Chapter 40

Vampire Princess vs Hero 3: Settlement

Translated by AmaLynne

 

The special advanced occupational class『Vengeful Demon』.

The conditions for acquiring this class are that you must kill a certain number of avenging targets.

The main effect is『Increase/Decrease in Talent』.

The stronger the resentment or hatred you have for the target of revenge, the more your talent increases. Conversely, if the resentment diminishes, the talent decreases and becomes a rather negative occupation.

 

However, I am confident that my resentment toward humans is extraordinary.

I am even proud to say that I am one of the ten best in the Demon King’s Army in this regard.

This is exactly the right occupation for me.

 

In addition, the superiority I had as a『Revenger』over the target of my revenge is reflected in the fact that I am fully compatible.

In other words, the superiority over each other, which was originally competitive even in the state of『Revenger』, has now been surpassed.

 

What about the hero, on the other hand?

All of her companions have been killed by me, and the Twelve Holy Apostles, her main source of support, are now gone.

There are no more buffs from the granting arts, no more support from priests.

All she had is her overwhelming swordsmanship and a heart that has been destroyed and turned into a merciless monster.

 

……Well, round two. Tonight, I will settle this.

 

◆◇◆◇◆

 

「Let`s get started…Hero!」

 

I was the first to break the silence.

I closed the reasonably long distance at once and unleashed a backhanded fist… But the hero avoided it with a side step and unleashed a counter iai.

I avoided it like a matr〇x and tried to do a moonsault kick, but she jumped and avoided it, then kicked a tree to gain momentum, and then she relentlessly aimed at my eyebrow with a thrust.

I backed up to avoid her, but she must have foreseen it because she lunged straight at me. I just barely managed to avoid her and stunned her with a neck strike… But I panicked, interrupted myself, and threw myself to the side. Yeah, that was impossible. If I thought about ducking just now, I would have been cut in half.

 

「Phew… You really are a monster.」

「…………」

 

I understood from the current attack and defense. This guy’s skill, but above all, her sword swinging speed is extraordinary. Her speed is completely faster than my initial speed, which should be over 80,000.

Not only a human, but even an ordinary soldier of the demon tribe would not be able to handle this speed. Probably, they will be decapitated without even being able to see where the sword is to be drawn.

As expected, she is the world’s No.1 talent. I’m not sure about the level, but if it wasn’t for the full moon today, my neck and torso would have cut off by now.

 

…If she had been able to be a normal hero and become a bum like the rest of the humans, I am sure the demon army would have suffered a great blow.

Sparing no time, they turned a brave person who was supposed to be a hope, a girl with so much talent, into a cripple…Too foolish, human beings.

 

「….I don’t know what you’ve been through, or how you chose to become a hero… But somehow, I feel that you and I are similar. I feel that hatred for humans is seeping out of your supposedly broken heart.」

「…………」

 

I wonder become a『Vengeful Demon』acquired me the ability to recognize like-minded people.

Somehow, I am convinced that the brave man has a grudge against humans, even though there is no evidence to support it.

It is as if I can hear a cry「I want revenge」coming from the heart of the hero who is supposed to be broken.

 

「That’s why. I will stop you here… I’m not sure how long it will last, and if it’s bad, the people who are worried about the hero party not coming back might send assassins. Let’s go for the quickest way.」

 

…And I activated my trump card.

 

◆◇◆◇◆

 

Three years ago.

I was given the mission to exterminate the human prisoners of war who had been abandoned by the Holy Land at the time, and for completing it, I was given a reward by the Demon King-sama.

The prize was a vessel. They are inferior copies of the Sacred Artifact and, to be honest, many of them are niche in terms of performance, but they are powerful items.

I was told that I could choose any one of them, and what jumped out at me as I struggled with the choice was a bracelet.

 

『Demon King-sama, what’s this?』

『Mm, that? That’s a Maintenance Bracelet.』.

