Book 2: Duty 2 – The Sun Knight’s Second Duty: “Smile, wave, and be the Church’s walking billboard!”

*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 the tribute ceremony was over, and in accordance with tradition, the future king is to parade around the city, while the Twelve Holy Knights tag along behind.

So after dragging me away from my breakfast, Storm and Blaze helped me up onto my horse, before they themselves get onto their own horses, with Leaf and the rest of the Good Warm Faction following behind.

The only person riding abreast with me was the Judge Knight. And following behind him were the rest of the Cold Blood Faction.

Ahead of us was the Crown Prince-the future king. Riding to his left and right are his most trusted royal knights. Judge and I followed behind, covering his back.

The tribute song God of Light's Melody seem to be having a good effect on the people, as they were very excited and enthusiastic as if the God of Light Herself had descended in front of them. The streets were filled with people, all cheering so loudly that my eardrums were close to bursting.

Tsk, tsk.

I think the only time the people were this excited was when the world famous theatrical troupe visited the city to perform one of their plays a few years ago. As for the His Majesty the King's inspection tour…… well, it would be considered successful if it did not degenerate into a vegetable market, with everyone trying to score a hit on His Majesty.

I believe that the last time that fat pig had come out for one of his tours, the tomatoes had been growing particularly well…… In the end, all the royal knights accompanying the King on that particular inspection had sworn off eating tomatoes forever. This is another reason why the King was so unpopular with his own knights-after accompanying the King on several inspection tours, the knights were unable to look at vegetables without puking anymore.

The parade tour had only just begun, but Judge had been giving me several little glances. To the unknowing bystanders, it probably looked like he was glaring at me, but I knew that that was his concerned look. Due to my extreme hunger my face was probably as white as flour.

The Judge Knight sat ramrod straight astride his mount, his eyes focused on the road ahead. The aura he emitted was dark and intimidating, and all in all he looked aloof and distant; but from his mouth came the concerned words, "You doing alright?"

"Not at all! I'm hungry! I'm going to die from hunger! I want to eat blueberry jam sandwich, I want to eat honey oat biscuits, I want to drink milk." I muttered as I smiled and waved at the people all around me. It's not like it matters what I say right now. It's so noisy they can't possibly hear me. They'll probably think that I'm talking about the God of Light's benevolence or shit like that.

"… …"

The corners of Judge's lips gave a little twitch-looks like he's close to smiling. Luckily after more than ten years of training, his ability to maintain his cool and stern demeanour rivals my own ability to fake my smile. He managed to push down the corners of his lips, giving off the appearance that he was in an extremely bad mood. However, out of the corner of his lips he whispered quietly, "Be patient just a little longer, you'll get to eat your breakfast soon."

Be patient just a little longer? Let me see, at the rate we are going at right now, the time necessary to complete a round of the city would take up…… a whole. Fucking. Day!

Are you kidding?! I'd probably faint from hunger halfway through!

The Sun Knight falling off his horse… can that be considered horse riding?! My horse riding skills may be rather lousy nothing great to speak off, but I must be able to at the very least stay on my horse.

 

Back then, this was what my teacher had told me:

"Child, even though you are a holy knight, it's alright if your sword skills are poor! That can be overlooked, for at least your self-recovery abilities are extremely good-you don't have to worry about dying even if the enemy were to cut you up a little."

I was thirteen that year and had been learning sword skills from my teacher for three years. All the other future Twelve Holy Knights had successfully passed the intermediate level of swords fighting. Judge had actually passed the advanced level a year
ago, but I was the only one who had yet to even pass the basic elementary level, despite trying and failing three times already.

"Child, even though you are a holy knight, it's alright if you are unable to attain frenzy! At least you know how to cast the priests' special defensive spells-Holy Blessings. After all, its effects are more or less the same as frenzy."

I was sixteen that year and had been learning from my teacher for six years. All the other future Twelve Holy Knights had already successfully attained frenzy. I was the only one unable to do so. I'd like to add that Judge had successfully attained frenzy when he was thirteen.

"But my child! As a holy knight, you cannot not know how to ride a horse! Is there such a thing as a knight who does not know how to ride a horse? Of course not! Why, you might as well you go and create a holy infantry division yourself!"

At that time behind me, Earth just happened to clear the highest hurdle in the horse racetrack, his skill and posture so perfect that even I felt like cheering.

'Hmm… now that I think back on it, perhaps our enmity had started back when I was sixteen years old.'

In the end, my teacher got so angry and frustrated with me that he raised his Holy Sun Blade, held it to my neck and said, "Get on the horse. If you dare to fall off, I will immediately send you off to meet with the God of Light so you can suggest to Her the possibility of creating a holy infantry!"

Because I had been scared stiff and dared not move, as well as because the horse under me had also been frightened by my teacher's wrath that it, too, dared not move-with both man and beast scared stiff, I was thankfully spared the fate of being sent off to meet with the God of Light.

However ever since, I no longer dared to fall off my horse…… at least, not unless I was a hundred percent sure that my teacher was not present. And now at such a huge event, I cannot possibly know for sure if my teacher might just happen to be standing in some corner watching on. If I were to really fall off my horse, next year tomorrow might just become the first anniversary of my death.

But if this continues and I have to suffer my hunger for an entire day, I cannot guarantee that I would not fall off my horse, weak from hunger. So I hurriedly turned to Judge for help. "Judge, do you have any blueberry biscuits with you right now?"

"No."

Judge gave me a look, and at my terribly pale face he hastily added, "Don't worry, the Crown Prince is busy with a lot of national matters. He has only arranged for the parade to go along the main streets. It should only take half a day."

Upon hearing that I still had half a day to wait, my face turned gloomy…… Ah, no! Wrong. My face always maintains its brilliant smile.

And my left hand was still waving elegantly at the citizens crowding around in the streets. But at the news that I had half a day to go, I immediately adjusted the speed, my waving hand getting slower and slower……

 

"Child, it is now time to teach you how to wave to the people."

"Teacher, do you even have to teach a person how to wave?"

"Child, at your usual waving speed, how many times do you wave in a minute?"

One minute later…

"Teacher, eighty-eight times."

"Okay. Now tell me this, how long did it take the last time I had accompanied His Majesty the King on his city tour?"

"I think it took about three hours."

"Now the next question is a mathematical one. If you were to wave at a rate of eighty-eight times a minute, and you had to wave for three hours continuously, how many times would you have to wave? "

"15,840 times."

"This next one is a question regarding one's physical health. If you had to wave your hand continuously 15,840 times, what do you think would happen to your hand and wrist?"

"…… I don't know."

"So, my child, do you want to learn from me how to only wave a thousand times in any parade, or would you rather wave 15,840 times in any and all future parades?"

"Teacher! Please teach me how to wave my hand!"

 

The longer the parade will take, the slower the speed of waving, and the wider the angle of each wave. At the same time, one's upper arm should remain in a naturally downward sloping position, bending only at the elbow to move one's forearm to wave, thus utilising the most energy efficient way as well as the least number of times possible to wave continuously at any crowd, ensuring that one's arms retain the capability of holding one's lover at night…… ah, no! I mean practising one's sword skills and correcting work documents!

This is the secret to the art of waving, passed down to me from my teacher!

Although I am armed with the art of hand-waving, I still find myself faced with a dilemma. Just now Judge had said that the parade would last up to half a day, which would mean about five hours. If I were to adjust my hand-waving speed to wave only a thousand times in five hours, that would mean that I can only wave two hundred times per hour, 3.33 times each minute, once every twenty seconds.

Twenty seconds to complete one wave?!

This-isn't this is a little too slow?! At such slow speeds people might think that my arm was spasming instead of waving.

While pondering on how to solve my problem, Storm's voice spoke up from behind. "Sun, could I talk with you for a while?"

"Brother Storm, are you yearning to share tales of the God of Light's benevolence or Her mercy?"

'Please do!' I was just thinking of talking with someone to kill some time, so that I can speed up my hand-waving later on, but here Storm was, asking to talk to me before I had even asked.

But it's strange that Storm would take the initiative to chat with me. He always complained that talking with me was an extremely tiring process-even more tiring than having to wink at a hundred women. He said that speaking with me for ten minutes is enough to send him into a deep sleep at night because he would be so tired out from our conversation.

"There's no need to talk about anything in particular, anything is fine. I just want to pretend to talk with someone," explained Storm hastily after the suspicious look I gave him. He then further added, "As you know, there are more than a hundred women on each street, and this parade would pass through quite a number of streets. If I were to wink at every single woman on this city tour, I would become blind! That's why my teacher taught me a technique of winking only a thousand times in a single parade! "

"… …" Why does this sound so familiar? (-.-")

At that moment, Storm winked at another two women in the crowd and smiled flirtatiously, inciting excited shrieks from the crowd of females. He then directed his horse to move ahead and to the side of me as he began 'talking' with me.

"My teacher often told me that for some strange reason, women always like to see two good-looking men standing close to each other. As the Sun Knight is always a beautiful man-even if he were one of the more average-looking ones he would still be far from ugly-so it is always best to talk with the Sun Knight. I would not even have to wink at a single woman during the whole parade, if I were to just place my hand on your shoulder, or to push back a stray lock of your hair, it is enough to send the women into a screaming and fainting frenzy."

Upon hearing this, I entire body went stiff and I unconsciously gave a little kick to my horse's belly. My horse instantly and beautifully leapt to the side. In that one moment, I felt as if the horse and I were one. My revulsion at the thought of being touched by another male was successfully conveyed to my horse, leading it to co-operate with me so well!

'O' horse of mine! You must be a stallion for sure, my good brother! I promise to reward you with the best hay I can find later when we return to the Holy Temple.'

"… … Don't worry. I have no interest in touching a guy either. I'll still wink my thousand winks, but just talk with me for a while so I can kill some time."

I released a breath of relief. Thank goodness I don't have to be touched by Storm. If I had to choose between letting him touch me and having to wave 25,840, I'd rather choose the latter. I mean, it's not like I have any lover to hold at night, so it wouldn't matter if I were to lose my hands or not.

I smiled and asked, "Then does my brother wish to talk of the God of Light's merciful nature or Her benevolence and generosity?"

"Er……" Storm looked like he was having a hard time choosing between the both undesirable topics.

After that to avoid hearing me speak of the God of Light's mercy and benevolence, Storm would chat nonstop, hardly daring to let me cut in with a word. But this suited me just fine-not only did I not have to wave my hand, I did not even have to open my mouth to speak either. If you ignore the fact that I'm extremely famished, I could say that I have no complains whatsoever about my current situation.

'Hungry, hungry, I'm so hungry……'

I turned to considering Storm, looking him up and down. I wonder, if a person could be eaten, which part would taste the best? The breast? Or the thigh? or maybe even the calf……?

The flood of words from Storm slowed down and finally stopped. He asked me strangely, "Did I say something wrong? Sun, why are you looking at me like that?"

I was jerked out of my fantasizing by his question. I just shook my head at him and looked down, deciding not to look at Storm anymore. I don't want him to say that I had been looking at him strangely again. But when I looked down and saw the two perked up ears of my mount, I began drooling once again. Since roasted pig ears taste so good, roasted horse ears shouldn't taste that bad, right?

"Su- Sun?" Storm called out to me hesitatingly, but I was too busy salivating over horse ears to pay him any attention. He then called out in a louder voice, "Sun! Quick, look there, there's some disturbance in the crowd over there."

I raised my head just in time to see a large and juicy tomato up high in the sky. The tomato contrasted rather nicely with the clear blue sky to look deliciously red and ripe…… It looks sooo good!

The thrown tomato in the air curved and started to fall back down as gravity kicked in, creating a beautiful red arc……

Splat!

……and finally landed on Judge. The whole street instantly became quiet as a grave.

'Yay! This is great! Since we're such good friends, it shouldn't be a hard thing to ask Judge for a tomato!' I thought. I swallowed the saliva pooling in my mouth before opening my mouth to ask, "Judge……" '…please give me the tomato!'

I had not finished my request when Judge calmly flicked the tomato from his uniform. Then in a show of superb horsemanship, he directed the horse to stomp on the tomato.

