No Hero

Volume 3, Chapter 9: The Wishes of Non-Humans and the Belief of Humans

Translator: Doza

In the end, the Sun Emperor actually agreed to it.

That doctor who looked insane, An Te Qi, seemed to have helped a lot. Regardless of who was waging the cold war against the other, be it the little young master or later, the Sun Emperor, he always acted as the mediator and messenger between them.

The Sun Emperor consented to the little young master living by himself. However, it was on the condition that the little young master’s house must have surveillance cameras installed all over the place, so that the Sun Emperor could watch him at any time, to ensure that he was doing well.

It was a bit of a pity that the little young master was leaving the house. In the future, if I wanted to catch a glimpse of the Sun Emperor, it would be difficult. On the other hand, this situation may turn out to be more interesting.

The little young master is definitely not a boy who can settle down and live peacefully.

After I hung up the phone, I pulled Melody along as I ran frantically.

She yelled at me irritably, “Where in the world are you going?”

“Evening Sun Plaza.”

“Are you crazy!? That’s the most crowded place in Sunset City!” Melody could not believe her ears as she continued, “The number of humans gathered there is easily eighty thousand, if not a hundred thousand! Are you planning on going there to get trampled to death by humans?”

After saying all this, she shook my hand off and shouted, “I’m definitely not following you to our deaths!”

Shocked, I stopped running and looked at her as I said, “Please, trust me, Melody.”

She frowned, and at this time, I could already hear footsteps approaching from behind. The members of the Church were probably already closing in on us. I could only use my sincerest tone to implore her, “Please, trust me. I am not someone who tries to act brave or strong. You should already know my character.”

Melody was quiet for a moment. Then, with a stern glare, she shouted, “If I end up getting burned at the stake, I will definitely bite you several times before I die! Evening Sun Plaza, is it? Follow me. There’s a shortcut this way!”

“Understood.” I smiled and followed after her.

We ran non-stop there. As my speed was slightly faster than Melody’s, I could spare some effort to turn my head back to observe the situation. Even though the people from the Church were still chasing after us, they were only human after all, and could not keep up with a vampire’s speed. They were not actually able to catch up, and could only trail behind us.

We dashed along the strange shortcut, even cutting through other people’s gardens at one point. Finally, we sprinted down a long alleyway, racing toward the only ray of light at the end… The moment we burst out of the alleyway, light flooded my vision, but the light was of a reddish hue. This was the color of the setting sun; it was already evening.

Evening Sun Plaza was a fan-shaped open-air public area. There was a large television screen at the tip of the fan, and coincidentally it was showing an advertisement by the young master, the Budding Flower one. The light from the setting sun fell on the screen and dyed the young master’s cheeks red. He greatly resembled a girl.

There were numerous waves of people moving to and fro in front of the television screen. Everyone seemed to be walking shoulder-to-shoulder. But there were also several people who had stopped right in the middle of the space and looked up to watch the Budding Flower advertisement, as they discussed whether the model in the advertisement was a boy or girl.

At this moment, Melody rashly dragged me along as she forced her way into the sea of people.

While we were still in the midst of pushing and squeezing through the crowd, several gunshots rang out from behind. Everyone in the plaza started screaming, and then they covered their heads as they squatted down. We, too, followed suit and crouched down.

Even though there were gunshots, no one cried out in pain after that. When I thought about it, the people from the Church had probably only fired warning shots into the air.

After the initial screaming had passed, everyone started quieting down. There was no excessive panicking; everyone was merely crouching on the ground. At the same time, I even saw that several people had already stealthily pulled out various kinds of firearms, and seemed to be waiting for a chance to take action.

I turned my head back slightly to look at the situation behind us. There were around three to four Church members who had caught up to us. They were glancing around the plaza, seemingly searching for Melody and me. However, as there were too many people in the plaza, they did not spot us, at least for the moment.

Also, they had not noticed that the citizens hunkered down had already taken out their firearms. So long as they dared to fire another shot, the people squatting by their feet would be able to stand up and shoot back at any time.

