Kathe, who was in her dragon form, put a hand to her chin and looked at this ‘True Ancestor,’ who laughed proudly in spite of just being a head.
“Hmm? True? What are you talking about?”
“You foolish, ignorant lizard! You have no shame.”
The True Ancestor glared at Kathe.
I turned to Kathe and explained. I also wanted the True Ancestor to know that I understood.
“A True Ancestor is the highest kind of vampire.”
“Like a king? But isn’t that the same thing as a Lord?”
“Not the top as in someone in an organization. It’s about origin and how you came to be.”
“Came to be?”
“A True Ancestor is someone who was turned into a vampire by the Evil God directly.”
In general, vampires created more thralls by offering their blood to someone after sucking it.
Those thralls grow and evolve into Lessers and then Arches.
It was the same with Lords and High Lords.
Everyone but True Ancestors were turned into vampires by other vampires.
“Oh? So he’s an original. So if we kill him, will many other vampires turn into ash?”
When you killed a vampire, all of their thralls would turn into ash. That was what she was referring to.
“No. Once they evolve into Lesser, killing their parent will not turn them into ash.”
“Is that so.”
Kathe said with satisfaction.
The True Ancestor was also nodding with a pleased expression.
“You understand very well for a mere human.”
“Of course, I do. I’m an Adventurer.”
And then Eric turned to the True Ancestor.
“You. You seem to be in high spirits. Are you resigned to your fate?”
“If that’s the case, why don’t we talk a little before your demise?”
I said with a grin. I thought that if it was in a good mood, it might want to talk to us.
It was practically the fate of all intelligent creatures to want to talk about something at the end of your life.
However, that didn’t mean you would talk to just anyone. So it was better to endear yourself a little.
But the True Ancestor didn’t seem to understand my aim, and so the head chuckled.
“While you are lesser creatures, you did beat me, and so I will deign to talk to you. It is your reward.”
“Thank you.”
“Where are we?”
Asked Eric, sounding very much like a king. Our way of dealing with this depended on whether we were in his country or another country.
“We are within a mountain in the southeast corner of the Ringain Kingdom.”
Eric looked a little relieved upon hearing this.
The Ringain Kingdom was a country to the northwest of the Mendilibar Kingdom, which he ruled. It was a great country and they were on friendly terms.
It was a good thing that they weren’t far away from Mendilibar, or in an enemy country.
If it was necessary, we could all just ride on Kathe’s back and return to our country in a relatively short amount of time.
I continued to question the True Ancestor head.
“Who was it that thought of that strategy? It was very chilling.”
“Strategy?”
“Teleportation through a bomb.”
“Ah, that. I didn’t think it would fail. It was very unfortunate.”
In spite of his words, the True Ancestor was laughing.
He wasn’t worried at all. I couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable by his attitude.
“You seem rather confident? Why? Didn’t you give up?”
As I wondered what I should ask next, Kathe addressed him directly.
“Heh. It doesn’t matter. You should do as you like.”
“Were you not going to try and call out the Evil God?”
“Of course, I intended to.”
“Was the plan to call it out very soon?”
“…”
It had been answering without hesitation up until now, but the True Ancestor suddenly closed its mouth.
Perhaps it would affect future plans.
This was the information that we needed to know the most.
“I see. So it’s still in progress then.”
“…You filthy, low creatures. Work your foolish brains and think as much as you want.”
“Hmm. That being said, a True Ancestor was commander of this operation, and a High Lord was commanding the implementation unit.”
“So what?”
The True Ancestor narrowed his eyebrows.
“An Evil God can’t move from the magic circle unless its whole body is summoned, yes?”
I had learned this from a High Lord when destroying the head of an Evil God.
“…”
“And summoning the whole body requires a tremendous amount of living sacrifices. In that case…”
“…”
“Were you going to summon the head in the royal capital first, and then use the citizens as the sacrifice?”
“…”
While the True Ancestor kept its silence, Kathe looked at me with a surprised expression.
Eric also seemed to be surprised, but his expression did not change.
“What a nasty mind you have!”
“And even if the summoning in the capital was stopped, you were going to use the wolf beastkin as a sacrifice, weren’t you?”
“…It seems that your kind does not lack imagination.”
The True Ancestor seemed to be suggesting that I was wrong.
However, judging by his reaction, I knew that I was right. It really was a good thing that we had been able to stop him.
Had they succeeded, the Mendilibar Kingdom would be overrun by the Dark Ones.
If that happened, the Mendilibar Kingdom would act as a bridgehead, and the Dark Ones would eventually overtake the world.
“Now, I still have a lot of questions to ask you. Will you answer them?”
“Hehe. Aren’t you getting a little carried away?”
The True Ancestor said, and then at the same time, the head started to turn into mist.