Chapter 316 – Branching

000

To put it simply, the space of the dimensional gap is like a hallway in a building.

If each dimension is a room, the dimensional gap is a kind of connecting passage that spreads between rooms.

The dimension where Cleon lives, Hell, the dimension where demons live, and another dimension infinitely derived according to the results of choices in one dimension.

Because all dimensions started from one dimension and were born from divergence, the gap between dimensions expands infinitely, and there is only one space connecting them.

That is the dimensional rift where Cleon and his party are right now.

Since the dimensional rift exists beyond time and space, from Cleon’s point of view, it may be connected to the timeline of the distant future, or it may be connected to the past from a very long time ago.

However, the story she told of leaving with the maid Illenu in front of her eyes was different from the memories of ‘I Cleon’.

Illenu and maids from another world diverged by choice.

In this world, Cleon is going on another future by gaining companions for another adventure.

“…Can you tell me in detail? It seems like it’s different from what I know.”

“Uh…?”

After hearing Cleon’s words, the maid looked a little taken aback, but she soon nodded and explained her past her in detail.

001

After treating Cleon, who was seriously injured in the battle with the vampire, and laying him on a bed in the mansion, Lady Illenu tried to leave the village before the other villagers gathered.

I hurriedly pursued her, who had gone to the entrance of her village in the blink of an eye on her, and she seemed to be trying to figure out where to go with her map open.

Haha… Wait, Illenu! Are we going this way?!”

“We defeated the vampires here, but there are still many vampires hiding here and there on this continent who greedily crave people’s blood. To defeat them, we cannot stop our journey. You, too, have escaped your father’s brainwashing, so you live a normal life. Let it live.”

It is as she said.

The master I was serving had already died several years ago.

The corpse was taken over by a vampire, and it was used as a target to attract outsiders who visited the village to the mansion by brainwashing me while pretending to be the master.

Thinking about that fact made my heart choke, but it was Cleon and Illenu who defeated the vampire that was the cause and saved the village and its residents.

So if I don’t pay this debt somehow.

“You can wait a little while until Cleon wakes up…!”

Besides, Cleon had not yet come to his senses her and had passed out.

Upon her awakening her, she feels like she might have something to tell her, and Illenu also has something to say to Cleon.

However, it seemed that she was about to leave his side of her somewhere a little hastily, as if she was trying to run away from such a ‘story’.

“Ku, Cleon, it doesn’t matter! With him, we only held hands once… Um, of course, we couldn’t defeat the vampire alone…”

“Then, it’s too much to break up like this!”

At my appeal, she hesitantly blushed.

The fight between two people and a vampire was never a fight that a weak ordinary person like me could get involved in, so I don’t know exactly what happened in that fight.

However, while defeating the vampire, he only guessed that something serious had happened between the two.

“It’s nothing to do with you!?”

Illenu raised his voice even more and shot at me.

“No! I have a relationship! As someone who was saved by you, I can’t stand watching you be alone again!”

Of course, it may be remote.

However, as a slightly older person than the two of them, I could understand a person’s thoughts and feelings by looking into their eyes her.

She was afraid

On her own journey to hunt the vampires, someone intervenes.

That someone gets hurt because of you.

Cleon, too, could vaguely see that she was about to die.

One might think that surviving might have been a fluke.

“If you fight to protect others, you have a reason to be protected by others too!”

She might be messed up, she hears it and makes her look like something has hit her in the head.

Then, she put strength into her hand, she holding the map she was holding, and threw it at me.

“As you please… You talk like that! The biggest problem is people who are weak and kind like you! They intervene here and there, and in the end they can’t do anything!”

“That, that’s…”

At her words her, I had no choice but to keep my mouth shut.

True to her words her, she needed strength to help her.

However, I am a human who does not have magical aptitude and cannot even become a member of the vampire family.

Even the possibility of becoming stronger in the future is infinitely small, the weak with low potential.

No matter how much I screamed for her sake, it didn’t help.

When I was reminded of that fact, I had no choice but to bow my head naturally.

“…Sorry, I was harsh.”

Illenu looked at me like that, took a deep breath, and came closer.

Picking up the map that had fallen on the ground, she placed her hand on my shoulder.

“You’re right. Up until now, I thought I could survive this fight alone… Until I fought with him.”

Her expression as she said that—Illenu’s face her with her head her slightly bowed in front of me, the shade created by her rich silver hair her.

