The Eminence in Shadow

Chapter 6

Something Smells Fishy… But an Eminence in Shadow Always Cracks the Case!

Akane is on the night shift today.

After the sun sets and she finishes eating dinner with Minoru, she heads to the knight order station. It’s dangerous out, so she makes sure Minoru knows not to leave his room.

Night is the most dangerous time of day, and the night shift has their work cut out for them. Just yesterday, a knight died defending the wall from a beast attack. With the stampede right around the corner, the beasts are already starting to get more violent.

“Excuse me.”

She opens the door to the office and finds the knight representatives gathered inside. She’s technically a squad leader as well.

“Someone’s late. Enjoy yourself this afternoon?” says Yuudai, who’s already sitting down.

“I’m sorry for my tardiness.”

She wasn’t actually late, but it is true that she’s the last one to arrive.

“No, no, there’s no need to apologize. You’re right on time, young Akane.”

The speaker is the knight order commander—a man named Haitani.

He started out as a corporate big shot before quitting and starting a business of his own. Perhaps that’s why he’s so good at managing others.

He also awakened to his knight powers early on, and has gotten Messiah out of more than a few pinches.

“I see everyone’s here, so let’s get things started.”

Akane sits down, and the meeting begins.

They start by giving simple status updates, with each member sharing what new information they have on the Brute, the stampede, and the enemy agent inside Messiah.

They also need to deal with the situation involving Akane leaving the base at night without permission, but they decide to table that discussion until after the stampede.

Once everything’s been covered, Commander Haitani gets down to business. “Now, let’s move on to today’s main topic.”

A lot of people had assumed that the Akane situation was going to be the main order of business, and the sound of rustling in seats briefly fills the room.

“These pictures are from the squad that was investigating the Brute today.”

Commander Haitani passes out a stack of printed photographs. When people see them, they’re struck speechless.

“What the…?”

The photo is of mangled beast corpses—hundreds of them.

There’s also a destroyed building just barely visible in the edge of the shot. It looks sort of familiar.

“Is that…Nishino Elementary?” someone stammers. They don’t sound at all confident of that. Nishino Elementary School is the second closest large-scale beast nest to Messiah after Sakurazaka High School, and the last time anyone checked, the building was still standing.

“There’s more.”

The next photo Haitani passes around is clearly of the elementary school building. It’s been reduced to rubble.

“D-did the Brute do this?” Yuudai asks, his voice trembling ever so slightly.

“We examined the corpses, and the cuts were unbelievably clean. Most of them died from a single slash to the vitals. Not even an apex beast has that kind of finesse.”

“Was it a group from another base, then?”

Commander Haitani shakes his head. “Nobody in the area has the man power to pull off something like this. And there’s something else that caught our eye, too.”

“What’s that?”

“All the cuts looked exactly the same.”

“

All

of them?”

“All of them. In all likelihood, all of the beasts were killed by the same person.”

Yuudai’s face goes red. “C-come on, Commander, that’s crazy talk! There’s hundreds of the damn things! I could see ten or twenty, maybe, but there’s no way a single person could’ve killed that many on their own!” he roars.

“What if there was, though? What if our world had a knight that was capable of something like that?”

“Wh-what proof do you even—?”

“Take another look at the cross section on the schoolhouse.”

“Wh…?! That’s…a slash mark? You’re saying someone

cut the building down

?!”

Sure enough, the photo shows that the building’s been sliced in twain.

“Not only that, the cut was clean,” Commander Haitani replies. “Like a hot knife through butter. Japan used to have a knight capable of things like this, you know. I believe you’re all familiar with her.”

“The Original Knight…,” someone whispers.

“Is she really back…?”

“I thought she went missing…”

“Is she here to destroy Messiah…?”

The knights go pale, and Akane is the palest of them all.

“We don’t know for certain that it’s her yet. It could easily be some other knight just as strong,” Commander Haitani offers, to calm down the group. “Don’t let baseless fear get the better of you, but don’t let your guard down, either. All we know for sure is that there’s someone nearby who was strong enough to do this. I’m sure you can imagine what would happen if they attacked Messiah.”

Everyone nods. Then, all hell breaks loose.

“We’re under attack! The beasts are here!”

The shrill noise of a siren splits the air.

The tops of the walls surrounding the base are a battlefield.

Legions of beasts are clinging to the sides and trying to climb over. The knights are doing their best to knock them off with swords and spears, but it’s all too plain to see that there aren’t enough of them to go up against the beasts’ sheer numbers.

