Roland’s face twitched and, gritting his teeth, he asked, “This is your question?”
“That’s right!” I replied matter-of-factly.
“‘That’s right’?” He roared with disbelief, “Why aren’t you asking questions such as ‘Why did I kill you’ or ‘Why did I betray you’?”
“Those are also good questions.” I shrugged as I spoke, “However, it’s a pity that I already know the answers to those questions. Why would I still ask?”
Roland froze and asked, “Y-You know?”
“Mm, it was ‘Judgment’ who told me, and all the Twelve Holy Knights already know.” I emphasized that it was Judgment in particular who had figured it out. While I said this, I even specially paid attention to Tyler, and only after ensuring that he was listening attentively did I continue talking.
“Even though I had already been resurrected, Judgment still treated the incident of my death as a murder case to investigate. He went to Pink’s private room and discovered a special magic circle in there. However, he didn’t have an inkling about what kind of magic it was, so he asked the Pope to inspect it. In the end, he found out that it was a magic circle that necromancers use to strengthen their control over death knights.”
Upon hearing my explanation, Roland subtlety breathed a sigh of relief. Even though he still maintained an indifferent expression, he could not hide from my sensing ability. When I had finished speaking, the muscles in his face had certainly loosened a lot.
“Actually, Pink has been controlling you since you were young, right?” The moment those words left my mouth, Roland froze and was finally unable to maintain his indifferent look. Instead, he wore a shocked expression.
You’re already astonished by this? The following things I’m about to say are even more shocking!
“She controlled you, making you do as she said, but then forced you to forget about her, as this made it easier for her to execute her plans. For example, controlling the king to torture you to death, which filled you with hatred towards the king. Then, she resurrected you as a death knight and deliberately made you come and find me to talk about old times, which would make it easier to find an opportunity to kill me in the future.”
When I finished speaking, Roland’s eyes widened slightly and even the others were stunned.
After capturing everyone’s attention, I continued speaking, “Having you come to my side was initially a very big risk. Had your true identity been exposed, you would have been in a very dangerous situation. However, under the circumstance that you yourself didn’t know the truth, exposing your lies would have been impossible for me because you didn’t know about your own identity or that you would kill me in the future!
“Initially, I had various misgivings about why Pink hadn’t killed me herself. There were numerous opportunities where she could have made a move and killed me. Later on, I learned the answer from my own lich. It was because Pink absolutely could not kill me with her own hands. A lich may assist their candidate, but they are forbidden from directly harming the other candidates. That is a prohibition engraved in their bones, so it is impossible to break that constraint.
“Therefore, Pink was forced to make this dangerous move and let you come and find me to reminisce about the past.” I said self-deprecatingly, “Even though Pink wanted you to get closer to me, she probably never thought that I would take you straight into the Church of the God of Light and make you the Hell Knight.” Thinking back now, I was truly courting death with that action!
Frowning, Roland said, “These are all your conjectures.”
“They’re my inferences made with reasoning!” I said with conviction. “I have tons of evidence! For instance, because of her control over you, there were many faults in your memories. Previously, you blurted out that your sword was a sword you inherited. However, you actually don’t recall at all how you came about that sword, right? You and I are both orphans, so where in the world did that heirloom come from? Yet, you still had an impression in your mind that the sword was a family heirloom, right? It was because Pink instilled that impression on you so you wouldn’t carelessly discard or sell off the sword!
“Furthermore, Pink obviously wanted to let me bleed to death. The fewer wounds there are on a corpse, the better. It would make it easier for her to turn me into an undead creature at her disposal. Despite her wish, I was brought back to the Church in the end and there was even a big hole in my chest. It was you who gave me a quick end to my suffering and brought me back to the Church, right? And it was also at that moment that you killed Pink!”
Roland couldn’t help but let the words slip, “How did you know…?”
I further emphasised, “I even know that not only did you kill her, you even sealed her up just like how I sealed Scarlet and Stephen in the Eternal Tranquility. Therefore, she went missing half a year ago. That’s why Illu, whom you made afterwards, would say that he had never seen Pink!”
Roland looked at me for a long moment, then, shaking his head, he said, “It’s really hard to believe it, but it seems like you know even more than I do.”
That’s because I have Scarlet, who knows and will talk about everything except the ceremony to give up a candidate’s qualifications!
Feeling a bit curious, I asked, “Anyway, just where did you seal Pink?”
Roland hesitated briefly, then said, “My family heirloom.”
