The atmosphere, which was already cold, grew even colder at the bombshell declaration that if they didn't cooperate, I would join the Five Great Religions and begin hunting Vampire Lords with a grudge.
Lucinil stared at me with disbelief, her arms crossed.
"You think you can survive here talking like that? You don't value your life? You think we can't take your head off just because you have Tiamata?"
"Eleris will somehow manage it. She's managed to handle everything that's come up so far."
"Wha- what?!"
The most flustered by my words was Eleris herself.
It seemed she hadn't anticipated at all that I would go this far.
"…Don't you think you're being too reckless with your life?"
"Shouldn't I at least try? It's up to you to try to kill me, but you should be prepared for what happens next if I somehow manage to escape."
Although my words were fierce, I had no intention of actually fighting, so I unsummoned Tiamata.
I know that provoking their pride isn't the best approach.
But in the end, I didn't have any cards to play other than threats.
I had nothing to offer them and they had no reason to cooperate with me.
In plain words, if I could get them to help me by throwing away my pride and begging on the ground, I would do so.
But even doing that wouldn't win their cooperation.
So this is the best I can do.
"Technically, the Five Great Religions have greater power and scale, so it would be more advantageous for me to join them. However, I came to the Council first because I thought it would be polite to visit my closer neighbors first. And if I were to become the masked champion of the Tu’an and the mascot of the Five Great Religions, I would inevitably have no choice but to sever my ties with you."
As I shamelessly mentioned that I visited them first despite having a larger business partner, I felt like trash even to myself.
Gallarush couldn't hide his displeasure, and neither could Luruien.
The two seemed to have already developed hostility towards me for making such brazen remarks. Lucinil appeared to be the same.
"Let's cooperate."
However.
Unexpectedly, Antirianus expressed his willingness to cooperate.
Everyone was taken aback.
"…Huh? What? What did you say?"
But the most flustered one was me.
Why?
"Why are you surprised? You asked for cooperation, and I will cooperate. O great being."
Antirianus looked at me with a mysterious smile on his face. Lucinil shot a nervous glance at the old priest.
"Antirianus, what kind of dirty scheme are you up to?"
"It's just… isn't it interesting? One of the Five Great Religions' sacred relics, and not just any, but Tiamata itself, falling into the hands of an Archdemon?"
The old priest smiled at me.
"Can't you feel the malice of the gods?"
For the first time in history, a demon had become the master of Tiamata – even an Archdemon at that.
"Even if the Demon King loses everything in vain, or achieves every dream, there will always be interesting things happening. How could I not follow?"
Antirianus's eyes were filled with deep malice.
The misfortune of others, their happiness, sorrow, and joy.
Such malice, wanting to relieve eternal boredom by witnessing these things.
"Are you out of your mind? Antirianus."
At Gallarush's words, Antirianus could only grin.
I seemed to understand why Eleris had warned me to be careful of Antirianus. He was the only Vampire Lord who had agreed to cooperate with me, but strangely enough, I felt like I was stunned.
It was fortunate that I had heard him say he would cooperate, but I hadn't anticipated that it would unravel in such an odd context.
"If someone who has lived for such a long time is still sane, wouldn't that be more of a problem?"
Antirianus's words, implying that every decision he made was bound to be as insane as the decisions of a madman after living for an unimaginable amount of time, were surprisingly persuasive.
"So, as the lord of Saturday and the ruler of the clan, Antirianus, I will cooperate with the Demon King. Surely more interesting things will happen than during the Great Demon War, right? So, consider any harm done to the Demon King as harm done to me."
"I really don't know what he's thinking, do you? Right, Luruien?"
"…Is it for a day or two?"
It seemed that this wasn't the first time Antirianus had pulled such antics. After deciding to cooperate, Antirianus tapped the table with his index finger.
"Anyway, as immortals, we have plenty of time. There's no need to decide everything right here and now. So, wouldn't it be okay to take a few days and slowly discuss things?"
