This chapter was brought to you by AnmesicCat, and StellarAshes.
The Crowd’s Standpoint
“Exhales, this should be fine.”
Qiusi was lying on the bed with his eyes closed. Though his chest rise and fall once only in a long while, and his breathing was so subtle that it was hard to notice, but his life signs maintained steady, nor did he cough out any more blood.
After observing for three hours, Daylight fell to the ground in exhaustion. He continuously used two difficult methods of acupuncture: suppressing the aura and faking death. Since he rarely used acupuncture, Daylight had already exhausted himself, but to ensure no accident would happen in the following year, he forced himself to observe Qiusi for three hours. Fortunately, everything went very successfully, despite him never having used such methods before.
Hearing Daylight’s words, Meinan was completely certain his father wouldn’t be dying in the next year. He could finally relax a little, but what replaced his worries, was now what his father had entrusted in him. Meinan understood that, in the days to follow, he would be quite busy. If it were possible, he would very much hope to obtain Kaiser’s help: he was very confident in Kaiser’s ability in coming up with plans.
Meinan paced around in the room. The Red Commander had already left due to official business, so everyone present on his side. Since everyone was there, Meinan decided to make some announcements and have a discussion.
“I want to have a talk with you all.”
As soon as he spoke, everyone’s attention was on him. Seeing this, Meinan began to talk about the secret strength Qiusi had hidden. When he talked about Barbalis, everyone’s jaws dropped, with a “That can’t be?!” look on all their faces. Everyone looked around, but Barbalis had already hid himself.
“This damn geezer actually knows how to be shy, ugh, disgusting.” Kaiser laughed as he acted as though he was vomiting. He knew there was no way Barbalis could’ve left when Meinan was about to say something important, so he was probably shy and used stealth.
Meinan continued without hiding anything, including Qiusi entrusting to be the commander in the dark. He believed his companions wouldn’t betray him, so there was no need to hide anything.
After having said everything, Meinan paused for a moment, to let everything he had said sink in.
“So the Dragon Emperor really isn’t a good person.”
“Duh, what kind of idiot would still think the Dragon Emperor is a good person by now?”
Kaiser turned his head and snapped, but then immediately shut up, because the person who spoke was not a member of the Aklan Troublemaking Squad nor their principal, nor the Blood Wolf who acted all “I didn’t hear anything”; it was the person whom Purity dragged here, and then quietly stood still, to the point where everyone had forgotten his existence — Purity’s brother, Knight Feir.
Feir saw the rigid atmosphere, and he finally understood nobody noticed him until now. He smiled bitterly, “I’m really sorry, I didn’t think you guys would be talking about such important secrets, a-and no one made me leave, so I thought I could stay to listen. I’ll leave now.”
“It’s fine, my brother is one of us.” Purity stubbornly grabbed a hold of her brother, and forced him to stay.
“He is a Knight, how could you guarantee he’s one of us? And it’s too late for you to leave; you’ve almost heard all of it!” Kaiser explained straightforwardly, then impolitely asked, “Feir, tell us yourself. Which side are you on?”
“Runt, I remember you were quite close with a number of Knights on the Dragon Continent.” Blood Wolf seemed to have carelessly mentioned, and then turned around to pretend to look around.
Purity’s face suddenly went pale. She tugged her brother’s arm, and asked, “Brother?”
Feir was silent for a bit, then he said slowly, “I can only ask you to trust me. I am a part of the Commerce Alliance, and even though I am a Knight, I am a Knight belonging to the Commerce Alliance. As for my acquaintances with many Dragon Continent Knights, there is a special reason, but before I secure their approval, I cannot tell you the reason.”
“Trust… nowadays how much is ‘trust’ worth?” Kaiser murmured, and his dissatisfaction was obvious, “I trusted Liola’s words that he’ll be back, but now he’s now a puppet successor. However, what could we do to you other than trust you? It’s not like we could do anything to you while we’re on your parent’s territory.”
“I’m sorry, but there are no other promises I could give you. Then I’ll leave now, so I won’t prevent your future conversation.” Feir stood up, courteously performed a Knight salute, and turned to leave.
Purity seemed unhappy. She turned angrily, ignoring Kaiser. The latter knew his words were indeed hurting, but he would never take it back; one could say he purposely made Feir leave. After all, they didn’t know Feir very well, and letting him hear all that was already dangerous enough, particularly to Meinan, Barbalis, and Gladiolus.
