Grandfather always used to say—
The world is full of bastards, but you must live like a decent human being.
'I'm sorry, Grandfather.'
It seems I won't be able to keep the promise you asked of me.
It's already been a year since I became possessed inside this game.
At first, I was completely bewildered.
Possession didn't come with any signs. No time to prepare.
It just happened—like getting hit by a speeding truck.
But over time, I had to learn how to give up.
I had to accept my reality.
The fact that the game's setting is a hardcore fantasy world where people die easily?
—I accepted that.
The fact that the body I possessed didn't belong to a max-level mercenary, wizard, knight, or priest?
—I accepted that too.
The fact that I spawned on the outskirts of the continent?
—I wasted a year, but in the end, I accepted even that.
But there was one thing I still couldn't accept.
'Of all things… I had to end up as a Black Knight.'
My class was Black Knight.
I was human, and yet, not truly human.
***
The rattling carriage was packed with people.
Like beans in a pod, they were crammed together, all wearing the same expression of exhaustion from life.
Even inside that crowded carriage, there were distinctly packed and empty areas.
The former surrounded a lovely-looking priestess.
The priestess, with a bright and gentle smile, was preaching to the people.
"No matter how difficult or painful things get, follow the light.
Don't lose your faith. If you keep believing—again and again—someday, God will burn away the darkness and grant you the promised radiance."
In this harsh world, people needed something to lean on.
The passengers nodded earnestly as they listened to her sermon,
as if truly believing that doing so would bring salvation to their souls.
As the sermon ended, questions flew in from all directions.
The priestess answered each one sincerely, with care.
Then, a haggard-looking woman asked:
"Priestess… My husband died last year fighting demons.
He went to heaven, didn't he?"
The priestess gave a sorrowful smile.
She hesitated for a moment, then nodded.
"…The Lord is merciful. Your husband fought bravely against evil,
so I'm sure he entered heaven."
At that moment, a sharper voice cut through the air.
"I've had enough of this nonsense.
If God were so merciful, He would've protected your husband from those demons in the first place."
The speaker was a mercenary sitting in a corner of the carriage.
"How rude…!"
"Apologize, now!"
The other passengers shot him scathing looks.
But the mercenary didn't even flinch.
He gave off the kind of confidence that said he didn't care if every weakling in here ganged up on him.
His eyes gleamed coldly as he continued:
"Hey. I've stood on the front lines, face-to-face with those horrific demonic armies, more times than I can count.
And you know what I realized?
People like you—who are all talk and no substance—are only useful in bed.
You even know how to recite a basic miracle? Huh? Apprentice priestess?"
"You…!"
Strictly speaking, an apprentice priestess wasn't a real priestess.
They weren't even authorized to preach sermons in the first place.
The mercenary was picking a fight using that fact.
Humiliated by the insult and the exposure of her apprentice status, the apprentice's face turned red—flushed with both shame and rising anger.
Apparently amused by her reaction, the mercenary chuckled along with his companion and went on.
"On the battlefield, someone like that Black Knight over there is a hell of a lot more reliable than you.
So what if he's turned his back on the light? As long as he can fight, that's all that matters. Don't you agree?"
The mercenary looked to one side as if expecting a response.
Everyone's eyes followed.
Even in the packed carriage, there was one spot that remained curiously empty.
There, a man sat quietly, polishing a longsword with a piece of cloth.
His full-body plate armor was pitch black, like the night sky.
In stark contrast, his face was ghostly pale.
His eyes were devoid of life—hollow, like those of a corpse.
White hair flowed down over his shoulders.
He was strikingly handsome, like a finely carved statue,
but something about him made it hard to tell whether he was truly alive… or already dead.
The man briefly lifted his gray eyes to glance at the mercenary,
then lowered his head again and continued wiping the blade.
"Well, well. I think I've just been ignored."
The mercenary let out a bitter chuckle.
Still, he'd achieved his real goal—ridiculing the apprentice priestess.
The apprentice shot to her feet and shouted:
"Apologize!
