The Suspicious Figures Have Vanished
The darkness seemed to dissolve into brilliant light.
I couldn't tear my eyes away for even a second.
“Who… are you?”
I wanted to ask, yet my lips refused to move.
From the maw of that enormous metal monster, a girl emerged entirely bathed in silver.
The sight of that fragile, wind-tossed child crawling down from the sinister metallic body while trembling violently was almost unbearable.
“Um… here, drink this first.”
“……”
The girl cautiously extended a small glass bottle.
Inside swirled an unknown liquid whose nature defied explanation.
Poison? Or some cruel torture drug that would intensify the pain?
Whatever it was, I could barely twitch a single finger.
I had no choice but to let the liquid slide down my throat.
“My body… feels hot.”
A strange sensation. Yet at the same time, the cold numbness in my limbs began to thaw.
“An elixir…?”
I simply could not comprehend it.
Was she trying to save me only to later probe my past?
“This is a mana potion I’m using… It should be enough for emergency treatment.”
Reality felt utterly surreal.
In truth, nothing at all had made sense since moments ago.
Within that warm haze, only the girl’s murmured voice floated distantly.
Perhaps I was already dead?
Yes… that was it… The angel… came to greet me…
Bio response and mana recovery confirmed.
Reinitiating emergency return.
The shattered magic circle erupted in fierce light, reactivating in an instant.
Blink! With a blinding flash, the man’s still body dissolved into light, ascending skyward as if the legend told.
Where the light faded, only five abandoned black Titans lay scattered.
“…?”
With the flash gone, the man who had been panting heavily had vanished without a trace.
The only sound left was the rustling of leaves in the wind.
“Eh… ra?”
My outstretched hand seemed to hover in empty air.
A dumb voice escaped my lips.
Did I die? Did I disappear?
Teleportation activated. Empty cockpit detected.
“I, I… was I just killed?”
I stared at the swirling mana rising like mist from the floor.
The telltale trace of an emergency escape teleportation.
Mana residue detected. Teleportation signature confirmed.
“I thought I’d killed someone…”
Only after realizing they were not metal golems did the realization hit: a blood-soaked man had jumped out.
The chill of that moment.
“Wasn’t I supposed to be mistaken for a monster just because I painted it this horribly?”
I clicked my tongue and inspected the rusted metal in front of me.
What a pathetic design sense.
From head to toe, it looked like it had been dipped in rust.
Even if the parts were top-tier, no one would buy a Titan painted like this.
“What on earth was he doing in a place like this?”
No family crest or national emblem anywhere to be seen.
Even as someone who had rummaged through junkyards, this design was utterly foreign to me.
“Could he be… a Titan thief?”
Recalling memories from my gaming days, this was probably one of the random encountered enemies.
A fallen knight driven from power, or some wannabe knight who had scavenged a wrecked Titan and gone bad.
“Well, there’s nothing else it could be.”
Upon thinking about it, that seemed plausible.
What legitimate knight order would secretly operate at night, painting themselves black and crawling around the outskirts?
“Then that’s a relief.”
If it was just a gang of thieves I had dealt with, no one would bother questioning me later.
Titan repair bills, hospital fees, mental trauma compensation… anything like that.
I hated being dragged into trouble during this quiet period of growth.
“Anyway…”
I turned my gaze once more to the five black Titans scattered across the floor.
Four of them were as good as new, and the fifth had only broken joints, leaving its core components intact.
These were the highest-grade salvage I could ever hope for—far beyond anything scavenged from junkyards.
“I can take the rest, right?”
***
“Have the whereabouts of those suspicious individuals been found yet?”
In the quiet of the Kingdom’s war room, Queen Iliana’s soft voice settled heavily.
“Forgive me, Your Majesty.”
The Abyss. The Kingdom’s lifeline, a vast source of resources.
If its entrance were destroyed, the Kingdom would suffer a blow from which it could never recover.
“No news yet, Your Majesty.”
That was why the Intelligence Department’s report from just a few days ago had thrown the Kingdom into crisis.
A massive mana distortion had been observed near the Abyss entrance.
“According to the Intelligence report, there were no signs of combat.”
“That’s impossible.”
