The Freed Slaves Are Obsessed-Chapter 196: Hansel and Gretel (2)

There was no need to state the obvious—the Holy Kingdom was in complete chaos.

Vampires had appeared once again.

And this time, there were dozens of them.

From ordinary believers to Holy Knights and nuns, no one was spared. As their numbers grew, so did the scale of destruction.

This was nothing like before.

Amid the turmoil, a rumor began to spread.

"They say it’s a curse turning believers into vampires. That the balance has been broken, causing divine power to transform into demonic energy."

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It wasn’t that vampires had infiltrated the city, nor was it a case of people being turned through bites. The very balance that maintained order had shattered, and now the believers themselves were transforming.

There was no other explanation for why vampires were appearing so suddenly.

The Holy Kingdom had already been shaken after the Slave Reaper won his trial. Now, with the rise of vampires, this rumor was no longer dismissed as mere nonsense.

Instead, it gained momentum and rapidly became accepted as truth.

For Marcenus and his faction, this was undeniably a stroke of fortune. Not only had the Saint they had long prayed for suddenly appeared, but she was also aligned with their cause.

However—

"Our dear Saint is making quite the spectacle of herself, isn’t she~?"

"Indeed."

Roman and Matilda exchanged sardonic smiles.

At this point, Elise was nothing more than an unleashed hunting dog.

Last night, Sister Rae had turned into a vampire and met a gruesome end. The abbess, Matilda, knew it was Elise’s doing, so she felt no sorrow over the matter.

But Rae had been raised under her care since childhood. Thanks to Elise’s reckless rampage, a valuable asset had been lost.

She wielded excessive power and rampaged freely, yet there was no means to control her. And to make matters worse, the vessel of God—the Saint—was legally a slave. It was maddening.

"Is there no way to restrain her?"

"There is! There absolutely is! We just have to make the Saint our slave!"

"Is that even possible?"

"Of course! Half of her is vampire, after all!"

The demonic race was composed of various beings—vampires, demons, skeletons—any creature infused with demonic energy.

Among the many demonic species, vampires had been chosen for experimentation for a reason.

First, their blood was the most convenient medium for the process. Second, vampires had a unique trait—when they bit someone, they could turn them into another vampire.

A host vampire and the countless vampires spawned from them.

It closely resembled the dynamic between a god and their devoted followers. Because of this similarity, the experiment had been deemed highly likely to succeed.

And lastly, the third reason—

The insatiable bloodlust of vampires.

Vampires formed contracts through blood. This had been intended as a means to enslave them through that very compulsion.

Originally, the moment the experiment succeeded, they had planned to form a blood contract and use Elise as they pleased. But due to an unforeseen accident, no contract had ever been made.

"Abbess! Have you ever seen the Saint drink blood?"

"No. Not even once. In fact, aside from her red eyes, I wouldn’t have even suspected she was a vampire. If anyone had ever seen her drink blood, rumors would have spread by now."

"Then that means one of two things! Either she’s been drinking blood in secret, or she’s suppressing her thirst through some other means!"

"Hmm...."

Matilda’s expression shifted as if recalling something, and Roman caught it immediately.

"You thought of something, didn’t you?!"

"She wears a ring on her finger. She didn’t have it when she first arrived at the convent, but at some point, she began wearing it."

At the time, the nuns had gossiped about it. Some had even complained to Matilda, asking if Elise should be reprimanded for it.

But because Elise had been brought in by High Priest Lucas, they hadn’t dared to punish her.

At any rate, when she first arrived, Elise had always looked subtly fatigued. But ever since she started wearing the ring, those signs of exhaustion had vanished completely.

Roman snapped his fingers.

"That’s it! That has to be it! It’s a magical artifact that suppresses a vampire’s bloodlust!"

"An artifact like that actually exists...?"

"It must’ve been given to her by the Slave Reaper. Somehow, he’s already figured out she’s the Saint."

He wasn’t an ordinary man.

If their plan failed, it would undoubtedly be because of him.

He needed to be eliminated quickly.

"Then, if we remove the ring...?"

"Exactly! If we trigger her bloodlust and bind her with the Cardinal’s blood, we can make her completely obedient!"

****

"The Saint, how exactly do you suppress your bloodlust?"

Marcenus asked Elise directly, repeating the information he had obtained in the secret meeting.

Now that she had openly admitted to being a vampire, it wasn’t an unexpected question. But Elise didn’t appreciate personal inquiries unrelated to their goals.

Her expression grew wary.

"And why do you want to know?"

"Don’t misunderstand. I previously asked you about the method by which you manifest miracles. This is related to that."

"If that’s the case...."

It wasn’t much of a secret, so she answered without hesitation.

"I drink fresh milk."

"Milk...?"

Coming from someone who acted as if she’d wring the blood out of a living person and drink it straight, the idea of her consuming mere milk was baffling.

