A Night That Shone Unusually Bright
"What's this?"
"It's sparkling."
"So pretty."
Yellow, Black, and White each stared at the backs of their own hands as if entranced.
The crests engraved there bore the same shape, and somehow the light from them felt warm.
"Let's get out of here first. Can you stand?"
"Yes. Is everyone's wound okay?"
"I can walk."
All three of them were a complete mess. They looked at one another and let out hollow little laughs.
Yellow, the sturdiest of the three, helped Black up from the ground. White, dizzy from blood loss, clutched her throbbing head and forced her legs to move.
It was then that the landing they were heading toward erupted into commotion.
"Vanguard, advance! The stairs are narrow! Stay sharp!"
With the clatter of steel plate armor, a company of gleaming knights came flooding in, shields raised.
"Secure visibility!"
"Light!"
The knights, forming up with practiced ease, could barely conceal their bewilderment when the light revealed the scene before them.
In the cramped space lay the corpse of a Chimera — a disaster-class monster, no less — and the only ones standing were three small children, swaying on their feet.
"What in the world is going on here?"
From among the knights, a man with a weighty voice stepped forward, an aide at his side.
Yellow, who could read well, made out his nameplate at once.
⟨ Knight Commander Hamilton Anxious ⟩
"Knights?"
Seeing that word, Yellow relaxed a little. Surely, she thought, people like that couldn't be bad.
"Three brats, all alone — and slaves, at that. What happened here? Who brought down the Chimera?"
The Knight Commander's aide advanced on the three of them with a scowl. White mustered her courage and stepped forward.
"Um, everyone's badly hurt. Please, could you treat—"
"Answer the question!"
The aide roared, and the startled White crumpled to the floor.
"We brought it down. Happy?"
Black snapped back through gritted teeth. The aide snorted.
"A lowly slave with no manners at all. And what even is this? Skin black as tar — isn't that a wicked Dark Elf?"
At those words, Black's blood boiled. But she didn't even have the strength to be angry. Her whole body was so battered she was on the verge of passing out.
"This gentleman holds a precious position that filth like you should never even dare to look at directly. Stop lying and answer properly!"
The aide strode toward Black and reached to grab her by the hair.
Crack!
In an instant, Yellow had seized his arm and wrenched it back the other way.
"What the—? This brat, her strength…"
Yellow's expression almost never changed, but right now her brows were knitted tight, and she was very clearly angry.
"You're a knight, aren't you?"
"What did you just— Aaagh!"
The moment Yellow twisted his arm, the aide's body spun through the air and slammed into the ground.
Clang!
The knights who witnessed it reformed into combat formation with shields raised in the blink of an eye. They had plainly identified the three children as enemies.
"Hold!"
The Knight Commander stepped in front of them, raising his right hand. At his signal, the knights relaxed their stances.
He walked slowly until he stood before Yellow.
"Show me the backs of your hands."
When she didn't respond, he took her wrist without hesitation.
He confirmed the glowing crest, and his eyes went wide with shock.
"Well, I've seen everything now."
His aide, coming to and struggling upright, saw the crest as well.
"C-Commander. Don't tell me—"
"The Hero's Crest. All three of them."
"Heroes?"
At the unfamiliar word in their ears, all three looked puzzled.
"Heroes are those chosen by the Goddess — beings who change destiny itself. The proof of it has been made, right here and now."
The Knight Commander turned to his knights and bellowed in a voice that rang through the chamber.
"I hereby command you! From this moment, the main force undertakes an emergency mission to escort the Heroes to the Imperial Capital! This operation must succeed, and it shall be kept in the strictest confidence!"
A resounding reply rose from the knights.
"Temple Knights, heal the Heroes at once! Their wounds are deep!"
Several knights rushed from the main force and began casting healing magic over the three children.
Yellow, Black, and White could only blink in confusion at the situation, which had turned on its head in the space of a breath.
"Heroes? What are you talking about?"
"Exactly what it sounds like. The three of you have been chosen by the Goddess as Heroes."
"Um, about the escort—"
"From now on, you come with us to the Imperial Capital. Your disposition will be decided afterward."
At those words, the pupils of all three shrank. Yellow was the first to push back.
"Not going."
"You have no choice. …I see. There is one matter that needs resolving."
The Knight Commander lowered his head slightly toward the three and asked in a low voice.
"Who is your master?"
"What? Why do you want to know that?"
"The Heroes will become champions who fight with the fates of every nation on the continent at stake. It is absurd for Hero to be written above Slave on their nameplates. I will have the contract dissolved with your master."
White cried out in alarm.
"N-no! I won't leave Orabeoni! Besides, Orabeoni can't even dissolve a slave contract…!"
"Then killing him will settle the matter."
The Knight Commander said it with icy calm. All three faces went rigid.
