Ch.115Awakening (7)

I was a person who didn’t fit well with the military. I absolutely detested the vertical culture of following orders without question. The reason I was able to have a smooth officer life during wartime was mostly thanks to Admiral Dietz.

From the first day, the admiral comforted me after I was assigned to the front lines. He cared equally for soldiers and officers alike and was a kind man with great virtue.

It took only an instant for me to come to respect him.

But who would have thought there would come a moment when that same admiral would make me uncomfortable?

“You look worse than I expected.”

As if responding to the admiral’s words, thunder rumbled in my stomach.

“My goodness. Didn’t the monsters feed you?”

“They did, sir.”

“What do you mean they did? Your face has become gaunt.”

I already knew that the Magic Kingdom had connections with the Demon King’s army. And now Admiral Dietz had appeared before me. What this meant was obvious.

“Would you like to have something to eat?”

The admiral asked casually. I declined and asked in return.

“…Before that, don’t you have something to say first?”

“Ah, right. Of course.”

The admiral saluted and continued.

“Congratulations on returning to the unit, Lieutenant Colonel Lohnstein.”

***

Afterward, I asked directly but couldn’t get any meaningful information. The admiral avoided answering by making various excuses.

His benevolent demeanor was the same as the admiral I had always known. Nothing seemed strange except for the fact that he was with the Demon King’s army.

I asked the major general if anything seemed off to her, but she just shook her head.

“I know all the names of the core members of The Eight Shadows. Abraham Dietz isn’t among them. I have no idea what this man is up to…”

Friend or foe?

That’s the hardest thing to determine. In reality, it could be a difference as thin as paper. Human relationships don’t flow that linearly, do they?

Yesterday’s enemy can become today’s comrade, and today’s adversary might become tomorrow’s lover.

“If you feel like eating, just let me know anytime.”

At any rate, the admiral treated us humanely. If he was in league with the vampire, it could be a “carrot and stick” strategy. So I remained vigilant.

And that night.

While training as usual, Salvira showed her face after a long time.

[“My disciple, I see you’ve met your superior.”]

[“What exactly is going on?”]

[“The admiral is with us. But he’s neither part of the Demon King’s army nor The Eight Shadows.”]

For reference, The Eight Shadows has been revealed as a black magic organization that reached out to the remnants of the Demon King’s army who had been in hiding. Their goal is said to be the advent of the Magic God, which contextually seems to refer to the soul of the Demon King.

[“He’s a man of many questions. But thanks to him, we were able to greatly shorten the time until the ritual.”]

[“In what way?”]

[“Before that, let me ask you one thing. Did you respect that man?”]

I didn’t answer hastily. Salvira’s upper and lower eyes simultaneously avoided my gaze.

[“…Let’s postpone this conversation for later.”]

[“No, I’d like you to tell me.”]

[“I’m afraid you’ll be hurt.”]

[“I’m still curious.”]

[“My disciple.”]

Salvira sighed.

[“You’re in the middle of training. You shouldn’t let your concentration waver from unnecessary shock. And you shouldn’t waste energy on useless thoughts either.”]

Salvira added that she was sorry for making me curious unnecessarily.

Fine, sometimes it’s better not to know. I decided not to dig deeper.

Everything will be revealed once the war ends and the country returns to normal anyway.

In any case.

The results of entering the fourth week while enduring hunger were amazing. I had achieved a mana quantity that would rank in the upper tier even by Larron Academy undergraduate standards.

My heart swelled with emotion, but it’s too early to celebrate.

The real challenge starts now.

[“I’ll teach you dissection.”]

Salvira put down a test magic stone. She remotely manipulated one of them to transform it into the texture of thread.

[“Now try to return this to its original state.”]

[“How do I do that?”]

[“You must learn that on your own to reach the same level as your master.”]

It was a difficult problem. To turn something that’s no longer a stone back into a stone. It’s like asking to separate water mixed with paint back into paint and water.

Salvira offered advice. Use as little mana from your body as possible, think and act as if you’ve become nature itself, ignore all conventional wisdom—all abstract concepts that were hard to grasp.

This training is too harsh for someone like me who has learned magic studies based on mathematical theory.

