[Legend of Sun Knight] fic: Bittersweet Sweetness Part 30
I haven't posted any fic in April? Time to change that!
Title: Bittersweet Sweetness Part 30
Fandom: The Legend of Sun Knight
Words: 1,854
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: The fic lives and refuses to end yet again! Somewhat of a transitional chapter.
Previous part
Part 30 - Sun
Lesus and Adair are slave drivers. Slave drivers, I'm telling you! I can't believe they forced me to pick up my sword over and over again. Me, sparring with Adair? Does Lesus have a grudge against me or what? Although Adair isn't as strong as Ice or Judgment, he is still one of the top swordsmen of the Holy Temple! More importantly, I thought he was supposed to be on my side, that traitor!
I shouldn't have clued Adair in if this was what was going to happen. Ugh, now I have not one, but two tapeworms conspiring against me!
I watched as both blonds turned my way, waiting for me to grab the sword that had flown out of my hand yet again. Their reactions were eerily alike. If I didn't know better, I might have claimed that they were brothers related by blood, clad as they were in the white and gold uniforms of sun knights and ganging up on me like this. I'd never thought Adair and I looked alike, but seeing myself next to him like this... Was this what people mean when they say that the longer you're acquainted with someone, the more you'll resemble each other? What was Adair like in the past... Was he always this sly...
Despite being ganged up on by tapeworm number one and tapeworm number two, something good had actually come out of this torture. Lesus discovered the reason why my sword liked to jump out of my hand so much. Those blasted swords seem to have a mind of their own, I'm telling you!
"You're saying that my holy element is causing my sword to fly out of my hand?" I exclaimed in disbelief.
Lesus nodded.
I stared at my hand. Has holy element been converging at my hands without my knowledge? How can that be?
I certainly had not meant to gather holy element to my hands just now. Earlier, yes, but not just now. It wasn't like gathering holy element as Judgment was an easy thing to do.
"Now that we know, we can at least have you practice keeping a hold of your sword," Lesus stated.
As he spoke, I couldn't help but resent that my sword idiot friends were so handy with a sword that their battles looked like dancing while I, on the other hand, still hadn't graduated from trying to prevent my sword from dancing out of my hand.
Throughout the rest of the night, I continued practicing, paying attention to what Lesus had observed. It was not exactly an easy feat consciously attempting to keep holy element away from my hands. The more I wanted to do so, the more holy element I ended up gathering, and my sword would fly out even faster than before. Rather than improving my grasp on my sword, I instead felt like I was improving Judgment's skill at gathering the holy element.
Hey, maybe Judgment's ability to gather elements isn't that hopeless after all!
By the time we parted, I had a marginally better chance at keeping my sword from performing a disappearing act or even tangoing with the floor, but it was still up to chance and not very reliable at all. I couldn't "see" what Lesus was talking about, so I could only depend on guesswork about how much holy element was around me.
Alone in Judgment's room, I continued practicing. Hey, don't give me that look! I can be very diligent when I put my mind to it! Okay fine, I wasn't practicing my swordsmanship... Even after the countless times Lesus and Adair had made me go through the motions, I'd probably still kill a table or two in the process.
To tell the truth, I was practicing magic. If holy element was now responding to me enough that it was interfering with Judgment's natural adeptness at swordplay, surely that meant that Judgment's holy magic was indeed trainable and not a lost cause.
That, and who knew whether or not Judgment had any aptitude for magic outside of holy magic? I doubted Lesus ever gave it much thought.
And so, I experimented late into the night.
When the next day arrived, my body woke up at the crack of dawn despite how I had gone to sleep late. My eyes opened, and I stared past my black fringe at Judgment's boring ceiling.
So, I'm still Judgment... Ugh, why does he have to be such an early riser?
As expected, we hadn't magically reverted back to ourselves in the middle of the night while we were sleeping. I wanted to go back to sleep, but no matter how much I tossed and turned, I couldn't fall back asleep.
Getting up at this hour two days in a row is such a pain!
However, it wasn't like Judgment's body would let me go back to sleep even though I still felt tired, and I was supposed to take care of Judgment's duties, so I crawled out of bed to get ready for the day. Black and more black dominated Judgment's closet. I selected one of the black robes and threw it on before pulling myself over to the mirror.
The mirror revealed some pretty ugly eye bags that might even give Storm some competition. Thank the God of Light this wasn't my face. I stuck my tongue out at the mirror.
Oh dear God of Light...
The expression was so hilarious that I ended up doubled over in my laughter. It took me a full minute before I could suppress my laughter and straighten up, but then I immediately poked at my cheeks and made another face, muscles protesting at what I was putting them through. This was a testament to how closely trained Judgment normally kept his expressions -- my face was already growing tired from these expressions that had probably never graced his face before.
