Vol 1 Chapter 4.2 (2/2)

Just as he began to narrate, the others rolled their eyes at him again. Protests even sounded. “This is too far in the past! Why not start speaking about the first generation of the Twelve Holy Knights?”

Hungri glared at everyone and bellowed, “Shut up, all of you! Just sit there and listen!”

It’s unexpected that Hungri doesn’t think that this story is too unrelated. He’s even speaking up for me. Elaro looked toward Hungri in surprise, while Hungri merely calmly said, “Continue. If anyone on my side dares to interrupt you, I’ll sew his lips shut!”

I wonder how Hungri controls the other five? Elaro was a little curious. It was true that Hungri wasn’t weak, but under the situation where each and every one of the current generation of Twelve Holy Knights was rather strong, he definitely couldn’t be considered one of the strongest… But now isn’t the time to think about things like that!

Once again, Elaro began talking about what had happened in the past. Shortly after he began, everyone sat upright and still. The more they heard, the larger their eyes grew. He worried whether telling them these matters was too much of a shock, and they wouldn’t be able to accept it.

In the end, after he finished explaining, there was absolute silence in the room. Everyone stared at Elaro blankly.

“This is the truth of the matter. Now, every half a year, they must go to the wilderness where no one lives and allow the ‘Demon King’ to release as much of the dark element as he can. This is the reason why our teachers must go on a mission every half a year.”

There were still some things that Elaro had not revealed. He glanced at Luke, wondering how much he knew about Knight-Captain h.e.l.l’s secrets. He didn’t know either how much of the truth Knight-Captain h.e.l.l would be willing to let his student know, so Elaro chose to completely skip over that portion without mentioning it.

But Luke’s expression isn’t strange… Actually, he should say, it wasn’t stranger than anyone else’s. Other than the same stupefied look as everyone else’s, there was only a little bit of confusion over why Elaro was staring so fixedly at him.

Elaro moved his gaze away and looked at everyone. His expression was extremely solemn. “What I explained to you all just now cannot be divulged to outsiders, not even a single word! Or else, it will be regarded as a betrayal of the Church of the G.o.d of Light!”

When they heard this, Shuis and Valica were the first to say, “I swear to the G.o.d of Light, nothing I heard today will ever escape from my lips!”

“This I swear to the G.o.d of Light…”

“Under the G.o.d of Light’s watch…”

One after another, they swore the gravest vow with solemn expressions. Although none of them vowed that they would get struck by lightning or the like if they broke their vow, to those who had accepted the Twelve Holy Knights’ teachings since young, an oath sworn to the G.o.d of Light was an oath that could never be defied.

“Actually, even if we said anything, no one would believe us, sigh!” Even though he said this, Fey had sworn an oath without any hesitation.

Hungri pondered, “So, the current situation is that the Sun Knight has lost control—”

“The one who lost control is the ‘Demon King.’” Elaro immediately cut in and snapped, “Under no circ.u.mstances can you mix that up!”

Hungri froze and lowered his head to apologize. “Sorry, I spoke wrongly.”

Their surprise as they looked at Hungri, who had just frankly admitted his mistake, was akin to hearing that the Sun Knight was the Demon King. They began to doubt just what kind of day it was for them to first learn of the Sun Knight’s secret, and then see Hungri admit his mistake so frankly.

“What kind of expressions are those?” Hungri was bewildered. “This rule is very logical. After all, the walls have ears. We don’t know when someone might overhear our words, so the safest method is saying nothing from the start! You hear me?”

“Understood!” Five people answered in different ways one after another, yet all were solemn.

Hungri nodded in great satisfaction. As for the other five people, they weren’t under his direct command, so they weren’t any of his business.

However, Elaro didn’t go out of his way to repeat his orders to the five in his faction. He knew very clearly that they didn’t need any reminders.

Once more, Elaro looked around at everyone. He suddenly felt a lot more at ease. Without his knowing, they had all grown to the point that they could accept the truth. He had really worried too much. He should finish explaining things, and then he could even leave to do what he must without worrying anymore.

Elaro turned his head to look at the person beside him. He instructed, “I want to go and check out the situation with the Twelve Holy Knight-Captains. So, Hungri, take my place—”

“Like h.e.l.l I’ll take your place!” Hungri growled furiously, “Are you joking? Even Adair has gotten trapped there. What can you do even if you head over? We have already lost a Sun Knight. We can’t lose a second one—”

“We haven’t lost any Sun Knights yet!” Elaro interrupted Hungri extremely angrily.

Seeing that Elaro was actually showing such an enraged expression, Hungri grew panicked. However, he clenched his teeth and said, “Elaro, you have to admit that the situation is really dire!”

