Book 1: Chapter Tenth Rule of Sun Knights: “Carrying out Justice is the Reason for the Sun Knight’s Existence”

Judgment and I announced our plan to the crown prince, since it was an impossible task to hide roughly fifty knights without anyone in the palace noticing. The crown prince nodded to show his approval without hesitation, as though he had known this was going to happen.

Some of the holy knights dressed up as royal knights and patrolled the nearby area, while the others dressed up as servants. Since there are many people in the palace in the first place, it isn’t that noticeable to add fifty more people.

Judgment laid on the bed, disguised as the person Roland was going to kill. In order to hide my holy aura, I asked the Pope to design a seal for my holy aura, then stuck it on the wardrobe and shut myself inside.

I have to say, furniture used by the royal family sure weren’t normal. The wardrobe itself was about half the size of my room and the bottom of it was even lined with velvet. I can’t help but to lie down and try it out, and I conveniently snatched a cape to cover myself as a quilt. Oh pure bliss! I started feeling sleepy. This wardrobe is even more comfortable than my bed.

Luckily, I didn’t choose to lay on the bed where Judgment was at the moment. If just lying in the wardrobe had already made me sleepy, if I lay on the bed, I would probably sleep away like a pig due to the too-comfortable bed and then get slashed into half by Roland…

“Sun? Sun!”

“Hmm?” I turned in bed. What’s the problem?! It’s so noisy, and I was just getting comfortable!

The person outside quieted down for a moment, and then suddenly there was a series of shuddering booms as someone pounded on the wardrobe door.

I jumped up instantly in shock and asked in panic, “Wha—! What? Is Roland here?!”

“Not yet,” Judgment’s deep voice came from outside of the wardrobe. “But I am concerned that even if he were here, you probably wouldn’t notice because you were sleeping too soundly.”

“Ah…hahaha! That won’t happen!” I gave a nervous little laugh. That is actually possible. Judgment really is the person who understands me most!

“The night is young. Roland probably wouldn’t come this early. So to prevent you from falling asleep, tell me about Roland.”

I was silent for a moment, not knowing how to reply. Judgment was being patient as usual, so he didn’t say anything to urge me. At last, I sighed deeply and started to talk about the past memories.

“My first time meeting Roland was at the selection for the Twelve Holy Knights held by the Church, when there were only ten children left for the selection.

“You should probably know more or less that it was virtually the biggest betting event in the city, and almost everyone would bet to see which one of the children would become the future member of the Twelve Holy Knights.”

“I know,” Judgment’s voice drifted in. His voice sounded far away, I think he just laid down on the bed again.

“Do you still remember your odds?” I asked, leaning my back against the wardrobe door, afraid to lie down again.

“I had never paid attention,” Judgment said.

I laughed. “You are as serious as Roland was; both of you spent all of your time practicing your swordsmanship! I still remember: your odds were 1.083 to 1. If someone bet on you, they wouldn’t earn much money even if they had won.”

“You remember it quite clearly.” There was a faint trace of admiration in Judgment’s voice.

There’s no helping it, since the only thing that I can be proud of myself is my memory!

I continued, “Roland’s odds were 1.052 to 1; even lower than yours. This means at that time, his chance of becoming the Sun Knight was even greater than your chance of becoming the Judgment Knight.”

“But he didn’t,” Judgment replied emotionlessly.

“Yep, he didn’t, and the one who became the Sun Knight was a twerp whose odds were 563 to 1,” I said somewhat mockingly. “A lot of people who bet on me that year became millionaires!”

Judgment’s voice flowed in from outside, “You weren’t that bad; your holy skills and your written test score was the best among all the children. It’s just that the outsiders don’t understand holy magic and they don’t know the results of the test.”

Even though this matter had been in the past for a long time, I still felt soothed when I heard Judgment’s consolation. Right! I am not that bad, it’s only my swordsmanship that is lacking!

“Your swordsmanship is really awful though,” Judgment continued.

Hey! You don’t have to add that, okay?

“Anyway, at that time, everyone thought that Roland was definitely going to be the future Sun Knight, and as I was the least possible candidate, so naturally the two of us became best of friends. He often helped me out, like—”

“Helping you in fights, climbing over the wall to buy blueberry dessert for you, helping you to beat the dog that bit you, and so on,” Judgment finished my sentence and sighed. “Grisia, you never did change.”

“Hahahahaha…” I laughed dryly. Right! After Roland left, Judgment took over his place.

“Did he try to frame you before because you took his place as Sun Knight?” Judgment asked.

“No, he didn’t try to frame me!” I groaned, feeling like crying but having no tears. “He is just being very slow. Even now, he still doesn’t realize that he has caused everyone to think that I was the culprit who tortured him to death. He thinks that he had just accidentally slashed me that one time.”

