Chapter 83: The Doctor Is Still Staying Up Late in a Place No One Notices!

“It’s raining!”

My uncle said it’s raining. Is this a Nier reference?

Młynar was practically dancing across the wet pavement, his blade flashing in the downpour as he relentlessly pursued Maria. The sheer ferocity of his strikes made it look as though he absolutely had to hit the three-hundred-pull hard pity on a limited banner right this very second.

Maria, stubborn as ever, attempted to repeat her old trick. She swung her heavy sword at her uncle in a wide, desperate arc, fully intending to slam him into the mud just like she had done to the Corrupted and Withered Knights.

Młynar merely sneered. With a flick of his wrist, he backhanded his whip-sword, the segmented blade snapping out to wrap around his arrogant, overconfident niece’s weapon and drag her right back into his striking range. “This countermeasure was designed for me by him back in the day!”

Outside the splash zone of this intense family drama, Margaret stood quietly by your side. Her golden hair caught the dim streetlights, seemingly untouched by the dreary weather. She reached into her pocket and inadvertently slipped a handful of shiny, foil-wrapped lemon candies into your palm.

“Commander, please don’t mind them,” Margaret said, her voice a soothing contrast to the clash of steel ringing out a few yards away. “Uncle and Maria aren’t usually… this emotionally expressive. Perhaps it’s because I haven’t been present at the Nearl estate for these past few years. Never mind that, you should just have some candy.”

Duq’arael, who had been quietly trailing behind the group, widened his eyes in sheer, unadulterated shock. ‘What a terrifyingly high level of skill!’The Sanguinarch’s mind raced, overanalyzing the Radiant Knight’s every breath. First, she used a strategic retreat to seemingly maintain the dignified image of her uncle and sister, forming a sharp, elegant contrast with the two who were currently engaged in muddy fratricide. This highlighted her own sensible, big-picture-oriented persona while subtly putting down her relatives. Calling them’emotionally expressive’ was a veiled implication that she herself had actually been patiently waiting for the Commander’s summons all along.

Even more brilliant was the line ‘I haven’t been at the Nearl estate,’ which cleverly established her absolute status as the de facto head of the family. Finally, she used the lemon candy to physically block the Commander’s mouth, forcing him to drop any deep thoughts and leaving behind a perfect, steady, and reliable image that completely eclipsed her chaotic bloodline.

Margaret Nearl… she is unfathomable!

Duq’arael gritted his teeth. ‘I didn’t expect there to be someone in this city even better at manipulating people’s hearts than me!’

Watching the Commander, who was completely oblivious to this high-level psychological warfare and simply munching happily on the lemon candies, Duq’arael fell into deep anxiety. Coming along on this trip had indeed been the right decision. He hadn’t expected that the deepest, most cunning hidden enemy in Kazimierz was actually the Radiant Knight herself.

The disguised Royal Court member had completely forgotten the original purpose of being an undercover agent. It didn’t matter anymore. For undercover work, the process was what truly mattered; the end result was secondary. Whether he could dismantle the Sarkaz’s greatest threat in the end wasn’t the point. The real point was the sheer, intoxicating thrill of betraying his colleagues, living on the razor’s edge, and eventually snuggling into the arms of the opposing Commander under the shocked, horrified gazes of the other Royal Courts.

Benefiting heavily from Rhodes Island’s corporate culture, which was leagues ahead of anything else on this barren land, Duq’arael’s thoughts drifted further and further into strange, uncharted territory.

Back in the mud, Młynar was about to finish his three-hundredth lash. Just as he raised his arm for the two-hundred-and-ninety-ninth strike, a pale hand reached out, physically blocking the space between the golden pegasi.

“Alright, alright, stop!” you called out, stepping into the rain. “There’s still one free pull on the last day of the banner tomorrow!”

Unfortunately, once again, absolutely no one understood your meme.

However, the two knights tacitly stopped their brawl. Młynar flicked his wrist, retracting his whip-sword with a sharp metallic clatter, while Maria took the opportunity to sneakily scurry behind your back.

“Commander,” Maria peeked over your shoulder, panting heavily. “What does a free pull mean?”

You stood dazed in the rain for a moment, the cold drops sliding down your visor, before offering a hollow smile. “It’s nothing. I just suddenly remembered the 299 tragedy…”

A heavy silence fell over you. After all, on this bleak, war-torn land, there was no one left who could talk to you about these topics anymore. No gamers. No forums. Just Originium and endless politics.

Młynar didn’t understand the words, but his sharp instincts keenly sensed the sudden, drastic drop in your mood. While you were still staring off into the middle distance feeling deeply melancholy, the Wandering Knight decisively drew his whip-sword again.

Crack!

The blade lashed out, perfectly striking Maria right as she leaned out from behind you.

“Alright, Commander,” Młynar said flatly, ignoring the yelp. “Whatever the 299 tragedy is, I assure you it won’t happen anymore.”

