Tutorial Area – 5

My mind instantly froze as an entirely unexpected situation unfolded right before my eyes.

The Knight NPC in the Tutorial Area I remembered was a middle-aged man with wrinkles etched all over his face and a thick, gray beard.

But the knight standing before me now was of a different gender entirely.

Her brilliant, moonlight-infused silver hair cascaded long down her back, reaching midway down her thighs. Her bangs half-covered her forehead, neatly parted into three sections.

Beneath them, eyes that shone silver, as if infused with moonlight just like her hair, were visible. Objectively and subjectively, it was a face of immense beauty.

Perhaps because the shock was so great, my mind wasn’t working at all. Sensing my gaze, the female knight, who had been nudging a corroded helmet with her foot, turned to look at me. Her silver eyes met mine.

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

“Uh, well, so. You were a woman…?”

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

The female knight then smiled faintly. Even that slight smile was ridiculously beautiful. It seemed she thought I was joking.

Though for me, it wasn’t a joke but a question filled with genuine confusion.

‘No, what the hell is this…?’

Trying hard to calm the shock, I desperately racked my brain to understand what kind of situation this was. Was the female knight in front of me not the NPC from the Tutorial Area?

However, aside from gender and appearance, all other elements matched the NPC in my memory. This meant there was no room to doubt the identity of this female knight.

Even the Dark Light Mod didn’t change the gender-

‘Wait, a mod?’

Suddenly, a possibility flashed through my mind.

I carefully glanced at the female knight’s face, trying my best not to appear rude or to harbor any ill intentions. Her long silver hair reached her waist, and her eyes were silver like her hair.

It was an appearance vaguely present in my memories.

‘That, it looks like the appearance from the appearance modification mod.’

Because the world of the Brightest Darkness series was so bleak and devoid of hope, most of the significant NPC roles were filled by men.

The Emperor of the Empire, knights, the Pope of the Holy Nation, clerics, tower masters, mages, and most mid-boss level enemies and even street mobs-all were male.

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

Initially, the main mods were those that retouched these existing female NPCs to make them prettier and more beautiful. There was no need to touch male characters when there were already female characters.

However, as time went on, modders’ retouching skills became more sophisticated, eventually leading to mods that completely changed the appearance of over a hundred major male NPCs into women.

I, too, couldn’t resist my curiosity and installed one of them once.

It was indeed a very well-made mod. The NPCs’ appearances were not only pretty but also natural, it didn’t crash often with other mods, and there was no difficulty in observing and dodging boss patterns.

The only problem was that while the appearance was that of a pretty woman with a good figure, the voice remained that of a man. Modifying voices was no longer within the modder’s domain.

Many people simply ignored the discrepancy between appearance and voice and enjoyed it, but I couldn’t adapt to it at all, and since the Dark Light Mod came out around that time, I played it for a bit and then just deleted it.

‘……Could it be that?’

There was no other way to explain this situation than that very appearance modification mod, or an NPC retouching mod, was applied.

“This can’t be used anymore.”

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

The female knight threw off her armor without hesitation.

“……?”

And, as soon as her bare body was revealed after taking off the armor, I couldn’t believe my eyes.

A white sleeveless top that fully exposed her perfectly toned arms and smooth armpits. This was the clothing the female knight wore under her armor. Her skin was as fair as the clothing itself.

Because the top was so tight it seemed suffocating, her figure and body shape were fully revealed. The bare skin of her abdomen and sides, glimpsed at the edges, was a bonus.

That wasn’t all. On her lower body, she wore silver dolphin shorts. Beyond the clanking armor falling to the ground, her slender thighs and calves were visible.

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

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

I searched my memories. As far as I remembered, the appearance modification mod and NPC retouching mod only changed appearances honestly. But now, her clothes had inexplicably changed too. And to incredibly revealing clothes at that.

Whether I was confused or not, the female knight threw off her greaves and gauntlets, then, wearing only the sleeveless top and dolphin shorts, she secured her sword to a belt at her waist.

‘……Insane.’

It was an extremely provocative sight. The white sleeveless top, slightly damp with sweat and clinging to her body, the swaying buttocks under the silver dolphin shorts, and her incredibly soft-looking thighs.

I forced my eyes away, trying not to be conscious of the sight.

This time, I understood the situation faster than the previous two instances. It was clear that a clothing modification mod had also been applied, along with the NPC appearance mod.

Since the Darkest Light Mod was already applied, and an appearance modification mod was also applied, what law would prevent a clothing modification mod from being present as well?

Although I, the person who installed them, could barely remember if I had installed such a mod, it was possible it had been bundled in as an extra in an integrated pack or something.

“You there, prisoner?”

As I was recalling the list of mods I had installed, I heard the female knight calling me and startled myself, looking up.

“Yes, yes?”

“Do you have anywhere to go now?”

Hearing the familiar dialogue, I felt my mind returning somewhat. Yes, confusion was confusion, but right now, I had to do what I could to survive.

“No. I don’t.”

“Right, I suppose not. From here, your options are to become a fugitive or be transferred to another prison. So, I have a proposal. Would you be willing to follow me and join the Knights? With your skill, a little polishing would be enough for you to pull your weight. I guarantee it.”

‘It’s here!’

I cheered inwardly as the same options as in the game were presented.

If you defeat the Human Butcher upon your first encounter, an event occurs where you can immediately join the Knights by following this NPC. This was the easiest route to get through the early game section.

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

“Seeing you defeat that monster alone without any decent weapons or skills proves your ability, and your courage is sufficient, given you weren’t intimidated facing such a monster head-on. I believe it would be a waste to let your talents rot away like this. Oh, don’t worry about your status. Whether you were a prisoner or not, if you agree to join the Knights, I won’t mind it at all. One can roughly gauge a person’s disposition by looking into their eyes. You are someone who can be trusted.”

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

That was a fixed line spoken by the original NPC of the female knight during the recruitment event. She said she could tell a person’s disposition by their eyes and therefore trusted the protagonist.

The reason this seemingly ordinary line became a meme was that it always appeared regardless of the character’s appearance, as long as the event was triggered.

Even if the player customized their character to have a completely inhuman appearance, this expression would still be used, leading to fan creations often depicting the NPC as having severe vision problems or being completely blind.

That’s not to say my current appearance has purple skin, eyes larger than my mouth, and a heavily distorted face, though.

“Well, are you interested?”

If this were the game, options would have appeared here. ‘Yes’ or ‘No’.

Of course, my choice was already decided.

“Yes. I will.”

“Good. Then we’ll depart immediately. There’s no benefit in dawdling here, is there? Especially not for you.”

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

As she walked, her buttocks, covered by the dolphin shorts, swayed suggestively, and a small valley, deeply indented along her slender waist and spine, was visible.

It was an outfit I couldn’t get used to, no matter how many times I saw it. The fact that she had just worn full plate armor right over it, and her expression, as if she felt no incongruity with her attire, both contributed to it.

“Ah, before that, just a moment.”

The female knight stopped and met my eyes again.

“Now that I think about it, we almost passed without introductions. My name is Iris.”

‘Iris?’

It was a name I had never heard in the game. Had the name also changed from a male name to a female name since the gender changed?

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

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

In the game, any random string of characters for a name would be understood, but I couldn’t do that here, and using my real name felt a bit off too.

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