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[Legend of Sun Knight] fic: New Horizons -That Person Now Returned- (9/9)
Title: New Horizons -That Person Now Returned- (9/9)
Fandom: The Legend of Sun Knight
Words: 2,798
Summary: Not long after Grisia assumes the position of the 38th Sun Knight, he spots a familiar face among the crowds—Roland, who has become a royal knight captain after disappearing from Grisia's life. However, trouble brews among the palace. This time around, is it Grisia's turn to look after Roland?
Notes: Here's the ending! \o\ This part ended up so much longer than all the others haha. Kind of went, whoops, here's another end I need to tie up. Anyway, here it is. I'm pretty proud that I was able to post this daily. And it's finished. 8D End word count was ~14.6k. Darn, so close to 15k! Spoiler warning for stuff we find out near the end of v6. Warning for non graphic mention of torture and its repercussions.
When I next woke up, I was in my own bed. I still felt tired, but not to the point that I would faint again. I turned, not surprised that my good friend Judgment was sitting to the side of my bed with some paperwork on his lap.
"You're up," he said, moving the paperwork aside. "The Pope said you exhausted your magic."
As always, such a dependable tapeworm, answering my question before I even had to ask. Now, if only you could keep on explaining stuff without needing my input!
"Roland?" I rasped out. Ugh, how is this the same voice that sang in front of so many people the other day? All of our followers would desert the Church of the God of Light if this is what they got!
Judgment handed me a glass of water and helped me up. As I drank greedily, he said, "The Pope and the bishops have been seeing him. He will recover."
Damn, his condition is so serious that even the Pope and the bishops have to step in?
Still, I gave a nod and leaned back, closing my eyes in relief. I hadn't been too late, even though Roland had looked like a corpse. I had almost thought that I would need to use Resurrection on him or something, but that was not a spell that I knew.
Sure, I could rush off and study it right away, but no matter how good I was at absorbing magic like a sponge, there was no guarantee that I could learn it just like that. Besides, it wasn't like I could use Roland as my first test subject. What if he came back wrong, with wings or horns or something? What if he became even more of a sword idiot, or so incurably serious that he never smiled or laughed?
My hesitancy at reconnecting had almost cost him his life. Healing spells could patch him up, but it wasn't like they could replenish all the lost blood, or wipe the trauma from his mind. Some scars were the kind that simply never went away.
I hadn't even been able to cast any healing spells to begin the healing process for him until we were out of the torture chamber.
Now, I finally understood the ten percent of uncertainty I had felt. My suspicions hadn't just been paranoia.
I opened my eyes and caught Judgment's gaze.
"Judgment, the room blocked my magic," I told him. "The king isn't smart enough to set something like that up."
"The king's behavior in front of the mirror was strange as well," Judgment continued on from my observation, unsurprised by what I had brought up.
I nodded and said, "He totally seemed like he was about to piss himself when he realized we were there, but that inattentiveness before that? There's no way he couldn't have heard us knock, yet he just kept stupidly staring into the mirror."
"My platoon is investigating the mirror as we speak," Judgment said. "There's another party involved, isn't there?"
I nodded. I hated that I didn't know who it was. Was it one of the palace mages? Or was it someone else? I knew too little. Whoever the other person was, they were unquestionably guilty, and I would never forgive them.
Judgment gave a nod in response, and said, "From my initial interrogation, the king appears to be completely unaware that there was a third party who tampered with the room and his mind."
"Just how stupid can he get?" I asked in disbelief.
Seriously. It didn't matter that there was some unknown person out there who had manipulated him. The king was just as guilty for his nasty hobby and his utter stupidity.
Judgment wasn't done with the bad news. He continued on to say, "I should also let you know that the bishops reported that there are signs of injuries on Roland that were healed over several times, including bones that weren't set quite right."
My first thought was that I had put Roland back together wrong, until I realized what Judgment was implying. "You're saying that...?"
Judgment gave a grim nod. "He was tortured and healed, then tortured and healed again, several times over."
