The Legend of Sun Knight Side Story: Amidst the Darkness
Original novel in Chinese by: 御我 (Yu Wo)
“Amidst the Darkness”—translated by lucathia & Taffygirl13 (proofread by Trespasserby)
“I confess. I’ll tell you. I’ll tell you—”
Lesus should be feeling happy. After experiencing an entire morning of torment, the stubborn criminal was finally willing to tell the truth. However, Lesus only felt queasy. During the entire interrogation process, the criminal’s pain and the sight of his flesh and blood flying everywhere all made him uncomfortable. No matter how deserving of death the criminal was, his pain was still real. By uncovering the truth, Lesus felt relieved that he was able to give closure to the victim. However, he was never able to feel any gratification of revenge from the criminal’s pain.
Is it because I’m not the one who should be taking revenge against this criminal? If the criminal present was the murderer of my parents, would I feel joy from torturing him?
When he was younger, Lesus would have immediately answered “yes” in hatred. However, now, he could only remain silent.
Unable to say “yes.” Yet also unable to say “no.”
“Good, Lesus, your training ends here today.”
Chasel called for them to stop with a frown.
Lesus looked at his teacher doubtfully. He knew it was far from time for training to end. Could my own hesitation have caused my teacher to mistake that I reached my limit?
“Teacher, I can still—”
“Leave now!” Chasel shouted.
Lesus fell silent. He could only obey the command and replied “yes.” He turned and left.
Gazing at his student’s back, Chasel keenly perceived that Lesus’s feelings were off. However, the criminal was about to confess. It was not a good time to teach his student.
“Lesus.” He called out to his student. He couldn’t not do anything.
Lesus stopped and turned to look at his teacher. The other person stood by the judge’s bench. Half of his body was illuminated, yet the other half was shrouded in darkness. Even Teacher Chasel, who had always been criticized for being too gentle, looked so frightening—
“Someone is waiting for you,” Chasel reminded him.
Hearing that, Lesus immediately thought of a head of brilliant blond. He nodded and left the interrogation room quickly.
Chasel was still a bit worried. However, he thought of how Lesus had brightened for a moment after the reminder, and he thought of how Grisia even had the capability of pulling the young Cloud Knight out of cabinets, forcing him to run this way and that, until the young Cloud Knight was too busy to hide back in the cabinets. Therefore, there was no need for him to worry too much.
Relieved, he set his attention back on the criminal who was confessing.
Lesus pushed open the bathroom door.
A person sat on a small stool, back facing the door, with a single hand propping his head up, seemingly asleep. His head nodded from time to time, and that head of golden hair also swayed up and down.
Lesus gazed at that head of blond hair. It was almost evening. The light in the bathroom was already insufficient, but the napping person wasn’t concerned about the light. He hadn’t even lit a single candle and had sat in the dark bathroom to wait just like that.
Lesus walked into the bathroom. He made his footsteps a bit louder.
The napping person finally returned to his senses after hearing the sound. He turned to look at Lesus. He yawned widely in a very ungraceful manner. As he greeted him, he reached his hand out to light the candle, but he stopped halfway through the motion.
Grisia pulled back his hand and asked, “Why are you so early today?”
Lesus glanced at the unlit candle and sat at the other stool. His back faced the only window where light shone in from. His entire person was immediately shrouded by darkness.
For the first time, he felt the darkness wasn’t all that bad.
“Teacher let me leave early.”
Lesus answered. With the evening light shining on him, Grisia’s golden hair was brilliant, his azure blue eyes bright. He could somewhat understand now why Demos always covered his eyes and cried out “too bright” when he saw Grisia. He truly was a shiny person.
“No wonder you didn’t rush directly into the bathroom to puke.” Grisia said in envy, “How nice. I wish my teacher would give me less work.”
Lesus didn’t respond to this. Every time his teacher had let him go early, it was always because he had seen how Lesus couldn’t stand it any longer. There was no reason to feel happy about it.
This wasn’t the first time Grisia faced a silent Lesus. He asked in understanding, “Was today’s criminal very difficult? Or was his crime way too repulsive?”
“A bit difficult, not particularly repulsive.” It was the same degree of repulsiveness as usual.
“Oh.” Grisia held his face and suddenly said, “Actually, Lesus, you’re really unsuited to be the Judgment Knight.”
Lesus froze. He felt like he had been doused in ice water.
Grisia, the future Sun Knight, said he was unsuited to be the Judgment Knight.
Grisia said in sympathy, “You’re obviously so kind, yet you have to pretend to be the cold and merciless Judgment Knight. You even have to torture criminals all day long. You must feel terrible about it, right?”
So that’s what you mean? Lesus felt warmth returning. In that instance, he had nearly thought his heart had frozen.
