Chapter 14 - True Progenitor
Translator: Roshi
"Hic, hwaaaaaah!!"
What in the world was going on?
A young girl had suddenly burst out of the Gate.
Then she broke a glass bottle and was crying as if the world had ended.
Whatever had been inside the bottle must have been incredibly important.
It had already fallen to the ground, spreading and spilling everywhere in a total mess.
The bright red liquid was splattered so wide that anyone passing by would have thought someone had been killed.
"Hwaaaaaah... mmph!"
But the girl, who had been sobbing her heart out, suddenly clutched at her chest.
A pained expression, as if she were fighting through agony.
"Ah, ah... no. I have to drink it... I have to pick it up..."
The girl strode toward the glass bottle that had fallen on the ground.
She reached her hand toward the clumped red something sitting among the broken glass shards in the middle.
"W-wait!"
I snapped to my senses and hurriedly stopped her.
"Hey, kid, I don't know what's going on, but the glass is broken! You can't just go grabbing at it like that!"
She could cut her hands!
It was practically an instinctive outcry, born from years of being an older brother who'd looked after a sister ten years younger than him since childhood.
'I have no idea why a girl came flying out of a Gate, but...'
One thing was certain: that child was not a Monster that had invaded our Dimension.
If she were, she would have attacked me the moment she arrived.
Setting aside her appearance, she was no different from any ordinary little girl you might see around the neighborhood.
But as I approached.
"What? Who are you?"
The girl's eyes turned sharp as she glared at me.
But I seized the moment she'd paused to speak up quickly.
"Kid, it's dangerous to go grabbing at broken glass like that. I don't know what's going on, but if you explain the situation, I'll help with whatever I can..."
"D-don't come any closer!"
The girl seemed a bit frightened, glaring at me even harder.
[The effect of Absolute Shield (S) has nullified the mental attack.]
Huh? A mental attack?
I'd figured she wasn't an ordinary girl since she came out of a Gate, but.
She could do something like that too?
But while I was thinking that, the girl's complexion worsened further.
"Wh-what? It's not working at all?"
As I got a little closer, information about the girl appeared.
[Veloche Bloodline Clan Vampire (True Progenitor)]
A vampire...?
This girl?
And if she was a True Progenitor, then wasn't that, well, I didn't know much about it, but wasn't that a pretty important existence among vampires?
"I told you not to come closer! Come any further and I'll kill you!"
The girl snarled, but.
I had no choice but to keep approaching.
Because.
Ding!
[This is a treatable subject.]
[A large amount of EXP can be obtained.]
That message had appeared before my eyes.
'No wonder she's been looking like she was in pain this whole time.'
She had been clutching her chest with an agonized expression.
And considering she'd said things like "I have to drink it," that stuff must have been some kind of medicine.
Factoring in that she was a vampire, it was probably actually blood.
Let's not think too hard about that one...
Anyway.
"Kid, I'll make it so it doesn't hurt, so just stay still for a moment. It'll be over quick."
"I told you I'd kill you if you came closer!"
The girl instantly extended something red from her fingertips, like claws.
Kkiing!! Master!
Cer saw that and tried to lunge at her, but.
"And what are you?"
Kkiing?!
The moment the girl glared at him, he froze in place as if rooted to the spot, unable to move.
Was that the same mental attack she'd tried to use on me earlier?
"I warned you too! Don't blame me when you're dead!"
"Hmm, you probably can't kill me, though?"
This shield had blocked even a dragon's attack, after all.
Alright. Just a little closer and...
"Take this!"
Clang!
"Huh?"
[Absolute Shield (S) has been automatically activated.]
[Durability has decreased by 50.]
[Durability remaining: (450/500).]
"Huh?"
The girl and I were both surprised at the same time.
Wait, the Durability drops by 50 from a single claw swipe?
'Did I put too much faith in the shield?'
Maybe it was because I'd gotten into the habit of always letting patients resist like that, then grabbing and treating them once the shield activated.
I'd been planning to do the same thing this time, but.
'...Should I just try talking instead?'
