NAPE - 68

What should I do? Disposing of them isn’t difficult, but the location is the problem. There are too many; I’ll be overrun before I can deal with them all. I don’t want these filthy, disgusting beasts touching the hem of my coat. The corridor is narrow... and I haven’t yet found a wide space in this mansion. In that case...

“Kkuaaak!”

To avoid the swarming hunting dogs, Doyoon immediately sprinted to the end of the corridor. The hunting dogs tumbled over each other, chasing him like a flood. Reaching the stairs, Doyoon leaped up two or three steps at a time.

“This should be enough.”

The fighting method that prevents the enemy from gaining distance in a narrow space is to preoccupy the high ground. Doyoon stood in the middle of the staircase connecting to the third floor, pulled out his gun, and indiscriminately fired at the wave of hunting dogs charging towards him.

“Kyaaak!”

“Kyack!”

With screams, the hunting dogs began to fall one by one to the floor. Doyoon fired without batting an eye. His displeasure grew. After all, even mongrel vampires were living beings. Far from respecting them, he sensed the ideology of someone who didn’t care about using them as expendable tools. Bibi must have been treated as a tool like this too.

Of course, he knew that the miserable feelings he was experiencing now were a contradiction. He was also a kind of person who stained his hands with blood. Doyoon too had unintentionally killed quite a few lives. But... at least there was never such a thoroughly malicious enemy. He never kneaded life like clay.

Doyoon found himself wanting to meet the trainer as soon as possible. So much so that he couldn’t wait any longer. When he met the bastard, he planned to return several tens of times what Bibi had suffered. Ah, before that, he would need to have a serious conversation.

Bang!

There was no time to change the magazine. Doyoon discarded the empty pistol and pulled out another gun, firing repeatedly. Before long, the area below the stairs was piled high with calcifying mongrels, like a laundry heap. After finally dealing with the last charging one, Doyoon sighed and grabbed the railing.

“Ah, out of ammo...”

Running out of weapons already? A bit early. Should he turn back? No, no. The planning stage was over anyway. He couldn’t delay the timing any longer. Now was the time to see the effect of the breadcrumbs he had laid out.

If his prediction was correct, the trainer definitely knew that Bibi was a descendant of the Servant family and all her other background information. He absolutely had to silence him as quickly as possible to alleviate Bibi’s anxiety.

Doyoon hardened his resolve and continued up the stairs. The third floor seemed to hold nothing special. After a quick glance, Doyoon cautiously took off his coat, carefully placed it in a room located in the center of the building, and continued towards the top floor.

Just as he reached the fourth floor, he covered his nose due to a terrible stench. What was the source of this disgusting smell? He pulled out a cigarette, lit it, and slowly surveyed the fourth floor. He noticed a giant figure hanging on the wall at the end of the corridor and carefully scanned it from top to bottom.

Unlike the lower floors, the wallpaper here was excessively clean, and the long inverted cross, reaching the ceiling, was impressive. A decaying corpse wearing a crow mask hung on the inverted cross, its belly bloated black from gas, a terribly repulsive sight.

“What a welcome.”

It was a good thing he hadn’t brought Bibi. Doyoon, his appetite gone, flicked the half-smoked cigarette with his index finger.

Creak. A rusty metallic sound echoed loudly in the quiet corridor. All the doors on the fourth floor were opening. Hunting dogs with crushed faces crawled out, revealing themselves. Their abnormally developed muscles suggested that these ones were specialized for combat.

Doyoon habitually reached for his gun, then stopped. All his silver bullets had been used up on the second floor just now. Were those guys prepared to disarm him?

He threw down the gun and pulled out a knife from his pocket. It was a silver knife specially made to kill vampires. It would be quite troublesome, but he had no choice. He would just have to slice them up one by one.

“Where is Bibi?” one of the hunting dogs asked in a raspy voice.

“And where is your master that the hospitality is so pathetic?”

The sound of rustling footsteps came from behind Doyoon. Without turning around, he knew he was surrounded in the middle of the enemy camp. He gripped the knife handle tighter. First, he’d slice the neck of the closest one. To prevent those filthy vocal cords from calling Bibi’s name.

Bang.

