“An utterly unexpected child has come, hasn’t it?”

The woman looked at me as if she were studying something fascinating.

‘Where... is this?’

Even now, Ariella and the grand duke should still be fighting outside.

As for me, I had chosen unconsciousness because I believed I could no longer control the changes happening within myself.

And yet somehow, I had been dragged into a place like this.

Just as I was standing there in confusion over that fact—

‘...Come to think of it.’

Suddenly,

I realized something.

‘That instinct isn’t acting up.’

The reason I had been forced to choose unconsciousness.

The instincts of the body, which had been crushing even my mind, were no longer there.

“If you mean your body, it is asleep.”

“...”

Just as I was thinking that,

the woman looked at me with that same curious gaze and spoke.

“I called only your soul while your body slept. Naturally, that leaves you free from the instincts of the flesh as well.”

“...Did you read my mind?”

“Good grief. You make it sound as though I’ve done something terribly rude.”

She gave a hollow laugh, as if dumbfounded, then said,

“Sadly, I am not that lacking in manners. You were simply muttering to yourself, so I answered.”

“Ah...”

At that,

I realized I had been speaking my thoughts aloud.

The reason was simple.

‘A place where only the soul exists, not the body.’

And so,

unless I consciously concealed my thoughts,

they would be expressed outward even without my opening my mouth.

Because there was no mouth to open in the first place.

And.

I had experienced a place like this before.

‘Mirinae...’

The one who had gone silent ever since I fell into Chinese territory.

This was exactly like the place where Mirinae had called me.

Which meant—

‘This one too.’

At the very least,

was a being that had reached a level similar to Mirinae’s.

“Hm, anyway.”

While I was growing wary at that realization,

she tilted her head and said,

“Child. How did you come here?”

“...”

How had I come here?

That was what I wanted to ask.

“Wasn’t it you who summoned me?”

“If you want to put it that way, then I suppose so. But you were not the one I intended to summon. Hmm...”

She frowned,

then stared at me closely.

“I can sense Isabella’s scent, though only very, very faintly... but not the slightest trace of the other three. At least if Isabella’s scent had been rich, that would be one thing, but no matter how I look at it, it does not seem you used the method I arranged.”

At those words,

I had no choice but to flinch.

‘She knows Isabella.’

Come to think of it,

I had been too out of it to hear clearly, but when she first saw me, I think she mentioned that name too.

‘This one...’

Only then

did I realize why she had looked vaguely familiar.

‘She looks like Isabella...’

Isabella had looked like a young girl.

If she had grown older, perhaps she might have looked something like this.

A woman so similar I would have believed it if someone called her Isabella’s older sister.

‘No way.’

The moment I realized that,

one possibility dawned on me, and cold sweat broke out over my skin.

And then, just then—

“Excuse me for a moment.”

She walked up to me with light steps.

And then—

Crunch!

“...?”

As naturally as if it were nothing at all,

she lightly bit my neck.

“What the—!?”

Startled out of my mind, I shoved her away and stumbled back.

I hurriedly raised my hand to feel the place she had bitten.

“Don’t be so frightened.”

The spot where I expected to find a wound...

“Didn’t I already tell you? This is not the material world.”

...Contrary to my fears,

was perfectly fine, without so much as a scratch.

“I only wanted to learn a little about you, that’s all.”

“Learn about me? By doing that?”

“Was it a little too rough? My apologies. It is simply the method most familiar to me. There was no need for it here, but my body moved before I thought.”

After apologizing lightly,

the woman stepped back and closed her eyes.

“Hm. Even so.”

And then,

as if examining something, she sank into thought for a moment... and then—

“...Pfft!”

She burst into a refreshingly unrestrained laugh.

“Pffh... khh, puhahahahaha!”

“...”

“Ghh... pfft, khahaha! This is an absolute masterpiece!”

The woman who looked like Isabella.

Her appearance was strikingly beautiful and elegant.

But the sight of her clutching her stomach, slapping her knee, and laughing like that was, by any standard, rather far removed from elegance.

Apparently, unlike Isabella, who always maintained her dignity, this one was quite a different sort.

“...What’s so funny?”

Even allowing for that,

the sight of her laughing herself breathless right in front of me made me frown as I asked.

“Khh, pffh... no, my apologies. A truly unimaginable thing has happened, that’s all.”

She wiped away the tears that had gathered at the corners of her eyes and said,

“I never imagined someone would satisfy the condition I set in a way like this.”

