I Became a Dark Knight in the Game

3 – The Horse Without Feet and the Knight Without Words (4)

Upon hearing that the kidnapped people were alive, their relatives began to bring carts, one after another. Kriel, who was at the front of the procession, was also pulling a cart.

[You don’t look like it, but you’re quite easygoing.]

The chatter of the floating horse head in the air. Kriel raised his right hand and waved it. The gesture, like shooing away a bird, clearly expressed his desire to be left alone.

[Hey, if I don’t guide you, who will? It’s a long way, let’s have a chat.]

But the horse-headed ghost, Orisin, showed no intention of stopping.

‘He’s the only one who knows the location of the missing people.’

And if this horse head had set a trap, he had no choice but to follow him. Until they reached the place where the missing people were kept, he had to stay by his side.

Half out of a desire to hear something, half out of boredom, Kriel opened his mouth.

“Not my story. Let’s hear yours.”

[Me?]

“Why did you kidnap the maidens?”

[Aha! That. I told you. I had no choice if I didn’t want to eat people.]

Orisin began his story by cursing the seeds of the abyss that had planted the seed of the abyss in him and cursed him. According to what Kriel knew, a Bicorn originally had the nature of eating its faithful husband.

[But I’ve been living in this mountain for years, I couldn’t eat the people born and raised here!]

Cannibalism following murder was an irreversible corruption. Orisin agonized and agonized over how to resist the demonic nature instilled in him.

“So?”

[Originally, they say unicorns like maidens, but to be precise, they like ‘purity’. At first, I tried to endure by drinking clean water from a spring deep in the mountains, but the demonic energy leaking from my body polluted the water.]

“If it wasn’t a problem that could be solved with a diet, you should have gone to the temple in the first place.”

[This mountain is closely related to me, so I could resist corruption. Anyway, then I thought. Maidens are a symbol of purity, and their hair is also a symbol of purity.]

This b*stard, surely not. Kriel glared at Orisin with distrust.

[I thought eating their hair would make it better. It didn’t taste very good.]

There were people in this world who picked up strange things to eat instead of going to the hospital. Kriel felt a headache coming on.

[Nobody died! Their hair just got a bit shorter. Corrupted spirits appear from time to time, but didn’t I do well enough?]

“Shut up.”

Unable to listen any longer, Kriel waved his hand at the horse-headed ghost. But since it was a ghost, his hand passed through it. Orisin flew around Kriel, shouting in an exaggerated voice.

[Do you think you can defeat me with just a slap, Kraaah!]

The gauntlet anointed with holy water was effective even against the horse ghost. Criel, who scolded the duck god for moving quickly while it quacked in pain, gazed at the mountain range.

To be precise, he was imagining a military camp beyond the mountain range. Once this task was done, he would be discharged.

Although the thought of having to report back for discharge weighed on his mind, it would all be over in a few days of hardship. Criel was happily imagining what he would do after being discharged.

*

While the villagers reunited with their separated families, and the kid from the potato field, whose hair had been cut close to a shave while he was unconscious, tried to beat the horse ghost with a farming tool.

Criel was silently packing his belongings. In fact, his luggage was so simple that preparing only involved cleaning his blade and maintaining his armor. The priest of Jakabil watched his back.

“Are you already thinking of leaving?”

“If a knight with a sword stays in the village, it will ease their minds. Just as it is a knight’s virtue to help those in distress, I believe it is also a knight’s duty not to cause worry to others.”

The knight who arrived at dusk intended to leave around the same time. The priest thought of asking him to stay for the night but shook his head.

“Thank you for keeping your promise.”

“Convey that gratitude to the commander. I only did as I was ordered.”

The moonlight was bright, and thanks to his nature as a dark knight, walking through the forest path was not difficult. However, a part of Criel’s nerves felt a subtle sense of incongruity.

“Why don’t you come out?”

[I’ve been caught, damn it.]

As expected, it was that horse head. Criel wondered if he should soak the gauntlet in holy water again.

[No, just listen for a moment, my friend. Is it okay to just leave the spirit’s corpse like that? The monsters will be attracted by the smell.]

“If I report it to the headquarters, they will send scholars for purification and research. The priest of Jakabil has military chaplain experience. He has already taken temporary measures to prevent monsters from being attracted.”

[This is a disaster….]

There must be a reason why the horse head kept lingering. Criel, torn between annoyance and curiosity, chose curiosity.

It was a choice born of the leisure unique to those about to be discharged.

“What is it? You’ve been hovering around me.”

[You’re a perceptive knight. I like knights like that.]

