Repeat Vice - The Villainous Noble Doesn't Want to Die, So He Swore to Not Die As One of The Four Heavenly Kings

Chapter 110.6: The Dark Knight Front

The sky flickers between white and black, and the royal capital oscillates between day and night.

The clash in the heavens between the demonized Rofus and Raymond is reminiscent of the battles of ancient mythology.

In the royal capital, numerous summoned beasts run rampant, confronted by the knights and the mages.

Arriving late to this battlefield are the black-clad members of the Lightless family.

Rudens, the current head of the Lightless family, and his three Dark Knight guards.

Rudens had come to the capital to attend the title conferment ceremony of Fall.

Sensing the unusual situation in the capital, he hastened there only to find such a catastrophe.

In the sky, the demonized Rofus and a white demon engage in an extraordinary magical battle, while on the ground, hordes of monsters wreak havoc.

The capital, which he hadn’t visited in a while, had turned into hell.

A Dark Knight, wielding a menacing halberd, removes his full-face helmet, revealing long white hair.

“What are your orders, my lord?”

Alba, the head of the Dark Knights, kneels and asks Rudens.

Rudens narrows his sharp eyes at the devastation.

“There’s no question about it. The capital is in peril. Eliminate the monsters.”

Alba bows his head briefly and raises his hand to command the two Dark Knights standing behind him.

These two are Alba’s closest aides, with exceptional skills within the ranks of the Dark Knights.

Before the two could move, Rudens speaks up again.

“You too, Alba.”

Rudens glares at him, and Alba tilts his head with a calm expression.

“I too, my lord?”

“You must also join in eradicating the monsters. From what I can see, Rofus’s familiars and the capital’s knights are dealing with them, but they are clearly understaffed.”

“But that would leave you without a guard—”

As Alba starts to protest, a giant lion with a flaming mane leaps at Rudens from the shadows.

Alba prepares his halberd to deal with it, but Rudens releases a tiny Dark Ball that pierces the lion’s forehead before Alba can act.

The Dark Ball does not disappear as the lion falls, but floats back to Rudens.

“A guard? Do you think I need one?”

“Impressive, but…”

“Are you planning to argue with me, Alba?”

Rudens glares intimidatingly at Alba, who shrugs his shoulders in resignation.

“Very well. I am heading to the palace. Eliminate the monsters and then regroup with me.”

“Understood.”

Responding to Rudens’ command, Alba and the three Dark Knights vanish.

Alba and the two Dark Knights move by leaping across the rooftops.

One of Alba’s aides, a novice who hasn’t been a Dark Knight for even two months, removes her full-face helmet impatiently.

“This is too tight! …Sir!”

Underneath is the face of a young girl with long white hair, just like Alba.

The other aide, catching the discarded helmet, scolds her.

“Don’t take off your helmet! Dark Knights must remain anonymous! How many times do I have to tell you?”

“But—!”

“No buts! Put your helmet back on!”

“But, Sig…!”

“Don’t call my name!!”

Sig, the scolding Dark Knight, throws the helmet on the roof in anger.

Sig has been a Dark Knight for almost three years. Not long after joining, his extraordinary performance caught Alba’s eye, leading to his rapid promotion to a Named Knight.

Despite being allowed to reveal his face and name, Sig stubbornly refuses.

He understands the strategic advantage of anonymity, which reduces the risk of opponents preparing countermeasures.

Hence, Sig remains the most unknown Named Knight, often referred to as “Nameless Sig.”

Infuriated by the novice’s disregard for anonymity, Sig looks back at Alba.

“Alba, aren’t you going to do something about this? She’s breaking the rules and revealing her face!”

“It’s not like that! Saira didn’t mean any harm!”

“Stop saying your name!!”

The white-haired girl, Saira, denies with a scared expression, making Sig shout even more.

As Alba watches the heated exchange, he looks up at the sky.

There, Rofus, overwhelming the white demon with his sheer power, mesmerizes Alba, who extends his arms in ecstasy.

“Oh, my god… You are so strong and beautiful…”

Alba doesn’t hear his aides’ loud argument, completely entranced by Rofus’s battle.

Taking advantage of the distraction, Saira rushes ahead and charges into a group of monsters.

Immediately, white lightning rains down on the monsters.