“Hey! Dragon Continent Knight, which side are you on?” Kaiser’s eyes now moved to Blood Wolf, who had been pretending to be invisible, then asked bluntly.
“Who?” Blood Wolf acted all innocent. After seeing everyone looking at him, he stood up, and stretched, “I should probably get back now. If Cappuccino can’t find a drinking buddy for a long time, he might fire me.”
Kaiser raised his eyebrows, and snapped, “Are you pretending to be dead? Do you want a taste of my grandfather’s new magic?”
Though Kaiser acted rather impolitely, but Meinan was only quietly looking as the situation unfolded. He did indeed need to understand Blood Wolf, and where the Dark Knight’s attitude stood. He knew Kaiser was asking on his behalf, and Meinan actually secretly felt thankful.
Blood Wolf sighed, and even Barbalis didn’t say anything to stop Kaiser. Seeing he had to answer, Blood Wolf shrugged, “My boss is Cappuccino, so whatever he wants is what I do. I’m just a subordinate; I don’t have the right to choose.”
“Yes, then what exactly does Cappuccino wants to do?” Kaiser took the opportunity to keep asking. If they could find out Cappuccino’s attitude, that would be even better.
“Him?” Blood Wolf scratched his face, and instead threw a question at Meinan, “If one day, your father wanted to conquer the world and it wasn’t even his choice to do so, and a bunch of people wanted to see your father dead, what would you do?”
Meinan froze, and he could not answer.
Blood Wolf explained leisurely, “To me, there’s only what I like and don’t like, and there’s not a difference between righteous and evil. I help you because I like you runts, I help Cappuccino and Lancelot because I like those two, but all in all, I am closer to Cappuccino and Lancelot than you. If one day you are up against them on a battlefield, I will be standing with the side I’m closer with. How’s that?”
“Other than a formal confrontation, everything else doesn’t concern me.” Blood Wolf said as a matter of fact, “Also, everything you’ve just said, I didn’t hear any of it. If it gets out, it had nothing to do with me.”
“Damn!” Kaiser pouted, but he understood Blood Wolf’s standpoint. Even though Kaiser could not convert Blood Wolf to be on their side, but simply because Blood Wolf mentioned Feir’s acquaintance with Dragon Continent Knights and his promise to not tell anything were already plenty of help to them.
“How is Liola anyway?” Kaiser asked hesitantly.
“Not well. He was already in a bad shape, and when Cappuccino’s Little Fireball was gossiping with Blackie, I heard that he had gotten worse.” Blood Wolf scratched his face, because he couldn’t imagine what being worse could mean. Could there be any situation worse than a living freezer?
“Is it because he hurt Qiusi?” Meinan asked.
Blood Wolf shrugged. The news of Qiusi’s injury had not been spread yet, and Cappuccino didn’t know at all, therefore he had no idea if it caused Liola’s condition worsening.
“I heard Baolilong suddenly grew up, and it looked quite beautiful, or so my little perverted Blackie said. Blackie was itching when it saw the images Little Fireball sent over, almost to the point of wanting a wolf-Dragon love, but the difference in body size was too big…” Blood Wolf remembered the news that made him sweat: his Blackie would want to flirt with a genderless Dragon; he didn’t know where it learnt it from.
“Baolilong grew up? I want to see!” Purity yelled in surprise.
“What exactly does being worse mean?” Kaiser pouted. Mizerui’s last report was scary enough, and how exactly would it be now?
“How would I know, ah… I’ll just go back and see now. I’m quite curious myself.” Blood Wolf murmured.
‘Yes! Let’s go back and see the beautiful white Dragon.’
‘Shut up! You damn pervert. I warn you, touching a minor Dragon is a felony. Besides, its master is scary. If you get fried into “Fried Wolf”, it’s none of my business!’
“Can you bring me a message to Liola?” Meinan suddenly said.
“Well… say it, but I might not be able to deliver it.” Blood Wolf said casually.
Meinan was silent for a while, took a deep breath, and said, “You tell him, I don’t blame him, nobody does. Tell him we’re all waiting for his return.”
