"Damn it," I grumbled, pulling regular clothes out of my inventory. Anticipating a possible mishap with the destruction of all my clothes, I'd decided to bring a spare set of regular clothes. They don't have any protective properties, but they look pretty decent. Still better than running around naked.
Well… not that they have none. It's just that their properties are so negligible that they might as well not exist at all. (Armor — Soma Cruz).
Dark top, blue bottoms, and a white coat.
Looks decent enough, but nothing more.
After changing, I sighed heavily once again and sat down on a rock. Then I turned to the others.
Ritsuka's gaze darted from side to side, the pious woman had closed her eyes, and the rest were staring intently at me. Well, except for the little girl, who was also covering her eyes.
"What? Go celebrate your great victory — why are you all crowding around me?"
Ritsuka stepped forward slightly and clearly wanted to say something, but he was cut off by a white‑haired woman wielding a huge weapon.
"Leo De Morgan, who gave you that name?"
I looked at her as if she were an idiot, which caused her grip on her halberd to tighten. She tried to strike me with it, but right before her blow landed, an icy shield appeared — "Frost Barrier".
As soon as the halberd struck the shield, unknown magic penetrated Morgana's body, causing her to freeze in place — but that wasn't all. Eight icy spikes appeared right along the perimeter of the frosty shield and shot toward her body.
Just a little more, and Morgana's body would have been riddled with eight icy spikes — but Arturia deflected them.
"Ho, not bad teamwork. But next time you attack me, I'll kill you with my own hands, mage. Remember that when you think about swinging your halberd at me," I said with a smirk, looking at all of them as they grabbed their weapons and shielded Ritsuka with their backs.
"After all, unlike you, I've fully recovered now," I said, baring my teeth as I glared into the attacker's face.
"Ha, your arrogant nature's finally been taken down a notch, witch," the white‑haired man with two daggers said with a sneer — only to receive a cold reply.
"Don't think I can't strike you down."
Meanwhile, I watched them with curiosity. I had about three minutes left in this world, so I didn't care how I spent them — whether killing them or simply watching them. I wouldn't kill Ritsuka, but the rest…
Just as I was bracing myself for an argument between them, the short girl's black sword — clad in jet‑black armor — suddenly flared to life.
"Enough. Or I'll make you be silent," she said coldly, first looking at the girl who'd attacked me, then at the white‑haired man. When they turned away from each other in opposite directions, her sword dimmed, and her cold eyes fixed on me.
"Tell me. Are you somehow connected to King Arthur's dynasty in Britain?"
At her words, I just tilted my head curiously. Then I crossed my arms over my chest and placed one hand on my chin, trying to recall what my kin had said.
"If I remember correctly, yes? I'm a descendant of the witch Morgana or something, but I'm not sure through which line — and frankly, I don't much care. Why would I study the history of a traitor who slept with her own brother for the sake of power and bore him… uh… what was his name again? Ah, right — Mordred, who supposedly stabbed his father in the side? Or was it not like that? I didn't study history much," I mused, watching as the face of the girl who'd attacked me twisted in anger, while the girl in red armor tightened her grip on her sword and narrowed her eyes at me.
"Yeah, what a family that king had — a sister who tried to seize the throne and a son who betrayed him and started a rebellion that destroyed Camelot. Tough luck for the guy."
After my words, everyone fell silent. Ritsuka eyed the girl with the halberd and the girl in red armor with apprehension. The white‑haired man, meanwhile, turned away and tried to stifle his laughter.
"This is slander! I didn't want to destroy Camelot!" the girl in red armor suddenly burst out, shouting in my direction. I just blinked and looked at her in confusion.
"What's that got to do with you? Mordred was the one involved, not some random girl." After I said that, her sword flared red, and she glared at me angrily.
"I am Mordred!" At that, I widened my one visible eye — because as soon as her sword glowed red, her entire armor fell apart, leaving her in a tiny top that barely covered her chest and something resembling shorts. I pointed at the figure in black armor.
"Yeah, right, and is she King Arthur then?" After my words, silence fell once again — only to be broken by the white‑haired man's laughter. By now, the so‑called Mordred had lost her patience and lunged at the white‑haired man. After watching this kid try to take down the mulatto, I shifted my gaze to the girl in front of me — her face remained as impassive as ever. I kept looking at her curiously until Ritsuka finally spoke up.
"How should I put this… but she really is King Arthur. Like the others, she was summoned as a 'heroic spirit' and helped us save humanity," he said uncertainly. I once again goggled in surprise and turned to the so‑called king's impassive face.
