The Legend of Sun Knight Side Stories 16: “Knife Blade Part One”

The Legend of Sun Knight Side Story: Knife Blade

Original novel in Chinese by: 御我 (Yu Wo)


“Knife Blade, Part One” – translated by lucathia

Laica Metal is a holy knight who wields throwing knives and daggers, a fairly contradictory profession.

However, he possesses a trait that is even more contradictory than his profession.

When crimson blood trickles down his silver knife blades, excitement rushes through his heart.

Especially when this blood comes from his own body.

Pain is such, such sweetness…

Laica’s home is a village not far from Leaf Bud City. When the Holy Temple began selecting the thirty-eighth generation of the Twelve Holy Knights, quite a commotion came over the village—the main activity being bringing out various crops and game to gamble with.

However, there were not many people in the village who would actually send their children to the selections, as the chance of being chosen was not high. Compared to children in the city, who were sent to learn swordsmanship and etiquette early on, how could children in the village, who had to help with household chores and hunting with their fathers since young, ever be selected?

Watching the excitement was the actual deal. Many villagers had invited each other to stroll around the city during the days of the selections.

A group of hunters walked into the village, various types of game hanging from their bodies. Their age discrepancy was quite large. The oldest had a face full of wrinkles and almost didn’t seem capable of walking, yet he still carried a string of game on his back, while the youngest looked to be only around ten years old.

A hunter with a face covered in stubble laughingly said to his companion next to him, “Your Laica’s archery skills aren’t bad! His first time hunting, and he already brought in game. Why not have him try out for the Leaf Knight?”

Laisme shrugged and said, “He only shot one more pigeon than your little one. If he can get chosen just for that, then how many kids in the village can become the Leaf Knight? I’ve heard that the Leaf Knight can shoot a butterfly one thousand meters away with his eyes closed!”

Laica, who was walking by his father’s side, thought this was an impossible feat. A butterfly already can’t be seen beyond ten meters, so how can anyone shoot a butterfly one thousand meters away?!

“Impossible!” Laica blurted, “Anyone who believes that is an idiot!”

“…” Laisme immediately whacked his son on the head.

“Ouch! Why’d you hit me?” Laica didn’t understand at all.

Laisme rolled his eyes, not wanting to explain further. This brat had had a terrible mouth since he was young. Laisme had told him to change his behavior, but the brat didn’t know what was wrong about what he’d said at all, and, what was even more infuriating was that all the words he had spoken were actually true!

“Go pluck the pigeons you shot down. For dinner, give them to your mom to make stew.”

Laica replied “okay,” his mood quite good. Pigeon stew sounded delicious. Looking for birds throughout the entire hunt hadn’t been a waste of time. If he had brought in larger game, it would all have been sold, or made into bacon or jerky, preserved for their winter reserves, and would not have been available for immediate consumption.

“Carve some arrows too, while you’re at it. We used too many today.”

Laica nodded. He was good with his hands. Anything that could be accomplished with a knife, he was good at it.

Ever since childhood, from the first time his mother had him help peel potatoes, he’d fallen deeply in love with knives. All children detested being told to do things, yet Laica very much looked forward to peeling, plucking, and arrow making. There were even times when he refused to play with other children for the sake of peeling potatoes.

Laica knelt in the middle of the yard, using his trustworthy knife to rid the pigeon of its plumage. At first glance, the scene seemed a bit gruesome, but there was no hunter’s child who did not dare handle dressing game. Getting rid of plumage was a small matter. Once he grew up and had more strength, he would learn how to dress larger prey.

However, removing the feathers was getting difficult. The blade of this small knife was no longer very sharp, but Laica purposely didn’t sharpen it. That way, he could touch the blade of the knife and enjoy the piercing pressure without getting hurt—his mother said that if he cut himself one more time, she would confiscate his knife. He couldn’t have that happen!

“Brat, how far is this place from Leaf Bud City?”

Laica raised his head. Four people stood outside of his family’s yard. Their clothes looked somewhat like a knight’s, yet not the traditional kind, a lot lighter and tighter. They didn’t carry swords or shields. After looking more closely, he discovered that they carried daggers on their waists.

Laica stared at the daggers intently. He had never ever seen such beautiful daggers before.

“You like it?”