To say I'm worse than that wicked heretic—how dare you! I can't let this go!"
"Ah cammp lhet thishh gooo."
"Hahaha!"
Mimicking her in a mocking, distorted voice, the mercenary made his companion burst into loud laughter.
The apprentice priestess's face turned so red it was almost painful to look at.
Trying to calm her down, the mercenary's companion wiped the grin off his face and said:
"Come now, let's all calm down. Quill just has a bit of a mischievous nature, that's all.
Please, take a seat. Standing tall on a battlefield only makes you an easy target for arrows, doesn't it?"
"Do I look like someone who can calm down right now—"
And then it happened.
Whoosh!
A chilling slicing sound tore through the air, cutting off the priestess's words.
In the next instant—CRASH!—the roof of the carriage was blown clean off.
"W-What?"
People looked up in panic.
Staring down at them through the gaping hole was a one-eyed monster with an unnaturally long tongue.
The mercenary cursed under his breath.
"Oh, you've gotta be fucking kidding me…"
To make matters worse, the carriage came to a halt.
Out front, they could see another one-eyed beast chewing on the coachman's head.
The mercenary shouted like a man possessed.
"I'll hold them off—get out, now!!"
In such a cramped space, it was nearly impossible to fight effectively.
The stunned passengers snapped out of their daze at the mercenary's roar and scrambled out of the carriage in a panic.
The monster lashed its long tongue like a whip.
The mercenary clenched his teeth and raised his shield to block the attack.
"Ha! This is nothing!"
"I-I'll help too!"
"What?"
Hearing the voice of the apprentice priestess beside him, the mercenary scowled.
"Why the hell haven't you gotten out yet?!"
"I can use basic miracles!
O almighty Light, Heaven, and Sun—grant your servant strength…"
"You idiot!"
As the apprentice priestess clasped her hands together and began reciting a prayer, a white light began to glow from between them.
The monster's gaze snapped toward her.
It had instinctively sensed that she was about to become a problem.
The creature braced all four of its limbs against the wall and launched itself with full force.
Like a spring released, it shot toward the apprentice priestess.
The mercenary tried to intercept it.
But the monster was too fast.
And it was too far away.
In the blink of an eye, the creature reached her and opened its massive jaws wide.
The apprentice priestess's face froze, drained of all color as she chanted her prayer.
It was too late to dodge.
In mere seconds, those powerful jaws would crush her skull, bones and all.
She squeezed her eyes shut.
But the feared moment never came.
Crunch!
The sound of something breaking—like bones—rang out.
The apprentice priestess opened her eyes wide in shock.
A steel-clad fist was lodged inside the monster's gaping mouth.
The creature tried to clamp down and chew through the arm.
But the armor surrounding that arm was far too strong.
Instead, it was the monster's teeth that shattered.
The apprentice priestess stared blankly upward at the owner of the fist.
It was the Black Knight she had seen earlier, now pummeling the monster with mechanical precision.
"Kyaaaargh!"
The beast, with its jaw crushed, thrashed wildly in agony.
But the Black Knight grabbed its mouth and pulled with all his might—one side to the left, the other to the right.
Riiiip!
The monster's head was torn clean in half.
Blood and chunks of flesh splattered in all directions.
Some of it landed on the apprentice's face.
It was such a brutal sight that her mind simply went blank.
But the mercenary watching it all burst into crazed laughter.
"Hahaha! That's what I like about Black Knights—they're so damn intense!"
But the Black Knight remained indifferent, completely unbothered by the laughter.
He glanced around briefly.
His eyes landed on the apprentice priestess's face, now splattered with blood.
Reaching into his armor, he pulled out a white handkerchief and held it out to her.
"Wipe it."
"…Pardon?"
When the apprentice failed to respond, the Black Knight took matters into his own hands and began wiping her face himself.
"W-What are you doing…?!"
The apprentice panicked, but the Black Knight didn't stop.
His movements were surprisingly careful,
meticulously scrubbing her face with the cloth.
But the more he wiped, the more the blood smeared,
until her face looked like it had been painted with it.
