Chapter 89: Commander, Can This Black Armor Be Changed to Pink?

The iron-shod hooves of the Skeleton Warhorse clopped against the gravel-strewn ground, a crisp, rhythmic beat in the otherwise silent landscape. Yet, the sound carried an indescribable eeriness. It didn’t echo or travel; instead, it seemed to be utterly swallowed by the mist-shrouded plain the very moment it was made.

The world around them was deathly still.

This squad of “Death Knights,” led by a stunning elven commander, guided Celeste and her three companions out of the canyon that had just borne witness to such an outrageous battle.

Upon exiting the narrow pass, the view suddenly opened into a vast, boundless plain veiled in a thin layer of fog. In the distance, the silhouette of a massive forest undulated within the mist, like a colossal beast crouching in slumber, its breaths silent and deep. The air carried the fresh scent of damp earth and living plants, but it was laced with a bone-deep chill that belonged only to the grave.

Celeste and her group trailed behind the procession, maintaining a respectful distance from the silent Apprentice Knights. The atmosphere was so heavy, so oppressive, it felt difficult to breathe.

Eldara, their escort’s commander, said nothing. Her perfectly upright silhouette was a barrier in itself, a wall of cold steel and colder resolve that seemed to isolate them from the rest of the world. The knights following her were less like soldiers and more like mobile steel sculptures, their movements economical and precise, with no wasted motion beyond the simple act of.

For someone with a personality as lively as Selene’s, this suffocating silence was practically a form of torture. She opened her mouth several times, desperate to say something—anything—only to be silenced by a sharp, warning glare from Su Wan.

‘Poor kid, she’s going to pop a blood vessel if she holds it in any longer,’Celeste mused, clicking her tongue internally.’Su Wan’s death glare is more effective than any spell.’

Celeste, however, had no such concerns.

She urged her mount forward, quickening her pace until she was riding alongside Eldara’s Skeleton Warhorse. Her face was a mask of pure, academic curiosity.

“Commander Eldara.”

Her voice, clear and bright, sliced through the dead silence.

“Regarding your Order, I have a purely academic question. I was wondering if it would be convenient for you to answer?”

Eldara’s gaze remained fixed on the path ahead. The gauntleted index finger of her left hand tapped lightly on the complex metal carving of her saddle horn, as if she had long anticipated that someone would eventually break the silence.

“Speak,” a single, cold word drifted over.

“Well, it’s like this…” Celeste chose her words carefully, deciding that directness would be the best way to appear sincere. “Your Order calls itself the ‘Silent Watch,’which sounds like an official organization of the Elven Royal Court. However, your profession as’Death Knights,’ not to mention your armor and mounts, is stylistically… highly similar to the Scourge of the Undead.”

Celeste maintained a methodical, scholarly tone. “Pardon my presumption, but what is the reason for this? As far as I know, the elven race generally holds an attitude of absolute rejection toward the undead.”

‘To put it bluntly,’she thought,’you’re all rocking the final boss drip, but you’re telling me you’re actually government employees? How did you even pass the civil service exam for this? Is dying first a prerequisite for getting hired?’

The moment the question was asked, it wasn’t just Selene who perked up. Even Su Wan, who had been maintaining her aloof and frosty posture, subconsciously tilted her head, her ears straining to listen. Xia Lian nervously clenched the hem of her robes, her heart torn between a burning curiosity for the answer and the paralyzing fear that this iceberg of a commander might just draw her sword on the spot.

This was, indeed, the single greatest question weighing on their minds. In everyone’s understanding, weren’t Death Knights undead creatures, powerful warriors twisted and reanimated by evil power after their demise?

Yet this Eldara before them, aside from her slightly pale skin and the crimson hue of her eyes, seemed in every way to be a living person, with steady breaths and a strong, rhythmic heartbeat.

“Who told you that a Death Knight must be undead?”

Eldara’s counter-question instantly derailed Celeste’s entire prepared line of inquiry.

She turned her head, her scarlet eyes calmly scrutinizing Celeste. There was no mockery in her gaze, only the detached air of someone stating an obvious fact.

“Are Paladins composed of Holy Light?” she asked.

“Uh, no,” Selene piped up from behind. As a Paladin herself, she had the most authority on the subject. “Paladins are warriors who believe in and wield the power of Holy Light.”

“Then that settles it.” Eldara’s tone was as flat and still as a frozen lake. “Death Knights are warriors who study, master, and use the power of death.”

“Whether one is living or dead is merely a state of existence. It is unrelated to the essence of the profession.”

This explanation…

Celeste, Selene, Su Wan, and Xia Lian exchanged glances. It felt as though a door to an entirely new world had just been flung open before them.

“B-but, isn’t the power of death evil? It corrodes the souls and bodies of the living…” Su Wan blurted out, the words escaping before she could stop them. This was the ironclad law she had been taught since she was a child.

“Power itself has no distinction between good and evil. Its nature is defined only by how it is used.” Eldara’s voice remained cold, but it now carried an unquestionable authority. “Not every Paladin is noble.”

“Fire can cook your food, but it can also burn down your home. Holy Light can soothe your pain, but it can also be used to scorch heretics.”

“Death is no different.”

“It is the terminus of the life cycle, one of the most fundamental rules of the universe. To view it as inherently evil is merely the collective fear that short-lived species harbor for the unknown and the inevitable.”

She raised a gauntleted hand, and a wisp of gray, decaying death-aligned energy coiled around her fingertips. The aura was cold and silent, yet it was incredibly pure, utterly lacking the chaotic, filthy stench that clung to the Scourge.

