And so.

The red mist that had covered the sky vanished completely.

And the countless vampires that had walked the earth disappeared as well.

Of course.

That did not mean the world had become peaceful.

“...Monsters have started appearing.”

“So it seems.”

Inside the city.

While everyone was busy treating the wounded and restoring facilities,

the two old men, Yun and Yang, spoke with frowns on their faces.

“All the monsters from before must have been cleaned up by those vampire bastards, so the ones appearing now are probably....”

“New ones that have started appearing.”

“As expected... even though so much time has passed since the Day of Ruin, monsters were still appearing.”

The greatest problem had been solved.

But countless problems still remained scattered everywhere.

There was a substantial number of wounded,

while every piece of infrastructure capable of keeping them fed had been smashed to pieces.

The food they had stockpiled, and the various electrical and food-production facilities they had built, had been steeped in radiation on that island and could never be used again.

Now, they were in a situation where they had to worry about immediate survival.

On top of that.

Even if the vampires that had ruled most of this nation had disappeared,

that did not mean they had gained the ability to occupy that land.

Immediately after the grand duke and all the bloodline members who followed him disappeared,

they had possessed one hundred percent occupation rights as the sole ruling force on this land.

That was why the system, too, had grown powerful enough to grant a massive reward with that strength.

“The Conquest War status board changed too. Monster forces we don’t even know the names of are occupying places all over the city. It even looks like the island we were on has been occupied by unidentified monsters.”

“Huh.”

Monsters that had begun appearing from somewhere were taking back those occupied territories again.

As time passed, stronger monsters appeared.

Killing them and once again reclaiming control over this entire continent...

would by no means be easy.

Then.

The two old men’s gazes turned toward one place.

“If that friend helps us... then perhaps it might not be a problem.”

The young child called the military medic.

And the man speaking with that child.

The one who had succeeded in doing what everyone had wanted, yet had believed absolutely impossible.

The one who had driven every vampire from this land.

By now, most people were already calling him the Guide, treating him as an incarnation of god and worshiping him. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

But.

“That friend was never from this place to begin with. The fact that he helped us this much already means we received an absurd amount of aid.”

Those vampires, too, had originally been a problem they themselves should have solved.

And yet they had solved it with another’s help.

“From now on... we have to make our own way.”

From now on, at least.

They would have to solve the problems they faced with their own hands.

“The road ahead is obvious misery.”

“That it is. Still....”

Old Man Yun looked around.

People were moving busily, carrying out their respective duties.

“It doesn’t seem impossible.”

Their eyes held passion and hope.

'Before, we were technically one organization too....'

In truth.

Their unity could not be called strong.

There had been many who suspected the identity of the one who had been their leader,

Karhin.

And as a result of all their true leaders disappearing,

there had also been countless people who disobeyed orders or harbored dissatisfaction.

They had merely gathered in one place to survive.

As a group, their cohesion had been extremely loose.

But.

Not anymore.

'Only now have they truly united.'

The incident they had experienced this time.

They had followed behind the Guide and fought together with one shared purpose.

As a result,

they had finally become truly united and were now able to function as a proper single force.

“Well, we have no choice but to try!”

Feeling hope from that fact,

Old Man Yang began moving.

“Then I’ll go get to work. You suffer too.”

“Right.”

Old Man Yang left like that.

And Old Man Yun, too,

was about to move off to handle the work piled up before him.

“...Old Man Yun.”

“Mm?”

But then.

“You are.”

A group of people approached him.

Seeing them, Old Man Yun spoke with a smile containing goodwill.

“You are the soldiers who followed the Guide.”

“Yes. You remember us.”

“There is no one who did not see you fight alongside us. How could I forget? But... what business do you have with me? I understood that you were preparing to leave for your homeland.”

At those words from Old Man Yun,

the figures in military uniforms—

and Jeong Sua, who stepped forward as their representative, opened her mouth.

“I heard that you were originally a mage who handled magic related to water.”