Blood Wolf’s leisure look suddenly disappeared, and he looked deeply in Meinan’s eyes and said, “I swear to Darkness, I promise to deliver ‘you don’t blame him’.”
“Thanks.” Meinan nodded.
“Blackie! Let’s go find Cappuccino and Little Fireball.” Blood Wolf summoned a giant black wolf, and jumped out of the balcony. With sound of many Mecha Fighters’ yelling in surprise, he disappeared from the horizon.
“If that message could wake Liola, it would be great.” Seeing Blood Wolf leave, Kaiser murmured, but he didn’t hold much hope for it.
Meinan also did not count on it being successful. As such, the tasks his father entrusted him must still be done. He yelled towards the air, “Barbalis, I want to know your thoughts. Would you and Gladiolus be willing to have me as your behind-the-scenes commander?”
Barbalis slowly appeared, and his attitude was serious for once. He nodded, “Of course, I watched you grow up, and I know how much you are like Qiusi. As for Gladiolus, you don’t need to worry: your father had predicted this and he told Gladiolus from the start, both Qiusi and you are his boss.”
Since there was no more problems with Barbalis, Meinan took a deep breath, then turned towards his companions. His heart was even more worried than when he asked Barbalis. After all, his father didn’t even say a thing to Barbalis about Meinan, which meant his father, had already known they would not oppose Meinan as the commander. However, his companions were different, because they had no obligations to help him.
Meinan earnestly opened his mouth to say to his companions, “My situation is very dangerous. Being with me is very dangerous, and helping me is even more so.”
“Do you need my help?” Daylight asked directly.
Meinan was a bit hesitant. He knew, in an all-out war like this, a person was not going to make much of a difference. Should he really drag his companion down like this? Facing the unknown danger, Meinan really wanted his companions by him. After all, he was just a young adult in his early twenties. Having suddenly shouldered such responsibilities, it would be a lie to say he wasn’t scared or nervous.
“Mm, if there are Knights in the Dark Street, I could use my master’s training method to train them. Yes… after teaching them, I could go find Liola, and hopefully find a way to bring him back to save the Prime Minister.” Daylight, instead, was thinking about what he could do to help.
Kaiser continued after, “No matter how good Aklan School of Magic, it would definitely not as insane as my grandfather Gle. Roar! He has quite a destructive tendency, and the goal in his life was to find a magic circle that would be enough to destroy the world… ugh! I guess the Dragon Emperor was right in a sense. Though he never succeeded, he did find quite a number of large scale destructive magic. Though no one could be as crazy as him, making magic circles by gesturing with his hand, but with enough people cooperating, it shouldn’t be a problem.”
Kaiser added, and angrily added, “As for that troublesome idiot Liola, if I have time I’ll go save him.”
“You guys…” Warmth surged up in Meinan’s heart, and even his eyes felt damp.
“Ah… You don’t have Mecha Fighters, so what should Purity do?” Purity’s face sank. She suddenly noticed she didn’t seem to have any uses.
“No! Purity, your mission is even more important.” Meinan said solemnly, “I need you to communicate with your mother first, and try to tell her the truth about the Dragon Emperor and his desire to conquer the world. Only with the support of the Commerce Alliance could we emerge from this war as victorious.”
“I understand.” Purity earnestly nodded.
“Now, all three Commanders should’ve known about my father, but they may not announce it immediately, to prevent panic in the Alliance.” Meinan thought about it carefully, and said decidedly, “Nevertheless, we are going to spread the news of Qiusi falling.”
Kaiser nodded, agreeing, “Although this would cause panic in Aklan, the people will know sooner or later. It would be better to announce it early, and the Commerce Alliance could then make up their mind to face against Miluo.”
“What is the actual strength of the Dark Street and Aklan School of Magic?” Meinan asked with a frown.
Barbalis answered, “I’m not sure about Dark Street, but School of Magic has more than 2,400 Magicians, real Magicians, plus more than 900 Sorcerers with special abilities. All their abilities have been screened; some of them are even fortune tellers.”
“Fortune tellers?” Meinan was a bit hesitant, “I heard the Eldest Prince, Mocha, is also a fortune teller.”
Barbalis nodded, “That’s right, and his ability to do so is downright scary. Rumors say he could foretell every details of the future, and it’s something our fortune tellers can’t even come close. Mizerui can attest to this fact himself.”
