Bond Skill: Black Knight
I was just about to cut them all down today because they were getting in the way.
The spear that had rested on my right shoulder crossed over the crown of my head and came to rest on my left.
The spear once used by the twins’ eldest son had just made me a knight.
It was not a royal sword, and I had not even dropped to one knee. Everything about the appointment ceremony was clumsy and completely irregular.
I wondered what face Amelia would make if she ever learned I had actually gone through that ritual naked. Kairon kept his mouth shut, so he would never tell her later either.
“Lord Kairon.”
“……Yeah.”
When Kairon lifted his head, the helmet rose with it.
“The Death God Cult will keep resurrecting war heroes.”
From here on it was Kairon’s turn—Kairon wearing my face. He needed to stay busy. Ordering a prince around felt surprisingly novel.
“They’re obsessed with them… unnaturally so.”
They had gone after the Hasgard family, descendants of war heroes, and after the royal family itself. The king was the descendant of the hero who had earned the greatest merit among them. In more ways than one, Kairon and I stood in very similar places.
Pathologically, fanatically obsessed. Even after being brought back, the memory of defeat still seemed carved into them. The war heroes of the past had already become historical debris together with her, yet it was as if they had only just woken from a nightmare and could not tell dream from reality. Or as if it were trauma.
“Even if the reason isn’t emotional, resurrecting war heroes is simply convenient. It means turning the most troublesome enemies into allies first.”
As I spoke, Kairon folded his fingers one by one.
“The old ones… the fanatics… and….”
His gaze fell on the twins’ spear.
“People like that….”
He seemed to be counting every existence that would become an enemy. “People like that” meant Kairon, too, acknowledged that humans of the twins’ caliber were a genuine pain. Three of his fingers were now folded.
War heroes. Fanatics. Named elites and officers.
“There’s more.”
I pointed at his fourth finger.
“Monsters and demons.”
Amelia and Kairon both flinched at the same time—especially at the word “demons.”
“It isn’t only humans they can bring back.”
“I see. That’s right….”
Amelia nodded slowly.
“Just the enemies we can already expect number that many….”
“If you look at it positively, it also means we still have a great many chances left.”
“If you look at it positively, yes.”
There was the bad news that one of the Necromancer’s strengths was sheer numbers, and the good news that we seemed to have stopped Kairon’s darkening, but I simply kept quiet.
“For now it will be enough to keep an eye on the tombs of the war heroes. You need not go yourself—just station people you can trust. Mercenaries will do. What matters is that Your Highness moved first.”
“Yes. I’ll have to pore over maps for a while.”
“Handling them ourselves would of course be ideal.”
I turned to Kairon this time; he nodded with quiet confidence.
“I’ll investigate thoroughly as well.”
Truthfully, I never investigate anything.
“If I discover any movement from the Death God Cult, I’ll report it.”
I simply planned to announce discoveries at the most convenient timing, as though I had found them myself.
“…Yes. Hasgard, the days we can see each other often are almost over.”
Amelia stole a glance at Kairon as she carefully brought the subject up. Apparently she could no longer openly appeal to me in front of her real older brother.
“I’ll have to leave the Academy soon.”
That had been one of my goals from the beginning, yet Amelia spoke as if it were the part she disliked most.
“I was already tired of being treated like an underachiever that doesn’t even suit me, but….”
A sidelong glance. Amelia shot Kairon another meaningful look.
“Still, this year, because you were here….”
Glance. Glance. Kairon simply watched her without a word, which only made her face burn hotter. If she was going to get that embarrassed, she should have saved it for later.
“Not yet.”
“Hm?”
“You’ll have to leave soon, of course, but please stay at the Academy a little longer.”
“Hm…? Is that also part of some plan…?”
“No. I simply want you to.”
“Ah—aah, I-I see.”
The speed of her glances at Kairon accelerated until she was darting back and forth like a meerkat.
“Saying something like that all of a sudden while someone else is watching….”
Someone else? In her fluster Amelia had instantly demoted her own blood brother to a stranger. And she was clearly misunderstanding something. When I said I wanted it, I did not mean I wanted more time looking at Amelia.
The Bond Skill. I still hadn’t checked it.
045
I was already regretting having sent Ester away without even checking her favorability, let alone her Bond Skill. That was why I intended to confirm Amelia’s Bond Skill and special commands before I let her go. Amelia, of course, had completely misread the intention.
The cost to upgrade the Favorability Scouter was 300 coins. I was exactly 100 short.
Let’s see. The challenge called Sniper King—hitting a flying bird with a ranged attack—was worth 100 coins, wasn’t it? Every game had those useless challenges. This world, too, seemed to hide absurd challenges and Easter eggs.
It wasn’t difficult, so I decided to clear it at once and claim the 100 coins. I walked toward the old school building and arrived at the flower bed Ester had tended so diligently. The bench by the fountain. Pigeons clustered there as if someone kept feeding them. Whether in Korea or here, they were an eyesore.
