Friday 3 February 2012

KNM: Volume 6



This volume was brought to you by AnmesicCat, Masadeer, and StellarAshes.
divider

Chapter 1 : Unclearable Suspicion

This volume was brought to you by AnmesicCat, Masadeer, and StellarAshes.
divider

"So, in other words, you were having a conflict with the Dragon Emperor’s son, and suddenly Miluo appeared out of nowhere to declare war on the whole world? Finally, Baolilong went as far as calling papa into the air, and now we’re not allowed to leave Aklan Academy before they clear us of the suspicion!"

Kaiser wanted to go insane. Can they be serious? Why was it, as soon as he slacked off a little, the moment he came back, he was told he was now a terrorist and must stay within Aklan Academy’s ground.

Kaiser suddenly stood up, ran up to Meinan and started shaking him, "What the hell! Isn’t your dad the Aklan Prime Minister? Why don’t you just tell him to cover for us?"

Meinan, acting a bit unusual, struggled to escape Kaiser’s grasp and sat far away.

He said with a cold expression, "That’s how my dad is. Nothing is more important to him than his country. Even if the prime suspect is his son, he wouldn’t do anything about it."

Seeing Meinan’s unusual reaction, Kaiser was stunned, but then he immediately ran up to Purity.

Purity started to tremble, "M-my mother is only responsible for inventing Mechas. S-she never cared about anything else, and she can’t do anything about it now."

Seeing the two shrinking away like turtles, Kaiser, who didn’t even do anything but gotten involved, started to yell,

"Basically, you two don’t care! It must be nice to be you; one is the Prime Minister’s son, and the other is a Commerce Alliance Leader’s daughter. No one would ever dare to touch you! In the end, the scapegoat will be us; innocent commoners!"

Meinan suddenly turned around to face Kaiser, and Purity held her hand into a fist tightly, then stood up and yelled,

"Kaiser, how could you say that! Meinan and I-I have always been with all of you! We’ve never shrunk away from anything, no matter how dangerous it was. How could you talk like that, Kaiser?"

Meinan also sported a long face and walked next to Purity. Though he hadn’t said anything, but judging from his face, Meinan was also mad at what Kaiser had said.

Under the gaze of these two people, Kaiser felt slightly apologetic, but he still wouldn’t back down. After all, what he said was the truth: if this continues, Liola, Daylight, and he would become the sacrifice, unless Daylight had some hidden identity no one knew about.

"Stop fighting." Daylight suddenly got up from his bed. Though he was still dizzy, he knew the three were fighting. He held up his weak body, and stood between them, trying to convince them to stop.

"Daylight!" Kaiser said angrily, "Unless you have someone important to get you out of this?"

Daylight was surprised, "Important? Nope."

Kaiser yelled loudly, "Then why do you stop me? If I don’t resolve this now, who knows when we will be put up to the guillotine? This time, it’s for real. None of that righteousness, hotheadedness, nor swearing on your Knight’s honor is going to save us."

Daylight frowned, and replied weakly, "Then we will sit down and discuss this calmly. Don’t yell at your companions."

"How can I not be mad?! These two don’t even understand how terrible our situation is!"

Purity listened to Kaiser’s complaint, and she seemed anxious and frustrated, to the point where she didn’t even know if she was mad at herself or at Kaiser.

Meinan was also bothered. He knew what Kaiser said was right, but he was mad at Kaiser for thinking the situation had nothing to do with him or Purity. He opened his mouth several times to try to speak to Purity, but he stopped himself.

Finally, Kaiser grunted and climbed up to his bed to wrap himself like a sushi roll, with only his green hair showing, and completely ignored them both.

Seeing the atmosphere in the room had gone from bad to worse, Daylight forced his body to move towards his last resort. Although Daylight himself had no confidence in his backup, he said.

"Liola say something. Don’t let them fight on like this." Daylight sound like he was about to pass out.

Liola had been quietly sitting on his bed, while Baolilong was snoring on his legs. As Liola stroked Baolilong’s head softly, he looked outside of the window, as if he was daydreaming, though his silver eyes often flashed with light. It wasn’t until Daylight said something to him did he turn his head around, and said something shocking.

"I want to get the Dragon Cross Necklace back."

Hearing this, Daylight completely lost it and fainted. Luckily he stood right before Kaiser’s bed, so he simply fell back onto the bed.

Meinan’s and Purity’s expression were alike: both of them were in danger of losing their jaws to the ground.

Kaiser flipped out of his sushi roll, and jumped onto Liola’s bed on the other side of his. He reached out and grabbed Liola’s collar and yelled angrily, "You are insane!"

"I must get the necklace back." Liola stared into Kaiser’s eyes, and asked gently, "Are you going to help me? If not, we’re better off going separate ways, so I would not be a burden to any of you."

Kaiser stared at Liola’s silver eyes, but he couldn’t find a bit of hesitation. He knew the Assassin was serious. Though things had gotten worse, but strangely Kaiser calmed down. He let go of Liola’s collar, and sat down next to Liola, turning from a cat furious for its tail being stepped on back to a lazy cat bathing in the sun.

Purity and Meinan glanced at each other, and then both slowly walked to Liola’s bed and sat down. The small single bed had four people and one Dragon on it, making all four of them sit shoulder to shoulder.

"Well… we’ll see how it goes. If push comes to shove, we’ll annoy the principal, and let him lead us?" Meinan seemed a bit more relaxed, and asked tentatively at Kaiser.

Purity immediately added, "R-right. We could also jump into Purity’s black hole, and then nobody could ever find us again."

Half of their faces blackened as they turned to look at Purity.

Kaiser said mockingly, "Right, perhaps we could jump straight to hell, and the Dragon Emperor would save the money for executing us."

Purity felt she has been treated unjustly and murmured, "We got away from Miluo last time."

Kaiser rolled his eyes, and gestured at Purity, "First, Miluo, as a Dragon, he has incredibly thick skin, thus he was not torn into shreds by the chaotic space. Second, think about it, have we, the Troublemaking Squad, ever had any good luck? Considering our never-ending bad luck, I think we will probably warp right into a jail."

"I agree with Kaiser." Meinan felt haunted. Ever since he met Liola and Kaiser, the terrifying bad luck had never ceased.

"What the heck."

Purity got angry and started hitting Kaiser and Meinan, but they didn’t fear Purity’s pink fists, and they started laughing as they let Purity punch as she willed. It wasn’t until Kaiser said stop while laughing that Purity stopped with a pout.

"Fine, since we all have to run, grabbing the necklace is probably not too far off our path." Kaiser raised his brows, as if he wanted to make the most before he dies.

"That’s right, we must help Liola-dage get his necklace back!" Purity held up her pink fist and yelled firmly.

Liola nodded and said. "Thanks."

His expression of gratitude, however, made everyone else have goose bumps. And it was quite a while before they started to help Liola plan on how they’re going to get the necklace back.

"Judging from the current situation, the necklace is probably in Cappuccino’s hands. If that’s the case, this should be a piece of cake, as long as he wasn’t pretending when I talked to him."

Kaiser carefully examined. But judging from what he saw of Cappuccino, he didn’t look like he was pretending: he really acted like a pig.

"Cappuccino, the third Prince? I heard before Princess Lanski was born, he had the highest support to succeed the Dragon Emperor, but unfortunately the Sacred White Dragon didn’t choose him." Purity explained as she filled her mind with the fantasy of a Prince.

"That guy, Latte, is obviously hopeless. But, normally speaking, shouldn’t the eldest Prince have the most support?" Kaiser had trouble understanding a pig of Prince could have the most support. What would the eldest Prince be then? Pig poop?

Purity, who was familiar with the Princes, immediately explained, "That’s because the eldest Prince is not a Knight, but instead a Fortune Teller. He practically lives in the stargazing tower, and barely anyone had ever seen him!"

"Fortune Teller?" Kaiser’s face seemed shocked, then yelled, "No wonder the Royal family is so rich. He must have won every week’s lottery!"

‘This has nothing to do with it...’ Others thought with cold sweat running down their faces.

"Oh, right!" Purity suddenly yelled, "Can’t you just ask Princess Lanski to get your necklace back?"

Kaiser rolled his eyes at Purity, and even Liola shook his head and said, "I don’t want to drag Lanski into this."

Kaiser added, "Oh, please, Lanski’s chivalry is only a teeny bit worse than our Daylight, do you really think Silver Mask could seduce her into betraying her own father and brother?"

Purity thought for a moment, and shook her head, depressed.

Kaiser murmured, "Speaking of seducing Lanski, we’d be better off seducing the pig of a brother of hers… Speaking of Cappuccino, I almost forgot about the dance!"

Kaiser suddenly jumped out and yelled. He almost forgot, the pig Cappuccino invited Liola to the dance. Wasn’t this their best opportunity?

Kaiser immediately pulled everyone together, and explained his meeting with Cappuccino.

After hearing Kaiser’s story, Meinan already had an idea of what Kaiser was planning.

He said, "You plan on asking Purity to pretend to be a beautiful chef, and then steal the necklace back?"

"M-me?" Purity opened her eyes wide, and pointed at herself in disbelief.

"Of course not. Do you honestly think Purity possessed the beauty to seduce him? Or the skills to pickpocket without being noticed?" Kaiser immediately denied, and completely shattered Purity’s confidence.

"She has neither." Meinan answered honestly.
"Why are you guys…" Purity felt wronged.

"So who are you planning on asking?" Meinan asked curiously, but then seemed to have remembered something and waved his hand,

"Don’t ask me to look for Jasmine! She isn’t extraordinarily beautiful, and she will never agree to steal something for you. Kaiser, e-even though she acts casually all the time, she follows the chivalric code quite close to the letter."

"It’s not Jasmine either."

Kaiser let out a big grin, as if he had this whole thing planned perfectly, but everyone else was baffled.

Kaiser slowly raised his finger, and pointed at the expressionless Assassin. While the other two people were widening their eyes, Kaiser explained his plan,

"Since Liola wants the necklace back, then of course he should go get it himself!"

Purity was a bit lost, "But Liola-dage is a guy. Though he does look beautiful, but…"

"That’s the thing! He looks beautiful." Kaiser interrupted, and then excitedly grabbed Liola’s oval face,

"Look, oval face, thin, long eyebrows. Nice, tall nose ridge, and his skin is white and soft. His body is also slender. Other than the fact he lacked two balls of fat in his chest, Liola is practically an earth-shaking beauty! Seducing a pig should be a piece of cake."

Meinan and Purity followed Kaiser’s ‘presentation’, and stared at the Assassin’s face. Every feature Kaiser described, they both nodded again and again.

"I am male." Liola felt it a bit necessary to declare his gender.

Kaiser smiled, and patted Liola’s shoulder for comfort, "Don’t worry, we’ll put two water balloons on and you will be a girl."

Disregarding Liola’s reaction, Kaiser had already begun to direct his companions,

"Meinan, you’re responsible for a formal dress. Purity, you are a girl after all, you should have some makeup and such, right?"

"A formal dress? Where am I going to get that? I have a lot of Tuxedos, but clothes for girls…" Meinan seemed a bit bitter, since he didn’t have a fetish of collecting female clothings.

"Go talk to Jasmine."

After he finished giving advice, Kaiser immediately pushed Meinan out the door, and said, "Don’t come back until you get one."

Kaiser slammed the door in Meinan’s face, leaving Meinan with a long face at the door. He then walked towards the Knights’ dorm, trying to think of an excuse to say to his good friend.

Seeing Meinan’s situation, Purity gulped and said, "Uh… Kaiser, I don’t have any makeup."

"What? You’re a woman and you don’t even have makeup? Are you sure you’re a girl?!"

Kaiser scratched his head, and also kicked Purity out of the room, "Go find Jasmine with Meinan."

* * *


Having kicked both people out of the room, Kaiser clapped his hands, and then turned towards the Assassin,

"Liola, what are you planning to do after you get the Dragon Cross Necklace back? Please don’t tell me you don’t have any plans. Our situation is bad enough, and when the necklace is stolen, we’ll definitely be the prime suspects. Let’s not talk about whether or not we’re really criminals, but even where we hide the necklace is a serious problem. Don’t forget Dragon Emperor can sense the person who holds the necklace."

Liola went quiet for a bit, then said, "I don’t know, but I feel that the necklace has been calling out to me, so I must get it back."

"But you have no plans afterwards whatsoever?" Kaiser raised his eyebrows and asked.

Although he already knew Liola could never have any plans, hearing it made Kaiser feel helpless.

Liola remained quiet. He knew not having a plan at all wasn’t the right thing to do, but he didn’t know what he could do. The only thing he was certain of was he must get the necklace back.

Kaiser waved his hand, "Whatever, I already knew you’re the type of guy who doesn’t think about what happens next. Just leave the planning part to me. Do note that as soon as we get the necklace, we have to run. And when we run, we have to bring Daylight. He doesn’t have anyone who could help him, and if he stays he will be dead. However, Meinan and Purity probably should stay since they’re both related to important figures, and nothing should happen to them."

Kaiser then murmured, "If we bring Meinan, we could suddenly have a Prime Minister on our tails. If we bring Purity with us, then it will be even more horrific, because we would have offended all three of the strongest countries in the world, and we will die even faster!"

Liola’s eyes set on the Daylight on the bed, thinking he still would bring harm to one person...

"I will protect you two." This was the only promise Liola could make.

Kaiser scratched his face and said,

"You don’t have to worry too much. The place we will be hiding, no one should be able to find it. Seeing the situation now, chaos will befall this world soon, and we will probably be safer hidden."

"And one more thing." Kaiser frowned and murmured,

"Such an important time, Mizerui is probably somewhere here watching the show. Whatever, let me yell first."

Then Kaiser jumped up, raised his hands up in the air, and yelled as if he was calling UFOs,

"Mizerui, man, I have a request for you, come out, come out! If you don’t come out soon, the readers are going to forget you soon!"

"Coming, coming, let me brush my hair first…"

A golden light suddenly flashed in the middle of the room. After the light subsided, a mysterious silhouette appeared.

The gold-haired gentleman had his arms behind him, and he looked out into the night sky through the window. He occasionally pushed up his gold-framed glasses, and one could sense his sentiments from the eyes.

"Nice eyes and posture. 80 points." Kaiser judged on the side.

The gold-haired man immediately turned around, and said unbelievably, "My perfect appearance gets only 80 points? Are you serious?"

"Aiya, look at your strange black and white robe, failure! And who wears gold-framed glasses? Sunglasses are trendy now. Haven’t you seen mission X? Failure among failures! Also, you’re pretending to be cool. Can you ever be as cool as our protagonist Liola? Acting cool in front of the book’s coolest main character Liola, I’d be sorry to Liola if I don’t deduct points for it… 80 points left, it’s pretty good." Judge Kaiser carefully explained his reasoning for the points.

"Sh—!" Mizerui waved his hand unhappily, "I’m leaving."

Judge Kaiser suddenly turned into beggar Kaiser. He dragged onto Mizerui’s shirt and said, "Just kidding, bro, you are worth 100 points! 100! How is that?"

"That’s more like it." Mizerui, whose lower half had already faded away, summoned it back again. He pushed his glasses and asked,

"So, what do you want? And please don’t tell me it’s because I appear too little in the book and you’re trying to get me some screen-time. You, Kaiser, would never do anything that doesn’t benefit you somehow."

Kaiser went ‘tsk tsk’ and said, "You are definitely Boss Mi, and understand this little brother too well."

"You even said ‘Boss Mi’. Just tell me what you called me here for. First things first, I can’t help you clear your status as suspects. Who knew you were going to appear at where Latte dies, and happened to be in a conflict with him. Not to mention you had Miluo’s son with you."

Mizerui snapped, "If you guys could clear your suspicions, then I could probably usurp the Dragon Emperor’s throne already."

"Yeah, yeah, I know." Kaiser curled his lips. He already knew about this, so he didn’t even go look for the principal; why in the world would he go to Top Ten Wanted criminal for like this?

"Then what do you want from me?" Mizerui had now gotten curious.

"This is how things went…"

Already knew Mizerui was very curious by nature, Kaiser shamelessly laughed, and told him everything about Liola’s plan to seduce Cappuccino.

Mizerui relished the idea, and even occasionally yell out "Nice!". Before Kaiser said anything about what he wanted, Mizerui had already excitedly took out numerous contact lense cases and a very elegant pearl necklace.

"Green, blue, black…" Mizerui fumbled through different contact lense cases while murmuring their colors.

Kaiser’s eyes were fixated on the pile of boxes, and then he grabbed one of them, "Let’s go with purple. Purple will go well with Liola’s black hair."

Mizerui nodded, then threw the pearl necklace to Liola and said, "Magic has been applied to this necklace, and it will let you make the most crisp, alluring female voice in the world."

Liola looked at the necklace full of large and round pearls. He still felt somewhat helpless at the thought of crossdressing to seduce someone.

Kaiser, instead, looked up and down strangely at Mizerui, "Do you have a habit of crossdressing or something? Why else would you carry these around?"

Mizerui knocked Kaiser’s forehead hard, and explained while Kaiser was howling in pain,

"I am a wanted man after all, and the contact lenses are for my disguises. As for the necklace, I had, once upon a time, listened to a female star sing, and then I accidentally noticed she was cheating with this necklace. So I conveniently stole it. Who knew the woman was actually a dangerous Assassin, so I killed her conveniently."

"Conveniently… Don’t tell me that’s how you got on the top ten Wanted list?" Kaiser was sweating.

"Oh, one of the reasons. After all, that woman was famous as the best singer in the world at the time, and no one knew she was an Assassin." Mizerui said casually.

"Assassin?" Kaiser scratched his face, "Don’t tell me she has something to do with Gladiolus and all them?"

"She’s known as Anthurium from the Six Forbidden Sins, and as a result I can’t go to the Dark Arena to gamble, not to mention I owe Gladiolus a favor now." Mizerui said naturally.

"So you’ve already taken out one of the Six Forbidden Sins…"

Mizerui suddenly turned to look at the door, and said with a smile,

"Looks like your friends are back. I’m going to leave for now, but you guys better put on a great show for me to watch." Mizerui’s body faded away like he usually did.

The moment Mizerui disappeared, Meinan and Purity both barged in. Meinan had a formal dress in his hands, and Purity was holding a little box. As soon as they entered the room, Purity started to complain,

"Meinan, why did you have to say I’m going to the dance with Daylight? Now Lanski and Jasmine both said they will be there to watch us. What are we going to do?"

"I didn’t have a choice. I had to find an excuse to borrow things from those two." Meinan said grievingly.

Kaiser ran up and grabbed the things from their hands, and said, "Forget about it. Come here and help me dress up this guy."

All three of them each took a tool and closed in on the Assassin.

Liola faced Meinan with the dress, Purity with the hair dryer and comb, and Kaiser with mascara.

For some who had been in countless battles, Liola felt his instincts screaming at him to run away. He had a feeling this would fail… but them three did not give Liola the chance to run, and pounced at him like wolves on a sheep.

"Aiyo, why is this mascara so hard to use?" Kaiser complained.

He didn’t know how to correctly use mascara, but it probably shouldn’t be stabbed like a spear.

Liola had to use his Ki to block Kaiser’s ‘stabbing’ mascara. If all women used mascara like this, every woman in the world would’ve been blind.

"Let’s style your hair…" Purity grabbed Liola’s black hair, and turned the hair dryer on its highest.

‘HOT!’

Liola immediately protected his scalp with his Ki, to prevent his own head from emitting a charred skin smell… No wonder Purity always tied her hair up with a rubber band.

"Huh? Why is there a skirt in a skirt? Which side is inside? Which side is the front? Why is there armor inside?" Meinan fumbled the shirt left and right.

"That’s called a vest, and it’s used to contour the body." Purity glanced in his direction, and then continued to mess with Liola’s hair.

"Oh…" Meinan tilted his head while looking at the vest. ‘Was this something to be worn inside or the outside? Armor… was usually worn outside, right?’

"Hey, Meinan, don’t forget to stuff something near the chest." Kaiser poked his head out to remind Meinan.

… After hours of frustration, Liola deeply felt being a woman was more dangerous than being an Assassin. Not only could he go blind, get burnt, he might even suffocate from the tight vest.

"Sigh~" Three of them all sighed in relief, and declared success. They all took a few steps back to examine their guinea pig.

They saw an unknown lifeform with a ponytail, and on it there was a pink large bowtie.

His face had a layer of ‘flour’, and his cheeks had two large, bright red circles. His red lipsticks extended outside of the lines of his lips, and he wore a blue and ugly, puffy dress with a bowtie. He even had an vest on the outside of his dress.

Liola by Meina, Purity, and Kaiser

The three of them stared at the unknown lifeform for quite a while before Purity awkwardly said, "The pig Prince isn’t too picky, right?"

The room echoed the sound of someone dying of laughter, but no one could see the person laughing. The laugh, of course, sounded like it came from that certain person with 100 points for his posture.

Daylight was awoken by the laughter. Since his bed was directly facing the unknown lifeform, as soon as he sat up, he saw this unsightly scene.

His face immediately turned pale. He took a very deep breath and screamed, "Ghost!" Daylight then fainted back onto the bed.

The three people finally couldn’t refuse to admit the lifeform before them looked more like a ghost than a beautiful woman.

Seeing their efforts had created a monster, they stared at each other and didn’t know what to do...

"Purity, why did you take mommy’s makeup kit? How can mommy go to tonight’s dance… Holy! What evil spirit dares to perturb this ground!"

Everyone heard and turned to look at the door, and they saw the Red Commander straightened her finger and pointed at Liola, and the cannon on her left arm looked like it was about to fire.

