Book 6: Chapter The Ninth Week of Annihilating an Undying Lich: “The Wrong Choice”
Ha!
I smiled, even though the lightning caused my smile to become a bit twitchy. Not only did I gather dark element to obscure her vision, I also gathered a large amount of water element, except I kept it all by my side.
Charlotte may be a lot more powerful than me in using dark magic, but she definitely didn’t learn magic haphazardly and constantly misused it at every opportunity like me!
The air around me was filled with water element. Now, I only needed a bit of electricity. By this time, even Charlotte wouldn’t be able to block the pervasive electricity with her Shrouds of Darkness! Although the spread of lightning wasn’t exactly strong, to priests, who only trained their magic and not their endurance, this amount of electricity would be enough to stun her for a few seconds.
As for me, I am a holy knight, who has the best endurance. This small amount of electricity is as comfortable as a massage!
I flew to Charlotte’s side. The Shrouds of Darkness that she always had surrounding her were still there. However, due to the dispersion of dark element from her body, the Shrouds of Darkness were much weaker than before. I only needed to strike one with an ice bolt and the shroud was destroyed.
When the Shrouds of Darkness shattered, Charlotte’s eyes snapped open with shock. Although I immediately went for her with the dagger in my hands, she was able to dodge my attack in time. Because of this, the dagger was only able to scratch the tip of her neck. Without delay, she flung out an enormous amount of dark element, causing me to be pushed back several meters by the explosion, sustaining even more injuries than Charlotte.
In disbelief, Charlotte asked, “Water element, lightning, and a dagger? You…You actually abandoned using the Demon King’s most powerful dark element and chose to use these petty tricks? What are you thinking?”
The cut on her neck had already stopped bleeding. The wound I made sure was shallow. But it didn’t matter. I didn’t exchange my blood with Dragon’s Saint Brigandine for a mere dagger.
“Huh?” Her body suddenly swayed. She stared at me with a terrified expression, shouting, “What did you do?”
It seemed that whenever Charlotte yelled, attacks followed. However, her attacks right then were not aimed properly. Thus, I could dodge them all with little effort.
Luckily I didn’t guess wrong. Dragon’s Saint Brigandine really is a wonderfully equipped assassin’s garment that is able to provide anything I want. Not only does it have daggers, it also has poison! In addition, there are twenty poisons to choose from. Of course, I chose the poison that, even if it were unable to kill her in one shot, would still be able to paralyze her instantly. Otherwise, the first person to fall into the depths of hell might be me!
I summoned more water element and then proceeded to continuously cast layer upon layer of ice shackles to restrain Charlotte. Not only did she not resist, she nearly fell. Luckily, the ice shackles were there to support her; otherwise she definitely would have broken many bones from the fall. Although, regardless of whether she broke bones or not, the aftermath still would have been the same.
This poison sure is powerful. No wonder the Dragon’s Saint Brigandine said that the price was 500cc of blood.
By this time, Charlotte looked as if all the energy in her body had drained out. Her entire body was limp against the ice shackles that held her. Her eyes were beginning to cloud over as tears built up in the corners of her eyes. She murmured, “S-Sun Knight….”
“…”
I stopped intentionally lowering my tone of voice, and said, “Charlotte, it is me.”
She was dumbstruck. I flew before her, took off my mask, and pushed my loose and messy hair behind my ears to allow her to see my face clearly.
“Sun Knight… So that’s how it is.” Unexpectedly, she wasn’t furious, nor did she blame me for deceiving her. Instead, she said longingly, “You really came this time.”
This time?
“Have… have you really forgotten me, or are you just pretending?”
“I really don’t remember.” I shook my head. No matter how much I tried to recall, I didn’t have the faintest impression.
“How can that be…? When I was little, I would unconsciously gather dark element, which led to me often being called a cursed girl. That day, I was being bullied again by other kids and you happened to pass by and stepped in to save me. However, your swordsmanship really sucked, haha! We ended up getting beaten up together instead.”
Huh? That really does sound a lot like me.
“But when the kids left, you immediately healed our injuries. We played together for the whole day, and you even gave me a lollipop at the end. You told me that you would become the Sun Knight in the future and when that happened, you’d take me as your wife and see if anyone still dared to call me a cursed girl.”
I blurted out, “That is impossible. You must have the wrong person. If something like that happened, I definitely wouldn’t forget it.”
However, it didn’t seem like she heard me. She kept mumbling to herself, “You said that you had to follow your teacher that night to find your big sister, and that you would look for me again the next day. But no matter how long I waited, you never came.”