I struck the most effective pose for driving pigeons off—arms spread wide, one leg lifted high—and sent them flapping into the air in a cloud of dirty feathers. I locked onto one of them, summoned a single spirit, stacked five accuracy buffs to the maximum, and threw roughly.
Paak!
The Goddess’s Gift—usable by only two people in this entire world—streaked out like a homing missile and dropped the pigeon.
Yay. Wild pigeon secured.
Sniper King
Reward:+100 Coins
The challenge cleared automatically and 100 coins dropped into an account that had previously held only 200. Total: 300. I finally had the coins for the upgrade.
“Master…?”
Thud—
A familiar voice sounded right behind me. I turned and, of course, found Laward. However long he had been watching, and however shocking the sight must have been, he had dropped the lunch bag in his hands.
“Why did you… kill the pigeon….”
Laward’s pupils wavered like heat haze. He could not understand at once, yet his eyes still hoped there was some reason.
I hadn’t given it a movement-speed buff, so it shouldn’t be dead. Probably.
“I didn’t kill it. It looked unwell, so I was checking.”
I lied on the spot.
“Ah… I see.”
The pigeon’s eyes blinked stupidly in my hand.
“Hmm. I should look after its wing a little.”
I layered every buff I had onto the bird. Now it would become the strongest pigeon alive, capable of fighting an eagle and winning. The mana was a waste, but image came first. Giving the disease and then the medicine—what exactly was I doing?
“Farewell, Jonathan.”
I even named it on the spot. Wait—was Jonathan a pigeon or a seagull?
“Bye, Jonathan!”
Laward beamed and waved.
“Phew, what a relief.”
“Yeah… a relief.”
If no one had been watching I never would have gone this far.
“I always eat here, you know. Those things keep getting in the way while I eat, so I was just about to kill them all today….”
Huh?
“I’m so glad. I almost hurt Master’s Jonathan…. That would have been a disaster!”
Scouter upgrade.
Just like last time, two options appeared. The first was the effect I had wanted: once a heroine’s favorability reached its maximum, I would be able to view her Bond Skill and special commands. The second let me see objects or puzzles hidden by magic with the naked eye. The second could be handled well enough by buffing spirits, so I chose the first without hesitation.
Favorability Scouter upgraded
Remaining upgrades:3
Still a long way to stage 5.
The moment the upgrade finished I headed for the cafeteria. Even with Academy graduation approaching, Amelia could never free up time, so we met during the one relatively free period—mealtime.
“According to the chairman it isn’t strictly graduation.”
“Of course not. You aren’t moving on to higher education.”
Calling it dropping out would have been more accurate.
“It’s fine. Whether middle-school dropout or high-school dropout, things work out somehow. Quite a few successful businessmen are middle-school dropouts. There’s even a saying that you have to drop out first if you want to succeed like them.”
“Hm? I’m not particularly worried….”
Today I ate the hamburger she liked as well. To describe the taste from a modern perspective, it was a little short on NTR. In other words, short on sodium.
“Still, dorm life was fun in its own way.”
Even after having the hierarchy sorted out for her?
“Lucia finally gave me the top bunk. Lately she won’t leave my side at all. Yesterday I woke up and she was already on my bed.”
“Ah, I’ve had that happen too.”
“You should think for at least three seconds before saying the next thing.”
“I don’t have any silver, but somehow I understand.”
“Well… even if she does that now, I leave tomorrow. She used to escape every night; these days she sticks to me and it’s annoying.”
“She’s a kid who joined the company because she wanted to escape the dorm… trying to understand her is a mistake.”
“Hmm, was that so. Certainly if it’s Lucia….”
Amelia nodded. Her view of Lucia did not seem very different from mine.
“For all that, she never once got caught, so it must have been boring. Being too skilled is also a problem.”
“I see. Getting caught was the finishing touch…. Lucia must have her own share of worries.”
Building even one proper memory was hard. A little further ahead. Leaving behind banter I already suspected I would miss more than a little, I quietly fixed my eyes on Amelia.
“W-why are you staring like that all of a sudden….”
What else? Upgrade test.
I activated the scouter and stared straight at her. Favorability appeared. Status appeared. And then—
Black Knight
Teleports to Amelia’s location.
The locked Bond Skill finally revealed itself. I tried to scroll further with my finger, but that was everything. No cooldown. No use limit. Unlimited. Whenever I felt like it, I could appear at Amelia’s side.
This was broken. Completely broken.
Bond Skills could only be obtained after maxing favorability—end-game skills, in other words—so of course they showed no mercy in performance.
“Haha….”
“Just what is it….”
Because I was still staring at her face, Amelia’s voice turned teary and she curled in on herself.
“One day I’ll appear with a ‘ta-da,’ so try not to be too surprised.”