Small Twist – 1

Several days passed after I dealt with the Lord. During that time, the atmosphere of the Knight Order had changed 180 degrees compared to before.

First, the fact that all the worries that had been plaguing the Silver Dawn Knight Order until now had been resolved played a big role.

Regarding the restoration magic cast on the castle, they received a direct answer from the Magic Tower not to worry, the former Lord who had constantly tormented the Silver Dawn Knight Order had also died, and the matters with the Demon and the Emperor had also passed safely.

It was a situation where the atmosphere simply couldn’t settle down.

Especially since the former Lord-bastard had fucking died, Rije was so happy that she even hugged me tightly and rubbed her body against mine. Erica immediately pulled her away, telling her to please control herself.

Even though it was brief, the sensation of her body touching mine was no joke.

‘And that… it’s probably better to just keep my mouth shut and move on.’

I decided to hide the proposal the former Lord had made to me until the very end. The proposal to turn the Knight Order Captains into sex slaves, that is. Anyway, the person involved was already dead, so telling them would only ruin their mood.

They must have felt dirty enough from what they had endured until now, so I didn’t want to deliberately add more fucking awfulness to it.

So, with nothing much to do, our Silver Dawn Knight Order was spending peaceful days where their only tasks were occasionally patrolling the city and lightly sparring with each other in the castle’s training ground.

“Wow, just how much work did that son of a bitch put off? There’s no end to it, no matter how much I do. It’s driving me crazy, seriously.”

“That’s why we’re helping as much as we can, you know. Though there’s so much more we can’t do that it barely makes a difference.”

“Do you know that even if the five of you help all day, it’s not even a tenth of the amount I handle? I’m the final decision-maker, you know? Even if you process things, I still have to review them once.”

Except for Aurora, who had simultaneously inherited the position of family head and the title of Lord.

Aurora was making a deathly face trying to process the tasks that the former Lord-bastard had put off again and again until now. There was no way a person with such a messed-up personality would have properly done what they were supposed to do.

To borrow her own words, it was ‘to the extent that work from the day I first arrived here had been put off until now’?

Unexpected incidents kept popping up from unexpected places, and she mumbled in an exhausted voice that if she handled one, two new ones would appear.

Even if she processed documents all day, without exaggeration, the same amount of documents would pile up again the next day. She wasn’t just groaning and making a grim face for no reason.

Furthermore, it was only because Aurora was incredibly competent that she could even attempt to clear the accumulated work; an averagely intelligent person probably wouldn’t have been able to touch it.

That was also why the celebratory party we had planned to hold among ourselves at the mansion, commemorating the Lord’s death, was indefinitely postponed.

‘Because it’s a bit awkward to celebrate just among ourselves.’

Aurora issued an order for us to leave, saying that she couldn’t concentrate with us around, as we were distracting her, and as a result, we ended up with a lot of free time.

And having free time meant I could catch up on leveling.

I took this opportunity to say that I would go and subjugate monsters by myself, and Iris readily gave her permission, telling me to do as I pleased.

Since I had caused so many major incidents and resolved them on my own even before joining the Order, I suppose their trust in me had grown quite strong, as there wasn’t a hint of worry in the way they looked at me.

The implication was that if I wanted to do something, I shouldn’t ask about every little thing but just do it myself.

Instead, Rije trotted along after me. It was a bit unfamiliar since I had never traveled with an NPC in BraDark 4 before, but there was no particular problem with her following, so I let her be.

“……”

There was just one problem, though.

Rije, without even drawing her weapon, watched me intently as I hunted monsters, a pleased smile on her face. Her gaze never left me for a moment, which was incredibly burdensome.

“No, what are you staring at since before?”

“Why, can’t I look? I’m looking because I like it.”

The reason why she liked it was unknown.

However, since she said she was looking because she liked it, it was hard for me to say anything, and I didn’t genuinely dislike it either, so when she came out so brazenly like that, I had nothing much to say.

It wasn’t as if my skill would falter while hunting trash mobs just because I felt a little burdened.

As time passed, I diligently ignored Rije’s strangely sticky gaze and silently hunted only monsters, and before long, I reached a double-digit level.

[Stats]

[Level] 10

[HP] 1

[Mana] 1

[Faith] 1

[Stamina] 1

[Proficiency] 1

[Strength] 1

[Magic Power] 1

[Divine Power] 10

[Durability] 1

‘Done.’

Only after pouring all the stats I had gained into Divine Power did I finally feel like I had taken my first step. After confirming once more that no one was around, I carefully observed my stats.

Putting nothing into anything else and only raising Divine Power to 10. At first glance, it seemed like an abnormal stat distribution, but in Dark Lord Mode, this was the most efficient build.

For newbies encountering BraDark 4 for the first time, it was naturally better to distribute points appropriately into HP, Stamina, Strength, or Durability.

In fact, the stat distribution for ‘Knight,’ the most recommended starting class for newbies, was exactly like that.

On top of that, they were given light armor with defense comparable to heavy armor, as well as a longsword, a weapon with no flaws, as a default, so the saying ‘newbies should just shut up and pick Knight’ didn’t come out of nowhere.

Even then, it was a terribly difficult game for someone playing it for the first time.

‘Yeah, what’s the point of thinking about things like this? It’s useless here anyway.’