I clenched my fists so hard that my nails dug into my skin. With a cold voice, I said, "Lock him up. King or not, tricked or not, lock that damn bastard up. We won't let the other one escape either."
"Even the king isn't above the law," Judgment agreed. "This will pit us against the royal family."
I nodded and said, "There will be plenty of people out there who will think the Church of the God of Light is trying to seize power, but there will also be plenty of people awed by our unwavering stance on justice, and the rest of the nobles will think twice before they try to step out of line after this. Furthermore, the maids and the royal knights, though not of high status, will be grateful and feel that they matter. We will have their support. There is power in numbers."
I turned and smirked at Judgment. "Besides, what better way to send a message to that third party? If even the king cannot escape from justice, then what chance does that person have?"
I sat by the fountain side, listening to the spray of water behind me.
The prince, though frustrated by our audacity, knew he had no room to fault us, not when his father had done something so deplorable, and when we had actually, in some ways, saved his father too.
Storm had rounded up a startling number of maids to give testimony about their torture over the years, many shaking too much to complete their testimony, often only able to continue thanks to Storm's gentle encouragement.
It was the scandal of the century, with the final nail in the coffin delivered by Roland, who showed up to share what had happened to him while he was still limping and all bandaged up. If that wasn't enough, the indignant royal knights who had been part of Roland's rescue had plenty to say, too.
Needless to say, the king stood no chance against the overwhelming evidence. All in all, his sentence was a light one, in consideration of the third party's involvement, and a courtesy to the prince, whom we could not completely alienate.
The king, after the Pope checked his mind, was deemed unfit to rule. His actions may have been exacerbated due to hypnotism, but they were still his own. Apparently, the tampering of his mind could only have been recent, or else he would have turned into an invalid by now. The many years of torture of the palace servants were all him and no one else's fault. It was just that someone had recently taken notice of his disgusting hobby and taken advantage of it, but the purpose behind it was still a mystery.
The king's sentence was immediate abdication of his throne, monetary compensation to all his victims, and confinement to the "jail cells," punishment and forced recovery at the same time. We could not let him be accessible to whoever was still out there. The prince, ever soft-hearted toward his despicable father, furnished his father's jail cell with more luxury than he deserved.
The prince, whose coronation was soon to happen, then shocked me by announcing his intent to take Roland as his knight-confidant. In other words, Roland was getting promoted, even though what he was getting promoted for was dealing a huge blow to the prince's own family.
How magnanimous of the prince, exactly what he'd want everyone to think.
Sure, even the prince couldn't deny the excellent work Roland had done in exposing the injustice happening in the palace, and, as a by-product, helping his father break free of some unknown person's manipulations. But Roland will also always be that person who landed the prince's own father in a jail cell.
As I always said, the prince was shrewd. He knew the appointment would earn him good publicity, and he needed all the help he could get in that department after all that had gone down. I would worry for Roland's safety, but this had become such a public affair that if anything were to happen to Roland again, the royal family would be the first to fall under suspicion.
In other words, there was no safer position for Roland than at the prince's right hand side, even if the prince resented him. Roland, once he recovered, immediately jumped straight back into work, joining the investigation searching for the third party who had tampered with the king's mind.
He was such a terrible workaholic that I wondered if he or Storm would be the first to keel over from overwork.
Here before me was a case in point. He could very well have organized for other squads to patrol this month, as his health was not the best and he had other investigative work to do—yet here he was, on his usual patrols.
The group of royal knights I had roped in as witnesses were passing through the plaza, as they always did. At the head of the group was Roland, who had given me much too big of a scare, and his subordinates dearly agreed with me. Foot was practically stuck to Roland like glue, eyes following him everywhere, afraid that his captain would vanish without a trace once more. After what had happened, I had no doubt that they would suspect any mention of Roland ever going on a "mission" again.
Good, keep a close eye on him!
Roland was no longer limping. I was glad to see that his limp wasn't permanent. His complexion was also much healthier, though he still had patches of discolored skin from his burns and where his skin had been peeled off. Even the best healing spells could not expedite his recovery more than this.
