Record of a Thousand Lives

They went down to the basement, and the space within was so large and wide that it was hard to believe the entire place lay beneath a small cathedral.
Deff opened a large closed door, saying, “This isn’t a place I would show to just anyone.
Please keep it a secret if you leave this place.”

Creak…

The room behind the door was an armory.
It was filled with all sorts of silver equipment, including a silver suit of armor, a silver sword, and a silver crossbow.

Henrick picked up a sword and inspected it, asking, “I thought these were only silver-colored, but isn’t this made of pure silver?”

“It’s coated with melted silver, actually.
The equipment made of pure silver is over here,” Deff said as he went further into the armory and pointed at rows of equipment.

[Pure Silver Shield]

[Vulpehin Silver Knuckles]

[Silver Gloves]

Shaneth was greatly surprised to see the equipment.
She said, “It must have cost quite a lot to prepare all these.”

“But we have no choice.
It’s something we definitely need for our job,” Deff said.

“Job? What’s your class?” Shaneth asked.

Deff smiled and said, “I’m a Vampire Hunter.”

The warm and gentle-looking priest had another side to him—the role of a Vampire Hunter.

Shaneth was very surprised; Henrick, on the other hand, did not seem to be all that surprised as he said, “A priest who’s a Vampire Hunter… That sounds like something I read in a novel a long time ago.”

“Actually, I read that novel too, and that’s why I chose to work as a priest during the day.
It does get a bit boring, but there’s no other outfit that’s more suitable for hunting vampires than a priest’s robe, right?” Deff remarked with a smile.

“Hoo… So you’re a man who turned his fantasy into reality, huh?” Henrick replied as he raised a brow.

Deff looked at Kang Yoon-Soo and asked, “What time is it?”

Kang Yoon-Soo looked at his wrist device and replied, “It’s 3:58.”

“Wait a bit.
The meeting time was set at three in the afternoon, so the others will slowly start to arrive one by one,” Deff said.

Iris asked out of curiosity, “The meeting is at three, but why are they only gathering at four?”

Deff replied leisurely, “They’re always late by an hour.”

“Who are ‘they’?” Shaneth asked.

“They’re Vampire Hunters like me,” Deff replied.

Shaneth asked in surprise, “There’s more than one priest?”

Baaam!

Someone flung open the basement door.
A young man with a bottle of red wine in his hand entered the armory, calling out, “Oh, my lovely Deff! I thought I was going to die of boredom waiting for this hunt! My heart was racing like crazy at the thought of hunting a vampire again! Eh?”

The young man looked at Kang Yoon-Soo and the others, then scratched his cheek before asking, “Who are they?”

“They’re guests, so please mind your manners, Renil,” Deff said.

“Tsk.
What’s up with the sudden guests when we’re supposed to go vampire hunting?” the young man named Renil asked as he lay down on a sofa in the basement.

Deff introduced the young man, saying, “This is Renil.
He’s the youngest among the Vampire Hunters, but he’s also the best when it comes to handling a crossbow.”

“You’ll soon have to add that I’ve killed the most vampires,” Renil said confidently.

“Unfortunately, his record isn’t that excellent,” Deff added.

“Hey, Deff!” Renil shouted.

Another person entered the armory as soon as Renil’s introduction concluded.
He was a large man, as big as Deff.

“…” The large man looked silently at Kang Yoon-Soo and the others, and his eyes seemed to fixate strangely on Shaneth and Iris.
Then, he moved his thumb up to his neck, drawing it slowly across with a throat-slitting gesture.

“W-What?” Shaneth was surprised by the man’s sudden, aggressive body language, and Iris also tilted her head in confusion.

Deff stepped forward and explained, “This quiet guy is called Gasen, and he was born mute.
Please understand his behavior, even though it can be a bit rough.
Gasen doesn’t like it when women join the vampire hunts.”

“Why is that?” Iris asked.

Suddenly, Renil snickered and answered, “Why do you think so, noonim[1]? It’s because he likes men!”

Baaam!

