C104: Vampire Path

Izzy looked around the hidden chamber rapidly.

The cluttered table. The heavy curtain covering an apparently empty wall. The tall bookshelves.

There was nowhere to hide in this small, enclosed space!

“Dammit,” Izzy cursed under her breath.

*Clop. Clop. Clop. Clop.*

The maid’s boots reverberated from above, a calm, steady rhythm of approach. The sound was dispassionate.

Through the mouse’s perspective, Izzy saw her clearly. The maid wore a neat maid uniform, long black dress with a crisp white apron, fitted bodice, long sleeves, and a lace-trimmed headpiece framing her short black hair.

Her two hands clasped together elegantly. High leather boots clicked rhythmically against the wooden floor. Her expression was completely neutral. Her eyes were empty of visible emotion.

‘If I run out of here now, I have to face those bats again. Not to mention the sound of opening the door would be very loud.’ Izzy calculated quickly. There was no escape route that didn’t involve immediate risk.

‘Why did we not notice her?’

‘Isa’s so sorry…’

With the mouse’s Field Vision range of fifteen meters, they should have detected anyone approaching long before this. So why had they only noticed her when she was already this close?

‘Something interfered with my Field Vision.’

The maid possessed some kind of ability that bypassed her Field Vision, until she got too close to the mouse puppet.

Izzy looked down at her vessel, Arnold.

‘...’

There wasn’t much time left. And there was only one viable option.

“Arnold, my apologies.”

‘Arnold…’

If the maid was hostile, then Izzy had already made her decision.

She would abandon this vessel.

Of course, she would not sever the connection. She would make Arnold kill himself before the maid could.

The vessel already had a puppet mark on it. That’s why the body could still be reanimated as a marionette, a corpse puppet, after they die.

That meant she would have to endure the full sensory feedback of death through the link before they reanimated as a marionette.

The reason? To ensure that the maid did not kill the vessel. If Izzy was not careful, this corpse could be destroyed beyond their ability to reanimate, rendered unusable.

‘Hah.’ Izzy exhaled mentally.

Spending so long in this vessel had made her grow attached to it. But there was no choice.

Arnold would certainly die.

Steeling her resolve, she forced Arnold’s breathing to steady and returned fully to his perspective.

Arnold opened his eyes. He scanned the room once more.

“Isa, please.”

‘Oke, Izzy.’

Isa took control of the mouse. The small creature burst from its hiding spot and sprinted toward the maid.

‘Sorryy, sniff, Mr.Kaiser,’ Isa whimpered.

‘…’

It’s just a mouse… Izzy nearly facepalmed.

Izzy controlled Arnold and moved quickly to the bookshelf.

‘If I’m going to be found out, I might as well extract as much information as possible.’

He began to frantically search the room, his eyes scanning each title on the shelf, while Isa controlled the mouse to hinder the maid’s approach as much as possible.

“The Structure of the Village. Advanced Farming Methods. Preach Effectively. Persuasion of the Masses. Writing Exercises, Volume III. Household Registry. List of Outsiders…”

He listed each book title with urgency, his eyes darting from one to the next.

“Legend of the Lost Shepherd. Act Priest. The White Church’s Daily Routine. Hide a Dead Body. Sherlock Holmes? Art of Seduction. The Way of a Gentleman. Take the Hand of a Married Woman.”

‘What the hell?’

Why was this so random?

‘Don’t tell me…?’

Did Victor harbor forbidden feelings toward Maria, Mary’s mother?

‘Really?’

‘Izzy!’

‘!’

The urgency in Isa’s voice snapped him back to focus. Arnold resumed scanning.

“The Two Farms.”“Woman in White.”“King Henry’s Secret.”“The Fourth Prince.”“Vampire Path Ritual.”“ Church Catalog.”“All Blood Types—”

‘Wait a second.’ Arnold’s gaze paused.

He returned his eyes toward a slim, innocuous notebook tucked between two thick volumes on the shelf.

‘What is this?’

—

Meanwhile—

‘Stop, stop, look at me, look at me!’

“Squeak squeak!”

The little mouse darted frantically around the maid’s boots, claws scratching against the polished wooden floor. It zigzagged left and right, ran in circles around the maid, tail whipping behind it. It squeaked loudly, hoping to draw her attention to buy a few more precious seconds.

“…”

Florence Night maid gazed downward, stopping in her tracks. Her expression remained unreadable as she watched the mouse scurry in tight circles around her shoes.

“A mouse?” she murmured, brows knitting slightly. Her hands, which had been clasped neatly in front of her waist, separated at last. “A mouse in the church? What is Victor doing?”

Her voice was laced with displeasure. She raised one hand, her eyes flashing a chilling violet.

At the same instant, a shadow stretched unnaturally across the floor beneath the mouse, lengthening and thickening like ink spilling across parchment. It loomed over the small creature, casting a long, warped silhouette.

The mouse froze, its whiskers trembled. It lifted its head instinctively.

‘!’

it bolted instantly before it even knew what the approaching thing was.

But it was too late.

A viscous black-red liquid burst from the shadow and pinned it in place, spreading outward, adhering it to the floor.

‘Oh no, Kaiser, Mr.Kaiser!’

“Squeak! Squeak!” The mouse shrieked in panic, its tiny legs scrabbling uselessly against the sticky, dark substance.

Florence moved her finger slightly, and the black-red liquid followed her command.

