Bu Sha
/ Bu Sha Volume 1
Chapter 1 : Fateful Meeting
This chapter is brought to you by AnmesicCat and StellarAshes.
"Ah, cleaning is really a chore."
A slender boy, who looked almost handsome and cute, straightened his aching back, and returned to sweeping with his broom in discontent while mumbling complains:
"How wonderful would it be if I had a Maxun (a name of a machine) to help me sweep!"
However, it was nothing but a fantasy. A Maxun costs a lot of money, especially a full-featured one, and it wasn’t something a minor with random part-time jobs could afford, especially when he has to go to school.
The damn tuition was so expensive, he got dizzy from working everyday, and he often found himself standing in front of his school, with a guava in his hands.
What? Bombing a school is immoral? How could you bomb a school with a guava? What do you think a guava is, a hand grenade?
Hmph, how could he possibly afford a hand grenade. It would be nice even if he could afford a guava to break the school's window. But seriously, the reinforced glass in the school can't be broken by a single guava.
Upholding his principle of not letting anything go to waste, the guava was, of course, saved every time, and later became his after meal fruit.
Pzz!
The boy frowned, what was that strange sound? Could be the pre-owned automatic laundry, spinning, tumble dry, and super old to the point of being ancient, washing Maxun was giving him trouble again?
Oh no! The boy rushed anxiously to check the condition of the washing Maxun, because his only remaining uniform was inside. If he loses his last uniform, he would have to wear underwear to school.
Before the boy reached the Maxun, he already knew the sound had absolutely nothing to do with the pitiful machine. A strange, colourful whirlpool appeared beside him, and became bigger and bigger. His poor room soon began to distort…
"Goddammit! I know I'm very unlucky, but I can't be this unlucky, right?" The boy looked around the distorted space helplessly.
The boy wondered if the same unluckiness that killed his parents was going to kill him now: "Even cleaning a room was going to lead to this?"
Despite his complaints, the boy decided he wanted to live, so he hurriedly backed away from the distorted space.
When he was just about to jump out the window, a flash of light intrigued him. Although his right foot was already on the window pane, he couldn't help but look at the strange phenomenon behind him.
The whirlpool started expanding outward, suddenly a ray of light emerged, followed by thousands more, filling the entire room…
"Holy sh*t!" The boy could not help but curse in his native dialect. His eyes had been blinded by the light.
He desperately shook his head, trying to shake off the dizziness caused by the light. The boy cursed: "Damn, the ancestors were right; curiosity would really f—ing kill a cat."
Even though he was blinded, he could still somewhat sense the changes around him. The temporary blindness was already fading, and the strange feeling of the surrounding space gradually dissipated.
Instead of the whirlpool, there stood a person! The boy grabbed the gun on the table, and without looking, aimed at the person by using his senses.
"Who is it?"
The boy's eyes was recovering and he could see the person's outline. Judging from the person's outline, he doesn't seem very muscular but normally, the real gosu* aren't the muscular type. He asked carefully, but at the same time, held his gun at the person.[T/N: Gosu – A Korean term used to refer to a highly skilled person.]
Who knew the whirlpool would spit out yet another person, who had a really strong murderous intent, and raised a weapon to greet the person who arrived before.
"Master, why don't you give up now. The organisation will not let you go, so it's better to die in my hands."
The second person who had murderous intent said coldly. Judging by the voice, the person was a woman.
"Yasha, the murderous intent you emit is too strong, and it's not something a real Assassin should do." The so-called Master plainly corrected the student's mistake.
"Shut up!" Yasha yelled, her buried anger surfacing. She will never be this person's subordinate, never!
The legendary perfect Assassin will be stopped by her, and she will take over the title as the best Assassin! Killing him, as long as she kills the Master who started her to the path of being an Assassin, she will be become best Assassin!
The two silently stood facing each other. Other than the sound of the Master's blood dripping, everything else seemed like the calm before a storm… A duel to death was about to start!
"Oh wow, what are you two doing in someone else's house? Saying things I don't understand, and now you're all quiet. Hey! If you guys are going to fight go outside! If you break anything in my house, I swear I will make you pay, and I mean it…" The boy finally recovered his sight, and saw a man and a woman facing each other.
They were both cold as ice. The boy curiously observed.
The guy was tall and slender, wearing black clothes. Together with his black hair, he looked completely black. As far as his face goes, he had an oval face, which made him look a little delicate. Along with his silver iris, this man has an inexplicable way of intimidating people. The boy shivered.
The woman, on the other hand, was quite colorful. Her bright red hair was paired together with green eyes. This strange combination didn't feel conflicting, instead, it made her more glamorous. The only problem with was her eyes, they felt really cold.
The boy shook his head and sighed.
But! What these two people look like had nothing to do with him. More importantly, the immense hatred between them was really scaring him.
He was afraid of anything being broken inside his home. Being poor, he really couldn't afford to go on trial for two murders in his home.
Yasha moved suddenly. Perhaps it shouldn't be called move, because she disappeared where she stood, and then suddenly appeared in front of the man. The razor in her hand had already silently cut his throat…
"Damn, really?" The boy stared in awe, he had already been decapitated? The man looked pretty strong.
‘Sh*t, I might have to use some powerful detergent to clean off the blood off the ground.’
However, there wasn't even a half drop of blood. It turned out the man was nothing but a shadow.
Surprised, Yasha immediately turned around to see if the man was behind her, only to find a hand gently pressed on her neck. To be exact, what was holding her neck wasn’t a hand, but rather, just two fingers.
But Yasha knew clearly that these two fingers were enough to take her life!
"Hehehe…." Yasha wasn't scared, but rather, she started laughing, and sarcastically asked the person behind her.
"What? The so-called ‘best Assassin’ isn't brave enough to kill me? My Master used to kill people without them feeling any pain… Because before they have felt anything they would already be meeting Hades!"
The man stayed silent.
"Don't be stupid, Master. An Assassin will always be an Assassin." Yasha's voice turned cold, and pushed away the man's hand without any fear.
She said coldly: "You will break the promise with that person. An Assassin can never not kill! Especially you, Master."
The man stood quietly; his face remained the same—expressionless!
"I will not kill you today, but one day, I will." Yasha’s lips suddenly turned into a dangerous and seductive smile.
"Master, kill me today, otherwise I will continue you hunt you down for as long as I live."
If she could get the Master to break the promise with that person, even if the price was her life, she was willing to do it.
The man said dismissively: "Leave, Yasha. I will not kill people."
"Hmph!" ‘Is that person really important to you? Damn!’
Yasha’s face revealed a jealous expression. The person whom Master should be paying attention to was her! She was Master's only apprentice.
"From now onwards, you are no longer my Master, but an enemy I must kill!" As soon as Yasha finished shouting, she turned to leave.
But… ‘Where is this?’ She finally realised the strangeness of the room.
The boy who helplessly held a gun said.
"As the 'master of the room', can you guys stop ignoring me?" The two had been treating him as if he was transparent.
If he could understand what they were saying, then at least he could watch them like a Soap Opera: the love and hate between a man and a woman… ‘Hehe, it'll be interesting to watch.’
But the problem was he couldn't understand anything of what they were saying!
"Open the door and let me out! Else you'll die." Yasha said coldly, then knitted her eyebrows and looked at the confused boy.
‘Was she talking to him?’ The boy scratched his face, shrugged, and walked to the central processing Maxun he uses everyday.
He picked up something that looked like a safety helmet, walked in front of the woman, raised the hat to her, and said, "Wear this."
Yasha frowned, without taking the safety helmet. She didn't know if the boy means her any harm.
The boy impatiently pointed at the hat, then made the gesture of putting on a hat. He prompted her again: "Put it on. Hurry."
Yasha's face became colder, and the razor in her hand began to move…
The man, however, walked in towards the boy, took the hat from him, and put it on without any hesitation.
Upon seeing his actions, the boy walked back to the central processing Maxun and pressed a few buttons on the transparent console. Finally, he hit a button labelled 'Language Transmission'.
The safety helmet suddenly started glowing with colorful lights. As the lights shone, the man frowned slightly.
Being forced fed information to his brain doesn't feel good, and many images flashed through in his brain. Nonetheless, he didn't make any noise, since the amount of pain wasn't nearly enough to make him grumble.
After a while, the light on the safety helmet started to fade, until it returned to its original plain state. Then when the boy started asked:
"Can you understand me now?"
The man nodded slightly, and spoke with the same language as the boy: "Yes."
"Good, now we don't have any communication barrier." The boy nodded satisfactorily.
"I am from…" the man began to explain.
"I know!" The boy impatiently waved his hand and cut him off: "From another dimension!"
The man was astonished: "Yes…"
"Nowadays, even space isn't reliable. People are falling out of different dimensions, and the media doesn't report it anymore."
The boy helplessly placed his arms to his sides, wondering why he was so unlucky, that these people arrived in his home. What should he do now?
He was, after all, a really lazy person, so he decided to send these strangers to a shelter! The boy approved of his own decision, and said eagerly.
"Because we have too many people coming from other dimensions, the Aklan Empire has designated shelters for them. You guys will need to leave this place, take a left, cross two streets, get over a lake, through a park, and there will be a management office. Tell them you're from another dimension and they will settle you into a shelter."
The man was startled, and then said indifferently: "I don't need to go to a shelter. I will make a living."
Upon hearing this, the boy became interested, and asked excitedly: "Oh? What can you do?"
Maybe the man was the person who could rescue him from poverty, continuous part-time jobs, cold and hunger? Maybe he'll even live an elegant life? If that was the case, then it'll be great! With these kinds of thoughts, the boy's face began to brighten.
The man seemed to be surprised by the boy's face lightening up, becoming a 500 watt light bulb.
After being quiet for a while, he answered: "I'm an Assassin."
‘A-S-S-A-S-S-I-N?!’
As if to compliment his facial expression, his eyes began to brighten too. His face also began to show a flattering expression:
"Good, that profession is a promising, well-paying, low-cost, and high-return profession!"
The Assassin seemed confused, how could anyone describe his profession like this? But then he composed himself and added: "But, I promised never to kill again!"
Quietness settled the room and the boy's smile was gone in an instant. He pointed at the door and said: "Get the hell out, Mr. Never-Kill-Assassin."
Differential treatment was quite obvious. The Assassin walked to the door, only to see a smooth white door without handle, and he didn't know how to get out.
The boy yelled impatiently: "Open sesame."
The door opened instantly. The first person to walk out wasn't the Assassin, but the woman, Yasha. She turned around as she was leaving, and with a deadly smile on her face, she said: "Farewell, Master."
‘Yasha…’ The Assassin felt relatively sad.
"Hey, leave with your woman already. Don't stand there and bleed! Do you know blood odors are really hard to clean?"
The irritated boy looked at the blood dripping from the Assassin—damn, he just finished cleaning!
Although he had many questions about where he was, the Assassin didn't say much, especially when the owner has given the eviction notice.
He quietly walked out, and the door mercilessly shut behind him. The Assassin looked at the strange world he had never seen. Was he nervous?
"Assassin Rules #3: No matter where you are, always keep calm…" The Assassin murmured.
… Even if the buildings outside were all towering. But what was stranger was their design… No, the reason they are strange was because they had no design. Domes, spires, and all sorts of strangely twisted shapes could be seen. The only word he could use them to describe them was 'total chaos'.
… There were hundreds, no, thousands of bizarre hemispheres flying around in the sky. If his eyes weren't playing tricks on him, he saw a few Dragons amongst the flying objects, and there were people riding those Dragons.
Despite being the strongest and coldest Assassin, he had to take a few deep breaths to deal with all the unfamiliar sights.
Slowly appeasing his nerves, the Assassin began to think. He was about 50 stories* above the ground, and he couldn't find any form of stairs leading to the surface.[T/N: 50 story is approximately 165 meters, 541 feet and 4 inches.]
The flying objects around him were so erratic, it seemed like they could hit him at any time… What could he do?
Even for a level-headed Assassin, felt the sadness comparable to a cold wind sweeping away the falling leaves (the Assassin felt helpless).
"Why are you still here?" He heard the noisy boy's voice again.
"I don't know how to get down." The Assassin aloofly stated the truth.
‘Yasha… She probably used a rope to get down.’ Unfortunately, he had already used his rope when he was being chased.
* * *
The boy mumbled: "What a pain. Why do I always run into trouble like this? I still have to go to work. If I'm late they will deduct my salary, what am I going to eat next month?"
The Assassin remained silent. He didn't respond to the boy's complaints.
To him, the boy had no responsibility to help a stranger like him. Besides, the boy was already doing him a favor by not calling the police on him after discovering he was an Assassin.
The boy sighed exaggeratedly, and snappily yelled at the Assassin: "Come over here."
The Assassin turned, and saw the boy walking into a transparent tube with a radius of about a meter. After the boy walked in, he fell straight down to the ground.
The Assassin's heart skipped a beat, and he looked down, only to find the boy was standing on the ground, looking back at him.
Although the distance of about ten stories made it hard to see the boy's face, but it was certain the boy was safe.
‘So this tube was a tool to get downstairs.’ The Assassin then stepped into the tube. The fact there was nothing for him to step on, made him feel uneasy. The suction from the tube which dragged him down ten stories, made the Assassin so nervous, his pupils dilated.
The boy's face and loud voice were in front of the Assassin again. He began to complain with obvious dissatisfaction: "Why are you so slow? Do you want to make me late? Hurry up."
The boy reached to pull the Assassin. If they don't hurry, then he really wouldn't have enough money to eat next month.
However, the Assassin moved away by reflex and escaped the boy's reach. When the boy grabbed nothing but air, he just shrugged and said, "Let's go."
The Assassin scowled.
This world was completely different. Where he was from, he had never seen so much metal. The buildings were metal, roads were metal, and even the trees on the side of the roads looked like it was made out of metal!
"Are those real trees?" Although asking wasn't something Assassins do, but he couldn't contain himself.
The boy glanced at him, "Of course not! Those are artificial trees, made to replace the real trees. They convert carbon dioxide to oxygen. Trees are luxuries, and the government would never plant them on the road," the boy stated as a matter-of-fact.
‘Trees… Are luxuries?’ The Assassin smirked. ‘Don't trees grow as they please on the side of the roads and chopped for firewood?’
A hemisphere made out of metal slowly landed beside the two.
The Assassin noticed the similarity of the one he saw in the sky, except this one seemed bigger than the others. The smooth surface suddenly opened an oblong hole of about a meter wide and two meters tall, just about enough for a person to comfortably walk through.
"I have to pay for one more bus fare! I wonder if I could get reimbursed by the government?" The boy said with dissatisfaction, and then beckoned the Assassin:
"Hurry up. You're so slow that you don't seem like an Assassin." After he said those words, the boy stepped into the oblong-shaped hole.
The Assassin soon quietly followed his steps.
Being alone in a strange world, there probably aren't many people who could keep as composed as he was, instead his speed suffered, and seemed to be slower than usual.
The moment the Assassin stepped inside the strange oval, he suddenly realized the vehicle was transparent. He could easily see the view of outside world. It was as if the metal shell didn't exist at all.
He could even see below his own feet… And it started to float!
"Come sit down; it's not like there's no seats available, so why are you standing?" The boy sat down without any reserve, crossed his legs and leisurely patted the seat next to him.
The Assassin quietly sat down. The boy still had his legs leisurely crossed, seemed ill-fitted given his handsome or cute appearance.
"What's your name?" The boy asked carelessly; and then he realized he should probably introduce himself first, so he hurriedly added: "My name is Kaiser."[T/N: He proceeded to explain which two Chinese characters his names were: Kai, and then Si as in the first character of "driver"]
‘Kaiser…?’ The Assassin smiled: "Liola."[T/N: In the boy's initial explanation of his name, it sounded like he was saying Kai's Driver. That's why the Assassin found it funny and smiled.]
"What a strange name, as if someone just put random letters together." Kaiser criticized mercilessly, and then moved onto another topic:
"So, what's your relationship with the fiery red-head? Why did she seem like she wants to cut you into a thousand pieces? Don't tell me you got her pregnant and then dumped her? I don't have to tell you this… But, as a man, you have to be liable sometimes. Don't always do irresponsible things."
"No." Liola suddenly felt powerless. The boy's imagination was a bit too colorful: "I'm her Master, not lover."
"Master?" Kaiser could not refrain from assessing Liola, ‘Can it be?’ he thought.
He thought Liola and the hottie were lovers. ‘How could she be his apprentice? No matter how he looked, Liola looked younger than her…’ Kaiser thought.
"How old are you?" Kaiser asked bluntly.
"Twenty five." Liola answered truthfully.
"How old was the hottie?" Kaiser asked again.
"Twenty seven." Liola thought about it for a while and answered. As far as he remembers, Yasha was two years older than him.
Kaiser touched his forehead and said, "You're twenty five, she's twenty seven, so you're two years younger; how come you're her master?"
"In the organization, the master-apprentice relationship doesn't depend on age, but on abilities." Liola concisely answered.
After he finished explaining, he seemed to have sank into his memory.
Yasha… Had she not been the precious daughter of the head of the organization, he wouldn't have had such a troublesome apprentice.
"So to say, you're very strong?" Kaiser's eyes brightened again. Strong people have monetary value.
"I'm the best Assassin." Liola said without holding back.
"Ex-cell-ent!" Kaiser's put his hands heavily upon Liola's shoulders, looked at Liola hopefully, and whispered: "Did you see the gentleman behind me who's wearing glasses?"
Liola nodded without looking. When he was getting on the bus, he already memorized who and what were inside.
Assassin Rule #5, no matter when and where, one must always keenly observe his surroundings.
"That guy is a really dangerous man! He's a legendary rank-X wanted man." Kaiser whispered excitedly.
"This… What's exciting about this?" Liola remained confused.
"If you catch him and collect the bounty placed on him, then I wouldn't have to worry about food or clothes for a long while."
Kaiser could not resist but indulge himself in the fantasy of not having to worry about food or clothes. It would be even better if he could turn the bounty into paper bills and use them to line a bed.
He could only imagine how good it would feel to eat while lying on such a bed.
Liola looked at the gentleman from the corner of his eye.
Sure enough, the man with the gold framed glasses had already looked at them. His sharp eyes showed some disdain, and his mouth displayed a sinister smile.
Kaiser was so loud, perhaps only the deaf could not hear!
"Let's get off at the next stop." Liola talked to Kaiser as though he was talking to the gentleman.
"Good!" Kaiser's happy expression pressed Liola to glance at him shortly, realizing he was being loud on purpose.
As soon as they got off, Kaiser took out his gun. Even though he dragged Liola with him, he wanted to do his part. At the very least, if things went haywire, he could escape alive.
With a head of blonde hair, blue eyes with gold-framed glasses, a warming and harmless smile, and a black-and-white robe adorned with some unknown symbols, the gentleman appeared to be very strange.
After Kaiser assessed the man, he lazily pointed the gun at him and said: "Hey, give it up now, or would you like for me to shoot you?"
Liola slightly frowned when he saw how calm the gentleman was.
The gentleman looked petite with thin arms and legs, and not like someone who could fight. At most, he looked like someone who plans evil schemes behind the scenes, surrounded by bodyguards.
"You are sure I'm a rank-X wanted criminal? Do I look like a wanted criminal?" The gentleman smiled slightly, but his eyes seemed to show slight interest, and with a calm demeanor, fixed his gaze onto Kaiser.
Liola's heart skipped a beat.
The person's eyes looked similar to the leader of his organization.
Both the gentleman and the leader have confidence shown in their eyes, as if they are somehow had total control of the situation.
These were the kind of people who would always appear commanding on a battlefield and placed on thrones.
"Miseroy, rank-X wanted criminal. Unknown abilities, unknown age, and unknown just about everything. But the strange thing is, they knew exactly what he looked like. It's rare for them to know the appearance of a rank-X wanted criminal." Kaiser explained.
"Kaiser, are you sure you could catch him?" The alarm in Liola's heart wouldn't stop ringing. His Assassin instinct tells him they shouldn't mess with this person!
Kaiser turned around with an innocent look on his face, and moved his hands aside and said: "He's a rank-X criminal, how could I possibly catch him?"
"Rank-X?" Facing this unfamiliar title, Liola suddenly feels uneasy.
"Wanted criminals are divided by ranks from A to F, A being the most dangerous and F being the least." Kaiser explained carefully: "But there's an addition rank, rank-X."
"How strong are they?" Liola frowned.
"Hmm, I heard they are a lot stronger than rank-A. Criminals whose strength are so strong to the point of being unmeasurable, are all grouped into rank-X. There are only ten rank-X criminals in the world currently." Kaiser's eyes shone again:
"The bounty for every rank-X is enormous. Even if you were to break my arms and legs, it would be enough money for me to spend in ten lives. I can't believe we ran into a rank-X today in a bus. God treated me well."
‘Maybe God wants to kill you…’ Liola can't comprehend what's in Kaiser's mind.
An Assassin should always assess the opponent first, draw up a plan, and then put the plan into action. It would be the wisest choice.
"So, I guess we'll have to fight?" Mizerui said, still smiling.
"Of course! For me to be able to live comfortably by lying down and not do any work, you should sacrifice a little and go eat free meals in the Aklan jail!" Kaiser proclaimed.
Without hesitation, he then raised his gun and fire it blank three times, and then, with a handsome gesture, blew the smoke away from the guy: "Surely rank-X criminals can't be subdued with just guns. Liola, your turn."