The other party had noticed his attention and chuckled. Mockingly, he said, “Stupid brat, you haven’t even been weaned off your mother’s milk, yet you already want to play with knives?”

Laica’s attention was completely on the daggers. He offhandedly said, “I never drank milk. My mom doesn’t have milk. My little sister and I both grew up drinking berries!”

The other party was stunned for a moment. He had only mocked him out of “necessity” and had been hoping he would end up with an “infuriated brat.” He had even prepared further taunts to infuriate the kid until he couldn’t even speak. He never thought the kid would answer so seriously, making it so that he didn’t know how to follow up on that—and why did these honest words sound so irritating?

It felt like he was the one who had been mocked.

“Not far. On horseback, it’s a day’s journey.”

“What?” He was surprised.

“Leaf Bud City!” Laica looked at him in confusion and said, “Weren’t you asking how far Leaf Bud City is?”

“Brat!” The others moved forward to yell in displeasure, “What kind of attitude is that? Don’t you know that you’re speaking with the Metal Knight of the Twelve Holy Knights?”

Laica’s eyes widened. Twelve Holy Knights?

“Yelling at a kid without any facial hair, who do you think you are?” Metal turned to yell at his platoon.

Metal had always had a headache over disciplining his platoon. Since he had to have a foul mouth out of “necessity,” of course his platoon would copy him. Yet he could never bear it, just like now. Why yell at a brat?

The Metal Knight had to have a foul mouth. It couldn’t be helped. But he didn’t want his entire platoon to have a foul mouth as well. Just imagining such a scene was seriously giving him a fucking headache.

“But none of you look the least bit like a knight!” Laica said in disbelief.

“Brat, what part of us doesn’t look like a knight?”

Metal yelled furiously, but, in actuality, this was not the first time other people had said so. For the ease of investigating in secret, the Metal Knight and his platoon members always wore body-hugging clothes that were easy to move around in. Compared to those of the Twelve Holy Knights who followed the Sun Knight, the men under the Judgment Knight never looked much like holy knights.

Laica said matter-of-factly, “Knights always wear a lot and very long stuff too. Their robes are just as long as a girl’s dress!”

“…”

For the first time, Metal thought that, even though he was a holy knight who was not dressed like a holy knight, it might actually be a good thing.

“What’d you say? Y-You actually dared to say that a knight’s clothes looks like a girl’s dress… Pft!”

Don’t laugh while scolding a kid! You don’t have the least bit of authority like that, bastard! Metal looked at his platoon member wordlessly.

“Brat, what’s your name?” Metal started becoming interested in this kid.

Laica spoke bluntly, “Before asking for someone else’s name, you have to give yours first!”

“…Dansbert Metal.”

“What a difficult name to pronounce,” complained Laica while frowning.

Dansbert could not help rolling his eyes, but he had to admit that this was the truth. Nearly everyone around him called him Metal. Very few called him by his name.

“I’m Laica Bode.” After Laica finished replying, he gazed at Dansbert’s dagger with shining eyes. He asked, “Why do you carry daggers when you’re a knight? They’re so pretty. I’ve never seen such pretty daggers before!”

“You like it?” Dansbert smiled and drew his dagger. He cleanly spun it around in the air, the cold silver blade gleaming in a streak of silver-white. The flowing blade and the hilt carved with scale designs both made it so that Laica couldn’t wrest his attention away.

It was not until Dansbert stuck his dagger back in its scabbard that Laica regained his senses. He exclaimed, “W-Wow!”

Dansbert guffawed. Having someone praise his weapon made him happier than having them praise him.

“Brat, if you have the guts, come to the Metal Knight selection! If you’re damn lucky enough to get chosen, not only will you be able to hold them, I’ll even teach you how to use daggers and throwing knives.”

“Throwing knives?” Laica’s eyes widened.

Dansbert swung his hand so quickly there was only an afterimage. A clear sound came from behind Laica. He turned and saw a throwing knife stuck on the tree stump that was used to chop firewood.

Laica could not help walking over to look. The throwing knife was a simple one, only around the size of a hand. The blade and the handle were seamless; the color a dark gray. It was not as shiny as the Metal Knight’s daggers, but there was a symbol carved at the tail. This symbol was the same as the symbols on the chests of the knights.

Although it was not shiny, Laica really liked this dark-colored little throwing knife. He used both hands to pull on the knife, exerting all his strength, yet the knife was completely stuck in the tree stump without budging at all.

