Nozomanu Fushi no Boukensha (LN) - Volume 12 - Chapter 1

Chapter 1: An Increase in Saints and the Return to Maalt

Lorraine and I weren’t particularly surprised by Elza’s proclamation. After all, divinity was pretty much the only factor that Lorraine, Elza, Lillian, and I had in common.

The issue, however, was how we should respond. Not that it was that much of an issue, really—possessing divinity didn’t have to be any kind of big secret. We could just be straight with her.

Divinity wielders were rare, of course, and hardly the kind of people you bumped into on a regular basis when strolling through a city’s streets. Still, the fact that a bronze-piece-a-dozen low-rank adventurer like me actually had the blessing of divinity—even if it was extremely weak—was proof enough that it was well within the realm of possibility for a real nobody to possess it.

So why had I purposefully been evasive with Elza, you ask? Well, that was because I was afraid I’d be exposed as a monster.

I couldn’t ignore the very real chance that I would be found out, no matter how small that chance might be. There was also the danger that someone would assume I could hear Pochi talk because we were both monsters—Sister Mel had thought that he was one, after all. But since that didn’t seem to be the case, being honest probably wouldn’t be an issue.

Speaking as an adventurer, though, I still wanted to keep my divinity under wraps as much as possible. It was a power that could become my secret trump card one day—but on the other hand, it wasn’t as if there weren’t already a decent number of people in Maalt who knew. I mean, I had been the one to tell those people to begin with, since I’d figured at the time that my dregs of divinity would never rise to that level. But my hypocrisy aside...

“Yeah, I have divinity,” I said. “A long time ago I repaired an abandoned shrine near my hometown, and the divine spirit that dwelled within it blessed me—probably on a whim. It’s not really anything to boast about.”

My divinity had grown to the point where I could wield it in combat, but I figured there was no particular need to give out that information.

“Very interesting,” Elza said. “Lillian and I received ours from Pochi. Although I imagine you’d already guessed that, considering that the same thing just happened to Mel.”

She didn’t seem especially surprised that I possessed divinity—a reaction I owed to divinity’s general reputation. It wasn’t as though having it was bad in any way.

Being found out as a monster, however, would be a totally different story—albeit a very short story that ended in a swift execution.

“My thoughts did go in that direction, yeah...” I said. “But why did you and Lillian receive yours as children and Mel only a short time ago? Is divinity really something that can just be handed out so freely?”

Lorraine and I had received our own divinity on a whim too, but we could save my concerns about that for another time. Since it looked as though Pochi had blessed Mel because Elza had requested it, that would imply that Elza was able to bestow divinity unto anybody she pleased—and that was definitely a big deal. I, at least, had never heard of anything like that happening before.

My conjecture, however, was soon overturned.

“No, Pochi had been planning to bless Mel all along,” Elza explained. “Lillian and I were actually secondary, or something like that. However, after Pochi blessed us and we started to understand him, he told us to protect Mel. We didn’t understand what he meant by that at the time, but once Lillian and I started receiving invitation after invitation from various religious organizations, the meaning quickly became clear. Did the same not happen to you, Rentt?”

“No, not really,” I replied. “I was probably spared that because of where I lived.”

In short, unlike monsters, who were discriminated against and hunted down, divinity wielders were coveted by religious organizations in general. Any unaffiliated wielders would be hounded by recruiters as a result. In my case, my divinity was awfully weak, and while I’d had no problem talking about it, the subject only ever came up in certain situations, like when someone asked me what I was doing when I purified water. The knowledge that I could use it just hadn’t really spread around.

Of course, there was also the undeniable and sad truth—since I’d been a solo adventurer at the time, I just hadn’t had any friends to talk to anyway...

Normally, however, if it came out that you could use divinity, you’d experience exactly what Elza and Lillian had gone through.

Another major reason that hadn’t happened to me was probably because Maalt wasn’t a particularly active hub for religious groups. If you squinted, you could maybe say that the Church of the Eastern Sky was kind of active there, but that was about it. Because of Maalt’s location out on the frontier and various other factors, the people there cared more about improving their own capabilities than they did about religion.

But here in the royal capital, things were different. The Church of Lobelia being very in-your-face was one example of just how different it was, but even the Church of the Eastern Sky here was far more pushy than it was out in Maalt.

If word got out that you were a divinity wielder, you’d practically be drowning in overzealous recruiters.

“There was quite a big fuss around Lillian and me,” Elza said. “But since we were here at this Church of the Eastern Sky orphanage, the director at the time protected us...for a while. Eventually, that became difficult, and the director advised us to decide the shape of our own faith by picking an organization to join. After that, Lillian and I both joined the Church of the Eastern Sky.”

If they had become adventurers, they would have been able to travel the world and leave such bothersome complications behind. But I figured that both Elza and Lillian were the type to cherish the connections they had made, such as the one they had to this orphanage. Cutting ties and leaving it behind had probably been impossible for them—and maybe the orphanage director had recognized that too. Since Pochi had asked them to protect Mel, they couldn’t have gone far from the orphanage anyway.

Given that, joining the ranks of the Church of the Eastern Sky had likely been their best option. Its teachings were moderate and gentle, so it wasn’t a bad choice in that sense either.

Not to imply that organizations such as the Church of Lobelia were bad or anything—it was just that they had a lot of members who were ambitious about climbing the ladder or felt quite strongly that they had a duty to spread the teachings of their religion.

That could be a little scary sometimes...

