Chapter 26

Fifteen years ago, when I was still diligently studying at the Low-Level Warrior Academy, I was the pride of my parents and teachers, the exemplary "other people's child" in the eyes of the villagers.

At just ten years old, I had mastered over a dozen basic combat techniques and successfully entered the Black Iron rank, earning the title of the academy's pride and the future hero. I always strolled around the campus surrounded by my adorable junior girls, inadvertently showing off my genius...

"‘The genius from Class B? He only mastered the Continuous Counterattack, right? If he works hard for another ten years, he might reach half my level.’ I would casually comment on those talentless fools and enjoy the adoring gazes and praises of the cute junior girls. I thought those days would last forever, and when I grew up, I would become a great hero, marry a beautiful and wealthy woman, until that day..."

"‘Divine Magic talent? Admission notice from the Holy Light Academy? Become a glorious Holy Knight, I will, I will.’”

At that time, I had long been yearning for the golden Holy Knights. When I received the admission notice, I was ecstatic, but I vaguely ignored the worried expressions of my parents.

“Glorious Holy Knight? It seemed glorious, but in reality, it was just the beginning of a nightmare…”

“Graduation equals unemployment? How could that be? I am the once-in-a-decade genius knight of the Holy Knight Academy!! Look at my Holy Light!! Look at my Glorious Charge!!”

“Sorry, we are all devout holy servants. We need people who can preach and teach, not violent thugs. Our department has twelve positions, but it’s already overstaffed to twenty-four. Everyone is a graduate of the Holy Knight Academy, and they are your seniors. Why should they give up their positions for you?”

“I... I can be a freelance adventurer, right?”

“Sorry, as a holy servant blessed by the divine, you have an obligation to repay the Holy Light Church for your training. The Seventh Holy Hall needs a volunteer to clean the altar and the toilets... However, volunteers don’t get paid. The Holy Light will reward your efforts. Don’t worry, it won’t be long, three years will pass quickly.”

I still remember the old priest’s look when he turned his head. “Newbie, huh? I’ve been here for twenty years, and only got a permanent position after my hair turned white. You, a naive kid, just wait and see.”

“I... I’ll be a freelance adventurer, right!!”

Of course, I could, but I didn’t expect that to be the beginning of the nightmare...

Three years later, I finally became a freelance adventurer as scheduled. Why three years later? If I didn’t want to be hunted by the Holy Church, those three years of mandatory service couldn’t be skipped...

Well, seeing my juniors become veterans and the backbone of the adventurer teams, I was not discouraged. I was confident that with my Silver rank strength, I would soon become a star in everyone’s eyes again.

But soon, harsh reality gave me a hard blow.

“Don’t want? Why? I, a Silver rank Holy Knight, am willing to join your group of Bronze warriors. You should be happy, right? Unless... it’s because I’m a Holy Knight.”

The thief on the other side nodded.

“Holy Knights talk too much, have too many rules. Can you tolerate undead and half-demons as teammates? Can you communicate with gray organizations? Can you keep quiet during loot distribution? We adventurers often have to take on dirty jobs. Can you guarantee that you won’t talk too much and will obediently follow orders?”

Of course not! The Holy Church’s doctrine clearly states that all lost items should be returned to their rightful owners, and if the owners can’t be found, they should be handed over to the public. How can they be privately divided as loot? As for undead and half-demons? Evil chaos! We are at odds with you!

Well... different paths, no cooperation. If they don’t let me join the adventurer team, I’ll form my own...

Forming a team was smooth. The Adventurer Guild and taverns were full of Holy Knights and priests who couldn’t find teams. Soon, our “Radiant Earth” team set out on our journey.

But...

“No payment? That’s just waiting to starve to death.”

“Didn’t your mentor teach you when you started adventuring? We are knights serving the Holy Light and the public. The nature of an adventurer’s journey for a holy servant is just to gain experience. Helping people in distress is our duty. Since it’s a duty, how can we charge for it?”

“No money, what kind of adventurer am I? Do you want me to starve to death!!”

The senior smiled mysteriously. He did have a way, and it was the old method that kept Holy Knight adventurers from starving to death.

It turned out that we couldn’t accept payment, but if it was a donation to the Holy Church, we could keep one-third as our reward, but...

“Since it’s a donation, you can’t complain about the amount. But for killing a tribe of ogres, you only get one copper coin, enough to buy two black breads, not even enough to buy medicine. Oh, and you have to pay two-thirds of the copper coin to the church…”

“This is considered good. You haven’t encountered the goblin’s commission, that’s the worst.”

“Huh?”

