Chapter 20

Hamel turned on his heel, still clutching the dagger in his hand.

“I’ll go down.”

[With this, it is possible.]

It wasn’t hard to guess what that sentence meant.

The sole means and device capable of killing the immortal monster.

This was the key to breaking through the workshop.

Who had left this dagger, and why only this dagger could kill the monster.

Questions arose in his mind.

But there was no time to dwell on them.

If they hesitated any longer, Daniel and David would end up dead.

─Bang

Just as he was about to leave the room, a loud noise rang out.

Hamel hurriedly opened the study door.

There stood the monster that had smashed every doll and climbed the stairs, and…

“Mario… net. Um… move.”

David was there, struggling to hold the monster back while casting magic on his own body.

How badly he had been hit in the meantime.

David, already smeared with blood, looked barely able to stand.

If they had been a minute later, David would likely have been crushed.

Just as the monster reached out its fist toward David.

─Bang!

The knife Hamel threw collided in midair with the arm the monster was swinging.

The monster’s slightly pushed-back fist ended up cutting only through air.

David, stepping back, brushed his blood-soaked fringe aside and gave Hamel a faint smile.

“Oh, you’re finally here.”

Hamel felt a strange emotion and nodded.

He was grateful for his sacrifice—how he had held on almost until death for Hamel’s sake.

Hamel passed David and stood before the monster.

“I’ll handle this from now on.”

“Do you have a way?”

“Yes.”

Hamel twirled the dagger in his hand and gripped it afresh.

“That’s…”

Seeing that, David’s eyes widened as if he recognized it.

Had he understood something?

“Alright, I’m counting on you.”

David nodded and retreated.

─Aaaah

Hamel looked up at the monster.

A creature whose flesh was pieced together like a patchwork.

It looked unimpressive at first glance, but because of its immortality, its danger was comparable even to Reteil.

But Hamel was not afraid.

Just as the monster had immortality according to the workshop’s rules.

Hamel had, by the workshop’s rules, gained the power to kill it.

When the monster swung its fist, Hamel slipped past the attack and slipped inward.

A long wound opened along the dagger’s curved trajectory as it sliced a wide arc.

At the same time, a voice came from behind Hamel.

“Lord of war and holy fire, burn your enemies to ashes!”

“Puppet sorcery. The tearing thorn.”

The senior priest and David chanted spells together and the incantations poured forth.

─Crackle

Their spells ripped the monster’s torn wounds even wider and tore into them.

The next moment.

─Thud

The monster absurdly dropped to its knees.

As expected, at least the dagger had worked on it.

Its body was covered in wounds and charred black in places.

The cuts made by the dagger crackled and burned with blue flames.

Where it was wounded, its immortality no longer took effect, so Azure Flame and various other spells engulfed its body.

Having easily taken down the beast, Hamel stood before the fallen creature.

It no longer moved.

“…It’s over.”

The senior priest muttered, looking relieved.

As he said, they had passed the most dangerous hurdle.

The others were pleased with the immediate victory.

“Brother. Sorry, but take a bottle out of my bag for me.”

David, leaning against the wall and barely able to move a hand, asked Hamel.

Hamel nodded briefly and pulled out a glass bottle containing something.

A red liquid sloshed as the bottle shook.

“…What is it?”

“It’s wine.”

“…”

Hamel looked at David in silence, and David snorted and added with a smile.

“It’s not just any wine. It restores stamina and heals wounds. It’s better than most high-grade potions.”

“…You should have told me that.”

Only then did Hamel hand the bottle to David.

They could have healed with Azure Flame, but if a potion could do it, it would save time and energy.

Indeed, after drinking the wine, David’s wounds began to close.

“The effect is good.”

“It tastes good too. That’s actually the bigger advantage. Hamel, have a glass. Bishop, and you come over here too.”

David smiled and took cups from his bag.

But nobody stepped forward to take a cup.

No matter how effective, it’s still alcohol.

They couldn’t just gulp it down while the workshop wasn’t fully cleared.

“Really? Is it like this? I’m only asking for a celebratory sip together…”

Seeing David’s disappointed face, the senior priest and Hamel froze and exchanged glances.

Then, as if on cue, they snorted and accepted their cups.

A single sip would help restore their strength.

At that moment.

“I don’t touch alcohol.”

Ono refused without batting an eye.

“…”

The atmosphere grew awkward for a moment.

“Ahem, then I’ll—”

Antonio tried to subtly reach out his hand.

“No. You’re not of age yet, are you?”

The senior priest pulled his hand away firmly.

Antonio pouted and stepped back.

Hamel, clinking glasses lightly with the priest and drinking the wine, thought to himself.

Now they only had to find the owner of this workshop and finish things.

‘There’s still time to save Daniel.’

It took less than five minutes to fell the monster.

They would gather themselves and immediately search for the workshop’s master.

That was what he was thinking when—

“…Gurgle.”

“…?”

Suddenly the senior priest coughed up red blood.

Among the party, silence fell as if time had stopped when they noticed.

It was then.