“Go wake up every off-duty knight you can find! We’re not letting these things get inside!” the commander bellows.

Akane races to the top of the wall and cuts a beast in half.

“Akane!”

“A-Akane’s here!”

Out of all the knights there, her efforts stand out the most.

She’s faster than all the others. Stronger. She mows down beasts one after another.

But it’s not enough.

“AHHHHHHH!”

“Agh! G-get back! Stay away from me, you monsters!”

There are too many of them.

The beast pack reaches the top of the walls and surges at the knights.

Akane grimaces. “There’s so damn many of them…”

At this rate, more and more knights are just going to get butchered.

“Commander, could the stampede have started already?!” she shouts over to Haitani, who’s fighting by her side.

“No, the stampede is going to be far worse than this,” he replies. “This is probably just a prelude.”

“This many beasts, and it’s not even the majority of them…?”

“This stampede is going to be a harsh one.”

If that’s the case, they need to keep every knight they can alive here.

Akane stands at the vanguard to draw the beasts’ attention, then leaps off the wall.

“Akane?!”

“Young Akane, what do you think you’re doing?!”

The moment she lands, she swings her sword in a wide arc. Every beast around her drops dead.

“I’ll lure them somewhere else!” she shouts back.

“Don’t throw your life away! Get back here at once!”

Even if Akane wanted to obey Commander Haitani’s order, though, she couldn’t. There’s nowhere for her to run.

The beasts have already surrounded her, and they lash out with their jagged claws and fangs.

Akane dodges the attacks by a hairbreadth, then slices down her attackers.

She isn’t afraid.

Dying would be a mercy for her.

Better that than becoming someone she doesn’t recognize in a place she doesn’t know and doing the unthinkable.

Tragedies from the past flash back through her mind.

As she stands surrounded by beasts, she smiles, then takes off at a dash across the corpses of the ones she’s felled. Blood gushes up from them and drenches her body red.

Then…

“Akane, behind you!”

“Young Akane, watch out!”

A bladed claw slices down on her from overhead.

She’s faced with two choices.

Live, or die.

It’s never an easy decision for her.

She smiles sadly and closes her eyes.

Then, out of nowhere, she senses a presence that feels almost nostalgic.

She hears the sound of flesh tearing.

Warm liquid rains down on her.

“Huh…?”

It’s beast blood.

When she opens her eyes, the first thing she sees is the impaled beast.

The next is an ebony sword.

It’s piercing the beast clean through.

“Wh-who are you…?”

A pair of red eyes gazes down on Akane.

The ebony sword’s wielder is wearing a longcoat that looks like it’s made of pure darkness. Their face is concealed beneath a mask and a hood.

“The Black Knight…,” someone murmurs.

All eyes are on the Black Knight. It’s like time itself is standing still.

He effortlessly casts aside the skewered beast, then turns his back on them all.

When he speaks, his voice rumbles like it’s coming up from the depths of the abyss. “The wind…is weeping.”

Nobody knows what, exactly, that means.

However, his quote resonates in their hearts all the same.

They can feel the weight of the countless lives and deaths that rest within those words.

Suddenly, Akane feels a sharp breeze.

The ebony wind rushes over the Black Knight, obscuring him from sight.

Then, it whirls toward the beast horde, and flowers of blood blossom in its wake.

In the end, all that remain are beast corpses.

“What…just happened?”

“H-how is that possible?”

The people on the walls stand in shocked disbelief.

When the ebony wind blew past, it sliced each and every beast in two.

That was no passing breeze—it was magic, refined until it was as natural and flowing as actual wind. They can’t even begin to imagine how much training must have gone into perfecting that technique. It must have taken an eternity.

The Black Knight is gone.

The next thing Akane realizes, she’s trembling.

“Are you okay?” Commander Haitani comes down from the wall and hurries over to her. “That was tremendous… He might well be the person who destroyed the nest at Nishino Elementary.”

“Commander… He was an Awakened.”

The man’s eyes were the same red as Akane’s.

Haitani nods and glances over at the dead beasts. “All of them, dead from a single clean slash. I certainly couldn’t have pulled that off.”

“He saved us. But…why leave without saying anything?”

“He must have had some sort of objective. For now, all we can do is pray he’s not our enemy.” The commander looks up at the night sky. “I wonder…what did he mean when he said the wind was weeping?”

“He must know something,” Akane replies. “Something we don’t. Something important.”

“Black Knight… Just who are you?”

