The Military Chef of a Ruined World Chapter 595: Then So Be It

—Kkeuaaah...!

In a world filled with blood-red light, soone’s agonized scream rang out.

—Aaah, ah...!

It was impossible now to even imagine what that being had originally looked like,

but that soone had once been human too.

A warrior who had resisted in order to survive in a world struck by ruin.

He had been fairly confident in his own skill,

and it had not been confidence without basis.

But...

no matter how exceptional one’s skill might be—

—Ghk, aaaaaaah...!

in the end, now,

he had been devoured by the vampire queen, and his soul had been reduced to a droplet of blood, drifting through the queen’s veins.

'I made a mistake.'

When he first fell into this place,

that was what he thought.

'I shouldn’t have believed that rumor.'

In his mind, a small regret surfaced.

'I should have... followed those soldiers instead...'

But.

That regret did not continue for long.

Splash.

The mont a single droplet of blood sank into a sea made of countless other drops of blood,

he fell asleep within the quiet flow of that sea.

Even if he wanted to wake,

he had already beco a droplet of soone else’s blood.

And blood could not move by will of its own.

So all he could do was sleep in this space for a long, long ti.

...And so.

How much ti had passed?

Slosh.

The once-calm sea suddenly began to heave.

'Ah...?'

And the consciousness that had been asleep was forced awake by that movent.

Instinctively, he could tell.

The master of this space that had kept him asleep.

The being that had kept that sea under quiet control.

'...The vampire queen.'

had lost control over them.

—Ah, ah...!

At first it was only a small ripple.

But there was no power left in this space capable of stopping that ripple.

And so—

—Kkeuaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!!!

the awakened souls let out agonized screams.

—Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah—!

Until then, they had at least been sunk in deep sleep, so there had been no pain.

But.

Once they awakened from that long sleep,

the thoughts they had held before falling into this place—

—Queen!!!

—made them writhe in pain, regret, and rage.

Paaang—!!!

Countless souls.

Countless currents of blood rampaged in fury, and the once-calm sea turned into a tidal wave that violently tore through the queen’s castle.

'I regret it.'

And that was true

for the man’s soul as well.

'I hate you...!'

He had slept for a long ti.

But that did not an those emotions had disappeared.

'The queen who made like this.'

If anything, they were emotions that had continued piling up even while he slept.

'And ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) everything that did not save ...!'

They had piled up far too much,

until they had beco grotesquely distorted.

Kwaaaaaaang!!!

They rose as a massive wave and slamd into the ash-gray castle.

No matter how sturdy that castle was,

with such violent waves battering it again and again, the damage was gradually accumulating.

'Revenge!'

The souls filled with fury realized that fact,

and hamred at the castle with even greater excitent.

That castle was the final barrier protecting the master of this space.

And they knew that if it fell, the queen who had cast them into this place would fall as well.

...But then, at that mont.

'...A familiar presence.'

The man, who had been rampaging as if he would destroy everything around him,

sensed a familiar presence sowhere far away.

It was a presence he could never forget.

And for good reason.

His final regret, just before he fell asleep—

'That ti, that...!'

Within that regret,

it was the presence of soone he had thought of over and over again.

Paaaak!

The waves that had been battering the castle so violently.

The direction of one among them shifted slightly.

—I always regretted it.

Back then.

If I had made a different choice, might things have turned out differently?

—I always thought about it.

Even if I was a lost cause,

maybe my comrades could have been saved.

And.

—I always hated you...!

Back then.

—If only you had stopped ...!

A wave filled with bitterness and hate ca crashing with terrifying force toward the heart of the castle.

Toward the keep.

“Sorry, but...! I still... have a lot left to do...!”

And there, the man found the one he had kept seeing within his regrets.

That wave, overflowing with hatred, ca surging toward him with imnse force.

“Instead.”

But.

At that mont.

“I’ll take responsibility...”

The man subrged in blood gave a bitter smile and tightened his grip on the sword in his hand.

“I’ll set you free.”

That hand, carrying so mysterious and wondrous power,

swung in a beautiful arc.

Slice—!

With that single slash, the wave that had been crashing harder than any other—

“...Ah.”

the man’s soul was cut free.

“...Ahh, so that’s what it was.”

The body he had once inhabited.

Even though the wave of blood that ford it had been severed,

strangely enough, the man felt no pain at all.

'You...'

What he felt instead...

was the exact opposite of pain.

'You had co... to set free...'

The sticky regret and hatred that had bound him all this ti.

...As he was freed from them,

he felt a supre happiness unlike anything he had ever known in life.

—Ahh....

Wrapped in that happiness,

the man looked at the one who had freed him.

—Thank... you...

With those last words of gratitude, drawn from the bottom of his heart,

the soul that had been bound for so many long years finally regained its freedom.

***

The countless souls rampaging inside Ariella’s inner self.

I looked at those souls.

[Ingredient Identification (Enhanced)]

[Chef’s Eye]

[You have acquired ‘Supre Culinary Secret - Comprehension of How to Prepare Blood-Transford Souls.’]

Souls were not originally things that existed in the form of blood.

