343 The Traitor
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Julia’s eyes lost their light, as she felt filled with despair. As she looked into the city, she found utter chaos. Several buildings were on flames, and several civilians had suddenly turned into weird ghoulish creatures, attacking those that had yet to convert. Adventurers were fighting for their lives and to protect the innocents, while powerless people was running away or hiding. Julia hit the barrier several times, crying desperately while trying to get out. Her Mana was being fully drained away, and she felt weakened, falling to her knees.
Agatha and the other Vampires simply stared at her while they laughed. Although many of their kin died in the battle, they were relaxed and as if nothing had happened. Vampires held little regards to their own kin, their deaths were of no problem to them, those that lived got to see this sight after all…
“How… Why?!” Asked Julia in shock, as she looked at the masked woman.
“Fufu… You want to know how? Well, why don’t we humor her a bit, my children?” Laughed Agatha, as she stood up and slowly walked towards Julia.
Julia’s maids tried to protect her, but Agatha released a strange string made out of blood, capturing the two of them easily, their Mana was already near zero, so they couldn’t resist with their magic capabilities.
“Hm, half-elves as strong as you two will net a good price in the slave market… Or maybe I can just turn you into my loyal vampire subordinates?” Wondered Agatha. “Sadly, your little lady can’t join you.”
Julia tried to step back while the half-elves told her to run away, but she had no strength with her to do anything and was left hopeless to the hands of the woman. Agatha stretched her arms, grabbing Julia’s face with her hands, and then slowly moving her fingers into her neck, lifting her up.
“Uugh….!” Julia groaned in pain, as she was trying to free herself, resisting, but without any sort of way to even hurt someone as powerful as Agatha.
“Hahh~ Such a tender skin, I bet your blood will be so sweet and tasty… I can’t help myself… I want to take a bite on you, dearie~” Said Agatha. “But first, how about we give you a shocker? After all, when they make those faces filled with despair is when the blood tastes the richest!”
“Nggh… Guhh…!” Julia was feeling like she wasn’t able to breathe properly, Agatha’s hands were tightly grabbing her neck.
“So you want to know, yeah? Well… It is pretty simple! Remember all those drug addicts you’ve been ignoring? Well they’re all my minions now! Hahaha!” Agatha laughed carefreely, as Julia’s eyes opened wide.
“T-The drugs…?!” She muttered.
“They were our plan all along! Well, you already know anyways, right, little princess? The drugs are not made simply out of special narcotics, but it has something very, very special…! Guess what it is, my dearest Julia!” Laughed Agatha, as her face beneath her mask smiled.
“Huh…?!”
“Well, you can’t even speak so I guess I’ll tell you… It’s made of those Evil God Fragments thingies…! Hahaha! Your entire fiefdom has been our testing place for a while, even before you came here, your stupid uncle allowed us to do everything we wanted, we tested the Black Potions with him, and we even had a lab to make chimeras… But since you appeared, things had become too hard, so the boss said that I had to just kill you and destroy the entire fiefdom to not leave any trails of us working in here! Pretty handy, yeah?” Laughed Agatha. “So we are allowed to let loose!”
“Uuggh…! No…!” Muttered Julia, as she began to cry, feeling filled with despair to the deepest part of her heart. She felt hopeless… And even more after what Agatha said now.
“But you know… We wouldn’t had been able to do it if it wasn’t for someone very special that helped us, the traitor that you were asking for! Wanna guess who it was?” Laughed Agatha. “Come here, boy!”
“Eh?!”
Julia and her maids suddenly looked at the figure of a robbed man walking outside of the manor, his long green hair, sharp eyes, and light robes quickly gave away who he was… it was nobody else than the Court Magician himself.
“Dan-dan! Yes! It is him! You know him, right?! He’s like your left hand, you’ve trusted him for so long… Bohohoh! What a shocker!” Laughed Agatha, laughing maniacally as she saw Julia’s eyes filled with disbelief.
“E… Emiliano?!” Julia mustered words however she could, looking at the man slowly approaching.
Emiliano’s face was completely expressionless, and he even saw Julia as something… disgusting. His gentle and calm expression quickly changed into one of disgust against her.
“Duchess Julia, I’ve always hated you…!”
“E-Eh?!”
“Since the moment that you replaced your uncle that everything started going downhill!”
“That man was very easy to manipulate, he became a good puppet of mine… But it seems that you never lowered your guard, with your stupid maids and your useless butler, you never allowed me to stay alone with you…”
“W-Wha…? You bastard!”
“You know? Humans are weak compared to other races. We won wars because we use cunningness and tactics, or sheer numbers. Or somethings we pathetically summon people from another worlds… Since I reached my level cap that I felt hopeless. Demi-humans and monsters have the power to evolve and break their level cap! While I had already hit my maximum potential so early… These people still had room to grow! Since the moment I learned that humans could turn into Vampires and break their level cap was when I was convinced that leaving aside my humanity was the true path towards reaching new heights in magic…!”
“Y-You cold-hearted bastard! Traitor!”
Emiliano smiled, he had even lied about his level to Julia for years, he was in fact a capped Level 50 Magician, but after so many years of research, he only found that the single solution to his problems was to leave his humanity and become something else.
And so, he decided to collude with the Vampires, as he was promised such a power.
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