This chapter is brought to you by AnmesicCat, Masadeer, and StellarAshes.
The Broken Seal
In a typical morning, all the Aklan Academy students planned on going to class as usual. All except a few Sorcery students, who had no choice but stay in a place called ‘Delicious Barbecue Restaurant’. They did however, receive a week’s worth of lessons on How to be a barbecue restaurant waiter.
“Luckily you guys know Auntie, otherwise we would have to constantly stay with the Princess and Jasmine-jiejie*.”
Jiejie is the counterpart of the Japanese word ‘onee-san’.
Purity lazily lay down on the table. Because it wasn’t time for lunch yet, there weren’t many customers, and therefore Purity could afford to idle about for a bit.
“Yeah, though it’s safe to be with them, but whenever I go to class with Jasmine, all the Knights seem to be staring daggers at me…”
Meinan thought about the week when he had to attend a week’s worth of Knight’s lesson, and the instructor almost called him up to demonstrate how Knights can quickly defeat Sorcerers. Correction! It wasn’t how to defeat Sorcerers, but how to do it in the fastest way possible.
“Hmmph, Auntie is invincible. It… he… okay fine, she could use her hand and grab her enemies like a kitten.”
Kaiser crossed his leg and comfortably lain on a chair, while laughing at the students, who wanted to harm them, being kindly thrown out of the restaurant by Auntie. Of the number of students thrown out, students who were sent to the infirmary on an account of cracked tail bones were not in the minority.
As for Liola, he calmly sat on a chair as he always did. He had been satisfied with the calm life he had been living for the past two weeks, and at the same time secretly wishing his calm academy life would continue.
“Little children~”
Speaking of Auntie, her soft voice was immediately heard. Since they had spent a long time (two weeks) together, they could tell her tone of the voice had a sense of worry.
‘Could troubles be brewing again? Can’t be.’
According to their experiences, the students from other schools wouldn’t dare to skip class, so most of them would only come to cause trouble after classes have ended.
Auntie walked over, and her heavy body caused the ground to shake slightly as she did so. Auntie’s muscle-filled face seemed to form a frown.
According to Kaiser’s guesses, it should be a face of worry. Kaiser immediately used the best of his bootlicking skills. With sparkly eyes, he jumped in front of Auntie, and yelled with a high pitched voice.
“Auntieee, what’s wrong, what has you worried? Tell me, and Kaiser will definitely do everything for you… (-r payment of a gold coin a day) even if it means death!”
“Kaiser-bun is a good boy.”
Auntie sighed, and the air coming out of her mouth blew Kaiser’s hair and made it look like weeds, then she said,
“Turn on the TV and look at today’s news.”
Purity obediently turned it on, and the holographic host continuously reported the biggest news of the day.
“… about the Dragon Emperor wanting to have a meeting between the three Kingdom leaders, Aklan Prime Minister had given a response, and hope for the meeting can take place in the Aklan Academy. Regarding this, Violet Academy had been in serious protest, citing that, in the previous ranking matches, Aklan Academy had formally lost its position as the top academy, and was replaced by Violet Academy. Therefore, this meeting should be held at Violet Academy. We have sent reporters to get both principals’ statements.”
The holographic host disappeared, and the image of the Violet Academy principal with his mustache appeared. After touching his own Dali mustache and clearing his throat, he said,
“The fall of Aklan Academy didn’t happen overnight. Every principal on Aklan Continent decided on the ranking matches, and using it as a confirmation on which academy is the best. The representatives from Aklan Academy ran off during the final match due to fear, and it’s the biggest insult in the history of academies! Aklan Academy had already lost the its reputation as the top academy, therefore I strongly suggest to Prime Minister Qiusi, for this meeting to be handled by us Violet Academy!”
“All I hear is you talking shit!”
Barbalis’ large face suddenly appeared on the screen, “F——ing Qiusi, if you dare to take away my name as the top principal, then don’t blame me for spilling your secrets!”
Everyone turned to look at Meinan, and Kaiser asked curiously, “Meinan, what are you dad’s secrets?”
Meinan laughed awkwardly.
“My dad used to be Aklan Academy Sorcery student, and I heard he was classmates with Barbalis, so… it’s possible for Barbalis to have some hold over my dad.”
Now the screen was suddenly divided into three regions: the one on top was the solemn Aklan Prime Minister Qiusi. Although he had a vague smile, he had an indescribable imposing presence emanating from him.
His appearance was far different than when he was in the Dark Arena Pyramid. Had Meinan not acted normal during all this, everyone would almost believe the Qiusi on the screen was an imposter.
And the two screens below were Barbalis and the Violet Academy principal. Both of them were angry to the point of their faces being warped.
