CH 46

Chapter 46: Bait

It’s the night I’ve arranged a meeting with Kaen.

In the forest where I was supposed to meet Kaen, I was leaning against a nearby tree, waiting for her.

[ Hmmm… ]

Sierra is staring at me with a pouty face.

I think I’ve explained enough to Sierra, but she scolds me, asking if I really had to say that.

I decided to take it into consideration.

The sound of Kaen’s footsteps, coming from the other side of the room, was full of anguish. She spotted me a few feet away and hesitated, not coming any closer.

“You’re late.”

I said to Kaen, who hadn’t even turned her head to look at me. Only then did she hesitate and approach me.

She was wearing plain clothes, not a uniform, as I had requested.

“Ki, I can understand if it’s a dormitory or something, but to summon me to a forest like this…”

“How are we going to meet at the dorm?”

“Sneaking in or something…”

I ignored Kaen’s mutterings and stood up.

She seemed to have a lot to say, but she didn’t bother to say it.

Now that Kaen had arrived, I turned to walk out of the academy.

Without further explanation, Kaen mumbled something along the lines of, “After all, the outdoors is a bit…” and then began to obediently follow. And just like that, we were strolling through the forest.

[Awww.]

I heard Kaen stumble and fall.

“Ugh…”

I turned my head to look and saw Kaen lying face down on a tree root, looking very upset.

“…Is it dark now?”

I asked as I helped Kaen to her feet.

I couldn’t tell how dark it was because I was using my Night Vision skill and could only see my surroundings in brightness.

“…”

Holding onto my hand, Kaen stood up and brushed off her clothes. Fortunately, she doesn’t seem to be hurt.

I’ve been reminding her to be careful of anything that might catch her foot ever since.

The forest remained as silent as ever.

On the way, Kaen suddenly became mesmerized, and I stopped in my tracks.

“Fireflies?”

Fireflies were flying and glowing in a small stream in the forest.

I waited for Kaen for a moment, and she came to her senses and looked at me.

“…”

Kaen’s gaze fell to the bandage over my eye, and she started walking again without another word.

She continues to walk without any explanation, and I can hear the frustration in her voice.

“Couldn’t you at least tell me where we’re going, do you really need to go this deep…? I mean, just anywhere…”

“We’re here.”

I said nonchalantly, cutting Kaen off.

At this, Kaen’s face fills with question marks.

“This way.”

I approached a hole in the massive fence that surrounded the forest, just big enough for a single person. It was a path I often took whenever I left the academy.

I slipped out through the hole and waited for Kaen to follow.

On the other side of the fence, Kaen hesitated to cross.

“You promised… Didn’t you?”

At the mention of a promise, Kaen sighs heavily, then climbs out of the hole.

“The reason you asked me to come out in plain clothes was to get out of the academy… What’s around here…? Oh, there’s nothing…?”

Kaen stammered as she emerged from the hole, trying to clear her head.

“Let’s go get the carriage.”

I said to Kaen as I pulled my robes around me.

Kaen stared at my robes, then spoke up.

“…Why are you wearing a robe?”

“I can’t stand out because of ‘this’.”

I said, pointing to the ‘blindfold’ over my eyes.

Kaen, who had been watching me, didn’t know what else to say, so she began to follow me in silence.

We walked to where the carriage would be.

“There can’t be a carriage in such a remote place…”

Just as Kaen was saying that, the usual carriage came into view.

“Yay! You brought a girl with you this time.”

The coachman on the carriage spotted me and exclaimed.

I approached the carriage, paid the driver, and told him where I was going.

“…Not for the first time, Cadet Zetto?”

Kaen asked as she climbed into the carriage, noticing the somewhat familiarity between me and the coachman.

“…I’ve been out a bit.

I shrugged in response to Kaen’s question.

And with that, we headed toward our destination, listening to the coachman’s chatter in the swaying carriage.

***

This wasn’t really a quest. It was more like getting into an accident.  Still, I could get a decent item for solving it.

In my destination city, there is a criminal organization that serves a high rank vampire.

They kidnap young virgins in the city and give them to the vampire, who in turn pays them… It was almost like they were being subcontracted.

Being loyal, they had prepared an armor as a gift for the vampire, and that was the item I was after.

Unusually for an armor to be presented to a vampire, it had an optional Holy Magic Resistance.

I didn’t find this to be a useful option for the battles ahead since there weren’t many enemies with holy powers. However, it was usually a pretty good piece of armor, with a high Physical Armor rating.

One problem is that I don’t know the exact location of their home base.

As the player wanders around the city, they may hear rumors of virgins disappearing. This creates a sense of urgency that something is about to happen, but then nothing happens as the player wanders around the city.

To resolve this, the player would have to be intentionally disarmed and then kidnapped while walking through the streets at night in order to reach their home base.

Someone in the game stumbled upon this information by accident.

They were offering a “young maiden,” which of course only works if the player is female.

Anyway, if you successfully get kidnapped, you’ll wake up in their home base after the black screen.  However, I remember that the part where you leave the base after you’ve safely eliminated them was skipped, so there was no way for a male player to solve it.

I don’t know where their home base is.

I think the developers intentionally made it so that only female characters could solve this problem. Of course, now that the game has become a reality, there are a lot of options. But I’m not sure I’d want to wait around for someone to kidnap someone.

I have no way of knowing if a girl walking alone at night is a virgin, but they have a way of knowing if she is because they have certain characteristics.

I couldn’t wait around in the city forever. So, without even thinking about it, I decided to try and use Kaen, who owns me a wish.

