[Legend of Sun Knight] fic: Bittersweet Sweetness Part 4
Title: Bittersweet Sweetness Part 4
Fandom: The Legend of Sun Knight
Words: 1,228
Summary: Instead of receiving a brooch that dresses him in an assassin's clothes, Sun receives a trinket that switches his consciousness around with Judgment's. Now, Judgment must find out the mystery behind the Death Knight in Sun's stead. Problem is, imitating Sun's poor swordsmanship is no easy feat, and who knew what Sun was doing with Judgment's body in the meantime? Alternate telling of the end of volume 1 of the novels.
Notes: Some notes at the end. ;)
Previous Part
Part 4: Sun
"Do you know where Sun is?" Ice asked monotonously.
Right in front of you, I thought. Ice had another bag of chocolates on him. No doubt they were for me. Even though I didn't want to believe it, they were probably too sweet for me at the moment.
The horror! The sweets were within reach, yet I couldn't eat them, and even if I did, they wouldn't taste good!
Even though I liked Ice a lot, I willed him to leave. Hurry up and leave already! Take the temptation with you! Unfortunately, I hadn't suddenly developed the ability to speak mind-to-mind after landing myself in Judgment's body, so my mental urging went unheard, and thus the temptation was still within tantalizing reach. Should I ask Ice for a piece of chocolate? He made it for me anyway! But would it still taste good...of course it would! I refuse to believe otherwise.
I reached out for the bag of chocolates, my curiosity getting the better of me. “He's out for the moment,” I replied when I saw Ice had no intention of leaving before I gave him an answer. “But I can pass that bag on for you when I see him.”
Silently, I congratulated myself for sounding so unruffled when in reality, I was itching to get my hands on the chocolates. I can do this, I told myself. I can pretend to be Judgment, do my investigating, and then apologize to Judgment and figure out how we can switch back without anyone knowing about it...as long as Judgment hasn't exploded from fury already.
I almost shuddered but managed to school that into a slight twitch.
Pretending to be Judgment shouldn't be too hard. I knew his quirks, and I knew even better the mask he presented to the public. In fact, I could even help bring his intimidation factor up another level! I was also a damn good actor if I say so myself. Otherwise, how else could I have upheld all that “the whole continent knows” inanity?
When Ice set the bag down on my hand, my heart fluttered in excitement. I could now experiment during my own time whether or not sweets still tasted good! Surely Judgment always exaggerated when he said my tastes were too extreme?
As Ice was still standing there, I quickly took the teacup back from his hands as well in case that was what was keeping him here. I gazed sternly down at the empty cup.
Now that I knew I was Judgment, I wish I hadn't dumped the tea. I could have used the water as a mirror. I really wanted to see Judgment's face and make expressions that he would never make. It was a once in a lifetime chance!
“Knight-Captain Judgment, the Death Knight has appeared!” Someone yelled, breaking me out of my fantasy of making silly faces.
What? Already? I'm not ready! I thought I would be able to head directly to Baron Gerland's place and force the answer from his third son with some intimidation now that I'd become the most intimidating person out of the entire Church of the God of Light. If not that, I could have at least grabbed a servant or two and forced them to talk, but now I have to toss those plans aside.
Having the Death Knight appear like this was just like having a criminal walk up to your door. It was a clear invitation for me to arrest him!
“Lead the way!” I bellowed my command in Judgment's deep voice as I put the teacup down and tucked the bag of chocolates away into the many folds of Judgment's murky black robes. Man, I sounded damn authoritative. I've always wanted to try bellowing like that.
“Knight-Captain Ice, come with me,” I told him instead of sending him off to gather the other Knight-Captains. I didn't know my fighting capability in Judgment's body, but my guess was that I'd make Judgment look like a fool compared to how he usually fought. I'd wanted to experiment first! I doubted I'd be able to use much magic, and as much as I hated to admit it, I didn't think ending up in Judgment's body had cured me of my hopelessness with a sword. If it'd been that easy, my teacher, the strongest Sun Knight in history, wouldn't have given up on me, deeming me a hopeless case. In other words, I was pretty screwed and could possibly get Judgment hurt. He wouldn't even be able to recover on his own like me!
What, you never thought I'd admit that my swordsmanship is a hopeless case, so hopeless that even landing myself in a master swordsman's body wouldn't cure me of my hopelessness? Well, sorry! I never make it a habit of heading into a battle I'm not sure I can win. Besides, this isn't my own body I'm putting into danger here.
Until I figured out what I could do as Judgment, I needed Ice with me. As one of the most skilled with a sword among the Twelve Holy Knights, he would be a very effective meat shield.
