“I’ll tear out your heart... and offer it up for my fallen comrades!!!”

With those words—

the warrior in golden armor hurled itself forward with terrifying momentum.

And it wasn’t just that.

“Jinlei, that really is Jinlei?”

“The traitor who sold us out... General Jinlei is right there!”

“The Grand Duke’s whore!”

“That trash bastard who licks the vampires’ boots...!”

Up until then, the awakened had seemed to be conducting a fairly stable battle in line with their operation.

But the moment they heard the name Jinlei—

every last one of them started charging in like raving berserkers, with no regard at all for their own safety.

“...You must be pretty famous.”

“Haah. This is exactly why I didn’t want to come here...!”

I had no idea what he’d done.

But the awakened came at him while spewing every kind of curse I could imagine.

“...Heukto!”

-Yes, my lord!

The moment Jinlei shouted a name while running from them, one of Jinlei’s thralls that had burst out from the earth dragon’s mouth came racing toward us at incredible speed.

“Get on!”

A horse-like beast with eight legs and a body big enough to carry ten grown men.

After hoisting Ariella and me onto that black mass, Jinlei took off at full speed.

‘Ridiculously fast.’

Even while fleeing like that, I stole a glance behind us.

Judging by the strength I’d seen from those awakened, there was really no need to run like this.

Jinlei’s thralls were about as strong as Ariella’s thralls.

“Don’t run!!! Stand and fight!!!”

But—

“Aren’t you ashamed to bear the title of general, Jinlei!!!”

contrary to my expectation that they’d be held back by Jinlei’s thralls, the awakened were cutting through the thralls blocking their path and rapidly closing in on us.

It wasn’t that rage had let them draw out power beyond their limits or anything like that.

Slash—

The ones carving through the vampires.

A faint light clung to the weapons in their hands.

It was a light I’d seen a few times before.

‘Even divine power.’

Vampires bathed in that light were significantly weakened, even if not to the degree they were when struck head-on by sunlight.

Before that army giving off a soft radiance, Jinlei’s powerful thralls were being cut down helplessly.

...Just like, about a year ago, when I led the Legion in subjugating Ariella.

If there was one small mercy, it was that while those awakened were certainly threatening, at least that divine power didn’t seem to enhance their physical abilities.

Separate from Jinlei’s thralls falling one after another, they still didn’t have the speed to catch up to us as we rapidly pulled away.

...The problem was—

-Kreeeeeeeeak!!!

the giant earth dragon, straining desperately to buy us as much time as possible.

Its flank was ripped open—

“Move!”

And with the earth dragon’s guts plastered all over that golden armor, the huge warrior kicked off the ground and came charging after us.

‘Crazy bastard, what is he, Gwangil or something?!’

Every time he planted a foot, the ground burst upward like an explosion.

“Jinlei!!!”

Jinlei’s thralls kept throwing themselves in front of him, but—

Pakwakwakwakwaak!!!

“Did you really think this kind of trash could stop me!!!”

under his swinging fists and hammer blows, Jinlei’s thralls were sent flying miserably without even managing to slow him down.

“...Aren’t you overdoing it a little?!” 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

“Jinleiiiiiiii!!!”

“Damn it, what a brainless brute.”

That huge warrior was charging after us at a speed that hardly seemed possible for a body that size.

At that absurd pace, the distance between us kept shrinking.

‘At this rate, he’ll catch us.’

Unlike the other awakened, that warrior clearly seemed ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) to be a powerhouse even without relying on anything else.

With the faint light wrapped around his body, Jinlei’s thralls probably couldn’t even put up a fight before getting torn apart.

And even if we fought him somehow, unless we dealt with him instantly, the other awakened behind him would catch up.

A situation with no answer in sight.

“...Damn it.”

Apparently I wasn’t the only one who realized that.

Jinlei bit down on his lip, then—

“Are you satisfied now?”

glared at me and said that.

***

“Are you satisfied now?”

Still riding on the galloping beast, Jinlei glared at me as he spoke.

“Is this the sight you wanted—that’s what I’m asking!”

That voice, thick with resentment.

I opened my mouth, pretending as much as possible that it wasn’t my fault.

“...I’m not the one who called them here. If anything, those bastards are after you—”

“...Rerouting us into this dangerous place!”

Ah.

If that was what he meant, then yes, that part was my doing.

“It’s true I behaved discourteously toward you. So is this your revenge for that discourtesy?”

“......”

“Very impressive. Truly an unbelievably grand revenge.”

With his head hanging low, he muttered in a bitter voice.

“Those thralls of the Grand Duke were worried about me.”

Hearing that, I thought:

judging by what those awakened had shouted, this bastard had clearly done something to earn the humans’ deep hatred.

And yet even so,

“Now not even one...”

he was grieving over the deaths of vampires.

“This is the result of what you did out of some petty grudge against me. From your point of view, neither I nor the Grand Duke’s thralls are even of the same bloodline as you, so whether we end up like this or not, you probably don’t care in the slightest. But!”

Grinding his teeth, Jinlei glared at me.

“Your master!”

“......”