"Mommy!" Purity immediately rushed up to stop her,

"No, that’s my classmate. We’re helping with the dressing up for tonight’s dance, but I think we failed…"

"It’s possible to fail so much for it would look like this?"

The Red Commander restrained herself from her desire to blow this monster to smithereens. She carefully walked up to the monster, and carefully examined "it". "It" looked back at the Red Commander with helplessness.

It wasn’t until then the Red Commander realized, the monster in front of her had a pair of beautiful eyes. If it weren’t for the flour on the face, the zombie-like blush, and the sausage lips, Red Commander suddenly realized the person would’ve been absolutely drop-dead gorgeous.

"Don’t tell me it’s a beauty?" Red Commander murmured, and at the same time turned to look at her daughter. Sigh!

The other two were guys, so it was understandable. But her own daughter somehow managed to turn a beauty into a monster, sigh...

The Red Commander accepted her fate and started to clean up this monster her daughter had created.

She commanded, "You, go wash off everything on your face. Purity, you, Meinan, and Child Face go get my #8, #10, and #13 boxes."

‘C-child Face?’ Kaiser pointed at himself unbelievably. ‘What the hell, it’s called delicate, okay?!’

Before Kaiser had a chance to protest, Purity and Meinan had already dragged Kaiser out of the room. Purity turned her head to say to her mom as she was leaving, "It’s all up to you, mommy."

"No problem, no problem." The Red Commander waved her hand to hurry them, then urged the monster again to wash its face.

* * *


Our monster, Liola, was a bit hesitant. But since the Red Commander pushed him into the bathroom, Liola had no choice but wash his face.

He frowned as he thought; did those three forget "he" was actually a man? When he washed off the makeup on his face, and showed up in front of the Red Commander with a bowtie dress, would she open her cannon to blow him away?

Liola finished washing his face, but didn’t know what to do next. The Red Commander had already impatiently pushed open the door and barged in. Liola was still considering whether he should be running away, but she had already rushed up to him, and grabbed Liola’s face to examine it.

She then admired and complimented, "Such a classic beauty!"

"Uh?"

Even the calm Assassin couldn’t stop feeling strange, but the Red Commander didn’t give Liola the chance to hesitate.

She grabbed him and ran outside, then forcefully made Liola sit down on a chair. She was 100x more skilled than Kaiser, and she skillfully began to apply different kinds of makeup on Liola’s face, while she explained what she was doing… or perhaps it was more accurate to say she was talking to herself.

"Aiya, your skin is really nice. We just need a thin layer of foundation."

"A little too pale, but this seem even more classic! I think I should skip the blush."

"Tsk tsk, your eyelashes are so long they’re going to scare people to death! Let’s skip the mascara, and I think it would be enough to curl them."

"Your eyes are purple, that’s really pretty. So let’s use purple eye shadow then."

Liola helplessly listened, and he finally concluded: Kaiser’s noisy chatter actually had a female version!

At this time, the door opened again. Three people walked in, each with a box about half as tall as them. Purity yelled, "Mommy, we’re back with the boxes."

The Red Commander stopped putting things on Liola’s face, and nodded at them three, telling them to put the boxes down. She immediately started to fumble through the boxes, and finally she took out a light violet formal dress, a black long wig, and some accessories.

After searching for a long while, the Red Commander wiped the sweat off her forehead, and found everything she was looking for. She frowned and look at them, then yelled,

"Go on. Women are changing, what are you men doing here? Meinan and Child face, go change your clothes. The dance is about to start. Oh and, take the one on the bed with you too."

Kaiser and Meinan had to shake Daylight to wake up, and then they awkwardly walked out of the room. As they left, they all curiously turned around to see if the Assassin had turned into a beauty.

Unfortunately, Liola was also curious himself, and he was looking into a mirror with his back towards them, so they had to leave without seeing what Liola had looked like.

Fortunately, they would be able to see soon.

Back to top
divider

Chapter 2 : The Moonlit Beauty Lila

This volume was brought to you by AnmesicCat, Masadeer, and StellarAshes.
divider

"Hey, have you heard? The Dragon Emperor decided on a crusade against the Black Dragon King Miluo. He also wanted an alliance with us Aklan and the Commerce Alliance to deal with him together."

"It's not strange for the Dragon Emperor to be this angry. After all, his son was slaughtered..."

Because they were waiting at the banquet door waiting for the 'ladies' to arrive, Kaiser, Meinan, and Daylight heard many people chattering about various rumors.

Kaiser didn't seem to care. After all, he would have to be on the run soon, so why would he care so much?

Meinan did knit his brows when he heard them, while Daylight seemed to have gotten angry, murmuring something about Miluo being outrageous and took the lives of many innocent people, as well as other righteous things.

"Ahhh choo~" Kaiser sneezed for the eighteenth time, and he uncomfortably pulled the red bowtie on his neck and complained,

"I'm never wearing suits like this again. It's making me itchy everywhere. And why is this tie so tight, what the hell! If Liola doesn't come soon, I'm going back to sleep. It's so late, why did these crazy insomniacs decide to have a banquet…"

Kaiser kept complaining, and did not notice the crowd talking about the rumors had suddenly gotten quiet. Everyone's eyes were fixed in the same directions.

Meinan was the first among them to look in the direction of the crowd. As he did so, Meinan acted exactly as everyone else did: He took a deep breath and stared with his jaws open for a long time before he gulped and said,

"God, too beautiful, this is simply the most beautiful work of art I've ever seen. Its beauty rivals the Goddess Venus, or maybe an angel."

"What's gotten into you! Did you see your Mona Lisa walk out of a painting?"

Kaiser said as he turned his head in the direction of Meinan's gaze. He saw a woman slowly approaching them.

Her facial details were delicate and picturesque, and her mysterious slender eyes intoxicated everyone with its purple, star-like light, but her sword-like thin brows made her seem majestic and untouchable. Her dark, straight hair was embroidered with a violet hair clip. The moonlight softly overlay on her light purple dress, making her seem like a fairy born out of the moonlight.

The purple-eyed beauty had another refreshing beauty next to her: she was wearing a puffy dress with blue bowties. Her large eyes looked around uneasily, with a shy blush on her face. Though she couldn't bring people to their knees like her companion, but she still could make one feel a sense of sympathy and affection.

The two different beauties slowly walked to the banquet entrance under the gaze of everyone present. The refreshing beauty seemed to smile after she looked around for a while, then she grabbed the Moon Fairy and walked.

Every man present stared with danger in their eyes, wanting to figure out who dared to be the date of their Moonlit Beauty.

When the two beelined towards Kaiser and others without any hesitation, they suddenly noticed they were surrounded by murderous eyes. Three of them stared as the two beauties walked heading their way, and then all three of them all did the same thing: turned to look at the other two, and asking with their eyes, "Do you guys know them?"

They kept their pose until the two beauties stood still in front of them.

The refreshing beauty opened her mouth, "Did you guys wait long? Sorry~, mommy forced me to dress up, so it took some time."

"Purity?!" Their jaws dropped to the floor.

Although a girl was said to change significantly as she matures into womanhood, but they had only been apart for a bit over an hour, how could she have changed this quickly?

Three of them stared at Purity in astonishment for a long while before they finally remembered there was an even more earthshaking beauty next to her.

They moved their sluggish gaze to the Moonlit Beauty, and their feelings were quite mixed. Although the person in front of them was definitely a "him", they were unwilling to admit the beauty was a "him".

"Li…" Kaiser forced himself to open his mouth to confirm this person's identity, but he saw every man tilted their heads to listen, Kaiser had to change his words mid-sentence, "Li… la?"

The Moonlit Beauty… also known as our "male" protagonist Liola, though skeptical at Kaiser's abbreviation, still nodded.

Though they already knew who this person probably was, but seeing him admitting to his identity, Kaiser and others took a very deep breath. Alas, this world was now one beauty less than it would have!

Lila and Purity

Being stared at by countless eyes, even Liola felt a bit uneasy, but his companions were still enjoying the look of his face.

Liola helplessly said, "Let's hurry and go in to look for Cappuccino to get this over with. I put Baolilong in the dorm to sleep. When it wakes up and can't find me, it's going to throw a tantrum."

Who knew as soon as he spoke, Kaiser, Meinan, and Daylight fell even deeper into a trance. Liola's voice was completely different than before, and his voice was as clear and wonderful as the sound of wind chimes. Despite of the boring nature of what he said, it sounded like music to those who heard.

Seeing his companions' minds were completely vacant, Liola frowned. Who knew his frown made all the men take several deep breaths again.

There were a few fascinated men walking towards him, Liola glanced coldly at them, vaguely showing the imposing manner of an Assassin. Those few men shivered, and they were immediately 'awakened' by Liola's coldness, then took a few steps back.

"Kaiser, let's go."

Liola impatiently grabbed Kaiser and walked. Having received stares of admiration from his own gender, even Liola, who usually would completely ignore it, had a hard time bearing with it. He just wanted to quickly get the Dragon cross necklace back, and then dress down from his disguise.

"Huh? Oh, oh."

Kaiser finally seemed to have woken up from his daze when he was grabbed, remembering the person in front of him wasn't some beautiful, soft beauty, but instead a ridiculously strong Assassin.

After Kaiser remembered who the person was, he looked at Liola's face again. This time, he no longer saw some moonlight Goddess's face, but instead, an impatient Assassin freezing everyone around him with his eyes.

"Hey! You have to seduce Cappuccino, not to freeze him into an ice cube, okay? Then smile… no wait! Don't laugh. Every time you smile, something bad happens, even though what we're doing isn't exactly something good."

Kaiser demanded Liola, whom although unwilling, still softened his expression a bit.

"Beautiful art! My Goddess Venus!" Meinan was still fully immersed in his fantasy as he walked behind Liola's skirt, and he continued to murmur as he did so, which made the Assassin want to kick him to get him out of it.

It wasn't just Meinan who was following Liola's skirt. In fact, Liola's skirt was like a magnet, and a pile of paper clips were uncontrollably following them.

A long line of male beings were following Liola with the same expression as Meinan, trying to walk with their moonlight Goddess. Had the Goddess's 'frozen rays' not been as powerful, every male would've already rushed up to take Kaiser's place.

* * *


As Liola disappeared into the dance, the originally crowded entrance was suddenly completely empty, leaving behind only Purity and Daylight to stare at one another.

Purity timidly opened her mouth to ask, "Uh… Daylight, why aren't you going in?"

Daylight forced a smile, "I don't have an invitation. Meinan was supposed to take me in, but he seemed to have completely forgotten."

As soon as he finished, Daylight seemed to have remembered something. He added, "Right, Purity, you look beautiful today."

Hearing this, Purity shook her head and said, "Not at all, Liola-dage is the one who's truly beautiful."

"Haha, if Liola heard what you've said, he probably wouldn't be too happy." Daylight let out a laugh.

Purity laughed as well, and she added, "Liola-dage was already unhappy, because my mommy was so slow she didn't realize he was a guy. A little while ago, she kept pestering Liola-dage to marry my brother Feir."

"Uh? Are you serious?"

Daylight paused for a moment, and pictured in his mind the scene of Feir and the 'beauty' Liola standing together… It did seem like they would make a good couple. After looking at Purity, they both realized the other had the same thought, and they both shared a laugh.

Purity said as she laughed, "Daylight, be my date for this dance. Let's hurry and go see Liola-dage seduce the Prince. If they were judged purely on appearance, they would be like a beautiful Princess and a Prince!"

"Okay!" Daylight smiled, but then said awkwardly, "But… in a bit, you have to dance with me."

"Okay."

Purity laughed. Her pure, unadulterated smile almost made Daylight stare.

* * *


Liola had just entered the dance, but the situation turned out to be the same as outside. The place was originally filled with people chattering, but starting from the entrance, the place where Liola and Kaiser stood, silence began to fan out until finally, the whole place began to be eerily quiet.

"Where?" Liola asked calmly as always.

Kaiser had already been looking around to find their target, but he hadn't been able to find traces of Cappuccino. Kaiser knitted his brows, thinking if he stood up the girl of his dreams.

"Let's look around." Kaiser said lightly, then led Liola into the dance.

Since the dance took place at the practice fields of the School of Knights, it spanned over quite a large area. There were also many champagne pyramids and bouquets of flowers, obstructing their views, not to mention the sheer amount of people present. Perhaps Cappuccino was in the crowd, and therefore Kaiser couldn't find him.

At first, Kaiser could easily take Liola through a pile of frozen male statues, but as more and more of them woke up, the path became harder to traverse. Had it not been Liola using his cold eyes and freeze rays, they would have already been surrounded.

Seeing they could barely move, Kaiser became more anxious. If this weren't elegant dance, Kaiser would have screamed Cappuccino's name… but if he did so, would the waiters think he's ordering coffee?

While Kaiser and Liola were walking in circles, the music started to play.

A few men unwillingly grabbed their dates' hands and walked into the dance floor, but they still occasionally glanced at Liola from the corners of their eyes. Some men even ignored their dates complaints and hammerings, and stared at Liola blankly. A few men even walked up to them, even Liola's freeze rays couldn't stop the passion in these men's eyes.

"Beautiful miss, may I have the honor of this dance?"

A few men said at once. People surely needed some pioneers before they would do the same. As soon as these few men spoke, others immediately followed. In an instant, the dance floors were filled with sounds of invitation. They all seemed to fear Liola was deaf, and each yelled louder than the previous.

Liola's face got colder and colder as the invitations piled up. Kaiser, however, was almost pierced by the gazes of disdain and jealousy.

Kaiser… started to laugh sinisterly. Did these rich people really think they could scare him with their eyes?

'Hmmph! I will make you all die of jealousy!"

Kaiser, without a single bit of concern, grabbed the Goddess in everyone's eyes and headed straight to the dance floor.

Although Kaiser didn't know how to dance, and Liola didn't even know what dance even was, Kaiser looked at the couples near them and imitated them by putting his hand on Liola's waist, and said playfully,

"Hey, put your hand on my shoulder."
"What for?"

Liola did as Kaiser asked, but judging from the dancers next to them, Liola didn't understand why he should do so, especially since the taller person placed their hands on the shorter person. Logically speaking, shouldn't he have put his hands on Kaiser's waist?

"Trying to lose the crowd, discuss what we're going to do, and dance with you so those who dared to glare at me can die in jealousy." Kaiser said, and then looked proudly at those jealous, disappointed, and depressed emn.

Seeing Kaiser's gloating expression as he danced with him, Liola had a feeling the order Kaiser stated seemed to be incorrect.

Though Liola felt helpless, he had no choice because he couldn't find Cappuccino, and if he were to leave the dance floor, there probably would be another pile of men trying to invite him to dance.

"Excuse me, may I exchange dance partners with you?"

As soon as he heard, Kaiser immediately turned his head and said in the most condescending tone, "Sorry! Not in a million years… uh! Your Majesty?"

When his head fully turned around, Kaiser's eyes almost popped out. The delicate man in front of him was definitely the Dragon Emperor! The partner he wanted to exchange was Lanski in a black formal dress.

Lanski was trying to use her eyes to hint at Kaiser. But after seeing Kaiser still confused, Lanski decided to walk up and grabbed Kaiser.

Before she left, she threw a smile at Liola and said, "Let me borrow your date, and please have a dance with my father."

No, he can't leave Liola with the Dragon Emperor! Though Kaiser desperately struggled, but how could a weak Sorcerer break away from a Knight's grasp? Tears rolled down Kaiser's face as he was dragged away by Lanski.

Was Kaiser's face trying to tell him not to get into trouble or not to dance with the Dragon Emperor? Liola contemplated. It was far too difficult for anyone to guess Kaiser's meaning from tears, rolling eyes, and a frown.

"Hello."

As if he were afraid of scaring the girl before him, the Dragon Emperor did not carry his usual solemnness, but instead with a faint smile, which made him look even more like a handsome young man. Liola didn't know what he should do, so he frowned as he looked back.

"Please don't misunderstand. I'm actually very old." The Dragon Emperor smiled lightly,

"And I have no fetish with younger ones. The reason I'm here is because you look very similar to my wife who had passed away, so I presumptuously asked you to dance with me."

'The Emperor wanted to dance simply because I looked like the Queen.' Liola thought and relaxed.

'This shouldn't cause any trouble, right?' Liola nodded lightly at the Emperor, whom elegantly bowed to Liola, gesturing an invitation to dance.

Liola confoundedly look at the Emperor as he bowed and then put his right hand in front of Liola, but he didn't know how to respond. Kaiser didn't seem to do something like this a moment ago?

Right as Liola was at his wit's end, Kaiser ran back with Lanski. Lanski was no longer trying to pull Kaiser away, and all she did was curiously look at her father and the woman who looked extremely similar to her mother. It looked like these two had come to some sort of agreement…

In reality, however, it was because Kaiser understood the reason and promised Lanski not to disturb her father. Lanski herself really wanted to watch her father dancing, so she came back with Kaiser.

Seeing the Emperor had already bowed with his right hand reaching out for more than ten seconds, Kaiser hurried Liola with his eyes, but the Assassin had no idea of the rules to a dance, and his eyes were still filled with confusion.

After Kaiser scratched his head, Kaiser bowed towards Lanski and reached out his right hand. Lanski, who knew the formalities well, naturally placed her hand into Kaiser's, and Liola finally understood what he should do.

Liola imitatively placed his hand on the Emperor's hand. The Dragon Emperor, who had waited for quite a while, didn't seem impatient at all, but instead naturally put his hand on Liola's waist.

"I'm sorry. I'm not familiar with dancing." Liola said calmly. Compared to letting the Dragon Emperor find out the hard way, he'd rather admit it first.

"So that's why. Then try following my lead. When I back up, you take a step forward."

The Dragon Emperor took a step back with his right leg, and Liola followed a step forward with his left.

The Dragon Emperor smiled and said, "Great, now take one step to your right, and then one step back. Follow these steps along, and I will lead on you everything else."

Liola did as the Dragon Emperor said. At first, they were just dancing at one spot, but then the Dragon Emperor started to speed up, and at the same time led Liola to dance in circles. Liola's purple dress and the Dragon Emperor's purple robe seemed to be intertwined into two beautiful, purple circles.

* * *


"Kaiser, who is that beautiful woman?"

Lanski couldn't refrain from asking. As soon as this woman entered, Lanski noticed her father, whose heart was like calm water, was actually staring at the woman.

At first, Lanski thought her father was captivated under the glamour of her beauty as well, but his eyes didn't seem like he was fascinated. Instead, his face was filled with surprise and nostalgia.

Lanski carefully examined the beautiful woman in purple, she realized the beauty looked practically identical to her mother's portrait in her father's room!

"Her… She's Liola's sister." Kaiser answered timidly. Fearing Lanski would notice 'she' looked like Liola, so he decided to tell her she's Liola's sister.

Siblings looking alike, no one would be suspicious of that, right?

Hearing she's the sister of someone Lanski was familiar with, she was quite surprised, and at the same time realized the woman's facial features were indeed similar to Liola's.

"So it turns out she's Liola's sister, then I can finally relax. It's good that she's not someone of an unknown origin."

Lanski took a deep breath, and lowered her guard down towards the woman. She happily looked at the two purple circles on the dance floor with some unspeakable anticipation.

"Relax? What do you mean?" Seeing Lanski's indescribable expression and hearing her strange words, Kaiser had a very bad feeling about all this.

"Don't you think she's quite a match with my father?"

Lanski smiled as she pointed at the couple everyone admired. She was agreeable to the idea of her father finding another woman, and even encouraged it. After all, her mother had been dead for more than twenty years, and her brother had just passed away yesterday in such a tragic manner.

Thinking about this, Lanski's mood sank a bit. Though she hadn't been on good terms with her brother, and they weren't even born from the same mother, but knowing her brother was electrocuted to death, Lanski still felt uneasy in her heart, and she could only imagine how her father could possibly feel.

Lanski remembered ever since yesterday, her father hadn't shown even a sign of a smile. If it weren't for the fact he had to discuss the possibility of an alliance with Aklan Republic and the Commerce Alliance to fight against Miluo, her father probably would have already left this sad place...

"A match?!" Kaiser finally understood what his bad feeling was!

What the hell! They were here to seduce Cappuccino, but why the heck did they end up seducing Cappuccino's father instead?!

This felt just like going to the kitchen to grab food to eat during the middle of the night and getting caught by Auntie, and then she jammed the entire pail of food down his throat.

Seeing Kaiser's mouth open so wide a chicken could fit inside, Lanski immediately started to explain on behalf of her father,

"Don't dislike my father because you think he's old. My father has already reached the stage where he could maintain his age. Although he's already several hundred years old, but he could probably live a few hundred years more."

'Not only is he homosexual, but he's a really old guy hitting on a young person?' Kaiser's expression became stranger.

* * *


"We've been dancing for quite a while, but I still haven't caught your name?"

The Emperor didn't know his daughter was trying to find him another wife, but he did feel a strange connection to the girl in front of him. Considering she looked so much like his wife who passed away, she should have some relation to her, right?

'Name?' Liola remembered the abbreviated name Kaiser called him, and answered, "Lila."

"Lila?" The Dragon Emperor repeated this name, and his eyes flashed strangely.

"Do you know where Cappuccino is?"

Liola suddenly asked, and the Dragon Emperor paused briefly before asking, "You know my third son?"

Liola nodded and explained, "I have a date with him."

"A date with my third son, is it? Unfortunately, he had been depressed due to the death of my second son, and therefore did not attend this dance."

Though the Emperor talked in a gentle voice, but for some reason, Liola felt coldness flashing by. When he looked curiously at the Emperor, he still maintained a light smile, making it impossible for Liola to guess what he was thinking.

"You learn quite quickly, and you can still follow me even though I'm dancing quickly." The Emperor complimented.

