A tourist district by the sea.
Pretty, ornate cafés and old, traditional restaurants were mixed together in just the right measure along the street.
Haseol stood blankly in the middle of it.
It was still early in the morning, so there were not many people walking through the streets.
Most restaurants had not even opened yet, and only a few cafés showed office workers buying coffee to go.
Haseol had resolved one difficult matter that morning, but that did not change the fact that the day had only just begun.
"......"
Standing in the street, Haseol looked at his phone screen.
Four contacts had been added to his phone.
The chat room with the most messages was also the one he shared with those four.
It was an ordinary street, far removed from supernatural abilities and fantasy.
Haseol was standing there, yet he felt a strange sense of incongruity.
It felt as though he and the countless people on this street lived in different worlds.
Maybe that was just excessive self-consciousness.
[Let me know if you find somewhere to eat.]
A message from Bisan appeared on Haseol's phone.
[Okay.]
[According to the predecessor, it seems we will not have much time. If you do not want to skip a meal, you should find somewhere quickly, right?]
[Okay. I understand.]
At Bisan's advice, Haseol sent a reply and began walking down the street.
It was a street where no one worried about the world's destruction.
The ordinary sight Haseol had known before.
It was a city and a street he had never visited, yet the scene was undeniably familiar.
Haseol scratched his head and kept walking.
Before he could clearly determine where he belonged on the boundary, he needed to eat first.
He walked down the street looking for a place to have a meal.
Since it was his first time there, Haseol wandered here and there as he looked around.
Eventually, he entered an alley with few people.
It looked like an alley for nightlife.
Most of the shops were closed.
Haseol turned around.
But a man was standing in front of him.
He looked to be in his early thirties, with a cap pulled low over his face.
Without much thought, Haseol passed by him.
Grab.
But the man caught Haseol's clothes and stopped him.
Haseol turned his head to look at the man.
The man moved the hand that held Haseol.
He threw him.
He had only moved his hand as though casually tossing something aside.
Yet Haseol flew far backward.
He flew down the alley.
THUD!
He struck a parked car.
"Uh?!"
Haseol sat on the ground, clutching his head.
It was an empty alley, and because the shops mostly opened at night, no one came out to look even though there had been a loud noise.
"Hey. You smell pretty delicious, you know?"
The young man smiled as he approached Haseol.
"Huh? Who are you? Do you know me?"
Haseol realized how far he had flown and knew that something was wrong.
That person was absolutely not ordinary.
"I don't. But if you walk around with such a delicious scent of blood wafting off you, isn't that no different from asking someone to eat you?"
The young man smiled as he approached Haseol.
"Do you want to drink my blood?"
"Yeah. At first, I was just going to drink some of your blood and let you go, but that won't do. I'm going to take you to my house, raise you there, and keep drinking your blood."
"Are you a vampire?"
Haseol asked.
"I'm a vampire. Why are you asking something so obvious?"
"Is it obvious? Ordinary people do not think vampires exist."
"Ordinary person? You?"
The young man asked again as though he genuinely could not understand.
"Yes. I am an ordinary person."
"What are you talking about? You've crossed the line by a long way."
"Do I look like that?"
"If you were an ordinary person, I would not have had any reason to run into you."
"Hmm. Is it because of the Bloodline......?"
Haseol muttered quietly to himself.
Apart from knowledge and experience, the Bloodline Bisan's blood had placed in him was his greatest physical change.
In any case, one thing was certain.
Haseol himself had already crossed the line into this side of the world.
"If you don't want to be dragged off after your arms and legs are cut off, stay still. Your blood is too precious to waste."
Then there was no need for him to hesitate.
Haseol tilted his neck to the side and placed his thumb on the red line engraved there.
He turned his thumb.
FWOOSH!
The line wrapped around his neck came loose and spread through his body.
"Hah. Did you spray some kind of aphrodisiac on yourself?"
The young man laughed as though he could not get his head straight.
"It was because of the Bloodline."
Haseol nodded as though he had understood why the man had targeted him.
Then he brought his foot down on the young man's foot.
CRUNCH!
The sound of bones shattering.
CRACK!
Cracks spread across the ground like a spiderweb, accompanied by a tremendous tremor.
"Aah, aaaaaaah!"
The young man collapsed, clutching his foot.
"Oh? Huh?"
