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Chapter 195: I Just Need to Become a Knight, Right?
When did he—?!
Loco's scalp prickled with alarm. She spun around, only to find the one man she actively wanted to avoid standing casually right behind her. Her eyes immediately darted to the black cloth draped over his hand, then down to her own bare wrist. Just as she suspected, the black cloth Suyan had tied around her wrist three days ago was gone, having slipped off completely unnoticed moments prior.
So that cloth really is a Dimension ÄRM capable of teleportation, Loco concluded silently.
She rubbed her temples, looking up at him with a mix of dread and annoyance. "Why are you here? Loco has not found Snow White yet."
She remembered his instructions perfectly: Take the cloth off when you find Snow White, or if you run into any life-threatening danger. Because she had correctly deduced the cloth was a teleportation beacon, she had guarded it carefully over the last three days, refusing to take it off even when she bathed.
"Little Loco is so cold and heartless," Suyan sighed dramatically. He leaned down, reaching out to playfully pinch her soft, chubby cheek. "I've been worried sick about you for the last three days! The moment I felt the cloth slip off your wrist, I assumed my precious little Loco was in mortal danger and rushed right over."
Loco swatted his hand away with a look of profound disgust. "Do not pinch Loco's face. And I told you, do not call me little Loco." She took a step back, crossing her arms. "Loco is not in danger, and Loco has not found Snow White. The cloth merely fell off by accident. Therefore, please leave."
"Kicking me out already? Little Loco really isn't cute at all," Suyan laughed. He respected her boundary regarding her cheeks, opting instead to rest his hand heavily on top of her blonde head and aggressively ruffle her hair. "But it's your lucky day! My schedule just opened up, so from this moment forward, I will personally handle little Loco's protection."
So annoying! Loco screamed internally.
Despite her intense internal complaining, having Suyan around undeniably made her feel significantly safer. With a monster like him acting as her bodyguard, the chances of her being forced to endure the agonizing backlash of her Cursed ÄRMs plummeted to near zero. But he was just so overbearing! He possessed the exact same catastrophic lack of boundaries as that psychotic woman, Chaton.
Why do I always attract these insufferable people?! Loco thought miserably, entirely devoid of ideas on how to deal with his overwhelming enthusiasm.
"Excuse me..."
Ian, having watched the bizarre exchange, narrowed his fox-like eyes suspiciously at the two of them. His gaze lingered critically on Suyan. Seeing that the man was completely devoid of the required Chess Pieces earring and the signature oil-paint mask, Ian's tone turned cold and interrogative. "Senior Loco, care to explain who this man is?"
He took a step forward, his hand hovering near his sleeve. "If my memory serves, the mission to capture Snow White is highly classified. Allowing an unidentified, unaffiliated man to casually tag along seems like a severe breach of protocol, doesn't it?"
"And you are?" Suyan finally shifted his attention to the pawn who had just spoken up.
"Chess Pieces, newly promoted Castle-class member, Ian," Ian introduced himself proudly, offering a predatory, warning smile. "I take it you're a friend of Senior Loco's, mister? Allow me to offer you a friendly piece of advice: we are the Chess Pieces. We aren't exactly known for our hospitality or our morals."
"Oh, so you're Ian!" Suyan clapped his hands together in sudden realization as he stared at the man's squinty eyes.
This wasn't a case of Loco mistakenly identifying Suyan as Ian from three days prior; Ian was simply a highly prominent supporting character in the MÄR storyline.
The members of the Chess Pieces generally fell into three distinct categories.
The first category consisted of natural-born psychopaths—sadists who reveled in destruction, thrived on slaughter, and used the war as an excuse to commit atrocities without consequence.
The second category consisted of people forced into the organization due to tragic, unavoidable circumstances. Essentially, people with miserable, heartbreaking backstories. This was arguably the largest and most complex demographic within the army, and several of the Zodiac Knights themselves fell into this category. Some managed to hold onto their humanity, while others completely broke under the trauma, mutating into monsters who inflicted their pain onto innocent people.
The third category consisted of pragmatists like Loco and Ian. Their motivations were incredibly simple and straightforward. Loco joined because the Chess Pieces were the apex predators of the continent, and standing behind them was the safest place to survive. Ian viewed the Chess Pieces less as a bloodthirsty army and more as a ruthless corporate ladder. He was an ambitious man who joined purely for the career advancement, seeking power and status to secure a better life.
If this squinty-eyed guy was Ian, then the cloaked soldier he was fiercely protecting was undoubtedly his girlfriend, Gido. According to the anime lore, after Ian was brutally defeated by Ginta later in the story, Gido would approach Snow White and voluntarily hand over a Holy ÄRM capable of rapidly healing injuries as a gesture of gratitude and surrender.
Ian's journey to eventually becoming one of the Zodiac Knights was a long, painful road paved with brutal defeats.
His first real humiliation would occur shortly after this very encounter, during their pursuit of Snow White. While Loco mostly slacked off, Ian did all the heavy lifting. During the climactic battle, an unawakened, magic-less Ginta would toss Babbo high into the air. Catching Ian completely off guard, Ginta commanded Babbo to expand to the size of a two-story house. Ginta used this suicidal, mutually assured destruction tactic to crush Ian flat and save Snow White.