Of course, that was only true for the vanilla game; if Dark Lord Mode was applied, it was a different story. In Dark Lord Mode, one had to create a completely new initial build from scratch.

Using the initial build from vanilla wouldn’t be entirely impossible, but it was because its efficiency was shit.

To withstand one hit from a passing trash mob, you had to put 10 or more points into HP and absolutely wear heavy armor. But to roll without penalty while wearing heavy armor, you needed to put 30 or more points into Durability.

Based on the ‘Abandoned One’ class, nearly 40 stat points would be meaninglessly consumed just to withstand one hit from a passing trash mob. What’s more, even with that, boss battles were always one-shot kills.

The option of wearing light armor and relying on HP wasn’t even worth considering. Even with the Knight set, which was the best light armor in terms of defense performance, the total stat points required exceeded 60.

The core mindset one needed to have in Dark Lord Mode was to absolutely not get hit, not to get hit and endure. From the start, anyone with such a thought didn’t even have the skill to touch Dark Lord Mode.

Stamina wasn’t particularly different either.

The combat fatigue debuff could be removed with a rune, so increasing the maximum value was meaningless, and even with the stamina from a Stamina stat of 1, three consecutive rolls were possible, so that was enough.

As long as I was holding a blood-stained sword, the Strength stat was also meaningless until I changed weapons.

‘Then, of course, it’s right to increase the duration of attack buffs first.’

Moreover, buffs were something I would have to constantly rely on throughout the entire story progression.

Considering that point, investing in Divine Power to increase duration and investing in Magic Power to increase values was not a losing proposition at all.

‘Magic Power… I should probably only put points into it up to 5. No. Would it be better to use at least one spell in the mid-to-late game?’

I took my hand off the Stat Check Orb. The stat window floating in the air vanished, and the blue light faded, making the surroundings slightly darker.

As I climbed the stairs, pondering in my mind where to put my next stats and which build to follow, I heard a noisy commotion from outside.

‘Was there any reason for the Knight Order to be noisy at this point?’

I tilted my head and continued up the stairs. Rije was standing right in front of me.

“It sounds a bit noisy outside. What’s going on?”

At my words, Rije turned her gaze. At first glance, she seemed to greet me as usual, but I didn’t miss the slight agitation on her face.

What on earth was going on for her to be like that?

“Why that expression? Did something happen?”

“Something… something happened, you say. Well, that’s not entirely wrong.”

Hearing Rije’s answer, I racked my brain.

‘At this point, was there any event that could be called an incident in the Silver Dawn Knight Order? The Emperor had returned, and I hadn’t even reached level 20 yet. There was nothing that could cause an event, was there?’

After defeating the Headless Armored Cavalryman, and until I reached level 20 and the rune slots opened, it was essentially a free action period. It meant the player could do whatever they wanted, whether it was hunting bosses, doing side quests, or hunting trash mobs.

‘Something’s strange.’

I walked a little further. In front of the gate leading into the castle, Claudia, dressed in her characteristic white sleeveless top and pink dolphin shorts, was arguing with a man.

I heard voices raised to their highest pitch.

“So, I have no intention of handing over command to you! How many times do I have to tell you for you to understand, huh?”

Claudia slammed her greatsword, as tall as herself, onto the ground with a bang and growled ferociously. But the man standing in front of her retorted with an unconcerned expression.

“Your opinion doesn’t matter at all. What’s important is that His Majesty the Emperor has given me an order, and therefore, you must unconditionally obey me. Don’t you understand this?”

“Ah, so you just show up out of the blue like this and say, ‘His Majesty has given an order, so shut up and follow it’? Are you messing with me right now?”

“Messing? Do you think His Majesty’s order is a joke?”

“That’s what I want to ask! If he gave such an order, he wouldn’t have just said it; he would have bestowed some evidence along with it. Do you feel like you’re someone important? You came here empty-handed, with nothing, and you’re acting like this? Huh?”

‘…What the hell. Why is that bastard here?’

And then, seeing the Golden Knight arguing with Claudia, I froze in place, dumbfounded.

Gold, gold, and more gold. The knight’s full-body armor was gold, the cape on their back was gold, and even the helmet tucked into their waist and their sword were gold.

There were many NPCs with similar appearances, but there was only one NPC in the game with that exact appearance.

The Captain of the Golden Twilight Knight Order.

‘There’s no reason for *that guy*… to be here right now, is there?’

I lost my composure and just blinked. I couldn’t even guess where the story had gone wrong. Even though the intermediate process had changed a lot, hadn’t the Emperor eventually returned safely one way or another?

As I stood there frozen and dumbfounded, the Captain of the Golden Twilight Knight Order spotted me, casually pushed Claudia aside with his shoulder, and strode towards me.

Claudia was making a demonic expression as she watched the Knight Order Captain’s back. It was an expression of seriously contemplating whether or not to smack that bastard on the back of the head.

The Knight Order Captain, who had approached right in front of me, opened his mouth with an utterly arrogant face.

“You must be the new knight who joined the Silver Dawn Knight Order. Is that right?”

“…That’s right, but what is the matter?”

“It is His Majesty the Emperor’s order to monitor you for two weeks starting now. Remember that you have no right to refuse.”

‘Monitor? His Majesty the Emperor’s order?’

What in the world was this now?