Irritated, Laica turned and said, “I can’t pull it out—“

No one was behind him.

“Why’d they leave?” Laica was stunned for a bit. He yelled, “You left behind your throwing knife!”

Laughter came from afar. “You can have it! Foul-mouthed brat.”

Laica’s heart jumped in joy and he yelled, “You’re the one with a foul mouth! Everyone says the Metal Knight’s mouth is the foulest!”

Stupid brat… But this means I won’t have to spend too much effort on character development lessons.

Laica spent a lot of effort before he was able to pull out the dark knife. Even though he could have asked an adult for help, he wanted to accomplish it himself. He really liked this throwing knife, but he liked the dagger, with the flowing design, that the Metal Knight wore on his waist even more.

I’m going to enter the Metal Knight selection!

Halfway through the mission, Laica somewhat lost his focus. He had just learned that he had failed his character development lessons once again. His teacher was bursting with fury, claiming that he definitely “could not have a fouler mouth,” so why was it that whenever he wanted Laica to speak poisonous words, he wouldn’t be able to speak a single word of poison?

Laica felt a bit wronged. He had never spoken anything foul before. He had never even known how to speak poisonous words… Ah!

Bang—

After the sudden loud sound, Laica gasped in pain. His foot hurt so much that he thought it might split open.

The person standing in front of him turned around. It was Lesus. They happened to be on the same mission together and were chasing after a bandit, but the intelligence they had received seemed to be very wrong.

The intelligence claimed that the bandit had no comrades and was not very powerful, so the Holy Temple had dispatched Lesus and Laica, these two young Twelve Holy Knights-in-training. Only a few young holy knights had come with them, as this was treated like training for the two of them; however, reality was altogether different.

Not only did the bandit himself possess great ability, he even had several comrades, making it so that their chase was not going smoothly at all. From time-to-time, they would even suffer a counterattack. Thankfully, Lesus and Laica’s abilities could be considered topnotch among the young knights. In addition, once the holy knights who had come with them realized the situation was not in their favor, they also became serious and stopped watching from the sidelines just because this was supposed to be training for the two young knights.

After finally catching up, the opponents sneakily fled once more. Lesus finally became impatient and, with one burst of strength, stepped backwards heavily, sending out a gust of wind with his sword. However, before he even managed to hit the enemy, he heard Laica’s gasp of pain come from behind.

When he turned, he saw that he had hurt his own companion. A rare flash of panic seized Lesus, who was always collected. However, he did not forget his actual mission and gave a command to the holy knights by their side first, ordering them to continue the chase. Only then did he turn and in a concerned tone, ask softly, “Laica, are you okay?”

Although his foot kept throbbing in pain, Laica shook his head and replied, “I’m okay.”

Lesus was nearly unable to believe it. He actually knelt down and took off Laica’s shoe to inspect his foot.

Although it hurt a lot, when Lesus kept on grabbing his foot and gently touching it to examine the injury, Laica felt that it made the pain inconsequential. In fact, he only felt the underside of his foot to be itchy after it kept being touched. This feeling was so strange that he could not describe it, and it kept making him wonder if he had thoroughly washed his feet before sleeping the night before.

Laica said uncomfortably, “Lesus, you can let go of my foot now, unless you really like smelling my stinky foot.”

“…”

Lesus silently placed Laica’s foot back in his shoe, letting the shoe stabilize his foot so that the bones would not crack.

Laica was a little surprised. He had never seen Lesus, who was always cold, act in such a gentle way before. No matter if it was inspecting his foot or helping him wear his shoe, although pain couldn’t be avoided, seeing Lesus be so gentle and careful made him feel that this pain was nothing.

He felt like he was someone important who was highly cared for. Laica could not help but smile faintly.

When Lesus raised his head, uncertainty flashed across his face, but he quickly regained his composure and said, “Your injury is severe. I’ll take you back first. I’ll support you… No, I’ll carry you back. That way, the injury won’t be jostled.”

Laica was very shocked. He hurriedly shook his head back and forth. Care to the level of being carried back, he could not bear it!

“I can still walk!”

In order to prove it, Laica moved to set his injured foot back on the ground. Just as he felt a wave of pain, he heard Lesus growl, “Don’t you dare step down,” scaring Laica so much that he immediately resumed a one-footed, bird-like stance.

