The Swordmaster Wants To Live Peacefully [EN]: Chapter 166

Swordmaster Wants to Live Peacefully – Episode 166

Swordmaster Wants to Live Peacefully – 166

Vlad Tepes (3)

Leaving the Romanian Presidential Palace, Yu Seong-woo and his party began to explore the city in earnest.

Vlad confidently said it was fine to look around the city.

Was it because he really had nothing to hide, or was he confident they wouldn’t get caught?

“They don’t seem to know about me. Is Romania a closed-off country?”

“It’s quite closed off. Romania didn’t even participate in the Abyss competition that took place in Northern Europe this time.”

All the top guilds in Europe would have been interested, but Vlad’s family in Romania didn’t make a move.

Even though Vlad Tepes was in the position of boss at this time, he should have been interested enough.

There were several other reasons, so they concluded that it was a relatively isolated country.

“Let’s grab a coffee and look around,” Yu Seong-woo suggested.

Yu Seong-woo and his party went to a nearby cafe. Like the restaurants, the cafe was nearly empty.

The cafe owner greeted them with a very kind attitude, as if he hadn’t had customers in a long time.

“It’s amazing that businesses like this don’t close down in a place like this.”

“…We have to make a living, at least. These are difficult times.”

“It must be tough. Do you have any complaints about the Vlad family? Aren’t they the ones to blame for all this?”

The cafe owner’s face turned pale when the name Vlad Family came up.

As if he had heard something he shouldn’t have, he shuddered and shook his head.

“It’s a big deal if you go around asking about that! Really! Please be careful.”

Bathory also warned him not to ask such questions.

Yu Seong-woo understood the situation roughly.

It was similar to going to North Korea and asking, ‘How is the Supreme Leader doing these days?’

The Vlad Family was the most powerful entity in Romania.

It was the embodiment of fear politics, wielding both force and power.

There were eyes and ears everywhere, so if you said something wrong, you could be dragged away.

And you would never see the light of day again.

“Get a grip, Seong-woo, Seong-woo,” Shua-nel mumbled, having woken up at some point. She casually sprawled on the chair, took a gulp of Yu Seong-woo’s chocolate latte as if she was trying to get rid of a hangover, and said, “When you’re in another’s land, isn’t it right to follow the ways of that land?”

“Hmm, that’s right, but it sounds like nonsense when you say it.”

Yu Seong-woo ordered another chocolate latte.

Then, he sat comfortably in his chair and continued, “So, where are you planning to start the investigation? You’re not thinking of foolishly going around everywhere, are you?”

“Huh? I was planning to go around?”

“Do it yourselves then.”

He was a mage, but terribly inefficient.

Romania was so vast, and she was spouting nonsense about going around the whole place.

Shouldn’t mages have a smarter approach?

Bathory, with a slightly embarrassed face, protested at Yu Seong-woo’s declaration, “Ah, no, what are you talking about?!”

“Why is a mage trying to do things so inefficiently? You’ll grow old and die if you check everything one by one.”

Yu Seong-woo realized after saying that telling a witch that she would grow old and die would have no effect, but he wore an expression that told her to come up with a more reasonable method.

It was a face that said he would not cooperate unless she came up with something better than checking everything one by one.

Bathory had to persuade him somehow.

“But, this is the only sure way. If we only investigate certain areas, we’re bound to miss something. It will take some time, but this is the most reliable approach.”

“I came here to deal with Chepesh, not to go around every nook and cranny of Romania.”

He didn’t want to waste a lot of time. He had so much to do; he couldn’t stay in Romania for days.

“You fools. Instead of thinking about investigating all of Romania, isn’t it faster to investigate the culprit directly?”

“If that were possible, we wouldn’t be doing this.”

“I’ve attached a grasshopper spirit [a type of familiar spirit]. This great high elf is doing it for you incompetent ones.”

Come to think of it, Chepesh hadn’t seen through Shua-nel’s disguise.

When doing external activities, Shua-nel casts a disguise spell to make herself look like a human, but Chepesh didn’t seem to know it was a disguise, even after seeing her.

That meant his magical skills were inferior to Shua-nel’s.

That meant the spirit Shua-nel had attached wouldn’t be detected either.

“When did you do that?”

“It’s not for nothing that this body is the highest branch [referring to her status as a powerful elf]. It’s because I was a wiser and stronger elf than anyone else.”

‘You’ve only gained useless skills.’

She didn’t seem to be like this when I first saw her.

Yu Seong-woo didn’t bother to say what he was thinking.

Shua-nel had definitely done well.

“As expected, you have a lot of experience from living so long!”

“…It’s the wisdom of a long-lived species.”

“I was completely fooled too. I thought you wouldn’t wake up until tomorrow, drooling all over the place from being drunk. So you were just pretending to sleep.”

‘No, I really fell asleep……’

He didn’t say that he had done it instinctively because of the ominous magic flowing from Chepesh.

Yu Seong-woo looked at Shua-nel again.

From a slightly useful game-addicted high elf to a reasonably good game-addicted high elf.

“Then let’s watch while sightseeing for a few days. We might discover something from Chepesh’s movements.”

“Okay. Let’s do that.”

And three days passed.

* * *

“That guy, he doesn’t budge from the Presidential Palace.”

“He’s been holed up for three days? Shua-nel?”

“……”

Shua-nel clenched her small hands into fists and pounded Yu Seong-woo.

But he didn’t budge and asked, “Can your spirit even distinguish between underground and above ground?”

