How to Live as a Knight After the Ending - Chapter 24



Only Noblemtl

Episode 24. The Faraway Night Sky (2)

Build up your karma.

Those words were embedded in my heart like a stake.

Those words seemed to set the path I should take going forward.

I opened my mouth, but no sound came out.

Since I couldn’t speak, I asked with my eyes instead.

What happens if you accumulate karma?

The starlight was silent.

Instead, a change occurred in the sky behind me.

The sky on the right was dyed a clear, cool blue color.

The sky on the left burned with an intense and brilliant golden light.

I looked back.

The sun and moon were rising in the place where the sky was full of stars.

[If you just do that.]

[We can handle our power.]

At the same time, a dazzling celestial light enveloped the world.

I woke up and looked around.

This was the room I was staying in.

Outside the window, the sunlight was gently streaming in, signaling the coming of morning.

“That’s true.”

Now that games have become reality, we’re experiencing all sorts of amazing things.

*

The place Ronan recommended to me was the 35th arrondissement of Tirna.

Ward 35 is the district with the most inventors and engineers.

That’s probably why there were so many strange things on the streets.

A steam engine that spits out cool compressed steam, a small mechanical doll that moves on its own when wound, an alloy pipe that can distribute more compressed steam, a giant mechanical spring that turns like a watermill, etc.

Bang! Bang!

Technicians, covered in oil and holding a spanner in one hand, sweat as they tighten bolts and nuts.

On the other hand, they were verifying that the machine they had created was working properly.

The streets were filled with the sound of metal being struck, shouts to straighten up, and the roar of steam.

Create things, fix things that are broken.

Unlike factories full of workers, this place is full of energy and, beyond that, a hot passion.

As I was walking down that street, I found myself unknowingly drawn to a strange sight unfolding on one side.

In the middle of the street, a grim-looking man with his upper body exposed was leaving one arm in the hands of a mechanic, and it turned out that his arm was made of a machine.

‘Mechanical arms? As the world changes, things like that come into existence.’

The repairman was examining the mechanical arm with a magnifying glass and making fine adjustments with a screwdriver and assembler.

An arm so elaborate it was hard to believe it was made of a machine was clenching and unclenching its fist.

I looked at that arm and admired it inwardly.

‘A mechanical arm this sophisticated. People these days wouldn’t go through life unable to work even if they lost an arm or a leg.’

I suddenly pictured myself with a robotic arm, then shook my head.

There’s something romantic about a robotic arm, but no matter what, I like this body I have the best.

‘This isn’t what’s important right now.’

I came to make an ID card that acts as a pass, not to come to Ward 35 to look at that kind of thing.

‘It’s much more complicated than that.’

Although I was given a map, it was difficult to find my way around because there were so many different metal objects around.

I’m not that good at walking, but even considering that, this distance was too complicated.

It was at that time that I thought about giving walking a try.

Kwajik!

A wooden chair flew right in front of me and smashed into pieces.

A position where I would have been hit directly if I had stepped forward just a little further.

I turned my head to see what was going on, and saw a commotion in the direction where the prosthetic hand had just been adjusted.

“I know how much this is!”

The prosthetic man was furious, pointing to the tiny scratches on his mechanical arm.

To me, it was just a wonder.

Aside from the scratches on his forearm, his prosthetic hand had a lot of dents and scratches here and there, as if it had been used roughly. What’s the big deal?

I’m sure he doesn’t know that.

Still, seeing him shout so shamelessly, there has to be some kind of ulterior motive.

“Okay, just pay for the repairs. Ten million René. I’ll let that slide.”

Ah. So that’s what they were trying to do with the repair costs.

The fallen technician also glared at the man with the mechanical arm, as if he had not noticed anything.

“This punk. I gladly fixed his cheap prosthetic hand, and now he’s trying to steal my money?”

“What? A cheap prosthetic arm? Has this tinkerer gone crazy?”

The man wearing a prosthetic arm clenched his fist as if he had been stabbed for no reason.

He was about to extend his arm to punch the technician in the face with his steel fist because he wasn’t listening.

“Ask me for directions.”

I stepped between the two of them and held the iron fist with one arm.

*

Ossian, who lightly held the prosthetic steel arm with one hand, realized that the prosthetic arm’s strength was not as strong as he had thought.

It’s strong enough. You could probably easily break a brick wall with just this much strength.

But it didn’t reach the body of this article at all.

‘Or maybe the prosthetic hand itself is weak.’

Ossian asked the technician who had fallen on the floor.

“Do you happen to know where Harvey’s workshop is?”

The technician, whose face was almost crushed, looked up at Ossian blankly.

People watching around opened their eyes wide.

Grab a steel prosthetic hand with your bare hands?

No matter how cheap a prosthetic limb it is, a military prosthetic limb made of steel has extraordinary destructive power.

Even a slight swing of the military prosthetic hand can shatter a human skull, but Ossian caught it with his bare hands.

And that’s not all.

Rather, it was overwhelming in power.

The fact that the trembling prosthetic hand could not push away Ossian’s hand was proof of this.

“You, you, what the hell are you? Are you in league with these fucking kids?”

The man whose arm was grabbed tried to use force to pry Ossian’s hand away, but surprisingly, his steel hand did not budge.

“Hey, don’t you put this down? Does this crazy kid know how much this costs!”

“Should I know how much it costs?”

Ossian tightened his grip on the mechanical arm.

The military prosthetic hand clenched its fist with a cracking sound.

“Huh, huh?”

The people watching nearby, as well as the man holding the prosthetic hand, opened their eyes wide at the unbelievable sight.

