How Zombies Survive in the Apocalypse

[Diary

After the tunnel fight the other day, I've been wandering around the continent, continuously evading or annihilating the church's pursuit.

Camping has become not just familiar, but comfortable now.

At some point, my luggage increased too. My backpack is full of camping equipment.

At the invitation of a werewolf, I'm now camping deep in a forest in one part of the continent.

I miss a soft bed.

On my way here, I also encountered vampires.

Since I've been fighting the church like crazy, there's no way they haven't heard about me.

Noble-class vampires, not low-level ones, came looking for me.

They seemed to want to ask me various things, curious about my identity. But thanks to a werewolf attack, they couldn't say much.

It seems noble-class vampires don't move around much, the werewolves were really going all out to attack.

In the midst of that, the church's pursuers also appeared. To be precise, they were hunters.

From their perspective, it must have been a gold mine. Werewolves basically only show hostility towards vampires and don't often attack humans, they say.

Maybe that's why a 2 vs 1 fight broke out, and I found this situation annoying so I quickly dealt with the few that rushed at me and left the place.

I didn't like the look in the eyes of one vampire who glanced at my fighting.

Was it some kind of disgust? That kind of look.

I never intended to mingle with vampires in the first place, so I just hope they don't bother me. The crazy fanatics alone are more than enough of a nuisance.

When I was running hard after leaving the battlefield, one werewolf appeared.

It startled me because it appeared suddenly, but it didn't seem to have any intention to fight.

After glaring at me for a while, it threw a scrap of paper and disappeared.

When I gently picked up the paper, it had the location of some area written on it and that they wanted to talk.

...Are these guys idiots? I'm a vampire, you know? I thought with a sigh.

It felt like I was going to get involved in something troublesome.

Still, it's the first time I've received such an invitation, so I ran hard to get here.

I'll have to think about what happens next when the time comes]

Crackle crackle

The campfire is giving off warm heat.

I finished writing in my diary and collapsed on the blanket.

"Ahhh, I miss a bed so much..."

I didn't know if meeting with the werewolves was the right thing or the wrong thing to do.

I just couldn't help but have some expectation that there might be one new possibility.

If they wanted to kill me, they wouldn't have gone through the trouble of doing this, they could have just put in full force during the vampire attack and killed me along with them.

It's a bit stuffy because I can't see the sky since it's such a dense forest.

Awooo

The sound of a wolf howling comes from deep in the forest.

And then with the sound of wind, one werewolf appeared.

"Making a grand entrance, aren't you?"

To my question, the werewolf approached the campfire without saying anything.

Crackle crackle

The height over 2 meters, large build, and body covered in fur with a huge wolf face and claws gradually reduced.

Then he, who had become the appearance of an ordinary person, put on the coat he was holding and sat down heavily.

"Are you that famous Primordial?"

The werewolf knows too.

Then that means the vampires aren't unaware either.

I thought the reason they tried to meet me last time was because I had the primordial blood.

"Looks like you don't just live in the forest."

"We're different from those vampire bastards."

"That's true, if you can freely change your appearance, you could easily hide in human society too."

"You're quite sharp."

I couldn't tell what role this werewolf played in the pack, but he didn't seem to be a low-rank.

"The introduction is too long, get to the point."

"You're impatient too? I'm trying to get friendly here."

"A werewolf with a vampire? Don't joke too much."

When I snorted, the werewolf sighed.

"Let me introduce myself first, my name is Vincent."

"I'm Arian."

"...Usually vampires hide their true names, you really are unusual."

"I'm very different from them."

Vincent took out a bottle from his chest, opened the cap and gulped it down.

Judging by the smell, it seems to be wine, but I've never drunk it.

"I've come to deliver the clan's intention to Arian who likes the main point."

"Say it."

He put down the bottle and took out a paper glowing blue from his chest.

When I tensed slightly in case of any situation, Vincent waved his hand.

"Whoa whoa, it's not a threat, it's just a contract paper. Listen first."

Vincent who said that starts reading the paper.

[This is a proposal. O you who were born with the primordial blood. If you help us kill some vampires, we will give a little help to your journey.

The vampires we want to kill are as follows:

The Noble of the Red Rose.

The Noble of the Thorn Tree.

The Noble of the Red Moon.

These three.

Will you accept the contract?]

Vincent's words ended.

...In my view, the wolves aren't good with their heads.

I'm a vampire, you know? I don't know what they're thinking.

"Hey. Are you werewolves in your right mind?"

"Hmm... Of course we are."

"I'm a vampire, you know, but you think I'll kill my own kind?"

Vincent giggles to himself at my words.

This feels really bad?

"Ah, I see what you're thinking. But, what if the vampires try to kill you? Then wouldn't you consider cooperating?"

"Kill me? Why?"

"That's simple. They're losing the current war and want more powerful strength. And just then, stories about you started circulating from the church side. We and those bastards both have spies planted in the church, so we can get such news quickly."

