Blood tells no lies.

-a Vampire Lord

“Why are there so many mosquitoes?” Henrick complained in annoyance while swatting several mosquitoes buzzing around him.

Shaneth fanned the campfire to let it smoke out the mosquitoes, and the insects instantly distanced themselves from the camp. “Tell me about it. There are more insects the closer we get toward Vulpehin City,” Shaneth said.

Iris glared at the mosquitoes and said, “It is unpleasant to have my blood sucked.” Her body had been riddled with mosquito bites, while the others had only been bitten once or twice. She moved her hand toward her voluptuous cleavage and said, “The place the mosquitoes bit gets very itchy.”

“Hey, you punk! Don’t do those things when you’re in front of men!” Henrick rebuked her immediately. However, Iris tilted her head in confusion, as if to show that she did not understand what Henrick meant. Henrick then clicked his tongue and said mockingly, “Perhaps your blood is more nutritious than ours?”

“Why do you say so?” Iris asked.

“Do I have to say it with my own mouth?” Henrick said as he pointed at an empty pot and several breadcrumbs with his chin.

Then, Iris suddenly fell deep into thought, seemingly pondering something serious. Henrick asked, “What are you thinking about?”

“Can I get back my blood if I eat the mosquitoes that bit me and sucked my blood?” Iris asked, completely seriously.

“…I don’t think that’s how it works, unni,” Shaneth replied.

Meanwhile, Kang Yoon-Soo sat peacefully while leaning on a tree. He could see the silhouettes of buildings in the distance—it was Vulpehin City. He muttered, “I’m looking forward to this.”

“…What did you say?” Shaneth exclaimed. She was shocked, as if she had heard something she had never expected to hear in her life. It was not only Shaneth; Henrick and Iris were also surprised by Kang Yoon-Soo’s statement.

However, Kang Yoon-Soo had an expression that seemed to say ‘what are you looking at?’ as he continued, “Wine.”

Henrick suddenly nodded in agreement, saying, “Well, the red wine of Vulpehin is quite famous for being the best of the best.”

Iris’ eyes suddenly shot wide open and she asked, “Does the red wine of Vulpehin taste that good?”

“Good is an understatement. It’s considered to be the most fragrant wine on the continent; the way it goes down one’s throat can make one reminisce about the time one was breastfed, and its color can be considered to be the best under the heavens,” Henrick replied dramatically.

“That’s quite a compliment. Have you ever had the chance to drink it?” Shaneth asked, albeit a bit mockingly.

“I tasted a few glasses when I worked under her majesty the royal princess. It was really good,” Henrick said, licking his lips.

Shaneth’s gaze seemed to imply that she was looking forward to it; she said, “I want to try their wine as well.”

“Hoo… What happened to the little miss who always nagged us to drink less? Why are you getting worked up over wine all of a sudden?” Henrick asked with a smirk.

“It’s because Kang Yoon-Soo and ahjussi always drink too much! I wouldn’t be nagging if you drank moderately without getting so drunk, you know?” Shaneth replied with a straight face.

Henrick clicked his tongue a few times in response and retorted, “What’s the point of drinking if you won’t get drunk?”

“Don’t you know that’s the motto alcoholics live by until it ruins their lives?” Shaneth replied with a sigh.

“You talk like that because you haven’t tasted how sweet a glass of alcohol can be when your life's on the brink of misery,” Henrick said melodramatically.

“I have no intention of knowing how that feels until the day I die,” Shaneth responded as she fed another piece of firewood to the campfire.

“I want to drink wine as well,” Iris said enthusiastically, her voice filled with excitement.

“What? Didn’t you say you didn't like the taste of booze last time?” Henrick grumbled.

“But still, I want to try it since you keep saying how good it is,” Iris responded.

“You’re a strange one, aren’t you?” Henrick remarked with a sigh.

A warm evening breeze swept through the camp, making the atmosphere feel cozy. The stars in the night sky twinkled like the innocent eyes of babies.

Kang Yoon-Soo drank the last bottle of alcohol he had, thinking, ‘We have to watch out for our blood this time.’

He was drawing up plans for the next fight they would enter. He always planned out how to carry out the next battle even before it would happen, using his experience from his hundreds of past lives to produce several tactics.

‘The fastest and easiest way to win is…’

He would draw up several battle plans and shortlist them based on how effective they would be, and would then choose the plan that would benefit him the most. He had developed a habit of asking himself whenever he was choosing a plan, ‘What is my main objective?’

To kill the Demon Lord. To save the world.

‘To find the one who should not exist in this world and complete the goddess’ request…’

And then…

‘To make sure none of these guys will die…’

Kang Yoon-Soo drank as he observed his party members. They were people who had been related to him in all sorts of different ways in his previous lives. He had originally had no plans to accept Iris as a member this time, but then he had discovered the presence of the White Shadow within her.

‘I have to find out more about the White Shadow once I finish things and return to the royal palace.’

That was still something he had to do in the distant future, but Kang Yoon-Soo had already made up his mind. ‘None of these guys will die.’

