Eight years ago. When Ruslan was eight years old.
A vampire trial was held in a small rural village in Frükan.
That day, that dog was unusually affectionate.
In its youth, it had been absurdly vicious and a troublemaker for looking down on small children and charging at them, but as it aged, it either matured or mellowed out.
It had been a long time since young children stopped fearing the dog, so the dog’s owner just let it roam free these days.
That day too, they were running excitedly down the mountain path with friends while the dog whimpered and followed, hanging on their heels.
Excitement and tension circulated on the children’s faces. Rumors had spread that vampire hunters were passing through the village entrance.
Six hundred years ago, vampires had ruled all the lands from the south to the northern end of the continent.
They used humans as slaves with their terrifying supernatural powers, and it was said that humans’ miserable lives at that time were worse than insects.
The very ones who defeated those evil vampires and finally opened an era of peace for humans were the great **Vampire Hunters**.
There wasn’t a child who didn’t know the heroic tales of the hunters who swore before God’s name, “We shall not stop until the last vampire’s blood falls to the earth.”
“I think it’s over there!”
The children who arrived at the mountainside soon discovered unfamiliar groups gathered standing below the mossy mountain and held their breath.
There were just over ten men and women, all mounted on horses.
Befitting travelers from a cold country, they all wore tightly fastened clothing with thick leather coats lined with fur, and they also hung silver daggers, leather-wrapped long guns, and all sorts of metal tools and glass bottles whose purpose was completely unknown.
Rather than great heroes, they gave the impression of very rough and dirty wanderers, but the tattoos glimpsed on their exposed cheeks, foreheads, and napes were as terrifying as those seen in illustrations. The children gulped.
Ruslan quickly realized they were preparing for a purification ritual. The older man who appeared to be the leader was checking the wind direction with a weather vane made of thin wire and cloth.
“…They’re going to burn **Angel’s Fangs**!”
Viktor whispered excitedly in Ruslan’s ear. Ruslan nodded nervously, held his breath, and stood on tiptoe.
**Angel’s Fangs** was the name of a plant that aroused strange fear and curiosity in children.
Not only because it was a unique blood-sucking plant that had to absorb blood instead of water to bloom, but even more so because those small, pure white flowers were the very thing that destroyed the giant vampire empire.
The primordial vampires were originally people not much different from humans, having nothing to do with blood.
They were a kind of mutant occasionally born among humans, and they possessed faint supernatural powers from birth.
Because their eyes turned red when using their supernatural powers, they were once called by the nickname “Red Eyes.”
At some point, the Red Eyes discovered one curious fact.
Drinking human blood temporarily enhanced their supernatural powers.
But soon a fatal side effect was discovered.
The Red Eyes who kept drinking blood to enhance their supernatural powers began to become addicted to blood.
They suffered from withdrawal symptoms if they didn’t consume blood periodically, and after a certain period, they went mad with bloodlust, lost their reason, and transformed into monsters that attacked humans.
From this point on, humans began calling them “vampires.”
But because of the revolutionary effects worth enduring all those side effects, vampires couldn’t give up blood-sucking.
**Immortality**.
A vampire who became completely addicted by drinking blood continuously for over a year no longer aged or died.
Their body’s healing power was maximized to the point of regenerating even severed limbs, and even if their neck was cut off, regeneration was possible if the severed part was brought back together.
As long as they continued consuming blood, they could enjoy tremendous power while maintaining their youth for eternity.
Of course, permanent side effects followed as well.
Vampires completely addicted to blood suffered serious burns when exposed to sunlight, and wounds inflicted by silver did not regenerate.
After spending over 100 years in an addicted state, the pupils of their red eyes split vertically, and new fangs grew from their gums, transforming them into a chilling beast-like appearance.
They permanently lost their reproductive ability to bear offspring, and their abilities weakened during the day, only able to exert their full abilities at night.
However, the abilities enhanced by blood were overwhelmingly powerful.
At their peak, the abilities of ancient vampires developed to the point of literally moving mountains and parting seas, and it was said they even mastered techniques to dominate human minds and control them at will.
Once they reached that stage, there was no longer any way for humans to stop the vampires.
Vampires who didn’t drink blood still walked freely under the sun, and the red-eyed addicts protected their kin from the darkness for eternity. They prospered increasingly and before long occupied all lands from the south to the west of the continent and came to rule over humans.
Humans who fell into slavery lost not only the power to resist these rulers, but even the will to do so.
The vampires’ hypnosis controlled the deepest parts of human minds, making them genuinely loyal to them.
Humans who fell under brainwashing and hypnosis worshipped vampires as humanity’s gods, and the great vampire empire seemed like it would last forever.
