KNM: Volume 5 Chapter 4

This chapter is brought to you by AnmesicCat, Masadeer, and StellarAshes.

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KNM: Volume 5 Chapter 3

This chapter is brought to you by AnmesicCat, Masadeer, and StellarAshes.

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KNM: Volume 5 Chapter 2

This chapter is brought to you by AnmesicCat, Masadeer, and StellarAshes.

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Ark: Volume 2 Chapter 2

This chapter is brought to you by AnmesicCat, Crytach, Lei, and OpenBookWorm.

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LMS: Volume 15 Chapter 9

This chapter is brought to you by AnmesicCat, Grisia, Lei, and ThunderHamster. Special thanks to BeatJumper.

Do you remember your childhood days, rushing towards the Christmas tree on Christmas morn, looking for your gift? Well here's the gift the we have prepared for you. Merry Christmas.

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KNM: Volume 5 Chapter 1

This chapter is brought to you by AnmesicCat, Masadeer, and StellarAshes.

Did you really think we were done?

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KNM: Volume 4 Chapter 8

This chapter is brought to you by AnmesicCat, Masadeer, and StellarAshes.

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X Rank Duel

“Lancelot!”

Mizerui zipped by in the air quickly with a cold smile on his face.

The unicorn and its master before him seemed they hadn’t noticed they were being followed.

Mizerui lifted his right hand, and the space on top of the unicorn started twisting, and the unicorn started to scream, then it started free falling, and disappeared into the thick clouds.

Mizerui quickly followed and flew downwards, until his feet landed on the earth again.

Mizerui’s slender body stood in a barren plain. A cold light flashed on his gold-framed glasses, “Angering me is very dangerous, Lancelot.”

“To not let an Assassin endanger the world, I would have done it no matter how dangerous it is.”

A deep but magnetic voice could be heard a few meters behind Mizerui, and it was accompanied by crystal clear horse neighs.

Mizerui didn’t turn his head, instead he reached out his hand to push his glasses up, then he said softly,

“Lancelot, if you’re happy with executing your sense of justice, then that’s fine, but why must you mess with me? It’s just not Barbalis, even your good friend Blood Wolf was fond of Liola, so why do you have to go against everyone’s wishes?”

“Even if I were to become the enemy of the world by maintaining justice, I wouldn’t hesitate. I wouldn’t release an Assassin’s seal for even my friend Blood Wolf.”

Lancelot’s tone and attitude were resolute. In his mind, there was nothing more important than protecting justice and the safety of the world. If anyone or anything had one in a million chance of harming the world, then he felt it was his duty to reduce the one in a million chance to zero.

Mizerui finally turned around, and impatience flashed in his eyes. He smiled coldly, “I’m much more dangerous than Liola, why don’t you come seal me?”

Hearing Mizerui’s mockery, Lancelot calmly unsheathe his sword, “You are indeed dangerous, even more so than the Assassin.”

‘Could it be?’

Interest flashed across Mizerui’s eyes. He narrowed his eyes suspiciously and asked,

“Could it be… the main reason you sealed Liola was to lure me out?”

“Not at all, it’s also to prevent him from becoming a powerful bargaining chip for Miluo.” Lancelot’s body suddenly emitted a white aura, and prepared to attack at any time.

“Even the righteous Paladin learned how to use tricks, but aren’t you worried about the Dragon Emperor? Don’t forget, I am the Emperor’s good friend too.”

As Mizerui spoke, he quietly moved back.

To a Sorcerer, the farther away the enemy is, the better, especially when the opponent has a blazingly fast unicorn as a mount or if it’s an Assassin like Liola, who relied on their terrifying speed.

Of course, Lancelot also knew the weakness of Sorcerer was close-quarters combat. When Mizerui was buying more time with questions about the Dragon Emperor, Lancelot didn’t waste any time and used his unicorn to catch up to Mizerui.

As Lancelot swung his sword towards Mizerui, he said with a deep voice,

“You’re not truly following the Dragon Emperor. Though I don’t know what your intent is, I’ve already seen you sneaking around in the palace more than once.”

He couldn’t believe he had been seen!

Mizerui’s expression faltered, and pulled out his staff. A sapphire the size of an egg immediately emitted a faint blue light, and blocked Lancelot’s white sword.

Mizerui followed up with a short incantation, and massive weight immediately spread from the tip of the sword to Lancelot’s arm muscle.

After shaking his arm a bit, he concentrated his white aura around his arm and sword. Lancelot seemingly ignored the tons of weight, turned his blade, and continued to swing at Mizerui.

Mizerui knew his couple of moves wouldn’t be able to stop the Paladin. Mizerui’s other hand had already prepared other magic, “Reverse Gravity!”

The spell was not targeted at Lancelot’s sword, but instead at his unicorn’s feet.

The unicorn had its feet floating in the air, as the heavy Lancelot rode on its back, as a result of Mizerui’s spell. The two opposing forces made it impossible for the unicorn to keep its balance, and it fell to the ground. It desperately struggled to get up, but it was no use.

Lancelot, of course, could no longer stay on his mount.

After fumbling around on the unicorn, he leapt off, and the sword in his hand had broken the light blue protective shield. It was an opportunity he couldn’t miss, so he sent a flurry of attacks toward Mizerui, who was having a hard time blocking all the attacks.

The sword scathed Mizerui’s left face. Had he not place down magic around him as a habit, Mizerui’s head would probably had been impaled by the sword, instead of just a simple mark.

Though the scratch did not take Mizerui’s life, it seriously angered him. Mizerui, as a rank-X criminal, still walked around without any disguise, because he was a fearless, and dangerous Sorcerer.

“Lancelot!” Mizerui’s blue eyes were fuming.

An enormous magic centered around Mizerui exploded, then took the shape of a tornado. The ground sank as if something heavy pushed it down. It first sank near Mizerui, then spiraled outward.

The ground beneath Lancelot was an exception. A strong, white aura exploded, equalled to Mizerui’s magic.

Though the ground surrounding him sank like a trench, the ground covered by Lancelot’s white aura remained untouched.

Mizerui’s body was enveloped by a dark magical aura, which contrasted with Lancelot’s white aura.

The only common thing between them was they were both unquestionably strong. Two of the top rank-X powerhouses were about to start a world-shaking duel, and the outcome of this battle would forever leave its mark in the history...

*Crackle, crackle.*

They both heard a strange sound. Two of the world’s most powerful people twitched both their faces, then slowly looked towards the source of the noise.

Crouching in the hole he dug, the ‘movie-watching, cracker-eating’ Barbalis felt two pairs of firm eyes on him.

He calmly swallowed his crackers, waved his arms and said, “Don’t mind me. Continue, continue.”

Lancelot’s face sank, while Mizerui laughed helplessly and bitterly.

“What? Why are you not fighting?” Barbalis jumped out of the hole, and dusted his bum. Acted innocent and said,

“Too bad, the duel between the strongest Knight and Sorcerer was actually interrupted by me. Had I known, I wouldn’t have eaten crackers.”

Mizerui said expressionlessly, “Stop pretending, Barbalis, you were only here to prevent the fight.”

Lancelot tightly held onto the sword in his hand, but after looking at Mizerui and Barbalis, Lancelot didn’t raise his sword. As far as he knew, Barbalis had a very special and strong magical abilities. Facing these two powerful opponents, Lancelot was afraid he wouldn’t be able to handle them both.

“Mizerui, that’s where you’re wrong. I’m mainly here to discuss a few things with Lancelot.”

Barbalis smiled and glanced at Lancelot, whom became alert again after hearing this.

“What would you discuss with him?” Mizerui began to be curious.

“About that seal on Liola…”

“I will not help him release the seal.” Before Barbalis finished, Lancelot immediately refused.

Barbalis showed a disagreeing look, “If you’re not going to help him, you might as well kill him.”

“What’s wrong with Liola again?” Mizerui frowned.

‘This little runt… couldn’t cause less trouble now that he lost his Kung Fu?’

“The Adorning Flowers has a hit on him.” Barbalis glanced at Lancelot, whose face seemed to change a little, and continued satisfactorily,

“When Black Rose came for him, she almost sent him to judgment day, and because Liola didn’t want anybody getting hurt, so…”

Barbalis thoroughly explained everything that happened recently.

Mizerui was stupefied as he was listening, and he finally dropped his jaw,

“T-this guy… could he have been any more unlucky? He walked into the Dark Arena Pyramid himself? Isn’t that the headquarters of the Adorning Flowers?!”

Barbalis laughed bitterly, “And you also knew in order to save him, Kaiser and the others barged into the Dark Street, and caused quite a ruckus there.”

“They actually made it out alive? According to their abilities, without Liola’s peerless Kung Fu, they should have had zero chance of walking out of the Dark Arena Pyramid alive.” Mizerui locked his brows together.

Barbalis exaggeratedly sighed and continued to explained,

“The main reason was there were only two out of the Six Forbidden Sins present, but in the end it was because of Qiusi, Gladiolus agreed to let them go. Otherwise, things would’ve been far worse.”

Barbalis coughed lightly,

“Last time Black Rose came to assassinate Liola, Baolilong almost died along with him. And this time in the Dark Arena Pyramid, many young students with bright futures almost died with him, and one of them was a Blue Knight. They were all friends of Liola, and they would never abandon him. If there are more Assassins to come, they would definitely shield Liola…”

Some rarely-seen hesitation appeared on Lancelot’s face and his brows were locked. He thought to himself, if he doesn’t release Liola’s seal, he would most likely die in the hands of the Six Forbidden Sins. But as for the risk of other people dying, it wasn’t likely. Without any profits, Assassins would never kill more than they have to. Lancelot was very familiar with the profession he hated the most.

However, if he were to release Liola’s seal, then the world would have an additional Assassin, and possibly the strongest Assassin. Lancelot would never allow this to happen. After thinking about it, Lancelot looked at Mizerui and then turned to climb onto his unicorn.

