[Legend of Sun Knight] fic: Bittersweet Sweetness Part 15
Title: Bittersweet Sweetness Part 15
Fandom: The Legend of Sun Knight
Words: 1,921
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: In which I tread over plot points that anyone who has read the novel already knows, but hopefully this will still be worth a read. ;) Though I've completely lost both Sun and Judgment's voices after NaNo, OTL.
Previous Part
Part 15 - Judgment
When I reconvened with Storm outside of the palace, he arched an eyebrow at me. As I looked no different than I had before we parted not so long ago, the only thing that could be causing Storm's reaction would be the presence of the knight behind me.
"Why's Ed here?" he asked. "And why is he wearing a bloodied and torn royal knight uniform?"
I made a note to myself to remember to repay Elijah for the royal knight uniform, as it was in no shape to be returned now. Ed had looked at me as if I'd betrayed him when I ordered him to damage his clothes. He'd even wailed that I'd lied to him about how he'd look dashing. In response to his absurd claim that I had lied, I'd smiled, as the inane complaint reminded me of Grisia whenever he pouted about his clothes. Grisia must have rubbed off on his platoon. I was sure of it now. When I looked back at Ed, he'd paled.
"Good," I had said at the time. "Whatever you're thinking right now, remember that."
After all, I needed him to keep a pale countenance.
Back in the present, Storm paused and raised one hand in the air to stop me from answering. "Never mind, you must be up to one of your schemes again."
He sounded a lot like I did whenever I didn't want to know what Grisia was up to. The irony wasn't lost on me.
Several thoughts flew through my mind. First was worry over my plan that maybe Ed was too well known for this to work -- Storm had recognized him right away -- but I reassured myself that Storm knew more people than most. Second was this feeling of ludicrousness over how Storm thought I was scheming.
Lesus Judgment, scheming?
I paused.
I was scheming. Perhaps Grisia had rubbed off on more than just his platoon, or I was just that entrenched in Grisia's mentality that I hadn't considered a less sneaky course of action to take. If I had been myself, would I have taken this step? I liked to think my mind was my own, which I almost managed to convince myself of, since the truth was that even before we'd switched, I'd already come up with this plan, but how much of that was inspired by Grisia, influenced by years of knowing him, and how much of that was myself?
I breathed in. I found my footing. Golden wisps and white cloth played at the edges of my vision, but this was...me. Even if I was not in my own body, even if I had to pretend to be Sun, I was still myself. Nothing would or could change that, and I would not have anything changed either.
Although Storm did not want to know what I was up to, I still filled him in so that he could help Ed's act. He also filled me in about what he had found out about Roland. It wasn't much but did serve to highlight that Roland's death wasn't a simple matter. The royal knights thought he had died on a mission when no such thing had happened. He must not have fallen to a foe but rather to one of his allies, and that was the tragedy.
We then headed inside the palace, passing by a guard who relayed our arrival. I smiled widely at the guard who looked at me with an awestruck expression when I was much more used to lowered heads. I quickly spoke a line about the God of Light, careful to maintain Sun's image, as much as it pained me to talk so much about nothing of importance, and then we were inside the audience hall, before the king and the crown prince.
Without even exchanging any pleasantries, the king jumped immediately into the matter, his face pulled down in a severe frown that bunched the fat on his lower chin. He slapped the arm of his throne.
"There is a Death Lord running around in my city. Explain to me how this has come to pass, Sun Knight!"
Had I been myself, the king would not have dared to yell at me in such a way. Here he was, thinking he could take advantage of the Sun Knight's benevolence and forgiving nature. It told me just how little he knew his own Sun Knight if he thought Grisia could be cowed with a few loud words, or that it was safer yelling at the Sun Knight than yelling at the Judgment Knight.
How wrong he was. He should be glad it was not Grisia he was confronting.
"Your Majesty, the benevolence of the God of Light is with us even now in this generous lesson he has tasked His children. Although we face dire danger, there is much for us to learn from this experience. Nothing is-"
"Enough! Are you implying this is my fault?" roared the king, cutting me off. I had not, but I could tell when a guilty conscience fueled someone's words and actions, and this was as guilty as they came. The king pointed a finger at me. "Rumor has it that you tortured the Death Knight to death! And people saw with their own eyes that you had the Death Knight in your custody, yet you let him transform into a Death Lord! You let him escape! This is an act of-"
Treason, I finished inside my head. But I was not the one who had betrayed our country, nor was Grisia the one.
The one who had started the rumor about the Sun Knight torturing the Death Knight to death was the real culprit. Roland had only claimed that he would be back for Sun. The most people should have gotten out of that was that the Sun Knight might have been the one who killed the Death Knight, but torturing him to death? Only the real culprit could have known torture was involved. The culprit must have spread the rumor about Sun to divert attention, not knowing that this very rumor would lead me straight to the truth.