He said coldly to the culprit who had thrown the tomato, "If something like this occurs again, this is what will happen to you."

The guy gulped nervously as he looked at the completely squashed tomato, his previous bout of courage deserting him. He immediately turned tail and disappeared into the crowd.

'Judge……' I looked at the remaining tomato juices on his uniform, and then turned to look down at the squashed tomato. 'My tomato! You idiot!'

'Why throw it at Judge? Why not throw at me instead?

'I'm already so hungry to the point of thinking of eating horse ears, why didn't you just throw it to me so I can eat it?!'

That tomato was so juicy and smelled so good! Even though it had been completely squashed by Judge's horse, it still smelled just as appetizing. No, in fact it actually smells even better after all its juices had burst out! I really feel like eating tomatoes. I had forgotten to mention to Adair earlier to prepare my dessert. First I'll eat my blueberry jam sandwich, then I'll wash it down with a glass of milk while leisurely dipping my honey oat biscuits in the milk and eat them, and afterwards I'll follow it with a large juicy tomato. Ah… that would be utter bliss.

"Sun Knight, can you please…… Sun Knight? Is that OK?"

'Huh? What? Hmm… my honey oat biscuits, yum…'

I smiled distractedly as I mumbled, "Honey… …"

"Ah?"

"Sun Knight, do you really need to think so long on a name? Please hurry up and stop wasting my time."

Upon hearing Judge's cold and deep voice, I was instantly jolted from my daydreaming. As I looked about and took in the scene around me, I could see a couple standing in front of me. From their bearing and demeanour I could tell that they were husband and wife; and held in the arms of the wife was a newly born baby. Thinking back on Judge's words-'think so long on a name', I instantly grasped the situation.

Right away I smiled brilliantly at them and said, "Let's call her-Honey. May she grow up to be as sweet as honey, a sweet and gentle girl who will be well loved by all."

I shouldn't be wrong! They must be asking me to name the baby. I've already experienced this same situation so often now that whenever I see a baby less than a week old, I would have the reflexive impulse to start thinking of a name for them.

"Ah!" The crowd around us cheered and congratulated the couple and their newly named baby. "What a beautiful name! Honey, little Honey!"

Phew!

I was right! Thank goodness for my fast reaction. I managed to escape a potentially embarrassing situation. I'm actually quite impressed with myself, to be able to turn around the awkward situation……

However… the married couple don't seem to be very pleased with the name I gave? They had some pretty strange expressions on their face…?

Now that's weird. Typically parents only ask me to name their babies as a blessing to their newborn child. So as long as the name isn't too weird or anything they would usually just accept the name happily. The name Honey might be a little unusual, but it's not as if it actually sounds bad…… right? (Could just call her 'Honey, I'm home!' :p)

At this time, Storm came up to me, an awkward expression on his face as he whispered into my ear, "Their baby is a boy, not a girl."

"… …"

 

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Book 2: Duty 1 – The Sun Knight’s First Duty: “Eat Breakfast!”

*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.

 

"Captain Sun Knight, Captain Sun Knight……"

Mmm…… hmm…? I flipped to my other side and buried my head under my pillow. 'There… shouldn't be able… to hear… anything now……'

"Captain Sun Knight!"

I could still hear something. I slowly pulled my head from under the pillow, and slowly sat up. My eyes may be open, but everything was still a blur to me. I was completely unable to focus on anything…… I can therefore conclude that this is NOT my usual waking time!

'Which bastard dared to interrupt my beauty sleep?!'

In a voice lower than my usual one by a whole octave I called out, "May I ask if the holy knight brother outside had been enlightened by the God of Light, and thus come a knocking on this Sun's door to exchange words of Her love and benevolence?"

The person outside sighed in relief, before swiftly changing back to the previous urgent tone. "Captain Sun Knight! It is Adair! Have you forgotten? Today is Sunday."

"Sunday…… is a public holiday!" Once I had figured that out, I fell back onto my bed, pulled up the covers and wrap myself in it.

"No, Captain. Today is your turn to preside over the worship service, have you forgotten? Captain? Captain……"

The calls became softer and softer. I was very satisfied with this. I may still be able to continue on sleeping in completely chaos, but I'd sleep better if there was no one bothering me. Since it's a Sunday I'll sleep till noon before getting up to eat my lunch……

Bang!

I jumped up from bed in a panic. 'What is it? What's happened?'

"Captain Judge Knight, please don't be so rude……"

I turned to see Judge Knight slamming the door close on Adair, nearly taking out his nose. I have to say, that Adair is not very tactful to dare to talk to Judge in that tone. Even I dare not talk to him that way!

"That vice-captain of your still isn't very flexible. He should have just come in and wake you up instead of calling from outside your door."

The moment the door was closed, the harsh lines of Judge's stern face relaxed a little. He shook his head saying, "With that kind of person as your vice-captain, it is no wonder your Sun Division is always stirring up trouble. Just three days ago they had ambushed the Duke of Ceylan's third son. The Duke was furious and had brought this matter up with the Crown Prince."

"Err…… I'm also very troubled about this matter!" I said. I then sighed, "But it can't be helped, you know how he is, he's just one of those obstinate types!"

I'm not sure if I'm just imagining it, but Judge's deep black eyes seemed to be looking at me meaningfully as he said, "However something about this strikes me as strange. The Duke's third son is a good and honourable knight; he couldn't have done anything to anger the Sun Division. He may have been involved in the earlier case as the person who had disposed of the body, but he was just following the King's orders."

"I don't know. Maybe he accidently stepped on Adair's foot or something? I'm sure you're aware that I rarely interfere in the Sun Division's matter and leave everything to Adair." I shrugged my shoulders, bemused.

Judge frowned at that but did not rebut me, only saying, "It's all in the past anyway. Ask them not to keep picking fights with the third son, or the Crown Prince would be in a difficult position."

I nodded my head obediently and said, "Okay, I'll give them a warning."

Judge then gave me another glance and reminded, "You should start getting ready. The ceremony is starting soon. You only have 30 minutes to spare."

I stared blankly at him. 'The ceremony…? Ah! Is it my turn already to preside over the worship service?'

Every Sunday, the Church of Light will hold a worship service to pay tribute to the God of Light. Its itinerary mainly consists of the priests giving a long sermon on the God of Light's benevolence, as well as recounts of some of the tales of the past Twelve Holy Knights, before everyone sing some songs praising the God of Light. And lastly is the most important event—donations!

Anyway, the Twelve Holy Knights all take turns to preside over the ceremonies, and this Sunday must be my turn again.

Judging from my surprised expression, Judge understood that I had just fully awakened and had finally realised the situation. He said calmly, "Now that you know, hurry up and get ready. You still have 30 minutes, should be plenty of time to spare-"

"What?! Only 30 minutes!" I yelped. "30 minutes is definitely not enough time for me to comb my hair, put on my facial mask, get the steaming iron hot enough to iron my clothes, shine my shoes……"

Judge's eye twitched at this and said, "If that's so then I'll leave you to it," before quickly leaving. He had probably left in such a hurry because he had previously accidently seen me with my green face mask on. Unfortunately, I had been standing in the shadows at that time and had startled him into drawing his sword, nearly slicing me in two.

'Honestly. What's there to be scared of? I now only make pink face masks.'

Speaking of face masks… Thank goodness I had the foresight to make a new batch last night, or else I would never be ready with just 30 minutes. Now, first I'll start heating the iron, then I'll wash my face before putting on the mask, and following that I'll comb my hair with my left hand while I shine my shoes with my right. By then the iron should be ready and I can then start ironing my clothes……

With five minutes left to spare I was at last ready, and I elegantly walked out my room. Standing just outside my door was Adair, waiting for me.

"Adair," I greeted him with a smile.

"Yes, Captain Sun Knight," Adair immediately saluted me.

I gestured at him, signalling to him for us to set off.

"This Sun has heard that you and the rest of the division had ambushed the Duke of Ceylan's third son, and beaten him up…… "

As we walked to our destination, my face turned sorrowful, and I gave a sigh. "Violence is not something the benevolent God of Light approves of."

But Adair interrupted agitatedly, "But he had stabbed you back at the execution grounds. It is unforgivable for him to have injured you so badly……"

"Adair!" I cut him off. I reprimanded him, "The Church of Light's teachings tell us that no matter how serious the crime, as long as the offender truly repents his actions, we have to forgive them and accept them with a kind and merciful heart. This is the God of Light's merciful teachings. Do you understand, Adair?"

"Yes," nodded Adair. "I will beat him up until he repents his actions," he then muttered.

I sighed elegantly and said, "Adair, you still do not understand. The Sun Division's conduct should reflect the God of Light's kindness and goodwill, instead of inflicting violence upon others."

"Understood," Adair nodded once more before mumbling softly, "We will cover his head first with a bag so he won't know that it was us."

'Ah-ha! Adair, oh Adair. You are so smart! As can only be expected of my-personally hand selected-vice-captain.'

I nodded my head in satisfaction.

As we neared the great hall where the service was held I stopped and turned to smile at Adair. "With Her Holiness the God of Light's love shining down upon the earth, I believe the blueberries must be growing in great abundance, the wheat plants bursting with her love, and even milk would taste as sweet as honey! I am grateful indeed for Her caring love, for Her providing such food to Her people."

Adair respectfully noted it all down, "Yes, I will prepare your breakfast. One blueberry jam sandwich and milk, and perhaps some honey oat biscuits to go with?"

I nodded my head, extremely satisfied as I watched Adair leave to prepare my breakfast. When he met one of the Sun Division's holy knights on his way, he stopped and ordered them, "Go cover that bastard knight's head with a bag and beat him up till he can't even open his mouth to repent!"

'Ah. Adair, you managed to so succinctly put the words to my meaning. With a vice-captain such as you, what more could I ask for? ...... except perhaps a blueberry sandwich and a glass of milk?' After rushing for half an hour I'm beginning to feel a little hungry!

'Hmmm… should I wait to eat my breakfast before going over to the service?' Even though I'm supposed to be presiding over the service, I'm actually just there as decoration. The ones who actually preside over the service are the priests from the Hall of Light.

"Oh my? Is this not our most brilliant Sun Knight? Why has he not entered the hall yet, instead of standing around here like a pillar blocking our way? Ha! And a glowing pillar to boot. How pretty this pillar looks with all the light shining on him!"

These remarks…… I blinked and turned around. 'Yup, it's Cold Blood Faction's Metal Knight.'

The whole continent knows that the Metal Knight is famous-or rather, infamous-for his razor sharp tongue and venomous words, capable of infuriating even the most patient of saints. It is said that talking with him for ten minutes will shorten one's life by a year.

However, I don't really see why people say so about him. His words don't sound that insulting to me. In fact, it sometimes sounds as if he were actually complimenting me. Just take that last sentence of his for example. '… how pretty…… with all the light shining on him…' Is this really all that venomous?

He should instead say: 'Your hair looks really yellow like frog shit. You sure you hadn't mistaken frog shit for your hair serum and mistakenly applied it to your hair instead? No wonder I'd always thought you smelled a little funny. Now that I take a closer sniff, the smell is coming from your hair!'

Now that's venomous!

This is why I often suspect that Metal's real personality must not be venomous at all. Of course, I don't know what he really is like because I'm not that close with him. Every time I tried asking Judge he would clam up and refuse to answer me; and if Judge doesn't want to say something, no one can force him-not even the God of Light Herself.

Following behind Metal is another of the Cold Blood Faction's knights. This one however is one I'm more familiar with. He is the Moon Knight, the whole continent knows that he's autistic…… cough! I mean, he's famous for being narcissistic and arrogant and a completely antisocial person. His nose is forever in the air as he looks down his nose at others and being a total condescending bastard.

Because of this, I had had a very poor impression of him at first. After all, no one likes being looked down upon with disdain.

However one day, I had chanced upon him bent over on the ground feeling around for something. The thing is, his head was still lifted high in the air and he was not looking at the ground at all! How can anyone find anything like this?!

He eyes were obviously in good working condition, yet he was feeling around for something on the ground like a blind. And the object he was looking for was plainly beside him at his feet, yet he could not seem to find it. The scene was absolutely hilarious!

