Chapter 13: Standard Knight Examination (I)
“Yes.” The two young knights didn’t dare refute her at all, only respectfully answering.
The teenage girl extended her right hand towards Long Hao Chen: “Little brother, I am Li Xin. Let’s go, I’m taking you to see uncle Nalan.”
Long Hao Chen rejoiced greatly and took her hand: “Thank you elder sister, I am Long Hao Chen.”
Li Xin’s tender palm’s grip was strong, her skin was clearly somewhat rough, obviously because of her sword training. However, Long Hao Chen’s hand gave her another kind of feeling: for someone of his age, Long Hao Chen’s hand was quite smooth and to Li Xin, it felt soft and comfortable to hold it.
Upon entering into Hao Yue Hall, Long Hao Chen felt immediately a quaint atmosphere. The ground was covered by grey slates and a total of twelve thick pillars were supporting the entire Hall. In front of them, there were six huge stone chairs, each one was 3.3 meters high (1 Zhang) and on each of them were drawn numerous decorative patterns that Long Hao Chen had never seen before.
“Elder sister, what is this?” Long Hao Chen pointed at the six stone chairs as he asked, full of curiosity.
Li Xin’s look became solemn, “This is the symbol of our Knight Temple’s supreme glory, the divine thrones[1]. Only a Divine Knight can possess one of them. Little brother, do you know about Divine Knights? It is the highest rank that we, knights, can attain: the ninth step of the vocation. All of our seniors Divine Knights are legendary. It is said that they faced, by themselves, the seventy-two legendary demon gods in battle.”
It was the first time Long Hao Chen had heard about the title of Divine Knight. Xing Yu never told him anything regarding Divine Knights.
“Big sister, how formidable are Divine Knights? Why are they called Divine Knights?”
Li Xin replied: “It is precisely because they possess a divine throne: only after one is approved by the throne can he become a Divine Knight! You can’t consider them as mere chairs, each of them is a genuine artifact left by gods. My goal is precisely to one day become a Divine Knight.”
Long Hao Chen who seemed unconvinced said: “But there are only six of these divine thrones, what if it becomes not enough?”
Li Xin chuckled, “Silly boy, how can it be so easy? What do you think Divine Knights are? How can I explain to you that we, Knight Temple, have at present only three Divine Knights. To turn into a Divine Knight is truly incredibly difficult.”
As she was speaking, Li Xin had already brought Long Hao Chen to the second floor. The view of Hao Yue Hall was very high but, in reality, it was because every floor was very tall, so there were only three auxiliary floors.
Both of them went to a spacious room on the second floor and Li Xin said: “This is uncle Nalan’s room, but it is still early, he hasn’t arrived in the hall yet. He should arrive quickly though.”
After she said that, Li Xin lowered her voice and her face approached Long Hao Chen’s ear: “Long Hao Chen, should I call you little brother? Or little sister?”
“Eh?” Long Hao Chen was a little frightened by this sudden act and gave her a perplexed look.
Li Xin grinned: “Stop pretending, I originally ran out from home with a male attire to come to the Knight Temple, or else they wouldn’t have easily accepted a girl like me. You are the same as elder sister right? How can a boy possibly look as beautiful as you? Plus, after a few years, once your body will develop, especially here like elder sister, you will not be able to conceal yourself anymore.”
As she spoke, she also pulled Long Hao Chen’s hand onto her chest.
Although she wore a soft armor, a soft feeling still entered in Hao Chen’s hand. He originally wanted to refute her words, but couldn’t say anything at this moment. His face became incredibly flushed.
As far as he remembered, he hadn’t even been so intimate with his mother! Even if he didn’t understand the meaning of a man groping a woman, he subconsciously let out his bashful feelings and his shy face seemed as if it was bleeding at this moment.
“Yah, such timidity! Little sister, you are really lovely. Rest assured, I will properly look after you in the future, in this Hao Yue hall.” As she said that, Li Xin laughed holding Long Hao Chen’s little face between her fingers.
Long Hao Chen reacted, “Elder sister, I am really a boy, not a little sister… …” At this moment, his hand was still pushed on Li Xin’s chest, his brain was completely heat up and his voice became really low.
“Whem?” Li Xin understood all of a sudden, “You are really a boy?”
Long Hao Chen desperately nodded. Moving away his hand, he looked like a little child who made a mistake, and took a few steps back.
Li Xin looked a little vexed: “But how can your hand be so soft? And how can you look so beautiful? Did I really misunderstand? Argh, I got groped. Little brother, tell me, how will you compensate me.”
She wanted to leave the Hall back then, but just at this moment, she saw Long Hao Chen at the entrance. After a single look, she was reminded of the scene of herself arriving for the first time at the Temple Hall and she had a good first impression of Long Hao Chen who tried to enter. But, at this moment, she realized her own mistake of taking the initiative to hold this little boy’s hand. Wasn’t this an excessively indecent act? In her heart Li Xin was depressed. Luckily this little boy in front of her looked only about ten years old.
“I, I really don’t know.” Long Hao Chen frankly said but, in his heart, he thought, it was you who pulled my hand to make me grope you, I didn’t really want to grope you!
Li Xin’s face was white and red and after having spent a long time thinking, she said helplessly: “Okay, I’ll let you go, little guy. But you have to keep this a secret with me! You can’t let other people know. In the future, I will be your elder sister; an elder sister who had let her little brother touch her below, it is no big deal.”
To be able to run away from home to choose to become a knight, this girl’s disposition wasn’t weak. She quickly found a lame excuse to deal with this twisted situation.
“Xin Er, what are you doing here?” at this moment, a growling voice resounded.
Long Hao Chen and Li Xin turned around in the same time to find a huge giant who was entering.
No mistake, it was really a huge giant. His body was at least two meters high, but more exactly, he was 2.64 meters (eight Chi) tall, a 2.64 meters tall strong man. Even in a solid building such as Hao Yue Hall, the ground could be felt shaking.
“Uncle Nalan, you should really lose some weight, otherwise you will hardly leave the first floor. If you don’t, I’m afraid of the day when Hao Yue Hall will collapse from inside.” Li Xin snappily says.
This “strong man” was Hao Yue Hall’s host, Nalan Shu.
Nalan Shu, who just heard her words, didn’t get angered. He laughed out and simply said: “By only drinking I still gain weight, what can I do? Yi, are you the one who brought this little girl? She’s your family relative?”
“I am a boy.” To be misunderstood as a girl by Li Xin was still okay even if she made him grope her, but upon hearing this fatty uncle speak like this, Long Hao Chen who was depressed and discontent towards him immediately protested.
“Um?” Nalan Shu seemed distracted, Li Xin refrained from laughing upon seeing Long Hao Chen’s behaviour and told him his goal.
“What kind of letter is it? Show it to me.” Nalan Shu directed his hand towards Long Hao Chen.
Long Hao Chen took a deep breath and calmed down his depressed heart, then he put the letter in Nalan Shu’s hand.
Opening the letter, Nalan Shu looked pleased, but after a little look, his complexion completely changed. His tall body stood straight; and when he finished to read the letter, he wore an extremely serious look.
1. TL note: Shen Yin Wang Zuo, the novel’s title. I took the ‘sealed’ out of the TL, because “Sealed Divine Knight” would have sounded awkward.