This chapter is brought to you by AnmesicCat, Masadeer, and StellarAshes.
Anise’s Possessions
Seeing Lancelot’s judgmental look, Daylight, Kaiser, Meinan, and Purity all seemed to move in unison in front of Liola. The four of them acted like four mothers trying to protect their young, fearing that Lancelot might do Liola more harm.
Kaiser was the first one to snap, he opened his mouth and cursed.
“Bastard! What the hell do you want again? I don’t know how many times Liola almost died because of you, and you still came here shamelessly?!”
Though others did not curse like Kaiser did, but judging from the anger on their faces, they all agreed with what Kaiser said.
Lancelot, however, completely ignored Kaiser. His eagle-like eyes held their gaze at Liola. His deep and with a solemn voice, he repeated his words.
“Hand over your Dragon Cross Necklace.”
Liola’s heart was pounding rapidly.
‘Hand over Anise’s necklace? No!’ Liola’s right hand held tightly onto the Dragon Cross Necklace in front of his chest.
“Never!”
Lancelot seemed to have known Liola wouldn’t hand it over readily. He waved his arm impatiently.
“Hand it over, you don’t have any power to resist, and I don’t want to harm you.”
Liola knew that right now, he couldn’t even win against Daylight and others, let alone a rank-X person. But he could hand over everything and anything… except the necklace Anise had left behind.
Liola laughed bitterly in his heart. Even if he wasn’t willing to give it up, if Lancelot were to take it forcefully, other than giving up the necklace, even if he were to give up his life, the necklace will still be taken away from him.
Despite it all, Liola still wouldn’t allow himself to hand over Anise’s necklace. His face remained calm and cold, saying ‘if you want the necklace, then take my life with it’.
Lancelot did not bother to waste any more of his breath. The unicorn ignored the presence of Daylight and others, and beelined towards Liola.
While charging towards Liola, Lancelot’s powerful aura pushed Daylight and others out of the way. Carrying Liola, Baolilong wanted to fly away, but its speed was no match for the unicorn.
In an instant, Lancelot had already jumped onto Baolilong’s back. Baolilong was angry and anxious, but it wouldn’t dare to move too much to try to throw Lancelot off. Baolilong didn’t want papa, who lost all his Kung Fu, to fall out of the air.
Though Liola could sort of make out Lancelot’s movements, his body could not respond in time. Without much efforts, Lancelot’s hand reached the Dragon Cross Necklace on Liola’s chest.
However, the strange thing was, as if he had been electrified, Lancelot’s body shook violently, and he even cried out in pain, then quickly pulled his palm back.
Liola’s eyes reflexively looked at Lancelot’s palm. He saw a burnt mark appearing on Lancelot’s palm, in the shape of the Dragon Cross Necklace.
Liola was a little baffled, and instinctively reached for the necklace on his chest, but the necklace felt like it was at room temperature, so why did it leave such a burn mark on Lancelot’s palm?
Seeing his palm had been burnt, Lancelot immediately used the healing magic unique to holy Knights. An intense white light gathered in his palm. After the light faded, the wound did indeed disappear, but a scar in the shape of a cross remained in the center of his palm.
Even though he used his healing magic again and again, the scar would not disappear. Lancelot’s face was filled with rage.
“What the hell did you do?”
Of course, Liola couldn’t say anything, because he didn’t do anything at all!
Lancelot saw Liola, himself, was baffled, so he had no choice but ignore the scar in his palm. His hand reached towards Liola’s neck, trying to threaten him with his life to hand over the Dragon Cross Necklace.
“Stop! Paladin, are you really going to harm a helpless ordinary person?”
Seeing Lancelot’s hand was about to reach Liola’s neck, but being pushed back by Lancelot’s Ki and therefore having no way of rescuing Liola, Kaiser anxiously and tried to use the Paladin’s name against him, hoping Lancelot the Holy Knight would remember, the code of honor for Knights forbid them from harming weaklings.
However, Lancelot ignored Kaiser’s yells. His large hand wrapped around Liola’s thin neck. But another strange thing happened: as soon as Lancelot touched Liola’s skin, he jumped back as if he had been electrocuted again.
This time, both Lancelot and Liola looked towards his palm. The cross mark looked like it was newly made again. It was bright red then it turned black, as if it had never been healed.
Lancelot finally understood, perhaps he couldn’t touch Liola at all, so maybe he can’t snatch the necklace directly.
Lancelot felt his rage rising, and he cancelled the Ki blocking Daylight and others. Daylight, Flames, Purity, and her Angel Mecha, Nana, charged in.
Lancelot glanced around them, and finally settled his gaze on Kaiser.
Kaiser felt terrified from Lancelot’s stare, and a thought flashed across his mind.
