Book 1: Prologue: About Religions

This is a continent filled with religions.

On this continent, “god” is not a flimsy, dubious entity or a name that one uses only when yelling for help. Gods are real, and a number of them exist.

Some gods are extremely weak. Of course, when we say “weak”, we mean by the standards of the gods. Other gods are exceedingly strong. As the strength of a god is largely derived from the piety of the god’s believers, the number of believers is often the crucial factor determining how strong or how weak a god is.

As such, the gods often resemble gangsters fighting over territory as they desperately attempt to extend the influence of their own religions.

However, if in order to extend their religions’ influence, the gods were to carelessly use their powers on the continent and end up conflicting with other gods, it wouldn’t be too long before the entire continent disappeared from existence entirely.

In order to avoid such a situation, the mightiest gods among them all established “the Contract of the Gods”. All of the gods were thus forbidden from directly using their divine powers on the continent itself. Their only option was to invest their powers in some of their followers, who would then wield that power in their stead.

In this way, the multitude of religions began to flourish.

One of the best-known faiths of all is that of the God of Light’s, under the jurisdiction of the Church of the God of Light. Although the Church of the God of Light is no longer as renowned and influential as it used to be due to the growing influence of the God of War and the Shadow God, it is still as they say: a dead camel is still bigger than a horse. As such, even though it is no longer as widespread as before, and though the number of believers diminishes with each passing year, ten out of ten people will still name the religion of Light when asked for the most ancient and traditional faith of all.

Everyone knows that the best-known aspect of the religion of Light is the Twelve Holy Knights, with the positions passed down through the generations.

The most famous of them all, which everyone knows – whether you are a follower of the God of Light or a three-year-old child – is the one they call the man closest to perfection itself, the Sun Knight.

The Sun Knight is the leader of the Twelve Holy Knights, the spokesperson for the God of Light, and he always wears a gentle smile as incandescent as the sun. He has a compassionate heart, believes that all humans are inherently kind, and he will never give up on any human soul.

More than any other Sun Knight, the thirty-eighth generation Sun Knight is widely held to have been the very epitome of perfection. It has even been said that he was the incarnation of the God of Light himself and his exploits require five long epics to be fully narrated.

He dispatched the darkness’ Death Knight back into the abyss and defeated the malevolent Undying Lich. Not to forget that he also slew a dragon, rescued a princess, and destroyed the Great Demon King…

That’s right! This book is about the thirty-eighth generation Sun Knight.

From here on, let us witness his noble exploits together. It all began from the first conversation between the young thirty-eighth generation Sun Knight and his great teacher, the thirty-seventh generation Sun Knight…

“Child, from this day forth you are the successor to the position of Sun Knight. So long as you stand firm in the face of tribulation, grow in courage with each trial you encounter, and defend your knight’s honor no matter what difficulty or temptation you face, you will receive from my hands the title of Sun Knight the day you come of age.”

“Teacher, may I recant my decision?”

“No!”

“Why?”

“Because I forgot to choose a back-up Sun Knight.”

“…”