[So what now? She's right there in front of you. Not gonna take this chance to raise her affection points?] the system urged.
"Forget it," Dracula sighed. "I'm not interested. That girl literally sold me out earlier. The fact that I haven't violated her already should be considered a mercy."
[Then just violate her!!] the system yelled.
"No," Dracula replied with closed eyes. "Too much effort."
[Host, you…!]
"You've been trying really hard to push me toward romance lately," Dracula said, narrowing his eyes. "Don't tell me… you think falling in love will make me more motivated?"
[Isn't that how it works? Love is a beautiful force that changes people!]
"Yeah, no. Hate to break it to you, but you've made a terrible miscalculation," Dracula said as he gestured for The World to lift the unconscious Mist Branch into its arms. "I'm far lazier than you realize. I'm so lazy, I don't even want to fall in love. If you want me to change through romance, come back in a few hundred years."
[A few hundred years!? By that time, when the next generation of games comes out, you'll be even more of a shut-in!]
Dracula pushed open the castle doors and walked inside, The World silently following with the girl in its arms.
"Oh? You know me so well," he chuckled.
[Host, I won't give up. My mission is to spur you into saving the world! But seriously—are you even a man? That girl hits every one of your preference flags, and you won't even carry her yourself?]
Dracula opened the door to a guest room, glanced around, then tossed a magic burst inside to clean the place.
He didn't step in. Instead, he had The World, with its impressive twenty-meter range, place the girl onto the bed.
Leaning on the doorframe, he said,
"Look, even if she's light, she's still gotta be like 70 or 80 pounds. I'm not lifting that.
Training that little Belmont kid today already drained all my motivation."
[Seventy or eighty pounds isn't even heavy for an ordinary human, let alone you! Can't you learn from your peers? Look how motivated they are every day! What did I do in a past life to end up with a sloth like you for a host…]
"Oh come on," Dracula yawned. "Yamazaki has dreams, Saitama's got ambition, and Kratos wants revenge.
When I was bent on revenge, I was pretty motivated too, wasn't I?"
He gently closed the guest room door.
"But I think the real reason is… they're all bald. I'm not."
[Are you seriously dissing your own friends!? Their motivation comes from their goals, not their hairstyles!]
[So please—set a goal for yourself. Even if it's not saving the world, burning, looting, whatever works!]
"I do have a goal," Dracula muttered, slowly heading upstairs.
[Oh? What is it?]
"It used to be dying," he said. "Now it's… just eating and waiting to die."
[…I give up. But I'll find a way to push you toward your mission. I swear it.]
"Oh? Good luck with that. Ganbatte~," Dracula replied half-heartedly.
He opened the door to a room filled with musical instruments. Picking up his electric guitar, he sighed.
"Well, since I didn't kill my 'old friend,' I guess I can't sleep for another 300 years…
Might as well play some guitar and nurture my soul…"
[...Host, I'll leave you to it. Disconnecting now…]
The moment Dracula mentioned playing the guitar, the system panicked and immediately severed all external connections.
In this era, the only thing that could still spark any genuine interest in Dracula… was the guitar.
He loved playing it—a hobby he had picked up during his centuries-long journey to become stronger.
At one point on that journey, he had a strange encounter with a self-proclaimed Creator God who called himself the "Abandoned Heavenly Emperor." They had a long conversation about postures and cosmic philosophies. In the end, the deity told Dracula:
"Your path is one of absorbing the world's darkness and filth. It doesn't align with my goal of purifying existence."
He went on to mention another universe, one with an Old God whose path resembled Dracula's—an entity that bore the weight of the cosmos within its dreams. He told Dracula that with his current level of mental fortitude, he might just be able to handle a conversation with it.
Driven by his thirst for power, Dracula set off. But before he could reach the Elder God's realm, he stumbled upon a strange scene: several bizarre-looking creatures chasing a silver-haired girl with a long ahoge swaying like a metronome.
Relying on instinct, Dracula assumed the grotesque figures were monsters—so he promptly butchered them and saved the girl.
She introduced herself as Nyarko. After thanking him and hearing his purpose, she handed him an electric guitar and said:
"If you want to move that Old God's heart, you'll have to reach it through music. Go, young man! Create a miracle with your sound!"
Naturally, Dracula didn't trust a random girl who'd just appeared out of nowhere. He went to meet the being known as Azathoth directly.
And sure enough, when he arrived… the Elder God was having some kind of seizure. Its left-side tentacles were brawling with its right-side tentacles.
Dracula, still far from being at his peak strength, nearly got himself killed trying to escape the scene.
But he didn't give up.
"Doesn't cost anything to try," he figured.
So the very next day, he returned—this time with the electric guitar.
Then, something miraculous happened.
His music actually touched Azathoth.
The Elder God sent him a formal invitation, asking him to become its personal guitarist.
So Dracula stayed for several years, learning music from the void. He became the lead guitarist of the cosmic horror. And in time, he and Azathoth… forged a deep soul bond through music.
"Looking back on it now…" Dracula murmured as he strummed his guitar, unleashing an eerie tune that would make anyone's sanity stat plummet, "Yeah… Nyarko was probably full of crap. But I've gotta thank her. She gave me a hobby that actually gave meaning to my cursed eternity."
As his thoughts swirled, his fingers moved faster.
The electric guitar screamed—a furious, gut-wrenching shriek that embodied the true essence of death rock.
Somewhere else in the castle, Kagarino Kirie slowly stirred awake.
Her vision blurred, then slowly sharpened. She was lying on a luxurious bed, in a room with a disturbingly gothic aura.
"So this is… what a vampire's castle looks like…" she muttered to herself. "Should I say it? 'I don't recognize this ceiling'…"
She forced herself up and opened the door to her room.
A shadowed hallway stretched out before her, lit only by the glow of a crimson full moon hanging outside the windows.
Am I in Castlevania? Who brought me here…? Could it be… the legendary Dracula?
Even as a vampire herself—one who terrified normal humans—Kirie couldn't suppress the chill crawling down her spine. Something about this place, and its master, filled her with dread.
She gulped, placed a hand on the wall, and slowly started walking.
No matter what, I should at least say thank you.
She took a deep breath, summoning courage from within the shadows.
Then—an eerie sound reached her ears.
That sound… is it coming from upstairs?
Following the dissonant melody, she found herself outside a particular room.
It's coming from in there…
She exhaled and flung the door open.
A blast of unearthly sound slammed into her senses like a psychic wave, drilling straight through her ears into her skull.
Her eyes rolled back—and she fainted on the spot.