-Information about living humans...?

“Yeah.”

-Why would you...? Ah!

At my question about whether it knew anything about living humans, it first made a puzzled face, then—

-Ah... I see.

“...Huh?”

-I think I understand what you want, sir Knight.

Like it had realized something, it said that, then—

-Ahem. This is a secret I haven’t told anyone else, but...

“...?”

-Sir Knight, this way for a moment...

And then, it started leading me somewhere.

‘What is this?’

What I wanted was something like: there are living humans in some city, or it had seen them at some point. Just that kind of answer.

And now it was suddenly taking me somewhere.

‘...Wait. Don’t tell me.’

Maybe this was—

‘Are there living humans nearby?’

With that thought, with a little hope in me, I followed behind it.

...But.

-Heh heh. Do you see, sir Knight!

What was there wasn’t a human.

No—more precisely, it was human, but...

“A corpse.”

-Yes!

A human that wasn’t alive.

In other words, a corpse.

-I-it’s just... I saved it for a day when a noble might come to this land.

What was odd was that it was frozen solid.

-Even if it isn’t alive!

Hoo.

When it blew its breath onto the corpse—

Ssssh...

White frost rose across the body.

-I froze it myself with this breath.

“...”

I looked at it.

A monster with snow-white fur.

I couldn’t recognize it now because its species had changed into a [Ghoul], but originally, it was a monster that handled cold.

-In other words...

It grinned, then spoke proudly toward me.

-Compared to something from a completely living human, it might be a bit lacking, but you’ll still be able to get fairly fresh blood—what I mean is!

At that, I couldn’t help letting out a sigh inside.

‘When I asked where living humans are... it took that as me wanting to get fresh human blood.’

I understood that it was trying to follow my orders.

And the fact it had turned a human into this, too—

“...Why did you keep it stored like this in the first place?”

-H-heh heh... It’s like an instinct from when I was an inferior species. If I got lucky and found weak prey, I tended to freeze it and store it.

In the end, this thing was still a monster that had to eat something.

You could say it was the result of an instinct for survival, so it wasn’t really something I could blame it for.

-I was going to eat it when food ran short, but as you know, after that the nobles came to this land... and evolved me into a ghoul.

“...”

-And after I escaped being an inferior species, like I said, I thought I might be able to present it to the nobles, so I saved it like this. I thought over and over that I wanted to thaw that blood and drink it, but...! For a day like this, I endured and endured!

It spread its arms, chattering as if proud.

Even so, the outcome was still disappointing to me.

I sighed inwardly and opened my mouth.

“It’s impressive, but this isn’t what I want.”

-Yes?

“Don’t twist my question. Take it as it is. Do you know anything about living humans? I mean, not dead. Really alive.”

-Living humans...?

At that, it tilted its head.

-I don’t know why you’re looking for that... but don’t you know as well, sir Knight?

“Know what?”

-That all the life in this whole region has already... been turned into ghouls by the nobles.

...Ah. Is that so.

I’d expected it to a degree, but—

-I’ve gone around this region collecting a lot of information, but I’ve never seen living humans, let alone anything that isn’t a ghoul.

Hearing it directly from something that lived here made my head start to ache.

-Maybe it’s possible. Somewhere far away, there might be living humans. But at least, not in this region.

“...I see. Is there any other monster that might know this information?”

-Among the ones I know, there’s nobody around here who knows this area better than I do. Rather...

It stared at me with a suspicious look and said—

-If there’s anyone who would know that, wouldn’t the nobles know?

“...”

-Unlike a trivial beast like me that can’t leave this region, the nobles would’ve been to other lands a lot, too.

A slight question took root in its eyes.

-If you’re the knight serving such a noble, it would be normal for you to know far more than I do...

“...”

-Why are you asking that...?

And at what it said—

“...Hmph.”

Without replying, I walked forward, then looked at the frozen human corpse and said,

“For now, I’ll take this corpse.”

-Ah...!

Then, maybe because of the ghoul blood swirling inside it—

-Of course. If what I offer can help the noble, it’s a great honor.

