I Reincarnated into a Game Filled with Mods

The knight commanders instantly turned pale, their bodies trembling in fear. Their eyes, filled with horror, were fixed on me.

Given the situation, their reaction was expected. How could one not be shocked at the thought of lying to the emperor? The fact that they didn’t immediately attempt to kill me was enough.

“Newbie, you… really…”

“Ah, don’t misunderstand, Iris. I didn’t harbor any ill intentions towards the empress. This was the only method to deal with that bastard without repercussions.”

Seemingly still in shock, Iris remained silent. However, her eyes were silently signaling that she was willing to hear my reasoning, so I continued.

“As you all know, that bastard hails from the imperial lineage. Of course, he wouldn’t even look towards the throne, but just the fact that he has royal blood flowing through him grants him the authority of any noble beyond a certain level. To deal with someone like that without leaving any aftermath requires an extraordinary method, right? So, that’s exactly what I did.”

“……”

They knew better than anyone that the former lord was not the type to go down quietly. He had caused a ruckus even while being exiled, which is why he ended up dragged down to this remote territory from the imperial palace’s knights.

I’m sure they guessed that such a person would need to be dealt with using extreme methods. The only difference was that the method I used turned out to be far more extreme than they anticipated.

I made him gain the attention of demons, stripped him of all his rights, and then compelled the emperor herself to deal with him directly. Did they ever dare to imagine such a method?

“I didn’t even tell any dangerous lies. The only falsehood in my approach was that I approached the lord to discuss treatment methods I found in a book I stumbled upon, as Aurora had explained.”

“The gravity of the lie doesn’t matter. The mere fact that you lied to the empress is what’s significant. And what if the truth comes out? What if the truth that you summoned a demon with the intent to harm royalty is revealed?”

“No. Even if it gets exposed, it shouldn’t be much of an issue.”

Aurora boldly interjected while observing the situation. Iris looked at Aurora with eyes that questioned how that could possibly not be a problem.

“The current empress, my aunt, doesn’t particularly like that pig. The more chaos he causes, the more solidified her position becomes, so she left him be. So, by handling that person without any backlash, it gives the noble factions she is close to a reason to take action, allowing for a smoother resolution overall.”

‘So that’s the background behind this?’

I didn’t want to complicate things further, and since the lord was a talentless fool, digging deeper would yield no benefit, so I thought it would end here.

But I never considered the empress would dislike him as well.

Of course, the lord’s character here was much more chaotic than in the game, so whether he thought this way in the main story of Brightest Darkness 4 was uncertain. He did possess some common sense in that storyline.

“So, knight commanders, you need not worry. I merely dealt with the pest that was gnawing at society, cleaned up the trash he left behind, and restored everything back to its rightful state. It’s just that a slightly negative method was employed during the process.”

With my reassurance that someone who could refer to the empress as ‘aunt’ need not worry, a bit of color returned to the knight commanders’ faces.

I remained calm, knowing how the story would unfold.

“But still… lying to the empress…”

“You knights need not open your mouths directly. That’s the duty of that Aurora and the newbie over there. You merely need to serve as the eager volunteers responding to the urgent call for help, ensuring the demon doesn’t rise again.”

“……Are you saying we must ensure the demon doesn’t rise?”

“Yes. Unfortunately, we have no means to deal with the demon ourselves.”

As Aurora said this, she glanced over at me. I returned her gaze confidently. For a brief moment, a look of utter disbelief crossed her face.

“Don’t overthink it. This should definitely be beneficial for you all, right?”

I sprang up from the sofa; it was time to move.

“I need to pay back everything I’ve received, including interest.”

I led the knight commanders and Aurora down to the basement where the lord was writhing in agony just before death. The four instinctively reached for their weapons upon seeing the half-human, half-beast lord.

“……Looks really grotesque.”

Lize muttered a remark.

“It’s just writhing on the floor, but even that is incredibly disgusting. If this is how a near-death half-human, half-beast looks, I can’t even imagine the magnitude of power a true demon must display.”

Near death. Well, that wasn’t incorrect. I had brought the blessed dagger with the intention of draining the lord’s blood just before death. There was a reason for that action, of course.

Even in a severely weakened state, being a demon at its core, if the half-human, half-beast lord was left alone, it would slowly pollute the surrounding terrain.

To prevent that, we needed to keep beating the lord until the empress arrived to purify it. We wanted to ensure he couldn’t recover his strength and kept draining his health instead.

‘The knight commanders are perfect for this. They’ve suffered at his hands for years now, so it’s a good chance for revenge too.’

However, as it was uncertain how long it would take for the commanders to arrive and finish their explanation, I needed to take action to prevent him from polluting the area in the meantime.

That’s why I brought the blessed dagger along.

“……So you want us to stop him from recovering his strength?”

Claudia placed her greatsword, about the same length as her height, on her shoulder. The faint smile on her face suggested she had an inkling of what I was about to ask.

“I told you, right? I need to pay back everything I’ve received along with interest. You just need to beat him up as much as you want. Of course, you should moderate your strength so the basement doesn’t collapse.”

In reality, it wasn’t a strictly necessary action. I had already drained all his health with the blessed dagger, so letting him be would prevent any pollution in the surroundings.

However, considering that the knights had been tormented by this lord for the past few years, it was only natural they deserved to repay the favor.

