This chapter was brought to you by AnmesicCat, and Yeenie.
One Night at Home
Time: 12:10 am
After getting home covertly, the first thing I wanted to do was to take a hot bath.
Due to being at the construction site earlier, I was thoroughly wet, and feeling cold and dirty, making me feel very uncomfortable from the bottom of my heart.
Fortunately, my house has one bathroom on each floor, this way I wouldn’t wake my mother who was already fast asleep. You need to know that my mother is very horrifying. If she found evidence of me slipping out of the house in the middle of the night, I really would suffer the consequences.
Taking some simple clothing, I went into another room. Senior, who loves cleanliness much more than me, most probably wouldn’t sleep just like that.
I gingerly walked past the corridor by the guest room, lightly knocked on the door a few times, and sure enough, just like the school dorm, the door opened within half a second. “What are you doing here, are you still not planning to sleep?”
I just kind-heartedly came to ask if you wanted to use the bathroom…
I noticed senior still looked the same as earlier; his whole body was still completely wet.
“Wait a minute, I’m still dealing with some things.” Senior glanced at me, turned around, and went back into his room and as usual. Naturally, I followed him in. The room was bright, but it wasn’t because of a lamp. since we’re currently having a power outage. It should be the free lighting service provided by the Light Shadow Village.
As soon as I entered the room, I was rather shocked. Inside the room, senior wasn’t the only person there… Uh, I should say senior was still the only person inside, but there was another rather translucent body, and it looked like a woman’s face with a bird’s body.
“This is the messenger of the water clan.” While taking something from it, senior casually said. After handling over the item, the rather translucent woman suddenly disappeared right in front of me, “She came to pass a message from the water clan’s aristocrat.”
Water clan’s aristocrat? I suddenly thought of two people.
Throwing the item on the bed, senior rubbed his hair with a towel, but I don’t know where he got it from., “It was Yido who sent it here. It’s about Alis Academy’s evaluation report of the attack at Giya Academy.”
Oh right, now that he mentioned it, I remembered they seemed to have applied for some kind of investigation the other day. But since it hadn’t been brought up for a while, so I had completely forgotten about it. Since I wasn’t one of the representatives, it was natural for me to not know about it.
“In the evaluation report, there’s a confirmation of someone doing something in the dark. Currently, the General Assembly has started investigating with the evidence available, and will uniformly give a penalty to the schools involved.” Removing the towel, senior glanced at me, “Other than that, I want to take a look at the image sphere. After Ziray gave it to me, I couldn’t find time to look at it, do you want to take a look, too?”
Image sphere? What the hell is that?
“The image sphere has recorded images of Leido and Yado’s second match at Giya Academy.” Senior added this sentence.
I immediately nodded my head. We didn’t get to watch that match because senior dealt with Yido’s injuries and weren’t present. So the thing senior passed to the five-colored rooster head before leaving was actually some kind of recorder?
It was really very thoughtful of him.
While I was eagerly waiting for senior to play it, senior suddenly took his bag and walked out of the room.
Ah? Aren’t we supposed to watch the recording?
“I want to go and take a bath.” Red eyes turned around and glared at me.
After he said that, only then did I remember that I, myself, was also thoroughly wet, and I had some kind of an unknown feeling of getting colder and colder.
When I ran out of the room, following him senior, I was just in time to see the bathroom door closing.
Senior actually also knew the skill of snatching the bathroom.
“Achoo.” I hope I don’t catch a cold before he comes out…
After taking turns to take a bath, it was almost 1am.
I secretly took two cups of drinks from the kitchen, I went up the stairs and entered the guest room, and senior was already looking at the information of the evaluation report. By the time he saw me entering the room, he had finished reading it, and put the evaluation report down. “Giya is also confirmed to be a victim. There are traces of someone hacking into the system. The report stated that a few players are being interrogated, and if there’s further information, they will contact us.” Taking the drink, he put the report away, “We received the same information from our side, it looks like it’s probably done using the same method.”
“Oh.” I didn’t quite understand about systems being hacked or what-not, so I didn’t know what to say.
In just a few seconds of silence, I saw senior taking out a round, faintly-shining, thing that looked about the size of a tennis ball, “Then let’s continue with looking at Alis Academy’s preliminary match.” He put the sphere on the floor, holding onto the drink, and sat on one side. I immediately moved closer to look.
The sphere of light stopped moving for a few seconds, and a sudden burst of applause could be heard. I was frightened out of my wits.
