The Legend of Sun Knight Side Stories 17: “Knife Blade Part Two”

Warning: Contains self-harm.

 

The Legend of Sun Knight Side Story: Knife Blade

Original novel in Chinese by: 御我 (Yu Wo)

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“Knife Blade, Part Two” – translated by lucathia

He held the small, commemorative throwing knife in his hand. Just like when he was young, he used his fingers to press down on the blade, feeling that sting of pain. Nowadays, he was able to control the amount of strength very precisely, and the small throwing knife was just commemorative. He hadn’t polished it for a long time, so he could no longer easily harm himself with it.

This kind of stinging pain wasn’t even as painful as his foot injury, but even that didn’t compare at all to the ache in his heart when he yet again worried his teacher. So Laica was not satisfied, but he tried to hold himself back. He couldn’t let his fingers be injured. There were still a lot of things he had to do the next day.

Should I go and apologize to Teacher tomorrow? Right after Laica made the decision that he would never let himself say the wrong thing again, he suddenly remembered that he would have character development lessons tomorrow. If he were to say kind words, his teacher might get an even worse headache… Just what would be the right thing to say? Laica was back to worrying again.

Suddenly, a stab of pain seized his hand. Laica froze, and only then did he realize that he had actually cut his finger. He had actually been unable to control himself. He stared at the cut on his thumb, worried over how he was going to do his work like this the next day.

Even though bandaging it wouldn’t be a big deal, since there were a bunch of clerics around, wearing bandages in the Holy Temple would draw endless questions. Yet, Laica felt that finding a cleric over such a small cut would also be very foolish.

Stinging pain came from his hand. This new injury was more of an ache, and even superseded the pain in his foot. When he saw blood drip down his finger, he immediately used the small throwing knife to catch it. He stared, mesmerized, at the blood on the blade, momentarily forgetting his worries about whether or not he should apologize to his teacher tomorrow.

Unable to help it, he raised the small throwing knife, wanting to make another cut. However, he still retained some of his senses, so he didn’t make the cut on his fingers. Instead, he drew the knife across his arm. Even if he didn’t seek out a cleric, he could bandage himself and hide that underneath his sleeves.

He gently left a streak of red across his arm.

Ouch!

Laica felt utterly enchanted by this sort of feeling.

Unable to stop himself, he made another cut… and another…

“Teacher, your complexion looks really good today. You look like such a benevolent and friendly person, not at all like the Metal Knight!” Laica carefully said the words of praise he had spent the entire night preparing, afraid he would anger his teacher and cause him to leave abruptly.

Dansbert was furious. Just what was this! That brat Laica normally said such poisonous words that he would want to spit blood, yet whenever character development lessons came about, he would only be able to say these off the mark “poisonous words.” Even mosquitoes wouldn’t get poisoned!

“Poisonous words! You better speak poisonous words! Have you forgotten what today’s class is?”

Laica furrowed his brows. After a long moment, he tentatively said, “Teacher, your words aren’t even poisonous. You’re such a good person, so of course a student taught by you wouldn’t be able to speak poisonous words.”

Dansbert felt completely helpless. Are these poisonous words? Why do I feel like I’ve been praised?!

With Laica like this, what’s going to happen when it comes time to evaluate their personalities? Dansbert knew that he didn’t have Neo’s skills and arrogance. He would not be able to shield Laica, so Laica had to be able to safely pass the evaluation on his own!

”Just speak like normal. Don’t think too much.”

Laica frowned. He really didn’t know what to do.

“Laica, quick, speak.” Dansbert grew impatient. Didn’t he nearly anger me to death last night? Why is it only during character development lessons that he turns into a polite child who only speaks nice things?

Anxious, Laica blurted, “Teacher, you’re so strange! I can’t say it this way, I can’t say it that way, so then how am I supposed to say it?! If I knew it was going to be like this, I would never have come to be your student.”

Dansbert was stunned. These words were poisonous indeed! Actually so poisonous that he couldn’t utter a single word. His words were caught in his throat, unable to be voiced.

“Very good, these poisonous words pass.” Dansbert finally managed to force a smile. With these poisonous words, plus the words from the previous night, he bitterly wondered just who he had been so worried and rushing around for.

“Dismissed.” He turned to leave, his heart so pained that all he wanted to do was drag someone off to get smashed.

“Teacher!”

When he heard the call, Dansbert momentarily paused but still did not stop. He continued forward and left.

“Teacher …”

Just by looking, Laica knew that Teacher had grown angry, and he was definitely very, very angry this time. After all, he had left without even scolding him.