“About this torture-killing rumor, I suspect that…” Judgment stopped abruptly in mid-sentence.

Just when I was feeling that it was odd, a very familiar voice came from outside the wardrobe. But, mixed in it was a hatred that I had never heard before.

“I said before that I, Roland, would come back to find you, Your Majesty, the king!”

Roland? How? Where did he come in from…? Ah! The secret passageway! Damn it! I never thought that Roland might know about it too!

“You…you are not the king…”

Have we been discovered?

I quickly thrust the wardrobe door open and jumped outside. At the same time, my hand sent out a flash of holy light, the signal for the knights who were lying in ambush outside to come in. The prowess of our elite holy knights wasn’t exaggerated, for right after I sent out the flash, Blaze and the Judgment Knight Platoon jumped in through the windows, while Earth and the Sun Knight Platoon charged in through the door.

Judgment hopped off the bed with his Divine Judgment Sword unsheathed.

At first, Roland stared blankly at the horde of people. Then he turned and caught sight of me. He said in disbelief, “Grisia… How is this possible?!”

“Roland, you should have known that I couldn’t let you commit murder as you please.” I looked at my childhood friend sadly.

“But, I definitely told you that—”

I nodded, interrupting Roland’s sentence “You told me that your enemy was the crown prince.”

“But,” Roland was so angry that he roared to interrupt my speech, “this is the bedroom of the king!”

“Yes. From the moment you told me that your enemy was His Highness the crown prince, I was one hundred percent sure that your enemy was the king instead. Roland, your ability to lie has always been as awful as my sword-fighting ability.”

“You…” Roland was dumbstruck.

“Moreover, while I can’t be sure whether the crown prince will torture someone to death or not, one thing that I do know for sure is that if he did, we wouldn’t find out about it even after ten years.” I shrugged. “The crown prince isn’t a moron. If he really did torture someone to death, he would definitely get rid of the body plus the clues and be done with it once and for all, and he would never be stupid enough to let his knights dispose of the body for him.”

“Plus, rumors saying that I had tortured the Death Knight to death started spreading around. If the rumors only said that I had killed the Death Knight, then it could be easily explained away since everyone has heard the Death Knight is going to come back for me, and naturally they would guess the killer is me. But the rumors are so detailed that they even mention torture, which is really bizarre.

I glanced at Roland and saw that he looked confused. Just as I thought, that guy didn’t know anything about the rumor. But never mind; that sentence was not meant for him anyway.

“The only person who knew the Death Knight was tortured to death, except for the Death Knight himself, would be the murderer.”

I glanced at Roland again, and he was furrowing his brows as though he was trying very hard to understand what I was saying. I kept on explaining, “However, this rumor spread too quickly, so I doubt that it was spread by the Death Knight himself. After all, a Death Knight can’t go around and chat with people on the street.”

“Therefore, this rumor attempting to frame me was probably spread by the murderer.” I smiled and turned to look at Judgment “Just now, when you wanted to talk to me about the rumor, this was what you wanted to say, right? Do you wish to add anything, Judgment Knight?”

Judgment glanced at me impassively, with a “don’t fool around anymore” type of gaze. Nevertheless, he added, “At first, if the Church found out that this case was related to the royal family, we probably would have given up investigating immediately, and the dark secrets of the royal family would not be exposed. However, when the reputation of our Sun Knight was involved in the matter, we had to find out the truth at all costs.”

“That’s right, a dumb and likely to backfire plan such as the murderer being stupid enough to try to frame me and hence forcing the church to find out the truth, isn’t likely to be done by the crown prince,” I said. I sneered a little.”Next, just think about it a little. Who hates me a lot, is an idiot, and has enough courage to attempt to frame the Church of the God of Light’s Sun Knight? Apart from our dear king, who else could it be?”

“Nonsense! You impertinent riffraff!”

The bookshelves at the side suddenly parted to reveal a passageway, and the angry king charged out with the crown prince following close behind, frowning. There was, of course, a large number of royal knights following the two of them.

As expected by me, the secret room they were hiding in was the first one that I had discovered to be sealed tight when I came to investigate secretly earlier. Looks like they had reopened the sealed passageway in order to lay in ambush inside.

“AAAAAAARGH!”

When Roland set his eyes on the king, his eyes glowed a blood red color and he instantly charged madly at him. The king was scared out of his wits and pulled his knights over to hide behind.

“Judgment! Earth!” I yelled to remind them, but Judgment’s response was even faster than mine and he was already there, blocking Roland with his sword before the words had left my mouth. Earth hastily stepped in front of the king and cast The Shield of Earth after I finished yelling.

I started chanting an incantation. As my chanting grew longer, the holy light in the room started to glow stronger. This light was a lethal weapon to the undead, so even though Roland was a terrific swordsman in life and was the crème de la crème of undead creatures as a Death Knight in death, he still couldn’t hold out for long under the holy light. Additionally, his opponent was the Judgment Knight, who was the best swordsman out of the Twelve Holy Knights.