What the hell! It’s so loud, my mom and my sis would be woken up by that sound. If they wake up, it would mean I’m going to die in a horrible death. I think I should advise senior to watch this another day.
“I’ve already made a barrier around this room, the sound wouldn’t be transferred outside.” Senior coolly said to me.
Soundproof? Then that’s fine. Otherwise we would only one ending, death.
After the loud sound, a small projected screen appeared in front of us. It was the time when we had to leave first, and the five-colored rooster head recorded this showdown.
There were four people on stage. Two of them were Leido and Yado, who went down the stage after taking their illusionary weapons, and the other two were Evil Spirit Academy’s… I forgot their names, but I remember both of them were Purple Robes.
“Evil Spirit Academy’s Nillan and Artis, who are members of the Ghost Larvae Executioners.” Senior was giving pointers at one side, “The one with dark green hair is Artis, and the other one is Nillan.”
Right, I do remember these two people. The one who was killed off by Yado was also one of their members. My memories flew back to the scene of that day. After Yado killed that person, the other two purple robe partners shouted at them to come down to the stage, and Yido forced himself to take the illusionary weapons out.
Sandra was flying above the stage.
“Evil Spirit Academy and Alis Academy’s second match begin.” The announcer’s voice echoed, and the sound of cheering and applause immediately resounded.
On the stage, Yado and Leido’s eyes were crimson like burning flames, and I couldn’t differentiate the both of them. Both the swords were pointing at the ground, just like stationary ferocious beasts covered with fur getting ready for battle.
On the other side, Evil Spirit Academy’s representatives weren’t to be outdone. Both of them simultaneously took out their scimitar, glaring at the enemies in front.
The wild beasts surrounding them crouched on the ground, as if they were waiting for the best timing to attack. Each of them were on alert to their surroundings, and the atmosphere became even more tensed.
Artis coldly looked at the opponents in front of her, “You’re going to pay for what you did.” At the end of her statement, the silver wild beasts started to move, and she kicked the ground and disappeared. In the next second, she appeared behind one of the twins and slashed downwards.
She probably attacked the wrong person.
Although I couldn’t differentiate the non-smiling Leido and Yado, I could differentiate them from their illusionary weapons. Leido’s sword had copper gold decorations, while Yado’s was silver, and she was currently attacking the person, who was holding onto a copper gold decorated weapon.
While the knife was slashing down, sparks appeared on top of Leido’s head even faster than Artis’s movements. On the other side, Yado had already pulled out his sword and blocked the attack, “With this kind of level, you want someone to pay for what they did?” With a mocking tone, without giving the other person any time to respond, he turned his blade, turned around, and kicked the opponent off a certain distance.
The surrounding wild beasts issued different roars, each of them moving towards the nearest player and started attacking.
“Yado, just do it.” Beside him, Leido started to move, only to see him stabbing his sword into the ground. With one hand holding onto the sword’s hilt, “Surging falling rain of fire, dispose of the obstacles on stage. Thunder king obey my command, sixteen thunderbolt.” Just as he eloquently chanted out some kind of incantation, the sword inserted into the ground issued a cracking sound. Tiny bits of golden sparks came from the cracks and exploded.
I saw the wild beasts around Leido had stopped moving at the same time, the sky suddenly started rumbling loudly, just like during a heavy rain, silver lightning struck. The wild beasts on the stage were all attacked by lightning without any discrimination, and in a few seconds, each and every one of them slumped down, motionless.
“Alis Academy wiped out the attacking beasts in one breath.” The announcer’s voice resounded. Since attack range was too huge, almost hitting her, Sandra had already escaped towards the audience seat, and there was a barrier there so she wouldn’t be affected by the attacks, “Representative Leido used his illusionary weapon’s natural power! We can clearly see it is the power of lightning.” A few seconds after the wild beast slumped down, they turned back into silver liquid and seeped into the ground. The whole stage became empty again.
Not giving the opponent a chance to take a breather, Yado also attacked at the same instant, tilted his sword and slashed at Artis, who was distracted by the sound of thunder. The Purple Robe, who had very quick reaction time, barely blocked the slash of the sword aimed at her neck. In a moment, at the other side, Leido started to engage with Nillan who has yet to move.
“Very interesting moves, your weapons should be royal weapons, right?” Nillan was still standing at her usual spot, as if she has no intention of starting to attack, “Alis Academy’s combat power has always been really weak, it’s rare to see players with some standards.”
“Evil Spirit Academy’s combat power has always been so despicable, looks like it’s the same this time.” Drawing his sword, Leido headed straight towards his opponent, “Don’t worry, Yado and I are the same, we wouldn’t show mercy towards women.”