“Isn’t that terrible?” Kaiser frowned, “What if he foretells our ambushes, isn’t it all over?”
“Mocha’s attitude is uncertain at the moment. I think his reasoning is somewhat similar to Blood Wolf. What is certain, however, is the Eldest Prince doesn’t seem to care about the outcome of this war. As long as… it doesn’t affect the Dragon Emperor’s life, he usually wouldn’t say anything about the future.”
Hearing this, Kaiser’s face darkened, and said with a bitter laugh, “Crap, I wanted to say the way to reduce casualty was to kill the bastard Dragon Emperor in one shot.”
“I think so, too.” Barbalis agreed naturally.
“Didn’t he say Liola-dage would kill the Dragon Emperor?” Purity suddenly remembered the Eldest Prince’s prediction. She asked skeptically, “If Liola-dage would kill the Dragon Emperor, then why wouldn’t the Eldest Prince interfere?”
Hearing Purity’s question, everyone went silent. Without knowing what the fortune teller’s thoughts, everyone couldn’t possibly guess why.
“But if it were Purity, she must be very sad. Brother would kill her father, then what is she to do? She can’t just kill brother either.” Purity lowered her head as if she were in pain, almost to the point of tears.
“If Mocha doesn’t want to kill his own brother, what is he going to do to prevent Liola from killing the Dragon Emperor?” Kaiser suddenly asked strangely.
Daylight answered naturally, “If it were me, I would think of a way to make my brother stay as far away from my father as possible. If they never see each other, they could never kill one another.”
“Perhaps… we will have an uncanny ally, and this ally may have some very unique purpose.” Kaiser suddenly smiled mysteriously.
* * *
Meinan had always thought he was the luckiest. His father had always had to struggle on his own on the seat of command, but at least Meinan had Kaiser’s help. Because as such, Meinan didn’t collapse the moment he suddenly shouldered so many things.
The first news to be released was about Qiusi’s serious injury and the subsequent coma. The world immediately turned upside down. The citizens of Aklan Republic who retreated now sank into a complete despair. Though Meinan did not want his citizens to be afraid, but he had no other choice. This allowed him understand how Qiusi had always faced dilemmas when he had been in office.
Then, they thought of ways to avoid the Dragon Emperor, so he would think Meinan wasn’t a threat at all. This was relatively simple: he asked Daylight pretend his acupuncture failed, and Qiusi resulted in a coma. Since Qiusi was indeed in a coma, even the Maxun could not determine why, so the Red Commander did believe their story.
Meinan then acted like a person who lost all ambition due to the loss of his father. This was a serious test to the cleanliness, and beauty-loving Meinan, because no one who lost their ambitions would still keep clean and orderly. Therefore, Kaiser had the strictest of rules for Meinan: he could only bath once per week, change clothes every three days. He was also not allowed to put on fragrance nor comb his hair!
Meinan was in so much pain that he thought it would be better to go to Dragon Continent and kidnap Liola back to wake Qiusi.
‘Bathroom, my bathroom…‘ It had only been a day since Meinan stopped showering, but his body was already itching, and he couldn’t stand his own stink. He fell to the ground powerlessly and crawled towards the bathroom.
“I already locked it up, and Daylight has the key. I told him he can only give you the key once a week, and only ten minutes each time.” Kaiser explained, and mercilessly added, “You know Daylight is as stubborn as a rock, so he will definitely remember my request.”
“NOO!” Meinan yelled in pain while covering his face. This “no” echoed in the room three times before it dissipated, and his pain was easy to see.
‘Comb, where’s my comb? My hair has hundreds of knots now.’
“Hmm? I told Barbalis to take that to Auntie. Oh right, and I also gave her your mirror with a pink butterfly.”
‘What! My favorite pink butterfly mirror? My god, I was going to pass that down to my son, then my son’s son, then my son’s, son’s son, as a family heirloom!’
“Couldn’t you at least consider giving it to a daughter?”
‘No, this is just too stinky. It’s the third day, and I wouldn’t dare to take off the tissue rolled up in my nostrils, because I might die from the stink. Let’s use a bit of perfume to cover it. Where is my musky perfume?’
[T/N while in English, “cologne” would make more sense than “perfume”, but given the fact that Meinan was often seen as girly and he calls it ‘strawberry’ perfume in a minute, it might make more sense this way.]