Gasen slammed his fist down against the sofa, and the pillar the sofa was pushed up against split into two.
However, Renil seemed to have managed to escape before the large man hit the sofa.

Henrick scratched his cheek and remarked, “Wow… You have quite the characters gathered here.
Is there someone more unique than the fellas over here?”

“No, the last person should be arriving by now.
That person is quite calm and gentle—of course, that’s assuming he isn’t angry,” Deff said.

Someone knocked on the basement door.
Deff walked over and opened it, and a chubby old man entered the armory.

“Can’t we meet at night instead? It’s pretty difficult to make excuses just to come here!” the old man said.

“I’m sorry.
We operate at night so we can only meet up during the daytime,” Deff said.

“Still, try to keep it at a minimum.
Do you think it’s easy trying to avoid the investigators’ eyes? One of them is especially sharp, so I’ve been getting nervous that I might get caught any day now,” the old man grumbled.

Sir Rapentahil hung his sombrero on a clothes rack, then looked at Kang Yoon-Soo and the others before asking, “Who are these people?”

“I was just about to tell you,” Deff said.

“No no, hold on a minute.
I recognize one of them…” Rapentahil said as he stared at Kang Yoon-Soo.
He then took out a crumpled paper from his pocket—it was the composite sketch he had received from Sheryl.

“T-This… This guy! It’s the guy who impersonated a Zero Grade investigator!” Rapentahil shouted loudly.
His face turned red as he got worked up and kept yelling, “I thought it was strange that Sheryl let that guy go by claiming there wasn’t enough evidence! So you were here all along!”

Rapentahil seemed as if he were about to arrest Kang Yoon-Soo right at that instant, but Kang Yoon-Soo seemed calm as he said nonchalantly, “My case files have all disappeared.
There are no longer any official grounds to arrest me.”

“W-What did you say?! This wretched! I’ll call my friend in the royal palace and immediately have you executed…!” Rapentahil yelled.

“Please calm down, inspector,” Deff said, intervening.

Renil also mocked the old man, saying, “Calm down, grandpa.
You might collapse from high blood pressure again.”

“Shut up!” Rapentahil roared.

All of the Vampire Hunters had gathered.
Shaneth looked at the four men before asking, “Do all of you hide the fact that you’re Vampire Hunters?”

“Of course.
Most Vampire Hunters hide their class and live normal lives.
That’s because the vampires will target you if your identity as a Vampire Hunter is exposed,” Deff explained.

Renil stood up from the sofa and said, “Alright, now that everyone’s here, it’s time for you to explain.
Who are these people?”

“They want to go to Sanguineum,” Deff replied.

“Sanguineum? The vampires’ city? Where did you hear about that?” Renil asked with a frown.

Kang Yoon-Soo nodded and replied, “We plan to destroy the vampires’ city.”

“Hahahaha! That’s the funniest joke I’ve ever heard all year long!” Renil cried, laughing loudly.

Deff also shook his head and said, “That’s impossible, and that’s a fact that we, the Vampire Hunters, are most sure of.”

“Why do you say so?” Shaneth asked.

“Firstly, going to Sanguineum isn’t an easy task.
It’s a place that even we, the Vampire Hunters, feel reluctant to go to,” Deff explained as he lifted one finger.
He lifted a second finger and continued, “Secondly, there are more than two thousand vampires living in Sanguineum.
The four of us can only manage to take on one or two high-ranked vampires.
Do you now realize how many there are?”

That was something that could send shivers down anyone’s spine just from imagining it.
Rapelka had been a high-ranked vampire, and she had been a strong monster.

Deff lifted a third finger and added, “Lastly, the Vampire Lord lives in Sanguineum—the boss monster that rules over all the vampires on the continent.”

Just hearing about the city was already frightening.
How was Kang Yoon-Soo planning to destroy such a strong city? It was understandable why Renil had laughed at them immediately.

“You guys are still young, and you should learn to value your lives more.
There are plenty of other things in the world that can make you a hero aside from the vampires,” Rapentahil advised them.

