To the Imperial Palace – 6

-The last immortal. I will dispose of them.

-Please live as a human, crying as a human, laughing as a human…

The large, ancient greatsword in the man’s hand pointed at his own neck. It was a posture ready to strike his neck at any moment.

Kneeling before his master, his calm expression, wishing for her happiness, showed not the slightest hesitation about the fact that he had to die.

He put strength into his arm. The blade moved away slightly, then swung powerfully towards his own neck. The old, rusty, and chipped blade effortlessly dug into the man’s neck.

Cherry blossoms fluttered.

‘As expected, it’s touching no matter how many times I read it.’

I nodded my head and closed the book. It was indeed a touching story, no matter how many times I read it.

The name of the book I just closed was *One-Armed Wolf*.

It was a ‘book’, a traditional collectible item that appeared in the B-Dark series. You had to find scattered pages of books throughout the open world to complete them.

If it were just that, it would have been nothing more than a cheap trick to extend playtime, commonly used by some potato-server companies when creating an open world. However, this collectible had a notorious reputation for another reason.

That was, the novel itself was incredibly interesting.

While it might not apply to those who skipped checking the collectibles from the start, once players got hooked, there were countless cases where they would put even the main story aside and eagerly search for pages.

Until someone in the community distributed the complete novel as a PDF file, it was a collectible that caused immense suffering to many people, purely because of its entertainment value.

I was one of those many people too.

‘I never imagined it would be here.’

So this is the library in the Imperial Palace, huh?

Just in case, I searched further, but there were no novels from B-Dark 1-3. That was probably natural, considering this was the world of B-Dark 4.

The novels included in B-Dark 1 through 3 were *Black Soul 1, 2, and 3* in order, and when B-Dark 4 came out, a completely different series called *One-Armed Wolf* was released. And every single one of them was a masterpiece.

There was a rumor that *The Brightest Darkness 5* was going to include a novel called ‘Old Ring’… but it wasn’t certain.

I would only know if B-Dark 5 had actually come out.

‘Why won’t they release the fifth installment? I’d buy it no matter what if it came out.’

I cursed that trashy development company inwardly and stood up. If they felt wronged by the curses, they should prove themselves with B-Dark 5.

After putting *One-Armed Wolf* back on the bookshelf, I returned to the spot where I had been reading. I was about to wake Rije and leave, but I paused when I saw her dozing off, half-buried in my chest.

To be precise, because her chest was so large, that was the only way she could sleep face down. Or she could lean over the edge of the desk and let her chest hang down.

‘…Is that even possible for someone with large breasts?’

She was sleeping soundly in an uncomfortable position, with her chest resting on the desk, her chin buried in her cleavage, and her arms half-wrapped around herself.

I stared at her as if mesmerized, then snapped out of it. I gently shook her shoulder, which was bare due to her sleeveless top.

“Rije. It’s done. Let’s go.”

“Mmm…”

Rije, still half-asleep, whined softly before slowly opening her eyes.

Then she looked around, and as soon as she saw me standing next to her, she gave a shyly smiling and spread her arms wide. I hugged her from the front and helped her up.

“Did you finish reading?”

“That’s why I woke you up. What do you want to do now? If you’re sleepy, do you want to go back to your room and sleep more?”

“No. I’m wide awake now, so I’m fine. Let’s go to the training ground.”

After the audience with Kaikilia yesterday, we ultimately had nothing to do.

They had called us early in the morning, so we thought it would take all day, but the audience itself didn’t even take 30 minutes, and most of that short time was spent talking with me.

We waited in our respective rooms all day, unable to do anything, and finally, the next morning, we received orders to act freely until His Majesty the Emperor called for us again.

“Even if it’s short, it seems like it will take at least a week. Is it okay to leave the mansion empty for that long?”

“Rana can handle it alone for about a year, no problem. Unless it’s something really big, I’ve given her all the authority to handle things herself, and Rana is incredibly capable. As long as no major incident happens in the territory… Ah.”

Aurora stopped mid-sentence and blamed herself, thinking that something bad always happened when she said things like that. I chuckled inwardly, wondering if the concept of ‘flags’ existed here too.