“Donations can’t be priced, and you can’t choose what to donate... If you encounter a stingy goblin, not donating is better. If you donate a half-ton rock, you have to carry it back and cut it into three pieces, submitting two... As a senior, I warn you, if the goblin gives you what looks like good engineering supplies, it’s a violation of the doctrine to quickly throw them away. They are either explosive experiments, using you as a test subject, or bombs, also using you as a test subject.”

“By the way, be careful of the merfolk. Last time, I helped the merfolk clean the coastline, and they donated a lot of smelly, rotten fish. In the hot weather, they stank halfway through the journey. The smell could be detected from ten miles away... I had to shower under the waterfall for three days. I still remember the disdainful look of the priestess when I received the donation, as if she was looking at something dirty.”

The priest companion’s addition, though funny, made me want to cry.

“Then there are the half-goats, they are just a pain. Those stingy creatures used wool as payment, and it was even in lumps!! Can you imagine, grabbing a handful of wool, walking a few steps, and counting again to make sure you don’t miss any, and the feeling of not being able to submit it...”

“And other Holy Knights, everyone is so poor, but they don’t have to trick each other, right? Last time I met one...”

Soon, the consultation turned into a complaint session among my companions, and I became increasingly desperate about my future as a Holy Knight.

“... At least, Holy Knights are shiny and have a lot of women’s attention, right!!”

But soon, reality gave me another hard blow.

“Do you have a house? A mount? Savings?”

I lived in a public dormitory, full of sweaty men, which couldn’t be used for marriage. The church-provided mount was there, but how could I afford to keep a warhorse? I could only ride it when at war, and during the war, the fodder was paid for by the public... As for savings, well, hello, girl, goodbye, girl.

After being hit several times, I finally met a simple and cute girl who didn’t mind my poor conditions and was willing to date me!

“She was so beautiful and kind, she was my goddess.”

Strangely, we only held hands and went for walks. When I tried to deepen our relationship, she always refused.

At the time, I was puzzled but tried to endure it. After all, she was so pure. But after five years, I was thirty, and I couldn’t bear it anymore. I finally mustered the courage to ask.

“Huh? Aren’t Holy Knights knights of the divine, who must abstain from desire for life?”

“Damn!! We are Holy Knights, not monks (a few monks who take a vow of abstinence stay away from women for life)!”

I spent a lot of effort to make her understand the difference between monks and Holy Knights, but the next answer was despairing.

“That... I’m sorry, I just wanted a purely spiritual relationship, and I can’t agree to that. Can we still be friends?”

“Friends?! Friends my ass! I’m thirty years old!! My classmates already have a dozen kids.”

That night, in the dormitory full of smelly men, I cried my heart out, and my colleagues quietly sat by my side, giving me comfort.

“Do you know Al? The genius Holy Knight from Luca City?”

I thought of that life winner, whose girlfriend was both beautiful and wealthy.

“What’s the point of mentioning him? Aren’t you already heartbroken enough?”

“He fell, turned into a Black Knight, a servant of chaos. His wealthy girlfriend was a demon, who approached him to make him fall...”

“How many is this? Beforehand, many in the church had already suspected it. Why would such a good woman choose a Holy Knight? They warned him, but he didn’t believe it. No, he probably knew it himself, but he was deceiving himself, wanting to enjoy a happy life a bit longer.”

“Ha, everyone is numb. The women you find are mostly rejected, and those who come to you have problems. The church’s doctrine also forbids spending money to solve physiological needs. Even self-satisfaction is explicitly forbidden as an evil act...”

“We are human, not animals! A few days ago, the romance of two Holy Knights in West Mountain was exposed, and they were expelled from the church. They were my comrades, and I even went to see them off. They seemed happy, as they could be together... but they were both men! They were originally normal people who liked women! Being repressed for too long really causes problems! There are more and more gay Holy Knights in the church!”

“Actually, I started to think that men could be勉强 accepted...”

“Actually, me too. How about we try?...”

Since the sudden appearance of those quick-match “couples,” I was completely desperate, living like a zombie...

“Want to leave the Holy Church? Not be a Holy Knight? You have no other skills to support your family, and you’re already old. Starting over is not easy. The only seamless transition is to become a Black Knight. Are you sure you want to try?”

When I was desperate about life, even being sent to a dangerous underground world, I didn’t refuse. What’s the danger? At least I could get away from the increasing number of gay men around me!

But here, a turning point in life suddenly arrived.

“Nanxiang Law Academy? Short-term training, job placement? Holy Knights are exempt from exams! Is this real?”

“Let’s try, it can’t get any worse.”