The question fades into the night sky, unanswered.

It’s still the dead of night, but the base is completely astir.

Even with the beast attack repelled, there are still tons of people milling about. However, there’s one knight who manages to slip away from the hustle and bustle.

The man—who has a decided air of roughness about him—is none other than Vice Commander Yuudai Saejima.

“Tch. This is some bullshit.”

He spits the words out as he heads around the darkened school building. Out back, removed from the main walkways, there’s a quiet, unlit alley.

“The Black Knight, huh? I don’t like this guy. I don’t like him one bit. I dunno what base he’s from, but he can’t just stroll in here and do whatever the hell he wants.”

He stomps through the darkness, hurling invectives as he goes.

Judging by his stride, he has a clear destination in mind.

“Is he with the Alliance? Nah, they’d have told me he was coming. But if that’s not it, then what…?”

Clop. Clop.

He hears footsteps behind him.

“Oh hey, you’re early. Your intel was—”

Right as he turns around, though, he hears another noise.

Ptchoo

.

“Huh?”

Something pierces him in the chest.

He clamps his hands over the wound to try to stem the bleeding.

“B-but why…?”

Ptchoo. Ptchoo.

Each time the noise rings out, more blood sprays through the air.

Yuudai collapses to the ground, his eyes wide in shock.

He coughs up blood a few times, then goes still.

The only noise left in the alley is the sound of footsteps.

Clop. Clop.

Man, that was a blast.

I spend a moment basking in my exultation as I dash across the night-clad university campus.

I snuck out of my room earlier tonight because I wanted to check the campus out, but midway through my inspection, I ran straight into an unexpected magical beast attack event.

“I finally did it… I got to use my ‘the wind is weeping’ line.”

That’s one more quote I can cross off the old bucket list.

And better yet, I delivered it with all the aloofness and gravitas a proper eminence in shadow should have.

Now, at long last, I can say I was able to play the part of the perfect shadowbroker I was too weak to pull off back in my old life.

“Heh-heh-heh…”

Just thinking about how perfectly that went down makes me break out into a grin, but I know my roommate will be back any minute now.

I left the window open when I snuck out, so I sneak back in the same way, quickly change my clothes, and crawl into bed.

Not a moment later, the doorknob rattles to announce Akane’s return.

“…I’m back,” she says quietly.

If I’d taken any detours on my way back, I wouldn’t have made it in time. I continue pretending to sleep as I breathe a sigh of relief at how close I cut it.

The room is quiet, save for the sound of clothes rustling. She’s probably getting changed.

I smell the faint odor of blood.

After a short while, she calls over to me. “Minoru, are you awake?”

My first instinct is to continue feigning sleep, but I wanna get her impressions on how I did tonight. “Yeah, I’m up.”

“Can I come in?”

Before giving me a chance to reply, she barges straight into my section and sits down on my bed.

She

seriously

reeks of blood.

I guess it makes sense, given all that magical beast blood she got sprayed with.

“Did something happen…?” I ask.

She just keeps sitting there, not saying a word.

Despite my attempt to start a conversation, she just hangs her head silently.

“…Have you ever wanted to die?” she eventually asks, her voice faltering.

“Nope.”

If anything, I wanna live forever.

In all my life to date, not once have I ever wanted to die.

I occasionally run into people who say that longevity isn’t for them, but I doubt I’ll ever understand where they’re coming from. I wanna keep being me for as long as possible, down to the second.

“I… I have.”

“You have, huh?”

That’s a shame.

“But when I try to remember…I just can’t. It’s like there’s this gaping hole in my memory.”

I can’t say I totally follow.

She lapses back into silence.

Then, I notice that her shoulders are trembling.

“Minoru, have you…ever killed someone?”

Yeah, loads of ’em.

“You mean, like, murder?” I reply. “That’s so scary, I don’t even want to think about it.”

“I don’t blame you…”

“What about you, Nishino?”

“What would you do…if I told you I might have?”

“Uh…”

“I’m joking.”

She smiles.

Then, she turns her gaze outside the window and lets out a quiet murmur. “I’ve been waiting…for so long…”

“Waiting for what?”

She doesn’t reply. At this point, I don’t think I’m the one she’s really talking to anymore.

She stares up at the night sky, like she’s trying to converse with someone who’s gone far away.

“Please… Come save me…”

She mumbles someone’s name.

Then, she sits frozen there like a statue until morning.

