Manner looked at the man before him, at this brother with whom he had once faced life and death.
His eyes held only disappointment for Kazimierz's current state. Those knights who should have galloped on battlefields, who should have established merits, were now dancing on stages under the manipulation of capital, yet the Supervisory Council turned a blind eye! Zhengzhan Knights were stationed at the border, unable even to return to the Great Knight Territory without prior reporting! Was this truly normal? Was this truly how Kazimierz should be?
Chesper had originally not intended to meet Manner. He knew that Manner no longer had the same spirit he once did. In Chesper's view, it was the current Kazimierz that had alienated Manner, that the glorious Nearl had been corrupted by this damned Kazimierz. He didn't even blame Manner; he only blamed all of Kazimierz. The more he had worshipped and respected Manner in the past, the angrier he was now.
The rain had already wet his hair, running down his cheeks, making it impossible to distinguish between a knight's tears and rainwater. He gazed at the man he had once admired so greatly, questioning him.
"Manner Lim Kwong! Are you truly going to continue sinking in this fallen country! Join us, we can change Kazimierz!"
His words were sincere. How he wished his desperate shout could awaken the once sun-like fiery heart of the ranger before him, making him return to his original Manner. But the person sitting on the long bench sighed softly. Unbeknownst to him, the rain had gradually grown heavier. Then, Manner stood up, shaking off the rainwater onto the ground. He held the hilt of his sword but did not draw it. He looked directly at Chesper before him and replied.
"If it were the past, I would have continued to persuade you… I would have urged you to turn back." Manner solemnly approached Chesper. This distance was once their distance for casual conversation, the distance often shared when Manner, as a ranger,, Tolan, and Chesper teased and joked with each other. But now, there was no longer any joyful atmosphere between the two. The office worker with furrowed brows was no longer the ranger he once was… However, his sword would not be diminished by this.
He was still Manner Lim Kwong… from past to present, never changed.
Just a bit more weathered—
"It's raining."
Chesper gripped his lance tightly, but the next moment, he seemed to enter a golden downpour. The not-so-dazzling light merged into every raindrop, transforming into a seemingly gentle, yet potentially lethal, curtain of rain. Chesper could not resist; he could only charge forward into the rain curtain, even if just a little. He knew he absolutely could not fight Manner, even if his strength already far surpassed that of an ordinary Silverlance Pegasus. But whether in the past or present, he knew it perfectly well.
Under this seemingly gentle golden downpour, how many enemies and traitors had fallen? This was a charge with no chance of victory.
But he had nothing left to lose…
He raised his lance and charged, facing the golden rain, gazing at the figure before him, stained golden—looking like the dashing ranger of the past.
"…Manner…"
He could endure Kazimierz's decay, he could accept the knights' dimming, but what he could not accept… was that the knight in his heart was abandoned by the era, ultimately becoming what he was now.
Manner, if even you give up…
Then does Kazimierz truly still have hope?
Chesper charged irrevocably towards the most dazzling knight in his heart. This was a desperate charge. The golden rain washed over his armor, making him look like the last glimmer of an ancient knightly family. Manner's sword was already unsheathed—
Just then, a figure descended from the sky, meeting the golden rain, landing between the two. Manner immediately realized who it was and subconsciously retracted his sword. Chesper's desperate charge, however, was firmly gripped at the spear tip by a hand, followed by a crisp sound of metal shattering.
Clang—
A section of the spear tip was snapped directly. While stopping Chesper's impact, the figure moved aside, like a swimming dragon, pressing one hand against Chesper's back, then tripping the knight with a sweeping kick, and finally pinning him to the ground.
"Checkmate."
The masked Kuro said coldly, then she raised her head to look in Manner's direction.
"Noah said you've been coming home late again recently, so she asked me to check. Sure enough—you've been very busy lately, haven't you?"
"…I'll write a good self-reflection." Manner looked at Kuro before him, shaking his head helplessly, "I can handle it."
"But Noah said she doesn't want to see you personally deal with your own brother." Kuro responded, "Just take him back—no need for you to act."
"…Haha… I didn't expect the old Manner to actually call for reinforcements…" Chesper was pressed firmly to the ground, completely unable to resist. The physical strength of this mysteriously appearing woman was astonishingly terrifying. Although there was an element of being caught off guard, snapping the spear tip of a charging knight was genuine. Such strength was rare in Kazimierz…
To be honest, he already had the answer in his heart. However, after he was pinned down, it naturally triggered a chain reaction. Sure enough, the light of magic once again flared up in the Howling Guard.
The High Tower Sorcerer gathered a dozen sorcerers to cast spells together. In this situation, with Chesper already captured, the highest leader here was this High Tower Sorcerer. Having held back for so long, she finally found an outlet. Immediately, a terrifying, illogical, irregular, strange sound resonated in the area. It was a spell designed to imitate the Witch King's Dust World's Sound, now revealing its horror.
Noah, who was nearby, froze. This sound-based technique, for someone like Noah who is highly sensitive to emotions and sounds, was as dazzling as a firefly in the dark night.
Noah felt danger in that instant. She instinctively gripped the back of her wheelchair, subconsciously wanting to use her sixth sense to decipher this seemingly patternless sound, and then find its flaws.
However, as soon as she actively began to absorb the emotions within this sound, the chaos, brutality, and even madness within it found an outlet, pouring into Noah's body.
With a clap of thunder, the High Tower Sorcerer presiding over the Sorcerer suddenly realized… the Sorcerer was no longer under her control.
The technique… went out of control?
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