It wasn't until then that Liola noticed the speed at which they were dancing had already far surpassed the limit of an ordinary person. Liola was shocked. As the best Assassin, how could he have easily been lead to expose his secrets?

Liola raised his head again, and the Dragon Emperor still had a smile on his face, as if he had a smiling mask on at all times.

Liola suddenly stopped and pushed the Emperor away. Although Liola knew this would raise his suspicions even more, but the Assassin, who had never feared his opponents before, feared this unfathomable man.

"Are you tired?" The Dragon Emperor was not angry for being pushed away, but instead asked in a caring manner.

"Mhm." Being a bit away from the Dragon Emperor, Liola could finally maintain his calmness. Even if the Emperor realized his true identity, Liola thought, getting away shouldn't be a problem with his current strength.

The Dragon Emperor nodded and said, "Then, Lila, rest for a while, and I should be leaving. There will be a meeting tomorrow morning. It was a pleasure meeting you, Lila, and if you want to see Cappuccino, please come the place where we're currently staying. It will be our honor to have you as our guest."

Liola did not understand what the Dragon Emperor had planned. He obviously lead Liola into showing his strength, but now he was pretending he didn't know anything and even invited him to be his guest. He was confused… he was definitely not suitable, he thought, so he'd rather discuss it with Kaiser later.

"Understood. Thank you for your invitation." Liola could only reply in such manner.

After the Emperor elegantly bowed to Liola, he slowly walked out of the dance floor. When he passed Lanski, he even nagged a few things, such as "Don't stay too late", "Rest early", etc.

After the Emperor left, Lanski impatiently and anxiously grabbed Kaiser and ran up to Liola. Even the perverts around her couldn't rush as fast as she could.

Lanski's face was filled with jubilance, and said happily to Liola, "Hello, Lila-jiejie. I am Lanski, the Dragon Emperor's fourth child, and I'm friends with your brother!"

"My brother." Though Liola was confused, but he kept calm and used a declarative sentence to hint at Kaiser so Lanski wouldn't become suspicious.

"Right, Lila-jiejie, Lanski is good friends with your brother, Liola." Kaiser blinked, and quietly informed Liola he had become his own brother.

"Oh, nice to meet you, Lanski." After receiving Kaiser's hint, Liola calmly answered.

"Lila-jiejie, isn't my father a great guy?" Lanski asked happily while shaking Liola's hands.

'I think he's terrifying…' Liola didn't say his thoughts. Though he wasn't good with interpersonal relationships, but at least he knew not to say something bad of a girl's father in front of her.

Although Liola didn't say anything about the Emperor, Lanski saw her best candidate as her father's new wife didn't seem to like her father much, and she began to feel anxious. She grabbed Lila's hands, trying to convince her of all the good qualities of her father.

However, Liola had no time to listen to Lanski.

Standing in the center of the dance floor were two of the most beautiful women at the dance, and the surrounding floor showed signs of corrosion from saliva.

Not to mention the dishonorable Kaiser had already ran off, and he was standing outside of the blockade of people and waving at Liola. He tried to put on some compassion on his face to pity Liola's circumstances, but the exaggerated way he went about it showed he was actually rejoicing in Liola's misfortune.

Seeing the situation was getting out of control and Lanski was still endlessly talking about how good her father was, Liola interrupted Lanski and said awkwardly, "Lanski, this isn't the best place to talk."

Lanski suddenly stopped, and she realized the circle of perverts was closing in on them, to the point where they were only a few steps away.

Lanski obviously had a better handle on this than Liola, who had little experience being a beautiful woman. Lanski acted with the imposing manner of a royalty and waved her right arm, "Back off!"

Everyone around seemed to have woken up, and suddenly realized this may be the only Princess of the Dragon Empire, but with the Dragon Emperor being in Aklan Academy at this very moment, had they so much as touched her hair, they wouldn't have enough lives to answer to the Emperor.

No matter how much they want to hit on the hot girls, their lives were at stake! The crowd parted like the Red Sea.

"Let's go, Lila-jiejie." Lanski smiled and dragged Liola out of the dance.

Liola had no choice but follow Lanski. Lanski didn't forget to ask Kaiser to come along because she had something to say to Kaiser.

Lanski walked with Liola into the forest near the academy, and stopped next to a little lake.

Liola was very familiar with this place, since it was where he and Jasmine first met. He didn't expect Lanski would also know of this place, and he guessed it must've been Jasmine who brought her here.

"Kaiser, I have a message I want you to tell Silver Mask." Lanski suddenly turned around and said to Kaiser.

"Uh? What is it?" Kaiser was surprised.

Lanski said carefully,

"Please tell Silver Mask, because of my brother's sudden death, I was with my father last night and all of today, and so I couldn't wait for him in the School of Knights. Please clear this up with him for me, otherwise… I forced him to agree to go to the dance with me then I stood him up, he might hate me for it."

As she explained, Lanski's face seemed more and more depressed.

"Oh, don't worry, Silver Mask wouldn't get angry over something so small." Kaiser said carelessly, considering Silver Mask himself didn't make it, why would he be mad? Kaiser glanced at Liola and hinted with his eyes.

After that, Lanski said to Kaiser with embarrassment, "Kaiser, I have something to say to Lila-jiejie. Uh… could you give us a minute?"

Kaiser scratched his face, and threw an inquiring look at 'Lila-jiejie' whom, after a moment of thought, slightly nodded.

Kaiser shrugged at Lanski, indicating he didn't care, and then turned around in preparation to go back to the dorm to have a long-term intimacy with his pillow and sheets.

After Kaiser left, Lanski had an apologetic face towards Lila, "Lila-jiejie, I'm really sorry, asking you to stay like this."

"It's okay." Liola really didn't mind. Although he knew the person in front of him wasn't the person he had been missing, Liola did enjoy looking at Lanski's face and thinking about his past.

Lanski sat down, and Liola followed. Lanski began saying what she wanted to say to Lila,

"Lila-jiejie, please don't think my father is happy because he's always laughing. In reality, my father has rarely been truly happy ever since mother passed away."

Lanski laughed awkwardly, "Of course, this is what my third brother told me. After all, I hadn't seen my mother, but he had always told me when mother was still alive, father would often laugh heartedly, unlike how he is now."

Liola found it hard to imagine the Dragon Emperor with a hearty laugh. His mysterious nature had already been imprinted in Liola's mind.

"Hard to imagine, right?" Even Lanski herself couldn't fathom it,

"So I really want to see how he looks like with a hearty laugh. But father really loved mother, and he hasn't looked for a new wife in twenty years."

"Do you know? You are the first woman my father stared at in twenty years." Lanski said with excitement, but then she seemed a bit embarrassed as she added,

"Of course, not including me."

'Unfortunately I'm a man, so your father still hadn't stared at a 'woman'...' Liola thought in response to Lanski.

"So, Lila-jiejie, if possible, please consider my father. He is truly a good man." Lanski held Liola's hands tightly.

'Consider… what exactly?' Though Liola didn't understand, but he understood there were leeways involved with 'consider'. Nothing could go terribly wrong if he agrees, right? Liola nodded lightly.

"This is great!"

Lanski smiled brilliantly. It was unlike the Lanski Liola remembered, but rather more like Anise's smile. This made Liola smile without noticing.

'This is not great at all! What good can come from deceiving the Emperor's feelings?'

The four people eavesdropping behind a nearby tree — Kaiser, Meinan, Daylight, and Purity — had a feeling it would be better off if they start running now.

Back to top
divider

Chapter 3 : Blood Wolf's Bad News

This chapter was brought to you by AnmesicCat, BboyBrian, and StellarAshes.
divider

"I think this entire event is quite strange. Just because Miluo suddenly appeared and disappeared, the 3 Great Powers have to join forces to fight him? That's an overkill. No matter how strong Miluo may be, he is still just a Dragon"

"Idiot! Didn't you hear Miluo say he has allies?"

"Allies? What kind of allies would be able to resist against the 3 great countries?"

"Nobody knows whether there is a 4th great power in this world. Right, Miluo said there was a traitor, who knows it might just be you Aklan guys! First tell us what those students are doing wandering aimlessly about the place."

"What did you say! The Black Dragon is from your Dragon Empire, but you want to push the blame on us?!"

"Are you saying we're the traitors? Such a fat lie! Is the sacrifice of our second Princes fake?! If not for the alliance, we would have already gone back to the palace to hold a national mourning for the Prince. And you still haven't answered my question about your students!"

"Knock it off, our Commerce Alliance should find out the truth first. We can discuss alliance matters all we like afterwards."

The conference hall was triangular. On each side sat the Aklan Empire, the Dragon Empire and the Commerce Alliance respectively. Above the 3 vertices sat the Prime Minister Qiusi, the Dragon Emperor, and the 3 Leaders.

Since the start of the meeting, the 3 Great Powers had been arguing endlessly, the contents of their argument were none other than whether they should join forces to fight against Miluo.

Although the leaders of the 3 powers had not spoken, you could tell from their subordinates' words that the Aklan Empire was not interested in the alliance; the Commerce Alliance was just going to wait and see what would happen and only the Dragon Empire, who had lost a Prince and a few gold and silver-ranked knights, stubbornly wanted to form an alliance.

As for the leaders of the 3 powers, Qiusi had been listening seriously the whole time.

Among the 3 commanders of the Commerce Alliance, only the Green commander's eyebrows were knitted and he looked like he was pondering what had been said, whereas the Yellow commander was all muddled up by the conversation, and the Red commander didn't stop yawning.

However, everyone knew that within the Commerce Alliance, the Green commander is responsible for public affairs, the Yellow commander is in charge of training military and the Red commander's job is to develop new mechas, so no one bothered with their bad conduct.

The Dragon Emperor's face grew darker and darker. Finally, he slammed his fist down on the table. The loud bang echoed around the large hall and in an instant the 3 agitated parties were silent. Despite his black face, the Dragon Emperor still managed to restrain himself and said,

"Prime Minister Qiusi, Green commander, let's not allow our subordinates to continue spouting nonsense. Just state clearly whether or not you want to form an alliance."

There was a flicker in Qiusi's eyes. As an experienced Prime Minister, he was very familiar with dodging official decisions.

"About this... Your Majesty, I am but a Prime Minister, but the authority I have is nowhere near yours. If my subordinates do not wish to form an alliance, then no matter what my choice may be, nothing will change."

The Dragon Emperor shot an icy glance at Qiusi, which seemed to say, "I do not believe your words one bit."

However, Qiusi just gave a little innocent and apologetic smile in return.

When the Dragon Emperor turned to look at the Green commander, the commander sported a hesitant look and said, "Well, I would rather find out the truth first before deciding."

The two leaders' quibble really infuriated the Dragon Emperor. His face and tone turned to ice. Coldly, he said,

"If you do not want to join forces, that's fine, nobody will know who the traitor is and we would be vulnerable to sneak attacks. The Dragon Empire might as well fight alone!"

With that, the Dragon Emperor stopped talking and stared out of the window, ignoring everything else. His speech about the traitor descended like a black cloud over the other 2 parties.

They looked at each other nervously, thinking who could the traitor be? Or maybe the traitor was actually their own country, but the higher-ups kept mum about it so their subordinates would firmly deny any accusations?

Qiusi face remained unchanged, it still had its Prime Minister dignity, neither soft nor hard, and a slight smile. He stared at the Dragon Emperor, not knowing what he actually wanted.

The Green commander was kneading his temples, not knowing what to do.

"An alliance must be formed to fight against Miluo!"

There was a sudden loud roar and a black shadow flew in from the window, scattering shards of glass. In an instant, the 3 Great Powers each took up their spears and armored guns to guard their leaders, fearing the uninvited guest harbored bad intentions.

Only the Aklan Republic sat calmly in their seats. All of them had been promoted by Qiusi and had experience in managing countries. Their one flaw was they were neither Knights nor Mecha Fighters. Although considering the circumstances, it was strange the only ones without firepower would be the calmest, but maybe it was because they knew their Prime Minister's defense was unbreakable.

However, the uninvited guest was someone everyone knew. Even if some did not, they would have at least heard of him. The man rode on his trademark, a giant black wolf. Once the black wolf was identified, there was almost no one who did not know who the man was, for he was as renowned as Holy Knights - the Dark Knight Blood Wolf!

"Blood Wolf?"

Blood Wolf's sudden appearance surprised Qiusi. He initially thought the Dragon Emperor would get the more appealing Lancelot to advise them to form an alliance, so why would Blood Wolf come rushing out of nowhere?

Blood Wolf was an infamous Knight for not upholding the code of Knights, and he had never really obeyed the Dragon Emperor... Or maybe it was the exact attribute which would allow him to produce remarkable results concerning the alliance.

Qiusi's eyes did not stop gleaming, but for now he could only listen to what Blood Wolf had to say.

Blood Wolf had an anxious expression and he did not waste time, "At Yaron Plains, I felt a great amount of magic. In my whole life, I have not witnessed such complicated magic since I've fought with Gle."

The hall was suddenly quiet. A voice whispered,"Gle?"

The Dragon Emperor coldly said, "Didn't Miluo appeared in Freesia right from the start?"

The moment the Emperor's words were heard, the entire room raged with questions and discussions.

"Isn't Freesia the nearest place to the Yaron Plains?"

"Heavens! Miluo .... and G, Gle are acquainted, could the allies he talked about have been ..."

The speaker's mouth was immediately covered by the people beside him. Too much was at stake, and nobody dared to conclude about anything, much less think about concluding!

"Prime Minister Qiusi, what are your views about this matter?" A single sentence from the Dragon Emperor placed all the attention on Qiusi, the person who was the most familiar with magic, being a Sorcerer himself.

Qiusi coolly asked Blood Wolf, "What did the magic look like?"

In one leap, the giant wolf was beside Qiusi. Blood Wolf handed Qiusi a piece of white paper and explained,

"I have drawn the general shape and incantation of the magic, but I wasn't able to capture the details. After all, I am not a Sorcerer."

Qiusi casually replied, "Even if you were a Sorcerer, nowadays there aren't many who can recognize this kind of large scale magic. Right, how large was the magic symbol?"

Blood Wolf replied, "The magic symbol was circular, roughly 500 meters in diameter."

"500 meters?"

Qiusi suddenly had a strange expression. Other people would just think a 500 meter long magic is "gigantic", but as a Sorcerer, Qiusi knew such larger-scale magic would have an enormous magic-consumption rate, hence it could not be the work of a single Sorcerer.

Qiusi was doubtful as to whether the magic could even activate. There would have to be many Sorcerers, but in recent years Sorcerers had been fading out. Also, these Sorcerers would have to be comprised of — as they were called in ancient times — Magicians, not just people with special abilities. The Magicians would then need to fully understand the magic...

Qiusi frowned and explained to the terrified audience, "This is a summoning magic ritual, but it is just too big, I suspect it has another way to activate."

"What if it's him?"

Someone asked shakily. Everyone had the same question, no one doubted 'he' could activate the magic. After all, they all believed 'he' was an omnipotent Magician.

"If it's Gle, he wouldn't even need to draw the symbol." Qiusi said coldly. He was not going to use 'he' to address Gle. He despised those people. They look down on Sorcerers, but when it came to the most powerful Sorcerer named Gle, they didn't even dare to say his name, and for that he scorned them.

Blood Wolf scratched his head and asked, "So this magic symbol wasn't drawn by Gle?"

"Gle is no longer in this world." Qiusi calmly stated the fact.

Blood Wolf scratched his head again and seemed relieved. "Really? So have I been making a big fuss over nothing?"

"A fuss? This is such a gigantic magic symbol and you say you're just kicking up a fuss? Maybe, maybe it's Gle's descendent, who may possess the same powers as Gle... Ye, yeah, I once heard about the Aklan Republic sheltering his offspring." Someone from the Commerce Alliance shouted.

Everyone's eyes once again turned towards Qiusi, now filled with suspicion and shock. That year, Gle's unfathomable power had really scared them speechless, and no one was willing to overlook this matter.

"The Aklan Republic didn't shelter Gle's offspring." Despite the suspicious glares, Qiusi still maintained his disposition and replied calmly.

"Really?" The Dragon Emperor said. "Although it is rumoured Miluo first appeared in the Freesia, I know I had sealed him below the Yaron Plains, hence his first appearance should have been in the Yaron Plains. Now we have suddenly discovered a gigantic magic symbol in the Yaron Plains. I can't help but think these events are all connected. Prime Minister Qiusi, since it's come to this, do you still want to refuse to form an alliance?"

There was a glint in Qiusi's eyes, and he replied,

"I already told you, Your Majesty, I am no King, only a simple Prime Minister. If my subordinates are not willing to..."

Before Qiusi could finish speaking, he was interrupted by his own subordinates. Some of them said cowardly,

"Prime Minister, we feel it is better to form an alliance? If, if Miluo and Gle are really working together..."

Qiusi's icy glare swept towards them. "I've said it before, Gle is no longer in this world."

The Dragon Emperor glanced at Qiusi and gently said, "Not in this world? Why didn't you say he's dead?"

Everyone gasped. Qiusi had indeed been using the strange phrase 'not in this world'. Although it had the same meaning as 'dead', it could also imply other things.

Qiusi still kept his collected look and said plainly, "Your Majesty, please do not nitpick at my bad wording."

Till now, the two leaders both had a bit of a cold face and the atmosphere was stiff. However, based on the audience's immense reaction towards Gle, the situation seemed to be moving towards forming an alliance.

Blood Wolf scratched his head and said, "I don't understand, what's wrong with forming an alliance first? It won't even matter if there isn't anything wrong."

All who were shocked at the mention of Gle immediately nodded their heads fervently and looked at Qiusi, who was most against forming an alliance. Qiusi almost couldn't resist shooting a sharp glare at Blood Wolf.

"I think we can look at this from a long-term perspective..." Qiusi answered tactfully, since he did not want to be guilty of a public outrage.

"There's no need to! My Dragon Empire is willing to fight alone."

The Dragon Emperor coldly admonished Qiusi, and stormed out of the conference hall. The rest of the Dragon Empire followed their leader, not forgetting to give the other 2 groups some disdainful looks first.The alliance was broken. Not only was the Commerce Alliance disappointed in Qiusi, there were even some from the Aklan Republic who wanted to hate their leader for it.

Deep down, Qiusi laughed a bitter laugh. He had really lost the bout badly.

* * *


Qiusi wasn't the only one mulling over matters, his son Meinan and company were also considering a tough question: Should they continue looking for Cappuccino?

Although Kaiser was all for giving up, the Assassin showed a surprising amount of stubbornness, he was even willing to disguise himself up as the female tormentor again, and insisted the Dragon Cross Necklace must be retrieved.

"What if we bump into the Dragon Emperor again? Even his daughter told you to consider her father!" Kaiser looked straight at Liola.

Even though Liola knew what 'consider' really meant based on Kaiser's previous explanation, he didn't think it was much of a problem.

He coolly said, "We can get the Dragon Cross Necklace and leave."

"Well, if you say so... " Kaiser thought they should cause more trouble since they were going to run away anyhow, otherwise wouldn't it seem to belittle their prestige as the Aklan Troublemaking Squad?

"No! You're forgetting something very important." Meinan said suddenly and seriously raised a finger.

"Huh?" Kaiser immediately leapt up and asked, worried.

"As long as he has the Dragon Cross Necklace, the Dragon Emperor would know about us like the back of his hand, didn't the principal say that?" Meinan exclaimed.

"Hmph!" Kaiser lazily spread himself out on the bed once again. "Calm down, calm down. I've already considered this problem."

"You've got an idea? What is it?" Meinan asked curiously.

"Secret!" Kaiser purposely laughed mysteriously, which really sparked Meinan's curiosity. Kaiser scratched his face and said,

"However, the fact that the Dragon Emperor knows the location of Dragon Cross Necklace where ever we go is a problem. Once we grab the Necklace, we must immediately use Baolilong to run away, otherwise we will be in big trouble."

Kaiser then took a deep breath and said, "Let me be clear, Daylight, you have to leave with us. As for Purity and Meinan, we might have to part ways"

The moment Kaiser said it, everyone fell silent. Purity reluctantly asked, "Do you guys really need to leave?"

Kaiser said, "If we don't leave, then should we wait until we are arrested and then try to jailbreak?"

"I don't want to leave, I haven't completed my studies." Daylight firmly opposed Kaiser's advice.

Kaiser stayed silent for a while, then said, "I'm not going to force you to run. Purity and Meinan should be fine since their family background is prestigious. However, you have no family to back you up whatsoever, so the situation will be much worse for you.

Daylight frowned, "But I haven't done anything wrong, so I should be fine..."

"This isn't a question of whether or not you have done anything wrong." Kaiser said somewhat annoyed.

"This whole situation needs someone to shoulder the blame, and if we run away without you, you will definitely be the one who has to do the shouldering!"

Liola had been silent for the whole time. He did not know what to do altogether. The words "The Dragon Cross Necklace must be retrieved.", echoed with steadily growing voices in his heart, and Liola could not ignore them.

However, towards his tired comrades, Liola's heart was one of remorse and self-accusal, but he knew even if he wanted to shoulder the entire blame, all of Aklan Academy knew the few of them were almost always together, which would make Kaiser and the rest accomplices.

"But my studies..." Daylight had a troubled expression.

"Just listen to me." Kaiser mercilessly interrupted him. "I have a feeling Miluo is not faking and the situation will continue to escalate. Once a war breaks out, do you think that you can still continue studying?"

Daylight however, was even more insistent than before. He almost roared,

"If a war breaks out, then I would have a duty to take part in it and prevent Miluo from doing whatever he wants!"