『Maintenance Bracelet?』

「Mm-hmm. The wearer has the option of receiving the buff now or at any time.』

『Umm?』

『In other words. Suppose a status-enhancing buff is applied to you and you refuse to accept it now. The buff is then absorbed by the bracelet, and the wearer can then activate the buff at any time they wish.』

『Hee.』

『The bracelet can store buffs indefinitely, and the same buffs, which cannot be stacked, can be stacked by the bracelet.』

『Umm, so if I put on this bracelet and cast a bunch of buffs, and then reject them all… If I activate all of them, even an ordinary soldier can be as strong as an executive.』

『Theoretically. But the bracelet also has a weakness. In proportion to the number of buffs activated, their duration of use, and the power of the buffs themselves, the status of the soldier will drop and its entire body will become fatigued and sore immediately after the effect wears off. It is truly a high-risk, high-return vessel.』

 

…To be honest, after hearing about the high risk, I was a little unsure about whether to go for it or not, but I decided to choose this vessel.

Since then, the maintenance bracelet has been on my left hand like a wristwatch.

 

Why did I choose this vassal, knowing the risk?

The effect was not so much…rather, it was because they were suited for vampires. Frankly speaking, I don’t understand why the Demon King-sama didn’t wear it.

 

『It’s a vessel that absorbs all buff and can be activated at any time.』

 

In other words, it’s―――

 

◆◇◆◇◆

 

「Even the full moon’s blessings can be absorbed, right?」

 

That’s right.

On the night of the full moon, my status increases twentyfold.

But what if I absorb that power in my maintenance bracelet and activate it on another full moon?

 

The answer is 20²=400, which means that I can have 400 times the power of my status for a fraction of a second.

I would like to say that there is a limit to my inflation, but of course, this has its drawbacks.

That said, the Moon’s blessing is too powerful a buffing effect. Once, on another day, when I experienced 400x for『a minute』and then cut the maintenance bracelet… Instantly, a maddening pain hit my entire body, breaking through even the pain paralysis of a full moon night.

The pain subsided while I managed to keep my sanity, but I’ll never really forget that one.

 

After that, I endured the pain and repeated the experiment over and over again… As a result, I concluded that I could endure only『5 seconds』.

『The bracelet that gives me the power to surpass even the Demon King-sama for only five seconds every month.』

This is my overall evaluation of the maintenance bracelet.

 

And now, I activated it.

 

「Don’t worry, I’ll adjust it.」

 

―――Four seconds left.

 

「Okay, here we go.」

「…………」

 

―――Three seconds left.

 

「……Phew!」

「…………!?」

 

―――Two seconds left.

 

My fist finally surpassed the speed at which the hero drew her sword.

My fist hit her precisely in the solar plexus.

 

―――One second left.

 

I heard and felt the sound of the hero’s bones breaking… Immediately after, the hero was blown away.

Breaking through the trees, it still didn’t weaken its momentum… and about 4 kilometers away, around the central zone of the forest, it finally stopped.

 

―――0 seconds left.

 

「Maintenance bracelet deactivated… NGGGHH!」

 

The moment I deactivated it, I felt a tremendous pain all over my body…as if I had been stabbed with a thousand pieces of steel all over my body.

 

「Hah, hah, hah…… Ggggghhh…!」

 

…I clenched my teeth and endured it for a little while, and the pain receded.

Perhaps now the tension was relieved, the fine wounds inflicted by the hero began to ache.

 

Well, it was only a minor one compared to the one I just suffered.

 

◆◇◆◇◆

 

Even with my lowered status, I can reach about four kilometers in 20 seconds.

When I reached the hero, I looked down at her.

 

She was definitely unconscious. But she was not dead either. I had precisely adjusted my strength, and the effect of the hero’s high status also played a factor.

 

「Haah…haah… Really, I did well myself, I…!」

 

The hero is alive, but she should not be able to move properly even if she were to wake up, because the fracture of her whole body should be pretty bad.

Well, I’m also rather full of wounds from the pain from earlier, the place I was cut, and various other things.

 

There is a limit to how much I can recover with《Intermediate Healing》, and above all, my current status is significantly lowered due to the backlash from the Maintenance Bracelet. Moreover, I was in a hurry earlier so I didn’t notice it, but somehow it takes a lot of power to heal the cut spot.

Maybe it’s a special effect of being a hero, or maybe it’s a characteristic of the sword.

 

At any rate… I have succeeded in one of my long-cherished dreams: to stop the hero.

 

AN: Thank you for sticking with me for today’s one-day and four updates.
I thought it would be weird to do the battle with the heroes separately, so I stepped in to update four times a day this time…
To be frank, I’ve run out of writing stock with this one (laughs).
But don’t worry, I’ll keep up the pace of updating once a day at 3:00 p.m.! Thank you for your support!
Your ratings, reviews, and comments are really encouraging!

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