The Legend of Sun Knight Side Stories 14: “When Teacher Wasn’t Yet Teacher Part Three”

The Legend of Sun Knight Side Story: When Teacher Wasn’t Yet Teacher

Original novel in Chinese by: 御 我 (Yu Wo)

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“When Teacher Wasn’t Yet Teacher Part Three” – translated by lucathia

“Reporting to Knight-Captain Judgment, I have only managed to find out that Sun Knight previously came to this area before he went missing. I have not managed to discover anything else.”

Kleenly summoned his courage to give his report, feeling that his days before getting dragged to the torture rack were numbered.

Chasel’s brows creased as he looked at the small alley in front of him. They were no longer on the main streets of Leaf Bud City and were already a fair distance from the Church of the God of Light. However, he did not find it odd that Neo would come here; their Sun Knight has always been a large idiot with directions. It would not be strange no matter where he ended up in Leaf Bud City.

Although Neo always claimed that he was taking a walk, everyone knew the truth. If you wanted Neo not to be late or to actually make it to a gathering or a meeting, it was best to give him a guide.

After Chasel muttered to himself, he told Kleenly, “We’ll enter the alley. Then, we’ll have you ask the people in the vicinity if anyone has seen a blond-haired, blue-eyed person with fair skin come here. Don’t mention that it’s the Sun Knight. Neo might not have worn his Sun Knight uniform.”

Neo was such an eye-catching person. He should have given people a lasting impression.

Chasel stood close by and watched Kleenly ask each resident. Truthfully, if possible, he would have wanted to make the inquiries himself. That way, he would be able to search for hidden meanings within their words. However, he wore all black, plus was serious and imposing. The average person would become cautious the moment he or she saw him. He was truly not suited for asking questions – unless the location was the Judge’s Complex.

Kleenly continued asking more residents. They all recalled Neo, but none of them had spoken with him. Finally, they managed to ask someone with relevant information.

“That person seemed to have spoken with Aris. She’s the daughter of the Hills family. Her home is on the corner of that street over there. What a poor child. First, she lost her parents, and now…”

Once he learned of this piece of information, Kleenly turned his head to look at Chasel. The latter indicated for him to go to the corner of the street and knock on her door.

Right after knocking, a girl opened the door and shyly stood behind it. She looked to be around fifteen years of age.

She’s still so young. Don’t tell me she’s one of the numerous rumored lovers of my captain? Kleenly’s imagination ran wild.

“Hello.” Seeing that the girl looked cautious and afraid, Kleenly tried his best to be gentle. “May I ask if you are Aris?”

The girl nodded.

“I am a holy knight from the Church of the God of Light and am currently investigating a matter. Have you spoken with a blond-haired, blue-eyed man recently?”

Aris hesitated for a moment but still answered, “I have.”

“What did the two of you talk about?”

The girl did not answer further. She furrowed her brows and looked as if she wanted to close the door.

Kleenly immediately said, “That person is my captain. Recently, he unexpectedly returned with severe injuries but refused to explain anything. We just want to know what happened to prevent him from suffering such heavy injuries again!”

After saying this, Kleenly stilled, realizing what he had just said and discovering that he actually wasn’t as uncaring as he had thought about the “leisurely lifestyle” that he had led in recent years. He and the others always talked about how their daily life was truly wonderfully relaxing in comparison to that of the other platoons.

It was true that it had been super relaxing, but it had also been super boring… Kleenly was a little despondent.

“Captain is not willing to tell us anything. He might as well not have any platoon members, right? Ah, that’s not exactly right either. At least, we are still necessary for ‘correcting documents,'” he spoke somewhat mockingly.

Hearing this, Aris finally stopped being wary. She even tried to console him, saying, “Don’t feel bad. That person looks like the type who doesn’t know how to consult other people.”

Kleenly looked at her gratefully.

“At the time, I had been kneeling in front of my house, crying. Big brother passed by and asked me why I was crying. I told him that my younger brother had disappeared.”

“How did he disappear?” Kleenly was somewhat surprised. He didn’t think that his captain would actually care about a crying girl by the roadside, especially when she was only fifteen, which obviously fell short of Captain’s “range of protection.”

