Wilhelm's Last Days
For a moment, I wondered if I'd heard wrong.
A successor?
That the Knight King Wilhelm had a successor was news to me.
'So he's a conman.'
Marquis Weiser calmed his startled heart.
Thinking back, how many frauds had there been who claimed they were the Knight King's previous incarnation, his reincarnation, his disciple?
Especially after the great expedition failed, in a few cities there were even guys who openly took a seat of power, boasting they were "the Knight King's disciple."
But not just a disciple, what? A successor?
It was ridiculous.
That calm, unruffled attitude too, if his life were on the line, he'd show his true colors.
Marquis Weiser lowered his hand.
At the moment the knights who understood the marquis's order were about to take a step forward.
"Your Marquisate owes the Knight King a 'star.' In return, Marquis Weiser, what did you swear to the Knight King?"
"... Stop."
Thud!
The knights, who had been scattering murderous intent, halted in place.
Marquis Weiser's gaze was shaking violently.
To the Knight King, he owed a debt. In exchange for the Knight King helping his only child, the Pure White Knight Serengeti, to reach transcendence, he had sworn an oath.
But no one knew that fact.
Not even Serengeti herself, the person concerned, knew.
A truth known only to the Knight King and Marquis Weiser.
Soon after, the man who called himself the Knight King's successor opened his mouth.
"If you've forgotten, I'll tell you again."
Gulp!
The sound of someone swallowing dry saliva.
"… I showed sufficient sincerity."
Marquis Weiser replied.
I burst out laughing.
"Since when did loyalty become shorthand for 'sufficient sincerity'?"
Marquis Weiser had sworn loyalty to the Knight King Wilhelm.
Loyalty is a wholehearted devotion that wells up from within, a matter of the heart, isn't it.
You can't just brush that aside by saying you "showed sincerity."
"Once you were called 'honorable Weiser,' but have you truly become a fat pig now?"
Knight Weiser became a Marquis of the Balan kingdom through his honor and skill. He was a man who knew honor enough to become the master of the 'Garden of Knights' where knights stayed.
Marquis Weiser ground his teeth.
"Five hundred knights died, and Serengeti became a wreck. What more are you telling me to lose here?"
"Even so, it doesn't measure up to the value of a 'star.'"
Originally, the value of a star isn't something even a single great metropolis could cover.
There are 244 such great cities on the Pangaenia continent.
But stars are only 32.
Not just their rarity, but the value and symbolism of the goddess's remains, and their transcendence, couldn't even be compared.
"However, I'm not some rotten bastard. I just want to hear about my master's last moments."
"You mean you want to meet Serengeti?"
"Yeah."
I want nothing else.
I'm not even asking you to hand over the city, and yet Marquis Weiser's expression stayed stiff, refusing to loosen.
"If you're the Knight King's successor, show proof."
"Proof?"
"Swordsmanship. Or even a skill you inherited..."
Even after conveying a truth only the two of us knew, he couldn't believe everything by words alone.
The Knight King's swordsmanship, or a skill.
I straightened my posture, then nodded readily.
"Not a difficult thing."
It was difficult.
…What do I do?
Looking to the far side of the training ground, there stood a regular knight in silver armor, with a savage expression.
He held a sword, radiating a clear intent to split me in half.
[Lv.7]
He was, among those left in this territory, one of the stronger knights.
The truly powerful knights had all been ground away by the great expedition.
So they were handing all sorts of treasures to a mere level 7 knight.
'A Blessed Execution Sword, Blessed Silver Armor of the White Knight, even a Blessed Royal Ring?'
He was a blessed knight in every sense.
To attach the prefix "blessed" to equipment, a high-ranking priest had to bring a blessed talisman and raise a miracle through endless effort and prayer.
Wearing all that, he was definitely a tough opponent for me, a mere level-3.
"You don't look like much, you know. I might kill you by mistake?"
The knight spun the execution sword in circles, all excited.
That knight running his mouth didn't know I was the Knight King's successor.
This duel was being held under Marquis Weiser's strict silence.
"... Do as you like."
Marquis Weiser was grave.
Confirming whether I was truly the successor was hugely important to him.
With the great expedition, all the city's money and talent had evaporated, so he was in decline now.
But if the Knight King's successor helped, maybe this city could avoid collapse… perhaps that's what he was thinking.
"This is that execution sword I've only heard about!"
…Sure, whatever.
It was a line that sounded familiar somehow, but that was how he was talking about blessed treasures.
And judging by the fact that a guy like that was among the strongest left in this city, the city's fate really was running out.
I slowly drew my 'dual swords.'
"What's with those crude swords? And dual swords, too?"
The knight sneered.
On the surface, the two swords I pulled out really did look shabby.
They were no different from the common weapons piled near the entrance of any blacksmith shop.
And above all, dual swords were something only tacky, show-off weaklings used.
No proper swordsman handled two swords at once.
However, these two swords were anything but common.
'Two Extreme Iron Swords.'
Weapons I got as a transcendent reward from Main Quest 3.
Without hesitation, I chose two identical Extreme Iron Swords.
'For switching.'
One advantage of the hidden trait Weapon Master was that it let you handle all weapons with considerable proficiency.
To use that trait to its fullest, you needed weapons to "switch" between.
They weren't Michella's sword, so I couldn't receive the sync effect, but for imitating the Knight King, these two swords were perfect.
[Extreme Iron Sword]
★ An iron sword that has reached the extreme. A normal iron sword faithful to the basics, but by some eccentric Transcendent Star, maximum reinforcement and transcendence were carried out at the same time.