“Wait, what about Liola’s seal…”

Barbalis hadn’t finished, but he was interrupted by Lancelot’s deep and solemn voice,

“I trust Mizerui and Barbalis should have enough power to protect one person. This is where we stop today. Mizerui, I hope you do what’s best for you, and live up to the Dragon Emperor’s trust and hope in you.”

After having said so, the unicorn lifted its front leg; after a majestic neigh, it flew up in the air, leaving behind two people staring at one another.

Barbalis then burst out in tears, “Are you telling me I have to be glued to Liola?”

Mizerui coldly glanced at Barbalis, whom suddenly felt a shivering cold through his body. His face then turned pale.

“Mizerui, y-you are not thinking of letting me handle the entire Six Forbidden Sins by myself, right?”

Mizerui smiled.

“Stop trying to trick me, Barbalis. You may have fooled Lancelot, but you can’t fool me. I was just cooperating with your lies in front of Lancelot. Qiusi is already in the Dark Arena to watch. His only son and the only thing he cares about, Meinan, ran to rescue Liola. I trust Gladiolus would not want to offend the Aklan Prime Minister, and will therefore cancel the hit on Liola.”

Barbalis raised his brow, and said.

“Mizerui, you’re quite smart; you did indeed guess the outcome. That is correct, Gladiolus did indeed cancel the mission to assassinate Liola. However, judging from the abilities of the troublemaking group, even without the Six Forbidden Sins, the dangers that await them won’t be few. I was hoping I could trick Lancelot into releasing Liola’s seal, but the Paladin’s stubbornness is as famous as his power.”

Mizerui carefully thought.

‘Indeed, if Liola’s seal could not be released, then his toy would have to report to the grim reaper soon.’

However, Lancelot’s seal was very difficult to release, and this made it troublesome for Mizerui.

Barbalis suddenly asked, “Mizerui, which side do you think wants Liola dead? Miluo or the Dragon Emperor?”

Mizerui frowned.

“I’m not sure, really not sure. Both sides have reasons to kill Liola. What’s important is, which side is actually righteous? What happened before, exactly? Why did the Dragon Emperor’s Sacred White Dragon, otherwise known as Miluo’s wife, die in vain? Why did princess Anise go to another world? Could the hatred between the Dragon Emperor and Miluo only be caused by the Sacred White Dragon’s death?”

Barbalis looked into the sky, and said mysteriously, “Perhaps we can find all this answer from that silver-eyed Assassin.”

“Seriously?” Mizerui narrowed his eyes, “Why did you say the same thing as Qiusi?”

***

“Will Meiji be fine in the Dark Street?”

After having crashed the Dark Street, causing the pyramid to collapse, and after Qiusi cried as he agreed to pay for the damages they caused, the gang finally arrived at the academy ranking matches stadium safely.

What they didn’t know was Barbalis abused his powers again, and changed the time of the matches to be in three days, so they could have some rest after coming back from the Dark Street, before they have to participate in another match.

Kaiser shrugged, and said without care.

“Sister seemed to be doing fine there. Every problem she may have, Gladiolus would probably help her. She herself said she didn’t want to become my baggage, so I don’t really have a choice! Gladiolus will take good care of my sister, so it should be fine. Perhaps in a while, I will suddenly have an Assassin brother-in-law. Speaking of which, I seem to be fated with Assassins.”

Liola nodded while thinking Gladiolus backed off again and again because of Meiji, so he will most likely do his best to protect Meiji. Therefore, Liola wouldn’t worry about her.

However, many people did worry about Liola. After the promised three hours had been past, Liola experienced the pain of being sealed again, and his Ki was nowhere to be found. He became an agile normal person again.

Thinking about his predicament, Liola’s face sank again.

His companions, who saw his countenance all yelled in a worried manner. “Liola, what are you thinking again?”

Tears fell down Purity’s face. She wept as she pulled the corner of Liola’s shirt, “Liola-dage, please don’t run away from home again.”

Daylight and Meinan’s faces were also filled with worry.

Kaiser’s face sank as he threatened, “Stupid Assassin! If you act rashly again, I will take my gun and break your legs so you won’t be able to go anywhere at all!”

“Baolilong will never leave papa’s back again!”

Baolilong’s stubborn face showed itself from Liola’s back, declaring its determination. Baolilong’s two little chubby hands also tightly held onto Liola.

Liola smiled slightly, “I’m not going anywhere, because there will always be people following me.”

Everyone laughed, and even Kaiser said happily,

“Haha, we are safe in this lounge, and I don’t believe Liola’s smile could cause any curses.”

*Bam!*

As if to challenge what Kaiser said, a giant Dragon foot broke into the lounge, and landed on the table everyone was sitting around. The food and drinks on the table spilled onto the people around, and everyone’s smiles froze. They all sat around the table like statues.

“This is your payback from destroying our lounge before!”

Yiyu stood on top of the Water Dragon, and Yizhou was sitting next to him with a cold face.

The Dragon whose foot broke through their ceiling was, of course, the Water Dragon’s foot. Everyone woke up from their daze, and they all raised their head to look at Yiyu and Yizhou.

“I don’t know what’s wrong, but I can’t seem to get angry!” Kaiser was maintaining his smile.

Purity clapped her hands together in front of her chest as if she was praying, and she smiled like a saint.

“Yeah. Considering we risked all of our lives a few days ago to rescue Liola out of the Dark Street, why would this little quarrel matter?”

“After having seen a tsunami, no one would care about a small ripple.” Daylight’s eyes looked as if they belonged to an unfathomably wise hermit.

As for Liola, he was the person whose expressionless face could not even be affected by tsunamis. Yiyu and Yizhou meant nothing to him. He picked up the newspaper with his left hand, and the cup he rescued in his right hand, then leisurely started reading the newspaper.

“Hahaha! What a bunch of turtles! A Dragon foot could make them pee in their pants.”

Yiyu arrogantly laughed at the people from other academies. He had a super condescending look while he looked at the Aklan Academy students.

“What a bunch of losers!” Yizhou coldly added.

As the sound of a gunshot being heard, a fireball scratched Yiyu’s face. Along side with Kaiser’s detestable look and his hand held up a middle finger.

This all explained one thing. Kaiser would never be a peaceful, kind soul… In fact, there was no peaceful soul in the Aklan Troublemaking Squad.

Purity had already puffed her cheeks and “summoned” her Angel Mecha, Nana, and Daylight was busy with his magic to call forth the Red Dragon Flames.

“Let’s go! The crowd is waiting for you to be badly beaten by us, at the point where you have to beg for mercy while lying on the ground!”

Yiyu, whose face was scratched by the fireball, was enraged. He roared at the Aklan Academy team, and commanded the water Dragon towards the center of the arena.

The giant Red Dragon, Flames, appeared out of the magic circle Daylight drew.

After a majestic Dragon roar, Daylight, Meinan, and Kaiser all jumped onto the back of the Dragon. Purity climbed into the Mecha’s chest the four of them gritted their teeth as they wanted to have a duel with Violet Academy.

Liola put down the newspaper in his hand. A light smile flashed across his face. Liola took out a pair of dark eye protective gear and put it on, then said to the Baolilong behind him,

“Baolilong, transform into a large Dragon. We have a match to win.”

After not having the chance to become a big Dragon for quite some time, Baolilong happily agreed, and immediately turned into a ten-meter tall beautiful white Dragon.

It carried Liola up into the air and caught up with the Red Dragon and the Angel Mecha.

Kaiser lazily laid on the Dragon’s back and said, “Aiya, I thought you were going to continue to bum in the lounge.”

Liola flashed a smile, “That was my plan, but the lounge was destroyed.”

Kaiser turned onto his back, and crossed his legs.

Daylight and Meinan turned and flashed a smiled towards Liola, while Purity skillfully controlled the Angel Mecha.

Above the sunny day and the clouds, they looked like they were in perfect harmony. After having survived so many dangers and difficulties, this team would live happily ever after, for eternity...

… Just kidding! The story’s not over.

In the blue skies and between the white clouds, a little white dot quickly closed in towards the group.

Everyone looked curiously at the little white dot. As it got closer and closer, everyone was able to see what it was more clearly, and at the same time everyone’s face looked more and more downcast, especially Liola, who couldn’t stop his body from trembling.

Kaiser suddenly jumped up. while squeezing the words between the cracks of his teeth, he said.

“Lancelot! What the hell is he doing here?”

The handsome White Knight who was riding on the unicorn pulled the leash, stopping in front of the White and Red Dragons.

The Paladin still pridefully and majestically looked down at the gang, as if he was the God of the Sun being sent to judge them.

His justly lips slowly opened to say, “Liola, hand over your Dragon Cross Necklace.”

KNM: Volume 4 Chapter 7

This chapter is brought to you by AnmesicCat, Masadeer, and StellarAshes.

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Glory

Kaiser was shocked when he heard A familiar voice calling a name he no longer used.

“Meiji?” Liola looked at the source of the sound. Meiji was trying to catch her breath at the entrance.

“Sister?”

Kaiser suddenly turned his head. As soon as he saw Meiji at the entrance, he spoke. When Meiji ran towards Kaiser, a shadow suddenly appeared in front of Meiji and blocked her path.

Seeing him, Kaiser’s face sank, gritted his teeth and said, “Gladiolus!”

Liola carefully examined this man. This man’s body was shaped similar to Liola’s.

They were both slender, but his face looked far more serious than Liola’s. His long, brown hair was tied in a ponytail. He wore a fiery red gold-lined Knight’s uniform, and he had two weapons: in one hand he held a normal length sword, and in the other, he held a dagger similar to Liola’s Broken Silver.

At this time, Gladiolus was also examining Liola, and he was deeply surprised.

Before, he had already secretly observed Liola, and judged his strength should be far below Black Rose. But today, he easily defeated Black Rose, and Gladiolus could sense an incredible strength seeping out of Liola’s body. His power reminded Gladiolus of another powerful enemy of his, the Paladin Lancelot.

‘No! It’s not possible.’

Gladiolus completely denied that the man in front of him would be equally powerful as Lancelot. If Liola were really on equal standings with Lancelot, then wouldn’t it mean the Six Forbidden Sins messed with someone they shouldn’t have?!