“We thought that the same would happen to Mel eventually,” Elza continued. “After all, she was originally intended to be the blessing’s main recipient. Pochi actually made several attempts after he blessed Lillian and I, but we stopped him for the reason I just explained: we were worried about the constant invitations that would come knocking at her door. Mel also said she wanted to become this orphanage’s director one day, so Lillian and I thought it best to hold off on it for a while—at least until we grew capable enough to protect both her and the orphanage. After some thought, Pochi eventually agreed with us.”

◆◇◆◇◆

“Pardon me if I’m prying too much, but why did Pochi want to bless Mel?” I asked. “The fact that he blessed you and Lillian with divinity first and then asked you to protect her seems to imply there was some awfully important motivation behind it, but...well, I guess that’s kind of what divinity is supposed to be, actually.”

Cases like Lorraine and I, where someone received divinity for no particularly special reason, weren’t exactly uncommon, but if you were to ask why gods and divine spirits blessed people with that kind of power, most would say that it was because those who were blessed had some kind of important role to fill on behalf of the gods or the world. If you looked at the various myths and legends that were still told to this day, you could find examples of stories where divinity wielders achieved some kind of great feat and had their names carved into history. Some of those accounts even featured the exact instructions that the gods had directly given to these wielders, laying out the duties they were supposed to fulfill. That was all in the distant past, of course, and it was difficult to say how many of those stories had actually happened, but the fact that they’d stuck around to be told today likely meant that they had at least a grain of truth buried within them.

Given all of that, it seemed reasonable to assume that Mel had some kind of role to carry out too. It didn’t seem like her case was similar to Lorraine and mine, where we were blessed because we performed an offhand good deed.

To begin with, if Pochi truly was a divine beast, then—while this might be rude of me to say—instead of a run-down orphanage like this he could be at any random church of his choosing, and they would more likely than not treat him like royalty.

Nevertheless, he had remained by Mel’s side. I figured it wasn’t that farfetched to suspect that there had to be a reason for that.

After a moment of thought, Elza said, “I’m afraid I don’t know the details myself; Pochi won’t answer if you ask. It must be some kind of restriction that applies to gods, divine spirits and beasts, and other beings like that. They do say that the gods cannot influence the world of man beyond a small degree, after all, and that’s why they bless us, bestow prophecies upon us, and influence us to establish religions...although I get the feeling that human egoism sneaked its way into that last one.”

I didn’t know if a high-ranking member of the clergy should really be going around making such cynical remarks, even as a joke. Then again, considering the reason Elza had joined the Church of the Eastern Sky in the first place, she likely wasn’t fully and utterly devoted to the religion from the bottom of her heart anyway—though I wouldn’t go so far as to call her a nonbeliever either. And besides...she kind of had a point.

“Still, since it had something to do with Mel, I did my best to find out,” Elza continued. “I am of a relatively high rank in the clergy, after all. I made use of the resources I had available and followed all sorts of leads. After considering the results...my conclusion is that the world may be about to enter a time of great upheaval.”

“What exactly do you mean by that?” Lorraine interjected, leaning forward. It seemed that Elza’s words had caused her curiosity to get the better of her.

“It appears that many more people have been receiving special blessings of divinity, just like Mel did. The majority are kept secret by their respective religions, countries, or organizations, of course—but there are enough whispers going around that those with the right ears have been able to hear them. Divinity wielders are absolutely vital to religious organizations like ours, but while they are rare, the average number that any given organization has on its roster has generally remained stable over the years. However, recently that number has been increasing at a rate that cannot be ignored, and as I mentioned before, some of them wield divinity at a potency a cut above the rest.”

So the number of individuals who possessed divinity was increasing, huh? I supposed that Lorraine and I were included in that statistic. Was it because the bar for whom the gods could bless had been lowered? The fact that it was happening at all seemed to suggest that there must be some reason behind it—something that the gods were going out of their way to take measures against.

Now that was a scary thought.

“When you say that these special individuals have potent blessings, how potent are we talking?” Lorraine asked.

“Let’s see...” Elza said. “Using myself as a point of reference, I am capable of covering an entire town in a rite if so inclined. Normally, that degree of ability would place me in the highest rank of divinity wielders. However, among those who have been appearing recently...the strongest of them can apparently cover a midsize province—midsize for Yaaran, at least. Does that give you an idea of the difference in scale?”

A town versus an entire province? Possessing the strength necessary to cover the former was astonishing enough, but even so, the difference was stark. And from what Elza had said of her own abilities, did that mean that Lillian had once been capable of the same?

In comparison, my divinity...well, if I really pushed myself, I could maybe cover an area the size of a house. Please don’t say that was barely worth mentioning—it had grown stronger, after all. There were just too many monsters in this world of ours.

And when it came to Lorraine—her mana reserves aside—her divinity was even more lacking than mine. She was probably limited to the size of a single room. It did seem as though her divinity was growing though, which gave me the uneasy suspicion that she would overtake me before long...but I would put off thinking about that until the time came.

“That...would put it on the scale of a military asset,” said Lorraine. “And if it was a recovery-type divinity, that alone could serve as sufficient grounds to invade another country.”

“Indeed,” Elza agreed. “It would be entirely possible for tens of thousands of soldiers to carry out an assault while their wounds are continuously healed and all of them would come out of the experience alive. There are concerns, of course, about how long said divinity wielders can maintain their rites and whether an increase in scale results in a decrease in effect...but there is no denying that they possess astonishing power. Such individuals would be dearly coveted by any country or organization—don’t you agree?”

This topic was beginning to scare me. If I worked hard, would I be able to wield such power one day?

Yeah...I really doubted that.

