Silver Dawn Knights – 4

‘Why… are there only four of us?’

No matter how much I looked around, it was the same.

Iris, silently continuing her meal at the table; Rije, smiling brightly and saying something to Iris; and Erica, nagging Rije to stop spouting nonsense.

And me, looking around.

Inside the large dining hall, big enough to be used as a training ground, there were only the four of us.

“Hey, Rije.”

“Huh? Why?”

“Why is it just us? Where are the others?”

In the game, befitting the name ‘Knight Order’, there were quite a few ordinary Knight NPCs who served as mob-level enemies, even excluding boss-level NPCs like Iris, Rije, and Erica.

Compared to the Imperial Palace, which was a full-fledged latter half field, it was an incredibly small scale, but if you were to defeat all enemies without letting them respawn in between, roughly 20 knights would appear.

If one took the human-hostile route, this place would entirely transform into a stage, thus requiring the placement of mob enemies. The regular knight members served as those mobs.

But now, apart from the four of us, not even a shadow of another person could be found.

“Other people? There aren’t any?”

“There aren’t any?”

“Yeah. There are only four of us in the Silver Dawn Knights. Oh, now that you’ve joined, is it five? Anyway, that’s how it is.”

“……Why?”

“Hmm… it’s a bit of a long story. Iris, can I tell this to the rookie?”

“It doesn’t matter. We’re fellow knights now anyway, so there’s no particular reason to hide it. Just warn them not to blab about it anywhere.”

Iris granted permission indifferently.

“Well, that’s what she said. First, let’s get some food. I’ll tell you then.”

Rije said that and walked towards the hearth. Above it was a large pot, steaming, and freshly baked white bread, radiating heat.

Up to that point, it was fine. Even by the game’s lore, white bread made from wheat was a somewhat valuable item in the world of BraDk 4, but it wasn’t so rare that even the knight order couldn’t afford it.

Inside the pot was meat stew, and similarly, meat stew wasn’t a dish that the knight order couldn’t afford. Bread and stew even appeared as background resources in the game.

The truly strange thing happened next. Even after Rije scooped up enough meat stew to fill her plate and took five or six pieces of white bread, the amount didn’t decrease at all.

‘What is this, a miracle?’

Clearly, Rije’s plate was piled high with bread she’d taken for herself, yet the tray on the hearth still had the same amount of bread. For a moment, I wondered if my eyes were deceiving me.

“Ah, since you’re new, rookie-ssi, you must find this strange too.”

Erica approached me, who was dumbfounded.

Unlike Rije, who not only scooped up a full plate of stew but also took five or six pieces of bread, Erica’s plate had only a standard amount of stew and just one piece of bread.

“Of course it’s strange. How did this happen?”

“I completely understand. It’s natural to be surprised.”

Erica said that and picked up a piece of bread. As soon as she did, the empty space rapidly swelled up, and a new piece of bread appeared. Indeed, I hadn’t seen wrong.

The bread she had just picked up was gently placed on my plate, as I stood dumbfounded after witnessing it right before my eyes.

“You don’t need to think too deeply about it, rookie-ssi. You can think of it as the same phenomenon as a room returning to its original state. This bread and stew belong to that category. The difference is that the state of being full of bread and stew is considered the ‘original’ state, and even in the situation we are observing, it returns to that original state.”

“This is the same kind of magic as that?”

I picked up the bread on my plate and examined it. It wasn’t particularly special food. Rije and Iris were eating it just fine, and Erica didn’t seem to have any aversion to it either.

As if she’d realized what I was thinking, Erica chuckled softly.

“Honestly, we don’t know if it’s safe to eat this. Everyone’s just used to it, so they simply overlook it.”

“Then why…?”

“It would be better to explain that along with ‘why there are only five of us in the knight order.’ Here, have some stew. Please sit wherever you’re comfortable. I’ll explain.”

I took the bowl of stew and placed it on my plate. Rije, who was busy tearing into her bread, looked at me and patted the seat next to her with her palm. It was obvious what she meant, so I went and sat beside her.

A satisfied smile appeared on her face. Rije swallowed her bread and then turned to me.

“You asked earlier why there’s no one else here besides us, right?”

“That’s right. It seems there’s a specific reason.”

“Of course there is. It’s all because of that pig bastard.”

Her expression crumpled as if she hated even uttering the word for the Lord. It was the first time I’d seen the usually good-natured Rije react like this.

“Where should I start… Right. First, we, that is, the Silver Dawn Knights, were originally the knight order that guarded the Imperial Palace. The Golden Twilight Knights and the Silver Dawn Knights. These two knight orders were protecting the Imperial Palace.”