In fact, she does it all the way up until the sun rises and a commotion becomes audible off in the distance. I have to spend the entire time pretending to sleep.

Actually, that reminds me of something.

During my old life, I meddled in this one situation, and Akira Nishino punched me right in the face. I thought I recognized his obnoxious mug from somewhere.

In fact, he was the whole reason I swore to break every window on the campus.

I’ll never forgive him.

Although he did take Beta off my hands, so I guess I

can

forgive him.

Then, my thoughts get interrupted.

“Akane, come quick!”

It’s barely even morning yet, but someone from the knight order is banging on our door.

“I-it’s the vice commander! Vice Commander Saejima’s been murdered!”

Oh no. Our precious gorilla.

Dr. Yuuka sits down in front of Akane. “This is some pretty serious business.”

“I…I didn’t do it.”

Sounds like I missed some stuff.

Akane left me on house-sitting duty and headed for the scene of the crime as soon as she heard the news, and when she came back, Dr. Yuuka was with her.

“I want to believe you, but there are eyewitnesses who say they saw you and the vice commander arguing last night.”

Akane’s voice quivers. “That was nothing. It was just… It was about Minoru.”

“Well, the estimated time of death is three

AM

. Do you have an alibi?”

“…No.”

By the time I got back, it was already past three as well.

“There’s also verbal testimony placing you near the scene of the crime.”

“Is… Is that so…?”

Akane hangs her head. Her shoulders tremble.

I did smell blood on her last night, and I guess she could’ve killed him on the spur of the moment or something.

Stuff like that happens all the time, but she doesn’t really seem the type.

“Commander Haitani is going to be leading a full investigation. Until he gets his verdict, you have orders not to leave this room.”

Akane clenches her fists and shakes her head. “I didn’t do it… I swear, I didn’t…”

She’s an old acquaintance, so I decide to throw in a good word for her. “Hold on a minute. I don’t think Akane did it, either.”

“Minoru…”

“I mean, look at that picture.”

I point at one of the crime scene photos laid out on the table. It’s an image of Yuudai’s slashed-up corpse.

“What about it?” Dr. Yuuka asks.

“It’s weird, don’t you think? The cuts are too sloppy.”

The corpse is in pieces, and none of the cross sections of the cuts are clean.

Dr. Yuuka’s gaze grows steely. “What do you mean, sloppy?”

“If Akane did this, I’m pretty sure the cuts would’ve been cleaner.”

When a strong enough dark knight slashes a person, the cuts are always nice and clean. However, the cuts on Yuudai’s body couldn’t possibly be any rougher.

In his case, it looks like someone took a dull sword and just went to town on him.

“Now that you mention it, you’re right…”

Of course, there is a chance that she cut him up like that on

purpose

to make it hurt more, but I think I’m gonna keep that possibility to myself.

“Minoru… Th-thank you. Thank you so much,” Akane blubbers.

Yeah, no problem.

“Please, you have to believe me… I didn’t—I didn’t do it…!”

Her shoulders tremble even harder.

“Hey, Akane, calm down.”

“I didn’t do it! I—I would never, never again, I, I—”

“Akane…”

Something is clearly wrong with her. Dr. Yuuka hugs her tight. “It’s okay, just calm down. Calm down, take your pills…”

As she tries to pacify her, she slips her a little white pill.

Akane trembles a little more, but her breathing eventually becomes calm and steady. She’s out like a light.

Dr. Yuuka casts her gaze down. “…That must have startled you.”

“A little, yeah… What was that pill?”

“It’s to calm her down. My specialty is in psychosomatic medicine. Akane has some psychological trauma she’s dealing with, and I’m helping her treat it.”

“What kind of trauma?”

“She was involved in some sort of incident, and she’s bottled up all her memories of what happened. Whenever something causes that bottle to start becoming uncorked, she ends up freaking out like she did just now.”

“Oh, huh…,” I reply, doing my best to look contemplative.

“I’ve only been at this base for half a year, but her condition’s improved dramatically since then. Akane saved me once, so I’m just glad to have the opportunity to repay her.”

“Wow, I never knew.”

Dr. Yuuka drapes a blanket over Akane’s shoulders. “Now, about what you brought up earlier… I’ll go tell the commander what you said about the cuts. This could be the work of an assassin from an enemy base. And with how the Black Knight showed up last night, he could easily have been involved as well…”

The Black Knight is innocent. That much I can say for sure.

Dr. Yuuka goes on. “Anyway, just leave the rest to me. The best thing you can do is to stay by Akane’s side.”

