Chapter 155: 084. Ruppel Olfolse -2 (Part One)
I could tell Ruppel was flinching under the sheets. He must’ve been listening to our conversation while pretending to be asleep.
White seemed to have noticed it too, because he was glancing at Ruppel as well.
As for me, well, I was having hard time processing what the Crown Imperial Prince had told me just now. He was searching for the stillborn Second Imperial Prince?
“Hang on for a minute. Brother Ruppel’s sibling? When you say the Second Imperial Prince, then…”
I stopped muttering there and stiffened up instantly. That’s because the absolute worst possible scenario had wormed its way into my head.
Harman told me this story a while ago, didn’t he?
The Second Imperial Prince died during birth, then Rose Darina, the Second Crown Princess Consort, revived him as a ‘zombie’. And the father, White, had to deal with the aftermath.
I stared at him and asked, “But father, I thought you personally dealt with the issue back then?”
White grinned bitterly. “That’s what I originally intended to do, but in the end, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.”
He couldn’t force himself to eliminate his own child. When he dithered about still undecided for the next several days, one of the archbishops of the Theocratic Empire voluntarily offered his assistance, apparently unable to look on anymore from the sideline.
“Yes, he was one of the five archbishops, a man named Walter. He told me that he’d personally take care of the funeral arrangements for the Second Imperial Prince.”
This archbishop named Walter was then tasked with handling this delicate matter. The conversation back then went something like this.
-Your highness, if you’re unable to do this, allow me to deal with it. Please don’t force yourself.
-But, I…
-Please leave it to me. I’m planning to retire next month anyway, and live a quiet life with my daughter in the countryside.
-…
-I’d like to lend my assistance to your highness for one last time. Please consider granting this one his last act of loyalty.
The Crown Imperial Prince had no choice but to nod his head at the archbishop’s offer, and handed the zombie baby over.
But he should’ve noticed the archbishop’s strange state back then. The latter was shedding thick, cold sweat drops while his whole body was faintly trembling.
Back then… White mistook those signs as the nearly-unbearable weight of guilt felt by a man about to ‘kill’ a prince from the Imperial Family.
“The archbishop told me that the funeral went well, that he even made a headstone and buried the baby somewhere in the mountains. And after his retirement, he really moved to a village in the countryside where his daughter was. There was no reason to not believe him back then. I even offered prayers by the headstone he showed to me before his departure.”
But then, a serious problem reared its head. This tale happened about eleven years ago.
Around the time the Third Imperial Prince, Ruppel, had turned fourteen, a report reached White’s desk. It spoke about how a roving group of Aslan bandits had been raiding the villages in the border region. During those years, plenty of small-scale skirmishes often broke out between Aslan and the empire, so the Crown Imperial Prince decided he’d personally head out to subdue those bandits.
He was scheduled to become the Holy Emperor through the enthronement ceremony in the coming days, so as the new emperor, he wanted to send a stark warning to the kingdom of Aslan by dangling a few severed heads of their bandits on the border wall.
But this event served as a chance for him to learn the truth.
“There were no bandits when I arrived in the village in question. No, that’s not quite correct… I did find them there, except that they were all…”
…Already corpses.
Hundreds of villagers were dead, and so were the dozens of the bandits. And among all these mountains of dead, one child was greedily devouring a corpse.
White stared at this child. It was a boy around eight years of age with distinctive red hair and red eyes.
The boy said something that instantly made White freeze up on the spot.
-It’s been a while…
**
(TL: In 3rd person POV.)
“…Father.”
White remained unmoving as he took a closer look at the child.
Although he only looked to be around eight years old, he was consuming blood and meat like a real Vampire.
‘This child is a Vampire?’
Generally speaking, it was extremely rare for children to become Vampires. If a Progenitor wanted to create a blood-creation of its own, then it must share some of its strength via blood and demonic energy transfusion. However, a regular child wouldn’t be able to withstand the shared power and survive the process.
Despite that widely-accepted fact, the child before White’s eyes seemed perfectly fine. This point alone was difficult to understand, but to call him ‘father’ on top of that, too?
White growled menacingly. “What rubbish are you talking about?”
On this day eleven years ago, the Crown Imperial Prince, White Olfolse, accompanied by a contingent of Paladins, found himself glaring at an unidentified boy.
