Chapter 1: In Training, Part 1—Vice-Captain– translated by lucathia
Ultimately, Teacher concluded that he was a resplendent, sunlit type of guy. The moment sunlight shone on him, he would automatically have to sparkle a bit, so of course he would wake up.
“As long as you’ve heard me, you don’t have to worry about it too much. Otherwise, a serious guy like you would probably have his brains explode from overthinking. Besides, I even followed suit and forgot to choose a backup candidate!”
Elaro was very satisfied with his habit of waking up early. He never overslept, and waking up early meant he could accomplish many more things.
Elaro turned, lowered his head, and scooped up water from the basin to wash his face. On his back, there was actually another scar that spanned from his right shoulder to below the shoulder blade. The color was even darker than the x across his chest.
Originally, he had thought that the Sun Knight should have a head of brilliant golden hair, so when his teacher had asked him to keep his hair long, he had agreed immediately.
“Teacher, I’ve decided to cut my hair!”
Teacher really spoils me too much! Elaro felt like he was slacking off. After all, Teacher maintained his hair like that too, yet he had chosen to keep his hair short because he wanted to slack off… Speaking of maintaining hair, today seems to be the day for applying facial masks…
Originally, he had to apply facial masks twice a week, one more time than even his teacher, because his natural skin color was not pale enough. Luckily, he was still just a knight-in-training, and did not have a high salary. He was also growing taller and taller, so the amount of facial mask materials he used up was shocking. If he really were to continue applying facial masks twice a week, his teacher might even have to help pay for his materials out of his own pocket. Therefore, once his height reached over one hundred and eighty centimeters, his facial masks were finally changed to once a week.
Elaro had never had to apply an extra facial mask.
“Captain.”
If they were speaking about their positions, these two were actually both holy knights, while Elaro was only a holy knight-in-training. Even though he was the future Sun Knight, before officially assuming the position, he was still just a trainee. Logically speaking, Elaro should be the one deferring to the other two, but his situation was truly too unique. No one would seriously consider Elaro a “holy knight-in-training.”
Even so, his association with his own platoon members had been somewhat awkward in the beginning. His platoon members were all already official holy knights. Only he was still a holy knight-in-training, even though he was the Sun Knight-in-training. But still…
“It wasn’t too early.” One of them smiled too as he answered, “We arrived only ten minutes before Captain came out.”
As he recalled his teacher’s instructions, Elaro couldn’t help but look at the two of them one more time. Nag and Ice Cube…
As for which one of them was Nag and which of them was Ice Cube, it wouldn’t even take ten seconds to figure that out.
The two of them were in a competition of sorts, and the situation was such that the other platoon members had even chosen sides. Seventy percent of the platoon members supported Dili, but the platoon members who supported Rhonelin all had greater ability. The competition between the two sides wove an undercurrent of turbulence among the platoon.
“Captain?” Rhonelin asked hesitantly, but did not say a single word more.
Rhonelin and Dili were both taken aback. Usually, Dili performed these kinds of tasks, but right now, the person Elaro was gazing at was Rhonelin. He obviously wanted him to answer, so both of them detected that today was not quite like usual. They were somewhat able to guess that this had to do with their greatest concern.
“The first job right now is to seek out Vice-Captain Adair and ask him what duties the Sun Knight has for the week, as well as receiving paperwork.”
Despite the situation, Dili was not worried. He believed that Captain would give him a fair chance to compete.
In the distance, Elaro could see that the person they sought was currently commanding Ed and three other holy knights.
The entire Church of the God of Light agreed that Adair was the best vice-captain in history. In fact, common folk from outside often made the mistake of believing him to be the Sun Knight himself. Of course, once they saw the actual Sun Knight, they would begin to repent for their foolishness.
Elaro would always unconsciously compare his two vice-captain candidates with his teacher’s vice-captain. However, he was a little discouraged to discover that Dili was great with people, while Rhonelin was great at completing his tasks. The two of them combined together would equal to one Adair, but unfortunately, he had no way of combining the two of them into one person.
Elaro shook his head and said, “Teacher did not specifically task me with anything—oh, right, Teacher wants me to…” He hesitated for a moment, remembering that Dili and Rhonelin were still standing behind him, but he still honestly reported, “When he returns, he will verify that I have properly chosen a vice-captain.”
When he heard this, Elaro was a bit ashamed. Even more than that, he didn’t want to turn his head to see what kind of expressions Dili and Rhonelin had. The two of them were probably still maintaining their usual smile and indifference. Although they were very different, their ability at staying unperturbed was equally good.
Even though there was quite a big gap in their ages, their relationship was like that of friends. They had once collaborated together to deceive Captain/Teacher in the Demon King’s Castle. Afterwards, they had received ruthless revenge together from Grisia, whose ability to hold a grudge far transcended a normal person’s. It was inevitable that brotherly camaraderie would form from sharing these trials and tribulations together.
