“This kind of... childish revenge...!”

Too bad for him.

But I was actually a pretty petty bastard.

‘Should’ve treated me right when I was being nice about it.’

When I looked at him with a mocking expression, Jinlei stared like he couldn’t believe it, then soon shook his head and said to Ariella,

“The Grand Duke no doubt wishes for the Countess to grow stronger safely. That place may be dangerous for now, but the other brethren will be increasing the number of thralls there as well, so if just a little more time passes, it will become much safer. Rather than taking a needless risk, it would be better to make a slight detour for the time being—”

“The Grand Duke may well think that.”

At those words, the one who answered was not Ariella, but me.

“However, the reason my master agreed to receive the Grand Duke’s support was because the Grand Duke said he would help her achieve the best possible growth. If that growth was going to take too long, she never would’ve accepted the Grand Duke’s proposal in the first place.”

“That is...”

“And even so, the reason my master accepted that proposal was because she believed the Grand Duke’s support would guarantee rapid growth. But then.”

With a snort, wearing a laugh that said the whole thing was absurd,

“you’re scared of going into a dangerous place, so instead you want to roam across the entire continent taking only safe hunts? And you think that’s the best possible growth the Grand Duke promised?”

“......”

“If that’s how it was going to be, then there was no need to receive this support force in the first place. My master’s army can easily wipe out a decent monster colony or two, so rather than owing the Grand Duke a debt, we would’ve simply chosen to grow stronger on our own.”

At my words, the bastard ground his teeth.

“To begin with, the Grand Duke clearly wants something from my master too, which means he must be hoping that goal is achieved as quickly as possible. That’s why he sent you—to /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ make rapid growth possible even if it means entering places that are a little dangerous, places that my master’s strength alone couldn’t handle.”

That had to be it.

It wasn’t exactly wrong.

“It’s dangerous, so we should avoid it? No. Your job is to deal with dangerous places without any problem, isn’t it?”

“......”

“Or what? Did the Grand Duke also instruct you to take very good care of your own bodies? If so, then say it. We’ll respect the Grand Duke’s wishes too.”

But Jinlei didn’t say a word.

“Then I suppose there was no such instruction.”

“......Yes.”

“In that case, what are you waiting for?”

Doing my best to look as obnoxious as possible, I sprawled back on the palanquin and said,

“Let’s get moving.”

“......”

“You said it’s dangerous, so be careful.”

***

And in the end, just like that, our group began moving along a different route instead of the one Jinlei had originally wanted to take...

toward southern China.

“Spread the scouts out as widely as possible, and have every unit report even the slightest irregularity.”

Once we reached the vicinity of the area Jinlei had called dangerous, several vampires quickly scattered in every direction.

“And erase all traces of our movement completely. We may be ambushed.”

The vampires of the main force moved as quietly as possible, neatly wiping away every sign of their passage.

‘Impressive.’

Separate from the fact that he’d wanted to avoid coming to a dangerous place, the way that bastard handled things once we actually got there was pretty excellent.

Even though large monsters were moving together in groups, most anyone would probably look at the place we’d passed through and think nothing had happened.

‘So you can erase tracks like that too... That method would be useful in the Legion too.’

I wandered through the procession, watching the scene with interest.

And while I was doing that—

“I’m only saying this just in case, but this is a dangerous place.”

Jinlei, who had been busy commanding the troops, looked at me with a frown.

“If you wander around carelessly, something serious could happen, so be careful.”

I answered with a grin.

“Are you worried about me?”

“...Tch.”

The bastard clicked his tongue like the very thought disgusted him.

Well, obviously he wasn’t saying it because he was worried about me.

He was probably on guard against me doing something stupid and calling other monsters down on us.

“But is it really okay for you to be that prickly with me?”

Tilting my head, I asked,

“If I get even more offended, who knows what else I might run off and ask my master for.”

“......Idiot. If you pull something like that here, it’ll only put you in even more danger.”

“Well, sure, that’s true.”

Wearing the smuggest smile I could manage, I pointed toward Ariella in the middle of the procession.

“But if something dangerous happens, I’ll be staying with my master.”

“......”

“And you know I made a promise with the Grand Duke, right? If that promise is going to be kept, then you’ll have to protect me with everything you’ve got... That’s pretty reassuring.”

At that, he turned his head away with a deeply irritated expression, as if he had nothing to say.

“...Why are you so prickly with me in the first place?”

Whether he liked it or not, I walked closer to the bastard who had turned away and asked,

“Even after you blew my head off, I was willing to get along with you. Why not be friendly between those of the same kind? You’re the one who betrayed that goodwill first. And if you think about it, this whole situation was brought on by you.”

“......Ha. The same kind.”

At that, Jinlei looked at my face, then let out a hollow laugh and said,

“Maybe it’s because you’re the same species. Every last one of you is exactly the same...”

“Hm?”

“It’s nothing.”

After muttering something to himself, he gestured for me to go away.

“That’s enough. I’m busy, so get lost somewhere. If you want to wander around that badly, then wander around to your heart’s content. Whether you run to your master like this and make some request or not, do as you please.”

“Oh, really? That’s allowed?”

“It’s not as if I can stop you from doing it.”

And with that, the bastard moved away as if he didn’t want to exchange another word with me.

‘Right...’

Watching his retreating back, I thought,

‘So I can wander around however I want, huh?’

