Volume 6, Chapter The Fourth Week of Annihilating an Undying Lich: “Birds of a Feather”

Yann

When I was appointed as Silent Eagle, the Cathedral had already searched for many years for the demon king candidates. I had long understood that I would become the Demon King’s subordinate in the future.

For the common people, the moment the Demon King is born, the calamity subsides. However, for the Cathedral of the Shadow God, it is the true beginning of everything.

The Cathedral needs to ensure that the Demon King uses up all of the dark element appropriately. We obey the Demon King’s orders. We are saddled with the notoriety of being the Demon King’s minions. We supervise the Demon King when he employs the dark element accumulated in his body, while reducing the damage to a minimum.

The Silent Eagle never marries. The reason is simply because his wife and children would become the Demon King’s hostages. This would affect the duty of a Silent Eagle guiding the Demon King. However, I was madly in love and married Alice. Now my wife, my children, my compatriots, and everything I care about are in the Cathedral of the Shadow God. I do not want them to be engulfed by the land of darkness; neither do I want them to be harmed by the Demon King.

I do not have the means to find other candidates before the battle. Therefore I can only depend upon the one I already know about.

Fortunately, he is better than what I expected. He does not want to destroy half the world. He would not harm my wife and children. Better yet, he treasures his underlings. He would not rashly send them on suicide missions, nor would he kill them with his own hands.

Don’t you think so, sir?

Damn Awaitsun…

I knew it. As the leader of the Cathedral, there was no possible way he would worship the person who defeated him.

He must have long known that I was amenable to coaxing but not coercion. Therefore, not only did he act humbly, he helped me constantly. He even seized the chance to explain all the hardships endured by the Cathedral of the Shadow God, not forgetting to mention his wife and friends who stayed in the Cathedral. Adding on to that, he told me of the possible, dire aftermath of the Demon King destroying half the world. All this talk was making me cave.

Worst of all, everything he said was the truth… Awaitsun, you really are a despicable and shameless bastard!

Compared to the ample reason that a lot of human lives would be affected, my only point against this argument was that I wanted to be the Sun Knight… I just want to be Sun Knight!

A few days had passed since the talk with Awaitsun. During those following few days, I went to the plaza almost every day to sense for other demon king candidates. If I could find them quickly, perhaps there would be suitable demon king candidates.

I met Stephen and Charlotte a few times during this period. They seemed to enjoy chatting with me. Even though this was a very rare phenomenon… Usually, everyone would leave immediately when I started talking, especially Storm. He would always say that he preferred winking a hundred times to listening to me speak for even a minute.

However, I went to the plaza to sense, not to chat!

After meeting with them a few times, I could only change my location. I went everywhere to do my sensing, but I could not find any suspicious people.

Today, it was already dusk when I returned to the Church of the God of Light. After a whole day of walking and endlessly using my sensing ability to look at the entirety of Leaf Bud City, I was truly quite exhausted. I planned to take a nap in my room and search for the candidates again around midnight. Maybe the other demon king candidates preferred to move about during the late night.

When I was heading to my room, I saw Stone rushing towards me in a hurry. Before I could question him, he spoke hurriedly and softly, “Sun, where have you been? During today’s meeting everyone asked Judgment about your whereabouts. He said in a frosty manner, ‘How would I know? Ever since I banned Knight-Captain Sun from eating desserts, he has not visited me. Maybe he only ever came to me for desserts in the first place. He will appear when he can eat desserts again.’ ”

Whoa! Unknowingly I haven’t visited Judgment for some time now. Sounds like he is pissed.

Since it was currently dusk, I could wait for him in the restroom. I told Stone, “I’ll go find Judgment.”

“…Recently, your words are truly clear and concise.”

Normally, you would complain that I am very long-winded. Now, when I am not long-winded, you complain that I am clear and concise? I rolled my eyes and asked Stone, “No good?”

Stone scratched his face and replied, “Not to say it’s no good, I’m just not used to it.”

I rolled my eyes at him and went to fetch a basin of clear water, a handkerchief, and stools.