I stood up and brushed myself off, intent on returning to the Holy Temple now that I had ascertained for myself his health once again. Tomorrow, I would return.
But as I turned, I heard Foot's questioning voice at the same time as footsteps approached me. I glanced over, only to see that Roland had broken away from the rest.
Hey hey, now you're coming over to check on me when you didn't do so at the dessert shop? What gives?!
He came up to me and said with a smile, "It really is you. Grisia, you're the same as always, lost in your thoughts while sitting down."
Hearing his voice alleviated another of my worries. He was able to pronounce my name now, when he had only been able to slur it back in the king's room. I found out later that the effing king had actually sliced Roland's tongue and could very well have taken his speech from him altogether if we had found him any later.
"I'm not sitting right now," I said, our conversation so normal that it was like it hadn't been years and too many hardships since we had last spoken, and no, calling my name didn't count.
Damn, now that I was face-to-face with him, it was so obvious how much taller he had grown since we were kids. I mean, I had seen even from afar that he had grown much taller than before, but having him before me was an entirely different experience, so much that I felt momentarily off-kilter as my mind tried to meld the visage of the man before me with the boy who had been my first friend.
Still, I took the sight in, preferring this much better than the one of him lying lifeless on that hideous wooden bed.
"You were earlier," he said with a shrug, his gaze drawn to a trail of ants marching along the crack in the cobblestone by our feet.
There were tons of things I could have said to him. Did he hate me? Did he still yearn to be the Sun Knight? Was he okay? Even though it was such a sunny day, just watching him stare at those stupid ants was making me shiver. I dearly hoped that the sight of the ants was not sending him back to that room, where he had gotten sugar water dribbled over him so that ants would swarm to him.
I had not been able to spare him from all of that.
There were so many things I could have said, but all I said was, "Roland, even though I didn't become a cleric, I'm glad I was still able to heal your injuries."
I'm glad I was able to provide you with some relief.
It really wasn't enough, but at least it was something.
Roland had had a strange look on his face that day he passed by the dessert shop and saw me in line. I had thought it to be amusement, but now that he was actually before me, I realized it wasn't that.
It was... a fond look, as if he'd missed those times he had lined up for me, as if he'd missed... me. Just like how I missed him.
"You sure did," he murmured, breaking his gaze from the trail of ants.
Then, he looked up and smiled at me with that fond look on his face, and I knew he would be fine.
Though he had walked away that day without even glancing back at me, though I had almost been too late, I hadn't been, and he had returned after all.
It was going to take time, but he was going to be fine.
I would make sure of it.
I smiled back at him and said, "Roland, did you know that the shop we used to go to has gotten even more popular? They have some new flavors now, too! Let's go buy some lollipops!"
"But, I'm still in the middle of patrolling..." Roland began to say with a frown, ever so dutiful. However, Foot came to save the day, pushing his captain along and even giving me a thumbs up that I didn't quite know how to respond to. He's sure grown confident!
I suppose after getting pushed around by Judgment, nothing could scare him anymore, and certainly not the shiny Sun Knight hiding under a cloak, if he has even realized who I am. Perhaps he even felt some camaraderie with me because of how we had saved his captain together.
In any case, Roland and I walked together to the dessert shop, just like what we used to do all those years ago when we were but children eager to buy some candy. Later, we would continue to search for that third party, but for now, all I wanted was to share this time with Roland.
As I chattered on about all the flavors he could choose from, even though blueberry was clearly the best, I caught him gazing at me with that look again.
I rolled my eyes and nudged him with my elbow, glad that he was close enough for me to do so, instead of separated by a sea of people, or even worse, gone from my life.
Really, I should be the one looking at him with sentimentality.
"Hey," I said when I had his attention. "I'm so glad that you're here."
Off in a pink house a distance away from the better part of the city, an undead necromancer lazily unwrapped the large, strawberry lollipop she had been saving. She kicked her feet back and forth as she licked the lollipop.
