“G-Good after-noon.”
Roll... roll...
“I was... won-dering... who it was...”
Roll, roll...
“And it turns out... it was... Sir Knight...”
The guy sohow keeping pace with the procession by rolling sideways.
No matter how good his physical abilities were, there was no way this could be easy.
“So... what is it... that you need... from ...?”
The guy who raised his head at my call—
was wearing an easy smile on a face caked in dirt.
‘...What an incredible man.’
What this guy was going through was on a level comparable to the worst rotten customs in a truly hellish unit.
Maybe even worse.
The physical pain was one thing, but ntally, it had to be an enormous burden too.
If he were one of Ariella’s thralls, that brainwashing-level loyalty might have kept him from even feeling the pain.
But this guy wasn’t one of Ariella’s thralls.
Inside, he had to be feeling deeply humiliated.
And yet not a single change showed on his face.
Honestly, his ntal fortitude was impressive enough to earn a little admiration.
‘...’
...Which was exactly why it pissed off a little too.
Anyway.
“It’s nothing much. I just had sothing I wanted to ask.”
“Ah, I see...”
At my words, the guy kept rolling as he spoke.
“But... first, I should... apologize... a little...”
“...”
“If it were up to ... I would be happy... to answer... anything at all...”
“...”
“But... I am very sorry...”
“...”
“As you can see... right now... I am in a bit of a state where... carrying on... a conversation like this...”
“You an it’s hard?”
The guy kept talking while rolling sideways.
Just watching it was making feel stifled to death, so I pushed myself up and looked at Ariella, crossing my hands into an X.
‘Pause for a second.’
Then—
Ariella, who had been watching , frowned.
A mont later, she let out a sigh and opened her mouth.
“...Was it Lirei?”
“Yes, Countess.”
“We’ve been moving for so ti, and it’s ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) starting to get a little uncomfortable. We’ll stop here for today and rest a while.”
“Then...”
“You may stop rolling for the mont as well.”
At those words, the guy got to his feet with a bright smile.
“Whew! Thank you, Countess!”
“...”
“To be honest, I was just starting to lose my senses. Trying to keep up with such a fast-moving procession by side-rolling, even for soone like who has always been fairly confident in my stamina...”
“You talk too much. Don’t speak to anymore.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Then, dusting himself off, he looked at .
“In that case, I suppose I should be thanking you instead. Really, you helped out at just the right mont.”
“No need to thank , exactly.”
I reached out and brushed the dirt off him as I spoke.
“If you really want to thank ... hmm. How about doing it by answering a few questions for ?”
“Questions?”
Lirei tilted his head.
“You probably heard, but my master and I belong to a different bloodline from yours.”
“Ah, yes.”
“So naturally, we don’t know much about how things work around here, and there were a lot of things I was curious about. Of course, I’m not asking you to tell for free.”
I turned slightly and pointed at Ariella behind us.
“If you answer my questions well enough, I’ll ask... hmm, the Countess, to stop making things difficult for you.”
“What?”
“You seem like you’ve been enduring it pretty well so far, but honestly, this has to be pretty uncomfortable, right?”
At that, he looked at with slight surprise.
“You an to say you’d ask your master to withdraw an order... The Countess must be very fond of you.”
“Hm? Ah, well. Yes, I guess so.”
“In that case, let offer you one piece of advice: there’s no need for you to go out of your way to bargain with like this.”
He looked at the person I had pointed to—
Ariella—and said,
“You can simply ask your master over there to put the questions to .”
“Ah.”
“If that happens, I would be willing to answer most anything, so there’s really no need to go through such a cumberso thod.”
Even though I was offering to make things easier for him, he was the one telling there was a simpler way.
Since he had co here to support Ariella, he was apparently trying to be as courteous as possible to too, since I was her knight.
“I know that too, but, well...”
This was where the script had gotten a little tangled...
Still, whatever.
“To be honest, saying I wanted to ask questions was just an excuse.”
“What?”
“There are things I’m curious about too, that part’s true. But originally...”
I tilted my head slightly and whispered in his ear.
“My plan was that if you answered my questions well, I could ask her sothing like, ‘He answered my questions so well, don’t you think it’s about ti you stopped punishing him?’”
“...You an to say.”
At that, he looked at with startled eyes and said,
“Your real goal is to put a stop to the way I’m being treated?”
“For now, yeah.”
“...Why?”
Lirei tilted his head, looking genuinely unable to understand.
“I hate to say it myself, but I’m soone who attacked you.”
“Ah, that’s true. To be honest, it hurt like hell back then.”
“And after that, it’s not as though I’ve ever done anything to earn your favor either... So why are you showing this kindness?”
“Well. It’s true that our relationship got off to a pretty bad start...”
I looked up above his head as I said it.
“But still, seeing soone from the sa place as going through this much trouble... it just didn’t sit right with .”
“What?”
And above the head of the guy I was looking at...
“Well, isn’t that right? Mr. Lirei?”
“...?”
“Or rather, to be exact.”
[Ingredient Appraisal (Enhanced)]
[Awakened: Li Jinlei]
“Maybe I should be calling you Mr. Jinlei... instead.”
What was written there was a slightly different na from the one he had given .
“...Wh-!”
A huge crack appeared in his expression.
***
“...What exactly do you an by that?”
He tried to pull himself back together sohow, but he was already too late.
Drip...
Even on that face that had pretended to stay relaxed while rolling across the ground,
I could see a bead of cold sweat.
“You know what I an, don’t you, Mr. Jinlei?”
