chapter 36

'The Emperor ordered me to be watched. I don't understand the situation.'

This was the first thought that came to mind.

'First of all, that guy is definitely an idiot.'

The next thought that came to mind was this.

I don't know what the Emperor wanted from me or what he ordered me to do, but I can easily be sure that he didn't mean for me to be spied on so openly.

Who on earth would say, "I'll be watching you from now on," and monitor someone? If the purpose of such words isn't to discourage the target's actions.

But when I listened to what this guy was saying, it seemed like he wasn't trying to discourage me by saying those things. In other words, he was seriously declaring that he was going to keep an eye on me.

'Nothing has changed since the game.'

The commander of the Golden Twilight Knights was an NPC who was almost like a gag character, who was always boasting and boasting in the game. On top of that, his personality was also a total mess.

Of course, unlike the lord of this city, who had a completely different personality and caused a lot of trouble to others, he was a guy who lived only for his own good, so his situation was a little different.

Just as in any work of fiction, where there are two rival groups, one is usually innocent or good and supports the protagonist, while the other is corrupt or relatively bad and interferes with the protagonist's every move, the two knights of the palace were no different.

The Knights of the Silver Dawn can become full allies and join as companions depending on the story progression and route selection. On the other hand, the Knights of the Golden Twilight do not have anything like that.

'And the skills are also falling further.'

The Knights of the Silver Dawn were named bosses whose commanders were provided with OSTs for boss battles, and the regular knights absorbed into the Knights of the Golden Twilight were also mobs with the special title of 'elite'.

On the contrary, the knights of the Golden Twilight Knights were simply called 'Knights of the Palace'. Furthermore, even the NPC in front of you, the sole knight commander, was treated as a mid-boss rather than a boss.

It was obvious what the producer was trying to say.

"Who are you watching now?"

"Hey, let's cut the nonsense and get to the point. I'm starting to get really worked up about it. What are we going to do with our new recruits?"

When Lize heard that she was going to be watched, her eyes turned cold, and Claudia, who had come up behind her, grabbed her shoulder. Claudia's eyes were just as fierce as Lize's.

The golden knight responded annoyedly, without showing any sign of hesitation.

"I told you earlier. It is His Majesty the Emperor's order. Starting today, for two weeks, I have been ordered to monitor the new knights who have joined the Knights of the Silver Dawn."

"Newbie, did you do something wrong back then?"

"I can't think of anything in particular."

"But why, His Majesty the Emperor… … ?"

"I don't know either. That's why I'm like this now."

The three of us looked at each other and exchanged words in bewildered voices.

It's true.

I greeted the Emperor when he arrived here as I usually do in the game, and I couldn't help but answer the questions he asked, so I did, and I blocked the attacks that came in during the middle because I would have died if I hadn't.

After that, nothing much happened. Aurora was the one who was always by the Emperor's side, and I just kept my mouth shut and followed along.

The emperor didn't even bother to speak to me as I followed him obediently.

'… … Where did it go wrong?'

This was my first time in this situation, so as the absurdity wore off, I began to worry a little. I thought that the main plot of the game had clearly followed the main storyline.

Anyway, as an intermediate step, I ended up joining the Knights of the Silver Dawn, ended up subduing the Headless Armored Cavalry, ended up using the demon to deal with the lord, and ended up safely meeting the Emperor.

The details were quite different from the game, but that was inevitable because the appearance changed due to the mod, and so did the personality.

But as a result, something happened that I had never seen before.

It was unheard of for the Emperor to send down the commander of the Golden Twilight Knights to spy on players. I had never heard of anyone else doing this.

I briefly wondered if it was a hidden event in the game, but soon denied it.

Blizzard 4 was already a game that had been data mined by users, so if there were hidden routes like that, they would have been dug up one by one a long time ago and strategies would have been uploaded to the community.

'Wait a minute. Even your personality has changed?'

As I thought about it that far, I somehow felt like I knew the cause of this situation.

The gender and appearance of NPCs have changed, and of course their personalities have changed as well. It's to the point where it seems like it would be faster to count the characters that haven't changed than the ones that have.

So, the reaction to the player's actions is bound to change as well.

'... ... Write.'

A bitter taste left my mouth as I thought about how I had not realized this simple fact until now.

What if the Emperor's personality changed, just like the other characters? What if he didn't just praise the player for defending his attacks and move on, but became a situation that interested me?

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'I need to think about it.'

After all, I may have been thinking wrong all along. I thought I needed to think about this seriously.

"...."

I needed it, but didn't have time.

'Oh, it really bothers me, really.'

I was shaking inwardly as I listened to the footsteps of the golden knight who was still following me at a distance of a few meters.

Lize, who had followed me to subdue the demons and was watching me, was a nobleman. No, if it was just that kind of gaze, I could have happily accepted it. After all, it was a beautiful woman with great wealth looking at me with blissful eyes.

But that guy was different. Since he openly declared that he would keep an eye on me, he really did not miss a single moment.

Whenever I was walking around the castle, eating at the restaurant, or going out to slay monsters for leveling, I always saw a golden armor in the corner of my eye.

Thanks to that, I was able to defeat the monsters and still not be able to properly raise my abilities. It was impossible to raise my stats while that guy was watching.