Ha! I couldn’t help but laugh. Scarlet had used every possible means to return the Eternal Tranquility to my hands, and I used the Eternal Tranquility to seal her away. Pink had found an excellent sword for Roland much earlier on, and Roland used that sword to seal her away. These are perfect examples of reaping what one sows.
“I’ve finished saying all that I’ve wanted to,” I reminded him. “Now it is your turn, Roland. You have yet to answer my question.”
Roland fell silent. I wasn’t anxious and leisurely waited for his reply.
The more I waited, the heavier Roland’s expression became. Finally, I couldn’t help saying first, “Actually, you don’t have the slightest wish in becoming the Demon King, right?”
With a face full of anger and unwillingness, Roland roared at me, “I don’t want to be the Demon King! I want to return to the Holy Temple and continue being the Hell Knight! However, between the two of us, one must become the Demon King. If it isn’t me, it will be you, and we all know that it definitely cannot be you!”
“Says who?” Pretending to be relaxed, I said, “I actually want to be the Demon King.”
Roland was startled and growled, “Quit joking already! Sun, even if you intend to sacrifice yourself to be the Demon King so that I won’t have to, do you think it’s possible for the others to accept me and let me go back to being the Hell Knight? Because of me, they will have lost their Sun Knight. It will be forever impossible for them to accept me!”
“My choice to be the Demon King has nothing to do with you.” I said quietly, “I’m not doing it for you. I’m doing it for myself.”
“For yourself?” Roland burst out laughing, “Did you think that if you said it like this, I would believe you? That anyone would believe you?”
I said flatly, “You know that I’m blind and am currently using my sensing ability as a substitute for my vision. So tell me, if I lose my qualifications as a demon king candidate, what will happen to me?”
The moment I said those words, everyone other than Awaitsun widened their eyes.
Unwilling to believe it, Roland asked, “Y-You’ll turn blind?”
I nodded, then said bluntly, “That’s why I have to become the Demon King! Thus, this decision has nothing to do with you whatsoever.
“It’s only because I want to continue being the Sun Knight!” I couldn’t help raising my voice.
“However, my resurrection made me lose a large portion of my holy light abilities. If, in addition, I lose my status as a demon king candidate, my sight and even my magic abilities will disappear completely! Tell me, how can I be the Sun Knight then?”
Roland was dumbstruck for a long while and only now did he use an incredulous tone to ask, “You want to be the Demon King, but you still want…to continue being the Sun Knight?”
“That’s right!” I nodded resolutely, “No one has ever decreed that the Demon King can’t be the Sun Knight!”
Roland was speechless for a very long while, then said helplessly, “No one has decreed it, but this is so… so much like something you would do.” He chuckled as he finished his sentence.
“So you can come over here and obediently give up the Demon King’s strength. In any case, even if you aren’t the Demon King, you’re still a tremendous and terrifying death monarch. This situation has an additional benefit. With you as a death monarch, and I as the Demon King, the two of us can restrain each other. If one of us goes crazy, the other one will be in charge of stopping him.”
This is truly killing multiple birds with one stone. I admired myself for having been able to resolve things so flawlessly!
Roland looked at me, but he didn’t appear to have any intention of walking over to one of the magic circles. He opened his mouth and said, “Sun, now it’s my turn to ask you a question. You must also answer me truthfully.”
“A question?” I was a bit puzzled. In any case, I had laid down all my cards on the table and had revealed everything, so there was nothing that I couldn’t say. Nodding, I said, “Alright, ask away!”
“You asked if I wanted to be the Demon King. What if I said that I did? What would you have done?”
I paused, then said, “Then I would have given up on becoming the Demon King.” If not, what else could I do?
Roland persisted and continued questioning me, “Then you would become blind, so how would you continue being the Sun Knight?”
“…Well I’m actually quite glad that you said you didn’t want to be the Demon King,” I admitted with honesty. “Only in this way could I continue to be the Sun Knight while simultaneously holding the position of the Demon King. You could also continue to be the Hell Knight as well as a death monarch. And the problem would be resolved!”
Hearing this, Roland laughed. Shaking his head, he said, “It really is a pretty good plan. The Demon King is born and the Twelve Holy Knights don’t lose a single person… But Sun, your plan won’t work!”
I had thought that the issue was already settled, but Roland suddenly said these words from out of nowhere. Alarmed, I asked, “Why?”
