I Reincarnated into a Game Filled with Mods – Chapter 117

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“The Last Immortal. I shall execute you.”

“Weep as a human, laugh as a human… and live as a human.”

The massive, ancient greatsword held in the man’s hand turned toward his own neck.

It was a stance ready to strike at any moment.

Kneeling before his master, the man’s stoic expression held no hint of hesitation about his impending death.

He simply wished for his master’s happiness.

He tensed his arm.

The blade moved slightly away, then swung forcefully towards his neck.

The rusted, chipped blade pierced the man’s neck effortlessly.

Cherry blossoms scattered in the wind.

‘It’s still as moving as ever.’

I nodded, closing the book.

It was a story that always moved me, no matter how many times I read it.

The book I had just finished was called One-Armed Wolf.

It was a “book,” a collectible item that traditionally appeared in the BD series.

Players had to find pages scattered throughout the open world to complete the book.

Up to this point, it would have been just another common tactic used by game developers to increase playtime, a manipulative collectible element in an open world game.

But this particular collectible was infamous for another reason.

The story was incredibly engaging.

Players who hadn’t bothered with collectibles from the start might not know, but once you got hooked, there were countless cases of people putting the main story on hold and scouring every corner of the map for pages.

It was a collectible that had caused immense pain to countless players with its captivating story, at least until someone uploaded a complete PDF of the novel to the community forums.

I was one of those countless players.

‘I never imagined I would find it here.’

This must be the magic of the Imperial Palace library.

I searched for other books just in case, but there were no novels from BD 1 to 3.

It was to be expected, considering this was the world of BD4.

The novels included in BD 1 to 3 were Black Soul 1, 2, and 3, respectively.

And in BD4, they introduced a completely different series, One-Armed Wolf and every single one of them was a masterpiece.

[T/N: lmao we finally got a dark souls reference]

There had been rumors that a novel called The Old Ring would be included in The Brightest Darkness 5… but nothing was confirmed.

We’d have to wait for BD5 to be released.

‘Why won’t they release the fifth installment? I would buy it the moment it comes out.’

I cursed the incompetent developers inwardly as I got up from my seat.

If they felt wronged by my curses, they could prove me wrong with BD5.

I returned the One-Armed Wolf to the bookshelf and went back to where I had been reading.

I was about to wake Lize up and leave, but I hesitated when I saw her dozing off, half-buried in her own chest.

To be more precise, her breasts were so large that the only way she could sleep face down was like that.

Or she could lean on the edge of the desk and let her breasts hang down.

‘…Can you even do that with big breasts?’

She was sleeping soundly in that awkward position, with her chest resting on the desk, her chin buried in her cleavage, and her arms half-wrapped around her breasts.

I stared at her, mesmerized, then snapped out of it.

I gently shook her shoulder, which was exposed due to her sleeveless top.

“Lize. I’m done. Let’s go.”

“Mmm…”

Lize, still half-asleep, whined softly and blinked her eyes open.

She looked around, and as soon as she saw me standing next to her, she smiled bashfully and stretched out her arms.

I hugged her from the front and helped her up.

“Did you finish reading?”

“That’s why I woke you up. What do you want to do now? Do you want to go back to your room and sleep more?”

“No. I’m fully awake now. Let’s go to the training ground.”

After meeting Cecilia yesterday, we had nothing to do.

I had been summoned early in the morning, so I thought it would take all day, but the actual audience lasted less than thirty minutes, and most of that time was spent talking to me.

We spent the whole day waiting in our rooms, unable to do anything.

It wasn’t until the next morning that we were finally given permission to move freely until the Empress summoned us again.

“Even if it’s just for a short while, I think it will take at least a week. Is it okay to leave the mansion unattended for so long?”

“Lana can handle things on her own for about a year. I’ve given her full authority to deal with everything except for major issues, and she’s extremely capable. As long as nothing major happens in the territory… Ah.”

Aurora trailed off, then muttered to herself, “Saying things like this always seems to jinx it.”

I chuckled inwardly, wondering if there was such a thing as flagging things in this world too.