My timing seemed to be a little late. As I walked into the restroom, Judgment was already inside. He was nearly done freshening up. If I had come slightly later, he might have already left.

When Judgment raised his head and saw me, he seemed a bit surprised. However, he immediately regained his composure and said emotionlessly, “There are desserts in the basket.”

He prepared desserts? Don’t tell me it’s the severely bitter kind of ‘dessert’ again? I shook my head and said, “I’m not hungry.” Then, I passed a stool to Judgment accordingly.

Once seated, I immediately explained the recent events so Judgment would not be angry with me. “Recently, I’ve only gone around sensing whether demon king candidates have arrived in Leaf Bud City. I’m definitely not slacking off or hiding anything from you.”

Judgment did not say a word. He simply stared at my face. After interrogating criminals in the Judge’s Complex for ten years, he could easily determine whether the criminal was guilty or innocent simply by looking at their facial expressions. Therefore, I did not even dare lift an eyebrow, afraid that I would be struck by the word— guilty!

Be that as it may, he asked a question completely unrelated to my whereabouts, “Sun, what have you eaten today?”

I replied immediately, “I haven’t sneaked by any desserts!”

He frowned and questioned persistently, “Then, what have you eaten?”

Hearing this question, I was confused. Nevertheless, Judgment was determined to get an answer, so I started to ponder. However, I could not recall what I ate no matter how hard I thought about it. In the end, I could only give up and say frankly, “I don’t remember.”

“That is because you did not eat anything at all!” Judgment hardened his face and said unhappily, “You barely come to the dining hall nowadays. I had originally thought that you were secretly eating desserts, so you weren’t hungry. However, I found out that no one gave you any. Tell me honestly, how many days has it been since you had a proper meal? I wanted you to lose weight by reducing your intake of dessert, not by fasting!”

I replied promptly, “I’m not fasting! I just don’t feel hungry.”

Judgment abruptly gazed at my waist. I followed his gaze and looked at my waist too. There was nothing special about my waist… Wait! The buckle on my belt is fastened on the third hole from the end? I thought the buckle was previously fastened on the last hole?

“Perhaps you cannot see color, but we have all noticed that your face has gotten paler and paler. You barely even talk now.”

“I rarely speak anyway.” Whenever I talk, I need to praise the God of Light, so I never liked speaking much. Everyone should already know that.

“These past few days you have spoken even less than usual.” Judgment emphasized, “Storm said that recently your words are so clear and concise that everyone understands them. This makes him tremble in fear, not knowing what is wrong with you!”

Writing paperwork too well is abnormal, speaking clearly is also abnormal. How come everyone prefers me to never correct paperwork and always give long-winded speeches with contents that are very hard to decipher?

“You seem to be acting differently ever since the trip to the palace. However, Stone who had accompanied you there insists that he has no idea what’s going on. No one believes him, regardless.” Judgment added plainly, “I think, if you still refuse to tell us what’s going on, we’re this close to going and experimenting on Stone’s degree of stubbornness.”

Oh no, I’m also pretty curious as to how stubborn Stone can be…

“Sun.”

When I heard the call, I gave Judgment a puzzled look.

Judgment said with a solemn face, “If you let me continue speaking to myself and do not give me a single reply, I would also love to experiment on your degree of muteness!”

“I’m talking!” I replied promptly, “I’ll tell you anything you want me to tell you!”

Judgment remained silent for a while and asked, “What’s going on?”

“Nothing. I can’t find any demon king candidates. The atmosphere in the city has been tense, so I feel anxious.” I was a little guilty and didn’t know if I could somehow deceive Judgment.

“You’re lying!”

I panicked. It was as if my head was smacked by the word— guilty! The next sentence might be, “Guards! Drag him out to hang.”

In the midst of my internal chaos, Judgment said calmly, “Aren’t you the one who plotted the tense atmosphere in the city? It must be to prepare for the evacuation of the citizens. Since you are the one behind this, it is impossible for you to be anxious because of it.”