It was a complex face that seemed to be somewhat resentful and somewhat happy.

“The vampire was strong. Obviously, I couldn’t win on my own. So, if I had to have a friend to join forces with, I can’t deny that part. Yes.”

Illennu spoke not only to me, but also to herself, translating her thoughts into words.

“But… So. That’s why, moreover, I can’t get anyone involved in this fight. If I’m not strong enough, I just need to become stronger. Even if I continue to fight alone-“

“Isn’t that an excuse?”

At that time, a voice stopped Illenu from speaking.

When both of us turned our heads, we saw Cleon, who had come to his senses his and jumped out, staggering on one leg.

“Cleon…! It’s awake…!”

While I am so happy with his recovery her, Illenu, who responds to his negative words her, looks at Cleon with sharp eyes.

“What are you talking about? Excuses?”

There was something unpleasant between the two of them, who were talking in sharp voices.

“Yeah. You can’t be with someone because you’re afraid of getting hurt? So, are you saying I was a burden?”

“Kuu… Yes! Exactly as you said! After all, I defeated the vampire after you fell!”

Illenu raised her voice as if she was completely incensed by Cleon’s words in her.

When there was a loud sound right next to me, my ears keyed and rang.

“Now, wait, calm down, both of you.”

I try to stop the fight between the two who are excited and raging somehow, but the two do not stop.

“If you’re afraid of not being able to protect your comrades, then you just have to be strong enough to overcome that fear.”

“I know that stuff! But you know it because you’ve been through it too! The power of a vampire doesn’t change after a year or 10 years of experience…!”

It is a feeling that only those who have faced real fear can understand.

A fear that an outsider like me couldn’t even imagine.

You could tell by looking at Cleon’s injuries.

He, obviously, it wasn’t strange that he died there once.

Some kind of fate, or was there some way to bring him back to life?

Cleon survived, but seeing his injuries to her, how did she feel as she fought alongside him?

“…Then what are you going to do? Are you going to fight alone and die?”

“…”

At Cleon’s question, Illenu shut his mouth.

It seems that he had no plans to do anything other than leave this town alone.

“Illenu-“

When Cleon tried to say something, I wondered why.

As if squeezing, he raised his voice.

“I!”

I don’t know if there is such a qualification.

“I will go with you, Illenu.”

“…Ha, ha~!?”

At my remark, Illenu raised her voice as if she was dumbfounded, and Cleon also made an unexpected expression.

“Illenu is in danger if left alone… Is that what you’re worried about? Cleon.”

“No… Yes, but… Maid-san fights…”

“I know I’m out of power! But even so, it’s far better than traveling alone. Travel isn’t all about fighting.”

Her career as a maid was never in vain.

“Cooking, laundry, and this and that… Oh, I can read and write, and I can write an accountant. That’s fine, right?”

At my words, Illenu looked straight in this direction.

What do you want to say, it’s good to quit, think again even now. Or something Was it because he wanted to cut off his lingering feelings of her?

I’m sorry, but that’s impossible.

“Ha…”

And, did she understand my gaze of her as well? She let out a sigh.

As if it couldn’t be helped, she nodded her head.

Cleon, seeing Illenu’s reaction to her, seemed to be at a loss for words.

“What will Cleon do?”

And then, I talked to Cleon.

“…Me?”

“Isn’t Cleon worried about Illenu? If he continues to fight against vampires after this… You, too, are well aware of their danger.”

At my words, Cleon’s face seemed to be worried for a moment.

“I-“

“…He’s fine. He has work to do.”

However, the one who blocked Cleon’s answer was Illenu.

Do you know something

As she later found out, it is said that when she sucked Cleon’s blood, she saw part of his past.

Illenu already knew the reason for Cleon’s adventure and the fact that he had someone important to him that he wanted to meet.

“Right? Cleon.”

“…”

Cleon is silent.

He knew best what she was talking about.

And, giving it up was out of the question for him.

However-

Cleon answered there.

“Okay. I’ll come too.”

“Uh…?”

As if she was surprised by Cleon’s answer, Illenu once again became bewildered.

“I don’t know what you know about me… I have no intention of leaving a dangerous guy like you like Mr. Maid.”

“Who, who is at stake!? And, injured like you-“

At Illenu’s words, Cleon untied the bandage he had wrapped around his wound her.

There, the wound, which had been cut so deeply that bones and internal organs were visible, had already healed.

“…How-“

“Well. Maybe it’s because you sucked my blood.”

