-Unbelievable.

Right now.

Vampire society had entered a state of absolute emergency.

That was partly because that sun was moving around inside their territory, but—

the greater shock was the news that came afterward.

-That many of our brothers were annihilated...!

Those who had rushed in to stop that sun.

The report said that every last one of them had been cleanly wiped out.

If they had merely failed to stop it, then that would have been one thing.

Operations could fail. That happened.

From the start, stopping that sun—the very bane of their kind—

had always carried a real chance of failure.

'That sun is definitely dangerous, but it isn’t that large.'

But.

The news that every single brother who had gone to stop it had been annihilated was different.

'The area covered by the light wasn’t that wide either. It shouldn’t have been enough to annihilate every brother spread across such a broad range... How?'

How had they managed to wipe out that many brothers—

and do it so instantly, without even leaving a witness?

They simply could not understand it.

And so.

There was only one conclusion they could reach.

'We don’t know what it is, but besides that sun, they have something else—something enormous.'

The bloodline’s already frenzied mood only escalated further.

Even nobles who had been stationed far away began dispatching retainers to determine the route that sun was taking.

But.

-They’re not leaving any trace.

-Hmm.

The humans walking somewhere beneath that sunlight were leaving behind almost eerily little evidence of their passage.

-Humans are strangely versatile.

There must be people among them who specialized in erasing traces like that.

That had to be how they were wiping away the trail of that procession.

There was only one part they found hard to understand.

'Even so... if you just watch where that light is moving, you can roughly figure out their route anyway, can’t you?'

They couldn’t approach that light directly, but that giant sun shining from afar made it more than possible to trace their approximate path.

So what was the point of hiding their tracks?

That was what it seemed like.

Still, there was no way for them to understand the reason behind everything those people did.

Maybe those humans knew it was meaningless too and were just doing whatever they could.

In the end, all they could do was let it pass.

-They keep heading north.

-Just how far are they planning to go...?!

Like that, they watched the path of that light with close attention.

But only for a while.

Fwoosh...

The sun burning in the sky, and the dazzling light pouring from it—

...snuffed out.

With a tiny sound so small it felt absurd.

It vanished.

-...Huh?

As that massive light disappeared, the world sank back into darkness.

In that darkness, the bloodline faltered in confusion for only a moment—

-The light’s gone out!

—and then, they surged toward the place where the light had been with overwhelming speed.

-I don’t know why it suddenly went out, but...!

This entire continent had long since become the bloodline’s domain.

There was no place left where anyone could hide from vampires.

Now that those lowly creatures had stepped onto the mainland, into the bloodline’s own territory—

the moment that sunlight disappeared would be their end.

-Have any humans been spotted anywhere near this area?!

And so, countless monsters began combing through the area around where the sun had vanished.

But.

-Humans? We haven’t seen any humans anywhere near this city in ages.

-Damn it! Nothing here either.

Even though a tremendous number of humans must have left that island and made it onto the mainland, the search dragged on in a strangely frustrating way.

-...Where—

And then.

After quite a long time had passed.

The bloodline’s knights spoke in hollow disbelief.

And for good reason.

-...did they disappear to?

They shouldn’t have had anywhere to hide.

And yet there was not the slightest sign of the humans.

***

“Huff...”

Dragging in a ragged breath, I forced my next step forward.

“Just a little farther, Commander.”

“Please hang in there...!”

With my soldiers supporting me,

I was carefully making my way somewhere.

Two of them were holding me up and tending to me with painstaking care.

The rest—

swish...

were erasing the traces we left behind.

'Men specialized in covert movement.'

No matter how tightly the enemy’s encirclement narrowed, these were the kind of troops who could slip out and disappear without any trouble.

The fact that I was mixed in with them too didn’t make much difference.

'T hank God... ah.'

Maybe because my thoughts drifted in that direction.

The foot I was about to set down wavered slightly.

At once—

“...Are you all right, Commander?”

one of the soldiers supporting me asked.

“The strength is steadily leaving your body.”

“Ah, yeah...?”

“You have to stay conscious. The medic warned us that if you pass out here, you may never wake up again.”

“Right... It hurts enough to feel like I’m dying, but I can’t exactly afford to die.”

At that, the soldier on my other side spoke in a voice thick with concern.

“Still... weren’t you pushing yourself too hard?”

“Hm?”

“I mean.”

He looked off into the distance.

“You kept that sun going and walked on for a long time even after you’d already passed the destination, didn’t you?”

“Ah, that.”

The truth was, I had been wandering around with that sun lit for quite a while, and I’d already passed the destination I’d originally been aiming for some time ago.

“I heard it from Medic Luca. Said you were doing something utterly insane.”

When we passed near that destination, I sent all the awakened ahead first, along with the men who would erase their traces.

Then I stayed behind with the other soldiers and kept the sun lit while circling deeper inland.

The reason was simple.

“If I didn’t go this far, then even if I picked a shelter, they’d find it.”

The soldiers had erased our traces, but if I wandered around dragging that sun with me and then turned it off the moment I reached the destination, then naturally that point would become the center of a detailed search.

And if that happened, no matter how safe the hiding place I’d chosen was, it would be found in the end.