As expected, I couldn’t trick Judgment. I don’t know how many times I’ve experienced this same thing throughout my life. Even though I didn’t believe in giving up, and so continued to challenge him again and again, I always failed miserably. Unless Judgment personally refused to know what happened, he could guess practically anything.

However, could I consider this my first victory? It was impossible for Judgment to know the truth… Even I found out about it only recently, so there is no way he could know about it!

“You still refuse to speak up?” Judgment’s expression was similar to when he was about to give out a death sentence.

I kept quiet for a while and said, “Then, tell me about Metal’s true self first, and I’ll tell you what happened.”

This time Judgment went quiet, so I mimicked him and continued to remain silent.

After a long moment of silence, he said in a simple manner, “Metal looks up to me.”

“I know, but isn’t there more to it?” I was not the least bit surprised. What person who isn’t blind can’t see that Metal looks up to Judgment? No, I can see that even though I am blind!

He fell silent once again.

I lowered my voice, “See? Even you have some secrets. So why can’t I—”

Judgment interrupted, “He likes to be beaten.”

“…What did you say?”

Judgment revealed an expression indicating he was willing to risk it all. Never had I seen this expression on his face before. He said promptly, “Moon and I are close to Metal. That is because I am an expert in instruments of torture, while Moon’s weapon is a whip, so he can whip him.”

“He whips him?” My mind wandered to a very naughty place. Don’t tell me they drip hot candle wax on him too?

Judgment tried to regain his composure, but his face still carried an awkward expression. He continued with the details, “Our holy light ability is not strong, so we cannot heal serious wounds. The wounds inflicted by the whip are shallow, so they are easier to heal.”

That’s because Moon held back. If he was serious, he could break a leg with one stroke… However, that is not the main point! I could hardly believe what I was hearing. “Metal really likes to be beaten? Is it really true? Are you fooling me? How come there are people who enjoy getting beaten?”

Judgment said faintly, “Do you think I would bluff about something like ‘Metal likes to be beaten, so I always hit him’?”

I denied it, “No, I think you would rather die than lie about this.”

Judgment nodded and agreed immediately with this statement.

So Metal likes to be beaten… Why haven’t they told me this earlier? With my holy light magic, I can beat him until he is at the brink of meeting the God of Light. Then, I can heal him instantly, followed by another beating. I can alternate between healings and beatings… Beating him at least five to ten times a day would not be a problem!

Besides that, I need to smile every day, bless the God of Light in every sentence and apply a facial mask every week… I feel the urge to beat someone up all the time!

“Sun.”

“Yes?” I answered absentmindedly. In my heart, I wondered if I should challenge Metal later. I want to bash up someone, and he likes to get bashed up. We can practically be a perfect match… yuck! Who wants to be a perfect match with a man, doing the beating and getting beaten?

“It’s your turn to speak.”

I froze. But to think that Judgment carried the feeling of “better off dead” when he revealed his secret, should I also have the feeling of “if I die, so be it” while saying mine?

“Judgment, hypothetically… Uh…!” I paused momentarily, and then emphasized again, “Just hypothetically!”

Judgment said in a clear-cut manner, “Alright, this is just a hypothesis.”

I hesitated, then I said in one breath, “If I were to say I am the Demon King, what would you do?”

Once I spoke, I regretted asking. Why bother raising a hypothetical question? Who is Lesus Judgment? Don’t tell me he would be so easily deceived just because I laugh and say words like, “I’m kidding! Scared you!”

No matter what, at least I had managed to tell him. Although I had vaguely guessed this long ago, I did not dare face the truth. Although I had spoken, I did not even dare to sense Judgment’s expression.

“You are not the Demon King.” Judgment said calmly, “You are just one of the demon king candidates.”

“…When did you find out about that?”

After a long moment of silence, I finally squeezed out a sentence. Just now, didn’t he mention that Stone refused to say anything? Maybe Judgment lied to me again. Maybe, everyone had actually managed to break Stone’s stubbornness and make him talk?

