chapter 14
Knights of the Argent Dawn – 4
‘why… … There are only four, right?’
It was the same no matter how much I looked around.
Iris sits at the table and continues to eat, Rize smiles and says something to Iris, and Erica nags Rize to stop talking nonsense.
And even me looking around.
There were only four people like this in a large restaurant that could be used as a gymnasium.
“Hey, Rize.”
“yes? why?”
“Why are we alone? What about the others?”
In the game, befitting the name ‘Knights’, there were quite a few ordinary knight NPCs that corresponded to the position of miscellaneous mobs, except for boss-level NPCs such as Iris, Rize, and Erica.
It was an extremely small scale compared to the Imperial Palace, the second half field in earnest, but if you beat all the enemies without regenerating them in the middle, roughly 20 knights came out.
If you take the human hostility route, this place will be turned into a stage, so you need to place miscellaneous mobs. It was the regular knights who played the role of the trash mobs.
But now, except for the four of us, there was not even a shadow of a person to be found.
“Others? no?”
“No?”
“yes. There are only four of us in the Knights of the Argent Dawn. Ah, now that you’re in, is it five? Anyway yes.”
“… … why?”
“Well… … That would be a bit long. Iris, can I tell you about this?”
“Does not matter. Since they’re members of the same knights anyway, there’s no reason to hide it. You just have to be careful not to brag about it anywhere.”
Iris calmly agreed.
“Well, yes. Let’s start by bringing food. I’ll tell you later.”
Rize said that and walked near the stove. On it was a large pot with steam rising and white bread radiating heat as if freshly baked.
It was fine until there. Even in the setting, white bread made of wheat was a little expensive item in the world view of Brunet 4, but it was not so rare that even the knights couldn’t eat it.
There was meat soup in the pot as well, but the meat soup wasn’t a food that even the knights couldn’t eat. Even in the game right now, bread and soup appeared as background resources.
A really strange thing happened after that. Even though Rize had served enough meat soup to fill the plate and took five or six pieces of white bread, the amount hadn’t diminished at all.
‘What is it, a miracle?’
Obviously, Rise’s plate was full of bread that he had taken with him, but the tray on top of the stove was still full of bread. For a moment, I thought my eyes were wrong.
“Ah, since it’s your first time as a newcomer, you might find this strange.”
Erica approached me beside me, dumbfounded.
Unlike Rize, who even picked up five or six loaves of bread because even a full bowl of soup was not enough, Erica’s plate had just about the right amount of soup, and only one loaf of bread was on Erica’s plate.
“Of course not. How did this happen again?”
“I fully understand. It is natural to be surprised.”
Saying that, Erica picked up a piece of bread. Immediately, the vacant place swelled rapidly, and new bread appeared. Also, I wasn’t wrong.
The bread I had just picked up was quietly placed on my plate, which was dumbfounded after witnessing it in front of me.
“You don’t have to think too hard, newcomer. You can think of it as the same as returning the room to its original state. This bread and soup also belongs to that category. The difference is that this full bread and soup is considered to belong to the ‘original’ state, and it returns to its original state even in the situation we are watching.”
“Is this the same type of magic?”
I picked up the bread on the plate and observed it. The food was nothing special. Rize and Iris ate normally, and Erica didn’t seem to have any objection to it.
As if realizing what I was thinking, Erica gave a small smile.
“Actually, I don’t know if it’s safe to eat this. Everyone is used to it, so I just skip it.”
“Then why… … ?”
“It would be better to explain it with ‘Why are there only five of us in the Knights’? Here’s the soup. Please sit where you are comfortable. Let me explain.”
He took the bowl of soup and put it on the plate. Rize, who was eating bread in the middle of eating, looked at me and patted the seat next to her with the palm of her hand. I knew what that meant, so I went and sat next to it.
A satisfied smile appeared on his face. Rize gulped down the bread and looked back at me.
“You asked why we were the only ones here?”
“right. There seems to be a different reason.”
“Of course not. It’s all because of that pig.”
His expression crumpled as if he didn’t even want to say the word calling the lord. It was the first time I had ever seen such a good-natured Lize react like that.
“What do I have to explain… … okay. First of all, we, that is to say, the Knights of the Silver Dawn, originally were knights who guarded the imperial palace. The Knights of the Golden Twilight and the Knights of the Argent Dawn. Because these two knights were guarding the imperial palace.”