As unfortunate as it was, divinity wasn’t the kind of power that increased just because you tried hard enough. I could do that for my spirit and mana though, with this monster body of mine.

Well, in the end, if you wanted to get stronger, you had to start by working on what was possible.

“And...do you mean to say that Mel’s divinity is on that level too?” Lorraine asked.

“I suspect it is,” Elza said. “While it appeared to be nothing special right after she was blessed, it will gradually become more potent from here on out—though not without effort, of course. She will have to undergo training in order to learn how to control and use it properly. Otherwise, it will be dangerous to her.”

◆◇◆◇◆

“I get the overall picture now,” I said. “But why tell us this?”

“Large or small, every individual who possesses divinity has some manner of role to fill,” Elza said. “But when it comes to how we choose to live and what we choose to strive for, humanity is free.”

Interfering with mankind’s free will was not a simple matter, even for the gods. They could watch us, certainly—see our deaths, fates, intertwined threads, the paths we ought to tread, our roles, and everything in between. But tampering with those things was not so easy. It was just like how we people found it hard to untangle a complicated mess of string—hands that were too big just weren’t suited to manipulating fine threads that were bound so tightly together.

That was the reason we were free...according to some people out there, anyway. Others held the complete opposite opinion. As for which opinion was correct, well, you’d have to be a god to know that.

I waited for Elza to continue, and she obliged.

“I will use my power to protect Mel. This orphanage too. And, if there is room to spare, the Church of the Eastern Sky as well. As for you, Rentt...could I be so bold as to ask you to lend us your power? Only when you are able to spare it, of course.”

“Oh. So the point you were building up to...was basically just a roundabout way of trying to recruit me?” Once I put that thought into words, everything lined up in hindsight.

“I suppose it was. But while I won’t deny that, I also don’t want to order you around or make you do anything you don’t want to do. I hope that nothing comes of all of this...but I’m almost certain that the future holds something in store for us. I don’t mind if it’s only when that time comes, and only if you are otherwise unoccupied. I simply wish for your aid.”

“You’re talking about when we enter that ‘time of great upheaval’ that you mentioned, right?”

“I am. I hope I’m simply worrying over nothing, of course...but I simply cannot bring myself to believe that.”

In terms of things to be concerned about, you couldn’t get much more abstract than a “time of great upheaval,” but it seemed like Elza truly believed that such a time would come. I could write it off as just another religious activist proselytizing, of course. You know how it goes: “The world is ending, so do what you can now to secure happiness in the next life.” From a certain point of view, Elza wasn’t saying anything much different from that.

However, the things she was trying to protect—Mel and this orphanage—were specific and tangible. What Elza was doing was actually different from the usual religious solicitation where they fanned the flames of your anxiety in order to pressure you to join.

“But...why are you asking me?”

“Because you can use divinity, Rentt. Ah, and it isn’t just you, of course. I’ve been asking the other divinity wielders that I’ve come across, both as a representative of the Church of the Eastern Sky and as Elza the individual. But I brought you two here in particular because you’re Lillian’s acquaintances, and I believe that I can trust you. I must admit, I’ve never been so straightforward about recruiting before...”

To sum up, she was spending more time on me than she usually did and being more open in order to build a degree of trust.

There was no need for me to feel like I owed her any kind of great debt, of course, but the information she’d given me was certainly interesting. If a time of great upheaval really did come along, it would definitely be a great time to make a living as an adventurer. And as a monster myself, the increase in powerful divinity wielders was helpful information. Me and my vampiric servants weren’t affected by divinity, but the same couldn’t be said of Laura and her people, like Isaac for instance. Learning about this now would allow me to give them a heads-up, at least.

I kind of had the feeling that they already knew though...

After taking everything into consideration, I figured it’d be okay for me to feel like I owed Elza a little. I exchanged a look with Lorraine—between us two, that was enough to pass as consulting each other—then turned back to Elza.

“I understand,” I said. “I can’t promise you that I’ll be available, but if you’re okay with that, just let me know when you need me. Is that okay?”

“Of course! I don’t mind at all.” Elza bowed her head. “I know full well how unreasonable my request is. It’s just...I want to do everything I can for Mel’s sake, and the orphanage too.”

◆◇◆◇◆

After engaging in further discussion for a while, we left the orphanage behind us.

Mel had seemed to be having a lot of fun talking to Pochi. She had even done it in front of the kids, strongly insisting that “Pochi can talk!” but all she’d received in return was the children staring at her as though she had gone mad. That must have hurt her feelings, because then she’d said, “I-I’ll prove it to you! Pochi, turn around three times and bark!”

Pochi, however, had simply given her a side-eyed look as he walked away from her and plopped down for a nap.

I remember thinking that the children’s gazes had grown colder after that.

Mel had then run over to Pochi and begun exaggeratedly shaking him as she screamed, “Why, Pochi?! Why are you doing this?! I know you can understand me! Why are you ignoring me?!”

“Woof...”

What a pain.

That was as much as I’d managed to hear coming from behind us as we left the orphanage. It seemed fairly safe to assume that Pochi’s secret wouldn’t be getting out anytime soon.

Then, when we reached the abbey...

“Oh! Mother Elza! Everyone, Mother Elza’s back!”

One of the Church of the Eastern Sky’s priests began shouting as he pointed in our direction.

“Gah! N-Not good! I need to find somewhere to hide!”

Elza’s head turned left and right, searching our surroundings, but unfortunately, it was already too late. In no time at all, we were surrounded by Church of the Eastern Sky priests with all escape routes cut off. One of them stepped forward, grabbed Elza’s arm firmly, and began pulling her along.