Following that, Lesus grabbed his arm and looped it around his shoulders, unwilling to accept a refusal. “Let’s go; your injured foot is not allowed to touch the ground, or else I will switch to carrying you!”

Laica almost immediately wanted to smash his foot against the ground, but luckily, he instantaneously curbed that notion.

Why did I have such an urge?

Laica lay on the bed, recovering from his injury. Although it was a bit boring, he was happy he didn’t need to attend character development lessons. Speaking poisonous words is truly too difficult!

“Laica!”

Dansbert suddenly rushed in after pushing the door open.

“Lesus asked me to give you a few days of vacation.” Dansbert asked worriedly, “Were you injured that severely?”

Laica immediately retorted, “Not at all! Lesus is just even more like an overly-worried, middle-aged woman than my mom!”

“These words of yours are truly poisonous! Remember them. Next time, speak in such a way during your lessons.” After Dansbert finished instructing him, he asked suspiciously, “He said that part of your bone cracked, but after the clerics healed you, they still told you to rest for a few days?”

“That’s true,” Laica could not help but admit. The strength of Lesus’s foot was no joke, even the floor had cracked, and he had blanked out so much that day that he had been completely stepped on.

“So the injury really isn’t minor then? Stupid brat, I heard from Lesus that he stepped on you? Why are you so clumsy? You make it so that I’m too embarrassed to even tell people how you got injured!”

Dansbert was so angry that he reflexively swatted downwards in the direction of the bed, coincidentally hitting Laica’s injured foot, making him cry out in pain.

“W-What?” Dansbert fretted, “It still hurts? Didn’t you say it already healed? Was it really that severe?”

Laica shook his head and complained, “It’s because Teacher used too much strength!”

“I didn’t use much strength at all!” Dansbert retorted. He frowned. “Rest for a few days. You don’t have to attend any lessons for the next few days. Make sure you recover first. Right, it’s almost time for dinner. Are you hungry? I’ll let the kitchens make some food that will be good for your bones.”

Laica was a little startled and exclaimed, “Teacher, you have never been so nice to me before! It’s so unexpected!”

Dansbert nearly spat out blood. He pointed at his student. “This utterance was not bad either! Why can’t you say things like that during your poisonous tongue lessons?”

Laica felt wronged as he said, “But I’m not speaking poisonous words. I’m clearly only saying the truth.”

Dansbert’s rage was as explosive as thunder. He shouted, “What truth! Tell me, since when have I not treated you right?”

“It’s not that you haven’t treated me right…”

Dansbert’s fury subsided.

“But it’s not like you’ve been that great to me either. It’s just ordinary.”

He really did spit blood.

“Damn brat, shut up! I’ve wasted my time raising you!”

Dansbert was so angry, he left immediately after turning.

“Teacher! I’m just saying—”

Laica hurriedly left the bed to rush over, but Dansbert had already slammed the door closed.

Faced with the door, Laica was stunned. He felt waves of pain come from the foot he had used to step heavily on the floor. He limped back to bed, dejectedly sitting on the side of the bed.

“I mean, ordinary, just like an ordinary parent.”

Did I say something wrong again?

Are these words of mine very poisonous?

Why is it that I can’t tell apart words that are poisonous and words that are not?

With his foot on the floor and waves of prickling pain drifting over, Laica could not help using more strength to transform the prickling pain into full blossomed pain. Only then did he feel the pain in his chest lessen, and it caused him to use even more strength to step down. He even stamped his foot—

“Laica, what are you doing? Are you okay?”

A voice called out worriedly from the other room.

“I’m okay! It’s just that something fell. You’re being too nosy!”

A “hmph” came from the other room, and then there was no other reply.

Ah… Did I say something wrong again?

He had only wanted the other person to stop worrying about his actions.

His heart constricted again, but he could not stamp his foot this time. It would be too loud.

He sat silently on the side of the bed, staring blankly at the wall. On the white wall hung only one thing—

The throwing knife that his teacher had given him.

The contents of this story are purely fictional. Holy knights have all undergone training, so if you are not a holy knight, please do not mimic their dangerous actions.

