Book 7: The Third: Chapter to Ending the Demon King: The Demon King Gets Ready to Depart

Book 7: The Third: Chapter to Ending the Demon King: The Demon King Gets Ready to Depart

After bathing, the first thing I did was shave my beard. When I almost cut my face twice due to my hand shaking too much, causing Earth to think that I was going crazy again and about to commit suicide, Metal finally could not stand it anymore. He rushed forward, pulled out his two daggers, and sliced at the left and right sides of my face twice until my face became smooth and shiny again… I never knew that Metal’s beard-shaving abilities were this good. In the future, I have someone who can help shave my beard!

After that was combing my hair. My hair was so long it had now passed my bottom. When I tried on the Sun Knight uniform again, I actually had to buckle my belt at the innermost hole. No wonder Earth said that I was as thin as a skeleton. My current waistline was probably only twenty-five inches at most.

My current image, described in Earth’s words from earlier was, “You currently have a sort of poignant feel. If you left your hair loose, you might get mistaken and hit by Blaze’s Flames of Purification.”

After I was done tidying my appearance, I sat beside the bed. I felt so tired that I believed I would fall asleep the moment I lay down.

“I’m so… so tired. Why am I so weak now?”

Earth said incredulously, “Weak? Your bath alone took three hours, your facial took two hours, shaving took half an hour, brushing your hair took half an hour, and polishing your shoes took another half an hour. I feel tired just watching you!”

“I’m going to take a nap.” My eyelids were already about to fall.

“You want to sleep?” Earth’s expression seemed worried.

I asked doubtfully, “What’s wrong?”

Metal muttered, “Don’t go crazy again when you wake up!”

So that’s what they’re worried about. I answered helplessly, “I can’t go without sleep forever, can I?”

Earth said, “Hurry up and get to sleep. We’ll take turns keeping guard.”

I suggested, “Why don’t you all just tie me up. That way, you won’t need to watch me.”

“Don’t joke around. You think we have nothing to do and tied you up for fun? Not to mention even if we did tie you up, we would still have to take turns guarding you. There’s no way we would leave you alone!” Earth answered unhappily. “Just hurry up and get to sleep!”

“Alright!”

I didn’t bother arguing with them anymore because my eyelids were so heavy that they could have fallen straight down. The moment I lay down and shifted my head to one side, my consciousness blurred…

The scene was blurry at first, but it was becoming clearer and clearer. Not to mention I wasn’t using my sensing ability to see but was actually using my sight.

I can actually see again?

Damn it! The me outside couldn’t have gone crazy again, could I? That’s not good at all! Hurry and wake up! I don’t want everyone else to be worried.

Although I struggled my hardest to wake up, this wasn’t something that I could control at all. No matter how many times I slapped myself, I couldn’t even feel the pain, and there were no signs that I was waking up.

I couldn’t help surveying my surroundings. This one look made me think that the end of the world had arrived. The ground was a mass of burnt black, the surface looking like it had been burned by fire multiple times. Don’t even mention the plants. I couldn’t even see a natural colored piece of land.

The whole sky was filled with clouds and mist, and the weather was damp and gloomy. I couldn’t even see a ray of sunlight. The only greenery surrounding me were a few trees burnt black. I couldn’t differentiate whether the trees were still alive or just burnt wood.

This sort of place wasn’t unfamiliar to me. This was a land of death, but I had never before seen such a vast land of death. When I turned to look all around me, I couldn’t even see its end!

On the other hand, I could see that there was a wide stretch of dust close by. It looked like an entire army was galloping over…

Just as I was about to look for a place to hide, I recalled that I was currently in spiritual form. There was no one who could see me, so why on earth should I hide?

Therefore, I stayed put and continued to observe the stretch of dust. Only when they had rushed closer did I notice that it was actually an entire crowd of creatures of darkness!

With white bones jutting out everywhere, rotten horses were what they rode… What I mean is “rotting horses,” not lousy, rotten horses. These horses might be rotting in several places, but their muscles were large and robust. Their eyes were bloodshot, and they were snorting vigorously. They looked even scarier than the creatures of darkness riding on them!

