Omniscient First-Person’s Viewpoint-Chapter 466: Lived the Life of a Bug

Vampires did not require sustenance beyond blood. Ironically, this made them the most reliable keepers of food. If entrusting fish to a cat seemed risky, one could always entrust it with grain instead. The cat would guard it zealously, feasting on the birds drawn to the grain in the process.

Village Chief Bilitaire’s basement was stocked with provisions meant for long-term storage—barrels of liquor, round wheels of cheese, hardtack, and even sausages. It wasn’t an abundant supply, but it was enough for two people to survive off of.

"Got everything? Let’s go!"

"Yeeees~."

Hilde, her arms full of stolen goods, slid down into the hole. I followed behind, pulling the lid shut after me. The opening, which had been cut into the ground as cleanly as if by a razor, was difficult to seal, but I managed to drag it into place. Then, I ran my hand along the edges of the passage.

The earth was one. Even if, for some reason, it had been momentarily divided, to the eyes of the Earth Mother, it was still the same ground. As I used earth magic to restore it, the basement floor smoothed over, erasing all traces of the hole ever having existed.

Now this was true craftsmanship. Did a skill always have to shake the heavens or split the wind to be called a skill? No—real skills were the ones seamlessly woven into everyday life.

Hilde placed the stolen food at the center of the tunnel and remarked,

"Vampires really are dull, aren’t they~? We were robbing them right from beneath their feet, and they didn’t even notice."

"Their senses are dull when it comes to things like this. If blood had been spilled, they would have noticed immediately."

"Well, good for us, then! More food for our little hideaway~."

Even though we were in a dirt tunnel, I had arranged things to be somewhat livable using earth magic. The ceiling was high enough that we could sit without hitting our heads when we raised our hands. The space was decently spacious, furnished with blankets and even a makeshift table.

If we had more time, I would have expanded it further, maybe even turned it into a proper underground home. But considering that we were right beneath a house, I hadn’t wanted to risk structural collapse. A shame, really.

"You have quite the knack for construction. When did you pick up such a skill?"

"This is basic stuff. If anything, it’s strange that humans have forgotten how to do this. Building a shelter was once a necessary survival skill."

Grumbling, I tossed a card onto the floor—Spade 9, a false idol imbued with the Wood of Origin. A stem sprouted from it, and soon, a lush, soft layer of moss spread across the ground. Satisfied with the plush texture, I laid out the blankets and sat down, grabbing some food.

"Alright. We’ve been working way too hard. Consider this a vacation, courtesy of me. Let’s rest, patch ourselves up, and take our time."

"Waaah~. A vacation spent in a cramped dirt tunnel, eating moldy cheese—how luxurious~."

"Haha. Seeing your joy really puts my mind at ease. Make yourself at home."

Despite the less-than-ideal conditions, Hilde and I ate our food without much fuss. It wasn’t particularly uncomfortable—we had been through much worse.

Where? The Military State.

"Sitting in a dirt tunnel eating cheese makes me realize just how grand the Military State was, with its single-room bunkers and canned beans."

Updat𝓮d fr𝙤m ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com.

"Munch, munch? What’s with the sudden comparison?"

Irritated by my spontaneous jab at the Military State, Hilde hastily swallowed her food and shot back,

"If this dirt hole is so much better than the Military State, then why does this country have fugitives? Wouldn’t it be easier to just live peacefully, offering their blood to the vampires? Why do people keep risking their lives to escape?"

"Because of vampires like Ruskinia. When you live under someone that insane, running is the only choice."

"Then what about you, Father? You could have lived comfortably here as the progenitor’s consort. Why did you run?"

Hilde went straight for the core of the matter.

She had a point. If comfort were my goal, then staying by Tyrkanzyaka’s side would have been the obvious choice. Even from a human perspective, she wasn’t particularly flawed, so nothing terrible would have happened.

"Well...."

The Duchy was a land where humans lived like well-kept livestock. An immortal, emotionless ruler took care of them, ensuring their survival. The vampires were tireless, never resting, always efficient. In terms of sheer quality of life, the Duchy was leagues ahead of the Military State. If there was such a thing as paradise, perhaps this was it.

And yet... I had chosen to leave.

"Tyrkanzyaka wanted me to stay by her side as her consort, to be with her forever. But that was a wish I couldn’t grant. And since she would have bound me by force, I had no choice but to run."

"Beautifully put~. Now, do you understand why humans try to escape?"

Wiping her lips with the edge of a blanket, Hilde smirked with satisfaction.

"Humans are weak, but they like to think they’re special. That’s why they can’t easily accept being treated as livestock."

"But there are still people who do remain in the Duchy."

"It’s one of two things: either they don’t realize they’re livestock, or they’ve given up and accepted it. Even the most cynical of people, if you told them outright, ‘You are nothing more than cattle, no different from a dairy cow,’ they wouldn’t be able to accept it."

It was an open secret.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

Technically speaking, humans in the Duchy were # Nоvеlight # livestock. Yet no one said it aloud. No one even dared to consciously think about it. They simply regarded the vampires as rulers, nothing more.

Aside from the fact that the taxes collected were in blood rather than money, there wasn’t much difference from a regular ruling class.

But blood... blood was different.

