A Regressor's Bucket List Chapter 133 : Dracula (3)

Novel: A Regressor's Bucket List Author: Sam1892 Updated: Jun 03, 2026

Font Size

18px

Now reading: Chapter 133 : Dracula (3) from A Regressor's Bucket List, a Action novel by Sam1892.

Before the regression.

『…You're dying, JJ.』

『…So you ca, partner.』

I originally knew nothing about that earring.

I knew he wore a strange earring, but I was never curious enough to ask, and he never told the story behind it.

…It was only just before Jerry breathed his last that I learned the aning of the red cross earring he always wore.

Many had perished in the course of the War against Demons.

But his death wasn't particularly related to the war.

From the beginning, the purpose of his life did not lie in such things.

The goal he had from the very start was clear.

To revive the Blood Demon Art, a skill passed down through the Dracula family that had since been lost.

As that was his beginning, his end was a fitting conclusion to that goal.

Separate from the flow of the era, which was then hurtling toward the end of the War against Demons, he had been investigating and researching that mana technique, and he had finally reached its cusp.

But to see it to the very end, he had to cross the line of ‘human experintation’.

Having been a victim of human experintation himself in Isaac’s laboratory, he conducted the experints for the Blood Demon Art on his own body.

His death ca from that as well.

Frequent experints and the overloading of his Mana Circuits.

And the resulting acceleration of his body’s deterioration.

It was impossible to know how many experints he had conducted, but for a Vampire, who boasted the longest lifespan among the Beastkin, to have white hairs and experience aging, it was clear he must have gone through no small number of them.

It ant the experints were enough to consu the entirety of a Vampire’s regenerative power, which was said to grant the authority of immortality if one reached the pinnacle.

In any case, having reached the brink of death as a result of his experints, he called for and left his last, unspoken will.

『…Take this.』

『…If I take this, I feel like I'll have to do sothing for you. Is it just ?』

Perhaps he had finally let down his ironclad poker face at death's door.

*Pfft-* With a small laugh, he answered.

『It's just you.』

Thinking back on it now, it probably wasn't just a feeling.

I couldn't be sure, but considering his usual personality, he would have sooner died without a word than call for for no reason.

The reason he went out of his way to call and tell the story contained within the earring was likely because he hoped I would do sothing to succeed him, just as I had thought.

Perhaps he thought that I, who had benefited from the Vampire's Blood Demon Art even if I hadn't actively participated in its developnt, would be able to reach the end that he could not.

『I never told you, but this is a 1-star Artifact that was in the Order's treasury.』

『1-star?』

A 1-star Artifact.

I tilted my head at his words.

Of course, Artifacts themselves were valuable, but this was when the War against Demons was nearing its end.

The world was collapsing here and there, and as the Hero fighting for my life on the front lines of that war, I was constantly supplied with weapons from the Order.

The Artifacts I was using at the ti were all 3-star or higher, and while not in earnest, I had even handled Holy Relics before.

From my perspective, if it were a Holy Relic, maybe, but the aning of a 1-star Artifact that he was handing over right before his death felt a bit unexpected.

Of course, as if he knew my question, he added.

『Half of it was for nothing.』

『What?』

*『My research until now. Half of it, the part I did before getting this Artifact, was for nothing.』*

『What do you an by that…』

『…Reviving the Blood Demon Art through my own power is impossible. No matter how much manpower, effort, and wealth I pour into it, it makes no sense for to rebuild what the Dracula family protected and developed since ancient tis.』

It was a valid point.

It was a family so historic that they earned the moniker of a combat family even among the Beastkin, and the Blood Demon Art was a secret tradition passed down for a period so long it couldn't be asured.

If it could be revived so easily, it wouldn't have been classified as black magic in the first place, and it probably wouldn't have been just him trying to revive it from all sorts of places.

Count Dracula's Blood Demon Art held a power so rare and potent that even Isaac coveted it.

However, the reason I thought he was amazing was because he had actually accomplished that difficult feat.

He had actually restored the Blood Demon Art and developed it to a point where I could apply it in actual combat, and now he was saying half of it was for nothing.

It was a statent I couldn't imdiately understand.

But with his following explanation, I understood what he was trying to say.

