chapter 35

A few days have passed since I dealt with the lord. During that time, the atmosphere in the Knights Templar had changed 180 degrees compared to before.

First of all, the fact that all the problems that had been troubling the Knights of the Silver Dawn up until now had been resolved had played a major role.

Regarding the restoration magic hanging over the castle, I received a direct answer from the Magic Tower telling me not to worry, the former lord who had been harassing the Knights of the Silver Dawn was dead, and the matter of the demon and the emperor was resolved safely.

It is a situation where the mood cannot calm down even if you want it to.

In particular, Lize was so happy that the former lord was gone that she hugged me tightly and rubbed her body against me. However, Erica immediately pulled her away, telling her to please restrain herself.

Even though it was only for a moment, the feeling of it touching my body was no joke.

'And that's... ... I guess it's better to just keep your mouth shut and let it go.'

I decided to keep the previous lord's proposal to me a secret until the end. The proposal was to turn the knight commanders into sex slaves. Since the parties involved would be dead anyway, telling them would only upset their feelings.

It must have been dirty enough with what I had been through so far, but I didn't want to add more shit to it.

So, there was nothing much to do, and our Silver Dawn Knights were spending peaceful days occasionally patrolling the city and lightly training with each other in the training grounds inside the castle.

"How much do you put off?

"So we're trying to help as much as we can. There are a lot of things we can't do, so it's not obvious."

"Do you know that even if you five help me all day, you won't even be able to handle a tenth of the amount of work I do? After all, I'm the one who has the final say in the matter. Since you guys are handling it, I have to review it at least once."

Except for Aurora, who inherited the position of both the head of the household and the lord.

Aurora was dying from the work that the former lord had been putting off. There was no way that a person with that kind of personality would do what he was supposed to do.

In the words of the person concerned, 'It's like the work from the first day I arrived here has been put off until now'?

He muttered in a dispirited voice that unexpected events would occur in unexpected places, and that for every one he dealt with, two new ones would appear.

Even if I spent the whole day processing documents, the next day, without even adding a single exaggeration, the same amount of documents would pile up again. It wasn't for nothing that I was groaning and making a death face.

Besides, this is something that Aurora is so crazy capable of that she could even try to organize what's piled up, but a mediocrely smart person probably wouldn't have been able to do it.

That was also the reason why the celebration party we had planned to hold at the mansion to commemorate the death of the lord was postponed indefinitely.

'It's a bit much for us to celebrate alone.'

Aurora said that she was distracted by our presence and couldn't concentrate, so she ordered us to leave, and as a result, we ended up with a lot of time to spare.

And having time to spare meant I could catch up on leveling.

I said that I would take advantage of this opportunity to go and subdue the monsters on my own, and Iris readily agreed, telling me to do as I please.

Since I had caused so many big incidents before I enlisted and had been solving them on my own, I guess I had developed a lot of trust in him, and he didn't seem to have any worries in his eyes when he looked at me.

It seemed like he was saying that if there was something he wanted to do, he should just do it without asking for details.

Instead, Lize followed me around. I had never been in a situation where I walked around with an NPC in Blizzard 4, so it was a little unfamiliar, but I left her alone since there was no particular problem with her following me.

"...."

There was just one problem.

Lize watched me slay the monster with a blissful smile, without even drawing her weapon. It was dirty and burdensome that our gazes never left each other.

"No, what have you been looking at me like that for so long?"

"Why, can't I look at it? I look at it because I like it."

The reason why it was good was unclear.

But since he said he wanted to watch it because he liked it, I didn't really want to say anything, and I didn't really hate it, so I didn't really have anything to say when he came out like that.

I'm not the type of person who would mess up while hunting mobs just because it's a burden.

I tried to ignore Lize's gaze, which was becoming strangely sticky as time went on, and silently killed monsters, and before long, I reached double-digit level.

[ability] [level] 10

[Stamina] 1

[Mana] 1

[Faith] 1

[Endurance] 1

[Skill] 1

[Strength] 1

[Magic Power] 1

[Divine Power] 10

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[Endurance] 1

'Okay.'

After pouring all the abilities I had gained into divine power, I finally felt like I had finally taken my first step. After confirming once again that there was no one around, I carefully observed the abilities.

Raise Divine Power to 10 without touching anything else. At first glance, it seems like a strange stat distribution, but in Bella mode, this was the most efficient build.

For newbies who are new to Blizzard 4, it is better to invest appropriately in stamina, endurance, strength, and endurance.

In fact, the stat distribution of the past-born 'Knight', which is most recommended for newbies, was exactly like that.

They gave him light armor with the same defensive power as heavy armor, and even a longsword, a weapon with no sharp edges, as a basic item, so it wasn't for nothing that they said that newbies should just pick a knight.

However, it was an incredibly difficult game for someone playing it for the first time.

'Yeah, what's the point of thinking about this? It's useless here anyway.'

