Father Mia's death was as insignificant as someone letting out a fart.
If anyone in the world cared most about Father Mia, it was probably Norton now.
Unfortunately, Norton had troubles of his own to deal with.
The sun was high at noon, and the cicadas' cries brought with them the sweltering heat of midsummer. The wooded mountains stretched on, as green as ever, and the pool remained clear to the bottom.
The world as a whole had not changed because a few people had died. That was its greatness on a grand scale.
Branches swayed constantly in the breeze, making their reflections on the pool's surface ripple and stir as though they had come to life.
A humanoid creature stood quietly beside the pool, staring at his reflection. He seemed to be studying it, yet also unable to believe it.
But when he spoke, his disbelief was unmistakable.
"How did I end up looking like this?"
Norton could hardly accept the reflection staring back at him from the pool!
He had been a genuinely handsome man before. Even an old man like Father Mia, who liked them young, had entertained improper designs on him. That showed just how naturally blessed his face had been.
But now, everything was different.
The humanoid reflection on the water was shrunken and shriveled, like a corpse left to dry out in a latrine for over a decade. It was withered, wrinkled, and utterly revolting.
Whether because he had shrunk or because his bones themselves had undergone some change, his excessively slender body looked somewhat elongated. But from behind, he looked almost hunchbacked, no different from a dried-out, dehydrated corpse!
Norton opened his mouth, revealing a mouthful of sharp, sharklike teeth. His eyes no longer had distinct irises and pupils; they were entirely blood-red.
His fingernails and toenails also seemed to protrude because of the dehydration, looking both revolting and frightening.
If Norton hadn't felt perfectly fine physically, he would have thought his revolting appearance was the result of drinking that poisoned blood!
"Sharp teeth and red eyes, withered and unclean! This is the second stage of a vampire!"
Norton gazed thoughtfully at the revolting reflection in the water, recalling the contents of a book describing vampires that he had read before.
Although the book had only described two stages of a vampire, he suspected that the so-called first and second stages were more like intermediate steps in a corpse's transformation into the vampire species.
Like the evolution of a species, it surely couldn't evolve to perfection all at once. There were bound to be various intermediate stages, and the whole process could also be called growth.
So, according to his theory, vampires definitely had a stage at which their evolution was complete.
Norton felt that he was probably growing... right?
Norton couldn't be sure whether his guess was right, but right or wrong, he had already ended up like this. What else could he do?
Looking like this, he couldn't show himself to anyone anymore.
Still, the timing was just right. The appearance of those two Golden Knights had convinced him he couldn't go out anymore, and now he could hide away.
Besides the change in his appearance, Norton could also feel that his strength had increased further.
Before, he might have had the strength of only three or four adults, but now he could gouge marks into stone using nothing but his fingernails.
He couldn't estimate how much stronger he had become, but there was no doubt that his strength and physical toughness had improved greatly.
Norton looked at his revolting reflection in the water, then suddenly reached down and grabbed at himself.
"Heh-heh, this guy's shrunk too, but there's still plenty of feeling!"
Norton was delighted.
"Now I really have hope of living on!"
Delighted, Norton jumped back into the water.
Little Norton was his true body. If he lost the thing he depended on for survival during his long life, he really wouldn't have much courage to keep living.
This place was no longer safe. Since those two terrifying Church knights had managed to find him, it meant the Church surely had more ways to track him.
And the bodies of those two were still lying here. If the bodies themselves also had some kind of tracking function, he had even more reason to run.
The fact that those two idiots hadn't killed him this time didn't mean the Church would send idiots like them next time. If anyone with a little combat sense came after him, he really would be finished.
Norton hadn't forgotten how the werewolf had died.
The Church knights clearly had a professional set of methods and weapons for dealing with all kinds of monsters.
So he had to hurry up, pack his things, and run. Ideally, he would find a large river and hide in it. That way, even if the Church could still track him, they wouldn't be able to get into the river and find him.
"I never thought becoming a vampire would be this miserable. If I'd known, I might as well have sold my ass and gone to Heaven to keep God company. Maybe God wouldn't even have wanted me.
"It's all fucking Mia's fault. Fucking Mia! He just had to pick on me and ruin my life!"
Gnashing his teeth with hatred, Norton climbed out of the water and began packing his things.
He had left plenty of traces of his life here during this time, such as his flight chair, the coffin lid he slept on, the blood bucket carved from wood, and the clothes he had stolen in town...
"Damn it, they even broke my airplane chair!"
Norton stared angrily at his rattan-and-wood chair, which the Holy Knight had crushed underfoot when he charged in, his heart aching.
That chair had been comfortable, and he had even grown fond of its height!
Norton picked up the broken sticks from the ground with a pang of regret, then forcefully thrust them into the two corpses nearby.
"Pfft!"
The sticks pierced flesh and blood. The two dead knights seemed to have lost their terrifying strength and physical toughness, and their flesh, no different from that of ordinary people, easily became an incense burner for the sticks.
But since Norton had drained all the blood from their bodies, not a drop spilled out.
Norton put his pots, bowls, and other utensils into his coffin, tied the coffin and its lid to his back with vines, then used his immense strength to heave it up and carry it out.
As for the equipment belonging to the two Church knights and the set he had obtained earlier, Norton left it all here.
He was afraid the equipment could be tracked too. In any case, he left everything connected to the Church behind.
If those things couldn't be tracked, he could always come back for them if he wanted them later. But if they really could be tracked, carrying them would be no different from carrying a GPS on him. He was better off leaving them.
Norton carried his big coffin and its lid toward the front of the cave. The passage inside had originally been narrow, and getting out would have taken considerable effort, but the two monsters raised by the Church had smashed a big hole through it, making the way out much easier.
"Chirp, chirp, chirp..." The bat hanging upside down from the top of the cave squeaked at Norton a couple of times, seemingly saying goodbye.
"Come here, you!"
Norton reached out and plucked it down, then let it hang upside down from the wrinkled skin on his chest.
"Don't think you're getting away either!"
Not only could the little thing warn him, he could also hold it in his hand and play with it. It would make very good company too. Norton loved little fluffy things like this most of all.