Omniscient First-Person’s Viewpoint-Chapter 471: Even If You End Up Inside a Vampire, You Can Survive If You Keep Your Wits About You

A Yeiling was still a vampire. Their strength was at least on par with mine—if not greater—and they were immortal, wielding bloodcraft. They weren’t as overwhelmingly powerful as some other vampires, but they were still a pain to deal with.

"You’ve got quite the spacious stomach."

"If you don’t want to be digested, surrender. Once I lose control to hunger... not even a drop of your blood will remain."

She meant it. Bilitaire, the village chief, wasn’t even using her full power of devouring. The more she unleashed it, the greater her hunger, the stronger her thirst for blood.

But...

This is manageable.

I pulled my hand away from the wall and spoke.

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"Mother. I believe I’ve grown enough, and I’d like to be born now. Wouldn’t you show your fully grown child the world outside?"

"You still have the luxury to joke. Let me take some of that away."

At Bilitaire’s gesture, everything in the house rushed toward me. A wooden chair creaked as it took deliberate steps forward. A table and drawers followed, along with a wooden ladle.

Right. Wood.

"Did you know? Wood never dies. It only stops."

I clenched a card in my hand. The Spade 9, The Primordial Tree. Chopped by axes, dried under the sun, nailed into furniture—the tragic wood answered my call, rising for its revenge. Roots sprouted, branches extended, sharp spikes shot forward and impaled Bilitaire.

If she had been from Erzebeth’s bloodline—specialized in dominance—this wouldn’t have worked. But she was a Yeiling of the Blood Leech lineage. She lacked the bloodcraft needed to control wood that defied her will.

"Druidism? You follow two different faiths at once?"

"No. This is the vengeance of the trees you’ve slain! Savor their agony!"

Bilitaire broke the branches with her arms and legs, but the roots embedded in the hut kept growing. More branches extended endlessly, closing in on her vision.

Yes. Vampires could be wounded. They just healed quickly. Against them, it was easier than fighting a martial artist.

The furniture, however, kept advancing toward me, though its control had weakened. I wrapped up a rolling cauldron and poker with wire and took this chance to escape toward the door.

That’s when—

"...I don’t particularly like eating wood, but oh well."

Crunch. Crunch. The sound of chewing wood echoed.

I turned to see Bilitaire grabbing handfuls of leaves and branches, stuffing them into her mouth. The splintering wood disappeared into her stomach at an alarming rate.

Shockingly... she devoured the wood faster than the Primordial Tree could grow.

"That’s all fiber. You’re going to have a hard time in the bathroom."

"Gulp. No need to worry. I told you, didn’t I? This place... is my stomach."

As she spoke, hard tree bark sprouted from her skin.

Druidism was particularly weak against bloodcraft. Perhaps because of the difference between plants and animals, bloodcraft’s dominance always had the upper hand. Even against a Yeiling, the advantage remained.

"...Tch."

I jabbed a pick into the lock. Just as I felt it give way, red tree bark emerged from the door’s edges, sealing it shut. She had digested the wood and restructured it using the blood flowing through her.

Crunch. Bilitaire had already devoured the chair and table. Her bloated belly wobbled as she approached, looking like a pregnant woman.

I muttered, "Already getting a younger sibling? This place is too cramped for two, so I think I’ll head out first."

"You still have that sharp tongue. But I suppose I am too full to eat you right now... I’ll just hang you up instead."

When she said this place was her stomach, it wasn’t a metaphor. The blood running through this hut was her veins. Bilitaire could digest anything she consumed and integrate it into her bloodstream. That’s why, despite devouring the furniture, she could still move freely.

It was hard to believe she was on Finlay’s level in bloodcraft. Though, considering this was her home turf... if I’d fought Finlay seriously back then, I probably would have lost.

But the me from then and the me now are different. If we fight now—

I win.

Muttering my victory, I drew the Diamond 8 card. Everything thin and long. I grabbed both ends of the transmuted steel wire, pulling it taut. A single card unraveled into hundreds of strands, coiling around my hands.

"You still intend to fight? You’re as tenacious as a vampire."

I watched her bloated stomach shrink in real-time. At a glance, it looked like she was instantly metabolizing the excess mass, but in truth, she was releasing digested objects through her feet, dispersing them into the hut.

As long as she was interacting with this place, I couldn’t escape.

Then I just have to make it so she can’t interact with it.

"You know, the stomach is actually outside the body."

