Tenth Requirement of Rescuing a Princess: “Develop a Romantic Relationship with the Princess” – translated by dahlys

Ah, the Church of the God of Light! Ah, my Holy Temple! The moment I saw the grand and magnificent Church of the God of Light, my heart was unspeakably touched. I felt like a wanderer who had finally returned to his hometown and leapt into his mother’s arms after several decades of traveling…

Finally, I have returned! Returned to my wonderful life as a church hermit!

Although I maintained my elegant demeanor, the moment I jumped off the carriage I could not help but walk faster and faster in order to see the room I had said goodbye to for more than a month. However, I noticed many people gathered at the Holy Temple’s plaza as I was passing by. I frowned as I sensed two familiar people in the crowd.

Roland and his vice-captain, Tyler.

Even though both of them were completely surrounded by the crowd, I could hear constant sounds of swords clashing. I was stunned for a moment before becoming furious. How dare they hurt one another inside the Holy Temple!

I shoved my way through the crowd. At first, the gathered holy knights turned around impatiently. However, the instant they saw that it was me, they immediately jumped aside in shock to let me through.

I squeezed my way to the center of the crowd and indeed saw the two people fighting with swords. Their strokes were amazingly fast and merciless. Suddenly, I was afraid that if I stopped them a second too late one of them could be badly injured.

“Both of you stop this!”

I immediately shouted at the two of them. When I saw that both of them had indeed stopped fighting, I felt a little relieved. I then hollered angrily at the most familiar person in the crowd watching the fight. “Adair, why didn’t you stop them?”

Adair was stunned for a moment. He then quickly ran to my side and explained in a low voice, “Captain, it’s all right. Knight-Captain Hell was just exchanging blows with his vice-captain. For the past month, they have been sparring at this time every day. Sometimes, Knight-Captain Judgment will also join the fight.”

Once I heard that, I immediately looked at Roland and his vice-captain, Tyler. The two of them had already stopped the match and were both looking at me. They didn’t look like they were going to kill each other at all…Oh no! It seems I misunderstood, and I could not help but laugh at myself. Leaf’s death appears to have made my nerves too tense. No matter what, this place is still the Holy Temple’s plaza, which is always full of people. Could one of the Twelve Holy Knights or a vice-captain really die here?

Even if Adair did not stop them, Judgment would not possibly allow something like that to happen.

At this point, Adair whispered into my ear, explaining, “Captain, actually, Knight-Captain Hell promised Tyler that if Tyler defeated him, he would give the position of captain away to him. But after ten days of sparring, Tyler conceded defeat wholeheartedly. Now, Knight-Captain Hell is just instructing Tyler and the other members of the Hell Knight Platoon on their swordsmanship.”

I asked softly, “Has the problem really been solved?”

“Yes.” Adair nodded and said, “Now, if anyone dares to question Knight-Captain Hell’s authenticity, Tyler would be the first person to jump out to defend him.”

Extremely satisfied, I nodded and said, “Help me explain my actions. I want to go back to my room and apply a facial mask.”

“Captain?” Puzzled, Adair looked at me.

“…I mean, I want to return to my room to rest.” After suddenly realizing that I had spoken the truth, I quickly came up with another excuse.

“Yes sir, thank you for your hard work.”

I turned around and left. When I had walked far away, I vaguely heard Adair giving the crowd a one sentence explanation, “Nothing happened just now, understood?”

The crowd replied in unison, “Understood.”

Adair really deserves to be my vice-captain. He has the same style as his captain, being too lazy to even come up with a reason.

“Grisia!”

I turned my head around and said to Roland, who had chased after me, “Are you getting used to life in the Holy Temple?”

“I’m used to it, but is it really okay for me to continue living like this?” Roland caught up with me and slowed down to walk alongside me. With a little hesitation, he said, “If my identity is revealed, you…”

Annoyed, I rolled my eyes and said, “Do you still not understand even after living in the Holy Temple for more than a month? If Judgment and I work together, even if we pointed at an apple and called it a tomato, then from then onwards apples would be called tomatoes.”

Roland frowned and did not speak.

“Don’t worry, even if your identity was exposed, the worst that could happen is that you will need to be burned to death.” I purposely said, “If that happens, as long as you are willing to be burnt to death, then nothing bad will happen to me. So, are you willing to promise me that if you are ever exposed, you will let me tie you to a stake and burn you to death?”

“Yes.” Roland immediately nodded resolutely.

I smiled. As long as he could solve the problem by sacrificing himself, Roland would not worry. He was most afraid of implicating others, so this was the best way to convince him not to be worried. Judgment would not be so easily fooled. If he were the one being deceived, he would probably continue asking, “Then are you willing to swear to the God of Light that you would really burn me to death if the time comes?”

“Okay, Knight-Captain Hell, you should continue educating your vice-captain. Sun is tired and wishes to rest.”

“Sure.” Roland nodded his head cautiously. He said sternly, “Grisia… No! Sun, I swear to you, I will definitely do my best to fulfill my responsibilities as Hell Knight.”

On hearing this, I heaved another sigh of relief. The problem involving Roland has been solved, so it looks like I have many more relaxing days to look forward to!

A few days later, the Kingdom of Moon Orchid dispatched another secret emissary here. This time, even His Majesty, the king of my country, was shocked. He was particularly concerned about whether the Church of the God of Light had a secret agreement with the Kingdom of Moon Orchid.

Under the attentive gaze of the Twelve Holy Knights and Elijah, the knight specially sent by the king, the emissary from the Kingdom of Moon Orchid pulled out a stack of letters while grinning widely and said, “My country’s Princess Ann wishes to pass these items to Leaf Knight of the Church of the God of Light.”

Everyone glanced at the letters that were smeared with perfume and stacked as high as the pile of work documents in Storm’s arms.

One by one, the Twelve Holy Knights began to smile derisively.

Elijah scratched his head, and the serious expression he originally had disappeared without a trace.

Leaf bowed his head as he accepted the letters. At this point, the emissary from the Kingdom of Moon Orchid was still unwilling to leave. He said to Leaf, “Princess Ann ordered me to return only when I have your reply.”

By now, Leaf’s jaw was almost at his chest. He answered in a very small voice, “Okay.”

Then, with everyone watching, he fished out a few dozen letters from his shirt pocket (there was no perfume smeared on those letters, but that was probably because Leaf was simply too poor to afford perfume) and gave them to the emissary from the Kingdom of Moon Orchid.

After the satisfied emissary from the Kingdom of Moon Orchid had left carrying the few dozen letters, Blaze was the first to leap onto Leaf’s back and pound it, bellowing, “Leaf, you little brat, you’re actually dating a princess!”

“Dear God of Light! The good guy, Leaf, actually became the first among the Twelve Holy Knights to win a princess’s heart!”

In reality, Elijah was the first to win a princess’s heart, I refuted silently.

Earth Knight said bitterly, “The world has changed; princesses even fall in love with good guys now!”

Two streams of tears running down his face, Moon Knight swore to the symbol of the God of Light, “I want to be a good guy too!”

On hearing this, I felt deeply wronged.

I’m a good guy too! I’m even the leader of the Twelve Holy Knights, I look more handsome than Leaf, and my pay is higher than his! So, why do all the princesses in the whole world only know how to call me ‘despicable?’

Boo hoo, I-I…had no choice but to give myself a small source of comfort by going to the corridor specially meant for church hermits to search for a window with a good view of the beautiful female clerics in the Sanctuary of Light next door.

Damn it! I want to be a church hermit for the rest of my life! I wailed in my heart.

At this moment, Knight-Captain Judgment walked toward me, leaned on the same windowsill, and stared at the corridor in the Sanctuary of Light next door. After a long time, he finally opened his mouth and said, “The Sanctuary of Light is having a day off today.”

“I know that.”

“Then what are you looking at?”

“I’m looking at empty space and feeling miserable…”

Both of us looked at the empty corridor in the Sanctuary of Light for quite some time before Judgment opened his mouth and said, “Previously, when Leaf requested aid from the Holy Temple, he said that there seemed to be something wrong with your eyes.”

My heart skipped a beat. I shrugged and said, “He was too nervous. Do I look like a blind man at all? A blind man going to look at beautiful girls – what a joke.”

Judgment said plainly, “Then tell me, what color is that bird on the windowsill?”

I was silent for a moment before replying cautiously, “It’s white.”

There was a long silence. Judgment finally sighed faintly, “…Grisia, do you still intend to continue hiding this from me?”

Sure enough, there is no deceiving Judgment… I smiled a forced smile.

In the beginning, I used the excuse of being weak to lie down in Forest Leaf Town for several days. It looked like I was resting, but I was actually desperately practicing my ability to “sense the elements.” I didn’t sleep much during those ten days, so I thought that I had trained until my ability became flawless. Even when I went to seek revenge, Princess Alice, Awaitsun and Pink did not realize I was blind.

After that, on the way back to the Holy Temple, my sensing ability improved even further. I could even pick out the fine details of an object by piecing different elements together… What? This statement is too complex and you don’t understand it? Sigh! To put it simply, I could even tell how many buttons there are on a shirt.

In the end, I could tell, roughly, what a person’s face looked like and sense what expression a person had on his face… I nearly convinced myself that I wasn’t blind.

But no matter what, I could not sense “color.” Also, I could not differentiate between beauty and ugliness. In the mountain cave, when Alice asked me whether she was beautiful or not, I really didn’t know how pretty or not she was. In my mind, her features were made up of a combination of many elements and no longer had anything to do with “beauty” or “ugliness.”

Judgment frowned and said, “You didn’t tell me that Resurrection exacted such a high price from the caster.”

“There was no need to pay such a high price.” I said plainly, “It’s just that when I was performing Resurrection, I prayed to the God of Light, saying that I was willing to ‘pay any price’ for Leaf’s complete revival. You should know that I am always careful, so I would never gamble on that 25% chance. I cannot afford to gamble on it!”

Judgment fell silent for quite some time before saying, “Since that is so, you should stop blaming yourself for Leaf’s death. Every time you look at Leaf, you have an apologetic expression on your face.”

I sighed and said solemnly, “I will never leave any comrade behind again, never!”

Judgment said plainly, “I will also warn them that even if they have to jump off a cliff and die without a complete corpse, they must not die in front of you. Otherwise, who knows what you will come back missing next time.”

“…” I thought silently to myself. Even if they jumped off a cliff, as long as there is half a head left, I could probably revive them. It all depends on what price I will need to pay.

Judgment sighed and said, “You cannot save everybody, Grisia. I hope you understand this.”

“I understand.” Probably…

“Besides being unable to see color, does being blind have any other effect on you?” Judgment asked meticulously.

I tilted my head to the side and thought about it. I probably don’t have to mention the point about beauty and ugliness, do I? I answered honestly, “At first, there were some problems, but after practicing my elemental sensing, I no longer have any issues. I can now “see” more things than before and my field of vision is almost three hundred and sixty degrees. Still, I cannot see color.”

“Speaking of which…” I could not help but ask curiously, “Just what color is that bird on the windowsill?”

Judgment was silent for a moment. He then replied, “You were right, it is white.”

“You tricked me,” I said expressionlessly.

“Yes, I tricked you.”

Judgment nodded and admitted to his deception without feeling any guilt. He then added, “If you dare to hide anything from me again, regardless of how confidential the matter is, I will expose you in front of all the Twelve Holy Knights. Right now you should first think about how to apologize to Knight-Captain Hell, because I am going to tell him that you are blind. That will make him pay more attention to your safety.”

I wanted to cry but no tears came out. I pleaded, “Nooo! If you do that, then Roland will follow me around all day. He doesn’t even need to sleep, go to the toilet, or eat… Dear God of Light! I really don’t want to be stalked by a man all day! I would definitely go crazy!”

“Hey, hey! Judgment, don’t go away! Listen to me, as long as you don’t tell Roland, I’ll do anything you say. Lesus? Judgment…”

Chapter 5: If There is Already French Bread in This World, Why is There Meatbun as Well? – translated by bleachpanda

“Hmm… I remember that when Gui tried to take me to find everyone, he seemed to be going… this way?” I stared at the deep and quiet forest, thinking in desperation, Which direction did Gui take me in…? Speaking of which, if only Gui were still here, then everything would be fine. Even Zhuo-gēgē’s presence would help… Inadvertently, my heart sank. I will never be able to see them within the game again.

“Then… won’t I have to meet Professor Min Gui Wen now?” I frantically stood up. Oh no! I don’t think my midterm exam results on the history of literature were that… ideal. Thinking about the Professor’s comment on my test that said “there is still a lot of room for improvement” made me really… not want to tell him that I was actually Prince…

But if I don’t go to meet Gui, won’t that be quite cruel of me? I sighed with an inevitable headache, “What should I do?”

“What should you do? Open the door and let us in! Or else, be prepared to be destroyed!” A cold voice rang out.

I froze for a moment. This voice sounded very familiar, but that person usually didn’t use such a cold tone when speaking to me. I raised my head and looked up. I stood up, excitedly shouting, “Zui! And everyone!”

The entire Execution Squad had actually assembled right in front of my eyes! Everyone appeared tired and worn out, their foreheads dripping with sweat, their faces full of exhaustion. It could be deduced from one look that they had risked their lives to come here in a rush… Did they rush here in desperation for an idiot like me? I almost smiled happily from the bottom of my heart.

However, it seemed that Nan Gong Zui hadn’t expected that I would yell out his name. He stood there stunned for quite a while before replying, “Who are you? How do you know my name?”

“Don’t tell me you’re Prince?” Lolidragon rushed forward, studying my appearance from head to toe. “How did you become a ghost? And a red malicious ghost at that!”

“Lolidragon! Be careful! It might be a trap!” Undying Man charged forward a few steps, standing in between Lolidragon and me. He was playing the part of a hero that always protects the beautiful girls. Looking at me with suspicion and doubt, he bluntly said, “No matter how much you look at this thing, it does not resemble Prince one bit!”

Oh no… They can’t recognize me. Don’t tell me they’ll treat me as an NPC and kill me? I hurriedly tried to clear up the misunderstanding, “I am Prince! I really am! I just used the device that Lolidragon gave Gui! Lolidragon, you know… that plastic wrap that lets you transform..?”

“Plastic wrap?” A puzzled expression appeared on Lolidragon’s face. Her strange reaction led to the Execution Squad anxiously drawing out their weapons and pointing them toward me one after another.

“Pfffft!” Lolidragon couldn’t help but snicker out loud. It wasn’t long before she held her stomach in laughter. “Hahahaha! Plastic wrap! You actually called the fake skin we invented for transformations plastic wrap! Haha, only, only Prince would have such a weird imagination!”

“So it really is Prince?” Yu Lian-dàsăo gasped in surprise.

“It is me!” I nodded in desperation.

“Wow, Prince… You have turned… really red!” Sunshine stared at me with curiosity.

…That’s not the main point, everyone thought.

After hearing these “comments,” Lolidragon knelt on the floor, violently pounding the ground as she laughed in an even more exaggerated manner. The sound of her laughter agitated me to the point that I was seriously tempted to kick her a few times. “Y-You only need to shout ‘Restore’ in order to return to your original appearance,” she eventually stuttered.

I jumped up vigorously and said, “Why didn’t you say that earlier?! Restore!! Hurry up and Restore!!”

Why isn’t anything happening? I lowered my head, ceaselessly staring at my translucent torso… It feels strange being able to see what’s behind me through my chest. While I was still looking through myself and feeling strange about it, an explosion of red light suddenly emitted from my body. Once more, I felt an extremely concentrated amount of heat burning me. However, this time, I was mentally prepared. Unlike last time when I fainted on the spot, this time I was able to withstand the heat and see my body begin to change. Transparent plastic wrap (okay, Lolidragon insisted that it was fake skin used for transformations) appeared at the soles of my feet and slowly wrapped around my calves, then my thighs, followed by my waist, until it finally transformed me once again into a mummy encased in transparent bandages.

I… really felt like tearing off this plastic wrap. However, the problem was not only the fact that I had become a mummy, but that I had also become like one of those Egyptian mummies that are placed in coffins with their legs and arms completely bound. How could a mummy tear off its own bandages?

“Uh… As it is still in development, there could be slight defects,” Lolidragon tried to explain but succeeded only in making things worse. “Therefore, you should never say “Restore” when you are alone… Otherwise, you might run into some trouble.”

“No need to explain any further. Hurry up and remove that thing from Prince’s body,” Wolf-dàgē lightly interrupted Lolidragon whilst stepping forward and helping me remove the plastic wrap from my body. He managed to unwind the piece of plastic wrap from my face with much effort.

“As expected of Wolf-dàgē, you’re the best!” I thanked him immediately, touched.

Wolf-dàgē gently knocked on my head before reproaching me slightly, “Why did you run off alone without even reporting back to the team? Everyone was really worried about you.”

The moment I heard Wolf-dàgē’s words, I couldn’t help but think about Zhuo-gēgē and Gui once again. It was all because of me that they disappeared. I couldn’t stop myself as my voice choked with sobs, “I’m sorry, because of me, both Gui and Wicked… They will never appear in Second Life again. They… Both of them have vanished forever.”

Wolf-dàgē sighed. With his arms outstretched, he held me against his wide chest and said in a comforting tone, “Go ahead and cry. We’ll avenge them as soon as you’re done.”

“Wolf-dàgē…” After hearing his words, I openly burst into tears and wept bitterly, keeping my face hidden in his embrace. My tears and snot ran down Wolf-dàgē’s chest.

After crying for a long, long time, I started having countless flashbacks of when I was with the two of them. Strange… Why are the flashbacks related to Gui so violent and gory? I finally forced myself to stop sniffling.

Still hiding desperately within Wolf-dàgē’s arms, I quietly asked, “Does my crying sound horrible?”

“It sounds slightly better than a wailing god and a crying ghost combined,” Lolidragon remarked tactlessly, her words stabbing right through me. Someone really needs to teach her a lesson about interjecting with unnecessary comments.

“A grown man weeping? How unsightly,” Ming Huang said coldly, dealing me the last blow.

Ignoring the midget, I angrily turned around and glared at Lolidragon, “Couldn’t you at least comfort me?”

“Comforting is useless,” Lolidragon said, suddenly retracting her grinning face and replacing it with a serious one. “I’d rather stand by your side and fight alongside you.”

“Lolidragon….” I was shocked, “Have you taken the wrong medicine?”

Lolidragon gave me a ruthless blow on the head. She roared, infuriated, “Damn you! I rarely say such fine words. Why couldn’t you have acted along with me!?”

“So you do know that you rarely say such nice words…” Feng Wu Qing quietly muttered to the side.

“Prince, something’s not right within the city,” said Nan Gong Zui, frowning as he came forward.

“What do you mean by ‘not right?’” I asked, slightly surprised.

“Listen. It seems like there are battle sounds,” Zui said with a heavy expression.

I quickly strained my ears, and was indeed able to hear faint battle noises obviously drifting over from Flower City. “This is strange. Everyone is outside of the city, so who would be fighting within Flower City? It can’t be that the NPCs revolted, right?” I asked, unable to understand the current situation.

“No way. NPCs don’t fight with other NPCs,” said Lolidragon, dismissing my words. However, she continued furrowing her eyebrows as she said, “But, if they were self-aware NPCs… then that’s a different story.”

“Prince-gēgē, why hasn’t Celestial come out?” Doll asked worriedly.

Celestial! Now that Doll mentioned it, I finally remembered that Celestial and Ocean’s Heart were still in the city! I blurted out, “Could Celestial and Ocean’s Heart have started fighting?”

“Why would Celestial and Ocean’s Heart be fighting?”

“Let’s not worry about that aspect. Since both of them are good NPCs, I can’t just stand by and watch them kill each other,” I said hastily as I rushed toward the city gates. I took out Wicked’s longsword, hoping to use Pure White Inferno Rhapsody to break through the gates in order to stop the two people… the two NPCs from battling any further.

“Prince,” Feng Wu Qing suddenly called out, stopping me in my tracks. I looked at my brother suspiciously. Smiling, he threw a weapon toward me. “Your Black Dao.”

My Black Dao! I caught the weapon and took a look. It really is my Black Dao! My exceptionally black Black Dao, my best partner in combat! I was overjoyed. After swapping it with my current weapon, I couldn’t resist swinging Black Dao a few times to get the feeling back. “My precious Black Dao, you are indeed the only one who could ever fit my fighting style!”

“Pure White Inferno Rhapsody!” I charismatically shouted the name of my ultimate technique with my back confidently facing the gate. Without even having to look, I was supremely confident that the gates had been smashed into smithereens. Although I have nothing against you, dear gates, you were obstructing my path… I swept back my hair and turned to enter the city….

Bam!

“….” Silence hung in the air.

My entire body had smacked right into the city gates, the fingernails on my hands leaving ten scratch marks on its surface. That hurt! Ow, ow, ow… Ouch!

Suddenly, Nan Gong Zui walked to my side, which happened to be in front of the city gates. He placed one of his hands on the gate, bent down, and asked, his voice full of concern and worry, “Are you alright?”

Pah!

My entire body came into hard contact with the floor, leaving Nang Gong Zui stunned and looking down at his own hand, the hand that had “accidentally” pushed the gate open!

Nan Gong Zui, acting as if nothing had happened, once again walked closer and bent his body down, asking, “Are you alright?”

Thump!

“Uh… The chunk of ice that just fell from the sky and coincidentally hit you has nothing to do with me!” Nan Gong Zui solemnly justified himself.

“…” This was the sound of my speechlessness. Heaven raining ice chunks down on me? Don’t tell me the reason I’m being hit is because I was violent to the city gate… Have I angered the gods?

“Ah! Celestial!” Doll suddenly cried out.

I immediately jumped up from the floor, my eyes following the direction that Doll’s eyes were staring in. On a five-to-six-story-high building, both Celestial and Ocean’s Heart were in the middle of a heated battle for some unfathomable reason! The large number of both heavy and minor injuries on their bodies clearly showed that the battle had been going on for a long time.

Also, there was no mistaking the fact that both of them had been fighting on the ground just now. I could tell from the pile of NPC corpses they had left behind that had yet to disappear. In addition, everything surrounding the building had been completely demolished. It could be deduced that as they exchanged their blows, they had realized that if they continued fighting on the ground, all of the NPCs that were present in the city would have been wiped out. Hence, they had changed their battle ground to midair.

As several icicles formed from Ocean’s Heart’s hand and flew toward Celestial, I softly uttered, “Ocean’s Heart…”

“Prince, I know that you are worried about Ocean’s Heart,” Lolidragon said as she patted my back as if consoling me. “But rest assured, everyone will prevent….”

“Of course! It was Ocean’s Heart’s icicles that had fallen and hit me! And I thought I had angered the gods!” I said in realization.

“…” Lolidragon once again punched me violently.

“Why did you hit me again?” I complained angrily as I held my head.

“Hurry up and stop them!” Lolidragon screamed in frustration.

“Stop? Are you kidding me?” I looked toward the tall building. I could use Meatbun’s bamboo copter to fly up there, but couldn’t they see? Dozens of ribbons of Celestial Satin danced around in the sky, hitting the city’s walls from time to time and leaving huge holes in them. I can’t even imagine the amount of damage there would be if it were Ocean’s Heart’s icicles instead… If I really were to fly up there, I would get knocked out of the air by Celestial Satin and then find myself pinned to the wall through all four of my limbs by Ocean’s Heart’s icicles.

“Prince-gēgē, you have to help Celestial quickly! He’s bleeding so much!” Doll anxiously looked at the patches of wounds on Celestial’s body that had been carved by Ocean’s Heart’s icicles. She was so desperate, she was about to burst into tears at any moment.

“I…” Looking up at the sky, I was filled with doubt and uncertainty.

“Divine Lightning Strike!” Ming Huang shouted out of the blue as he cast his spell.

The cloudless sky was suddenly filled with lightning. Bolts of lightning hurtled toward Ocean’s Heart, but before they could even come within ten meters of him, they were destroyed by his icicles.

“Damn, it actually didn’t succeed!” cursed Ming Huang.

“He is a BOSS level NPC, you know. Relying only on a few mages may be futile,” said Yu Lian-dàsăo as she frowned.

“Then I shall go!” Sunshine suddenly spoke.

Oh right… I had almost forgotten that Sunshine has a flying carpet.

“You can’t! Look at the sky! There are too many ribbons of Celestial Satin and icicles…. You’ll die!” Fairsky objected to his idea fiercely.

“Fairsky, do you want me to simply stand by and watch Celestial die?” Sunshine tried to convince Fairsky anxiously.

“Prince! Hurry up and think of something!” Lolidragon grabbed my shoulders desperately and shook me vigorously.

“Stop it already! No matter how much you shake, I don’t have a…” As I was talking, an odd expression came over my face and an unbelievably wild idea sprung into my mind.

I took out my long-absent Meatbun and tried to shake it awake, wiping away its adorable sleeping face.

“Mama?” Meatbun muttered, still dazed as it blearily opened its eyes.

“Good Meatbun, can you do a favor for mama? After you help mama, mama will give you lots and lots of yummy meat buns to eat!” I tried my best to coax Meatbun.

Upon hearing that it would have yummy meat buns to eat, Meatbun immediately snapped out of its stupor. With love-filled eyes, it agreed eagerly, “Okay! Meat-bunbun will help mama!”

“Good. Meatbun, do you see the two big brothers in the sky?” I pointed toward the two people in the middle of a heated battle.

“I see them!” Meat-bunbun stared at Celestial and Ocean’s Heart curiously.

“Then, Meatbun, could you fly above those two big brothers from the side?” I asked. Just in case, I added in concern, “Remember to be careful, okay? Don’t get injured!”

Meatbun nodded its head vigorously. Obediently sticking out its bamboo copter, it flew into the sky.

“Prince, what do you intend to do? Although Meatbun has the title of the strongest pet, you don’t think it could last against two super NPC bosses, do you?” Lolidragon asked with extreme suspicion.

I smiled with no intent to answer her questions as I watched Meatbun fly dangerously close where Celestial and Ocean’s Heart were battling. “Meatbun! Use your ultimate skill, Fermentation!” I shouted toward Meatbun as it flew right above them.

“Okay! Meat-bunbun’s Fermentation skill is going to start now,” Meatbun said as its adorable face slowly started to grow, turning bigger and bigger…

“Oh my god… What a huge meatbun!” Someone shouted the words that I always heard when I asked Meatbun to use Fermentation.

It should be the right size now… I studied Meatbun’s size carefully. According to my repeated observation of Fermentation, Meatbun should be reaching its maximum size soon – the size which could just about bury an entire army.

“Ah! It’s falling!” exclaimed Doll.

“Yep. That’s a good position!” I said, looking up.

Indeed, Meatbun accurately squashed both Celestial and Ocean’s Heart as it fell. Then, with a “pong,” an enormous meat bun fell onto the ground just like that. I nodded my head in satisfaction and said, “It’ll be a bit tough on you, Meatbun. Hold your position just a bit longer, okay? Keep these two big brothers squashed. Wait for mama to finish, then you can return to normal.”

“Meat-bunbun will listen to mama, become big Meat-bunbun, squash big brothers flat-flat!” In order to demonstrate its obedience, it jumped up and down twice. I thought I vaguely heard groans coming from underneath Meatbun.

“That was a brilliant plan!” Even Lolidragon’s face seemed to show an expression that said, “You really are something else.”

“Okay, that is finally solved,” I sighed in relief.

“Prince, this is only just the beginning!” Winter Triumph said faintly.

I had only just shifted my attention away from Meatbun’s body when I realized what Winter Triumph meant. Because the battle between Celestial and Ocean’s Heart had stopped, the NPCs that had been scattered around were now gradually gathering and pressing toward us.

“Have we been surrounded?” I asked, finding it hard to believe.

Lolidragon rolled her eyes. “You have eyes, see for yourself!” she snapped angrily.

“This was an inevitable battle from the start anyways,” Winter Triumph added slowly.

“Couldn’t we say that it was for this battle that we traveled all the way to the Northern Continent?” Undying Man laughed out loudly.

“No doubt about that!” I grinned widely. “The target, the Central Tower!” I shouted in high spirits, taking hold of my closest ally: my Black Dao.

“Yeah!” The crowd roared with vigor.

