Chapter 54

There is no obligation for everyone who encounters the Black Snake to die for no reason, just because they are unlucky.

So even though I knew it was hypocrisy and a whim that meant nothing, I wanted to give it a chance and if they weren't foolish enough, nothing would happen to them.

But the men before me were clearly here with the sole purpose of killing my members. Whether or not they knew that the vampire there was a "black snake" would make no difference.

Any challenge to me or my members will not be tolerated in any form.

Needless to say, Jinzo Scarlet Bathory was no exception–because that name was all that mattered to me, then and now.

Even my own existence here in the form of Rain Gray was no exception.

"To one who has come to kill one of my own, I need show no mercy."

So I said, as a leader should.

A middle-aged man with a beard who appeared to be the leader, two younger men and finally, a woman who remained silent.

Their faces, all shaded by hunter's hats pushed down low, are hard to see. But beneath their bushy beards and scarred scalps, I had a vague idea of the kind of lives they had led.

"I don't like it when monsters talk like it's nobody's business...!"

"Hold on, Montpel!"

One of the hunters fixes his long gun. Not at the vampire, but at me. Billy scrambles to restrain him, but it's too late.

"!"

Before he could recover his grip on the long gun, the two arms that held it were sliced off at the shoulders, and a fountain of blood gushed over the cleanly cut sections, accompanied by an ear-splitting scream.

"Aaaahhh, my arms, my arms!"

"Montpell!"

Billy, the bushy-bearded leader of the hunters, shouted.

He didn't even realize what had happened but the next thing he knew, Montpell arms were gone.

It was too late, but he understood now.

This was different.

Something that couldn't be tied to any other vampire he'd ever hunted, something that couldn't even be compared.

Why would a vampire of that caliber be loyal to a human?

The realization sent chills down his spine.

"I'm sorry to hear that."

Scarlett said, not raising an eyebrow and keeping her composure.

She turned away from the man who was wailing and screaming with both arms severed before her eyes.

"Under normal circumstances, I would have been more than happy to show you some heartfelt vampire hospitality."

Scarlett, a mature-looking woman who appeared to be in her mid-to-late twenties, laughed as she flipped back her luscious blood-red hair. She wore the black uniform of the Black Snake like a cloak over her crimson silk dress.

"I'm afraid I'm in the presence of someone far too noble for your lowly lives."

The glass in Scarlett's hand overflows with a reddish liquid that barely fills it.

"Do you understand, it's not my place to mingle with the likes of you-"

A cold gaze that looks down on people like they're livestock, no different from cows or chickens.

It was a ghastly look that he dared not even imagine in front of him.

She was a predator that treats humans like livestock, not much different from any other vampire. Even their entertainment is nothing more than a game of prey.

That's why he was baffled when a vampire of her stature claimed loyalty to a human since it's not much different than humans bowing down to livestock like cows and chickens.

Still, Jinzo Scarlet was loyal to a human named Rain Gray and her loyalty was absolute, almost blind.

"Isn't that right, Rain?"

Soon, the blood currents swirling around Scarlett engulfed her, swallowing her whole.

When the blood currents subsided, a young girl about Alice's age stood there.

She wore the uniform of the Black Snake as a cloak, along with a dress that fit her diminutive frame. And because of her shortened stature, the hem of her uniform drags on her feet. Like a child forced to wear an adult's clothes.

"As I said, do as you please."

I replied calmly. Keeping my composure as usual, I casually pulled out a cigarette from the hem of my shirt and popped it into my mouth.

"I have no intention of interfering with the host's hospitality in her own home."

I stand on the railing halfway up the spiral staircase, looking down at the vampire and vampire hunters in the lobby.

This was Countess Scarlett Bathory's estate, her castle, after all. She was the landlady, not me.

"Wrong, Rain."

Scarlett, still a girl, shakes her head and I arched an eyebrow at her adamant statement.

"This is Rain's house."

She said,

"All my homes are Rain's abode, all the estates I rule are Rain's territory, and all the blood that flows through my veins is rain's blood."

At first, I thought she was saying something I didn't understand but she wasn't.