Wire wrapped around my hands as I secretly pulled out the Lightning Tangle. A bundle of steel wire infused with lightning. When combined, each wire became charged with electricity.

"The stomach isn’t truly inside the body. It’s just a temporary holding place for nutrients and waste. It’s separate from the bloodstream."

"You dare explain devouring to me?"

"Just in case you didn’t know."

"How considerate."

She had finished eating the wood. All that remained was metal. And vampires... had an affinity for controlling metal.

Bilitaire lunged with a knife. I spread my wire to block it, but she anticipated it. She slashed vertically, slicing through the wires effortlessly.

"Even with qi reinforcement, thin wires are just wires. Try harder. If you have no more tricks, this ends here."

Through the gap in the wires, Bilitaire stepped forward, exposing her entire body—except her knife.

It was a beast-like charge—an attack that used her own body as a shield. If needed, she’d tear into me with her fangs.

I grabbed the cut wires.

In truth, the wires weren’t cut. The only thing severed was the Lightning Tangle. The wire remained slack, waiting.

Bilitaire had mistaken lightning for qi and charged straight into the web.

As soon as I felt resistance, I kicked the cauldron forward. It rolled, tightening the wire.

"A net?"

Exactly. The card was designed as a net from the beginning.

"Hmph. This much won’t—!"

One cauldron wasn’t enough. She tore at the wires, dragging the net and me along with sheer force. Typical vampire brute strength.

"Set, re—"

That’s what I wanted. For the wire to dig into her flesh.

"—Volt!"

Electricity surged through the Lightning Tangle.

A bolt of lightning coursed through her body.

For the first time since becoming a vampire, Bilitaire experienced paralysis.

"What...? My body... moving on its own... stops?!"

It wasn’t just shock. It was disrupting her very perception of movement. Lightning had a natural advantage against vampires.

Bilitaire had centuries of experience. She quickly forced blood through her limbs, breaking free of the paralysis.

But it was too late.

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She was already ensnared in the net, suspended from the rafters.

She could no longer reach the hut’s floor. She had lost.

"What was that power just now...? Not alchemy... something else...?"

"The world always has something new."

I dusted off my hands and tapped the door. The blood flow had weakened. She couldn’t stop me anymore.

I unlocked the door and stepped outside—

"Ah. Before I go."

I stopped, hearing the murmurs outside, and turned to Bilitaire.

"Would you mind telling the villagers to scatter?"

Bilitaire, swaying from the ceiling, glared.

"...Why would I do that?"

"Because if they don’t, this entire village will be wiped off the map tonight."

Of course, it was a bluff. I had no real way of dealing with dozens of villagers wielding spears with farming tools tied to them. What was that even supposed to be? A spear with a sickle attached? The balance was all over the place—swing it wrong, and they’d cut their own legs. And I wouldn’t even be able to read their thoughts fast enough to dodge properly.

Sure, I was stronger now. I could win.

But I wasn’t a vampire. I wasn’t about to risk getting stabbed by a bunch of rusted, jagged spears.

Regardless of my own thoughts, to Bilitaire, I was a greater threat than the villagers. And a master does not send their livestock to war.

Rights and obligations are always tied together—if you have no rights, you have no obligations.

Bilitaire accepted her loss with a composed expression and shouted:

“...All of you, listen. Stand down immediately and return to your homes.”

“Huh? Chief, what are you saying...?”

“Now! Are you all refusing to obey me?!”

Her voice boomed through the village, and the gathered villagers hesitated before slowly lowering their weapons. They had no obligation to fight. They were sheep, moving as their vampire master commanded.

The sounds of footsteps grew distant. I waited until they fully dispersed before speaking again, this time calmly.

“May I ask you something?”

“...Go ahead.”

“I’m looking to escape the Principality. Where can I find a broker who arranges passage?”

This village was in the remote outskirts of the Principality. And Bilitaire was a vampire who had lived for nearly five centuries. She must have heard something.

She responded reluctantly.

“...And why would I tell you?”

“If you don’t, this hut is going up in flames. And you’ll be left exposed to the sunlight.”

Another lie.

I had no means of burning down a hut soaked in blood. And Bilitaire knew that. She had seen the extent of my abilities. She knew I couldn’t incinerate this place in an instant.

And yet... she answered.

“If you cross the valley and head west up the mountains, you’ll reach barren land where trees stop growing. Follow the last tree line along the ridge, and you’ll see a peak shrouded in clouds. There are rumors that people cross through there. Go see for yourself.”

