This chapter was brought to you by AnmesicCat, and StellarAshes.
Rescue
“While Silver Moon is holding the Aklan capital, his investigation revealed that his assassins were connected to the Black Dragon King, which meant the Black Dragon King’s influence had reached past simple lesser-Dragons into the humans. To avoid any potential danger, Silver Moon rejected any request for the citizens to re-enter the city. He had also sent out many Knights in search of the Assassins. Anyone found to be in connection with the Black Dragon King will be killed on sight. Suddenly, even Aklan Continent’s winds were filled with weeping. The vicinity of the Aklan capital was almost a complete ghost town, if it were not for the Dragon Empire Knights…”
“Liola…”
Lanski looked at the newspaper in her hand, and her hand kept trembling. The only thing she could think of was, when Liola recovers, how much pain and regret he would be in, even if none of this was his fault…
“Damn the Dragon Emperor!” After seeing the news, Jasmine said emotionally, “If this continues, even if Liola were to recover, he would definitely be hated by everyone! H-he would have nowhere to turn to, other than being a Prince in the Dragon Continent…”
Lanski took a deep breath. She could only think of Liola’s regret and pain, but she did not think about how people, who didn’t know the truth, would treat Liola, and how bad Liola’s situation would end up.
“We have to hurry up and rescue him!” Jasmine looked up, and said anxiously.
“No!” Lanski panicked a bit. She didn’t remember until now, they were actually having such a public discussion. God! Her father had always had his control over the palace, and she immediately made a “shh” sound.
“You two are rather slow, realizing this now when it’s too late.”
Lanski and Jasmine paused, then turned around to see the person who spoke was the one nobody would imagine seeing in the palace: Eldest Prince Mocha.
With his long robe reaching the ground, Mocha walked over slowly, and said nostalgically, “It’s been a really long time since I’ve walked here.”
“Eldest brother! Why are you here?” Lanski asked in surprise.
“I’m here to tell you, tomorrow noon, a situation would suddenly arise with Miluo, and the Dragon Emperor would be forced to go resolve it himself. During that time, his communication with the outside world would be completely severed for three hours. These three hours will determine anything.” Mocha said calmly, but he didn’t say anything about the end result.
The two girls took a deep breath, and said in unison, “I’ll go tell everyone immediately.”
“Sister, wait.” Mocha suddenly spoke to stop Lanski.
The two girls who had always done everything together stopped, and turned around to look at Mocha. He smiled and said, “Let Jasmine go and tell others, I want to talk to you, sister.”
Jasmine paused, but she immediately understood why Mocha wanted to speak to Lanski alone. His goal… was far too obvious. It must had something to do with what Mocha said before about Lanski’s life being in danger. Jasmine thought Mocha must be trying to convince Lanski to do otherwise, and even Jasmine herself had really hoped Lanski wouldn’t risk her life. As such, she nodded, then left by herself, to tell everyone else about this.
There were only Mocha and Lanski left, and the latter smiled then said, “If sovereign brother is trying to convince me not to go, then can you tell me first: if I don’t go, would it be successful?”
Mocha obviously didn’t expect Lanski would ask this. After pausing, he sighed deeply, then said, “Lanski, I want to ask you, even if Liola recovers, how do you think he would react when he found out that you died because of him?”
Lanski’s body froze. She said, “He would feel self-guilt… but at least then, he could still feel guilt, right? Instead of being like now, completely emotionless.”
“Emotionless is, sometimes, a kind of bliss.” Mocha said with a vague sadness, “I saw… his tears. Sister, you don’t understand, to him, your existence is far more than just yourself; it also includes Anise, Bairui’s incarnation. Your death would be the biggest blow to him.”
“But he still stands up, doesn’t he?” Lanski shook her head. She thought Liola could definitely get on his feet again.
“Yes.” Mocha looked in the distance, as if he was looking at some picture, and his tone was rather vague, “And then, he will again drive a sword through father’s chest, the real Dragon Emperor… Caffe. With that image, the silly smile, I’m certain of it, it was indeed Caffe and not the Dragon Emperor.”
“And on brother’s face, was an insurmountable pain and tears.” Mocha slowly closed his eyes, and said painfully, “Every time I think about the look on his face, I’ve wondered if not having any emotion to him would be a kind of bliss…”
Lanski became quiet. After a long while, she finally said,
“Sorry, brother, if I really can’t come back, please tell Liola for me, that I was too weak, and I’m not willing to see him without emotions like this. Therefore, I’m going to transfer my pain to him. Tell him not to blame himself too much, because I chose everything myself.”