“Yeah, I agree.
Well, I don’t think this is going to work, so let’s go!” Henrick commented, gesturing toward the door.

Shaneth nodded in agreement as well, saying, “That’s right.
It’d be stupid for us to go even after hearing all this.”

“I do not want my blood to be sucked by the vampires.
We should go,” Iris added.

The trio was about to stand up and leave when Kang Yoon-Soo suddenly said, “It’s possible to destroy the vampires’ city.”

The trio half-sighed and half-cried as they sat back down in place.

Deff let out an awkward laugh and said, “Hunting vampires is a dangerous thing, and it’s quite common for people to die while doing it.
I don’t recommend getting involved if you don’t have any grudge against the vampires.” He took out a cross from his breast pocket and added, “In my case, I’m a werewolf.
There are more than five hundred werewolves trapped in Sanguineum, being abused as slaves to the vampires.
My goal is to liberate them from their slavery.”

Rapentahil added, as if he had been waiting for a chance to speak, “My daughter-in-law was killed by the vampires.”

“Ah… That daughter-in-law story again… Aren’t you tired of it? You’re making my ears bleed from hearing it so much,” Renil remarked.

“Hey, you ungrateful bastard! Who do you think made it possible for you to illegally keep weapons here?!” Rapentahil roared as he threw a punch toward Renil.
Renil tried to avoid it with his speed, but he got caught and took the punch to the face.

“Ouch!” Renil cried out in pain.
He then said, “It’s an obvious, clichéd story for me.
My mother was killed by a vampire, and now I’m out for revenge.
That’s it.
Now, Gasen, it’s your turn.”

Gasen just sat there quietly, and Renil said teasingly, “Oh, that’s right.
You can’t speak, can you?”

Gasen slowly got up from his seat, and Renil quickly ran away from him.

Deff said politely, “I was ready to charge you just a little if you had come to request to have a vampire killed, but the fact that you’re aiming to destroy an entire vampire city is crazy in itself.”

“What if I told you there was a way to achieve that without fighting?” Kang Yoon-Soo asked.

All of the Vampire Hunters’ gazes turned to focus on Kang Yoon-Soo.
Kang Yoon-Soo continued, “There’s a very easy and efficient way to destroy the vampires’ city.”

“What is it?” Rapentahil asked.

Renil lay down on the sofa again and said, “Don’t make me laugh.
We would have already used it if there were an easy method like that.”

Kang Yoon-Soo paid no heed to Renil and continued, “There’s a limit to how much you could do with silver weapons alone.
All you could achieve would be killing a few vampires.
On top of that, it would be difficult for you if numerous high-ranked vampires arrived all at once.
That’s why I tried to think of a more efficient solution.”

Deff said, “If you’re talking about the sunlight, it’s impossible.
There’s no sunlight in Sanguineum because of the magical fog surrounding it.”

The Vampire Hunters had visited Sanguineum multiple times to hunt vampires.
That was why they were very well aware of how crazy destroying the whole city sounded.

However, Kang Yoon-Soo was different from them.
He thought confidently, ‘I can do it.’

It was his final life, and the Demon Lord was arriving earlier.
He had to believe in himself if he wanted to reach all of his goals.

“What if there were a disease that only vampires could be infected with? What would you think of that?” Kang Yoon-Soo asked.

“A disease that only vampires can be infected with…?” Deff repeated, his eyes opening wide.
The other Vampire Hunters’ ears perked up as well.

Kang Yoon-Soo nodded and said, “It’s not just that only vampires can be infected with it.
It’s a highly infectious disease that has a high fatality rate, too.
What do you think would happen if such a disease could only spread among vampires?”

“That’s, of course… A lot of them would die… The vampire race could even go extinct…!” Renil exclaimed.
His eyes opened wide and he continued, “Don’t tell me…!”

“Yes,” Kang Yoon-Soo said with a nod.
He then declared, “I’ll release that disease in Sanguineum.”

1.
Korean for ‘older sister’, used by men; it connotes a higher level of respect than ‘noona’ and is used mostly for women older than the speaker. ☜