When we first fell onto this land.

I’d thought it was dangerous, sure, but.

Luckily, since it was night, I’d been relieved we could use Ariella at full strength.

The exact name for vampires was night nobles.

True to that name, they were the ones who moved at night.

‘It wasn’t luck that this place was night.’

But.

There was one thing I’d gotten wrong.

‘On this land... morning never comes.’

Up ahead.

[Vampire Ghoul]

A monster with a familiar name was walking toward us.

***

Our goal was, first, to reach the nearby city.

Monsters usually gathered around cities.

So the plan was to capture monsters with high mana there, or pick up mana-infused items, and use them to reactivate that transfer gate.

Jeong Sua had said she could sense quite a lot of presences in this city, too.

The problem was.

‘Because it’s night, we couldn’t confirm what the monsters actually looked like.’

We should’ve checked more carefully.

Because.

“%#$@$@!!!”

That one screaming at us so loudly—

It had red eyes and a very familiar smell of blood.

“Sergeant Shin... that language...”

“Yeah.”

I couldn’t understand what it was saying.

But it wasn’t as if it was completely unfamiliar, either.

‘Chinese....’

And.

The moment I heard that voice, I spun around and shouted.

“Doesn’t anyone here understand what it’s saying?!”

“W-well, that...”

“Jeong Sua? You read that sign and even figured out this is Qingdao.”

“I’m sorry. I only read the characters—I don’t actually know the spoken language....”

And.

Even while we couldn’t understand a word of it.

“%#$@$@!!!”

The figure up ahead kept shouting.

No matter how I looked at it, the attitude didn’t seem friendly.

If it were just a monster, we could fight and be done with it, but.

This thing was speaking human language.

Do we really have to collide with something like that...?

Right as that thought crossed my mind.

{It’s asking what you think you’re doing.}

“...Huh?”

Suddenly.

A voice sounded inside my head.

{No one said anything about visitors coming from another region, but you barged into someone else’s territory without even contacting anyone—what’s your angle, it’s saying.}

The doctor who’d agreed to cooperate with us not long ago.

Luca.

{And since you can’t answer, you’re suspicious, it says. It’s also saying it must’ve been you who’s been raiding food and hunting its own kind all this time. I don’t know what your circumstances are, but it seems pretty angry. Hmm. Getting that worked up can’t be good for its health.}

And.

Only after hearing that did I realize it.

‘Right. This thing couldn’t speak Korean.’

Ariella had drunk human blood to gain that knowledge and speak Korean.

Borjin learned languages through slaves.

The martial artists of Cheonsan Armed Forces could naturally converse with us through the power of the blessing that had descended on Cheonsan.

But this one didn’t know Korean at all.

It had said it hadn’t even met many Koreans in the first place.

And yet we’d been able to communicate with it.

The reason was.

[Ingredient Identification (Enhanced)]

[Trait]

[Mental Language]

...The same trait even that pope of Dasmur had.

Because of that trait.

It didn’t listen to sounds when it spoke with us.

It understood our words through the mind, and spoke back to us directly inside our heads.

In the first place, the barrier of “foreign language” didn’t exist for it.

But.

Even so.

‘...Territory?’

Even with the translation.

That word didn’t really land in my head, and that was the problem.

{Hmm? Since the Legion Commander isn’t answering, it seems to think it’s being ignored. The Legion Commander didn’t mean it that way, though. Maybe it has low self-esteem... anyway, it’s saying it’ll attack if you don’t answer within ten seconds.}

“What? No, wait—then tell it we should at least talk—”

{Ah. Looks like it’s not low self-esteem. It just has a short temper.}

Schwing.

From a distance, the ones we could see pulled out weapons, and.

{It says ten seconds have passed.}

“.......”

Paaaak!

They threw their bodies at us.

{It said answer within ten seconds, but it feels like maybe three seconds have passed... it might have a disrupted biological rhythm.}

“...You don’t need to explain that.”

And.

Facing the many enemies charging us, I was simulating how we should fight in my head when...

“That being the case, deliver this for me, child.”

In that exact moment.

“Do I really need to answer every question from lowborn trash like you?”

There was one figure who stepped forward, into the path of ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) the enemies swinging their weapons at us.

{Do I really need to answer every question from lowborn trash like you?}

With Ariella’s words.

Luca’s [Mental Language] echoed, repeating them exactly.

“......!!!!?!!?”

Then.

The ones who’d been brimming with momentum, weapons out, rushing straight at us—

The moment they saw Ariella’s face.

Kuuuuuuung!!!

With the same momentum they’d charged in with, they slammed their foreheads into the ground.

“!$@#$!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

They even flung away the weapons in their hands, shouting something while pressing their heads to the ground.

“.......”

I stared blankly at the scene, then turned to Luca and asked.

“What are they saying this time?”

{Ah, nothing that impressive.}

At my question, Luca answered with a casual shrug.

{They’re saying they’ve committed a sin worthy of death, and begging you to spare their lives.}

“.......”

***

“T-this way! Sir Knight!”

A few minutes later.

