Others Summon Dragons, I Summon Legendary Knights

Chapter 513: You Have Wronged Me

Nathan watched it all. He looked at Bella and frowned. She had brown, curly hair just like him. Usually vibrant, she was pale now, her breaths sharp and shallow as she stared at Chu Ran.

Her grip around his wrist hurt him.

Nathan acted like he couldn’t feel it. His sister, Bella, was a Humanoid Summoner, but their parents made sure she was kept away from the public. She had her own private teacher, and only those they trusted were permitted around her.

"They won’t do that to you. You will get a Class I cuff," he said, smiling warmly.

Bella looked at him and leaned on his shoulder. Caressing the twelve-year-old girl’s hair, Nathan exhaled. She was the summoner, while he was nothing more than a normal human. Yet she looked at him as though he could protect her.

With the other hand, he opened his phone, clicking on the camera. A part of him wanted to record this, but another warned him against it.

His eyes flicked from one agent to another. Taking a deep breath, he darkened the screen, slipping it back into his pocket.

He should not have brought his sister to China. The vacation was a disaster. When she had her cuffs, they would return to Canada immediately. She was safer with their parents and in a country where they knew people and had a bit of influence.

"Let me go!"

Chu Ran’s scream made him lift up his head. The pitiful girl was crying? Was it because she couldn’t bear losing connection to her summon? Or her class had a high number.

’She doesn’t look like someone capable of intentional harm.’

"Help me!"

Nathan lowered his head. What were they going to do to her? There had to be something going on here, something so bad that the girl cried out desperately.

He wanted to stand up and ask what was happening but couldn’t. ’I thought I was bold.’

After a minute of hesitation, Nathan brought out his phone once more and started a livestream. He made sure the agents wouldn’t know.

They could trace him afterward, but as far as he knew, they never said people weren’t allowed to record. If enough people were watching, the authorities would think twice before doing anything drastic to him.

Bella noticed his actions. Her eyes widened as she stared at him.

***

With tear-stained cheeks, Chu Ran sat across a woman at a desk. She was on the third floor.

The seven-foot-tall agent grabbed a cuff from the table. Chu Ran was able to see the number etched into it.

’Class V.’ She was confused. Class 0 were recorded as harmless; they were snakes that had been defanged. Class I was simply classified as Registered. They weren’t considered a threat since they could get respectable jobs. They had freedom, although they would have to bear the stigma of being a Humanoid Summoner in those positions.

Class II were recorded as Restricted. Their record wasn’t really clean, they were under the Directorate’s close watch. And they lacked the professional freedom Class I had.

It got worse from Class III. The category that doomed her. A class meant for threats to the authorities. Both potential and registered ones.

Class IV were leagues ahead of the others. Devils. Only a handful of names were on it, people who had directly or indirectly caused the deaths of at least a thousand others.

Cain was at the top of this list. Most of the names on the list were dead Fanatics who nearly broke a nation. At the bottom of that list was the Golden Devil.

But what was Class V?

The agent fastened the cuff around her wrist and stepped away. Chu Ran stared at the number etched into the metal.

"Your class identification is Noble," said the woman seated across. Her silver buttons glittered under the bright light.

"Noble? What does that mean?"

"It’s for those who are contributing immensely to the growth of the world. To ensure we bring back true democracy," the woman replied.

"You’re taking a big risk. Morningstar might be my summon, but I don’t own her," Chu Ran said.

"Oh? Who then?"

"Godfrey."

The agent’s fake smile withered before she quickly replaced it with a composed one. "I see." She began to type on a keyboard while looking at the monitor.

"We’ll be sending you to Alcatraz. You’ll still be able to speak to your family."

"Humanoid summons are people," Chu Ran said. "Why are you doing this to them?"

"These people have killed and eaten the summons of three people I’ve known for years," said the seven-foot-tall agent.

Chu Ran could almost feel his strong gaze behind her.

"You and your kind are the disease that came with mana. The audacity to kill a member of the Seven Heads Council on live broadcast. There’s no doubt he’s behind the death of the former Mr. Manhattan. If two of the world’s most powerful people can be killed, what about the rest of us? What law is supposed to keep us safe from soul-eating freaks walking among us?!" he added, looming behind her.

"Tch." Chu Ran clicked her tongue.

"What did you say?!"

"That’s enough," the woman said. "Wang Churan, watch your mouth. These agents on the field have been scarred enough. You might not be dangerous now, but we’ve seen how dark it can be to face a Humanoid Summoner with predatory instinct."

’I’ll see how you like it in Alcatraz.’

A sudden commotion erupted below. The agent turned toward the mezzanine as people began moving in that direction.

Nathan looked back, curious about what had drawn everyone’s attention.

Nathan’s jaw dropped as he stared at the three figures standing in the doorway.

Their entrance made his heart thump hard. A pitch-black armoured being stepped in, a hand resting on the hilt of his sword.

Behind him were two massive golden knights. They had to tilt their heads to move through the door. The sight of a fourteen-foot and a twelve-foot-tall knight shocked not just the Humanoid Summoners but the agents as well.

Who would dare approach them? These knights were twice their height and many times their weight class.

Yet, they possessed such surreal nimbleness that they seemed almost like illusions. He was seeing things.

