UCPA Chapter 7: Official Entry

Chapter 7: Official Entry

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: PlumSauce

 

Although Coraci knew a lot of lost spells, his body was, after all, that of an ordinary human. It was impossible for him to protect himself with spells in such a short period of time. Coraci almost unconsciously wanted to scream, but could not make a sound. John suddenly rushed over to wrap his arms around him. Only then did Coraci react to the elevator falling.

John was not the same. The speed of his movements were far beyond that of humans, so his eyes could also capture short moments of change, and his reflexes were also more powerful.

In that instant, John could hear Carolyn’s scream, Instructor Jere’s desperate roar, and the gilomorph Simeon seemed to scream in agony.

The elevator fell all the way to the bottom of the elevator shaft, and the whole building felt the tragic tremor. However, anyone familiar with elevator mechanics would have found it strange: with the cable severed, the noise and shaking of the elevator falling straight down should have been louder and more violent.

What actually happened was that something pulled the elevator as it was plummeting down, cushioning it. In the end, the elevator continued to fall a short distance before landing heavily on the bottom floor.

“I’m going to burn all the fucking gilomorphs!” shouted Carolyn, standing outside the elevator shaft carrying a high-capacity water gun while Instructor Jere stopped her from trying to pour the mixture down.

“It’s Simeon. He lifted the elevator,” the instructor whispered.

Gilomorph Simeon tried to threaten the Association with Coraci’s life, but didn’t intend to actually kill him. Rushing out of the elevator, Simeon forgot that the elevator would fall; and upon realizing this, he immediately retracted his body, compressed himself to the size of a human, and jumped into the elevator shaft.

His descent could not catch up with the elevator, so he extended a tentacle-like gelatinous body part to pull up the elevator as much as possible. He pulled — just a few floors short of hitting the bottom. While extending one part, he stuck another part of his body to the wall of the elevator shaft. As a result, the tentacle pulling up the elevator did not have enough strength; it ended up ripping apart and failed to completely stabilize the elevator.

The hunters all knew that even with a moment of cushioning, the people inside the elevator were in danger.

It all happened in a matter of seconds, but for Coraci, it seemed like a long time. His heart pounded so hard that it faintly hurt from his throat to his ribs, and his vision temporarily turned black out of fear.

When he opened his eyes again, the pain was gone, and he fell to the ground from a height of only about two feet with John still holding him.

Coraci forcefully opened and closed his eyes repeatedly. Finally, he was able to clearly see the situation in front of him: one of John’s hands appeared to be fractured as it was twisted at a somewhat alarming angle, and John’s head and shoulders were covered in black blood–vampires do not have red blood.

When the elevator plummeted, John had wrapped his arm around Coraci and climbed, with one hand, onto the handrail of the safety door on the ceiling, leaving the two hanging in mid-air.

A vampire’s jumping ability is quite impressive, therefore many people mistakenly believe that they could also fly. In fact, unless their body turns into mist, they simply cannot fly. Since people couldn’t see a vampire’s feet leaving the ground, they thought vampires could fly. If they fell, especially after ascending rapidly, they might fall just as fast. And if John had turned into mist, he could not protect Coraci.

So John used his body to resist the impact when they landed on the ground. His arms were broken in multiple places, and his head and body were also severely injured.

Coraci did not feel any pain on his body. Looking at John, he was surprised to realize that he might have come out of it completely unscathed.

Two days later, the gilomorph Simeon got his wish fulfilled to be physically closer to his wife Linda: they were both locked up in travel carriers with spells painted on them, separated by a prison block.

Originally, Simeon’s actions were enough for a death sentence, but Coraci’s testimony proved that it wasn’t justified. The court of the Unthreatening Creature Protection Association is not the same as a real court; there is no detention period. Those sentenced to death are directly executed by the hunters after the trial.

During this time, Carolyn was also charged. They said she was too impatient during the execution of the plan and did not wait for the exorcist’s confinement spell to be completed before attacking the gilomorph, which led to the subsequent danger.

As for bloodkin John Lockland… when he was rescued from the elevator, he had already lost consciousness, and his arm was still holding tightly onto Coraci. John didn’t need a splint or surgery, he just needed to be put in a UV-free room to eat properly and recuperate for a few days.

John’s room was converted by adding an extra bed to a windowless office. When he woke up, the staff was inserting a tube into his throat, ready to fill it with bags of blood.

After regaining most of his strength, he was taken to another room to undergo various health checks. The Association’s medical staff found it peculiar that this vampire, who was so brave in the face of the gilomorph and a falling elevator, was trembling like a child under ten when faced with a blood draw.

