Reincarnated as a Vampire Who Acquires Skills Through Blood

Chapter 112 - The Past [1]

"Are you two the parents of that kid?"

Verc asked as everyone was eating around the campfire. The morning sun was climbing higher, casting long shadows across the grass, but the heat of the fire was still welcome. He was looking at the scarred human man and the short-haired human woman who sat close together.

In the middle of them was Nara. The little girl was happily eating her fill of the roasted meat, her small face messy with grease and salt. She seemed completely at ease between the two adults, leaning against the man’s muscular arm while reaching for a piece of bread the woman held out.

The three of them were so close, acting with a familiar warmth that usually only existed within a family. However, they didn’t really look like each other. The man was rugged and massive, while the woman had sharp, refined features and a different complexion. Nara herself didn’t share many traits with either of them.

Verc asked that out of curiosity. If they were a family, it changed how he would handle their living arrangements once they reached the forest.

Anyway, the three of them looked at Verc at his question. The woman paused her eating, her expression softening into something a bit melancholy.

"No, we aren’t her parents."

The woman with the crimson red hair answered with that. She looked down at Nara, who was currently busy chewing and didn’t seem bothered by the conversation.

"Ah, should I address you as master... or...?"

The woman added that, her voice trailing off. She seemed to realize she had forgotten that Verc was now her new owner.

But Verc just shrugged and casually waved his hand to dismiss it. He wasn’t interested in the formalities.

"You guys aren’t my slave, call me whatever you want."

He said.

The group around the fire went quiet for a moment. They were still adjusting to the idea that they were free. Most of them had spent months or years being told exactly how to speak and when to look down. To be told they could choose their own words for their leader was a strange, heavy gift.

"Ah, then is it okay if I call you Sir Cole?"

She asked, using the name he had given to the Governor and the people at the city gate.

"Oh, about that..."

Verc looked at the others. He saw the beastwomen, the dwarves, and the dark elves all watching him with varying degrees of respect and curiosity. He realized that if these people were going to live in his territory, he didn’t want to build their relationship on a lie. They were his people now, and ’Cole’ was just a mask for outsiders.

Verc looked at them, then with a straight face—

"My name isn’t Cole... My real name is Verc."

He declared that.

The name ’Verc’ sounded sharp and short in the open air of the meadow. It carried a different weight than the heroic-sounding ’Cole.’

The whole area was silent for a while. The only sound was the crackling of the logs in the fire and the distant neighing of the horses. They all repeated the name in their heads, trying to match it to the masked man who had saved them.

"Sir Verc, then."

The woman said that. She gave a small, respectful nod.

"Suit yourself."

Verc said.

"So, if you aren’t her parents, how did you three end up together?"

Then he followed with that question.

And after that, the woman started telling Verc their situation. She spoke in a steady voice, though there was a clear undercurrent of bitterness when she mentioned the past.

... ... ...

*****

Apparently, Nara became a slave along with both her parents. They were a normal family once, but they weren’t able to pay back their debt from a merchant.

That merchant was actually Moyap as well, the owner of the slave shop they were into. Moyap was like a spider, weaving a web of debt across the city and pulling in anyone who couldn’t keep up with his high interest rates.

But after a few months of being in the slave shop, Nara’s parents caught a disease. It was a common occurrence in the cramped, damp conditions of the holding cells. They were separated from others to avoid it spreading to the ’healthier’ stock, as the guards didn’t want to lose their profits.

That was when Nara last saw them. They were dragged away to a different part of the facility, screaming for their daughter while the guards pushed them back with iron rods.

Her parents passed away shortly after...

They didn’t die from the disease alone, but from neglect.

Moyap didn’t think it was worth it to call for a doctor just to save a couple of slaves who were already weakened. To him, the cost of the medicine and the doctor’s visit was higher than the resale value of a debt-ridden couple.

It was not worth the cause and time for him. He simply waited for them to stop breathing and then had the guards toss their bodies into the city’s mass graves.

It was really a cruel place.

And since then; Bernia, the woman with the crimson hair, and Pwyll, the muscular man with a scar on his right eye, took care of Nara. Not like parents, but more like they’re just looking out for her.

They had seen the little girl sitting alone in the corner of the cage, crying for parents who were never coming back, and they couldn’t just stand by and watch her wither away.

Just because they felt that it was the right thing to do. In a place where humanity was stripped away, holding onto a child’s hand was the only way they could stay sane.

Verc listened to that story. He looked at Nara, who was now leaning her head against Pwyll’s leg. She was so young, yet she had already seen the darkest side of the world.

"..."

His face twitched momentarily.

Anyway...

After that, Verc then asked Bernia and Pwyll why they were in the slave shop and what they were doing before getting there. He wanted to know what kind of skills they had.

Bernia said that she was an apprentice knight before. She had trained hard, hoping to protect the innocent and serve the kingdom with honor.

But as she was training in a squad... she discovered how corrupt and evil the captain she was under really was.

The captain was a monster in a shining set of armor.

