‘So dark…’

‘So daaarkkk….’

Foggy my consciousness spoke, or rather. Was I conscious at all?

I couldn’t sense my body, or at least I could feel some sort of shape moving by my command.

“Would you stop with that? It is quite annoying, especially to me.”, a soft voice rang, soothing, spiteful and yet very nostalgic.

However, I continued to drift away, endlessly—

“AAAGH!”, suddenly an intense pain spread throughout my senses. Like I was being boiled in hot magma, it irritated, it annoyed, and most importantly it pained me heavily.

“Wha—“, I rose up instinctively, my body calmed down like it was cooled in deep ice.

“Finally, you’re up.”

“Who are you?”

Sitting upon a throne made from human flesh was a child, or a youth presumably considering whom I communicated with. It’s pure white hair reflected no light as for there was no light to be reflected, and it’s deep golden eyes peered into mine, drawing me in like an endless abyss.

It wore the black prototype armor I had made back in the tournament.

This figure, I was extremely familiar with.

Because it was myself.

“What’s with that face? Oh wait, it’s mine! Silly me~”, ‘I’ joked around with a small grin, that was too short to be noticeable.

“As you can guess, or at least I hope your brain the size of a cell can at least comprehend that ‘I’ am you.”, he insulted me with his demeanor, and pointed towards me.

“Anyways, I’ve gone through the liberty of activating your Spirit form while your soul was unconscious. You can thank me later.”, he continued to speak without leaving an opening for me to interfere.

“Seriously, ‘I’ really am something, huh? To be able to corrupt a holy weapon, the sword itself is now in ‘my’ possession so use it to ‘our’ liking for now. Ha~, it feels like I need to praise ‘myself’ a little more~.”

"Ah~, do you have the slightest idea of what you did? Thanks to 'our' incredible control in mana itself, we were able to fully corrupt the sword, what we did was something more than just spreading contaminating mana, we made a new spell 'Absolute Corruption', remember that feeling that you had while using your petty spell, cause 'that' was a actual spell."

'I' joyfully threw 'my' feet n the air like a child unable to contain its excitement.

“Wait, who… no, what are your intentions?”, I saw an opening to speak, and took it.

He grinned a little, but it soon fell down back into its usual dead expression.

"I was the one who brought you to victory back in that 'Tournament', had I not interfered, you would've lost and that girl would be heavily beaten by that brute."

“That's why you can trust me, or not if you don't want to. Makes no difference to me.", 'I' responded to my question, without a single trace of falsehood in his words.

"As for my intentions, hmm... for now I just want to watch.”, he answered with a simple breath of a sigh.

“And…”

“What is that…?”, I referenced the chair, the throne made from human limb and flesh, eyes and mouths pulsating like human hearts.

“Oh this? Don’t worry, I was just thinking about how to make first impressions.”, he responded full of sincerity.

‘One hell of a first impression this is.’

“And where are we?”

“How pitiful, to not even able to recognize its own unconscious mind.”, he closed his eyes and shook his head. “This is your mind, the inside of you, your inner ‘Realm’. Unfortunately as of right now, it is incomplete.”

The ground was made from red liquid, yet I didn’t sink, the sky was painted in white pink, with a tint of red color. And in the middle of the sky, was a black circle that seemed to suck everything in existence.

“However worry not, the next time you’ll meet me. This place will be complete and I’ll be leaving this place for good.”

“And why did you activate spirit form? Isn’t it…”

He sighed. “That is right, your spirit form has successfully recovered thanks to your latest evolution, this one caused you to actually physically change, or rather Spiritually.”

He stood from his almighty chair and walked towards me, and extended his palm to my chest.

“Anyway, I think this is all the time we have left, so we’ll have to part for now.”

My body tried to evade whatever he was plotting, however I was stuck in place. A cold feeling spread across my body.

“A little tip once you’re outside, try not to panic, okay?”

“What do you mea—“

The next moment I disappeared leaving behind the youth on his own.

The doppelganger being gone, he turned back around towards his throne, the endless space was once again set itself silent, the only sound to be heard was the endless void expanding in the sky, and the pulsating flesh throne.

“Ah, you’re still here aren’t you? I guess my bluff didn’t work after all.”

He looked back towards the silhouette in the distance, but instantly ignored it.

