How to Live as a Knight After the Ending

Chapter 228: Sun Ring (1)

The Ethereal Extermination Squad was formed.

Usually, in such cases, it would take several days since the city would be in charge, but the actual result was completely unexpected.

‘Are they processing things quickly because they recognize the severity of the situation? Even considering that, this processing speed is nonsensical.’

It must be possible because there’s a manual for responding to these situations.

A manual isn’t completed by events that happen in just a day or two.

Like steadily building a tower, it’s clear that similar cases have occurred repeatedly before.

‘Even though it’s civilized, this world is still a realm of magic.’

Well, even now, if you walk around District 40, you can see corpses on the streets.

Although civilization has been achieved, primitive harshness still remains.

Rather, the dark and stagnant parts of the city had this tendency even more strongly.

Though it seemed better than before, Osian felt there was still a lot lacking.

‘The city has become brilliant, but it’s like a castle built on precarious sand.’

A house of cards.

The more he learned about Tirna, the more he couldn’t shake that feeling.

‘But that’s not something I need to worry about. Whatever happens, my priority is dealing with that plant thing and recovering the Sun Ring.’

He couldn’t know how that plant came to obtain the Sun Ring’s power.

But it wasn’t incomprehensible. In Moonlight’s case, didn’t it take on the form of a ghost by itself?

Power has no fixed form.

A knight’s power is free and pure. That’s why even a mutant plant could use it.

‘Of course, only within the limits that the vessel can handle.’

The test subjects in District 45 couldn’t withstand Moonlight’s power.

But that mutant plant was different. Was it because it had maximized its survival capabilities to survive in the contaminated zone?

Being able to contain Sun Ring’s power was clearly the result of its desperate struggle for survival.

‘The problem is that it can use the Sun Ring’s power.’

Simply containing power and being able to use it are clearly different matters.

In that sense, that ethereal plant was utilizing the Sun Ring quite well, even though it was only at a basic level.

‘It might be able to use it better as time passes.’

Even using just part of the intelligence it showed in battle, it would become more efficient at using Sun Ring’s power.

When that happens, it will only become more troublesome to deal with.

“What are you doing?”

At that moment, Mist approached Osian and asked.

He was mumbling while chewing a chocolate bar. It was a sight that the image-conscious Mist wouldn’t normally show.

The reason Mist showed such a side was due to the internal intimacy built up while overcoming hardships together with Osian.

Of course, if Osian heard that, he might think, “Is that all?” but at least from Mist’s perspective, they had become close enough.

People who originally don’t have friends are typically poor at gauging distance in relationships.

And that wasn’t Mist’s fault.

“I was lost in thought for a moment.”

“Hmm. I guess it’s natural to be tense when thinking about facing that plant thing.”

Mist finished his chocolate bar in one bite and took out another from his pocket.

Osian looked at him with curious eyes.

“What? Do you want one too?”

“No, not particularly.”

“I thought you wanted one since you were staring strangely.”

“It’s just that it’s quite different from your initial taciturn impression.”

“R-Really? Is it too strange?”

At Mist’s reaction, Osian shook his head with a slight smile.

“No. It’s better this way.”

While feeling relieved at that response, Mist still made a clumsy excuse.

“This chocolate bar is unavoidable. My ability requires a lot of energy. I have to eat beforehand. You can probably tell from my mist.”

“That mist, I thought it looked familiar – it’s similar to Ether Water.”

Mist’s eyes widened.

From that reaction, Osian sensed his guess was correct.

“Impressive observation. That’s right. My power is manipulating Ether Water.”

The mysterious mist coming from Mist’s body wasn’t ordinary water.

More precisely, it was Ether Water being dispersed into extremely fine particles.

That’s why it showed such physical force and unique properties despite being mist.

“Then, what you drank during that fight…”

“That’s right. Pure Ether Water.”

Osian slightly widened his eyes in surprise.

“Pure? Is that even possible?”

Ether Water is the energy source of the current era. Drinking it for energy would be no different than drinking petroleum to supplement lacking calories.

It’s not something humans can drink in the first place. The moment you drink it, it could dissolve your organs, beyond just causing indigestion.

Feeling his uniqueness was being acknowledged by this reaction, Mist spoke in a proud tone.

“I have a special constitution.”

“That’s quite the constitution.”

Just because someone drinks petroleum doesn’t mean they can use it as an ability. In that sense, Mist, who could handle Ether Water, was essentially a research subject for scientists of this era.

“How did you even discover this fact?”

Osian was curious about that.

Mist consumed pure Ether Water directly to utilize it.

That means similar incidents must have occurred in the past.

Originally, Ether Water wasn’t easy to obtain, and there shouldn’t be situations where someone consumes it by mistake, unless it was some kind of accident.

Perhaps Mist, like others, was subjected to experiments?

In the current era, that seemed entirely possible.

If so, was it the White House? Or someone else in Tirna?

“That’s…”

Mist hesitated to answer for a moment.

Seeing this reaction, Osian judged that there must be some past that he couldn’t talk about.

Mist’s pupils trembled.

He recalled what had happened in the past.

Something from long ago that he could never tell others, known only to him.

‘I can never tell them that I discovered it by drinking Ether Water on a dare to show off.’

Mist discovered his ability to handle Ether Water when he had just turned 10 years old.

In his childhood, Mist was ordinary, just another common person.

He was just a child who admired cool things and, like other boys his age, was full of bravado and wanted to look cool.

Young Mist often played with his friends.

Like children of that time, he enjoyed playing war games and pranks in groups.

In such gatherings, hierarchy inevitably emerged.

