Book 2: Duty 9 – The Sun Knight’s Ninth Duty: “Spread the true teachings of the God of Light”

*Disclaimer note: This is merely a translation of the original Chinese version. I do not claim any part in the creation of the original story.

 

The day for the three person battle finally arrived. Early in the morning of the momentous day, the Holy Temple had cleared out. Everyone had left early for the duelling arena to get good seats, clearly anticipating the upcoming fight.

"Honestly. Even the knights on patrol duty have completely disappeared. They should be on alert in the case of any emergencies. Even though we are in an age of peace right now, there are our rivals from the Church of War on our territory right now. Geez… The whole Holy Temple is as quiet as a grave! This is just too ridiculous!"

"If that is so then you guys can stay here and guard the place," I told them as I released the Sun Knight Division from their holding cells.

They looked extremely reluctant and unenthusiastic.

"What…… Why did it turn out like this?... And I had hoped to watch the fight after being released, captaaaiiinnnn!"

24 men dressed in the uniforms of holy knights looked at me with huge puppy eyes, each calling me captain and stretching out the word 'captain'. As I looked on at this scene I couldn't help feeling……

"How nauseating! Scram!"

I roared at them, annoyed. When I turned around however, I saw my vice-captain Adair standing in front of me, his shoulders slumped dejectedly.

He gave me a bitter smile and said sincerely, "Captain, I will fulfil my duty as your vice-captain and make sure the Sun Knight Division guards the Holy Temple well in your absence. Even though I cannot help but feel disappointed that I would miss such an opportunity to see you as you valiantly battle and rise victoriously over the other two competitors, this Adair will definitely obey your every order, I just feel so disappointed…… sigh!"

"If you feel that disappointed then come over to the competition after you've arranged their guard shifts."

"Yes, sir!" Adair seemed to have instantly revived.

After dismissing Adair, I turned to gauge the position of the sun. I still had yet to pick up someone else; if I don't hurry now I might be late.

Even though arriving late to some occasion has never fazed me before, when the people forced to await my arrival include the King of a country, a Princess, my own church's Pope and several other VIPs, then it might be a little bad.

As I walked away, I could hear some shouts and scuffles erupting from behind me.

"Adair!"

"How despicable!"

"Shameless!"

"You traitor!"

When I reached the door leading out of the Holy Temple and looked around, I immediately found the person I was looking for. He was standing quietly in a corner. I gave him a nod of acknowledgement before continuing on to the battle arena, secure in the knowledge that he would follow after me.

~O~O~O~O~

As I made my way into the arena, the royal knights standing guard gave me a nod in acknowledgement, but when they looked back up again they immediately stopped the person following behind me.

"Halt there!"

Their apprehension drew the crowd's attention, and soon everyone had turned to look at the entrance as well as the strangely dressed person standing there.

The man was wearing a skin-tight black outfit, his lower face, chest, lower legs and various other vulnerable areas were covered with silver armour in the curious pattern of scales. Although his outfit was obviously that of an assassin's, he had a long sword hanging from his waist instead of the usual assassins' favourite short sword or dagger.

I raised my voice and stopped the guards, saying "He is not a suspicious person; he is from the Holy Temple. Please allow him to enter."

Everyone looked curious at this, but the reactions of the Twelve Holy Knights were even greater. A few of them kept looking between the man and me, shooting us looks of suspicion.

I smiled at the crowd and introduced, "This is the Hell Knight Captain, recently returned from completing a secret mission and finally back with us where he belongs."

The Blaze Knight was the first to exclaim, "What?! He's not Sun—No, I mean Slayer?"

I nodded my head and said, "Oh! That's right, the Hell Knight Captain's full name is Slayer Hell. You weren't wrong when you called him Slayer. However Blaze Knight Captain, when in front of others you should still address him as Hell Knight Captain, so as not to lead others to misunderstand his position."

Blaze stared at us with his mouth gaped open, seemingly at a loss for words. He wasn't the only one surprised, for the other Twelve Holy Knights had expressions of shock, doubt and even disbelief on their faces.

As the crowd broke into conversations about the surprising information, I took a look around the whole area. The audience were clearly divided into three groups; the royal knights' region, the Church of War's warriors' region and the holy knights' region.

The royal knights surrounded the King's box and the Church of War's people were seated opposite them, with the holy knights sitting on both sides and in between the other two parties, providing some sort of neutral ground. After all, with the royal knights and the Church of War's warriors all glaring at each other so fiercely, one can't help wondering if it was actually a battle between two groups and not a fight between three men that was about to commence.

The Son of War was standing near the duelling stage; the seats directly behind him filled with his Church's warriors, all rooting for him.

The other competitor representing the royal knights, Elliot, was sitting opposite the Son of War, the duelling stage rising between them. However at the moment he was staring at the so called 'Slayer Hell', his face and expression all stiff.

Her Highness the Princess was not seated by her brother, the King, and had instead chosen to seat herself behind Elliot, in a box specially prepared by her to show her support for her beloved, utterly ignoring the other two competitors for her hand in marriage. The Son of War's displeasure at this blatant favouritism was shown clearly on his face as he scowled at them, but I merely maintained the calm and serene smile on my face.

The Princess was casting suspicious looks at Slayer Hell, when she turned to give me a warning look, cautioning me not to play any tricks.

Back then, I had not told the Princess much about my plans, only filing her in till up to the three-person fight. I had promised her that I would help her beloved to achieve victory, but neglected to mention anything else. Actually, I couldn't tell her about them or else I would have definitely found myself tied to a burning stake.

Just then, the King slowly spoke up. "From the way you spoke, it would seem that the Twelve Holy Knights do not recognise their own comrade."

I swept an elegant bow to the King before explaining, "Yes, Your Majesty. Other than this Sun, the others do not know this comrade."

"Oh? This sounds interesting." The King's curiosity was piqued.

I nodded and explained, "Of the Twelve Holy Knights, the position the Hell Knight holds is a unique one. With the changing of different eras, so too will the Hell Knight's duties change. However, he is usually in charge of the more secret and low-profile missions. For example, during periods of unrest and war, the Hell Knight of that period would be in charge of gathering enemy intel."

"So from what you're saying, the Hell Knight's existence is actually that of a spy or an assassin, is that right?"

One of the King's trusted knights, the younger one, gave an incredulous and mocking laugh as he said, "So there are actually knights among the Twelve Holy Knights who do these sneaky underhanded things?"

Elliot standing to the side had lowered his head.

"It is not like that," I denied with a rare severe expression.

After pausing a moment, I continued on, "With the God of Light's guidance, all holy knights have pledged themselves to upholding true justice, and not the justice of the ignorant and uneducated. However, during times of war, having a good grasp on the enemy's movements and plans is vital. Not only does having accurate intel on the enemy help to reduce the sacrifices of our fellow holy knight brothers, we can also attempt to bring the war to an end as quickly as possible so as to spare the God of Light's people from unnecessary suffering. However, enemy intelligence will not come to us freely, much less can we hope to get correct and accurate from questioning. To get this precious intelligence, someone has to sacrifice their freedom of standing in the light and enter the darkness. They do so not only to lessen the God of Light's people's suffering and to protect their own holy knight brothers, but also to carry out the true meaning of the God of Light's justice."

I discreetly snuck a look at Elliot. His tight expression had loosened up and he looked a little cheered up. I said softly, "Please believe me that no matter that a holy knight may have their backs turned from the light and face into the darkness, they still walk under the light and not within the dark."

After I had finished my explanations, everyone looked to be in deep thoughts as they thought about what I had just said. The Princess had even thrown me a small smile; probably 'cause this speech of mine had cheered up her lover.

However, my words were not only applicable to the Hell Knight, but also in line with all members of the Cold Blood Faction, and especially their leader, the Judge Knight.

The King nodded lightly and said, "Sun Knight, you have just deepened my understanding about the holy knights."

"It is this Sun's honour to be able to enlighten Your Majesty, and it is also by the will of the God of Light."

"Captain Sun Knight, are you done talking?" The Son of War was trying to maintain his poise, but his irritation could be heard in his voice as he said, "If you're done then let's start the duel!"

"My most humble apologies for making you wait. Now, let the God of Light with Her radiance bear witness to our friendly duel today."

As I said that I moved forward to step upon the stage…… however, a black and silver figure suddenly stopped in front of me, blocking my way.

I stopped in surprise and asked him questioningly, "Brother Hell, is something wrong?"

The Hell Knight said simply, "Fighting is not something the Sun Knight should do; please allow me, your substitute, to fight in your place."

Upon hearing this I let out a soft, "Ah…" However, the King was quick on the uptake as he questioned, "Substitute?"

"Hmm. Well, this…" I looked at the King a little troubled as I started to speak, but breaking off, clearly reluctant to answer the King.

The King gave the younger of his trusted knights a look, and the later immediately said loudly with dissatisfaction, "What's this? Could it be that the upright and straightforward Sun Knight hides a terrible secret that he cannot speak off?"

I purposely turned back to look at the Judge Knight, for he was the only person capable of collaborating with me even without knowing what was going on.

So, while he might not have the slightest idea of what I intended, he was able to co-operate beautifully as he said in a slightly angry tone, "If you insist on speaking then know that you will have to bear the consequences."

I hesitated before giving a sigh and started explaining to the King. "It is like this, Your Majesty. The first Hell Knight was suspected to be actually the Sun Knight in disguise, and not a real person. However no matter whether the first Hell Knight was real or not, the following Hell Knights definitely exist, but at the same time they have been entrusted with bearing the Sun Knight's secret identity, as their substitute."

After explaining it to the King, I turned to the Hell Knight and tried to persuade him from his decision. "Captain Hell Knight, please step aside, this is a duel that I have to fight myself."

"No!"

Hell growled angrily, "If you will not allow me, your substitute, to go in your place and instead insist on fighting this duel yourself then you would have destroyed the meaning for my existence. You will have to kill me and walk over my dead body if you wish to go up that stage."

I could not say anything to that. On the other hand, there was a commotion amongst the crowd, for it was rare to hear a typically composed and self disciplined holy knight say something so out of control.

"Captain Hell Knight, I cannot allow you to substitute me," I sighed as I said exasperatedly, "If you were to win this fight, how can it be considered my victory?"

"Then please walk over my dead body as you step up to the stage," the Hell Knight replied coldly.

"That's impossible…… please step aside, Captain Hell Knight," I said, getting a little angry.

"No!" With just that one word, one could hear his determination and defiance.

We were now at a stalemate with neither willing to give an inch. The Hell Knight stared at me steadily…… or should I say, he worked hard to maintain his steady gaze, however I was confident that this shouldn't prove too hard for him as he's always been an extremely steady person.

"Why don't you let the Hell Knight Captain take your place?"

The tense impasse was surprisingly broken by the Princess.

She said in a soft and gentle voice, "If it is someone who would lay down their life for you, it should make no difference as to whether you are fighting the duel personally or not, Captain Sun Knight."

I shook my head and sighed, "But Princess, the other two contestants might not agree to this arrangement."

Elliot gave it some thought before answering, "If the Princess has no objection to this arrangement, then I accept it too."

The Son of War, on the other hand, did not reply, frowning heavily at the idea. I could understand his reluctance to agreeing, for although he had no idea how strong the Hell Knight was, anyone would have been stronger than me.

Quickly adding fuel to the fire, I said, "It would be perfectly normal for the Son of War to refuse this arrangement. After all, it would be unfair to him if the Captain Hell Knight were to win the duel."

