Chapter 6: Initiation Test (1)

About three days after our escape from the dungeon, we found ourselves before the gates of a city – the city where Iris’s knightly order was stationed.

The city’s outward appearance didn’t differ much from my memories of the game. The size and shape of the city gates were familiar, as was the sight of guards standing in front of them.

However, there was no long queue of carriages or a colorful parade of differently dressed people waiting to get inside.

Our horse, undeterred by the three-day journey carrying both Iris and me, confidently strode past the line of people and carriages and approached the guards.

“Welcome back, Knight Commander Iris!” The guards, recognizing Iris immediately, straightened up and greeted her with voices taut with discipline.

“Indeed, inform the Lord… that the Deputy Commander of the Silver Dawn Knights has returned. Tell him I will delay my report as I have matters to attend to first. I will return to the castle ahead.”

“Understood!”

‘It seems the Lord hasn’t changed,’ I thought, watching Iris hesitate before attaching the honorific to the Lord’s title. In the game, the Lord of this city was a villain players could kill without guilt.

Advancing the quest to deal with the Lord might please Iris. If we push it to the extreme, we could kill another boss and immediately eliminate him.

“But who is the person riding with you…?” A suspicious gaze from the guards was directed at me.

Thanks to Iris providing me with clothes, I had escaped from being barely covered, but from the guard’s perspective, he must find it strange that a stranger was riding on the same horse as the commander of his city’s knights.

“Do not worry. I vouch for this person’s identity.”

“Understood. If that is the case then…”

Even though his sentence trailed off, the guard stepped back obediently when Iris vouched for me. Without sparing another glance at the guard, Iris guided our horse into the city.

Comparing the street scenes with the city map in my memories of “The Brightest Darkness 4”, I felt a peculiar sense of déjà vu.

‘It’s fascinating in many ways.’

Some parts precisely reflected details the game had omitted, while others followed the same laws as reality.

For instance, we still starve if we don’t eat. Conversely, we didn’t need to go to the bathroom. No matter how much we consumed, nothing was ever excreted.

I, for one, hadn’t gone to the bathroom since arriving here, yet there were no adverse effects on my body. It was indeed a curious phenomenon.

And there’s another thing.

“Wow… how should I put it? It’s quite a feast for the eyes.”

Whether it’s due to the mods or not, there was a stark contrast in appearance between the men and women wandering the streets.

The men looked ordinary. Some looked exactly like the NPCs in the game, and even if not, they mostly resembled your average Joe you could see anywhere.

On the other hand, the women were flawless to the point where you couldn’t find a blemish on their skin, and their beauty was so exceptional that one could justify using the word ‘pretty’ on just about anyone.

Iris, whose beauty in reality would make anyone turn heads, was merely slightly prettier than the ordinary women who were abundantly present around.

“That is to say, she’s incredibly beautiful.”

The divide wasn’t just about appearance; it was also about attire. Just like the stark contrast in looks, the clothing also differed greatly by gender.

The men, fitting the game’s medieval backdrop, wore moderately medieval cloth outfits, while all the women wore modern clothes with a substantial amount of exposure.

Things like short jeans with a T-shirt, crop tops that fully expose the belly button, miniskirts with high heels, or, to the extreme, wearing only a shirt over their naked body, were common sights.

Moreover, the men saw it as entirely natural for women to walk around in such outfits.

Even if a woman were parading down the street wearing only a shirt, or standing in the street in a crop top with her underwear blatantly exposed, no one would give them a lewd look.

The women, too, had no qualms about walking around in near-naked outfits. It was as if the world collectively disregarded common sense.

There’s no harm in having a multitude of beautiful women at every turn, dressed in modern clothes and exposing a great deal.

The only thing was that there was a substantial disconnection between this and the original Brightest Darkness 4’s hopeless, crumbling world I knew.

“Here we are.”

After entering the city for a while, Iris stopped in front of a massive castle. Tall walls enclosed the surroundings, and where the gate should have been, there was just a large gaping hole.

“A castle?”

In the game, it was just a standard Knights Guild building with a training ground.

“It’s an old castle. Originally, that guy… ahem, the lord used to live here, but he dumped it over to us and lives in a separate mansion he built. That’s why our Knights Guild moved in.”

She spoke in the same tone, but Iris was treating me much more comfortably than when we first met. And I felt the same way towards her.

There was no reason for either of us to harbor ill feelings toward each other.

Iris, an NPC who won the hearts of players by showing immense trust in the protagonist — so much so that she was often memed for her trusting nature — was not someone I wanted to antagonize unnecessarily and make my game playthrough harder. The same went for me.

During the three days it took to return from the dungeon to the city, our relationship naturally deepened. This was why I addressed Iris in an informal tone. Even though she was the commander of the knights, given the circumstances within the order, there was no need to maintain strict formality.

“Dumped? What do you mean?”

“I’ll show you after you’ve joined our knights’ order. Experiencing it firsthand will be much more instructive than explaining it here.”

This was genuinely something I didn’t know about. In the original game, the Silver Dawn Knights’ quarters were just a regular training ground. The lord lived in a mansion, but it didn’t feel as if he had abandoned the castle.

‘I hope it’s not that the story has changed.’

That was the worst-case scenario I could think of.

After traversing about half of the inner city walls, Iris stopped her horse. A wooden door left slightly ajar was visible next to us. The neighing of horses echoed from within, suggesting this was a stable.

“Wait here. I’ll be right back.”

“And you?”

“I’ll just hitch the horses and return. It won’t take long, just wait a bit.”

I jumped off the horse and responded affirmatively, watching as Iris led the horses and disappeared between the wooden doors. I exhaled a sigh of relief when she was completely out of sight.

‘I wouldn’t want to repeat such an experience, seriously.’

It wasn’t the act of riding a horse itself that was exhausting. Just like in the game where a character never complained, no matter how long they rode, I felt the same. It was as if my body couldn’t perceive fatigue at all.

The problem was the posture.

Considering Iris wouldn’t have dragged two horses just to visit the dungeon alone, it was natural that I would have to ride behind her if we were to return together.

Riding behind a woman wearing only a white sleeveless top and short dolphin shorts.

Moreover, she had even suggested that I hold onto her waist or shoulder because there was nowhere else to grip. If I didn’t and fell off during a gallop, it could be deadly.

She wasn’t wrong, so I obediently wrapped my arms around her soft and silent waist. Because of that, I had to spend all my energy trying to focus throughout the ride.

Trying not to touch her as much as possible, I sat in an awkward position, straining my waist as far back as possible. In more ways than one, it was an incredibly challenging ordeal.

At least once we entered the city, we were just strolling leisurely, which was a relief since I didn’t have to cling on to anything.

Seriously.

“What are you thinking about so hard?”

Surprised by a sudden unfamiliar female voice from beside me, I raised my head.

“Hello!”

A woman with blue hair, dressed in a white sleeveless shirt and blue dolphin shorts, was waving at me right next to me.