Liola frowned. Kaiser's three gunshots were accurate, but he fired them at the wrong time. But how did Mizerui stop those three bullets when they were about three meters away from him?
Liola didn't see Mizerui move, nor did feel any Ki waves from him. The only difference was his smile turning into a malevolent grin.
"You're a sorcerer?" Kaiser asked, surprised. The situation became dangerous.
Mizerui blinked: "Yep, do you want to try my powers out?"
Liola was still thinking. What kind of powers could possibly make those bullets drop to the ground?
Suddenly, started to feel a heavy pressure on his body, as if he was carrying the sandbags he used when training to be an Assassin.
"Re-really heavy!" Kaiser was already down on the ground, moaning.
"Ten times the gravity isn't enough to make you fall?" Mizerui seemed surprised.
Ten times the gravity meant the people would feel their weight ten times more, and it will total up to a few hundred kilograms. Ordinary people would already fallen the ground.
Mizerui started showing some interest in Liola.
"Ten times the gravity? That's a strange Kung Fu name." Liola didn't understand what gravity meant.
Kaiser, who was lying on the ground, raised his head and shouted: "Idiot, this isn't Kung Fu. He's a Sorcerer! A Sorcerer!"
"Sorcerer?" Liola still couldn't comprehend. However, he knew the man in front of him wasn't easy to deal with. In the past, he would've already cut his throat before the man could attempt anything, but now…
"Twenty times gravity." Mizerui said gently.
After Mizerui casted the spell, Liola's feet sunk a few centimeters into the ground. Though he could still stand, his facial expressions changed.
The weight was no longer something Liola could take lightly. Kaiser was in an even worse condition. Kaiser couldn't talk, let alone raise his head, and blood was coming out of the edge of his mouth.
"This is some evil Kung Fu!" Liola said with some difficulty.
"I… already… told you… I-it's not… Kung Fu…" Even though he was dying, he forced himself to correct Liola.
Liola used Fluttering Blood Ki skill he practiced for more than twenty years, and his body felt significantly lighter.
Although Mizerui’s gravity spell still affected him, his speed was still unmatched by a normal person. The most important and most basic attribute of an Assassin—speed!
Liola instantly took out a thin silver stick hidden in his boots. Because he can't kill, Liola did not use any deadlier weapons.
He held up the stick and ran towards Mizerui. He was moving so fast, normal people could only see after-images of black shadows.
Truthfully, if he wasn't affected by Mizerui’s gravity spell, people won't even see those black shadows under the naked eye.
Mizerui’s face showed traces fright for the first time, and immediately increased the intensity of his gravity spell to the limit, making the gravity within one meter of him to increase to a thousand times.
The black shadow suddenly stopped and Liola appeared again. The silver stick stopped its tracks in mid-air. If someone were to measure it with a ruler, they would find the end of the stick had stopped at exactly one meter and one centimeter away from Mizerui.
Mizerui’s forehead started sweating. He couldn't believe Liola found out the range of his gravity spell. He had underestimated his opponent.
Liola only paused for a second, and took out a shuriken from his sleeves. Interesting enough, the shuriken was not thrown directly at Mizerui. Instead, it was aimed above his head, with a parabolic trajectory. In other words, if Mizerui doesn't move, the shuriken will hit his head with a thousand times gravity.[T/N: Shuriken is what throwing stars are called in Japanese. Used by ninjas. Ex. Naruto.]
But Mizerui wasn't interested in adding a hole on his skull, not to mention the hole would probably extend all the way to his feet with because of the gravity and the momentum.
Mizerui teleported a step to his left, and his right hand formed a compressed ball of air, and threw it as a bomb towards Liola.
However, to Liola, it meant nothing. He simply sidestepped to his left, then back. To a bystander, it would look as if he didn't move, and the ball of air simply passed through his body.
Mizerui’s eyes tightened, and raised his hands and yelled: "Let's see how you handle this; Failed Lecture — Skyfull Chaos Egg Falls."
‘Damn… Was that the name of the spell?’ Kaiser thought helplessly, finding it unfortunate. Mizerui, who had no creativity for skill names, was responsible for him being on the ground.
Liola didn't have Kaiser's leisure to think about how crappy the name is, because thousands of bombs materialized in the sky, was causing Liola quite a headache.
For someone who had never seen anything like this, even as the best Assassin, Liola wasn't sure what to do next.
But, Mizerui didn't drop the bombs, but rather smiled: "How about we both take a step back?"
"Back, back, back. Liola, go back a few steps." Kaiser suddenly realized, he himself was in the attack range of 'Failed Lecture — Skyfull Chaos Egg Falls', so he agreed to Mizerui’s proposal, while taking several steps back.
Strange as it was, Liola really took a few steps back, stopping only until he reached Kaiser, and then he put the silver stick back into his boot.
‘nteresting people…’ Mizerui scratched his face, and cancelled the 'Failed Lecture — Skyfull Chaos Egg Falls' spell.
He was interested in two guys, and he changed the gravity back to ten times so Kaiser could talk normally.
"Tell me everything about you two, and perhaps if makes me happy, I'll let you two live."
"Oof, a bit better." Kaiser sighed in relief, and looked up at Mizerui with hopeful expression:
"You're really going to let us live? Then I'll tell you everything. My name is Kaiser, and I'm a rank-D bounty hunter. I was just about to bring this guy, Liola, who came from another dimension to the government shelter."
"That's it?" Mizerui said, displeased.
"And, and!" Seeing Mizerui’s discontent, Kaiser hurriedly added, but what else could he say? Kaiser couldn't think of what else to say about himself even if he split his head open, so all he could do was betray the guy from another dimension:
"Y-you shouldn't underestimate Liola. You already saw what he's capable of. He is the so-called best Assassin. So you better not cross him. Twenty times the gravity was nothing to him. The reason why he backed off was because he didn't want to kill anyone, but if you make him mad, he might just kill you with a knife."
Mizerui and Liola both pretended as if they didn't hear anything. Mizerui raised his eyebrows and asked Liola: "From another dimension?"
Liola nodded lightly.
"Okay, you may go." Mizerui gestured them to leave.
"What? You're really going to let us go?" Kaiser's jaw dropped: "I thought we were dead for sure."
Mizerui blinked: "Under one condition."
"What condition?" Kaiser was stunned, and asked: "Let me tell you first, if you're going to make me a slave or tell me I can't eat, then you might as well kill me."
Mizerui showed an innocent expression: "No no, as long as you two apply to the Aklan College and get in to study there, I will let you go."
"That's it?" Kaiser asked, could not believe it.
"That's it." Mizerui put his hands on his side.
"Uh, strange things sure happen a lot nowadays." Kaiser mumbled:
"I can't believe someone would threaten me with my life to go to school. I don't know if this was something good or bad. But what am I going to do with my old school? It took a lot to get a scholarship to it."
"Oh and by the way," Mizerui blinked again, "Today is the last day to apply to Aklan Academy, and the application office is only open until five. It's already three, so you still have two hours."
"Whaaat!" Kaiser looked at his watch, and to be exactly, there is only an hour and fifty three minutes left, "Aklan Academy is downtown!"
"If you don't get in," Mizerui smiled, "Then at five o'clock sharp I will go kill you both. And don't you dare think about escaping, I will find you wherever you are."
"Five o'clock… Ah, the bus is here. Liola, let's go!" Kaiser grabbed Liola by the collar, ran with him to the bus stop hundreds of meters away, and jumped on the bus at the very last second.
* * *
"That was really fast…" Mizerui almost drip in cold sweat.
"Why did you let them go?" A shadow suddenly said coldly.
"Because I don't want us to get hurt!" Mizerui showed an innocent smile.
"What do you mean…" The shadow began to reply unsatisfactorily, and then stopped.
"Did you finally notice?" Mizerui’s smile grew larger: "That quiet Assassin had already fired the warning shots."
The shadow quietly looked at the ground in front of his feet, and saw there were two shuriken there. He didn't realize them until now.
"He threw it when I was activating 'Failed Lecture', if I were to drop the 'Skyfull Chaos Egg Falls', then perhaps somebody's heart would've been stabbed by shurikens by now." Mizerui said, with an expression on his face as if he's saying ‘you should thank me’.
The shadow touched his own nose helplessly. He didn't think he had been turn into a liability.
Mizerui acted as if he remembered something, and happily said "Right, I better go tell Barbalis I found him two new interesting students."
"I hope you didn't find them too interesting that you…" The shadow said, his face becoming overshadowed with black lines, turning speechless.[T/N: The shadow person's face was filled with black lines, kind of like how anime characters do when they are speechless or grief stricken.]
"How's that possible? I only did it because I think they were talented, and I remember Barbalis was short on people, so I would introduce them to him!" Mizerui said, full of seriousness.
"Is that so?" The shadow seemed to have raised his guard.
"That's right!" Mizerui answered seriously, then turned around with a smile on his face again and said: "All right, I have to go and discuss this game with Barbalis… No, I mean the plan to train these talented people!"
The former was the truth, wasn't it? The shadow was speechless.
Back to top
Chapter 2 : Purity
This chapter is brought to you by AnmesicCat and StellarAshes.
After a long silence, Liola asked: “If you knew Mizerui was strong, why did you try to attempt the impossible?”
Kaiser’s expression turned serious: “It’s because of my dreams.”
“Dreams?” Liola asked again.
“That’s right!” Kaiser suddenly stood up and shouted firmly: “My dream is to lie on a bed comfortably for the rest of my life without having to worry about food or clothing! And for my dream, I am willing to risk my life to do it.”
Was this being lazy or being diligent… Thought everyone inside the bus while facepalming.
“Ah! We’ve arrived at Aklan Academy, hurry up and get off.” Kaiser looked down at the time and said with frustration: “45 minutes left. Come on, hurry up. I don’t want to be reporting to in the gates of hell in 45 minutes.”
After the two jumped off the bus, a strange gate appeared in front of them. It was a head; that’s right, you've read it correctly.
The so-called Academy gate was just a spherical head, with a half-bald, with tonsured hairstyle. Its facial features were clearly visible, along with a Salvador Dali mustache.
The mouth was laughing and wide-open, and where its opened mouth lead to, was entrance to the academy.
Kaiser stared at it blankly before he said: “It really is a ‘laughing’ door!”
Liola could not arbitrate the architectural design of the building.
Because this world has a strange architectural style. Kaiser wasn’t surprised for long. He grabbed Liola’s wrist and dragged him into the mouth… No, the Academy gate.
He felt like a lamb walking into a tiger’s mouth…
Liola suddenly wanted to sigh. Why did his life, within a span of only half a day, change so dramatically? From being chased to falling into a strange world, and now he even had to do something he had never done—go to school.
“If Anise knew I’ve become like this, she… Would definitely be happy.” Liola laughed bitterly.
“What kind of trash…?” Kaiser turned around and curiously asked; but before he got an answer, he had already forgotten the question, and he started to say, “Hurry, let’s go apply now. Otherwise, in half an hour, we’re both doomed.”
“If it’s just me, even if I couldn’t beat Mizerui, I could escape.” Liola assessed the situation, and concluded.
“Da… Dage…” Kaiser said, trembling: “Going to school is fun. You’re a world-class Assassin, so you definitely haven’t experienced the joy of going to school, and now’s your chance. So you should fill your head with knowledge while attending school, because in this world, diplomas are the most important thing. Having a diploma will get you a good job, and having a good job will let you survive easily… Plus, you going to school will also save my life, so isn’t it hitting multiple birds with the same stone? You should never miss something that has more pros than cons.”
Kaiser was literally crying while holding onto Liola’s leg.
Going to school? Liola thought about it, and then nodded slightly. He had nowhere else to go, so perhaps the quiet campus was a good place. Even though the campus would later prove to be anything but quiet, but this was something Liola couldn’t anticipate.
Kaiser, who had been crying, saw Liola’s nod, and suddenly all his tears seemed to have retreated back into his eyes. He stood up as if nothing had happened, and yelled excitedly: “Good, let’s go apply then.”
Liola pointed with his finger, gesturing in front of them: “Which line should we go to?”
“Whichever line is fine…” Kaiser turned around and immediately saw many people forming in two snake-shaped lines, extending from where they stood to somewhere they couldn’t see.
Kaiser blurted: “Damn! Nowadays we have to line up for everything. Buying food, getting on a bus; I wonder… does dying require lining up too?”
Of course it does! He used to have a list of his prey lined up, waiting for him to execute them. Liola quietly thought.
“Look, look, there're less people over there!” Kaiser said excitedly, as if he had discovered a new world. He dragged Liola again and started running. To someone as lazy as him, doing less was for the best.
Kaiser forcefully slammed on the table, and yelled: “We’re here to apply!”
The old man who slept in his seat while blowing bubbles from his mouth suddenly woke up and stared at Kaiser, clueless to what was going on.
“Old man, can you hurry up? Do you know we don’t have long left to live?” Kaiser looked at his watch, there was less than 15 minutes left, and said with frustration.
“Lad, relax, you will definitely live longer than me.” The old man said slowly but surely, and murmured: “What’s the hurry? I’ve already lived hundreds of years and I’m not in much of a hurry.”
“You are right, I will live longer than you, because if were die I am gonna kill you first.” Kaiser yelled angrily.
“Fine, I’ll let you apply. Don’t kill me.” After Kaiser screamed, the old man seemed a bit scared. He hurriedly prepared various files and placed them in front of Kaiser, and timidly said: “Just sign these and you will be admitted.”
“It’s that simple?” Kaiser skeptically stared at the old man.
“It is that simple.” The old man gulped and answered.
“What the hell, I thought we were going to be faced with a super difficult test before we would be admitted. But it turns out this easy. I was scared for nothing.” Kaiser complained as he took the files, and handed a copy to Liola.
Liola quietly received the files, but his eyes lightly scanned the timid old man.
“Let’s see what we have to fill.” Kaiser took the pen from the desk, and leisurely said, “Name and gender… That’s it?”
Yes, the 30 cm by 30 cm piece of paper only had two words written on it: Name, and gender… And the handwriting was very ugly!
Kaiser was not the only one who dumbfounded, even Liola skeptically knitted his eyebrows. The file was a little bit too convenient for him. After all, the only information Liola had to give was his name and gender.
Kaiser waved, and declared he was done. The old man took the files while shuddering, and handed Kaiser some necessities: a washbasin, a set of toiletries, a set of sheets, a steel knife, a set of uniform, and lastly, a black card.
“That black card is your student ID, so you should take care of it. Entering and exiting the Academy depend on it, as well as your room.” The old man explained.
Liola received the same things. He held up the black card and examined the strange silver pattern on it. It looked like a pass with jewelry on it.
“Let’s go, Liola.”
He only looked at it for a short while, because Kaiser was already beckoning Liola from far away.
Liola thought, despite Kaiser calling himself lazy, he was actually quite quick to take action. So where was this supposed laziness be? As he was contemplated, he started walking towards Kaiser.
* * *
When Kaiser and Liola were far away, the timid old man suddenly stood up, straightened his back, and briskly laughed viciously:
“Ah, finally I’ve tricked… Another two students. As the principal of the School of Sorcery, it would be shameful if I couldn’t even get thirty students.”
“I forgot to tell those two, the School of Sorcery’s graduation rate is less than ten percent.” The old man laughed. After all, there is no such a thing as being enrolled with just a name and a gender.
“Graduation rate weren't important. What’s most important was the survival rate was less than thirty percent. Wasn’t this the real reason why the School of Sorcery doesn’t have many people, isn’t it?”
The old man turned, and sure enough, a gentle and smiling face appeared before him,
“Mizerui?”
“Long time no see, Barbalis, and you owe me once again.” Mizerui greeted him as if they were old friends.
“What do you mean?” Barbalis curiously asked, not that he minds owing a favor, but why would Mizerui ask him to help handling people… at least he hadn’t seen it before.
“I helped you trick those two interesting students here.” Mizerui smiled.
“Oh?” Barbalis was interested, and curiously looked at Mizerui. Mizerui explained everything in full detail to Barbalis.
“It’s quite interesting. One is a man from another dimension with unfathomable strength, and the other seems to have exceptional magic fluctuation. I withdrew all of my magic perfectly. The outsider seemed to have seen through my disguise. They’re definitely not ordinary. ”
Barbalis murmured, and gestured to thank Mizerui, while smiling and hitting Mizerui’s shoulder: “Mizerui, my old friend, I can’t believe you send me such interesting people. I really owe you a big one.”
Mizerui blinked: “Not at all, just remember to share their progress with me.”
“Of course, of course. It would definitely be interesting. Hahaha.” Barbalis started laughing loudly, and his laughter could be heard all around the campus.
All the teachers and students who knew of the principal’s personalities shivered, hoping to God the principal will never find them ‘interesting’.
* * *
“This is really not fair.” Kaiser said, for the 34th time, “Why does the School of Knights and the School of Mecha Fighters have dorms that looked like five star hotels. But the where School of Sorcery lived, it looked like we should apply to the government to be a historic site.”
“There is no free lunch.” Liola said it as a matter-of-fact. The process of getting in this school was too simple. If the only difference with other schools were the dorms, then it would be a good thing. Still, he didn’t think it was simple, especially the old man.
“No wonder there were two long lines, and there was no one in front of the School of Sorcery, not even a mouse.” Kaiser circled the crude room. Other than two beds, two desks, and a bathroom, there was nothing but the four walls.
Kaiser covered the bed with sheets, climbed on it, and sighed comfortably.
“Kaiser, what exactly do people learn in the School of Knights, Mecha Fighters, and Sorcery?” Liola received a headache trying to figure out the three things he had never heard before. To him, this new world was full of mystery.
“Knights?” Kaiser laid on his bed with hands behind his head: “They are the profession with a great-sword or pike, equip themselves with metal, and they ride things to travel around.”
A bit hard to understand… Liola wondered if he couldn’t understand because he didn’t know much of this world, or was it because Kaiser’s ability to explain was lacking.
“Mecha Fighters is even crazier. It’s the called money-burning profession. Even if their machine looked like junk, it’s still expensive as hell.” Kaiser shook his head, and sighed thinking the rich people were quite wasteful.
“I… don’t understand.” Liola frowned.
“Well.” Kaiser puffed his pillow: “Liola, just remember: if you see people with armor, those are from School of Knights, don’t mess with them. If you see them with mecha armor, those are from School of Mecha Fighters, don’t mess with them. And as for the School of Sorcery… Don’t mess with them either. Though some of them may be weak, but who knows if you end up messing with Mizerui’s son?”
To sum it up, don’t mess with anybody… Looks like Liola can’t rely on Kaiser to try and understand this world. Liola sighed deeply.
“Oh right Liola; tell me, why aren’t you a normal assassin, but an assassin who doesn’t kill?” Kaiser murmured. An assassin who doesn’t kill? It’s a profession that pays worse than a Sorcerer.
Hearing this, Liola’s drifted back into his memories… This was about a year ago. The first thing he remembered was a long silky blonde hair dancing around in the wind.
* * *
“Liola, have you ever been unable to sleep soundly because you took a life?” A pair of sad, lake green eyes stared at him, not with blame, but with sympathy.
“I’ve never slept soundly.” Liola replied truthfully: “Assassin’s Rule #10, staying alert even when sleeping.”
The girl laughed bitterly: “If one day you couldn’t sleep soundly because you killed someone, then perhaps you aren’t a real assassin anymore.”
“Anise… In the past, I couldn’t sleep soundly because I killed someone, but as you can see, that part of me is gone.” Liola’s face showed a rare expression of sadness and worry.
* * *
“Who is Anise? Does she have something to do with you not killing?” Kaiser asked curiously.
“I promised her, never to kill again.” Liola stated the only promise he had ever made in his life.
Hearing this, Kaiser became really interested in the story. He puffed his pillow again, laid comfortably, and asked Liola: “Tell me the story between you and Annie.”
Liola hesitated for a while, and finally started telling the story of what happened in the past year.
“Anise was a Master Doctor; at least that’s what everyone says. It seemed like no one she cured had ever died. That year, because the organization accepted a commission, we kidnapped Anise. Who knew Anise’s medical skills were so exceptional? Rather than killing her, as stated in the original contract, the organization was willing to pay the penalty for breaching the contract. Anise was placed under house arrest, and she stayed within the organization to treat assassins who were injured on the job…”
* * *
One year ago…
Liola stood quietly in the center of the hall. But although he stood in the center, his existence was frail enough for others not consider him as a living person.
His black hair, black clothes, and even darker eyes. Had it not been for the bright red blood dripping from his right arm, people would have mistaken him for an obsidian statute.
“Li, you shouldn’t be hurt.” The leader’s eyes were very cold, and one could tell he was extremely dissatisfied.
Liola didn’t answer, because an Assassin didn’t need to answer. Liola’s silence didn’t cause any more dissatisfaction, for his behavior was, after all, trained by the leader himself.
“Go find Anise and get yourself patched up.” The leader grunted, and commanded Liola
To follow the leader’s orders, Liola turned and walked away, exiting the hall silently to find Anise.
“Master, I heard you were hurt?”
As soon as Liola left the hall, Yasha, who had been waiting outside for a long time, immediately called him.
She looked at Liola’s bleeding arm, feeling quite perplexed. She had always been jealous of Liola’s abilities as the best assassin.
Upon hearing the news the best assassin was injured, she should have been happy about his failure… But, when she saw Liola’s wound, her heart sank a bit.
Liola stopped, turned and asked his apprentice: “Where is Anise?”
Seeing the expressionless face on Liola, Yasha felt angry. She was his apprentice, but he was always greeting her with indifference.