I took a few deep breaths and then ordered, “Sunshine, take the long range fighters with you into the sky and support us… Take your thief wife as well so Lolidragon won’t need to take care of her.” Lolidragon’s ability to appear and disappear unpredictably did not make her any weaker than warriors, so allowing her to stay would definitely aid us immensely in this battle.

Lolidragon raised her eyebrows and said, “Hey! Your differential treatment is too much!”

I knew that Lolidragon was merely customarily making a sassy retort. In reality, I knew that if I’d told her to stay on the flying carpet she probably wouldn’t have wanted to at all. Therefore, I didn’t pay attention to her sour words and continued to give out my orders. “The warriors will fight against the NPCs on the ground, and the mages will deal with the NPCs flying in the air. If you have any spare time, help out the warriors on the ground… Even though it really doesn’t look like you’ll have much free time at all…” I looked somewhat helplessly at the packs of angel forces flying toward us. I hope the mages will be able to hold out against them…

Yu Lian-dàsăo, Ming Huang and Sunshine looked at me and nodded their heads.

“DanDan and Fairsky, both of you are responsible for ensuring the safety of the people on the flying carpet,” I said while looking at the two of them. They were the only two on the carpet that possessed the necessary abilities for close combat. In addition, DanDan’s class possessed both short distance and long distance attacks since she was, after all, a summoner.

“Okay!” the two of them answered at the same time.

“Wolf-dàgē, our safety will be in your hands,” I said, looking at Wolf-dàgē, feeling protected.

“No problem, just charge ahead and don’t hesitate!” said Wolf-dàgē gallantly.

Everything was ready now. I held onto my Black Dao tightly as I stared at the Central Tower topped with a large rose. We faced the NPCs in a moment of dead silence where no one was moving at all, then I raised the Black Dao in my hand and pointed it directly toward the Central Tower and shouted, “Advance!”

My legs started moving the moment I shouted for them to advance. Charge! Charge! Charge! I desperately lifted my legs and began to run. As for my comrades, they followed closely behind me. Kenshin even ran ahead of me since he had the fastest speed. His eyes were intently focused upon the Central Tower, and within them there was not only a sense of coldness but also a rare burst of passion!

Kenshin’s passion even made Cold Fox subtly reveal a surprised expression as he observed him.

Kenshin didn’t turn around; however, he asked a little hesitantly, “Prince, I…still do not want to kill other NPCs in order to protect myself. But… Sunshine is different from me… He has things that are important to him…”

I was slightly taken aback. What is Kenshin trying to say?

“Prince, for Sunshine’s sake, please protect Second Life… Lolidragon told us before that she can download us and store us in another place before Second Life is destroyed, but… This is also her first time dealing with NPCs that have self awareness. She cannot one hundred percent guarantee that we will be able to successfully keep our self-awareness after we are downloaded.” Kenshin said, a bit embarrassed, “It doesn’t matter to me because I don’t matter, but Sunshine is really happy right now…”

I was silent for a moment before I quickened my footsteps to chase after Kenshin. I put my hand on his shoulder and grinned widely, “Don’t worry, everything will be okay!”

“Prince! The enemies are attacking!” Undying Man angrily shouted to warn me. Then, the NPC monsters that rushed out began fighting with us, beginning a difficult battle. As for Nan Gong Zui, he was also in the middle of close combat with a few humanoid NPCs.

However, the NPCs actually avoided Kenshin who was in the very front and directly charged at Cold Fox who was closely following him, nearly killing Cold Fox by catching him off guard. Luckily, Kenshin reacted instantaneously and dispatched the NPCs with a few strokes of his sword, saving Cold Fox from his dilemma.

Meanwhile, a group of NPCs that looked completely ridiculous were charging at me as well… Waah, why are all the NPCs that are attacking Nan Gong Zui so good looking, while the ones that are attacking me look so ridiculous? Why is there a turtle with a tree growing on top of its shell and a peach that can extend sharp thorns out of itself, making it look like a pink sea urchin or something, attacking me? There’s even a monster that only has one leg… Please note, I said only one leg. That doesn’t mean that it lost a leg; it means that it “only had one leg to begin with!”

“Idiots! Stop getting in the way of my view!” I kicked the single leg out of the way, split the peach open with one strike, and didn’t pay attention to the turtle tree… It moves so slowly! I could probably crawl using one hand going forward and still defeat it, so why would I need to do anything about it…

Suddenly, several shadows shot out of the turtle tree. At that moment, I was occupied with fighting a penguin that was tied to a cross and did not notice its attack until the last moment. I could only look on helplessly as unknown objects raced forward to hit me.

“Be careful!” Winter Triumph’s deep voice rang out loudly. In addition, he hit those shadows into the air and said, “That tree has hidden weapons!”

I looked toward those hidden weapons and was shocked by my startling discovery… The true form of the turtle tree was actually… a chestnut tree! The hidden weapons were actually chestnuts with long needles in front.

“I wonder… do you think these chestnuts are edible?” I thought out loud whilst punching the penguin’s stomach.

“Stop joking around, Prince. There are more and more NPCs,” Winter Triumph strictly reprimanded, “Hurry up and break through!”

Upon hearing Winter Triumph’s words and seeing that my surroundings were filled with more and more NPCs, I curbed my imagination from running wild and seriously concentrated on heading toward the Central Tower!

“Waah, Mama…” Meatbun’s thunderous cry suddenly reverberated.

Startled, I turned around in panic to find that… “Someone’s” bullying my beloved Meatbun!

I looked at them from a distance away and actually saw an elongated and very familiar looking thing flying in the air. It’s frantically hitting Meatbun’s cute little head!

“Waaaaah, don’t hit Meat-bunbun, it hurts! It hurts!” Meatbun’s tears continued to flow… Oh no. I suddenly realized that it had produced two waterfalls. Before Meatbun grew this large, it could already drown the Adventurers’ Tournament’s stadium… Now that it’s this big…

I shouted in fright, “Everyone, hurry up and run onto the rooftops of the closest houses! The higher the better!”

While everyone was still baffled at my orders, the waterfalls’ water had already turned into a river flowing toward us. At that moment, everyone gaped with their mouths wide open, looking at the water in which they were submerged up to their knees, and then looking at the culprit – Meatbun.

Right then, the elongated entity suddenly flew high into the sky and then heavily dropped onto Meatbun’s head. This violent action resulted in Meatbun’s eyes turning super watery in a way that had never been seen before. I didn’t have the chance to say anything before a mountain-sized flash flood emerged!

“Ahh…” I really want to find a telephone pole to hug, but Second Life doesn’t have telephone poles… During this panic-stricken situation, I accidentally held onto the turtle tree’s trunk. It was only because I desperately held on to it that I wasn’t smashed into the wall by the powerful torrents of water.

“Don’t bully Meat-bunbun! Meat-bunbun’s Machine Gun of Mincemeat Attack!” Meatbun had finally been enraged. On one hand, it cried and on the other hand, it unleashed its Machine Gun of Mincemeat Attack at the elongated entity…

A meat clump three times my size fell beside me with a “crash.” It coincidentally hit the penguin that was tied to a cross, flattening it into a meat patty.

“Meat-bunbun did well! Hurry up and kill that horrible French bread now!” Lolidragon supportively yelled from a certain house’s fifth floor balcony.

“French bread vs. a meat bun, this certainly is something you would only be able to see once in every ten thousand years,” said Feng Wu Qing, who stood next to Lolidragon, shaking his head and sighing sentimentally.

French bread! Shocked, I looked at the elongated entity on the ground that was unable to get up due to the attacks from the meat bullets. They’re right. It really was a long piece of rock hard French bread.

“Why would there be French bread here….?” I asked, thinking this was becoming a bit out-of-this-world.

However, the French bread seriously answered me, angrily shouting, “Why can’t there be French bread? This is the Northern Continent, French bread’s territory! My territory! The real question is, why is a meat bun from the Central Continent here to try and steal my territory?”

Meatbun’s eyes turned into two question marks and then it opened its mouth to ask me, “Mama, what is French bread?”

“It’s…a bad person. Meatbun, quickly defeat the French bread, then Mama will give you really yummy meat buns!” After thinking for a while, I still decided to dumb the situation down. Since Meatbun’s Mountain Torrent Attack and Meat Bullet Attack had cleared up a large portion of the surrounding NPCs, how could I pass up on this chance to charge toward the Central Tower! As for the French bread, I’ll leave it to Meat-bunbun to take care of it!

“Horrible French bread-bread. Anyone who bullies Meat-bunbun must be a bad person.” Meatbun pouted in dissatisfaction and said, “Meat-bunbun must punish bad people.”

I looked at the scene of meat bun vs. French bread, painfully making a decision. I immediately shouted toward everyone, “Hurry up and take this chance to run!”

“What?” Lolidragon asked in shock, “What about Meat-bunbun?”

“What kind of situation do you think we’re in that you’re still worrying about Meat-bunbun?” rebuked Feng Wu Qing.

I glared at my brother. Then, eyes glistening with tears, I said, “I believe Meat-bunbun will be able to finish off that French bread. We should hurry up and take the chance to…”

“Meat-bunbun, what is that long thing?” an extremely familiar “vain” voice called out.

My whole body froze. That’s… I widened my eyes and looked. It really is Fire Phoenix! Could it be that Gui is all right? I frantically turned my head around looking for any traces of Gui. I really hoped to see Gui’s exaggerated smiling face once again.

“What is happening exactly? Master suddenly disappeared, causing me to become a wild phoenix again,” said Fire Phoenix unhappily.

Once I heard those words, my heart sank once again. Gui has disappeared. He will never come back.

Meatbun happily squealed, “Fire Phoenix! Hurry up and help Meat-bunbun punish bad people.”

“Bad people? Is this stick bullying you?” asked Fire Phoenix as it looked at the French bread with extreme displeasure. Its body’s flames seemed to be burning at an even hotter degree than usual.

Meatbun pouted, “French bread-bread hit Meat-bunbun’s head.”

“What? He dared to hit you!” Fire Phoenix’s fury ignited Flame Tornado, and then with one sweep of its wing, it threw Flame Tornado toward the French bread.

The French bread dodged to the side in shock… However, it had forgotten that to its side was Meatbun who was staring at it eagerly.

Nom! A strange sound suddenly drifted over. I turned my stiff neck to look toward Meatbun… The French bread was only left with half of its body sticking out of Meatbun’s mouth… And Meatbun had a satisfied expression on its face as if it had just eaten its favorite meat buns…

“Was it delicious, Meat-bunbun?” Fire Phoenix asked Meatbun in delight.

“It was really yummy! It’s as yummy as meat buns!” said Meatbun ecstatically.

“Let’s hurry up and go!” Lolidragon said expressionlessly.

Thus, we who were hugging onto trees and columns and those who were stuck onto walls all jumped off. A line of people bolted toward Central Tower. Pretty soon, the Central Tower appeared in front of our eyes. As long as we could get past this final plaza, we would be able to push open the Central Tower’s doors.

However, the plaza was not empty at all. I was slightly stunned. Even I was startled by the mighty force of NPCs that filled the enormous plaza to the brim. There were even many high level NPCs present that I had seen before.

“What should we do?” I forced myself to calm down and asked everyone in the party chat.

“The levels of these NPCs are too high. Yu Lian and Ming Huang’s AOE magic won’t do much damage to them,” Wolf-dàgē said worriedly.

Also, it seemed like the NPCs had already discovered us and had begun slowly drawing closer to us, step-by-step. We all started panicking.

“Let me help you guys,” Sunshine suddenly said, “I can cast Guided Arcane Missiles. One spell can kill a hundred NPCs at once.”

If one spell can kill a hundred, then we should be able to kill them all after firing it a bunch of times right? Everyone had finally begun to calm down, but I was still extremely worried. Sunshine’s Guided Arcane Missiles required a very long casting time. But with everything as it was, no matter what, we had to charge to the Central Tower to see the Dictator of Life!

“Then we’ll do that. Sunshine, you cast Guided Arcane Missiles. You can leave everything else to us!” I calmly instructed.

The most important thing in battle is intimidating the enemy. I raised my Black Dao with one hand and pointed it toward the NPCs in the plaza, “Kill!”

The moment I shouted this, everyone began moving. Kenshin was the first to charge. These NPCs were completely different from the NPCs before. They were high level NPCs that had an extremely high amount of intelligence. Therefore, these NPCs didn’t stupidly allow Kenshin to massacre them; they even took the initiative and attacked Kenshin first. Luckily, Kenshin was, after all, a hidden mission’s BOSS, so even though there were many enemies, he was still able to attack and defend. In addition, with the strong Cold Fox beside him supporting him, they quickly defeated several NPCs.

Compared to us, they were unbelievably good. We players didn’t have Kenshin’s abnormally strong capabilities. We slowly moved from one-on-one battles to pairing up and fighting back-to-back. In the end, Nan Gong Zui, Undying Man, Neurotic, Feng Wu Qing, Winter Triumph, and I all stood back-to-back against each other, forming a circle facing outwards in order to take on the numerous attacks of the NPCs.

The distance between us and the Central Tower continued to remain the same. Everyone’s hearts were raging with a desperate fire, and the weapons within our hands had long since been stained with different types and colors of blood. On top of that, everyone’s bodies were thoroughly stained with dark red blood. If it wasn’t for Wolf-dàgē continuously drinking mana potions with one hand and casting healing magic with his other hand, allowing white, warm beams of light to fall upon our bodies, I was afraid all of us would have already become rays of light.

How will we enter the Central Tower? How will we… go to see the Dictator of Life? As I kept fighting, my heart couldn’t help but begin to panic. I would rather kill myself a hundred times with the ND self-destruct program than fail here!

“Guided Arcane Missiles!” Sunshine’s voice rang out to the rescue. The sky looked as if it were filled with fireworks. An enormous ray of light shot into the air and then separated into numerous rays of light flying everywhere. Every ray of light’s disappearance represented the death of one NPC. The outbreak of a hundred rays of light resulted in an emptier plaza than the one that had originally been filled to the brim with NPCs.

“Prince, follow me!” Kenshin grabbed my hand and pulled me forward. After I recovered from the shock, I turned around and looked at my companions who were still fighting.

“But everyone…” I hurriedly tried to stop my footsteps. I didn’t want to leave my companions who were still there battling, everyone who was still there helping me block the NPCs’ chase… Kenshin, however, did not stop even then; he forcefully pulled me forward even further. My strength was not even slightly comparable to his… Thus I could only be dragged away.

Kenshin abruptly stopped in his steps, causing me to crash into his back. I suspiciously looked in front of me. There were four warrior NPCs that looked like they were BOSS level blocking the entrance. Kenshin’s expression revealed a complete sense of calmness. He let go of my hand and took out his katana, charging toward the four warriors.

“I will leave the Dictator of Life to you,” Kenshin said before he left. “Sunshine’s happiness… I’ll leave that in your hands as well.”

I shuddered violently and then looked back at my companions who were still involved in a bloody battle… Must I abandon my comrades and go on by myself?

“Facing the Darkness” – translated by dahlys

Lesus Judgment knelt on the ground, his head bowed and his right hand over his heart, as he prayed to the Symbol of Light.

The prayer room had been professionally designed so that the whole room would be extremely dark. Only the window above the Symbol of Light was open, brightly illuminating the symbol.

Because of this, the Judgment Knight, clothed in black, was completely shrouded in darkness, and his silhouette could hardly be seen as he knelt in front of the Symbol of Light.

The Judgment Knight is here, hurry up and leave…

You only know how to interrogate criminals who have been shackled to the wall! What kind of holy knight are you?

The Judgment Knight is a cruel and heartless guy… By all means, never offend him!

Forgive me, forgive me… Aren’t gods supposed to forgive sinners? Why won’t you forgive me?!

Look at yourself, dressed entirely in clothes as black as hell. What kind of holy knight are you?

“Despite being very busy with work, the Judgment Knight never forgets to pray to the Light. Sun really admires that.”

Suddenly hearing someone’s voice, Lesus froze for a moment before turning his head. The door to the prayer room had been opened, and a person was leaning against the door. The light shining from outside the room caused his golden-blond hair to glow radiantly.

It’s so bright.

Lesus looked away and kept his head bowed. He said simply, “Praying is now the only way for me to confirm that I am still a holy knight.”

Stunned, Grisia quickly entered the prayer room and closed the door. He asked, “What happened?”

Lesus shook his head and answered, “I’m just a little confused. I’m not sure whether I’m really a holy knight, or whether I’m… an executioner.” As he was finishing that sentence, his voice became almost too soft to be heard.

Grisia exclaimed in shock, “Of course you’re a holy knight, and you’re even the Judgment Knight! Lesus, if you aren’t a holy knight, who else is worthy of being called a holy knight?”

Lesus smiled faintly, and mentioned something irrelevant. “Grisia, do you know where the Symbol of Light is in the Judge’s Complex?”

Baffled, Grisia said honestly, “I never really noticed.”

“In order to let criminals confess and repent while looking at the Symbol of Light, the symbol was placed on the wall in front of the criminals. Whenever I am interrogating criminals, the symbol is always behind me… My back is always turned against the Symbol of Light as I face and interrogate criminals who are full of sin, employing methods crueler than what any of them have ever used.”

All sorts of wicked misdeeds, torturing devices, flogging, death penalties… Lesus recalled the things he was most commonly exposed to on a daily basis. Not one of them made him feel like he was a holy knight. He only felt that he was facing an endless darkness, and that if he were to lose his footing for even a split second, he would plummet into the unbounded darkness, never to crawl out again…

Grisia hurriedly said, “You are the Judgment Knight, and judging criminals has always been the responsibility of the Judgment Knight. Hence, you are definitely a holy knight!”

“Is that so? But I really don’t know when I will fall into that darkness as well.” Lesus stood up and said bluntly, “I should return to the Judge’s Complex. There are still a lot of things for me to deal with… and a lot of criminal hearings to conduct.”

After he finished speaking, he walked toward the door. However, Grisia’s voice echoed from behind him, “Lesus, even if they are facing the darkness with their backs to the light, holy knights still walk under the light, not the darkness!”

Lesus stopped walking.

“If it weren’t for you sacrificing your chance to face the light, could Leaf Bud City’s security be so splendid? Yet you are starting to regret this? Lesus, are you regretting your choice to sacrifice yourself so that the citizens can live under the light?

Lesus turned around and saw the Sun Knight standing in the darkness with a sad expression on his face. The Sun Knight asked, “Lesus, do you really regret sacrificing your chance to face the light?”

Even if they are facing the darkness with their backs to the light, holy knights still walk under the light, not the darkness!

Even though the Symbol of Light beside him was bathed in sunlight, the one who really saved him was the holy knight who stood in the darkness.

If the one standing in the darkness was the person who saved him, perhaps he could also continue to face the darkness.

“Lesus?”

Lesus smiled and asked, “Grisia, even if I did fall into the darkness, you would just drag me back, right?”

“Of course! We are good friends after all! Therefore, Lesus, please help me teach Earth a lesson! That bastard deserves to be beaten until he is half-dead and half-paralyzed! I’ll see if he still dares to flaunt in front of me the woman he just nabbed after that!!!”

…Looks like it is still uncertain as to who is going to drag whom back!

Please abide by these rules and inform us if you see anyone not complying with the above regulations. If you have any questions, please leave a comment on our FAQ page. With all that said, enjoy reading our translations!

1. The Legend of Sun Knight Side Stories 3: “Facing the Darkness”
2. ½ Prince V7C5: If There is Already French Bread in This World, Why is There Meatbun as Well?
3. The Legend of Sun Knight V3C10: “Develop a Romantic Relationship with the Princess”
4. The Legend of Sun Knight V3Extra: “No Matter How Weak the Sun Knight Looks, Never Ruffle His Feathers”
5. The Legend of Sun Knight V3Epilogue: Character Introductions
6. ½ Prince V7C6: Truth
7. The Legend of Sun Knight Side Stories 4: “You May Only Use a Sword, Unless No One Can See You”

Hello everyone! We have a handful of chapters for you this month and will possibly have more, but no promises other than the chapters that are listed here. ;) Expect us to be posting chapters between now and the end of the month, last week included.

First up, PR! Español is looking for more translators and proofreaders. If you know Spanish and would like to help with Spanish translations, please head over to PR! International Translations. We are also always looking for Chinese -> English translators, so if you think you’re up to the task, send in an application! You can find the application over at our Recruitment page.

Also, one of our readers, Katerina, has kindly created simple ebooks for 1/2 Prince volumes 1 through 6. These include pdf, mobi, and epub file types. Now you have even more file types to carry around with you for your convenience! :) As well as working footnote links for the epub and mobi file types! Although we’ve already put up simple pdfs before, this version includes updated text (such as Tian Xian being changed to Celestial, along with a few grammar fixes), so it’s always a good idea to nab the newest files!

PDF:
Half-Prince-2-Reality-and-Fantasy.pdf
Half-Prince-3-Records-of-the-Vagabond.pdf
Half-Prince-4-The-Buskers-of-Infinite-City.pdf
Half-Prince-5-A-Prince-No-More.pdf
Half-Prince-6-The-Great-NPC-Revolt.pdf

EPUB:
Half-Prince-1-The-Beginning-of-a-Legend.epub
Half-Prince-2-Reality-and-Fantasy.epub
Half-Prince-3-Records-of-the-Vagabond.epub
Half-Prince-4-The-Buskers-of-Infinite-City.epub
Half-Prince-5-A-Prince-No-More.epub
Half-Prince-6-The-Great-NPC-Revolt.epub

MOBI:
Half-Prince-1-The-Beginning-of-a-Legend.mobi
Half-Prince-2-Reality-and-Fantasy.mobi
Half-Prince-3-Records-of-the-Vagabond.mobi
Half-Prince-4-The-Buskers-of-Infinite-City.mobi
Half-Prince-5-A-Prince-No-More.mobi
Half-Prince-6-The-Great-NPC-Revolt.mobi

We will update with ebooks for the rest of 1/2 Prince as we finish translating volumes, and LSK ebooks will be coming soon as well~. If you would like to redistribute these ebook files, please direct people to Prince Revolution!. If you see anything that needs changing in these ebooks, don’t hesitate to let us know!

We do not have a pdf designer for more complicated pdfs like what we have for volume 1 of Half Prince and Legend of Sun Knight. If you feel you are able to design and format pdfs like what we have on our pdf page for each series, please get into contact with us via email at admin@princerevolution.org. We would love to see what you can do!

Next, we would like to remind everyone to list your actual emails when submitting fanart or fanfic. This way, if something doesn’t work, we can contact you! Our fanart and fanfic section is now under Nabs’ care (we finally have someone responsible for the section~!) so it should receive more regular updates now. If you’ve submitted something a long time ago and didn’t receive a response or see your work put up, please resubmit your work as we’ve probably missed it! As for everyone else, I encourage you to submit your art and fic! :D

Finally, we should be having a new round of the tournament soon. Look forward to it, and apologies for the delay in wrapping the previous round up!

-Lucathia

Ninth Requirement of Rescuing a Princess: “Bring the Princess Back to the Castle” – translated by Nausicaä

That person fell silent for a while, but did not deny the name I had shouted or the words I had spoken. Then, softly, she said, “Sun, release that girl. I was the one who killed Leaf. You should come at me instead.”

I coldly replied, “The weapon that killed Leaf was the rapier of a dark knight.”

“I told him to do it,” she admitted frankly, and further explained, “If we hadn’t killed him, we wouldn’t have been able to escape your pursuit.”

Upon hearing that, I said, through gritted teeth, “I thought you understood me.”

Pink let out a peal of laughter that tinkled like silver bells, and responded, “It’s because I understand you so well that I killed Leaf. Even if you had known that Resurrection could’ve been used within eight hours of death, during which you could have probably healed the Son of the God of War and company, brought them with you to defeat us, and then resurrect Leaf, you definitely wouldn’t have done so. In your eyes, there is nothing more important than your fellow holy knights, not even a princess.”

“Then you should know,” I burst out furiously, “that anyone who kills my holy knights must die!”

Pink fell silent for a long time, and then said, in a sincere tone, “Don’t fight me, Sun. You should know what I am. I can’t die. It’s pointless even if you kill this body.”

Indeed, I knew that Pink was a lich.

I have mentioned witches before, and one could almost say that a lich is an advanced version of a witch,¹ an evil creature that humans transform themselves into for various reasons. However, a witch can still die, while a lich is more or less immortal. Liches abandon their own flesh, place their “life” in a safe place, and then control various kinds of objects to use as a body.

Compared to a witch, a lich is incomparably stronger. In the first place, to be able to successfully complete the ceremony for transforming into a lich, one had to have been an extremely powerful mage or cleric even before one’s rebirth as a lich. On top of that, they achieved immortality upon dying. One could say that becoming his or her enemy is the most unwise course of action, because nobody would want to have to face off with a powerful lich who knows nothing of death.

Even if I killed Pink, the most I would accomplish would be the destruction of her current body, and she could simply search for a new one.

I took a deep breath, and said, “Then, on account of our former friendship, I will just kill the dark knight.”

Looking slightly embarrassed, Pink said, “Don’t kill him either, Sun. He is the ‘Silent Eagle,’ meaning he is the head among the Dark Knights of the Cathedral of the Shadow God. As the Sun Knight of the Church of the God of Light, you must have heard of this title before.”

I had indeed heard of it before. Although the Silent Eagle was not the spokesperson for the Cathedral of the Shadow God, he was the de facto administrator of affairs… Bastard! Shouldn’t administrators be really busy? Why did he have the free time to come accost a princess?

Pink continued, “If you kill him, your problems will only increase. Even though the Cathedral of the Shadow God may not necessarily be stronger than the Church of the God of Light, they are an extremely vengeful lot. When the time comes, they may not be able to kill you, but they will definitely find a chance to kill one of the Twelve Holy Knights in retribution. You wouldn’t want to see another one of the Twelve Holy Knights lose their life, right?”

I responded indifferently, “You keep going on about ‘them’ and ‘theirs.’ Are you saying that you’re not a member of the Cathedral of the Shadow God?”

Pink snorted and answered with disdain, “Who would count themselves among their own servants?”

Upon hearing that, I furrowed my brows, not really understanding the meaning behind Pink’s words. However, I had the feeling that I was very close to coming upon a great secret of the Cathedral of the Shadow God. Yet I had no desire to tread these dangerous waters; as Pink had already said, the Cathedral of the Shadow God was a vengeful lot, and knowing their secret was not necessarily a good thing.

After a few moments of consideration, I turned around and gave the dark knight a kick. He let out a moan as he regained consciousness. I asked him, “Your name?”

The dark knight raised his head and glanced first at Pink, who was floating in midair, before directing his gaze at me. After a while, he replied, “I don’t have a name. The moment I became the Silent Eagle, I no longer had a name. As the one who defeated me, perhaps you would be willing to give me a name?”

I was stunned. Defeated him? Threatening him with a hostage also counts?

This dark knight of the Cathedral of the Shadow God is so strange… I laughed grimly and then said, “Then you will be called Awaitsun! I won’t kill you now, but eventually I’ll have you pay the price for daring to stab a blade into the chest of one of the Twelve Holy Knights… Just you wait! The Cathedral of the Shadow God may be vindictive, but this Sun Knight is ten times more vengeful!”

“Awaitsun… Alright, from now on I will be called Awaitsun.” Awaitsun nodded and actually accepted the name I gave him.

I ignored this odd dark knight and spoke toward the sky, “Pink, will you return to Leaf Bud City?”

“I will have to return sooner or later,” Pink replied with unexpected honesty. “I have matters to take care of there, so I must go back.”

I nodded my head and then abruptly infused a large amount of holy light into the Divine Sun Sword and shot it straight into the sky, where it unerringly pierced through the petite figure floating in midair.

Pink gave a suppressed gasp, and, in a pained voice, she muttered, “Sun, you…”

I coolly said to her, “I’m tired of looking at a little girl. Go change into another body and then come back.”

Her body slowly began to dissolve into ashes, and with a bitter smile she said, “A body that is to be used for a long time has to undergo very long and extensive treatment…You really are vengeful.”

I nodded and said, “It’s fine as long as you know. Next time you will learn to be more obedient. In any case, do not touch my holy knights.”

Pink muttered, “If I had known that you would catch up with us, I would never have ruffled your feathers… After all the trouble I went through, what did I gain in the end? Where am I supposed to go to find a body now? Sigh… Awaitsun, you’ve really caused me a lot of grief this time around!”

