Book 3: Chapter First Requirement of Rescuing a Princess: “A Missing Princess”

The sun shone brightly down from the sky, even spilling through the thick layers of the tree canopy, like little golden flowers blooming on the ground. Walking along the tiny path in the countryside, the fresh aroma of nature filled the air. My companions walked beside me, singing songs and looking as joyful as possible… Slap!

Damned, stupid mosquitoes!

“Ah!”

Losing my composure, I gave a tiny scream as a blood imprint of a mosquito was left on my clean white glove. The mark was actually so clear that I could even count the number of legs it had; it was just like a red mosquito specimen.

I… I only brought along three pairs of white gloves! I can’t believe that I wasted one pair just by hitting a mosquito!

“Sun Knight?”

Looking up, I saw the whole team staring at me. Other than the Leaf Knight, who didn’t show any signs of surprise, the rest of the team stared at me with very confused and surprised expressions. Almost immediately a perfect, flawless smile spread across my face as I replied, “Yes, Son of the God of War? May I ask, is it with the God of Light’s reminder that Your Excellency has remembered something that you must consult with Sun?”

“Didn’t you call out just now? What were you calling for?” Then, a little impatient, the Son of the God of War added, “And, didn’t I tell you earlier to just call me Mike? What’s with ‘Your Excellency this, Your Excellency that’? It’s irritating just to listen to!”

“Your Excellency, Mike, as today’s sun is shining brightly in the sky, spreading its brilliant rays down to earth, Sun could not help but exclaim in surprise, so as to praise the God of Light’s benevolence for his people, for creating such a beautiful and breathtaking scene with his radiance—”

Mike frowned as he listened and then with an expression that seemed to result from a terrible headache, he shouted, “Shut up!”

“As you wish.”

Smiling, I closed my mouth, quietly thinking, Later on, even if I scream or shout or jump around, Mike will still ignore me. Not bad, not bad; now I can be a quiet Sun Knight throughout the trip.

I changed into a new pair of white gloves as I rejoiced. At least later I won’t have to talk to anyone. As it is, even if there’s a mosquito, it’s still within my tolerance range…

Bzz bzz bzz, bzz bzz…

Frowning, I waved my hands at the tiny black spot before me, trying to chase it away, but the damned mosquito just wouldn’t leave. It circled next to my ears slowly, and then danced in front of my face… Slap!

Ah! My second pair of gloves…

Ahhh!

I can’t stand it anymore! I want my neat and clean Holy Temple! My room where no one visits! My whole cellar full of wine! And most importantly, a place where there are definitely no mosquitoes at all! Why oh why am I now in this place full of blood sucking bugs, blazing sunshine, a bunch of unwashed humans and dirty mud?

I flashed back to two weeks ago, when I was still living happily in the Holy Temple, working hard to earn my pension, waiting for the day I turned forty and thus would be able to retire with glory…

“Our neighboring country’s Son of the God of War is getting married soon, and the Monastery of the God of War has specially invited one member from our Church of the God of Light as a groomsman. Hence, as the Church of the God of Light’s spokesperson, the Church’s walking advertisement, I have to trouble you, Sun, to go on the business trip as the groomsman.”

Standing in the Pope’s study room, I stared at the Pope who was smiling widely and asked expressionlessly, “How many Sons of the God of War are there in this world?”

“Just one,” The Pope replied, smiling.

“The one who came to our kingdom previously to propose to our princess?”

Clapping his hands together with an “aha”, the Pope said, “That’s the one, how clever of you!”

“You’re flattering me, but didn’t he leave just three days ago?” I persisted expressionlessly.

“That’s right!”

“Are three days enough for one to return to the neighboring country to propose?”

Spreading both hands out, palms up, the Pope replied, “Not even enough for one to reach the country’s borders.”

I fell speechless for a while. Is it that the Pope has been so free recently that he has resorted to tricking me for fun?

I asked weakly, “Then why is there a marriage?”

“Aiya!”

Sitting down, relaxed, the Pope held a cup of tea and gave me an expression that said ‘you are too much of a shut-in’ as he explained, “He has the whole Monastery of the God of War to propose for him; even if he’s not in the land it doesn’t matter at all! Anyway, the queen of the Kingdom of Moon Orchid has already approved the marriage and is planning to marry her eldest daughter to him. The wedding preparations have already started and the invitations were sent out a week ago. All’s ready but for the bridegroom, the groomsman, and each country’s wedding gift to arrive.”

