“Ghk...!”

Riiip—!

With that tearing sound, pain hit like the skin on my chest was being peeled off intact.

But.

Living in this world, I’d gotten used to pain.

Pain like this was something I could brush past.

What mattered more was—

[The ‘Thrall Pact’ has been severely damaged!]

That line in front of my eyes.

“...What is this?”

Maybe I wasn’t the only one feeling the shock.

When I looked at Ariella—

I saw her swaying, cold sweat on her face, stumbling with shaken eyes.

“[A pact], huh.”

And.

The hulking man standing between me and Ariella stared at the ‘something’ in his hand and spoke.

“This is something I haven’t seen in a long time. You wouldn’t know, but among the bloodlines it’s a tradition that was forgotten ages ago. As generations passed, the Progenitor’s blood thinned, and from a certain point on, even if you put mana into your words, a pact stopped forming.”

“G-Grand Duke...?”

“Thanks to that, the only ones who can still share a pact are the old geezers. Most don’t even know it exists unless they tried to study bloodline history. To see something this nostalgic again... meeting you feels like traveling into the past.”

He closed his eyes for a moment, wearing a pleased smile like he was recalling old memories.

“Ah. My mistake. Was I rude, doing this without explanation?”

Only after a beat did he open his eyes and look to Ariella.

He turned that something over in his hand, examining it.

“You must be very startled, so I’ll start by explaining. Between you and that man, there was a [pact].”

“Th-That...”

“Ah, there’s no need to deny it. I said it knowing already, and there’s no need to deny it anyway. The important part is this.”

He brought the ‘something’ up before his eyes.

Then, narrowing them, he stared at it.

“If you look closely enough, a pact can be ‘seen.’”

“Seen...?”

“It’s like a thread made of extremely thin mana. I say that, but in reality very few can actually see it. Honestly, I doubt anyone can besides the Progenitor and the other three brothers.”

“......”

“And. If you observe that thin thread very carefully, you can tell what state your kind was in when it was formed, who it was formed with, how old it is, and—”

His mouth curled into a grin.

And the grand duke looked at me, panting.

“—you can even roughly tell who the pact favors.”

“Ghk... hh...”

“Then let me ask. ‘Mister Knight.’”

In that moment—

something flashed too fast to track.

And—

Boom!!!

My body was hurled violently, slammed hard into the wall.

Pshshsh—!

“Guhk...!”

Countless spearheads made of blood burst out from the wall.

They tore into me, gouging, piercing.

“It’s certain Sir Ariella’s blood flows inside you, yet strangely, I couldn’t sense even a grain of controlling mana in it.”

“Kh...”

“Not only that—you’ve bound your master with a pact on terms favorable to yourself... and you call yourself a [knight]?”

Snap—

A massive hand clamped around my throat.

“Do you think a knight like that makes any sense?”

“Ghk...!”

“Well. I have a rough idea what the situation is, so you don’t need to answer.”

He looked back and forth between me and Ariella, then smiled like it was ridiculous.

“The pact-thread was extremely thin, and covered in wounds. That means when it was formed, Sir Ariella was far weaker than now, and unstable besides.”

“.......”

“It’s embarrassing to admit, but a noble before building a force can’t be called strong. If the timing is lucky and the human has decent skill, they might barely manage to win.”

I struggled, trying to pry that hand off my throat.

But.

Even with my body in its best condition thanks to Luca’s healing, I couldn’t make that hand twitch.

“Tell me, you maggot of a human. How did it feel to handle power that overflows your station?”

“Kh—!”

“It must’ve been useful. Don’t tell me it wasn’t. That was never power your kind should be allowed to harvest.”

Grit—

“You insect. Did you really think you could deceive me... deceive me?”

The grip on my throat tightened.

And anger settled into that once-calm face.

“A piece of trash that, just by existing, is no different from insulting the history of the nobility and insulting me—showing itself proudly before me, standing with its head held high...?”

I could feel the strength in that hand choking tighter and tighter.

“I won’t let you die easily.”

In my neck bones—

I felt cracks starting to form.

“Before you die, I’ll give you every pain I can. After you die, I’ll grind your flesh down into an ugly lump of filth. Then I’ll pour my knight’s blood into it and revive you as a ghoul. After that, I’ll have this city’s thralls tear your ghoul flesh apart and eat you alive.”

That...

couldn’t happen.