Perhaps they were cursing too much for public television so they both were muted. Nevertheless, their mouths kept moving, regardless of no sound being heard.
But it was obvious Qiusi could hear those two people talking, evidenced by his face continuously sinking, and his smile getting colder and colder.
Finally, he waved, and announced, “You two academies fight for your fame then! A week from now, the winner will obtain the right to hold the leader meeting!”
Finally, the Prime Minister walked off angrily, and a murmur could be vaguely heard, “With deary baby’s protective shield, no one should be able to harm him…”
Barbalis and the Violet Academy principal heard Qiusi’s announcement, and then yelled in unison, “Watch me destroy your rubbish academy!”
* * *
After seeing the report, the restaurant was in complete silence.
Knowing Barbalis’ personality of wanting chaos in the world and his stubbornness to his title as the top principal, there would definitely be a fierce battle…
Just as they thought, the restaurant door was suddenly kicked open. Barbalis charged in with his warped face. The surrounding powerful magic force actually formed a series of rainbow-colored light and surrounded Barbalis’ body.
Barbalis looked around, and after seeing Liola and others, he charged at them like a bullet train!
“Auntie, quick and save your Kaiser-bun!”
Kaiser yelled and hid behind Auntie. Meinan hurriedly put up his protective shield, Purity desperately screamed, while Liola… still calmly sat where he was.
“Meinan!”
Barbalis first called out Meinan, and scared him to the point of putting away his shield and shrank into the sofa, while desperately yelling, “Nooo! Don’t use me to threaten my dad!”
“Huh?” Hearing this, Barbalis suddenly stopped, and thought carefully, “Right, you are Qiusi’s only son. Using you to threaten him would be a good idea, why didn’t I think of that…?”
Meinan was scared out of his mind, and waved his hands to say,
“It would be useless to kidnap me! Though my dad looks a bit mischievous, but he would never go back on his words. Principal, you should know that well.”
Barbalis tilted his mouth, and he knew full well Meinan was telling the truth. So he fiercely said to Meinan,
“You better use your ancestral protective shield to its best, otherwise I will kidnap you, and see if Qiusi really doesn’t care about his son’s life!”
Meinan desperately nodded.
Barbalis then set his attention on Purity, whose face was already covered with tears.
“PURE-RI-TY! You better get out that ultimate Mecha you have stored in the academy storage unit. Otherwise, even if your mom is the Red Leader of the Commerce Alliance, I will still expel you!”
Purity, whose tears were falling like water out of a facet, nodded like Meinan.
“Kaigleser, stop hiding.” Barbalis suddenly turned his head to look at Kaiser, and called out his full name. He then stated his threat,
“Kaigleser, you better use your real power, otherwise… you know what will happen!”
Unexpected to everyone, the thing Barbalis used to threaten Kaiser wasn’t the usual money, expulsion, or Mizerui, but instead, a baffling phrase.
When Purity and Meinan were both scratching their heads, Liola glanced at Kaiser and saw his eyes flashing with danger the moment he heard what Barbalis had said.
At that moment, Liola thought he saw Kaiser’s eyes seemed to have change colors?
Looks like his identity as an Assassin might be simplest out of the group. Liola suddenly felt curious: ‘What’s the story behind Daylight?’
Barbalis seemed satisfied with the response he got from Kaiser. He completely ignored Kaiser and then walked towards the last person, Liola.
Liola, who had been acting as if none of this concerned him, raised his head to look at Barbalis.
With a frown, he said, “I’ve already lost all my Kung Fu.”
Barbalis didn’t respond, and instead he stared at Liola, as if he was making some sort of painful decision.
Barbalis’ expression constantly changed for a while: worry, pain, helplessness, seemingly dawning on an idea… Almost every imaginable expression crossed his face at least once. Finally, he looked like a person who just lost the most important match in their life, and his old arrogant presence was completely gone.
Barbalis looked helpless as he said, “Maylee, what do you think I should do?”
‘Maylee?’
Everyone wondered who he was calling, but Maylee used her deep voice and softly answered, “Give the future to these youngsters, Bartercup”
‘Maylee was Auntie, and Bartercup was Barbalis?’
Though everyone was in disbelief, but Maylee and Bartercup were staring at one another. This terrifying truth almost made Kaiser and others vomit out the barbecue they had yesterday.
“Mizerui also puts his hope on the youngsters. This can be both good and bad. Good because it could cultivate new talents, and the world could no longer depend on us old geezers. But the bad part is, this world may end up being destroyed! This is practically a gamble in which the wager is the entire world!”