A week ago? Wasn’t that the very day after the three of them battled?

I was utterly dumbfounded by this sudden news. Are you serious?! So the Son of the God of War already had a back up bride ready at hand? If he can’t get this kingdom’s princess’ hand in marriage then he’s just going to return home and marry another? Well, they all have the title of “XX” Princess, so it doesn’t matter what the “XX” stands for, does it?

This really makes one (jealous)…feel revolted by his shameful personality and doings!

Nevertheless, there’s a high chance that that princess is an undesirable one, and that is why the queen of the Kingdom of Moon Orchid is putting her daughter up for sale… I tried to confirm that possibility subtly by asking, “Is that princess beautiful?”

Pope immediately gave a thumbs up as he praised, “One of the Kingdom of Moon Orchid’s top beauties.”

My face twitched before asking again hopefully, “Does she have some sort of terminal illness?”

“As healthy as possible!”

“Lousy personality?”

“She’s popular everywhere!”

How heart-wrenching! I can’t believe there was once a hundred percent, top quality beauty in my neighboring country. I knew nothing about it and in the blink of an eye she is now going to become another man’s wife! Even the invitation cards have been sent and the groomsman is actually me!

Helplessly watching such a great beauty being married to another… My heart ached as though someone was wringing it. My voice filled with pain as I said, “Beautiful, healthy, good personality, and what’s more, she is a (rich) princess. I can’t believe that there was actually a woman of such top quality in this world… Why didn’t you tell me earlier?!”

Placing his cup down slowly, the Pope calmly said, “Calm down, Knight-Captain Sun. Don’t forget that you can only love the God of Light, not women. Even if you got married, you could only be ‘busy with work’, and would continually neglect your wife. This would be just too cruel for the other party to bear.”

“Bullshit!” Immediately silencing all his glib prattle, I corrected him sternly, “I can spend one hour per day being busy with work, then another hour neglecting her, and finally spend the rest of my time loving her.”

“Your ‘rest of the time’ is a bit of an exaggeration…”

“Hmph! Even Storm who’s in charge of doing all my work isn’t complaining, so what is there for you to complain about?”

The Pope sighed, “He doesn’t complain? You’re really lying through your teeth, aren’t you? The accumulating resentments he had earlier has already grown even higher than that of Knight-Captain Hell. Are you sure you are not going to hide and lie low in case you get murdered by him one night?”

I began to frown. Well it does seem that recently whenever I see Storm along the corridor, the stack of paper documents in his hands is really at a sky-high height… A shiver ran down my spine as I continued, “I’ll go! But I have to bring Judgment along.”

“Bring Judgment along?”

The Pope, who had been sitting there, relaxed this whole while, suddenly jumped up from his chair and screamed in a child’s high-pitched voice, “You might as well say that you’re going to take the whole Holy Temple away!”

That’s true; if both the Sun Knight and the Judgment Knight were to leave, the Holy Temple would then become leaderless. After much consideration, I changed my mind. “Then I’ll bring Storm along, take him out for a stroll, and see if it can wash away some of his resentment.”

The Pope immediately rejected the idea. “It is okay for the Holy Temple to have no Sun Knight, but not without the Storm Knight around.”

You… I will not argue with you now, but you had better believe I’ll remember this! After all, there’s a long journey ahead for me to think on my revenge! A little annoyed, I replied, “Then I’ll bring Adair; that should be okay right?”

The Pope rejected it again and answered, “I’ll say this again: The Sun Knight Platoon can bear it without a captain—after all, they’re equivalent to having no captain most of the time—but they can not survive without a vice-captain.”

What’s with that? Raising my eyebrow, I was just about to retort that Adair was my vice-captain and that I should be able to bring him wherever I wanted or something along those lines when the Pope interrupted.

“Also, although more than half of your work is done by Storm, actually three-fifths of it is thrown back to Adair. If you’re going to bring Adair along, you must be prepared to anger Storm for the eleventh time, and then receive his revenge without warning,” he said.

I’ve been utterly defeated.

“…Then I’ll just bring Ice along.”