Upon hearing this, the Son of War's expression darkened as he gave a snort and said, "Who said I refused? It wouldn't matter who fights me, for victory shall be mine."

The King nodded at that.

Seeing as all those entitled to refusing the arrangement had agreed, the matter was settled and the three men fighting for the Princess' hand in marriage stepped up onto the stage as they prepared for the fight.

As one of the contestants for the Princess' hand in marriage, I instead walked over to the group of Twelve Holy Knights and took my place beside the Judge Knight.

The corner of the Judge Knight's lips twitched upward as he said softly, "You had no intention of even stepping onto that stage, did you?"

"Of course. I have no interest in getting the shit beaten out of me in front of everyone," I replied matter-of-factly. I then gave him a glance and asked questioningly, "Judge, with your deductive abilities, you should have known that from the moment you saw me reading Cloud's book on whatever lucky charms. Or did you actually think that I am someone who would depend on lucky charms to help me in my plans? Unless I have 200 percent certainty, or at the very least 100 percent certainty, I would never make a move so 'boldly'."

"Ah… yes. Silly me."

Judge shook his head and said a little vexed, "Forget seeing you with the book, I should have known from the moment you agreed to the duel that you would never allow yourself to step onto the stage and fight them."

I rolled my eyes at him in annoyance. 'What does he mean by that?! I have fought and dealt with the undead before…… some of the undead creatures Pink sends me are strong, you know!'

Just then, a servant walked up to me and said respectfully, "Sun Knight, the King is asking for your presence."

I nodded at him and followed him, fearlessly giving the King a smile. Even if he's realised that I had manipulated events leading to this, he can't actually do anything to me here and now in front of so many, now can he?

The King waved away the two trusted knights standing beside him, and they quickly put some distance between us to give us some privacy.

The King then gestured me to come closer. I walked up the steps to stand by his side, bending down to hear him. "If it weren't for the fact that my sister actually likes Elliot, I would never have let you mess with everything."

"Although this Sun does not know to which Your Majesty is referring to, this Sun is deeply impressed by your great love for your sibling," I said with heartfelt sincerity.

Indeed, if the King had stubbornly insisted on marrying his sister to the Son of War, he could have come up with at least ten different ways of stopping my plans, and then continue on with his original plans to marry off his sister to the Church of War. But he had done neither of those things and had instead turned a blind eye to my interventions, allowing things to unfold as they had.

"Hmph! If you had come up with such an elaborate plan and yet still can't let my sister marry her one true love, leaving behind a mess of things, you had better watch out!"

As an older brother worried for his sister's happiness, the King warned me and gave me a hard glare before turning to watch the fight with a frown.

The King's frown was not without reason, for even after receiving special training from Judge, Elliot's chances of winning against the Son of War were still nearly as low as mine.

I knew this, Judge knew this, the entire Church of War knew this, the royal knights knew this, and even the King knew this.

But what they did not know was that there are many different definitions of winning, especially when it comes to fighting for a woman's affections.

~O~O~O~O~

When I left the King's side and returned to the Twelve Holy Knights, the three men on the stage had already started fighting. The first to attack was the Son of War. Warriors have always placed emphasis on making the first move, while knights prefer to take a defensive stance rather than the offensive, and as such they are rarely the first to attack.

"Excellent swordsmanship!" The Judge Knight murmured, his eagerness for a strong sparring partner gleaming in his eyes.

This was not, of course, in praise of Elliot, for while Elliot's skills were not bad they were nothing for Judge to exclaim about. He was referring to Rol—the Hell Knight on the stage whom was battling it out with the Son of War.

Right from the beginning of the duel the Son of War clearly knew who his real opponent was, for even though on the surface it appeared to be a three-person duel, it was actually mainly a fight between the Son of War and the Hell Knight.

The Son of War had thought of eliminating Elliot first before turning to focus his attention on the Hell Knight, but the former's footwork was too strange, and his swordsmanship was not bad either. He could not defeat Elliot quickly, much less with a Hell Knight watching his every movement for an opening.

Even the Son of War would find himself losing should he not pay attention to the Hell Knight in a fight.

All the above are as explained by our expert, the Judge Knight.

To be honest, I could only make out the flashes from the weapons and the shadows of three people as they parry and evade blows and hits, as well as a bunch of clanging sounds from the clashes of their weapons…… Thank God I hadn't stepped up to the fight, or else just the sounds from all the clashing weapons would have pained me greatly.

"If you were on that stage you wouldn't be hearing the clanging sounds as you would have lost in an instant." That was what Judge had said to me upon hearing my comment.

"However don't be disheartened, your speciality is in dealing with the undead. If it was a competition in dealing with undead creatures you are stronger than all three of them." He then consoled me.

"But if it were dealing with living creatures, you're not even one tenth of Elliot's strength and skill." After consoling me he stabbed me with another even more depressing truth.

Now in a rather bad mood, I asked defiantly, "And between you and Hell Knight, who would be stronger?"

Judge merely gave me a glance and said slowly, "Hard to say. You know what I mean."

I immediately shut up as I remembered that Slayer Hell was not limited to fighting with a sword. In fact, fighting with a sword was actually his least threatening ability.

But then again, if he really wished to go all out against 'Slayer Hell', then the Judge Knight as a holy knight was not limited to fighting with his sword either.

Although it's hard to say for sure who would win in a fight between the both of them, one thing is for sure. Judge is already aware of Slayer Hell's true identity.

Even though I had had no intention of hiding it from Judge, his amazing powers of observation are really scary. If I had to really hide something from him one day, I doubt I would have an easy time of it.

"How did you find out who he is?" I couldn't help asking in a low voice.

"Such skilled swordsmanship is easy to recognise."

'Oh I see. Skilled swordsmen are so annoying!'

"Your expression is saying that all skilled swordsmen should go to hell." Judge glanced at me from a corner of his eye.

"If you continue guessing everything right I'm going to start believing that you are not really the Judge Knight but a mind reading alien."

Judge looked away from me, but his lips were curling into a minute smile. I reluctantly asked him, "What's happening now?"

"The Son of War is definitely worthy of his position as head of the warriors. His skill is not something to be underestimated. If Slayer Hell does not use his other abilities other than his sword he would surely lose."

"Even under the combined attacks of Elliot and Slayer Hell the Son of War is still going to win?" I clarified.

"Yes."

"As can be expected from the Son of War, he surely is strong!" I sighed in admiration.

"Your expression is saying that thank goodness I never thought to step up to the fight."

"Shut up, alien!"

Judge's eyes were filled with laughter.

Thank goodness everyone was focussing on the fight and no one was paying attention to him, or else the sight of the ever cruel and stern Judge Knight smiling would have given a whole bunch of people the shock of their lives.

Sensing that it was about time, I warned Judge in a low voice, "No matter what happens, don't make any moves."

Judge nodded and said decisively, "Then I think I should leave first, or else others might get suspicious of my lack of action."

I nodded at that. 'As expected of Judge, he always thinks of everything.'

"And this way I can avoid finding out just what exactly you've done."

…… yeah, it's for the best. I wouldn't want to find out from him first hand that I've reached the end of his endurance and be beaten up by him for my actions.

After watching Judge walk out the arena, I turned to look back at the stage. The clanging sounds had not stopped for even a second, and the Frenzy from the three contestants were so strong that the force from them were strong enough to blow my hair into disarray. There were several large cracks in the duelling stage, and the small pieces of rocks were being blown about by the frenzy.

The eyes of the audience-regardless of them being knights or warriors- were all glued to the fight as if fearing of missing a single moment of it. From time to time, they would exclaim with cheers or shouts of amazement.

It was time, I thought. If this continues on Elliot might be pushed past his limit and lose, and everything would have been for naught. Also, most importantly, I have no idea how I was going to resolve everything should that happen.

If Elliot were to lose the fight, I still can't allow the Son of War marry the Princess, so would that mean I have to marry her? I'd probably have to wear my armour to sleep on my wedding night to spare my wife from attaining the reputation of killing her husband.

I reached into my pocket and broke a heart-shaped piece of glass.

 

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Book 2: Duty 8 – The Sun Knight’s Eighth Duty: “Get along with your neighbours”

*Disclaimer note: This is merely a translation of the original Chinese version. I do not claim any part in the creation of the original story.

 

I waited till night had fallen before knocking on each of the Twelve Holy Knights' doors, greeting them with the same "I need a favour" when they opened their door.

And so I went, knocking on each of their doors until I reached Judge's door. When he opened his door, just like all the others, I said, "I need a favour."

"What favour?" He asked, and then adopting an innocent manner he said, "Buy blueberry pies? Asking Frost to make strawberry snow cones?"

"Lend me ten of your Judge Division knights," I asked, directly to the point.

Upon hearing my request Judge sighed and asked, "Is this for your mission? Or is it for revenge?"

"It's for the mission……" Upon seeing his disbelieving expression I hastily amended, "But I admit to planning to exact a little revenge along the way."

Judge looked as if he didn't whether to laugh or cry at my answer. "Will you stop before going too far?"

I gave a shrug and said, "Of course. I only wish to strengthen the faith of the believers, not go to war with the Church of War."

Even though I had already assured him so, Judge took another minute to consider my request before reluctantly saying, "I can only lend you five; this is to avoid you from going overboard. You've always spoiled the Sun Knight Division; now that they've been humiliated in front of so many, and were even so heavily injured, I doubt you would be able to control yourself from ruthlessly exacting revenge from the Church of War's warriors."

"Fine, five then," I agreed instantly.

Upon seeing me agree to his condition so readily, Judge started frowning once more. To avoid giving him time to regret his decision I quickly diverted his attention. "How is Elliot's training coming?"

"Pretty good. He has a pretty high learning curve, and now that Cloud has modified a few of the Cloud Flight Steps to suit his style, his skill in avoiding hits has become even better. He should be able to reach your target of 'staying in battle' in two weeks time."

I nodded my head. "That's good to hear. There shouldn't be any problems then."

"May I ask how you plan to strengthen the believers' faith?"

"No!" I refused right away. If I were to let Judge know of my plans, I cannot guarantee that he won't just kill me with a slash of his sword, and thus stop me from harming myself when young, harming the Church of Light now, and possibly harming the world in the future.

"I knew it! You are going to cause trouble… sigh… Alright, I guess its better that you don't tell me. Plausible deniability and all that."

Judge shook his head at me and gave up finding out about my plans to save him the moral dilemma of whether to kill me or not. As he closed his door I could hear him muttering, "I better go to sleep early tonight. I don't want to find out about exactly what my five knights have been forced to do and regret agreeing to your request. But then again, I've always regretted agreeing to your requests…… sigh!"

"Sighing once will shorten one's life by three seconds," I told him.

From behind the door came his voice, "Agreeing to one of your requests will shorten one's life by three years……"

I disagreed with this. "If it really shortens your life by three years you would have died a month after meeting me!"

"I see you're aware of your own behaviours…."

After successfully requesting a few knights from Judge, I glanced at the moon outside the window, determining from its position that it was roughly ten o'clock and just about time. I quickly headed in the direction of the Holy Temple's kitchens. At this late hour there wasn't a single soul in the kitchens, but already prepared on the kitchen table were several baskets of bread and milk.

I carried the baskets and secretly made my way to the holding cells. However, instead of approaching the only door to the holding cell I approached the cells from the 'outer walls'.

