The skewer pried into the bracelet’s joint. The seam in the simply transmuted bracelet opened, and the gray bead suspended in its center dropped free. I picked it up between two fingers and examined it closely.

No question about it. Its construction left no doubt that it was a clothing packet. Unlike ordinary clothing packets, however, this kind operated on its own, without a biometric terminal.

Among compression packets, the pinnacle of alchemy, a few types worked without being inserted into a biometric terminal: papyrus packets containing high-value promissory notes or confidential documents, weapon packets that produced simply constructed weapons such as spears, swords, and shields, and so on. Packets for simple objects unrelated to the user’s bodily measurements were often sold with devices that supplied mana to them.

This one was a parachute packet, used to slow a fall. Considering that this was the bottomless pit, there was nothing strange about wearing one to jump in, but...

“Something about it bothers me. Hmm.”

I infused the tip of the skewer with mana and scraped the groove in the parachute packet. Part of it opened, exposing a hollow space inside. After shining a light into it, I turned the packet upside down and shook it.

PATTER.

A faint, scattering sound. I set the packet down for a moment and looked at what had fallen out.

“Dirt?”

Barely a few grains of dirt, so little that I could have counted them individually. On the surface, a single shovelful would scoop up tens of thousands of times this amount. But here, cursed by Mother Earth, even these few grains were an unfamiliar sight. In a structure built entirely of concrete, ordinary dirt was hard to come by.

“Was that it?”

I rubbed the dirt between two fingers. Crumbling into finer particles, it drifted onto the desk.

Now that the uninvited guest named Finlay had settled in, things were not going the way I wanted. I had given him a good scare, and just as I intended, he had come to fear me, Azi, and the Regressor. But the attitude he adopted as a result was quite different from what I had expected.

“Ah, Mr. Finlay. There you are. Come here a moment. There’s work to do.”

“I have no time for that.”

“What?”

“The Progenitor will rise shortly. I must be the first to greet her before she takes the air outside. Standing beside one’s blood lord upon her awakening is both a duty and an honor.”

Was he kidding me? Seriously, he intended to loiter there all morning? Was this an excuse to avoid working?

But reading his thoughts revealed that it was no excuse. Attending the Progenitor ranked so high among his priorities that nothing else even registered.

And on top of that...

'I am now the Progenitor’s personal attendant. I am too busy attending her to do anything else. Imagine the Progenitor’s attendant doing menial labor. How much dignity would she lose? I would sooner die.'

To an onlooker, he might seem to be slacking off to avoid work, but astonishingly, he was sincere. In other words, Finlay genuinely believed that doing chores would demean both him and the Progenitor!

Ha. Unbelievable. If I had the strength, I would have cut his arm off first and then shouted him down. It galled me that I lacked the power to do that right now.

“Then who’s supposed to do the work? The cooking? The cleaning?”

“You must take care of that yourselves. We nobles of the night, granted life through the Progenitor’s great power, neither relieve ourselves nor foul the earth. We require neither food nor light. Only blood.”

“What does you not taking a shit have to do with refusing to work? By that logic, you shouldn’t drink blood either. It’s not as though you gave birth to those humans and raised them yourself.”

“We pay a suitable price instead. We possess the power and wealth to do so.”

You don’t have any of that wealth or power with you now. What makes you so smug? While I stood dumbfounded, Finlay added pompously,

“Do you understand, lowborn?”

“Would you like a punch from the Military State, which abolished the class system?”

When I clenched my fist threateningly, Finlay flinched back.

“G-gh... I am the Progenitor’s attendant. I cannot bow to outside pressure!”

“You act like the ruling elite and talk like a freedom fighter. What is this? Hypocrisy incarnate, right here. Are you kidding me? Should I separate your insides from your skin so your outside won’t contradict your inside anymore?”

If I asked Azi, she would separate his bones, flesh, and blood quite thoroughly. One taste of that living centrifuge, the doggy death roll, would bring him to his senses. I was in the middle of threatening him when the door to the underground armory opened, and the vampire appeared atop her coffin. Finlay’s face immediately brightened as though he had seen his savior.

“O Progenitor! Have you risen?”

“Yes, I am awake. That will suffice.”

Finlay immediately dropped to one knee to greet her. At her leisurely gesture, he rose and took a position in front of her coffin like a herald, then began shouting at me.

“Make way! The Progenitor approaches!”

“What the hell is this?”

With that huge coffin approaching, I had no choice but to step aside. Finlay, elated to be attending the Progenitor, swept past me with the vampire sitting atop her coffin, wearing a faint smile. As she passed, she casually remarked,

“Hehe. Be understanding. It seems he is rather excited to be attending me.”

Yet the vampire saying that was enjoying the sight of my predicament. I was so dumbfounded that my mouth hung open. While I stood there blankly, Finlay shouted, overcome with emotion.

“O Progenitor! Where would you like to go?”

“The fourth floor. I shall show you a place I frequent.”

“As you command!”

And so the blood lord and her thrall proceeded slowly, doing exactly as they pleased.

After that, Finlay continued to trip me up like a stone in the road.

“Ah, Trainee Tyrkanzyaka.”

“How dare you! How can you attach such a condescending title as ‘trainee’ to the Progenitor’s name?”

“Huh?”

“Enough, Finlay. I lack knowledge of this era. Since I require his knowledge, calling me a trainee is not incorrect.”

Finlay immediately fell silent and prostrated himself before her.

“My deepest apologies! Your intentions are too profound for my shallow blood to fathom!”

“Enough. I shall speak with the Instructor for a moment.”

“As the Progenitor wills!”

As Finlay withdrew, still bowed low, the vampire gracefully rested her parasol against her shoulder and spoke.

“Well? What did you wish to say?”

