Volume 1 – 56. A Simple Question
In the short time they had been away, the Hollow Knight had already cut down a surprising number of the Unmade Hollows that had wandered into the courtyard. Its rampage finally came to an end near the southwestern pillar, where the massive armored body lay motionless amid broken stone and scattered corpses.
After watching from a distance for another minute to make certain it wouldn't rise again, both groups cautiously made their way back inside the estate.
Sylphie was the first to approach.
She lowered herself beside the fallen knight, resting one hand gently against the battered breastplate before bowing her head. A quiet prayer slipped from her lips, soft enough that it was nearly swallowed by the wind drifting through the ruined courtyard. Her silver eyes remained lowered throughout, carrying a quiet reverence that contrasted sharply with the devastation surrounding them.
Standing a few steps behind her, Isolde watched in silence. The usual edge in her expression had faded, replaced by something quieter.
"From what I knew, Sir Thorne had a happy family before the Eclipse," she said quietly, never taking her eyes off the motionless body. "He especially doted on his daughter." A faint sigh escaped her. "It's a shame the Eclipse reduced him to this."
Lucien tried to imagine what that must have been like, but the thought stirred little within him.
Maybe it had something to do with the original Lucien's soul.
Other people's lives and deaths had never felt like his concern.
Once Sylphie finished her prayer, they harvested everything of value from the Hollow Knight as quickly as possible before leaving the estate without delay.
Ironically, despite finishing itself off by repeatedly hurling its dying body into the estate walls and pillars, the System still credited the kill to Lucien.
He received 120 CP and 32 XP.
The CP payout is pretty good... but the XP feels painfully low.
With that thought lingering in the back of his mind, Lucien opened the System.
[Level: 3
Experience Points (XP): 39 / 300
Corruption Points (CP): 193 / 300
Skill Points (SP): 2]
Lucien studied the numbers for a moment.
At the very least, he could convert enough CP into another Skill Point and finally unlock Shadow Step.
Leveling up, on the other hand, was clearly going to take a while.
His thoughts drifted to another question that had been lingering in the back of his mind for some time.
Does CP capacity keep increasing forever?
He already knew that reaching Level 4 would grant the same increase in maximum CP as before, but the System wouldn't let him inspect any further than that. Somehow, he doubted the growth continued indefinitely. At some point, the numbers would become absurd if not.
As they walked back through the quiet streets, Lucien shifted his attention from the status window to the System's Skill Trees, absentmindedly browsing through the available branches. His eyes eventually settled on one he had largely ignored until now.
[Tree VI: Devourer's Path (System Mastery — Purification Arts — Covenant Evolution)]
[Name: Refined Absorption
Cost: 1 SP (to unlock) / Passive
Effects: Purification efficiency +15%. CP gained from absorbed Corruption +15%.
Upgrade: 1 SP]
[Name: CP Mastery
Cost: 1 SP (to unlock) / Passive
Effects: Passive CP regeneration +20% (ambient absorption improved). Maximum CP +100.
Upgrade: 1 SP]
Lucien slowed ever so slightly as he reread the descriptions.
…What a miss.
Although Refined Absorption only mentioned increasing CP gained from absorbed Corruption, it indirectly improved XP gain as well. The two were fundamentally linked. More CP meant more experience, so increasing one inevitably accelerated the other.
His gaze shifted to the second Skill.
And CP Mastery increases maximum CP too?
He couldn’t help but sighed.
If he'd realized that earlier and not now, he might have unlocked it long ago.
Instead, he'd become so fixated on Tree I, with its straightforward combat abilities, that he'd barely spared the other trees a second glance. Most of their descriptions had been skimmed over—or ignored entirely—in favor of anything that made him stronger in a fight.
As Lucien was still weighing the two Skills in his mind, a quiet voice called his name.
"Lucien."
"Hm?"
Walking at the front of the group, he glanced back over his shoulder. Sylphie had fallen slightly behind the others and was looking at him with her usual placid expression.
"Would you have time to escort me to Temple Vigil after this?"
The request caught him by surprise.
...Why ask me? And why now?
They weren't particularly close.
After a moment's thought, the most likely explanation came to mind.
Is this about the Corruption treatment?
If that was the reason, he saw no point in refusing.
"Well..." He gave a small shrug. "I don't mind."
"At least take Kira with you."
Isolde cut in before Sylphie could respond. She shot Lucien a brief, pointed look before turning back to the priestess, her expression making it abundantly clear she had no intention of letting the two travel alone.
Lucien merely smiled to himself, choosing not to comment.
Sylphie turned toward the Wolfkin instead.
"I don't mind, as long as Kira is willing."
Kira answered with an easy shrug, his tail swaying lazily behind him.
"No objections here."
A faint smile of relief softened Sylphie's features.
"Thank you."
He thought the conversation had ended there, but then Ava suddenly slowed her pace and tilted her head, her crimson eyes narrowing as she listened.
"...Hey, Wolf Kid."
Kira looked at her, puzzled.
"Yeah?"
"Do you hear that?"
Lucien's expression sharpened at once.
Kira blinked, then fell silent. His ears gave a slight twitch as he focused, listening far beyond the range of ordinary hearing.
A few seconds passed before recognition dawned across his face.
"...Oh."