I knelt down beside the wall and was about to open the secret door to send in the baskets of food when I heard voices coming from within.

"This time captain is just too much! Locking us up and even forbidding us from being healed. Several of us were pretty heavily injured!"

"And no food too…… Does the captain really not care about us anymore?"

An agitated voice suddenly cut through the rings of complaints. "As a member of the Sun Knight Division, do you all really believe like everyone else that the captain doesn't care about us? Who did you think sent us the food whenever we were locked up previously? Who was it who sent us the blankets? And who was it who secretly opened the secret door to the holding cells and let us out?"

I recognised the voice as the one belonging to Adair. 'You really are my vice-captain who knows me well!'

Another voice hurriedly explained, "Adair, don't get so upset! Of course I know that the captain hasn't stopped caring about us; it's just that, he would often ask us to do some impossible tasks……"

"But he's always given us help with them!" Adair defended adamantly.

"Yes, of course, but sometimes… the captain is-is pretty off his rockers. Like the last time he had asked us to hide our identities and beat up the Earth Knight. He gave us 25 sets of outfits but had forgotten about the weapons. And in the end we were beaten up by the Earth Knight instead……"

Adair's voice did not make an appearance again; looks like even he couldn't say anything in reply to that.

What complete hogwash! How could I have forgotten something as important as beating up Earth?! It was just that after purchasing the 25 sets of clothes, I was caught by the Pope. He had then taken back the rest of the money, leaving me with no money to buy the weapons. I then thought that with 25 against one they should be able to get in at least a hit or two, right?

But no, they never even made it past his shield, and instead came back to me, covered in wounds for me to heal. How annoyed I was then!

I roughly jerked open the secret door and threw in the baskets of food angrily. I could hear the baskets hitting against the walls from the force of my anger.

The holding cell went quiet for some time before Adair opened his mouth and tried to explain to me. "Captain, everyone's just venting out their frustration. They don't really mean any of it."

I ignored his explanation and merely threw in a number of rose beads, saying, "Only those heavily wounded can use one of the beads, and you're not allowed to completely heal all of your wounds. Everyone must have a wound remaining on them. This is an order!"

In a voice close to crying Ed pleaded, "Captain…… those guys today from the Church of War were just too much. We were just too angry at them and said some nonsense, please don't be angry!"

"Captain!"

"We're sorry, captain!"

"Captaaaiiiin, we were wrong!"

Hearing all the cries of 'captain', I started to soften towards them. 'Damn them, they must be aware of this weak point of mine. Every time they do something wrong they would keep calling me 'captain, captain'.'

"Alright, alright! Just shut up already! Those heavily injured quickly heal yourselves, and those less severely injured quickly eat your fill. I have a task for you to do later."

When the calls of captain from behind the wall disappeared, I called out, "Adair."

"Yes, captain?"

"Bring everyone to the usual meeting area later. I'll send some people to back you all up; and there're some tools that you'll need waiting there too."

"Yes, sir."

"Captain, will you be going with us?" Ed suddenly asked.

"'This Sun' will not be going."

"Understood……"

At around twelve midnight, Adair led the other Sun Division knights out of their holding cells through the secret door. I was watching them from behind a tree and followed behind them as they headed towards the meeting area. Although Adair was no doubt extremely competent, I was still worried that he might not fully understand what it was that I wanted them to do. So, just in case, I decided to follow behind them to make sure that they got it.

"Adair, do you think that that dark shadow behind us was the captain?" asked Ed as he craned his head around to look behind him.

"No, the captain said that he won't be coming," said Adair without even bothering to look behind.

Hearing this reply, Ed said a little embarrassedly, "No wonder the captain likes you so much, Adair."

Just then, Adair jerked to a halt. Following directly behind him, Ed wasn't able to stop in time and had collided painfully with his head.

Ed felt about his nose painfully and quickly cast an elementary level healing spell on him, before turning to complain loudly, "Adair! Why'd you stop so suddenly?"

Adair merely gestured in front of him dazedly, and as one the entire Sun Knight Division leaned around him and saw…… a black-clothed Judge Division knight stepped forward and reported to Adair:

"Ten Storm Division knights, ten Blaze Division knights, ten Leaf Division knights, ten Earth Division knights, ten Frost Division knights, ten Moon Division knights, ten Cloud Division knights, and five Judge Division knights, all present and accounted for. We have orders from the Sun Knight Captain to follow the orders of the Sun Knight Division's vice-captain, Adair."

Ed dazedly pulled on a corner of Adair's shirt and asked softly, "Adair…… do you think the captain wants us to teach those warriors from the Church of War a lesson, or to completely destroy them?"

"Er… I'm not entirely sure," replied Adair, a little perplexed. He then caught sight of the two chests in the middle of the clearing and 'muttered' loudly, "Looks like these are the tools the captain mentioned earlier."

Hiding in the dark, I nodded my head, even though I knew Adair wouldn't be able to see it.

Ed walked up to them and started to curiously take out the items inside the chests. He then exclaimed in surprise, "Aren't these the royal knights' uniforms? And their standard issued weapons too…… and over here are the Church of War's warriors' uniforms? What are all these for?"

The Sun Knight Division all turned to Adair, accustomed to getting their answers from him. The latter puzzled about it for some time before 'muttering' loudly in realisation, "Oh, I see! Looks like we'll be separating into two groups. No wonder so many people are needed!"

Hearing Adair's report, I nodded my head in satisfaction. Looks like he knows what to do now. I have to say it again: I really had excellent judgement when I had chosen Adair as my vice-captain!

~O~O~O~O~

The Judge Knight was busy training Elliot, and Elliot was busy being trained by the Judge Knight.

Adair and the Sun Division knights have been busy carrying out the tasks I had given them all night, coming back to the holding cells at the break of dawn and sleeping the day away like the dead. Even if one were to make their way over those 'dead bodies', stepping on them all the way, you wouldn't hear even a peep from them, only the rhythmic ringing sounds of snores reverberating around the cell.

Even Pink and Roland were busy preparing for the request that I had asked from them. This time, I was pretty successful with my request from Pink, for when I mentioned my request to her, her eyes had immediately lit up and she had not mentioned anything about payment. And I had, of course, decidedly not brought up the subject of payment either.

On the other hand when I had made the request, Roland had turned a shocked ashy white…… although there wasn't really much difference, seeing as his face was already an ashy white colour.

 

'Yawn…'

I cracked a huge yawn, picked a blueberry biscuit from the plate beside me and stuffed it into my mouth, before continuing to read the book Cloud had lent to me—How To Pick A Suitable Lucky Charm Before Going to Battle.

This feels quite good-everyone busy with their own tasks while I sit here all relaxed and everything.

The door suddenly swished open, letting in the sun's rays and lighting up the entire area. However, this did not pose a problem for me, for I had already been reading from the light emitted from the holy light I had gathered.

"If it weren't for Cloud who had told me, I would never have believed that you were really hiding here…… Isn't hiding in book cupboards more of Cloud's thing? Moreover, are you really depending on that book to prepare you for the upcoming duel?"

I lifted my head and saw the Judge Knight looking in from outside the book cupboard, his lips twitching at the sight of the book in my hands. I raised an eyebrow at him and said mocked indignantly, "Hey, don't underestimate this little book, it really is quite useful! Besides, I can now understand why Cloud likes to hide in these book cupboards. With the glow from the holy light, it is actually a perfect little slice of heaven right in here."

Moreover, it is a perfect little slice of heaven where I won't be bothered! In the past even when I was in the prayers room, people would often come in looking for the Sun Knight; however, no one would think to look for the Sun Knight in a book cupboard!

Judge chose not to comment to that and merely said, "Well, when you're finished with that book and have lost interest in book cupboards, why don't you go pay the Hell Knight Captain a visit?"

"Why? What's wrong with him? Could it be that he can't master the modified Cloud Flight Steps?" I frowned at that. That would be bad, for according to my plan he had to be able to stay in the fight with the Son of War for at least ten minutes, or more.

Judge shook his head and said, "He is coming along pretty well with the training, but he looks like he's upset and depressed about something. After inquiring about it, it seems that he is under a lot of pressure from his colleagues. Because of his secret affair with the Princess and him going against the King in his plans, the other royal knights are looking down at him and giving him the cold shoulder."

I nodded in understanding. "Oh, that! Don't worry, it'll be settled within a few days."

Judge thought about it, then shook his head and said, "Well, I've already informed you of the Hell Knight's situation. Since you don't think it's a cause for concern I won't bother with it then."

Now, this made me curious, for usually Judge would have easily deduced that the Hell Knight's problems would soon become a moot point in a few days. So why would he purposely seek me out to inform me of Hell's situation?

'Could it be……' I suddenly asked him, "Didn't the five Judge Division knights tell you what I had asked them to do?"

"I told them not to tell me," said Judge as he slid the book cupboard door close. "I do not want to know a single thing."

Looks like Judge can tell that this time I've been causing a lot of trouble, thus deciding to avoid finding out about what I've done. But this is good for me, so I don't have to apologise to him for all the troubles I've raised even as he is giving me the fatal blow with his sword!

As I looked down at the book in my hands, I thought about looking into Elliot's situation. I then stuffed the last piece of blueberry biscuit into my mouth and randomly flipped a page.

Keep your beloved's handkerchief in your left breast pocket, and love will protect your heart from any fatal wounds.

'Hmmm… this is pretty useless for me, but it would be helpful for Elliot. Perhaps I should tell him about it and remind him to ask for a handkerchief from the Princess to keep in his left breast pocket?

'Besides, I've already finished the blueberry biscuits anyway.'

I wiped my mouth and straightened my clothes before stepping out of the book cupboard.

"How do you do, Cloud Kni—Su-Sun Knight!"

I turned back and saw a few holy knights standing there with a dazed expression. Upon seeing me turn around and confirming that it really was I, the Sun Knight, they all froze in shock as if turned to stone.

"The God of Light shines upon the land, showering it with Her benevolence and love; and even a simple book cupboard is filled with the air of friendship, this Sun couldn't resist going in to revel in Her love……"

After stringing together some bullshit, I quickly left the scene. Looks like I'm not suited to hiding in book cupboards. If I were to hide there several more times the number of frozen statues blocking the hallways could become problematic.

To avoid unnecessary distractions, I put on my cloak and hood and left the Holy Temple in search of Elliot.

Seeing as Elliot's probably just finished with Judge's torturous training session, he should be exhausted and would use the most direct route to return to the royal palace. Hmm… or maybe he would stop en route for a meal. I feel that based on Judge's less familiar relationship with Elliot, he wouldn't prepare any blueberry biscuits for him.

I very quickly found Elliot in a restaurant halfway in between the Holy Temple and the royal palace. His face looked pale and exhausted, a complete 180° from his previously handsome and dashing royal knight image. He looked as if he had aged 20 years; even the waitress had handed him his food brusquely, not even giving him a spare glance.

The poor thing…… no wonder Judge had asked me to have a look at him.

I walked over to him and sat down in a chair beside him, at the same time stealing the piece of beef he had picked and placed it into my mouth.

He looked at his empty chopsticks blankly before turning slowly to look at me, suspicion in his voice as he asked, "May I ask who are you?"

I nudged my hood away slightly whilst smiling at him, allowing him a glimpse of my face.

"Ah! Su-…… it's you," he said in surprise, before falling silent. He looked as if he were worrying about something, for he didn't even move his cutlery, and it was after I had eaten more than half of the beef when he finally asked resignedly, "Should I even remain in the competition?"