Dispirited, Laica mumbled, “If I hadn’t come here, Teacher might have found a much smarter student than me, and then he wouldn’t need to be so troubled. It’s all my fault.”

The more he thought about it, the more he felt it was his fault. He was merely a child from the countryside. Why did he think he had the ability to become the Metal Knight? He always caused his teacher to be super disappointed. Maybe he should just give up. That might actually be better for Teacher…

In the following days, Laica didn’t even have the chance to say he wanted to give up because Dansbert had left on a mission. It was a sudden mission, and Laica only learned that his teacher had gone when he went to ask. He had waited and waited without his teacher showing up at his lesson.

Could it be that Teacher left on a mission because he doesn’t want to see me? Laica had these kinds of thoughts. If it wasn’t because several of the Twelve Holy Knights had also left, Laica might really have immediately departed from the Holy Temple so as to prevent himself from further angering his teacher.

The young knights were all attending classes, and Laica did not have much else to do. He could only stare off into space in the training room. When a knock at the door sounded, he jumped up in fright, yet also felt a surge of happiness. He rushed to open the door, yelling, “Teacher!”

However, the person outside the door was actually Lesus.

Laica stared, his happy mood abruptly disappearing without a trace.

Although they were currently holding character development lessons, Lesus had stopped needing such lessons quite some time ago. His imposing manner was even greater than that of the current Judgment Knight. After all, the current one, Chasel, was said to be the most gentle and cultured Judgment Knight there ever was. He even improved the Judgment Knight’s bad reputation quite a lot—but this was not something to be praised.

Lesus seemed to know that Laica didn’t have anything to do, so he walked in without asking at all, unafraid that he would bother him.

“Laica, why is your foot injury recovering so slowly?” Lesus asked in confusion, “Did I injure you that severely?”

Because he was the one who had caused the injury, Lesus would ask after Laica’s foot injury from time to time. However, he heard this news from the clerics—the condition of Laica’s injury improved but then grew worse. It wasn’t until recent days that his injury had healed. Lesus was getting a bit worried.

“Huh? It has nothing to do with you.”

The moment the words escaped, Laica felt frustrated. These words were most definitely wrong again. He meant that he himself had caused the situation. Every night, he would not be able to resist secretly stamping his foot, so how could he recover like that? It had nothing to do with Lesus at all.

He thought Lesus would grow angry like everyone else, but he did not have an angry expression. Lesus even asked, “Are you angry I hurt you?”

Laica immediately retorted, “Are you stupid?” To begin with, he was the one who had been in a daze, and that was why he had gotten hurt. Then, his injury didn’t heal properly for the longest time because he kept stamping his feet. Why would I be angry at Lesus?

Lesus furrowed his brows lightly, which made Laica begin to feel nervous. He knew he had spoken the wrong words again. If he kept irritating Lesus time and time again, it would be difficult for the other person not to get angry. If he turns his head and leaves, ignoring me just like Teacher, then what should I do?

“Has your foot injury healed?”

Laica nodded, afraid to speak any further. Even though he secretly stamped his feet every day, the clerics of the Church of Light lived up to their reputations. If it wasn’t because he only suffered a foot injury, and thus the Church of Light only sent a few young clerics to have them practice their healing spells, Laica’s injury would have recovered a long time ago. It didn’t matter if he stamped his feet. Even performing a flying kick would not result in any pain.

“Then, come with me. The information was wrong last time, so our training mission was interrupted and didn’t count. We have to do it again. This time, I chose a suitable mission. We can complete it together to make up for the interrupted one.”

Laica nodded again without answering.

Only Lesus would have the authority to pick his own training mission. Even if he didn’t go on a training mission, no one would say anything. Lesus was already more like the Judgment Knight than the current Judgment Knight. No one would make any extra demands of him.

If anyone dared to say Lesus was still a trainee, the entire Holy Temple would ridicule that person for being blind.

Even Grisia with his super strange personality could already take charge. All day long, he would clean up the Sun Knight’s messes. No one dared to say he was still a trainee either. If he grew angry because of it and ended up only willing to complete training missions, the Sun Knight would be the first to jump up and kill the speaker.

When he thought of these two, Laica felt that even as a trainee, he was a failure of a trainee who could not even speak a word of poison. He only knew how to anger his teacher day in and day out.

“Lesus, you really are an annoying fellow.” Why are you so amazing? I can’t compare at all!

Laica hung his head dejectedly. The moment he finished speaking, he suddenly gasped with an “ah.” This time, even he understood that he had truly said the wrong thing. He frantically looked toward Lesus.