He gripped the bottle in his hands tightly as he thought, ‘I won’t die either.’

He definitely planned to maintain the resolutions he made that night.

The night continued, and the party fell asleep. Kang Yoon-Soo also fell asleep; strangely, however, he was not bitten by even a single mosquito that night.

***

The next day came.

Henrick furrowed his brows furiously as he exclaimed, “What the hell is this?!”

“Wine, what else?” the wine shop’s owner retorted.

Henrick stared down at the short and tubby wine shop owner, retorting, “Excuse you.” However, the short tubby did not seem to be fazed or back down in front of the tall, tanned Henrick.

Henrick said in a serious and slightly threatening voice, “Are you looking down on us because we aren’t from here?”

“What did you just say? What do you take me for?!” the owner retorted.

“A low-life scammer who fleeces the money of his customers,” Henrick sharply retorted as well.

The owner of the wine shop quietly walked toward a barrel of water. Shaneth instinctively knew that he was about to splash them with water and chase them out. She intervened between the two and said, “Don’t mind him, sir. Can you give us a bottle of wine?”

“That’s two silver coins,” the owner replied curtly. The wine could be considered cheaper than the wine sold in other cities.

Henrick walked out of the shop and grumbled with anger still in his voice, “Does that man want to close shop or something?”

“Well, you weren’t in the right either…” Shaneth said.

“Hey, you punk! Look at this wine! Anyone would go nuts because of this!” Henrick said.

Shaneth observed the wine. She had seen different kinds of wine while serving in Lady Hermia’s estate; it did not seem to look any different from normal wine. She then replied after examining the wine, “There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with it, though,”

“Then try drinking it,” Henrick said.

Just as Shaneth was trying to figure out how to open the cork, Kang Yoon-Soo grabbed the wine bottle from her. He took out a knife from underneath his sleeve before stabbing it into the cork, twisting it, and pulling it out.

Pop!

The wine bottle opened with a clear sound.

Henrick yawned and said, “Look at this punk. You’re a pro now, but where the hell did you get that knife?”

“I bought it a while ago,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied before spinning the knife and storing it back in his sleeve.

Iris said with an amazed expression, “Kang Yoon-Soo knows a lot of tricks. How do you keep the knife in your sleeve without dropping it?”

“You get used to it if you do it long enough,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

Shaneth carefully took a sip of the wine, and her face instantly crumpled. “Cough! Cough! Umfph!” She coughed and gagged a few times before exclaiming, “It’s too sour!”

“I knew it,” Henrick said as he took the wine bottle from her and took a swig from it. He remarked, “Hmm… It smells like a sewer, tastes like seawater, and the color is similar to sewage.”

“Why does it taste so bad? Was that shop the problem?” Shaneth asked.

Henrick shook his head and replied, “No, it’s not only that shop. I glanced at the other shops on the way, and they were roughly in the same state.” He then furrowed his brows and continued, “The wine they’re selling in this city has become worse than normal water. What the hell is going on?”

The party had arrived at Vulpehin City earlier that morning. They had been greatly looking forward to the famous red wine of Vulpehin, but were severely disappointed because the wine’s quality was severely lower than what they had expected—in fact, it was the worst wine they had ever had.

“I wondered why the city was so empty… I guess we’ve found out,” Henrick grumbled.

The wine street that was the symbol of Vulpehin was empty to the point of desolation. There was not even one person walking around, which seemed unnatural, even if anyone tried to argue that it was because it was still early in the morning.

“Wouldn’t that affect the city’s economy?” Shaneth asked.

“Aigoo… It’s exactly as you say,” someone suddenly said.

The party’s gazes all focused on one person. The person who had spoken was a hunched old man, supporting himself upright with a staff.

“Who are you?” Henrick asked.

“Oh my, I’ve forgotten to introduce myself. I own a small wine shop in the back alleys, and I’m a wine seller. I also own a plot of land in the grape fields. My name is Garmun,” the old man replied.

Garmun looked quite gloomy and depressed. Even before the party could ask him anything, the old man told them everything there was to know about the current state of Vulpehin.

“The wine in our city was the best on the continent until recently. The wine tasters raved about our products, and Vulpehin was the first thing that would come to anyone’s mind when anyone heard the word ‘wine’. However, everything crumbled in an instant,” Garmun said. His hands started to tremble as he gripped his staff, and he continued, “Kobolds! If it weren’t for those pesky kobolds, this wouldn’t have happened!”

Henrick suddenly looked surprised and worried at the same time. He asked cautiously, “Don’t tell me… It’s not something as clichéd as ‘the kobolds took over the grape fields’ or something… Right?”

“Huh?! How did you know?!” Garmun exclaimed in surprise.

Henrick whispered to the others, “Hey, doesn’t this sound like a generic storyline…?”

“You’re right. Everything will fall into place once he makes a request asking ‘please take care of the kobolds that took over our grape fields’,” Shaneth said.

