'So, how do I do this?'

I had a plan.

But the condition of the ingredients I needed for that plan was terrible.

I thought for a moment, then

went over to check on those ingredients first.

“Keooo....”

Then—

the one who was barely managing to let out dry breaths,

looking no different from a walking corpse.

“You....”

Jinlei looked at me and spoke in a ragged voice.

“What... did you do to me...?!”

“...Ah.”

Unfortunately, the healthy dish I fed him had not been made from monster meat, but ordinary meat.

It had been cooking made from the survivors’ food supply.

The effect could not have been that strong.

And because of that—

“My goal was just about to be fulfilled...!”

“Ahem, khm.”

“You interfered... with the transaction between me and the Grand Duke...!”

Not only had the effect of [Confusion] worn off quickly,

it seemed he had also kept memories I would have preferred he forget.

“You interfered with the Grand Duke’s plan to that extent... so now....”

After recovering his memories, he glared at me.

“Did you come... to kill me...?”

That was what he said.

“Kh, heh heh.... Yes. From your perspective, killing me would be the best option.”

“......”

“But... do not think that means I will fear it.”

He glared at me, smiling with that dying face of his.

“No matter what happens, I fulfilled my transaction with the Grand Duke. And the Grand Duke will carry out the rest of what he owes me....”

“......”

“So long as I know my purpose may one day be fulfilled... I do not fear death.”

At those words, I thought to myself,

'Well, he’s not exactly wrong.'

The moment this bastard dies,

the Grand Duke will no longer be able to gain anything from successfully occupying that city.

That conquest war will succeed in this bastard’s name, and after that, the Grand Duke would still have to draw the remaining 3% of power out of him.

Thinking about it that way, what he said—that it would benefit me to kill him here—wasn’t entirely wrong.

But.

“I’m not killing you, idiot.”

“...What?”

Unfortunately,

I had no intention of doing what he wanted.

There were three reasons.

The first was this.

'If this bastard dies... I don’t know where the power of the [Conquest War] inside the Grand Duke will go.'

He didn’t know it,

but right now, the power of the conquest war inside the Grand Duke was actually getting in his way.

It was just short of what he needed to achieve his goal, which caused the Grand Duke’s objective to fail,

and now it remained inside the body of a Grand Duke who had failed to raise his rank, burdening him with power beyond his capacity.

As long as that power stayed lodged in the Grand Duke’s heart, achieving his objective through Ariella wouldn’t be easy either.

If this bastard died and that power still remained in the Grand Duke’s heart, that would at least be a relief.

But the moment this bastard died, it might judge that one conquest war faction had been extinguished and simply dissolve back into this land.

And besides....

'It probably wouldn’t be easy to kill him in the first place.'

The Grand Duke would not have tossed this bastard aside thoughtlessly.

If I tried to kill him, there was a good chance that cloud would appear again and protect him.

In that case, it was better to leave him in a state I could control.

That cloud seemed to function like a kind of algorithm—it only acted when this bastard was in a situation where he was certain to die.

And then—

the truth was, this last reason was the biggest one....

“Still, there’s something a man who called himself your friend asked me to do. Hard to just ignore that.”

“...What?”

“There’s something like that, idiot.”

Anyway.

Judging from the fact that he was talking to me, he didn’t seem like he was about to die immediately.

That was only possible because the life force of an awakened really was that ridiculous.

“So just watch.”

“...Watch? Watch what?”

“The people you abandoned.”

After roughly checking his condition,

I stood up and moved away from him as I said it.

“How they’re fighting.”

“......”

At my words, Jinlei slowly turned his head in a daze.

The fierce battle unfolding in that city began to fill his vision.

'Better to leave him like this.'

At the end of the day, he was only barely clinging to life.

And right now, he didn’t even seem to have enough mana left to use his abilities.

He didn’t look capable of interfering with me.

“...Are you okay?”

So.

What mattered was the other side.

“Ariella.”

***

“Are you okay, Ariella?”

“...Ha. Does this look... okay to you?”

She looked at me and gave a bitter smile through cold sweat.

“Sorry... about this....”

“......”

“I never... expected anything like this....”

“Same here.”

According to the plan,

Jinlei aside,

Ariella at least was supposed to remain in normal condition.

I never imagined they would be able to take that rank or whatever back this easily.

“To regain that rank by yourself—”

“...It would not be impossible. But... it would take a very, very long time. If, during that time, I built my rank up myself... then someday....”

Right now, we were barely struggling just to survive.

Which meant it was functionally impossible.

The gap in strength between her and the Grand Duke was overwhelming.

There had at least been one possible way to bring down that Grand Duke, but now even that looked like it would fail.

“...It seems there is only one method left.”

I wondered what she was thinking.

Looking at me, she said,

“The door that little doctor made... is nearby.”

This was near the place where we had first been thrown into this land.

Which meant the very door that had thrown us here was not far away either.

“Right now, I carry power that exceeds my rank. It would be difficult to wield it freely... but simply supplying that power to something might still be possible even for me now.”

We had tried activating it a few times, but failed in the end because we lacked mana.

In other words, she was saying she could open that door.

“That door is one-way.”

But at those words, I frowned and said,

“We can’t use it to call in reinforcements.”

“...I know.”

