Chapter Volume 7: The Ninth Step Toward the End: Rapidly, Godspeed (1/2)

Volume 7: The Ninth Step Toward the End: Rapidly, Godspeed

Translated by Raylight (proofread by Minthe & Trespasserby; C/E edited by Taffygirl13 & lucathia)

There were three boxes on the floor above—the truth was, there were over a thousand boxes, but only these three were specially arranged in the center. Even the countertops that they were placed on looked fancier than the others. Could these be a trap, with the actual goods stored elsewhere?

“That’s possible.” Ezart did not refute the idea that it might be a trap. He continued, “These are a bit heavy, so we can bring back at most seven or eight of them.”

They actually can’t be opened? I still have other things that I want to take and cannot just take eight boxes at random, not knowing what’s inside!

“So what? Adventuring is a gamble in the first place. You bet both your luck and life!” Ezart’s words were really starting to make more and more sense to me… Hm?

“What’s wrong?”

Nothing really, just spotted something familiar.

The box in the center had the same designs as “that book,” and the keyhole in the box on the left also seemed to…

I’ll bet on it!

Intense pain came from all my limbs, and it hurt so much that I abruptly opened my eyes. The first thing I saw was the young master who was wearing a very guilty expression. For unknown reasons, he was apologizing frantically to me, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry! Do you still feel like sleeping? You probably don’t feel like sleeping now right?”

I looked at the young master, a little uncertain about what the current situation was, although the drowsiness was still strong… Urgh!

The pain sent tremors through my entire body for a while, before it finally subsided. This time, I was truly awake and conscious. I stretched my hand out to wipe my face, but the young master immediately grabbed my hand to stop it. Only then did I realize that my fingertips were all covered in blood, and were throbbing in pain.

The young master said with his head lowered, “Because you said that you didn’t want to sleep, I pricked a lot of places that hurt a lot, including the areas under your fingernails. I’m sorry, I’m really sorry!”

So that is the reason why the young master kept apologizing to me. I said sincerely, “Young Master, I am extremely grateful that you did so.”

Hearing that, the young master finally showed a relieved expression. He nodded and said, “I’ll go and get some blood for you. After drinking it, your wounds should heal faster, right?”

I briefly assessed the injuries on my body. The young master was truly skilled, for the wounds he had inflicted dealt a lot more pain than the stabs I had made into my thighs, yet the injuries were much less severe. If I had let the young master do this earlier, the majority of my injuries could probably have recovered by tomorrow.

“Charles, after drinking the medicine, what was the type of strength that you desired the most in your heart?”

Lieder is actually still on the line? I asked in bewilderment, “Are you not afraid of being traced?”

“I am. That’s why what I gave Ezart was not a phone number, but a cell phone. Even if your young master were to trace the call, it would probably still take up to an hour to trace me. Right now, I still have… ten minutes.”

Ten minutes? So I still fainted after all?

“What exactly were you thinking of?” His tone was full of curiosity.

I replied on reflex, “I was thinking that I absolutely cannot fall asleep.”

There was a long silence from the other end of the phone, before he managed to ask with much difficulty, “Didn’t you crave strength?”

“Indeed, I did.” However, how does this have any relation? I was perplexed as I said, “Recently, there have been many matters that need to be settled. If I fell asleep, it was possible that it could take several weeks to wake up again. That was why I was thinking that I absolutely could not fall asleep. I do not think this should conflict with my wish to be stronger?”

“Unfortunately, they did conflict. Also, congratulations, you will never need to sleep again! To think that you chose the power to not require sleep. Do you find your eternal life span as a vampire not long enough? I’ve got to hand it to you!”

As soon as Lieder finished speaking, he hung up. Although he had just declared that I would never need to sleep again, he sounded as if he wanted to make me sleep forever instead. However, I did not know that I was supposed to think of a “power” at that time. Is there no way to choose again?

The young master hugged the blood bag while laughing so hard that he first collapsed on the sofa, then rolled onto the floor. “N-Not needing sleep really does sound like a superpower that Charles would choose!”

So, just like that, I missed a rare chance to get stronger?

“Charles.”

The young master passed the blood bag over, his eyes filled with mirth. This made me feel less upset in an instant. After all, it was not strength that belonged to me, and even the medicine had not belonged to me. Though the young master would not mind, I…

“Young Master, my sincere apologies. I have drunk what belongs to you.” For the sake of gaining a little more power to resist the Sun Emperor.

As expected, the young master did not mind and said, “It’s not mine either. We couldn’t have opened it without your cross. Enough of that and hurry and drink some blood!”

