“I don’t know how you found the location of my fortress... but don’t think for a second you’ll leave here alive...!”

[Vampire Viscount, Ramiok di Melchiorn]

The noble dropped into a battle stance.

Looking at it,

“...How?”

I could hear the members of the death squad murmuring.

And then—

“Come to think of it, he did hear a conversation from several kilometers away back then.”

One of them.

Wei nodded as if he had realized something and muttered,

“A trait specialized in wide-area search or tracking....”

“Even if he had something like that, so what? You’re saying he found a target this far away, one he’d never even seen before, in one shot?”

“I can’t believe it either... but he showed us the result, so judging by the circumstances, it has to be an ability on that level.”

And listening to that, I thought,

‘Like hell I’ve got some broken cheat ability like that.’

...No, wait.

Now that I thought about it, those abilities did exist.

There were actually a few people I knew with something similar.

What mattered was that I wasn’t one of them.

I could’ve borrowed help from one of those people.

But this time, I hadn’t even needed to.

Because—

‘I already saw their whole military map. Why would I bother ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) wasting time trying to search?’

Until not long ago, I had been operating among those vampires.

Back then, I’d looked over their military map again and again.

That map had the locations of enemies inside their territory who still hadn’t been exterminated.

But it also marked the locations of those presumed to be allies.

‘Especially a lot around here.’

Probably just like Wei had said.

To supply troops to the front.

Or maybe to stabilize this area, which had had an unusually high concentration of red dots.

Either way, when I first looked at that map, I’d only paid attention to the red dots that were Ariella’s targets and skimmed over the rest.

So I didn’t remember many locations.

I wrung as much as I could out of those faint memories and headed for one place whose location I remembered clearly enough...

and the result was this.

“Kahaak...!”

The vampires charged in.

Looking at them,

“You stay back.”

The death squad members lifted their weapons and said,

“We’ll take it from here.”

When they sprinkled something over their weapons, a golden radiance settled over the blades.

‘...So that’s the thing they mentioned before.’

Some technique or other—

something they called the secret arts of vampire hunters.

This had to be one of them.

“You sure you want me to leave it to you?”

But—

“Really? You’re saying I can just leave it all to you?”

“Vampire hunters....”

“There’s a noble over there too. You’re sure you can handle that yourselves, right?”

At my words, they frowned.

No matter how much that power was supposed to be the bane of vampires, those enemies weren’t just thralls.

There was a noble among them too.

It was true that nobles specialized in commanding armies, but that didn’t mean they lacked personal combat ability.

It’d be hard for these people alone to bring that noble down.

“Well... I’m kidding.”

So then—

“We’re working together now anyway. Let’s fight together.”

“I know you’re strong... but those vampires are no joke either. If you haven’t trained in secret arts like we have, then no matter how strong you are—”

“I don’t know.”

Smiling, I pulled out something I had made in that kitchen not long before.

[Garlic Jerky Infused with Holy Power and the Dedication of a Heroic Chef]

I stuck it in my mouth.

“I might not be as efficient as you are, though.”

A spicy scent spread through my mouth.

As I tasted it—

Paaaah!

“I’ve killed plenty of bastards like that too.”

“...Huh?”

From my body, a grayish-white light burst out—

something completely different from their golden radiance.

***

Thunk.

“I brought them.”

A day had passed since they told me to bring back a noble’s head to prove my innocence.

And now I was standing in that circular chamber again.

“...So it’s true.”

“He really brought back a noble’s head.”

“No, forget that—”

And in front of me, the noble heads they had demanded...

“...We didn’t ask for this many?”

Three of them lay there.

“I figured if I only brought one, you’d start saying something like, ‘Isn’t he just trying to deceive us even if he has to accept a certain amount of damage?’”

“...And for a reason like that, you’re saying you hunted down three nobles in a single day...?”

The people on the second floor who looked like the important ones.

I could see shock settling over their faces.

Well.

To be honest—

‘I didn’t expect it to go this easily either.’

I’d gotten fairly confident in my own abilities lately.

But that still didn’t mean I was strong enough to hunt nobles this easily on my own.

There were three reasons this had been possible.

The first was—

‘They said the nobles around here had come down to replenish troops at the front.’

The vast majority of a vampire’s combat power came not from the noble itself, but from its thralls.

But most of the nobles here seemed to be sending their thralls to the front instead of keeping them by their side.

They clearly knew it was dangerous, which was why most of them were hiding in places that were hard to find.

They just hadn’t expected their locations to be exposed this easily.

And the second was—

“We verified it ourselves. The vampires died cursing him without ever even guessing what he was.”

The fact that I hadn’t been fighting alone.

The death squad members, who could imbue their weapons with that sunlight radiance, were clearly experts when it came to fighting vampires.

Even if I fed the Legion members food infused with holy power, assuming we were talking about the same level range, they’d probably still fall short of the death squad members who used that sunlight.

While they handled the remaining thralls, all I had to do was take the noble’s head.

Even a monster with blue mana specialized for combat—

the kind General Kaio had been—

was something I could deal with now.

“Also.”

And if the noble wasn’t even that much, then of course it was much easier.

“We saw holy power pouring from his body.”

“...What?”

“Not like us, who have learned how to consecrate the sun onto a weapon... it was seeping naturally out of his body.”

I’d also been fully prepared in my own way.

So as long as I knew the location, I could hunt them down as much as I wanted.

“So he was an awakened from a priestly class?”

“Hmm. If so, holy power is also a weakness of those vampires....”

“The possibility of a priest taking the vampires’ side....”

At that, I could see the expressions of the higher-ups easing a little.

I wondered whether they were finally starting to trust me, but then—

Shift....

‘...Again?’

Once more, I sensed movement from the presence inside that blackout screen.