It nodded with a happy face.

And as if it wasn’t finished—

-B-but, sir Knight.

“Hm?”

-Th-that... I’d like you to tell the lord as well that I’m the one who offered this fresh blood...

“Ah.”

At first it felt odd, but even if the ghoul blood inside them created loyalty toward nobles, it didn’t seem to turn them into blind beings that only thought about loyalty.

-I’m not very strong, but I know well where these valuable things are...!

“Do you.”

-Yes! If you make good use of me, I’ll definitely be a huge help to the lord, too!

Wanting to live.

Wanting to succeed.

Those kinds of desires existed in them as well.

These ghouls, not under a ‘blood lord,’ had the same weaknesses as nobles and only a slight instinct to submit to nobles.

Fundamentally, they weren’t much different from before they became ghouls.

‘Except that they’ve become slaves... they’re no different from ordinary living things.’

And right now, the one handling them as slaves was me.

That fact sat strangely in my chest.

“I’m sorry, but.”

And unfortunately for it—

“That’s going to be difficult.”

-What? Why...?

“Because.”

[Forced Feeding]

[Hero-grade Chef’s Deeply Confusing Combat Rations]

“If you remember what happened here, it’ll be a problem.”

I didn’t think I could satisfy that desire.

***

-...Huh? What is this place...? This is my food storage. When did I come here...?

After it ate my cooking, it blankly stared for a moment, then opened its eyes.

-Something... I feel like I met a knight here...

-Huh? Wait. What the hell! The fresh human I kept stored—

-Who stole it, damn it!!!

It didn’t seem to remember our conversation here.

It looked wronged as it stared at the missing human corpse.

“Sorry about that.”

And I watched it from far away and thought,

‘Ariella was right.’

I didn’t particularly have any ill will toward it.

Normally, I would’ve collected the corpse and parted ways with it without anything else.

But—

‘It suspected me.’

They had the idea that they had to submit to nobles, but if the target wasn’t the one who turned them into ghouls, that submission didn’t have coercive force.

That was why Ariella tried to boast authority by using me as a knight so she wouldn’t be looked down on.

And now, from the question I’d asked, it even started to harbor suspicion that Ariella might not be a proper noble.

‘That suspicion can’t spread to other ghouls.’

I felt bad for it, but I couldn’t let it carry that suspicion away.

If I had to call it fortunate—

The gap in level between it and me was big.

The emotion of ‘confusion’ inside the cooking I made at full strength was keeping it from properly remembering the conversation it had with me, or what happened here at all.

‘Handling ghouls... might be harder than I thought.’

It wasn’t something I liked, but Ariella’s choice—to use me as a knight—had been the right one.

Whoosh.

I set fire to the human corpse it had frozen, then clasped my hands together in front of it.

I don’t even know proper funeral etiquette.

Still, cremating it properly had to be better than leaving it frozen solid like that.

And with my hands clasped like that, watching the burning flames, I muttered in a small voice.

“Wouldn’t the nobles know that well...”

It was true.

The ones who would know information about living humans in this land weren’t those ghouls abandoned by nobles.

I didn’t know how far they’d spread their influence, but the nobles who had turned all life in this vast land into ghouls and left—those bastards would know.

But.

“Asking those nobles... would be hard.”

Ariella said they were hostile bloodlines.

And just from the fact they’d exterminated all life in this city, the nobles’ forces lurking in this land would be considerable.

Ariella also said that if other nobles had grown without any restrictions, there was a high chance they controlled a stronger army than hers.

Even at the minimum estimate, it would take the entire Legion coming over to even be a match.

‘Even if there are living people somewhere... with our current strength, it’ll be hard to help.’

I turned and headed up toward the city.

Yeah.

With only the power I have right now, I should assume there’s no way to help this country’s humans immediately.

But.

‘Not later.’

At least I’d found out what kind of enemies were lurking in this land.

That meant I could prepare countermeasures.

After returning to the Republic of Korea as quickly as possible—

After finishing Korea’s Conquest War, crossing North Korea, and coming to this land...

