“......”
For a brief moment,
Ariella looked at her half-dying Master and weighed her options.
“If the Master dies here...”
On this otherworldly land,
she could found a kingdom of her own.
No matter the vassal’s pledge,
even if she failed to save her Master now...
that pledge would not break.
****
How much she could do, once freed if he died—
she had finished every calculation.
“...Haa.”
After a short hesitation,
Ariella knit her brows and let out a sigh.
“Fine... Even if I did build a kingdom like that, what joy would there be?”
Imagining a kingdom of her own...
was quite delightful,
but—
“I’d just end up drinking tasteless blood every day.”
As for imagining the life after that—well.
Spending every day eating nothing but bad food—
it would be a boring life.
From the start,
there was only one reason she became a vassal.
Sergeant Shin Youngjun.
To eat the dishes he made...
she had offered up even herself.
“Haa... O pledge.”
As if making excuses,
she muttered to the air,
“As a vassal I surely cannot harm my Master. I understand that as well.”
She opened her mouth wide,
baring her fangs.
“So take this as proof I have no intent to do him harm...”
And those lips—
“—and judge kindly!”
Crunch!
She drove them into Shin Youngjun’s nape.
“As fast as possible...!”
A vampire’s instinct naturally found the vessel.
Keen teeth pierced the skin and tore the vein.
Ordinarily,
to pierce the skin of the master bound by a pledge and tear a vein—
that would be absolutely impossible.
But
the vassal’s pledge
recognized this act as not hostile.
“At this rate, it’s a guaranteed death.”
In that case—
this human called Shin Youngjun...
“If it’s the Master, even if he accidentally stops being human... he’d still judge it better than dying!”
Blood steeped in miasma and thoughts
raced through the veins—then ran down Ariella’s throat.
And the space it left
began to be filled by the blood of a vampire viscount.
****
Sergeant Shin Youngjun was pickled through, down to his innards, in thoughts like miasma.
Without Nepenthes, it wouldn’t have been strange if he’d already turned into a handful of blood.
To save someone who’d ended up like that,
Ariella had only one method she could choose.
“Uugh, disgusting...”
She gulped down
all the blood running his body—blood steeped in miasma—
and in its place
she filled him with the intact blood of a vampire viscount.
Even as she injected blood,
cold sweat ran as she checked the concentration of blood circulating inside her Master.
“As carefully as possible...”
She did not imbue it with the mana of domination used to make a vassal.
Even so,
Sergeant Shin Youngjun had already had a considerable amount of his blood replaced with a vampire’s.
With the slightest misstep,
he could become a complete vampire.
Not long ago,
when the “demon contractors” changed jobs, what happened then comes to mind.
“If the Master becomes a vampire, the cooking also disappears.”
If that happened,
her effort to save him, when she could have left him to die, would all be for nothing.
So she—ever so carefully—
drank and refilled while checking her Master’s condition.
Until the miasma in his body had drained,
and what remained could be overcome by his now-stronger regeneration.
****
“...How many hours has it been?”
“It’s about time he should be back.”
After Sergeant Shin Youngjun headed underground, leaving the soldiers behind,
the rest of the soldiers had no choice but to return to the surface.
Even if the protective suits blocked some of the miasma, they couldn’t keep waiting down there.
“I’d like to know what happened while I was out...”
Only recently sprung from the infirmary,
Sergeant Lee Minjae sighed.
“...How about the guild messages?”
“Still no reply.”
When Sergeant Lee Minjae asked Corporal Seo Suhyeok,
Corporal Seo answered with a calm face.
“...Dammit! Then we shouldn’t just be sitting here!”
Hearing that,
the soldiers couldn’t remain calm.
Those gathered here were the elite among the legion’s elite.
All the more so,
they were the ones who had lived the longest at Sergeant Shin Youngjun’s side.
“Let’s form a rescue team.”
Led by Corporal Jeon Gwangil,
soldiers prepared to reinsert into the depths.
“Understood. Grab your rations, and as soon as you’re ready...”
Even the other squad leaders who’d hesitated to dispatch a rescue team because of the danger
broke into a cold sweat at the fact that Sergeant Shin still hadn’t returned by this hour and moved to form the team.
In Sergeant Shin Youngjun’s absence, the one who ordinarily held delegated authority was Sergeant Lee Minjae.
When he gave the order and the soldiers were about to move at once—
“Hold it.”
“Huh?”
The vast hole the Vein that Devours Steel had bored.
A man was looking down into the depths through that hole.
“Hold it?”
“This is urgent—what are you saying, Corporal Seo Suhyeok!”
