The Randalorion Kingdom is in flames.

Chaos and carnage have spread everywhere, and it shows no signs of stopping.

Within the first hour of the calamity, over ten million people perished. Now, after several hours of enduring this chaotic period, nearly thirty percent of the population has met their end.

The number will only grow as time passes.

Even with the dispatch of all the Royal Knights, this situation has only gotten a little better.

But what exactly can Royal Knights do to stop the tens of thousands of Cadre 2 Magivores, the thousands of Cadre 3 Magivores, the hundreds of Cadre 4 Magivores, and the near dozen Cadre 5 Magivores that currently roam the land?

Such a thing is impossible to resist!

The end has surely come for this Kingdom—that much is certain.

Calling this a greater version of the Royal Academy Incident is even an understatement.

After all, in that terrible event, the primary culprit was a single Cadre 4 Magivore called the Flesh-Blood Tree of Rot.

This time, there are hundreds of such things roaming the Kingdom—all of them on a rampage.

The sheer scale is incomparable!

Then, there are the ten or so Cadre 5 Magivores, three of which have already fallen.

One fell as a result of the random meteor.

One was killed by the efforts of Royal Knights thanks to the information they had at their disposal and the relatively weak defenses of the creature.

The last one appeared in the Mountain Range of the now-abandoned Lumian Town.

It was destroyed by two Leviathans of the Vey’lithar Race.

The remaining seven Cadre 5 Magivores still run amok in the Kingdom, tearing apart communities without a care in the world. Since these are walking calamities, whether or not they intend for this damage to occur is inconsequential.

Their mere presence alone evokes chaos, and every step they take causes destruction.

Due to the hopelessness of the situation, many have already given up hope. Others, the more stubborn or ignorant kind, try their best to fight.

Of course, most of them end up dying.

But, there are some... so determined and unable to resist the allure of chivalry... who continue to fight for the safety of the people and the future of the Kingdom.

These heroes are only in small numbers; however, in this chaos, they have shown themselves and fight. The most notable of them being The Silver Pact Five.

This coalition of heroes from five different races is quite famous in the central regions of the Continent, which is why one can only wonder what they are doing all the way in the Randalorion Kingdom during this tumultuous period.

Nevertheless, their presence in this chaos has truly been a blessing.

Their actions in this terrible period have reduced casualties by an astronomical amount. Merely calculating the number of people they have saved, the figure surely reaches the millions.

Still, even they cannot fully stop this calamity.

They can only help—and their actions are limited to the highly populated regions.

Just as is the standard practice in other Kingdoms, places of deep cultural and economic significance tend to be the most populated areas. Thus, without meaning to, these heroes have ended up protecting the Randalorion’s economic interests.

Of course, this isn’t their primary motivation.

They simply wish to rescue as many people as possible and reduce the total number of casualties that will be incurred in this wave.

The best way to achieve this is by focusing on relatively prosperous cities.

But... what about the outskirts?

Who will save them?

Even the Royal Knights completely disregarded those areas as lost causes.

Not only are the outskirts of the Kingdom, with the exception of the Border Town, sparsely inhabited, but they also hold very little economic value. Or, perhaps it is because they hold so little value that they are largely uninhabited and underdeveloped.

In these areas, people live in hamlets or little villages.

Many areas like this do not even have Lords who govern their land, making them completely defenseless against external aggressors.

What will such people do in this calamity?

What else can they do but die?

Yes...

Death is the only thing that awaits these poor, defenseless people.

If Brad’s people still lived in their precious village, they would have already been wiped out—although they would perhaps stand a bit of a chance thanks to their Magivore protectors.

But most villages do not have such a layer of protection.

Unable to rely on such luxuries, most of them can do nothing but simply die.

That was supposed to be the fate of this village as well.

A place known only as Zen Village.

As is the standard practice in most areas of the Randalorion Kingdom, and even the entirety of Eariel, commoners who dwell in a village usually take on the last name of that place.

This is so that they can be identified by the region they belong to, as well as the Lord who commands that territory. Commoners usually don’t use their surnames when interacting with each other, especially if they belong to the same town or village; however, they have to attach their surname when they travel or deal with outsiders.

This way, their actions—whether positive or negative—will reflect on the place they come from.