"Darn that Sun for ruining my plans," she said with a pout. She had worked so hard to hypnotize the king so that he would torture Roland endlessly, to the point that he would die with burning hatred and regret. Only then could she turn him into a death knight, an existence that no one could touch. She had to cut her losses when Sun stormed through the palace and created such a huge commotion. There was no way she could still manipulate the king from the shadows after that.
All that hard work for nothing! She wasn't going to forgive Sun even though he always brought her lollipops. But then, she took another lick and thought of something.
"Roland as the knight-confidant to the newly crowned king? It's not as good as having him become the Sun Knight or a death knight, but I can work with that."
She stuck the lollipop in her mouth and grinned.
In fact, she should probably thank Sun for getting her child into such an influential position. She couldn't have planned it better herself.
the end
And that's a wrap!
Halfway through writing, I was still deciding if Roland dies or not in this version of events, but I thought it would be more interesting to explore what happens when he is successfully rescued. (Also, like what Sun explained in the story, he doesn't know Resurrection yet, so he wouldn't have been able to revive Roland)
When I reread the part where Storm tells us all the different torture methods the king used on Roland, I got to thinking that gosh, if Roland had actually survived all that, I bet he'd still feel the trauma. I mean, ants crawling all over him? A cut tongue? Branding? D: I think, dying and getting turned into a death knight probably actually dulled those memories. He had other stuff to focus on. Like... death.
But here, Roland is dealing with different stuff.
So yeah, Roland is a knight-confidant now, whoot! He's high up over there with the royal knights, kind of taking Elijah's spot? Maybe this means Elijah would eventually return to being the Hell Knight. I don't really know, haha.
By the way, the princess wasn't in her room since she was off with Elijah in the tunnels...
I hope it wasn't too much of a stretch for Grisia to realize that someone else was meddling. I really wanted them to notice. :')
I'm still kind of amazed that this fic ended up over 14k long... This was just supposed to be about Roland "returning." OTL Also felt the story ran way too close to canon (again...) but hopefully the ending makes things different enough!
Fandom: The Legend of Sun Knight
Words: 2,798
Summary: Not long after Grisia assumes the position of the 38th Sun Knight, he spots a familiar face among the crowds—Roland, who has become a royal knight captain after disappearing from Grisia's life. However, trouble brews among the palace. This time around, is it Grisia's turn to look after Roland?
Notes: Here's the ending! \o\ This part ended up so much longer than all the others haha. Kind of went, whoops, here's another end I need to tie up. Anyway, here it is. I'm pretty proud that I was able to post this daily. And it's finished. 8D End word count was ~14.6k. Darn, so close to 15k! Spoiler warning for stuff we find out near the end of v6. Warning for non graphic mention of torture and its repercussions.
Part 9
When I next woke up, I was in my own bed. I still felt tired, but not to the point that I would faint again. I turned, not surprised that my good friend Judgment was sitting to the side of my bed with some paperwork on his lap.
"You're up," he said, moving the paperwork aside. "The Pope said you exhausted your magic."
As always, such a dependable tapeworm, answering my question before I even had to ask. Now, if only you could keep on explaining stuff without needing my input!
"Roland?" I rasped out. Ugh, how is this the same voice that sang in front of so many people the other day? All of our followers would desert the Church of the God of Light if this is what they got!
Judgment handed me a glass of water and helped me up. As I drank greedily, he said, "The Pope and the bishops have been seeing him. He will recover."
Damn, his condition is so serious that even the Pope and the bishops have to step in?
Still, I gave a nod and leaned back, closing my eyes in relief. I hadn't been too late, even though Roland had looked like a corpse. I had almost thought that I would need to use Resurrection on him or something, but that was not a spell that I knew.
Sure, I could rush off and study it right away, but no matter how good I was at absorbing magic like a sponge, there was no guarantee that I could learn it just like that. Besides, it wasn't like I could use Roland as my first test subject. What if he came back wrong, with wings or horns or something? What if he became even more of a sword idiot, or so incurably serious that he never smiled or laughed?