After watching him for half an hour and having laughed at him to my satisfaction, I lazily gave a yawn and walked over to pick up a very beautiful and intricately designed silver bookmark, before handing it to him.

"Thanks," He let out a sigh of relief as he took back the bookmark, and-completely opposite to his usual arrogant expression-gave a small but sweet smile.

As I bit into the pie Frost had thrown at me earlier I asked him, "A gift from your lover?"

"How did you know?"

Moon turned to me, startled. When he realised who I was his face went blank. I was pretty sure that when he had taken back the bookmark earlier he had had no idea that it was I, the Sun Knight, who had given it to him.

With his true colours exposed, he looked rather lost and unsure. "Sun Knight……"

I casually took out a second piece of pie and asked him, "Frost made this blueberry pie, do you want one? No need to be shy, I had already given a piece to Judge earlier."

"…… thanks."

Then, as he ate the pie he complained to me of the hardships of having to keep up the Moon Knight's image. Because he had to lift his nose in the air all the time, the muscles in his neck had stiffened until he was no longer able to bend his head down anymore……

How terrible can not bending down one's head be, I asked.

Moon gave a long sigh as he looked at the ceiling above us before explaining it to me. "If I were to drop anything, it could take me more than half an hour to locate it."

I nodded at this, for I had already seen proof of this earlier.

He could not make use of his considerable height to look down the female priests' top…… cough!

And lastly-and perhaps worst of all-is that he could not bend down to kiss his girlfriend, for how to kiss one's shorter girlfriend when one's head is lifted up?

"Then what do you do? Do you locate a ladder for your lover to climb up?" I asked anxiously. After hearing of his sorrowful plight, I felt closer to him now that I could relate to his problems.

"I can't always look for a ladder, now can I? Besides, ladders are usually located around places where people are sure to walk by, it's not very private." Moon answered me openly. "So I had no choice but to look for a girlfriend even taller than me."

"Hey, you must be at least 180 cm……"

"My girlfriend's 182 cm, and every time she comes out on a date with me she would put on high heels that are at least four-inches high. This way she could bend down her head to kiss me."

How-how tragic!

I sigh sadly for Moon's tragic plight before telling him of the tragic spot my position as the Sun Knight had placed me into. "The Sun Knight can only love the God of Light, but not women……"

I had only spoken one sentence, but Moon had immediately looked horrified, exclaiming, "Awful! How awful. That's just too tragic!"

Fuck!

~O~O~O~O~

Anyway since then, I have another 'friend who is not a friend' among the Cold Blood Faction.

Now back to reality. I smiled at Metal Knight and said, "This must be one of the God of Light's blessings, letting this Sun meet my two brothers on such a lovely morning. This is a really beautiful start to my day. However, this Sun has to leave to preside over the service and cannot stay to talk with my brothers. This Sun is extremely apologetic about this, but after this Sun has paid tribute to the God of Light's wonderfulness this Sun will definitely seek out my brothers, so that we may continue our exchange of the God of Light's benevolence."

'Of course, it won't be my fault if I am unable to find you guys.' I thought internally.

Upon hearing this, both Metal Knight and Moon Knight were taken aback. Metal was so surprised that he even forgot to be his venomous self and blurted out, "Sun Knight, did you not know that today is the tribute ceremony for the King's coronation?"

Moon Knight on the other hand was looking down at me at a rather condescending angle. But he cannot be blamed for this, because for someone who cannot bend his head down this is the only way he can look at people.

He too added, "All the Twelve Holy Knights are required to come, even I am here."

The tribute ceremony for the future King's coronation…… Why is it that I had heard nothing about it?!

"Morning, Sun Knight." Storm had arrived as I stood there blankly, walking up to me in a relaxed manner and patted me on the shoulder as he said, "Good luck with today's solo."

I slowly turned my head to look at him and asked carefully, "Solo?"

"… …"

Storm slowly withdrew the hand on my shoulder, and slowly backed away before asking me warily, "Yeah? According to tradition when a new King is crowned the Twelve Holy Knights would all perform a tribute song together, and both you and Judge Knight would each sing a solo to show your blessings for the new king's rule. And hadn't you picked the most difficult song-the God of Light's Melody? Everyone is looking forward to hearing you as it has not been performed in over twenty years."

God of Light's Melody?! That incredibly high pitch song-so high you could even reach the God of Light Herself in the sky; a song so long that it takes half an hour to sing; its verses so long and complicated that you could even call it a book; the song known as the Church of Light's most nonsense-filled tribute song? That song?!

Someone must be trying to set me up!

Judging from my frozen smile and twitching eye, Storm finally realised that I knew nothing about choosing the God of Light's Melody. He hesitantly stepped closer and whispered, "I heard from one of the royal maids that ever since the Duke of Ceylan's son was beaten up by your Sun Division, he's been looking for a way to get revenge on you. Seeing as the Crown Prince had not stopped him, he too, probably wants you to make a fool of yourself to decrease your popularity among the people."

'I see. Like I said, someone's trying to set me up!'

There's no way the Duke of Ceylan would have just complained to the Crown Prince and leave it at that. And the Crown Prince must have had an inkling about my involvement in that Death Knight case. Even though my involvement had ultimately allowed him to finally attain the throne-so he won't exactly try to get revenge on me, but the fact that I had dared to set up a king had probably unsettled him; after all, he is the next king.

Storm recommended, "Just change songs. They probably only want you to switch songs at the last moment and embarrass yourself, and not for you to really sing the song. The Crown Prince would not be pleased if you bungled up the song and ruined his tribute ceremony."

My warm smile still remained on my face, but inside, I was giving a cold laugh. 'Heheh… humiliate myself?

'Don't joke around, I'm the Sun Knight! Even when falling down, the Sun Knight still maintains his grace and elegance; how can you say that the Sun Knight would humiliate himself?! If my teacher were to catch wind of me embarrassing myself in front of the whole country……' I shuddered at my bleak prospects should that really happen.

God knows where that teacher of mine is right now. Why, he might even be right outside in the crowd waiting to watch my performance!

"Brother Storm, this Sun believes that with the God of Light's blessings he will be able to perform the God of Light's Melody, and so spread Her Holiness' kind and gentle love to Her treasured people."

"Sun, don't joke around," said Storm urgently, his face had blanched at my words. "The God of Light's Melody is not a song that one can sing without any preparations. Furthermore, you have to constantly exude Holy Light whilst you perform. Not even the head priests can keep that up for 30 minutes continuously…… no!

"Even before that, remember that you have to perform another tribute song with all the other Twelve Holy Knights, and that's another
10 minutes at least."

I was well aware of all these point. To perform a tribute song refers to singing whilst adding the essence of Holy Light into the words as one sings them, with the aim of affecting one's audience. A quick and energetic song could encourage and motivate people; battle songs could give soldiers additional strength; a relaxing lullaby could lull one to sleep; and an upbeat song could cheer people up, etc. etc. It is said that a song performed by a real master of this art is capable of making even the most embittered criminal regret his crimes and repent.

Unfortunately, these masters are a thing of legends, and so no one knows if it really is possible to make criminals repent with just a tribute song. That is why the easiest way to get a criminal to repent is to send them directly to the Judge Knight! I guarantee you that within three hours he would have the criminals confessing to everything bad he had ever done in his life. Even including the incident where he had stolen his neighbour's panties when he was a kid!

What's that? Handing them over to my Sun Knight Division should be as equally effective?

Bro, you've got it all wrong. If criminals were to be handled by my Sun Knight Division, they would not confess to their crimes and repent, but instead they would not be able to speak up to repent at all!

Now that I've explained what all the fuss is about regarding the performing of the tribute songs, everyone should now understand that it is not such a simple matter as singing a song. It's actually all about expending the effort to pour Holy Light into our songs.

With the combined chorus of the Twelve Holy Knights and thirty minutes of the solo, that's forty minutes that I have to radiate Holy Light for. 'Can I do that?'

I thought it over for a while before deciding, 'It's a bit much. A holy knight would never be able to maintain it for so long. But, for a holy knight who could have become the strongest pope in history, there is definitely no problem!'

Storm was about to continue persuading me when a flurry of footsteps drew near, and Leaf Knight came hurrying out from the Great Ceremonial Hall. Upon seeing us standing outside the entrance he stopped and look at us, stumped, before hurriedly saying, "Sun, why are you guys still outside? Come in quickly, everyone's waiting."

"I thank my brother Leaf for his kind reminder. It must be the God of Light's gentle reprimand to this Sun that tardiness is an undesirable habit," I said before entering the hall.

The Great Ceremonial Hall is the Church of Light's largest building, with a raised dais at the very end. The wall behind the dais was an enormous glass window picturing the God of Light's symbol-an elaborate cross. The sunlight from outside shone in through the glass window, lighting up the Hall and shining down on the raised dais, making it the brightest and most noticeable place.

In front of the dais are rows of seats, usually adequate to seat the people who come for the worship services. However as today is such a big event most of the seats have been taken up by the royalty and the nobles. After them come the wealthier families, with the majority of the ordinary citizens left standing in the back.

My eyes swept through the crowd, instantly spotting His Highness the Crown Prince-and the soon-to-be crowned king-sitting in the middle of the first row, his ministers, advisors and the more important nobles sitting to his left and right. The Duke of Ceylan too was sitting in the first row, a royal knight standing on each side.

The old geezer-the Pope-was sitting in his usual seat to the side of the dais, wearing a veil to shroud his face, acting all mysterious.

Up on the dais, the Judge Knight was already standing in the middle and slightly to the left, the rest of the Cold Blood Faction lined up to his left.

My position is obviously in the middle and slightly to the right of the dais. The arrangement was such that Judge and my positions did not block the God of Light's Cross behind us, allowing everyone a clear view of it.

I walked up to my spot, and Storm stood to my right, Leaf following and standing to his right, and so on……

Finally the Twelve Holy Knights were in their position. Behind us stood the choir priests, while the Bright Light Priests in charge of directing the choir stood in front of us. The Bright Light Priest is actually not one person but two, consisting of the Bright Priest and the Light Priest. They are the Pope's right and left hand man; their position in the Hall of Light is second only to the Pope's.

Following tradition, the Light Priest is a female who specialises in healing magic and boosting magic; the Bright Priest on the other hand is typically a male who is a master in all kinds of exorcism magic as well as with the art of guiding lost spirits to the after world.

It seems that we really were rather late, for the Light Priest did not say anything to us, but instead immediately announced the start of the first tribute song-the song to be performed by all Twelve Holy Knights.

A holy knight stepped up and handed us our music sheets, and the moment he stepped down from the dais, a choir priest behind us started singing a note. She was soon followed by the rest of the choir. They would go 'la la la la' for up to three minutes before it is our turn to sing.

This piece of tribute song is not difficult for me, because during the yearly celebrations of the day the God of Light had descended to our land, a large tribute ceremony would be held where all Twelve Holy Knights would come together to perform this song. Since taking over the title of Sun Knight from my teacher, I've sung this song no less than three times, so I'm quite familiar with it.

I am even less worried as it is a combined performance by all twelve of us. Even if one of us was weaker at radiating holy light, the difference would be made up by the others.

As holy light was never the Cold Blood Faction's specialty, their holy light essence is weaker, and it has always been the Good Warm Faction who had made up for the difference.

Because we Twelve Holy Knights were quite familiar with this song, we soon finished performing the song without a single mistake. Next, the Judge Knight would perform his solo. He stepped forward and without further ado began singing in his deep baritone voice. The whole song was sung in a deep and low tone, seemingly making the audience feel down and depressed.

Thankfully, Judge had picked the shortest and simplest song; the song was mainly about how the sinners would be punished harshly by the God of Light. Even with the chorus from the choir, the song was less than five minutes long; and in actuality Judge's solo had only been two minutes.

But, this is not because he's lazy or anything. As I said earlier, the Cold Blood Faction's specialty was never holy light, so his holy light is not particularly strong. This is why they are allowed to pick the shortest and simplest tribute songs to perform.

However, as the leader of the Good Warm Faction, I am not given such leniency, especially when it is the king's tribute ceremony before his coronation. If I were to pick too simple a song, it might be viewed as an act of disdain to the king.

