I Reincarnated into a Game Filled with Mods – Chapter 15

Chapter 15

‘Why…… are there only four?’

No matter how much I looked around, it was the same.

Iris, silently continuing her meal at the table; Rize, talking to Iris with a bright smile; Erika, nagging at Rize to stop talking nonsense.

And me, looking around.

In this large dining hall, which could be used as a training ground, there were only four of us.

“Hey, Rize.”

“Yes? Why?”

“Why are we the only ones here? Where are the others?”

In the game, befitting the name “Knight Order,” there were quite a few ordinary knight NPCs in the role of regular mobs, besides boss-level NPCs like Iris, Rize, and Erika.

Compared to the Imperial Palace, a full-fledged late-game field, it was a ridiculously small scale, but if you were to defeat all the enemies without respawning them, there would be roughly 20 knights.

If you take the human hostility route, this place becomes a stage, so you need to place regular mobs. The ordinary knight members played that role.

But now, there was no sign of anyone other than the four of us.

“Other people? There aren’t any.”

“There aren’t?”

“No. There are only four of us in the Silver Dawn Knights. Well, now that you’ve joined, there are five, I guess? Anyway, that’s it.”

“……Why?”

“Well…… it’s a bit of a long story. Iris, can I tell the new recruit about this?”

“It doesn’t matter. He’s a member of the knight order now, so there’s no reason to hide it. Just make sure he doesn’t blabber about it anywhere.”

Iris gave her permission indifferently.

“Well, she said it’s okay. Let’s get our food first. I’ll tell you after that.”

Rize said so and walked towards the fireplace. On top of it were a large pot with steam rising from it and white bread that seemed to have been freshly baked and was emitting heat.

Up to that point, it was fine. Even in the game’s setting, white bread made from wheat was a bit expensive in the world of Brightest Darkness 4, but it wasn’t a rare item that even the Knights couldn’t eat.

The pot was filled with meat soup, which wasn’t something the Knights couldn’t afford either. In the game, bread and soup appeared as background resources.

The truly strange thing happened next. Even though Rize scooped up enough meat soup to fill her plate and took five or six pieces of white bread, the amount didn’t decrease at all.

‘What is this, a miracle?’

Rize’s plate was clearly piled high with bread she took for herself, but the tray on the fireplace still had the same amount of bread. For a moment, I thought I was seeing things.

“Ah, since it’s your first time, new recruit, you must find this strange too.”

Erika approached me as I was dumbfounded.

Unlike Rize, who not only filled her plate with soup but also took five or six pieces of bread, Erika’s plate had a normal amount of soup and only one piece of bread.

“Of course it’s strange. How does this even work?”

“I understand completely. It’s natural to be surprised.”

Erika said so and picked up a piece of bread. As soon as she did, the empty space rapidly swelled up and a new piece of bread appeared. I wasn’t seeing things after all.

The bread she just picked up was gently placed on my plate as I was dumbfounded after witnessing it.

“Don’t think too much about it, new recruit. Just think of it as the same as the room returning to its original state. This bread and soup are the same. The ‘original’ state is considered to be when the bread and soup are full, and the difference is that it returns to its original state even while we are watching.”

“Is this the same kind of magic as that?”

I picked up the bread on my plate and examined it. It was nothing special. Rize and Iris were eating it normally, and Erika didn’t seem to have any particular aversion to it either.

As if she knew what I was thinking, Erika smiled faintly.

“Actually, we don’t know if it’s safe to eat this. We’re all just used to it, so we overlook it.”

“Then why……?”

“It would be better to explain that along with ‘why there are only five of us in the knight order’. Here’s your soup. Please sit somewhere comfortable. I’ll explain it to you.”

I received the soup bowl and placed it on my plate. Rize, who was munching on bread, patted the seat next to her with her hand. It was obvious what she meant, so I went and sat next to her.

A satisfied smile appeared on her face. Rize swallowed her bread and turned to me.

“You asked why we were the only ones here earlier, right?”

“Yes. It seems like there’s a reason.”

“Of course there is. It’s all because of that pig bastard.”

Her face crumpled up as if she didn’t even want to say the word for the lord. It was the first time I’d seen the good-natured Rize react like this.

“What should I explain first…… Oh, right. We, the Silver Dawn Knights, were originally the knight order that protected the Imperial Palace. The Golden Twilight Knights and the Silver Dawn Knights. These two knight orders protected the Imperial Palace.”