"So?"

"They're thinking of killing you and absorbing your blood."

Ah~ I can easily understand what he's saying.

They're not trying to bring me to their side. But to absorb my blood.

Oh, so that's why that look in their eyes was like that back then?

"What's the basis for that?"

Vincent took out a bundle of papers from his chest again and gave them to me.

"You'll see if you look at that. It's a document those bastards delivered to low-level vampires."

The document has a rough sketch of my face, and says to capture me alive and bring me to them, and if capture is impossible, to identify my location and report it.

"It's the height of stupidity to think they'll get stronger by drinking my blood."

"That's right, vampires have to be a bit stupid. Anyway, in this state, you have to deal with both the church's pursuit and the vampires' pursuit."

"So you want to appeal that the enemy of my enemy is my friend?"

"That's right."

"What can I gain by helping you?"

"We'll disrupt the pursuit of the church and vampires."

"Disrupt?"

"We have quite a lot of groups we've infiltrated. As you see, we're very used to transforming into human form. Through the process of disrupting eyewitness information about you and delivering wrong locations, we can throw off a considerable amount of the church's pursuit. And for the vampires, their information will naturally weaken once those three die anyway."

...It was an extremely tempting offer.

I really missed a soft bed anyway, and most importantly, I wanted to wash with warm water.

"It's a good condition, but. How do you plan to kill three vampires?"

"It's simple. We'll launch a preemptive attack, and you'll infiltrate and deal with them in that gap."

"It sounds too simple?"

"It won't be that simple. Those three vampires are real monsters who have lived for over 200 years, you know."

So they're different from the low-level vampires and fanatics I've met so far?

But I don't think I'll lose.

And their proposal was attractive enough to think it's worth taking this level of risk.

"Okay, I'll accept."

"Then sign this contract paper."

Vincent took out a pen and gave it to me.

There were two sheets of contract paper. I signed without hesitation. Then the blue light glowed more strongly and soon, the blue light disappeared and Vincent handed me one of the papers.

"Contract paper... It's my first time seeing it. What happens if you break the contract?"

"You're asking that now?"

"It could happen."

"Haha! It's nothing much. Just that the location of the party who broke the contract is marked on the paper."

Aha? So that means you can follow and torment the contract breaker to the ends of hell.

Not a bad story.

I didn't intend to break the contract anyway.

"Is this all wrapped up now?"

"That's right. We'll proceed with the preparations on our side, and you just need to wait in the village below."

"Is that okay?"

"That village is our territory. If you go to the inn there, you'll be able to rest comfortably."

"I... really like that? Thanks for being considerate."

"?"

"What?"

It seems my words of thanks were strange.

"You're just like a human."

"Hmph, I may be a vampire, but I'm trying to live as a human."

"Haha! Good, good. Anyway, rest comfortably. The preparations won't take long."

With those final words, Vincent disappeared into the dark forest.

I stared blankly in the direction Vincent disappeared, then started to pack up the campsite.

"Bed! Bath! Ahhhh I'm so happy!"

Before I knew it, I was humming a tune.

A bath after two whole months. I can't help but be excited.

My hands became urgent. I packed up the blanket and organized several items needed for camping into my bag, then threw dirt onto the campfire.

Sizzle

After confirming that the campfire flames had died down, I sprang up from my spot.

Every minute and second was precious.

I need to run quickly!

* * *

Even though it was quite late, the lights of the inn were bright.

As soon as I arrived, the innkeeper handed me a room key and asked if I needed anything.

It seems everything had been arranged already.

Werewolves, they're quite capable, aren't they?

"A bath! Clean clothes!"

When I said without hesitation, the innkeeper looked a bit flustered.

But she soon smiled and said she would prepare bath water, and since clothes couldn't be obtained at this hour, she would prepare simple sleepwear for now.

Good sense, isn't it?

I hurried to the room.

Creak

I opened the door of the room and roughly threw my bag.

And immediately dove onto the bed.

This softness! It's happiness itself!

While I was rolling around on the bed for a while-

Knock knock

"The bath water is ready."

I quickly ran to the bathroom.

As I lay in the warm bathtub prepared in the bathroom, I couldn't help but say this is happiness.

After warming up my body properly, I could recall the werewolf's request.

Among the information I gathered while wandering here and there, there was also the current situation of the werewolves, and they are in quite a difficult situation. It's because they're being outnumbered by vampires.

Both are monsters that become stronger at night. However, unlike werewolves who live scattered in groups here and there, vampires can make low-level vampires as much as they want as long as there are humans, so if they push with numbers, even werewolves couldn't do anything.

And, the vampire nobles are quite strong.

It must have been hard for werewolves to withstand the vampires' wave-like attacks both qualitatively and quantitatively.

"Primordial blood..."

They said they're after my blood.

Looking at various situations, this alliance seemed like it would be a great benefit to me.