I poked at my cheeks some more. Hm, Judgment's skin is too coarse.... How can a twenty something year old's skin feel like this? It must be because he always stays out in the sun without doing any skin care!
I peered more closely at the reflection in the mirror. Are those... wrinkles?
Oh no. No way am I allowing this. We're the same freaking age! At this rate, people will think he's an old geezer! I better get Judgment into the habit of taking better care of his skin!
Still, even though he was my best friend, I wasn't going to let him use my precious ingredients. They cost me an arm and a leg!
An alternative. I'll have to come up with an alternative.
After all, I wouldn't be Grisia if I were to forsake my friend like this, turning a blind eye to his plight when I could have prevented his condition from worsening!
"I will defeat you!" I shouted at the mirror. How dare wrinkles exist in my presence!
"C-Captain Judgment, are you alright?!" came a sudden voice beyond my door.
Startled, I whirled around to face the door and blurted, "I'm fine!"
Damn, I shouldn't have yelled.
"Is there someone in there with you?" the person continued asking worriedly.
I hadn't immediately placed his voice, but now I was sure it was Radar who was outside in the hallway. Instead of saying anything further, I threw open the door, coming face-to-face with a startled Radar. I had been right about the identity of the person outside.
"I am perfectly well," I said as calmly as I could. I left the door open so that he could see that there was no one else inside.
He peered inside hesitantly before he looked sheepishly up at me, his emotions written clearly across his face. "I am sorry for disturbing you, sir! It was just that I thought I heard some strange laughter..."
Erk! He even heard that?
"Come, let's head to practice," I said instead, abruptly changing the topic. I grabbed Judgment's sword and started making my way toward the training grounds. Radar trotted after me quite obediently. Thank the God of Light for Radar's reverence of Judgment!
Mornings with no meetings meant that Judgment trained with his platoon before heading off to interrogate criminals. While I was quite certain I wouldn't give myself away in a meeting or an interrogation, training someone in swordsmanship was an entirely different story.
I had no intention of actually training with the Judgment Knight Platoon (that would give me away faster than I could devour a blueberry pie... Well, faster than Lesus could devour a blueberry pie at the moment), but I had every intention of cutting practice short so that I could actually eat breakfast today. Judgment might skip breakfast in fear of emptying his stomach after interrogations, but I wasn't going to repeat that dreadful experience from yesterday. I'd nearly starved!
It was with the resolution of merely overseeing practice that I approached the training grounds. Upon my presence, the judgment knights immediately filed into two straight rows and saluted me. "Good morning, Knight-Captain Judgment!"
I nearly took a step back because of the damn impressive sight these incomprehensible early-risers presented, but Radar was right behind me.
"What are your orders today, sir?" asked Radar eagerly.
Get me breakfast. Then get me some sour milk, lemon, roses, and flour...
Out loud, I said, "The usual."
Whatever that was! Damn, I should have asked Lesus...
Radar nodded and turned to bark orders at the rest of the platoon. "Two hundred swings! Then, one hundred thrusts! After that, pair off with your sparring partner to practice form B!"
Without wasting any time, the holy knights before me got into position and began swinging their swords.
"One!"
"Two!"
"Three!"
"Four!"
Damn, why aren't my holy knights ever this orderly? I've underestimated Radar! I didn't know he had it in him to be this authoritative!
Radar was at the front, leading them in their drills. I couldn't deny that he was indeed a capable vice-captain in his own way, though he really needed better control of his expressions. Truly, the result of having a captain that was too serious meant that the subordinates would become lax...
I walked up and down the rows, pretending like I was observing their forms when I didn't really know what they were doing. My teacher had tried his utmost to teach me, but my inability to perform any of the stances he had taught made remembering them...challenging.
After their first set of drills, Radar asked, "Will you be joining us, sir?"
All of the judgment knights stopped and stared at me expectantly.
I gulped. None of you would be looking at me like that if I had a sword in my hand!
Despite wanting to think that even I wasn't so terrible that I couldn't wield a sword even while in a master swordsman's body, the sparring from yesterday evening proved that I was indeed so ill-suited to a sword that I could even turn a master swordsman into a well-below average one just by inhabiting his body for a day.
The mere thought made me want to cry. "I leave today's training in your capable hands... Ra-" Shit, that's not his name, "-ndomly pull out some knights to inspect their progress... Vidar."
At first, Radar was crestfallen, but once I finished my instructions, he perked up. "Yes sir!"
I stood off to the side and watched their morning practice expressionlessly, continuing to pretend that I was paying attention.