The youth lied down back on its throne and closed its eyes momentarily, relaxed by this refreshing feeling it was consuming.

“I’m looking forward, to what you will bring to me.”

 

 

 

“…uh…”, my eyelids were heavy, my body felt sluggish. My vision wavered, making it hard to recognize precise colors or shapes.

I tried moving any feasible part of my body, but my arms were bound on my back, and my body was kneeling on the floor, and resting on my hand was the familiar black clad blade, now called ‘Morgan', or so I presumed these sensations to be.

“Oh, it seems you are finally awake.”, a high pitched voice spread across the room.

It wasn’t a soft one like the ones of a girl, but instead the ones used by a child.

“…Huh?..”, my vision gradually recovered and then I realized—

“Huh?!”

I was on my knees and my hands were cuffed, even though on my hand as if it had been deemed inseparable from me, was the black sword, the new Excalibur, it seemed my speculations were correct.

“Finally, I thought you’d just skip out on this very important occasion.”

The source of the voice was a child.

It was not like me, but in the most literal of cases, a child. With blond hair and blue eyes, its body was really short that it seemed questionable why it was sitting on a throne, playing pretend?

Next to the child was a Knight, with circles around his obsidian colored eyes and a sword hanging from its waist. It’s black hair fluttered by the wind, however it seemed not to bother him.

“You are…”

I recognized that Knight, it was the one from the tournament, I had thought he was just an announcer.

“Oh yeah! I forgot, I need to introduce myself.”

The child struggled to stand up from its tall throne, and then renounced.

“I am Levi Zeltram, I am the king of Zeltram! Pleased to meet ya!”, the child introduced itself excitedly, well becoming of its age, but not its title.

‘Wait, what happened?’

The last thing I remember was pulling out the sword and—

“You’re probably very confused right now, but please be reassured that no Ill will is meant against you… for now…”

The last part of the sentence was spoken in a low voice, but it served no use since I was able to hear it regardless.

‘Wait, let me think this through…’, I used the skill ‘Fast Thought Processing’ and began deducting.

If memory serves, I was with Gray in the capital at the farthest location from the castle, I pulled out the holy sword, talked to ‘myself’ and here I am.

I looked around me, pillars were made from quartz and the walls from marble. The windows were beautifully decorated, like mosaics.

Beneath my feet was a carpet leading forwards surrounding a roundtable with weird indecipherable descriptions written on it.

And before me was the child, sitting on the throne made from a mysterious material, maybe the same one as the roundtable was all I could presume.

'Who was 'that'.', I remembered the gold eyed me, whose impression of him made me clench my fists in anger.

Who was that? Why was he 'inside' of me, or rather what should I do? Can I even trust him or his words?

'Worrying about it won't get me anywhere.'

“Anyways, I bet you’re really confused. So I’ll cut it short.”

The child stood atop its throne and spread its arms.

“From now onwards you will be one of my personal Knights, you will become a Knight of the roundtable!”

The room was filled with silence, the only thing to be heard was the breaths of each other and a small cough coming from the Knight.

“Uhm… this is the part where you should be like “WOW! This can’t be happening! Am I dreaming?! To think the great king of Zeltram himself would bestow upon me one of the highest forms of ranking in the whole country, NO! Whole world!”, right?”

The room was yet again in silence, the small child used the thrones slight height to be able to whisper to the Knight.

“This isn’t working… is this how people are nowadays…?”

“I don’t know, don’t ask me…”

The two whispered, and the self proclaimed king looked into my eyes.

“Ahem, well that’s that. Tell me, young man. What is your name?”

“My name is Shiro, and I’d like to ask something.”, I looked at the little boy happily humming, tune after tune as if he were by himself.

“Yes, speak away, I shall listen.”

“Where am I?”

The Knight who fell asleep on its two feet snored, while the king expressed a aloof expression.

“Huh? Isn’t it pretty obvious? If you're looking at me eye to eye, it should be quite guessable."

“Uh, yes it is. But I’d still like to make sure… I don’t like to assume.”, I told him full of honesty, and a slight hint of fear of what his answer would be.

“Hehe~, we are in the great castle, or my castle and home you could say.”, he explained while sighing a little, his expectations betrayed. “You are in the center of the capital, the very tall cathedral like tower surrounded by pure white buildings that are all connected to one structure, that’s where we are.”