This is one of the reasons why I decided not to switch songs. If I were to perform the song perfectly the Crown Prince would probably be pleased and forget about the past incident. So, it is not because I am afraid of my teacher finding out that I had humiliated myself, and consequently sending me to meet the God of Light, that I chose to continue on with this song. Definitely not because of that…… at least, it is not the sole reason for my decision!

Judge finished his song and stepped back to his previous position. It is now my turn.

I had just stepped forward a few steps when the people started cheering loudly. In fact, they were cheering even more loudly than at the yearly tribute ceremony. Looks like everyone had heard of the news of my 'chosen' song and were eagerly anticipating it. Ha! I'm probably the only one who had not heard of the news that the Sun Knight would be performing the famous God of Light's Melody not heard for over twenty years!

The God of Light's Melody did not start with a chorus; I am the one who has to start off the song.

I took a deep breath and checked my reserves to make sure that I had sufficient holy light. Seeing as I have enough holy light to perform two of the God of Light's Melody, I made the decision to draw on more holy light. This way, people shouldn't notice me if I were to sing off key, right?

I released a large amount of holy light-enough to cause my whole body to glow softly with a golden light. I had closed my eyes, but I could still hear the murmurs of surprise and awe from the crowd. I then opened my eyes and sang the first line of the song.

"A bright light appears, piercing through the dark, sending down a ray of light, bringing hope immeasurable to us……"

My voice soared up to the heavens and the whole hall reverberated with the clear notes of the God of Light's Melody. The entire hall was filled with holy light, lighting up the hall and chasing away the shadows from even the furthest corners. It was as if the God of Light Herself had graced us with Her presence in the glowing hall.

The crowd had immediately hushed as everyone raised their heads and focused on me, their gaze captivated by me.

'Shit.'

The moment I had started I knew I was in deep trouble. 'I really should have practised the song beforehand,' I thought.

I had started on too high a note. This was a very high-pitched song to begin with, and there are many instances where I would have to go even higher. Now that I had started on such a high note, how am I going to continue on in the song when it goes even higher?!

I could hear the gasps of surprise from the Twelve Holy Knights behind me. They had all had some practice with the song before and were well aware of how high the song could go. Someone muttered, "That first line was impressive! You're really something to dare to start off on such a high note."

'What's there to be impressed about? I hadn't meant to start off so high! I'm close to tears here!'

Furthermore, the God of Light's Melody is extremely long winded. I had very nearly run out of breath several times before I finally reached the next interval where I could take my next breath.

To other holy knights, the difficulty of performing this song would be the impossible challenge of releasing so much holy light. But releasing such large amounts of holy light does not faze me at all. It is the fact that the song is so difficult to sing in the first place that makes it so taxing for me!

'Oh no! This next line is pretty long, and I have to hold the final note really, really long!'

I elegantly placed my hands on my diaphragm, and pressed the shit out of it. I pressed down with all my might to squeeze out the very last breaths of air I had in my lungs……

"Famine, disease, natural disasters, and evil…… all disappear with the shine of Her li-…… (I pressed down)…… (and continue pressing)…… (and pressed down even harder!)…… -ight!"

At this point, I had tears in my eyes as I finally finished that very long line. Thank the God for Her blessings, I finally finished-- the first part. At the end there I was just about out of breath and could not squeeze out any more, causing my note to waver heavily, but I didn't have time to fret over it. Next comes the choir; they would sing for about a minute. I have to make full use of that one minute and try to recuperate.

I relaxed a little and released my hands from their position on my diaphragm before realising……. how hungry I am!

I had been hungry even before the ceremony had started, and after the huge effort I had exerted singing just now, plus the desperate pressing of my stomach, everything had led to my becoming even hungrier. My stomach is so empty right now that I could swear that my front is touching my back!

At this moment, the dazed crowd finally awoken from their stupor, and the Great Ceremonial Hall was filled with thunderous applause. Even the voices of the choir were drowned out in the sea of applause as the crowd exclaimed:

"What a marvel! What a beautiful voice! I never knew that the Sun Knight was such an impressive tenor."

"Look, look! There're even tears in his eyes! He must have truly felt the presence of the God of Light in Her song and was moved to tears!"

"That wavering note at the end was wonderful! He'd managed to fully express the deep passions and feelings in the song in his voice!"

From behind me came Leaf's low voice, "Sun, you sung that part really well. However, are you sure that you can continue on? Do you need me to step in and finish it for you?"

Upon hearing this I was extremely glad. 'Leaf, I love you, you're such a great guy!'

I was about to agree to the exchange when Storm suddenly spoke up, "No."

He then continued on to explain, "The middle part of the God of Light's Melody is the longest one, with up to twenty minutes of singing. Continuously expending holy light for twenty minutes would be too much. Among the Twelve Holy Knights only you are able to pull that off. Sun, finish singing this middle part, and me and Leaf will sing the last part for you."

After hearing Storm's explanation, even Leaf the nice guy, stepped back.

At this, my gaze turned to look at Earth Knight. Earth's holy light should be the second strongest among the twelve of us. After all, his specialty-Earth Shield-is the result of adding holy light to his frenzy, resulting in such a strong defensive shield. It should be no problem for him to release holy light for twenty minutes.

"Heheh… s-sorry Sun, my voice is too deep, it's impossible for me to sing the God of Light's Melody," said Earth apologetically. However, I could see his unholy delight at my situation shining from his eyes; he did not look apologetic at all!

Unfortunately, what he said was true. His voice is almost as deep as Judge's. It's just not possible for him to sing such a song as high-pitched as the God of Light's Melody. Besides, I had made it even worse for myself by starting off on such a high note…… but that expression of his just makes me extremely irritated!

In addition, when I glanced at His Highness the Crown Prince and the Duke of Ceylan, the former was still smiling harmlessly as usual, while the latter had an extremely sour expression as he glared at me. I bet he hadn't believed that I would really be able to perform the song.

Those two bastards!

They were the reason I was forced to sing such a difficult song without any practise beforehand! I could have forgiven them for that, but the fact that they had made me perform the song whilst hungry is inexcusable!

Don't they know that when I'm feeling hungry it means that my blood sugar level is dangerously low? For someone like me who can eat sugar in the stead of their main meals to have such a low blood sugar level, it will only result in making me extremely cranky. And only God knows what I would do when in such a cantankerous mood!

"I'm going to sing the whole song," I announced.

"What?" Storm was shocked at my announcement. Even the other Twelve Holy Knights had turned to look at me, various expressions of admiration, disapproval and worry in their eyes.

And just then, the one minute of chorus was over and it was my turn to sing the second part of the God of Light's Melody. I ignored Storm and Leaf's worried objections, took a deep breath, and began singing the second part.

"O' Sinners, lower your heads and repent,

For no matter where you cover in the dark,

You cannot hide your crimes from the Judge.

O' virtuous people, lift your heads and look up,

For as long as the Sun still shines upon the land,

The light will never be vanquished."

The first part may have nearly caused my expiration from lack of breath, but the second part was much easier. Although, this part is often called the 'holy knight killer', for holy knights have to expend twenty minutes worth of holy light at this part, and hardly anyone is able to finish it.

In contrast with the first part, the verses in this second part are much easier to sing, so I did not have any difficulties with it. However, I was hit with another dilemma…… the song is too dull!

It was precisely because the first part was so difficult, that it had taken everything from me just to finish singing it. I had not had any time to spare a thought to my hunger. But now that the second part was so easy and dull, I was completely relaxed and could feel the emptiness of my stomach. I wondered idly if the reason I was able to project my voice so loudly had anything to do with my stomach echoing my voice……?

I slowly and unhurriedly-sort of reminds me of a cow-finished the second part. The crowd immediately gave me an applause, although it was nowhere near the enthusiastic cheering I had received earlier. But I don't blame them, for the fact that they could even remember to clap for me when they were already close to nodding off is quite impressive.

Following this is another minute of chorus by the priest choir, allowing me a minute to rest.

"Sun, are you really sure you don't want us to step in for you?" Leaf asked quietly from behind me. He sounded rather worried.

"Don't be stubborn! You've already expended a lot of holy light. This last part requires you to radiate enough holy light to drown out the priests' holy light. It'll be even harder than the previous part." Storm too advised me to step back.

Expending holy light is not the problem here…… it's my hunger that is worrying!

The third and final part is extremely high-pitched and the verses extremely long. It is said to be the God of Light's Melody's hardest part. So as soon as I start singing this third part, I'll be so nervous that I would forget all about my hunger!

"My brother Storm and brother Leaf, please believe in this Sun. With the blessings of the God of Light, this Sun believes that he will be able to successfully finish Her song."

After hearing this, the objections and persuasions from behind ceased.

The one minute of chorus is almost up, and here comes the final part of the God of Light's Melody. The first note is an extremely high note, loud and piercing, reverberating through the large hall as if symbolizing the light piercing through the darkness…… and at the same time startling awake those who had fallen asleep during the second part.

I must have been pretty good, for more than a few slumping people had immediately jerked awake and straightened themselves. Judging from their expressions they must have received a pretty good shock, for they were now wide awake. Heheh…...

As I sung with all my heart, my eyes turned to glance at the Duke smugly, only to see the guy winking at a knight standing in a quiet corner. The knight was rather ordinary-looking, so I'm disinclined to believe that the Duke was flirting with him. (-.-")

After receiving the signal from the duke, the knight merely nodded and took out a scroll while giving a sinister look in the direction of the raised dais.

That there is definitely a plot aimed at me, or my name is not Creus Sun!

The scroll the knight had taken out looks to be a magic scroll. A magic scroll is a scroll made from a special parchment where a sorcerer had imbued his magic ability into as he writes on it. These scrolls can be used to cast a spell once, and the spell cast would obviously depend on what the sorcerer had written on the scroll. After the spell has been cast, the magic scroll would then just become an ordinary piece of parchment.

There aren't many sorcerers who know how to create a magic scroll, and both the specially made parchment and special ink are very expensive. With limited supply and such a high cost, the end product-the magic scroll is considered to be one of the more expensive products to be sold on the market.

To spend so much money on a magic scroll just to be aimed at me--how wasteful!

If you had given me the money instead, I would have risked inciting my teacher's wrath and humiliated myself for you!

No, rather than let that guy use the scroll on me and waste all that money, I'll just snatch it from him beforehand. 'It'll be my compensation for the harrowing experience I had undergone at the hands of your son.'

I kept a constant eye on the knight as I sung, and it was only when I was close to finishing the song that the knight made a movement and got ready to throw the scroll. But as I watched and waited, he did not throw it out. He seemed to be waiting for something.

I thought about it for a moment before realising his plan. How sly! He must be waiting for me to reach the end of the song when my holy light reserves would be empty! How sneaky and underhanded! I should have expected it from a knight assigned to carry out the duke's dirty deeds.

But no matter how underhanded you are, you cannot match my underhandedness…… Ahem! I mean, no matter how intelligent you are, you cannot match my intelligence!

As I excitedly thought about how the magic scroll would soon be mine, my singing grew even louder and higher-pitched!

It is now the last line of the song. 'Wait for me, my magic scroll, I'm coming for you!'

"Praise…… be…… the…… light……" As I sang the final line, I gave off large amounts of holy light. The holy light exploded out and filled the entire hall with it, and even shone out from the windows. Everyone was instantly blinded. Everyone except me, that is. I could clearly see the knight standing in the corner. He too was blinded by the light.

This is it! While everyone was blinded by the holy light, I'll cast a paralysis spell on the knight and steal 'my' magic scroll! I was in the middle of chanting the paralysis spell when I was suddenly hit by a dizzy spell.

I was about to fall when someone steadied me. I looked up only to see a black figure rushing down the dais towards the knight.

It must be the Judge Knight! In such glaringly bright holy light he couldn't have been able to see anything. The only person who could have possibly been able to see through my holy light would be the Pope. Yet, Judge was not only able to sense my faltering and steady me; he was also able to reach the knight without error. Amazing!

The holy light lasted for about ten seconds before gradually dissipating away. When it was gone, every single person in the hall stared at me stunned, while I stood there on the dais with a serene expression. As I maintained my serene expression, I glanced at the knight and saw him lying beaten up on the ground, the magic scroll shoved into his mouth. The person responsible for his pitiful condition was already back in his place behind me.

