Roswald knew that using some of his blood would make Regulus recover a lot faster, but he hesitated since he knew now committed Regulus was about not drinking blood.

  ‘Gyuuuuuuunnnnnn.’

  The sound of Regulus’ stomach mumbling echoed in the area even amidst the thrashing of the Frost Wyvern. It looked like truly never bit anything in order to satisfy his thirst. He didn’t hear anything regarding such rumors about Regulus as well.

  “I guess this would only make him hate me for it. Well, health potions should be fine.”

  Roswald didn’t know if there was a health potion that used blood as one of the materials, but he couldn’t care about it. Saving Regulus was the most important thing right now. Otherwise, he will find himself being beaten by Glacien later.

  All of a sudden, the thrashing of the Frost Wyvern got worse, and then the creature approached. When he looked in that direction, Roswald saw something rather disturbing… the face of the dragon and the forehead had mostly melted… even its brain was exposed. The creature was a goner, so Regulus’ plan worked somehow.

  Eventually, Roswald saw the monster stop moving and then he received the notification… he didn’t do much in that fight, but it looked like just being inside the labyrinth was enough for him to receive the special class.

  ‘Wow… this is insane. I can’t believe that I can use this now… I can’t believe also that a toddler just received this chance to obtain power as well. That little girl will be fearsome in the future. Considering she is a harpy and who her parents are, this can be quite troublesome for us.’

  Roswald couldn’t help but think of some unpleasant things as he observed the toddler's harpy. It wasn’t her fault. He wasn’t insane enough to believe a child deserves hate for the actions of her people. Yet, despite his better judgment, the thought still found its way into his mind.

  The harpies had caused no end of trouble for his kind, and this little one’s potential only made the unease worse. She had done nothing wrong, but her lineage was there. Her parents’ deeds, their influence, and the weight of her heritage were very clear.

  Roswald clenched his fists, frustrated with himself. She’s just a child… he told himself that numerous times. And yet... the nagging doubt persisted. He disliked himself for thinking it, but he couldn’t shake the thought.

  ‘I should trust him… if the hate against him didn’t turn him into a monster, then he can raise this girl the same way.’

  — —

  When I woke up, I felt a throbbing headache like never before and I also felt a bit dizzy. It didn’t take long for me to recall what had happened… I was probably feeling this bad because I lost too much blood.

  ‘Even though my health is high, it doesn’t mean that I can recover blood fast without the proper nutrients.’

  In any case, when my field of vision began to get less blurry, I confirmed what had happened. I managed to kill that Frost Wyvern.

  The names sure sounded strong, and given that there was no class between parentheses, it seemed that none of them would make me turn to the vampiric side of the Force more. The choice should be obvious, but I still hesitated thanks to the name of the class… Death Archer. I had been slacking off when it comes to improving my dexterity, so I really should pick this tone, but in the end, I didn’t. No point in taking extra risks when my stomach was rumbling nonstop for a while.

  ‘Oh, this isn’t bad… not bad at all.’

  Ten percent per each level… that sure would make the skill broken after level ten. However, this would be too easy. Aside from the huge mana cost, there should be some catch to those skills and their use. I would have to test them to confirm that.

  Once I was done analyzing my new skills, I realized that I was inside my wagon… Glacien was curled up around Alissandra’s basket, and she seemed to be sleeping peacefully. It was dark outside, so I wondered if only a few hours had passed since the fight. It was night when I faced the Frost Wyvern, after all.

  ‘Shit…’

  The wagon was camouflaged… a mana core was about to break on the slot of the amulet that kept the whole vehicle under its effects. I also could see that some of my magic bags were missing, so it seemed that Roswald checked my things while I was unconscious.

  ‘It seems that he has chosen death…’

  Putting that aside, I had to recover and then go back to take the parts of the Frost Wyvern… such rare and useful materials couldn’t be left to waste. My stock of food was ending as well, so I had to leave this area soon. I still didn’t even know where I should go after this.

  “Hey, you are finally up. I can tell that you are a bit confused, but at least let me explain things before you assume anything.”

  “No.”

  “At least it looks like you recovered enough to act like that…”

  Roswald got inside the wagon and then he used his magic to summon some warm water and then clean his hands. They were covered in blood. It didn’t seem like he had been fighting, so I could tell that he was dismantling the dragon.

  “How much time has passed since then?”

  “Three days and three nights. For a while, you looked like a corpse since you lost so much blood, but that is the norm for those of vampire blood, right?”

  Roswald passed to me the magic bags that he borrowed and I confirmed that there was a bunch of materials from the Frost Wyvern… it seemed that he felt a bit indebted to me given that he also gained a rare class without risking his neck.

  “It took a while, but I finally pulled it off. Now you can make some knives with those enchantments, right?”

  I had completely forgotten about it, but I had promised this idiot that I would make him enchanted knives using dragon parts. This made the situation even more annoying. The more I thought about it, the more I realized how much Roswald had likely taken the time to dismantle the Wyvern with this in mind.

  This was just one more thing added to my already growing list of tasks. Not only did I have to recover from the fight and figure out what to do next, but now I was going to have to craft enchanted knives for this guy.

  “Well, I am just joking. I couldn’t ask that much more from you after all this work. This might take a while as well, and I need to do some things that will keep me busy. I need to talk with some people here and then I will move around to form alliances with some people that I know that will work with us considering that the rift is going open soon. What are you going to do?”

  “I am not sure yet.”

  Revealing my plans was stupidity, but it was also true that I didn’t know what I should do yet. It felt like I was the only one not taking this rift thing seriously, but trying to wouldn’t change a thing given that entire nations were moving and preparing for it.

  “Usually, rifts appear when the people in the world are too busy handling other things to prepare for it. So when they appear, they cause destruction at an insanely fast pace. Does that sound familiar?”

  “Like dungeon breaks, wars, and suspicious people being born and causing trouble around the world?”

  “I am not sure about the last one, but you guessed it right. I don’t know how they are connected, but I know that they are. The wraith managed to control the Frost Wyvern and then tried to leave the labyrinth like this. This labyrinth has already broken a few times, but something like this has never happened before.”

  “Your point being…”

  “You should have realized it by now, but I am someone of considerable influence here. When it comes to handling some people that come here, even though I can give orders to others to interact with them, I prefer to come and gauge those people myself. I am the leader of the Twilight Brotherhood.”

  Twilight Brotherhood… a shadowy faction which is dedicated to espionage, subterfuge, and assassination. They want revenge for being looked down on for being mixed races. The group of assassins that targeted Louise’s life and also tried to kill me by proxy. If I remember right, they started some conflicts on the border with the empire some years ago, but they suffered some massive defeats thanks to someone related to Louise…

  I didn’t tell Roswald details about that incident, but since he decided to come clean now, he should have connected the dots.