WeTried Translations

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◈ I Became the Dark Knight in the Game World ◈

Chapter 2: The Wordless Horse and the Silent Knight (2)

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As the farmer comforted his daughter and watched the knight's back, he sensed something strange.

There should still have been daylight left. Night fell quickly in the forest, but from his experience, this was a season when the sun should not have fully set for some time.

Yet the forest was rapidly growing dark, as though someone were stealing away the light.

Something like black fog hung where the sunset had vanished. Beyond it, two red lights, like ghost fires, rose into view.

It was the mountain ghost. The farmer tightened his arms around his daughter.

But there was one thing he had failed to notice.

Something resembling the black fog spread by the mountain ghost was also flowing from beneath the knight's feet.

* * *

It came.

I faced the Bicorn, its red eyes glowing in the dark. Ordinary people would only see its vague outline until their eyes adjusted, but a Dark Knight could see well in darkness.

It was one of the few useful traits of the Dark Knight class, impressive in name alone. I could see wraiths clearly too. The minor problem was that they could see me just as clearly.

Perhaps realizing I was watching it, the Bicorn kept its distance instead of approaching.

It seemed confused. Dark Knights were originally commanders who wielded the authority of darkness. Bicorns were the warhorses best suited for them to ride.

It probably thought I had brought human sacrifices as a bride price to make a contract with it. To protect the father and daughter, I had borrowed some elements of that contract ritual.

Ritually, the father and daughter inside the circle were under my protection. If the circle was damaged or they stepped outside it, they would become the Bicorn's share.

In other words, if the Bicorn did not want to make an enemy of me, it could not take them by force.

[How strange....]

Its low, resonant voice suited a man-eater.

[You set up even a makeshift altar to the Abyss, yet you gave the sacrifices no dark mana at all. Had I not seen you myself, I would have thought this was a trap laid by holy knights.]

Grrrk. A sound that could not be identified as either a sneer or a laugh echoed through the fog-covered forest.

[You are remarkably greedy for power. Were you too stingy to spare even a drop of dark mana to bless your sacrifices?]

"What blessing? It's nothing more than a shackle that keeps them from running away. You're placing too much importance on mere formalities."

There was another reason, though. All sorts of evil-looking powers were lumped together under the name dark mana, but the powers Dark Knights usually used had one thing in common.

The more you used them, the easier it was to lose your mind.

I wanted to live a healthy life with a healthy mind.

[Oh? Then what did you use to bind them?]

"Love."

[Love? That is an interesting answer as well! Explain further.]

I took a step forward. Bicorns were greedy but intelligent creatures. If I had not been a Dark Knight, or if I had not caught its interest like this, it would have fled the moment I approached.

"I told them I would only spare one member of their family. I also warned them that if they ran, even that one person would die. Isn't that touching family love?"

[You speak true. Love is their shackle. You are greedy and cunning!]

The Bicorn sounded impressed. My sensibilities were still normal enough that praise from a man-eater did not please me. I glanced at the father and daughter behind me. They were still in place.

It was fortunate that I had warned them in advance. They would think this entire conversation was an auditory hallucination.

"I possess strength and intelligence worthy of you. Come to me."

The Bicorn cautiously approached. If it bowed its head and I offered the two as sacrifices, a proper contract between a Dark Knight and an Abyssal warhorse would be formed.

At last, the Bicorn lowered its head as if asking me to bless its horns. I solemnly nodded.

Then I quickly drew my sword and swung it.

* * *

The farmer could not hide his shock at the horrifying conversation coming from outside the circle. The voices were far too vivid to dismiss as mere hallucinations.

If the knight had not warned him beforehand, he would have believed it was real. The knight had looked suspicious from the first time they met, so he might have thought the man acted exactly as he appeared.

The farmer had not fled with his daughter because of the knight's warning, and because the knight had proven kinder than expected on their way here.

The knight approached the mountain ghost. The mountain ghost slowly lowered its body before him. Was this also an illusion? Should they run now?

As the farmer wrestled with his thoughts, the knight drew his sword.

The black greatsword fell toward the mountain ghost's crown, moving like lightning, too fast for an ordinary villager's eyes to follow.

