“......”

“......”

Ariella pushed herself up out of the blood.

And Jeong Sua and the unit members who had bled for her.

Their gazes met.

“...Hmph. For a bunch of weaklings, I’ll admit you’ve earned a decent merit.”

Even now, I couldn’t wrap my head around why those soldiers chose to save Ariella.

It’s true Ariella saved me this time, but...

There was no way they could know what kind of relationship Ariella and I actually had.

“Hmph. That’s our line.”

And yet they still saved Ariella.

“If it weren’t for Sister’s word, we would’ve let you die... but you have the merit of saving the Legion Commander, so we’ll let it go.”

At that, my eyes widened.

Sister’s word—meaning...

‘Jeong Sua.’

Somehow.

On the way here, she must’ve persuaded them.

That was why the unit members could choose to save Ariella.

‘Did she realize Ariella is my subordinate? But... how?’

There were a lot of things that didn’t add up, but...

Unfortunately, I didn’t have the breathing room to focus on that right now.

“You’re insolent. I’d like to correct your manners a bit, if I had my way, but...”

Ariella glared at the soldiers for a moment, then turned her back and moved.

“My knights!”

She still didn’t look perfect, but—Ariella, who seemed to have recovered a good portion of her condition.

SSSSHHHK!

When she extended her hand, blood droplets shot out from there—

“Now is not the time to fall. Rise!”

toward the battlefield where a massacre of utter chaos was unfolding.

Then—

[Elite Vampire Knight]

[Im Naeun]

[Im Naehun]

[Im Beomjae]

“We answer our master’s call!”

From somewhere on the battlefield, those who had been collapsed like burned corpses—the Elite Vampire Knights revealed themselves.

‘The four great great monsters need a lot of blood to recover, proportional to their size.’

But.

Humanoid vampires could be restored to some extent through Ariella’s power.

Even if I’d reached the point where I could take any kind of creature as a retainer—

‘Ariella’s power... applies far more strongly to those with a form similar to Ariella’s.’

That was why [Elite Vampire Knight] could only be made humanoid, and why—like this—they could be brought back with relatively little blood.

“Good. None of the high-ranking knights were completely erased.”

{Yes. When we were hit directly by the sunlight, we were taken aback, but we crawled away somehow and avoided the monsters’ attacks.}

“Well done.”

Ariella issued orders to the Elite Vampire Knights who had barely made it back alive.

“As you know, the situation is not favorable for our forces. So!”

A vampire’s vitality comes from blood.

Even if, for a monster like Ariella, the quality matters too—

“Scatter the blood of those trash things across this land!”

that wasn’t true for the countless retainers.

“Raise my fallen forces—your brothers—once again!”

“Loyalty!”

CRACK!

The Elite Vampire Knights moved toward the battlefield.

Each one was a tremendous powerhouse.

The blood they spilled while fighting would raise the fallen vampires.

There would be a significant number of vampires who had been completely erased, and there wouldn’t be much recoverable strength—but even so, the fact that forces we thought were wiped out could be restored...was a massive change.

“And... you, there!”

And.

Ariella pointed at Jeong Sua with her claw and said,

“You unlucky brat over there!”

“...Are you talking to me?”

“Yes. Who else is there to call unlucky, if not you?” 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

Whether Jeong Sua found it ridiculous or not, Ariella continued, firm.

“Get my master out of this land as quickly as possible.”

“Get out...?”

“You may be an unlucky brat, but your loyalty to my master seems genuine. Though your competence is a little questionable... still, the situation leaves no choice. I will entrust my master’s escort to you.”

At Ariella’s words,

Jeong Sua frowned and asked,

“Then what are you going to do?”

“Hmph. We’ve lost a considerable portion of our forces... but I’ll pull what I can together and hold them here until my master is completely safe.”

Ariella looked at the doctor still rampaging across the battlefield as she spoke.

“It worked out. That rude knight is managing to keep it occupied, but in truth, this land was far too dangerous for my master to escape alone. But....”

“Now that we’re here, you’re saying he can escape safely... is that it?”

“Yes.”

Ariella said that, then smiled as if looking down on them.

“Either way, on that battlefield you’re not much help.”

“......”

And she wasn’t wrong.

Jeong Sua and those unit members were high-level, sure—but their specialty was covert movement and reconnaissance.

