Chapter 266 – Side Story 15 – Father and Son Reunion

The city of Daejeon, filled with strange objects called cars moving about and buildings that seemed to reach for the sky.

A city that, before the incident 20 years ago, was said to have been filled with people in even larger cities that couldn’t compare to this one.

Whether he believed it or not, Vlad was already amazed by the city he could see before his eyes.

And paradoxically, this sensation added to his gloomy mood.

‘What am I doing here?’

He was sitting in the living room of a standalone unit on the top floor of a high-rise residential complex, a symbol of wealth, looking down at the city of Daejeon, but it didn’t feel luxurious at all.

The elevator that took him to the top floor and the doors that opened and closed automatically were just marvelous like magic,

The refrigerator that kept food cold and the air conditioner that blew cool air were just devices he was afraid to touch.

Because of this, he had been spending several days sitting absentmindedly in the living room of the house given to the young lady.

While he was spending time in a daze, both the young knight and the young lady seemed to be busy moving about.

The boy knight, perhaps because he had returned to his hometown after a long time, was busy meeting people he knew,

The young lady was busy experimenting with the corpse mermaid they had caught at the lake.

It was an experiment to find the differences from Ea’s undead, and how similar they were to the mana possessed by Vlad and the young lady.

She was experimenting not just with magic, but in a place similar to an alchemist’s laboratory, with people wearing white clothes.

The young lady, who returned to sleep in the middle of her work, would excitedly boast that it was much better for research than what they did in Ea, but Vlad couldn’t understand a word she said.

He just felt tormented by the meaningless time that kept passing.

Of course, if he had been a servant from the beginning, he might have enjoyed this comfortable life, but he had been a boy full of rebellious spirit since childhood.

Even when he was young, living alone with his mother believing his father was dead, and even when he learned that the person who recently appeared claiming to be his father was a vampire called a monster, this world was hostile to him.

In such a world, he couldn’t grow up to be a kind and obedient child.

Even now, if his so-called father hadn’t given him orders in a way that was close to threatening, he wouldn’t have followed his words.

Because of this, he had tried to do the assigned task halfheartedly…

‘I never expected things to get so complicated.’

From the domain lord’s daughter having transformed mana, to that mana being similar to his own, mixed with monster blood.

Since arriving at the domain, unexpected things had continued to happen.

Thanks to that, he had unintentionally come to another world with the young lady.

“In the end, did things go as the vampire wanted?”

The information about the knight’s domain that the vampire wanted from Vlad wasn’t anything special.

He just knew that Vlad could infiltrate the knight’s domain without being discovered and used him.

A disposable card that wouldn’t matter even if he failed.

Knowing this, Vlad still had no choice but to follow his words.

“Damn it, to think I’m the child of such a monster.”

A father who threatens to reveal to others that his child’s blood is mixed with monster blood.

If it weren’t for his mother living in his hometown, he would have ignored such threats.

“Come to think of it, it’s no different from me discovering the lord’s weakness.”

The young lady Selena with transformed mana.

Just revealing that would have been enough to satisfy the vampire.

However, Vlad didn’t want to tell his vampire father about that fact.

‘The lord is scary too.’

Recalling the shock of seeing the lord directly, his body still trembled.

But it wasn’t because he was afraid of the lord, but because he didn’t want to give good information to that vampire.

“If I tell him this, he’ll surely make me do something worse.”

But in the current situation, moving together with the young lady, it was difficult to pretend not to know.

A difficult situation from all angles.

He thought that staying in this unfamiliar world might not be bad, but that was only for a day or two.

Boring time spent in an unfamiliar place without anything special happening.

It was a time when only various worries increased.

As Vlad was sinking deeper into a boring depression, suddenly the door burst open.

And the young lady’s energetic voice was heard.

“It’s out!”

It was a voice completely different from the tired, exhausted voice he had heard until yesterday.

Hearing that voice, Vlad, who had regained his senses, immediately rose from his seat and walked toward her like a proper attendant.

“You’ve returned?”

To Vlad’s words, the young lady spoke quickly with a bright face.

“Vlad! Pack our things quickly! We need to go north now!”

With those words, the young lady immediately ran into the bathroom.

“What?”

The young lady shouted from inside the bathroom toward the bewildered Vlad.

“Just now, after our experiments, we found the transformed gene contained in the corpse mermaid!”

Vlad, who had approached the bathroom upon hearing the young lady’s voice, backed away again when he heard the sound of her undressing inside.

“Gene?”

The young lady, who seemed to have enhanced her hearing with magic, understood Vlad’s quiet question from inside the bathroom.

“I don’t know exactly either, but gene, no, I found a hint about my illness. I found the cause of my illness that only my father knew about! Now with a bit more research, we might be able to find a cure!”

It was an unexpected statement, but it was good news nonetheless.

It meant they wouldn’t have to waste time here anymore.

