NAPE - 103

Side Story 14

So... the hounds here are literally the trainer’s hounds. But the ones standing at the entrance must be separate vampires, monitoring and controlling them. Who is their ultimate master?

The questions grew. Bibi firmly decided to find out for herself and followed the leader hound into the building.

The building was another factory. The interior was much larger and more chaotic than it appeared from the outside. In an area the size of a school gymnasium, about 100 hounds were scattered, each doing their own work.

On one side, they were extracting juice from flower bud-shaped fruits, while on another, they were stuffing white medicine packets into the bellies of fish.

What caught her eye most was the office in the back. Relatively neatly dressed vampires hurried back and forth with busy steps. They seemed to be the managers of this factory.

The leader hound offered her a raincoat. Was he telling her to wear it? Why should she? No one else was wearing one... Bibi tilted her head in confusion. He made a frustrated expression and opened his mouth, making a sound.

“Woo, woo, ooh-woo.”

It wasn’t a hound’s howl, but closer to a mumble. A blunt tongue was visible in his open mouth. It looked as if it had been cut.

“It means to wear it because you’ll stand out.”

Someone whispered, barely audible. Startled by the unexpected Korean, Bibi looked around, then lowered her gaze, realizing the voice came from surprisingly low down.

A curly-haired boy, whose arrival she hadn’t noticed, was looking up at Bibi. Newly grown fangs were visible in his open mouth. It was the first time she had seen such a young vampire, and her eyes widened.

“You are...”

“Shh. If you get caught talking, your tongue will be cut off.”

The boy raised his index finger and glanced around.

“It’s almost mealtime. Come over there, to that side. The overturned table. I’ll explain about this place there.”

Before she could ask anything more, the boy ran towards a large pit, where a pile of fish guts was heaped. She wanted to follow, but she heard the shouts of a whip-wielding manager and backed away. First, she pulled on the raincoat and followed the leader hound.

The concrete floor was piled high with fish, and the hounds sat around, gutting the fish with rusty knives. Bibi, catching on, picked up a plastic knife from the floor and joined the work.

When mealtime came, a manager brought a pot of cheap iron supplements and rice. The vampires dropped what they were doing and swarmed forward like flies. Taking advantage of the commotion, Bibi quickly headed to the very back of the factory, to a trench-like empty space made of overturned tables. The boy who could speak Korean was waiting for Bibi there.

“Judging by your appearance, you seem to have adapted better than expected. My name is Lau Yuan.”

Bibi’s raincoat was already covered in fish blood, fins, and scales.

“I’m Bibi. What is this place?”

When she asked with innocent eyes, Lau Yuan gave an incredulous chuckle.

“Can’t you tell by looking? It’s a factory. If you want to keep your limbs intact, you must follow the rules I tell you. Here, we are hounds. Hounds can’t speak, and they must obey the manager’s orders unconditionally. If you hunt a human, you must never eat it without permission. If an unexpected accident occurs, you must protect the manager. If you break the rules, you’ll be shot. Do you understand?”

“...Yes.”

Bibi felt her blood run cold. The rules... they were all similar to what her trainer had made her memorize. She had barely dared to hope, but this factory was indeed his. Now that Claireval was gone, she absolutely had to find out who was managing this place.

“The main job for newcomers is to follow the rules, gut fish, and put drugs inside them. Don’t even think about running away for no reason. This is an island, so you can’t escape.”

So it is an island.

“But why are you helping me?”

“...Just because. I was afraid you might end up like my mom.”

“Your mom? What happened to your mom?”

“She resisted the manager, got severely beaten, and was dragged away somewhere. And she still hasn’t returned.”

Bibi saw the boy’s face filled with sadness. A strange lump formed in a corner of her heart. She asked him how he knew how to speak Korean and how he knew she could speak Korean.

Lau Yuan said he was born to a vampire mother and a human father. Unlike his mother, who was born in the Philippines, his father was Korean.

His father, a businessman, returned to his home country when his mother gave birth to Lau Yuan. And he visited every summer until the boy turned ten. Thanks to that, he was able to learn Korean and the Korean alphabet. He spoke to Bibi in Korean because he saw Korean writing on the hem of her pants and took a chance.