As I predicted, not long after they both started fighting, Roland couldn’t hold his ground any longer and was disarmed by Judgment. His sword clattered across the room, and he was forced into a half-kneeling position by the holy light in the room.

Upon seeing this, the king, who was originally hiding behind his royal knights, charged out and started stomping on Roland’s head. He swore as he stomped, “You bastard, you dared to come back for revenge? It’s an honor for a low-life like you to die by my hand!”

“Father, stop!”

The crown prince turned pale. He ran up to his father to pull him away, but his body was too weak, so he was pushed away by the king instead. Luckily, the knights around them managed to catch the crown prince in time, so His Highness didn’t fall to the floor.

“Stop stomping him!” the Blaze Knight on the side was the first person couldn’t contain himself any longer. He rushed forward and shoved the king away.

“You dare to push me?!” The king was astonished. Then he screamed hysterically, “Royal knights! My knights, he has attacked me! I order every one of you to strike back now!”

When the royal knights received the order to attack the holy knights, they were clearly stunned for a moment. However, they proved that they were worthy to be called royal knights. A short moment later, they drew their swords and orderly advanced on the Blaze Knight.

Blaze was so angry that his face turned beet red. He roared in a low voice, “You dare to point your weapons at me?! Holy knights, prepare for battle!”

Thus, the holy knights turned to point their weapons at the royal knights.

“Everyone, stop this at once!” the Judgment Knight bellowed, furious.

But now, the situation was so out of hand that even Judgment Knight’s livid shout couldn’t stop it. It’s true that the Judgment Knight Platoon did lower their weapons, for they absolutely wouldn’t dare to disobey Judgment Knight’s order. But my Sun Knight Platoon, the Blaze Knight who has an explosive temper, and the Earth Knight who is honest on the surface and evil beneath the surface—they were all there too.

Due to the king’s daily appalling behavior, all these holy knights have probably been looking down on the king in their hearts for a long time. Moreover, this old fellow dashed up by himself to stomp on the Death Knight and even admitted that he killed Roland. It was almost as if he were afraid that the holy knights didn’t hate him enough.

The holy knights and royal knights both glared at each other and hefted their weapons, ready for battle. The king added more fuel to the fire by grabbing a vase and throwing it at the Blaze Knight. Fortunately, the vase didn’t hit him and shattered against Earth’s protective shield instead.

Nevertheless, this act of disrespect to the Twelve Holy Knights of the Church angered the Sun Knight Platoon.I don’t know which member of the holy knight platoon spat at the royal knights, but after that, the situation just spiraled out of control. The knights started fighting each other immediately and the clanking of swords never stopped for a moment.

It’s not that I want to boast, but while the members of my Sun Knight Platoon may have explosive tempers, their skills are guaranteed to be first class.

I wondered whether it was my Sun Knight Platoon being unlucky or if it was caused by their natural behavior, for they often get into trouble with someone or something that shouldn’t be trifled with. Since their platoon leader is always smiling and thus looked like a perfect target for bullying, and the leader usually applied the “I don’t care” strategy when dealing with the platoon, so obviously, they have to depend on their excellent sword-fighting skills and solidarity to beat up the person so much that the person doesn’t even dare to complain to my face.

I ignored the fight behind me and stepped in front of Roland. Looking at him, I felt my emotions stirring.

“Grisia, Grisia!”

Roland called out my name in a low voice. He looked up at me, expressionless, but the flames in his eye sockets slowly turned to black. He stared at me with those black flames and asked, “Did you become the Sun Knight to protect that kind of person?”

I quietly replied, “Roland, there are many things in this world that we have to compromise on. I am the Church of the God of Light’s Sun Knight, so there are many issues that I have to consider.”

“Is this your answer?” The flames in Roland’s eyes grew even darker.

“Roland, look at the situation you’re in.” My eyes were filled with sympathy. “No matter what the king did, he’s still the king, and I will have to stop you from killing him.”

“Even if he deserves to die?” Roland stared at me, the black flames already pouring out of his eyes sockets.

“Yes, even if he deserves to die a thousand times,” I declared calmly.

“Such a good Sun Knight!” Roland suddenly burst out laughing, from a light chuckle to a loud laugh, until he was laughing hysterically. The flames in his eyes burst out of his eyes, burning its way down his cheeks, like black tears.

“Ack!”

Without warning, Roland sent me flying across the room with a hard shove from his shoulder. The holy light flooding the room immediately disappeared without a trace. After the holy light vanished, Roland stood up from his half kneeling position.

