Book 6: Prologue: A Safeguard

Book 6: Prologue: A Safeguard

A few more days remained until the ceremony to pass on the title of Judgment Knight. Lesus was not the least bit nervous about it. He had already been practicing in the Judge’s Complex for several years and often helped Teacher with his paperwork. One could say that he had already performed all the duties expected of the Judgment Knight.

Truth be told, over the past two years Teacher had already been giving him most of the work to do.

Lesus believed that he was capable of the Judgment Knight’s duties, so he felt that the upcoming inheritance ceremony was merely a formality.

Although he would become the Judgment Knight in a few days, he was still deferential to the current Judgment Knight, who was his teacher. Presently, he bowed his head slightly and waited humbly for Teacher’s instructions.

At this moment, the 37th generation Judgment Knight, Chasel, was looking at his only student Lesus.

No matter what criteria one used, character, swordsmanship, or handling documents, Lesus was a rare, remarkable, and talented person. As a teacher, he could not help feeling proud for teaching such a student.

In a few days the student would take over the title from the teacher. Although Chasel knew that Lesus could handle things very well, but as his teacher he could not help but want to remind him of a few things.

“Child, when you first started practicing in the Judge’s Complex, Teacher once asked you what you thought the duty of the Judgment Knight was. Do you still remember your reply from then?”

“To punish sinners.” Lesus remembered quite clearly. At that time, Teacher had only smiled and had not given any commentary on his answer, but he had vaguely felt that Teacher was not satisfied with it.

Chasel smiled and said, “Now you have been practicing in the Judge’s Complex for many years. In a few days, Teacher is going to pass the position of Judgment Knight to you, so Teacher would like to ask once more, what do you think the duty of the Judgment Knight is?”

Lesus knew that the official answer was to ensure that the people abided by the God of Light’s laws, but he felt that this was not the answer Teacher wanted. Everyone who had read the code of the Judgment Knight knew this answer. Since he was the future Judgment Knight, of course he had read the code immediately. Teacher would not ask him meaningless questions.

Among the things the Judgment Knight had to do were managing the Judge’s Complex, being a figure of severity to intimidate people who harbored unlawful thoughts, helping the Sun Knight, leading half of the Twelve Holy Knights… What answer covered these duties better than “to ensure that the people abided by the God of Light’s laws?”

“Chasel!”

The current and soon-to-be Judgment Knights were both taken aback for a moment. Then, they realized that the one calling was the Sun Knight, Neo Sun.

Lesus quickly bowed to the Sun Knight.

Neo only nodded in return, then went straight to the point and requested, “Chasel, lend me your student for a while.”

“You want to borrow Lesus?” Chasel asked, puzzled, “What do you want him for?”

“If I said to play, would you lend him to me?”

Chasel raised an eyebrow.

Neo hastily said, “Just joking. There are some things I need to explain to him, involving Grisia.”

Chasel nodded and asked, “Will it take long?”

“No, no, ten minutes should be enough!”

“Okay,” Chasel said simply, “Then I’ll go and settle some matters first, and I’ll be back in about ten minutes.”

Neo wrinkled his brow, murmuring, “What matter can be settled in ten minutes… Ah! It can’t be that you want to go to the toilet?”

Chasel only shot him a glare, then left without replying.

Something regarding Grisia? Could it be about Grisia’s true colors being inelegant? Lesus secretly guessed that maybe the Sun Knight had not realized that he had already been well aware of Grisia’s true colors for quite some time.

Neo turned around, and without restraint asked, “Child, let me ask you, the relationship between you and my student is not bad, right?”

Lesus was stunned for a moment, and then frowned as he answered, “The Sun Knight and the Judgment Knight have always been incompatible…”

Neo impatiently interrupted him, asking, “For the past few years, were you the person who climbed the walls in the middle of the night to help him buy blueberry pie? Answer me honestly!”

“…Yes.” Lesus had to admit.

“Then I’ll ask you again, if you were given the chance to choose someone other than Grisia to be the Sun Knight, would you replace him?”