These people from the Church truly underestimate the residents of Sunset City! Here, it was not uncommon to see two groups of people exchange fire along the streets. Compared to street fights, the residents were actually more afraid of the recent case of missing people.

Vanishing noiselessly into the darkness was even more terrifying than indiscriminate shooting. This was the thinking of the citizens of Sunset City, especially among the young people.

However, if the Church did not attack the masses, but only targeted Melody and me, then the citizens would probably just watch from the sidelines.

Melody whispered into my ear, “If they start shooting here, they will definitely hit other people. When that happens, it will set off a massive fight. We can then seize that opportunity to escape.”

I replied softly but firmly, “We cannot do that. It will result in huge casualties. Just let them attack us first; as long as we can hold them off for a while, it will be fine.” I thought for a bit, and quickly added, “And do not use any vampire abilities to retaliate.”

Melody’s face stiffened, and she looked at me doubtfully, asking, “For a while?”

“For a while!” I stated with certainty.

“Alright! I must have owed you in my previous life.” Melody agreed to it rather helplessly.

The two of us stood up, and the other party started firing at us mercilessly, except that all the bullets were blocked by our blood ability. I specially broadened the area of defense of my blood ability to prevent stray bullets from hitting innocents.

A short while later, the area around the two of us became a large empty space. The citizens had moved as far away from us as they could … But it also did not seem right to put it that way, because they were still gathered on the edge of the plaza, curiously looking on. Even if the Church did not stop firing, and there was never a moment of pause between the gunshots, it was not enough to frighten these bystanders away.

In order not to make our vampire abilities too obvious, we could only use our blood ability to defend, and not attack. Is it possible to disguise the blood ability as an energy weapon and use it to retaliate? We can stall for more time then… Just as I was pondering to myself, in the next second, Melody actually pulled out a gun and started shooting.

I exclaimed, “Is that not the gun from ‘The Last Angel?’”

“After the young master modified this gun, he still didn’t like it because it wasn’t good enough! But it’s quite pretty, so I asked him for it.” Melody replied as she fired the gun. “But I should be the one asking, Mr. Butler, how long exactly is your ‘a while?’ If it’s longer than one minute, I’m afraid that it might be a bit problematic. Look at that! They’ve already assembled a rocket launcher! Even if the palm-sized gun in my hand has been modified by the young master, you can’t possibly hope for it to beat a rocket launcher, right?”

I raised my head and saw that she was right. However, this was not the only problem. Originally, only three or four people had caught up to us, but now other members from the Church were arriving in quick succession.

Even though they had been firing nonstop, the firepower of their guns was not that great. Perhaps they were worried that there were too many citizens in this area, and were giving them time to back away… Except that these citizens were simply not willing to retreat.

As time dragged on, the possibility of the rocket launcher being used increased. Not only was I doubtful that the small gun in Melody’s hand could stop it, I also did not fully trust my blood ability to be able to block more than three rockets.

“If this continues any longer, we’re going to get surrounded! When that happens, we’re dead for sure!” After Melody said that, she stuffed the gun back into her bosom and started gathering her blood ability around her hands. It looked like she was about to form blood claws.

I hurriedly grabbed her hands and softly exclaimed, “Please, wait a moment…”

But she suddenly twisted her hands around and pulled me instead, and then I heard an explosion behind me. I hope no one got hurt.

She said sourly, “The rocket launcher has already been fired! You still want to wait!?” After that, she started gathering her blood ability again.

Will it truly not work? If my identity as a vampire is revealed, I am afraid that I really will not be able to go out and buy groceries anymore…

“All of you! F***ing cease fire!”

Finally arrived! Once again, I grabbed Melody’s hands, interrupting her motion of gathering her blood ability, and then I looked elatedly at the source of the voice.

I was right. He finally came!

A few squads of fully armed policemen walked into the plaza from all directions. The thick body equipment they were wearing made their footsteps sound extremely heavy and imposing. Among all the police squads, in the squad that was walking the fastest, the policeman that was walking right at the front, without a doubt, was Yue Gang.