“Come now, Mother Superior. It’s time to return to your duties.”

“W-Wait! Not yet! I still have things to do!”

I was fairly certain she had finished everything, actually. As Lorraine and I observed her plight, another priest ran over to us.

“You have our deepest gratitude for accompanying Mother Elza today. I’m sure it must have been quite the ordeal. Should you need anything, please feel free to return to the abbey and allow us to express our gratitude—and apologies—for today. Now, pardon me.”

After a deep bow, the priest ran back to rejoin the net of people that had trapped Elza inside it.

“Are all the bigwigs in this city like that, you think?” I muttered, not mentioning a certain underworld organization chief but definitely thinking about him.

“The people in charge are like that wherever you go,” Lorraine said. “Don’t bother getting your hopes up.”

It sure was a rough world out there.

◆◇◆◇◆

All of a sudden, I awoke.

We had returned to the inn, after which I had decided to get as much sleep as my body would let me in preparation for the journey back to Maalt tomorrow.

When I looked outside, I saw that it was still the middle of the night. Even in the royal capital, that meant that it was dark and quiet. There was nobody in the streets except for the occasional wandering drunk. The light of magical tools shone through the night here and there, but their illumination was nothing in comparison to the surrounding darkness.

The night was deep, dark...and to me, it was warm and gentle.

I plunged into it.

◆◇◆◇◆

My undead body allowed me to see clearly over long distances as though it were the middle of the day, no matter how dark it was. Was that because the night was its intended home? Because its purpose was to find a young maiden out on a stroll, capture her, and drink her blood...?

I didn’t know.

Because Lorraine offered her blood to me regularly, my urge to drink it was extremely weak—to the point you might not even think I really needed to consume humans to live.

But maybe I really didn’t need to. At least by Nive’s judgment, I wasn’t a vampire. But what was I, then?

My body found the act of drinking human blood pleasurable. What kind of monster did that describe...?

I didn’t know—and that fact made me afraid.

Thinking about it, I had come quite a long way.

I used to think all that awaited me was an unremarkable death in combat somewhere near Maalt, but looking back, I’d come to the royal capital and spoken with royalty, the chief of an underground organization, and an abbess of the Church of the Eastern Sky—all individuals who stood so far above who I was in the past that I would never have been able to reach their feet.

My strength had grown, and I was now making the push for Silver-class, which had once been nothing more than a foolhardy dream for me. If I kept on running along with this momentum, it felt as though I could reach any height I wanted.

I knew that was likely just hubris on my part, though. After all the people I’d encountered, the one thing I had come to understand was that in the end, I was still nothing more than a weakling. I didn’t even feel anywhere close to catching up to Lorraine, who was always standing by my side.

And all this after I had gained both a monster body and the means to grow stronger. When all was said and done, I was hopeless through and through. As I walked alone through the empty city streets, I submerged myself in those negative thoughts.

I knew that worrying about the future was pointless; all I could do was put my all into improving and wait for the chips to fall as they might. Still, I wanted to ruminate over it thoroughly, shake the feeling off, then face tomorrow in a better mood—that was why I was wandering the city alone.

“Don’t you think you’ve dropped your guard a little too much, friend?”

That was also why even after the voice reached my ears, I was slow to react.

Before I could even so much as say “Huh?” I was already flying through the air. Then, I felt the throbbing pain in my chest and realized that someone must have sent me flying with a blow.

“Oh, now that’s a surprise. You’re one of us. I was thinking you might serve as a decent meal, but I suppose that’s not going to happen now.”

I wanted to ask what my attacker was talking about, but my voice wouldn’t come out of my mouth. Just as I was wondering why that was, I realized that there were wheezing sounds coming from the vicinity of my throat.

“Ah, sorry about that. I figured it’d be bothersome if you screamed, so I went ahead and opened up a hole.”

When I put a hand to my neck, there was nothing there. All the flesh had been ripped away. But it seemed like my head and body were still connected, so that was nice, at least...uh, if you can even call that “nice.”

Well, whatever the case, what the heck was going on? Why was this person attacking me out of the blue? Who were they in the first place?

After taking a closer look, I saw that my attacker was a very odd-looking man. He was wearing a gentleman’s suit, carried a walking stick...and had a lump of my flesh hanging from his mouth.

I realized that was how he must have ripped it out. Talk about weird eating habits—there was just no way I tasted any good.

“You seem surprised, but a lot more put together than I’d expected. Are you that confident that you won’t meet your end here? You didn’t even notice me before I dealt you such a serious wound... Ah, perhaps you’re expecting your ‘parent’ to come save you? I’m afraid there’s no point in waiting for that. I can end this in an instant.”

The man immediately maneuvered through the air, came to a stop right in front of my eyes, and opened his mouth wide. With a loud, skin-crawling sound like a massive rush of water, his entire body shifted into a deep blackness darker than the night and melted together to form a single, huge mouth.

That gave me a pretty good idea of what the man was, but knowing that didn’t improve my situation. Was this it for me? Was this where I met my end? Panic boiled forth from within me. I grasped for any method I could use to escape, but none came to mi—wait, no.

There was something I could do.

I just had to match him at his own game.

The moment that thought occurred to me, my body also melted into the darkness.

I had used Splintering.

I fled from the space where the giant mouth was about to chomp down and avoided the man’s attack.

“That’s a strange Splintering you’ve got there...not that I’m in a position to talk. Still...” The man released his own Splintering, then pointed a finger at me. “Dehisé.”

Suddenly, it felt as though I was being squeezed in a vise from every direction at once, and my Splintered body was shoved inward toward a single point.