'Oh, Judge, my friend, why had you not brought back the scroll to me instead of shoving it in his mouth? That's so wasteful!'

After mourning the loss of 'my' magic scroll for a moment, I then turned and looked at the Duke of Ceylan in glee. Upon seeing that I had successfully finished the song, the latter had immediately turned to the knight in anger, but when he saw the state his knight was in he had paled abruptly.

I gave a cold chuckle inside as I thought, 'You think to ambush me with such a simple underhanded trick? Your grace, you have greatly underestimated the head of the Twelve Holy Knights' underhandedness, intelligence!'

"This Sun sincerely offers His Highness the soon-to-be crowned king this tribute song-the God of Light's Melody. This Sun is confident that under Your Highness' wise and just rule, as well as with the blessings from the God of Light, you will usher in a new age of peace and prosperity."

With that, I elegantly bowed to the Crown Prince before retreating back to take my place among the Twelve Holy Knights.

The Crown Prince let out an extremely pleased smile at my blessings and started to clap while praising, "What a beautiful tribute song, as can only be expected from the perfect Sun Knight."

At this point the rest of the audience finally woke up from their stupor and started cheering. No matter the ordinary citizen, the royal knights or even the people from the Church of Light, everyone was cheering together excitedly as they all shouted something along the lines of, "Long live the Sun Knight, long live the King, long live the God of Light!"

'Yes, yes! That's it! Shout out 'long live the King', and please the Crown Prince even more!' I shouted in my heart as I stole a glance of the Crown Prince's face. Haha! He's smiling even brighter than a Sun Knight's bright smile.

It is in the human nature to be proud of one's reputation after all. After stroking his ego-even if I had once set up his own father-he had still praised me and called me the perfect Sun Knight.

Because the cheering was so loud and enthusiastic, the Light and Bright Priest spent a long time calming down the crowd. They then announced the next event-the new King's tour of the city. To put it simply, the new king will parade on the streets and through the city, thus announcing that said guy is the next king, so watch out and don't offend him should you ever meet him strolling in the streets in the future.

The Crown Prince stood up and two rows of royal knights hurried to clear a path through the crowd for him. They then left the Great Ceremonial Hall and began their grandiose trip out into the city.

The Pope would then be the next to leave.

But you know? That old geezer loves to play at being mysterious and is always seen with a veil hiding his face from everyone else. Who knows if the person currently sitting in his seat is really the Pope or not? The person sitting there might have been a substitute, while the real Pope has gone off for his breakfast!

After the Pope is the Twelve Holy Knights' turn. As the leader of the Twelve Holy Knights, I am, of course, the first to leave. As I passed by Judge, I said quietly to him, "Thanks for earlier."

The moment I stepped down from the dais and was certain that my teacher would not be able to see me, I immediately swayed on my feet as my hunger finally caught up with me. I would have collapsed inelegantly to the floor were it not for Storm and Leaf catching on to my weakened condition and hurriedly supporting me.

"Sun! Sun! Are you alright?" Leaf asked quietly.

I said in an extremely weak voice, "I……"

'I'm going to die from hunger!'

"How could he be alright after expending so much holy light?!" Storm said worriedly. "Stop bothering Sun and just hold him steady."

"Yes, of course." Leaf hurriedly nodded.

"Adair!"

I suddenly spotted my vice-captain standing near one of the side entrances carrying a tray with my blueberry jam sandwich and milk. However, he looked rather hesitant, as if unsure if he should approach us or not. Seeing this, I immediately struggled up, trying to dislodge Blaze and Storm so I could get my beloved breakfast to its rightful place-inside my growling stomach.

"There's no need for your vice-captain, we can support you just fine. Don't worry, you can depend on Storm and I!"

Blaze grabbed me once more while waving away Adair, telling him that there was no need to come forward. Adair stared at me hesitatingly, not daring to leave, yet not bold enough to step forward.

"The parade is about to start, let's go," Storm said urgently, and then with Blaze's help he started dragging me away.

'No no no! Let me go!'

'I'm so hungry! Adair, my blueberry jam sandwich, my milk, and my honey oat biscuits! Blaze, Storm, please let me go!'

'Adair-! My breakfast!!!'

 

Previous                                                                                                             Next

Book 2: The Daily Duties of a Knight – Prologue

*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.

 

Now, let me introduce you to the daily duties of the great and illustrious Sun Knight.

Firstly, attend various boring functions and gatherings – For example, the coronation of the new king.

Secondly, pretend to be an electric automatic hand-waving machine –waving constantly in above said functions without breaking one's wrist is an art unto itself.

The third imperative task is – take care of the undead creatures.

The fourth task…… to think that there are more than four tasks to do in a day, does everyone now realize how demanding and tiring my job as the Sun Knight is?!

 

Prologue: This- is our Captain.

My name is Adair. (Ah-die-er) Just yesterday, I was merely an ordinary holy knight, but everything will change from today onwards. After today, I will be reporting directly to the Sun Knight as one of his Sun Division's holy knights!

Although, my direct commanding officer is not yet officially the Sun Knight; he is the same age as me- only 18 years old. Sun Knights have always taken on their title at the age of twenty years, so that will be when he will step up and replace the current Sun Knight as the 38^th Generation Sun Knight.

"Adair, Adair! He's coming!"

Another holy knight who had similarly been chosen for this honour of serving in the Sun Division rushed in, looking all excited and nervous. I know that as holy knights we've always been trained to keep our calm no matter what happens, but-this is the future Sun Knight that we are meeting!

The leader of the Holy Temple's Twelve Holy Knights! As well as our direct supervisor! How can we remain calm in this situation?!

Even though in our hearts we were unable to calm down, we did not wish to affront the Sun Knight with our lack of manners. Within a few seconds, all twenty-five Sun Division holy knights were standing at attention in neat rows, as everyone looked forward with excitement and no small amount of trepidation to the Sun Knight's entrance.

The first to come in was the current Sun Knight. I had seen him in various functions and in the tributes held to the God of Light in the Holy Temple. Each time I see this Sun Knight I would sigh in admiration of his elegance. My decision to be part of the Sun Division had largely to do with this person that I so admired. It's a pity that I had been born too late to serve under this Sun Knight's Sun Division.

This time, the Sun Knight did not speak a word. He merely smiled in a relaxed manner as he stepped aside. It was then that we saw the person behind him.

Is that him?!

My eyes widened as I stared at him, not daring to even blink for fear of missing a single detail.

He just stood there in a pool of sunlight, his back towards the light. We couldn't see his face clearly, but the sun shining down on his head of golden hair made it seem to shine even brighter than pure gold.

This golden hair! So beautiful, like the legendary golden hair of the God of Light Herself. I couldn't help feeling some great emotion stirring deep within me. Perhaps, the Sun Knight that I am to report to is even more perfect than the one I had admired?

The person then stepped forward, revealing his face and figure. Sparkling golden hair, eyes as blue and as deep as the sea, skin as white as snow, and a smile as bright as the sun in the sky, his princely bearing and incredible elegance …… Dear God! I sound exactly like I'm recounting the tale of the legendary Sun Knight!

You might think this rather strange; after all, he is the future Sun Knight, but-but…… he's a little too similar to the 'Sun Knight of the legends'. Even the current Sun Knight-perfect as he is-is a little inconsistent with the image of the legendary Sun Knight... But this person standing in front of me is absolutely
identical to the Sun Knight of the legends.

This future Sun Knight looked at each of us with a gentle smile, before finally sighing in delight. "Ah… It must be the God of Light's benevolence that has brought us all here together-to permit this Creus to meet my fellow brothers. Let us become as brothers inseparable, and together bring peace and joy to Her people."

Hearing this speech, I could feel all my emotions rousing. I looked around to my left and right-all the knights of the Sun Division were as stirred up as I. We could not help but hold our heads high and stick out our chest in pride as this thought rang through our minds:

"This-is our Captain, the Sun Knight."

 

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Book 1: Rule A – The Twelve Holy Knight’s Shared Rule: “No matter what the circumstances, the Sun Knight is always perfect!”

*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.

 

'IS SUN THE SLAYER OR NOT?'

A large banner hung from the middle of the ceiling in the conference room.

To avoid detection, not a single lamp had been lit. Eleven knights sat around the table, each knight's face and figure hidden within the dark shadows.

One of the knights first spoke up, "The Sun Knight's sword skills may have always been so terrible that hardly anyone can recognise his sword waving for the Sun Sword Style, but how could he have been able to fool Blaze--"

A second knight immediately cut off the first one, saying, "No! I never claimed that Sun is Slayer, and I never will."

"Even if he is Slayer, I'd advise you to act as if he isn't." A deep and intimidating voice spoke up. Everyone seemed to tense up upon hearing this voice.

"We may have always maintained that the Sun Knight upholds Justice, but this time he really has gone too far-he had even used necromancy
spells, for crying out loud. Shouldn't we at least give him a word of warning?"

At this, everyone started arguing with each other.

"But he's already learned them, so what's the point of giving him a warning? It's not like he could forget them all."

"We could at least counsel him against learning the advanced necromancy spells."

"Idiot! We should forbid him from using necromancy spells at all for the rest of his life! And magic, too! What kind of knight uses magic?!"

"Puh-leese! You know how awful Sun's swords skills are, if you forbid him from using necromancy spells and even magic spells, he'd probably be found dead within two days."

"That's true……"

'Knock, knock'

Everyone instantly quieted down at the knocking and looked at each other flummoxed, unsure about whether to answer the door.

"Come in."

In the end, the one who had called out was the unknown knight with the deep intimidating voice.

The door opened up, letting in a ray of bright sunlight into the dark room. The person who entered was akin to the sun itself, with gleaming golden hair and a smile as bright as the sun. No one would ever connect this radiant man with any kind of darkness whatsoever.

And this bright, dazzling man had an extremely fitting title -- Sun Knight.

The Sun Knight smiled as he looked around, seeming to not notice the huge banner with the words 'IS SUN THE SLAYER OR NOT?' on it hanging from the ceiling.

With a sincerely apologetic expression on his face, the Sun Knight said, "My beloved holy knight brothers, this Sun is extremely sorry for interrupting your secret meeting. To disturb your time of socialising is such an inexcusable transgression.

"However, this Sun just couldn't resist the urge to share with my brothers of the miracle the God of Light had bestowed upon us." At this, the Sun Knight's face was filled once again with happiness and delight. "This Sun had just been blessed by the God of Light, and has finally understood the true essence of the resurrection arts. Ah…! Even his grace the Pope had leapt in joy at this wonderful news.

"In the future, my fellow brothers may go to do battle with evil without any second thoughts. There is no need to worry about fatal injuries, for this Sun believes that as long as my fellow brothers still retain their heads, this Sun will be able to bring each of you back from the clutches of Death himself!"

But then at this point, Sun suddenly became saddened and sighed. "Sigh… Unfortunately this art of resurrection is not a very constant one, for one never knows when it might work, and when it might fail! If the spell were to fail due to 'certain reasons', causing a certain brother to miss out on his chance of living, this Sun will be inconsolable."

"… … … …" Everyone kept silent.

"After sharing this joyous news with my brothers, this Sun will not further impede my brothers from exchanging words of the God of Light any longer. May you have a pleasant time conversing."

With a scarily bright smile, the Sun Knight slowly closed the door, returning the room to darkness. The dark conference room was quiet for some time before someone ventured to ask, "Was that…… a bribe?"

"No! It was a threat."

The Judge Knight slowly stood up, deciding to leave this pointless meeting. He left a word of advice behind before he left though.

"This is my advice to all of you. Our Sun Knight had already dared to set up the King. Unless you have a position above that of a king, don't mess around with him."

The Storm Knight, too stood up and added idly, "And, he's proficient in the art of resurrection that even the Pope cannot cast; he's proficient with the holy spells, the magic spells, and now necromancy spells. He has the 'strongest Sun Knight in history' as his teacher backing him up, and another necromancer teacher. I'd like to add that he might also have a Death Lord best friend."

'Thank God his sword skills are terrible……' thought everyone.