His ears twitched again.
"Yeah... I hear it now." A puzzled look crept onto his face. "There's some kind of rhythm coming from the south. Is that... singing?"
Lucien instinctively grew wary.
"Is it close?"
Kira shook his head.
"No. It's pretty far away. More than a kilometer, I'd say."
Ava turned toward Lucien.
"Do you remember what's south of here?"
He frowned slightly as he searched through the original Lucien's memories.
"...The Residential Depths, if I remember correctly."
If the sound had come from the Contested Zone—especially the Entertainment District—Lucien might have had some idea what it was.
The Residential Depths, however, were another matter entirely.
Most of that district remained unexplored because of its high concentration of Corruption. Beyond it lay the Flesh Garden and, farther still, the Sanctum Quarter, where Vel'Sharim's grand cathedrals had once stood. Almost no reliable reports had ever returned from those regions, and that absence of information was unsettling in itself. If Hollows had been left undisturbed there since the Eclipse, there was every chance they had evolved into something far more dangerous than anything the city's defenders had encountered so far.
After a thoughtful silence, Thane stroked the patchy beard along his jaw.
"Well," he said, "we can always ask around the Merchant Quarter. Traders usually hear about these things before anyone else."
...Or I could just ask them.
The Twilight Covenant.
He had only visited them yesterday, yet it somehow felt much longer ago.
After all, they had been the ones who assigned him and Ava to observe—or, if the opportunity presented itself, eliminate—the Hollow Knight.
A faint grin tugged at the corner of Lucien's mouth.
I should be able to collect more reward than the one I've already got!
The thought reminded him of something else.
After everything that had happened today, upgrading his equipment was becoming less of a luxury and more of a necessity. He needed better gear—and preferably more of it.
***
After parting ways with the others, Lucien and Ava headed toward the eastern side of the Eastern Slums, where one of the Twilight Covenant's safehouses was hidden.
As before, they descended into the concealed underground chamber to meet Razor.
The room was much the same as Lucien remembered.
A sturdy wooden desk stood near the center with a single chair behind it. A weapon rack lined one wall, while a neatly rolled bedroll occupied a corner of the room. A detailed map of Vel'Sharim hung nearby, covered with markings denoting faction territories, resource sites, and known threats. Farther back, a heavy iron-bound chest sat locked against the wall.
Seated behind the desk was a woman in her early thirties, around five foot six, with shoulder-length black hair tied neatly behind her head. Her eyes were so dark they were almost black, a scar cut through her left eyebrow, and thin, pale lines crisscrossed the backs of her hands. Like always, she wore plain leather and cotton garments that favored practicality over appearance.
Razor listened to Lucien and Ava's report from beginning to end without interrupting even once. She didn't ask questions or react to the details, merely resting her forearms on the desk as her steady gaze remained on the two of them.
Only after Lucien finished speaking did the usually impassive expression on her face shift ever so slightly.
"...You managed to kill it?"
"We did."
Lucien reached into his satchel, took out a small glass vial filled with the Hollow Knight's blood, and set it on the desk between them.
The woman's eyes dropped to the vial for a brief moment before lifting to meet his again.
"I'll verify it later."
She folded her hands loosely atop the desk, her fingers interlacing with practiced ease.
"There's something else I'd like to discuss with you, Lucien."
He blinked.
"With me?"
"Yes."
Razor turned her attention to Ava.
"Wait for us at the Market Floor. Assuming the blood is authentic, I'll call you back once it's time to collect your share of the reward."
Ava accepted the instruction without the slightest complaint.
"Got it."
She gave Lucien a casual wave on her way out, then slipped through the doorway. A second later, the door swung shut behind her with a soft click, leaving the room noticeably quieter than before.
Lucien had never been particularly comfortable being left alone with Razor. She had a habit of letting silence stretch long enough to become uncomfortable, forcing the other person to speak first. Fortunately, she didn't seem interested in doing that today.
Reaching into one of her desk drawers, she pulled out a folded sheet of paper and slid it across the worn wood.
"Read it."
"...Alright."
Lucien accepted it with a faint crease between his brows.
The page was written in plain Imperial Common. It contained nothing more than a name, a series of dates, and percentages recorded beside each visit.
Recognition came immediately.
These are...
He looked back up.
"These are records of the purification sessions I had at Temple Vigil." Confusion crept into his voice. "What's wrong with them?"
As far as he knew, the original Lucien had been diligent enough to maintain regular purification appointments there, precisely so no one would suspect he had another way of reducing his Corruption.
Razor regarded him quietly for a moment before asking, "Do you truly believe you've done a good job maintaining that illusion?"
Lucien's brows knit together.
...She knows?
"What do you mean?"
For the first time since he'd entered the room, the corners of Razor's lips lifted into the faintest hint of a smile.
"Isn't it obvious?" she asked, leaning back slightly in her chair without taking her eyes off him. "Lucien, do you have a way to reduce your own Corruption..." Her next words landed like a stone in his stomach. "...and perhaps someone else's as well, through a method that falls outside the established means?"
Come on now... It hasn't even been a week since I got here.
Outwardly, his expression remained compossed.
Inside, however, he couldn't help but let out a curse.
I fucking hate this world.
End of Volume 1. Adaptation