Kazimierz is a place where the entire country goes wild for knights. The roar of the arena, the flood of sponsorship money, the cheers of the fans... Beneath those dazzling lights, knights become stars by striking one another down.
But there are places that light never reaches. Because they carry Oripathy, Infected knights bleed in underground arenas just to scrape together a single knight's title.
This is the story of the people caught between that light and shadow. People who, each in their own place, keep asking themselves, "What am I really fighting for?"
She founded a knightly order made up entirely of the Infected
Sona is the Knight of the Flame Tail. She's a Zalak Infected, an optimist who's always giggling and acting laid-back. But beneath that smile lies a rock-hard resolve.
Just before a battle royale in the underground arena, Sona quietly extends a hand to an Infected knight she's never met before β to secretly form a team. Not to win, she says, but "because I don't want to let anyone else win." In a melee, if someone survives, someone else has to die.
Winning or losing doesn't matter β but if someone survives... it means someone else has to die, doesn't it?
β Sona
The one who took her hand was Greynutty, the Knight of the Grey Brush Tail. A Zalak who holds grudges and comes off gruff, but is honest at heart. And so the two became a duo.
And then they gather Infected knights and found a knightly order. Its name: Pinus Sylvestris. Unlike other orders out to make money, it's about the Infected helping one another.
They pour every bit of their knightly prize money into hiding and feeding ordinary Infected who have nowhere to go, tucked away in the darkest corners of the Grand Knight Territory. But the more they do so, the tighter the Armorless Union β the ones who dispose of knights in the dark β closes in.
Better to be fertilizer for a new sprout than a rotting old tree, she said
Greynutty was originally of the Kaliska family β a knightly house once renowned for forestry in the south.
When she was little, her grandmother placed a cannonlance in her hands and taught her: "The cannons roar, and victory is at hand." Her grandmother, who'd said she would rather become fertilizer for a new sprout than rot away, called Greynutty the family's fine new sprout.
But once she was infected, that same family cast her out by unanimous vote. Knowing full well it had nothing to do with the disease, they pinned the whole decline of the house on her. The only one who took her side that day, they say, was Sona.
In the arena, Greynutty faces Ingra, the 'Knight of Rusted Copper' β a butcher who calls the Infected trash and jabs only at their sore spots. Greynutty puts on an act of being enraged, drags the fight into a long game, and utterly crushes his arrogance.
Then she trains her muzzle on the fallen Ingra... and quietly fires her last shot into the sky.
This shot I dedicate to the audience. You aren't worthy of it.
β Greynutty
She'll bet her life for three days' worth of meals, apparently
Iwona is the Knight of the Rough Mane. Loud-mouthed and battle-crazed, she's a simple soul who'll do anything as long as her belly is full. She once aimed to become an expeditionary knight β a bereaved survivor of the Ursus war who lost her whole family to it.
Iwona had been held by the Commerce Union, and Sona and Greynutty secretly paid her bail to get her out. Iwona, none the wiser, joins up lightly, saying, "Give me three days' meal money and repair costs for my weapon, and I'll put my life on the line."
But later, learning the truth and not wanting to be in their debt, she chases after the two. Along the way, she sees Sona shielding an Infected child from hunters with her own body.
In that moment Iwona grins and says: why turn her down? She's damn cool.
The truth is, Iwona's compound lance has never once broken in the arena. Because she never truly intended to take anyone's life.
She promised to return home once she became a knight
Justyna is the Knight of the Fang, a taciturn sniper. She only ever says half of what she means β a country girl who used to play a grass whistle.
She left after promising the folks back home she'd return in glory, but on the road to the Grand Knight Territory she ended up infected. Refused knight registration for being Infected, she wandered for three weeks and barely scraped together the registration fee through black-market matches.
After joining Pinus Sylvestris, Justyna smuggles the wounded 'Knight of Plastic' out of the hospital β even though the two don't even like each other. Because he has a home to return to, and a son waiting for him.
Justyna has none of that. The knight Justyna has a hometown, but the Infected Justyna has nowhere to go.
I won't make any sound but the melody of a grass whistle. Because I want to keep Justyna as she was β a pure, ordinary girl who simply dreams of becoming a knight.
β Justyna
The Knight of Light returned, breaking through the arena wall
And then a star long absent returns to Kazimierz. Margaret Nearl, the Knight of Light.
The moment she's back, she crosses blades with her uncle, MΕynar. The Nearl family motto is "Fear neither hardship nor darkness." Yet her uncle is a man who gave up glory long ago and threw himself away as an ordinary company man.
Her younger sister Maria offers to hand over her own points for her sister's sake. She admits she never wanted to be a knight β she only wishes for this house to still be their home.
Even so, Margaret decides to enter the tournament again β even if no one understands the choice. Because light isn't about driving out the darkness; it's about lighting a new path for those who've lost their way.
Even if this is what Kazimierz has become, so long as we don't lose our faith, that too is something meaningful.
β Margaret
He just happened to be there, and yet he became a big shot
Malkiewicz was, until yesterday, an ordinary employee fretting over his rent. He was a nameless liaison who connected Infected knights to knightly orders.
But on the whim of some big shot, he gets a single phone call and overnight becomes the Commerce Union's spokesman β a 'big shot' who wears a tailored suit, carries an invitation, and walks into the press conference.
He himself insists that no matter how he looks at it, the outfit doesn't suit him, but the people around him already see him as a big shot β regardless of what he thinks. Malkiewicz, who couldn't take off the suit even when liquor spilled on it, finally mutters this:
By now... somehow it seems I can no longer take this suit off.
β Malkiewicz
She dreamed of knights, and ended up a Knight Killer
The last story belongs to an archer whose future once looked bright. A good shot, pretty of face, obedient to company policy β a promising talent about to receive her knight's title.
But with match-fixing, baseless scandals, and schedules changed at whim, she'd already grown sick of being a knight. At least a commodity is done with once it's sold β so what is she, she wondered.
Then she gets a phone call β pass a simple 'test' and she'll be given a better job. The test was to snipe a past opponent, and she pulls the trigger. And so she becomes a member of the Armorless Union.
Not long after, the wavering previous 'Platinum' dies trying to protect a target. Lazurite presses the badge into her hand and says: you be Platinum.
She silently disposes of one of the directors and looks out at the Grand Knight Territory beyond the window β realizing that even the directors are replaceable puppets, and that an unseen hand keeps stacking up the towering spire that is Kazimierz.
I want... to rest......
β Platinum
So then, whose light is it for?
The grinning optimist, the exiled noble, the starving warrior, the taciturn girl, the returned star, the accidental big shot, the weary killer... all of them are caught in the same machine of the same city.
And that machine hasn't stopped yet. Even the Infected hideout Sona tried so hard to protect is discovered, and the story halts right in the middle of it all.
The arena lights won't go out today either. And beneath that dazzling glow, people are still asking: this light β just who is it for?