About the time I was picked up and adopted by Tallulah

"I'm here."

“——” “——!?”

The familiar voice stunned them both for a moment, and then the tightly closed iron door was suddenly slammed open by a strong force.

boom! !

The twisted rest notes circled and swirled continuously, while the master who controlled these rest note tentacles - the infected knight Orson - slowly approached the Noon Knight from behind the door.

"You, you...how did you find this place!?"

The Noon Knight questioned Orson with a distorted expression, and at the same time threw the scalpel in his hand at Orson.

Snapped!

Rest waved his hand and knocked the scalpel away, but Orson did not stop at all.

"Damn... Damn, you infected monster!"

The Noon Knight looked around and picked up the bone saw on the operating table, but before he could even get into position, he was once again twisted by the rest and crushed into pieces of iron.

Noon Knight tried to find another weapon, but Orson's arm was already stretched out.

“Ahem…!!?”

The slender arms burst out with incomprehensible strength. The Noon Knight didn't even have time to resist before he felt as if he was being clamped tightly by a pair of pliers. His vision was immediately oppressed and eroded by darkness.

Click!

A tentacle extended from the pause and cut off the shackles and chains on Maria's hands. Maria, who regained her freedom, looked at Orson and found that Orson's gaze at this time was something she had never seen before.

That look was even more serious than the one at the weapons store... a look that seemed ready to kill.

55. The choice of becoming a ‘knight’.

“Wait, wait a minute…!!”

In the basement, the man known as the 'Noon Knight' was clutching Orson's arm with a distorted expression, begging the terrifying and angry 'Infected Knight' in front of him to forgive him.

"If you want to beg for forgiveness, at least change the place. Do you think I will forgive you in front of these so-called 'works'?"

Orson responded indifferently. There was no trace of his usual gentleness in his eyes at this moment. Only bone-chilling coldness and terrifying silence remained.

“I… bastard, bastard, how on earth did you—cough cough!!”

When his plea for mercy failed, the Noon Knight immediately changed his attitude. He cursed Orson loudly and tried to attract the attention of the people outside in some way.

"I've looked up your information. While your resume suggests you're a decent guy, I'm curious because some obscure small newspapers regularly run gossip about your 'changing girlfriends,' and then these newspapers inexplicably disappear after a few issues. If you're just trying to cover up your playboy personality, you're going too far."

Boom! !

Orson slammed the Noon Knight to the ground. He had imagined some situations before he arrived, but the Noon Knight's actual actions still exceeded Orson's original expectations.

"Orson...!"

Maria, who was standing by, noticed Orson's abnormality. She called Orson's name softly, but she was also hesitant about whether she should stop Orson's actions.

"—I know, Maria."

Orson sighed and loosened his grip, and the Noon Knight finally took this opportunity to take a deep breath of air.

But before the Noon Knight could shake off the dizziness from lack of oxygen, a sharp pain suddenly pierced his limbs. Orson wrapped the chain tightly around the Noon Knight, pinning him down with a force that seemed to dig into his flesh. The Knight fell to the ground, writhing like a rag doll, his mouth stuffed with a bandage.

"..."

Orson didn't kill him, or rather, he hadn't killed the guy on the ground who was no longer a "human" yet.

"Are you okay, Maria?"

After confirming that the guy on the ground could not break free from the shackles, Orson walked to Maria, half-knelt beside her, stretched out his hands and gently hugged Maria who had not stopped trembling.

"I...I'm fine. Orson, why are you...here?"

Orson's body temperature and touch eased Maria's icy tremors a lot. She asked Orson in confusion why he was able to find and save her.

"I've never mentioned this before, but my Originium skill is actually 'Tune,' and one of its functions is to vaguely hear a person's inner melody. While the inner melody of that fellow called the Noon Knight is ordinary and noble, there's a certain dissonance hidden within that 'correctness.' Now that I see it, it's probably his own sense of the 'justification' of his killing that almost confused me."

Orson glanced at the unconscious Noon Knight beside him. If the other party had even a hint of fear about his killing behavior, he would be able to feel it more intuitively, but this guy almost deceived him.

