“I’m going crazy. Hey, knight—how about trying something.”
“Stay still.”
Daniel answered Ono calmly.
Ono snapped, his voice choking as he shouted.
“…Saying ‘stay still’ isn’t exactly an answer, is it!”
He nervously bit his nails.
No wonder—he couldn’t make sense of the situation.
Just after confronting the captain of the guard, monsters had attacked.
The captain engaged them at once.
And it looked like he was protecting them.
“Krararack!”
Monsters poured through the long-smashed doors again.
The hall had already become a battlefield from assaults on all sides.
The soldiers within the painting were skilled, but they were too few against the swelling horde.
More soldiers fell than could be replenished, and the line was being pushed back.
If not for the captain and his knights, half the hall would have been lost by now.
‘This is maddening.’
The captain had said those monsters were humans turned into sacrifices.
The problem was that even that number represented only some of the humans who had been dragged in.
Chepesh intended to offer all humans as sacrifices before the night ended.
If Chepesh were to return alive….
‘It’s over.’
A demon host far greater than this swarm would be produced, and they’d have to face Chepesh fully empowered by the sacrifices.
Moreover, even the captain of the guard would turn his back.
He was a subordinate of Count Vlad Chepesh.
In other words, everything depended on Hamel.
‘It’s not that I don’t trust him, but….’
Ono was about to explode with impatience.
Something was clearly wrong, yet Daniel and Lena remained oddly calm.
Ono trembled with anxiety when suddenly Lena, who stood behind them, spoke without emotion.
“It’s distracting, Ono.”
“You be quiet, kid.”
“…”
Ono flinched when Lena didn’t answer.
Come to think of it—wasn’t Lena infected?
Could the infection have worsened?
‘If she were to turn into a monster at a time like this….’
Ono called to Lena again, voice tight.
“…Hey. Kid.”
“What is it?”
“…Ah, you startled me. Why are you suddenly not answering?”
“Didn’t you tell me to be quiet?”
“You suddenly stopped talking, so I thought you’d turned into a monster and got scared!”
“Are you frightened?”
“What? Who’s supposed to be scared!”
At that moment Ono shouted.
─Kugugugugung!
A deafening roar tore at their ears.
“Waaah!”
Ono leapt back in surprise.
He met Lena’s eyes—she stood behind him.
“You….”
Forgetting his shock, Ono stared at her.
Lena’s bangs were damp. Her face was deathly pale; cold sweat trickled down her cheeks. Her irises glowed a stained ruby red.
“Hm… it seems it’s about to start.”
Lena produced a cord and said, “Would you tie it for me?”
“…Give it here.”
Ono snatched the cord and bound Lena’s arms tightly.
She muttered with effort, “It’s strangely familiar. Do you perhaps like this sort of thing….”
“Tch. Shut your mouth.”
Ono cut her off with an irritated expression as he finished binding her.
At that moment—
─Kugugugugung!
The roar returned and the hall trembled.
“Is this an earthquake…?”
A blue spark streaked toward Ono, who had been talking to himself.
Then—
─Fwarrrrk
The air itself began to melt.
The empty space shimmered, rippled, and finally liquefied into something viscous.
In that molten void, a blue world unfolded: trees, streams, sky, clouds—all burning in sapphire flame.
Ono recognized that fire all too well.
“Azure Flame? Why is that….” he muttered.
─Bang!
Another thunderous roar followed.
This time the shock rattled the entire castle.
A gigantic shape wrapped in blue flames fell toward the hall’s doors.
A massive, burning form crashed down. Parts of the castle crumbled and the sky split open.
The monsters filling the corridor were buried under the rubble or scattered—fleeing with their tails between their legs like cowed curs.
But the monsters no longer held Ono’s attention.
The clearer the new form became, the harder he could look away.
“What on earth is that….” Ono whispered.
A colossal skull he had seen before—the dragon temple in the north. It had to be the resurrected dragon Karaksis.
Much larger and older-looking than before, but undeniably dragon remains.
Ono swallowed dryly and stared.
‘If that is a newly appearing enemy….’
How could they fight it? Summoning a thornwood giant would be child’s play before that.
Ono’s face drained of color.
“…Hamel?”
Daniel tilted his head and murmured. Has the knight finally lost his mind?
There was no way that monster was Hamel.
Just as Ono was about to click his tongue, the giant skull’s jaws slowly opened.
‘So this is how we die.’
Ono squeezed his eyes shut.
“Father?”
Even Lena babbled nonsense from behind.
Are they all seeing their lives flash before their eyes?
Ono grit his teeth and opened his eyes. He didn’t want to die looking terrified.
What came into view was….
“…?”
Hamel stepped out, walking from within the dragon’s opened maw.