Barbalis’ face suddenly looked older than usual, and those tired eyes seemed to reflect a deeper worry.
Maylee started to laugh, and as a result, even the on the ceiling began to rain down.
“Who was it who wagered the world against the Devil Gle, and bet on a Silver coin? Is he really going to be afraid to gamble?”
Barbalis felt a bit awkward at first when Maylee mentioned his mischief during his younger days, but then he also started to laugh with her. Their leisurely heroic laughter almost made the young ones feel inspired.
“Okay, Liola, I will help you break your seal.” Barbalis said.
Before Liola had a chance to say anything, Purity already yelled out in shock, “Principal, you can release the Paladin’s seal?”
“So why didn’t you help Liola earlier?” Meinan frowned, unhappy with the principal lack of action.
Barbalis snapped.
“You really think Lancelot is weak?! The best Holy Knight’s seal couldn’t possibly be easy to break, and forcefully removing the seal will cost me 50 to 70 percent of my power, and I won’t be able to get it back in years. What’s worst is, even when I get it back, I’ll only be at about 70 percent of my original power.”
Hearing that Barbalis’ sacrifice, Purity and Meinan scratched their faces, and could no longer say anything else about Barbalis’ lack of action.
“Okay, I will release Liola’s seal here. With Maylee here, it’s the safest place, uh well, not counting under Qiusi’s perfect protective shield.”
Barbalis adjusted his magic power as he walked towards Liola. When he was about to put his hand on Liola’s forehead, Liola suddenly raised his right hand to block Barbalis’ arm.
Everyone was just about to ask Liola why he blocked Barbalis’ arm, they noticed Liola’s silver eyes were burning with a cold flame.
“Liola-dage?” Purity timidly called out to Liola.
“You guys discussed the situation happily, completely forgetting whether the sealed person wanted to be unsealed.” Liola said unexpectedly.
What was even more terrifying was Liola had never spoken with this tone of voice before. Brimming with sarcasm, sounding cold but it was actually filled with rage.
Barbalis was not surprised, but said lightly, “Liola, did you plan on running away? Escaping the mission Princess Anise left you with?”
“I… don’t use Anise’s name to force me!” Liola yelled furiously, but in his head, Anise’s face and words kept flashing.
‘Don’t run away from our fate, don’t run…’
“This was originally Princess Anise’s responsibility, but now everything is on you, or did you plan on pretending it has nothing to do with you?”
“Shut up!” Liola covered his ears.
“Shut up!” Kaiser also jumped out from behind Auntie, and stood in front of Liola.
Kaiser said with sarcasm, “If taking the necklace requires him to save the world, then I… as the descendant of the Devil Gle, who wanted to destroy the world a few hundred years ago, am I to inherit the will of my father to destroy the world?”
Barbalis didn’t expect for Kaiser to admit the truth of his own identity. As an old geezer who lived a few hundred years, even Barbalis didn’t know what to do now.
“Devil Gle’s descendant?” Meinan lightly yelled out.
Anyone who had lived in this world would have heard Devil Gle’s name, but no one would dare call out his name.
Legend has it, if you call out his name, he would hear your voice…
* * *
It was the dark age of this world. Even history lessons in school would completely skip those years, and they were effectively blank in history.
It was also a world where tremendous gaps existed, and a world where Knights and Magicians could not co-exist.
Because of the appearance of the strongest Sorcerer, Gle, Knights and Magicians took opposing sides. It wasn’t until later, some magicians noticed Gle’s crazed ambitions, and it was him who started the propaganda of opposing the Knights, with the goal of destroying the world.
Once the Magicians realized this, they in turn helped the Knights to destroy Gle.
The real battles started then.
The knowledge of what exactly happened during those battles was now long gone, but the final result was Gle’s obvious failure. However, most of the high ranked Knights and Magicians died, and therefore the Knights and Magicians as a whole had weakened.
Legends had it, the current strength of the Gold Knights was only comparable to a low Silver Knight back then. The weakening of Knights and Magicians also allowed the appearance of Mechas.
The Magicians’ predicaments were especially bad.
All the Magicians on Gle’s side were obviously slaughtered, but the Magicians who helped Knights also didn’t have it much better. Many of them were still mistaken by the common folks as people who worked for the Devil Gle, and they would often be persecuted.
In those years, there was a wide witch hunt for Magicians. Until finally, the word “Magician” became archaic. Now all Magicians share a title with anyone who had special abilities—Sorcerers.
There had always been people who theorize Gle didn’t die, but instead, was just waiting for the right moment, and as soon as his powers return, the world would sink into chaos once again…
* * *
“So what if you’re Gle’s descendent? Just because I was friends with him, don’t think I wouldn’t send you to the battle with Violet Academy!” Barbalis said fiercely.