After that, it was decided that everyone would do their own thing.

Aurora headed off somewhere alone, saying she would revisit old memories since she was back here after a long time. The Knight Captains, excluding Rije, took their weapons with determined expressions and left for the Imperial Palace’s training ground.

I came to the library to see if there was a complete copy of *One-Armed Wolf*, the book that appeared in B-Dark 4, and Rije followed me.

I was genuinely surprised that it was actually there. It seemed it was treated as a masterpiece here too.

“The other Knight Captains are probably still at the training ground, right?”

“Probably? That’s why I suggested we go. Delta, how long did I sleep?”

“You started sleeping when I was about halfway through the book, so not long. About an hour?”

“That’s ‘not long’?”

How long had we been walking down the corridor, chatting idly, when the sharp clang of weapons colliding, indicating we were almost at the training ground, reached our ears? It seemed the Knight Captains who went ahead were having an exciting sparring session. As we exited the long corridor, the scene of the training ground came into view. The clanging grew much louder.

In the center of the training ground, which looked like a miniature Coliseum, someone was clashing weapons.

It was Erica.

Flames surged from her katana, and sparks flew into the air every time she swung her weapon. Unextinguished flames still blazed in various spots around the training ground.

Erica’s body leaped into the air. Gripping the sword hilt with both hands, she rotated her body clockwise, drawing a perfect circle. Cherry blossoms and embers scattered along the sword’s trajectory.

The first and second strikes followed in quick succession, then after a brief pause in the air, the third through fifth strikes landed. And, after a 0.5-second delay, the final sixth strike was swung.

The clanging grew louder and louder. It sounded like *clang-clang, cha-ang, clang, jja-ang, jjae-ang!* The timing of the third strike determined whether the fifth strike was off-beat or not.

By the way, that one was off-beat. I shuddered at the memory of how many times I had fallen for that dirty, petty multiple-choice trap. I walked into the training ground.

The female knight sparring with Erica couldn’t hold on much longer and dropped her sword. Then, the pommel of the katana struck her directly in the center of her forehead. A clear, sharp *pa-ak!* sound was heard.

The female knight, struck on the forehead, rolled her eyes back and fell backward. The match seemed to be decided.

“You’re here.”

“What were you doing?”

“As you can see. We were sparring.”

“The atmosphere seems quite fierce for just sparring, though?”

I glanced at the training ground. Erica, though not wearing full armor, had a grim expression, and the faces of the knights from the Golden Twilight Knights, sitting opposite us, also showed determination.

“Don’t you know why?”

“Indeed. I suppose so.”

I understood and sat down next to her. After all, from the perspective of the Silver Dawn Knights, they couldn’t possibly look favorably upon the Golden Twilight Knights, who had helped that former lord and torn them apart.

Ultimately, the final decision-maker was the Emperor, but considering why Kaikilia had spared that man, it wasn’t entirely incomprehensible that she had condoned his somewhat arbitrary actions.

No matter how arbitrary he had been, he must have seemed like an angel compared to what other imperial relatives had done. At least he remained human until I used a trick to kill him.

However, there was no way to know what the Golden Twilight Knights thought of us.

“Oh, you’ve arrived, Delta-ssi.”

Erica, who had easily won and returned to her spot, greeted me.

“Why the sudden sparring?”

“Well… it just happened. They picked a fight first, though. Perhaps they thought we were easy targets since there were only three of us.”

Erica’s eyes swept across the training ground. Several knights were carrying their fallen comrades off the ground and hurrying somewhere. It was probably the infirmary.

Not betraying my expectations, all the visible knights were women. Not a single man was to be found, no matter how hard I looked.

“You won all of them so far, right?”

“Of course. Even though they outnumber us, they are all just regular knights. No matter how many there are, we are not so weak as to be defeated by regular knights.”

Erica chuckled briefly. I smiled back at her.

“Then where did their Knight Captain go?”

“I don’t know. I don’t see them anywhere.”

As we were talking, a knight in golden armor, who had been anxiously fretting because they kept losing, looked at me and brightened up.

“You, there!”

