“We have to leave this land......”

At that, I frowned slightly and said,

“We still don’t have a complete grasp of what’s happening in this country. Since it’s dangerous, sure, it’s good to set things up so we can return quickly, but you have another reason too, don’t you?”

At least, that city didn’t seem to have a single living human.

But there were so many monsters near the city in the first place that humans rarely used places like that as a base.

There was a chance survivors had formed a faction somewhere out in the suburbs.

Especially since this country was vast, with a population that used to be enormous.

There had to be cities among them at elevations so high zombies couldn’t even appear.

Somewhere, there were definitely survivors.

And if the situation in this country was so bad they couldn’t hold on any longer—

The size of the transfer gate that was open there was considerable. We might even be able to bring them back to Korea as evacuees.

But to give that up and insist we needed to return as fast as possible...

I couldn’t help finding it strange.

“Master. Do you remember my name?”

“Of course. Ariella.”

“Not that. My full name.”

Full name, huh.

“Ariella... what was it, something-stein? Wasn’t it?”

“......The Karshtein Bloodline.”

“Right, that.”

Even though I’d said it half-jokingly, Ariella seemed seriously anxious.

Biting at her nails, she spoke.

“I was a viscount-in-training of the Karshtein Bloodline. And in the world of us nobles, there are other enormous houses besides the Karshtein Bloodline.”

“...Houses?”

“Karshtein, Harcon, Neferat, Melchiorn....... The four greatest houses that descend directly from the blood of our great progenitor.”

At that, someone reacted out of nowhere.

{Four houses, huh. Hm. So that’s what it was.}

Luca nodded as if it had just understood something.

I looked at it and asked,

“You know something?”

{Didn’t I tell you when I examined the Legion Commander’s body last time? That the blood flowing inside the Legion Commander contains... blood, shadow, beast, monstrous strength, mist, and other powers.}

Now that it mentioned it, I felt like it had said something like that.

Back then, there were unit members behind us who didn’t know vampires existed, so I’d brushed it off and moved on.

{I found it odd, too. The potential I sense in the Legion Commander’s blood is that diverse, and yet... only two of those stood out strongly in those guardians’ blood: blood and shadow.}

“...Is that so?”

{It seemed like the others could be handled too, but only faintly. Mist was the only one that was even somewhat possible, and the factors tied to monstrous strength and beasts didn’t seem to manifest at all. Now that I think about it... that’s because—}

At Luca’s words, Ariella nodded and said,

“You noticed, somehow. Exactly.”

“Exactly what?”

“Our great progenitor perfectly handled every power that little one listed... but unfortunately. The descendants didn’t inherit that great power in full.”

Ariella shrugged.

“The only power the four bloodlines truly share is one thing: blood. The other parts can be handled to some extent, but only weakly... and most are specialized in just one field.”

“For example?”

“In my case... for the Karshtein Bloodline, it’s shadow.”

Shadow.

That brought something to mind.

“You mean [Shadow Veil].”

“Yes. Right now, well... it’s being used like Master’s portable refrigerator, but... that veil is originally a space granted only to nobles of our bloodline. You could call it a fragment—just a glimpse—of our great progenitor’s power.”

Thinking back, of every monster I’d ever met, not one had possessed a subspace like that.

Even monsters with overwhelming power, instead of creating a subspace, had only gone as far as changing this world’s environment by forming dungeons.

And even Luca, which had been that powerful, hid its body in the underground of Gangnam—not in a subspace.

That subspace had been large enough that even back when Ariella was a viscount-in-training, a Lv. Max Bimana could take root inside it. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

That sea of blood I’d seen when I was expelled from that space......

The sight had been utterly overwhelming.

‘An absurd authority.’

Her mistform and martial force were impressive too.

But not on the level of Shadow Veil.

“I’ve been growing separately, away from my bloodline, so that’s why, but if I’d grown among the elders of the other bloodlines, I could’ve learned more abilities than I have now.”

