reincarnation npc, but tomorrow's ark

Skadi walked to Baiye's side and looked at the remains in front of her.

She roughly understood what Bai Ye was talking about. Although she didn't quite grasp it, she could still empathize with his feelings.

"This is probably what Swordfish is most worried about... She kept forcing herself not to think about it, and she tried to convince herself that her homeland in the deep sea still needs to be saved."

“But I know very well that the higher-ups are sending us to our deaths… I only found out recently that those monsters were all Deepsea Hunters in disguise, and that the ones who killed my family were also Deepsea Hunters. They never told us any of this.”

“There are always guards patrolling around the Deepsea Hunters’ camp. I used to think they were protecting us, but no, they are actually on guard against us, and they will not hesitate to kill any mutated Deepsea Hunters…”

Skadi looked at the steam knights before her and seemed to see in them the fate of the deep-sea hunters.

“That kind of thing won’t happen.” Bai Ye stepped forward and gently took Skadi’s hand.

“After all, there aren’t many of us left.” Skadi leaned against Bai Ye and smiled.

That's a lame joke.

Bai Ye smiled as well.

They stared at the remains of the steam-powered knight, lost in thought.

“If we were Victorians, we would probably be even more grief-stricken right now. Unfortunately, it’s hard for us to really empathize with them, except for a few sighs.”

Bai Ye knew very well that even without such a trap, the Steam Knight's situation would probably not be much better now.

The form of warfare has changed. With the shift in the mode of warfare in the new era, the dukes' high-speed warships and cannons have become the protagonists of the new era's warfare. Even the steam knights, as elite individual units, pale in comparison to these powerful machines.

Moreover, the steam knights had extremely strict physical requirements for the pilots, and the knights' armor was also very difficult to build. Therefore, for the Grand Dukes, this was a combat weapon that was destined to be phased out.

Clearly, this thing's mobility is inferior to that of powered armor, making it unsuitable for the mobile infiltration and rapid response tasks required by powered armor. It also makes too much noise, hindering covert infiltration missions like assassinations, thus making it a truly awkwardly positioned unit.

No wonder the dukes reached a consensus and decided to annihilate these poor steam knights without the slightest regret. They had no idea how much effort the Victorian monarchs had put into creating these steam knights…

In short, the dukes ultimately chose Theresis, who had just ended the Kazdel civil war and become the regent of Kazdel. As a result, in 1094, the elite of the Kazdel military council entered Londinium.

What Bai Ye saw before him was the ultimate fate of these steam knights.

He took off his hat.

Skadi, who was standing nearby, followed suit.

“Although I am not a Victorian, that does not stop me from showing my respect for these guys,” Bai Ye said softly. “Some people say that Kazimierz is the kingdom of knights, but most competitive knights have long forgotten the virtues and honor of knights.”

"But these steam knights showed us their will and honor. The so-called 'Bushido' of the East is the path of dying for oneself, while 'Chivalry' is the path of dying for others."

The armored figures around them remained silent.

However, Bai Ye frowned.

"Skadi, prepare your weapons," Bai Ye said softly, as if afraid of disturbing something in the darkness.

"??" Although Skadi's senses were sharp, she was still no match for White Night, who could control the storm.

However, she trusted Bai Ye's words completely.

"Bam—"

Skadi opened the "instrument box" behind her, took out her greatsword, and held it in her hand.

“We must act quickly. The royal palace of Lontinim is right above us. If we make too much noise, the Sarkaz will hear us and know we are coming.”

Bai Ye pointed to the pile of armor in front of them as he spoke:

"There are still survivors."

Yes, Bai Ye heard a faint breathing sound.

He simply couldn't believe that there were still living steam knights, yet he had no doubt about the sounds he heard.

"which one?"

Skadi was also somewhat bewildered. They had opened a door that had been sealed for four years, but now Bai Ye was telling her that there were still living people here.

That does seem a bit illogical.

However, Skadi trusted Bai Ye completely and believed everything he said. Therefore, she didn't dwell on why there were still living Steam Knights here.

All she wanted to know was which one.

"The one in the middle..." Bai Ye also took out a weapon from his inventory.

“We tried to knock him unconscious. I’ve never seen a living steam knight before. They shouldn’t die at our hands.”

As Bai Ye spoke, the "wind chime" in his hand began to shimmer, and a breeze gradually appeared, enveloping the sword blade.

Skadi nodded, raised her greatsword, and the two did not continue forward to search for the Victorian national sword "Breath of Kings," but instead cautiously approached the remains of the Steam Knight.

The vast space was utterly silent, save for Bai Ye's faint breathing...

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Hitting Someone in the Dark

The two were getting closer and closer to the steam knight.

Skadi then also realized that something was wrong.

"There really is the sound of breathing, and the knight is still alive!" Skadi's eyes widened. Even she was surprised by such vitality on land.

After all, in her mind, land dwellers were fragile and wouldn't have such tenacious vitality.

However, she couldn't confirm which steam knight was still alive, because four years had passed, and even if they were still alive, they would have entered a state similar to suspended animation.

“You on the left, I on the right, let’s knock this guy out and take him back. Otherwise, I’m afraid that if we encounter the Breath of the Kings, it will activate this thing.”

Without a doubt, the Steam Knight who has survived to this day clearly has his mission, and the only thing worth protecting here is probably the Victorian national sword, the Breath of Kings.

“Okay.” Skadi nodded.

"Control your strength, we're not planning to kill this poor guy..." Bai Ye was still a little worried, so he continued to remind him.

Skadi nodded again:

"I know."

The two exchanged a glance, and the next moment, they rushed out together...

Bai Ye slammed his sword into the head of the steam knight in the middle, making a sound that sounded rather painful.