At that commanding voice, all our gazes collectively turned towards them. A finger, clad in a gauntlet, pointed directly at me.

Since that person was also a woman, it was impossible to distinguish who they were by appearance. I racked my brain, wondering who they were, and finally remembered after seeing the weapon hanging at their waist.

They were one of the Vice-Captains of the Golden Twilight Knights, treated as a mid-boss in the game.

“Who are you? Why are you sitting on that side?”

“Uh, well… a rookie… I guess?”

It was questionable whether I should be called a rookie, but that was what I was, anyway. I hadn’t been officially promoted to a full knight yet.

“Then that’s good. Draw your sword. Since you are also a member of the Silver Dawn Knights, you must participate in the sparring.”

Their face was much brighter than before. Their intention was obvious. Since I was a rookie knight, they probably wanted to beat me up, secure a victory, and restore some of their pride at the same time.

It was an incredibly petty act, but it could be taken to mean that they were cornered enough to resort to such pettiness.

I heard Rije and Erica chuckling beside me. Claudia was also snickering, and even Iris gave me a bewildered look.

I opened my mouth with a reluctant voice.

“…Do I really have to participate?”

“You just said yourself that you’re a member of the Silver Dawn Knights. Are you trying to back out alone?”

“No, it’s not that…”

Because it probably won’t go according to your intentions.

As I was debating whether to accept this or not, Rije smiled brightly and poked my back with her finger. It meant to go.

Iris, Claudia, and Erica were similar. They had eyes that said to utterly crush the last remaining pride of the other side.

I stood up, receiving the gazes of four pairs of smiling eyes.

“Yes. I guess so.”

What could I do when the Knight Captains were expecting so much? I had to give them what they wanted.

Seeing that person acting so cocky, it seemed they didn’t know that their own Knight Captain had challenged me to a duel and gotten utterly crushed. They probably hadn’t told them out of embarrassment.

I headed to the box where the weapons were kept. I had left my blood-stained sword in my room, so I had no choice but to use another weapon. There was no reason to carry a sword when going to the library, after all.

The reason I wasn’t borrowing weapons from the Knight Captains was that they might claim I lost because of the weapon. It was a very dirty and petty argument, but with them, you never knew.

I rummaged through them and picked up the weapon at the very bottom.

I knew it would be there.

“I’ll use this one.”

The weapon I picked up was a Broken Straight Sword.

The reason such a dilapidated weapon was placed with others was that the Golden Twilight Knights used it as a punishment for internal members, making them spar with it.

For some reason, it was impossible to enchant, and even at max upgrade, its damage was weaker than bare hands, making it one of the weapons used by veteran players when they had nothing else to do and were bored.

The expression on the golden-armored female knight’s face greatly contorted when she saw the weapon I picked up.

“…No regrets?”

“If I were going to regret it, I wouldn’t have picked this up.”

From my perspective, this was much better than bare hands. At least this, being a one-handed sword, allowed me to parry if I wielded it with two hands.

You couldn’t parry with bare hands.

“If that is your wish, I shall grant it!”

The golden knight stomped angrily towards the center of the training ground. I walked to the center of the training ground to meet them. Four pairs of eyes, filled with laughter, pierced into my back.

Conversely, the Golden Twilight Knights looked as if they were wondering why *they* were acting like that.

Their own rookie was going to use a broken straight sword for sparring, and not only did their allies show no sign of anxiety, but they were even chuckling. Some strange emotion must have been creeping up on them.

Holding the Broken Straight Sword, I glanced back at the Knight Captains behind me and said,

“Knight Captains-nim. Although I have my original weapon, I regrettably didn’t bring it, so this time, I have no choice but to…”

I gripped the hilt with both hands. The chipped and tattered blade came into view.

Beyond it was the Vice-Captain of the Golden Twilight Knights, who was undeniably beautiful. Seeing that she was still pretty even with such a resentful expression, the power of mods was truly great.

Of course, I had no intention of being complacent. I didn’t want to slip up and get hit for nothing. Picking up the Broken Straight Sword was already being complacent enough. I pointed the tip of the sword at the golden female knight in front of me.

“I’ll try with the Broken Straight Sword.”