Mistaken for a Masked Munchkin

A Few Reflections

"Haa... what a rough night."

Creak. Click.

The moment I stepped into the room, I dropped onto one end of the sofa.

Melting fatigue. I let the cushions take my weight.

That loose, languid feeling of release.

'Since taking over this body, today had probably been the toughest yet.'

My whole body ached, every muscle sore.

I lay there, mind drifting.

A stale taste lingered in my mouth for no reason I could name.

Over two hundred survivors. A record never set even in the original game, and yet...

'I couldn't save them all.'

The thought came anyway.

No matter what outrageous things I'd managed to pull off, saving everyone had been impossible. Those who were already corpses, or ghouls too far gone to survive. No amount of trick parrying would have done anything for them. By the time I arrived at the ranch, it was already too late.

"Huu..."

A long exhale.

After staring at so much red all through the night, I couldn't quite settle. The people I hadn't been able to save kept nagging at me, and the question crept in -- could I have done better?

'It couldn't be helped.'

I was no superhuman. Certainly not the saint those people at the ranch had made me out to be.

Believing you could overturn every tragedy was arrogance. Falling apart over those you couldn't save was its own kind of vanity.

But that's what humans were. Sometimes arrogant, sometimes vain.

I was human too. Of course it got to me.

"......"

Quiet settled in.

As I lay there, someone drifted into view.

A girl peeking over the back of the sofa. Silver hair. Red eyes.

Carmilla leaned in, watching me carefully, as though gauging my mood.

"Your Highness?"

"Viktor."

At the sound of her name, she quietly settled down beside me.

Something she wanted to say, perhaps.

"You worked hard tonight."

"I've lost count of how many times I've heard that. You worked just as hard, Your Highness."

"I can't seem to find the right words. I don't know how to express how grateful I am..."

"What are you saying? Tonight was an outing I insisted on."

"No... I truly learned a great deal. And felt it, too."

A steady, serious gaze.

In front of it, any playfulness died.

The last heir of a fallen dynasty. The one who had witnessed her own people brought to ruin.

"Only today did I realize it. We have been walking a deeply wrong path."

"Your Highness."

"The New Kingdom... I knew it was built on an anti-human foundation, so I expected hostility, but I never imagined it had fallen this far. All dignity thrown to the floor, composure nowhere to be found. And then the cries of so many who had suffered because of it..."

"It is not your fault, Your Highness."

"No... it is a kingdom I should have shouldered. How can it not be my fault? This happened because I was weak, because the kingdom was stolen from me while I stood helpless. I failed to carry on the peace my ancestors had preserved for hundreds of years."

Deliberate. Measured.

Self-reproach in every syllable -- and yet, bitter as the words were, composure lived in each one.

"Everything must be set right. Before something truly irreversible comes to pass."

"......"

"Viktor."

"Yes, Your Highness."

"If... that day, in the sewers. If you hadn't saved me, this chance would never have come. The chance to set everything right. I would have simply been executed with my kingdom already stolen, and remembered as the most helpless princess in history."

A smile that was bitter, but not entirely so.

The corners of her mouth curved with something tender.

"Thank you. For giving me the chance to stand. The chance to become noble again."

"I only did what a faithful servant should."

"And... you'll stay by my side going forward, won't you? I'm grateful for that too."

"Of course. Always."

"Mm, mm..."

An answer without hesitation. The princess seemed pleased.

She hesitated a moment, then slowly tilted toward me and reached out her arms.

Fwump.

She hugged me tight, then pulled back.

For all the hesitation, it had been a fairly bold move. Through the thin shirt, I could feel the warmth of her pressed against me.

Vampires being a conservative race, I had assumed this kind of display would be difficult for her...

'...Well. It clearly was.'

Sure enough, her ears had flushed bright red. Heat crept up her cheeks too.

Unable to meet my eyes, Carmilla stumbled through her thanks.

"Th... that was, as a-a gesture of gr-gratitude..."

