Book 3: Chapter Second Requirement of Rescuing a Princess: “Form an Adventurer Team”
Book 3: Chapter Second Requirement of Rescuing a Princess: “Form an Adventurer Team”
Saving a princess is considered good fortune for a knight, for not only can he take a (wealthy) young beauty as his bride, he can also conveniently raise his reputation.
However, going out to save someone else’s princess is not fortunate for a Sun Knight, for not only must he struggle to do his utmost to save the (wealthy) young beauty, he must also look on helplessly as the (wealthy) young beauty marries another. Besides, a Sun Knight’s reputation is already so resounding that it doesn’t need to be raised anymore.
Later that night, after the queen requested that I save her daughter, who was someone else’s princess, Leaf asked me worriedly, “Sun, are you going to decline the queen’s request?”
I took in a deep breath, and just when I was about to say this and that about the God of Light, Leaf forced a smile and said, “Sun, I hope you can use simple words. My ability to decipher your speech is not as good as Storm’s or Adair’s, so I might not understand what you’re saying.”
I released the breath and explained in simple and straightforward terms, “The situation is too odd. The princess was abducted, yet the queen has not sent out people to search for her or rescue her. Instead, she wants us to form an adventurer team to save her. This kind of inefficient method does not seem like the type a mother would use when worrying about her daughter’s safety.”
Leaf nodded after hearing my reasoning.
“Besides, even if they want to form an adventurer team, the Monastery of the God of War has plenty of warriors. The Son of the God of War is a person that even Judgment claims he can’t win against. Just him doing the saving is enough, so why do they insist that we go? We are knights who specialize in group battles. In a small adventurer team, the extent of our usefulness would be very limited!”
As for the Son of the God of War’s claim that they’re missing a cleric for healing purposes… I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that!
Leaf considered this and said somewhat haltingly, “Maybe they have to deal with undead creatures?”
Hearing his words, I furrowed my brows. Dealing with undead creatures? That might be a possibility, since even though undead creatures have an obvious weak point—they are terrified of holy light—warriors are unable to produce even a tiny bit of holy light, so they can only ceaselessly hack at the undead creatures until they’re completely crushed. That’s why even the bravest of warriors will have a splitting headache after hearing any mention of undead creatures.
“I don’t know…” I said hesitantly.
Slowly, Leaf said, “If they’re dealing with undead creatures, then we have an obligation to join their team.”
I furrowed my brows and asked in reply, “Excluding the two of us, who among the holy knights that we brought has the highest ranking?”
Leaf took a moment to think before he began reciting a list. “We brought along thirty holy knights and ten clerics. Among the holy knights, the ones with the highest ranking would be two knights from the Leaf Knight Platoon, two knights from the Blaze Knight Platoon, a knight from the Judgment Knight Platoon, a knight from the Earth Knight Platoon—”
Immediately, I made my decision. “Okay! We’ll have that knight from the Earth Knight Platoon and one cleric follow the adventurer team to save the princess!”
“…”
Outside the door came the sound of knocking. I glanced at the door and said dully, “That’s probably a sweet talker sent by the queen. Leaf, don’t talk while I deal with this.”
Leaf is a good person. No matter what kind of request someone makes, he always accepts, so the best way of dealing with this is to have him shut up. He also knows this, so he very obediently shut up.
I casually fixed my clothes, put on my smile, and shouted out with quite some propriety, “Even though Sun does not know which brother is outside his door, Sun upholds the generous love of the God of Light and welcomes any and all brothers.”
The door opened, and the person that walked in immediately brightened the entire room. The new person was definitely not a brother. It was, in fact, a girl who wore a fairly simple light-blue dress. Her face was as soft and cute as a honey peach, and she had a pair of tender green eyes that sparkled like the surface of a lake under the light of the sun. Her lips were as pink as two petals brought together, and even though she looked to be a girl around eighteen years of age, her figure was curvy in all the right places. Especially that waist that looked so slender it wouldn’t be able to withstand one squeeze…
Anyway, although the girl before my eyes wasn’t the most drop dead gorgeous beauty out there, she definitely counted as a beauty. She was a radiant, petite beauty full of youth and vitality!
She then shyly started speaking. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Sun Knight, Leaf Knight. I am the Kingdom of Moon Orchid’s third princess, Ann Nalis Jeffrey…” she said.
Ann… What a great and easy to remember name!