“My deepest apologies,” Awaitsun responded, and despite the injuries that covered his body, he still proceeded to kneel and bow his head to the ground.

This surprised me greatly. It seemed like Pink’s standing in the Cathedral of the Shadow God was very high after all.

Pink waved away his apologies with surprising generosity, saying, “Oh well, never mind that, give the princess to Sun. You can return to the Cathedral of the Shadow God and honorably ask the queen of the Kingdom of Moon Orchid for the princess’ hand in marriage. After everything that’s happened, I doubt that the Son of the God of War will still want to marry your Alice.”

“But…” Awaitsun said with some concern.

Pink interrupted him, “Don’t worry, after knowing that you and I were the ones who killed Leaf, he will not kill the princess. Even though that guy looks nothing like a knight, deep, deep down he still has at least that wee bit of knighthood… Right? At least, I would think so.”

With that, Pink completely dissolved into ashes.

I rolled my eyes at the spot where she had disappeared. If you’re going to die, hurry up and get on with it! Who knew you had so much rubbish to spout…and you, a lich, the most evil of all creatures, even went out of your way to remind this Sun Knight about observing knighthood! Is there no longer any differentiation between good and evil in this world?!

At this point, Awaitsun stood in front of Alice’s body and actually kneeled before me, begging, “Sir, please don’t kill Alice. It was I who killed the Leaf Knight. Everything was my doing.”

“No!” Alice immediately rushed before Awaitsun, used her slim body to shield him, and pleaded, “Please don’t kill him. Kill me instead. Everything was my fault; I shouldn’t have run away from home. I beg of you, don’t kill Eagle!”

Awaitsun immediately wrapped his arms around the princess, determined to protect her, but she struggled desperately to free herself. In a tortured voice, he shouted, “Alice! Don’t be like this.”

“Eagle!” Alice cried tearfully, “I can’t go on if you die. Even if you protect me, it’ll be useless.”

“Alice…” said Awaitsun, his voice racked by sobs. Before the power of love, even an emotionless dark knight could shed tears.

Finding myself faced with these two, who had sobbed themselves into a sorry mess, I was a bit flabbergasted. Never in my life had I imagined I’d be hearing these lines, which sounded as though they’d been plucked straight out of some ultra-classic romance drama. And why did I feel like I was the big bad villain, bent on ripping apart tragic lovers with brute force?

Are you kidding me? I’m the knight who came to rescue the princess, remember?!

My lord, the three hours of transformation are up. Do you wish to provide more blood to maintain the transformation?

I answered Dragon’s Saint Brigandine rather weakly, “No. In one month, I’ve already transformed three times. If this goes on any longer, I really will have anemia. That said, even if I were to continue my transformation, this sniveling duo makes it rather impossible for anyone to muster a killing intent.”

After coming out of my transformation, the first thing I did was threaten other people.

“The two of you are forbidden to reveal my real identity. You are also prohibited from speaking about my assassin’s disguise, or else…”

Alice was probably already frightened to death of me. She tightly hugged her beloved and wildly shouted, “I’ll do anything as long as you don’t kill Eagle!”

Before hearing the dark knight’s answer, I took a moment to sense my surroundings and realized that the dark element emanating from his body was draining away very quickly. It appeared that his wounds were in a really serious condition. If I let him go like this, there is a very good chance he will die on his way back, heh…

I performed Ultimate Heal and healed most of the dark knight’s injuries.

Probably because they were shocked by my kindness, Awaitsun and Alice kept silent. Taking care to maintain an air of mystery about me, I said unconcernedly, “Scram. I will escort your princess back to her mother’s side without harming a single hair on her head.”

Awaitsun hesitated, reluctant to leave. Very cautiously, he asked, “If I had moved back then, would you really have cut off the princess’ hand?”

“I would have. Otherwise, you would have done the same to me,” I promptly responded.

Awaitsun fell silent and seemed like he had no intention of leaving.

I continued, “However, after using the princess to incapacitate you and then beating you to a pulp, I would have rejoined her hand with the rest of her arm.”

At this, Awaitsun gave a long sigh and said, “I believe you, sir.”²

There’s nothing wrong with believing me, but what’s with the “sir?” Why are you showing me so much respect? A bit overwhelmed, I wondered, This guy isn’t putting me up on a pedestal to venerate as some kind of lifetime enemy or something, is he?

Awaitsun said to the princess, “Alice, wait for me, for I will definitely go to request your hand in marriage.”

In a tone suggesting that she had been deeply wronged, Alice replied, “But didn’t you say that the Silent Eagle could never marry? We eloped because the Cathedral would not allow you to propose marriage…”

Awaitsun gave a laugh and said, “Since ‘that person’ has already told me to propose to you, no one in the Cathedral will dare to say otherwise.”

That person? Is he referring to Pink? I furrowed my brow again. Who exactly is Pink, anyway?

Afterward, the two young lovers expressed their undying passion for one another, even bidding each other the whole eighteen miles worth of farewells,³ yet still they would not part. Their antics really made me want to go over and give each of them a nice slice of the sword and send them off to the highest lovers’ heaven of till-death-do-us-part.

I viciously growled, “Awaitsun, if you don’t hurry and go heal the rest of your injuries, you’ll lose so much blood that you won’t even last long enough to propose marriage.”

With that, Alice hurriedly urged her beloved to go, and only then did Awaitsun finally leave.

Alice continued to watch the back of her beloved, and only after what felt like centuries was she willing to turn around to tentatively ask, “Are we going to fly back now?”

“You think I can fly?” I demanded in an ill-humored tone. I sized Alice up and asked, “What level mage are you?”

“Advanced,” Alice answered timidly.

It seemed as though she had already taken me to be some sort of terrible ferocious beast. Her personality was also vastly different from Ann’s. Even if Ann was frightened by me, she would sooner confront me head on, ax in hand, than remain cowering in fear.

I smiled faintly. “Very good. Then, before Leaf and the rest arrive, you will teach me everything you know about wind magic.”

“Teach you?” Alice asked, shocked. “What do I know that I can teach you? Your magic is much more powerful than mine!”

I couldn’t very well say that, in fact, other than the dark magic Aldrizzt had taught me, I didn’t know a single incantation, could I? Besides, I couldn’t be sure that she wouldn’t sneak up on me while I wasn’t paying attention and use her magic to blast me to heaven.

I mulled things over, and, taking note of the fact that she was scared witless of me, deliberately adopted a most unpleasant demeanor and bellowed, “What are you asking so many questions for? I’m telling you to teach, so that’s exactly what you’ll do!”

Trembling, Alice squeaked a small “Yes.” She sounded for all the world like a pathetic stepdaughter being abused by her stepmother.

But I don’t want to be an evil stepmother, I thought with dismay. How did a knight rescuing a princess turn into a stepmother abusing her stepdaughter?

I’m a holy knight, not a stepmother!

Alice sobbed as she pleaded, “P-please don’t get angry, I will properly teach you, I won’t ask about anything, I won’t ask any questions ever again, sob sob…Eagle! I’m so scared…”

I am a holy knight. I came to rescue the princess, not to abuse the princess!

“Eagle…sob! Come save me…”

“Don’t cry!” I growled menacingly.

“Sob!” Alice finally shut up, and promptly fainted dead away.

In the days that followed, the princess and I were confronted with some serious problems…

Even though Awaitsun had left a tent, neither the Sun Knight nor the princess could pitch a tent.

Even though Awaitsun had left wood, neither the Sun Knight nor the princess could set up a barbecue rack.

Even though Awaitsun had left game, neither the Sun Knight nor the princess knew how to cook anything except to burn everything to a crisp. Thus I found myself beseeching the heavens, my heart sighing with infinite regret. If I had known this was going to happen, I would have taken Awaitsun along with us. What was I supposed to do with this princess, this utterly useless thing who had nothing to offer but a pretty face?

“Awaitsun is so much better than you. He knows how to pitch a tent, start a fire, and grill delicious meat for me to eat!”

Alice was so hungry that she even forgot to be afraid of me as she cried and wailed, “You’re just a useless knight with a pretty face… No, Awaitsun is a hundred times better looking than you! Wahhhh~ You’re good for nothing, and you’re not even good looking! I want to go back to Awaitsun’s side… Awaitsun!”

“It’s he who’s too ridiculously handsome. It’s not that I’m not good looking!”

I was just as hungry as she was, and this did nothing to help my mood. I joined in with her shouting and yelled, “Like you’re one to talk! Why is your Spell of Flight so lame? Aldrizzt can fly all day and night, yet you have to rest a whole day after flying for only three hours! Not to mention, you fly so slowly; it’s no wonder we’re still not back yet!”

In a voice that was an octave above mine, Alice screamed, “I don’t even know who this Aldrizzt is! In the first place, advanced mages can only fly for three hours, and this is just how the speed was to begin with anyway! Waaaah! Awaitsun! I’m being bullied by a bad guy, so why haven’t you come to save me yet?!”

This pisses me off!

I snarled at her, “Shut up! I’m warning you, I forbid you from telling anyone I can use magic when we get back.”

And then I violated my status as a knight and began to employ large amounts of magical power.

It’s raining, and we can’t pitch a tent? Fine. I’ll use magic to blast a cave directly into the mountainside to sleep in.

We’re hungry, and we can’t set up a barbecue rack? No problem. I’ll gather the wind element, and levitate the meat to roast directly above the fire.

The meat will burn? No worries. I’ll set the meat a bit further away and have it bake slowly. Sooner or later it will be cooked thoroughly, and without being burnt!

Alice sat inside the cave nibbling on the roast meat while vaguely saying, “I’m sorry, I was wrong. You are somewhat useful, although still not good-looking.”

As I savagely wolfed down the meat, I gritted my teeth and said, “It’s your aesthetic sense that’s messed up! You’ve been staring at Awaitsun for too long, so your perception of beauty is all worn out. You’d better be careful; if you keep staring at him like that, soon you won’t even be able to look at your own reflection.”

Alice was so shocked that she dropped her meat onto the floor, and she screamed in panic, “Nonsense! I’m the kingdom’s most beautiful lady, even if I haven’t put on any make up in the last few days… I’m still very beautiful, right? Right?” As the last few words left her mouth, she was so overcome with worry that she sounded as though she was on the verge of tears.

I fell silent for a bit, and hearing her begin to choke up, I comforted her by saying, “Yes, yes, you’re still very beautiful!”

Upon hearing my words, she allowed a small smile through her tears and in a sudden reversal of roles even began to reassure me, saying, “Alright, you’re also very handsome. At least the color of your eyes is very beautiful, not losing to Awaitsun’s, and you have such nice skin…”

At this, she actually touched my face and cried out in surprise, “So soft and smooth! How do you maintain it… No wait, you’re a guy, don’t tell me it’s natural? How nice!”

At lightning speed, I recited, “Fermented milk dripped into ten drops of lemon juice, squeezed into an extract made from a total of thirty roses plus the juice of ten lavender flowers, and, lastly, mixed in a bit of flour – apply it to the entire body, steam for an hour, and do it at least once a week.”

“…Tell me again when we get back. Right now I don’t have anything to write it down with.”

I proposed, “If you properly play the part of a rescued princess and do not reveal my true colors to anyone, when the time comes I can tell you all of the secret recipes of skin care and whitening that I have. I guarantee that when Awaitsun comes to propose, your skin will be as white and smooth as a baby’s.”

Alice very excitedly answered, “Deal!”

The rain continued to pour down intermittently in the following few days. Because I wasn’t sure that I could find another stretch of mountainside within the forest to blast a cave out of, I figured we might as well stay in this one and wait for rescue to arrive. Sure enough, before the weather had even cleared, I sensed that Leaf and the others were already nearby.

Among the company, three had extraordinarily high holy element levels. One was Leaf, the other two… One of them had a high water element level, so it was probably Ice. The other had a high metal element level, but also had earth element, so it probably wasn’t Metal. This elemental composition belonged to… the Stone Knight!

One of the Twelve Holy Knights, he belonged to the cruel, cold-hearted faction and was famous for his stubbornness, which was as tough and unyielding as a rock. It was said that to crack his skull was a simple matter, but to break his stubbornness would be more difficult than overthrowing the Church of the God of Light.

…At least, as far as the whole continent knew, anyways. However, this generation’s Stone Knight was slightly different… He was actually quite an amiable person and very easy to get along with.

I’d heard that the previous Stone Knight had taught him for three years, but had been unable to make the young Stone Knight more stubborn. Discouraged, the former planned to give up on him, and have the back-up knight take his place. (Not all of the Twelve Holy Knights were foolish to the point that they forgot to choose a back-up knight.)

But, other than the fact that he refused to become more stubborn, this young Stone Knight hadn’t done anything wrong. It was difficult to find a reason convincing enough to have him replaced, and so the whole controversy dragged on for a good six months, until the day of adjudication that would decide whether he stayed or left…

My teacher, then the Sun Knight, walked into the adjudication meeting and lightly sighed, “Even if he’s forced to leave the Holy Temple, he still refuses to become a stubborn person? To think that there’s such a person who would so stubbornly refuse to become stubborn… Sigh! What a stubborn child indeed!”

From what I heard from my teacher, after he said those words, the hundreds of people present at the adjudication were all overcome by the same expression, which was said to be one of the rarest spectacles under the heavens.

I asked my teacher what, exactly, that expression was. He thought for a while, and then wrote the character “囧,” ⁴ and told me to imagine hundreds of people before me, all wearing such an expression. After picturing the scene in my mind, I was of the same opinion that this was indeed one of the rarest spectacles under the heavens.

After this the young Stone Knight stayed, and never again did anyone propose to replace him.

After thinking about it for a while, I understood why Judgment had sent Stone.

Among the cruel, cold-hearted faction, the Stone Knight was the only one adept at handling diplomacy. Even though the Storm Knight of the good, warm-hearted faction was better, if he were to leave the Holy Temple, there would be a very good chance that the place would have to cease half of its activities altogether. Thus, Stone had been dispatched instead, so he could help Leaf resolve the diplomatic problems between the palace and the Monastery of the God of War.

If Leaf were allowed to handle diplomacy, he wouldn’t be able to do anything besides agreeing to any and all demands.

As for the reason why Ice was here, that was even easier to understand. Ice was very strong, and if we really came to blows with the Kingdom of Moon Orchid and the Monastery of the God of War and had to flee, having Ice with us would significantly raise our chances of getting out alive…

“Sun!”

Leaf rushed into the cave, grabbed my shoulders, and began to shake me violently. “Sun! Sun! Are you all right? You’re okay? That’s wonderful! Oh, oh! Princess Alice is also unharmed… Thank goodness!”

He sounded as though he was dangerously close to choking up.

This made me suddenly feel rather guilty. It appeared as though he had been worrying about a lot of things ever since we’d set out on our journey… He truly was the mother of the good, warm-hearted faction…

“Don’t cry, I’m perfectly fine,” I assured him. “Look, the princess has been rescued too.”

Leaf tearfully said, “But, your eyes…”

I rolled my eyes and brusquely said, “My eyes are fine. You worry too much, Mama Leaf.”

“Knight-Captain Sun, I trust you have been well since our last meeting.”

I turned my head toward the cave entrance in the direction of the voice that belonged to the Stone Knight. Behind him followed the Ice Knight, who, in contrast, remained completely silent, as usual.

I donned a Sun-style smile, and gracefully answered, “May the radiance of the God of Light always shine upon you, Brother Stone.”

Stone stared at me fixedly, and then he asked, “Sun, how many fingers am I holding up?”

“…With the God of Light as my witness, the answer is zero, like the contents of your brain!” I responded peevishly. It seemed as though Leaf had already related to them the whole tearful tale, which had definitely been about me being “blinded,” or something to that effect.

“Indeed, that is correct,” Stone replied with a guffaw. He said to Leaf, “Leaf, you worry too much. Sun is just fine.”

After a very long while, Leaf finally responded with “mm,” but I didn’t know whether or not he really believed that my eyes were fine.

Not long after, Mike, Ann, and Austin also arrived, and behind them an entire line of warriors followed. The moment they entered, Ann cried out, “Alice!” and then ran to her sister’s side and anxiously shouted, “Did this despicable, shameless lowlife do anything to you? Did he hit you? Did he try to eat your tofu?”⁵

“Ann, what nonsense are you spouting?” Alice said reproachfully. “It’s thanks to the Sun Knight, who saved me from the evil miscreants and has been painstakingly taking care of me ever since, that I was able to escape from a dangerous situation. He is a noble knight; you shouldn’t insult him.”

Silence fell over the scene. With extreme difficulty, Ann repeated, “Sun is a—a noble knight?”

The whitewashing effects of the recipes for skin care and whitening were quite astonishing to behold; they instantly elevated me from a despicable, shameless lowlife to a knight of noble spirit.

“Yes.” Alice stood up, and in a slightly imperious tone, called, “Servants!”

At her summons, the ten or so people standing at the cave entrance immediately filed in. It appeared as though some of the attendants from the palace had also come. They marched to the princess’ side and proceeded to present her with towels, drape a clean cloak over her shoulders, and even arrange her hair.

Throughout Alice’s entire makeover session, Mike did not utter a single word. Yet I could understand very well why he had not. When I’d eavesdropped on Ann and Leaf’s conversation, I had learned that Alice had once attacked them. If I were Mike, I probably wouldn’t have a pleasant expression on my face either.

In an extremely courteous manner, the Stone Knight asked me, “Knight-Captain Sun, we’ve only just arrived and are therefore unclear about the current situation. Could you perhaps share any thoughts you have concerning the way things presently stand?”

Without hesitation I replied, “We can discuss that after we return.”

Stone remarked, “Knight-Captain Sun always hits the nail right on the head⁶ with his words. I trust no one holds any objections?”

This doesn’t have anything to do with ‘hitting the nail on the head.’ I only want to take a bath… How it stinks! By that point, I smelled so disgusting that I had begun to hate the God of Light for not taking away my nose as payment at the time!

Returning to the palace proved to be a much easier task, because among those who came were the mages of the royal household. They had brought with them a magic circle that could provide instant teleportation, and this magic circle had already been set to connect to another magic circle within the palace. By infusing enough of the wind element, we could instantly teleport back to the palace.

After returning to the palace, it was essential to make myself presentable before going to meet the queen, so taking a bath was not an issue. However, after taking a bath and eating some food, I felt refreshed and content, and the soft bed seemed to earnestly beckon me…

Even though I knew I still had to report to the queen on everything that had happened, I was unable to resist the temptation… I crawled into bed, feeling as though I hadn’t fully slept in a month, and immediately began to drift out of consciousness…

“Sun…”

In the midst of my daze I thought I heard someone calling me, and I immediately grumbled, “Oh, what do you want? I’m so tired, keep it down…”

After a while, that person said, “Never mind, go ahead and sleep.”

A few days later, I received the queen’s commendation.

The reason for the commendation was for having performed the deed of rescuing the princess, and the reward was a completely useless knight medal of honor. At the same time, Princess Alice was withholding the medal, and she wanted me to bring the recipes for skin care and whitening in exchange… Does she take me for an idiot? What use is that medal to me?

I refuse to go exchange. I’ll wait for her to come begging me to swap, hmph!

However, that afternoon I was informed that the medal had been carved from precious stones and was worth a fortune… Therefore, I had no choice but to go ask the princess to complete the exchange.

The Son of the God of War cancelled his engagement with Princess Alice.

Although the queen actively tried to prevent the engagement from being cancelled by switching the bride and having Ann marry Mike instead, the two had looked at each other with the same disgusted expression and simultaneously declared, “If I have to marry him/her, then it will be my turn to find someone to elope with.”

The queen had looked very troubled, but right at that time the little princess of the Kingdom of Moon Orchid, who was barely ten years old, bounced up before her mother, the queen, and, using an incomparably cute voice, announced that “after she grew up she wanted to be Brother God of War’s bride.” Thus the problem was easily solved.

Mike and the little princess went ahead and got engaged, and the marriage was set for when the little princess turned sixteen years of age.

Among the masses there inevitably spawned rumors along the lines of “the Son of the God of War is actually a pedophile.” However, being able to switch for a bride that was ten years younger than oneself was completely worth the accusations of pedophilia. At least Mike himself was deeply engrossed in planning the education of his future wife.

It appeared that Resurrection had indeed left behind certain after-effects.

After Leaf noticed, at a glance, that a fly flying more than ten meters away had tiny holes in its wings, he discovered that things had become quite serious.

After undergoing repeated experiments (namely, I forced him to count the number of flies crawling on a pile of dog poop more than thirty meters away), it was ultimately confirmed that he possessed super-human eyesight.

As an archer, having super-human eyesight was the same as possessing super powers… Simply put, his extraordinary skill with the bow and arrow had become even more unbelievable.

On a related note, when I pointed out the pile of dog poop that was thirty meters away and had him count the number of flies, he was finally led to believe that I was not blind.

At long last, we had finally returned to the Church of the God of Light.

Footnotes

¹ “Witch”: Previously in V2C10, we mentioned a demoness. ‘Demoness’ has been changed to ‘witch’ and the previous ‘undying witch’ to ‘lich.’ The LSKV5 title will be changed from ‘Undying Witch’ to ‘Undying Lich.’ There will no longer be a conflict between the terms.

² “Sir”: In the Chinese version of this sentence, Awaitsun uses “您,”a respectful form of the pronoun “you.” However, in English there is only one form of the second person pronoun. Thus, “sir” is used to convey the added sense of respect.

³ “…the whole eighteen miles worth of farewells…”: This is an allusion to the Chinese legend 梁山伯與祝英台, which in English is written as “Butterfly Lovers.” In this love story, a young woman named Zhu disguises herself as a man to attend school and eventually falls in love with a fellow student, Liang. Later Zhu’s father tells her to return home, and Liang accompanies her for eighteen miles of her journey, during which she tries to reveal her true identity to him. The reference is used to convey the actions of two lovers who cannot bear to be separated; hence, Sun’s exasperation.

⁴ “囧”: Pronounced “jiǒng,” this is a Chinese character that looks like a person’s face. It is often used as an emoticon representing moods such as annoyance, shock, embarrassment, awkwardness, etc. It can also be used together with OTZ (a sideways person on their knees), replacing the head and forming 囧TZ.

⁵ “Eat your tofu”: Taking sexual advantage of a woman.

⁶ “…hits the nail right on the head…”: The original Chinese expression, “一針見血,” literally means “to draw blood with a single prick.” It basically means to be right on target or to the point with one’s words.

Original novel in Chinese by: 御我 (Yu Wo)

Truth in Disguise Part 1 – translated by Lucathia

Inside the basement, Chikus kicked at the four walls surrounding him with all his might. The walls were made of stone. With his current strength, it was completely impossible for him to rattle the walls.

Even though he knew that his actions were entirely pointless, he still couldn’t stop and do nothing, since all he could see before him was a shroud of darkness. At all times, this darkness invaded his senses. Whenever he stopped moving, he would feel as if he were about to be swallowed by the darkness…

Suddenly, the only door to the basement opened.

The sudden light caused Chikus to squint. He raised his head and saw, next to the basement’s door, a head of golden-blonde hair that glinted under the sunlight. Because of the backlight, even though the person’s face and upper body were visible, everything was still fairly blurry. There was a ring of light around the person, almost as if the entire body were giving off light.

The person who had arrived extended his hand out to him and said with a smile, “I’ve found you.”

During the swordsmanship lesson, Neo, the instructor responsible for teaching swordsmanship, walked amongst the Twelve Young Holy Knights. After carefully looking at each and every one of them, he felt completely satisfied. The young knights’ swordsmanship could all be said to be above expectations. He could even claim that many of them were sword experts who far exceeded expectations.

First up was young Judgment Knight. During selections, Neo had heard that his swordsmanship was excellent, but he had never thought that young Ice Knight could hold his own even against young Judgment Knight when it came to swordsmanship. Also, even though young Leaf Knight had a foolish-looking face, his swordsmanship was also quite remarkably good.

This made Neo’s mood unexpectedly good. Being able to nurture so many expert swordsmen meant he would have more opponents that he could duel against in the future. This could only be a good thing.

“Eh? How has my sword disappeared again?”

Neo blanked out. That voice belongs to… He turned his head to look. As he had thought, it belonged to his student Grisia, whose face was currently puzzled as he looked at his very empty hands.

“Be careful!”

From the side, Chikus suddenly shouted out a warning. At the same time, he quickly stepped forward and deftly swung his sword, knocking away a sword that was flying toward someone else.

Ceo turned his head to look, eyes staring wide as he gaped at the sword that had been knocked to the ground… That sword is pointing directly at me!

Thank goodness it was knocked away. He let out his breath and quickly thanked Chikus.

Chikus instead turned his head and started loudly berating the originator of this fiasco. “What the hell were you doing?!”

“I’m really sor–” Grisia only managed to complete half of his apology before he was grabbed by the collar from behind and his entire person was lifted up. He turned his head to look, just in time to see his own teacher’s smile.

Even though there was a smile present on Neo’s face, his eyes held no sign of joy as he coldly said, “Apologize.”

Grisia immediately responded with an incomparably brilliant, trademark Sun smile. Then he turned his head, bowing his head forward in an apologetic gesture toward Ceo… For someone who was being dangled in the air by his collar, his stooped, apologetic posture was truly graceful enough to surprise people.

Ceo’s complexion paled as he hurriedly said, “No, no, there’s no need to apologize…”

However, Grisia had already opened his mouth, speaking a lengthy and exceptionally fluid speech. “My dear brother Ceo, although the light may be resplendent, it is also blazing, seemingly capable of piercing through the deepest darkness in one’s heart. It is so brilliant that for a moment, Grisia was unable to bear it, causing Grisia to lose hold of the sword, which is used for massacre. As we are both children of the God of Light, Grisia hopes you will forgive Grisia for his blunder. May Grisia venture to swear to the sun in the sky that he will never again commit this kind of unforgivable mistake!”

With a pained expression, Ceo listened to the entire speech and sighed helplessly, saying, “I forgive you. Even if you make another mistake, don’t worry about it. I just hope that next time you won’t apologize to me again. Listening to that makes me feel so tired…”

Hearing this, Neo truly didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. He couldn’t help but admit that other than the fact that Grisia’s swordsmanship was all over the place, even he himself couldn’t find any fault with Grisia’s other capabilities… Grisia’s skill at pretending to be elegant and speaking rubbish was perhaps even a little too good. It seemed as though Neo could slack off with Grisia’s character development lessons in the future.

Neo clapped his hands and told everyone, “Today’s swordsmanship lesson ends here. Take a short rest, and then go find each of your own teachers for your lessons.”

Hearing this, everyone departed one after another. Many even let out a sigh of relief. Although Knight-Captain Sun always wore a smile on his face, no one ever believed he was truly smiling.

Before leaving, Chikus glared at Grisia and provokingly said, “If you can’t use a sword, then get out of the way.” Yet Grisia merely smiled brightly in response.

How boring! Chikus hurried his steps to catch up with the person in front of him and yelled, “Hey! Wait up, Aivis. Spar with me tonight?”

Aivis first looked all around, making sure that Knight-Captain Sun had already left, before he rolled his eyes at Chikus and retorted, “Why don’t you find someone from your side? You know I’m the young Stone Knight, who belongs on Judgment Knight’s side. I don’t get along with people like you on Sun Knight’s side!”

“Really?” Chikus snorted and immediately stuck his hand out. “If we’re not friends, then return my wine money! You couldn’t have forgotten how much you owe me, right?”

“That’s…” Aivis immediately changed the topic and asked, “Didn’t you say that you want to spar tonight? Why don’t you bring someone from your side and I’ll bring Ecilan too. We can take turns, or even have a two-on-two.”

Chikus objected, “Who would want to bring them along?! All of them are sissies!”

You’re speaking way too loudly. Grisia is still over there! Aivis glanced at Grisia. The latter happened to pass by the two of them and even gave him a smile.

After Grisia left, Aivis smiled wryly and said, “That can’t be? At least there’s that person…”

He hesitated for a moment to think. Ceo? Hm, he’s very shy. Probably still within the range of what Chikus considers “sissy.” Elmairy’s out too. Grisia…eh, let’s not even talk about whether or not he’s a sissy. If we’re sparring with a sword, we must not invite him.

