‘It’s those guys who ambushed us.’
Although they looked identical to humans, their colors faded strangely into a dark tint; above all, their faces seemed to reflect no human emotion whatsoever.
‘Huh?’ Zich searched the face of the shadow human blocking his way. ‘I don’t recognize this face.’
Zich had memorized the faces of the victims of the kidnapping incidents even before the cases were officially recognized as connected. Yet, he had never seen the face of the shadow person in front of him. She was a woman with brown hair and a quite pretty face. Her small and delicate frame was the type to stir up people’s protective instincts. Of course, if he judged her to be weak just by her exterior appearance, his face would be reduced into a pulp like a fruit in a typhoon.
Whoosh!
The shadow human approached him. Zich swung Windur after instilling a bunch of mana into it.
Slam!
A sword jabbed at the shadow human’s arms, but even Windur’s sharp blades couldn’t pierce their skin.
‘This one isn’t an easy opponent.’
“Hans!”
“Yes, sir!” Hans answered while battling with another shadow human.
“Go into the lodging and save the two inside!”
Zich could easily feel that a battle was going on inside.
‘It seems they are holding up quite well.’
However, they wouldn’t be able to endure it for a long time now. They were no longer the vampire and succubus from before the regression.
“Lyla! Pierce through the path!”
“Understood!” Lyla lifted her staff. Her lips twitched, and spells flowed out of her mouth at a high speed. It was to the point that Elena turned around to look at her in surprise.
Zing!
Magic was activated. Mana seeped out from the staff and flew towards the ends of her feet to the lodging place softly in a straight line. However, the effects weren’t soft at all.
Crack!
Everything froze instantly. A new, white space formed from where Lyla stood at the front of the lodging. It was as if another place had suddenly dropped down from somewhere else in the midst of this fierce battle.
“Wow!” Elena shouted at the immensity of the magic. As a mage herself, she couldn’t help but express her admiration at Lyla’s near-perfect magic.
Hans moved across the frozen white space with all he had. The shadow humans who had been within the scope of the spell froze from the chill and were far away from their companions.
Crash!
Hans destroyed the walls of the lodging place and rushed in.
‘Okay, now I won’t have to worry about that side anymore.’ After checking Estellade’s shining light inside the lodging, Zich turned his attention back to the shadow humans.
Bam! Bam!
While clashing his sword, Zich kept checking his opponent’s face.
‘I really have never seen this face before.’
Was there a victim who the city had failed to identify? It was possible. However, the shadow human whose face wasn’t identified had abilities that far exceeded the other shadow humans.
‘It’s more likely that this one is more special than the others.’
Windur’s branch-like blades hung around the fist coming Zich’s way and twisted it.
Creak!
‘As I expected, its bones don’t break or anything.’ Instead, the exterior of the shadow human was completely uninjured. ‘It’s freakishly tough!’
He pushed Windur right in. Zich planned to pierce Windur’s blade into the shadow human’s neck by pouring a lot of his mana into it.
Crash! The shadow human pushed Windur away. It used the large opening that had opened when Windur bounced off and pulled out the blades on its hands.
“Now!’
In that instant, Zich concentrated mana into his feet and rotated his body forcefully. Then, he crouched down.
Whoosh!
The shadow human’s blade-like hands glided past the top of his head. Just its sound displayed the force it had. If Zich had been struck by it, a large, clear hole would have formed on his body. However, Zich’s focus was only on his sword. The shadow human’s stance broke slightly, and Zich swung his sword at the opening.
Crunch!
A long wound formed on the front side of the shadow human. A dark energy seeped out between the wounds. Zich had seen this sight plenty of times after cutting a shadow human.
‘Next!’
Zich wasn’t satisfied after inflicting just one injury. He was about to make his next attack when—
Whoosh!
The shadow human backed a significant distance away and went down a nearby road. Its indifferent face looked towards Zich.
Slide!
It turned its back, and simultaneously, all the shadow humans who were battling nearby and inside the lodging began to back away at once. Those coming out of the lodging exuded dark energy as if Hans had landed a number of attacks on them.
‘Are they retreating?’
Zich didn’t plan to stand by and let them do that. He chased after them. His ultimate target was the shadow human he had injured.
Crash!
After getting hit by another attack from Zich, it distanced itself from him again. Zich was about to chase after it again when suddenly—
Pop! The shadow human’s body burst. The black forms scattered all over the surroundings like dust.
‘A shadow?’ Before those things became a shadow human, there were shadows. ‘Are they coming apart again?’
All the shadow humans lost their human form and returned back to their original shadow forms. Like cockroaches that found comfort in dark spaces to escape from human eyes, they were heading towards an alleyway. Mana poured out of Windur. The energy of the sword stretched towards the shadows running away in all directions. Some of the shadows burst after getting hit. Still, even if their shadow forms were weaker than the shadow humans, they were still strong. Furthermore, their numbers were greater now. In the end, about half of them survived and disappeared into the darkness of the alleyway.
Zich ran into the alleyway. However, as if they had blended into the darkness, none of them could be seen now. Zich heightened his senses but couldn’t detect anything.
‘Ah, I knew it.’ They were truly difficult guys to detect. If they scattered all over the place like this, even Zich couldn’t do anything.