“Princess Ann, how do you do? Sun is the spokesperson of the God of Light, the Sun Knight.” I introduced myself with a perfect smile, and then also mentioned Leaf as an afterthought, saying, “This is Sun’s brother, the Leaf Knight, who is one of the Twelve Holy Knights of the Holy Temple.”
Leaf greeted the princess with a wide smile.
“Sun Knight, Leaf Knight…” Princess Ann nodded at Leaf and me. After she returned our greetings, she suddenly grabbed my arms in an unusually abrupt manner, and pleaded, “Please, you must help my older sister, Alice!”
Shocked, I “forgot” to shrug off the princess’ hand, and cried out in alarm, “Sun does not understand what the princess means? Might Princess Alice be in some sort of trouble?”
“My sister Alice is the Son of the God of War’s fiancée. She…she was abducted, and now her whereabouts are unknown…”
Ann finally seemed to realize that her behavior was indecent. She quickly let go of my arm and even backed up a few steps before she lowered her head and spoke as if she were on the verge of crying. “I am very worried about my sister Alice’s safety, so I begged Mother to allow me to join the adventurer team. Mother has agreed, except…”
“Except what?” I took this opportunity to take two steps forward. I timed it just right, making it look like I moved closer in inquiry because of my concern.
Although Ann didn’t become suspicious, her head was still lowered, and her tone was despondent. “Except…”
“Except what, Your Highness?”
I moved two steps closer. Now, only the princess’ lotus-shaped dress separated us. I could faintly smell the extremely refreshing scent of honey peach from the tips of her long hair. She truly was a girl just like a honey peach!
Ann finally opened her mouth to say, “Except, Mother claimed that it would be unacceptable to have a princess mix in with a bunch of warriors, so if I wish to go, I must have knights by my side to escort me. That is why Mother requested you to go today while you were at the palace, but, but I heard that you seemed unwilling to go…”
Having said this, Ann turned glistening eyes toward me. Hopefulness shone within those lake-green eyes filled with tears.
With a smile, I replied, “Sun is no such thing, Your Highness. Escorting a princess is a knight’s duty. Even if it’s to the ends of the earth, so long as it is a place the God of Light shines upon, Sun will be able to escort you there.”
“Then I’ll go and tell Mother right away!” Ann’s tears turned into a smile. Probably because she was overexcited, she almost tripped over her own dress. After she skipped over to the door, she turned her head and smiled as she said, “I look forward to adventuring with you, Sun Knight.”
I smiled as I waved. I look forward to this too! Cute Princess Ann.
After the princess closed the door to the room, I turned to see Leaf looking at me, so I looked back at him. After we had stared at each other for ten seconds, he silently went off to pack our luggage.
What a considerate, understanding, and obedient child.
And that is the complete process of how I came to be in this desolate wilderness full of mosquitoes… Slap!
Thank goodness I hadn’t changed my gloves yet… I laid my palm flat, and with my other hand, I lightly flicked off the fresh specimen.
With a concerned expression, Leaf asked, “Sun, Mike and the others still haven’t returned. Should we try following them?”
I furrowed my brow, honestly too lazy to chase after them, but I was also afraid they might truly have run into trouble. After thinking this through, I simply decided to use my ability to sense elements to search for them… What? You say you forgot what that ability is?
Okay, it has been some time since I last used this ability, so I’ll explain it one more time. Don’t forget it again.
This world is filled with all kinds of elements. No matter if it’s the forest, the city, mankind, or even undead creatures, everything has an element. Generally speaking, everything contains a variety of different elements. Only under certain circumstances will an object have an abnormally high amount of a particular element.
For example, undead creatures have an extremely strong “dark” element. In comparison, as the Sun Knight, I have a very strong “holy,” otherwise known as the “light” element. Because the holy element can keep the dark element in check, my very existence is an anathema to undead creatures. For them, everything from my hair all the way to my toe nails is a fatal poison.
I was born with this ability to sense elements. This type of ability is rare and can be considered a kind of gift, because even though it can be learned later on, learning it later on doesn’t produce good results. The ability to sense elements allows me to perceive what kind of elements other people have, and from their elements I can determine their profession. Those with a strong “holy” element must either be clerics of the God of Light or holy knights.
Warriors often have a somewhat higher amount of fire and wind elements, but only a little. Compared with magic users who specialize in fire-type magic or wind-type magic, it’s not a large amount, so they’re still easy to identify.