In the end, after thinking things over, he sighed. “I think I’ll just ask Ecilan. The three of us can take turns…”

Chikus snorted.

“You don’t have to take any more character development lessons.”

Blaze Knight somewhat helplessly looked at his own student. Chikus’s two hands were never unoccupied, always needing to touch this or play around with that; he always wore his knight’s outfit haphazardly, the stains on his shirt always increasing, never decreasing; whenever he opened his mouth, his voice would be loud enough for the entire Holy Temple to hear him.

He was even more like the Blaze Knight of legends than himself, who had been the Blaze Knight for ten years. What else is there to develop?

Chikus snorted through his nose. From the bottom of his heart, he had never thought highly of these character development lessons. How could one possibly develop a person’s character? What a load of bullshit!

“I don’t need any more lessons? Then I’m going out to play!”

Going out to play during lesson time? Blaze Knight hurriedly said, “Wait a moment!”

“What now?” Chikus turned around, arms crossed against his chest. He stamped his feet and impatiently said, “If you have something to say then spit it out already!”

Seeing his attitude, Blaze Knight first became angry. Is this the kind of attitude that a student should have toward his teacher?

But then he immediately remembered that Chikus’ defiance and his overwhelming, unsophisticated attitude was exactly what was characteristic of the Blaze Knight, much more perfect than his own pretense that he had held for these ten years. Once he realized this, he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

Even if anyone criticized me for letting my student out to play during lesson time, that person would only have to look at Chikus’ personality and would most likely agree that this child does not need development lessons at all!

Helplessly, he said, “Forget it. Go ahead and play, just don’t go overboard.”

“You called me back and yet you have nothing to say. What the hell? Do you have too much time on your hands…?”

Chikus grumbled as he stomped away.

Hearing this, Blaze Knight could only force a bitter smile.

Truth in Disguise Part 2

Chikus wandered about the Holy Temple’s corridors, greeting holy knights he met along the way as he thought about where he should head to play…

“Stutter!”

The loud and sudden shout startled him greatly. He looked all around and walked toward the room where the loud shout had come from. Sneakily, he peeked inside and saw that Earth Knight and the young knight Georgo were the ones who were inside the room. What was strange was that there was also a cleric inside, and the cleric even looked to be a girl who was around his age.

“Georgo! When you speak, stutter, and when you see a girl, you must blush– Bastard, don’t you flirt with the female cleric when I’m scolding you! Move away from her!”

Seeing how the blushing and embarrassed female cleric had almost taken the bait, Georgo’s heart twisted, but he was afraid to anger his already furious teacher who looked like he was about to burst. He could only take a step back, but he could not help himself from grumbling, “Teacher, you’re no longer stuttering…”

Earth Knight suddenly realized his speech was too fluid. He hurriedly coughed vigorously and said, “I-I was just t-too agitated. I-It’s all because of you, ch-child; why must you be so s-stubborn…ugh! You’re angering me to death! I’m telling you to stutter, not myself! You better stutter when you talk, or else I’m going to bruise your face and knock out all of your teeth. See if you can still talk fluidly then!”

Hearing that he was going to be beaten, Georgo immediately fixed an obedient expression on his face and “honestly” nodded his head as he said, “Okay, okay! I get it already!”

Earth Knight immediately bellowed, “‘Okay, okay’ is not stuttering! You should say, ‘okay, I-I got it,’ and don’t you go adding insincere and dishonest words like ‘already’! Also, what’s with your expression?! You think your expression is honest and sincere? You’re obviously discontent! You’re really angering me to death…”

“Haha…” Chikus laughed out loud and immediately covered his mouth, withdrawing his head as he laughed to himself.

Georgo? Honest and sincere? Haha!

“You better look at her!”

Another loud shout. This time, Chikus was not startled. He even realized that this noise did not come from Earth Knight’s room but rather from the room next door.

What’s happening this time? Curiously, he stuck his head into the other room.

He took a look but didn’t expect that the practice situation in this room would be pretty much the same as the one in the previous room. Just like before, both teacher and student were present, except this time it was the senior and junior Storm Knights, with the addition of one female cleric, though the female cleric in this room was much older. She looked to be around twenty something, and her features and figure were both extremely gorgeous.

“Ceo, look at her with your eyes open.” Storm Knight’s voice could get no colder than this.

With great effort, Ceo lifted his head. Rather than looking at the female cleric, it would be more apt to say that he was staring blankly at her.

Seeing this, Storm Knight immediately told the female cleric, “Cleric, please.”

“No problem.” At once, the female cleric flirtatiously puckered her lips and then winked at this young, handsome boy, adopting various amorous poses to entice him with all her skill.

Because of his teacher’s evident anger and frigid command, Ceo put in great effort this time not to lower his head, even though his face had long since become as red as a monkey’s butt, the color spreading all the way to the tips of his ears.

“Kiss her.”

Seeing that his student was finally able to look at a woman without turning away, Storm Knight wanted to seize the opportunity to advance to the next step; however, once the words left his mouth, he immediately saw his student acting as if the world were about to end. Suddenly, he felt as if he were corrupting his student… Unable to bear it, he said, “You can just kiss her cheek.”

“Teacher, couldn’t we just hold hands?”

Ceo revealed an imploring expression, but his teacher’s face remained frigid. He even showed hints of being ready to explode again, so Ceo could only give up on his request. He turned toward the female cleric whose expression had long since turned from a tantalizing one to one where she looked as if she didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

After he took a peek, Ceo was no longer as nervous as before. He then turned to look at his teacher, whose expression was still frigid, looking as if there were absolutely no room for discussion. He could only brace himself and pucker his lips as he barged forward, lightly touching the female cleric’s cheek, and then he immediately turned completely red and jumped aside, rushing straight to the furthest corner of the room.

Seeing this, Storm Knight laughed in frustration, “You wimp. We’ve already trained for three years, yet asking you to kiss a woman is like forcing you to kiss an orc!”

“What did you say?” the female cleric asked loudly.

Storm Knight froze. The female cleric had already approached him, using her fists to pummel him with everything she had.

“No, no, I mean you are as beautiful as an orc– Ah! Don’t kick me; it was a slip of the tongue, a slip! I’m sorry, really!”

At this time, Chikus could no longer bear to watch anymore. He rushed into the room, and before anyone inside could react, he seized the female cleric and loudly kissed her on the cheek. He then exclaimed to Ceo, who had shrunk into the corner, “Ceo, look! What’s so difficult about a little kiss?”

“Exactly! This little bro is the cutest!” The female cleric happily declared this and kissed Chikus’ face several times before she turned her head and fiercely declared to the senior and junior Storm Knights, “You two useless guys!”

“Little bro, let’s go! Big sis will treat you to some candy. Whatever you like, I’ll buy for you.”

“Really?” Chikus’ eyes gleamed as he shouted, “Then let’s go now, big sis!”

The female cleric was over the moon at being called “big sis¹.” She hurriedly replied, “Sure thing! Let’s go right away.”

The female cleric grasped Chikus and did not neglect to roll her eyes at Storm Knight before leaving the room.

Behind them, the senior and junior Storm Knights watched in astonishment as the two left the room. After a good while, Ceo shyly approached his teacher’s side and asked in a small voice, “Teacher, there are no females left. Are we going to continue with practicing something else now?”

“Practice, my ass!”

Storm Knight grabbed his student’s ear and furiously shouted, “You caused me to be called ‘useless’! Bastard, do you know how humiliating it is for a guy to be called useless? You hopeless bastard! If you can’t master not blushing when you see females within a year, and still can’t wink at females within two years, I’m going to…I’m going to spend all of my savings to hire a bunch of females to gang rape you!”

Ouch, ouch! With a miserable grimace, Ceo yelped, “Please don’t! Teacher…I’ll try my best! I definitely will!”

After parting with the passionate female cleric, Chikus held a bag of candy in his hands. Yet, he did not follow his original plan of going out to play. Instead, he curiously continued peeking in on other people’s lessons.

Elmairy had been taking care of small animals, and his teacher was beside him reciting fairy tales to him. One glance was enough for Chikus to feel like he would explode from boredom, so he turned and left.

Afterward, he saw that there was no one in Cloud Knight’s classroom. Chikus looked everywhere, but could not find even a trace of anyone.

“How strange! Could he be like me? Maybe he doesn’t need lessons?” Chikus scratched his head and turned to leave…

“Are you looking for me?”

Eek!

Chikus jumped in alarm and rapidly spun around. Someone was actually standing behind him wordlessly. Furthermore, his face was pale, his figure slim and weak, and his hair covered half of his face…

“I-I wasn’t looking for y-you!” Chikus stuttered so much that even Earth Knight would have praised him.

Young Cloud Knight slowly tilted his head and said, “You’ve been looking in from outside the classroom for some time.”

“…You were inside?”

Young Cloud Knight slowly nodded his head.

How is that possible? There was clearly no one inside just now… Chikus suddenly felt a draft behind his back and hurriedly made up an excuse. “I-I was looking for young Sun Knight.”

Young Cloud Knight again slowly nodded his head, slowly raising his hand to gesture at the room next door. “Grisia is next door.”

“A-ah, thanks!”

In a hurry, Chikus turned to run away, but after he had run halfway, he suddenly thought of a question. His curiosity won over his fear. He turned his head to ask, “Is your teacher inside the classroom?”

Young Cloud Knight shook his head. “Teacher is taking an afternoon nap under the banyan tree.”

Phew. If even Cloud Knight, an adult, were inside, and he didn’t see him…then it really would be like seeing ghosts in broad daylight.

Chikus patted himself on the chest and breathed a sigh of relief. Curiously, he continued to ask, “Then why didn’t you follow him?”

“Teacher told me not to disturb him and to find my own place to drift to.”

Drift…are you sure he told you to drift?

Chikus waved that thought away. “Alright then, go back to your classroom and continue drifting!”

After he gave a wave and blinked, he discovered that there was no longer anyone in front of him.

“…”

Chikus fell silent for a good while before he was able to take a step toward the next room. As he stuck his head in, he muttered to himself, “I hope the situation in this room will be more normal. This Grisia fellow is my future boss. If he’s too strange, I wouldn’t want to heed his orders.”

“Child, you absolutely must seek out undead creatures on a frequent basis.”

Chikus paused. Why is he mentioning undead creatures? Immediately, he looked inside and saw that Grisia was asking a question to his teacher, the strongest Sun Knight in all of history, who struck fear into the hearts of everyone in the entire Holy Temple.

“Teacher, is it because the Sun Knight has vowed to destroy all undead creatures?”

After Chikus heard this, he thought this made sense. This was probably the reason!

Sun Knight wagged his finger, a mysterious smile present on his face. “No, no, you must seek them out frequently so as to vent your emotions.”

“What?” Grisia and Chikus, who was standing outside the door, both had very similar expressions of astonishment and doubt.

Sun Knight earnestly continued, “Think about it. You must smile every day, forgive every piece of human trash, and praise the God of Light – whom you will probably never meet in your entire life – in every sentence. If you don’t have a channel by which you can vent your feelings, then if you end up with depression, you might no longer be able to carry out your duties as a Sun Knight properly. If you fail to carry out your duties properly, you will lose your job, and after losing your job you will become even more depressed. In the end, you will be so depressed that you’ll be reunited with the God of Light. Now, you surely wouldn’t want to meet with such a tragic end, do you?”

“…I don’t.”

“And so, child, you must look for an undead creature to vent your frustrations on at least once a month, understand?”

“What if I can’t find one?”

“Do not worry, child. Here, this is the name card of the necromancer whom the Church has specially contracted; not only can you specify the type of undead creature that you want, you can even report this as work expenses and get the Church to pay for it.”

“…”

Grisia accepted the business card with a blank face. However, perhaps it was because he frequently received plenty of shocks, he nonchalantly tucked the business card in his pocket and raised his head to resume listening to his teacher’s instructions within a matter of seconds.

However, at this time, Sun Knight clapped his hands. “Alright, today’s lesson ends here. I’m going to take my leave first.”

Stunned, Grisia blankly asked, “Teacher, where are you going?”

“I have a date with the princess– No! I mean, I have an appointment with His Highness, the prince, to discuss important matters about the kingdom and to promote the relationship between the royal palace and the Church… Anyway, I’m leaving now. If I don’t depart now, I’ll be late. Making a lady wait is not something a gentleman should do.”

So His Highness, the prince, is a lady? Grisia helplessly pointed out, “But Teacher, it’s still class time right now!”

At this time, Sun Knight had already reached the door. Once he heard Grisia’s words, he paused in his steps. This also let Chikus, who was still outside, breathe a sigh of relief. He almost didn’t have time to hide. He took this opportunity to quickly hide behind some lengthy draperies in the corridor.

Sun Knight somewhat awkwardly said, “Is that so? It’s still class time… That’s a little problematic. Last time, Judgment told me to be more serious. Alright! I’ll give you an assignment then. Go find that specially-employed necromancer immediately, and get to know each other.”

After he finished relaying the assignment, he turned around to leave again.

Grisia anxiously shouted, “Wait a moment! Teacher, aren’t you going to accompany me? I’m going to see a necromancer, right? At least go with me the first time?”

“You’re already eighteen! Don’t behave like a spoiled little kid.”

Sun Knight’s body was already halfway outside of the classroom, but he finally showed some awareness of his position as a teacher. He turned his head to warn Grisia. “Remember! Never ever attack the necromancer! If you don’t attack, then surely you won’t be harmed. That’s all! Go quickly!”

Having said this, he left just like that, leaving Grisia behind. Grisia felt fairly wronged as he looked at the vacant door, and said to nobody in particular, “Teacher, I’m only fifteen…”

Truth in Disguise Part 3

Of course, there was no one around to respond to him. He sighed in resignation as he fished out the business card. Even though his teacher seemed as if he was looking for an excuse when he handed out this assignment, if Grisia actually regarded this assignment as a joke and didn’t complete it seriously, his teacher would once again transform into the strongest Sun Knight of all history.

“Are you really going to seek out the necromancer?”

Grisia was stunned. When he raised his head, he immediately recognized the person before him. After he finished being stunned, he blurted out, “Young Blaze Knight? Why aren’t you in class… Forget it, pretend I didn’t ask.”

After speaking, he suddenly remembered that he was also one of the members who didn’t need to attend lessons, and his reason was that “Teacher skipped out on the lesson to carry out a love affair with the princess.” He could not speak this reason out loud, so perhaps the other person’s reason was also the kind that could not be spoken out loud.

Chikus yelled, “Tell me! Are you really going to seek out that necromancer?”

“Of course.” Grisia shrugged his shoulders and added, “Teacher told me to go, so I have to go!”

Hearing this, Chikus was also stunned, unable to understand why Sun Knight had left this kind of command. However, no matter how hard he tried to think, he couldn’t figure it out, so he decided to stop trying to understand. Instead, he warned Grisia, “The gravest enemy of the Church of the God of Light is the undead; necromancers deal with undead creatures on a daily basis. You must have known this already, right?”

Of course he knew this. Grisia rubbed his face and murmured, “But, my teacher commanded me…”

“Then…he must be testing you!” Chikus finally thought of a reason, and shouted, “Maybe he’s trying to test you to see if you really would go find the necromancer, thus betraying the teachings of the Church!”

Grisia did not think this was the case at all. He understood his teacher too well. In the rankings of what Neo hated the most, “disobeying him” was definitely in the top three. Even if he betrayed the teachings of the Church, he would still fare better than if he defied Neo’s orders.

“No matter what, I must go. Farewell, the hour is late. I think I should head over now.” Grisia was a little worried. It was almost evening already, and he wanted to visit the necromancer while the sun was still out.

“You…” Chikus’ eyes were wide. He drew his longsword from his waist and shouted, “Stop. I will never let you go find a necromancer!”

Seeing that Chikus had drawn his sword, Grisia was truly intimidated, and for a moment, he didn’t know how to respond… After thinking for a bit, he concluded that since Chikus already knew he was going to seek out a necromancer, then it shouldn’t matter if Chikus also found out that he knew magic, right?

If he did get exposed later, all he had to do was deny it to the end.

“Ice Wall.”

Surprised, Chikus found himself blocked by four towering walls of ice that almost reached the ceiling.

From outside the walls of ice came Grisia’s voice, “After I leave, the ice walls will disappear. Then you can come out.”

Chikus was angry to the point of exploding. He raised his sword and slashed wildly at the ice walls, but the ice was actually incredibly sturdy. He couldn’t break the walls in such a short period of time. He roared and bellowed, “You bastard! Let me out. Don’t you dare seek out the necromancer. I’m warning you, I’ll tell my teacher!”

Grisia’s unhurried voice drifted over. “Go ahead and tell him. You can also mention in passing that this was a command from Sun Knight.”

“Grisia!” Chikus’ roars drifted over from behind the walls of ice. “I’m not going to acknowledge someone like you as the Sun Knight, you hear me? You traitor!”

Grisia’s steps slowed a bit before he continued on and left.

Angrily, Chikus immediately found his teacher and blurted out everything. Unexpectedly, the answer he received was not at all what he had imagined.

“If it’s a command from Neo, then it can’t be helped.”

Blaze Knight said this with embarrassment. Once he saw his student’s stupefied expression, he sighed and warned, “Don’t you go provoking Neo. He has a bad temper and isn’t afraid of your teacher. Only Judgment and the Pope can handle him when they work together. Otherwise, there really isn’t anyone in this world who can control him.”

“But, Grisia is going to seek out a necromancer!” Chikus indignantly said, “I’m not going to acknowledge that kind of guy as the Sun Knight! I’m going to uncover his true nature!”

After saying this, he turned and left angrily.

“True nature? Then you’ll need to uncover a lot of people…”

Blaze Knight watched his student leave and murmured to himself, “Even excluding Neo, which of the Twelve Holy Knights can truly be said to match their counterparts of legends?”

But he immediately recalled that his own student was truly very like the Blaze Knight of legends.

“With you around, at least there is one person who will not need to be a two-faced person among the next generation of knights.”

Thinking this way, he felt he was actually lucky that he did not need to be like the others, who had to train their students to become two-faced people. This put him in a better mood.

Furious, Chikus rushed out into the streets, running and wandering around aimlessly for a good while before discovering that he didn’t have a destination in mind. All of a sudden, he didn’t know where he should go. However, because he was still angry at his teacher, he couldn’t return to the Holy Temple. Thus, he could only aimlessly wander about the streets.

After wandering and wandering, he suddenly spotted a familiar figure… Grisia?

Chikus was a little puzzled. Hadn’t it been some time since Grisia had said he was going to find the necromancer? Why was he still wandering about the streets?

Suspicions raised, he glanced at the lollipops held within Grisia’s hands, feeling somewhat speechless at the moment… He went to buy candy first? A fifteen, sixteen year old boy is still eating candy?

Seeing that Grisia was about to leave, Chikus followed him without a second thought.

Grisia continued walking until he reached the ghettos. This was an area Chikus had never visited before. Seeing the dirty and run-down surroundings astonished him greatly. The unpleasant odors made him wrinkle his brows. He truly could not believe this was also a part of Leaf Bud City.

Soon, Grisia bent down and entered a small, wooden house that looked like it was about to collapse.

Could that be the necromancer’s residence? Just as Chikus was considering whether he should storm the place, Grisia exited and was even waving goodbye to someone inside the house. “Then I’ll be taking my leave now. I’ll come find you next time… Okay, okay! I’ll bring strawberry lollipops with me from the start next time. I don’t want to repeat what happened this time, having to make an extra trip to get them. See you next time.”

Next time? Chikus’ eyes widened. This guy is planning on visiting the necromancer again?

Seeing that Grisia had retraced his original path to leave, Chikus hesitated a bit, but he did not follow him. He drew his sword. Step-by-step, he approached the ramshackle house.

Once he was in front of the house’s entrance, Chikus kicked open the door with all his might and shouted loudly inside, “Come out, necromancer!”

Inside the house, dust and thick spider webs were everywhere. Had he not been certain that Grisia had entered this place just moments ago, even Chikus would have had no doubts that no one lived in a place such as this.

With furious steps, he stomped into the house, off-handedly chopping the dust-covered centerpiece, ramming it off to the side. He screamed, “Stop pretending! I know you’re here, necromancer. Come out! I saw Grisia talking with you!”

“Little boy, I don’t recall inviting you.”

A voice suddenly echoed out. Chikus’ heart skipped a beat. Yet, he could not figure out where the voice came from, and he did not see anyone either.

“Did Grisia tell you to come?”

Chikus yelled, “This has nothing to do with that bastard! I’m here to deal with you!”

“That bastard… Is that how you address the future Sun Knight? Is that the right thing to do, young Blaze Knight?”

The owner of the voice seemed to have figured out Chikus’ identity from his apparel.

“I’m not going to acknowledge that bastard as the Sun Knight!” Chikus roared, “He’s involved with evil bastards like you. He is not qualified to be the Sun Knight!”

“Evil bastards? You say that Grisia is…that little guy is evil? Hahaha, hehehe!”

“What are you laughing about?!” Chikus loudly screamed, “He has connections with a necromancer like you. If he’s not evil, then what is he?!”

“Oh? Your sense of evil is way too simple! But…” The voice suddenly changed from a lighthearted one to a deep one, “Do you know? I despise people like you the most, those who think that they are defenders of justice, young Blaze Knight.”

The floor suddenly started shaking. Chikus hurriedly recited an incantation, emitting holy light from his hands. However, this holy light was only enough to dispel a part of the illusion in the house. It was not enough to let him see the true situation inside the house.

Although he couldn’t clearly see the scene inside the house, he did see the silhouette of a little girl. The little girl even held a lollipop within her hand and was slowly walking his way. Even though he somewhat guessed that this little girl was the necromancer, he could not bring himself to actually swing his sword at a little girl.

The little girl walked in front of him and said, “If you hate Grisia this much, then I have no need to be considerate toward him and Neo and let you go. In fact, hehe…if I kill you, he might even thank me!”

“What nonsense are yo–”

Before he even managed to finish, a figure suddenly plunged his way. Even though Chikus had his sword drawn, he was unable to react in his panic. He could only raise his sword in front of his chest to parry his opponent’s attacks.

He was forced to take several steps back. When he raised his head to look, he discovered that the person who had attacked him had an ashen face, completely soulless eyes, and even several spots on his body that looked like he had been patched together. He did not look like a living person at all…he was an undead!

Here was an undead wearing an apron and holding a broom.

Chikus suddenly realized that the weapon the undead creature was using to attack him was actually a broom… He immediately thought this was a little ridiculous; a necromancer that was a little girl, plus an undead creature that was wearing an apron… Why was this so different from the image of the evil necromancer and undead creature that he had been taught about in the past?

But even though it was just a broom, once wielded by an undead creature and swung his way, Chikus could not afford to be careless. He had not forgotten that he had just been forced to take several steps back by this broom.

Mentally prepared, Chikus was no longer being forced back by the undead creature. Instead, he held his own as he exchanged blows with his opponent. Once he started releasing holy light to assist himself, he even gained the upper hand. Soon, beating the undead creature before him would only be a matter of time.

“Your strength isn’t bad! This undead creature was a sword expert when he was alive!” The little girl giggled as she said, “But…I can’t have you killing him. If you kill him, then I’ll have no one to do my cleaning for me!”

At this time, the floor suddenly began shaking so violently that Chikus almost could not remain standing. Fortunately, the undead creature did not attack him during this time. However, all of a sudden, he felt the floor give out underneath his feet. Before he even had time to struggle, he was already plummeting down, falling into complete darkness, only able to hear the little girl’s melodious yet merciless voice…

“Young Blaze Knight, once you’ve found that you’ve died and become an evil, undead creature, I wonder what kind of expression you will reveal?”

Truth in Disguise Part 4

Shit! Shit! Damn that necromancer! Damn Grisia!

After he had fallen into the darkness, he had figured out that he was being imprisoned somewhere, and might even be made into an undead creature by the necromancer very soon. Yet, he still couldn’t find any way to escape. He didn’t know how long he had been struggling, nor how many times he had cursed out loud. Just when he thought he really was going to die in such a cursed place…a person who was dazzlingly bright all over brought forth light and reached a hand out to him.

“I’ve found you!”

Chikus stared blankly at the person who’d arrived. Once he recognized his face, he uttered his name, “Grisia?”

Even though the person who had come was someone he really didn’t want to see, after being held captive in darkness for so long, as long as he could see someone…it didn’t matter who that person was!

Hearing Chikus speak, Grisia sighed in relief. “Thank goodness you’re okay. Quick, come up!”

Grisia held his hand out; however, a few drops of liquid dripped from his fingertips. Chikus reached his hand out to catch them before he found out the liquid was actually fresh blood. Completely surprised, he yelled, “Blood?”

Nonchalant, Grisia replied, “Oh, I just fought with the undead creature that guarded the door.”

Chikus raised his head to look at Grisia carefully, finally discovering that there were injuries all over his head and face. It looked like the situation was not as simple as what Grisia had claimed. Unable to help himself, Chikus asked, “Why have you come to save me?”

“What are you talking about?” Grisia asked in surprise. “You are the young Blaze Knight, one of the future Twelve Holy Knights. Who should I be saving, if not you?”

Is that so? Chikus extended his arms and grabbed that hand, leveraging the borrowed strength to jump out of the basement.

“Grisia, what did you do to my cleaning corpse?”

Both of them jumped in surprise. Chikus looked in all directions, his eyeballs almost popping out. The surrounding walls a–are actually pink, and the floor is also pink, and the tablecloth on the wooden table is also pink, and there is even a cake-shaped cushion on top of the pink bed! This completely looks like the room of a little girl.

Then, on the deck chair that wasn’t very far from where they stood, lay a little girl. Her facial features were delicate and quite cute, though her skin was actually also pink, a skin color that was not natural in humans. If you looked at her for too long, you would get goose bumps along your back without even realizing it!

Chikus’ jaw almost fell off. The house of a necromancer, the necromancer herself…is this what it’s really like?

“What, Pink? Your cleaning corpse was bullying me, so I had to retaliate!” Grisia replied innocently.

“He bullied you?” Pink scoffed at this. “I think the truth must be the exact opposite? Clearly you used holy light to attack him without hesitation, so he had no choice but to retaliate. Stop lying through your teeth, Grisia. I saw everything that happened.”

“If you saw everything, then why didn’t you come out to save me? I almost got butchered,” Grisia grumbled.

“You still dare to speak? That was my most handsome cleaning corpse. Now he’s turned to dust because you bombarded him with holy light. How are you going to compensate for that… Ah! I know, there’s an even handsomer and fresher one here!”

Pink’s eyes trained onto Chikus, and a playful smile spread across her face; however, paired with the implications of her words, her smile could only send shivers into people’s hearts.

Grisia immediately put on a wide smile and spoke toward the “not human” who was on the deck chair, “Pink, young Blaze Knight truly, truly did not mean it! He won’t ever come and try to expose you again. Even if he did, it would be a useless gesture. You are the Church’s specially employed necromancer, after all! So what do you say, why don’t we just let this matter pass? You don’t really want to oppose the Church, do you?”

What a speech, playing both good cop and bad cop. The next Sun Knight is so amusing. Spending the days by his side might not be too boring after all. Pink smiled secretly, but on the surface, she revealed an unhappy expression as she replied, “Don’t use the Church to restrain me. I’m not afraid of them. If I were afraid, would I still be living here? Grisia, think about it. Why does the Church tolerate my living here?”

Grisia honestly replied, “Because the Church doesn’t want to go head-to-head against you…”

Hearing this, Chikus’ expression turned sour. Could it be that the God of Light that he had sworn his loyalty to, that the Church of the God of Light that he will need to serve for thirty years, was actually afraid of one necromancer? Within his heart, a flame of hot anger ignited. This kind of God, this kind of Church, there’s nothing wrong with leaving!

“But that doesn’t mean the Church is afraid of you!”

Grisia suddenly spoke loudly. This allowed Chikus to momentarily squash his flame of anger. He turned his head to look at Grisia.

Grisia’s every word resounded sonorously. “This is the capital. There are a lot of citizens. Going head-to-head with you would bring about a lot of casualties. You don’t care about the citizens, but the Church cannot be so negligent! As long as you don’t harm people, the Church will tolerate your living here. However, don’t think that you can do whatever you please. If you dare to do anything improper, the Church of the God of Light will definitely, definitely not let you off! This is the pledge from the next Sun Knight, Grisia!”