‘It’s not much different from what I know. The overall setting is the same.’

I nodded appropriately as I listened to Rize’s explanation. Even though it was filled with all sorts of mods and the details were quite different, the overall story and setting seemed to be the same.

The Silver Dawn Knights were originally the elite knight order that protected the Imperial Palace. That’s why they were NPCs you could meet in the early stages of the game, but their boss fights were incredibly difficult.

In terms of setting, they were knights who wouldn’t be out of place as bosses in the Imperial Palace, the final stage of the game.

The reason why such an elite knight order was driven out to the outskirts like this was because of the lord they were all badmouthing.

Surprisingly, the lord of this city was a member of the imperial family. Although from a collateral branch, he shared the same bloodline as the Emperor who ruled 2/3 of the continent.

While his other siblings were all wiped out when the current Emperor ascended the throne, this lord survived by giving up his ambition to reach the pinnacle of power early on and clinging to the bottom.

Since then, the lord had done all sorts of crazy things within the limits of not crossing the line to show that he wasn’t fit to be Emperor. Then he clashed head-on with the Silver Dawn Knights.

‘Of course, it was all his fault.’

He got caught using drugs that were banned in the Empire. And it wasn’t about pretending to be uninterested in power, he just wanted to do whatever he wanted and live freely because he was a bad person at heart.

Fortunately for him, he managed to survive by using all sorts of connections, but he was no longer allowed to live in the Imperial Palace.

That’s why he was living as a lord in this backwater despite being of the imperial bloodline.

‘And he dragged the Silver Dawn Knights down with him in the process.’

To get revenge for what happened to him, the lord tore apart the Silver Dawn Knights’ organization, absorbing most of the ordinary knights into the Golden Twilight Knights and ordering only a few, including the Knight Commanders, to follow him.

The nominal reason was ‘escort’.

‘That’s how it was in the game, but it seems different here.’

It seemed that the lord here didn’t bring the ordinary knights with him, but only the four Knight Commanders.

This was possible because the Golden Twilight Knights were quite corrupt, so they welcomed the opportunity to dismantle the Silver Dawn Knights, who were always sticking to their principles of integrity in their work.

Of course, it would have been impossible if they hadn’t cooperated, but the justification of escorting a member of the imperial family had a strong influence, and more importantly, the Emperor herself didn’t react at all.

From the Knight Commanders’ point of view, there was no way they could look favorably upon the lord who had effectively disbanded the Silver Dawn Knights. The lord himself couldn’t look favorably upon the Knight Commanders who had driven him out of the Imperial Palace.

Since their relationship was like this, it was natural for them to think that there was something behind the fact that he had handed over the castle with the magic on it. There was no way that guy would do anything good for the Silver Dawn Knights.

The fact that they weren’t sure if it was safe to eat the food was also related to that. Who would casually eat something without knowing what kind of magic was on it?

But the knight order wasn’t given any financial or material support, so they had no choice but to take the risk and eat it.

……That was Rize’s explanation.

‘He did a good thing, though?’

I blinked as I realized the true nature of this ‘Restoration Magic’.

It seemed that the lord had cast this ‘Restoration Curse’ on the Silver Dawn Knights to get back at them, but the reality was completely different. This wasn’t even a curse in the first place, and it certainly wasn’t intended for that purpose.

The magic on the castle was harmless to humans.

Well, you’d have to meet the Tower Master, known as the continent’s greatest mage, at the ‘Arcana Grand Library’ or ‘Arcana Tower’, which are the final stages of the game, to figure that out, so it’s natural that they wouldn’t know now.

‘I’ll have to get rid of that guy as soon as possible.’

In the game, you could deal with the lord at any point in the story except for the very beginning.

Claudia, who had left to subjugate monsters, would be back soon, and it seemed like the right thing to do was to proceed with the event, defeat the boss, and then immediately kill the lord to lighten the burden.

“So, new recruit, you have to come with me too.”

“Me too? Why?”

Iris, who had said she had to report what happened in the prison to him soon, added.

“Because he set a condition. He said that if we want to admit someone into our knight order, we have to report it to him.”

“That sounds like he’s going to refuse admission no matter what.”

“There’s no problem with accepting it. We’re not asking for permission, we’re just informing him. It’s just to confirm who it is.”

“Then wouldn’t it be fine to increase the size of the knight order or not?”

Iris shook her head.

“That’s the problem.”