“Please let close my eyes in peace now, while the conviction that my choice was not wrong is still stronger...”
At those words,
I recalled sothing the Progenitor had said not long ago.
That soday,
I would beco sothing like it.
'I too may fall soday.'
What he said
overlapped strangely with the prophecy the Progenitor had left with.
“Throw to them.”
Then,
Jinlei looked at the people moving around nearby—
the ones who were filled with deep fury toward him—and spoke.
“I do not seek forgiveness. Nor do I care for a peaceful life.”
“......”
“So throw to them.”
The bastard gave a bitter smile.
“If you do that, they will be glad they were allowed to kill their enemy with their own hands. And they will be grateful to you for giving them that chance.”
“...You talk about yourself with a surprising amount of distance.”
“If, in that way, their loyalty to you grows even more... then perhaps it will help, even just a little, in humanity becoming the kind I wish to see. That alone is enough for .”
He was afraid I might soday fall.
He was saying he wanted to die before he had to witness that.
And hearing him say that irritated my pride.
Certainly,
the current had only avoided the worst-case scenario through a temporary stopgap.
Beneath the layer overlaid by the Matron’s power, there was still a corrupted version of that saw humans as insects.
Knowing that only made his words bother more.
“That...”
But still.
Even so.
To acknowledge what he said and let it pass...
“I don’t like that.”
“...Pardon?”
It was just—
a little irritating.
***
“I told you before.”
His eyes widened as he stared at in shock.
“You always try to take the easy way out.”
Looking at him,
I recalled soone I had t not long ago in Seoul—
Jang Youngwoong.
“You decided humanity was trash, and instead of trying to fix that, you just thought about wiping it out.”
In the end,
I had failed to save him.
Back then, I hadn’t been in any condition to make [healthy food],
and I hadn’t had a military dic as skilled as Luca either.
Turning him into a vampire would have been crueler than execution.
So in the end, Jang Youngwoong had no choice but to close his eyes like that.
“And now you think I might fall, so because you don’t want to see it, you’re saying you’d rather die?”
And.
That still remained in my heart.
It wasn’t simply because it pained to see soone like that die such a miserable death.
'We lost valuable fighting strength.'
If he had only lived,
he was soone who clearly could have been of enormous help to humanity.
It was such a waste to lose a talent like that.
“You say you don’t seek forgiveness.”
So.
“Who said I was going to forgive you?”
“Wh...at?”
This ti,
I had no intention of repeating the sa mistake.
[healthy food]
[Force-Feeding]
“Instead of spouting nonsense about not wanting forgiveness, start by thinking about how you’re going to work like hell to earn it.”
If this had been a normal situation,
him always choosing the easy road probably would not have been such a serious problem.
Maybe it would even be strange for to say anything about soone else’s personal choice.
But.
This was an ergency situation, one nearly equivalent to warti.
...Unfortunately,
in the military, I couldn’t just let soone get away with trying to do only the easy thing for himself.
“If there’s sothing you want to see, don’t try to shove it off onto .”
The mont the dish I threw touched his body,
a little life returned to his dried skin.
“If you’re worried that I’ll fall and that you’ll regret seeing it happen—”
The Progenitor’s words,
and his words too.
Having gone through that change myself, I knew that concern wasn’t entirely wrong.
The possibility that I might fall did, in fact, exist.
But.
If he truly didn’t want to see that happen,
then what he needed to do was not die before it did.
“You keep in check yourself.”
What he needed to do was grit his teeth and stop it from happening.
“......!”
At my words, his eyes flew wide open in shock.
'Of all the dangers currently lurking inside ... the greatest is the Progenitor’s blood.'
There was no telling when it might start causing problems again.
The Progenitor had been utterly certain that it would.
And if that happened—
'the one best suited to keep in check is this bastard.'
His ability to interfere with blood—
if I started down the wrong path because of the Progenitor’s blood,
that power would play the greatest role in stopping .
“I’ll give you a position.”
Co to think of it,
there had long been one position we needed.
Now that the Legion had grown in size, more and more places were slipping beyond my sight.
Even Jeong Sua and the people who followed her had co together without my knowing it.