Shaking his head, Pope commented, “Ice doesn’t belong to the ‘good, warm-hearted’ faction. If you’re going to bring him along for this mission then, one, it’s just not suitable and, two, if you took him away then who is going to be in charge of the whole Church of the God of Light’s after meal dessert? Do you want the whole Church to have no dessert? Do you want to anger the entire Church?”

“No… Then I’ll just bring Cloud, alright?” I’m a little angry now; no this, no that—they’re all people working under me, but I can’t bring even one of them with me! Am I still the head of the Holy Temple?

“You can’t!” Looking a little frustrated, the Pope explained, “The crop yield hasn’t been very promising recently, causing the donations we receive to be badly affected. So, in order to cut down on the Church’s expenditure, I have just fired the librarian and sent Cloud over to be in charge instead. After all, that’s where he is hiding most of the time. He knows even better than the actual librarian where each and every book is placed, so making him the librarian is just the right thing to do! If you’re going to take him away now, the library will turn into a ruin; we won’t be able to find any books!”

After much thought, I looked up and said, “Then I’ll bring Moon along!”

“I have no comment, as long as you can persuade him to leave his lover for around a month.”

“Okay…” After taking in a deep breath, I bellowed, “Okay, that’s just too difficult! Moon treasures his lover even more than his own life! If I tried to make him leave his lover, wouldn’t he kill me?”

The Pope nodded in complete agreement.

I paced around restlessly and asked, “Then just who can I bring along? Let me tell you this, I would rather die than go there alone; who knows if the Son of the God of War holds any grudge against me due to the previous incident? What if he takes revenge on me later? He’s someone that even Judgment mentioned that he can’t win against! I would never want to meet him alone!”

The Pope then kindly reminded me, “You can take Leaf along!”

“Leaf?” I stopped pacing around, but after much consideration and internal struggle, I finally said, “But, but Leaf, he… He’s a nice person!”

Giving me a confused look, the Pope replied, “Not only is he a nice person, he’s a very well-behaved child and won’t reject any weird requests of yours. From running errands such as buying blueberries to helping you beat a dog, he would take them all. What are you unsatisfied with?”

“But he’s an archer,” I complained.

Utterly baffled, the Pope asked, “So what? It’s not like you haven’t seen his archery skills. Even Judgment said that he was not sure if he could beat Leaf.”

“But I want to bring along someone who can use a sword…” I struggled to say.

Still confused and unable to understand, the Pope replied, “It’s not that I want to complain, but at the moment the careers that require the ability to use a sword are fairly abundant. Knights, warriors—who can’t use a sword nowadays? In fact, in comparison, archers are much more valuable. Now you have an archer to bring along and you’re not only not going to treasure him, but go so far as to dislike and avoid him?”

Expressionlessly, I replied swiftly, “An archer can’t be my meat shield and can’t defend me from close combat attacks. What’s more, his speed of escaping from danger will definitely be much faster than that of mine! What’s the use of bringing him?”

“…” Rolling his eyes at me, the Pope couldn’t help saying, “I’m asking you to be a bridegroom. I’m not asking you to go and run for your life. Just take Leaf along!”

“With the luck I’ve been having recently, even as a groomsman I’ll still end up having to run for my life!” Firmly, I continued, “Let me bring Hell along. If not, you can find someone else to go and take the role as the groomsman!”

“Hell?”

Frowning, the Pope slowly said, “He’s not very suitable for this, right? After all, his ‘identity’ is a little sensitive and not very fitting for appearing on auspicious occasions such as a wedding. If it was a funeral then bringing him along would be a rather apt decision.”

I snorted. “Even if he gets found out by someone, I can just say that he was previously spying as a dark knight in the Cathedral of the Shadow God, and that’s why he’s covered in a dark aura! Or I could just as well say that he turned into this state as his identity was discovered by the Cathedral of the Shadow God while spying there. However, we, the Church of the God of Light, would never abandon our friend and hence we still accepted him!”

Hearing this reasoning, which was almost comparable to the ‘The Sun Knight is Perfect’ theory, Pope shrugged and said, “Anyway, he’s your responsibility, if you think it’ll be okay, then it’ll be okay!”

Since even the Pope has no more objections, of course I’ll have to tell this to Knight-Captain Hell immediately and then book time in his schedule to talk to him.