Henrick and Shaneth looked quite nervous for some reason. They had learned an important lesson while on their journey: If things were going smoothly, something was bound to pop up and destroy the peace.

“If only those damned kobolds hadn’t taken over our fields! The production and quality of our red wine, the pride of our city, wouldn’t have fallen like this! The anger inside me is killing me, I tell you!” Garmun explained, shedding tears in frustration and anger. Then, he slowly got to the point, “If you, oh brave warriors, helped us reclaim our grape fields from the kobolds… Our city’s economy would flourish once again and all would be well, but…”

“There’s only four of us. Wouldn’t it be better to ask someone else?” Henrick said. He felt nervous again as a thought crossed his mind. ‘Don’t tell me… He isn’t going to say something clichéd again like ‘We don’t have anything to give as a reward, so the others refused to help us’, is he…?’

“We don’t have anything to give as a reward, so the others refused to help us!” Garmun cried loudly.

“Have you tried making a request to the mercenary guild in the city, then?” Henrick asked.

“T-that’s… The other shops prevented us from doing so…” Garmun responded with a hint of nervousness in his voice.

“What do you mean?” Henrick asked with a brow raised.

“Ah! It’s not what you think it is! It’s because the Wine Association doesn’t have the funds to make a request!” Garmun cried once again.

Iris looked at the old man with eyes full of sympathy and said, “Such a pitiful and tragic thing happened to them. Should we not help them, at least?”

“No.”

“Are you crazy?”

Kang Yoon-Soo and Henrick immediately shot down her suggestion. Then, Henrick walked toward the old man and remarked, “What a joke. Are you asking us to work for free?”

“W-we’ll reward you with a crate of red wine…!” Garmun stuttered.

“How much would a crate of red wine even cost? Also, we tried the red wine a while ago and it sucked,” Henrick replied. He walked toward the old man and patted his shoulder a few times before continuing, “Look here, old man. You might have mistaken us for a group of righteous travelers like the ones you’ve heard of in stories of old, but those stories were all a sham. Do you think we’re crazy? Why the hell would we help a stranger like you and hunt down monsters for such a shitty reward?”

“B-but I heard the adventurers from the other world would usually help out if you asked them in this way…” Garmun replied.

“That’s because those guys from the other world are the strange ones. We don’t know anything about that,” Henrick said coldly. He continued retorting, “If you guys call yourselves the Wine Association, shouldn’t you guys at least try to sell your remaining wine or declare bankruptcy to pay off some mercenaries and solve the situation? What were you planning to do, hold people walking in the street back while begging for help? We have no plans to help, so quit begging.”

Garmun turned around and looked around for a moment. When he noticed that Kang Yoon-Soo was wearing a wrist device, he decided to cling to him and cry out, “Aigoo! Please help us! Our situation will greatly improve if you manage to take care of at least two hundred kobolds!”

Kang Yoon-Soo grabbed the old man’s wrinkly hands. Garmun felt greatly touched, and he bowed to Kang Yoon-Soo and said, “T-thank you! Thank you!”

However, Kang Yoon-Soo said something contrary to the old man’s expectations. “The Wine Association will never recover from this.”

“Eh?” Garmun was surprised and confused by the man’s words.

“The ones who took over the grape fields weren’t kobolds. The kobolds are nothing but their underlings,” Kang Yoon-Soo said.

“Underlings…? Then who took over the grape fields?” Garmun asked.

“Vampires,” Kang Yoon-Soo replied.

Garmun’s face turned pale as he yelled, “T-that’s impossible!”

“Also, your problems won’t be solved just by reclaiming your grape fields… Will they?” Kang Yoon-Soo added.

The old man’s complexion turned even paler with fright as he asked, “H-how did you know about that…?”

Kang Yoon-Soo did not reply; instead, he let go of the old man’s hands and turned around before walking away. Iris ran alongside him and said, “Kang Yoon-Soo is cold.”

“The reason why the Wine Association went bust wasn’t because of the grapes,” Kang Yoon-Soo remarked.

“Then what was the reason?” Shaneth asked.

“A commercial dispute between the shops,” Kang Yoon-Soo said.

“He was just feeding us a sob story, then. I was wondering how the same wine merchants could be so different. You know, that old man and the guy we bought this shitty wine from,” Henrick grumbled. He added, “I get the gist of things, now that I think about it. That old man called Garmun holds a significant plot of land in the grape fields or something like that, and that’s why the other shops are preventing any help from resolving the situation. In the end, they chose to all go bust together.”

He then clicked his tongue and said, “It’s still a shame that we didn’t get to taste the real red wine of Vulpehin…”

Kang Yoon-Soo suddenly said, “We’ll go to hunt the vampires in the grape fields when night falls.”

“…What?” Shaneth and the other two exclaimed in unison.

Henrick looked severely disturbed by Kang Yoon-Soo's statement and asked, “Why the hell are we going there?”

Kang Yoon-Soo turned around and said, as if the answer were obvious, “To drink the real red wine.”