Dead Knights. Facing the Monster

The dead knights. Confronting a monster.

Terepion, newly appointed Chief of the Gate Management Headquarters, strode toward the gate and spoke with a grave expression.

"Report current numbers."

"Current strength: thirty-five knights."

"Excellent. With this many, we can smash through ten Red Gates with ease. Hell, maybe even more than that."

One of the Gate Management Headquarters personnel listening nearby spoke up.

"Chief. Clearing a single Red Gate normally takes twenty people. To clear ten in succession, wouldn't we need significantly more forces...?"

"What idiotic nonsense!"

Terepion strode forward as he shouted.

"We are all knights! Knights trained to protect the Empire! That statistic of twenty men only applies to those Gatekeepers who used to occupy the Gate Management Headquarters. If they were ordinary people, then we are human weapons. In swordsmanship, in stamina—even in the art of slaughter itself—they can't even compare to us. We are knights who survived countless wars! Men who have tasted real battle!"

"Waaaaah!"

"As expected of Commander Terepion—no, Chief! All we have to do is trust and follow him! Let's wipe out those filthy monsters!"

Honorable knights tended to look down on others precisely because their pride in themselves ran so high. The reason was simple. Becoming a knight meant enduring hellish training and then, on top of that, repeatedly filtering for only the absolute elite through multiple rounds of selection.

For a man like Terepion who had risen to knight commander, it went without saying. Mere monsters—mindless creatures without intellect—could never be his match. That belief had spread through society like accepted truth. The community's reaction was just as favorable.

Public perception had firmly settled into the stereotype that knights were more honorable and stronger than Gatekeepers. The reason was simple. The history of Gatekeepers was less than a decade old, while the history of knights stretched back over a hundred years.

Even as the Empire rose and fell and rose again, knights had always been there alongside it. Comparing them to Gatekeepers—a word that hadn't even existed ten years ago—was hardly fair.

Leos was watching their reactions as well.

"..."

As Leos stared silently at the Distance, Herisia beside him shook her head and spoke up.

"Don't pay any attention to crap like that. Who the hell has been smashing gates this whole time, and now they come out with garbage like that? It seriously pisses me off."

"I'm not looking because it bothers me. Before deploying to a battlefield, you always need to grasp the situation. I check the communities constantly—along with every other kind of media. In the end, these spaces are the only way to read the Empire's condition and the public's mood."

Leos rummaged through the communities as part of his information gathering. It wasn't because he had nothing better to do inside the gate. After checking the knights, the media, the press, and everything else, the communities were always the last place he visited—and their reactions were surprisingly useful for reading the state of the war.

Wasn't that true even now? Learning that a brand-new Gate Management Headquarters staffed entirely by knights had been established was quite the windfall.

Knights, huh...

Among them, Terepion. Leos hadn't heard the man's name often, but he had glimpsed it a few times in passing among knight-related mentions. A man who'd been hailed for his swordsmanship since childhood and reached knight commander unusually fast. That was about all he knew. Even in the novel, the character hadn't been particularly important.

It's obvious how this ends.

They had set out to conquer Red Gates, but the result was already clear without watching.

"Herisia. Are you done analyzing the Distance I brought?"

"Yep! Just the finishing touches left!"

Herisia tinkered with this and that, and before long white smoke began rising from the Distance.

"..."

As Leos simply watched, Herisia flailed her arms in a panic.

"I-it's not broken! During the reset process there's one internal component that has to be physically removed, so..."

Leos gave no particular reply and simply lay back down in his place.

With gates open, acting this leisurely felt genuinely alien. Even during three years locked in prison he had constantly fought with other inmates, so a life this peaceful was practically a first since he had been transmigrated into the novel.

The faces of the inmates he had met in prison floated up one by one.

I wonder if those bastards are doing all right.

Some had gotten out earlier than him. A few were still locked up. Most of the men in that prison had been genuine trash, but some—like him—had been thrown in unfairly, or had reformed while serving their time.