Do I feel terrible? He remained silent for a long time. He shouldn’t call it that. He had chosen this path himself. However, he and Grisia were chatting alone here.
“Yeah.”
After admitting it, Lesus felt a lot lighter. He truly felt super terrible.
“I don’t think I can help you much.” Grisia frowned and said, “I really want to help you beat criminals, but Teacher Chasel would probably beat me to death first, and then my teacher would resurrect me and beat me to death again.”
Lesus laughed.
He laughed so quietly that it was almost inaudible, but Grisia had heard him.
“Lesus, if you feel bad again in the future, remember that I’m waiting for you in the bathroom. So, you have to finish early and not let me wait too long, or else I’ll get angry.”
After he said that, he had to wait a long time before Lesus responded.
“Okay, I’ll definitely remember.”
Grisia relaxed and smilingly said, “It’ll be even better if you remember to bring blueberry pie in the future!”
“Okay.”
“…I’m just saying, Lesus you’re too good a person! Why didn’t you try for the Leaf Knight position? But Strawberry is also a good person. If you had tried for Leaf Knight and eliminated him, that would have been terrible. And the other Judgment Knight candidates all looked super punchable. I don’t want any of them to be my Judgment Knight…”
Lesus listened to Grisia’s ramblings until even the last ray of sunlight disappeared. The two of them sank into darkness, and Grisia’s ramblings also stopped at the same time.
Amidst the darkness, the two of them broke out into laughter.
“The evidence is conclusive. The death penalty will be executed immediately!”
At the judge’s bench, Lesus, wrapped in a dark robe, gave the verdict with a strike of his gavel.
Chasel stood to the side and hadn’t participated in the process at all. He didn’t say a single word. He watched his student give his first death penalty.
However, before the case, Chasel had already made a thorough investigation. There was no possibility for any wrong verdicts. Only then did he let Lesus handle the rest.
This was the custom of Judgment Knights. They all claimed to let their student give their first serious verdict, but no one truly let go of all responsibility. No matter how much Chasel believed in Lesus, it was impossible for him to let him take over completely with his first serious verdict.
Investigating thoroughly beforehand, not saying a single word during the interrogation: this was a custom of the Judgment Knight.
Lesus watched the criminal who was swearing madly, and merely ordered, “Drag him away!”
The holy knights to both sides immediately stepped forward to drag the criminal away.
Lesus almost glanced at his teacher, unconsciously wanting to seek his approval, but he held back. Without turning his gaze away, he walked away from the judge’s bench and followed behind the holy knights, escorting the criminal all the way to the execution ground.
He could not seek out his teacher’s aid today.
The transport took the death row prisoner to the execution ground. Normally, the citizens would throw all sorts of things at the reprehensible criminals to vent their anger. However, at this moment, the entire street was full of people afraid to breathe or move.
After all, an entire platoon of holy knights dressed in black was responsible for escorting the death row prisoner today.
The person at the very front was Lesus. He wore the black robes of the Judgment Knight and led the platoon by horseback. His cold demeanor made his true age hard to determine.
The people watched in absolute silence, faces full of shock as they got to know the next Judgment Knight.
Once they reached the execution ground, Lesus watched the criminal get pulled onto the execution platform without blinking.
This criminal was stubborn and had always had a filthy mouth. Even sentenced to the death penalty, he was still swearing up a storm. However, now that death was right in front of him, his feet had turned to jelly. He was only barely standing because of the holy knights holding him up on each side. A rope was wrapped around his neck. Tears streamed down his face. Then, a sack was placed over his head, his frightened expression no longer visible.
The holy knights on the platform looked toward Lesus, waiting for his command.
“Execute!”
Lesus gave the command and watched the board under the criminal’s feet get removed. He fell immediately, the rope choking his neck. He struggled in midair, until finally, he fell silent.
Lesus never looked away throughout the entire process.
Chasel stood behind his student. Even though he couldn’t see Lesus’s expression, he still felt regretful.
Is almost seventeen too early after all?
Chasel thought back to how he had almost been eighteen when he had handled his first serious case. However, choosing the criminal was difficult. He had to make sure it was a heinous crime with conclusive evidence. It would be even better if the criminal was vile with no hint of any remorse…
Chasel knew his student had “better” qualifications than him, but he knew the truth behind his student. Lesus really wasn’t that kind of person.
Chasel tried his best to reduce his student’s mental burden.
Everyone said that Lesus had a cold temperament and an imposing aura. Combined with his superior swordsmanship, he was pretty much the best Judgment Knight candidate.
Lesus was serious. He took every class seriously, including character cultivation classes. Regarding this, Chasel was originally very satisfied, but that turned into frustration later.
Fortunately, the student Neo had chosen was Grisia.