Generally, when children establish hierarchy among themselves, they usually measure physical prowess.

In other words, those who are good at fighting or have big builds are treated as leaders in the group.

However, in the group young Mist hung out with, there was no one particularly outstanding.

Then how was hierarchy determined in such a group?

It was about how brave you were.

I can jump from the second-floor railing.

I can run alongside a moving car.

I can stick my tongue out at a guard and run away.

You might say what kind of courage is that, but for children who knew nothing, such actions were truly taboo that required courage to challenge the unknown.

Therefore, children showed off their strengths, that is, how brave they were.

And at that time, Mist drank pure Ether Water to demonstrate his bravery.

He managed to get it when he sneaked one while visiting his father’s factory, curious after seeing people handle it very carefully.

Originally, just bringing Ether Water was supposed to be enough to prove his courage.

-Do you know what this is? This is that Ether Water. You guys don’t have this, right? I secretly brought this precious thing.

It was far more reckless than sneaking a few bills from parents’ wallets but his peers’ reaction was lukewarm.

-What’s the big deal about just bringing Ether Water?

-Yeah, I could bring that too.

Mist recalled that time.

Looking back now, those children were also deliberately belittling his achievement because they didn’t want to lose to Mist.

But young Mist, who knew nothing, was considerably hurt by those words and even became stubborn.

-My courage isn’t over yet! Watch this! I’m going to drink this!

Ether Water isn’t something you can drink. But from the perspective of a child who knew nothing, it just looked like slightly different water.

‘It’ll be fine! I won’t die!’

With the number one male last words, Mist drank the Ether Water in front of everyone, and consequently had to suffer through terrible stomach pains.

‘Isn’t this worse than dying?’

To friends who came to check on him out of worry, he even said the number two male last words while breaking out in cold sweat.

While repeatedly experiencing high fever and dehydration, Mist suddenly realized one day that faint smoke was coming from his sweat glands.

And that it was the Ether Water he had drunk, and that he possessed a very unique constitution.

‘How can I tell them I discovered my constitution thanks to drinking it to show off and become the neighborhood boss?’

He could never tell even if his mouth was torn apart so he wore a mask as a fixer with a mysterious and dark past.

That handling Ether Water was the result of some secret experiment.

“Ahem. Anyway, we’ll talk about that later. Are you ready?”

“With this sword, I’m ready anytime.”

Mist stared intently at Osian’s sword.

Right now, the Starlight and Moonlight that Osian had shown were flickering in his mind.

Just as he was about to ask if he could learn that too, Eldin approached from far away.

“Hey rookie. Are you ready?”

“Yeah. So you’re participating in this matter too.”

“Isn’t that obvious?”

As seen before, Eldin carried both two-handed and one-handed hammers. She didn’t need other protective gear. She had spirits after all.

“Oh? You were rookie’s colleague, right? Mist, was it?”

“…”

Mist nodded.

He quickly put away the chocolate bar he had been chewing just moments ago and pulled up his face covering.

It was so fast that even Osian couldn’t react.

“Let’s do well.”

Towards Eldin who smiled with a slight hiss, Mist nodded taciturnly.

Although it would be understandable to be offended by such behavior, Eldin just passed it off thinking he was just a taciturn friend.

Meanwhile, Mist barely had to suppress his wildly beating heart.

‘I-I’m exchanging words with an elf.’

Strictly speaking, he hadn’t exchanged any words, but Mist couldn’t even care about that detail.

What mattered was that he had faced an elf and exchanged greetings. As expected of the race of beauty, the elf was beautiful.

When he saw her in the underground waterway that day, it was too urgent to think about it, but facing her now felt different.

‘She’s quite robust for an elf, but that makes her even more attractive.’

From an elf’s perspective, Eldin is eccentric. Someone skilled, but not someone they’d want to get close to.

But by human standards, Eldin was still an attractive person. Being an elf, she boasted outstanding beauty even without makeup.

‘Hmm. Rather than being delicate and pure, being cheerful and healthy like that is better.’

-Whew.

Mist had to hold down his trembling heart inside.

In situations like this, he needed to show an even more solid image as the fixer Mist.

It wasn’t just Eldin who had come to the scene.

There were elf druids and other spirit users, as well as Tirna City’s special extermination task force.

They planned to slowly close the encirclement around the plant by dividing into teams but before things could start, a problem arose first.

“What are those?”

Eldin frowned at the commotion happening on one side.

Her long ears twitched like a rabbit’s.

“Is something wrong?”

“Seems like someone has come.”

Currently, the extermination squad was gathered at a location not far from the contaminated zone.

They were trying to proceed with their operation while controlling access to the area, and that control had caused a problem.

With her elven innate superior hearing and vision, Eldin confirmed what was happening at the entrance.

“Corporate people have come.”

“Corporate? Why would corporate people come all the way to the contaminated zone?”

Although this was above ground, the contaminated zone was right below.

It’s a place people generally don’t visit. Especially if they’re people wearing suits.

“Well, this place was originally used for dumping wastewater. There’s a reason why the contaminated zone is right below here.”

“So they need to process wastewater but we’re controlling access for official business, are they protesting that?”

“From their reaction, they don’t seem happy with our control.”

Meanwhile, the conflict showed no signs of ending and rather intensified.

“Look, we need to discharge wastewater right now, how can you block us like this! Are you going to compensate for everything?! This needs to be handled today!”

“Sir, this is clearly an obstruction of official duties. Please wait a while.”

“Official duties my foot! Should I formally complain to the city then?”

It looked like things would be held up from the start.