The front-line had two rows of high-leveled creatures of darkness numbering over a hundred. Of course there were death knights, and I could also vaguely make out witches, werewolves, and a lot of other creatures that I couldn’t even name. Behind them was a white sea of skeletons.

It’s an army of darkness!

They rushed toward me. Just as I realized that I would be passed through over and over again by hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses, they stopped about ten paces away from me. The creature of darkness at the forefront seemed to be the commander. His black armor looked more frightening than the others. When light shone on his helmet, I could barely make out a shrieking face. His rotten horse wasn’t all that rotted. Only the area about its right eye was bone.

However, he was one of the ones that I couldn’t identify. His outer appearance was no different from a normal person’s, except that people don’t have shining red eyes or fangs, nor would they ride on a rotten horse.

He walked before me and yelled, “My monarch!”

… If he’s addressing me, can I order them all to self-destruct collectively?

However, it was very obvious that he wasn’t addressing me. His line of sight went right through me and above me. I turned around and looked up reflexively. A gigantic black shadow was floating in midair. At first, I thought it was a gigantic bird, but immediately I noticed that it was a person. He just had humongous wings.

He is…

“Don’t follow me… Who’s down there?” He lowered his head. When he saw me, he stilled for a moment before laughingly saying, “So, it’s you! Have you finally awakened?”

He slowly descended. The first two rows of creatures of darkness immediately dismounted uniformly and even knelt down, but he ignored them, facing only me. It had been a long time since I used my real eyesight to look at his face.

“Roland, is it really you?” I stared at him.

It’s too unbelievable. He, he actually advanced again. His entire person was still ashen, but the dark aura surrounding him had become even thicker. The clawed dragon’s wings had not only increased to three but even looked twice as big as before. His appearance now looked exactly like the creature of darkness that only appeared in ancient myths– a death monarch!

“It’s really me.” He smiled indifferently.

I felt that something was off. “Wait a minute, you can see me?”

“Your current state is a bit strange, but I can still see you. You don’t seem to have lost anything through your revival. Is going crazy a side effect?”

Although he had asked me a question, the number of questions I wanted to ask him was definitely more numerous by at least a hundredfold. I couldn’t help barraging him with questions. “Why did you kill me? When was the first time you actually met Pink? You, have you been lying to me all this while? Also, do you really not want to be Hell Knight?”

Facing my scores of questions, Roland only smiled, then raised a finger and said, “Sun, looking back at our former friendship, I will let you ask one question. Only one. No matter what question it is, I’ll answer it truthfully. Give it a good thought about what you want to ask! Ask me the next time you see me.”

“My monarch, who is it that you are talking to?” The creature of darkness behind me questioned.

Hearing this question, Roland’s face immediately darkened. He walked around me and then faced the mass of creatures of darkness and roared, “I already warned you all, don’t follow me!”

Roland’s roar actually caused the earth to shake. The rotten horses raised an uproar and neighed. A number of the creatures of darkness couldn’t maintain their balance. Some weaker ones even fell down.

But the foremost creatures of darkness remained unaffected, although their kneeling position was even more humble than before, their foreheads nearly plastered directly against the ground. Only that red-eyed, fanged man still dared to raise his head and face Roland, even speaking aloud. “My monarch, following you is our only mission.”

Roland glared at him, but he faced Roland steadily. This wasn’t something that the other creatures of darkness could do. It seemed as though this guy did not have an ordinary status, not to mention the firm resolution that this serious guy was giving off felt familiar to me… Exactly like the Roland I knew.

Roland apparently couldn’t do anything about that guy either. He turned around, looked at me, then spread his three pairs of wings and flew up high.

At this, the red-eyed, fanged creature of darkness also spread his wings. It was a pair of wings that looked like it was made of some thin membrane. It was so thin that the framework could be clearly seen, and there was not a single feather, resembling a bat’s wings.

The moment he spread his wings, the two rows of high-leveled creatures of darkness immediately cried out.

Hearing the shouts of alarm, the creature of darkness looked back and swept across the two rows kneeling at the forefront with his eyes. The latter actually let out pitiful expressions of begging. Finally, he could only sigh and fold his wings up, saying to all the creatures of darkness, “Get up, we have to lengthen our strides to catch up with our lord.”

