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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“This is uncomfortable.”
“Bear with it. You know you can’t go around in just pants like on the deserted island, right?”
Renny patted my shoulder and whispered in a soft voice.
I knew that.
If I took off the armor here complaining about discomfort, everything would be ruined, escort knight or not.
That’s why I was desperately enduring this unpleasant feeling of bugs crawling all over my body.
Still, I had expected a magnificent armor that would make my jaw drop, but did I have the blood of ancient Irish people who fought naked running through my veins?
Why did it feel like I was breaking out in hives all over my body when I put on the armor?
Could I possibly be allergic to steel?
Ah, I didn’t know.
I just wished it would end quickly.
“…Do you hate it that much?”
“It’s not that bad. It’s just uncomfortable.”
“The ceremonial armor is originally a bit uncomfortable, so try to bear with it for now. You can wear light armor during regular duty. I usually wear light armor too, don’t I?”
“…That’s true.”
“Right. So let’s endure it a little longer. I want to take off this tin can armor quickly too. Wearing this in such warm weather makes my whole body soaked in sweat.”
Renny drenched in sweat.
I wanted to see that once.
I hadn’t seen it properly on the deserted island.
Come to think of it, I hadn’t seen Renny sweat much from fighting either.
Was wearing thick armor more challenging than fighting?
We chatted like that while waiting for the door to open.
Although it was an informal knighting ceremony, it wasn’t that grand, but even an informal one had to follow minimum procedures.
It was a bit much to have to stand for over 15 minutes wearing this dreadfully heavy armor, but-
“Please come in.”
“Let’s go. Don’t forget what you memorized.”
“Al…right.”
The door opened.
Looking through the eye holes, I saw an old man in pure white priestly robes at the end of the room.
It was a subtly familiar face.
This was none other than the NPC we met countless times in the game when obtaining the priest job.
Bishop Crispy, the head of the department who had taught skills to priests numerous times in the game, cleared his throat and looked at me with gentle eyes.
Judging by the faint curiosity in his eyes, was he intrigued by me?
Well, even I would be curious if someone came saying “Knight me” after obtaining double-digit certifications.
Especially since I was the first person since the founding of Kalon Academy to obtain both Warrior Guild and Mage Guild certifications simultaneously.
…That was originally a title the protagonist should have obtained.
At least I learned that the protagonist wasn’t the type to do veteran player actions like dual-classing.
Whether that protagonist actually existed was another matter.
“Come here, now.”
We approached Bishop Crispy, maintaining the practiced, disciplined walk.
We carefully knelt down when we were close enough to reach out and touch him.
A strange smell came through the holes in the helmet.
Was it the scent of incense candles around us, or was it coming from Bishop Crispy’s body?
I lightly bit my tongue at the sleep-inducing smell.
“I will now begin the knighting ceremony. Mary, please bring the sword.”
As soon as he finished speaking, regular footsteps were heard.
When the footsteps stopped, a sharp sound tickled my ears.
Had they unsheathed the sword?
As I was thinking that, a voice came from above my head.
“Johann. Do you swear to respect and protect the weak as a knight?”
“I swear.”
“Johann, do you swear to serve your lord with courage and faith?”
“I swear.”
“Johann, do you swear never to turn your back on the enemy?”
“I swear.”
“Johann, do you…”
A repetition of questions and answers.
After swearing I don’t know how many times, the questions suddenly stopped.
Was it over?
Just in case, I waited a moment, and then Bishop Crispy’s voice was heard.
“Rise.”
As I stood up, I met the Bishop’s eyes.
Clear and pure eyes.
It was hard to believe they were human eyes.
Was it because he was one of the most virtuous characters in the game that he had such eyes?
“With this, you have become a knight. Please act in a manner befitting your dignity. And… I entrust Lady Karina to you.”
Bishop Crispy’s voice was thick with undisguised sincerity.
He was genuinely concerned about Karina.
I stared blankly at the hand the bishop had grasped, then recited the sentence I had prepared in advance.
“I will protect her even if it costs me my life.”
As soon as the words finished, a status window I hadn’t called opened.
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“This identification is quite fancy…”
I fiddled with the small golden pendant that proved my knighthood.
Of course, there was nothing inside it.
Usually, people put a portrait of their family in it, but I had no family.
So there was nothing to put in.
…Should I get a portrait of Karina to put in it, befitting an escort knight?
“Don’t lose it. It’s really troublesome to get it reissued.”
“Got it.”
“We’re about to go see Lady Karina, you come too. You’re an escort knight now, so you have to work.”
“It’s been almost two weeks, hasn’t it?”
“Until now, only Professor Lennon and I could see her, but now you’ll be coming along too.”
“I’m worried about Millia.”
Millia didn’t like being alone very much.
The image of her walking alone with a gloomy expression, not wanting to disturb me while I was studying for the knighting, was still vivid in my mind.