There was still plenty of Durability left, but having a chunk shaved off for the first time triggered my cowardly instincts.
Yeah. I'd been way too bold this whole time.
Time to resolve this through conversation, like a civilized person.
"Y-you... what exactly are you?"
Fortunately, the girl seemed to have lost some of her fighting spirit after seeing her attack do absolutely nothing.
"Ugh...!"
On top of that, using that power just now seemed to have made her suffering worse.
"That's what I'm trying to tell you. I came here to treat you."
"Treat...? 'I'll make it stop hurting soon,' you said? That's exactly what the ones who invaded us used to say!"
Well, sure, villains did tend to say things like "hehehe, I'll make this quick and painless."
But did I really have a villain's face? Tch.
"No. It looks like you couldn't take your medicine, so I'll cure your symptoms."
"Don't lie! The only thing that can fix this is pure, concentrated blood!"
"I don't think so?"
At the very least, the Status Window had said "This is a treatable subject," so there was no way it couldn't be treated.
"Your medicine's already spilled anyway, so just give it a shot. What have you got to lose?"
Thankfully, she didn't seem to be resisting any further, so I gently placed my hand on the girl's head.
"Restoration."
Flash!
Whoooosh!
A cluster of light flowed in through the girl's head and spread throughout her entire body.
Swoosh!
The light definitely lingered longer than it had before.
And soon, when the light faded.
Ding!
[EXP has increased by 9,210!]
[A large amount of EXP has been obtained.]
[Skill level has increased!]
[Restoration (EX): Lv.3 → Lv.4]
Ooh!
The EXP went up by nine thousand.
The EXP I'd gained when I healed an injured Cer had been around three thousand.
This was a whopping three times that amount.
'On top of that, the level-up I had no idea when would happen just happened right away.'
While I was marveling at that enormous amount of EXP.
The notifications didn't end there.
Ding!
[Achievement Unlocked: You have cured a True Progenitor vampire's 'Bloodlust' condition.]
[A large amount of additional EXP will be awarded!]
[10,000 EXP has been obtained.]
[Skill level has increased!]
[Restoration (EX): Lv.4 → Lv.5]
Wow.
What was this now? An Achievement?
'It's giving me 10,000 more EXP?'
Reading through it, it seemed that the True Progenitor vampire's condition called "Bloodlust" was what had been causing the pain.
Since I'd cured a condition that could only be treated with pure, concentrated blood.
It made sense that a corresponding Achievement had been unlocked.
'I had no idea something like this existed.'
Ding!!
And it still wasn't over!
[Skill level 5 of Restoration (EX) has been achieved. An additional trait will be unlocked.]
[Recharge: Depleted organs can be restored.]
When you obtained a growth-type skill, there were bonus traits that you might or might not unlock at certain level milestones.
And I'd gotten one the moment I hit level 5.
'I wasn't sure it would actually work, but it really did.'
This meant that now, if Cer used up all his fire breath, I could use the Recharge trait to restore it so he could breathe fire again, right?
'And all of this was a reward from treating one little kid.'
Hehe, and here I'd just wanted to help out of the goodness of my heart.
As they say, good deeds bring good fortune!
...For real.
It was true that the notification about a large amount of EXP had tempted me a little.
But the sight of that child bawling her eyes out earlier was enough to make anyone want to help.
In any case.
"It doesn't hurt anymore, right?"
I looked down at the girl with an immensely satisfied smile.
"Huh...? Huh?"
The girl stared at her own hands with disbelieving eyes.
Then she patted herself down, checking all over her body.
"It doesn't... hurt at all."
"Of course not. You're completely cured."
The child who had been wearing an expression of terrible agony just moments ago now stared up at me with wide, clear eyes.
The hostility that had filled her gaze was gone without a trace.
'That's right, that's right. Go ahead and say thank you.'
Getting thanked after treating someone was the most rewarding part.
But then.
Sniffle.
"?"
Tears welled up in the girl's eyes once again.
"Hwaaaaaaaaah!!!"
*
Fortunately, the child's crying was tears of relief.