Hearing his words, the first two rows immediately showed reassured expressions.

These creatures of darkness really differed from what was written in undead creature textbooks. I had never before seen creatures of darkness that could beg, sigh, and look reassured!

After this, the creatures of darkness saddled up on their rotten horses again. The entire army hurried in the direction that Roland had departed toward…

“What the hell, how could Roland be so impressive?” I mumbled. “We’re both candidates for the demon king, but why do I feel that Roland will definitely win? This is such an unfair fight!”

This is all that bastard Sun Knight’s fault! If he hadn’t taken you away, I would have trained you to be even more imposing than that guy!

“Don’t you dare criticize Teacher!” I was so furious that I rebutted before remembering whose voice that was. I anxiously asked, “Scarlet? Oh no, I can’t have gone crazy again, can I? That’s right! Could you have been behind my insanity?”

I didn’t tamper with anything, but I am also to blame. You were originally already in that unstable state of being revived, yet I still let you see those things…

Scarlet’s deep self-blame made me feel that I had gone overboard. Actually, Scarlet had never done anything to harm me, but she first got beaten up by my teacher, then got beaten up by me…

Remembering this, I softened my voice. “Alright, leaving that aside, hurry up and awaken me!”

It is not my doing that you are here.

My soul has been hurt again and again. I am already so weak that I am almost powerless. The most I can do now is talk to you. This is your own power; it is you who let your consciousness come so far.

“Me?” I didn’t believe her at all. “How could I have this sort of power? Even with my sensing ability, I can’t sense this far.”

Of course you can. Now, there are only two demon king candidates left. Although your power is still not as strong as an actual demon king’s, you are still very powerful!

You are here because you wanted to see the other demon king candidate, isn’t that so? I have been observing you for a long time from within the necklace. You seem to be using your instinct to use magic. You wanted to see, so you unconsciously let your consciousness come to such a far-off place.

I asked, shocked, “Are you saying that as long as I want to see him, I can see Roland?”

I don’t think you are able to control your power that easily.

That’s what I thought. My power always seems to fluctuate between being both strong and weak. When it’s strong, I could probably beat the Twelve Holy Knights, although I believe that if Judgment actually drew his sword he could still cut me up into several pieces.

You were born with talent but it has not been properly developed. You were undoubtedly a vessel for the dark element, but you went on to become the Sun Knight, a vessel for the holy element. Later on, you were taught various random skills. Holy magic, elemental magic, necromancy and battle aura; you randomly learned everything. The fact that you didn’t self-destruct due to the clashing abilities is already praiseworthy enough.

… At least I was born with talent. Even Scarlet said that the fact that I haven’t self-destructed is praiseworthy. Looks like the God of Light really is looking out for me. I consoled myself.

Sun!

“Why are you calling me all of a sudden?” I asked, confused. But I immediately felt that something was off. Scarlet never called me Sun. To her, Sun Knight would actually be my teacher. She normally addressed me by my name, but even more often seemed to call me Child…

Sun! Wake up!

This voice is… Storm? Damn, what happened out there? I need to hurry and return…

Return!

“Sun, Sun!”

I jerked up. Although my eyes were open, I realized that I still couldn’t see anything. I hurriedly spread out my sensing ability.

I only saw Earth, Storm, and Metal. All three of them were squashed together at my bedside, their faces full of horror. I hurriedly faced them with my eyes. They immediately yelled anxiously, “You, are you okay?”

“I’m fine!” I immediately clarified. “I just had a dream. There’s nothing wrong. I didn’t go crazy!”

After this string of clarifications, the three of them looked me up and down for a long time before they finally relaxed their horrified expressions. However, they were still uneasy, and their expressions weren’t too great. I immediately asked, “Did I do something? Don’t tell me I attacked you?”

“Nothing of the sort!” After replying, the three of them looked at each other in dismay. Finally, Earth gritted his teeth and said, “You kept on yelling words like ‘Roland’ and ‘why’.”

Hearing that, I felt a little awkward. I didn’t know how to explain, and stumbled over my words, “I-I was merely…”

“It’s probably just sleep talking. We were just overly worried.” Storm hurriedly said, “The sun’s already up. Hurry and freshen up. Your toiletries have all been placed at your bedside.”