Millia seemed to really dislike being alone.
Was it because of her past?
At a glance, she looked like a puppy sulking because its owner wouldn’t play with it.
I often had such thoughts when I saw her changing expressions every time I met her during the scraps of time I spent with Millia.
“But you still have to work. Millia’s not a little kid, right?”
“…That’s true.”
Though she followed me around like a baby bird, if we were just going by age, she was the eldest among us.
It would take multiplying my age about 10 times to reach Millia’s age.
I got up from my seat, following Renny.
It had been a while since I’d seen Karina.
I wondered if her condition was alright.
Though it was unlikely her body would improve from the point she was cursed.
We immediately left Yeomyeong-gwan and headed towards the laboratory where Karina was being treated.
The path to the laboratory was quiet.
It was natural.
Today was the weekend.
We could occasionally see students enjoying their day off.
…Judging by how exhausted they looked, were they slaves- no, graduate students?
I shouldn’t be the one to say that.
Now I too had become Karina’s loyal slave… no, escort knight.
As Renny said, there were some benefits, but it would be difficult to properly use them, which was the case for all employees.
Things should get better once Karina wakes up.
“Lady Karina needs to wake up soon…”
“Didn’t they say the curse was almost completely lifted?”
“That’s true, but… it seems they’re having trouble removing the core of the curse because it’s so severe.”
The core of the curse?
Was she talking about something like a medium?
I didn’t know much about curses, so it was difficult to understand.
Even in the game, curses were just status effects, and those were all resolved with one purification magic from a priest.
It meant there was no way to solve this area of how curses were activated and how to lift them, even with my vaguely remembered knowledge from the original work.
In the end, we had to rely on the skills of the professor who looked like he could sing quite well.
The problem was, if my memory was correct, the event that would occur after the Hell Hound incident was…
“Johann?”
“Ah, sorry. I just had something to think about.”
“Do you have something on your mind? If it’s not something you can’t talk about, try telling me. This big sister will listen.”
Renny said playfully, poking my side.
Perhaps because we had been spending time together recently due to the knighting business, she had become friendlier than before, increasing the frequency of such familiar jokes.
It wasn’t bad, but I was afraid she might accidentally break some part of my body like a dried cornstalk.
“I was just thinking about the bastards who cursed Karina.”
“Ah, those trash… They sent the Holy Knight Order to the Halphas Cult’s headquarters, but they had already fled. If only I could have left my post, I would have found them myself and twisted all their necks.”
They all escaped?
I hadn’t expected them to be caught easily since they had been determined to kill Karina from the start, but they couldn’t catch even one?
Weren’t they too incompetent?
Well, if they had been competent, the world wouldn’t have been on the brink of destruction so often in the original work.
As expected of a game nicknamed “Fuck-up Game,” the difficulty was once again absurd.
And they gave such troublesome missions too.
“…Status window.”
I called the status window in a whisper.
The new mission that appeared after yesterday’s mission clear.
The subtly increased reward and the cryptic quest.
And the witch.
Though my memory was faded and had many gaps, I knew about the witch.
The story that followed the Hell Hound incident.
Demon summoning.
The final boss of the demon summoning episode.
That was the witch.
But befriend the witch?
What kind of true ending required becoming friends with a villain?
“Hey, hey! Are you listening to me?”
My endless train of thought disappeared with Renny’s shout.
“…Sorry.”
“I’m not going to criticize you for being lost in thought, but it’s disconcerting when you do that while talking to someone. So be careful. Now, let’s go in.”
We entered the research wing where Professor Lennon’s laboratory was located.
Due to the nature of curse studies, the curse department used a separate building disproportionate to the size of the department, as they often dealt with cursed objects.
I hadn’t noticed it before because I had been so exhausted, but once inside the building, I could definitely feel a change in the air.
“This place always gives me the creeps.”
“It’s not somewhere I’d want to visit often.”
“We should move Lady Karina to Yeomyeong-gwan as soon as she wakes up…”
And this was with holy relics present.
Just how many cursed objects had they collected?
For it to be this bad even with some of the most powerful holy relics… Without them, it felt like just entering would stick curses on you like in old horror movies, leading to a thrilling night with ghosts.
Though I wasn’t sure if ghosts really existed.
No, if there were demons, monsters, and dullahans, there had to be ghosts too-
“Ah.”
Feeling an impact on my chest, I snapped out of my thoughts and looked down at someone who had collided with me.
…This seemed familiar somehow?
“…Are you alright?”
“Are you okay?”
Renny and I approached the female student who had fallen to the ground and asked.
The student just trembled despite our questions, and then I noticed that water had pooled on the floor where the student had fallen.
Why was there a puddle of water here?
But the smell and color…
“…M-monster…”
Ah, she fainted.
“…What’s going on? Why did she faint?”
“I don’t know either.”
We looked at each other and shrugged our shoulders.
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