‘Crap! This guy probably couldn’t touch Liola for some reason, and can’t grab it directly, so he’s going to threaten him with a hostage!’
Though Kaiser knew what Lancelot wanted, but he couldn’t find any way out of it.
Lancelot hopped onto the unicorn, and a white shadow flashed past Flames. When Daylight realized something was wrong and turned his head, Kaiser was already gone.
“Hand over the Dragon Cross Necklace.”
Lancelot’s cold voice could be heard from afar, accompanied by Kaiser’s moaned in pain.
Liola felt a chill, and he looked towards the unicorn. Sure enough, Kaiser had already fallen into Lancelot’s hands.
Sitting on top of the unicorn, Lancelot’s right arm was holding Kaiser’s neck, and his entire body was dangling in the air, struggling.
“Don’t touch him!” Seeing Kaiser’s life in danger, but he was an useless person who lost his Kung Fu, Liola felt a spinal shiver.
“Y-you damn bastard, y-you went as far as using me as a hostage?!”
Kaiser desperately squeezed out curses at Lancelot between his teeth.
Lancelot furrowed his brow, and applied more force into his hand, which made Kaiser’s face turn red, and at the same time he continued to ignore the yells of everyone else.
However, Kaiser wasn’t someone who would sit idly waiting for death. He pulled out the giant gun hanging from his hips. When Lancelot’s attention was back on Liola, Kaiser murmured a few incantation, and a white light emitted from the gun, with its barrel pointed directly at Lancelot’s handsome face.
Lancelot sensed a power coming from the hostage, and he immediately responded. With a wave of his other hand, Kaiser’s gun fell out of the sky, and disappeared into the clouds.
The situation had turned for worse!
With a red face, Kaiser couldn’t believe he might die before reaching the age of twenty. Could it be that the Gods were really jealous of his talents? Damn! But he didn’t want to die yet.
Kaiser gritted his teeth, and held Lancelot’s hand with both of his own, and squeezed out the incantation between his teeth.
“… Napalm Bomb!”
Lancelot had never thought the hostage in his hands would have any powers to resist. He was caught off guard and Kaiser’s bomb landed on his hand.
In reflex, Lancelot opened his hand, letting the hostage in his hand lose…
“Ah! Damn you, it was just a small bomb, and you actually really let go~~”
Without the support of Lancelot’s hand, Kaiser fell straight out of the sky.
Accompanied by Kaiser’s screams, two Dragons and a Mecha flew towards him. However, since they didn’t expect Kaiser to use his magic. They were slow at start, so they could do nothing but watch as Kaiser headed to kiss the ground.
Kaiser desperately struggled to turn in the air, and held his head in his arms. He thought that even if he broke his arms and legs, there would still be good healing Maxun he could use, but if instead he hurts his gifted head, healing Maxuns would be useless on his head if it’s opened like a broken water melon.
While turning in the air, Kaiser’s sharp eyes spotted Barbalis, along with his rarely seen solemn yet deep in thought face.
“That guy is murmuring incantation?”
Kaiser acted as if he had forgotten he was free falling. He stared at Barbalis’ mouth, trying to make out the spell.
“It seems to be… group teleportation?”
After thinking about Barbalis’ spell, Kaiser saw images flying past his eyes: from a circle stadium to an open grassland, followed by a forest, and finally a barren plain.
“Aiya!” Kaiser finally hit the ground, and he immediately started screaming, “Oh my god, it’s over, I must’ve broken my arms and legs, crap! My head, is my precious brain okay?”
Kaiser immediately started patting different parts of his body, and then finally sat baffled and cross-legged on the ground, wondering why he seemed to be unscathed?
It couldn’t be, he obviously fell from a very high place…
The confusion the others had was not any less than Kaiser’s.
They were still in the sky above the stadium, so why are they suddenly on a barren plain?
Other than confusion, Liola and others saw nothing wrong with Kaiser, and he could still pat his body in different places and calmly scratch his face, so it seemed Kaiser was completely unharmed. They could finally relax.
“Lancelot, how could you attack a students above the stadium? Aren’t you afraid you will harm your fame as a Paladin? Look, I especially used a group teleportation for you so we can fight somewhere else!” Barbalis laughed as he explained.
“You old geezer!” Kaiser jumped up.
“Did you purposely take us out here in the middle of no where so that guy Lancelot could kill us and you wouldn’t have to bury us?”
Barbalis acted surprised, and asked, “Kill you? That couldn’t be, could it? Why would a righteous Paladin kill a few students and an ordinary person who couldn’t fight back?”
Hearing this, Lancelot’s face turned cold, and with an even colder voice he said,
“Barbalis, don’t mock me. Killing them is not my goal, but if killing them will reach my goal, then I will not hold back.”