White lightning, different from ordinary lightning, is one of the extreme attributes, comparable to the golden lightning, “Heavenly Thunder,” used by Valm.

Saira, despite her young age, is a remarkable talent who uses this lightning with ease.

As a member of the mountain tribe, Saira prefers close combat over magic.

Once in the midst of battle, she discards her armor, fighting in just her undergarments, and savages the monsters.

She tears off the wings of dragon-types, breaks their claws and fangs, and punches through their scales with sheer force.

Her fighting style is more beast-like than knightly.

Sig watches Saira’s rampage with a sigh.

With her armor off, she’s no longer a Dark Knight.

Given her skills, her promotion to Named Knight is inevitable, but he wishes she would restrain herself until then.

From Sig’s perspective, the monsters attacking the capital are all strong, with no weaklings among them.

He imagines this must be what an upper-level dungeon break would look like.

Between the rule-breaking novice and the distracted leader, Sig considers changing jobs seriously.

Especially since Alba is also under orders to eliminate the monsters, yet remains entranced.

Seeing the air monsters targeting Alba, Sig reluctantly prepares to intervene.

But before he can act, Alba, without looking, swings his halberd, releasing a shockwave that annihilates all the air monsters.

Seeing Alba’s efficiency, Sig mutters, “Not a single gap…”

On the ground, Saira’s lightning deals with the monsters, while Alba’s one strike handles the flying threats.

“I’m not needed here. But leaving alone wouldn’t be right…”

Feeling useless, Sig stands on the roof.

Suddenly, a whirlwind of wind magic brings a knight in golden armor to Sig.

Seeing the royal family’s sun crest, Sig lowers his guard.

The golden-armored knight, still young, removes his helmet, revealing his face.

“Are you a Dark Knight of the Lightless family?”

“Uh, yeah, I guess.”

Responding half-heartedly, Sig wonders why the knight isn’t talking to Alba or Saira, who are more senior.

But Alba is too distracted, and Saira is barely recognizable as a Dark Knight.

So, the young knight turns to Sig, the only one who seems approachable.

“Uh, things are pretty bad. Is the palace alright?”

“The palace is protected by the Captain. No need to worry.”

The Captain of the royal knights, the strongest knight in the kingdom, assures Sig.

“But,” the knight continues.

“While the palace is secure, the entire capital needs help. We request support from the Dark Knights.”

The knight bows his head, requesting aid, a rare gesture from the royal family.

“…You want us under royal command?”

Sig, bound by Rudens’ orders, cannot comply without permission.

Rit shook his head in response to Sig’s question.

“No… I’m not asking for something that presumptuous. Most of the royal guards are fortifying the palace, and the knights and mage corps are handling the city’s defense. However, there are some ‘powerful individuals’ among the monsters that they can’t deal with. I need you to handle those.”

Rit bowed his head again.

Sig thought for a moment and concluded that this wouldn’t go against Rudens’ orders.

“Well, in that case—”

“—Sig! Over there!”

Just as Sig was about to respond, Saira, who had been fighting on the ground, shouted a warning.

“You, again with the name—”

Just as he was about to yell at her, a tremendous roar and rush of wind echoed.

The wind pressure felt like being struck by the atmosphere itself, almost knocking Sig’s helmet off. He quickly grabbed his head to keep it in place.

Something invisible was approaching. It stopped just before Sig, seemingly bound by something, and while it was invisible, its presence could be detected by a faint shimmer of light.

Rit, unable to react to the sudden event, stared in shock with wide eyes.

Sig casually flicked his finger towards the invisible entity and said a single word.

“—’Line.'”

The word Sig uttered was neither a spell incantation nor a declaration of magic activation.

Simultaneously, the invisible entity was sliced in half.

Its invisibility dissolved, revealing a gigantic beetle split vertically in two.

The beetle, with its pair of sharp, long mandibles, was a huge stag beetle.

Sig squinted his eyes at the sight.

“The ‘Invisible Bug’—isn’t that an upper-level dungeon monster? What’s it doing in the capital… And this shape, a flat stag beetle?”

The ‘Invisible Bug’—a monster with the unique ability to turn invisible.

Sig wondered if it wasn’t a native species of the upper-level dungeon in the Galleon territory.