As I lowered my head and drank the blood, I saw that the whole floor was covered in blood. I should clean the place up later; it would be too pitiful if I left it all to the hotel staff. Perhaps not needing any sleep is a good ability, for at least it would give me more time to handle tasks… Urgh!

I touched my neck and plucked out a short… Needle?

The young master was stunned and yelled, “Ezart! Why did you shoot Charles with a gun?”

“To test and see if he really doesn’t need to sleep!” Ezart even said righteously, “It’s just a tranquilizer. He won’t die from it, relax! He happens to be injured anyways. Maybe he’ll make a full recovery after sleeping!”

After saying this, he scratched his head and added, “But those are specially-formulated, extra-strong tranquilizers. Vampires are harder to sedate anyways, right?”

“Ezart!” The young master cried without any tears, and hurriedly asked, “Charles, are you okay? Sorry, Ezart didn’t do it on purpose!”

Young Master, it was clearly done on purpose.

“D-Do you feel like sleeping?” The young master seemed worried but inquisitive, and turned to ask, “Ezart, roughly how long does it take for your tranquilizers to take effect?”

Ezart lazily replied, “I should be asking you, since you were the one who gave them to me!”

“I gave them to you?” He seemed puzzled for a moment, but then his eyes suddenly widened as he stammered, “Those were the s-super strong tranquilizers that I gave you for sedating large animals— Charles!”

There are always so many issues that make the young master worry ceaselessly. It really has been a long time since he last showed the smile of an angel. In this world that is like a living hell, who can still smile from the heart?

I gave a small smile as I replied, “Young Master, I am fine.”

The young master seemed relieved, and asked curiously, “Then, do you feel like sleeping?”

“No, I do not wish to sleep. I merely wish to—”

With a glide step, I dashed up to the other person and grabbed his collar from the front.

“Mr. Ezart, please do not do this again!” I unconsciously switched to the Hollow Roar of vampires as I shouted, “If I collapsed, who would attend to the young master?” As well as X!

Ezart instead laughed, and tilted his head to shout at the young master, “Ah Ye, why didn’t you tell me sooner that this guy would be so interesting after getting tranquilized?”

“I also just found out recently—Don’t give him any more tranquilizers!”

“Do not do anything that the young master forbids you to do!” I picked up the tranquilizer gun with one move and tossed it far away. It seemed that I had not controlled my strength properly, for it struck and broke something. However, that was fine. I would just have to tidy it up along with the blood on the floor later.

Ezart grabbed my hand, and I instantly felt a prickling pain from it. I exerted force to swing him off, and then realized that there was a pinprick in my hand.

I looked toward Ezart, and the other raised his hand to show that he was wearing a dragon-shaped ring with a needle extending from the palm side. He proudly said, “A gun isn’t all I have. If you don’t want me to continue tranquilizing you, then fight me!”

“Ezart, Charles doesn’t want to fight! Don’t make things hard for him…”

“As you wish.”

“…Charles, what are you saying?” The young master stared at me, his face full of disbelief.

“Young Master, Ezart has already made this request many times. In my opinion, Young Master, I might as well fight a round with him, and thoroughly put an end to this. However, he must promise me that once this battle is over, he will not issue any more battle challenges!”

“Tsk! Then, how is that worthwhile?” Ezart bluntly stated his conditions, “If you win, I won’t bother you for three years, but if you lose, then you have to fight me every time I come looking for Ah Ye!”

I was not entirely happy with these conditions, but at least I would not be harassed within three years, which did not seem too bad.

“If you don’t say ‘no,’ I’ll take it as you agreeing?” With a roar, he swung a fist toward me. However, it was too slow, and I evaded it easily.

“W-Wait a moment!” The young master dashed over, seeming as though he wanted to cry but was unable to do so.

Afraid that I would break even more objects, I tried my best to dodge the opponent. However, the other did not hold back at all, and with every attack he would destroy something in the room. As it happened again and again, the room quickly spiraled into a scene of chaos. How is the young master supposed to rest and sleep in this room afterwards?

With a turn and a backwards leap, I jumped onto the ornamental piano in the room, and growled, “Please stop! Do not destroy the room any further!”

“Damn, you’re good at dodging!” Ezart shouted in anger. He seemed like he was about to charge at me, but the young master hugged him tightly and refused to let go. As he struggled, he shouted, “Can you only f***ing dodge? What’s the point if you don’t attack?”