Judgment said, so calmly that I felt like punching him, “A few days before we assumed the positions of the Twelve Holy Knights.”

“…”

He continued in a casual manner, “Your teacher Neo told me. He said he would retire soon, so he should let me know about this.”

I kept quiet for a while and said softly, “He wanted you to monitor me?”

Judgment shook his head and replied, “He said Scarlet may come for you. He wanted me to inform him immediately upon seeing her so that he could come back and destroy the lich. And also, to keep her away from you by any means. “

Teacher… I felt ashamed. From the start, Teacher knew that I was a demon king candidate? However, not only did he not replace me, he even tried to protect me, but I suspected that he requested Judgment to monitor me… I deserve to die!

With a guilty conscience, I bowed my head and apologized, “Sorry.”

With a sigh, Judgment said helplessly, “If I knew that you would find out about this sooner or later, I should have told you earlier. Then, I wouldn’t have stirred up so much trouble.”

I was stunned. Then, I immediately linked events together and exclaimed, “Is this the thing you were hiding from me before?”

“Yes.” Judgment nodded and said solemnly, “After learning of this four years ago, I decided to wait until something happened before I told you. But I did not expect the first incident to be your disappearance. After that incident, I was afraid that you would over think things, so I did not want to tell you.”

Over think things? Subsequently, I remembered the black-haired me. Is that my demon king state? After my hair turned black, I even toyed with Ice and Blaze’s lives, just for the sake of having fun. So that is what I would turn into after I become the Demon King?

Wait, that said, don’t tell me…

“Sun!” Judgment suddenly grabbed my shoulder and growled, “I worried that you would do this. That is why I refused to tell you. Just as I expected, what are you thinking now?”

“I…” I found it hard to speak. However, I needed to make sure of some things, so I asked reluctantly, “Judgement, tell me frankly, was the black-haired me the person who killed you back then?”

Startled, Judgment growled back immediately, “Of course not! I knew you would over think things, but I never expected it to be to this extent!”

I shouted back. “Otherwise, why wouldn’t you tell me why you went out in the middle of the night? Is it me who asked you out and…“ Killed you?

“That’s not it, listen to me!” Judgment explained hastily, “That time, your teacher and I split up to find Scarlet’s hideout. We wanted to strike her down before you found her. That way, you would never know that you were a demon king candidate. That’s all there is to it! The person who killed me was indeed a young girl and a few death knights.”

“Death knights can’t kill you.” I still didn’t buy it.

“With the young girl around they could,” Judgment explained in detail. “She must have used some psychic magic to attack me. However, back then I did not know that it was psychic magic. I just felt my hands and feet grow heavy, and I could not combat her successfully. That afternoon, when I was looking for Scarlet, death knights ambushed me, but I barely managed to escape. During the night, I planned to look for your teacher and describe the incident. Sadly, I met Scarlet on the way there. I lost a lot of blood in the afternoon so my condition was not ideal. Therefore, I could not escape.”

I got it. If it was psychic magic, it was indeed difficult for Judgment to withstand the attack. I tried to recall what had happened that day. When Judgment was resurrected, nothing seemed abnormal. If I was the one who had slaughtered him, the first thing he said when he saw me wouldn’t have been to ask what price I had paid for a complete resurrection.

I do not think I’m the person who killed Judgment. It wasn’t me… Thankfully.

I expressed my acceptance of this by giving Judgment a nod. Only then did he relax, and he even said gently, “Sun, you don’t need to worry. You are just one of the candidates. As long as you refuse, no one can make the Sun Knight become the Demon King!”

I smiled bitterly. Helplessly, I said, “But the Cathedral of the Shadow God has chosen me.”

Judgment frowned. He asked, “What do you mean by that?”

I repeated everything Silent Eagle said in full detail. After everything was out, I felt a sense of relief. Even though I still did not dare tell the others, at least Judgement knew about this. The funny thing was he did not look the least bit surprised, just as if the Sun Knight being the Demon King was as trivial as the Sun Knight being an alcoholic. This made me feel much more at ease.