I tried to mobilize all the knowledge I had studied for hours with intense concentration, but it wasn’t enough. As the deadline approached, my tension only increased, with no meaningful results.

Was I really this inadequate? After studying so diligently and training like a madman?

[“Don’t be too hasty. There’s a saying that the more urgent something is, the more you should take the long way around.”]

[“I know. I know, but… Master, we don’t have much time. Those kids might die soon…”]

[“It’s alright. It’s alright, so steady your breathing more and clear your mind. Trust your body’s senses rather than theory. Even if you know the principle of buoyancy, you won’t know if you can swim until you get in the water, right?”]

Perhaps it was because I was hungry, but despite Salvira’s repeated advice, I ultimately couldn’t grasp the dissection technique. All I gained was mana quantity.

While this was a remarkable achievement, it was inevitable to feel ambitious when I knew there was something more to reach.

One way or another, the final day of the ritual was approaching.

Would I be able to fight and win against that vampire? As this question kept arising, Major General Adora’s words gave me a bit of courage.

“You’ll manage somehow, Major.”

“You’ll manage somehow”—isn’t that much better than the irresponsible “It’ll be fine”?

Right. A person is all about momentum. Let’s try somehow. Although I didn’t reach the highest level, I decided to go forward without losing confidence.

And so came the final day of the ritual.

The time for the great ceremony to resurrect the Demon King was approaching.

***

Admiral Abraham Dietz waited with a dozen officers. On both sides of him, dozens of heavily armed special forces soldiers stood by.

The admiral took out a pocket watch from his chest.

When he pressed the button, there was a click, and the capsule opened to reveal a photo inside. An officer from The Eight Shadows who was watching from the side peered curiously.

“Is that your daughter?”

“A photo taken when she was young. It’s been almost 20 years already.”

“Time flies so fast,” the admiral muttered.

“But once this is over, I can go back home. It would be nice to play with my daughter after so long…”

“Come on, if it’s been 20 years, she must be well into adulthood by now, right?”

“I suppose so.”

“Have you not seen her for a long time?”

“It’s been a while. I’ve been busy with various things.”

The officer who spoke first felt something was off.

No matter how busy one is, the war only broke out three years ago. Even though this is a remote area, it doesn’t make sense that he hasn’t met his family for 20 years.

The officer noticed this but didn’t pry further.

After checking the time, the admiral put away his pocket watch. With a single gesture from him, the special forces that had been standing by began to move in perfect unison.

***

The secluded training was over.

Major General Adora and I enjoyed a feast for the first time in almost a month. Even while eating, the food barely went down my throat.

“What happened to the Holy Spirit Kingdom prisoners?”

“Why are you concerned about them?”

“I’m wondering if they’re eating properly.”

Admiral Dietz sighed.

“You’re still the same. How can you worry about the enemy’s well-being when you should be focusing on our own troops? As I always say… your problem is that you have too much compassion.”

This was the only area where the admiral criticized me. That I’m too kind. That sometimes I need to know how to be cold. That I should prioritize practicality over compassion.

I didn’t understand then why the admiral, who was known throughout the unit for his good character, would say such things. Especially when he himself was a compassionate person.

Perhaps here lies the difference between the admiral and me.

“How does the soup from your homeland taste after so long?”

“It’s delicious, sir.”

Maybe it’s because it’s been a while, but it’s quite palatable. Yet, on the other hand, it feels empty. It felt as if what I was doing was not a sweet meal but a mechanical intake.

“…I miss Tiria’s stew.”

I muttered quietly in the Holy Spirit Kingdom language.

After the meal, our hands were tied with spider webs spun by Salvira.

[“Follow me, vermin.”]

The basic plan is that when Salvira gives the signal, the threads will unravel, and we’ll seize that moment to check the vampire while simultaneously destroying the altar. Of course, if things go wrong or take an unexpected turn, we’ll have to use other methods…

Lost in these thoughts as we walked, I made eye contact with three female soldiers being dragged along, tightly bound in spider webs. Needless to say, it was the Valkyrie and her companions.

The Valkyrie looked at me with wide eyes, the Saint with a pitiful gaze, and the fox sisters with calm expressions.

“Children, the time has finally come. You’ll witness a moment of glory.”

