Book 2: Chapter Sun Knight’s Daily Duty #9: “Spread the True Teachings of the God of Light”
On the day of the three person deathmatch, the Holy Temple was virtually empty. Everyone had already left to grab themselves a good spot at the stadium where it would be held.
I sighed in irritation. “Even the patrolling knights have disappeared. This is just too sloppy! Although it is peaceful now, there is an opposing religious faction, the Monastery of the God of War, in our territory. Having no guards in the entire Holy Temple is a bit too much.
“Therefore, you guys will guard this place!”
I let my Sun Knight Platoon out of the detention room, and gave them these instructions.
Their expressions indicated a 200% reluctance to follow orders.
“Why did this have to happen… We originally wanted to sneak out of the secret door and watch the match. Captain…”
Twenty-four armored holy knights looked at me with pleading, sparkly eyes and kept crying, “Captain…” They even dragged out the last syllable. This makes me feel really…
“Disgusting! Get lost!” I shouted angrily.
I turned around only to see Vice-Captain Adair standing in front of me looking depressed.
He smiled bitterly, and solemnly said, “Captain, the Sun Knight Platoon and I will guard the Holy Temple well. Even though Adair will forever regret being unable to watch your battle heroics, Adair will follow your every command. Still, I cannot help but regret it!” He sighed tragically.
“Since you will regret it so much, then after arranging their positions, come and watch the match.”
“Yes, sir!” Adair’s vitality returned in an instant.
After saying that, I noticed that the sun had already risen. I still needed to fetch somebody, and if I did not set off soon, I would be late. Although I am often late, when the people waiting include a king, a princess, the Pope of my religion, a big shot of another religion and so on, it’s not a good idea to be tardy.
When I was some distance away, I heard people yelling from behind, “Adair! You’re despicable!”, “Shameless!”, “Traitor!” and other such comments.
When I reached the main doors of the Holy Temple, I looked around and immediately found the person I was searching for. He was standing in a corner. I nodded at him, and then continued making my way to the deathmatch stadium. I knew that he would follow me.
As I entered the deathmatch stadium, the royal knights greeted me with friendly nods. But the moment they glanced behind me, they tensed up and ran forward to restrain the person following me.
“Stop right there!”
The royal knights’ tension was infectious and soon spread to the entire audience. Many people stared openly at the uniquely dressed person at the entrance.
He wore a skin-tight black leotard with scaly silver armor covering his chest, vitals, calves, and the bottom half of his face. Although this was an assassin’s outfit, there was a longsword strapped to his waist. This was unusual, since the preferred weapons of assassins were daggers and short swords.
I shouted at the guards, “He belongs to the Holy Temple and is not a suspicious person! Let him in.”
Everybody was shocked, but the Twelve Holy Knights were the most alarmed. Some even stared, alternating between me and him, with open suspicion.
I smiled brilliantly and explained to everyone, “This is Knight-Captain Hell. He has recently completed a secret mission and has since returned to the Temple.”
Blaze was the first to exclaim, “What! He’s not Sun— No! Supreme Dragon?”
I nodded and said, “Oh! You’re right; Knight-Captain Hell’s full name is Supreme Dragon Hell. There’s nothing wrong with you calling him Supreme Dragon, but in front of others, Knight-Captain Blaze, you should call him Knight-Captain Hell. This is to prevent others from mistaking his identity.”
Blaze was stunned. He gaped as if he wanted to say something but did not know what to say. He was not the only person who was astounded. Simply put, all the other holy knights were either shocked, suspicious, or had looks of utter disbelief.
This statement gave rise to much discussion. As everyone was talking, I took note of the situation in the stadium. The stands were clearly partitioned into royal knights, warriors of the Monastery of the God of War, and holy knights.
The royal knights sat closest to the king’s platform. The people from the Monastery of the God of War sat directly opposite the royal knights. The holy knights were divided into two and filled the seats in between the other two factions to serve as a neutral zone. After all, the angry glares the royal knights and warriors of the Monastery of the God of War were throwing at each other were enough to make anyone suspect that instead of a three person deathmatch, the battle would devolve into a group brawl.
The Son of the God of War sat next to the stage. The stands behind him were filled with warriors of the Monastery of the God of War.
The representative for the royal knights, Elijah, sat opposite the Son of the God of War, with only the stage separating them. He was staring at the supposed ‘Supreme Dragon Hell’ with a rigid face.
The princess was not on the king’s platform, but behind Elijah in a cheering zone she had prepared specially for him. She seemed to be cheering for her sweetheart with all her might. She did not bother to even pretend to show any encouragement for the Son of the God of War or me. Observing this, the Son of the God of War was rather upset. Of course, I continued to smile dazzlingly.
