The sound of wagon wheels echoed through the mountains. There was a path, technically speaking, but it was really just a stretch of land where grass refused to grow. Along this rough trail, a single wagon and two horses made their way forward.
“What happened to Father?”
Everything had happened too suddenly. She wore a composed expression, but deep inside, her unease was buried.
“He will be fine, my lady.”
“If we make it to the Monastery, will the Church take action?”
“…That I cannot guarantee.”
“This is driving me crazy. I at least need to talk to someone.”
While camping on the road to Fresco, with a fire crackling in the background, Selena opened the wagon door and walked toward Karl with heavy steps.
“Do you have a moment?”
“…?”
Karl was not the warm and gentle knight from a fairytale. The moment his indifferent gaze met hers, Selena forgot what she had meant to say.
“What is it.”
“I’m just frustrated. I wanted to talk.”
Despite her words, Karl’s expression remained unbothered and uninterested.
“Father is sending me to Fresco to keep me safe. Our domain will likely go to war with the Bolido House soon…”
“Most likely.”
“Aren’t you curious about what’s going on, even though I paid you 40 gold to protect me?”
“I know as much as I need to.”
“…”
Selena was surprised that he already knew everything she was about to tell him.
“If ten Free Knights targeted our domain, how long do you think we could hold out?”
“There are three knights left in Tennesse, and eighty soldiers. They have twelve knights, and eighty soldiers too. At best, you’ll last three days.”
“…”
Her face turned pale as ash.
“You plan to request mediation from the Church, but that won’t be easy—especially if Free Knights from the Holy Knights and that infamous Count Calido are involved. That man supposedly has deep connections with the Church as well.”
“…Father has walked a righteous path his entire life!”
“And?”
“…The Church will surely help him.”
“For someone who’s always buried in books, you’re being naïve.”
Most noble daughters only studied enough to put on a good show before being married off in arranged unions. But Selena had always kept books close and found joy in thinking deeply.
Although she had a penchant for food and hated sweating—leading to a plump figure—her mind was as sharp as any scholar’s apprentice, and her knowledge was vast.
“What do you think will happen to Father?”
“If this were a standard domain war, the baron would be captured alive for ransom. But now… the situation has turned into an all-out plunder of your domain. If fighting breaks out, it’s unlikely he’ll survive.”
“…”
His detached and calm tone only served to make her fears more concrete.
“Even if I go back, there’s nothing I can do, is there?”
“Obviously.”
“…I’ll convince the Church somehow. I have no other choice.”
She tried to act as calm as possible, but in the end, she was still a girl in her late teens. Her voice trembled slightly as she climbed back into the wagon.
As she settled inside, Karl looked up at the sky again. The two moons still shone brightly above.
It had already been fifteen years since he fell into this world—a world where even construction sites touted “Safety First,” yet he had to see corpses nearly every other day. When he first arrived, he had awakened in the body of a seven-year-old.
Born into a minor noble family, he thought maybe he could live a relatively comfortable life. But in this cursed world, the only thing a third or fourth son of a low-ranking noble could expect was relentless training.
His biological father in this world had no intention of giving Karl money or land. The eldest son inherited everything—there wasn’t much to begin with.
Just as he was getting used to the training, he was suddenly sent off to the East Continent by ship.
‘I spent almost seven years fighting on battlefields after that.’
He had no respectable title.
Starting as a mercenary or knight’s retainer, then later becoming a Free Knight, Karl fought nonstop. He did everything he could to keep the never-ending prologue from concluding.
He even took on near-suicidal missions without hesitation. At times, he became so used to the risk of death that he almost forgot the danger.
He lost many precious comrades during countless battles in the desert.
The sound mental state of an ordinary Korean office worker had been shattered and patched back together over and over again amid all those incidents and memories.
Up to that point, Karl might have still wished to return home.
But eventually, after exhausting every possible means without ever getting past the prologue, he gave up.
Barely surviving the East Continent and returning to the West, he realized he had adapted to this world.
His previous life—or more accurately, his life as a regular Korean office worker before falling into this world—had worn down under the harsh passage of time.
‘…I’ve really killed a lot of people.’
Suddenly, the faces of those who had died by his hand flashed through his mind.
The knights he had seen in Earth’s films didn’t exist in this world.
Nobles who understood honor were rare, and even if they did, their definition of honor was vastly different from the one Karl had imagined on Earth.
And the same went for the West Continent.
This place was also a battlefield of endless desires. If someone was quiet, it only meant they lacked power.
No matter where Karl’s thoughts wandered, the group carrying the young lady continued moving through the night.
Stopping frequently in villages while on a mission like this only invited attacks, so they mostly stuck to small side roads.
Clip-clop, clip-clop.
The sound of horseshoes was the only sign of the travelers making their way through the late dawn.
At the head of the group was Roberto, who remained fully alert without proper sleep.
He seemed loyal and competent—a man who clearly had a story of his own.
“Sir Karl, how did you become a knight?”
Roberto, riding at the front, guided his horse closer to Karl.
“I just did.”
The title of “knight” in this world sounded grand, but there wasn’t much to it if you looked deeper.
There wasn’t a state-issued license like on Earth—just a simple knighting from a serving knight or lord was enough.
‘That’s why anyone who can swing a sword a little goes around calling themselves a knight.’
The steady rhythm of hoofbeats stirred memories from the past.
“Well, if you really want to know—I was knighted in the middle of a desert. The man who made me a knight died that same day.”
“Ah… I’m sorry.”
“No need for that face. He wasn’t a proper teacher anyway. Just another passing connection.”