“Ah, that I was.”

“But I understand that is no longer the case. You changed your specialized domain to a power entirely different from your original field... in some ways, a power that could even be called its opposite.”

“You know even that much?”

As she said.

Old Man Yun’s main power had originally been related to water.

But now, he handled power related to the sun.

Most awakened followed the path of talent they were given at their first awakening.

One who awakened lightning magic would only have that magic strengthened upon reaching level 20, and even when reaching level 30, when each person’s field became specialized, that specialization would be in a direction related to lightning.

It was something most awakened accepted as natural and never questioned.

“It was not easy for me either.”

But.

Old Man Yun had twisted that law.

It had not been something he could do alone.

It was the result of his teacher’s guidance, and of the way he himself had continued to agonize and gain insight in order to resist ruin.

“...I understand that this land has many problems. In order to help resolve them, we will leave all the supplies we possess here.”

“...What did you say?”

“In exchange, we have one request.”

At those words, just as Old Man Yun was about to show his delight,

his gaze turned toward Jeong Sua.

“...Huh?”

And suddenly.

He realized one fact.

“...Surely, you are not.”

Old Man Yun’s mouth fell open blankly.

He himself had accomplished something judged impossible, but.

“You are capable of moving on to the next stage... and yet you are remaining there?”

What that woman was now doing was also in a realm beyond his understanding.

“Why would you do such an insane thing...!”

“The path currently presented to me is not the path I want. It is merely the path the system arranged for me long ago... before I had gained enlightenment.”

The woman who had realized something thought impossible from the start looked at him.

“That path is not wrong either, but... it is far too insufficient for following and helping him.”

“My God....”

“You saw it this time as well. He walks a path of sacrifice for our sake, coughing blood as he goes... and yet there is far too little we can do.”

In that gaze,

Old Man Yun felt an immeasurable depth of emotion.

“So.”

He too was now no different from a priest who served the sun.

“Please teach us the method by which you were able to alter that path.”

Yet even he could only be horrified by that faith—

a faith that could only be called madness.

****

“The emergency treatment for the critically wounded whose lives were in danger is finished. The rest are being recovered mainly by the healers, so before long, they should be able to treat all the wounded on their own.”

“Good work.”

“What work?”

Luca had been treating the wounded.

After hearing the report that the work was essentially entering its final stage,

I decided to carefully ask it something.

“About that serum you made.”

“...That thing? I assume you consumed it after all.”

“Uh... the effect was incredible. In both the good sense and the bad sense.”

The serum it had made for me.

As for that serum, not only the system but even the Progenitor had lavished praise on it.

A miraculous result that had only been possible because a healer on Luca’s level had been distorted into a being that did not care about means or methods, or something like that.

“The side effects in the bad sense seem to have been greater.”

But.

“...They were.”

I frowned as I spoke.

“I felt my existence... changing into something else.”

“......”

“Even as I came to hold a power I never could have imagined, I was also certain that I would not be the one to wield that power. So.”

It was something a little frightening.

But that situation had already been resolved.

So what mattered now was—

“Can you make something similar for the others... the ones who have already become vampires?”

“What do you mean by something similar?”

“A medicine that returns them to what they were before they became vampires. Or... a medicine that grants them powerful strength, like this serum.”

At those words,

Luca closed its eyes and shook its head.

“Unfortunately, a large part of why that serum could take effect was because the patient was the Legion Commander.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Legion Commander, you had that vampire’s blood flowing inside your body, and yet you were not actually a vampire.”

According to the Progenitor,

the reason its descendants were degraded compared to it was not something it had intended.

It had said it was because of the curses of other beings who hated the Progenitor.

“Thanks to that, the malice aimed at that blood was thin in your case.”

“Ah.”

I, too, had that blood inside my body.

But the race displayed in my status window was “Human Species?”

In other words,

for now, I was closer to being human.

“It was possible because you were such a special case. Even I cannot overcome the malice contained in that blood, you see.”