After telling the truth, Kaiser lowered his head, and didn’t dare to look at Meinan or Purity.
Liola didn’t seem to care, although this guy must not even know who the heck Gle was, but hearing Barbalis’ response, Kaiser was stupefied of Barbalis’s strange declaration.
Barbalis looked at Kaiser’s shocked expression, and he sported a deep-in-thought face and said,
“Son, legends are legends, the amount of truth in those is less than 30%. I agree for you not to tell anyone your real identity, since it’ll only cause you nothing but endless trouble. You should never feel sorry or sad for being Gle’s son. Gle was a hero, a failed one, and a failed hero would often be called the Devil.”
Kaiser, Purity, and Meinan couldn’t even be bothered to listen to all this. They were all shocked. And if what Barbalis had just said would be spread, it would be regarded as blasphemy. But since this came out of the old monster, Barbalis, it did seem somewhat believable…
“You… Auntie said you had a wager with Gle, what was that all about?” Kaiser asked with hesitation.
“Hehehe, it was a heaven shaking, earth shattering, never-before-heard, moving, sad but beautiful story that would drive gods and devils alike to tears…”
Barbalis shook his head and sighed, and then made a deal with Kaiser, “How about this, if you’re willing to go attack Violet Academy, and successfully make them surrender, then I will tell you free of charge.”
‘That’s not free anymore, right?’ Kaiser held back the desire to grit his teeth, contemplating between trouble and knowing about his ancestor.
Suddenly, a thin strand of white light shot out from Barbalis’ index finger, and the white light instantly disappeared into Liola’s forehead.
Kaiser worriedly asked Barbalis, “What did you do to Liola?”
“Releasing his seal, of course.” Barbalis smiled bitterly, and drops of sweat suddenly appeared on his forehead.
“What? That was it?” Kaiser said in shock.
“Shouldn’t it involve a large magic circle, then gathering massive amount of magic element from the surroundings, and everything would look grand. And then principal, you would painfully concentrate your energy and transfer it to to Liola-dage, then say, ‘It’s all up to you now’, and then the principal would faint. Liola-dage would then say solemnly, ‘I will never let you down…’”
As she spoke, Purity sank into her own fantasy of a fairy tale.
“Uh, even though Purity’s description was a bit exaggerated, but isn’t a small light stream a bit too simple?” Meinan asked skeptically.
“What else do you want? Should I make a big bang for you guys to watch, and lure Lancelot here, then he and I could duel then perish together?” Barbalis snapped.
Kaiser laughed sinisterly,
“Principal, if you don’t mind, then perish with him. The world would be far more peaceful, and everyone will thank you two…”
“Go to hell!”
“Hmmph!”
Liola, who was standing still in shock, suddenly started convulsing intensely. His normally calm face also seemed a bit twisted. He forcefully held back moans of pain, and cold sweat ran down his face. The blood vessels in his body felt like they were being forced through by a metal chain. Series of explosive pain forced the Assassin to lie on the sofa, and his face was scarily pale.
“Liola-dage? A-are you okay?” Having never seen Liola like this, Purity was scared and her tears came streaming down her face.
“I forgot to tell you, forcefully removing the seal is very painful.”
Barbalis looked like he was saying “Be a man, don’t mind such little pain”.
After sported such expression, Barbalis’ body began to fade, and at the same time he said,
“Now would be the time for me to run. In a while this Assassin will recover all of his strength, but I will only have half of mine… What a joke, I still want to live for a few hundred more years.”
Barbalis actually ran away, leaving Liola in pain behind. Everyone else was worried but there was nothing they could do.
Auntie, who was standing there like a mountain, suddenly reached out and grabbed Liola by his waist, and then moved towards the kitchen.
“Okay, let this little child release his seal quietly. Boys all like to act tough, and he wouldn’t want to show he’s in pain in front of everyone, hehe.”
“Is Liola-dage going to be okay?”
Purity was worried but couldn’t do anything. She cried as Auntie carried Liola off, and stood there trying to get Kaiser to reassure her.
“Uh… as long as Auntie doesn’t accidentally break Liola’s waist, he should be fine.”
* * *
Putting down the boy lightly from her hand onto a wooden bench in the corner of the room, Auntie looked at the quiet Liola. After a long while she finally began to speak,
“Liola, if you can’t run away, then why don’t you thoroughly take care of it altogether. Once and for all, wouldn’t that be better?”
Having said that, Auntie seemed to vaguely hear some rumbles outside, so she took large steps and left to see what had happened.