Yasha pouted, but she had to answer the Master’s question: “In the Bamboo Forest of the Sky, 1st sector.”
1st sector of Bamboo Forest of the Sky was coincidentally where Liola lived. He turned around and left without hesitation, always leaving the angry Yasha behind. She ran directly into the hall, to complain to her dad about her Master’s heartlessness.
The leader’s expression changed far from how it was when he was spoke with Liola. With a smile, he listened to his daughter’s complaint, and answered helplessly:
“You are the one who forced me to assign Liola as your master, and I’ve already told you: Liola is definitely the best assassin in the world, but at the same time, also the worst Master in the world.”
Although he was heard Yasha complaining to the leader again, Liola did not think anything of it. Instead, he walked towards the 1st sector of Bamboo Forest of the Sky to comply with the leader’s order to find Anise.
Before long, the melancholic Bamboo Forest appeared before him. As Liola was walking through the forest, he activated ‘Heart of Consciousness’ — a move that increased his perception to the max. It was a move the leader taught Liola himself.
In an instant, ‘Heart of Consciousness’ sent Liola’s mind in all directions, quickly finding his target within the dense forest.
Liola knew every living being’s size, repository rate, and even body temperature. He found a person inside the forest, and concluded it to be Anise, the person he was looking for.
Liola walked towards his target without hesitation.
After brushing aside the final bamboo leaves blocking his way, the silky blonde hair and elegant silhouette appeared before him. She was kneeling on the grass, leisurely tasting the tea in her cup.
“Anise?” Liola asked.
Anise raised her head, and her clear green eyes held their gaze looking at Liola.
She spoke softly: “I am Anise. You… Are hurt.” Anise quickly noticed the person in front of her was bleeding.
Anise immediately opened the medical kit she carries around, and took out bandages as well as several bottles.
With a hurried voice, she said to Liola: “You, over there, come here. I’ll help you patch up this wound. I can’t let you keep bleeding.”
Liola walked beside Anise, and after being pulled by Anise. He sat on the grass, letting the girl next to him do work on the wound on his right arm.
Liola let Anise do as she pleases for two reasons.
First, it was because it was ordered by the leader. And secondly, Liola had already used ‘Heart of Consciousness’ to determine Anise didn’t know Kung Fu at all.
“Okay. Hmm, my bandaging technique is still just as great.” Anise wiped the sweat from her forehead, and began to appreciate her work. She then asked smilingly at this unknown patient of hers: “What’s your name?”
“Li.”
“Li what?” Anise curiously asked, “Your name can’t be just Li?”
“Li… Liola.” Liola hesitated. Finally he revealed the full name he himself had almost forgotten.
“Liola!” Anise’s green eyes brightened: “Aren’t you the legendary and best assassin in the world? Wow, I didn’t think I would ever meet you. But you don’t look as vicious as they say.”
With a quiet and elegant exterior, Anise was surprisingly talkative. She held onto Liola and talked for hours.
She even used the excuse that talking was a part of the treatment, to order to get Liola to stay and to listen to her go on and on about who is the most famous, who is the most handsome, and how she had once treated the Hero Swordsman Bell’s menstruation pains.
For the first time in his life, Liola had an opinion, and it was… The woman talked far too much.
The sun had set and the sky had been filled with stars. Anise had been talking to the point where she was so thirsty; she drank a bucketful of water.
Her stomach started growling. It wasn’t until then, when she had finally decided to let Liola leave.
“Remember to come back to me for another ‘treatment’.” With an innocent smile, Anise lied.
In fact, Liola’s injury wasn’t severe. With the help of Liola’s own Ki, the wound would probably heal within a couple of days, without the need of re-applying the bandaging.
Hearing Anise’s words, Liola’s face, which was originally expressionless, twitched twice. This was also the first time he had this expression and a feeling of helplessness.
And starting from when he met Anise, Liola suddenly found himself having many ‘first’s’.
* * *
A satisfied snore suddenly dragged Liola out of his memories. He looked towards Kaiser, only to see Kaiser sleeping so deeply, his saliva had been dripping from the corner of his mouth.
This sight clearly indicated to Liola, the guy who asked the question was obviously looking for a bedtime story, but fell asleep before he finished listening to it.
Liola sighed again. Strange, ever since he had met Kaiser, he seemed to sigh more and more… Is it a good or bad thing? Liola thought while lying on the other bed in the room, and that was how he spent the rest of the first day in an alien world.
* * *
“Kaiser, Kaiser.”
Kaiser frowned, and buried his head further into his pillow. His hands also waved around, trying to hit the snooze button on the ‘alarm’, and at the same time, he murmured:
“Stop bothering me, I want to sleep.”
Seeing a boy who buried his head under the pillow, and who didn’t get up after Liola tried to wake him up for a span of half an hour. Liola felt it was easier to kill a gosu rather than waking up Kaiser.
After a short silence, Liola heard Kaiser’s even breath again. Helpless, he said: “I’m going to school.”
As soon as he stepped out of the room, Liola was faced with another scenario, putting him on wit’s end. A delicate girl with blue hair and blue eyes stared at him with both fear and anticipation. What now?
“Y-You are in the School of Sorcery too?” The girl asked timidly, but she clearly already knew the answer, for Liola is wearing a dark gray robe, instead of the uniform of the other schools.
“What’s the matter?” Liola responded concisely.
“Uh, well… Today’s your first day, right? I’m sure you’re not familiar with the school. Would you like for me to show you around?” The girl asked with a shaky voice. Her shoulders were trembling so much, it was as if she were talking to a monster who would eat her at any moment.
Liola suddenly felt like he was being taken advantage of. However, he does need someone to show him around. He decided to wait and see. He nodded, and followed the trembling girl to the first lesson of his school life.
“My name is Purity. What’s your name?” She asked after they walked for a while. She continued to look to her left then her right, and she seemed extremely nervous as if an assassin would jump out to kill her at any moment.
“Liola.”
“Oh, what a strange name.” Purity came to the same conclusion as Kaiser.
Though, as soon as she said it, she anxiously said: “Uh, I don’t mean to criticize you. What I mean was, your name is a bit strange, b-but it’s not necessarily a bad name… Just a bit weird.”
Liola wasn’t interested in what others thought of his name. Instead, he was interested in the people around them hiding their bad intentions. These people had been tailing them ever since they stepped out of the dorms. Seeing Purity scared to death, those people were probably after her.
"D-Do you know how to beat people up?" Purity suddenly asked.
"No." Liola answered directly. He doesn't just beats people up. He kills them.
Purity heard this, and her shoulders collapsed, and replied sadly: "Oh, then you should walk to class yourself; just walk straight down this road and you'll be there."
After she said this, Purity walked ahead of him as if she was a martyr, though this martyr's legs couldn't stop quivering, as if she was going to fall at any moment.
Purity took no more than ten steps when the people hidden from sight jumped out.
There were five of them, all wearing blue clothing. The clothing should be similar to the ones Liola was wearing, a school uniform. But the clothing on the five people was adorned with metallic things. It looked like some kind of weapons, and somewhat looked like armor.
"School of Mecha Fighters?" Judging from the messy description from Kaiser, Liola concluded. Considering he wanted to understand this world, this would be a good time to see what the Mecha Fighters really were.
Purity anxiously took out an old magic staff under her grey robe. The staff was adorned with a thumb-sized jewel, with a crack in it. It was obviously a low quality staff.
"Purity, school starts again. We haven't seen you in a whole month, and you know we missed you very much."
The leader, Jetter, showed the smile he had been hiding. Knowing he inflicted fear in Purity, his smile grew broader.
"Jetter…" Purity was so scared, she almost dropped her staff, let alone casting any sort of spell.
She started begging: "Jetter, please let me go. I-I've never done any harm to you, so why are you treating me like this?"
Jetter didn't reply, but instead smiled and raised his hands, to aim the barrels on the side of his arms toward Purity.
Liola, who was watching the scenario, was… Curiously looking at Jetter's arms. Huge pieces of metals lined up on his shoulders and arms.
The metals on his shoulder looked like huge shoulder pads, while the metal on his arm had claws on the end. It extended from his shoulders all the way down to his arms. They were wider than his arms.
Purity, whom had already gone pale, was on the ground, hoping the situation would end with no more than a few days in the hospital. Other than this, she had no other wishes.
As she waited, nothing happened, which was unusual for Jetter. Instead, Jetter turned towards Liola, who was standing no more than a few steps away: "Hey, aren't you planning on saving this damsel in distress?"
"No." Liola plainly answered. Why would he fight strangers he hadn't met for ten minutes?
Although he wanted to see the Mecha Fighters' weapons, he was not planning on testing them himself.
Jetter was stunned at his reply and started laughing: "What a cold-blooded guy! Purity, looks like you found the wrong guy to help you."
Cold-blooded Liola felt something in his heart, and suddenly heard the screaming of a young girl.
"You emotionless thing, are you worth my sister's sacrifice?"
Similar to his memories of the past, Jetter's mocking face appeared in front of his eyes again. Liola's eyes suddenly became cold. He… was starting to get mad.
* * *
"Hmm, I'm hungry." Kaiser lay on his bed for a long time. There was only one thing that could ever get him out of bed—hunger.
His unwilling head rubbed against the pillow few times, and finally sat up with his hairs sticking up. He rubbed his eyes, and suddenly found a person in his room:
"Hey! Liola? Didn't you go to class?"
Kaiser scratched his head, trying to recall. When he was sleeping, he seemed to have heard Liola saying he was going to class.
"Mm… I ran into a bit of trouble." Liola frowned lightly, while slowly eating his breakfast.
"What kind of trouble?" Kaiser's skin began to itch. He's not afraid of anything, except trouble.
"Liola-dage!"
Liola hadn't said anything, and the old door to their room was suddenly opened. The one who ran in, was delicate girl with blue hair and blue eyes — Purity. She was carrying a few plates full of breakfast: sandwiches, desserts, coffee, and bacon.
"Wow, breakfast!" Kaiser immediately jumped down from his bed, ran in front of Purity, and took away those steaming breakfast. He started stuffing his mouth, and was still was able to inquire Liola:
"Wow, she is, after all, a girl, and she was so thoughtful and brought us breakfast, Liola how could you possibly call her trouble? And even if she's trouble, she is at least a sweet burden."
Liola didn't answer. He was wondering, how would Kaiser react after he knew the truth? Probably angry to the point of dying by this ‘sweet burden’.
Kaiser kept stuffing, almost suffocating himself. Purity hurriedly brought some juice to Kaiser. He looked thankfully at Purity, and said to Liola:
"You see? What a considerate girl. And she's so pretty. Say, don't be so picky nowadays, you should keep this girl."[T/N: Kaiser is saying Liola should marry her.]
Liola remained quiet, while Purity blushed, and quickly clarified: "Kaiser-dage, it's not like that. Purity just met Liola-dage. Thanks to Liola-dage's helping hand, Purity wasn't bullied by Jetter."
"Helping hand?" Kaiser skeptically looked at Liola. This guy actually gave a helping hand?
"Yeah, Kaiser-dage didn't know? Just a while ago Liola-dage was really fierce. He fought off five School of Mecha Fighters students in just a few moves." Purity's eyes shone with admiration, ignoring Kaiser's wide open mouth with surprise.
She continued: "Just now, before Jetter could even realize, Liola-dage clubbed him from behind and he fell to the ground. And then, Purity could only see Liola-dage's shadow flashing around, and then everyone was already down on the ground.”
Kaiser was quiet for a while, and then finally pointed with a shaking head, and said: "Didn't I tell you not to mess with students from the School of Mecha Fighters?"
"Accident." Liola explained with a single word.
"Accident my ass! Didn't you know they are not to be trifled with?" Kaiser pulled his hair in frustration:
"There are tons of people with money and power in school. This time you beat them, but now you will never be able to live in peace. R-Right, from now on, we will go to class separately. Don't tell anyone you know me, and even if you do I will deny it."
In response to Kaiser's heartlessness, Liola simply said: "Purity will be hiring us as her bodyguard, paying one silver a day."
"What did you say? Hiring us?" Kaiser ground his teeth and yelled.
As soon as Purity saw Kaiser getting mad, she crouched to the ground, holding her hands together and cried: "S-Sorry, Kaiser-dage. Purity shouldn't call it hiring. It's more like begging. Please, Kaiser-dage…"
"Is it one silver per person per day?" Kaiser held Purity's hands, and asked with shining eyes.
"Uh, yes." Confused with the situation, Purity carefully answered.
"Boss~~ please get up." Kaiser grabbed Purity by the waist and carefully set her down on a chair, then immediately put some breakfast on the desk in front of her.
He started pouring juice into her cup, and asked as if he were an obedient dog: "Boss, how about some juice? Or would you like some bacon? You're so thin, so eating more would be healthy for you."
"Uh…" Purity looked at Liola, who was still eating breakfast without any emotion, with perplexed eyes.
"I-I am full. I'll come again in the afternoon to go to class with you." Purity really didn't know how to respond to Kaiser's sudden fervor, so she ran off.
Seeing the boss was gone, Kaiser sat down bluntly, and continued stuffing his face: "Why would you go help her? No matter how I look at you, you're not someone who would save a damsel in distress or being a Good Samaritan, especially if it would cause trouble to yourself."
Upon hearing Kaiser's critique, Liola was a bit peeved: "I wanted to kill all of those people and Purity, so they wouldn't cause us any trouble. Then I remembered I can't kill anyone."
"… Don't let the boss hear that, otherwise we will have no money to live on." Kaiser shrugged.
Though he hated trouble, he did need the money to live on. Now, as long as they could protect an innocent girl in a peaceful campus and get paid for it, there was nothing wrong with it.
"Purity and the silver-eyed bastard, come out here! Come out here and duel with me if you dare."
But God seems to contradict Kaiser's hopes, as if to mock him. The screaming was accompanied by strange disturbances, which shook the ancient sites… No, shook the dorms, and dust began to fall.
Kaiser swallowed the cake in his mouth, and turned to look at Liola. That's right, silver eyes. It could only mean one thing: trouble was here.
"Liola-dage, Kaiser-dage!" Within the same day, Purity barged in their room for the second time, with tears on her face, and couldn't stop shaking.
"Ahh, what do we do?!" Kaiser once again pulled his hair in frustration, with a face as if he was saying he was the unluckiest person in the world.
After pacing around for five minutes, Kaiser feebly put his head on the desk: "We should just let him scream. We'll be fine as long as we don't step out of these ruins. They can't possibly wait outside for long time."
"Food?" Liola lightly replied.
"With your abilities as the best assassin, sneaking out for a couple pieces of bread shouldn't be a problem, right?" Kaiser replied, unconcerned.
"B-But…" Purity's face turned white, and she stammered.
Kaiser raised his head abruptly, and yelled angrily at Purity: "Hey, don't think a silver a day is enough to make me risk my life against Mecha Fighters."
"S-Sorry…" Purity was scared to tears, and did what she do best: crouching and shaking in the corner of the room.
Liola quietly stood by the window, looking at what appeared to be a metallic monster standing at about ten meters high, and sitting inside it was Jetter.
So this was the real Mecha Fighters? Liola analyzed this monster he had never seen before, while thinking about what the best way to defeat his enemies. But since he had never fought with one of these, it was hard for him to analyze.
The best way, Liola thought, was to personally see it in action first.
God seems to bless Liola. After getting no responses from a few yells, Jetter started to move the machine to express his foul mood, and started destroying the ancient ruins of a dorm. As soon as the Mecha Fighter turned, the door turned into a pile of rubble.
The loud sound caused the entire dorm to panic… The so-called entire dorm, only consisted of the lazy Kaiser who slept 'til noon, and Purity who was intercepted on the way to class.
"Damn, now what?" Kaiser climbed to the window, and saw the Mecha Fighter doing some deconstruction on the ruins.
Staggeringly, he asked asked: "What… What is he going to do? Demolishing the dorm? Aren't there any management people in Aklan Academy who will intervene?"
At this time, Purity's crying voice could be heard: "B-Because the School of Sorcery only has one teacher. The principal of Aklan Academy: Principal Barbalis."
"The only teacher is the principal? The School of Sorcery shouldn't be this terrible!" Kaiser was more confused than before.
"But the p-principal said, he will never intervene any conflicts between students. He said conflicts with other students are a part of the learning process. So, even if the dorm of the School of Sorcery is destroyed, no one would say a word about it."
Purity frowned, if the dorm were demolished, wouldn't she have to live in the jungle at night? No, that's the best ending. In the worst case scenario, she could be buried alive underneath these ruins.
"Damn! What a principal. No wonder the School of Sorcery's dorm are in ruins, and it might even be demolished." Kaiser ground his teeth and yelled.
"Your school is really not peaceful." Liola still coldly standing beside the window, but his eyes were staring at the Mecha Fighters downstairs, and his brain continuously analyzing the ‘enemy's’ every action.
"Bastard!" Kaiser grabbed Liola's face: "Who do you think caused all this? Huh?!"
Kaiser pulled his own hair, and then grabbed Liola by the collar: "You should handle your own troubles."
Liola didn't reply, but lifted his eyebrows, as if he were saying, ‘how can I handle it?’
Kaiser paced for a few more minutes. The Mecha Fighter downstairs had already destroyed about a third of the dorm. Kaiser finally sighed, and gave a command: "Purity, go gather uniforms."
"Uniforms?" Purity froze.
"Yes. We have to disguise Liola so no one can recognize him." Kaiser's face turned crazy and deceitful.
"These damn rich students from the School of Mecha Fighters! Today, I, Kaiser, am going to make you guys pay for destroying the dorm where I live!"
With Kaiser's orders, Purity paused briefly, and then went around gathering uniforms.
Is Kaiser unhappy with the Mecha Fighters' contempt or… Because they're rich? Liola started thinking about this question.
"Kaiser-dage, i-is this okay?" Purity held a set of white clothes.
Kaiser held the uniforms in the air, and realized they were uniforms from the School of Knights. The tailoring was simple but well done. The clothes were adorned with silver lining in the shape of clouds to show their elegance.
"Where did you get these?" Kaiser gulped. If the clothes were to be sold, it would probably be enough to pay for a semester's worth of fees.
"It's Purity's brother's." Purity blushed: "Because Purity really likes older brother, so before school started, stole a set of clothes from the drawer."
"Ahahaha, even God helps me." Kaiser burst out laughing: "Not only can I frame the dishonorable School of Knights, after I'm done with this, I can even auction off this uniform, and I won't have to worry about money for this semester."
"What!" Purity tried to grab the clothes back, but how could a clumsy girl like her be faster than the crazy Kaiser hell bent on getting more money?
Kaiser easily ducked Purity's hands, and threw the clothes to the guy by the window: "Liola, put these on!"
Liola frowned, but Kaiser said: "Don't say no. If you want to live peacefully and stably in this campus, the best way is to direct Jetter away from you. But if you're going to keep getting into trouble with the Mecha Fighters, then that's your business; but don't ever say a word of you knowing me."
Liola was speechless, and he took the clothing and went to the bathroom.
"Next we need something to cover his face." Kaiser scratched his head: "But Liola's eyes are too unusual. I wonder if I cover the best assassin's eyes, could he still fight? I heard all gosu don't rely on their eyes…"
"… Even if I cover my eyes, doing so would make him suspicious. It would be easy for him to know it's a disguise." Liola walked out wearing the School of Knights’ uniform.
"You're right." Kaiser turned around, and immediately screamed: "Damn, who are you? Why are you pretending to be Liola?!"
Liola was speechless.
"Liola-dage is really handsome!" Purity said with shining eyes.
After putting on the righteous Knight's uniform, Liola's dark persona seemed to have disappeared completely. Now, Liola didn't look like an Assassin, but more like a Prince or a Knight.
"Tsk tsk, the appearance of a man really depends on his clothes." Kaiser exclaimed after he saw the new Liola.
"Eyes?" Liola disregarded what they thought about his looks, and asked the most important question.
Kaiser snappily answered: "How should I know? You just had to have such a particular eye color."
"Hehe, hello, everyone!" A baffling laughing sound suddenly appeared in the corner of the room.
"Damn, you again!"
"Who is this?"
"Ah, hello little beauty. My name is Mizerui; you may call me Mi-dage." Mizerui showed his gentle smile, and even his temperament was courteous, making it hard for anyone to nitpick.
"Miseroy, what are you doing here again?" Kaiser asked snappily, and then hurried added: "We are already in Aklan Academy; you can't turn on your words and kill us."
Mizerui waved quickly: "Not at all. I would never do that. On the contrary, I'm here to help you."
"Help us?" Kaiser was curious.
"Yup." Mizerui smilingly took out a silver mask: "Put on this mask specially made by Mizerui, and it will cover Liola's face. Not to mention, his eyes would turn into a golden color."
"Why do you want to help us?" Liola replied coldly.
"Hehe." Mizerui laughed without replying. As he laughed, his body seemed to have faded until the silver mask dropped onto the ground and Mizerui was nowhere to be found.
Kaiser grabbed the mask in confusion. Although he had no idea what Mizerui was planning, but the mask was definitely useful to them. Kaiser gave the mask to Liola. Now the issue was, if Liola wanted to wear it.
"I feel like I'm being taken advantage of." Liola said, but he still took the mask because he was really curious about the metallic monster outside.
He wanted to know if the plan he had concocted would be effective against Mecha Fighters.
In response to Liola's dissatisfaction, Kaiser shrugged: "I have always been taking advantage of you."