“Sun, the Demon King’s powers don’t only include possessing formidable strength…” Roland frowned as he said, “When you become the real Demon King, you will naturally begin to absorb large amounts of dark element, and the dark element will affect your mentality… Oh, right, you’ve previously absorbed the dark element from an entire land of darkness, haven’t you?”
I froze as I recalled some past memories. Abandoning and ignoring Ice and Blaze, whose lives were in danger. Chopping off Teacher’s right hand…
“At that time, you had changed after absorbing the dark element from only one land of darkness. After you truly become the Demon King, the dark element you’ll absorb then will be several fold, maybe even several ten-folds… When you become the Demon King, trust me, you wouldn’t want to be the Sun Knight anymore.”
Roland smiled bitterly as he said, “Even though it was for a very short time, from your death to your resurrection, I had truly become the Demon King. At that time, I had simply no way of restraining myself…”
Is that so? I frowned deeply. After pondering for a while, I had an epiphany and said, “But after you became the Demon King, you still brought me back to the Church of the God of Light, didn’t you? You clearly knew that I would get resurrected and you would become a candidate once again…”
Roland interrupted me, saying, “I didn’t know there were still others who could use Resurrection. I also didn’t know that your resurrection would revert me back into a candidate.”
I blinked. Really? That is to say, I haven’t mentioned in front of Roland that the Pope can use Resurrection? It seems… it seems that I really haven’t mentioned it before?
Roland said desperately, “Even if you’re blind, you should still be able to think of a way to be the Sun Knight. No matter what, you definitely cannot be the Demon King!”
I growled back, “But I can’t think of any other way! The resurrection this time made me lose a large portion of my holy light abilities. If I lose my status as a demon king candidate, then I won’t be able to use magic and I’ll even become blind. Tell me, what sort of solutions can I think of?”
At the end of his wit, Roland said, “The others will help you…”
I turned my head to glance at Ceo and the other two. Their expressions were full of panic and they were at a complete loss as to what to do. I roared at Roland, “Of course they would help their Sun Knight, on the condition that I can perform the Sun Knight’s duties well. But without holy light, magic or even sight, I can’t do it at all!”
“No matter what, you absolutely cannot be the Demon King!” Roland was also starting to get angry and roared back at me, “Sun, you don’t get it all. If you become the Demon King, you won’t want to go back to the Church of the God of Light again! You won’t want to be the Sun Knight anymore! The amounts of dark element that a candidate and the Demon King absorb are on completely different levels. You will be fully controlled by the dark element and will treat this world, even the Twelve Holy Knights, as nothing. The only thing you will think of is doing whatever pleases you!”
“Previously, even when I had lost my sight, I still wanted to be the Sun Knight!”
I stared at Roland, and spoke clearly, word by word.
“Even when I lost my head of golden hair, I still wanted to be the Sun Knight!
“Even when I lost the favor of the God of Light, I still wanted to be the Sun Knight! So…
“Even when I am the Demon King, I will still want to be the Sun Knight!
“This is how much I want to be the Sun Knight! So please believe me! Even if I become the Demon King, I will not lose myself! I will return to my position as the Sun Knight and the Twelve Holy Knights will not lose a single person!”
Roland looked at me. His expression had long since changed from being indifferent and calm to being overwhelmed. Finally, he turned and looked at Ceo and the others, a plea for help strewn across his face.
Seeing this, I walked over to the wall and opened the locks on Ceo, Vival, and Laica’s bodies, and then released Awaitsun, Illu, and Tyler. It was meaningless to continue restraining them now.
The moment Tyler was free, he immediately ran over to his captain’s side and after saluting, opened his mouth and said, “Captain-”
Roland cut in, “You don’t have to keep on calling me Captain anymore.”
Upon hearing this, Tyler lowered his head and beseeched in a low voice, “Captain, please come back.”
Roland hesitated, and then said, “If I don’t return, you can take over my position as the captain.”
“But some things can only happen when you return as captain. For example, taking turns to spar with you every evening. And you’re never able to finish correcting the mountain of documents that the Storm Knight throws at you, so the entire platoon is forced to correct those never-ending documents with you. While we’re correcting, someone will be the first to yell that he cannot take it anymore, and then we will all slack off together and run off to drink at the tavern. And the first person to get drunk will always be you, Captain.”
“Someone?” Roland chuckled, “Which time was it not Faterlin who shouted first that he couldn’t take it anymore?”