"I see."

I didn't point it out. Teasing her when she was trying this hard would just be cruel.

Instead, I reached out and stroked her hair.

"Viktor...?"

She really was something.

Last night had been hard for her too. She had stood against her own kind, and witnessed every ugliness they had committed. For Carmilla, who held such fierce pride in her race, it must have taken its toll.

And yet, rather than sulking alone, she had come to thank me -- her own servant.

"Hehe."

As always, my princess was worth serving.

I ran my hand slowly through her silver hair. Like soft silk dissolving under my fingertips. A faint warmth, shared quietly between us.

"Mmph... always doing this, pawing at me like this... truly the most disloyal servant..."

A small, grumbled complaint.

The tension bleeding out, sleep pressing in. Carmilla was half-melted, sliding down the sofa.

"You should sleep in the bedroom, Your Highness."

"Mmmng..."

I lifted her gently, carried her to the bed, and tucked the soft blanket around her. Then I turned off the mana lamp. The room went dark.

In the darkness, only her crimson eyes gave off a faint glow -- dreamlike even now, blinking slow and heavy.

"Sweet dreams."

"You too, Viktor..."

Sheer exhaustion, probably. She was out the moment she hit the pillow.

I laughed quietly and left the bedroom.

"Have to pull myself together."

I had been troubled in more ways than one, but thanks to the princess, some of the gloom had lifted.

I settled at one end of the living room table. My hands found their way to my inventory without thinking, and I pulled out the notebooks I had stashed inside.

"Hm..."

Things I had taken from the ranch. More precisely, from the room of that bastard they called the commander.

I turned the pages one by one, looking for anything useful.

'Most of this I already know.'

Rough notes on upcoming events and plans. And as expected, the biggest framework running through all of it was 'Crimson Night.'

The calamity that would shoot the sun from the sky and dye the heavens blood red. In the original game, the event corresponding to the Fourth Calamity.

'Time to start taking these down one by one.'

I flipped to the last page.

A single sentence written in cipher.

[This plan was recorded by Jersian.]

Jersian.

One of the key figures on the New Kingdom's side. One of those who had pushed this Ranch Project forward.

With how much he knew, he would need to be thoroughly stripped of it.

'The next target, then.'

The moment that thought crossed my mind, a quest popped up. Reliable as ever.

Ding!

[Main Quest]

-Title: The Water Knows the Answer!

-Objective: Secure the New Kingdom vampire 'Jersian.' Break him through various means of persuasion.

-Failure Penalty: Progression of the Fourth Calamity, 'Crimson Night,' accelerated.

-Success Reward: ???

[Time Limit: 150 days]

So even this counted as a quest.

Looking at the time remaining, there was no particular rush. After all, it could be bundled with an upcoming event and handled in one go.

I closed my wandering thoughts.

"Morning already."

I shut the thick notebook.

The horizon was beginning to glow, the first light of dawn creeping in. Leaning back on the sofa, I let myself drift into that languid half-waking state.

Just as I was savoring that quiet.

"...Oh. That's right."

Something I had forgotten flashed through my mind.

With such a packed schedule, there had been one thing I had just tossed aside and left...

"The exclusive weapon!"

The item I had gotten after clearing Purgatory Floor 70, too contaminated to use at the time. I had left it soaking in the inner bathroom, submerged in holy water to purify it. And with one thing after another, days had slipped by without me checking on it.

Ding!

[Exclusive weapon 'Dragon's Scale' refinement complete.]

-Result obtained: ???

The status window confirmed it.

Straight to the second bathroom.

My breath caught, just a little.

It had been the weapon I had relied on most across my old playthroughs. And on top of that, it had fantastic synergy with the Evil God's Mask.

"Let's have a look then..."

The bathroom. The lid I'd set over the bathtub was still in place.

I reached out carefully and lifted it off.

The moment the inside was revealed --

"...!"

Flash.

A blinding stream of light flooded the entire bathroom.

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