Yue Gang’s gear looked even heavier than the rest of the policemen’s. The gun in his hand appeared to be quite powerful too. He had probably spent all his money on buying equipment again.

All this equipment seemed to have emboldened him. He did not even show any fear of the rocket launcher in the hands of the Church members. The moment he arrived, he even scolded them loudly, “What’s going on? What is the meaning of all this? This is too aggressive! You rounded up the citizens in the plaza to massacre them in broad daylight, huh? Why didn’t you all just go down to the police headquarters and massacre all of us instead!”

At this moment, someone rushed forward and angrily roared back, “They’re definitely not citizens! They’re not even human at all, so this has nothing to do with you policemen!”

That was Anceo. He glared fiercely at Melody, looking as if he wanted to skin her alive and then swallow her whole.

“It looks more to me like you guys are the ones who are not human!” Yue Gang retorted rudely, “It’s such a hot day, yet you’re wearing those black robes. You guys drove twenty something black cars around the streets, and your weapons are getting larger and more powerful. You even have a rocket launcher? Tell me, which part of you is like a human?”

When he heard these words, Anceo looked stunned. Then, a furious expression appeared on his face, and he actually raised his weapon at him.

“You dare to say that I’m not human!?”

His movement immediately triggered both sides into action. All the policemen instantly trained their guns on Anceo, and in the next second, the Church also aimed their weapons at Yue Gang.

There were more policemen, maybe around forty of them.

On the side of the Church, there were around twenty people, but the firepower of their weapons was clearly superior to that of the policemen.

If both sides really started fighting, Yue Gang would get blasted by twenty powerful guns, while Anceo would get shot by forty guns with considerably average firepower. But regardless of the means, their fates did not seem like they would differ by much—they would both end up as honeycombs.

But then, the Church and the policemen will not actually start fighting, will they?

This made me feel at a complete loss. Initially, I had thought that so long as the police made an appearance, they would be able to stop the people from the Church from using heavy firepower on the streets. If they truly ended up having a shootout… I did not wish at all for Yue Gang to die because of that.

“Please stop…” The moment the words left my mouth, all the guns from both sides suddenly turned and pointed at me.

Melody glared at me furiously.

“He’s not an enemy!” Yue Gang hastily cried out.

“Open fire! Those two are vampires!” Anceo shouted instead.

Yue Gang immediately raised his weapon and aimed at Anceo, and the rest of the policemen also turned their weapons back on the people from the Church. Yue Gang yelled at Anceo, “If you dare to open fire, go ahead and try! Put down your weapons!”

The ones from the Church did not open fire, but neither did they put down their weapons. They frowned and looked at Anceo. Upon seeing the numerous weapons held by the policemen, the latter finally calmed down a bit. His gaze fell on the two of us. Even though he did not look like he was still madly thinking of starting a war, he also did not have any intention of giving up.

We may have reached an impasse.

I felt like I had wronged Yue Gang. Perhaps I should not have involved him. If he found out in the end that Melody and I were truly vampires, it would likely be very difficult for him to explain himself to his colleagues and superiors.

“Charles! Melody!”

This voice… I was startled, and turned toward it. I was just in time to see the young master dashing out from one of the corners of the plaza. He completely ignored the numerous weapons around him, and ran in front of several gun muzzles, all the way until he reached our side. He looked at me, then looked at Melody and asked anxiously, “Are you two hurt? Did they harm you?”

I shook my head, but Melody clasped the young master’s hand and complained to him, “Of course I’m not alright! With so many guns pointed at me, my poor little heart is so terrified that it’s about to jump out.”

Hearing that, the young master laughed, and even his worried expression vanished as well.

Following that, exclamations of surprise suddenly erupted from the crowd. This truly made Melody jump in fright and she spun around, taking an extremely wary stance. The crowd around us then started chattering noisily.

“It’s him! It really is him!”

“The last angel!”

“He’s still so cute in person!”

“So gorgeous!”

