「Warning! The knight ‘Garuel Monzasi’ is exhibiting excessive influence. There is a high probability that this knight will alter the storyline. Please suppress him.」

「On failure, the knight ‘Garuel Monzasi’ will receive the debuff ‘Inevitable Death’.」

Held in Garuel’s arms, Cadel stared blankly at the system window before his eyes.

‘Inevitable Death……’

It was a debuff that existed within the game. Once the debuff was activated, the affected character would die unconditionally after 30 seconds. It would rarely appear, usually when facing the final boss—the Demon King—or during certain stages.

There was no way to avoid or block the debuff. The player had to end the battle before the timer ran out or continue the game with the character already dead.

‘That debuff is going to be applied to Garuel……? Why? Just because I told him the truth?’

Although the amount of information varied, Van also knew that Cadel was a transmigrator. Kunra knew even more than Garuel. So why only Garuel?

His heart pounded wildly in confusion. What criteria were being used to determine that Garuel was more likely than Kunra to alter the storyline? And just how was he supposed to suppress that? He didn’t understand anything.

Noticing Cadel’s irregular breathing, Garuel pulled him away from his embrace. That revealed a face gone deathly pale.

“Knight Commander?”

“……Garuel.”

“What’s wrong? Did I hold you too tightly?”

“You…… might die.”

“What?”

Startled by the sudden declaration, Garuel responded with a dazed expression. He glanced around, flustered, then tried to make sense of Cadel’s words.

“Was it that ‘system’ you talked about? It said I might die?”

“It doesn’t want your influence in this war to grow any further. But…… but you’re my knight. Of course, your influence would grow, right? So what the hell am I supposed to do? Keep you out of the battlefield?”

“That’s impossible. If I’m not there, countless people will die.”

That’s right. Garuel couldn’t be excluded from battle. He was the knight of the protagonist, Cadel Lytos, and essentially a central figure in this war. It didn’t seem like the ‘suppression’ the system demanded meant something as literal as pulling him out of combat.

“Maybe because you’re likely to make a certain kind of choice…… a choice that could cause the war to move in a direction the system doesn’t want. That’s probably what it’s wary of. Just like with Lord Hyron……”

“Was Lord Hyron’s death related to the system, too?”

Cadel instinctively shut his mouth at that, and Garuel, not pressing him any further, gently clasped his hand. Cadel’s hands had grown cold before he’d realized it, and Garuel quietly worked to warm them with his own. Then, carefully, he spoke.

“I’ve already staked my life on this war. If it’s to protect you, Knight Commander, and this world, I won’t hesitate to die.”

“Throw that kind of resolution away. I’m never going to let you die.”

“Knight Commander.”

“Shut up! You think I told you the truth just to hear you say you’re okay with dying? I told you so we could figure out a way for you not to die—together!”

Despite Cadel’s sharp outburst, Garuel’s expression remained unchanged. That only made Cadel’s face twist further. Eventually, unable to contain his frustration, he shot to his feet. His piercing gaze locked on Garuel’s face.

“If that’s really what you’re thinking, then I’ll tie you up here and go back to the Demon King’s castle alone.”

“What an adorably empty threat.”

“I mean it. Did you even listen to anything I said? I told you—the reason I chose to fight was because I wanted you all to live happily. I wanted you to survive this war!”

“I want to live too. To survive, even in this worn-down body, and somehow, somehow keep living so I can spend the rest of my life happily beside you who became a hero.”

“Then why……!”

“What war exists where death isn’t assumed? Every war is fought with one’s life on the line. There isn’t a single knight here fighting with the expectation that they’ll live through it. And I’ve spent half my life as a knight.”

As he slowly rose to his feet, Cadel’s gaze followed him up. Garuel gently brushed his hand across Cadel’s still-angry cheek, and with a surprisingly solemn expression, he spoke.

“Even if the system uses my death to threaten Knight Commander, nothing will change. I’ll fight. I’ll fight the Demon King trying to overtake the Human Realm and the system trying to destroy the world. Not even you can shake this resolve, Knight Commander.”

“I……”

I can’t bear to see you in danger. I can’t watch you flounder in the depths of death. That’s what he wanted to say—but soon enough, he realized just how laughable that would sound.

It struck him again. Himself, his subordinates, and every other knight. They were all fighting for victory with their lives on the line. Telling someone not to fight because they might die…… it was far too late for that.

Even so, he couldn’t bring himself to support Garuel’s resolve, and that made him feel pathetic. As Cadel stood there, unable to say anything, Garuel wrapped his arms around him and pulled him close.

