A city in Qingdao.

Gwangil had been one of the thugs active in that city.

The so-called Viper Faction....

It sounded pretty impressive when put that way, but—

In truth, it was a small outfit that only did subcontract work for a big violence organization.

Still, a thug was a thug. In this area, Gwangil had been able to throw its weight around.

...Of course.

That was only up to the time before the ruin.

“Ah, ahh....”

After the ruin arrived.

It and the Viper Faction members survived, somehow.

...If it meant they could survive, they didn’t hesitate to do any evil thing.

Attacking other humans.

Even betraying their own comrades.

A type closer to trash than human, even in its own eyes.

So when it became a ghoul, it honestly thought it had been punished by heaven.

But....

“T-this....”

Even trash like that.

“I... I don’t want to die like this...!”

The desire to live still remained.

Swoosh!

A gigantic blade that declared the end of that desire came surging toward it.

Huge monsters with formidable power, having received a share of a noble’s blood.

Under the weapons swung by the ‘knights,’ the ghouls were being swept away indiscriminately.

Even Gwangil, who had been a fairly strong awakened back when it was alive, wouldn’t be able to properly resist their attacks.

‘Ah.’

At that attack, thinking its wretched life was about to end, it squeezed its eyes shut.

But then....

Kang!

“...?”

Unexpectedly, its awareness didn’t end there.

“Kni....”

It cracked its eyes open and looked ahead.

What was there was....

“Sir Knight....”

The being that ruled the ghouls of this city through fear.

The one that ruled them... the red-eyed knight.

***

{My children are still young... they’re in that nest.}

“.......”

{It’s impossible to run while taking all of them. So... please....}

When I heard that, I thought to myself.

‘I have to ignore it.’

If they found out about me and Ariella here, it was obvious we’d be in tremendous danger.

To begin with, these ghouls were beings created by someone else, not Ariella’s followers.

I had only planned to use them for a while.

There was no reason anywhere for me to grant their request.

No matter how I thought about it, the right choice was to abandon them and run.

But.

-The lord... where is the lord...!

-S-save me...!

“.......”

[Mental Language] was a language that communicated not with a voice, but with the mind.

By its nature, even voices echoing from far away reached me.

-The lord, Sir Knight...!

“.......”

The ghouls of this land were only beings I meant to use for a while.

Coldly speaking, they had nothing to do with me.

But.

-The lord is the one who leads us....

“.......”

-You are that person’s knight, aren’t you...?

Whether I meant to use them or not, they regarded me and Ariella as their master.

...Even if they were ones who’d been granted a life as slaves, they were serving me.

And now—

[Divine power perceives the surrounding wind.]

They were hoping their master would save them.

“Ah.”

And.

...If that was the case—

“This can’t be happening, damn it.”

[Divine power responds to the surrounding wind!]

I had to answer that expectation.

Before the thought even properly formed, my body started moving first.

***

Kang!

“...Ho?”

A one-sided massacre... no, education.

The noble who had been watching that scene with an indifferent face, a light of interest flickered in Rashir’s eyes.

“...This is a noble’s territory.”

On that battlefield that had looked nothing but boring—

“If you withdraw even now, I’ll spare your life.”

A fascinating presence had barged in.

“...S-sir Knight?”

“Go.”

The one who had severed the hand of a knight that had been cutting down ghouls spoke indifferently to the ghoul behind.

“Tha... thank you...!”

At those words, the ghoul fled the battlefield in haste, tears spilling down its face.

And.

The noble watching from afar—

interest settled into Rashir’s gaze.

‘What is that?’

It had no interest in some ghoul running away back there.

But the man in front of it was different.

Black hair with a brown tint.

A man with red eyes.

A sharp impression that carried a strangely dangerous feel.

But what caught its interest wasn’t the appearance.

‘It has a ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ strange scent.’

It carried the scent of a noble, yet mixed with something oddly alien.

Not quite a noble, not quite a knight....

An existence whose nature was hard to gauge.

“...Withdraw?”

It stood calmly before an army made up of countless knights and ghouls.

And.

“It seems you don’t even know who you’re supposed to serve....”

The knights that followed the noble.

They

had no intention of letting someone who blocked their master’s path go.

“I’ll educate you.”

Monsters that must have possessed powerful strength to begin with.

When they were reborn after receiving a noble’s blood, they gained even greater power—those were ‘knights.’

And now the weapons of those knights came surging toward the enemy before them.

Not one, but several knights swinging at once.

No one who saw it doubted the man’s death.

But then—

Slice—

What appeared after that was something completely outside their expectations.

“...Huh?”

The knight that struck first—

the hand holding the sword... was flying through the air.

***

According to Luca, up until recently, my physical condition had been close to the worst.

Even with the overwhelming stats of an awakened in the forties, my condition had been so terrible that I hadn’t been able to use them properly.

But.

‘Not now.’

After all of Luca’s treatment ended, my body finally returned to normal....

No, maybe to even better condition than before.

It still wasn’t perfect since [vital energy] hadn’t been filled, but it had improved to the point that it couldn’t even be compared to how it was before.

‘...Combat isn’t my major, but.’

My job was combat chef.

In other words, a cook... and at the same time, a soldier.

‘Call it a minor.’

Even compared to Howard, another cook, my abilities leaned more toward combat.

The trait I got from Howard, the buff from [Ingredient Management], included me as a target as well.

Since my vital energy still hadn’t recovered, I couldn’t apply multiple dishes while keeping the side effects in mind.

