Commemorative Banquet – 1

That night, after returning from subjugating the rock centipede, I sat at my desk and held a pencil.

There was a fluorescent light on the ceiling, an air conditioner running, a modern desk and chair, and of course, a modern bed, paper, and even a pencil. It felt as if I wasn’t in a game, but in my real home outside.

I don’t know why these writing tools are here. When I asked if there were any tools for writing, they gave me a pencil and an eraser. I was dumbfounded for a moment after receiving them.

Aurora-rang used a feather pen that looked like something out of the real Middle Ages.

For now, that wasn’t important, so I shook off my distracting thoughts and refocused on the paper. I needed to organize the situation ahead.

‘The main story I need to proceed with is, of course, on the Knight Order’s side.’

I wrote “Silver Dawn Knight Order,” circled it, and then tapped it lightly with the tip of my pencil. Among all the stories in B-Dark 4, there was no route as easy and comfortable as the Knight Order route.

The number of mandatory bosses to defeat for progression was significantly small, and compared to other mandatory bosses, the difficulty was relatively easy. It wasn’t called a newbie-friendly story for nothing.

Even in Dark Lord mode, where the enemies’ specs and hostility were generally insanely rampant, its status remained unchanged.

In a real game, I wouldn’t have even looked at this story because it was boring, but now I only have one life, don’t I? I had to walk the easiest and most comfortable path possible.

Furthermore, if I cleared all the main stories, the player could become the First Knight Commander of the Silver Dawn Knight Order or even rise to the position of the Emperor’s direct escort knight.

It guaranteed a clear path to success, so my future was bright.

The side quests weren’t complicated, the story was smooth, the number of mandatory bosses was small, the difficulty was easy, and even the ending was excellent. It was a route plastered with nothing but advantages.

‘I probably can go home if I defeat the World Eater… but since there’s no definite answer, I should prepare for it.’

There was another reason why I was worried about my future in this world.

The cliché of transmigration stories is generally returning home after clearing the final boss or seeing the main story through to the end, but I couldn’t ignore the possibility of having to live here forever.

So, there’s no harm in preparing in advance, is there? It’s right to do what I can for sure, cut off all seeds of anxiety, make thorough preparations, and then see the ending.

‘……Then, what should I do about the Emperor?’

I paused my finger for a moment, looking at the word ‘Emperor’ written at the top of the paper. Even in the game, it was like this, but here, the Emperor had become an even more unpredictable human.

If all the choices I remembered became useless, I wasn’t confident I could choose the correct answer from the Emperor’s ever-changing, chaotic multiple-choice options.

Unless I chose a story where I moved my base of operations to the Holy Nation or completely severed ties with humans, if I remained in the Empire, I would inevitably get entangled with the Emperor at least once.

However, the Emperor was notorious among users for various reasons: the boss’s difficulty, its significance in the story, and the character’s personality.

‘Well, it’s meaningless right now, so I’ll think about it later.’

In fact, if the Emperor’s personality had truly changed, my actions of struggling alone to prepare here would be meaningless.

After all, the dialogue options for Rije’s original NPC were still intact in my head, but that knowledge was of no use at all in my conversations with Rije.

At least Iris and Claudia had personalities that strongly resembled the original NPCs, but Rije and Erica could practically be considered completely different individuals.

Would the Emperor be any different?

‘I don’t need to visit the Holy Nation now.’

I shifted my thoughts elsewhere. If I proceeded in a reasonably structured order, visiting the Holy Nation would probably happen around the middle part, after the story had progressed sufficiently.

I would have to visit that country someday. Because there was magic I needed to acquire from the Pope there. It’s much easier to apply buffs with that spell when I need to take down demon-attribute enemies later.

But that was for someday. There were so many things I had to do right now that there was no way I’d have the leisure to turn my attention to the Holy Nation. Before that, there was too much to do in the Empire.

I also needed to ask the Knight Commanders for help regarding the combat fatigue debuff immunity rune, and I had to take down the mandatory bosses of the main story.

‘A total of 3 mandatory bosses.’

Spider Queen Arachneinera.

Blazing Golem.