I was stunned. It was that same day? I remember my teacher saying that after I fainted, I woke up not remembering anything. Could it be that I had even forgot about meeting Charlotte?
Cough, Cough…
Charlotte suddenly started coughing incessantly and kept coughing out blood. She gasped twice, and murmured, “Po-Pocket, lollipop…”
I reached into the pocket on her robe. The blueberry lollipop inside had already shattered into small pieces. I picked the largest piece, and then put it in Charlotte’s mouth. At the same time, I cast healing magic on her. Although holy magic for detoxification existed, I wasn’t able to cast it in my present state.
She smiled, “So sweet! Sun Knight, the question you asked me before… If I really chose to have a relationship with you, would you have fallen in love with me?”
I was stupefied for a moment. Then, I honestly replied, “Maybe I would. I once thought you were really cute.”
“Ha! Luckily I didn’t do that. How can the Sun Knight possibly fall in love with the Demon King? If you fell in love with me, you would definitely be in a lot of pain, right? That’s why I had to capture you and imprison you in a castle. Then, I would have twelve kids with you, and we would name them after the Twelve Holy Knights. You would probably be very angry, and argue with me every day… Ha!”
She chuckled. Her smiling face was really cute. Then, she never spoke again after that.
I gently touched her face for the first and last time. I quietly said, “It’s unfortunate that you made the wrong choice. Even if I were to fall in love with the Demon King, I would have been able to devise a plan to solve everything.”
Suddenly, something floated out of the center of Charlotte’s forehead. I couldn’t really say what it was exactly. If I had to describe it, I would say it was similar to a gem fragment. Then, that gem fragment suddenly rushed towards me. Although I moved my head to the side in time, the fragment still turned and flew into my forehead.
I hurriedly reached up to rub my forehead but wasn’t able to feel anything. Even when I used my sensing ability, there was only my brain inside my head. There was nothing else.
Could that have been a fragment of the vessel?
“Charlotte!”
Stephen rushed over and immediately froze when he saw Charlotte. He looked at her blankly for a while, then extended his hand and unexpectedly, used Hell’s Fire to burn her corpse.
I froze for a moment, but didn’t stop him. The two of us silently watched her corpse burn to ashes.
Stephen turned his head to look at me, saying, “The Sun Knight. Ha! It’s truly a great disguise. Although my plan wasn’t bad either, it’s too bad I was a step too late. Charlotte had already seen you and even wanted you no matter what. The only thing in her head was to go back to Leaf Bud City to find the Sun Knight as soon as possible!”
“But I really don’t remember her.” I tried my best to remember, but I just couldn’t remember anything related to Charlotte.
Stephen furrowed his eyebrows, asking, “Did your lich seal your memory?”
“No.”
“Is it Pink or Scarlet? How could she not be by your side when the demon king candidates are battling it out?”
“It’s Scarlet. I sealed her.”
“I’ll overlook that you killed the girl who loved you, but you didn’t even let your lich get away. You really are suitable to be the Demon King!” After he finished his sarcastic remarks, he sighed and muttered, “I knew from the very beginning that Charlotte wasn’t suitable and had no desire to be the Demon King, but how could I possibly just watch her get killed by the other candidates? Did you know? If you were to become the Demon King, I would have to listen to your orders. I would have to follow you, the one who killed my precious child! I curse you to die by the other candidate’s hands, you despicable bastard!”
With his reminder, I suddenly remembered something important. I asked, “Is there any way not to kill the other candidate, but still allow the Demon King to be born?”
Stephen blanked out for a moment, then burst into laughter as he said, “Yes, of course there is! But are you willing to let go of power that belittles everything? Or did you want Charlotte, who loved you, to sacrifice her power? Let me tell you, she would not have given it up. Only power could ensure that you would stay by her side forever.”
I know, that’s why I definitely couldn’t let her acquire this power. I don’t have the slightest wish to be imprisoned in a castle forever either.
“Everyone wants to control others, but no one wants to be controlled. Therefore, there is no one who could possibly refuse the powers of the Demon King! Once you become the Demon King, your power won’t only be three times stronger. You would be stronger than what you are now by tenfold! By that time, nothing and nobody would be able to prevent you from doing whatever you want to do. Even if you were to face the armies of a country, you still wouldn’t lose! You could control everything!
“How is it? It sounds better than what you thought, right?” Stephen asked, smiling widely. “Even if you were to have found out about this method beforehand, would you really be willing to give this power up?”
I was silent for a moment, and then said, “I don’t want to control everything. I only want to protect the people who are important to me.”