31 Responses

  1. Jasae Bushae

    Wow, this is a pretty fun story. Its interesting to see how Metal got his start, and its amusing how his poor ability at poisonous words is simply because he’s trying to hard.
    Judgment must be incredibly guilty though.

  2. Raine

    I feel some sort of kinship with lacia?? I totally understand how he feels! id smash my foot too if it meant lesus would carry me!!
    aww teacher metal is so caring, although a little too sensitive to insults haha. his name is indeed hard to pronounce o3o;

  3. hazel283

    This…….is a very unexpected development….0_0…did not think that his fetish would develop from such an incident >w< ah, his teacher's name is very interesting too~ thanks for the chapter PR! *bows down gratefully*

    • SwitchWitch

      I think it helps that he had a thing for knives in the first place. Two theories for how kinks develop are summed up as “fascination over time leading to experimentation” and “intense events forming associations”. Both can be theorized here and I’m just trying to not squeal because of Metal’s amazing backstory.

  4. Karen

    LOL. Laica is so funny. I guess I can understand why he likes pain now… but it’s still pretty odd. I don’t think it’s very healthy ^^;

  5. NeoWarrior

    I feel connected with Laica… People tend to think my words are poisonous too when I say things even though i’m just being truthful… It is not a good feeling to get people around you mad when you are trying to be friendly…

  6. Jennifer

    This is really interesting. So that’s why Metal was picked. He’s actually a natural at saying poisonous words, he just doesn’t realize it.
    All the interactions between the teachers and students of the Twelve Holy Knights are adorable… Well besides Ceo’s teacher threatening to hire people to gang rape him and Neo throwing Grisia off a cliff and abondoning him to fend for himself when facing undead creatures and a pink nemocrancer. I feel like the Judgement Knight should punish his fellow Twelve Holy Knights for child abuse.

    • Gohankuten

      @Jennifer
      Considering the training Lesus went through he’d have to punish his own teacher as well. What I really cant wait to see is the training for Leaf.

    • Dame-Amaryllis

      @Nimue
      HIs exact words were: “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!”
      It was in the short story Truth in Disguise.

  7. Amiric

    And that’s the difference between Laica and Grisia. The former won’t let Lesus carry him even when he was injured while the latter shamelessly took Leaf’s offer of carrying him… or perhaps because it was Leaf? Grisia won’t be able to do that if it was Hell he was with, as they were from different faction.

  8. ohno

    Ohno, that thing about knives being pretty, enjoying slicing things a bit much, and wanting to touch the blade, I understand it, I’m the same. I never thought much about it, now I feel worried about this…
    I totally hate pain though! That part is not similar!

    • 15B

      @ohno
      Don’t worry. It’s more or less normal. Beautifully worked metal often has that effect on people, whether it’s a Japanese katana or an intricate crown.

      As for slicing things… *dumps a pile of paperwork into ohno’s arms* You can help me cut out squares for origami paper! Isn’t this great?

  9. tsukiyo

    yay! one more name to record down. let’s see, there are neo, lanbi, fahr, wen, chasel, eller, hayseth, and now dansbert. four more and we know all the 37th gen name. and wow, i love how metal speak the truth to be so sarcastic.

  10. Nimue

    Omg! I am a bit too much like him…I have a talent with knives, can’t distinguish “poison” from “honesty” either, and tend to push myself too far. Thankfully I’m not into hurting myself for kicks :p

    Thanks for the chapter!

  11. Anara

    Hi! thanks a lot for the chapter! How many side stories are there left?

    P.D.: “Compared to those of the Twelve Holy Knights who followed the Sun Knight, the men under the Judgment Knight never looked much like holy knights.” Shouldn’t this Judgment Knight be a Metal Knight?

    • Jennifer

      @Anara
      I think it means that all the knights in the cruel, icy faction, who are therefore under the Judgment Knight, don’t look much like holy knights.

    • [PR]lucathia

      Are you using the mobile site? The chapter shows up in the chapter list for me in the normal desktop site. It might not show up in the mobile site. I remember there being a bug on the mobile site in which the chapters stop showing at a certain number. We’re not quite sure how to fix it.

    • tsukiyo

      i’m opening through my laptop… i’ve been trying to find this chapter from chapter list for several times already

  12. Kasa

    It actually seems like metal suffers from severe depression and use physical pain as an outlet for emotional pain.

Leave a Reply to Jennifer Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *