I Became a Dark Knight in the Game

24 – It’s Easy to Die Fighting, but Hard to Lend a Path (3)

“Uh… um.”

The commander, who received praise far from the truth, thought. Should I answer honestly?

Excuse me, but I ordered the fire as soon as I saw you because you looked too much like an abyssal creature. But since we managed to take down the wyverns, all’s well that ends well.

…It didn’t seem like a good welcome. The commander, being a noble of the empire, had also learned the art of subtle rhetoric for such delicate situations.

The problem was that it had been so long since he left the central empire that he had almost forgotten.

‘Within the bounds of truth…’

“The soldiers who executed the plan are more remarkable than the person who devised it, don’t you think? Although it was my planned shooting, the results exceeded my expectations entirely due to the soldiers’ skills.”

Hmm, good. The commander admired his own unblemished eloquence inwardly.

It was true that it was a planned shooting. It was also true that the results, different from his expectations, were thanks to the soldiers’ skills. It was an excellent example of imperial rhetoric, subtly concealing the original target.

The soldiers standing behind the commander watched their superior with subtle expressions. However, since the commander was the planner, they were the executors, and in the end, they kept their mouths shut with a united heart.

“Indeed. The elite nature of the border guards is as I’ve heard.”

Fortunately, the Black Knight seemed to decide to move on with formal greetings rather than digging into the mystery that hadn’t been clearly revealed. The commander almost sighed in relief.

It was fortunate that he wasn’t a political knight from the Empire. As a holy knight of the Sacred Kingdom, he seemed to prefer practical and sound conversations over complex dialogues with political implications.

If they were stubborn political knights, they might have already held the commander accountable for the friendly fire incident, and even found all sorts of faults to criticize the guards for failing to maintain military discipline.

After some small talk, the commander decided to ask the question he was really curious about.

“…May I ask which order you belong to?”

Good heavens. What kind of insane order designed armor like that? Even though this was the border area, it was fortunate that the neighboring country was an ally and the Sacred Kingdom, the farthest from the Abyss, was nearby.

If he had shown up wearing that armor on the front lines against the Abyss, he would have been executed on the spot before even hearing his story.

‘Huh? Isn’t it pretty much the same as what we did?’

“Ah, my order.”

Kriel trailed off. It was awkward to explain this. He roughly calculated the current situation in his head.

Had he done anything dishonorable as a knight?

No. Hadn’t he risen up for the city attacked by the powers of the Abyss? If he had remained inactive and turned a blind eye, his nobility would have been questioned.

Would it bring disgrace to the Order of Eve Kaha?

Sometimes, the pursuit of a knight’s nobility and the choices for the benefit of the group conflict. For example, if there was a corrupt official in an imperial village, an honorable knight should uncover the corruption and take appropriate action (whether by physical punishment or sending a report to the imperial authorities) before leaving.

However, if he did this as a great warrior of the Order of Eve Kaha, an unknown noble connected to the corrupt official in the imperial society would hold a grudge against the order. In such cases, Kriel borrowed the power of anonymity.

‘An unknown knight exposes the atrocities of a local dignitary!’ Such stories would be talked about in the local community for a while and then disappear. Kriel was quite confident in creating such stories.

‘…My thoughts wandered.’

Had he picked up this habit from hanging out with sword-friends who seemed to speak in a stream of consciousness lately? Kriel reassessed the situation.

It didn’t seem like killing a wyvern corrupted by the Abyss would bring harm to any group. The powers of the Abyss would gnash their teeth, but they never liked people doing good deeds anyway.

Originally, he should have considered whether revealing his identity would cause trouble for the Western Army before asking this question. But Kriel had no intention of worrying about the military at the moment.

Who cares. I’m a civilian anyway.

Technically, he was a former civilian, but Kriel could generously overlook such minor differences.

Thus, his self-introduction converged to this:

“I am Kriel, a great warrior of Eve Kaha. Though I have not sworn loyalty to the goddess of the raven wings, I have received her grace.”

