Surviving as a Knight in a Trash Game

Chapter 136

“Young Master Karl, it’s mealtime.”

Hans knocked on the door.

It felt like he had closed his eyes in his mother’s warm embrace, something he had never felt before, but somehow, it was the next morning.

All the time he had lived so fiercely until yesterday felt distant, like a single point in the past.

It was an unfamiliar and strange experience.

‘It’s not like I imagined.’

Karl clenched and unclenched his hand, feeling the sensation.

The body of a 7-year-old boy.

It was just like that.

There was a very slight strange point, but it was something he could sufficiently overlook.

Was this what the Meyer Castle dining hall felt like?

In his previous life, Karl hadn't been able to eat with them in the same place.

Because he was the demon occupying Karl Meyer’s body.

Sitting at the table with his family, laughing and talking, and bringing warm bread, stew, and well-cooked, tender meat to his mouth, Karl felt a smile unknowingly appear.

The happiness derived from the warmth of family and a full stomach, different from his mother’s warm embrace, was a greater pleasure than he had thought.

‘Good….’

In his previous life, and even in the life before that, Karl had always had to endure each rough day in harsh and difficult environments.

Such small happiness was a very distant reality for him.

“Karl, is the food to your liking?”

“…It’s delicious.”

“Yes, eat a lot, my child.”

“Yes… Mother.”

It was a truly strange word.

Mother.

Karl felt a tickling sensation in his heart when he uttered that word.

A subtle emotion.

Amidst it, Karl’s father, Count Den Meyer, was looking at Karl.

Those eyes, full of affection, held a kind of emotion he had never felt before.

“After the meal, let’s go hunting with your brothers.”

Karl quietly nodded in response to his goodwill.

Hunting with his father and two brothers was enjoyable enough.

It was closer to a hunting game with a light bet, not life-threatening, but it had its own enjoyment.

The 7-year-old Karl just had to give his opinion on who among the three would win and watch the three of them hunt.

Karl thought he was forgetting something.

It felt like there were many important things.

He couldn’t judge what was important and what wasn’t.

“Karl! Why are you standing there? Come quickly!”

Dave, his second brother who was a few years older, gestured to Karl.

Karl nodded and ran towards Dave.

The second day of what he thought was his third reincarnated life ended like that.

A day, two days, a week, a month. Half a year.

Karl adapted to his new life like that.

It was comfortable, warm, and by the time he felt that the present was enough, his memories of where he came from and what kind of life he had lived had become faint.

Memories that couldn't be forgotten in just half a year turned into powder like cookie crumbs and were blown away by the wind.

At the end of a comfortable day, no different from any other, Karl opened the window and looked at the sky.

Two moons were shining on Karl more brightly than on any other day.

“Two moons?”

Looking at the moons that must have always been there, Karl felt goosebumps rise on his spine.

A feeling of missing something, a feeling of having forgotten something.

Karl had definitely missed something.

A moment later, Karl felt displeasure from deep within his heart.

A fire lit in the soul of the man who thought he knew himself better than anyone.

“What a filthy feeling.”

His thoughts were being encroached upon; without realizing it, he had lost the initiative to this new system or world, whatever it was.

And for a whole half year at that.

“Karl, what are you doing? Hurry down and let’s eat.”

His brother, who shouldn't be kind, was smiling with a warm smile.

“Step back, Dave!”

“What!?”

Karl, in the body of a 7-year-old boy, had somehow reached where Dave was and drew up his golden aura.

Kwaaaang!

With a tremendous crash, Karl and a black-clad, masked man, whose origin was unknown, were thrown in opposite directions.

“Karl!? What is this?”

As Dave covered his mouth in surprise, everyone from the head of the Zen Meyer family to his mother gathered where the explosion sound came from.

“Karl…?”

They covered their mouths as they saw their youngest suddenly emitting streams of aura.

Karl, knowing what faces they would make after seeing him now, showed a bitter expression.

“I don’t want to hurt you. Please step back.”

Karl spoke to them with sincerity and confronted the man in black.

Black aura streamed out from the man's sword, and he attacked Karl with unimaginable speed.

Though Karl was in the body of a seven-year-old child, strangely, his body didn’t feel awkward.

Of course, physical strength would be necessary, but perhaps because the qualitative power of his aura was higher than before, it wasn’t too difficult to deal with the man in black.

A few more clashes were heard, and the battlefield of the two had unknowingly moved outside the lord’s castle.

-Why are you doing this?

Karl thought that the man in black before him might be speaking the system’s thoughts.

“Well. I don’t know either.”

Why live so diligently, when he could just feel their warmth and live here?

Why bother stepping back into a truth he wanted to ignore?

No matter how much he pondered, Karl thought he didn't know.

However, he thought he knew one thing.

Even if there were hellishly difficult times, even if there were many moments so hard he wanted to break everything and give up, the fact was that the present Karl, who had lived through all those moments, was his true self.

-I cannot understand.

“That’s not for you, who pushed me into this place, to say.”

At this moment, the thought that he could thoroughly screw them over one more time made Karl genuinely smile.

-Even now, the path we offer…

The moment the man in black tried to spout more nonsense, Karl cut him off, and aura flashed from his sword.

The moment the aura flashed, it had already sliced the man in black into dozens of pieces.

The man in black, his entire body dismembered, vanished as if he had never been there in the first place.

