Book 4: Chapter Tenth Tactic of Slaying a Dragon: “Slay the Dragon”
Book 4: Chapter Tenth Tactic of Slaying a Dragon: “Slay the Dragon”
Lesus Judgment held a sword brimming with holy element in his hand.
As I sensed the sword, it suddenly let out a heavy burst of holy element. Because I was currently filled with dark element, I felt a burning pain, as if flames were licking at me. It was so painful that I almost shrieked aloud.
At the same time, something in my mind collapsed apart with a “crack.” A myriad of images and words surged forward, like a flash flood in the mountains, filling my mind up completely.
I fell to the floor, weak, and squatted down while cradling my head. I could only feebly feel the flood surging and crashing about in my mind…
“The benevolent God of Light will forgive your sins.”
“Grisia, if you aren’t chosen as the Sun Knight, then being a cleric wouldn’t be too bad either! Then you’d be able to help heal my injuries in the future.”
“Carrying out justice is the reason for the Sun Knight’s existence.”
“Sun, you can’t see anymore, right? Don’t lie to me. And don’t chase that dark knight’s group just to let them slash at your eyes so that you can hide that fact. I know what you are thinking. Don’t do that, please…”
“If you dare to hide anything from me again, regardless of how confidential the matter is, I will expose you in front of all the Twelve Holy Knights.”
…
…
“I remember now.”
I slowly stood and raised my head, letting out a bright smile. Just like before, I must always have a smile on my face.
“I am the Sun Knight, Grisia Sun.”
Ice stared. His expression was slightly disbelieving, and he belatedly asked, “You remember now? Then, then… what’s my name?”
Hearing this, I immediately frowned and thought hard before answering, “It seems to be… Stelan?”
Ice Knight stared at me expressionlessly.
“No? Then it must be Wastelan.” This time, I answered with full confidence.
“… It’s Ecilan!” After Ice was done correcting me, he said in surprise, “Sun, have you really recovered your memories?”
I nodded my head.
Then, Judgment walked a few steps closer.
I tilted my head to the side and asked, confused, “Judgment, how were you able to come…”
No! It wasn’t just Judgment. Several people slowly materialized out of thin air. Storm, Earth, Cloud, Roland, Metal… Finally and unexpectedly, everyone had arrived.
Including me, all of the Twelve Holy Knights were present!
“So it was a teleportation circle.”
However, we’re in the territory of the Kingdom of Moon Orchid! Who is it that actually has the ability to teleport eleven people over from such a long distance away? Even my current self would probably be unable to do it. After all, I have an abundance of dark element, and such a long distance teleportation circle would need a large amount of wind element instead of dark element.
Judgment turned around and told the others, “Go heal Blaze and Ice first. Heal as much as you are able to.”
“Okay.”
Besides me, the ones who were relatively accomplished in healing spells were Leaf and Earth, who immediately walked over to the comatose Blaze’s side and started casting Heal. However, the most they could cast was Moderate Heal. To the seriously injured Blaze and Ice, it was like trying to stop a forest fire with a bucket of water.
Seeing this, I immediately stepped forward, but I remembered abruptly that my entire body was filled with dark element. Currently, if I were to cast holy element-based healing spells, there would be no way I could do it better than Leaf or Earth.
“Sun, your sword.”
I turned my head and saw Judgment holding the Divine Sun Sword before me… The Divine Sun Sword is naturally my sword, but the strong holy element it was currently emitting was making me feel very uncomfortable. Although I couldn’t see it, I felt blinded and dazzled by it.
I loathingly said, “I don’t want it anymore.”
I had a feeling that if I were to take the Divine Sun Sword, I would definitely lose the abundant dark element in my body and once again return… to that Sun Knight who was an incapable sword user and who couldn’t even protect himself.
“Why?” Judgment asked calmly.
I fell silent for a while, but eventually said, “Because I don’t want to return to that pathetic self! I have power now. I can even chain a dragon and prevent it from harming Ice and Blaze!”
“Is that so?” Judgment said coolly. “Then why is Ice’s leg so badly hurt, while Blaze is lying in a coma on the floor?”
“That’s because…” I was speechless, but tried to justify, “I’d lost my memories, and that’s why I let them get hurt. It won’t happen again.”
Upon hearing my words, Judgment immediately said sternly, “Then heal both of them. Heal them immediately!”
How is that possible… My body was so entirely full of dark element that I couldn’t gather large amounts of holy element anymore. Even if I strained myself to use healing and holy spells, at most I could only cast a moderate level one. However, the injuries on Blaze and Ice’s bodies were so serious that only Ultimate Heal could heal them fully.