And because Sun was the one who had been implicated, I would never stop investigating even if it meant unearthing the ugly truths of my own country.
When the king stopped yelling at me, it was because he had paled, his finger trembling. Ed had just stepped closer, eyes trained on the ground so that his bangs would hide his face, as I had instructed him to do once I began talking with the king.
Finger lowered, the king gripped the arms of his throne, but he could not stop his entire body from trembling tremendously. That was all the proof I needed. A glance at the crown prince told me he had not reacted to Ed's presence, but the king's reaction alarmed him. I most likely did not even need to pay a visit to Baron Gerland to test his reaction, but just in case, that would be my next stop.
"Would you like to finish that sentence, Your Majesty?" Storm asked lazily from my side. His act was perfect, as he must be feeling anything but blasé at the moment. I knew, because I felt much the same.
"I-Intruder!" the king yelled suddenly, voice shaking. "Apprehend him!"
The guards looked around in confusion.
Although Ed did look suspicious with his torn uniform, he had made no hostile movements towards anyone in the audience hall, and he had entered together with Storm and me. The king's conclusion that Ed was an intruder was illogical. There was only one conclusion I could make. It was one that dismayed me, as it backed up my deduction. While being right usually made one happy, and in this case it would also clear Grisia's name, I had not become the Judgment Knight to condone nefarious acts performed by none other than the leader of my country. I'd known for years that he was not a good king, but this...this terminated all loyalty I had ever had toward him.
If the head was poisoned, what could we expect from the subjects? Letting the poison go untreated could only cause it to spread. This was a potent poison, one that had already caused the death of a dear friend of Grisia's. If it had happened once, there was no stopping it from happening again.
"Intruder? I see no intruder, Your Majesty," commented Storm smoothly, not at all like the overworked Storm that I so often encountered when no outsiders were present. As confining as our façades were, they were also what lent us strength until we were able to become even more than the façade.
"The D-Death Lord! Capture him!" the king yelled when none of the guards made any movement to apprehend the "intruder".
This was what one might call digging your own grave, and it was much more than I'd asked for. The king was far from an accomplished criminal. Perhaps I should be glad at his incompetence because the only thing that could be worse than a corrupt and selfish king would be a corrupt and competent king.
The guards jumped into their positions, though slowly and hesitantly. They'd looked around the room until they finally decided to point their weapons at Ed since he was the only one they didn't recognize. There was no way the king could have meant that the Sun Knight or the Storm Knight were death lords.
Ed shifted to move closer to me. I held out an arm to block him from the guards.
"Sun must ask, how does Your Majesty know what the Death Lord looks like?" I gestured at Ed. "Does the Death Lord have brown hair? Even if he does, this is merely a royal knight Sun met in the corridor. Sun promised to heal this brave knight's injuries on the way back. He is very much not dead, Sun assures you, so he cannot be our wayward Death Lord."
I vowed to enjoy my solitude after this affair. I never understood why Sun insisted on addressing himself in third person, but talking in such a way was completely draining my energy.
Ed had brown hair and slightly resembled Roland, but only if you didn't look closely, and no one should have considered that the Death Lord might look this human. Roland had only appeared before us with flaming eyes and ashen skin, and the king hadn't ever personally met the Death Knight turned Death Lord. He shouldn't have known.
I had not planned on taking this confrontation so far -- I only wanted to confirm my suspicions -- but the king had completely let down his guard in front of me. He truly thought too little of Grisia. He had always been warier around "Judgment", thinking I had the power to punish him when that couldn't be farther from the truth. The ones who did have power against the king were the Pope and the Sun Knight, never the Judgment Knight.
The king looked like he had swallowed something unpleasant. Beside him, the crown prince covered his face.
"Father, let me handle this," the crown prince finally said.
When the king grudgingly left after claiming he was tired, the prince, the one who did the actual governing, laced his fingers together and stared me down.
"Sun Knight, what are you up to this time?"
Now even the prince thinks I'm scheming...
That mattered little.
-----
to be continued
*pokes this fic back into existence* I am dismayed at the number of fics I started this year but have not finished. (Haha, I already started rounding up my fics for my year-in-fic post). I better finish this WIP at least! Am also working on Entries 5, but gosh...I can't seem to get Blaze's voice! I keep wanting to sneak in a "lord"... *face palm* Tekatme, go away. It doesn't help that Tekatme wanted to kick down doors just like Blaze when I was writing my NaNo, and now I find that Blaze wants to be like Tekatme. Do I only know how to write one type of brash character? -___-; Anyway, this fic is still ongoing and alive!
