"Oh, come on, just trust me. If nothing else, I can absolutely make sure you at least have drinking water."
"Fine. But only where I can't see it."
"Yes, sir."
In the end, Eugene brought along this water spirit named Mirian.
The process itself was a bit unpleasant to watch, but the ability to produce drinkable water anytime, anywhere was incredible.
Of course, that wasn't the only reason he brought Mirian along.
"But really, other people can't see you at all?"
"Of course not. Not a single one of the humans that crocodile monster ate ever saw me or heard my voice. I even tried to warn them at first that a monster lived here, you know? But they couldn't see me or hear me, so they all just got eaten."
Spirits, she said, were invisible to human eyes.
At least, none of the humans who had come to the swamp had been able to see Mirian or hear her voice.
'A small spirit that can fly. And best of all, no one but me can see her. In many ways, she's extremely useful.'
That was the decisive reason he brought Mirian with him.
And for the same reason, Mirian also abandoned the swamp and attached herself to Eugene.
"Haa! You have no idea how hard the last several years have been. The only one who could see me was that damned monster. Don't you have any idea how lonely and bored I was, my lord?"
"A little."
He meant that sincerely.
Ever since he had built a cabin on the mountainside and gone into hiding, Eugene had had almost no contact with other people.
There were countless times he passed days without speaking a single word. Loneliness had become his only lifelong companion.
"Oh, so that must be your place, my lord?"
"It is. And could you drop the 'my lord' already?"
"Then what should I call you… just Eugene?"
"Just call me by my name. Neither of us is human anyway."
"Then since we're doing that, should I… speak casually too?"
"Do as you like."
"Hehe! Then I will!"
Seriously—she switched her attitude fast.
Once Mirian realized Eugene wasn't as rigid as she had thought, she got excited and started flying in circles around him.
"You're making me dizzy. Stay still for a moment."
"Yes! I mean—okay!"
Mirian obediently perched on the edge of Eugene's shoulder.
After checking around the cabin to make sure no one had broken in while he was away, Eugene opened the door and went inside.
"Oh! Your house is pretty nice!"
Mirian fluttered around, looking at everything.
He wondered what there was to look at in a house that contained nothing but simple, handmade furniture, but he soon realized why.
Just as Eugene had been unable to leave his cabin, Mirian had likely never been able to leave the swamp either.
Even if she wanted to form a contract with another being, she couldn't—no one could see her or communicate with her.
And that was the fate of nearly all low-ranking spirits.
Yet, for some reason, Eugene could see Mirian and talk to her.
That was why Mirian, a lower spirit who could form a contract with only one other being in her lifetime, had chosen Eugene.
"Whew. Release."
After setting down his backpack and taking off his outer garment, Eugene murmured quietly.
At his words, the black shell covering his upper body vanished without a trace, sinking back into his skin.
"Wow, it's amazing no matter how many times I see it. Is that why you can move around during the daytime?"
"Yes. But I still can't just walk around naked, so I have to wear clothes."
After testing it as soon as the sun rose, he learned that the swamp monster's shell could perfectly block sunlight.
What's more, he could manifest it only on specific parts of his body rather than over his entire form.
So compared to when he used to wear black clothing and hide himself beneath a robe, he could now move around during the day with physical abilities improved by roughly twofold.
Still, since his eyes couldn't be covered with the monster's shell, he had to protect them from direct sunlight with a wide-brimmed hat or helmet.
"So what are you going to do now?"
"First… I need to go meet someone."
After night fell, Eugene planned to head to Broadwin Village, the closest village to his cabin.
There were only a few days left until that incident—an event he once thought had nothing to do with him—would occur in Broadwin.
But unlike back then, he now had no reason at all to stand by and watch.
"Kwaah!"
After finishing his meal, the village chief of Broadwin was leisurely enjoying a mug of beer.
"Father!"
"What is it now? Did you cause trouble again?"
When his twelve-year-old eldest son came running in out of breath, the chief frowned.
"There's a wild boar outside! I think that red-eyed monster came by!"
"What?"
The chief sprang to his feet and hurried outside with his son.
In front of the gate, which was surrounded by a low stone wall, a small wild boar lay there with its throat slit.
"Wow! A pig, a pig!"
"Dad! Are we having meat today?"
"Mom! It's a wild boar!"
"Quiet, you brats! Take this inside!"
As his children shouted excitedly, the chief barked at them.
The kids soon carried the boar inside, laughing loudly, and the chief tilted his head in confusion.
"It's not time yet…"
The strange being who lived in a cabin on the distant mountain slope from Broadwin Village—the so-called red-eyed monster.
When he first appeared over ten years ago, everyone had been terrified.
But not only did he never harm anyone, he never even approached the village. Instead, once every couple of months, he would leave behind hunted game as if paying a kind of tax. Eventually, no one paid him much attention anymore.
Thus, for over a decade, the red-eyed monster and the people of Broadwin Village maintained a strange relationship, each keeping to their own boundaries.
Yet just two weeks ago, after leaving behind a deer, the monster had once again tossed a wild boar here.
"Has he had good luck hunting? That's strange,"
the chief muttered as he turned to go back inside.
At that moment, he froze when he saw a pair of glowing red eyes on top of the wall.
Though he hadn't clearly seen the monster's form even once since that day ten years ago, he could tell right away that the creature had grown larger.
From within the darkness, the monster gestured to him—beckoning as if to say, come here for a moment.
'What should I do?'
