Unthreatening Creature Protection Association Book 2
Chapter 26: Wakefulness and Fatigue
Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: PlumSauce
Carolyn had spent the whole morning driving Mitchel around. She’d only bought him an ice cream cone, while the rest of the time was almost entirely devoted to her own shopping.
“You said that card you’re using…belongs to someone named Liz?” Mitchel asked, almost feeling sorry for that human.
“Yeah,” Carolyn replied. “She doesn’t like shopping but always asks me to pick things up for her. She told me I could grab a little something for myself while I’m at it.”
The backseat was nearly overflowing. That’s ‘a little something’? Mitchel glanced skeptically at the mountain of bags.
Just as they were talking about Liz, her call came through.
“I figured out the meaning behind the pattern,” Liz said. “I’m not going to explain all the details — you wouldn’t understand them anyway. The point is, the bone-winged guy never returned to the Abyss. That symbol is an anchor. The three dots are branches, connecting to one central point.”
“You’re explaining and I still don’t understand,” Carolyn said, one hand on the steering wheel.
“The rune is three-point symmetrical. There’s a symbol in the middle. The three dots work like anchors, and the center is his base of operations. Got it now?”
“So the three dots are…?”
“One’s in the basement room, one’s on him, and the last one’s on his Porsche.”
That’s why, when he was expelled, Sidov had disappeared along with his car.
“There’s more,” Liz added. Suddenly, she switched languages, clearly aware that someone else was in the car with Carolyn.
“Oh, okay. Got it. Don’t worry, I’ll be careful around Sidov.” Carolyn ended the call after listening.
From the backseat, Mitchel stared at Carolyn’s blonde hair. “Sidov didn’t get expelled, did he?”
“Nope. He pulled a fast one. He’s probably still in the city.”
“What are you guys planning to do?”
“You don’t know?” Carolyn flashed a smile. “We’re going to lure him out.”
“You want to use me as bait?” Mitchel’s voice trembled. “You’re insane — he’s a lord-level demon. You can’t possibly beat him!”
“Oh, how would we know if we don’t try?” Carolyn raised an eyebrow. Of course she knew she couldn’t take on a lord-level demon by herself. But she never planned to face him alone.
“Please, just let me out of the car,” Mitchel said.
“What are you going to do?”
“Nothing,” he replied. “The binding spell on me is gone. I’m free. I want to leave, go somewhere no one knows me. And, not to brag, but I know a few minor spells. I can make sure he won’t find me.”
“Where do you want to go? I can give you a ride.”
“If it’s not too much trouble, could you take me to Aefida Airport in West Bay City?”
“Did you already buy a ticket?”
“Demons have ways of boarding flights,” Mitchel said with a sheepish smile.
“No,” Carolyn said flatly. “We must catch Sidov.”
Mitchel kept pleading with her, trying to convince her not to go head-to-head with Sidov. As he spoke, his hands clasped together, then slowly slid apart. A black spike appeared in his palm.
“I really just want to leave… I don’t want to be caught up in this with him anymore…” Mitchel’s voice was weak, but his eyes were fixed on Carolyn’s neck.
The spike wasn’t meant to take a hostage — it was meant to take the car.
He waited for the right moment, then thrust his hand forward.
The spike was caught mid-air — Carolyn seized it with one hand. Both of her hands were off the wheel, and in less than half a second, Mitchel had been dragged from the back seat into the front — headfirst, no less.
The huntress twisted Mitchel’s right wrist, forcing the spike from his hand. Several of his fingers bent at grotesque angles.
Mitchel gritted his teeth and chanted a single syllable. Before the sound could finish, Carolyn pulled a dagger from her boot and plunged it into his stomach, cutting his words off with a scream.
There was a hidden mechanism in the dagger’s hilt. When Carolyn pressed it, the blade extended to double its length. The silver dagger pinned Mitchel, upside down, to the passenger seat.
The car swerved violently. Carolyn immediately grabbed the steering wheel again. At the same time, she twisted sideways and stomped hard on Mitchel’s head. He was kicked unconscious.
