The First Step Forward
Beatrice was walking ahead of me. The girl who had been trailing behind with an utterly distrustful expression on her face had, at some point, stepped out in front. Her stride was confident now, as if she could sense something—or perhaps even see it. Watching her press forward exactly as I had hoped, I let out a deep sigh of relief.
“Phew…”
It was reassuring to see a kid who didn’t even know the way suddenly walking straight toward the place I intended to reach. Things were finally falling into place.
“Good thing the game knowledge worked out just like I remembered.”
Before she became a boss, there was almost no information available about Beatrice. That was why, the moment I possessed this body, I had used the family’s power to track her down. The way I persuaded her had also been entirely my own idea, aside from the basic facts I’d pulled from the game. Even the location we had arrived at now was based on those fragmentary details I’d seen in the game.
It was the process by which Beatrice—who should still be desperately surviving by drinking human blood—would evolve into the owner of Noble Blood. Among the scattered fragments of information from that process was data about this very place: the Altar of Blood.
Of course, I still have no idea what exactly this Altar of Blood is supposed to do.
From what I’d confirmed after playing the game for a long time, once Beatrice reached a certain level, she would no longer need to drink human blood to live a normal life. It wouldn’t be too difficult to procure blood for her after bringing her home, but rumors had a way of spreading no matter how careful you were. And since I had taken her in as my adopted daughter, she was bound to draw attention in high society. No matter how discreet we tried to be, someone would eventually find out.
Rather than getting tangled up in that kind of hassle, it was better to help her grow—even if it happened faster than in the original story. The reason Beatrice fell in the original work was because of a life worn down to nothing. She had rolled around in the shadows, gone through certain events, and eventually shattered. Her own strength had done nothing to prevent that fall. In fact, no matter how powerful she became, it hadn’t been enough to stop her downfall.
In that sense, Beatrice gaining power from something at the Altar of Blood could only be a good thing for me.
“And while I’m at it, I’ll pick up something for myself too.”
I hadn’t come looking for the Altar of Blood because I knew it was connected to Beatrice. I had already found the altar first and only later realized its connection to her. Even before I learned about that link, the Altar of Blood had been a fairly well-known area in the game. It was one of the few places where you could obtain fragments of a myth-grade artifact.
“Honestly, there are almost no locations you can reach in the early game that give you fragments of a myth-grade artifact.”
After all, myth-grade artifacts were literally items used by gods during the mythical age when deities actually existed. They might have belonged to great heroes—or perhaps even the gods themselves. Because of that setting, obtaining a myth-grade artifact naturally required collecting fragmented pieces one by one and reassembling them. The clues for those fragments usually only appeared in the mid-game.
Of course, they were incredibly difficult to obtain, but even a mere fragment of a myth-grade artifact possessed terrifying power. The fact that such a fragment could be acquired in the very early stages was information I had barely managed to uncover myself.
“…Um.”
“Hm?”
While I was lost in thought, Beatrice, who had reached the front of the Altar of Blood, turned around. She was clutching her head with a frown, glancing back and forth between me and the door set directly in front of the altar. She looked restless, as if she knew she had to go in but couldn’t bring herself to do it. I immediately understood why she had called out to me.
“You may enter.”
“……!”
“We came to this place for your sake in the first place. From now on, don’t ask for my permission every single time.”
It wasn’t just ordinary hesitation—she looked like she couldn’t even speak properly. It was heartbreaking. Her behavior was clearly the result of everything she had gone through in the past. If I wanted to prevent her eventual fall, I needed to raise that pathetically low self-confidence of hers. One way to do that was to foster her independence so she could make her own judgments.
“…It says people who aren’t of the bloodline cannot enter. It insists that I must go in alone…”
“Who says that?”
“A voice… ringing inside my head.”
A voice ringing inside her head. I didn’t know exactly what it was, but it was probably some kind of clue related to the Noble Blood. I gave a light nod and spoke.
“It doesn’t matter. If that’s what needs to be done, then do it.”
“…Is it really okay for me to…?”
“Yes. I’ll be waiting outside, so go take care of your business and come back.”
Of course, while you’re doing that, I’ll conveniently pick up the myth-grade artifact fragment for myself.
“I’ll be out soon.”
After confirming that the hesitant Beatrice was walking into the front of the Altar of Blood, I immediately turned around. The place where I could obtain the myth-grade artifact fragment I wanted wasn’t at the main entrance—it required entering a slightly more hidden location.