"Wait. What do you mean? And how did Mordred come into the picture? Or was Morgana a man?" I shifted my gaze back to Ritsuka.
"No, she was a woman," he replied nervously, glancing at the girl with the halberd.
"I still don't get how the hell she got pregnant by her? Can two women get pregnant? Or did one of them have…" I didn't finish my last words, but my gaze eyed the king warily.
"It happened thanks to my mentor, who used magic to resolve the matter," Artur — or rather, Arturia — said coldly.
"All right, fine. I won't ask any more questions. I'll be vanishing from this world soon anyway, heading back to that hell," I said flatly, turning away from all of them. Truth be told, I wasn't left to my own devices for long. A little girl in a white dress appeared beside me — at the moment, it was covered in dirt and slightly torn. Her face bore a suspicious resemblance to both Arturia and Mordred.
"Leo, tell me — how did you become a vampire?" I turned my one eye to her and narrowed it slightly.
"Don't call me that. I'm no longer worthy of the name my parents gave me. Call me Nomat." With that, I turned away from her and began staring at the horizon, where the sun was just beginning to rise.
"How? When the erasure of human history began in this world, I woke up in another world as a vampire. In a coffin. And that's it. One moment I was going to the store for groceries, the next I was in a damn coffin with an inhuman thirst for blood. People and my so‑called kin tried to kill me. So I killed them all — humans, vampires, even the progenitor himself. And when I was left alone, I returned to my castle, sat on my throne, and closed my eyes, hoping to finally rest. And guess what?" With a smirk, I turned my gaze back to the girl.
"I ended up in yet another world! The first beings I met were bipedal crocodiles! Can you believe it? They could even talk! As is proper between men, we fought, and then went to their village to drink the strange swill they call liquor!"
In response to Lily's simple question, Nomat found himself unwittingly recounting his adventures. He deliberately omitted certain details, exaggerated others, and skimmed over some parts in absurdly brief fashion. He'd done the same thing countless times in the village he'd founded for the survivors, telling stories to children in the hope of helping them overcome the fears of their past.
He spoke of a mighty foe whose attacks obliterated space itself. He told how his heart had begun beating once more in his chest.
He spoke of two graves belonging to children who had died because of human cruelty. He recounted how he'd tried to help ordinary people for over a decade. He told of a young girl who'd tried to stop him from leaving the village — and he wrapped up his tale with the hologram of a buxom Mona Lisa he'd encountered amid the ruins of a certain "Chaldea". After that, he fell silent and burst out laughing.
"Ha‑ha‑ha, you asked how I became a vampire, and I ended up telling you about my adventures as a vampire. Guess I'm getting old," I said with a smirk.
What Nomat didn't see were the people behind his back, listening intently to his story.
Surprisingly, Arturia was the most attentive listener. Her face remained impassive throughout the entire tale, yet she listened carefully.
Ritsuka was the one most shaken — especially toward the end of the story. Given what he'd heard, they had lost. And the only reason he was still breathing was the vampire's hatred — a hatred that had bridged the space between worlds with a single purpose: to kill Goetia.
Just as he finished speaking, his body began to disintegrate into particles of light, and a voice from the sky spoke once more:
"Time's up."
"About time. Serdolika's probably been waiting for me," I said as I vanished from this world. At the edge of audibility, just as my body was nearly dissolved, I heard Arturia's voice:
"If you need help, call upon me. I will answer your summons."
An instant — and I stood once more in that chamber. Before I could even look around, Serdolika flew into my face.
"Ha! Of course I won! He didn't stand a chance! Though someone did help me — do you happen to know who?" At that, Serdolika bubbled and leapt aside.
"Don't know? Well, never mind. I suppose I'll have more time to find that out later," I said with a shrug, then began making my way out of the place.
As I passed through yet another room, Serdolika suddenly halted and bounded into a chamber. Curious, I followed her — and we found ourselves in a strange, half‑empty room. At its centre stood a single button and a small pedestal.
Serdolika hopped around the button, trying to press it. With a shrug, I stepped forward and pushed it myself.
A dazzling spectacle began — so bright that I had to shield my one eye. When the light show finally ended, a knight in heavy armour, spear in hand, stood atop the pedestal.
"Tell me — are you my master?" I narrowed my gaze toward Serdolika, who was already scurrying toward the doorway.
"Serdolika! What kind of setup is this?!" I shouted after the fleeing blob of slime.