“[Delayed Explosion]”

A Skill that allowed its wielder to use their ammunition in a two-fold manner.

For an Archer, it meant that he could strike an enemy with his arrow twice in a row, dealing physical damage first and then a special effect, whether it came from a well-crafted arrow or direct magic from a Spellslinger Archer.

All in all, it was a rather nice party trick.

Not one you’d use when dealing with someone like me.

Before the smoke vanished, I simply grabbed for the archer’s face and resisted the urge to grin. But I couldn’t help it.

There was a look of shock all over the young man’s face as he realized that his legs hadn’t actually started moving when he activated his last-resort. I may have had a hand in his own inability to move—a simple paralysis, courtesy of my gaze.

While I was no Gorgon, a Vampire’s abilities with their eyes were not something you’d laugh about. As my fingers squeezed the young man’s head enough to hurt, but without obliterating it like a grape, I decided to talk with him.

“Don’t feel too bad. You’ve outlived your companions.”

“W-What… What are you?” he asked, struggling while I held him above the ground.

I frowned at the sudden question.

Honestly, where could a Vampire Lord get some good ol’ classic pleading for their lives? Had all the humans in this world finally managed to overcome the fear and terror caused by a Vampire’s presence?

It seemed that the young man didn’t care about his dead companions either.

Well, he must have worried about his own life more.

The archer swiped a small dagger out of his belt pocket and swung, but I ignored the puny weapon and decided to simply go with the interrogation.

“What do you mean by that question?” I asked.

The young man fell silent and simply looked at the blade that broke around my chest, realizing it was a worthless affair to struggle in vain.

He could have screamed out in pain, but instead, he had actually tried to break free.

Was his pain tolerance high?

He had even ignored my question too.

I really had encountered a strange human yet again.

“[Immense Willpower]” I muttered with a sigh and imbued more power into my voice.“Answer my question human and reveal your ancestry as well.”

“I haven’t met anyone like you before—” he clamped his lips shut until they bled.

“Haven’t met anyone of my kind? Are you an uneducated boy? Don’t answer. You wouldn’t be here if you had any intelligence or wealth to live out your days in splendor. Very few survive an encounter with me, but even the lowliest of worms know of my kind. Apex predators. Creatures of the Night. Surely this is enough to rekindle your memory?”

“...Lycans?”

“Vampires,” I said, a touch offended. “Vampires.”

“V-Vampires?” he repeated, realized he spoke twice, and then bit his lips again.

Rolling my eyes, I waited for another minute or two until his resistance and will was exhausted and he spoke again without further prodding.

“I come from the Bouw Family.”

“That’s it?” I asked.

“Well, my… my father works as a Fletcher, my uncle is a Carpenter—”

“A humble background, that will suffice.”

He nodded.

“Y-yes.”

“Good. We’re finished then.”

Bouw boy quickly took a deep shaky gulp, squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his fists together. No requests. No last wishes. Instead, he was ready to accept his death by my hands.

What a boring response.

I threw him towards the forest and watched him crash against a tree. His head was now bleeding further and he no doubt hurt himself, but still alive to get up to his own two feet. “You’ll make do as a survivor to deliver my news to your so-called kingdom.”

Painfully, his eyes flashed open and he looked at me wordlessly.

No doubt he was still trying to come back to his senses.

I sauntered towards one of the dead bodies and glanced at the horses still kept underneath my shadow's control. There were bags tied to their saddles, which I perused, fishing out a couple of items to see if there was anything useful.

After a minute or two of silence, I sighed.

“Nothing, really? No answer when I just spared your life?”

It almost made me wish that Rose was here, she would have at least given a far more interesting response than this one.

“I-it’s stupid.”

“Oh?” I grinned. "You're giving advice?"

“If you ask me to deliver a message to Averon Kingdom, they’ll simply send a bigger army to capture the princess or ask Mages to bombard your place with a long distance spell.”

I smiled.

"That's a natural course of action, I'd much prefer if they send people on foot though, with tributes preferably. You guys have meager supplies. So fetch."

Bouw guy caught the healing potion I threw at him and looked down at it hesitantly.

"Well? Do you have qualms drinking your comrades' items?"

"This… this is supposed to be a mid-grade healing potion."

"Oh, really? It looked like someone just scraped in and tossed a drop of healing gel."

"Why… why are you doing this?" He asked after he drained the healing potion and slowly pulled up to his feet. He steadied himself on the tree trunk. "Do you like toying with your enemies and giving them a false sense of hope before killing them?"

Ah.

A Thomas the Doubter.

"I can't let my messenger die while he attempts to deliver my courtesy to the Averon kingdom, right?"

"You're insane."

"...some may have called me a little batsy." I grinned, not knowing why.

Perhaps it was just nerves.

While I was concerned about safety and Bouw had a point about being idiotic… there was a scale between risk and reward. You might live long if you stayed hidden, but you'd be dirt poor as well.

Now for a kingdom that wanted to kill a Seer, their own princess, it was actually quite funny to realize they had sent quite a paltry group… or this was an elite squad and it just happened that they were underwhelming for me.

Nonetheless, a kingdom who didn't treat their Seer right was plain stupid. People valued them in the past, coveted them and feared what they had to say—but they were usually respected.

Which just furthered my belief.

“Send the greatest of your kingdom and they will undoubtedly be mere ants in my presence.”