Yet Lesus asked, “You don’t seem to be in a very good mood. Should we postpone the mission?”

Laica blinked and asked cautiously, “You’re not angry? I said you’re really annoying!”

“You don’t seem to mean it.” Lesus said calmly, “Observing words and gestures is a basic skill of interrogation. Although you said that I’m annoying, your expression tells me you don’t hate me.”

Rather, it seems like you hate yourself. Lesus omitted saying this.

“I’ll postpone the mission for a few days.” Lesus could tell that Laica’s mood was not good. Going on a training mission under this condition would not be ideal.

“I want to go!” Laica persisted, “Recently, Teacher went on a mission so I have nothing to do. Going on a training mission works out perfectly.”

It was because Lesus knew this that he had chosen to come at this specific time; however, he then discovered that Laica’s mood was rather disadvantageous for a mission, so he had wanted to give up on his idea. Perhaps he should talk further with Laica, but his past experiences told him that he was definitely unsuited for doing such a thing. The sort of “talking it out” that ended up with the other person crying definitely could never happen again.

Lesus carefully observed Laica’s rather resolute expression. Only then did he nod and say, “You must ensure that your state of mind does not affect the mission.”

“Really, are you stupid?” I wouldn’t mix personal feelings with duty!

“…Then, let’s go.” Lesus felt that talking with Laica could really train his powers of observation. His mouth scolded him for being stupid, yet his expression was one of resolute agreement. Just what kind of personality is this of Metal’s?

When he thought of the other person who also gave him an incomparable headache, Grisia, compared to dealing with his companions, Lesus felt that interrogating criminals was a truly simple task.

Because it wasn’t a solo training mission, combined with the fact that he had already made Laica waste his effort once and even get injured, Lesus did not choose a very difficult mission. All they had to do was investigate a thief. Lesus did not follow the usual practice of seeking out holy knights to watch them from the sidelines. Recently, the Holy Temple had been particularly busy, and was short on manpower, so Lesus skipped that step.

He didn’t think that they would meet trouble again. This time, the thief brought along an accomplice. From their speech, it sounded like they belonged to a burglar group. After stealing, they planned on returning to the group’s main headquarters. Although Lesus could immediately capture these two, doing so would cause them to lose this prime opportunity to investigate. Of course, he could not let go of this chance.

Lesus glanced at Laica with a hint of apology.

Laica didn’t think anything of it. Under his assumptions, it was normal that Lesus would pick a difficult mission.

As they followed the thieves, Lesus discovered that Laica was indeed a good assistant. He was extremely good at hiding. Several times, it was Laica who advised him where they could hide. There were even times when the thieves in front of them became more alert, and Laica promptly pulled Lesus into hiding. Only because of that did they remain undiscovered.

I should come directly to Laica for carrying out these kinds of missions in the future. Lesus silently noted this to himself.

The two of them followed the thieves to their hideout. Once they confirmed the location, Lesus could not make a decision right away. Since it was just a bandits’ hideout, with his and Laica’s strength, they should be able to deal with it. However, they were still trainees, so theoretically, they should not take care of something like this on their own.

Just as he was making up his mind, Laica suddenly pulled at him, making him stagger a step. At the same time, he heard a faint piercing sound.

From the corner of his eye, he saw that a throwing knife protruded out of where he had been standing. Lesus’s expression immediately darkened. How could I have been so careless!

A few thieves had stuck their heads out from the windows above, their faces carrying traces of viciousness. This rather vexed Lesus. Although he and Laica wore lightweight outfits, it was definitely clear that they were people from the Church of the God of Light. Yet they still dared to attack? If we were normal citizens, wouldn’t we have been killed already?

A raging flame ignited in Lesus’s eyes.

“Laica, we’re heading up!”

When Laica heard him, he was not at all surprised. Although they were trainees and should not act on their own or take on a thief’s lair alone, this was Lesus. If he said it could be done, then it could be done.

As soon as Lesus said, “up,” he immediately sprinted forward without the slightest intention of letting Laica go first. Although with Laica’s abilities he should be responsible for opening up the path, at that moment Laica could only follow along behind.

Lesus trampled over the two brutes guarding the entrance. He forced his way in, and even used the hilt of his sword to knock unconscious a huge man who was twice Lesus’s size and carrying a huge mallet. All this time, the thieves and robbers inside, being scared out of their wits, were all fleeing one after another. The person who had thrown a knife at Lesus from the second floor was even trying to escape through the window.