He hesitated and then said, “We’ll head to the Holy Temple’s hall and wait for you there.”

Once done speaking, the three of them stepped out of the range of my sensing ability. Afterward, I heard the sound of a door closing. It seemed like they really had stepped out. They’re so reassured about me? They even left the Divine Sun Sword by my bedside… Aren’t they afraid that I’ll go crazy again? Even I don’t trust myself!

No matter how worried I was, they had already left. Nor was I interested in asking three guys to return and watch over me while I got ready. I got off the bed and took off my shirt. I was planning on changing into my uniform, but then I noticed that the Eternal Tranquility was hanging around my neck…

I touched the Eternal Tranquility and softly said, “Scarlet, if I let you out now, the rest of them will definitely feel uneasy. Since you’re already so weak that you’re powerless, resting in there for awhile isn’t bad, right?”

Come to think of it, I haven’t heard Stephen’s voice at all. He should still be in the necklace, right?

You killed his child and sealed him in here. He’s so furious that he says even if you let him out, he won’t go out. He says that he’ll stay in the necklace and wait for the next child to be born.

“… When there are people about, please don’t talk to me. I’m afraid I’ll carelessly reply to you, and when that happens, the others might think once more that I’ve gone mad.”

I don’t know whether Scarlet obeyed my words or was too lazy to reply, but anyway, she stopped talking to me.

I concentrated on fixing my clothes and appearance. Actually, I wanted to do a facial before going out, but I was worried that everyone would get anxious if they waited too long and would break my door open. If that happened, I would have to give some nonsensical excuse like “I accidentally spilled flour into water, and it turned to flour paste. Then I accidentally smacked it onto my face.” That would be a real hassle, so the better choice would be to change and rush out!

I pushed open the room’s door. The moment I stepped out of the room, my head lightened and my sensing ability exploded outwards. I hurriedly backed up against the wall, and only then did I not collapse to the ground.

Numerous scenes appeared in my head. I could almost see the entire Church of the God of Light. I could even see the Twelve Holy Knights gathered and waiting for me in the hall.

… That’s right, the room had magic restrictions, so I had to use a lot of energy to sense. The moment I left the room, the restrictions disappeared. That’s why my sensing ability suddenly burst out.

To reduce the backlash, I slowly reined in my sensing ability and offhandedly observed the number of people in the Church of the God of Light.

The entire church was desolate. I had never seen the Church so empty since my arrival here. Moreover, all the holy knights and clerics were rushing about quickly; they all looked very busy.

All of a sudden, I saw a holy knight that was not in much of a hurry. He was leaning on the balcony and looking outside, not doing a single thing. In the midst of a bunch of people running around, he was very striking. I couldn’t help observing him, intrigued. If this guy was goofing off, then he needs to be punished. But when I took a closer look, I realized that the symbol on the back of his shirt was Hell’s symbol…

I almost thought I saw Roland, but then I immediately realized that it was actually Vice-Captain Tyler. He leaned on the balcony, not looking at anything, just staring blankly with an especially forlorn expression.

Although Hell Knight’s sword was sheathed at his waist, he wasn’t wearing the Hell Knight’s uniform. The uniform he was wearing was still the vice-captain’s uniform.

All of a sudden, his captain became the Sun Knight’s murderer and is even the Demon King…

That would be like me suddenly killing Judgment then running off to become the Demon King. Adair, as my vice-captain, would definitely suffer a hard blow… No! Adair would definitely not believe that I would have the courage to kill Judgment. He would insist that someone else besmirched my name.

As for my demon king identity, I think that Adair would pause for a moment and then follow me, directly becoming the Demon King’s lackey!

Having an overly loyal subordinate is not a good thing either. It’d be too easy to become the Demon King when no one is preventing it.

I adjusted my sensing ability to its normal range and then summoned holy element to cover my hair. I wanted to masquerade my white hair as gold again, but gathering holy element had become unusually difficult. Although I could still gather it, I couldn’t gather thick enough holy element to dye my hair.

What’s going on? Could it be that because there are only two demon king candidates left that the dark element in my body has started to suppress my holy element?