The result had been greater than Haseol expected, and he looked slightly flustered as he got to his feet.
"Are you all right? I did not mean to make it that bad."
Haseol stepped back from the young man as he asked.
"You, th-this......"
"You are all right, right? You are not planning to claim medical expenses because you cannot use that foot for the rest of your life, are you? You threw me earlier. I hit my head on a car, and I am holding myself together even though I feel so dizzy that I might collapse, so we will call it even, yes? Let us just let it go like that."
Keeping a certain distance from the young man, Haseol rapidly spoke to bring matters to a conclusion.
"You bastard!"
The young man reached a hand toward Haseol.
Bats poured from his hand.
Startled, Haseol swung his hand.
CRACK!
The bat that touched Haseol's hand instantly shattered, scattering bright-red blood through the air.
"Ah......"
Bright-red blood covered Haseol's whole body.
The other bats were caught in the gust of wind and sent flying into the wall.
"I'll kill you!"
Spreading his wings and kicking off the ground, the young man swung a fist at Haseol.
"Wait a moment."
Haseol knocked the fist aside with his hand.
His palm came down as though he were brushing away an insect, striking the young man's fist.
The young man's fist struck the ground first.
As though his body had been pulled toward that fist, his whole body slammed into the ground with it.
The young man was driven into the ground like a fly.
"Ah...... What should I do? Should I call the police? Should I call 119 for you?"
His opponent was a vampire connected to supernatural abilities who attacked people.
But he was not a ghost.
Haseol did not think he was a being whom he could simply eliminate at will.
There must surely be rules that applied to the supernatural side.
"Wait a moment. I need to make a call."
Leaving the young man where he was, Haseol called someone on his phone.
"Hello. Bisan, it is me."
[Yes. Did you find a restaurant?]
"I have not found a restaurant yet, but I found someone who sees me as a restaurant."
[What?]
"I met a vampire."
[Ah~. I see.]
"It looked as though he was trying to catch me and drink my blood, so I refused and hit him first......"
[You hit him?]
"He seems to be hurt quite badly. What should I do?"
[I will come to you. Please wait a moment.]
"Okay."
The call ended.
"Ah, I did not tell him where I am."
Haseol looked at his phone, about to call again.
Then he put it back in his pocket.
"He'll find me himself."
"Please wait a little. An expert will come."
Haseol said this to the young man, who was still lying on the ground.
"Khh...... What are you? What is your identity?"
"I am an ordinary person."
"What ordinary person is there on this side of the world?!"
"I am an ordinary person who just entered this side of the world."
"You just got here and have this much strength? Don't give me that bullshit!"
"Honestly. If I say I am an ordinary person, just believe I am one."
Haseol squatted down toward the young man and spoke.
"......Huh?"
"If I were not an ordinary person, I would cut off your head and leave. Do you want that?"
"Th-that......"
"I am respecting life because I am an ordinary person. Even though you are a vampire who attacked me."
"Ah, uh, yes. Th-that is right."
At Haseol's words, the young man answered formally and avoided his eyes.
Step, step.
Footsteps came from behind him.
When Haseol turned his head, Bisan was walking over with his hands in his coat pockets.
"Do you still want to be an ordinary person?"
With a leisurely smile, Bisan asked Haseol.
He seemed to have heard Haseol's conversation with the young man.
"I do want to be an ordinary person, but I did not mean it in that sense."
"Then what did you mean?"
"I think people on this side of the world will give me many conveniences if I say I am an ordinary person."
"Huhuhuh. Is that so? Then I will do as you wish."
Bisan approached the young man.
"I only need to take care of this, right?"
"Yes. Please."
Haseol stepped away from the young man to make room for him.
"Huh, huhh, uh, uh......"
The young man was panting, unable to breathe properly.
"Huh? I did not hit his chest."
"Breathe."
"Huuuhk, haak, haak, haak."
The young man breathed hard.
"Lift your head."
At Bisan's words, the young man's head snapped upward.
"He is a vampire."
"He is a vampire, right? But he walks around during the day?"
"With a cap and covered skin, he can manage that much."
"Even though he is not very strong?"
"For ordinary people, a vampire at that level is overwhelmingly strong."
"Ah, really?"
"Yes. Given that you can defeat even a vampire like that without difficulty, it seems you are adapting to the Bloodline faster than I expected."
