NAPE - 109

Side Story 20

Splash!

Brackish seawater poured over her head. Bibi, who had been unconscious for a moment, gasped for air like someone drowning and snapped her eyes open.

Perhaps it was due to blood loss. It took a while for her blurry vision to properly focus. Bibi confirmed she was tightly bound to a chair with ropes and quickly surveyed the dimly blue-lit room.

Where... am I?

Her head instinctively tilted. Large iron cages, tightly spaced like cargo containers on a ship, lined the room. Inside them were extremely gaunt, pale human figures, motionless as if dead. Some had very abnormal bodies. Like the monstrous hounds the trainer used to command.

As numerous questions arose, Bibi simultaneously scanned her surroundings. Had she been moved somewhere else while unconscious? Judging by the floor material and the exposed drainage pipes on the ceiling, it still seemed to be inside the factory. The stench of fish and rotting organs was proof.

“Are you awake?”

Someone walked in front of Bibi and spoke in English. It was a man in a Hawaiian shirt. His slightly tanned skin and unruly eyes reminded her of a reckless casino patron. This was the vampire who had visited earlier, escorted by the managers. She was greatly relieved that it wasn’t Lord Schauer.

“Are you the factory owner?”

At Bibi’s question, the man smirked vilely.

“I am merely the general manager. The Master sent me.”

“...Where is the owner?”

“That’s not for you to wonder about. What’s important is how I’m going to ‘cook’ you now.”

The man who introduced himself as the general manager greedily scanned Bibi’s exposed upper body. He smacked his lips, like someone with a delicacy before him.

“Cook? Are you going to put me in one of those cages?”

“Ah. Do you want to be a test subject?”

The general manager chuckled.

“Becoming a test subject will be a later matter. First, I intend to savor a taste. The scent of your blood... it’s remarkably good. I barely stopped the others from tearing you apart. If you behave, I’ll use you as my personal blood bag. How about it?”

“No.”

Bibi revealed her hostility.

“I love that attitude. There’s a thrill to it. More importantly, where are you from? The managers say you suddenly appeared today. Unlike the other hounds, you don’t seem scared at all. And if I look closely, your complexion is quite unusual. Are you really a hybrid?”

“None of your business.”

Bibi imagined taking the general manager hostage and escaping.

“You’re not going to be easily submissive, are you? Hey, bring him over!”

The general manager shouted, looking towards the stairs. A manager then dragged what looked like a lump and threw it in front of them. At first glance, it looked like a wild animal. Bibi’s eyes froze in shock as she looked closer. Her heart sank heavily, and her stomach churned.

It wasn’t a wild animal; it was the leader hound.

Ah, so he was caught while fighting after all...

“Deal with the big one first.”

At the general manager’s instruction, a vampire in a lab coat nodded and pulled out a syringe. He immediately plunged the needle into the leader hound’s shoulder.

“What are you doing!?”

“Just watch. I’ll show you a rare spectacle.”

The leader hound, injected with the unknown drug, appeared calm for a moment. But soon after, his eyes snapped open, and he began to groan, clutching his stomach.

The general manager and his subordinates cackled, as if watching an amusing show. That someone’s pain could be another’s amusement. Bibi absolutely could not stand by and watch this. She twisted her wrists, trying to break the ropes. If only she could put proper strength into her shoulder...!

“Ugh, ugh-ohh!”

The leader hound’s writhing became even more violent. He howled as if an unseen fire had engulfed him, as if he could no longer bear it. The malicious laughter grew louder. Bibi gritted her teeth and focused her strength on her arms and legs, pulling them apart. With a tearing sound, the old ropes snapped apart.

“W-what?”

Pushing past the startled general manager and vampires, Bibi quickly rushed to the leader hound. She pinned down his convulsing upper body, lifted his injected arm upside down, and tightly bound it with rope remnants to prevent the drug from spreading further.

“It’s useless. That’s a drug that kills vampires. It’s already spread throughout his entire body.”

Ignoring the taunts behind her, Bibi drew blood from her thumb and brought it close to the trembling vampire’s lips. She was a vampire with excellent regenerative abilities. Her renown was such that she was considered near-immortal. Surely, any vampire drinking this blood would gain even stronger regenerative powers. Even if facing death!

