Book 8: Eighth Shared Rule of the Twelve Holy Knights: “The Demon King is Actually the Sun Knight, shh!”

Today is a big day. For the others, that is.

I had long since made my decision. Today was simply a matter of making the announcement, so I could carry on like usual and sleep until the sun had risen high in the sky before getting out of bed. I hadn’t even planned on making any preparations beforehand.

In the corridors of the Holy Temple, I coincidentally came across Storm, Earth, and Leaf. The three of them were just about to head over to the plaza as well, so we went together.

“My dear brothers, under the guidance of the God of Light, you must have already found a child among the selection list to receive the God of Light’s benevolence.”

Storm glanced at me and said, “You’re choosing Elaro, right? He seems a little too old. He is a full seven years older than my Shuis!”

“It’s yours that is too small, not that mine is too big!”

Earth suddenly turned his head. “Yours is too big?” His lowered his gaze and mocked, “How can that be? Stop making things up!”

“…I meant, ‘Elaro’s age is not too big!’” I growled testily.

“Sun, elegance, elegance!” Leaf secretly pointed out the holy knights who were walking by not too far away from us. I hurriedly plastered on the Sun Knight’s trademark brilliant smile, sparkling so much that those people adopted expressions of adoration and reluctantly watched us pass by.

“Fifteen is not too old?” Storm shook his head. “Sun, your bias is so obvious!”

I immediately lowered my voice and retorted, “Just who is more biased? Shuis is only seven, right? That’s way off from the optimal age of ten to twelve.”

“Nonsense! He’s only three years off! Your Elaro is already fifteen. Isn’t that way too old?”

“My Elaro is only three years off too!”

Earth watched us snidely. “One of you is calculating from age ten. The other is calculating from age twelve. You are both just as biased! But what are you fighting for? Elaro and Shuis get along just fine, don’t they?”

See?

Storm fell silent for a bit, and glumly said, “It’s exactly that! They get along too well. Shuis is always saying ‘Big Bro Elaro, Big Bro Elaro.’ In the future, he will definitely be taken advantage of!”

Earth did not hold back at all as he concluded, “No matter what kind of teacher you are, you will produce the same kind of student. Who you choose will make no difference.”

“That’s true… Wait! What did you mean by that?”

“Sun.” Leaf gestured ahead. “Luchi seems to be looking for you!”

Luchi? Usually, Cloud’s vice-captain only comes to me for one thing…

“Knight-Captain Sun! I haven’t been able to find Knight-Captain Cloud for five whole days again!” Luchi was so worried, he was nearly going crazy. The stack of documents in his hands seemed to be the files for the selection candidates.

As the years passed by, Cloud had grown less and less picky with his hiding spots. At first, he only hid away in bookcases and cabinets. But now, as long as he can squeeze inside, he will hide there!

One time, we even found him inside my secret wine cellar. That time, Luchi almost cried, as he could not find his captain. If I hadn’t used my sensing ability to search for him, the Holy Temple might have misplaced its Cloud Knight.

After reeling in my sensing ability, I smiled and told Luchi, “Just now, Sun seems to have accidentally glimpsed a shadow in the third drawer of the second cupboard on the left-hand side of the kitchens.”

When he heard my answer, he immediately said, “Thank you, Knight-Captain Sun.” Then, he broke into a wild run, afraid that his captain would switch to a different cupboard before he arrived.

“It’s nearly time.” Leaf looked somewhat nervous, his hands tightly gripping his selection list. “Sun, I’ll head over first. I want to secretly observe the candidates.”

That’s not a bad idea. After I nodded, Leaf left in a hurry. Earth glanced at me and Storm. “The two of you should at least head over and put up a pretense. Don’t make people say that the decision was pre-determined by the Holy Temple.”

“Of course, I will head over. Elaro is still waiting for me among the candidates.”

Hearing this, Earth made a noncommittal sound. Although he hadn’t chosen anyone yet, and wasn’t just putting up a front like Storm and me, with his personality, he was never one to fret much over something like this. And so, he ambled along with us.

Children were everywhere at the plaza. Although most of them were waiting nervously, some were very young and their curiosity took the better of them as they ran this way and that. Some were even pestering the holy knights to let them see their swords.

In one glance, I could spot my own candidates because Elaro stood among them. He was quite conspicuous, as he was fairly tall. Even though he was only fifteen, claiming that he was eighteen would not be particularly difficult. He truly stood out a lot, standing among this crowd of ten-year-old children.

Although Elaro felt some embarrassment, he still smiled at each and every child. They seemed to think he was a holy knight and not a candidate. Several were pestering him with questions, and he answered them quite warmly.

Halfway through speaking, he raised his head and coincidentally saw me, completely forgetting my instructions to pretend like he didn’t know me.

He smiled as brilliantly as the sun.

After the selections, the Twelve Holy Knights brought along the young knights they had chosen. They had all agreed to do so. Since we had chosen our young knights already, we should take a look at who we had all chosen. We shouldn’t do what the previous generation had done while teaching us, not allowing us to truly get to know our companions until three, four years later.

My young Sun Knight was, of course, Elaro.