The camaraderie among the Legionnaires was unmistakable,
but that did not an so of them might not begin doing strange things to people outside the Legion.
So.
“The title will be Internal Affairs.”
“Internal... Affairs?”
A role ant to investigate those who looked like they might go astray.
We now needed to monitor ourselves.
'This bastard loathes the corruption of humanity to an extre degree.'
The powerful suspicion and hatred he carried.
Used the wrong way, that could turn into the madness of trying to wipe out all humanity.
'But that sa powerful suspicion and hatred beco virtues when it cos to oversight.'
Suspicion that fiercely guarded against anyone’s corruption.
Extrely high lethality against humans.
A power that might even be able to stand against the Progenitor’s blood inside .
And because he had no real ties to the other Legionnaires at all, he would be able to conduct colder, more detached oversight than anyone else.
“If you have sins, repay them that way.”
“......”
“Don’t start thinking you can run away without paying for your cris just because you’re spouting nonsense about not needing forgiveness.”
At my words, he just stood there, mouth hanging open.
“If there is such a position... then your own freedom of action will be restricted as well.”
“It will.”
“If you begin walking the wrong path, then I would beco the one standing in your way.”
“If that happens, stop with everything you have. That’s exactly what I’m appointing you to do. Kill if you have to.”
“Kill you if I have to...?”
He made an incredulous face.
“This concerns you personally. Is it really sothing you can speak of so lightly?”
“Why not?”
At that,
I answered with a grin.
To begin with,
the reason I told this bastard to watch was not because I was truly afraid I would fall.
I had no intention, not even at death’s door, of becoming like the Progenitor.
The reason I gave him that role was—
“Because that won’t happen.”
What the Progenitor and this bastard had spoken of—
my own corruption.
That kind of thing would never happen.
I had given him that role so he could confirm it with his own eyes.
***
And so, after the fight with the grand duke had ended,
and the cleanup afterward was gradually nearing completion—
Ding.
With that sudden sound,
a status window appeared before my eyes.
[Congratulations!]
[You have succeeded in accomplishing a great feat!]
At that ssage, I looked at the status window.
'...You slick bastard.'
Right now it was appearing before as though everything were perfectly normal,
but in truth,
my current state was only covered over with the Matron’s power to resemble my proper self.
The essence pushed beneath that layer was still that of a vampire like the Progenitor.
'So you’re just going to pretend you don’t know about that, huh?'
And yet,
the system acknowledged as human and appeared before my eyes once again.
Just like the word betrayal it had shown last ti,
and the contract the grand duke supposedly made with this thing too—
'Is it really... on humanity’s side?'
For now, it seed safe enough to treat it as an ally,
but it was an existence whose true nature I could not begin to guess.
If the opportunity ever arose,
I wanted nothing more than to investigate that identity in detail, but...
'Well, that’s for when the opportunity cos.'
What mattered right now was not so opportunity that might never co, but—
[You have succeeded in slaying Grand Duke Valarak of lchiorn, an existence that drove one world to ruin and held within itself the danger of devouring the entire universe!]
[You infiltrated a continent fated for destruction, postponed that destruction, and on top of that.]
[You have succeeded in preventing the downfall of an entire nation!]
[An embodint of terror, possessing a level of power rarely seen even across the universe, and guilty of every kind of atrocity.]
[You encountered the Progenitor, Bellatrix, and succeeded in surviving!]
[If historians of the future were to see this record, they would refuse to believe that a single human accomplished sothing so extraordinary, dismissing it as nothing more than an exaggerated and distorted fiction.]
[Had your existence not been hidden, beings from across the universe would have turned their eyes toward your accomplishnts. Such is the greatness of this feat!]
The feat I had accomplished this ti.
And the reward—
[An extraordinary miracle, rare even across the universe.]
[Those who have accomplished a great feat shall be rewarded.]
What kind of reward I would be given.
[A trendous amount of experience is granted.]
The first thing I was given was experience.
From the system,
I could feel an enormous force pouring into my body.
'...This.'
And then, as I accepted that force, I thought,
The system often gave experience as a reward for feats,
but—
'I’ve never received this much experience before...!'