"Hey hey, just how~~ big an impact do you think a single Blue Knight would be able to make on the war? Or maybe you're thinking of annoying Miluo to death with your mouth? That might really be possible. After all, nobody can stand you of preaching the code of knights for hours." Kaiser shot out a stream of his finest sarcasm.

Upon hearing Kaiser's sharp sarcasm, Daylight's face turned red, and he shook with anger. His mouth twitched furiously but stayed soundless, his hands clenched and loosened up. At last, Daylight stormed out of the room without looking back and slammed the door shut.

"Just a slam of the door and that's it? I thought he would have punched me, or at the least lecture me for a bit. In the end there is nothing... Who exactly instilled in him the Knightly-spirit?" Kaiser asked in amazement.

"I know it is all for Daylight's own good, but even so you still shouldn't phrase it so outrageously." Meinan grimaced.

"Exactly. What you said was really too much, Kaiser." Purity balled her fist to help Daylight hammer Kaiser, but the latter comfortably got out of the way.

"Alright alright, Purity you should also stop hitting Kaiser. Go out and check on Daylight."

Meinan was urgently trying to separate the two, but when Purity noticed Kaiser was not hurt and instead seemed to be enjoying it, she got furious and kicked Kaiser in the leg, hard. Then, she stomped out of the room after Daylight.

Ignoring Kaiser's howls of pain, Meinan suggested, "Maybe my dad can protect him, after all he is a Blue Knight and the time he spent with us was the shortest. If he wants to join the fight against Miluo, he probably won't get tangled up in this matter."

Kaiser wasn't interested in the suggestion. Without even lifting his head off the pillow, he said, "A Knight who is overflowing with knightly-spirit wouldn't survive the battlefield."

"Oh!" Meinan finally realized Kaiser's true intentions in making Daylight leave. He stood up and said,

"I'll go find Jasmine so she can arrange for Cappuccino to meet with us and advice Daylight to leave with you."

"Hey!" Kaiser finally lifted his head off his pillow and stopped Meinan.

"Your dad and Purity's mom wouldn't be foolish enough to let you two naive fellows on the battlefield, right?"

Kaiser really couldn't change his tawdry mouth! As expected, he was awkward.

Meinan couldn't resist laughing and said, "Rest assured, the Red commander wouldn't dare to send Purity to war, and as for me, it's not like you haven't seen how my father treats me, do your think he would send me to the battlefield?"

"Ok." Kaiser didn't say anymore and immediately buried his face back into his pillow, as if he wanted to hide his queasy expression.

When Meinan saw him, he couldn't help but laugh out loud. Even Liola chuckled lightly, which made Kaiser's ears turn red.

Finally, Kaiser jumped up with his face flushed and shouted, "What are you laughing about? You're so noisy I can't sleep! Meinan why haven't you gone to look for Jasmine and Daylight! And Liola you go cook some meat to feed your son, why are you just staring into space!"

"Ok, I'll go immediately, hahaha!" Meinan laughed as he skipped out of the room. Kaiser angrily ground his teeth in frustration and even threw his beloved pillow across the room.

"Papa, Kaiser's face looks as red as fresh beef."

Baolilong drooled as it stared at Kaiser's "Fresh-beef" face. Kaiser fiercely glared at Baolilong, who did not know what it had done. Baolilong's eyes watered, and it grudgingly hid behind Liola and buried its head into Liola's chest.

"I'm taking Baolilong to eat now. Should I bring some meat back for you?" Liola grinned and asked.

"Rubbish! Would you rather I starve to death?" Kaiser pretended to be angry and turned away.

"Got it." As Liola carried Baolilong out of the room, he couldn't stop the corners of his mouth from twitching upwards.

Back to top
divider

Chapter 4 : Mystery of the Past

This chapter was brought to you by AnmesicCat and StellarAshes.
divider

Due to the fact he wasn't allowed to leave Aklan Academy, Liola held Baolilong and planned to grab a few pieces of frozen meat from Auntie's meat transportation Maxun. However, considering Baolilong's terrifying appetite, Liola changed his route to look for a cart to retrieve meat from the transportation Maxun.

Before he even got to the Maxun, he saw Auntie's mountain-like body. Liola pushed the cart along with Baolilong, who was playing on the cart, towards Auntie. Instincts told Liola Auntie was waiting for him here.

"Is everything all right, little child?" Auntie asked caringly.

Liola paused briefly, and then nodded.

"Do you have any plans?"

Liola didn't think anything of it. His instinct told him Auntie was trustworthy, so he told her everything, including his plan to take back the necklace, preparing to run for their lives, and taking Daylight with them, etc.

Auntie nodded again and again, and finally smiled. She then took out an egg-shaped emerald from her laced apron, and placed it on Liola's hand.

She said, "This is for that child, Kaiser. But don't blame Auntie for being biased. Auntie really had nothing to give you that would be of any use to you."

Liola shook his head, "I'm fine."

Auntie laughed and added, "That old geezer Barbalis asked me to tell you, with the current situation you guys may be better off running first. After all, the few of you will come back some day, and that day isn't too far away."

Liola didn't refute anything, and nodded in agreement, "I will definitely be back." — At least, to see how Purity and Meinan are doing.

"Right." Auntie suddenly seemed to have remembered something,

"If you have a girl, remember to tell her good bye and give her a few words of comfort. If you run away without saying a word, it would be very irresponsible!"

'Girl?' Liola thought about it briefly. He should indeed say something to Jasmine and Lanski before he left.

As soon as Liola thought about it, he decided to do it soon. He didn't know when he would be on the run, so it was better if he said goodbyes sooner rather than later.

Liola grabbed a few pieces of meat and cooked it immediately. He was no longer afraid someone would see him, considering he would be on the run soon. Even Kaiser didn't care about causing trouble because their escape plan, so why should he?

Liola gave the meat to the mouth-watering Baolilong.

After parting with Auntie, he pushed Baolilong on the cart — now filled with meat — to go to the School of Knight to look for Jasmine and Lanski. He didn't seem to care how strange it was for him to be pushing a cart with a child swallowing down pieces of meat left and right.

In fact, this strange scene gave Liola quite a bit of attention on the way, but Liola simply kept walking his own path, and Baolilong was also tearing apart large pieces of meat on the cart without care.

With stares along the way, Liola had finally arrived at the School of Knights. He held Baolilong and entered the School. People in the School of Knights looked at the Sorcerer with arrogant glances as usual.

Without anyone's help, Liola had no choice but wander around the School of Knight to see if he would run into Jasmine. Who knew he didn't run into Jasmine, but someone he was familiar with.

"Liola? What are you doing here?" Lanski walked up to him with a strange expression, at the same time tenderly and lovingly touched Baolilong's head.

Liola answered honestly, "I'm looking for Jasmine."

Lanski answered with an "Oh", and then laughed,

"Meinan came looking for her just a moment ago, and then those two mysterious left for something... Ah, but Liola, please don't misunderstand. They have always been very close friends."

Of course he wouldn't misunderstand, considering he didn't know how he could have.

Liola was certain Meinan and Jasmine were off to look for Cappuccino. Since he couldn't find Jasmine, Liola wanted to part ways with Lanski, but then he remembered something and said to Lanski, "Silver Mask wanted me to tell you, please meet him next to the little lake."

"Eeek?" Lanski yelled in surprise, and slowly but surely cheerfulness filled Lanski's beautiful face. Lanski's heart-felt smile practically made her face glow, and Knights passing by all stopped to enjoy her beauty.

Even Liola felt her smile was attractive, but Lanski didn't give him much time to enjoy it. As soon as she knew Silver Mask wanted to see her, Lanski practically wished she was a Sorcerer and knew how to teleport so she could immediately move to the lake to see her beloved.

"Then I'll go look for Silver Mask. I think Jasmine will be back soon, and you can go to the lobby to wait for her." Lanski said hurriedly, and she turned around to leave, almost to the point of being discourteous.

But for some reason, after having taken only a few steps, she turned around again. She said with her face filled with worry, "Right, there's something I have to tell you. I heard during the meeting today, because of your conflict with my brother before Miluo's attack, and the fact you came out of his attacks unscathed, everyone seems to think you guys are the traitors Miluo spoke of."

Seeing Liola beginning to frown, Lanski immediately added,

"Of course I will always believe you. In fact, many people don't think you actually are. After all, Miluo finding allies in students who were still attending the Academy seemed completely pointless, but..." Lanski then began to stutter.

"But someone has to be blamed for all this!" A clear and loud voice stated the truth.

Liola turned his head to look at the source of this voice, and saw the person who had been missing for a while — the "bad-boy" Knight with black uniform, Blood Wolf.

His otherwise careless face had been filled with all kinds of worry. He walked up and grabbed Liola, and laughed at Lanski, "Pretty little girl, let me borrow this guy for a minute; I will return him shortly."

Considering it was the Dark Knight Blood Wolf, Lanski didn't even have the choice to refuse. She saluted in surprise, and humbly said, "Sir Dark Knight, in fact, I was just about to leave to see Silver Mask."

"Oh." Blood Wolf frowned, and said hurriedly, "In any case, I'll return him to you shortly."

Blood Wolf dragged Liola by the arms without paying any attention to a Knight's etiquette. On the way, many Knights had surprised looks on their faces as they saluted at Blood Wolf, but Blood Wolf had the right not to, and was too lazy to, return the salute.

After leaving the School of Knight, Blood Wolf dragged Liola towards a deserted place. It wasn't until they were deep in a forest that Blood Wolf let go of Liola's hand. He turned around and faced Liola; his tone was as harsh as the police interrogating a prisoner,

"Liola, tell me the truth. Are you the Dragon Emperor's son?"

His question baffled Liola. He didn't understand why Blood Wolf, who knew the truth about all of his fake identities, would ask a question like this. But he saw Blood Wolf was serious, so Liola had no choice but to shake his head to deny the question, "No."

"How can you be sure you're not? Do you know who your parents are?" Blood Wolf pressed on bluntly.

Liola knitted his eyebrows tightly.

He was indeed unsure of who his parents were. He even had no memory of ever meeting with his Leader. In fact, it seemed his memory did not begin until after he had met the Leader.

According to what Yasha said to him before, the Leader found him when he was about five years old, and he was lying alone on a large rock.

"Perhaps it was actually a triplet and not twins back then. And perhaps the accident happened before the Dragon Emperor even saw the children. Perhaps..." Blood Wolf looked at Liola again with suspicious eyes.

But Liola knew it was complete nonsense. He explained with a frown, "I am not the same age as Anise and Lanski. I'm several years older than them."

"Is that so?" Blood Wolf answered suspiciously, but he couldn't explain why they would've had different ages. He paced around in frustration.

"Why would you suspect I'm the Dragon Emperor's child?" Liola pointed out his own doubts. He looked nothing like the Dragon Emperor, so Liola couldn't understand where Blood Wolf's suspicions came from.

Blood Wolf glanced at Liola strangely, and started to explain,

"Anyone who saw you in a female disguise would be suspicious. We are people who knew the Dragon Empire's Queen, Susanna. You, in a female disguise, looked practically identical to Susanna. Don't you see, even the Dragon Emperor invited you to dance because you looked like her?"

Liola frowned. He already knew. Based on what Lanski said, he looked like her mother. But he had never thought of the possibility he was the Dragon Emperor's son.

"Strange, really strange! You are not the same age as Lanski, so you aren't born with her. If you looked like the Dragon Emperor, it would've been fine. It wasn't terribly strange if the Emperor had a mistress who had given birth to you. But strangely enough you look like Susanna! She had never so much as taken a step away from the Dragon Emperor, so how is it possible she could be pregnant, gave birth to you, and no one even knew about it?"

Liola thought this was all just a coincidence, but how did Blood Wolf knew the girl was really him? If Blood Wolf knew, didn't it mean the Emperor knew? If he knew, then his son Cappuccino probably knew as well?

"How did you know the girl was me? Were you there at the dance?" Liola asked. After all, out of everyone around, Liola still trusted this Knight.

Blood Wolf snapped, "Idiot! Barbalis told me later. I hope you didn't think there wouldn't be any security cameras at the dance!"

"Right, speaking of Barbalis, he wanted me to tell you to do whatever you are going to do quickly, and then run away. The female you had already attracted the attention of many people, especially the Dragon Emperor. Plus, a certain idiot fell into a trap and thought Gle was somehow here again. All of this could pose a threat to Kaiser."

"A certain idiot?" Liola asked.

Blood Wolf glared at Liola, then casually said while pointing at himself,

"Yup, this idiot. But it's not my fault. That guy Lancelot is stupider than me. He was fooled. I stupidly believed him and follow him to investigate some strange energies at Yaron Plains. That's where we found a super large magic circle. I really thought Gle was back. Lancelot said he was going to hold position there, and asked me to hurry here to tell everyone..."

"Perhaps it's real?"

"It's fake!" Blood Wolf didn't maintain Lancelot's opinion, and denied it without hesitation,

"If it were Barbalis telling me, I might believe he was just fooling around, but Qiusi would never do such a thing. Qiusi said, with Gle's power, it would have been an easy task to hide a magic circle, and he would never place it there to show the world. Plus, bigger magic circles aren't always better. No Magician in their right mind would use such a large formation, unless maybe it was some magic to destroy the entire world. But it was just a summoning spell. Even if the thing it was summoning was 500 meters wide, they wouldn't need such a large magic circle."

Having explained thus far, Blood Wolf regrettably scratched his head, "I should've discussed this with Mizerui, but I couldn't find him at all."

"Are you familiar with Mizerui?" Liola didn't understand much about the magic circles, but he was curious about the relationships between Mizerui, Blood Wolf, and Lancelot. Mizerui obviously hated Lancelot, and the latter probably hated the former even more. Strangely enough, Blood Wolf seemed to be on good terms with both of them.

"Oh, we both work for the Dragon Empire." Blood Wolf explained, "But we support different Princes. Lancelot mainly answers the the Emperor and the second Prince. I personally like the third Prince. Mizerui, on the other hand, supports the eldest Prince. Generally speaking, we all have to answer to the Dragon Empire. Of course, we have to listen to what he says, but whether we follow what he says is another matter."

The third Prince, Liola thought... according to Kaiser's description, would probably get along with Blood Wolf.

"Ugh! I really don't understand!" Blood Wolf started pulling his hair again,

"Why did things become so messy?! Lancelot has been getting stranger lately. Mizerui and Barbalis are always mysterious. And unfortunately the third Prince isn't a fortune teller like the eldest Prince; other than running around and picking up chicks, he knows nothing."

'But the only reason you would follow the third Prince is because he loves playing, right?' Liola thought to himself.

"Whatever. Anyway, Liola, if you have to run you better do it soon, or otherwise you might not be able to get away." Blood Wolf looked somewhat worriedly at the Assassin he was fond of.

"If it's just escaping, no one can stop me." Liola stated plainly. He wasn't showing off, it was just a matter of truth.

"Well, that is true. You are fairly strong." Blood Wolf murmured, but then said with worry,

"But your friends aren't as strong. If either the Dragon Emperor or Miluo decides to kill you, and use a few of their ultimates, you probably won't die, but your friends next to you would vanish into thin air without leaving even ashes behind."

Liola went silent. Even though he had learned to expand his Ki to block an attack, but ever since his last experiment, he hadn't practiced it much. Whether it would be of any use in a fight with Miluo or Dragon Emperor, both of which were unfathomably strong, was something Liola wasn't sure about.

"If you are really the Dragon Emperor's son, then things will be bad. He will never let you live." Blood Wolf murmured.

Liola was very confused. Could the Dragon Emperor really hate his own son?

Blood Wolf saw the confusion in Liola's eyes, and he started to explain,

"You probably don't know this. The eldest Prince is a fortune teller. When Susanna was pregnant, he had a prophecy the children Susanna carried. The son she was carrying will one day kill the Dragon Emperor. This prophecy caused a major commotion throughout the Empire, and then an accident happened: out of the two twins, one went missing. Fortunately the person left behind was a girl, otherwise we could only imagine the horror the child's fate would have been."

Liola didn't seem to have an opinion about the matter, "Anise is a girl. There was no son."

"It's exactly why it's very strange!" Blood Wolf shrugged, "But the eldest Prince's prophecies had never not been fulfilled."

Liola, who didn't understand nor believed prophecies, didn't seem to care about it at all. Just judging from his age, it was impossible for him to be the Dragon Emperor's son, thus there was nothing for him to worry about.

Blood Wolf was obviously very concerned, "We were sure the other child was a boy, and that was why Susanna asked the Sacred White Dragon to take him away."

"Sacred White Dragon?" Liola suspiciously looked at the little guy in his arms, who was asleep and saliva was dripping out of its mouth.

"Of course not the one in your arms. He was still an egg back then. It was his mother, who was also the Dragon Emperor's mount at the time." Blood Wolf shrugged, "She was also Miluo's wife."

Liola's heart skipped a beat,

"Could it be the Dragon Emperor wanted to kill the child, but the Sacred White Dragon wouldn't let him? And as a result, the Emperor killed the Sacred White Dragon? In other words, what Miluo said about the Emperor killing his wife was true?"

"That's the exact story. Basically, before you appeared and brought the news of Princess Anise, everyone thought of it as such." Blood Wolf said casually,

"But the Dragon Emperor himself says he didn't have any plans to kill his son. The Sacred White Dragon and Susanna both misunderstood him, and all he wanted to do was to raise the child back in the Dragon Empire where he belonged. He further states the Sacred White Dragon had misunderstood him and used her own life force to send away the child, and therefore losing her life."

"So now you know how strange this all is. If the other child was a girl, Susanna had no need to send away her own child, since the prophecy obviously stated a son." Blood Wolf turned around and said to Liola.

Liola, whose head didn't work better any than Blood Wolf's, had no explanation to offer. He looked at the sky, and avoided the subject, "I have to go see Lanski."

Hearing this, Blood Wolf almost fell face-first onto the floor as he realized the confidential history he had said were all for nothing. The little runt in front of him had no idea how terrible his predicament was.

Blood Wolf scratched his face, and thought he should forget about it, considering they were about to run for their lives, and Liola was still backed up by both Barbalis and Mizerui, so it should not be too big of a problem for him.

"Fine, fine. Go, and don't forget to run soon." Blood Wolf waved his hand helplessly.

Liola nodded, and said to Blood Wolf, "I will talk to Kaiser about what you said. He's quite clever, perhaps he will find a solution to all this."

Blood Wolf shrugged, and Liola hurriedly rushed with Baolilong toward the lake after a simple goodbye, leaving Blood Wolf to murmur to himself,

"Okay. I guess I've done my part, and I should just go back to Cappuccino, so he wouldn't suffer the same fate as Latte, and I would have one less buddy to drink with!"

* * *


Seeing he was close to the lake, and a graceful girl stood quietly next to the lake, Liola knew he made Lanski wait for a long time. He hurriedly woke Baolilong up and asked it to transform into a Dragon. Then he took off his Sorcerer robe, which showed his Knight's uniform underneath. Of course, he wouldn't forget his mask. "Silver Mask" then rode the Sacred White Dragon and slowly approached the girl by the lake.

Lanski didn't know how long she had been standing there, and she wouldn't dare to think about it. She was afraid if she thought about it, she might then think about the possibly Silver Mask stood her up. She stood there and quietly looked at the lake and the sparkling starlight reflected off the lake, and of course she thought of no one other than the person who was supposed to be there.

"Sorry, I made you wait. Something suddenly came up..." Liola suddenly appeared behind Lanski, and at the same time explained he had been late.

As soon as she heard something, her shoulders shook. When she turned around to face Liola, Lanski's otherwise flawless face had been covered with two streams of tears. Her eyes looked as if they were full of sadness and accusation. Any man who saw her would feel sympathy in their hearts and tightly hold the girl in their arms.

Liola, however, thought, even if he made Lanski wait for almost an hour, but could it be t-this be so serious for her to burst into tears? But he did ask her to be there and ended up late, so he didn't say anything other than apologizing again,

"I'm really sorry."

Lanski, too, felt her tears were inappropriate to her dignity as a Princess, but she couldn't hold them back. She remembered what her good friend Jasmine had said. She gritted her teeth, and threw herself into Silver Mask's arms. Originally, Jasmine said, she should just go straight for the kiss, but Lanski couldn't do it; a "forceful hug" was her limit.

Liola was in shock. There had been practically nobody who had hugged him ever before, other than the "super glue" Baolilong. Liola didn't understand why Lanski wanted to hug him, and didn't know how he should respond. So he just stood there, frozen in place.

Lanski bravely held Silver Mask tightly. At first, she felt warmth in her heart; as a Princess, she had never done anything as audacious as this before. But as time passed by, Lanski felt a bit clueless, and didn't know what she should do next.

If Silver Mask had any reaction at all, the situation wouldn't been as awkward, but instead he stood still and didn't make any sounds, which made Lanski completely helpless, unsure whether she should continue to stay in his arms, or just run away altogether.

Liola, who was frozen in place, suddenly felt that his pants were being dragged. He lowered his head, only to see the Dragon-shaped Baolilong biting tightly to the corner of his pants, while using its little forearms to try to climb up Liola's calves.

Lanski also noticed the Dragon's actions, and asked curiously, "What is it doing?"

"It wants me to spoil it by hugging it." Liola answered without hesitation.

After having spent a long time with Baolilong, by now he naturally knew what the little guy wanted. The only 'person' who hugged Liola up to this point was Baolilong, and when it saw Lanski taking its place, little Baolilong was a bit unhappy.

Lanski said "Oh", and then awkwardly left Liola's arms.

As soon as Baolilong saw no one was in Liola's arms, it started clawing Liola's pants and desperately made some moaning noises. Liola picked it up so Baolilong wouldn't throw a fit.

After putting Baolilong in his arms, Liola finally remembered the purpose of his visit. He said to Lanski straightforwardly, "I am here to say goodbye."