Even if they had to kill him, they deserved revenge.

“Really? Then I won’t hold back.”

Claudia was the first to step up in response to my words. Holding the greatsword as if it were a golf club, she swung it down swiftly at the lord.

Smack! The sound of the blow echoed as the scaly body of the lord lifted off the ground. He sailed back and crashed into the opposite wall. The basement shook from the impact of her attack.

Iris and Erica were taken aback by the sudden act, while Lize, after a moment’s thought, drew her dagger, enveloping the blade in ice with a wide grin.

“If we don’t beat that pig up, the demon might resurrect again, right? Don’t worry, I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen.”

With a short thank-you remark of “Thanks, newbie!” Lize swiftly charged at the lord, leaving behind a trail of frost. Claudia watched her with a satisfied smile.

“Don’t overthink it, Iris. If he dies, it’s a chance that won’t come around again. Just don’t think about it and enjoy until the end.”

“……Are you serious, Claudia?”

“Absolutely. And you share a similar thought as well. If you truly opposed it, you would’ve put down your weapon by now, wouldn’t you?”

Claudia pointed at Iris’s hand, which had been fiddling with the sword strapped to her waist for quite some time.

If given the opportunity, and if she could persuade herself, she seemed ready to draw her sword and join in the fight. Perhaps feeling embarrassed that her true thoughts were exposed, Iris’s cheeks flushed crimson.

“If I had known about this plan from the beginning, I would have vehemently opposed it. But the newbie has already taken action, and now we are in an irreversible situation, so what can I do? I have to trust him. He has proven he keeps his word. So Iris, just come to terms with it. Let’s join in and beat him together.”

A chilling breeze swept through the far end of the basement. Although I couldn’t see the situation clearly through the ice, Lize looked quite lively and active.

As the air rapidly cooled, Aurora shivered. She then casually moved closer to me, pressing her arm against mine. I turned my head, wondering what she was doing. A bold look that seemed to ask what was up returned.

“Erica, let’s go.”

“Uh, me?”

“Who else would be here if not you? You happen to resemble Lize quite a bit, so I can easily see what you’re thinking. Don’t pretend to ponder and just follow me.”

Erica grumbled a bit about being compared to her sister, but perhaps it wasn’t completely wrong, as she obediently followed Claudia. Slowly, flames began to flicker on the weapon in her hand.

Left alone next to me, Iris stared dumbfounded at the three who had already begun to thrash the lord and sighed deeply before looking at me.

“Newbie.”

“I’m listening.”

“Just as Claudia said, had you sought permission beforehand, I would have firmly opposed you. I could never allow lying to the empress.”

But.

The atmosphere with which Iris initially seemed to scold me shifted with that phrase. Her lips curled into a smile, and her eyes softened slightly.

“I believe you’ve thought this through. When you went to subjugate that monster, I couldn’t trust you until the very moment you returned… but this time is different. Given your past actions, no matter how absurd the plan, I trust you enough to believe in it this time. I’ll leave this matter entirely in your hands.”

After finishing her statement, Iris summoned a gust of wind around her weapon and turned to head towards the other knight commanders, but paused momentarily and turned her head halfway.

“Oh, and I’ll also thank you for setting up this opportunity.”

“Don’t mention it.”

On the other side of the basement, something resembling a storm began to swirl. The basement sparkled with light. Aurora and I briefly watched the scene unfold before stepping outside.

The moon that had been hanging in the sky was slowly sinking behind the mountains.

“You’ve only just joined the Silver Dawn Knights, haven’t you?”

“I’m not exactly sure of the date, but it’s probably been about two weeks.”

“And you’ve gained such strong trust already? Impressive skills.”

I replied with a laugh.

I was merely trying to progress the story as it was in the game, yet to the others, it seemed like an unbelievable achievement. To me, it was quite normal.

Moreover, moving forward, the scale of enemies would only continue to grow.

If I were to follow the storyline of Brightest Darkness 4 precisely, I would have to single-handedly fight monsters powerful enough to destroy a city.

The recommended level to see the ending on the first playthrough was roughly level 100, so casually taking down thousands of weaker monsters would be a bonus as I leveled up.

To defeat dozens of city-destroying monsters and thousands of commonplace ones, I doubted even the emperor could manage that.

All those would be the accomplishments of just one player.

‘That’s just how game protagonists roll, right?’

After all, wasn’t I also a protagonist?

We sat in a corner of the garden chatting about trivial matters, waiting for the empress, who was destined to arrive by morning. Aurora had quite a way with words.

Time passed and, even though the sun was about to peek over the horizon, the knight commanders had not yet shown their faces. Given the weight of emotions built up until now, I could understand why. We could go on for a whole day if we wanted.

“So, we need to completely replace the servants— Ah.”

While discussing how to overhaul the servants, a magic circle was drawn right next to the garden. The magic circle pressed down on the grass and lit it on fire, launching a blue beam of light into the sky.

Teleportation magic. I recognized it immediately, just like in the game. We stepped back and prepared to greet the empress.

Within the beam shot up by the magic circle, blue particles began to coalesce, forming a human shape. Arms and legs, head and body emerged, clad in clothing.

As the mass of light transformed into a perfect human form, it slowly stepped out of the light pillar.

“……?”

It was a woman who looked exactly like Aurora.

---