My fears confirmed, I gulped down whatever my mouth produced.

“How long was I out?”

“One day according to the eyewitnesses.”

“And why am I here?”

“Because you pulled out the sword.”

“And what reason is that to kidnap me in my sleep?”

“You pulled out the sword.”

“That is not a reason to kidnap me.”

“You pulled out the sword. You didn’t know about the terms of pulling it out?”, the ‘king’ inquired a question to which I shook my head.

“Whoever pulls out the sword will be given the privilege to become one of my personal knights, and will be given the title of  'Knight of the Roundtable’. Aaand, you will be compensated greatly.”

‘So this is the reason why Gray wanted to pull out the sword this badly!’

Privileges of a Knight equivalent to royalty, money, status, and even a holy blade, who wouldn't want any of it?

It all made sense now, but…

“Back to your offer, I’ll have to refuse.”

He widened his eyes. “Heh?! Why!?”, he pleaded for a response of my reasoning.

“First and foremost, don’t you think it’s too sudden? Just because I’ve pulled out this sword, doesn’t mean I’m eligible to be a Knight.”

What kind of rule did they make? At least they should enroll someone in a Knight school in order to get some education in Swordsmanship.

“Second, I have no reason to accept.”

I had other things to do, one of them was the fact that I am practically homeless, and I can’t keep on jumping from Inn to Inn.

There’s also Athena and the others whom I have to take care of, not that I am doubting in their abilities to take care of themselves. And I have to buy a house, even without any knowledge beforehand.

It’s just that I am the reason they are here in the first place, I should at least show some consideration and try to take care of them.

“Third, there are people waiting for me and I have no time to be a Knight.”

And fourth, I am not human. But I couldn’t say that.

The young child out a hand on its chin and entered in deep thought.

“So what you’re telling me is that I should let you off the hook, and let you take the national treasure of Zeltram along with you?”

“Kh—“

He caught me good, I had pulled out the holy blade, no wonder they would want an explanation or to place some sort of responsibility on my shoulders.

“If it’s a national treasure then why is it in the open? Why didn’t you just cut the ground along with the stone and moved it to your treasury.

“Well, we could’ve done that. But have you considered the reason why we didn’t?”, his voice suddenly turned serious and mechanical.

“Oh…”, there was no way to.

“That Divine Artifact has been pouring thousands and thousands of mana into the soil, thus hardening it to the point where it was unbreakable, believe me, we tried.”

He began explaining how he had even sent mages of every type just to try and make that thing budge, but it led to no avail.

They even went as far as exhausting over one hundred people to try and make the ground move with ‘Earth Attribute Magic’, but not even that was possible.

“Can’t I just give you the sword?”

‘I’m pretty certain that I should be able to hand the sword over. However there was something bogging me.’

Why was I clinging onto the sword, I didn’t even remember having it on my hand to begin with, only for a couple of seconds at best.

“What use would be the sword itself to us if it can’t be used?”

‘Another point made, it seems I can’t escape.’

“There is no way to escape this, the moment you pulled out the sword was the moment you were bound to become a Knight, or closer said a future hero.”

‘…hero…’

A word I really didn’t want to hear along with my name as it’s subject.

“Hehe…”

 

Title: ‘False Hero’

 

I can’t be a hero, this damn title proves it. And it’s not like I wanted to in the first place. And I still don’t know what about eighty percent of my skills do now that they’ve evolved, and I even evolved from a ‘Dark Soul’ to ‘Demon Soul Knight’.

“….”, I held my words in my mouth, and kept myself aware of my surroundings as the Shota King looked onto me.

First off, I believed he had some sense in his words, despite his appearance he was probably shrewder than what he looks. And not just that, I can’t just take the sword and leave the country that has been keeping it for a long time.

Imagine being one of the people reading the news, ‘Breaking News: Random Adventurer pulled out the holy sword and bailed immediately after!’, something like that would not be easily accepted.

Obviously, I could simply ignore this matter. But I had nowhere to go, first off Dawnwell is after me so immigrating over there is not an option.

Glarita, the kingdom has fallen and became a literal demon nest filled with monsters.

Lacra was an option, but I had no initial knowledge on what it’s laws or lands are like.

On the one hand, joining them would be no disadvantage to me at all, or at least there wouldn’t be many I thought.