Warriors who favor strength are often of the fire element type, while those who favor speed are often of the wind element type. As for that Son of the God of War, he’s a little too impressive. His fire and wind elements are both so high, it’s alarming. They’re almost as high as what a magic user would have— What? You say you remember my ability now? And you even remember that my teacher had instructed me not to use this ability in front of other people?
Ahem! No matter, there’s only Leaf by my side, and he’s a good person, so it’s all right!
I extended my ability out…
“Ah! They’ve returned,” Leaf cried out softly.
I hadn’t seen anyone, but as an archer Leaf’s eyesight and hearing are both so superb that if he claimed they’d returned, then they must have returned.
When I reeled my sensing ability back in, I accidentally discovered that there was something with the dark element not too far away from us.
Could it be an undead creature? I was a little worried. If it was, then as the Sun Knight who utterly hates undead creatures, I would have to chase it and destroy it… Wait, this thing with the dark element was actually right next to something with the holy element?
What kind of situation is this? Generally speaking, these two elements cannot exist together… I was even more bothered.
“Sun, Sun?” shouted Leaf repeatedly. He looked in the direction I was facing and asked doubtfully, “Why have you turned to look that way? Is there something behind us?”
I fell silent for a bit before I smiled and said, “Brother Leaf, the God of Light once instructed us through ancient writings that we must always take note of what is behind us, for there may be forgotten darkness that needs to be illuminated.”
This time it was Leaf’s turn to fall silent. I think he probably didn’t understand what my words meant, because I didn’t understand either.
It was just then that I heard noise signaling the return of the Son of the God of War and the others, so I returned to “what the entire continent knew” of the Sun Knight, the mode where the Sun Knight must speak of the God of Light in every three sentences. I also conveniently diverted Leaf’s attention.
As for the dark element that I had just sensed… As I said, my teacher once instructed me that I was not to use my ability to sense elements in front of other people. Since I wasn’t supposed to use it, then I couldn’t know there existed something with the dark element in a place removed from us, and since I didn’t know, then I of course couldn’t chase after it!
“Mike, Princess Ann, Austin, you’ve returned, eh?” Leaf fairly resolutely decided to give up on pondering the meaning of my words. Instead, he warmly greeted the three people who had just returned.
Thump!
I jumped in surprise, whipped my head around to look, and discovered the corpse of an animal lying on the ground. The corpse was around the size of a human, and stirred up dust was still drifting around it, so it must have been thrown to the ground with a lot of strength.
“Hahaha! I thought you didn’t have any other expression other than your smile. So even the Sun Knight can be surprised?”
A female warrior jumped out of the bushes by the rural path. She laughed heartily, her every action full of vigor. I didn’t know if it was because she had been moving about, or if it was from laughing too hard, but her face was all red… Ann truly is cute!
That’s right. This armor-wearing, female warrior who had two one-handed axes on her back and a supremely high amount of fire element happened to be the previously mentioned young beauty, Princess Ann.
I smiled at her, not finding what Ann had just said to be very offensive. I strongly believed that even though I might have been surprised just now, I must have been surprised in an elegant way, so it should not have damaged the Sun Knight’s reputation.
Besides, among the things the entire continent knows, there isn’t anything about how the Sun Knight is never surprised.
Seeing my reaction, Ann grumbled some words under her breath, probably something like, “how boring.” She then turned toward Leaf and somewhat angrily shouted, “Elmy, didn’t I say you can call me Ann? You’re willing to use Mike’s name, yet you’re unwilling to call me by my name?”
“Actually, my name is Elmairy, but forget it, at least Elmy is much better than Strawberry,” said Leaf as he glanced at me. He then told Ann, “I understand. I will call you Ann from now on.”
Considering their statuses as the Son of the God of War and a princess, directly calling them by their names doesn’t seem to fit etiquette, but as I’ve said, Leaf is a good person, so he never declines any requests. Even when I changed his name to Strawberry and used the term of address with him for three years, he still continued to answer my calls.
At that moment, Leaf suddenly cried out in alarm. “Austin, you’re hurt?”
The Son of the God of War, Mike, and his warpriest both walked out of the bushes. The warpriest, who had some years on us, was the Austin Leaf spoke of. Only half of his right sleeve was still intact, and it was also speckled with blood.
“Let me heal you!” said Leaf as he helpfully walked up to him and threw out a Minor Heal.
With a smile, I said, “Brother Leaf, Sun is afraid that the brilliance of the God of Light his brother used is not enough, or else Brother Austin would have healed himself under the gracious concern of the God of War.”