Barbalis showed a clown-like smile, and jokingly replied, “Really? These guys are innocent, are you seriously going to kill them? This isn’t like you.”
“Unless necessary, I wouldn’t kill anyone. As long as that Assassin hands over the Dragon Cross Necklace, I will never make things difficult for him again.” Lancelot impatiently waved his arm and said.
“Are you a robber now? It’s an alright profession. Did you finally have an epiphany, and decided to stop being a righteous Holy Knight?” Barbalis face was full of smiles, but his speech cut deep.
Lancelot roared, “I am righteous. That necklace belongs to the Dragon Emperor. I am simply following orders to retrieve the necklace.”
Barbalis’s gaze was fixed in Lancelot’s palm, and he reflexively held his fist to cover up the mark left behind by the Dragon necklace, but Barbalis had already seen the entire process of Lancelot getting burnt by the necklace.
Seeing Lancelot was trying to cover it up, he lightly laughed, “Following orders? Whose orders? Was it the Dragon Emperor’s?”
Lancelot went silent, and his silence made Barbalis even more skeptical.
If it was the Emperor’s order, Lancelot should have admitted without any hesitation. So it’s not the Dragon Emperor’s order? Then who else could there be who could give orders to the dignified Paladin?
Barbalis’ curiosity was not satisfied, but he better handle this situation well. Even for him, he couldn’t be sure that, in the event the Paladin attacks, he could ensure the safety of all five of them and two Dragons.
But the Dragon Cross Necklace was very important and too many mysteries were behind it.
Barbalis heard a voice inside his head constantly telling him, the necklace must not be handed over. But how can he make the Paladin give up without giving him the necklace?
Barbalis laughed bitterly, ‘Mizerui, you are great. You are hiding far away and throwing all the problems to me.’
Lancelot also thought, he couldn’t touch the Dragon necklace or Liola. Barbalis was obviously siding with Liola, so taking back the necklace looks like a difficult task, but he did promise his good friend. Lancelot furrowed his brows.
“Liola!?”
Daylight’s yell made turn and look at Liola.
Liola’s face was getting paler and paler by the second, his body was fumbling around, and even his breath was irregular.
“I…”
Liola didn’t know what was going on either. He felt his breathing was getting more and more labored, and his body getting weaker and weaker.
Finally, he blacked out, and fell off from Baolilong’s back. Luckily, Daylight had already noticed something wrong with Liola, and commanded Flames to fly over, allowing Daylight to catch Liola.
When Daylight lowered his hand to examine Liola, he noticed that something was very, very wrong. Liola’s face was drained of blood, and his breathing was so weak, it was barely noticeable.
“Liola? What happened? Wake up!” Daylight was anxious.
Liola’s body was almost like a dead corpse. He was just fine, so why would this suddenly happen?
Flames landed on the ground. Kaiser and Barbalis hurried to Flames, and Purity jumped out from the cockpit onto Flames’ back before the Mecha even securely landed.
She desperately shook Liola’s body while continuously calling Liola’s name.
Kaiser looked at Liola, and immediately yelled.
“Damn! It’s Black Rose’s poison. Feir said he could only suppress it, and looks like Liola’s poison is recurring.”
The moment everyone heard, and their faces turned pale. Barbalis said while crouching.
“I’ll go bring Feir here…”
But Kaiser reached out his hand and covered Barbalis’ mouth.
After throwing a look at Barbalis to tell him to be quiet, Kaiser took big steps toward Lancelot, and stopped a few feet away. He said to Lancelot.
“Liola was poisoned because he lost his ability to defend himself, and his current predicament was caused by you and you alone. You have the responsibility of curing him.”
Lancelot’s face froze. The balance of good and evil kept swaying in his heart. He thought if the Assassin was dead, then a lot of problems would be gone, and at the same time he could take away the Dragon Cross Necklace…
“Paladin!”
Daylight’s roar awakened Lancelot from his thoughts.
Without any hesitation, Lancelot took a few steps towards Daylight and Liola. A dense and bright white light emitted from Lancelot’s palm. With the illumination from the light, Liola’s otherwise corpse-like face gradually filled with color, and his breath became normal. Seeing this, everyone sighed in relief.
Daylight lowered his head and looked at Liola, then raised his head again; a pair of firm eyes looked at Lancelot.
“Paladin, isn’t Liola your apprentice?”
Everyone felt their heart skip a beat, especially Kaiser, Meinan, and Purity.
They had spent a lot of time lately with Daylight, and even risked their lives in the Dark Street to save Liola. Daylight had already been a part of the gang, and the three of them had completely forgotten Daylight didn’t know the truth about the issue.