One of them behind the fact that I’ll belong to this kingdom, in other words I’m under its protection. With the title of Knight of the roundtable, I would be someone with authority or at least damage done to me may have some backfire.

However my freedom may be constricted, which in it self wouldn’t be a bad thing. Until then I would be able to do whatever I felt like doing.

“I am willing to listen to your proposal.”, I finally responded and the king smiled.

“Great! Now, what we’ll do is simple, I will offer you the title and special armor forged by our best smith himself. After that we’ll be verifying your status.”

“…!”

The last line made my body flinch.

‘Having them check my status is a no-go, I can’t allow that to happen!’

“Uhm, why do you have to check my status?”, I asked hesitantly. “The reason why, is due to a research we’re doing. Unfortunately, we can only tell you why after we’ve turned you into a Knight.”

‘What should I do?! At this rate they’ll discover that I am a monster, and that’s the worst case scenario!’

If they find out I’ll be executed on spot, and if I were to escape, I would have to cross through Dawnwell to enter Lacra.

“Is it really that easy to become a Knight? Shouldn’t there be some sort of school or test.”, I asked in desperation.

I decided to buy time instead, I bet they’ve already thought about it beforehand. They wouldn’t persist this badly to just make me give up.

“You’re not wrong, in order for you to become a Knight you need to go through our School for Magic and swordsmanship, however, Shiro—“

The king brought out a sheet of paper from his pocket, unfolded it and read it out loud.

“Since you didn’t visit the guild after the Tournament in ‘Knightfall’, I will be reporting to you what they were supposed to have told you themselves, a-hem—“

“‘Adventurer Shiro, Class ‘F’, due to your achievements on the tournament your class has been increased up to ‘C’ class—“

‘’C’ class?!’

I forgot to visit the guild to receive my update on my rank, the results of the tournament were to redirected to the guild, and they’d evaluate my abilities based on my behavior.

I didn’t visit the guild because I forgot!

“‘— please return to the guild as soon as you can in order for a review to be processed, thank you for reading.’”

I felt both happy and scared, how was I able to overlook something so big!

“This report says everything you’ve done, I think this is enough to prove your expertise, however…”, the king threw the paper away like trash and opened his mouth.

“This alone would not be enough to approve of you as my personal Knight, that is why you will be a ‘Honorary Knight’ instead. But if you wish to, we could enroll you as a student, and being a 'Knight of the Roundtable' can be a hobby in the meanwhile-"

"Nope, no thanks had enough."

Nod, nod, nod

The Shota King (I named him) nodded in understanding, the pain of having to go through school must've been a panful experience for him as wel.

“I see, now let’s proceed with the most important part.”

From the palms of his hand bluish white particles began to gather and turned into a small marble, similar looking to a soul.

The small marble flew towards me, merged with my body like water being in contact with other liquid.

 

<< You have acquired the Unique Skill ‘Patience’ >>

<< Error: Soul unable to properly absorb #%$*. >>

<< Initiating Multi-Soul Adaptor, please await— >>

 

A small bar showing a progress like a loading screen popped up on the upper right corner of my sight, like a countdown to my impending doom.

“Oh, it seems it worked.”, the shota king (I like this name better) sighed reassuringly.

“Alright, no we’ll need to check your status, would you please bring it to me?”, the shota king ordered one of his, I presume they’re called attendant or butler who was on the right corner of the room.

“Here it is.”, the butler said handing over a small crystal ball, with a galaxy like texture plastered on it.

“Place your hand over the crystal, and pour mana into it.”, the shota king said presenting the plate in front of me.

Time seemed to stop, the room was filled with this heavy pressure that made me gulp.

‘I can’t buy anymore time!’, it was useless. The best I could do was bring pointless questions, and I couldn’t really leave if I’d do that they would probably persecute me.

And there’s also the fact that I pulled the sword, whoever the Pope or the Sage is, they prophesied that someone would pull out the sword, and I’m on that list of candidates now.

Even if I were to reject, I basically can’t! I pushed myself into a corner just by pulling out a sword?!

I really didn't want to run away (again), this kingdom feels way nicer than any other I've been to!

It was inevitable, there was no escaping this…

As I hesitantly held my hand over the crystal ball, something came to mind…

‘No, there is one exception to the rule!’

And that is—

Slam!

