Chapter 24

Chapter 24
Chapter: 24

## Chapter Title: Wilhelm’s End

For a fleeting second, I questioned my own hearing.

An heir?

The notion that Knight King Wilhelm had designated a successor was entirely new to me.

‘A charlatan, clearly.’

Marquis Wyzer forced his racing pulse to steady.

In retrospect, the world had been plagued by frauds pretending to be the Knight King’s second coming, his shadow, or his hand-picked pupil.

This was especially true following the collapse of the Great Expedition; several pretenders had boldly claimed to be “disciples of the Knight King” to usurp authority in various provinces.

But he didn’t stop at disciple—what? A successor?

Absurd.

That mask of stoic confidence would surely shatter, exposing his true, cowardly nature the moment a blade touched his throat.

Marquis Wyzer signaled with a lowered hand.

The armored guards, interpreting the Marquis’s silent decree, had barely stepped forward when—

“The lineage of Wyzer is indebted to the Knight King for a ‘Star.’ In exchange, Marquis Wyzer, what was the vow you made to him?”

“…… Freeze.”

Clang!

The warriors, who had been exuding a palpable thirst for blood, halted instantly.

The Marquis’s gaze flickered with sudden instability.

He was indeed in the Knight King’s debt. To ensure his sole heir, the White Knight Serengeti, could reach transcendence, he had bound himself by a sacred oath.

However, that transaction was a buried secret.

Even Serengeti, the beneficiary of the deal, remained oblivious.

It was a confidence shared exclusively by the Knight King and Marquis Wyzer.

Then, the individual claiming the mantle of the successor spoke again.

“If the memory has escaped you, allow me to refresh it.”

Gulp.

The sound of someone swallowing hard echoed in the silence.

“…… I have provided ample evidence of my sincerity.”

Marquis Wyzer countered.

A sharp peal of laughter escaped my lips.

“Since when did ‘sufficient sincerity’ become a synonym for loyalty?”

Marquis Wyzer had pledged his absolute fealty to Knight King Wilhelm.

Loyalty is a profound devotion emerging from one’s core—an internal conviction, is it not?

He couldn’t simply dismiss it as having checked a box of “sincerity.”

“Has the man once honored as the ‘Noble Wyzer’ truly devolved into a bloated aristocrat?”

Knight Wyzer had ascended to his rank in the Valan Kingdom through that very reputation and prowess. He presided over the “Knight’s Garden,” a sanctuary for true warriors—a man who understood the weight of a name.

Marquis Wyzer clenched his jaw until his teeth ground together.

“Five hundred of my men are in graves, and Serengeti is broken. What further tribute must I pay?”

“Even so, it does not weigh as much as a ‘Star.’”

The worth of a Star surpassed the value of this entire metropolis.

The Pangeniar continent held 244 such great cities.

Yet, only 32 Stars existed in the world.

Beyond their scarcity, the sheer significance, the divine aura, and the transcendent nature of a goddess’s remains made them incomparable to anything else.

“Still, I am not an inflexible person. I only wish to learn the details of my mentor’s final hour.”

“You seek an audience with Serengeti?”

“I do.”

That was the extent of my demand.

I wasn’t even asking for control of the city, yet the Marquis’s features remained set in a grim, stubborn mask.

“If you truly carry the Knight King’s legacy, provide the proof.”

“Proof?”

“Your blade. Or perhaps a technique passed down to you……”

Despite my knowledge of their private pact, mere testimony wasn’t enough to secure his absolute belief.

He required the Knight King’s unique brand of combat or a specific art.

I adjusted my stance and gave a sharp, confident nod.

“That is a simple request.”

Actually, it was incredibly difficult.

…… Now what?

On the opposite side of the sparring grounds stood a standard knight clad in silver plating, his expression venomous.

He gripped his hilt as if he intended to split me down the middle, his presence heavy with hostility.

【Lv. 7】

He represented the peak of the martial talent left in this domain, more or less.

The truly elite warriors had been pulverized during the Great Expedition.

Consequently, they had loaded this mid-tier Level 7 knight with a hoard of relics.