I landed and stumbled back onto my feet. The Judgment Knight Platoon that was guarding the door saw what happened and tried to give me a hand in standing up, but I waved them back to their posts. But no one saw what happened except for them, because the bedroom had turned into a disordered battlefield. Including the royal knights, Blaze Knight, Earth Knight, and my Sun Knight Platoon, there were more than fifty people fighting in the room.

Even though the crown prince and Judgment were yelling for them to stop, the king kept on adding fuel to the fire. My Sun Knight Platoon completely ignored Judgment Knight’s order, as their leader was me and the Judgment Knight was my sworn enemy after all! It was natural that they wouldn’t listen to Judgment.

His Highness the crown prince’s face was so pale that he looked like he would pass out at any moment. In contrast, the Judgment Knight’s face turned a frightening shade of purple from his anger.

Luckily, this was the king’s bedroom, and this room was as large as a conference room. How else could it fit fifty dueling knights inside?

I chanted the spell and holy light flooded the room once more, but it was even brighter this time. However, I employed a small trick as I did so, making the holy light fill the whole room except the space around Roland.

I need Roland to transform into a Death Lord. Only then would my plan be a success.

The holy light successfully blocked off the dark aura seeping around Roland as he transformed from a Death Knight into a Death Lord. The blinding light also prevented anyone from seeing Roland clearly. The Judgment Knight Platoon probably thought I had subdued the Death Knight already, so they did nothing.

I don’t even need to mention the others. They were so busy fighting that I doubt they noticed the holy light reappearing after a brief lapse.

My holy light can’t block my vision however, so I saw the birth of a Death Lord with my own eyes.

Roland’s skin color was grayish white and the flames in his eyes turned pitch black and spread across his face, leaving behind two tear-like markings. Now, the markings kept burning downwards. I can’t see where they went underneath his clothes, but the markings quickly spread to his bare arms.

Except for the black flame markings flowing out from his eyes, the dark aura surrounding Roland seeped into his body and “grew” out from his back. It shaped itself into…dragon wings, exactly like the type you would see in a mural! The only difference was that on the tip of Roland’s wings were sharp claws.

Grey-white body, black flame markings, dragon wings with sharp claws… Is this what a Death Lord looks like? I thought.

I have to admit, it looks really powerful and striking. Now I can only hope that my plan will stop Roland or else…haha, I guess I will have no choice left but to die together with Roland!

At this moment, Roland opened his eyes. He examined the markings on his arms with some curiosity and touched the wings at his back.

It’s time! I dashed to Roland’s side and faced him head on, the distance between us less than a foot wide. When he saw me, his features twisted with anger. He sent me flying again with a palm strike, but this time, I couldn’t even see his attack clearly.

I landed on the floor again. Ouch! Now, that really hurts! I’m very suspicious that he had punched a hole into my chest or, worse still, straight through!

“Sun Knight!”

The Judgment Knight Platoon was the first to notice my tragic state. They all gasped in shock, and then tried to run to my aid. But before they could, Roland stuck his hand out and chanted a spell. He summoned a whole slew of dark creatures: zombies, skeletons, spirits, a human-faced vampiric spider… There were even more that I can’t even name.

Oh my god! This is WAY out of my league! I thought, blanching. Don’t tell me that my plan is going to backfire and I will be killed on the spot by Roland?

The Judgment Knight Platoon had no time to help me now. The attack had taken everyone by surprise and they were having trouble fighting back, but I finally managed to attract the attention of the knights engaged in heated battle in the middle of the room.

The royal knights all yelled, “Protect the crown prince!” But when they heard that everyone was shouting the same thing, they quickly added as an afterthought, “Protect His Majesty, the king!” That old geezer sure isn’t popular with his people…

As for my Sun Knight Platoon, when they found me vomiting blood on the floor, their surprised expressions were so varied that you could make an “Encyclopedia of Shocked and Scared Faces” from them.

I suppressed my pain and ordered my platoon, “Stop the dark creatures. Don’t let even one out of this room.”

“Yes sir!” my Sun Knight Platoon answered simultaneously. They were so well disciplined that it was hard to believe that they were fighting a heated battle just a moment before.

Even though they usually mess up everything, as soon as I order them to do something, they are as obedient as puppies. This is because I told them once before, “If I tell you to jump off that cliff, you have to jump, or else I will kick you off the cliff and push down a boulder as your companion.”

They weren’t afraid at first, for I was a smiling Sun Knight after all. How could I be scary? But after I kicked two members of the Platoon off the cliff and pushed two boulders down after them with a smile on my face, the rest of them decided to jump down by themselves.

My Sun Knight Platoon was making faster progress in clearing up the dark creatures than the Judgment Knight Platoon. This is to be expected, as the dark creatures were terrified of spells like holy light, holy blessing, and other holy magic, and these are the spells that every member of the Sun Knight Platoon must learn.