Summons couldn’t enter this building.

Ahead of them was the Unknown King. His steps were light. Though the knights towered over him, their presence vanished the moment anyone looked at him.

"It’s the Golden Devil." Whispers exploded. Nathan’s camera was already on them. Godfrey had actually sent his summons here. How were they able to move in a mana-dead zone? This pitch-black knight had to be his most recent summon.

At the heart of the grand hall, the Unknown King looked up. Lots of agents gathered on the mezzanines.

He lowered his gaze, staring at the people. Hundreds of men and women on the ground floor. A good number of them wore cuffs. The sight of it was revolting.

These men, women, and children on the ground floor carried Humanoid lifeforms within them. They were living for the second time – a chance granted after death. A second chance.

But there was this oppressive air swirling around them; their postures were stiff. Their movements were restrained, like they’d learned to make themselves smaller.

Above them were men with beasts within them. It was no longer strange to him. He had lived like this, suffered like them; he had suffered a lifelong scar like many of them had and would.

The entire structure was engulfed in a soundless void. But a man broke it. A seven-foot-tall agent.

"Your summoner must have found a way to bring you here permanently. Where is he?" He descended, holding a pistol.

Even if these were summons, without mana they couldn’t be as powerful as they appeared to be. None of them should be able to use their skills.

He had sent a signal. Soon, this place would be surrounded. They’ve got a God Killer ready.

These three would come down first, then it would be their summoner. There would be nowhere for him to hide.

Abaddon pulled his tomahawk. To him, it was little more than a short throwing axe. To a man of normal height, however, it was almost the equivalent of a double-bit axe.

The agent pointed the gun at Abaddon. He paused at the end of the staircase to the ground floor. That armour was nothing more than thick steel without mana.

His bullet couldn’t pierce through it. He would have to aim for the eyeholes.

The Unknown King made a gesture and Abaddon obediently lowered his tomahawk.

"Godfrey Daniels! Come out!" The agent bellowed.

"He is not here." The Unknown King finally spoke.

That was Godfrey’s voice. A cold shiver ran down the agent’s spine.

Nathan gulped.

The Unknown King lifted his head to the third mezzanine. "I see you. Come."

Agents cleared the path for Chu Ran. No one dared stop her. They were all powerless here, and these knights, even without mana, had monstrous strength.

The seven-foot-tall agent held Chu Ran’s wrist, staring into her eyes. "You’ll lose whatever privilege you have right now. Leave with this criminal and you will be treated like a criminal. The worst kind."

Chu Ran pulled her arm. Reluctantly, the agent let go. "Bad choice."

Chu Ran’s hurried steps slowed the closer she came to the Unknown King.

"God... Frey?" She said, doubtful.

The Unknown King didn’t respond. He lifted his head to the Beast Summoners in their uniforms. They stood like the elites; the rightful owners of this world. Even if they didn’t say it, he knew it.

Yes, he could feel it now. That madness of his old self, the anger, the rage. So much wrong. He could feel the essence of his general running through the agent. They harvested his people like men harvested parts from beasts.

"I..." He said, pausing. "I have nothing to call myself. So call me with whatever you wish. A devil? An angel? Name me as the worst man to ever live, but it is not I who have wronged you."

The Unknown King marched past Chu Ran. When the seven-foot agent saw him coming, he fired several times, but those bullets bounced off his helmet.

"I am a representative of the Seven Heads Directorate. If you harm me, then you’ve started a war!"

With his gun empty, the agent threw a desperate punch. His self-defence instincts kicked in. The Unknown King took the blow to his face. Metal rang, followed by the agent’s pained grunt.

His turn. He drew his sword and sank it deep into the agent’s chest. Then, he pulled it and cleaved the agent into two before he fell.

"I might have no name, but I have an identity," he declared. "I am a king, and you have wronged me."

Shocked gasps spread throughout the hall. Agents stared at him with wide eyes. Many were afraid; some were filled with hate.

"You sit here bearing brands of inferiority! You are all of the same origin, of the same world. Your blood is no different, nor will your children’s be." He looked at the Humanoid Summoners.

"As you bear these marks, know this. Your generations may never escape them. Your descendants will remember these marks. They will remember who placed them upon you and who allowed them to remain," he said.

"Your power is still within your grasp. Your identity is moments from being stripped away." He sheathed the sword.

"How can men gather to be branded by their fellow man? Have you lost your mind? Have you no more knowledge of what you are?!"

The Unknown King stood there in the silence as his heart pounded vigorously. There were emotions locked up inside of him. Emotions he never knew about. That dam was broken, and it could not be rebuilt.

"Stand up!"

Humanoid Summoners rose to their feet one after the other. One row after another, until everyone on the ground floor was standing.

"Remove those things from your wrists."

The sound of metal hitting stone echoed as cuffs dropped on the tiled floor.

"Pick it up. Put them back and serve your masters like the dog they want you to be."

No one bent. The cuffs remained scattered on the floor.

He moved around a small circle in the heart of the hall. "You will have to die or be held down by three times your number before those cuffs are bound to your wrists. Even then, they may conquer the flesh but never the mind."

"Remove the chains from your mind. Look up at those men above you, for you are both men. They are willing to take your pride..."

His golden eyes swept across the mezzanines.

"Take it back."