Despite the fact that the first time he heard Neo laugh about how Grisia said that Lesus was even easier to bully than Elmairy, Chasel had really wanted to beat him up.
He walked over and gently clasped his student’s shoulder. He reminded him, “Lesus, it’s over. Let’s head back to the Holy Temple. Do you remember that someone is waiting for you?”
It was customarily the Judgment Knight who soothed their student after they carried out their first execution; however, Chasel knew that there was someone else who would accomplish this much better than him. Therefore, he had borrowed that someone from Neo in advance.
When you feel bad, remember that I’m waiting for you…
Lesus jolted and immediately bade his teacher farewell. He didn’t forget to grab blueberry pie before heading over.
However, when he returned to the Judge’s Complex’s bathroom, it was completely dark and empty.
Grisia was frantically running toward the Judge’s complex. Midway, he was struck by a wave of dizziness that forced him to stop and lean against the wall to rest.
However, he was out of time. He could only take a few deep breaths before quickly continuing forward.
Grisia opened the door, only to knit his brows at the pitch-dark bathroom. Was I too late after all? Should I go to Lesus’s sword practice area, or look for him in his room? Maybe I should go looking in both places…
Still worried, Grisia snapped his fingers to light the candle next to the sink, only to inhale sharply in shock.
Lesus was silently sitting in the darkness without a word, his eyes slightly red as he angrily glared at Grisia.
Grisia felt as though his heart froze in terror as he shakily thought to himself, As expected of my Judgment Knight. This aura is much more terrifying than Teacher Chasel’s…
It felt like if he walked in now, he would get killed.
Grisia took a deep breath before entering the bathroom and closing the door behind him.
Lesus’s eyes were locked onto Grisia as the latter walked over to sit at the stool. The moment Grisia saw the blueberry pie in the basket there, his eyes lit up, and he immediately grabbed it to start wolfing it down.
“…” Only now did Lesus realize he could be even angrier than he had been just now. But his years of experience judging cases made him instinctively sense something was wrong. Something was slightly off about Grisia…
Grisia lifted a hand up to wipe away the remaining bloodstain next to his mouth. If it weren’t for how starving he was, he wouldn’t have been able to swallow the mouthful of rust-flavored pie. He barely chewed the pie before swallowing it, very nearly choking as he hurriedly gulped down the milk that had been placed in the basket as well.
I live! When Grisia had first sat on the stool, he had been on the verge of passing out. In order to face the danger of being killed by Lesus, he had to first eat food.
“Who beat you? Who dared to injure you that badly?”
Lesus’s voice shook as he spoke. It was not unusual for the knights to brawl lightly with each other, but this was no ordinary fight. Grisia’s knight uniform was dyed red, his golden hair messily spilling over his shoulders with quite a few strands burnt. And when he had wiped his mouth, he had inadvertently lifted some of his hair to reveal the skin on the side of his neck that was a harsh red.
Grisia was very skilled at healing spells, which meant his current state was unfortunately this bad even after he had already healed himself. In that case, how much worse had his condition been beforehand?
“I was beaten up by the Pope.”
Lesus was taken aback by this response. How could it have been the Pope?
“Why did he beat you?” He could not understand. They were still only holy knights-in-training. What kind of conflict could Grisia have possibly had with the Pope? And severe enough for the Pope to skip over the Sun Knight and directly raise a hand against the young Sun Knight instead?
“I’m looking for Hell. Not the current Hell Knight, but our Hell Knight.”
The young Hell Knight? Lesus had never seen them. Although the Hell Knight’s position had never been empty when the young knights gathered, they had been informed that the person was the pre-selected vice-captain, not the true young Hell Knight.
Grisia angrily ranted, “I asked about Hell many times. Teacher Hell always just said he was executing a secret mission that couldn’t be revealed, and that I would learn of it after I officially take over as the Sun Knight. But I want to know now where he is! Teacher Hell got so fed up with me that he just told me this was the Pope’s arrangement, and said I should directly ask the Pope. But the Pope was also tight-lipped and refused to say…”
Lesus silently listened. While the Hell Knight was theoretically his subordinate, he had never once asked about their whereabouts. After all, they had yet to officially take over the positions; they only had to obey their teacher’s instructions for now.
He had never expected Grisia to care about the young Hell Knight so much that he had made multiple inquiries about them this early.
Grisia huffed, “We agreed to be the Twelve Holy Knights. How can we be missing one?”
At this, Lesus couldn’t help but stare at Grisia. Can we not miss one?
“That’s why I decided to just grab the Pope’s weakness and threaten him into telling me where the young Hell Knight is.”
Lesus knew Grisia was very bold, to the point of having done many unspeakable things, but he hadn’t imagined Grisia would be brazen enough to attempt to threaten the Pope!
