.｡.:✧ Chapter 5 ✧:.｡.

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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As the completely unexpected situation unfolded right before my eyes, my mind froze.

The knight NPC I remembered from the tutorial area was a middle-aged man with wrinkles etched all over his face and a thick gray beard.

But the knight in front of me now had a different gender from the start.

Brilliant silver hair, as if infused with moonlight, cascaded down the back of the neck, ending at mid-thigh. The bangs were neatly divided into three strands, half-covering the forehead.

Below that, eyes the same silver color as the hair, as if they too had absorbed the moonlight, could be seen. The face possessed tremendous beauty, both objectively and subjectively.

Perhaps because the shock was so great, my mind couldn’t process it at all. Noticing my gaze, the female knight, who had been tapping the corroded helmet with her foot, turned to look at me. The silver eyes were directed towards me.

“What’s wrong? Do you have something to say?”

“Uh, well, I mean. You’re a woman…?”

“You don’t think I’m a man with this face, do you? What a strange question.”

The female knight smiled slightly as she said that. Even that faint smile was ridiculously pretty. She seemed to think I was making a joke.

But for me, it was a sincere question, not a joke.

‘No, what the hell is this…?’

Trying hard to suppress the shock, I racked my brain desperately to understand how this situation had come to be. Was the female knight in front of me not the same NPC from the tutorial area?

However, if I excluded the gender and appearance, all other elements matched the NPC in my memory. In other words, there was no room for doubt about the identity of that female knight.

Even in the Darkest Light Mod, they didn’t change the gender—

‘Wait, mod?’

Suddenly, a possibility crossed my mind.

Taking care not to appear rude or harboring any ill intentions, I glanced sideways at the female knight’s face with utmost effort. The silver hair that was long enough to reach the waist, and the silver eyes the same color as the hair.

It was an appearance that vaguely existed in my memory.

‘That looks like the appearance from the character customization mod.’

The worldview of the Brightest Darkness series was so bleak and devoid of dreams and hopes that most of the significant NPC roles were occupied by men.

The emperor of the empire, the knights, the pope of the holy kingdom, the clergy, the tower masters, the mages, and even most of the mid-boss level enemies and street mobs were all men.

There were female NPCs, but even considering the entire game, there were so few that you could count them on one hand.

At first, mods that retouched the existing female NPCs to make them prettier and more beautiful were mainstream. They didn’t bother touching the male characters when there were already female characters available.

However, as time passed, the modders’ skills in retouching appearances became more sophisticated, and eventually, mods appeared that completely changed the appearance of over a hundred major male NPCs into females.

Out of curiosity, I had also installed and tried it once.

It was indeed a well-made mod. Not only were the NPCs’ appearances pretty, but they also looked natural. It didn’t cause many crashes with other mods, and there was no difficulty in observing and dodging boss patterns.

If there was one problem, it would be that while the appearance was of a pretty woman with a nice figure, the voice remained that of a man. Modifying the voice was beyond the scope of modders.

Many people ignored the discrepancy between the appearance and the voice and enjoyed it, but I couldn’t adapt to it at all. And with the timely release of the Darkest Light Mod, I played it for a while and then just deleted it.

‘…Could it be?’

The only way to explain this situation was that the character customization mod, or the NPC retouching mod, had been applied.

“I can’t use this anymore.”

While I was desperately racking my brain, the knight, who had been wiping the blood off the armor, frowned and clicked her tongue softly. The spots where the black blood had been wiped off were heavily corroded and rusted.

Without hesitation, the female knight took off her armor.

“…?”

And as soon as the bare body underneath the armor was revealed, I doubted my eyes.

A white sleeveless top that fully exposed the arms without a trace of flab and the smooth armpits. It was the outfit the female knight wore underneath the armor. The skin was fair enough to rival the attire.

The figure and physique were fully revealed due to the size that clung tightly to the body, making it suffocating for the viewer. The occasional glimpses of bare skin on the abdomen and sides through the hem were a bonus.

That wasn’t all. She was wearing silver dolphin shorts on her lower body. Through the clattering armor falling off, slender thighs and calves could be seen.

‘No, what is this? What the hell is it?’

My mind became even more confused than when I first confirmed the knight’s gender. Dolphin shorts and a sleeveless top? And under full plate armor at that?