─Splurt

A sickening sound of flesh tearing was heard right beside them.

When they turned, Ono stood there with a black spear lodged in his belly.

“What the hell is this…”

Ono spat a curse, vomited blood, and fell face-first to the floor.

What on earth was happening?

They couldn’t understand it, but one thing was clear.

“…What kind of act is this?”

Hamel raised his sword and aimed it at David.

For it was none other than David who had attacked Ono.

“I just thought now was the right moment. Little brother.”

David leisurely replied, waving his staff.

That answer was enough.

Their opponent was a mage.

They couldn’t give him time to chant.

Hamel erased from his mind the fact that the opponent was his brother.

He merely recalled how to deal with a mage from what he’d learned and experienced, and was about to swing his blade.

─Thunk

The world spun, and the floor seemed to fly up and strike his face.

Only after a moment did Hamel realize he’d been knocked to the ground.

“…?”

Hamel tried to stab his sword into the ground to steady himself, but it was no use.

The world spun round and round.

Something surged up his throat and dribbled out of his mouth.

The metallic taste of blood.

It felt as if his insides were being shredded.

“…What have you done?”

“What do you mean by ‘what have I done’? How disappointing. I even gave you an expensive gift.”

David chuckled and shook the half-empty glass bottle.

A little of the dark red liquid sloshed inside.

“Wasn’t that… wine?”

Hamel frowned, and David burst into loud laughter before smothering it into a snicker.

“Wine? This is dragon’s blood.”

Blood of a Dragon.

Dragon blood.

Only then did Hamel realize what he’d been subjected to.

A legendary being no longer found in the present day.

A powerful creature that devoured demons and was once worshiped as a god by humans.

Dragon’s blood, so alien, was said to be like a deadly poison to humans.

David, as if he’d finished laughing, caught his breath and said.

“The moment you drank this, the priest and you are as good as dead.”

“…And you are…”

Hamel glared at him and muttered; David snorted in scorn.

“I’m not an idiot. Of course it wouldn’t work on me, so I drank it.”

“Gurgle, gurgle.”

The senior priest continued to spit up blood.

He had lost so much blood his skin had gone pale.

He didn’t look like he could hold out much longer.

“Why on earth?”

Hamel asked a question he might not normally ask because his anger had surged.

His rage was that intense.

“Why… who knows.”

David murmured and approached the monster.

He poked at the monster with his staff and rummaged about.

“Maybe it’s innate. From birth I never fit with people or the rules of this world.”

After a long moment, David let out a small exclamation, tore into the monster’s flesh, and pulled something out.

It was a small key.

It bore the familiar helmet flower emblem.

“That’s the one the head of the household always carried…”

“Yes. That key.”

David nodded, then tilted his head in puzzlement.

“But that’s strange. No matter how I look, I can’t find the ring. It doesn’t seem to be here either.”

“…”

Hamel realized which ring David was searching for.

It was the signet ring.

The family’s emblem ring that Gail had passed to him.

Hamel immediately noticed and tried to hide his expression, but David’s demeanor didn’t bode well.

“…Oh my. Hamel.”

David shook his head and said.

“It was you. Father ended up passing the ring to you in the end.”

David sneered slightly and approached Hamel.

“Come to think of it, Father always looked after you. He pretended to be cold and firm, but he always hovered around you. Because of your mother, perhaps?”

Then he easily spotted the ring hanging from his neck and roughly snatched it away.

The chain snapped, leaving a scratch on Hamel’s neck.

David stared at the ring for a moment, then scoffed.

“What kind of trash is this that he hid just to pass it along?”

Then he threw the ring to the floor.

He looked at it with contempt as if he had handled actual garbage.

Hamel felt a dissonance in David’s words.

‘…Hid it…?’

Something flashed through Hamel’s mind.

Puppet sorcery marionette.

Gail, driven mad and committing suicide, and the letter that had been switched.

‘…So that’s what it was.’

He finally understood.

Hamel nodded weakly and muttered.

“Was it you, brother? You who lured me here.”

“Yes. You’re rather quick to notice now. Father didn’t call you. It was the opposite.”

David continued with a sneer.

“He needed your power. He thought you’d let me in even if my access wasn’t permitted. It didn’t go exactly as planned, but in the end it helped a lot, little brother.”

Everything had been part of David’s scheme.

Hamel bit his lip, remorseful at his own foolishness.

Looking back, there had been plenty of suspicious things about his brother.

But Hamel had believed the brother from his memories.

That trust had been the start of all these problems.

“Father… gurgle, where is he?”

When Hamel coughed up blood and asked, David laughed as if it were ridiculous.

“What are you talking about? Hasn’t he been here this whole time?”

“…?”

Hamel frowned at the incomprehensible remark.

At that moment, a small groan was heard.

The monster that had lain motionless, dying.

It turned to them and opened its mouth.

─Aaaah

The dying monster muttered weakly.

David’s mouth twisted into a grotesque grin as he watched.

“See? He’s still calling for you right now. Saying, ‘My son.’”