Codename Vestia - Chapter 10

“Humans are weak. They die quickly.”

 

Camar muttered in a mournful tone.

 

“They’re not.”

 

Said Doyeong in return.

 

“They’re not?”

“The human body is tougher than you think. Wanna see? Here.”

 

Doyeong rolled up the sleeves of his t-shirt and showed the scar on his forearm, like an old man boasting about his old sagas.

 

“This was caused by a bullet. And this one was from bomb shards.”

 

He continued, pointing under his ear, and rolled up his t-shirt to reveal the elongated scar on his side.

 

“Being stabbed with a knife is the worst feeling. I lost a lot of blood.  I thought I was going to die…”

 

Then he stopped talking, because Camar was touching his scar.

 

“Looks painful. Does it hurt?”

 

Her fingertips were cold. Doyeong pulled down his t-shirt and said,

 

“Not anymore.”

 

She was such a weird girl. They were old wounds that only remained as faint traces, but her eyes looked so hurt as if she was seeing him bleeding at the moment.

 

So far, there’s a total of four female vampires Doyeong knows.

 

Camar. A former member of the team. Yeonha, a non-commissioned officer from another base he had met during a joint operation before. And finally, Rachel.

 

Aside from those who joined the MCTC the moment they became vampires and received education, the typical female vampires are the Amazonian-like vampire like that one non-commissioned officer or the general-like ones like Rachel. However, perhaps Camar was a vampire infected with a human virus, not the other way around.

 

Thinking about that, Doyeong asked in exasperation.

 

“What are you doing?”

 

Because Camar was stroking his stomach like it was her own. She looked up at him, and he thought for an instant to just enjoy the moment.

 

“Why is your stomach like this?”

 

It seemed that she meant why is his stomach clunky. Doyeong replied while putting away her hand.

 

“It’s called a six pack.”

 

What a bad woman, groping strangers as she wished.

 

“I don’t have it.”

 

Then, Camar looked like a child with her tummy open. There were traces of abs, but definitely not enough to use it for laundry.

[You know the joke where one’s six pack can be used as a washing board, right?]

 

Camar looked at Doyeong again, and said,

 

“Interesting. Lieutenant is different from me.”

“What…”

 

While talking, Doyeong suddenly realized something.

 

“Is that what you say when you mean something is amazing?”

Camar nodded her head.

 

“Different. Us.”

“Of course. I am human and you are a vampire.”

“No, more than that…”

 

Camar wanted to say something, but didn’t know how to express it. However, Doyeong seemed to know roughly what she wanted to say.

 

Even if she had been married, since her husband died on the first night, it was highly likely that she hadn’t had her first night. And if like she said, she came to this uninhabited island ‘a long time ago’, she wouldn’t have much experience in that area.

 

“There were men among the people who came here.”

“There were. But they were different from Lieutenant.”

 

Then she looked at Doyeong with her red eyes and muttered.

 

“No one looked like Lieutenant.”

 

Doyeong rested his elbows on his knees and clasped his chin.

 

“Now you’re revealing your true face.”

 

Camar tilted her head.

 

“Reveal? True face?”

“It means you like good-looking things.”

“Is Lieutenant good-looking?”

“I’d say so myself, but that should be the truth.”

 

Camar stared at Doyeong as if judging whether his words were true or not.

 

“I think so, too.”

 

Doyeong smirked. Ordinary people would say unlucky things in response or show dislike towards other people’s narcissism.

 

By the way, how long has it been since I met this kind of person?

 

Doyeong was perplexed. It was funny how he came to speak as if he had known Camar for a long time. Furthermore, she was a woman with so many suspicious things about her.

 

It was then that Camar, who was looking at him, met his eyes.

 

Camar’s eyes were strange. Bright red eyes should’ve looked ominous, but her large, round, luminous eyes looked like a newborn baby.

 

If Camar had actually been born at the time she claimed to be born, she must have seen enough things in this world, perhaps even enough to corrupt Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit herself with these eyes, but Camar still had clear eyes.

 

There was the curiosity of an adolescent girl coming from her.

 

And under the starry night sky, was a place where anyone with a hard-boiled sensibility’s heart would be pounding.

 

Neither of them realised, but they couldn’t take their eyes off each other. The soft night breeze brushed Camar’s hair.

 

Shrak.

 

A sudden sound made Doyeong glance around.

 

“What is it?”

 

Camar asked, as Doyeong carefully examined the forest, which was immersed in darkness. However, there was no sign of anything out of place.

 

“Did you not hear that sound?”

“What sound?”

 

If Camar, a vampire, had not heard it, there was a high possibility that he had heard it wrongly…

 

Camar added thoughtfully.

 

“There are animals here.”

 

It must have been an animal sound.

 

Anyway, Doyeong watched the unmoving darkness silently for a while before he turned to Camar. Camar was waiting with an oblivious face.

 

Uninhabited island. Night time. A young man and a woman. He almost got caught up in an atmosphere that had all the conditions that would normally make a man feel strange.

 

Doyeong said,

 

“Sleep, let’s just sleep.”

“Umm.”

 

Camar was in puppy mode, panting at the owner’s words as usual, her long face from before had disappeared.

 

Camar lifted Doyeong up. Then she went into the cabin, spread out his bed, and laid him down.

 

“There, Lieutenant.”

 

Camar said in a low voice. As Doyeong turned around, she said again,

 

“Thank you. For being strong. Lieutenant will not die.”

 

Doyeong was surprised.

 

“Who are you saying will die? I won’t die.”