A bullet grazed Doyoon’s forearm as he prepared for combat. Looking ahead with slightly startled eyes, he saw that some of the hunting dogs crawling on the floor were holding hunter’s guns.

“We have silver bullets too.” The hunting dog with the gun grinned cunningly with its horribly torn mouth. “Unarmed, no allies. What a foolish hunter. Even if you hadn’t brought her here, it doesn’t matter. We’ll go get her.”

Bang!

Again, a gunshot rang out, and a bullet flew into Doyoon’s chest. His body, struck directly, swayed like a flag, then fell heavily down the stairs. Doyoon, hitting his back on the floor, frowned, feeling a dull pain rising from his ribs.

A sense of defeat swept through his entire body.

- Emergency, emergency!

The moment the bio-detector broke and screamed a warning signal, Doyoon saw a wave of hunting dogs cascading down on him like a landslide. Ah, it would be better to close his eyes.

________________________________________

Beep!

A sharp noise echoed within the reception room. Namwon, who had been reviewing records on the sofa, rushed to Bibi with a startled expression.

“What? What did you touch?”

“I didn’t touch anything.”

A startled Bibi handed the laptop to Namwon. Namwon and River turned pale when they saw the bimetal drawing a straight line. Confirming there was nothing wrong with the laptop, their expressions became even more serious.

“Why? What is it? What’s wrong?” Bibi, becoming impatient, got down to the floor, grabbed both of them, and urgently asked.

“Y-Young Master’s vital signs have stopped.”

“What does that mean?”

“After a major impact... uh, it says his heart stopped after severe bleeding.”

Silence filled the room. Bibi blinked, looking at River. So what? If his heart stopped after severe bleeding... what did that mean for a vampire? Death?

But vampires don’t die. No, no. Hadn’t she just received Jack’s corpse the other day? If it was the trainer... perhaps he could kill Doyoon.

“Th-this wasn’t part of the plan? This has never happened... Wait, I’ll make a call. What...? Ah, damn it, Kwon Doyoon, why aren’t you answering!”

As the other party didn’t answer the phone, Namwon became even more flustered. Bibi felt like throwing up. She had considered the possibility of Doyoon getting hurt, but she had never imagined anything equivalent to death or annihilation would occur. What to do, what should she do?

“Ah, I got a call...” In the suffocating silence, River pulled out his phone from his pocket. Was it from Doyoon, perhaps? She looked at his phone screen with anticipation, but the caller was Isabel, not Doyoon.

“Hello. Ah, yes. Master, what’s wrong...? What? An attack? You mean a group of mongrel vampires broke into the mansion?”

Surprise appeared on River’s face. Hearing the contents, Namwon and Bibi flinched. An attack on the Tudor family? The only person who could openly do such a thing to the Executioner’s family was...

“They had silver bullets...? Ah, yes. We are safe. The bastards probably didn’t notice us here. However... the Young Master... Hello?”

The call suddenly disconnected, and River stared blankly at the screen. His expression was serious.

“What’s wrong? Are they okay? Are Isabel and Richard okay?”

While Doyoon’s safety was unconfirmed, Bibi also worried that something might have happened to his parents. Cold sweat trickled down her spine.

“About an hour ago, an immense number of mongrel vampires attacked the mansion. They weren’t threatening, but it took time to deal with them because there were so many...” River stammered, explaining the call’s contents.

“Anyway, they’re both safe, right?”

“Yes. But, um... they introduced themselves as hunting dogs... and said they were looking for... Bibi-nim, the descendant of the Servant family.”

“What?”

“That’s impossible, isn’t it? Bibi-nim, the Servant family...”

Bibi was greatly flustered. The Tudor family being attacked because of her, and the fact that she was a descendant of the Servant family being revealed, were completely unexpected.

“It’ll b-be okay. Even though Senior sets things in motion haphazardly, later on, you’ll see it all connects. This might be part of his plan too.”

“Do you really think so?” Bibi quietly asked back, watching Namwon speak vaguely and optimistically. He couldn’t answer. Namwon, too, was experiencing this situation for the first time and was so overwhelmed by bewilderment that he couldn’t make any hasty judgments. The important thing was that this was no time to dither.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

As the three fidgeted nervously, a loud siren blared inside the reception room.