How to Live as a Knight After the Ending

Chapter 158: Shadows in a Nightmare (1)

Lorraine bit her lip.

The burning pain in her shoulder was outweighed by the bewilderment of why the man in front of her was here.

The unmasked man’s one eye was a red prosthetic. The iris of the lens-like pupil closed and opened and closed again.

The red, clickety-clack lens reflected Lorraine’s reflection.

“Lorraine Ponk. You look puzzled, and so do I. I didn’t expect to see you here.”

“Fade Wilson.”

Lorraine called the man’s name.

The name of her old comrade, the man she’d fought alongside.

He looked much different than the last time she’d seen him.

She recognized the scars across his face, the prosthetic eye that replaced one, but not the other.

One arm was prosthetic, as were his legs.

And the prosthetic eye wasn’t what she remembered. They were even worse than the ones she’d seen before, like they’d been upgraded.

“You, what the hell happened to you? Why on earth would you do this…….”

“This kind of thing? Ahhh. You mean like killing these scums?”

Fade laughed low and pointed the muzzle of his gun at the dead Armand.

Lorraine’s expression hardened. Armand was a young man who had not yet fully grown up, but he had never done anything bad.

At least he didn’t deserve to die and be disgraced in this way.

The Fade that Lorraine remembered was never this disrespectful. Rather than insulting the dead, he would show honor and respect to his enemies.

His personality was inherently loyal, and he would lay down his life for his comrades.

But in the years she hadn’t seen him, the Fade she knew had changed so much.

“If you’re the leader of the raid, are the others your men now?”

“Minions? Oh, right.”

Beyond Lorraine, Fade spotted two bodies lying on the corner of an alleyway.

Lorraine had killed three more as she fled in the vehicle, and she’d just killed the last one, bringing her total to six.

But Fade’s expression showed no anger or grief at the loss of his comrades.

“A subordinate is a subordinate. Although, if they were scum that deserved to be taken down like that, they wouldn’t have lasted long anyway.”

“Are you……serious? What the hell changed you?”

“I changed?”

“The you I know, you would never do something like this.”

Lorraine said, looking straight into Fade’s eyes.

Fade met her gaze and smiled bloodily. The scar at the corner of his mouth, which she had never seen before, twisted in a sickening way.

“How much do you think you know about me to say something like that?”

“…….”

“You betrayed us and left your unit, and from the looks of it, you’ve had a very comfortable life, while we lived in such terrible pain.”

Lorraine’s eyes widened at Fade’s accusation and her face stiffened at the ominous premonition.

“The others, where are they?”

She wondered.

Even though she knew it couldn’t be.

Lorraine couldn’t help but ask.

“Where’s Rosa? Where’s Boris? Where’s David?”

Fade wasn’t the only one of her old coworkers.

They were coworkers she’d bonded with more closely than real family, even though they weren’t connected by blood.

“Where is everyone else, and you’re all alone?”

Fade looked at Lorraine with his one remaining eye. Before Lorraine could read the emotion in his eyes, Fade burst out laughing.

“Pooh-pooh! Where are they now, Lorraine Ponk? You really don’t know anything, do you, or did you never care in the first place?”

“I don’t know?”

“Yes. Otherwise, how could you not know that your former comrades-in-arms, your former colleagues, are dead?”

“……!”

Lorraine’s eyes widened to tears.

Faced with the unbelievable, her first response was denial.

“Well, that’s not possible. What kind of kids are they, and they’re all dead?”

“Why would you think they wouldn’t die? Knowing how dangerous our job is, you shouldn’t be surprised.”

“That’s how good you guys are…….”

Lorraine opened her mouth to speak, then shut it.

The realization of what Fade had already become, and the horrifying realization of what they had just encountered, brought Lorraine to a certain realization.

“Our unit is……What happened?”

Fade didn’t answer; instead, he twisted his lips into a smile.

The smile on his distorted face was the embodiment of evil, like the world’s malice gathered together and coalesced.

The moment she saw it, Lorraine was certain.

Fade, her old comrade-in-arms had crossed the river of no return.

“Lorraine Ponk. It’s good to see you here, but you weren’t supposed to see me-or, more accurately, recognize me.”

Fade pointed his loaded gun at Lorraine.

If he was going to kill her, he’d had the chance before. Was it only for mockery, or at the very least, a final farewell to an old comrade-in-arms?

“Good riddance. If there is a hell, say hello to them for me.”

Fade was about to pull the trigger.

Lorraine, who had been preparing in advance, fired a pin-pulled smoke bomb.

-Boom!

Even with the smoke obscuring his vision, Fade didn’t panic and fired at Lorraine’s spot.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Bullets pierced the floor as Lorraine tried to get out of the line of fire, flinging herself sideways as she blew away the smoke.

Fade sneered at her.

“Do you still think I’m the same silly kid I used to be?”

The aperture in one of Fade’s eyepieces narrowed with a crackle.

Those red eyes pinpointed Lorraine’s figure as she ran through the smoke.

The muzzle of the gun, aimed precisely at her back, spewed fire.

Lorraine’s body slumped to the side.

Fade clicked his tongue.

He missed. The moment he fired, Lorraine felt something and threw herself to the side.

Without any physical modifications, Lorraine would not have the ability to see through the smoke.

“That’s a pretty good sense. You’re not rusty.”

-Boom!

The shell popped out of its holster with a burst of compressed steam.