The duck god quickly revealed his true intentions. While his physical corruption had left him upon death, the stain on his soul needed proper purification.

“What about the priest of Jakabil?”

[Ha! That old man has too heavy a burden. He could do it, but he would die of overwork. To purify a curse that affects a spirit like me, several priests would need to be involved.]

What the duck god wanted was to find a group of priests to cleanse his soul. It was not a difficult task for Criel. Having served in the Western Army, he had become acquainted with the priests there, whether he liked it or not.

“I will introduce you to the priests of the Western Army.”

[Oh!]

“Be quiet while you follow me,”

[This guy is quite understanding. I believed you were a true knight from the moment I first saw you!]

Ptuee.

Orisin spat something out of his mouth. It was a rather familiar object to Kriel’s eyes.

“A Bicorn horn?”

[Actually, coming out and talking every time is a bit tiring. I didn’t have the strength to break my original horn, and it seemed a waste, so I took out the one stuck in my eye. I’ll be resting inside this, so call me if you need me.]

It was funny that the talkative Orisin found conversations tiring, but there was no reason to refuse his offer to lower the volume himself. As Orisin disappeared into the Bicorn horn as if sucked in, the night path finally became quiet.

Kriel ran vigorously towards his discharge.

*

He could not be discharged.

“What can we do? The commander who can approve your discharge is away.”

“This can’t be. This can’t be…!”

“You are called a soldier, but you are practically a free knight. The commander treated you well, so I don’t understand why you are so reluctant to serve.”

The old white-haired adjutant chuckled. Kriel felt a surge of memories from his military life in Korea.

No matter how comfortable it is, the military is still the military. The instinct to avoid its unique suffocating atmosphere was deeply ingrained.

“Chief Financial Officer. Can’t you write a discharge certificate as the commander’s deputy?”

“You are directly under the commander. If I do it, it would be overstepping my authority.”

Kriel, full of gloom, heard the Chief Financial Officer clicking his tongue behind him.

“Who told you to fight so well? If you had fought moderately and lost in the duel trial, the commander wouldn’t have taken an interest in you.”

“I repeat, it was not my intention. Damn it….”

He wanted to spew out all sorts of creative curses, but doing so would tarnish his nobility. Kriel compressed all his emotions into the single word, “Damn.”

Leaving the headquarters, Kriel trudged towards the priest’s quarters where the military priests stayed.

As soon as he arrived at the Western Army’s garrison, he handed Orisin over to the priests. As the one who brought Orisin, he had to check how things had turned out.

[However, Orisin was not freed from the curse. Having used too much strength to persuade the knight, Orisin was judged irrecoverable during the subsequent purification process, as if it were a lie….]

This was the sound Kriel heard as soon as he entered the priest’s quarters. The sight of the unicorn head muttering forlornly on the Bicorn’s single horn was surreal even by the standards of the fantasy world he had fallen into.

“What happened?”

Though his sudden appearance was unexpected, the priests, already familiar with the suspicious appearance of the scorched knight, answered calmly.

Whether it was because the Bicorn’s horn was used as a medium to contain the soul, or because the curse was too strong, the priests couldn’t tell, but the Western Army priests said they couldn’t purify Orisin’s soul.

[Oh no! What is this, priests! How can I be a seed of the abyss! How can I not be purified!]

“Purification is not impossible. However, the process could cause irreversible damage to the spirit’s soul.”

The analogy continued that purifying a curse closely tied to the original soul was like trying to extract ink dissolved in water.

“It is difficult but possible. If you can meet the high priests in the capital of the Holy Kingdom, or even without going to the Holy Kingdom, if you can meet those called saints or holy ones in the church─”

[They are wanderlust addicts who roam every corner of the world to help the poor! You can’t meet them!]

The priests stared intently at Kriel. It was because everyone knew well that there was now a person called the ‘Saint’ among those involved in the trial by combat that had Kriel captured by the Western Army.

“I also have the same desire to help. But the discharge approval from the headquarters─”

An idea flashed through Kriel’s mind.

The order he received stated, ‘Resolve the disturbance in the village of Lorant.’ And this unicorn’s tantrum was an extension of the Lorant village incident in a broad sense.

Even if Kriel left the Western Army camp to help the unicorn, it wouldn’t be a violation of orders!

[Sniff. I can’t live as a fallen creature like this. Let’s die. But if I die buried in the abyss─]

“No. On second thought, I think there might be a way.”

[What!]

“I will take this spirit with me.”

Kriel resolved to become a legitimate deserter.