“Because of your little game, your master... the Count, has been put in danger as well. Are you satisfied now?”

At those words, I looked at Ariella’s face.

“......”

Ever since seeing that sun earlier, she’d seemed lost in thought, frowning as if she couldn’t even hear what we were saying.

As for Jinlei’s attitude and where he stood, it wasn’t as though I had no thoughts on that matter at all...

but separate from that,

‘He’s not wrong.’

Ariella wasn’t my master, but that didn’t make her my thrall, either.

And yet right now, simply because I wanted to escape this procession, I had ended up putting even Ariella in danger.

‘I did create an alibi so that even after I left, she wouldn’t be penalized, making it look like none of this was my doing...’

I just never imagined things would turn this dangerous.

This was plainly my fault.

And when I considered that Ariella, who was no longer even my master’s thrall, was helping me out of pure goodwill, the guilt doubled.

‘...Those bastards seemed to be aiming to capture the nobles.’

When that sun disappeared, the awakened had loudly called out for the nobles’ location.

I didn’t know why, but judging from Jinlei’s reaction, it wasn’t hard to guess that nobles captured by them didn’t meet a pleasant end.

If that was the case—

...Hmm.

“Ariella.”

“...Hm? Ah. My dear. What is it?”

I turned off mental language and spoke to Ariella, who had been sunk in thought.

“I’ll ask you just one more time.”

“...?”

“Any chance you’ll come with me?”

At my words, Ariella stared blankly at my face for a moment.

Then she gave a rueful smile and said,

“Did I not already tell you? That depends on what you do.”

“...Right.”

It depended on what I did.

And unfortunately, I wasn’t in any position to hold on to her right now.

In that case—

“I’m sorry, Lord Jinlei.”

“...What?”

I lowered my head deeply and spoke with an expression of sincere regret.

“As you said, I only meant to mess with you a little. I didn’t understand the situation in this land, so I never imagined things would get this big. Truly, it’s exactly as you said.”

“...Not knowing doesn’t solve anything.”

“Yes. It won’t solve anything.”

When I readily agreed, he looked at me as though he had no idea what I was trying to say.

“I do have some shame. As someone who lived by my master’s grace, I simply cannot bear to stand by and watch my master fall into danger like this.”

“What are you talking about—”

“So.”

Smoothly, I slipped a hand inside my clothes.

“Please tell the Grand Duke that I’m sorry I couldn’t keep my promise. And that even if I disappear, the Count will faithfully carry out her promise to the Grand Duke.”

When I withdrew my hand from inside my clothes, I was holding a knife.

“And please.”

I raised the knife toward the hand Jinlei was using to grip mine.

“Take good care of my master!”

Slash—!

I cut off that hand.

“...!”

The instant the hand holding onto me was severed, I lightly kicked off and dropped away from the beast we were riding.

In the distance, I could see Jinlei and Ariella staring at me with eyes full of shock.

Looking at their faces, I thought:

‘Just wait.’

Right now my circumstances are bad, but—

before long,

‘I’ll come take you back.’

And then, I turned my body.

“Jinlei!!!”

Toward the enemy chasing after us in a fury.

“You betrayed humanity and attached yourself to the nobles, and now you abandon even that noble!!!”

Toward the warrior in golden armor.

I threw myself.

***

When the light of that small sun faded, the awakened had pointed at Ariella and me and shouted:

“The ones the vampires tried to protect with their lives!”

“The ones they tried to hide from the sun no matter what!”

“Those two are the masters of the group—”

“[nobles]!”

Hearing that, I thought:

‘Their standard for identifying nobles is this—when they unleash that sun, they watch to see who the thralls try to protect with their lives.’

Given the nature of thralls, who swear absolute loyalty to their masters, in a crisis, the first thing they’d try to do was protect their master.

It was actually a pretty reasonable deduction.

Only, this part really was pure coincidence.

‘Right now, I have a promise with the Grand Duke.’

Someday, when Ariella had built up enough standing, when I became a noble, the Grand Duke had promised to share its blood with me.

In order to uphold that promise, the Grand Duke’s thralls had acted like shackles, keeping me from escaping anywhere.

But at the same time, in order to uphold that promise, they had also acted as shields, protecting me with their lives.

“Jinlei!!!”

Yeah, just like—

“You betrayed humanity and attached yourself to the nobles, and now you abandon even that noble!!!”

like thralls trying to protect their master... a noble.

I leaped from Heukto, the giant beast that had been running beneath us, and with that momentum still carrying me through the air, hurled myself at the golden-armored knight charging toward us.

And as I did, I thought:

“Don’t get in my way...!”

The Grand Duke’s thralls had been absurdly strong.

Strong enough that I couldn’t even find a chance to run.

And these were the people who had annihilated those very thralls.

Looked at that way, this might seem like a pretty hopeless situation, but—

‘They’re the bloodline’s weakness.’

Their power was that sun and the power of divinity.

And that was the bloodline’s weakness.

Not mine.

“Yo, you... noble!?”

Slash—

“Kgh...!?”

The one who had butchered vampires and reigned over this battlefield like its absolute ruler—

blood sprayed from the shoulder of the golden warrior.