But these had, through a vampire’s power, been forcibly trapped here with their souls bound into blood.

So what I had to do was simple.

[Soul Cooking Mastery]

To [prepare]

those souls.

Slice—

I swung my blade, carrying the insight of the trait I had awakened back in Gyeonggi Province.

[Soul Cooking Mastery].

Preparation was nothing special.

You removed what clung to the outside that you did not want,

and left only what you did.

If soone’s soul was contained in that blood,

then separating only that out was exactly what it ant to “prepare” a soul.

They said a blade could not cut water.

But that sea of blood was the exception.

As my blade brushed past,

I could see the souls forcibly bound inside that blood being released.

And then—

—Thank... you...

one among them spoke to .

'...A familiar voice.'

It was a faint voice, but I could guess who it belonged to.

...Soone I had known, and yet had failed to save properly.

At the fact that he had thanked , I could only think to myself with a bitter smile.

'This isn’t sothing I deserve thanks for.'

The souls gathered here.

Even if they had remained quietly asleep until Ariella lost control,

I too had played a part in trapping them here.

To these souls,

I too was one of the perpetrators.

'So this is not sothing I should be thanked for.'

For what I had done,

I was only paying the responsibility I owed.

If anything, they were in a position to bla for hesitating over it.

So hearing gratitude from one of them could only make smile bitterly.

And besides...

'I had hesitated over whether to carry this thod out at all.'

Honestly,

when I first thought of this thod, I hesitated a great deal.

The countless souls piled up in this place.

It was those souls, gathered together and mixed with Ariella’s essence, that had created the Ariella of now.

Which ant—

'if I removed all of these souls,'

then Ariella would most likely return to her original essence.

To who she had been in the days when she was called Ella.

Right.

'To those days... when she had been extrely reluctant to use the abilities of a vampire.'

The power she had already accumulated would likely remain,

but she would no longer be able to commit blood-draining or increase the number of her retainers.

Because Ariella’s original nature had been that kind of person.

For , who had been benefiting enormously from that combat strength,

it would be a terrible sha.

An enormous loss.

But.

After a brief period of deliberation, I ultimately went through with it.

'Isabella abandoned Ariella because she had changed a little from the form Isabella had known.'

More precisely, even if it was that Isabella had failed to recognize her—

from the start, the image of Ariella Isabella had wanted had been extrely narrow.

The mont Ariella stepped outside that range, Isabella had beco unable to perceive her as the Ella it knew.

'I’m different. '

It didn’t matter if she lost the ability to use so of her powers.

Because—

even the one who changed like that was still one I had decided to take in.

With that thought in mind,

I kept swinging my blade.

...But.

“...Kuh-huh!”

A ragged breath burst from my throat.

The hand I was moving was gradually slowing.

—...I do not know what you hope to gain by doing such a thing.

Maybe it had noticed .

A voice ca from sowhere.

—In the end, you are nothing but an inferior species.

“......”

—The quantity of souls rampaging in this place is beyond imagination.

I could feel it.

Freeing even a single soul here took far more power than I had expected.

When those souls had still been in the form they possessed before death,

this was a task that took about as much strength as bringing down one of them a single ti.

—This is not sothing an inferior species like you can accomplish alone.

The souls Ariella had devoured over the course of her entire life.

This was no different from fighting every last one of those souls.

—It is impossible.

Just as that one said,

it was infinitely close to impossible.

...But.

“You keep calling inferior species, inferior species...!”

I grabbed hold of the structure and pulled myself up,

looking out over this world.

A red liquid, spread beyond the horizon itself, raging in madness.

Its end couldn’t even be seen, like looking out over a storm-tossed sea.

“Even an inferior species has its own stubborn pride.”

But.

Looking at that scene, I smiled.

“Impossible?”

Isabella had talked about circumstances, this and that.

Had grieved as though the end it suffered had been unavoidable.

And it was not entirely wrong.

“Sorry, but.”

When you spend long enough in the military,

sotis you get assigned things that feel truly impossible.

Plenty of tis, I’d wanted to just give up right there.

But.

“I’m in no kind of position where giving up is an option...!”

Unfortunately, military life was not sothing that ran that leniently.

In most cases, giving up was never an option to begin with.

And that...

[Oath]

was true for now as well, after I had gone and made those outrageous promises.

For the of now, there was no such option as saying it was impossible and giving up.

If so, there was only one choice left.

“I just have to make it possible.”

Fortunately, I had already prepared that thod too.

“I’m counting on you.”

I placed a hand over my chest, then shoved that hand into my own body to grab sothing inside.

“Morjan.”

***

...And then.

Only then did I realize that I had forgotten one fact.

This place was a world inside a ntal image.

And because of that, Isabella, who in reality was no more than a single drop of blood, could wield overwhelming power over here.

...And.

The sa would be true for soone else.

For example—

—Then so be it.

soone else of whom only a few scraps of flesh remained.

Kuuuuuuuuuuuuung...!

A world that had been filled entirely with red light.

From the sky above it, sothing impossibly enormous began to descend, radiating a brilliant blue light.