The me from before could easily cast Ultimate Heal, but the current me cannot ever do it.
“Take it!” Judgment raised the Divine Sun Sword and stepped closer to me.
I, however, stepped back and said in a loud voice, “I don’t want to return to that weak person who couldn’t even use a sword! Allowing them to get hurt this time was purely an accident. I’d lost my memories. It won’t happen again. I have power now. Not only can I protect myself, I won’t ever let any holy knights get injured in the future. I can protect you all…”
“Sun!” Judgment interrupted me sternly again and roared, “Could you have forgotten the things you told us before?”
The things I said before?
Judgment shouted, “When you couldn’t pick up any sword skills no matter how hard you tried, when the Church of the God of Light made noise about wanting to replace you, did you forget what you loudly announced before your teacher, before us, to everyone?”
I flinched, for at that time…
What does it matter if I can’t learn any sword skills?
Even if I’m not like my teacher, the strongest Sun Knight in history, my Twelve Holy Knights strengthened with my holy spells will become “The Strongest Twelve Holy Knights in history”!
There is nothing in the world that can bypass them to harm me! Even if I can’t use a sword, there is nothing worth my fear!
I had said something like that before…
“Take your Divine Sun Sword!”
Judgment held the sword in front of me and returned to his calm manner of speaking. “Sun, we are only the strongest Twelve Holy Knights in history with the aid of your holy spells, so we need your holy spells. We need your healing spells, not your protection! If you still consider us your teammates, then take the sword and assist us as a teammate. Don’t stand alone before us and protect us like a hero!”
Judgment continued to hold the sword aloft, scrutinizing me. Even though I couldn’t see, I could imagine how stern his expression was.
He slowly said, “A hero or a teammate. It’s your choice.”
Teammate, of course… Without hesitation, I reached out my hand, but as I was about to touch the sword, I stopped for a bit and turned to look at the massive and struggling dragon. “I should finish off the dragon first…”
“Take it!” Judgment roared.
I flinched and asked doubtfully, “But can you guys really defeat the dragon? It’d be better to let me kill it first…”
Three arrows suddenly flew past the two sides of my face and the top of my head. I reacted a full count slower, my eyes widening when I realized that the person who had shot the arrows at me was actually Leaf.
Leaf slowly lowered his bow, then smiled at me and said, “If those three arrows had hit their mark, you would have already died, Sun!”
“Sun.”
Someone suddenly called me from my side. I jumped in fright and noticed that Storm had soundlessly appeared by my side and had even laid a hand on my shoulder. He lazily said, “Please, Sun. Hurry up and take the sword, then cast holy spells onto us. Let’s quickly slaughter the dragon and return to the Church, all right? I already stayed up late to work for more than ten days. I want to go back and sleep so badly… Haaa! I’m so exhausted.”
Earth used holy light to solidify an enormous shield, placed it between us and the dragon, and in an “honest and considerate” manner said, “Hurry up and take the sword, Sun. Don’t worry, we’re all already used to you cooling off and lazing behind us when we battle, so just take your sword without any worries!”
Cloud silently “materialized” from the corner and even swished his sword about like in practice —the shadows were so swift that I could barely see them— then he silently retreated back to the corner. What on earth did you appear for?
Ice was still holding Blaze with one hand, but his other hand was tightly grasping the Divine Stick… I mean, the Divine Ice Sword.
Moon arrogantly raised his head and at the same time removed the whip hanging at his waist, fluidly lashing it a few times. The sharp cracking in the air sounded painful, and his posture was exactly like a queen’s… No! No, it’s like a king’s!
Stone merely drew his weapon… a broadsword that was about as long as a woman’s height, yet with a weight at least three times that of a woman’s.
Roland, in a rare act, actually brought along the wicked sword handed down through his family and at the same time removed the ring that Pink had given him, revealing his appearance as a death lord, complete with a veined pattern of black flames and sharp-clawed wings. His aura did not at all lose out to the dragon’s.
Finally, Metal sneered and sarcastically said, “You really didn’t think that we needed your lousy protection, did you? Just cast the holy spells and then obediently head to the back and enjoy the cool air, cleric!”
Looking at them, I suddenly started doubting. Why did I want to have power?
Something like power… I had long since possessed that already!
I didn’t hesitate any longer, reaching out my hand to take the Divine Sun Sword from Judgment.
The dark element once again returned to the entirety of the Valley of Trizer.
The countless Chains of Darkness in the dragon’s cave also slowly disappeared.
Seeing that it was about to be free of its restraints, the dark dragon roared and slashed out its claws, as if impatient to destroy everything before it. Judgment let go of the Divine Sun Sword, drew out his own Divine Judgment Sword at his waist, and turned around to look at me.