He was very popular now. Knights who wanted to practice their fencing skills with him had lined up all the way from the Holy Temple to the Imperial Palace. Among these people were even many whom I wouldn’t want mess around with, such as Knight-Captain Judgment, the Princess’ fiancé and even two of the King’s trusted knights.

Not to mention Knight-Captain Storm. This whole week, as there was now a ‘person’ to share his workload with, he had looked so happy and blessed. His sky-rocketing resentment towards me had also gone down by quite a bit, and even the dark circles around his eyes had become a lot lighter.

However, I wonder what sort of facial expression he would have if he heard that I’m going to take Hell away? After much thought, I came to the conclusion that since there was still Adair to help him with the workload, it wouldn’t be bad enough for him to need to take revenge on me without warning just yet!

That settles it, I’ll just take Knight-Captain Hell then.

As planned, I was going to look for Hell to schedule the traveling plan, but just a few short steps out of the Pope’s study room, I met Knight-Captain Cloud, the one who was always floating around. How rare. Usually when I’m looking for him it would be considered normal to take a few hours of searching; if I’m not looking for him, then the chances of seeing him are even less. Now that I’ve seen him without searching I wonder if that’s actually a good thing or a bad thing…

“Eh?”

Without saying a word, Cloud suddenly grabbed hold of me, and at a staggering speed, brought me drifting across the whole walkway. If not for knowing that this was exactly how Cloud usually moves, I would definitely have thought that there were wheels attached to his feet. Still surprised about why he had grabbed me, I realized that we had already drifted the entire length of the corridor.

But just where is he taking me to?

“Cloud…”

Just as I was about to ask, Cloud wearily raised one pale hand and pointed ahead, at the same time making a ‘shh’ sign with the other on his mouth.

I poked my head out stealthily… But all I saw was Knight-Captain Hell and his knight platoon.

Although the act of the Hell Knight and his platoon stopping along the corridor wasn’t anything that strange, when the Hell Knight is standing at one side and his platoon is standing opposite him, both facing each other without saying a word, the situation turns rather strange.

The one leading the platoon now was Knight-Captain Hell… No! It was the Hell Knight Platoon’s Vice-captain. For all these years, he had always been the one leading, almost making me forget that he wasn’t actually the Hell Knight, but rather the temporary substituting vice-captain, and he was called… Called what? Ty…Tyre?

Just when I wanted to turn around and ask Cloud, I suddenly realized there was no one around me. I immediately burst out into a cold sweat, almost thinking that I might have met up with Cloud’s ghost or something like that. But reconsidering, I rationalized that this was the Church of the God of Light, and dark presences such as angry ghosts definitely wouldn’t appear here. Cloud probably just drifted away again.

“Are you Tyler?” Roland asked, at the same time reminding me that I had remembered the name wrong.

The other person nodded, and then in a cold voice, replied, “Yes, I’m Tyler, Knight Supreme Dragon.”

I was shocked when I heard Roland addressed that way, and at the same time I saw the other members of the Hell Knight Platoon frowning too. Despite their frowns, their expressions didn’t seem surprised at all. In fact, not one of them corrected Tyler for addressing Roland in that manner.

As the Hell Knight, an outsider’s address for Roland would usually be “Hell Knight” or at most adding an honorific such as “Your Excellency” while addressing him. As for holy knights and clerics from the Church of the God of Light, they would address him as “Knight-Captain Hell”, just as Adair would usually address me as “Knight-Captain Sun”, and only at times when it was not as formal would he then address me as just “Captain.”

In short, Tyler should only address Roland as “Knight-Captain Hell” or “Captain”. Even if, like outsiders, he was to address him with just “Hell Knight”, those two words would still be alright. But he actually directly addressed Roland by his name as “Knight Supreme Dragon”.

That was an address for knights of the same rank, or even for a knight of lower rank… The situation has turned awkward now!

With that, I frowned. Don’t tell me the Hell Knight Platoon’s vice captain is trying to take over the position as Knight-Captain Hell? Should I go out now and reprimand him?

However, just deterring him on the surface by scolding him wouldn’t cause any constructive changes. It might even cause the whole Hell Knight Platoon to think that Roland was simply exploiting the power of the Sun Knight. Maybe I should just leave Roland to resolve the situation by himself?

But can Roland really handle this? I was a little doubtful. After all, from what Elijah had told me, even when Roland was working as a royal knight he was not very sociable to begin with.