“Diolus,” Meiji was almost crying.

She would have never imagined, as the leader of the Six Forbidden Sins, Gladiolus would be back in the organization so soon. Now, wouldn’t it mean her brother, who was exiled from the Dark Street by the organization, would be...

Gladiolus seemed to return from his thoughts. After glancing at Meiji, he turned to face the exiled man, and said coldly, “You shouldn’t have came back.”

Kaiser’s face sank, but then laughed lowly, “Heh, I am back, and I’m going to take my sister out of this dump.”

“Kaigleser, don’t be ridiculous!” Meiji was so scared her heart was pounding out of her chest, she didn’t think her little brother would actually talk to Gladiolus in this manner.

She didn’t know Kaiser had already nudged Liola, and asked with in whisper, “Hey, Assassin, though I didn’t know what happened, but are you back to your old self?”

Liola nodded, “Only for three hours.”

‘Only three hours?’

Kaiser cursed under his breath, then asked again, “Three hours should be enough to finish that guy over there, right?”

Liola said expressionlessly, “He is quite strong, but he’s not at the level of Lancelot or Mizerui. It will take at most twenty minutes to beat him.”

Kaiser immediately started laughing after he heard Liola’s response. He pointed at the opposing Gladiolus, like a fox taking advantage of an imposing tiger, and said,

“Do you dare to fight with me… and my Liola? If we lose, then our lives are in your hands, but if we win, then you have to return my sister to me, and you must cancel your hit on Liola.”

When did he agree to fight with Gladiolus? Liola glanced at Kaiser.

However, because of Meiji and the fact Kaiser added the condition of his hit being cancelled, Liola decided to turn a blind eye at Kaiser’s arrogance. Nevertheless, he was very shocked to find out Meiji was actually Kaiser’s sister.

Before Gladiolus answered, Meiji interrupted, “Don’t bet like this, Kaigleser! Diolus, please, I beg of you, let them go, please don’t harm my brother.”

Gladiolus looked at Meiji, with her face full of tears and she was grabbing the corner of his shirt, and his face actually softened.

Gladiolus then turned towards his enemies, and his face was still as cold as before. Gladiolus said, “I won’t kill Kaigleser, but Liola must die, it’s a mission.”

Meiji felt relieved and sympathy in her heart. If she could save her brother’s life, Meiji was already thankful.

After all, it was Gladiolus who said back then, that Kaigleser was to be permanently exiled from the Dark Street.

Now, for her, Gladiolus even broke his own word. Meiji was moved.

However, whenever Meiji thought about the clean boy, she turned her head away, trying to meet Liola’s eyes. She was ashamed of not trying to save him.

“Your sister…” Liola looked at Meiji who turned her face away, and slowly opened his mouth,

“She looks nothing like you, Kaiser.”

“None of your business! Quick and finish off Gladiolus, I don’t know how long Daylight and others can hold up.” Kaiser pouted.

‘Different personalities, too.’

Though Liola didn’t say it out loud. ‘Why would such a gentle and kind girl have a brother who deserved so many beatings?’

“Let’s go.”

Liola said to Gladiolus, cutting to the chase. He was very worried about Daylight, and planned to quickly finish off Gladiolus and take Daylight and others out of the Dark Street.

Gladiolus grunted and unsheathed his sword and dagger.

Gladiolus sprang out like a bolt from a crossbow, and all that was visible was a red shadow dashing towards Liola.

Liola also held onto Broken Silver tightly. As far as speed goes, Liola had never run into anyone who was could match his. Liola stepped aside, and dodged Gladiolus’ attack.

Gladiolus was slightly shocked, but he persisted, and his sword and dagger followed Liola.

Liola was also shocked Gladiolus was actually able to track his movements, though Liola hadn’t hit his maximum speed yet...

* * *

“Oh!” Qiusi was standing in the box and… he was bored watching the duel. His feathered fan continuously tapped his forehead.

“*Sigh* This kind of duel is boring! I can’t even see anything! Seriously, why don’t they go slower? All I see are two shadows flashing around. But, the red shadow seemed to be clearer to see than the white ones, right?”

“Hehe, Liola is my most advanced play toy, the current Gladiolus isn’t even a match.”

A gold-haired man stood quietly in the corner. His unique clothing could be vaguely seen: it was actually a black and white robe.

Qiusi said with a smile,

“Ah, if you say he’s your toy, that means I can play too? Don’t forget we discovered him together. But, isn’t it a little over the top to treat someone whose power is on par with ours as a toy?”

Mizerui stepped out of the box, and raised his brows at Qiusi,

“Do you even have the right to say that? You purposely acted as if you didn’t know Liola, and then exposed that he knew the truth about the exhibition match, which made his plan to escape fail. You obviously knew Lancelot had sealed him, so his chances of beating the red Dragon was next to zero.”

Qiusi lightly waved his fan,

“You know, I am a vengeful person, because he used me as a hostage to threaten you.”

“But, I didn’t think he would use this method to win the Red Dragon. Is the master of a Sacred White Dragon really this powerful?”

Qiusi curiously asked Mizerui, who was an expert on Dragons.

“It’s not that the master of a Sacred White Dragon is powerful.” Mizerui looked thoughtfully at the white shadow outside,

“But rather the master of the Prince of Sacred White Dragons is. In fact, in the past, those who got the approval of the Sacred White Dragon Prince or Princess were all uncoincidentally became the Emperor of the Dragon Empire.”

Qiusi answered with an “Ah”, and then pointed at Mizerui as if he was making an accusation.

“You’re toying with the future Dragon Emperor?”

Veins popped on Mizerui’s head, “Aren’t you too?”

Qiusi laughed, and didn’t respond to the question, but instead changed topic,

“Didn’t you come back to take revenge on Lancelot?”

Hearing the name Lancelot, Mizerui’s face sank. He said coldly, “Looks like if I don’t show a bit of my strength, that guy wouldn’t even notice me!”

Qiusi tapped the tip of his fan under his chin and contemplated, “Do you think sealing Liola was Lancelot’s idea, or the Dragon Emperor’s orders?”

Mizerui hesitated before he answered, “The Dragon Emperor didn’t seem to oppose what Lancelot did.”

“Then if you seek revenge on Lancelot, then doesn’t it clearly show you’re opposing the Dragon Emperor? Would that be proper?”

Qiusi said while smiling, and what he said clearly affected Mizerui, whose expression tightened and did not answer the question.

Seeing Mizerui’s rare expression, Qiusi laughed and said, “Why don’t you just play with him and call it a day? Don’t break your relationship with the Dragon Emperor because of this.”

Mizerui solemnly nodded, and then returned to his former, laughing self. He looked at his playtoy outside and said,

“And how did the toy get his Kung Fu back? Don’t tell me Lancelot is near.”

“Seems like it had something to do with the Dragon cross necklace. The necklace is quite the double-edged sword to Liola: on one hand his whereabouts even fevens are under the Dragon Emperor’s control, but on another, Liola seems to be getting quite a lot of help from it.”

Qiusi carefully thought, then he suddenly remembered something, he turned around and asked Mizerui,

“How is your investigation with Miluo?”

Mizerui did not hear Qiusi’s question; flames ignited in his blue eyes, because he felt a familiar power.

Mizerui looked towards the east and yelled, “Lancelot!”

As soon as he finished yelling the name, Mizerui disappeared, leaving Qiusi behind to scratch his face and murmured,

“Looks like Mizerui is really mad this time. It’s hard to blame him. His relationship with Lancelot had always been rocky, and sealing Liola was probably the fuse leading to this bomb.”

Qiusi’s attention was back on the arena. The two dueling seemed to have come to the end of a phase.

Gladiolus’ face seemed extremely shocked. When he looked at Liola, his eyes seemed to even show fear.

Liola, who knew his strength was greater than Gladiolus’, seemed calm, since winning was his prediction.

Seeing this, Qiusi smiled, “Be careful, Liola, this isn’t everything the leader of the Six Forbidden Sins has. After all, he is also… one of the rank-X people in this world.”

* * *

Gladiolus, who was catching his breath, suddenly seemed to calm down.

He said to Liola with composure, “I understand. Looks like I really did underestimate you. From now on, I should get more serious.”

Liola suddenly felt a strange energy coming off Gladiolus’s body, and his clothes fluttered around.

A red aura was vaguely emitted from his body, and slowly concentrated around his weapons. Finally, the sword and dagger exploded in a light, and they were engulfed in flames, even though there was no trace of Gladiolus from being burned by holding them.

“Magic Swordsman! Liola, be careful, he seems to be a swordsman who could use magic, and judging from his looks, fire magic. Be careful, I don’t know what moves he would use.”

Kaiser suddenly yelled, and explained to the frowning Liola. He then sat down again back in the audience, raised his teacup and said to the sister next to him,

“Sister, how about another cup of tea?”

Meiji picked up the teapot and poured her brother another cup of tea. She asked worriedly,

“Is Liola in danger? Isn’t he a Dragon Knight? Shouldn’t you return his Dragon to him?”

“Don’t worry, don’t worry. That guy is practically like a strange cat with nine lives, he wouldn’t die no matter what. And, sister, you have no idea, this Baolilong has always been a troublemaker and cause Liola more harm than helping. If I threw Baolilong over, Liola would hate me for life.”

Kaiser carelessly waved his hand, and continued to eat his jello and drink tea, but he didn’t forget to stuff a piece of meat inside Baolilong’s protesting mouth.

Liola and Gladiolus finally began their serious duel.

The fire on Gladiolus’ weapons grew wilder and wilder, and even Liola, who was standing quite far away, felt the heat.

Liola didn’t dare underestimate his enemy, so he put all his Ki in motion, trying to raise the speed of Windborne Blade to its limit, and have a showdown with Gladiolus. After which he can go save Daylight...

*Boom!*

The walls of the pyramid shook violently, and many pieces of rock flew this way and that. Even Kaiser, who was in the audience, raised his gun to break up the larger pieces of rock flying towards him and Meiji.

After the dust settled, a giant Red Dragon and an Angel Mecha appeared in newly created hole on the walls of the pyramid.

