KOO-UNG......

A ghoul that had been hoisted into the sky, lashed up in a rope made from the Progenitor’s blood.

One of them came down to the ground.

It was a ghoul shaped like a gigantic turtle.

On its back, something glittered like a polished stone was stuck there.

A mana stone.

That species was born with a mana stone embedded in its body.

And as time passed, the mana contained inside it grew stronger.

The mana inside it could even symbolize its life.

Which was why—

that species treasured a family member’s mana stone like something precious.

‘That thing... from back then...’

Yeah.

The same monster that had refused to hand over its mana stone, saying it was a family keepsake, some kind of relic.

The same one that had cried and begged me to save it when those knights’ massacre started.

PAAAANG.......

-For our master......!

Into the mana stone on its back—

an enormous amount of light gathered.

KWAAAAAAAANG!!!

-For Sir Ariella and that knight!

From there, mana with an overwhelming mass clumped together—

and it unleashed a gigantic pillar of light.

KWAGAGAGAK......!

Even as it was pushed back by the insane firepower, it braced itself on four thick legs like a turtle.

And then—

the knights of Rashir who’d been in front of it......

Thud......

Everything above their shins vanished without even a shape left behind.

Only the legs that remained toppled uselessly onto the ground.

‘What the hell...!’

Firepower so extreme I couldn’t stop being horrified.

And.

That wasn’t all.

There was another monster—one that had said it was weak, so its specialty was watching its surroundings.

A ghoul shaped like a weasel that had been freezing a human corpse.

Shooshk......

Even though it had only just become one of Ariella’s knights, it moved along the shadows smoothly, as if it had been able to use vampire abilities from the very beginning.

-Huuuk......!

It popped out behind a knight.

And it breathed a small sigh onto the thing’s back.

And.

That was enough.

KWAKWAK......!

An extreme chill that began from that sigh froze the giant knight’s body.

The knights would explode if they took wounds severe enough to kill them—

but that knight’s very blood froze solid.

It couldn’t even explode.

KWAJIK.......

With a single light shove of the ghoul’s hand, it shattered into pieces.

And.

‘What in the world is that...?’

Watching it—

I could only gape, stunned.

***

Beyond those two monsters, all over the battlefield, I could see monsters that had been this city’s ghouls sweeping through the fight.

If you looked at average combat power, the rampaging knights were probably still ahead.

Those knights, strengthened to more than twice their original power by their rampage, were undeniably monstrous.

There were ghouls who could fight them one-on-one—

but they were extremely few.

But.

‘We’ve got the numbers by a landslide.’

The ghouls that had filled this city.

Every last one of them had been made into knights, with divine power even resorting to dirty tricks.

The numerical advantage had been flipped a long time ago.

-Brothers, join us!

-Grrrk......!

The ones who’d become knights from ghouls were dogpiling in groups to take down a single knight.

We weren’t taking light losses either, but—

which side held the advantage on this battlefield......

looked painfully obvious.

“You... didn’t you say ghouls were weak monsters from the start?”

“......”

“You said spending precious mana to make them into knights would be a waste...”

It wasn’t the first time what Ariella said about nobles hadn’t been wrong...

But still.

This gap was way too big.

{...I thought it was strange, and sure enough.}

Just then—

a voice of ‘mental language’ echoed down from the sky.

“Luca?”

{By the baron’s words, ghouls were weaklings who didn’t have the ability to become knights in the first place...}

The doctor who had joined us not long ago.

Luca, still bound in blood, looked down at the ground as it spoke.

{To be honest, I had my doubts.}

“What do you mean.”

{I ended up doing a lot of research on evolution. It’s something I regret now, but... anyway, I’m fairly confident when it comes to monsters’ structures. I know what kind of body makes a monster strong in what way. And yet...}

As if its doubts hadn’t been wrong, it nodded along with a hmm-hmm.

{The ghouls in this city looked like pretty strong lifeforms.}

“What?”

{Of course, there probably aren’t that many that stand out as exceptional... but even so, most of them weren’t so weak that comparing them to that baron’s knights would be ridiculous.}

At that—

I couldn’t help but flinch.

‘[Combat Power Meter] is the ability to measure mana and judge how strong an enemy is.’

And.

Most of the ones who’d had their blood sucked by nobles and become ghouls didn’t have much mana.

Aside from a handful that had bodily organs capable of producing a lot of mana from the start, they just looked ordinary.

Ariella had said ghouls were the ones tossed aside because they were weak.

So I’d heard that and just accepted it.

But.

‘That’s only talking about mana...’

Unlike me, who judged combat power through an enemy’s mana, Luca had judged the ghouls’ strength by looking at their body structure.

And.

As they became ‘knights,’ the lacking mana got filled—

{Looks like my eyes weren’t wrong.}

Meaning—

they could now display their natural strength... or even more than that.

But...

‘How?’

Ariella’s explanation was that all strong monsters were made into knights, and everything else was left behind as ghouls.

So why were those things that strong?

No—

there was no need to force myself to understand it.

What mattered right now was this:

‘They only got weakened because they became ghouls... and because they were ghouls made into slaves, they couldn’t properly fight knights.’

Their original strength—

wasn’t that far behind monsters that had become knights in the first place!

“...New brothers! Over here!”

Even the existing knights realized it.

They sensed the flow had changed, and started commanding the battlefield, leading the fight forward.

KWAANG......

Puh-buh-buh-buh-bung......

Everywhere, all kinds of monsters’ special abilities were being unleashed—

and Rashir’s rampaging knights were exploding, setting off massive blasts.