“Let’s see… I think I need to go a little deeper from here.”
Giant pillars were arranged in a way that reminded me of temples from Greek mythology. I examined each one carefully, narrowing my eyes as I felt along the spaces between them.
“In the game, it was definitely the third one horizontally and the fifth one vertically…”
Click.
Sssssshhh…
“Ah. There we go.”
As I fumbled between the pillars, I felt a sunken hole, and the sound of some mechanism activating echoed. At the same time, a hidden secret passage inside the Altar of Blood began to open.
“Creepy as hell…”
Things I hadn’t truly felt while playing the game in the past hit me hard now that they were reality. The narrow, pitch-black passage—with no torches or mana stones—instinctively repelled any human who entered. The moment I stepped inside, a chill ran through my entire body, as if warning me to turn back immediately.
But the instant I faced that aura, I moved forward with absolute certainty.
It’s exactly like the game’s description.
Although I couldn’t feel it with my skin back then, the descriptions and backgrounds from the game matched perfectly with what I was seeing now. That meant the location of the myth-grade artifact fragment in my memory was definitely here.
Once that certainty settled in, there was no more hesitation in my steps. I continued forward for a while.
Step.
Into the completely dark passage, a single pure-white speck of dust drifted down.
It was a snowflake.
At first it fell lightly, but the farther I advanced, the heavier the snowfall became. Snow falling inside a sealed underground passage—an incomprehensible phenomenon. I kept moving forward through the passage that was gradually turning pure white.
The farther I went, the brighter the passage became, but the internal temperature dropped sharply. I hugged myself tightly to preserve as much body heat as possible. The important thing was to never, under any circumstances, use any fire-related spells or artifacts here—no matter how cold I got. Even if I suffered frostbite, using them could ruin everything.
“Ugh… it’s freezing.”
As I hurried along with that caution, the end of the passage finally came into view. At the end was a single room made entirely of pure white ice. The room was about the size of the basement studio I had lived in during my first days on my own—complete with tears in my eyes. The only thing inside was a lone pedestal that looked like it could hold something.
And on top of that pedestal lay the very item I had endured this cold to find.
“Found it. Astria’s Clock.”
A pocket watch with its second, minute, and hour hands all stopped, half-frozen in a dull gray color. It looked broken and fragmented, as if it couldn’t be used for anything—but that wasn’t the case.
After all, this entire passage was frozen because of that watch.
It was the clock crafted by the goddess Astria, who read time through the stars. As a remnant of the mythical age, the artifact that had originally shone with a golden light was now barely preventing its own destruction by sealing away all its power. The chill it emitted during that sealing process had frozen the entire passage.
That was why I absolutely could not bring out anything related to flames. The moment something warm appeared, the divine clock would judge it as an intruder interfering with its seal and move to eliminate it. No matter how much power it had lost, it was still an artifact from the mythical age—created by a god herself. I had no confidence I could survive against it.
“Still, I’ve roughly completed the trial needed to obtain it…”
Astria was the goddess who read fate and time through the stars. The fate she read was inescapable, and therefore coincidence did not exist. So if someone managed to see through countless fates, press the hidden mechanism inside the Altar of Blood, shake off their unease, and grasp her clock—then that person was the one destined to claim the goddess’s clock.
“That’s why it became bound to me the moment I picked it up.”
That was the reason this fragment of a myth-grade artifact had become famous among players as an absolute jackpot—if you could find it.
“Anyway, it’s freezing, so let’s grab it and get out of here…”
I silently cheered for Goddess Astria as I reached for the frozen clock.
And in the next instant, I saw the universe.
It was something that could not possibly be described in human language. An overwhelming darkness that compressed the sky, the earth, and every living thing between them into a single point. Within that darkness, stars desperately struggling to survive. One of those brilliant lights approached me.
It came closer and whispered.
Fate is something that cannot be avoided, and coincidence does not exist.
If you seek that child and wish to prove your own arrogance,
Then as their godfather, I suppose I must bestow a proper reward.
What the—? What on earth is she saying?
As if it already knew the question forming in my mind, the light flickered faintly, as though there was no need for me to understand.
See you next under the sun.
“Ugh…”
When I opened my eyes again, a golden pocket watch radiating brilliant light was held firmly in my hand.
Tick.