A Holy Knight who served the gods was right before her eyes.
“Ah, I’m sorry.”
Yoon Sora realized she’d gotten too excited and closed her mouth. But her voice had already spread to everyone else. Yoon Taegyeom let out a short sigh and asked Vermouth one last time.
“Are you absolutely sure you don’t need anything else?”
“Yes, I’m fine.”
Vermouth’s answer was extremely casual. Rather than someone heading to battle, he seemed more like someone going out for a brief stroll.
“Then I’ll go deal with all those bug-like things and come back.”
That was all Vermouth said before entering the gate.
***
Do you know how to get through a labyrinth? Usually, you’d think of following along a wall with one hand. Or there’s the method of tying thread at the entrance before going in. Then let’s ask something else.
How do you get through a labyrinth quickly?
Vermouth stood at the entrance of the labyrinth, lightly rotated his hand, then gripped his sword. He channeled power into the sword and slashed in a straight line. Just that alone, and the labyrinth wall blocking his path crumbled with a roar.
“You just need to destroy it.”
It’s not like people lived there, so was there any need to preserve the labyrinth’s original form? Besides, if he went around destroying things like this, the monsters would naturally gather together, finding their own places to die. This was the fastest method Vermouth knew for getting through a labyrinth.
Destroy with the sword, kill, and burn. There were also light prayers sent to the goddess here and there. And so Vermouth arrived at the boss room located in the innermost area faster than anyone else. The materials he’d received from the Management Bureau included information about the boss.
The boss’s name was Arachne. It was named after the woman from Greek mythology who received punishment from the gods and became a spider.
The upper body had a human appearance while the lower body was a spider, and it spat out powerfully acidic spider webs. Moreover, its bulk was quite considerable, so if it jumped and crushed down, the targeted person would be injured or killed. However, even Arachne was no match for Vermouth.
The problem lay elsewhere.
“Oh?”
There was something else next to Arachne. It had a delicate human form. However, it wore a dark red suit and cloak, and sharp fangs protruded from its mouth. It was a vampire, a type of demon.
Vermouth’s purple eyes sparkled with an ecstatic golden light.
“O Goddess.”
The vampire, sensing the divine power, turned around in shock, and Arachne immediately shot spider webs. But as soon as they touched the golden light surrounding Vermouth, they disintegrated.
“Why, why is there a Holy Knight here!”
The shrieking vampire wounded its own arm with its sharp claws. And as it swept its hand through the air, the blood droplets it shed gathered to form sharp crystal shapes. The rapidly moving blood crystals rushed toward Vermouth, but that too was a useless effort. Vampires grow stronger the closer they are to pure blood, and the one here was not pure blood.
It seemed to be one of the subordinates created by a pure blood. Even just that much could kill everyone in a decent-sized city, but vampires had a natural enemy. Beings with divine power. To ignore divine power and successfully attack, one needed to be at least a mid-level demon or higher.
“Kill him!”
“Kiiiiiek!”
Arachne lifted its huge body into the air and slammed down on Vermouth. Meanwhile, the vampire tried to flee. If the opponent hadn’t been Vermouth, it might have been possible. Vermouth simply waved his hand, flinging Arachne away, and threw his sword at the vampire. His sword accurately pierced through the vampire’s abdomen.
“Heok!”
The vampire tried to escape by turning its body into a blood mist, but it seemed things weren’t going as planned and only let out pained sounds. Meanwhile, Vermouth leisurely separated Arachne’s upper and lower body. Then he split open the writhing upper body and extracted the red magic stone from within. This would serve as proof that he’d killed the A-rank gate’s boss.
Now, he’d completed his mission, but there was still work left to do.
Vermouth flicked his finger to retrieve his sword. The vampire was dragged all the way before Vermouth while still skewered on the blade. It tried to dig its claws into the ground in a desperate attempt to survive, but that had no particular effect. Only its claws were ripped out.
“Good day to you.”
The polite greeting grated on the vampire’s nerves.
