Thud...

“They’re lower-quality monsters than I expected.”

When the last monster fell, Jinlei looked at it and spoke.

“I think it would be better for you to pass on these ones.”

“You’re saying that again. Hah... Just when exactly are you planning to raise me to the level the Grand Duke wants?”

Even while complaining, the Countess withdrew without much resistance at Jinlei’s suggestion.

At first, the Countess had shown blatant hostility, but fortunately, from a certain point on, she stopped tormenting Jinlei any further.

It wasn’t as though she liked him even now, of course.

And there was only one possible reason he could think of.

‘That thing he said about not exactly enjoying watching someone from the same kind get tormented... maybe it wasn’t entirely a lie.’

The Countess’s knight.

A man with a vicious face.

A knight receiving that Countess’s blatant affection, though Jinlei had no idea what trick he had used.

Whatever he had said, it must have been the reason she stopped tormenting Jinlei over him.

‘The same kind.’

It wasn’t common, but it did happen from time to time.

Cases where, even after becoming a vampire, someone remained obsessed with the memories of when they had still been an inferior species.

But in most cases, that didn’t cause any real problem.

Just because they retained an attachment to old memories didn’t mean the magic of subjugation engraved into their blood disappeared.

They simply remained attached to those old memories while continuing to serve their bloodline as slaves.

‘...Not in this case, though.’

This time, there was a bit of a problem.

First of all, the fact that that knight felt a sense of kinship as a human was something Jinlei had absolutely not wanted.

In fact, it was something he found downright unpleasant.

And second, as a result of getting a little worked up over that...

he had gone and made an unnecessary enemy.

Under ordinary circumstances, that still wouldn’t have been much of a problem.

But the third problem was—

‘He isn’t of the same bloodline.’

That knight and Jinlei were not of the same bloodline.

If they had been of the same bloodline, then even if the man bore him resentment, it wouldn’t have led to much trouble.

But if their bloodlines were different, ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) that changed things.

Normally, it wasn’t the sort of mistake he would have made.

He regretted it a little, but there was nothing to be done now.

‘Still, up to this point, it’s fine.’

Jinlei was in a position where he could not defy the Countess’s orders.

But conversely, that Countess was also in a position where she had to mind the Grand Duke to some extent.

It was one thing if she merely harassed him in private.

But she couldn’t issue an order so severe that it would bring down this entire procession made up of the Grand Duke’s forces.

And the command of this procession rested with Jinlei.

Even if that knight held a personal grudge against him, the Grand Duke’s powerful knights had all been ordered to watch the man.

So even if he tried anything foolish in that state, it would only be discovered immediately and dealt with in advance.

‘...Still, it’s tiresome. I want this over quickly.’

Thinking that, Jinlei continued onward toward the next destination.

Then, while he was doing so—

“Brother.”

“Hm?”

One of the Grand Duke’s thralls brought him something.

“We found this.”

“What is this?”

“It looks like paper that had been wrapped around something.”

Just as it said, what the monster handed him was a small piece of paper.

The moment Jinlei took it, he had no choice but to tilt his head.

‘The smell of meat?’

The instant he grasped the paper, a rich meaty scent spread out.

“Were there any other traces near this paper?”

“There were none. At least, not a single trace that we could find.”

“Hmm.”

If the smell was still lingering, that meant the paper hadn’t been discarded that long ago.

That was likely why the Grand Duke’s thralls had found it unusual enough to report it to him.

But to say there were no other traces at all nearby.

‘There’s only one possible cause that comes to mind... but if it were them, there should’ve been tracks left behind.’

A situation he couldn’t understand.

Shaking his head, Jinlei said,

“It’s probably nothing serious, but you never know. Let’s deploy more scouts around the area and widen the reconnaissance range.”

“Understood.”

With that, the Grand Duke’s thrall breathed fire from its mouth and burned the paper away, then cleaned up every trace of it.

The procession began moving carefully again.

And

“...Hmm.”

there was a man inside the procession watching that entire scene.

***

When they arrived at the next destination, the vampires thoroughly surveyed the surroundings.

Noise was inevitable during battle.

In another place, maybe it wouldn’t matter, but this was a region full of danger.

They wanted to remove as many variables as possible in preparation for anything that might happen.

“According to the scouts, the surrounding area is clear. We have erased all traces of our movement thoroughly, so there should be no enemies following us.”

Once a vampire finished all the reconnaissance and made its report,

Jinlei nodded and said,

“Then... let’s go, brothers.”

With those words, the Grand Duke’s thralls began to hurl themselves forward.

-Kraaaak!

-It’s an ambush, an ambush!

This time, the destination was a dense forest.

The moment the vampires charged in, the entire forest began to shake. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

And then—

[Forest Trow]

Inside it, monsters with long arms and dark bluish skin revealed themselves and swung crude-looking weapons at the vampires.

‘According to the brethren who passed through after giving up on occupying this place... these are monsters specialized in chaotic close combat inside forests.’

It was not a case where one or two powerful enemies stood out, but one where the average strength of the entire group was high.

Ordinarily, they would have burned down the forest—which favored their enemies—and fought that way.

But that would attract too much attention.

They couldn’t create variables in this dangerous region, so they had chosen to fight on terrain favorable to the enemy, even if it meant accepting some losses.