Lanski was stunned, and she made no response.

"I have to leave for a long period of time. I won't be back in the academy in the foreseeable future."

"Why?" Lanski felt as if she had been hit by a pail full of cold water. She trembled as she thought she might have scared Silver Mask to the point that he decided not to see her anymore.

Liola was silent for a moment, then said evasively, "Running away from trouble."

Hearing his answer, Lanski felt her heart sank into a frozen lake. She said with a shiver, "I-I am trouble to you?"

Liola looked at her with surprised eyes, "It's not you. I've just ran into some trouble."

Seeing Liola's surprise, Lanski immediately knew she misunderstood him, and her frozen heart began to beat again. Nevertheless, Lanski still felt heavy in her heart.

The moment she saw the person she liked was the time she heard goodbye from him. Lanski really didn't know how she should respond. She can't decide if she should be depressed because Silver Mask would be gone for a long time, or feel lucky he at least came here to say goodbye.

"Your trouble... is it something I can help you resolve?" Lanski's mind wandered, and then finally carefully asked. She knew many Knights wouldn't prefer a helping hand when they run into difficulties, especially from someone like her: a girl and, furthermore, a Princess.

Liola thought even the son of the Prime Minister and daughter of a Commander couldn't resolve this, and therefore Lanski probably couldn't be of help.

Liola shook his head, "I'm afraid not."

Lanski signed in disappointment. It was indeed something she couldn't help... Lanski laughed bitterly in her heart, "So when will you be back then?"

"I don't know."

"Then can you at least occasionally send me a mail?" Lanski practically begged.

Although Liola wasn't one who frequently had been a refugee, but at least he knew a large part of why he would have to run was the Dragon Cross Necklace. When he gets his hands on the necklace, it would be the Dragon Empire who would hunt him the most, and the person in front of him happened to be the Dragon Empire's Princess. Sending letters to her seemed like it was... Even if it weren't extraordinarily stupid, it was something that would make Kaiser go nuts.

Although Liola often would not deny Lanski's request, especially when she pleaded with Anise's face, however this time, her request was too much for him. It would probably significantly increase the risk of Kaiser, Daylight, and his chance of being caught. If it were just him, Liola probably wouldn't have cared, but any actions may lead to harm of his companions was something Liola wouldn't dare to do.

"No."

Rejection finally came out of Liola's mouth. He then saw Lanski's darkened face and watery eyes. Seeing the sad face, Liola reflexively wanted to comfort Lanski: he didn't want to see her sad.

Liola reached out his hand, and used his long fingers to wipe away Lanski's tears, at the same time he promised her, "I will be back. I will definitely come back to see you."

Bitterness and happiness intertwined in Lanski's heart. It was bitter because the person she liked was about to leave for a long time, and she didn't know when they could see each other again, but his promise to see her again made Lanski feel, to Silver Mask, she was... definitely special, right?!

"I will wait for you."

Even though tears ran down her cheeks, but she still sported a light smile, and her heart was also as conflicted as her expression.

Back to top
divider

Chapter 5 : Recovering the Dragon Cross Necklace

This chapter was brought to you by AnmesicCat and StellarAshes.
divider

"Lanski! Why did you run out by yourself? Don't know you it's really dangerous outside right now?"

As soon as they heard the voice calling out, both Lanski and Liola were shocked. After turning around, Lanski yelled in surprise, "Third brother, why are you here?"

'Third brother?' Liola carefully examined the man jogging towards them. 'So this is the third Prince, Cappuccino?'

The silver-haired, blue-eyed man had a face filled with worry, but his relaxed atmosphere was still present. Liola felt the man in front of him didn't seem to fit Kaiser's description of an annoying pig Prince. It must be Kaiser's own bias...

When Cappuccino ran to his only sister, he realized her face was covered in tears. As far back as Cappuccino could remember, he had practically never saw his independent little sister cry.

He asked anxiously, "Why are you crying? Did someone bully you? Is it this strange guy with a mask?"

Cappuccino turned his angry eyes towards Liola, and he stood in front of her, as if he was the kind of brother who would protect his little sister from any and all harm. But his sister didn't appreciate his gesture, and instead she hurriedly pushed him aside to apologize to Silver Mask,

"Sorry! My brother is always like this. He always jumps to conclusions before finding out what's really going on; please don't blame him."

Seeing Cappuccino being pushed aside by his little sister and then acted as if he was really hurt, Liola found it funny to the point of laughing out loud.

His laugh seemed to entrance Lanski, and also surprised Liola himself. It dawned on him of Kaiser's warning about the excitement magic on the mask, not being fake. The magic was quite strange to make him laugh like this.

"Is this guy, Silver Mask?"

Cappuccino saw his sister was acting cutesy, and was a bit jealous. He loved his little sister so dearly, but she had never treated him well in return. This man, however, captivated her with just a simple laugh. Cappuccino suddenly felt like he was marrying off his own daughter.

Seeing the guy may very well become his brother-in-law, Cappuccino started commenting and complaining about Silver Mask,

"He's wearing a mask and you can't even see what he looks like. What if he's really ugly? Or maybe he's an old man. Sister, before you see what he looks like, do NOT marry him!"

"Brother!"

Lanski's face was burning red, and she was very close to kicking her own brother into the pond so he would stop talking nonsense. But since her crush was there, Lanski warned her brother with a vicious look.

"Fine, fine, I'll stop." Cappuccino didn't dare to continue. His sister had never really been respectful to him. She always held up a sword and chased him around the palace. He didn't want to be chased around the entire academy now.

Though he said he'd stop complaining, Cappuccino seemed to be interested in something else. He looked up and down Liola's body and said, "Tsk tsk, too thin. He looks like he doesn't have any strength. So how is he going to protect my little sister."

"Brother! I thought you were going to stop?!" Lanski was almost enraged by her own brother.

Cappuccino put on a rascal smile, and said innocently, "I'm not complaining, I just want a spar."

'A spar?' Lanski suddenly remembered the only thing her brother was more interested in than being a playboy was his obsession with Kung Fu!

Before Lanski had time to stop her brother, Cappuccino had already rushed to Liola. He had no plans for an ambush, but instead he just wanted to push Liola a bit, to remind him the fight was starting. However, as soon as Cappuccino's hand reached where Liola's chest was, he suddenly disappeared.

'On the side!' Cappuccino took one step back, and saw Liola standing leisurely on the side.

"Such amazing speed." Cappuccino couldn't hold back a praise, but he didn't stop there. He unsheathed his sword, and reminded his opponent, "I'm about to attack."

Perhaps it was Cappuccino's lack of malice, or perhaps it was his reminder to his opponent before his attack, but whatever it was, Liola didn't seem to mind the person who suddenly started attacking him. He even had a bit of desire to spar with him to see who was stronger, which was rather rare for an Assassin who advocated not having any meaningless fights.

Liola put Baolilong down from his arms, and used telepathy to tell it to stand back. He took out Broken Silver from his boot, and blocked Cappuccino's sword just as it was about to strike.

Liola's leisure in the fight made Cappuccino's eyes shone, and at the same time, decided not to underestimate his opponent.

Countless lights then suddenly flashed between the two: Cappuccino attacked fiercely, but Liola's defense was absolutely impermeable. However, neither one of them used their true strengths; they were just exchanging moves to determine each other's true strength.

Lanski, who was anxious before, had now gone quiet. Being a little obsessed with martial arts herself, she really didn't mind the opportunity to observe two strong warriors fight. Her beautiful eyes opened widely, afraid she would miss something. Even though Lanski may not be able to distill the essence from watching and learning their moves, but she would still benefit greatly from doing so.

'Formidable Indeed!' Cappuccino didn't dare to underestimate his opponent. Even though Lancelot wasn't very close to him, but his warnings to Latte did reach Cappuccino, that this man's powers may rival even Lancelot's. This warning was enough to make Cappuccino spar with Silver Mask no matter what.

Cappuccino took one step back, and his body was suddenly surrounded by a gold aura. His eyes flashed with passion and anticipation of a good fight. He quietly stood still, waiting for Silver Mask to release his aura. If everything went as he expected, it would be at least a gold aura, rather than the silver uniform that Silver Mask wore.

"Brother..." Lanski saw her brother released his aura, and she was a bit worried. Despite worrying about her crush's safety, she still wanted to see the complex Kung Fu moves they could do, so even her yell was rather empty.

Liola was rather happy. He never had the chance to use his newly-learned aura in actual combat. But now the strength of a Gold Knight presented itself before him and they could spar, and Liola wasn't going to let go of this opportunity either.

As he closely observed and sensed Cappuccino's way of controlling his aura, Liola imitated him and released his own aura. This time, however, his Ki did not explode out of control from within him, instead, it slowly encircled him like an air current.

As soon as Liola's aura materialized, Cappuccino and Lanski were both in shock. 'Red Aura?!'

Cappuccino's observational skills were much better than those of the academy students, and therefore would never mistake the man in front of him as a Red Knight like they did.

In fact, Cappuccino had already noticed the color of this aura was far different from a Red Knight's: the dark red color of the aura looked as if it was made out of dried blood of his victims, and it was imposing like the feeling of impending death.

Cappuccino observed for quite a while before he sighed and said, "This reeks of blood, and not like an aura a Knight should have. But then again, that guy Blood Wolf's dark aura isn't much better than this."

"Damn! My dark aura is way more normal than his."

A complaint suddenly came out of the surrounding thicket, and scared Lanski. She looked around but was unable to find the source of the sound, but the other two weren't surprised at all.

Cappuccino already knew Blood Wolf was secretly hiding himself, and Liola had already noticed with his Assassin instinct someone was around watching them.

Then, more complaints came, "Hurry up and fight! If you're not going to, I'm going to fight with him. I've been itching for it."

Cappuccino immediately yelled, "No, you're not allowed to steal my opponent. If you want to fight him, you could look for him another day. Unlike you, I can't run everywhere I want every day."

No more complaints came from the trees, and Cappuccino rushed forward without anymore delays, so Blood Wolf wouldn't come down and fight because he can't hold his itch.

At the same time, Cappuccino knew casual attacks like before were completely meaningless, so he practically started off with his ultimate, "Dragon Sword Dance!"

This move deeply shocked Lanski. When she first met Silver Mask, this was the move that almost took his life. Although Lanski knew Silver Mask purposely took the hit, she was still very concerned about her crush.

'Time to experiment with my aura.' Liola thought as if he wanted to get beat up.

Even if the aura he emitted can't stop it, his internal Ki should prevent the attack from seriously injuring him. Subconsciously, Liola started calling the energy he emitted as aura, and the energy within as Ki, even though they both refer to the same power.

In an instant, Cappuccino unleashed 88 streams of Dragon Ki. These Dragon Kis were far different than Lanski's attacks back then: hers were rudimentary and only shaped somewhat like serpents, where as his Dragon Kis looked like real Dragons with their sharp teeth, which would drive fear into any observers.

These 88 streams of Kis converged on Liola from all directions. The reason why the Dragon Sword Dance was one of the most feared skill was the fact that its attacks were far too dense, and there was almost no possible of dodging all of them.

With the spirit of experimenting, Liola did not plan on dodging at all, not even from just a few of the streams. He stood still in the center where every stream of Ki could hit him.

Liola immediately released more aura, and the red light surrounding him immediately expanded, which even forced Cappuccino to take a few steps back. It was then when all 88 of the Dragon Kis mercilessly collided with the red aura.

As soon as they hit, Liola realized something was wrong: it looked as if his aura could not withstand the Dragon attacks. It seemed as if...

Liola began to wonder why this was the case; his strength was undoubtedly above Cappuccino, and the energy from his aura exceeded that of the Dragon Kis.

Cappuccino was shocked. From what he could see, Silver Mask's aura could never block the Dragon Sword Dance. But since he had already launched the attack, and it was one of his strongest moves, so he could not withdraw his attack and had to watch as the Dragons hit collide with Liola.

"What the hell is this little runt doing?!" A dark shadow flew down from a tree, and sped towards Liola.

Lanski also noticed something was wrong, but there was nothing she could do other than scream in panic.

'Right!' It was because the density of his aura was too low; it was like a fluffy ball of cotton, so of course it couldn't stop the needle-like Dragon Ki. Liola finally understood.

In an instant, Liola contracted his aura, and the cotton-like aura was compressed into a thin sheet. The Storm of Blood's already dark color intensified to the point where it was near impossible to see Liola's body.

The Dragon Kis had already arrived at Liola's body. The needle like Dragon Kis collided with a thin layer of Storm of Blood in the form of sheet metal. After continuous sounds of explosions, dust flew at where Liola stood, as if a large bomb had been set off.

Before the explosion settled, Lanski ran up recklessly, but she was promptly stopped by Cappuccino. Lanski yelled desperately,

"Brother, Sir Blood Wolf, please, you have to go save him!"

Blood Wolf, however, lazily raised his eyebrows. He had just dropped down from the tree and was about to race towards Liola when he realized his aura had been compressed to the point of being capable of stopping the Dragon Ki.

The only thing the Dragon Kis caused was just a bunch of light and sound effects.

"Lanski, don't worry. Your crush is completely fine." Cappuccino hurried to explain to his sister, otherwise, seeing Lanski had drawn her sword, she might stab her own brother for her lover momentarily.

Hearing this, and seeing Blood Wolf sitting there and waiting, she finally calmed down a bit. She held her gaze in the direction of Silver Mask. After the dust slowly settles, a figure appeared, and Silver Mask stood there, unscathed.

"Hahaha, little runt, what did you do to yourself?"

Blood Wolf saw Liola's situation, and started to laughing rudely.

Liola's Silver Knight uniform had been badly torn, and it was missing sleeves and cuffs on his pants. He was practically covered by just a torn rug. Liola looked at his clothes with frustration: he compressed his aura so closely to him that most of his clothes were not protected by his aura, and therefore destroyed by the Dragon Ki.

Cappuccino started murmuring, "Tsk tsk, too skinny, how is someone like him going to protect my sister."

While Lanski lowered her already flushed face, trying to avoid looking at Silver Mask at all cost.

"Papa, necklace necklace!"

Baolilong's voice suddenly echoed in Liola's heart, and Baolilong's pink big eyes stared straight at Cappuccino's chest. Reflecting the moonlight, the Dragon Cross Necklace was glimmering light onto Liola's face, as if it were telling him to quickly take it back.

Liola's heart remained very calm. He knew what he had to do. He said lightly to Cappuccino, "Now, it's my turn."

Hearing what Liola said, Cappuccino's eyes shone. With his body completely surrounded by his golden aura, Cappuccino faced his immensely strong opponent without any fear.

Liola withdrew his aura back into his body. Although he finally understood how aura could be used for defense, he was unclear on how to use it to attack. Since this fight involved getting back the necklace, Liola did not plan to use something he was unfamiliar with.

Even though he had no idea why Silver Mask would withdraw his aura, but Cappuccino did not dare to lower his guard, and he carefully examined his opponent. He noticed Silver Mask's figure blurred slightly...

'No! That was a mirage!' Cappuccino immediately realized the figure standing where Liola was standing was actually an afterimage.

Just as Cappuccino realized, a stream of practically unnoticeable Ki was headed towards the back of his neck. It was already too late for him to dodge, so Cappuccino had no choice but to concentrate his aura at where he felt was the point of attack. The attack collided head on with Cappuccino's protective aura, and the enormous momentum forced Cappuccino to take a step forward.

He immediately turned to face Silver Mask, but when he saw Silver Mask from the corner of his eye, he noticed it too was an afterimage. This attack was on his left side, and Cappuccino maneuvered his aura to, once again, block the attack.

Aura was quite troublesome to Liola, and after two attacks without any result made Liola a bit frustrated. As the best Assassin, ever since he was 18, he had never had to repeat an attack to the same person, unless he wanted to mutilate the corpse.

Liola knew, however, it wasn't hard to break through Cappuccino's aura, but to do so without seriously injuring Cappuccino was a bit of a problem.

Blood Wolf was, at first, curious why Liola would attack so aggressively, but as soon as he saw the little Baolilong staring at Cappuccino's chest and the necklace there, he understood Liola's true intent.

Liola had already attacked five times, and these five failures made Liola impatient. Cappuccino, however, was extraordinarily happy: fighting with a stronger opponent was one of the main ways that he could become stronger, especially since he had already reached Gold rank. To him, whose power was reaching a plateau, it was an once-in-a-life-time opportunity to gain experience.

"I'm going to use my ultimate." Liola's eyes flashed.

"Tsk tsk, looks like you've made quite a lot of progress, to the point where you can actually force him to use his ultimate, considering he's on par with us." Blood Wolf had gotten excited at the thought of being able to watch a new move.

Cappuccino was, too, unusually excited. It's not because he hadn't sparred with Blood Wolf or Lancelot, but neither would ever use their ultimates. Even if Cappuccino used his Dragon Sword Dance, both of them would just sit there and take a beating.

This badboy Blood Wolf would even often crouch on the floor and yawn as the Dragon Kis land on him. Being able to force Silver Mask, who was on par with Blood Wolf and Lancelot, to use his ultimate, was something that made Kung Fu fanatic Cappuccino happier than anything else in the world.

"It's just an ultimate. Didn't third brother just use Dragon Sword Dance?" Lanski asked with confusion.

Blood Wolf laughed, "Little Princess, you have not reached that level yet, so you do not understand. For a Silver Rank to reach Gold, or for a Gold to reach an even higher level, it all depends on the individual's ability for apperception. Being able to see a stronger person's ultimate skill is undoubtedly the best way for apperception. However, very few people would use their ultimates toward others, and the fewer people knowing about their ultimates the better. Otherwise, as soon as your enemies find a way to counter your ultimate, things could get really ugly."

"That's why all you Dragon Empire Royalties use Dragon Sword Dance," Blood Wolf pouted, "Your brother isn't even willing to exchange another move for my ultimate."

Cappuccino awkwardly explained with grievance,

"I want to exchange too, but we are not allowed to use other moves unless absolutely necessary; this is the commandments passed down from my forefathers. If my dad knew I exchange ultimate moves with you, he will definitely use me as target practice. Blood Wolf, you don't want to lose a wingman who drinks with you, right?"

Blood Wolf grunted.

"Can we start already? I have to beat you in one move." Liola frowned.

Blood Wolf burst into laughter, "I hope you're not doing this because you're too lazy to keep fighting? I didn't think you were this lazy. I thought only the green-haired little runt would be the lazy one."

"That's not the reason. I can't move too much." Liola said straightforwardly.

"Can't move much?" Blood Wolf paused, "Why? Were you hurt by the Dragon Sword Dance?'

Liola shook his head and lowered his head to look at his left hand. The others followed, and realized Liola held a fist at his belly.

"Do you... need to go?" Blood Wolf asked stupefied.

"You can go to the bathroom first, I can wait for you." Cappuccino said with the same stupefied expression as Blood Wolf.

Liola remained silent briefly, then lightly said, "No, the belt broke, and my pants will fall if I don't hold onto it."

"......"

Lanski lowered her head even more, until Cappuccino anxiously yelled, "Stupid sister, there's an ultimate move coming, and you have to watch! You're not even allowed to blink!"

Lanski struggled a bit, but the Dragon Empire royalties' obsession with martial arts finally won against a girl's shyness. Lanski raised her head, and her blue eyes opened as wide as they could, without even blinking at all.

Liola raised his Broken Silver in his right hand (left hand, of course, was still holding onto his pants), and Cappuccino emitted his brilliant gold aura over every bit of his body.

Liola kicked the ground behind him, and his body flew forward like a rocket. In the short distance he travelled, Liola kicked the ground two more times, each of both left a deep shoe mark on the ground. When he reached Cappuccino, the enormous momentum forced Cappuccino's Gold aura to flicker like a candle light in a hurricane.

When Liola's white rocket-like body reached Cappuccino's face, Cappuccino felt countless fears in his heart. His Gold aura was torn apart like paper, and he felt like he was standing naked on a boulder by the beach, seeing a brutal tsunami heading towards him.

His years of training did not help him react to this danger, and the only thought was in his mind was, 'Am I going to die?'

Although Liola was going to be running soon, he did not plan to add a 'Prince's murderer' to his list of charges.

He didn't aim for Cappuccino from the start, but just the force of passing by him was more than enough to scare him. He was practically knocked onto the ground by Liola's charge. When Liola finally stood still a dozen meters away, Cappuccino had already been lying on the ground unconscious. Of course, Liola could have kept him conscious, but it would have gone against his original intentions.

Liola quietly put Broken Silver back into his boots. At the same time, there was another thing being put into the same boot — the Dragon Cross Necklace.

"Third brother!"

Lanski ran to her brother with fright. It wasn't until she ascertained her brother was only unconscious did she relaxed a bit. When she turned around, only Blood Wolf remained next to the little lake.

Lanski immediately yelled, "Where's Silver Mask?"

"Probably went back to change his pants!" Blood Wolf shrugged, 'but it's going to take him quite a long time to change his pants.'

Back to top
divider

Chapter 6 : Identity Exposed

This chapter was brought to you by AnmesicCat and StellarAshes.
divider

As soon as Liola had gotten ahold of the Dragon Cross Necklace, he raced back to the dorm. He didn't know when the Dragon Emperor would realize the necklace was back with him, so Liola used the fastest speed he could, and returned to the dorm practically instantly.

When he jumped into the room through the window, he realized there was no one there; even Kaiser, who was just lying down on the bed not too long ago, was gone.

"Crap." Liola felt truly anxious, but he didn't know where he could go to look for everyone. Perhaps he shouldn't have gotten the necklace back so recklessly...