The princess regarded Supreme Dragon Hell doubtfully, and then shot me a warning look. Her look implied that she wanted me to avoid causing any mischief.
I had not revealed much of my plan to the princess. All I said was that I would, naturally, help her sweetheart win the three person deathmatch. I did not mention anything else, and could not mention anything else unless I wanted to be burned at the stake.
At that moment, the king slowly announced, “From what I hear, the Twelve Holy Knights do not seem to recognize their own comrade.”
I bowed gracefully to the king, then clarified, “That is correct, Your Majesty. Besides Sun, the others indeed do not recognize this companion.”
“Oh? I’m all ears.” The king honestly appeared interested.
I nodded and explained, “Knight-Captain Hell is a unique existence among the Twelve Holy Knights. As the ages pass the role of the Hell Knight changes, but the Hell Knight is mostly involved in undercover work. For example, during an age of war the Hell Knight would focus on obtaining vital military information.”
“So what you mean is that the Hell Knight exists to be a spy or assassin?”
The king’s younger knight confidante smiled a little oddly and said, “So there exists a member of the Twelve Holy Knights who does this kind of dirty work?”
Elijah, who was standing to the side, lowered his head slightly in shame.
“It is not like that at all,” I denied fervently. I paused for a while before resuming my explanation, “Under the guidance of the God of Light, holy knights uphold the true spirit of justice, not an ignorant form of justice. In a war, obtaining accurate information is of absolute importance. Accurate information ensures that as few of our holy knight brethren are sacrificed as possible. It can also shorten the duration of the war, preventing the citizens of the God of Light from suffering from the ravages of war. However, information does not come easily. Simply asking will not give us any useful data. In order to obtain vital information, someone needs to sacrifice their right to stand under the light, thus entering the darkness. This is for the sake of reducing the pain of the citizens of the God of Light, protecting our own holy knight brothers, and, last but not least, carrying out the justice of the God of Light.”
I glanced at Elijah. He seemed more cheerful now. I spoke gently, “Please believe me. Holy knights are not afraid of walking into the darkness with their backs to the light. Even if they are shrouded in darkness, they remain under the radiance of the God of Light.”
When I had finished talking, everybody sank into deep thought. The princess even smiled at me, probably because these words of mine could encourage her loved one.
Actually, these words did not apply only to Hell Knight. They were valid for all the holy knights in the ‘cruel, cold-hearted’ faction, especially their leader Judgment Knight.
The king nodded gently and said, “Sun Knight, you have deepened my understanding of holy knights.”
“It is Sun’s honor, and the will of the God of Light, that Your Majesty has understood my words.”
“Knight-Captain Sun, have you finished talking?” The Son of the God of War was doing his best to maintain a calm demeanor, but could not hide his impatience. “If you’ve finished talking then let us begin the deathmatch!”
“My most sincere apologies for the long wait. Let us now participate in a friendly spar witnessed by the radiant God of Light,” I announced for all to hear.
After my announcement, I immediately strode toward the stage…but a black and silver figure was in the way.
I hesitantly stopped walking and asked, “Brother Hell, is something the matter?”
Hell said simply and clearly, “Fighting is not something the Sun Knight should do. Please allow this substitute to take your place in the match.”
On hearing this, I murmured, “Ah.” The king was quick to react. He asked, “Substitute?”
I looked at the king with an awkward expression and stuttered, “T-This…”
The king shot a look at his younger knight confidante. The latter shouted, “Could the always honest and transparent Sun Knight be hiding something unspeakable?”
I deliberately turned around to prompt Judgment. He was the only one who could cooperate with me even without being informed.
Although Judgment had no idea what was going on, he said irritably, “If you insist on saying it, then it’s your responsibility.”
I hesitated, sighed, and then clarified, “It’s like this, Your Majesty: Hell Knight was once thought to be the alter ego of the Sun Knight, and not a real person. It is unclear whether that was true in the past. Regardless, the current Hell Knight does indeed exist as a real person. But at the same time, they have been assigned the task of being the Sun Knight’s substitute.” After giving my explanation, I did my best to plead with Hell Knight, “Knight-Captain Hell, please step aside. This is my fight.”
“No!” Hell growled somewhat angrily, “If you fight personally instead of letting this substitute take your place, then you are defeating the purpose of my existence. You will have to kill me and step over my corpse before I let you go up onstage.”
I was left speechless, and the whole stadium was in an uproar. It was rare for the audience to hear a highly self-disciplined holy knight lose control and say something like this.
“Knight-Captain Hell, I cannot allow you to replace me in the match.” I sighed softly and said helplessly, “If you win, how could it count as my victory?”
Hell Knight said coldly, “Then step onto the stage over my dead body!”
