After being shut inside the coffin, only silence flowed on.

A space with nothing in it but darkness.

A deep abyss where even the passage of time could not be felt.

She had heard of it before.

The zealots who considered even death too merciful for vampires.

A special secret art they had created, or something along those lines.

'And yet a holy knight of the Empire, which bargains with vampires, is using such a technique.'

What a ridiculous thing it was.

In that darkness,

the only thing Ariella could do was sink into her own inner self.

'The frontier settlement....'

The first thing that came to mind was the oldest memory of her childhood.

'A place where useless humans were thrown away.'

The nation where she had been born.

The Empire had abandoned her.

'Mother... was she beautiful, the way Bella said?'

The mother who had given birth to her, and—

'If Father had held on to me back then... would anything have changed?'

her father as well.

He had abandoned her too.

'Bella....'

The friend who had been all but everything in her life had abandoned her.

'......'

Everything in the world had abandoned her.

Which was no different from saying the world she had been born into had cast her aside.

'Why?'

In the darkness.

Deep inside her.

...An emotion born from the souls she had drunk.

'Why am I the one....'

Anger surged up.

She had always lived a life of being abandoned.

And the reason it had always been that way was probably—

'Because... I was the one meant to be discarded.'

A subject of the Empire.

The child of a father and mother.

The Grand Duke's toy.

She had only been abandoned because she had been in a position where she could be abandoned in the first place.

There was nothing strange about throwing away a toy once it grew old and worn.

She had simply hated becoming aware that she was a toy.

If that was the cause, then the solution was simple too.

'I just have to become the one who throws others away.'

Grow stronger.

Rise above everyone else.

If she built a kingdom of her own, one that belonged neither to a subject of the Empire nor to a member of the bloodline, and became its king, then she would no longer have to be the one cast aside.

Because she herself would become the one who cast things aside.

And if she built a kingdom of her own that way, then when that time came, the Empire that had abandoned her, and the bloodline as well—

she would destroy them all.

'Someday.'

In the darkness, yearning endlessly for that day alone, she fell into a deep sleep.

And then.

How much time had passed?

Creeeak....

The coffin lid opened, and the outside world appeared.

A world completely unlike her hometown.

"So?"

And from there—

"Now that you're the one doing the abandoning, how does it feel?"

a voice rang out.

***

"Now that you're the one doing the abandoning, how does it feel?"

Along with those words, a monster lunged at me from the side.

{How dare you try to approach the Marquis!}

Kaaang!

I barely blocked the attack and was shoved back.

Still,

I'd already achieved my goal with that.

-......

I could feel Ariella's gaze turning toward me.

The one that had been buried in memories of the past up until a moment ago had finally snapped back to its senses because of what I said.

When I got close to it and came into contact with that dense mana, the memories of the past it had been seeing flowed into my mind too.

The parts of its past it had quietly never wanted to speak about.

'...This one always did have an unusually strong drive to become stronger.'

Even while it was being ruled by that lingering thought.

Even when it fought me.

Even after it had submitted to me.

It had been the same every time.

Only now did I understand why.

Because it had always been the one abandoned.

Because it wanted to become the kind of existence that could abandon someone else.

But—

"It doesn't feel all that good, does it?"

-......

The reason it had suddenly started sinking into its memories... was probably the moment it chose to abandon me.

"To the point you couldn't even bear to watch me be abandoned yourself."

It couldn't face the choice it had made.

So it had closed its eyes and drifted back into the past, firming up the anger and hatred it carried, and the longing for the goal born from them.

-So what are you trying to say?

And then—

had that long recollection actually had that much of an effect?

-I've already made up my mind. I'm sorry about this, but... by abandoning you, I will climb to a higher [N O V E L I G H T] place.

"Hah, you're really going to say it that outright? That's harsh."

-I won't ask you to understand. But... never again will I stand on the side that gets abandoned.

Kaaang!

Attacks were still flying in from all directions.

The fight hadn't even been going for thirty minutes yet, but my whole body already felt exhausted.

Grinding my teeth, I knocked those attacks aside and thought,

'Abandoned, huh.'

Sure.

Considering what this one had gone through, I could understand why it was angry like this.

But—

"A little while ago, I met a vampire named Karhin."

-......?

"I heard a few things from that one."

From the memories I'd seen, I recalled something I'd heard not long ago.

"One was about some crazy man."

A man who had suddenly appeared in the imperial capital one day,

then trained with monstrous obsession until he honed his strength to a level no one could even approach.

And then one day, that man had suddenly headed into vampire territory.

Instead of killing some lower-ranking noble that wouldn't have been hard to put down, he had deliberately sealed one away and come back with it.

After that, he vanished without a trace.

"And another was about some crazy Grand Duke."

In order to find a coffin said to exist somewhere in the Empire—

the foremost of all human nations—

that Grand Duke had brazenly crawled under the sun, the weakness of the bloodline,

brought that vast Empire completely to ruin, and in the end burned away beneath the daylight.

-What are you talking about?

"Nothing much."

This one seemed to think it had been abandoned.