I tried to recall. As far as I remembered, the character customization mod and the NPC retouching mod honestly only changed the appearance. But now, even the clothes had suddenly changed. And into extremely lewd outfits at that.

Regardless of whether I was confused or not, the female knight took off her shin guards and gauntlets, leaving her wearing only a sleeveless top and dolphin shorts, and fixed her sword to the belt around her waist.

‘…Damn.’

It was an extremely provocative sight. The white sleeveless top that was slightly damp with sweat and clung tightly to her body, the buttocks that jiggled under the silver dolphin shorts, the thighs that looked incredibly soft.

I forcefully averted my eyes to avoid being conscious of that appearance.

This time, I grasped the situation faster than the previous two instances. It was clear that a mod that changed the NPCs’ outfits had been applied along with the mod that changed their appearance.

If the Darkest Light Mod was already applied and the character customization mod was also applied, there was no reason why an outfit change mod couldn’t be included as well.

I couldn’t clearly remember if I had installed such a mod myself, but it might have been bundled as an extra in an integrated mod pack.

“Hey, prisoner?”

While I was recalling the list of mods I had installed so far in my mind, I heard the female knight calling out to me and lifted my head in surprise.

“Y-Yes?”

“Do you have anywhere to go now?”

Hearing the familiar dialogue made me feel like I was regaining some of my senses. That’s right, regardless of the confusion, I had to do what I could to survive.

“No. I don’t.”

“I see. That makes sense. The only places you could go from here would be either becoming a fugitive or being transferred to another prison. So, I have a proposal. How about following me and joining the knighthood? With your skills, if you polish them a little, you’ll be able to pull your own weight. I’ll vouch for you.”

‘Got it.’

I inwardly cheered as the same choice as in the game was presented.

If you defeated the Human Butcher at the first encounter, an event would occur where you could directly join the knighthood by following the NPC. This was the easiest route to pass through the early stages.

Since I only had one life, it was best to take the easiest path possible.

“Seeing you defeat that monster alone without any proper weapon or technique proves your skill, and the fact that you didn’t cower in fear even when facing such a monster head-on shows that you have sufficient courage. I think it would be a waste to let your abilities rot like this. Ah, don’t worry about your status. Whether you were a prisoner or not, if you say you want to join the knighthood, they won’t care at all. I can roughly discern a person’s nature by looking into their eyes. You’re someone who can be trusted.”

It felt strange to hear that line, which had become a meme on the internet, directly in front of me.

That was the fixed dialogue the NPC, who was the original version of the female knight, always said while proceeding with the recruitment event. They could know a person’s nature by looking into their eyes, and that’s why they trusted the protagonist.

At a glance, that seemingly ordinary line became a meme because it always appeared regardless of the character’s appearance as long as the event was progressed.

Even if the player customized the character to have a completely inhuman appearance, the NPC would still use that expression, so in fan works, they were often depicted as having serious vision problems or being outright blind.

Of course, my current appearance didn’t have purple skin, eyes larger than my mouth, or a terribly distorted face.

“So, are you interested?”

If it were a game, dialogue options would have appeared here. “Yes” or “No”.

Of course, the choice I would make was already determined.

“Yes. I will do that.”

“Good. Then we’ll depart right now. There’s no point in dawdling here, right? Especially for you.”

With those words, the female knight turned around and walked towards the exit.

In sync with her steps, the buttocks covered by the dolphin shorts jiggled lewdly, and a small groove following the slender waist and spine line could be seen.

No matter how many times I saw it, I couldn’t get used to that outfit. Both the fact that she had been wearing full plate armor right over it and her expression that showed no sense of discomfort with her own attire.

“Ah, wait a moment.”

The female knight stopped walking and met my eyes again.

“Come to think of it, we almost moved on without introducing ourselves. My name is Iris.”

‘Iris?’

It was a name I had never heard in the game. Since the gender had changed, perhaps the name had also changed from a masculine name to a feminine name.

“What’s your name? I can’t keep calling you “you” or “prisoner” all the time.”

Come to think of it, I had never thought about my own name.

In the game, I could just use any random combination of letters for a name, and everyone would understand, but I couldn’t do that here. And using my real name felt a bit awkward.

After contemplating my answer for a moment, I came up with a good idea and opened my mouth.

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