“That’s impossible… Please step aside, Knight-Captain Hell.” I was beginning to get angry.
“No!” Hell Knight only spat out the one word, but this one word had more than enough impact.
We had reached a stalemate. Hell stared at me with determined eyes…or I should say, he was doing his best to appear resolute. I believe this was not difficult for him, as he was originally an extremely determined person anyway.
“Just let Knight-Captain Hell take your place.”
The one who broke the stalemate was Her Highness, the princess.
She said gently, “Since he is willing to sacrifice himself for Knight-Captain Sun, then it makes no difference whether it is him or the Sun Knight fighting.”
I shook my head and exclaimed, “But Your Highness, the other two participants may not be willing to accept such an arrangement.”
Elijah thought hard about it for a while, and then said, “Since the princess does not object, I shall also accept this arrangement.”
The Son of the God of War frowned. For a long time, he did not show any sign of agreeing. This I can understand. Although he was unsure how strong Hell Knight was, no matter what, he could not be weaker than I am in the rumors.
I hurriedly added fuel to the flames by saying, “It is understandable if His Highness the Son of the God of War does not accept, since it would be unfair to him if Hell Knight wins.”
The Son of the God of War appeared insulted by my comment. He coldly sneered, and howled, “Who says I don’t agree! It doesn’t matter who my opponent is, the winner will be me.”
With regard to this statement, the king nodded in agreement. Since all the important people had given their approval, the matter was settled. The three men who were vying for the princess’s hand in marriage went on stage for the deathmatch.
As I was no longer one of the men competing in the fight for the princess, I returned to the ranks of the Twelve Holy Knights and took my place beside Judgment Knight.
The edges of Judgment Knight’s lips curved up a little, and he whispered, “So you never had any intention of going up on stage.”
“Of course. I have no interest in being beaten to a pulp in front of an audience.” I replied naturally.
I gave him a disapproving look and added cynically, “With your reasoning ability, you should have deduced this when you saw me with the book that Cloud gave me, describing how to choose good luck charms. Do you think I am a person who relies on good luck charms to guarantee the success of my schemes? If I can’t be 200% confident, then I should at least be 100% sure of success before I “dare” to do anything.”
“Ah… You are right! How stupid of me.” Judgment shook his head in chagrin and said, “Never mind the book, I should have known you definitely weren’t going to participate in the fight when you agreed to it.”
I gave Judgment a look of disdain. What is that supposed to mean? At any rate, I have defeated many undead creatures—and occasionally the undead creatures Pink sends are strong!
A servant suddenly walked over to me and said respectfully, “Sun Knight, the king wishes to speak with you.”
I nodded and followed him, then boldly gave the king a brilliant smile. Even if the king knew that all this was my fault, there was no way he could accuse me in front of such a large audience, right?
The king waved at his two knight confidantes, and they immediately understood to stand further away.
He then waved at me. I climbed up the platform, stood next to the king, and lowered my head to hear what he had to say. He gritted his teeth and hissed, “If my sister did not truly love Elijah, I would never have allowed you to cause such mischief.”
“Even though Sun has no idea what Your Majesty means by ‘mischief,’ I do admire your heartfelt concern for your beloved sister,” I said sincerely.
After all, if the king insisted on marrying his sister to the Son of the God of War, he would have at least ten methods of sabotaging my plan. But not only did he not use any of these methods, he even chose to simply sit by and watch the outcome.
“Hmph! If you stir up so much trouble and still fail to let my sister marry her sweetheart, resulting in serious consequences, I will make sure nothing good happens to you.”
Just like an anxious big brother, the king glared viciously at me. After that, he scowled and turned to the scene on stage.
The king had good reason to frown. Although Elijah had been trained by Judgment, the probability of him beating the Son of the God of War was as high as that of me beating Judgment.
I knew that, Judgment knew that, the warriors of the God of War knew that, and the royal knights knew that. So naturally, the king also knew that.
What they didn’t know, was that there are many definitions of ‘winning,’ especially when fighting over a woman.
As I left the king’s side and walked back to the ranks of the Twelve Holy Knights, the fight had already begun, as if the participants couldn’t wait to start. The first to strike was the Son of the God of War. Warriors were always the first to attack, while knights who valued defense over attack rarely struck first.
“Nice swordsmanship!” Judgment Knight gasped in admiration, as if itching for a match.
This statement was, of course, not directed at Elijah. Elijah’s swordsmanship was not bad, but not good enough for Judgment to marvel at. His comment was targeted at Rol— at Knight-Captain Hell and the Son of the God of War.
Judgment Knight struck up a commentary on the vicious fight, saying, “Soon after the start of the deathmatch, the Son of the God of War quickly realized who his real opponent was. Although on the surface, it is a three person melee, in truth most of the fighting is done between the Son of the God of War and Hell Knight.
