Vol 1 Chapter 2.1 (1/2)
39—Legend of Sun Knight Volume 1
Original novel in Chinese by: 御 我 (Yu Wo)
Chapter 2 My…, Part 1: …Father – translated by lucathia
“Elaro, I’m starting to like you again.”
Judge watched Valica bustling about. Neither the pen in his hand, nor the commands from his mouth had ever halted. Following that, the crammed piles of goods started becoming more organized, divided into categories. The present scene grew more and more orderly, no longer resembling the previous, despairing mess.
Valica always handled matters properly and logically. Although Shuis took his work seriously as well, he was the type of person who worked hard but not necessarily smart. He was not particularly good at this type of work, which required categorization, and he wasn’t good at recording down trivial details either.
Even when infuriated, Elaro still made the best arrangements. Judge decided to forgive the fact that he had just sent both Valica and Shuis over together.
“Thanks for the help.”
When he found an opportunity, Judge sincerely gave his thanks. This was originally not within Valica’s range of duties. His main duty was diplomacy, such as forming good relations.h.i.+ps with members of the palace. However, regarding this point, Elaro was doing well on his own, too. But his job kept him busy, so he only interacted with the most important people such as the king, the princess, and Elijah. He let Valica deal with most of the other aristocrats.
Valica raised his head from a doc.u.ment filled in with the categorized goods. “If you really want to thank me, put in a good word or two for me with Big Bro Elaro, so he won’t be as angry anymore.”
“Haven’t you already asked Ludia?”
“If he knows that I have been seriously doing my job, Big Bro Elaro will always cool down quicker.” Valica gave Judge a weird glance. “You don’t call Elaro ‘Big Bro,’ and you don’t call Ludia ‘Big Sis’ either. Although Hungri doesn’t call them that either, with your personality, I expected you to call him big brother. I’ve always thought that it’s unlike you to directly call them by their names.”
Judge shrugged and said, “Teacher doesn’t allow me to. He said that if I dared to allow Knight-Captain Sun’s student to eat me whole, like you and Shuis, then he would swallow me alive. So I, I don’t dare to.”
When Valica heard this, his face immediately turned ugly. “I’m not like Shuis!”
Judge really didn’t understand why they couldn’t stop fighting. “If you got along and didn’t fight, Big Bro Elaro wouldn’t get angry.”
“I don’t want to get along with him at all!”
“Why do you hate Shuis so much?”
Judge felt that if they kept chatting like this, they really wouldn’t be able to finish the job. But if he could help the two of them reconcile, he would be able to get Elaro to send them over together next time. With one being attentive and the other hard-working, the two of them would definitely finish the job in the shortest time possible! For this reason, Judge was willing to take some risks.
“I just can’t stand that guy!” Valica spat out, “He clearly has a father and a mother, and even brothers and sisters, so why does he still cling onto Big Bro Elaro?!”
“I heard that his home is very far, and he usually can’t go back.” Judge was like everyone else. He didn’t understand Shuis’s home situation very well. He had only heard that both of his parents were alive and well, and he even had a lot of brothers and sisters. Also, they stayed in the faraway Kingdom of Kissinger.
Valica said agitatedly, “He’s even more of a jerk for not returning home! He has a family, yet he doesn’t treasure them. He never goes home, not even during the long vacations. Someone who doesn’t even know how to treasure family has no right to call him Big Bro Elaro!”
Valica was an orphan, and it just so happened that this generation of the Twelve Holy Knights did not have many orphans. Several of their families were even in Leaf Bud City, so they would return home now and then to visit. They didn’t even need long vacations to visit their parents.
Judge was one of those people. Once, he had even suggested to Valica to go home with him during a long vacation. He had even talked it over with his parents, that when that happened, they could even directly recognize Valica as their G.o.dson. In any case, his mother had always felt that one son was too few, so being able to take in yet another one of the future Twelve Holy Knights as a son made her incomparably happy!
Regretfully, Valica rejected it solemnly. He was very happy to remain in the Holy Temple, because Elaro was also an orphan, so it was a given that he had no home to return to either. Besides, Elaro always had more time then. Not only would he personally instruct Valica in swordsmans.h.i.+p, he would even take him out to buy daily necessities with Ludia, almost like a true brother and sister taking their younger brother on an outing.
For Valica, Elaro and Ludia were even better than actual relatives—but it would be even better if Shuis didn’t follow along.
Judge said carefully, “Shuis probably has his reasons for not going home. After all, he hasn’t returned home for several years. It doesn’t seem like he’s merely having a fight with his mom and dad.”
When he heard this, Valica fell silent. He had also vaguely thought that there might be something off about Shuis’s family. It was just that the grudge between them made it so that he refused to believe it.
“Have you asked Shuis before?”
For a moment, Valica wasn’t able to refocus, but then he hurriedly asked, “What did you say?”
“Have you asked Shuis why he doesn’t go home?” Judge said mysteriously, “I-I have asked him before!”
Valica stilled. He was a little curious. “What did he say, then?”
“Shuis said that he can’t go home. When I asked him why, he fell silent for a long time before he replied, ‘I just can’t.’” After saying this, he looked at Valica and asked, “Doesn’t that sound like it’s not that he doesn’t want to go home, but rather, that he can’t?”
He clearly has a family, a father, a mother, brothers, and sisters, yet Shuis says he can’t go back? Valica felt rage burn inside his chest. He threw the inventory list in his hands at Judge, and following that, turned to run off.