He glanced around, curious. “Why are you all like this?”
“…Why are you the one coming out of there?”
Hamel paused to consider Ono’s question, then replied calmly, “That’s a shedding.”
“A shedding? Of what?”
“Of me.”
“…?”
Ono tilted his head, baffled by Hamel’s words.
Hamel jumped down from the dragon’s mouth and landed on the floor. He scanned the area and fixed his gaze on a stunned knight.
“Captain of the guard.”
“…”
Hamel walked slowly toward him.
The captain looked at Hamel as if disbelief had frozen him. He chose his words carefully.
“…Where is Chepesh?”
“I brought him down. Probably.”
“That can’t be….”
The captain’s voice wavered, torn between the belief that Chepesh could not be defeated and the sight of Hamel tearing through Chepesh’s domain.
Hamel spoke calmly, “Why did you protect my companions?”
“…”
Everything in the room made the answer obvious: countless fallen soldiers, monsters, and the unharmed companions clustered together.
The captain fell silent, confused, but then managed, “Chepesh ordered me to put your companions out of the way.”
“That means to kill them.”
“…I didn’t think so.”
Hamel looked at the captain intently, then nodded slowly. “Why did you do that?”
The captain could not have misunderstood Chepesh’s command; his earlier denial was a mental evasion. He simply hadn’t wanted to harm Hamel’s companions.
He asked back, uncertain, “Then why did you show me mercy?”
“Mercy?”
“Back at the mansion. You had a chance to stab me, didn’t you?”
Hamel finally understood. Before entering the painting that led to the castle, he’d suspected the knight in the adjacent painting might be the captain. The usual Hamel would have torn the painting apart.
However….
“Didn’t you call me a friend?”
Hamel had not forgotten the words exchanged over dinner. Though he had been a conditional friend, hiding his identity, he had not taken that remark lightly.
If a fight proved unavoidable, Hamel would have slain the captain—if necessary.
“You’re foolish.”
The captain sighed and shook his head, then spoke gloomily, “…I am the same.”
“…”
“I am unworthy both as a vassal… and as a friend.”
The captain extended his sword toward Hamel—offering the hilt, not the blade—with an utterly exhausted voice: “Please cut me down.”
“…”
Hamel took the sword. He stared at the captain’s blade and asked bluntly, “Was he worth this?”
The captain shook his head firmly. “That doesn’t matter.”
Hamel felt bitter as he raised the sword. Just as he was about to swing—
“That’s irresponsible.”
Lena, head bowed, spoke with difficulty.
Both Hamel and the captain turned to her.
Lena continued, still bowed, “Have you thought about what will happen after if you die like this?”
“…?”
“What will you do about those who follow you?”
She indicated the knights surrounding their companions. The soldiers stood in order, waiting for the captain’s command.
Seeing them, the captain let out a bitter laugh. “…They’ll be fine. I’m not some real king.”
Demons in a painting—common, kicked-aside things, insignificant even among demons. Because they lacked power, they had banded together and fashioned a single ‘king.’ He happened to be that king by chance: Leopold von Tyrian III. Simply the portrait of a great man.
Thus the captain had longed for noble demon lineage, since his status was nothing but an illusion. If he died, they’d simply pick another king.
Lena shook her head. “Have you ever truly looked them in the eye?”
There had been no reason for him to—he was merely a painting imitating a long-dead ruler, after all.
The captain unconsciously lifted his head. He met the gaze of a knight.
“…”
“…?”
The captain’s pupils trembled. He opened his mouth slightly and slowly looked around, reading each soldier’s face.
No one spoke, but he could tell: they were all prepared to die with him.
The captain closed his mouth tight.
─Kang
Hamel planted the sword in the floor and asked, “Are you still intent on dying?”
“…”
“Come with me.”
Hamel said it calmly.
The companions looked baffled, but what did it matter? His mother awaited in the cellar. The garden housed Azidahaka mimicking a rabbit; Apophis would also be brought into the domain whether asked or not. Gaining a few more paintings was no problem now.
After a brief pause, the captain opened his mouth and nodded, accepting the offer. “I will serve.”
“Friendship is enough.”
Hamel tapped the captain’s shoulder and passed by. He approached Lena, who still bowed her head.
“Thank you. Thanks to you, things worked out.”
“I didn’t do much.”
“No. Really…”
Hamel stopped mid-sentence and looked up at Lena’s bowed face: cold sweat on her forehead, deathly pale, eyes red as rubies. Why had he only noticed now?
‘Signs of infection…!’
If her host and master Vlad Chepesh had died, her infection should have been released.
That meant….
It was the moment Hamel turned his head that something began to writhe within the shattered remains of the castle.