“What do you mean? I heard you called for me, Trainee Tyrkanzyaka.”

“Ah, yes. So I did.”

The vampire snapped her fingers. At that instant, Finlay slumped over, still prostrate. Having robbed him of consciousness in a single instant, she slowly approached.

“He would make a fuss if he saw, so I put him to sleep for a moment. He will not even know he was asleep.”

The Progenitor’s blood manipulation could perfectly control even other vampires’ blood. She could interrupt their consciousness for an instant and reconnect it afterward.

Having silenced Finlay, the vampire glanced around, then split her own chest open with a finger. She subtly leaned toward me and whispered softly.

“We have not done this much lately. Come now, quickly.”

“Seriously? Even now, you’re just doing whatever suits you...”

“I cannot let him see me like this, can I?”

Something about this really rubbed me the wrong way. But I had no particular grounds to refuse. With a feeling of reluctance, I brought my finger to her heart.

* * *

“Instructor! The Progenitor asks where today’s discussion will take place!”

“Huh? I wasn’t planning to hold one today.”

“How disgraceful! A self-proclaimed instructor shirking his duties! If you serve the state, fulfill your obligations!”

“...”

“A-ahem! I shall go escort the Progenitor!”

Finlay strode away, leaving my scorching glare behind him.

And I was not the only one dealing with this. Just then, the Regressor spotted Finlay while walking past and called him to a halt.

“You there, vampire. Stop right there. Where’s Tyrkanzyaka?”

“How dare you! How can you utter the Progenitor’s name so casually? A whelp like you cannot hold a candle to her, whether in standing, experience, or ability! You should know to address her with the utmost reverence!”

Apparently taken aback at being scolded out of nowhere while walking past, the Regressor opened and closed her mouth for a moment. Then her lips set in a cold line, and she replied,

“... No. Fine. Then I’ll ask you. About that question from last time. How did you get into the bottomless—”

“How insolent! Do you still not understand, even when I put it so tactfully? Resolve such trivial questions yourself! I am busy attending the Progenitor!”

With that, Finlay immediately turned and walked away. The Regressor watched his retreating back for a moment, then reached up and grasped Sky Cherry Blossom.

“... I’m going to slice him up. Don’t stop me.”

“If you’re going to slice him, please dice him and cut him on the diagonal. Make sure the biggest piece is smaller than the drain strainer. Otherwise, he’ll be hard to dump in the slop bin.”

Of course, we could not attack Finlay while he enjoyed the vampire’s protection. After her reprimand last time, the Regressor had been refraining from crossing her, and I was weaker than Finlay to begin with.

In the end, the Regressor and I could only watch him disappear into the distance.

* * *

“Enjoy your food. Don’t spill any.”

“Woof!”

Azi was happily eating when it happened. Though she became endlessly sweet in front of a meal, she suddenly bared her teeth and growled.

Normally, that aggression would have frightened me, but I was used to it now. The only time Azi’s mood suddenly soured was when Finlay came calling.

“Ahem! Ahem!”

Besides, I could hear thoughts coming from the other side.

The metallic scent of blood arrived first. Soon afterward, Finlay entered wearing a solemn expression, looked around, and clicked his tongue.

“Tsk. There are too few lowborn here to supply blood. I must offer blood to the Progenitor. Is there no one willing to offer theirs?”

That was meant for my ears. The lunatic had come looking for a human—me, the relatively approachable one—to procure a snack for the vampire.

His assumption that I would naturally hand it over if he asked was infuriating. Should I teach him a lesson?

I stroked the growling Azi’s head and whispered in her ear.

“Azi. Want to bite that?”

“Grrrr.”

“W-wait! Stop! I have come to conduct a legitimate transaction!”

Sensing danger, Finlay hastily thrust out a hand. Deciding to hear him out first, I restrained Azi just as she was about to leap forward.

“Wait, Azi. Even a vampire like that needs something to put on his gravestone.”

“I told you, I came to make a deal! This is for the Progenitor!”

“These might be your last words, so choose carefully. What is it this time?”

“It concerns blood. I demand that you lowborn pay tribute to the Progenitor in blood.”

“For nothing?”

“Of course not.”

Finlay fiddled with his mustache and said haughtily,

“In the Principality of Mist, where lowborn and nobles of the night live together, we compensate the lowborn for the blood they offer. Usually with food weighing roughly ten times as much as the blood.”

“Azi. Aren’t you curious how much meat we’d get if we cooked that body?”

“W-wait! However! Since blood is scarce here, I shall pay in silver coins weighing roughly ten times as much as the blood!”

Ten times the blood’s weight? That much silver was worth considering. My attitude changed in an instant.

If things weren’t working out, put up more money. Wasn’t that what economies of scale meant?

“Good day, sir. Welcome to the blood bank. How will you be paying?”

“I shall write you a promissory note. Collect your money in the Principality of Mist once you leave.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Are your ears blocked? I said I would write you a promissory note.”

What was he talking about? A promissory note? Even actual cash would hardly be enough!

No, more importantly...

“How is a human supposed to travel to a vampire nation with nothing but a promissory note, visit a bank there, and collect the money?”

“That is none of my concern. Why should a noble concern himself with a lowborn’s affairs? Collecting the money is your job.”

The vampire meant every word. In other words, he just wanted to hand me a worthless check?

After mulling that over for a moment, I gave Azi an order.

“Azi. Chase that outside. Don’t kill him, though.”

“Woof, woof!”

“Aaaagh! King of Dogs! Stop! I am the Progenitor’s—Gah!”

Barking furiously, Azi chased the fleeing Finlay clear out of the building. When she returned looking pleased with herself, I grilled her another piece of meat.

But this did not solve the underlying problem.