“There are many people who are important to you, right?” Stephen said softly. “Then your reason for becoming the Demon King is a lot more sufficient than Charlotte’s. The people Charlotte wanted to protect were only you and herself, and yet even with the powers of a demon king candidate, she still couldn’t do it. But you, how many people do you want to protect?”
A lot… I clenched my fists, thinking about Leaf, Judgment, Teacher losing his hand, and even His Majesty the king. Even though I have the powers of a demon king candidate, they were still hurt or had even died!
“Kill me.”
I was shocked. I looked at Stephen uncomprehendingly.
“I will return with a woman’s corpse.” Stephen smiled faintly and said, “My real name is Corpse Phen. Corpse meaning dead body, and Phen as in phenethyl alcohol which is used in perfumes. The dark knight Stephen only belongs to Charlotte. He is not yours, nor the other candidate’s subordinate.”
Corpse Phen? Why are all the names of these liches so weird? I said, “Okay, but you have to tell me something. Is there a special meaning behind your names?”
Corpse Phen nodded without a care and said, “With Corpse Claret, the first corpse he possessed died from excessive blood loss. His body was dyed scarlet from top to bottom with blood. As for Pink Corpse, he used a body that was killed by inhaling poisonous gas. Thus, it had pink skin. The body I possessed was a rich lady that died from being poisoned. Even when she was dead, her body still retained a large amount of perfume.”
So they are all ‘Corpses’ huh? I nodded and waved my hand, turning Corpse Phen into a torch of Hell’s Fire. But right after, I suddenly thought of another question. Quickly, I asked, “Do you all especially like to use the corpses of little girls? Why is that?”
“Don’t you know?” The burning Corpse Phen said while smiling, “The Shadow God most frequently uses the image of a little girl…”
His words broke in the middle as his entire body suddenly crumbled into ashes.
Oh! So it’s because the Shadow God likes to pretend to be a little girl? I thought the Shadow God was supposed to wear a black robe and look extremely sinister.
Within the ashes, a small orb of dark element slowly rose up. I reached out my hand to grab the orb of dark element.
“Scarlet is inside my necklace.” Holding onto the lich’s soul, I explained to him, “After finding out the truth, I feel that I have wronged her a bit. Therefore, I don’t want to leave her inside the necklace by herself. I might as well just send you in to be with her.”
The soul struggled desperately but was unable to tear itself away from my hand.
I seem to have become stronger than before. Is it because of that fragment from Charlotte that shot into my head?
I tried gathering dark element. It really has become much easier than before.
My sensing ability seemed to have become stronger too. Even though I was under such a thick and dense covering of dark element, I was still able to clearly see everyone’s positions and even the small and subtle changes in their expressions. They were holding up their weapons and looking very surprised because the death knights in the square had all collapsed to the ground.
Charlotte and Stephen had been vanquished, so the death knights shouldn’t stand up ever again.
This feeling is fantastic!
I happily flew towards everyone. Everyone raised their heads to look towards the sky, but obviously they weren’t able to see anything as the dark element that I had gathered hadn’t been dispelled yet! I didn’t plan to dispel it anytime soon either, as there was still a whole bunch of people hiding at the side watching sneakily.
Heh! I’ll show them sooner or later, especially Awaitsun!
Everyone furrowed their eyebrows, looking at the sky. I flew to the area above them and dispelled part of the element to allow them to see me. Once they saw me, they stopped frowning.
The moment I descended, Judgment walked towards me, asking, “Solved?”
I nodded, asking, “Where is the Eternal Tranquility?”
Judgment went blank, then hurriedly took the necklace off his neck and handed it over to me. After I took Eternal Tranquility, he seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.
I forced Corpse Phen’s soul into the necklace. Although I didn’t know whether Corpse Phen and Corpse Claret got along or not, even if they weren’t on good terms, arguing would still be better than living in there alone.
I stretched out my hand to give the necklace back to Judgment, but he suddenly tensed before immediately relaxing again.
He took the necklace and, at the same time, pulled the Divine Sun Sword out. Smiling, he said, “I had forgotten. I was supposed to pass the Divine Sun Sword to you first, wait until you absorbed holy element and your hair turned gold, and only after that should you put the necklace back on. That was the correct procedure, right?”
I didn’t accept the divine sword. I merely shook my head, saying, “Judgment, I’ve thought things through. I will become the Demon King,”
Judgment was stunned. Then, he started bellowing, “Everyone, draw your weapons! Surround him! The target is Knight-Captain Sun!”