“Liola, great, you’re alive.” Daylight, whose body was covered in wounds, saw Liola. After seeing the person they were rescuing was okay, Daylight finally felt some relief.

Liola saw Daylight and Meinan were both on the Dragon, and Purity was in the Mecha waving at him. Liola finally felt a weight lift from his heart.

If something were to happen any of them, Liola would probably never forgive himself, just like he would never forgive himself for Anise’s death.

Though none of them died, Liola noticed they were covered in blood, even the timid Purity had a scratched forehead and blood on the corner of her mouth.

The beautiful Angel Mecha was also broken in various places, so it appears to be seen that their street fight was quite intense.

‘Wait just a bit, I will immediately take you all out of here, and get back to Aklan Academy to treat your wounds!’

Liola’s silver eyes ignited, and he looked Gladiolus, whose eyes had identical flames...

“Meinan! My dear baby, how can you be wounded like such? Tell me who hurt you, and I’ll seek revenge for you!”

Qiusi smashed the box’s fortified glass with his forehead, and ran towards Meinan with an affectionate expression.

Everyone’s face darkened hearing a middle-aged man saying such disgusting things.

At the same time they looked on at Dragon. Meinan, who was riding Flames, looked like he would rather hide in Flames’ stomach.

When Qiusi rushed to Flames’ side, Meinan finally burst out a scream, “Stop!”

Qiusi did actually hit the emergency brake, and twiddled his thumbs.

Meinan saw Qiusi, and cursed out in anger, “As a Prime Minister, look at yourself? How many times have I told you? You have to look majestic and imposing!”

“I do, but I just haven’t seen my dear baby for such a long time, so I just got a little too excited.”

Qiusi crouched in a corner depressedly and drew circles on the ground, and he often threw a “you misunderstood me” look at Meinan.

Meinan’s expression suddenly changed, “Don’t call me dear baby, don’t forget we’re still in a cold war!”

After he finished screaming, Meinan tilted his head, refusing to look at Qiusi. But by tilting, he saw Daylight looking at him strangely.

Meinan was baffled as he look at others, and everyone’s mouth was twitching and their expression were awkward.

Confused, Meinan opened his mouth to ask, “Why do you guys look at me with such strange expressions?”

Kaiser covered his mouth and said ambiguously, “Aiya, we’re just a bit shocked. I would never have imagined you and the Prime Minister actually are… in that kind of relationship!”

Meinan showed an uncomfortable expression, “Sorry for hiding this from you all. I do indeed have a relationship with him, but I didn’t hide it purposely. I just felt embarrassed.”

Everyone took a deep breath, and even Kaiser widened his eyes, “You are really in that kind of relationship with him? When did this start?”

“Yes.” Meinan looked strangely at Kaiser, “Of course it began when I was young. But because of Ally, our relationship had worsened, and that’s why we’re in a cold war.”

“Ally’s my wife.” Qiusi added with a laugh.

‘So that’s how it is. His wife found out, so things turned worse? What a complex relationship...’ Everyone thought.

“Damn!” Kaiser suddenly exploded with a yell, and he said as if he were in pain,

“When we were in Yaron Plains, I even slept in the same cave as Meinan, my God! My chastity!”

“Don’t worry, Kaiser!” Purity hurriedly said to Kaiser.

“Liola-dage is more handsome, has a better body, and more elegant than you. Meinan would definitely make a move at Liola-dage first.”

Tears flowed down Kaiser’s face, “Why are your words of comfort so uncomforting?”

“Make a move? What move would I make?” Meinan asked while baffled.

Daylight lightly patted Meinan’s shoulder, and his face was flashing an infinite amount of tolerance. He said firmly to Meinan,

“Don’t worry, I won’t against discriminate you as a result. Everyone has the freedom to choose.”

Purity nodded her head desperately, “Right, Meinan, don’t worry, we won’t discriminate against homosexuals!”

“Huh?” Meinan was stupefied.

“What is a homosexual?” Liola curiously asked Kaiser.

“Men loving men and women loving women are all called homosexuals.” Kaiser showed an ambiguous smile, “So people like Meinan and the Prime Minister would be called homosexuals.”

Meinan completely froze.

Liola thought for a moment then raised his head to ask, “Is that also called incest?”

“Incest?”

“Mhm.” Liola nodded. “Now I remember: the Prime Minister’s name is Qiusi Glory, and Meinan said his full name is Meinan Glory. If they are related, it would be incest too, right?”

Meinan finally understood, and yelled at everyone,

“That’s not how it is! This guy is my father, we are in a ‘father-son relationship’! Purity, didn’t you already know the Aklan Prime Minister is my father? How could you misunderstand?”

“Ah…” Purity shrank back into the cockpit, “I thought it was incest.”

With veins on his forehead, Meinan explained it to everyone word-by-word.

“Aklan Prime Minister, Qiusi Glory, is my biological father. My mother, Ally, was killed by the Six Forbidden Sins. Not only did he not seek revenge for my mother, he even came to the Dark Arena, and that’s why I’m in a cold war with him.”

“My child…” Helplessness flashed across Qiusi’s eyes, but he didn’t make any excuses.

Meinan walked to his father, and said with a low voice.

“Since you’re here, then fine, tell the Six Forbidden Sins to cancel their hit on Liola. If Liola also gets killed by the Six Forbidden Sins, I will never forgive you!”

Complex emotions seemed to have crossed Qiusi’s face, but he did not deny his son’s request.

He walked towards Gladiolus, and said in a casual manner, “Since my precious son said so, Gladiolus, do me a favor?”

Gladiolus carefully thought to himself. His eyes looked towards Meiji, whom was also giving him pleading looks.

Gladiolus thought about it some more with a frown, then said, “The target of this mission is far too strong, and unlike anything the employer had described. This mission is hereby cancelled.”

“Great!”

Everyone cheered, and even Liola listened in disbelief. It wasn’t until Meinan patted his shoulder, Purity being so happy she started crying, and Daylight showed a sincere smile, that Liola realized that this was real.

“Papa!”

Baolilong climbed on Liola’s back. Its cheeks were puffed up, still mad papa had abandoned him, and Kaiser also said uncomfortably.

“I really do have to thank you this time.”

Liola couldn’t understand what Kaiser was saying, and Kaiser tilted his head awkwardly,

“It’s just... I can finally see my sister is okay, and finally untied the knot in my heart about the Dark Street. Aiyo, you are always the one who always run to places you shouldn’t be, and this was no different… a-anyhow, just thank you!”

Though he couldn’t understand Kaiser’s speech, but Liola could at least understood that Kaiser was giving him his gratitude. It was rare to see Kaiser being awkward like this, and Liola couldn’t help but let out a laugh. Everyone else stared at him to see his rare smile.

“Oh! Damn, that cursed smile again…”

*Bam!*

A series of strange sounds came from the direction of the pyramid, and then the walls of the pyramid began to crack from the hole where Flames entered. Gladiolus raised his head and said,

“You guys broke the pyramid’s main supporting column.”

*Boom!!!*

KNM: Volume 4 Chapter 6

This chapter is brought to you by AnmesicCat, Masadeer, and StellarAshes.

---

The Voice of the Dragon Cross Necklace

Before the fight began...

Due to the Prime Minister Qiusi’s interruption, Liola’s plan of escape collapsed. Barker had assigned the older guard to watch over him inside his room, and all the glass windows in the room were replaced with electrified metal windows.

There were also more than ten guards outside of his door at all times. The intent was obvious: even if Liola had wings, he would have a hard time escaping.

But the treatment for the Dark Arena Pyramid exhibition competitor still hadn’t changed: all kinds of delicious food would be presented at Liola’s whim, and Mama Sang still brought her Seven Fairies to let Liola take his pick, but Liola stood still watched at the stadium like he did before.

Within the past three days, Mama Sang didn’t want to give up and went to Liola’s room three, four times. After she got so angry and even her make up fell on the ground, a familiar voice called out.

“Liola.”

Liola’s body froze a little, but he didn’t turn around, instead said with an apologetic tone, “Sorry, you warned me, but I still failed, and I even dragged you down with me.”

Meiji looked at the lonely but proud person standing by the window, she laughed lightly,

“I’m okay. The Prime Minister specially told Barker not to do any harm to me, and even told me to serve you, in this last hour…”

“I don’t need any servants.” Liola answered lightly.

Meiji didn’t back off from such a cold reply, but instead changed the topic, “Do you have Dragons in your world?”

Liola originally had no plans to talk, but Meiji was, after all, someone who warned him. Liola paused briefly, and finally answered Meiji’s question, “No.”

“A Dragon is a powerful being.”

Meiji didn’t care whether Liola had any interest in listening. She talked as if she was telling a story, and slowly described everything about a Dragon: its habitat, weaknesses, habits, etc.

The older bodyguard who was standing on the side didn’t stop Meiji, instead he looked to see if Liola had heard any of it.

“Dragons have always been the most mysterious creature in this world. Some people say that their intelligence is far greater than humans’, and some say they are only large and strong beings. But what cannot be denied is, if you were fighting them one-on-one, very few people could win. They have immense power and a natural instinct for battle, not to mention different Dragons will use different magics, such as…”

Meiji coughed intently, “A Red Dragon will always spit fire.”

Liola still remained quiet, and Meiji couldn’t help but worry, did this clean, pretty boy before her actually hear any of her words?

Meiji could only continue to explain, and beg in her heart that the boy would listen to her.

“The weakness of a Dragon is also their most terrifying place. The weakest part of a Dragon is its eyes. However, if you can’t stab through its eyes and its brain in one strike, then it’s better if you don’t try to do so, because it will anger the Dragon even further, and it will retaliate with fatal strikes. Even if the Dragon loses both of its eyes, their sense of smell isn’t any worse than their sight.”

Meiji spent a long while talking, but Liola didn’t even move at all, which made Meiji felt a bit discouraged. At the same time, she said pretty much all she had to say, but she didn’t want to leave so she continued to chit chat about various rumors about Dragons.