“Yes sir, it seems that it is always that guy who shouts first. I truly have not taught him well…” Tyler said in a helpless voice. Then, feeling a bit embarrassed, he rubbed his head as he said, “Captain, even though I really want to be the captain, I long even more for the days when you were around. How should I say this… Those days were pretty good.”
Hearing his words, Roland looked at him. His expression softened up a lot as he murmured, “Really? So there are people who look forward to my return?”
As expected, bringing Tyler along was the right thing to do! I was just thinking of cheering for a bit when I saw Ceo and the other two walking towards me with expressions more terrifying than a death monarch’s. Without saying anything, they caught hold of me and six fists came down, administrating a severe beating… This beating is really as painful as hell!
“Don’t hit my face!” Just as I finished yelling, two fists immediately punched my left and right eyes.
“Hey!” Awaitsun’s eyes widened, then he used a barely audible voice to urge them to stop, “Stop beating him!”
If you lowered your voice any more, it would be the same as a mosquito calling out!
After a long period of beating, Ceo angrily roared “Let’s see if you still dare to trick us in the future!” as he cast heal to completely heal all the wounds on my body.
After being pummeled, I could only bow my head and apologize, “I’m sorry. If I hadn’t done it like this, I’m afraid you guys simply wouldn’t finish listening to my reasons, and upon hearing that I wanted to be the Demon King, you would have probably beaten me up straightaway.”
Ceo frowned as he said, “It’s still taking a very big risk. According to Roland’s words, after you become the Demon King, perhaps you truly won’t want to be the Sun Knight. If that happens, what should we do?”
“Even if the risk is great, I must gamble on it!” I insisted. “I really don’t want to give up my position as the Sun Knight, and even more than that, I don’t want to be a leech of the Holy Temple!”
Vival admonished me, “If Judgment found out that you became the Demon King, he would undoubtedly murder you, Demon King or not!”
I put on a bold face and said, “At that time, please remember to help me stop him.”
Laica yelled, “Who would care about you!?”
My face fell. Then, I turned to Roland and said, “Roland, even Ceo and the others aren’t stopping me anymore. Now you can relax, right?”
However, Roland continued to mutter, “But Sun, if you truly change, and you actually don’t return to the Church of the God of Light, then all of this would be my fault. I should…I should become the Demon King and let you go back to the Church of the God of Light…”
“You don’t have to feel guilty at all.” Ceo patted Roland’s shoulder as he said, “Sun has already said that he is choosing to become the Demon King so that he can continue being the Sun Knight. By giving up your candidacy, you’re even helping him!”
Roland fell silent for a while, then forced a smile as he said, “Sun, you will regret it… No! After you become the Demon King, you won’t feel any regrets at all.”
“That may not necessarily happen!” I couldn’t take it anymore and shouted, “But if I let you become the Demon King you never wanted to be, and then I return to the Church of the God of Light to be a Sun Knight only in name, I will definitely experience a lifetime of regret starting from this very moment!”
Roland was startled, and only then did he finally nod his head and step towards one of the magic circles.
I beckoned Awaitsun over and said, “Perform the ceremony!”
Awaitsun promptly walked forward, and spoke to Roland first, “Please take note, you must not harbor any wishes of wanting to be the Demon King or keeping your strength.”
“I’ve never wished to be some demon king!” Roland replied coldly. Looks like he doesn’t have a favorable impression of Awaitsun.
I hurriedly stepped forward to intercede and asked, “Believe Roland! If he wanted to become the Demon King, he would have done so a long time ago! Now tell me, where do I stand?”
“The middle.”
I looked at the other two circles and asked, “Which middle?”
Awaitsun gestured to the center of the entire space and said, “In the middle of the triangle.”
I hesitated, and then asked suspiciously, “Why? There are three circular magic circles. Logically, it should be for the three candidates to stand inside, right? If I stand in the center, won’t one of the three circles be useless?”
“No, one of the circles is for a witness to stand in. It has nothing to do with the demon king candidates.”
“A witness? Who?”
Awaitsun smiled and said, “The Silent Eagle of the present generation.”
… No wonder Awaitsun was so cooperative and didn’t harbor many doubts towards me. Turns out that it was because without his cooperation, the ceremony wouldn’t succeed at all!
I rolled my eyes at him and then walked over to the center of the triangle.
Awaitsun stepped into one of the circles. I stealthily remembered the positions, intending to bring a diagram of the magic circle back to the Church of the God of Light for safekeeping, because it would be impossible to guarantee that there won’t be another Sun Knight who just happens to be a demon king candidate again in the future!