Everyone looked at me. I opened my eyes and let loose a large amount of holy element.
“Ultimate Heal!”
Blaze opened his eyes. Ice stood up again.
“Wings of God!”
“Light Shield!”
When everyone’s bodies were sparkling with the holy spells, I raised my Divine Sun Sword, pointed it at the raging dark dragon, and gave an order to my Twelve Holy Knights.
“Now, Twelve Holy Knights, begin the mission of slaying the dragon!”
Everyone answered in unison.
“Yes!”
Finally, we returned to the Holy Temple.
After reporting to the Pope that we had slaughtered a dragon, we watched him yell out with shining eyes to hurry up and send people out to drag the dragon back. The dragon’s hide could be used to make armor, the dragon’s meat for food, the dragon’s bones for spell-casting, the dragon’s teeth for weapons, and the dragon’s muscles for medicine. Even the dragon’s blood could be sold to those people who believed that drinking a dragon’s blood could make one as strong and sturdy as an oak.
I immediately felt sorry for the dragon.
After finishing our reports, everyone looked exhausted, leaving the Pope’s study one-by-one to return to our own rooms.
“Blaze, Ice!”
At the corridor, I hesitantly called out to them.
The two of them stopped dead in their tracks. The others sneakily eyed us for a bit, elongated their ears, and took their sweet time walking away.
“I, about that, I’m sorry, very sorry…”
Ice nodded his head. His facial expression looked the same as usual. It appeared like he had accepted my apology.
However, Blaze’s face tightened. Seeing this, I suddenly panicked. Could it be that Blaze, who has always supported me, is not willing to forgive me this time?
I stared at Blaze, panicked. After a short while, his face relaxed, and then he furiously yelled, “Don’t ever lose your memories again. Sun, when you lost your memories, you really were a bastard!”
(He normally is one already. Somewhere far away, some unknown person’s muttering sounded.)
Blaze fell silent for a while, then roared again, “When you lost your memories you really were a different type of bastard! The type that makes people want to hit you!”
Hey, hey! You don’t need to purposely correct your words, do you?
(He also normally makes people want to hit him! Isn’t that strange?)
Blaze became quiet again. Ice even comfortingly patted his shoulder.
I turned around, gave a brilliant smile and said, “Sun never thought that after Sun’s brothers had slain the dragon, they would still be full of energy and eagerness. It must be the mercy of the God of Light that has eradicated the exhaustion of Sun’s brothers so as to let them continue on unwaveringly spreading the brightness of the God of Light. Sun feels so moved by this and wishes to aid Sun’s brothers. How about leaving immediately with haste on a tour to sing holy hymns —what do Sun’s brothers think?”
The nearby audience immediately dispersed.
Humph! They’re finally willing to leave. I turned around and once again put on an innocent expression as if I had learned the errors of my ways, and stared pitifully at Blaze.
Blaze’s expression had softened greatly, but he still asked doubtfully, “You won’t do something like throwing Ice to a dragon again, will you?”
I confidently swore, “Even if it’s Earth, I won’t throw him to a dragon, really!”
(To hell with you!)
I swiveled my head around. I think I heard Earth’s voice?
Blaze nodded his head, strongly patted my back, and said in a loud voice, “If so, that’s great. I’m going to sleep. In order to find you, I haven’t slept in days.”
I nodded my head and looked at Ice.
Ice just shook his head and said simply, “I don’t blame you.”
Thank you both.
Only after everyone had finished catching up on their sleep did we start to deal with the aftermath.
The five of them, Woodrow and the others, had followed us back. After they agreed not to reveal my true self, I allowed them to either continue visiting the Holy Temple or leave… Actually, I wasn’t too worried that they would reveal anything.
Even if they did, who would believe them?
In total there were thirty-eight generations of the Twelve Holy Knights, and each generation of the Twelve Holy Knights had to keep their true personalities a secret for twenty years. It was upon this which the image of the Twelve Holy Knights had been constructed. Was this something that a five-member adventurers’ squad could easily destroy?
I lay on my bed, my whole body covered with a whitening facial mask I had just finished preparing… According to Roland, my current skin color was only slightly whiter than tiramisu cake made by Ice.
When I heard that, I was so shocked that I almost wanted to hit my own head again and lose my memories forever.
Luckily, after three days of treatment, Roland said that my skin color was about the shade of honey now.
While lathering on the treatment, I thought about the things that had occurred since losing my memories. Why had I gone to the Kingdom of Kissinger? Even though I’ve regained my memories, I have absolutely no recollection of what had happened. Was it something that Scarlet did? Scarlet’s identity, could it be… But why did she want to harm me? Also, what has happened to Whitey, who was taken away by Scarlet?
