A strong stench rode the breeze into Norton's nostrils, forcing him to stop breathing.
In fact, he hadn't breathed for a long time. Holy Lord City smelled worse and worse, and the stench could drift all the way here despite the distance, making him miserable.
The little wooden cabin on the hill was finished. Although it was crooked and lopsided, it was at least fit to live in.
Norton hadn't had an easy year. His range of activity was limited to the cliff and the area a short distance around it.
From time to time, terrifying roars could be heard from deep in the forest, so he kept his range as small as possible to avoid unnecessary danger.
But even after taking such precautions, he had still encountered danger twice. As a result, he was jumpy and suspicious every day and hardly dared to go out.
There was the church in the city and monsters in the wilderness. This really wasn't a world where people could survive!
For the first half of the year, Norton hunted frantically. Almost every day, he tried to find creatures whose blood he could drink, then drank as much as he could to see whether consuming large quantities of blood would speed up his evolution.
Unfortunately, it didn't.
Although he was a vampire, drinking blood did nothing for him beyond satisfying some of his desires.
So, for the second half of the year, he tried going without blood to see if there was any difference, and whether he would grow weak or regress without it.
The withered Norton stood by the cliff, gazing at the hazy outline of Holy Lord City in the distance.
Going without food for six months hadn't left him mentally listless, but his body seemed to have shrunk another size.
His already dry, wrinkled skin was now hard and stiff, making him look like little more than skin and bones.
Norton didn't think he had been dried out by prolonged exposure to the wind, because his body hadn't contained much moisture to begin with.
It seemed more like the result of excessively consuming fat stored in his body as nourishment.
Of course, in his current state, he certainly didn't have any body fat left. Still, it could be seen as consuming other substances in his body to remain at his peak forever.
So the most likely reason he could remain free from hunger, stay at his peak, and have no limits on his stamina was that his body was exceptionally good at mobilizing and consuming energy.
Wherever there was a deficiency, it made up for it. His body would remain at its peak until it died.
But Norton wasn't entirely sure about that theory.
The feeling of his strength increasing with time had stalled about a week ago.
But his body hadn't begun consuming its stored substances after his strength stopped increasing. Rather, the evolutionary process had stalled only after those substances were used up and his body had become even more shriveled.
In other words, even if his body now had no nutrients whatsoever, he could still remain full of vitality and live forever!
That left Norton unsure whether the substances he had consumed had gone toward evolution or the needs of his activities.
In any case, he now knew the conditions he needed to grow.
Necessary nutrients and a long period of time.
In other words, his evolution as Hajinuo still depended on time, a bit like some vampire lore from his previous life.
The longer a vampire lived, the stronger they became.
Norton's gaze swept over the hazy form of Holy Lord City in the distance. Although he hadn't seen the miserable state of the city with his own eyes,
the city's lights were disappearing day by day, and the rotten stench in the air was growing stronger. He could still guess that Holy Lord City must have undergone a tremendous upheaval beyond his imagination.
Throughout history, there had only been two possible causes for such a change in a vast city.
First, war.
Second, plague.
He had often watched the area around Holy Lord City at night lately, but he hadn't seen any unusual gathering of firelight.
So Norton thought it was highly likely that an epidemic had broken out in Holy Lord City.
As for the idea that the church had massacred the city, that was completely impossible.
The people in the church were human too. They might be insatiably greedy, and they might be foolish and wicked, but the very reason they occupied their lofty positions was that they had masses of people beneath them.
If they killed off everyone beneath them, how could they remain above anyone?
Looking at the history of central Europe on Earth, there had been no such massacres during the age of the church either-except, of course, for the extermination of the Jews.
So, had an epidemic broken out in Holy Lord City?
Norton strained to look at Holy Lord City in the distance. Although his eyesight had improved, it still couldn't function like a high-powered telescope, so unfortunately he couldn't make anything out.
But an epidemic wouldn't be surprising. Given Holy Lord City's disgusting state and filthy environment, it would be strange if there weren't one or two plagues a year.
Unfortunately, the outskirts of Holy Lord City were covered in church symbols and all kinds of murals, so he didn't dare set foot there.
Living out in the wilderness meant being on edge every day. It was no place for a person to stay.
Norton had spent a year here without daring to do anything, yet he had still been worn down terribly. His mental state was practically older than the damn pope's!
But when he thought of the terrifying strength of the church knights and the church's terrifying tracking abilities, Norton let out a long sigh and decided he had better keep lying low in the wilderness.
He was used to it anyway.
The pope was indeed very old.
He was over two hundred. Even though people were living longer as the sun gradually faded, someone his age could still be considered to have one foot in the grave.
Bedding made of precious chinchilla fur wrapped the withered old man. At least ten layers of chinchilla-fur bedding had been laid over the golden bed frame to make the bed softer.
Yet the pelts of these little animals were thin enough that their softness still offered some resistance, unlike a sponge mattress. They weren't so soft that they would leave the old man on the bed with an aching back.
The golden bed and chinchilla-fur bedding were far from the only luxurious creations in the magnificent hall.
A crystal-clear jade table, a translucent crimson red jadeite cup, a pale blue crystal lamp, a carving made from the skull of the deep-sea leviathan Yindan...
Any one of these rare treasures could have been sold for enough to let a family live comfortably for a lifetime, yet before His Holiness the Pope, they were merely everyday items.
And now, these countless rare treasures could do nothing to stop His Holiness the Pope's life from fading.
"Cough, cough, cough..."
Wrapped in the bedding, His Holiness the Pope, already little more than skin and bones, coughed weakly a couple of times. It sounded as though phlegm had congested his lungs.
A young nun with fair skin and a beautiful face, waiting at his side, immediately came forward and prostrated herself before the elderly pope, then pressed her mouth to his and sucked the phlegm from his lungs.
A short while later, the pope finally caught his breath and sighed deeply. He looked at the attendant waiting nearby and said, "Any news... cough, cough... of the vampire in Holy Lord City?"
"Your Holiness, there is still no news... Instead, fewer than one in ten of Holy Lord City's people remain. Bishop Adam seems to be deliberately stirring up disputes among the people of Holy Lord City to divert the Holy Judgment Order's attention..." The attendant standing nearby replied with his head bowed, hesitating slightly when he mentioned Bishop Adam.
Everyone knew Archbishop Adam wanted to become pope, and His Holiness was particularly well aware of it.
When His Holiness had sent the Holy Judgment Order to Holy Lord City to track down the vampire, someone had advised him to send someone with brains to lead the group.
But His Holiness hadn't taken that advice. Instead, he had insisted on sending only the knights of the Holy Judgment Order.
Now that things had come to this, it sounded as though the turmoil in Holy Lord City had been deliberately stirred up by Bishop Adam.
On hearing this news, His Holiness the Pope, wrapped in his bedding, showed not the slightest disappointment. Instead, a hint of joy appeared on his face.
Although his goal clearly hadn't been achieved, he looked as though he had gotten his wish.
"Very good, cough, cough... very good! Now the official successor can be decided. Summon Adam and the Holy Judgment Order back. There are some things it's time to tell him."
After saying those words, His Holiness the Pope seemed to have exhausted all his energy, and he visibly grew even more weary.
"Yes!" The attendant bowed and backed away with the utmost respect. Lying in the bedding, the old pope, even more shriveled and more like a dried corpse than Norton, sank back into a deep sleep.