“Regnasia’s dog!”
The vampire spat out insulting words along with red saliva, but none of it reached Vermouth. Because he’d torn open the mouth that was spouting nonsense.
“Oops. Now you can’t talk, can you?”
Vermouth picked up Arachne’s severed upper body and threw it down next to the vampire. The blood flowing down the body was absorbed by the vampire, and the torn mouth reattached.
“Y-you crazy bastard!”
The vampire trembled violently. Though it was merely a low-level demon, it could recognize Regnasia’s Holy Knight. Moreover, it knew there was only one Holy Knight with such an appearance.
“Vermouth!”
As it screamed out the name, Vermouth twisted his lips into a smile. Among demons, he was a celebrity.
“Good. Now that you know my identity, you know what we need to do next.”
“I don’t know, I don’t know anything!”
No, actually it did know. Since death was already predetermined, it should pray for a peaceful death. To achieve that, it needed to confess all the information it knew to Vermouth. But the vampire’s instincts still retained the commands of the parent body that created it.
It had been told to do the job properly. It had been told not to lose to mere humans.
“Aha, so you like to make things complicated. Very well.”
Vermouth removed his gloves and rolled up his sleeves.
“Then I shall gladly participate in that effort.”
The vampire’s face turned deathly pale. Vermouth had once worked as an inquisitor in the past and possessed artistic skill in dismantling demons. If demons tormented humans before dropping them into hell, he could make such demons beg to be killed instead.
Thud.
The vampire tried to squeeze its eyes shut. But it couldn’t close its eyes. Because Vermouth had made it so. Its blood boiled up, and its skin was turned inside out. It had thought it was immune to most pain, but that was just an illusion. It cried out that it would tell Vermouth everything.
But Vermouth didn’t grant that.
“I don’t believe the words of demons.”
The pain continued thick and heavy after that. That is, until enough time passed for Vermouth to set a world record in conquering the A-rank ‘Arachne’s Mirror Labyrinth’ gate. Soon the vampire spilled everything to him as if vomiting it all out.
“O Goddess Regnasia, grant this pitiful evil spawn a peaceful death.”
The vampire spoke. In Regnasia’s world, the Demon King had died, but the Demon King’s successor had survived. As a foothold for the revival of demons, the demons had decided to take over a new world. And that world was Earth.
“Heh. Soon a great gate will open here. A gate to hell that this world alone cannot handle.”
Vermouth looked straight into the eyes of the vampire who shouted even while tortured with its limbs grotesquely twisted. It was that smile of the ‘Holy Knight’ that people who sent cheers to the hero had faced.
“My Saint is merciful. When the world screams, he will eventually appear. You’re just hastening that. Then I’ll be able to meet the person I love more quickly.”
“Crazy bastard.”
“Aren’t the crazy ones you demons who indulge in slaughter?”
With those final words, pure white flames bursting from Vermouth’s hand burned the vampire until not even ashes remained. He elegantly swept his disheveled blonde hair back and headed toward the newly appeared gate exit.
‘Ian, we’ll be able to meet soon.’
The eyes of Vermouth exiting the gate flashed with violet madness.
***
Korea’s new S-rank Awakener set a world record in conquering ‘Arachne’s Mirror Labyrinth’! At this point, Vermouth’s fame didn’t stop at domestic borders. Foreign countries also began to take notice of him.
Especially countries greedy for talent. China, the United States, Japan. Before Korea’s Management Bureau had properly established itself, they had snatched up many Awakeners who had appeared. Of course, you couldn’t say that was entirely bad. They gave the naturalized Awakeners enormous amounts of money, after all.
Later, Korea also offered various benefits to retain Awakeners, but they couldn’t reclaim those who had already been taken.
“Can’t we bring him over somehow?”
“I know, right. From what I see, he’s not even Korean?”
“But he’s a romanticist. He has someone he loves.”
“Love can change.”
Vermouth’s fame only rose day by day.
