Belmont felt a chill.
He had been the head of the pack ruling this whole area.
His own force of arms might be reckoned shabby, but he had steadily taken low-intelligence monsters as retainers and built up a power base.
Low-intelligence monsters had no immunity to a vampire's beguilement.
Not one monster had dared to disregard Belmont, of the great kindred of the night.
He might be no more than a half-rate vampire who could use nothing but beguilement, but Belmont's pride was not half-rate with him.
Belmont's bloodline was that of a lofty vampire.
He was merely keeping himself small for now, and he had believed that even here, given the chance, he could leap.
He had even been preparing for that dream.
Which is why, when he met that repulsive werewolf a short while ago, he had been confident enough.
To his mind, a werewolf was a beast with nothing but ignorant strength.
It might be a threat; it did not raise the feeling of fear.
But this human holding him by the collar was something different.
Eyes without the smallest trace of regard.
An expression saying he could snuff out something like Belmont whenever he chose.
Not even monsters, who are more faithful to their appetites than anyone, show an expression like that.
'Is he even human?'
Even when Belmont had signaled his submission, the man had seemed unmoved.
From that manner of Ethan's, Belmont felt a fear he could not name.
"Right. Shall we absorb it, then?"
Ethan absorbed Belmont's mana.
By rights it was mana that could only be extracted from the dead.
But a vampire used mana closely resembling that of the dead.
'That was in the novel.'
There would likely be no obstacle to absorbing it.
Ethan began to draw the mana in. The method he knew instinctively, without being taught.
"Graagh!"
Belmont shrieked. Ethan focused on the absorption without a change of expression.
'Mustn't kill him.'
This vampire still had a use left, so once he had finished absorbing to a point, he let go of the collar he had been holding.
Ethan walked slowly over to the unconscious Hugo.
At some point the huge frame had shrunk, and the fur covering his whole body had gone without a trace.
'The broken bones have all knit.'
A marvelous recovery.
It had been an injury that shattered the jawbone into pieces; in a human it would not have been strange to die on the spot.
But the Hugo who had come back to human form had every wound closed.
'And the bone seems to be knitting too.'
Astonishing.
He had roughly expected it from the original's description, and watching the recovery himself was another thing again.
There was no taking an X-ray, so an accurate judgment was difficult, but from the outside there seemed to be no great problem.
'Leave him a while and then wake him, by the look of it.'
Having judged Hugo's state, Ethan turned to examine the mana he had extorted from Belmont.
'It seems a little different.'
An energy similar to the mana borrowed from Pheon, and yet wholly unlike it.
— Use it as it is and it is dangerous.
Pheon said it in a low voice, the murky energy clearly not to his taste, and Ethan nodded.
"I thought it might be."
— Just so. You did not stack mana by the orthodox road, so you will have to absorb it slowly. I shall teach you the method.
The manner was condescending somewhere in it, and it did not sound bad.
Ethan snorted a laugh and nodded.
"I would be grateful."
It was not a bad offer for Ethan either. He was not stupid enough to swallow an energy he could not digest.
"Hey."
Ethan called to the sprawled Belmont.
Belmont was in tatters.
At first he had been dressed roughly as Ethan imagined a bloodsucker would be; now he looked as though he were simply wearing rags.
"Y-yes?"
Belmont flinched, terrified. The lofty vampire's pride was long gone, and all that was left in him now was fear of Ethan.
"Stay here for the time being."
Ethan had to return to the clan in any case.
Men who had reached a realm would read Belmont's nature at a glance, and Ethan had no confidence he could explain the circumstances to them.
'I got what I needed.'
The Dead Tree he had set out for was his, so the objective was achieved.
"Now we start the subjugation."
Ethan looked at Belmont and the man's body flinched.
"You've been here a long time, haven't you?"
"Th-that is right. There is nothing about this area I do not know."
Belmont said it in a hurry, as though he expected to be held responsible for something.
But Ethan paid no mind to that.
Instead he grinned and spoke.
"Every monster around here with any strength in it. List them."
It was time to collect another result.
***
Nade was waiting for Ethan, unable to hide his agitation.
It had already been about two hours since Hugo and Ethan went into the cave.
The day had begun to close, and between that and the dense trees the surroundings, dark already, were growing darker still.
Nade knew that monsters turn more savage at night.
Because of it he was deliberating whether the right judgment would not be to go into that cave now and bring Ethan out.
But Ethan's manner before going in had been firm.
Once Ethan had made his will plain, Nade had to wait here.
"......Shall we prepare to camp?"
One of the apprentice knights behind him asked it.
Nade glanced coldly at the man and then let out a breath.
"Let us prepare."
The apprentice knights inclined their heads lightly and began to work busily.
The apprentice knights who had come into Ethan's subjugation party had grasped what Nade really was.
Not an ordinary butler, but a warrior concealing his strength.
They had the sense not to ask the exact circumstances of why he was playing butler, but they treated him with every possible courtesy.
'And that is over too.'
Nade watched them working and gave a bitter smile.
Nade had been satisfied with his station as a butler.
A position that bound him was like wearing an uncomfortable coat.
He had rather liked a seat from which he could observe one step behind...... and Ethan had not permitted it.
With few cards in hand you must use every move available, and Nade knew that.
But in that situation, leave a high-grade resource like Nade sitting as a mere butler?
There was no chance Ethan would leave it alone.