The Twelve Young Holy Knights stood in a row, looking fairly nervous. Yet, they could not help secretly glancing at each other. They were curious about what their future companions would be like.

“You all did it on purpose!” I was speechless.

Elaro stood among a group of seven and eight year old kids. He was tall. The tops of the other children’s heads reached, at most, his shoulders. He was like an older brother chaperoning a bunch of preschool kids on a field trip, looking even more awkward than when he had been standing at the plaza. Most of the children there hadn’t been this young!

I looked toward Judgment and said in disbelief, “You chose such a young child. Are you really able to determine if he’s suitable or not?”

Judgment coldly said, “Do you think I had much of a choice?”

I fell silent for a moment, recalling the group of children who had entered the Judgment Knight selections… Each and every one of them made me want to drag them off to the Judge’s Complex to beat them up first.

The one before me was indeed slightly more pleasing, but it was just… Not that I wanted to be picky, but it was just that…

“Is he really a boy? He looks like a little girl.” Metal, thank you for saying what I wanted to say.

“Of course I’m a boy!” The little girl immediately grew angry and yelled, “Are you all blind?”

The little girl’s temper was fairly bad. That didn’t match with his appearance.

Judgment’s expression darkened, and he scolded, “Hungri, you cannot be so rude to the Twelve Holy Knight-Captains!”

…Why does this name sound so familiar?

We were all stunned, but then people started snickering.

“Hungry? Are you that hungry? I have bread. Do you want it?” A child kindly asked.

Hearing this, Hungri glared at him fiercely, and then he turned his glare onto me. Judgment had on a ruthless expression, so the child would not dare say anything. But I feared that if Judgment were to turn his head, the child might pounce on me and bite me—looks like he knows who gave him his name.

So, the lesson here is, one really should not handle matters when hungry. One wrong name can become an everlasting grudge. Even though it’s someone else’s everlasting grudge, it really doesn’t feel all that great to be glared at so ferociously.

Alright, I’m in the wrong. I’ll stop picking on you.

I looked toward the other children.

“I made my decision seven years ago, and I even reported it to you!” Storm immediately said.

“Don’t you feel Judge is super honest, even with the words he speaks?” Earth gestured at his child. It was the boy who had offered Hungri his bread just now.

With thick eyebrows, large eyes, a face full of confusion, and how he had said the wrong thing earlier, instead of calling him honest, “slow” might be a bit more fitting. He was truly suitable to be the Earth Knight! There was nothing I could say against… Wait! What did Earth call him just now?

“Judge is a good child!” Earth smiled an incomparably sincere smile.

You, you… totally did it on purpose, right? Is using such a method to choose your young knight really okay? Can’t you be a bit more serious?

Earth glanced in another direction. “Ice’s ‘Absenplum’ isn’t bad either!”

“…”

I gazed at Ice in disbelief, but he shook his head and said, “I didn’t learn of his name until after I chose him.”

That means you didn’t even look at the details on the selection list and just chose someone who you liked the look of when you reached the plaza, right?

The child beside him was frowning. Even though he probably didn’t understand what we were talking about, he had a face full of suspicion, an expression unlike one any eight year old child should have. He seemed especially mature.

It was not unexpected that Ice would choose him. Although Absenplum’s expression looked especially mature, his face was not at all mature. His cheeks were chubby, even rosy, akin to the strawberry milk bread Ice had made last time.

Is it really okay to choose him to become one of the Twelve Holy Knights, just because he looks like strawberry milk bread? And he will even be the next Ice Knight? Should I expect him to transform from strawberry milk bread to a strawberry milk popsicle in ten years?

“This isn’t strange at all!” Storm tried to console me. “You gave names to a bunch of children in the city. It’s not unexpected that some would get chosen!”

But I didn’t give random names that often!

I looked at everyone’s expressions. They didn’t seem to regret choosing these children… Sigh, okay, it’s not like I can stop them from choosing the children they want, right? Even I myself am biased toward Elaro. Over these past few years, I’ve already been treating him like my young knight. I didn’t even need to wait until the selections.

“Teacher.” Elaro said considerately, “Their ages are all around the same. The problem lies with me. You do not have to choose me.”

I froze and then scolded, “Of course I’m choosing you! There’s no possibility of changing to anyone else!”

Elaro was stunned. He hesitated for a moment but still could not help asking, “Teacher, why are you so persistent about choosing me?”

Why? Even though I was resolved to do so, I really couldn’t speak of a reason—because there were truly too many.

Elaro’s personality was undoubtedly gentle, yet he had been courageous enough to leave with the Demon King that year. And the reason he had left was because he could not stop worrying about the person who had saved him.

After spending time with him these past years, I gained an even deeper understanding of Elaro’s personality. He was easy to get along with, but he still held firmly onto his basic principles, and he was full of radiant justice. And just like me, he was very protective. In addition, I had accidentally used farsight all those years ago and coincidentally saw this child with blue eyes and a head of blond hair…

In any case, I just know! Elaro is my young Sun Knight!

He would become the 39th generation Sun Knight, the spokesperson of the God of Light, the leader of the Holy Temple. He would lead the Twelve Holy Knights and continue the tradition of light.

I offhandedly replied, “Well, perhaps it was because of your brilliant smile!”