"Ah, thank you."
At Bisan's praise, Haseol scratched his head, embarrassed.
"Still, in Bloodline State, you could have killed him easily. Why did you not?"
"Killing someone is a little......"
Haseol looked troubled, even while still embarrassed.
"You killed ghosts."
"Are ghosts not living creatures? It felt as though I was just breaking an object."
"That is how it felt? I have not actually seen a ghost, but I suppose it feels different."
Bisan nodded as though he understood.
With a vampire between them, the two spoke calmly.
Yet the vampire could not say a word as he looked at the two, who seemed defenseless, and remained stiffly frozen.
"What happens to me? Will I be punished? Will I go to prison?"
"Huhut, no. Beings of the supernatural side mostly act according to their own codes. They have no connection to the law."
"Ah, really? That is a relief. I do not have to pay his hospital bills either, right?"
"Of course not."
Bisan smiled softly and nodded.
"Then what happens to him? Do we need to take him to a hospital? He said he eats people, so should he be punished somehow?"
"It would be better to punish him. From a human perspective."
"You are a vampire, Bisan. What do you think would be best?"
Haseol looked to Bisan for his opinion.
"Do you need my opinion? I am a vampire."
"Yes. I am asking because you are a vampire, aren't I?"
Haseol asked back as though wondering why Bisan would ask that.
At Haseol's expression, Bisan smiled faintly and said,
"Then shall we just go eat? Dealing with him is bothersome."
At Bisan's proposal, Haseol looked blank for a moment.
Then he gave a thumbs-up, as though he truly liked the choice.
"Did you find a good restaurant?"
"Yes. I saw one."
Haseol walked with Bisan.
"Take off your bloodied clothes and put this coat on first."
"Ah, okay."
Bat blood covered Haseol's clothes and face.
Remembering what he had forgotten, Haseol took off his clothes and put on Bisan's coat.
He wiped the blood from his face with the clothes he had taken off as he and Bisan left the alley.
"There were not many places open yet because it is still morning."
"That is true."
"The restaurant is over there."
Haseol pointed to a restaurant.
It was a twenty-four-hour rice-soup restaurant.
There were not many customers at that awkward hour.
Haseol and Bisan walked toward it.
"Earlier, I did not tell you where I was, but you found me anyway."
"Did I?"
"You were watching me, right?"
"Who knows?"
"I am not angry, so please tell me the truth. I just want to know the facts."
"I had a bat follow you."
"Could there be that kind of surveillance at the house too? From the others?"
"That is likely."
"You do not know either, Bisan?"
"If they deliberately hide while watching you, it would be difficult for even me to know unless I deliberately looked for them."
"I see. Hmm."
Haseol's expression grew complicated.
"Being watched is not exactly pleasant......"
Haseol looked troubled.
"But if I think they are doing it to protect me, maybe it cannot be helped......"
"Huhut."
"If I become much stronger, they will stop watching me, right?"
"Perhaps they will."
"They said I have no talent, so I do not know when that will be."
"Resolving all the Rootstreams is another way to find freedom."
"Which do you think is easier, me getting stronger or resolving all the Rootstreams?"
"......"
Bisan thought for a moment before answering.
"Resolving the Rootstreams will probably be easier."
"Am I really that untalented?"
"Yes."
As though he did not want Haseol to be mistaken about it, Bisan nodded firmly.
At that firmness, Haseol laughed without realizing it.
Then the smile slowly left his face.
"I cannot go back to being the ordinary person I was before, the one who did not know about supernatural abilities."
A bitter smile filled with the feeling of having given up many things.
"You can go back, though."
With that simple piece of information, Bisan shattered that smile.
"Huh? I can go back?"
"If we remove my blood from your body and you cut your ties to supernatural abilities before living an ordinary life, you will forget that supernatural abilities themselves exist."
"Can you forget their very existence? It is not as though you are manipulating memories."
"The boundary between fantasy and the modern world is surprisingly thick and strongly drawn, so it is possible."
"Ah......"
"Would you like that?"
"Yes."
Haseol nodded honestly.
At that honest answer, Bisan smiled without saying anything.
Even after physically experiencing that he had crossed the boundary, had nothing changed?
"I should think about it after I finish everything I have to do."
At Haseol's next words.
"......"
Bisan covered his mouth with his hand and laughed.