This...
wasn’t simply because this feat was the greatest one yet.
There had to be another reason.
'...The power of this land!'
The mont the grand duke vanished,
most of the system’s power spread across this land must have returned to an ownerless void.
But.
All the living things and monsters on this land had already been turned into vampires by the grand duke and his bloodline.
'The strongest group still left on this continent is those Chinese awakened.'
Right.
Most of the system’s power related to this land had now been returned to humanity.
...According to what Luca had said,
the system grows stronger in proportion to the degree of occupation.
The experience I was receiving now was only possible because the system of this land had beco that much stronger.
And just how strong that power was...
[Lv.49]
[Hero-grade War Chef]
“...Good God.”
It raised my level almost instantly to the threshold of the next stage.
[As a reward, Potion of Increased Stat Growth (Agility)....]
[Potion of Increased Stat Growth (Strength)....]
After that,
as usual, there ca an enormous number of stat-growth potions.
My current stats had already risen to the point of excess.
That part didn’t feel all that appealing as a reward.
And then.
What ca next was—
[An external reward is granted!]
An external reward.
...Hm?
'External reward?'
It was a type of reward I had never seen before.
As I stared at it, wondering what that ant,
the system’s ssage continued.
[Many beings from the outside express their gratitude for your deeds.]
Ah, I see.
So this was not a reward from the system.
That Progenitor seed to have clashed with all sorts of beings and piled up grudges everywhere.
And if Valarak had succeeded in transcending,
he probably would have beco the sa kind of existence as the Progenitor and committed the sa atrocities as her ally.
This was thanks for stopping him.
[The favorability of divine beings who were hostile to the Progenitor, Bellatrix, has increased slightly.]
[If your hidden existence is ever fully revealed, that favorability will increase greatly.]
Favorability made it sound trivial,
but the beings sending that favor were almost certainly anything but ordinary.
Even if I had no intention of throwing myself in with them,
I had already experienced just how significant their smallest bit of goodwill could be when I made the sun rise above my head.
That alone made this a considerable reward.
'...They said there would be more chances to make contact with outside beings after level 40.'
And now, it seed they were even directly intervening in rewards.
But then...
[One pantheon expresses its favor toward you.]
Surprisingly, that was not all.
{I do not know why you hide your identity.}
Suddenly.
A voice rang in my ears—
no.
Directly in my soul.
{The Progenitor is, by origin, an existence derived from the demonic race. Its evil cannot be compared even to that of ordinary demons.}
{You shattered her plans and prevented the ergence of a second Progenitor. Therefore...}
{You are more than worthy to receive our favor.}
Not one voice,
but several beings speaking to at once.
And those voices were so sacred that they made feel as though I might kneel without thinking and offer up a prayer.
'...Not just one?'
Until now, the outside beings I had encountered had mostly existed as individuals.
But the voices I was hearing now were different.
Each one possessed stature no less than the others I had t,
and yet rather than acting as individuals, they spoke with one united will.
{...May the favor of heaven rest upon you.}
{We shall provide a small addition to the reward that is to be given to you.}
At that mont,
the system window floating before my eyes swayed.
And then,
when the next ssage appeared before , my eyes widened.
[The previously scheduled final reward has been canceled.]
[The final reward will be replaced with a new type of reward!]
Instinctively,
I understood what had just happened before my eyes.
Aside from that external reward,
there must have been another reward the system had originally intended to give .
And now—
'They changed that reward... into sothing better.'
It was not that they had directly given sothing themselves.
If the reward the system had originally intended to give was worth ten,
then because of what they had just done,
the value of the reward now being granted to had risen above ten.
'They manipulated... the system!'
As I stood there in shock at that fact—
[A special reward is granted to one who has gained the favor of heaven!]
Thud.
Sothing dropped in front of .
And when I saw it, I—
“...Huh?”
Forgot even the shock I had just been feeling.
I could only stand there blankly, mouth hanging open,
staring at that “reward.”
[As a reward, Failure Bonus.]
No wonder.
Because the reward that had fallen before was—
“...A human arm?”
A roughly severed human hand,
and clenched at its end—
[Ascending Heaven Road is granted!]
a single, small map.
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