John breathed a sigh of relief to know that Coraci was okay. But he was still a little worried. He thought, Since Coraci was already claustrophobic, after what happened that day, would he be even more afraid of riding the elevator? If he could not take the elevator, what would the Association on the twenty-nine floor ask him to do…

In the evening, Coraci came to pick up John who was “discharged from the hospital.” John arrived at the lobby of the office building early so that Coraci would not have to use the elevator.

“You’re doing well,” Coraci said. “I’m sorry I got you into this.”

“It’s nothing. You see, all bloodkin recover fast; it’s just a matter of one or two days. Right now, it’s like I was never injured.”

Coraci shook his head. “I know you can recover quickly, but this is definitely different from ‘uninjured’.”

“Different?” John asked.

“Even if you recover quickly, the pain you feel when you’re injured is the same. It must have hurt, and you were unconscious…”

When he heard the word “pain,” John could indeed recall the pain when his bones broke and his flesh was scraped until the skin split. Although his body was as good as new, he still felt a chill down his spine.

But he had no regrets; rather, he thought it was worth it. He thought that if he had chosen to change into mist to avoid injury, then Coraci, who was human, would not have survived. Even if he had survived, he probably would have been disabled for life. Now, he and Coraci were both alive and well.

John could see that Coraci was apologetic, so he hurriedly changed the subject, “I think I saw Carolyn that time, and it scared me. I thought she was going to kill Simeon.”

Coraci shook his head and led John down the parking lot. As he walked, he explained, “Members of the Association can’t arbitrarily kill their targets, except for those with hunting orders. Even if they have to do it in self-defense during a mission, they have to file a full report afterward. You see, Carolyn and Liz act in partnership just to prevent all kinds of accidents, and simultaneously to serve as witnesses and supervisors for one another.”

“I know, it’s like the FBI on TV or something,” John said, “but I don’t quite understand. Carolyn is a human being. What can the Association do to her? She can totally leave the Association and do something else…”

Coraci was pressing the electronic lock of a Skoda hatchback. The car looked like it belonged to a cozy family, and its style was very far from John’s idea of a “mysterious person’s car.”

“John, you think too much of exorcists, hunters and those other guys,” Coraci said. “In most people’s eyes, perhaps you are an alien, a monster. To ordinary people, the people of the Association are also monsters. Their world views and experiences are very different from those of normal people, which makes it equally difficult for them to integrate into regular society. For example, it is reasonable to say that an oppressed employee can always rebel against his brutal boss, who can’t eat him, right? But usually he’s still afraid to make a mistake because he’s afraid of losing his place.”

John generally understood. He couldn’t help but remember the time he fought with the Abyssal demon, and Carolyn the hunter was reprimanded by Liz the exorcist. It looked like Liz held a higher position.

“Uh? Wait.” At that moment, John saw Coraci open the left rear door of the car, as if to leave the driver’s seat to him. “I can’t drive.”

He did know how to drive, but didn’t have much experience with modern vehicles. Mainly because getting his license was never an option.

“I know. It’s not for you to drive.”

Coraci had already gotten into the back seat of the car. He reached out and tapped the driver’s seat — the translucent apparition in a black morning suit emerged, one of Coraci’s butlers, Mr. Wu Jiu.

Coraci pressed Wu Jiu’s shoulder and recited a spell. Wu Jiu’s face changed from that of a pale, withered corpse to that of a middle-aged human.

“The spell only lasts less than an hour,” Coraci explained. “It’s enough to drive out of town. I don’t know how to drive, thanks to Wu Jiu.”

He didn’t know how to drive, and yet bought a car especially for a ghost to drive… It was quite extraordinary. John shrugged, opened the right rear door and got in.

Seeing Wu Jiu, John recalled that he once mistook Hai Jiu and Wu Jiu as Coraci’s exes, but Coraci said they weren’t. Coraci had said that there was nothing to hide about his three exes, and that they weren’t even dead… To be honest, John was quite curious. He had already been curious about this when he pretended to interview Coraci.

Now was not a good time to talk about this topic. If he insisted on asking, it would be brazen. After all, that was Coraci’s personal business.

John was looking forward to working for the Association, which was much better than working odd jobs and changing identities endlessly. He secretly thought Coraci had been kind to him, so he didn’t want to be too rude.

“By the way, where are we going?” John suddenly realized that the car wasn’t heading toward his house. A number of thoughts raced through his mind, many were along the lines of “Is Coraci going to let me stay at his house from now on? This is too sudden!”

Coraci’s answer ended John’s shyness, “I’m going to investigate something interesting. You’ve recovered, so I’m taking you with me.”

 

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