Meaning: because she was specialized in shadow, she could do this.

“Beyond that, the Harcon Bloodline handles the power of beasts, and the Neferat Bloodline handles mist. And.......”

“And?”

“The Melchiorn Bloodline is born with monstrous strength. Among all bloodlines...... the strongest [power].”

Ariella didn’t look good as she said it.

And only after seeing that expression did I realize.

“Just in case... are the bloodlines not on good terms with each other?”

“Not bad enough to call it bad...... would be more accurate.”

“......”

“In public, there’s a certain level of respect. But in private, there are plenty of times they wage war.”

Seems night nobles weren’t close just because they were the same kind.

If you thought about it, humans were the same way, so it couldn’t be helped.

‘Still, isn’t Ariella pretty strong at this point?’

Her position was count.

Even taking into account that she was translating it into something I could understand,

It was clearly a fairly high rank among nobles.

But.

“Come to think of it, that name we heard earlier... do you know that Duke Valarak guy?”

“...Of course I do.”

Ariella, head lowered, let out a deep sigh as she spoke.

“Valarak... to be precise, Grand Duke Valarak Melchiorn Zakardios.”

“...Huh?”

“One of only four nobles who hold the title of grand duke, and.......”

Grand duke meant—

In other words.

“The head of Melchiorn... the leader of the bloodline.”

***

The leader of the Melchiorn Bloodline.

At that, I recalled the time I’d read Ariella’s information.

‘This one definitely said some grand duke named Isabella made it a noble.’

Isabella’s title was grand duke.

And I remembered that one being the leader of the Karshtein Bloodline.

And.

That Valarak was also called a grand duke.

Meaning—

“The bloodline heads are monsters on a different level.”

On the same tier as the one that had made Ariella a noble.

A being at the very top even among nobles.

“...How strong are we talking?”

“If it’s the power I’ve seen the heads possess... even that other body of that little one from not long ago... it wouldn’t compare.”

At that, even I couldn’t help going pale.

‘...That much?’

Luca’s other body—no matter how much of everything I had I poured into it, the best I could do was grab its ankle.

And even that didn’t last long.

‘I even thought that maybe you’d need to be a monster like that for mana to look indigo...’

It was the kind of thing that made you suspect it might be an indigo-grade monster.

But then—

‘Stronger than that?’

And on top of that, the power of night nobles focused less on individual strength and more on growing their forces.

“If the head is here, there will be many other nobles of that house as well.”

“......”

And unlike Ariella, whose expansion had been constrained because of me, they would’ve been able to grow their power with no constraints at all.

The proof was right there.

‘Those ghouls.’

Those were creatures you started making only once “vampire knights” were overflowing—

And this city was packed with them.

“Those ghouls were left unattended without even proper instruction. That only means one thing.”

“What?”

“They aren’t even useful enough as soldiers to be worth the trouble of teaching.”

Ghouls looked like moderately strong monsters.

Even if they couldn’t use other noble authorities, their raw strength was still usable.

“The nobles of this land already...... have forces strong enough that they don’t need to bother using ghouls like those as troops.”

“......”

“I don’t think I’m lacking in forces as a noble either, but I lost quite a few troops in the recent battle. So maybe.......”

“You’re saying nobles with forces stronger than yours might show up.”

“With a pretty high probability.”

After she got that far, she sighed, then looked behind me as she said,

“If it were just me and Master, it might not matter. Since we’re still the same kind, we could’ve ended it without killing, but.......”

Where her gaze went—

The people behind me......

“That won’t be the case for us.”

Jeong Sua, standing among the unit members, nodded calmly as she spoke.

“...To be honest, I already felt it when those monsters approached.”

“The way they treated the Legion Commander and that queen... and the way they treated us were very different.”

I recalled what I’d seen inside the city.

Countless monsters roaming around “ghoulified.”

And the ghouls, which were basically nothing but weaknesses inherited without any proper power—

Ariella said their appetite itself was the same as other vampires’.

