Chapter 406: Red Grass

Fifty-nine minutes after time had frozen, it finally began to move again.

Lia, confused by the fact that Nol was carrying her, was told that she had fallen asleep. The young girl accepted the explanation easily enough.

Azriel and Nol made their way back to the count’s estate, and when they arrived at the open adjacent gate, neither of them stepped any farther.

"Master... this smell..."

Nol’s face had gone pale with nausea as he stared toward the estate, where everything before him felt eerily empty and silent.

"...You should take her with you to [White Haven] until it’s safe again."

"...!"

Nol looked at Azriel in shock.

"What!? No, Master, there’s no way I’m doing that!"

Azriel stepped in front of him and placed a hand on Nol’s shoulder, offering him a warm smile while Nol held Lia in his arms.

"That smell behind me... is not something you should experience."

"No, that’s not it..." Nol said, his voice tightening. "You’re trying to push me away again, aren’t you, Master? Why!? I-I thought we made up, and that you would finally—"

"Nol."

Azriel cut him off, still looking at him with gentle eyes.

"They are coming for you and this child."

"..."

"They already took Celestina and Jasmine."

"...."

"I need to save them. But I can’t do that if I have to protect the two of you at the same time."

Nol bit his lip hard enough to taste iron on his tongue.

"I’m not discarding you this time, Nol," Azriel said quietly. "I am simply too weak not to fear that you would get hurt while I try to bring Jasmine and Celestina back."

"No..." Nol whispered.

"You are not weak, Master... I am..."

"..."

"I-I don’t understand, Master... before, blood didn’t scare me. But now... even the smell of it, I-I..."

"It’s fine."

Nol looked up at Azriel, his eyes reddening by the second.

"The reason you’re feeling fear is not because you’ve become weak, Nol," Azriel said softly. "It’s because you’ve become more human."

"...Then I don’t like being human."

Azriel let out a short, quiet laugh.

"You thinking that is precisely what makes you human."

"Master..."

Azriel stepped back, letting go of Nol’s shoulder, then looked down at Lia.

"You’ll behave, alright?"

"Mhm."

Lia did not understand much, but she was smart enough to know this was serious. Nervous, she gave a small, weak nod.

Azriel’s smile widened just a little.

"Master, can I ask one last thing?"

Azriel looked back at Nol, silently urging him to continue.

"This scenario... this angel... you already knew about all of this beforehand, didn’t you?"

"..."

Azriel remained silent, saying nothing, while Lia looked between them in confusion.

"But you were acting strange even before that angel appeared. When that knight showed up... it felt more like you were..." Nol said, then steadied his voice with effort. "Master... are you tired?"

Azriel blinked a few times at the unexpected question, then broke into another tender smile.

"I guess I am... just a little."

"Oh..."

"Why do you ask?"

Nol shook his head and looked down at his feet.

"Just... I think we all want to leave this world now, huh..."

Hearing those words, Azriel placed a hand on his shoulder again and squeezed it reassuringly.

"Don’t worry. I will succeed and get us out of here."

"Right."

Nol looked up and forced an exuberant grin onto his face. Seeing how hard he was trying, Azriel chuckled, then let go and turned away without looking back.

He stepped through the gates—

just before he heard Nol’s small whisper behind him.

"Be safe... Master."

"...Idiot..."

Muttering the word under his breath, Azriel stepped through the gate, trying to keep his lips from curling any further upward.

"Is this really wise, human?"

Suddenly, the familiar proctor floated in front of him as Azriel made his way toward the estate doors.

"Why are you here?" Azriel asked without slowing his steps.

"There are no participants around, so you shouldn’t be allowed to stream me."

A faint, unnatural smile spread across the angel’s face.

"There will be plenty soon enough, so I thought we could have a little chat before you willingly walk into a den filled with murderous humans."

"There is nothing for us to talk about."

"That’s what you say, but come on... what is going on with this scenario? You know, don’t you, human?"

"..."

"We were allowed to stream, but not physically enter this world. It was almost as though they were trying to tell us that if we did, we might actually die."

"..."

"See, all these terms I keep throwing around—anyone else would be confused, surprised, maybe even terrified. But you..." The angel narrowed his eyes. "Your expression barely changes. At least, not in the way it should."

"..."

"You really won’t budge, huh?"

