The Weakest Knight Became a Swordmaster Only Inside Dungeons
The training field had just been cleared after Rachel's order, the cadets streaming out in waves.
I rolled my shoulders, the soreness still lingering as I straightened up.
“H-Hazley… sir.”
!
A chill raced down my spine the moment that gloomy voice cut through the air behind me. I whipped my head around in shock.
The purple-haired girl—Violet—had already slipped up silently behind me like a ghost.
Ah, it was Violet. My chest eased a little.
“Violet? Why?”
“I was just wondering how you were planning to spend lunch… Would you like to join me?”
She was inviting me to lunch together.
'Well, that happens too.'
This was the first time Violet had taken the lead.
She kept her eyes lowered, nervously twisting her fingers in front of her belly. She must have mustered up every ounce of courage just to ask.
She felt comfortable around me. The thought warmed my heart—she was turning into a real friend.
“I’d love to, but today’s my cleanup duty, so it might be tough…”
“I’ll wait!”
“Huh?”
“…Ahem.”
Violet looked straight into my eyes and answered quickly, then quickly dropped her gaze, cheeks flushing.
Her eyes spun around like spinning tops.
“I-it’s nothing, really. Erase it from your memory completely, without a trace!”
“It wasn’t that big a deal though?”
“Enjoy your meal, Hazley! I-I’m off!”
Tap tap tap.
Before I could even finish my reply, Violet turned and retreated to the exit as if blown by the wind.
In the blink of an eye, she was gone from my sight.
I stood there stunned, along with the remaining cadets who hadn’t left yet.
'She really keeps things hidden, huh.'
I’d have to try inviting her to lunch next time first.
Soon the noisy training field was completely empty.
After training, we had to clean and oil the gear. Today’s turn was me and Lara Twislope.
'Main character, Lara.'
The public daughter of the Twislope sword family and Elise’s best friend. The one who had saved me from death just recently.
She was also the pillar supporting the original heroine Elise’s sanity, so I couldn’t emphasize enough how important she was in the story.
Clink clink.
Scrape scrape.
Clink clink.
Scrape scrape.
The sound of gear being handled came from below my line of sight.
When I looked down, there was Lara—small stature, light-blue low twintails, star-shaped hairpin and beret, all the familiar details of the prestigious Twislope cadet.
Even standing straight, she barely reached my chest. Her hidden insecurity was impossible to hide.
We weren’t close enough to chat casually, so today I figured we’d finish the job and part ways.
“Ron Hazley.”
“Huh?”
Suddenly Lara spoke to me.
We were carrying the equipment between us, arms full.
“What exactly did you talk about with Elise earlier?”
Lara stared at me with a suspicious cat-like gaze.
This was the first personal question I’d been asked.
“Nothing much.”
“Don’t lie…”
“It’s true.”
“I don’t believe it! Elise wouldn’t pick you for no reason!”
“Exactly. Why did she choose me?”
I asked deliberately, feigning ignorance.
If I teased Lara, I might learn more about Elise’s true feelings. Or at least snag some unexpected info about her.
Elise was someone I had to protect and save—someone who would need me to survive.
Then—huff—Lara’s face suddenly flushed red.
Wait, what’s wrong with her now?
“W-what are you saying that for!?”
For some reason, Lara pouted and stormed off first.
We were going to clean the same gear anyway—did she really have to leave ahead of me?
'No proof, but…'
In the original story, Lara was terrible at hiding her emotions. Meaning:
'She probably thinks Elise has romantic feelings for me…'
Elise was interested in my hidden strength and liked teasing people like Lara.
That’s probably how the misunderstanding started.
'Elise… are you teasing Lara again?'
Well, I didn’t know for sure.
It wasn’t worth clarifying, and clarifying too much would only make things weirder.
Lara and I began oiling the gear together.
Lara kept sneaking glances at me with a sharp, detective-like stare, but we didn’t speak much.
Watching her, I suddenly felt like teasing her.
I let out a soft laugh.
“Stop staring. Do you like me?”
“What kind of crazy thing are you saying!!”
Lara’s face turned beet red and she exploded.
I quickly clarified it was a joke, but Lara just glared at me like an angry cat.
With her right there, the next part of the story naturally came to mind.
'Chapter 1, Act 5.'
The tragedy that would have killed Lara had been prevented by stopping the monster enlargement incident.
Now what would happen instead was:
'Elise’s rampage.'
Some demon races possessed the ability to create gates.
Elise and her group would fall into one created by a demon who had been eyeing her for a while—the perfect timing.
The demon himself wasn’t particularly strong, but among the monsters he controlled, there was one extremely dangerous one.
Elise would unleash her hidden power and rampage to victory.
But because the power was uncontrollable, she would be consumed by it.
That’s when Lara would succeed in calming her down—but:
'She would lose one leg in the process.'
I saw the bare leg hidden under Lara’s short training pants.
To reach the true ending, I just needed Lara to survive. She would still get her happy ending, even missing a leg.
I didn’t like that at all.
…Forget the emotional stuff. There wasn’t a single decent tragedy in the first loop anyway.
'Lara is important.'
Even thinking about the future, losing a leg would be much worse for me. It would also hurt Elise’s sanity.