Aris’s mouth trembled and tears fell as she said, “He was playing outside when a bad guy snatched him. I saw it happen through the window and gave chase, but I couldn’t keep up at all. He disappeared just like that, my only brother!”

Seeing her cheeks streaming with tears, Kleenly was at a loss about what to do.

“What was the malefactor’s appearance and attire?”

When Aris raised her head, she saw pitch black before her eyes. She jumped in shock, took a step back, and immediately slammed the door closed with a bang.

“…”

Chasel coldly said, “Why aren’t you knocking yet?”

Kleenly hurriedly knocked and explained, “This is our Knight-Captain Judgment—”

Behind the door came a small scream. After a long while, the door finally creaked open, only revealing half of the person’s frightened face behind the door.

Aris whispered, “He wore clothes that were not very well-fitting. A knife hung by his waist.”

“Did he have anything tied to his calves?” Chasel inquired in detail.

Aris blinked and threw open the door. She cried out in surprise, “You’re asking the same thing as that big brother! There was! He had a lot of straps tied around his legs!”

“I see. He belongs to the bandits from the mountains,” Chasel said mildly. “Their clothes do not fit because most of them are stolen. They have to tie their pant legs while traversing the mountains to prevent mosquitoes and other insects and even leeches from getting into them.”

The truth was out. Neo had mysteriously gone off to exterminate a bandit gang because of hearing Aris’s story.

“Will you be able to save my brother?” Aris looked hopefully at the two people in front of her. She asked, “Big brother told me not to worry. My brother will definitely return. Is this true?”

Kleenly didn’t know how to answer. Sun Knight had indeed returned, but Aris’s brother had evidently not returned. Does this mean…

“The big brother that you speak of is the Sun Knight of the Church of the God of Light,” Chasel spoke in a deep voice. “If the Sun Knight says that your brother will return, then he will return! Do not tell me that you actually dare to doubt the Sun Knight’s words?”

Although Aris was a little afraid of Judgment Knight’s cold expression, what filled her heart at the moment was hope and not fear. With a tearful smile, she said, “I don’t dare to.”

After leaving the alley, Kleenly worriedly asked in a quiet voice, “Knight-Captain Judgment, is it alright for you to say something like this? We don’t know where that child might have been sold off to—”

“Neo won’t let this rest,” Chasel cut him off. “He has never known the meaning of letting something rest. Since he has told the girl something like that, he will give chase to the bitter end, all the way until her brother returns home!”

Is that so? Captain has such a personality? Kleenly lowered his head, somewhat despondently, saying, “I truly do not know my captain well enough.”

Chasel once again felt the urge of giving Neo a thorough scolding.

“If that is the case, then you should all take this chance to show the Sun Knight that the Sun Knight Platoon is useful! None of you were assigned to him to correct documents. You are all capable of handling more important matters!”

Kleenly jerked his head up. We can handle more important matters… That’s right, in the beginning, when I had first been chosen to assist the Sun Knight, the leader of the Holy Temple, I had been prepared to face all sorts of hardships and difficulties, no matter how challenging. Yet, when did I become so content with my leisurely life?

This isn’t what I wanted!

“Yes, we will prove it to Captain!”

Seeing his determined expression, Chasel nodded his head in satisfaction. This is the Kleenly that I had originally wanted.

Knock, knock.

After the knocks, a voice from inside the room asked, “Who is it?”

“I am Kleenly.”

“…Who?”

Kleenly silently quenched the sadness he felt and clarified, “Your new vice-captain.”

“Oh. Come in.”

When he entered the room, he saw that Neo was lying in bed. Neo took measure of Kleenly and asked curiously, “Why did Chasel pick you as my vice-captain?”

Kleenly answered honestly, “Reporting to Knight-Captain Sun, I do not know why.”

“So you don’t know… Oh well. With Chasel’s personality, it most likely is because you have the best rating in the Holy Temple.”

Kleenly was taken aback. It was true that his rating was fairly good. So this was factored in?

No—It didn’t matter why Judgment Knight had chosen him.

