified and noble rulers wouldn't stoop so low as to harm an innocent, good-natured messenger, would you...?"

Everyone here discreetly glanced at Ayame. She used to lop off the heads of servants all the time in her younger years.

Though she mellowed out a little bit once she got pregnant with Keran.

But today didn't seem like it was going to be one of those days.

Ayame tapped the table in front of her exactly twice.

Suddenly, the entire table split down the middle and collapsed onto the floor.

Ayame stood up and walked through the gap unimepeded.

Now that she was on her feet, Baro was realizing for the first time that she really was quite a large woman...

In fact, she was larger than he was. Even without shifting.

"There is but one thing that we should make crystal clear in this hour. You have no friends here. Your heroes will not save you.

If I decided in the next three seconds to send them your head in a box, then that will be the very last anyone will hear of you."

Baro discreetly tried to reach for an item inside of his coat pocket. Hs face paled when he realized that had been taken from him too. frёewebηovel.cѳm

Ayame held up the piece of parchment containing the heroes' decree and pointed to a very specific subsection.

"What. Is. This..?"

Only now was Baro beginning to show the slightest bit of nerves. His stomach threatened to turn itself inside out with anxiety.

"I-It's what it says... Recently, the fragments of the great beast that the races of light were keeping in secret have vanished... They wish for you to come to the capital, where we might investigate this phenomenon together, and-"

"So you came all the way here, just to tell us to go all the way over there so that your leaders might interrogate us. Do I have that right?"

Baro felt his mouth run dry. "I-I assure you, there have been no talks of foul play, and the cease fire will be fully honored.

The beast of the end is a potential disaster that threatens civilized society as well as your own, so it is best that we get to the bottom of it's disappearance as quickly as possible-"

"Does he genuinely expect us to believe this...?" Ayame asked in exhaustion as she put the paper down.

"Y-You must understand that-" Baro continued.

"No longer talking to you, human."

Baro didn't know who Ayame was talking to, and he never would.

Before he could do anything, he felt a firm hand grab him by his skull and plunge his consciousness into darkness.