Roland couldn’t feel the tension in the air and just calmly said, “Then, you’re my vice-captain?”

Hearing that, a furious expression appeared on Tyler’s face and he bellowed, “Are you taking for granted that that’s how it’s supposed to be?”

Calm down! Tyler, you must calm down! Roland didn’t mean anything, he just wants to confirm that you’re his vice-captain Tyler and not just someone who has the same name. There’s no other hidden meaning behind it! Hiding off to the side, I wanted to explain for Roland, but I couldn’t just jump out randomly so I waited anxiously out of sight.

Roland looked at him. As he was currently wearing the Supreme Dragon outfit, Roland’s lower face was covered and no one could see his expression.

That fellow definitely doesn’t know what’s happening at all, and looks very confused now… I just know him too well!

A little hesitant, Roland opened his mouth and said, “Indeed, that’s not how it is…”

With a cold snort, Tyler said coldly, “So you understand too?”

I rolled my eyes. Come on, you two aren’t even talking about the same thing. Roland would say that that’s not how it is as he’s not the real Hell Knight. But Tyler is trying to say that the Knight-Captain Hell has been missing for thirteen years and has only appeared now to take back the position as the captain, and this was not how things are supposed to be.

No! I can’t take this anymore. Just as I stepped out to resolve the situation for Roland, I saw a familiar figure appear from the corner of my eyes and immediately stepped back into my hiding place.

“Knight-Captain Hell.”

After bowing respectfully to Roland, Adair turned to face Tyler, his fellow vice-captain, and greeted him like an old friend, “Hey Tyler, haven’t seen you in a long time, how are you d…”

Half way through speaking, Adair realized the tension in the air. Looking at Roland, then at Tyler and the rest of the Hell Knight Platoon who was opposite him, he immediately turned very serious. Turning around, he said in a critical tone, “Tyler, just what are you doing? Are you trying to cross the line here? Are you trying to go overreach your authority and do what you’re not supposed to do?”

That’s my vice-captain! Within seconds he understood the whole situation. The intuition I had for him was just too good!

“Adair.” Looking miserable, Tyler shouted, “For thirteen years I have been Knight-Captain Hell, but now…!”

“You mean been the substitute Knight-Captain Hell!” Adair cut in and corrected him, not affected by Tyler at all. Then he said coldly, “Since the beginning, you knew that you would only be the vice-captain, and that the captain would return one day. Now that he’s back, it’s only to be expected, isn’t it? What is there to complain about?”

“But I didn’t know that Knight-Captain Hell was such a weird person,” Tyler replied stubbornly.

“Don’t look for excuses, Tyler, you have never cared about one’s outer appearance. Furthermore…” After looking around, Adair then continued in a softer tone, “Among the Twelve Holy Knights, is there actually anyone who’s normal?”

“Yeah!” Ed, who was behind him suddenly cut in. “No matter how weird he is, he can’t be as weird as our captain!”

…Has it really been so long since I last kicked someone off a cliff?

The whole Hell Knight Platoon couldn’t help admitting, “Now that’s true…”

Even Tyler remained silent for a while before he could continue. “But at least Knight-Captain Sun knows how to maintain his appearance and behave properly. Just look at what he’s wearing… Isn’t that style of dressing overly suspicious?”

Despite hearing others criticize his style of clothing, Roland remained silent.

Luckily no one knows that I, the Sun Knight, have worn that too. I feel very fortunate now.

Under Tyler’s insistence, Adair looked at Roland’s clothes. However, he did not say anything and merely continued badgering Tyler. “Tyler, on my behalf, please accept him and treat him as the real captain now.”

Tyler’s expression changed, just as he was about to retort, “But…”

Adair forcefully stopped him, raised one finger and then said, “Just for one month. If after one month, you still believe that he’s not suited to being Knight-Captain Hell, then I’ll be on your side no matter what you want to do!”

Tyler stared at Adair suspiciously.

Adair coughed lightly and then shouted in a loud, determined voice, “By then, even if our Captain ordered us not to help you, I would still be on your side!”

“Oh!” everyone exclaimed loudly in their surprise.

To that, Tyler could not respond at all. He could only continue his tirade on the same theme, “But he won’t even show his face.”