* * *
Though his body was in extreme pain, Auntie’s speech clearly echoed in Liola’s mind. If he couldn’t run away, then maybe he…
An intense headache suddenly came to Liola, and a large bubble in his head seemed to suddenly burst. His sealed Ki spread towards his arms and legs like a flood.
Liola felt his body warming up. He jumped off the wooden bench, and stretched as far his could. His arms and legs made a cracking noise as he did so.
Having stretched his muscles and bones, Liola gracefully jumped up and spun in the air. His thin, long leg easily pulverized the sturdy wooden bench behind him. He jumped up again and, after a backflip, stood on top of a single glass cup on the table on one of his legs. His body was still enough for people to mistake him for a statue, except his black hair still drifted lively in the air, and his star-like sparkling silver eyes.
When Kaiser rushed into the kitchen, and saw this strange scene, he couldn’t help but open his mouth to say,
“You wasteful bastard! Do you think your son doesn’t spend enough money? Why the hell would you dismantle a bench for no reason? This bench is enormous and must be worth a lot of money. Hey, hey, don’t you forget, your money is my money. You’re not allowed to waste my money!”
“… Understood.” Liola turned around to look at that bench, and he felt a bit of regret for his money-wasting action… Wait, why was he thinking like a certain somebody?
“Oh! Oh!” Kaiser suddenly started to yell,
“Forget about the bench. Things are getting crazy outside, and it feels like the sky is going to fall!”
Liola elegantly jumped off the table, and asked nonchalantly as he stood in front of Kaiser, “What happened?”
‘Sky is falling?’
Now that his seal was broken, Liola couldn’t help but feel… ‘So what if the sky was falling?’
“Ugh~ Violet Academy is attacking us!” Kaiser felt like he was going crazy.
“Those bastards are insane. They came here with several hundred Mechas, and more than a hundred Knights with mounts. Damn, what’s even worse is the Yiyu guy brought a dozen Sorcerers and used some spell to blow up our academy gate.”
“Purity and Meinan rushed out to help Daylight, Jasmine, and Lanski. Do you think we should… go and hide?”
Liola carefully examined the situation, then said to Kaiser, “Follow me.”
Though Kaiser didn’t know what Liola planned, but thinking about Liola’s depressed state, he thought Liola would be returning to the most “powerful” dorm to sleep.
Kaiser followed Liola with ease, considering the latter had gotten his Kung Fu back.
Surely enough, Liola kept walking through shadowed corners and avoided all battles, and the direction he took was obviously towards the Sorcerer dorms. Before long, the Assassin took Kaiser back to their room, and Liola went into the room first.
In the room, there was a little White Dragon lying on the bed in deep sleep, and its nostrils were blowing bubbles.
Suddenly, the White Dragon opened its eyes, and after its pink little eyes rolled around to look at the room, the Dragon jumped up and rubbed itself affectionately against papa’s leg.
Liola let Baolilong grab his leg, and walked to his dresser.
He opened the drawers, and there were quite a few sets of simple clothes: two Sorcery robes, one set of white clothes he wore to see Lanski, and he was wearing the black clothing he wore to see Jasmine. The rest of the clothes looked identical: they were all white, silver-lined Knight uniforms, which Liola often had to throw away every single time he wore them.
Due to the amazingly high rate at which Liola burnt through them, Barbalis decided to throw a couple of dozen more of these to Liola.
Being back at his beloved dorm, Kaiser already hurriedly wrapped himself in sheets. Thinking about being pursued for the past couple of weeks, he had no choice but to leave early and come home late, and his time spent with the sheets was drastically reduced, to the point where Kaiser began to miss his sheets.
As he lay there, Kaiser suddenly heard the sounds of someone changing clothes. He turned around to look, and saw Liola putting on the Knight uniform.
Kaiser was shocked, then he asked, “Why are you changing clothes?”
Liola was just about to finish buttoning his uniform, then he turned and asked Kaiser, “Where’s the mask?”
Kaiser was stupefied, but he still took out the silver mask out of his pocket.
Liola grabbed the mask, and said as he put it on, “Let’s go, Kaigleser”
“Huh? Where to?” Kaiser stared at Liola as he carried Baolilong, as if they were planning on jumping out the window.
A light smile appeared on Liola’s mouth. He turned around, and the moonlight behind him reflected off the side of his face, which made his smile that much more mysterious.
If Liola was seen by girls like this, Lanski would certainly have quite a few more love rivals.
‘Damn! The cursed smile again! Terrible bad luck is coming my way, and… it looks like it’s going to be really bad this time.’
Kaiser’s face was suddenly 30% whiter.
“Violet Academy, of course.” Liola’s smile grew larger.