A battle so utterly chaotic it could only be called insane, fought in a city ringed in blood.

But.

The current was clear.

“Th-this... that’s impossible...”

Before long, we would be able to reach the master of those rampaging knights—

“This... this can’t be happening...!”

the noble named Rashir. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

***

‘That one, huh.’

I stared at the noble ahead of us, clutching its head.

“Wh-what is this.”

“......”

“Making knights that strong out of nowhere—how the hell... no, before that, turning into mist, moving through shadows. What is that supposed to be...!”

Like it was completely thrown by the reality in front of it, it staggered as it clutched at its glossy hair.

And.

Unfortunately, my eyes as I looked at it couldn’t be all that bright.

‘The kind of bastard who treated its own knights like disposable tools.’

If knights were the ones who served a noble, then the master had to give proper compensation for that service.

That was the duty of the one who was master—

the one being served.

‘...?’

And suddenly—

‘Since when did I start thinking like this...?’

The question brushed through my mind for a moment, but—

anyway.

That wasn’t what mattered right now.

‘That thing abandoned the duty of the one being served.’

Not only did it use knights who’d chosen to serve it like one-use tools, it made their blood rampage and forced them into a painful death.

“It was a pretty annoying ability.”

I never thought it had been hiding a move like that.

Thanks to it, I’d gone through quite a bit.

“But, you know...”

To the thing that had done that—

“You need to get hit.”

I was—

really angry.

“N-no....”

But then, at that moment...

“Wh-what I did... it wasn’t....”

“What?”

At my words, it shook its head hard, looking flustered.

“Hah. It’s not enough that you treated your knights like disposable tools—you don’t even want to take responsibility for it? That’s it?”

I frowned and walked toward it.

And then—

“Disposable? That isn’t what matters!”

“...?”

“They’re familiars. I can just make them again. It’s a shame, sure, but what happens to those things isn’t my problem!”

It ran its mouth shamelessly, like it didn’t feel even a shred of guilt about burning through its knights in the first place.

“B-but... but...!”

And.

Like the truly important thing was something else, it covered its now-pale face with both hands, stumbling backward as it muttered,

“Bl-blood... making blood explode...”

“...?”

“To make the blood of nobles—blood passed down from our great ancestors—explode... that kind of blasphemy...!”

Sweating buckets, it looked at me and said,

“What I did... I didn’t...!”

“What?”

While I was still frowning at the nonsense, it didn’t get to finish that line.

“Gkk....”

Its body—

started swelling grotesquely.

‘...Huh?’

It had looked pretty sly, but with its blond hair falling down and its shining red eyes, the noble in front of me had carried a certain elegance.

But.

Only for a moment.

Kkudeuk......

Kwagagagak......!

Its muscles bulged abnormally.

Bones warped to match them—twisting, breaking, then being fitted back together.

“Ah, aah....”

On its back, massive wings of blood-membrane formed.

Thick fur sprouted across its body, and it transformed into something beastlike.

“Ah....”

And then, in a trembling voice, it muttered,

“Ah, pa....”

“...What the—”

FWHOOM!!!

‘That rampage...’

Its enormous wings beat with tremendous force.

And after it kicked off the ground, it charged straight at me.

‘It’s saying it didn’t do it?’

That pained voice it spat out—

threw me off enough that my response to block the attack came a beat late.

‘Shit.’

I hurriedly raised my weapon in panic, but—

my body was already squeezed dry of mana.

This wasn’t a situation where I could stop the blow cleanly without taking damage.

Frowning, bracing for the impact about to hit—

in that exact moment...

“Sir Knight!!!”

Slash—!

With a shout, something like a gigantic executioner’s blade swept past my eyes.

And then—

KWAAAAANG......!

The noble’s body that had been charging at me—

split into two.

***

KWAAAAANG......!

When the noble’s body, charging with that insane momentum, /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ was cut in half, it kept flying and slammed into the ground right in front of me.

It was buried so deep it dug several meters into the earth.

“Are you all right!!!”

And.

From behind the noble, now stuck in the ground like that, a man stepped into view.

“You are...?”

That thing called Rashir had said it was baron-rank, so it would be a fairly strong monster.

On top of that, it had rampaged after swelling into something grotesque, so it should’ve been even stronger.

But.

Even if it had left an opening while attacking me—

this man had split that thing in two with a single strike.

With dazed eyes, I stared at the man who’d done it.

“Kangil....”

“Yes! Sir Knight!!! It’s me!!!”

Holding a gigantic executioner’s sword.

A man with a delinquent-looking face, covered in tattoos.

Kangil.

The man who had asked me to make him a knight.

“You said you were an awakened.”

“Yes!”

Looking at him, I tossed out a question in a blank voice.

“...Before you became a ghoul. What level were you?”

“Huh?”

And as I asked it, I ended up reaching the answer on my own.

‘The monsters—the ghouls—that filled this city were stronger than I’d thought.’

And.

Before they became ghouls, those things must have held this city as their territory.

In this city, the number of humanoid ghouls was extremely small.

A city filled with nothing but monsters.

And.

‘This one is one of the few survivors who lived through that city.’

Because it became a ghoul—

it lost its mana, lost its class as an awakened, and most of the strength it had must have been stripped away.

-I know it’s an irreverent request. But... I used to be a reasonably strong awakened! I’m sure I could be useful to the count as well!

I remembered what it had said to me.

...Looks like—

“Level twenty-eight! Sir Knight!”

that probably hadn’t been a lie.