In the Name of a Knight (2)
Items whose primary ability is deception.
The problem is that their deception is absolute—powerful enough to pierce the walls between dimensions.
I had already expected them to be quite good items. But because I bought the most expensive one among them—the Narrative Trick Hwando—I never even got the chance to touch the rest.
Still, Junil had been reading the descriptions of these Narrative Trick pieces of equipment whenever he had a spare moment, and of course he knew the set effect as well.
Opportunity comes to those who are prepared.
Swish—
Page Turning — Ended
Boom!
In an instant the footage skipped, and every Death Knight in his field of vision collapsed.
“······Whoa!?”
Ram jumped back in shock.
“Wh-what the hell?”
Even Ram couldn’t understand what had just happened.
That was the greatest advantage of the Narrative Trick series: its effects worked on Constellations and fairies alike.
“Is the monitor broken?”
Thump. Thump.
Ram smacked the innocent monitor a few times. It remained perfectly fine.
“It looks like automatic direction from the storyboard······.”
Sam had been insisting on the storyboard theory from the very beginning.
“What kind of bullshit storyboard is that?”
Ram dismissed it, arguing that no matter how much the storyboard meddled, it wouldn’t go this far.
“B-but look at this.”
Sam shared the previous footage.
The scene of the battle against the Death Knights.
[Music Bank Camera Effect]
With dynamic camera spins, perfectly timed close-ups, fade-outs, and smooth transitions, the action came out incredibly flashy.
“······It’s only giving Julian special direction!”
“No it isn’t. Our Hae-il gets background music whenever he rides his motorcycle, doesn’t he?”
“That’s something we set up ourselves!?”
“W-well, that’s true······.”
Ram scratched his head.
“By the way, what the hell is Kang Hae-il doing?”
“!”
Sam and Ram looked at each other at the same time, startled.
“Shit.”
“Huh?”
Why?
Because even they hadn’t been watching Hae-il’s point of view!
How much worse must it be for the Constellations!?
“Hey! Switch to Kang Hae-il’s feed right now!”
Out of all these countless monitors, not a single one had been assigned to Kang Hae-il.
It made sense.
Kang Hae-il’s party was still locked in a desperate battle against two Death Knights.
Down below, Death Knights were being sliced apart by the dozen.
Up above, four people were struggling against just two. It was so frustrating they couldn’t bear to watch.
“Damn it! What the hell is going on!?”
“Kang Hae-il took damage earlier and the healing isn’t working. That’s why he can’t fight properly.”
While Kang Hae-il’s level might match the Death Knights, his combat sense was still pathetically beginner-level compared to Julian’s.
On top of that, some unknown ability error was occurring right now.
In reality, it was Yu Jihun, Lee Suyeon, and Kim Ri-el facing two Death Knights. There was no way it would be a proper fight.
“Aaaargh! Why!? Why isn’t the healing working!?”
The core of Kang Hae-il’s abilities was his regeneration.
The flames that burned everything would heal him instead.
That was the overwhelming advantage of the Flame of Conviction······
But there was one condition.
“It seems Kang Hae-il’s conviction is wavering······.”
“!”
As long as his conviction didn’t waver, the Flame of Conviction would grant him every ounce of its power.
But if his conviction wavered, he would lose not only that conviction but everything else as well.
However, neither Sam nor even the designer Ram knew exactly what the “conviction” in question pointed to.
Was it an ideology? Or some consistent principle?
It was the inevitable uncertainty inherent in the linguistic signifier.
Meaning always slips and deviates from the signifier.
This kind of chronic bug was something even the Story Fairies could not escape.
“Whoa!”
Ham jumped up and down outside the bars.
“Pam! Look at the items I put in! He’s using them perfectly! As expected of Julian!”
She seemed very pleased with how Julian was utilizing the items, but Pam couldn’t simply rejoice······.
“Pam? Why have you been making that face since earlier? Julian’s doing amazing right now······.”
“Kya, kyarru? What’s wrong with me?”
“Your expression is stiff.”
“N-no it isn’t!?”
It absolutely was.
Pam’s mind was in chaos right now.
The 7th round has crossed over.
How on earth had this happened?
Connecting storyboards was an extremely dangerous attempt, and permission was rarely granted.
There was no reason for Ram to want to link Pam’s storyboard.
What is going on?
Pam’s worries didn’t last long.
Clang!
Because the decisive clash between Julian and the Death Knight Dross had begun.
Dross’s long sword was restricted in the narrow classroom environment, and Julian took full advantage of that.
Even so, the two were completely even.
Clang!
Dross used slow but efficient swordplay to deflect every one of his strikes.
Even though he couldn’t even see the sword.
“You······ you’re fighting way too well!? Can Julian really handle this!? He’s even using the Narrative Trick set effect now······.”
Ham was gradually growing anxious.
She could feel the difference in firepower between them.
That’s right.
It wasn’t a difference in skill—it was a difference in firepower.
Just look at the way Dross’s strikes came crashing down.
Booom!
“Ugh······!”
The power was immense.
No matter how Julian blocked it, the pressure was enough to make his arms tremble.
Above all, the chill was the problem.
The energy of the dead that pierced straight to the bone couldn’t be stopped just by blocking the sword strike.
“That guy······ isn’t an ordinary summon.”