Jumping over the city wall and shooting down the lead wyvern in mid-air, any order would have wanted to secure him as a great warrior.

Some of the soldiers behind him seemed to have become noisy upon hearing his name. The commander’s lips curled up, thinking he must be quite a famous knight.

“First, could you explain the situation? I had business in the Empire, but upon arriving at the gateway city, I found it surrounded by wyverns.”

“Well, you see…”

*

Kriel was led by the commander to another room. It lacked the Empire’s characteristic splendor, but it had the orderly aesthetic of a disciplined military barracks.

‘Hmph. It feels like the aura of experience…’

To Kriel, who had practically deserted the Western Army, the room felt somewhat repulsive, but he did not show it. That was not the knightly thing to do.

“It all started when our city’s advisory mage received an urgent message. I heard there was a family emergency, and he had to leave.”

“An advisory mage, huh.”

Kriel was also familiar with such people. The chief of the city’s magical defense system. If he served in the military, he would hold a position equivalent to the chief of magical strategy and tactics.

The advisory mage of the Western Army treated Kriel like a button that produced results when pressed.

He wasn’t a bad person, but after a few conversations like ‘Please go and fight here’ ‘What?’ ‘I’m asking you to fight,’ it was inevitable to perceive him as someone who handed out ‘work bombs.’

“Where is the deputy advisor?”

The position of an advisory mage is not one that an ordinary mage can handle. It requires not only magical skills but also appropriate tactical insight and adaptability. They were essential components of the city.

But ultimately, they were human, and there were times when they had to leave their post, like now. To prepare for such times, they usually had personnel who could not fully replace the advisory mage but could take on roles like supplying magic to the city’s magical system or handling magical strategy and tactics.

But the commander shook his head.

“Although this is nominally a border, who would block the entry of priests? Any sane minion of the Abyss would not recklessly invade the meeting place with the Holy Kingdom. There’s no need to worry about human invaders or those from the Abyss, so we don’t have a deputy advisor.”

He added in a whisper.

“More importantly, this city has no money. The priests don’t primarily engage in trade either.”

“Huh… But it’s a border area, and you’re not following the operational manual?”

The commander smiled bitterly.

“There hasn’t been a conflict in this place for hundreds of years. Because of such complacency, the city has been blockaded by wyverns.”

*

The commander told Kriel that it would be a rather long story and led him to the garrison’s reception room. After the commander and Kriel disappeared, the soldiers focused on their murmuring voices.

“Kriel? That Kriel?”

“What? Is he a famous knight?”

Indeed, his martial prowess was too strong to remain unknown. If he were a knight of the Empire, he would have already received a title and fief and could live leisurely in a quiet manor.

“I heard from an acquaintance in the Western Army. They said he’s a noble knight who doesn’t take orders from anyone except the commander.”

The soldier talked about Kriel’s reputation as told by his acquaintance. The secret sword of the Western Army commander. The sharpest blade, though not known to the outside world.

Within the Western Army, he was a knight directly under the commander, a position second to none. What on earth could have brought such a person to appear as the Great Warrior of the Order?

It was truly a strange matter. It implied that the Western Army had to dispatch their best knight. And at the same time, he was appointed to the position of ‘Great Warrior’ by the Order….

“Could it be that he set out to track the Abyss?”

If it was such an urgent matter, there was no other explanation than the Abyss’s disturbance. Although there were three calamities comparable to the Abyss, one of them, the ancient dwarf civilization of the West, had maintained a stable front line for several years.

Given the position of Great Warrior, it was certain that he was receiving support from the Order, making it highly likely that the target of the pursuit was related to the Abyss.

While the soldiers gossiped about why the reclusive master of the West suddenly decided to head to the Eastern Empire, one of them secretly slipped out. He headed towards the shade under the city wall.

There was a small hole there. It was so small that even a child could not pass through it.

When he threw something like a black pebble into the hole, a snake soon appeared, raising its head and opening its mouth.

He scribbled something on a very small piece of paper, rolled it up, and placed it into the snake’s throat. The snake, having swallowed the note, disappeared back into the dark hole.