Maybe then it would be something I could do to help living humans.

‘All I can do is hope the humans who are alive somewhere will hold on until then.’

With that thought, I returned to the city.

To push the time of returning to the Republic of Korea forward as much as possible by giving orders to those ghouls.

***

Fortunately, after that, the work of gathering mana went faster than I expected.

{Y-you can’t take this item. It’s the inner core my mother carried...!}

To be honest, it wasn’t that there were no problems in the process.

“...Ah, really?”

For example, ghouls like this—ones that treasured an item with mana in it too much and refused to hand it over even under a noble’s command.

“So it’s that precious, huh...?”

{Grrk...?}

Most of the time, with ones that stubbornly refused over some trivial reason, we’d use a bit of force and confiscate it.

But no matter what, I’m human.

“Yeah. Your mother’s keepsake.”

That monster’s species formed a mana stone inside their body over the course of their life, then passed that mana stone down to their child when they died.

It was practically the same as the parent’s other self.

“Hmm...”

Telling it to give up something like that—

My heart wavered a bit.

{S-sir Knight?}

“...”

{W-why are you looking at me like that...?}

After studying its face for a moment, I sighed inwardly and said,

“If it’s that precious, you don’t have to hand it over.”

{...Ah, th-thank you—}

“Thank me for what. I can’t forcibly take something that precious. That said.”

It was a shame, but I couldn’t take an item with a story like that.

“Your mother’s keepsake is that important to you.”

{Y-yes...}

“In other words, you’re a species that has the concept of family.”

There were plenty of monsters that didn’t even have that concept, so I asked with a bit of curiosity.

“Then. Do you have children?”

{...I do, but... why...?}

“Because family matters to me too.”

I’d been curious already—about concepts like monsters’ attachment to family, like that ‘packmother’ I met before.

“How precious family is to you, when you treasure your mother’s keepsake that much...”

{...}

“I’m starting to want to find out.”

At that, its face went pale.

{I’ll hand it over...!}

“Huh?”

{I’ll gladly offer «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» my mother’s keepsake!}

It shoved out the mana stone it had just called its mother’s other self.

“You said it was precious. You can keep it.”

{No! Now that I think about it, I was foolish! Even if it’s my mother, it’s a corpse that’s been dead a long time! Something that came from a corpse isn’t important at all!}

“...Is that so?”

{Yes! I’ll offer you as many of these mana stones as you want! So, so... please... just my family...!}

With that, it dropped the mana stone in front of me and hurriedly backed away.

“What the hell. I was trying to let you off.”

{...I didn’t realize it, but the Legion Commander has a pretty ruthless side.}

“Huh?”

Anyway, like this—

{I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to deceive you...!}

{Grrk... please, don’t look at me like that...!}

Whether that was fortunate or not, I must have looked pretty terrifying as I let out the mana of a vampire.

‘There was a time I thought this was really going to be a disaster.’

As I stepped in and pushed the ghouls, gathering mana like this, it looked like we’d reach our target faster than expected.

Unless something major happened, within a few days we’d succeed in gathering all the mana we needed and return to the Republic of Korea.

Yeah. As long as nothing major happened...

That’s what I mean.

***

And while Private First Class Shin Youngjun was fully absorbed in collecting mana—

-There!

From the outskirts of the city, a group was approaching toward the inside.

A grand procession.

The total number of those in the procession was close to a thousand.

And among them, the number of monsters that seemed to be acting as guards—monsters holding huge, intense power—was in the hundreds.

The ghouls that had lost the power struggle inside the city and been driven to the outskirts had to flee far away, frightened by that grand procession.

Kooong...

And in the middle of that grand procession, there was an enormous palanquin.

So huge and heavy that dozens of burly monsters had to carry it on their shoulders.

A palanquin decorated so lavishly it didn’t even fit this dark world.

“Hm. So...”

And seated atop that palanquin, a man with a classical, refined face and a bored expression—

“That place.”

He muttered as he looked at the city with a gaze that held a bit of interest.

“Is land that will become my domain.”