After thinking for a while, I could only go back to the room and pick up my Divine Sun Sword to hang it by my waist. Only with the help of the divine sword was I able to gather enough holy element to dye my hair… Looks like I can’t go anywhere without it from now on.

I walked through the corridors. Every holy knight that I passed by froze when they saw me. If they were holding something in their hands, all the things fell down to the ground without fail. The things that fell included paperwork, swords, cups, and even love letters.

I arrived at the Holy Temple’s hall accompanied by plonk plonk plonk sounds as things fell.

The Twelve Holy Knights… Actually, I should say, ten of the Twelve Holy Knights were all in the hall. All of them had on stern expressions that carried slight nervousness. The moment I walked into the hall, their expressions turned ecstatic. It was exactly like seeing a dead man come alive.

I gave my trademark Sun Knight smile and exclaimed, “Dear brothers, although the morning sun has risen, Sun remembers that it hasn’t been a full day since the last time we met. Why should we be so harried? After this meeting, why not let Sun return to Sun’s humble abode to listen to the God of Light’s benevolence so as to make sure Sun’s actions are more fitting?”

No matter what, I was still worried about the possibility of me going crazy, so it’d be better to make an appearance, let the people know that the Sun Knight hasn’t gone off to meet with the God of Light, and then return to my own room and stay there for another two days!

With tears in his eyes, Leaf said, “It’s been so long since I’ve heard Sun talk like that!”

“It feels like I’ve returned to the days of harried deciphering. How nostalgic!”

“I never knew that I actually liked hearing Sun’s nonsense so much!”

“Sun, speak more! It feels so good listening to you talk!”

… Did I go mad for this past half year, or have all of the Twelve Holy Knights gone mad?

Storm anxiously said to me, “Go meet the people first. Right now, you’re as pale as a spirit and so thin you’re all bones, exactly like someone who has been horribly ill. Saying that you have been horribly ill is definitely believable.”

“Not to mention him dragging such a long head of hair. He looks more like a vengeful spirit than a sickly invalid to me,” Earth muttered. “Why isn’t your hair as bright as before? It looks a bit pale.”

The moment Earth said this, he seemed to have immediately thought of something and fell silent. It wasn’t just him. Everyone else had also fallen silent. Judgment especially swept me with a severe gaze.

I immediately confessed truthfully, “I just discovered that my ability to gather the holy element has weakened.”

“Besides that?” He must have noticed my confused expression. Judgment asked more clearly, “Besides your ability to gather holy element having weakened, is there anything else unusual?”

I shook my head and replied, “No.”

Everyone immediately relaxed. Although the Sun Knight’s holy element having weakened should have been an important thing, compared to me going insane for half a year, this thing must have seemed to them a small matter.

But this wasn’t a small matter to me. The fact was that my ability to gather holy element had weakened to the point that I needed a divine sword’s help, and even with the Divine Sun Sword’s aid, it was probably impossible for me to cast support magic on the twelve of them like before and still have enough left to perform healing spells… No! I might not even be able to cast support magic on all twelve of them.

Thinking of this, I couldn’t help gripping the Divine Sun Sword tightly.

Storm walked up and said, “Sun, since last night we’ve been sending out holy knights to announce that you’ve recovered greatly and that you’re appearing today. There are a lot of people gathered at the plaza right now. It’s about time to go out.”

I nodded my head. Appearing for a short while was nothing much. After all, the Sun Knight’s duty was to act as the Church’s living billboard. From the moment I stopped looking like a little kid sneaking into adult’s clothes when dressed up in the Sun Knight’s uniform, Teacher would often tell me to replace him and go out to wave to the crowd because he was too lazy to act as a walking billboard.

Although I often masqueraded as Teacher during that time, the public didn’t seem to notice it was a different Sun Knight… Actually, for this past half year, Judgment could have ordered Adair to dress up in the Sun Knight’s clothes and go out. The public might not even realize that the person wasn’t me!

I turned around and walked toward the great entrance. Everyone else followed behind. For some reason, they all looked better than before. All their worries and nervousness seemed to have dissipated. They almost looked like they were back to normal.