When is breakfast...
to be continued
Next part
Title: Bittersweet Sweetness Part 30
Fandom: The Legend of Sun Knight
Words: 1,854
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: The fic lives and refuses to end yet again! Somewhat of a transitional chapter.
Previous part
Part 30 - Sun
Lesus and Adair are slave drivers. Slave drivers, I'm telling you! I can't believe they forced me to pick up my sword over and over again. Me, sparring with Adair? Does Lesus have a grudge against me or what? Although Adair isn't as strong as Ice or Judgment, he is still one of the top swordsmen of the Holy Temple! More importantly, I thought he was supposed to be on my side, that traitor!
I shouldn't have clued Adair in if this was what was going to happen. Ugh, now I have not one, but two tapeworms conspiring against me!
I watched as both blonds turned my way, waiting for me to grab the sword that had flown out of my hand yet again. Their reactions were eerily alike. If I didn't know better, I might have claimed that they were brothers related by blood, clad as they were in the white and gold uniforms of sun knights and ganging up on me like this. I'd never thought Adair and I looked alike, but seeing myself next to him like this... Was this what people mean when they say that the longer you're acquainted with someone, the more you'll resemble each other? What was Adair like in the past... Was he always this sly...
Despite being ganged up on by tapeworm number one and tapeworm number two, something good had actually come out of this torture. Lesus discovered the reason why my sword liked to jump out of my hand so much. Those blasted swords seem to have a mind of their own, I'm telling you!
"You're saying that my holy element is causing my sword to fly out of my hand?" I exclaimed in disbelief.
Lesus nodded.
I stared at my hand. Has holy element been converging at my hands without my knowledge? How can that be?
I certainly had not meant to gather holy element to my hands just now. Earlier, yes, but not just now. It wasn't like gathering holy element as Judgment was an easy thing to do.
"Now that we know, we can at least have you practice keeping a hold of your sword," Lesus stated.
As he spoke, I couldn't help but resent that my sword idiot friends were so handy with a sword that their battles looked like dancing while I, on the other hand, still hadn't graduated from trying to prevent my sword from dancing out of my hand.
Throughout the rest of the night, I continued practicing, paying attention to what Lesus had observed. It was not exactly an easy feat consciously attempting to keep holy element away from my hands. The more I wanted to do so, the more holy element I ended up gathering, and my sword would fly out even faster than before. Rather than improving my grasp on my sword, I instead felt like I was improving Judgment's skill at gathering the holy element.
Hey, maybe Judgment's ability to gather elements isn't that hopeless after all!
By the time we parted, I had a marginally better chance at keeping my sword from performing a disappearing act or even tangoing with the floor, but it was still up to chance and not very reliable at all. I couldn't "see" what Lesus was talking about, so I could only depend on guesswork about how much holy element was around me.
Alone in Judgment's room, I continued practicing. Hey, don't give me that look! I can be very diligent when I put my mind to it! Okay fine, I wasn't practicing my swordsmanship... Even after the countless times Lesus and Adair had made me go through the motions, I'd probably still kill a table or two in the process.
To tell the truth, I was practicing magic. If holy element was now responding to me enough that it was interfering with Judgment's natural adeptness at swordplay, surely that meant that Judgment's holy magic was indeed trainable and not a lost cause.
That, and who knew whether or not Judgment had any aptitude for magic outside of holy magic? I doubted Lesus ever gave it much thought.
And so, I experimented late into the night.
When the next day arrived, my body woke up at the crack of dawn despite how I had gone to sleep late. My eyes opened, and I stared past my black fringe at Judgment's boring ceiling.
So, I'm still Judgment... Ugh, why does he have to be such an early riser?
As expected, we hadn't magically reverted back to ourselves in the middle of the night while we were sleeping. I wanted to go back to sleep, but no matter how much I tossed and turned, I couldn't fall back asleep.
Getting up at this hour two days in a row is such a pain!
However, it wasn't like Judgment's body would let me go back to sleep even though I still felt tired, and I was supposed to take care of Judgment's duties, so I crawled out of bed to get ready for the day. Black and more black dominated Judgment's closet. I selected one of the black robes and threw it on before pulling myself over to the mirror.
The mirror revealed some pretty ugly eye bags that might even give Storm some competition. Thank the God of Light this wasn't my face. I stuck my tongue out at the mirror.
Oh dear God of Light...
The expression was so hilarious that I ended up doubled over in my laughter. It took me a full minute before I could suppress my laughter and straighten up, but then I immediately poked at my cheeks and made another face, muscles protesting at what I was putting them through. This was a testament to how closely trained Judgment normally kept his expressions -- my face was already growing tired from these expressions that had probably never graced his face before.
