When that man gave the former ghouls the order to attack us.

I let out a low groan to myself.

We were already at a disadvantage.

Forget trying to win.

It was bad enough that I needed to be thinking about how to escape this battlefield alive, somehow.

If they started treating us as enemies here—

In that moment, there was a high chance we’d be forced to our knees in front of that man with our arms and legs hacked off, simply because of the numbers.

But then—

“That order... could you withdraw it, Master of Blood...?”

Hearing that, no matter who you were, you couldn’t help but stare.

“You’re... refusing an order?”

And.

It didn’t look like I was the only one shocked by it.

“...Ghouls?”

The man who’d been smiling the whole time.

Like he was facing something impossible for the first time, his expression stiffened, hardening into disbelief.

According to Ariella, the relationship between ghouls and their blood lord was closer to what I had with Ariella.

Meaning it was never a relationship where they could refuse orders just because they wanted to.

And yet they refused their master’s command.

...The command to attack me.

“I—I’m sorry, Master...!”

“But that order... we can’t follow it.”

“Instead, we’ll try to persuade them, so... if you could give us just one chance...!”

And.

As I watched the ghouls make that choice, I thought—

Why.

There was no question this was good for me.

At the very least, it meant I didn’t have to fight them too.

So why... would you do something like that...?

But.

Then you—

I didn’t know how they were able to refuse that order, but it was obvious what would happen after they did.

There was no way they didn’t know what even I knew.

“...I thought something was off.”

And.

Just as I thought—

“You’ve got something mixed into your blood...?”

“That’s....”

“Ah, I see. Looking closer... you aren’t ghouls anymore. You’re knights now, is that it?”

If he was the one who turned them into ghouls, Ariella’s blood turned them into knights.

A vampire’s blood carries the magic of subjugation.

And.

“Slaves with a proper master accepting the blood of some unknown party. So my slaves ended up with two masters, you faithless flirts. That’s quite a wound to the pride.”

Inside them, the blood of two nobles was flowing.

“Hmm. They were meant to be handed over to Rashir anyway, but... I don’t understand. Were you tempted with an offer to make you knights and free you from being ghouls? Or threatened?”

“N-no. We wanted this....”

“Oh? You did it of your own will?”

At that, the man spoke with a strange expression.

“A slave wanted to escape being a slave... so you accepted power from someone who isn’t your master. Is that what you’re saying?”

“S-sorry....”

And.

Facing them as they bowed their heads in terror—

“...No, well. It’s not something you need to apologize for.”

“...Pardon?”

“A slave isn’t obligated to be satisfied with their station. I was practically neglecting you, so it’s something that could happen. And I understand perfectly well what you were feeling when you did it. I truly do. I mean it.”

He said it with a kindly smile.

“Then. I’ll change the order.”

“Ah—then you mean...!”

“Yes. You don’t have to attack them. Instead.”

At that,

their faces brightened a little—

but then—

Clap!

The man brought his hands together and, with a refreshingly pleasant expression, gave his order.

“Kill yourselves.”

To those staring blankly, he opened his mouth, shaking his head as if it couldn’t be helped.

“Please forgive me. I understand your position well enough, but the master has the master’s position, too. I can’t simply let slaves who betrayed their master slide.”

“......”

“So. Hurry.”

At that, eyes wide, I shouted at them.

“Don’t listen!”

“Ah... ahh....”

Over the past few days.

It hadn’t been long, but I’d felt it clearly.

They were ghouls.

They’d become vampires’ thralls—slaves—

but—

“Didn’t you want to live?!”

They had lives of their own.

I’d seen their thoughts, their lives, their desires—clearly.

“Resist!”

Even if it was a fate where humans—

and all kinds of monsters—

were thrown together and dragged down into slavery.

“Refuse that garbage excuse for an order!”

They were, without a doubt, ordinary living beings that hungered for life.

Creak, creak...!

When I shouted, their bodies began to twist and creak grotesquely.

Like they were being yanked back and forth by two opposing forces.

“What are you doing? It’s the blood lord’s first order. You should obey it gladly.”

That man’s blood, the blood that made them ghouls.

The order to kill themselves—

and.

“Resist an order that’s trying to kill you!”

Ariella’s blood inside them.

My order to resist.

Those two forces were crashing violently inside their bodies.

Creak, creak-creak...!

“By the master’s....”

But then...

That clash between commands didn’t last long.

“...order....”

Once, they’d been reduced to slavery completely against their will.

But after being remade as knights, they’d been given a chance—however small—at a better life.

SPLATTER!!!

All of them.

With their own strength, they drove their blades into their own hearts.

***

“...Ah.”

They’d gained powerful vitality by becoming knights.

But.

That vitality’s source was the blood flowing through their bodies.

“Ahh....”

The organ that lets that blood circulate is the heart.

If that heart stops—

then the powerful vitality carried in that blood can’t circulate through the body, either.

“Boss.”

“......You.”

That was when.

“You know... it’s a bit much to say out loud myself, but I lived a pretty... garbage life.”

At the words from beside me, I looked that way and nodded blankly as I answered.

“...Yeah. That’s what it looked like.”

“Hah... you’re not even denying it. That’s cold. But still.”

The one who’d stabbed his own heart with a huge executioner’s blade.

Kangil was looking up at me.

“Even if you’re a guy who lived like garbage... you don’t want to die like garbage, y’know. Guess that was... asking too much.”

“Asking too much, my ass. Isn’t that just how everyone is? You’re not the weird one.”

“Heh... is that so? Then... that’s a relief, at least.”

The skin around its eyes trembled.

The smile it had on its face lost strength and faded.