His spine turned cold, and he wanted nothing more than to run inside at once. But this was the same being who, for over ten years, had done nothing but provide them with hunted prey.
And the fact that he brought a boar again after only two weeks—
'Does he have something to say to me?'
In his youth, the village chief had once been a clerk for a large merchant company and had fled here after being caught embezzling funds. He was a perceptive man with a fairly quick mind.
Swallowing hard, he hesitantly walked toward the stone wall.
"Long time no see. Do you… have something you wish to say?"
"May I come in for a moment?"
Since a vampire could only enter a place with the owner's invitation, the monster—Eugene—asked in that way.
"Oh… yes, come in for a moment."
With the chief's permission, Eugene stepped inside the stone wall.
"I actually came to tell you that my illness has completely healed."
As he said that, Eugene removed his mask.
"...!"
The chief's eyes went wide at the sight of Eugene's face revealed in the moonlight.
The monster's face was unexpectedly ordinary—no, more than that, it was more beautiful than anyone he had ever seen.
"All this time, I kept everyone away from my home because of an illness caused by poison. I didn't want it to spread. But now that I've fully recovered, I wanted to let you know that it's safe."
"Is that so?"
The village chief instinctively spoke with formal respect.
"Even so, I won't be coming down to the village for a while. It'll be more comfortable that way for both of us. Still, if by any chance something happens in the village, or if you ever need my help, feel free to call for me anytime."
"Oh, yes! We will."
"Then I'll be on my way."
Eugene put his mask back on and turned to leave.
The chief stood there blankly, staring at Eugene's figure as it faded into the darkness. Only after he was gone did the chief finally snap out of it and murmur to himself.
"Could he be a half-elf? Or… a descendant of nobles? What kind of face was that…?"
Back when he had worked as a clerk for a merchant guild in the city, the elves he had occasionally seen were nothing compared to the mysterious and beautiful face of the monster he had just witnessed—or so the chief was certain.
"So now you're going to start mingling with those villagers?"
Flapping happily in the air, Mirian thought once again that sticking with Eugene had been the right choice.
"No."
"Huh? Then why did you say all that?"
"There are reasons. Don't worry too much about that village. We'll be leaving this place in a few days anyway."
"Really? Then that's great for me! This is exciting!"
Mirian, whose goal was to leave the swamp and see the real world, bounced about with joy.
'For now, I've properly made contact with the chief. Then next…'
In a few days, a band of mercenaries would come to Broadwin Village.
Their purpose was to take one boy who lived here—to the castle of Lord Tiwyn, the regional lord.
At the time, Eugene hadn't even known such an event would take place, and even if he had known, he would have thought it had nothing to do with him.
'On the day the mercenaries arrive, every single villager will die. But since I've made contact with the chief today, this time I'll probably be called too. If that happens…'
Eugene's eyes sank coldly as he ran toward the cabin as if flying.
Three days passed.
During that time, Eugene did many things.
By day, he rested or practiced activating the black scales (the name he decided to give the ability he gained from the swamp monster) faster and more skillfully.
By night, he wandered near Broadwin Village, focusing on memorizing the roads and terrain.
In preparation for leaving the village, he also hunted diligently every night.
Although not as valuable as intermediate-class monsters, he had learned during his time on the run that the hides of ferocious beasts fetched fairly high prices.
Since Eugene didn't have a single coin, he would need to sell animal hides just to survive out in the world.
He drank only a little of the blood of the beasts he caught.
Perhaps because he had absorbed an enormous amount of the swamp monster's blood, he wasn't hungry at all—and above all, the taste was no longer appealing.
He could hardly understand how he had once survived by drinking such things.
In any case, over the three days, Eugene hunted two black wolves and four deer. After skinning them all, he delivered the meat to the chief's house.
He hoped this would further increase the chief's goodwill toward him.
Then, at noon on the third day, Eugene left Mirian behind at the cabin and went to take up position at the only road connecting Broadwin to the outside.
It was a quiet spot where about a dozen trees with thick foliage were clustered together.
'It's them.'
Near sunset,
Eugene, watching from a tree, spotted a group emerging over a low hill and narrowed his eyes.
'Eight of them.'
A typical small band of mercenaries. As expected of wanderers, their equipment was poor.
Only three of them wore leather armor. The rest wore padded cloth armor made of layered fabric.
The ones in leather armor were all armed with short swords or maces and round shields, but those in padded armor carried nothing but wooden clubs and daggers.
'Take out the ones with the short swords and shields first.'
From his life on the run before his regression, Eugene knew that a mercenary's skill largely depended on the quality of their equipment.
So he planned to eliminate the three most dangerous mercenaries at the front first before dealing with the weaker ones.
The mercenaries descending the winding hillside path drew closer and closer.
All around was silent, save for the occasional sound of branches and leaves rubbing together in the wind.
Mixed in irregularly was the dull thudding of the mercenaries' footsteps, as if nails had been hammered into their boots.
Moments later, just as the three at the front were about to pass beneath the tree—
Like a swift beast, Eugene leapt down without a sound, driving his dagger down with his right hand while slashing with the elongated claws of his left.
Crunch!
"Ghk!"
"Aaagh!"
The mercenary whose unhelmeted neck was pierced by the dagger and the one whose face was torn by the claws staggered violently.
'Now six.'
After instantly hunting down two mercenaries, the vampire turned his red eyes toward the remaining ones.
(To be continued in the next chapter)