I Reincarnated into a Game Filled with Mods – Chapter 11

Chapter 11

“The test ends here.”

It was Iris who intervened between us.

As Rize had said, “I’ll control my strength perfectly, so don’t worry,” the twin daggers she held stopped just before they touched Iris.

On the other hand, the Bloodstained Sword in my hand was trembling as Iris held its blade. Realizing this, I released the strength in my hand, and the vibration of the blade stopped abruptly.

Iris, who had intervened between Rize and me at a speed invisible to the eye and stopped the spar, only released the sword after confirming that both of us had released our grip.

The tip of the sword fell powerlessly to the floor.

“Was the last technique you used Frost Storm Assault?”

“Of course. I said I’d only use one. Then I have to go all out. What else is there?”

Ah, is it a bit strange to use the expression “all out” while using ice? she added.

“I clearly stated that this was just an entrance exam. This time, you went easy on him, so he got away without any injuries, butㅡ”

“I didn’t go easy on him, though?”

Rize smiled brightly and met my eyes. It was a smile that seemed to say she had a lot to say. I avoided her gaze slightly.

“What are you talking about, Rize?”

“Exactly what I mean. I wasn’t going easy on him at all. I was completely serious from start to finish. And the newbie took it all in with his own abilities. Right, newbie?”

At that bombshell of a statement, not only Iris but even Erika looked at me. With three eyes of various colors directed towards me, I felt a pressure as if holes were going to be drilled into my face.

“But if you didn’t control your strength, that’s a problem in itself. Have you forgotten?”

“I could have stopped at any time if I thought he couldn’t block it. I even reacted and stopped when you suddenly intervened, Iris. Do you think I wouldn’t have been able to tell if the newbie could block it or not?”

Rize, who easily dismissed Iris’s worries, approached me with her usual bright smile. Then, she put her arm on my shoulder and pulled me down.

Because there was a considerable height difference between us, I had to bend my waist a little even when I stood on tiptoe to match her eye level. Rize poked my cheek with her index finger.

“Wow, I was really surprised, newbie. I never imagined you’d try to counterattack in that situation. I guess it wasn’t an empty threat when I said before the match what I’d do if you countered everything?”

“What about your dignity and face as a Knight Commander?”

“It’s not really important anymore. Now that we’ve confirmed that our newbie is such a talented lucky charm, do you think it matters that I lost one spar?”

Our bodies got closer. Because of the posture, her breasts, which were almost the size of my head, rubbed against my arm. The person herself didn’t seem to be aware of her posture at all, though.

“And one more thing. There’s something very, very important that our newbie needs to know. You have to listen to this no matter what.”

Rize’s voice suddenly dropped, and her expression turned serious. Then I became serious as well. Just how important was this that she was being so serious?

“You, drop the honorifics with me.”

“……Huh?”

For a moment, I thought I had misheard.

Her voice and expression suddenly became serious, so I thought she was going to say something really important, but telling me to drop the honorifics was a really unexpected suggestion.

“You don’t have to use honorifics with me, so just drop them. It’s uncomfortable for you to use them, and it’s uncomfortable for me to hear them, so just drop the formalities and speak comfortably. It’s a special service I’m offering because I really like our newbie. How about it? Do you like it?”

“Uh…….”

I didn’t know how to react to this. Her personality was completely different from the original NPC in the game. I asked Iris and Erika for help with my eyes.

As if she had read my intention, Erika spoke in a resigned tone.

“Just accept it. Even if you refuse now, she’ll cling to you until she hears you say okay. Even though she looks like that, my sister is quite stubborn.”

“Even though she looks like that? Hey, what does that mean?”

“What do you think it means, sister? You know better than anyone.”

Rize growled at Erika for a moment, then lowered her voice again and subtly met my eyes.

“Ignore her. Anyway, did you hear that, newbie? You can drop the honorifics with me now, and you can drop them with Erika too. You already talk casually with Iris, right? It’s the same thing. She’s the same age as Iris, so there’s no problem. Come on, say Rize quickly. Okay?”

Was she the oldest here? She didn’t look like it at all.