Antirianus stared at me as he spoke.
I could sense his intention to take a short break, cool our heads, and have some separate conversations.
It was good for me.
There's nothing more terrifying than unexplained kindness.
The pouring out of that unexplained kindness made it feel even more like he was strangling me.
I felt a strange sense of pressure.
"You! You little Archdemon brat. Let's have a chat."
Lucinil gestured at me as if this was a good opportunity. Eleris nodded at me, as if to say it was alright.
It seemed that the kindest person in this place had ended up disliking me the most.
——
Due to Antirianus's mediation, the council meeting came to a temporary halt. Regardless of his intentions, the fact that he had decided to cooperate had caused a ripple effect, changing the atmosphere.
Upon leaving the meeting room, Lucinil instructed me to follow her and silently led the way.
The silver-haired, red-eyed Homunculus Vampire.
The Lord of Wednesday.
Eleris had said that Lucinil was the least harmful among them, but just by looking at her outward appearance, it was clear that she seemed the most upset.
"Where did you learn such terrible things? Did the Demon King teach you that?"
I had been making a cheeky remark, but since I had no real thoughts about the previous Demon King, I didn't feel angry.
"How can one change their nature?"
Lucinil took the lead, stopping in front of a window that showed the blizzard raging outside. She turned to look at me.
"You won't get anything good from that."
Lucinil stared at me in silence for a moment.
"It doesn't matter to Antirianus or me that we agreed to cooperate with you, but Luruien and Gallarush will be very angry."
"I suppose. But does it really matter? This is the only thing I can do after all."
"We might die before we even rebuild the Demon World."
The idea of threatening the Vampire Lords and getting killed for it was absurd. However, Lucinil's warning made me feel more certain that Eleris's words weren't far off.
"I was interested in Valier's successor, but I'll remember you as an arrogant, thick-headed, and overconfident oddball."
Due to my many flaws, Lucinil seemed to have a very negative perception of me.
"Keep in mind that I agreed to cooperate with you not because you're pretty, but because I owe Eleris a personal debt."
Still, Lucinil seemed to have decided to work with me.
A debt to Eleris.
I didn't bother asking what it was. It didn't seem like she would tell me anyway. Lucinil glared at me, biting her lip in irritation.
"Ugh, Eleris must have known I'd end up like this."
I didn't know what debt she owed, but Eleris had let me into the Vampire Council because she knew Lucinil would reluctantly agree to cooperate due to that debt. Her words about me being harmless likely had a similar context.
The Lords of Wednesday and Saturday.
Both promised to cooperate with me for their own reasons. Lucinil crossed her arms and cocked her head.
"Anyway, you've now secured the cooperation of three out of the five families, right? Isn't that enough? Why don't you stop making a fuss and go back?"
She seemed to think that my continued attendance at the Council would only aggravate Luruien and Gallarush without yielding any benefits.
"Shouldn't I try to persuade them all since I've come this far?"
"I thought you might. You're such a shameless fellow."
Lucinil clicked her tongue and sighed.
"Follow me."
As if to say there was no more to discuss here, Lucinil dragged me away.
Leaving the palace building, Lucinil walked through the deep snow.
-Whoosh
Naturally, walking through the piled snow with her small frame, her feet sank in, and she couldn't walk properly.
"Ugh."
-Bam!
With a wave of Lucinil's hand, a shockwave exploded, sending the accumulated snow flying in all directions.
"The Council really chose the wrong place for this. Why on earth did they build the palace where it snows all year round? It doesn't make any sense."
"…Maybe the palace wasn't here when the Council chose this place?"
"This place was built a very long time ago, back when there were Sunday and Monday. No one even knows exactly when that was. Of course, there have been many renovations since then. It was quite primitive in the beginning."
Lucinil grumbled, as if the location of the Council had nothing to do with her. She led the way through the snowstorm, and I followed.
"I'm not sure if this is the right expression, but I'd like to know the order of seniority. Can you tell me?"
