Paaaaaak...

Mist came plunging down from the sky as if it were being driven in like a spike.

That mist wrapped itself around Jinlei and dragged him up into the air.

“Ah, ahhh...!”

At that sight,

Karhin—hidden beneath a blackout shroud, keeping out of the light—let out a scream.

“Grand Duke!”

[Ingredient Appraisal (Enhanced)]

[Kirchhoff’s Mist]

And.

The moment I saw that mist trying to carry Jinlei away—

“...Huff.”

—I scraped together every last bit of strength I had left and swung the weapon in my hand.

Clang!

Even though it was a full-power strike,

the blade bounced off as if it had slammed into a solid wall.

'...Mist that could block even a nuclear explosion and that sunlight couldn’t pass through.'

My blade,

obviously, wasn’t going to be an exception.

'This is some kind of safeguard.'

Judging from the timing of when the mist came down, the odds were low that the Grand Duke had been watching from somewhere and sent it down in real time.

More likely, it had been set up to protect Jinlei if certain conditions were met.

It wouldn’t activate against attacks Jinlei could resist on his own.

But if an unavoidable mortal threat came for him,

or if he was about to be completely seized by someone else, it would trigger.

'That ability didn’t activate while Jinlei could still resist on his own.'

When I first cut through Jinlei’s head, it had looked dangerous enough.

But in that situation, Jinlei had avoided death himself through [Mistform].

Even though Ariella’s blood had to be a pretty valuable resource on their side,

he had still spent that blood to resist.

'That safeguard was something they wanted to conserve and trigger only as a last resort.'

And as for why—

it wasn’t hard to guess.

“L-look over there!”

“...W-what the hell!?”

The massive wall of sunshades that had been blocking our route of movement.

Beyond that wall, countless vampires had been waiting.

The awakened who’d eaten my cooking were butchering them, sure,

but farther back—well beyond the reach of my sun—the number of vampires standing by was absolutely enormous.

But then—

“Ah, ahhh.”

—from the far side, horrible screams began to ring out.

“No, no, nooooooo!!!”

“Hot, it’s hot...!”

“Kraaaagh...!”

Cries filled with pain,

which I could understand because I was using [Mental Language].

Hearing them, I raised my head and looked up at the sky.

The sky, which had originally let in not a single trace of light because of that dark red mist.

And now, in that sky—

“There’s a hole...”

—a giant hole had opened up.

Paaaaaaaaang!!!

And through it, the light of the sun spilled down and touched the earth.

Not some pathetic imitation made by the likes of me.

Real sunlight.

'That mist was being used to block the sun.'

Part of that mist had come down to the ground.

And that meant that the same amount of space had to open up in the mist covering the sky in order to retrieve Jinlei.

“G-Grand Duke...”

The sun overhead was higher than the one I had made,

and it illuminated far more land.

Even the sunshades they’d built couldn’t block all of that light.

“Why... us...?!”

Beneath the sunshades,

and even in the distant reaches where my sun couldn’t touch,

the countless red eyes that had gathered to threaten us were wiped out in an instant by the light pouring through that hole in the sky.

“......”

“......”

Into a world that had been nothing but darkness,

not the gray-white light I’d made...

but that thing which had once been utterly ordinary—

real sunlight seeped in.

“W-we...!”

And.

Whatever that sight stirred up inside them—

“WOOOOOOOOOO!!!”

“It’s the real thing, the real sun!”

The awakened who had been staring blankly at the sky started shouting through tears.

“The red clouds that never disappeared even once since that day are gone!”

“Ahh, it’s dazzling. Too dazzling...!”

They cheered at that light like they were on fire from the inside out.

That sunlight was so intense it was practically enough to blind them.

“...It was our great Guide!”

Maybe that was why they stared into it until they were nearly blind.

“He took the sky back from those vampire bastards!”

“Ahhh!”

“He truly is the sun itself, the light that guides us...!”

It looked like they’d mistaken me for the one who created that opening,

and now they were looking at me with strange, glowing eyes.

But.

I didn’t have the room to correct that misunderstanding.

Because when I looked at that light, I couldn’t help thinking about something else.

'...That’s a massive expenditure.'

No matter how close their forces were to being infinite, they still must have deployed something close to full strength in this area to stop us.

There had to be plenty of nobles among the ones waiting on the far side too.

'To go this far...'

They had just lost an absurd amount of force in a single instant.

'That means they absolutely have to secure Jinlei!'

Sure, Jinlei’s ability was a great matchup against vampires and could even make him their natural enemy.

But it still wasn’t enough to justify an army that massive.

If they wanted to secure Jinlei at that cost, then there had to be some other reason.

Right before he was taken by that mist,

Jinlei, still obedient to my orders, had definitely said—

'Thanks to your precious Count suddenly appearing, I’ve been pushed back to Plan B... but originally, I was the Grand Duke’s first plan.'

Until Ariella showed up,

the plan the Grand Duke had valued above all else.

'The Grand Duke is a greedy one. He is not the kind to hand me over obediently to someone else.'

For the sake of that plan.

***

'To need Jinlei badly enough to burn through that many troops... what the hell is it for?'

This was just a hunch, but if we weren’t prepared for whatever this part was, then even if the plan I had in mind right now succeeded, in the end, the ones who would lose would still be us.

The problem was,

I couldn’t think of anything right away.

“Guide!”