So I had decided to erase the very reason Elise had to rampage.
'And this time, there’s something I can get from the story.'
Something Elise didn’t need but I would love to take with me.
Just thinking about it made my mouth water. Hehe.
“?”
Whiff.
She sensed something and suddenly turned her head toward me. Then she followed my gaze down to her own leg.
Her sharp senses had been activated.
She reached some ridiculous conclusion and started shooting me a disgusted look.
“Pervert…?”
“That’s what I was thinking.”
I was just trying to protect her precious leg.
…Wait, isn’t that wording a bit weird?
I couldn’t cover it up by saying some bug had passed by. There was no way a lie would work in front of her senses.
So I just shrugged and said it was probably a misunderstanding.
But Lara only glared at me with even more suspicion.
We finished the remaining work in an awkward silence and left the training field.
***
One day—holiday.
“Whoa! We’re here, sis!”
Clack!
The light-blue-haired male cadet leapt out of the carriage and face-planted onto the ground.
“Relax, sis! This Henry will be your staircase! Haha!”
“……”
Lara Twislope, light-blue low twintails, stood by the carriage door and frowned at the ridiculous display.
“Such a good little brother.”
Elise Lorendia stood beside her, pressing a fist to her lips, smiling sweetly.
Thump! Thump!
“Phew!”
Lara deliberately stomped hard on her twin brother Henry Twislope and stepped out of the carriage.
“Cugh, sis…!”
“Too much! Stop that!”
Lara stomped on him again, furious.
Lara and Henry were the same class at Griffin Knight Academy, but family rules made them call each other sister and brother.
She was the older sister who had helped Henry secure his engagement with the girl he loved. And she was also a respected swordswoman, so Henry cherished her deeply.
The three of them had come to the knight academy’s quest office to take their first quest.
p>Since they were academy members, they would eventually have to perform a mission. This was the chance to gain experience by completing a quest first.
Elise ignored Henry and jumped out of the carriage with a skip.
“Ready to go?”
Lara, full of spirit, and Henry, pumped with energy, followed her.
“Sis~, if something dangerous happens, hide behind me! This Henry will protect you properly!”
Henry brushed his bangs aside with a carefree smile.
His white teeth flashed and his confident grin was full of himself.
Lara ignored him, veins popping on her forehead.
“It’s an easy quest with no real danger. Keep your mouth shut, Henry.”
“Haha! Our sis is so picky!”
In the end, Lara couldn’t hold back and punched Henry lightly.
Elise watched from the side and laughed happily.
The three of them arrived at the target—Orc Village—and easily defeated the green giants, the orc monsters.
Finally, they took photos with a magic camera and collected the monster cores.
“Tsk, I didn’t even need to show my real strength… just weak little orcs. But sis was amazing as always!”
“Henry, shut up. Your ears are going to rot.”
“Cruh, sis’s sharp tongue! Even that’s sweet!”
“Ugh!”
Henry was fidgeting, Lara was about to hit him, and Elise was laughing.
That was when—
Zing!
Whiiiiiish!
“Eh?”
A gate suddenly appeared right under Elise’s feet.
Elise fell helplessly through it.
“Elise!?”
“Damn it!”
Lara and Henry shouted, racing toward the gate with panicked faces.
By then, Elise had already vanished past the gate.
“Henry! Wait here!”
“Sis, don’t do anything stupid! Go to the nearest city first and ask for help…!”
“Too far!”
“Sis!!”
Soon Lara jumped in without hesitation. She didn’t want Elise in danger.
“Kugh!”
Henry broke into a cold sweat.
Elise and Lara had already entered the dungeon gate.
And the nearest city wasn’t even that close, according to her.
Going there, rallying forces, and returning—there was no reason anything bad wouldn’t happen in that time.
Henry immediately left the village and ran to the coachman.
He quickly explained the situation to the coachman and asked him to request support from the nearby city guard.
The coachman nodded in panic and drove off.
Henry rushed back to the gate.
“Sis, I’m coming too…!”
Henry swallowed dryly and jumped into the gate.
***
Loose robe, shoes that left no footprints, ordinary sword, water skin, and the rest…
'I’m pretty well prepared.'
I knew Elise’s group had accepted the quest. I had scouted the destination and even knew when Chapter 1 Act 5 would begin.
'Holiday when the quest was accepted.'
That was what the story said.
I flipped up the robe hood, shouldered my gear, and arrived at the destination. To avoid being noticed by Elise’s group, I kept a safe distance and followed from afar.
'There’s the gate.'
It was already open. Elise, Lara, and Henry had left no footprints behind them.
They were probably clearing the dungeon right now.
And—
'I’ll meet the tamer, Hiccup.'
The demon tamer, Hiccup.
His own power wasn’t strong, but he could control powerful monsters with his abilities.
In the original story, he had enlarged the blue slimes.
My goal was to defeat one of the monsters Hiccup controlled—the one that would cause Elise to rampage.
If I did that, Hiccup would have no remaining strength to fight Elise’s group.
'Time to go.'
I stretched lightly and leapt into the gate.
Dungeon detected.
Activating unique ability [Swordmaster's Soul]!