“I’ve been busy planning for this recently. Since it’s the Pope, one can never be prepared enough.”
“Did you succeed?” Lesus asked. He also wanted to know where Hell was.
Grisia opened his mouth, then dejectedly replied, “I can’t tell you.”
Lesus’s expression fell.
Grisia cowered back slightly at the sight of Lesus’s face and helplessly explained, “I really don’t want to keep it a secret from you, but the Pope forced me into swearing to the God of Light that I wouldn’t tell any other soul for now, because it’s a matter of…”
He stopped there.
Yet Lesus understood. A matter of Hell Knight’s life?
“Not only did I fail to retrieve Hell, but Teacher scolded me for being so preoccupied that I disappeared for a few days. He said that for your first serious verdict, you would have to personally lead them to the execution ground. So Teacher Chasel said I had to wait here for you today…”
Grisia’s voice got quieter as he continued, his eyes turning red.
At the moment, the two facing each other were unexpectedly in similar states.
“But in the end, I messed up everything—both Hell’s matter and yours.”
Lesus suddenly lifted a hand to snuff out the candle’s flame, and they were instantly surrounded by darkness.
He asked, “Do you feel bad?”
In the darkness, Grisia’s reply was slightly nasally. “Mhm, terrible.”
“Would you feel a bit better if I said you didn’t mess up in my case?”
“…Yes.”
But did I really not mess up? Grisia wanted to get a closer look at Lesus’s expression, but it was too dark so he could only ask directly, “Are you really not angry?”
“I’m angry—angry at myself for having never thought about Hell.”
“The Hell Knight obeys the Sun Knight.”
“But he is the Judgment Knight’s subordinate.”
The two fell into mutual silence at this.
Grisia resentfully declared, “Once I become the Sun Knight, I’ll definitely make it so that the old fart can’t touch my holy knights again! Lesus, you have to help me when the time comes. You’re not allowed to stand on the Pope’s side with our teachers, even if I’m the bigger issue!”
“All right,” Lesus agreed without hesitation.
So he really isn’t mad anymore, I hope? Grisia let out a large sigh of relief. He had been so frantic when he heard his teacher say that this was Lesus’s first day delivering a serious sentence, yet when he looked out the window, he saw that the sky was already dark!
And when he had arrived, Lesus sat in the dark, his eyes bloodshot…
Grisia trembled as he grabbed another slice of blueberry pie. He used the sugar to calm his nerves. Or else, just thinking about Lesus’s expression just now was going to make him faint!
“Lesus, I want to take back my words from earlier.”
“What words?”
“That you’re not suited to be the Judgment Knight.” Grisia said, his fright seeping through. “Your expression just now was so scary. I’m scared to death! I thought I wouldn’t live to be the Sun Knight, and that I’d get hung to death by you here in the bathroom before then.”
Yet you still dared to walk in? Lesus suddenly wanted to laugh.
“Lesus?” Having received no response, Grisia felt something was wrong and quickly asked, “You didn’t actually consider hanging me, did you?”
“I haven’t, but I did consider hitting you.”
“… Is it hitting like with a few kicks, that kind of hitting?”
“If your ‘few kicks’ is referring to the Storm Knight’s kicks, then yes.”
“…”
So you don’t want to hang me, but instead, you want to kick me to death? Grisia braced himself and asked, “Do you still want to now?”
Amidst the darkness, a response did not come for the longest time.
Grisia trembled as he took several more bites of the blueberry pie. He felt the pie wasn’t sweet enough. He should eat more slices. Before getting beat up, he should eat his fill first. After all, who knew how many days he would be unconscious for…
“For Hell’s sake, I won’t.”
Thank the God of Light! Grisia teared up in gratitude.
“But I won’t bring you blueberry pie for the rest of the year.”
“Urk!”
But July just started! Grisia immediately slowed his pie-eating pace. This pie was too precious. He could not bear to finish it too quickly.
Lesus lit the candle to properly examine the extent of Grisia’s injuries. However, he instead was met with the sight of the young Sun Knight woefully licking the pie.
He couldn’t help but chuckle.
Grisia angrily swatted the flame out again. Did I look that funny? My clothes are just tattered and dirty, and my hair burnt. Who knew the Pope would set so many traps in the room! The fact that I’m not half-burnt to a crisp means I reacted pretty quickly as it is!
Lesus did not relight the candle, and simply sat quietly in the darkness waiting for Grisia to finish eating. Judging from how slowly he had been licking it, they would be here until the middle of the night.
“Lesus.”
“Hm?”
“I won’t miss it next time.”
“Mn.”
“Then that blueberry pie…”
“Next year.”
Sob!
[Amidst the Darkness] END
Gandire Alea
Pfft