[Kuh-ung!]

But the mountain ghost was faster. It twisted its head and caught the blade aimed at the center of its head on a horn. The rebounding sword threw the knight's body aside as well.

[You deceived me!]

The Bicorn let out a sharp cry. The knight did not waste that opening. His body had tilted from the force of the rebounding greatsword, but he regained his balance by taking a large step forward with his right foot.

The blade that had risen toward the sky came back down, aimed at the Bicorn's neck.

The second attack followed before it could say anything. The Bicorn realized that the knight had never intended to negotiate with it.

Should it flee?

The knight had already seized the initiative in battle. Continuing the fight here would put it at a disadvantage.

As the Bicorn's Demonic Nature rapidly decided to preserve its life, something else stirred beneath it: another facet of the Bicorn's reason, the part that had kept it from properly feeding until now. Unlike before, when it had convulsed to stop the Bicorn from doing anything, this time it urged the creature to act.

Its reason, joined with the rage of its Demonic Nature, drove its body to tear out the knight's heart.

* * *

Kriel sensed that things would not go smoothly. Bicorns were usually cunning, and if he could not capture or kill one in a single strike, they would use their four legs to make people suffer.

The thought of chasing a Bicorn through the dark forest made his head spin.

Then the Bicorn reacted in a way Kriel had not expected. Like a bull charging a matador, it went berserk and rushed at him.

Wrapped in black fog rising beneath its hooves, the Bicorn's charge looked like a dark cloud racing forward and leaving a trail behind it.

If it had been an ordinary Monster, Kriel would have welcomed that straightforward path and cut off its head with his greatsword at once.

But a Bicorn was no ordinary Monster. It was too fast. Realizing that its charge would reach him before his attack could, Kriel kicked off the ground.

It was enough to evade the Bicorn's bodily charge, but the greatsword was still in its path. The sword collided with the Bicorn's two golden horns, flew from Kriel's grip, and buried itself in a nearby old tree.

Kriel had the feeling that the Bicorn was grinning. A creature beyond the level of an ordinary Monster would naturally be capable of showing emotions such as ridicule.

Fog wrapped around the Bicorn once more. It did not merely block vision. It seemed to be involved in the supernatural acceleration from before.

Kriel made his decision quickly. He had to catch it before it could properly accelerate.

The "darkness" wielded by Dark Knights could be divided into three broad types. The first was Blood Energy, gathered through physical pain. The second was Resentment, born from mental pain. The last was the Abyss.

The further down the list, the more severely they eroded the mind. The first time he used Blood Energy, he saw hallucinations for three days and nights. When he used Resentment, phantom pain was added to the symptoms. He had not even dared to use the Abyss properly.

The side effects were extreme, so Kriel intended to use only skills based on Blood Energy whenever he had no choice but to use a skill.

Fortunately, most Blood Energy abilities focused on strengthening the body. They suited the current situation, where he needed greater speed and strength.

He released without restraint the Blood Energy he had accumulated while slaughtering Monsters in the forest. Red energy refined from Monster flesh and blood wrapped around Kriel's body.

Boom─!

Red light rose from the darkness beneath his feet and clung to his armor like a spiderweb. A thunderous sound rang out with his first step into a sprint. Kriel collided with the Bicorn before it could begin its own charge.

Kriel gripped the Bicorn's two horns with both hands. The Bicorn charged forward, trying to impale him through his armor.

The two forces met in the middle and strained against each other without yielding an inch. Their strength was evenly matched, and only the ground beneath their feet screamed as it cracked apart.

Kriel appeared to be the first to give way. His left hand slipped from a horn. Seizing the opening, the Bicorn twisted its body and thrashed wildly.

Kriel struggled to divert the Bicorn's charge as it lunged for his heart, using only his right hand. By the time the Bicorn's head came over Kriel's shoulder, Kriel's free left arm wrapped around the Bicorn's neck, and the force in Kriel's right hand grew greater.

The Bicorn realized that Kriel intended to snap its neck.

The struggle had now become a contest of strength between the Bicorn, straining with the veins in its neck bulging, and the knight, trying to break its horns and its neck along with them.

Footnotes:

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