I saw that it wasn’t difficult for my Sun Knight Platoon to defeat the dark creatures, and it was just a matter of time before they cleared all the dark creatures. I felt more relaxed at this.

At this time, both Blaze and Earth Knight came to my side and helped me up. After I stood up, I started issuing orders to both of them. “Blaze, take care of all the spirits. Earth, observe the situation and provide assistance wherever it is needed. I don’t want to see anyone seriously injured.”

They both nodded. Blaze Knight joined the battle as soon as his two-handed broadsword was alight with purifying flames, and he specifically picked off the spirits first.

The Earth Knight stood beside me, keeping a close eye on the battle situation, casting his protective shield every now and then.

Roland was surrounded by dark creatures. He observed the battle raging around him with a slightly evil grin.

That’s not a normal expression for him. I was growing suspicious. Roland… He hasn’t been driven insane from rage, has he?

As I was speculating, Roland did something that confirmed my suspicions that he had lost his mind. He used his dark aura as a net, shrouding the room and trapping everyone inside it. After that, he summoned more dark creatures so that the number of dark creatures was equal to that of the knights in the room.

No wonder the Basic Knowledge of Undead Creatures textbook said, “Never let a Death Lord be born, or else it’s would be a catastrophe”…So the Death Lord really is unimaginably strong!

Looks like this time my plan was way too reckless.

I saw the Judgment Knight was off to the side asking the prince, “I am sorry, Your Highness. The situation has gotten out of control. May I ask how long will it take the other royal knights or guards to notice that something has gone wrong?”

The prince was very pale. He also had to deal with his own father the king’s bellows. He smiled bitterly and answered, “Given that we were settling private matters that were…not really fit for public knowledge, I have posted all the guards far away, and I also ordered everyone that even if there was a commotion, they are not to come near.”

Hearing this, Judgment Knight frowned, and he looked towards me. I could probably guess what his plan was. He wants me to escape first and alert the others in the palace and the church.

This indeed was the best way. The reasons? One, I was seriously hurt. Two, even if I weren’t seriously hurt, my fighting skills would still be equal to a person who was seriously injured anyway. Three, my whole body was surrounded with a holy aura, so it would be easy for me to break out of the web of dark aura.

But I have my own plan, and now there is only one final step left.

“What did I pay you knights for? Go and kill that bastard for me!” The king was so angry that his whole flabby body couldn’t stop shaking. He even slapped one of the royal knights.

My dear Majesty the King! I have never wanted to kiss that fat oily hand of yours more in my life!

This kind of attitude and speech would absolutely infuriate Roland, and this is exactly what I had been waiting for!

As expected, Roland’s anger exploded. The flames in his eyes burned even higher and he uttered a terrifying, inhuman roar. His dark aura flared up like a storm and made the entire room shake.

I immediately started to run towards the king. Even though I don’t know how Roland would break through the royal knights and reach the king, that guy would definitely find a way. All I needed to do was stick myself in front of the king before he attacked.

As I ran, I turned to look at Roland. Faintly, I saw that the air around Roland was warping slightly. Don’t tell me…?

I ran faster, afraid I wouldn’t get there in time to stop Roland.

Roland’s figure disappeared.

Before anyone could react, the Death Lord suddenly appeared right in front of the king, and flashed a satisfied evil grin. “Your Majesty, it is time for you to pay for your crimes.”

The king was so scared that his legs gave out and he sank to his knees.

This is the spacial elemental magic: Teleportation. It enables the person to shorten the distance between him and the destination in an instant. I never thought that a Death Lord could cast this kind of spell!

“Stop, Roland!”

When I saw that Roland had raised his sword and thrust it towards the king’s head without any hesitation, I leaped in front of the king just in time. With a combination of holy magic and the protection of Light Shield, I stopped Roland’s attack.

Even so, a deep gash appeared on my chest, and the blood from my wound sprayed onto him. Every drop of my blood full of holy element was extremely harmful to him. He growled lowly in pain.

Although my blood had corroded part of his body and made him looked awful, it seemed that he had already regained his senses. The flames in his eyes weren’t as black as before. Seeing this, I couldn’t help but sigh in relief. This guy has finally calmed down. I was worried at first that he would keep on going berserk!

“Grisia…” Roland lifted his head and asked with some confusion, “Just now, why didn’t you stop—”

“Roland!” I interrupted him. Are you kidding me? If the people here knew that I didn’t stop Roland from becoming a Death Lord, then the day when I get burned at the stake wouldn’t be far away.

“I know that you are obsessed with killing the one who tortured and killed you. But I also know that you are not doing this for revenge, but to save this beautiful country from the rule of a cruel murderer, preventing the murderer from endangering the people and creating more unfortunate Death Knights, right?”

When he heard my question, he heard many of his own intentions in there. He nodded reflexively.