Hearing my words, Leaf paused for a moment before realization struck. “Ah…you’re right. If a Minor Heal were enough, then Austin would have healed his own injuries and would not have returned with them.”
After he finished speaking, he turned toward Austin and asked worriedly, “Austin, are your injuries very serious? Did your bones fracture or break? If it’s just a fracture, a Moderate Heal will be enough, but if it’s broken, then we’ll probably need Sun to use an Advanced Heal.”
Austin shook his head and sighed. “I’m afraid it’s broken. I was too careless, forgetting to keep up with my teammates when I saw some rare herbs. I ended up being attacked by this animal on the ground. I was too far away from Mike and Ann, so they weren’t quick enough to prevent this.”
It’s actually broken… I should have kept my mouth shut, but even if I didn’t remind them, the task of healing him would still fall on me because it’s very taxing for Leaf to use an Advanced Heal.
Though it’s pretty taxing for me too, since I have to speak a bunch of words praising the God of Light.
Wait, why wasn’t the warpriest using a healing spell on himself?
I also want to tell him to heal himself, but the fact is, warpriests aren’t very good at healing spells. You could even say that their healing spells are even worse than a holy knight’s. Of course, I mean a normal holy knight. Don’t take me into consideration. If I’m the norm, then even a cleric of the God of Light would be worse than a “holy knight.”
This has a lot to do with the god you believe in. Healing is considered to be holy magic. Clerics who believe in the God of Light and holy knights who are completely covered with “light” have a much easier time at using healing spells than other types of believers.
Besides the god they believe in, their specialization is different too. Because the God of War holds strong people in high esteem, warpriests mostly specialize in magic that strengthens their warriors. The Wings of God spell and Light Shield that I used before belong to this type of magic.
My mind continued mulling this over as I spewed a bunch of nonsense praising the God of Light. “The gracious love from the God of Light allows all of His children to live in warmth and affection, and furthermore keeps pain and sorrow away from His children. Ah! God of Light! Now your children need your radiance. Please bequeath your benevolence upon this earth and bestow your children an Advanced Heal!”
A ray of white light enveloped Austin’s hand before disappearing in a flash.
“Completely healed. Thank you very much, Sun Knight.” Austin moved his hand about, his expression turning into one of amazement as he thanked me quite gratefully.
At that, Mike snorted and coldly said, “The rumored Sun Knight who’s extremely strong at holy magic isn’t nearly as strong as I thought, speaking so much rubbish just to perform a mere healing spell.”
I didn’t show much of a reaction to his words, and merely continued to smile. I had just spoken a bunch of nonsense praising the God of Light, so much in fact that I’d rather ignore his disdain than speak another word!
Leaf, however, smiled awkwardly.
With a grin, Ann said, “With the Son of the God of War, me, the youngest warpriest of the Monastery of the God of War, and two of the Twelve Holy Knights—one archer and one cleric of the God of Light… Oh my! Maybe this adventurer team of ours is even enough to slaughter a dragon?”
I’m a holy knight!
Weakly smiling, Leaf said, “That…that is… We’re here to save Princess Alice. Ann, you couldn’t have forgotten? Weren’t you very worried about your older sister?”
Ann looked like she was surprised. She quickly exclaimed, “Of course I’m worried for my older sister. I was just joking. You’re too serious, Elmy.”
“I see. I’m sorry,” said Leaf with a small laugh as he rubbed the back of his head.
I furrowed my brows. Yesterday night, Ann looked like she was very worried about her older sister, yet today she was behaving like this. What was going on here?
“All right, let’s move on. Today we need to reach the lakeside as planned,” Austin said and everyone nodded their agreement. As the eldest, he sort of gave off the feeling of a reliable captain. Even though he didn’t look all that old, he was most likely around thirty something. Among this group of twenty-something year-olds, he had the privilege to be our senior, with his ten year head start.
Because we had fallen so far behind schedule, Mike and Austin decided that we would not sleep tonight and would continue for two days straight.
Wait, wait a minute. Continue for two days straight? My face twisted a bit.
Leaf glanced at me before he quickly suggested, “Maybe it’s better if we slept for a bit. After all, we need to be energetic in order to have enough stamina for the road.”
“Setting up camp takes too long. We’re already very behind,” said Mike impatiently. “It’s just two days. It’s not much for us at all!”
Leaf gave this some thought before he tactfully said, “But Ann is female and Austin is a warpriest. They might not have enough stamina to last two days.”