Iliana sighed and shook her head.
“A group of that scale could not simply wander around the Kingdom’s vicinity and leave.”
The neighboring great powers were all eyeing the Kingdom’s throat with hunger.
The most likely culprit was the Holy Kingdom, given its border, but honestly, it could have been any nation.
“We must investigate thoroughly, no matter the cost.”
The Kingdom had only opened its Abyss entrance five years ago.
Despite harvesting enormous resources, we had barely caught up to the military strength of nations that had been crossing the Abyss for decades.
If the incident had happened a few days earlier, the Kingdom would have had no choice but to pay tolls to foreign powers once more.
“And we must also cultivate more knights.”
“That is impossible, Your Majesty.”
Captain Karinne of the Royal Guard spoke firmly.
“If we lower the knight selection criteria too much, people who cannot even walk properly will flood in.”
She had always spoken her mind to her long-time childhood friend, the Queen.
“Sending those who fail the standards into the Abyss is tantamount to killing them oneself.”
She understood the weight of her words.
After all, the Queen herself was a Titan pilot.
“That may be true. But the situation is too urgent. Who knows whether there is a mana-compatible person hiding somewhere?”
“Your Majesty….”
“Or those with talent but no funds to purchase a Titan—there must be some of them as well.”
But now was not the time to be picky.
“We must recruit more knights.”
“……”
“We shall provide the Titans from royal funds. With the salvage from this expedition, mass production of the basic models should be more than sufficient.”
A gentle yet unbreakable command from the monarch.
“The special academy exam to find mana-compatible individuals… I ask that you, Karinne, take charge as chief director.”
Steel resolve hidden behind kind eyes.
Realizing she could not refuse, Karinne quietly knelt on one knee.
“I will obey the command.”
***
A week had passed since the commotion of that night.
The identity of the black Titans that had appeared at midnight remained shrouded in mystery.
Unknown group detected. Origin unknown.
“What do I do?”
I could not pilot any of them myself.
All five were “body-synchronized” models.
Even if the security lock could be bypassed, I couldn’t.
“I did store them in the warehouse, though.”
Due to my hobby, I had already disassembled two of them.
Power sources, mana cores, calculation cores—every core component extracted.
“The problem is that these parts are too good.”
The more I inspected them, the more uneasy I felt.
The components embedded inside the armor plating were all of the highest caliber imaginable.
Way too overqualified for a bunch of small-time thieves to handle.
“Could I have accidentally provoked a mafia-level organization?”
For the first few days I had lain awake, terrified.
Would they come looking for revenge while I slept?
If they kidnapped me, I wouldn’t even be able to resist.
But a week had passed with no incidents.
No summons from the Police Department, no complaint letters, no shop ratings—nothing.
“I really have no idea…”
Feeling frustrated, I posted an anonymous message on the Titan forum.
Just in case, accompanied by a cleverly cropped photo of one of the armor plates.
The comments were a disaster.
“As I thought… useless.”
I fully agreed with their assessment.
They looked like nothing but garbage.
The shoulder and chest plates that should have borne family crests or national emblems had been scraped clean with a chisel.
“Still, those guys were definitely shady.”
If they had been decent people, they wouldn’t have worn such hideous disguises.
“Then… I guess it’s fine.”
After reaching a conclusion, I decided to stop worrying.
Holding them in the warehouse for long was also unsettling.
Before their owner came looking, it would be better to erase all traces by disassembling them completely.
Especially since selling to illegal operators would be better than to official Titan dealers.
“Let me see here.”
I spread the disassembled parts across the floor.
Mana alloy wiring, premium core engines, synchronization reaction cores—everything top-tier.
“I can use these.”
Among them, I classified the parts into two categories.
1. Things I could use myself.
2. Synchronization-exclusive parts I didn’t need.
Even the second group alone would fetch an average noble’s annual budget.
“And the rest can be sold, right?”
With the metal golem ones, I could immediately start running a small fleet.
Of course, it would be ideal to build each Titan with care, but that could wait.
“What concept should the next one have?”
Once I earned some money, I could decide then.
“Huhu…~”
The nervous tension from moments ago vanished.
The girl prepared to step out with a light, carefree stride.