I calmly looked at him and said, “So if the king willingly abdicates as a sign of repentance for his crimes, then you should be able to pass on peacefully. Is that right, Roland?”

“Sun Knight, wha… What kind of nonsense are you spouting?!” The king was so angry that his face was as red as a beetroot.

Roland frowned, as if he were unsure of my true intentions.

“Roland? You can’t be… Captain Roland?!” a royal knight exclaimed. When they heard this shout, all the royal knights seemed to recognize the name Roland, and started to examine the Death Lord’s features. Soon, one by one, all the knights began to recognize Roland.

The royal knights started talking among themselves, “It really is him! He was youngest of the royal knight’s captains…”

“It’s Roland! I patrolled with him once.”

“He was such a talented knight! How did it turn out like this…?”

“Captain Roland! Weren’t y-you k-killed by enemies while away on a mission?” the royal knight who recognized Roland first yelled out agitatedly.

Roland turned toward the young royal knight. His face softened visibly. He replied, “Oh, it’s you, Hele.”

“It really is Captain Roland!” When he heard his own name being called out, Hele was so agitated that he dropped his sword. In disbelief, he shouted, “How did y-you become a Death Knight?!”

Roland turned his head slowly to look at the king. His expression of hatred told everyone there that this man was the one who had murdered him. The gaze of the royal knights all fell on the king. Many showed expressions of sudden understanding, without a trace of doubt at Roland’s words. Besides, the way the king generally acted told everyone that this was indeed something he could do.

The king seemed to be shamed into anger. He roared loudly, “Even if I did kill him, he’s my royal knight. If he did something wrong and I executed him, what’s wrong with that?”

The crown prince was standing to the side and resignedly buried his head in his hands as if tired of the mess his father had created.

“Nonsense! Captain Roland was the most law abiding knight, he wouldn’t do anything wrong! If you say he did something wrong, then tell us what crime he committed!”

The knight called Hele was obviously a member of the “Roland Support Group”. He was even brave enough to contradict the king, though after he finished he wore an expression of extreme panic. Even so, other royal knights evidently agreed with his speech. Nobody else contradicted the king, but looking at their cold glares at the king, it was obvious that Roland had a good image amongst the royal knights in the past.

“He, he took unwanted liberties with the princess!” The king slyly chose a crime that is very hard to investigate without a thought to the good reputation of his own daughter.

What happened next was quite an impressive sight. Twenty or so royal knights all showed a strange expression on their faces at the same time. Hele explained while looking like he was at a loss whether to laugh or to cry, “Everybody knows that Captain Roland doesn’t date, doesn’t care for money, doesn’t gamble, doesn’t drink, and doesn’t brawl. All he does is practice swordplay, and then practice more swordplay…”

This kind of person is really hard to accuse. I bet that’s what the king is probably wailing about inside his mind right now…

“I… As the king of a country, I won’t randomly kill one of my own knights for no reason. If I said he took liberties with the princess, then he did take liberties with her!” the king insisted obstinately.

The royal knights all quieted down. If the king stubbornly refused to admit his crimes, then they couldn’t do anything. Even if he did admit it, what could the knights do except for feeling disappointed in their hearts? Unless they were going to revolt…

“His Majesty the king wanted to kill him because…” a voice rang out that was so relaxed that it seemed out of place in this tense situation. As everyone’s eyes were about to pop out from shock, the Storm Knight walked out from behind a dressing mirror. He seemed relaxed, and his face bore a smile that nobody should have after seeing a Death Lord.

Storm is pissed!

I can tell when Storm’s mad. Every time that guy gets angry, he would put on a relaxed air, and with this relaxed air on, he’ll suddenly attack when you are not vigilant, doing severe damage to you.

For now I am the record-holder for the highest number of times of making Storm mad. Over thirteen years I have made him mad ten times, and have suffered his sudden revenge nine times. There was one less retribution because one time right after I infuriated Storm, I infuriated my teacher too.

When he had put on that air of relaxation and came to me for revenge, I was already lying helpless on the bed, with my entire body bandaged like a mummy. He stood silently at my bed for a full ten minutes. Then, his sympathy defeated his desire for revenge (or was it because he couldn’t find any place that wasn’t already hurt to begin with?). Anyway, he left without doing anything.

This time it seemed that the secret torture room really had made Storm mad.

Storm forcefully pushed the dressing room mirror away. The dressing room mirror slammed the wall with a bang, and if my eyes weren’t wrong, the wall was cracked…

“He found out about your hideous crime of torturing and killing maidservants, so he tried to expose you. But you caught him, and tortured him for three months until he died.”

How the hell did he find out such an exact time like three months? I was very confused. Even I don’t know how long Roland was tortured for.

The king’s face twisted, and snarled, “Perjury! This is a false accusation! How could you know how long I had imprisoned Roland?”