‘The Blessed Blade of the Executioner, the White Knight’s Blessed Silver Plate, and the Blessed Royal Signet?’

He was a walking monument to divine favor.

To grant equipment the “Blessed” status, a high-tier cleric had to employ sanctified charms and perform exhaustive litanies and rituals to summon a divine intervention.

Clad in such finery, he was undeniably a formidable threat for a Level 3 like myself.

“You don’t look like much of a challenge. If my blade slips and takes your life, don’t blame me.”

The knight twirled his heavy executioner’s sword with a smug grin.

This warrior was unaware of my claim to be the successor.

The duel was being conducted under the Marquis’s veil of total discretion.

“…… Proceed as you see fit.”

Marquis Wyzer was deadly serious.

Confirming my identity was his highest priority.

As the city’s treasury and talent pool bled dry in the wake of the expedition, he was presiding over a slow collapse.

But if the Knight King’s heir stood with him, he likely hoped the city could be spared from total extinction.

“Behold, the legendary Executioner’s Sword!”

…… Fascinating.

The boast sounded strangely familiar, but apparently, that’s how people heralded blessed artifacts.

The fact that this man was the city’s premier defender spoke volumes about its desperate state.

Slowly, I unsheathed my “twin blades.”

“What are those rusted scraps? You’re using dual swords?”

The knight let out a derisive snort.

To any observer, the two blades I held looked pathetic.

They seemed no different from the cheap iron stock found at the back of a village forge.

More importantly, dual-wielding was typically the mark of a flamboyant amateur or a fool.

No serious master of the blade tried to manage two weapons simultaneously.

However, these were anything but ordinary.

‘Extreme Iron Swords, a pair of them.’

These were the rewards for achieving transcendence in Main Quest 3.

I hadn’t hesitated to select two identical Extreme Iron Swords.

‘For the sake of cycling.’

A perk of the hidden Weapon Master trait is the capacity to use any tool with high-level skill.

To fully exploit that advantage, I needed weapons built for ‘switching.’

They weren’t Michella’s Sword, so I lacked the Heavenly Dragon resonance, but for mimicking the Knight King, this pair was flawless.

【Extreme Iron Sword】

★ A blade of iron that has touched the pinnacle. A basic weapon true to its form, yet forged and elevated by a peculiar transcendent being.

★ Strength +3

★ Active when paired with other “Extreme” gear: “Extreme” resonance

★ Sword mastery adjustment +1 Lv

★ Analysis restricted

★ Bound to soul

Extreme, True, Annihilation, Sever.

Armaments bearing these four designations possessed power that defied standard logic.

The raw statistics were underwhelming because the transcendence was applied to a basic base, but the auxiliary effects were vastly superior.

‘Mastery adjustment. It looks minor, but it’s the ultimate advantage.’

As I gripped both Extreme Iron Swords, data began to stream across my vision.

《Sword mastery adjusted to 7 Lv.》

《Sword mastery adjusted to 8 Lv.》

《Triggering “Extreme (+2 Lv)” synergy, sword mastery adjusted to 10 Lv.》

The “Weapon Master” trait automatically boosted proficiencies to Level 5.

The “Dexterity” trait added another +1 across the board.

That provided a foundation of Level 6.

The dual swords and the “Extreme” synergy pushed it up by 4, hitting Level 10.

At Level 10, the mundane becomes miraculous; pebbles turn to fortresses and mist becomes a flood.

‘Still short of the mark.’

Even so, this wasn’t enough to authentically claim the King’s legacy.

This level of skill couldn’t recreate the King’s distinctive combat philosophy.

It wasn’t even a fraction of his true essence.

What was the solution? How could I force them to see the King in me?

It happened then.

《The “Star Successor” path allows for the retrieval of the previous owner’s memories through the held Star under specific parameters.》

《Sword mastery has reached 10 Lv; accessing the Star’s memory banks.》

《Replicating the “Zenith” of Knight King Wilhelm’s art: “Heaven-Earth Rending.”》

“……”

When a person witnesses something that shatters their understanding of reality, they are reduced to stunned silence.