My hesitancy at reconnecting had almost cost him his life. Healing spells could patch him up, but it wasn't like they could replenish all the lost blood, or wipe the trauma from his mind. Some scars were the kind that simply never went away.
I hadn't even been able to cast any healing spells to begin the healing process for him until we were out of the torture chamber.
Now, I finally understood the ten percent of uncertainty I had felt. My suspicions hadn't just been paranoia.
I opened my eyes and caught Judgment's gaze.
"Judgment, the room blocked my magic," I told him. "The king isn't smart enough to set something like that up."
"The king's behavior in front of the mirror was strange as well," Judgment continued on from my observation, unsurprised by what I had brought up.
I nodded and said, "He totally seemed like he was about to piss himself when he realized we were there, but that inattentiveness before that? There's no way he couldn't have heard us knock, yet he just kept stupidly staring into the mirror."
"My platoon is investigating the mirror as we speak," Judgment said. "There's another party involved, isn't there?"
I nodded. I hated that I didn't know who it was. Was it one of the palace mages? Or was it someone else? I knew too little. Whoever the other person was, they were unquestionably guilty, and I would never forgive them.
Judgment gave a nod in response, and said, "From my initial interrogation, the king appears to be completely unaware that there was a third party who tampered with the room and his mind."
"Just how stupid can he get?" I asked in disbelief.
Seriously. It didn't matter that there was some unknown person out there who had manipulated him. The king was just as guilty for his nasty hobby and his utter stupidity.
Judgment wasn't done with the bad news. He continued on to say, "I should also let you know that the bishops reported that there are signs of injuries on Roland that were healed over several times, including bones that weren't set quite right."
My first thought was that I had put Roland back together wrong, until I realized what Judgment was implying. "You're saying that...?"
Judgment gave a grim nod. "He was tortured and healed, then tortured and healed again, several times over."
I clenched my fists so hard that my nails dug into my skin. With a cold voice, I said, "Lock him up. King or not, tricked or not, lock that damn bastard up. We won't let the other one escape either."
"Even the king isn't above the law," Judgment agreed. "This will pit us against the royal family."
I nodded and said, "There will be plenty of people out there who will think the Church of the God of Light is trying to seize power, but there will also be plenty of people awed by our unwavering stance on justice, and the rest of the nobles will think twice before they try to step out of line after this. Furthermore, the maids and the royal knights, though not of high status, will be grateful and feel that they matter. We will have their support. There is power in numbers."
I turned and smirked at Judgment. "Besides, what better way to send a message to that third party? If even the king cannot escape from justice, then what chance does that person have?"
I sat by the fountain side, listening to the spray of water behind me.
The prince, though frustrated by our audacity, knew he had no room to fault us, not when his father had done something so deplorable, and when we had actually, in some ways, saved his father too.
Storm had rounded up a startling number of maids to give testimony about their torture over the years, many shaking too much to complete their testimony, often only able to continue thanks to Storm's gentle encouragement.
It was the scandal of the century, with the final nail in the coffin delivered by Roland, who showed up to share what had happened to him while he was still limping and all bandaged up. If that wasn't enough, the indignant royal knights who had been part of Roland's rescue had plenty to say, too.
Needless to say, the king stood no chance against the overwhelming evidence. All in all, his sentence was a light one, in consideration of the third party's involvement, and a courtesy to the prince, whom we could not completely alienate.
The king, after the Pope checked his mind, was deemed unfit to rule. His actions may have been exacerbated due to hypnotism, but they were still his own. Apparently, the tampering of his mind could only have been recent, or else he would have turned into an invalid by now. The many years of torture of the palace servants were all him and no one else's fault. It was just that someone had recently taken notice of his disgusting hobby and taken advantage of it, but the purpose behind it was still a mystery.