It was not just the crowd on the perimeter. Many policemen even lifted their visors and gazed at the young master with shining eyes. When I thought about it, the police had recently been patrolling the streets extensively, so they had probably seen many of the young master’s advertisements.

The young master seemed very unsure of what to do. He looked at the horde of people surrounding us, and wherever his eyes turned, cries of praises of “So cute!” and “Pretty!” would arise from there. In the end, he did not dare to look anywhere, and bent his head down slightly. His face had turned red. However, in the end, it attracted even more screams of “Cute!” or “So beautiful!”

I looked at the young master. He was dressed in white—they were the clothes from the previous Tears of an Angel advertisement. In the current situation where the policemen and the Church members were all dressed in black, he looked particularly eye-catching. I felt rather worried. If we ended up in a battle later on, the young master could not be a more conspicuous target.

“Young Master, why are you wearing the clothes from the Tears of an Angel advertisement?”

“Luo Chu-gē said that the filming for the advertisement was done and the clothes were useless now, so he simply gave them to me.” The young master hid behind our backs and said in a small voice, “I was in a rush to come out and look for you two, so I didn’t change my clothes. What do I do? Everyone is staring at me. Do I look really strange wearing these clothes?”

“It’s just that you’re too cute!” Melody turned around and forcibly kissed the young master several times on his cheek. When she heard cries of “Wow wow!” coming from the crowd, a smug look immediately appeared on her face.

“See that!?” Yue Gang shouted, “This boy is Charles’s younger brother. You said that Charles is a vampire, but don’t tell me this little angel is also a vampire? Looks to me like you’re more like a werewolf!”

As if to verify what Yue Gang had said, the young master stepped out and even hugged my arm tightly.

“He doesn’t bear any resemblance to an angel at all!”

Anceo spoke, enunciating every word clearly, “That boy is Dark Sun, the Dark Sun that you all call the Grim Reaper! I suspect that Dark Sun may also be a non-human. He’s not human at all!”

It was apparent that everyone present was shocked by this piece of news. Yue Gang was completely stunned and unable to respond. On the other hand, beside me, Melody had a very distinct reaction. The icy glare that she gave Anceo was filled with killing intent.

I said quietly, “Young Master, can you put on a confused expression, and then stick your head out to look at Anceo?”

The young master whispered back, “Okay.”

“I’m not Dark Sun!” He said in an extremely bewildered voice. “Why do you say that I’m Dark Sun? I’m called An Xiang Ye. I’m still a university student.”

“Cut the crap!” Anceo abruptly exploded with anger. He shouted, “You can even defeat five werewolves! Don’t act like you’re fragile and weak!”

The young master clutched onto my arm, and it felt like he was so terrified that he was trembling. I could even hear faint sobbing noises coming from him.

However, I did not turn my head to look at the young master. Instead, I observed the crowd’s reaction. I hoped that everyone would stand on the young master’s side.

Melody turned to look at the young master. Later, after this incident, she told me that the expression the young master made back then, with tear-filled eyes as if he was trying not to cry, was simply cuter than a little angel, more innocent than a white rabbit, and that any who tried to accuse or harm him was definitely a devil with blood colder than that of a vampire!

After I heard those words, I suddenly felt pity toward Anceo.

Clamor arose from all around us. But when I listened carefully to the noise, it seemed that it was a landslide of sympathy for the young master. Practically no one believed Anceo’s words. I suddenly felt that it was really great that the young master had worn the angel outfit here. The young master dressed in white and Dark Sun dressed in black and red could even give people completely opposite feelings.

Anceo’s expression turned uglier and uglier. Finally, he pulled out a knife from his robes, and raising it up high, he explained to everyone present, “This is a silver knife. It can prove that he truly is a vampire!”

He walked over to us while holding the knife. Perhaps it was because everyone here was holding guns, so no one felt any caution toward the knife. Without meeting any obstruction, Anceo walked all the way up to me. Then, with an air of arrogance, he raised the knife and stabbed toward me…

“Gē!” The young master shrieked and moved in front of me to block him. He shouted, “Don’t kill my brother!”

Anceo jerked back, and then growled at him, “Move aside!”