As the situation seemed to be resolved, Karl slowly turned around.

“Thank you, sincerely.”

These grateful people had given him a warmth he had never felt before.

Karl bowed his head to them with all his sincerity.

“What on earth are you talking about right now?”

Looking at Dave, who still wore a dumbfounded expression, Karl felt a strange sense of relief.

Because he could tell that they weren’t just people created by his imagination.

“It was brief, but I was happy. Truly.”

Whether this was his third life or another virtual space, the many emotions Karl had felt during that time were real.

“What are you saying? Karl?”

“This seems to be it. Take care.”

Karl looked at the Meyer family members standing behind Dave.

He hoped they wouldn’t remember him as a monster.

But that was probably wishful thinking.

Just as he was feeling a bitter emotion, Karl’s mother slowly walked over and hugged Karl tightly.

“My child, whoever you are, wherever you are, you will always and forever be mother’s child. I love you, Karl.”

At that moment, the world before his eyes began to disappear.

Karl desperately wished that his mother’s warm embrace, which felt like it could melt the entire world, would not disappear.

But the warm-faced family members too.

The lord’s castle that had given him memories he could cherish forever during the short half-year.

Everything vanished like a fleeting dream, like a mirage.

And before his eyes, a vast, empty cave unfolded.

“Ah….”

A sigh escaped Karl’s lips.

Jureureuk.

A warm sensation trickled down his cheek.

It was a tear, and he couldn't even remember the last time he had shed one.

Karl stood there blankly, shedding tears like that.

The emotion he felt now was definitely sadness.

Seueuk.

Karl, who had been standing there for a long time, unknowingly raised his hand.

In it was a handkerchief his mother had pressed firmly into his hand.

“Ah….”

That place was neither a virtual world nor an imaginary world.

Karl looked at the handkerchief and quietly closed his eyes.

“Thank you.”

Though he had grown in an instant from the body of a 7-year-old child, he opened his eyes with gratitude.

“Did you have a good dream?”

When Karl opened his eyes, an old man with white hair and a white beard stood there.

***

The old man who suddenly appeared in the tomb's plaza had white hair and deep eyes that made it hard to guess his age, yet he had a straight back and broad shoulders.

He wasn't particularly thick or large, but he was an old man with a slender yet sturdy physique.

“What are you looking at so intently?”

“You appeared suddenly, so I was looking.”

Karl quickly composed his emotions, making it hard to believe he was the same person who had been crying just moments before.

“Do you know by looking?”

“Well, I definitely get the feeling you’re stronger than me.”

The old man’s eyes glinted with interest.

“You’re a junior who knows himself well.”

“Am I your junior?”

“I was a knight too, so you must be my junior.”

“I see.”

The old man found that he strangely didn’t dislike Karl, who answered indifferently.

“You did not inherit the Legendary Knight.”

“That’s right. I didn’t like it.”

“Indeed, they aren’t things to be liked.”

The old man also seemed to know what the system was.

“Do you know the system?”

“What is that?”

He genuinely doesn’t know.

The man before him didn’t understand the word “system.”

But the fact that he agreed with Karl’s words meant that the old man had experienced a similar situation, even if it was under a different name than ‘system.’

“It seems you call the fate bestowed upon you by that word, system.”

“Fate…”

“Yes, unlike you, I couldn’t go against my fate. I accepted the fate that was given. I had no regrets back then, but seeing you now, I think I might have tried to resist a little.”

The old man was smiling as he looked at Karl.

“When I was active on the continent, the continent was just a battlefield, or a slaughterhouse. It was a chaotic world where no one could be trusted. It’s an excuse if it’s an excuse, but I don’t think I had the luxury to weigh or choose.”

Karl nodded at the old man’s words.

“Why did you come here? You seem to be doing well enough even now.”

“I came because I needed to. I intend to break what you call fate.”

“Ho, break it, you say. That’s a good expression.”

The old man smiled truly brightly.

“Yes, what do you want from me?”

“What do you mean?”

“Hmm? Did you really come here without knowing anything?”

“I came without knowing anything. It was merely to proceed with the fate I received.”

“Is that so. Hahahaha.”

Hearing Karl’s answer, the old man showed a somewhat dumbfounded expression.

“So that’s why the tomb vibrated, considering you an intruder. Hmm, what to do.”

The old man continued to ponder for quite a long time where he stood.

Karl waited silently while he thought.

“Originally, this place is a kind of provision made to further enhance the Legendary Knight. So, it’s designed to provide trials to those who follow the destined path and make them grow. But you are an existence outside the standard.”

Karl nodded.

“Originally, according to the regulations, I should expel you.”

“I understand.”

“But you know.”

The old man smiled faintly.

“I also felt like I wanted to join in on that idea of breaking fate.”

“…?”

What on earth was this old man talking about all of a sudden?

“From now on, I intend to bet everything I have on this anomaly called you. Though I don’t know what results my actions will bring.”

And the old man’s aura changed in an instant.

The plaza was a wide space, easily several hundred meters in radius, yet it felt as if the old man had devoured the entire space.

“Draw your sword. We don’t have much time. We must move diligently.”

It was a sudden situation, but Karl drew his sword without a word.

The old man before him was strong.

Perhaps stronger than any enemy he would meet in the future.

There was no reason to question things when such a strong old man offered to teach him.

Thus, Karl and the old man flew towards each other.