‘I noticed it too late.’
Hamel ran down the castle corridor toward Aileen’s quarters.
Aileen was the most defenseless person right now.
Lena, panting as she barely kept up, spoke in a small voice despite her breathlessness.
“I’m sorry.”
“This is not Miss Lena’s fault.”
Hamel shook his head.
The boundary magic around the castle had activated late. Hamel had sent Ono and Daniel as soon as he saw bear-shaped monsters outside the windows; the barrier only sounded afterward. But the delay wasn’t limited to the magic.
‘I didn’t know either.’ Until moments ago Hamel had kept his guard up—he’d felt an attack might come tonight. Still, he hadn’t noticed the ambush until he saw it with his own eyes.
The monsters had appeared suddenly, as if bursting up from the ground.
‘It’s puzzling how that was possible, though…’ What mattered now was getting through this without further harm. Hamel pushed harder and accelerated his run.
He reached Aileen’s door in a single bound.
“…Lady Aileen.”
Aileen was crouched on the floor. Standing before her with a staff was a priestly man. The middle-aged priest, his hair swept up, gave off a strange, unsettling air.
Aileen turned her head, looked at Hamel, and murmured, “H-Hamel sir.”
Her voice trembled with fear.
Hamel realized at once the priest was an enemy. He adjusted his grip on his sword.
The priest muttered in surprise, “You’re Hamel?”
Hamel paused at the reaction—did the man know him?—but only briefly. He charged and swung his sword; he could learn his identity after subduing him.
─Klang!
“…!”
The outcome was nothing like he’d expected. The priest easily parried Hamel’s aura-clad blade with his staff.
─Thud!
When the priest drove his staff down, Hamel’s body hovered in the air. The force was unbelievable. Since learning to use the dragon’s blood, almost no one had overpowered him by force. The priest’s build looked ordinary—how could he possess such brute strength?
‘Or…’
Or he might not be human at all but a monster.
Hamel stared steadily at his opponent. The priest himself only muttered, as if confused.
“You shouldn’t be here. Then what on earth is she…”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“About the port. What happened to the Lamia that was there?”
“…!”
How did he know about the Lamia?
Hamel’s body tensed. Thinking it through, the answer wasn’t hard.
“Marvas.”
If, like the Lamia, the man before them followed Marvas, it made sense.
“Are you one of his followers too?”
“I believe I asked the question first.” The priest slammed his staff on the floor like a threat instead of answering.
Aileen flinched nearby—still within reach if the priest extended his hand. If he moved rashly, Hamel wouldn’t be able to save her.
Hamel spoke calmly. “If you’re asking about the Lamia, she is here.” He tapped the super-class sigil engraved on his sword.
The priest froze as if turned to ice. After a moment he ground his teeth and muttered, “…Couldn’t even delay a few days. What’s so ‘super-class’, you rotten witch.”
Hamel murmured softly, “Now.”
“…?”
The priest looked up in puzzlement.
─Boom—sshhh—sshhh—sshhh
A vast blue flame rolled outward from Hamel like a tidal wave.
Incendium Vita.
The cleansing flame burned the unclean. As the massive explosion ripped through the building, every window on their floor shattered and a great blaze rushed outward.
“What are you doing all of a sudden?” the priest muttered irritably from inside the flames.
─Thud.
He slammed his staff into the floor and the rippling Azure Flame nearly died out, like a fire doused with sand. Then he pointed his staff to the side and said, “You don’t care what happens to this woman…?”
He stopped mid-sentence. She was gone.
The priest turned toward Hamel. Aileen was already in the arms of the black-haired mage Lena, who stood behind him.
“…So those worthless flames were a diversion.”
“I couldn’t interrupt while Lady Lena cast her spell.”
Hamel nodded slowly. On his signal, Lena had pulled Aileen away.
The priest looked at Hamel with a strange expression, sighed, shook his head, and muttered, “You just keep getting bested, don’t you.”
“…”
“Perhaps it’s better to end this here.” He flicked his fingers and an overwhelming tide of ominous mana shimmered in his hand—a blood-red aura.
Hamel’s muscles tightened and he instinctively reached for the flask to tap the dragon’s blood power.
The priest froze. “That power is…” He studied Hamel with a complicated look, then nodded. “You could be useful. Perhaps you could complete it at once.”
‘Useful.’ The priest had likely said that after seeing the dragon’s power. Hamel frowned, trying to fathom what he meant.
Suddenly the priest slammed his staff on the floor again. “I’ll be going then. Until next time.”
Mist spread in all directions and he vanished into the fog.