In a daze, Chikus stared at Grisia, whose every word had stunned him to no end. He never thought that the Church had this kind of notion… So it was for the sake of not harming innocents?

Hearing this, Pink merely giggled and flippantly said, “It’s just the young Blaze Knight. It’s not like he’s one of the official Twelve Holy Knights. The Church might not even be so inconsiderate toward me, since they have already prepared a back-up knight anyway. Grisia, he’s so disobedient. Why not replace him with a new one? You know, I’m actually helping you out here!”

“What replacement?! How could I possibly replace my brother?”

After Grisia yelled this out, he slowly and resolutely said, one word at a time, “If you dare to kill my Blaze Knight, you’ll have to kill me too, or else I will definitely kill you to avenge him!”

A boy of merely fifteen years who obviously does not have the ability to harm me is actually talking about killing or not killing me. This was supposed to be very funny, but she didn’t know why she suddenly had the thought that…

If I really did kill him along with the other, he would most likely become a death knight, climbing back from the dead to avenge his young Blaze Knight, right?

He is truly amusing.

Pink raised her head to look at Grisia. She was really curious about what kind of Sun Knight this current young Sun Knight would become in the future.

Her lips lifted in a faint smile, a decision made in her heart.

Two teenage boys who were neither grown-up nor childlike walked beneath the evening’s setting sun. One boy’s hair was as red as fire, while the other’s was as splendid as the sun.

“Grisia.” Chikus suddenly paused in his steps and turned his head to say, “Thanks for coming to save me today.”

Grisia, who had been licking a blueberry lollipop, lowered his lollipop in embarrassment when he saw Chikus’ serious expression. He also earnestly answered, “You’re welcome! You disappeared for three days. We were all worried to death. Everyone was looking for you, especially your teacher. He looked like he hadn’t slept all three days! I only just chanced upon you, and Pink only wanted ten strawberry lollipops and a pretty corpse from me as an apology before she let you go. So I didn’t do much!”

Hearing this, Chikus stared at Grisia, the latter whose face still bore injuries. Those injuries were already treated with Moderate Heals, yet they still had not healed completely. Evidently, the injuries had been quite serious.

Just how did this guy, whose swordsmanship is famously rotten, defeat that undead creature?

Chikus fell silent for a good while. Just as a confused Grisia was about to question him about his staring, Chikus finally began speaking.

Word-by-word, he said, “Grisia, you are my Sun Knight, my brother, the kind that also cannot be replaced.”

Curious and puzzled, Grisia looked at him and said in a matter-of-fact tone, “Of course! Otherwise, what else could I be?”

Hearing this answer, Chikus laughed.

“Let’s head back now!” Grisia reminded him, “Your teacher looked very anxious!”

“Alright.”

The two of them walked farther and farther. Only their conversation drifted over faintly…

“Want a lollipop? I have blueberry, strawberry, and chocolate-flavored ones. What flavor do you want?”

“There’s no way I would want that kind of thing. I’m the young Blaze Knight! I’m supposed to gorge myself with meat and gulp down wine. Who would want a lollipop?!”

“You don’t want one? Then Ecilan will be very sad. He made these himself! Making sweets is his hobby. He told me that his father is a famous pastry chef in the city!”

“…Aren’t the people from Judgment Knight’s side supposed to be your sworn enemies?”

“Ah! That’s true, but Lesus is a very good person! He helps to fight my battles, runs errands to buy blueberry pie for me, and even beats up the dogs that bite me!”

“…Give me a chocolate-flavored one.”

Footnotes

¹ “…big sis…”: In Chinese, this is “little big sister” as Chinese has terms for older sister and younger sister. The cleric is over the moon for being called “little big sister” which also hints at her youth.

Original novel in Chinese by: 御我 (Yu Wo)

Chapter 4: Celestial’s Fury – translated by ErodingPersona

“Scorching Flame?”

I had no idea how long I was just standing there staring when an anxious voice suddenly echoed out. I tentatively looked to where the voice had come from, and my eyes fell upon Celestial… Celestial? I half-crawled, half-rushed to him, hugging him as I asked, “Gui, you’re not dead?”

“Gui?” Celestial answered, bewildered, “What are you saying? Scorching Flame?”

I stiffened. This wasn’t Gui. This was the real Celestial. Hoarsely, I asked, “Are you really Celestial?”

Celestial blanked out for quite some time, and replied with a strange tone, “Of course I’m Celestial.”

Gui really has disappeared. I squatted on the floor again, and said bitterly, “I am not Scorching Flame. I am Prince.”

“Prince?” Celestial asked in bewilderment as he examined me. “You really are Prince!”

“Then what are you still doing here?” Celestial suddenly jumped up. “This is the Northern Continent. If all Four Heavenly Kings arrive, I wouldn’t be able to protect you by myself.”

I laughed dryly, “The Four Heavenly Kings? There is only one Heavenly King now.”

Celestial was startled, as if struck by lightning. “What do you mean?”

I clenched my fists, and said the words that broke my heart, “Wicked and Scorching Flame have perished together, and Gui has just disappeared along with Clay Child and Flowing Wind.”

“You-you killed them?!” Celestial shouted in disbelief as he trembled.

I blanked out. “We” killed “them?” Does he mean that Gui and Wicked killed Scorching Flame, Flowing Wind and Clay Child¹? I tilted my head up and looked at Celestial, whose face was filled with sorrow and fury.

“Didn’t they hate you?” I couldn’t stop myself and asked, “Why are you so worried about them?”

“They were only children.” Celestial roared. “They were only children who didn’t know any better. They never caused much harm, so why did you, why……” At this point, Celestial broke down in tears and couldn’t speak anymore.

My heart burned with anger. “Had they not captured me, Wicked and Gui would also not have had to perish with them, and anyway, it’s not just them who disappeared. Wicked and Gui have also disappeared.”

Celestial suddenly gripped my collar, eyes turned bloodshot in his grief. “Don’t you dare compare Wicked and Gui to them; you know that you all still have a life in the real world, unlike us. Once we die, we have nothing left. Don’t tell me you don’t understand this?”

I stared… It was true, at least in the real world, they still existed as Zhuo-gēgē and Professor Min Gui Wen, but Scorching Flame, Flowing Wind and Clay Child on the other hand had nothing left. Just as I would feel upset over Wicked and Gui, naturally Celestial would also be furious over his fellow self-aware NPCs.

“I’m sorry!” I apologized in a tight voice. I never thought I would be the cause of Celestial’s bad mood.

“Sorry? Do you think the lives of three of my companions are worth just one apology? Hahaha, that is such a fair exchange, truly it is!” Celestial laughed madly, the corner of his eyes filling with tears.

“Human!” Celestial swiveled his head around. Besides directing his vengeful gaze on me, he stepped closer and closer to me…

“You are all too selfish. Just like the Dictator said, to you, we are all just a bunch of numbers. We will never be valued as another life.”

“But we also have feelings: we feel sad, we feel pain, and we feel love!” When he said love, Celestial’s face softened.

“Even though Scorching Flame and Flowing Wind didn’t like me, they never attacked me.” Celestial’s face held a sorrowful look. “The Dictator and I are the same; we don’t want to lose what few companions we have.”

“But in one short day, I lost three of my companions, and the one who brought their murderers to the Northern Continent was me,” Celestial roared.

Celestial has gone mad and he really will kill me, I realized as I stared at his bloodshot eyes filled with vengeance. I suddenly became fully aware of the fact that Celestial really hated me right now. I stepped back, yet I couldn’t think of a way to escape.

Thunder sounded… Really, thunder on a sunny day? I tilted my head to face the heavens. Can it really be that “He²” also thought that we had been too outrageous in our deeds?

“Ah…” A faint sigh echoed around Flower City. “Celestial, come back, I don’t want to lose you again.”

Celestial blinked and swiveled his head toward the tower with a large rose, eyes filled with regret and hurt, and then Celestial looked passionately at me and said, “I will take you to see the Dictator and let him decide everything.”

“See the Dictator?” I stood up quickly. Could it be that Celestial wants to help the Dictator exterminate me?

“Yes, no matter what has happened, I finally managed to get you here to Flower City… I sacrificed three companions for this; of course I will bring you to see the Dictator.” The look on Celestial’s face… Maybe I was reading his face wrong, but to me he had a look of triumph that said that his plan had finally succeeded.

“Celestial, you couldn’t have been sent by the Dictator?”…A spy? After all, Celestial now wore an extremely serious and sorrowful look on his face. It was completely different from the silly, naïve personality that I had become used to, and I really couldn’t shake off my doubts that the Celestial before had only pretended to be silly and naïve.

Celestial was silent, before finally saying, “Yes, the Dictator sent me. Even the Four Heavenly Kings didn’t know about this.”

“You lied to Doll?” My face darkened. Doll had already started to accept Celestial. If she found out that Celestial had been lying to her all along, she would definitely be upset.

“I never!” Celestial roared, “My wife is my wife, the orders that the Dictator gave are the orders that the Dictator gave! These two things have nothing to do with each other!”

“You’re still a spy anyway,” I roared back.

Celestial’s face reddened. He walked in circles, furious but unable to refute me. He finally sucked in a deep breath, turned to me and said, “No matter what has happened, you have to follow me to see the Dictator.”

What a joke. If I were under attack by both Celestial and the Dictator, escape would be impossible, never mind being able to kill the Dictator. I slowly backed away, prepared to run at any given moment.

“Let’s go, Prince. The Dictator will decide everything.” Celestial rubbed away the tears at the corner of his eyes and steeled himself.

“There’s no…” I swallowed. If I fought against Celestial, the chances of me winning would be… less than zero. If I just focused on escaping, what would my chances be?

“Celestial, if I fought against you, what are the chances of me escaping successfully?” I couldn’t help myself and asked aloud… Then I thought, if someone asked their enemy when they were about to fight against them what the chances of successfully escaping were… Wasn’t that a blatant declaration to the enemy that they wanted to run? I had just done something stupid again.

Celestial, however, seriously considered this and answered me, “Approximately… less than ten percent. After all, I can fly and you only have two legs to run with.”

“But if there were someone standing in your way?”

“That… That would depend on how powerful the person was.” Celestial answered again, but I blinked. I haven’t even opened my mouth to ask?

“Someone around the same level as you.” Ocean’s Heart suddenly descended from the sky between me and Celestial.

“Ocean… You’re still alive?” Celestial let loose a relieved sigh, but couldn’t help the anxious expression that came across his face. “The only one left out of the Four Heavenly Kings is you.”

Ocean’s Heart smiled, swiveled his head to me and said, “Ah, you can’t beat the Dictator of Life. No matter what, you will never be able to defeat him, so I purposely led you to Mount HuaLian… I didn’t think that you would head to Flower City to see the Dictator on your own.”

I was stunned. I couldn’t beat the Dictator… That’s why Ocean’s Heart purposely led me to Mount HuaLian? Ocean’s Heart had been preventing me from running to my death at Flower City?

“Hurry up and leave. I will help you block Celestial,” Ocean’s Heart pressed.

I won’t go. If I go, wouldn’t Wicked and Gui’s death be for naught? I switch to the PM channel and calmly asked the others, “Where are all of you? Can you immediately head to Flower City?”

“There’s still a fair distance.” Lolidragon hastily asked, “Did anything happen? Has Gui found you yet?”

“Gui…” I started choking again.

“Did something happen to Gui?” Wolf-dàgē was surprised, but a moment later heavily said, “No matter what has happened, Prince, come over and join us. Believe me; all our power together will definitely be stronger than yours alone.”

“That’s right, Prince, don’t act on your own again.” Yu Lian-dàsăo also spoke up with worry, “Everyone is worried about you!”

I stared at Ocean’s Heart’s battle with Celestial, and thought over Wolf-dàgē’s words. It’s true; it’s better to return to everyone now. I suddenly had a fleeting desire to be by my comrades’ side, to battle together with everyone… fighting until we reach the Dictator of Life!

“Okay.” I made up my mind. “Wolf-dàgē, wait for me. I will go now and look for you.”

I immediately ran out of the city gates; Ocean’s Heart would help me by distracting Celestial. Not to mention, I now had Scorching Flame’s appearance, so the other NPCs wouldn’t attack me in this form. If I don’t run now, when will I get the chance again?

“Prince, wait…” Celestial’s surprised voice echoed out. “Celestial Satin!”

The minute the words were uttered, countless white, silken strips surrounded and attacked me. I ducked and dodged desperately, but the silken strips proved too much for me. The strips bound me tightly, and rendered futile my attempts at running away. Covered with a transparent membrane, I really felt like I was completely wrapped in white cloth, like an actual mummy.

“Feathers of Ice!” Ocean’s Heart raged, and the silken strips became embedded with small feather-shaped crystals. The silken strips binding me were torn apart.

“Ocean’s Heart, you…” Celestial was surprised at Ocean’s Heart’s actions, and then explained, “I am only bringing him to see the Dictator; I have no intention of harming him.”

Celestial stopped short, and asked curiously, “Yet you, who has never cared about anything… Why are you preventing me from capturing Prince?”

Ocean’s Heart gave a small smile. “That’s because I’m siding with the humans!”

I tilted my head up and stared at Ocean’s Heart. It’s siding with us?

“What are you waiting for, Prince? Hurry up and leave.” Ocean’s Heart lightly chastised me.

Startled, I immediately continued my unfinished task – escaping.

“Ocean, this is too much! I must bring Prince to the Dictator!” Celestial roared.

“Hmph, let’s see you try.” Ocean’s Heart’s tone of voice turned cold and stern.

“Celestial Satin!”

“Feathers of Ice!”

“Stop!” A thunderous roar sounded again.

The roar made the earth shake terrifyingly. The buildings beside the street groaned, and a few wooden structures even crumbled to the ground. If measured on the Richter scale, this earthquake would be rated at a 7.0… I swallowed and looked at the wooden house a mere few steps from me. No, it could not be called a house anymore. It was now just a pile of logs.

“I warned you, never attack your comrades!”

“Dictator!” Celestial looked toward the Central Tower with panic. His face held both remorse and obedience. “I’m sorry. I should not have forgotten your orders, but I wanted to bring Prince to see you.”

“I do not want to see him right now!”

“Dictator?” Celestial asked in surprise.

“I don’t want to see him. All I want to do now is kill him. Flowing Wind, Clay Child, Scorching Flame…”

Hearing this, Celestial turned to me and said, “Hurry up and leave. You can’t meet the Dictator right now.”

What sort of situation is this? Didn’t the Dictator want to kill me? Why is Celestial telling me to hurry up and leave? I couldn’t stop myself and asked, “Don’t you all want to kill me?”

“Leave when I tell you to! If you still continue asking so many questions, I really will capture you and hand you over to be killed by the Dictator myself!” Celestial half-heartedly threatened me, using Celestial Satin to surround me.

“Wait a minute, I…” I still wanted to continue asking, but dozens of Celestial Satin ribbons started forcefully pushing me out of Flower City, and the enormous city gate behind my back sealed itself, leaving me standing there alone outside the city to be chilled by the wind.

“Ah!” I shrieked, then moaned, “I forgot to ask Celestial to take me to look for the Execution Squad. My god, I will get lost!”

The sounds of multiple people tripping and falling seemed to come from behind the gates!

Footnotes

¹ “Clay Child”: In online text of the series, Prince uses Celestial’s name here, which is a mistake. This was fixed in the print version.

² “He”: The “He” here refers to God.

Here is the collection of the wishes…with a chorus from some PR! members.

Yu Wo birthday wishes
HD downloadable version (This one’s a lot more readable than the youtube version, and the subs look nicer ^_^)

Please enable caption, fullscreen and HD and then, enjoy! =)

Many thanks to S.Z. for the picture in the second slide and many thanks to Chronicole for helping us with the english lyric!

PS: If you want to know whose voice is in the chorus, please read the credits at the end of the video.
PPS: Poor Eilinel has been forgotten in the last page but at least she was on the second last one, right? So sorry, Eili… OTL

Download mp3: Mixed (video version), English Only, Chinese Only

Original novel in Chinese by: 御我 (Yu Wo)

Chapter 3: Gui’s Kindness – translated by Nausicaä

I didn’t know how long I had been kneeling in that same spot, with nothing but a feeling of absolute emptiness in my heart. I should have known. What sort of ultimate technique could Wicked possibly have to defend with, alone, when facing Scorching Flame of the Four Heavenly Kings? There had to have been some trick for him to have made such a decision!

It was simply too late when I finally realized this. Wicked had already disappeared from Second Life, along with Scorching Flame. The only thing I could do now was to take revenge for him by killing the real instigator behind all of this: the Dictator of Life!

I wiped away my tears and stood up. What I had to do right now was to go to Mount HuaLian and meet up with the others. But… I looked to my left and right, and then back again. Why does this forest look all the same to me? Which way am I supposed to go? This… even more than Wicked’s self-destruction, this was the one thing that made me feel weak in the legs… I really hope that I can get to Mount HuaLian by myself!

I had no choice but to consult with Lolidragon first. I opened the PM channel and asked, “Lolidragon?”

“What? What’s wrong? Don’t tell me you guys have already reached Flower City, you can’t be that fast?” Lolidragon asked dubiously.

I was just about to open my mouth and explain my present predicament, when I was suddenly struck by a thought. Besides Lolidragon, there is virtually no one else who could have set up that ploy with Wicked and the ND self-destruct program. Then, doesn’t that mean everyone has the ND self-destruct program installed inside them?

The reason they did it was to help me eradicate all the enemies that blocked our way to the Dictator of Life! Furthermore, they didn’t tell me precisely because they knew that I would definitely be opposed to it.

If I reached the Dictator of Life together with them, wouldn’t that mean I would have to look on helplessly as the others lay down their lives to blow themselves up along with the enemy? By the time I reached this realization, my face had already turned very pale. I definitely do not want to see anyone else turn into snowflakes.

“Prince? Did something happen?” Lolidragon kept calling my name, as though she had discovered that something was amiss.

However, I didn’t reply, and simply closed the PM channel without a word. I looked at the surrounding forest and murmured to myself, saying, “If I climb to the top of a tree, I should be able to see where Flower City is, right?”

As I predicted, once I had busily scampered up to the treetop like a monkey, I spotted a very large city with a spire in the middle, on the very top of which was even a sculpture of an extremely large rose… Sure enough, it was Flower City!

After making certain that I would be going in the right direction, I slid down the tree trunk, and I began to advance toward Flower City one step at a time. Although it is a bit lonely traveling by myself, it is still better than watching the others blow themselves up.

“Haven’t you forgotten something very important?” a voice couldn’t resist reminding me.

“What important thing?” Was there such a thing? I cocked my head and thought hard.

“If the Dictator of Life really were at Mount HuaLian and not Flower City, wouldn’t that mean your companions are headed directly for certain death?”

“Oh yeah!” I had almost forgotten, Ocean’s Heart had said that the Dictator of Life was at Mount HuaLian… Wait a second, who’s talking to me?

I turned my head… and behind me stood XiMen Feng, who was even making a “victory” sign with both hands!

“I can’t believe it—Wicked’s death must have come as such a great shock to me that I’m actually hallucinating and just imagined that I saw XiMen Feng.” Amazed, I shook my head, and looked back again. Yet, the victory sign-posing XiMen Feng was still standing there.

“What? Wicked’s already gone back to the Central Continent?” shouted out a gloating XiMen Feng. “Yer daddy was right. Without yer daddy, you, sonny, would definitely go down in utter defeat.”

I pointed a shaking finger at XiMen Feng. “H-how come you’re here?”

“What’s that supposed to mean? Yer daddy also wants to kill the Dictator of Life.” XiMen Feng complained resentfully, “Who knew that all of you guys would move so fast? By the time yer daddy hurried back to Infinite City, there wasn’t a single person left.”

Hurried back to Infinite City? XiMen Feng can’t possibly mean that after being blown sky-high by AnRui, he had only just hurried back to Infinite City, right? Are you serious? I thought with disbelief. Just how far did you fly off to?

“Haha, just as yer daddy was hoppin’ up and down in rage by the sea, that damn clam came back,” XiMen Feng said with a smug expression on his face. “Of course yer daddy ordered him to take yer daddy to the Northern Continent. You were kiddin’ yerself if you thought that yer daddy would let you youngsters do somethin’ as grand as killin’ the final boss, then take all the glory for yerselves!”

“…” I was left at a loss for words.

“But yer daddy hadn’t even come ashore when yer daddy saw a horde of monsters, forcin’ yer daddy to sneak up through the forest.” XiMen Feng heaved a sigh while shaking his head. “Yer daddy ended up not knowin’ where the heck he was. If yer daddy hadn’t heard the gang makin’ a riot over the team channel, yer daddy would’ve thought that you were all long dead!”

I had stopped paying attention to XiMen Feng’s babbling nonsense and was in the middle of pondering where I should go next. To Flower City? Or Mount HuaLian?

I didn’t know if XiMen Feng had detected my unpleasant mood, as he actually shut up and stopped with the “yer daddy this, sonny that.” But he immediately spoke again, “Sonny, it seems like the gang is plannin’ to come lookin’ fer you!”

“Looking for me?” I asked, greatly startled.

“Yeah. You closed the team channel, so they’re worried out of their wits and saying they’re going to come find you,” XiMen Feng answered, looking as though he was listening intently to something.

I also immediately opened the team channel to find out what was going on.

“Something must have happened to Wicked. Otherwise he wouldn’t have stopped responding to us,” Lolidragon said worriedly.

“Don’t worry, Ming Huang has already gone offline to ask,” Wolf-dàgē responded calmly.

After a long while, Ming Huang’s voice could be heard. He sounded very heartbroken, and while suppressing his emotions with great difficulty, he said, “My brother’s character disappeared. He used the ND self-destruct program on himself against Scorching Flame of the Four Heavenly Kings and turned them both into ashes.”

Everyone fell silent. Finally, Lolidragon spoke up, “Since Wicked has disappeared, that guy Prince doesn’t have anyone taking care of him! And now he absolutely refuses to answer, so who knows what he’s thinking? We’d better go and find him first!”

Upon hearing this, I closed the team channel again. Since now I knew that they were coming to Flower City to find me, I no longer had to worry about them meeting the Dictator of Life at Mount HuaLian. Alright then, I’ll set off to find the Dictator first, and hopefully I’ll be able to take care of him before everyone arrives at Flower City.

“Alright, to Flower City!” I decided.

“Alrighty, yer daddy will go with you to kill the final boss!” XiMen Feng shouted excitedly, a glint of anticipation in his eyes.

I hesitated a bit. “You… don’t have the ND self-destruct program installed on you, do you?”

“Huh? Indie cell-distract probe fan? ” XiMen Feng repeated with a baffled expression on his face. “What’s that? How come yer daddy’s never heard of it before?”

“…Pretend I never asked.” Three dark lines descended down my face. I should’ve known that XiMen Feng hasn’t ever grasped the present situation.

“Let’s go.” I immediately started walking toward Flower City.

“Prin—Sonny! You’re walking in the wrong direction,” XiMen Feng yelled hurriedly.

Eh? Is that so? I scratched my face as I was dragged along by XiMen Feng. Weird, why does it seem like XiMen Feng is acting a bit pushier than usual today?

“XiMen Feng, after AnRui brought you here, did he leave again?” I asked absentmindedly. Darn that clam… would it have killed him to stay and help out?

“Uh-huh, yeah.”

“Since AnRui hates getting involved so much, I wonder who was actually able to make him come and act as our transport.” No matter how much I racked my brains, I still couldn’t figure out just who would be able to force that clam off its bum.

“It could be the Dictator of Life himself,” XiMen Feng said solemnly. “Even though I don’t know the reason, it’s clear that the Dictator of Life is helping us reach the Northern Continent. Yet on the other hand, he’s also trying to prevent us from advancing. I really don’t understand what his true intention is.”

“Is it really the Dictator of Life?” I really didn’t understand the mentality of a final boss. He wants us to come, but at the same time he is desperately trying to stop us. What’s he playing at?

“I think it should have been him,” replied XiMen Feng, his brow also furrowed in thought.

I suddenly felt very strange, as if something were out of place… Just what could it be? I stared at XiMen Feng’s furrowed brow, feeling rather strange… Oh yeah! I shouted in surprise, “XiMen Feng, you—”

XiMen Feng’s body suddenly stiffened. “What’s wrong with yer daddy?”

I bore down mercilessly upon him. “You’re just as directionally challenged as I am! Acting all like you know where you’re going… If you’re really able to lead me to Flower City, then I bet I can swim back to the Central Continent on my own.”

“Th—this is…” stammered a wide-eyed XiMen Feng, looking as though he was at a loss for words.

“Luckily, I’ll be able to see if I climb a tree.” Immediately I nimbly climbed up to the top of the tree. XiMen Feng, the bastard, was even more directionally challenged than I was after all! We had been walking in precisely the direction leading away from Flower City.

Once again I slid down the tree trunk, and waved to XiMen Feng. “It’s this way.”

XiMen Feng remained rooted to the spot, staring stupidly at me.

Seeing him like that, I curled my lip irritably. “What? You don’t want to come with me? Then you can go find the others by yourself.”

“I’ll come with you, no matter where you want to go,” XiMen Feng said with a smile, and followed me.

Something still feels weird. Isn’t XiMen Feng acting… rather differently than usual? I thought hard. How is XiMen Feng different from before? He seems to be… gentler? I shook my head violently. It is inconceivable that the word “gentle” can actually be used in conjunction with XiMen Feng. I am definitely imagining things!

When the city walls of Flower City were already within sight, I found myself faced with a predicament. How should I sneak into Flower City? Considering that there were probably some hundreds of thousands of NPCs crawling all over the place, I really didn’t feel that with just XiMen Feng’s help I could simply disregard the mobs of enemies and charge our way through to the Dictator of Life.

“If the Dictator of Life really were in Flower City, then he would definitely be in the Central Tower,” XiMen Feng shrewdly analyzed. “That is where the defense would be the strongest.”

“The Central Tower!” Inwardly, I sized up our present situation. How could I possibly get to the Central Tower? Unless you were an NPC, any player that entered Flower City would definitely be slaughtered… Right, an NPC! I hurriedly asked, “Is there any way the two of us can disguise ourselves as NPCs?”

“Um, generally speaking, it’s not possible,” XiMen Feng said with some hesitation.

“Then, that means there is a way?” From the way he spoke, it sounded like XiMen Feng had some sort of idea.

In a rather defeated tone, XiMen Feng replied, “Yes, a while ago Lolidragon happened to develop a device that can be used to change one’s appearance.”

“Then what are you waiting for? Hurry up and take it out,” I demanded rather unhappily. If XiMen Feng had taken out this device earlier, I wouldn’t have had to stand here racking my brains for a way to get into Flower City.

XiMen Feng pulled out of his bag a strangely shaped… plastic wrap!

Plastic wrap, as the name implies, is a clear plastic film used to preserve things. When bought, it often comes in a cylindrical shape, and upon opening it, one can pull out a very long sheet of clear, plastic film that can be used to wrap up food, which can then be placed in the refrigerator, preserved, and thus keep any foul smells from spreading. Moreover, it can be used to steam nice tasty eggs. In short, for a housewife and her cooking needs, it is an indispensable treasure… But, I seemed to remember that what I wanted was a disguising device. What is XiMen Feng giving me this plastic wrap for?!

With flames practically shooting out of my mouth, I reached out with both hands and closed them around XiMen Feng’s throat. Here we were, facing an extremely serious situation, yet this guy still had the nerve to play around with me!

“Wrap this around your body, and then say the name of the person whose appearance you want to take!” XiMen Feng frantically yelled, as he could do little else in the face of my wrath.

“Oh.” I immediately withdrew my hands from XiMen Feng’s neck, took the plastic wrap, and hastily began to “preserve” myself… I felt like a mummy being wrapped in transparent bandages.

I finally understood what it felt like to be a fish wrapped in plastic wrap. My entire body, including my eyes, was wrapped in the plastic wrap. Besides standing, I couldn’t do anything at all… although I could probably still jump straight up.

“Prince, just say the name of the person whose appearance you want to take,” XiMen Feng reminded me.