Elaro shook his head. “No matter how dire the situation is, it wouldn’t be worse than that year. Even then, we had not lost the Sun Knight, not to mention now!”

“It was extraordinary lucky that they succeeded then! We can’t fall into the trap of thinking that luck will always be on our side!”

Hungri said agitatedly, “Failing just once is enough to destroy everything. If it weren’t because someone like you, who never lies, was the one who said it, I really wouldn’t be able to believe that my teacher would take that kind of risk—”

Elaro could not help asking, “Hungri, if I were the Demon King, would you give up on me just because it’s risky?”

Hungri froze. He had never considered this question…

“No matter what, I have to go over and take a look.”

Elaro took a deep breath. It was impossible for him not to do anything for his teacher. He had personally witnessed the “Demon King” before. It was too sorrowful like that. He was incapable of not doing anything and watching his teacher become that kind of sorrowful presence again right before his eyes. Now more than ever, he also had Auntie Charlotte and Charsia. What about them?

“Anyone on the Demon King’s mind will have their life endangered. If nothing is done about it, everyone will perish together.”

Elaro could only exaggerate the matter a bit. This was the limit of his “lying.” In actuality, his teacher had mentioned that the Demon King’s power had substantially weakened by now. If the “Death Monarch” was willing to do his all to use the dark element to battle against him, then within this generation, they might be able to put an end to both the problem of the excess dark element and the Demon King… Luckily, the “Death Monarch” personally overruled the suggestion.

Elaro turned to leave. He wasn’t worried that Hungri would not let him. Even if Hungri was unwilling, what could he do to stop him?

“Elaro, you can go, but take me with you.”

Elaro froze in his tracks. He turned around, wondering if he had heard wrong. “What did you just say?”

“I’m giving you two choices. First choice. Don’t go. Second choice. You go, and I go too.”

“W-What would you accomplish going there?”

Hungri thought it over and added, “There’s also a third choice—let me go!”

Elaro finally couldn’t stop himself from shouting, “Are you crazy? What are you going there for?”

“I’m crazy? You’re the one who has gone crazy!” After Hungri yelled at him, he turned and asked everyone, “Tell me, is the Sun Knight more important, or the Judgment Knight?”

Everyone’s gaze was on Elaro. Their answer was easy to see.

Hungri glared at Elaro and said, “From the very beginning, my teacher has always told me, ‘you cannot lose the Sun Knight,’ so no matter what you say, no matter how reasonable your justifications are, I won’t let you go head to head with the Demon King by yourself! But it’s true we can’t give up on the teachers just like this, so let me go!”

How can I let that happen?! Elaro hurriedly explained, “I won’t go head to head with the Demon King. I’m only going over to take a look at the situation. Haven’t you said that we ‘cannot lose the Sun Knight’? That’s why we definitely can’t give up on Knight-Captain Sun—”

“I definitely won’t give up on the Sun Knight!”

Hungri bit out, “That’s why, I will use my life to prevent you from leaving. Because to us, you are our Sun Knight!

“Valkyrs and Luke, block the door… Valica and Shuis, block the window!” After Hungri gave a string of commands, he added on, “We have to do our utmost to prevent our Sun Knight from leaving!”

Everyone froze, but Valkyrs stood up indifferently. After he walked to the door and took his position, everyone else started taking action, too. They took position according to Hungri’s orders and got into battle-ready stances, so as to prevent Elaro from catching them off guard.

However… telling Valica and Shuis to stop Elaro should be completely useless? They all looked at the two people who were the most unlikely to follow Hungri’s orders of stopping Elaro.

Valica clenched his teeth, took out his bow, and nocked an arrow. Then, he jumped in front of the window to guard it, surprising everyone so much that their eyes were nearly going to fall out.

Then, they all looked toward Shuis. His loyalty toward Elaro was practically even greater than his loyalty to the G.o.d of Light. He definitely wouldn’t be able to stop Elaro… right?

But with Valica changing sides as an antecedent, it was inevitable that they would begin to doubt.

With everyone’s attention on him, Shuis calmly said, “Big Bro Elaro, if you’re going, you have to take me with you. That’s because I am the most qualified person to go.”

Before Elaro even said anything, Hungri burst out shouting, “What in the world do you mean—”

“Then, I’m going too!” Valica immediately yelled in a hurried manner, “Shuis, you promised me that you’ll let me go with you!”

Hungri was practically about to spit blood. “Really, what in the world are you lot going on about?”