I poked at my cheeks some more. Hm, Judgment's skin is too coarse.... How can a twenty something year old's skin feel like this? It must be because he always stays out in the sun without doing any skin care!
I peered more closely at the reflection in the mirror. Are those... wrinkles?
Oh no. No way am I allowing this. We're the same freaking age! At this rate, people will think he's an old geezer! I better get Judgment into the habit of taking better care of his skin!
Still, even though he was my best friend, I wasn't going to let him use my precious ingredients. They cost me an arm and a leg!
An alternative. I'll have to come up with an alternative.
After all, I wouldn't be Grisia if I were to forsake my friend like this, turning a blind eye to his plight when I could have prevented his condition from worsening!
"I will defeat you!" I shouted at the mirror. How dare wrinkles exist in my presence!
"C-Captain Judgment, are you alright?!" came a sudden voice beyond my door.
Startled, I whirled around to face the door and blurted, "I'm fine!"
Damn, I shouldn't have yelled.
"Is there someone in there with you?" the person continued asking worriedly.
I hadn't immediately placed his voice, but now I was sure it was Radar who was outside in the hallway. Instead of saying anything further, I threw open the door, coming face-to-face with a startled Radar. I had been right about the identity of the person outside.
"I am perfectly well," I said as calmly as I could. I left the door open so that he could see that there was no one else inside.
He peered inside hesitantly before he looked sheepishly up at me, his emotions written clearly across his face. "I am sorry for disturbing you, sir! It was just that I thought I heard some strange laughter..."
Erk! He even heard that?
"Come, let's head to practice," I said instead, abruptly changing the topic. I grabbed Judgment's sword and started making my way toward the training grounds. Radar trotted after me quite obediently. Thank the God of Light for Radar's reverence of Judgment!
Mornings with no meetings meant that Judgment trained with his platoon before heading off to interrogate criminals. While I was quite certain I wouldn't give myself away in a meeting or an interrogation, training someone in swordsmanship was an entirely different story.
I had no intention of actually training with the Judgment Knight Platoon (that would give me away faster than I could devour a blueberry pie... Well, faster than Lesus could devour a blueberry pie at the moment), but I had every intention of cutting practice short so that I could actually eat breakfast today. Judgment might skip breakfast in fear of emptying his stomach after interrogations, but I wasn't going to repeat that dreadful experience from yesterday. I'd nearly starved!
It was with the resolution of merely overseeing practice that I approached the training grounds. Upon my presence, the judgment knights immediately filed into two straight rows and saluted me. "Good morning, Knight-Captain Judgment!"
I nearly took a step back because of the damn impressive sight these incomprehensible early-risers presented, but Radar was right behind me.
"What are your orders today, sir?" asked Radar eagerly.
Get me breakfast. Then get me some sour milk, lemon, roses, and flour...
Out loud, I said, "The usual."
Whatever that was! Damn, I should have asked Lesus...
Radar nodded and turned to bark orders at the rest of the platoon. "Two hundred swings! Then, one hundred thrusts! After that, pair off with your sparring partner to practice form B!"
Without wasting any time, the holy knights before me got into position and began swinging their swords.
"One!"
"Two!"
"Three!"
"Four!"
Damn, why aren't my holy knights ever this orderly? I've underestimated Radar! I didn't know he had it in him to be this authoritative!
Radar was at the front, leading them in their drills. I couldn't deny that he was indeed a capable vice-captain in his own way, though he really needed better control of his expressions. Truly, the result of having a captain that was too serious meant that the subordinates would become lax...
I walked up and down the rows, pretending like I was observing their forms when I didn't really know what they were doing. My teacher had tried his utmost to teach me, but my inability to perform any of the stances he had taught made remembering them...challenging.
After their first set of drills, Radar asked, "Will you be joining us, sir?"
All of the judgment knights stopped and stared at me expectantly.
I gulped. None of you would be looking at me like that if I had a sword in my hand!
Despite wanting to think that even I wasn't so terrible that I couldn't wield a sword even while in a master swordsman's body, the sparring from yesterday evening proved that I was indeed so ill-suited to a sword that I could even turn a master swordsman into a well-below average one just by inhabiting his body for a day.
The mere thought made me want to cry. "I leave today's training in your capable hands... Ra-" Shit, that's not his name, "-ndomly pull out some knights to inspect their progress... Vidar."
At first, Radar was crestfallen, but once I finished my instructions, he perked up. "Yes sir!"
I stood off to the side and watched their morning practice expressionlessly, continuing to pretend that I was paying attention.
When is breakfast...
to be continued
Next part