Heart in a Bottle
The moment they saw her, the easy confidence the vampires had displayed until now vanished completely. All that remained was naked hostility, too raw to even bother hiding.
“Mistress Selene… I never imagined this would be tangled up with the chairman’s twisted hobbies.”
Mistress Selene approached the slumped Solomon with an elegance that bordered on theatrical. She bent one knee gracefully and extended her hand.
“Here.”
Solomon said nothing as he pressed his lips to the back of her hand, following the etiquette of the dark elves.
“No, I meant take my hand and stand up.”
“……”
“Are you hitting on me? Not bad.”
At her next words, Solomon fell silent in pure disbelief. He simply stood up on his own.
In that state, he faced the group of suited vampires glaring at him. They didn’t act rashly like before. It wasn’t Solomon they feared. It was the head of the dark elf family standing beside him.
“Mistress Selene, that heart belongs to our chairman.”
“Oh my. You mean the heart you stole after invading the peaceful orc tribe that was minding its own business?”
When one vampire spoke with polite restraint, Mistress Selene let out a soft chuckle. A cold, mocking laugh.
“……You wouldn’t dare turn Wallachia Co. into an enemy, would you?”
“Goodness, how could a humble self-employed woman like me possibly do such a thing?”
“Then this conversation should be quick.”
“Well, that depends on our ‘ace’ here, not me.”
With those words, Selene turned her gaze to Solomon. He remained silent. In his hand was the glass bottle containing the red heart. He had received a dying man’s request. They hadn’t even been particularly close. Was there any real reason to go this far?
It wasn’t efficient. It wasn’t rational.
「I have… one request.」
Yet those words spoken on the brink of death had pulled at Solomon’s heart in a strangely powerful way. It was the kind of inefficient play he would never have considered in the past. Something irrational, even foolish.
Or could it truly be called foolish?
There were those who called bowing your head and submitting before the strong ‘wisdom.’ At least, not in the world of TRPGs.
‘The reason I’ve pursued strength in the TRPG world is…’
Only now did he realize it. The reason for strength. It had been for exactly this. Because on the table, anything was possible. The freedom to exercise your will without yielding before any powerful being, even a god.
This was a world on the table.
“I accepted a request from the Hotel,” Solomon said.
“Having accepted it, I can’t do anything that would damage the Hotel’s trust.”
“It seems the ace has made his decision?”
“You bastard…!”
Unable to contain his rage, one vampire bared his fangs. That was when it happened.
“!”
Sring.
A skeleton wielding a scythe stood there. It had appeared behind Mistress Selene, yet the scythe was so enormous it could easily envelop all five remaining vampires at once.
A colossal skeleton, like that of a giant god. Its overwhelming presence filled the area with a chilling aura of death and oppression.
And there, commanding that pale, flickering death, stood Mistress Selene.
‘That’s… the matriarch of the Selene family…!’
Mistress Selene, the dark elf necromancer. That name had not been earned by luck.
“Mistress Selene, this act against our Wallachia Co.—”
“There seems to be a misunderstanding.”
With the night, moonlight, and the shape of a grim reaper at her back, Mistress Selene spoke.
“I simply came to protect a Hotel contractor in order to take responsibility for the ‘unexpected damage’ caused by a request I issued. I have no interest whatsoever in your chairman’s gourmet tastes.”
“The Grave Princess Selene herself came all this way for a mere bottom-tier guest of the Hotel? You must have acquired quite the favorite pet.”
The blond vampire who appeared to be their leader sneered.
“Etiquette is the code that binds elven society and preserves our racial identity.”
At that, Mistress Selene brought up the topic of ‘etiquette’ with her usual rigid formality.
“When an unexpected situation arises during the execution of a request, and a portion of the responsibility falls on us, we are obligated under elven etiquette to take responsibility for it.”
“……”
“What, are you all planning to jump us together here? I won’t stop you.”
Mistress Selene shrugged as she spoke. Her demeanor overflowed with the composure of an overwhelmingly superior being, a dominance that couldn’t even be properly described with the word ‘overwhelming.’
The five vampires who had overpowered Solomon now faced a gap so vast they couldn’t even lay a finger on her.
“……”
He felt it anew.
Just how many powerhouses and monsters filled this city. And how precarious his own position was among them—like a candle flame flickering in the wind.
“……You will regret this, Mistress Selene.”
The moment he realized it, the vampires had vanished. They melted into the shadows at their feet without leaving a trace. Some kind of shadow magic, perhaps.
“Shall we go?”
“Go where?”
“To make a lady say it out loud… you really have no tact.”
Mistress Selene giggled in amusement and held out her hand.
“As a lady, I’d like to request an escort to my destination.”
“……”
Solomon awkwardly took her hand. Of course, he had no leisure to enjoy the moonlight atmosphere. As they crossed the streets of the Lower District, he immediately brought up a new topic.
“I didn’t expect the target—the Priest of Pain—to be connected to ‘Wallachia Co.’”
“To be honest, it was unexpected for me too,” she replied.
“Even so, you could have handed over the ‘holy relic’ without a fight. You had the chance to receive compensation from them.”
“Compensation?”
“Chairman Vlad Tepes is not a petty man. Especially when it comes to his gourmet pursuits.”