Everyone reflexively took out their weapons and moved into formation… Once they came to their senses and realized that the one they were surrounding was me, everyone froze. They lowered the weapons in their hands and awkwardly looked at Judgment and me.
“Everyone, listen to me!”
I calmly surveyed them, explaining, “Silent Eagle once told me that the birth of the Demon King could save the world. However, a terrifying Demon King could also decimate half of the entire world. If I hand over the position of the Demon King to the other person, and if he ignores the law and commits outrageous crimes, the Church of the God of Light would have to deploy troops to fend against him. When the time comes, we would be forced to fight him, and it’s highly likely that people will die!”
“Don’t put down your weapons!” Judgment warned. “Sun told me that even if he didn’t want to receive the Divine Sun Sword, I should still shove the divine sword into his hands!”
When they heard this, everyone gripped their weapons tighter and their expressions looked much more resolute.
“I was being too selfish then!” I shouted, “Think about it! If I become the Demon King, not only would I be able to save the world, you also wouldn’t have to be worried whether the Demon King would go to extremes… You guys can believe in me, right? I, as the Demon King, wouldn’t kill the innocent nor destroy the world. I would be the nicest Demon King! I can promise, all of you, Leaf Bud City, and everyone else would not be hurt!”
Everyone’s expressions wavered, and the strength they used to hold their weapons also weakened.
I looked at Judgment. I said resolutely, “Judgment… Lesus, I want to become the Demon King. I don’t want to put it like this, but being the Demon King gives me more freedom than being the Sun Knight. I feel extremely happy. In addition, if I were to do this, it would be a good thing for everyone, even for the whole world. Thus, there is no reason for me to keep refusing to be the Demon King.”
Judgment was still expressionless.
I sincerely begged, “Judgment… no, Lesus. As the Judgment Knight, you should know what is best. Therefore, let me become the Demon King.”
He remained silent for a moment, and then suddenly said, “I don’t care.”
Alarmed, I hurriedly asked, “What?”
Lesus suddenly showed an extremely furious expression. He shouted angrily, “I don’t care what reasons you have, what excuses you give, whether you are happy or unhappy, what you want to do or don’t want to do! I’m not staying in the position of the Judgment Knight because of happiness either. Since you’ve already chosen to be the Sun Knight, then no matter whether you are going through happiness or pain, you must carry out the responsibilities of the Sun Knight. You have to shoulder your responsibilities until you retire. You have to undertake them until you die!”
As I listened to him, I could only respond with silence. Seeing Lesus’ expression, there was no room for discussion.
“Lesus, you still owe me two demands.”
I really didn’t want to use this, but Lesus gave me no other choice. I could only say, “My second demand is… oomph!”
Lesus actually punched me? He punched me right in the face. My whole body fell to the floor. Before I could even react, someone grabbed my neck with a hand. The one who was holding me was Lesus, and he was raising the Divine Sun Sword with the tip actually pointed at me!
I was stunned. In disbelief, I shouted, “Lesus, what are you trying to do?”
Everyone also, in succession, started shouting as they ran over.
“Knight-Captain Judgment?”
“Stop! He is Sun!”
However, Lesus didn’t listen to anyone’s persuasion. He didn’t even care about our long time camaraderie and pierced the sword into my chest without hesitation.
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH—————————”
I cried out in pain. But Lesus held the blade down mercilessly, refusing to let go. When I tried to release an attack on him, he even pushed the sword in further, making it so painful that I was unable to retaliate.
“Knight-Captain Judgment!”
“What are you doing? Quickly stop! Sun didn’t hurt us!”
“Hurry up and let go! Are you trying to kill Sun?”
Lesus suddenly roared over them, “Gather holy light!”
“What?” Everyone stood still.
“As the Judgment Knight, I order all of you to immediately gather holy light around the Sun Knight!”
It was so painful that I was unable to focus my sensing ability. Under the situation that I couldn’t see, I could only scream, “Let go of me… Ah!”
Lesus pushed the blade down further.
“Believe in me.” I could hear Lesus’ voice continuing, “And believe in our Knight-Captain Sun!”
The holy light exuding from the Divine Sun Sword was extremely hot, making the entire wound feel like it was burning. I was in so much pain that sweat started to pour from me, and it became impossible for me to sense what everyone was doing. However, I could begin to feel that there was holy light surrounding my body. The holy light was even flowing into me through my wound, causing the dark element to flow out.
The process was so painful that it felt as if my whole body was set on fire. I could only continuously beg for everyone to stop.
“Lesus, stop!”