Ian's second humiliating defeat would happen after he aggressively upgraded his weapon, modifying his twin Python Whips into a devastating eight-pronged octopus whip, desperate to reclaim his lost honor from Ginta. Unfortunately for Ian, he challenged Ginta precisely three days after the protagonist entered the Training Gate.
Fun fact: The Training Gate was a localized time-dilation Dimension ÄRM. It transported the user into an alternate dimension where time flowed thirty times faster than in the real world. The catch was that the user outside the gate had to constantly supply an immense, uninterrupted stream of magical energy to keep the portal anchored. If they stopped fueling the gate, or if they moved, the person inside would be permanently lost in the dimensional void.
When Ginta emerged from the Training Gate, his combat power had skyrocketed, rivaling that of a Bishop-class member. During their rematch, Ginta completely humiliated Ian, securing a flawless victory without even needing to use Babbo's strongest form, the Gargoyle.
Watching Ian get destroyed, Gido panicked. Attempting to secure a hostage to save her lover's life, she made the catastrophic mistake of attacking Ginta's seemingly weak sidekick, Jack. She was instantly, effortlessly defeated. Completely outmatched and desperate, Ian surrendered, offering his prized Holy ÄRM to heal their injuries in exchange for their lives.
However, mercy in the magical world came with a steep price. Upon returning to the Chess Pieces in disgrace, Ian was severely punished for acting without authorization. As a penalty, the sadistic Zodiac Knight, Chimera, abducted Gido and subjected her to horrific, agonizing biological experiments, mutating the poor girl into a grotesque, half-human, half-insect monster. Driven by guilt and a desperate need to save the woman he loved, Ian voluntarily entered the Chess Pieces' own nightmarish, lethal version of a Training Gate. He survived the hellish ordeal, emerged with Knight-class power, and brutally usurped the position of one of the current Knights. After a long, arduous journey, he eventually managed to rescue Gido, utilizing Babbo's Holy Guardian form, Alice, to purify the mutation and restore her humanity. They finally got their happy ending.
"Do you have a problem, sir?" Ian demanded. Seeing Suyan staring intensely at Gido, Ian's anxiety spiked. He quickly shifted to block Suyan's line of sight, puffing his chest out in a show of bravado to draw the man's attention back to himself.
"The woman hiding behind you," Suyan said casually, ignoring Ian's posturing entirely and pointing directly at the cloaked figure. "She's carrying a Holy ÄRM, isn't she?"
"You—!" Ian's heart nearly stopped.
He was horrified on two fronts. Firstly, this stranger had instantly seen through Gido's elaborate disguise, identifying her as a woman. Secondly, and far more terrifyingly, the man had effortlessly deduced that they possessed a Holy ÄRM—an artifact they had gone through hell to acquire and keep hidden. While Holy ÄRMs possessed absolutely zero offensive capabilities, their ability to heal catastrophic injuries made them the rarest, most highly coveted artifacts in the entire magical world.
Seeing Ian visibly pale and tense up, Suyan casually waved his hand. "Relax, fox-eyes. I have zero interest in fighting you or stealing your toys."
While Suyan never claimed to be a saint, he still possessed a basic moral compass. He didn't randomly assault innocent people, nor did he attack people who were just trying to survive. If he was going to rob someone of their ÄRMs, he was going to rob the actual villains.
An idea suddenly sparked in his mind. He nudged Loco playfully with his elbow. "Hey, little Loco. What would you say if I officially joined the Chess Pieces and became one of the Zodiac Knights?"
For his Paradise Project to succeed, he needed a massive stockpile of Guardian ÄRMs. But wandering around mugging random civilians was beneath him, and honestly, what kind of rare ÄRMs would peasants possess anyway? Aside from Dorothy's homeland of Caldia, the absolute largest concentration of rare, ultra-powerful ÄRMs on the planet belonged to the Chess Pieces.
Why waste time scrounging for scraps when he could just rob the entire villainous organization blind? It offered guaranteed high-tier drops, and he wouldn't feel a single shred of guilt doing it!
Wait, no. If he actively usurped a Zodiac Knight and took their seat at the table, he wouldn't be "robbing" the Chess Pieces. He would simply be collecting mandatory taxes! Protection fees! Tributes to their superior!
It was completely legal and totally justified! What? They didn't want to pay up? Are you kidding me? We're the evil, villainous Chess Pieces! Hand over the loot!
The more Suyan thought about it, the more flawless the plan seemed.
"Absolutely not!" Loco rejected the idea instantaneously, her voice devoid of any hesitation.
It wasn't that she doubted Suyan's raw strength; she had no doubt he could effortlessly butcher a Zodiac Knight and take their seat. What terrified her was the logistical nightmare of having him in the organization. Dealing with Chaton's erratic, psychotic behavior on a daily basis was already pushing her sanity to the breaking point. Adding Suyan to the mix? The idea of being sandwiched between those two lunatics made her future look pitch black.
