The Human From a Dungeon 29 (Patreon)

Chapter 29

Master General Kirain Yith

Adventurer Level: N/A

Half-Breed Drow - Balushenian

'Are the preparations complete, spindly-one?'

The crow was perched upon the helmet of my armor, and its eyes glowed a faint red as the message burned into my mind. My fury enveloped me, how DARE it refer to me as spindly!? This entire plan depends entirely upon me! On the other hand, though, my plans depend upon them as well. I carefully hid my bile and rage at the disrespect as I formulated my response.

'The preparations are moving forward according to the schedule.'

'I grow impatient. WE grow impatient. The filth-one must be destroyed, and our lands must be returned.'

I couldn't help but sigh. How can one live for thousands of years and still be as impatient as a whining pup? Do elder vampires regress into childhood as they age? Thinking on it, the older people seem to get the less mature they seem to act. Even members of the nobility are no exception. Perhaps maturity follows some sort of bell curve.

'There is nothing that can be done for your impatience, with the exception of the expert application of your own willpower.'

A shriek blasted in my mind that would have given me a start had I not been fully expecting it. The faint glow of the crow's eyes turned bright as they bored into mine. I met those eyes without blinking, staring down the challenge issued. The vampire controlling the crow knew there was nothing they could do against me. Soon enough the coloration faded entirely, and I was left glaring at a very confused corvid.

Crows are strange birds, in many ways they seem to be dumber than the birds that are natural to this world, but in some certain specific ways they're very intelligent. This crow, for instance, knew that it was out of place but didn't make the type of fuss one would expect a wild animal to. Instead, it watched me warily, staying still and waiting for me to make the first move. It would continue to wait, I had no intention of risking a pecking by trying to pick it up.

Thankfully for us both, my tent flap opened and the bird from another world took the chance to escape with gusto. General Smarn cursed as he had to crouch to avoid a collision with it. Once the bird had taken to the sky, Smarn looked at me with an obvious question in his bright orange eyes.

"A crow with a message for me from a family member," I explained before he could ask.

I shook a freshly unfolded missive that had been attached to the crow's left leg. The point of the missive wasn't actually communication, it was to lend credence to my cover story. After all, it would be suspicious to have random avian visitors for unknown reasons. Its contents were quite benign, and not the type of thing one would waste time on a reply to.

"A crow?" he asked. "Your family uses daemon-spawn to send messages? Talk about a luxury."

I cringed inwardly at the General's ignorance of the origin of crows. They may have been introduced to this plane of existence by the daemons, but it was not there that they originated. True daemon-spawn must be crafted and cannot be bred and tamed like crows can.

"What is it?" I demanded, neglecting to educate him.

"The northern legion, uh..." he struggled to remember their given name.

"The Aultris," I reminded him.

"Yes, sir. The Aultris have at last joined us. They are formed up and waiting orders."

"Two more legions to go then," I sighed. "Have them continue their training. If the commanders protest, have them flogged and brought before me."

"Yes, sir."

General Smarn bowed and left my tent. I watched the royal green flap close behind him, then turned my attention to the table that my helmet rested upon. Also upon the table was a well-detailed map that demonstrated my tactical prowess, not that there was anyone in this camp who could even begin to appreciate it. The closest thing they'd ever seen to a tactic was to inadvertently flank an enemy when the rear lines couldn't get to the fight.

Amused, I glanced at the missive that had been attached to the crow.

-

Dearest Kirain,

Are you safe yet?

Esmira

-

Sent from and signed by my youngest sister. That would be a trick, she's currently bound and gagged. To serve as food, of course. There truly is no blood quite as divine as one's own, but only the blood of others can nourish. As such, having family members is quite a boon.

The other vampires were jealous of this, but then they were jealous of a great many things. My position, my manor, my power, and even my mission. To them, a half-breed like myself rising to such a station is abhorrent. To them, one such as I rising so high only serves to demonstrates how low they've fallen. To them, I'm merely an uppity tool, and I've no doubt that some of them plan to assassinate me when they get the chance. But even a half-breed like myself has defenses.