“Yeah, you are. You always were. You’ve always been ahead of the rest of us.”

Fade’s gaze on Lorraine held a twisted emotion.

Even as she collapsed, Lorraine pointed the gun at Fade’s head and squeezed the trigger.

Ting-ting-ting!

But Lorraine’s bullet was deflected by the ballistic shield of one of his troopers, who now stood in Fade’s way.

Fade spat on the ground as he checked the trajectory of the bullet.

“So you’re just shooting for cover, then? In the midst of a life-or-death battle, you’re willing to be so casual about it. You must be pretty shallow.”

Fade gestured, and his gray-masked troopers pointed their guns in unison down the alleyway.

Just as they were about to open fire, a jet-black shadow leaped from the building.

Fade frowned.

“What the hell was that?”

It was a beast with a huge, black shadow.

Huge enough to fill a not-so-narrow alleyway, it stood in front of Lorraine as if to protect her.

The troopers fired, but the shots failed to leave any marks on the creature’s body.

“Stop. Not with that crappy rifle ammo. Use special ammo or change to a larger caliber.”

As the men switched guns in unison, the beast moved.

Leaping on all fours, it bit into the nape of Lorraine’s neck as she fell to the ground, then leapt up and disappeared up the building.

The gray-masked henchmen looked back at Fade.

As if to say, “What do you think?” Fade pulled the mask over his face.

“Leave her alone. She’s nothing more than a piece of junk now. She’ll never be our enemy.”

Most of all, the black beast from earlier.

The fact that it was protecting Lorraine meant that it had an agenda, and if they messed up, it would do a lot of damage.

“Collect the dead, a few of you stay behind and clean up the mess. The rest of you go back.”

Fade and his men melted into the pouring rain like ghosts.

*

Osian walked along Iron Street for the first time in a long time.

The rain was pouring down like a torrent, but the streets still echoed with the sound of hot steel.

The heat emanating from the night markets was so intense that not even the rainy season could cool it down.

Osian, who visited Eldin’s hammer mill, had to exclaim in admiration at the warmth he felt inside.

“What?”

Eldin, hammering furiously, looked at Osian, removed her goggles, and smiled softly.

“Look who it is, isn’t this the super rookie who’s making a name for himself?”

“You’ve been making weapons?”

“What else would I be doing, I’m always making stuff like this. If I take a day off, I’m going to get sore.”

Eldin rotated her shoulders once to loosen the muscles.

It was this kind of passion that had kept her at the forge for centuries.

“But this weapon you’re making looks like a normal cold weapon, like the ones I handle.”

“Aye. Pureblood weapons. I’ve gotten a lot of requests for them lately.”

“Why?”

“Well, it’s because someone solved all sorts of problems with a single knife, and the rest of the world saw it and wanted to do the same. I’ve been making a lot of pure blood weapons for a while now, so it’s not bad, but you should at least consider your influence.”

“Even so, it’s only at the level of the fixer industry.”

“That’s right. Tirna’s a big place, and even if you’re called a Super Rookie, you’re still just a kid in this city.”

“Then I’ll have to try harder.”

“So, what brings you to me? Are you looking for repairs or something? After all you’ve been through, you deserve it.”

Osian wordlessly handed the sword to Eldin.

Drawing the sword from its scabbard, Eldin inspected the blade’s condition and narrowed her eyes.

“What the hell, it’s in perfect condition, no dents, no wear and tear. Did you even use it?”

“I sleep with it by my side.”

“Hmm. Well, maybe it’s because I made it so sturdy. What’s the point of bringing it if there’s nothing to fix it?”

“Because I want to use this.”

Osian cut to the chase and showed Eldin the enhancement stone.

At first, Eldin wondered what it was, but then her eyes widened as she recognized something similar from her memory.

“Uh, uh, wait a minute, where did you get this?”

“I found it the last time I went to the ruins.”

“……You know what it’s for, seeing as you brought it to me.”

“Yes.”

It wasn’t something to hide, so Osian nodded.

“……Haha, this is amazing. A super-rookie who asked me to build a pure-blooded weapon, and he’s just had his stock price go through the roof, and now he’s bringing me an ingredient that’s known to have been lost.”

Eldin fiddled with the enhancement stone in her gloved hand.

“As for you, who the hell are you?”

“I think I’ve told you enough.”

“Yes, you have, and since you brought it to me, I assume you want to use it in your weapon?”

“Yes. Do you know how to do that?”

“I do, but I’ve never actually done it, though I did watch a dwarven blacksmith do it once upon a time.”

“Hmm. That doesn’t sound very appealing.”

“I told you I’ve never done it, but I know how to do it. I know the theory, I just never thought I’d actually do it.”

To Osian, that was a good thing.

In the game, you go to the blacksmith, you press the button to power up, and it happens, but reality is different.

“Is there a way?”

“You can break this thing and channel the power inside into your weapon. It’s very old, but there’s still power inside so it’s possible.”

“Then how long will it take?”

“It’s in the form of a stone, but it’s very hard and cannot be broken by any conventional means. Even the most famous of the old warriors had to beat it for days and days before they could crack the surface.”

Indeed. This stone has the effect of making weapons stronger.

The stone is imbued with a mysterious energy that is difficult to describe, making it much harder than most metals.

So, as Eldin said, should he wait a few more days?

Not necessarily.

“Hammering with a hammer is a thing of the past. Nowadays, you just drill it out with an industrial drill.”

“……I see.”

Science reigned supreme.