Talking about not showing mercy towards women, I know another person with the same mentality. He said that in his eyes, there were only enemies and friends.
“You speak too much, if you don’t want to watch, then go to sleep!” Senior directly smacked me behind my head.
I most definitely wanted to watch…
“Then, that’s great.” Nillan curved up a very gloomy and treacherous smile.
There were no movements from both sides. Compared to the other end, the other group who was in a very heated up battle, it was an extreme contrast.
Yado and Artis attacked each other again and again, without having time to take a breather.
Just as the Purple Robe was forced to back away after a slash, Yado stopped at the same time, with his red eyes glaring at the opponent, “We should end the game now.” Similar to what Leido did earlier, he stabbed his sword into the ground, and there was a sound of his fingertip bouncing off his sword, “Did you hear the sound of water yet?”
“Artis! Come back immediately!” Nillan shouted, and hearing her companion’s voice, Artis immediately stopped fighting, retrieved her knife, and was about to head back towards her companion.
When she moved, a hand suddenly held on to her shoulder, forcing her to stop in her tracks. Turning around, facing Yado’s blood-red eyes, “It’s already too late.” A cold voice floated over, making one feel the chill.
As soon as Artis heard the voice, she was startled, and a drop of blood rolled down from her eye.
“Water strike.” Yado opened his hand, and the illusionary weapon disappeared and appeared on top of his palm, “The amount of water in your body… they’re all my weapons.”
I heard a small bell-like sound.
Yado’s illusionary weapon was shining, and in the next second, huge amount of blood started flowing out from Artis’ eyes, mouth, and ears, and there was also drops and more drops of crimson liquid falling from her fingers.
The ringing sound was getting stronger and stronger.
Yado jumped back one step, brandishing the sword in his hand.
In that second, a huge amount of blood splashed onto the ground. The audience seat fell silent, looking at the blood wantonly spreading out on the floor. In just a few seconds, the Purple Robe’s body slumped onto the ground, lying in a pool of endless supply of blood. After a few seconds, silver liquid appeared on the ground and covered the body, and one couldn’t see anything anymore.
“Alis Academy defeated one of their opponents! How is Nillan of Evil Spirit Academy planning to deal with two White Robes from Alis Academy alone?” Sandra’s voice echoed from the silent stage, sounding exceptionally piercing to the ears.
“You guys think that by getting rid of Artis you would corner me?”
Curving up a strange smile, Nillan was still standing at the same spot, holding onto her scimitar. It slashed towards the side, lightly drawing out circle, “Plague ghost of the sand.” As her voice resounded, a huge hand suddenly sprung out from behind her and opened. The opened palm was almost as large as a person. It slammed on the floor, and its head and body slowly emerged from the ground.
I saw a ghost-like head, yellow eyes, gray skin, with a horn on its head, and scales appeared on its body, bit by bit as it slowly stood up.
I didn’t know why, but this summoned ghost suddenly made me think of the corpse inside the Ghost King’s tomb.
“It appeared! One of the Evil Spirit Academy’s famous live ghost, Plague Ghost!” The announcer was still staying out of the stage, afraid of going in. This allowed me to understand that being on the stage must have had a certain degree of danger.
Yado and Leido took one step back at the same time.
The plague ghost opened its mouth and issued a strange roar, and an uncountable number of black winged insects flew out from its mouth. One by one, it flew out, covering the entire sky. From the screen I saw that those insects look rather like locusts, but it wasn’t exactly the same. It was black, causing one to feel very uncomfortable.
“Those are spiny wood-borers, a type of demon insect which spreads various diseases.” Senior explained, and turned back to the screen, concentrating on each and every move made on the stage.
Then aren’t they similar to mosquitos and flies… spreading germs everywhere?
On the stage, Leido and Yado currently didn’t make any movements. The black insects surrounded both of them with dense layers upon layers, looking rather disgusting.
“I advise you to not act rashly, the plague ghost’s spiny wood-borers have a highly contagious toxicity, and I don’t want the competition to end so soon.” Nillan folded her arms looking rather relaxed. The plague ghost behind moved past her, moving forward step by step, “Plague ghost likes live sacrifice, so you can just obediently look at each other slowly being eaten by the plague ghost.”
The situation immediately became unfavourable for the twin brothers.
Looking at each other, Leido stabbed his sword on the ground once again, “I’m sorry, we are actually very expensive. Your monstrous pet can’t afford to eat us.” After saying so, both of them held out their hands at the same time, “God of the fire dance, southern wilderness fierily burning, summer’s continuous surging of raging fire technique.”