“Tch!”
Zich lightly kicked the floor.
* * *
“You are in a mess, sir,” Zich said when he saw Joachim after he entered the lodging. Joachim’s exterior was fine as if he had used some potions, but his clothes were in ruins and indicated the struggle he had just experienced.
“I don’t think rough work like this fits me,” Joachim said.
“Still, it seems you have done a splendid job protecting yourself and Lady Rouge,” Zich responded.
“Ha, ha, it’s the other way around. I actually got help from Lady Rouge.”
“Yes, Lady Rouge certainly looks like she did her share.”
Evelyn also appeared to be in a rough state. Although there were no visible injuries on her body, the clotted blood in her hair was probably hers.
“You used her blood.”
“Yes, so I was able to find out something amazing.”
“What did you find out, sir?”
“I told you that I experimented with my ability, right?”
“Yes, you told me before.”
“When I use other people’s blood, evil thoughts seep into my head.”
Since Zich had never heard the specifics about the side effects of using his authority over blood, Joachim’s words interested him.
“When I use my enemy’s blood, all kinds of negative thoughts pour into my head and break down my mind. I know very well how mad I would become if I used this power wrongly.”
Even a brief experiment was enough to make Joachim vomit and lose his appetite for a while. It was impossible for him to keep a sane mind if he used his ability too much.
“Using my companion’s blood is at least a bit better, but I still feel negative thoughts. Even if they are my companions, they can’t help but feel a bit reluctant from the wounds, pain, and so on that they feel from drawing out their blood. Well, knights who are used to my ability and pain have almost no negative thoughts though.”
“And I suppose that wasn’t the case for Lady Rouge?”
“Yes, did you know what I felt from her blood?”
“What is it, sir?”
Joachim smiled. “Fear and anxiety, but also a strong will that would not bend.”
“How impressive.”
It seemed that Evelyn had gone through a huge change after the last incident.
“Yes, it’s really impressive, sir. Truly.” Joachim complimented her with all his heart.
* * *
After his conversation with Joachim, Zich approached Evelyn.
“You have gone through a lot.”
“It’s nothing. Count Dracul did most of the work,” Evelyn said brightly. Yet, her pale complexion and shaking voice seemed to indicate that she still hadn’t been able to free herself from the shock of the battle. It seemed like she needed more time to calm herself. The bodyguards who were close to Evelyn’s side were eyeing Zich to leave her.
“Please rest now. Eat warm food and rest well. It will help you calm down.”
“Thank you.” Evelyn got up to leave Zich. Then, she asked, “How is the Count?”
“He is fine, miss. He is trying to assess the situation and resolve the matter.”
“He is such a strong person.”
Even though Evelyn had helped, Joachim was the one who battled. He got hurt several times more than Evelyn and felt as much pain. Furthermore, although he had a special ability, he wasn’t a knight. He wasn’t even used to fighting. Yet, he had already brushed off his shock of the battle and began moving around. He was definitely different from his weak-looking outer appearance.
“It’s because he’s someone with a lot of responsibility and has a mission to restore his family’s past glory. And most of all, he is a good person.” As Zich complimented Joachim, he felt goosebumps all over his skin. Even though he wasn’t lying, Zich vividly remembered what Joachim used to be like before the regression so it gave him chills.
“I see.” Evelyn recalled Joachim who had everything for her. When she thought she was about to die, he saved her life.
“Yes, I certainly think he’s an amazing person,” Evelyn whispered while smiling.
* * *
After meeting his past two subordinates, Zich left the building. The outside was hectic with the arrival of support troops. These troops cleaned the area of corpses, moved the injured, and checked the losses they had suffered. A person passed between them.
“You finally came, Mr. Zenard.”
“Sorry, I was a bit late. It seems you have arrived here first, Mr. Zich.”
Glen’s body and clothes were injured in places from the battle. However, it seemed like he hadn’t suffered any big injuries.
“Are Count Dracul and Lady Rouge alright?”
“Yes, thankfully, they are. I am glad to see that you are also fine, Mr. Zenard. I heard that you led some of the enemies away.”
“I was able to manage, but because they suddenly ran away, I couldn’t finish all of them.”
Like that, Zich and Glen exchanged words. Since their relationship wasn’t deep and they held deep contempt for each other inside their hearts, their sentences were short. It was just a formal conversation where they asked about each other’s well-being.
Still, it seemed like he couldn’t hide his curiosity, and Glen asked about the magic that had frozen the lodging place’s whole lawn. “Who did that magic, sir?”
“It was Lyla.”
“Are you talking about the mage who travels with you, sir? You know, the one besides your new crew member.”
“Yes.”
Glen carefully searched the traces of the magic and thought, ‘This is not just any skill.’
Glen was quite skilled at assessing people. From what he saw, the magic was anything but easy, especially if he considered the age he guessed Lyla to be by her appearance. ‘She is both skilled and beautiful.’
She wasn’t just beautiful. She was the most beautiful woman out of anyone he had ever seen.
‘Where the hell did he find her?’
However, that fact didn’t matter much to Glen. ‘That woman might actually be better than Elena.’ Glen tried putting Lyla instead of Elena into the party he was thinking of. The outer appearance of the formation he made looked much better, and his resolution became more firm.