Lesus was shocked. He couldn’t understand why Neo wanted to ask this question, since in a few days it would be the inheritance ceremony… It can’t be that Grisia has committed some big mistake serious enough to have him replaced? But he hadn’t heard of anything big that had happened recently.

He didn’t know how he should answer.

Neo tried listing possible candidates, “What about Vice-Captain Adair? He is quite capable, and has quite good swordsmanship.”

Adair and Grisia? With a comparison in mind, Lesus could now evaluate clearly and without hesitation replied, “I wouldn’t exchange them.”

“Why?” Neo was quite curious and asked, “Adair should be able to help you out more, right?”

“If it’s handling official documents, maybe.” Lesus could not deny it, but he continued with more emphasis, “But those documents, Storm can also help me manage them, and my vice-captain Vidar can also help me. Even if Adair is not the Sun Knight, he can also handle them. But ‘some things’ only Grisia as the Sun Knight can deal with. I think this point, Knight-Captain Sun, would be clearer to you than to me. All these years, it seems that Grisia has helped you handle a lot of things that ‘cannot be recorded.’ ”

“Heh heh,” Neo chuckled awkwardly and inquired, “He told you?”

Lesus shook his head, answering, “Grisia hasn’t said much, but I understand how he does things, so it is easy to discern which things he has meddled in.”

Neo smiled a bit and said, “It’s true that my student has certain means, but this reason is not enough for me to let him stay.”

He really wants to replace Grisia? Lesus was even more alarmed. Even though he did not believe that Neo was serious about replacing Grisia, Neo did not look like he was joking either.

Neo grinned as he said, “To convince me not to replace him, you need to have a very good reason.”

Lesus was shaken, and hurriedly asked, “If I don’t manage to convince you…”

“Then I’ll replace him!” Neo replied without hesitating.

The color drained from Lesus’s face as he exclaimed, “Please at least tell me, why do you want to replace Grisia? Although Grisia’s true colors are not like those of the Sun Knight in the legends, he has always been serious about acting out the Sun Knight’s image properly and does the Sun Knight’s duties properly too…”

Without waiting for him to finish speaking, Neo interrupted him again, asking, “Oh? Isn’t the Sun Knight’s duty to gather believers? Grisia has not yet assumed office, so how can he have gathered believers?”

“The code of the Sun Knight does indeed state ‘gathering believers,’ but I believe it is not just that. Instead, what the Sun Knight really gathers is the people’s confidence! Maybe Grisia’s swordsmanship is very bad, and he often does things using underhanded methods, but he truly allows us all to believe that as long as he is here, no matter how desperate the situation may be, we do not need to lose hope!”

Because Neo had not given any explanation before talking about replacing Grisia, Lesus was a bit irate. With anger in his voice, he said, “Going by this basis, I feel Grisia has done even better than you, sir!”

When he had finished speaking, Neo laughed loudly.

“Very good!”

What was very good? Lesus did not understand. He originally thought that Neo would be livid when he heard the last sentence.

Neo smiled as he said, “Since you acknowledge Grisia as the Sun Knight and you don’t want to replace him, make every effort you can to help him remain in the seat of the Sun Knight!”

Lesus was astonished and became even more confused. It goes without saying that Grisia is the next generation Sun Knight. Where else could he go?

At that moment, Neo wiped the smile off his face and brought back the stern expression from before, saying, “Child, I’m sorry. Truthfully, I never had any intention of replacing Grisia. It’s just that you are the successors, the next generation of the Twelve Holy Knights, and I will need to leave the Holy Temple soon. There is something that can only be passed to you, but before I pass it on, I want to know whether you are willing to take responsibility for this matter.”

Now Lesus understood, and he queried, “Is it a matter concerning Grisia?”

Neo nodded and started to speak, “Yes. Listen well. Actually, Grisia is…”

Not long after Lesus started listening to Neo talk, his eyes went wide and he was completely bewildered by the time Neo finished.

When he was done talking, Neo paused for a while to allow Lesus to digest his words. Then he continued, “I can pass this on only to you. Afterwards, whatever you wish to do, including letting Grisia know or not, is all up to you to decide.”