Next Part
Fandom: The Legend of Sun Knight
Words: 1,921
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: In which I tread over plot points that anyone who has read the novel already knows, but hopefully this will still be worth a read. ;) Though I've completely lost both Sun and Judgment's voices after NaNo, OTL.
Previous Part
Part 15 - Judgment
When I reconvened with Storm outside of the palace, he arched an eyebrow at me. As I looked no different than I had before we parted not so long ago, the only thing that could be causing Storm's reaction would be the presence of the knight behind me.
"Why's Ed here?" he asked. "And why is he wearing a bloodied and torn royal knight uniform?"
I made a note to myself to remember to repay Elijah for the royal knight uniform, as it was in no shape to be returned now. Ed had looked at me as if I'd betrayed him when I ordered him to damage his clothes. He'd even wailed that I'd lied to him about how he'd look dashing. In response to his absurd claim that I had lied, I'd smiled, as the inane complaint reminded me of Grisia whenever he pouted about his clothes. Grisia must have rubbed off on his platoon. I was sure of it now. When I looked back at Ed, he'd paled.
"Good," I had said at the time. "Whatever you're thinking right now, remember that."
After all, I needed him to keep a pale countenance.
Back in the present, Storm paused and raised one hand in the air to stop me from answering. "Never mind, you must be up to one of your schemes again."
He sounded a lot like I did whenever I didn't want to know what Grisia was up to. The irony wasn't lost on me.
Several thoughts flew through my mind. First was worry over my plan that maybe Ed was too well known for this to work -- Storm had recognized him right away -- but I reassured myself that Storm knew more people than most. Second was this feeling of ludicrousness over how Storm thought I was scheming.
Lesus Judgment, scheming?
I paused.
I was scheming. Perhaps Grisia had rubbed off on more than just his platoon, or I was just that entrenched in Grisia's mentality that I hadn't considered a less sneaky course of action to take. If I had been myself, would I have taken this step? I liked to think my mind was my own, which I almost managed to convince myself of, since the truth was that even before we'd switched, I'd already come up with this plan, but how much of that was inspired by Grisia, influenced by years of knowing him, and how much of that was myself?
I breathed in. I found my footing. Golden wisps and white cloth played at the edges of my vision, but this was...me. Even if I was not in my own body, even if I had to pretend to be Sun, I was still myself. Nothing would or could change that, and I would not have anything changed either.
Although Storm did not want to know what I was up to, I still filled him in so that he could help Ed's act. He also filled me in about what he had found out about Roland. It wasn't much but did serve to highlight that Roland's death wasn't a simple matter. The royal knights thought he had died on a mission when no such thing had happened. He must not have fallen to a foe but rather to one of his allies, and that was the tragedy.
We then headed inside the palace, passing by a guard who relayed our arrival. I smiled widely at the guard who looked at me with an awestruck expression when I was much more used to lowered heads. I quickly spoke a line about the God of Light, careful to maintain Sun's image, as much as it pained me to talk so much about nothing of importance, and then we were inside the audience hall, before the king and the crown prince.
Without even exchanging any pleasantries, the king jumped immediately into the matter, his face pulled down in a severe frown that bunched the fat on his lower chin. He slapped the arm of his throne.
"There is a Death Lord running around in my city. Explain to me how this has come to pass, Sun Knight!"
Had I been myself, the king would not have dared to yell at me in such a way. Here he was, thinking he could take advantage of the Sun Knight's benevolence and forgiving nature. It told me just how little he knew his own Sun Knight if he thought Grisia could be cowed with a few loud words, or that it was safer yelling at the Sun Knight than yelling at the Judgment Knight.
How wrong he was. He should be glad it was not Grisia he was confronting.
"Your Majesty, the benevolence of the God of Light is with us even now in this generous lesson he has tasked His children. Although we face dire danger, there is much for us to learn from this experience. Nothing is-"
"Enough! Are you implying this is my fault?" roared the king, cutting me off. I had not, but I could tell when a guilty conscience fueled someone's words and actions, and this was as guilty as they came. The king pointed a finger at me. "Rumor has it that you tortured the Death Knight to death! And people saw with their own eyes that you had the Death Knight in your custody, yet you let him transform into a Death Lord! You let him escape! This is an act of-"
Treason, I finished inside my head. But I was not the one who had betrayed our country, nor was Grisia the one.
The one who had started the rumor about the Sun Knight torturing the Death Knight to death was the real culprit. Roland had only claimed that he would be back for Sun. The most people should have gotten out of that was that the Sun Knight might have been the one who killed the Death Knight, but torturing him to death? Only the real culprit could have known torture was involved. The culprit must have spread the rumor about Sun to divert attention, not knowing that this very rumor would lead me straight to the truth.