“Burning Fire technique.”
Almost at the same, a huge fire exploded on stage. All the black winged insects didn’t have the time to fly up higher to avoid the fire, and was burned into small fireballs, turning into ashes and disappeared in the air. The fire surrounded the whole stage, the black winged insects above feared the fire and didn’t dare to fly down to attack.
“Gather falling rain of fire, dispose of the obstacles on stage. King of Thunder, obey my command; sixteen thunderbolt!” Not giving the black insects time to catch their breath, Leido once again launched his illusionary weapon’s attack, and the huge thunder in the sky exploded. In just a moment, the sky full of black insects were struck until only a few scattered ones were left, and they were no longer a threat.
The actions happened in just a few blinks of an eye. Just as the plague ghost wanted to re-create the black insects, a sword flew and directly stabbed at its forehead, penetrating through its head. I don’t know when Yado launched his attack, but he was standing on the hilt of the sword protruding outwards. Before even his white hem settled down, he held out his palm, pressing it on top of the plague ghost’s head, “God of thunder, western sky madly howling, autumn’s king’s thunderous sky.” Thunder appeared from between his palm and the plague ghost, and it exploded, “Thunder explosion’s technique.”
With a loud boom, the plague ghost’s head was blasted apart by the thunder, and greenish white liquid splashed all around.
Yado, who was shaken due to the vibration, was rapidly falling down, without any preparation, and was caught by Leido, who hurried rushed up to him. It was only then that he was able to successfully stand on the ground properly or else he would have had a hard fall, “Hey, the one who told me not to die shouldn’t be the one to die first.” While complaining, he pulled and rejoined his brother’s left arm he was holding on to, he made a subtle sound before letting go.
Standing firmly, Yado seemed to be testing his left arm as he moved it around. According to his earlier the complaint, probably when he was shaken off, his arm was dislocated. He turned around and helped his brother, who was implicated by the miraculous telepathy, to rejoin his arm.
The plague ghost’s body, which was missing its head, was still standing at the same spot, with black blood continuously flowing out. Little by little, blood was falling on the ground and it turned into even more black winged insects, covering the entire once more.
“It’s not so easy to stop the plague ghost’s disaster, the both of you can slowly fight until you’ve exhausted yourselves.” When Nillan saw the plague ghost’s head burst open, her face obviously changed, but it quickly reverted back to its natural expression, as if she wasn’t affected by it.
“Water Strike…” Yado, who was about to launch his illusionary weapon, was suddenly pulled by his brother at one side, abruptly stopping his action.
“Don’t touch that plague ghost. Its blood would influence you and also your illusionary weapon.” Leido furrowed his brow, his tone was very rough, “Don’t tell me that you don’t know that.”
Yado glanced at his own brother, before he picked up his sword from the ground.
How does the blood influence someone?
“Water Strike Sword’s ability is synchronizing with water to activate resonance and then manipulate it. If Water Strike is used to link with the plague ghost’s blood, Yado might be affected by the curse or disease within the blood.” Senior glanced at me, and said.
Turns out to be synchronizing problem, I probably understand what he meant.
“God of the fire dance, southern wilderness fierily burning, summer’s continuous surging of raging fire technique.” Leido looked at the endless supply of black insects, he started chanting the same incantation, “Burning Fire’s technique.”
The huge fire became more and more fiery, gradually burning towards the plague ghost.
“It’s useless, by the time you’ve completely burn the plague ghost’s body, you guys would have also died.” Nillan laughed loudly, the black insects surrounded her, and seemed to be protecting her. No matter what, the fire couldn’t pass through, “You guys can slowly struggle until you’re out of strength.”
She folded her arms, and curved up a proud smile, but there was a few seconds where her face completely froze.
“Falling water flying bright, depleting the enemy’s life, Water Lord obey my command, thirteen river flow.”
The same time the sound stopped, water sprung out from within the fire, very quickly sealing the broken part of the plague ghost’s body. The water flowed downwards, continuously corroding it. The black insects gradually reduced within the fire, but no new ones appeared. Very quickly, the stage once again reverted back to its original quietness.
Nillan took one step back.
“Don’t look down on others.” Leido’s red eyes blinked once, just as if water was about to fall from them, “See you.”
Next second, flames mercilessly went through Nillan’s body and madly burned her.
Meanwhile, the plague ghost gradually disappeared as well due to losing its summoner.
