Chapter 43: Day by Day (2)

Had Drei not visited the village regularly, the 31 E-series would have froze in their beds. To think he had done nothing to avert this crisis despite receiving their master’s bias and obtaining both power and the village chief’s daughter. From Drei’s perspective, he was too lackadaisical.

Drei stopped at only clicking her tongue because they had the same master and were comrades. Else she would drag E-31 out and order him to kill himself. All the more so, now that the EE-series was made a reality.

“Alright, I understand the situation. The lab should still have a stockpile of fire stones. I will discuss with our master and see if we can loan them out to you.”

“Really? Thank you!”

E-01 smiled widely. Drei felt the urge to click her tongue again.

Drei still could not find it in her to like this job. Drei’s personality was not a good fit for the role of being a middleman. She was easily annoyed by others and she had to force herself to not let it show. She found it troublesome to listen to others. Bluntly put, she found it tiring to converse with blokeheads.

If they were simply blokeheads, she could still endure it. But she hated those who were useless. For example, Charl was annoying but he has produced results in his job and research and the kid who was just born, Seis, was capable. Anyways, sometimes being stupid made the man cuter...Drei shook her head slightly to remove the thought. She was still at work in the company of the other party. These were just mass produced types so it wouldn’t be too big a problem in how she treated them, but still, it was her pride and her sense of aesthetics which made her refuse to treat work lightly.

She shifted her focus back to business.

“...Well, it’s all up to our master’s will. For the time being, this should resolve the lack of firewood. Changing the subject, what is the status of reproduction in the village?”

Drei was referring to the plan of pairing up elves to get them to replenish their numbers. Of course, Drei believed they were useless given that the EE-series project was successful. However, Tullius had other plans. He wanted to use them now as insurance if issues crop up with the EE-series down the road. They were made to think of children as precious beings to be protected. And if the brainwashing somehow weakens, they could use the children as hostages.

When she heard about it, she was impressed by how well thought out the plan was. There was the topic of maintaining genetic diversity for the continuation of the race and what not, but that was outside the expertise of Drei.

The village chief blushed when asked.

“Ah, of course. All females in the village have gotten it, it seems. There are 2 or 3 in the village with large bellies now, but by spring, we should see most of them with big bellies too. Hahaha.”

For the first time, Drei showed a smile.

“I see. That is most important.”

Having confirmed that things were going well, she felt a sense of satisfaction. When they rounded up the female elves who had troubles with conceiving a baby, aside from collecting their ova for use in the EE-series research, they decided to try artificial insemination while they were at it. It was just a little side project, but it looks like the master’s new experiment had gone well.

And with that, all of Drei’s concerns were addressed.

“Then that is the end of our discussion. I’ll be going back.”

“Eh? Already? How about staying for food and entertainment?”

“No need. You guys can keep your own meals for yourself.”

After giving a sharp reply, Drei stood from her seat.

They must have really wanted to give her a grand banquet but hunting must be difficult in the middle of the winter. It was likely that stored food like smoked meat would be served. If she wanted to have meat, she could just go back to the lab and thaw some frozen meat. As for drinks, rather than having the elves' favourite medicinal soup, she preferred to have Uni’s tea.

Turning a blind eye to E-01, who was trying her best to make Drei stay, Drei grabbed her long coat which was hanging at the wall. In the past, she wasn’t that fond of this attire, but lately, she found it fashionable. She had looked down on human culture, thinking that they were just vain monkeys, but after witnessing her master’s greatness and experiencing her comrade’s reliability, she adopted their practices and found it surprisingly decent. Also, if she was to ensnare human men, it was a good idea to learn the ways of humans. That was how Drei became preoccupied with fashion lately.

“Hmm...”

After leaving the hut, a strong gust of snow blew into her. It was unbelievable that she was actually at an elves’ village, which should be protected by a barrier. Drei’s attire came with anti cold properties, but just the sight of the blizzard was enough to feel the cold.