“Darling, mortal-born demons are even weaker than I thought,” Carolyn said cheerfully, looking down at the passed-out Mitchel. “They don’t even come close to vampires.”
“Mr. Wu Jiu, you can come out of my body now.” She sat back up properly. The stunt she’d just pulled had terrified all the nearby drivers — no one dared drive close anymore.
A gaunt specter in a black tailcoat slowly emerged from her body and bowed to her.
“Coraci gave you the ability to touch physical objects, right?” Carolyn said. “There’s a pair of insulated gloves in the storage box. Put them on and tie this demon up with the silver chain. Make it neat.”
Wu Jiu turned Mitchel around while he was still pinned, rotating him so that his head faced upward, and then began tying him up. Once he finished, the ghostly butler gave Carolyn another bow and slipped quietly into the back seat.
“Hey, I bet you’re wondering how I knew,” Carolyn said. Wu Jiu could understand her, though she couldn’t understand his responses. So he nodded in the rearview mirror.
“First, Liz told me earlier she’d been digging into a kidnapping case from years ago. That case ended with all six kidnappers and three hostages having their necks snapped by some unknown force.” She glanced at the unconscious Mitchel. “This guy’s been lying — half-truths at best.
“Second, Liz found some spell notes and journal entries in Sidov’s house. They were written in two different handwritings — the other one was obviously Mitchel’s.
“Third, he claims Sidov kept killing for fun and that he couldn’t take it anymore? Who would believe that? Facing a lord-level demon of the Abyss, and he still lived this long without helping him? I don’t buy it. Sidov wouldn’t have kept him around unless he was useful.
“And most importantly…I just don’t like demons. I’ve been suspicious of him from the start.”
A knowing expression crossed Wu Jiu’s withered face. He sat upright, bowing his head respectfully.
“Don’t worry — Coraci will be fine. We’ll find him,” Carolyn said. “Besides, John disappeared too. Honestly, that might be a good thing.”
…
It was nearly impossible to fight in the cramped washroom, but no one dared to open the door and run. Because once they ran out, they could be sent to who-knew-which room — and then it would take forever to find each other again.
The Lizardman girl, Mariana, sniffed the air thick with the scent of black blood and sighed. “What a shame. This one’s too fresh. Doesn’t have that pond-demon’s strong stench.”
“I think it already smells bad enough…” John leaned against the tiled wall, waiting for his wounds to heal.
“I just ate a lot earlier, so I can’t eat any more. If its odor were stronger, I might’ve considered giving it a taste…” Mariana regretfully sniffed the corpse of the Abyss Mastiff.
“Miss, can we please stop talking about eating?” John said weakly.
He hadn’t rested since the evening before, nor had he found time to feed from a blood bag. Normally, going hungry a few more hours wouldn’t have been a big deal — but he’d already spent so much energy, been injured several times, and now the hunger and fatigue were really setting in.
The worst part was that Coraci still had open wounds… John didn’t even dare look at him now.
“Coraci… when do you think your wounds will heal?” John asked in a drained voice.
“How should I know? Humans don’t really have a good sense of this stuff.” The wounds on Coraci’s hand weren’t deep; they’d stopped bleeding, but the scent still lingered constantly in the air.
“But you did well — not many injuries, especially in a hellhole like this,” John added.
Coraci replied, “That’s because I didn’t fight the things I came across. I just ran. Let’s get out of here. This place is too cramped. It’s making me uncomfortable.”
The Lizardman girl wrapped her arms around both of them again, and the three of them huddled together as they left the bathroom.
They passed a storage room, another bathroom, a staff shower, guest rooms, and finally reached the attic… In the attic, John tried breaking through a wall to see if they could escape that way, but it didn’t work. Most likely, the whole house was protected by magic.
Then, they stepped into a wide chamber filled with terrifying torture devices — coffin cages, interrogation beds, Judas cradles…and even an iron maiden.
Mariana let go of the two humans and resumed her normal walking stance. Coraci swayed on his feet, and John quickly reached out to steady him.
“What’s wrong?” John asked.