'Oh dear! Looks like he's thinking of throwing in the towel…' I hurriedly swallowed the piece of beef in my mouth and asked, "Why would you say that? Don't you love Her Highness?"

"It's not that!" His reaction was rather extreme as he leapt up and declared, "It's impossible for me to not love her, impossible!"

I nodded my head in acceptance. "If that is so, why do you not want to compete in the duel? Are you really willing to give Her Highness up to the Son of War?"

Elliot sat back down in his seat depressed, saying quietly, "I-I do not wish to give her up…… but with my low status I cannot hope to match her."

"Is that what your fellow royal knights are saying?"

"And His Majesty the King, and my teachers too. They're all furious with me," he said, rather disheartened.

I picked another piece of meat and chewed it carefully before swallowing and said, "How about this? You can continue with Judge's training while you think about it for another two days, alright? And if you haven't changed your mind by then, you can give up then."

This time, Elliot nodded quickly, and then said a little more enthusiastically, "Actually, I wouldn't mind continuing the training sessions with the Judge Knight. The Judge Knight is really skilled with the sword! I've only received a week's worth of training and I can already see the marked improvement in my skills. How unbelievable."

"But of course. Judge had already become near invincible at the age of thirteen. I think that other than Roland, no one else would be able to match him in terms of sword skills."

"And which holy knight is Roland?" asked Elliot, his eyes gleaming at the thought of another strong opponent.

"Er… he isn't a holy knight," I said hesitatingly.

"Oh? Then is he just an ordinary knight? Or a royal knight?" Elliot asked relentlessly. 'Looks like he's really persistent in meeting this Roland who is capable of going toe to toe with the Judge Knight.'

Now it was my turn to be curious. They were both royal knights, so shouldn't he have known, or at the very least, heard of Roland?

"He's a royal knight, but he's dead now. Have you really never heard of Roland?" I asked.

"Ah…… Is it Captain Roland?"

Elliot said in realisation, "I'd seen him a few times, but it was only in passing. I never really got to know him as he's a little distant and doesn't socialise with others easily. And as he rarely gets into fights I never had an opportunity to judge how strong his skills were; but I never thought he was that strong!"

He then said a little upset, "If I had known earlier I would have made an effort to get to know him better. Perhaps I would even have been able to advise him against going head to head with the previous King, and maybe he wouldn't have been killed then."

"You knew that Roland was killed by the King?" I asked a little surprised. Wasn't the whole incident sealed by the Crown Prince?

Elliot nodded and said softly, "Most of the royal knights are aware of it, but as with respect to the Crown Prince's wishes, we do not mention it."

'I see.'

I nodded in understanding. After all, there were close to fifty royal knights at the scene when Roland had came looking for the King for revenge. It would have been impossible to stop everyone from speaking of the incident. And the Crown Prince probably didn't really try all that hard from stopping them. After all, his father's reputation was already so poor; what is torturing a royal knight to death in comparison with all his other horrible activities?

Seeing Elliot's dejected figure, I was about to tell him of 'someone else' that I knew who was equally as strong, and offer to introduce him to 'him', when I saw a large group of people approaching from behind him. I quickly grabbed the plate of meat and switched to another table, pretending not to know Elliot.

"Captain Sun Knight……" Elliot could not understand the reason for my actions.

"Elliot! There you are!"

Elliot was surprised and turned around, only to see a large group of royal knights bearing down on him like a herd of stampeding buffalos. He immediately paled at the sight while mumbling, "They can't be here to beat me up, can they?" glancing at me with a pleading look from the corner of his eyes.

The first knight to reach him immediately clapped his hand on Elliot's shoulder while growling out, "Elliot, you better win!"

"That's right! Marry the Princess!"

"Don't you dare lose to that Son of War!"

The crowd of royal knights were shouting all at once, but it was all mainly about how the Church of War could go drown themselves, and that Elliot was to make sure he won the competition. Elliot was bewildered by all the commotion, and when he lifted his head and saw the older of the King's trusted knights standing in the doorway, he called out a little confusedly, "Teacher…… what is going on?'

But contrary to his mature years, the old knight was as hot-tempered as a young man. He ran over to Elliot, grabbed him by the collar and growled, "Boy! If you don't marry the Princess I will never see you again, you understand?"

"Teacher?" Elliot stared at the elderly knight with wide eyes as he stammered, "Wh-what is going on?"

A royal knight standing beside him said irately, "Those damn Church of War warriors actually came and sneaked an attack on us last night!"

"They were also yelling about how we only knew how to fight in groups, and that we were cheating to ride horses, insisting that we get off our horses and fight with them one-on-one."

The group of royal knights were further incensed by this as they began clamouring, "We are knights! Knights! Knights have always specialised in horse riding and fighting in groups. Who would want to fight with those who specialise with one-on-one battles?! We haven't gone completely mental!"

"This won't do," frowned the elderly knight, Elliot's half teacher. He said frankly, "Your skills are way below his. You don't have a hope of winning against the Son of War at your current skill level. And it is even more impossible for that Sun Knight who can't even hold his sword properly to defeat him…… Let's go, let's go! I'm going to give you some special training!"

'Hmph! If you want to give your own student extra training that's fine by me! But why do you have to drag me into it?!' I rolled my eyes at the elderly knight.

"Wait a minute, I've just……" Elliot was going to say that he had just finished a gruelling training session with the Judge Knight, but halfway through he realised that he couldn't reveal that to them and so had to keep quiet.

With no reason to refuse him, Elliot had no other option but to let himself be dragged off to another training session, throwing me puzzled look after puzzled look all along the way.

Just then, one of the royal knights growled out, "It's the Church of War!"

The Son of War was indeed leading a group of angry warriors in their direction, his eyes glaring at the group of royal knights as a whole instead of focusing only on Elliot; his target quite obviously the entire group of royal knights.

The Son of War reached the group of royal knights and immediately launched into a tirade, "What do you royal knights mean, trying to pick a fight with us in a group and on horses?! We are warriors! Who wants to fight against a mounted group, it's not like we're completely stupid!"

Hearing this, the already dark expressions on the royal knights' faces grew steadily worse as they all clamoured up. "It is your request to fight one-on-one that is unreasonable! We are knights! We refuse to fight with you one-on-one!"

Upon hearing this reply, the Son of War started to laugh in fury, saying "Alright. Alright. Alright! I'll fight against all of you singlehandedly; you can all fight against me riding horses or donkeys; a few together or even all at once! I don't give a damn!"

The royal knights were furious at his condescending tone, when at that moment the elderly knight pushed his way through them and walked up to face the Son of War. He said to him coldly, "Interesting! Very well, you can have the experience of fighting against a mounted opponent, but it will only be me against you."

It was only then that the Son of War noticed the older knight, and upon recognising him he started frowning.

I said seemingly to myself in a low voice, "That is one of the King's most trusted knights. Even if it were you, you shouldn't want to go against him for now! After all, the King has only two knights whom he trusts the most, and of the two he is the senior knight; the King would probably listen to his advice more often than the other."

The Son of War looked extremely frustrated, wishing to vent out his anger and frustrations, yet not quite daring to go against the elderly knight standing before him. In the end he growled out, "We're leaving."

The King's trusted knight, too, did not seem to really wish to go against the Son of War, for he merely turned around with a dark look on his face and clapped Elliot's shoulder heavily while warning him, "Boy, you better battle it out with him properly. If you lose, you'll be in for it!"

"That's right! If you lose you'll be in for it!" shouted the rest of the royal knights.

Elliot immediately turned even whiter than Roland and desperately tried to signal SOS at me with his eyes.

I really pitied him, for truthfully, his chances of defeating the Son of War were only a tiny bit higher than my chances of defeating the Son of War.

However, no matter how much I may pity him, I still avoided his gaze and lowered my head, swallowing the last piece of meat and wiping my mouth delicately with a napkin.

The Church of War and the royal knights are now in a feud with each other, and even if he wanted to quit the royal knights would never allow him to do so…… 'Hmmm, looks like I can tell Adair to stop their midnight missions.'

I stood up and headed back to the Holy Temple in a good mood, planning to get Frost to bake me another batch of biscuits and maybe ask Cloud to give me a book cupboard where no one would pass by, as well as lend me another book that I can read myself to sleep……

 

Previous                                                                                                             Next

Book 2: Duty 7 – The Sun Knight’s Seventh Duty: “Advise fellow holy brothers against an unwise decision”

*Disclaimer note: This is merely a translation of the original Chinese version. I do not claim any part in the creation of the original story.

 

The next day after the King's coronation, a missive from the royal palace arrived, stating the date of the duel to be two weeks later. As it was impossible to make a fair fight for three, it had been decided that all three competitors would battle it out together, with the last person standing declared the winner.

This news wasn't new to me, as I had requested that the Princess try to make it a three person duel, as well as try to push the competition as far back as possible to give me at the very least two weeks to prepare. The King clearly loved his sister quite a lot, for even when he must have been furious, he had still listened to his sister's suggestions.

However, the King probably was furious with me, for along with the missive was a note I was required to sign, declaring the disclaimer of responsibility in the event of my death in the competition. 'He can't be thinking of using this opportunity to let the Son of War dispose of me, can he?'

I wryly signed the disclaimer note, quite aware that with my healing abilities and the Pope watching the battle, it's almost impossible for me to die on the stage…… It would probably be easier to just assassinate me.

After confirming the date and time of the duel, I immediately left to look for Judge. It was only after I stopped a passing holy knight and asked for the Judge Knight's whereabouts, that I realised that the Twelve Holy Knights were in a meeting. Now that I think about it, it seems like I haven't attended one in a very long time?

Oh whatever, it's not like attending meetings is one of the Sun Knight's main duties.

I opened the door to the meeting room and immediately became the focus of attention. I smiled and nodded at everyone before saying apologetically, "My apologies, my fellow brothers. This Sun has been busy with things recently and was unable to attend the meetings……"

"Oh, it's alright! I-it can't be helped that you're busy! Re-really, its fine, your presence here wouldn't make any difference!" said the Earth Knight 'sincerely'.

'Earth, you…' I grinded my teeth in annoyance and my gaze swept past him to look at the Judge Knight. "Captain Judge Knight, if you do not mind, this Sun wishes to appropriate some of your time to practice my sword skills with."

"I do not see anything wrong with that, as long as you do not mind accidentally getting hurt," said the Judge Knight coldly.

As we walked out the meeting room, I closed the door behind us, but not in time to catch Leaf's worried exclamation, "Oh dear! Sun's upset about not getting the Princess and is feeling suicidal!" followed by Metal's "Nonsense! Our Judge Knight has no interest in beating up a weak defenceless person." And lastly, all the Good Warm Faction knights agreeing with him, "Hmm, you're right, Judge wouldn't bully the weak and defenceless."……

I couldn't help turning to Judge and complaining, "Honestly, am I really that weak?! Whatever everyone might say, I did make it till now alive and kicking, and in fact I have even defeated numerous undead creatures, so you can't say that I am that weak, right?!"

Judge's lips twitched before he distracted me, saying "Where are we going?"

"The prayers room."

Judge nodded and before long, we had arrived at our destination. Hanging outside the door was a sign that said 'undergoing construction'. Ignoring the sign completely, I pushed open the door and entered. Inside the room was Elliot, his head raised as he stared at the murals decorating the walls.

