While fierce battle raged in the city,
Jinlei was dying.
Even as he knew that he was gradually dying, rather than struggling desperately to survive,
he simply stared blankly at the city.
The reason was nothing special.
‘Watch, was it?’
Watch how they survive.
The one who had said that and left.
Just as that man had said, he intended to watch.
He had intended to watch that confident declaration collapse,
and then laugh at it.
And in reality—
‘The grand duke is stronger.’
The flow of the battle was tilting toward the grand duke.
After leaving with such confidence,
in the end, even after using every possible method, they had still failed to defeat the grand duke.
Jinlei stared blankly at that sight and thought,
‘At last...’
The moment his long-cherished wish would be fulfilled was not far away.
The humans he had seen until now, so unbearably vile.
Erasing that species itself from this world.
For that, he could do anything.
Even this destruction that others had accepted in despair—
to him, it had been nothing more than something to welcome with joy.
‘I should be glad.’
...And yet.
For some reason—
‘I’m not.’
At first, he told himself it was because he feared the death now approaching.
But Jinlei did not deceive himself with that whisper.
He knew that the cause of this tangled feeling lay elsewhere.
‘Is the general... fighting there as well?’
The human species deserved to disappear.
That belief had not changed.
But.
Very, very rarely—
there were humans who were not like that.
Only an extremely small number.
Jinlei had thought that they too had merely never been given the chance to reveal their true nature,
and that at the final moment, that vile nature would reveal itself.
But.
He recalled the conversation he had heard not long ago.
‘Why did he... not run?’
Ariella and Shin Youngjun.
The conversation they had shared just before parting for that battlefield.
They had possessed the option to escape to safe land.
If they had taken Jinlei and fled beyond that thing called a gate,
then the power lodged in the grand duke’s heart would never have been completed,
and instead, that power would have become a burden—
and later, they would have been able to fight a weakened grand duke.
But.
The two of them had not done that.
‘They as well...’
And it was not only those two.
The awakened fighting in the city.
No matter how much they resisted,
the power the grand duke displayed was overwhelming.
There should have been those who, crushed by that power, chose to flee.
But they did not.
If they were fighting simply because they were cornered—
because they had no way to survive unless they resisted here—
that would have been understandable.
But he had seen it.
Shin Youngjun, who had taken part in the battle,
and the people who had tried to move him—
their gazes turning toward the west,
their murmuring.
‘They realized it.’
At that moment,
he had naturally thought they would find that gate and escape.
But they did not.
‘Why.’
Rather—
as if they had no interest in such a thing at all,
they turned toward the walls and tried to continue the fight.
He could not understand it.
Before the fall—
and after the fall as well—
he had seen people’s vile nature countless times.
And each time,
Jinlei had become certain that his thinking was correct.
And yet now—
at this point—
situations appeared before his eyes as though to deny that belief.
‘...No.’
Jinlei shook his head.
‘A mistaken judgment born from a momentary delusion can happen at any time.’
Even if those people were now joining forces and fighting together—
then what about those vampires?
They were a species that despised humans and were utterly vile,
yet among bloodkin, their relationships were like a family.
They fought for the sake of their bloodkin without even considering death.
Even if that was merely a forced result of commands engraved into their blood—
then by that same logic,
the mistaken judgment those people had made in their excitement was no different.
Only now had those two species reached a similar level—
[Offer them up.]
—he had been thinking that.
At that moment—
Puhwaaaaak!
The forms of the monsters that had been rushing in changed in an instant.
‘...’
Others might not have known.
But he, a blood sorcerer, felt it.
—No!
At the final moment—
regardless of their will—
those who were turned into nothing more than a handful of blood.
—Grand duke!
—Why are you...!?
Their souls—
caught within that liquid—
being dragged away by force.
—N-no... anywhere but there... please...
—No!!!
The screams they let out—
—It wasn’t enough to turn us into this, and now...
—You’re going to discard us like this...!?
Freed from the restraints that had bound their bodies,
they were finally able to speak—
—I hate you.
their true will.
He heard it clearly.
‘Kh—!’
That pain and sorrow.
That rage and hatred.
Feeling it all as it was,
Jinlei broke into a cold sweat.
The choice the grand duke had made.
And the choice those humans had made.
Perhaps both were mistaken judgments born from a moment’s frenzy.
But.
‘If that mistake... divides into fighting one’s own kind and devouring one’s own kind.’
Then that
could never be called the same.
‘Then...’
His mind became filled with confusion.
He had hesitated before,
but never had that hesitation grown this large.
He had come right to the brink of achieving his goal.
And yet now—
of all times—
“Am I... wrong?”
So.
He wanted someone to resolve that confusion.
He wanted an answer to his doubt.
And then—
“Not entirely...”
An answer—
to that wish—
was heard.
“...you would not be.”
***
“Wha—”
Right before achieving his goal,
the grand duke, who had been speaking with Jinlei, froze in shock.
“...what...?”
Standing beside him—
speaking to Jinlei—
was a man.