★ Strength +3
★ When equipped together with other gear bearing the Extreme title, 'Extreme' effect
★ Sword proficiency correction + Lv 1
★ Unobservable
★ Bound
Extreme, True, Annihilation, Grim.
Weapons bearing these four titles possess power that can't be defined by ordinary standards.
Since transcendence was applied to such an ordinary weapon, the stat boosts were a little disappointing, but the other effects were on a level that couldn't be compared.
'Proficiency correction. It doesn't look like much, but there's nothing more broken than this.'
The moment I gripped the two Extreme Iron Swords, related messages floated before my eyes.
"Sword proficiency is corrected to Lv 7."
"Sword proficiency is corrected to Lv 8."
"Due to the 'Extreme(+Lv 2)' effect, sword proficiency is corrected to Lv 10."
The hidden trait Weapon Master makes your weapon proficiencies start at Lv 5.
On top of that, the hidden trait Dexterity adds +1 to all proficiencies.
That alone makes a base of Lv 6.
With the two Extreme Iron Swords and the 'Extreme' effect, it rose by 2Lv more, reaching 10.
Whatever it is, once you go past Lv 10, even a pebble becomes a tower, and a drop becomes an ocean.
'Still not enough.'
Even so, it was still not enough to be called the Knight King's complete replica.
With this alone, I couldn't reproduce the Knight King's unique form.
I couldn't even be the dirt under his nails.
What should I do, how could I be recognized as the Knight King's successor?
That moment.
"The Successor of Stars class can, under certain conditions, read the memories of a star held by its previous owner."
"With sword proficiency reaching Lv 10, you read the memories of the star you possess."
"You reproduce 'Heaven' of the Knight King Wilhelm's swordsmanship, 'Heaven and Earth Creation.'"
***
"...."
When a person faces something beyond their cognition, something they can't understand, they become an idiot.
They can only stare blankly, unable to do anything else.
Everyone gathered at the training ground was like that now.
Marquis Weiser, Hudson, Isabella, and even the knight facing me.
'W-what is this?'
The knight looked up at the ceiling of the training ground.
Wearing blessed treasures, he'd been full of confidence. It felt like he could never lose.
His opponent was a dual-sword user with empty swagger. A pathetic guy pretending to be a swordsman with two crude iron swords.
But as soon as the fight began with those two swords, everything flipped.
Before the fight, the opponent had been full of openings, but once it started, the road ahead became hopeless.
His mind went completely white, unable to decide where to strike.
And when he came to his senses again, he was staring at the ceiling like this.
'What just happened?'
He couldn't understand.
It wasn't that the sword was too fast to see.
If anything, it was slow enough to parry.
The mystery of slowness?
That kind of thing doesn't exist. Then he should have parried, but he couldn't.
A momentum that overwhelmed the entire battlefield around him.
Some intangible something that didn't exist.
In that instant, the bastard became the sky.
"... Ah."
Marquis Weiser let out a small exhale.
Only then did he realize he hadn't been breathing.
'It's the Knight King's swordsmanship.'
The sword the man before him unfolded was connected to the Knight King's.
That momentum that transcended cognition and made any opposition impossible.
Only the Knight King Wilhelm could do something like that.
To be impossibly slow yet unblockable, to make you unable to see the whole even with your eyes wide open.
It was like magic, but the Knight King called it his swordsmanship.
If someone could unfold that absolute domain no one understood.
'Ahhh....'
Marquis Weiser trembled.
The supreme Knight King.
Called humanity's strongest, humanity's last hope.
The one he thought was dead had returned.
***
A woman lying in her bedchamber, eyes open but unfocused.
This woman with not a shred of vitality was the Pure White Knight Serengeti.
Alive, yet in a state no different from death.
"She came back tied to a horse in this state. I called the Saintess, but because of the curse's overwhelming power, even the Saintess said there was nothing she could do."
Marquis Weiser spoke heavily.
Behind him, Hudson watched Serengeti, forcing back the tears that kept spilling out.
'The Demon King's curse.'
She was under the Demon King's curse now.
A curse that binds you inside dreams forever, making you suffer nightmares.
The Demon King's curse can't be undone by anything. Even if the Saintess or the Holy Emperor intervenes, it's the same.
But I had to wake her.
Only then could I hear about my own end.
'Serengeti....'
My closest aide.
The knight who followed me the most, along with five hundred knights.
Even their deaths brought me no feeling.
Because to me, it had only been a game.
But looking at Serengeti now, a strange feeling rose up.
It was longing.
Had I been bewitched by the overwhelming reality of this place, something I couldn't possibly call a game?
No, it was time to admit it.
'It's not a game.'
This place isn't a world inside a game.
It was another reality.
"I tried every method to awaken Serengeti. Every elixir they said was good, every famous healer, all of it was useless."
That was one reason the city's finances were shattered.
Even after trying everything, Serengeti still hadn't returned.
"… However, now I must protect this territory as well. In one month, Serengeti will no longer be here. Duke Cyan will take her in, so for me, there is no other way."
"...!"
Hudson's trembling grew worse. His eyes filled with shock.
Duke Cyan was the highest-ranking noble in the kingdom, who had long coveted Serengeti.
Marquis Weiser said bitterly.
"I'm sorry. I couldn't be of help."
"It's fine."
And it really was fine.
I raised my hand over her head.
Then.
Whaaaa!
A cluster of stars swirled around her and was absorbed.
"You bestow 'Star's Blessing.'"
"All star power is consumed."
"Star power is insufficient to break the Demon King's curse."
"The 'Limit Curse' is temporarily lifted."
Slowly.
Focus began to return to Serengeti's eyes.