Chapter 2: Founding Day - (2)

The first thing I felt was a dizzying, weightless sensation—like my heart was about to stop.

Next came the thud—as if a hammer had slammed into my back.

And finally… a tidal wave of pain crashed over me like I’d never known.

The blast had been massive.

The carriage spun nearly two full times before crashing into a vendor stall at the edge of the plaza.

Somewhere in that chaos, I’d turned into a human pinball—slamming into the ceiling, then the seat, and finally crashing near the window frame.

“Ughhh…”

Stars danced before my eyes.

There’s a saying that you can’t even scream when the pain is real—and it was dead accurate.

It felt like the air had been vacuumed out of my lungs.

Even with my mouth open, all I could manage was the sound of air hissing out.

I’d never been in a serious accident in my life, so this level of trauma was enough to make my mind go completely blank.

“Haa… Haaah…”

I don’t know how long I laid there.

The pain slowly dulled, and finally, oxygen began to reach my brain again.

I forced myself to breathe deeply, to steady my nerves, and tested if I could move.

Surprisingly, my body responded well.

I let out a breath of relief.

Wearing this heavy armor had actually saved my life.

My joints screamed in protest, but nothing seemed broken.

To have survived an explosion like that without a major injury? That was a miracle.

If it had been the old me, I wouldn’t have stood a chance.

But the knight I’d possessed—Freud—had a body that was nothing short of superhuman.

The thought alone made my head spin.

I mean… possessing a game character? Seriously?

What the hell even was this?

If I had to guess, it was probably because I’d started the game in the new Death March mode.

I’d love to curse out the devs, but time was ticking even now.

First things first—survive this terrorist attack, then figure out the rest later.

I rolled my eyes around to scan my surroundings.

The passenger who had been sitting next to me? Gone.

Thrown out the window, probably.

Not that it mattered.

Right now, getting out of this wreck was my top priority.

I tried to move—but—

“Damn it.”

One side of the overturned carriage’s ceiling had collapsed inward, and my leg was caught underneath.

Thankfully, the greaves I wore kept it from being crushed.

But no matter how hard I pulled, I couldn’t get it free.

I could try removing the armor, but in this tight space, even bending at the waist was impossible.

After a second’s thought, I reached for the sword strapped to my side.

Nearly a meter long, the blade looked like the work of a true master.

I wedged the sheathed weapon between my leg and the broken plank above me.

Using it as a lever, I pushed with everything I had.

The wood cracked.

Another shove—and crack!—the ceiling split in two.

Yep. Tools are a man’s best friend.

I flattened myself on my stomach and crawled out the shattered window.

The moment the sky came into view, a wave of scorching heat washed over my face.

I staggered to my feet, dizzy like I’d just gotten off a rollercoaster, and what I saw next made my jaw fall open.

In the game, this scene had been nothing more than a single pixelated cutscene.

But seeing it now with my own eyes?

No words came to mind… except one.

“Holy shit.”

The entire sky burned red.

Everything I could see was on fire.

The clashing of steel.

The sickening sound of flesh being torn apart.

A child’s scream.

The collapse of burning buildings.

The emperor and his royal family—who had stood proudly on the ceremonial platform just moments ago—were now nothing but mangled hunks of meat.

And amidst them, figures cloaked in black robes swung their blades in a frenzy, carrying out a massacre.

The surviving soldiers tried to fight back—but they were overwhelmed.

They died one by one.

Panic set in.

Some ran, only to be cut down as they fled.

The ones responsible…

They were cultists from a foreign faith—

A wicked sect that offered up entire dimensions as sacrifices to their alien gods.

This terrorist attack?

It was their doing.

And these bastards weren’t just your run-of-the-mill fanatics.

They were deranged psychopaths—cannibalistic zealots who fed on human flesh in live rituals.

At that realization, cold sweat trickled down my spine.

The adrenaline that had kept me going finally started to drain away.

My mind snapped back into focus.

Reality hit me like a truck.

I’d been an ordinary citizen.

And this…

This wasn’t a game.

It was more gruesome than any slasher movie.

It wasn’t until that moment that I fully accepted the reality I was in.

I’d entered a world gone mad.

This wasn’t some “isekai” fantasy or lucid dream.

Dreams don’t feel this real.

This was a world where death lurked at every turn.

Where the Grim Reaper could tap you on the shoulder at any second.

“…Fuck.”

I let out a low curse and started backing away.

I had to get out of here.

The man I’d possessed—Freud—was no ordinary knight.

He was high-ranking in the Imperial Guard.

To those cultists, I’d be a prime target.

I moved slowly, carefully, trying not to make a sound.

But there was one thing I didn’t account for.

Every step I took, the greaves on my legs clanked clank, clank with metallic noise.

And the gray breastplate I wore caught the firelight, flashing so brightly it hurt the eyes.

In short…

I was practically a walking beacon.