And because Sun was the one who had been implicated, I would never stop investigating even if it meant unearthing the ugly truths of my own country.
When the king stopped yelling at me, it was because he had paled, his finger trembling. Ed had just stepped closer, eyes trained on the ground so that his bangs would hide his face, as I had instructed him to do once I began talking with the king.
Finger lowered, the king gripped the arms of his throne, but he could not stop his entire body from trembling tremendously. That was all the proof I needed. A glance at the crown prince told me he had not reacted to Ed's presence, but the king's reaction alarmed him. I most likely did not even need to pay a visit to Baron Gerland to test his reaction, but just in case, that would be my next stop.
"Would you like to finish that sentence, Your Majesty?" Storm asked lazily from my side. His act was perfect, as he must be feeling anything but blasé at the moment. I knew, because I felt much the same.
"I-Intruder!" the king yelled suddenly, voice shaking. "Apprehend him!"
The guards looked around in confusion.
Although Ed did look suspicious with his torn uniform, he had made no hostile movements towards anyone in the audience hall, and he had entered together with Storm and me. The king's conclusion that Ed was an intruder was illogical. There was only one conclusion I could make. It was one that dismayed me, as it backed up my deduction. While being right usually made one happy, and in this case it would also clear Grisia's name, I had not become the Judgment Knight to condone nefarious acts performed by none other than the leader of my country. I'd known for years that he was not a good king, but this...this terminated all loyalty I had ever had toward him.
If the head was poisoned, what could we expect from the subjects? Letting the poison go untreated could only cause it to spread. This was a potent poison, one that had already caused the death of a dear friend of Grisia's. If it had happened once, there was no stopping it from happening again.
"Intruder? I see no intruder, Your Majesty," commented Storm smoothly, not at all like the overworked Storm that I so often encountered when no outsiders were present. As confining as our façades were, they were also what lent us strength until we were able to become even more than the façade.
"The D-Death Lord! Capture him!" the king yelled when none of the guards made any movement to apprehend the "intruder".
This was what one might call digging your own grave, and it was much more than I'd asked for. The king was far from an accomplished criminal. Perhaps I should be glad at his incompetence because the only thing that could be worse than a corrupt and selfish king would be a corrupt and competent king.
The guards jumped into their positions, though slowly and hesitantly. They'd looked around the room until they finally decided to point their weapons at Ed since he was the only one they didn't recognize. There was no way the king could have meant that the Sun Knight or the Storm Knight were death lords.
Ed shifted to move closer to me. I held out an arm to block him from the guards.
"Sun must ask, how does Your Majesty know what the Death Lord looks like?" I gestured at Ed. "Does the Death Lord have brown hair? Even if he does, this is merely a royal knight Sun met in the corridor. Sun promised to heal this brave knight's injuries on the way back. He is very much not dead, Sun assures you, so he cannot be our wayward Death Lord."
I vowed to enjoy my solitude after this affair. I never understood why Sun insisted on addressing himself in third person, but talking in such a way was completely draining my energy.
Ed had brown hair and slightly resembled Roland, but only if you didn't look closely, and no one should have considered that the Death Lord might look this human. Roland had only appeared before us with flaming eyes and ashen skin, and the king hadn't ever personally met the Death Knight turned Death Lord. He shouldn't have known.
I had not planned on taking this confrontation so far -- I only wanted to confirm my suspicions -- but the king had completely let down his guard in front of me. He truly thought too little of Grisia. He had always been warier around "Judgment", thinking I had the power to punish him when that couldn't be farther from the truth. The ones who did have power against the king were the Pope and the Sun Knight, never the Judgment Knight.
The king looked like he had swallowed something unpleasant. Beside him, the crown prince covered his face.
"Father, let me handle this," the crown prince finally said.
When the king grudgingly left after claiming he was tired, the prince, the one who did the actual governing, laced his fingers together and stared me down.
"Sun Knight, what are you up to this time?"
Now even the prince thinks I'm scheming...
That mattered little.
-----
to be continued
*pokes this fic back into existence* I am dismayed at the number of fics I started this year but have not finished. (Haha, I already started rounding up my fics for my year-in-fic post). I better finish this WIP at least! Am also working on Entries 5, but gosh...I can't seem to get Blaze's voice! I keep wanting to sneak in a "lord"... *face palm* Tekatme, go away. It doesn't help that Tekatme wanted to kick down doors just like Blaze when I was writing my NaNo, and now I find that Blaze wants to be like Tekatme. Do I only know how to write one type of brash character? -___-; Anyway, this fic is still ongoing and alive!
Next Part