“...Condition?”

“Well, one really does have to live a long time to see everything. To think that a miracle which could never have occurred through the talent of a single world alone would happen by chance like this.”

When her laughter finally subsided,

the way she looked at me shifted slightly.

“Mm~ It is quite the outrageous shortcut, I will grant that. But then, I never said shortcuts were forbidden.”

Her gaze had become quite friendly.

Her face was full of interest, like someone looking at something genuinely entertaining.

“Very well! A promise is a promise, after all. I shall forgive it this once.”

“A promise?”

“Ahem. Ahem. Ah.”

Then, wearing the awkward expression of someone about to do something that didn’t suit her at all,

she cleared her throat and opened her mouth in a voice tinged with forced grandeur.

“As I promised my descendants. Since one who has fulfilled the condition I set has appeared.”

And then.

At the words that followed—

“I, the Progenitor, Bellatrix, grant you an audience~”

“...”

I could only stare in shock as the suspicion I had dreaded turned out to be correct.

***

“Ahem. As expected, speaking in a weighty tone really is difficult.”

After saying a few lines in that low voice that suited her so poorly,

the woman immediately returned to her usual lighthearted manner.

But.

I could not take her lightly.

‘The Progenitor...?’

The moment I realized she knew Isabella’s name,

I had wondered if perhaps, just maybe.

But no matter what, to have that “just maybe” come true here of all places...

“You...”

...And.

If that thing really was the Progenitor—

“Do you know your descendants have been searching for you...?”

Then that thing itself

was the very being that Grand Duke Valarak wanted to meet so badly he had committed such atrocities.

...Which meant the true cause behind everything I had gone through this time was right here in front of me.

“I do.”

“If you know that, then why...?”

Valarak is my enemy.

But.

I had seen Ariella’s memories, and I had heard the words of Karhin and Valarak.

No matter how unforgivable the crimes he committed on this land were—

however impossible they were to pardon—

there had been a reason behind them.

“You abandoned your children, didn’t you?”

“Hm?”

The Progenitor who abandoned them.

That clear goal of seeing the Progenitor again—

“Isabella, and Valarak too.”

Isabella had taken Ariella in as a friend to soothe that sorrow,

while Valarak had devoured everything in his path in order to find the Progenitor.

“They were in despair... over the fact that you had abandoned them.”

Isabella had said that the bond between themselves and the Progenitor was more than a mere parent-and-child relationship.

At the time, I had brushed it off.

But I had never thought she was lying.

‘The Progenitor is... the creator of those vampires.’

The one who made them.

The one who ruled them.

...The one who led them.

In Legion terms,

it was no different from me deciding to abandon the legionaries I had led as the Legion.

‘Something that must never happen, and can never be forgiven.’

Srrr...

The power lodged within me began to move.

“Oh?”

Through several incidents and realizations,

that power had already gone beyond mere presence and had begun to possess physical force as well.

“How interesting. For one who seems so far from transcendence, to have built up that much faith already...”

Divine power.

It began to move in response to my anger.

The realizations that had made that divine power grow firmer still,

and had even begun to give it form.

With whom,

and in what way, should one move forward together?

“Answer me.”

That thing in front of me

stood in complete opposition to the realizations I had built up until now.

To the point that even the divine power beginning to take shape bristled in rage.

“Why are you so angry?”

But.

Seeing that energy, the woman merely waved her hand lightly.

“First, calm yourself a little.”

At once—

Paaah!

“...”

The divine power rising within me.

That tremendous force began to shrink in an instant.

‘Kh...’

Divine power that had taken form and even obtained physical force.

A force that suppressed that divine power by sheer compulsion.

No matter how vast one’s mana might be, this would be impossible.

“It is certainly impressive that you have already accumulated such strength.”

...If there was a power capable of doing something like this,

then it was probably—

“But one must choose one’s opponents before drawing upon such power.”

[Divine Power]

The dark crimson energy rising from her body was overwhelming the ash-gray energy rising from mine.

***

“Kh.”

Soon enough.

The divine power that had contained my fury was shoved completely back into my body.

‘...’

What she had shown me—

something no one who created and guided others should ever have done.

My divine power had swelled in anger at that act.

Yet she had forced both that anger and that divine power somewhere deep back inside me.

Something impossible through ordinary strength.

“Good. You seem a little calmer now.”

...It was possible only because she possessed

a power stronger than mine.

A power that made the impossible possible.