However, with the discovery of **Angel’s Fangs**, the vampire empire’s peace came to an end.
This plant, said to have been bestowed by humanity’s true god who took pity on the abused humans, was merely a small flower with a curious fragrance to humans, but to vampires it was a deadly poison with fatal effects.
Just smelling this flower’s fragrance completely paralyzed vampires’ supernatural powers, and the effect increased with the strength of their abilities—pureblooded vampires felt intense headaches or in severe cases even lost consciousness when they smelled the scent.
And when the invincible vampires who lived immortally, addicted to blood, smelled this fragrance, they immediately lost their lives and met death.
The vampires were horrified by this cursed plant’s effects and swiftly tried to eradicate it, but the more fatal effect lay in the change in humans who smelled the scent.
Humans who smelled the fragrance wafting from the **Angel’s Fangs** flowers awoke from the hypnosis they had been under their entire lives.
**Angel’s Fangs** paralyzes all of vampires’ supernatural powers. This applied to hypnosis and brainwashing already in effect, so creatures whose minds had been controlled by vampires all regained their reason, freed from hypnosis when they smelled this scent.
And they began to burn with fierce hatred toward the false gods who had ruled over them.
The human slaves who rallied under the symbol of the fang flower in the name of the true god created various weapons using **Angel’s Fangs**, started a rebellion, and the mighty vampire empire they believed would last forever came crashing down.
After several exorcism wars over 600 years, all vampires on the continent were killed at the hands of humans holding **Angel’s Fangs**.
A small number of weak vampires tried to survive by hiding their identities among humans, but humans would not tolerate them.
The **Vampire Hunters** who swore to dedicate their lives to vampire extermination in God’s name wandered the entire continent their whole lives, burning fang flower scent wherever humans were, hunting down hidden vampires and executing them in the name of the true god.
What Ruslan and the village children were hoping to see was exactly that kind of scene. A legendary story of an evil vampire being eliminated at the hands of hunter heroes.
Additionally, Ruslan was bursting with anticipation that he might actually be able to smell the **Angel’s Fangs** fragrance he’d only seen in books. He’d always been curious about that scent whenever he heard the story.
Now that they’d checked the wind direction, they would surely start the purification ritual going around the village so the scent could spread evenly as in the stories. Ruslan’s heart pounded.
“…What are you doing?”
At the priest’s voice heard from behind, the children turned around in surprise. Several village elders and the priest were walking over, looking at the hunters with stiffly hardened expressions.
The children furtively gauged the ominous atmosphere. The sheriff, who soon discovered the children gathered sitting behind the bushes, stiffened his expression and raised his eyebrows sharply.
“You little brats, what are you doing here?”
“We came to watch the purification ritual…”
“Go back to the village right now! Children shouldn’t come to places like this carelessly.”
At the frightening voice, the children glanced at each other and awkwardly stood up.
While reluctantly turning around, Mikhail clicked his tongue and showed off his knowledge.
“The priest is New Church, so he hates the hunters who believe in the Old Church. That’s why he’s trying to stop the purification ritual.”
At the whispered voice, Viktor agreed sullenly.
“My mom said that too. Vampires have been extinct for a long time anyway, so purification rituals like that aren’t needed anymore, but hunters still wander around villages doing purification rituals on their own and then collect money. She said they’re no different from gangsters.”
The shoulders of the children who had been excited expecting legendary heroic tales all drooped at once.
Ruslan had heard such talk too. In the past they were the most respected people, but through hundreds of years of extermination work, all vampires had now disappeared. There were no longer people who donated to temples for the hunters’ sake, nor the custom of treating hunters who visited villages with utmost hospitality.
The hunters declined along with the aging temples, but among them were those who couldn’t accept it.
They wandered around villages still performing purification rituals and demanded money from villagers in return. If refused, they employed violence or threats to forcibly collect it, and in severe cases, it was said they even framed innocent people as vampires and killed them.
They were a nuisance across the entire continent. **Vampire trials** now became an idiom referring not to vampires but to framing innocent people, and the **Angel’s Fangs** emblem that hunters always wore became a symbol of ruffians and was mocked.
In the Empire, about 200 years ago, a New Church arose that claimed they had “received a divine revelation in God’s name that all vampires have been exterminated,” prohibiting further purification rituals and vampire trials, and it spread rapidly with sensational popularity.
The priest of the village where Ruslan lived was also a New Church missionary dispatched from the Empire.
So Ruslan had never once seen a purification ritual in his life until now. Such things were customs only performed in remote mountain areas that still believed in the Old Church.
Having finally gotten to see something interesting, it seemed it would end anticlimactically after all. The children started trudging down the mountain path toward the village, thoroughly disappointed.