"Everything that makes up my being, every single piece, belongs to the Rain."

It was a blind loyalty, no different from any other member of the Organization.

"Rain Gray, I am yours."

"...."

"For in a thousand years of life, my life was filled with endless emptiness until I met you."

Said the girl who wore the black uniform like a cloak over her blood-red dress but I fell silent, unsure of how to interpret what sounded like a confession and looked at the group of hunters still there.

One of them is missing both arms and is incapacitated. The leader, called Billy, could not keep his composure and another man was terrified and helpless.

And yet-

The only female hunter remains eerily silent.

"Help, help, help...!"

The hunter, who has lost both of his arms, is on his knees begging miserably. Armless and legless, he looks like a ridiculous object created by a twisted artist.

"Why should I save you?"

I asked.

"You came here to kill my men, why should I let you live?"

"You son of a bitch, then just kill me while you're at it!"

In frustration, the man with two severed arms spits in front of me.

It was then.

"Rain."

Scarlett, who had been silent, said.

"What you said earlier about doing whatever I want still stands, right?"

"...Yes."

"Good."

With that, Scarlett walked over to his side and leaned down in front of the kneeling man so that their eyes were level and their faces were close.

"Perhaps I have overestimated the intelligence of livestock."

Their pupils narrowed, until they were within centimeters of each other.

"Didn't I tell you that the man in front of you is a noble man, far more noble than your insignificant lives?"

"...!"

"And you dare to spit in the presence of such a being. Have cattle no intelligence to fathom such a thing, and am I wrong to expect such reason from a lowly creature like you?"

The blood-red eyes glared back, and the dismembered hunter understood the gravity of the situation and was horrified.

"Billy! Please, shoot me! Kill me! Quickly!"

So he shouted.

There is so much suffering in this world that it is better to die.

The hunter called Billy heard him, and without hesitation, he fixed his long gun.

"I'm afraid, you can't do that."

"!"

But it couldn't be, for it was no one but Aria, who had been beside me until the last moment, who stood in his way.

"How dare you show such disrespect in the presence of the master, a crime that cannot be forgiven even in death."

She subdues Billy and holds him down, the fact that her eyes are covered with black bandages notwithstanding. This time, she doesn't make a single sound, but instead his joints snap and twist at impossible angles.

The third male hunter turns away in horror to run away but both of his legs are gone.

However humans don't die that easily.

The female hunter still doesn't move. Either way, her unwillingness to move was the only answer that made sense.

"I have something in common with Lady Aria."

"To be honest-"

Scarlett chuckled, and Aria replied, her voice as cool as ever.

"I'm already at my limit."

"Alice's upset, too, she's pissed!"

"Of course you are, Alice."

Aria laughed softly in the face of Alice's equally genuine anger.

"I mean, you shouldn't kill them so easily."

They were experts in pain, and to an expert of their caliber, death was never a punishment. It is liberation and salvation.

There was only one left. She had remained silent until this point, and I looked up, intrigued.

"Weren't you part of a group of three?"

"That's right."

The female hunter replied but her strange calmness surprised me.

"You seem pretty relaxed."

"I missed you."

With that, the woman removes her hunter's hat.

"This is the day when these damn monsters will see something worse than death."

A face full of scars, marks of beatings and even burns are revealed. Even the top of her head, where her scalp had been removed, was covered with scars and wounds in place of hair. It was a horrible face.

I didn't answer; instead, it was up to the hunters to shout.

"Because I trusted you to do it."

"Do what?"

"To hunt these monsters."

"...."

"Lucia, you fucking bitch...! You're not going to let us...!"

The horrible-faced female hunter doesn't even pretend to listen to them.

"You say that like you know who we are."

I said.

"Rain Gray, leader of the Black Snake."

There was no hesitation in her reply so now it was my turn to ask.

"And who are you?"

"Daughter of the enemy who killed my mother."

Lucia, the female hunter, replied, staring at Billy, the captive vampire hunter, whose limbs lay twisted there.

"I didn't want to kill him too nicely."

She said,

Then, with a flicker of human emotion on her face.

"Because when they killed my mom, they did this to me."