I nodded my head in satisfaction. That Ed is pretty efficient, and quite smart too. I had told him to sneak Elliot in here without anyone noticing, and not only had he carried out my instructions perfectly, he even had the presence of mind to hang that 'undergoing construction' sign outside the door to stop people from entering.

And even better, he was smart enough to know not to stick around afterwards, thus avoiding me having to waste my saliva to order him out.

Looks like I can entrust some things to Ed in the future and thus lessen Adair's burden. I wouldn't want Adair to die from being overworked before my retirement, would I? If that were to really happen I would die without him here to help me.

"Judge Knight!" Elliot didn't look surprised to see me here, but he was stunned when he saw Judge following in behind me.

Judge frowned as he looked at me and Elliot before asking me, "What are you trying to pull here?"

I replied him frankly, "I want him to marry the Princess, so I need you to train him with the sword before he competes in the duel."

"If it were you, it's fine, but I have no obligation to help him," Came Judge's cold and detached reply.

"No! You do have an obligation to help him……"

Even so, Judge merely looked at me before turning to leave.

I hurriedly grabbed him and added, "No matter what, he is still one of the Cold Blood Faction; don't tell me that you-the Cold Blood Faction's leader, would be so heartless as to ignore him?"

"What?" Judge turned around, frowning as he took in Elliot in his royal knight uniform, before turning to look at me with doubt.

I quickly explained, "He is the Hell Knight Captain and one of the Twelve Holy Knights. Since young, he was sent away by the Pope to go undercover in the royal family. However, after so many years spent undercover amongst all the other royal knights, he no longer wishes to return to the Holy Temple……"

When I saw understanding flash in his eyes, I added, "Furthermore, he and the Princess really are in love with each other, so I've promised him that as long as he married the Princess and thus stop the Son of War from marrying her, I would release him from his Hell Knight position."

I then quietly added in a whisper, "Or else, the Pope is going to kill him now that he has not only become useless to him but also a threat to the Church."

Upon hearing my explanation, Judge's frowns deepened, and after some time he finally said, "The Son of War is extremely strong. I fear that even I would not be able to defeat him. Besides, knights are less suited to one-on-one battles than warriors. Knights ride horses to do battle and use shields to block the blows of the enemy. If it were us holy knights, we might be able to make up for some of it with our holy spells, but the Hell Knight cannot use any of the spells or moves of a holy knight to avoid his true identity from being exposed…… In short, he doesn't have any chance of winning."

I nodded my head, saying, "I know, but he does not need to win. I want you to train him with the goal of staying in the battle for as long as possible in mind."

Judge frowned at that and said with disagreement, "Captain Sun Knight, you should remember that your current duty is to……"

"Secure the faiths of the believers!" I said for him.

I then continued, as serious as can be. "Believe me, everything that I'm doing is for the sake of this duty…… but I might accomplish an additional mission while I'm at it."

Judge rolled his eyes at this. 'Yes!' Upon seeing him roll his eyes at me, I knew right away that the serious and responsible colleague Judge Knight had been switched for the friend who would agree to almost any request of mine, Leithe. He said exasperatedly, "Let me guess, if I don't agree to this request of yours I would never get any peace!"

I chuckled at that. It was true. I had the most perseverance when asking someone to do something for me. Back then, I had once asked Leithe to scale the walls of the Holy Temple to get me some blueberry pie. Every hour like clockwork I would approach him to remind him to get my pie. Do note that it is 24 hours a day, including a reminder every hour at night: "Leithe, buy some blueberry pies for me!"

Now that I think back about it only do I realise how close to danger I really was. Fortunately, Leithe had caved in to my demands and chose to scale the walls for my blueberry pies instead of enacting a chilling midnight murder and killing me once and for all……

"Then please start training him from today onwards. There's only two weeks left."

Upon hearing 'two weeks', Judge shook his head and said, "One of these days I'm going to just kill you once and for all instead of agreeing to your demands."

I hastily said, "No way! Judge, you're the world's nicest person, ever! Even nicer than Leaf! You would never kill your bestest best friend!"

"…… are you mocking me?" Judge shot me a glare.

"I'm praising you!" I quickly corrected, before giving a little cough and nudging Elliot, reminding him, "Hey! Are you done daydreaming? Judge has agreed to train you, so hurry up and thank him."

Elliot finally woke up from his daze and stammered, "A-aren't you supposed to hate each other……?"

I nodded and said, "Yup! Let me introduce you to him. This is my most hated best friend, Leithe Judge."

"Most hated…… best friend?!" Elliot was stunned once again, his brain seeming to have grinded to a halt.

"Stop bullying him."

Judge shook his head at my cheeky actions before suggesting to me, "If your aim is for him to stay in the fight for as long as possible, you should get Cloud Knight to help in his training. That would go a long way to helping his stay in the fight."

"Cloud?"

I thought about it before realising his meaning. "No problem! I'll go and look for him right this instance. Cloud is one of the Good Warm Faction and very obedient. I'll just order him to help with the training."

Judge nodded and started to consider Elliot, probably thinking of the best way to start his training…… I spared a moment to offer a prayer for Elliot. Even though Judge is a fair and righteous man and would never purposely try to make things difficult for Elliot, I have seen the training schedule that Judge sets for himself…… and I can only say that with that kind of training anyone would become a skilled swordsman!

'Who was it?! Who was it who said excluding me? I heard you!'

~O~O~O~O~

"Cloud! Cloud Knight! Where are you?" I called out as I walked along the corridors of the Holy Temple.

Although such an action is rather inelegant and contrary to my Sun Knight's elegant and graceful image, there's nothing that can be done about it! This is the quickest way to finding the Cloud Knight. And besides, when everyone realized that it was Cloud that I was looking for they all looked at me understandingly, disregarding my inelegant behaviour.

As the whole continent knows, the Cloud Knight is a drifter who leads a wandering existence and who has a flighty and capricious disposition. It is said that he is most commonly found on window sills, atop the roofs and under large shady trees, where he would usually be reading books or getting lost in his thoughts.

I don't know how the previous Cloud Knight drifted or floated around, but I do know that our Cloud Knight would really float around. And furthermore, his 'drifting ability' is extremely good, for he would often 'drift' past me without me even noticing his presence…… and the best places when looking for him would be dark gloomy corners, dusty attics and unused cupboards that are rarely opened even once a year. So in short, it's best to go looking in all the dark and musty corners of the Holy Temple when looking for the Cloud Knight!

Typically, he would light a small light in those dark places and read books like, How to Excel in Divination, The Top Ten in Fortune Witchcraft, and Avoiding Bad Luck and Beckoning Good Fortune. And beside him, would be a bottle of some suspicious pitch black or murky green or blood red liquid, of which I've never quite dared to inquire about.

However, as the Holy Temple is quite extensive and holds a rather large number of dark musty places, it would be almost impossible to ferret him out from his newest hiding place.

Therefore, everyone has settled for the next best method—calling out his name while walking about the Holy Temple.

After looking for Cloud for what seems like half a day, I saw Storm walking in my direction with an unusually small stack of official documents-only ten or so of them. Even though I knew that the chances of Storm knowing Cloud's location were extremely slim, I was so frustrated by my lack of success that I couldn't stifle the desperate hope within me that led me to asking, "My brother Storm, may I ask if you noticed the direction in which our brother Cloud headed in after the meeting was over?"

Storm raised an eyebrow at me and replied with a question of his own, "Have you ever seen him other than when he is standing right in front of you?"

"Never…" I sighed. This Cloud really is like a ghost. Not only is he fond of dark gloomy corners, he walks using the Cloud Knight's specialty-the Cloud Flight Steps. Using the Cloud Flight Steps-originally designed to evade the attacks of one's opponents- he's improved it to the point where he could even evade everyone's sight…… If he did not wish for you to see him, short of growing a third eye, it would be impossible for you to spot him!

Storm nodded at my reply, but before I could leave him dejectedly, he spoke up. "And where do you most often see Cloud?"

'Where I most often see him?' I thought about it. 'The meeting room? No, I hadn't actually 'seen' him then either.

'Along the hallways? No, I've never ever 'seen' him walking in the hallways.

'Inside cupboards? Not there either! Even if I were to come across the correct cupboard, I wouldn't see him either as he would have 'blended' in with the cupboard perfectly.

'Hold on! Now that I think about it, the place I see him most often is……' A chill crept up my spine as I said tremblingly, "Behind my back……"

Storm nodded his head and pointed to behind me before continuing on his way.

I was silent for a moment before calling out experimentally, "Cloud?"

"Here."

'It really is true……' I whipped around and sure enough, I saw the figure of the Cloud Knight standing before me, his skin even paler than mine due to lack of sun exposure. I asked exasperatedly, "At what point in time did you start following behind me?"

Cloud answered respectfully in his wispy voice, "Since you came out of the prayers room that was undergoing construction and started calling out for me. I was, coincidentally, inside the book cupboard just outside the room."

"…… And you've been following me ever since? Why didn't you call out to me?"

Cloud answered weakly, "I called out to you several times, but my voice was drowned out by yours when you called my name at the same time, so you probably didn't hear me."

I was speechless.

"Just pat my shoulder next time then."

"Alright," Cloud nodded.

"You were hiding in the cupboards again?" I then asked, disapproving of his unusual habits. "Haven't I told you that that is not a place suitable for people? If you want to read your books you could go to the reading rooms. Or if you dislike others around you when reading you could go to one of the prayers rooms too. You are one of the Twelve Holy Knights; even if you were to ask for your own personal prayers room no one would object."

Cloud shook his head and said, "I wasn't hiding in the cupboards. You had forbidden me from them, so I wasn't hiding there."

"Didn't you just say that you were hiding in the cupboards?"

Cloud shook his head again. "I was hiding in the 'book cupboards'."

"…… is there a difference?"

Cloud tilted his head to one side and answered, "The cupboards have a damp mouldy smell, while the book cupboards smell of termites. Termites smell better than mould."

'Oi, oi. Wouldn't a normal person dislike both smells? And if the smell of termites is better, then why did you previously hide in the cupboards which smell mouldy anyway?'

I totally couldn't figure out Cloud's way of thinking…… 'Oh whatever! Whatever floats his boat, I guess.'

"Cloud, I want you to look for the Judge Knight in that prayers room that is undergoing construction and listen to the orders he gives you."

"Alright." Cloud nodded, turned, and then disappeared into thin air like a ghost.

I nodded my head at Cloud's obedience. He might be a bit peculiar, and hard to find, and his voice is very soft, and he may think in rather weird ways, but the best thing about him is his obedience. He would always listen to my instructions and carry them out without any questioning.

"Sun!" Someone called out at me.

Without even waiting for the person to reach me, I asked with a frown, "Something happened again?"

"How did you know?" Blaze executed a sharp brake as he stared at me in surprise, as if suspecting that I had suddenly gained the ability to see the future.

"Whenever I see you running towards me panicked, it is never a good thing." I explained, a dark look passing over my face as I recalled the last incident where Adair had nearly lost his life.

"Oh, I see……" realised Blaze, hitting his fist in his other hand, before suddenly regaining his earlier panicked state and shouted, "Wait! Why are we even discussing this?! Your Sun Knight Division has just gotten into a fight with those people from the Church of War. They've all suffered some injuries, although nothing life threatening, thankfully. They're in the great hall at the moment.

