Chapter 1

Chapter 1 – Memories Of The Previous Life

Dean Nosferatu.

He’s the ‘Immortal Mage’ who lived for two hundred years, and the ‘Vampire King’ who uses blood as a medium for magic.

He is also known as ‘The lone Demon King who lives deep in the mountains’.

No one knows when the mage was born.

All is known of him is that he lives in an ancient castle on the frontier and continues to study magic in secret.

As the name ‘Immortal Mage’ implies, he remained young even after two hundred years.

It is said that he has monsters as his underlings that secretly scout the world, too.

The enigmatic ‘Immortal Mage’ Dean.

In spite of being called that, my time has now finally coming to an end.

“I’m impressed you’ve made it this far, Lyle Carmine”

I said to the one who came in through the door.

This place is my, Dean Nosferatu’s castle and here’s the innermost chamber.

It’s a large stone room with a carpet on the floor.

“…………So here you are. The Demon King…Dean Nosferatu”

The person who came in can be described as a young man, too.

He appears to be in his mid-twenties and is clutching a sword with both hands.

He is wearing a cloth suit and leather armor. His hair is scraggly, and his stubble is growing out.

Perhaps he has not slept for a long time. His eyes are sunken, with dark circles around them.

He is too shabby to be called the Hero.

The only respectable thing is the Holy Sword he holds in his hand.

But there’s no doubt that he came here with resolve.

I’ll have to respond accordingly.

“Follower of the ‘Sanctuary Church’. You’re trembling. And yet, you call yourself a Hero?”

“…………”

“You don’t even know how to hold a sword properly and you also seem to be nervous. Even so, do you really think you can kill this ‘Lone Demon King’ Dean Nosferatu?”

“…………”

“Come, Lyle Carmine, the Hero! This Dean Nosferatu will deal with you with all his might!”

“…………Da-”

“What’s wrong!? Are you chickening out!? And yet, you still call yourself a Hero!!”

“…………Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da!”

*Bam!*

“Damn ittttttt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Lyle slammed the Holy Sword on the floor and shouted.

“Damn it! Damn it! Damn ittttttt!!!!!! What is this farce!!”

“It’s a farce”

“Damn it, my Lord!! Why do I have to kill you!!”

“Don’t cry, you idiot. Just quickly pick up the sword and stick to the scenario, Lyle”

“…………My Lord”

“I thought we’ve made up our minds? In order to convince the ‘Sanctuary Church’ that you, the village chief, will kill Dean Nosferatu known as ‘The Immortal Mage’, ‘The Vampire King’ and ‘The Lone Demon King’” |Note: The Author labelled above the words ‘Sanctuary Church’ as Elysium Temple so both are interchangeable|

“What’s with the ‘Vampire King’! You never sucked blood, not even once!”

“Beats me”

After all, I’ve never called myself a ‘Vampire’ in the first place.

But I’m certainly a different creature from humans.

I don’t know when I was born.

The next thing I know, I’m already wandering the world in this form.

The reason I don’t age is because I have an ability to absorb the magic power permeating throughout the world.

My blood has magic power hundreds of times greater than that of humans.

Because it circulates around inside my body, I don’t age or get sick. Therefore, this is an innate ability that even I couldn’t do anything about it.

The reason they called me a ‘Vampire’ is because I used my own blood as research material for magic.

My blood has massive amount of magic power, so it is the perfect catalyst for my research on magic.

I came to this land a hundred and fifty years ago.

For the previous fifty years, I had been a wanderer, treated as a monster and chased by people.

Honestly, I don’t even want to remember it.

I consider finding this old castle on the frontier to be the greatest blessing I’ve ever had in my life.

From then on, it was a peaceful life.

On the mountain where the old castle was located, there were easygoing people who accepted me as a normal part of their lives.

Before I knew it, I had become the village’s guardian deity and quietly continued my research on magic.

I thought that such a life would go on forever, however….

Everything changed when a plague broke out—.

“You’ve done nothing wrong, my Lord!”

Lyle clenched his fists and burst into tears.