“By the name of Silent Eagle, I am here to witness the fusion and birth of the twenty first generation vessel of dark element!”
The moment Awaitsun finished speaking, he picked up his sword and slit starting from his own wrist, making a straight cut at least twenty centimeters long up his arm. Large amounts of blood splattered onto the magic circle, and then he chanted a long incantation in a loud voice.
“%$#@*&#……”
… I can’t understand him at all! Which country is this language from? My eyes widened, but the first few sentences had already been finished. As I couldn’t understand him, I also couldn’t remember it at all… Looks like even if I have a diagram of the magic circle, it is useless!
Following the recitation of the incantation, the blood that was sprayed on the magic circle started to flow along the perimeter of the magic circle. Suddenly, the magic circle started to whirl in a frenzy. After that, the blood separated like a spider web into countless streams, and every individual stream flew towards Roland. This situation is really too strange!
Despite having an eerie cathedral, being full of dark element, and performing weird ceremonies, the Cathedral of the Shadow God still has so many followers… The Kingdom of Kissinger must have put a lot of thought into how to present the image of the Cathedral of the Shadow God!
When that web of blood flowed to Roland’s side, all the muscles in his body tensed up, and it seemed as if he wanted to flee, but was resisting the urge with much difficulty. Fortunately, that web of blood didn’t actually pounce on his body, but flowed onto the magic circle around him. Almost straightaway, this magic circle also started to whirl in a frenzy. After spinning for about ten seconds, a massive bolt of energy suddenly shot out from the middle and directly pierced through Roland’s head!
Roland’s eyes widened instantaneously and he cried out.
Everyone shouted in alarm. “Roland!” “Captain!”
Roland was startled and quickly said, “It’s nothing. I was merely startled. Actually, I didn’t feel much.”
Only when they saw that he didn’t look like he was in pain did everyone relax. But at that moment, I saw a tiny fragment fly out from Roland’s forehead. Even though it was as small as a fingernail, it was pure dark element, inconceivably thick, and so beautiful…
“Sun… Sun?”
“Mm?” I replied absentmindedly.
“What are you looking at?” This seemed to be Ceo’s voice.
“A fragment of the vessel…”
As I answered, I stretched out my hand. The fragment had already flown within my arm’s reach. I reached out and caught it with my hand.
I opened my hand to look at it, but there wasn’t anything there. Where is the fragment?
“It has succeeded,” Awaitsun said softly.
What has succeeded? I lifted my head and looked at him, puzzled. Unexpectedly, he knelt down on one knee and shouted, “The Silent Eagle pays his respects to His Majesty, the Demon King!”
I looked at him in a daze, feeling a little confused. I’ve already become the Demon King? Why do I not feel anything…?
At that moment, the entire sigil beneath my feet suddenly started spinning and dark element started gathering like crazy. A spiral of dark element appeared at the ceiling of the cave, and accumulated without cease in the center. Finally, everything charged into me in one breath.
The dark element rushed into my body in an unending stream. I immediately felt my entire body fill with strength. I was as happy as one feels when downing a bucket of ice water on a scorching summer day; so happy that I couldn’t help laughing out loud. The more I laughed, the happier I became. The happier I became, the more joyfully I laughed.
Hahahahahahahahaha!
“Sun! Are you okay? Sun! Why are you laughing?”
As I laughed, I replied, “I am laughing from the joy of being filled with strength. It is really…really too wonderful! Hahaha!”
“Sun, do you still want to be the Sun Knight?” Roland asked carefully.
I abruptly stopped laughing and turned my head to look at Roland.
A death monarch is truly not just for appearance only. His dark element is astonishingly high. Maybe his strength is only a little less than mine! But I am currently in my peak. Once the dark element starts being used up, my strength will start to wane. When that happens, Roland will be stronger than me!
“Sun?” Roland asked cautiously and even started to back away towards Ceo and the others.
Should I take the opportunity to kill him right now? No! No… That isn’t necessary yet. This fellow and I have a very good friendship, he isn’t a threat. Maybe I can even have him to help me in the future.
I licked my lips and said, “Take the others and leave now. Immediately. Otherwise, if we fight, they will surely die.”
“Sun?” Ceo shouted in disbelief.
“I am–” I glared fiercely at them, and in a serious tone, warned, “Grisia!”
Grisia, the Demon King.