Pam had noticed.
He wasn’t just any summon.
And he wasn’t just any named monster either.
“Huh? But he’s not a World Boss either, right!?”
“True.”
“No way! What was Ram thinking when he made the difficulty this high!? A mere summon is this strong!? If it weren’t for Julian, there’s no way anyone could win! And look up there—Kang Hae-il is still stuck in a stalemate with those level-40 Death Knights!”
Ham’s chubby cheeks trembled as she furiously ranted.
After all, Julian had gone through the trouble of using her items so well.
It would be too disappointing if he fell here.
But they also had to hear Ram’s side of things.
“It’s not Ram.”
“Huh?”
“It’s storyboard intervention.”
Pam believed that only the storyboard could make this kind of intervention.
“As proof, the plausibility is dropping rapidly. Power inflation has begun.”
When the density of “plausibility”—the greatest device protecting the protagonist—drops sharply, the story naturally flows toward the most realistic direction.
The most common phenomenon that appears in such cases is what is called “power inflation.”
Enemies that match the actual strength of the people in this world keep appearing.
Creatures that completely escape the fairies’ control and gradually become too much for the world to handle.
Yet the storyboard judges that this level is appropriate compared to the characters’ power.
“Ram has spent too many coins lately. The plausibility rose too high and created the conditions for intervention. And Julian is here, right? So enemies scaled to him appeared. That’s why the inflation exploded properly.”
“Wait a second!?”
At that point Ham shot her hand up.
“You’re saying the power balance was adjusted around Julian!?”
“Exactly.”
In a way, this was good news.
“The storyboard is focusing on Julian as the center.”
“Whoaaa! Amazing! Totally amazing! It’s a sub-stream!”
Ham jumped up and down excitedly.
When someone who isn’t the protagonist is granted the main point of view.
That is called a sub-stream.
“Of course, it’s only for this chapter.”
“Still! If it’s already like this, he’ll definitely complete the mission!”
At the very least, the final act of Chapter 2 had become Julian’s stage.
If things continued this way, Julian’s influence would keep growing, and Ham’s intervention power—which was connected to him—would grow as well.
The moment it crossed a certain threshold,
An unprecedented event would occur: the takeover of the storyboard.
Ham giggled as if the mere thought filled her with delight.
But something feels off.
Pam fell into thought again.
The guy from the 7th round appeared here······ and the gate was connected to the 1st round······ just what is······.
She could feel a certain “gaze.”
Someone was watching Julian.
Staring at him intently.
Just as light changes its nature depending on whether it is being observed, so too does a story.
It can change depending on who is watching.
You······ who are you?
After dozens of sword clashes, a single opening finally appeared.
Junil shouted.
“Mana······ Pop!!”
Booom!
Dross was sent flying backward and slammed into the blackboard.
He dodged it.
The Mana Pop hadn’t gone in properly.
He had to close in right away and finish him off.
But Junil’s instincts screamed at him.
“Haa······ ha······.”
If he chased after him without catching his breath here, he would die.
The enemy was waiting for him to come in, and he still hadn’t used his full strength.
This bastard isn’t just a regular knight.
The way Dross moved, the relaxed way he observed the situation even after being slammed into the blackboard—everything said so.
He was no ordinary summon.
Creeeak······
Dross pulled his massive armored body out of the blackboard and spoke.
“Impressive. Sir Sagosul.”
Dross, too, acknowledged that Junil was no ordinary person.
The title “Sir” was proof that Dross was being completely sincere.
“To have killed so many knights and still fight me to this extent.”
At his feet lay the corpses of his former comrades.
Dross planted his long sword into the floor.
Thud.
He clasped both hands over the hilt as if mourning them and spoke.
“The grudges of the knights whisper to me. A resentment that not even death could bind.”
Srrrr······!
At that moment, the corpses turned into black dust and scattered.
Dross lifted his head and watched the dust rise into the air.
“Mourning is a luxury, and honor is nothing but a shackle······.”
He hurled the massive sword to the side.
Crash!
“Such outdated methods of combat would be an insult to you, Sir.”
Shing—
He drew a smaller sword with both hands.
It was a pair of ominous short swords swirling with a dark blue energy.
Not something a knight would use.
Dross had once been a dishonorable assassin.
Before he swore the knight’s oath, he had used any means necessary. He had been a free bird soaring above the city.
Later he clipped those sinister wings, stood upon the earth, and gained honor.
But that honor had been a heavy burden.
Clang—
The armor that had been constricting him fell away completely.
He was about to fight in a style optimized for this place, and at the same time, he was freeing himself from the oath that had bound him.
Name:Problem Solver Dross
Level:58
Without even introducing himself, Dross became a black wind and charged.
Any ordinary opponent would have already died to that sudden assault.
However—
He was monologuing the whole time, so I got to catch my breath······!
Junil had finished his preparations as well. He drew his blade like lightning.
Caaaaang!
The moment their swords met, the deathly energy known as chill exploded outward, clashing violently against pure, powerful mana.
Boomboomboom!!
Every desk in the classroom was pushed aside like a parting sea and smashed to pieces.
It was then that Junil realized.
Wait······.
He had thought the enemy was extraordinary, but after receiving that attack, he finally understood.
Kim Do-jeok!?
The guy who had briefly been his comrade back in the 7th round.