“You are the guardian deity of our village, our ageless parent, our family, our Lord and our teacher! You didn’t even perform any evil acts, so why do you have to die!!”

“As I said, stop crying and don’t shout. Aren’t you’re a village chief and the parent of a child?”

“If only the ‘Death Crest Disease’ hadn’t spread, none of this would have happened! You were only protecting the village, but those people from the ‘Sanctuary Church’………!!”

Jeez.

Lyle has always been a crybaby.

The ‘Death Crest Disease’ is a disease that began to spread a year ago.

When infected, black crests would appear on both arms, causing high fever and even death.

It seems that thousands of people had died in the Royal Capital.

The ‘Sanctuary Church’, a religious group in this country seems to be having a hard time dealing with it, too.

They preached that repentance of sin would cure the disease and instructed the patients to purify their bodies with Holy Water.

Even so, the death toll did not diminish, to the point where there’s not enough land in the Royal Capital to bury the dead.

Despite that, the ‘Sanctuary Church’ wasn’t criticized.

They did their best, so neither the people nor I have anything to complain about.

The problem is that not a single person died in our village.

In this ‘Fila Village’, I’ve taken thorough measures.

First of all, as soon as I heard the rumor of the ‘Death Crest Disease’, I’d quarantine all those suspected of being infected with the disease in this castle.

I knew from the past experience that epidemics are often airborne.

For example, even if it was a slight fever, I’d separate them from the others, and continued to take care of them until their fever went down.

I couldn’t catch a human disease, so it was the best way to take care of them.

The villagers were given filters made of the air-purifying ‘Ranimaru’s grass’ to cover their mouths.

Of course, I also made sure that they wash their hands and rinse their mouths thoroughly.

As a result, only five people in the village were infected, and no one died.

Only Alice—Lyle’s daughter, who had the most severe symptoms of all, had to be treated with my blood, but she is making good progress and is now well and has returned to the village.

However, the village attracted the attention of the ‘Sanctuary Church’ as not even a single person died.

The priests of the ‘Sanctuary Church’ summoned the village chief, Lyle and questioned him.

“How come no one died in your village?”, he asked.

They knew who I was.

And being the monster, I am just the right thing for them to lay the blame on.

So they said,

The ‘Immortal Mage’, Dean Nosferatu, may be responsible for the spread of the ‘Death Crest Disease’.

The reason why no one died in the ‘Fila Village’ is because the ‘Immortal Mage’ used his evil magic to turn the villagers into his underlings.

Then the ‘Sanctuary Church’ ordered the villagers of ‘Fila Village’.

‘If you are not made the servants of evil magic, kill Dean Nosferatu with this Holy Sword. This will prove that ‘Fila Village’ is innocent’, they said.

With the approval of the royal family.

They handed over a deed that if I’m killed, ‘Fila Village’ will become innocent.

To made sure of that, they sent their ‘Holy Knights’ to the village.

So that when Lyle fails to kill me, they would punish the villagers.

As a result, the village chief, Lyle came to kill me.

“Why me—why me! Why do I have to kill my Lord!! Even though you are our most beloved family member!!!!!!!!!”

“You know what, Lyle”

“What am I supposed to tell my daughter, Alice…she won’t even listen to me when she said she’d be your wife…”

“Because that child is still young. When she gets older, you’ll have to find her a human partner”

“Please, my Lord. Just run away…. As for the ‘Sanctuary Church’, we’ll try to cover it up. Beyond this old castle is the mountains. Those guys from the ‘Sanctuary Church’ can’t chase you that far. If they come after you, we’ll hold them off even if we have to fight, so…!”

“Do you even know what kind of organization the ‘Sanctuary Church’ is?”

“…………”

See? All quiet now.

The ‘Sanctuary Church’ is a powerful fighting organization that monopolizes ‘Ancient Magic’ and ‘Ancient Artifacts’.

They use what they found in the place known as the Holy Grounds to encroach on the royal families and nobles of various countries.

Even Lyle should know what would happen to make an enemy of them.

