WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Order
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◈ I Became the Dark Knight in the Game World ◈
Chapter 28: It Is Easy to Die Fighting, but Hard to Lend a Road (6)
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Orisin's muttered disparagement of Kriel's appearance had no effect on him.
At least, that was what Kriel thought.
‘Like I never wanted to play the part of a knight on a white horse...’
The problem was his Dark Knight class. Kriel had always liked things that looked cool. Dark Knight had been his favorite class because it combined two cool words: darkness and knight.
Of course, pursuing the kind of coolness suited to a Dark Knight in a world that had become real would surely get him branded a spawn of the Abyss. That was why Kriel had wanted to acquire dignified equipment worthy of a model knight. Yet his dream of becoming an example of chivalry had always remained just that, a dream.
His weapons caused trouble from the start. A sword would look perfectly normal when he bought it, but as he used it, it gradually darkened as if scorched by fire. By the time he had chopped up his hundredth enemy or so, it had turned completely black and was radiating an ominous aura.
His armor was the same. Kriel remembered the first time he bought shining silver plate armor, the proper formal attire of a knight. It had the clear sheen unique to well-forged metal, along with elegant patterns subtly engraved across it. He had paid a fortune for that armor.
Silver, my ass. It did not take long for it to become armor covered in marks resembling bloodstains, as though it had rolled through a battlefield.
Whenever he took a few hits and bled, the armor seemed to get dyed, gradually darkening into the color of dried blood.
He had even tried bleaching his armor and sword a few times.
It had been pointless. Holding back tears, Kriel consoled himself by saying that chivalry was proven through one's heart, not one's appearance.
After so many disappointments, Kriel had developed the composure not to be shaken by comments about how he looked.
[Honestly, even Morgina would flinch if she saw you.]
That one stung a little.
"You've never seen Morgina fight properly. If you saw her smashing skulls with an iron mace in each hand, stabbing someone through the heart would look polite by comparison."
At the beginning of the campaign, Morgina had not shown her temper outwardly. When she acted like an ordinary priest, her violent side had been completely unpredictable. Comparing him to someone like that... Kriel tried to ignore the horse head's nonsense and asked Tuon,
"Well? Are you getting anything?"
[It's faint, but I can see it. It's in a dark underground place...]
[How many underground dungeons do you think there are in these mountains? Be more specific. Or show us directly through a vision.]
At Orisin's rebuke, Tuon's blade trembled. A drop of blood clinging to its tip rose against gravity and moved toward the hilt.
Before long, the drop swallowed other blood and grew to the size of a small bead.
[Swallow it.]
"Are you talking to me?"
[Master, Orisin is a ghost. It cannot physically consume anything.]
Tuon's answer carried the feeling of, "You didn't know that?" Of course, Kriel had not asked because he truly did not know. With an awkward expression, he opened his mouth.
The blood-red bead vanished as though melting the moment it touched his tongue. The magical residue flowing through the Wyvern's blood began to take shape in Kriel's vision. A thin red line stretched deep into the mountains.
* * *
The mage scratched his head furiously. There was still no word from his idiotic companions.
He had left a coded message at their hideout in case of emergencies, but the mage had a feeling his companions would never return here.
‘Did they run away?’
Perhaps they had become afraid when it came time to stand against the Empire, even after accepting the Abyss's power. Ridiculous. Once they had stepped into the Abyss, there was no turning back.
‘Those stupid bastards. If things had gone according to my plan, we could have taken key positions in the Gate City.’
The work of returning the Wyverns to their original habitat and hiding them was also nearly complete. He had surely engraved commands into them, so whenever he returned, gathering the flock of Wyverns again would not be difficult.
Now, under cover of night, the mage planned to leave the Gate City and head for another frontier of the Empire. If he waited, another chance to make a bid for the Gate City would come.
Then pain tore through his entire body.
"Urgh...!"
The Illusion Magic concealing the cave was forcibly shattered. The shock to his Mana Circuit rocked his whole body.
The mage struggled to turn around.
A knight clad in black armor was approaching without a sound.
* * *
[Wouldn't it have been better to sneak in without breaking that Illusion Magic?]