When he heard this question, Adair began to think. A nostalgic expression appeared on his face. “About three—”
“It was three minutes!” Ed burst out laughing to one side. His personality had not changed much, even after he turned forty.
Adair smiled wryly.
“Ah! It must be the God of Light’s benevolence that has brought each and every brother to Grisia’s side, allowing us to become closer and even more inseparable brothers. Let us join hands to bring forth an even more beautiful future for the children of the God of Light.”
“Grisia.” The current Sun Knight Neo smiled as he said, “Go and nurture your camaraderie with your platoon. Your teacher must visit the palace today. You don’t have to come with me.”
After Neo left, only the future Sun Knight and the twenty or so future Sun Knight Platoon members remained. Grisia still wore a smile, but the Sun Knight Platoon members were all extremely nervous, afraid that they would leave a bad impression on the future Sun Knight.
He should be a captain who is easy to get along with. Adair finally relaxed a little.
Grisia suddenly asked them this, but because no one had been prepared, and his speech was quite punctilious, no one understood him right away.
Grisia didn’t mind, and he repeated his question.
Grisia, the future Sun Knight, now stared fixedly at Adair with eyes that were practically as blue as the sky. This made him, who had already relaxed, become nervous again.
“You are too courteous. I am Adair.”
“Huh?” Adair was stunned. Even though he was quite confident about his own abilities, and had considered fighting for the position of vice-captain, he… he didn’t think that he would be able to win the position within three minutes!
“Brothers, please follow me this way. Today, the sunlight is resplendent, the perfect opportunity to bathe in the radiance bestowed by the God of Light. If we continue to detain ourselves indoors, we will truly waste the God of Light’s generosity.”
“My fellow brothers, please jump off.”
Adair blinked and looked at his surroundings. This was the top of a cliff. Even though the elevation wasn’t all that high, they would definitely get hurt badly enough after jumping off that they wouldn’t be able to crawl back up. Yet the command that they had just received was “jump off”?
With even Adair thinking this way, the other members bore expressions that were even more stupefied. They wondered if they had already gone hard-of-hearing, despite being so young. However, when they looked around, everyone else was just as confused. It couldn’t be that they had all hallucinated together, right?
Since everyone was staring at him, Adair could only ask again, “May I ask—”
This time, none of them could convince themselves that they had hallucinated as a group, but now they were even more confused. They never thought that their first command from their future Sun Knight would be to jump off a cliff!
Grisia revealed a slightly puzzled expression. “Are our holy knight brothers so weak in constitution? I believed that this height would not hinder any brother. Under the protection of the God of Light, at most, there will only be slight injuries.”
At this time, Grisia had already stopped smiling. He said indifferently, “There’s no reason.”
At that moment, Grisia only looked at Adair. Clearly, he was singling him out.
Abruptly, Grisia waved his hand, and a humongous icicle appeared in the air, knocking Adair and sending him flying. He had been standing very close to the edge in order to check the height, so once he was sent flying, he fell directly off the cliff. While he was falling, he thought he saw his captain reveal an impatient expression, and vaguely, he heard this:
Adair leaned against the mountainside, gasping in deep breaths. Even though he had prepared himself to land, and had even rolled to lessen his injuries, he had still fallen for a long distance. He hadn’t been able to prevent himself from getting hurt. His right leg was pretty much broken, and his back was killing him, not to mention all the countless small injuries he had, like the scratches that he had received.
Another loud noise sounded as another holy knight fell. He landed very close to the previous knight, and had almost fallen right on top of him, scaring him so much that he immediately tried to scramble to the side. However, because of his serious injuries, he couldn’t crawl very fast at all. Then, more people fell down.
He was more or less done. Adair watched as the last person fell down. This time, he didn’t rush forward to drag him, since no one else would be falling. Also, all those large movements had injured his leg so much that he was shaking from the pain. He dropped to the ground, unable to stand up any longer.
When he heard the loud scream, Adair raised his head. A large shadow had just fallen on top of that last person. Good thing that only the person’s legs had been squashed. If the shadow had fallen completely on that person, Adair was afraid that he would have spat blood right then and there.
Just as everyone was still stunned and couldn’t make sense of the situation, a large amount of holy light flashed before their eyes. Grisia stood up as if he had never been hurt, and the person who had been squashed so severely by him also stood up. His movements were very smooth, not at all like someone who had fallen off a cliff and had also been so severely flattened.
Grisia walked over, looked around, and tossed a few Moderate Heals at them. Then, he said, “Brothers, please rise and follow me.”
Everyone slowly stood up one after the other, including Adair. Because he hadn’t been prepared when he was knocked flying, while everyone else jumped out of their own volition, plus he also had to drag everyone afterward, Adair’s injuries were the severest out of everyone’s.
“Please jump.” The same command was given, but this time, the only recipient was Adair.
Hearing this, Adair turned his head to look at everyone and discovered that they all wore the same accepting expression. It was evident that they had all jumped off the cliff by themselves.
