Chapter 15
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 15
Chapter Title: Me, a Holy Knight?
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I couldn't quite bring myself to call her "Master," but I obediently climbed onto the altar as Silver Star instructed and sat in the lotus position facing the star.
Relax your body and accept it. Feel me attuning it and memorize it with your body.
She'd been nonstop cheeky up until then, but Silver Star's voice had sunk into an oddly solemn tone.
Maybe I should've played along with her antics a bit?
Heupf's heir...
Silver Star's voice languidly drummed in my head. The vibration spread from my chest throughout my body.
The inscriptions carved into the stone walls were being reinterpreted through the Insight Ability.
Holy Knight who would tread hardship once more...
Recalling the inscriptions we'd read together, I understood and accepted them.
"Light and darkness, good and evil, right and wrong all came from one."
My senses expanded, and my skin prickled.
The Toolsep's medicinal power, which had been rampaging through my body, clashing everywhere like it was picking fights, quietly settled down as it absorbed the starlight.
"Even when wandering the wilderness in search of noble wisdom, the wanderer followed only the starlight."
With the raging heat subsided, the chill in my heart grew stronger, but I remained calm.
"The chill residing in the Mad Star shall guide the wanderer..."
I opened my consciousness and accepted the starlight.
The lofty starlight scorned me at first, but it knelt before the sharp gaze Luke's nature shot back.
The Insight Ability gently caressed the wounded starlight and led it into my soul.
A bluish, cold flame wrapped around my body.
I dreamed.
No, what I was seeing was no longer a dream.
Ever since falling into this place, I hadn't let go of my consciousness for even a moment.
Even now, seated on the altar absorbing starlight, I was awake.
I could even move my body.
So...
This wasn't a dream while awake, nor an illusion.
It was a glimpse of another world shown by the star.
I blinked once.
A photo trapped in a frame was smiling.
Black ribbons draped diagonally on both sides of the frame.
A cheeky firefighter in uniform, wincing from a headache over one eye.
My vision gradually widened, but guarding the portrait were only three wisps of rising incense smoke.
No other people were visible.
It couldn't feel good to see my own posthumous portrait, but I wasn't disappointed or upset that no one had come to mourn me.
I just felt relieved to learn the ending of a story I'd been curious about.
"The wanderer setting forth shall lighten body and mind."
I placed a single white chrysanthemum in the empty space.
And gave a salute.
I was paying respects to myself.
I wanted to comfort myself that way, and be comforted.
That I'd pretended to be tough through all that pain and hardship.
I didn't cry.
Instead, I smiled brighter than the portrait.
You did well, you rascal.
I blinked once, and the space shifted. Luke appeared.
In a space without a single point of light, bald Luke Seid was struggling desperately.
'Did he go to hell?'
The things lunging to bite Luke were demonic beasts.
Monsters forged from darkness.
They took shapes of humans, lions, tigers, eagles..., but their forms were unnatural, and their blood-red glowing eyes showed no intelligence of living beings.
The pitch-black monsters swarmed to tear Luke apart.
Luke screamed in terror.
Huddled on the sticky black liquid floor, kicking at the monsters with his feet—that was his entire resistance.
If he relaxed his body or stopped resisting for even a moment, they'd rip him to shreds and devour him.
Yet Luke didn't give up, even on the verge of exhaustion.
Was it arrogant to see myself thrashing against the starlight in his struggle?
I couldn't help shouting.
'Supreme Holy Knight Luke! You're not as weak as me!'
My voice spread in circles all the way to the endless dark horizon.
At the center was Luke.
Luke looked up, and there I was.
For a moment, he squinted at the starlight floating in the midst of darkness, but the light returned to his eyes—the eyes of Luke, who hadn't given up despite being gripped by fear.
He extended a hand scarred by claws and fangs into the air.
And murmured something.
I mouthed the words along with his lip movements.
'I command thee—.'
The Holy Knight's command summoned light like a sorcerer's incantation.
'—come to me.'
I clenched my fists without realizing it.
As Luke summoned his double-edged sword and bisected a demonic beast in one stroke.
The bald Luke writhing in fear and pain was gone.
With every murmur from Luke, clothes appeared, armor clad him, and a helmet covered his head.
When he finally donned the fluttering golden cape...
Whoosh—!
The awakened Holy Knight radiated light in all directions.
The light from his double-edged sword and body soon faded.
But Luke didn't stop slashing through the demonic beasts.
As if a god's will had descended upon him, every flash of his sword made surrounding monsters flip over and die.
I blinked, returning to reality.
My head felt hot, so I touched the crown of my head—it was actually scorching.
I stepped down from the altar and dunked my head in the water.
'Silver Star.'
Silver Star was asleep, exhausted.
She'd guided my awakening while attuning to keep the Toolsep from going berserk, draining her completely.
The chill in my heart suddenly felt comforting.
I'd worried about being left alone again, but this was a relief.
"Sleep well."
I patted my chest and opened the Toolsep basket to fill my stomach.
'Not exactly satisfying...'
But better than not eating.
'My eyesight seems sharper. Hearing too.'
No other changes in my body.
'Mental state's the same too.'
Gaining divinity didn't make my mind pious or rid me of the seven deadly sins.
I took off my cape and soaked in the water.
The water was cold, but not as cold as my body.