You sure are truthful… Liola put on the mask and, without any worries, put his hands on the window pane, and jumped out.
Seeing Liola was finally willing to do something, Kaiser sighed with relief. "Looks like this thing is settled,"
Kaiser showed a deceptive smile towards Purity, and then put out his palm: "Don't forget to pay for overtime!"
Liola, jumped out the window, jumped around the building with ease, and within just a few jumps, landed lightly on the back of the Mecha Fighters.
His landing was so quiet; it was as if a feather had fallen on the machine. The controller, Jetter, didn’t realize the metallic machine had suddenly gained a visitor.
"Should I break the joint, so this Mecha Fighter couldn't move? Or should I destroy it completely?" Liola could not decide. In the past, the organization always had orders, and all he did was followed them, but now…
"Go righteous Silver Mask! Go defeat the dorm-destroying criminal! Cut it into pieces so the souls of the dorm can rest in peace!" Kaiser cried at the window. Not only did it give Liola an answer, it also helped Jetter realize the existence of his enemy.
"Kaiser-dage, I think y-you aren't helping?" Standing beside him, Purity timidly asked.
"Ah, Liola is very strong. If I don't help out the enemy, then the Mecha Fighter would die without even knowing what happened." Kaiser grunted: "Considering you paid us for overtime, it's my duty to make the person who bullied the boss feel more pain."
Saying a sentence counts as making it happen? Purity thought quietly.
"You're from School of Knight?" While controlling the metallic machine, Jetter saw Liola in his white uniform, and his eyes were filled with rage.
It's not surprising the academy students were segregated based on their schools, and each having deep-rooted hatred toward one another. It was at the point where they would fight to death whenever they saw each other.
"Fine, let's show you School of Knight what our rank-C Mecha Fighters can do." Jetter said as he stopped destroying the dorm, and turned around to deal with this unwanted guest.
But, Liola was on the back of the Mecha Fighters. Jetter smiled coldly, and controlled the Mecha Fighters to jump up and down, trying to shake Liola off. But this move not only didn’t shake Liola off, it didn’t affect him at all.
Liola lightly moved around the Mecha Fighter. At one moment he was on the machine’s arm, and another he was on its chest. Finally, he jumped between the machine's legs and touched it.
"What is Liola-dage doing?" Purity was dumbfounded, and with a blush she asked.
"Uhm, I think he’s probably sexually harassing the metallic robot."
"He doesn't seem like the sort of a guy…"
"You only know his appearance but not his personalities. How would you know if he has any kind of fetish?"
Fortunately, what happened next cleared the suspicion of Liola sexually harassing the machine.
Jetter swung the arms of the machine wildly trying to catch Liola, but failed. Afterwards, Liola came out from beneath the Mecha Fighter, and unexpectedly stood still in front of it.
Jetter was certainly not going to miss this golden opportunity. He raised the arms of the machine, and slammed them down toward Liola. It looked as if he was about to crush Liola into meatballs…
Klang!
A light metallic sound could be heard. Kaiser, who had been standing there next to window, showed an deceptive smile.
The only person unaware of what had happened was the controller of the Mecha Fighter. He still was trying to get rid of the enemy. Then, a series of metallic sounds could be heard. It was apparent the sounds came from the Mecha Fighter.
Jetter panicked. But before he could do anything, the Mecha Fighter crumbled. There was no explosion, and it was not cut with a sword. All of a sudden, the metallic monster crumbled into what it was before — a pile of metallic parts.
Jetter fell from a three-story height to the ground, and dislocated parts of his face during the landing. His hands were still holding the control stick, fully unaware of what had just happened.[T/N: 3 stories is equal to 10 meters.]
"Hey, bully! Don't think too highly of your School of Mecha Fighters. Look at how righteous the School of Knights is! They saw you destroying the dorm, so they came and stopped you. Go learn how to be a hero from them." Kaiser yelled at Jetter arrogantly from the window.
"Wh-who are you?" Jetter's face turned white. He didn't know the School of Knight were so strong, they could dismantle a Mecha Fighter single-handedly.
Liola remained quiet. What did Kaiser called him again? Silver something…
Fortunately, Kaiser came to his rescue. He pretended to be a crazed fan, and screamed: "Long live Silver Mask! Long live Silver Mask!"
"Silver Mask?" Jetter showed anger, but was too scared to do anything, especially in front of Liola's cold eyes.
"Just you wait. The School of Mecha Fighters will not let you get away with this!" Jetter yelled fiercely at Liola, and immediately turned around to escape.
Liola stood alone at where he was. However, a crowd began to gather around him. Liola felt uncomfortable because he was used to hiding in the dark.
Considering there were many audiences, if he jumped back to the dorm, then it would’ve been pointless for him to be wearing a mask.
Clueless, Liola caught a ball of rolled up paper thrown at him from behind. He looked up, and saw Kaiser lazily put his head on the window pane. Along with the two thirds of destroyed dorm, the whole scene had felt unfamiliar to him.
Liola read the rolled up paper, and coldly said toward the direction where Jetter escaped: "The School of Knights awaits your revenge!"
As soon as he was done framing, Liola turned handsomely, and suddenly disappeared from where he stood.
"Wow, Liola-dage is really cool." Purity's eyes showed admiration as she praised.
Purity was not the only one who had eyes of admiration.
Many of those who crowded around also praised the mysterious man, for who had ever seen someone destroy a Mecha Fighter single-handedly?
Not to mention Liola's cool figure captured many hearts of the women. There were already many people trying to guess the identity of Silver Mask.
"Quiet. Aren't you afraid people might find out who he is?" Kaiser said leisurely. But with them being on the fifth floor, no one could hear them.
"Let's talk about something more important!" Kaiser's eyes shone suddenly.
"What? Is Jetter going to come for revenge again?" Purity began to worry.
"That's not the problem. Jetter would be going to the School of Knight if he wants revenge, what does it have to do with us?"
Kaiser couldn’t possibly care about someone who couldn't even take a hit from Liola. What's more important was…
"It's time for afternoon tea. I'm thinking a silver a day, plus you get us food."
"Uhm…" Purity found it a bit hard to accept someone who loves money and food.
* * *
"First day in school, and they haven't even been to class yet, but they've already destroyed the School of Sorcery's dorm. Looks like those two little guys were more interesting than we had anticipated!"
"Silver Mask. Ahahaha, I haven't heard such a… Silly name… In a long time…. Ahahaha!"
Although he questioned whether the person had the right to make fun of the name, he remained quiet. He didn't want to know what kissing the ground would feel like.
"Looks like this is going to be a fun year."
The two looked at each other and laughed. It was just all too interesting!
Usage of ‘dage’:
When Kaiser used it, calling Liola ‘dage’, it’s similar to the Japanese word ‘aniki’, which means “Elder/Older Brother”
When Purity used it, it was similar to “Liola-san”, which is a sign of respect.
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Chapter 3 : Pink Big-Eyed Child
This chapter is brought to you by AnmesicCat, Masadeer, and StellarAshes.
“Liola, get undressed quickly. Hurry!”
Before he finished what he wanted to say, Kaiser pounced on Liola like a monkey, and started stripping the white Knight uniform off Liola.
“Wow, s-so the relationship between the two dages is like this…” Purity covered her eyes, but peeked from the crack.
“I think, it’s because Kaiser wants to sell the clothes…” Liola calmly concluded.
“What?!” Purity immediately joined Kaiser, and started stripping Liola:
“You can’t do that! It’s my elder brother’s clothes. It’s Purity’s precious treasure. You can’t sell it!”
Facing two people who were forcefully stripping him, Liola didn’t have much of a reaction. Instead, he let them do whatever they wanted.
The only question he raised was: “The dorm has been destroyed. What do we do?”
The two stopped after hearing that. Kaiser looked the other person, who had been in the school for a while:
“The dorm has already turned into a hazardous building. The principal will at least do something now, right?”
“Principal Barbalis has always been…” Purity gulped, and continued: “Strange. What he’s going to do, I have no idea.”
“Who cares; the boss is going to take care of our accommodations.” Kaiser carelessly answered.
Purity seemed to have mustered all her courage and said: “I-if you sell my older brother’s clothes, then I won’t hire you as bodyguards!”
“What!” Kaiser heard this, and his face turned pale. He immediately let go of the half of the shirt that he held, and his speech became extremely flattering.
“Boss, I was just kidding with you. I would never sell the boss’s precious treasure.”
“Good,” Purity sighed with relief, “But Liola-dage looks really good in older brother’s Knight uniform, so dage should keep it to wear as the Silver Mask.”
Liola and Kaiser both looked at Purity. Kaiser started flailing:
“Why do we need the Silver Mask? That troublesome guy Jetter is already blaming the School of Knights. Now that the Silver Mask is gone, they will have no one to dispute with. Let the School of Knight and Mecha Fighters duke it out, and we can even watch the show.”
“But… the Silver Mask was REALLY cool!” Purity lowered her head, disappointed.
“What’s so cool about such a silly name?” Kaiser rolled his eyes. But when he saw that the boss was starting to pout, Kaiser immediately changed the topic: “It’s already past noon. We should go to school now; if we get expelled from school, there will be deaths involved.
Liola was planning to change his clothes, but Purity looked at him with disappointed eyes.
Liola unfastened a button, and Purity’s disappointed eyes started tearing up. And when Liola was done taking off his shirt, Purity was already crying in a corner while doodling on the ground.
‘Three black lines‘ descended onto Kaiser’s face, and he helplessly said to Liola: “I think you should just keep it on, and just wear your School of Sorcery robe on top of it. Otherwise, the boss might not be giving out dinner tonight.”
Purity immediately turned around and looked at Liola with sparkly eyes, who, after looking at Purity, put on his gray robe, took off his mask and then put it in his pocket.
To avoid the class ending before they even arrive, they all hurried toward the classroom.
“Purity, what are the characteristics of the three schools?” On the way, Liola asked Purity, which was unusual for him. After having experienced it a few times, he finally understood that, if he didn’t want an answer to something, all he had to do was ask Kaiser.
“Oh, Liola-dage you didn’t know?” Purity explained excitedly:
“School of Knight specializes in training knights. There are all sorts of Knights inside. Paladins, Dark Knights. The most famous Knight would be Dragon Knights. But there aren’t many Dragon Knights in the School of Knights. After all, most Dragon Knights come from the Dragon Empire, so there aren’t many in Aklan Academy. Last I heard, I think there’s only three or four.”
“What’s their…” Liola mainly wanted to know the Knights’ characteristics, such as moves and weapons.
Kaiser flung his finger, and carelessly said: “Knights value honor, bloodline, and their weapons. Their strength comes mainly from their fighting spirit and their martial arts.”
Purity nodded desperately and added: “The students from School of Knights are cool and handsome!”
“As for the School of Mecha Fighter, I think you’ve already seen it?”
“What are rank-D and rank-C mechas?” Liola pointed out what he didn’t understand.
“Mechas are also put into ranks of A through D. A signifies the best and D the worst. Ordinarily, rank-C mechas are already pretty good. But with a pilot like Jetter, rank-C and rank-D probably don't seem all that different; I felt sorry for that rank-C mecha.” Kaiser sighed.
Liola wanted to also ask about the School of Sorcery, because it was rare for Kaiser to answer seriously. But he thought that, as soon as he gets to the classroom, he will understand what Sorcerers do, so he didn’t bother to ask.
Quietly walking to school down along the broad road lined up with trees, Liola never imagined he'd be living so peacefully.
After deserting the organization and falling into an alien world, he felt that everything had turned out quite well for him. No matter how powerful the organization was, they can’t chase him across dimensions.
But does falling into an alien world have something to do with Anise?
He remembered when the organization had cornered him, the necklace Anise gave him started to shake… Then a crack appeared in mid-air. With no alternatives left, he stepped into the crack and found himself in another world.
If this had something to do with Anise, then he owed her yet another favor that he couldn’t possibly ever return.
“Wow, Kaiser-dage, Liola-dage, look over there!” Purity suddenly screamed surprisingly.
“Just call me Kaiser. It’s strange for you to call me Kaiser-dage.” Kaiser always felt there was something funny about calling him dage.
He then looked at where Purity pointed, and his eyes shone.
“Damn, a Dragon.”
A green, enormous creature was imprisoned within an electrified cage.
The creature was about ten meters, and covered in a beautiful, white scales that shone under the sunlight. The pair of wings on the back, though restrained by the electrified cage, had large sharp ends that drove fear into the hearts of its enemies.
Its body full of muscle was also driving people away. This was the most famous creature from Dragon Empire — a Dragon.
“Dragon? Does this have to do with Dragon Knights?” Liola instinctively connected the dots.
‘Can it be that this huge creature was actually a mount? This would be a bit too astonishing.’ Despite that, Liola’s face still remained calm.
“Yup. This is my third time seeing a Dragon, and this white Dragon is the most beautiful one that I’ve seen. The Dragon Knight who entered this year must be a handsome guy too. I want to see how cool he is.” Purity held her cheeks and began to daydream about the Dragon Knight.
“Uh, I think you might see him sooner than you think.” Kaiser painfully raised his head: “This guy has almost broken out of the electrified cage.”
“What?” Purity stared at the Dragon dumbfoundedly.
For some reason, the beautiful yet fearsome Dragon seemed to have gone crazy, and it repeated rammed at the cage around it.
Liola frowned, the cage's bars suddenly broke off, and the huge Dragon flew out unobstructed, and landed in front of everyone. It stretched its muscular hind legs, and it shook the ground with every step.
“W-what do we do now? I’m scared!” Purity grabbed Liola’s leg, as if doing so would mean the Dragon couldn’t step on her.
“Just don’t worry about it.” Kaiser watched as if he were watching a movie. Besides, the Dragon was fairly far away, and he saw that there were a few students in Knights’ uniform around the Dragon.
According to what he knew of the Knights’ spirits, those people would stop the Dragon from harming innocent people like himself, even if it costs their lives.
“Wow, another one got flattened.” Kaiser clicked his tongue and shook his head.
“What?!” Purity panicked and stared at the Dragon.
With the Dragon's ferocity, there were already a few School of Knights students on the ground in a pool of blood. But everyone still standing held their swords, trying to prevent the Dragon from leaving.
Purity was so scared that she felt her heart beating out of her chest.
If this continues, the casualties would be too great to the School of Knights. Was there any way to help those knights…?
Purity paused, and looked at the leg she was holding onto, and the white uniform underneath the robe… the Silver Mask!
“Liola, please!” Purity mustered her courage, and said, trembling, in front of Liola.
“No.” Liola said decidedly.
Purity was surprised by Liola’s cold face, and she lost the courage to ask Liola again. All she could do was turn around to ask Kaiser, who was the only one who could make Liola do anything. But instead Kaiser ignored her, and continued to enjoy the show.[T/N: want some popcorn? E/N: Yes plz, you got buffalo flavor powder?]
With no one else to turn to, Purity took off her brooch and yelled:
“This brooch was given to me on my eighteenth birthday. It is adorned with three rubies, and several diamond pieces; it is also made out of the so-called strongest metal — adamantium alloy…”
Before Purity could finish explaining, Kaiser’s eyes were shooting out blinding lights:
“That’s the compensation for beating that Dragon?”
“Yes,” Purity held tightly brooch, “If you beat that Dragon, it’s yours.”
Kaiser did not say anything else. He took out his gun, and fired it at the Dragon’s head. And then… he grabbed the boss and ran off, and all he left behind was:
“Liola, the rest is up to the Silver Mask…”
Liola was planning on rejecting Kaiser, but when he turned around and saw the Dragon already angrily charging towards him.
With his sharp eyes, Liola could already see that the person reflected in the Dragon eyes was himself. Since the actual culprit ran off too quickly, the Dragon probably assumed that Liola was the one who shot it.
Without any delay, Liola put on his mask, threw his gray robe toward the forest around him, and became Silver Mask for the second time.
At this time, the Dragon was already in front of Liola, and opened his enormous mouth to attack Liola. But Liola used this opportunity to jump on top of the Dragon’s head, and utilizing the momentum of his body to punch the back of the Dragon’s head with his elbow.
The blow was definitely felt by the Dragon, because it started shaking his head wildly, and ran around crazily . It also tried to stick its head into the forest, trying to get the unwanted guest off his head.
But Liola already predicted its intentions. After he attacked the head, he slip down along the Dragon’s spine to attack the Dragon’s back, but… Wings!
Liola suddenly remembered this creature had a pair of wings.
Unfortunately, the Dragon spread its wings and took off. Dragons were, after all, the kings of sky, and in the blink of an eye, it was high up in the air.
“Ugh, too careless.” Liola was a bit frustrated, thinking that his awareness had deteriorated.
But in actuality, it's not really his fault. In the world Liola came from, there wasn’t many things that could fly, much less to such an attitude, so fast that he couldn't jump off.
The Dragon obviously knew that what’s on its back could not fly, and it would fall to its death as soon as it detaches from the Dragon’s body.
The Dragon started to accelerate and stop suddenly, trying to throw the invader off. It even started circling in the air.
At this time, more and more people gathered to watch, including the culprit and his accomplice.
Seeing Liola’s tragic plight, Purity was at the point where foam was about to come out of her mouth:
“Lio…”
“Silver Mask.” Kaiser corrected with a straight face.
There were too many people around them, and it was difficult to ascertain if someone was listening in on them. It’s better off to call him Silver Mask for now.
“S-silver Mask… is he going to be okay?”
At this time, the Dragon started flying figure eights.
Purity was close to fainting, and had Kaiser not been holding her, she would’ve already been making out with the ground.
“Well…” Kaiser was looking into the sky.
Although he hadn’t met Liola for long, the best assassin in the world, who could even take on a rank-X criminal, should be able to handle a simple Dragon.
Though judging by the circumstance, it does not bode well.
The situation with Liola in the air wasn’t great. In order to not fall off, Liola had to hold tightly onto the Dragon. But the Dragon's scales were extremely sharp and, before long, Liola’s hands were full of cuts, and his white shirt were starting to be covered with blood.
Liola wasn’t going to give up, and when the Dragon was doing aerial stunts, his feet repeatedly kicked the Dragon’s spine. The Dragon roared in pain as a result, and Liola knew it wasn’t feeling too great either.
After circling for a while, Liola was getting impatient:
“I only promised to not kill any sentient creatures. If you can understand what I’m saying, then let’s go back to the ground; if not, then you’re not sentient.”
And with his threat, Liola finally took out the weapon that had never left his side — a silver stick of about forty centimeters long, with fine-patterned carvings.
With one hand holding onto the Dragon’s spike, Liola held one end of the stick in his other hand, and biting onto the other end.
With a slight twist, the silver stick cracked open at about a fourth along its length; Liola pulled,
and he pulled out a dagger as wide as his thumb, from the silver stick.
After some contemplation, Liola chose to stab at near the Dragon’s tail. This shouldn’t affect the Dragon’s flight, because, after all, he’s not ready to plunge to the ground along with the Dragon.
When blue blood erupt from the Dragon, it roared again in pain.
Liola knew, however, that this bit of pain wasn’t enough for the Dragon to surrender. He stabbed a few times more.
The Dragon’s tail was now covered in blue blood, and Liola’s white uniform was no longer white — it was red and blue.
“Descend now! Or I will kill you.”
Liola no longer concealed his murderous intent, and his eyes were filled with ruthlessness. And his left hand that was originally simply holding onto the Dragon’s spike, mercilessly turned the spike around and jabbed it into the Dragon’s body, and twisted the spike to tear Dragon’s flesh.
The Dragon was in severe pain. It turned around and, without caring whether it would harm itself, spat out several sharp Frostbolts toward Liola.
Despite the close distance, and his hand in the flesh of the Dragon, Liola quickly flipped and landed on the wing of the Dragon. Going with the flapping of its wings, Liola fearlessly broke a bone on the wing.
“Even if I fall, I will only get hurt.”
Liola coldly stated his final threat, and broke yet another bone on the wing. The two broken bones had already made the flight quite unstable.
With two broken bones and several holes in its back, the Dragon sadly howled. It probably knew that it no longer had the advantage, and stopped performing stunts. It flew smoothly, and the fierceness it once had was now replaced with a pitiful moan.
Liola saw this, and stopped with his attacks. He was no longer destroying the poor Dragon’s wings.
The silver dagger was also sheathed back to the silver stick, which was put back into his boots.
After having been through the killing career for many years, Liola knew that, unlike humans, animals won’t have any evil plans. As long as they were tamed, they were no longer dangerous.
Liola said soothingly, “It’s okay, I won’t harm you anymore.”
This time around, the Dragon seemed to have understood Liola. It turned around to look at him, and it wasn’t until now that Liola realized, this white Dragon actually had pink eyes. With the white scales and pink eyes, had Purity been here, she would been shaking and screaming, “cute!”
Liola touched the Dragon’s neck lightly. He originally wanted to touch its face, but the neck was far too long for him to do so. So he just had to settle with the neck.
Who knew that the Dragon actually turned his head around, and desperately nodded his head, as if it wanted Liola to touch his head. Liola laughed, and climbed up the Dragon’s neck, to touch its head and to comfort it.
But, when Liola’s bloodied hand touched the Dragon’s head, it felt like he was electrified.
Liola felt a strong pain, and he heard a loud sound. Liola lost consciousness, and fell out of the sky…
That loud sound seemed to have been…
“I look forward to learning from you, my strong master.”
* * *
“Liola, can you stop being an assassin?” A blurred yet familiar person stood in front of him, looking at him with hopeful eyes.