The reason they could do that was simple.

Crunch.

-Ka... hak...

Because even fighting like that, they still had the advantage.

The Grand Duke’s thralls were that strong.

‘...Strong enough that most tactics aren’t even necessary.’

Jinlei had his own thralls as well, but in most cases, the enemies were manageable with just the thralls the Grand Duke had bestowed.

The Grand Duke’s thralls cut down the enemy steadily even in unfavorable terrain.

Watching them, Jinlei thought,

‘These ones are fairly strong. They’re worth recommending to the Countess.’

Though he had been preventing that Countess from taking weaker monsters, it wasn’t because he wanted to.

If possible, he wanted that Countess to finish her growth quickly and be done with this whole matter.

And now, after a long time, he had found enemies worthy of being presented to the Countess.

With a pleased smile, Jinlei watched the battle.

At that moment—

-Kahak!!!

The tree Jinlei was standing on.

From its shadow, a monster suddenly leaped out.

Riiip!

A blade swung at terrifying speed.

He had definitely felt it catch on something—

-Kahak, did I miss?!

The monster that had swung the blade, a Trow Great Warrior, thought,

‘Blood monster! I need to dig out its heart or head!’

These creatures had already fought the vampires once before—and won.

So they knew as well that unless you directly burst the heart or brain, most wounds healed in an instant.

But then—

“...Even if they are monsters specialized in close combat in the forest, I didn’t expect them to be able to conceal themselves and attack like this.”

The man cut by the blade touched his face.

Trow weapons were not of especially high quality.

A dull blade tore its enemy apart more than it cut.

Drip...

Blood streamed down from the raggedly ripped skin.

Jinlei raised a hand and pressed down on the wound.

Seeing that, the Trow Great Warrior thought,

‘This one’s a weak blood monster?’

If so, all the better.

He had to kill this one quickly and then go after the other blood monsters.

He was one of the Great Warriors—a title only a select few among his tribe, those especially strong, could attain.

Only by killing as many enemies as possible could he give his tribe a chance.

-Kahahahahaak!

Thinking that, the Trow Great Warrior threw himself forward.

“Since it doesn’t seem like ordinary skill... that must mean you hold a fairly high position even among them.”

But then—

the moment he tried to swing that blade at the enemy’s face,

“All the better.”

the blood monster that had been pressing its wound down glared at the Trow Great Warrior.

And then—

‘Kak?’

the warrior’s vision abruptly blurred.

With his sight clouded over, he couldn’t judge the distance to his enemy.

‘Sorcery! Not a weak blood monster, but a blood monster shaman who uses sorcery!’

It wasn’t just his vision.

His body was heating up strangely, and his breathing was growing ragged.

‘Kak!!!’

Even so, the warrior’s momentum did not stop.

Among the Trow, he had been born especially weak by nature, and once had even been the target of bullying.

But through bone-grinding asceticism and countless bloody fights on the edge of life and death, he had been forged into the sharp weapon known as a Great Warrior.

He was the holder of the title Third Root of the tribe.

‘Even if I can’t see!’

The history of battle carved into his body—

the miracle that could cut down even an unseen enemy—

Thud!!!!!

...very nearly came to pass.

But unfortunately,  that weapon flew uselessly through empty air.

***

“Tch.”

The Great Warrior’s head exploded, spraying blood in every direction, and that blood splattered across Jinlei’s body.

The headless corpse collapsed to the ground in vain.

“Are you all right, brother?”

One of the Grand Duke’s thralls, which had been watching the scene, approached him.

The same vampire that had advised him before.

“...I’m fine.”

“Good. That is a relief.”

With a wave of its hand, the blood staining Jinlei’s body gathered in midair.

The Grand Duke’s thrall swallowed that blood and said,

“The role given to you is commander. There is no need for you to fight on the front line like this.”

“This is a dangerous region. We don’t know what may happen, so it’s best to end the battle as quickly as possible. In that case, it’s better for me to step in as well.”

“That may be so, but wasn’t this battle carried out only after confirming there were no variables left? Losing you to some absurd mistake would be the greater risk. Though it may have been postponed for later for now, your mission is important as well...”

“......”

“You have been injured. I advise you to step back for a while and recover, Commander.”

At those words, Jinlei hesitated briefly, then looked around at the battlefield and nodded.

“At this point, it seems the outcome has already been decided.”

The visible state of the battle was completely one-sided.

At this rate, just like before, they would likely win without any real trouble.

“Thank you for your concern. In that case, I’ll take a brief rest.”

“A wise decision.”

With those words, Jinlei turned around.

“We’ll handle the rest—”

And at that exact moment—

KWA-A-A-ANG!!

The thrall he had been speaking with—

its figure suddenly vanished from sight.

“...!”

Jinlei’s eyes flew wide open and he whipped his head around.

Far away, in a massive tree standing at one corner of the forest,

“......”

he saw one of the Grand Duke’s thralls pinned there.

Its head hung limply, its face so devoid of life it was hard to believe that just moments ago it had been speaking with him.

And near its chest—

“...That.”

there was something like a huge, thick pillar piercing straight through its heart.

Papapapabang...

And then—

a sound from the sky.

Jinlei’s eyes widened as he looked up.

And what entered his sight was—

Papapapabang...

‘...How?’

massive pillars pouring down toward them.