“Thank you... for giving me even the hope that it didn’t have to be that way....”

From its mouth, the source of that vitality was spilling out.

“I really... appreciated it.”

Those were its last words.

Then, thud.

Its body dropped to the ground.

“...Appreciated what.”

All of their hearts had burst.

The moment the heart ruptured, blood could no longer circulate.

And without oxygen and nutrients carried through the blood, every organ in the body would soon stop functioning, then begin to rot.

“What did I ever do for them.”

And.

Looking down at them like that, I was feeling something strange.

People I didn’t even know in the first place.

Most of them weren’t even human—monsters.

From my standpoint, someone who prioritized human survival above all else, they’d been closer to people I could honestly not care about either way.

“Ah.”

But.

Even so.

“This pisses me off.”

They were the ones who followed me.

The ones who served me.

[26 divine power-]

Something that rose up inside me—

it felt like it was moving my body.

Something similar had happened before.

But there was one difference from back then.

At the time, that power moved me regardless of my will.

Now...

BAAANG!

“Master!”

That movement—

wasn’t all that different from my own will.

***

Slice—!

My body, holding a blade, sprang forward at tremendous speed—

and started cutting enemies down.

“...Who is that?”

“Doesn’t matter who it is—he’s our lord’s enemy! Kill him!”

There wasn’t a scrap of mana left in my entire body.

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t even pull out a quarter of my usual strength.

But even so—

Slice!

A spicy heat so intense it melted the inside of my mouth, burned it white, and blazed so fiercely it wouldn’t leave even a pinch of ash behind.

[Responding to the user's will!]

“Our brothers, in an instant...?!”

The anger controlling my body was cutting the enemy down.

[You gain experience...]

[You gain experien...]

When I surrendered my body to that anger, it started cutting enemies down as if it were moving on its own.

...It’s a strange sensation.

There wasn’t a single drop of mana left flowing in my body.

If there were such a thing as mana veins, you could say they were completely empty.

It should’ve been normal for it to be hard just to move properly, let alone cut enemies down.

“A strong enemy...!”

“Call the captains!”

But.

There was a force that started running in place of those emptied-out channels.

[Manifest divine power fills the mana circuits!]

A power clearly different from mana.

I couldn’t actually use skills or traits.

But.

I had a strange intuition—

that this power had its own way to be handled.

Just a little more.

If I could manage to handle this power—

maybe...

“...For an unknown noble, you have an awfully extravagant army.”

It was while I was lost in that thought that a voice yanked my reason back up.

***

Ah.

I felt like if I fought just a little longer, I could grasp something.

Just a little. Just a little more, and it would’ve been enough.

“But even those four enormous great monsters are astonishing....”

A man’s voice, staring at me with widened eyes, unable to hide his surprise.

“And now there’s even that knight who looks like an awakened one....”

That voice dragged my mind up from the verge of sinking into realization.

“To command five forces at the level of knight captains. Where in the world has a noble this powerful been hiding...?”

The man muttered blankly as he looked at me.

The moment I saw him—

the spicy heat in my mouth felt even more intense.

I want to kill him.

The anger ruling my entire body.

If it were up to my feelings, I wanted to rip him apart right there.

But, in that moment—

Crunch!

I stuck my tongue out slightly and bit down hard on it.

No.

Flesh tore and blood flowed.

The hot, metallic taste of blood snapped my mind awake.

Get it together, Shin Youngjun.

Maybe.

The anger I felt toward him wasn’t going to die down easily.

I would never forget this rage.

But separate from that—

Not right now.

Even if I managed to grab that subtle sensation again, it would be impossible to bring him down here and now.

First, I had to get out of here.

...Even so.

I looked around.

You did a decent job clearing a path.

Even as I cut enemies down in anger, maybe some part of me still knew I had to escape first.

I’d been fighting to break through the encirclement around us.

For now, we run that way.

Even if I couldn’t take revenge on him right now, later would be different.

This defeat was only because our forces were in the worst possible condition.

If we could just regroup Ariella’s forces, then the story would change.

“...Still.”

If we survived and got out of here somehow, someday I’d get a chance at revenge—

“You.”

“...?”

“You smell a little unpleasant.”

As I was thinking that, he glared at me and spoke.

“This is... quite strange. It’s rare for me to dislike someone this much without any clear reason....”

“What?”

“Honestly. So many unexpected things today....”

He muttered to himself, then, with a slight frown, said,

“Hmm. I’ve decided.”

And, in that moment—

Ffffk...!

I sensed something abnormal happening inside my body.

“For the sake of the head of the house’s greater cause, I intended to subdue you with as little damage as possible, but.”

I tried to resist that force...

[Not enough divine power!]

[Not enough mana!]

What, now?!

Not only was my mana already depleted—

even the divine power that had been moving my body until just now was being drained away.

“Using one as an example isn’t a bad idea.”

There was no way for me to stop this abnormality with my own strength.

The moment I realized that, I scraped together every last shred of divine power and mana left in my body—

[Trait activates]

[Ingredient Identification (Enhanced)]

[Skill activates.]

[Chef's Eye]

—and poured that final power into my eyes.

[Awak...]

And.

At what appeared in front of me—

“...Huh?”

I stared blankly—

BAAAM!!!

***

BAAAM!!!

With that sound, a man’s head exploded, bursting apart.

Thump.

The body that lost its head collapsed helplessly onto the ground.

BAAAM...!

Maybe the head wasn’t enough—

the heart in that body burst, too, leaving a hole in the chest filled with ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) blood.

“...Huh?”

And.

Staring at that body sprawled on the ground—

“Master...?”

Ariella murmured in a small voice.