The king's sentence was immediate abdication of his throne, monetary compensation to all his victims, and confinement to the "jail cells," punishment and forced recovery at the same time. We could not let him be accessible to whoever was still out there. The prince, ever soft-hearted toward his despicable father, furnished his father's jail cell with more luxury than he deserved.
The prince, whose coronation was soon to happen, then shocked me by announcing his intent to take Roland as his knight-confidant. In other words, Roland was getting promoted, even though what he was getting promoted for was dealing a huge blow to the prince's own family.
How magnanimous of the prince, exactly what he'd want everyone to think.
Sure, even the prince couldn't deny the excellent work Roland had done in exposing the injustice happening in the palace, and, as a by-product, helping his father break free of some unknown person's manipulations. But Roland will also always be that person who landed the prince's own father in a jail cell.
As I always said, the prince was shrewd. He knew the appointment would earn him good publicity, and he needed all the help he could get in that department after all that had gone down. I would worry for Roland's safety, but this had become such a public affair that if anything were to happen to Roland again, the royal family would be the first to fall under suspicion.
In other words, there was no safer position for Roland than at the prince's right hand side, even if the prince resented him. Roland, once he recovered, immediately jumped straight back into work, joining the investigation searching for the third party who had tampered with the king's mind.
He was such a terrible workaholic that I wondered if he or Storm would be the first to keel over from overwork.
Here before me was a case in point. He could very well have organized for other squads to patrol this month, as his health was not the best and he had other investigative work to do—yet here he was, on his usual patrols.
The group of royal knights I had roped in as witnesses were passing through the plaza, as they always did. At the head of the group was Roland, who had given me much too big of a scare, and his subordinates dearly agreed with me. Foot was practically stuck to Roland like glue, eyes following him everywhere, afraid that his captain would vanish without a trace once more. After what had happened, I had no doubt that they would suspect any mention of Roland ever going on a "mission" again.
Good, keep a close eye on him!
Roland was no longer limping. I was glad to see that his limp wasn't permanent. His complexion was also much healthier, though he still had patches of discolored skin from his burns and where his skin had been peeled off. Even the best healing spells could not expedite his recovery more than this.
I stood up and brushed myself off, intent on returning to the Holy Temple now that I had ascertained for myself his health once again. Tomorrow, I would return.
But as I turned, I heard Foot's questioning voice at the same time as footsteps approached me. I glanced over, only to see that Roland had broken away from the rest.
Hey hey, now you're coming over to check on me when you didn't do so at the dessert shop? What gives?!
He came up to me and said with a smile, "It really is you. Grisia, you're the same as always, lost in your thoughts while sitting down."
Hearing his voice alleviated another of my worries. He was able to pronounce my name now, when he had only been able to slur it back in the king's room. I found out later that the effing king had actually sliced Roland's tongue and could very well have taken his speech from him altogether if we had found him any later.
"I'm not sitting right now," I said, our conversation so normal that it was like it hadn't been years and too many hardships since we had last spoken, and no, calling my name didn't count.
Damn, now that I was face-to-face with him, it was so obvious how much taller he had grown since we were kids. I mean, I had seen even from afar that he had grown much taller than before, but having him before me was an entirely different experience, so much that I felt momentarily off-kilter as my mind tried to meld the visage of the man before me with the boy who had been my first friend.
Still, I took the sight in, preferring this much better than the one of him lying lifeless on that hideous wooden bed.
"You were earlier," he said with a shrug, his gaze drawn to a trail of ants marching along the crack in the cobblestone by our feet.
There were tons of things I could have said to him. Did he hate me? Did he still yearn to be the Sun Knight? Was he okay? Even though it was such a sunny day, just watching him stare at those stupid ants was making me shiver. I dearly hoped that the sight of the ants was not sending him back to that room, where he had gotten sugar water dribbled over him so that ants would swarm to him.
I had not been able to spare him from all of that.
There were so many things I could have said, but all I said was, "Roland, even though I didn't become a cleric, I'm glad I was still able to heal your injuries."
I'm glad I was able to provide you with some relief.
It really wasn't enough, but at least it was something.