“Blaze, help me! Leaf, it hurts…”
“Roland! Don’t listen to Lesus, I’m the head of the Holy Temple!”
“Ah…”
The dark element had completely dispersed from my body and my body was filled with holy light once more. I wonder, what color my hair is now? Is it black or white? It shouldn’t be golden, since I didn’t envelop my hair with holy light.
After the dark element was driven out, that burning feeling disappeared as well. Although the Divine Sun Sword was still pierced through my body, I didn’t feel that burning sensation anymore. This bit of pain was still within the boundaries of being bearable. No matter what you say, I am still a holy knight, which has the best endurance!
I lazily said, “Judgment, although it doesn’t hurt as much anymore, you should still pull the sword out. Otherwise, I won’t be able to heal my wound.”
Judgment lowered his head to look at me, and then pulled out Eternal Tranquility to tie around my neck. However, he still didn’t extract the Divine Sun Sword from my body. His expression seemed extremely wary, as his eyebrows were so furrowed he could probably squish a mosquito to death with them.
“I knew there would come a day when I would be bashed up by you and still have to say ‘I’m sorry, I was wrong.’” I paused, and then said. “I’m sorry, I was wrong. And thank you for not letting me go.”
Judgment was rather startled. It was only then that he pulled the sword out. It was so painful I nearly screamed. Couldn’t you have done it more gently?
However, the next moment I really did want to scream. Judgment, he, he threw away the sword and actually collapsed onto my shoulder with his head lowered… He… He isn’t crying, right?!
He didn’t make any sound at all. He only rested his forehead on my shoulder and used his black hair that hung down to cover his face. However, his hair couldn’t block my sensing ability. I could still see his expression… and the small amount of water element in the corners of his eyes.
He spoke so softly that I was the only one who could hear him. “Sun, I didn’t know if what I did was right or wrong. If you were to still insist on leaving after I pierced the sword through…”
I immediately interrupted, “You didn’t do anything wrong! Lesus Judgment is always right. For the past decade or so, when were you ever wrong?”
He smiled and said, “Doing one thing wrong allowed you to acquire three favors from me. Even up to this day, I have not returned them all. How could I possibly dare to do something wrong again?”
Judgment stood up. There was no more water element in the corners of his eyes. He returned to the usual cold and cool face of the Judgment Knight and reached out his hand to pull me up. But he was too rough, causing my wound to reopen. I bent over, curling up with the pain. I couldn’t even talk for what seemed like an eternity.
“Sun!” Leaf ran to my side and quickly casted healing magic on my wound.
Leaf’s healing magic wasn’t sufficient, but following him were a few others who cast healing magic as well. In the blink of an eye, my injuries were nearly fully healed.
The moment I straightened up, everyone started scolding me. Earth was the first to start yelling. “You went missing for over a month, so I thought you were dead already. I even dug a grave for you!”
“So you saw a beautiful girl and let down your guard?” Storm said coldly.
Stone sighed, “When your vice-captain heard that you were missing, he fainted on the spot. I don’t even remember how long it took to convince him before he was willing to take everyone and evacuate.”
“You left everything for us to do! You sure got to sleep well!”
“You have to read documents for a whole year as punishment!”
“You’re not allowed to eat sweets for three years!”
“Might as well just imprison him for sixteen years. Just imprison him until he retires!”
Seeing that it seemed like everyone still wanted to continue shouting at me, and the punishments were getting more and more out of hand, I quickly tried to divert everyone’s attention. I shouted, “Still saying all that? You guys saw how I was shouting so miserably, and you still didn’t save me!”
Everyone was stunned for a moment. Storm was the first to shrug his shoulders and say, “It’s because you didn’t relay your orders seriously, but Judgment was really serious!”
“I know, right! He wasn’t even serious when he called out the order, and he blames it on us?”
Ah, I almost forgot that everyone has this mysterious sense of judgment.
I turned to look at Roland, the only one that didn’t have that sense of judgment. Feeling resentful, I criticized him, “Roland, you actually didn’t help me this time!”
“Huh?” Roland jumped in fright. Then, he smiled as he said, “It’s because you didn’t give a serious order.”
What? Even Roland can tell when I’m seriously relaying an order and when I’m not now? How can they tell?
I immediately asked, “How exactly can you tell the difference?”
Stone shook his head, saying, “We can’t tell you. Otherwise, you would definitely pretend to be serious in the future.”
“Exactly!” Storm agreed loudly. “Everyone, vow to the God of Light that you will keep this secret until Sun retires!”
Everyone shouted in unison, “We vow to the God of Light!”