But now, the drug spread faster than the blood drops flowed. The moment the liquid, dripping from her finger, touched his lips, the leader hound writhed violently, as if reaching the peak of his agony.

That was the end. He never moved again. His limbs twisted in pain, he died instantly.

Bibi couldn’t breathe. She stared at the corpse in a daze. Ah... It was a short time, but still... I felt sorry for him. I wanted to save him if I ever got out of here.

Bang!

The general manager, who had been laughing behind her, shot the leader hound in the head. Not even a corpse remained; black ashes scattered meaninglessly.

“See, you don’t want to end up like that, do you? That drug is really potent. If consistently concentrated over a long period, it has enough lethality to kill even a pureblood vampire.”

There was no time to mourn the dead. The general manager pointed the gun at Bibi’s head. Bibi gritted her teeth and glared at him with bloodshot eyes. Disillusionment and hatred boiled within her. She hadn’t expected to feel such emotions again. To think there was a vampire more repulsive than the trainer.

“...Finally, you’re showing me the expression I want. Ah, truly beautiful. I’ll take you aside and cherish you. Once you become a bit more submissive, that is.”

He stroked Bibi’s collarbone with the gun barrel and tilted his face as if to kiss her. Bibi gathered saliva in her mouth and phut, spat it out. The other man laughed without hesitation, as if even that pleased him.

“You, you’re really cute... Hmm? What?”

The general manager tilted his head slightly, puzzled, seeing the wound on Bibi’s thumb heal instantly.

“Why is the speed so fast?”

He then scanned Bibi’s shoulder and side.

“Didn’t this woman get hit by a silver bullet earlier today? And grazed on her side and arm? But... there are no wounds? Her shoulder has healed.”

At his words, the vampires murmured, saying this was the first time they had seen such a case. The general manager’s expression changed, becoming grim. He stared at Bibi with horrified eyes.

“C-could it be... You, you’re... a pureblood?”

“...What does that matter?”

“It matters... Ugh!”

Bibi instantly grabbed the arm that had been aimed at her head and twisted it once. He fell to the floor, and the gun spun in the air.

“You’re going to die anyway. Because I’m going to kill you.”

Bibi crushed the general manager’s back, snatched the gun floating in the air, and aimed it at the back of his head. It had happened so quickly and instantly. The other vampires were left dumbfounded, mouths agape, unable to even think of counterattacking.

They had never seen a pureblood vampire in their entire lives. Purebloods were beings of the heavens. Beings more noble and powerful than royalty. They were convinced that the day they would face such a being would never come. But this woman, covered in grime and barely clothed, was a pureblood? It was utterly unbelievable.

“Aargh!”

Bibi completely dislocated the general manager’s arm. He thrashed his legs, struggling to break free. But Bibi overpowered him with sheer strength. Like a lion facing a hyena.

Ah, if only I had broken free from the ropes a little faster, if only my shoulder had been fine, I could have saved the leader hound...

“I will have my revenge.”

Bibi, who had squeezed her eyes shut, placed her hand on the trigger. She had no intention of letting this bastard live. She didn’t even want to converse with him any longer.

“Don’t shoot! I’ll give you what you want...!”

In a situation that had reversed in an instant, the general manager groveled, pitifully begging for his life.

“Then, tell me about the factory owner.”

“The Master? I don’t know the details. I only receive instructions via text message every month... Ah! Three years ago, I briefly caught a glimpse of him from afar. He had grey eyes... a tall, blond man. He was a vampire. He had a hissing voice.”

Tall, blond, grey eyes, a hissing voice... it matched Claireval’s description. The man who had claimed to be Bibi’s master, the trainer. He was indeed the owner of this place! Her heart pounded as if she had encountered a ghost. Bibi desperately tried to stop her hands from trembling.

“Alright. Now die.”

“J-just a moment! There’s more! There is more! Uh, um... there’s something strange. Recently, the Master checked inside the factory via video call. And his face briefly appeared on the other screen. It looked a little different. He had slight wrinkles... like he looked middle-aged. Like a human.”

“...Middle-aged? Like a human?”

“Yes. That’s why I was puzzled. But well... for me, it was more important to just keep doing my job and have fun, so I didn’t really pay attention.”

Sitting on top of the general manager, Bibi fell into deep thought.