Just then, a voice cut into my concentration.

“Please tell us.”

When I turned my head at the sound, beneath the light of the sun I had made—

“Where are you trying to guide us?”

“......!”

Every survivor and awakened in this land—

that vast number of humans, numbering in the hundreds of thousands—

had dropped to their knees and bowed toward me.

'Ah.'

Only then did I realize they had misunderstood something.

I was not the one who had opened that hole in the sky just now.

If anything, it wouldn’t be wrong to say it had been done by the Grand Duke they hated more than anyone.

But then—

“Do not reveal it.”

At that moment.

In my ear—no.

'...Karhin?'

A small voice sounded directly in my brain.

“Amazing. What I could not accomplish in several months despite giving it everything I had, you achieved in only a few days.”

Karhin, hidden among my men beneath # Nоvеlight # the blackout cloth,

looked around with a strange expression and said,

“Faith has taken root in their hearts.”

“...Faith?”

“The miracle you showed them has breathed belief in the sun into the hearts of these unbelievers.”

These awakened had learned anti-vampire techniques from Karhin.

But by Karhin’s standards, those techniques had only been third-rate.

And the reason for that was simple.

“Because they had no faith.”

“......”

“But now it is different.”

Whether it was real or false,

they had witnessed a miracle with their own eyes.

Great miracles that even Karhin, who had protected them for so long, had never been able to show them.

“If the teachings of the two Vice Chairmen are added to this, then all of them... will be able to wield the [Paladin Secret Art].”

“......!”

“Not some imitation patched together by using your cooking to fill in the missing parts, but the true secret art.”

The source of the power that had allowed the humanity of Karhin’s world to stand against vampires for so long.

That meant those countless awakened would now be able to master that secret art.

“So please... do not betray their faith.”

And.

That was why—

“Seize that flamboyant act of self-harm by Grand Duke Valarak and turn it into your miracle. Drive a wedge with that miracle into the faith now taking root inside them.”

Karhin was telling me to play the part of a miracle worker.

The reason was simple.

“So that the humanity of this land can survive.”

The identity he had never been able to cast away to the very end.

A means for humanity to survive.

“And.”

Also—

“The maggot that murdered the Grand Duke, that thing that should never have been born. That foolish, stupid, revolting abomination.”

His eyes were fixed on one place above us.

“So that Valarak can be butchered...!”

A sharp weapon that could strike the one who ruled those red clouds.

***

'Don’t reveal it, huh.'

At those words, I thought it over for a moment.

Just as Karhin said,

if I took that miracle for my own and succeeded in driving faith into them,

then we’d gain a powerful force capable of resisting the vampires.

But—

'The [Secret Art] consumes the user’s vital energy.'

Whether giving them the ability to use power like that would truly be a good thing for them or not,

I couldn’t choose lightly.

“Guide. Do not feel guilty.”

At some point,

Karhin had naturally started calling me Guide.

He said,

“I did not hide the burden of this power from my three disciples in this land. Even so, they accepted this power willingly.”

A power that would absolutely place a tremendous burden on those who used it.

And yet they had still chosen to accept it.

“Because they themselves wanted to resist this ruin.”

Because they had resolved to carry that burden.

“Guide. You may be leading them, but do not forget this. They are not children you must protect.”

At that,

I remembered some advice I had heard before.

“They are, just like you, people struggling to survive in this ruin.”

Words once given to me by an adviser inside those dreams I hadn’t been able to have for a while.

'Don’t carry it all alone.'

That was right.

They were all people struggling to survive on this land.

I would lead them and move with them, but I didn’t need to carry everything for them.

They too were people prepared to bear the weight that belonged to them.

I closed my eyes for a moment and thought.

Then.

Nod.

“Ahh, thank you.”

Looking at Karhin, I gave him a small nod.

'There are two reasons I accepted Karhin’s proposal.'

One was, just as Karhin said, to borrow the power of that secret art.

But—

'Only once.'

The amount of vital energy consumed by the [Secret Art] was enormous.

I had no intention of making them use that power over and over.

Just once.

I would borrow the power of the [Secret Art] they were about to gain.

“Ahh, O Guide who came to us from a distant foreign land!”

And.

There was a second reason I accepted that proposal too.

“Anywhere is fine. Please guide us there!”

“Let us follow in your footsteps!”

Deeply moved by the miracles unfolding before their eyes, they looked at me with faces full of reverence.

Spreading both arms, I looked at them and spoke.

“So be it.”

“...Ahhh!”

“I will lead you to safe land!”

“Guide!!!”

Just as Karhin had called it faith, they displayed such intense belief that it looked like they’d walk into any pit of fire if I told them to.

As I watched them, I thought,

'Honestly... I’d already been wondering what to do about this anyway.'

Ever since the moment I decided to escape that island, there was something I’d been thinking about the whole time.

“However!”

This continent was filled with the Grand Duke’s bloodline.

It wouldn’t be wrong to say that enemies were everywhere.

Now that even that island had fallen, there was probably not a single place left without vampires.

“When we arrive in that land, you will come to doubt me.”

“...What?”

But.

There was one place.

“Guide, what do you mean by that?!”

It was still full of vampires, sure.

Even so, there was one place on this continent that was comparatively safe.

“Remember only one thing.”

...The problem was, whether these people would like that place or not was a separate issue.

“You must never abandon your faith in me!”