“You chose everything yourself?” Mocha looked at his sister gently, “Alright, I understand, and I won’t stop you anymore, but just be careful. I really do hope my prediction would end up unfulfilled.”
“Understood, brother.” Lanski raised her face, her smile bright like the sun, “Don’t worry, your sister isn’t that fragile. Brother, you must’ve made a mistake this time!”
Mocha nodded, “Yes, I must’ve made a mistake. Then, I look forward to seeing you again, my dear sister.”
“Brother!”
Lanski suddenly ran up and hugged her brother. This surprised Mocha and he couldn’t move at all. This was the first time she had been close to him. In the past, she had always felt apprehensive towards the brother who spent all his time in the Astronomy Tower, to the point where she might even feel a bit of disgust. But now, she finally understood her brother’s pain and difficulties, nor did she find Mocha repulsive anymore; she even felt a bit guilty about her attitude towards him before.
“Sister…” Mocha slowly rubbed Lanski’s head. A beautiful girl with such cream hair shouldn’t be the person to fall…
“Brother, I’m going to go. I’m afraid if I don’t go now, Jasmine and others may abandon me and leave by themselves.”
Lanski stuck her tongue out playfully. After leaving her brother’s arms, she waved at Mocha, then sprinted away, fearing she really would be left behind.
Mocha stood quietly still for a long time. When he finally left, he left one simple question behind in the air,
“Sister and brother, who should be the one to be sacrificed?”
* * *
“I want to see His Highness, the successor.”
Yizhou frowned; he thought it to be strange. For someone to ask to see the successor, they should be looking for Flower and Yiyu instead. Everyone knew, he had always focused on training, and rarely did he actually step into the Aklan meeting room, where the successor was.
As soon as he turned, Yizhou immediately put his right fist on his left chest, and performed a Knight salute. Though he was only a Silver Knight, but as a royalty’s Direct Knight, he had the specially permission to not salute to Knights higher than his rank, because Direct Knights would often carry out commands for the royalty, and their presence represented the will of the royal family, so saluting to other Knights seemed unfitting.
However, the people in front of him would definitely be an exception. Even the Prince and Princess would often pay each other respect through a Knight’s salute.
They were the Paladin Lancelot and the Dark Knight Blood Wolf.
Blood Wolf smiled like a ruffian and said leisurely, “You’re Silver Moon’s Direct Knight, right?”
Yizhou nodded.
“Let me tell you, we’re carrying out the Dragon Emperor’s secret command, and the less people know about it, the better.” Blood Wolf raised his eyebrows, and warned with narrow eyes, “In other words, no one other than you may know anything about our arrival! Including the other two Direct Knights, understood?”
Yizhou frowned, and instinctively looked towards the Paladin.
Seeing this, Blood Wolf immediately yelled, “Hey! What are you looking at Lancelot for? Just trust me, okay?”
Yizhou hesitated a bit, then nodded.
“Damn! You really did nod, such a hilarious Knight.” Blood Wolf put on a sad face. Could he really be that untrustworthy? Even though, he really was lying just now…
Lancelot shook his head. This Blood Wolf, he knew they were pressed for time, but he still was messing with this Knight, sigh!
“Do as Blood Wolf says.” Lancelot said to Yizhou.
“Did you hear? Just do as I say!” Blood Wolf acted like a fox pretending to be a tiger, “You go tell Silver Moon, His Highness the Dragon Emperor has a secret plan against the Black Dragon King, so he ordered us to come find Silver Moon and go to Freesia together. However, this plan must be completely kept in secret. You go tell Silver Moon, we’ll be waiting for him dead north of the capital.”
Yizhou thought about it briefly. Despite the strangeness of the command, but the appearance of both the Paladin and the Dark Knight extinguished his doubts. He thought perhaps the Dragon Emperor wanted the two legendary Knights to go and assassinate the Black Dragon King together.
“Hurry, time is of the essence.” Lancelot frowned a bit, and said.
“Yes, sir.” Yizhou performed a Knight’s salute, then turned around to leave quickly.
When Yizhou was out of his sight, Lancelot asked, puzzled, “This lie seemed a bit crude. Would the successor really fall for it?”
“Of course not.” Blood Wolf answered lazily. “Silver Moon is emotionless, not brainless. Even though he may not be able to contact the Dragon Emperor right now, it’s impossible for him not to be skeptical of this.”