Judge froze, and then yelled at Valica’s back, “W-What about making inventory?” However, the other person only ran farther and farther away. Judge sighed. “Forget it, this was originally my job anyway. However, Elaro, I have decided not to like you or hate you anymore.”
Valica didn’t have a home. He only had the orphanage. He had been there since he was seven. It happened because he had been wandering about on the streets and picking up expired bread from the bakery to eat. In the end, the bakery’s chef sent him to the orphanage. He no longer remembered why he didn’t have parents and had even been wandering the streets.
The orphanage in Leaf Bud City had always been commendable. In fact, the children there lived pretty well. But no matter how well they lived… It was only that. After all, there were a bunch of kids there. Being able to fill one’s stomach and wear warm clothes was already good treatment that was hard to come by. He really couldn’t ask for more.
Valica had been very satisfied. From constant hunger and cold to a full stomach and warm clothes, the orphanage was practically like the G.o.d of Light’s heaven. He had been perfectly satisfied staying there.
When it came time for the selections for the Twelve Holy Knights, the orphanage would always send a group of children, who more or less matched the age requirement to partic.i.p.ate in the selections. At the time, Valica was a bit too young, but the orphanage probably thought it wouldn’t hurt to give it a try and sent him over. They sent a large group of children, after all.
No one thought that Valica would remain all the way until the last stage of the selections, and this selection even had several young candidates. In the end, the holy knights-in-training who had been chosen were rather young, even nearly causing the Sun Knight to vomit blood.
Having to leave the orphanage did scare Valica a bit. After all, he had only been eight years old. It couldn’t be helped that he would feel fl.u.s.tered having to leave a familiar place. However, at the time…
That day was the last day of the selections. The Twelve Holy Knights would personally come to select their successors. Several of the candidates were fairly nervous, especially those children who had trained since childhood and had constantly been waiting for this day.
In comparison, Valica felt much more relaxed. He was merely there because the orphanage had sent him over to give it a try. Even if he didn’t get selected, there was no need to feel disappointed. Therefore, he treated it like a tour the entire time, and was walking here and there to take a look. Even when some helpful holy knights advised him that the Twelve Holy Knights might be observing nearby, he didn’t immediately start practicing his sword like the others—he didn’t have a sword anyway.
“Hi! Do you like the Holy Temple?”
Valica raised his head. The person he saw was a holy knight full of smiles. He carried a bow on his back. This wasn’t very common among the holy knights. The majority of the holy knights used swords.
Valica gave it careful thought and honestly replied, “I don’t know, but it’s very pretty.”
“Is being pretty not good?”
Valica tilted his head to think and said, “There are many places that are very pretty, but when I’m hungry, it doesn’t matter how pretty they are.”
The holy knight before him showed an expression of pity, and he asked softly, “Are you hungry? Do you want something to eat?”
“I’m not very hungry.” Valica answered honestly, but he then used hopeful eyes to ask, “But is there anything to eat?”
The holy knight laughed. “Yes, of course there is. What do you like to eat?”
“Warm soup!” Valica answered without the slightest hesitation.
“It’s so hot right now, but you still want to eat warm soup?”
Valica rubbed the back of his head in embarra.s.sment and said, “Yeah! I love warm soup the best! Because…”
It was a cold, winter day. Valica sifted through cold bread that gave off a sour smell in the trash bin, but the owner discovered him. He had thought that he would be chased away or even given a severe beating, but the owner lady was very kind and sent him to the orphanage.
At a loss, Valica curled up on the chair. He rubbed his small hands for warmth, and what he received was a bowl of steaming soup. He would never forget the deliciousness of that bowl of soup.
From then on, he fell in love with warm soup. He even formed an especially good relations.h.i.+p with the cook, hoping that the other person would make warm soup every day.
After he finished talking about why he liked warm soup, Valica raised his tiny face, using hopeful eyes to look at the other person. Usually, after listening to this story, and being faced with such an expression, there was a high chance that the other person would immediately take him to eat a bowl of warm soup, just like the cook at the orphanage. It was a time-tested method!
Unexpectedly, after the other person stared at him for a long while, he did not take him to eat soup. Instead, he asked, as if he was thinking about something, “Which Twelve Holy Knight’s selection are you partic.i.p.ating in?”
Because this question was too far a jump in topic, Valica blanked out for a moment before he could respond. “Storm Knight.”
“Storm, huh? But he…” For some reason, the other person showed a distressed look and spoke hesitantly.
Valica felt that this holy knight was a little strange, causing him to remember what the orphanage always cautioned—“Beware of strange uncles.” However, holy knights shouldn’t be strange uncles, right? Therefore, Valica continued to do his best, maintaining the innocent and naïve expression of a child to prevent his warm soup from flying away.
The other person pondered for a while—Valica didn’t know what there was to ponder about at all—and then stared directly at Valica, whose back grew cold from being stared at. Finally, he used a gentle and approachable voice to say, “Child, let me tell you something. My best dish is stew!”
Valica blinked.
“Have you ever had cheese and chicken vegetable stew, or sweet basil and tomato seafood soup?”
The super long names of the dishes stupefied him. At the orphanage, even cheese was rare, so of course there wouldn’t be dishes with such long names. If the soup had meat in it, that would already be a luxury.
“So…” The holy knight showed a smile and asked, “Want to eat it?”