I entered Nanxiang with a侥幸 attitude, after all, I was old and learning was slower.

But soon, I found that the law power they taught was not much different from my Holy Light. The silver law light, like Holy Light, is a lower concept of the source of order. Many techniques and abilities could be easily converted, and I picked them up quickly.

Moreover, they really guaranteed jobs!! Not just guaranteed, but even before graduation, I, an old guy, was fought over by dozens of employers.

“Law enforcement officers, police, judges, etc., are all top-tier people in society! I, this useless old guy, also have a chance to bloom again!”

“We don’t have annoying churches and deities to serve. We believe in the law, maintaining justice and fairness. But we are human, and we need to eat. Graduates from Nanxiang can easily handle criminals and villains. Even if they don’t become law enforcement officers, various security jobs can be trusted. Moreover, being in the order faction, Just Knights never commit crimes, strictly keeping their oaths and secrets, and are highly trusted by employers, with rapid promotions.”

Back then, the teacher spoke passionately on the stage, but with my experience, I didn’t really believe it.

“But then, everything changed!! As the teacher said, after graduation, I joined a large trading company. I only had to work at the front desk for twenty days a month, drive away troublemakers, and maintain order. My monthly salary was ten thousand gold coins, ten thousand gold coins!! Over two hundred times that of a Holy Knight! No wind or rain, no risk to life!!”

“What, you say Holy Knights can do that too? Idiot, Holy Knights serve the divine and Holy Light, how can they accept employment!”

“Moreover, soon, after saving money to buy a house, I found my beloved! I even bought a cute dragon horse with red dragon blood, capable of traveling a thousand miles a day and breathing fire. I finally became a true knight, not a foot soldier with a horse kept at the church.”

“Recently, I told my former comrades the latest news, and they all ran over. Now, they have all graduated from Nanxiang. Some became city guards, some became city management officers, some became judges, and those two gay Holy Knights, after making money, even became bosses, married wives, and had sons!!”

“Holy Knight brothers, come be Just Knights. Seamless transition, retaining all your powers, still fighting for order. The Holy Church will be happy to see your transition. After all, they don’t have much funding to support you.”

“Which law academy is the best? Find Nanxiang in Sulfur Mountain. Learn the skills first, then pay. Those who can use Holy Light are exempt from exams, and the first month’s salary covers the tuition. Try for a month with no fees. Our Nanxiang slogan is: study hard, work hard, get promotions and raises, marry a beautiful and wealthy woman! Mom doesn’t have to worry about me not finding a job, and I can be a big boss too.”

“Is this just a slogan? You still worry about not finding a job? Let me do the math for you. Every city needs police and law enforcement, every company needs security, every government needs a judicial system. This is a huge job market. You, a law pioneer, a child of the times, still worry about not finding a job? Come to Nanxiang, guaranteed to teach and employ. Graduates from the Holy Church are unemployed, but we at Nanxiang are employed before graduation!”

The above is the content of a flyer, signed by the Chief Judge of Sulfur Mountain City, the Sleepless One...

“Hey, that’s going too far. The Grand Bishop Bill reportedly fainted on the spot when he saw the flyer, almost dying from a stroke!!”

Yes, I am poaching from the Holy Church, and I’m doing it openly.

Of course, he would bleed. Although the above is a promotional soft article I wrote, it is all true and credible, and it hits all the pain points of the Holy Church and holy servants.

After all, I was once a Holy Knight, and many of the examples are based on real people... A strange sense of empathy made me repeatedly think, “Thank goodness, I’m no longer an unlucky Holy Knight.”

At this moment, facing Adam’s question about whether it was too much, I laughed.

“What’s too much? When I personally handed the flyers to those city management officers, they were overjoyed!!”

Of course, they were happy. Before, they were not fully integrated into the judicial system, but now, allowing them to practice law power means that my judicial system and Sulfur Mountain City fully accept them.

They have already proven their loyalty with blood and effort. If I rejected them, it would be inhumane.

“... You turned the Holy Light Knight team of the city management into a Law Knight team? Haven’t you told Bill yet? I’m afraid he can’t handle it.”

“I said, I sent people to report directly!”

“Sir!! You’re bleeding again!! This is the twentieth time this month! It’s going to rain, and the lady is getting married, it’s out of control. We should go back to the surface world.”

“Grand Bishop, it’s not good. Many Holy Knights and priests saw the flyer and said they want to go to Nanxiang. We can’t stop them!!”

The Grand Bishop continued to bleed...

Listening to Eliza’s report that the bishop was first shocked, then directly bled, and finally staged a farce when he learned that the city