“No, no, I want to investigate, too.”

“I’m not sure how the knight order will feel about that.”

“I won’t get in their way, I promise. Akane helped me out, too, so I want to do what I can to help repay her as well.”

“Minoru…”

Dr. Yuuka stares at my face for a bit, then lets out a defeated sigh.

“Okay, fine. If you find anything, come straight to me with it. Don’t try to be a hero. Don’t forget that Natsume needs you, too.”

And with that, I’m finally allowed to roam about as I please.

“What to do, what to do.”

I start off by grabbing my lunch rations, then meander around the campus.

Akane claims she’s not the culprit, but unfortunately, the circumstantial evidence is weighted pretty heavily against her.

“A mysterious crime, false charges against the protagonist… Feels like the main plotline is underway.”

If that’s the case, I’ve got a moral obligation to get involved.

“Now, the crime happened over there, huh…?”

I watch from a distance as the knight order gathers in an alleyway right off the main school building.

They’ve got some great “investigation in progress” vibes going on.

If I tried to butt my way in there as an outsider, they’d toss me out for sure. Better not to even try.

“Bummer that I don’t have any other leads to work off… Wait, huh?”

When I look around, I spot a fat guy in glasses sitting on a bench and tapping away at a laptop.

“Oh hey, they’ve got computers here.”

I totally forgot they had electricity.

I assume it isn’t connected to the internet, but…huuuh?

When I sneak up behind him and peek over his shoulder, I discover that he’s posting on some sort of forum.

“Hey, you get internet on that thing?”

“Gah?!”

When I ask him a question, Fatty McSpecs hurriedly whirls around.

“Wh-what’s your problem, man?!” he yelps.

“Oh, just curious. Does that thing get internet?”

“Huh? What, this? It’s hooked up to the university intranet. How do you not know that?”

“Ohhh, so it only connects to other people on campus. Still, I bet that’s good enough for gathering intel.”

“Look, just go find someone else to bug. I’m busy.”

With that, Fatty McSpecs goes back to posting on his forum.

[T

HREAD

] The real reason Akane killed Saejima

[B

ODY

] so who’s got them Akane lewds?

Oh yeah. Real busy.

“Lemme borrow your laptop for a bit.”

“Get lost, dude, I’m not lending you shit.”

“Thanks, I’ll give it right back.”

“Huh…?!”

I knock Fatty McSpecs out with a blisteringly fast knife hand strike and snatch away his laptop.

I make sure to lay him on his side so it looks like he’s napping.

“Now, what have we here…?”

A quick search tells me that the forum is full of threads about last night’s murder.

It isn’t just Akane’s thing, either. People are pretty abuzz about the Black Knight, too.

221: Anonymous Victim

Akane didn’t do it, but the Black Knight is sus. This is totally an Alliance plot.

222: Anonymous Victim

according to my knight friend, the Black Knight is strong af

223: Anonymous Victim

that guy’s no joke. he killed 10 beasts in a single second

224: Anonymous Victim

bro what’re you smoking

225: Anonymous Victim

nah man I’m serious

226: Anonymous Victim

if that was true he could just take out a big nest on his own lmao

227: Anonymous Victim

no for real, it’s true. source: im a knight, I was there

228: Anonymous Victim

looooool we got one. “look at me, I’m totally a real knight”

229: Anonymous Victim

we’ve got us a keyboard knight, folks. this shit’s anonymous, maybe we’re all knights lmao

230: Anonymous Victim

haven’t seen a keyboard knight in a while, this should be good

231: Anonymous Victim

there’s literally zero proof that he killed 10 beasts in 1 second. ur bait sucks

232: Anonymous Victim

yeah this black knight dude is probably just some rando and ppl are exaggerating shit bc they’re bored

233: Anonymous Victim

my buddy is a knight and he says the black knight is a shitter

234: Anonymous Victim

no duh

235: xXxSilverHairedElfBabexXx

Don’t lying. The Black Knight is strongerest. He is coolest in world can kill 1000 beasts easy.

“Huh?”

As I’m scrolling through the thread, I suddenly spot a weirdo.

“SilverHairedElfBabe? That’s the dumbest handle I’ve ever seen.”

Beta’s face flashes through my mind for a moment, but thinking about it logically, there’s no way it’s her.

If it was, it would mean she’s mastered Japanese in just three days.

“I mean, I’m glad this chick’s cheering for the Black Knight, but with a handle like that, she’s gonna do more harm than good.”