“There is no need to become so angry. If you have questions, I can answer as many as you like.”

With a casual little motion of her hand, she had crushed the power I had built up in an instant,

then she began walking lightly.

“Still, wouldn’t it be nicer if we spoke pleasantly?”

When I came to myself,

a small table and chairs had appeared in front of her.

My own body—if body was even the right word here—had somehow already been seated in the chair across from her.

“Now then... hmm, did you ask why I abandoned my children?”

“...I did.”

Even if the divine power swollen with rage had gone quiet,

that did not change the fact that I was furious over what she had done.

“...Your children were desperately searching for you, the one who abandoned them.”

“To be precise, I did not abandon them... though I suppose it might look that way.”

“The one who should have come here wasn’t me, but one of them. Why did you summon me instead of them?”

“I had expected one of my children to come as well... but the reason is simple.”

She smiled gently as she spoke.

“My children failed to meet the condition I desired... but you succeeded. The only reason you are here, rather than one of my children, is that alone.”

...The condition.

Come to think of it, she had mentioned that before.

“What condition did I fulfill?”

“Yes, yes. That was the funniest part of all. You achieved such a difficult condition and don’t even realize it yourself!”

She smiled as if she found it genuinely delightful,

then rested her chin on both hands and looked at me as she said,

“You had a doctor with you, didn’t you?”

“...You mean Luca?”

“Yes. That one seems to be quite an excellent doctor. The child most cherished by one who bore a divine name related to medicine. One born with the fate of becoming the apostle of a divinity.”

I already knew Luca’s medical skill was extraordinary.

It had resolved my condition in a short time when every healer in the unit working together had failed.

“Especially recently. It seems that one displayed medicine at a truly absurd level.”

But.

Luca had lost that divine power when the divinity originally served had died,

and its brain had also been repaired, leaving only medicine within ethical bounds.

“A talent outstanding enough to be chosen by a divinity as its apostle... and the madness to tear apart even one’s own mind for a single goal!”

Back when its brain had been damaged,

it had researched even the most preposterous methods without hesitation.

“Do you know what is born when such talent and such madness are combined?”

“...What?”

And.

Back then, Luca had been—

“A miracle!”

A healer who made even the impossible seem possible.

...A healer who could truly create miracles.

“That one is astonishing, truly.”

“...”

“From me to Isabella, from Isabella to another child, and from that other child to you... it was blood diluted to the utmost. A fragment, no more than a tiny shard, infinitely distant from me, its essence.”

And only then

did I begin to understand what she was saying.

“Yet through that mere shard... that one found ‘me.’”

Luca had discerned, from only a brief examination of my body, the true nature of this blood, which even I had not known.

It had even identified the power of the other three bloodlines.

And Luca had said that while my blood’s potential was excellent, it also had many defects.

“And even more than that.”

...That same Luca

had taken my blood, saying there was one way to treat me.

“Through that mere shard...”

Blood with tremendous potential, but many flaws.

If that was the case,

then what Luca would do with it had already been decided.

“To think it would create an imitation of my blood!”

Eliminate the defects,

and cause the dormant potential to bloom.

“That is not all.”

But.

In the end, the serum Luca produced could only have been an imitation.

“If that were all, it would merely be one miracle among many that could happen anywhere.”

No matter how great talent armed with madness might be,

mortals cannot attain transcendence through mortal blood.

From the perspective of the whole universe,

miracles must still be happening somewhere even now.

In their world, even things worthy of being called miracles would probably be ordinary.

“But you are different.”

...Yes. In the end.

“With that blood, no more than an imitation... you reached the essence itself!”

That miracle—

only if it happened not once, but together with one more.

“The condition I placed upon my children.”

What Luca created was no more than an imitation.

...But even an imitation like that

changes greatly depending on whose mouth it enters.

“And the condition you fulfilled was simple!”

For example.

[Absolute Taste]

[For yourself alone, the effects gained through food are greatly increased!]

If blood like that entered the mouth of someone with such an ability—

...Then through blood that should have been no more than an imitation,

“To be reborn into the same kind of existence as me!”

Becoming the real thing

might actually be possible.

Whoooom!

And then,

with a wave of her hand,

-ding.

A small rectangular window appeared in the dark space.

...Something I had seen many times before.

The very thing that should never have appeared before me here and now.

A status window.

[Shin Youngjun]

[Species: ]

And in that status window—

[Vampire Progenitor]

There appeared three strange characters I had never once seen in the information of any other vampire.