What was even more frustrating was that it was only the second day of surveillance. It was nerve-wracking enough to kill me after just two days, but now I had to endure this for two weeks, and it was mind-boggling.

Iris and Erica, who had returned from patrolling the city a few days ago, also looked bewildered when they heard the whole story from us, but they didn't seem to have any good way to get rid of it.

Although he is a snobbish, arrogant, and proud person, he is still the commander of the knights who serve His Majesty the Emperor in the palace.

It meant that he was absolutely not a person who would falsely mention the Emperor. If the Emperor had ordered us to watch over him, how could we possibly stop him?

But, it seemed that it wasn't just me who found that guy annoying, but the other knight commanders as well, as there was no other way.

"Hey, rookie. Why on earth is he doing that?"

"I don't know either. It's possible to guess the mind of a smart person, but it's impossible to follow or guess the mind of a fool."

"That's true. That guy definitely seems a bit low-IQ."

"I think you heard what I just said?"

"I'm telling you to listen. I'm so uncomfortable right now, I could die."

Lize and I were whispering to each other instead of facing each other with our wooden swords. That golden knight was even writing down all that in his notebook. Lize looked at that and let out a sigh.

I wondered what he was writing, so I took a quick look, and it was a notebook recording my activities.

I was so dumbfounded that I asked him why he was writing such a thing, and he even wrote that I had asked him why he was writing such a thing. Why on earth would he write such a thing when he's not even a Joseon Dynasty historian?

'I'm so nervous I can't think of anything.'

There were a ton of things to worry about right now, but that guy was stealing all my attention, so I couldn't concentrate at all. Lize and I sighed and regained our composure.

"So, it's going to be like this for the time being?"

"I think so. It's a bit ambiguous since things don't come without warning, but we don't have a set schedule. Unless something happens somewhere else, I don't think we'll have anything to do."

We exchanged conversations while swinging our wooden swords. The regular sound of wood hitting wood echoed through the training grounds.

In the end, it seemed like the story itself would progress once I reached level 20 and unlocked the runes. Although I'm not sure about that anymore.

As I deflected all three of Lize's attacks, my body suddenly became heavy. I moved my legs back and straightened my posture. My battle fatigue slowly subsided and my senses returned.

'If you want to remove the debuff, you also need to level up quickly.'

I sighed when I thought about when I would ever reach level 20. That was the problem.

Unlike previous games where you could defeat all the mobs in an area, rest at a base, and then go back to respawn normally, now you had to wait a certain amount of time.

Once you level up by going around the area and clearing out all the monsters around you, your schedule will be thrown out the window until you wait for it to respawn.

Little by little, it began to feel real that although I was in a game world, it wasn't really a game.

"It sucks."

'...huh?'

As I was calculating in my head that I could reach level 20 and unlock the runes if I just did one or two more turns, I heard a voice that seemed to be laughing at us from somewhere.

The source, of course, was the golden knight who had been watching me.

"Hey, what did you just say?"

Lize reacted quickly and growled. The golden knight spoke again without blinking an eye.

"I said it was bad. It's a match where you can tell the level just by looking at it."

"If you're here to monitor the new recruits, keep your mouth shut and do your job. The mere fact that someone like you is here is enough to annoy me, so why are you picking a fight? Want to have a go at it?"

"If we fight, can I win?"

"You, you— yuck yuck!"

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I covered Lize's mouth with my hand before the atmosphere became more tense. Lize protested with her eyes, asking why she was doing that, but I put more strength into my hand and opened my mouth with a smile as good as I could.

"It can't be helped because Commander Lize has to adjust to my level. Right now, the only opponents I can spar with are the Commanders of the Knights. Since we both let off some steam, it's only natural that he would think that way."

"Even if you have to match my skills, it's too trivial. How can I survive fighting against monsters like that?"

I've already picked off dozens of those monsters' balls. I plan on picking off thousands more. I wondered what the hell he was talking about without even knowing where he was going, but I hid my feelings and kept smiling.

"I don't think that's something you should be saying, Commander?"

"what?"

The golden knight snapped back at my slight provocation. He was a guy with a really low ignition point.

He has such strong pride despite being nothing special, so it must be an unbearable insult for a new recruit to say something like that to him.

Lize saw my smile and seemed to have guessed what was going to happen next, so her struggling quieted down.

"Right? Anyone can give advice with their mouths. Since you keep talking nonsense without actually taking action, I think you're not confident in your abilities. If you really had abilities, you wouldn't have just said it with words, but shown it yourself."

That was the final blow. The golden knight muttered the cliche, "How dare you say that to me!" and walked across the training grounds to find his wooden sword.

I released the hand that was covering my mouth. Lize touched her lips that had been touching my hand for a moment, then winked at me, telling me not to hit her too hard and to do it in moderation.

It was a smile full of trust in me.

This was the first time the player had ever had to fight him here, but the fact that he came looking for the Knights of the Silver Dawn was something that had never happened in the game.

So, it wouldn't matter if I beat you up a little.

'You were the one who started the fight first.'

He was a guy who really got on my nerves during the game, so I guess I'll just take revenge on him.

A pair of eyes were quietly watching the scene of the training ground without anyone noticing.