"Melody... Is that why you showed up at his mansion that day, Orson?"

Maria roughly understood why Orson was wary of the Noon Knight from the beginning. She didn't notice anything unusual about the other party, but Orson sensed it.

"Almost, but it's just a suspicion. Before I looked up his information, I always thought he was just a jerk with a glamorous appearance but a foul mouth towards the infected. Until I found out about those small newspapers that were quickly suppressed - I think I might have made a big deal out of nothing, but judging by the results, I guess I wasn't a light bulb."

Orson made a joke, which earned Maria a familiar smile.

After returning from the Sangster family mansion a few days ago, although Orson was reluctant to do so, he still placed his own "positioning beacon" on Maria, and it was thanks to this beacon that he was able to find Maria in the first place today.

"That's roughly the situation. Next—it's time to talk about this guy, Maria."

Orson gently helped Maria up, being careful not to let her see the fixed corpse sculptures around her, and brought her to Sangster, who was whimpering and moaning.

"He is the now-famous 'Knight of Noon' and the legitimate heir to the ancient noble family of knights, the Sangsters. He is also the executioner who has murdered countless citizens of Casimir and remains at large."

"..."

Orson reached for the knight sword Red Queen at his waist, but after thinking about it, he put his hand down, picked up a scalpel instead and walked in front of the other party.

The Noon Knight tried desperately to dodge backwards, but he could only let Orson get closer.

"Killing him would allow him to face the trial he's been avoiding and prevent him from committing future crimes. However, the Sangster family won't let this go. They'll likely mobilize everything they have to find their enemy. The Linguang family currently has no means to resist, so this is a very risky option."

"Exposing him would allow us to learn more about the Sangster family's secrets, and to a certain extent, reveal the depth of corruption within Casimir. But he won't give up. The law might not punish him as he deserves. Even mobilizing the news media might not be effective, as the mainstream media is already under their control. This is also a very risky option."

Orson placed the scalpel against the Noon Knight's throat, whispered about the two choices, and then looked at Maria.

"Maria, the price of becoming a true knight is high. The choice you face now is just one of countless obstacles. What is your choice? Of course, if you decide to give up the choice and hand him over to me, that's fine too. I understand that you're not fully prepared to face the most corrupt darkness in this city."

Orson asked Maria quietly, while the young knight was in a trance and hesitant. The despair and fear he had just experienced were still flowing in his blood, and he wanted to escape from here immediately.

But Maria forced herself to stay where she was, and forced herself to look directly at the murderer whose true face she could not see.

"Uhhhhhh!!!"

The Noon Knight twisted his head and sobbed desperately.

——If it were my sister, what would she do...? If it were my grandfather, what would he do?

His goal was to become a [Knight], a [Knight] who could be recognized from the bottom of his heart by those knights who were once abandoned and those spectators who were paralyzed by the knightly competition.

And the most important point is that Maria doesn't want Orson to have blood on his hands because of her.

That being the case...

"...Let him go. We'll expose and report his crimes. Even if we can't put him in jail, at least we can get the Justice Department to strip the Sangster family of their title of Chief Knight."

After thinking about it, Maria made her own decision.

It might not be the best choice, but Orson breathed a sigh of relief after hearing Maria's answer. He didn't want Maria to choose the path of "killing that guy," because that path was destined to prevent her from becoming the "Knight" she envisioned.

Orson stood up and nodded, then took out his cell phone and contacted someone. After learning that he would be exposed and reported, the Noon Knight on the ground stopped flapping his legs and showed a calm expression.

"..."

Maria noticed the expression on Noon Knight's face, and in that moment, she wondered if she had made the wrong decision.

But before Maria had time to rethink, Ornn had already come close to her.

"Come on, Maria, there will be others here."

Orson held Maria's hand and pulled her to leave the damaged room.

"Um……"

Finally, Maria nodded. What happened today was too much for her to digest.

I originally thought he was a good knight, but he turned out to be an absolute madman and murderer.