The young master shook his head frantically. He would not move aside.

“Are you insane!?” Yue Gang rushed over and slapped the silver knife out of Anceo’s hand. He yelled at him, “You want to slash someone with a knife, and even want his dìdi to obediently move away and let you slash at his gē?”

Anceo hurriedly clarified, “The silver must touch a vampire’s blood to have any effect.”

Feeling annoyed, Yue Gang shouted back, “You might as well say you want to sink him underwater. If he doesn’t drown, then he’s a vampire!”

Actually, vampires can also drown…

“I only want to cut him with the knife. One cut won’t kill anyone!” Anceo said impatiently.

Yue Gang’s rage turned into mirth. He retorted, “Then, if you let me shoot you once, I’ll let you cut him with the knife. In any case, one shot won’t kill anyone either!”

“You!” Anceo was so mad that his teeth started to itch, but of course he could not let Yue Gang shoot him.

“Sigh! I’m telling you, this is a misunderstanding!” Yue Gang said earnestly as he tried to persuade him, “At the start, I also suspected that Charles was a vampire! But he truly isn’t one! He isn’t afraid of the cross at all. Every day in the afternoon, when the sun is still very abundant, he goes to the market to buy groceries and even uses his younger siblings’ good looks to haggle with the stall owners. When he buys vegetables, he’s even resolute on getting the vendor to gift him some green onions. What kind of vampire does this?”

Cough! You could have left out the part about haggling.

The young master tried to stifle his laughter, but his whole body was shaking. Melody simply laughed so hard that she bent over and clutched her stomach; she did not have any intention of suppressing her laughter.

“The cross…”

Anceo seemed to want to say that the cross was useless. However, he fell silent halfway through his sentence. I could understand his predicament. As a member of the Church, he could not yell out in public that the cross was useless.

Yue Gang walked over to my side and said to me, “Come on, Charles, give him a smile! Smile! That’s right, now keep that expression on. You over there in the black robes, look at him—he’s so much like a human! Which part of him is like a vampire?”

The young master finally burst out laughing. The more he laughed, the happier he became. The whole plaza echoed with the sound of his laughter. Even Anceo did not open his mouth to interrupt this laughter.

However, the laughter came to a sudden stop by itself. The young master looked surprised as he lifted his head and looked up.

It was only at this moment that I realized that unknowingly, a huge shadow had been cast over the plaza. I looked up and only then did I notice that a large creature had appeared in the sky. His head was that of an eagle’s, but he had the body of dragon, and his two huge wings looked like bat wings that had been magnified countless times.

Beside me, Melody inhaled sharply. She exclaimed, “Stone-gē!”

Mr. Stone? I gasped in awe of his grandeur. At the same time, I also understood the kind of non-human that Mr. Stone was.

It turned out that he was a gargoyle. It has been a long while since I have seen this race of non-humans, probably since around the time that buildings no longer had decorative carvings?

A gargoyle is a non-human that can only move in the night. During the day, they would become like a stone statue, and also become extremely weak.

In the past, during the day, they could hide in ancient castles. There were carved stone figures everywhere in castles, and so a gargoyle hiding amongst them would not look out of place at all. However, the modern day high-rise buildings were all smooth on the outside. You could say that there was a lack of decorations. Thus, the gargoyles had no place to hide at all, and also because they were the weakest during the day, startled humans who came upon them would break them into smithereens.

I had never thought that there would actually still be gargoyles living in the cities.

The gargoyle in the sky made a shrieking call, akin to the resounding cries made by an eagle.

Black shadows started appearing on the surrounding rooftops, behind the pillars in the buildings, in the alleys, and in the dark windows. Pairs of eyes appeared everywhere, watching. Their gaze looked extremely brutal, and even glowed red. These were definitely not eyes that a human would have.

Sunset City has never been within the Church’s influence. Instead, it is one of the base camps of non-humans.

When the sun has sunk low in the west, the last ray of sunlight disappears. Night has fallen and the hour of non-humans has arrived.

Non-humans, begin the assault.