Meaning—

‘There’s a high chance the unit members look like walking lunchboxes to them.’

Unless those other bloodlines were on friendly terms with us, by Ariella’s account, there was a high chance they’d be hostile even toward Ariella.

Only if things went extremely well would it end at “same kind, so we’ll let you live.”

“I can control those ghouls to some extent, but not the other nobles.”

Even if Ariella tried to shield the unit members, you had to assume hostile bloodlines wouldn’t recognize Ariella’s “ownership” of someone else’s lunchboxes.

‘We don’t even know how much of China those vampires have taken over.’

It would be fortunate if they only controlled this area.

But it was possible they controlled most of China.

In other words—

“We need to get out of this country as quickly as possible.”

Ariella said it with a serious expression.

“Yeah. I get the situation.”

Right.

I could tell it was worse than I’d expected.

And that considering the unit members’ lives, we needed to leave as soon as possible.

‘I wanted to understand China’s situation as much as I could, but......’

That was only something you could do when my life and my unit members’ lives were safe.

If things were this extreme, throwing out other goals and running was the right choice.

But.

There was a problem.

“...We’re not in a situation where we can escape in the first place.”

In the end, unless we tried to break through that heat veil with our bare bodies and swim through the sea, the only way back to Korea was to reactivate that transfer gate.

And gathering the mana for that wasn’t easy.

‘If we just had time, we could do it eventually, but there’s no guarantee we won’t run into other nobles during that long stretch.’

Meaning—

To escape this land as quickly as possible, we needed to gather mana as quickly as possible, and......

“......Master?”

The problem was, there wasn’t any good way to do that......

Or so I was thinking, when—

“Hm?”

“Actually......”

Ariella, watching my face, opened her mouth carefully.

“It’s not that there’s no way.”

“What?”

“Instead.”

And then, at what she said next—

“To use this method, Master will have to cooperate actively as well.”

I couldn’t help being seized by a strange sense of dread.

***

Qingdao, China.

A city somewhere within it.

A few months ago, this city was attacked by those who called themselves a bloodline.

Because of that attack, not only did the humans who’d still been alive and hiding, but even the monsters that had occupied most of the city, ended up having their blood sucked dry by those who called themselves a bloodline.

After turning all life in this city into “ghouls,”

They vanished from this land.

All that remained was

Tens, hundreds of thousands of ghouls.

A ghoul was, by nature, a being far removed from what you’d call alive.

For a long time, in a city filled with only them, there had been no such thing as vitality, but—

{Gather mana!}

Now, change was coming to that city.

{To rule our land, a great noble has personally arrived!}

In the ghouls’ blood was an instinct branded into them as slaves.

They had always yearned for someone who could rule them.

And now—

{A member of the great bloodline...!}

The monsters’ gaze lifted to the sky.

The tallest building in the city.

There, sitting languidly and looking down at the ground below, was a woman.

{Countess is guiding us!!!}

Even without receiving special training, the blood inside their bodies was telling them

They had to follow ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) that noble.

And.

Beside that noble stood a man.

Gulp......

When they looked at the noble, the ghouls had been full of reverence.

But now fear entered their eyes.

‘That is a noble’s knight......!’

A man with red eyes.

If nobles were leaders who guided them, then a knight was a reaper that came to cut their throats

When ghouls fell short of a noble’s expectations.

Just meeting that gaze was enough for ghouls to feel as if their souls were being sharply sliced—an icy sensation.

The moment they disobeyed the lord’s command......

Because they knew that knight, watching them like prey, would come to cut their throats.

{F-follow the lord’s command!}

{Mana—gather as much mana as possible!}

Frightened by the knight’s gaze, the ghouls scattered in all directions to carry out the lord’s command.

“......”

And watching that—

‘...Ah.’

The one responsible for making countless ghouls tremble in fear—

The dread knight guarding the noble’s side—

‘...How did it come to this.’

Let out a deep sigh, silently, to himself.