“What do you think I should do?” I smiled bitterly, “The birth of the Demon King is inevitable, and the Cathedral of the Shadow God has chosen me…”

“We definitely cannot lose our Sun Knight either!”

I was astonished. This sentence did not come from Judgment. It came from several people… However, the following event was so shocking that my mind went blank.

Earth came out from the last cubicle of the toilets and washed his hands at the basin calmly. Finally he leisurely sat between Judgment and me.

I asked blankly, “What are you doing here?”

“What?” Earth pretended to be surprised. He looked around and said, “Isn’t this a restroom? Of course I came here to go to the toilet! What else would I do? Come here to eat desserts?”

Will you die if you say one sentence without insulting me?

“Can we come out now?”

“It should be alright now?”

“It’s so cramped! My hands are stuck. The outermost person should go out first!”

“The outermost person? We are already squeezed together, who is the outermost person?”

“Save me…”

A lot of voices came from the last cubicle of the toilets. Even calls for help!

Once again, Earth leisurely headed towards that cubicle. Then, he put his hand in and pulled forcefully. An out of shape Storm was pulled out, followed by a messy Moon, and then a flattened Leaf… After adding Earth into the equation, a total of ten holy knights came out of the tiny cubicle!

How did ten huge men squeeze into that cubicle?

“Why did you all… You all squeezed into one cubicle?” I immediately knew the answer after I asked. Only the last cubicle was not in my sensing range.

They did not even have time to reply to my question. They were too busy returning their misshapen bodies back to normal.

Awhile later, when they looked like they were almost back in shape, Metal shouted distressingly, “Captain Judgment, how can you reveal my secret in front of everybody!”

“Erm, I’m really sorry.” Judgment apologized awkwardly.

Everyone in the “good, warm-hearted” faction peeked at Metal with strange expressions. However, the “cruel, cool-hearted” faction did not seem surprised at all. Looks like they’ve known about Metal’s strange hobby for some time.

Metal continued to look at Judgment with a distressed face. At that moment, Judgment suddenly grabbed the whip on Moon’s waist and without uttering a single word, he whipped Metal randomly.

Just by listening to the piercing sound of the whip, I felt the pain. But Judgment was relentless. Even Metal falling to the ground and begging aloud, “Knight-Captain Judgement, don’t…” did not stop him.

As I watched, I was frightened and did not know how to react. The only thing I could do was observe the “good, warm-hearted” faction. Everyone was panicking. Then, I observed the “cruel, cold-hearted” faction. Their expressions did not change, and Stone was even smiling meekly!

Metal’s back was beaten until it was badly mutilated. Should I stop Judgment from beating him?

Metal cried, “…don’t stop! It feels so good~”

Damn!

This is extremely disgusting.

I felt goosebumps rise all over my body and tried to restrain myself from giving him a few kicks. Moon, Stone, and Ice, on the other hand, rushed forward and without saying a word, started giving Metal random kicks.

Only Roland from the “cruel, cold-hearted” faction did not kick him, but he seemed hesitant. It looked like he wondered whether he should follow the crowd and kick Metal. However, he could not bring himself to do such a thing.

By this time, Judgment finally stopped. He walked towards me and passed me the whip. He said, “I know you’ve wanted to interrogate criminals for a long time. I’ll pass this job to you from now on.” After he finished talking, he even revealed a relieved expression.

While crawling out from the legs of the crowd, Metal wailed, “I refuse! Captain Judgment, I only want to be beaten by you!”

Judgment lowered his head and replied to Metal, “Really? But Sun’s healing magic is magnificent. He can beat you until you are badly injured, even to the brink of death. Then, he can heal you instantly and continue beating you. Beating you up to five times a day would not be a problem. Besides, I do not like to beat you. However, Sun wants to beat someone up every single moment. If you want to get beaten, you can seek him out anytime. Most likely he will not refuse.”

You know me too well…

Metal was stunned. Then he turned and looked hesitantly at me, followed by a lustful look at the whip in my hand. He is truly disgusting! I couldn’t help but raise the whip…

“Hey!”