But eating one dish made with everything I had wouldn’t cause any major problem to my body.

And that dish was....

‘A dish with a hero-grade chef’s full strength in it.’

An effect that didn’t fall far behind even compared to three dishes made by me back when I was in the thirties.

And.

I’d already realized how strong that effect was just now, when I deflected the monster’s weapon.

Even if combat wasn’t my main specialty, you know how it is in games.

No matter how weak a mage is in close combat....

Once it’s something like a level 100 mage, it can beat a level 50 warrior even with melee attacks.

That kind of thing.

Slice—

“...!”

It was just that the first fight right after treatment had been against such a crazy monster.

A level in the forties was overwhelming, and its stats were outright beyond the standard.

“Brothers, be careful! This one is....”

Now that I could properly use those stats—

“It’s strong!”

Maybe I was, in fact, pretty strong.

***

“Kuuuaaagh!!!”

Several knights and dozens of ghouls charged at once.

“How dare you cut a brother’s arm...!”

After seeing the first attacking knight’s arm get cut, Rashir’s knights realized the enemy wasn’t an ordinary ghoul.

The knight holding a hammer tightened its grip.

And.

Kkwaaaah...!

Those muscles swelled up to the point it looked like they might burst through the armor.

The Melchiorn Bloodline were ones who inherited that ‘strength’ from their progenitor.

Those who carried even a fragment of that blood displayed power beyond imagination.

Bam!

A hammer swung at a speed that made no sense considering its weight.

A powerful blow that could shatter even most large monsters in one strike, but—

Watching it, swish.

the man stretched out a hand indifferently, and murmured in a low voice.

‘Elemental Cooking.’

And.

That was enough.

Squish...!

The hammer that should have brutally crushed the man’s hand didn’t crush the enemy at all.

Instead, the part that touched the man’s hand was disappearing as it was.

“...What!?”

And only one—

the knight that swung that hammer could see it.

‘My weapon... melted like water...?’

But unfortunately, that thought couldn’t continue for long.

Bam!

The hammer split in half by the man’s hand flew off with that same momentum.

The knight that had swung with tremendous force pitched forward from the recoil,

...and the man didn’t miss that opening.

Swoosh.

It slipped into the huge knight’s arms, then the man drove the dagger in its hand into the knight’s waist.

But.

The other knights who saw it thought,

‘It missed the heart!’

Knights, having received a share of a noble’s power, boasted transcendent vitality.

Unless they were exposed to sunlight, killing them was extremely difficult unless it was a fatal wound—ripping out the heart, extracting the brain, and the like.

Besides, the dagger the man stabbed with looked very small.

Considering the knight was a huge monster over three meters tall, a wound like that was nothing at all—

“Ku....”

—or so everyone watching thought.

“Hk....”

“...Brother!?”

Kuuuuung!

That huge knight’s body collapsed limply to the ground.

Only then did the other knights see it.

A small wound in the knight’s waist.

The wound wasn’t that big, but—

Pshaaak!!!

From that small hole, an absurd amount of blood sprayed out, and the knight wasn’t dead, but was groaning in pain.

Considering vampires’ vitality, it didn’t make sense.

Yes—unless

[Chef’s Eye]

that spot was a fatal weakness it had possessed even before becoming a vampire.

“How dare you...!”

The other knights, enraged by the sight, surged up with killing intent.

In those bodies was the tremendous strength granted to the Melchiorn Bloodline.

And that wasn’t all.

Flap....

Behind them, wings made of a black membrane took shape.

Just as the Karshtein Bloodline specialized in shadow yet could also wield the power of mist, the Melchiorn Bloodline specialized in strength, and at the same time, could wield the power of a beast as well.

“Krrrraaagh!!!”

The knights rose into the sky with those huge wings.

Using that monstrous strength, they beat their wings and dove toward the ground at incredible speed.

An attack from above.

Power, speed, even the angle the blow came in at—

it was an attack with not a single easy point, but....

Slice—

it didn’t mean much.

“Krrrraaagh!?”

The man swung the dagger in one hand, and smoothly cut through the neck of the knight rushing in.

The armored neck was severed like soft jelly.

Kang!

Then the man reached out with the other hand and lightly tapped the weapon of the knight charging from another direction.

An attack that had been coming with tremendous momentum.

Normally, lightly knocking at that weapon shouldn’t mean anything, but—

Wobble....

“!?”

What kind of principle was hidden in that light tap?

Even though it was little force, the knight’s attack angle warped dramatically.

And.

Crunch!

Using that momentum, the man brought the dagger to the area near the knight’s heart.

A knight that died on the spot, its heart pierced by its own charging force.

“.......”

“.......”

Everyone who witnessed that unreal scene froze in place, staring blankly at the man.

‘What even are those movements...?’

The strength and speed the man showed were certainly impressive, but it wasn’t stronger than the knights who carried the Melchiorn Bloodline’s blood.

To begin with, what he’d just shown wasn’t something you could do just because you were a little stronger.

‘Movements closer to skill....’

[Martial Art - Eat]

[Lv. 6]

Movements close to skill.

For them, who had only gone from monsters to knights, they couldn’t even properly fathom a fraction of the depth contained in those movements.

“You’re strong and you have wings... but you can’t mistform, and you can’t hide in shadows.”

“.......”

“Each blow’s power is definitely threatening... but that also makes it simple.”

And.

The one who had produced that unbelievable scene muttered calmly.

“This side’s easier to deal with.”