After my escape trick was over.

Dozens of expressions flitted across Lieutenant General Ebon's face.

Puzzlement, dismay, anger, despair, a sense of failure, remorse, indignation, and more.

But what could he do? It might have been different if I'd shown any sign of undoing it midway through. Now that he was so far away, there was nothing he could do.

"Lieutenant Colonel!"

"Hugh!"

Just then, the undying one and Tyr arrived. He rushed over to catch Callis as she began to collapse, while Tyr checked me over, seemingly uninterested in the bleeding Callis.

"You gave me such a fright! What were you thinking, running off alone? You should at least have warned me!"

That hadn't been an option. If I'd told this vampire, whose only concern was whether I lived or died, she probably would have grabbed me first rather than let me go.

Instead of telling her that, I shrugged and gave an evasive answer.

"I'm in one piece, aren't I? I'm fine, so please put her blood back inside her."

Tyr narrowed her eyes at my casual reply.

"Her blood, you say?"

"Yes. Your blood manipulation may have weakened, but you can still direct the blood flowing out back inside, can't you?"

In the distant past, Tyr had been a healer. Back then, she'd used blood manipulation to stop people's wounds from bleeding.

If she'd managed it then, surely she could at least return someone's blood now that she'd regained life. That was the reasoning behind my perfectly reasonable request.

For some reason, Tyr puffed out her cheeks in displeasure.

"Was that soldier's life so precious to you? Enough to risk your own life rushing to her?"

'I was beside myself with fear that you might die, yet you value your own life even less than I do!'

Oh dear. She was really angry. How was I going to fix this?

Win the argument? Or appeal to her emotions?

Things weren't over yet, so I ought to take the easy way out.

Instead of arguing, I raised a hand and toyed with Tyr's hair. The fine silver strands slipped softly between my fingertips.

Startled by our sudden closeness, Tyr fell silent. Slowly teasing apart the silver hair in my palm, I spoke.

"If I'd died, you would have turned me into a vampire."

It was slightly beside the point to say that I could simply become a vampire if I died. But reaching someone's heart required weight, not logic.

At something akin to a confession, Tyr replied timidly.

"Y-yes, but... my blood manipulation is no longer whole..."

I asked innocently,

"You couldn't do it?"

"Even if you became a vampire through my blood now, if you strayed far away... your blood would not move properly."

"It wouldn't work from far away?"

With a smile, I brought her hair to the tip of my nose and murmured,

"Then I'd have to stay close to you all the time. Still, if it meant coming back to life, that's a price worth paying, isn't it?"

"Ah...!"

Tyr's face turned beet red. Her heart seemed to be doing its job.

She instinctively pulled away from me, then headed toward Callis with a prim retort.

"... Just you try dying. I'll bring you back and work you to death!"

Then she returned Callis's blood as I'd requested. She even kindly gathered darkness to hold Callis's body steady.

Realizing there was nothing he could do for Callis, the undying one left her in Tyr's care and stepped back. With his hands now free, he approached me.

"Well done, sir!"

"I have been working hard. Enough to deserve a rest by now."

"Still, I must point this out! You're quite the prankster! Fooling around in such a desperate situation!"

"Fooling around?"

"Pretending you couldn't undo the chain!"

"What? You thought that was a joke?"

"... Wasn't it?"

The undying one blinked.

Wow. I'd saved a life, and this was the thanks I got? Making no attempt to hide my indignation, I shouted at the top of my lungs.

"Oh, come on! I work my ass off, and you find fault with my attitude! Suppose I'd undone that chain right away. Do you think the lieutenant general would have simply backed off? He would've thrown his blades straight at me!"

"Now that you mention it, you're right! I have no argument!"

Immediately convinced, the undying one nodded.

"You looked as though you were enjoying yourself so much that I misunderstood! My apologies!"

"I'll forgive you, so watch yourself from now on."

It was true that I'd enjoyed myself.

But shouldn't that count as incidental? If I had to put on an act for my own safety anyway, there was no harm in having fun.

"At any rate, you're quite skilled. To undo it in so little time."

I shrugged.

"That's what happens when you use ridiculous weapons like claws in the first place. A weapon should be one solid piece, not assembled from parts or made to come apart."

Not that he'd used them because he wanted to. You couldn't reach the rank of general in the Military State while forgoing the weapon that suited you best.

It was then.

"Woof, woof! Woof, woof, woof!"

Azi came running from the other side, barking delightedly. The chain with the claw weapon's handle tied to it was still fastened to her arm. All ten meters of it surged like a wave with each stride.

Lieutenant General Ebon had fled the moment his plan failed, so Azi ran straight toward me without anyone stopping her.

"You little rascal. Making me work so hard."

She was coming straight to me because she'd spent the most time with me. Raising a dog really was rewarding... or so I was thinking, when I noticed that Azi wasn't slowing down. Instead, she leaped into my arms.

"Oof!"

Even an ordinary dog jumping on me could send me sprawling in an undignified heap, and Azi, at least physically, was an adult. With that chain dangling from her too, even my sturdy frame couldn't withstand her.