“Hey King! Guess what, there’s this little group of people asking for some guy, and then this girl started… ano, did I interrupt something~?”

The door slammed open, and a cheerful person walked into the room.

It seemed to be a girl, wearing a skirt and upper armor covering her flat chest, her thighs were covered by dark thigh length socks reaching almost all the way up her slender legs. Her light blue hair was tied behind her back, her side bangs were decorated with a pink hair clip the shape of a flower and her amethyst colored eyes were tentalizing,

On her back resided a huge sword, almost the same height as her size, hidden within its scabbard decorated with a sign of a dragon.

‘Thank you, suspense destroyers!’

I sighed, the sudden tension disappearing from my body thanks to this one girl.

“Oh, you’re back. Glad to see you’re well Hollou.”, the king greeted the trespasser with an innocent smile.

“So, what is happening here?”, she asked looking at me, and at my sword simultaneously.

“We’re about to have a new Knight joining us.”, he answered straight to the point, but without all the other details I’d find important to answer.

“A new friend!? Finally!”

The girl ran towards me, and made a pose.

“My name is Hollou, I am your knightly Knight at your disposal! I love playing games, and practicing swordsmanship, unfortunately I’m a little bad on the magic side~”

Kyun

She pressed a finger against her cheek in a acute manner.

“I am also known as the ‘Knight of the Roundtable: Charity’~❤”

‘Is it me or was there a heart at the end of her sentence…’, I thought, whilst inspecting her facial features on a closer look.

"Finally, a new friend. All the others are always so busy, and the one asleep is too gloomy for my tastes!", she complained while the knight she referred to was snoring while sound asleep.

“So, what is exactly the problem?”, she asked pressing the shota king for an answer.

“Well, there’s none at all. It’s just that he seemed a little hesitant to show his status.”

“…”, he realized that I was hesitant, as he looked at me in confusion.

“Heh? Of course he’d be, showing ones status is like someone looking at you in nude, revealing all your secrets~.”, she hugged her body and squirmed shyly.

“Yes, but we need to check his status to make sure of the ‘you know what’.”, the shota king pressed on, as she looked at him in disgust.

“But when I entered the roundtable, you didn’t even check my status, because you knew I received the skill!”, she made a argument, and proceeded. “If he got the ‘Unique Skill’ doesn’t that mean that he is eligible to be a Knight, right?”

“Hm…”

The shota king held his chin in deep thought, while the Knight next to him finally fell down to the floor snoring peacefully, sleep leaving his body in a spiritual way.

‘They probably meant the ‘Unique Skill’ patience.’, I deducted. 'After all this is over, I'll have to inspect my new skills.'

“If he got the skill, there’s no way he could possibly be one of those!”, the girl Hollou shouted in my defense, as the king finally let out a sigh.

“You’re right, the fact that his body didn’t reject it means he is eligible.”, the king settled the matter and set aside the crystal ball.

He stood up from his throne, the sleeping knight suddenly woke up like an alarm had rang, and held a sword to the king.

“Shiro, that is your name right?”, he asked once more, his eyes unwavering, full of certainty.

“Yes.”

“From here onwards, you shall be known as ‘Shiro, The Knight of the Roundtable: Patience’, however you are naught but a honorary Knight, I expect your duty number one to be the protection of this kingdom and its people, do you accept this oath?”

He for once showed a king like act, his sky blue eyes reflected my frame.

“Shouldn’t this be more formal, and also w-will my freedom be constricted?”, the king smiled upon my question.

“Don’t worry, as a personal Knight you are almost free to do whatever you want~.”, Hollou whispered, as an answer to my question, while the king nodded in approval.

“So, do you accept my proposal?”

‘Not like I have an option…’

The fact that I picked up this sword makes me responsible for what it brought upon me, and also, maybe being a knight won't be such a bad thing...

“I accept.”

 

<< You have acquired the Title of ‘Knight of the Roundtable: Patience’. >>

<< The levels of  'Enhanced Agility', 'Superhuman Strength', 'Archery', 'Demon Soul Blade Technique' and 'Morgan' have increased. >>

 

Skill Explanation: 'Demonic Presence'

This skill represents ones being, upon activation of this skill all your surroundings will be aware of your existence, it will not attract but instead make everything around you tremble in fear. it is important to make sure to keep this skills effect under control as it may make someone lose their minds in fear.