"Hahaha! What are you even doing, Black Knight?"
The mercenary burst out laughing again.
Feeling something might be off, the Black Knight awkwardly scratched his helmet,
then turned his head and said flatly:
"There'll be more of them outside."
"Yes, sir!"
The mercenaries gripped their weapons and followed the Black Knight.
One of them matched his pace and asked:
"Name's Quill, son of Rendell.
What about you, Black Knight—what's your name?"
The Black Knight glanced at him and replied:
"For now, I go by Dale."
"For now?
Ah, right—don't Black Knights get new names after baptism or something?"
"Something like that."
"Well, in any case—good to be working with you!
Let's make it back to the city alive, yeah?
After all I've been through on the front lines, I'd hate to die without even spending the damn pay!"
The cheerful mercenary and the stoic Black Knight stepped out of the carriage together.
The apprentice priestess could only stare blankly at their backs as they disappeared from view.
***
The battle was over.
More than half the carriage passengers were dead.
The apprentice priestess sank to the ground, overwhelmed by the horrific sight.
A mercenary's voice rang in her ears.
"Damn it… Six of those one-eyed freaks showing up like that?
So much for the city outskirts being safe."
He shook his head, as if fed up with everything.
"Still, we owe our lives to you, Black Knight.
Man, you fight like a damn demon."
"..."
Dale didn't respond.
He lowered his head and stared at one of the corpses.
It was the mercenary who had called himself Quill.
His body was torn to shreds—clearly a painful way to die.
Quill's companion, standing nearby, wore a bitter expression.
"Damn…
He wasn't the kind of guy who'd die in a place like this.
Held on for five years, and now this…"
In a world where life was cheap and death was common,
Dale said nothing as he looked around.
Nearby lay the corpse of one of the monsters.
Dale drove his gauntleted fist into the monster's chest.
Splurt!
Blood sprayed as the gauntlet began to glow faintly red.
Moments later, the creature's lifeforce—and the lingering fragments of its soul—were sucked into Dale.
The mercenary watching from the side let out a breath of awe.
"Ooh… So you absorb lifeforce."
The monster's corpse quickly shriveled.
Before long, it dried up like a mummy.
Dale gave a satisfied nod.
'I've gathered more lifeforce and souls than I expected.
If I visit the temple, I might even get a rank promotion.'
He turned his gaze to the other bodies—
the people who had died in the monster attack.
Sensing his intentions, the apprentice priestess suddenly stood up.
"P-Please don't!"
"?"
"I'll perform proper funeral rites for these people!
So, p-please… don't touch them."
She seemed afraid Dale would absorb the lifeforce of the deceased.
Such an act was considered a serious blasphemy in the doctrine of the God of Light.
One of the mercenaries watching this scoffed in disbelief.
Who knew when more monsters might attack? Right now, Dale was their only lifeline.
'She can't even defend herself, and now she's trying to act righteous…'
Worried that Dale might get offended and abandon them, the mercenary made a quick decision.
Gripping his shield, he stepped forward.
"A useless wench who didn't even help in battle dares to—huh?"
Dale's arm shot out to stop him.
He shook his head silently.
The mercenary asked cautiously:
"Are you… okay with this?"
"It doesn't matter."
After possessing this body, Dale made one vow:
Though he had become something twisted—no longer fully human—he would never forget that he had once been human.
His instincts told him otherwise.
"They're just corpses. Hurry up and absorb their lifeforce."
But the humanity that still lingered within Dale spoke louder.
Even if he couldn't protect the innocent, he should at least not defile them in death.
Dale chose to follow that humanity.
That was how he had survived in this world.
He quietly watched as the apprentice priestess performed a simple funeral ritual.
A mercenary, casting a curious glance at Dale, said:
"You're not quite like the Black Knights I've heard about, Dale.
Not that I've seen more than two or three from a distance, anyway."
"Maybe so."
Dale replied curtly, then turned his back and added:
"Rest while you can."
The road to the city would be rougher than they expected.