“We, the Silent Watch, guard the balance and order of death. We do not spread it.”

“We study it, we understand it, and ultimately, we master it.”

Eldara’s gaze swept back toward the canyon from which they had come, her scarlet eyes filled with a deep disdain. “As for those fools who allow themselves to be turned into undead, enslaved by the very power they sought to command… they are merely slaves to that power. They tarnish the very art of ‘death’.”

“It is their souls that are inherently filthy, not the power that corrupted them.”

Celeste listened, completely and utterly stunned.

‘Holy crap, the sheer gravitas! Now that’s a high-level take! She’s playing 5D chess with philosophy while we’re stuck on the tutorial level arguing about good versus evil. She just elevated her entire profession to a philosophical plane!”So, these Death Knights are basically a bunch of scholar-warriors studying Thanatology? Academic Knights?’

“Then… are they all living people, too?” Selene asked, pointing a hesitant finger at the silent squad of Apprentice Knights behind them.

“Of course,” Eldara answered indifferently. “They are all among the finest young warriors of the Silvermoon Forest, who voluntarily chose this path to come to the border for their ‘apprenticeship’.”

“Only by truly understanding death can one better protect life.”

Those final words landed like a hammer blow, completely shattering the four girls’ ingrained perceptions.

Su Wan pressed a hand to her forehead. She felt as though the thick “Encyclopedia of Professionals” that resided in her mind was spontaneously combusting, turning to ash in an instant. The concept of “Power of Death = Evil = Must be Purified,” which had been drilled into her since childhood, now seemed so shallow, so childish, in the face of Eldara’s words.

Xia Lian’s small mouth was slightly agape. She looked at the elegant and powerful commander before her, then at the tall, ramrod-straight Apprentice Knights behind. The fear in her eyes had, without her even realizing it, transformed into awe and curiosity.

“Cool!” Selene expressed her feelings with her usual simple directness. “This class is so cool! It’s way more stylish than my Paladin!”

Celeste also felt like her eyes had been opened. Just when she thought the logic of this Domain was already outrageous enough, it always managed to present something even more outrageous, yet perfectly self-consistent.

She looked at Eldara’s ferocious, pitch-black armor, then at her impossibly beautiful face, and an extremely rigorous academic question popped into her mind.

“Commander Eldara, one last question.”

“Speak.”

“Since the power of death itself has nothing to do with good or evil and is just a pure form of energy… then theoretically, can its manifested form also be changed?” Celeste asked, her expression deadly serious. “Including the color scheme of this armor… besides the classic black and red, could it be adjusted to other colors?”

“For example… softer tones?”

Eldara said nothing.

The Skeleton Warhorse beneath her, however, seemed to sense the sudden fluctuation in its master’s emotions. The ghostly blue soulfire in its empty eye sockets flared violently, and its iron hooves scraped against the ground with a harsh shriek as it nearly lost its footing.

A visible ripple went through the perfectly uniform formation of the Apprentice Knights behind her.

The veins on Su Wan’s temples throbbed wildly. She grabbed Celeste’s arm and yanked her back, hissing in a low, furious voice, “Are you insane?! Are you seriously asking a Death Knight commander if she can change the color of her armor?!”

“I am conducting a serious academic discussion!” Celeste protested, looking completely innocent. “Since the power of death can be controlled, changing its visual effects should also be within the scope of that control, right? My Healing Spell can go from gold to pink, so why can’t the power of death? This is about the underlying logic of how power manifests!”

Su Wan didn’t want to talk to her anymore. She was afraid she wouldn’t be able to resist smashing an ice spike into her fun-loving sister’s head.

Xia Lian’s face was already so red it looked like it was about to start bleeding. She wished she could dig a hole in the ground and bury herself in it. It was too embarrassing! How could Sister Celeste ask such an outrageous question with such a serious expression?

Eldara remained silent.

This silence was longer than any that had come before.

Just as Celeste thought she wouldn’t get an answer, and was even bracing herself to receive a Death Coil to the face, that cold voice sounded again.

This time, it seemed to be laced with shards of ice.

“No.”

“Oh. That’s a real pity,” Celeste said, a genuine note of regret in her voice.

[Ding! The Host has successfully challenged the aesthetic sensibilities of the Silent Watch with unmatched imagination, forcing the iceberg commander to experience the emotion of speechlessness. Elation Coins +999!]

Hearing the system prompt, the corners of Celeste’s mouth couldn’t help but curl into a smile. It seemed this Commander Eldara wasn’t quite as much of an “iceberg” as she let on.

The group continued to move forward, but the atmosphere was now somehow even more eerie than before. Although the Apprentice Knights’ expressions were still hidden behind their helms, Celeste could feel them giving her a wider berth, a clear sense of keeping their distance.

Deep within her soul, the [Blessing of the Pink Fairy Lady] lit up quietly once more. Below the description that had previously listed only two effects, a third line of text, glowing with a soft pink light, slowly materialized:

[Effect 3: The Charm of Pink, Unlocked ♪]

[Effect Description: A pink Priestess naturally possesses the charm of pink! The initial friendship level of all non-hostile females towards you is increased to “Friendly.”]

The mist ahead gradually began to dissipate.

An outpost, constructed entirely from silver-white giantwood and luminous crystals, appeared before their eyes.

[Elysian’s Note:

Having a good time with the story?

Every single bit helps immensely:

Thanks a ton for making this journey possible!]