Liola put on a new Sorcerer robe as he instructed Baolilong to fly out to Auntie to see if Kaiser was there. As soon as Liola put on the robe, the door was opened. Liola sighed in relief as he looked at the door, but to his surprise, the person opening the door was not Kaiser and company, but Jasmine instead.

"Jasmine, do you know where Kaiser and others are?"

Liola asked worriedly, but Jasmine froze. At this time, Baolilong also barged in, and said, "Papa, Baolilong couldn't find Kaiser."

Liola looked at Baolilong in his Dragon form, and had no time to stop it before Baolilong spoke all it had to say.

Liola turned to look at Jasmine, and flustered to explain, "Baolilong i-is the Sacred White Dragon, and Silver Mask had asked me to take care..."

Before he finished, the bag full of groceries had fallen out of Jasmine's hands, and a few pieces of meat had fallen out. She slowly walked to Liola, and she lightly put her hand on Liola's face. Liola's body trembled intensely — he hadn't taken off his mask!

Jasmine slowly took off the mask, and put her hand on Liola's face. Jasmine closed her eyes, and said unsteadily, "Why? Why did you lie to me and Lanski?"

Liola stood still, not knowing what to do. Seeing Jasmine's sad face, Liola felt waves of guilt in his heart. After all, Jasmine had been nice both to him and Baolilong, and Liola did indeed really like being with this straightforward girl.

"I... didn't do it on purpose." Liola said, and then quietly held his gaze at Jasmine.

"Do you know how much this will hurt Lanski and me?" Jasmine held Silver Mask's mask in her hand. Her heart was full of indescribable feelings. She finally helped her good friend uncover the identity of her love, only to realize he was her own crush. How was she going to face Lanski now?

Liola had no choice but said softly, "Sorry."

Jasmine laughed bitterly. This "sorry" was not going to resolve the awkward situation between her and Lanski.

"Liola! Damn it, you're still being slow."

Liola was shocked, and Mizerui had already appeared in the room out of thin air, with a flustered and exasperated expression on his face. Liola, on the other hand, stared blankly at him.

"Blood Wolf already told me you got the necklace back. Why are you still here, are you waiting for the Dragon Emperor to come here and catch you?" Mizerui said as he quickly glanced at Jasmine, but he seemed to have completely ignored her presence.

Liola said with hesitation, "I couldn't find Kaiser or Daylight."

"Kaiser is with Barbalis, and Daylight... I'll help you look for him. You should go immediately to Barbalis." Mizerui frowned, and then suddenly disappeared.

Liola knew every second was important. He turned and said to the frozen Jasmine, "I have to leave for a long time, but I will definitely be back."

Jasmine heard this, but she was even more shocked, She hurriedly asked, "Where are you going? What did other guy meant by what he said?"

Suddenly, a sound of explosion could be heard from afar. Liola's face suddenly changed. Without responding to Jasmine, he grabbed Baolilong, and jumped out of the window without any further hesitation. He was worried perhaps one of his companions was caught by the Dragon Emperor.

Jasmine could only follow to the window, and she saw the gray robe disappear into the night. She couldn't hold back her streams of tears, and she murmured,

"What is this? Not even a bit explanation. How am I supposed to explain this to Lanski, and how are we supposed to feel while we're waiting for the same person..."

* * *


Liola did not know how depressed Jasmine was, as he had already ran out of the room. Completely forgetting about Mizerui's instructions to look for Barbalis, Liola went straight to the origin of the explosion sound.

When he could finally see two people at the place of the explosion, Liola stopped. He realized it wasn't Kaiser and others there, but instead Barbalis and the Dragon Emperor. Looks like the Dragon Emperor was locked in a confrontation with Barbalis.

Liola hesitated as to what he should do now, but the Dragon Emperor had already noticed him. His purple eyes glanced at Liola, then gazed back on Barbalis. He said lightly, "Barbalis, are you planning on harboring traitors?"

Barbalis' face suddenly changed, but then it changed back to a smile, "What do you mean? At most, I'm just helping a thief escape. Dragon Emperor, your skill of assigning blame on the wrong person is quite amazing!"

Liola was shocked when he realized Barbalis was helping him hold the Dragon Emperor back. Liola hesitatingly looked at Barbalis, wondering if he was going to have an all-out fight with the Dragon Emperor?

Even though Barbalis had caused much trouble to him and Kaiser, and he liked to do all sorts of weird things, but after all, he did take Liola and Kaiser in.

Barbalis suddenly yelled, "Liola, are you still daydreaming! You stole it, so why are you still here?"

"As long as you carry the Dragon Cross Necklace, it's impossible for you to hide from me." The Dragon Emperor said lightly,

"Give the necklace back to me, and I will give you a fair trial. If you're really not a traitor, I will not count stealing the necklace against you."

Whether what Dragon Emperor said was true, there was no way for Liola to return the necklace. He glanced at Barbalis, and thought he probably had some unfathomable power, so he shouldn't be defeated easily by the Dragon Emperor. However, his companions didn't have such strength. Liola decided, and turned immediately to run towards Barbalis' office to find Kaiser.

"Stop him!" The Dragon Emperor yelled, and a Gold Knights behind him charged towards Liola.

Liola grabbed ahold of Baolilong next to him, and flew out like a falling star. In an instant, the Gold Knights were left far behind.

Liola got to the principal's office and, knowing that he was followed by a whole group of Knights behind him, kicked down the door, only to find a shocked Kaiser inside.

"Where's Daylight?" Liola yelled.

Kaiser's face sank, "Mizerui told us to leave first. He said he'll be responsible for fetching Daylight."

Liola calmed down a bit, "Is that okay?" He didn't like to think so he threw the problem to Kaiser.

Kaiser knitted his brows tightly, "No. If it's possible, I want to take Daylight with us. We can prevent Daylight from joining the fight. If it's necessary, you could knock him out and carry him, but Mizerui probably wouldn't have the patience."

"Understood." Liola didn't have time to hesitate. He grabbed Kaiser and jumped out the window, at the same time releasing his aura for defense. As soon as his figure peeked outside, the Gold and Silver Knights outside immediately attacked him with varying skills, but when they hit Liola's Storm of Blood, the attacks did not do anything.

"Baolilong, turn big immediately!"

"Okay, papa."

"What's the situation now?" Kaiser widened his eyes and asked.

"Barbalis is holding the Dragon Emperor back to let us escape."

After a simple explanation, Liola took out Broken Silver and flew onto one of the Knight's Dragons.

The Silver Knight was deeply shocked and immediately tried to unsheath his sword to fight back, but Liola had already blinked behind him.

Knowing he could not afford to be merciful now, his palm landed heavily on the Knight's body. Though judging from the outside, this Silver Knight didn't seem to suffer much injuries, but the insides of his body had already been damaged by Liola's Ki.

Even though it wasn't fatal, but it would take a long while of healing before he could return, especially when healing Maxun's effectiveness on internal injuries was rather limited.

Knowing it was now a life and death situation, Liola utilized all of his powers, and his speed reached a whole new level. Even the Gold Knights could not handle such a terrifying speed. As soon as they saw their companions suddenly falling, a pair of cold eyes appeared behind them, and saw nothing else.

Before long, Liola had already beaten these Gold and Silver Knights to the ground. But in this short period of time, three rank-X mechas had already surrounded Liola in a triangular formation.

"We're so dead." Kaiser took a deep breath.

Liola jumped back onto Baolilong and observed these three mechas. One of them was a gold Mecha with a giant shield and blade, plus two giant cannons on its shoulders; compared to the gold, giant Mecha, there was a green dwarf-like Mecha, and it was laughably small; finally, there was a red Mecha in the shape of a female, and it was shaped quite similar like the one Purity had, with a giant bow in its hands.

A "huh" sound could be heard from the red Mecha, and then the Red Commander's voice could be heard, "Why are you here, Liola."

Liola didn't have time to answer such a question. The three Mechas in front of him were imposing a sense of danger to him. He remembered what Kaiser had said before, rank X Mechas were practically identical to Lancelot and others in terms of power. Facing three Lancelots, and without breaking his promise, Liola was not confident that he could win.

"Little Red, you know this man?" The Yellow Commander asked with hesitation.

"What man? That's a girl." The Red Commander corrected with blame in her voice.

"Uh?" The giant gold Mecha tilted its head, as if it were examining Liola, and then the Yellow Commander's murmur could be heard, "He looks like a man to me, how is he a girl?"

The Green Command said in a high-pitched voice, "He IS a man. Little Red is confused again."

"How am I confused?! It's definitely a girl. You just didn't see how pretty she looks in a dress, so you're saying it's a guy." The red feminine Mecha put its arms on its hips.

"Wrong! Liola is a man, and that's the exact reason why we must run!"

Kaiser, who had been sitting quietly on Baolilong, suddenly screamed and got the three Commanders' attention.

"What do you mean? We got news a traitor was stealing treasure from the Dragon Emperor and came here." The green dwarf asked suspiciously.

"This is how the truth goes." Kaiser's face sank as he began to explain the "truth",

"Because Liola had a bet with a scrupulous friend, and if he lost the bet then he would have to crossdress at the dance, but who knew all the misunderstanding would start there."

'A scrupulous friend?' Liola glanced at Kaiser, 'Well, it IS a proper description...'

Kaiser took a few deep breaths, which made the three rank-X audience anxious to hear what happened next. Seeing he had ignited their curiosity, Kaiser suddenly screamed, "The Dragon Emperor... h-he, fell in love with Liola at the first sight!"

"What?!" The Red Commander took a deep breath, but remembering how pretty Liola was in a dress, she didn't think it was impossible for the Dragon Emperor to be infatuated with Liola.

"Liola! Take out your Dragon Cross Necklace and show them!"

Kaiser yelled loudly at Liola, and the latter slowly took out the Dragon Cross Necklace from his boots.

"This is the token of love that the Dragon Emperor gave to Liola! You all should know the meaning of this necklace to the Dragon Empire royalties, right?"

All of them slowly nodded, and Kaiser shook his head with a sigh,

"But, Liola is a man, and he is already deeply in love with someone! No matter what, he can't be with the Dragon Emperor, but the Emperor wouldn't give up, and swore even if Liola is a man, he will definitely marry him!"

At this time, all three rank-X Commanders dropped their jaws.

"But, this was something that can never happen. Liola can't turn his back on his lover. If the Dragon Emperor married Liola, he will become the laughingstock of the world." Kaiser sighed deeply, "Therefore, we have no choice but to flee."

"So that's how it is, such a tragic love story. I can't believe the Dragon Emperor has a side of him like this."

The Red Commander sadly wiped away her tears, even though there was no tear on the Mecha.

"So, please let us go!" Kaiser showed a begging expression and said his ultimate intention.

When the Yellow and Green Commanders were hesitating, Cappuccino had already arrived on his Dragon with Lanski, Blood Wolf, and other Knights.

Blood Wolf gave them a "why-the-hell-are-you-still-here" look.

"Don't let them escape. They're the thieves who stole the Dragon Cross Necklace!" Cappuccino yelled angrily.

A boy with questionable background strange love story, and the Dragon Empire's third Prince simply stating the truth... the former obviously fell apart.

The Green and Yellow Commanders readied themselves for battle again, and Cappuccino led the Knights and surrounded Liola.

Lanski also resentfully said, "I was wrong about you, Liola; Jasmine is way too good for you."

Seeing a battle was begin, Kaiser said as he pulled out his giant gun, "Had I known we will still end up fighting, I shouldn't have wasted that much time coming up with a story!"

Liola glanced at Lanski and Jasmine, then said slowly, "Are we really going to fight?"

Cappuccino coldly responded, "Although I have no idea how you had gotten ahold of the necklace, that necklace is an heirloom of the Zhuogen family. Since you dared to steal it, now you have to pay the price!"

Though he was surrounded by powerful enemies, but Liola did not think anything about it; instead, the only thing he could think about was the sadness and despair in Jasmine's eyes.

However, Liola didn't have a choice; Kaiser and Baolilong were behind him. He slowly pulled out Broken Silver from the place he hid it in his sleeves. Other people may look at this as a strange weapon, but to Lanski and Cappuccino, who had just sparred with Silver Mask, this thin stick represented Silver Mask's identity!

Lanski was completely frozen, and the only thing she could see was a stick with silver lights shining off it.

Cappuccino also stared blankly at the stick, and said with a stutter, "Y-you are Silver Mask?"

Silver Mask did not respond. Facing such strong opponents, Liola planned to give it his all. He twisted the silver stick, and after a click, it turned into a silver dagger.

Broken Silver flashed with a brilliant light, as if it were trying to warn everyone to never underestimate such a thin weapon.

The atmosphere froze a bit. Despite the fact Liola had unsheathed his weapon, Cappuccino was stunned; as for the rank-X Mechas, the Red Commander knew the person was her daughter's friend and therefore a bit unwilling to attack.

Even though nobody moved, they all knew, as soon as Liola attempts to escape, even the Red Commander would be forced to stop him.

As such, Liola didn't dare to move. Despite the fact he was the best Assassin, but facing three X Mechas, he felt a bit powerless, especially since he was with his companions. If they were caught, he would have no choice but to put down his weapon.

"Don't say anything; listen to me quietly."

Kaiser's body shook, but he saw nobody else seemed to have any reactions. Kaiser immediately knew only he could hear this voice, and this voice was quite familiar to him.

"I found Daylight and others. I told them to stay at the roof of the Sorcerers' dorm. Purity will put up a black hole there. You guys hurry to the roof and escape through the black hole."

Kaiser's irises immediately dilated. 'Jumping into a black hole? My god, are there any other choices with a higher survival rate?'

The person acted as if he saw Kaiser's face, and explained uneasily, "There are no other choices. Barbalis is holding the Dragon Emperor back, and it's hard to say if he could even get away whole. I can't do anything because I work for the eldest Prince, and I can't betray the Dragon Empire."

As there were no other choices, Kaiser sported on a long face.

"In any case, no matter where the black hole send you, be sure to hurry to a place to hide. Barbalis will do whatever he can to hold the Dragon Emperor back."

Kaiser quietly nodded, and the voice disappeared.

Kaiser patted Baolilong's back, who looked back at him with its confused, pink eyes. Kaiser said quietly, "Baolilong, can you communicate with your dad with telepathy?"

Seeing Baolilong's long neck move up and down, Kaiser continued,

"Tell your dad to charge towards the Sorcerers' dorm, and Purity is on top of it ready with a black hole for us."

Baolilong nodded, and repeated Kaiser's words verbatim to Liola. Liola's figure seemed to have shook slightly, and Baolilong's face seemed to be filled with dissatisfaction as it unwillingly nodded.

When Kaiser saw Baolilong act like such, he wanted to ask about it; but before he had a chance, Liola began to attack; he charged directly at the Red Commander.

"Liola, you..." Kaiser opened his mouth wide, not knowing why Liola would attack first.

As Liola attacked, the previously frozen situation suddenly exploded. The Red Commander deserved every right to be the best inventor and controller of the Mechas.

Despite Liola's blazing speed, the Red Mecha had plenty of time to dodge. But after the Red Commander dodged the attack reflexively, she began to regret it: she should've pretended she couldn't dodge it and act injured, so she could use that opportunity to leave the battle; how else was she to explain all this to her precious daughter?

Liola acted as if he had read the Red Commander's mind. He charged at the Red Mecha as if he couldn't even see anyone else.

This second attack, however, was the same ultimate move used against Cappuccino. The Red Commander was in shock, and blocked Liola's rocket-like attack. The rank-X Mechas were, of course, not on the same level as Cappuccino, and it was able to withstand Liola's attack directly, even though the arm and shield which came in contact with Liola were slightly cracked.

The Red Commander decided to act like she couldn't stop such an attack, flew back a short distance, and then lied on the ground, pretending to be dead.

"Little Red!"

The Gold Giant yelled worriedly, but the Green Dwarf obviously noticed what the Red Commander was up to, but he thought it best not to reveal it.

While Liola was entangled in his battle against others, Baolilong immediately opened its wings to fly away. Kaiser yelled surprisingly, "Baolilong, what are you doing?!"

"Papa told Baolilong to rush over first, and he will catch up." Baolilong said with dissatisfaction.

Kaiser paused, and then turned to look at Liola, who, coincidentally, turned his head to look at Kaiser.

Seeing Baolilong was already close to the dorm, and a black hole was materializing above the dorm, Liola, who had little interest in continuing to fight, immediately charged out of the battle with his ghostly haste, heading towards the dorm with a long tail of pursuers.

When Baolilong reached the edge of the dorms, Kaiser saw Mizerui was holding Meinan and Purity in each of his hands. When they saw Kaiser, they both waved their hands wistfully, while desperately pointing at the black hole as well as Flames, who was carrying an unconscious Daylight.

Kaiser gave an "OK" gesture to them, and Mizerui beckoned Kaiser with his hands. And then Mizerui, Purity, and Meinan all disappeared.

Obviously, Mizerui wanted to take the other two away from this, so that they wouldn't be tried as traitors' accomplices after.

"Baolilong! Tell Flames to follow us."

Kaiser yelled loudly. When they passed by Daylight, Baolilong obediently yelled at Flames, and then the two people and two Dragons charged into the black hole with unknown destination.

* * *


At this time, Liola had also reached the dorm. After a few jumps, he reached the roof. Seeing the black hole was already beginning to shrink, Liola increased his speed towards it. His pursuers were still quite a distance away, and it looked like their escape was going to be a success.

"Silver Mask!"

This yell made Liola stop, even though he knew clearly he shouldn't have done so. He turned his head and saw Lanski was crying a few dozen meters away. Her face was filled with depression.

Liola's heart skipped a beat, and then said towards Lanski, "Sorry."

Lanski saw Liola stopped because of her, and said something, but Lanski couldn't hear what he had said.

When she wanted to recklessly run up to ask what he said, a familiar purple figure suddenly appeared in front of Liola, and its purple aura was burning brightly like a fire.

"No! Father!"

Lanski screamed painfully, but the Dragon Emperor had already made his move. In an instant, the purple aura surrounding him concentrated at his right hand, and his right fist landed heavily on Liola's chest.

Liola felt an immense power rushing into his body, and then suddenly exploded from within his body. The destructiveness of the power made Liola bleed from every inch of his body, and his entire body was bathed in blood.

"Sure-kill ultimate — Purple Tornado..." Cappuccino trembled as he said, as if he had trouble breathing.

Seeing her love bathed in blood, and hearing it was a sure-kill ultimate, Lanski faded into unconsciousness. Had it not been Cappuccino's fast eyes and hands, Lanski might have fallen out of the sky.

After the explosion in his body, the Dragon Emperor had no intention of letting Liola go easily, and he continued to lay waste to Liola's body.

Liola used every bit of Ki and power he had left to protect himself, and he didn't even have the strength to take one step back. He felt the black hole behind him was almost gone, and Liola felt helpless. He looked at the Dragon Emperor's eyes filled with hatred, and he was planning to attack again...

Feeling his death was near, Liola felt time was slowing down. He saw the Dragon Emperor's eyes were seeping out endless amount of killing intent.

Liola could not understand why the Dragon Emperor's hatred towards him ran this deep. He saw the Dragon Emperor's hand collided with his head along with his purple aura, but the necklace hanging in front of chest suddenly exploded with a white light.

Liola felt a strong yet tender force pushing himself a step back, then he lost consciousness.

Back to top
divider

Chapter 7 : Becoming another world's, Two People, Two Dragons

This chapter was brought to you by AnmesicCat, BboyBrian and StellarAshes.
divider

Kaiser rushed into the black hole and started praying fervently; it didn't matter whether it was to Allah or to Jesus. Beneath him, Baolilong struggled to flap its wings, but within the endless darkness where you couldn't tell left from right, Baolilong's effort seemed useless.

Indeed, Kaiser didn't see any exit. Suddenly, there was a violent burst of white light. Kaiser quickly clamped his eyes shut and moaned in pain for a long while before he was able to open them again.

Kaiser immediately started ascertaining the situation.

First, he was still riding on Baolilong, who was straining to open its big pink eyes and seemed fine.

Secondly, Daylight was groggy but was sitting on Flames, so there were three 'people' beside him who were still okay. Only then was Kaiser relieved, and he started observing the surroundings.

'Blue sky, white clouds, big grasslands... Good, we haven't fallen into the eighteen levels of hell or the Dragon Emperor's prison, etcetera.' Kaiser felt a load lifted off his chest.

Baolilong wiggled its body, making Kaiser fall off. It then transformed back into its child form and desperately divided the grass around it, searching high and low.

Finally, when it didn't see anyone else, it started bawling, "Papa! Papa is gone."

When Flames saw Baolilong crying non-stop, it also transformed into its small Dragon form and ran forward to console Baolilong.

Kaiser finally realized something was not right and frowned, "That rascal wouldn't have stayed there, right?"

"Oof!"

Daylight was thrown off Flames while still in a daze and didn't manage to land lightly like Kaiser. His whole body collapsed on the ground without being cushioned by aura, and the pain immediately shocked Daylight wide-awake.

Upon opening his eyes, Daylight suddenly realized he was in an unknown place and panicked slightly. Then, he recalled that Mizerui had knocked him out of his senses because he refused to leave.

"You're awake." Kaiser squatted next to Daylight, and asked somewhat annoyed, "Do you know where we are?"

Daylight replied in disgruntlement, "I don't know."

Kaiser glanced at Daylight, whose face had a shadow of anger. However, Kaiser was not worried, because Daylight was easy to handle.

Kaiser said simply, "Liola is missing."

As expected, Daylight immediately forgot about his anger and his expression changed to one of anxiety and concern,

"What happened to him, did he not manage to escape?"

Kaiser frowned and said, "I'm not sure, there wasn't any response when Baolilong called for him, so he's probably knocked out."