It's not as if I asked for this 'honor', either. My mother was insane, and desperately hated King Lofin. He had executed her father and forced her to marry his favorite noble. My father, on paper, was a Duke and very well off. My mother's father was a count, and barely qualified as nobility. Most women of the kingdom would have been honored, but my mother was furious. Not because she loved her father, or hated the Duke, but because she perceived the King's actions as a slight against her. She openly admitted such to me, with pride in her voice.

She had readily agreed to the vampire's plots when they approached her. They needed someone in the King's inner circle, and she was able to provide that. This lasted through the birth of my older brother, but then the plot evolved. They wanted a general who could conquer lands and help them secretly build an army, so she laid with an elven vampire that looked somewhat like my father. The result of that coitus was myself. A half-breed vampire, and my father was never any the wiser.

When a vampire lays with another vampire, the resulting offspring is a vampire brood. A twisted looking thing, similar in appearance to a common ghoul. It is much stronger than a ghoul and just as smart, but it's much easier to kill than a true vampire. One need simply to hack it up during the daylight and the sun would do the rest. A brood's regeneration was much slower than even my own, which is already only about half as fast as that of a full vampire.

When a vampire lays with a mortal, the result is an abomination like myself. A half-breed, as they call it. Half-breeds are more similar to true vampires than the brood are, but aren't as physically strong. We also age, which is damned near blasphemous to those who've lived for thousands of years. How can we truly be vampires if we shackled by time like the cattle are?

Regardless, my mother was more than happy to give birth to me for a chance at revenge. She made certain to take very good care of me, and never let a wetnurse anywhere near me. She would jokingly tell the wetnurses that I was a biter. But it wasn't a joke. I needed blood every day at that stage, and every day she would whisper to me what my purpose in life was, as well as what would happen if anyone else found out about it. It gave me nightmares, but I kept it together. Better than she did, at any rate.

On my fifteenth birthday she snapped and murdered my father and older brother, stabbing them both repeatedly as they slept. The latter was convenient, as his assassination was forthcoming anyway. I inherited his share of the titles and lands, and the inbred bastard ordered me to execute my own mother to demonstrate my loyalty. She smiled at me as I took her head. The hardest part about it was resisting the blood-smell.

I immediately got rid of most of my newly acquired staff and replaced them with loyal servants who were in the know. The excuse I gave was that the prior staff was unable to prevent the assassination of my father nor my brother, so I could not trust that they had not conspired with my mother. After that, they were grateful to leave the manor alive. My two younger sisters became my primary source of sustenance.

"Did you write this?" I jokingly asked the covered cage in the corner of my tent.

Not getting a reply, I walked over to the cage and kicked it. A small muffled sound answered me. Esmira, my youngest sibling. Bound and gagged with silk, and kept very weak by regular feedings. I would feel sorry for her, were she not just as vicious and vindictive as my mother.

I remembered my twelfth birthday party, where she began to spread rumors that I had sexually assaulted a maid. My crime was that I had hidden her doll for a day, six months prior. For that, I was imprisoned and beaten severely by my father. When her actions were discovered, she grinned and admitted that she was joking around. Her punishment had simply been a scolding from father.

Moorn, my other sister, was much better behaved and quite well taken care of back at the manor. She still served as a source of sustenance when Esmira became nearly drained, but she was far more willing to part with her blood so that her older brother could conquer the world. Mother had taken her into our confidence early on in life. Moorn detests Esmira, and it was her idea to put Esmira in her current situation to ensure I had a source of blood.

Truth be told, the blood isn't a requirement for survival anymore. It was when I was a child, but around my eighth birthday I started to be able to survive on normal foods. That's one of the benefits to being a half-breed. It's much easier to pass as a mortal. However, doing so will lead you to being weaker than the average mortal, and all of the benefits to being half-vampire will quickly diminish.