“Umm.”

 

Camar smiled with her large eyes. Doyeong turned his head.

 

It is not unusual for vampires and humans to get married in this world, but this was a different case. Camar, who lives alone here, and he, who has a place to return to, no matter the circumstances.

 

It’s highly probable that the news of his disappearance has not yet been reported to his parents as he is in a MIA (Missing in Action) state. However, if the disappearance period is prolonged, the MCTC will soon stop searching. He had to quickly figure out a way to get back somehow.

 

Doyeong looked back at Camar, who was spreading the quilt with a look of excitement. Camar smiled when their eyes met.

 

Right. Before the irreversible happens.

 

***

 

‘The problem is my leg.’

 

Doyeong thought.

 

If only his leg had not been injured, he would have been able to figure out a way to return while looking around the island, but at the moment, he was a dog tied to an invisible leash. There was nothing he could do in particular except to sit in the shade of the beach, which had already become his reserved seat, and bruised his buttocks.

 

Camar, who was sitting next to him, was weaving carpets with a crochet needle, which she had made by carving the wood herself. The result was passable. Not to mention, all the crafts in the cabin were the work of Camar.

 

Living alone should not be easy, but Camar could actually do quite a lot. Building a house, making an ‘oven’, cooking various kinds of food with bonfires, making all kinds of tools… At this rate she could build her own civilization alone.

 

Truthfully, if Doyeong had drifted to a deserted island by himself, there would’ve been a lot of things to do as well. However, Camar already had a system built here, and she did almost everything herself because his leg was like this.

 

Looking back, it felt like she had become his pillar of some sort.

 

As he was watching Camar, he suddenly remembered a conversation he once had.

 

—

 

“Where did vampires originate? Nobody knows. There are so many hypotheses… The most convincing thing, in one word, is that they are aliens.”

 

He remembered that he had burst out laughing.

 

“Don’t laugh. This may sound like an outrageous story, but look. In the first place, it doesn’t make sense to say that after a human being is infected with something, it starts to suck human blood and turns into a living creature that lives forever?”

 

And then, the other person waved his finger in front of Doyeong.

 

“Isn’t that the same with the story of creation of Earth?”

 

Well, hearing that, it didn’t sound like a very silly thing to say anymore, but Doyeong, who didn’t like sci-fi creations that much, couldn’t help but laugh.

 

“So the ‘X Virus’ that turns humans into vampires came to Earth from outer space?”

 

“Yes, but it happened a long time ago. Around the time where volcanoes erupted and the crust of Earth shook. I think they were the first vampires infected with this X Virus. But then, they went extinct like the dinosaurs.”

 

—

 

“An alien.”

 

Doyeong muttered.

 

At that time, he had laughed and had let it pass just like that. But when he looked at Camar, he found that the truth was really unknown. Here she was, cosplaying Robinson Crusoe alone on an uninhabited island with such a personality and for reasons he didn’t know.

 

“What?”

 

Camar asked as she looked at him.

 

“You do it well.”

 

He seriously thought that, but he only said the word in passing without much meaning. However, Camar mumbled while turning her body slightly to the side.

 

“Don’t look. It’s not done yet.”

 

Doyeong sighed. Moreover, this vampire was needlessly cute.

 

I drifted to a deserted island. Surely this is better than being together with that Spetsnaz guy, but still, both are equally bad for my heart.

 

Camar focused again on weaving the carpet.

 

Uuuuuung…

 

It was then. A low rumbling sound was heard in the sky.

 

Doyeong shook his head.

 

It was the sound of an airplane. And it was definitely coming this way.

 

Of course, Camar was also looking at the side where the sound was coming from. Her hearing is much better than humans.

 

‘Maybe it’s the Legion.’

 

Doyeong thought. But more than a week has already passed since he jumped into the sea and ran away. Furthermore, there was no reason to search for him, a mere lieutenant, by flying an airplane until now.

 

If so, the plane, which kept getting closer and closer, was most likely a rescue team passing over the island, intentionally or by chance.

 

The moment he finished thinking, Doyeong forgot that he couldn’t get up by himself and put his hand on the floor to jump up.

 

Then Camar saw Doyeong, with fear spread on her face like a burst of paint.

 

There was no time to react. Camar attacked Doyeong. She pounced at him and they slid into the bushes, like a third baseman gliding towards third base.

 

“You, what…”

 

As Doyeong tried to speak, Camar covered his mouth with her hand and pressed him down with her body.

 

The sound of airplanes passed overhead and went away.

 

Camar was focused on the sound, then relaxed when the plane sound got far enough away. He could directly feel her body, which had been stiff because of the confrontation, relax.

 

And now, she was looking down at Doyeong, who was pressed down by her body, to see if he had chaffs on him. The untidy ends of the carpet covered her, like her body that was covering him, flowed down to cast shadows.

 

The distance between the two was close.

 

Doyeong stretched out his hand. His hand brushed through his hair, then he patted his shoulders.

 

Then he grabbed Camar and threw her legs to the side, like a wrestler.

 

“You’re heavy!”

 

He didn’t know if he had ever said that, but vampires were much heavier than humans. It was because they were different.

 

She had used that body, which felt like a pressing stone, to press him down. The weight of the pressure on his chest had made it hard to breathe.

 

“Ugh.”

 

Pain hit him when he tried to move his leg, and he moaned without realizing it. Camar, whom he had thrown away like a burning hot pancake, got up and looked at his leg.

 

“Are you okay?”

“What is wrong with you?”

 

Doyeong asked sharply.