True Ancestor Ariel
A gate is an otherworldly door that appears without warning — much the way returnees were once dragged into another world.
The difference is that this time, the other world is the one coming to Earth.
Monsters spilling out in the process are just a bonus.
And gates, as it happens, are a fairly common occurrence. A small one can be closed by a dozen grown men.
So why is this one a problem?
Every major capital in the world is layered in barrier after barrier. The strategy was simple: abandon the provinces and protect only what mattered. To handle the astronomical population that poured into the capital as a result, Seoul was plastered with barriers that cost an astronomical sum to maintain.
And that gate had just punched straight through them.
The mana's thinned out.
It felt weaker than when it first appeared, but my pace didn't change. Even a quick glance at the Returnee Gallery showed the place in complete chaos.
Everyone else complaining about their status windows being down was clustered in Korea too. Mine had never worked in the first place, so I hadn't even noticed.
I kept running, and before long the sprawling grounds of the Academy came into view — along with the crowd gathered in front of the gate. Suits. Association people, by the look of them.
Sensing the mana inside the gate, I approached one of them.
"Um, excuse me… do you know who's inside?"
"What? You shouldn't be here. Get out of here, now."
"Ah — no, that's not what I—"
I was done for. Peak loser Yu Eunha had made her grand entrance. Come to think of it, aside from Eunae, the only conversations I'd had lately were with convenience store cashiers.
Still, up close it doesn't feel that threatening.
Plenty of mana, sure — but it wasn't the kind that pulled things in or spat things out.
I may not look like it, but I've cleared more than a few gates.
Anyone who'd only seen my gallery streams would think I was just some kid, but the process had been real enough. That counted.
Thankfully, no one who looked like Eunae was around.
Right — she said she'd be stuck in research for a few days and couldn't come.
That was when a furious shout cut through the air from a distance.
"Are you fucking kidding me?! Why the hell can't I go in?! The system's glitching out! We need to clear this thing already!"
"Sir… someone has already been assigned to clear it…"
Judging by the gear, the guy yelling was a legitimate veteran. But what was the big deal about a status window not showing up? Having lived my whole life without one, I genuinely couldn't relate.
"What? You're telling me the leader of an A-rank guild is getting bumped down the queue? Every single one of my guild members has cleared Hard difficulty past the fortieth floor!"
Wow. Absolute nightmare customer. Civil servants really had it rough. Good thing I never got a real job. Dealing with people like that for a paycheck would just shave years off your life.
The official handling him didn't so much as flinch. A man carved from stone.
"As I said earlier, someone has already been assigned to clear it. There's nothing I can do."
"…Looks like the Association's dog can't understand plain Korean. Do you have any idea how much self-control it's taking for me not to just walk in right now?!"
Rustle—
That was when I caught the scent of blood from somewhere. Not thick. Not rancid. It smelled like fruit.
"You there."
A rather cold voice. And one of the few I actually recognized.
"The True Ancestor is presently occupied. Would you kindly make way?"
Nationality unknown. Years of service unknown. Age unknown. The only confirmed fact was that she was a person from another world — a vampire who played the part to the hilt.
Her first post had been [Wh-what manner of place is this…!!], which made her pretty memorable. Her streams were entertaining in their own right, too. Someone I personally liked. Well — some vampire I personally liked.
She's actually from another world, so why she's hanging around the Returnee Gallery is beyond me.
Then again, they let someone like me in, so the place was clearly just a holding pen for weirdos. She didn't even try to hide it — her username was literally TrueAncestor, so her face was pretty well-known by now.
"Y-you monster bitch…!!"
The A-rank guild whatever-he-was spat the insult right to her face.
"Heh heh. We thank you for the compliment."
The True Ancestor smiled — a sultry, genuinely grateful smile.
"We shall enter as well. One must work if one wishes to obtain citizenship."
"…Citizenship?"
"Indeed. We have grown rather fond of this country. The food, in particular, agrees with us."
She adjusted her parasol with a scowl, still clearly no fan of sunlight.
"……?"
Ah. Eye contact.
Honestly, my heart skipped a little. It felt like standing face-to-face with a celebrity. And she was stunning on top of it — the True Ancestor had no shortage of fans.
"You there."
Hmm. Should I ask for an autograph? She wouldn't mind a loser coming up to her… right?
"You there?"
A selfie would last longer, and it'd be the best option. Wait — that means taking off the hoodie. Every single eye in this place would lock onto me. I'm not an attention-seeker. There's no way I could handle that kind of stare.