Ed muttered, “So what? He’s just faceless, our captain is shameless…”

Adair immediately turned around and growled softly, “Ed, don’t talk rubbish!”

“It doesn’t matter right? Captain isn’t here anyways!” Ed replied, not troubled at all.

“He is,” Roland, who had been remaining silent this entire time, suddenly said. And once he opened his mouth, the whole place fell into a frozen silence.

Ed’s whole body started to tremble, yet he continued to try to act as calm as possible as he said, “St-stop joking, Knight-Captain Hell. I just heard that the Pope had asked the Captain to see him, so how is it possible for Captain to be here now? Hahaha, that is so funny, so, so funny, how hilarious! You’re really humorous.”

Hearing that, Roland pointed his finger towards a corner in the walkway and said, “He’s been there since the beginning. I don’t know why he hasn’t come out.”

“Haha…ha…” Ed’s terrible laughter immediately turned into an even more terrible crying as he howled, “Captttaaaaiiiinnnn, please listen to my explanation!”

But I had no time to care about him now. Instead, I began to ponder. Adair had just convinced Tyler to give Roland a month’s “trial period.” I’m completely not worried about what’s going to happen in a month’s time, with Roland’s skill, earnestness, and natural leadership skills; Tyler definitely won’t have anything to gripe about. What I’m worried about is… If Roland is going to be on trial for a month, then who is going to come along with me to the Kingdom of Moon Orchid to be the groomsman?

I frowned as I continued to think. It seems that I can only take Leaf now. Although he’s an archer, his sword skills couldn’t be any worse than mine, right? But even if they’re not as bad as mine, they probably aren’t amazing either… It’s better if I ask around now!

As I walked out from the corner where I had been hiding, I faced everyone with a sparkling smile and said, “Seeing how Sun’s brothers were standing here at this blessed place exchanging the God of Light’s benevolence, Sun’s heart was immediately filled with warmth and happiness. Hence, having to stop everyone in the middle of this exchange made Sun feel extremely terrible and bitter about it. Ah! Sun should really receive the God of Light’s punishment for this, but I had to interrupt. Thus, hoping that everyone present here will understand and forgive my intrusion, please allow Adair to leave this wonderful exchange to follow Sun instead. Later, Sun will definitely, in the name of the God of Light, fully exchange and share the God of Light’s benevolence with everyone present here as an apology.”

“Adair, what is Captain talking about? Don’t tell me it’s something about killing me!” Ed asked with a mournful face.

“No, don’t talk rubbish anymore. Captain just wants me to follow him.” After replying softly, Adair immediately responded to me loudly with a “Yes, Captain.”

I nodded, smiled towards everyone and saw how terrified they were. It was only when they realized that I wasn’t going to say anything else that they looked relieved.

Smiling, I bid goodbye to everyone and left first while Adair followed closely behind. When we reached an area devoid of people, I turned and asked directly, “How are the Leaf Knight’s fencing skills? Be truthful.”

Hearing this weird question, Adair frowned a little and replied with euphemism, “Just a little better than yours…”

“Don’t compare him with me!” I was a little agitated now.

If Leaf’s fencing really is just a little better than mine, then it’s really, really lousy. At a time like this, I don’t want to consider things like if I’ll lose face or not. Bringing someone who has really lousy fencing skills out with me would be bad since it is related to the important matter of meeting the God of Light much earlier or not!

Adair then replied sternly, “Yes, Knight-Captain Leaf’s fencing skills are not bad.”

This reply was a little too vague. Frowning, I continued asking, “What if he were compared to you?”

“A little worse than mine, but the gap between our skills isn’t that big.”

Oh! Immediately I stopped frowning. If that’s the case, then it must be really good. Adair’s fencing skills should be ranked among the top ten in the Holy Temple at least! Looks like I can rest assured and take Leaf along with me now…

“Captain.”

“Hmm?” I responded casually.

Carefully, Adair said, “About what Ed said just now, please don’t take it to heart. He always speaks without thinking, with his mouth running faster than his brain. He didn’t really mean what he said. As you know, he has always respected and been in awe of you.”

“Oh!”

Suddenly giving a bright and brilliant smile, I looked at Adair who seemed to be at a loss as to what to do and said, “I would have forgotten about that if you hadn’t mentioned it. Since you, as vice-captain, have reminded me, then before Sun leaves, may my dearest brothers from the Sun Knight Platoon have a special training session that is as harsh as the God of Light’s bright radiance during the summer!”