I'd had to starve myself of the blood for years to adequately demonstrate my weakness to King Lofin. The King was fully convinced that I was a pathetic worm by the time my predecessor, who had been old and frail when he'd become a Master General, died. The Master General must be weak and uninspiring, otherwise the people will follow them instead of the Inbred Bastard King.

Lofin will likely order my execution if I'm successful with this invasion, but by then it will be too late. The vampires will have a steady source of mortals to convert and plenty of room to create armies of their own. Lofin will find it much harder to execute me now that I'm feeding again and have my abilities back.

The regeneration comes in handy, but I have to be careful about who sees it happen. My ability to vanish has actually saved me from several assassins sent by rival nobles, and allowed me to satisfy certain... curiosities that I had as a teenager. I've never had a reason to shape-shift into an animal, nor do I frequently partake in hypnosis.

You would think that hypnosis would be useful, but it has a limited duration and the mortal's personality drastically shifts during the process. Since it's nearly impossible to use covertly, it's only useful for preventing an imminent attack against oneself or making someone loopy enough to forget that you fed on them. Since I don't feed on strangers, it's only really useful for the former. But then, I have a sword for that sort of thing.

There are other advantages to being a half-breed. Sunlight doesn't injure me at all, though most vampires are able to regenerate fast enough that it doesn't actually harm them. I'm also able to subsist on the blood of other vampires, which is another reason my kind is looked down upon. Vampire blood is not nearly as potent as mortal blood, so this is barely even a benefit.

The biggest drawback of being a half-breed is that I cannot make vampires of my own. Nor can I create children with mortals to make more half-breeds. I can, however, breed with another vampire to create brood. As such, a brood-queen has been promised to me for my part in all this. A vampire criminal whose mind has been completely destroyed.

They slice off the top of the skull and replace a good deal of brain matter with metal so that the brain cannot fully regenerate. They incinerate the part of the brain that they remove so that the vampire in question is trapped within their now useless vessel. Completely docile, and useful for one thing only. It's a very secretive process, but I was privy to it when they showed me my reward.

I had been led down a long, darkened stone hallway into a dungeon that the vampires were currently occupying. I was led past laboratories, kennels, prison cells, and even the brood-kings. There were far more brood-kings than there were brood-queens, which is likely an indication of the crime rate among the vampires. At last, I was shown my prize.

I never learned her name, only her beauty. She had been a rather curvaceous elf before becoming a vampire. Long silver hair, alabaster skin free of any blemishes, and green eyes that didn't show even a glimmer of intellect. The lack of intellect is a bit of a turn-off, if I'm honest, but utterly necessary for her intended function.

Her crime had been the murder of another vampire without just cause. Apparently, her victim had convinced her lover to part ways with her. She had tortured the victim first, cutting into her flesh for days before finally ending her eternity. A vicious streak a mile-long, one that hopefully our brood would inherit.

I sat down in my orc-leather chair as I imagined the army of brood she would sire for me. Perhaps I would use that army to capture more brood-queens, and eventually I would subjugate the entirety of the continent. If I were to do that, I'd have to give a lot more thought to governmental structure. I will die of old age eventually, and I will need to have a chain of succession if I'm to conquer the world.

Yes, that would show those pompous bastards what a half-breed can do. I met my first vampire just after my mother's death. He had smiled scornfully as he informed me that my true father had been captured and destroyed by King Lofin's forces. He told me that scum like me should be honored to play the part I've been given. Even as he educated me on my abilities and the drawbacks of my form, he made it absolutely clear that he believed me to be nothing more than a mote of dust that would cause their greatest enemy to choke.

I despise them. Even the vampires with more agreeable personalities made it clear that they believe me to be trash, despite my necessity to their resurgence. Once that resurgence is complete they will be unlikely to honor their part of the bargain, but I've taken measures against that particular betrayal. The brood-queen will be mine. The Night Kingdom will be mine. The world will be mine.

"Sir," General Smarn once again opened the flap of my tent.

"What is it?"

"The Sim Valrin have arrived."

"Excellent. Have them form up and continue their training. If the commanders complain, well, you know what to do by now," I ordered with a dismissive gesture, then grinned. "One more."