“Dragons, like people, are divided into ranks, or perhaps I should say they are even more rank-oriented than humans. Red Dragons have always been pretty high in the ranking, and most other Dragons couldn’t match it, but Black Dragons are even a step higher than Red Dragons. Rumor has it that the Dragon Empire’s Sacred White Dragon is the highest rank of Dragons, as if they are the royalties among Dragons. Even their scent strikes fear into the hearts other Dragons.”

‘Ranks…’

Hearing this, Liola finally felt that he heard some useful information. Liola was someone who had been called “papa” by a Dragon for months, so he probably had much better idea of a Dragon’s habits and properties than Meiji.

It looked like the Dragon he would have to fight was a Red Dragon, and coincidentally Daylight’s Dragon was also red, so of course Liola knew they would spit fire.

‘Red Dragons were terrified of Sacred White Dragon… Would they fear the Sacred White Dragon’s master?’ Liola thought.

Perhaps the only way to test the theory would be to test it himself. But if he only show his Dragon scale briefly, Baolilong shouldn’t have time to trace him, right? Liola was hesitating.

The older guard looked at the time, and said to Liola, “Time to go.”

Liola finally turned around. When he was passing by Meiji, a quiet voice said, “Thank you.”

Hearing this, Meiji’s face went soft, and she sighed quietly, “Unfortunately I don’t have another life to give to the arena.”

* * *

Liola walked with the elder guard into the elevator. The elevator went to the top floor. When the doors opened, the elder guard calmly said,

“I’m old, and I’ve seen many people in my time. I can tell, young one, you were born to turn the tide of this era, so you can’t possibly die at a place like this.”

He would turn the tide of this era? Liola’s face sank,

“Perhaps if I died at a place like this, this world would be a slightly better place.”

The elder guard’s eyes flashed with a sense of thought as he opened the door and saw Liola stepping out of the elevator without any hesitation.

The elder guard, however, remained in the elevator. He looked at Liola, and judged his figure: it was long and thin. The guard murmured,

“Indeed, those dispirited shoulders looked like they’re not enough to shoulder the entire world. But you will sail through this. In time, those silver eyes of yours would probably cause tsunamis.”

The waiter at the side asked curiously, “Mister, aren’t you going to watch the exhibition match? I heard that the sacrifice this round is quite strong, and it should be an interesting match.”

The guard answered with a shake of his head, “I’ve grown quite old, and I don’t want to be kicked to the side by the eager, young crowds.”

The guard pressed the button to close the elevator door, and leaving a confused waiter behind. He went back to the room for sacrifices, and planned on watching the match next to the Dark Street’s most beautiful woman.

* * *

Liola slowly stepped into the arena. It was very broad and completely different from the arena he saw before with the young guard. In fact, it was actually somewhat similar to the academy ranking match’s arena: it was surrounded by seats elevated from the ground.

There was one box far up in the audience, and it was surrounded by thick walls. The Aklan Prime Minister, Barker, and a few others were sitting in that box. Compared to the excited, bloodlusting crowds surrounding it, the box seemed very quiet and elegant.

In the actual stage for the match, there were nothing but a concrete floor. Liola calmly walked into the center of the stage, and his face remained expressionless.

This dissatisfied the crowds, who were used sacrifices crying in fear and begging for mercy.

In turn, started yelling things like “Go to hell”, “Hurry up and let the Dragon eat you”.

Liola didn’t care about the cries from the audience. He pulled out Broken Silver and unsheathed it.

Liola examined his somewhat tattered Sorcerer robe. Ordinarily, he wouldn’t care, but with his abilities sealed, Liola didn’t want to be hindered by the cumbersome Sorcerer robe. Liola tore off the Sorcerer robe, showing the silver-lined white Knight uniform underneath.

Everyone in the audience immediately went silent. What a Silver rank Knight represented, they couldn’t have not known.

A Silver Knight would most probably have the strength that would far surpass a Dragon. The exhibition was almost like a sacrificial ritual, and the competitor was the sacrifice to open the gory arena matches. How could they have found someone with the strength to surpass a Dragon?

The people in the box also seemed to panic, and blaming eyes and words were all thrown in Barker’s direction.

Barker immediately clarified, “It’s not possible. It’s impossible for him to have the strength of a Silver Knight, otherwise how could he have been threatened by my two guards and follow me obediently?”

Seeing uneasy emotions were spreading among the audience, Barker immediately grabbed the broadcast and said,

“Everyone, don’t worry, that set of Knight uniform is just for the purpose of entertainment. This person is just a normal sacrifice, and he can never beat our invincible red Dragon.”

Hearing Barker’s speech, the crowd went wild again. Being in the Dark Street, the crowds wouldn’t even have the chance to see a Silver Knight, and some of them even complimented Barker, saying that he was quite creative.

A sacrifice with Silver Knight uniform being torn into pieces by a Dragon would be definitely more interesting to watch.

Ignoring the bloodlust filled yells of the crowd, ignoring the fear in the eyes of the people who looked at his Knight’s uniform, and ignoring Barker’s panicked explanation, Liola continued to quietly stand in the center of the stage.

He lifted his chin slightly, and his silver eyes calmly looked into the sky. It was as if he wasn’t in a crowded arena, but instead at a quiet dark night. The thin man looked as if he was raising his head to look at the stars, even his eyes seemed to reflect the silver star light.

What was unbelievable was that, the crowd also seemed to quiet down and wouldn’t dare to make a noise, as if doing so would disturb this quietly man of the night.

“Oh, what is this boy’s name? I did forget.” Qiusi sat in the box, and his mouth had a faint smile.

Seeing something was wrong, Barker’s face turned pale, and answered while trembling, “Th-this man is about to lose his life, Prime Minister, Sir, why would you want to know a dead man’s name?”

“Or is he… about to die?” Qiusi’s smile widened.

Cold sweat ran down Barker’s head. Flustered, he yelled at his subordinate.

“Why don’t you let the Red Dragon out, now?!”

The subordinate on his side hurriedly nodded, and at the same time pressed a few buttons on the control panel in the box. With the accompaniment of a hungry Dragon roar, a fiery red, and deadly Dragon appeared in front of Liola.

The hungry Dragon took one look at Liola, and rammed its head against the steel cage, wanting to swallow this little man whole.

“Turn on the electric shield.”

When the cage was lifted, the subordinate didn’t dare to ignore the dangers of a Dragon. He immediately pressed another button, and an electrified shield appeared in the center of the stage. On one hand it stops the sacrifice from escaping, on another it also prevents the Dragon from harming the audience.

Even though Dragon roared in front of Liola, he didn’t even frown a bit. Liola was even examining the Red Dragon, and thought to himself:

‘The scales on this Dragon weren’t as red as Daylight’s Flames, and it didn’t look as pretty. Its level should be well below Flames.’

Liola was unusually calm, and he didn’t know Barker was angered so much by his calmness, because Liola’s composure and dark attitude was killing the bloodthirst of the crowd.

If this continues, then the exhibition would lose its purpose to provoke the lust for gore in the audience. Barker panicked like a rat in a forest fire.

At this time, the young guard anxiously walked into the box, and said to Barker,

“Boss, the people outside seemed to be fighting, and the fight is getting more and more intense. It’s at the point where the whole street had to be closed down. Should we send security guards to maintain the order?”

“Who cares how it goes outside, what’s important now is the inside…”

Barker suddenly stopped, and an idea seemed to have dawned on him, “Is it really severe?”

The young guard nodded desperately.

“For all the times I’ve been here, I hadn’t seen anything this bad. It’s practically a little war going outside. I don’t know who the culprit is or what they did to cause such a large, chaotic battle.”

Barker pushed the young guard aside, and said excitedly to his subordinates who were at the control panel.

“Q-quick and show the video from the security cameras on the Dark Street.”

Though the subordinates didn’t know what their boss had planned, but they obeyed his order. A giant 3D projector showed the scene on the arena, and all the scenes from the battle outside could be clearly seen.

The crowd’s bloodthirst was re-ignited by the chaotic scene, and many of them yelled something like “Go kill them”.

Liola glanced at the 3D projections, and he knew it was Barker’s way of exciting the crowd, but he didn’t care, because he didn’t care about the state of the crowd, and it wouldn’t affected him in any way.

“Purity, hold on!”

‘Daylight’s voice?’

Liola trembled as he looked towards the projection. A familiar Red Dragon was surrounded, and the Angel Mecha on its side was already heavily damaged, but it continued to shoot out arrows at its enemies. Meinan, who desperately tried to maintain the protective shield seemed to have blood slowly dripping out of the corner of his mouth.

“W-why are they here?”

Liola’s calm was finally broken, and he couldn’t ignore the thought in his heart that Daylight and others were here to look for him, and they were in this predicament because of him.

Liola’s heart shook again, and he hoped the other two would not care about him and not come looking for him… but Liola’s hope was shattered.

Though Kaiser cleverly wore a hat, Baolilong was hanging on Kaiser’s back, and its anxious expression was obviously because it was hurrying Kaiser to look for Liola.

“No!” Liola’s cold eyes finally went up in flames.

The angry Assassin yelled at Barker, “Hurry up and let the Dragon out! I have to duel with this Dragon! There is no time!”

‘I have to beat this Dragon quickly, then go help Daylight and others, and I can’t allow Kaiser and Baolilong to cause trouble in the Dark Arena Pyramid.’

Liola had never felt so anxious before, even his heart was pounding out of his chest, as if it was telling Liola to hurry.

Barker was surprised by Liola’s anger for the first time, and even crowds were shocked by the eyes with a burning cold flame.

Barker actually unconsciously said, “Let the Dragon out!”

The Red Dragon was finally freed from its cage. Seeing the hungry Red Dragon, Liola didn’t hesitate, and he used Broken Silver to cut off the rag on his left arm, and the white scale on his left arm was revealed.

Liola lifted his left arm, as if a thin arm could stop a ten-meter giant Dragon.

As the Dragon charged, the whole arena was shaken along its footsteps. Its distance from Liola was getting closer and closer, but Liola still held his left arm in front of his chest.