“The day I stop being an assassin is the day I die.” Because other than dying, there was no way that the organization would let him go.
“If, hypothetically, one day you won’t have to be an assassin anymore, what would you want to do?”
Liola remained quiet. He was raised to be an assassin, and his career was a killer. Even in his spare time he practiced killing. What else could he do in his life, other than being an assassin?
“Liola, when you don’t want to kill anymore, come find me, okay?”
Liola faintly answered: “… Okay.”
Anise eventually left. She left the organization, left that bamboo forest, and left him, thanks to other martial arts organizations ceaselessly trying to rescue her.
The organization could not defend itself against everyone, and did not want to make an enemy out of the entire world; so they eventually let her go.
Anise was really happy to finally be free again, as shown on her face. But, she was also really worried about him.
The Anise who had always hoped he could live like a normal person and not an assassin, with happiness intertwined with sadness, she faded away in front of his very eyes.
* * *
Suddenly opening his eyes, Liola’s mind was blank, “Where am I? Where is Anise?”
There’s someone behind him!
The alertness that Liola had trained since a boy made him jump up, and reflexively grabbed the person’s neck, about to break it. It was then when Liola suddenly heard in his head…
“Don’t kill anymore, okay?”
Liola suddenly let go, and remembered everything.
Anise was dead, and the organization chased him. He also fell into another world, and then some bastard with a gun got him into an aerial battle with a Dragon…
Right, where is that Dragon? It was then when Liola heard a quiet sob from the direction of his hand.
He turned around to look, and two pink eyes stared at him, with his shadow reflecting in them.
Although they look far different, Liola still blatantly stated: “You’re that Dragon.”
A cute child nodded desperately.
Those pink eyes and pink cheeks, along with soft, silver hair, would make anyone’s heart melt.
But the child’s body was spotted with a strange blue liquid, and the young body had plenty of wounds. The child didn’t seem to mind, but instead searched around Liola with curiosity.
Liola touched its forehead.
How would another person react when they see a ten-meter Dragon turn into a cute, five year old child?
Liola was confused.
(A normal person would probably be eaten when they see a Dragon, why would they even have a reaction to it?)
“Do you know how to talk?” Liola frowned. Compared to a young child, he was better at handling a Dragon.
The young child smiled and nodded, and desperately tried to run into Liola’s arms: “Papa, papa… pa…”
“Never mind, you shut up.”
Liola was having a headache.
What should he do now? If this were the old him, he would’ve definitely killed it without a second thought. Now… All he can do was give the child to Kaiser.
Grabbing the naked young child, Liola’s body felt as if it grew wings.
He jumped through the forest without making any sound, and returned to the dorm before long.
He saw that there were no one around, so he jumped through the window to his room, and surely enough, found two people waiting for him.
“Looks like it’s going to be hard to go to class today.” Kaiser lazily laid on the desk, two eyes gazed on the ruby brooch in his hand.
“Liola-dage, what do you have there… cute!” Purity began to talk, but when she saw the cute child, she immediately ran up to try to pinch the child’s pink cheeks.
Liola was more than happy to pass off the child, and immediately gave Purity the 'hot potato' in his hands.
He then grabbed a chair and sat next to Kaiser, and said coldly: “Don’t do this again.”
Kaiser smiled and answered: “Well, I can’t guarantee that.”
Liola frowned, but really wasn’t angry. Being with a guy who was obviously going to bring him trouble was far better than being with a backstabber, although Liola found himself angry more often now than he did in the past twenty odd years.
“But, pregnancies take nine months; you were only gone for ten minutes, how come you brought back a child?” Kaiser asked, but he had an idea what the answer was.
Liola was gone with a Dragon, and then came back alone with a child; Kaiser could easily guess where the child came from.
Liola ignored Kaiser’s nonsense and asked:
“What was the response from the School of Knights?”
Kaiser flung his finger and shrugged:
“Someone was really mad! Though this Dragon caused many casualties, I heard that a newcomer in the School of Knights shipped it from the Dragon Empire to be tamed later. But now it’s missing, and if it’s not returned, things may turn ugly.”
“But at the same time, many people admired Silver Mask for his bravery, and his aerial struggle with the Dragon, especially among the female students.” Kaiser laughed intently.
Liola coldly glanced at Kaiser, and looked at the pink-eyed child:
“Bring him back, and there will be no trouble.”
“Heartless!” Kaiser said, but at the same time looked as if he agrees.
“What, you're going to take this child back?” Purity’s ears were quite sharp.
“Yeah, what else can we do? Keep him and cause more trouble?” Kaiser exclaimed.
Purity knew in her heart that the child in her arms was trouble, so she was reluctant to keep the child, and played with the child’s cheek while she had the chance.
Then as she looked at his face, she suddenly realized that, on the child’s forehead, there was a red oval mark, and according to what she remembered from 'Dragon Knight’s Glory and Honor'…
Purity immediately threw the child into Kaiser’s arms, and then ran to Liola, as if she had forgotten what being afraid was.
Without caring about her brother’s clothes, she tore off the Knight uniform’s left sleeve, and was stunned at Liola’s left arm.
Kaiser, who had been fumbling around, now finally grabbed the pink-eyed child, and examined Liola’s arm with Purity.
Then Liola, too, looked at his own arm. He too, was stupefied. There was a silver scale growing out of his left arm.
Purity gulped:
“Liola-dage… Has turned into a Dragon Knight.”
Kaiser and Liola were both stunned. Purity repeated what she could remember from 'Dragon Knight’s Glory and Honor'.
“Not everyone who wants to be a Dragon Knight could become one. Even at the Dragon Empire, the origin of the Dragon Knight, there are many Knights who could never gain the approval of a Dragon to become a true Dragon Knight.”
“To be a real Dragon Knight, one must first accumulate enormous strength; then they must beat a Dragon by themselves. Finally, they must acquire a Dragon’s approval. Only then, could they become a real Dragon Knight. In other words, Dragon Knights are powerful not just because of their Dragons, but also because they themselves are powerful.”
Finally, Purity stared at the scale on Liola’s left arm:
“The book says, when one acquires the Dragon’s approval, they must then drop their own blood on the Dragon’s forehead. And then the Dragon will take the scale from the center of its forehead and adorn it on the Dragon Knight’s left arm, to show its loyalty and to link its spirit to the Dragon Knight.”
Kaiser was petrified:
“You can also tell us, a Dragon who has linked its spirit with a master can’t change its master.”
Purity nodded.
The pink-eyed child, as if to show his intentions, wobbly walked up to Liola, and then climbed up Liola’s body like a lizard, and then stayed at Liola’s back.
The child even made a lowly snore, indicating that he was sound asleep.
“Right.” Purity somewhat hesitantly said: “Don’t let anyone know that Silver Mask is Liola-dage. Jetter from this morning is a son of the leader of Commerce Alliance — the origin of Mechas. And the leader is v-very influential.”
“Liola, I seriously beg you.” Kaiser showed a dignified expression: “Please don’t tell anyone you know me.”
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Chapter 4 : Liola is a Dragon Knight?
This chapter is brought to you by AnmesicCat, Masadeer, and StellarAshes.
“Heh, I ran into a person from another dimension in the morning, and then an X-ranked criminal forced us to go study at Aklan Academy.
Before noon we’ve already offended the son of the Commerce Alliance’s leader. The next day, without taking a sip of afternoon tea, we’ve also provoked the Dragon Empire, and now we even have a baby Dragon who does nothing but eat.”
Kaiser thought about what had transpired in these past few days:
“I say, Liola, there are only three countries in the world, and you’ve already offended two.
Looks like you're running out of places to hide.”
“If I remember correctly, you caused every single one of those things.”
Liola refuted coldly:
“You wanted to catch Mizerui, you wanted me to teach Jetter a lesson, finally, you shot the Dragon to draw it away from those people.”
“Well, that is true, but you seem to have the potential to make everything a big deal.”
Kaiser was amazed, perhaps him and Liola were on the bottom of the list of people who are fated to be together?
One draws troubles, and the other make the troubles worse; it’s only the second day and they’ve already destroyed a dorm, a Mecha, and defeated a Dragon. The days ahead are… worrisome.
“Oh no, Kaiser, Liola-dage!” Purity screamed while running into the room.
“What’s wrong? What’s worse than sitting in a half-destroyed dorm staring at a Dragon-turned-baby?”
Kaiser leaned against the table, staring at the pink-eyed child on the table. The child seemed to be curious about Kaiser, and he always stared at him with his big eyes.
“The School of Knights i-is giving Silver Mask a final warning, if he doesn’t hand over the Sacred White Dragon, they will issue a kill-on-sight order on him, and search every last corner.” Purity turned pale.
“Sacred White Dragon?”
Staring at the child in front of him, whose stare had made him cross-eyed, it was hard for him to think of the child as a Sacred White Dragon.
“Then hand him back.” Liola said dispassionately.
“I do want to. But I’ve been thinking, which is worse? Not handing over the Dragon, or handing over the Dragon, only to have them find that the Dragon has already chosen a master?”
Liola was quiet as well. If the Dragon had already picked a master, then it would be useless to them, so wouldn’t it be the same either way?
What to do? All three thought about the problem in their hearts.
“I-I used to read in the book…” Purity said with some uncertainty:
“Dragon Knights are very moral, gracious people, and they respect Dragons. If they know that the Dragon has picked a master, they would be happy for that Dragon…”
Under Kaiser’s scornful gaze, Purity’s voice grew quieter as she spoke, until even she didn't believe her words were possible.
After all, the Dragon Empire was very strict about Dragons. Everyone in the world knew that. There was a story about a Dragon egg being stolen from the Empire via the sea.
They were so angry, they butchered thousands of passengers on the ship, and when the egg was not found, they sank the ship. So even if they couldn’t get it back, they would never let anyone leave with it.
“Then I guess I have to do something I really don’t want to!” Veins started popping out of Kaiser’s forehead.
“Something Kaiser-dage doesn’t want to do?” Purity was surprised, and guessed, “Could it be running away?”
“No, running away from Aklan Academy means we would be chased by Mizerui. Compared to him, I think the School of Knights is easier to deal with.”
Liola said lightly, and a murderous intent flashed from his eyes: “You want to silence them?”
“F— you, you’re even more unrealistic than Purity.” Kaiser mercilessly rebuked:
“To quell this, are you going to kill the entire School of Knights? And if you do that, the other two schools will definitely react, so in the end are you going to kill everyone in Aklan Academy?”
“Well, it’s not like I haven’t done that…” Liola opened his mouth, and made the other two felt felt the hair on the back of their necks sticking up.
“No! Neither are what I'm want to do.” Kaiser ceremoniously denied.
Liola and Purity stared at Kaiser, as if they were asking, “So what the hell do you want to do?”
Kaiser held his hand into a fist, and with a serious his face, he said:
“Well, since we can’t offend Mizerui nor the School of Knights, then… Mizerui-dage, where are you? Help! If you don’t come out soon, we will get killed. If we get killed, then you letting us go would have meant nothing! Mizerui-dage, come out and help us!”
Kaiser screamed and yelled, while pulling his hair and pounded loudly on the wall. If anyone saw him, they would probably think he was possessed.
“So he’s calling for reinforcements…”
Liola said disapprovingly: “I don’t think Mizerui would care about this.”
“Okay okay, didn’t dage come after all?” Mizerui’s outline really appeared on top of the table.
He sat cross-legged on the table while holding the pink-eyed child, playing with it. The big-eyed child was so scared, he ran off into the arms of his ‘papa’ without even looking back at Mizerui.
“Damn! You really came…” Kaiser’s jaws dropped as he looked at Mizerui.
“Hey, were you not the one who called me here?” Mizerui said with an aggravated expression.
“Well…” Kaiser only called for him jokingly, and it was done out of desperation. Who knew that this guy really had nothing to do, and came as soon as called upon!
“Ah, whatever. Now that you’re here, help us with these huge problem!”
“This problem isn’t going to be easy.” Mizerui shook his head and sighed,
“You two really are the epitome of ‘trouble-makers’. But luckily, you were clever, coming up with the Silver Mask.”
“I’ve already spoken with the principal, and he will help you suppress this. But, in the future, don’t let Silver Mask come out again, otherwise the School of Knights will create trouble again.”
“Mi-Mizerui-dage…” Kaiser was so grateful, that it looked like he was about to kiss Mizerui’s feet.
“Don’t thank me yet,” Mizerui smiled gently, but Kaiser already knew that this wasn’t the end. It wasn’t going to end simply like this.
“Go thank the Aklan Academy principal. You really owe him one so you should repay him.” As Mizerui said this, he disappeared again.
“He does this every time, and never finishes saying his thoughts. What the hell does that principal want with us?” Kaiser mumbled.
Liola frowned. This feeling… There was an evil scheme in progress, and it was making him unhappy… But under the premise of not killing a person, it was not going to be easy beating Mizerui, especially when he wasn’t familiar with Mizerui’s power of sorcery.
“Hmm.” Purity showed a worried expression.
“What’s up, boss?”
Purity raised her head and said: “Do you guys want to go to the eighth period? If we go now, we can still make it.”
Kaiser scratched his already messed up head: “Every time we go to class, it seems like something bad happens.”
“We still have to go.” Liola said firmly: “We’ll go to the principal directly, to ask him how we have to repay him.”
“What about the pink-eyed child?” Purity asked; but then everyone suddenly realized, the Dragon baby was gone… Even an idiot would know, Mizerui was the one who took him.
“Hey, Liola, your child was abducted.” Kaiser elbowed the father next to him.
“Ignore him.”
“What a heartless father, you don’t even care about your precious daughter.”
“B-but… I peeked a while ago; the pink-eyed child doesn’t have something that girls should have…”
“What? Holy sh*t, Liola, your son doesn’t have a penis!”
“…”
* * *
Mizerui’s appearance started as a light outline, and slowly became denser, until finally, he materialized.
However unlike his usual carefree appearance, Mizerui was busy comforting the crying baby Dragon child in his hand, and sometimes having to rescue his own hair and face from the child.
“Aiya, Mizerui, why did you make a little child cry?” Barbalis smiled while serving tea to Mizerui, and made fun of his good friend’s rare misfortune.
Mizerui laughed bitterly: “I didn’t make him cry. When I wanted to take this child, he tried desperately to get back to Liola, but instead Liola glanced at him coldly. And this is the result.”
“Looks like that guy is definitely strong, but he isn’t a good father.” Barbalis stroke his long beard, “Hmm, I guess, it wasn’t a good idea to give him the Sacred White Dragon.”
Mizerui snapped when he heard: “The Dragon already picked him. So even if it wasn’t a good idea there’s nothing we can do now.”
“But the Dragon Empire’s Princess is rather unhappy! This was her Dragon after all.”
“So I’ve heard. But even after having the Dragon caged for years, she still couldn’t obtain the Dragon’s approval. That little girl is clearly incompetent, and they should’ve let someone else try a long time ago.” Mizerui showed an unhappy face.
Barbalis couldn’t help but smile: “Looks like you’ve been dissatisfied about the Dragon Empire imprisoning the Sacred White Dragon, for a long time. After all, you have ties to the Dragons.”
Mizerui glanced at Barbalis, looked at the crying child in his arms, and patiently explained to the child:
“I didn’t mean to steal you away from Liola. It’s just that we have problems to solve first, you are the, after all, Sacred White Dragon, and you mean a lot to the Dragon Empire.
If you don’t wish to trouble Liola, then you must first meet with the Dragon Empire’s Princess, and explain to her that you’ve already chosen your master. Do you understand? Little White Dragon.”
Dragon child seemed to have understood, and nodded unwillingly. It stopped crying, but still murmured: “papa…”
“Why would such a dignified, Sacred White Dragon treat Liola as its father? This is difficult for me to comprehend. Ordinarily, the Sacred White Dragon is the most prideful amongst all Dragons.” Barbalis sighed.
“Perhaps…” Mizerui’s expression suddenly became strange: “This might have something to do with its father, the Black Dragon. In some ways, Liola does have a very dark side.”
“So that’s why… But, those two lads certainly didn’t disappoint us two elders. They are interesting, perhaps too interesting. We even had to intervene in their problems ourselves.”
Barbalis shook his head. Why did it seem like they were the ones being played?
“It’s a game, and if you’re not involved, how is it fun?” Mizerui showed an evil smile: “But I believe that you, Barbalis, will make sure that our efforts are worthwhile.”
Barbalis also showed an enigmatic smile: “Of course.”
At this time, they both suddenly showed a thoughtful expression. Mizerui tossed the Dragon child into Barbalis’ arms, and watched him fumbling with the child.
Mizerui smiled as if he were happy that Barbalis was there to help, and slowly started fading as he said:
“I’ll take my leave first, Barbalis, I don’t want to deal with the spoiled Dragon Empire Princess.”
“This guy…” Barbalis sighed, and he felt the presence of the Dragon Empire Princess outside his door. All he could do, while preparing to negotiate with the empire’s Princess, was straighten up his looks.
Barbalis thought: “This isn’t an easy job; later on, I will definitely have to ‘teach’ those two trouble-makers a lesson.”
“Little White Dragon, hurry and change back into your Dragon form.” Barbalis looked down, and saw that the pouting child in his arms was clearly not going to cooperate.
As expected, the white Dragons are a prideful race. Nowadays, humans aren’t even on the same level as Dragons.
Barbalis sighed: “Little White Dragon, if you want to return to your father, you can’t let the Princess see you in your human form, do you understand?”
Upon hearing “father”, the little child pouted and unwillingly started to change.
Starting from a cute, human child, its body was slowly covered by white scale, his fingers turned into claws, and his circular face also slowly grew longer to become a Dragon’s face.
Finally, a little white Dragon of about one meter long sat leisurely on the table.
There was a knock from outside. Although the Princess was extremely upset, the lessons in etiquette from her childhood had not been in vain. The knocking was unhurried, and no one could feel the anger of the person knocking, which, incidentally, had almost reached its limit.
“Please come in.” Barbalis secretly admired this little girl’s ability to keep calm.
The door opened gently, and the majestic figure of the girl outside stepped into the principal’s large office.
‘The Dragon Empire’s prideful Princess, Lanski?’ Upon seeing her Royal Highness’s unparalleled beauty, and her famous creamy, golden, long hair, Barbalis was in awe. She was indeed worthy of being called the Dragon Empire’s beautiful Princess.
As she walked in, her voice arrived before she did: “Principal, Sir, if you do not give us an explanation, I’m afraid that the Dragon Empire will not let this pass.”
Despite her perfect manners, Lanski still carried a forcefulness in her voice, and her mesmerizing eyebrows were standing up. After all, what happened had greatly affected her, and pressure from the royal family had almost made her explode and swear.
After Lanski had calmed down and looked, there was a Sacred White Dragon sitting on the table.
The fact that the Sacred White Dragon was found made Lanski sigh in relief: “Sacred white Dragon! Thank you for finding the white Dragon for me, Principal, Sir.”
Barbalis laughed bitterly: “I’m afraid you will have to withdraw your thanks in just a moment.”
Lanski, who was in a hurry to bring the Sacred White Dragon back, ignored Barbalis’ mutterings.
“Sacred white Dragon, please return with me.”
Facing a prideful Sacred White Dragon, even Lanski didn’t want to be disrespectful; she walked up to it and softly asked.
Little white Dragon turned its head in disgust, and neglected the Princess’s gentle request.
Lanski frowned slightly, even though the Sacred White Dragon had never liked her much, at the very least it never displayed such open disgust.
What was going on… Wait, Lanski sudden realized that, on the Sacred White Dragon’s forehead, there was a scale missing. That was the center scale, and it was replaced with a blood-red oval mark.
Lanski couldn’t believe what she saw. As the Dragon Empire’s Princess, she was very familiar with what this meant. In addition to how the Sacred White Dragon rejected her approach, this explained everything: the Sacred White Dragon has chosen its master!
The Sacred White Dragon chose its master, and its master was not her. This struck Lanski as if her boyfriend of many years was suddenly getting married, and the bride was someone else. Lanski felt her heart broken into pieces, and murmured while trembling:
“Why? I have been your companion for many years, and you still refused to recognize me as your Master. Yet, you've left me for less than a day, and you’ve already chosen another? In the end, what was the point of my many years of hard work?”
“Well, everything happened according to its destiny!” Barbalis shook his head.
Lanski’s beautiful clear blue eyes were filled with resentment. She asked bitterly: “Who? Who has the Sacred White Dragon chosen as its Master?”
Barbalis’ heart sank, but did not answer directly: “Princess, since the Sacred White Dragon had chosen its Master, the only thing you can do now is display your chivalrous spirit, and wish him well.”
Lanski’s beautiful face appeared to be struggling and unwilling. With that said, she had always been prideful of being the future master of the Sacred White Dragon.
Ever since she was a child, she had always loved the Sacred White Dragon, and personally prepared its food. Suddenly, her ambition had been in vain.
Even though she was brought up to accept the situation and be chivalrous, she could not easily let go.
“That man… Who is he? Is he the man who wore a mask that day?” Lanski forced herself to calm down. As a dignified Princess, she could not let her emotions get out of control.
Barbalis did not know if he should say anything, so he nodded.
But to his relief, the two guys were not stupid. Fortunately, they created a Silver Mask persona. Otherwise, he was afraid that as soon as the Empire’s Princess hears Liola’s name, she’d take her sword and destroy the remaining half of the School of Sorcery’s dorm…
Hmm, come to think of it, he still had to find a place for his few remaining students. It’s a real pain, but what if…
“I want to see him.” Lanski requested without hesitating.
