***
At dawn, before the first light of day had broken the horizon…
Urgent news arrived at King Herodes’ royal palace.
A close aide, upon receiving the message, urgently sought out the king.
“Is His Majesty in?”
“He just woke up coughing.”
“I bring urgent news. Please tell him I have come.”
Alarmed by the aide’s urgency, the royal servant turned pale and rushed into the king’s chamber.
“What is the meaning of disturbing my sleep?”
“Your Majesty!”
King Herodes, clad in a white muslin nightgown with a fur cloak thrown over it, grumbled, unable to hide his irritation.
Despite appearing surprisingly youthful for someone nearing fifty, the years had clearly left their mark in the sharp lines around his eyes.
“A swarm of rats suddenly appeared in the western granary region and overran a village. They devoured not only grain but even people. The entire village has turned into a living hell!”
“What?!”
Any traces of sleep vanished from the king’s face in an instant.
While it was known that rats could move in swarms, a direct and purposeful attack on a human settlement was unthinkable. Clearly, someone was controlling them.
And there was only one person capable of such a feat—
The Rat Tamer (Rattenfänger).
It could only be Menorah Olok.
As a follower of the Strigon, the king had been deeply interested in vampires even before his involvement with them. He had secretly conducted extensive research and thus knew more than most.
The king was convinced that the figure appearing in the granary region was Olok.
‘But until now, Olok had always acted passively… Why would he suddenly attack a city?’
Just as the king pondered this, more aides burst in and shouted.
“Your Majesty, the citizens of the capital have lost all sense of decency—they’re engaging in wanton acts of lust, ignoring even the presence of others. But then suddenly, they began biting and killing each other. We can’t determine the cause!”
“Noctiluca is the same! Starting with the opera house, where high-ranking nobles had gathered for the Lantern Festival auction, unexplained explosions are occurring throughout Noctiluca. Nobles and innocent citizens alike are being killed!”
“Urgh…”
Hearing the news that people were dying in various places from unknown causes, the king let out a heavy groan.
But it wasn’t grief over the people’s deaths that weighed on him.
While his aides remained clueless, the king immediately realized the truth.
The strange events in the capital could only be the work of Menorah Mirkala. To seduce and corrupt so many people at once would require someone of her caliber—and seduction was her specialty.
Then that would make the culprit behind the tragedies in Noctiluca…
‘Strigon.’
The king let out a sigh of despair.
It was incredibly rare for vampires—especially powerful ones like the Menorahs—to act in concert like this. Even more so when their actions appeared to be deliberate and coordinated.
The king instinctively realized that the orchestrator behind all this was Strigon.
From what he had heard, Olok and Mirkala had little interest in the mortal realm. Only Strigon had ever shown a desire to interfere in this world in such a way.
‘Damn it. If he was going to cause trouble, he could’ve at least given me a heads-up! This shows utter disregard for my dignity!’
Though he claimed to be a follower of Strigon, the king’s inner thoughts were anything but reverent.
Naturally so. He had only pledged allegiance to Strigon for the sake of eternal life, not out of worship or admiration.
The king had studied vampires in the hopes of uncovering the secret to their immortality.
Though his research had yielded no useful results, it had drawn Strigon’s attention. So it wasn’t all in vain.
When Strigon offered him a way to gain eternal life without becoming a vampire, the king immediately accepted and became his follower.
But even from the start, the king’s true plan had been to learn Strigon’s secrets and one day break free from his control.
However, once bound as a follower, escaping that yoke was impossible. And there was no way Strigon would let go of a useful servant like the king.
Thus, even to his dying breath, the king would remain Strigon’s puppet—constantly on edge, reacting to his every move…
‘No. I won’t let that happen.’
Someday, he would break free from Strigon’s grip.
But for now, he had no choice but to humble himself and go along with Strigon’s whims.
To do that, he first needed to find out what had angered Strigon. With a displeased scowl, the king furrowed his brow and asked a servant.
“There was an auction held in Noctiluca, right? Was there anything unusual about it?”
“Yes. The entire kingdom was in an uproar over a painting by Laurus being put up for bid.”
A painting by Laurus. Yes, he had heard of that. If his mind hadn’t been occupied by other matters, he might have taken an interest himself.
‘But someone as arrogant as Strigon wouldn’t care about a painting by some mere human…’
“…Bring me the auction catalog!”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
The servant quickly returned with the auction list. The king scanned the seemingly endless inventory—and soon discovered Strigon’s true target.
“Van Drake’s remains! Damn it!”
No one knew better than the king just how much Strigon hated Van Drake.
Whenever Strigon spoke of Van Drake, the hatred he revealed was far beyond what one might feel toward a natural enemy. It was more like the fury of a spurned lover or an irreconcilable mortal feud.
Though he had no choice but to rely on humans to bring about the annihilation of the Van Drake lineage, Strigon clearly regretted not being able to destroy them with his own hands.
Before Van Drake’s downfall, Strigon had kept a low profile, concealing his existence to fan the flames of public resentment. But now, he had no reason to hide.
And now, Van Drake’s remains had resurfaced—right in front of him. Of course he would want to claim them, if only to vent his rage.
In short, the bones of Van Drake were a ticking time bomb.
And the king didn’t need to check the list to know exactly who had put them up for auction.
“Those useless fools from the Church of Lamphas!”
The king had once drawn the Lamphas Faith faction into his schemes, exploiting their internal conflict with the Divine Faction.
But the Faith faction were not easy to manipulate. Using their conflict with the Divine Faction—who opposed banishing Van Drake—as an excuse, they continually delayed responding to the king’s offers.
Eventually, they claimed that in order to persuade the Divine Faction, they would need to recover Van Drake’s relics themselves.
The king, who needed the Faith’s cooperation to fulfill Strigon’s orders, had no choice but to agree.
Among the items seized by the Church of Lamphas… was Van Drake’s corpse.
The king hadn’t cared what they did with the rest—as long as he got what he wanted. But he hadn’t expected them to pull such a reckless stunt with the remains.
“To think they would provoke the Menorahs—who’ve been dormant until now—just to smear the name of the dead! Is there anything more foolish?!”
The king didn’t even need to ask who was behind this reckless move within the Church of Lamphas.
‘Cardinal Ginsel… It must be him.’
Cardinal Ginsel, head of the Faith, was none other than the father of the current pope, Lucerne IV, a boy who rose to papal power due to his exceptional holy powers. Since then, Ginsel had seized control of the church behind the scenes.
Ginsel was obsessed with raising the Church of Lamphas’s authority using the legend of Van Drake. Compared to the field-based Divine Faction, Ginsel’s scholarly faction underestimated the danger of vampires.
And now, in his eagerness to cement his own power, he had effectively sawed off the branch he sat on.
The king reflected grimly on the aftermath of Ginsel’s actions.
If Strigon had only been interested in reclaiming Van Drake’s bones, he wouldn’t have needed to stir up this much chaos—or mobilize the other Menorahs.
Perhaps, Strigon simply wanted to mock humanity.
After all, it was humans themselves who had opened the gate and invited the wolf in—tearing down their own fences with their own hands. Wasn’t that the ultimate irony?