"Being treated as food—that alone is enough reason for humans to flee. Do you know why the Holy Crown Church still stands, despite all the foolishness and corruption? At the very least, their god, even if falsely, grants humans dignity and peace of mind!"

She wasn’t wrong.

But coming from Hilde, of all people—formerly of the Sacred Sword Order—it felt ironic.

"You saying that makes it hard to take seriously. Weren’t you the one who ran away from the Sacred Sword Order?"

Hilde shrugged.

"Well~. That’s... let’s call it a personal matter. I got a taste of the bitter truth, you see~. A whole long story of twists and turns~."

"And what exactly happened?"

"You want to know?"

"Yeah. Tell me."

"Where should I start?"

"From the beginning."

"It’s going to be a long story."

"Good. That means I won’t be bored."

Hilde smiled briefly, then closed her eyes and shut herself off from the world, as if lowering the curtain on a stage.

Whenever she did this, her mental landscape became dark and silent. She had temporarily lowered the curtain on the stage of the world and was carefully selecting a role. Though it was all happening within her mind, it was as if she were picking out clothes from a mannequin and slipping them on.

"I am a Holy Knight. A devout servant of the divine, carrying out His will. Only He watches over me. Glory to the Celestial God."

Having donned the oldest, most worn-out armor, Hilde raised the curtain once more. The person standing before me now was no longer the Hilde I knew—it was the wandering knight of her past, lost in her own identity.

Hilde—no, the nameless knight—began speaking in a solemn, heavy tone.

"There was a time when ‘I’ was lost. I abandoned discipline, disrupted order, and in the end, took a life and fled. Assassins, bounty hunters, mercenary bands—all sought ‘me.’ ‘I’ never even considered paying for my sins. All I could do was run."

"Are you acting right now? Your voice sounds like something out of a play."

"It was one of my few talents. A talent that brought me nothing but trouble... but one that saved my life time and time again. I survived by pretending to be an assassin, a fellow bounty hunter, a mercenary captain. I infiltrated, acted, and betrayed—desperately clinging to life. But in the end... ‘I’ no longer knew who I was. What I was living for."

The nameless knight fiddled with an imaginary necklace. Hilde never wore one, yet her movements mimicked those of a Holy Knight holding a rosary.

"Then, the Divine called upon ‘me.’"

"The Divine?"

"Yes. ‘I have watched over you,’ He said. ‘I have seen how you lived, how you ran, and how you pretended. A lost lamb disguising itself as a goat—pitiful and misguided.’"

This was an act.

And yet, it wasn’t.

For nearly five years, she had never stopped acting—not even while resting or sleeping. At some point, it had become indistinguishable from reality.

"The Celestial watches over ‘me.’ He is the shepherd who guides lost lambs. Therefore, ‘I’ must follow and serve Him—"

"Then why did you stop the act?"

"Well~ you see, He started handing out power indiscriminately, without even noticing that I was faking it~."

The actor discarded her role at will.

Returning from her Holy Knight persona, Hilde shrugged lightly, as if it had never happened.

"Every action I took was an act. They recognized ‘me’ and appointed me to the Sacred Sword Order... but honestly, the moment they allowed a performer onto the stage and let me wield divine power, it was already a mistake! Even worse, depending on which knight I was portraying, the form of the sacred sword would change!"

Hilde demonstrated.

A noble and steadfast greatsword.

A piercing lance that could skewer malevolence.

A shield, embodying unwavering faith.

Hilde, with her exceptional talent in performance, could shape the Sacred Sword however she pleased.

"They made ‘me’ a Sacred Knight, but the moment they realized my acting was influencing the manifestation of divine power, they cast me out! As if this wasn’t what they had signed up for! Seriously, what a joke!"

"But you said they eventually caught on while you were still acting?"

"That wasn’t the Celestial! It was the Saintess—one of those forsaken by fate. She was looking for knights who would devote their very body and soul to her with just a whisper. That’s the real reason I was found out!"

I tilted my head.

"What’s the difference? The Holy Crown Church and the Saintess are the same thing."

"Not at all~. Yuel turned her back on the Holy Crown Church, but she’s still a Saintess!"

Fair point. A Saintess abandoning the Church was almost unheard of, making Yuel an extreme anomaly.

"The Celestial was just a generous old man who handed out power to anyone who flattered Him enough. The other Saintesses, the ones who wanted to preserve the faith, gradually distanced themselves from ‘me.’ All I ever wanted was someone to see ‘me’ for who I was. And so, when even the Holy Crown Church deemed ‘me’ an outcast... it was the excommunicated Saintess Yuel who called me to the Military State."

Hilde laughed bitterly.

"I was a disgrace to the Sacred Sword Order, but that also meant no one wanted me. And that made me the perfect match for an excommunicated Saintess! A forsaken knight for a forsaken Saintess—what a pair!"

Having proclaimed this with self-mockery, Hilde then softened her expression and approached me with a playful grin.

She poked me in the side, smirking mischievously.

"And that’s how I ended up working as the ‘Eternal Sentinel’ and eventually met you, Father~. It’s a horrible job—always busy, never appreciated—but at least I got to meet you! Lucky me!"

Her voice was light, completely unburdened, as if she had been freed from all worldly concerns. She spoke as if she could float away at any moment, untroubled by the past.

But that, too, was probably an act.

"And right now... what role are you playing?"