『…It's known to the world that it was all lost with the extinction of the Vampires, but the origin of the Blood Demon Art is all alive in here.』

『……!』

『…The Order never realized it because it was only permitted to those who inherited the blood of the Dracula family.』

That was it.

I had wondered what that earring was, why he always wore sothing that didn't suit him and seed to have no special abilities.

It wasn't just a cross-shaped earring, but an object where the Blood Demon Art of the Dracula family had been compiled and left behind.

To put it simply, it was sothing akin to a ‘USB’.

『Until then, all my ti spent investigating the combat traces of Vampires or searching for books was for nothing. The real research began after I found this earring.』

『…….』

『Unlike before, where I essentially had to create sothing from nothing, my speed improved dramatically because all I had to do was read the recorded information and reconfirm the system.』

It was the first ti I had heard this story.

To be honest, since my role was just to take the Blood Demon Art he developed and use it, I had never paid much attention to the process.

But it was certainly a surprising story.

That the Blood Demon Art wasn't lost, but had in fact been passed down.

『That earring was that amazing of an object?』

『…Yes. And it was an object that should have co to in the first place, not to the Order's treasury.』

『…What's that supposed to an?』

Cough-

With a raspy cough, he spat out so blood, wiped it nonchalantly with a wet wipe, and added.

『My mother never wore it, so I didn't know either. But this was sothing my mother had since we were kicked out of the clan because I was a half-blood.』

『…….』

『…So. You could call it a kind of nto.』

Jamie Dracula.

A direct descendant of the Dracula family and a pure-blooded Vampire, who was cast out along with him for giving birth to a half-blood child with a human.

Hearing that, a rough picture ford in my head.

『…Then you weren't actually kicked out of the clan.』

『…She left in secret to carry on the will of our ancestors. It was too complicated a story for to understand at the ti.』

The ti Jerry was kicked out of the Vampire Clan was right before Count Dracula's death and the clan's collapse.

The isolated Vampire Clan, due to various complex and political reasons, had pretended to banish a direct descendant to prepare for any unforeseen circumstances.

It was the clan's choice to ensure the continuation of their lineage, using the convenient pretext of her having a half-blood child to maintain external credibility.

『…They never even used the word 'expulsion'. I was just a child and misunderstood.』

He muttered with sowhat wistful eyes.

As if rembering his mother, or perhaps his clan.

It was hard to know the exact aning, but one thing was certain.

The regret lingering in his eyes.

Although the nto, undelivered for so reason, had wandered the world and returned to him, from his perspective, it must have been a source of regret.

In the end, he hadn't been able to revive the entirety of the Blood Demon Art, and his body had weakened to the point where he could die at any mont.

Was it similar to the heart of an old man who held a treasure map right before his eyes but was too old to set sail?

『…It's a sha.』

His next words proved my guess was not wrong.

『…If only I had known a little sooner.』

『…….』

『…If only I had gotten this earring a little sooner, reviving the Blood Demon Art wouldn't have been impossible…』

It wasn't regret in the sense that he had done sothing wrong, but that made it all the more regrettable.

It seed like he was reflecting on his own weakness in the face of a fateful limitation that effort could not overco.

That was his end.

After handing over the earring, he passed away a few days later.

『…….』

There were no other additions or requests.

That last conversation we had a few days before his death was the entirety of what could be called his last will.

I had a rough idea of why he gave the earring.

But I couldn't know if he was too embarrassed because he had never asked for a favor in his life, or if he held the undue expectation that I would take care of it without him having to say anything.

He was already dead, and you couldn't ask the deceased.

After pondering what to do, I eventually postponed it.

Completing the Blood Demon Art alone was an impossible task.

I couldn't think of anyone who could help at the ti, nor did I have the luxury to divert my attention.

The imdiate situation I was facing was not easy, either.

All I could do at that ti was put it on my ear as a promise not to forget.

And so, as so ti passed in the swift current of the War against Demons.

After the all-out war between the Order and the Demon King's Army ended in the Demon King's victory.

While the Suicide Squad, raised through the man in the bamboo hat, continued their guerrilla warfare.

That is to say.

It was soti around when I had gotten used to the discomfort of the accessory in my ear.

And when even the bitterness of losing a good partner had dulled in my heart.