"Fu*king hell! Is he the Sun Knight or the evil Demon King?!" griped Earth Knight, his face ashen.

Leaf Knight chuckled and said, "Oh, Earth. Have you forgotten what our teachers had drilled into our heads since we were small?"

~O~O~O~O~

"Remember child, no matter what the circumstances, the Sun Knight is always perfect!"

P. S. "Child, if you were to accidently come across an imperfection in the Sun Knight-unless you wish to personally experience his imperfection-just acknowledge that he is perfect."

 

End of First Volume

 

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Book 1: Rule 10 – The Sun Knight’s Tenth Rule: “Serving out justice is the meaning for the Sun Knight’s existence.”

*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.

 

Judge and I had explained the whole situation with the Crown Prince, for only a fool would hope to secretly hide close to fifty holy knights within the Royal Palace without alerting anyone. The Crown Prince had grudgingly agreed. Looks like he had already realized the gravity of the situation.

And so, a group of holy knights put on the uniforms of the royal knights and patrolled the area, while another group disguised themselves as servants, hiding all around the palace. There were already a huge number of people going in and out of the palace daily, so it was a simple thing to insert fifty more people without alerting anyone.

Judge was lying in bed, pretending to be the person Roland was after, while I had to hide away in the wardrobe. To hide my strong holy aura, the Pope had to design a special seal to seal away my aura and had stuck the seal on the wardrobe, hence why I am currently lying in the wardrobe.

Not that I'm criticizing or anything, but the royalty really are a different breed from us. Just this one wardrobe is half the size of my room; the flooring of the wardrobe is lined with crushed velvet, so soft that I simply couldn't resist lying down on it. I then grabbed a hanging cloak and covered myself with it…… Ahh… how comfy! I started feeling drowsy; this wardrobe is even more comfortable than my own bed.

Thank goodness I did not have to take Judge's position and lie on the bed, if just a wardrobe is enough to make me sleepy, what more a bed fit for royalty? I'd probably still be asleep when Roland comes in slicing me in half……

"Sun? Sun!"

"Huh?" I flipped over onto my other side. 'What is it? How noisy! I'm sleeping here!'

The person outside was silent for a moment before pounding heavily on the wardrobe door.

I leapt to my feet, startled wide awake, and anxiously asked, "What is it? Is Roland here?!"

"Not yet." Judge's low and deep voice could be heard from outside. "But I'm worried that even if he were to come bursting in you would have fallen asleep and not notice him at all."

"Eh…… hahahah! Of course not!" I l gave a forced laughed. 'It is possible. Judge really knows me too well!'

"Night has only just fallen, Roland shouldn't be arriving so soon. To avoid you falling asleep, why don't you talk about him?"

I kept quite for a while. I had no idea where to begin, but Judge was a patient man, he did not push me to speak. In the end, I let out a deep sigh and began reminiscing about my past.

"The first time I had met Roland was at the Selection for the future Twelve Holy Knight, when only ten boys were left in the selection.

"You might or might not be aware of it, but that event was one of the single most widely betted on event in a long time. Practically everyone had placed betted on the outcomes for the next generation's Twelve Holy Knights."

"I know." From outside came Judge's reply. It sounded fainter; he'd probably lain back on the bed.

I dared not lie back on the carpeted ground and instead leaned back against the wardrobe's door. I asked Judge, "Do you still remember the odds against you?"

"I never noticed."

I gave a chuckle at that. "You and Roland are equally serious, spending all your time on sword practice! I still remember though, your odds were 1:1.083. Even if anyone had betted on you, they would not have won much."

"You remember the numbers very clearly." I could hear a hint of wonder from him.

'Well, can't be help, I have an excellent memory.'

I continued on with my story, "Roland's odds were 1:1.052, even higher than yours. That is to say, the probability of him being selected as the next Sun Knight was even higher than the probability of you being selected for the next Judge Knight."

"But he wasn't chosen," said Judge evenly.

"That's right, he wasn't. Instead, a kid with the odds of 1:563 had been chosen. Back then, a number of people had become millionaires just from betting on me." I said a little deprecatingly.

Outside, Judge replied calmly, "You weren't that bad. Your holy spells and written test results were among the best. Outsiders just didn't understand holy spells and the written examinations."

Even though it had all happened a long time ago, I still felt very glad and relieved at Judge's comforting words. 'That's right! I wasn't
that bad! It was only the sword skills that I did a little poorly at.'

"However, your sword skills were really terrible."

'Hey! You didn't have to add that last sentence!'

"Anyway, because everyone was certain that Roland was going to be the next Sun Knight, and I was the least likely candidate, we were able to get along well with each other. He would often help me, like……"

"Help me fight, help me scale the walls and buy me blueberry pastries, help me chase away that dog that bit me, etc. etc." Judge gave a little sigh at this. "Creus, you really haven't changed at all."

"Hahahah……" I laughed weakly. 'Oh, that's right, since Roland left, Judge had taken his place.'

"And so because you took his place, Roland now wants to harm you and frame you?"

"No. He wasn't trying to harm me at all." I felt like crying when I recalled that incident. "He was just being incredibly clueless. Till now, he still has no idea that he had accidently started rumours about me being his murderer. He believes that he had only accidently cut me."

"Speaking of the rumours, I have a suspicion that……" Judge suddenly stopped in the middle of his sentence.

I was wondering about it when I heard a familiar voice from outside, except now, it was filled with hatred.

"I've said this before that I, Roland, will come back for you, Your Majesty."

Roland?! How is it possible? How did he get here…… Ah! It must be the secret tunnels, damn it! I hadn't thought that Roland would know of the tunnels too.

"Y-you are not the King!"

Have we been discovered?

I quickly pulled open the wardrobe and leapt out while letting out a burst of holy light. This was our signal to the others lying in wait outside. Let it not be said that our holy knights are not alert and observant, for the holy light had barely faded away when Blaze Knight and the Judge Division had come leaping in through the windows on both sides of the room, while Earth Knight led my Sun Division in from the doors.

Judge had also leapt out of bed, his Divine Judgement Sword in hand.

Roland was surprised at first, but then he finally turned to look at me, saying in a disbelieving voice, "Creus……. How could it be?!"

"Roland, you should know that I cannot allow you to kill anyone." I said a little sadly as I looked at my old friend.

"But… I had clearly told you……"

I interrupted him, nodding, "You told me that your enemy was the Crown Prince."

"But," Roland interrupted angrily, "this is the King's bedchambers!"

"Correct. It was only until the moment you personally told me that your enemy was the Crown Prince, that I was a hundred percent certain that your real target was His Majesty the King. Roland, you've always been as terrible at telling lies as I had been at sword fighting."

"You-……" Roland was stunned speechless.

"Besides, I may not know for certain if the Crown Prince has a hobby of torturing people to death, but I am certain that if he did do such things, we would never have discovered it for at least another ten years."

I gave a shrug and said, "The Crown Prince is not an idiot. If he had really killed a person, he would definitely have destroyed the body once and for all, and not order one of his knights to dispose of the body for him instead.

"Moreover, rumours were later started saying that I had tortured the Death Knight and then killed him. It's understandable if it had only mentioned me killing the Death Knight; as everyone had heard you saying that you would come back for me, it's reasonable that they would conclude that I was the one who had killed you. But, the rumours had specifically mentioned that I had 'tortured you to death'. Now that's much more perplexing."

As I carefully watched Roland's face, I could tell from his baffled expression that he had no idea of the rumours. But that's alright; I wasn't solely explaining it for him.

"The only people who could have known that the Death Knight was tortured to death would be the Death Knight himself, and the guilty party who had done it in the first place."

I took another glance at Roland; the latter was frowning as if trying very hard to understand what I was saying. I continued on regardless, "However, the rumours had spread too far too quickly. I do not believe that the Death Knight was the one who had started them. After all, it's a little hard for the Death Knight to walk out into the streets and start gossiping with people.

"Therefore, the rumours incriminating me must have come from the guilty party themselves." I gave a small smile and turned to look at Judge. "The thing that you were about to mention earlier was this, right? Would you like to add anything, Judge Knight?"

Judge merely gave me a look, as if saying 'Stop playing around', but he did further elaborate on the subject, "Originally, the Holy Temple would have most likely dropped all investigations the moment we realise that this case involved the royalty; however, the moment the Sun Knight's reputation was dragged into the case, we had to find out the truth to clear the Sun Knight's name."

"That is to say, the guilty party had been stupid to try to incriminate me, forcing the Holy Temple to find out the truth. Doing something so stupid is not something the Crown Prince would have done."

I gave a cold laugh. "And thinking about it, who else had a grudge against me, who had enough guts and the stupidity to incriminate the Church of Light's Sun Knight? Why, there could be no other than His Majesty, our dearly beloved King."

"Bullshit! You impertinent bastard!"

The bookshelves on one of the walls suddenly split in two and moved apart, and the King rush out in a fit of anger. Following him closely was the Crown Prince, frowning deeply. Besides the two were a large number of royal knights, there to protect the two royals.

As I had expected, they were hiding in that sealed secret room that I had first investigated earlier this afternoon. In order to lie here in wait, they had probably lifted the seal on its exit.

Roar!

The moment Roland saw the King, his eyes glowed a deep blood red colour and he rushed in the King's direction. The King quickly paled and pushed his knights to the front of him while he hid behind them.

"Judge! Earth!"

I quickly reminded them, but there was no need for it as Judge had already raised his sword to block Roland's attack, while Earth quickly rushed forward to stand in front of the King, his Earth Shield already out and ready.

I started chanting an incantation, and as I chanted the Holy Light filling the room grew stronger and brighter. This Holy Light is the bane of all undead creatures; regardless of Roland's mastery with the sword, nor the fact he is one of the more powerful kinds of undead; as a Death Knight he would not be able to withstand the Holy Light for long.

Moreover, his opponent is the Judge Knight-the most skilled swordsman among the Twelve Holy Knights.

And true to form, Roland did not last long. His sword was soon sent flying by Judge and he was forced to the ground by the strong Holy Light.

Seeing this, the King-who had been cowering behind his knights all this time-immediately rushed out and stomped on Roland's head. As he continued to kick and stomp on him, he yelled out, "You rubbish! My killing you was an honour, yet you dare to come back for revenge……?!"

"Father, stop!"

The Crown Prince paled and he tried to pull his father away, but instead his thin, weak body was knocked back. Fortunately, the surrounding knights managed to catch him and so spared this royal personage from the indignity of falling to the ground in front of so many.

"Stop stomping him!!" The Blaze Knight standing by could not hold his peace any longer, and stepped up to push away the King.

"You dared to push me……" The King said shocked, before shouting out, "Royal Knights! My knights, he attacked me! Attack him!"

The royal knights were taken aback by the order, but after only hesitating a second they pulled out their swords and advanced on the Blaze Knight, surrounding him carefully.

Blaze's face had swiftly turned red in anger, as he shouted, "You dare to point your weapons at me?! Holy Knights, prepare for battle!"

The holy knights aimed their swords at the royal knights.

"Everyone, stop this at once!" the Judge Knight roared angrily.

But the situation had already escalated beyond Judge's control. His order may have stopped his own division's knights- they would never go against his orders-but there was still my Sun Division, the hot-tempered Blaze Knight, and the secretly venomous Earth Knight.

The King's longstanding appalling conduct had not endeared him to the holy knights, and plenty of holy knights already held him in contempt. Yet now, the King had stomped on the fallen Death Knight and openly admitted to killing Roland, as if trying to make everyone detest him even more.

The holy knights and the royal knights glared at each other, both sides ready to attack at any time. Adding fuel to fire to the already tenuous situation, the King grabbed a vase and threw it at the Blaze Knight. It did not hit its target though and smashed instead on the Earth Knight's Earth Shield.

However, such an insulting action was enough to incite the Sun Division's wrath. One of them spitted at the royal knights, and before you knew it, both sides had attacked each other. The sounds of weapons clanging on shields and armour filled the room.

I have to admit that, my Sun Division may be a little, OK, extremely hot-tempered, but their strength is definitely top-notch.