“Musky?” Kaiser lowered his head and smelled himself, “Are you talking about the one I sprayed on myself?”
“No, my god! The one you sprayed was my favorite strawberry perfume. It’s a discontinued version, and I only have one bottle of it. I couldn’t even bring myself to use it usually, you, you, how much did you use?!”
“A drop…”
“That’s good.”
“…Not even a drop left.”
…
“Did I put on too much? No wonder everything I ate lately tasted like strawberries.”
“Duh! Is there anyone who would use a whole bottle of perfume all at once?! My poor strawberry perfume! Sigh, forget it; what’s done is done… Then I want to change clothes. It’s been three days. I can at least put on some new clothes, right?”
“Uh? Yeah you can.” Kaiser scratched his face, “But I have to think, where I hid your clothes. Don’t worry, I’ll find it within a week.”
A week later…
“I finally remembered where your clothes were.” Kaiser said seriously, “Did you know? Because you had too much clothes, I had no idea where to put it. Finally, I found a mysterious, bottomless hole on the wall. Then I threw all the clothes in, and it didn’t even get full at all.”
“A bottomless hole?”
“This is the hole. Look, don’t worry, I’m sure you can find it if you crawl in.” Kaiser gestured at a square trapdoor.
“I-Isn’t that the trash hole?”
Kaiser asked after a brief moment of silence, “How often do they usually collect garbage?”
Purity walked by, and she happily provided the answer, “We don’t have to collect garbage here at the Commerce Alliance. This is connected to the incinerator, so whatever you throw in is turned into ashes in a moment’s notice.”
“Kaiser, you know, these past few days, I am very thankful for your help. Come! Let me give you the longest and tightest of hugs to express my gratitude!”
“Damn! You smell like poop, stay away from me! My god, murderer! Someone is trying to kill me with a poison gas…”
* * *
As for the Commerce Alliance, though Purity did seriously wanted to finish her mission, and she did tell the truth to her mother, but since all the Commanders had been extremely busy, the Red Commander simply disregarded her daughter’s words, even after hearing it again and again. She treated the words as her daughter’s school life, and anything that didn’t sound reasonable, she thought of it as her daughter’s daydreaming… Unfortunately, due to the amount of daydreams Purity had, the Red Commander didn’t think any of it was true.
Nevertheless, it was difficult to let the Commerce Alliance know the truth, and same was true for the alliance between the two. There also wasn’t anyone from Aklan important enough to discuss the alliance with them. Though Meinan was the Commander, he couldn’t expose himself, or otherwise, he may very well die in the hands of the Dragon Emperor the next day.
“The strongest, most important person would probably be Barbalis, and we have to send him to discuss an alliance.” Kaiser had no choice but suggest this. Meinan knew Barbalis was the best candidate, but his inexperience with politics, when compared with the Yellow Commander, who was the in-charge of taking care of all the politics, would mean he would get ripped off.
“Throw a communication Maxun in his ear, and you can monitor the situation in the meeting room. You can then command Barbalis during the meeting.” Kaiser suggested this as a way for Barbalis to be the representative, and still have a way for Meinan to do the negotiations.
Meinan nodded; this was the only choice. Nevertheless, his father had once taught him, a successful negotiation depended as much on the tone and posture of the speaker as the content of what it being said. It was even more difficult than acting, because acting was just an act, after all, but negotiation would affect the interests of two nations. Reaching an agreement while both sides were considering of their own country was the most difficult part of the alliance negotiation.
“I’ll leave this side to you and Purity. Meinan, Daylight and I will each go to the Dark Street and the School of Magic, and we’ll teach the people there ways to increase their strength in a short time.” Kaiser scratched his face. He thought it was actually fortunate Gle brought up that duel, because it resulted in them tripling their strength in a short three months.
Meinan nodded earnestly, then suddenly asked again, “Are you sure the reason you’re going to the School of Magic isn’t because I’m too stinky?”
“What are you saying?!” Kaiser seriously denied, “How could I leave you because of your decadent style! It’s a symbol for your sacrifice for your country and, the world’s happiness!”
“Really? I am very touched! You truly are my good companion. Come! Let me give you the deepest of hugs!”
“Scram! You rotted poop. If you come any closer, I’m going to have to defend myself with my gun!”