“Nothing. Just got a little dizzy all of a sudden. I’m fine now.” Coraci pinched the bridge of his nose and rubbed his face a few times. “Probably because I didn’t sleep all night…except for the bit when Sidov knocked me out.”
“He hit you?” John asked, instantly alarmed.
“Well, to be precise, he didn’t hit me — he choked me,” Coraci said, pointing to his neck. “This spot’s the jugular sinus. Sounds kinda like a Vulcan nerve pinch, right?”
“What’s a Vulcan?” Mariana tilted her head curiously.
“I’ll slowly explain it to you once we get out of here,” Coraci said, patting her back.
They found many corpses in that room, some human, others Cave Lizardmen like Mariana, along with imps and succubi. From the looks of it, the succubi had suffered the most — probably because they were naturally more resilient than humans, which meant they endured longer, more brutal torment.
…Unfortunately, all the blood had dried up long ago, and they were very much dead. John gazed at the decaying bodies with regret, hunger gnawing stronger in his mind.
He could still remember the taste of succubus blood. The phantom sensation lingered on his tongue, making his hunger sharper.
He began using the trick his parents had taught him: when you were starving but had to keep control, you could think about terrifying things — things that threaten your life. So John conjured up the image of Carolyn smiling with a machete in hand, then thought about the Van Helsing TV series… He immediately felt more clear-headed.
“John?” Coraci waved a hand in front of his eyes. “I know you want blood. You haven’t eaten in a while… I can let you bite me if you need to.”
“No. I’m fine.” John frowned.
“I’ve seen other bloodkin. I know what you’re like when you’re hungry. Hunger affects your speed and strength. We’re not out of this place yet, and we might run into more enemies. So, really, I can—”
“No!”
John’s voice grew more forceful.
“Are you embarrassed?” Coraci asked. “There’s nothing to be embarrassed about. Just letting you take a couple bites — it won’t affect me at all.”
John kept shaking his head. “You’re human. You’ve been in danger all night and all morning without any rest, and honestly, you look terrible right now.”
“I stay up late all the time. This isn’t even my record.”
“Don’t you know you’re not supposed to donate blood when you’re sleep-deprived? The same logic applies!”
Coraci stared at him for a few seconds, then suddenly burst out laughing, bracing himself against Mariana’s back as if the fatigue had momentarily lifted. The Lizardman girl tilted her head left and right, utterly confused as to what was so funny.
John had to admit, what he’d just said did sound ridiculous. “Actually, that’s not the only reason…” He pretended to continue inspecting the room, moving away as he spoke. “Coraci, when it comes to blood, there’s this invisible line in my heart.”
“A line?”
“Yeah. My whole family’s like this — we don’t drink blood from people we know. Not from human family members or their descendants. Not from coworkers, friends…lovers. We don’t feed on them.”
“Oh? Why’s that?”
“It’s sort of… proof of our humanity, maybe? I don’t know exactly.” John shook his head. “But it’s a line we just don’t cross. Once you do, something changes between people. The nature of the relationship shifts.”
“Like… the food chain? From friend to ‘prey’?”
John thought about it for a second, then nodded. “Maybe, yeah.”
“You really are wild-born. That’s the exact opposite of what the domain bloodkin believe,” Coraci said with a sigh. “They think sharing blood is a sign of deeper connection — a kind of ritual, even.”
“Maybe it is. I just… I can’t bring myself to accept it.”
Coraci walked over and patted him on the shoulder. “Alright, I get it. But I want you to know — no matter what you decide, I’m not against it. Seriously. And technically, I’m your boss. Even if you had to feed from me, our relationship wouldn’t change. If anything, it’d be more balanced. I exploit your labor, you bite me once — it all evens out.”
John laughed. “You’re not that ruthless a boss.”
Just then, Mariana came padding back over to them after inspecting the other doors. “Hey, can you two speak in a language I understand? What’s the plan?”
She lifted one of her small claws and pointed toward the iron maiden at the edge of the room. “There’s a door here. I felt a curved edge — it seems really small. Come take a look. Is this a door?”
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