"Vampires drink blood, do they not?"

"Why the hell would I drink something as disgusting as blood? If you became a succubus, would you go around milking men?"

"......."

"It’s the same thing."

Marcenus immediately understood.

"Of course, milk alone wasn’t enough to keep it under control, but thanks to this ring, it became manageable."

Elise held up the crimson ring on her finger.

Roman and Matilda’s suspicions had been correct. That ring was what was suppressing Elise’s bloodlust.

"Now I see why you cannot manifest miracles. It’s because of that ring."

"And what’s your reasoning?"

"A balance must be maintained between the divine nature of a saint and the vampiric traits within you. But by wearing that ring, your vampiric side has been weakened, disrupting that balance."

"So you’re telling me to take off the ring?"

"That would be the logical course."

Elise stared at the ring. She had only ever thought of it as something that kept her bloodlust in check, but to think it had this kind of side effect as well....

Karami knew a lot. Perhaps even more than she had expected.

Maybe... he had been trying to prevent her from becoming a saint all along.

A reasonable suspicion.

"All I have to do is take the ring off?"

"That’s right."

"And what about my bloodlust? You’re not seriously telling me to drink blood, are you?"

"It is a necessary trial on your path to sainthood. A hardship you must endure."

"A trial, huh...."

Elise mulled over the ring for a moment before answering.

"I’ll think about it."

"You will have to do it eventually. You may as well begin adapting now—"

"I said I’ll think about it. Why are you so pushy? What, are you scheming something behind my back?"

Elise didn’t trust Karami, but she didn’t trust Marcenus either. She had seen too many innocent children deceived under the guise of "trials to become a nun."

For Elise, the word trial was a trigger.

"I’ll handle it myself, so mind your own business and do your job properly. Not like you can do anything without me anyway."

"...I apologize."

Elise scoffed at how pathetic he sounded.

"And what about my request?"

The condition Elise had set for cooperating with Marcenus. The immediate cessation of all experiments and the release of any children they had captured.

"Do not worry. As long as you are here, there is no reason to continue the experiments. I, too, do not enjoy seeing innocent children suffer."

"Listening to you talk, you almost sound like a saint yourself."

Not that she believed a word of it.

****

As the situation escalated, the Holy Kingdom could no longer afford to brush it aside.

Their previous declaration that the vampire incident had been due to infiltration was backfiring. Now, people were questioning if the first incident had also been caused by a cursed believer rather than an outsider.

They insisted that this time was different, but it was only a temporary excuse. No one knew when another vampire might appear.

"You still haven’t found the host?!"

The Great Cathedral, where the Council of Holy Power convened. The cardinals and high-ranking clergy had gathered to discuss the crisis.

Officially, they had claimed that vampires had infiltrated the city. However, every single vampire that appeared had bite marks on their bodies.

The balance hadn’t simply been broken—there had to be a host.

But.

"We have deployed detection magic across the entire Holy Kingdom, but we cannot detect any demonic energy."

"Are you telling me the vampires just vanished into thin air?!"

"Well...."

The Holy Kingdom was surrounded by a divine barrier, one specifically optimized to detect demonic energy. Yet, nothing was showing up.

Every now and then, a faint trace would appear, only to vanish in the blink of an eye.

Whatever trick was being used, it was enough to make even ghosts cry out in frustration.

"The Demon Realm has also denied any involvement in this matter. Even the Vampire Lord claims that this is an individual’s rogue actions and not something they can control."

"The repeated incidents have driven the public into a state of extreme anxiety. If this continues, the very foundation of the Holy Kingdom will crumble."

"To think that the balance of our faith could be shaken by a single damn bat...."

It was disgraceful. But no one had any viable solutions.

Just then, Matilda, who had remained silent until now, spoke up.

"Cardinal Marcenus. As the head of the Sacred Doctrine, shouldn’t you be the one proposing a solution at a time like this?"

The gazes of the room immediately shifted to Marcenus.

The second most powerful figure in the church, right after Pope Antonius.

If he so desired, he could brand any nuisance as a heretic and purge them. And with Antonius having resigned, he was already being considered as the next pope.

Naturally, there were plenty of people who were wary of him. They took this °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° chance to press him.

"The abbess is right. How can the cardinal responsible for doctrine stand idly by while heretics run rampant?"

"Hm. You raise a fair point. As it happens, I have found a solution."

"You have?"

Marcenus nodded.

With a small motion, the Holy Knights standing by the door stepped forward and pulled it open.

A woman entered under the escort of the knights.

Sister Elise of the convent.

But she wasn’t wearing her usual nun’s habit. A veil adorned her head, and her attire resembled a dress more than a habit.

A presence both seductive and sacred.

The aura she exuded was something no ordinary nun could ever possess.

"Allow me to introduce you all.

The saint who will save our faith."