Unable to withstand the intense pressure in her gaze, I cautiously opened my mouth.

“Ri……ze?”

“Yes, yes. Good job. Don’t use honorifics from now on, just call me comfortably. Whether it’s Knight Commander Rize-nim, Knight Commander Rize, Sister Rize, or Sister Rize, it’s all unnecessary. Just Rize is enough. Got it?”

Rize clung to me, smiling brightly as if she was so happy.

Just looking at her appearance, she looked like someone who wouldn’t bleed even if you poked her with a needle, but she had the most cheerful and friendly personality, so it was hard to adapt to the dissonance.

“So, did I pass the entrance exam…… Did I pass?”

I was about to use honorifics without thinking, but when Rize, who was hanging on to me, glared at me and tightened her grip around my neck, I quickly changed my words. Rize smiled contentedly again and clung to me.

“Of course you passed! What would my face be if I failed our newbie here? What about you, Erika? No, you’d say he passed anyway, right? Then it doesn’t matter, right? Welcome to the Silver Dawn Knights, newbie!”

“……I don’t like you assuming my thoughts, sister, but I can’t deny it this time because it’s true. I agree with Sister Rize. Welcome to the Silver Dawn Knights, newbie.”

When Rize and Erika announced that I had passed, Iris nodded as if she had expected it. Her face seemed to show a considerable amount of trust, probably because of what I had shown them so far.

“Welcome to the Knights, newbie. We’ll think about your assignment later. For now, get some rest. We’ll formally introduce you after Claudia returns.”

As long as my stamina didn’t run out, I didn’t feel tired, so it didn’t matter whether I rested or not, but there was no need to refuse such consideration, so I nodded obediently.

“Erika, show the newbie to his quarters. The location…… The floor right below the Knight Commanders’ quarters will do. I’ll leave it to your discretion which room to assign him to.”

“Understood, Iris. Then let’s go, newbie. I’ll show you to your quarters.”

When the newbie and Erika completely disappeared into the castle, Rize exclaimed in a surprised voice.

“Iris, where did you find such an amazing kid? You saw it too, right? Him deflecting all my attacks? He’s way too skilled to be a newbie.”

“I don’t know.”

“Come on, don’t lie. Like you’ve been hiding him somewhere to raise and devour him laterㅡ Wait, wait! I can’t even joke?!”

Seeing Iris clench her fist with a cold look, Rize quickly swallowed her words, saying it was just a joke. Iris clicked her tongue and released her fist.

“I would have told you if I knew. I really don’t know. I went to inspect the prison on that damn order, and the people there were almost all killed by monsters, and only this newbie survived. And the survivor himself was cursed by a witch and has no memories or anything. What am I supposed to know?”

“One monster did all that? Shouldn’t you have subjugated it?”

“No need. He killed it.”

“Killed it? The newbie? That monster?”

“Yes.”

“……How?”

Iris briefly explained what had happened in the prison.

How she found the newbie fighting the monster alone near the main gate as she was leaving after confirming there were no other survivors while inspecting the entire prison. How the newbie eventually succeeded in subjugating it alone.

She also added how he deflected all of the monster’s attacks with a crude steel sword, as if he knew exactly how it would attack.

At first, she tried to help, but she felt like she shouldn’t, so she just watched, and her armor got blown away in the last attack.

Rize, who had listened to Iris’s explanation from beginning to end with her mouth shut, opened her mouth with a slightly hardened expression.

“The newbie, you said he was an Abandoned One, right?”

“He said so himself. He’s probably right. If you don’t believe it, you can use the Ability Confirmation Orb.”

“No, it’s not that I don’t trust the newbie. It’s not that I don’t trust him, but…… He’s cursed, right? And not by some nobody, but by a witch’s curse. That means his physical abilities are no different from an ordinary person’s, he can’t use magic, and he can’t handle mana. But how is that even possible?”

Rize recalled how the newbie had accurately predicted and deflected all of her attacks during the entrance exam. It wasn’t just a fluke; it was something he could only do because he was truly skilled.