Of course, that's the story up to vanilla, and if the mod is applied, it's different. In the mod, you have to start from scratch from the initial build.

It's not that it's bad to just use the initial build used in vanilla, but it's just that the efficiency is terrible.

To withstand a single hit from a street mob, you need to have at least 10 health and wear heavy armor. However, to roll without penalty while wearing heavy armor, you need to have at least 30 stamina.

Based on the abandoned ones, a whopping 40 stat points are meaninglessly wasted just to withstand a single hit from a small mob on the road. Even so, boss fights are always a one-hit kill.

The option of wearing light armor and using stamina to fill it up wasn't even worth considering. Even with the knight set, which is the light armor with the best defensive performance, the total stat points would be well over 60.

The key mindset to have in Bella Mode is to never get hit, not to get hit and endure it. In the first place, anyone who thinks like that doesn't even have the skills to touch Bella Mode.

There wasn't much difference in endurance either.

Since the battle fatigue debuff can be removed with a rune, increasing the maximum is meaningless, and since you can roll 3 times in a row with the stamina of an ability with 1 stamina stat, that is enough.

Since you're holding a bloody sword, the Strength stat doesn't really mean anything until you change weapons.

'Then, of course, it would be right to increase the attack power buff duration.'

In addition, buffs are something you will have to keep using throughout the story.

Considering that, it was not a bad deal at all to increase the duration by tapping on divine power and to increase the stats by tapping on magical power.

'Magic power... ... I guess I should just keep it to 5. No. It would be better to use one magic spell in the mid-to-late game.'

I took my hand off the ability check bead. The status window floating in the air disappeared, the blue light source faded, and the surroundings became slightly dark.

As I was climbing the stairs, thinking about where to put my next stat and what build to use, I heard a commotion outside.

'Is there any reason for the Knights to be in an uproar at this point?'

I tilted my head and finished climbing the stairs. Lize was standing right in front of me.

"It seems a bit noisy outside. What's going on?"

Lize turned her gaze to my words. At first glance, she seemed to be greeting me as usual, but I couldn't miss the slight agitation on her face.

What on earth is going on that makes him do that?

"What's with your expression? Did something happen?"

"Incident… … Incident. Well, that's not entirely wrong."

I rolled my head after hearing Lize's answer.

'At this point, has there been any event that could be called an incident in the Knights of the Silver Dawn? The Emperor has passed away, and I haven't even reached level 20 yet. There's no reason for an event to occur.'

After killing the Headless Armored Cavalryman, it was essentially a free action zone until you reached level 20 and the rune slot opened up. It meant that it was up to the player whether to kill bosses, do subquests, or kill trash mobs.

'Something feels strange.'

I walked a little further. In front of the gate leading into the castle, Claudia, wearing her signature white sleeveless top and pink dolphin pants, was arguing with a man.

A voice was heard raised to the highest pitch.

"So, I have no intention of handing over the command to you! How many times do I have to tell you until you understand, huh?"

Claudia slammed her sword, which was as tall as her, against the ground and growled menacingly. But the man standing before her responded with an indifferent expression.

"Your opinion is of no consequence. What matters is that His Majesty the Emperor has given me an order, and therefore you must obey me unconditionally. Don't you understand that?"

"Oh, so that's why you came here all of a sudden, saying that His Majesty has given you an order, so shut up and follow it? Are you kidding me right now?"

"A joke? Do you think His Majesty's orders are a joke?"

"That's what I wanted to ask. If you gave such an order, you wouldn't have just said it verbally, but you would have provided evidence as well. Do you feel like you're some kind of person? You came here with nothing and acted like this? Huh?"

'… … What the heck. Why is that guy here?'

And I stood frozen in place as I watched the golden knight arguing with Claudia.

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Gold, gold, and more gold. A knight whose armor completely covers his entire body is made of gold, whose cloak on his back is also gold, and whose helmet and sword are all gold.

There were many NPCs with similar appearances, but there was only one NPC with that appearance in the game.

Captain of the Golden Twilight Knights.

'He... ... doesn't have a reason to be here right now?'

I was dumbfounded and just blinked. I had no idea where the story had gone wrong. Even though the middle process had changed a lot, didn't the emperor end up doing well anyway?

As I stood there blankly, the commander of the Golden Twilight Knights noticed me and strode over to me, pushing Claudia with his shoulder.

Claudia was looking at the back of the knight commander with a devil-like expression. She looked like she was seriously contemplating whether or not to hit the back of his head.

The knight commander, who had come right up to me, opened his mouth with an arrogant expression.

"You are a new knight who joined the Knights of the Silver Dawn. Is that right?"

"… … Yes, that's right. What's the matter?"

"This is an order from His Majesty the Emperor to keep watch over you for the next two weeks. Remember, you have no right to refuse."

'Surveillance? By order of His Majesty the Emperor?'

What the hell is this?