Haseol flew through the sky.
Rather than flying, he looked as though he had been thrown, but in any case, Haseol moved over the town in an arc of blood droplets.
Then he passed through Rootstream's wall and fell.
Haseol clenched his teeth and prepared himself for the pain of hitting the ground, then relaxed.
There were already so many places that hurt that he wondered whether the pain of falling would matter much if added to them.
And so, with an empty expression, Haseol.
Boing!
Was caught by something like a red net.
A red net strung between withered trees.
No matter how one looked at it, it was not a normal object that might have originally been in this town.
"You did well."
Bisan came to Haseol's side.
"If the Assassins come out, I will deal with them for you."
Bisan tapped the red net Haseol lay on with a finger.
Shhhh.
The blood wove itself like thread and was drawn into Haseol's body.
His hands and arms were recreated at a speed that could not compare to before.
When the net disappeared and Haseol fell to the ground, they had regenerated quickly enough for him to break his fall with both hands and feet.
"I hope Haseol's provocation worked."
"I threw out the bait, and they followed me, but the question is whether they will come outside Rootstream."
"It would be an excellent opportunity for us if they do, but what will happen?"
Bisan stared fixedly at Rootstream.
"If they do not come out, we will go back in."
Though Haseol wavered, he got to his feet.
"Oh? You will go back in?"
Bisan asked as he looked at Haseol.
"Yes."
Haseol nodded as though it were no great matter.
"You were attacked in a way that severed all your limbs, yet you still have the will to fight."
Bisan looked at Haseol with a faint smile.
"The pain does not matter."
"It was pain that could not fail to matter to an ordinary person."
"I have been hurt a few times, so I am all right."
"Oh?"
"I learned that life somehow keeps going as long as I do not die."
Haseol said that as he rolled his shoulders in circles.
He gripped Waycut tightly again, too.
"You know that the person inside is not that important to you, do you not, Haseol?"
"Is she not? She is my predecessor."
"Not publicly. Personally."
"Personally, this is only the second time we have met."
"Are you planning to risk your life by going back in for someone you have met only twice?"
"Hmm, I understand what you are trying to say."
"Yes."
"Saving a person is not a bad thing, is it?"
Once again, Haseol spoke lightly and smiled.
"......"
At that smile, Bisan stared at Haseol for a moment, and the corners of his mouth slowly rose.
Haseol was different.
He was not someone who had belonged to the world of supernatural abilities, yet he was certainly different from ordinary people.
It was not courage drawn from the sense of obligation ordinary people created, the thought that an act was good and kind and therefore had to be done.
Because he took the bad things that might happen to him so lightly, he could move for another person's sake.
If everything Haseol was saying now was sincere, that was what it meant.
"Why?"
Haseol asked Bisan why he was staring at him.
Haseol was quick-witted.
He clearly knew why Bisan was staring at him, yet he asked.
A person for whom lies came naturally.
A person who would not seem out of place even if he were pretending to be abnormal to hide a kind heart.
Bisan stared at Haseol, then opened his mouth.
"They have come out."
At Bisan's words, Haseol looked around.
To find the Assassins.
BANG!
Before he could find them, the gunshot reached him first.
The bullet had stopped directly in front of Haseol.
It was bound by a thin, red threadlike strand of blood and hung in the air.
"Because Haseol received my blood, in theory, you can do everything I can do."
Bisan said that as he extended a hand to one side.
"A vampire's reason for existing is the longing for life and for living itself. Keep that in mind, and it will be easier to understand the power."
Bright red blood extended from Bisan's hand.
A single, fine strand.
A straight line.
BANG!
A gunshot rang out.
The red line of blood bent sharply in midair.
It bound the incoming bullet and stopped it in the air, then extended again.
It was fast.
It might have been as fast as a bullet.
A red line that might have been faster than a bullet.
Gunshots rang out one after another.
The one strand of red line bent this way and that before extending again.
At every bend, bullets that should have flown at Haseol hung helplessly in the air, bound in place.
Bisan pulled the thin thread that had extended far away.
Crash! Rumble!
Two Assassins were dragged out as they broke through a wall.
Their hands and feet were all bound by red threads, leaving them completely helpless.
The two Assassins were dragged across the ground to the two of them.
"Did you catch them?"
"Yes."
"You captured two Assassins this easily?"
"It seems that way."
Bisan answered with an easy smile.
"You said I could do the same thing......"
"You can."
"When?"
"Well, I do not know that either."
"Can I do it this century?"
"You might be able to do it now."
At Bisan's overly generous answer, Haseol turned his head.
"How strong are you, Bisan?"
"At one time, I was at the apex of living beings. These days, I do not know. Times have changed so much."
"The apex of living beings?"
"Yes."
"Huh."
Haseol let out a sound of admiration, which only left him with even less sense of how extraordinary that was.
"Still, I was one of the people called conquerors of an era."
Bisan answered calmly and looked down at the Assassins, who had already been dragged close.
"Then what should we do with these?"
"Let us call Eska first. Eska will have many things she is curious about, so she will likely try all sorts of experiments."
"That would be best. I will call her for now."
Bisan began typing a message on his phone.
Haseol looked down at the two Assassins.
They looked the same as the Assassin Haseol had killed.