If you’re going to say that much, there’s no reason for me to refuse.

**

I shrugged and parted ways with him, then started wandering around the area as I pleased.

Well, “the area” wasn’t much.

It wasn’t like I could leave the procession, so the most I could do was walk between the monsters in the column and look around.

Even so, I soon realized why he’d let me do as I pleased.

Stare—

Monsters were watching me intently.

They kept observing everything I did, and whenever I moved somewhere, they rushed over there and cleaned up every trace I had left behind.

‘So even if I try anything, they’ll just deal with it all, is that it?’

What an exhausting way to do things.

Still, with all of them staring that hard, I wouldn’t be able to run away, and I wouldn’t be able to pull anything with my own hands either.

So it was an effective enough method, all things considered.

...The problem was,

‘I wasn’t planning to do anything like that in the first place.’

that their little routine wasn’t going to be effective in the first place.

Since I had never intended to do anything with my own hands to begin with, I calmly turned my head and surveyed the surroundings.

‘It doesn’t look all that dangerous.’

A road swallowed by darkness.

The sound of insects coming from the forest beyond the roadside made the atmosphere pretty eerie, but if you thought of it as a nighttime road from before the collapse without streetlights, it was roughly the same.

Meaning there was nothing especially unusual about it.

Which was why it felt strange.

‘What exactly is different about this area compared to anywhere else?’

What was it about this place that had Jinlei so wary, and that made danger factors gather here in such numbers?

“...Hm?”

Then, while I was looking around, I spotted a few monsters with their heads lowered toward the ground.

Curious, I immediately headed over and looked that way.

What was there was—

‘Footprints?’

Unfortunately, I didn’t have the chance to study them for long.

Swipe, swipe...

The monsters that had been lowering their heads stretched out their hands and immediately erased the traces.

That monster then rose to its feet and walked toward Jinlei.

And watching the monster’s back, I thought,

‘...I didn’t get a close look, but those footprints just now...’

Hm. How should I put it.

Something came to mind that I could use.

***

“We found footprints, brother.”

“I see. The shape was as expected?”

“Yes. Just as you were worried, brother.”

The vampire lowered its head toward Jinlei as it reported.

They were direct thralls of the Grand Duke, but the one commanding them right now was that man.

“How recent do you estimate them to be?”

“At least a week... Not recent, so I would assume the distance is considerable. It would be fair to say the chances of an encounter are extremely low.”

“Even so, you never know. Don’t let your guard down, and continue the investigation. No matter how trivial it is, report it. If there’s anything strange, report all of it. Especially...”

Wearing a troubled expression, he looked in one direction.

“Keep a thorough watch on whether that man does anything foolish or not.”

Tilting its head, the vampire said,

“Even so, if trouble breaks out here, his own life could be put at risk too. I doubt he would deliberately do anything strange...”

“He could.”

At those words, Jinlei answered in a firm tone.

“Even if he happened to gain a new life through sheer luck, his essence is still that of an inferior among inferiors.”

When he had first seen me, my decent fighting ability had made him think I might be a fairly capable knight.

But that wasn’t it.

‘Given how much affection he receives from his master... she probably just poured an absurd amount of power into him to keep from losing a thrall she treasures.’

He was strong in terms of brute force alone.

Judging by how he was willing to put his own master in danger just to get back at Jinlei, there was a good chance he wasn’t right in the head.

“You have no idea what kind of idiotic thing he might do. So please stay alert.”

“......”

Then, after thinking for a moment, the vampire finally spoke.

“Brother. Since the Grand Duke entrusted the command to you, I have no intention of criticizing your leadership.”

“......?”

“But do not ruin this matter over private emotions.”

Even now, unlike those traveling hidden underground inside the giant worm, everyone in the procession aboveground was a thrall of the Grand Duke.

Not a thrall of Jinlei.

“What do you mean by that?”

“What that man said was not wrong either. Because you picked a needless fight with a thrall the Countess cherishes, you incurred the Countess’s wrath and ended up heading toward a dangerous area. I heard some of what was said then as well, and it seemed there were rude remarks made even toward the Countess.”

That part Jinlei himself regretted too.

The vampire looked at him with a strange expression.

“That was unlike you, brother, who always handled things so excellently.”

“......”

“Of course, we roughly know what you’ve gone through, and the contract you made with the Grand Duke as well. We even understand the feelings you carry, but... this matter is one in which the Grand Duke has shown great interest for the first time in hundreds, no, thousands of years.”

A direct blood thrall of the Grand Duke.

Its red eyes, carrying that blood, glinted.

“Since this is a matter the Grand Duke trusted and assigned to you... if it fails because of your mistake, the Grand Duke will be extremely angered.”

“......”

“Never forget it. The contract between you and the Grand Duke is certainly important as well, but... compared to this matter, it is nothing.”

At those words, Jinlei gave a heavy nod.

“Yes. Understood.”

“I apologize if that advice was presumptuous, commander. I will now return to my duty.”

The vampire returned to the procession.

Watching its retreating back, Jinlei muttered in a small voice,

“...Right. There’s no need to get worked up.”

His gaze turned toward the Countess’s knight in the distance.

“As long as I fulfill my contract with the Grand Duke, anyway.”

A faint smile touched his lips.

“Then I won’t have to suffer from the word ‘kindred’ ever again...”