I grabbed a random holy knight and sent him for reinforcements. He looked to be from the Judgment Knight Platoon, which was strange since I thought they were supposed to be on patrol at the moment, but maybe I had things mixed up. After all, Judgment had been in his room this entire time instead of patrolling.
As Ice and I hurried along the corridors, we passed by several holy knights and even a few clerics from the Sanctuary of Light. I was about to plaster a large and fake smile on my face when I realized I didn't have to do that at all!
My heart sped up.
I don't need to smile!
That thought actually made me want to smile for once. My lips curled up.
“Judgment...” Ice began.
“What?” I said.
“You look frightening.”
I do? I looked frightening enough for Ice to speak up about it? But I couldn't stop my lips from lifting up! It wasn't my fault that I actually really wanted to smile at the moment. At least I made it into an imposing expression instead of ruining Judgment's image with a beaming smile!
"The Harsh God of Light is pleased that the Death Knight has appeared, ready for his punishment," I said, pulling out a line worthy of Judgment out of nowhere. It was a cinch given how much practice I had at praising the God of Light -- talking about His harshness wasn't any different -- and this would explain the predatory look on my face.
I turned my head. When the female clerics around me felt my eyes on them, they immediately stepped back and quickly averted their wide-eyed gaze.
Oh dear God of Light! I can look at all the females I want without pretending I'm not looking! No more recording out of the corner of my eye! No one has ever said that the Judgment Knight may only love the God of Light and may not love women...in fact, it sure wouldn't hurt his reputation for "terrifying women" to be added to his list of cruelties. It suited his reputation perfectly.
Sorry Judgment.
That thought, however, didn't stop me from leering at a female cleric in front of me.
-----
to be continued
I attempted to write Entries 4 and got horribly, horribly stuck. I then ended up rereading all of Legend of Sun Knight (yes, all 7 volumes). I am terrible at "reviewing canon". XD;
I think I'll set Entries 4 to the side and work on it more once Cloud gets introduced... I want to include Cloud. :) I should have worked on Bittersweet Sweetness instead. It's a bit easier to write since I don't have to think of self-contained situations that must be concluded within the chapter, except my problem with this story is continuing the POV I need for the scenes I have planned. Like Judgment's POV in Part 3. I was so ready to continue straight from that, but wait, I'm doing alternating POVs...!
I've changed Roland's last sentence in the previous part to "You can't be the Sun Knight?" instead of "You can't be Sun?" since I don't think Roland was trying to be familiar in the original. If he were, he would have used "Grisia" instead. Specifics, specifics!
Next Part
Fandom: The Legend of Sun Knight
Words: 1,228
Summary: Instead of receiving a brooch that dresses him in an assassin's clothes, Sun receives a trinket that switches his consciousness around with Judgment's. Now, Judgment must find out the mystery behind the Death Knight in Sun's stead. Problem is, imitating Sun's poor swordsmanship is no easy feat, and who knew what Sun was doing with Judgment's body in the meantime? Alternate telling of the end of volume 1 of the novels.
Notes: Some notes at the end. ;)
Previous Part
Part 4: Sun
"Do you know where Sun is?" Ice asked monotonously.
Right in front of you, I thought. Ice had another bag of chocolates on him. No doubt they were for me. Even though I didn't want to believe it, they were probably too sweet for me at the moment.
The horror! The sweets were within reach, yet I couldn't eat them, and even if I did, they wouldn't taste good!
Even though I liked Ice a lot, I willed him to leave. Hurry up and leave already! Take the temptation with you! Unfortunately, I hadn't suddenly developed the ability to speak mind-to-mind after landing myself in Judgment's body, so my mental urging went unheard, and thus the temptation was still within tantalizing reach. Should I ask Ice for a piece of chocolate? He made it for me anyway! But would it still taste good...of course it would! I refuse to believe otherwise.
I reached out for the bag of chocolates, my curiosity getting the better of me. “He's out for the moment,” I replied when I saw Ice had no intention of leaving before I gave him an answer. “But I can pass that bag on for you when I see him.”
Silently, I congratulated myself for sounding so unruffled when in reality, I was itching to get my hands on the chocolates. I can do this, I told myself. I can pretend to be Judgment, do my investigating, and then apologize to Judgment and figure out how we can switch back without anyone knowing about it...as long as Judgment hasn't exploded from fury already.
I almost shuddered but managed to school that into a slight twitch.
Pretending to be Judgment shouldn't be too hard. I knew his quirks, and I knew even better the mask he presented to the public. In fact, I could even help bring his intimidation factor up another level! I was also a damn good actor if I say so myself. Otherwise, how else could I have upheld all that “the whole continent knows” inanity?
When Ice set the bag down on my hand, my heart fluttered in excitement. I could now experiment during my own time whether or not sweets still tasted good! Surely Judgment always exaggerated when he said my tastes were too extreme?