A bare-handed man was crumpling a prosthetic arm made of steel like it was paper.

And that too with pure evil power.

Is that even possible? It was a sight I couldn’t believe even after seeing it with my own two eyes.

Only when Ossian released his grip was the man able to step back.

The completely distorted steel prosthetic hand had no form left.

It was as if they had put it in a press and pressed it into a ball with only the hand part pressed into it.

“Eek!”

The prosthetic man involuntarily took a step back and ended up falling on his butt.

Ossian snickered at the sight of such a man.

“It must be cheap since it broke without me even applying much force. Next time, I’ll get a more expensive and sturdy one.”

As soon as Ossian’s gaze reached the prosthetic man, he ran away without looking back.

The technicians who came out of the nearby workshop to watch laughed heartily at the sight, while simultaneously whistling at Ossian.

Ossian shrugged his shoulders slightly, saying, “What the heck?” and lightly helped the fallen technician up.

“Thank you for helping me. You didn’t have to go this far.”

Ossian shrugged.

As the technician said, Ossian’s efforts to help were nothing more or less than a meddling.

But Ossian had a reason to do this.

‘I told you to build up karma.’

Osian still doesn’t know how to build up that karma.

If it were a game, I would interpret it as experience points, but that wasn’t the case here.

However, I recently suddenly had a dream that I hadn’t had for the first few days.

Ossian took note of this.

‘I fought Carl Jackson, and I fought that warlock girl too. If there’s a connection, that would be it.’

If it’s called karma, it could be a certain amount of achievements that must be accumulated as a knight or a swordsman.

Of course, there was a chance that it wouldn’t be the case.

But it couldn’t hurt to give it a try.

So he saved the technician who was in trouble. As a bonus, he also chased away the petty criminal with the prosthetic arm.

‘I don’t really feel like any karma has been accumulated.’

Is this because the opponent is too weak to accumulate karma?

Or maybe it was because I didn’t draw my sword.

Whatever it was, a few trial and errors had already been taken into account.

“So, do you know where Harvey’s workshop is?”

“Yes? Yes.”

The technician nodded with a bewildered look on his face.

“Really? Then please give me some directions. I don’t know the way around here at all.”

For a man who has distorted a prosthetic arm with his bare hands to say such things, it is quite a brazen statement.

The old technician found himself smiling.

“Yes, that’s right.”

*

Ossian, who was guided to Harvey’s workshop, stood in front of it and stared at the workshop silently.

“Hmm.”

It was nice to have found it, but Harvey’s workshop, contrary to its name, seemed more like a general store than a workshop.

In other places, the shutters were up and people were crowding around in a wide open space, tinkering with machines, but here, none of that was visible.

It’s not full of loud noises and it’s not hot.

Rather, this area was strangely quiet.

Still, since it was a place Ronan had recommended, Ossian believed there would be no problems and entered the workshop.

“A guest in a place like this? I’ve never seen your face before.”

An old man was sitting at the inner stall, wearing strange-looking goggles over his eyes.

Ossian asked.

“Is that Harvey?”

“Where did you get the informal speech from, kid? Yes. I’m Harvey, the owner of this workshop. What are you? How did you get here?”

“Ossian. I came because Ronan recommended it.”

The old man, who was about to get angry when the name Ronan was mentioned, nodded his head disapprovingly.

“I see.”

Those three letters contained so much meaning.

What kind of image does Ronan have of this old man that he thinks it’s normal to speak informally to him?

Harvey scanned Ossian’s appearance, frowning at the sight of the sword at his side.

“What’s that on your side?”

“It’s a sword. Is this your first time seeing it?”

“… … Do you think that this is the first time I’ve seen a knife at this age and that’s why you asked?”

Harvey frowned and shook his head.

“No, that’s enough. I’m talking nonsense to the guy Ronan sent. Okay. Well, if you’ve come all this way, I guess I know what you want. You want my ID, right?”

“okay.”

“How much are you thinking it’s worth? You seem like a newbie, so of course it’s worth 3 million… … .”

“50 million.”

When he heard the figure of 50 million, the old man pulled the goggles he was wearing over his forehead.

More than half of my head was bald, so it was hard to tell how far I could call my forehead, but that’s how it was.

“You won’t be able to use this old man if you tease him.”

Ossian didn’t bother to try to persuade Harvey’s distrustful voice.

Instead, he clanked the money he had brought onto his stand.

“uh?”

Harvey’s eyes widened at the considerable amount of money he saw.

“… … It was true.”

“Is this proof?”

“If you have doubts about this kind of money, then you’re being foolish.”

Harvey handed Ossian a piece of paper.

“It’s an application form. Please fill it out.”

“I heard there’s no such thing.”

“That’s cheap, isn’t it? Don’t you know that 50 million won is necessary? Even government officials are paying attention to this level. You can’t do it carelessly.”

That’s true too.

Ossian was convinced and filled out his name on the application form.

Harvey shook his head, wondering whether or not he should stop Ossian, who was writing [Article] on the occupation side.

Rather than bothering with unnecessary arguments, it would have been better if I had just made the corrections myself.

“Anyway, I have a general idea, so come pick it up in three days.”

As Harvey said that, he went into the workshop, and Ossian came out.

Now that he had taken care of his ID-related business, Ossian was thinking of seeing more things while he was in Ward 35.

“Hey, it’s that guy over there!”

Then a familiar voice was heard.

When he turned his head to see something, a huge thing spoke threateningly toward Ossian.

“Is that you? You made my brother’s arm look like this.”

A gaze naturally turned to the side of the bulk.

There was a man there whose prosthetic hand was completely destroyed by Ossian.