The villagers of Zen Village know of this practice.

Once or twice every year, they have to interact with traveling merchants and their caravans, so they have always stuck to addressing themselves with the name of their village when dealing with these outsiders.

However, quite a few changes occurred in Zen Village over the past few years.

For one, a stranger migrated to their land and started living with them.

He called himself Kelvar Cradle.

Apparently, after his mother’s death, he became a traveler just like the man he looked up to. He had a few fortuitous encounters on his journey, so when he finally arrived in Zen Village, seeing the wretched way these people were living, he decided to remain there.

Using his knowledge and the resources he had gathered over the years, he helped them in many ways. Apparently, his mother had died due to an illness.

During her sickness, he had learned about all kinds of illnesses and even a few Potion Recipes.

He shared this knowledge with the people and became the single most important person in the village, eventually rising to Village Head in no time.

Despite his young age, no one protested.

He was the most qualified.

Thanks to him, people no longer fell sick or died very easily due to ailments.

They also had access to Potions to energize them and fight against the wild beasts that constantly attacked their village. They could also easily heal from injuries thanks to the Grade 1 Potions that Kelvar had popularized.

He even had a few precious Grade 2 Potions at his disposal.

Only a few knew this, but he also possessed a precious Grade 3 Potion—something he secured during one of his fortuitous encounters.

With Kelvar Cradle leading Zen Village, the place developed rapidly over the years.

And so, being a frontier village, it began to resemble a place run by a Lord.

This naturally brought about its share of troubles.

—Marauders!

These bandits began to harass Zen Village due to its growing prosperity, causing it to once again experience tumultuous times.

Although Kelvar Cradle tried to help, he was no fighter.

His achievements mainly focused on medicine, agriculture, and all manner of productive work.

Then, when it seemed like all hope would be lost, something amazing happened!

Someone mysterious appeared and saved them.

A wandering hero... someone who believed in chivalry and upheld the virtues instilled into him by the man he looked up to the most.

He called himself Dustin... a follower of the way of Evernight.

This man, Dustin, came from a fallen Knight Family known as the Aditi Household, and had chosen to become a Knight of Justice after being saved by the Dark Knight called Evernight.

He was the one who protected the village from the marauders.

Dustin was a low-rank Knight, but after a year of sharpening his skills and experiencing all manner of hardships, he eventually developed his own Martial Technique.

He called it The Silent Night Martial Technique.

Apparently, he was inspired by the Dark Knight, Evernight, and his graceful but lethal, quick, and impossible movements.

This allowed him to reach the realm of Mid-Rank Knight!

With this power, Dustin traveled around the Randalorion Kingdom, helping all kinds of people in the process. He had a Cadre 2 Magivore steed, as well as a C Grade Armament granted to him by a noble lady he had saved during a terrible Beast Tide.

Whenever he speaks of her, he remembers her quite fondly.

She was one of the Final Year Students whom he rescued in the Royal Academy Excursion.

To thank him for fighting so desperately to save her life, she desperately sought him out through her family’s channels and personally handed him his steed and Armament.

It is thanks to these things, as well as the few donations and contributions from the local people, that Dustin Aditi has been able to survive thus far. In fact, believe it or not, he has become something of a local celebrity during the year and a half since he began his crusade.

Many have heard of the Knight draped in darkness who speaks of the one known as Evernight.

He has a scar that cuts across a portion of his face, with rugged brown hair and honey brown eyes. His rough beard is hardly ever shaved, yet it is never too unruly. He maintains himself with the discipline and air of a true Knight, performing chivalrous deeds, punishing wrongdoers, and saving those in need—just like the great Evernight.

They know of his signature weapon, the dark purple blade known as Nightfall. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

His graceful but hardened steed—the Raven Stallion—is painted like the deep, lightless night.

This is the Silent Knight of Darkness.

That is what they all call him... and he is the one who rescued Zen Village from calamity.

After driving away the marauders, he chose to stay in the village for a few days before departing for his next destination.

It was at this moment that chaos struck... and Zen Village was attacked by Magivores.

Among these terrifying creatures stood an impossibly large kind

Cadre 5 Noble Plant Type Magivore...

... Ironbloom Empress!