When I neared the doors, I could hear a lot of noise from outside. Agitated shouts and a lot of talking sounded, but the moment I stepped out of the doors, all the noise disappeared. The entrance to the Church of the God of Light was filled with people; it felt like all the residents of Leaf Bud City were present!

Their movements were very uniform. All of them raised their heads to look at me, their eyes wide open, expression stunned and even afraid.

I thought about what I should say for a moment, and then said, “Beneath the luminance of the God of Light…”

“Sun Knight!” A shriek cut me off. It sounded so mournful and desperate that I was startled and didn’t know what was going on. I could only hurriedly look around to see who had cried out.

“You are still alive! You really are still alive!”

“It really is the Sun Knight. The Sun Knight is still alive!”

Watching the people’s excitement which was like an exploding pot, I was taken aback. Although the Sun Knight hadn’t appeared for half a year, “Sun Knight” is something that is very removed from a normal person’s life. I never thought that my disappearance would cause such a big reaction amongst the people.

Not to mention, it “really” is the Sun Knight? Did they really recognize me?

“We really need you. ‘We’ doesn’t just refer to the Twelve Holy Knights.” Judgment walked to my side and asked purposefully, “Do you actually understand now?”

I smiled and said, “Actually, for this past half year, you could have just found someone to masquerade as me. The people probably wouldn’t have realized anything.”

Judgment refuted, “Did you think that we haven’t tried it?”

What? My eyes widened. I turned around to look at him, disbelieving. He nodded and said, “It was the Pope’s idea. He picked a holy knight that resembled you the most in hair color and body shape and made him wear the Sun Knight’s uniform. Then, he had him stand on the balcony to face the people.”

No wonder he’s the Pope. Great minds really do think alike!

“But the aftermath was serious. Initially, the people were very happy when they saw the Sun Knight. But after the fake Sun Knight had barely said three words, they started rebelling. The people had already realized that it wasn’t you.”

I was stunned. They really noticed? The people knew that that wasn’t me?

Judgment looked at me blankly and said, “Finally, the Church pushed the entire thing onto me and said that it was Judgment Knight’s sinister idea. That finally suppressed the entire commotion. However, rumors about your death started then. There were even some rumors that stated that you were killed by me.”

“How could you kill me?!” I blurted.

The corner of Judgment’s lips curved but immediately drooped back. He said plainly, “For the people, it’s a very real possibility. When the Demon King was born, Judgment Knight actually killed Sun Knight. You can imagine how much pressure the Church of the God of Light has been under.”

Judgment must have definitely been severely verbally abused. If not, he wouldn’t be complaining. I immediately felt very sorry. For this half year, he must have been handling a lot of stress. The moment I wanted to open my mouth and make an apology, he cut in far more quickly. “Don’t apologize to me. I won’t accept your apologies. All you have to do is do your duties as Sun Knight properly.”

“Is it so difficult to let me apologize to you?” I muttered. “At least after apologizing, I will feel less guilty.”

The corners of Judgment’s mouth lifted. He replied softly, “Letting you bear that guilt will at least make you think carefully before you go off alone and do something foolish again.”

I blurted, “I didn’t go crazy because I did something foolish!”

Judgment reprimanded in a low voice, “You went to see an undead lich with a death knight. You call that not foolish?”

“What! I informed you before leaving. You didn’t even stop me!”

The moment the words left my mouth, Judgment’s face darkened. He pressed his lips together and didn’t say a word again. Only then did I realize what I had said… I actually reasoned out that my going crazy was Judgment’s fault because he didn’t stop me!

Just when I had no idea what to do, Storm luckily came up and said, “Please, if the two of you want to argue, do it privately. Right now, the people are all staring at you. They might not be able to hear you both, but even they can see that you two are arguing!”

We were both startled and turned to look at the public. As expected, all of them had terrified expressions, eyes darting back and forth between me and Judgment, as if worried that we would start fighting… What are you worried about? I have absolutely no interest in getting beaten into a pulp by Judgment in front of a crowd!

Judgment took a step back and retreated with Storm to stand behind me.

After taking in a deep breath, I surveyed the people. They seemed very eager for me to speak, but I was unsure of what they wanted to hear. Do they want to be reassured? Do they want my excuses? Or…

“I was not plagued by a deadly illness. The truth is, I was attacked by the Demon King.”