I’d better give her a friendly heads-up.

Using a tacky handle is a shame that never washes off. Trust me, I would know.

“I’d better make my handle something extra cool so she has a good point of reference to use. ‘Obsidian Wings’… No, wait, ‘Fallen Angel of Rebellion’… But that feels kinda plain, so let’s add a little flair, too.”

237:

FallenAngelofRebellion

xXxSilverHairedElfBabexXx is a pretty cringe name, you might wanna change it

238: Anonymous Victim

another weirdo showed up lmao

239: Anonymous Victim

“Fallen Angel” LMAOOO “of Rebellion” LMAOOO “

” LMAO “

” LMAOOO “

” LMAO

240: xXxSilverHairedElfBabexXx

I not cringe. FallenAngelofRebellion is cringe.

241: Anonymous Victim

SilverHairedElfBabe vs FallenAngelofRebellion! Round 1, fight!

242: Anonymous Victim

bruh you’re both cringe

243:

FallenAngelofRebellion

I am a knight of darkness, a fallen angel who lurks in the shadows and seeks rebellion. How can I be cringe when I have ultimate power on my side?

244: Anonymous Victim

knight of darkness lmaooooo fallen angel lmaooo who lurks in the shadows lmaooo seeks rebellion has blessed us with his presence LMFAOOOOO

245: xXxSilverHairedElfBabexXx

FallenAngelofRebellion is cringe shitter. Black Knight is strongerest. Will instant kill you all.

246: Anonymous Victim

*strongest <- FIFY

247: Anonymous Victim

ngl it’s pretty cute how bad ElfBabe is at Japanese

248: Anonymous Victim

ElfBabe is such a rabid black knight fangirl lol

249: Anonymous Victim

the black knight’s with me rn, he’s licking my asshole

250: xXxSilverHairedElfBabexXx

Don’t lying. Mocking me fine. Don’t dare Black Knight mocking.

251: Anonymous Victim

Translation: Making fun of me is fine, but don’t you dare mock the Black Knight!

252: Anonymous Victim

but it’s true tho. the black knight actually is a shitter, he really did eat my shit

253: Anonymous Victim

black knight = omegashitter

254: xXxSilverHairedElfBabexXx

I kill you.

255: Anonymous Victim

yikes, here come the death threats. You guys trolled her too hard, lol

256:

FallenAngelofRebellion

rip

257: xXxSilverHairedElfBabexXx

Black Knight strongerest. Coolest. I love him. I kill any who mocks him.

258: Anonymous Victim

Ahh! I’m gonna die! The black knight is a shitter!

259: Anonymous Victim

I just beat the shit out of the black knight. He begged for mercy naked on his hands and knees tho so I let him live

260: xXxSilverHairedElfBabexXx

Shut up. I kill you. Marking my words FallenAngelofRebellion. I show you hell.

261:

FallenAngelofRebellion

um? I didn’t make fun of him tho

262: Anonymous Victim

Okay, that’s way too many death threats. Reported.

263: Anonymous Victim

stampede’s coming up and people are getting murdered and this is how you guys are spending your time?

264:

FallenAngelofRebellion

wait, I’m the victim here

265: Anonymous Victim

yeah but your handle is cringe sooooo

And with that, xXxSilverHairedElfBabexXx gets banned.

A tiny bit of trolling, and she goes straight to death threats? You don’t see much of that these days.

“Seriously, though, I should probably start gathering information at some point. I wonder if anyone here saw anything…”

After that, I finagle myself into the good graces of the fine forum users and get my hands on some valuable intel.

The next day rolls around.

“So, this is the you-know-where…”

I’m at a small research lab in a tucked-away corner of the university.

The sun’s already set, and though I can see lights off in the distance, the area I’m in is surrounded by a dense, dark thicket.

According to that intranet forum, this is where they brought the gorilla’s corpse.

If I’m lucky, there’ll be magical after-traces on the body, but preserving those is actually pretty difficult. Unless you use special chemicals, they fade away pretty quickly.

Given what world I’m in, I probably shouldn’t expect much out of their preservation techniques.

I mean, they’re still using conventional materials for their swords here. I bet these guys have never even

heard

of mithril.

The metal they’re using does have pretty decent magic conductivity, I’ll give them that, but it doesn’t hold a candle to mithril. It’s no wonder they’re having so much trouble against such weak magical beasts.

“Eh, I’m sure I’ll find

some

sort of clue here.”

