The Heart In The Bottle

“Mistress Selene….”

The moment they saw her, the vampires’ relaxed air vanished. All that remained was hostility they didn’t even try to hide.

“To think this would be tied to the chairman’s ‘bad taste.’”

Mistress Selene walked over with unhurried elegance toward Solomon, who was slumped down. Then she lightly bent her knees and held out her hand.

“Here.”

Without a word, Solomon kissed the back of her hand. By the dark elves’ etiquette.

“No, I meant for you to take my hand and stand up.”

“……”

“Are you by chance hitting on me? Not bad.”

At that, Solomon fell silent in disbelief. Then he just stood up on his own.

Just like that, Solomon faced the suit-wearing vampires glaring at him. They didn’t act rashly like before. It wasn’t that they feared him. They feared the dark elf family head at his side.

“Mistress Selene, that heart belongs to our chairman.”

“Oh my, you mean that heart you stole after infiltrating the orc archipelago where they live so happily among themselves?”

When one vampire spoke politely, Mistress Selene giggled. A cold sneer.

“…You wouldn’t dare to make an enemy of Wallachia Co., would you?”

“Oh my, how could a small self-employed business like us possibly dare to do that?”

“Then this will be quick.”

“Well, that depends not on me, but on our ‘ace.’”

As she said that, Selene looked at Solomon. Solomon stayed silent. The red heart in the glass bottle in his hand. He’d received a request from someone dying. They weren’t even that close. Was there any reason to go that far?

It wasn’t efficient, and it wasn’t rational either.

「I wish to ask… one favor.」

But the words he’d spoken while dying tugged at Solomon in a strangely strong way. An inefficient play he’d never even glance at in the past. Something irrational, foolish even.

No, could you really call it foolish?

Some called it “wisdom” to bow and submit before the strong. At least that wasn’t the case in the world of TRPG.

‘The reason I pursued strength in the world of TRPG….’

Only then did he realize. The reason he pursued strength. It was for that. On the table, anything was possible. The freedom to assert your will without yielding before anyone strong, even before a god.

This is a tabletop world.

“I received a contract from the Hotel.”

Solomon said.

“Once I’ve accepted a contract, I can’t betray the hotel’s trust.”

“From the look of it, it seems the ace has made his decision?”

“A worm like you…!”

Unable to hold back his anger, one vampire bared his fangs. That was when it happened.

“!”

Shing.

There was a skeleton holding a scythe behind Mistress Selene. The skeleton’s scythe was so massive it was large enough to sweep up all five vampires there and still have room to spare.

It was truly what one would call a giant god’s skeleton. Its sheer presence filled the area with a chill and the air of death that seemed to press down on everything just by existing.

With that pale, wavering death at her command, Mistress Selene stood there.

‘That’s… the Selene Family’s Godmother…!’

The Dark Elf Necromancer, Mistress Selene. That name hadn’t been picked up by luck on a board game.

“Mistress Selene, that action is against our Wallachia Co…!”

“I think there’s a misunderstanding.”

With night, moonlight, and the shape of a reaper at her back, Mistress Selene spoke.

“I only came to protect the hotel’s contractor, to take responsibility for the ‘unexpected damage’ my contract brought about. I have no interest in your chairman’s gourmet tastes.”

“The Lady of the Tomb, Selene, personally coming for a mere bottom-rung hotel guest? Sounds like you’ve gotten yourself a ‘boy toy’ you really like.”

The blond vampire who looked like the leader sneered.

“Formality is the rule that binds elf society together and preserves the race’s identity.”

At that, Mistress Selene brought up that characteristically rigid talk of ‘formality.’

“If an unforeseen incident occurs during the execution of a contract, and if the responsibility lies partly with us, then by elf formality we have a duty to take responsibility.”

“……”

“What, are you all going to come at me together, nice and friendly? I don’t particularly mind.”

Mistress Selene said with a shrug. In that appearance, there was an ease of a powerhouse that couldn’t be described even with the word overwhelming.

An overwhelming gap so great that the five vampires who overwhelmed Solomon couldn’t even lay a finger on her.

“……”

He could feel it anew.

How many strong individuals and monsters overflowed in this city. And amid those overflowing powerhouses and monsters, how precarious Solomon’s position was, like a candle before the wind.

“…You’ll regret this, Mistress Selene.”

When he realized it, the vampires’ figures vanished. Melting into the shadows beneath their feet, leaving not even a trace of form. Some kind of shadow magic, perhaps.

“Now, shall we go?”

“Go, where?”

“Making a lady say it out loud, you really have no tact.”

Mistress Selene giggled like she was amused and held out her hand.

“As a lady, I’d like to ask for at least an escort to my destination.”

“……”

Solomon took her hand, awkwardly. Of course, he had no room to get swept up in the moonlit mood. Crossing the Lowland streets, Solomon spoke up immediately.

“Didn’t you know the target, the Priest of Pain, would be tied to ‘Wallachia Co.’?”

“Honestly, it was unexpected.”

She said.

“Even so, you could have handed over the ‘relic’ without trouble. It was also a chance to get a reward from them.”

“A reward?”

“Chairman Vlad Țepeș isn’t a small-minded man. Especially when it comes to food, even more so.”