A vampire’s words.

Of course, a lie.

‘Ain guards that peak. The Bloodstained Clan’s hound, Collie. If you approach recklessly, you’ll be torn apart.’

Still, that was valuable information. It was much easier than searching aimlessly.

"Thanks. That was very helpful. I'll be on my way now."

With a casual wave, I stepped through the doorway and into the sunlight.

Hah. I actually won against a Yeiling.

The realization made me a little proud of my own growth. I strolled through the now-empty village with ease. I could sense humans peering at me from within their barns and homes, but it didn’t matter. They were cattle—they had no rights or obligations.

...All except for one.

“You... it was you. What did you do to the Chief...?”

It was the girl I had encountered before I dug the tunnel. She had seen me once before, and whether it was her youthful naïveté or sheer stubbornness, she didn’t seem to understand fear.

She stood before me, gripping a spear she clearly didn’t know how to use.

A pointless stand. She was even weaker than the average human. She had no chance against me. She was supposed to obey the adults—but she didn’t.

“Heh. The Chief couldn’t stop me. Do you really think you can?”

“Answer me!”

She brandished her spear threateningly, but I just shrugged.

“What you should be doing right now isn’t stopping me.”

“...What?”

“You should be saving the Chief.”

“...S-Saving the Chief?”

“Hurry. You’re the only one who can do it. Unless...”

I ran a hand through my hair and suddenly stared her down, coldly.

“If you want to fight me instead... then the life the Chief tried to protect will be forfeit.”

The girl inhaled sharply. Her hands trembled so violently that the tip of her spear shook like a leaf in the wind.

I stepped aside, ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) holding out my hand as if offering a path.

“If you’re going to help her, I won’t stop you. But if you’re thinking of getting in my way—then this conversation ends here.”

Her decision came swiftly. She hesitated, then darted past me, sprinting toward the Chief’s hut.

I exhaled an internal sigh of relief.

Whew. That was close. If I’d moved wrong, I might’ve actually gotten stabbed.

Tsk. Even with mind-reading, her attack trajectory was a mess.

She thought she was aiming precisely, but to my eyes, the spear wobbled like a drunken butterfly.

Even with telepathy, I couldn’t predict it. In a way, her spear was more dangerous than a vampire’s attack.

Still, I managed to talk my way through it.

Keeping up my casual facade, I turned toward the path Bilitaire had so kindly provided.

A glimmer of hope for escape.

...But still.

Even after all this chaos, Hilde still hasn’t shown up.

Did she really run away?

Just where the hell did she go—leaving me behind?!

***

“Hah~. I wonder if Father even realizes how much I sacrificed.”

Hilde sighed, thinking about the ‘Father’ she had left behind.

“Ugh. And of course, the last audience I wanted to lose had to see me like this. Looks like I’ll have to play my part~. I didn’t want to leave just a letter, but...”

It was an unavoidable choice.

To escape, she had to do this.

She wasn’t worried.

He was the King of Humans.

No matter what hardships he faced, he would overcome them. She had no evidence—but she believed it instinctively.

Besides, if they stayed together...

She would become useless.

Her strength lay in disguise and deception. She could be anyone, anywhere.

She had infiltrated a pursuing force just to break through their encirclement. She had lived as a village woman only to assassinate the invading bandit leader and take his place.

But with him by her side, she couldn’t transform.

One of her greatest abilities would be sealed.

So she left him.

To make their escape more certain.

Hilde chuckled as she ran a hand over her face.

The playful, smug girl vanished.

In her place... was a man’s face.

A familiar one.

Hughes.

She pressed her fingers to her throat, adjusting her voice.

“Well~. I’ve gathered enough data by now~. His face, voice, speech patterns... even his body movements.”

She took a step, adjusting her gait.

If even Tyrkanzyaka saw her now, she might not realize the difference—at least for a while.

Her face changed.

Her voice shifted.

Her presence transformed.

She was no longer Hilde.

She was him.

“...An audience, huh?”

She murmured.

“In the end, am I really just an actor?"

It had always been this way.

She acted for the fathers in the brothels.

She acted for the nobles in the theaters.

She acted while fleeing from her pursuers.

Survival was an act.

Her very existence was an act.

"Tsk. I should’ve just stuck with the King of Humans from the start."

Hilde’s lips curled as she whispered.

"I am Hughes. The King of Humans."

And the Faceless One had returned.

The archmagus who once plunged the Empire and the Principalities into chaos...

Had reappeared.