“The Son of the God of War had at first thought to get rid of Elijah before dealing with Hell Knight, but the former’s swordsmanship is pretty good and his footwork is so unique. It would require more than a moment to defeat Elijah, which makes it difficult, considering that Hell Knight would also be waiting nearby for an opportunity to attack, like a tiger waiting to pounce on its prey.”
“Even the Son of the God of War would lose if he did not fight seriously against Hell Knight,” Judgment Knight said, continuing his exclusive commentary.
Truth is, all I saw were the glint of swords and the silhouettes of three people darting here and there. I watched till I was giddy, and when I heard the clash of weapons… “Good thing I am not up on stage, or I would have died of a seizure just from hearing the sounds of clashing swords,” I said.
“If you really went up on stage, you would have lost before you even heard the clash of weapons,”Judgment said after he heard my exclamation of relief. “But don’t worry. You specialize in defeating the undead. If it was about vanquishing undead creatures, you would be stronger than all three people on stage.” After comforting me, Judgment proceeded to insult me further. He said, “On the other hand, if it was about fighting living things, you would be more than ten times weaker than Elijah.”
Not willing to accept defeat, I provoked him, “Then between you and Hell Knight, who would be stronger?”
Judgment darted a look at me, then said slowly, “Hard to say… And you should know very well what I mean.”
I shut my mouth obediently and recalled that Supreme Dragon Hell did not only have mere sword-fighting abilities. In truth, his sword-fighting abilities were probably the most harmless of his skills. Then again, if the enemy was ‘Supreme Dragon Hell,’ as a holy knight, “chopping at him with a sword” was not the only means available to Judgment Knight. In conclusion, it would be really hard to determine who would win. The only thing I could be sure of was that Judgment had already discovered the true identity of “Supreme Dragon Hell.”
Although I had had no intention of hiding this fact from Judgment, I was, as always, in awe of his powers of observation. If I ever needed to, I was afraid it would be extremely challenging to hide something from him.
I could not resist asking, “How did you find out who he is?”
“He is easy to identify because of his superb swordsmanship.”
So that was it. I hate master swordsmen!
“Your expression indicates that you are thinking all expert swordsmen should die.” Judgment shot me a disapproving look.
“Keep guessing correctly and I will be convinced that you are not Judgment Knight, but some tapeworm living in my stomach!”
Judgment’s disapproving look vanished, replaced with a widening smile. Unsatisfied, I asked, “How is the fight progressing?”
“The Son of the God of War indeed lives up to his name as leader of the warriors. He cannot be underestimated. Unless Supreme Dragon Hell uses a technique other than his sword, he will definitely lose in the end.”
I asked to clarify, “Even if Elijah and Supreme Dragon Hell gang up on him, the Son of the God of War will still win?”
“Yes.”
I could not help but praise, “He isn’t the Son of the God of War for nothing, so strong!”
“Your expression suggests that you are very relieved that you never had any intention of taking part in the fight.”
“Shut up, tapeworm!”
Judgment’s eyes brimmed with delight. Fortunately for him, everyone’s eyes were on the battle and no one noticed his expression, or else many people would have died of shock seeing the cruel and heartless Judgment Knight grinning.
I noticed that time was almost up, and whispered to Judgment, “In a moment, no matter what happens, do not interfere.”
Judgment nodded and said decisively, “Then I shall leave, in case somebody wonders why I did not do anything.”
I nodded back in agreement. It was just like Judgment to be so thorough.
“This way, I can also avoid knowing what you did.”
…Might as well let him leave, just in case I accidentally exceed Judgment’s mischief tolerance level. If I do, after receiving a painful beating, I would still have to apologize for causing trouble.
After Judgment left the deathmatch stadium, I looked at the stage. Weapons clashed continuously, and the battle auras were so powerful that the wind drafts caused were enough to mess up my hair. The ground was even riddled with cracks. Small pieces of rock were flung about in the strong whirlwinds of the opposing battle auras.
No matter whether they were knights or warriors, the watching audience didn’t dare to take their eyes off of the intense battle in case they missed an important part. Occasionally there were cries of amazement or loud cheering.
I thought, That’s about enough. If the fight goes on, Elijah might be unable to handle it and lose. In that case, never mind that all my earlier efforts would be wasted—I would have no idea how to wrap things up.
If Elijah lost, and I cannot allow the Son of the God of War to marry the princess, then that would mean that I would really have to marry her myself, eh? I reckon that I would have to wear a full body armor to bed for our first night, to prevent my wife from committing the crime of murdering her husband.
I reached into my pocket and crushed a glass heart.