“Let’s try to find a way back to the Demon King’s castle. In the meantime, I’ll tell you stories I’ve never told anyone before.”

Walking back to the castle wasn’t an option—they didn’t know the way, and they didn’t have the strength left for it. So, just as they’d first planned, they decided to look for a return teleportation circle that might still exist somewhere.

The village had been turned to rubble by the rampage of the giantized Sellev, but it had already been nearly a ruin to begin with, so it wasn’t much of a loss.

As they wandered the now even more chaotic ghost village, Garuel began to share his past.

“The Monzasi family wasn’t all that bad. I lost my parents right after I was born, but everyone treated me kindly. The other cousins…… well, I wasn’t particularly close to them, but not distant either. Some of my sisters got a bit too taken with my looks and caused quite the uproar. It was hilarious. When they were told that blood relatives couldn’t marry, they went into mourning and stopped eating.”

Cadel had considered using the system to look into Garuel’s past. In fact, every night when he closed his eyes, he fought the impulse to understand him more deeply through his memories.

But he had firmly refrained. Because Garuel was Garuel Monzasi.

A man who was trying to move forward no matter how painful his past was. A man desperately pressing toward the future. For someone like that, digging up the pain he had buried felt like a violation.

Still, he’d always hoped—vaguely—that one day, Garuel might tell him about it with his own mouth. And now, here they were.

“I figured sticking around the family with this blessed face would just lead to trouble, so I ended up choosing to become a paladin. No one really pressured me, but I kind of forced myself to feel like I was being watched. I had this compulsion that I had to be a good person. I wanted to save people. And…… well, look at me. Wherever I went, things got complicated because of my face. I was pretty worn out. I guess I just wanted to live a pious life relying on divine grace.”

“……Yeah. Looking at your face, I guess I can’t even tell you to stop joking.”

He thought it would remain nothing more than a wish. If this war ended and he disappeared, the chance to hear Garuel’s past would vanish with him. He had resigned himself to that long ago. At least, he thought he had.

And yet, here he was—listening to Garuel tell his story with his own voice.

The vivid footsteps Garuel retraced brought Cadel a strange sense of fulfillment.

“I really gave it my all. I joined the Twilight Knight Order as a low-ranking knight, and for the first time, I had a goal. Watching people kneel in prayer before the shrine every day, I started hoping that a day would come when no one would have to cry anymore. That was my goal. To become the strongest paladin and bring a day when no one sheds tears.”

“You were a hell of a man.”

“Right? I didn’t know much back then, but I was happy in my innocence.”

Garuel infused demonic energy into the crumbled ruins, searching for the teleportation circle. Ever since hearing that Kunra wasn’t responding, he’d insisted Cadel conserve his mana and had taken on the search alone.

Nothing was detected in these ruins either. Brushing the dirt from his hands as he stood, Garuel gave a small shrug.

“I was a talented, lucky man who grew with effort. Years of doing my best got me all the way to the rank of knight commander. I was pretty young when I reached that position. It became quite a hot topic across the continent, but you probably wouldn’t know. It must’ve been before you came to this world.”

“Yeah, I didn’t know. I didn’t really read any of your backstories, even when I was playing the game.”

“Haha! That’s a relief. It would’ve been incredibly cringy. Anyway, becoming the knight commander of a powerful nation at such a young age brought a tidal wave of jealousy and envy. The political mess was so filthy in the beginning that it left me speechless.”

“Really? You strike me as someone who would handle it all with finesse. You’ve got a silver tongue.”

At Cadel’s words, Garuel pulled a sly, wicked grin. As Cadel burst out laughing, Garuel brushed his shoulder lightly before moving on to the next location.

“You’re right. I’m not the type to just quietly grind away at my skills. I gave as good as I got and carved out my place. Even those aiming for my seat got a taste of divine retribution. I spent three years cleaning house in the Knight Order. Replacing people with subordinates I could trust—faithful, honest ones. I trained them hard and spent those years protecting the White Kingdom with them.”

After glancing around for a while, Garuel turned down a narrow path. The newly discovered ruin had collapsed walls, making it hard to discern the building’s original form. Garuel casually sat on the rubble and opened his demonic energy once more.

“I really tried to build a good life. But no matter how hard I try to forget, it still won’t leave me. That day…… bitter midwinter winds were blowing, and I was in the worst shape for no reason. But the number of monsters we had to exterminate was overwhelming……”