Can only dodge…

I—

The doorbell rang. The young master originally did not pay it any mind, instead sternly reprimanding Ezart in anger, “Ezart, that’s enough.” However, as the doorbell rang with more urgency, he looked at the two of us anxiously and instructed, “Don’t fight anymore,” before he was forced to open the door.

It was the hotel staff that had come over to inquire about what was going on. The young master barely cracked the door opened, carefully hiding the actual situation within the room, and then apologized frantically.

Breaking so many things has indeed troubled the young master!

Using my x-speed, I charged at Ezart with a great amount of momentum, causing him to go flying and break the window. As the two of us dropped down from high above, I clutched onto Ezart tightly and said, “Do not move. We will fight on the streets so as to avoid troubling the young master.”

“… You just shattered the glass completely, and you’re still claiming that you don’t want to trouble Ah Ye?” Ezart broke into loud laughter…

“F***ing hell, I should have injected you with a ton of tranquilizers earlier!”

I used my blood ability continuously to slow down our descent, forming a thick cushion with the blood ability at the very end. As we landed on it, I released Ezart and retreated a short distance away.

“Vampires sure are convenient! To be fine even after such a high drop.” Ezart got to his feet and said, “Next time I’ll consider getting a vampire as an adventuring companion.”

“That would not be a bad idea, but please take care that you do not become his emergency rations.”

Ezart gave a laugh and said, “You’re really pissed at me, aren’t you?”

“… A butler does not judge the guests of their master.”

“You really are pissed at me.” He concluded.

I growled, “I said that I do not judge the guests of the master, not that I was p…peeved at you.”

“But you really are pissed at me.”

I did not know the reason why, but I started smiling. Was it a smile from extreme anger? I decided to admit simply, “Indeed, I am a little peeved at you.”

“Good, ‘cause I’m pissed at you too! What I hate the most in my life are strong people who act like weaklings, just like you!”

Ezart charged toward me. To be honest, he was not slow and packed an astonishing amount of power in his punches. If a punch were to land, the outcome would be unimaginable. A normal person would probably have to spend a lot of effort to avoid his blows, but not me. To me—

He was too slow.

As I dodged the incoming fist, I refuted, “I do not pretend to be weak!”

“Like hell you don’t!” Ezart roared in anger, “From the start, Ah Ye told me that you’re stronger than me. Afterwards, he would even report to me from time to time that you learned whatever blah blah ability, and even learned it faster than Ah Ye could modify himself to do the same! No matter how I think about it, you should be a crazy strong guy, and now you’re telling me that you still need my f***ing protection? If you’re not pretending to be a weakling, then what are you doing?”

“I am not pretending to be weak!” I forged a rapier out of my blood ability, and looked straight at him as I answered, “Since you think that I am a strong person, then please, go ahead and test how strong I am.”

“Why are you holding a needle?” Ezart taunted.

I gripped my rapier tighter and increased the width of the blade from two fingers thick to three. The center dented in to form an irregular fuller, with one side of the sword sharp and the other saw-toothed…

Ezart gave a “Ha” and then said, “That’s starting to be more like it!”

His two hands reached down the sides of his thighs, where a claw-shaped metal accessory hung on both sides. Though their size was a little outrageous, they did not seem very out of place on someone like Ezart, who had a tattoo on his left cheek. With two clangs, he raised his hands that were each equipped with a set of knuckles. So those were actually his weapons?

The ring could be used for sedation, and the metal objects on his legs were actually knuckles. It seemed that while Ezart appeared to be covered in accessories from head to toe, he was actually not fond of “ornaments,” but rather attached more value to practicality.

“Be careful.” Ezart punched his fists together, the metal clang resounding as he said, “I don’t care whether you’re going easy on me, or if you’re Ah Ye’s butler. Either way, I’m gonna smash my fists hard into your face!”

He was serious. I went into the standard fencing stance, with the feeling of being in an official competition, as off as that impression was. I could not help but remember the time when I had first begun learning fencing. At that time, the first instructor had merely taught me for an afternoon, but a look at his gaze had been enough for me to know that he would not come back the next day.

I really enjoyed fencing, so my father had employed another instructor. By then, I had learned to conceal my inhuman movement—At that time, I had not known that it was called glide stepping.

However, I could never attend a fencing competition, no matter how good I became, because…

Because he is a vampire, someone who has never been human. He is strong and undying, how could anyone compete?

I stepped forward and used my x-speed, moving at an almost unparalleled speed. However, Ezart evidently had plenty of battle experience, for he did not plan on stopping my attack. Both his fists blocked the vital area of his chest, letting me attack other areas freely.