But maybe—

"I'm just thinking you've got plenty to answer for too."

maybe it hadn't simply been abandoned by everyone.

"I'll tell you about it later."

But this wasn't something to talk about right now.

Later... no.

Once we got out of this battlefield, I might be able to tell it everything.

But not now.

For one thing—

"So you hate being abandoned, and that's why you want to become the one who abandons others?"

-......?

"Isn't that method a little too extreme?"

If this one's motive was not wanting to be abandoned,

"There's an easier way."

Then maybe—

I could use that motive.

"Become someone who absolutely can't be abandoned."

-What did you...?

"You know, I'm a pretty greedy guy."

The hand swinging my blade through monsters was starting to tremble, but I still forced a confident grin and said,

"As you can see, this world is such a wreck that I'm not in any position to throw things away easily. So... I'm planning to take along as many as I can."

Well.

When you were making a recruiting pitch, you couldn't exactly look unsure of yourself.

"The Grand Duke isn't like that."

The Grand Duke was already a being with immense power.

Even if Ariella had value, there would be no reason to keep holding on to it after that value ran out.

"I'm different."

-......I'm sure you are.

And—

Ariella probably knew that already too.

That was why I'd brought it up, but—

-And what about you?

the answer that came back was full of distrust.

"I told you. I'm not in any position to throw things away and move on from them...."

-Right now, my existence must certainly be important to you.

Vampires lived a long time.

This one alone,counting the years it had spent sealed in that coffin, had lived an absurdly long time.

And because of that—

-What happens... after this world stabilizes?

"......"

It could see a distant future I still couldn't properly imagine for myself.

***

-I'm a vampire. A bloodsucker. Both I and my bloodline, in the end, must feed on the blood and souls of the living... people like you.

"......"

-I'm different even from the other nonhuman races beneath you. Once this chaos is settled... after that, vampires who might devour their own companions could be marked as the next source of disorder.

Hearing that, I thought back.

Not long ago, this one had gone out of its way to urge me to create an escort force made up of humans.

Because, as a resident of the night, it believed it and the Legion moved on an entirely different track.

This one was clearly aware of the difference between itself and the Legion.

...And aware that it wasn't a difference that could be easily solved.

'...Once it grew strong enough under me, it probably planned to break away from me too.'

Because someday I'd abandon it too.

It had probably thought it might need to run before that day came.

-As you say, the Grand Duke may abandon me. But the same is true of you. If you're greedy, then the Grand Duke is the same.

"......"

-If that's the case, then I'll choose the side where I can seize power faster. Even if I'm abandoned someday... this side, where I may be abandoned sooner, is at least a little better.

Only after hearing that did I finally realize it.

'I'd been thinking about it the wrong way.'

Saying the Grand Duke would discard you in the end.

Saying the goal was to devour you.

'Words like that were never going to persuade this one in the first place.'

From the start, that might have been a reason to leave the Grand Duke.

But it wasn't a reason to follow me.

What I had to offer this one was not a reason not to follow the Grand Duke, but—

'a reason to follow me.'

The certainty that I would never abandon it.

So—

after a brief moment of thought,

Slice—

I cut down one of the monsters rushing in from the side.

[The effects of Frenzy have ended.]

Along with that, the effects of Frenzy ended too.

The strength that had filled my body vanished, and the healing ability that had been instantly mending even severe injuries fell to less than half.

"......I promise."

As wounds from the battle rapidly piled up, I looked in the direction where it was and said,

"I will never abandon my people."

-......

"And I'll make you a king, just like you want."

Maybe it was the strain from forcing [Frenzy] too hard.

I didn't even have enough strength left to properly activate a skill, but—

[Divine power—]

At that moment, an ashen-gray light leaked out from my body.

"Under me, your kingdom will live side by side with my people."

There were those who were human and yet hated humans, standing with the vampires.

And there were those who were vampires and yet hated vampires, dreaming of revenge.

The distinction between races meant nothing.

What mattered was where the heart chose to go.

-Do you even understand what you're saying?

"You bet I do!"

Vampires and humans were hunter and prey.

Residents of the night and residents of the day.

A relationship that could never coexist.

Making that work would never be easy.

But—

"Not long ago."

I looked up at the sky.

A vast red mist.

"I met the sun."

-What...?

The sun that had to be somewhere beyond it.

"It seemed to know me."

Because of that, I'd gotten a chance to borrow and use that power.

And then—

"I felt how that power is made."

I understood why the sun was hostile to them, and why that power was fatal to them.

"The people of your kingdom will be able to walk under the sun of day. Just like my other people."

-Impossible. What empty arrogance...!

"It's not arrogance."

In place of my lacking mana, [divine power] gathered in my hand.

I drove that radiant light into the flesh of the monster I was holding.

[The dish is complete!]

What I had created

was a single dish made from vampire flesh.

[Skill - Absolute Taste's second effect activates.]

[Please select the ability you desire!]

Crunch.

The moment I bit into the dish, a message appeared before my eyes.

And among those countless abilities, I chose one line without hesitation.

Something that had been bound to my body until not long ago, only to be destroyed in a hollow instant.

[Oath]

That trait.