Ghostly Signposts in the Dark

Ghostly Signposts in the Dark (夜に煙めく道標, Yoru ni Kemurimeku Michishirube) is a short story written by Umeda Tobineko and illustrated by Yashioka Shō, published in Genso Suikoden Short Story Collection 1 in 2000.

The story tells of the destruction of North Window by the vampire Neclord and how Viktor coped in the immediate aftermath.

Overview
Viktor is travelling from South Window City back to his hometown of North Window, having journeyed to buy medicine for his mother, Helen. Traveling with a merchant named Kou Long, Viktor buys a pendant for Daisy before realizing smoke is coming from the village and riding ahead in a panic.

While Viktor was away, Neclord had descended upon the village and chose Daisy to be his bride. He would then set the village ablaze and turn the inhabitants into zombies, attacking and feasting on each other. Arriving in the midst of the carnage, he has to fight off his old friend Kite, before discovering the bodies of his brother Will, and grandmother Martha.

Coming across Neclord, he tries to rescue Daisy but is easily defeated by Neclord and nearly killed. Thinking him dead, Daisy steels herself and robs Neclord of his "prize" by impaling herself throat-first on his sword.

Viktor awakens in Kuskus Town, thanks to a Sacrifical Jizo he had been carrying at her request, where he is tended to by Barbara. Anabelle visits him and he joins the South Window City investigation team, helping to clear out the remaining zombies in North Window. Once this is complete, he sees to the burial of every villager personally, refusing to be helped.

Following this, Viktor falls into a stupor, having been refused a task force to hunt down Neclord with by Granmeyer. In the Lion's Fang Inn, he is rescued from a drunken bar brawl by Zamji, a former South Window soldier forced into retirement by an old combat injury. Completely despondent, Viktor spends the next six months with Zamji's family, slowly recovering emotionally from his ordeal.

Learning of the increasing tensions between South Window and Two River City, Viktor works with Anabelle and Zamji to uncover the plot and defeat the arms merchants, including Kou Long, who had set the two city-states against one another, using the incident at North Window as a flashpoint, forging messages to make it appear as if Two River had been taken over by Neclord.

Uncovering the conspiracy, the trio fight off the crooked merchants and capture Kou Long, preserving peace within the Jowston Alliance. Sometime later, Viktor decides to leave Jowston in order to find and destroy Neclord once and for all.