I tried to resist, but the difference in our strength was just too significant. It was like an ant trying to fight back against an elephant—I was completely helpless, unable to do anything but be compressed smaller and smaller...

“Splintering is useful to be sure, but there are any number of ways of dealing with it. Was your parent’s tutoring perhaps not thorough enough? Well, I suppose that even if you had known, you still wouldn’t have been able to do a thing given the difference in our ability.”

Crap. He was completely right—I couldn’t do a single thing. Did I have anything else I could try?

I supposed I could attempt to blow myself up with divinity-mana-spirit fusion. Desperate as it was, I couldn’t think of anything else. If this was how I was going to meet my end, then I wanted to at least make an attempt at a parting shot. It was better than just helplessly waiting to die.

I steeled my resolve, and—

“Hmm?!”

Suddenly, the pressure that was crushing me vanished, along with all sight of my assailant. Where had he gone?

I managed to drop safely to the ground, whereupon I quickly looked around, but I couldn’t see any sign of him.

Instead, I saw...

“Mr. Rentt—are you all right? I’m terribly sorry for being late.”

It was the coachman who had brought us to the royal capital—in other words, a vampire servant of Laura’s, which put him way higher than me on the strength scale. I’d heard that he was a lesser vampire, but from the look of things that had been a lie. Isaac must have sent him along with us out of concern.

But that wasn’t important right now. Not compared to...

“Who was that just now?” I asked.

“That was my master’s enemy,” the coachman replied. “I’ve been chasing him since I sensed his presence, but it appears that you ran into him first. Still, you can rest assured—it appears that he noticed me approaching, and he’s already left the city.”

“Laura’s enemy, huh...? Is it okay if I ask who that was?”

“Of course. The individual you saw just now was a grandchild of the vampire king, Arc Tahadu. He possesses strength far beyond that of an ordinary vampire. It is good that you are safe.”

While the coachman looked relieved, his words just made me want to know more about him, since he was strong enough to drive off the vampire he’d just described. Whether he sensed my unasked question or not, though, he continued.

“It appeared that your encounter was a simple coincidence rather than him seeking you out in particular, so I don’t believe you have anything to worry about at the moment. If you do happen to run into him again, however, please flee or inform me or another of my master’s vassals if you can. Now then, do have a good evening. I shall see you tomorrow.”

After bidding farewell, the coachman vanished into the darkness. He managed it so adeptly, in fact, that I had already lost track of his presence.

The same thought that I’d had several times that night ran through my head again.

“I’m...so weak...”

I had to work harder.

◆◇◆◇◆

“Hmm? You seem kind of different,” Lorraine remarked as soon as we saw each other the next morning. We had planned to have breakfast together in the inn’s dining room. “Did something happen, Rentt?”

Something had happened, actually. Last night, I had been attacked by a vampire of considerable power, had been unable to stop it from tearing out my throat, and experienced the bitter taste of my own powerlessness.

Nevertheless, I was, objectively speaking, unharmed. After all, Splintering didn’t leave any physical wounds behind after I used it. Regardless, Lorraine had still noticed that something was different simply by looking at me. Just as you might expect from a scholar, she was sensitive to the changes that occurred around her.

After spending a moment to consider how I should respond, I decided to describe everything vaguely enough that eavesdroppers wouldn’t understand—and also tone down the gore so that it wouldn’t spoil the breakfast that we were about to eat.

“I went out for a walk last night since I couldn’t sleep, and I got attacked by some random thug. He really did a number on me.”

I figured that was more or less enough—it kept the story common and forgettable. I could tell that some of the people around us were listening in, but most of them were adventurers. An everyday encounter with a thug wouldn’t be that interesting to them.

Lorraine, however, seemed surprised. “Really?” she asked. “You, of all people? I guess the capital is pretty dangerous compared to Maalt...”

She was right, of course. At night, the streets in the capital posed more risk than the ones in Maalt. It was easier to run into somebody strong here too, regardless of whether they meant you good or ill, and on average people here carried more wealth around on their persons. It was only natural that the number of random criminals eyeing your coin purse on the streets would be larger here too.

“Whoa, hey, you came here from Maalt?” came a shout from a nearby middle-aged man who had evidently been listening in. Judging by his garb, he was probably an adventurer. “If you’re from way out in the sticks, no wonder you can’t cut it here in the big city!”

Several other people laughed at his remark in the midst of tucking into their breakfast. I could tell that the man had meant to be pretty demeaning, but since he didn’t know the truth of what had really happened, idly sizing up everyone present to see how they would have fared against the vampire actually turned out to be kind of funny.

That thought must have caused my mouth to twitch into the ghost of a smile—a gesture the man who had laughed at us didn’t miss. Talk about keen eyesight.

“Hey, brother,” he said, standing up and walking over. “Were you just laughing at me?”

Before the situation could progress any further, there came the sound of someone descending the inn’s stairs.

“Oh, Rentt, Lorraine,” Augurey said as he walked over to our table. “You’re already up? Early risers, huh?”

The middle-aged adventurer looked at Augurey in shock before his demeanor shifted entirely. “Wha— Uh, Augu...Mister Augurey! You know these two?”

“I do. Did something happen? Wait, let me guess. You picked a fight, didn’t you?” Augurey amicably patted the man on the shoulder. “I have to warn you: that’s really not a good idea. These two are way stronger than me.”

The man stared at Augurey in disbelief, then at me, then at Lorraine. “B-But, you must be joking!” he protested. It seemed that Augurey’s warning hadn’t been enough to convince him. “This guy just said that some random thug on the street beat him up last night! How could...?”