His eyes were still burning with a white flame, one that looked like Kaiser’s white fireballs. When the Red Dragon ran up to Liola, it lifted its huge claw, and swung it at Liola.

To the sealed Liola, if this attack lands, Liola would probably become a pancake.

“Kneel!”

Liola roared with rage.

Baolilong from afar seemed to have sensed something: its pink eyes instantly glowed, and Baolilong also gave out a mighty roar with its master, which made Liola’s roar sound like a Dragon roar.

At that moment, the air froze. The crowd, Red Dragon, and people in the box all felt their minds going blank, and they had no idea what was happening.

They felt like they couldn’t move, and the only thing they could see were Liola’s burning eyes, and his roar echoed in their ears.

‘Kneel! Right, we have to kneel.’

All the crowds felt their legs give out beneath them, and kneeled as if it were the natural thing to do.

In the box, even Barker kneeled on the ground and stared blankly. The only person standing in the box was Qiusi. His face was no longer filled with a smile, but with a frigid expression on his face. He thought, at that moment, even his mind went blank, and the command to kneel almost made him...

Fear showed on the face of the Red Dragon, stopping only inches away from Liola.

The giant Red Dragon timidly looked at the tiny scale on Liola’s arm, and it seemed to be naturally in fear of higher ranking Dragons, especially since the scent before it was the highest of the Sacred White Dragons… The scent of a prince.

The Red Dragon growled in grievance.

What was strange was Liola actually understood what the Red Dragon was saying.

The Dragon actually said, “S-sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you. But I was too hungry and I didn’t notice your scent, so I didn’t know it was you. Please forgive me.”

Liola stood stupefied at where he was, and Baolilong said via telepathy,

“Papa don’t move, Baolilong and Kaiser are here to save papa. Oh and, papa, that Dragon is just a low-ranked Dragon, and he doesn’t have a master to command him, so he wouldn’t dare to harm papa anymore. Papa, don’t be afraid.”

Liola was dumbfounded. Why did it seem like Baolilong was treating him like a little kid?

But Baolilong seemed to be more chatty than before, which was uncharacteristic of it. It acted more like… Kaiser.

Liola sighed, a chatty Dragon prince? Hopefully when Miluo sees his chatty son, he wouldn’t want to kill him because of it. But then again, Miluo already wanted him dead.

Liola suddenly realized the crowd was already out of their daze, and they looked baffled as they saw the confrontation between Liola and the red Dragon.

Liola had an idea, and used telepathy to say to Baolilong, “Baolilong, can you tell this Dragon to feign defeat when I attack it?”

He heard Baolilong’s voice saying, “Okay, papa, just turn Baolilong’s scale to the Dragon.”

In the eyes of the crowd, Liola raised up his left arm again, as if he were an emperor giving commands, and Red Dragon was indeed following the King’s wish. The Red Dragon growled again to indicate it understood.

Liola placed Broken Silver back into its scabbard. He didn’t want to harm this obedient Dragon. He raised Broken Silver, and purposely started to struggle, looking as if it were trying to throw Liola off. But it also continued to growl, and Liola heard,

“How is this? Is this too much force to shake you off?”

Though the crowd didn’t know what was going on, but the exhibition match had finally began, and the sacrifice seemed strong. His graceful moves made the crowd yell in satisfaction.

“Shred my shirt, and let me hurt a bit.” Liola whispered into the Red Dragon’s ear. He fully understood the desire of the crowd to see blood. If Liola was completely unscathed, he was afraid that Barker wouldn’t be willing to let him go because the crowd would’ve been dissatisfied.

As unwilling as the Red Dragon was to hurt the master of the white Dragon, but he had no choice but to obey the order.

While fighting with Liola, the Red Dragon waved its claw, and three claw marks appeared on Liola’s chest, from which blood oozed out, and the crowd went wild as a result.

Liola saw it was time, so he jumped onto the Dragon’s back, and took Broken Silver to hit the Dragon continuously. Though it looked like heavy hits, but in reality Liola didn’t put any force into it and he was doing it for show. Besides, after losing all his Ki, Liola actually didn’t have enough strength to damage a Dragon.

“Yell a few times, then fake a faint.”

Liola commanded on the Dragon’s back, and the Red Dragon obeyed as he yelled in pain and ran around the stage. And when Liola acted like he was giving a final punch, the Red Dragon screamed, then fell to the ground.

Liola stood slowly up from the Dragon, and his gaze was fixed on Barker in the box, reminding him the promise of letting him leave if he won against the Dragon.

* * *

Barker’s face was completely frozen. He could have never imagined he had made the wrong judgment and underestimated Liola. He really did win against the Red Dragon! What would the crowd think now...

“Great, he really did win.” The crowds exploded with screams.

“My god, that was just too awesome. Looks like he really is a Silver Knight?”

Unexpectedly, the crowd began cheering for the competitor’s beautiful performance. Seeing this, Barker had no idea what to do. Had the crowd been unhappy, then Barker wouldn’t even hesitate a moment to hire someone to kill Liola, but now the crowds were this happy...

“Aren’t you going to let him go? Or are you going to break your promise like you always do?” Qiusi smiled, but a pair of shiny golden eyes held their gaze on Barker.

Scared of him, Barker felt weak in his knees.

He seemed to have understood Qiusi’s meaning, and without any other plans, he grabbed the broadcast and said,

“The current exhibition match was won by the competitor, and as a result, the competitor will be…”

“Shut up! Barker.” A seductive and soft woman’s voice interrupted Barker.

Liola felt a weight in his heart. This deadly and seductive woman’s voice was far too familiar. Liola almost didn’t want to look at the origin of this voice, but his eyes still looked towards the entrance.

Black Rose’s sexy and charming body stood at the entrance. Wearing a tight-fitting dress, she looked more beautiful than ever. Like always, countless rose petals surrounded Black Rose, and her fingers were wrapped around the handle of a long bramble whip.

Black Rose yelled lightly with a sweet voice, “Aiya, pretty little brother, you really know how to pick the place. You actually came to the headquarters of Adorning Flowers organization. Did you miss me, and specially came here to be collected? Hehe.”

Liola was severely shocked. The Dark Street was the Adorning Flowers’ headquarters? Could he have walked into the lion’s den?

Seeing Liola’s unbelievable expression, Black Rose laughed with satisfaction. She thought this otherwise expressionless man having such helpless expression satisfied her desires. If it were possible, she’d play with this pretty boy sometimes, she thought with dissatisfaction.

Unfortunately, they were in the headquarters, and her boss was enraged because she failed last time. She would probably be best off killing the boy right away, or otherwise she would find herself in a difficult predicament. After thinking of her boss’s shiny blade, Black Rose couldn’t help but touch her own thin neck.

“It’s too bad. Even though you won against the Dragon, but I had already known three days ago that you actually came to the headquarters, hehe. Seeing you think you can escape, then killing your hope in doing so seemed to be throwing you into an abyss, and it makes me… really satisfied!”

Black Rose waved her whip around, leaving a trail everywhere it hit.

Liola examined his surroundings.

Black Rose of the Six Forbidden Sins was in front of him, and around him were outlaws who were excited at the appearance of Black Rose. The whole pyramid was like a large cage, imprisoning Liola within.

The crowds were excited again, and the bloodthirsty audience were like layers upon layers of chains surrounding Liola, and Black Rose was the guillotine, preparing to behead him momentarily.

Even for Liola, who had seen plenty of such situations in his life, this was too much and he sank into despair.

The yelling around him acted like tidal waves continuously shoving him.

Liola held his ears in pain, but even if he could block those deadly screams, he couldn’t stop the voices in his head nor could he get rid of the scenes in his mind.

Why did Kaiser and others come to look for him? Did they not know how dangerous it would be? Did they not understand that being by his side meant death?

Scenes after scenes flashed before Liola’s eyes: Anise drowning in her own blood desperately reaching out her hand, and giving the Dragon cross necklace to him.

Anise, who, in his eyes, was always smiling, could no longer smile. The lines of dried tears criss-crossed on her white face.

He didn’t want Anise to die, why did she have to die?!

Lanski’s blue eyes were filled with tears and shame, and pointing her sword at him to kill him, wanting him to return Baolilong to her… Yes, he took away Lanski’s Baolilong, but he didn’t do it on purpose. He didn’t think it would end like this.

“Papa!”

Baolilong’s scared scream pierced right through Liola’s heart. Even if he closed his eyes as hard as he could, Liola couldn’t block away the scene of blue blood dripping across his eyes, and Baolilong using its little body to block Black Rose, as well as the scene of Black Rose tossing Baolilong aside like trash.

Liola imagined the situation outside, could it be…

Meinan trembling as he held the blood back from coming out of his mouth. Purity falling out of the sky like a kite with broken line.

Daylight struggling to keep his battered body standing, but still holding on his sword, perhaps even reaching out to hold Meinan up, and they were stepping over their enemies’ bodies in the Dark Street that was foreign to them. All of this, because of him.

Kaiser! Kaiser and Baolilong, too, were in the pyramid. Liola looked around, and all he saw were enemies, enemies, and more enemies. If Kaiser and Baolilong really came here, wouldn’t that mean...

Liola painfully closed his eyes. Cold tears fell down along his cheek.

Liola murmured, “Me, it’s all me, why is it all me?!”

Countless scenes flashed before his eyes, and almost everyone of them was a scene where everyone was bleeding. Liola felt completely heartbroken. He held his fists and repeatedly struck the ground, as if he couldn’t feel pain.

Liola yelled, “If I die, will this all end? Anise! Tell me, why did you save me? Is it to bring harm to other?!”

Pity flashed across Black Rose’s eyes. Her white hands lifted Liola’s chin, and took pity, “Pitiful brother, if living is so painful, then let me help you escape it!”

Liola felt the hand on his neck tighten, and even Black Rose’s sharp nails sank into Liola’s neck. Being heartbroken, Liola didn’t have any intention of resisting, and he let his sights blur and consciousness fade…

Liola suddenly seemed to regain his consciousness. Both of his hands grabbed Black Rose’s hand, and suddenly asked,

“Are you going to let them go? It’s enough for me to die, right?”

