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Chapter 67
Isis forced himself to shake his head.
If Erin really was that person, then all the more reason he had to tell her to abandon him and run.
Even if he were to die here, she had to survive.
That was the only way not only Ferdinand, but also the people of the Holy Kingdom, could be saved.
A sneer tugged at his lips.
“Now that I think about it, the Saint told Helix we would recognize her, but she never said we wouldn’t suspect her.”
It was while Isis was mulling that over—
“Look at this!”
Helix came rushing toward them, his face pale.
His trembling hands set down the items he had been carrying.
Isis’s expression froze the moment he saw them.
“Don’t these… look a little familiar, Isis?”
“These are mana stones created with black magic. Why are they here…?”
“Here, read this too.”
Helix handed over a worn diary. Though it was torn and stained with blood in places, the cover still bore the neat lettering: Diary.
As Isis slowly read through its pages, his face twisted.
“People who betrayed the very duty of being human…”
“……”
“This can’t be. This is… unforgivable.”
He looked nearly panicked. The diary slipped from his hands.
Erin picked it up and opened it. A gut feeling told her the reason she had come to the West lay within these pages.
She began turning them.
*[My mind is hazy. I don’t even know how many days have passed.
All I can do is write in this book given to me out of pity by one of the mages researching us.]*
*[Should I be grateful I can at least write a diary? At least I can still hold on to my sanity.
But Hanson, who was beside me, lost his mind not long ago. He had no talent for the sword, but more than anyone, he wanted to be a knight.
I remember the sword he used to swing. I remember him saying he wanted to join the capital’s knight order one day. I remember him saying he took up the sword to protect someone.
Why have we ended up in this situation?]*
The diary and the traces of research left in the basement told them enough about what had happened here.
In a heavy voice, Isis spoke:
“Experiments were conducted.”
“……”
“Someone used people to experiment with black magic. Long ago, this happened often. They needed strong knights to fight monsters.”
“……”
“By using black magic, even ordinary people could instantly gain physical abilities rivaling monsters. It was the fastest shortcut to power.”
“……”
Helix added quietly:
“But once it was discovered that black magic caused severe side effects, the temple outlawed it. And yet, someone carried out such work here.”
Erin continued reading.
*[The time I spend conscious grows shorter than the time I’m lost. I want to escape this damned hell.
I don’t fear death. Everyone here feels the same.
But this is not where we were meant to die. We didn’t take up the sword just to perish in a place like this.
I always believed, when my death came, it would be on the battlefield. That I would fall in an intense, honorable duel.
Not as a mercenary, but as a knight, protecting someone with my life…
So why am I here?]*
Erin’s eyes reddened.
Helix, reading alongside her, was the same. The diary was not written by one person alone.
[I want to go back.]
[I want to practice swordsmanship.]
[I told Lindsay I’d return… will I ever see her again?]
[I’m sorry, Mother. In the end, I never became a knight.]
[Will anyone ever read these words?]
Page after page, short, hastily scrawled entries filled the diary.
[I am not an animal. But if I don’t cooperate with them, they withhold the drug. Without it, I lose my sanity for longer and longer.]
[A sword… I want to hold a sword.]
[I miss my mother.]
[I can’t remember my family’s faces. Who was I originally?]
The writers changed as the days passed.
Finally, the last entry:
[I wanted… to die as a knight.]
Erin silently set the diary down.
Boom!
At that moment, the iron door thundered under impact. They were out of time.
She looked at Isis and asked:
“Those side effects… do they mean mana goes berserk?”
“That’s correct. Once the rampage begins, the body transforms, and slowly… they become monsters with neither intellect nor emotion.”
“……”
“The monsters outside are likely the ones who wrote this diary.”
Isis’s face contorted as though he would vomit.
“They were humans. Or rather, they used to be humans like us.”
Boom!
Helix’s face was equally stricken.
“Six months ago, on His Highness Ferdinand’s orders, I began investigating strange disappearances in the West.”
“……”
“Over the years, many mercenaries and strong-bodied men vanished…”
“……”
“They were dragged here.”
Silence filled the basement. Then Isis turned to Erin.
“It’s tragic, but there’s no helping it. There’s no way to save them.”
He was right.
There was nothing they could do. Survival itself was a slim hope.
Erin knew this as well.
And yet, the final words of the diary burned into her mind:
“I wanted… to die as a knight.”
They felt like her own. She too had once longed to wield the sword, but her life had ended before her dream could be fulfilled.
Erin stared at the diary.
If she hadn’t come here, what happened to these men would have been buried forever. No one would have remembered them.
They would have been remembered only as the monsters that destroyed the West. Until now, that was how Erin herself had thought of them.
She covered her mouth.
Did they know that the bodies they had trained to protect others were instead being used to slaughter the very people of the West?
She didn’t know who the orphans had been. She didn’t know what kind of lives they had led.
But she knew what it meant to dream of becoming a knight.
Erin gripped her sword tightly.
Seeing her, Isis spoke again.
“There’s nothing we can do, Dame Erin. This is… the law of nature. They’re already dead.”
“……”
“Only their shells remain, being exploited. There’s nothing left for us to give. We can’t turn back time.”
Erin understood him completely.
He was right. There was nothing they could do for the dead.
They were being used even in death.
Still, Erin turned to Isis and said:
“I have one request.”
“Such a nuisance.”
Charlotte despised Erin Lyses for this very reason. Those unwavering eyes of hers grated on her.
Even without the Emperor’s or Corellia’s orders, she would have hated Erin.
The iron doors to the basement Erin had entered were specially reinforced to protect black magic research from interference.
Breaking them with brute force took time—but only a little.
“I’ll kill you right here.”
Charlotte felt no concern as she watched the monsters move at her command.
Since their true selves had once been knights, even if Erin had reached the realm of Sword Master, she would surely meet her limit.
“To sacrifice yourself for the worms of the West. I suppose trash understand each other.”
Boom! Boom!
With a roar, the sealed door finally opened. Charlotte smiled in satisfaction.
Through the entrance, she saw Erin standing. Isis and Helix were beside her, not fleeing.
Charlotte’s task was clear. She was about to order the monsters to dispose of them when—
Erin slowly stepped forward, placing herself before the monsters.
Charlotte, taken aback, could only watch.
Erin bowed deeply. It was the gesture knights made before a sparring match.
And Isis, beside her, declared:
“The sacred duel begins.”
What on earth are they doing…?
Charlotte couldn’t comprehend it.
Instead of fleeing to save their lives, they stepped forward, declaring a duel.