Please, have mercy on Loco! she screamed internally. What did Loco ever do to deserve this?! Loco just wants to live quietly!
Suyan twirled a lock of her blonde hair around his finger, smiling brightly. "If I join the Chess Pieces, I'll be your direct superior! Shouldn't little Loco be jumping for joy?"
"Loco refuses." Just picturing a future where she was constantly caught in the crossfire between Suyan and Chaton sent a violent shudder down her spine. She shook her head back and forth so fast she looked like a rattle-drum.
"Objection overruled." Suyan reached out, firmly grabbing her spinning head with one hand to stop her from giving herself whiplash. He pinched her cheek affectionately. "It's decided. Once we rescue Snow White, I'll head over to the Chess Pieces' headquarters and claim my title as a Knight."
It's over. I'm doomed. To Loco, Suyan's cheerful declaration was the equivalent of a death sentence. The sky had officially fallen.
"A Knight? Don't make me laugh!" Ian scoffed, deeply offended that this random civilian was completely ignoring him and Gido to spout such arrogant, delusional nonsense.
As a member of the Chess Pieces, Ian hadn't participated in the First War Game six years ago, but he was acutely aware of what kind of unfathomable monsters occupied the thirteen seats of the Zodiac Knights. The sheer, suffocating density of the magic radiating from a true Knight was enough to paralyze a normal man with terror.
But the man standing before him? Aside from the clearly expensive, flashy jewelry decorating his fingers, he didn't project a single ounce of magical pressure or dangerous intent. He felt exactly like a completely ordinary, powerless civilian.
And this guy thought he could become a Zodiac Knight? What a joke!
As for Suyan instantly seeing through Gido's disguise and identifying the Holy ÄRM, Ian rationalized that the man must simply possess a rare, detection-type ÄRM. That would also perfectly explain why the man was acting so dismissive of Gido's Healing Angel; his detection ÄRM likely told him that the Healing Angel possessed zero combat utility.
Ian convinced himself of this logic. Driven partly by bruised ego and partly by a twisted sense of mercy, he decided to give this arrogant fool a harsh reality check before he actually marched up to a Knight and got himself slaughtered.
"Weapon ÄRM! Python Whip!"
Ian launched his ambush, throwing his hands forward. Two thick, heavy silver chains ending in vicious, snake-like heads erupted from his wide sleeves, shooting toward Suyan with lethal speed.
But in the very next second, Ian's smug confidence completely shattered.
Ian stared in absolute horror as the thoroughly ordinary, non-magical man casually raised a single hand and caught the dual snake-heads right out of the air, entirely unbothered by the momentum of the strike.
"How is that possible?!" Ian gasped, his squinted eyes blowing wide open in shock.
The man still wasn't radiating a single ounce of magical power, yet he had effortlessly, flawlessly caught an attack that even seasoned Castle-class veterans would struggle to deflect!
"Your name is Ian, right?" Suyan glanced at the thrashing metallic snake heads trapped in his grip, then shifted his dark, penetrating gaze back to Ian. "I'll give you a piece of advice."
"Never underestimate your opponent. Even if they appear vastly weaker than you, arrogance is the easiest way to end up dead in a ditch." Suyan was directly referencing the exact flaw that would lead to Ian's humiliating defeat against Ginta in the original timeline.
Suyan paused, casting a deliberate, meaningful glance at Gido, who was trembling behind Ian. Suyan casually opened his hand, releasing the Python Whips and allowing them to retract into Ian's sleeves. "Since you look so stressed out, I'll throw in one more piece of advice for free."
Suyan smiled, though the warmth didn't quite reach his eyes. "Having ambition isn't a bad thing. But you need to accurately measure your own capabilities. Rather than blindly chasing power and status that far exceed your actual strength, you should cherish the people standing right in front of you. Because if you push too far and lose them... all the regret in the world won't bring them back."
What is the meaning of this? Ian slowly retracted his ÄRM, his hands shaking slightly as he tucked them back into his sleeves. He stared at Suyan, completely baffled by the cryptic warning.
Is this a threat? he muttered internally.
The man called it advice, but to Ian, it felt like a blatant, terrifying ultimatum. 'Cherish the people standing in front of you'? Ian didn't need a stranger to tell him to protect Gido! No, the underlying message was brutally clear: If you dare attack me again, I will bypass you entirely and slaughter the woman cowering behind your back.
That was a line Ian absolutely could not cross. His fatal weakness had been completely exposed and ruthlessly leveraged. Defeated, Ian fell entirely silent, not daring to make another move.
"Take it as advice, or take it as a threat. It doesn't matter to me," Suyan waved his hand dismissively, completely unbothered by whatever conclusions Ian was drawing in his head. "I just said what was on my mind. How you choose to interpret it is entirely up to you."
Having successfully cowed the ambitious pawn, Suyan turned his back on Ian and focused entirely on Loco. "Now then, little Loco. Give me a status report. Have you found Snow White yet?"
He offered her a dramatic, theatrical bow. "Because Big Brother Suyan is absolutely dying of anticipation to play the role of the handsome prince and awaken the sleeping princess with a kiss of true love."
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