The two were moving incredibly fast, and it was a complete "head-sucking" attack; few creatures on this land could react in time. Especially the Steam Knight, barely clinging to life in this space. He hadn't even fully awakened when Bai Ye delivered a devastating blow to the head!

Unfortunately, Skadi crashed into another hollow steam knight's armor, and with a loud roar, the armor collapsed.

The steam knight struck by the white night struggled shakily, seemingly preparing to rise.

……

"Titi, you hit the wrong one!" Bai Ye said, somewhat speechless. He sighed and pointed to the steam knight who had been knocked down beside him. Clearly, this wasn't the living one.

Skadi got the wrong target from the start...

"it is good!"

Skadi raised her greatsword again and slammed it down on the living Steam Knight in front of her.

"Bam—"

The attack was completely effective this time. The Steam Knight, who was still in a dazed state after being attacked twice, fell down.

He seemed rather pitiful; even Bai Ye felt he was a bit unlucky.

"Hopefully he won't have any morning grumpiness..." Bai Ye rolled his eyes, then stepped forward and pried open the visor on the steam knight's helmet.

Inside was a middle-aged man, pale-faced and emaciated. His eyes were tightly closed; he was practically skin and bones.

However, he has now fainted and will not be able to wake up for a while.

"Let's take him back... Luckily, the way we came doesn't seem too far. The two of us should be able to carry him back."

As Bai Ye spoke, he put all the steam knight armors on the ground into his inventory, and then buried the remaining bones on the spot.

Resting in the final resting place of the kings, forever accompanying and protecting the Victorian kings they guarded, and guarding this sacred place to them, is a fitting end for these steam knights.

However, Bai Ye wasn't willing to leave these steam knights' armor here; that would be too wasteful. The total value of all the items in Bai Ye's inventory was astronomical.

As for the unconscious Steam Knight, because there was a living person inside, this was the only knight armor that Bai Ye couldn't put in his inventory, since his inventory couldn't store living beings.

Moreover, it wasn't convenient for Bai Ye to simply pull the person out of the steam armor; his body and the armor were already fused together and couldn't be separated rashly.

There's definitely no way to separate him from his armor here; we'll have to take him back to the safe house first.

Therefore, Bai Ye and Skadi had no choice but to carry him back.

Of course, before that, Bai Ye still needed to obtain the purpose of this trip—the Breath of the Kings.

……

Skadi, meanwhile, was digging in the burial ground of the kings.

She wielded her greatsword, making a swinging motion, and dug a large hole in the ground where the kings rested. The greatsword easily pried open the floor tiles, broke the ground, and created a pit in the solid rock, burying all the remains inside.

As mentioned before, this is the final resting place for all the Steam Knights, and also the graveyard prepared for them by White Night. This is their final resting place.

While Skadi did all this, White Night continued walking forward.

This time, nothing will stand in his way.

The black building stood silently at the end of the underground space, its intricate and complex structure laid out within. It was hard to imagine that such a space could exist beneath the surface of this mobile city, above that foundational industrial level.

It was as if they had actually carved out a magnificent structure from beneath the ground.

The most brilliant minds of generations of Victorians gathered here, pouring their hearts and souls into constructing all of this, solely to house that sword. Few heroes could wield it to cleave natural disasters, so human ingenuity unfurled this shield against the storm. These structures, and indeed this building, were born from this purpose.

And so, what appeared before Bai Ye was this vast and boundless space. The floor tiles seemed to be paved with pure black marble. Because no one had set foot here for a long time, and because it was a relatively enclosed underground space, the floor was almost spotless, and the smooth surface was like a mirror.

"Those steam knights were actually quite successful... In the end, they still managed to maintain this sanctuary."

Of course, empires are never sacred, and in Bai Ye's eyes, Victoria was nothing more than a country on this land. He never felt any awe towards it.

So he walked briskly forward, passing through boulders, paving stones, and layers of building structures.

Finally, he saw the breath of the kings.

It stood there, upright in the center of the room, unguarded and unprotected, as ordinary as a small decoration in the whole building.

However, when Bai Ye approached it, he discovered that it wasn't actually small, or rather, it was forged for a much larger being. Of course, it wasn't large either.

It didn't look as special as the legends suggested; it wasn't huge, nor did it have any exaggerated decorations. It seemed to be just an ordinary sword.

Bai Ye gently grasped it.

Nothing happened.

“That’s all there is to it…” Bai Ye shook his head. “Perhaps, it’s a nice gift.”

Chapter Thirty: Nothing More Than That

Bai Ye emerged from the building with his sword and returned to the plaza where Skadi was still putting the finishing touches on.

She filled the large pit with all the corpses on the ground, and then stuck some of the steam knights' weapons into the mound.

An Agor, a stranger from another world, collects the corpses of a group of Sarkaz and Victorians beneath the royal palace in Londinium.

It must be said that this is quite ironic in Lentinium, a place where morality and social order have collapsed.

"white night!"

Skadi stopped what she was doing when she saw Bai Ye come out. Then she saw the longsword that Bai Ye was holding.

“This is…” the girl looked at it curiously.

"Yes, this is the breath of kings."

As Bai Ye spoke, he handed the longsword to Skadi:

"Look, there's nothing special about it. Compared to the legends, it's just so-so."

Skadi accepted the "Breath of Kings," waved it lightly, and then smiled:

"So light."

“That’s true, but it’s still quite sturdy and sharp. Although it can’t compare to the ‘wind chime’ that Miss Nian forged for me, it’s still much better than ordinary weapons,” Bai Ye said with a smile.

Skadi nodded:

"Ordinary weapons are not suitable for us; they cannot withstand our strength."