As Ice was still standing there, I quickly took the teacup back from his hands as well in case that was what was keeping him here. I gazed sternly down at the empty cup.
Now that I knew I was Judgment, I wish I hadn't dumped the tea. I could have used the water as a mirror. I really wanted to see Judgment's face and make expressions that he would never make. It was a once in a lifetime chance!
“Knight-Captain Judgment, the Death Knight has appeared!” Someone yelled, breaking me out of my fantasy of making silly faces.
What? Already? I'm not ready! I thought I would be able to head directly to Baron Gerland's place and force the answer from his third son with some intimidation now that I'd become the most intimidating person out of the entire Church of the God of Light. If not that, I could have at least grabbed a servant or two and forced them to talk, but now I have to toss those plans aside.
Having the Death Knight appear like this was just like having a criminal walk up to your door. It was a clear invitation for me to arrest him!
“Lead the way!” I bellowed my command in Judgment's deep voice as I put the teacup down and tucked the bag of chocolates away into the many folds of Judgment's murky black robes. Man, I sounded damn authoritative. I've always wanted to try bellowing like that.
“Knight-Captain Ice, come with me,” I told him instead of sending him off to gather the other Knight-Captains. I didn't know my fighting capability in Judgment's body, but my guess was that I'd make Judgment look like a fool compared to how he usually fought. I'd wanted to experiment first! I doubted I'd be able to use much magic, and as much as I hated to admit it, I didn't think ending up in Judgment's body had cured me of my hopelessness with a sword. If it'd been that easy, my teacher, the strongest Sun Knight in history, wouldn't have given up on me, deeming me a hopeless case. In other words, I was pretty screwed and could possibly get Judgment hurt. He wouldn't even be able to recover on his own like me!
What, you never thought I'd admit that my swordsmanship is a hopeless case, so hopeless that even landing myself in a master swordsman's body wouldn't cure me of my hopelessness? Well, sorry! I never make it a habit of heading into a battle I'm not sure I can win. Besides, this isn't my own body I'm putting into danger here.
Until I figured out what I could do as Judgment, I needed Ice with me. As one of the most skilled with a sword among the Twelve Holy Knights, he would be a very effective meat shield.
I grabbed a random holy knight and sent him for reinforcements. He looked to be from the Judgment Knight Platoon, which was strange since I thought they were supposed to be on patrol at the moment, but maybe I had things mixed up. After all, Judgment had been in his room this entire time instead of patrolling.
As Ice and I hurried along the corridors, we passed by several holy knights and even a few clerics from the Sanctuary of Light. I was about to plaster a large and fake smile on my face when I realized I didn't have to do that at all!
My heart sped up.
I don't need to smile!
That thought actually made me want to smile for once. My lips curled up.
“Judgment...” Ice began.
“What?” I said.
“You look frightening.”
I do? I looked frightening enough for Ice to speak up about it? But I couldn't stop my lips from lifting up! It wasn't my fault that I actually really wanted to smile at the moment. At least I made it into an imposing expression instead of ruining Judgment's image with a beaming smile!
"The Harsh God of Light is pleased that the Death Knight has appeared, ready for his punishment," I said, pulling out a line worthy of Judgment out of nowhere. It was a cinch given how much practice I had at praising the God of Light -- talking about His harshness wasn't any different -- and this would explain the predatory look on my face.
I turned my head. When the female clerics around me felt my eyes on them, they immediately stepped back and quickly averted their wide-eyed gaze.
Oh dear God of Light! I can look at all the females I want without pretending I'm not looking! No more recording out of the corner of my eye! No one has ever said that the Judgment Knight may only love the God of Light and may not love women...in fact, it sure wouldn't hurt his reputation for "terrifying women" to be added to his list of cruelties. It suited his reputation perfectly.
Sorry Judgment.
That thought, however, didn't stop me from leering at a female cleric in front of me.
-----
to be continued
I attempted to write Entries 4 and got horribly, horribly stuck. I then ended up rereading all of Legend of Sun Knight (yes, all 7 volumes). I am terrible at "reviewing canon". XD;
I think I'll set Entries 4 to the side and work on it more once Cloud gets introduced... I want to include Cloud. :) I should have worked on Bittersweet Sweetness instead. It's a bit easier to write since I don't have to think of self-contained situations that must be concluded within the chapter, except my problem with this story is continuing the POV I need for the scenes I have planned. Like Judgment's POV in Part 3. I was so ready to continue straight from that, but wait, I'm doing alternating POVs...!
I've changed Roland's last sentence in the previous part to "You can't be the Sun Knight?" instead of "You can't be Sun?" since I don't think Roland was trying to be familiar in the original. If he were, he would have used "Grisia" instead. Specifics, specifics!
Next Part