Ch.21Wanted Order (3)

The Black Knights were mostly arrogant and disrespectful people.

It was natural, since they were the type to either charge at mages with crazed eyes, hurl insults, or curse them.

They would look at anyone involved with magic with contempt, act according to their prejudices, and occasionally cause diplomatic issues through excessive force.

When I saw such people, one thought naturally came to mind.

Why isn’t anyone taking these bastards down?

It was a legitimate question. Though they claimed to do good deeds, most of their actions were self-righteous, causing more harm than benefit.

But when you examined the reason, it was simple.

In abandoned forest fortresses, in ominous tales exchanged by villagers.

In books written from firsthand accounts, there dwelled the Black Knights’ enemies, those sinister beings.

The reason the Anti-Magic School first emerged, and the destination that magic reached after flooding battlefields, starting with the Protection School and Destruction School.

A school derived from the Structure School of the First Contractor that caused countless tragedies, seeking forbidden knowledge humans should never pursue.

Simultaneously, mages who brought enormous losses and terrible calamities upon humanity.

People called them by various names.

The learned called them by their self-proclaimed name.

The Exploration School.

And those with moderate knowledge and prejudice called them this:

The Apocalypse School, the Destruction School.

Though the names differed slightly, their meanings were similar. Given the phenomena they summoned, I honestly preferred the latter.

In truth, the most common and universally recognized name was different.

A name used by the ignorant who judged them solely by the phenomena they summoned, and especially frequently by Black Knights.

“Black Mages.”

I looked down at the bound mage.

Even as a courtesy, she couldn’t be called a pleasant sight.

Her hair was disheveled from prolonged neglect and abuse. The blood clots settled between strands revealed how she had been beaten.

And judging by her lack of will to hide it, it was easy to guess what this woman had done.

“I understand how you feel.”

As I remained silent, Vetus spoke from right behind me. When I didn’t respond, he raised his voice with slight impatience.

“But if we smash her head here, we’ll miss the chance to root them out completely. So…”

Prejudice begets prejudice. Black Mages and Black Knights were always enemies.

The headmaster of the Anti-Magic School who established the Black Knight Order was one of the few survivors of a city annihilated by a Black Mage.

Once a promising Structure School mage, he became obsessed with killing Black Mages, and through contracts, some luck, and his brilliant genius, he founded the Anti-Magic School.

Afterward, he established the Black Knight Order by testing the Anti-Magic School’s vision of tinctures and mage-killing methods on himself.

All mages are evil.

Among them, Black Mages are unforgivable criminals of extreme evil.

None of them can be reformed, and they must be killed immediately upon encounter.

No matter the cost.

From my perspective as someone who had played as a Black Mage, they were people with no room for compromise.

The difficulty of a persuasion roll was like trying to roll a 40 on a 20-sided die—an impossible condition.

Even if you rolled a 20, they would simply recite your crimes, pronounce judgment, and then try to kill you anyway. I could easily recall and imitate their behavior.

But only selectively.

I deliberately gritted my teeth. With my strong jaw muscles, it was painful enough to make me groan.

Did I break something? It would regenerate, but it was something I never wanted to do again.

I clenched my fist and moved my hand toward my sword, then stopped myself with my clenched fist.

The mayor openly showed surprise at my behavior.

A Black Knight restraining himself before a Black Mage was nearly impossible.

He let out an admiring sound and nodded.

“What magnificent willpower… Thank you.”

“Speak.”

I deliberately maintained a grave demeanor. Roughly… yes, I imagined my family had been raped and murdered by a Black Mage.

I only had one family member, but thinking about my sister might genuinely anger me or trigger grief, so I kept it vague and hypothetical.

This naturally suggested a certain behavior. I put it into action.

“Why have you kept this Black Mage here?”

With killing intent suggesting I would draw my sword and behead both of them if the explanation wasn’t satisfactory. He flinched but didn’t place his hand on his sword hilt.

Evidence that he wasn’t a being without human emotion, just stoic and rational.

That was good information too.

“Don’t you know a single Black Mage can destroy an entire city?”

The words came out with a growl and an intensity I didn’t recognize in myself. For a moment, both Isla and the mayor visibly flinched.

The only one who didn’t react was the Black Mage.

She was a woman with all her fingers cut off and a strong smell of blood. Her once beautiful face was covered in knife marks, leaving only traces of her former appearance.

Just as cities destroyed by Black Mages retained only faint traces of what they once were.

Those traces moved. As they writhed, mimicking a city, I recalled a massive monster that was said to still devour people.

This too was a transcendent being summoned by a Black Mage.

“I have something I want to hear from her.”

Natural condescension. A stiff neck as if she had lived that way her entire life.

She was nobility. When our eyes met, the ruins smiled.

“We are in the belly of this city.”

An eerie, ominous smile. Within that smile, only vivid malice writhed.

I had never seen such a smile in my life.

It was a smile worn only by those who genuinely enjoyed watching others get hurt, suffer, and scream in agony.

Only then did I partially understand the game’s description.

“When the time comes, we can unleash our studies upon this city as well.”

They were evil.

*

After closing several layers of steel doors, a poison is administered to maintain a state of suspended animation.