“What?!” Augurey exclaimed. “A random thug? Beat Rentt? Maybe...maybe I should stay off the streets at night from now on.” He turned to me. “How badly did that thug get you?”

“I couldn’t even put up a fight,” I said. “Not one bit. I was really surprised.”

“Seriously...? I didn’t think the capital was that violent. You shouldn’t run into anybody like that on the streets, even in the dead of night... I mean, the knights are always patrolling to keep the peace.”

“I don’t think even your average knight could’ve done anything against the guy I ran into.”

“Maybe I should relocate...”

Our conversation seemed to be taking the wind out of the middle-aged adventurer’s sails. Then, seeming curious, he abruptly asked Augurey, “Uh, so when you say they’re way stronger than you...how strong do you mean, specifically?”

“Well, going strictly by rank, Rentt’s Bronze just like you.”

“Oh, then—”

“He’s already qualified to take the Silver Ascension Exam, though, and I’m expecting him to pass it when he does. If it came down to a simple fight...well, I would never want to fight him. It’s not like I would ever have a chance of actually winning.”

Both Augurey and I knew that he wasn’t talking about skill. What he meant was: how was anyone supposed to beat an opponent who could regenerate themselves endlessly?

Evidently, however, the adventurer took Augurey’s words at face value, thinking it meant that I was just plain stronger. He immediately knelt on the floor and prostrated himself before me.

“M-My deepest apologies, sir!” he apologized “I was in the wrong!”

“Uh, don’t worry about it,” I said. “I don’t want you to beat yourself up over this. If anything, well...just promise me that if you meet other adventurers who are weaker than you in the future, you won’t do the same thing. It hurts a person more than you might expect...”

Right now I knew I was stronger than this man, so his words were no big deal to me. However, if he’d said them to my past self...while I wouldn’t have flown into a rage or anything, it definitely would have cut me pretty deep, and I probably would have trudged sadly back to my room in the inn, sighing all the while.

It was important for everybody to build up resistance to such things, of course—almost like baptizing yourself—but simply having fewer bullies in the world wouldn’t hurt either.

That was the thought process behind what I’d said, at any rate, but it appeared that Lorraine was of a different opinion.

“Come on, Rentt,” she said. “At times like these, there’s no need for you to just let them off with a scolding.”

“You think?”

“I do. This is how you handle people like him...”

As I watched her, curious as to what she was going to do, Lorraine began compressing mana in her hand, creating a small mass that gradually expanded to become larger and larger.

Wait, wait, wait. What exactly are you planning here, Lorraine?

It was obvious that she was only giving the man a scare, of course—I knew that, but I was still a little nervous anyway.

While Augurey and I calmly watched the situation unfold, the middle-aged adventurer raised his head off of the floor in clear panic—his expression was truly terrified. While you couldn’t see mana unless you had the right eyes for it, if it was molded together and condensed enough without being purposefully concealed, you could definitely feel the pressure—and danger—on your skin. Even that man had to recognize just how dangerous the mass of mana Lorraine had gathered in her hand was.

“I-I’m sorry, really!” he pleaded. “Please, at least spare my life!”

When she seemed satisfied that the man was genuinely scared out of his wits, Lorraine skillfully dissipated her mana. “Just kidding,” she said, smiling and offering him a hand. “Still, a person with a shorter temper really would have blown the entire inn to pieces. If you’re an adventurer, you should be more careful.”

The scary part was that it was impossible to tell how much of that really had been a joke. The man seemed to realize that too, because as he gingerly accepted Lorraine’s hand, he said, “I-I’m sorry. I-I won’t do it again. Ever!”

Then, he returned to his seat and took up his fork. His hands were still shaking.

Lorraine had kind of overdone it, in my opinion.

◆◇◆◇◆

“Ha ha...I see. So that’s what really happened.”

There was still a little time left before we were to set off on our journey back to Maalt, so in the meantime, I filled Lorraine and Augurey in on the details of what had really happened last night. As expected, they were both surprised that my attacker had been a vampire—especially Augurey.

Given everything, Lorraine was getting quite familiar with vampires as a concept, but as far as Augurey was concerned, the only...friendly(?) vampire that he knew was me, so his surprise was only natural.

“But you’re saying the vampire that attacked you has already left the city...right?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I confirmed. “According to the person who saved me, at least...”

I was keeping the identity of that person vague—all I’d said was that they were awfully strong. I suspected that it would probably be okay to tell Augurey the truth, but I knew that I should get permission from Laura first, or at least from Isaac. The coachman was essentially putting himself at risk for us until we left the city, so it was best to keep hush about him in general, even to Augurey.

As for Augurey himself, it would be safer for him to just remain ignorant instead of getting a lot of information that he didn’t necessarily need. Perhaps we could let him into the loop one day though.

“Still, the vampire king, huh?” Augurey muttered. “I’ve heard of him, but I wouldn’t have expected one of his subordinates to be here of all places. I don’t mean this in a bad way, but Yaaran’s a pretty rural place, as countries go. I doubt there’s any fun for them to find here.”

I could understand where Augurey was coming from. Yaaran was rather far from the center of the world and didn’t have that much political weight to throw around, nor did it boast any particularly unique product or export. In exchange, it was quiet and peaceful...but those were about all the advantages I could come up with.

So why was a subordinate of the vampire king wandering about here? Just to kill time? That...sounded like it might actually be a possibility, considering Laura. Maybe vampires were just like that. After all, eternal life probably got fairly boring. The one who’d attacked me could have just enjoyed traveling as a hobby.