He would kill civilians unrelated to their mission just because they were in the way or because he was bored. He would then frame them as rebels or criminals so that he wouldn’t get in trouble with the higher-ups.

He would kidnap young women from the villages they were supposed to protect and assault them, then threaten to kill their families if they spoke out. He would enter local shops owned by commoners and order a lot of things but never pay, using his status to bully the owners into silence—and many more evil acts.

And after discovering this, Bernia was disgusted.

"That wasn’t what I had envisioned knights are."

She mumbled that, disappointment in her voice.

She had been raised on stories of chivalry, but the reality was just a gang of state-sponsored thugs.

And then, one day; when she saw her captain in the act trying to force a young woman while he was drunk in the barracks—she couldn’t take it anymore. She didn’t report him, knowing the system would just protect him.

Instead, she took her blade--PHUCK!!!

And stabbed him from the back, aiming at his heart, and ultimately killing him.

"I didn’t want him to have a chance to beg for mercy he never gave to others."

Bernia said, her hand tightening around her bowl.

But because the captain was a relative of a fairly high noble, and Bernia was just an orphan with talent, she was never going to get a fair trial. She was deemed a criminal even though she exposed everything the captain did.

The nobles didn’t care about the crimes of their kin; they only cared about the ’low-born’ girl who had spilled noble blood.

After that—she was stripped of her rank and sent as a slave in Moyap’s shop just a few months ago. She arrived before Nara and her parents did.

But before her—Pwyll was already in the slave shop.

And his story was crazy as well. It wasn’t just a tale of local corruption; it was a story of war and the fall of a people.

Pwyll started telling his story.

He was a prince of a huge barbarian group, consisting of at least 10 tribes, just outside the Kingdom of Halveron. They lived in the rugged mountains and plains, a proud people who valued strength and honor.

Then one day—the empire and the kingdom decided to expand their land and attacked them. The two powers joined forces to clear out the ’savages’ and take the resources of the barbarian lands.

Pwyll and the barbarians were able to fight back against the army of the empire and the kingdom for years even though they’re in disadvantage in equipment and numbers.

Pwyll spoke of the battles with a low, rumbling voice. He described how they used the terrain to trap the armored knights and how they fought with a ferocity that terrified the ’civilized’ soldiers.

The army that attacked their tribe was at least three times larger than theirs. The empire’s weapons were high-quality steel, forged in the best smithies and enchanted by court mages.

Unlike them, whose weapons were just made from blunt objects, and unrefined monster parts. They used clubs of ironwood, spears tipped with the bones of great beasts, and shields of thick hide. They fought with stone and courage against steel and magic.

But in the end; these disadvantages caught up to them...

As time passes by, they lost numbers, and the gap kept getting bigger. Their weapons started giving out as well. A bone spear can only take so many hits against a steel shield before it shatters.

Until one day—the army of the kingdom and the empire got through their main tribe’s defenses. They breached the mountain pass and killed the current chief and all the elders in a single night of slaughter.

But they left some of them alive, like Pwyll; and took them as prisoners of war.

They weren’t seen as people, but like a reward from winning. The soldiers wanted trophies to bring back to the capital.

And after getting to the empire, Pwyll became a gladiator slave. He was thrown into the pits, forced to fight wild beasts and other men for the entertainment of the masses. He fought every day to survive, his body becoming a map of scars.

He did his best. Revenge was on his mind with every swing of his fist. He stayed alive because he wanted to see the empire burn.

He did these for years...

But just a few months ago—the emperor got tired of him winning every time. The crowds were starting to like the ’unbeatable barbarian,’ and that was dangerous for the emperor’s image. He didn’t want a slave to become a hero.

And so, the emperor just sold him to Moyap for a few gold coins, dismissing him like a piece of broken equipment.

"..."

Verc was momentarily speechless after hearing the story of the two. It was like he was hearing the story of two heroes in the making. One was a fallen knight who stood for justice, and the other was a warrior prince who had lost his kingdom.

And it was not just him; Tatum, Jed, and everyone else around the campfire—they were really hooked with the story of the two. The beastwomen were looking at Bernia with admiration, and the dwarves were nodding in respect toward Pwyll’s mention of the long war.

Verc thought that it was no wonder that the three of them decided to follow him. Between a corrupt kingdom and a destroyed tribe, they had nowhere else to go now. The [Cursed Forest] probably didn’t seem so scary compared to the people who had ruined their lives.

’I’ve picked up some interesting people.’

Verc thought to himself.

He looked at the others—the beastwomen who were huddled together, the dark elves who were silently listening, the dwarves who were poking at the fire, and the eating kobolds.

"So..."

Verc muttered, his voice bringing everyone’s attention back to the present.

"What about the rest of you? How did you end up in that basement?"

Then he asked that.

Verc started asking the others how they got into the slave shop.

And one by one, the others began to speak.

The campfire continued to burn, the smoke rising into the clear blue sky, as the group shared their pasts before heading toward a future they couldn’t yet imagine.