Two ghosts of threat level B-, perfectly restrained by those thin, red threadlike strands of blood.
He had expected Bisan to be strong because of the title King of the Night, but the difference was far greater than Haseol had expected.
Having faced the same beings himself, he could feel it clearly.
The red threads moved again.
Fwoosh!
This time, the red threads extended behind them.
Gunshots rang out, yet neither of their bodies moved.
Seeming to trust Bisan completely, Haseol turned to see what was happening without any sign of fear.
The red thread extended in a straight line, bent, and then moved forward again.
At the bend, a bullet was bound and stopped.
Without even looking in that direction, Bisan pulled the red line.
Two more Assassins were dragged over.
"If there is anything you want to ask, ask first."
Giving way, Bisan stepped back.
All four Assassins were bound and sprawled on the ground.
"I already asked what I was curious about...... Ah."
As Haseol spoke, something occurred to him.
"How do I release the black cords binding the woman inside?"
Haseol asked an Assassin.
"I do not know."
An answer came immediately.
SQUELCH!
Without the slightest hesitation, Haseol drove Waycut into the Assassin's shoulder.
"Ghk?!"
"Ah, you were not the one who answered? Well, it does not matter. I will ask again. How do I release the black cords binding her body?"
"I do not know."
"Hmmmm."
Haseol slowly twisted Waycut embedded in the Assassin's shoulder.
"Aaargh!"
"I do not have time to torture you, and there are four of you. You know I would not mind killing about three of you, right?"
"Is that so."
"I am not joking."
Haseol said that and looked up at Bisan.
Bisan nodded as though telling him to do as he wished.
Haseol pulled Waycut from the Assassin's shoulder.
SQUELCH!
He stabbed Waycut into the back of the Assassin's head.
SPLASH!
Black smoke spurted like blood, then burst and vanished.
"You are next."
Haseol stabbed Waycut into another Assassin's back.
"Ghk!"
"Speak."
"I think you have misunderstood something."
"What?"
"It does not matter whether you were serious when you said you would kill three of us."
"Is that so?"
Haseol pulled Waycut from the Assassin's back.
He moved the knife as though he would kill the next Assassin to prove it.
"It would not matter even if you said you would kill all four of us."
"......"
At the Assassin's next words, Haseol stopped his hand.
"We are ghosts. Because you are talking to us, you are seeing us as intelligent living beings?"
"......"
"What you are doing is like trying to have a conversation while a tiger is rushing at you to eat you."
"You are saying that yourselves? That you are beings without intelligence?"
"Instinct is everything to us."
"......"
"Just as intelligence is pride to humans, instinct is pride to us."
At the Assassin's words, Haseol and Bisan looked at each other for a moment.
"Then what is your instinct?"
Bisan asked the Assassin.
"Assassination."
A brief answer.
"My type is Division. My threat level is B-."
Haseol looked down at the Assassin and rubbed his chin for a moment.
What should he do with this?
Was trying to talk the right thing to do?
Would it mean anything?
"Bisan."
Haseol rose from his spot.
"Yes."
"For now, I will go back inside Rootstream and look for a way to free Asha."
"Is there nothing more you want to ask the Assassins?"
"They do not seem willing to answer what I want to know."
"All right. Go."
"You and Eska can take care of these."
"Be careful."
Haseol ran back inside Rootstream.
As soon as he entered Rootstream, he put his thumb to his shoulder and turned it.
Acceleration.
Fwoooosh!
He reached the building where Asha was bound in only a few seconds.
Screeech!
His slippers dragged across the ground until they smoked as he slowed down.
Clack!
He opened the building's door and rushed inside.
Splat! Splat! Splat!
He ran through the pool of blood again.
"Are you all right? You are still alive, right?!"
He asked as he ran toward Asha.
There was no answer.
Haseol first grabbed the rope hanging Asha by the neck.
He moved Waycut to cut the rope.
It did not cut.
There was not the slightest sign that it would.
"What is this? Why will it not cut? This is not an ordinary rope, right?"
[It appears not to be.]
"Does Waycut not have the ability to cut ropes like this?"
[Waycut is fairly sturdy compared to ordinary objects, but it does not have that kind of ability.]
Haseol gave up on the rope and grabbed the black cords binding Asha's limbs.
He moved Waycut to cut them.
As with the rope around Asha's neck, they did not move at all.
Clack! Clack!
He even struck them with Waycut, but they showed no sign of breaking.
"You are having a hard time."
At the voice he heard then, Haseol sharply lifted his head.
It was a different voice from an Assassin's.
Another entity was walking toward him.
A head made of black smoke, a neat navy suit, a white shirt, a navy tie, and polished black shoes.
It held no weapons, such as a gun or a sword.
"Do not be so tense. I have no intention of attacking you immediately."
The ghost spoke in a polite yet authoritative voice and lowered itself.
In time with its movement, a chair formed from the floor.
The ghost sat in a pitch-black chair.
It sat directly beside Asha.
Yet it seemed far away from Haseol's point of view.
Only then did Haseol realize that he had instinctively stepped backward to make distance.
"I am the King of Type: Division, and my threat level is S+."
The ghost spoke and crossed its legs in a relaxed posture.
"Call me Dictatorship."