The moment I stopped speaking, the people froze, but then an uproar started. Even the holy knights, the clerics, and the Twelve Holy Knights behind me became panicked.

Storm stepped forward and murmured behind me, “Why… why are you telling the truth?”

“Don’t you all want to hear the truth?”

Storm balked. I turned around and roared to the people. “But the Sun Knight is not dead! Even the Demon King cannot kill me.”

The people’s commotion stopped immediately. They raised their heads to look at me, expressions anticipatory.

I smiled and said, “Even if Sun wanted to die, Sun’s brothers, the Twelve Holy Knights would probably not allow Sun to have an early retirement and a leisurely time by the God of Light’s side.”

Soft laughter rang from the people.

“There is only one Demon King, but we have Twelve Holy Knights. Even the Demon King cannot defeat us! So everyone, please do not worry. The Twelve Holy Knights will continue working hard like usual to solve this problem under the God of Light’s protection.”

The people looked up at me with radiant expressions… I think I was wrong. They really do recognize me.

“The Twelve Holy Knights are here. Don’t worry.”

After saying the final sentence, I turned around. The Twelve Holy Knights were all staring at me with strange looks on their faces.

“Is this a side effect?” The Twelve Holy Knights were murmuring amongst each other. “I suddenly feel that Sun is so dependable!”

“No no, ‘dependable’ is not the side effect. ‘Honest’ is the side effect! He actually told the truth!”

“Oh! That’s right. The side effect of ‘honesty’ is really good, but for some reason, hearing Sun tell the truth makes me feel a little frightened!”

“Dear brothers, if Sun’s change is too sudden and caused you all to be in shock, please forgive Sun, as this past year has profoundly taught Sun that lying is an uncouth method that only causes more pain. But if my brothers feel that Sun is still not honest enough, then Sun will have to be even more honest and spill out all the secrets that Sun has come across by accident!”

Metal nudged Storm with his elbow and asked, “Hey, what did Sun say?”

Storm dumbly said, “He said that this isn’t a side effect. It’s just that he has learned his lesson and won’t keep things from us again. But if we continue insulting him, he’ll spill out all the secrets we have that he learned by accident.”

Metal grunted. “I’m not afraid!”

Of course you’re not afraid. Everyone already knows that you’re a masochist, so you really have nothing to be afraid of, but everyone else has!

My investigative abilities were not for show. I knew at least one or two secrets of each of the Twelve Holy Knights… Excluding Judgment. His only secret had been hiding the fact that I was one of the demon king candidates.

Judgment shook his head and said, “Stop playing around. There’re still a lot of things we have to do.”

I nodded and swiveled my head to look at Storm. “Have you informed the Cathedral of the Shadow God?”

Storm came back to his senses and hurriedly reported. “I’ve already informed the messengers from the Cathedral of the Shadow God that are in the Kingdom of Forgotten Sound, but they seemed unconvinced. They replied that they want to see you first.”

I snorted and said, “Then ignore them. After half an hour, gather in the conference room. I want to give out tasks.”

Storm asked, confused. “Why after half an hour? Can’t we just go now?”

I replied honestly, “Because I’m hungry. I want to get a bite first.”

“You’re hungry, but you think we’re not?” Metal shouted. “We’ve been so busy since morning that we haven’t had time for a meal!”

I considered this and decided, “Then let’s all go to the conference room and eat.”

In the conference room, everyone was holding a bowl of porridge.

I elegantly ate my delicious fish cilantro porridge. Although I was really starving and there were no outsiders here, I still had to be elegant because the porridge was really too hot. When I impetuously took a large bite, I scalded myself so badly that I almost went to meet the God of Light.

Being scalded to death by porridge is definitely an inelegant way to die that would get me killed once more by my teacher. So I had to elegantly and slowly eat my congee!

While eating the porridge, I said, “Judgment, the Holy Temple can’t be without any of the Twelve Holy Knights guarding it. You lead Ice, Stone, and Moon in staying behind and guarding the Holy Temple.”

Judgment was in the midst of chewing a bit of fish. He had a habit of not speaking when chewing something, so he only nodded his head.