I don't know of it's because of their piss poor luck or due to their inborn nature, but they often seem to be provoking and getting into fights with people who shouldn't be trifled with. And because their leader always had a smile on and looked easy to bully, not to mention that he had adopted the 'Don't bother me' attitude with them, they had no choice but to depend on themselves. Utilising their pure strength and rallying together, they would beat up the other party until they (the other party) were fearful of complaining of their treatment.

I ignored the fight going on behind me and walked up to Roland. As I knelt in front of him and looked down at him, I felt my many emotions struggling within me.

"Creus, Creus."

Roland called out my name softly and lifted his head, his face expressionless. Only the flames within his eyes revealed his inner turmoil as they slowly darkened. He stared at me with those black flame-eyes of his and asked, "Is this what you do after becoming the Sun Knight? Protecting that kind of people?"

I said softly, "Roland, there are many unfair things in this world that we cannot change. As the Church of Light's Sun Knight, I have to consider many things."

"Is this your answer?" The flames in Roland's eyes turned even blacker and blazed even stronger.

"Roland, wake up." I said with pity in my eyes. "No matter what the King has done, as long as he remains the King, I have to stop you from killing him."

"Even when he truly deserves death?" Roland pinned me with his eyes, the flames beginning to burn so brightly that the flames were leaping out from his eye sockets.

"Yes, even when he truly deserves death." I acknowledged frankly.

"What a Sun Knight!" Roland started laughing abruptly, his small chuckles growing into a crazed laughter. The black flames in his eyes had spread out from his sockets and moved across his face like two streams of black tears.

"Argh!"

Without warning, Roland knocked his shoulder into me, sending me flying. At this sudden attack, the Holy Light previously filling the room instantly winked out, and with the Holy Light gone, Roland was able to regain his feet once more.

I slowly got up after being knocked down. Several holy knights from the Judge Division had seen this and stepped forward to help me, but I waved them back, ordering them to continue standing guard at the exits.

Other than the Judge Knight Division, no one else had appeared to notice anything. The whole room was chaotic as a battlefield with the royal knights fighting with Blaze, Earth and my Sun Knight Division. All in all there were about fifty or so people battling it out in the room.

Although both the Crown Prince and the Judge Knight were trying to stop the fights, the King was instead doing his best to stroke the fire. Furthermore, my Sun Division knights were completely ignoring the Judge Knight. Besides, their leader-moi-and the Judge Knight are sworn rivals! It's perfectly normal for them to disregard the Judge Knight's orders!

By now, the Crown Prince's face had turned so pale he looked to be on the verge of fainting; Judge Knight, on the contrary, was so angry his face had turned black.

It is fortunate that this is the king's royal bedchambers; it was as large as a conference hall. Otherwise, there would not have been enough room for more than fifty people to have out their battle here.

I chanted the incantation for the Holy Light once more, and this time the Holy Light was even brighter than before. But this time I had secretly tweaked it a little so that the Holy Light filled the entire room but stayed clear of Roland.

I needed Roland to become the Death Lord, for only then can my plan succeed.

The bright Holy Light successfully blocked everyone from seeing the Death Knight becoming a Death Lord, as well as covering up Roland's strong dark aura. No one could see Roland's form with the Holy Light so glaring; the Judge Division knights probably thought that I was in control of the Death Knight situation and so did not make a move to help me.

As for the rest, well… I doubt those knights so engrossed in their fights had even noticed the Holy Light disappearing and then reappearing again.

The Holy Light was cast by me so it did not block my vision, and I was able to witness firsthand the birth of a Death Lord.

Roland's body had originally been a pale grey colour, it was latter on that the flames in his eyes had turned a dark black and seeped out from his eyes and down his face, forming two black fiery streaks. Now, those black streaks were reaching down his neck and continued on under his clothes. I may not be able to see what happened as they travelled under his clothes, but I was soon able to see the streaks cover his arms and hands.

Other than the fiery black streaks, the surrounding dark aura was suddenly absorbed into Roland's body. Next, I could see something slowly growing from his back-a pair of black leathery wings akin to a dragon's! At the peak of each wing grew a set of sharp claws.

Pale white body covered with markings of black flames and a pair of clawed black wings, is this the Death Lord's form?

I have to admit that he looks pretty strong and powerful. I can only hope that my plan can stop Roland, or else…… Heheh! I'd probably die just while taking him down.

At this point, Roland opened his eyes and looked down curiously at the markings on his arms, and then twisted around to touch the wings on his back.

It is time!

I ran towards him, and when we were about one meter apart, Roland caught sight of me. His face twisted into an expression of anger as he sent me flying with a swipe of his hand. He was so fast that I hadn't manage to see him move.

I fell to the ground for the second time today. 'Shit! It really hurts this time!' I suspected that my chest had caved in, or even worse, that a hole had been punched right through!

"Sun Knight!"

The Judge Division knights were the first to notice my condition and had cried out, coming forward to help me, but with a wave of his hand and a few incantations, Roland had summoned up all kinds of dark creatures. Zombies, skeletal warriors, blood-sucking human-head spiders, malignant spirits……there were even several that I could not put a name to.

'Isn't this a little too powerful?!' I thought as my face paled. 'Please don't tell me my plan has backfired and Roland is going to kill me right here, right now!'

With this summons, the Judge Division were too busy trying to subdue the dark creatures to help me. But it had successfully alerted the two battling parties to what was happening.

The royal knights all cried out "protect the Crown Prince!" …… before realising that each had cried out the same thing and quickly shouted out "protect His Majesty, the King!"

'That old fart really isn't popular with everyone, even his own knights!'

And on the other side of the room, my Sun Division had finally noticed me lying on the ground coughing up blood, each showing various different expressions of shock that together they could make a compilation of 'Shocked and Stunned Faces'.

Struggling through my pain, I gave the order, "Stop the dark creatures, do not let a single one escape from this room."

"Yes, Sir!" They replied in unison, so disciplined were they that they were completely unrecognizable from the disobedient, unruly group earlier.

Even though my Sun Division might usually mess up everything, they would immediately become as obedient as a little kitten when they receive an order from me. This is because I had once told them that even if I had ordered them to jump off a cliff, they would have to follow my orders and jump. Or else I would personally push them off the cliff and throw down a huge rock after them.

At first, they weren't really afraid of this threat, for I was the ever-smiling Sun Knight and did not look at all scary. But, when I smiled at them as I kicked two of them off the cliff, and really pushed off two humongous rocks after them, the rest of the division made the decision to jump off the cliff themselves.

My Sun Division knights were better and quicker at subduing the dark creatures than the Judge Division, for the Holy Light and various other holy spells that is a must for the Sun Division is perfect for countering dark creatures.

I felt relieved as I watched my knights getting rid of the dark creatures easily; it was just a matter of time before all the dark creatures are gone.

Blaze and Earth had walked up to stand by my sides, each reaching out a hand to help me up. Once on my feet, I gave them the orders, "Blaze, I leave the spirits to you; Earth, help out anyone who is in trouble. I do not want to see any fatal injuries."

Both of them nodded, and Blaze entered the melee and started targeting the malignant spirits, Purification Fire burning in each hand.

Earth Knight stood by my side, watching the battle closely, casting his specialty-Earth Shield-whenever anyone was in trouble.

Roland was surrounded by a group of dark creatures. As he stood there he watched the battle going on around him with a small smirk on his lips. This was a complete 180 from his usual expression.

'Has his anger destroyed all rationality?' I wondered uneasily.

While thinking that, Roland did something that further supported my theory. He turned the dark aura in the room into a net-like form and placed it around the entire room, trapping everyone inside. He then summoned out a second wave of dark creatures, their numbers rivalling the number of knights in the room.

Ah, no wonder all the books on undead creatures had warned not to allow a Death Lord to be born, or else it'll be a disaster in the making……

I looked at Judge as he questioned the Crown Prince, "I apologise, your Highness, but the situation has gotten a little out of hand. May I ask how long it'll take for the rest of the knights and guards to notice the situation here?"

The Crown Prince was white as a bed sheet, yet he still had to fend off his father's shouts. He smiled wryly as he answered, "Because this…… delicate case…… is not something to be proud of, I had diverted all the guards elsewhere, and had given the order not to approach this area regardless of anything they might hear."

Upon hearing this, Judge frowned furiously before looking at me. I can guess at what he's planning. He probably wants me to get out and alert the guards and the Holy Temple, and call for backup.

That would be the best solution, because for one-I'm already injured; two-even if I weren't injured, my fighting skills were little better than an injured person; three-my whole body is filled with holy aura, and so it would be easy for me to get through the dark aura caging us in.

But I had my own plans. Just one more step left.

"What am I retaining you knights for?! Hurry up and kill that bastard!!" The king was trembling with fury, that he even slapped one of his own knights in anger.

'My dear beloved King, never before have I wished to kiss that fat sweaty paw of yours as I do now!'

His actions and words are a hundred percent sufficient to further enrage Roland, and it is this moment that I had been waiting for!

Roland was definitely furious. The flames in his eyes were spitting sparks and he gave a low inhuman roar. The dark aura exploded, causing the whole room to shake.

I immediately ran in the king's direction. I have no idea how Roland is going to break through the royal knights' defences to get to the King, but I know he'll definitely do it. I just need to stand in front of the King when he does it.

As I ran, I turned to look back at Roland. It seemed like the air was subtly bending around him, oh no, don't tell me……

I increased my pace, terrified that I would not reach the King in time.

Roland disappeared.

While everyone else was still staring at the spot where he was last standing, Roland had re-materialised in front of the King. He gave him a cruel smile and said, "Your Majesty, your time is at hand."

The King was so terrified that his trembling legs could not support him and he dropped to his knees.

That move was a type of spacial magic-Instant Teleportation, shortening the distance between two places and allowing one to move between places in an instant. I never thought the Death Lord would be able to use this magic.

"Roland, stop!"

I was able to reach the King's front, just as Roland unhesitatingly lifted his sword to swing at the King's head. I quickly cast a holy spell on myself, giving me Holy Blessings, and took on Roland's attack.

Even so, my chest was sliced deeply and my blood spurted out, spraying onto Roland. Each drop of my holy blood was deadly to him, and he cried out in pain.

Even though he cut a sorry figure with my blood splattered all over him, his expression had cleared and the flames in his eyes were no longer as dark as before. Upon seeing this, I let out a breath of relief. He's finally calmed down. I was worried that he would continue on in his rampage!

"Creus……" Roland raised his head and stared at me with uncomprehendingly, "Just now, why didn't you stop-……"

"Roland!" I interrupted. 'Are you kidding?! I can't let all these people here know that I had purposely allowed Roland to become a Death Lord! They'd tie me up if they found out!'

"I know that you're determined to kill the person who had killed you, but I also know that you are not doing this for revenge. You're doing this because you cannot allow a cruel and heartless torturer to rule over this beautiful country of ours. You cannot bear the thought of people undergoing sufferings such as that you had experienced, to prevent future cases of Death Knights like yourself from happening again, right?"

Upon hearing my words, Roland nodded reflexively as they were somewhat similar to his intentions.

I looked at him calmly and said, "If that is so, if the King were to agree to abdicate his throne as a sign of his repentance, you would be satisfied and be able to move on, right Roland?"

"Su-sun Knight, what is the meaning of this?! What are you saying?!" The King cried out, his face red with anger.

Roland frowned at this, unsure at where I'm going with this.

"Roland? You're Captain Roland?" One of the royal knights suddenly cried out.

The rest of the royal knights seem to know of Roland's name, for they each took a closer look at the Death Lord's face, before one, then two,…… many of the knights had soon recognised who the Death Lord was.

The royal knights started murmuring:

"It really is him. It's that youngest captain of the royal knights."

"It's Roland! I used to run patrols with him."

"He was such a talented knight, how could this be……?"

"Captain Roland! Weren't you killed in the line of duty while out on a mission?" The knight who had first recognised Roland cried out.

Roland looked at the young knight and his severe face softened. "It's you, Herle."

"It really is Captain Roland!" When Herle heard his name called out, he got so worked up that he even dropped his sword. "H-How could you have become a Death Knight?" he asked disbelievingly.

Roland slowly turned back and looked at the King, his look of hatred making it clear to all that this was the person who had killed him. The royal knights looked at the King and looks of realization appeared on their faces. Not one person even doubted Roland's words, for the King's usual conduct was already telling everyone that yes, he is the kind of person to do such things.