He seemed to be lacking in strength, but not in skill at all. No matter how many consecutive attacks she launched or how fast she attacked, it felt more like he had predicted and read them in advance.

The more she thought about it, the more amazing it was.

“…….”

As the conversation paused because they were both lost in thought, Iris stared at the palm of her hand that had blocked the newbie’s sword. There was a wound on her palm.

It was such a faint scar that it was embarrassing to even call it a wound, but the fact that it existed at all was the problem.

Considering the difference in strength and skill between them, such a wound shouldn’t have appeared. She should have simply grabbed the sword and ended it there.

But she couldn’t.

“That’s…… from the newbie, right?”

It was a sentence with the beginning and end cut off, but the meaning was clear enough. Iris nodded in affirmation.

At the very last moment, the newbie had reacted instantly to Rize’s Counter Parry, which was her trump card, and twisted the trajectory of his attack. That’s why her palm was slightly cut.

Rize, who had prepared for Counter Parry after seeing the newbie’s attacking posture falter for a split second as his attack was about to land.

The newbie, who had deflected all of Rize’s attacks and was trying to counterattack, reacted to the incoming Counter Parry and twisted the trajectory of his sword.

Iris, who intervened between them and changed her posture as soon as she confirmed that the sword’s trajectory had been twisted. All three of them could be said to have similar skills.

Yes, the problem was that all three of them had similar skills.

Two of them were veteran Knight Commanders who had been wielding swords for over 10 years, and the other was a human cursed by a witch. It was only natural that their skills shouldn’t be similar.

“Until then, I was just impressed, but at the end, I was truly surprised. You intervened because you thought the newbie wouldn’t be able to react either, right?”

“……I won’t deny it.”

If it had been me there, could I have done the same as the newbie? Iris asked herself.

No matter how many times she thought about it, the answer was ‘no’.

Deflecting all of those ferocious consecutive attacks, finding an opening to attack in the midst of it, and changing the trajectory of the attack by reading the opponent’s counterattack stance that came in unexpectedly right before the attack landed.

And above all, doing all of that with a body that had been significantly weakened by a witch’s curse, in the first encounter with Rize.

It was something that was logically impossible, but the newbie had done the logically impossible as if it were nothing. It was a story that no one would believe even if she told it as a bar tale.

She couldn’t even begin to guess what kind of person he was originally or how much talent he had within him.

“Iris.”

“What is it?”

“You don’t have any special relationship with the newbie, do you?”

“If by ‘special relationship’ you mean romantic attraction, then no. We only met by chance in the prison. Is there a reason you’re asking?”

“A reason? Yes, there is. If you haven’t already claimed him, I’m going to.”

Rize licked her lips.

She liked the newbie in many ways. He was quite handsome, had a good body, and above all, he met all the conditions that perfectly matched Rize’s sexual preferences.

Discovering a man with outstanding skills and talent while he was still a sprout, nurturing him, and then being devoured by him later. That was Rize’s sexual preference.

She knew very well that her own preferences were embarrassing to reveal, and she thought it was almost impossible to realize them in reality, so she had always kept them as an ideal in her mind.

But now, a man who seemed to be the embodiment of her ideal had come right in front of her. She couldn’t miss this opportunity, no matter what.

The fact that the newbie was a healthy adult male was also a plus. What Rize wanted was a reliable and talented man who hadn’t yet blossomed, not a short kid or a brat.

“Do as you please. I won’t mind.”

“Really? You won’t say anything different later, right? You won’t suddenly appear after I’ve gobbled him up and try to get a piece of the action, saying you met him first, right?”

“What do you take me for? I wouldn’t do that.”

Just as Rize, who had received something resembling permission from Iris, was about to excitedly run off, a blunt voice stopped her.

“Ah, I do have one question.”

“Huh? What is it?”

Iris was the one asking a personal question first? This was a very rare situation. Her legs stopped involuntarily. Rize perked up her ears.

“You’ve never even held a man’s hand before, yet you know how to seduce a man?”

“What the h*ll, b*tch?”

Rize looked at Iris with a dumbfounded expression. She was saying that even though she herself was a ‘woman who has never held a man’s hand’?