The grand duke had not noticed him approaching.
Even during the battle with Ariella,
he had merely stood there blankly, head lowered,
as though suppressing something.
When had he come to his senses?
When had he come all the way here?
Everything was unclear.
But.
That was not what shocked the grand duke.
Such trivial matters did not matter.
‘...’
The grand duke slowly raised its gaze to the sky.
The clouds that had once covered this continent from above.
That blood mist now wrapped around its own body.
And.
Beyond that mist—
within that red-tinted vision—
there was something it could clearly see.
‘The sun.’
Though it was setting,
the sun was still there.
And yet—
despite that—
the man stood beside him.
“...”
What shocked the grand duke
was simply this—
that the man was standing beside him.
That he existed here at all.
“...How...?”
The grand duke turned its gaze toward him.
No longer merely emitting a faint glow as before—
those eyes now burned with a complete crimson light.
“Just as you said.”
Newly reborn—
standing beneath the sun—
that young noble.
“Among humans, there are many who possess vile natures. I too have seen countless such people. I cannot deny that.”
“Then... does that mean I was right?”
“No.”
Eyes unfocused—
as though entranced by something.
At a glance, he seemed to be staring blankly into empty space.
And yet—
“If something is wrong, destroying it is not the only answer.”
Those eyes—
as if they were looking at something beyond what others could see.
“At times... the answer may be to repair it and make use of it.”
Like a sage who had attained enlightenment.
Like one on the verge of transcendence.
“...Human history is long. Most of that history is stained with vile and filthy blood. For such beings, unchanged across such a long span of time—do you believe it is possible to change them now?”
“It would not be easy.”
“Do you... believe it is possible?”
The faint light flickering around his body
made him seem like something not of this world.
And.
Hearing that conversation,
the grand duke flinched.
‘They speak as though I am not even here.’
Whatever they were discussing—
that man’s existence could not be allowed.
With that thought,
the grand duke moved.
And then—
...stop.
The body that had been about to strike
froze solid.
‘Why...?’
No one had interfered.
It was not a lack of strength.
The reason it had stopped was something else.
‘Why?’
Fear.
He was nothing more than an ordinary man reborn as a noble.
No matter how infinite the power within him—
the vessel that could release it was small and narrow.
He should not have been capable of becoming the grand duke’s opponent.
‘If I strike—’
But.
The grand duke—
and the elder sister and elder brother dwelling within that body—
all of that blood screamed.
‘I die.’
Under no circumstances—
must this fist be swung.
***
‘This feeling.’
And then.
The grand duke realized something.
‘...I have felt this before.’
This fear.
This terror.
It was not based on reasoning.
Nor on instinct.
...It was memory engraved into the blood.
At that realization,
the grand duke’s eyes widened as though they would split apart.
“Whether it is possible or impossible does not matter.”
This feeling—
it had experienced it once before.
“Even if it is impossible, one simply makes it possible.”
In a distant past.
To the being that had once been nothing more than a beast—
the one who had granted immortality.
“...Make it possible?”
“It may sound difficult, but what is required is only one thing.”
Its father.
Its mother.
“To be alive.”
The blood of all bloodkin.
The being that stood at the very origin of that lineage.
“I was the same.”
From the body of that weak noble—
there emanated something that should never be felt from an inferior species.
“I forcibly remade those who had the potential to improve. I cast some aside to be consumed, using only their shells, simply because it was convenient. Mistakes I cannot deny... sins I must carry for the rest of my life.”
“...”
“There was a time when I recognized only humans as life. It was foolish. You seem to think all humans share the same nature—but species is not what matters. What matters is individual will... the direction in which the heart turns.”
At that—
the grand duke clenched its teeth.
“Not anymore.”
It could not understand
why that presence was coming from him.
Perhaps—
the very being it hated
was playing some trick to mock them once more.
“I too sinned, and held foolish beliefs... but not anymore. Little by little, I am becoming something better.”
“...”
“Life is something that changes endlessly. Those who live can change. Even if the path is so difficult and complex that it seems impossible, for the living, possibility always remains.”
“...That path seems impossible to me. So I believed that if something could not change, it would be better to end it.”
“You saw a difficult path and gave up in fear.”
“...Then I was wrong.”
But.
He had hated his parents.
And for that reason,
he had chosen this bloodstained path.
“Not entirely right. But—”
He pushed aside the warning flowing through his body—
and the fear engraved into his blood.
“You are not completely wrong either.”
He had endured all that long suffering and walked this path.
No matter how much fear pressed down on him,
that goal remained firm.
“...I still do not know. Whether that path is possible... I truly do not know.”
That will—
forced his rigid body to move.
Allowed him to clench his fist.
“But.”
A transcendent will—
shattered even the coercion engraved into his body—
and drove that fist forward.
“I have begun to feel... that I should not end it like this.”
...However.
At the very moment that fist was about to crush the enemy’s head—
“Follow your heart.”
Thump. Thump.
His blood vessels began to surge.
...In a direction completely unrelated to the grand duke’s will.