"However, those guys from the Church of War are there, too, calling out some bullshit about demanding justice. What utter bullshit! Both parties were involved in the fight; and further more, their injuries are in no way as bad as the Sun Knight Division's! It should be us who should be demanding justice from them!"

After hearing the account from Blaze, I was furious. My Sun Knight Division actually went and got involved in a group fight? And they had picked a fight with such a strong enemy, completely disregarding my warnings!

Are they trying to anger me on purpose?!

~O~O~O~O~

I rushed after Blaze in the direction of the great hall, and sure enough I saw my Sun Division knights, all of them covered in blood. I was so angry I nearly started shouting at them in front of everyone. Thankfully though, Blaze had jerked on my shirt and gestured silently at the group of warriors from the Church of War standing in the middle of the hall, thus forcing me to swallow my angry words.

Standing among the group of fifty or so warriors was the Son of War himself.

I put on a faint smile and walked towards him, passing the injured Sun Division knights without a second glance, and greeted him politely, "This Sun was not aware of the Son of War's visit, or else this Sun would have came earlier to welcome you, to show the God of Light's welcome and love of guests. Since you are now here, are you wishing of a tour of the Church of Light……"

The Son of War listened to my spiel with a steadily increasing tick in his jaw, until he impatiently interrupted me and shouted, "Cut the crap, Sun Knight! Your men have beaten up mine, and as for you-you… Well, you better give me a good explanation."

'My men beat up yours?' I gave a cold laugh inside. 'My Sun Division knights are much more heavily injured than your warriors! Furthermore, they've been strictly schooled by me and would never go against those whom they have no guarantee of winning against, so it still remains to be seen who had actually started the fight!'

The more likely event would be that after Elliot and I had stepped out to compete for the Princess' hand in marriage, he couldn't find either of us to vent out his frustration on us. As he wouldn't dare to touch the royal knights as they belonged to the King and not Elliot, he settled for the next best thing and picked a fight with my knights…… Those idiots! Hadn't I warned them not to leave the Holy Temple? See how they've ignored my warnings?!

Upon hearing his words, I had immediately arranged my face into a stern expression and said, "Indeed. As the benevolent God of Light preaches to us, we should treat all guests, especially those who have come from afar, with the utmost hospitality and respect, and not with such horrifying violence. The benevolence the God of Light bestows upon all her people and all creatures is an example that we should all follow. For it is only kindness and love that will generate kindness and love in return; violence will only invite further violence and hate. As no one would wish to be treated with violence, we should of course show our love in hopes of the others returning in kind……"

As I continued on, the Son of War's forehead knotted itself in deep frowns until at last he grabbed his head with his hands in seeming agony and roared, "Shut up!"

Following his wishes, I closed my mouth and kept quiet, all the while smiling at him warmly.

Behind me I could hear Blaze muttering, "Amazing! I had fought with him earlier but couldn't touch even a single hair on his head; yet Sun managed to give him a massive headache by just using his mouth."

"Just tell me how you intend to punish them!" The Son of War growled whilst panting heavily. 'Looks like listening to me speaking is more tiring than a fight with Blaze.'

Upon hearing him, I turned to my Sun Division knights and berated them harshly, "You all actually used violence on our guests? Have you forgotten that you are holy knights pledged to the God of Light? Do you think yourselves barbarians? Since you do not wish to act as honourable and well-behaved knights, you are all forbidden from receiving any healing from the priests. You are to go to the infirmary and bandage yourselves up before reporting yourselves to the holding cells, for you are all grounded for a month!"

The Sun Division knights hung their heads in shame as they stood up slowly and made their way out. The more severely wounded had to be held up by the others as they all limped their way out, dripping blood all over the previously spotless floor, a trail of blood marking their journey as they headed in the direction of the infirmary.

Seeing this, Blaze said quietly to me worriedly, "Sun, shouldn't you at least allow them to heal their wounds before locking them up? They are really wounded quite heavily!"

"That is their punishment," I said lightly, not budging on my decision.

The surrounding holy knights all looked on with pity and commiseration for the Sun Knight Division's plight, before turning to glare angrily at the group from the Church of War.

I, too, turned my head around and saw the satisfied smile on the Son of War's face, as well as the group of warriors behind him who were laughing at the Sun Knight Division's as their battered figures left the hall.

"I look forward to the duel two weeks from now, and in respect to the God of Light's benevolence I promise to show you some mercy. Hahaha…" laughed the Son of War mockingly.

I smiled at him and merely replied, "I thank you for your kindness."

"Hahaha……" The entire group from the Church of War laughed uproariously as they left smugly, not even bothering to take their leave with us.

It was only after the last of the group had left the Holy Temple that Blaze looked at me carefully and asked quietly, "S-Sun? Now that they're gone should I ask the priests to heal the Sun Knight Division?"

I gave him a look and he immediately shut up.

I left in search of my division knights, and after a moment's consideration Blaze, too, left after me.

Although there is more than one infirmary in whole of the Holy Temple and I never specified which infirmary they were to go to, I continued on my way without hesitation. After all, I only had to follow the trail of blood before me.

Along the way, all priests, holy knights and even the Twelve Holy Knights went white when they caught sight of my expression, before hurriedly turning back and taking a detour.

Upon reaching the infirmary, I closed the door quietly before turning around and shouted furiously at the Sun Division knights inside, "You bloody idiots! What did I always tell you?"

The knights all lowered their heads, keeping quiet.

I continued on my tirade, "Have I not told you before?! If you are going to fight someone make sure they're at least twice as weak as you are. If the opponent's quite strong, and you cannot guarantee a 200 percent chance of defeating them, then endure it and come back to tell me about it first!"

"Captain, it was they who refused to let us leave!" said Ed in a miserable tone as he bandaged his bleeding left hand.

I immediately rebutted him, "Nonsense! How can they stop you from leaving if you really wanted to? And in broad daylight too! If they were really blocking you all from leaving, the patrolling royal knights have an obligation to interfere and stop them."

"B-but, we can't leave! They were insulting your honour, captain! If we were to leave with our tails in between our legs wouldn't that just prove them right?!" shouted Ed.

Everyone started speaking up all at once, complaining, "That's right! They actually dared to say that our captain is a person who depended only on his looks, but whom lacks substance underneath!"

'That just means that I'm very good looking! What's there to be angry about?'

"And they said that holy knights know only how to take a beating and nothing else! That's just too much!"

'This… well it is true in a way… the greatest characteristics of holy knights are their defence and recovery abilities, and these two abilities do increase our ability to take beatings. When you take into account our sturdy physiques, holy knights are definitely number one in taking beatings!'

"And they also said that our captain couldn't care less what happened to us. Even if they were to kill us they said that you wouldn't dare to do anything to them anyway……"

'What?! Bullshit! If they really dared to kill you guys I would make sure that they become paralysed and can never move again! '

The third accusation finally angered me and my face darkened as I continued listening to their complaints as they bandaged themselves up. After a while and seeing that all their wounds had been seen to, I ordered them, "Report yourselves to the holding cells."

When they heard that they were still going to be locked up, they lowered their heads in dismay and were about to walk out the infirmary when there came a knock on the door.

"Who is it?" I called out, frowning. 'Which idiot would dare to interrupt me whilst I am telling off my knights?'

"Captain, it's me, Adair."

"Seeing as you've disobeyed my orders to stay in bed, your injuries must be all healed up already?"

"Yes, captain."

"Come in."

The moment he came in, Adair knelt down and said remorsefully, "Captain, if you are going to lock up the Sun Knight Division, please lock me up with them too, as all this happened because I, the vice-captain, was negligent in disciplining them."

I looked at him, and seeing his fluid motions, I could tell that his wounds were indeed all healed up. I said to him coldly, "Very well! You can all report yourselves to the holding cells."

Adair lowered his head so that I couldn't see his expression. He only said with his usual reply, "Yes, sir."

 

Previous                                                                                                             Next

Book 2: Duty 6 – The Sun Knight’s Sixth Duty: “Attend various functions and ceremonies”

*Disclaimer note: This is merely a translation of the original Chinese version. I do not claim any part in the creation of the original story.

 

After a night out drinking with Roland, I learned something new…… Death knights can also get drunk.

Although, it was fortunate that he had gotten drunk, or else I wouldn't have been able to pay off the tab by allowing the bar's female owner and all the waitresses to grope him.

I never knew Bottled Intoxication was so expensive!

I had nearly fainted at the bill. Thank goodness I had left without paying earlier in the afternoon.

We had stayed at the pub drinking way into the night, and after letting the bar owner and waitresses grope Roland to their heart's content, I had to drag a drunken corpse back to Pink's house. So by the time I came back to the Holy Temple, it was already the next morning.

Upon stepping foot into the Holy Temple, I wasn't even able to return to my room to catch a few winks of sleep when Storm had stopped me. "You have a guest," he said mysteriously, giving me a wink.

A guest? And what's with Storm's weird tone? As if he'd caught me sneaking off to meet with a secret lover…… 'Don't misunderstand me! I had merely sneaked off to drink, and it was a corpse accompanying me, not my secret lover!'

Even though I was filled with questions, I kept my smile up and asked, "May this Sun ask my brother Storm, in which visitors' hall is this guest awaiting?"

Storm shook his head and said, "How can she be waiting in the visitors' halls?!"

"Not in the visitors' halls?" I couldn't help showing my bewilderment.

Storm seemed very satisfied to see me with an expression other than my smile, for he gave a wave and said, "Follow me."

Before long, we reached a rather secluded prayers hall. Originally, this place was reserved for the holy knights who have come to pray in peace and quiet. However, I was fully aware that more often than not this place had become a place for noisy mealtimes for the rowdy knights.

The moment I entered the room and saw my guest, I understood why she would never have waited for me in the visitors' halls. The visitors' halls are open to the public, whilst this person is not someone who would carelessly show themselves to the public.

The royal family's only Princess!

I couldn't help but be impressed with her swift actions, for it was only yesterday that I had discussed the issue with Elliot, and now the very next morning she had immediately come to speak with me. I turned to Storm and said, "Brother Storm, could you please give us a little privacy?"

Storm left reluctantly, his face filled with unrelenting curiosity.

"Elliot has told me of your plans, but I refuse to work with you." The Princess declared, getting directly to the point whilst looking at me scornfully. "You must think that my brother is uncaring of my wishes and is forcing me to marry the Son of War, but let me tell you that you are wrong! My brother had previously discussed it with me and I had agreed to it. As the royal princess, sacrificing myself for the royal family is my duty!"

"I think we must have a little misunderstanding here, Your Highness." I said whilst maintaining my smile. "Please understand that no matter what happens, I will never lift a hand to harm the Hell Knight. I have sworn to the God of Light that I will always protect every one of my holy knight brothers."

Upon hearing that, the Princess seemed surprised as she looked at me doubtfully, disbelieving my words.

"However, while I might not harm him, the Pope does not think of the holy knights as his brothers. He will not spare anyone who threatens the Church of Light. And as you should know, I'm not on the best of relations with the Pope. His Eminence will not stay his hand because of me. As I cannot stay by Elliot's side twenty-four hours, once you've left to marry the Son of War, who's going to protect Elliot?"

The Princess paled at my words, her earlier determination wavering.

Judging from the situation, I knew I had a chance of persuading her to agreeing to my plan. Even if she were willing to sacrifice herself, I do not believe that she could bear to sacrifice her own beloved lover.