Knock knock!
… That goddamned curse!
“Which brother is standing outside of Sun’s room, here to discuss the path of benevolence with Sun under the reminder of the God of Light?”
“Grisia…”
This voice is… I extended my sensing ability until it reached outside my room. After determining the person’s identity, I couldn’t avoid flushing away the salary I had applied to my body, and with tears in my eyes I changed my clothes and went to open the door.
“Sybil.” When I opened the door, I asked grudgingly, “Do you need something?”
Sybil boldly walked straight into my room, curiously stared at the floor, and asked, “Why is it wet? Were you taking a bath just now? That’s great!”
Great for what? I was a bit confused.
Sybil smiled and said, “I came to say goodbye.”
“Are you all leaving already?” I asked in confusion, “Why aren’t the rest of them with you?”
“The others will be coming by later.”
“Later?” I uncomprehendingly scratched my face. Why didn’t they come together?
“You really… are completely different from what I had imagined!” Sybil stepped closer, looked me up and down and said, “Only your appearance is like what they say — golden hair, blue eyes and milky-white skin. Er… You’re darker now, more like honeyed-milk.”
Don’t jab me where it hurts!
“But you really are more like it!”
“Like?” Why is Sybil saying so many strange things today? I asked, confused, “More like what?”
Sybil stepped even closer. I could smell the scent of jasmine on her… Why is she suddenly wearing perfume? She smiled and said, “More like a normal person… Why is there a fragrance on you, did you put on perfume?”
“No.”
I always had a fragrance wafting about me. It couldn’t be helped. After ten years of lathering on treatments, with most of the treatments using lavender as a base, I always had the smell of lavender about me. My teacher Neo didn’t like lavender. He normally used rose-based treatments, so there was always the scent of roses about him.
Sybil tilted her head to the side and asked curiously, “Could this be the fragrance of a virgin?”
“… Of course not!”
“The fragrance isn’t a virgin’s scent?”
“Definitely not!”
“Then what about the person? I almost thought you would loudly proclaim that you weren’t a virgin, like you did before?”
“…”
“Do you want…” Sybil stepped one step closer, her entire person almost pressed against the front of my body. I could even feel the breath of air she exhaled when she spoke.
“To forever disconnect yourself from the word virgin?”
I started. Could this mean that…
While I was still frozen in shock, Sybil’s face was already coming closer, her lips almost on mine. However, her bust had pressed up against my chest first. The feeling of those two soft mounds on me was really great… Could this be the day that I leave behind my church hermit and virgin days?
My beloved God of Light! I have decided to forever set this day as a day of thanks and grace, and each year on this date, I will go before your statue and thank you…
BAM!
“Aah, I’m really s-sorry. Did I interrupt you two?”
DAMN. YOU. EARTH!
Since you already know that you are interrupting, hurry up and get lost! While Sybil was turning around to look at Earth, I immediately used the scariest look in the world to glare at him, my eyes conveying a burning “Get lost.”
“S-Sun, I have something important to tell you…” Earth let out an apologetic and awkward look at Sybil.
The latter lowered her head. She actually appeared embarrassed and hurriedly said, “That’s, that’s fine. I already said my goodbye, so I should go… Grisia, see you sometime.”
See you sometime? When am I going to see you again? Tonight?
However, before I could ask, Sybil had already run off. Her expression was also one that said she wasn’t going to come back again. My, my day of gratitude…
Earth patted my shoulders and said sincerely, “S-Sun, is this called retribution?”
Hey, hey! You are one of the Twelve Holy Knights of the God of Light! What retribution? Just see if I won’t regard you as a double-crosser, tie you up on a stake, and burn you to your death!
I crossly told Earth, “If you’re done, get lost!”
“I really did have something to tell you!” Earth shrugged his shoulders and said, “Judgment is looking for you.”
“… Judgment is looking for me? Why didn’t he come in person?”
“He wants you to go over and attend the meeting.”
Earth suddenly smiled. It was still a sincere smile like always, and I had no idea whether it was my own imagination or not, but I felt that his smile was even more despicable than ever before. However, I haven’t infuriated him recently, have I? I was gone for so long, so there’s no way I could have gotten in the way of him seducing his forty-first or forty-second woman! (Just for clarification, I did not make a counting mistake. It was just that the number of women who enter his room increases that quickly! Dammit!)
… Maybe, because I’m using my sensing ability, I was just mistaken about his expression?
So I was to go and attend a meeting. Just what on earth has happened that is so important that even I have to go and attend?
I was slightly puzzled, but I still nodded my head and answered, “Alright. Let’s go!”