‘Full-scale warfare like what’s unfolding out there... that isn’t their forte.’

It wasn’t for nothing I withdrew them and brought out Ariella’s forces.

Even when Ariella’s strength was intact, stopping that doctor was difficult.

Now most of that strength was gone.

Even if the unit members joined in, at best they’d only buy a little more time to run.

“That grotesque thing seems to be holding anger toward my master. Someone must stop it. I will handle that. So take my master and go.”

“......”

“What are you doing? Move, and quickly!”

Ariella glared at Jeong Sua and shouted, but—at that—

“Hm... running away.”

“...?”

“That’s a bit....”

Jeong Sua, instead of listening to Ariella’s order, said,

“I don’t like it...?”

“What did you say?”

“Queen, I don’t know how you ended up serving the Benefactor, but.”

Jeong Sua spoke evenly, tilted her head slightly as she brushed her face with one hand, and said, “Your ability to read the Benefactor’s intentions... seems a little lacking.”

With a face that carried a faint smile, she said it.

***

My ability to read his intentions.

Even while I still wasn’t fully grasping what she meant—

“To run like this might not be a bad choice, sure. But.”

Jeong Sua continued, calm.

“That isn’t what the Benefactor wants.”

“......”

Sure enough, as she said.

Running away from this battlefield like this wasn’t what I wanted.

Not only the threat posed by that doctor, but also several questions still stuck in my head, unresolved.

Why would I want to run with that sour feeling still clinging to me?

“You seem to be mistaken.”

But—

“I said we should leave this battlefield not because my master wants that, but because it’s the best option.”

It galled me, but...

Right now, there was no way to deal with that enormous true body of the doctor.

Even if Ariella’s retainers regained their strength, that wouldn’t change.

As Ariella said, for now, fleeing this battlefield was the best choice we had.

“Or what? Are you saying that if my master wants to keep fighting, we should throw our lives away in a fight we can’t win?”

“Of course not. That’s not what the Benefactor wants.”

“Then what? You don’t actually think you, who are weaker than even my retainers—let alone me—can kill that monster.”

As Ariella stared at Jeong Sua with sharp eyes, Jeong Sua shrugged lightly, acknowledging it.

“Well, those monsters fighting over there... I’ll admit your kids are pretty strong. They definitely fight better than we do.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“But.”

She let out a small, amused laugh, then took a step and said,

“Your strength seems like a different kind of strength than ours.”

“...?”

“Just... strength for its own sake. Monsters with strength, gathered by the dozens, the hundreds, turning into a force. It’s strong, sure, but...”

A soft snicker.

“Against an enemy that’s stronger than that, it can’t do anything but get pushed back.”

“Simple, brutish strength.”

“You...!”

Jeong Sua didn’t even try to hide her mockery.

She smiled openly as she said,

“A monster with strength 100, a thousand of them gathered to make 100,000—that kind of strength. It’s strong, sure.”

Ariella was a powerful monster.

If she vented her rage after recovering some of her strength, most people wouldn’t be able to keep their sanity from the ominousness packed into her mana alone.

But.

“When something stronger shows up like that, you can’t do anything but say we should run... that kind of strength, maybe?”

“How dare...! You think you can crawl up after earning one merit...!”

“So I’ll show you.”

As if Ariella’s pressure didn’t scare her at all,

Jeong Sua shrugged and said,

“What Awakened strength looks like.”

She said that, then took her eyes off Ariella and walked somewhere.

“The Benefactor told me something personally.”

And.

The place her steps headed toward was—

“Our strength and the Benefactor’s... are a good match.”

None other than—right in front of me.

“That was a truly glorious thing to hear.”

“...Jeong Sua?”

“And just like the Benefactor told me!”

SNAP!

Her outstretched hand seized my face.

“My strength will help the Benefactor.”

Eyes shining like water looked at me.

They were definitely aimed at me, and yet—strangely, it felt like they were looking somewhere else.

A focus that didn’t quite line up.

Those eyes were undeniably beautiful, but there was a strange madness in them that made fear seep in.

‘Ah. I see.’

And.

Only after I looked into those eyes did I finally understand what she meant.

Ariella’s strength was—simple strength where a thousand monsters with strength 100 gather and make strength 100,000.

But.

Awakened strength is different.

[Skill - Chef’s Eye activates.]

[Skill - Spirit Eye activates.]