"Seniority? Oh, you mean our ages?"
"Yes."
Lucinil casually spread out her fingers as if it was no secret.
"As you can see, Luruien is the oldest. Then comes Gallarush, followed by Eleris, then me, and finally Antirianus."
Lucinil and I left the main palace and arrived at an area that could be called a secondary palace.
"Ugh, even low-ranking spirits keep clinging to this place. Why is the territory so bad?"
-Heeheehee…
As if driven mad by the wailing of ghosts from all around, Lucinil clapped her hands, causing the spirits to vanish into thin air.
It's quite strange to hear a vampire complain about their territory.
"Even if they're not dayflies, they keep coming back when chased away."
In a reception room-like area of the secondary palace, Lucinil sat on an old sofa, and I sat across from her.
"Assuming I don't know what Antirianus is plotting, you'd like to persuade Luruien and Gallarush too, right?"
"If it's possible."
"Listen, little Archdemon. We've all lived for such a long time that it's difficult to measure. You understand, right?"
"I suppose so?"
"So, how did we all become vampires?"
It's impossible to be born a vampire.
Each of them had a life before becoming a vampire. Luruien would have been an elf, Gallarush an orc, and Lucinil a homunculus.
"Isn't it different for each of you?"
"It can't be that different."
Resting her chin on the armrest of the sofa, Lucinil glanced at me.
"It's because we didn't want to die."
The five great Vampire Lords.
The reason they became vampires was simply because they didn't want to die.
It wasn't that I expected a grand reason, but the fact that it all boiled down to this felt somewhat odd.
"Antirianus said he debated between becoming a lich or a vampire and chose to become a vampire. He thought living as bones would be more inconvenient than not being able to see the sun. But as a VampireLord, he can see the sun, although it's painful. So, he's quite lucky. Anyway, they all became vampires because they didn't want to die."
No.
That reason, in its own way, felt a bit eerie.
"I used to be a Homunculus. A Homunculus is an unstable magical lifeform. I was quite exceptionally stable, but I couldn't know my specific lifespan, and the prospect of facing death someday was too terrifying. So, in order to avoid death, I tried various methods, and the last one I chose was becoming a vampire. Similarly, it was because I didn't want to die."
Lucinil looked at me.
Then, she seemed to be about to say something but closed her mouth instead.
"Anyway, the specific reasons may vary, but ultimately, we all became vampires because we didn't want to die."
Lucinil didn't explain the circumstances of Luruien, Gallarush, and Eleris, but she said that they all became vampires as a refuge from their fear of death.
"So, your threat is in a way the most effective approach to us. After all, our greatest fear is death."
The only way to get through to immortals, who have had almost everything they could want over the long course of time, is to threaten them with their lives. They fear death, after all.
"But that's only possible to a certain extent. We have truly lived for a very, very long time. We were not the only lords for generations; the lords have changed several times. How do you think that happened?"
"I don't know."
"There's no way that vampires like us would be hunted or killed."
I read something in Lucinil's eyes.
"Suicide?"
"Yes."
Boredom.
"Most of the time, the replacement of the lords of the five families happened in such cases. Well, there are other cases, but you don't need to know about those."
It's impossible for powerful vampires hiding far away from the world to be killed. They don't even expose their existence to the world.
So, there's no way for the lords to be replaced except by giving up on life themselves.
"So, does that mean they're not afraid of death in the end?"
While becoming a vampire was due to the fear of losing one's life, if a Lord Vampire eventually grows weary of living for so long, then threatening their life won't yield any results, will it?
"No, it's the opposite."
Lucinil revealed a subtle smile.
"Despite living for so long, despite life becoming weary to the point of exhaustion… "
Sadness filled the eyes of the vampire.
"They still have a reason to live."
So, coming back to the point, the current lords must be beings who still have at least one reason to live.
The fact that they haven't given up on life is already proof of that.
Lucinil was giving me information.