For the Knights who had made it through the selection and into the final list, today's festival was, without a doubt, an immense honor. No matter what their past origins were, no matter what their current status was, they had now become the brightest, most glorious group in the entire city, tightly guarding the Divine Statue of the Sun Goddess, parading around the city once, and then, amid the attention of all, entering the Lion Ring Arena flanked by tens of thousands of cheering people.
In a single day, they perfectly illustrated what it means: "Yesterday's wretchedness is not worth boasting of; today's wild exuberance knows no bounds. When the spring wind favors you, your horse's hooves fly; in one day you see all the blossoms of Chang'an."
It is human nature to worship heroes; in this numb and dark Empire, that worship has been magnified to the extreme.