After receiving this refusal, Grisia’s expression didn’t change. He calmly said, “My holy knight brothers, as you are members of the Sun Knight Platoon, you have already sworn to the God of Light that you would be loyal to me.”
Grisia knitted his eyebrows together. After he waved his hand, another icicle appeared. This time however, Adair wasn’t completely unprepared. His ability wasn’t low, so of course he could dodge one icicle… but dodging an entire sky of icicles was another story altogether.
He experienced falling off the cliff once again and lay sprawled across the ground, his injuries worse than last time’s. On top of the impact from landing, he had also been bruised by the icicles. Exerting himself just a bit more when breathing would cause his chest to contract in pain. This time, he had probably broken his ribs, and his leg injury from before hadn’t healed yet either, so now he was hurting all over.
“My holy knight brother, please stand up and return to the top of the cliff.” The same demand came. The matter wasn’t over yet.
Then, he fell again, climbed up once more, fell again…
He could no longer tell how many times he had fallen. Every time he was knocked down, his inner resentment toward Grisia grew even more.
Grisia knelt on the ground, his entire face beading with sweat, his expression downright ugly.
Grisia reached his hand out to wipe away the sweat. When he stood up, he was already wearing a smile on his face, and Adair quickly retracted his gaze. Following that, he heard the expected, “My holy knight brother, please stand up.”
Watching two people jump off the cliff from morning until night, and the people at war their own captain and vice-captain at that, really made all of them feel that they were about to have a nervous breakdown.
This time, before Grisia made a move, Adair finally had a different reaction. He asked in bewilderment, “Why must I obey as absurd an order as jumping off a cliff?”
Grisia looked at him, trying his hardest to conceal his exhaustion, but his appearance still betrayed him. “How do you know this is an absurd order?”
Grisia fell silent for a moment. He turned to face the front and quietly said, “If you’re not even willing to jump off a cliff that you won’t die from, then in the future, for the sake of the greater good, if I commanded you to take the other platoon members, or even the entire holy knight army, to carry out a suicide mission, would you be willing to do it?”
“I am soon to become the Sun Knight, and you all are soon to become my Sun Knight Platoon. I do not want to curse myself or you, but for the sake of the Church of the God of Light, it is not impossible that sacrifices might have to be made.
Grisia paused for a moment and directly stared at Adair, saying, “What I need is a vice-captain who is willing to carry out all orders, no matter how absurd they are.”
Grisia turned, originally intending to leave. He had truly spent too much energy and almost couldn’t stand anymore. However, at this time, he suddenly heard the others shout Adair’s name in surprise. When he turned his head, he was just in time to see Adair’s figure vanish off the cliff’s side.
“You pass.”
The three of them, Elaro, Dili, and Rhonelin, finished listening to the story in a stupor. Elaro understood his teacher’s true personality very well, but the other two did not have such an understanding of him. They practically couldn’t connect this story with the Sun Knight they knew. Would the most perfect Sun Knight in history actually command someone he had just met to jump off a cliff?
Seeing their expressions, Adair couldn’t help but feel that telling this story had probably been a waste of time. No matter what, a second Sun Knight who would use ‘jumping off a cliff’ as a test would probably not appear again for a long time. These past events would not help Elaro much.
Elaro currently had his head lowered as he pondered. Only when he heard Adair’s words did he look up, smiling as he said, “I understand what Teacher means now.”
He did not expect Elaro to stare right at him and say, “I think Teacher means that if the most defiant one in the past could become the most obedient one now, then there’s no reason for me to hesitate. I should just make my own choice.”
Elaro turned to face his two vice-captain candidates. He no longer had any hesitation on his face, only gentleness and resolve. And while his expression may have been gentle, his manner was incomparably determined.
Rhonelin’s heart plummeted, but he tried his hardest to control his expression. He didn’t want his captain to feel guilty from seeing disappointment on his face. Elaro was that kind of person. He didn’t want to treat anyone around him unfairly, and thus had not been able to make a decision for the longest time.
Rhonelin raised his head to look at his captain.
Elaro’s expression was rather relaxed, as if he had let go of several burdens. He smiled as he said, “Does the entire continent know that the Sun Knight can only have one vice-captain?”
“Teacher always says, ‘Other than matters that the whole continent knows, you can do as you please with everything else. I’m about to retire anyway.”’
According to what they knew, the Sun Knight was mature, graceful, and earnest. Even though his manner was very gentle, and you could always receive his forgiveness as long as you repented, he was still the Sun Knight, so the populace would not dare to be too casual with him.
“Okay!” Elaro looked at his two vice-captains, growing more and more satisfied as he looked at them. He smiled as brilliantly as the sun. “Finally, I don’t have to be secretive and can let you know everything!”
Seeing their captain’s bright smile, Dili and Rhonelin suddenly had the feeling that they might not really want to know that so-called “everything.”