A Knight's Journey Begins in Faiz

When Jiang Yang met Cao Jia, he was wearing a school uniform and gave off a gentle and refined impression.

To be fair, Qie is still handsome, if you ignore his complicated personality.

"Are you Jiang Yang?"

"It's me. Nice to meet you."

Jiang Yang, speaking these words, was like a human being, unable to help it. He wasn't actually that happy about getting to know Kusaka, but out of politeness...

"What is your purpose?"

"Hey, everyone, whether it's Masuda-sensei or you, immediately asks me what my purpose is. Is this some kind of tradition of Meteor Academy?"

"Mr. Masuda, what did you do to them?"

Kusaka, with her preconceived notions, already viewed Jiang Yang as an enemy, and this prejudice caused problems even during their conversations.

"Nothing much. They told me I could find you here. Don't worry, I'm not your enemy. I've never died before."

Jiang Yang meant that he was still alive and not an Orphnoch. But Cao Jia did not let go of his hostility because of this.

"You don't need to be hostile towards me. I've already said we're not enemies. I just want to make a deal with you."

As Jiang Yang spoke, he shook the briefcase in his hand.

Although Kusaka didn't know what was in the briefcase, he guessed that the so-called transaction was related to what was inside.

"Speak somewhere else."

We moved to a less crowded place.

"To be frank, I do know a lot of things, which is why I came to you. I can give you what you want."

As Jiang Yang spoke, he opened the briefcase, revealing the Caesar belt inside.

"This is?"

“Caesar, with this belt, you will have the power to fight the Orphnoch. This is what you want, isn’t it?”

Upon hearing this, Kusaka's eyes lit up. He had been waiting for this day for far too long—a power capable of dealing with Orphnoch.

"what do you need?"

"It's simple. I need you to master the power of the belt, and then one day in the future, I'll kill a few Orphnochs with you."

Kusaka Masato looked on incredulously, as if to say, "That's it? He just killed an Orphnoch?"

"Of course, this is no ordinary Orphnoch. You alone cannot win. Even with me, it's not enough. Without gathering all available forces, our chances of winning are very low."

So, who exactly is the target?

"We have several goals, but strictly speaking, we only have one ultimate goal: the King of Orphnoch."

"Hey, what do you mean by that? What do you mean by 'King of Orphnoch'?"

"Literally, in the near future, the King of Orphnoch will descend, and if we cannot destroy him, then the history of humankind will come to an end."

“What a joke, I will kill all the Orphnochs.”

As he spoke, Kusa reached out to grab the belt.

"Wait, there's one more thing."

"what?"

"This belt has severe side effects; everyone who has used it has ultimately met their demise. Once you accept this belt, it means your life is on a countdown. Even so, will you continue with your current choice?"

Cao Jia didn't speak; he showed Jiang Yang his answer through his actions.

He took the belt.

"As expected. Now that you've made your choice, remember this: every time you transform, your lifespan will be reduced imperceptibly until death comes."

"How much longer can I live with this belt?"

"It's hard to say. Others who used the belt only transformed once before dying. It's not impossible that you will be the same."

"It's ok."

"Alright, then I won't bother you any longer. Here's the belt. Don't forget our deal. If the target we're supposed to kill appears, I'll call you."

It seems that Jiang Yang's words about killing King Orphnoch made Cao Jia consider Jiang Yang one of his own, and his attitude towards Jiang Yang became much warmer than at the beginning.

This is how it is with Qie: once he decides that the other person is neither someone he would like nor someone he would like, his attitude will become quite hostile.

Conversely, even if he considers the other party to be an ally, he won't open his heart to them. To put it bluntly, he only trusts himself the most.

As for why it's called eggplant, isn't it just eggplant?

Okay, it was a joke that wasn't too big or too small.

At least Jiang Yang, who has clearly expressed his stance, is on Cao Jia's side, so his favorability rating should be much higher.

The next question is how to minimize the trouble caused by the grass, especially regarding the clever ones.

The personality differences between Takumi and Soga mean that Soga could never like Takumi, not to mention that Mari always acts with Takumi, which is even more unbearable for Soga.

To be honest, Jiang Yang couldn't resolve the conflict between them, and even if he wanted to nip it in the bud, he couldn't.

Unless the two never meet.

However, just think about it; that's impossible.

His only scheduled activity for today was meeting with Soga; he had no other plans for the rest of the time. He planned to try to get some more help from Orphino.

The progress is getting a bit slow, and he's worried that if this continues, he won't be able to catch up before the final battle.

He's in a hurry to speed up the progress for two reasons. First, once the progress is full, he can unlock time travel, which is like having an extra trump card for survival. Second, increasing the progress will grant him lottery tickets, allowing him to gain more power.

Although it now has the ixa belt, the burst mode of ixa can barely be considered to have both good stats and mechanics in the world of Faiz.

But that's still not enough. He lacks decisive power. One of the reasons he's now trying to win over knights one by one and persuade them is that he himself is not strong enough.

If he were strong enough, he could clear the entire dungeon by himself.

"Wait, am I... craving power?"

I crave greater power, but I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

Jiang Yang shook his head.

History tells us that unity is strength, and we cannot engage in individual heroism.

Unless an individual's strength has reached a level that even a group gathering would find difficult to achieve.

But to be honest, Jiang Yang didn't really want to possess the strongest power.

A certain level of power is enough. Knowing that there are always higher levels out there, he can still maintain his composure. But if he ever becomes the strongest one day, frankly, he's not confident that he might lose his way.

It might really become a re-release of "I Don't Eat Beef" tokusatsu world.

Therefore, before his mindset truly matured, Jiang Yang did not want to possess too much power.

Of course, if you actually get drawn, there's nothing you can do about it, that's how it is.

On the way, Jiang Yang received a call from Qi Taro, who said that he had another request.

The gist of the matter is that recently, many households have experienced burglaries. The suspect sneaks into homes when no one is home and then steals food from the refrigerator.

After finishing the meal, they cleaned the house spotless.

Jiang Yang exclaimed: Huh? There's such a good thing?

For Jiang Yang, whose refrigerator always contains only a few bottles of the same flavored carbonated soda, exchanging a few bottles of water for a spotlessly clean house is a huge win.

"Wait, something seems wrong."

The burglar who broke into the house—I think there's a plot point like that; he was apparently an Orphnoch who didn't want to harm humans.

No, to be precise, it's that they dared not harm humans.