“How did the others end up here?”

“Most of them were probably tricked into coming here with promises of employment. My mom and I were dragged here two months ago, too.”

“How were you dragged here?”

“It started about a year ago when my dad got married and completely lost contact. My mom and I came to Thailand because we needed food and money to buy iron supplements. A vampire broker offered to help us find jobs. But we were tricked and ended up like this. I was going to escape... but I immediately gave up.”

Lau Yuan quietly pointed across the table to a manager standing far away. Receiving envious glances from those parched with thirst, the manager was greedily chugging a blood pack, with a gun tucked into his waistband.

“If you get directly hit by a bullet, you’ll turn to ashes. You can’t move an inch in front of them.”

So they’re loaded with silver bullets. Where did they get them? Can they make them themselves... like the trainer did?

“And even if you manage to leave this factory by some luck, it’s useless. Hounds patrol regularly. They’re incredibly thorough. If someone escapes, we’re all punished for not watching them properly, not the one who escaped.”

Bibi could guess why the leader had brought her in. Perhaps he had lost one of his patrolling hounds. And when he encountered Bibi, who didn’t flee or resist, he simply brought her in to fill the empty spot as if nothing had happened.

“Do the managers stay here all the time?”

“No. They don’t run boats at night. Only the minimum security personnel remain, and the rest go to their living quarters to sleep. On the second floor of this building.”

There’s a second floor? I’d like to check out the office to find the factory owner. Should I try it with this boy as a lookout? If I catch and interrogate one of the managers... I could dig up some useful information. Bibi hated silver bullets terribly, but her regenerative ability was formidable, so there was no risk of annihilation.

“...I’ll have to wait until night.”

When only the security personnel are left, when there are at least fewer eyes watching, she’ll make her move. She also needs to find a place to charge her phone.

“Night? It’s even more hellish then.”

Mealtime ended. Lau Yuan stood up with a dejected expression. His back, belonging to an eleven-year-old, was so thin and small.

Around the time the strong smell of fish permeated her entire body, the factory lights finally went out. The hounds, or rather, vampire slaves, brought plastic sheets from the corner, spread them on the damp floor, and went to sleep. Everyone had had a tough day, so they fell asleep as if collapsing.

Vampires are creatures of the night. Normally, they would be most active at this time, but due to the strenuous labor and being forced to adapt to human living patterns, they seemed to have no choice but to sleep. Bibi, pretending to sleep in the corner, nudged Lau Yuan, who was lying beside her. He opened his eyes as if he had been waiting.

“I’m going into the office.”

At Bibi’s words, Lau Yuan looked very uneasy. He fearfully stared at the guards at the entrance.

“It’s okay. I’m strong. Very strong.”

“...You are?”

“Yes!”

Lau Yuan thoroughly scrutinized Bibi with skeptical eyes. Her small build aside, she looked naive... what was she going to do?

“Quick, quick. Keep watch for me.”

“Ha... I have a bad feeling about this.”

As Bibi crawled and moved, the boy followed her with a deep sigh. During the day, Bibi had carefully observed the number of guards and their main surveillance points. This building, with no windows, had limited escape routes, but it also had limited surveillance areas, resulting in many blind spots.

Bibi pretended to go to the restroom near the building entrance, then hid behind a pillar, using scattered boxes as cover. That’s how she gradually moved towards the office.

The office was located at the very end of the factory, with a corridor that turned once before leading to the entrance. Two guard vampires, armed with rifles, guarded the corridor.

They were drinking lukewarm beer and watching a drama on their phones. It felt more like they were passing the time with intimidating weapons rather than actively guarding.

“Lau Yuan, keep watch.”

“...Are you really going in there?”

“Yes. If anyone comes, cough four times. One, two, three, four, at four.”

“I know how to count, you know?”

Bibi tied her hair back tightly, looked around, climbed the wall like a lizard, and crawled all the way up to the ceiling. The old factory ceiling was high, with many cracks and protruding rebar and pipes, making it easy to find footholds and handholds. Bibi was able to easily enter the office corridor like an assassin.