He glanced up at the sky where the demonized Rofus was battling the white demon.

The Galleon family, a noble house with the unique power to control monsters, had the light attribute for their magical power.

The magic being used to counter Rofus’s dark magic in the sky was light magic.

And there was supposed to be a magical prodigy in the Galleon family, comparable to Rofus, known as the “Prodigy of Lightless.”

At this point, Sig stopped thinking.

Any further speculation without concrete information was unnecessary.

His role was to follow the orders of Rudens, the head of the Lightless family, and nothing more.

Avoiding unnecessary trouble, Sig shrugged and looked at Rit.

Rit was staring in amazement at the giant stag beetle cut in half.

“The ‘Invisible Stag Beetle’—a floor boss, taken down in one strike… And that magic just now…”

Rit couldn’t hide his surprise.

From a young age, Rit had been hailed as a genius.

He had been selected as a royal guard at a young age for his combat skills, excelling in swordsmanship and wind magic, rivaling the top ranks of the mage corps.

Thus, he had noticed the abnormality of the “White Lightning” used by Saira and the extraordinary magical manipulation by Alba, feeling strong awe despite not showing it on his face.

He realized that the Dark Knights were a group of monsters beyond rumors.

However, the magic—or whatever it was—that Sig, the seemingly normal Dark Knight, had just used, felt entirely different in its abnormality.

He couldn’t grasp what had happened, not even a hint.

Not the attribute, nor the technique, nor anything else.

He hadn’t even sensed much magical movement.

Sig had only flicked his finger and spoken a word.

That alone had split the giant beetle with its formidable shell and high magic resistance.

Minimal magical movement indicated low magic consumption.

In Rit’s assessment, the mysterious slash had consumed less than half the magic of a single low-level spell.

Impossible, Rit thought.

As Rit stared in astonishment, Sig responded ambiguously, “Well… uh…”

It seemed he had no intention of explaining.

“Well, we’ll accept the support request, so rest assured.”

Sig concluded with that reassurance.

Rit, intensely curious about the magic Sig had used, bowed his head and disappeared with a whirlwind.

“Hmph. Instantaneous Transfer Magic ‘Leaf Spiral Move’—without incantation.”

“Whoa!”

Alba, who had stood behind Sig without a trace, muttered.

Sig jumped in surprise.

Alba, uninterested, focused on where Rit had stood, snorting.

“For a royal guard, he’s decent… but his magic handling is sloppy—relying on talent alone. Just a novice.”

Sig was exasperated by Alba’s harsh words towards the kingdom’s strongest knight.

“Since when have you been here… And what are you saying about the kingdom’s strongest royal guard?”

“The strongest, huh. He’s called that because he has to be, but in reality… who knows.”

“Alright, enough. If a royal guard hears that, it’ll be a serious problem.”

Sig looked around nervously, trying to stop Alba.

Alba must have known no one was listening, but this was the heart of the capital, under monster attack or not.

Sig was anxious.

“We were requested to deal with powerful monsters. So, can you handle that?”

“I heard. It’s just cleaning up after the royal guards.”

“Seriously, can you stop that?”

Sig was frustrated with Alba’s continuous disdain for the royal guards.

But Alba was unfazed.

Looking bored, he gazed at Saira fighting on the ground.

“…I’ll deal with those so-called ‘powerful individuals’ by royal guard standards. You take care of ‘that stray dog.'”

“Stray dog…”

Sig was taken aback by Alba’s derogatory term for Saira.

“Someone who can’t follow orders is worse than a stray. At least she took off her armor. She’ll become a Named Knight soon. The problem is her lack of discipline. If she causes damage to the capital, she’s no different from a monster.”

“No matter how wild Saira is, she wouldn’t—”

“Can you guarantee that? She’s a savage mountain tribe member who only recently came into contact with civilization.”

“…”

Alba’s green eyes glared at Sig, who fell silent.

“Do not let her demonize. If that happens, stop her, even if it costs your life.”

“Even if it costs my life…?”

Sig was stunned.

“If you can’t stop the worst and survive, I’ll kill you.”

“Do you know what harassment is?”

“Let me ask you, is that heavier than my words?”

Intimidated by Alba’s close presence, Sig saluted with tears in his eyes under his helmet.

“Understood.”