In other ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) words—

'If I get far enough away from the place where the sun goes out...'

They would still search the surrounding area.

But the farther they got from the place where I disappeared, the looser their search was bound to become.

So if I poured out my strength and kept the sunlight going, the odds that the people following me would stay safe went up with it.

“If that’s the reason, then I guess there was no helping it, but...”

“Relax. You don’t need to worry that much.”

Between Ariella’s blood flowing through me and Luca’s healing continuously treating me, my body was holding on.

“The moment I turned the sun off, my stamina started coming back little by little.”

Thanks to that, even with my [true energy] dried out that badly, I’d managed to keep that sun going—a sun that devoured an enormous amount of vitality.

“There!”

“We’ve arrived!”

And thanks to that, I’d been able to lead everyone safely to the “end of the road” I had in mind without letting the enemy discover its location...

“Which is exactly why!”

And then, the moment we reached that very end point and stepped inside—

“Didn’t we tell you not to start trouble?!”

a roar loud enough to tear my ears apart rang out, almost as if it were there to welcome me.

“Not start trouble?”

“Ha!”

The chaotic sound of people having some huge argument.

Hearing it, I could only let out a bitter laugh.

And for good reason.

“You filthy vampire bastard, you’ve got some nerve speaking in human language!”

It was exactly the kind of fight I had fully expected to find waiting for me there.

***

“You filthy vampire bastard, you’ve got some nerve speaking in human language!”

Someone was shouting in a voice thick with hostility.

And then—

“Well, I used to be human too, and it’s not like any of you can speak monster language, so what choice do I have?!”

—in response to that voice, a scruffy-looking man shouted back in obvious frustration.

“What do you mean, what choice do you have?!”

“I’m telling you, if you people keep making a scene like this, we won’t be able to protect you...!”

He pounded his chest as he yelled, exasperated beyond words.

Then—

“...Sir Knight!?”

He spotted me walking toward them and cried out with wide eyes.

“Sir Knight, you’ve finally come!”

“Yeah, it’s been a while.”

“Good grief, where on earth have you been all this time...?!”

And so.

I looked at the man with the scruffy clothes and the rough-looking face.

“Sorry about that.”

No—

to be precise,

“Kangil.”

I looked at the vampire and said it.

“C-cough, there’s no need for you to apologize. If anything, I’m just glad you came back here, Sir Knight, but...”

That’s right.

The place I’d chosen as the destination of this escape.

No—

the city was—

'Qingdao.'

After falling onto this land, it was the very first city I had ever visited.

“Forget that for now!”

And.

One of the vampires left behind in that city.

Kangil shouted with a troubled look on its face.

“Just do something about those people, Sir Knight!”

At that, I turned my head and looked toward the outskirts of the city.

An awakened person’s physical abilities rose in proportion to their stats.

My eyesight and hearing had long since reached a level ordinary awakened couldn’t begin to match.

-Have any humans been spotted anywhere near this area?!

And so there were sounds I could hear.

-Humans? We haven’t seen any humans anywhere near this city in ages.

-Damn it! Nothing here either.

Those words, and with them the countless presences moving farther away.

'...This is a vampire city.'

Which meant—

'It’s one of the places least likely to contain survivors.'

The searchers already had too much ground to cover as it was.

They simply didn’t have the leeway to dig into the interior of a vampire city—a place where survivors should never be in the first place.

“And instead, they keep trying to kill us!”

“Ah.”

“Even if they just stayed quiet, there’s no telling when those things outside might come in deeper—but they keep making a racket...!”

That said, no matter how unlikely a place was to contain survivors, if some kind of disturbance was happening inside it, then even if you didn’t think survivors were the cause, it was only natural to want to check what was going on.

“I got the general picture on my way in.”

“We’re at our limit trying to keep them under control. Please, do something...!”

“Hmm. I’ll try, at least.”

There was no question this situation would turn bad if it kept up.

So,

I brushed past Kangil and walked toward the survivors.

“That person is...”

“The sacred light is gone, so it’s hard to make him out clearly, but...”

“Hard to make him out? What are you talking about?!”

Then,

only now getting a proper look at my face, the survivors—

“Just one glance and you can feel the dignity in that face...!”

“It’s our great Guide!”

—cried out, then immediately lowered their heads deeply.

“You’ve finally come, O Guide!”

“Ahh, we have waited for you alone!”

They bowed to me with utmost respect, then turned hostile eyes toward the surroundings and said,

“We came into this city just as you instructed, Guide, but—”

“To be honest, once we got inside, we were truly shocked.”

Qingdao, too,

just like the rest of this land in China, “this city is a demon’s den packed full of those vampire bastards.”

was a region overflowing with vampires.

From the perspective of awakened who saw vampires as enemies, there was no way they could approach that calmly.

“At least we endured it because we remembered your words, Guide.”

It seemed what I’d told them in advance had done its job.

An actual battle hadn’t broken out right away, at least.

But—

“Now that you’re here, Guide, just give the order.”

“If you give the word, we’ll wipe out every monster in this city—!”

At this point, it would not have been strange at all if fighting broke out between them immediately.