Despite being born into a minor noble family, Karl had strangely never had a proper mentor.
He learned here and there, bit by bit.
But with the blood and sweat he had shed voluntarily, and the countless swordsmanship manuals he studied, refined, and improved, he reached his current level.
‘Other people get dropped into games and level up easily with skills and stats.’
When he realized this world was a game, the only hints were a translucent, square window that woke him up every morning and occasional messages saying his stats had increased.
If this system had helped him at all, it was by clearly confirming that something had improved whenever a stat went up.
In hindsight, it was almost miraculous that someone who used to be a regular office worker on Earth had survived this long.
After traveling for quite a while, they finally reached the next rest stop.
“This might be sudden, but could I ask for a sparring match? Once we reach our destination, I don’t think there’ll be another chance.”
From across the flickering campfire, Roberto stared at Karl with burning eyes.
While Roberto stood up eagerly, Karl remained slouched, not even attempting to rise.
“I’ll eat first.”
Leaning lazily against the wagon wheel, Karl’s posture oozed boredom as he looked at Roberto.
“If you spar with me first, I’ll take care of all the cooking for the rest of the journey.”
“So you weren’t planning to cook otherwise?”
“….”
“Relax, it was a joke. The young lady’s maid is a better cook anyway. She’s more reliable.”
Roberto drew his sword and lifted it over his head with a focused expression.
“Your stance is steady. That’s good.”
There wasn’t a shred of waste in the way he raised his sword. It was proof that he had practiced the same motion hundreds of thousands of times.
In the end, swordsmanship was about building fundamentals to the point where the necessary movement would emerge instinctively in the moment it was needed.
Unlike Roberto, who held his sword in a tense stance, Karl rose sluggishly and held his casually drawn sword limply in his right hand.
Anyone would say Roberto’s stance was better. Yet he could only break out in a cold sweat and couldn’t bring himself to charge at Karl.
Just as Karl gave a slight flick of his sword tip, Roberto, still frozen in the same pose he had maintained for over five minutes, slashed diagonally downward to the left with full force.
“Your form is straight and unwavering—that’s good. Your speed is more than sufficient for someone at the Expert level, and the power is impressive. But it’s all too obvious.”
Tok.
In a fleeting instant, Karl twisted his body slightly to avoid the diagonal strike, and the flat of his blade tapped Roberto’s neck with a gentle tok.
“Once more!”
This time, Roberto connected a diagonal slash into a horizontal swing, aiming to catch Karl off guard.
“Your speed and strength remain excellent. But again…”
Thunk!
Karl dodged the horizontal slash with a subtle step back, then immediately lunged forward, driving his shoulder into Roberto’s chest.
“It’s predictable. If you insist on sticking to such obvious sword paths, your guard should at least be flawless. Last chance. Come at me one more time.”
Though Karl’s gestures—like the flick of his sword—seemed indifferent, he was earnestly trying to teach the man. Watching the two of them, Selena’s eyes sparkled with excitement.
“My lady, isn’t Sir Karl amazing?”
“He really is…”
Without anyone noticing, Selena had come to stand beside her maid, quietly watching the two men.
“Where on earth did Sir Karl come from? Even Sir Roberto, who’s well-known in this region for his skill, looks like a child.”
Karl was no longer even using his sword to fend off attacks. He simply moved, effortlessly dodging everything Roberto threw at him.
Occasionally, he would flick at Roberto’s openings—using those moments to guide him during the sparring match.
‘This is ridiculous…!’
Roberto clenched his teeth. He wanted to at least land a hit—just one.
Ending it like this would make all the years he had dedicated to his training feel utterly pitiful.
Thunk!
“Gah!”
Roberto tumbled across the ground, eyes now staring up at the sky. He thought Karl had just tapped his ankle with his leg, but he had no idea what had actually happened.
“You’ve got potential, but you’re not there yet. Also, you’d do better to abandon the longsword.”
“…?”
Roberto looked at Karl, confused.
“It doesn’t suit you. Switch to a shorter one-handed sword, and carry a shield in your left hand. If you train for a few years without dying, you’ll reach far greater heights than you have with your longsword.”
“….”
Karl’s advice was essentially telling him to give up the weapon he had never let go of since the day he first picked up a sword.
“You’re telling me to abandon the weapon I’ve used all this time and start over with a new one?”
Roberto’s face turned pale. He had worked himself nearly to death to reach this level. And now he was being told to start again from scratch?
“My assessment is clear. That said, whatever the decision, the sooner the better. You’ve been stuck at a wall for over a year now, haven’t you?”
Regardless of how Roberto felt, Karl ended the conversation with his usual detached tone and plopped down by the campfire, staring into the flames.
Watching him, Roberto stood for a while, staring blankly at the sky.
‘Terrifyingly accurate… At this rate… is there no way forward?’
The complexity on his face said everything he was feeling.
“What are you doing? You made a promise, so go prepare the meal.”
“….”
Karl’s flat, emotionless voice broke into Roberto’s despair—completely unfitting for the heavy mood of the moment. Was it really necessary to bring up such a mundane thing right now?
Roberto looked at Karl, who had a perfectly natural expression on his face, then shut his eyes tightly before opening them again and began preparing ingredients with a small cooking knife.
That was when someone quietly crept up next to Karl.
“You’re still too loud even when creeping up. Just walk normally.”
“….”
Selena sat down beside him.
“Please help me.”
Despite her large figure making it difficult even to kneel, she lowered herself to the dirt and bowed her head.
Karl turned his gaze away from her bowed crown and looked to the sky.
For some reason, not a single star could be seen tonight—except one, shining alone in the vast darkness.