And no wonder. She'd broken her medicine bottle, and the pain had left her not knowing what to do.
Then she'd been cured without even needing the medicine.
Of course she'd be relieved.
I brought the girl inside the Animal Hospital, sat her down, and let her calm down.
"What's your name?"
"Serintia du Lanortas Veloche."
"Uh..."
"People call me Serintia."
The girl had become remarkably docile.
"Alright, Serintia. Can you explain what happened?"
"Yeah."
Serintia told me her story.
She'd been living in a faraway Dimension with her Bloodline Clan.
As a True Progenitor with immense power, she had been protecting them.
But the problem was the True Progenitor's constitution, which required her to consume blood.
And the fact that Serintia absolutely despised drinking it.
'So that's why she kept refusing to drink it until she got sick.'
I had been wondering about that already.
If she was a vampire, she would normally be drinking blood regularly, so why was she in pain?
"But today, a glass bottle suddenly fell and while I was trying to catch it, a Dimensional Portal suddenly opened and I got sucked right in. And when I came out, I was here."
"I see. That must have been scary."
"Yeah. But why do you keep patting my head? I'm the True Progenitor who protects my Bloodline Clan! My butler told me I need to maintain my dignity."
"Oh yeah?"
But the moment I actually took my hand away.
"......!"
She glanced up at me with a look of unmistakable longing.
A smile crept across my lips.
'I see how it is.'
Then how about I give her a little excuse.
"But you know, this isn't your Dimension, and there's no Bloodline Clan here, right? So there's no need to maintain your dignity, is there?"
At that, Serintia's expression brightened slightly.
"I-is that so?"
I nodded.
"Yep. And when you get patted like this and it makes you feel comfortable, something called endorphins gets released, and it actually helps with pain? Makes you feel better too."
"Really? There's something like that?"
"Yeah. It's a perfectly natural phenomenon."
"Hmm... then okay. You can pat my head as much as you want."
As I stroked her head, Serintia's expression softened.
She seemed to like it.
'From the looks of it, she's got a good heart.'
She had attacked me earlier, sure.
But before that, Serintia had warned me repeatedly that she would attack if I came closer.
She'd even tried to stop me with a mental attack first.
If she hadn't, she would have just drawn her claws and attacked without warning.
Her irritable attitude made sense too.
She'd been in pain.
Even my angel of a sister Yun-a used to get snappy sometimes when she was sick.
And then she'd come apologize later, saying, "I'm sorry about earlier, oppa."
"But it's really amazing. I can't believe I got better without drinking blood!"
More than anything, Serintia seemed overjoyed by the fact that she didn't have to drink blood.
"I got better without drinking that thick, slimy, fishy, disgusting stuff... hehe."
She was even laughing now.
To all appearances, she was nothing but an innocent, carefree child.
"You're cute when you smile."
"C-cute? I can't be cute!"
"Why, because you have to maintain your dignity?"
"Uh, y-yeah... that's right."
"But didn't I just say you don't need to maintain your dignity here? So it's okay to be cute."
"Hmm..."
She'd been getting talked into things this whole time and her face said she knew it but couldn't quite argue back.
I quickly went in for the finish.
"Here, you must be hungry. Want to eat this?"
What I held out was a piece of chocolate.
"What's that?"
"It's sweet. You just unwrap it like this and eat it."
I unwrapped an individually packaged chocolate and handed it to Serintia.
Serintia stared at it curiously, then carefully put it in her mouth.
"I-it's delicious...!!"
"You like it?"
"How can something taste this sweet?"
"Hehe. Want another one?"
"Yeah!"
I'd been a bit worried that, being a vampire, regular human food might not suit her palate.
Thankfully, she seemed to love the chocolate.
"Let's see."
I was reaching into the drawer I always kept stocked for a quick sugar boost, about to unwrap another chocolate, when.
A man's scream came from outside.
"N-no!! Blood! Shin-hu-nim!!"
"......?"
I opened the door and went outside to find Kim Jun-o collapsed in front of the pool of blood on the ground, wailing.
It seemed like an explanation was going to be necessary.
*****
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