Roland had had a strange look on his face that day he passed by the dessert shop and saw me in line. I had thought it to be amusement, but now that he was actually before me, I realized it wasn't that.
It was... a fond look, as if he'd missed those times he had lined up for me, as if he'd missed... me. Just like how I missed him.
"You sure did," he murmured, breaking his gaze from the trail of ants.
Then, he looked up and smiled at me with that fond look on his face, and I knew he would be fine.
Though he had walked away that day without even glancing back at me, though I had almost been too late, I hadn't been, and he had returned after all.
It was going to take time, but he was going to be fine.
I would make sure of it.
I smiled back at him and said, "Roland, did you know that the shop we used to go to has gotten even more popular? They have some new flavors now, too! Let's go buy some lollipops!"
"But, I'm still in the middle of patrolling..." Roland began to say with a frown, ever so dutiful. However, Foot came to save the day, pushing his captain along and even giving me a thumbs up that I didn't quite know how to respond to. He's sure grown confident!
I suppose after getting pushed around by Judgment, nothing could scare him anymore, and certainly not the shiny Sun Knight hiding under a cloak, if he has even realized who I am. Perhaps he even felt some camaraderie with me because of how we had saved his captain together.
In any case, Roland and I walked together to the dessert shop, just like what we used to do all those years ago when we were but children eager to buy some candy. Later, we would continue to search for that third party, but for now, all I wanted was to share this time with Roland.
As I chattered on about all the flavors he could choose from, even though blueberry was clearly the best, I caught him gazing at me with that look again.
I rolled my eyes and nudged him with my elbow, glad that he was close enough for me to do so, instead of separated by a sea of people, or even worse, gone from my life.
Really, I should be the one looking at him with sentimentality.
"Hey," I said when I had his attention. "I'm so glad that you're here."
Off in a pink house a distance away from the better part of the city, an undead necromancer lazily unwrapped the large, strawberry lollipop she had been saving. She kicked her feet back and forth as she licked the lollipop.
"Darn that Sun for ruining my plans," she said with a pout. She had worked so hard to hypnotize the king so that he would torture Roland endlessly, to the point that he would die with burning hatred and regret. Only then could she turn him into a death knight, an existence that no one could touch. She had to cut her losses when Sun stormed through the palace and created such a huge commotion. There was no way she could still manipulate the king from the shadows after that.
All that hard work for nothing! She wasn't going to forgive Sun even though he always brought her lollipops. But then, she took another lick and thought of something.
"Roland as the knight-confidant to the newly crowned king? It's not as good as having him become the Sun Knight or a death knight, but I can work with that."
She stuck the lollipop in her mouth and grinned.
In fact, she should probably thank Sun for getting her child into such an influential position. She couldn't have planned it better herself.
the end
And that's a wrap!
Halfway through writing, I was still deciding if Roland dies or not in this version of events, but I thought it would be more interesting to explore what happens when he is successfully rescued. (Also, like what Sun explained in the story, he doesn't know Resurrection yet, so he wouldn't have been able to revive Roland)
When I reread the part where Storm tells us all the different torture methods the king used on Roland, I got to thinking that gosh, if Roland had actually survived all that, I bet he'd still feel the trauma. I mean, ants crawling all over him? A cut tongue? Branding? D: I think, dying and getting turned into a death knight probably actually dulled those memories. He had other stuff to focus on. Like... death.
But here, Roland is dealing with different stuff.
So yeah, Roland is a knight-confidant now, whoot! He's high up over there with the royal knights, kind of taking Elijah's spot? Maybe this means Elijah would eventually return to being the Hell Knight. I don't really know, haha.
By the way, the princess wasn't in her room since she was off with Elijah in the tunnels...
I hope it wasn't too much of a stretch for Grisia to realize that someone else was meddling. I really wanted them to notice. :')
I'm still kind of amazed that this fic ended up over 14k long... This was just supposed to be about Roland "returning." OTL Also felt the story ran way too close to canon (again...) but hopefully the ending makes things different enough!