“…Scorching Flame.” I considered for a moment. If I want to get close to the Dictator of Life, it would definitely be best to turn into one of the Four Heavenly Kings. Furthermore, Scorching Flame has already disappeared along with Wicked, so I won’t have to worry about running into him.

The name had barely left my mouth when the film on my body suddenly began to tighten… Alright, I admit that Scorching Flame was a lot slimmer than me, but there wasn’t any need for it to be this tight. Moreover, my body felt so hot, it was as if I were being roasted over a fire. I couldn’t keep myself from moaning in pain. My god, not only am I being tightly wrapped in plastic film, now it feels as though I’m stuck inside a microwave.

Can it be that XiMen Feng is an NPC in disguise, and is planning to devour me after putting me in the microwave? Wild thoughts swirled uncontrollably through my mind right before I passed out from the heat.

Ow, where am I? I can’t be inside the fake XiMen Feng’s stomach, can I? I shook my head vigorously, trying to get rid of the feeling of dizziness.

“Sorry, I forgot to tell you that the transformation process isn’t very pleasant,” said XiMen Feng… No, this wasn’t XiMen Feng’s voice. I whipped my head up to look, only to see someone that I shouldn’t be seeing here.

Celestial!

I stared blankly at him. The Execution Squad can’t have found me this quickly…right?

Celestial smiled. “I’m not actually Celestial. You turned into Scorching Flame, so of course I will need to turn into another NPC as well. We can just say that Scorching Flame has caught the traitor Celestial, and is bringing him back to report to the Dictator of Life.”

“That’s a good idea.” I got up, and happened to notice that my own hand had turned into some red, semi-transparent foreign-looking entity. I looked down at the rest of my body, which was half translucent. It made me feel like a… ghost.

“Let’s go!” I gathered my courage and, dragging the “traitor” Celestial who had been captured by “Scorching Flame,” I headed toward the main gates of Flower City.

I walked straight into the city. As expected, the number of NPCs inside was as innumerable as the players within Infinite City. Moreover, they were crawling all over the place. If I had brazenly charged in, I probably would have had to prepare to go back to the Central Continent after breaching just a meter past the city gates.

But right now I was Scorching Flame… Hehe, as expected, not a single NPC stood in my way. Dragging “Celestial” along like so, I steadily approached the Central Tower, drawing ever closer to my target: the Dictator of Life.

“Stop right there!” A cold voice suddenly rang out. What was even more frightening was that I seemed to have heard this voice before.

Taking a deep breath, I turned to face this newcomer, who turned out to be none other than Flowing Wind. I coolly asked, “What do you want?” In any case, right now I, like Flowing Wind, was one of the Four Heavenly Kings, so there was no need to be courteous with him. Besides, based on the short time I had known Scorching Flame, I had the feeling that he definitely had not been a person of good temperament.

“You caught Celestial?” Flowing Wind asked with a surprised expression on his face.

“Yeah, and I was just about to bring him to see the Dictator,” I replied.

“Why don’t you just fly? What are you walking on your legs for?” Flowing Wind asked suspiciously.

Ugh, although this technique of disguise can transform me into another person, it can’t give me that person’s abilities… but I couldn’t very well say that. I thought about it, and came up with a forced excuse. “Hehe, I wanted to take my time beating this guy up. If I flew to the Dictator right away, where’s the fun in that?”

Flowing Wind laughed raucously. “But of course, let me teach him a lesson too.” Having said this, he actually threw a punch at XiMen Feng, knocking him onto the ground.

Seeing that Flowing Wind was aiming to land a few more blows on XiMen Feng, I hurriedly blocked him. “Alright, that’s enough. Better not let the Dictator find out.”

“Alright.” Upon hearing the Dictator’s name, Flowing Wind had no choice but to stop, albeit very reluctantly.

I quickly helped XiMen Feng up, and threw him a worried glance, which he returned with a reassuring smile.

“Flowing Wind, something serious has happened!” a child’s voice urgently shouted. “Scorching Flame is dead and the Dictator of Life has flown into a rage.”

“What? Scorching Flame is dead?” A strange expression appeared on Flowing Wind’s face. He stared at Clay Child, and then looked at me.

I’m so dead. I was just about to break into a run and flee, when the whole sky shook with a terrible voice that was filled with rage and grief, wailing, “Why did they kill him?” “Scorching Flame didn’t do anything wrong!” “Damn all of you humans!”

“The Dictator of Life!” I looked toward the Central Tower. The Dictator of Life was in Flower City after all—Ocean’s Heart had given us false information.

“Hurry, run to the Central Tower,” XiMen Feng reminded me.

He was right. Right now we were up against two of the Heavenly Kings. If now wasn’t the time to flee, I didn’t know when would be. I immediately broke out running at top speed, but still remembered to shout at XiMen Feng, “Don’t follow me, XiMen! Run toward the city gates, I’ll lure them to the Central Tower—XiMen Feng?”

Shocked, I watched as XiMen Feng spread out both arms to block the path of Flowing Wind and Clay Child. He lightly uttered the very words that I never, ever wanted to hear again in my life, “ND self-des—”

Not waiting for him to finish, I struck out with my foot, kicking XiMen Feng down onto the ground so that he was unable to get up. I viciously growled, “Do you take me for an idiot?”

I stomped, kicked and punched him. “Did you think I couldn’t tell that you were different from the usual XiMen Feng? How could XiMen Feng be as clever, as gentle, and as big of an idiot as you, who thinks only of sacrificing yourself for me?”

I kept hitting him, but couldn’t keep myself from choking on my tears as I cried out, “Stupid Gui!”

XiMen Feng…no, Gui stiffened, then raised his head and gave a wry smile. “You found out?”

“I wasn’t sure at first, but when you shouted to activate the self-destruct program—how could I not have known?” I shouted, “You purposely walked in the direction opposite of Flower City in order to lead me to the others, right? I refused to follow you, and yet you said that you were definitely willing to stay with me. Who else could you be besides Gui?”

“I’m sorry, Prince. I didn’t mean to lie to you, it’s just that when I saw Wicked blow himself up, I knew you definitely wouldn’t let me come with you, so I…” Gui slowly got up, and gently held me in his arms.

So you pretended to be XiMen Feng, and even as you were about to blow yourself to pieces, you refused to tell me you were Gui… I also embraced him back tightly and cried bitterly, “Wicked, Wicked’s already gone! Don’t leave me too, alright?”

“Please don’t cry, Prince. If you cry, both Wicked and I will feel very sad,” Gui gently comforted me.

“Then you have to promise me that you definitely will not use the ND self-destruct program,” I said, looking straight at Gui, not wanting to give him any chance of evading me.

Gui smiled, but did not say a word.

“Gui?” I asked, a bit afraid. Gui’s smile was so gentle… so gentle, that it made me feel afraid.

“Chains of Love,” Gui softly recited.

My heart jumped, and looking down, I saw that semi-transparent chains were twisting themselves around my body… Gui was going to blow himself up! Panicking, I yelled, “Gui, I forbid you from disappearing! If you disappear, I definitely, definitely won’t go looking for you!”

The back of Gui’s body stiffened, though he calmly faced Flowing Wind and Clay Child, and asked, “Can you let us go?”

“Is Scorching Flame really dead?” Flowing Wind demanded, holding back his temper with tremendous difficulty as the air surrounding him began to churn in turbulent gusts. Anyone could see that Flowing Wind would fly into a rage at the slightest sign of assent from Gui.

“Yes,” Gui answered serenely.

“You guys killed him!” Clay Child looked angrily at Gui with red-rimmed eyes, while Flowing Wind fixed a hateful glare on me.

Gui turned to me with a bitter smile. “It looks like there won’t be a happy ending, Prince. You and Wicked couldn’t kill Scorching Flame… With the two of us against Flowing Wind and Clay Child, do we have any other choice?”

“We can escape,” I said, trembling as I struggled. Why are these bonds so damn tight?

“Don’t struggle anymore, Prince. Those chains are like my love for you… they will never, ever let go.” As Gui’s smile became even more tender, it made my heart ache even more painfully.

“No!” I couldn’t stop myself from screaming. “Gui!”

“ND self-destruct program activate!” Gui softly called out.

A flash of blinding white light burst forth, and sounding as though he were about to cry, he gently said, “I still want to meet you, Prince.”

Bang! The ear-splitting sound of a violent explosion tore through the air, followed once again by those exceedingly beautiful white snowflakes falling from the sky. Was this Gui’s blood, Gui’s flesh, or Gui’s heart? I couldn’t hold back the tears that filled my eyes. In my heart, all that remained was the image of a dark-haired demon with amethyst eyes, a man who always left his smiles for me, but kept his tears to himself.

“Gui… why did you sacrifice yourself?” I cried out. “I came to Flower City on my own because I didn’t want to see any of you die for me! Yet you still gave up your life, what the hell is up with that?”

“Gui, you idiot! Idiot!” I yelled hoarsely.

Original novel in Chinese by: 御我 (Yu Wo)

Chapter 2: The Disappearance of Wicked – translated by Lucathia

“This is AnRui,” I introduced to everyone in Infinite City. After seeing their dumbstruck expressions and increasing breathing difficulties, I added another fatal blow. “Is everyone ready? If so, take a seat. It’s time to depart.”

Everyone was speechless. After a lot of struggling, Nan Gong Zui finally managed to squeeze out a single question, one that he obviously already knew the answer to. “What are we sitting on?”

Naturally, I gestured toward AnRui. “You know, AnRui.”

“Where are we going to sit? On the shell?” Neurotic widened his eyes.

Silently, I walked up to AnRui’s side and patted its shell. At that, AnRui opened its shell and rolled me up with its tongue (don’t ask me if clams really have tongues. I don’t know either. I’ve never encountered tongues when I ate clams in the past. AnRui somehow just had one). I then lay on top of the soft clam meat, as comfortable as if I were lying on top of a water bed from Simmons. It was hard to suppress my continual feeling of drowsiness.

Soon, I felt another person being rolled in. When he was thrown on top of the clam meat, he caused a ripple of meat waves to spread out. Silently, he lay next to me.

“So dark. Is there a light around?” The person asked calmly, finally letting me know that the one who got rolled in was Nan Gong Zui.

I also calmly answered him, “Would there be light inside a clam’s body?”

Before Nan Gong Zui could even open his mouth to answer, a soft light suddenly lit up. Wordlessly, Nan Gong Zui and I looked up at the ceiling… I mean, at the center of the shell above us, where a pearl was now giving off light.

“How’s this?” AnRui asked attentively.

“Great, thank you very much,” Nan Gong Zui answered extremely politely.

Following that, the rest of the crowd was thrown in one after another. It wasn’t long before a bunch of people lay inside AnRui’s body in a disorderly manner.

I adjusted my reclining position before opening my mouth to speak. “I’ll take attendance. Wolf-dàgē? Yu Lian-dàsăo?”

“Here.” Wolf-dàgē and Yu Lian-dàsăo’s voices drifted over from the same corner. I turned my head to look, only to discover that Yu Lian-dàsăo was in Wolf-dàgē’s embrace, a shy expression on her face… ah, I saw nothing. I turned my head back.

“Doll?” Right after I called out for her, two slaps resounded, accompanied by the sound of Celestial’s wailing sobs.

“Gui, Wicked?”

“Why are you grouping us together…” the two of them asked in unison, as if they were on the same wavelength.

“Lolidragon?” I yelled but didn’t get a response. “Lolidragon?”

I heard a snore, and then Feng Wu Qing coldly said, “She fell asleep.”

She fell asleep too quickly! Sweat… I continued with my roll call. “Fairsky, even though lying down presents a very convenient opportunity, don’t take this chance to devour Sunshine.”

“Eh, I… won’t do that… probably…” Why does Fairsky’s voice sound a little guilty?

“Kenshin?” I called out for Kenshin, seeing no need to call out for Cold Fox, since Cold Fox was always at Kenshin’s side.

“Here,” Kenshin called out simply.

“Neurotic, DanDan?”

“Ah, that pearl is so beautiful…”

“Before we get off the clam, can I take that pearl with me?”

Good, the wandering couple and Winter Triumph are all here. That only leaves…

“Uuuuu, Lolidragon, let me sleep by your side!”

Looks like everyone’s here… Inside my heart, I softly murmured, thanks everyone, before I yelled loudly, “Then let’s set out! AnRui, we’re counting on you.”

“Hey, hey, hey, did you forget about me?” A clear voice snarled out resentfully.

“Ming Huang…” I called out grudgingly. I didn’t think he’d come along too.

“Meatbun’s owner, I’m setting out now,” AnRui said courteously. After that, our journey to the Northern Continent began…huh? You’re wondering how a clam can walk on land?

By sliding! Don’t be suspicious, see, AnRui has already begun sliding. As a whole, the trip felt fairly smooth, except for when AnRui would occasionally turn left or dash right and we would tumble around inside. And when AnRui would suddenly brake, we would all splatter in front, although, the most painful experiences had to be when AnRui would jump up and we’d fly up high in the air, hit the ceiling, and then land on the clam meat below with a splat.

“Urgh, I’m clam sick,” Feng Wu Qing shouted in pain.

Weakly, I ordered, “Bear with it. It should be better when we reach the sea.”

I didn’t know how long it took, but AnRui suddenly jumped with a lot of power. We splattered against the ceiling for several seconds, after which AnRui finally landed with great strength, and we also struck against clam meat with great strength, which was followed by several groans.

I lay against the clam meat and howled in pain for several moments before I discovered that AnRui didn’t seem to be very stable and was wobbling left and right, like a ship floating in the sea. Happily, I shouted, “We’re at sea now!”

After I spoke everyone was so happy that they almost cried.

Compared to our previous hell of rolling about, it felt so comfortable at the moment that it was almost like we’d returned to sleeping in our mothers’ wombs. Everyone lay quietly on top of the clam meat, enjoying the peacefulness of the moment. After all, when we reached the Northern Continent, we would be fighting to the death. Who knew how many of us would survive against HD?

“Say, why don’t we decide on a time and location to meet in the real world?” I suddenly asked. If Prince were to disappear, then I would no longer have a need to hide my gender. I should be able to openly appear in front of everyone as a female. Hehe, I wonder what kind of expression everyone will have when they discover my gender?

“That is a good idea. Then we won’t lose contact,” Yu Lian-dàsăo said with a chuckle.

“Then let’s meet at Yu Lian-dàsăo and Wolf-dàgē’s wedding ceremony,” I said while smiling slyly.

“What are you saying, Prince?” Yu Lian-dàsăo reprimanded faintly.

I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. Earning Yu Lian-dàsăo’s “faint reprimand” was no easy feat.

“Where should we decide on?” Nan Gong Zui asked a little excitedly.

I gave him an odd look before I shrugged and said, “Wherever’s fine. It doesn’t matter even if we’re in different countries. Going places is so convenient now. If we use the transmission machine, we’d get there in no time.” (Note: The transmission machine’s function is similar to today’s fax machine, but what’s transmitted isn’t paper, but rather three-dimensional people or items. The transmission fee is not cheap.)

I chuckled twice before I said, “As for the fee for the transmission machine, of course we should leave it to Lolidragon, the daughter of the mighty president, to bear the burden.”

Lolidragon “hmphed” twice before she private messaged me, “Fine, I’ll pay. I’m already itching to see how everyone will react once they know your true identity. Hehehe, they might even beat you until you swell up like a pig, especially Nan Gong Zui, Kong Kong, and all those people who look up to you. You know the consequences of shattering their delusions will be grave.”

Uh, Nan Gong Zui wouldn’t hit a woman, would he? Hopefully not…

“I wonder what Prince looks like? Probably not very similar to how he looks right now,” Wolf-dàgē’s rough voice resounded.

“There’s probably a huge discrepancy. Otherwise, how can it be that no one was able to track down the spokesperson for Second Life?” Winter Triumph murmured thoughtfully, scaring me so much that my heart suddenly jumped.

“Hehehe, even though appearances in Second Life are based on people’s true appearances, there’s still a lot you can alter, such as your body weight. Maybe the real Prince is as fat as a pig.” The guiltless tone Lolidragon faked made me so angry that my teeth hurt.

“Who’s as fat as a pig?!” I gritted out between my teeth.

“Huh? Am I wrong?” Lolidragon exaggerated her expression and even used an “innocent” (innocent my ass) tone to ask in return, “Otherwise, how do you look?”

“Your Highness, no matter what you look like, Gui will not care,” Gui hurriedly said.

I didn’t even have time to private message Lolidragon to scold her when something unexpected happened. AnRui, who had been smoothly sailing before, suddenly shook back and forth vigorously. I quickly yelled, “AnRui, has something happened?”

“There’s an obstruction,” AnRui replied tensely.

Feng Wu Qing’s anguished wailings began again. “Ah, first it’s land-sickness. Now it’s sea-sickness.”

Lolidragon angrily rebuked, “What a useless guy.”

“AnRui, is there any way to pass?” I struggled to stand up.

“Yes, but it might be a little uncomfortable. Please take care, everyone. I will need to use my colliding technique to overcome the obstruction.”

AnRui courteously apologized and then suddenly stood upright from its previous horizontal position. I didn’t have any time to shout before I rolled straight to the bottom. I didn’t know which unlucky guy got squashed firmly by me, but then I became the next unlucky guy when someone dropped from above and firmly squashed me. That person squashed me so much that my blood surged forward and I almost vomited a mouthful of blood.

“Prince, may I ask what kind of technique this colliding technique is?” From below me, Nan Gong Zui asked with a weak gasp.

“Rolling…” My face paled. It can’t be?

“We’re so dead!” Feng Wu Qing said hopelessly.

A few fleeting clouds floated above in the azure sky, white waves rolled in from the dark blue sea, and on top of the white, sandy shore lay… a clam huge enough to scare someone to death!

Without a sound, the two large pieces of the clam’s shell opened and a hand (which was shaking slightly) reached out from inside. Then, a splattered human who resembled Sadako climbing out of a television set¹, with messy hair splayed in front, crawled out on all four limbs, followed by a group of people wiggling out of the clam’s shell, silently dropping dead on the seashore.

“If anyone ever tells me to ride a clam again, I will definitely kill eighteen generations of their family².” Feng Wu Qing, the first one to climb out, gritted his teeth and cursed dispiritedly, completely forgetting that the first person who told him to ride a clam coincidentally shared the same family members as him.

“Thank you, AnRui.” Because my feet were shaking, I could only hang halfway on top of the clam’s shell to give my thanks. Even though the journey hadn’t been very pleasant, at least we had safely arrived at the Northern Continent.

“You’re welcome, Meatbun’s owner.” AnRui nodded its head and then spat Meatbun out.

Meatbun cheered with “Oh oh!”, rolled several times in midair, and then landed on top of my head. Unable to contain its excitement, it told AnRui, “AnRuiRui~, roll-roll is so, so fun. We should play play it again next time.”

AnRui chuckled. “Okay, next time, I will play with Meatbun again.” After saying so, AnRui turned to me and even made a bow. “Everything now depends on you, Meatbun’s owner.”

I didn’t really understand, but I nodded and watched AnRui retreat back to the water, disappearing from sight after a splash.

Turning my head, I faced the crowd. “Alright. Where to now?”

“Flower City.” Gui took out a map and said, “Our current position is approximately south of Flower City. As long as we continue heading north, we should be able to reach Flower City within two days. Of course, this is under the assumption that no one blocks us.”

“Ah, then we probably won’t be able to reach the city in two days.” Feng Wu Qing stared at some place past my back, his eyes wide.

I turned my head to look and almost cried out when I saw what was practically a mountain and sea of NPCs. We were already completely surrounded by all kinds of NPCs. The only way out was the ocean behind us… No, I already heard the strange sound of the churning waves behind me. It looked like we were completely surrounded.

By this time, everyone had already pulled themselves up and gathered together, their weapons ready in their hands. I pulled out my Black Dao. After walking to the very front, I turned on the team channel for our Execution Squad. “Line up right now. We’re going to blast our way out. Undying Man, Kenshin, Cold Fox, Neurotic, Nan Gong Zui, Winter Triumph, all of you go to the front to open a path for us. Yu Lian-dàsăo and Ming Huang, please also head to the front to help clear a path out using your magic. Everyone else, stay in the middle. Wu Qing, Wicked, come with me to the back.”

“Okay,” everyone responded simultaneously.

Everyone slowly lined up in the formation I had just described, and the NPCs looked like they wanted to start moving. I immediately yelled loudly over the team channel, “Break through the north!”

At once, Yu Lian-dàsăo began reciting an incantation and Ming Huang was so excited that he’d already thrown out numerous strikes of lightning. He even began laughing loudly, “Haha, so many monsters. It’s been too long since I’ve had such a good time electrocuting things.”

As soon as the mages opened a path to the north, the warriors in the front began fighting their way out of the siege, and I concentrated on battling the NPCs that had caught up to us at the back of the group. After a flurry of movement, I slowly discovered the fact that, thankfully, even though these NPCs were numerous, they were not that strong.

While we did our utmost to attack and kill the NPCs, Yu Lian-dàsăo and Ming Huang shouted at the same time, “Heaven’s Nine Wrath” and “Meteor Shower.”

The sight of meteorites and lightning striking together once again appeared in front of my eyes. I thought I remembered the first time I’d seen such an impressive sight, which happened to be during the final battle of the Adventurers’ Tournament. After the chaotic strikes of the meteorites and the lightning, a radius of more than ten meters in front of us was immediately wiped clean.

“Run quickly!” I shouted loudly.

As soon as I spoke, everyone began running desperately. As we ran, we even trampled on NPCs that were once again rising up. Ming Huang nearly lost his shoes too.

“Hurry and run, hurry! Warriors with quick agility, pick up the mages and run.” In the back, Wicked and I urged everyone on. I looked back and saw that numerous NPCs were already chasing us. My heart shivered. Although they weren’t strong, with enough of them, even ants could devour an elephant.

“This is no good, Prince.” Lolidragon looked like she was barging on with her teeth clenched as she spoke. “Prince, we should separate. You take the strongest ones – Kenshin, Sunshine, and Celestial – and fight straight to Flower City. Let us help you draw away the NPCs.”

“No,” I refused straight away. What kind of joke is this? You want me to stay far away while I watch others get destroyed by NPCs without doing anything? I would rather you tell me to watch the entirety of Second Life get destroyed than that.

Anxious, Lolidragon shouted, “Why are you so stubborn?”

I was just about to open my mouth to retort when I discovered a shadow looming above my head. I raised my head in confusion, but by then a phoenix had already grabbed me and lifted me off the ground.

“Prince!” Shocked, Wicked pounced and grabbed my legs tightly.

I quickly raised my Black Dao, wanting to cut the phoenix’s claws that were clutching my shoulders, but the phoenix seemed to know what I wanted to do next and even used its wings to swat my Black Dao away. When my Black Dao hit the ground, the phoenix shot straight up into the air. In a blink, I was already high up in the sky, getting farther and farther away from my companions.

“Prince!” I seemed to still be able to hear Lolidragon shouting and see everyone else’s shocked expressions.

What should I do now? I was completely at my wit’s end. Even if I could kill this phoenix, I was doomed to become mincemeat once I fell.

“Flying carpet, follow quickly.” A voice roused me with a start. I turned my head and saw that Sunshine was already making his way over on his flying carpet.

“Sunshine!” I yelled emotionally, at the same time struggling with all my might. Now I was no longer afraid of falling because Sunshine would never let me become mincemeat.

“Prince, hold on. I’m coming to save you right away.” Right after Sunshine shouted this, a shadow appeared in front of him, forcing him to suddenly brake. That shadow belonged to…Celestial! While Sunshine was being obstructed, the phoenix took me farther and farther away and kept going until I could no longer see them.

“Why?” My heart ached all of a sudden. Is Celestial truly…a spy? He actually prevented Sunshine from rescuing me…

“Uuuu, I’m now completely alone and even stuck in midair. What should I do?” I blinked my eyes, trying to force my tears back, but then again, since I was all alone, I might truly become mincemeat very soon. Even if I cried, no one would see me.

“Xiao Lan, help me up,” Wicked shouted with difficulty.

I looked down at my feet. Wicked… Zhuo-gēgē was slowly sliding down my legs. Hurriedly, I grabbed him and pulled him up to my side. Now, the two of us no longer dared to struggle. In fact, we grabbed on to the phoenix’s legs with all our might. Who knew how high up in the air we currently were? I only knew that we were surrounded by white clouds. If we were to fall, most likely no one would even be able to find our ashes.

“Who knew that we would make such a slip-up right after coming to shore?” Zhuo-gēgē said with a weak smile.

“Yeah,” I replied somewhat dejectedly. It looked like I was still too arrogant, thinking that I could plow straight through to the Dictator of Life, and then, like a hero, fight to the death and die together with the final boss… now I could only die together with a bird. Reality is truly cruel!

Indignantly, I accused, “Celestial really crossed the line! He actually blocked Sunshine, stopping him from rescuing me.”

However, Zhuo-gēgē thoughtfully questioned, “Celestial…maybe he is keeping something from us. He might not be as dumb as he appears.”

“He betrayed us!” I clenched my fists and bellowed.

“That might not be true.” Zhuo-gēgē fished out a compass and showed it to me. “Look. We’re heading north.”

North? Toward the location of Flower City? This bird isn’t going to take us to see the Dictator of Life, is it? Thinking this, I immediately opened my mouth to ask, “Hey, Bird, are you taking us to see the Dictator of Life?” Fire Phoenix was capable of speech, so there was no reason for the phoenix dispatched by the god of Second Life to be incapable of speech, right?

“I’m not Bird.” As I thought, the phoenix started speaking, using a stiff tone to spit out the words.

After going “eh,” I asked again, “Then Phoenix, are you taking us to see the Dictator of Life?”

“Hmph, who said I’m a phoenix?” The phoenix actually replied in a super affronted tone.

After hearing such a tone from the phoenix, I couldn’t help but coldly mock him, “Not a phoenix? Then are you a turkey³?” Ah, shit, I almost forgot that my life is still in the hands of this phoenix. He’s not going to throw me down in a fit of rage, is he?

“What’s a turkey?” the phoenix asked instead in a suspicious tone.

“Well…it’s a very majestic creature,” I answered in a calm voice. I mean, it is praiseworthy for turkeys to give themselves up so that people can eat them.

“I see. Do I truly resemble that kind of majestic creature?” The phoenix hummed joyfully and proudly.

“Yes, very much,” I replied winningly, with a super flattering tone. Even Zhuo-gēgē was forced to smother his laughter.

“But I am also not a turkey.” Maybe it was because I had praised him for resembling a majestic creature, but the phoenix’s tone was clearly a lot more amiable now, although his haughty attitude hadn’t changed. Very conceitedly, he announced, “I am Scorching Flame, one of the Four Heavenly Kings who serve the Dictator of Life.”

What? This turkey is Scorching Flame, one of the Four Heavenly Kings? That’s really… he really didn’t seem like one of the Four Heavenly Kings at all. I furrowed my brows. No matter how I looked at him, he looked like a common turkey – ah, no, a phoenix.

Scorching Flame, who had been flying at a quick pace, suddenly braked and asked suspiciously, “Eh? Ocean’s Heart, what did you come here for?”

After hearing the words “Ocean’s Heart,” I also curiously looked toward the figure that was blocking our way. Ocean’s Heart was now the only one of the Four Heavenly Kings I hadn’t seen yet.

After a glance, I couldn’t stop myself from exclaiming, “Is the Dictator of Life too lazy, or is the author too lazy?” Why? Why did Ocean’s Heart…look almost exactly like Flowing Wind, with their only difference being that Flowing Wind gave people the feeling of a coming whirlwind, while Ocean’s Heart gave the feeling of flowing water?

“Hehe, Scorching Flame, you should hand the two of them over to me.” Ocean’s Heart gently said, “I will bring them to the Dictator of Life.”

“Why? The Dictator clearly told me to bring them over.” Scorching Flame looked not at all pleased about this.

“The Dictator has changed his mind; he was afraid that they would anger you and that you would forget your mission and instead kill them directly.” Ocean’s Heart wasn’t angry and merely recounted this indifferently.

“Hmph, I would never do that.” Extremely resentful, Scorching Flame said, “I will definitely complete the mission that the Dictator assigned to me.”