After that, we decided to do our own things.

Aurora said she wanted to reminisce about the past since it had been a while since she had been back, and went off somewhere by herself.

The Knight Commanders, except for Lize, grabbed their weapons with determined expressions and headed to the Imperial Palace training ground.

I went to the library to see if they had a complete copy of One-Armed Wolf, the book from BD4, and Lize followed me.

I was surprised to find it there.

It seemed like a masterpiece was a masterpiece, even in this world.

“The other Knight Commanders are still at the training ground, right?”

“Probably. That’s why I wanted to go there. Delta, how long did I sleep for?”

“You started sleeping when I was about halfway through the book, so not that long. About an hour?”

“Is that a short time?”

We chatted as we walked down the hallway.

After a while, we started hearing the sharp clang of metal clashing against metal, indicating that we were getting close to the training ground.

The Knight Commanders must have been sparring with each other.

We exited the long hallway, and the training ground came into view.

The metallic sounds became much louder.

Someone was sparring in the center of the training ground, which resembled a miniature coliseum.

It was Erica.

Flames danced along her katana, sparks flying with each swing.

Embers glowed in various spots around the training ground, unable to fully extinguish.

Erica leaped into the air.

Gripping the hilt of her katana with both hands, she spun clockwise, her body tracing a perfect circle.

Cherry blossoms and sparks scattered in the wake of her blade.

The first and second strikes connected in quick succession, followed by a brief pause.

Then came the third, fourth, and fifth strikes.

Finally, after a 0.5-second delay, the sixth and final strike was unleashed.

The metallic sounds grew louder with each strike.

It felt like clang, clash, clang, chink, shriiiing!

Depending on the timing of the third strike, the fifth strike could either be a regular beat or an off-beat.

This time, it was an off-beat.

I shuddered, remembering how many times I had been tricked by that dirty, cheap mind game.

I entered the training ground, reliving those old memories.

The knight sparring against Erica couldn’t hold on any longer and dropped her sword.

The tip of Erica’s katana slammed into the center of her forehead.

Thwack!

A clear cracking sound rang out.

The knight, struck in the forehead, rolled her eyes back and collapsed.

It seemed like the match was over.

“You’re here.”

“What were you doing?”

“As you can see, I was sparring.”

“The atmosphere seems a bit too serious for sparring, don’t you think?”

I glanced around the training ground.

Even without her armor, Erica’s expression was fierce, her jaw clenched tight.

And the knights from the Golden Twilight Knights, sitting opposite us, also wore determined looks on their faces.

“You know why.”

“Well, yeah. I guess so.”

I nodded in understanding and sat down next to her.

From the perspective of the Silver Dawn Knights, it was impossible to view the Golden Twilight Knights favorably, considering they had helped the former lord tear them apart.

Ultimately, the final decision had been made by the Empress, but considering the reason why Cecilia had spared that bastard, it wasn’t hard to understand why she had turned a blind eye to his actions.

No matter how much of a tyrant he had been, his actions paled in comparison to what the other members of the Imperial family had done.

At least he had remained human until I had used a loophole to kill him.

Though I had no way of knowing what the Golden Twilight Knights thought of us.

“Ah, you’re here. Mr. Delta.”

Erica, having returned to her seat after her easy victory, greeted me.

“Why the sudden sparring session?”

“Well… It just happened. They started it, though. I guess they thought they could take advantage of us since there are only three of us.”

Erica glanced around the training ground.

Several knights were hurriedly carrying their fallen comrades away.

Probably to the infirmary.

As expected, every knight I could see was a woman.

There wasn’t a single man in sight.

“Did you win all your matches so far?”

“Of course. They may outnumber us, but they’re all just ordinary knights. We’re not weak enough to lose to ordinary knights, no matter how many there are.”

Erica chuckled.

I smiled back at her.

“So where’s their Knight Commander?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t seen them anywhere.”

As we were talking, a golden-armored knight, who had been looking uneasy after losing all her matches, caught sight of me and her face brightened.

“Hey, you!”