* * *
Despite the fact that the return to normal temperature moved Cappuccino (‘If I knew this before, I wouldn’t have dug out my Dragon-skinned coat last night’), but when he looked to the left, the left face was perfect; he looked to the right, the right face was immaculate; he looked up, the posture was elegant; he looked down, the legs were long… Ah! No, but his posture was imposing. No matter how Cappuccino looked, he sensed some unspeakable strangeness.
“Sovereign brother, is there something strange with my clothes or posture? Why have you been staring at me?” Silver Moon looked strangely at Cappuccino.
Cappuccino was shocked. The brother, who was usually only saying one thing per question, was now actually asking questions today! ‘My god, could brother be evolving on a day-to-day basis? If this continues, he might actually start joking tomorrow!’
However, Silver Moon was still earnestly waiting for Cappuccino’s answer. Cappuccino used his “waving hand” move, and said casually, “Uh, I was just thinking how awesome your posture is. I’m just taking a few more looks so I could imitate it later.”
“Sovereign brother, flatter me.” Silver Moon smiled vaguely.
“A monkey wearing human clothes is still a monkey.” Little Fireball walked coldly behind him.
Cappuccino coughed loudly, and asked, “Right, congratulations on your Dragon growing up. How come I don’t see it?”
“There’s no suitable clothes for it, so the Tailor is measuring it to make something else.” Silver Moon explained.
“Uh, I heard you changed your name?”
Cappuccino scratched his head, and he had a bad feeling! ‘Brother isn’t called something like… Caramel Macchiato, right? A name like that would be too complicated, and it would fit better for a girl. Blue Mountain would be better; it’s simple and concise!’
Silver Moon nodded, “Correct. Sovereign brother, please call me ‘Silver Moon’ from now on.”
“Silver Moon.” Cappuccino frowned. All right! He admitted this name was better than Blue Mountain, but, despite the beauty of the name, it always gave him the shivers. He suddenly remembered, when Liola was explaining the origin of the title, it was the name of the top Assassin…
Silver Moon suddenly frowned slightly, and looked towards the horizon and said, “It seems that Sovereign Brother’s Direct Knight is back.”
“Hmm? Blood Wolf is back? Really, so quickly?” Cappuccino couldn’t believe what he said. This morning, he heard someone dragged Blood Wolf off to the Commerce Alliance, and now he’s already back? Did the guy rushed back?
Cappuccino opened his eyes wide to look at the distance. Sure enough, a giant, black wolf tried to catch its breath as it landed from the air. The wolf’s head was also swerving left and right, as if it was looking for something. The Knight with ragged clothes, who was riding on top of the wolf, fell off from it, head first. He reached out his right hand towards Cappuccino, and said with a tremble in his voice, “Cappuccino…”
“Blood Wolf! What happened to you? Who attacked you? Seeing how weak you are, and how battered your clothes are, it must’ve been a strong enemy?” Cappuccino asked emotionally.
“Not an enemy, just a pervert!” Blood Wolf angrily yelled, “A pervert who had forgotten its master. It ignored me, and crazily rushed back. Its speed surpassed the limit of what a human body could handle, resulting in my stomach seizuring. The gastric acid flowed upward, which burnt my esophagus, and caused me to vomit acid. It was quite sad, Woooo…”
‘Basically he got wolf-sick.‘ Little Fireball walked past coldly.
Cappuccino opened his mouth wide, “Wow! That must be a faster-than-sound speed. The wind almost tore your clothes into rags.”
“Clothes… were because I haven’t changed in three months.”
“Damn! Stay away from me.” Cappuccino didn’t forget to add a kick to his own Knight.
Blood Wolf dodged this kick. He did not seem to notice Liola until now. He immediately stood up, and formally saluted the successor, “New successor, greetings.”
“Long time no see, Sir Blood Wolf. You are still interesting as always.” Silver Moon had been watching their interactions with a refrained smile.
Blood Wolf blinked. He suddenly felt the content of his stomach really coming up his esophagus. He could not believe Liola actually said he was interesting with such a smile… If this was before, shouldn’t he have watched their “show” without emotion, and then still couldn’t understand they were just joking?