Leos had only taken under his wing the kind who could still be rehabilitated, and he had treated them reasonably well. He wanted them to go out into society and live ordinary lives instead of pulling more idiotic stunts. To be more honest, their circumstances—cast out by the world—had looked a lot like his own, and he had felt a sense of kinship.

Leos slowly opened his eyes.

Bendict. A pitiful man. Huge body, nothing taught to him, always getting used by other people.

His father had been swindled out of every last coin and buried under massive debt. Not long after, the old man took his own life, saying he would take full responsibility. The will apologized and told Bendict to renounce the inheritance and live free of the debt.

The day he read that will, Bendict hunted down the swindler who had ruined his father and beat him to death with his bare hands. That was the crime that put him ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in prison.

Even with no property to inherit, Bendict refused to renounce it. He had to shoulder only crushing debt, yet the man insisted to the end that he would repay every bit of his father's debt.

During his time in prison, the reason he had been able to endure even a little was because of guys like Bendict. Call it shared suffering. Watching people who had been thrown in unfairly still fight to claw their way out made him feel like a fool for sitting there doing nothing.

I wonder if he's doing okay.

Just as he was thinking that—

"Leos-nim! Full reset complete! Even if you call or message with this now, they won't be able to track it!"

Leos immediately checked the Distance Herisia handed him, then crushed the device ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠he had been using underfoot.

"Thanks."

He offered Herisia a word of gratitude, pulled out the Distance, entered Bendict's number, and dialed.

The signal rang a few times before a familiar voice answered.

"Who the hell is this."

"It's me."

"Who the fuck is 'me,' you bastard!"

"You wanna die?"

"..."

Bendict fell silent for a moment, then quietly asked,

"Hyung-nim...?"

"Yeah."

"Leos Hyung-nim! Why are you only contacting me now?! I went to the prison on the day you got out! Why didn't you check your Distance? Did you block me or something?!"

He hadn't blocked anyone. Just in case, Leos asked a question.

"You remembered my Distance number? Recite it."

"It's 000922227336, isn't it?"

"Every single digit is wrong."

"Ah... it said the number didn't exist, so I figured I'd been blocked. Guess not."

Leaving the man's sigh behind him, Leos asked,

"Where are you right now."

"Near the prison."

"Why the hell are you still around the prison? The second you saw a Red Gate you should've run."

"How am I supposed to leave Hyung-nim behind? I kept searching because I figured you were out there suffering alone... Honestly, I'm screwed right now. Too many monsters—I'm trapped. I asked the Empire for help and these bastards won't even look my way. Sons of bitches. When they wanted to put out a warrant they found me no matter how well I hid..."

A guy who couldn't even remember a Distance number had no chance of finding the bunker. He wasn't going to survive on his own dodging monsters either. Leave him like this and he would simply die.

Leos exhaled and spoke.

"Give me your location."

"You're going to help me?"

"You're alone, right?"

"Yes, just me!"

"If I save you, earn your keep."

"Of course! Sending the location now!"

After checking the coordinates Bendict sent, Leos slowly gathered his inventory and bag.

"I'll be out for a bit."

"Can I come with you?"

Whether she was scared of being alone or worried something would happen to him, Herisia spoke up, and Leos nodded.

"Just don't get in the way."

"Obviously! You saw the Distance, right? I'm actually pretty useful, you know!"

Leaving behind Herisia thumping her chest with a gallant look on her face, Leos stepped out through the bunker door.

Terepion, Chief of the new Gate Management Headquarters, looked at the deep-red gate and ordered his men.

"All of you, charge! Today we break the gate and protect the Empire!"

The instant his subordinates surged forward—

—Thunk!

A sickening sound rang out, and a knight coughed up blood as he crumpled to the ground.

"Wh...?"

Terepion stared blankly ahead.

—Shiiiiing!

In front of him stood a monster shaped like a praying mantis, easily several meters tall, fixing him with a razor-edged glare.

"You've got to be kidding me... Red Gate Mutants were supposed to be Leos's job... That guy... fought... monsters like this...?"

His heart sank ice-cold ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠into his gut.

What he had come face-to-face with was a Mutant. One of the countless monsters Leos had been killing all along.