"You there. You possess a most curious mana."
She was suddenly right in front of me, and every gaze in the crowd had already fixed on the two of us. Threads of blood-mana under her control brushed across my skin. Maybe it was because she claimed noble bloodline status, but it didn't feel unpleasant at all. If anything, it registered as a pure, refined form of mana.
"Officer. We shall be taking this child with us."
"Y… yes…?"
The stone-faced official's expression finally cracked. And I was more shocked than he was. It felt exactly like some cult leader's pitch — come with me, good things await.
"Y-you can't! Dragging a civilian in there—!"
"A civilian?"
The True Ancestor narrowed her eyes at me. Her pupils split vertically, nothing like a human's. She'd mentioned having the Mind's Eye — was that what she was using? I felt a strange itch, like I was standing naked in front of her.
"I see. Mana can be sensed, yet you appear to hold no power whatsoever."
I kept my mana suppressed as a matter of habit, so the fact that she'd detected it at all was impressive.
"Even so, we shall take you."
"Be that as it may…"
The official glanced at me and opened his mouth.
"You are a woman, correct? You really should get out of a dangerous place like this as soon as possible."
Half concern for me, half concern for himself. If a civilian walked into a place like that and something went wrong, his head would be on the chopping block. Fair enough.
"Do you… like paradise?"
The angel called retirement. The heaven called unemployment.
"Pardon?"
I made the call in an instant. Embarrassing stares were secondary. Eating with a celebrity?
I am not missing this.
"I'll get you retired. From now on, go home, wash your feet, and sleep."
The words left my mouth and a strange sense of justice welled up behind them.
"Then it is decided. As this one says — do not toil like a stone forever. Rest a little."
The True Ancestor might have meant it with genuine concern, but the official's eyes were already darting in every direction at once. Not that it mattered either way. The two of us stepped into the gate, carrying a mild undercurrent of worry.
Eunae won't find out about this… right?
True Ancestor Ariel.
She had once reigned as the absolute sovereign of an entire world, ruling over countless nations. Then Babel appeared. Her armies — filled with formidable warriors — and her people crumbled with terrifying speed, suffering losses that bordered on extinction.
That was when it appeared.
Will you reach Transcendence?
The moment she saw it, she understood. Follow that path, and everything could be undone. A world with nothing left to protect held no attachment for her. The thralls she had sworn to defend had all died and vanished.
And so the immortal vampire left her homeland.
"We shall return one day."
Praying for the reconstruction of her kingdom and a glorious homecoming…
"Oooh…!! What an extraordinary talent you possess! Have you more?!"
…a homecoming…
"Your finger is severed and then regrows! Teach the True Ancestor this art!! We have never witnessed such magic!"
She seemed fascinated by a technique that used no mana at all.
"It is a magic We ourselves are capable of, yet tearing off one's own finger is rather painful, and the blood sprays everywhere — not a trick one performs lightly."
That wasn't it. Something else had caught her interest.
Isn't that just ripping it off and healing it back?
Calling it magic felt like a stretch.
"You are rather taciturn, however. No matter — the True Ancestor takes no offense. Silence, too, is a form of conversation."
No, I think the problem is that you're just incredibly loud…?
I wasn't joking. In the time it took me to get one sentence out, she had been monologuing for a full hour on her own.
"If We have been noisy, We apologize. Of late We have had only Ourselves to speak with — pray, understand."
"Ah — that was not the Mind's Eye just now. Merely a prediction."
Ariel spoke as if she were thoroughly enjoying herself.
"It has been so long since We conversed with another. How delightful."
What is this? Is she getting bullied or something?
"Whenever We begin to speak, everyone somehow vanishes. They must be employing some form of magic."
Ariel asked the next question with the same cheerful air.
"However, you there."
Same as the first time. A voice that could frost the air.
Vmmm.
The ground trembled faintly.
"May We ask once more why you conceal your power?"
A thread of blood shot toward me like a bullet, as casually as a greeting.
Thud-thud-thud.
Of course, none of them so much as touched me — they all bounced clean off.
"A high-grade barrier. Multiple layers, maintained at all times."
The blood that had rebounded from me rose again, rejoining Ariel's mana. The strands coiled and fused, reshaping themselves into a single colossal spear. It was a display of majesty worthy of the title True Ancestor.
"We ask again. The reason you hide your power… and why Our Mind's Eye cannot read you."