“Uh…” Barbalis revealed an embarrassed expression.
Though Lanski said first: “Even if I have to give up the Sacred White Dragon, I must see its master, and test him to see if he is qualified to be a Dragon Knight; otherwise, how would I be able to explain this to my Father, the Emperor?”
Although Lanski said that, her true motive was to have a duel with the Silver Mask, otherwise she would never be satisfied.
Heh, a test really wasn’t necessary; Liola was definitely not a qualified Dragon Knight. Although that’s what Barbalis thought, he still said, with his head held high:
“There will be someone who will explain this to the Dragon Emperor, your Highness does not need to worry about that. As for your meeting with Silver Mask, well…”
Although she doubted anyone could possibly calm her Father’s anger upon hearing the news that the Sacred White Dragon had chosen another master, it was not something Lanski worried about at the moment.
She wanted to have a duel with the Silver Mask at any cost, and this determination was shown on her face.
Barbalis knew that if he didn’t let Lanski see the Silver Mask, then he, as a principal, would see no end to his problems.
Barbalis was helplessly forced to say. “Tomorrow afternoon at 1 o'clock, on the 20th sports field.”
Lanski receiving the appointment, raised her right arm across her chest, and performed a standard Knight's salute. She then turned around and exited the principal’s office.
Barbalis was suddenly worried, how could he make a cold Assassin willing to have a duel with a lady, without killing her?
* * *
Finally they’ve arrived at the sports field, for the last lesson of the day, but…
“The principal has just announced, the last class had been canceled.” Someone who wore the same gray robes as them said to the three late students with good intentions.
“No wonder it was peaceful on the way here.” Kaiser’s shoulders dropped: “We’re destined not to have any classes today.”
“Kaiser, don’t be discouraged. As long as we are persistent, we will definitely be able to go to class.” Purity earnestly encouraged Kaiser.
Kaiser scratched his head. Well, it didn’t really matter even if they’re not persistent. He wasn’t eager to the point of wanting to go to class. He only came because he was afraid of being expelled for skipping class, and Kaiser was not mentally prepared to go against Mizerui.
Liola thought it was a pity that he wouldn’t be able to understand the power of modern Sorcery. Still, Liola began to doubt his own heart. He had been wanting to ask more questions today than he had in the past twenty five years.
But this is something good, right? At least Liola felt more like a normal person, just as Anise wished upon him. Realizing this, Liola blurted out his question.
“Why didn’t the School of Sorcery flourish?” According to his thoughts, Mizerui was a Sorcerer, and he was so strong, there's no reason for the School of Sorcery to be in ruins.
“Hmm, Liola-dage doesn’t know?” Purity showed a strange expression.
Because Sorcery had been in decline for many years, and it had been a trend throughout the world, so it was strange for Liola not to know.
“This guy came from another world, and he just arrived in this world today.” Kaiser explained on behalf of Liola.
Purity was surprised, but not too much. After all, the space around this world wasn’t too stable. Every two, three years, there will be a few new outsiders. Purity then started to explain this world to Liola.
“A long time ago, Sorcerers were also called Magicians, and they were mainly people who can control magical elements. But to those who didn’t understand, Magicians appeared to be people with strange powers, and then they were all called Sorcerers.”
“But as technology advanced, Sorcery declined.” Purity showed a regretful expression.
Liola felt that, if he asked Kaiser a question, Kaiser would answer casually without thinking about it seriously, and then Liola wouldn’t understand. But whenever he asked Purity a question, she would answer seriously, but her answer was always off the point…
Kaiser clearly couldn’t stand it, and started talking:
“Sorcerers can use elemental magic to make Fireballs, Ice bolts, etc, to attack the enemy.
This used to be something powerful, but now technology has overtaken it. You have already seen that the Mechas’ gun barrels could do a whole lot more damage than most magic.
Healing magic also used to be very desirable, but nowadays, it's better to go to the hospital than to find a healing magician. Stay in the healing Maxun for a day, and whatever wounds you had would be healed.”
Finally, Kaiser added:
“You'd feel pretty bad if you were to spend a lifetime learning Sorcery, only to realize that different Maxuns could perform better than your magic, which you could’ve only gotten after you've spent all your time making that money.”
“Maxun?” Liola asked lightly, but he was thinking, that Kaiser’s last sentence seemed to be carrying some sadness.
“Just a name for all the products of technology. Mechas are also just a more complex Maxun.” Kaiser shrugged and explained.
Liola was still somewhat confused: “Mizerui is strong, and far stronger than Mechas.”
Kaiser answered in disdain: “How many Mizeruis do you think there are in the world?”
“Besides Mizerui, there is still me!” A geezer who had been eavesdropping jumped out and said; as a Sorcerer, he did consider himself to be powerful.
“What are you?” Getting used to Mizerui’s sudden appearance, Kaiser was no longer surprised by the geezer, but this guy seemed to be… “Ah, you’re the geezer who took our applications!”
The old guy facepalmed, and coughed: “I’m not a geezer…”
“Not a geezer?” Kaiser asked coldly: “Don’t tell me, you’re twenty five this year.”
“That’s not what I mean. I’m saying I’m no ordinary geezer.” He added.
“Then what are you? Super geezer?” Kaiser pouted.
But Purity, who had been standing beside him, turned pale. Because the guy in front of her wasn’t just an ordinary guy, but rather, the most powerful person in Aklan Academy.
“Cough, cough, listen up.” The geezer coughed again, and said proudly:
“I am the Aklan Academy principal, Barbalis, and I am also the only teacher in the School of Sorcery. Furthermore, I am one of the two top Sorcerers in Aklan Empire.”
Kaiser was stunned. This geezer who looked like a worker was actually the principal? And his only teacher? Uh… Kaiser suddenly showed admiration, and said with praise:
“So you’re Mr. Principal. No wonder I saw an extraordinary aura with you, as if you have hidden a gosu’s talent. I was even wondering which gosu you were, and it turned out that you’re the most famous, Aklan Academy principal, Mr. Barbalis! Nice to finally meet you.”
“Hahaha, this lad sure knows what’s good.” Hearing such flattering words, Barbalis laughed wildly.
As expected, when all else fails, use flattery. Kaiser had an evil laugh in his heart, while keeping the same fake smile plastered across his face.
“Mr Principal, wasn’t the last class canceled? W-why are you here?” Purity asked while trembling, for she was the person among the three of them who was aware of how terrifying the principal was.
“Oh, oh.” After Purity had reminded him, Barbalis finally remembered why he was here, and hurriedly stated the purpose of his visit:
“I’m here to tell Silver Mask, tomorrow afternoon at one o’clock sharp, go to the 20th sports field, for your entrance exam!”
What? Anyone who had heard this would have been suspicious. They said there would be no entrance exam, and now there suddenly was one.
What’s even more strange was that Liola was the only one being tested, but not Kaiser; not to mention it was specifically calling for Silver Mask. This made them very suspicious.
“What’s the test?” Kaiser asked curiously.
“Beat a Dragon Knight, but without seriously hurting or killing them.” Barbalis said proudly; this was something he finally came up with after hours of thinking — a good reason for Liola to duel with Lanski.
“So it’s the problem about the pink-eyed child.” Kaiser dawned on the truth.
“I decline.” Liola said without hesitation.
Barbalis stroke his beard and asked:
“Why? With your abilities, it shouldn’t be hard for you to beat her. As long as you beat her, you can obtain a Dragon, and the Dragon Empire would stop their investigation into this.”
Barbalis took out the pink-eyed child from behind his back, and placed him in front of Liola: “Look, what a cute child! Are you going to abandon him?”
As soon as the pink-eyed child saw his dad, he struggled out of Barbalis’ grasp, and ran towards Liola while yelling: “Pa, papapa…”
“I don’t want that Dragon.” Liola firmly declined.
Even though the child was already glued to his back, he really didn't want a child who yells all day calling him “papa”, there was nothing that could possibly be more troublesome.
Barbalis’ face sank. Although he already heard Mizerui describing Liola’s cold personality, this was far too heartless. What a cold-blooded assassin, who could even firmly say no to such a cute child.
Barbalis had no choice but play his trump card: “Looks like I’ll have to expel you. Either pit your lives against Mizerui, or defeat a mere Dragon Knight, your choice. Tomorrow afternoon, 1 o'clock in the afternoon, 20th sports field.”
Before he left, he pounded yet another nail into the coffin. Barbalis said, “Kaiser, your fate lies with Liola. If he’s expelled, so are you.”
What! Kaiser was alarmed, and quickly said:
“That’s unfair! How could you punish me with him? This method was only used in ancient times. Principal, please be more modern. One has to be responsible for only one’s actions.”
Barbalis grunted, ignoring Kaiser’s begging, turned around and left, leaving Kaiser with Barbalis’ problem of how to convince Liola to duel with a Dragon Knight.
After thinking about it for a long while, Kaiser faced Liola with a sad look, and started bargaining with him:
“Liola, please go fight the Dragon Knight. I promise that I will answer all your questions seriously from now on.”
“Really?” Liola thought about it.
Kaiser seemed to know a lot of things, and if he could answer his questions honestly, then it would be a fair deal. After all, he hadn’t figured out a good way against Mizerui’s “Failed Lecture”.
“Really, and to show my sincerity, let me tell you the strengths of the Dragon Knights.” Kaiser cleared his throat purposely, and began to show his sincerity.
“Dragon Knights, like their name suggests, ride on Dragons. The combination of a Dragon Knight and Dragon, is the symbol of being powerful.
Not only do they have air superiority, the intelligence of Dragons is far higher than that of a Mecha. Thus, the difference in level of dexterity between Mechas and Dragons is similar to the difference of climbing abilities between humans and monkeys.”
“Under normal circumstances, a mounted Dragon Knight is comparable with a rank-A mecha.
Okay, Liola, I know you don’t know how strong Mechas are, so here’s some more freebies.
Mechas are divided into ranks A through D, but of course there are exceptions, and the three leaders of the Commerce Alliance each has a rank-X mecha. I think you already know what rank-X means? As in, the rank Mizerui carries.
Even though most Dragon Knights can’t match a rank-X Mecha, rank-A Mechas are already frightening. Not only are they powerful, the price is damn astronomically high. Astronomical is an adjective, don’t ask me what it means.”
“Though I don’t know what it means, I heard that Dragon Knights could use Dragon magic, and I heard it's really strong. That’s why even when Mechas run around with their biggest guns, they still won’t be easily defeated.”
After saying all that, even the talkative Kaiser was tired, so he had to stop to take a breath, before he could continue his “sincerity”:
“Liola, you have to be careful. Even without their Dragons, Dragon Knights are not to be trifled with. After all, to obtain a Dragon’s approval, they have to beat the Dragon first. If that Dragon happened to dislike them, they would have to find another Dragon. I think you know, for someone who will be fighting Dragons left and right, they won’t be weak.”
Liola thought for a bit, then asked: “Is there a way to judge how strong they are?”
“Yes!” Kaiser put up his index finger: “but you have to promise me, that tomorrow you will duel with the Dragon Knight, then I’ll tell you.”
Liola nodded.
Seeing Liola finally agree, Kaiser sighed in relief, and continued to pay his dues:
“All Knights will learn a Kung Fu called ‘Aura’.
I heard that these auras will have different colors based on its strength: there are gold, silver, blue, red, and green, with the latter ones being weaker.
I heard that there are exceptions, too. Supposedly the strongest Paladin Lancelot had a pure white aura, and the strongest Dark Knight Blood Wolf had a black aura with strings of red. But these are just rumors, don’t hold me liable for them.”
“So, are you happy with my payment?” Kaiser asked snappily.
Liola was very satisfied, for he finally had a basic grasp of the world’s strongest fighters.
“Jeez, can we go eat dinner now?” Kaiser complained, his over-exercised mouth had caused his stomach to growl.
“We can go to dinner, but I have a condition too!” Purity sudden held up her chest… her flat chest, and said.
Kaiser and Liola looked Purity, puzzled: “What condition?”
“I-I want Liola to name the pink-eyed child, then let me go buy him some clothes.” Purity sadly looked at the naked child on Liola’s back, who couldn’t even get Liola’s attention.
“Isn’t this easy? Liola, give your penis-less son a name.” Kaiser said with indifference.
“It’s not like he doesn’t have th-that.” Purity refuted: “I looked up Dragon Knight’s Glory and Honor, and it said that, before a Dragon matures, it is genderless.”
A name? Liola put the pink-eyed child in front of him. The child’s chubby face smiled, and the chubby arms waved around, as if it was trying to get closer to its father.
“How about we call it Pink Eyed White Dragon?” Liola asked seriously.
“Your naming abilities are about as good as Mizerui’s!”
Kaiser shook his head and sighed, and with a sinister smile, he suggested:
“His dad is Liola, so why don’t we call him Lilebao (Li – Happy – Buns)?”
“Fine.” Liola nodded in agreement, since he didn’t care what it was called.
Purity was worried: “No, we can’t name it Lilebao (Li – Happy – Buns), it isn’t a food.”
Kaiser suddenly hit his palm, and yelled:
“I’ve got it. Let’s call it Baolilong (Baby/child – Li – Dragon). It has Liola’s Li, Dragon, and baby. What about that? It fits, right?”
“What!” Purity was very alarmed.
“Baolilong, then you’re called Baolilong.”
Liola said to the pink-eyed child, who was now named Baolilong, and started to happily nodded, for it was happy that its father had finally given it a name.
It did not realize that, many years later, it would regret that, due to the foolishness of its youth, it would be known to many as Baolilong…
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Chapter 5 : Breakfast Interlude
This chapter is brought to you by AnmesicCat, Masadeer, and StellarAshes.
Had he not chosen to leave the organization to find Anise, she would still be alive today, right? And she probably would still be carrying her med kit, running around to save many more lives.
“If you don’t want to kill anymore, please come find me.”
Anise’s voice resonated in Liola’s head. However, the scene he remembered was not her firm expression, but rather one of Anise lying on the ground, bathed in blood, and still holding out a cross to him, because she wanted him to go to DuanChang Cliff 1 with it.
He shouldn’t have gone to look for Anise. Had he not done so, she would still be alive.
* * *
Liola suddenly opened his eyes and woke up. He felt his heart racing. Liola didn't know if his eyes were filled with tears or sweat…
After a while, he sat up and wiped away the liquid on his forehead. He turned and looked, and he saw Kaiser was still sound asleep in a strange posture. His body was entirely wrapped in his blanket, and he was still drooling.
Liola put on his clothes, and wanted to do his morning exercises as usual. He walked to the window, stepped outside, and quickly jumped onto the roof of the building. He looked around and was happy to see there was no one around.
(Duh! Who would want to live in such a dangerous building, except you and Kaiser? Even Purity took Baolilong to a motel.)
Liola sat down cross legged, and began to examine his Ki. He started exercising his Ki as he had done in the past twenty years.
Exercising his Ki for 36 cycles was what he did every morning, as the first part of his basic Kung Fu training. His frustration caused by his dreams was slowly dissipating. All of his thoughts followed his steady Ki, and nothing else.
After 36 cycles were completed, Liola finished cooling down. With a few deep breaths, he suddenly jumped up, and while doing so, pulled out the hidden silver stick.
Although the organization’s leader had given it a name — Broken Silver — when he gave him the weapon, but Liola, as someone who killed almost every who had seen it, never had the opportunity to even mention its name.
Liola started exercising his second basic Kung Fu, Windborn Blade. He jumped around as if gravity had no effect on him, while performing various aerial stunts in the process.
You could see how incredibly flexible he was. Bending his body back until his head touched his leg, was child’s play to him.
Moreover, he did several unfathomable aerial maneuvers. Some people say that it’s impossible to dodge attacks mid-air, but to Liola, it sounded like a joke.
While his body were moving around, Liola’s hands weren’t idle either. “Windborne Blade” does have the word “Blade” in it, so Liola was also practicing various stabbing angles and positions with the Broken Silver in his hand…
* * *
“Breakfast…” Kaiser’s sleepy voice could be heard.
Liola stopped, turned around and looked at Kaiser, who was only holding onto the edge of the building by his arms. The rest of his body was swinging in air, plus he looked like he was about to fall asleep again.
“Is it time to have breakfast with Purity?” Liola sighed, remembered how difficult it was for him to wake Kaiser yesterday. It was surprising to see Kaiser awake because of breakfast with Purity at 7am. Of course, the reason was breakfast, definitely not Purity.
Liola jumped from the roof top and back into the room, grabbing Kaiser along the way, or else he might fall to his death while dreaming. After they both cleaned up, Liola dragged Kaiser toward the cafeteria.
When Liola got close to the cafeteria, he saw Purity standing at the doors already. He walked towards her, and said: “Morning.”
“Morning, Liola-dage, and Kaiser.” Purity laughed upon seeing Kaiser’s half-open eyes and drool.
“Papa!” Baolilong felt like he'd been away from his father for a year. As soon as he saw Liola, he ran towards him.
Liola, however, frowned slightly and looked at Baolilong. Unlike the naked child yesterday, Baolilong was now wearing a small black vest, black shorts, and a pair of riding boots.
He was also carrying a backpack with two small wings. His silver hair was also pinned up with a hairpin, which showed his forehead. This made his face look even more like an egg, and made his eyes shine brighter.
“Baolilong is really cute, right?” Purity asked excitedly.
She had been through quite a few shopping streets yesterday, and finally bought everything she needed. Baolilong’s clothes, and some necessities for Kaiser and Liola.
Liola nodded, but Kaiser complained loudly: “Who cares if he’s cute, I’m starving.”
With Kaiser pressing on, the three of them — and a Dragon — walked into the cafeteria. But as soon as they walked in, they found something rather strange.
Starting from the door, everyone to the left of Liola’s gang were wearing blue, short-sleeved, military uniforms, and everyone to the right were wearing white and black Knight uniforms, whose clothes were adorned with colorful garnishments.
Most of them were green and red, with a few blue ones dotted in between. And the blue ones were sitting in the most obvious seats.
But they didn’t see any gray robes, and this made Liola and Kaiser clueless as to where to go.
Purity was already striding towards the few seats in a corner furthest away from the food stand. It was then when everyone saw, that there were a few people in gray robes sitting there and eating quietly.
“The difference in treatment is quite obvious.” Kaiser murmured, but he wasn’t planning on starting any trouble. So long as he could eat, he didn’t care where he sat.
As soon as they found some seats, Kaiser impatiently ran towards the food stands. Liola, instead, was walking leisurely behind him, with Baolilong holding his right leg.
“Get down.” Liola said to Baolilong, who obediently got off his right leg, and stood next to him. Liola handed a tray to Baolilong, and said: “What do you want to eat? Tell me, I’ll get you some.”
Baolilong scanned the food stand with his eyes, and then pointed at the ham cutely and yelled: “Meat meat!”
Liola understood something else, Dragons were carnivores. He cut off a large piece of ham for Baolilong, whom looked at the other half of the ham in Liola’s hand, and yelled in dissatisfaction: “More.”
Liola frowned, and was just about to tell Baolilong not to waste food. Then he thought, Baolilong was ten-meter tall just yesterday, and to a large Dragon, this bit of food was definitely not enough.
Upon realizing this, Liola took the whole leg of ham and gave it to Baolilong altogether, and then took another plate that had an entire turkey. Baolilong happily carried the two plates of food that were even bigger than his body, and followed his father closely.
As Liola looked to see what food looked appetizing, he suddenly heard a commotion around him.
“Really cute!” A few girls screamed while looking at Baolilong.
“You took the ham and the turkey, so what are we going to eat?” A few guys in blue military uniforms blocked Liola’s path.
Liola looked at the food stand, and he was sure that there were more ham and turkey.
These students from the School of Mecha Fighters probably just wanted to cause trouble. Liola frowned slightly, not sure how he should respond.
He didn’t want to get into any more trouble, especially since he still had to deal with the duel in the afternoon.
“You're that guy from yesterday!” Jetter recognized that the guy in front of him was the same person as the one who saved that damsel in distress.
Rage filled his heart. Had this guy not bothered him, Jetter wouldn't have had to take revenge, he wouldn’t have ran into Silver Mask, or destroyed a rank-C mecha.
* * *
“I guess we can’t avoid our enemies after all !” Kaiser, who had just piled his plate with food and sat back down in his seat, was about to eat his breakfast comfortably, and was going to watch the show.
“What do we do? Aren’t we going to help Liola-dage?” Purity said anxiously.
Kaiser snapped: “And how would we do that?”
“Even if you can’t help, you should try. That’s what friends are for. ” Proudly said by a student dressed in gray robes, unlike the usual timid attitude of a School of Sorcery student.
Kaiser looked up curiously the guy in front of him.
Golden hair, gold eyes, handsome looks, and arrogant, but… This guy was actually carrying an elegantly carved mirror, and looking at his reflection in the mirror as he spoke.
He even took out a bottle of cologne and used it every now and then. What was even more disgusting was that, on the originally plain gray robe, he used golden threads to sew in a Mona Lisa Smile.
Kaiser quickly stuffed his mouth with a few small sandwiches, to stop himself from laughing out loud, because this horrifically elegant man might give him more trouble.
Purity hesitantly asked: “Meinan2, could you help Liola-dage?”
Beautiful guy? Kaiser almost choked on the sandwiches in his mouth.