Daylight was extremely worried, "Then we should quickly go back to rescue him."

"Rescue my foot! I don't even know what kind of weird place we ended up in." Kaiser snapped.

He had just examined the surroundings, and there was only grass after grass.

Upon hearing Kaiser's words, Daylight also frantically looked all around, but he didn't recall there being such large grasslands in the Aklan Continent.

Daylight knitted his eyebrows and said, "Maybe we're in the Dragon Continent?"

When Kaiser heard his most undesired, albeit most reasonable guess, he laughed weakly,

"Hahaha, or maybe it's the Commerce Alliance!"

Even Daylight knew Kaiser was putting up a hopeless struggle; technology was far more widespread in the Commerce Alliance compared to Aklan, it would be harder to find a spot in the Commerce Alliance without a Maxun than it would be to find a grade-A Mecha. So a place as large as this grassland without any Maxun could never exist in the Commerce Alliance.

Just when the two were racking their minds to find out where they were, the sky was blurred and a jet-black hole spat out a "blood-soaked object". If he hadn't known the ironclad object couldn't spit blood, Kaiser would have thought it was injured.

However, Daylight had already ran over. After gasping several times, he seemed to be at wits end.

Kaiser thought Daylight's reaction to the bloodied object was quite weird, but once Baolilong ran over and started wailing 'Papa', Kaiser immediately followed and realized the "blood-soaked object" was actually the missing Liola.

Kaiser immediately started checking Liola's wounds, but strangely enough, there weren't any wounds, it was as if the blood had all been squeezed out of the veins.

Daylight also felt something was amiss, and he could also sense an overbearing force coming from Liola's body, which seemed different from the usual strength Liola displayed.

After wiping off all the blood from Liola's face with his sleeves, Daylight suddenly realized there was a purple aura being emitted on Liola's face,

"Purple aura... it was the Dragon Emperor who injured Liola!"

"It doesn't matter who injured him, what matters is whether you can heal him?" Kaiser anxiously shook Daylight's shoulders.

Daylight awkwardly said, "I, I still haven't learnt healing magic..."

Kaiser could only frown and reply, "Wake Liola up, let him heal himself."

Daylight nodded, shook Liola lightly and continually shouted at him, but Liola didn't show the slightest reaction.

"Papa can't be woken up!" Baolilong sat at the side and bawled incessantly.

Kaiser's face grew darker, "It seems useless, Baolilong has definitely been shouting at Liola using telepathy, if this noisy Dragon can't wake Liola, nothing will."

"Maybe Liola was heavily injured, so he went to sleep to let his body heal itself?"

Daylight suggested unconvincingly. Kaiser shook his head in confusion, shrugged his shoulders and said,

"Looks like he is no longer spitting blood. Since he won't wake up, and at worst he won't die, then let's not care about him. If we do not figure out where we are and the Dragon Emperor catches us, none of us will be able to escape."

Kaiser turned to Baolilong, "Brat, turn back into a Dragon and carry us, we are going to run."

Baolilong twitched, it knew they had to leave, and transformed back into a 10-meter tall Sacred White Dragon.

Daylight carried Liola and hopped onto the enlarged Flames. Baolilong and Flames flew up high into the sky. They could vaguely make out a city, and under Kaiser's signal, the two Dragons both flew towards it.

Once they drew close to the city, Baolilong transformed back into its child form and Flames transformed into a miniature Dragon.

The group of 3 people and 2 Dragons then walked towards the city. When they got near the city, groups of people appeared around them, wearing weird outfits.

They mostly wore tops with overlapping lapels, their trousers were coarse and rough, and held up at the waist by tied cloth. Even if they were called belts, they were still only pieces of cloth.

When they reached the city's entrance, it was unexpectedly made by stacking up stones, and you could tell at a glance the doors were made of wood.

There was a plaque above which read "Sky City", but what almost made Kaiser breathless was the two guards stationed at the sides. They were wearing armor which neither Kaiser nor Daylight had ever seen before. The armor seemed to be made of rattan, and they also held 2 big spears in their hands.

No matter how ridiculous the Dragon Continent might be, it wouldn't use a material like rattan to make armor, right?

2 people, 1 Dragon stayed at the entrance and did some sizing up. In turn, they too were sized up. Kaiser, who would rather die than to admit they were in the Dragon Continent, laughed,

"Heh... Dragon Continent natives really dress weirdly, don't they?"

Daylight knew that Kaiser was just doing some self-consolation. Even if it was the Dragon Continent, it wouldn't be like this. Since when did Knights from the academy dress so weirdly? Moreover, the passers-by spoke in a language totally foreign to Daylight.

Although the Dragon Continent would have its own language, but it was the language all Knights had to learn, and it was impossible for Daylight, a Blue Knight, not understand a single word!

"Why do they say we are strange?" Baolilong widened its eyes and asked Kaiser.

Kaiser was even more confused and asked, "You can understand them?"

Baolilong nodded its head. Kaiser was frustrated. He initially thought he had travelled to another world, same as Liola.

However, if Baolilong could understand them, then how could they be in another world? Or maybe it was actually a Dragon haven, and all the people they could see were actually transformed Dragons?

"I think I know where this is." Daylight suddenly said, making Kaiser stare at him.

Daylight laughed bitterly and explained, "After forming a contract with a Dragon, there are a lot of things that can be transferred between the 2 minds, including language... "

Kaiser's jaw dropped, what it meant was Baolilong could understand the regional language because its master Liola also could, and Liola could understand it because... , simply because this was the world Liola originally lived in!

"This is so humiliating." Kaiser said feebly after thinking everything through.

Daylight smiled wryly, "At least we don't need to hasten to flee, no matter what, the Dragon Emperor won't chase us across worlds."

Baolilong tugged on Kaiser's Sorcerer robes and said as it pointed at the two door guards, "They said we are very weird, so they are coming over to question us."

Once Baolilong said it, the two door guards really did walk over, and all the curious onlookers made way for them to pass, then followed behind them.

"%*!@%*%*" The guards shouted.

Kaiser pulled on Baolilong and asked, "Hey! What are they saying?"

In the same tone, Baolilong said, "Where are you from and why have you come here? Does that red beast bite? Is the person you are carrying still alive?"

Kaiser frowned and paused for thought. Where they were from couldn't be revealed, and neither could he answer why they had come; the 'red beast' would probably refer to Flames? It could also mean there were no Dragons in this world.

Right, Kaiser remembered when he first met Liola, he too did not know what Dragons were.

The guards got impatient. They started upbraiding loudly and pointed their long spears at the small Flames, who got enraged and shot out a 10cm size fireball.

The small fireball was hardly lethal, and Flames meant it as a warning shot. However, it made the guards and the onlookers scream and run away. When it landed on a guard and kindled a small fire, the guard started jumping up and down madly.

"Liola had not used magic before, he didn't even know there was something called magic... " Kaiser just remembered the detail.

'Oh no! This world definitely doesn't have magic.'

The epiphany was too late, everyone frantically squeezed back into the city and soon there was an uproar. 10 people riding on a 4-legged creature which Kaiser had never seen before slowly approached them.

Daylight frowned and asked Kaiser, "What should we do?"

Kaiser showed a powerless expression and spread his hands out, "Let's see whether Baolilong can communicate with them."

However, he didn't think communicating could accomplish much.

Daylight nodded, he did not want to fight over a misunderstanding. He leaned forward and told Baolilong,

"Baolilong, tell them that we mean no harm, we only want to enter the city to recover. We are unable to fight as we have an injured person."

Baolilong tilted its head and thought for a bit. After all, it was its first time speaking in Liola's language.

After it thought it through, Baolilong said out a stream of words at the 10 people. The ten people each frowned and started discussing amongst themselves. After which, one of them, who was dressed somewhat differently and was probably the leader, spoke.

Baolilong translated, "You use strange magic, are... " Baolilong thought really hard then reluctantly said, "Are you Magicians?"

'Magicians?' Kaiser was surprised, didn't this world not have magic? Why would the term Magician arise? Kaiser asked, "Are you sure they said 'Magicians'?"

Baolilong pouted its mouth, "It seems different, but Baolilong couldn't find a better word."

"It Looks like it's a unique occupation around here." Daylight eventually understood.

Kaiser's head spun faster. What would the reputation of this unique occupation be? But no matter how bad it was, it couldn't get any worse, right? At most they could flee.

Kaiser asked Daylight, "How strong are these ten? Can you beat them?

Daylight frowned, "They're not even as strong as a Green Knight."

It meant there was nothing to be afraid of. Kaiser grinned and told Baolilong, "Just tell them we're Magicians and observe their reaction."

Baolilong's innocent child voice sounded again.

The 10 people's eyes widened, and the stared at Kaiser and the others, showing a hint of respect.

Kaiser almost wanted to leap up and make a V sign! After having a string of bad luck, since anyone who entered the black hole would just be sent back, only they were lucky enough to score big on the first try.

Finally they struck big. Kaiser almost wanted to kowtow to heaven, but then he remembered there were 10 people staring at him, and decided to leave the bowing for later.

Kaiser nudged Baolilong, "Hey, tell them we want to enter the city."

Baolilong listened round-eyed and told Kaiser, "Kaiser, some of them don't believe you're a Magician."

Kaiser looked at the ten people, and just as Baolilong had said, they were debating amongst themselves.

Kaiser scowled and chanted a short incantation. Immediately, a small fireball appeared in his hand. Kaiser juggled it about casually, which made the ten people gape and stare.

Kaiser had gotten into it, he nudged Daylight, "Hey, release some aura for them."

"Aura? Are we fighting?"

Daylight was not sure how to react until he saw Kaiser nodding, and decided to follow Kaiser. Once he released his blue aura, no one doubted them anymore.

The probable leader dismounted and respectfully walked over and spoke a string of words. This time, Baolilong didn't need to be reminded. It immediately assumed the role of a little translator,

"May I ask if master Magicians have come to seek audience with other Magicians from Skyward Overlook?"

"Skyward Overlook?" Kaiser hesitated, but nonchalantly pushed his hesitation to the back of his mind. Why bother, besides, they had to enter the city first?

"Tell them yes, Baolilong."

Baolilong said a simple sound, and the leader nodded his head and said an even simpler sound.

"Please." Baolilong's tender child voice translated again.

The dozen looks of respect put Kaiser on cloud nine, and he walked into the city like the biggest gangster.

Daylight followed, looking worriedly at the unconscious and blood-soaked Liola whom he was carrying. He could only hope there would be something like a Healing Maxun inside the city.

As he walked, Kaiser really had an eye-opener. In his life he had not seen so many wooden things, Aklan only used metals and plastics.

Here, the houses were almost completely made of wood, and were all very short, the tallest Kaiser had seen so far was only 3 levels tall, much shorter than Aklan's usual 100. Also, each level here was also smaller than Aklan's.

The roads were all narrow, and there weren't any Transportation Maxuns. There were some people riding on 4-legged creatures, the same kind as what the 10 people had ridden, except they had all dismounted to walk, in order to adjust to Kaiser and the others.

Right from the start, the leader hadn't stopped chattering, and Baolilong had to keep translating. However, eventually there were too many things it couldn't find the right word for, and with an angry pout of the lips, it refused to say anything. When the leader saw Kaiser's confused face, he too rubbed his nose and stopped talking.

They walked until they reached a special room, where the leader stopped, pointed at it and said something.

Kaiser examined the room, it was more appealing than the previous wooden houses, however, it was made of a cheaper material — stone.

Kaiser was baffled, why would such a large room be made of such a cheap material? Probably because the room was so big and they couldn't afford so much wood, Kaiser shrugged, he couldn't be bothered to guess.

"He said this is the Skyward Overlook." Baolilong finally helped translate a sentence.

This is Skyward Overlook, was he implying Skyward Overlook was something like a Magician's association?

Kaiser had all sorts of doubts, but when he saw the leader had already retreated to the side, he had no choice but to go forward.

He stopped before the door and looked all around, with a bitter face, he asked Daylight, "There's no doorbell, what should we do?

Daylight frowned and examined the door, the wooden door was all smooth and shiny, except for a spherical object hanging in the middle. Indeed it looked as if there wasn't a doorbell, Daylight was perplexed and said,

"Patting the door would do."

"Baolilong, pat the door." Kaiser said, he didn't want to abuse his hand by patting the hardwood door.

Baolilong found it fun and immediately rushed forward, its two tiny hands patted the door strongly, until the door clanged and banged.

Just when Kaiser realized handprints appearing on the door and wanted to stop Baolilong, the door made a scary creaking sound. However, Baolilong didn't care, with one last pat, the right door crashed down on the ground, raising dust clouds.

There was a person inside who looked as if he was going to open the door, but instead just stared wide-eyed at the fallen door.

Kaiser also stared wide-eyed, and asked hesitantly, "Daylight, do you suppose their doors... have a different opening method from ours? Like, it falls down then is pulled up afterwards?"

"Don't think so." Although he didn't know how things worked over here, but from the shocked expression of the person inside, Daylight could immediately refute Kaiser's nonsense.

Just when everyone was stunned, more people came running out, many of which were old people with long, white beards. Everybody looked grimly at the door, finally, a younger person walked over with an angry expression, shouting.

However, Baolilong lost its temper and refused to translate. Under Kaiser's anxious urges and when even Daylight opened his mouth, Baolilong reluctantly translated,

"Baolilong doesn't know how to say it, they said we are here to kick their house, but Baolilong used hands, and not feet."

"Kicking houses?" Kaiser's face grew wrinkled as a bittergourd, it's over, the phrase was definitely not translated literally.

Then, Daylight carried Liola and walked forward. As he was unable to do the proper knightly formalities, he could only bow respectfully and asked sincerely,

"My friend is heavily wounded, please may I ask if you can heal him?"

However, they could not understand what Daylight had said until Baolilong rushed over with a shriveled mouth and flowing tears, saying a long phrases of words Kaiser couldn't understand.

Kaiser was not worried, just from Baolilong's expression, he knew Baolilong was pleading for someone to heal Liola.

Upon seeing Baolilong weeping, a woman in her 30s walked over with a pained expression and took out a handkerchief to wipe its tears while comforting it. However, when she moved to hug it, Baolilong hid behind Daylight's leg, refusing to be hugged.

The middle-aged woman turned around and spoke to the oldest man, who also had the longest beard. She pointed at Liola, then at Baolilong.

The old man thought for a while before walking towards Daylight and glared at him, but Daylight looked back at him with impressive perseverance. The old man nodded in appreciation and said some words.

Hiding behind Daylight's leg, Baolilong immediately said with teary eyes, "They said they will look at papa's wounds! They want us to follow them."

Daylight was overjoyed and followed the old bearded man inside the premises. Kaiser also breathed a sigh of relief. Luckily their chances hadn't been ruined by a door, he immediately followed Daylight in.

When they reached a certain room, the people on either side of the elder promptly opened the doors respectfully and the elder entered. He knew they spoke different languages, so he silently pointed at Liola, then at the bed.

Daylight got the hint, he immediately laid Liola down on the bed and stood beside it, waiting for the elder to heal Liola's injuries. To the contrary, Kaiser walked in obstinately, sat down at a table and started observing a weirdly shaped water bottle placed on the tabletop. He did not realize everyone else was standing and giving him displeased looks.

However, the elder didn't say anything. He simply lifted up Liola's right hand and pressed his thumb on Liola's wrist.

"Hey, what do you think he is doing?" Kaiser appeared at the bedside, he was worried the old man did not know what to do. The only thing Kaiser knew about healing was dumping people into Healing Maxuns, as for the old man's inexplicable actions, he could only ask the Knight beside him.

Daylight shook his head, "I don't know, I'm not a Priest."

Daylight's empty answer meant Kaiser could only continue watching the old man, in case the old man does harm to Liola.

From the start, the bearded old man had a heavy expression, but after a while he looked enlightened. He lowered Liola's wrist and spoke a long string of passage to Baolilong.

As it was a matter regarding its papa, Baolilong paid full attention. Afterwards, it ran to Daylight and Kaiser.

"He said there is a strong force destroying papa's body, but papa is very formidable and is resisting the force. With some good rest, papa will wake up by himself."

"He just needs some sleep? That's all?" Kaiser stared blankly and listened. However, he suddenly realized the important question, to sleep, there needs to be a place to sleep!

Kaiser looked at Liola lying on the bed and snickered. He nudged Baolilong, "Hey, ask them if we can stay here until Liola wakes up."

Baolilong immediately asked, but the elder looked slightly uneasy. When Baolilong realized the elder was unwilling, the corners of its mouth instantly drooped and tears fell from its eyes.

When she saw Baolilong's pitiful looks, the same middle-aged woman immediately walked over and hugged it lovingly.

This time, Baolilong knew the woman could help them, so he could only grumble and reluctantly let her hug it. The woman said a lot of words to the elder, and the moment someone else opened their mouth, they were immediately pushed back by her words.

In the end, the bearded old man helplessly nodded his head.

Kaiser couldn't refrain from complaining, no one could understand him anyway, "Cheapskate, can't we stay for a bit, there were so many empty rooms, what's wrong with letting us use some for a few days."

However, Kaiser soon understood that the elder wasn't being stingy, the reason the elder had been uneasy was... because he and Daylight stayed long enough for them to learn the language of this world.

Back to top
divider

Chapter 8 : Taoist

This chapter was brought to you by AnmesicCat, BboyBrian and StellarAshes.
divider

His consciousness slowly floated along. He didn't think at all; he only turned over comfortably once in a while. He had not experienced such a serene life before. He did not want to think, no, he did not have to think. He just drifted along, not even knowing who he himself was.

"Liola, Li."

A familiar voice yet filled with fear shouted repeatedly. This was the word he didn't want to hear the most, his consciousness anxiously floated faster, hoping to distance itself from the voice.

"Liola..."

The same name, but a different voice, so very familiar, so very sad. He hesitated, not knowing whether to continue drifting, but the voice had made him unable to leave.

"Liola, do not kill, alright?"

"I didn't!" He couldn't resist shouting. "I didn't kill. I haven't killed anyone anymore!" Finally, he floated back, floating towards the voice. He could vaguely feel a cross-shaped light, a very warm white light.

"Liola, find me."

"Who are you? Who are you?" His consciousness kept asking.

"I am... Anise."

"Anise!" His eyes shot open.

He felt disoriented, as if he was still drifting. He could only feel his eyelids, but he knew clearly he now had a body, and he could feel warmth coming from something in front of his chest. He concentrated on feeling, feeling the warmth, then regaining the rest of his senses.

From his chest to his shoulders, to his hand, to his fingers, then his fingertips twitched. Slowly, his hand opened, clenched, opened.

His sense of touch gradually returned, but he couldn't summon any strength, what exactly had happened to him? No, who was he?

Anise... no, not right, he wasn't Anise, he was the one who caused her death. He was... Liola, the number one Assassin.

He forced a smile. He remembered now, he and Anise were being chased by the organization, Anise died but he alone escaped to DuanChang Cliff, but what happened after?

Liola's head ached, the name Kaiser suddenly leapt into his mind, right, he met Kaiser, Purity, Meinan, Daylight... and many, many others. He was sent to another world, met a lot of people, and many things happened.

Liola finally remembered, but when his vision cleared up, he couldn't believe his eyes, his clothes!

He was wearing a normal cloth robe, not the comfy metallic grey sorcerer robes and not the dazzling white knight uniform, but a cloth robe, an overlapping lapel and a cloth belt. He looked at the bedside and sure enough, there were a pair of cloth shoes there.

Liola slowly raised his eyes. It was a familiar room; the wooden table, the bamboo bed he was lying on and the mud teapot.

'What happened?' Liola's heart was shrouded, and filled with even more panic.

A scary thought suddenly jumped into his mind and shouted wickedly, "Actually, you weren't transported to another world! There's no Kaiser, and also no Purity, Meinan, Daylight, not even Anise's twin sister! It was all your imagination! You wanted to leave this world so badly, so you had a long and ugly dream! There isn't such a thing as other worlds!"

"No!" Liola held his head and growled, he wasn't dreaming, Kaiser, Purity, and everyone else were real!

The scary voice shouted, "Then how do you explain this? No room can get more ordinary than this one, you were probably heavily injured after jumping off the cliff and were carried here, everything else is a dream. It was all a dream!"

'Not a dream! Not a dream...'

Liola clenched his head, he was so scared, he made a dent on the bed frame. He didn't dare to get off the bed, or to open the door, he didn't want to see his own world, much less believe everything was a dream!

'Papa!'

A call came from his heart, but Liola was still a bit muddled, was it... Baolilong? Or was he... just fantasizing?

'Papa?!'

The voice called out again. Liola couldn't help wanting to go find Baolilong, but the moment his foot met the ground, he felt the roughness of it, totally unlike the smooth floor of the Aklan Sorcery dormitories.

He fearfully pulled his leg back, what if he ran out of the room, only to see his own world, yet unable to find Baolilong?

Liola once again withdrew from the bedside, he hugged his knees tightly and buried his head into them, not seeing, not listening.

But things turned out differently, the door was forced open ferociously, and a realistic voice shouted, "Papa!"

With his face buried between his knees, Liola's shoulders jolted intensely. He was too afraid to raise his head, not until a tiny body climbed onto him did he look up unsteadily. A pair of big pink eyes looked back at him, shedding large teardrops.

"Why did Papa ignore Baolilong?" Baolilong sobbed.

These pink eyes would not be found in his own world, right? Liola desperately told himself.

"Liola, you finally woke up!"

Liola instantly raised his head and saw a teenage boy with sea-blue eyes and a head of grass-green hair gaping at him with an exaggerated expression. Beside him stood a blue haired, golden-eyed male, also with a shocked expression.

Liola carried Baolilong in his arms and supported his weak frame over to the two. He looked at the teenager and the male.