There’s a ton of questions surrounding the gorilla’s death, and I intend to solve them.

Step one: Sneak inside, fast and quiet.

There’s a knight standing guard outside the lab’s entrance, but by concealing my presence and dashing past him at full speed, I’m able to sneak past him like it’s nothing.

Once I’m inside, I spot a staircase leading underground. I follow it down to a locked metal door.

“Locked, huh…?”

I don’t have time to screw around, so I use my slime sword to smash the lock.

It’s unfortunate that this means they’ll find out that someone broke in, but as long as they don’t figure out

who

, I’m still golden.

“Oh, wait, I wonder if I could’ve transformed the slime sword into the shape of the key.”

You know, like how Beta made those gloves. Oh well, hindsight is 20/20.

I shrug and head inside.

“Looks like I found the morgue…”

It’s cold and dark.

There are a bunch of dead bodies lying around with sheets covering them, and the air is ripe with the smell of decaying flesh.

I endure the stench and use magic to strengthen my sense of smell. The gorilla’s smell is lodged in my memory.

As it turns out, his body is the one right next to me.

I rip off the sheet and reveal the mangled corpse beneath.

“Hmm…”

Sure enough, most of the magical after-traces are gone, and what little magic still lingers on the body is all mixed up and blended together. It’s not gonna be helpful.

I turn my attention to the cuts, which are just as grisly as they were in the photos.

These aren’t sword wounds. Looks like someone probably took an ax to him.

No, not even an ax would be that messy. This is the work of a saw or something.

They must’ve sliced him apart after he was already dead.

“The question is, to what end?”

Normally, you slice someone up so you can hide the evidence. After you do your slicing, you can bury, burn, or dissolve the parts more easily.

In our gorilla friend’s case, though, he was simply found like this.

Did they just hate him that bad? No, no.

“Oh, I see. It was to hide

this

.”

When I try sticking his arm back on, I find there’s a piece missing, and we’re not talking about excess flesh that got lost in the slicing process. It was removed deliberately.

“Here, too…”

There are a couple other spots that are missing little chunks of flesh as well.

With that, I have the conclusive proof I need.

“Aha. These…are bullet wounds.”

After how much I researched guns in my last life to try figuring out a way to beat them, I’d recognize their handiwork anywhere.

People might assume that guns don’t work against knights, but that’s not quite true.

When they aren’t clad in their magic, knights are no sturdier than anyone else.

“In other words, the killer was someone the gorilla didn’t expect to get attacked by, maybe someone he knew. And it wasn’t a knight, or they wouldn’t have needed a gun. Someone who isn’t a knight wanted to make it look like a knight did the deed… Heh-heh-heh. Step aside, protagonist. There’s a new detective in town.”

With this, the odds that Akane is the killer will plummet.

“…Looks like I got what I came for.”

I head back to my room, but my plans to report my findings are dashed when the person I was going to report to isn’t there.

“Where’s Akane?”

The bed she should’ve been sleeping in is empty, and Dr. Yuuka is sitting over on the couch.

“She had to go in for a checkup. She won’t be back until tomorrow.”

“Oh, okay.”

Given how emotionally unstable she was, I guess that checks out.

“Also, Minoru, do you have any idea what time it is? The stampede’s right around the corner, so you should really start coming back sooner. It’s not safe out there.”

“Sorry about that. I did find an important clue, though.”

“What do you mean…?”

I tell her the shocking news I learned today that all but disproves the theory that Akane is the killer.

“Bullet wounds?! If that’s true, it will clear Akane of all suspicion. How did you find that out, though?”

“I, uh…I guess you could say I know a good information broker?”

“A what now?” Dr. Yuuka eyes me suspiciously, then sighs. “Well, if you say so. I’ll go tell the knight order about the bullet holes. With any luck, we should be able to get them to take another look at the body.”

“Thanks, I really appreciate it.”

“Make sure you don’t tell anyone else what you just told me. Otherwise, the killer might come after you.”

“W-will do.” I give her a picture-perfect “scared background character” nod.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Dr. Yuuka replies before hurrying out of the room.

That should be enough to help solve the Gorilla Murder Case and free Akane. Good stuff all around.

Wait—hold up.

Did I just miss the perfect opportunity to reveal the truth as the Black Knight?

“Damn, I coulda said something cool like… ‘There is but one real truth.’”

In any case, I crawl into bed and wait for night to come and everyone else to fall asleep.

Night comes.

“Hmm?”