Meinan suddenly stood, and elegantly took Purity’s hand, and kissed it then said:
“Since such a beautiful lady asked, and a gentleman should never reject a lady's request. Meinan will definitely help your dage get out of trouble.”
“He…” Kaiser looked surprised: “His back had the 'Last Supper' sewed on!”
* * *
Jetter thought about the time when he went to the School of Knights for revenge. Not only did he fail to do so, the School of Knights teachers even put him on record.
Filled with anger, he made up his mind to teach this silver-haired guy a lesson. After all, the only teacher in the School of Sorcery was Barbalis, and he obviously doesn’t care about his students.
“You f—er!” Jetter said as he pushed Liola.
Liola originally wanted to duck, but he didn’t want to expose his abilities. He was worried Jetter might suspect him of being Silver Mask, then, he would never have any peaceful days.
Liola decided that he wasn’t going to do anything about it, and ignoring him would be enough. Jetter didn't even pose a threat when he was in a mecha, so there was nothing to worry about.
Just because Liola doesn’t care, didn't mean that Baolilong wouldn’t care about other people bullying his dad.
Seeing this guy push his dad, Baolilong’s face turned red, put down his food, and jumped onto Jetter’s leg. He opened his mouth wide, and took a huge bite.
“Damn!” Jetter screamed, and pushed Baolilong aside. Two rows of bite marks appeared on his legs, and blood was oozing out.
It was obvious the Dragon’s teeth were very sharp. Considering that Jetter was wearing long boots, yet the teeth was still able to penetrate the boots, socks, and pierce into Jetter’s flesh.
The pain in Jetter’s legs was dreadful, and his scream also caught a ton of unwanted attention around the cafeteria. Some of it was mixed with laughter, which completely dulled Jetter’s face. He roared:
“You little runt! Do you want to die? Fooling around with me!”
As a proud White Dragon, Baolilong would never fear this guy. He just made a funny face and grunted, which made Jetter even more furious.
Liola started to worry, but he wasn’t worried about Baolilong. Instead, he was worried that Baolilong might swallow Jetter whole, and it might cause him to be expelled, and subsequently having to duel with Mizerui.
Jetter raised the barrels on his hands, and aimed them at Baolilong to teach him a lesson.
The girls surrounding him started a commotion:
“My god, he’s going to attack that cute child”
“What a monster! He is going to fight a little kid”
“Bastard, if that pink-eyed child loses even a hair, I will break him!”
As soon as Jetter heard them, the hairs on his body stood up. He hurriedly changed his target back to Liola. As long as he could take it out on someone, it didn’t matter who it was.
Having barrels pointed at him, Liola thought it wasn’t a bad idea to test the power of these weapons, so he would have knowledge about them later on.
Bang! Bang! After two loud sounds, two blue shots flew towards Liola. Smoke covered the place, and many people sitting in the cafeteria complained, because their food got ruined.
As the smoke cleared, what appeared wasn’t an injured Liola, but a gold-haired, gold-eyed, man posing, wearing a gray robe with a golden Mona Lisa Smile threaded across it.
His left hand playing with his hair, and his right hand was held out in front of him in a straight line. In front of his right palm there were some light blue energy shield.
Meinan smiled brightly, showing a flash of light reflecting from his white teeth, and said:
“Dage, seeing as I’m here, how about letting my fellow classmate go? Otherwise I would have a hard time answering to a pretty lady.”
“Who the hell are you? How could you tell me to…” Jetter couldn’t take his revenge, and his rage made him open his mouth to scream. But then a member of his gang pulled him from behind.
The person behind him had a worried expression:
“Boss, that’s Meinan from the School of Sorcery. His defensive abilities are quite amazing, and he once saved a Blue Knight, so he’s heavily favored by the School of Knights. We shouldn’t mess with him.”
Jetter’s face froze. He turned and looked towards the School of Knights, and sure enough there were a few Blue Knights glaring at him, which caused cold sweat to run down his back.
Blue Knights were something Jetter couldn’t afford to mess with, and so he could only grunt, and led his gang off in disdain.
“My dear classmate, are you hurt?” Meinan asked softly.
Liola shook his head, but thought, why would this guy sew a bunch of people eating on his back?
“Then why don’t you guys take your breakfast and sit down to eat, otherwise it’s almost time for class.” Meinan said passionately, and he helped Baolilong carry his turkey and ham, although he got bitten as a result, because Baolilong thought he was going to rob him of his food.
Back at their seats, there was very little food on Purity’s plate, because she was worried about Liola. Kaiser, on the contrary, already has a stack of plates in front of him, and was currently finishing his desserts.
While eating, Liola said to Meinan: “Your powers are quite impressive.”
Meinan replied proudly: “Of course. I studied magic for three years, and I’m completely familiar with every defensive magic, even more so than the principal.”
“You didn’t just learn defensive magics, right?” Kaiser asked skeptically.
“Of course not.” Meinan denied: “I also know some luminescent magic, and I could also make a spark to start a fire. I also know some water magic which could create some drinking water. These are also very useful magic skills.”
So basically no attack magic whatsoever… Sweat ran down Purity and Kaiser’s foreheads.
“Liola, what’s your relationship to this little child? Your younger sister?” Meinan curiously looked at Baolilong, who was swallowing a turkey whole.
“No, his name is Baolilong. He’s Liola’s son.” Kaiser rushed to explain, and then satisfactorily enjoyed the sight of Meinan’s dropped jaw.
“Uh… Being a young father is rather difficult, isn’t it?” Meinan sighed, happy that he hadn’t had any “accidents” yet, otherwise, like Liola, he would have to take his son to school.
Liola was speechless.
“Liola and Kaiser, what kind of magic are you going to learn? Or do you guys have some special abilities?” Meinan asked.
Liola was quiet for a while, then asked: “Are there any healing magic I could learn?”
Kaiser almost did a spit take with his milk, and Purity’s jaw also dropped. They both wondered, an Assassin wants to be a Healer? What is he going to do, cut someone, then heal them back up for fun?
But they both didn’t know Liola was thinking that, since Anise was a godly doctor, then he will continue her path, and become a ‘Godly Healer’!
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Chapter 6 : Knight’s Duel
This chapter is brought to you by AnmesicCat, Masadeer, and StellarAshes.
With Meinan and Purity, the group had finally gotten to the classroom. Today’s indoor class was held at the library.
Liola and Kaiser were so thankful, they were almost on their knees. They had finally arrived in class safely, without any trouble on the way. (They seem to disregard people like Jetter as trouble nowadays.)
They walked to the hall leading to the library. Gray-robed students were already there, standing around.
Liola and his group also joined the rest of the people waiting for the instructor. Kaiser was a little worried, hoping God didn’t intentionally stop them from going to class, and have Barbalis run into some kind of accident.
If the School of Sorcery got shut down due to the lack of teachers, then he and Liola would get kicked out as a result, which would be terrible for them.
Fortunately, when the bell rang, Barbalis appeared in the hall punctually.
He loudly declared: “New students stay, while old students can go practice or research your own field of magic and skills. If you have a question, ask me next time during the outdoor session.”
As soon as he finished, the old students scattered away, even Meinan and Purity showed an expression as if they were saying “take care,” and then took off.
Purity also took Baolilong, who was neither a new nor old student, so he wouldn’t disturb Barbalis’ lesson. In a flash, there were only two new students remaining. Liola and Kaiser.
“Th-that’s it?” Kaiser really opened his eyes.
Barbalis smiled as if he was saying “who else were you expecting to be here”, as if he were a dutiful teacher:
“These old students already chose their own field of magic. I’ve already taught them the basic magic and meditation. Now the only thing they can do is meditate, to understand and find deeper and better magic. Giving them more lectures would actually impede their development.”
“Besides, most of them have special abilities, and there is nothing more I could teach them.” Barbalis shook his head and sighed.
Magic is magic, grouping it with special abilities was a fundamental mistake.
“All right, new students! Just listen to my basic magic lecture, then think about what you want to learn, or…”
Barbalis showed an intriguing smile: “What kind of magic have you already learned?”
This question was not directed at Liola, who was from another world, and didn’t know half a thing about magic.
Kaiser raised his eyebrow: “I have learned some attack magic. The most basic types of magic, such as Fireball, Icebolt, etc.”
Barbalis was skeptical. Was that all? Because the magic energy radiating from Kaiser was quite formidable, but he questioned no further, and started teaching his first alien student.
“Magic, its principle is quite simple. To put it simply, it’s the act of concentrating one’s mana to create a resonance with a magic element, and then using it to do things such as concentrating fire element into a ball, then throwing it. This magic attack would be fireball.”
Liola frowned slightly: “So everyone knows magic?”
“It’s easier said than done.” Barbalis corrected his student: “To feel the existence of magic element itself is already a difficult thing to achieve. Many people will never get to do so in their entire lives.”
“After you feel the magic elements, you still have to use meditation to train and increase your mana. If you don’t have enough mana, not only can you not cast fireballs, you probably can’t even cast ‘fire spark’.”
Barbalis suddenly thought about the unique Meinan, who could use powerful defensive magic he could only dream of.
However, Meinan couldn’t even cast Fireball, and instead could only use “Fire Spark”. And that timid little girl, Purity, was also a unique person.
“Now let me teach you Meditation.” After telling them the principle of magics, Barbalis started teaching his students the introduction to magic — Meditation.
“Relax your spirit, and start to feel the outside world.”
After hearing this, Liola naturally crossed his legs and sat. And his body instinctively sent out the ‘Heart of Consciousness’.
Liola sent out his perception around the room, and learned everything about the library. After he had made a circle around the library, he perceived that Barbalis was angry and he was screaming, “Wrong”.
Liola immediately opened his eyes, and asked: “What’s ‘wrong’?”
Barbalis took out a paper fan and smacked Liola’s head without any hesitation: “Of course it’s wrong. I want you to feel the Spirit World, not the Physical World. I’ll be damned if you can feel magic element like that.”
“Spirit world?” Liola stopped his ‘Heart of Consciousness’, and tried as hard as he could to feel the spirit world. But despite his efforts, his heart and mind were blank. He couldn’t feel any magic elements around him.
Barbalis sighed. Liola was already too used to the physical feel, so it was probably going to be a big ordeal for him to feel the Spirit World’s magic elements.
Barbalis thought about it, and asked as if he thought of something: “Liola, what kind magic are you planning to learn?”
“Healing.” Liola answered without hesitation.
“Why? You could learn more useful ones, such as Flying, Teleportation, Offensive Magic, or even Space Magic. You may even be able to pass through dimensions and return to your own world with space magic.”
Barbalis was completely surprised by such an answer, that an Assassin wants to learn Healing?
Liola laughed bitterly. Go back to his own world? To let the organization continue their failed assassination? To let himself experience anxiety 24/7, while constantly facing an elite squad of a few hundred assassins?
“To carry on someone’s legacy.”
“So that’s what it is. Fine, I will teach you all I can.” Knowing Liola wants to learn Healing, Barbalis’ inner desire to teach continued without hesitation.
Liola looked at Kaiser, who was standing next to him, and said thoughtfully: “So Kaiser knows magic.”
“Liola, is there a problem with this afternoon’s duel?” Barbalis suddenly asked about the duel this afternoon.
“No.” Liola was still trying hard to feel the magic element. He didn’t care about the duel in the afternoon, he even treated it as if it was a chance for him to see the abilities of a Knight.
Barbalis suddenly said nervously: “Don’t ever hurt the Dragon Knight too much, or else you'll be in trouble.”
“I understand.” Liola happily agreed. After all, he wasn’t planning on having the School of Knights get mad at him.
After obtaining Liola’s promise, Barbalis was no longer worried. After all, with Liola’s strength, defeating Lanski without seriously injuring her shouldn’t be a big problem, though it might be troublesome… But Barbalis would have never predicted, that there will be another person sustaining serious injuries.
* * *
To prevent exposing himself, Liola wore the Silver Mask and went to the duel alone, but the Knight uniform was a huge problem.
The uniform Purity provided had already been dyed red and black, and was riddled with holes. With Kaiser’s distressed crying sounds, the uniform was tossed into the trash and declared discarded.
Luckily, Barbalis used his power as the principle, and procured a number of silver-ranked White Knight uniforms for Liola, otherwise this whole thing will fail.
Liola slowly stepped into the 20th sports field. Even though he was supposed to meet her alone, Liola knew, there were quite a few voyeurs in the surrounding area. There was a lazy guy, a timid girl, a Dragon, a principal, and, if Liola's guess was right, a wanted criminal.
The sports field was clearly unused for a long time: the weeds were already a foot tall. And compared to other sports fields, it was clearly much smaller, but large enough for a duel between two people.
Liola found the Knight standing in the center of the field without any trouble. What surprised him, was that the person was wearing light armor, had a rather elegant figure, and it was clearly a woman.
Unlike Meinan, Liola wasn’t going to be a gentleman to a lady. To him, people were only classified as enemies or not. Even if he knew his opponent was a girl, it wasn’t going to cause him any worry.
But, this time, Liola’s heart were twisted in a knot, because of that creamy, golden, and long hair flying in the wind. Liola lowly whispered: “Anise…”
The female Knight realized someone behind her, and she softly turned around. Her sharp eyes gazed at Liola behind that Silver Mask, and at this time, Liola’s breathing almost completely stopped.
That face, it was obviously Anise. On a slightly slim, oval face, there were two deep eyebrows, plus her big eyes with long lashes; the girl seemed vibrant.
in addition to her big eyes and long lashes, the girl seemed vibrant.
Along with her fitting nose, and pink-rosy lips, the woman was undoubtedly a rare beauty. Though to Liola, her beautiful face represented an eternal, inexplicable suffering.
“Anise, how are you… Alive?” Liola walked towards the girl absent-minded, and without any vigilance.
“What are you talking about? Silver Mask, I am the person who will be dueling with you today — Lanski.”
Lanski finally saw the person who took away her Sacred White Dragon, and the rage suppressed in her heart made her almost want to unsheathe her sword and attack, before her opponent could react. But for a Knight’s duel, this was strictly forbidden.
“Lanski?” Liola’s mind was dragged back by the strange name, but his eyes couldn’t leave that familiar face and those cream, golden hair.
That face was so familiar… The only thing that seemed strange was her eye color. Liola finally realized, Anise had lake green eyes, but this Lanski girl had ocean blue eyes.
“You took away the Sacred White Dragon that originally belonged to me. If you want me to be sincerely convinced, then duel me with everything you have!”
Lanski took out her long sword. It was razor sharp, but it had no superfluous decorations. This showed that, to Lanski, swords were picked only by their usefulness, and gem decorations were additions that only impeded movements.
“Unsheathe your sword!”
Liola hesitantly took out the Broken Silver from his long boots. Is he going to fight with Anise? No, she’s not Anise, but instead a girl named Lanski. Liola desperately tried to remind himself.
Lanski frowned at Liola’s weapon, Broken Silver. She wasn’t sure if Silver Mask was dueling with her using a stick to insult her, or if Silver Mask actually uses such a special weapon?
It didn’t matter what the answer was, Lanski wasn’t going to let go. If he purposely brought a stick to insult her, then she was going to make him suffer from the consequences of his actions. Lanski said decidedly:
“I, Lanski, hereby challenge Silver Mask to a duel. With my honor and reputation, I swear that I will not do anything that would insult a Knight’s honor. I will not boast if I win, and I will accept it if I lose.”
“I accept.” Liola said the only thing he could think of.
As soon as Liola finished, Lanski could no longer hold back the rage in her heart. Her body was surrounded by a light blue aura, and she took her long sword and ran towards Liola, attacking as if the sword were raindrops in a violent storm.
At this time, a sigh came from on top of the trees:
“Didn’t think Princess Lanski had already reached Blue Knight rank, before she was twenty? Though it’s only light blue, very few could compete such a feat. She’s definitely the best female warrior in a million.”
Lanski’s innate talent was definitely exceptional. Just a few days ago, she still had red aura, until she had experienced the rage from losing the Sacred White Dragon.
The determination of beating Silver Mask, led Lanski to break through the red aura, and entered the level of blue auras. Though light blue aura wasn’t truly at the level of Blue Knight rank, but it was just a matter of time.
With a light blue aura, Lanski would be nearly unmatched within the School of Knights in terms of speed, power, and agility. Unfortunately, her opponent was no ordinary Knight, but rather the best Assassin who could stand toe-to-toe with the rank-X criminal Mizerui, Liola.
In terms of pure power, Liola’s power may be far off from Lanski. But overall, in terms of actual strength, Lanski was inferior to Liola’s strength.
One could say they were completely on different levels. Lanski’s movements, though fast in her own eyes, were slow motions in Liola’s eyes. The speed associated with swinging a sword can’t possibly be compared to a dagger; after all, a dagger was the most agile weapon.
If Liola wanted, he could extinguish such a beauty in one blow, and it wouldn’t even take 50 percent of his true strength.
However, Lanski had nearly the same appearance as Anise. Because of that, Liola had no intention to cause her any harm.
By properly using the back of a dagger, Liola thought, he could easily strike the back of her head and cause her to faint, and when she eventually wakes up, she wouldn’t even feel the slightest pain. Liola had decided to use this method against her.
At this time, Lanski seemed to realize the ease of Silver Mask’s movements.
As much as she didn’t want to think it, Lanski had to acknowledge, it may be probable she was an unworthy opponent to Silver Mask.
With an unwilling heart, she decided to use the skill she had not fully mastered. For as long as she could hurt Silver Mask, she was willing to risk it all.
“Dragon Sword Dance!” After Lanski’s delicate scream, the sword in her hands suddenly emitted nine lines of Ki, each long as a whip, and each of the ends was shaped like a Dragon’s head.
The nine Kis surrounded Liola, and attacked him from all directions. The Dragon heads roared as they went, as if they were about to tear Liola apart.
At this time, another sigh could be heard from the audience in the tree:
“Dragon Empire’s Dragon Sword Dance is definitely a powerful skill. If she uses this, Lanski could probably even beat a true Blue Knight. Unfortunately, Liola wasn’t someone Blue Knights could compare themselves with. Perhaps if the Dragon Emperor or the Dragon Prince use the fully-realized version of Dragon Sword Dance, Liola could get injured by the surrounding 99 lines of Dragon Ki.”
“Thank you for the live casting.” Another sound could be heard from the bushes.
Surely enough, as said by the casters, nine incomplete Dragon Kis were nothing to Liola, and were not much different from the attacks before. Liola didn’t need to block it. He simply shadow stepped to his side, and easily escaped the Dragon Kis.
“H-how is this possible?” Lanski almost couldn’t believe, the Dragon Sword Dance she spent so much time and effort to learn, was so easily evaded by the Silver Mask.
“The outcome is already obvious. Let’s stop.” Liola really didn’t want to prolong a fight with a person with Anise’s face.
Lanski abruptly raised her head; her eyes filled with tears. This was the first time in her life she would show such an expression in front of her enemy. She said with almost a crying voice:
“Stop? You are telling me to stop? Do you know how much time and effort I’ve spent over the past years in hope to one day become the Sacred White Dragon’s Master?
Time after time, trial after trial, everyone I grew up with already has their own Dragon, but as a so-called naturally talented Princess, I couldn’t have a Sacred White Dragon’s approval. Do you know how much pressure I’ve felt over the years?”
“That’s why I came to Aklan Continent, to look for a way to obtain the Sacred White Dragon’s approval. Who knew that the first day I got here, my Dragon recognized someone else as its master, then what the hell am I? What the hell were my years of efforts for?”
Lanski sobbed, but finally, she unwillingly screamed: “Who the hell are you to rob me of all my years of effort!”
Facing Lanski’s accusations, Liola’s heart drifted back into memories.
Who was he really, to take away the godly healer Anise’s years of healing, her dreams of walking and healing through the world, and finally, her life.
“Sorry.” Liola said softly, to this face identical to Anise.
Hearing this sorry, not only did Lanski not calm down, instead she became more ashamed and enraged. She lifted her sword, and despite her lack of mana, screamed, “Don’t pity me!”.
She again started Dragon Sword Dance. With shame, rage, and self-loath, Lanski used all of her remaining energy. After she had spit out a mouthful of blood, tens of Dragon Kis appeared next to her body, with the dragon heads clearly visible.
“66 Dragon Kis? Does this little girl want to lose her life?”
“Dragons, right this injustice!” With blood oozing out of her mouth, and pain as if she were being burned, Lanski ordered the 66 Dragon Kis to jump towards Liola.
Facing the threat of 66 Dragon Kis, Liola suddenly seemed absent-minded, and whispered:
“Anise, are you… Back to claim my life? If so, my life is yours. Fluttering Blood Ki withdraw!”
Realizing something was wrong, two streaks of shadows bolted from the tree. One towards Lanski, and the other, Liola.
But they were too late. All 66 Dragon Kis hit Liola’s body — a body that was entirely unprotected by Ki. The strong backlash also pushed Lanski back, and she became unconscious.
* * *
“Liola…” Mizerui, who had always been cynical, was truly surprised. After the smoke cleared from the impact of Dragon Kis, a bloody outline could be seen, with strings of blood dripping.
Even though Mizerui had just said so himself, to seriously injure Liola, one had to use the fully realized version of 99 Dragon Kis, but that’s under the assumption that Liola would be protected by his heavily fortified Ki, and not his naked body. What the heck does this guy think he is, a rank-X mecha?
The bleeding body slowly fell. Mizerui rushed to catch Liola’s body. But after he saw the wounds on Liola, he was stunned. C-can this guy survive?