Azi clambered onto me as I lay on the floor and licked my face over and over.

"Woof! Woof!"

"Oh, damn it. Hey! I'm not hurt! Stop licking me!"

"Woof!"

It was nice that she understood gratitude, but her way of repaying me was all wrong. Instead of licking me, I wished she'd go fetch some money from somewhere.

I spoke as I undid the chain around her wrist.

"Anyway, Azi. There's something I need you to do."

"Woof?"

"There's a cat outside. An actual cat, not a human who's prickly like one."

"Woof!"

How uncomfortable she must have been all this time. Her arm bound by a chain, and she herself bound by a promise. Oh dear. How much had she suffered because I hadn't said this sooner?

The chain fell with a clatter.

With both her hands now free, I gave Azi an order.

An order that would undo the chain that had restrained her all this time.

"That cat is picking on us. Go bite it."

"... Grrr."

With permission granted, Azi happily bared her teeth. She sprang up from atop me and walked outside, growling so low that the whole bottomless pit resounded.

Good. It looked as though the Regressor had almost finished dealing with Nabi outside, too. With Azi's help, she could put an end to it for certain.

With my work more or less done, I dusted off my hands. Now all that remained was...

"Huh? Rash, where are you going?"

Looking up, I saw the undying one striding off somewhere. At my question, he waved a hand in reply.

"Oh, don't mind me! I'm going to find the lieutenant general. I'd like to see him!"

"The lieutenant general?"

"Indeed. There's something I want to ask him!"

I stole a glance toward Tyr. Perhaps because the range of her blood manipulation had shrunk, she was pressed close to Callis and couldn't watch us.

I cautiously rose to follow him.

"What a coincidence. I have some business with him too. Let's go together."

"I'm not particularly going there to fight him. Is that all right?"

"Neither am I. I just have something to ask him."

"Understood! Then let us—!"

I hastily raised a finger in front of my nose.

"Shh. Quiet. And let's sneak off. Tyr will throw a fit if she hears I'm going to see the lieutenant general."

The undying one blinked, then lowered his voice as he understood.

"Haha! Like a husband in his wife's bad books! Very well. Let's go! In secret!"

I'd be lucky if being in her bad books was all I had to worry about. Imagine getting hit by that fist. It had left a Beast King half-dead with a single blow.

She was only like this now because she didn't know how to use her power properly. If she ever fully mastered it... Yikes.

Shaking my head, I followed the undying one.

Lieutenant General Ebon was making his way toward the roof with the stealth befitting a cat beastkin. The undying one and I followed his trail.

'A disastrous failure. I am always prepared to die. But I cannot die having failed like this.'

Even now, Ebon stubbornly clawed his way upward toward life to the very end.

If that were a determination to live, I would applaud it. But I knew better. That was the desperate cry of a man searching for a full stop.

A flame that thought nothing of burning other books for the sake of a perfect ending that would never be ready.

'The greatest cause... was that dangerous individual. I was told the Peerless Spear of the Six Generals had subdued her, which should have put her several notches below him. I thought I could manage somehow if I used the King of Cats or dealt with her myself...'

The Regressor's presence had been a variable for him. Unlike the Beast Kings or the Progenitor, this dangerous individual was too much of an unknown to approach carelessly.

It was reassuring that his impression matched mine.

Thank goodness. She wasn't only violent toward me. Regressor, you really were an impartial disaster threatening everyone.

'... But even accounting for that, things went strangely wrong. The lieutenant colonel betrayed me, and the colonel and the King of Cats proved almost absurdly powerless. There must have been another variable I failed to consider...'

Another variable you failed to consider?

We call that the world. The world is nothing but variables to begin with.

You're not some cowardly prophet. You can't predict and foresee everything in the world.

'So I must get outside somehow. Then sink Tantalus. Variables and all.'

"You can't do that! There are people on board!"

At my shout, Ebon, who had been walking toward the middle of the roof, flinched and turned around. Soon, the undying one and I reached the roof as well.

Ebon acknowledged us without any sign of tension.

"Ah, the undying one and the convict laborer."

The undying one addressed him.

"Good to see you, Lieutenant General. I'm Rash. Also the man you tore to pieces."

"And yet you've come back to life and stand before me."

A deft reply. He was remarkably composed for someone being pursued.

The undying one nodded emphatically.

"Indeed! Well, I bear you no grudge. If I resented everyone who damaged my body a little, the world would be full of people to hate! Between you and me, everyone in this bottomless pit has had a turn playing with my body!"

True enough. Azi, the Regressor, Tyr, and I had all damaged his body.

In response to the undying one's hearty declaration, the lieutenant general smiled benevolently.

"Yes. That's the sort of man you are. Thanks to that, I didn't feel particularly guilty about tearing you apart."

"It's fine! There's no need to feel guilty about tearing me apart! Nobody here felt guilty about it either!"

... I'm sorry, Rash.

I apologized silently in advance, before he could start holding a grudge.

"However! There is something I would like to know!"