They can do nothing but gape.

Every spectator in the training grounds was frozen in that state.

Marquis Wyzer, Hudson, Isabella, and the very knight standing across from me.

‘W-What is this?’

The knight stared up at the sky above the courtyard.

He had been brimming with arrogance, bolstered by his holy relics. He was certain of his victory.

His rival was a show-off with two dull pieces of iron playing at being a hero.

But the moment the blades were drawn and the strike began, the world inverted.

The opponent had been riddled with flaws before the clash, but once the movement started, the knight’s path was blocked by an invisible wall.

His focus evaporated; he had no idea where to parry or how to lunge.

When his consciousness returned, he found himself staring at the clouds.

‘What just occurred?’

It made no sense.

It wasn’t that the strike was a blur of speed.

In fact, it seemed slow enough to stop with a casual wave.

Was it the mastery of deceleration?

No, that wasn’t it. He should have been able to block it, yet he found himself physically unable to move his arm.

An overwhelming pressure had swallowed the field.

An ethereal force that shouldn’t exist.

In that heartbeat, the man before him had become the sky itself.

“…… Ah.”

Marquis Wyzer exhaled a ragged breath.

Only then did he realize he had been holding it.

‘That is the King’s blade.’

The display he had just witnessed was the unmistakable signature of the Knight King.

That presence that bypassed human logic, making any defense futile.

Only Knight King Wilhelm possessed the ability to manifest that.

It looked agonizingly slow, yet was impossible to intercept; one could watch it clearly, yet fail to grasp the whole.

It resembled sorcery, but the King had always insisted it was merely swordsmanship.

If one could manifest that absolute territory that defied explanation…

‘Ah……’

A shiver ran down Marquis Wyzer’s spine.

The peerless Knight King.

The pinnacle of human strength, the final bulwark of the race.

The legend who was thought lost had come back.

A woman remained motionless in the bedroom, her eyes staring at nothing.

This shell of a person, drained of all spirit, was the White Knight Serengeti.

She breathed, yet she was effectively a corpse.

“I brought her home draped over a saddle in this condition. I sought out the holiest healers, but even they confessed helplessness against a hex of this magnitude.”

Marquis Wyzer spoke with a heavy heart.

Behind him, Hudson watched Serengeti, his eyes brimming with suppressed grief.

‘The Curse of the Demon King.’

She was trapped in the Demon King’s web.

A hex that imprisoned her in a loop of eternal, horrific nightmares.

No standard remedy could break a Demon King’s curse. Not saints, not even emperors of the faith.

But I needed her to wake up.

I needed the truth of my own end.

‘Serengeti……’

My most trusted ally.

The warrior who had remained at my side with the 500 knights.

Their deaths hadn’t moved me before.

To me, it had all been a simulation.

Yet, looking at Serengeti now, a bizarre sensation washed over me.

It was a deep, aching nostalgia.

Had I been seduced by this world’s realism, forgetting it was a game?

No, it was time for the truth.

‘This isn’t a game.’

This world wasn’t a digital construct.

It was a living reality.

“I exhausted every resource to bring her back. Divine tonics, the most famous doctors—all failed.”

It was the primary reason for the city’s bankruptcy.

Marquis Wyzer had spent everything, but Serengeti remained lost.

“…… But I have a duty to this land. Within a month, Serengeti will be gone. The Duke of Saien will take custody of her. I…… have run out of options.”

“……!”

Hudson’s trembling intensified. His face twisted in a mask of dread.

The Duke of Saien, the realm’s most powerful aristocrat who had pursued Serengeti for years.

Marquis Wyzer said with profound regret.

“I apologize. I was powerless.”

“It doesn’t matter.”

And I meant it.

I extended my hand, hovering it over her forehead.

Then.

Voom!

A swirling mist of starlight erupted, encircling her before being pulled inward.

《Executing “Star Blessing.”》

《All sanctified energy depleted.》

《Energy levels insufficient to fully break the Demon King’s Curse.》

《“Limit Curse” suspended temporarily.》

Gradually.

The light of recognition returned to Serengeti’s eyes.