In response to the startled expressions of me and Illenu, Cleon answered like that.

“I won’t leave you alone. Do what you have to do, hunt the vampires. Do both.”

“That easy—”

Seeing Illenu’s conflicted face, I carefully held her hand her.

“Just a little bit, be honest.”

“—I’m sorry…”

My words seemed to have moved her heart to her.

Illenu muttered quietly as she turned her body around.

“It’s stupid. If you hang out with something like this, it’ll only shorten their lifespan…”

“I didn’t intend to live long in the first place.”

“I-I’m not like that. As an elder, I can’t see my younger siblings endangering themselves.”

The two of them looked at my words as if they were a little strange, but the truth seemed to be conveyed anyway.

“First, let’s go back to the mansion. Me and Cleon have to pack.”

“…Prepare quickly. We have a long way to go.”

So, the three of us went on an adventure.

While chasing the rumors of vampires, chasing the person Cleon is looking for.

Heading towards the west of the continent.

And-

002

Originally, Cleon heard Illenu’s words her-her Cleon had work to do, and broke up with her while agreeing with her words her.

He thought that if the maid was with him, he would be fine, but at that time he had no room for any purpose other than finding Lesia.

Thinking about that, while waiting for the maid’s next story- she said:

“And, in the middle of the trip. Cleon died.”

“…”

Huh?

A moment of silence lingered between the two.

It was because the words the maid said were shocking as they hadn’t happened to Cleon himself.

“… Now, wait. I’m dead? Did something, a strong enemy appear?”

“I see… You can see that it is.”

The maid’s explanation that followed was a bit shocking.

Cleon and Illenu. The two continued their relationship, with Cleon regularly giving Illenu blood to gain the strength needed to fight the vampires.

In the process, it was inevitable that special feelings would arise between the two.

Both the maid and another colleague realized that fact.

However, if there was a problem, it was that Cleon’s physical condition was slowly starting to deteriorate.

Unlike the maid who did not become a follower even if he was directly vampirized by a long-lived vampire, Cleon had a very high magical aptitude.

Not a perfect vampire, Cleon gradually became a member of the vampire’s family as he was constantly being vampirized by Illenu, a Dhampir.

However, even when she realized that fact, she couldn’t stop exchanging blood to fight the increasingly powerful prey (vampires).

‘If only I had been stronger,’ said Maid, how many times he might have thought that.

However, in the end, Cleon needed to do something about herself before she completely became a member of the vampire’s family and lost her sanity to her.

So, he himself was stabbed by Illenu’s sword.

Cleon, who had already turned into a half-vampire, the moment his heart her was pierced with a silver rapier, his whole body her was engulfed in holy flames and turned to ashes, burning his body her.

The maid said again that the screams of Illenu and his party her couldn’t escape her ears her.

“…”

“I can’t feel the energy of a vampire at all from the Cleon in front of me. Truly, it seems different from the Cleon we know.”

The maid’s words of her were shocking in itself, but Cleon managed to control his emotions her and spoke.

“Then- after that, Illenu…”

“I was looking for a way to bring you back to life… I met a vampire who used necromancy. And after that… I don’t know the details.”

Probably, that part was a memory that I couldn’t recall even after exchanging magic with Cleon.

“…I see. Sorry, because of me-“

“It wasn’t exactly you. …Our methods were wrong. You don’t need to apologize.”

Patting the apologetic Cleon’s head, the maid spoke.

“…But there is one thing I remember with certainty. Right now, Illenu is in danger.”

“…Illen who? Isn’t she the ruler of this realm? To the point where she became the goddess of death.”

The maid nodded her head, and she became a bit serious.

“You and Illenu, the first vampire that you and Illenu worked together to defeat-Illenu’s father is still alive. And he is trying to revive himself by absorbing Illenu’s power in her in this realm.”

Cleon felt the smile disappear from his face at those words.

“…What happened? I’m sure Illenu and I would have finished it-“

“He survived by parasitizing on his daughter’s blood her. So, even after she becomes the ruler of this realm of exile, he is still using her powers her to reshape her body her.”

Cleon heard her words and stood up.

If what the maid said was true- no, it must be true because she said it.

She sensed no lies in her, no sign of deceit on her part of her.

“…I need to talk to Illenu.”

If that vampire was revived by absorbing the ruler’s power.

This time, indeed, not only this land – but also the entire banishment realm will bring about a great disaster.

As much as that, I had to stop it somehow.