The Princess hesitated for quite some time when she suddenly turned to me furiously. "You actually dared to threaten me with Elliot! You are no representative of the God of Light; you are the very definition of the shameless and the despicable! Brother Sun was right about you!"

'Brother Sun? Ah, the Princess must be talking about my teacher.' My teacher has always been on rather good terms with the royal family, that's why the Princess would call him Brother Sun. Although considering the difference in their age, she should be calling him Uncle instead, but my teacher had always disliked being called anything older than 'brother'……

I asked hesitatingly, "What did my teacher say about me?"

The Princess shot me an icy look and began recounting her conversation with my teacher.

 

"What kind of person is my student? Hmm, well, I guess you could say that generally speaking he's a nice guy…… as long as you don't go up against him."

"And what if someone does go up against him?"

"Well, you would still think he is a nice guy. But you would start wondering why you seem to be really unlucky recently. When trying to get something done all sorts of problems would crop up around you, when drinking cold soup you would get scalded, when eating porridge you would choke on a bone, when walking along the palace hallways you would step on dog shit……"

"But how can anyone get scalded by cold soup? Whence came the bone when bones aren't even used in porridges? And how could there be dog shit in the clean palace hallways?"

"That's why I say that my student is 'generally speaking' a nice person, as long as you don't go against him."

 

"You aren't the so-called perfect Sun Knight, but just a sneaky underhanded little creep! Even your teacher thinks so," the Princess said angrily.

'Teacher! Your examples are too poor! If it were me I would never do something so obvious as to use cold soup to scald people! It's too noticeable!'

I frowned and explained to the Princess, "Your Highness, you can believe that I have my own personal stake in this, but do you really think that I do not honestly wish for the Hell Knight to find a happy ending with his beloved Princess?"

The Princess looked at me indifferently and said mockingly, "You don't actually think I would believe that you have Elliot's well-being in mind, do you?"

I gave a cold laugh and said, "Elliot may be one of the Twelve Holy Knights, but this secret identity of his must never be revealed. Therefore, he is only an ordinary royal knight. And as you are well aware of, it is almost impossible to overcome the hurdles of allowing the Princess of a country to marry a mere royal knight."

I then continued sarcastically, "To be honest, it would probably be easier if I were to battle the Son of War for your hand in marriage than to get you to marry a royal knight! No matter what you might say, I am the head of the Holy Temple and the representative of the God of Light."

At this the Princess started frowning, her lips pursed in anger and worry.

"And if I were to win, not only would I be elevated to the status of a noble, should the Crown Prince fail to beget an heir, my child would have a very high chance of getting the throne. What would I have against it? I, who am 'generally speaking' a nice guy, would actually give away this opportunity to Elliot after cracking my head over this for so long?"

In a move that was partly acting and partly real, I turned my head away in an upset huff, while secretly glancing at the Princess from the corner of my eyes.

She was silent for some time, her face showing clearly her doubt. When she was unable to find an answer to my questions, she finally turned to me, her voice softened from her previously hard tone, as she asked, "then why would you want to help us? After all, have we not obviously gone up against you?"

I immediately rebutted her. "'No, you have never gone against me! Elliot might not wish to continue as the Hell Knight, but he never actually harmed the Holy Temple, and whilst Your Highness might have agreed to marry the Son of War, that was merely because you were going along with the His Highness the Crown Prince's plans. With the royal family's reputation at an all-time low and the Church's rising popularity, as the next King it's understandable that he would want to try and regain the royal family's previous standing, so I do not consider him to be going against me either."

After hearing all this, the Princess looked even more confused. She no longer looked like an arrogant princess and more like a lost little girl. I smiled at her humorously and said, "You may have understood my teacher's hints not to go against me, but you forgot to ask him what I would consider going against me."

"And what would you consider going against you?"

When I didn't answer her, the Princess actually said coquettishly, "Come on, tell me! Only after you've told me can I avoid going against you, you know."

A Princess older than me acting so gave me the shivers, but as I thought about it, it seems that there is a prime example of someone going against me.

I gave a cold laugh and said, "Alright, I'll give you an example. Recently there's been this bastard who tried to kill my vice-captain, and is trying to steal one of my brother's woman, totally disregarding this Sun Knight. I swear that if I don't let him suffer some payback, my name is not Creus Sun!"

~O~O~O~O~

The Crown Prince is indeed worthy of admiration. Even for his long awaited coronation, he had showed no intention of upgrading the decorations of the royal palace.

Even though today is the new king's coronation, the palace had not undergone any changes or decorations, and only the observant would notice that the red carpets had been changed…… or were they merely washed?

It was rumoured that the Minister of Ceremonies had even approach the new king to advice (lecture) him, but the new king had merely rebutted him with a softly spoken "My father has already redecorated the royal palace several times, it is already quite lavish enough."

No wonder the Princess was so willing to marry someone she did not love, for if her brother was willing to be so selfless, how could she refuse him and say that she already had a lover and that she did not wish to marry the Son of War?

It probably didn't hurt that the Son of War wasn't actually that bad looking. When I finally caught my first look of him at the ceremony, I was annoyed to find that that guy standing opposite me, who was not too bad looking, was actually the Son of War. As the head of warriors, I had imagined him to be a tall man with bulging muscles, messy hair and scruffy looking…… but I have to admit that it couldn't be further from the truth.

He was tall and muscular, but they weren't the exaggerated muscles I had imagined. From the way he walked with light and sure steps, one could tell that this guy definitely does not depend solely on brute strength, that his speed and agility are pretty good too. And with that head of wavy black hair, he looked like a stalking panther; beautiful, sleek and deadly. No wonder then that Adair had lost to him, and nearly lost his life too.

And from the way the ladies around the ceremonial hall were stealing peeks at him, he was obviously popular with the women too…… The Crown Prince had probably sincerely believed that the Son of War would be a good match for his sister, before deciding to allow his sister to marry him. But of course, he had no idea that his sister already had a lover whom she loved with all her heart.

But back to the coronation ceremony. Although the ceremonial hall was not very lavishly decorated, it was still a very solemn and stately room. And what was most important was that the whole country was actually looking forward to his coronation, as his ascension would also mean that someone would finally be stepping down from the throne.

When the King handed over his crown to the Pope, and the Pope carefully placed the crown onto the Crown Prince's head, declaring him the new king of Forgotten Echo, there was no small number of people who had released a breath of relief.

I didn't know whether to celebrate or to mourn this occasion, for even though that piggy king's conduct was poor at best and horrifying at worst, it is easier to deal with the stupid pig king than to deal with the tiger-disguised as-a-pig king.

Sigh… looks like the easy days of dealing with the 'real pig' are over. From now on I would have to carefully tread my way around the 'fake pig'. I can only hope that I do not get eaten alive by the tiger……

As I was mourning the past days of my easy life, the dignitaries from the various countries had been approaching the King with their coronation gifts. A jewel studded dressing mirror, a complete set of expensive diamond jewellery, a jewel encrusted sword……

To be honest, while all these gifts are very expensive for sure, none of them are really priceless treasures. In fact, the gifts presented to the previous pig king on his birthday were even more impressive than these gifts. This isn't because the other countries were being stingy. Oh no, as this concerns a country's reputation, one cannot afford to be stingy in matters such as these.

The problem was that the time between the announcement of the new king's coronation and the coronation itself was too short! The countries had scrambled to find the best gifts possible but with such short notice they could only offer gifts such as jewel encrusted gold ornaments and the like……

Hmmm… if the king were to pluck the jewels off and melt down the gold, they could be recast into gold bars and sold off! No one would even notice anything.

'Crown Prince…… Ah, no! Its fake pig king now, you are simply too amazing. If we weren't on opposing sides as we are now, I would have bowed down to you to show my respect for your pulling out all the stops in your schemes to get more money. Once I've told the Pope about this, I'm sure that he too would be most impressed, and perhaps even wish to become sworn brothers with you.'

At this moment, the Son of War gestured to the warriors standing behind him, and immediately two warriors stepped forward, carrying the Church of War's coronation gifts with them and placing it before the king.

It was a shield. If one were to raise it to shield one's self from attackers, I guarantee you that no one would be able to hit it…… And if there is someone who could bear to hit a jewel encrusted gold shield, I would be the first to kill this wasteful fellow. You should know that if one were to damage even the smallest of the jewels on the shield, not even my entire salary from now (24 years old) till my fortieth birthday would be enough to pay for the damage!

The king nodded his head in appreciation, his eyes reflecting the jewels as they glinted in the light, his smile widening.

Upon seeing this, the Son of War proudly said, "This shield was crafted with the co-operation of an army of mages, jewellery smiths and goldsmiths, working together to create this marvel of art. The jewel in the centre of the shield has the emblem of Forgotten Echo carved onto it, while the surrounding circle of jewels has a mage's spell carved into them, shielding the bearer of the shield from any magical attacks. Furthermore, its defence is one of the best; even taking an axe to it would not leave a single scratch!"

Upon hearing this, the crowd in the hall started murmuring, for this gift was unarguably the most impressive of all the gifts presented today.

But inside I was secretly laughing. I bet the fake pig king would rather throw his own trusted knights in front of him than to use the shield and potentially scratch it.

"Put it away carefully," the king said to the attendants standing beside him. This was the first time he'd said anything since he started receiving the coronation gifts.

The Son of War looked on in satisfaction as the attendants carefully kept away the shield, before turning to look at me, a challenge in his eyes. "The Church of War has paid their respects to His Majesty the King. I am curious as to what the Church of Light is going to present to His Majesty?"

I stepped forward from my place amongst the Twelve Holy Knights and walked towards him on the red carpet, stopping when we were only two feet apart. I then took out a beaded bracelet. The bracelet was made from golden transparent glass beads in the shape of small roses and a single large rose in the middle. While delicately beautiful, the bracelet looked far from expensive.

I bowed to the King before saying sincerely, "This Sun has not many worldly possessions, but presents this flower bracelet-blessed by the God of Light and personally imbued by this Sun with holy light."

The King gave a polite smile and nodded, but the Son of War gave a derisive laugh while the other guests frowned, for this gift seemed to be a rather poor gift and hardly befitting a King's coronation gift.

Just then, I added, "With blessings from the God of Light, may His Majesty know only of good health for the rest of his long and prosperous life. However, should His Majesty ever suffer from an injury, he may break one of the small roses and receive the God of Light's blessings. Its effects are equal to a high level healing spell. The largest rose in the centre, however, will give His Majesty blessings equal to an Absolute Healing Spell."

Upon hearing my explanation, the King couldn't hide the pleased look on his face, and after speaking a few words with one of his trusted knights, the knight stepped forward to take the rose bracelet from me and hand it to the King. After taking a good look at it the King immediately put it on, completely ignoring the Son of War's scowling face.

I had to smile at this. 'Even though it was a gift from me, the King had still loved it,' I thought triumphantly.

After all, the one thing most feared by those in power is assassination attempts.

But with this bracelet, it would be the equivalent of carrying around a priest capable of casting eighteen high levelled healing spells and one Absolute Healing Spell (there are eighteen small roses and one large rose). And what's more, this priest could never be bribed by the enemy, nor is it a vulnerable priest-often the first to be killed by the enemy. So how can he not love this precious life-saving bracelet?

And besides, this life-saving bracelet cannot be created by any ordinary priest!

To make one of the small roses, thirty high levelled healing spells have to be cast one after another on it. As for the large rose… well……

I wasn't being stingy when I only gave the King one of them, for I had only managed to make that one large rose.

