The Legend of Sun Knight Side Stories 2: “Truth in Disguise”

The Legend of Sun Knight Side Story: Truth in Disguise

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.

47 Responses

  1. Gohankuten

    This made me bust out laughing reading it. Though I still want to see how some of the other knights act to see if Blaze truly is the only one that’s not putting on an act to fool others into thinking he is the same as his original counterpart. Though I really want to read more about the first generation holy knights to see if they truly acted the way they were depicted as acting naturally or if they put on a farce like all the later generations for some reason and thus doomed all the later generations to performing the same farce. And give us a 12 way fight against all the holy knights so we can see Grisa win by making Lesus and Roland take all the others out first and then each other and strikes and knocks out the winner immediately so he wins.

  2. Anonymous

    *SO MUCH SQUEEING!*

    *as always, immense gratitude for the translation of such wonderful prose*

  3. beta

    At first it seems like most of them applied to the wrong Knight position, but from this I’m thinking that happened for so many generations the current personalities are what they look for in recruits just so they can deal with their nonofficial roles. I bet the Earth/Sun conflict is multigenerational…

    Also, Storm’s teacher. Wow. Just, wow. The threat of a truly desperate person.

  4. KatKat

    Uwaaa so cute! So funny having to see the lessons in personality. Ahaha. And Grisia, such a nice guy.

    Man, seeing the names Neo and Ceo next to each other is confusing.

  5. Exile Wrath

    Only 10 strawberry lollipops and another corpse XDD
    Thank you for the translations! I’m so glad I stayed up tonight!

  6. okura

    Yay! Thanks for the chapter! Young grisia is so cute~! And so is elmy for hearing fairytales lol

    Good work!

  7. Elphie

    Leaf’s development lesson made the most impression to me somehow rofl

  8. 15B

    LITTLE GRISIA, YOU’RE TOO ADORABLE!!!

    *laughing at the broom-wielding undead*
    *grinning at everything else in the chapter*

    o.o Imagine what would happen if some one killed Grisia right after killing one of the Holy Knights. *scenes of Death Lord Grisia pop up, accompanied by masses of the undead and dark creatures, fire balls raining down, walls and spears of ice flying chaotically while wind blades whistle through the air to rend flesh (Of course, no innocents were harmed during this fantasy.)*

    • Gohankuten

      @15B
      What are you talking bout Grisa wouldn’t even need to die to become a Death Lord. He could do that already with little problem if he wanted to.

  9. Guardian009

    lol… so that’s how Blaze knight came to worship Sun so much XD… haha… I love the 12 holy knights, they’re all a bunch of hypocrites and liars <3 haha, and the sun knight the biggest one of them all, no matter the generation

    ah… i just love this series…. thank you all very much for translating <3333333333

    • Gohankuten

      @Guardian009
      Blaze isn’t a hypocrite. In fact he may be the only knight from this generation that can say he is not a hypocrite.

    • Blargel

      @Gohankuten
      Until he started eating candy, contrary to the meat-gorging glutton he’s supposed to be. That’s the only thing that’s different though.

      I really wonder why the previous Storm and Earth Knights didn’t just swap their students. It’d save a whole bunch of trouble with the personality training.

    • Rinrin

      @Blargel
      They can’t swap. If Earth becomes Storm, he will be too busy womanizing to do the paperwork. I assume it is not only the Sun Knight who skips the paperwork.

    • Achilleus

      @Blargel
      maybe because Storm couldn’t do earths shield ability and Earth couldn’t do what the storm knight usually does in fights? Oo Personality change is easier than skill change look at Sun for that ;)

  10. dollyfishe

    ahahha …. i should be dilligently working right now as it’s the beginning of the month again :p but u cant work while u have ur lunch right ?? hohohohohohoho …. thanx for the update ^^

  11. Achilleus

    Hurm after reading this I doubt Sun and Pink will fight in the main story as Sun prolly will only say: “they killed Leaf” and Pink will not dare to mess with him ^^

  12. Malteria33

    *See new chapter* It’s here! squeeeeee!
    *starts reading* hahahaha
    *first part done* that’s grisia for you. hahahaha
    *half way through second part* I’ll help you little Ceo! You are toooo cute. *chases Ceo around room*
    *finishes chapter* That was awesome.
    *bows to the translaters* You are fantabulious. Encore! ENCORE!