“Do you think I can’t even do that much? Of course, I can. But he’s not moving from one place and staying still. It seems like other people are coming and going frequently, though.”

“Bathory, what do you think?”

“Ummm… I’m not sure about this either.”

“Wait.”

As if something was bothering him, Yu Seong-woo thought for a moment, then grabbed Bathory’s wrist and pulled her towards him.

Then, he put his nose to her head, sniffed, and frowned.

“What are you doing?!”

Bathory hurriedly stepped back and looked at Yu Seong-woo as if he were crazy.

Yu Seong-woo, who had released her wrist, frowned and said, “I smell something.”

“…I, does it smell that much? Really?”

“It smells like blood. Bathory, you were a vampire too.”

“Yes.”

It wasn’t exactly a secret.

Bathory Erzsébet [historical figure known as the Blood Countess].

She was a high-ranking vampire who could wield the power of blood.

Yu Seong-woo recalled the basic characteristics of vampires.

Not being able to walk around during the day was for lower-ranking vampires.

Sharp fangs, pale skin, etc.

Generally, they were creatures that were active at night, so their pigmentation was light.

‘And, they have a strong smell of blood.’

The higher the vampire, the stronger the smell of blood.

The strong scent of blood from Bathory was more of a refreshing feeling mixed with fruity scents than a purely bloody smell.

The smell was different for each vampire in that way, but the fact that it was fundamentally the smell of blood was the same.

It was a fact that he had forgotten because he had become too accustomed to the smell of blood for several years, but……

Vampires have several times to dozens of times less blood than ordinary people, so the smell of blood is even stronger.

However.

“Chepesh didn’t smell like blood. He didn’t smell like other perfumes either, so we should consider it unscented. At least that young body is not a vampire.”

“Isn’t it possible to erase the smell of blood by using special methods?”

“I know that it’s impossible to erase the scent of a vampire, let alone an artificial scent. Is that possible for you?”

“…I don’t have any particular methods that come to mind. Like spraying perfume?”

“Then it would be an even more terrible smell.”

For ordinary humans, the smell of blood is a terrible smell.

Yu Seong-woo’s nose was especially sensitive, so if Chepesh had smelled like blood, he would have noticed it right away.

“What’s in the Presidential Palace is a doll [a magically controlled body or puppet]. Vampires are also good at seduction, so it must be mental magic.”

The outline was gradually taking shape.

Bathory was inwardly surprised when explanations came out of Yu Seong-woo’s mouth one after another.

He was lazy about everything and only good at using a sword, but was he also a person who could use his head well?

She asked, “Isn’t there also a possibility that Chepesh is… innocent? Looking at him staying quietly in the Presidential Palace.”

“What are you talking about? I didn’t trust that guy from the beginning. It’s obvious from his face that he’s up to something.”

Yu Seong-woo had faced many adversaries for decades.

Perhaps the density of his life was even higher than Bathory’s in front of him.

Almost every day, a powerful person came to him, and those who envied Yu Seong-woo’s strength did not hesitate to try and kill him.

Those guys all had greed written all over their faces.

No matter how nice they looked, they couldn’t perfectly control their expressions.

They couldn’t escape the Swordmaster’s senses.

If they perfectly controlled their expressions in front of him, that would also be a problem.

It meant they weren’t human.

As long as they were human, there was bound to be a very small change, but if all the facial muscles maintained a constant state, they were undead, or monsters artificially created.

Besides, Yu Seong-woo secretly probed around with his aura when he met Chepesh.

“If you don’t expect anything, you won’t be betrayed.”

“…Then, we should meet Chepesh again.”

“We should. Rather than recklessly stirring up the place where that guy’s main body is.”

“…I’m sorry about that. How many days are you going to keep bringing that up?”

Bathory recalled what Jeanne had said.

When she asked what kind of person Yu Seong-woo was……

-He’s persistent and petty in strange ways. Really. Really.

Jeanne answered like that.

But she didn’t seem to dislike it, so she thought she had a rough idea of what it was like.

After spending a few days together, she felt like she knew even less.

* * *

“Your Highness Vlad, we are about to leave Romania.”

“I commend you for your hard work. You have done well.”

The next day, Yu Seong-woo and his party requested an audience with Chepesh.

And they were able to meet again in the reception room of the Presidential Palace.

“Thank you. Thanks to your consideration, we were able to look around and see how wonderful Romania is.”

There was no other country as messed up as this.

However, Bathory couldn’t say that in front of Chepesh, so she swallowed it and continued, “But I have a few questions, so I would like to ask for permission to ask them.”

“I permit it.”

“I think there is an unlucky energy in the city. People are reluctant to go out, and most of the restaurants are closed. Were you aware of this, Your Eminence?”

“Of course. The unlucky energy will soon be gone. On the day I rise to become the true absolute being.”

Bathory stalled, trying to buy as much time as possible.

Until Shua-nel could catch the magical connection between the young Chepesh’s body in front of her and the main body.

Yu Seong-woo was bored, so he tried to imitate what Shua-nel was doing.

Manipulating magic delicately and meticulously to find the faint strings that exist in the atmosphere.

In his case, it was aura, but when he closed his eyes and concentrated, he could see quite a lot.

A faint blood-colored magic floating in the atmosphere.

It was the vampire’s unique magic flowing from Bathory.

And a gray line connected from Chepesh’s body.

‘…Huh?’

He slightly opened his eyes and looked to the side. Shua-nel was still struggling with her eyes closed, as if she hadn’t found it yet.

How could a mage be slower than a swordsman like himself?