Maria let out a loud “Ow!” and immediately clutched her backside, shrinking further behind your coat and pointing an accusing finger at her uncle. “Commander, look at him! He’s crazy!”

…Is this the execution capability of a Liberator after fully charging up their skill points? I can’t even feel lonely around these people anymore!

After finally calming down the two large and small pegasi, you cleared your throat, the playful atmosphere instantly evaporating as you got down to business.

“Today’s duel was at best an appetizer,” you said, your voice dropping into the cold, measured cadence of the Doctor. “The Commerce Union has long been prepared for the Radiant Knight’s return. They will never let you win the championship again. If you successfully defend your title, simply saying a few words on the podium would be enough to ignite the recent public opinion boiling across Kazimierz.”

You pulled out your PRTS terminal, the blue light reflecting off your visor. Your finger swiped across the holographic screen, ruthlessly erasing the names of the two star knights scheduled to fight Maria next.

“If I were a director sitting in the Commerce Union, I would use the fastest speed possible to bet all my chips and cut off your winning streak right here.”

Nightmare Knight. Blood Knight.

“In such an obvious, heavy-handed political struggle, the possibility of that still-confused Candle Knight joining the fray is not high,” you analyzed, tapping the screen. “In a situation with undercurrents surging from all sides of Kazimierz, if she were smart enough, she wouldn’t have even intervened from the very beginning.”

Her political wisdom should be above the passing line, right? It really should be.

“Maria, for the next match, you sit out. Patriot goes on.” You kept your expression entirely unchanged, tapping the screen with two fingers to display the newly modified project flowchart.

“They switched people in violation of the arena rules, so we can naturally switch our operators too. They aren’t the only ones with the right to tamper with things in the dark.”

As it happened, you had just obtained a very useful little bit of authority from the Supervisor Council on the night of the Grand Partition. That elite group of Silverash Knights had already ‘voluntarily’ gone to Rhodes Island as heavily guarded guests. Now, as long as you cut off the city’s communications for a short time, the Great Knight Territory would become an isolated island, completely cut off from the rest of Terra. According to the nomadic city’s current route, it would be at least two months before it could reconnect with the outside world.

It really was the perfect time for both sides to make their final moves.

The Nightmares. A mysterious, terrifying race that had once conquered more than half of Terra, relying on devastating Originium Arts and unmatched physical prowess under the banner of their great Khan. Now, they had almost entirely vanished from the annals of history. However, there were still a few pure-blooded Nightmares wandering the wastes, stubbornly holding onto the ideal of reviving the Khan’s glory, searching everywhere for their own ‘Celestial Path.’

“Kill them. Haven’t you always been searching for your Celestial Path? Now, the heads most suitable to be offered to your Khan have finally appeared.”

A fat director of the Commerce Union tried hard to hide his deep unease behind a mask of impatience. He slammed the tournament schedule down on the table in front of the heavily armored Nightmare. “Kill them, and we can provide you with wealth and resources you can’t even begin to imagine!”

The Nightmare Knight, Tola, remained perfectly still. He was neither happy nor sad. His cold gaze simply fell on the paper schedule, locking onto a single name that had been viciously circled with a red marker: Margaret Nearl.

The sole purpose of his coming to this neon-lit, degenerate city: The Radiant Knight.

He didn’t even bother to give the sweating director a verbal response. Tola simply picked up the schedule, tucked it into his armor, and turned his back, walking out of the dark, opulent room without a second glance.

“Kill her!” the noisy weakling behind him shouted, his voice cracking with desperation.

The Nightmare Knight strode down the corridor, his heavy footsteps echoing against the metal floor. They were the same kind, he and the Radiant Knight. He would kill her to complete his Celestial Path and restore the lost glory of the Nightmares, but he would absolutely not do it because of the pathetic chatter of such weaklings.

If killing her still didn’t complete his Celestial Path, then he would simply continue killing. Ursus. Leithanien. Columbia. Iberia. He would carve his way through them all.

Either find his Celestial Path or die on the blood-soaked road seeking it. This was the singular truth that generations of Nightmares had risked their lives to pursue. Even if their entire race was teetering on the absolute verge of extinction, they would never retreat out of fear or cowardice.

——Somewhere far away, a little red Kuranta who had just finished robbing a caravan and was happily counting a heavy sack of gold coins suddenly sneezed. “Is someone cursing me?”

[Rhodes’s Note: “300-pull hard pity” and the “299 tragedy” refer to the standard gacha game mechanic where a player is guaranteed the featured character after 300 pulls. Stopping at 299 right before the banner ends is a universal gamer nightmare.]

[Rhodes’s Note:

Enjoying the operation so far, Doctor?

(This daily grind literally pays the landship’s rent! 🙇‍♂️):

Massive thanks for reading and supporting the operation!]