“…”

Adair’s expression looked as though he was considering repenting of his sins before the whole Sun Knight Platoon.

“Sun? Sun?”

Returning from my own trail of thoughts, I saw a tiny black spot fly past my eyes, accompanied by an annoying buzzing sound. Without another word, I swung my right hand…

Slap!

Leaf stared at me blankly with huge eyes.

With an extremely calm expression, I “plucked” my hand off Leaf’s face. With my palm open, I then explained to Leaf, who had just received the swift slap from me, “There was a mosquito.”

Leaf looked down at the red mosquito specimen on my white glove while I looked at his left cheek. Not only has his cheek obviously turned bright red, it’s swollen and there’s even a trace of blood near his mouth… Maybe I’m about to be the first person to successfully agitate the Leaf Knight?

“I see.”

After a long while, Leaf finally looked up and said with a smile, “Luckily Sun killed the mosquito for me; if not, I’m afraid there would be a swollen spot on my face from the mosquito bite right now.”

“…”

There is no swollen spot from a mosquito bite, but the whole half of his face is swollen now. Giving a gentle smile, I replied, “Brother Leaf, you’re just too courteous, this is part of Sun’s responsibility.”

“Hehe!” Shading the sunlight above his head with his hand, Leaf then praised, “The sunlight is just so bright today, the way the light hits Sun’s hair makes it sparkle prettily, as if it’s made of gold. Can you give me a few strands of it?”

“If I remember correctly, hasn’t brother Leaf taken Sun’s hair many times before already?”

“I’ve used them all— No! I mean I accidentally lost them all,” Leaf replied with an apologetic face.

“I see. Then this time, Sun will give brother Leaf a little more in one go!”

In order for Leaf to fully forget about the slap I just gave him, I decided to be extra generous this time! After all, the hair will just grow back; it’s not anything precious… Although the fact that Leaf always loves to ask for my hair is really strange. I’ve heard of cases such as pedophilia, fetishes and such, but the case of a fetish for hair is really rare. Oh right! Not only hair, he asks for my nails sometimes too.

As most of the times he asked me for hair and nails were just after I happened to have done something that might have annoyed him, I could only hand those things over meekly.

I grabbed my Divine Sun Sword, pulled it out from its scabbard and placed the shining sword blade near my head, ready to cut…

“Sun! You are going to cut your head off!” Giving a sudden scream, Leaf was horrified and snatched the sword away from my hands. “I’ll do it so please don’t hold the sword. You nearly scared me to death…” he said as he swung the sword swiftly.

I didn’t feel a thing, but a lock of hair was suddenly in his hand. Carefully holding the lock of hair up, he asked, “I cut a little more, is that alright? I believe that along the way, I will need to use it frequently… I mean, along the road where sunlight shines brilliantly, I will frequently need to take it out and hold it under the sunshine. It will definitely be very pretty as it sparkles.”

I shook my head to show that I didn’t mind. Looking at it now, it seems that Leaf’s fencing skills are indeed as good as Adair described them to be. For the rest of the trip, everything should be just fine. Even if anything were to happen, I can now rest assured as I push Leaf out to block the attacks! So cutting a little bit of my hair off doesn’t matter much; it would even be alright if you wanted to cut all my hair short!

Keeping the few strands of hair, Leaf performed a healing spell on his swollen face. After all, it was just an external injury. Although it appeared rather serious, with just a minor healing spell Leaf’s swollen face returned to its initial state instantly.

Just then, I suddenly realized there was no one else around me anymore. Urgently I asked, “Where is His Excellency, the Son of the God of War?”

Leaf carefully explained, “Just now the warpriest found a few people waiting in ambush up front, so Mike brought everyone along to scout the area. Before he left, he mentioned that the archer and cleric should just remain here.”

Oh, I see…

Wait, with ‘archer’, he’s definitely referring to Leaf. With such a huge bow behind him and the few quivers of arrows, only a blind man wouldn’t be able to recognize him as an archer. But just who is he referring to with ‘cleric’?

Expressionlessly, I looked around. The warpriest wasn’t there; only Leaf and I were left.

