The first thing he felt upon waking was agony. It was a different kind of pain than when he fought his Master beyond the wall. Every muscle screamed, and his joints throbbed in protest.
Yujin tried to force his aching body up, but a hand pressed firmly against his forehead, pushing him back down.
"Just lie down, will you? You getting up won't change anything. Just rest."
Red hair swaying, a bushy tail with a singed tip.
"You... why..."
"First, we haven't escaped Sector Zero yet. Second, it's not just the Armorless Union here; knight orders paid by the Merchant Association are swarming the place. Third, every single one of them wants us dead."
The woman with red eyes—Sona—summarized the situation with a sigh.
"We never properly introduced ourselves. Feels pointless doing it on the brink of death, but... I'm Sona. You?"
"Yu... jin..."
Every word felt like it was choking him. Yujin turned his head and spat out a glob of bloody phlegm.
"Right, Yujin. You were in a state where dying wouldn't have been strange. Cardiac arrest, hovering between life and death... you get the picture."
Sona shook her head, looking resigned.
"The only luck we had was that the kid with us knew some healing Arts. Kisha? If she hadn't treated you, you'd be dead."
"Wait... what... why is Kisha here..."
He couldn't understand. Why was the child he thought safe in this hellhole?
"I can't explain everything now. You barely survived. Don't throw your life away."
Sona slumped against the wall, clutching the sword at her waist. The cramped room felt like a prison cell.
Yujin forced himself up again. His body shrieked like a machine without oil, but he ignored it.
"Time... what time is it? The match..."
"Now? In this situation? There's barely any time left, just give it up. Focus on getting out of here alive."
Yujin felt a surge of panic. He had lost too much time reading memories. As he tried to drag himself out the door, it opened.
"Larin..."
Her dark hair swayed. Raquelamalin looked haggard, as if she hadn't slept, but her eyes widened when she saw Yujin.
"You... you! You jerk!"
She rushed forward and hugged him. She seemed to want to hit his chest but buried her face in it instead, mindful of his injuries.
"Master!"
"Mister!"
Kiril and Kisha toddled over and grabbed his legs.
"Kiril? No, why are you..."
He needed an explanation. For everything.
2.
"So... all the dirty laundry was aired? Information on the Merchant Association?"
"…Yes. Everything we could find."
Sector Zero. The corruption of the Association's leaders. Even the private scandals of famous Sport Knights.
Someone had deliberately leaked everything to screw over the Merchant Association. And the information on Sector Zero...
"PRTS."
[…]
"Was this you?"
PRTS remained silent for a moment, as if contemplating.
[Yes. I initiated the leak, Knight.]
"Why? If you release the information now..."
[It is the only way for you to survive.]
"What?"
PRTS explained. While Yujin was busy reading memories, his body had taken critical damage from the collapsing building and shrapnel. He had lost consciousness.
Fortunately, Larin found him and attempted first aid. Meanwhile, Kiril and Kisha, seizing a moment of lax surveillance, escaped confinement and joined Larin.
Kisha‘s Arts barely kept Yujin alive, but they were trapped in the sealed Sector Zero.
"…So you made a deal. With the Adeptus?"
The Adeptus Sprawiedliwi were enemies of the Merchant Association and were already preparing to take them down. That was why they had summoned the Silverlance Pegasi.
But PRTS calculated that the timeline needed to be accelerated. Using the stolen data, the AI mimicked a human persona and approached the Adeptus.
"And the Grand Master... accepted such a deal? He's not someone who would be swayed easily."
[Additionally, I leveraged your name, Knight.]
"What?"
[I claimed that 'Knight Yujin' wished to expose the atrocities of Sector Zero out of noble intent. Selling the Nearl name, your reputation, and the intel on Sector Zero... the deal was struck.]
"Ah... seriously."
The sun was rising. The curtain was falling on the incident, but only Yujin could speak to PRTS, so no one else knew the full picture.
[First, a knight order will arrive to secure the people trapped in Sector Zero.]
"A knight order... don't tell me."
[Yes. The Silverlance Pegasi are coming personally.]
The strongest knights in Kazimierz. That alone should have been enough to stop worrying. But...
"That's why the Merchant Association is frantic to kill me."
Either way, Yujin was at the center of the storm.
The Adeptus sent the Silverlances to save him (and the evidence), while the Association sent their knights and the Armorless Union to kill him (and bury the evidence).
The Union was already hunting him.
Yujin held the key to everything.
"The match?"
[…Are you seriously considering competing in this state?]
"I have to. People listen to winners, not losers."
[Arrogance. You have shrapnel embedded in your thigh, rendering you immobile. Kisha barely kept you alive, and Raquelamalin pulled you from the rubble. Fighting now is suicide.]
"Even so. What if I must?"
[…]
"Sorry if you don't understand. But I made a promise."
Yujin had realized something here: he could read memories.
Whether it was the memory of the land or the Originium, he didn't know.
But when he first saw the pile of corpses in Sector Zero...
He saw children. He saw a boy. He saw people with dreams, now crushed into dust.
He saw their memories. Resentment, regret. Pain too great for one person to bear.
And in that pile of corpses...
Was the boy he had met.
The boy who had asked in the sewers, with shining eyes, "Can I become a knight too?"
In Kazimierz, an Infected cannot be a knight. The boy's fate was sealed from the start.
「 …Can I become a knight too! 」
Yujin still remembered those words.
The boy‘s dream. An impossible request Yujin wanted to grant.
Among the memories in the pile of corpses was that young boy.
He had resisted to protect children younger than himself, only to be beaten to death by adults who didn't deserve to be called knights. And his death was treated like garbage, thrown onto the pile.
Yes. This was the world.
Living too peacefully, Yujin had forgotten.
At the end of the memory, the boy stood in the same place, but his expression was different.
「 …Can I become a knight too? 」
Yujin saw the boy at the end of the memory. And silently hugging him, he said:
"I will make it so. A world where you, too, can be a knight."
It was too late to promise for next time. For that boy, for the Nearl name, for himself, and for the Master who taught him.
He had come too far.
"…How much time until the match?"
Sona, who had been listening to PRTS (via Yujin relaying) and Yujin, asked Larin with a tilted head. Larin rubbed her face wearily.
"One hour. Even if we leave Sector Zero right now, it's tight. Getting to the arena..."
"Then let's go. I can't stay a loser forever either."
Sona stood up with a determined expression, but Larin shook her head and shouted.
"No! Even if you win, what can you change...?!"
"After I win, I will reveal to the world that I am Infected."
The words were shocking.
Kiril and Kisha gaped at him. Sona looked bewildered.
"What...! You're not even Infected! Why would you say..."
"Then I'll just become Infected."
Yujin pulled a shard of ominous Originium from his pocket. Before anyone could stop him, he popped it into his mouth and crunched down.
Practically speaking, Originium couldn't harm Yujin, but this was a demonstration of his will. However, the moment he swallowed, everyone lunged at him.
"Spit it out! Spit it out! Are you crazy?!!"
"Yujin! No!!!"
Larin punched him in the solar plexus, Kiril and Kisha grabbed him, and Sona tried to pry his mouth open to retrieve the stone.
"SPIT IT OUUUUUT!!!"
The chaos continued until Yujin finally managed to explain his unique constitution.