“It may be unlikely, but it isn’t something we can say is impossible.”

And then—

and then—

the old man opened his mouth in time with that movement.

The same one who had fired water arrows at me before glared at me with sharp eyes and said,

“One last question.”

“Is it really the last one?”

He didn’t even answer that.

Looks like he was deeply loyal to whoever was inside that blackout screen.

“You said you had been captured by the vampires.”

“...”

“That’s hard for us to understand. If the vampires had captured you, they would’ve turned you into a thrall knight if anything. There would have been no reason to simply keep you imprisoned.”

“......”

“But you said you were captured by them. Could we hear why?”

At those words, I couldn’t help but deliberate inwardly.

It wasn’t like I could just say one of them had been close to me~.

And brushing it off vaguely...

‘...They’re staring holes through me.’

Between the sense that someone inside that blackout screen was glaring at me

and...

the taste of strong suspicion, it was obvious.

“I don’t know the exact reason myself. But from what I overheard—”

I didn’t know who was in there, but this question clearly seemed very important to that person.

So rather than mumbling my way around it, I decided it might be better to mix in a certain amount of truth.

“I heard they intended to make me into a noble.”

At my words, a fierce taste welled up from inside the blackout screen, and then—

[So that was it.]

From within it, a beautiful voice rang out.

***

I had known from the beginning that someone was inside that blackout screen.

But that person had done nothing except lightly move and issue orders to the old men on either side.

Not once had they spoken directly.

[So that was it.]

And yet, the moment I answered that final question—

[I understand.]

A beautiful voice echoed from inside the blackout screen.

It carried an androgynous tone, impossible to place as male or female, yet there was something strangely sacred about it as well.

“The Chairman has...!”

“The Great Teacher has spoken!”

The moment that voice rang out, I could see the higher-ups above starting to murmur.

[I apologize for suspecting you too deeply and pressing you so hard.]

“......”

And listening to those words, I couldn’t help thinking,

‘What is this...?’

I felt deeply puzzled.

But apart from how I felt—

‘If the Chairman said that much, then that means his innocence has been proven....’

the people focused on that voice stared at me with their eyes wide.

[You said you came from another country, so I imagine you know little of the circumstances in this land.]

“...Yes. Unfortunately.”

[In that case, we pressed you again and again, so you must have found the experience rather bewildering. Therefore... if there is anything you were curious about, I ask that you ask me directly.]

At those words, I almost asked the biggest question on my mind right then...

but—

“Ohhh, the Chairman....”

after checking the reactions around me, I decided to ask the thing I had been the second most curious about.

“The nobles I brought back.”

Not long ago, I had asked Wei this too, only to be told I wasn’t qualified to know yet.

“As long as you’re under that sun, you should be safe from those vampires. So why are there people willing to risk their lives to hunt nobles?”

When I asked that,

[...As expected, that was the part you were most curious about.]

As if they had known I would ask, I sensed a nod.

[Let us begin the ritual, everyone.]

“...Is that all right? It’s a little earlier than scheduled.”

[This ritual has become possible thanks to that person. It is only right that we show it directly.]

“If you say so.”

And then—

at that moment—

Srrrr....

the lights in the room suddenly went out, and thick darkness settled over the circular chamber.

‘...?’

There were still small candles burning here and there, so I could see at least a little ahead of me.

But when the lights went out, the atmosphere of the room—which had seemed ordinary enough before—changed completely.

Creeeak....

Then the door suddenly opened, and I saw several people coming in from outside.

They carried large objects—

two enormous coffins—

into the room.

“What... are you trying to do?”

The mood had shifted so abruptly that I couldn’t hide the confusion in my eyes.

Then someone spoke to me.

“Remember what you asked me before?”

When I turned my head, I saw Wei looking at me.

“Didn’t you ask why we go on missions this dangerous when hunting nobles looks so risky?”

These people were under the protection of that sunlight.

As long as they remained beneath that sun, they should’ve been safe from vampires, and they also seemed to have plenty of food.

So I had wondered why they were carrying out missions that dangerous in the first place.

Only after hearing that did I realize what those two coffins were.

Those were—

‘...the nobles we hunted.’

They even collected the heads I had set down and placed them inside those coffins, then carried the coffins up to the second floor.

“At the time, we couldn’t trust you, so there was no way I could tell you.... But now things are different. The Chairman has acknowledged you, and more importantly... I saw the light pouring out of you with my own eyes.”

The coffins were set down in the middle of the second floor, near the place covered by the blackout screen.

“As you thought, we are safe from the vampires as long as we remain beneath that sun. But...”

Wei gave a bitter smile as he said it.

“Maintaining a sun that size... there’s no way it wouldn’t require fuel.”

“That means...”

“A mission that forces us to push deep into vampire territory. It’s dangerous beyond words, and in reality, many never come back. Under normal circumstances, of course we’d quit a mission like that.”

He shrugged.

“But unfortunately for us, ‘not doing it’ was never an option.”

The two Vice Chairmen on the second floor rose, received the corpses, and then—

slide—

...placed the nobles’ bodies and heads inside that blackout screen.

[I would like to offer my thanks, outsider.]

And then—

in the darkened chamber, at the very center of that wide circular room...

Whoooosh!!!

A massive blaze erupted.

The room, which had been filled with nothing but darkness, flooded with brilliant sunlight.

‘Dear God.’

It was a scene so radiant it seemed holy.

And a moment later—

Paaang!

That holy-looking flame shot straight upward into the sky.

[Thanks to you hunting our enemies for us.]

I couldn’t see it from here, but I could imagine what was happening outside.

[We will be able to remain under the grace of that light for a little longer....]

It was the moment the sun floating above that island grew even more intense.