'The young master has changed a great deal.'
Having watched from beside him all along, Nade could tell.
Ethan was different.
He could no longer be identified with the man of his wastrel days.
'There should be no particular problem.'
The changed Ethan was a thorough man.
Sometimes he looked reckless, and Ethan had always proved himself.
This time would be the same.
But there was no helping a strange unease.
A good deal of time had passed already, and it was not long until the savage dawn when the monsters swarmed.
"Master Nade, over there!"
As Nade sank into his thoughts, one of the apprentice knights called to him.
Nade lifted his head and looked ahead.
— A fairly decent fellow there.
"Well. Yes."
Ethan answered Pheon lightly and approached the campsite.
The apprentice knights were working busily, and every one of them was systematic about it.
They carried the title of apprentice knight, and because they had not yet been appointed full knights they handled all the rough work inside the clan too.
Which meant building a campsite was something they managed with practiced ease.
"Stop."
Ethan brought the moving apprentice knights to a halt.
They stopped as one.
"You have returned safely."
Confirming that Ethan was back, the apprentice knights' faces brightened.
They had been privately uneasy themselves.
They had already chosen their line. They had grabbed a rope whose nature was still unknown.
Whether that rope was rotten or made of mithril had not yet been determined.
And if Ethan came to harm before the thing had even started, it was plain their position would become very awkward.
With Ethan back safe in that situation, the apprentice knights breathing out in relief was only natural.
"We move now."
The campsite was all but finished; each man had only to take a spot and rest.
And in that situation, an order to move......
Gato's face drew tight at Ethan's words.
"Young master, the day has already closed. Moving without a field of view is far too dangerous."
Gato said the reasonable thing, and the others around him nodded as though they agreed.
They had concurred that Ethan's conduct was reckless and childish.
"Right. Then you stay out of it."
Ethan said it without concern and looked around.
"Wasn't it knighthood you wanted?"
"......"
The air among the apprentice knights changed. Ethan's words went into their chests like a blade.
"I know perfectly well it's dangerous to move now. Short of being a dumbass, how could anyone not know. Monsters turn more savage at night? Hard to keep a field of view? Is there a halfwit here who doesn't know even the basics?"
"......"
The apprentice knights were silent, and Ethan looked around and went on.
"I didn't come here to pass the time at my leisure and kill a few monsters. If we've come this far, the least we can do is show a result."
"......And by a result you mean?"
The light in Gato's eyes changed. Ethan lifted a corner of his mouth and answered.
"The Black Ogre."
Gato's eyes and the apprentice knights' went wide.
"We're going to kill it."
If you are going to kill something, kill something big.
***
The Black Ogre.
It could be called a mutation among Ogres.
The monster called an Ogre was as good as a calamity to human beings.
Its thick hide was hard to wound even with spear or blade, and its strength and ferocity made it hard for practiced warriors to deal with.
The same was true for knights.
For a knight who could not handle mana, putting proper damage on an Ogre was close to impossible.
Not completely impossible, of course.
An Ogre too is a living creature in the end, and go doggedly for the eyes or the mouth or the joints and you can do damage.
But that came with unavoidable, enormous losses.
The Black Ogre.
A mutation that appears rarely among Ogres.
Larger than a common Ogre, and said to be more ferocious and more savage.
A Black Ogre was a monster hard to put down even with mana-awakened knights joining forces.
And Ethan was speaking its name.
"The Black Ogre, you say?"
"That's right. I've got its location pinned down too."
"......This is far too reckless."
"So you won't do it?"
Ethan snorted a laugh and the apprentice knights balled their fists.
Ethan was testing them right now.
It was dangerous. There were no odds.
And by the same measure the result looked sweet.
The slaying of a Black Ogre.
Not Dragon Slayer grade, but an achievement that would not fall short of carrying the name Slayer.
A greater result than exterminating tens or hundreds of overflowing monsters.
And even the parts of a Black Ogre traded at tremendous prices.
To apprentice knights who had their necks staked on the goal of knighthood, it was sweet fruit they hated to let pass.
Seeing that in them, Ethan only smiled and said nothing.
Ethan's subjugation party was small in scale.
On the numbers side it did not compare with Morun's.
In that case there was nothing for it but to contest on quality rather than quantity.
In any case, if things went to plan this harvest would not end with the Black Ogre.
The Black Ogre was only the beginning.
The magic power he would get from killing the thing, and the incidents that would follow inside the clan, had him looking forward to it already.
"I will do it."
"I will as well."
"I am taking part too."
Starting from Gato's answer, every apprentice knight agreed to hunting the Black Ogre.
They knew it was a poisoned chalice.
They knew the odds were slim.
But a man's appetite is strong enough to press danger like that down.
Hugo, who had been standing there blank-faced, came up beside Ethan uneasily and whispered.
"Um...... young master."
"What?"
Hugo still felt only half awake. His stomach rolled and his whole body hurt as though it were coming apart.
The worst of it was his jaw. Even the act of opening his mouth was hard.
And he could not remember a thing, which was frustrating enough to drive him mad.
But none of that could be attended to now.
From the look of things they were going to move in search of something called a Black Ogre, and from the reactions around him it did not look like a simple matter.
So he pushed the pain down and asked Ethan in an uneasy voice.
"What is a Black Ogre?"
"Our prey."
Ethan dismissed Hugo's unease lightly.