We are now close to our destination.

　It was midnight yesterday, but now it's a little after breakfast time.
　The sky is not clear, but it is bright.

　The doors and windows of the house are closed.

　Of course, it was the same last night, but if the lights of the house were on at night, the lights would have been visible through the gaps in the doors.

　Incidentally, unlike last night, we could see a few villagers around us now.

　The four of us seemed to stand out - partly because our students were all beautiful girls, and partly because we were all armed with weapons - and the villagers were glancing at us.

　We walked up to the door of the residence we wanted.

　Then I signaled Rio, Iris and Maifa with my eyes and took the last step and knocked on the door.

"Excuse me. I'm a hunter of the demon king sent by the heroes guild, is anyone there?　I'd like to ask you a few questions.

　I call out so that I can be heard inside the residence.
　There was no response for a while.

　A few moments later, however, a languid voice answered from behind the door.

...... I'm sorry, but you need to leave. I've just fallen asleep.

　A male voice.
　But the voice sounded eerie, like it was coming from the depths of the earth.

　I look at the faces of my three students.
　Rio, Iris, and Maifa all had tense expressions on their faces.

　I nodded to them, and then called out to them again through the door.

You say you were asleep, but there was no light in the house at dinner last night, was there? Were you asleep then, too?

　I asked, and he paused again for a moment.
　Then came the blunt reply again.

...... Oh, that's right. If you know what you're doing, get the hell out of here.

I've heard from the village chief that you have a family of three, but has the whole family been asleep?

　This time, I'll try to mix in a fake.

　In fact, I heard that it was not a family of three, but a family of four.
　If it's a complete stranger pretending to be someone else, it might come out.

...... Yes. And we are a family of four. Did you really talk to the village chief?　Shady bastard.

　He didn't fall for the fake I put up.

　What do you mean, ......?
　Are you sure you've only been asleep since dinner last night?

I'm sorry, but may I please open the door and come in? You've heard about the disappearance, right? We're investigating it. Please help us.

　When I said that...

　This time I waited for a while and got no response.
　The place went silent.

　It was obvious that something was wrong.
　I'm sure there are many ways to find out the composition of the family that lives in this house, but...

　I guess I'll just have to go through with it.

　I made eye contact with my students again.
　Then I put my hand on the handle of the door to the house.

　I try to push the door open, but it's locked and won't open.

　I have no choice.
　I take my hand off the door and...

"Aah!

　I kick the door with my foot as hard as I can.

　With a loud bang, the wooden door blows off its hinges and the door, separated from the entrance, slams into the house.

　Now, I'd be very sorry if there were any ordinary villagers living in this house, but...

　Fortunately, or should I say unfortunately...
　What I saw was not an ordinary scene.

　In a dimly lit house.
　As soon as the door was opened, there was a wooden coffin, a coffin.

　The lid of the coffin was open and the inside was filled with moist "soil.

　I sensed some kind of ominous presence in the soil.
　It was a brave man's intuition.

　However, the miasma emitted by the Demon Lord seemed to be slightly different.
　It's more like the miasma of an undead monster...

　And that's when it hit me.
　Many of the questions I had been asking myself were now connected by a single thread, and it all made sense.

　I drew my sword from its sheath at my waist and gave my pupils instructions by voice alone.

"Rio, Iris, Maifa!　Get the surrounding villagers to evacuate as far away as possible!　These people are vampires!

　And I, myself, carefully step into the house.

　Vampires.

　Vampires are a type of undead monster, but they're one of the most powerful, and they have a number of special characteristics that make them troublesome.

　As the name implies, vampires attack humans and suck their blood, but vampires have the ability to resurrect people who have sucked all their blood as undead monsters called vampire spawn.

　The vampire spawn retains its memories of before it was born, but it is imbued with an evil nature and an urge for violence, killing, and bloodsucking.
　At the same time, they become loyal servants to the vampire who created them.

　On the other hand, an even bigger problem is the fighting power of vampires and their spawn.
　This is a serious problem.



　Vampires themselves are not demon lords, and in that sense they are "just monsters", but even so, they are so powerful that ordinary demon hunters would have to join forces to defeat them.

　Furthermore, even their spawn are monsters, with each and every one of them having a fighting strength comparable to that of an ordinary hero.

　Nevertheless...
　If I'm good enough, and if I don't make any mistakes in my stance, it's not an opponent I can't handle at all.

　In particular, it's early in the morning, and the sunlight, though weak, is still pouring down.

　Sunlight is a weakness for vampires, and if they continue to be exposed to sunlight, they will take heavy damage and eventually burn and melt away.

　In other words, now that it's daytime, the situation is in our favor.
　If the need arises, we can expect to be able to get out of the house and into the sunlight.

　If that's the case, we should attack and defeat it at once so that we don't expand the damage by letting it escape here.

　Even though I've retired from my position as an active Demon Lord hunter, I don't intend to fall behind so easily against an opponent of this caliber.

"Shaaaaaaaaaa!

　As I stepped into the dwelling, a vampire spawn attacked me from the side of the entrance, shouting strangely.

　The vampire spawn was mostly human in appearance, but its pale skin, sharp claws and canine teeth, and most of all its eerily glowing red eyes indicated that it was no longer human, but a monster.

　He held out his arms and tried to grab me, but it was a very sluggish move, considering that I was always dealing with an agile monster named Rio.

　I backstepped out of the house to dodge the blow, which was probably meant as a surprise attack.

　Then, when he was off-balance, I swung at him with my foot and hit him with a sword thrust.

　The skin of a vampire spawn is a little harder than that of a human, but it doesn't matter.

　My sword, imbued with magical power, pierced the vampire spawn's chest from an angle and went all the way through to its back.

The vampire spawn screamed.

　The vampire spawn screams, but it's not someone you should show mercy to.
　And it's not a monster that can be destroyed by something like this.

　I pulled out my sword and kicked the spawn as hard as I could.
　The spawn blasts off into the depths of the dwelling and collapses against the wall in the middle of the dwelling.

　Toward it, I...

"Firebolt!

　I slammed a fire magic into it.

　The four flaming bullets I created all hit the spawn that were trying to get up, causing them to burst into flames.

　And when the flames died down, the spawn stopped moving.

　It's hard to believe that a spawn driven by the instinct to kill would mimic the inability to fight, and the damage suggests that the spawn has been defeated.

But I don't think it's one of them.

　I step into the dwelling again.

　Then, from behind a door at the far end of the room, three vampire spawn appeared in a line.

　Their forms differed slightly from the first, but their individual combat power was probably not much different.

Three of them. ...... So what do we do now?

　It's a good idea to have a good idea of what you're looking for.

　I'm not sure if this is a good idea or not, but it's a good idea.

"...... right hand [Firebolt], ...... left hand [Firebolt]... go!

　I'll be back.

　I'm not sure if this is a good idea, but it's a good idea.

　When the flaming bullets landed, they engulfed the spawn in flames.
　It's not like this is going to be enough to defeat them, but...

　But still, .......
　This is the one that doesn't listen to me the most.

...... brother, I'll join you. ...... Rio and Iris are enough to guide the villagers to evacuate.

All right, all right. If you're here, you're here, but... don't let your guard down, Maifa.

...... It's okay. ...... I'll use your brother as a shield, so as long as he doesn't get hit, I'll be safe.

Oh, yeah. Well, that's a relief.

　I'm sure you'll be happy to hear that.