Even if each individual strength is only 10, when ten Awakened gather—

[Vision sharing between Chef’s Eye and Spirit Eye is established.]

their various abilities create synergy and produce results in the tens, the hundreds of thousands.

That is the strength of the Awakened.

***

[Vision sharing between Chef’s Eye and Spirit Eye is established.]

My vision shifted violently in an instant.

I could immediately tell this was the spirit Jeong Sua handled—

Bell’s vision.

But.

When I first took it in, I couldn’t help feeling confused.

Because—

‘...I don’t see anything special?’

Bell was in a place some distance away from Gangnam.

Probably because she was wary of that “doctor” detecting Bell.

It was positioned where Gangnam could be seen, but there was nothing special in that view.

Just the sight of grotesque monsters gathering in from the surroundings, drawn by the noise of battle.

-Focus.

But.

It seemed that thought was mine alone.

-The Spirit Eye is... borrowing a ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ spirit’s eyes. And a spirit’s eyes are not the same as human eyes. They see... far more.

“......”

-Even I didn’t know this realm until I learned it through my master... but the moment I experienced a spirit’s vision.

-I saw a completely different world unfold.

As I listened to her, it felt like my vision was suddenly shifting again.

-To my eyes, an entirely different world unfolded.

Jeong Sua was guiding that vision.

‘A water tank that still has its shape, somehow... a monster nest soaked with moisture, groundwater, puddles left after rain, the Han River....’

Even the landscape of ruined Yeouido I’d seen not long ago.

Presences felt not through physical sight, but through something else.

The scenery a spirit sees—an overwhelming flood of information crashed into my mind.

‘Ghk....’

A while ago, when she’d briefly shown me, it wasn’t even close to this.

“So...?”

It felt like my brain was going to burst, but I grit my teeth and asked her,

“What are you trying to show me?”

-When the Benefactor received that monster’s procedure.

Then.

In an instant, it felt like the vision was being dragged somewhere.

SLLLASH!—the vision moving at tremendous speed.

-There wasn’t a single trace of moisture near that operating room.

“...?”

-That monster is probably quite obsessive about the operating room’s environment.

SLLLASH!—the vision moving at tremendous speed.

The direction that vision headed—

‘Underground?’

Down.

-It’s just that....

And.

As if she hesitated over something—

-I could confirm the Benefactor’s location even then.

“...What?”

She said it.

‘Bell’s vision should only work where there is moisture.’

If there was no moisture in the territory that doctor created, then that ability shouldn’t be able to activate—normally.

-This is still a realm I haven’t been permitted... but I begged and begged my master and learned something.

But she said she could know my location even where there was no moisture.

And the reason—felt a little familiar to me.

-You change your perception a little.

Howard Jin couldn’t see humans as cooking ingredients, so he couldn’t activate [Ingredient Management] on humans.

But I could use the skills I gained through Howard Jin even against humans.

-You broaden the domain of what “water” is.

An Awakened’s power changes according to the Awakened’s own perception.

-But changing perception isn’t easy. So... the best I could do was expand vision that had been limited to flowing water to include standing water. But I... forced myself far beyond that and succeeded in adding exactly one more thing.

“Exactly... one?”

And.

The vision that had been diving rapidly into the ground stopped at a certain spot.

-Blood.

“...?”

What was there—was a small vial.

And inside that vial...a red liquid.

-As a result of forcing myself... I succeeded in keeping a single person’s blood within my vision.

Somewhere deep underground, so deep I couldn’t tell how far.

Why a space like this existed under Gangnam—within the doctor’s territory—was a question in itself.

But.

I could guess what that red liquid was.

-I can’t refill your vital energy. But... there might be a way to replace that penalty.

At our last meeting not long ago, what that doctor had taken from me.

-I need the Legion Commander’s blood. That blood.

It was my blood.

‘Uh...? Wait.’

That meant—a truth I didn’t really want to know, a pretty uncomfortable one, mixed in there, but—

‘No, no. That isn’t what matters right now.’

Right.

What matters right now is—

-And... do you see it?

“Yeah.”

Deep underground where my blood was.

Near there—

[Ingredient Identification (Enhanced)]

[Chef’s Eye]

[Fallen Priest of Serajin]

[A priest who served the old god Serajin, who was consumed by madness, rampaged, and was erased.]

Small and scrawny.

The shape of a living creature.