Earth held his right leg and hopped several times. Then he roared at me, “Why did you hit me?”

I replied quickly, “That was just an accident!”

Sadly, Earth ferociously stared at me with an expression of complete distrust. Then, he performed healing on his injured leg.

I walked in front of Metal. Hopefully I won’t miss at such a close range? Thus I gave three whips in one go…

“Ouch!”

Leaf held his chest. His face showed signs of wanting to cry.

“Argh!”

Stone suddenly crossed his legs. His hands were protecting his “precious area.” The pain had even warped his face.

“…”

Cloud suddenly appeared. He covered half his face and squatted on the floor. There were some weeping sounds coming from him.

Earth roared, “Hey, what is your problem! You even manage to hit Cloud, but you can’t even hit Metal? You are totally doing it on purpose!”

How could I miss every lash? I wanted to cry but no tears came, this really was not on purpose! I could swear to the God of Light!

“Attack me, quick!” Metal grasped the sides of my trousers. He looked so detestable that I felt like beating him to death!

“Wait, don’t attack! We are the ones suffering!” Everyone else’s expression changed. Earth summoned a shield. Only after making sure that the whip would not reach him did he relax and watch the commotion.

“Attack!”

“Don’t attack!”

I looked from person to person. One side yelled attack while the other screamed stop. One side grabbed the edge of my trousers with an expression so detestable that I felt like beating him to death, the other side bore an expression so hideous that it made me feel like punching his face… I roared, “Shut up!”

The moment the words left me, my body ejected a large amount of lightning targeted everywhere. The entire restroom was filled with lightning; there was no place to hide. Even though Earth summoned a shield, he could only protect his front. He could not block the lightning from his sides and back.

Since I felt like beating one side to death and punching the face of the other side, I should just attack both sides at the same time!

Seeing the detestable and hideous expressions all turn into non-stop trembling, I felt a sense of satisfaction. Especially after seeing Earth tremble the most, I felt extremely satisfied.

“The Sun Knight using Lightning is a-against the law. The lightning even avoided Judgment. You surely did it o-on purpose…” Earth spoke while twitching.

I did not dare to swear to the God of Light this time around.

Two men sat on stools, ten men sat on the floor. Twelve men formed a circle.

This scene may sound common, but when the twelve men were all in formal knight attire and the background was a restroom, it felt a little unusual. Besides that, it was also unhygienic.

Fortunately, no one had dared to use this restroom for ten years. It was also sparkling clean, so it could pass even as a dining hall with no problem!

Judgment pondered for a while and said, “So the top priority now is to identify the other demon king candidates. Only then can Sun avoid becoming the Demon King.”

“Mmmh. Mmmh!” I ate blueberry cake while responding inarticulately. I don’t know why, but I felt extremely hungry after electrocuting everyone. So I rushed to eat the desserts in the basket.

Inside the basket were all blueberry-flavored desserts. There was even a blueberry lollipop. Did Charlotte buy a lollipop yet? Probably not?

That dessert shop always had a queue from the street to the back alley. Charlotte also needed to patrol as well, so she probably didn’t have time to line up.

I went ahead and put the lollipop in my pocket. I could give it to Charlotte whenever I saw her. Since I currently had a basket full of blueberry desserts to eat, I did not need to fight over a lollipop with her.

“Bastard Sun… You have been a demon king since the beginning; you can’t run away from it!” Earth spat out black smoke. His hair was permed from his natural waviness to an afro.

Everyone else actually nodded!

I rapidly swallowed the cake in my mouth and protested loudly, “That small of a current can’t even hurt you! At most it should only make you a little numb, I think? Don’t tell me everyone is so narrow-minded?”

“Yup, the tingling sensation is so comfy. But the current was too small, make sure to use a bigger one next time…” Metal grabbed the edge of my pants. Both of his eyes shone brightly.

Kaboom!

I immediately sent him a lightning bolt stacked with another lightning bolt, stacked with another one… I don’t know how many times I stacked the lightning magic.