“Even though you’re my vice-captain, you can just do what you did before. Just take these documents—”

Documents again! Kleenly gritted his teeth and prepared himself to cut off his captain in mid-speech.

“Captain, I have drafted a plan.”

Neo paused and asked in confusion, “What plan? Who decided you should make a plan?”

“I did,” Kleenly said firmly.

Neo opened his mouth. He looked at his own platoon member whose expression was nothing like what he used to show in the past. Neo was actually at a loss for words.

“Speak.”

Hearing this, Kleenly relaxed by a large margin. He walked to the side of the bed and unfolded a map as he spoke. “Captain, I have researched all of the bandit gangs within the kingdom. I have discovered that there are nearly twenty large bandit gangs in our kingdom. These are their possible hiding locations. I believe that this is an utterly preposterous disgrace for the Kingdom of Forgotten Sound’s public security. It is also profoundly dangerous for the citizens, so I suggest working together with local churches to lead troops to annihilate them!”

“Bandit gangs…” Neo muttered, “I understand now. It’s Chasel, right? You went with him to investigate why I annihilated a bandit gang?”

Kleenly stilled. His expression already told Neo the answer.

Neo furrowed his brows, but then he laughed and said, “I knew that Chasel and the others wouldn’t let it go so easily. If any of them came back hurt, I would also…”

After speaking thus far, Neo raised his head and looked at Kleenly as he said, “Tell me what needs to be done.”

That Neo was willing to listen caused indescribable emotion to surge from within Kleenly. He immediately started explaining, “There are nearly twenty or so bandit gangs. If we take them on one by one, the other bandit gangs will undoubtedly became cautious and will hide even further and become harder to find. That’s why we should team up with local churches and split up our assault to attack ten places at once. Within a short time span, we will proceed with the second wave of attacks so that they will not have any time to relocate.”

Neo nodded. “Doesn’t sound bad. I’m not good at these kinds of things… Okay! You will take care of the arrangements. Just remember to make me the leader of the troops. Basically, you can just treat me like a chess piece you can use to charge and break through enemy lines!”

“I wouldn’t dare to treat you like a chess piece, sir!” Kleenly shouted in surprise, “Knight-Captain Sun, I don’t have that intention!”

“What intention?” Neo said impatiently, “Cut the crap! Do you want to annihilate the bandit gangs or not?”

“O-Of course I do!” Kleenly hurriedly said.

“Then go make your plans, and make sure I am the leader of the troops. You just have to tell me what I need to do when the time comes.”

Isn’t this backwards? Usually, shouldn’t it be up to the Sun Knight to make plans for the platoon members to follow? Kleenly felt like his head was a little muddled.

“Oh, right.” Neo suddenly turned and got off his bed. He grinded his teeth and said, “Chasel mentioned last time that you guys lost to the Judgment Knight Platoon? Come. We’re going to practice!”

Seeing this, Kleenly hurriedly said, “Captain, you are still recuperating! We will diligently practice our swordsmanship. Please—”

Neo growled, “What recuperating! I’ve already recovered, and I’ve been reclining so long that I’m itching all over!”

“But Judgment Knight said—”

Neo approached all of a sudden and demanded, “What, are you my vice-captain or are you Chasel’s?”

“Of course I’m yours!” Neo’s severe expression scared Kleenly so much that he answered right away, but since Neo had moved so close, he also noticed that his complexion was much paler than usual. It really couldn’t be said that he had “recovered.”

Once he realized this, Kleenly immediately calmed down. Although Sun Knight’s expression was severe, Kleenly was more worried about his “pale complexion.” He nodded and said, “Captain, please wait here for a moment. I will go and gather the platoon members and tell them to get ready at the training grounds. Then, I will come back for you so that you can instruct them.”

“Okay.” Neo nodded his head in satisfaction, suddenly feeling that having a vice-captain was not a bad thing.

Once he left the room, Kleenly’s footsteps were swift and hurried. He had to gather the platoon and also go… to the Judge’s Complex.

Knight-Captain Sun, I do follow you, but you ordered me to listen to the Judgment Knight, so I will listen to the Judgment Knight.