“So... you’re telling me we should run together?”

“That is... a little different.”

That was what I expected.

Sure enough—

“More precisely... I am telling you to run.”

I scratched my head and said,

“You’re not coming?”

“Looking at me now... shouldn’t that answer be obvious?”

When she laboriously raised a hand, the tips of her fingers crumbled away like ash—

drifting apart in the wind. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

“Collapse has already begun... from power beyond what I can contain.”

Power equivalent to a marquis.

Forced into the body of someone who was only a viscount.

The aftermath of that was showing.

“I too had a goal... but unfortunately, I can no longer achieve it.”

“......”

“So.”

Standing on the brink of death, she looked at me with burning eyes and said,

“You must avenge me.”

“Avenge you?”

“The vampires who dragged me into this miserable life. This filthy world that abandoned me. And... that Grand Duke who blocked my goal—take revenge on them all...!”

“......”

I must have looked speechless,

because Ariella kept speaking.

“If the Grand Duke fulfills his objective, he will be reborn into something that ordinary power could never hope to stop.”

“...Probably.”

If Ariella activated that barrier and disappeared,

the Grand Duke would not be able to take her blood.

And if I took Jinlei and fled back to Seoul, or just dealt with him here,

then even if the Grand Duke completely conquered this land, he still would not be able to achieve his goal.

“That barrier is what blocks movement between nations. It loathes beings from another world like myself.... It would never permit him to cross that barrier for a ridiculous reason like the one that allowed you to do so. At the very least, if the Grand Duke wishes to reach your homeland, he would need to pass through more than one nation first....”

At the very least,

it would take quite a long time before the Grand Duke and the Legion faced each other.

And.

“If it is you.”

“......”

“If it is you, who already understands the existence of the enemy... perhaps somehow, in that span of time, you may be able to devise a method.”

Certainly, she had a point.

My job was chef.

If I had a decent grasp of the opponent, and time to prepare,

I could deal with enemies several stages above me.

The gap between me and the Grand Duke wasn’t a matter of several stages,

but even so, I had means within me that might let me handle even that.

Just as she said,

if I withdrew here and planned for later, then maybe I really could avenge her.

But....

“Not a bad offer.”

I thought for a moment.

Then shrugged and said,

“I refuse.”

And yet, even though I had rejected her offer—

“...I thought you might say that.”

“You asked even though you knew? Pretty vicious of you.”

Ariella gave a faint little laugh, as though she had expected that answer.

Which made sense.

If I ran away alone here, that would be—

'abandoning everyone in this land.'

The duration that door could stay open was short.

There was no way hundreds of thousands of awakened could all evacuate through it back to the Legion.

And farther away,

Ariella’s dependents who had marched all the way to the capital to fight the Grand Duke were still there too, along with Karhin.

“I promised.”

The option of abandoning them and planning for later—

no matter how efficient it might have been—

“I’m not doing that.”

For me, it was no different from an option that didn’t exist at all.

***

'If it was you... I thought you’d say that.'

To begin with,

if I had been the kind of bastard who would accept an offer like this, she never would have followed me onto a battlefield this dangerous.

Ariella had worked with me long enough that she seemed to have a rough idea of what kind of choice I would make.

Even so, there was a reason she said it anyway.

“But... there is no other way....”

And then—

“Who says there isn’t?”

“...What?”

I cut her off and said,

“There’s... a way?”

“I’m not completely sure either.”

Her eyes widened.

I stared at Ariella’s face.

“If this is lucky or not... I had a bit of an insight not too long ago.”

Before, my rank had been too low. Even if I saw things, there was nothing I could understand.

And the last time I saw it,

I did notice something, but I didn’t think it was anything special.

But.

“When I looked inside the Grand Duke’s body... I saw things I recognized.”

“...?”

“The first time I saw them, I wasn’t sure.”

I grinned.

“But when I took a closer look, I became certain.”

Only now did I think I could understand exactly what it meant.

“There’s exactly one method worth trying. The odds aren’t good, but they’re not zero either.”

“...So it is a gamble.”

“It always is. Though there is one problem with this one.”

“A problem?”

As I said that,

I started walking toward Ariella.

“Sorry to say this to you, but—”

If it worked,

it was a gamble that might even let Ariella recover her rank.

But.

“I think I’m going to need to see... somewhere private.”

“...What?”

Probably, from Ariella’s perspective, it was not a very welcome method.

“S-see what...?!”

She was flustered by the sudden turn of events, but—

“Sorry, there’s no time to explain in detail.”

“I mean—!”

“Excuse me...!”

By the time I got close enough for my breath to reach her,

Pak!

I threw myself at a very private part of her body.

***

Paaaaak....

'Come to think of it.'

And then, with my eyes closed, I thought,

'Guess it’s been about a year... ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) since I last did this.'

The first time, it hadn’t exactly been by choice, but I had done something like this before.

After that, Ariella hated it, so I hadn’t done it again.

“This place too....”

...Yeah.

“It’s been a while...!”

When I finally opened my eyes, what I saw there was—

[Shadow Veil]

[A private space that only a night noble may freely enter and exit.]

[A world of inner image, severed from reality, which reflects the owner’s mental landscape exactly.]

A blood-red sea stretching all the way to the horizon,

and a massive castle built atop it.