“Did you get a good look at him?” Lorraine asked, clearly curious from a scholarly standpoint.

“I did, more or less,” I said, recalling the events of last night. “He—at least, I’m pretty sure it was a man—was dressed like a gentleman with a walking stick and top hat. I didn’t see his face. Not because it was too dark or anything—that excuse wouldn’t work coming from me anyway. It was more like...it was just hard to see. Maybe he was wearing something that created that effect, or it could have been some kind of spell.”

I could see exceptionally well in the dark. Even the faintest glimmer of light—even if it was as dim as starlight—would allow me to see as well as I could during the day when I was human. Consequently, the fact that it was the middle of the night wouldn’t have stopped me from seeing someone’s face. Nevertheless, I hadn’t seen it, so there had to be some other reason at play.

“A piece of magical equipment or spell that impairs perception...” Lorraine murmured. “I suppose a subordinate of the vampire king would want to keep their identity hidden. Nothing we can do about that. Still, it’s good that you made it out of the experience without drawing unnecessary attention, Rentt. The vampire king’s in the same weight class as the four demon lords—definitely not somebody whose eyes you want on you. It wouldn’t end well.”

“You’re right about that. I consider myself lucky.”

While the vampire who’d attacked me had seemed to recognize that I was a vampire, or at least a monster of some sort, I’d avoided the worst-case scenario of him realizing that I was actually a mysterious pseudo-vampiric being who could even wield divinity.

Since I was still weak, it would be easy for someone like him to abduct me, and unlike those stories where a dashing prince would come riding in to save the day, all that awaited me was a horrifying fate in one of the vampire king’s secret hideouts or something.

I felt grateful enough just for avoiding that.

“If possible, I never want to meet him again...” I mumbled reflexively.

Lorraine studied my face and let out a sigh. “You might be asking for too much there. Something about you just seems to attract those kinds of people.”

“I really wish they would stop. I could use the break...”

“Don’t get me wrong, I feel the same way. But as long as we’re expecting them to show up, it’s best if we prepare countermeasures, no?”

“What do you have in mind?” Nothing was occurring to me immediately, but I thought Lorraine might have some good ideas.

“For the time being, how about training your divinity more? It’s supposed to be extremely effective against vampires, after all. I don’t know how well it’ll hold up against the superior ones, but still...”

That much was obvious from how Isaac had acted around the tree that had been shedding divinity. While he hadn’t seemed eager to approach it, neither had it suddenly evaporated him or anything like that.

In short, it seemed unlikely that divinity would be effective enough to kill that subordinate of the vampire king in one blow, but there was no denying that it was effective. My divinity really could end up being my trump card.

So long as I didn’t die to that crushing pressure spell that he had used on me first.

Come to think of it...

“Lorraine, can you use the Dehisé spell too?” I asked.

“Hmm? I haven’t heard of that one before. Is that the name of the spell that you said that vampire attempted to crush you with?”

I hadn’t mentioned the specific name of the spell earlier in my explanation, hence Lorraine asking for confirmation.

I nodded. “Yeah. The chant consisted of just the name, but that was what he said. You don’t know the spell?”

“There are a number that can cause a similar effect, but I don’t know one by that name. The most generally used one is Compression, and if you’re looking at ancient spells, Daḡata. This is useful information, Rentt, thank you. If that spell was potent enough that you couldn’t do anything against it, then it should prove useful if I can figure out how to cast it myself. I’ll have to do some research on it...but first, I need to determine which language branch it stems from...”

Lorraine gradually sank into her own thoughts, muttering to herself about ideas and hypotheses.

“Well...at any rate, I’m glad you’re okay, Rentt,” Augurey said. He knew as well as I did that once Lorraine grew absorbed in the topic of magic nothing you could say to her would get through. “And I guess today’s the day we say goodbye. You’ll be heading back to the capital before long though, right?”

“I don’t really want to make a habit of coming and going all the time, but yes, I definitely will be,” I said. “There’s the whole thing with the princess, after all...”

“Did that turn out to be a problem, then? I suspected it would.”

“A bit of one,” I agreed. “It would be nice if Jean tidied it up nicely for us, but I get the feeling it’s not going to be so simple.”

As for why—well, it was because of the half-elves’ prophecy. No matter how much of a big deal Jean was, prophecies handed down by the gods were no easy thing to avoid getting tangled up in.

“The whole thing has me worried, to be honest...” Augurey said. “But getting the chance to see you two again makes me nothing but happy. I’m going to improve my skills before we next meet, you hear? I want to be strong enough that I’ll at least be able to do something if a subordinate of the vampire king pounces on me.”

“Yeah. I’m going to do the same. But until then, this is goodbye.”

Augurey and I exchanged a handshake. Both of us had floated around at the bottom ranks for a long time, but even so, I felt the conviction that we were both growing stronger well up within me.

◆◇◆◇◆

“You think he’ll show up?” I asked.

Lorraine and I were near the entrance to the royal capital, on a thoroughfare that many wagons and carriages used to enter and exit the city, or as a temporary stop. Scheduled carriages to dungeons and all sorts of other places left from this gate, and part of me wanted to just hop on one and see where it would take me.

Such thoughts would have been unthinkable for my past self. I had simply lacked the necessary amount of strength. The vast majority of the dungeons that one could travel to directly from the royal capital were exceedingly dangerous. Coming all this way just to delve into a dungeon on the same level as the Water Moon Dungeon would have just felt like a waste, and besides, it had always been the dangerous ones told of in stories that I had aspired to challenge someday.