“Forget about that. Hand them over to me,” said Ocean’s Heart in a very gentle voice, though it had become slightly firmer.

“No, I will personally hand them over to the Dictator. I will complete my mission.” Stubbornly, Scorching Flame gripped the two of us tightly, and as spectators, Zhuo-gēgē and I continued to watch the two NPCs argue, since no matter who won, in the end we would be taken to see the Dictator of Life.

Hearing this, Ocean’s Heart’s face fell too, and he lightly said, “Scorching Flame, hand them over to me.”

“I won’t.” Furious, Scorching Flame said, “The Dictator clearly wanted me to bring them over, not you.”

Wow, is this what they call civil warfare? Hm, based on my knowledge from my many years of novel reading, right now we should provoke them to argue more. Even better, we should get them to start fighting, and then Zhuo-gēgē and I would be able to take advantage of the situation and escape.

“Aiya, Wicked, who do you think we should leave with?” I asked Wicked with a completely innocent expression, but my eyes were trained on Scorching Flame and Ocean’s Heart.

After I blinked furiously, furiously being more than ten times per second, Zhuo-gēgē seemed to come to some sort of understanding. Tentatively, he tried asking, “Shouldn’t we leave with the stronger one?”

“Hmph!” Scorching Flame made an emphasized “hmph” sound. Although Ocean’s Heart still hadn’t reacted, at least we’d already managed to provoke Scorching Flame’s anger.

Once again, I “innocently” asked Scorching Flame, “Scorching Flame, between you and Ocean’s Heart, who is stronger?”

“Of course I am stronger!” The flames around Scorching Flame’s body suddenly began burning strongly, and his shape also began changing greatly…from the shape of a common turkey to something that looked no different from Ocean’s Heart and Flowing Wind. The only difference was his red color.

Damn the author for being so lazy… As Zhuo-gēgē and I fell, we couldn’t help but complain about this to ourselves… That’s right, once the turkey changed into a semitransparent human, the bird feet that had been grabbing us disappeared right away, which meant we’d begun falling. Why was it that my plan to provoke civil warfare was kind of… backfiring?

“Oh no.” Scorching Flame hurriedly rushed toward us but was blocked by Ocean’s Heart, forcing him to watch us play at free-falling right before his eyes.

Uuuu. Fine, I’d accept that I didn’t so much as see the boss’s face, even though I was the hero setting out to destroy the boss. Fine, I’d accept that I got captured by the Four Heavenly Kings. But don’t tell me that my death would actually come about because a momentary lapse in my enemy’s rational thinking caused me to fall to my death? I wondered, would a lot of people laugh until they rolled on the ground after hearing about this?

“I’m sorry for dragging you into this, Zhuo-gēgē.” I looked at Zhuo-gēgē with a somewhat apologetic expression. It was all thanks to my bird-brained scheme that we’d need to report back to the Central Continent.

“It’s fine,” Zhuo-gēgē merely smiled kindly.

“I…” After only managing to say “I,” I discovered that we were no longer dropping, and that a strange feeling was coming from below, causing me to feel like I was floating on water. When I tilted my head to look down, I saw a jelly-like block of ice holding us up. Water? Could it be Ocean’s Heart?

“Let’s hurry. Also, the Dictator of Life is not in Flower City. You should head east of Flower City, to Mount HuaLian.” Ocean’s Heart’s voice sounded next to my ear. Surprised, I looked towards Zhuo-gēgē, who also looked like he had heard this, but he remained silent.

After finally reaching land, I spotted an unwelcome visitor in the distance. Flowing Wind was currently heading our way rapidly… Zhuo-gēgē and I alone were probably no match for him. We could only resort to the one stratagem I knew from the Thirty-Six Stratagems⁴ – run for your life!

Ocean’s Heart, who had blocked Scorching Flame, forged ahead and also blocked Flowing Wind at the same time. Even though I didn’t know why he was helping us so much, there was no way we would miss our chance to escape. Quickly, I pulled Zhuo-gēgē and began running wildly through the forest, doing my utmost to run toward the densest parts of the thicket to prevent the Four Heavenly Kings from catching us.

“Why is Ocean’s Heart helping us?” asked Zhuo-gēgē suspiciously as we ran.

“I don’t know either,” I replied, full of questions myself. Everything was getting more and more confusing.

“Where should we go now?” Zhuo-gēgē…forget it, I’ll call him Wicked… Wicked asked me, “Do you want to go to Flower City, or Mount HuaLian?”

I thought and thought. Ocean’s Heart did save the two of us, so listening to him shouldn’t be wrong, right? After thinking this through, I replied resolutely, “Let’s go to Mount HuaLian.”

Wicked fell silent for a bit and then slowly said, “I feel that we shouldn’t trust Ocean’s Heart too much. Somehow, he seems a little strange.”

“But he did save us,” I refuted. “If he wanted to bring us harm, he could have just let us fall to our deaths, or he could have let Scorching Flame bring us to the Dictator of Life to let the Dictator finish us off. Wouldn’t that have been much easier?”

After hearing me say this, Wicked didn’t say anything more. After Wicked had revealed his misgivings, the two of us stopped within the thickets and examined our maps… Okay, I admit that it was Wicked who was examining his map. I made use of the time and took out some food from my bag…

“Prince, are the two of you alright?” Gui asked worriedly.

“Eh?” My mouth was full of food. I looked every which way. Strange, Gui’s not around? Am I hearing things?

“Prince, Prince?” Gui was so anxious that his voice was choked with sobs. Finally, he said hopelessly, “Oh no, Prince hasn’t answered. Has he returned to the Central Continent and rebirthed there, or even worse, could Prince have been…by HD…” After saying this, Gui could no longer continue on, leaving only the sound of spasmodic sobbing.

Lolidragon sighed. “Under those kinds of circumstances, even Prince probably has no way of surviving. Except, with his disappearance, Second Life will no longer have any hope.”

“Then what should we do…”

Hearing all this, Wicked glanced at me with an odd look and asked, “Don’t you plan on responding to them?”

I chewed on the food inside my mouth. After swallowing, I opened the team channel and energetically said, “Hi, everyone!”

“…”

“‘Hi my ass!” Lolidragon shouted in exasperation and frustration. “If you’re alive, why didn’t you respond?”

“You shouldn’t talk when you’re eating. That’s basic manners!” I answered with conviction.

“You…” After her anger dissipated, Lolidragon weakly asked, “Where are you?”

“Between a bunch of trees,” I replied honestly.

Lolidragon probably knew that she would get no answers from me, so she directly asked, “Wicked, where are you?”

“We are southeast of Flower City.” Wicked carefully scrutinized the map and said, “Trying to locate the direction toward Mount HuaLian.”

“Mount HuaLian?” Lolidragon asked, confused, as I watched Wicked busying himself with a drafting compass, a directional compass, and other such tools to confirm our bearings. Since he was so occupied, it was up to me to recount everything that had happened just now to Lolidragon.

After hearing everything, Lolidragon suspiciously asked, “Are you sure Ocean’s Heart can be trusted? What if this is a trap?”

I scratched my head. “What if it’s not?”

Lolidragon fell silent for a long time and then said, “Let’s divide into two groups. You and Wicked head to Flower City. We’ll head to Mount HuaLian and check it out.”

“Is Mount HuaLian more dangerous?” I only had to give it a little thought to figure out that Lolidragon must feel that Mount HuaLian was more dangerous, which was why she wanted me to go to Flower City.

“No matter what, I want you to go to Flower City,” Lolidragon said unyieldingly. “Stop being stubborn, Prince. And Wicked, take this guy to Flower City, even if you have to drag him there, dead or alive.”

After Wicked glanced at me, his gaze evidently moved from Mount HuaLian to Flower City on the map. I quickly stared at Wicked with an imploring expression, hoping he would move his gaze back to Mount HuaLian, but Wicked was Wicked after all, and merely said succinctly, “I will only take you to Flower City.”

As expected, there was no room for discussion. Even if I wanted to sneak off to Mount HuaLian, being such a klutz at directions, I think that the probability that I would successfully reach Mount HuaLian was as low as the probability that I could walk up to the Dictator of Life and slaughter him with one strike of my dao.

Speaking of my dao… I suddenly remembered my Black Dao! Reflexively, I reached for the area around my waist. Only the scabbard remained; Black Dao was long gone. I’d almost forgotten that I’d already lost it the moment I was taken away by Scorching Flame.

“Great, I don’t even have a weapon. Am I supposed to use my teeth to bite the Dictator of Life to death?” I was a little discouraged. Losing my Black Dao that had fought alongside me from the start made it so that my odds of killing the Dictator were truly even lower than my odds of winning the lottery.

“Let’s go. I have a general idea of how to reach Flower City.” Wicked stood up and didn’t say much as he started forward.

“Oh.” It looked like besides following Wicked obediently, I didn’t have any other paths to take.

“Wicked, I lost my dao. What should I do if we meet enemies?” I asked worriedly as we walked. Even though my legs were fairly strong, I still didn’t want to use them to fight weapon-wielding NPCs.

“I will protect you,” said Wicked without even turning his head as he guided me out front.

Eh, as a girl, hearing a handsome guy say “I will protect you”… The normal response from a beautiful girl should probably be a delicate and embarrassed “I believe you.” But I clearly understood that the two of us were currently surrounded by enemies, isolated and without help. With just Wicked by himself, our odds of safely reaching Flower City could only be summed up by one phrase: Infinitely approaching zero!

That’s why I still wanted a weapon! I searched my bag inside out. Hahaha, this was great, other than this short dagger (Does everyone still remember? It’s the one that’s shorter than fifteen centimeters in total length), I didn’t have a single weapon. You couldn’t blame this on me. My Black Dao just had to be a growing-type weapon, so I never had to change my weapon whenever I leveled. Since I normally took on every challenge with a single weapon, there was no reason for me to have any extra weapons in my bag.

Just then, Wicked turned around, wordlessly handed me a sword, and somewhat awkwardly said, “Sorry, forget what I just said.”

“Haah.” Wicked turned his body but quietly sighed.

“Wicked.” I looked toward him with a lost expression.

“You don’t have to worry. My sighing doesn’t have much to do with you.” Wicked furrowed his brows deeply.

“Eh…”

“Really, it has nothing to do with you.” Wicked sighed again, and then he turned to continue leading the way. He looked like he didn’t want to say anything.

I, I only wanted to ask how this sword was supposed to be used… I’ve never used a sword before! Even though this sword looks unusually good, for a person who’s never used a sword before, it’s quite a waste…Come to think of it, why does this sword look so familiar?

“Wicked, isn’t this the sword you’re currently using?” No wonder it was so familiar. This was the sword Wicked always carried with him!

“Is that a problem?” Wicked turned around to ask, “Even though it can’t compare to your Black Dao, this is the best sword I have.”

I laid my eyes on the sword Wicked had in his hands and saw that it was clearly far inferior to the one I had in my hands. I couldn’t help but clear things up. “I only wanted a sword. I didn’t say I wanted your best one. Besides, with me having your best sword, what about you?”

Wicked raised the sword in his hand. “I have this one.”

“But…” I still wanted to convince Wicked to give me the one in his hands, but he had already turned away once again and didn’t even look back as he continued leading the way.

“I won’t give you something inferior to use!” Wicked said abruptly after a moment.

All of a sudden, I felt like something was burning on my face. It felt… really strange.

“Found you.” A sudden gust of heat attacked, and following these words, an odd creature also appeared. It was a unicorn, a unicorn with a flaming mane.

“Wasting so much of my effort.” Under my shocked gaze, the unicorn suddenly became a red, transparent, humanoid figure. “Hurry and come with me to see the Dictator. Otherwise Ocean’s Heart is going to catch up again.”

“Don’t even think about it,” I began yelling, but Wicked suddenly covered my mouth.

Even though I was a little puzzled, I obediently shut my mouth and let Wicked speak. “Will you really bring us to see the Dictator of Life? You’re not afraid that we’ll assassinate him?”

It was like Scorching Flame had heard something akin to a joke. “Assassinate the Dictator? Hahaha, you’re going to make me die of laughter. The two of you can’t even touch a single finger of mine, yet you want to assassinate the Dictator? Even if the Dictator stood in front of you without moving, you wouldn’t be able to kill him.”

“Xiao Lan.” Wicked suddenly private messaged me, “Listen to me. Later, when I start fighting with Scorching Flame, run away immediately. Go to Mount HuaLian to meet up with everyone else.”

“I refuse!” I left no room for argument. I would never abandon Wicked and run away by myself.

Wicked’s face fell and he used a grim tone to rebuke, “Stop playing around, Xiao Lan. If I die, the most that will happen is that I will return to the Central Continent to wait for everyone’s return, but if you die, our mission this time will be a complete failure. Are you going to betray everyone’s unreserved trust in you, their heartfelt feelings of deciding to follow you?”

“I would never abandon any of my comrades!” I yelled loudly. This was a principle of mine. No one could force me to violate it.

“Prince.” Wicked’s expression was extremely grudging, but his tone had softened.

“Let’s battle together, Wicked.” Without cowering, I stood next to Wicked.

Wicked sighed, but seeing that he couldn’t change my mind, he could only say, “Fine!”

“You want to fight me?” Scorching Flame asked impatiently. “You have no chance of winning. Why do something so pointless?”

I swung the sword in my hand a bit and calmly answered, “Sometimes, even when there are things you know you can’t accomplish, you still have to do it anyway.”

I locked my gaze on Scorching Flame’s figure as I private messaged Wicked, “Wicked, let’s attack from both sides.”

“Okay,” Wicked replied, and then he fiercely said, “Now’s the time!”

Hearing this, I immediately dashed forward. After Scorching Flame blanked out for a second, it raised both hands to quickly summon flames to deal with me, but I dodged past its body, sliding so that I was only three steps away from it. I held my spot without moving.

With Scorching Flame’s attention on me, Wicked also took the opportunity to begin his attack. Almost silently, he rushed forward, looking like he was about to dig out Scorching Flame’s heart, but he was still discovered. It dodged; Wicked only slashed through air.

As I was only three steps away, I immediately began the real attack. “Pure White Inferno Rhapsody!”

My sword successfully made contact with Scorching Flame’s body. Just as I was celebrating, Scorching Flame angrily demanded, “Playing with fire against me? Hell’s Infernal Flame!”

I helplessly watched as black flames scattered, swallowing my Pure White Inferno in a flash, and now the flames were pouncing my way. Feeling the deadly heat, I urgently backed up, my back violently ramming into a tree trunk. I breathed out, only able to watch as the black flames prepared to pounce on me.

“Scorching Flame, look this way!” Wicked didn’t rush over to save me, but rather swung his blade at Scorching Flame, taking the opportunity to lure Scorching Flame’s attention away.

Immediately, I stood up and attacked Scorching Flame in order to rid Wicked of his predicament.

“You have truly angered me!” yelled Scorching Flame with clenched teeth, suddenly starting to form strange hand signs with both of its hands.

“Wicked, let’s attack together. Don’t let it finish those hand signs!” I yelled with great alarm. I wasn’t going to forget that Flowing Wind had the strength to destroy Infinite City. I had the feeling that if I let Scorching Flame complete its hand signs, I was probably going to have to report back to the Central Continent.

As I yelled this, the sword in my hand did not remain idle. I hacked at Scorching Flame without any flashiness… but suddenly, flames erupted from the ground. With Scorching Flame at the epicenter, the ground began splitting open in a snowflake pattern, with surges of flames spilling out from the cracks.

“We can’t stop this anymore. Prince, run quickly!” On the other side, Wicked yelled at me urgently.

I broke into a run, but the cracks on the ground did their utmost to split toward me, and the heat of the flames felt like it was burning the back of my neck. I didn’t even have any time to look back at the state of affairs behind me, and could only hear how the earth sounded like it was almost howling with grief.

An explosion that pierced the sky sounded. I was almost blown away by the ensuing forceful wind that was accompanied by intense flames. Forcefully, I slammed into a tree trunk, the tree splintering before I even had any time to spit a mouthful of blood, and then I was flung out once more by another strong gust of wind and flames.

Before my eyes was darkness, and it felt like a thousand pounds were weighing me down. I moved to touch that weight… Wait, don’t tell me that I was going to meet my end because I got crushed by a tree? Think about it, when someone asks, did you die from confronting the final boss? From confronting the Four Heavenly Kings? Not really, I was blown away by the wind, and then I got squashed by a tree… Uuuu, that’s so embarrassing.

“Prince…” A beam of light and an anxious voice drifted over.

“Wicked!” I yelled happily but doing so caused the wound on my chest to throb with pain. My face immediately lost color.

Pained, Wicked gazed at me and used his gentlest tone to say, “Don’t worry, I’m going to save you right away.”

I watched Wicked’s figure as he did his utmost to push the branches away, suddenly discovering that his body was speckled with blood stains, and his facial color was not any better than mine, yet he continued to risk himself in trying to save me. Even though each time he used his strength led his face to become even paler, even though his blood dripped in red petals…

“Wicked… Zhuo-gēgē.” It felt like something warm flowed through the bottom of my heart. With my heart throbbing, I gazed at Zhuo-gēgē.

After clearing the branches, Zhuo-gēgē very very gently pulled me out. Supporting me, he took out a red potion and slowly poured it into my mouth, and he used a gentle voice to say, “I’m going to use an ultimate technique I’ve never used before. Try not to stand too close, okay?”

“You don’t need me to help you?” I hurriedly got out of Zhuo-gēgē’s embrace, alarmed as I spoke, “Scorching Flame is too strong. I’m afraid you won’t have time to use your ultimate technique.”

Zhuo-gēgē smiled a small smile. “It won’t happen. Once I use my ultimate technique it cannot be stopped, and it does not distinguish between friend and foe. I’m afraid I will hurt you, so you should keep your distance.”

“Oh.” I scratched my head. I think I’ve once again become a burden. That kind of feeling was really unbearable.

“Good, back up slowly.” After Wicked calmly finished saying this, I followed what he said.

As I watched Wicked’s back that left no room for surrender, each step bringing him closer to Scorching Flame, I suddenly had a bad premonition. My backward steps came to a stop for a second, but after I thought it through, I decided that I did not want to become anyone’s burden, so I continued backing up slowly.

“Thinking of running?” Scorching Flame yelled.

“Your opponent is me,” came Wicked’s voice from behind as well. Gripping my weapon, I worried, not knowing if Wicked’s ultimate technique would be effective…weapon! Wicked’s best sword was still in my hands. That horrid sword in his hands would never be enough to engage Scorching Flame in a fight.

Realizing this, I immediately turned, wanting to toss the sword in my hand to Wicked, but instead I saw Wicked walk slowly toward Scorching Flame with absolutely no weapon in his hands. Just as I started puzzling over this, Wicked softly uttered the following words: “ND self-destruct program activate!”

ND…self-destruct program? Could it be that Wicked installed ND on his body? And what is a self-destruct program?

I didn’t need an answer. The sight before my eyes already told me what the ND self-destruct program was. Suddenly, piercing white light burst out of Wicked’s body. I refused to blink as I faced the white light and at last I faintly saw Wicked’s loving smile toward me, and it seemed like he was saying: “I don’t ever want to see you hurt again…”

An explosion! Before my eyes, Wicked and Scorching Flame exploded at the same time. I lost all my strength, falling to my knees as I faced the results of the explosion: white snowflakes drifting in the sky and not a single person standing in the center of the explosion.

“Zhuo-gēgē?” I asked softly, but there was no one to answer me. I almost sobbed as I violently continued, “Zhuo-gēgē? Where are you? Don’t scare me! Or have you already gone back to the Central Continent?”

ND…the purpose of ND is to die together with the NPCs. Lolidragon’s voice just had to come to mind without any tact.

“Wicked…have you disappeared forever?” Vacantly, I reached out with my hand to catch one of the white snowflakes, gentle and soft to the touch. It was like seeing Zhuo-gēgē’s loving and pampering smile.

Footnotes

¹ “…resembled Sadako climbing out of a television set…”: Sadako is a character from The Ring, a horror novel that has been adapted to film. She is generally depicted as a gloomy young woman with her face hidden behind long hair, and she is often seen crawling out of television screens. She is part of the cursed video Ring that is said to kill viewers within seven days of watching it.

² “…I will definitely kill eighteen generations of their family…”: This is a common way of swearing that you’ll eradicate the entire family, from the oldest generation to the newest generation, from great-grandfathers to infants. The eighteen generations part refers to nine generations of ancestors and nine generations of descendants.

³ “Not a phoenix? Then are you a turkey?”: In Chinese, turkey is literally “fire chicken.”

⁴ “Thirty-Six Stratagems”: The Thirty-Six Stratagems is a collection of stratagems that has variably been attributed to Sun Tsu. The stratagems apply to politics, war, diplomacy, and espionage, often involving unorthodox or deceptive means. They are traditionally divided into six groups based on the situation in which they are best used. These categories include stratagems for winning, dealing with the enemy, attack, chaos, gaining ground, and desperation.

]]> http://www.princerevolution.org/prince_v7c2/feed/ 15 http://www.princerevolution.org/some-interesting-plurks/ http://www.princerevolution.org/some-interesting-plurks/#comments Tue, 24 Apr 2012 06:55:06 +0000 lucathia http://www.princerevolution.org/?p=7029 A quick translation of two interesting plurks from Yu Wo!

04/23/12

http://www.plurk.com/p/g7dnfz

“Legend of Sun Knight version”: Tell three statements that people think are false but are actually truths.
Grisia is a very responsible guy.
Lesus is actually very dependent on Grisia.
This series’ original name was actually “I am a knight”.

(Lucathia: Hahaha, in the comments, people said they knew both 1 & 2 to be true! Is it as apparent to you? :) “I am a knight” huh… I’m glad Yu Wo changed the name!)

04/16/12

http://www.plurk.com/p/g58qsi

The hardest thing about writing a spin-off for Legend of Sun Knight is that…I have to come up with a bunch of names again. (explodes) Anyone want to contribute words or full names? XD

(Lucathia: Oh, translator woes… I already don’t look forward to figuring out a bunch of new names. XDDDD Yu Wo has mentioned that this spin-off will be 1-2 volumes and will be based on the 39th generation of the Twelve Holy Knights. In faaaact, if anyone wants to spoil themselves crazy, here’s a preliminary pic of two of the knights from the 39th generation. Aren’t they cute? Can you guess who they are?)

By the way, No Hero volume 7 is coming out on 4/25. Anyone thinking of buying it? :)

]]> http://www.princerevolution.org/some-interesting-plurks/feed/ 6 http://www.princerevolution.org/knight_v3c8/ http://www.princerevolution.org/knight_v3c8/#comments Tue, 24 Apr 2012 06:00:13 +0000 evangeline http://www.princerevolution.org/?p=5602 The Legend of Sun Knight Volume 3: To the Rescue of a Princess

Original novel in Chinese by: 御 我 (Yu Wo)

---

Eighth Requirement of Rescuing a Princess: “The Must-Have Plot Point for Every Adventure – King vs King” translated by Evangeline

When I opened my eyes again, the first thought that I had was… Why have I been opening my eyes after fainting so often these days?

“I knew it. Who said a groomsman wouldn’t have to escape for his life… When I return home, I’m definitely going to ask the Pope for compensation!”

I crawled up with a sour expression, mostly because I hadn’t eaten and my stomach was killing me. Even though I knew that I could call for someone, I hadn’t moved for so long that my body was already starting to feel stiff. I feared that if I kept going on like this, I would no longer be a pig, but could instead be buried and rest in peace.

I walked to the door, but just as I was about to push it open, I heard some shouting right outside. I stopped and quietly pressed my ear to the door. Immediately, I recognized Leaf and Ann’s voices. They seemed to be arguing… Unbelievable, to think that Leaf could actually argue with someone?

Leaf lowered his voice and growled, “What is with you and Princess Alice? Princess Alice actually attacked us that day, and your reaction was very strange as well.”

Ack! Oh, how my heart beats in fright. Who knew that Leaf could yell at someone, and a princess at that? Is he planning on changing his profession as a good guy?

“None of this is any of your business!” Ann’s shriek was even louder than Leaf’s.

“None of my business?” Leaf’s voice started to shake, and it seemed like he was about to snap. “How can you say that it’s none of my business when Sun has been unconscious for so long because of you guys?!”

Ann retorted, “I bet he’s only asleep!”

Slap!

Ann’s voice sounded like she was stunned. “You, you hit me…”

Yet Leaf’s voice was cold. “Don’t insult Sun. Next time, it won’t be just a slap. I will directly challenge you to a duel. I don’t care even if you are a princess, Princess Ann.”

I was so surprised that my mouth stretched to form an “O”… Did Leaf just… slap the princess? Oh my God of Light! Please don’t tell me that the side effect of the resurrection has turned him into a bad guy?

Doesn’t this mean I can’t make fun of him anymore in the future? God of Light, you are really too cruel! Bullying Leaf was one of the few delights of my life, yet You actually have the heart to deprive me of that!

“I’m sorry Leaf, I didn’t mean it.” Ann choked with sobs and said while blowing her nose, “I didn’t know that my sister Alice would attack us, and that they would even go as far as to kill you. I just wanted to help her elope with her beloved. I never wanted to hurt you and Sun, you have to believe me.”

Both parties stayed silent for some time, broken only by the sound of Ann’s sobs. Finally, Leaf sighed and then said, “I understand, and I’m sorry for hitting you earlier. I was just too worried about Sun, so I acted impulsively for a moment. Please forgive me.”

He forgave her so easily. Looks like Leaf’s still a nice guy! I’m sorry, God of Light, I misunderstood you.

At this, Ann stammered, “Le-Leaf, actually, I have a magic device for tracking my sister. It can be used to teleport someone to my sister’s side just once… I’m sorry! Don’t scold me!”

Silence fell for a good while outside, and then Leaf stammered, “It’s too dangerous to go after them. Mike and Austin have gone for reinforcements. After Sun and I leave, tell them and let them decide.”

“Why should I wait until after you and Sun leave? Are you not coming with us?” Ann’s voice sounded very desperate.

“No!” Leaf said with unusual steel in his voice. “We must not let Sun know about this, promise me!”

“Why? If you don’t tell me, then I won’t promise you.”

“You don’t know him… ugh! Your sister and her companion shouldn’t have killed me. If we let Sun know that there’s a way to find Alice, he won’t let them off the hook. Your sister will be in danger too, so you have to promise me, you cannot mention this matter to Sun before we leave.”

Ann said somewhat dubiously, “We couldn’t even beat them, so someone as weak as Sun… I mean, he’s not that strong, right? Leaf, don’t get angry. I’m not deliberately making fun of him!”

“He’s not that strong, haha!”

Leaf said very helplessly, “If that were the case, then why would our third shared rule be, ‘No matter how pathetic the Sun Knight looks, never ruffle his feathers?’”

Having heard all this, I thought for a bit and then walked back to lie on my bed. Then, rubbing my eyes and acting as if I had just gotten up, I yelled, “Leaf? Leaf! I’m dying of hunger!”

Leaf pushed open the door and exclaimed happily, “Sun, you’re awake?”

“Awake enough to feel hungry, what do you think?” I said moodily.

Leaf chuckled and asked cheerfully, “How does eating some congee sound?”

I quickly replied, “No, I want to eat meat.”

“But you just woke up, and if you eat something hard to digest, I’m afraid…”

I rolled my eyes and couldn’t help saying, “Leaf, save it, you are not Judgment. And besides, you are a good guy, so I’m not afraid of you. If I say I want meat, then I’m having meat.”

Leaf stayed silent for a bit and finally said anxiously, “Fine, I will tell the kitchen to chop up the meat into little pieces to make meat soup for you.”

Leaf wasted no time and came back in the blink of an eye, carrying the soup. As I was feasting on the soup, Leaf explained the situation to me, even though I had actually overheard everything already. Basically, Mike and Austin had left to ask for backup, and since I was unconscious, Leaf and Ann had stayed behind to protect me.

Leaf said, “Sun, I also asked them to contact the Church of the God of Light, so I think the Church will be sending someone over.”

I hope that that someone isn’t Judgment. I nodded at Leaf and swallowed the last bit of meat soup.

With the sweet aroma of the meat soup gone, I vaguely smelt some kind of foul smell. Wait, it can’t be… I lowered my head to smell myself and almost died from the odor. I had turned into Supreme Stinky Knight¹.