Right as the perfect time to go for a nighttime stroll rolls around, I sense someone loitering outside my room.

A burglar, perhaps?

Damn, I guess things in Japan really have gotten bad.

I muse on the situation and decide to wait and see how this plays out. Not a moment later, bullets tear through the window.

Shards of shattered glass come crashing down with an earsplitting noise.

“Wait, for real?”

Who’da thunk a forgettable background character like me would ever end up getting shot at?

I feel the bullets slam into my skin.

So, this is what nobodies feel like when they get gunned down…

Suddenly, I realize that this might be the last chance I ever get to use a certain Hidden Technique of mine!

When the bullets crash into me, I manipulate my body and pour everything into that one moment.

Get ready to see how a nobody dies, folks.

Behold the power of Hidden Normie Technique: Swiss-Cheese Dance, Bloody Marionette!

My body dances in tune with the bullets striking it. I look like I’m a puppet or something.

To complete the image, I secretly tear open blood pouches and make a beautiful shower of blood rain down around me.

I become the platonic ideal of a background character dying. It’s like that one scene in

The Matrix

, but if all the bullets hit.

“ARRRRRRGH! GLURK…GLURK!”

I end my performance by letting out a bloodcurdling scream, spraying blood from my mouth like a fountain, and tumbling unceremoniously off my bed.

Perfection.

I had all but given up on being able to use the Hidden Technique I designed for when I got shot, but now its time has finally arrived!

As I internally pump my fist, I stop my heartbeat.

A million thanks to these burglars for giving me this golden opportunity.

“…Did we get him?”

Once I’ve played dead for a little while, a pair of men enter the room.

“Oh yeah, for sure. He’s as good as Swiss cheese.”

The glass shards crunch under their feet.

“Tough break, kid. If you hadn’t figured out stuff you weren’t supposed to, you wouldn’t have had to die.”

Huh?

I wonder what he means by that.

“Knights’ll be here any minute. We need to hurry up and tear the room apart.”

“Yeah, and mess up the body so they can’t tell how… Huh?”

Ah, shit.

“Hey, check it out. There’s no wounds on the corpse.”

The guy checking my body noticed the thing I was hoping he wouldn’t notice.

“What’re you talking about? There’s blood everywhere, dude.”

“Sure, but I’m tellin’ you, there’s no wounds.”

“What?”

The second guy comes over and inspects my body, too. At that point, I don’t have a choice. I snap my eyes open. “Man, why’d you have to go and spoil my perfectly orchestrated scene?”

“What the—?!”

“How’s he still alive?!”

I grab them both by their throats.

“L-let go of me!”

“Sh-shoot him! Shoot him dead!”

They press their guns against my forehead and fire from point-blank.

One

ptchoo

rings out, then another.

They keep coming until their magazines are empty.

Once the men run out of bullets, the

ptchoo

s are replaced by a hollow

click, click, click

.

“H-how?! How is this guy not hurt?!”

“No way—h-he’s a knight?! That wasn’t what we were told!”

“Knight or not, shooting him from that close should’ve at least done some—”

I stand up, still squeezing their necks.

“Aghhh!”

“Looks like you aren’t just any old burglars, huh?”

“Wh-who the hell are you?! Lemme go already!”

One of them punches my face.

Wham. Wham.

“Someone put you up to this. So it’s, like, an ‘evil mastermind’–type scenario.”

“What are you even—? Ow, ow, ow!”

“Y-you little—OWWWW!”

I lift them by their throats.

“Well, works for me. Now, you can either die slowly and in pain, or you can tell me everything and die easy. Make your choice.”

I put some strength into my grip, and their bones begin creaking loudly.

“Ahhh! L-let me go! I don’t know shit!”

“I—I didn’t know you were a knight! I’m sorry! Please, let me go… I don’t want to die…”

“It’s like you guys said. If you hadn’t figured out stuff you weren’t supposed to, you wouldn’t have had to die. That’s just how it goes sometimes.”

I can hear knights shouting outside.

They’re still pretty far away, but they’re getting closer.

“…Sounds like you’re running out of time, gentlemen.”

“P-please…”

“I-I’m beggin’ you…”

“Hmm, what to do—?”

Then, the voices outside start heading in a different direction than I expected them to.

“It’s the stampede! The stampede is starting!”

A shrill alarm bell starts ringing.

I can sense the clamor spreading as people start waking up.

“Sorry, I just got a better offer. Toodles.”

I snap their necks and melt into the night’s darkness.