The ancient knight family that was once thought to be full of glory had already become corrupt and decadent, abusing its power and even extending its power into the Supervisory Council.

Maria felt that everything had changed in an instant. All the "natural" things she had always believed in were torn apart in the cruelest way.

Maria once thought it was natural for a 'Knight' to protect others, and it was natural for a 'Knight Family' to abide by their motto and be fair and disciplined.

But... in the end, the only thing that 'naturally' remained unchanged was the little attendant knight who was in front of him and holding his hand.

"Maria, come to think of it, why did you hide this from me and my aunt? They're a prestigious knight family after all. There's no need to go it alone to gather intelligence, right?"

After leaving the basement, Orson asked Maria why she had wanted to conceal her contact with the Noon Knight.

After hearing Orson's question, Maria looked a little embarrassed and shy.

"I... am afraid that you, Orson, will misunderstand and become disgusted with me because of it, but, but I know this is all my wishful thinking, right?"

Maria looked away, her tone sounding somewhat self-deprecating.

——Anyway, Orson and Miss Tallulah are already in that kind of relationship, so I'm just worrying about nothing.

Maria thought so self-deprecatingly, but what she didn't expect was that after hearing her answer, Orson's expression was also a little embarrassed.

"I... well, actually, when I found out you were going to look for that guy, I did feel a little... unhappy? Well, I can't really describe how I felt at the time, but I was just a little irritated anyway."

Orson rubbed his hair and spoke haltingly, with a conflicted look on his face.

"—"

Maria was stunned when she noticed Orson's appearance.

"At least you're okay, Maria. What you experienced today is part of the infection and decay of Casimir the Knight. Perhaps in the future—Puff!?"

Before Orson finished his teachings, Maria suddenly threw herself into his arms. All the fear and worry she had just felt disappeared. The golden Pegasus just stuck to Orson with a happy expression on his face.

"Wait, wait a minute, Maria? Why are you suddenly rushing over here... Ugh, there are people around taking pictures with their phones!"

Orson was so panicked that he danced around, not knowing what to do. After all, in his impression, only Ino would pounce on him like this.

After booking the gossip headlines for the next day, Orson and Maria returned to the mansion.

"Um—I forgot to deal with the traces from the previous scene. Wait for me a moment, Maria, I'll be right back!"

Orson acted as if he had forgotten his cell phone. Although Maria was a little confused, she just nodded and signaled Orson to be careful.

"Already brought it? Okay, well, I'll be right there."

Orson answered the phone, his tone becoming low again, and he glanced at the Linguang Mansion behind him.

"Sorry, Maria. I'm going to be a liar for once."

--------

"Ugh! Damn it, be gentler!"

In a secluded room, the hood on the Noon Knight's head, who was tied to a chair, was removed. He immediately shook his head and cursed the people around him loudly.

"So, which newspaper is this? Let me be clear, don't try to be a hero. Just pretend you didn't see anything and let me go. This will be bad for both of you—"

"Sorry, this isn't a newspaper office. It's the Reunion Movement's base in Casimir."

“Eh, eh… Ehhhhhh!!??”

The Noon Knight, who had been so arrogant just a second ago, immediately let out a scream when he saw the figure walking in from behind the gate.

Unlike what he expected, the person who came into the room was not the lawyer he had bribed, nor the familiar newspaper owner, but Orson.

"You, why are you——"

"I asked Maria before whether to spare your life or kill you, right? Maria chose to spare your life then."

Orson laid out a tool kit on the table, which contained various props for 'peeling off certain parts of the human body with minimal damage'.

"Right...right! Didn't we already agree on this?!"

"I lied to you."

Orson smiled in response, taking out a pair of pliers and placing them gently on the Noon Knight's fingers.

“Wait, wait wait wait!!”

click!

“——%￥＃@＃!!?”

The pliers crushed the index finger and nail together, and the Noon Knight let out an incomprehensible roar.

"Your death was inevitable from the beginning. The only problem is that your death cannot be connected to 'Lin Guang'. So we have to point the clues to the Reunion Movement. Although I will definitely be scolded by Tallulah later...but this is my choice."