Book 5: Chapter Fifth Shared Rule of the Twelve Holy Knights: “Whether Retired or Not, Once a Sun Knight, Always a Sun Knight; Respect Him from the Bottom of Your Heart…
Cloud quietly reclined in his own little heaven, which was behind the counter of the library. Although it wasn’t as secretive as a cupboard or even a book cabinet, he had peacefully accepted it. However, today was a little special…
“Knight-Captain Earth.”
The greetings of holy knights to their superiors sounded from outside again. Today had been very strange; quite a few of the Twelve Holy Knights, who rarely stepped foot into the library, had come in one after another. The first had been Storm. The moment he had entered, he had asked which one of the book cabinets was the most comfortable to hide in. When Cloud had pointed to it, he had actually carried in an entire stack of documents and hidden himself in the book cabinet.
“Cloud! Cloud!”
Cloud silently put down Avoiding Bad Luck by Divination and rose up again from behind the counter.
“Cloud, hu-hurry up and tell me; which, which book cabinet is the most comfortable to hide in?” Earth stammered.
Cloud eyed Knight-Captain Earth. He thought his stammering sounded especially realistic today. “The best one is already being occupied by Knight-Captain Storm.”
“Tch! So Storm has also run in here to hide. No wonder ‘he’ came and looked for me!” Earth’s face contorted in fury before he hurriedly said, “Then tell me the second-best one.”
“The second-best one is already being occupied by Knight-Captain Stone.”
“… Exactly how many people are hiding in here?”
He started counting carefully, “Storm, Stone, Metal, Leaf…”
Without waiting for him to finish, Earth roared, “So everyone has been hiding here! I was just asking myself why no one was around…”
At this, footsteps sounded from the corridor. Earth’s expression changed immediately. He frantically said, “Forget it, forget it, hurry up and show me a book cabinet where no one is hiding!”
Cloud thought for a moment and then gestured towards the cupboard in a corner that was used for cleaning supplies. Although Earth had a look of loathing, he still resigned himself to it as he rushed over and hid in the dust and cobweb-filled cupboard.
“What the hell is going on? Why isn’t anyone around?”
When this scolding was finished, the library was struck with silence. Even Cloud felt a little unnerved, but no one had called for him, so he had not felt the need to “rise” up.
“Neo!” Another voice rang out. Cloud recognized it; this was the soft voice of the dark elf. “Stop looking for them. Everyone’s hiding from you.”
“Hiding from me?” Neo snorted and said crossly, “Then they shouldn’t let me discover a single one of them! I only wanted them to choose between fighting and drinking with me. Is that so hard? I only have one hand!”
Even if you have no hands, you would still be so strong that it’s scary… The present holy knights all lowered their heads and pretended to be reading their books very seriously.
Neo looked around and asked, “Are there any Twelve Holy Knights here?”
The holy knights present all looked at Neo. Although everyone knew which book cabinet and which cupboard was hiding which person, they didn’t dare say a single word. Even though the awe and fear of the former Sun Knight still lingered, enraging any of the current Twelve Holy Knights wouldn’t make their days in the future any easier either.
“So no one’s going to answer?” Neo’s eyes narrowed dangerously.
At this, Cloud slowly rose up and answered, “Here is one.”
Neo hurriedly whirled around, looked him up and down, then frowned and said, “Cloud Knight? Forget it, forget it, you Cloud Knights simply have footwork that is too weird; even after searching for half a day, I’d still have no idea where to swing my sword. It’ll be too troublesome and wouldn’t be an exhilarating fight at all!”
“Then why don’t you go look for Judgment Knight?” Aldrizzt asked, seeming to be a little unable to make head or tail of it. “He is not hiding from you. Didn’t he just brush past us when we were walking down the corridor?”
“Definitely not! The former Judgment Knight— Chasel lives in Leaf Bud City. I’m afraid he might tattle to Chasel.”
“…”
“Grisia also ran away to who knows where; that child is so unfilial!” Neo said angrily, “I took care of him for ten years. Is asking him to drink with me such a life-threatening activity? Who asked him to have such horrible sword skills that he can’t even fight with me?!”
“He has already accompanied you drinking for three days.” Aldrizzt said helplessly.
“That’s right!” Neo suddenly and eagerly asked Cloud, “Lad, do you know how to drink?”
Cloud shook his head and answered honestly, “I have never had alcohol before.”
“You’ve never drunk before? Are you a man or not?!” Neo roared, “That’s it; I don’t care anymore! Everyone present, go and get one of the Twelve Holy Knights for me, or else you will all have to fight and drink with me in their place!”
All of the holy knights reacted simultaneously and pointed to several of the bookcases and cupboards. Someone even pointed in Cloud’s direction. Once done pointing, everyone immediately ran out of the library for fear of revenge from the current Twelve Holy Knights in the future.
“That guy who pointed at Cloud Knight,” Neo ordered Aldrizzt. “Help me remember his looks. Did he think that he could get off easily by pointing at Cloud Knight? Hmph!”
Neo coldly said aloud to the seemingly vacant library, “All of those within the cupboards and book cabinets, do you want to walk out by yourself or do you want to wait for me to come and drag you out?”
One by one the Twelve Holy Knights walked out of their hiding places helplessly and lined up like a group of good students in front of their teacher. Neo said coldly, “Come with me! Try and run again if you dare!”
Tearfully, everyone followed Neo out. Once they were gone, the library once again regained its peaceful demeanor. Cloud silently squatted down and returned to his perfect little heaven… No! Today this little heaven wasn’t that perfect.
“Eh? This reddish thing is actually quite delicious! Oh, it’s actually red-plum flavored mixed juice! There’s even the fragrance of roses— red plum and roses, no wonder it’s so red. In the past, I thought it was fresh blood or something…”
Sun Knight was sitting cross-legged on the floor, holding a fortune book titled Unlocking Your Love Luck in his hands. He sipped the juice, swiveled his head around and asked, smiling, “Can I have this?”
You already drank it. Cloud silently nodded his head.
Not in the cupboards, nor the book cabinets, but beside him there was a Sun Knight who was drinking his juice— today’s little heaven really wasn’t very perfect. However, because the other Twelve Holy Knights had an even sadder fate, today’s little heaven could already be considered quite perfect. Cloud thought about this contentedly.
“However…” Sun Knight said furiously while drinking, “Someone actually dared to reveal my hiding place just now! Cloud, you remember that guy’s face, don’t you?”
Cloud nodded his head.
“Very good.” Sun Knight laughed coldly.
Cloud quietly continued reading his book as he filtered out the cries and screams of “Former Sun Knight, please let me go! I can’t even defeat one of your fingers!” and “I really can’t drink anymore, my stomach will burst!” coming from outside of the library.
Staring at his book, Avoiding Bad Luck by Divination, Cloud pondered. Maybe he should lend this book to the person being targeted by both the current and former Sun Knight?
However, he gave up on that thought almost instantly.
For a person who had actually dared to sell out the current Sun Knight, a book would be useless. Only by swapping out his brain could he really stay away from bad luck.