Let’s go back to the lab quickly. After that, I’ll just hole up in his room again. That guy is probably free all winter. While he was free, why not make the best of it and relieve some stress.

As she thought, a sudden shiver not caused by the cold went through her. Drei started to chant a teleportation spell.

※ ※ ※

That same day, Charl Franz Schmidt was merrily enjoying his hobby.

So long as his subordinates kept to their orders, Tullius had no qualms with whatever they were up to. Thus, once the research reached an appropriate stopping point, he could enjoy himself with nobody to bother him.

“Now then, time to get into my fun time again?”

“N-No! Let me go!”

Charl tugged on the chains connected to the collar on the slave while heading towards his playground. Today, he was waited upon by two women who had sadistic smiles.

“No, let me go...please!”

“Wahaha! Fool!”

The women, pale as a sheet, became excited. There were two exposed bite marks on the napes of their neck, where the slave collar should have been.

This was what happened to them after Charl bit them and sucked their blood.

“Noo, no! You are all mad!”

The female slave cursed them as she was pulled around like livestock. Among the slaves who he had kept in the underground labyrinth, she was the only survivor. The other two of them had succumbed to becoming Charl’s familiars. There was another one of them, but Charl had killed her on impulse while playing some game.

This poor slave was subject to potential death as she became a plaything for today.

“We’ve arrrrrrrived!”

Charl coarsely kicked open the door. The female slave shut her eyes instinctively. It wasn’t because she wanted to look away from the appalling sight of the room. It was just too bright.

“Ah!?”

“Aah! This place is…”

The female vampires shrieked suddenly. It was because therein lay their natural enemy.

“W-what…? What in the…?”

An incredulous sight lay before the slave as she opened her eyes.

Warm light filtered in through the ceilings. It wasn’t just some artificial light created by magic, which would have felt cold. It was sunlight which she had forgotten.

“Ahaha! Shocking isn’t it? That we can get direct sunlight from an underground space like this. If humans don’t bathe in some sunlight regularly, they would weaken. But that’s the opposite for vampires, haha!”

Charl boasted. The room, rather than being a room, was actually a large hall. It was spacious enough to be used for a noble’s dance party. At the center of the hall, sunlight poured through a circle. A chair and table was placed directly in the sunlight and there were countless other slaves, dressed in maid or butler uniforms enjoying themselves in the sunlight.

“Sir C-Charl…? Why are we going towards the unpleasant sunlight...”

“Charl would be fine but we would turn to ashes!”

The vampire lord threw a gloomy glance at his timid familiars.

“That’s an exaggeration...Not like we are in direct sunlight. Didn’t I bring you all here to enjoy ourselves? If you don’t like it, you can just go back, yeah? I’ll make sure to have some fun with you guys later.”

Both familiars let out a shriek.

More fun later...Charl’s definition of fun could be very different for them. After Charl was done playing with the female slaves, it could be their turn to be toys.

After hearing that, the two of them lost the courage to retreat away from the sunlight.

“N-no, no! Of course not!”

“Since C-Charl has invited us after all! We would be more than happy to!”

“Oh, really? ...Then let’s go all out! Uwahahha!”

Charl was in a good mood after being buttered up by his familiar.

The current scene looked no different from a cruel noble with his slaves. Even though their collars were removed, the familiars’ positions had not changed. On a single whim, the familiars could have their feeble heads removed.

“Opus-04, how may I help you?”

“Yo! Mass produced type! Sorry for disturbing your break time! How about playing over here?”

“Yes. No problem.”

The butler slave replied and the rest of the slaves quickly emptied the area.

“...How can we please you?”

The chained female slave feebly asked.

What was about to happen now couldn't be anything good. She would definitely become more pale the more she knew about Charl’s plans. But the less she knew, the more vivid her imagination of what was to come. Since she knew nothing, she expected a tragedy.