“Right, long time no see. I remember when you rejected the offer to be a Prince, but now you’re a successor. You’ve made quite a bit of progress when we haven’t seen each other for a while, and I can’t help but admire you. It’s almost like how much a woman change when she turns 18, or how much a man change…” Blood Wolf started talking nonsense to keep Liola here, while blinking his eyes in “Morse Code” to Cappuccino, trying to find out how much Cappuccino knew.
Blood Wolf blinked, ‘Hey! Is his current situation better or worse than before?’
Cappuccino blinked, ‘I don’t know. It’s better for the weather; it’s not so cold anymore. But it’s not so great to my stomach. Every time I see him, my stomach hurts.’
‘I think you’ve had too much to drink, and now you have an ulcer in your stomach.’
Cappuccino blinked, ‘If I have an ulcer in my stomach, you must have a hole in yours!’
Blood Wolf then started blinking repeatedly…
Cappuccino frowned and blinked back, ‘Hey! There is no code with that many blinks in a row, right?’
Blood Wolf covered his right eye, and said painfully, “That’s because my eyelid is having a seizure!”
Cappuccino blinked, ‘……’
“You don’t have to blink at me just for dots!”
Silver Moon blinked, ‘If there’s nothing else, I’ll go find my Direct Knight now?’
“…” Cappuccino and Blood Wolf nodded awkwardly. They saw him blinked goodbyes, then left.
Blood Wolf complained loudly, “Look! I told you Morse Code is out of style. Next time we’ll use Martian to communicate. Practice now! N1shi1gzhi1t?”
“Qsi1bn1!”
* * *
Silver Moon had a smile on his face as he walked to the Knights’ training grounds. The Knights on the way all stared as the successor passed, almost as if they were enjoying the spring breeze passing. Everyone was surprised. Could it be that winter was already here, and spring wasn’t too far away? It was changing quite quickly: it was deep freeze yesterday, and today was already spring? Could it be summer tomorrow, and could the successor be depressed the day after? Every Knight began to worry.
“Good day, Fourth Prince.” A certain Knight, who called in sick yesterday, had not seen the winter, so he warmly greeted the Prince.
“Good day.” Silver Moon nodded with a smile.
The Knight who had successfully greeted the successor seemed to have set an example for others. The Knights all mustered up their courage, and walked up to greet the Prince. Silver Moon nodded back to each of them. He continued down the road he took while turning the Knights into statues yesterday, but wherever he walked today, little flowers began to bloom on the road.
Silver Moon walked into the training grounds, and immediately found his Direct Knight, Yizhou. He also saw his twin brother Yiyu. They were in the middle of a duel with another group of Knights. Silver Moon stopped, trying to observe the power of his Direct Knight.
Their opposing side was a group of two Knights; one Dragon Knight, and the other was a Knight with a giant snake. Their teamwork seemed to be very good: the Dragon Knight flew in the air, and the Snake Knight was on the ground. In comparison, Yiyu and Yizhou was down one mount. Although Yiyu knew levitation, but its capacity could not be compared to a Dragon. So naturally, he stayed on the Water Dragon. The two of them seemed to be helpless against the attacks from both the ground and the air, and they had to keep running away. Even though Yiyu would occasionally use a few magic attacks, they were all dodged.
It looked like they were at a disadvantage. Since it was rare for a Sorcerer to be present, there were quite a few Knights watching this battle, but none of them seemed to think highly of a group with a Knight and a Sorcerer, so they were all hoping to see them lose. They would occasionally yell things like “Turn back and fight!”, “Stop running!”, and “Do you want to switch off the Sorcerer?”
Silver Moon, on the other hand, glanced at the situation, and predicted his Knight would win.
A battle was not always won by the side with the most support. Yizhou’s Water Dragon flew around in the air, but it was not flying in a straight line to escape, nor was it flying up high to avoid the Snake’s ground attack; it was simply barely dodging all the attacks from the Dragon and the Snake. The bystanders yelled in joy, and some of them even praised the Water Dragon Knight’s flying skills.
Yiyu, on the other hand, was casting while observing the situation. His attack speed and accuracy was horrific. They were easily dodged by the Knights, and causing many observers to boo at him.
Before the “boo” sounds went on for long, a sudden “bang” was followed by the sound of something heavy hitting the ground. All the Knights dropped their jaws. Yiyu and Yizhou also stopped, while Yiyu was looking at his “masterpiece” with satisfaction — a giant Snake tied up in a bowtie.