“I can’t really say whether his strength really matched ours or not. However, his speed and alertness are incomparable in this world. If he is alarmed, then there’s no way we could catch him.”
“To subdue him, we have to use the only thing he’s not familiar with: magic, and subdue him instantly. Otherwise, even if he can’t win in a fight, he could definitely escape.”
“So?” Lancelot listened for a long while, but he seemed to have missed the point; what did this lie have to do with magic?
“So I placed a teleport magic circle on that hilarious Knight just now, and I’ve set the activation phrase to be word ‘Paladin’. As soon as Yizhou speak the word ‘Paladin’, everything living thing in a ten-meter radius will be teleported to the other magic circle in my hand. Isn’t it interesting?”
Lancelot was briefly silent, “This is dozens of kilometers away from where the Third Prince and the Princess had hid themselves.”
“Of course I know, I’m not terrible with directions.” Blood Wolf raised his eyebrow.
“However, this is only at most one kilometer away from the Aklan meeting room.” Lancelot was trying to suppress his anger.
“I know, we can even see the roof to the meeting room from here.” Blood Wolf answered seriously.
Lancelot’s patience seemed to be reaching some sort of limit; his tones sounded like he was about to spit fire, “Then do you really think we can possibly rush back to the Princess and the Prince before Yizhou speak the word ‘Paladin’?”
“Oh!” Blood Wolf showed a serious expression, “That depends on what kind of transportation we use, ‘Lancelot-stinky-and-stubborn-like-a-rock’!”
Lancelot paused, unsure why Blood Wolf would suddenly say something like that… however, a bright light exploded and swallowed both of them. After the light dissipated, Lancelot noticed the surroundings had completely changed. He looked around and found Cappuccino and Lanski staring at them with wide open eyes, clearly showing their surprise at the sudden appearance.
“Tsk, so interesting.” Blood Wolf smiled like a hooligan. As for Lancelot confusion, he was happy to explain, “I forgot to tell you, Cappuccino lost two magic circles to me. Before we left, I gave him the other end to one of them, and ‘stubborn as rock’ was the activation phrase.”
Lancelot shook his head. Blood Wolf was indeed the joking kind, acting this relaxed in a situation like this.
“All right, I saw that Yizhou guy’s walking speed, and he should have made it to Liola about now, so it’s time that we get set up.” Blood Wolf frowned, and murmured, “Too bad we don’t know where the Dragon Emperor is holding Mizerui. His gravity magic is practically Liola nemesis. If he could restrain Liola speed, we’d be able to catch him like a cat catching a mouse.”
Lancelot didn’t waste time talking to Blood Wolf, and he unsheathed his sword, with a serious look on his face. Blood Wolf scratched his face, and took out his black pike, spun it a few times in the air, then grasped it tightly in his hand.
“All right! Cappuccino, you go up in the air. If Liola tries to run, ask Little Fireball to spit a few fireballs to slow him down.”
“As for the two girls, honestly, you two aren’t quite at the fighting level to intervene, so stand far away.” Blood Wolf saw the anger surfacing the girls’ faces, so he immediately added, “Don’t worry! There will be things for you two to do. After we catch Liola and when Lancelot tries to break the hypnosis, we’ll need you two for an emotional attack.”
The two girls eased a bit, but they still felt unhappy; if only they had been a bit stronger…
* * *
Yizhou walked quickly towards the Aklan meeting room. Though he was indeed not skeptical before, but in the short distance he walked, a few doubts were raised in his mind. Why did they look for him? The Paladin and the Dark Knight could’ve very well went up to His Highness as if there was no one there, and nobody would dare to question them.
If they’re trying to hide from Milou’s spies, then why couldn’t he tell the other two Direct Knights? After all, they were the successors Soul Devotees.
Many doubts circled themselves in Yizhou mind, but he would’ve never guessed, the two Knights were only trying to trick the successor out. After all, the two Knights’ prestige were well known, and it was unbelievable for them to do anything like betrayal.
Yizhou decided to tell the matter directly to His Highness, and he could decide for himself.
He walked into the meeting hall. After the assassination attempt, the meeting hall was always patrolled by dozens of Knights. When they saw it was the successors Direct Knight, no one said anything, and he was free to move through, until he arrived at the room where the successor stayed.
“Come in.”