Storm said impassively, “There is no wall under the sky that does not leak and there is no secret that cannot be found out. If I even know that you are wearing red leopard print underwear right now, what else is there that I cannot find out? Do you want me to repeat how you tortured him? Whipping, branding, pulling fingernails out, skinning, tongue cutting, soaking in salt water, pouring sugar water and then putting ants on him… Do I need to continue?”

The king’s face paled visibly.

When Roland heard the torture methods, he put his face into his hands and howled. Evidently he remembers the inhumane torture process.

Bravo! I nearly gave Storm a standing ovation. Originally, I had only ordered Storm to jump out in the middle of the plan to help me expose the existence of the secret torture chamber. I didn’t think that he was such a responsible guy. He even found out how long Roland was imprisoned, how he was tortured, plus the color of the king’s underwear. I sincerely prayed to the God of Light, Please protect Storm so that he won’t die from overwork!

Storm stepped away from the mirror. Only then did I notice that Storm had pulled away the curtain in the torture chamber. Without that curtain, the smell of rotting flesh and blood instantly wafted out, further emphasizing the heinous crime that Storm had revealed.

By this time, my Sun Knight Platoon had cleaned up most of the dark creatures. Roland didn’t notice that there were no more dark creatures at his back protecting him, but nobody charged to attack Roland anyway.

In fact, judging from their expressions, their desire to attack the king outweighed their desire to attack the Death Lord.

“Blaze, go and purify the lingering air of resentment in the secret torture chamber,” I ordered.

Blaze nodded, but when he stepped into the torture chamber, he did not cast the purifying flame immediately. Instead, he just stood there, dumbfounded. In that second, it was deathly quiet in the room. Then, after a long moment, we heard Blaze release a long breath.

The flames of purification had just lit up when the screams of the resentful spirits rang out through the torture chamber, like the most pained scream from a man during the most tortured moment of his life.

Many people paled when they heard the screams, and they immediately lowered their heads and start muttering a prayer.

When the screams ended, an even more shocking sentence rang out.

“Father, please abdicate and enjoy the rest of your life peacefully.”

As the crown prince finally spoke, tiredness was thick on his face. Clearly, he was deeply weary with the foul play tonight.

“What are you talking about…?” The king stared at his son in disbelief.

The prince said to his father with a stern expression, “Please abdicate to show responsibility for your crimes. As your son, I will take care of you for the rest of your life.”

Hearing that, the king’s eyes darted to and fro. He looked around him. The royal knights were looking at him coldly, while the holy knights’ faces were full with disdain, and near him was a very powerful Death Lord who hated him to the bone.

Lastly, he looked at me, but I turned away slightly, and using my hair and the angle of my face to conceal my expression, showing him only the evil smirk on my face.

The color drained from his face. Clearly, he had realized who was responsible for tonight’s plan to throw him off the throne. Coincidentally, this person was the head of the Twelve Holy Knights, who was able to mobilize the entire Holy Temple. I’m guessing that maybe this fellow will also think that this whole thing was the Church of the God of Light’s dark plot or something similar.

“I— I abdicate,” the king announced at last with a grey face.

When he spoke that sentence, I reached lightly into my pocket, and crushed a pink glass heart.

At this moment, some unusual situation began to happen to Roland. He floated very slowly off the ground, and at first, everyone thought that he was going to attack. However, he just looked down confusedly at his feet, as though as he also didn’t understand why he was starting to float.

His dark aura slowly ebbed away, and it was replaced by a soft pink glow.

Why is it a pink glow? I clearly asked for white… I muttered silently in my mind.

“Is it because he has resolved his obsession, so now he is moving on?” one of the holy knights who clearly had read the undead creature textbook cried out in surprise.

“Captain Roland!” Hele looked at Roland in mid-air and yelled out, sobbing apparent in his voice.

Roland’s expression looked very confused, as if seriously doubting the reason he was able to move on. He started to struggle, and the dark aura pushed away some of the pink glow….

“Death Lord, let me give you a hand!”

I yelled, and then covered Roland in a cage of holy light. The dark aura immediately disappeared, leaving only the pink glow, which grew stronger and stronger. Finally, a cloud of pink glow had appeared in mid-air and it began to descend, covering Roland.

At last, Roland seemed to understand. He looked at me with a meaningful look and said “Grisia, good…bye.”

I nodded at him.

A brief flash of light, and the Death Lord disappeared. Soft and delicate pink flower petals floated down, their fragrance clearly telling everyone that there were no more dark creatures about.

I watched the petals falling in the room and rejoiced in my heart. Fortunately, the whole thing has gone as I planned.

Only when Roland had become a Death Lord could he truly pose a threat to the king’s life. And since I risked my own life to save the king by jumping in front of Roland’s attack, no one will think that I am trying to help Roland. Next, Storm came out and exposed the true face of the king, making the holy knights, and more importantly, the royal knights, turn against the king… Though I have a feeling that they had already been at odds with him, even without me sowing discord.