“Stop fooling around.” Judgment sighed, and with a helpless tone he said, “Let’s settle the main issue first. Sun, heal Metal.”

I immediately cast an Intermediate Heal. Next I stuffed some blueberry cookies in my mouth. Only then did I start to be serious. The others followed accordingly. Even Metal did not dare to pull on my trousers.

“We still need to have a talk with Silent Eagle.” After Judgment finished his sentence, he asked me, “Did you tell him you do not want to be the Demon King?”

“No…”

After hearing my reply, Judgment was obviously unsatisfied. He said disapprovingly, “Why didn’t you clearly tell Silent Eagle that you do not wish to be the Demon King?”

“I…”

Even though I only managed to speak one word I was already too embarrassed to continue. However, Judgment waited patiently for me to continue. Everyone was staring at me as well so I did not have a chance to escape. I had to continue honestly, “I have always avoided the fact that I am a demon king candidate. Silent Eagle knew that, so he never directly mentioned that I am one of the demon king candidates.”

Judgment frowned and asked, “Why avoid it? You are not someone who avoids problems. Avoiding it cannot solve the problem. You know that more clearly than anyone else.”

His tone almost sounded like an accusation. This irritated me. I retorted agitatedly, “If I admit that I am a demon king candidate, then doesn’t it mean that I can’t be the Sun Knight any longer? People won’t accept a Sun Knight who is an evil Demon King! Why can’t I avoid such a serious matter for a while?”

“You are just a candidate. It doesn’t mean that you will become the Demon King,” Judgment highlighted calmly.

“Sun, don’t be angry.” Leaf said hastily, “After listening to the truth about the Demon King, we all know that the Demon King is not evil at all. Maybe the first Demon King was evil, so everyone just assumed it? Just like us Twelve Holy Knights…”

“I don’t think so,” I immediately refuted. “Don’t forget what the black-haired me did!”

Once my sentence was out, Judgment frowned. Leaf did not refute it, he just took a quick look at Blaze and Ice. I suddenly felt a faint prick in my heart.

When everyone fell silent, Stone said suddenly, “Did you guys forget something?”

Everyone turned and looked at him. Nevertheless, he stared at me and emphasized, “Sun, at that time you had amnesia! You had amnesia, yet possessed formidable power. Furthermore, while you were unclear on what was going on around you, incidents happened one after another. Even if you turned into a real demon king and destroyed everything around you, it would have been reasonable. However, the worst thing you did was only leaving them to die.”

“He did not leave us to die.”

After Stone finished his sentence, Ice suddenly spoke, “At that time, Sun actually wanted to save us. He was just provoked by Blaze, so he resentfully refused to save him. Nevertheless, if Blaze had been willing to apologize, I think Sun would still have saved him.”

I did not expect the victim, Ice, to be on my side. But I felt guilty and spoke softly, “How do you know I would have saved you? I’m not even sure myself.”

Blaze suddenly cried, “Still, in the end you used Chains of Darkness to tie up the dragon! Even though you got on my nerves, you saved both Ice and me. You did not leave us to perish!”

I looked at Ice and Blaze. Both of them gave me a firm look. The prick in my heart abruptly disappeared.

“Sun, you are baffled because you are the one involved in this matter,” Judgment asked, “If today the demon king candidate was not you, but one of the other Twelve Holy Knights… Let me be the example. Let’s say I am a demon king candidate, what would you do?”

I thought for a while and said, “I would ask you whether you wanted to be the Demon King.” If you do, I will fully assist you to become the Demon King.

Judgment shook his head and answered, “But I do not wish to be the Demon King.”

This time I did not even need to think. I immediately replied, “Then, of course I would fully assist you in continuing your duty as Judgment Knight!”

Judgment sighed and said, “However the birth of the Demon King is inevitable, or else the world will be destroyed.”