……

I felt their eyes on me.

“……”

Several cultists turned their heads, staring at me with twisted grins.

Seconds passed.

A silence that felt like an eternity.

And then—

Someone screamed.

“A knight! Kill him!”

With that shout, the cultists drew their weapons and began to circle around me.

“…Haaah.”

My legs started to tremble.

As someone living an ordinary life in the modern world, the only real combat experience I had was a few months of kendo back in middle school.

Could someone like me really survive against people who made violence their profession?

That thought had barely passed when a man stepped out from among the crowd.

He had a twisted jaw and one glaring eye—the other hidden under a deeply pulled hood.

Even so, the one visible eye had a reptilian slit, like a snake’s pupil.

No doubt about it—he was their leader.

He looked at me and grinned, a wicked smile spreading across his face.

“What a cruel twist of fate, isn’t it… Guardian Knight Freud Escoval.”

In one hand, he held a viciously curved blade.

In the other… a severed head.

Before I could even react, he tossed it at my feet.

It rolled across the ground, limp and lifeless.

The moment I saw the face, I nearly collapsed in shock.

It was the knight who had been sitting beside me in the carriage just moments ago, chatting casually as if nothing were wrong.

“Knight Oswald is dead. You’re the only knight left here now.”

With that, he began walking toward me slowly.

“Don’t take it personally. This too… is the will of the gods.”

The gleam of his curved blade flickered ominously in the firelight.

His smile twisted even more grotesquely.

With that snake-like eye fixed on me, he strode across the war-torn plaza like something out of a horror film.

At my feet lay the severed head.

Knight Oswald, eyes wide in terror, had died frozen in fear.

“……”

And that was all it took—my instincts kicked in before reason could.

“AAAAAAAHHH!!”

Without thinking, I turned and sprinted—straight into the nearest alley, without once looking back.

****

I burst out of the plaza and tore through the alleyways.

I’d already tossed the cumbersome sword.

The helmet too.

There hadn’t even been time to remove the breastplate or pauldrons.

That maniac had to be chasing me even now.

Between the sound of my own clanging armor, I kept hearing it—ssssshk—the quiet, dragging rustle of a robe against stone.

I didn’t dare look back.

Because the moment I saw him chasing me… it would make it real.

And I couldn’t face that.

So I kept running, eyes forward, legs burning.

Tears and snot mixed on my face.

Cold sweat ran down my forehead like a faucet.

If anyone saw me now, I probably looked pathetic.

But I didn’t care.

Those protagonists in webnovels or games? They overcome every obstacle with superhuman resilience.

Me? I wasn’t like that.

I wasn’t some badass lead.

I was just an awkward, dropout gamer who missed his college re-enrollment window and lived as a loner.

I gasped for air—but my legs kept moving.

Farther. I had to get farther away.

But how far?

And even if I escaped—then what?

Live in this hellhole of a world forever?

My own thoughts started heckling me.

I had no answer.

No time to even think.

I just kept running, like a machine.

I don’t know how long I ran for.

The alleyways twisted and narrowed, winding into a maze.

They’d never even been rendered in the game, yet they were fleshed out in terrifying detail.

At some point, the sound of pursuit faded.

Silence.

A stillness that settled like dust.

I swallowed and turned around.

“……”

Nothing.

Just an empty alley behind me.

I slowed my pace, letting out a shaky breath—when—

Thud!

“Urgh!”

I collided headfirst with someone coming around the corner.

The impact wasn’t too strong.

The person I’d hit barely reached my chest.

A small girl.

But it must’ve felt like a car crash to her.

She’d slammed straight into my armored chest and got launched backward, tumbling to the ground.

She groaned in pain, body twisted awkwardly.

Then… she didn’t move.

She wasn’t… dead, was she?

Even in my panic, I wasn’t heartless enough to just leave a defenseless child behind.

I glanced back to make sure no one was chasing me, then slowly approached her.

She was wearing an elegant, expensive-looking dress.

A noble, most likely.

But her navy blue chemise dress was torn in several places, and her bare feet were bleeding.

Her platinum blonde hair was streaked with ash and soot—probably from the explosion.

“Hey… Are you okay?”

She was breathing heavily, her chest rising and falling.

I gently placed a hand on her shoulder and gave her a light shake.

When I finally turned her onto her back and saw her face…

My breath caught in my throat.

It wasn’t because she was the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen.

Nor was it just the shock and fear frozen in her wide, emerald eyes.

No. I recognized that face.

How could I not?

I’d seen it more than anyone else during my hundreds of hours playing the game.

Platinum blonde hair.

Elegant features.

Those deep, mesmerizing green eyes.

Even if I’d only ever seen her through pixelated graphics on a screen… I was sure.

This was Lincia Airen, the Fourth Imperial Princess.

The last surviving heir to the Empire.

And she was right in front of me.

-- The End OF The Chapter --

 

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