At her commanding voice, all eyes turned towards her.

Her gauntlet-clad finger pointed directly at me.

Since she was also a woman, it was impossible to tell who she was based on appearance.

I wracked my brain, trying to remember who she was, then finally recognized her from the weapon hanging at her waist.

She was one of the Vice Knight Commanders of the Golden Twilight Knights, a character treated as a mid-boss in the game.

“Who are you? Why are you sitting over there?”

“Uh, well… I’m a… new recruit… I guess?”

I wasn’t sure if I qualified as a “new recruit,” but I was technically still a trainee.

I hadn’t officially been promoted to a full-fledged knight yet.

“Then it’s perfect. Pick up a sword. You’re a member of the Silver Dawn Knights, so you must participate in the sparring.”

Her face was much brighter than before.

Her intentions were obvious.

Since I was a new recruit, she probably wanted to beat me up and boost her ego, while also earning a victory.

It was incredibly petty, but it just meant that she was desperate enough to resort to such tactics.

I could hear Lize and Erica giggling next to me.

Claudia was chuckling too, and even Iris looked at her with a bewildered expression.

I spoke hesitantly,

“……Do I really have to participate?”

“You said yourself that you’re a member of the Silver Dawn Knights. Do you intend to back out?”

“No, it’s not that… ”

It’s just that I don’t think things will go the way you expect.

As I was debating whether to accept or refuse her challenge, Lize nudged my back with her finger, urging me to go.

Iris, Claudia, and Erica’s expressions were similar.

They were practically telling me to crush her last remaining shred of pride.

With four pairs of eyes staring at me, filled with anticipation and amusement, I stood up.

“Sure, why not.”

What else could I do when the Knight Commanders were expecting so much from me?

I had to give them what they wanted.

Judging by her smug attitude, she probably didn’t know that her Knight Commander had been utterly destroyed by me in a sparring match.

They probably kept it a secret out of shame.

I walked toward the chest where the weapons were stored.

I had to use a different weapon since I had left the Bloodstained Sword in my room.

There was no reason to carry it with me to the library.

I didn’t want to borrow a weapon from the Knight Commanders because then they might claim that I only won because of the weapon.

It was a dirty tactic, but I wouldn’t put it past them.

I rummaged through the chest and picked up the weapon lying at the very bottom.

I knew it would be there.

“I’ll use this.”

The weapon I picked up was a Broken Straight Sword.

The reason why this dilapidated weapon was stored with the other weapons was because the Golden Twilight Knights used it to punish their members during sparring matches.

For some reason, it couldn’t be enchanted, and even when fully upgraded, its damage output was weaker than bare fists.

It was one of the weapons used by veteran players when they were bored and had nothing better to do.

The golden-armored knight’s face contorted when she saw the weapon I had chosen.

“……You won’t regret it?”

“If I had regrets, I wouldn’t have picked this up.”

For me, it was much better than bare fists.

At least I could parry with this, since it was technically a one-handed sword.

I couldn’t parry with bare fists.

“If that’s what you want, then I’ll grant your wish!”

The golden knight stomped towards the center of the training ground.

I followed suit.

Four pairs of amused eyes stared at my back.

On the other hand, the Golden Twilight Knights looked confused.

A new recruit was about to spar with a Broken Straight Sword, and not only did he not show any signs of anxiety, he was even chuckling.

It was only natural that they would feel a strange sense of unease.

I held the Broken Straight Sword and glanced back at the Knight Commanders.

“Knight Commanders. I have a different weapon I usually use, but unfortunately, I didn’t bring it with me, so this time…”

I gripped the hilt with both hands.

The chipped, worn blade came into view.

Beyond it stood the Vice Knight Commander of the Golden Twilight Knights.

She was undeniably beautiful, even with that enraged expression on her face.

The power of mods was truly amazing.

Of course, that didn’t mean I could let my guard down.

If I made even a single mistake, I could get hit.

Choosing the Broken Straight Sword was already enough of a handicap.

I pointed the tip of the sword at the golden knight.

“Let’s do this with a Broken Straight Sword.”

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