‘There’s not much difference from my knowledge. The overall setting is the same.’
Listening to Rize’s explanation, he moderately nodded. Although all the modes were patched up and a lot of details changed, the overall story and setting seemed to flow the same.
The Knights of the Dawn of Eunbit were originally the most elite knights who guarded the imperial palace. This was the reason why the boss battle was so f*cking damn good even though it was an NPC you could meet in the beginning.
It was because, according to the setting, it was not the field at the beginning of the work, but the knights who would not feel awkward at all even if they met as the boss in the imperial palace at the end of the work.
The reason why such an elite order of knights ended up being kicked out of such a periphery was because of the lord they chewed on so much.
Surprisingly, the lord of this city belonged to the royal family. Although they are collateral, they have the same lineage as the emperor of the empire that rules over 2/3 of the continent.
The other brothers and sisters were all swept away when the current emperor ascended the throne, but this lord was able to survive because he gave up his desire to rise to the pinnacle of power early on and stuck flat to the ground.
Even after that, the lord did all sorts of crazy things without crossing the line in order to appeal that he was not fit for the position of emperor. Then, he collided head-on with the Knights of the Silver Dawn.
‘Of course it was all his fault.’
I was caught drinking a drug banned from circulation in the empire. And it’s an appeal that words aren’t interested, I just live freely doing trash things I want to say because I’m just a bad person.
Fortunately for him, he mobilized all kinds of connections and survived for the time being, but he was no longer able to live in the imperial palace.
That was the reason why he was living as a lord in such a outskirts while being of the imperial family.
‘In the meantime, the Knights of the Silver Dawn were also brought down.’
To avenge what he had done, the lord tore the organization of the Knights of the Silver Dawn into shreds, absorbing most of the normal Knights into the Knights of the Golden Twilight, and only a few, including the commander-in-chief, to follow.
The nominal reason was ‘escort’.
‘It was like that in the game, but it doesn’t seem to be the case here.’
It seemed that the lord of this place did not ask the general knights to follow him, but only four knights of the commanding ranks.
It was possible because the Knights of the Golden Twilight were quite corrupt, and they welcomed and cooperated with open arms to disband the Knights of the Silver Dawn, who insisted on integrity in their work.
Of course, it would have been impossible originally, whether or not to cooperate, but the cause of the royal family’s escort acted strongly, and above all, the emperor himself did not show any reaction.
From the point of view of the knight commanders, the lord who had virtually disbanded the Silver Dawn Knights could not look good. There was no way the lord himself would take kindly to the knight commanders who had made him almost expelled from the palace.
In the midst of this, the enchanted castle was left behind, so of course there was something here, too. There’s no way he could do anything good for the Knights of the Argent Dawn.
Saying I wasn’t sure if the food would be safe to eat was an extension of that. Did you know that there might be some kind of magic here, and eat it calmly?
However, no financial or material support was given to the Knights, so they had no choice but to take risks and eat with it.
… … That was Rize’s explanation.
‘Isn’t it a good thing?’
I blinked my eyes when I realized the inside story of this ‘restoration magic’.
It seems that the lord placed this ‘curse of restoration’ on the Knights of the Silver Dawn, asking them to give a damn, but the reality was completely different. In the first place, this wasn’t a curse, and it wasn’t even intended for that purpose.
The magic on the castle did no harm to humans.
Well, to find out this, you have to meet the Mage Master, who is said to be the best wizard on the continent, in the last half of the game, the ‘Arcana Library’ or the ‘Arcana Mage Tower’, so it’s natural that you don’t know now.
‘I’ll have to deal with that guy as quickly as possible.’
Anyway, even in the game, dealing with the lord could be done at any time in the story except for the very beginning.
Sooner or later, Claudia, who said she had left to subdue monsters, would return, so it seemed appropriate to proceed with the event, defeat the boss, and then kill the lord immediately to lighten the load.
“So, newcomer, you should also follow me.”
“me too? why?”
Iris added a word, saying that sooner or later she would have to report what happened in prison to him.
“Because he put a condition on it. If you want someone to join our knights, you must report to yourself.”
“That sounds like you’re going to refuse to join the team unconditionally.”
“There is nothing wrong with accepting it. It wasn’t asking for permission in the first place, it was just a notice. It’s all about confirming who you are.”
“Then, doesn’t it matter whether or not the knights are increased?”
Iris shook her head.
“After that is the problem.”