“Chichi! What are you doing there? Come here!”
Viktor suddenly looked back at the dog sniffing around nearby instead of following them and called out loudly.
Chichi glanced back this way for a moment, but kept playing dumb, rummaging through the grass. Ruslan sighed and turned around.
“That damn dog never listens!”
The children burst into giggles. However, when Ruslan approached to pick him up, Chichi turned around and started running excitedly, thinking it was a game.
That little bastard!
When Ruslan ran back the way they came chasing Chichi, Viktor giggled and followed Ruslan.
When they crossed back over the hill, Chichi, who had been running excitedly, was now sniffing around near the hooves of the horses the hunters were mounted on. Viktor glanced sideways at the adults.
“This village has no Old Church temple. And there are no people who will pay money for purification rituals!”
“Didn’t I say we won’t take money?”
“Then why did you come all the way to this rural village trying to perform such superstitious acts?”
“If you stay quiet, we’ll just quietly do our work and leave.”
The priest and the older hunter were arguing. The hunter mounted on the horse whose scent Chichi was smelling wasn’t paying any attention to Chichi at all, watching the argument.
Ruslan quietly crawled behind the bushes and managed to pick up Chichi. Chichi panted obliviously and wagged his tail while being held.
Fortunately, no one seemed to have noticed Ruslan and Chichi hidden behind the horse. Viktor behind the bushes gestured to Ruslan to come quickly.
It was the moment Ruslan was hastily turning around. Something suddenly made his eyes dazzle, and as he frowned, Ruslan discovered something strange.
…Hmm?
One of the tools hanging in clusters from the hunter’s saddle was reflecting light. It appeared to be an object like a mirror made of silver.
Ruslan blinked. Chichi’s pupils reflected there looked red for a moment.
Ruslan reflexively thought he must have seen wrong and checked again, but Chichi’s pupils reflected in the silver mirror were still red.
…Does the color look strange because it’s reflecting the sunlight?
It was the moment when Ruslan, who had been tilting his head, was about to turn around again at Viktor’s nagging asking what he was doing.
…Huh?
A very strange fragrance brushed past his nose.
Sweet yet somehow making him feel peculiar—a scent he’d never smelled before.
Ruslan, who unconsciously raised his head, witnessed a female hunter opening a glass bottle with a metal device attached, ignoring the angry priest.
The liquid in the bottle climbing up a thin rod was spreading into the air through a diffusion device attached to the end of the rod.
…Is this the fang flower scent?
It was the moment when Ruslan was unknowingly flaring his nostrils and trying to focus more on the scent.
“Grrrrr…”
Chichi, who had been docilely nestled in Ruslan’s arms, made a terrifyingly spine-chilling sound.
Ruslan looked down in surprise. Chichi was baring his teeth and growling with a chilling expression he’d never seen before.
“Bark bark bark!”
The strength of Chichi, who barked wildly and struggled, was tremendous. Ruslan inadvertently let go.
Chichi, who fell to the ground, started barking in all directions, raging like a mad dog.
“Gruff! Bark! Bark bark bark!”
The heads of the village adults who had been protesting to the hunters in angry voices all turned at once.
Ruslan was still staring blankly at the raging Chichi, dumbfounded. Viktor, who had been equally dumbfounded, hurriedly ran over thinking they would be scolded by the adults and tried to calm Chichi down.
“Chichi! Be quiet! Why are you suddenly acting like this?”
However, the moment Viktor reached out his hand to Chichi, Chichi sprang up like a coiled spring and lunged at Viktor, excited as if a knife had been pointed at him.
“Viktor!”
One of the village adults screamed, but Viktor, who had already fallen to the ground, and Chichi had become one mass. A stream of blood spurted with a terrible scream.
As the startled horses pranced and neighed, the hunters quickly pulled their reins. The village adults came running in a fluster.
“You bastard! Get off! Get off, you son of a bitch!”
The forest keeper kicked Chichi away from Viktor, but Viktor was already sprawled out covered in blood.
Blood flowing from his neck, arms, and face dripped onto the ground. Viktor, hastily picked up by the forest keeper, was deathly pale, and his pupils were half gone, dilated with fear and pain.
Viktor’s arm was twitching with convulsions. Ruslan trembled and stared at the pieces of flesh torn from Viktor’s cheeks and lips hanging in tatters.
“Why would that dog suddenly…”
It was when even the village adults were dumbfounded and bewildered at Chichi, still barking and raging in all directions.
“…Jackal, seal off the village. Aihil, Mullet. Gather the villagers in the square. Aegis. Search thoroughly.”
When the oldest man among the hunters calmly gave orders, several hunters half-forcibly put the sheriff and vigilante captain, who were still dumbfounded and could only make “uh, uh” sounds, on horses and galloped down toward the village.
