Anri felt like she was dying.
As an unremarkable village woman from Carne Village, Anri had spent all her youthful sweat toiling on the land, living a monotonous but peaceful life with her father, mother, and sister.
Occasionally, a childhood friend would come to play, which was her only entertainment.
She had originally thought this life would continue until her death.
But this peace ended at noon on this day—knights in armor stormed into the village, beginning to burn, kill, and plunder.
Her parents died helplessly under the knights' blades while protecting her and her sister.
Her mind was a blank, leaving only a desire to live, a fear of death, and a responsibility to her sister.
She dragged her sister, whose face was already twitching from crying, and ran towards the forest, trying to escape.
But things did not go as planned; a knight abandoned his warhorse and gave chase.
The trained knight naturally easily caught Anri and her sister Nim at the edge of the forest.
Anri, in an attempt to protect her sister, was stabbed in the back, bleeding profusely—it was terrifying; Anri had never seen so much human blood outside of her menstrual cycle!
She felt she was dying, her life hopeless, only wishing her sister could escape.
"Just die obediently!" the knight laughed hideously, heavily swinging his sword down.
Clang, the sound of metal colliding rang out.
Anri looked up and saw a beautiful woman, radiating a silent, terrifying aura, who had actually blocked the knight's attack with her hand!
"Vam... Vampire?!" The knight's eyes widened, and his crotch involuntarily trembled.
Vampires were extremely rare creatures in this region of the Kingdom; they were powerful and brutal, and wherever they went, only dried corpses were usually left.
A high-ranking Vampire required several Adamantite adventurer teams or a Mithril team to deal with.
Rumor had it that both the Kingdom and the Empire each had a town ruled by Vampires, but they were hidden by magic and had not been discovered.
Villagers in their vicinity would periodically disappear, presumably having been taken to those ghost towns.
That was why the knight recognized this monster, whom he could absolutely not contend with, at first sight.
"Don't... don't come any closer!" The knight wildly swung his longsword, trying to drive away the Vampire in front of him.
Unfortunately, he was only holding an ordinary steel sword, not a silver sword effective against cursed monsters, making it no threat to the Vampire Brides before him.
"Anyone who obstructs the Supreme Being's mission... dies!" The beautiful Vampire Brides rushed forward like a whirlwind, her entire body twisting into a spiral, instantly coiling around the knight before he could react.
Then, ignoring the knight's fearful shouts and pleas, she exerted force, *crack*.
Diagnosis: Comminuted fracture of the upper body, ruptured internal organs, immediate death, no vital signs.
Having dealt with the knight who fell like a ragdoll, the Vampire Brides wiped her mouth and looked at the two, whose pupils trembled with fear, slowly extending her hand.
Anri felt like she was dying.
When she awoke again, it was early the next morning.
Anri, bewildered, jumped out of an incredibly luxurious bed, frantically wanting to tidy the bed, yet fearing her hands were too dirty to defile this high-end bed, which was like a work of art.
It was important to know that Anri, having lived as a farmer until now, could only imagine the most luxurious bed as one with soft cushions that wouldn't creak.
Anri couldn't even imagine this kind of ordinary canopy bed in Nazarick.
Just as Anri was at a loss, she suddenly noticed her transformation in the mirror—she had light makeup, her usual blemishes completely covered, allowing the girlish charm that should belong to her age to overflow.
She wore a light yellow long dress, adorned with a necklace and earrings that looked priceless, and even a gem ring on the little finger of her left hand!
Is this... heaven?
Anri recalled that she should be dead.
The traveling merchants who occasionally came to the village had spoken of the doctrine of heaven—that if one lived a life of good deeds, they would ascend to heaven after death and live a carefree life.
"I thought heaven was just a place where no one collected taxes and you could farm freely.
So it's a life like a noble?"
As soon as Anri thought that she had ascended to heaven after death, she instantly accepted everything and couldn't help but clumsily spin in front of the mirror to admire her new self.
"I wonder if Dad and Mom... and Nim, are with me..."
Perhaps not quite accustomed to the long dress, Anri only spun three and a half times before feeling a bit tired, having to sit back on the canopy bed, sadly missing her family.
Grumble grumble...
"Uh... do you get hungry in heaven too?" Anri shyly covered her stomach, then quietly got up and slowly opened the door...
"Whoo-hoo-hoo~~~ Blind big brother! Come catch Nim!"
Bang!
Anri felt like she was dying!
What did Anri see?
A tall, humanoid monster with strange wings was playing hide-and-seek with her sister Nim!
Anri couldn't believe it and slowly opened the door again.
"It must be an illusion, it must be an illusion..."
Although she truly wished her sister had also come to heaven with her, the monster's appearance was just... human-like, but not entirely.
"You're awake?"
Anri saw luxurious leather attire and slowly looked up, finding the humanoid monster, Walton, holding the noisy, unyielding Nim with one hand, smiling as he stood before her.
"I... I... I'm sorry! Sir! Please spare Nim! If you must punish, please punish me!"
Finally, Anri knew this was not heaven, and she could only fall to her knees with a thud, apologizing for her sister's recent disrespectful behavior.
"Heh heh heh... such touching sisterly affection..." The humanoid monster, Walton, chuckled happily and pulled Anri's hand, "Come with me, you have an important person to meet..."
Along the way, Anri was trembling, because she found that this place was like the king's palace described by merchants, incredibly luxurious, yet filled with various monsters.
Occasionally, humans would pass by, but they merely bowed to the humanoid monster, completely ignoring her, a fellow human's, pleading gaze.
This... this must be hell...
Legend said that only those who lived a life of wickedness would come here after death...
Anri walked like a puppet on strings, eventually being led to a restaurant and seated.
She sat at the first position to the left of the head of the long table, while Nim sat cheerfully at the second position to the right—accompanying her new friend, the blind big brother.
And at the head of the table was a noble skeleton in a black-purple robe.
Her flaming eyes seemed to pierce through Anri, making Anri tremble all over, even almost unable to hold back from throwing up.
"Flying Squirrel, this is Anri I told you about; she has the demeanor of an empress."
Just as the maids had just served the pre-dinner dessert, the blind big brother spoke, and the noble skeleton, apparently named Flying Squirrel, had the flames in her eyes burning even deeper.