We were walking into the heart of the city, guided by the ones who’d tried to attack us.

And even as we did.

“I-I’ll do anything you tell me, so please....”

“Could you please tell that noble to spare our lives... h-heh....”

These red-eyed humans kept repeating the same thing.

‘.......’

When I glanced back, I saw Ariella walking as if it didn’t concern her at all, putting on an air of dignity.

Covering her mouth with a fan I didn’t even know where she’d pulled out, she walked like she had nothing to say.

Unlike her usual oddly airheaded side, her silent stride actually looked pretty imposing.

“I never imagined it would be the procession of great nobles....”

“Please....”

And.

“Hmm, well.”

To those people.

I shrugged lightly and said.

“Depending on the attitude you show, I’ll consider it.”

“Ahh! Thank you...!”

The moment I said that, they nodded over and over, overwhelmed with emotion.

{How is it.}

The truth was, their words were still nowhere near Korean.

The only “foreign language” I knew was, at best, a greeting or two.

There was no way I could suddenly understand a foreign language on my own after being dropped here.

But.

{It seems the Legion Commander won’t have much trouble conversing now, either.}

“Yeah. Guess not.”

If it wasn’t on my own.

Then the situation was different.

“This trait... so you can share it with someone else, too.”

{It’s not easy, but... if you have a bit of know-how, it’s possible.}

There was only one reason I’d become able to communicate with them.

Mana extending from Luca’s hand was lingering inside my head.

[Awakened: Shin Youngjun]

[Class: Hero-grade War Chef Lv.43]

[Trait]

[Mental Language (Temporary)]

In my trait window now, one trait had taken a temporary slot.

“Mental Language... is something like this originally common in your world?”

By my standards, there wasn’t a single weak monster capable of something like this.

It was an ability only higher-order existences had.

{Not a chance. Only bishops could do something like this, at best. I only got this after leaving my homeland, too.}

“Huh? Really?”

{While I was gathering materials for useful evolutions, there was a monster that spoke directly into my head once. That’s when I realized this method of communication was something you could imitate if you tried. Well... in the process, I did something I feel pretty bad about to that monster... quite a lot, actually.}

“.......”

It was probably similar to how I came to handle those holes created by the Wandering Clown’s power.

I couldn’t create the holes myself, but I had the knowledge to use them—so I could keep the holes from closing.

He was saying that by studying a monster, he’d understood the mechanism of Mental Language.

And as a result.

Once those guys realized there was a “noble” among us, they immediately bowed and apologized.

“You’re not people who should be in a filthy place like this... we’ll guide you as quickly as possible...!”

That was how they started leading us somewhere.

‘Still....’

As I followed them and walked through the city, I thought.

In the dark city, the only light we could really see were the red-glowing eyes.

‘So that monster showed up in China, too.’

‘That monster... I’ve never seen this kind before. If we end up fighting them with the Legion later, it might be worth figuring out how to butcher them in advance.’

The ones we met at first looked human, but.

That must’ve been pure coincidence.

As we moved deeper into the city, countless monsters of all kinds of shapes were wandering around.

There was one thing they all had in common.

Those red eyes, and...

[Vampire Ghoul]

The species name that showed up when I used my [Ingredient Identification].

***

Their species name was “Vampire Ghoul.”

And the species name that appeared for Ariella in my system was “Vampire Viscount.”

Meaning.

If they were ordinary commoners, at about a one,

Ariella was a noble.

And among nobles, a viscount was a fairly high rank.

‘When we almost got attacked, I was wondering what we were supposed to do.’

But the gap in status must be huge.

Because after Ariella showed her mana just once, those red-eyed humans who’d been about to attack us—ones who looked vicious at a glance—switched their attitude instantly, and now they were bowing low and submitting like this.

-Grrk...!

-Hu...man?

-Smell... fresh blood smell....

As we walked through the city under their guidance.

A few [Vampire Ghoul] saw the unit members and came over, drooling.

“......Ugh.”

At that sound, I felt the unit members behind us flinch.

‘Damn.’

With half vampire blood running through me, I didn’t have much trouble seeing even in the dark.

But the unit members were ordinary humans, aside from a few with special traits.

In this darkness, not being able to see properly and only following my presence was already their limit.

“...Sister!”

“You monster bastard....”

With a few monsters closing in on them, the unit members startled and tried to grab their weapons, but...

“You bastards...!”

Maybe it was lucky.

They didn’t get the chance to swing them.

“Get lost, you filthy bastards!”

-You are... Viper Faction....

-Cowardly... trying to hog the fresh blood....

“What? You bastards are really asking for it—!”

Those red-eyed humans who’d tried to attack us first.

They shoved back the ghouls coming in as they swung their weapons.

“These humans don’t belong to any of us!”

-Then... whose are they...?

“Whose are these humans? That’s an obvious question...!”

At first, I thought they were about to say people don’t belong to anyone, or that they belonged to them, something like that.

But.

“They belong to this noble here, and that knight!”

‘.......’

Looks like that wasn’t what they meant at all.