Very quickly, the outcome was determined after a commotion.
“Alis Academy who competed against Evil Spirit Academy, obtained their first victory!”
I saw the picture shaking for a while, probably because the five-colored rooster head moved it.
With the audience’s applause, Yado and Leido slowly walked back to the lounge. As soon as they went up the stairs back to the usual spot, both of them suddenly fell down on their knees.
“Hey, hey, even if the two of you worship me, you don’t need to kneel! Don’t you know that when someone older than you kneels in front of you, it would harm you by shortening your lifespan!?” I heard the five-colored rooster head’s idiotic sentence which also got recorded.
In front of him, Yado rolled his eyes in disdain, as if he was looking at an idiot.
Leido simply rolled over lying on his back, as he generously presented a casual posture, “Damn it, I almost died of exhaustion. The ghost-like thing the woman summoned was so hard to deal with.”
“I didn’t see you guys do anything, why is it that you guys would collapse as soon as you returned?” The five-colored rooster head squatted at one side and kicked Leido.
“Launching Water Strike and Thunder King’s techniques would consume a lot of mental power and strength. If we weren’t forced to, we wouldn’t have used it.” Turning to his side, Leido softly lay back in his usual spot.
Yado didn’t lie down so casually, only leaning on the wall at one side. After resting for a moment, he stood up, “I’ll go and complete some formalities.” He threw a white bead at Leido, “Eat it, and go and find Yido.” Saying so, he hurriedly left.
“Oh.” After catching the thing, he stuffed it into his mouth, and after a while only did Leido stand up.
“What’s that?” The five-colored rooster head’s voice came again.
“It’s something that restores our strength. But don’t tell Yido, he forbids us to use this thing.” Leido mischievously winked.
“So useless, even needing to carry around nourishing pills…”
As soon as the five-colored rooster’s voice stopped, the picture disappeared.
That’s the end.
Senior opened his palm, and took back the image sphere.
I stared at the floor. The match I saw on the screen was still rather too stimulating for me.
Why was it that during a match, Yado always like make it so bloody? Looked rather strangely horrifying. It made one feel like vomiting, having headache, and dizziness engulfing them; it’s really terrible.
“It’s better than someone who’s attacking style is so chaotic.” Senior glanced at me, his tone was neither heavy nor light.
It’s not like I purposely did that!
“That’s right, just now the announcer said the live ghost is the plague ghost?” I suddenly remembered. But that’s not exactly right, because she said the plague ghost was “one of kind” live ghost, it can’t be that the plague ghost’s other name was “one kind of live ghost”; it was too supernatural.
Senior looked at me, but I couldn’t tell if he made that expression meant because my question was a good one or a brainless one, but I think it was the former, “Evil Spirit Academy’s six famous live ghost are the plague ghost, the war ghost, the ghost of greed, the ghost of hatred, the mad ghost and the flesh ghost. They’re Evil Spirit Ghost’s six famous ghost spirits, stationed around the school, and at the same time protecting the school. Figuratively saying, it’s like the Elves protecting our school, but the difference is that in Evil Spirit Academy, the more powerful students could exchange contracts with the ghost spirits, summoning the ghost spirits to obey their commands. In our school, we can’t do that, the guardian Elves are fair, only helping the students who are in need, without any favouritism.”
I see, then I probably understand it already.
After we finished watching one whole match, only then did I notice the clock on the table; it was almost two. It was still raining outside, the wind was blowing rather strongly, and the weird thing was there wasn’t the slightest sound inside the room. I guess it was probably senior’s barrier at work.
“Since you’ve already finished watching the match, you should go back to your room and sleep.” Standing up, senior glanced out of the window.
“Oh.” It was weird if I continued to stay here, I know, after all, this room was the guest room.
That’s right, I suddenly thought of another matter.
Wasn’t senior’s hand injured at the construction site? I wonder if he already properly bandaged it.
“Do you think you need to worry about it?” Cold words were thrown over.
Alright, alright, just pretend I didn’t say anything, “Then, I’ll go to bed, good night, senior.”
“Good night.”
I’m shocked.
Never thought senior would actually reply to me with good night. I was really shocked. Could it
be that tomorrow morning, when I wake up, I would find the world flooded with red water because of tonight’s typhoon? Why was it that senior’s tone was suddenly so kind enough to wish me good night? It can’t be that my ears were hearing things, and I was having an auditory hallucination!?
“Do you want to be beaten up!?”
I immediately lifted my legs and fled. Only idiots would stay behind to get beaten up.
Then, it was already late at night.