Hamel had no intention of letting him go. “I won’t let you leave.” He lunged into the mist and swung his sword, but his blade struck nothing.
─Whoosh.
The mist slipped out through the broken window.
“…No way.”
Could the mist itself have been the demon’s true form?
Hamel watched it retreat through the window.
“We missed him.”
Hamel clenched his fist. He’d let the priest escape far too easily. Still, there was something to be grateful for—Aileen had lost consciousness but was otherwise unharmed.
Outside, through the shattered window, the inner courtyard came into view. Monsters’ heads lay torn off and rolling on the ground. There were no cheers, no relief—only silence after the sudden assault.
The damage from the ambush was considerable.
“…They’re dead.”
Hamel laid a hunter’s corpse, already cold, on the floor. The only hunters who survived were those gathered in the castle courtyard. Every hunter who had been on guard or had gone outside was dead.
If there was any relief, it was that a hunter named Cal had pulled through thanks to Hamel’s healing.
Aileen’s knights… they were all killed by the priest—left like old trees, only skin and bone.
“They were drained of blood.”
Ono grimaced when he heard the report.
Hamel nodded slowly. “Vampirism and a tough physique as well.”
“It seems to be a vampiric breed.”
“…Just hearing that makes me want to vomit.”
Ono looked sickened. Demons or heretics that committed grotesque acts—cannibalism, vampirism, bathing in blood—were common enough. Those obsessed with blood were labeled a vampiric breed.
Even as he said it, Hamel found it hard to accept. “But the opponent turned into mist. And… he was too human for a demon.”
There were demons that imitated humans or possessed reason, but none he’d met resembled humans this closely. Unless it was a Doppelganger.
“That’s rather strange.”
Ono clicked his tongue and scratched his head.
A middle-aged hunter approached them.
“What’s the matter?”
The hunter inhaled sharply at Hamel’s question and spoke cautiously. “I… I wanted to offer my thanks.”
“No, we just…”
“Thank you for saving our lives! Father, you are our benefactor!”
Before Hamel could respond, the hunter bowed deeply. Half their number had been taken, and yet they offered thanks. Hamel felt oddly uncomfortable accepting it.
“…It’s fine. Do you have anything else to say?”
“Ah, um…”
The hunter fumbled as if he couldn’t find the words, then finally said, “Tomorrow when the sun rises, the other hunters plan to leave.”
“All of them?”
“…Yes. Embarrassingly.”
“I see.”
Hamel nodded. It wasn’t an unreasonable decision; they’d witnessed overwhelming force firsthand. It would have been stranger if they had stayed.
“I, actually… I have a wife waiting at home…”
“That’s only natural. I’ll inform Lady Aileen.”
“…Thank you. And this is the contract penalty.”
“Yes.”
Hamel accepted the money the hunter handed him. It wasn’t much, but it would ease worries that the Rengbaster domain might go bankrupt.
The hunter blushed and, as he turned to leave, paused as if remembering something.
“Is there anything else?”
“Ah, well…”
He trailed off vaguely, then, when Hamel met his gaze to encourage him, stammered on. “I’m not certain, but… about the monsters that attacked us—”
“Yes?”
“They felt… somehow familiar. I know it sounds crazy, but they seemed to resemble the comrades whose bodies we couldn’t find…”
─(flinch)
Hamel’s body trembled slightly.
“Why do you think that?” he asked carefully.
“Their movements reminded me of our comrades… Darren had a habit of slapping his forehead when laughing. Cavil often spat.”
“…”
“But those monsters… they mimicked that.”
“…Is that too far-fetched?”
The hunter scratched his head and backed away, as if asking them to forget it.
Hamel fell into deep thought. Huge monsters had suddenly appeared as if dropping from the void—monsters that slipped past the guards and even the barrier. If those things had been created here, everything made sense.
Only one person came to mind who could do that.
“That priest, perhaps.”
Hamel was frowning when a small voice called from inside the room.
“Hamel.”
He stepped carefully into the chamber. Aileen, who had collapsed earlier, had regained consciousness. She murmured weakly with a sleepy expression.
“That… it wasn’t a dream, was it?”
“If you mean that priest, no. It wasn’t a dream.”
Hamel answered matter-of-factly. She lifted her head with a troubled look.
“It seems our worst assumption was correct.”
“…?”
“Do you not know who that priest is?”
“What do you mean by that…?”
Aileen bit her lip and spoke slowly. “I have a faint memory of seeing him before—at an event where all the Lettria nobility gathered.”
“…No way.”
“It’s him.” Aileen nodded. “The lord of Solmer domain. Vlad Chepesh.”