It coiled around the mouse’s small body, wrapping tightly around its torso, limbs, and tail before lifting it off the ground. The liquid suspended it midair and carried it upward until it hovered at eye level before her.

“…”

She examined the little creature in silence.

The mouse’s body twitched within the crimson-black binding, tiny chest heaving rapidly.

Florence’s brows rose slightly.

“You stink.”

She clasped her hands together.

*Pop!*

A wet, crunching sound erupted. The red liquid clamped down on the mouse's body, and it burst apart. Flesh and bone scattered, only to hang suspended inside the crimson mass.

Isa’s connection snapped. Her vision, once fixed on Florence, was now gone.

‘Izzy! Izzy! She is coming, Izzy!’

Isa immediately returned her focus to Izzy, panic flooding their shared mind as Florence Night resumed walking toward the shrine room.

—

“What is this?”

Izzy controlled Arnold to pull out the slim notebook wedged between the larger volumes.

It was small and bound in dark purple leather, the edges decorated with ornamental patterns pressed into the cover. On the front was a dark emblem: two bat wings spread wide, framing a pair of sharp fangs.

She flipped it open.

Inside, several pages had been torn out, leaving only a small number of parchments intact.

The first intact heading read:

[“Advancement Ritual of the Vampire Stage.”]

‘Vampire?’ Izzy’s attention sharpened.

The text beneath was written carefully.

[“To advance to the Silver Sky Stage of the Vampire Path, ‘The Vampire,’ the Farer must collect 100ml of blood from 100 different individuals of all genders, distributed across each stage of age: infant, child, juvenile, midlife, senility, deathbed.

These individuals must not be ghouls, blood servants, fanatics, or blood addicts. These individuals must not be turned and must not be killed before the next moon cycle.”]

‘Silver Sky Stage?’ Izzy noted in her head. She had never heard of such a stage.

“Is it the next stage after Foundation Stage?" she guessed, and read on.

[“Five bottles of Cold Yi essence. A Purple Moonflower that blooms only during the full moon atop a high mountain. It must be harvested during rainfall. Or, it can be substituted with an ingredient from the Vampire Path.

For substitute ingredients, it is recommended to use those from the same Faction.”]

Izzy winced.

[“The Farer must bathe in the bloodbath of the collected individuals while consuming the potion to advance.”

[“Once completed, the Farer will successfully advance to the Silver Sky Stage of the Vampire Path: The Vampire.”]

There was a final note written smaller at the bottom:

[“Other fluids may substitute blood, though the success rate decreases. Missing ingredients reduce stability. Losing control is plausible.”

[“The advancement ritual does not require every step, but skipping steps will not ensure full success. Each step reduces instability during advancement.”

[“This ritual is intended for individual Vampire Path Stagefarers who wish to break free from the control of their bloodline.”]

“Vampire Path.”

This was the first time Izzy had ever heard of this Path.

‘This world has vampires?’

If Izzy followed the logic of her past life, vampires were the blood-sucking fiends. They were not common in her original world. At least in the public gaze, they did not exist.

Oftentimes, they were known in fiction books. Many forms of media had featured them: games, novels, television shows, and so on.

Still…

‘Why does Victor have this in his possession?’ Izzy’s mind raced. ‘Don’t tell me…’

Vampire. The catalog of children. Blood types.

The pieces began aligning in a pattern she did not like.

‘Izzy, Izzy, she is coming, Izzy!’

Isa’s panicked voice tore through her thoughts.

Izzy looked up in their mindscape, noticing Isa rushing toward her.

She immediately extended her Field Vision—

‘Ugh, I forgot.’

Only to realize that she couldn’t see anything else beyond the door.

This hidden room was an enclosed space with no windows. The staircase entrance was sealed. By logic, her Field Vision could not pass through solid barriers without openings.

She could not see what was happening on the other side.

‘Dammit!’

There was no time anymore.

‘Remember them, Isa!’

‘Oke!’

Izzy quickly instructed Isa to memorize the contents of the ritual notebook word for word while she controlled Arnold to search everything else in the room before they were caught.

At this point, preserving the original arrangement no longer mattered. They had already been discovered.

Using psychokinesis, Izzy yanked books and scattered notes off the shelves. Volumes flew outward, hovering midair as Isa scanned titles at frantic speed, trying to identify anything crucial.

“Village Tax Ledger”,“Monthly Offering Records”, “Confession Logs”, “Blood Type Registry—”

‘Dizz–dizzy…’ Isa’s voice wavered.

‘Isa, hang in there.’

‘Yes!’

The mental strain was exhausting. Izzy managed Psychokinesis, while Isa memorized; they divided their jobs simultaneously.

As Izzy controlled another wave of Psychokinesis, she noticed something.

‘What is this?’

There was one book that refused to budge, no matter how much force she applied through her Psychokinesis.

It sat firmly in place on the top shelf. It wasn’t particularly thick or thin. Its leather cover looked ordinary; an old brown leather, like any other book.

Controlling Arnold, she moved him to the shelf. The boy stepped onto his toes and reached upward.

“Raise Your Sheeps?”

The title was utterly nonsensical, but Izzy had a vague hunch.

She controlled him to stand on his tiptoes and, with a grunt of effort, pulled the book outward.

“Ugh.”

At the same time—

*Riiikkk… riiikkkk…*

The ground vibrated.

Behind the heavy curtain on the supposedly empty wall, stone shifted.

The wall slowly lifted upward, revealing a dim space inside.

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