Mizerui started to wonder if the damaged body in his arms was already a dead man. However, Mizerui’s sharp senses told him, that although the person in his arms may become a corpse, it was definitely not “already” a corpse.
Mizerui turned around and yelled at Barbalis: “Lis, prepare the best healing Maxun now. This guy is going to be reporting to Satan soon.”
Barbalis nodded, and carried Lanski. The two disappeared where they stood, leaving behind a sports field that looked like it had been hit by a meteor shower. It was full of holes, and there was even a twenty-meter wide crater where Liola stood, with bright red blood in it.
“Papa!” A small outline ran out of the bushes, and stared at the pool of blood. It happened too quickly.
No one knew that Lanski would risk her life to use 66 Dragon Kis, and what was even more surprising, however, was that Liola would cancel his Ki, and took the attack with his flesh and blood.
Purity also slowly walked out, and carried Baolilong, whose tears ran full of his face. Her face was pale as a ghost, and her whole body was cold.
Strangely, her voice was unusually calm, and without any shaking: “Kaiser, is Liola-dage going to be okay?”
Kaiser’s face sank. He didn’t reply, nor did he want to reply.
“Papa isn’t dead. I can feel it. Papa won’t die!” Baolilong said feverishly, and then suddenly started transforming back to a Dragon.
After a while, a one-meter white dragon appeared, but said with a child-like voice: “I can help papa.”
As it finished, the White Dragon sensed Liola’s position, and immediately took off towards it, leaving Purity and Kaiser behind, standing where they were, speechless.
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Chapter 7 : Dragon’s Contract
This chapter is brought to you by AnmesicCat, Masadeer, and StellarAshes.
“Lanski’s life is not in danger. However, she probably won’t be able to use her aura for a few months.”
Barbalis observed the results from the healing Maxun. He sighed in relief. The result of using 66 Dragon Kis was being unable to use her aura for a couple of months. It was a low price she had to pay, if any.
“Barbalis, are there any better healing Maxun?” Mizerui was angry, and began to swear:
“This damn Maxun dared to tell me there was nothing it could do, and that I should start planning Liola’s funeral.”
Barbalis returned Mizerui's anger with a look of disappointment and defeat:
“The one Liola is using is the best healing Maxun on the continent of Aklan. I bought it specifically to prevent casualties when problems arise among students. It’s not possible to get a better one, at least not on Aklan Continent. Perhaps the Commerce Alliance has a better one.”
“By the time I arrive at the Commerce Alliance, Liola’s head would be in seven separate pieces.”
Mizerui worriedly paced back and forth, but couldn’t find any way. He finally asked: “Are there any good healers?”
“Unless the miraculous Priest from two hundred years ago, who had already gone to heaven, suddenly appears again, there are no healers better than this healing Maxun.”
Barbalis snapped: “In fact, there are so many holes on Liola’s body, I'm surprised he wasn’t dead on impact.”
“I’m afraid if he dies, there will be two deaths to account for.” Mizerui’s face sank:
“Lanski has always been opinionated, and has always followed the Knight’s Code to the letter. If she knew she lost control of her emotions, and used Dragon Dance to kill Silver Mask, I’m afraid she will commit suicide to repay her mistake.”
These two people, who would never be seen in despair, even in the face of a rank-X mecha or the Dragon Empire, were completely at loss on what they should do. Besides staring at each other, they couldn't find anything that could help the current situation.
At this time, the healing room’s fortified glass was shattered. A loud sound and pieces of broken glass flew everywhere, which grabbed Mizerui's and Barbalis' attention.
A little White Dragon was anxiously looking for its master, and soon after, it found Liola completely submerged inside a transparent Maxun in a shape of a cylinder. He immediately ran up to the cylinder, and tail-whipped the glass on the healing Maxun.
This was yet another thing that surprised Mizerui and Barbalis. They thought, with a Dragon’s intellect, it should definitely understand the Maxun’s function was to heal. But this little Dragon unexpectedly broke his master’s healing Maxun.
They thought: ‘What kind of times are these, if even Dragons would kill their own masters?’
The little White Dragon pushed his forehead against his master’s, and started chanting a strange incantation, “Bey nien efu siou gien? Cari elai fu.”
“What is this Dragon doing?” Barbalis asked, puzzled.
Mizerui was skeptical. After a short pause, he said: “Rumor has it, a Dragon can share its own lifespan with its master, but this magic must be initiated by the Dragon willingly.”
Barbalis wondered. “Really? How come I’ve never heard of it?”
Mizerui said awkwardly: “It’s only a rumor, and I’ve never seen any Dragon that had done so.”
Perhaps the heavens thought what Liola had done was enough to repent for his sins, or perhaps it was Anise who kicked Liola back…
The White Dragon’s body started glowing a light gold color, and the magical energy slowly concentrated on its forehead. Finally, through where their foreheads touched, the golden shine appeared on Liola’s body, and it quickly healed Liola’s damaged body.
“It really is that magic!” Mizerui jumped up. By God, he actually witnessed the incredible magic Dragons use to share their lifespans with their masters.
“What the heck does Liola have that others don’t? He obviously doesn’t care about this Dragon, but why does the Dragon like this guy so much?” Barbalis said with confusion.
There was something they didn’t know, something very, very small, but it was something that would convince the Sacred White Dragon to willingly share its life.
* * *
When Purity was about to bring Baolilong to motel with her, he didn’t want to leave his dad no matter what. After all, Baolilong had once lost his father, and now that he found a Master with the same temperament as his father, he wouldn’t leave under any circumstances.
Even when Purity nicely explained to Baolilong, she was going to buy him some clothes, Baolilong was more willing to be naked, than leave with Purity.
Liola didn’t say anything, but instead just took off the cross he had around his neck, and put it on Baolilong. Baolilong looked at his dad in confusion.
“This is the most important thing to me. You have to give it back to me tomorrow.” Liola said surprisingly.
Baolilong touched the cross necklace. Knowing his dad gave him his most important possession, he would definitely not run off with it. And with the necklace, Baolilong was finally willing to go with Purity.
* * *
This necklace was still around Baolilong’s neck, who desperately begged the golden light to heal Liola. He still hadn’t returned father’s necklace. How could father die now!?
The golden light slowly faded, and Liola’s originally severed body looked like it was mostly healed.
Mizerui, Barbalis, and a Dragon anxiously looked at Liola, hoping the Sacred White Dragon hadn’t wasted half of its life! Mizerui and Barbalis both prayed, hoping to see a real miracle.
Finally, under everyone's collective gaze, Liola’s body moved slightly.
His eyelids shook slightly, and finally, a pair of unique silver eyes opened once again. Liola, who had a strange expression, and said,
“I think I saw Anise, she kicked me, and said… Not to see her until I’ve found myself a wife and had a dozen of kids.”
“Good… You’re still alive.” Said in an extremely weak voice. When everyone turned towards the source of the voice, they found Lanski soaked in the healing Maxun’s fluid, and standing beside the Maxun with a pale face.
“Why did you call off your protective energy?” Lanski asked the question that she wanted to know, even if it costs her her life to get out of the healing Maxun.
“You look a lot like… An old friend, to whom I owe far too much.” Liola lightly explained.
“Oh.” Lanski got the answer she wanted, and pushed her weakened body out of the room. But before she closed the door, she asked: “So… Am I prettier, or was she?”
After a moment of silence, Mizerui whistled: “Looks like Lanski has taken fancy on you. Liola, you lucky guy.”
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Chapter 8 : Survival in the Wilderness
This chapter is brought to you by AnmesicCat, Masadeer, and StellarAshes.
After having just half a day of class, Liola called in sick for a week. Everyday he laid on a bed with nothing to do, so he meditated. However, even after a week of meditation, he still couldn’t grasp what the magic element was.
Because Kaiser and Purity had both gone to class, he had no one to ask. Nevertheless, Purity could never give a clear answer, and Kaiser, who could give a clear answer, was having a cold war with Liola!
Yes, cold war. Kaiser had said no more than three sentences to him this week, and all three were said when Kaiser and Purity had rushed to the healing room, realizing that he was still alive.
First: Bastard, you think it’s cool to take an attack with your body?
Second: You don’t even value your life, don’t you know that your mom had to be pregnant for ten months to have you, you bastard.
Third: I despise anyone as suicidal as you!
Though Liola questioned whether the guy who wanted to catch a rank-X criminal had any right to say that to him, but he understood Kaiser was being cold to him because of his suicidal actions. Although Liola knew the reason, he did not know how to reconcile with Kaiser.
He had already said sorry, but Kaiser only looked at him coldly. Liola felt that it wasn’t considered as reconciliation.
Just as Liola was getting frustrated, Purity pushed the door open and came in, and put down lunch. Seeing Liola’s knitted brows, Purity asked with concern:
“Liola-dage, what’s wrong? Are your wounds still hurting?”
“No…” Liola sighed, “I’m thinking about how to reconcile with Kaiser.”
Purity replied with “Oh”, then exclaimed: “I think, Kaiser isn’t really mad. As long as you promise him that you won’t be suicidal again, Kaiser should forgive you.”
“Really?” Liola asked skeptically.
Purity didn't even have the time to respond before Kaiser slammed the door open. Judging from his facial expression, he had been eavesdropping outside. Kaiser didn’t say anything, and simply pulled up a chair next to Liola's bed, and stared at him.
Liola said awkwardly: “Sorry, I won’t be suicidal from now on.”
Kaiser’s stern face seemed to finally ease up, and murmured: “Good to know you won’t be making any destructive moves again. If I see you trying to kill yourself again, I will kill you myself, you bastard.”
‘If the suicide attempt was successful, how are you going to kill a dead man? Beat on the dead corpse?’ Purity and Liola both thought.
“Ay, Liola, are your wounds healed yet?” Kaiser frowned:
“Barbalis, that old geezer went as far as saying that tomorrow we are going to be starting the wilderness survival! Damn, this isn’t a military camp! Why the hell do we need wilderness survival training in the School of Sorcery? He said we only get a water bottle and a small knife, and we have to survive in the wilderness for an entire month. What’s even more ridiculous was Barbalis said.
‘Everyone who doesn’t survive for a month will be expelled’!
How sad, if you die you still get expelled. I’ve never heard of anything as ridiculous as that.”
“This isn't that bad, actually.” Purity said with fear: “Before we even had a noble etiquette class. Everyone had to go to class with a book on their head for a month. Those who failed to do so, or if the book fell off, got expelled. And then we had a cooking classes, those who couldn’t cook a full course meal were all expelled as well…”
“Barbalis seems to have some kind of fetish for expulsion.” Kaiser muttered in dissatisfaction.
“Meinan has already agreed to be in our group. If Liola-dage could come with us, we should be able to take care of one another and stay safe.” Though she said that, Purity was still looking at Liola’s bandages with concern.
Having been alone in the dorm for a week, Liola said without hesitation: “It's okay, my injuries are irrelevant.”
“Good, then us four can be a group.” Kaiser showed a relieved expression: “That old geezer Barbalis also forcefully took Baolilong away. When he forbid us from taking Baolilong, it was rather pitiful. With the presence of a Dragon, no beast in the world would ever approach us. But now that we have Liola, even if the sky falls, he will carry it.”
* * *
A couple days later, the students from the School of Sorcery took off in a large flying Maxun. As they flew, many students were pushed off the flying Maxun. Of course, they had parachutes. Until finally, there were only the four people including Liola.
Barbalis smiled, and said to the four people: “By the way, I forgot to tell you, the place chosen for your wilderness survival, is determined by the strongest person in your group.”
Before the four of them had time to think about what kind of place would be fitting for someone as strong as Liola, they were all pushed off the flying Maxun. What’s even worse was that, when they opened their parachutes and looked at the place where they will be spending their next month, they realized the place was mostly barren with rocks, and there were plenty of strange monsters, some of which even opened their mouth wide as if they were waiting for the four of them to fall into their mouths.
“Hmm, I saw a bunch of beasts running on the ground, and they look like a transformed Baolilong.” Purity cried but without tears.
“They are Earth Dragons.” Kaiser said after his observation.
“Kaiser, what are those ten-meter long snakes with bodies covered in rotten marks?” Liola asked casually.
“Serpent Dragons.”
Meinan asked shakingly: “T-then what’s that flying thing, with thin wings shaped like a bat’s, and with a long face?”
“Wing-Hand Dragon.”
“Is this a Dragon's nest?” Liola asked with confusion. Why did every creature have “Dragon” in its name?
“This is the Yaron Plains. Danger level rank A.”
There were Dragons in every direction. Judging from Baolilong, Dragons were definitely carnivores.
Liola decided quickly: “I’m going down first. When I land, cut your parachutes, and I will catch you. I’m afraid that we won’t have time to slowly untie our parachutes.”
Then Liola immediately cut the parachute’s strings with Broken Silver. Liola fell from twenty-some odd meters, and luckily, with Blood Fluttering Ki and Windborne Blade, he landed safely on the ground, and shooed off a few Earth Dragons that were closing in on him.
Kaiser also cut off his parachute's strings, and with Liola’s help, landed successfully. Purity and Meinan also did the same.
Within moments, the four of them had been surrounded by the sub-Dragon species. Facing these Dragons who killed and preyed upon others purely out of instinct, Liola no longer had any doubts as to whether he could kill or not.
He twisted Broken Silver, and unsheathed the dagger within. Kaiser took out two barrels, while the gentleman, Meinan, took a step back, created a defense shield for himself and Purity, and stayed in it for safety measures.
The massacre had started. The originally intended prey; the humans, were the ones covered in the blood of sub-Dragons, instead. Liola’s graceful shadow flew candidly in the midst of all the Dragons, as if he was a gust of wind, but this gust was fatal and sliced through their flesh.
Every time Liola passed by a Dragon, there was a Dragon collapsing to the ground. There was not a single wound to be found with the naked eye. For some of the Dragons, he avoided their ribs and stabbed their hearts directly, while others had a thumb-wide wound on the back of their head.
Kaiser’s victims, however, had obvious wounds. They were all shot in the head, with brain matter and oozing blood everywhere.
When the sub-Dragons' corpses began to pile up, the Dragons finally got scared and left. They no longer treated the four humans as prey to fill their stomachs.
The four sighed in relief, since they didn’t have to struggle in some Dragon’s esophagus or stomach. However, with the two troublemakers here, surviving in the wilderness would never end so effortlessly.
They felt the ground shaking slightly, and the sub-Dragons in the surrounding area were quickly scattered away.
Liola’s group of four began to consider whether they should start running away with the sub-Dragons. At this time, it was proven that sometimes people thought too much, and it was worse than the sub-Dragons, who relied on their primitive instincts.
Purity’s iris contracted due to fear, and Meinan increased the strength of his magical shield by three fold. Kaiser desperately knocked on the shield, as if he wanted to hide inside, while Liola was a bit upset. His wounds were just starting to heal, and now he had to fight huge monsters.
“THAT’S A HUGE DRAGON!” Purity finally found her voice again, and screamed at the top of her lungs. Her loud scream attracted the Dragon’s attention.
‘Purity, good job, you are now the 3rd troublemaker.’ The other three thought.
Standing about 15 meters high, and 20 meters wide, a huge Dragon dragged its enormous feet and ran toward Liola’s group.
After some observation, Liola decided that Broken Silver’s length probably couldn’t even penetrate the skin of this Dragon. Thus, the four of them decided to run for their lives.
Luckily, there was a strange rocky hill nearby, which had tons of cracks in between. Finding a crack to hide in was what all they could think about. When they finally found a deep crack, Liola ducked while holding Purity, while Kaiser and Meinan went in last to cover their rear.
Things could have ended there, but when the huge Dragon rammed into the rocky hill, the entrance slowly crumbled, and the Dragon was getting closer and closer. So they desperately tried to go further in.
Purity then yelled: “Liola-dage, there’s a hole here.”
Liola looked at the hole on the ground, and went in first. Even if the exit was covered by rocks, he was able to break the rocks to get out. With Liola’s abilities, even if he was carrying Purity, he could jump about 20 meters without getting hurt. But this hole was more than 30 meters deep. However, when Liola realized this fact, he had already reached the ground, and the angle of his body was slightly twisted.
He hurriedly put Purity down on the ground. He determined the direction of the wind, and accurately helped Kaiser land. Then he teleported back to Meinan, and helped him land as well. The four hurried to leave, and dodged the falling rocks from above. The surroundings became quiet, and the four were finally able to relax.
Liola took off one of his long boot, and frowned while looking at his ankle.
“What’s wrong?” Kaiser noticed what Liola was doing and asked immediately.
“Broken ankle bone. This hole was too deep.” Liola calmly stated, as if it wasn’t he who broke a bone.
The moment Purity heard the situation, she immediately ran to a nearby stream to wet her handkerchief and placed it on Liola’s ankle, then asked worriedly: “Can you still walk?”
“Yes.” Liola stated as a matter of fact. Even if his leg bone was cracked, he could still walk. It was just a matter of pain.
“There’s water here!” Meinan excitedly exclaimed: “Good, the most important thing to survival is water. Now our biggest problem is solved.”
“I hope you’re not suggesting we spend the month in this dark hole in the ground?” Kaiser said with disapproval: “What about food?”
Meinan explained immediately: “We could follow the stream. If the water could leave the area, there will probably be an exit. If the area surrounding the exit has a nice environment, we could live there.”
Kaiser looked at Liola, and agreed: “Okay. Since Liola is hurt, then we really shouldn’t go back and fight with the sub-Dragons. Let’s go follow the stream.”
After resting for a while, the four decided to continue looking for a place to live for the next month. Meinan murmured: “Luminescence magic.”
A gentle ball of light appeared in Meinan’s hand and lit up their surroundings.
The four were stunned, not only was the hole huge, it had a lot of tilted structures with very strange architectural style. There were also a lot of pillars, which had patterns carved into them.
The passageways were also quite wide, and were paved with colorful stones. In the center of the hole, about a few kilometers away, the ground was more than 10 meters higher than where they currently stood, and on it, was a huge palace of sorts.
“W-what is this place?” Purity blinked her eyes in disbelief.
“Looks like we’ve found a historical ruin.” Kaiser concluded, but he couldn’t remember what era the style was from.
The four walked curiously on the stone-paved road and occasionally looked around and touched random things they could find. Purity played with strange little toys she found, while Meinan gazed at the beautiful carvings on the stone pillars.
Kaiser focused his attention to see if he could find any gold, silver, or anything else that could reflect light, and Liola started using Heart of Consciousness to scout his surroundings for any living things or traps.
There was a huge palace but it was too far, and was out of range of Liola’s senses.
“Let’s go and see that palace?” Meinan suggested irresistibly. Just looking at the carvings was a feast for his eyes. The magnificent palace made Meinan, who had a passion for art, very antsy.
The carvings were quite strange. Purity noticed a carving on a random sheet of rock, it looked as if some amateur had carved it.
There were many people surrounding one, who had his mouth wide open, as if in huge pain. The surrounding people were reaching their hand out and touching him in various parts of his body, and… She didn’t know if it was poorly carved, or if it had been too long, and the images were blurred.
Many of the people seemed to have missing arms and/or legs. Some were even missing half their bodies.
“Purity, let’s go.” Kaiser beckoned Purity.
“Oh.” Purity put down the sheet rock, and caught up with Liola and the group: “Are we going to that place?”
“Yes, there might be some beautiful (valuable) art.” Two people answered in unison, but their responses differed in only one word.
A few kilometers passed in the blink of an eye, but what was tiring was that, the palace was surrounded by what looked like stairs. Liola and the group lost count after a few hundred steps, and they finally arrived at the gate to the huge palace. Three of them were panting while holding onto their legs.
Liola was, instead, examining the gate. Why was this gate so huge? It was about 10 meters wide, 20 meters tall.
“This gate is huge!” Kaiser exclaimed.
But Meinan shook his head: “This gate isn’t that big. Many ancient ruins have more glamorous doors than this. This gate is completely blank, without even any adornments, and it really doesn’t meet the standards of my splendid aesthetics.”
“Are we going in?” Liola asked.
“We’re already here, so of course we’re going in. There are probably a ton of valuable relics.” Kaiser’s eyes shone with a greedy light again.
“Hopefully the art pieces inside won’t disappoint me.” What he said meant that Meinan had also decided to go in.
“I’m fine either way.” Purity didn’t have an opinion.
Liola looked at the huge gate. The gate wasn’t plain like Meinan had said.
The edges had a strange pattern, and Liola could feel that there were energies oozing out of the patterns, which made him frown. But Liola was confident in his abilities, and even if he twisted his ankle, he still believed that he could handle most enemies.
Liola said: “Then let’s go in.”
Kaiser saw that everyone had agreed to go in, lifted his gun, and set the energy to the highest, and opened fire. He created a large hole on the huge gate, and the deep hole emitted some cold air. The palace that had been neglected for ages, was now waiting for its guests.
But, all of them seemed to have forgotten something. The two troublemakers, along with the third place girl, their combined troublemaking abilities were off the chart…
1. DuanChang Cliff carries the same name as a famous place in a novel, Legend of the Condor Heroes, at the bottom of said cliff, two lovers had agreed to meet again after 16 years. It’s often used to describe a cliff that has heartbreaking scenery. As for why she wanted him to go there and what this cliff actually means, remains to be seen later in the book. 2. This is a play on sounds. His name, Meinan, are comprised of two characters, and other than the stress marks, it sounds identical to what Kaiser is about to think, which means Beautiful GuyBack to top
Chapter end
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