I stared at Leaf and Leaf stared back at me. “I think it must have been a slip of the tongue when Mike referred to you as a cleric,” he tried to explain evasively. Leaf’s voice became softer and softer as he explained, “Or maybe he made a mistake with your career. Eh, maybe he thought that anyone who can heal is a cleric? Or maybe…”

I mentally rolled my eyes. You too used a healing spell just now, so why didn’t he mistake you for a cleric? Obviously, the Son of the God of War said that on purpose!

When Leaf and I first arrived at the palace in the Kingdom of Moon Orchid after some rushing, we were met with a pervading sense of gloom throughout the entire palace from the moment we stepped inside. This nearly confused me into thinking that the news we had received was wrong and that we were actually here to attend a princess’ funeral, not a wedding. If only I had known this earlier, I would have brought the Hell Knight along after all!

The Son of the God of War stood to one side without any warriors beside him at all.

The queen of the Kingdom of Moon Orchid sat on the throne, not moving an inch… If I were wearing that gown that appears to be heavier than a set of armor, I wouldn’t move an inch either. What’s more, there’s a crown on her head that appears as if it’s only suitable for being displayed in a gallery, not for putting on one’s head.

A thin layer of veil covered the queen’s face. The veil was very thin, so one could still partially recognize her facial features. Although she already had a daughter old enough to be married, she still looked as if she were in her early thirties. She maintains her skin well.

The queen is just like our king; she almost doesn’t need to speak a word. But obviously, this woman’s ability to rule is definitely greater than that of a man’s. My king has to at least signal to his trusted knights with his eyes before one would jump out to convey the message for him. This queen didn’t even move a single eyelash before two female knights behind her jumped out and started explaining the situation to those of us who came from the Church of the God of Light.

The female knight was very wordy, so repeating her words would be annoying. Not to mention that I immediately forgot what she had just said, so I wouldn’t be able to repeat them anyway. So, in short; the princess who was going to marry the Son of the God of War had been abducted.

“The princess has been abducted?”

Although I looked shocked on the surface, I was actually feeling rather suspicious about the whole situation. If it were a prince that was abducted, then it would still be understandable. After all, princes always run around going on adventures, wooing hot chicks, challenging others and so on when they have nothing better to do, making them very abduct-able! But how and when would a princess, who never sets a foot out of the front door, get abducted so easily?

Also, what can one get from abducting a princess?

If it’s for the throne… Under the precondition that there’s a prince, the princess doesn’t have the right to succession at all, so abducting her is practically useless.

If it’s for hot chicks, then one can definitely find someone prettier than the princess just by walking two circuits around the town. After all, there’s an abundance of hot chicks in this world. No matter how beautiful this princess is rumored to be, that is just “among all princesses” that she’s considered pretty. If one were really to compare a princess with all the beauties in this world, then probably not even one out of all the princesses on this whole continent would be able to get into the list of top hundred beauties.

If money was the target, why didn’t he just abduct the palace’s gold safe instead since he had the ability to abduct even a princess? Abducting a human is so much more troublesome!

Hence, in conclusion, normally the only one who would be bored enough to abduct a princess is the so called demon king in legends.

As to what I believe, the only reason that the demon king would ever want to do this kind of tough, lousy job would be because they’ve either forgotten to get a brain, or they just want to become more famous!

Don’t tell me it was really the doings of the demon king? But I hadn’t heard anything about the appearance of the demon king recently.

As I was making all kinds of wild guesses in my head, the queen, who hadn’t moved at all, spoke. “Sun Knight, I have one request of you.”

I was shocked. The queen had opened her mouth to request something of me personally, and that just meant one thing… Something bad was going to happen to me!

However, even though I knew that something bad was about to happen to me, I still had to give an unperturbed expression and reply seriously. “Your Majesty, if I, Sun, can bring you even the slightest bit of the God of Light’s radiance, I will do everything I can and put in my best effort.”

Still expressionless, the queen said, “I want you to rescue my daughter.”

Hearing that, I immediately turned in confusion to the Son of the God of War who standing there fuming. I was just one step away from saying something like, “What’s your wife being abducted got to do with me?”

Then, with a cold “Hmph,” that damned Son of the God of War looked at me and said, “I have no choice; the princess’ rescue team is still short of a cleric for healing.”

I’m a holy knight, damn it!

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