"What did you just—!"
Black was the first to shout a rebuttal, opening her mouth to cry out—
"Kids!"
His voice came ringing from the landing.
I ran like a madman for what felt like forever.
The emergency communication artifact gave out in less than a minute. Trash-tier craftsmanship — and I'd paid two gold coins for the thing.
Why was my heart pounding so hard?
Was it because of the original story's setup — that if those kids fell into danger, they would awaken, and my own life would be forfeit?
That's what I'd told myself, all this time.
But not anymore.
Four Heavenly Kings of the Demon King's army, the Black Knight, the Lich, the Beast King — the words written on the wiki were things I'd forgotten long ago.
Now there was only one thought left, simple and single-minded: that those three — that Yellow, Black, and White — come out of this alive.
"Oh, Wicker, isn't it? Hey, the dungeon's off limits right now — the Capital's knight order is—"
"Move!"
⟨ Healer Frank ⟩
Frank the healer tried to stop me, but I had no time for him — I brushed past and went straight into the dungeon entrance.
Unusually, the interior was spotless, without a single monster in sight. The Capital's knights had evidently already swept through.
I ran, chasing their trail. Down the stairwells, along the corridors, deeper and deeper underground.
"How many floors does this place have?!"
Past the sixth floor, then the seventh, the eighth.
A dungeon stretching beyond ten floors demanded A-rank adventurers — and this one had been left abandoned for nearly a year. That danger alone would explain why the Capital had rushed a knight order here.
At last I passed the ninth floor and reached the tenth. From below came the sound of horses. Some instinct told me this was the end of the line.
And that the three of them would be here.
"Kids!"
I shouted as I leaped down the last flight of stairs.
I wasn't wrong. There stood some thirty knights in full plate armor — and Yellow, Black, and White.
The three of them were being treated by the temple knights, apparently injured. But at least they were alive. Relief washed over me.
"Orabeoni!"
And yet none of them looked especially glad to see me.
Black opened her mouth to say something, but a knight stepped in front of her. I read his nameplate — the Knight Commander. His surname meant he was nobility, too.
"A Slave Merchant. How convenient. So you're the master of these three?"
The knight order had slain the monsters and helped the children, hadn't they?
The Imperial Capital's knight order shouldn't be villains. If anything, the villain standing here was me — a slave merchant.
Before any misunderstanding could fester, I had to explain that I was willing to free them.
"Yes, I'm their master for now. But the contract was forced on us, and—"
Suddenly, I couldn't breathe. I never finished the sentence.
I looked down. Where my lungs should have been, two spears now ran clean through.
The knights had lunged at me in an instant and driven their lances home.
"Ah."
So much for talking, then.
I had underestimated them badly.
—Mister!!
I felt the screams ringing in my ears as I crumpled to the ground, undignified and dying.
No matter how I worked my throat, no air came. My brain, starved of blood, was slipping out of my grasp.
—Orabeoni! Orabeoni!
—You humans!!
Someone was shaking me. White? I couldn't tell anymore.
—Save him right now, or I swear every last one of you dies here — Heroes or whatever else you are!
My head rang. I could no longer register sight or sound.
—Orabeoni… Orabeoniii… *sob*…
—You, hold on! Stay with me!
So this was it, huh.
I'd taken the long way around, but in the end it seemed I was fated to die just as the original story wrote me.
Meeting those three had felt like inevitability itself — and still no amount of struggling had changed a thing.
Every humiliation of a life spent scraping the bottom, every ounce of rage at dying without so much as a word in my own defense — it all drained away, worthless, along with my blood.
And yet, if I had one regret left—
Yellow, Black, White.
Lucas, Testia, Yuri.
I wished I could have watched, just a little longer, to see what those three would grow into.
—…beoni… …thank you…
—…don't die… …I'll…
Something like voices kept reaching my ears.
—…I'll come find you.
Those were the last words I heard before my consciousness went dark completely.
"Hahk!"
When I opened my eyes, it was the dead of night.
I had been dumped like garbage in the woods near Elend's rear gate.
I pressed a hand to my chest. My armor was still pierced through where it had been run through, and the wound had only half closed — the pain remained exactly as it was.
Beside me, along with my bag, lay a single notice.
The above-named individual is hereby expelled from the city of Elend, effective immediately.
Grounds: Unlawful slave trafficking of minors.
By order of the Imperial Capital Knight Command.
I looked around.
It was irritatingly quiet.
I focused my senses.
Of all three of them, I couldn't feel so much as a trace of where they'd gone.
"Haha."
I lifted my head and looked up at the sky.
⟨ Slave Merchant Wicker ⟩
Instead of stars, those six characters were shining up there, bold and proud.
"That goddamn Slave Merchant."
Thirteen years passed.