But if I had tried that while I had been human, chances were that I would’ve died the moment I set foot in any one of those dungeons, so all I’d been able to do was hold back my tears of frustration and give up.

These days, however, I was confident that I wouldn’t die just upon setting foot into one, at least. I mean, even if I was crushed to a pulp, I was capable of simply regenerating myself.

That’s cheating, you say? Well, yes, it is. Still, even without such unfair tricks up my sleeve, I was relatively certain that I wouldn’t immediately be killed, naturally. More than likely I’d be able to make a certain amount of progress before being forced to give up and turn back.

“Well, even though we left a time and place to meet with the guild, he is a rather carefree person,” Lorraine said. “It’s probably best if we don’t get our hopes up and kick back while we wait.”

As for who “he” referred to, we were of course talking about the person whom we had come to fetch in order to bring him back with us to Maalt: the Grand Guildmaster for Yaaran, Jean Seebeck.

If I wanted to get more specific, I would also add that he was the chief of an underground organization with its roots spread deep across the whole city. In short, he held the reins both above and below the table—definitely not somebody you wanted to make an enemy of.

Maybe that was hypocritical of me to say, since we had made him our enemy once already, but that had ended without incident. Due to the mess of complications that had created the situation in the first place, he hadn’t actually pursued us with anything close to all the means at his disposal.

If he had, then even with this body of mine, I wasn’t sure what would have become of me.

After we waited for a while, impatience nipping at our heels...

“It appears as though he has arrived,” said the young man who served as our coachman.

While you would usually think that Lorraine and I would notice that first, being adventurers, this young man was the very same individual who had saved me yesterday from that monstrous vampire. Of the three of us present, he was undoubtedly the strongest.

The Latuule family temporary hire agency was indeed an outstanding repository of talent.

In fact, they were probably higher up than Jean on the list of people you shouldn’t make enemies of...

“Sorry! Sorry I’m late,” the man in question apologized as he walked over. He was dressed in plain clothing, and if he’d kept silent and dropped his gaze to the ground, I would bet almost nobody would have been able to pick him out for who he really was.

That wasn’t to say, however, that the quality of his attire was inferior in any way. Quite the opposite, in fact: it all looked to be of exceedingly fine make. From the faint traces of mana that I could sense, I realized that all of it was magical as well—and if I, a monster, could only barely detect it, then that meant that a regular person wouldn’t be able to pick up anything at all.

Lorraine would be able to, of course, given her magical eyes. Sure enough...

“You’re dressed like you’re about to head off to war...” she said.

“Saw right through me, did you?” Jean said, smiling. “Well, I’m definitely not planning on joining any wars, but it pays well to be careful. I told you back at the colosseum, but there’s a lot of conspiracy surrounding Maalt’s dungeon—as well as the Tower and the Academy. Who knows when danger might rear its head, or what form it will take?”

Jean Seebeck was the individual who supervised the entirety of the guild across Yaaran. No doubt any number of people were after his head. If we wanted to avoid being dragged into that while we traveled with him, we’d have to watch our step with particular care.

“I suppose you’re right...” Lorraine said. “But that reminds me, why are you late? When we informed the guild of the place and time this morning, they told us they’d make sure you arrived on time.”

While we’d hashed out the general details of our departure back at the colosseum, we’d also gone to the guild this morning to leave more specific instructions, just to be certain. Strictly speaking, however, that had just been a secondary task. Our main purpose in going to the guild had been to pass along a message about the vampire that had attacked me last night to a particular individual who I honestly really didn’t want to be contacting.

That is to say, it was for Nive.

Since an in-person meeting had been impossible, it truly had just been a message, one basically along the lines of “A really strong vampire appeared in the royal capital but suddenly ran away for some reason, so I don’t think it’s in the city anymore.”

The rest of the work—that being actually getting the message to Nive—was up to the guild’s contact network.

I wasn’t sure if she would show up to the capital and turn the whole place upside down, or if she’d just ignore the message since the vampire was already gone, but...

No, I guess she wouldn’t just ignore it, huh?

Nive was not the type to let something go until she had investigated it thoroughly with her own eyes and ears. I was fairly certain that she’d show up here sooner or later.

I dearly hoped that wouldn’t coincide with when I next came here...but past experience proved that it would be just my luck if that did happen. It was probably pointless to get my hopes up.

“Hmm? Well, I had a lot of work to take care of first...” Jean said evasively—and then, he abruptly looked behind him.

“Grand Guildmaster! Where are you?!” yelled a voice from the same direction. “Surely you don’t mean to leave unaccompanied?!”

Jean pulled his hood up over his head. “All right now, let’s get a move on. It’ll be a pain in the behind if they find me.”

“They’re searching for you, aren’t they...?” I asked. “There’s enough space in the carriage for others. We should go tell them—”

I made to head over, but Jean swiftly grabbed my arm. “Idiot!” he hissed. “Having attendants breathing down my neck the whole time will spoil my long-awaited travel plans! Come on, let’s go!”

What are you, a child? is what I wanted to say, but it seemed impossible that it would get through to him. Instead, Lorraine, the coachman, and I exchanged looks of equal resignation and promptly began preparing the carriage for departure.

Even if we set out stealthily, there was always the inspection at the city gates. A person as famous as Jean was sure to be recognized there, so for the time being, it would be fine if we simply departed.

That’s what I thought, anyway...

“So long, my little staff members,” Jean muttered, giggling to himself as he peeked out of a gap between the carriage’s curtains. “I’m off to have a nice little vacation in Maalt!”

If I said that the sight of him didn’t make me feel uneasy, then I would probably be lying.