Having reached the door, Azriel drew in a deep breath.

’This smell is really bad... but I need to find Lioren so I can get Jasmine and Celestina back. There’s no telling how many masters they have... Still... I feel uneasy. How did they take those two so easily without me noticing...?’

Something was wrong.

Something did not add up.

The growing dread in Azriel’s chest told him there was no way Jasmine and Celestina’s kidnapping—and the proctor’s sudden appearance at almost the exact same moment—were merely a coincidence.

At last, Azriel pushed open the heavy doors.

The moment he stepped inside, a new panel appeared before his eyes.

[

Time Limit: 4:47:16.81

]

"That," the proctor said, "is how long the humans have to redeem themselves as worthy participants."

Azriel pressed his lips together and walked farther in.

The moment he entered the main hall, the smell hit him in full force.

It was so thick it almost felt wet.

Blood.

The heavy, sickening warmth of freshly spilled blood coated the walls and spread across the marble floor beneath his feet, making Azriel’s face tense for a brief moment.

’There are no bodies...’

His feet continued across the red-stained floor, blood splashing lightly beneath each step.

Azriel moved deeper into the estate.

Walking slowly through the hallways, where blood had spread just as heavily, he finally found bodies.

His eyes narrowed.

He came to a stop and looked at the dead maid slumped against the wall, her uniform torn and soaked red, her skull cracked open.

Azriel did not know what was worse—

that the participants had killed an innocent,

or that they had killed someone who never needed to die at all.

"Inevitably, some will get caught in the crossfire, whether they want to or not," the angel said suddenly. At some point, he had drifted down to sit on Azriel’s shoulder.

"Do you gods call this entertainment?" Azriel asked softly, making the proctor turn his head.

"Bringing chaos to my world, destroying this world, recreating this world, only to kill more humans... is this what you call entertainment?"

"...This is not entertainment. This is a trial—"

"A trial for humans, yes. But entertainment for you."

"..."

"It is disgusting, the way you indulge in needless killing."

"Needless?" the proctor repeated, frowning now, anger creeping into his face. "Aren’t you being a hypocrite, human?"

Azriel said nothing.

"You were on the verge of wiping out an entire village of humans. You threatened to kill a child. For what? Just because you wanted to kill someone you disliked? You do not call those needless killings only because you are strong in this world. If you were surrounded by saint-ranked humans, you would call everything needless killing as well—simply because

you

were the weak one."

"...So if I keep walking down this hallway and find the bodies of participants," Azriel said quietly, "they did not die for your entertainment? There was meaning in it?"

"These scenarios are trials," the proctor replied. "They exist to judge whether humans have what it takes to earn our help and survive. The weak die. The strong survive and reap the rewards. That is simply nature. We cannot help humans who are incapable of helping themselves first. Nor do we wish to."

Azriel’s lips curved ever so slightly.

"...How benevolent."

The proctor scowled at the reply.

"So it is acceptable as long as you are the one doing the killing?" he asked as the two of them resumed walking through the hallway.

Azriel was about to respond immediately, but then he stopped.

Something in his expression shifted.

For a moment, he looked troubled.

’How weird...’

And when he finally answered, his voice stunned even the angel.

"...If it’s me instead of you, then... yes."

"..."

’I feel so irritated. It’s like something deep in my soul is trying to claw its way out... because this so-called angel is the reason so many humans are dying...’

That feeling—

it was as if Azriel

had

to be angry for what this angel had done.

"You are a strange human," the angel said at last.

Then the two of them fell silent, walking through the eerily muted hallways of the estate, where blood coated the floors and the occasional body of a servant—or a participant—lay abandoned in the aftermath.

’Most of them died in pain, judging by the wounds...’

Of course they had.

The murderers in this estate were participants—people who had likely never killed before, people who were already too frightened to play their part in this scenario properly.

...They would not know how to make death painless.

Finally, Azriel made his way toward the garden, where most of the participants were supposedly gathered.

What greeted him was a field of bodies sprawled across what had once been green.

Now it was red.

Red grass.

The sight almost made Azriel sick.

"P-Please... please don’t kill me... I don’t... I don’t want to die...!"

One participant lay sprawled across another corpse, staring up in terror with one hand stretched forward. Standing over him was another young participant, clutching a spear with both trembling hands. Her entire body shook. She was covered in blood, crying so hard she could barely breathe.