Under the threat from the Death Lord and isolation from the royal knights, the crown prince would, first, be worried that the Death Lord might try to kill the king through perishing together; second, would want to confront the royal knights; and third… Maybe there was a small, selfish motive from the crown prince who was nearing his forties. In the end, he spoke to urge his father to abdicate.

The crown prince already had the main say in kingdom’s politics for a while now. Even the king doesn’t dare to risk the consequences of the total falling out with his son that would occur had he refused to abdicate.

At last, I have forced the murderer to abdicate. I believed that after I said, “He might create more Death Knights”, the prince will watch over his father carefully now and prevent him from creating more tragedies.

Roland, this ending probably won’t satisfy you, but all in all, I am not a Death Knight, and I can’t kill to solve a problem.

The dead can kill people, take their revenge, and then pass on, but the living have to stay and take on the burden of cleaning up the mess. So, the living must always look for a compromise. Roland, I hope that you can accept this as justice.

The king abdicated and the Death Lord passed on.

The matter was resolved in an unexpected way, but it was still considered as a good ending!

We fifty or so holy knights naturally went back to the Holy Temple. We couldn’t avoid having light to heavy injuries on our knights, but under the hard work of the Sanctuary clerics, nobody had any injuries after half an hour.

As I was the Sun knight and had suffered severe injuries, obviously I was the first person that got thrown ten or so Advanced Heal from ten or so bishops. I estimated that they even healed the split ends on my hair! I immediately turned around to head back to my room and catch some sleep, but Judgment followed me.

“Sun, can I ask a few questions?” Judgment asked.

“Yes?” I looked at him and smiled

Judgment hesitated, but still asked with a frown, “When you brought Blaze and Earth along with you, it really should have been for stopping the Death Knight, and not because of their fiery temper which easily causes conflict, so as to squeeze out time for Roland to transform into the Death Lord, right?”

“The Earth Knight is very kind and honest. How could he be someone who causes conflicts easily?” I choose the right moment to look confused.

Hearing my answer, Judgment only frowned. I know that he can’t object to that, since the entire continent knows that the Earth Knight is kind and honest!

He could only keep on asking, “When the royal knights and the holy knights started to fight, you talked to Roland for only a few minutes and then he had started to transform into a Death Lord. You didn’t use your friendship with Roland to anger him into transforming, right?”

I had just only opened my mouth to answer in the “nonsense-style” again, but Judgment kept on asking, leaving no chance for me to speak.

“When Roland was about to turn into a Death Lord, did you really have no way to stop him?”

Judgment paused hesitantly after hurling the two questions at me, but he finally said with an air of almost complete confidence, “Tonight, when the matter had progressed to the abdication of the king… Did you do it all for Roland? If you—”

“Judgment Knight!” I smiled and interrupted Judgment’s flow of questions. “You only need to know one thing: it doesn’t matter if the Death Knight is Roland or someone else, the progression of the matter wouldn’t change at all. The ending will not be any different.”

Judgment furrowed his brows, obviously doubting my words.

I calmly placed my hand on the Sun Knight crest on my chest, and said seriously, “The first thing my teacher ever taught me was, ‘Carrying out justice is the reason for the Sun Knight’s existence’.”

My teacher said before, “Child, the Sun Knight may not reach complete justice, and the Sun Knight may compromise. But, the Sun Knight may never give up carrying out justice. When you give that up, rip off the Sun Knight crest off your chest, because you are not a Sun Knight!

“Do you understand my answer? Judgment Knight?” I asked.

Judgment was silent for a moment, and then he nodded, “I understand, Sun Knight. However, I have one last question.”

“More questions?!” I smiled helplessly.

“The Sun Knight wouldn’t leave a Death Lord to roam the streets freely, right?”

“Of course not!” I flashed my most innocent smile, and yawned widely. “I’m sleepy! I’m going to sleep now. You should catch some sleep too.”

The Judgment Knight was silent again. When I quickened my pace and was about to turn into another corridor and be out of his sight, Judgment asked, “So, will Grisia let Roland go free?”

Hearing that, I stopped, unconsciously touching my pocket. After I had crushed the glass heart just now, an advanced necromancy spell book, a necromancer student certificate and a note that I haven’t read yet had appeared in my pocket.

I laughed bitterly, and secretly opened the note up while trying to finagle my way past, “About this, it’s too late now, so Grisia is already asleep. He will talk to you again another time!”

The note read, “My dear student, don’t dream anymore that your Roland will pass on. He told me that his real obsession is to become the Sun Knight.”

Gahhhh!

I should have burned him at the stake in the first place!

[Sun Knight Volume 1 Chapter 10 End]

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