The boy seemed to flinch in surprise from White’s angry voice, then he formed a sorrowful expression. “This is too much, father. Not only did you discard me, you’ve even forgotten about me, too? Is that how it is?”
The boy reached out with both hands and waddled towards White like a little toddler. If one judged the situation based solely on this scene alone, then one would be lulled into falsely believing that this boy really missed his father.
White angrily yanked his sword out and pointed the blade at the boy’s throat. “You better stop your nonsense, or else.”
White did this because he knew. He knew that to the Vampires, humans were nothing more than some ‘livestock’.
The story remained the same for a Vampire staring at his former family members. There was no such thing as familial affection or love for these creatures. Unless you were also a Vampire, you’d be livestock no matter what.
Because White knew this well, he would never let his guard down.
He wouldn’t take it easy or feel sympathy just because his opponent was a child this time.
The boy made a tearful face while slowly lowering his head. “You’re one truly unfair father. Because of you…”
He then raised his head back up again, this time with a bright smile etched on his face.
“…All these Paladin uncles are dead now.”
Blood-coloured spikes exploded out from the ground. The Paladins accompanying White were impaled in an instant.
Although White quickly swung his sword in defence, the horse he was on got impaled cleanly through and he ended up crashing to the ground. He urgently jumped back up to his feet and injected divinity into his blade. By then, numerous zombies had gathered around the boy’s sides.
“I always wanted to fight you at least once, father. The son of the Holy Emperor feared even by the one and only Vampire King. I’ve been so curious about your true strength, you see. So…” The boy smiled brightly and continued on, “…Why don’t we have a fight now? The loser gets the other one’s body. How about it?”
White glared at this clearly-insane boy Vampire and spat out an expletive, “You damn abominable monster.”
He and the boy then began a bitter battle.
White slaughtered the zombies in the surroundings, and eventually forced the boy on the back foot.
“As expected of you, father.”
The boy’s flesh was cut down; the divinity-infused blade mercilessly hacked away at the Vampire’s body.
From the messed-up boy’s body, a small wriggling ‘baby’ crawled out. However, its appearance was truly bizarre to behold. Rather than a human baby, this thing resembled a monster’s offspring, instead.
Its whole body was dyed in a crimson hue, while its flesh was either rotting away here and there, or tumorous growths pockmarked it in several spots.
The most noticeable part was found around its neck area, which was deeply caved in as if an umbilical cord had been wrapped around there.
“I would’ve won if only I had a proper body,” the ‘baby’ spoke in a resentful voice as it glared at White.
When the Crown Prince finally got to look at the face of this monstrous baby, he called out its name, “…Ruppel.”
**
(TL: Back in 1st person POV.)
“That thing was, without a doubt, the Second Imperial Prince, Ruppel. I felt it in my soul the moment I laid my eyes on that baby.” White moaned in pain and held his forehead. His voice, now tinged with great agony, began cracking apart. “Not only that, it was a baby with intellect as well. Not a zombie, but a Vampire. Someone had turned that baby into a bloody Vampire. And not just any regular Vampire either, but as a creature possessing the might and class of a true Progenitor too. Dammit-!”
All this happened around the time the Second Imperial Prince would’ve turned sixteen years old if he was still alive. It was quite a bit of stretch for a zombified baby to learn how to speak like a living human in ten years, and gain enough knowledge and power to become a Vampire that could make clear judgements regarding the situations surrounding it.
However, such a thing wasn’t completely impossible either.
Indeed, it was possible if another being deliberately injected demonic energy and knowledge into the zombie. Even if such a case was only doable through an extremely dangerous application of ‘dark magic’.
I ended up recalling the events back in Ronia fiefdom up north.
The Vampire Count that invaded Ronia. That thing somehow became a Progenitor Vampire by gathering a ton of demonic energy through Amon’s skull.
I became speechless.
“In the end, I failed to kill the baby and it escaped from my grasp. It actually used warp magic to flee. After that day, I wanted to find the truth so I had the grave dug up. Nothing was inside. I sought out Archbishop Walter for answers, but he couldn’t be found either. Even his daughter was missing. Without a doubt, they must’ve been murdered.”
It was likely that Archbishop Walter’s daughter had been taken hostage, and he had to hand over the zombified baby over to the Vampires.