    • 15B

      @Malteria33
      ._. Looks like Ceo’s teacher doesn’t need to spend all of his savings to find girls to glomp little Storm. Plenty of fangirls would likely be willing…

      DX But that lynch mob threat was really too much!

      So this SS explains why Ice is so brilliant at sweet-making, why Chikus worships Grisia so much, what the other knights in the Good, Warm-Hearted faction did in their lessons and a bunch of the other knights’ first names!
      All I need to know now is where Leaf’s seasoning addiction is from…

    • Rona ♥

      @15B
      i want to know about the seasonings too. haha. and oh, the origin of the voodoo doll too. XD

  13. saz

    Ah! so nice to read this and see what the 12 holy knights were like when they were young. And I must say I was confused with Ceo and Neo’s name for a while. haha. Thanks for the translations :D

  14. lulumoon

    Thank You for the new chapter. The little knights are so cute! I love Earth Knight! So young and shameless! Cute Storm Knight! So pure and innocent! Little Blaze Knight! So sure he knows what’s right and wrong. Love the way they “change” once they grow up.

  15. Jasae Bushae

    oh and in retrospect, the character page isnt connecting most of these names presented here to their designationys :3

  16. starwarrior

    Witness the brainwashing….urm,i mean, training of the twelve holy nights

  17. shiro

    XD that was the best short story yet!Man they are so cute! Thank you very much

  18. ruiny

    OMG, thanks for the double release!!! I appreciate your effort and time you put into doing this “for us all”.

  19. MPToki

    THank You for uploading this!!!=D
    But this part almost confused me:
    “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!”
    Is “Ceo” suppose to be “Neo”?
    Just to let you know=D

    • dahlys

      No! Neo is Sun’s teacher, the Sun Knight in this chapter. Ceo is the young Storm Knight’s name. Since the sword was aimed at the kid, it’s Ceo, not Neo. Neo was the angry teacher who lifted Grisia off the ground.

    • kuroneko13

      @dahlys
      waaaaah thats confusing!! ceo neo ceo neo ceo neo ceo neo cneo nceo
      confused@_@

    • MPToki

      @dahlys
      Thank you, but I noticed that after I read the sidestory a second time..
      But thank you for your concern=D

  20. MPToki

    This chapter is so funny!!!=D
    I finally understood that Ceo is the young Strom Knight!
    Sorry for my mistake!!!!
    Thank you for uploading this=D

  21. Rona ♥

    Haha. I enjoyed this chapter. The young 12 holy knights are just too adorable. I just wish we could take a glimpse of Neo’s generation of holy knights?

    And I’m actually wondering what the Pope’s (Neo’s generation Pope) reaction after hearing that Grisia was the chosen Sun Knight. Didn’t he want Grisia to be a cleric for the church himself? ;)

    • 15B

      @Rona ♥
      X3 “Neo’s generation’s Pope”? That old man is still Grisia’s Pope as well! The Pope probably rubbed Grisia’s swordsmanship skills in Neo’s face with a “told ya so”.

      I send more sympathy to Neo’s generation of knights more than I’d send sympathy to the 38th… At least Grisia isn’t as scary as Neo. (Oh God of Light… I just used “Grisia” and “not scary” all in one not-compound sentence.)

      Little 38th generation: SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!~ The fangirl way!!!

  22. Bmwerks

    Thanks for the chapter! Or four as this case may be.
    We finally see why blaze is do dedicated to Sun :)

  23. noodlecharm

    Wah.. I read the chapter again… LOVED IT! Thanks for all the translated chapters!!!!!
    ^_^
    I wish I can read mandarin…

  24. AC

    There’s one sad thing, tough. The Twelve know too much about each other’s personalities :P It would be funnier if they discovered it suddenly in the main story…
    Thanks for the translations. Really thanks.

    • theresay

      @AC
      They grew up together, it’s kinda hard to hide it from each other.

    • Gohankuten

      @theresay
      Hence why they know not to piss Grisa off cause they know his true nature and are terrified of him.

  25. J-Kitty

    I love the fact that Pink… who has been alive for at least 2300 years. Develops a fixation on Grisia. It’s cute although talk about cradle robbing xP

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