The vampire hummed a tune as she pulled on the ropes of the Holy Spirit Kingdom female soldiers. She began to share stories she had been curious about, as if organizing and sorting through them. Among them were some very shocking and uncomfortable tales.

“Look at that map.”

The vampire pointed to a large world map hanging on the corridor wall.

“Do you see the blood-marked spots? The sacrifices offered to resurrect the supreme being weren’t just these few.”

When I connected the dots on the map with my eyes, a certain pattern emerged.

It was the “Silver Ring,” the symbol of The Eight Shadows, a cult-like magic organization.

Now I understand a bit better. These lunatics have drawn a magic circle with human blood across the territory and waters of the Holy Spirit Kingdom. They sacrificed countless lives for the sole purpose of resurrecting their lord.

The moment I realized this, I could naturally infer the details of the sufferings Rachel and the fox sisters had experienced in their childhood.

“The fact that everything you’ve been fighting against, all the interesting incidents that happened across the Ascalia continent before that, the disappearances and massacres of beast-people—all of it was the foundation for our Demon King’s return!”

Rachel’s village was burned down by an unidentified magic organization.

The fox sisters were kidnapped by The Eight Shadows and subjected to horrific biological experiments, resulting in one of them losing her physical body.

“Could it be that all the unexplained incidents in the Holy Spirit Kingdom were…?”

The Saint seemed to have realized it too. She raised her voice, even dropping honorifics.

“Blasphemy! How could you commit such terrible acts! What about the people who lost their families? What about those who suffered because of the war!”

“Mmm, yes, that’s right. They’re innocent. But what does that have to do with me?”

“…What did you say?”

“I don’t care how pitiful you humans are. A lower species that groans and dies before even living a hundred years. What’s wrong with being treated like livestock?”

“Livestock? How dare you say such garbage…”

“No, wait. What’s so garbage about that? You humans do it too. Pigs, cows, chickens—you raise them, eat them, and even offer them as sacrifices when you pray for good fortune. We’re just doing the same thing. Why is it okay for you but not for us?”

“We do it to survive. We don’t do it for evil purposes like you.”

“You’re quite good at sophistry.”

The vampire looked down at the Saint with contemptuous eyes.

“So, when I needed human blood to drink, how did you react? Did you say, ‘It’s for survival, so it can’t be helped’? No, you launched a massive purge against us, calling us incarnations of evil. Do you know how many of my comrades died because of that?”

The Saint’s mouth closed. The vampire, gaining momentum, pressed further.

“One thing is certain, Saint. From the beginning, your human race and our demon race cannot live under the same sky. Because that’s the law of nature. Your beloved goddesses shaped the world this way, so we must follow it.”

“I see, that makes sense. Bat lady.”

“…Huh?”

Someone was blocking the entrance to the altar.

Officers from the Magic Kingdom.

A heavily armed unit that hadn’t been visible before was now guarding the admiral like a royal guard. On their chests and shoulders was an engraved emblem of crossed staffs and pistols.

It’s a symbol I’ve never seen before.

The major general muttered in confusion.

“Why is the National Security Department’s special operations unit here…?”

Click, click, click.

The special ops unit’s gun barrels all pointed at the vampire. The vampire frowned and spoke in an irritated tone.

“What is the meaning of this, Admiral Dietz?”

“As you just said. Humans and monster vermin cannot live under the same sky. With different habits and values. Then one side must disappear, shouldn’t it?”

“You lowly creatures… I associated with you, and now you betray me?”

“Is there a problem with me cooking my hunting dog for nourishment?”

“What? Look at these ingrates! Do you know who helped you succeed with necromancy? How can you commit such an ungrateful act?”

Blood vessels bulged on the vampire’s forehead. But she didn’t have time to lunge at Admiral Dietz. As soon as the admiral finished speaking, gunshots rang out.

“Kuk…”

The vampire, hit by dozens of bullets in an instant, vomited blood.

“What is this…”

“Silver bullets made from smuggled holy relics from the Holy Spirit Kingdom. There’s no better medicine for a bad-mannered bat that sucks other people’s blood. Farewell.”

While everyone else looked shocked, I alone calmly assessed the situation.

This flow is definitely unexpected.

But if I play it right, I might be able to take advantage of the situation.