As soon as Yizhou came to a stop at the door, Silver Moon’s voice could be heard from inside. He wasn’t surprised the successor had already noticed him, so he pushed open the door and went in.
“Report.”
Silver Moon had his back towards Yizhou. Without turning around, he asked lightly.
Yizhou nodded and said, “Your Highness, the Paladin and the Dark…”
No matter how alert Silver Moon was, magic had always been his blind spot. Also, no matter how many doubts Yizhou had, he would’ve never expected it would happen before he even finished the first sentence. Blood Wolf was indeed good at lying. He put the emphasis on meeting outside of the city. Any ordinary person would think that even if something was wrong, it would happen outside of the city; how could he have known that the true lie was hidden on himself?
Silver Moon had pulled out his weapon the moment the light appeared. When he sensed two powerful presence, they had already began their attacks. However, he never expected that it was a coordinated attack from the two legendary Knights, so he was at a disadvantage from the start.
Yizhou paused, but with a dozen of moves had been made in that brief moment. It only took three seconds for the light to dissipate, but a dozen crisp sounds of weapons colliding could be heard.
It wasn’t until now that Yizhou finally realized, the successor was in danger!
His reaction time was already fairly fast. He took out his sword, preparing to defend the successor; but when he turned around, he froze once more. Although it was unforgivable for him to freeze when his direct royalty was under attack, perhaps no Knight could blame Yizhou for it, because the people attacking the successor was actually the Paladin and the Dark Knight.
Two legendary Knights fighting together was a force no one could stop. Besides, practically everyone would agree, the person they would attack would be undoubtedly an evil person for them to both be involved.
But, this was the successor! The future Dragon Emperor, the person all Knights must obey. Yizhou was now thoroughly confused.
No matter how confused he was, Yizhou still kept his eyes on the battle. In the short time that passed, Yizhou was thoroughly entranced in the battle. The successor was so fast that, no matter how much Yizhou tried to concentrate, he could only see a black shadow flying around, as well as the occasional flash of Broken Silver’s light.
The two legendary Knights seemed to be having a headache to such speed. The white and black Auras both locked down a side, and this made the red Aura bounce around like a leaf on a turbulent sea. If Silver Moon didn’t have such amazing speed, he would probably have lost long ago.
Nevertheless, this fight wasn’t based on “what ifs”; speed was the Assassin’s biggest advantage. Plus his ability to disappear, an Assassin could often kill an opponent two times his power.
Unfortunately, this Assassin was the one being ambushed. Being at a disadvantage from the start, Silver Moon had to use his speed just to hold his ground.
However, the two legendary Knights lived up to their names. The Paladin used his flawless sword techniques. Even though it may not be as dexterous, but it was as solid as a tall stone wall.
The Dark Knight Blood Wolf was completely different; his moves seemed unfathomably random. He would often dodge, then attack randomly, but he made it look like it was the natural thing to do. He looked like a thin wall, but when you touch it, your hair would stand up as if you had just touched a wall of electricity.
The two legendary Knights’ cooperation formed such a seamless barrier; the tall walls were fully electrified, and it was impossible to break through.
Silver Moon was almost like he was using his speed to run on the wall. Although he may not receive too much damage in the short-term, electricity would occasionally strike his toes, and if he were to slow down a bit, his body would tremble from the electricity. Even if he wanted to break out of the walls, they were far too high for him to climb.
As such, despite knowing he would lose if this continued, Silver Moon had no other choice, so he was using his speed to sustain himself as much as possible.
Yizhou was practically watching this battle with greed. Because of his inferior strength, he had been watching a long while before he saw the terrible predicament the successor was in. Nevertheless, Yizhou knew, this was not a battle he could join. Even though he might not want to admit it, his involvement in the fight would be over in a fraction of a second.
What else could he do other than watching his direct royalty being surrounded? No Knight could handle an insult like that.
After thinking about it, Yizhou put his hand firmly on the handle of his sword, planning on joining the fray…
“Stop!”
Yizhou paused, and looked towards the source of the sound. He then realized the person who spoke was the successor’s Sacred White Dragon. Its deep red eyes stared directly at him, while saying with a deep voice, “Look over there, do you see Princess Lanski?”
Yizhou looked in the direction the Dragon pointed, and suddenly realized the Princess was also present. Could this be a battle for the throne?
“In a bit, I will feign a retreat. You go and take the Princess hostage, and threaten the two Knights to stop their attacks with the Princess’s life.”
What? Yizhou completely froze; take the Princess hostage?