One could see the corridor of the second floor from the first floor’s hall. When Lesus saw him escaping, he stepped backward with great force, intending to jump directly to the second floor with this charge. However, he heard a very familiar grunt from behind.

Don’t tell me… Lesus felt a rare flash of panic, but he did not immediately turn his head to investigate. Instead, he threw the sword in his hand up. It passed through the railings on the second floor, slicing the target’s calf, making him fall to the floor while crying out in pain.

Only then did Lesus turn his head to look. As expected, Laica had fallen behind him. This scene was exactly the same as the previous time—he had stepped on Laica again.

It was probably because Laica was truly very good at concealing his presence that Lesus often could not tell that he was right behind him. Thus, he stepped on him for a second time, hard.

“Laica!” Lesus hurriedly reached out his hand to pull him up. This time, he had only been trying to use a heavy force to jump to the second floor. He had not used his battle aura, so he should not have stepped on him as heavily as the previous time.

However, who knew that when he grabbed Laica’s arm, not only did Laica not stand up, he even gave another groan of pain, and then revealed a strange smile.

Lesus, who was skilled at observing words and gestures, really could not make sense of things this time. That groan obviously signified pain, but then what was with the smile?

Lesus pulled up Laica’s sleeve. Sure enough, it was wrapped in bandages. He asked in a low voice, “What happened to your arm? Did someone hurt you? In the Holy Temple?”

Laica hurriedly said, “No one did. I cut myself using a throwing knife!”

Lesus froze. He cut himself with a throwing knife? And that smile just now…

In order to confirm his conjectures, Lesus did something he had never done before—he intentionally kicked his companion.

The expressions on Laica’s face were rather spectacular—shock, astonishment, embarrassment, mixed together with that strange smile from before, and in the end, he even said, “Lesus, can you step on me again?”

It felt like he had been punished. Even though he wasn’t getting beaten by his teacher, Laica still felt his heart becoming more at ease.

Thus, Lesus wordlessly gave him another kick.

“Laica!”

When he returned from his mission, Dansbert immediately heard that his student was once again on bed rest. He hurriedly rushed over to see what had happened. Fortunately, the moment he opened the door, he saw that Laica was resting in bed, safe and sound. Except, his foot was wrapped in bandages.

Lesus was even sitting by the side, peeling an apple. His skill with the small knife was so brilliant that Dansbert could not help but praise him silently. The long apple peel was so thin it was nearly translucent, yet it did not break apart at all.

“How did you get hurt?” Dansbert looked at Laica’s wrapped ankle in confusion. Why is the injury in the same place as last time’s…

“I was the one who stepped on him.” Lesus explained calmly.

“…” Dansbert grew angry. “What the heck, are you purposely giving my Laica a hard time?”

“It was not intentional.” Lesus was a little embarrassed. He had stepped on his companion twice, so he felt that it was necessary for him to explain that he definitely had not done it on purpose. “Laica’s ability to conceal his presence is really powerful, so I often do not notice that he is right behind me. That’s why I stepped on him.”

“As if you need to tell me, who do you think taught him… No, that’s not the main point. You already stepped on him last time, yet you still weren’t careful. You even stepped so heavily—“

“It’s not like that, Teacher.” Laica hurriedly explained, “Lesus didn’t step as heavily this time. It’s when I told him to step on me that I accidentally twisted my ankle, so the bone broke.”

Dansbert suddenly felt that his ears must not be working.

“What did you say? You told Lesus to do what?”

“I told him to step on me, because the feeling of getting stepped on is so good,” Laica replied honestly.

“…”

Dansbert held his head and mumbled, “I didn’t hear anything. I must be too tired after returning from completing the mission, so I accidentally fell asleep and am now sleep walking. I actually heard Laica say that it feels very good to be stepped on. I should quickly return to bed and sleep… Laica, I’ll come see you again after I wake up tomorrow.”

“Okay!” Laica’s eyes shone. Teacher isn’t angry anymore?

Lesus too rather wanted to return to his room to sleep and pretend that today was all a dream, but unfortunately he would never allow himself to escape from reality. He could only sit and continue to peel the apple, taking care of the patient he had injured by stepping on and kicking him.

“Lesus, from now on, you should hit me more!” Laica added very excitedly, “I like to be hit!” All I have to do is get hit or injured, and Teacher will stop being angry!

“…”

The apple peel broke.

Lesus felt that his skill at remaining calm was still not good enough. He said faintly, “As long as you complete your missions well.”

“No problem! I’ll definitely complete them perfectly! So you won’t have any excuses not to hit me.”

For the first time, Lesus felt that it would be better for his companion to fail his missions.

-END-

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.