Black Rose seemed shocked, then showed a seductive smile, “Don’t worry, little brother, if no one is paying, I wouldn’t even be willing to lift a hand.”

Liola slowly let go of Black Rose’s hand, and Black Rose continued to tighten her grasp. Seeing Liola’s arms already fallen from the lack of power, Black Rose said as if she suddenly remembered something,

“Oh! Right, I forgot to tell you this, but little Dragon is an exception. My employer specifically told me I have to kill you both.”

A ray of light shone across Liola’s darkened eyes, and Black Rose’s expression changed too, then she kicked Liola in the stomach, which sent him flying. After landing, Liola withstood the pain of his stomach and stood up, with rage flashing in his eyes.

Black Rose held her stomach with her right hand, but blood seeped out between her fingers.

Black Rose’s beautiful face again twisted into something ugly beyond belief, and her voice sounded like nail on blackboard.

“You dare to harm me?!”

“Don’t touch Baolilong!” Liola’s cold voice made people felt like they were listening to an abyss.

“Just a Dragon.” Black Rose screamed with a strange voice, “You are about to die, why do you care about whether that Dragon dies?!”

Liola growed, “Don’t touch Baolilong, he’s… is…”

‘What is he?’

Liola seemed to be at a loss for words. What was Baolilong to him? His Dragon? His child?

Liola suddenly realized that he didn’t even know what position Baolilong stood in his heart, but he was certain that he cared much about Baolilong, even though Liola didn’t know why.

“Child! You and Baolilong are like brothers, you are just like one another, as long as someone treats you well, you will treat them well many times over.”

A voice suddenly barged into Liola’s mind.

The tone was like a kind mother shaking her hand at her naughty child. Liola was baffled, he didn’t understand why a mother-like voice would appear in his mind, could it be that he was hallucinating?

“Look down, child.” The soft, kind voice said patiently, “I am in front of your chest.”

Liola was stunned, and at the same time felt a tingling sense of warmth flashing across his chest.

Liola reflexively lowered his head to look at the only thing in front of his chest — the Dragon Cross necklace. The necklace was emitting a warm, white light.

Liola blinked, he seemed to have seen Dragon wings briefly flapped around the necklace?

The mother-like voice spoke again to explain to Liola,

“Because Princess Anise really loved you, so you loved her more, and you were willing to defy the organization’s kill order for her. Because Baolilong really loves you, you wouldn’t allow anyone to harm it. Because your friends also love you, and they risk their lives to save you, so you would feel the intense pain in your heart… You are a kind child, Liola.”

Hearing the necklace’s words, Liola laughed bitterly. He was an Assassin, and Assassins were ruthless, cold-blooded, and cruel, how could he possibly be kind?

The necklace emitted an even brighter light, as if it were shaking its head to laugh at Liola’s silliness.

However, it didn’t say anything, because Black Rose had already noticed something was wrong. The necklace said somewhat anxiously to Liola, who was standing stupefied, “Child, I can help you temporarily suppress your seal, but you will only have three hours. Within those three hours, you must rescue all of your companions and get out of here.”

At this time, Black Rose had already commanded her petals to chop Liola to pieces, but an intense white light exploded from the necklace, and the light enveloped the entire arena.

The crowds covered their eyes and screamed in pain. Along with a Dragon roar, the light took the shape of a snow-white Dragon as it soared into the sky.

The giant Dragon then seemed to have poured itself through Liola’s forehead. Liola felt a bubble burst in his head, and immense Ki came out from within to fill every corner of Liola’s body.

The best Assassin was back!

* * *

“Damn! What is this light?”

Black Rose shook her head with agitation, trying to shake off the intense headache the bright light caused. At the same time, she looked around to prevent Liola from using this opportunity to escape, but Black Rose suddenly realized, she couldn’t sense Liola at all, as if he was no longer in the arena.

‘But that’s impossible!’

The arena was surrounded by electrified shielding. Even for her, escaping here through the shields would be impossible without sustaining serious injuries.

‘Where the hell was Liola?’

Black Rose searched panickedly, at the same time she surrounded herself with countless petal to prevent a sneak attack.

However, she suddenly felt a sharp pain in both her hand and feet. Black Rose screamed as she fell to the ground. She trembled as she lifted her hands, and only then did she notice that the nerves on all her hands and feet were broken.

Black Rose had almost lost it, “Come out! I’m going to kill you!”

The intense light finally faded, and a pair of cold, ruthless silver eyes appeared on the stage.

Black Rose and the surrounding crowds all quieted down. Liola had the unsheathed Broken Silver in his right hand. The light reflected the sharp edge of the blade, and it terrified people as much as his eyes. Along with his Silver Knight uniform, he seemed incredibly dangerous.

“Wow, really amazing, Silver Knight!”

Black Rose said mockingly, then she went into a frenzy, and burst out laughing wildly.

She sneered as she laughed, “Even if you are Silver Knight, you think you can get out of the Dark Arena Pyramid? In your dreams!”

“Silver Knight?” A lazy voice could be heard from the entrance, and the lazy body was leaning at the door frame,

“Aiya, if Liola was only as strong as a Silver Knight, then Lancelot probably still hasn’t reached Gold rank yet.”

“Papa!” Baolilong cheered with both of its arms in the air, and it was wiggling restlessly in Kaiser’s arms.

Kaiser fumbled to hold onto Baolilong, to prevent this stupid Dragon from running into the electrified shield. At the same time, he didn’t forget to say to Liola,

“You irresponsible little father, don’t ever make me babysit your kid again. This Dragon has the intelligence of a water melon.”

Liola seemed to have pouted, but in his heart he sighed in relief that Kaiser and Baolilong were still well. Now what he must do was to handle everything here, then hurry to rescue Daylight and others.

With firm resolve, Liola immediately started to attack. The only thing Black Rose saw were a pair of cold silver eyes. Broken Silver instantly disposed of all her petals, and then it pressed on towards Black Rose.

Black Rose succumbed to fear as she covered her eyes and screamed at the top of her lung, until Liola knocked her unconscious.

Liola stood in front of the unconscious Black Rose with Broken Silver.

He hesitated: which one was more important, his promise to Anise or his friends’ safety? Liola really couldn’t decide, and he looked at Kaiser helplessly, who was flinging his fingers carelessly,

“As one of the Six Forbidden Sins, she has failed twice, and one of the times was even at their headquarters. Looks to me like she wouldn’t even be able to stay within Flowers.”

Kaiser lazily straightened his back and hurried, “Kick her a few times for revenge, then we have to hurry and save Daylight, I don’t think they can hold up much longer.”

Liola smiled, and he understood that Kaiser saying to kick her wasn’t because of vengeance, but instead prevent Black Rose from chasing them after she wakes up.

Liola stomped a few times on Black Rose’s hands and feet, then walked to the edge of the stage, looking at the electrified shield.

“He defeated Black Rose!”
“My god! H-he’s coming out.”
“That’s impossible! Nobody could break this electric shield…”

Before the last guy even finished his sentence, he saw Liola hold up his two arms and rammed against the shield. Without even showing his aura, the shield disappeared after crackling briefly.

After countless screams from the crowd, they all started to run every which way to try to escape.

“You should really learn how to have an aura, otherwise you don’t look imposing at all when you swing in the air a few times and you suddenly win, and it’s not fun to watch at all.”

Kaiser saw that the electrified shield had no effects on Liola, and started babbling like usual,

“Think about it, how handsome Lancelot and Blood Wolf looked when they fight, with sounds and lights, the whole atmosphere is different.”

“Papa is 1000 times better than Stinkelot!”

Baolilong, who climbed onto papa’s back as soon as possible, roared in dissatisfaction. As soon as it heard about Lancelot, Baolilong was enraged.

Kaiser painfully covered his ear with his left hand, and held up his middle finger on his right hand.

Who knew Baolilong would imitate him, and threw both of its chubby middle fingers up in the air, and grimaced.

“Aiya! Little runt, you even put up one more middle finger than me? Liola! Look at how you’ve taught your child! He already knows how to gesture his middle finger, and he’s only five years old, what’s going to happen when he grows up?” Kaiser was making a fuss at Liola.

Liola tilted his head to look at Baolilong. The Assassin raised his hand in hesitation, then put up his middle finger, and put his hand in front of Kaiser’s face and asked,

“Are you talking about this?”
“...”

Two streams of tears flowed down his face.

“Please, put your middle finger down, even Baolilong does it better than you.”

(Kaiser thought, put down the middle finger quick! Otherwise, the readers will think that I’m a bad influence on you, and then drag me to a corner to beat me up)

“Hurry and let’s go, Kaiser, there are still quite a few troublesome people here.”

Liola’s eyes glanced towards the box, where a gold-haired man was standing and smiling. Liola felt he better hurry and leave here with Kaiser before Qiusi got interested in stopping them, otherwise there could be an intense fight.

“Hot damn! Even the Prime Minister comes to the Dark Street?” Kaiser’s eyes followed Liola’s. But he wasn’t as clueless as Liola to not recognize the man in the box was the Prime Minister of Aklan.

Rumor had it, he’s a very powerful Sorcerer. Like Liola, Kaiser didn’t want to mess with someone like him.

“Wait, I have to go save someone,” Kaiser said anxiously.
“Kaigleser?”

LMS: Volume 15 Chapter 8

This chapter is brought to you by AnmesicCat, Lastear, Lei, Thunderhamster, Yeong.

---

Reconstruction of the Niflheim Empire

The linked quest already had 3 stages. It did occur to him that it was convoluted, however Weed continued on to the Kingdom’s Library.

It held a considerable portion of the general history of the Versailles Continent, but you would have to personally search for information on individual histories.

Count Savoid (Sur Empire Year 436~Year 479) Received his Knighthood at age 17. Returned from fulfilling Knightly duties at age 20. Inherited his territory at age 36. Possessed exceptional talent for swordplay and horseback. Executed for rising in revolt at age 43.

There was only simple information in the Biography section. He also read the History and War sections, but parts involving Count Savoid were missing, as if someone had intentionally erased them.

