Vol 1 Chapter 2.2 (1/2)
39—Legend of Sun Knight Volume 1
Original novel in Chinese by: 御 我 (Yu Wo)
Chapter 2 My… Part 2: …Brother – translated by lucathia (proofread by Rose, Arcedemius, C/E edited by Doza)
Valica rushed all the way to the training grounds, and Shuis was indeed there. Since Elaro had given a command, he definitely wouldn’t slack off. Although it was already evening and about time to rest, the platoon members were still exchanging kicks in pairs. A trace of exhaustion could be seen on their faces, but the power behind their kicks had not decreased in the slightest.
Shuis was the most serious of them all. He was sweating all over, his s.h.i.+rt long since soaked.
Valica slowed down, knowing that Shuis had already noticed him but was purposely ignoring him. This wasn’t anything strange. The relations.h.i.+p between them had been bad ever since that day they had both held Elaro’s hands when they were young—indescribably bad!
With firm steps, he walked toward Shuis. Finally, Valica stood right in front of him, no more than a step away. No matter how much Shuis wanted to ignore him, he could not ignore something that was blocking his entire line of sight.
Shuis stopped pretending he didn’t see him. He looked straight at Valica and asked bluntly, “What do you want?”
Valica didn’t know what he wanted either, but the anger burning within his chest helped him disregard his own uncharacteristic actions. He opened his mouth to press for answers, “Why can’t you return home? You’ve never said that you ‘can’t’ return home, or that you don’t want to go home.”
Even so, why am I so angry? Even Valica, at this very moment, did not understand himself. It was just that even Judge had known about this, yet he had known nothing!
Moreover, he had always thought that Shuis just didn’t want to go home, maybe because he didn’t get along with his family, or possibly because they’d gotten into a large argument. Even though he had suspected that the actual story might not be so simple, he had never thought to investigate further… He simply hated that Shuis obviously had family, yet still fought over Big Bro Elaro with him, who had nothing at all!
A flash of suspicion seized Shuis, but he quickly adopted his usual att.i.tude and coldly said, “It’s none of your business!”
Right after he spoke, Valica abruptly grabbed Shuis’s collar. Although it was normal for them not to get along, Shuis never thought Valica would abruptly lose control like that, especially when they had just angered Elaro. Normally Valica was the one who would keep his cool for a while.
Shuis was rather puzzled, so he did not grow angry over Valica grabbing his collar. He even raised his hand to stop his angry platoon members from stepping forward.
On the opposite end of the training ground, Rhonelin and Dili had seen everything. They knew that Shuis and Valica had just angered Elaro, so it was unlikely they would get into another argument right away. Thus, they hadn’t immediately rushed over. However, once they saw that the situation was getting out of hand, they hurried over.
“Valica, stop that!” Dili shouted sternly. Valica was grabbing Shuis’s collar, but the latter did not retaliate, much to Dili’s surprise. Usually, Shuis tended to be the one who struck first. He wasn’t good with words, so anytime Valica hara.s.sed him vocally, he would always retaliate physically.
“This has nothing to do with you two!” Valica growled fiercely at them. He normally never treated them so rudely, but right now… he couldn’t care less!
Rhonelin spoke calmly, “Of course it involves us. Captain is not here right now. As his vice-captains, we are naturally obligated to prevent you two from fighting.”
“As his ‘vice-captains’?” Shuis asked in surprise.
“Captain made the decision just this morning. Rhonelin and I will both serve as his vice-captains.”
Dili glanced at Rhonelin. When their gazes met, both began smiling. Even Rhonelin, whose expression was normally indifferent, had on a faint smile.
“Two?” Valica murmured, “But that’s against the rules.”
“The rules are unimportant. Big Bro Elaro is right!” Shuis said without any hesitation, “But none of that is important right now. Valica, what exactly do you want?”
Dili and Rhonelin were both shocked. Shuis actually said that something related to Elaro is unimportant?
Shuis’s composure influenced Valica too. His anger abated, and he forced himself to maintain a calm tone. “I want to know why you can’t return home.”
When he heard this, Shuis frowned, but he didn’t grow angry. He did feel, though, that the situation was a little strange. Generally, Valica was the one who stayed calm, while Shuis was the one who impulsively lashed out with his hands… feet.
“I can’t tell you.”
Valica was silent for a moment and then asked, “Does Big Bro Elaro know why?”
Although he had asked, he was fairly certain that Big Bro Elaro knew. There was no way Shuis could keep anything from Big Bro Elaro. Also, with Big Bro Elaro’s personality, he definitely wouldn’t ignore something like why Shuis wasn’t going home. He would definitely ask about it. Even Judge had asked… Don’t tell me, I’m the only one who hasn’t asked? When this occurred to him, Valica’s mood dampened even further.
“He knows.”
I thought so! Valica glared at Shuis. The latter angrily muttered, “It’s not that I told him. He knew from the start!”
“Since Big Bro Elaro already knows, why can’t you talk about it? Are you afraid I’ll blab about it?”