I frowned and exclaimed, “Leaf, I smell awful! Buy a set of new clothes for me. Also… Princess Ann.”

When Ann, who had been standing quietly, heard me calling her, she paused before asking, “What?”

“Can you please get me a bucket of hot water?” I asked insipidly.

Ann did not answer, but Leaf immediately said warmly, “Sorry for the inconvenience, Ann. I will go buy some clothes for Sun.”

At this time, Ann finally answered, albeit in a grudging tone of voice. “Fine!”

I ordered Leaf, “They have to be white, and also, get the seamstresses to sew on the Sun emblem too. Didn’t you say that someone from the Church is coming? I can’t bear to look disrespectful in front of everyone.”

Leaf hesitated and then said with a nod, “Okay.”

Leaf left to buy my clothes. Not a moment later, Ann came in with a bucket of hot water, and set it down with a thud. With a dissatisfied tone, she said, “Here! I will leave now.”

“Wait.” I felt the water and said dully, “The water’s too hot.”

Ann was probably either feeling guilty, or she was doing this for Leaf’s sake. Either way, although she was unhappy, she was still completely obedient and knelt down to feel the water upon hearing my words.

I smirked, and summoned the water element…

Instantly, the bucket of bath water combined together with the water element I summoned, wrapping onto Ann’s body like a chain. She froze momentarily and then started to struggle right after, trying to break free of those water chains. However, water has no form, so all she could do was pass through the streams of water with her fists. Finally, I froze all the water all at once, with Ann stuck in the middle of those icicles, unable to move.

“Impossible! How can a basic freezing spell trap me?” Ann shrieked while she struggled ferociously. However, the ice around her body showed no signs of breaking.

I replied with a smile, “According to my knowledge of magic, a basic level spell plus a basic level spell is equal to an intermediate level spell, so I repeated the same freezing spell over and over again five times. I wonder, what level of magic is it now? But no matter what, that ice is no more fragile than the sword on your body, so you’ll just hurt yourself if you keep on struggling.”

After saying this, I smiled and reached my hand inside Ann’s clothes…

“Y-you!” Ann’s voice sounded like she was close to tears as she shouted, “Stop right now or I will yell!”

Hearing that, I casually used Whirlwind, letting the wind spiral along the walls in order to block off all sound. I whispered to Ann, “Hah! Go ahead, but too bad, even if you scream until your voice becomes hoarse, no one will hear you.”

Her voice shook heavily as she spoke, “L-Leaf is going to be back soon. He won’t let you do this!”

I answered nonchalantly, “He has to wait for them to sew on the Sun emblem, so he’s not going to be back for a while.”

“So you planned this in advance!” Ann screamed. “You despicable bastard!”

Why do all princesses like to call me a despicable bastard?

I ignored her screams, and took out a flat box a little smaller than the palm of my hand from her secret pocket. A fragrant smell overflowed as I opened it, and when I touched the inside of the box, it felt like some kind of ointment. Maybe it was some kind of perfume cream for girls.

Immediately, Ann stopped crying, and she sounded utterly astonished as she spoke, “How did you know…”

She suddenly stopped, and I finished the sentence for her, “How did I know that this is the magical object that you used to track Princess Alice, right?”

“You, you…” Ann sounded frightened and distressed, “So you have been hiding your abilities all this time.”

I sneered. Of course. No matter what, I am still the Sun Knight, so I couldn’t really be completely useless, right?

“You are too scary.” Ann’s voice shook as she continued, “You concealed your swordsmanship stance and footwork so well, and even pretended that you can’t even run a mile without panting to death. Acting just like someone who can’t use a sword, someone with terrible stamina…so all of this was just a farce!”

Ann laughed and said calmly, “But, you won’t be able to activate this magical object, heh, heh… Ack!”

I used a Wind Blade to slice open Ann’s skin, letting her blood drip inside the box.

“H-how did you know…?” Ann’s voice sounded like she was about to cry again.

I rolled my eyes. Pink had almost as many magical devices as she did lollipops, and I had basically rolled about in those since I was small, so a small device like this could hardly stump me.

As Ann’s blood dripped down, I heard the sound of a click. The bottom of the box flipped open to reveal a hidden compartment. There was a very tiny magic circle inside. I touched it, noting that it was very detailed and was probably very rare. Still, Pink had loads of these kinds of things in her house.

Then, I raised my head and said to Ann, “These chains will shatter in half an hour after I leave. If you don’t want some stranger to take advantage of you, then I suggest you don’t scream and attract people over! If you do attract a bad guy, then you’ll just have to suffer through it! Also, when Leaf comes back, tell him that I will exact justice for him.”

Without waiting for Ann to answer, I injected the wind element into the magic circle, which expanded all of a sudden and engulfed my entire body, taking me to where Princess Alice was.

When I felt that I had teleported to the destination, I immediately yelled, “Dragon’s Saint Brigandine! In the name of the descendants of Dragons, I command thee, activate!”

“Sister²?”

It was a woman’s voice. She wore robe-like clothes, and the wind element around her body was surging. This had to be Princess Alice, and she was even a wind mage.

She was very close to me, just two steps away, so I hurriedly stepped forward and grabbed her, yelling, “Don’t move!”

Apparently, she was not very obedient, immediately wanting to counter with wind magic. Unfortunately for her, I interfered with her magic. Although I didn’t know advanced magic, even Aldrizzt, that hundred-year old mage, had bluntly said that he couldn’t compare with me over the ability of gathering elements.

She gasped in surprise, “Y-you are not an assassin, you are a mage!”

“No to both. I am a holy knight.” I said coldly, “Are you blind? Can’t you see the shining Divine Sun Sword in my hands? I am the Sun Knight!”

After saying all that in one breath, I had to admit that I’d been wanting to scream for a long time, “I am a holy knight! Not a cleric, but a holy knight, holy knight, holy knight (insert a hundred more echoes)!”

Now that I had actually said it, it felt so good that if the situation had allowed it, I might have been overcome with the impulse to cry!

“The Sun Knight? How is that possible?” Alice asked with a shaky voice.

“Alice!”

Just then, the dark knight hurriedly rushed over. The amount of light element overflowing from me must have grabbed his attention. He quickly sprinted our way at lightning speed.

“Hold it right there!”

I firmly grabbed the princess, pressing the Divine Sun Sword tightly against her neck. I then coldly addressed the dark knight, “You don’t care about this woman’s life anymore?”

The dark knight’s footsteps slowed, but didn’t stop. I pressed the Divine Sun Sword a bit tighter against the princess’s neck, causing her to gasp.

“Stop!” the dark knight finally stilled, and yelled out, “You can’t hurt her, she’s a princess!”

I laughed for a good while, and pressed my blade even harder against the princess’s neck, though she restrained herself from making any noise this time. “Are you sure?” I asked mockingly.

The dark knight said with a shaky voice, “You are a knight, and you’re even the Sun Knight whom the entire continent knows. You wouldn’t hurt a woman. That would ruin your reputation. You wouldn’t do that…”

I laughed and asked, “Then, do you know what ‘the whole continent knows’ the Sun Knight hates the most?”

“Undead creatures,” he answered reflexively.

I barked out, “Wrong! What the Sun Knight hates the most is seeing his holy knights get killed!”

After yelling, I collected my agitated feelings and said calmly, “From this moment onwards, I warn you, if you dare to move, I will cut off this woman’s hand. And the more you move, the more bits of her I get to chop off.”

Both Alice and the dark knight didn’t budge an inch, nor utter a word. Maybe I had scared them or something, but that didn’t matter. I then summoned a large amount of water element and froze it into a dozen or so icicles which floated around the dark knight’s proximity. Sure enough, he did not move even a single hair despite all this.

Instead, it was the Princess Alice in my arms who started to scream, “You despicable bastard! Eagle, don’t listen to him! He wouldn’t dare!”

Now I became certain that every princess in the world only had one way of insulting others, and that was calling them a despicable bastard. There was no other insult.

With a neutral tone, I said to the dark knight, “I forgot to tell you, but activating your battle aura also counts as moving.”

After I spoke, more than ten icicles flew toward his torso and limbs, causing a succession of cracking sounds, but he didn’t move an inch even under heavy attack. He forced himself to withstand the attacks without moving, which in turn caused his injuries to worsen. I heard the sound of several bones shattering.

“Eagle…” Alice almost fainted, her legs no longer supporting her. The only thing that kept her upright was me.

“You can move now,” I said indifferently.

At this time, the dark knight finally slipped to the ground slowly. I then launched the largest icicle and smashed it into his back ruthlessly.

“Umph!” He tried to stifle a groan.

What a proud knight. I admired him somewhat, as I was sure that that last blow had probably broken a lot of his ribs, but he didn’t so much as cry out.

I let go of Princess Alice and warned her leisurely, “Don’t even think about using magic on me, or I will help disinfect and sterilize your dark knight using Hell’s Fire. I guarantee you that he’ll be so clean that there won’t even be any ashes left over after that.”

Alice shoved me hard and immediately ran to her dark knight’s side, crying out loud when she saw his injuries. Although the dark knight was wounded gravely and was most likely in a semi-unconscious state, he still quietly soothed the princess. All I heard was, “I am fine, don’t cry,” over and over.

At this, I couldn’t help but start chuckling. We had wanted to save her, but I don’t think that they thought of this quest the same way we did. This is too absurd. What do they mean when they say that knights save princesses… the princess might not necessarily even want to be saved! To her, we were actually the bad guys trying to tear her and her lover apart, right?

“You made one mistake,” I said coldly, “and that was killing Leaf! If you hadn’t killed him, I might have considered not separating you. However, at this point I don’t plan to break you two up. You can go to hell together!”

Silence fell before Alice murmured to herself, “You are going to kill us? How can this be…”

“Why not?” I smirked, “The second you killed the Leaf Knight, you should have known that the Sun Knight would chase you to the ends of the world for revenge!”

Hearing this, she exclaimed in alarm, “I am a princess!”

“Oh, really?” I questioned in a soft, gentle tone. “But I don’t see any princesses. I only see a kidnapper and his accomplice.”

Alice’s breathing turned ragged, and she shook as she replied, “Sun Knight, if you kill me, my mother will not let you or the Church of the God of Light get away with it!”

Unconcerned, I retorted, “Oh? But I’m an assassin, and I see no Sun Knight. Do you?”

Alice sobbed, and tried to carry the nearly unconscious dark knight, as if wanting to escape with him.

However, her strength wasn’t anywhere close to being enough to move a man, especially when the man was wearing armor. Still, she refused to give up, and tried to drag him to safety with all her might.

Seeing them like this, my heart’s berserker state diminished by half, and I found it difficult to proceed with the tortures I had in my mind a second ago. Had I known this earlier, I never would have wounded that dark knight so much. If he had had the strength to retaliate, then I probably could have held onto my fury, but now I couldn’t even do that.

With my enthusiasm waning, I said, “Fine, I will give you a slightly less painful death.”

I gathered the dark element, planning to use what Aldrizzt had once used, “Encroaching Death,” as it could kill someone silently and painlessly…

“Sun, stop!” A shout came from the sky.

At the same time, I felt the dark element I had summoned in my hands being dispelled.

I raised my head. The opponent was wearing a cloak-like garment, and even though their leaking dark aura wasn’t strong, they gave me a sense of deep mystery. That aura, I had felt it only on one other person before… No! I shouldn’t say person. She hadn’t been a person for a long time.

Clenching my fists, I squeezed my words through my teeth, “Pink, so when you said that you moved, you meant that you moved to the Cathedral of the Shadow God?”

Footnotes

¹ “Supreme Stinky Knight”: The beginning characters of Sun and Supreme are the same in Chinese. Sun is making a pun here.

² “Sister”: Alice calls Ann her “second younger sister” here. In Chinese, there is a distinction made between older and younger sisters.

]]> http://www.princerevolution.org/knight_v3c8/feed/ 90 http://www.princerevolution.org/new-this-month/ http://www.princerevolution.org/new-this-month/#comments Mon, 09 Apr 2012 17:38:23 +0000 Shadow Rebirth http://www.princerevolution.org/?p=6988 April 2012 Chapters

1. The Legend of Sun Knight V3C7: “A Must for Every Adventure - Sacrifice”
2. The Legend of Sun Knight Side Stories 1: “For You All”
3. The Legend of Sun Knight V3C8: “The Must-Have Plot Point for Every Adventure - King vs King”
4. ½ Prince V7C2: The Disappearance of Wicked
5. ½ Prince V7C3: Gui's Kindness
6. ½ Prince V7C4: Celestial's Fury
7. The Legend of Sun Knight Side Stories 2: “Truth in Disguise”
8. The Legend of Sun Knight V3C9: “Bring the Princess Back to the Castle”

]]> http://www.princerevolution.org/new-this-month/feed/ 0 http://www.princerevolution.org/knightss_1/ http://www.princerevolution.org/knightss_1/#comments Mon, 09 Apr 2012 16:47:02 +0000 lucathia http://www.princerevolution.org/?p=6898 The Legend of Sun Knight Side Stories

Original novel in Chinese by: 御 我 (Yu Wo)

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For You All – translated by raylight and lucathia

“Sun!”

Neo paused in his footsteps and turned around elegantly, exclaiming, “Ah! Is this not our great and most respected Pope?”

Hearing that, the Pope stopped his movements and cautiously stared at the Sun Knight, who was smiling even more radiantly than usual. With a hint of suspicion, he asked, “Sun, have I angered you recently?”

“Ho ho, how could the great Pope have done anything to infuriate Sun? It’s just that I have been wondering who has been telling my fellow holy knight brothers that I use magic to maintain the appearance of being in my early twenties?”

“…Oh?” The Pope gave a sweet smile and gave a doubtful expression as he said, “Is there really someone saying that? What an ignorant fellow! He doesn’t know that the Sun Knight is actually naturally good-looking. Even if he is turning thirty this year, he still looks exactly the same as when he first became the Sun Knight.”

“Pope, you are also always so young and ‘cute’!”

“Ha ha ha!” The two looked at each other and laughed heartily.

Neo’s face darkened, and he pulled out the Divine Sun Sword. Fiercely, he said, “The next time you dare to leak my age, I will kill you.”

“Who doesn’t know that the Sun Knight is turning thirty this year?” The Pope was so angry that he was shaking. He pointed the scepter in his hands at Neo. “You’re not allowed to call me cute ever again, or else I will take you down with me, even if it kills me.”

As the two confronted each other, there came a sudden sound of footsteps.

Someone is coming! Neo and the Pope put their weapons away instantly, and adopted their elegant smile and solemn expression respectively. With a curious expression, the Pope asked, “Sun Knight, there are still ten candidates left for this year’s Sun Knight Selection. Have you made a decision yet?”

Neo muttered, “This year there are a lot of talented people, but if I really have to pick one of them, I think I need to consider further…”

“Both of you, stop acting. It’s just me.”

The person who had appeared was dressed completely in black, and even his hair and eye color were dark. He had deep creases between his brows, and looked like he would usually be a solemn person. However, at the moment there was a helpless smile on his face. He walked up to the side of the two people, and then spoke to Neo, who had withdrawn his smile.

“Sun, there are a lot of talented people among your candidates, but the number of my candidates is dwindling. All of them are dishonorable, ill-intentioned bad eggs. I’m afraid that if I don’t pick the only good child among them, Lesus, the first person that the God of Light would judge would be me.”

“Lesus?” Neo revealed a puzzled expression.

The Pope rolled his eyes at him in displeasure and explained, “Last time, when you went to see the Judgment Knight candidates sparring, he was the one who had the best swordsmanship.”

“Oh, that child!” Neo nodded his head.

“You! Can’t you remember anything else other than swordsmanship?” Judgment said helplessly. Seeing Neo’s look of indifference, he could only give a sigh and begin asking about what he really wanted to know. “You have quite a few talented people. Who do you want to pick? Roland? Arthur? Angus?”

It was not only Judgment who showed his curiosity, for even the Pope started staring steadily at Neo. However, Neo just stared back at the both of them expressionlessly.

Judgment, feeling that something was slightly amiss, said, “Don’t tell me you don’t even remember a single candidate’s name…”

Neo shrugged his shoulders, and replied, “I remember Roland. That child’s swordsmanship is good.”

“You really are…”

Neo said with abrupt realization, “Oh, yeah, and Grisia.”

“Grisia?” Judgment questioned doubtfully.

“The child who is very good at holy magic?” The Pope immediately shouted, “No way! I want to drag him into the Church; you’re not allowed to pick him!”

A little surprised, Judgment asked Neo, “Did you remember Grisia because of his good holy magic?”

“No, it’s because…” Neo frowned as he continued, “His swordsmanship is so lousy that it’s difficult for me to forget him, even if I wanted to!”

The Pope immediately gave a smile. “If that’s the case, then you better not pick him. His holy magic is so good that I remembered him just by taking a glance at him. He is a cleric! Definitely not a knight!”

One of you only looks at swordsmanship, and the other only looks at holy magic—there’s really not much difference between you two. Deep down, Judgment smiled wryly.

“If that’s the case, do you intend to pick Roland?”

Judgment nodded his head, full of approval. “I also remember him; his swordsmanship is quite decent, and he looks like an upstanding child.”

“So are you going to choose Roland?”

Neo thought about it, and it seemed like there was really nothing wrong with the choice. Then again, other than having good or bad swordsmanship, he really couldn’t tell the difference between the children.  However, should the Sun Knight really be judged based on how good his swordsmanship is?

Looking at Neo’s hesitation, Judgment asked in puzzlement, “You feel that he’s not appropriate?”

“No,” Neo said casually while frowning, “I just need to think it over some more.”

“Why do you want to be the Sun Knight?”

For the sake of not letting himself pick a child based solely on their swordsmanship, Neo started asking every candidate questions in private.

For justice.

This was the most common answer. Neo smiled, and asked in reply, “What is justice?”

When they heard this question, the children would hesitate.

Neo secretly ridiculed the answer inside his heart. For justice? How could a twelve year old child understand the meaning of justice? Most likely it was the answer set by the ignorant knights’ education.

“Why do you want to be the Sun Knight?”

Neo gazed at the brown-haired boy in front of his eyes, and he really hoped that this child’s answer would be different—because this child was Roland. As the child with the best swordsmanship, he was indeed worthy. His gaze was extremely determined and one could tell that it was a gaze that had been trained through long periods of hardship.

“I wish to discipline all of the evil-doers!” The child’s eyes revealed resentment.

Neo was stunned for a moment, and then he started secretly laughing bitterly inside his heart. This answer is one that Judgment would have wanted to hear… Why am I the one hearing it?

He thought for a moment, and questioned, “Then, what are you willing to lay down your life for?”

Every word of Roland’s resounded as he said, “For the sake of disciplining all evil-doers, I would be prepared to do whatever it took, even if it meant I must lay down my life!”

Child, you really have chosen wrongly. You should have gone to compete with Lesus, and given Judgment a few more options. Neo could only continue forcing himself to smile.

“Hey, have you decided who to pick?”

Neo turned around to face Judgment as the man approached him with small footsteps. “I’m not sure,” he replied a little helplessly.

“Tomorrow is the selection and you still aren’t sure?” Judgment asked, surprised.

Neo remained silent for a moment, and then asked in reply, “Judgment, have you asked your young Judgment Knight as to why he wanted to become the Judgment Knight?”

Judgment nodded his head. “Of course. The reputation of the Judgment Knight has never been very good, and in each generation there are only a handful of good candidates. But Lesus’ swordsmanship is good, and his moral conduct is also good. No matter what he does he shows great promise, so I was also very curious as to why he wanted to become the Judgment Knight.”

“Wait a moment!” Hearing that, Neo became more curious about other matters and couldn’t help but ask, “Since you say that, why did you want to become the Judgment Knight in the first place?”

Judgment laughed. “You’ve known me for almost twenty years already, and you’re only asking that question now? Isn’t it a little too late for that? How about we make a trade with our answers, why did you want to become the Sun Knight?”

“I…” Neo looked blank as he replied, “I’ve forgotten.”

“That’s really typical of you…”

“I really forgot! And there’s really no need for a reason, is there?” Neo said impatiently. “Which twelve-year-old child doesn’t want to become the Sun Knight?”

“That’s true. The Sun Knight is glorious and impressive, not like the Judgment Knight who will be scorned everywhere he goes.”

Hearing that, Neo was silent for a while. At last he asked, “Do you regret it?”

“No! I will never regret it.”

Judgment turned around and stared at Sun directly as he elaborated. “My father was a drunkard. If it were just the drinking, then it wouldn’t have mattered. But whenever he was drunk, he would want to hit people. First, he beat my mother to death, pushed her into a river, and then claiming that she had drowned. Although I saw it from the beginning to the end, I was only eight years old, and nobody believed me. Afterwards, he lost control again and beat my three-year-old little sister to death. I was twelve at that time, but I didn’t say another word about my father’s crimes. I just walked to the Judgment Knight Selection, and then got chosen as the young Judgment Knight. After that I told my teacher about the matter, and let him judge my father.”

Neo was speechless. He had been colleagues with Judgment for twenty years, but had never known that Judgment had such a past. Was he really too obsessed in training his swordsmanship?

“As such, when I asked Lesus the question, I was already prepared in my heart to hear that there was a criminal about to enter the Judge’s complex,” Judgment calmly said. “However, contrary to my expectations, he actually refused to tell me who the sinner was. All he said was that he wanted to become the Judgment Knight, because he hoped that all of the sinners in the world would never have a chance to commit a second sin.”

“Then are you satisfied with this answer?”

Judgment gave a faint smile as he replied, “I don’t have the right to be dissatisfied, for I’m unable to think of a better answer. So, Neo, have you also asked this question?”

“Yeah!” Neo frowned and then hesitantly added, “But you and I are different. I can’t find a satisfactory answer… I…I myself don’t know what kind of answer is the correct one.”

Judgment asked, “Have you asked all of the candidates?”

“No…” Neo furrowed his brows as he said, “There’s still Grisia, but his swordsmanship…”

“Go and ask him!” Judgment said with a smile. “Even I have been able to find a satisfactory candidate amongst a bunch of bad eggs. Don’t tell me that you don’t believe that you can find your young Sun Knight?”

Neo wordlessly gazed at Grisia, who was a hideous mess from head to toe. His clothes were filthy and torn in several areas, and his face had more bruised areas than unblemished. If you were to ask which part of him looked like a Sun Knight, it would probably only be that head of golden hair that was still incomparably brilliant despite its messiness.

“You were in a fight?”

“I got beat up.” Right when Grisia spoke, he irritated the wound on the corner of his mouth. He winced for a moment but then smiled even more brilliantly as he spoke. “But that’s okay. Roland helped me hit them back!”

“You sure are worthless!” Neo rolled his eyes at him. “You have to fight your own battles!”

“Why should I?” Grisia immediately refuted vigorously. “They had ten people! Roland and I together still only make two! Two winning against ten is already very impressive!”

“Don’t you mean one winning against ten?” Without any mirth, Neo said, “With swordsmanship like yours, you can’t even handle a single person.”

Although Roland’s swordsmanship is good…could he win against ten people? A sliver of doubt flashed through Neo’s heart.

“I helped too!” Grisia protested loudly.

Nevertheless, Neo’s face was still full of disbelief.

Grisia shouted, “Even though I couldn’t help him defeat our enemies, I was able to help him block attacks. I helped him draw the enemies away, and I even found reinforcements! Had I not gone and found Lesus, even Roland wouldn’t have been able to defeat ten people!”

“You know Lesus?” Neo couldn’t help but sigh. Although this child was not strong, he actually knew all the strong people… That is a kind of talent too, right?

“I don’t know him,” Grisia replied in a firm yet boisterous tone.

“…” Neo fell silent for a bit before he reminded Grisia, “You just said you went to find Lesus.”

“Oh yeah!” Grisia said naturally. “The first time I saw that guy, I already knew he had to be a good person. All he needed was to see that Roland and I were just two people, and yet we were outnumbered by so many. No matter what the reason, he’d definitely help us out! So when I saw that Roland couldn’t win, of course I left him to find Lesus right away!”

This is also a kind of talent, the talent to be a despicable person… Neo fell silent for a while,  pretty much holding no hope when he asked his question. “Forget it. Let me ask you, why do you want to be the Sun Knight?”

Once he heard the question, both of Grisia’s eyes started shining.

“Because I want to stand in your place!”

“My place?” Neo furrowed his brow. Did he mean that he wanted the Sun Knight’s position? But this way of putting it sounded a little strange.

Grisia started gesturing excitedly, waving both hands around by his sides as he spoke. “Yup! I want your place! You have a lot of people standing on both your left and your right sides. I counted. There’s eleven! I want them to stand by my side too. It’d be like having eleven brothers. It must feel awesome!”

Neo laughed out loud. “Even if you become the Sun Knight, they won’t be the ones standing by your side. The ones who’ll be standing by your side will be the next generation of the Twelve Holy Knights.”

“Huh?” Grisia asked, looking like he didn’t fully understand. “The next generation? Are there still eleven people?”

“Of course.”

“Then that’s fine!” Grisia replied with a happy smile. “There’s still eleven! I’m fine if it’s eleven altogether, but if there’s one extra, that’d be even better. Six on the left, six on the right, how awesome would that be!”

Neo truly couldn’t say what he thought about such an answer, so he could only ask the next question. “Then what would you willingly sacrifice your life for?”

Grisia was like every other twelve year old child who had never given thought to such a question. He lowered his head, deep in thought with his eyebrows furrowed. Neo wasn’t in a hurry, so he patiently waited for Grisia to finish thinking.

Finally, Grisia smiled as he lifted his head. By chance, the noon sunlight struck his golden hair, so dazzling that Neo was almost blinded.

“For the sake of protecting others… I’m willing to sacrifice my life.”

When Neo surveyed everyone present, he found that practically everyone’s gazes were focused on him. Neo smiled a little and then shouted boisterously, “I have decided that the next Sun Knight will be Grisia!”

First, everyone present fell silent. Soon after, an uproar broke out.

“Why was I chosen?”

Grisia was evidently shocked silly. Even though he walked forward, he kept glancing back out of the corner of his eye, toward a certain friend of his.

“Well…”

Neo looked at Roland, whose face, arms, and calves weren’t covered by his clothes, and could be seen to have next to no wounds. He then lowered his head to look at Grisia whose skin was covered in bruises. He smiled as he said, “Perhaps it was because of your beautiful blond hair!”

This was completely absurd!

The Twelve Holy Knights and one royal knight who would soon be marrying the princess went as far as gathering in the Sun Knight’s bedroom, opening the cellar, and moving out the closely packed wine hidden within. Now they were gathered in a prayer room, drinking wine. All of them drank several bottles, becoming intoxicated to the point that they could only be described as “completely wasted.”

Seeing this scene, Roland, who didn’t like to drink very much, sighed, but he also felt strangely relaxed. The absurd actions of the genuine Twelve Holy Knights practically made the fact that he was a death knight dwelling in the Church of the God of Light seem not very absurd at all in comparison.

Because no matter how absurd something was, there was nothing more absurd than the fact that the Sun Knight had a wine cellar below his bedroom.

Roland looked toward the Sun Knight who was the most absurd one there. It was a hard event to come by, but with everyone’s attempt to drink him under the table, Grisia was actually so drunk that his face was completely red and his eyes were misty.

This was way too different from what he had always imagined of the Sun Knight’s image. Why was he the Sun Knight?

Roland couldn’t help but admit that this question had bewildered him since Grisia had been chosen ten years ago. He tried recalling the past and concluded that the questions the previous Sun Knight asked him at the time must had been asked of Grisia too. Could it be that his answers were better than Roland’s?

“Grisia.”

“Yeah?”

“Why did you want to become the Sun Knight?” Roland asked, finally voicing the question that had been bothering him for many years.

“For you all, of course!”

Us? Roland looked at Grisia. He was so drunk that he was wobbling. Could it be that he was too drunk to know what he was saying? Roland furrowed his brows but couldn’t help saying, “Then what are you willing to sacrifice your life for?”

“Ah? What did you say…?”

Grisia slumped onto the table, his face full of an idiotic smile. In a loud voice, Roland repeated his question. “What are you willing to sacrifice your life for?”

Grisia looked at Roland. He looked at everyone and smiled drunkenly.

“For you all!”

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