“Don’t worry too much. After the meal is finished, I’ll spill blood again and revive you. You have to become the next meal. I can’t let you die easily.”

Better to cave in my skull.

Crush my heart.

“And by then... you will be accepting even that pain as glory.”

If he crushed my flesh and sent it to the ghouls...

‘[Victimia] will fall off...!’

***

Even through the pain that felt like my breath was about to snap, I glared at him and thought.

‘I’m already used to pain bad enough to kill.’

He probably thought I was trembling in fear.

But my head, soaked in pain until it couldn’t soak any more, was still turning coldly even now.

But.

There was one problem.

‘What good is being calm, damn it.’

No matter how calmly I thought through it—

there wasn’t a clear way out.

The only ally in this space.

Ariella had lost the Thrall Pact.

If the punishment he described came down, I couldn’t even expect revival through [Victimia].

“Ghk...!”

In the end.

The way out of this situation was—

‘There’s only one, but...!’

The power I’d already resolved to use anyway.

Using it here wouldn’t feel like a waste.

If I used it, I could escape.

And I was sure I could throw even this grand duke into real shock.

And yet there was another reason I hesitated.

Roll.

I shifted my eyes.

I looked at the noble behind him, staring this way with a horrified face.

‘...Ariella.’

There was only one way.

But if I used it now, with the pact broken—

even if I could bring this grand duke down, I’d have no choice but to give up Ariella.

And that.

How should I put it—

‘I don’t like it.’

I didn’t like it.

Not at all.

‘How... dare...’

The moment that thought rose, rage surged up in my skull.

With a trembling hand, I forced myself to move.

I grabbed the grand duke’s arm.

And as I stared at the man choking me, I thought—

‘My thrall...!’

My person.

Trying to steal her away whenever he pleased.

[Consumable divine power....]

“...Hooh?”

An extreme burn.

Rage so vicious it was almost poisonous.

[Responds to the user’s will!]

“You still have strength left?”

I felt something trying to take control of my entire body.

‘...No.’

But—

only for a moment.

‘She isn’t my thrall anymore...’

The instant that thought brushed past—

the anger trying to seize my whole body began to die down little by little.

Ariella had only been forced to follow me by the Thrall Pact.

With that pact gone—

she wasn’t my person anymore.

“...Hmph. So all you could do was twitch.”

And right now.

Somewhere beyond that barrier, my unit was waiting for me to come back alive.

“Fine. Then I’ll end this.”

...Because I didn’t want to give up Ariella, who had already become my thrall—

I couldn’t throw my life away here.

[Consumable divine power....]

“Th-This—”

In the end.

Just as I was about to choose that one and only method—

right at that moment.

“What in the world do you think you’re doing, Grand Duke?!”

“...!?”

Slash—

A huge blood-red blade poured down, and I saw the thick hand choking my throat get cut off.

***

Thud.

The massive hand hit the floor.

“Ghk!”

Freed from the pressure crushing my throat, I hung against the wall and dragged in the breath I’d lost.

As I felt the oxygen I’d been missing rush into my body at once, I forced my eyes forward.

“...Huh?”

There—

was a massive man backing away, staring at the severed cross-section of his own wrist with an expression like he couldn’t understand it.

And.

In the space that opened as he stepped back, someone charged in.

“Knight!”

A moment later, she rushed to me and lowered my body—still skewered on stakes—down to the floor.

“...Ari... ella?”

“Don’t talk. Just breathe quietly first. Let the blood circulate and help you recover.”

As I stared with my mouth slightly open, blank.

She set me down carefully, then—

“This is what you call support, Grand Duke?”

“Mm... mmm...?”

“You asked me to take on reviving the bloodline, and then you suddenly attack my knight!”

She rose.

And glaring at the grand duke, she spoke.

“So this was your intention from the start?”

“.......”

“If you meant to be hostile from the beginning, I don’t even understand why you conducted that succession ceremony for me...!”

She’d been endlessly intimidated before him, stammering over her words.

But not now.

“The crime of harming my knight at your own whim...”

What I could feel from her was—

that exact taste I’d been feeling until a moment ago, then lost as if by magic.

“Even if you’re a grand duke, I won’t let this pass easily.”

Ferocious fury.

Was pouring toward him.

Sssrkk...

From her fingertips.

Blood flowed down, forming a beautiful blade.