Shuis very straightforwardly used the truth to shut Hungri up. “My father is the Silent Eagle, the Demon King’s number one subordinate. He is the true leader of the Demon King’s Castle.”

“…”

Today is even more astonis.h.i.+ng than the past ten years combined! Judge lamented.

Hungri clenched his teeth and said, “You guys actually kept so many secrets… What else? You might as well say that our G.o.d of Light is twin brothers with the Shadow G.o.d! After all, a bunch of people from the Church of the G.o.d of Light are relatives with people from the Demon King’s Castle!”

Elaro looked at his surroundings. Each and every exit of the conference room was thoroughly blocked. Even though he had the strength to destroy the wall and create an exit, he didn’t have the means to stop them from following after him. Shuis, Valica, and Valkyrs were faster than him, and Valkyrs was even the successor of the Metal Knight who specialized in pursuit and concealment. He didn’t at all believe that he had the ability to break away from him.

After determining that he wouldn’t be able to force his way out, Elaro could only sigh and say, “Hungri, I really can’t just leave my teacher be.”

“We also can’t just let you go like this!” Hungri growled, “Have you ever thought about what we should do if you also couldn’t return?”

“Don’t they have you?” Elaro actually smiled. “I only just discovered today that you are already more than qualified to be the Judgment Knight. It would be no problem even if you took over right now.”

“… So you’re saying that I wasn’t qualified before today?”

“Ah! That’s not what I mean…”

“In any case, I won’t let you go! You better give up on that notion! Even Shuis is lending a hand to obstruct you, so you shouldn’t go at all!”

Shuis immediately protested, “I’m not obstructing Big Bro Elaro!”

Hungri showed an odd smile and said, “You’re already obstructing him. There’s no way Elaro would take you to confront the Demon King. You better watch him closely. Otherwise, he would definitely leave you behind and go meet the Demon King by himself.”

Shuis froze. He hesitated for a moment, feeling that it was true that Elaro would do so. He went to stand beside Valica. He knew very well that if the two of them worked together, even Elaro would not be able to pa.s.s them—unless it was a battle to the death.

Elaro surveyed his surroundings again. Even though he had purposely been chatting with Hungri, no one had any intention of lowering their guard…

“Let’s just leave it at this for today. It’s already late. Let’s continue the discussion tomorrow.”

When he heard this, Hungri said calmly, “Sure. Let’s go. We’ll all go and sleep on the floor of Elaro’s room.”

“…”

Hungri snorted coldly. “Even if the criminals I’ve imprisoned don’t number a thousand, it’s at least a few hundred already. Do you think I’d give you a chance to escape?”

Elaro had indeed planned on it, so he couldn’t say anything to deny it. He could only smile wryly and say, “Hungri, there’s no way my room can fit twelve people.”

Hungri didn’t care much at all. “It is a bit small. We’ll just have to pile on top of each other.”

Everyone rolled their eyes at Hungri exaggeratedly. The faces of the taller ones among them had nearly drained of all color. It went without saying that if they had to pile on top of each other, they would definitely be the carpet!

Seeing that Hungri was allowing no room for discussion, even if their faces had paled, they didn’t complain. They really were planning to go to his room to “pile on top of each other.” Elaro could only sigh and say, “Then, let Shuis come and guard me.”

Hungri immediately shot that down. “No, Shuis wouldn’t be able to win against you by himself!”

Shuis glanced at Hungri. He hadn’t thought that Hungri would believe that he wouldn’t release Elaro. Rather, he was impartial and determined that he could not win against him in a fight.

Elaro clenched his teeth. “Then, let Valica come over too.”

Hungri thought it over and said, “At least, Luke and Valkyrs need to be there too.”

“That won’t do!” Elaro blurted.

Hungri narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “Other than wanting to escape, what other reason can you have for not wanting them to sleep on the floor of your room?”

The reason is that my facial mask ingredients are all on my desk, and I haven’t cleaned it up…

Elaro took a deep breath. “Shuis, Valica, and Valkyrs then. No one else!”

Hungri silently thought it over. These three were all very strong, and they were particularly alert and fast. Even if they really couldn’t stop Elaro, they would definitely be able to prevent Elaro from leaving during the time period when the others hear of the commotion and rush over.

“Okay!”

That night, Elaro tried his hardest to come up with a reason. “Because I’ve been feeling too stressed lately, I decided to adopt a hobby to deal with the stress, so I planned on making floral scented bread,” and then he tried his hardest to ignore the suspicious gazes that the two of them were trying their best to contain—the moment Valkyrs had entered the room, he had made his bed on the floor, lain down, and immediately fallen asleep, not at all concerned about what was on the table.

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