Even I who am overflowing with holy light can only cast at most ten or so high level healing spells. This bracelet had taken me a whole month to create…… 'Oh, the lengths to which I go to just to pocket the coronation gift money given by the Pope! But it's all for the sake of my retirement!'

"Captain Sun Knight!"

At this moment, a holy knight jogged over to me and reported in a low voice, "There are several necromancers rioting around the city with undead creatures."

I maintained my smile as I listened to his report, all the while looking at the Son of War standing opposite me and smiling at me gleefully…… 'You damn bastard! You dare to try to pull this trick?!'

I refuse to believe that any necromancer other than Pink-who is specially contracted by the Holy Temple-would dare to cause trouble in the city of the Church of Light's headquarters. It's not as if they feel like they have too many undead creatures and are feeling generous enough to donate a few for the Church of Light's priests and holy knights to practice on.

This is definitely the work of the Church of War!

As the whole land knows, I hate undead creatures the most, and that if an undead creature were to appear I would definitely ask to be dismissed to deal with it. And in my absence, the Church of War would then take the opportunity to ask for the Princess' hand in marriage, as well as try to garner the support of the nobles.

My expression turned severe as I said, "Necromancers actually dared to bring the undead into the city blessed and protected by the God of Light? How terrible! Listen up, give the orders to my Sun Knight Division to deal with those unblessed undead creatures. I have been thinking that they have been growing lax in their training and should step it up to ensure that they have the sufficient skills to protect this city."

"Yes, sir." The holy knight answered, and after giving me a salute he left quickly to carry out my orders.

At that moment, the Son of War opened his mouth and slowly said, "Sun Knight, the undead have appeared on such an important and auspicious day; don't you think you should look to it personally?"

I replied him in a confident tone, "Please do not worry, your grace. Today is the day of His Majesty the King's coronation ceremony, a day blessed by the God of Light. Those unblessed necromancers have not a single hope of succeeding in whatever nefarious plans they might have. I assure you that my Sun Knight Division is more than capable of defeating them. "

Heh, what's there to be worried about?

The Church of War is not at all experienced in dealing with the undead. I doubt they would dare to involve the truly powerful necromancers in their plans. Moreover, those truly powerful necromancers would never bother to get involved in affairs such as these…… If it were Pink, she probably would agree to their schemes, but necromancers like Pink are far and few between.

Besides, I am confident that this plan to let the undead run amok in the city was planned solely by the Church of War, and that the King had had no part in it.

This is because Forgotten Echo is a country which has always followed the Religion of the Light God. As such, the people are extremely unsympathetic to the undead and dark aura. Chances are that this move has instead displeased the King, for he showed no inclination of opening his mouth to command me to deal with the undead myself. Looks like he's rather angry at them.

When the Son of War saw that he could not get rid of me, he gave up and turned to the King. He then said frankly, "Your Majesty, other than coming to congratulate you on your ascending the throne, there is one other reason for our presence here."

Right away, the King put on a look of curiosity and asked, "Oh? Speak your mind."

The Son of War's gaze drifted to the Princess as he said, "I have long heard tales of the Princess' beauty and intelligence, and have always admired her. When I beheld her for the first time today, I was struck by her beauty, and knew that the rumours of her beauty had been greatly understated. This has only strengthened my resolve to take such a wonderful lady as my wife."

Although the Son of War's marriage proposal was rather sudden and inappropriate, the Church of War's warriors have never been known to mince around with their words, so regardless of his rather uncouth proposal, no one really took offence.

At this moment, several warriors started bringing forward chests after chests. The Son of War opened the first chest and the hall was immediately filled with glitter. Inside, the chest was filled to the brim with gold and jewels. The Son of War then spoke up, "This is the betrothal gift for Her Highness."

At this, all the nobles turned to look at the King. After realising that the King was not displeased, they then understood that the King already had the intention of giving his sister's hand in marriage to the Son of War. Murmurs of congratulations started up, and there were even a few who started clapping loudly while shouting out blessings for the couple.

"Hold on a minute!" I shouted, surprising the guests into silence. I then knelt down, and in my most sincere voice I asked of the King, "This Sun, too, holds the Princess dear to my heart. It is my fervent hope that His Majesty would give this Sun an equal chance to pursue the Princess' hand in marriage."

The minute my request was out my mouth, all the guests in attendance exploded into an uproar, and even the King appeared stunned…… and not to mention the Twelve Holy Knights who were staring at me with wide eyes, each looking as if they had seen a ghost instead of the Sun Knight they all knew and love (or hate, in some cases).

Storm spoke up in a disbelieving voice, "How inconceivable. I always thought that Sun's first choice for the hand in marriage was the God of Light's statue!"

The Twelve Holy Knights all nodded their head in agreement with his statement, but as expected of my not friend-friend, Judge did not.

When he saw me glancing at him, Judge reached out and patted Frost's shoulders, raising an eyebrow as if to say, 'I thought your first choice would be Frost?'

Not waiting for the King's response, the Son of War turned to me and growled, "You bastard……"

The Duke of Ceylan who had been watching the proceedings so far quickly stepped forward and stopped the Son of War from saying anything that he might regret. After calming him down, the duke turned to me with a smile and asked, "Sun Knight, since you have the intention of pursuing Her Highness' hand in marriage, you must have prepared a betrothal gift?"

Hearing this, the Son of War's face brightened and he added gleefully, "If you haven't got a betrothal gift prepared, it would mean that you are only trying to cause a disturbance here!"

"As this Sun has said earlier, this Sun has little worldly possessions, and can only offer once more the God of Light's blessings to show my sincerity," I said as I took out another rose beads bracelet. However, this second bracelet wasn't created by me, for I did not have enough time to make both gifts. Instead, I had given the method of creating the rose beads to the Pope, and in exchange he would make me 108 of the rose beads as my teaching fee.

When the King saw the second bracelet his eyes had lit up, but still he pretended to deliberate on the matter before showing a reluctant expression. 'Hmph! In my opinion he's probably trying to think of a way to avoid marrying his sister to me, and yet still keep the bracelet!'

He gave a deep sigh (can't think of a way of keeping the bracelet huh?), turned to his sister and asked, "They are both fine young men, my sister, and they both seem to be sincere in their love for you. What say you to this?"

Now, according to the King's script, the Princess should hesitate for a few moments before demurely glancing at the Son of War……

But as the saying goes, 'man proposes, but God disposes'. The Princess' gaze remained firmly glued to her hands lying in her lap, and instead the royal knight standing behind her leapt out.

The royal knight-Elliot- bowed to the King while proclaiming loudly, "You majesty, I am the one who loves the Princess with all my heart! W-we are in love with each other!"

Upon hearing this, the crowd turned to look at the Princess. The Princess did not show any intention of denying his statement. To a well-born lady of her status, her silence would be equal to acknowledging his words.

The entire hall was in an uproar, for no one would have thought that the Princess, who had previously never received a single proposal, would suddenly be inundated with three all at once. What the hell is going on?

The King obviously did not foresee things going this way, for he just sat there looking stunned, before suddenly turning to glare at me.

'Your Majesty, you are far too shrewd…… But even though it is my fault, you needn't glare at me so obviously.' After showing my surprised look, I quickly arranged my expression to look at the King's glare with puzzlement, as if wondering what would cause him to glare at me so.

Seeing this, he hurriedly turned to look back at Elliot, a frown gracing his forehead.

The King's two trusted knights quickly stepped forward; the younger one who looked to be about thirty or so shouted at Eliot, "Elliot! Stop fooling around! The Princess is not someone you can hope to match with!"

Elliot ignored him and instead looked at the older knight, an expression of shame and guilt on his face, but even so he still gave the knight a pleading look. Upon seeing this, the older knight gave a sigh but he did not speak to lecture him.

At this moment, Storm neared me and whispered in my ear, "That older knight may not have been Elliot's official teacher, but he seems to be very fond of him and would often teach him many things. He could be considered half a teacher."

I nodded my head while trying to stop myself from smiling gleefully. 'Hahaha! I never knew about this, looks like Elliot's chances of winning has just increased significantly!'

"Who would have thought that Elliot would have the guts…… But then again, Sun actually having something going on with the Princess is even more surprising," said Storm with a sigh as he talked quietly with Leaf and Blaze. As they were some distance away, I had to strain my ears to hear him.

'Ho-hold on! Whoever said I had something going on with the Princess?!'

"No wonder I had heard from the Sun Division knights that Sun had forced Elliot to drink wine till he was stoned for no apparent reason. Now I see that it was a fight between rivals. And the Princess had secretly come looking for Sun the next day, most probably to explain things after having being caught two-timing them."

Storm had a look of content on his face as he revealed the ultimate gossip, while the other Twelve Holy Knight standing nearby all perked up their ears as they eavesdropped on the conversation.

'I see, so it isn't just my Sun Division knights who are gossipy…… it's the entire Holy Temple! And you call yourselves holy knights?! Why don't you just call yourselves the gossipy knights?!'

Whilst complaining about them in my mind, the King had asked sternly, "Sister, do you really like Elliot?"

In reply to his question the Princess nodded quietly. The King became silent again.

As his silence grew, his face grew darker and darker, and no one dared to speak a word for fear of worsening to situation. The entire hall elapsed into an awkward unbearable silence. Even the Son of War kept quiet despite his obvious confusion with the situation; he merely frowned as he looked between me and Elliot with an unfriendly look.

After the stiff silence had gone on for some time, I broke it by speaking slowly, "How about this, let us settle this dispute with our swords, as in accordance with the knight's code of honour."

'What? This sentence sounds familiar to you? Ahem!…… the dead have no intellectual rights!'

The Son of War's face immediately lit up at this and he immediately agreed, "This is a good idea, warriors use their swords to settle their disputes!"

'Duh!' I knew he would agree for he knew that I am not very good with the sword; and as a mere knight, Elliot had no blessings from the Gods. Also, in terms of jobs, Elliot is at a disadvantage. The warriors are good at one-on-one battles, while knights specialise in group battles. Everyone knew this.

"Then so be it!"

With that declaration, the King turned and left abruptly. Judging from his dark expression he was in a mighty fine temper.

I secretly smiled. 'Step one-complete.'

Just then, Leaf rushed towards me and patted my back comfortingly. "Don't feel too sad, Sun. There's plenty of fish out there in the sea. It doesn't matter if you can't marry the Princess."

"I'm on pretty good terms with Elliot; I'll ask him not to make things difficult for you," said Storm as he, too, patted my back, acting all 'we're bros, don't worry, I'll protect you'.

"If that Son of War beats you up too badly, I'll definitely help you get revenge on him!" said Blaze, waving his fist at an imaginary foe.

"S-Sun, don't worry, even though it g-goes against the rules, I'll s-still help to block the fatal blows…… even though t-there'll be a lot of them, I won't give up on saving you!" Earth's words are a hundred times more poisonous than Metal's!

"…… can you guys not have a little more confidence in me?"

Upon hearing that, the Cold Blood Faction merely gave me a cold look, but the Good Warm Faction instead said in unison, "We do! We are confident that with your recovery abilities they wouldn't be able to beat you to death. That's why we can confidently allow you to step up and get beaten up!"

'Why is it that the Cold Blood Faction's cold looks don't chill me at all, while instead the Good Warm Faction's words make me feel like I'm in the middle of a freezing blizzard……?'

 

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