Blind Black Wolf.

These three were all the mandatory bosses to defeat in the early part to progress the Silver Dawn Knight Order’s main story. The rest were either optional or added in the middle part.

If classified by location, defeating Spider Queen Arachneinera first, then the Blind Black Wolf, and finally the Blazing Golem would minimize wasted movement.

Conversely, if considering efficiency, it was advantageous to defeat the Blazing Golem first. This was because the magic that could be acquired by defeating the Blazing Golem had tremendous efficiency in the Arachneinera boss battle.

My mana was severely lacking, so my mana pool would run out even if I only used magic once or twice, but using magic itself wasn’t impossible.

No, if Erica plays her part, the magic obtained from defeating the Blazing Golem might not even be necessary-

-Knock knock.

“Rookie. Are you in there?”

My thoughts were cut off by the sound of knocking from outside. Soon after, Iris’s voice was heard. Startled, I hurriedly hid the paper. Even if I reveal the truth someday, it’s not now.

“I’m here. Why?”

“I have something to tell you.”

At the sound of her saying she had something to tell me, I cautiously opened the door. Standing in front of my door was a silver-haired knight, dressed as usual in a white sleeveless shirt and silver dolphin shorts.

To put it bluntly, it was Iris.

“What do you mean, something to tell me?”

“It’s something related to Aurora-nim.”

“With Aurora-nim?”

“She said that all the pending tasks have been completed. So, she said they’d be holding a celebration banquet soon.”

“Ah, so they decided to go through with it after all.”

Just a few days ago, Aurora had been fretting, saying there was no way to allocate the budget. But in this short time, it seemed she had finished all the pending tasks and even completed the budget allocation.

“She said she worked a bit excessively, even cutting down on her sleep. Saying that such a celebration banquet should be held before the joyful feelings completely fade.”

This banquet had no less than three reasons. That lord bastard died, Aurora ascended to the position of new lord and head of the household, and the Silver Dawn Knight Order regained its original standing.

“So, I came to deliver the message for you to prepare.”

“It’s not asking if I want to participate, but an order to participate unconditionally?”

“Aurora-nim said that all members of the Silver Dawn Knight Order must attend. Especially you, Rookie, who contributed the most to this matter. Anyway, the total number of participants, including Aurora-nim, is just the five of us, so she said not a single person should be missing. Is there any problem?”

“I wasn’t planning on skipping it anyway, so it’s fine. So, what clothes should I wear? Should I just wear what I usually wear in the Knight Order?”

This celebration banquet was an event that didn’t exist in the game, and I had no idea about the dress code for medieval noble parties, so I felt a little uneasy.

Men’s clothes would probably be somewhat normal, but what about women’s clothes? I couldn’t even imagine how outrageous the dresses they’d pull out might be.

“Aurora-nim said she would prepare everything. So put your worries aside.”

After talking to Aurora-rang last time, it seemed her perception was also altered due to the mod. Shouldn’t I be more worried, not less?

I was dumbfounded when she praised the white sleeveless shirt and dolphin shorts as a truly excellent formal uniform last time.

“……Alright, I understand for now. When is it?”

“It’s tomorrow.”

“What?”

“She said it’s tomorrow evening.”

“I understood perfectly, so you don’t need to explain in detail. More importantly, can a banquet be prepared in just one day?”

“She had apparently given orders in advance to hold the banquet to coincide with the completion of the tasks. The actual preparations had been underway for several weeks.”

So that’s how it was. That’s Aurora-like work ethic, indeed.

“My message ends here. Do you have any questions, or anything else to say?”

“No, not really.”

“I understand.”

Iris, having finished speaking, turned around. And before the door closed, a brief greeting was given with a completely flushed face.

“Sleep well, Rookie.”

“……? Okay, I understand for now.”

Even though she had only offered a simple ‘sleep well’ greeting, Iris’s face was flushed crimson all the way to her ears. And then she scurried away down the hallway.

‘Why is she acting like that?’

It was an unknown matter to me.

And the next day.

‘I knew this would happen.’

Looking at the dresses worn by the Knight Commanders, I realized the power of the mod anew.