I said promptly, “There are other candidates! We can interrogate Awaitsun for a method that will not harm you but allows other candidates to be the Demon King. Then, I will tell him directly that Church of the God of Light will never forsake our Judgment Knight. If he wishes for the Demon King to be born, he better tell me what to do!”

“What if there is no other way?” Judgment stared at me and smiled bitterly, “The world will be destroyed soon, yet I stubbornly refused to be the Demon King. I only want to be Judgment Knight. Am I too selfish?”

“What are you talking about?” I immediately stood up and roared, “You decided to be Judgment Knight more than ten years ago. Besides, you’re earnestly fulfilling your duty as Judgment Knight. No one can force you to leave this position!”

Judgment smiled faintly and replied, “Indeed, no one can force me. But how can I just let the world be destroyed before my eyes?”

Looking at his defeated expression, I was furious. I grabbed his shoulders and roared, “If this world must force a person to unwillingly take a role he refused, then it might as well be destroyed!”

Judgment just stared at me. His bitter smile disappeared long ago. He merely looked at me wryly… Oh damn! I was too into it. The demon king candidate isn’t even Judgment, it’s me!

I added promptly, “I am saying that if you are the demon king candidate, I would probably say it in this manner!”

Judgment continued to smile at me. The others laughed quietly as well, even making my face heat up. Damn!

Stone suddenly asked, “Sun, do you want to be the Demon King?”

“I- I definitely don’t want to be.” I said inarticulately, “But… But how can a person who could be the Demon King continue to be a Sun Knight…”

Stone laughed suddenly. He asked purposely, “I wonder who just said that as long as Judgment refused to be the Demon King he could continue as the Judgment Knight?”

Even though I said so myself, things were not that simple. I paused for a moment and spoke my deepest concern.

“If there is another way, then why do the demon king candidates kill each other? So, the chance of there being another method is extremely slim. What if, except for killing the other candidates, there is no other way to become the Demon King; then what should we do? If I don’t want to be Demon King, I can only be killed, or else this world will be destroyed because there is no Demon King.”

“Is that so?” Stone actually pondered for a moment and said, “If this world must force a person to unwillingly take a role he refused, then we might as well let it be destroyed. Don’t you agree? Knight-Captain Sun.”

I was speechless. I could only look around at the Twelve Holy Knights. However, no one even planned to refute Stone.

What’s the matter with all of you? The world will be destroyed! Don’t tell me that out of all of the Twelve Holy Knights, there’s not a single normal person who wants to save the world?

“You, you are all willing to risk the destruction of the world to let me continue as the Sun Knight?”

“It is all your fault!” Metal screeched, “If one of us were to be the demon king candidate, you would not let us become the Demon King. Now, since the candidate is you, we have no choice! We cannot just let you become the Demon King! Anyway, you should just obediently fulfil your duty as Sun Knight, and beat me up five times a day!”

Kaboom!

After using Lightning, I withdrew my hand. If even Metal, who I am the most unfamiliar with, said so, the others would likely support me in continuing as Sun Knight, right? Although my eyes were on the slightly burnt Metal, I unconsciously used my sensing ability to see the others’ expressions…

“You don’t need to peek at our expressions!” Storm said lazily, “I still need to go through a lot of paperwork. Please wrap things up fast, so I can go back and look through the paperwork. Therefore, let us just raise our hands and vote! Those who agree that Sun should not retire from his duty as Sun Knight until he reaches the age of forty, raise your hand.”

I was shocked. Eleven hands were raised. No one even hesitated…

My eyes suddenly become watery. I shouted immediately, “How do you know that I am peeking?”

I just asked casually to prevent my eyes from becoming even more watery. However, everyone started happily talking at once.

“It’s very simple! As long as you suddenly stiffen up, with your face slightly facing down and your eyes somewhat squinting, then you are definitely peeking!”

“If you are walking, as long as your pace starts to slow down and you walk in a tilted direction, then you are definitely peeking!”

“If you are eating, then you will keep digging at the same spot. You wouldn’t notice even when you reach the base of the plate.”

“Right, right!”

My god, so there are as many as twelve tapeworms in my stomach?