And then she drove the spear into the man’s heart.

A second later, the red marker above her head flickered—

and turned green.

Other participants stood or sat among the blood with the same green markers above them, wearing exhausted, dull, hollow expressions.

’Looks like it is already over...’

Most of those who had been too weak to fight and win were dead.

Azriel could still hear screams from behind him and above him, from the upper floors of the estate.

Participants were hunting their own.

Azriel clenched his teeth.

’This... this is not right...’

...The worst part was that there was nothing he could do.

Even if he had come earlier and convinced them not to kill, they would have died anyway.

By now, some of them had noticed they were being watched. A few turned their heads toward him in surprise, and others quickly followed.

At first, their eyes recognized Azriel.

There was surprise in them.

Hope.

Relief.

Then those same eyes shifted to the white marker above his head—

and turned greedy.

Sighing inwardly, Azriel looked at them with a composed face and spoke a single cold word.

"Don’t."

"...!"

It was as though that one word dragged them back to their senses. They flinched and looked away in shame.

’I don’t think any of them are going to be useful when it comes to telling me where Lioren is.’

With that thought, Azriel was about to turn away—

when he suddenly felt the sharp tip of a weapon press against his back.

"This is quite the conundrum, is it not, Azriel?"

Recognizing the voice immediately, Azriel’s mood darkened.

Without turning around, he addressed the man behind him.

"Caleus."

"...You should have run while you had the chance."

"I don’t believe there is anyone here capable of making me run in fear."

"Bold words," Caleus said. "I wonder if you are saying them just to hide it."

"I don’t have time for this," Azriel muttered, his face growing colder.

’If I have to kill him for Jasmine and Celestina’s sake... then so be it.’

"You don’t have time for this?" Caleus echoed. "That is interesting, considering the reward for killing you would buy me more than enough time. I would be able to solo this entire scenario... and instantly become one of humanity’s strongest."

"I suppose that is true."

Azriel said it calmly before beginning to turn around.

"Easy there."

Caleus pressed the tip of his spear harder into Azriel’s back.

Azriel stopped, his expression turning annoyed.

At the same time, the participants watching them began to grow fearful again—yet the greed in their eyes was returning.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t kill you," Caleus said. "No... give me one good reason why you shouldn’t offer your life to me. Or to someone like Lioren. Your death would push humanity into a new era. Though I still don’t understand why it has to be you, or what exactly the deal is with this scenario or that angel... right now, your death is worth more than your life."

"You are right," Azriel said simply.

"Honestly, if your goal truly is humanity’s benefit, then letting a master kill me would probably serve humanity for a very long time. And if your goal is selfish instead, then you could kill me and remain one of the strongest for a very long time as well, ruling over humanity until we inevitably perish."

"You were always much smarter than you looked," Caleus said with a chuckle.

"But what makes you think I care about the benefit of you or humanity?"

Suddenly, Azriel turned sharply.

In one smooth motion, he tore the spear from Caleus’s grip and kicked him back, sending him skidding several meters across the blood-soaked ground.

It was not a heavy kick.

Azriel had only wanted the spear.

And now he had it.

He twirled the weapon once before leveling it at Caleus, who stared back at him with a tense expression, his face streaked with blood and a green marker floating above his head.

"Your petty greed, your wishes, your desires—they are of no concern to me."

Azriel’s voice was cold enough to make the air itself feel still.

"The reason such a great reward has been placed on my death is because I am the most valuable human in this scenario. Why? Because I am better than all of you."

His eyes locked onto Caleus.

"Yes, Caleus, I am smart. But understand this—I am not merely smart. I am smarter than you. Smarter than all of you. I have also survived more near-death experiences than all of you combined. The likes of you will never kill me, nor would I ever allow it."

He lowered the spear slightly, though the threat in his posture only deepened.

"And now I am already in a bad mood. Jasmine and Celestina have been kidnapped, and I need to get them back. So I am giving you two options."

Azriel pointed the spear directly at him.

"Either you tell me where Lioren is... or you back off."

His gaze swept over the others as well.

"Choose anything else, and I do not care whether you are an heir or a royal or whatever the fuck you are. I will murder you just the same as I will anyone else who stands in my way from this point onward."