Orisin whispered quietly. I shook my head. Proper mages even took into account intruders who sneaked in without breaking their Illusion Magic. They did not merely hide the entrance. They hid traps everywhere as well.
There were countless cases of people feeling proud after slipping through a secret entrance without alerting the mage, only to be skewered by a spear blade hidden beneath their feet and sent straight to the afterlife.
Rather than dividing my attention by watching for possible traps, it was better to create an environment where I could focus fully on the fight, even if the mage noticed the attack.
[No, I could have sensed them well enough. Spirits are naturally sensitive to those artificial flows of mana.]
"Ah."
I humbly admitted my mistake. Admitting a mistake quickly was a knight's virtue.
[No. Master made the correct choice. A knight must always overwhelm an enemy from the front.]
[Didn't you say the exact opposite when we were hunting Wyverns?]
[The Abyss's rabble must obey whatever Master says. Whatever it may be.]
[What?]
Tuon confidently proclaimed its bizarre logic. Its voice echoed through the cave. It sounded grand enough to spread through the whole cavern, though the sound was distorted so badly that anyone farther away would have trouble understanding the words.
At that point, I realized things would have gone wrong even if I had tried to ambush the mage from the start. Even if Orisin had kept quiet, Tuon would have ruined it by talking.
It was the same at the Church of Eve Kaha's headquarters. Did this thing dislike ambushes?
[The Abyss is at fault for failing to prepare for battle when Master desires an honorable duel. Foolish ones who failed to recognize the rightful ruler. I am the blade of judgment turned upon you!]
[Kriel, I'm scared of that thing...]
Maybe it was simply insane.
* * *
[The Abyss's rabble must obey whatever Master says.]
An eerie voice echoed through the cave. The mage immediately recognized that it was not a man's voice. According to the reports in the letters he had received earlier, Kriel was definitely male.
Then what was this voice? It had made an arrogant declaration that all those of the Abyss had to submit to its master.
Even as he watched Kriel and prepared his magic, the mage searched for the source of the voice. If there was another enemy besides that black knight, he would have to alter both his combat strategy and his escape plan.
The black knight approached silently. It was a strange advance, without even the sound of footsteps. The woman's voice that had seeped into the cave adorned those steps like a choir's chorus.
Amid the echoes interfering with one another, a clear fragment of warning came through.
[Foolish ones who failed to recognize the rightful ruler─]
The mage's sharp observation caught the blue jewel embedded in the center of the Cross Sword flashing whenever the woman's voice sounded.
An Ego Sword?
The mage was unsettled. He knew of weapons with wills of their own, such as Ego Swords. Weapons possessing egos that had inherited the souls of ancient priests were said to exist in the Sacred Kingdom's secret repository.
Yet the sword's words were far too blasphemous to belong to a holy sword. Was it not describing its master as though he were the vanguard of the Abyss?
The ash-gray Cross Sword in the black knight's hand filled the mage with an inexplicable pressure. He forcibly gathered his wavering focus.
"Don't come any closer! You're already within the range of my magic!"
It was a bluff. His magic was not complete yet. If he allowed the black knight to get any closer, he would be struck down before he could finish casting, so he had improvised.
It seemed to have worked. The black knight stopped at once. As the mage mulled over the Ego Sword's words, he continued preparing to unleash his magic.
Just a little longer. A few more seconds.
He would obscure the black knight's sight with a fireball. If that killed the bastard, all the better. Then he would call in the flock of Wyverns. After that, he could attack alongside the Wyverns, or if things went badly, flee on a Wyvern.
Done!
Just as he was about to unleash his attack magic, the black knight spoke.
"A Demonic Beast, is it?"
The black knight's calm remark shattered the mage's concentration.
"You failed to become even Demonkin, yet you caused such a petty disturbance."
"W-what are you talking about...!"
"I'm talking about your rank. Your Demonic Nature has grown stronger, but it has not awakened into spirituality. It means you're a failure who could not reach the level of Demonkin."
Beyond the black knight's helmet, red eyes glimmered like fire.
Footnotes:
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