“Then, are we returning to the domain?”

To my words of welcome, a different answer than expected came.

“No. Now we need to check the comparison group. Since we’ve confirmed the half-mixed mana similar to mine, now we need to find and compare the original mana and evil energy.”

The young lady’s answer was quite concerning. The following words were as I feared.

“Since we can check the human side mana by meeting my father, now we need to check the opposite side’s evil energy.”

“Then, where…”

“Of course, to where the Demon King’s mana is. We need to go to Pyongyang in the north.”

With those words, the sound of water pouring was heard from behind the closed door.

It was the sound of the young lady starting her bath, and it also meant it was time for me to move.

And so, an unexpected journey.

This time too, the people going with the young lady were the boy knight and Vlad, along with four psychics personally assigned by the Minister of Awakened Ones.

Since they were awakened ones assigned by Minister Seung-ah herself, their skills were definitely not bad.

Though they seemed insufficient in the eyes of the boy knight from under that lord and the young lady, they were all stronger than Vlad.

‘They seem to be at least knight-level, or apprentice knight-level…’

That level was sufficient as an escort to Pyongyang.

This was because the city called Pyongyang had become nothing more than an abandoned city since the Demon King died 20 years ago… Unlike China, a country still swarming with undead, it was an abandoned country and city that had been cleared several times, with few undead remaining.

Moreover, it was a city that had been cleared multiple times by this southern country, a superpower called America, and even Lord Egger.

Originally, there was no reason to put so much effort and time into Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea, which was above this country called Korea, but apart from everything else, Pyongyang had the Demon King’s castle.

Another Demon King’s castle different from the Demon King’s dungeon in Ea. It was where the Demon King had cast the great magic to merge three dimensions.

The journey to Pyongyang, the place where they had fought the Demon King, was very smooth despite its grand name.

Arriving at a port near Pyongyang via the sea route that the hero’s party had used, and then traveling from there to Pyongyang, presented no difficulties at all.

It was a safer and more comfortable journey than traveling in Ea.

Because of this, both the young lady and the boy knight relaxed their guard after arriving in Pyongyang.

The four awakened ones escorting them were the same.

Among them, the only person who remained tense was Vlad.

Unlike the others, Vlad couldn’t help but be extremely alert to the evil energy remaining in the Demon King’s castle.

Though it was said that only half of his blood was mixed, that was no different from saying half was mixed, so he couldn’t help but be tense about the Demon King’s evil energy.

And Vlad’s tension was not wrong.

This was because they encountered monsters in front of the Demon King’s castle in Pyongyang.

“Welcome. Well done. I really didn’t think a half-breed like you would accomplish this so well.”

One of the monsters waiting for the group in front of the pyramid-like old hotel, called the Demon King’s castle, spoke to Vlad.

He was a monster that Vlad knew.

“It seems I’ve raised a better son than I thought.”

Vlad’s father. A vampire monster.

* * *

At the same time that the father and son were reuniting, Knight Egger was in the midst of conquering the tower.

Starting from the first floor, he had now reached the upper part of the tower.

Looking at the long corridor after climbing the stairs, Egger drank a potion he was carrying.

A potion he was drinking again after a very long time, to the point of being sick of it.

Thanks to the potion he put to his lips again, he was reminded of a companion who had departed long ago.

“I wonder if Hoffman felt like this too… This is truly a terrible place.”

Hoffman, who died while climbing the Demon King’s castle.

Though much time had passed, the world was different, and the building he was climbing was different, he felt like he understood his feelings.

That’s how terrible the tower Egger was climbing now was.

Numerous traps starting from the first floor and monsters appearing on each floor.

Seeing it as he climbed up to here, it was a place that could easily kill even a hero if divine power was blocked.

“Divine power doesn’t work, shortcuts don’t work,”

Thanks to giving up being a hero, divine power was no longer relevant, but to think that shortcuts wouldn’t work either.

This tower made it impossible to break the ceiling, break the floor, or climb the outer wall.

It wasn’t because the walls were solid, or because they were protected by evil energy or magic like the Demon King’s castle, but movement was blocked as if the rules of the world were set that way.

“It’s almost as if it was created by a god.”

Even excluding the pictures drawn in the tower, it wasn’t strange that the hero thought this was a tower that created the Demon King.

The traps and monsters in the tower were the same.

None of them were ordinary traps and monsters.

Great magic that annihilated people and destroyed the world was cast, and monsters worthy of being called Demon Kings appeared.

These weren’t traps and monsters for testing those climbing the tower, but traps and monsters that seemed intent on annihilating those who entered.

“At this rate, even those who want to become Demon Kings wouldn’t be able to pass through?”

It wasn’t the first or second time he had such thoughts while coming up here, but Egger eventually reached the final floor like this.

And so, as he passed through the final corridor, he began to open the door at the end of the corridor, painted with a skull.