Because of that,

even though I could handle a vampire’s power,

that curse had not been able to have much effect on me.

“It likely would not mean much even if others consumed the serum I gave you. To begin with... considering that special production method, making more is impossible. The same applies even to an inferior version.”

“What kind of production method was it?”

“Do you want to hear it? As a warning, it will not be a pleasant story.”

“...No. Forget it.”

“As for returning a species to what it was... I can research it, but with my current self... it will not be easy.”

“...I see.”

After hearing that,

I scratched my head and stepped away from it.

“That’s what it says.”

Then.

As I entered the shadow of a half-collapsed building, I opened my mouth.

“Too bad for you.”

And at my words—

-It is not that disappointing.

A voice came from within the building’s shadow.

-Even now, I can barely handle digesting the blood I took from that grand duke. Even if there were a way to grow stronger from here, it would likely be difficult with the vessel I have now.

“There was also a way to enlarge that vessel.”

The three drops of blood that had been inside the grand duke’s body.

If she had taken that blood,

Ariella could have instantly become a being of another realm.

...Just as I had.

“I destroyed it myself.”

But.

I had destroyed that chance with my own hands.

By exposing it beneath that sun and erasing it from this world without leaving even a trace behind.

The reason was simple.

'Because I didn’t want to hand Ariella over to the Progenitor.'

That was all.

Nothing more.

“Are you... fine with that?”

-More than fine.

At my words,

Ariella chuckled.

-Thanks to your help, I reunited with Bella... and spoke with her. Bella, too, said she did not want to lose another bond by being bound to an existence of the past... to the Progenitor.

“...I see.”

-I, too, do not wish to grow stronger by following the will of the Progenitor who abandoned Bella. Even if I increase my strength, it will not be in a way that follows that being’s path.

“If you grew stronger that way, you could become free even beneath sunlight.”

-Is that not the part least worth worrying about?

From within the shadow.

I could feel her gaze on me.

-For that freedom is something you promised to give me one day.

“...The more I think about it, the more I feel like I made a pointless promise.”

-Haha, it will hardly be an ordinary difficulty. Even I thought you were out of your mind when I saw you swear something like that as an oath.

After saying that much,

she suddenly stopped speaking.

-...Yes. Since you did something so out of your mind for me.

And, a moment later.

Sssrrrk....

“I, too.”

She, who had been hiding in the shadow of the building,

revealed herself before me.

“Must repay you for it.”

“Hm?”

Wondering what she meant by that,

I stared at her blankly.

“Haa, no matter how I think about it, this seems like madness too....”

“...You?”

“Still, my heart appears to lead me this way.”

Then.

She gently knelt before me.

Her knee touched the dust-covered floor.

“My only friend, and the sole heir of Isabella....”

The moment she opened her mouth,

Woooong—

the air around us surged violently.

“And the lord of my shadowed territory, Vimanaro.”

A vibration of mana.

The mana that answered her declaration surged greatly, circling around me and her.

“The head of the Karshtein Bloodline.”

I knew this phenomenon very well.

Of course I did.

Because.

“In the name of Ariella Vimanaro Karshtein, captain of the royal guard of the great [Steel Legion], I swear.”

...I had experienced this phenomenon once before.

“I and my bloodline shall swear eternal loyalty to you.”

The mana leaking from her body and circling the area touched my body.

And formed a single line connecting me and Ariella.

[An existence from another world swears absolute loyalty to you!]

[This oath was made of its own will, without any force or coercion.]

[This utterly pure promise shall never be broken by any external pressure!]

Unlike the one that had been shattered so meaninglessly by the grand duke’s hand,

it was a far more beautiful, far sturdier line.

[You have obtained a retainer connected to you by oath.]

[Vampire Marquis - Ariella Vimanaro Karshtein]

[Treat your retainer with care, and raise her well!]

[Alongside you, she may become a companion who reaches an even higher realm.]

The Oath of Retainers settled into place once more.