Kaen and I had already reached our destination, the city but I had to disarm Kaen in order for her to be kidnapped.

After entering the city and wandering the streets, I asked Kaen to leave her sword for a while, but her patience finally ran out, and I entered a deserted alleyway to talk to her.

“Now you want me to give you my sword?! Even if there are no people on the street…What do you think you’re doing here after taking the sword from me, I’ve never heard of such unusual tastes before…?”

Kaen, who had been speaking with her arms crossed, suddenly snapped at me.  Her finger pointing at me was trembling, albeit slightly.

I scratched my head as I listened to Kaen’s words, then decided it was time to clear up the misunderstanding.

“I think there’s a misunderstanding… I didn’t call Ms. Kaen with ‘those’ intentions.”

“What kind of thing is that?! Then why do you need my body…?”

As I explained the misunderstanding, Kaen’s voice grew quieter and quieter as if she didn’t understand.

I leaned back against the wall, turning my head in the direction of the main road, and continued.

“There was a rumor going around the city that young women were disappearing at night, and I thought it was strange, so I did some research, and it turns out the rumor was true, and women were indeed disappearing at night, and I’m guessing it had something to do with vampires.”

Kaen was obviously having a hard time keeping up.

“Gah, vampires all of a sudden, this is moving so fast, how does Cadet Zetto know that…and even if it is true, it doesn’t seem like something an academy cadet should be doing…”

Kaen, who couldn’t make sense of my ramblings, blurted out a question.

“I am merely carrying on the will of my master. That’s why I’m finally able to use the sword he passed down to me. As for the information… let’s just say I have an excellent source.”

At this, I pointed at the carriage.

It was enough to allay Kaen’s doubts that I would eventually fulfill my promise.

[Master’s will…You’re going to make her do something I didn’t do? …Well, that sounds like fun.]

Sierra’s snort echoed in my head as she listened from the side.

Looking down at the floor, Kaen mumbles incoherently.

“Master…”

She was thinking of her master, Sword Saint.

She was once his student, so she knows all too well how much a teacher can mean to a student.

“…Okay, let’s say that’s true, but is that a reason for me to leave the sword in your care?”

Kaen, who had accepted my made-up setup without much thought, asked me.

“Didn’t I say that there was something I needed Miss Kaen’s body for?”

I approached Kaen, who was leaning against the wall, as I spoke the rather implied words. As the word ‘body’ left my mouth, Kaen’s face instantly flushed red.

“Even my best informant hasn’t been able to figure out where their home base is, so I’ve decided to change tactics.”

I continued, glaring at Kaen, who couldn’t hide the blush on her cheeks.

“Tactics…?”

Kaen tilted her head, not quite understanding what I was trying to say.

“I’m going to release a bait, find out where they are, and then attack them….this ‘bait’ will be Ms. Kaen.”

“So…are you saying…that you need my body…?”

Kaen, who had just become the bait, stammered as she understood the situation.

“At this very moment, innocent young women are being drained by vampires.”

I said as I slowly approached Kaen, who was backing away from me. Then I put my face in front of her nose and opened my mouth.

“…So why don’t you leave the sword with me and submit to the kidnapping, Miss Kaen.”

As I say this, I give Kaen a reassuring smile to put her mind at ease.

***

Kaen eventually agrees with me.

“A promise is a promise, but if it’s true, we can save people!”

Kaen’s determination was evident in her words. It was the kind of thing you’d expect from a disciple of the Sword Saint.

I climbed onto the roof of a nearby building and followed Kaen, hopping from rooftop to rooftop, trying to stay out of sight.

I look down and see a pink headed girl walking nervously down a deserted street.

[Are you sure she will be alright…?]

Sierra, who was floating next to me, asked in a cautious voice if I was worried about Kaen.

“She’ll be fine.”

There’s no way she’ll be in danger.

If I lost sight of her, she might be in danger, but with my night vision enhanced, I didn’t think I could miss her pink head popping into view.

I recall that they were around level 20, so a level 30 Kaen should be able to take them on with her bare fists.

After I followed Kaen for a few minutes I saw a guy in a silk hat sneaking up behind Kaen.

‘There he is.’

I recognize him from the game.

Beneath his high hat, the vampire’s implanted “unicorn horn” is hidden.

Unicorns have always been associated with “virgins” in all media.

In this game, unicorns are monsters, but they don’t attack virgins… They had the ability to recognize virgins and the vampire’s favorite food was virgin blood.

This vicious vampire planted a unicorn horn in a human’s skull to drink the blood of virgins.

He used the unicorn’s horn to recognize virgins since the horn was a kind of radar that detected virgins.

“Gee, it’s so nice to see no one on the street…?”

Kaen said with a hint of awkwardness in her voice as she realized the suspect was approaching.

‘Did you really have to say that.’

It looked like she was trying to act like she didn’t realize she was about to be kidnapped, but Kaen thought she was good at acting, so she broke it off.

[I wonder if she’s faking it…?]

Sierra seems to be thinking the same thing.

However, contrary to what we think, the guy in the hat sneaks up on Kaen without any suspicion and immediately covers her mouth and nose with a cloth.

“Ugh… Ugh…”

Kaen struggles moderately in response, but soon passes out and collapses.

“Mmph… easy, easy.”

He smirks, then removes his hat and the unicorn horn on his head is revealed.

He then points his horn at Kaen on the ground and shouts.

“I’m sure she’s a virgin…!”

Sierra’s muffled voice rings out as she watches in disbelief.

[I can see why that flimsy act worked…]

“…Yeah.”