Corporal Seo Suhyeok
stopped the soldiers.
“No rescue team.”
“No rescue team...! I know you’ve butted heads with the commander now and then, but still.”
“Ms. Lee Sanga... is this really the time to be talking nonsense?”
Corporal Seo cut Lee Sanga off with a tone of disbelief,
then looked to the soldiers instead.
“Everyone here—run and bring back the medics and the chaplain as fast as you can.”
“...Yes. All of us, though?”
“Yes. Everyone but squad leaders.”
There’s no way you need that many soldiers to fetch medics.
Even so, when ordered to send them all, the soldiers were puzzled—
“The senior gave an order... why aren’t you moving?”
“...!”
“You’ve got three seconds. If anyone’s still here after three, I’ll personally—”
“R-right away!”
Among the squad leaders, Corporal Seo Suhyeok was known as one of the scariest.
When he glared and gave the order,
the soldiers had no time to show puzzlement and had to sprint out at once.
“...Why send the soldiers away all of a sudden? What’s going on?”
“Isn’t it obvious.”
After the soldiers were gone,
only the squad leaders remained in the Gate’s broad chamber.
“He’s coming up.”
“...!”
Without taking his eyes off the depths below,
Corporal Seo Suhyeok answered.
A dark, deep underground mine.
Even for Awakened, it was an environment where you’d be hard-pressed to make anything out—
but
“the unit’s best sniper...”
A man with the ability to snipe enemies not just kilometers,
but tens of kilometers away with the naked eye.
Corporal Seo Suhyeok had caught something rising from below.
“Sergeant Shin!? As expected of Sergeant Shin... he made it back even from down there!”
“Wait.”
At that, Corporal Jeon Gwangil smiled in relief,
but Sergeant Lee Minjae frowned and asked:
“Then why send the soldiers away?”
“Two reasons. First, because he ‘didn’t make it back in one piece.’”
“...So he’s injured. And the second?”
“Because it’s not just the sergeant who’s coming up.”
“...?”
There wasn’t even time to parse what he meant.
Moments later,
what appeared before the squad leaders—
“...”
was Sergeant Shin Youngjun,
and the figure with him slung over a shoulder—
“...”
even wearing the legion’s uniform,
couldn’t hide the aura between.
“A vampire.”
“...Hmph.”
A blonde woman.
Sergeant Shin Youngjun’s vassal,
and the Iron Legion’s unit leaders—
two forces that had acted in separate spheres until now—
met eyes.
“Right. That’s a reason to shoo the rankers away.”
Unlike regular soldiers,
the squad leaders knew of the vampire’s existence.
But seeing her with their own eyes was exceedingly rare.
“They only knew he turned the irredeemable criminals into vampires...”
Only Sergeant Lee Minjae, at best,
had seen her yield absolutely to Sergeant Shin Youngjun’s orders.
What Sergeant Shin Youngjun was doing, using that vampire—
not a single one of them knew in detail.
“A monster that used to eat humans...”
“What a presence. She’s on a totally different level from the last time we fought.”
From their perspective,
that vampire was still nothing more than the monster who had killed their comrades in the past.
A short silence followed.
The one who broke it first—
“What are you doing?”
“...?”
“Your Master... your commander—he’s been invaded by miasma. Why aren’t you dealing with it at once?”
—was the vampire viscount.
“...!”
At that,
the squad leaders looked to Sergeant Shin Youngjun.
Their commander, unconscious.
Since he often keeled over when he overused [Absolute Palate], the fainting itself wasn’t strange—
but—
“What miasma...!”
The miasma they felt from his body
was anything but ordinary.
“She’s right. Over here, now!”
The first to rush in was Corporal Jeon Gwangil.
Ssssk...
Receiving Shin Youngjun from Ariella, Corporal Jeon Gwangil
slung the sergeant over his shoulder—
and even though he wore a protective suit,
he recoiled at the sensation of the suit scorching.
“The protective suits the Production Triad finished with all their might... melting from this!?”
Cold sweat beaded as he
glanced at the vampire and spoke.
“At this level of miasma, you can’t be fine either.”
“...Hmph.”
“Thanks for looking after the sergeant. I’ll take it from here.”
Whether the suit melted or not,
Corporal Jeon Gwangil shouldered him and headed out.
He would pass him to the medics coming this way as fast as possible.
“Jeon Gwangil!”
Just as Corporal Jeon Gwangil braced to hurl his body forward—
from behind, Corporal Seo Suhyeok called out advice.
“Private Sa Eijun and Private Shin Jungsoo! Only those two!”
“What?”
