Tantei wa Mou, Shindeiru - Volume 9 - Chapter 1.08

  Hellfire and a demon’s curse

Putting some distance between us, I drew my gun. Good thing I’d borrowed a weapon from the Man in Black, at least. I owed Rill for that warning.

“I dunno whether this will work on a vampire, though.”

I took aim at the man’s leg. Had guns worked on Scarlet? …No, Charlie had cut off his arm that one time, and he’d stuck it right back on. If this old gentleman—this old vampire—had the same ability, my gun might not help me much.

“You humans are always in such a hurry to die.” The old vampire smiled, staying several meters away. He looked so calm—did that mean bullets really wouldn’t work on him?

“What are you? What are you doing here?”

I’d known there was a race of vampires, and that Scarlet wasn’t the only one. If this old man really was a vampire, what had he been about to do in a place filled with corpses like this one?

“Don’t tell me you were planning to raise the dead.”

During our nocturnal helicopter ride last week, Scarlet had told me there were enemy vampires who held a grudge against humans. Was this man one of them?

“Why would I want to raise the dead?” The old vampire tilted his head, looking perplexed. He didn’t seem to be playing dumb, either. “Corpses will do fine if I’m just feeding.”

In which case…

“Right. Then have some lead.”

I fired at the vampire’s right leg and shoulder. The bullets hit him squarely, and he fell to one knee.

Almost as if it’d been waiting for that moment, a black car pulled up. A Man in Black was behind the wheel, and I dived into the passenger seat. “Get us out of here!”

The Man in Black stepped on the gas, though his face remained expressionless.

I’d attacked the enemy, but I had no chance of winning. If I got myself killed here without accomplishing anything, it would’ve been like going to steal a mummy and ending up as one myself. Even if that hadn’t been what Mia’s prophecy was about, right now running was my only option.

As the car headed down the road, questions raced through my mind. Who on earth was that old vampire? Why was he eating corpses?

“I guess Scarlet said he needed blood, too.”

That was how we’d first met: Last summer, Scarlet had taken my blood without asking, claiming he was on the brink of starvation.

If human flesh and blood were a vampire’s source of energy, then a graveyard, with a mountain of corpses buried beneath all those tombstones, would be the perfect feeding grounds. Had that old vampire stumbled across it by accident?

“…No. Was he the one who massacred all the villagers in the first place?”

Maybe he’d buried the corpses he hadn’t been able to eat right away, turning the place into his own personal pantry. If so…

“He’s an enemy of the world,” I muttered. Without a doubt, such a being was an evil we had to defeat.

“From our point of view, you humans are the enemies.”

The voice seemed to whisper directly into my ear.

A loud impact followed immediately after; a long blade had pierced through the roof of the car, running right between the passenger and driver’s seats. The Man in Black slammed on the brakes, and the car spun, then stopped.

When I scrambled out of the passenger side door, the old vampire was kneeling on the roof of the car. The blade piercing the roof had come from his walking stick—or rather, his sword cane.

There were visible bullet wounds in his leg and shoulder, but they weren’t bleeding. His vampiric regeneration wasn’t as fast as Scarlet’s, but his abilities were still healing him.

“You created vampires for your own convenience, and as soon as you were done with us, you decided to exterminate our entire race. Don’t you think it’s unreasonable to expect us to go along with that quietly?” the vampire asked, pulling his sword cane out of the roof. I could sense how concentrated his bloodlust was, but it didn’t feel like he was planning to attack right away.

“And that’s why you vampires are taking revenge on humans?”

“I did consider it,” he said in a low voice. Did that mean he wasn’t anymore? “All I’m trying to do is live and die respectably.”

“Live respectably? Even if it means massacring that entire village?”

“You humans also sacrifice the lives of others so you can live,” he shot back. I didn’t have a ready response to that.

I’d heard something similar from another enemy I’d gone up against before: Seed. It wasn’t really a point I could refute, either, considering I was alive right now.

“Not to mention, this is a restriction that you humans forced on us in the first place. You cursed us with short lifespans, and now you ridicule us as we desperately cling to life?”

“…Vampires have short lifespans?”

Scarlet had once told me that vampires weren’t an immortal race by any means, but what was this talk about them being cursed with short lives?

“Thirty years.” The old vampire’s golden eyes widened. “That is the natural lifespan we were given.”

“…No way.”

Vampires didn’t live even half as long as humans? Their race had been created by an Inventor two centuries ago. Why had their creator intentionally made vampires’ lives so short?

A little thought gave me the answer, but I couldn’t bring myself to say it to the old vampire.

“Because we were made to be used and discarded,” the vampire said, as if he was trying to get his point across to the human race. As if I were mankind’s representative. Was that why he wasn’t attacking me?

“We vampires were biological weapons with a set expiration date, created solely to defeat the enemies of the world. Our creator must have assumed that functioning for thirty years would be enough. Just the thought of it makes my blood boil.”

I’d guessed right: The Inventor, or perhaps the Federation Government, had completely failed to take vampires’ feelings into account. They’d never dreamed that aging vampires would feel fear, terror, anger, and sadness at the approaching end of their natural lives.

“So I ate. I ate humans. I even ate my comrades. And their flesh and blood really did extend my life. See?” The vampire rose to his feet on the roof of the car. “I’ve been alive for eighty years! I’ve eaten the flesh of all manner of living things, and I will live on! I’ll never let you humans have your way with me!”

He spread his arms wide, veins bulging at his temples, his eyes bloodshot.

There was no doubt about it: He was definitely going to eat me this time.

“Well, I don’t intend to let you have your way with me, either.”

I leveled my gun at the enemy’s head. I had no time to be careless or show mercy.

“Have you forgotten what I told you? Do not meddle with the king’s job, human.”

Just then, a familiar voice spoke.

I couldn’t see him, but I didn’t need to to know who it was.

“Ah, ah, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!”

Someone screamed. It was the old vampire, shouting in pain.

“What is this?”

On the roof of the car, steam started to rise from the old vampire’s body—and then his skin burst into flames.

It was as if all his blood had instantly boiled.

Smoke and flames quickly enveloped the man, setting his body ablaze in the blink of an eye.

“Aaaaaaaaah! Wha, what did you— The corpses… What did you put in my prey…?!”

The Man in Black was no longer in the driver’s seat. It seemed he’d made his escape while no one was looking.

That was fine; what I really needed to be thinking about right now was—

“There’s no cover out here.”

Any second now, the gasoline would catch fire, which would cause one heck of an explosion.

Turning my back on the car, I bolted across the plain.

Behind me, a fiery vortex enveloped the old vampire as I heard his dying scream.

“Damn you! You’re not even going to show yourself? Judas!”