The village adults were flustered, but they only fumbled about, not knowing how to respond to the hunters who moved with precision in an instant. Dust and the sound of hoofbeats chaotically disturbed the surroundings.
While the remaining adults were still in a daze, one man jumped down from his horse and approached.
The young man with tattoos on both cheeks unhesitatingly opened the mouth of Viktor, who was cradled in the forest keeper’s arms, and tried to shove in a dark pill.
“…What are you doing?!”
When the forest keeper, who finally came to his senses, questioned in a dazed voice, the man looked at him obliquely.
“…Mister, you still don’t grasp the situation?”
“What?”
“The beast that smelled the **Angel’s Fangs** fragrance was freed from hypnosis. It means there’s a vampire in this village, or there was one. Maybe this little kid is the vampire.”
“…!!”
The forest keeper’s face turned deathly pale.
Not only the village adults but even the children who had been running over at the ominous sounds all froze.
Not even a breath could be heard.
Only then did the content learned in history class come back to mind.
When one smells the **Angel’s Fangs** fragrance, they are freed from vampires’ hypnosis, and creatures forcibly released from hypnosis feel fierce hatred and murderous intent toward the one who controlled their mind.
The vampires of the ancient Holy Empire were cruelly massacred by the hands of humans awakened from hypnosis by the fang flower’s fragrance, or were torn apart and eaten by the animals they had raised.
The priest protested in a strangled, fumbling voice.
“That dog… was originally vicious to children from long ago…”
“You let a dog like that roam free to play with kids? No, its personality must have changed recently. Seeing how sensitive it is, it’s been under hypnosis for at least a year. Was there a stranger who came about a year ago?”
“…”
“If not, all the village residents are suspects.”
Though it was a low voice, none of the villagers could answer.
The man with tattoos on both cheeks checked Viktor’s pupils by turning them back after forcing him to swallow the pill, then nodded.
“This one isn’t it.”
“Go to the square. Escort them.”
At the leader’s command, the man who lightly jumped onto his horse nodded to the still deathly pale forest keeper.
“What are you doing? To the square.”
The villagers gathered in the square all murmured in fear.
There were people who insisted this was all a trick by the hunters to extort money, and there were people who said the peddlers who passed through the village a few years ago were suspicious.
There were people who shook their heads saying there couldn’t be any vampires remaining, and people who whispered that since the mountain terrain was so rough, maybe one had hidden away somewhere and survived by catching wild animals.
The hunters went around the square continuously burning the scent, dragging Chichi among the people and closely watching for reactions.
When Chichi only kept barking in all directions without lunging at anyone, the older hunter asked if there was anyone who hadn’t come to the square yet.
When the sheriff fumbled out a list saying there were people living halfway up the mountain, the hunters split into two groups, left one side in charge of the square, and disappeared taking the sheriff and forest keeper.
The hunters mounted on horses surrounded the square from all sides, aiming their long guns at the villagers.
The terrified people only glanced at the gun muzzles and didn’t dare make any big movements. Only the priest kept arguing with the older hunter, insisting that the dog had gotten excited because of strangers.
It was when the people who had been murmuring anxiously until evening became quiet, gradually growing tired.
An old woman with a hood pulled over her head and wrists bound behind her back was thrown into the square, dragged by hunters, staggering on legs clearly bearing marks of being bitten by a dog.
Even with the hunters holding his leash, Chichi was barking viciously and raging with the momentum to tear that woman to shreds.
The force that seemed half-crazed was deafening, but no one paid attention to Chichi.
Because when the hunters removed the hood with the tips of their gun barrels, the revealed face was familiar to everyone.
“…Kanya?”
Ruslan, who had been crouching with a worried expression next to Viktor’s mother who was bandaging Viktor’s cheeks hastily stitched up by the barber, bolted upright at that name.
Ruslan’s complexion paled upon confirming the old woman’s face.
Several of the friends who had been nestled in their own parents’ or relatives’ arms turned to look at Ruslan. No one opened their mouth.
The old woman covered in blood with a gag in her mouth, glaring at the hunters, had a wrinkled, stubborn face with half-grayed red hair and firm, rough hands.
Her name was Kanya. Without a surname, just Kanya.
A skilled herbalist, she lived in a hut halfway up the mountain and made a living gathering and selling herbs.
She was a fierce, cantankerous old woman with such a temper that she would bark even at the village’s grown men, but she was always kind to young children, and when someone got sick, she would find the right herbs for any illness and skillfully cure them.
All the villagers liked her.
And Ruslan liked her many times more than all the things the villagers liked combined.
Because Kanya was Ruslan’s only family.