After eating two slices of fish and mouth still full with one, I ordered, “Cloud, Earth, Leaf, and Blaze, you will all go and assist the army in trying to defeat the undead creatures. Undead creatures are originally the responsibility of the Church of the God of Light. It would really be hard to justify not sending out any of the Twelve Holy Knights…”

BAM!

Judgment slammed his bowl of porridge down. I was so startled that the piece of fish in my mouth got stuck in my throat, and I started choking. Then it was everyone else who got startled by me. Blaze, who was next to me, slapped me hard on the back. Not just the fish, even my heart almost got slapped out by him!

After spitting out the fish, I coughed a few times before finally getting my breath back.

“Are you alright?” Judgment asked worriedly.

I answered snippily, “Besides getting almost scared to death by you, I’m completely fine!”

Judgment’s expression turned relieved, but it immediately hardened. He coldly said, “You plan to head to the Cathedral of the Shadow God alone?”

I stared at Judgment oddly and asked, “Have I finished assigning tasks to all of the Twelve Holy Knights? If I remember correctly, there are still two people who don’t have anything to do yet, right?”

Judgment stopped. Storm nodded and said, “That’s right. Sun hasn’t mentioned me or Metal.”

I glared at Judgment. Embarrassed, he muttered, “Sorry,” then thought for a while and said, “Let Earth and Ice accompany you as well.”

“No. Earth has to help with the lands of death.” The moment I finished speaking, Judgment’s expression darkened. I hurriedly explained. “Roland has an entire army of darkness. Even Earth can’t block that. If we encounter a dark army, then running away would be the most important thing, so bringing along Storm and Metal who are the fastest is the best decision!”

“How do you know that Roland has an army of darkness?” Judgment shot a look at Storm and asked, “Did they tell you?”

“No.”

I hesitated but still told them about my conversation with Scarlet and my meeting Roland. But beyond my expectations, none of them looked particularly surprised. Looks like their ability to handle strange things is far better than I expected…It seems like there’s nothing that can shock them!

“What sort of expression is that?” Metal shrieked. “Do you think we’re such scaredy-cats?”

Storm glared at me. “For this entire year, first it was you going blind, then it was Judgment dying, and then you dying. Even after you were revived, you were in an insane state. Hell Knight becoming the Demon King, lands of death encroaching further and further, the Cathedral of the Shadow God wanting you dead… Which one of these is not earth-shattering? It’s not easy to scare us nowadays!”

It really isn’t. Just thinking about it, I already believed that the fact that Storm hasn’t died of overwork must definitely be due to the protection of the God of Light. He must have been afraid that if Storm really worked himself to death, His Church of the God of Light would probably collapse as well.

Moon, eyes reddened, said, “Because I’ve been too busy, I didn’t even have time to go on dates. My girlfriend even broke up with me!”

… Then that really was sad. But if it was that 180cm tall one I met before, then breaking up wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s not that I look down on girls who are too tall. I only look down on girls who are 180cm tall, have biceps, and a voice that is very similar to Judgment’s super deep voice.

I looked around guiltily at everyone but received eye-rolls in return. Storm even roared, “If you really feel all that sorry, then start working! I’m telling you, when this thing is over and done with, I definitely want half a year’s worth of holidays!”

“… Then by the time you returned, the Church of the God of Light will probably have collapsed.” The moment I finished speaking, the Twelve Holy Knights nodded.

While Storm roared despairingly, “Why is it that if I’m not around, the Church will collapse? I’m not the Sun Knight or the Judgment Knight or even the Pope. I’m just the Storm Knight,” Judgment patted me on my shoulder and said, “Sun, you really are being very honest recently.”

I nodded and said, “I have learned my lesson. Hiding things will only make things worse.”

“That’s good.” He said faintly, “It makes me wonder whether I should be as honest as you. There’s something I have to tell you. I might as well tell everyone else too.”

After speaking, he looked around. Although they had just been joking, everyone immediately quieted and looked curiously at Judgment.

I couldn’t help asking, “What is it?”

“Although you have been revived, I still conducted the investigation of your death like a murder case. According to the results of the investigation, I think that Roland…”

My eyes widened.