“If you let me go, all of you will be the ones to be hunted. Even the surrounding villages and towns will become the enemies of ‘Fila Village’”

“…Ugh”

“That’s enough. Give up and kill me, Lyle Carmine”

Time is running out.

I hear footsteps approaching. It’s probably the Holy Knights.

Because this is a small castle, so I guess there’s also a limit to how much time the people in the village can buy.

*Bam!*

The door of the room was slammed open, and the Holy Knights of the ‘Sanctuary Church’ barged in.

“The ‘Lone Demon King’, Dean Nosferatu!!” “We, the ‘Holy Knights’, will hammer you down!”

“—Wh-!?”

In response to the Holy Knight’s voice, Lyle held up the Holy Sword.

—Now’s the time.

“Foolish Holy Knights, do you think that you can defeat this Dean Nosferatu! For starters, I’m going to give this villager a bloodbath!!”

I jumped into the air.

Seeing that, Lyle was surprised.

And I fell on top of Lyle.

—Just as my heart hit the tip of the sword—

And then—

“—This hurts more than I expected”

Lyle’s holy sword has certainly pierced my chest.

That’s good.

“……‘My Lord’…you”

“…Don’t cry, you idiot”

Well, it wasn’t a bad life.

I never had children, but I did have a family of sorts.

Though I failed in the end.

Failing to live in hiding, being spotted by a huge organization, and being cornered helplessly….

But that’s okay. I think this is good enough.

“…Listen, after having me go through this much trouble, don’t mess this up, understand?”

“…U, uaa”

Lyle nodded silently at my instruction. Good.

I pushed Lyle’s shoulder and backed away from him.

“……As expected of the Hero”

I said.

At that moment, blood gushed out of my mouth.

It hurts. Really.

After all, I’m not an immortal just because I don’t age.

I will bleed if I’m stabbed with a sword, and if I’m fatally wounded…I will die.

My consciousness fades away…as my vision…becomes blurry.

I can’t get a good look at the blood-soaked Lyle and his holy sword.

Even so, I signaled him with my eyes. Without using any words, I convey to him.

…Lyle. You still have things to do, don’t you? So don’t just be in a daze.

Get ready. Take a breath and shout. Now.

“…Well, the evil mage Dean Nosferatu has been killed by the village chief, Lyle Carmine of ‘Fila Village’!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

—You have done well, Lyle.

This is as far as I go. I’ll leave the rest to you.

I will do what I need to do next….

(…Deploying magic. Freeing the soul from the body…)

I activated the magic I had prepared.

I knew this would happen, so I had a plan in place to deal with it afterwards.

There’s a bat…by the window.

I’ll now separate my soul from this body and transfer it into a bat familiar.

And by doing so, I can continue to live on in the bat…but—

Suddenly—I lost my strength.

…This is bad. I’m losing consciousness faster than I thought….

I need to…use…the soul transfer magic.

………Did it fail?

Guess it can’t be helped…huh.

I’ve failed a lot. I really did.

I should have gotten to know the humans better before all this happened.

Maybe that way, I wouldn’t have to involve the peace of Lyle and the others, too.

If there’s a next time, I’m going to study humans properly, and try to live like one—

“—Do you wish to reincarnate?”

A voice called out.

“You——have met the requirements for the reincarnation”

“——Thus, reincarnation is possible”

“Do you wish to reincarnate——in this world again?”

(…If possible)

I replied unconsciously.

“I’ve confirmed your consent”

The voice slowly fades away.

No, it’s my consciousness that’s fading away.

‘You will be reincarnated as a human’

And at the end of that voice, I lost consciousness—

“…see you”

I don’t know if I uttered those last words myself, or if it was just a thought,

It was like Lyle just nodded at it, or maybe it was just the way I felt,

Even now, I still don’t know.

That’s what I remembered on my 10th birthday.

Three years have passed since I regained the memories of my previous life. Currently, I’m thirteen years old.

I was reincarnated as the second son of a Baron family and continue to live on as it is.