“Don’t let the other soldiers see the sergeant like this!”
Private Sa Eijun and Private Shin Jungsoo—
they were, respectively, the heads of the medic and priest cadres among the healer-line Awakened.
If the legion’s organization was further subdivided, they had more than enough ability to serve as leads of a healing unit.
With their healing skills, even Sergeant Shin Youngjun as he was could be saved.
“The key point isn’t just the healing skills.”
Those two had lived with Sergeant Shin since the 423rd Battalion.
They too admired and were overwhelmed by his achievements—
but they clearly understood he was a being who could be hurt.
“Lately there are many soldiers leaning on the sergeant’s fame. News that he’s taken a critical wound should be limited to those two.”
“...I’ll try.”
Fwoom!
With the unit’s best physical ability, the corporal sprinted toward the incoming medics.
He, at least,
could get the sergeant to the medics in time.
After Corporal Jeon Gwangil vanished,
the squad leaders and the vampire glared at one another.
“What an awful miasma...”
“Just ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) being here for a moment makes it hard to breathe in this chamber...?”
Sergeant Shin’s time in the chamber had been very short,
and yet the residue alone made even squad leaders in protective suits struggle to breathe.
“I’ve done my part. The rest is yours.”
“...Wait.”
“Mm?”
The vampire was about to slip into the shadows as if she had no further business.
Lee Sanga asked her:
“I don’t know what happened down there... but did the commander head somewhere with miasma so bad even he could hardly endure it?”
“...And if he did?”
At that,
Lee Sanga asked in shock:
“Then why didn’t you stop him...!”
“Hm?”
“I heard you saved your life in return for swearing fealty to the commander. In that case, you should’ve stopped him before he ended up like that!”
With sharp eyes,
she stared at the vampire.
“Don’t tell me you figured it’d be to your benefit if the commander died and you were free, so—”
“Oh? Child. You seem rather clever.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“It means: how did you know I had such thoughts.”
“...You!”
Lee Sanga, furious, started to draw her shears—
but the vampire laughed lightly and stayed her hand.
“Calm yourself, calm. Well, it’s not as if I didn’t have those thoughts.”
“...What!”
“But I never said I didn’t try to stop him, did I?”
“......”
“You know this too, don’t you? My Master isn’t the sort who stops because someone tells him to.”
Ariella recalled Shin Youngjun’s face as she dragged him up.
A human letting out pained groans.
“Of course I tried to stop him. The Master went down anyway.”
What beggared belief was—
he had, to a degree, foreseen that he would suffer such pain.
“...Haa. So that’s how it was.”
“Youngjun, that bastard... always pushing it.”
Whether because he doesn’t fear death or what—Ariella didn’t know.
She had thought him recklessly foolish.
But afterward,
Ariella drank Shin Youngjun’s blood.
And—
“Blood contains a little of the being’s soul and memories.”
Why he had tried to do such a thing—
she could, belatedly, understand.
“To grant the god’s remains down there... an honest death.”
After suffering what he had suffered himself,
to the being writhing in pain without a proper death—
to bring it peace.
“Still a foolish thing, all the same, but...”
It wasn’t even for himself—it was for another.
An arrogant, overbearing vampire could not understand staking one’s life on that.
Even so—
“from the god’s remains’ point of view, it might feel sublime.”
She herself would never do it,
but she had no choice except to admit
that the act had its value.
Hoo.
She sighed and spoke.
“Know that you’re fortunate.”
“What?”
“You lot here are less so, but... wander the fortress’s shadows and you’ll find those who don’t know enough to be grateful.”
“......”
“It’s something people seem to forget—that having someone like the Master shelter you is something tremendous, something to be thankful for. Take it to heart.”
Having finished her task, as if she had no more business,
she began to slip meekly into a corner of darkness.
Just before she vanished from sight entirely—
“Ah. One more thing.”
She left a last piece of advice.
“The Master is an extraordinary person, yes—but don’t load too much onto him just because of that.”
“......”
“He’s awfully tough, but the tougher they are, the easier they can snap. Sometimes you need to let him relax a little. Every time I see him, it worries me, tsk.”
Leaving only those words behind,
the vampire vanished completely from view.
The squad leaders kept their guard up,
watching that darkness until she was gone from the shadows.
Moments later—
“Don’t give him too much to carry, huh...”
Sergeant Lee Minjae
nodded with a gloomy face.
Despite the grievous injury,
even getting him treated had to be handled carefully lest it tarnish his record.
“To think we’d hear the words we ought to say from the monster’s side.”
To her words...
they had no rebuttal.