Rather, Mistress Selene asked back like she couldn’t understand.

“Why didn’t you?”

“……”

Solomon was silent for a moment. There were a hundred reasons, no, more than a thousand, to hand it over to them. Rationally speaking, they were a giant guild standing at the peak of Guild City’s downtown, Wallachia Co., one of the few even on Megacorp Street, District 1.

In contrast, the reason not to hand it over was only one.

“Because I didn’t want to.”

Solomon answered. Words his past self couldn’t have imagined saying. What had changed since he fell into this world? He didn’t know.

Solomon took out the heart in the glass bottle. Even in the bottle, it thumped as if alive and breathing. This small thing… felt to him like a kind of “small life.” Maybe that was why he felt even more resistance.

“This relic… no, this heart, what is it?”

“Well, I don’t really know much about blood magic. At the very least, it clearly doesn’t look like a Normal Artifact.”

Crossing the Lowland’s night streets, Selene shrugged casually. It was surprising.

Normally at this hour, this late, a woman walking alone through the Lowland night streets was basically a suicide act. Even more so if she wore rich, expensive clothes.

But no one passing through the streets dared to eye Mistress Selene. You didn’t need to see it to know it

The sheer presence that clung to her existence.

“So, what are you going to do from here?”

“…I took a contract.”

Solomon answered calmly.

“Once I’ve accepted it, I should carry it out.”

「Our relic… please place it where it belongs.」

That blood-red orc had said to let it be where it “belongs.” By the way, where was “where it belongs”? Would he find the answer if he went to the Blood Moon Archipelago?

“The Blood Moon Archipelago, do I have to take a ship or something? Sounds like it’ll get annoying.”

“What are you talking about?”

At that, Mistress Selene burst into a laugh like it was ridiculous.

“The Blood Moon Archipelago is in this city.”

“…What?”

“Downtown District 15, Tribe Street. ‘Blood Moon Archipelago’ refers to the Blood Moon Tribe’s guild hideout.”

At those words, Solomon swallowed, dumbfounded. A city of guilds, streets of guilds.

“You’re saying I should just take it there?”

“Well, I don’t think it’s going to be that easy.”

Mistress Selene giggled meaningfully. She was right. Like they said, considering this heart in the glass bottle had been taken from there in the first place, returning it wouldn’t magically solve everything.

“Then what do I do?”

“Well, that’s what you have to find out from here.”

Mistress Selene turned around elegantly, her fur shawl fluttering.

“At least formally, I’ve done the ‘sincerity’ a client can show.”

“…I acknowledge it.”

That was true. In reality, Solomon had benefited no small amount from her, and he didn’t even have the nerve to ask for anything more.

“The moon is beautiful.”

Mistress Selene said in the silence. Solomon didn’t answer. The moon he saw in this world was never especially beautiful, nor especially ugly.

That dawn, Hotel Snark.

The Selene Family’s contract had been carried out safely, but it wasn’t the end. Solomon returned to his room and collapsed forward as if falling. His mind was a mess.

Swoosh.

The heart in the glass bottle that had ended up in his hand. He took it out and set it on the table.

Thump, thump.

It was beating. Like the heart of a living being. And it was small and compact, like a baby’s heart. It wasn’t sending blood anywhere in particular, yet its chambers pulsed without rest.

— I don’t want to die…….

That was when it happened.

“!”

He heard a voice. At first he thought he’d imagined it. He hadn’t. A voice like a child’s, and yet one that stirred disgust on an instinctive, physiological level.

— I hate it here, it’s cold, I’m scared…….

“Y-you…!”

The voice was clearly coming from the heart. Startled, Solomon stepped toward the “relic.”

“Can you hear my voice?”

Solomon asked.

— Yeah, I can …….

The heart answered.

— You’re a mage……?

“……”

— A mage, a very strong and talented mage…….

The heart spoke. As if seeing straight through Solomon’s identity.

— You…… look like you can protect me.

“Why should I?”

— I’ll give you power…….

Power. Without thinking, the blood-red orc’s words came back to him, “a baptism of blood.” There would be a price that matched it.

— Power enough to protect me against those who are after me…….

“…Specifically, how can you give it to me?”

— Accept me…….

The heart said.

— Close your eyes, and open your heart…….

It sounded suspicious in more ways than one. Even so, Solomon didn’t care and followed what it said.

He closed his eyes, and opened his heart.

At the same time, his world sank into darkness.

[Welcome, Mr. Solomon.]

He heard a voice. A voice so familiar it made him sick of hearing it. Solomon opened his eyes without surprise.

“…Game Master.”

Solomon said his name aloud. The tabletop room. A robed man, the Game Master and narrator.

“What happened?”

[A lot of things happened.]

The Game Master continued, sounding amused.

[Mr. Solomon formed a contract with a Legendary-Grade Artifact, and acquired the rare archetype 「Blood Mage」 Level 3.]

“!”

Blood Mage Level 3. At the name, Solomon swallowed without a word.

[This is a multiclass treated as separate from 「Spell Assassin」. In other words—]

Spell Assassin Level 5, Blood Mage Level 3. It meant Solomon’s total level had risen to 8.

[You can acquire the following spell slots and additional spells…….]