As I washed every nook and cranny, I thought.
"Divinity, huh..."
The formulas left on the stone walls were a kind of mystery, a stroke of fortune.
Tiny insights compressed into writing like specks of dust.
I didn't know who left them, but the purpose was clear.
By the time Silver Star finished attuning, Divine Power was firmly embedded in my heart.
"Me, a Holy Knight."
Strictly speaking, I hadn't become one yet.
To truly become a Holy Knight, I needed to enter Hellite and receive the ordination—but I couldn't do that.
'If I go to Hellite in Luke's body, they'll call me the Knight of Depravity or whatever and subject me to all sorts of righteous tortures?'
I scratched my neck hard and chuckled at the absurdity.
Anyway.
I'd just acquired a tiny seed of divinity.
"Doesn't even reach pebble grade, does it?"
According to Luke's knowledge, there were 10 grades of divinity.
Designated by the first Holy Knight, Heupf, 3,000 years ago, named after various natural materials.
Pebble, brass, silver, gold, that sort of thing.
Hmm...
Judging by the size of the divinity I got from that backroom deal with the star...
About a grain of sand, maybe.
"If my divinity grows stronger, Luke gets stronger too."
Well, Luke told me to live as I please before leaving, but I think I know what I need to do.
This world itself is something for me to overcome, after all.
To satisfy my curiosity and show the world to Silver Star, I have to get stronger—and the stronger I get, the higher my survival odds. That's a truth even an idiot knows.
"So! First things first, I gotta get out to build divinity or whatever—"
Round and round, back to square one.
I'm really gonna go nuts.
"Let's find a way before the Toolsep runs out."
Divinity doesn't pile up from meditation or Zen practice.
"To expand the vessel for divinity, I need training."
No weapons, a few broken fingers, but my body's sturdy.
Half the inscriptions on the stone walls were the "Noble Wisdom" part, the other half the "Basic Martial Arts" part.
The basic martial arts covered the essentials of handling body and weapons... well, not in depth, just a brief overview.
Not profound, but not shallow either.
It was like unarmed calisthenics...
"Like this?"
Whoosh—, whoosh—.
I threw punches, swung elbows.
Following the taught posture, movements, and breathing made my blood boil and circulate faster. An intangible energy actively coursed through my body along the bloodstream.
'No vitality, but an elixir's still an elixir.'
I couldn't gather mana because it was tainted by Toolsep energy, but I could use the medicinal power for other purposes.
'Body doesn't tire easily.'
The inscriptions briefly covered weapon arts like swordsmanship too.
Literally briefly.
No weapons in the sanctuary, so I flailed empty-handed to practice the moves.
At least it counted as exercise.
Just calisthenics got boring.
'Maybe some profound technique hidden in it? Will Silver Star tell me when she wakes?'
Didn't feel like it.
Just gymnastics to get the blood pumping.
How many days had passed?
Dark around the star meant night, blue meant day.
Day and night had cycled about four times.
"Silver Star, still sleeping? I'm bored."
During the day, I watched the Red Dragon Knights and mimicked their swordsmanship to pass time.
'Hmm... They're really good. Knights are insanely strong warriors.'
As you know more, you see more—I could tell how strong they were.
Especially Kim Tae-young.
One hand behind his back, sparring with subordinates. Even though he was going easy, his sword always ended up at their throats.
And the subordinates weren't slouches either.
'I'm not going out! I can't!'
I imagined challenging one knight.
One slash, dead.
'No way I'm going out!'
After meals, knights did post-meal exercise by punching rocks.
After confirming the rocks didn't curse them, they punched even more.
Clang—! Boom!
'Bulletproof rocks, you bastards!'
I got why they were like that.
How bored must they be with nothing to hit?
Day 7 since Silver Star fell asleep.
New friends appeared.
Real birds. Flapping around.
"Where'd you come from?"
The bird friends just tilted their heads, ignoring my questions.
"Hey, wanna try some Toolsep? Trade for that fruit."
Birds showed no interest in Toolsep.
"I won't hurt you."
They didn't flee if I approached slowly, but hopped away when I reached out.
Tiny things, probably not worth eating anyway. Skittish though.
"Did the Saintess send you?"
The other birds maybe not, but that yellow one watching me from the altar's edge seemed likely.
Luke said the Saintess sent a yellow bird for contact.
"Here to monitor me? Gonna arrest me for breaking laws, torture me holy-style, then rip me apart?"
I cooed sweetly, but the yellow bird didn't speak.
Even if it did, I might not understand.
Being weak limited my ability use.
To talk to animals like Luke... probably need Crystal Realm or something.
Gave up on animal chat.
Gugugu—!
Flap flap flap—!
"Hey! Who's mating on my bed—no, the sacred altar!"
No housekeeping fee either!
"Hey! Fruit bats! Eat the fruit alone, why dump the peels here!"
"Hey! Owl! You're scary, so make some wing flap noise!"
Woo—, guuu—.
What're you saying, birdbrain?
Still, I wheedled as much as possible, trying to negotiate.
As a voluntary underdog, I had to prioritize talk over force, and allies are key in an unfamiliar world.
"Hey, Mr. Owl, you look strong—could you fetch some fruit or nuts? 'Ally' starts with 'bird' ally, haha."
Guuuu—.
Not buying it at all.