‘My knowledge isn’t much different. The overall setting is the same.’

I nodded appropriately as I listened to Rije’s explanation. Even though various mods had been plastered on, changing many of the finer details, the overall story and setting seemed to be flowing the same way.

The Silver Dawn Knights were originally the elite knight order that guarded the Imperial Palace. That’s why they were NPCs you could meet in the early part, and their boss battles were incredibly frustrating.

According to the lore, these knights wouldn’t feel out of place even if they were encountered as bosses in the Imperial Palace during the very latter half of the game, not just in an early part field like this.

The reason why such an elite knight order ended up being practically exiled to this remote area was all because of the Lord they cursed so much.

Surprisingly, the Lord of this city belonged to the imperial family. Although a collateral branch, he shared the same bloodline as the Emperor of the Empire, who ruled two-thirds of the continent.

While his other siblings were all swept away when the current Emperor ascended the throne, this Lord had given up his desire to reach the pinnacle of power early on and clung flat to the ground, which allowed him to survive.

After that, the Lord continued to commit all sorts of crazy acts, just enough to not cross the line, in order to emphasize that he was unfit for the Emperor’s throne. That’s when he clashed head-on with the Silver Dawn Knights.

‘Of course, it was all his fault.’

He had been caught using drugs prohibited in the Empire. And while he claimed it was to show he had no interest, in reality, he was just a rotten scoundrel who lived freely, doing whatever trashy things he wanted.

Fortunately for him, he managed to survive by mobilizing every connection he had, but he could no longer reside in the Imperial Palace.

That was why he, a member of the imperial bloodline, was living as a Lord in such a remote area.

‘And in the process, he even dragged the Silver Dawn Knights down with him.’

The Lord, seeking revenge for what happened to him, tore apart the Silver Dawn Knights’ organization, absorbing most of the regular knight members into the Golden Twilight Knights, and only allowing a few, including those of knight commander rank, to follow him.

The nominal reason was ‘escort’.

‘That’s how it was in the game, but it seems different here.’

The Lord here seemed to have brought only the four knight commanders, not even the regular knight members.

Since the Golden Twilight Knights were quite corrupt bastards, they welcomed the disbandment of the Silver Dawn Knights, who constantly insisted on integrity in their affairs, with open arms and cooperated, making it possible.

Of course, it would have been impossible regardless of cooperation, but the justification of escorting royalty played a powerful role, and above all, the Emperor himself showing no reaction was a major factor.

From the knight commanders’ perspective, there was no way they would look favorably upon the Lord who had practically disbanded the Silver Dawn Knights. And the Lord himself had no reason to look favorably upon the knight commanders who had caused him to be practically expelled from the Imperial Palace.

Given the relationship between the two, and then being handed over a magic-bound castle, it was only natural to assume there was something else going on here. After all, that scoundrel would never do anything good for the Silver Dawn Knights.

The statement about not knowing if the food was safe to eat was also along those lines. How could they calmly eat it, not knowing what kind of magic was cast on it?

However, the knight order received no financial or material support, and thus, they had no choice but to risk it and eat that food.

……That was Rije’s explanation.

‘But he *did* do something good, didn’t he?’

I, who had realized the true nature of this ‘restoration magic’, blinked.

That Lord seemed to have cast this ‘restoration curse’ on the Silver Dawn Knights as if to tell them to go screw themselves, but the reality was completely different. From the start, this wasn’t a curse, and it certainly wasn’t for that purpose.

The magic cast on the castle had no ill effects on humans.

Well, to realize this, one would have to meet the Tower Master, known as the continent’s greatest mage, in the ‘Arcana Grand Library’ or ‘Arcana Magic Tower’, which are fields in the very latter half of the game, so it’s natural that they wouldn’t know now.

‘First, I need to deal with that bastard as quickly as possible.’

Anyway, even in the game, dealing with the Lord could be done at any point in the story, except for the very early part.

Claudia, who had left to subjugate monsters, would soon return, and it seemed right to proceed with the event, defeat that boss, and then immediately kill the Lord to lighten the burden a bit.

“So, rookie, you have to come with me too.”

“Me too? Why?”

Iris, who had said she would soon report what happened in the prison to that scoundrel, added a remark.

“Because that bastard set a condition. He said that if we want to induct someone into our knight order, we must report it to him.”

“That sounds like he’s going to unconditionally refuse any new members.”

“Accepting it isn’t a problem in itself. It’s not asking for permission, but merely a notification. It’s just to confirm who it is.”

“Then it shouldn’t matter whether we expand the knight order or not, right?”

Iris shook her head.

“The problem is what comes after that.”