Shuis shook his head. This cooled Valica’s anger just a bit.
“You want to know that much?” Shuis was still rather bewildered. Since when has Valica been so interested in my personal life?
“Of course!”
“Fine.” Shuis coldly said, “In the future, when I’m not by Big Bro Elaro’s side, you’re not allowed to bother him either. If you agree to that, I’ll tell you.”
Valica clenched his teeth and said, “Okay!”
Stunned, Shuis stared at Valica, entirely unable to believe that he had actually agreed.
“You really want to know that much?” He was extremely bewildered. They had fought for so many years and both deeply cared about Big Bro Elaro, but they didn’t know any more about each other’s personal lives than the other trainees did. Just what has gotten into Valica today?
Shuis turned toward Rhonelin and asked, “Can you help me lead my platoon members’ drills? They have half an hour to go before they can rest.”
Although Rhonelin nodded, his face showed concern.
“You won’t start fighting, will you?” Dili was a little worried too.
Shuis shook his head and glanced at Valica. “Rooftop?”
“Okay.”
Valica knew very well where he meant by “rooftop.” In order to prevent Big Bro Elaro from discovering their fights, they had to look for discrete places to fight. The rooftop of the southeastern corridor of one of the training grounds was nicely concealed by the angle. People below could not see the top, but people standing on top of the roof could clearly see below—if they were to see Big Bro Elaro coming, the two of them could immediately stop fighting and run away.
However, in the end, Big Bro Elaro had still discovered their location. He had jumped down from a tall tower above them, grabbed both of them, and then sentenced them to be shut inside the same confinement chamber for a week.
When they emerged from the room, with all limbs fully intact, the other knights-in-training praised the G.o.d of Light, for He was truly looking after His holy knights.
After that incident, they stopped going up to that rooftop. Actually, they no longer searched for places to fight, since Big Bro Elaro would always find them. Besides, if they purposely sought a place to fight in secret, they would be punished even more severely, so it was a waste of effort.
They totally did not ever want to be shut in the same confinement chamber again, with nothing to do all day except glare at the other person as he ate, drank, used the bathroom, and slept—and they couldn’t even fight!
Valica nimbly leaped to the side of the wall, and with a jump he grabbed and flipped himself up to the second floor. Then, repeating the same action, he flipped himself all the way to the top of the roof. His actions were incomparably agile and had always received no small measure of praise from his teacher.
Meanwhile, Shuis dashed to the side of the wall, running straight up the sides with ample spring and explosive power in his strides.
The people watching the scene sighed in admiration. Dili even asked softly, “Rhonelin, when you compare your combative skills with Shuis or Valica, would you be able to win against either of them?”
Rhonelin shook his head. “They’re both stronger than me.”
“You haven’t even won against Valica before, even though he’s an archer who specializes in long-range battle?”
Dili was somewhat surprised. He knew that his strength did not lie in battle, so he did not train much and obviously would not seek either of them out for a spar. He was also much older than both of them, which meant that while winning wouldn’t look very good, losing would look even worse.
However, Rhonelin was only nineteen. He was not much older than them. He also had a talent for battle, so he often crossed swords with the Twelve Holy Knights-in-training to compare skills.
“Valica is an archer, but long distance battle is not his only expertise.” Rhonelin’s tone held admiration as he said, “At closer distances, his attack power definitely does not lose to holy knights who wield only blades. You wouldn’t be able to imagine what kinds of stance he can shoot from, and in his hands, even a bow without arrows can become a weapon that won’t lose to a blade!”
“So that means Valica’s strength should be near the top of the Twelve Holy Knights-in-training?” When Dili said this, he realized his mistake and hurriedly added, “Shuis too?”
If their strengths differed too much, then they couldn’t have fought for so long and still be fighting, right?
“The Twelve Holy Knights-in-training of this generation are all rather strong.” Rhonelin fell silent for a moment and then added, “But the strongest is still Captain!”
Dili was a bit taken aback. “Is Captain really that strong?”
Of course, he knew that their captain was really strong. During their normal trainings, he could clearly see the gap between his strength and his captain’s. However, the gap was so wide that he was unable to figure out just how strong his captain was.
“Very strong!” Rhonelin looked at Dili strangely and asked, “Otherwise, how do you think Captain is able to keep the others under control?”
“By saying the four words, ‘I am Big Brother’?” The moment these words escaped his lips, even Dili found it funny, but he truly did believe that was the reason.
“…” Rhonelin was speechless for a moment, but then he said, “Would Hungri care about those four words?”
“Nope.” Dili chuckled embarra.s.sedly. He had truly oversimplified things.
Rhonelin thought it over and said, “There was one time… Oh right, Captain had sent you out on a mission so you didn’t see it.”
“See what?” Dili was surprised that he had actually missed out on something major.
“It was around three years ago. Hungri and Captain had gotten into an exceptionally serious conflict. No matter what, Hungri refused to admit he was in the wrong. Captain was so angry his face turned dark. In the end, he actually…”