"What, what are you crying about?" The teenage boy looked at Liola as if his eyeballs were going to fall out.

"Kaiser?" Liola asked uncertainly.

"What?"

Regardless of the teenage boy's shocked expression, Liola hugged Baolilong with his left hand, his right reached out and hugged the boy tightly. This action shocked the teenage boy so much that he almost stiffened to plaster.

Liola released the teenage boy and turned to the blue haired, golden-eyed male, this time more calmly, "Daylight?"

The blue-haired male nodded hesitantly, and Liola hugged him too. After confirming the 2 big ones and 1 small one in front of him were all real, he was sure there really had been Kaiser, and Daylight, and everyone else.

* * *


In this most ordinary of rooms, Liola, Kaiser and Daylight sat around the round table while Baolilong sat on Flames' back, swinging his legs. Daylight poured tea for everyone, after which he took the lead and drank first, he was really liking the drink more and more.

Kaiser tapped the table and squinted at Liola, "You are saying that when you first woke up, you saw everything around you was from your own world and hence thought your travel to another world was fake? Including me, Purity, Meinan and so on were all part of your imagination?"

By now, Liola was fully awake and he nodded awkwardly.

Liola had really nodded, Kaiser was mad, he slammed the table,

"Are you an idiot or are you mentally retarded?! You think you are Nanke, don't think about why I would know Nanke! You son of a b—tch, you slept for a full year, now I can speak the language of this world even more fluently than you!"
[T/N: Nanke is a reference to 'a fond dream'. It was often used in discussing life was like a dream; everything comes and goes.]

Liola breathed a sigh of relief, this was definitely Kaiser's tone. After voicing the reasons for his disorder, Liola curiously wondered where he was, so he asked Kaiser.

Kaiser snapped, "This is Skyward Overlook, one of the strongholds of the Yellow Faction Taoists. Let me tell you first, we are staying here as Taoists from afar. Our master is called Taoist Barbalis, and our faction is the Aklan Faction. We are the disciples. Daylight is the eldest disciple, you are the second, and I'm the youngest. Tsk tsk, it's because I look too elegant, so I had to be the youngest."

Daylight grinned and took over, "We were following our master's orders to travel around the world when we were ambushed by a demon near Mt. Sky. (The Dragon Emperor is the demon?) Liola, you were heavily injured, so we brought you to these Taoists for help, and ended up staying here."

"Oh! Right." Kaiser only remembered Baolilong after being kicked by its tiny leg, "Baolilong is an orphan we picked up from a village looted by demons along the way, as you found him first, so Baolilong calls you Papa."

When Kaiser brought up Baolilong, Daylight thought of his own Flames, and immediately added, "Also, Flames is a demon I converted, so it now follows my command."

Flames knew what a demon was, it bit its owner's trousers in dissatisfaction and Daylight smiled at it apologetically.

Upon hearing the pair's explanation, Liola nodded, "You already fully understand this world."

Kaiser looked at Liola haughtily, "Of course! If you hadn't been unconscious the moment you came here, we wouldn't have suffered so much! Do you know we spent 2 months before finding out that we are actually 'Taoists', not Magicians?"

Daylight scowled slightly, "Once they saw me with a pike, they kept wanting to give me a wooden sword use."

'Daylight using a wooden sword?' Liola wanted to laugh, but then he noticed their garments.

Daylight had his hair tied up into a bun, as was the local custom, and he looked somewhat scholarly.

In contrast, Kaiser's hair was still looking like overgrown weeds, his long sleeves had been turned into short sleeves and his cloth belt was tied with a bow.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door, Kaiser casually said some poppycock, "Come in, everyone is clothed, even if we're not, there's no worry, we're all male."

"Kaiser what nonsense are you spouting again."

A woman around 30 years old walked in carrying a platter of food and smiled at Kaiser reprimandingly. She looked at Liola gently and put down the food, "After sleeping for so long, you must be hungry? Eat some food quickly."

Liola nodded, only after smelling the taste of food did he realize he was hungry. He bluntly picked up his chopsticks and immediately dug in.

The pretty woman fondly looked at Liola eating and said, "I am Lee San Niang, the daughter of
the head of this Taoist Overlook. You are called Liola?"
[T/N: The 'San' in her name means the number three. It is a common name in olden day China. It could mean she's the third child, or the third daughter of the family.]

Liola's eyes flashed when he heard her name and he slowly raised his head to look at Lee San Niang. Lee San Niang smiled at him and saw he had stopped eating, she asked, "What's the matter?"

Liola realized Lee San Niang's expression hadn't changed and he felt strange.

Although his name could be said carelessly in the other world, but in his own world, the name carried the title of the number one Assassin! But Lee San Niang's expression didn't seem fake, so Liola thought back on how she had addressed him. Her pronunciation was weird, it wasn't just weird, it was exactly how Kaiser pronounced it, and Kaiser had always pronounced his name wrongly.

Liola shook his head and said, "I'm not used to eating alone."

"Oh," Lee San Niang said and smiled as she got up, "Got it, you're shy, don't like someone staring at you while you eat? In that case I'll leave first, I'll come back later to clear the dishes, and my father also wishes to check on you."

Liola nodded, and Lee San Niang walked out of the room laughing.

"What's the matter?" Kaiser asked suspiciously, he wouldn't believe such nonsense about Liola being shy.

Liola glanced at Kaiser, "You shouldn't reveal my real name, I am the best Assassin in this world."

Kaiser and Daylight both froze, they had completely forgotten about it. When Lee San Niang asked about it, they just said the truth.

Kaiser asked uncomfortably, "Anyway it seems as if they haven't heard of it, an Assassin wouldn't be that famous, would it?"

Liola shook his head and explained, "I'm very infamous, everyone knows of me, it's your incorrect pronunciation that mislead them."

Daylight said, "Oh, right, at the start you translated your name, so it sounded weird in our world. After coming here, I finally realized your name actually means 'Moonlight'."

Liola shook his head, "Kaiser's pronunciation was inaccurate, it means 'Silver Moon', not 'Moonlight'."

"Hey! Why do you keep complaining about my inaccurate pronunciation, if I had pronounced it correctly, we would all be done for!" Kaiser argued loudly.

Liola didn't refute Kaiser, he was really hungry so he proficiently used his chopsticks to eat the food from olden days.

"Oi, Liola, are we not able to return?" Kaiser asked gloomily.

There were no Sorcerers here, and Purity with her space magic wasn't here either, and he himself didn't know space magic, so how could they return? Maybe they could try being split by lightning on a stormy day?

Liola's chopsticks stopped once again and he murmured a sorry filled with regret.

"Forget it, anyway it's not that bad." Kaiser lazily lay on the table, "Luckily only the 3 of us came, Daylight is an orphan, I'm also an orphan, and Gladiolus will probably look after my older sister. Anyway, us 3 don't have to worry about anything, we are fine anywhere, and if this world isn't as good it's at least more peaceful than ours."

Although Kaiser said it very casually, Liola had no way to be as casual. With the knowledge he had once again burdened two others, his heart felt like lead.

Daylight saw Liola's face wasn't looking too good, so he immediately changed the topic,

"However, the Martial Arts of this world are very different from ours, no wonder you rarely release any aura, Liola."

"That's right, when someone released aura at the start, he was taken as a Taoist and was bugged for a year about how Taoist must use wooden swords." Kaiser gloated.

Daylight rubbed his nose, "Kaiser aren't you the one who uses a wooden sword all day."

"Go! Or would you rather I shoot you with a gun? The last time I fired, old man Lee bothered me for a month, talking about how he wanted to borrow my magic weapon to do some research." Kaiser's face turned bitter.

Talking about old man Lee, Daylight also said awkwardly, "Master Lee is really... a bit too eager to learn, if Flames didn't spit fire everytime he got near it, he would have already captured Flames for dissection."

"You too! Liola." Kaiser winked and said, "If Baolilong hadn't guarded you to the bone, old man Lee would have already stripped you naked to study the purple glow on your skin."

However, Liola stayed quiet, and Daylight had his head lowered and was pouring tea seriously.

When Kaiser saw the two of them as such, he immediately understood someone was coming. He lay on the table and yawned. Sure enough, voices were drawing nearer and a moment later, there was a knock on the door.

"Besides old man Lee, everyone else can come in." Kaiser said lazily. However, the first to come in would not be anyone but old man Lee.

As expected, the doors opened and there was a crowd outside, but the first one to enter was Master Lee alone. He walked in with a deity-like demeanor, and if Kaiser and Daylight hadn't already seen through old man Lee's ability to annoy, they might really have called him God Lee respectfully.

"Hahaha, congratulations on the awakening of your second brother, pity the purple glow is gone." Master Lee lamented slightly.

"It's great the purple glow is gone, then old man Lee you won't have to get bitten black and blue by Baolilong because you wanted to kidnap Liola."

Kaiser snickered without suppression, but the others behind Master Lee, the disciples and Lee San Niang who had come in all laughed sniggered.

Master Lee calmly coughed twice and the disciples behind him immediately stopped laughing, but they were holding back their laughter and weren't actually afraid.

Master Lee approached Liola and smoothly moved to feel his pulse, but Liola coolly removed his wrist, letting Master Lee grab air.

He told Liola, "This master is just worried you didn't purge all the purple aura, it might cause future troubles, so I want to check your pulse."

After he finished speaking, Master Lee once again reached out for Liola's wrist, but Liola frowned and directly put his hand back inside the sleeves, which hung at his sides.

Master Lee impatiently stroked his beard, and behind him the disciples' suppressed laughter grew louder.

"Fine, this master won't force you, it's just a pity." The pity Master Lee mentioned, everyone knew what it meant, pity he didn't get to research the mysterious purple energy.

Although this Taoist temple was different from the ones Liola knew, but weren't they all serious with the disciples all a bit cautious of the master? However, Liola did not intend to be disrespectful, he stood up and bowed deeply, "Liola thanks Master Lee for his shelter and care."

Master Lee was obviously quite pleased with Liola's politeness, he laughed,

"Little brother, no need to mind. Watching the little brothers slaying demons with their utmost efforts, this Master also wanted to help, providing a room and some food is just a small matter, not to mention your brothers helped me out a lot."

"Che! Treating Daylight and me as free labor and you still dare to talk about it, one moment slaying demons there, another killing devils here."

Kaiser quietly grumbled, and this whisper was obviously clearly heard by the disciples at the back, the sounds of laughter didn't stop.

Master Lee was not bad at playing dumb, he took Kaiser's words as a gust of wind, without a trace, he continued asking Liola and Daylight,

"I wonder what you brothers plan on doing next? If you want to continue staying, then this master would do his best as a host."

"Damn! Two free labourers for a full year isn't enough, you want three free labourers for life?" Kaiser widened his eyes and shouted softly.

"Hahaha!" The disciples at the back cracked up, they each hugged their bellies or leant against the wall and laughed. Lee San Niang couldn't stop smiling tenderly.

Master Lee slowly turned around, "I wonder what you disciples are laughing about? Why don't you tell the master so he can have a moment of happiness too?"

"Che! He sure knows how to bully the disciples!" Kaiser desperately pulled faces behind old man Lee's back.

Master Lee obviously snapped, in an instant he had jumped towards Kaiser. He blew his beard, glared and shouted, "You brat, why exactly are you unhappy with this master?"

"Definitely unhappy!"

Kaiser had something to rely on, so he wasn't scared. He casually chanted a short incantation and the uninteresting small fireball popped out again.

Kaiser juggled it left and right, and Master Lee's pupils also hopped with it. He kept shouting his usual phrase,

"Too mysterious! Really too mysterious, this master researched for so long, but he still doesn't know what this fireball is, really too mysterious."

"I say, Master Lee, I suddenly feel like eating candied fruit, if I can't eat candied fruit I will be unhappy, and once I'm unhappy I won't be able to maintain the fireball, then you won't have anything to research." Kaiser apologetically said a long line of words.

Master Lee's eyes didn't leave the fireball, he shouted, "Void, immediately go and buy all the candied fruits in town, go now!"

The nearby disciples all laughed and looked at a young man wearing a white cloth robe, Void answered helplessly, "Yes Master, I'll go immediately."

When he finished speaking, he couldn't resist smiling at Kaiser, immediately going to buy candied fruits, he knew Kaiser didn't really want to eat candied fruits, but it was for the many little boys and girls inside the temple.

Liola was quite shocked by the strange scene happening in front of him, but Daylight laughed as if it were normal. Looks like Kaiser's gangster-like attitude, really is... an ox transported to another world is still an ox!

Daylight turned,and asked Liola, "Liola, do you have plans on doing something next?"

Liola shook his head, although this was the world he originally lived in, but in his earlier life, he really couldn't remember anything besides killing people. He did go outdoors to kill, but at that time he was as cold as ice, he didn't half remember what was between the organization and the destination. Truthfully speaking, to Liola this world was the real 'other world'!

Daylight nodded and said excitedly, "Then we'll travel around the world of Martial Arts and on the way, we'll go to see the Martial Arts Symposium, ok?"

Liola looked at Daylight in surprise. It was unexpected Daylight and Kaiser had already fully understood this world, perhaps even more so than himself... Liola smiled bitterly.

"This is a temple, although the Taoists have some martial arts background, but they cannot compare to actual martial artists, I really want to see the true brilliant martial arts of this place."

Daylight got more excited as he was speaking, and in the end his eyes almost glowed.

Liola listened to a 'Knight' like Daylight using terms like martial arts background and martial artists, he really felt strange.

Liola thought for a bit, although he was the best Assassin in this world, but only a few had seen him. Even within his own Assassin organization, besides the Leader and Yasha...

He suddenly remembered Yasha, the Leader's daughter. Liola smiled wryly in his heart. The one who should have come back didn't, and the one who shouldn't have, inevitably did.

There shouldn't be anyone who knew how he looked like, except for a mountain of corpses, Liola guessed.

Furthermore, Daylight and Kaiser weren't as fragile as Anise, plus they had the two Dragons, Baolilong and Flames. Even if they were found out by the Assassination organization, it would be very easy to run away, hence Liola nodded at Daylight.

Daylight, who was crazed about Martial Arts, immediately stood up. If Lee San Niang didn't speak, he would have already ran into his room to pack his luggage.

"Are you really leaving?" Lee San Niang looked dismayed, especially towards Baolilong.

Kaiser withdrew his fireballs (this made Master Lee whine nonstop), and flirtatiously said to Lee San Niang, "Lee-jiejie~"

The disciples all felt a chill.

"Back then our master asked us to travel everywhere, to expand our knowledge. Now we've delayed for a year because of an accident, we really cannot delay anymore, but don't you worry, Lee-jiejie, we will definitely return to see you."

Kaiser widened his wet eyes and said shakily.

Lee San Niang patted Kaiser's head with dismay, although this temporary brother was really mischievous, and in other temples would definitely be cast out for being too outrageous, but in her own temple where the rules were not as strict, Kaiser could really bring laughter and happiness to everyone.

For this brother to leave, although Lee San Niang was reluctant, she knew men had lofty aspirations, and Kaiser, with a personality like a wild horse, couldn't remain in the temple.

"But you should leave Baolilong here, such a small child is really not fit for an adventure, very vulnerable to danger." Lee San Niang looked at Baolilong with an extremely worried expression.

What a joke, Baolilong's strength was even higher than Kaiser's.

Kaiser kept the annoyed expression on his face, in his heart he whispered. Besides, they couldn't possibly stay. This 5 year old Baolilong hadn't grown an inch in a whole year. Some people had already begun to be suspicious. If Liola hadn't woken up when he did, Kaiser was going to have a discussion with Daylight about finding another place to stay.

"That's not possible. Jiejie, it's not like you don't know how much Baolilong sticks to Liola, and Baolilong is so~~ restless. If Liola leaves, Baolilong would just run away to find Liola recklessly."

Kaiser opened both hands, with a helpless expression, "Instead of him chase us, why not just let him follow from the start, it's also safer."

Lee San Niang recalled how Baolilong had stuck to its papa. Liola didn't wake for a year, but as a result, Baolilong didn't get closer to anyone else. Each night would even sleep only with Liola, it looks like Kaiser was right.

"Oh, then you need to take good care of Baolilong, after all he is still so little." Lee San Niang looked at Baolilong pitifully.

"What?! You're leaving?! Then what will I do with my fireball research?"

Master Lee became attentive and started shouting immediately, forgetting his carefully maintained poise, but then again, ever since Kaiser arrived, his poise had disappeared within the short span of one month.

"Damn geezer, I've already told you more than a hundred times. This is my 'special ability', it's useless no matter how much you research!" Kaiser shouted rudely at old man Lee.

Master Lee immediately showed a pathetic expression, "I only wanted to research, I might not necessarily... "

Kaiser instantly ignored old man Lee's looks. Old man Lee saw they really were leaving, and immediately threw away his poise and begged Kaiser to show him the fireball last time, but Kaiser obviously didn't want to hear it...

When he saw Kaiser being so familiar with everyone else, and Daylight was also exuding an 'I am the peerless martial arts fan, give me martial arts, nothing else needs to be said.' appearance.

Liola didn't really know if he should be feeling sorry for bringing them to this alien world. How could these two adapt so quickly? He, on the other hand, seemed to have trouble getting used to his own world...

* * *


Liola took a deep breath, looked at the door, summoned his courage and walked out of the room with determination.

Walking down the very familiar narrow corridor, smelling the unique smell of the wood, it was much different from the metallic smell in Aklan, and Liola wondered which smell he was more accustomed to.

Outside the room, Liola saw an even more familiar training ground. Compared to the training ground the Assassination organization had, this one had a lot less blood stench and complicated weapons. There were only a few wooden dummies and a weapons rack by the side with a lot of wooden knives swords rods, but most of them were wooden swords.

Familiar stone walls, big wooden doors, Liola knew there would definitely be a couplet hung outside the doors, this was a temple, the couplets would have some relation to eradicating monsters.

Everything was so familiar, yet so strange, Liola shook his head, the familiarity of a world he had lived in for 20 years actually couldn't compare to a year in Aklan.

"Papa!"

Upon hearing this shout, Liola looked down, Baolilong's tiny body was clung to his leg. It was too habitual, Liola sometimes forgot Baolilong was clinging to his leg.

"When papa was sleeping, mama spoke to Baolilong." Baolilong widened its big pink eyes and said.

Liola froze, he didn't understand what Baolilong meant.

"Mama said, if papa wants to stay here, then just happily stay here. But if you want to know the truth, and return to the former world, look for Anise!"

Liola jarred strongly, he didn't think one bit Baolilong was fabricating stories, Baolilong would never say those kinds of things. It was definitely the result of another, to make the immature Baolilong remember, it must have been repeated a lot...

Baolilong's mom, Liola instinctively stroked the Dragon Cross Necklace and recalled the gentle voice from it, was she Baolilong's mom?

Liola frowned and habitually asked, "What about you Baolilong? Which world do you want to stay in?"

Baolilong raised its big eyes, "Baolilong wants to be with papa... " But afterwards, Baolilong seemed a bit hesitant.

"What's wrong?" Liola asked in concern.

"Baolilong is a bit worried about his old papa." Baolilong pouted its small mouth, "The last time I saw the old papa, he was quite strange..."

'Miluo?' Liola thought back.

The Miluo at Yaron Plains, and the Miluo who went to Aklan Academy to declare war for unknown reasons. There was a troubling feeling in his heart...

Liola jiggled his head, even so, what could he do? Finding Anise was impossible, Anise had already died, she died in front of his eyes...

As Liola was trapped in his frustration, there was someone stumbling towards the temple door, which was also the place where Liola was stood.

Liola observed closely, the person seemed like the one who had just been ordered to go and buy candied fruits... Void. Liola could somewhat remember this person's name.

"Quickly inform master, there is a demon at the western gate... " Void stopped short, his body turned weak and fainted.

Liola hurriedly caught Void's falling body, Liola then realized Void was splattered with slimy green mucus.

Liola immediately covered himself with a thin layer of aura to prevent the mucus from affecting him, then he carried Void and flew into the temple.

However, an ear-splitting noise made Liola stop in his tracks and looked behind. Even Liola could see the said demon, truly, there was no word but demon to describe the monster he saw.

A gigantic spherical green body was rolling around the city, the body was as tall as Baolilong and incited many screams. Liola coldly watched the thing in front of his eyes, why did he not know of such things existing in his world?

Right then, without Liola needing to inform them, those in the temple each walked out and stared in a daze at the thing they saw, even Taoist who had eradicated monsters before had not seen such a strange creature.

"Horrible demon!"

The first to react and said those words wasn't any of the Taoist, but the outraged Daylight. He immediately ran back into his room, intending to grab his pike.

Kaiser lazily walked out, when he saw the thing, he received a shock, "Holy crap! What the hell is that thing?"

"Daylight he..." Liola was very shocked by Daylight saying 'horrible demon', if he hadn't known Daylight was not a native of this world, he would have thought that Daylight was a righteous Warrior.

Kaiser shrugged, "This is the reason why we ended up being free labor, because there is a hot-blooded fellow. Basically, Daylight is quite famous around here. Everyone calls him "Blue Sea Lancer. I think the name is quite vulgar, but Daylight doesn't really care."

Right then, Daylight hurriedly ran back out carrying a pike, dressed as a typical Warrior. He shouted once and together with the many disciples, he rushed towards the green spherical thing.

Liola looked at Kaiser puzzledly.

Kaiser held his cheek and said, "Maybe, our little Aklan Troublemaker Squad would revolutionise this world, and the leader would probably not be either of us."

'Martial Arts Symposium... Would it be better to not compete?' Liola started pondering this question.

Back to top
divider

0 comments:

Post a Comment