The King got a little embarrassed, but he turned it into anger and shouted, "Yes, I'm the one who killed him! But he's one of my knights. He committed a crime so I merely executed him for it, what's wrong with that?"

Standing beside him, the Crown Prince wearily pressed his face into his hands, as if tired of all the trouble his father kept stirring up.

"Bullshit! Roland was one of the most law-abiding knights; he would never commit any crime. If not, why don't you tell us what crime he had committed?"

That knight called Herle must be one of Roland's fans, to be so daring as to shout back at his king; although, he did look rather shocked by his own outburst the moment he had realised what he had done. However, the other royal knights must have agreed with him, for even though no one else had spoken up, they were looking at the King coldly.

Looks like Roland has a pretty good reputation among the royal knights.

"He-he tried to take liberties with the princess!" The King cunningly picked a crime difficult to investigate, not caring that he was ruining his own daughter's reputation.

The twenty or so royal knights all revealed strange expressions, same even looked exasperated as they explained, "Everyone knows that Captain Roland avoids women. He doesn't covet money, he doesn't gamble, or drink, or get into fights. He spends all his free time doing nothing but swords practice……"

This kind of guy really
is hard to incriminate, is what the King must be moaning inside.

"I-as the King of a country, I would never kill one of my knights for no reason. If I said he had seduced the Princess, then he did! "

The knights fell silent at this, for if the King refused to admit it, they could not do a single thing about it. Then again, even if he had confessed, what could they do? Unless they were to rebel against the country……

"The reason his Majesty the King wanted to kill him was because……"

A lazy voice totally inconsistent with the current tense situation suddenly spoke up, startling everyone. Storm stepped out from behind a large dressing mirror lazily, a small smile on his face even when seeing the Death Lord.

'Storm is an-gry!' I thought gleefully.

I could tell, because every time this guy got really angry, he would look calm and relaxed just like now. And then just when the other guy had relaxed his guard, this guy would suddenly launch his attack, striking where it would hurt the most.

Currently, I hold the record for angering him the most times. In the thirteen years I've known him, I've angered him a grand total of ten times, and was surprise-attacked by him nine times. The reason why I was attacked one time less was because just after angering him that time, I had managed to anger my teacher.

When he had entered my room all calm and relaxed, I was already lying in bed pitifully, wrap from head to toe in bandages like a mummy. He had stood at the foot of my bed quietly for ten minutes, before his pity finally won over his need for revenge (or maybe it was because he could not find a single uninjured spot to hit?) Anyway, in the end he left without doing a single thing.

Well, looks like this torture and murder case had really roused Storm's anger.

Storm pushed open the mirrored door, slamming it into the wall. If I'm not mistaken I could see cracks forming in the wall…….

"He discovered your habit of torturing the maids and then killing them, and wanted to expose you. Instead, he was imprisoned by you and tortured for three whole months before dying."

'Three months? Where the hell did he get such a precise period of time?' I thought questioningly. 'Even I didn't know how long Roland had been tortured for.'

The king's face twisted into a sinister expression as he shouted, "Lies! All lies! You couldn't have known how long I had imprisoned Roland!"

Storm nonchalantly replied, "There are no walls that are completely solid, just as there are no secrets that cannot be found out. I even know that the underwear you are currently wearing right now are red, leopard-spotted briefs. Do you think that there's anything that can be hidden from me? Do you want me to list out the methods of torture you had put him through? Whipping, burning, pulling out his nails, tearing out his tongue, soaking him in salt water, pouring honey onto his wounds and releasing a nest of ants on him…… need I continue?"

The King's face paled drastically.

Upon hearing again all those torture methods, Roland covered his face and let out a little pained roar as he recalled all the cruelty he had undergone at the hands of the King.

'Woah!' I nearly gave Storm a standing ovation. I had only asked for Storm to jump out in the middle and help me reveal the existence of the secret torture room, but I never thought he would be so thorough as to investigate how long Roland had been imprisoned and what methods had been used on him. He had even found out the colour of the King's underwear!

I sincerely prayed to the God of Light that Storm would not die from overworking.

Storm stepped away from the dressing mirror, and I immediately noticed that he had removed the hanging cloth. With the cloth gone, the rotting smell of flesh and blood immediately drifted out, emphasising the truth of Storm's words.

By now, the Sun Division had finished with all the dark creatures. Roland had yet to realise that the dark creatures were no longer there to protect him, but no one had moved to attack him.

In fact, judging from everyone's expressions, they would rather attack the King than attack Roland.

"Blaze, go purify the room of any lingering air of resentment." I ordered.

Blaze nodded and stepped into the torture chamber, but he did not immediately call out the Purification Fire. Instead, he stood there for a while, dazed. Not a sound could be heard as an oppressive silence fell upon the whole room. Everyone had fallen silent as they watched him. After a while, a long sigh could be heard from Blaze.

The Purification Fire had started to burn when the torture room was suddenly filled with the screams of the dead victims, screaming out their agony as they were tortured mercilessly before dying.

More than a few had paled at these spine chilling screams, and had quickly bowed down their heads while muttering prayers.

Once the screams were over, an even more shocking sound was heard.

"Father, please abdicate the throne and retire, so that you may enjoy your older years in peace."

The Crown Prince had finally spoken up. His face was weary and looked like he had aged several years, tired of tonight's entire farce.

"What are you saying?......" The King looked at his son, stunned.

The Crown Prince looked at his father sternly and said, "Please abdicate the throne as a sign of your repentance, and let me take care of you in your retirement."

Several emotions flickered across the King's face at his son's words. As he looked around him, the royal knights just looked back at him coldly; the holy knights looked on in disdain; and standing not too far away was a strong and powerful Death Lord staring at him with hatred in his eyes.

Lastly, he turned to look at me. I turned my head and looked back at him, my golden hair and the angle hiding my expression from everyone else, but allowing him and him alone to see me, and the evil smile on my lips.

His eyes widened as his face paled, suddenly realising who had masterminded this whole act. And this person just so happens to be the leader of the Twelve Holy Knights with the capability of calling out the entire Holy Temple against him. The portly guy was probably even guessing if the Hall of Light had anything to do with all this.

"I-I will abdicate the throne." In the end, the King announced defeated.

The moment he announced his decision, I quietly slipped a hand into my pocket and crushed a pink heart-shaped glass.

At this moment, something began happening to Roland. His body started floating up and everyone thought he was going to attack, but Roland merely looked down at himself perplexed, as if not understanding why he would be floating up.

The dark aura began receding to be replaced with a soft pink glow.

'Why is it pink? I had clearly asked for white……' I grumbled softly.

"Could it be that his obsession has been achieved and that he's now going to move on?" Some random holy knight who had once flipped through a book about the undead exclaimed.

"Captain Roland!" cried Herle as he looked up at Roland with tears in his eyes.

Roland had a puzzled expression, as if wondering why he would 'move on'. As he started struggling a little the dark aura grew thicker and the pink glow dimmed a little……

"Death Lord, let me give you a helping hand!" I called out. As I wrapped the Holy Light around Roland, the dark aura diminished, leaving only the pink glow which got brighter and brighter, until a pink light appeared in the air, falling upon Roland and enveloping him in it.

At last, Roland seemed to have understood something. He looked at me meaningfully and said, "Creus, see you around."

I nodded back at him.

The light flashed and winked out, taking Roland away with it. From the air drifted down delicate pink petals, their soft and sweet scent clearly telling everyone that nothing dark remained.

As I looked around the room covered in pink flower petals, I felt thankful that everything had gone according to plan.

With the threat of a Death Lord and the royal knights distancing themselves from the King, the Crown Prince-firstly worried that the Death Lord might pull out all the stops to kill the King, secondly, to appease the royal knights, and thirdly…… well perhaps it is the little selfish desire of an old Prince already in his forties- would advise his father to abdicate the throne.

The Crown Prince had already been in control of political affairs for quite some time now, so when he spoke up, even the King would not dare to flippantly go against his son and refuse to abdicate.

In the end, the cruel-handed ruler has been forced down from his power, and I believe that after my advice about the possibility of his father creating more Death Knights, the Crown Prince would definitely watch his father carefully and stop him from resuming his hobby.

'Roland, you might not be completely satisfied with this ending, but after all, I am not a Death Knight. I cannot simply kill people to settle this.'

The dead can just kill and move on to the afterlife afterwards, but the living would have to stay and face the consequences. That is why the living has to find ways to compromise. I can only hope that you can accept this compromised justice.

~O~O~O~O~

The King abdicated the throne, and the Death Knight moved on to the afterlife.

Everything might have been resolved in a rather unexpected way, but it is a happy ending.

All fifty something holy knights had naturally returned to the Holy Temple, and while it had been unavoidable that some had been injured, they were all restored back to full health by the holy priests. Within half an hour, everyone was as good as new.

As the Sun Knight-not to mention I had been heavily wounded-I was the first the priests had rushed to. After receiving more than ten advanced level healing spells, I'm sure even the split ends on my hair have been healed. I immediately stood up to leave, intending to regain my beauty sleep, when I heard the Judge Knight approaching from behind.

"Sun, can I ask you a few questions?"

"Hmm?" I smiled faintly at him.

Judge hesitated for a moment and frowned. "The reason you brought Blaze and Earth along was really to stop the Death Knight, and not because their tempers are easily roused and might start a fight, thus allowing Roland time to become the Death Lord, right?"

"Earth Knight is an honest and gentle person, how could you possibly say that he would start a fight with someone?" I asked, showing just the right amount of bewilderment.

Judge could only frown at that. I knew that he had no way of refuting that statement as the Earth Knight's honest and gentle personality is a fact that the whole continent knows!

He then asked his second question, "Then while the royal knight were fighting with our holy knights, you had said something to him when he started changing into the Death Lord. You hadn't used your knowledge of your friend and purposely said something to anger him, thus manipulating him into becoming the Death Lord, right?"

I opened my mouth to reply him with another weak answer, but Judge had continued on without giving me the opportunity to answer.

"When Roland was close to becoming the Death Lord, were you really unable to stop him?"

Judge paused after these two questions, hesitated for a second, before continuing on to say in a certain voice, "Tonight's events leading up to the King's abdication, are they all done for Roland's sake? Your actions……"

"Judge Knight!" I interrupted him with a smile. "You need only know one thing. It does not matter if that Death Knight had been Roland or a complete stranger, everything that had happened tonight would have happened regardless of the Death Knight's identity, and no other way."

Judge frowned in disbelief.

I calmly laid my hand on the Sun Knight insignia on my chest and solemnly said, "The first thing my teacher had taught me was this: 'Serving out justice is the meaning for the Sun Knight's existence.'"

 

"Child, the Sun Knight may not be able to get full justice, and the Sun Knight may have to compromise on justice, but the Sun Knight may never give up on justice. The moment that you have given up on carrying out justice, tear off that Sun Knight insignia on your chest, for you are no longer a Sun Knight!"

 

"Do you understand my answer, Judge Knight?"

Judge was silent for a moment before he nodded. "I understand, Sun Knight. However, I would like to ask you one more question."

"More questions?" I laughed wryly.

"The Sun Knight is not going to leave a Death Lord wandering around, is he?"

"Of course not!" I smiled my most innocent and guileless smile at him before giving a yawn and said, "I'm so tired! I'm off to bed. Go to bed soon, yourself."

The Judge Knight kept quiet as I quickened my footsteps, and just as I was about to reach the corner and leave his sight, he suddenly asked me, "Then, will Creus let Roland go?"

At this, I halted my footsteps as I stroke at my pocket. After I had crushed Pink's pink heart-shaped glass, a book on advanced necromancy arts, a necromancy apprentice certificate and a small slip of paper had appeared in my pocket. I had yet to read the message.

I smiled wryly as I read the message now and answered him, "Well…… it's rather late. Creus is already asleep; he'll answer you some other time!"

Written on the paper was:

Dear apprentice,

Don't bother hoping to get your friend Roland to move on to the afterlife. He's told me that his obsession is to be the Sun Knight.

Shit!

I should have just burned him at the stake.

 

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