“Although I don’t know what is going on, but Paladin, can you promise me you have a righteous reason for taking away the Dragon Cross Necklace, and not for any criminal reasons?”
Daylight’s solemn and righteous speech, along with his unswerving eyes, almost reminded Lancelot of himself when he was younger.
Lancelot laughed in his heart, but his face remained solemn like before. Lancelot answered with hesitation, with the same righteousness as Daylight.
“Who do you think I am? I am the Paladin Lancelot!”
Seeing Lancelot not hesitating, and did not show any signs of guilt, Daylight’s face relaxed. He lowered his head to look at the unconscious Liola.
He grabbed Liola’s Dragon Cross Necklace, and when everyone thought he, too, would be burnt, Daylight tugged and took the necklace from Liola, and held the necklace towards Lancelot as if nothing was wrong.
Lancelot hesitated as he reached out his hand out, but when his hand was near the necklace, Lancelot clearly felt that the temperature in his palm was rising. Lancelot’s face sank, why would this child be unharmed by the necklace?
“Daylight! The necklace is Liola-dage’s treasured possession, you can’t give it to someone else!”
Seeing Daylight was about to give the necklace to Lancelot, Purity took the opportunity and grabbed the necklace before Lancelot had a chance to.
She held onto it tightly in her chest, then backed up behind Kaiser and Meinan. Meinan had the same expression as Purity; filled with discord. However, Kaiser’s face was filled with hesitation.
Daylight sported a serious expression and asked Purity, “Which is more important, the necklace or Liola’s life?”
“But…” Meinan and Purity clearly knew which was more important; if Liola’s dead, who would care who has the necklace?
“Up to this point, how many dangers did this necklace bring to Liola? Liola already doesn’t have his Kung Fu. If he were to continue to wear this necklace, he will most likely die because of it.”
Daylight lowered his head to look at the unconscious Liola, trying to remember how many times had Liola been on the verge of death.
Hearing what Daylight said, Meinan and Purity’s faces both sank.
Indeed, ever since they’ve known Liola, he had suffered countless wounds, and almost lost his life many times.
Kaiser calmly said to Daylight, “Wrap the necklace in a rag and give it to the Paladin.”
While everyone else was stupefied, Kaiser turned to Lancelot again,
“Sir Paladin, are you satisfied now? You’ve already sealed Liola, and now the necklace is yours too. Can you promise us neither the Dragon Emperor nor Miluo would cause us any more trouble?”
“I can promise for the Dragon Emperor. But as for Miluo…”
Lancelot lowered his head for a short meditation, then said, “I will tell the Knight Association to assign patrols and guard towers around the academy.”
Kaiser grabbed the wrapped necklace out of Daylight’s hand, and said solemnly,
“This necklace is yours, and we won’t beg you to release Liola’s seal. But if Liola still gets kidnapped or gets poisoned, or even dies, it will be your obligation to save him, or seek revenge for him. It’s not too much to ask, right?!”
Lancelot calmly received the wrapped necklace, jumped back onto the unicorn, and said one word, “Sure”
Then the unicorn flew up into the sky, and the little white shadow flew off into the distance.
“Hmmph!”
Kaiser watched with cold eyes as Lancelot flew away. But instead of relief, he seemed to be more and more worried.
“Kaiser, what’s wrong?” Purity asked.
Lancelot was gone, so what could make Kaiser seem this worried?
Kaiser turned around to look at Daylight and the unconscious Liola, and his body started to tremble and his face looked like he was in pain. He said while cold sweat ran down his face.
“I forgot to tell Lancelot to protect me too. If Liola finds out I handed over his necklace, would he forget about the promise to Ani-something, and kill me in one blow?”
“Waahhh, Daylight you must take good care of me, and don’t let Liola hurt me!”
… … …
* * *
Barbalis also watched as Lancelot left. He couldn’t believe Kaiser would hand over the necklace, and Kaiser’s sudden actions left him no choice but to simply watch.
‘Hmm, what should he do now?’
Barbalis began to think about how he could retrieve the necklace for Liola… He suddenly noticed someone looking at him, so Barbalis alertly raised his head.
He saw Kaiser, who was moaning in pain because he thinks Liola might kill him, was glancing at him from the corner of his eyes, and Kaiser’s eyes seemed to be trying to warn him something.
Barbalis was shocked. When he looked at Kaiser again, Kaiser was laughing stupidly, with no signs of any warning. But his stupid laugh made Barbalis feel even more numb than his warning eyes.
“Other than being raised in the Dark Street, could this little runt have other…” Barbalis murmured to himself…
‘Oh, crap!’
“Damn! The ranking matches! Aklan Academy’s first place! My position as the best academy’s principal!”