The snow-covered forest stretched out in a sea of white. The silence around us was strangely deep. Every now and then, I spotted gray wolves prowling between the trees, but they didn’t seem intent on attacking us. Each sled was pulled by ten hunting dogs, and that pack alone was more than enough to give the wolves a hard time. Besides, we had hunters along with us, and the bows and hunting knives in their hands were no joke. If it came to a fight, it wasn’t certain who’d end up the prey. The heavy snow had almost completely buried the road. Without the piles of stones that appeared at regular intervals along the roadside, we’d have gotten lost for sure. We followed the snow-buried road, stopping and starting along the way. By the time dusk was near, we finally reached Chilli Village.

A sturdy wall of logs stood at the end of the road. The gate didn’t seem damaged, but it had been left ajar instead of properly shut. That wasn’t right.

“Halt,” Rosen shouted. “Stay alert.”

The hunters immediately formed a circle, keeping watch in every direction. I poked my head out from under my thick scarf and sniffed the cold air. An unsettling scent drifted on the wind. As a vampire, I knew it all too well. The smell of human blood! It was a good thing I’d gone into the forest last night and killed a few wolves to drink my fill. Otherwise, I’d be suffering from blood thirst by now.

“Tick, Lin, go check the village.”

The two hunters immediately left the group. They slung their bows over their backs and drew the hunting knives from their belts. Then they pushed open the ajar gate, revealing a quiet mountain village. A dozen or so thatched cottages stood crammed together inside the log palisade. Their doors and windows stood open, but there were no lights—and no sign of human life.

This wasn’t just a little suspicious anymore. Something was clearly wrong!

If it were up to me, I’d order a retreat right now. But Rosen was in command of this operation, and my ingrained soldier’s instinct made me obey his orders without question. I’d lost my chance to object.

“Doesn’t look like anyone’s here?”

“There’s no one inside the houses.”

The two hunters reported back. After a moment’s thought, Rosen ordered us into the village. But the hunting dogs pulling the sleds panicked at the gate. They barked uneasily and refused to enter. The hunters driving the sleds had to work incredibly hard to calm them down before they could get the sleds moving into the village.

“Luka, Faenda,” Rosen ordered. “Shut the gate.”

“Understood.”

Luka and Faenda immediately turned and headed for the gate. They pushed together, struggling until they finally managed to close it completely. The other hunters spread out and began searching each thatched cottage, hoping to find survivors. These ordinary people probably couldn’t sense it, but the air was growing more and more dangerous. I wriggled out from under the thick blanket, grabbed my crossbow, and got ready to shoot. As the last of the sunset vanished behind the snow-covered treetops, a heavy shadow fell over the little village in the woods.

The instant the last sliver of sunlight disappeared in the distance, the eerie atmosphere hanging over the village turned dangerous!

“Hill, Bart,” Rosen said, still trying to find survivors. “Go check the headman’s house. There’s a cellar there where people can hide from danger. The survivors might be inside.”

“Understood.”

“Leave it to us.”

The two hunters immediately headed for the village’s largest building, which was also its only two-story wooden structure—the village hall. They forced open the wooden doors and headed down to the cellar. But the moment they opened the heavy cellar door, the stench of death came billowing out.

“Oh God! What is that thing?”

“Holy crap! Run!”

The two hunters stumbled and scrambled out of the village hall, with a large group of ragged villagers right behind them. Their torn clothes were stained with blood, and their ashen-gray skin looked no different from a corpse’s. Their hands had all mutated into claws, with foul-smelling pus dripping from their fingertips. Holy crap, these people were already dead—and had been turned into ghouls after death!

“What’s going on?” Rosen was stunned. “Folks, we’re from the town—”

Before he could finish, I pulled the trigger. The crossbow bolt, dipped in Holy Elixir, struck the largest ghoul dead on. Its body immediately burst into flames like burning charcoal, then turned to ash in an instant. Everyone stared, dumbfounded. The people living on the frontier knew nothing about vampires. To them, vampires were nothing more than a legend people chatted about over meals.

That’s why none of you had any idea I was a vampire.

The crossbow fired too slowly, so I grabbed a bow from the sled and poured a bottle of Holy Elixir into my quiver, making sure every arrow was blessed by holy light. Then I turned the bow sideways, held four arrows between my fingers, and nocked them all at once. Finally, I activated the skill “Sniper’s Eye.”

“Everyone in front, get down!”

I shouted and loosed the holy arrows. The ghouls lunging at the two hunters burst into flames in an instant, showering them with gray ash. The hunters screamed, scrambled up from the snow, and ran toward the sled on all fours.

“Aim for their knees!” Rosen drew his bow and nocked an arrow. “Fire!”

The other hunters immediately opened fire. The ghouls hit in the knees fell to the ground, but these monsters couldn’t feel pain. They clawed at the snow and struggled forward on their hands and knees. Only when arrows shining with holy light struck their bodies did they turn to ash in the flames. The hunters’ “shoot them in the knees” tactic severely limited the ghouls’ mobility, giving me time to bring my bow upright and shoot the arrows soaked in Holy Elixir one at a time, using the proper form Luka had taught me. It was a chaotic, close-quarters fight. I made full use of the bow’s high rate of fire, sending arrows one after another like a machine gun. The arrows shone with holy light, tracing bright lines through the night. Any ghoul they hit immediately burst into flames and quickly crumbled into pale gray ash.

Within just a few minutes, every ghoul had been taken out. I glanced at my empty quiver and let out a quiet sigh of relief. If there’d been even one more, I wouldn’t have had enough arrows. The hunters who’d survived the fierce battle stood in the snow, nervously watching their surroundings, eyes full of caution. Nobody spoke. Everyone was still caught in the lingering terror, wrapped in a suffocating silence.

“Holy crap, what the hell just happened?” Faenda was the first to break the silence. “Rosen, what were those things? Weren’t they villagers from Chilli Village? I recognized that woman who nearly tackled me—she’s Leila’s cousin! How did all these people suddenly turn into monsters? Aren’t you supposed to know everything? Say something!”

“How should I know?” Rosen gritted his teeth. “I’ve never seen anything like this in my whole life! The villagers turned into monsters—this is fucking insane!”

Just then, Luka suddenly spoke. The cold wind stirred her hair, but her voice carried clearly to everyone.

“They’re… ghouls,” she said. “Elsa and I were attacked by similar creatures at the ruins of the castle in the forest. I hurt my arm. If a passing paladin hadn’t come along, I’d have been done for.”

“Ghouls.”

For some reason, everyone’s gaze snapped toward me.