Rather, Mistress Selene asked back as if she genuinely couldn’t understand.
“Why didn’t you do that?”
“……”
Solomon remained silent for a moment. There were a hundred—no, a thousand rational reasons to hand it over. Logically speaking, the other party was Wallachia Co., one of the leading megacorps even within Mega-Corp Street, the pinnacle of Guild City’s Downtown.
In contrast, there was only one reason not to hand it over.
“Because I didn’t want to.”
It was an answer the old him could never have imagined. What had changed since he fell into this world? He didn’t know.
Solomon took out the heart from the glass bottle. Even inside the bottle, it throbbed as if breathing with life. This small thing… somehow felt like a ‘tiny life’ to him. Maybe that was why he felt such strong revulsion.
“Just what is this holy relic… or rather, this heart?”
“Well, I’m not well-versed in blood magic. But it’s clearly not an ordinary artifact.”
As they crossed the night streets of the Lower District, Selene shrugged casually. It was astonishing.
Normally, a woman walking alone through the Lower District at this late hour would be committing something close to suicide. Especially while dressed in such expensive, luxurious clothing.
Yet none of the people passing by dared to cast a covetous eye on Mistress Selene. Even if they couldn’t see it, they could sense it.
The sheer pressure emanating from her very existence.
“So, what do you plan to do now?”
“……I accepted a request,” Solomon answered calmly.
“Having accepted it, I suppose I must carry it out.”
「Please return our holy relic… to where it belongs.」
The blood-red orc had asked him to put it back where it ‘belonged.’ Now the question was, where exactly was that place? Would going to the Blood Isles give him the answer?
“The Blood Isles… I guess I’ll have to take a ship. Sounds like a hassle.”
“What are you talking about?”
At that, Mistress Selene burst into laughter as if she couldn’t believe her ears.
“The Blood Isles are right here in this city.”
“……What?”
“Downtown District 15, the Street of Tribes. ‘Blood Isles’ is the name of the guild headquarters for the Blood Moon Tribe.”
At her following words, Solomon swallowed in disbelief. A city of guilds, a street of guilds.
“So I just have to take it there?”
“Well, I doubt it’ll be that simple.”
Mistress Selene chuckled meaningfully. She was right. Considering that the heart in this glass bottle had apparently been stolen from that very place, simply returning it wouldn’t necessarily be the best move.
“Then what should I do?”
“That’s something you’ll have to figure out from now on.”
Mistress Selene turned elegantly, her fur shawl fluttering behind her.
“At least formally, as the client, I’ve shown all the ‘sincerity’ I can.”
“……I express my gratitude.”
It was true. In reality, Solomon had benefited greatly from her help, and he had no shame left to ask for anything more.
“The moon is beautiful tonight.”
In the silence, Mistress Selene spoke. Solomon did not reply. The moon he saw in this world had never seemed particularly beautiful or ugly.
That dawn, at Hotel Snark.
Although the request from the Selene family had been completed safely, that wasn’t the end of it. Solomon returned to his room and collapsed onto the bed. His mind was more tangled than ever.
Swish.
The glass bottle with the heart that had suddenly come into his possession. He took it out and placed it on the table.
Thump. Thump.
It was beating. Like the heart of a living being. Moreover, it was small and dainty, like a baby’s heart. It wasn’t pumping blood anywhere in particular, yet its chambers pulsed without rest.
― I don’t want to die…
It was then.
“!”
A voice. At first he thought he was hearing things. But no. It was a voice like a child’s, yet one that instinctively evoked disgust on a primal, physiological level.
― I hate it here. It’s cold. It’s scary…
“You… you…!”
The voice was clearly coming from the heart. Flustered, Solomon approached the ‘holy relic.’
“Can you hear my voice?” Solomon asked.
― Yes… I can hear you…
The heart answered.
― You’re a mage, aren’t you…?
“……”
― A mage. A very strong and talented mage…
The heart said, as if seeing straight through Solomon’s identity.
― You… seem like you could protect me.
“Why should I?”
― I’ll give you power…
Power. Unconsciously, the words ‘Blood Baptism’ that the blood-red orc had mentioned came to mind. There would surely be a price to match.
― Enough power to protect me from those who seek me…
“……Specifically, how would you give it to me?”
― Accept me…
The heart said.
― Close your eyes and open your heart…
In many ways, it sounded suspicious. Nevertheless, Solomon followed the instruction without hesitation.
He closed his eyes and opened his heart.
At the same time, his world sank into darkness.
Welcome, Solomon.
The voice was sickeningly familiar. Solomon opened his eyes without surprise.
“……Game Master.”
Solomon spoke his name. The Tabletop Room. The robed man, the Game Master and narrator.
“What the hell happened?”
A great many things have happened.
The Game Master continued, sounding almost pleased.
You have formed a contract with a Legendary Artifact and acquired the rare archetype Blood Mage at Level 3.
“!”
Blood Mage Level 3. At the name alone, Solomon swallowed silently.
This is treated as a multiclass separate from your Spell Assassin. In other words—
Spell Assassin at Level 5, Blood Mage at Level 3. It meant Solomon’s total level had risen to 8.
You may now acquire the following spell slots and additional spells…