“I think the bowtie is a bit skewed.” Yiyu smiled sinisterly. He held up his hands and formed a frame at the Dragon and Snake, and it made the two Knights grit their teeth.
One of them jumped up and yelled, “How could you use this kind of method win?! This doesn’t count. How could a Knight use something as low as this?”
Yizhou didn’t respond. This was just his brother’s twisted sense of humor. He, himself, preferred actual fights. Yiyu, on the other hand, wouldn’t back down; he said loudly, “Tsk tsk! You sure are a sore loser for a Silver Knight.”
The Knight grunted loudly, and looked at Yiyu with disgust, “You are just a low Sorcerer, a shameless lowlife, with a useless profession that does nothing but fireworks!”
Yiyu’s eyes were practically flame. As a Sorcerer who possessed quite the strength, the thing he hated most was someone saying a Sorcerer was useless. Holding the staff tightly in his hand, Yiyu decided to teach this Knight a lesson about the power of the so-called useless Sorcerer!
He began chanting the strongest spell he knew. Yiyu was going to give it his all, even if it meant to kill the Knight before him. So what? Anyone who discriminated Sorcerers deserved to die!
Yizhou hesitated, and he turned around to look at his brother. Seeing Yiyu’s face, he knew his brother was now in a murderous mood. Nevertheless, with Yiyu’s temperamental nature, this was really not all that uncommon.
Yizhou frowned. He didn’t know whether he should stop Yiyu. He knew if Yiyu did not vent his anger, he would be in a bad mood for a long time. Therefore, as long as this spell wouldn’t kill a Silver Knight, Yizhou would let his brother do whatever he wants. As long as there was no life in question, he believed he could control everything else as the Direct Knight to the successor.
‘It shouldn’t kill him, right?’ Yizhou observed.
The Knight grunted coldly, and released his Silver Aura. He seemed to carelessly anticipate Yiyu’s attack, because he did not think Yiyu could break through his own aura.
Silver Moon, however, did not agree with the Knight. His accurate sense of detecting the strength of others, made him aware that this magic was a piercing one, enough to break through the Silver Knight’s aura and kill him.
When a ray of black collided with the Silver Aura, the Knight immediately realized something went wrong: his aura quickly collapsed, and he had no other means of defense. Seeing the ray piercing through the aura, and the ray was headed straight to his own chest, the Knight’s eyes were filled with the terror of death.
Clang! A blood-red aura suddenly enveloped the Knight. After the ray collided with the red aura, it exploded. When the dust collected, the Silver Knight’s shaken face could be seen, but he was not injured.
Everyone looked towards the person who released the aura, and finally realized the successor had been in the training grounds. Silver Moon walked up to the arena, and calmly said to the Knight, “My Sorcerer wanted to take your life because of your insults, but I blocked it for you. You are not injured, and now you should apologize for your insults.”
“S-sorry, Your Highness…” The Knight was at a loss.
“Not to me, but to my Sorcerer whom you insulted.”
The Silver Knight panicked as he saluted Yiyu, “I’m sorry I’ve insulted you. On my Knight’s honor, I promise it won’t happen again. I also express my admiration for you.”
Silver Moon nodded, then beckoned them two, “I have something to tell you two. Follow me.”
They immediately followed, even Yiyu, who always loved to complain, didn’t say a word. He knew the power in his magic. The spell technically wasn’t that strong, because a linear spell usually couldn’t hit its opponent. If it wasn’t for the fact that Yiyu knew the arrogant Knight wouldn’t even try to dodge, he wouldn’t have used the spell either. The uniqueness of the spell was that, if it landed on its target, its piercing properties were incredible.
However, the successor managed to stand under the arena and expand his aura onto the arena, and easily blocked his attack. Even though Yizhou knew Silver Moon’s strength better than Yiyu, he had never seen this kind of speed when it came to releasing aura, nor did he ever see the blood-red aura return to Silver Moon. He had only seen it appear out of nowhere then disappear into the thin air.
A powerful strength had always been the fastest way to impress people.
“Fourth Prince, what will we be doing?” Yizhou asked.
“Prepare to lead an army to Aklan Continent, to stop the Black Dragon King’s southward invasion.”