[Bloody Shadow Blade]

Ariella’s battle stance.

That blade leveled toward the grand duke.

“...Calm yourself first, Sir Ariella.”

“I am perfectly calm, Grand Duke Valarak!”

“...Is that so. Fine. Then stay that calm, and lower your weapon. I don’t wish to be hostile toward you.”

Pointing a blade at the head of a bloodline was an unmistakable great crime.

And she did it without hesitation.

“Between you and that insect...”

“Insect?”

“...between you and that knight, there was a pact. A pact that favored that man.”

By now, the grand duke’s hand had fully regenerated.

With a look like he truly couldn’t understand, he rubbed between his brows.

“Honestly, I’m not sure he can even be called a knight. Your blood flowed in that man’s body, yes—but it wasn’t the blood of enthrallment that makes a knight. Rather... it was pure blood so close to the real thing that it seemed he had inhaled your living blood directly.”

“.......”

“Given the circumstances, I concluded the most likely scenario was this: you were subdued by that man, your blood was extorted, and while you were suppressed, you were forced into an unfavorable pact.”

At that.

Even as I panted for breath, I thought—

‘So he really is a grand duke...?’

It was such a perfect inference there wasn’t a single point to correct.

As the person involved, it was chilling.

“That’s why I broke the pact and meant to free you. I did it in goodwill... yet your reaction now is something I can’t understand.”

“It’s only natural you wouldn’t understand. Your inference is nothing but a baseless assumption.”

“Sir Ariella, I’ve said I don’t want to be hostile toward you. But even so...”

No matter how high Ariella raised her blade.

That power couldn’t reach him.

“Don’t test my patience.”

The initiative was still firmly in his hands.

“Sir Ariella, I truly do not understand what’s happening. So I need your explanation.”

“...You were the one who harmed my knight at your own whim, Grand Duke, and you’re asking me for an explanation?”

“You seem to understand my words well. How fortunate.”

As Ariella bit her lip and looked at him with clear displeasure, the grand duke replied with an irritated expression.

“If you’re truly [N O V E L I G H T] dissatisfied, you don’t have to explain anything. In that case...”

He looked down at me, rolling on the floor.

Then sighed.

“I can dispose of that thing—whatever it is, knight or not—as planned, and give you your own punishment as well.”

“...Grand Duke, wasn’t there something you wanted from me?”

“Of course there was. I have no intention of giving that up now. I only want you to understand... that I also have ways to force you.”

At that.

Ariella clenched her teeth.

Because.

‘His inference... was right.’

Even though I carried Ariella’s blood—

there was no controlling power in that blood.

And instead, I was the one who’d placed a pact favorable to Ariella.

Anyone would see something was wrong.

Unless there was some other reason—

and since his inference was correct, it was hard to present any other reason.

A flimsy excuse might slide by against someone else.

But.

‘That man... doesn’t look like he’d swallow a flimsy lie.’

In the end.

What we needed was a lie backed by some kind of logic.

And there was no way a lie like that would come out in a situation this urgent.

‘Why would she make a choice this dangerous...!’

If we could stall just a little longer, I’d planned to run even if I had to go alone.

If I escaped alone, she could receive the grand duke’s backing and grow.

I couldn’t understand why she’d made such a dangerous choice.

“It has to be an explanation I can accept, Sir Ariella.”

And then...

Ariella looked like she was thinking for a moment.

Then she glanced at my face briefly.

“...Kh.”

Like she’d made up her mind.

Clenching her teeth, she turned her head toward the grand duke and said,

“I wanted to make that man a noble.”

“A noble?” 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

The grand duke frowned, like he was asking what that even meant.

“That isn’t an explanation. If you thought he was someone worth making into a noble, you make him a knight first, then later praise his achievements and grant him a title. That’s the basic way. It’s a tradition that’s continued since your era.”

“I know. But.”

“But?”

“Exceptions exist, don’t they.”

At that.

The grand duke’s eyes widened, like he couldn’t believe it, and he asked,

“An exception...?”

“To praise a knight’s achievements is ultimately to increase the number of nobles as thralls. I didn’t want that kind of noble.”

With a look like she didn’t like it, she bit her lip.

Then let out a harsh breath.

“I wanted to make him a noble who stood as my equal.”

“An equal noble?”

And then—

at the words that came from her mouth—

“My God!”

The grand duke’s eyes filled with shock.