“...I told you, my na is Lirei...”
“Ah. I was aning to say this anyway.”
I let out a hollow laugh.
“Isn’t that a little too sloppy for an alias?”
A noble under the Grand Duke.
Soone who possessed more power than even Ariella, and a noble entrusted with the important task of dealing with those who interfered with the bloodline’s conquests.
“Li Jinlei. Sounds like a perfectly good na your parents gave you too.”
His real na was Li Jinlei.
“Just because you decided to stop being human doesn’t an you had to throw away a na like that too, right?”
It was an unmistakably natural Chinese na.
“...How did you know I used to be human?”
“I’ve got a pretty good eye, actually.”
I pointed at my eyes as I said it.
“Those nobles may look pretty similar to us, but humans and nobles are different species at their core. So there are slight differences in their appearance too.”
“What...?”
“If you look closely enough, you can tell who’s human and who was born a noble. That’s what I’m saying.”
At that, he gaped at as though he couldn’t believe it.
“You’re saying that’s possible?”
No.
Of course it fucking wasn’t.
Humans alone look wildly different depending on ethnicity.
There was no way anyone could look at a vampire who resembled a human and go, ah, that one’s not human.
I had just made it up on the spot.
“Then... my na?”
“Ah~ actually, back when I was an Awakened, I happened to get a kind of supernatural ability from so monster by sheer chance. It’s a power that lets know only the other person’s na, and apparently that didn’t disappear even after I beca a knight.”
An Awakened’s abilities disappeared once you beca a vampire.
Because the [System] only supported humans.
“Even though I’m now a knight serving the glorious nobility, I still rember what it was like when I was human. So when I looked at you, your situation didn’t feel all that distant from my own.”
“...”
“We’re both from human origins... and now comrades, aren’t we, doing our best to serve the nobles?”
I gave his shoulder a light, gentle pat and said with a smile,
“Even if we fought at first because neither of us knew any better, now that we do, couldn’t we at least get along?”
At that, he stared at blankly and spoke.
“When you were an Awakened...”
“Hmm?”
“That ans you ca from human origins too... is that it?”
“Ah, right.”
His eyes bored into my face.
“The sa as ?”
“Yeah. Sa as you.”
“...I see.”
What was he thinking?
After saying that much, he fell silent.
“Ahem. So anyway.”
I looked at him and said,
“I’d just appreciate it if you answered a few questions for . Nothing major.”
“...”
“For starters... well, I saw on that map that it looked like the nobles’ advance was getting stalled sowhere in the south. Why is that...”
If he just answered my questions, then all this tornt would co to an end.
And on top of that, we were both of human origin.
There ought to be at least a little fellow feeling there.
After saying this much, I’d expected a relatively gentle answer in return.
“...Why are you asking about sothing like that?”
“Hm?”
But—
contrary to my expectations—
“Your master and you need only follow the Grand Duke’s arrangents and grow stronger. The war is a matter for our bloodline.”
“Ah, sure, that’s true. Still, I was just kind of curious about the situation in this land.”
“Ah, curious, are you?”
This was the sa man who had kept smiling like nothing was wrong even while enduring Ariella’s harsh treatnt.
And yet this sa man—
“Why are you so interested in the affairs of another bloodline?”
“...What?”
“Why?”
His face had no trace of a smile on it.
“Because once you establish a bloodline of your own, you’ll be going to war with us soon enough, so you want to study our weaknesses in advance... is that it?”
That was what he said.
***
“Ha. Unbelievable.”
“...”
“Asking about a war being fought by a bloodline. Even if the Countess herself asked, it would be sothing I’d need to think carefully about before answering... and a re knight thinks he can ask?”
His tone and attitude had turned razor-sharp.
Seeing that, I couldn’t help but feel a little surprised.
“What, did you think that if you told you ca from human origins too, I’d feel so attachnt and answer easily?”
There were several reasons I had revealed that I ca from human origins too.
And one of them was exactly what he’d said—
I had been trying to create so sense of familiarity by showing we ca from the sa place.
“Bullshit.”
But no.
That wasn’t it.
“This whole line of, ‘It’s for your own good, so just answer my questions obediently’... isn’t that exactly the kind of thing a con artist would say?”
“...”
“I have no intention of answering questions like that, so leave.”
The easy smile he’d worn until then was gone without a trace.
He was snapping at now, almost as if he were worked up.
“...Well, then. If that’s how it is, you’ll have to keep suffering like this.”
“Yes. I’m fine, so there’s no need for you to concern yourself. Still, I’m grateful that you’d worry so much about soone else.”
He smiled as he looked at .
No, to be exact—
“To brazenly co speak to the man who blew your head apart like this... Weren’t you afraid your head might explode again?”
“...”
“Truly impressive. If it were , I wouldn’t be able to act so boldly.”
With a sneer, he looked at my face.
“Well, I suppose I can guess the reason you’re able to. You’re trusting in the Countess’s protection.”
“...”
He looked at my face for a mont longer.
Then a nasty smile spread over his lips.
“I’ve heard nobles actually like faces that look a little forceful and intimidating. They consider that noble-like.”
“...What?”
“I can certainly understand the Countess’s taste now.”
I was left staring at him with my mouth slightly open, but he just kept talking.
“Well, people have to use every ans available if they want to survive. I won’t judge you for that.”
“...”
“But still, hmm. For soone who survived by taking shelter under soone else’s protection like that to talk about how we’re in the sa situation... hmm.”
He looked at my face as if the sight disgusted him.
“Honestly, I find it more than a little revolting.”
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