Hearing this, Lesus wrinkled his brow. To tell or not to tell Grisia was going to be rather hard to decide.

When Neo saw his heavy expression, he mistook it for second thoughts and could not help but whisper, “This is a heavy burden to bear. If you want to go back on your words, then do so now. If you break your promise in the future, it will only hurt Grisia even more!”

“Knight-Captain Sun, you can ask my teacher whether his only student has ever regretted anything.” Lesus said calmly and resolutely, “I have never gone back on my promises, whether it was a decision made in the past or whether it concerns people I have acknowledged.”

Grisia, I’ve got a question… Actually, I shouldn’t be asking this question, but do you believe the God of Light really exists?

Ah? What are you saying, Lesus? Even if that old man, the God of Light, hasn’t appeared for a few hundred years, that’s not to say that He doesn’t exist!

You believe He exists? But the God of Light has never appeared, and so-called miracles have only existed inside legends. Why are you able to believe that He really exists?

You don’t look like the sort of person to believe in faith, so I thought you wouldn’t believe, and as for me… I am incapable of believing that the God of Light truly exists, that there are miracles in this world, even if I am the future Judgment Knight.

Lesus, there have always been miracles…

It’s true that there are miracles, but they are all only in legends.

You’re wrong! Lesus, think. To win a throne, humans have never stopped fighting. But the Twelve Holy Knights, this system of twelve people, has unexpectedly continued for more than thirty generations!

The Sun Knight among them has amazingly never died during his term in office. This means that every generation of the Judgment Knight has never killed the Sun Knight for the sake of power… No, in actual fact, it should be said that the rest of the eleven holy knights have all never harbored any thoughts of seizing power.

In this world, could there be any miracle more inconceivable than us, the Twelve Holy Knights?

There have always been miracles; we are the miracles!

Chasel walked into the Judge’s Complex. Even though Neo had said that he only required ten minutes, he still returned a lot later in case Neo had not finished explaining the matter.

At this moment, there was only Lesus alone in the Judge’s Complex, and Neo had already disappeared.

Lesus had his back to him and was looking at the symbol of the God of Light on the wall.

Chasel walked a few steps closer, waiting for Lesus to turn around and bow. But unexpectedly, his student didn’t turn around to see who had come. This made him feel rather uncertain, as with Lesus’s level of alertness, there was no way that he had not noticed that someone was there.

Just when Chasel was about to speak, Lesus started talking first.

“Teacher, I’ve thought it through. If the Sun Knight is the people’s support and leader…”

Lesus looked at the symbol of the God of Light on the wall, clenched his fists, and spoke forcefully with every word resounding with determination, “Then the duty of the Judgment Knight is to protect!”

Chasel was confused before he realized that Lesus was answering the question he had asked earlier. He questioned uncertainly, “Protect? Protect what?”

Although he had asked the question, Chasel did not actually have a correct answer in mind. In contrast, he had hoped that the student he had taught would be able to give him a satisfactory answer.

Lesus turned around with an incomparable resoluteness in his eyes, as if making a promise, and with every word powerful and sonorous, said, “The Sun Knight leads the people forward, while the Judgment Knight will protect his road forward and not let anything obstruct it!”

After listening, Chasel was silent for a while before he laughed dryly and said, “I really don’t know whether Neo can teach children better than me or not. I’ve been teaching you for ten years, whereas you’ve only been conversing with him for ten minutes, but it looks like in those ten minutes, you have grown more than in the ten years I have been teaching you.”

When he heard that, Lesus panicked and quickly said, “Teacher, there’s no such thing. I’m very grateful for your teachings…”

“Haha!” Chasel disrupted his student’s panic with his laughter. Then he drew the Divine Judgment Sword from his waist and raised it before his student, declaring in a low voice, “Child, are you ready to take from my hand the Divine Judgment Sword, and use it to protect your path?”

Lesus looked at the Divine Judgment Sword before his eyes. He reached out and took the Divine Judgment Sword from his teacher’s hands.

“Yes!”