The Black Mage fell asleep like a corpse again. Even knowing that intense pain would await her when she woke up.

Seeing her face sleeping so peacefully stirred all kinds of emotions in me.

How could someone wearing human skin harbor such thoughts?

I couldn’t understand it. I seemed not monstrous enough to find pleasure in such things.

Or was it because I was a monster that I couldn’t do such things?

“As you pointed out, they exist on this continent.”

Words came out without needing to organize my scattered thoughts. The mayor removed his monocle and ran his hand through his hair with a troubled expression.

“They?”

“…Three clans. They consist of the Blood Clan, Shapeshifters, and Necromancers.”

This was information few people knew. Even in the game, there was hardly any more information than this.

But for a Black Knight who personally came to such a place, knowing this was natural. When I remained quiet without asking further, he continued while fidgeting with his empty teacup.

In contrast to Isla, who still couldn’t properly drink her tea because it was too hot, his cup was empty.

It proved how parched the recent encounter had left him.

That’s what Black Mages were.

Beings who could cast magic with just their breath, melting people alive to feed the monstrous creatures crawling on the floor, and butchering humans down to their souls.

All of this came not from faith or desire, but from endless curiosity about the world.

Therefore, they were infinitely arrogant yet constantly pursued learning. Their learning attitude made them difficult to shake.

And unshakable malice was terrifying.

“As you said, there are… many such people on this continent.”

There was no need to recall what I had said.

“The Cannibal Baron came here because of his daughter, clearly given to him by the Three Clans.”

His daughter appeared to be a prototype homunculus.

“The civil war that the Star Blade participated in was caused by the assassination of the Five Grand Dukes. He occasionally expressed doubts about it.”

And the assassin of the Five Grand Dukes was the final boss of Grim Darker 1 and the series’ first homunculus.

A monstrous artificial human who could break through solid formations barehanded, crushing mages’ skulls and pounding warriors until they were pulverized.

At the same time, an impressive boss who greatly influenced my Grim Darker build.

That boss killed the Five Grand Dukes, triggering the civil war.

“Whenever he faced battles he seemed likely to lose, he strangely encountered orderly battlefields, enemies with broken morale, and suspiciously powerful soldiers. But before he could properly investigate, they vanished without a trace.”

I couldn’t dismiss all of this as coincidence. I wasn’t that romantic in character.

Someone or something from the Three Clans was leading them to the New Continent. Judging by the context of this conversation.

“And now they’re leading the Black Mages. They’ve planted that parasite in the heart of my city, eagerly waiting for it to gnaw at the heart and break free.”

The place where I had landed after falling from their floating fortress was the New Continent.

This New Continent was home to those cursed who couldn’t live in the Old Continent, including Isla, a recessive Shapeshifter.

I didn’t feel that all of this was coincidental.

If this were still a game, and if I were someone who knew that the Three Clans would appear in the DLC.

I would have been certain that all of this was for some plot by the Three Clans.

And sometimes, a perspective from a step back is more accurate. I dismissed other possibilities and looked at the mayor.

“The investigation seems to be struggling.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Black Knights don’t have torture techniques. What we’re good at is killing magic and slaughtering mages.”

“I’m aware of that too. What I showed you was merely… an expression of sincerity and I hoped you would understand my desperation.”

The city’s allies, the Cannibal Baron and the Star Blade, died one after another. Yet the Black Knight who arrived had all limbs intact.

If I had seen such a being as a quest in the game, I would have considered them either overpowered or a monstrously strong creature.

A rational person like the mayor couldn’t have missed that. Though it was a misunderstanding.

It was a welcome misunderstanding for me.

“I’d like some time to think.”

“Understood. For meals…”

“I’m sorry, but I must decline.”

The mayor left, looking rather satisfied with my refusal. It wasn’t because I wasn’t depleting their food supplies.

Rather, my unwillingness to trust even the mayor had ironically earned his trust.

Only after the mayor left, and his footsteps had receded at least a few floors away, did I roll my eyes.

“…It’s hot.”

Though Isla made an excuse when our eyes met, I could tell what this snow leopard was thinking.

She knew I wasn’t a Black Knight, and she knew I was a monster.

She probably had no idea what purpose or thoughts led me to be here like this. She must be curious.

If she wanted to escape, she could have just accepted the situation halfheartedly and fled.

Losing access to the city would be regrettable, but she could have found decent passage or some other way to return to the Old Continent.

Nothing was worth more than one’s life. Usually.

That’s why she couldn’t understand why I hadn’t done that.

Beyond walking into danger voluntarily, it was like prostrating myself and crawling into the jaws of death.

But I had no choice.

It wasn’t just because of my will. There was a reasonable explanation too.

I wasn’t sure if there was a way for me to escape this world or return to my own.

Stomping my feet and crying because there was no immediate solution and it was dangerous would be foolish.

I was on the smarter side. I was someone who could choose the best option without hesitation and put it into action when there were few choices available.

From my perspective, this was my best option.

Whatever conspiracy the Three Clans were plotting, I would crush and prevent it.

With firm resolve, I opened my mouth.

“Want to hunt some Black Mages?”

At that, Isla froze with her tongue still sticking out, mid-groan.