"The pathetic of not having power, you should know all too well. Do you want to taste the pain and powerlessness of the slave legion again? But now you're not a slave to the kingdom! Have you forgotten those days? Ten years have passed, and you still have not escaped the sad fate, but have just jumped from one whirlpool to another. Bashiles smiled and looked at Noel with those eyes as beautiful as amber.

"Who the hell are you・・・・・・ you?" Noel looked at the young man in front of him with an ugly face, as if he was struggling inside. He couldn't help but retreat, but was blocked by the cold railing behind him.

Why did the boy in front of him know his identity, Noel's brain was like chaos at this time, and fear and doubt were intertwined repeatedly.

But Bashils didn't care about Noel's expression, and said to himself, as if he was reminiscing, "Before the fall of New Rome, in addition to the First Knights of the Empire, which terrified the whole Balkans and Asia Minor, the Emperor of the Empire had another trump card in his hands, and they were vaguely called the "Slave Legions", and they secretly served the Empire, and even the upper echelons of the Empire were rarely aware of their existence. And the great Emperor Alexei I relied on them to destroy the once powerful Sultan of Rum. I'm right, former knight of the Slave Legion, Lord Noel. ”

And as Bashiles finished speaking, Noel's original look of fear gradually faded. He nodded stiffly.

Everyone is nostalgic for the empire's former prestige, but since the beginning of Justinian the Great, the empire has been in decline and darkness. On the surface, the country is so powerful, but the darkness under the light is even more unbearable.

The Balkans and Constantinople were royal pleasures, but the satrapies of Asia Minor and North Africa were oppressed, and Constantinople's huge expenses were sustained by the blood and sweat of slaves and peasants. However, the emperor was not satisfied with the blood and sweat of his people, and he sucked the bone even more.

The so-called slave legion is just like the literal sense, the so-called knights are just the children of lowly slaves, people are afraid of the strength of the mecha, but they don't know that there are pale and thin children underneath. Twelve-year-old boys were selected from slaves and peasants to be incorporated into the Varyagi Guard, which was once a royal janissary force of the Empire's Nordic mercenaries, but was dying out due to the use of thermal weapons and the creation of mechs.

They had been promised a bright future in the slums, but when they entered the so-called royal guards, they were waiting for them on a cold operating table.

Without even anesthesia, sharp scalpels and electric drills cut through flesh and skin, chiseled bones and transplanted the abominable machinery into their bodies.

Codenamed "Dragon's Jade Aopu", Neurosis is a term used by the Empire for the sake of secrecy, and before it was mastered, the Empire was even more bloody and cruel than the current Holy See and Kingdom.

It was through them, the "worthless" children of the Slave Legion, that the current data was obtained. The empire acquires neurological fit technology even darker, and in that country that advocates human rights, the strength of the state drowns out the darkness of the empire.

In the thick of bones, those who survived became the blade of the empire's foreign conquest and the most obedient war machine in the hands of the emperor. They are even more fearless than the mobile puppets under Ether's command.

Noel was one of them, he survived with great difficulty, and he continued to live with great difficulty. In the eyes of others, the knights are such a glorious existence, heroic and majestic, they are praised as the walls of the country. Seeing those magnificent and majestic mechs for the first time, they, these lowly slaves, also let out a cheer of surprise, they thought they could change their fate.

They were curious, they rejoiced, they hesitated, they feared, they panicked, they wept, and finally collapsed because they touched the truth - the collapse of the world, and they were powerless to struggle, but they could only watch each other being swallowed up by the mechs they once worshipped, and finally turned into puppets who could not speak.

They finally woke up from their dreams, and Noel and his companions tore at their bodies, bloodied all over their bodies, trying to pull the machinery behind them out of their bodies, but in vain.

There are two kinds of knights in this world, two titles, which can be the pass of the nobles, or the epitaph like Noel and them, and when the dream dissipates, they know that they are just cannon fodder for the superiors. Neurologically transplanted, they're nothing more than monsters in captivity.

"We're just a bunch of monsters fed by the Empire, or cannon fodder." Suddenly, Noel's furious eyes shot at Constance Dante like poisoned arrows.

"Obviously, the Knight King is a monster and cannon fodder like us, but he is bathed in the sun under the light and accepts the worship of the whole empire, while we live like rats in hopeless darkness. Wouldn't it be nice to have such an empire destroyed? I was so desperate that I didn't really live once until I met Her Highness the Princess, and I would help her clear out anything that tried to undermine her ideals, even if the obstacles saved me. ”

Suddenly, Noel's eyes were filled with coldness. He originally wanted to erase the Knight King from this world, ten years ago, he didn't do it, and now it's time to make amends.

"Ten years ago, I helped you open the gates of Constantinople, and you should know that your fate has never been your own." Bashiles's voice also dropped sharply to freezing.

“・・・・・・”

"Finally remembered?" Looking at the face that was gradually distorted by fear, Bashiles's face was full of mockery.

"With me, no one can kill him."

"It's you!" Noel suddenly shouted hysterically about the ignited barrel of explosives, and if it weren't for the fact that the test site was completely closed, the loud echo would have been enough to alarm the guards. Noel finally recognized, the figure of ten years ago, he changed everything, but in Noel's eyes, it was a game in which the devil's hand arbitrarily placed weights on the scales of fate.

"Who the hell are you?" Noel seemed to lose control, pulled out the short hammer hidden at his waist and pointed at Bashiles, who was now the biggest danger in his eyes. But is this person really that person? If it were true, it would be a great irony.

"The Hidden King, or I am—the shadow of the king." Bashiles didn't care about the short gun in front of him at all, and walked straight away, passing by Noel.

"If you still want to protect your Royal Highness, then don't see him as your enemy, it is not you who can save that girl in the end, but him."

・・・・・・