Hearing this, Ann immediately started scowling. Mike snorted coldly and looked at Leaf as if he were an ignorant child. “So what if she’s female? Ann is one of the best warriors of the Monastery of the God of War. Her stamina is definitely not beneath yours. You think I would be willing to bring along useless baggage?”
Austin also smiled smugly as he spoke, “Elmairy, you don’t have to worry about this priest. I normally train my body too, so two days is no problem.”
“Ah…” Leaf gave me several glances, but he caved in the end because he was a good person and would never decline any request.
I couldn’t open my mouth to refuse at all. Since even a female and a cleric said it was fine, as a holy knight how could I have said I would not be able to make it, that I could not travel for two days straight?
Under the majority’s decision, where the minority could not refuse to compromise, we started making haste as though our lives depended on it. Even though we weren’t running as we went, everyone’s legs seemed to be so much longer than mine. Each step of theirs appeared to be five times that of a normal person’s and their strides were fast, so it was pretty much the same as a normal person’s run.
This is totally killing me! I was only wearing light armor, but even that weighed more than ten kilograms! That wasn’t even taking into consideration the weight of our luggage either.
We ran from morning to noon, quickly ate some beef jerky and some bread, took a few breaths before we ran for the entire afternoon, stopped to eat some stuff for dinner, digested, and then began running again… After a whole day like this, my sweat soaked through my entire shirt, the wind dried my shirt, and then my sweat soaked through my entire shirt once again. This process repeated countless times. I felt like I had probably perspired an entire year’s worth of sweat.
By this time I had already fallen to the very back of the team. Leaf slowed down his steps so that he would be shoulder-to-shoulder with me. With a very worried look on his face, Leaf asked quietly, “Sun, are you okay?”
With labored breaths – there was nowhere my body didn’t ache – I managed to squeeze a reply out through my clenched teeth. “No.”
Hearing my words, Leaf again took assessment of my sad condition. He then sighed softly and suggested, “Then let me carry you. You can sleep on my back for a bit and continue running later.”
“Leaf…” I grabbed hold of his hands with overflowing emotion. Touched, I said, “Even though it be nighttime at the moment and the God of Light is not a witness, you are still a good person!”
With a helpless laugh, Leaf crouched down in front of me, turning into a comfortable bed…No! I mean, he turned his back toward me and said, “Climb up.”
Afraid that he would change his mind, I immediately jumped on his back and strove to find a comfortable position. This wasn’t easy because Leaf was very skinny. No matter how I tried, he was not as comfortable as my bed.
Afterward, Leaf began running. In order to catch up with the team, he ran very quickly, so the jolting was quite bad. This made me a little unsatisfied, but I was afraid I would infuriate even such a good person as Leaf if I complained, so I decided to show some restraint!
Once Leaf caught up with the team, the other three people looked at us and reacted very similarly. First, they were shocked, as though they couldn’t believe their eyes; then, they threw disdaining glances at me before giving sympathetic looks to Leaf.
“He…” Ann began to say with astonishment.
Leaf actually forcefully interrupted their queries and said, “We should continue on, or else continuing through the night would lose its meaning.”
They fell silent for a bit and gave me who knew how many glances in the meantime, their gazes mostly filled with contempt.
Everyone was running, yet I needed someone to carry me. That was a little embarrassing for me, but if I had to get off and continue running nonstop I’d die from exhaustion! I’d rather die of embarrassment!
Besides, no one said a Sun Knight has to know how to run, or that a Sun Knight can’t let someone carry him.
“All right, let’s go,” Mike said, laughing icily. “But you have to stay strong. If you can’t make it, none of us are going to help you carry ‘that thing.’”
It looked like Mike didn’t believe Leaf would be able to run for an entire day while carrying me, but he was wrong. Although warriors like him truly do have very high offensive power, if we’re talking about endurance, no class can compare with a holy knight!
What? Then what about me?
Ahem! Holy knights are divided into different types too. I’m the type that’s not so good with endurance, but my ability to sustain holy light is unrivaled by anyone. Even that old Pope can’t compare with me… No, you’re not allowed to call me a cleric! I’m a holy knight!
Anyway, what followed after was a super-duper boring marathon. I believe no one wants to hear me recount this part, and I can’t recount it anyway since I slept for a full twenty-four hours.
It couldn’t be helped. Leaf said that once I woke up, I would have to get off and run, so I did my best to sleep for a full twenty-four hours. I slept until my body ached. It was really exhausting.
When I woke up, the team had already reached the lakeside and was starting to set up camp.