“Found it.”
“Where is it?”
“It says there’s a treasure hidden in this area.”

Adventurers and Magicians who’d been reading in the library hurried to leave. There were almost 20 users who, like Weed, had come to obtain information in the library.

A jackpot was hidden somewhere, but he would have to invest a lot of time and recovering the costs was difficult— this was the situation while hunting inside the library for information. It was also a condition in where many basic information was lacking, or there was simply nothing to be read.

‘Seems it’ll be difficult to find it this way.’

Weed was submerged in labor.

Finding a clue through a book was hard even for Adventurers with vast experience, so it seemed it wouldn’t be easy for his Sculptor self to gather information.

‘Is the method of my approach wrong? Alright. Since I’m a Sculptor, it might just be that I was supposed to look at the Sculptors first.’

Weed sifted through the art-related books.

« History of Monuments », « Excavated Carving », « Sur Kingdom’s Proud Sculptures ».

He saw a book titled, « Ancient Sculptures » entangled among the many books he was reading. The contents of the book, although the name was different, there was information about the sculpture he currently had possession of.

Figure of Rest : Symbol of Religion It is the symbol of the worshippers who followed the God Matallost, who guides the dead. They did not have a flag or pattern, but were famous for having a sculpture. The Priests of the Matallost Church had strong holy power and can guide the dead. After the birth of the continent’s official language, rather than using their God’s name, they also called themselves the Resurrection Church. They weren’t very high in public favor because they were close to and conducted research about Death. It was assumed they used as sculpture as their symbol primarily for preservation of secrets. There was a story of some Matallost faith idol being special and sacred artifacts, very different from normal sculptures.

 

- You have acquired all of the required information for the quest.

He did flounder a little, but still finished the quest.

He went to the tavern and reported to Smith.

“This sculpture was apparently the symbol of the Matollost Church.”

“Whaddaya say?”

“It said it was a symbol of an ancient religion. And it might even be an idol.”

Ding!

“Old Smith’s Curiosity” quest completed. You have answered the former mercenary Smith’s question about the sculpture he saw in his youth. Now he will tell you the stories he knew of during his mercenary days.

 

- Sculpting skill proficiency has improved by 0.4%. - Your Faith stat has risen by 1.

Since he could raise his sculpting skill proficiency while completing a quest, these kinds of commissions weren’t all that bad either. Though it took up too much time for going to various different places.

“So that’s what it meant after all. Hiccup.”

The old drunkard Smith was very intoxicated.

“As promised, please tell me stories of what you saw and heard when you were young.”

“Ayup! I was, ya know, a really reliable and well mannered Mer-mer-mercenary. I made lotsa money, too. Though I did use most of it buying drinks and women.”

With a loose-tongued way of speech, Smith told of how he came to be a mercenary and roamed the continent while fulfilling requests as a free mercenary.

For Weed, of course, it went in one ear and went out the other— there was no end to listening to each and every word of a drunkard.

After a long while, Smith finally spoke of the the main subject.

“This sculpture, ya see, at that time, the Count was going to escape through the castle’s basement together with this sculpture. Haaah, I’m gettin’ drunk.”

“Why do you think he did that?”

“I dunno either. Anyways I thought it to be really very strange. Hiccup. The alcohol tastes real good right now. What were we talking about again?”

With a befuddled look, Smith babbled on about more irrelevant stories for a long while.

He boasted of his job as a mercenary, and a drunkard’s preaching about the continent’s drinks!

Smith’s attention was directed at the sculpture once again, and as if he had regained his senses, he asked.

“Though I didn’t see this sculpture after long while… you’re not busy, are you?”

“I am busy though.”

“Could you take me to solve this mystery?”

Smith pulled out a rusty key from his bosom.

“If I remember correctly… after that time, the basement was sealed, so you can probably only go in if you have this key. Can you take me there with you and solve the mystery for me?”

Ding!

Old Smith’s Second Curiosity. The old, drunkard Smith has a question about the last time he saw Count Savoid. In order to answer his question, search the Count’s mansion, find the basement, and dig up the secret. Chain quest, leads to the long-cherished wish of the Matallost Church, which guides the dead, and the reconstruction of the Niflheim Empire. Difficulty: A Reward: A drink from Smith. Quest Restriction: Limited to Sculptors. Quest failure upon Smith’s death.

If it was Niflheim Empire, it was a great empire that existed a dozen years ago in the Northern part of the continent, where Morata was part of, and Weed was her current Lord!

The castle and villages went up in flames due to the monsters around and Bone Dragon who descended from the Forest of Darkness. The emperor tried to seal them using the Serbian Beads, but it only resulted in lamentable freezing of the entire Northern area. Under the attack of the cold, the monsters, and division of the people, the empire collapsed.

If the Niflheim Empire were to be reconstructed right now, the North would stabilized on its foundation.

It was a little unexpected that a quest such as this would become available from a sculpture, and then linked to the Resurrection Church. But it wasn’t very surprising. The Resurrection Church and the Matallost faith were churches that had originated in the North.

If he solved mercenary Smith’s question, then he would also solve the quest relating to the reconstruction of Niflheim Empire.

‘I’ll be able to sell off Morata for a more expensive price.’

Weed nodded his head as he tore into a chicken leg as an appetizer.

“I will do my best to solve the mystery.”

- You have accepted the quest.

* * *

The Savoid County was made into an enormous hunting ground. Sur Kingdom was infested with level 150 to 200 monsters, so a considerable number of parties were out hunting.

“Recruiting people to hunt inside the mansion. Preferring People with experience or courage.”

Count Savoid’s Mansion was a region-class dungeon. The max level of the monsters was 282.

The astral Knights, Soldiers, and even astral maids spawns there.

Weed entered the mansion with the drunkard mercenary, Smith.

“Arghh. My insides are gonna die of heartburn.”

Smith complained as he followed.

“Won’t you give me just one bottle of booze?”

“I don’t have any.”

Weed firmly refused. There was, of course, a lot of liquor in his rucksack. All because he made brandy or whisky whenever he saw edible fruit or wheat, etc. There were a few cooking items that sold well, and easy to store like liquor. With its astounding taste, disinfectant properties, and since it even raised Health recovery speed, liquor received the most limelight among preferences.

Since well-distilled liquor could be priced expensively, it was no different from cash.

Although he distilled liquors in his spare time by plying his cooking skill, he was frugal with it to the utmost, to the point where if it wasn’t SwordNoob or the other elder brothers, no one would even ask Weed for it.

“Ahem, my mouth is dry.”

Smith grumbled as he followed.

In the old mansion, dust was piled thickly and pieces of furniture were scattered around. The mural was damaged to the point of unrecognition, and the chandelier had fallen to the ground, shattered.

“Fire Ball!”
“Cold Strike!”

He saw many other parties, but they were hunting ghost monsters.

Weed looked around the mansion a little before giving up. It was a colossal site, so it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call it a castle.

Weed had wandered through many castles of Vampires when he was in Todeum, but this was different from those castles, even the estimate of the number of rooms in the powerful Count’s mansion was immense.

Weed asked, “Where is the basement?”

Smith just shook his head from side to side.

“It happened a long time ago, so I don’t remember. Though, I might remember if I drink a bottle of booze…”

Weed frowned.

‘Good-for-nothing alcoholic, drunkard!’

Other hunting parties were hunting all over the place in Count Savoid’s Mansion. If it was a basement they didn’t discover, it was either meticulously hidden or had to be an extraordinary place.

‘Even if it was discovered, it might not have been made public.’

They wouldn’t have been able to enter the basement even if they found it if they didn’t have the key. It was human nature to not want to do something that was good for someone else. Even if the basement’s entrance was discovered, it was possible it hasn’t been made public.

If so, Weed figured he had to cooperate with Smith to find it.

Weed opened his rucksack and pulled out a bottle of beer.

“Come to think of it, I do have liquor.”

“Harumph. Give it to me!”

“The basement…”

“... I do remember. It’s probably down by the staircase.”

The place Smith had pointed out was the bottom of the stairs, leading to two additional floors.

Weed tried going behind the wooden staircase. There was nothing there, except thickly piled up dust. However, when he probed around with his hands, he could feel an imperceptible crack.

‘So it’s here.’

Weed cleared the dust and found a small key hole. Then, he placed the key he received from Smith and turned.

Creeaaaak!

He had to push forcefully to barely open the old door.

Weed entered the basement together with Smith and closed the door. He didn’t forget to pull out the key, either.

Because it might be discovered by another party hunting in the mansion!

Weed was absolutely not one who would fall flat on his face when the prize is in sight.

You have discovered Count Savoid’s basement. Fame increased by 50. Through adventure, experience has slightly increased.

“Aha! So this is the Count’s basement.”

Smith had emptied his bottle of beer somewhere along the way and smacked his lips as if he was in regret.

“If it’s a done deal, why didn’t ya give me whiskey?”
“I absolutely do not have whiskey.”

Beer was at least common and cheap, but since decent whisky was at minimum a few gold, he had no intention of offering it.

Weed looked around the basement.

Many books were arranged in this place, which seemed to have likely been used by the Count as a secret study.

« The Basics of Flame-Based Magic »
« The Study of Wind Elements and its Affinity »
« Ten Law of Flatterly Elementalist Should Keep in Mind »
« Traveling the Versailles Continent on Foot »
« Money-Making Opportunities »
« Witch, the Sorceress Who’ll Read Books for You »

He could tell just from looking at the titles, a variety of books were adorning the bookshelves.

Weed stuffed every book into his bag.

‘I’ll make money if I sell them at a curio store or antique bookstore.’

Since the quest’s next chain was determined, he packed them away cleanly.

He also searched the Count’s desk.

There were gold coins worth about 300 gold in the drawer, and a carving knife as well.

‘I’ll have to sell this too.’

Weed was one to memorize the prices of a wide variety of items on the spot.

Even if a supermarket’s automatic price calculation system broke, if it was Weed’s store, there probably wouldn’t be a slightest reason to worry. It was all because Weed was the type who would thoroughly remember the buying price starting from the factory to the selling price, surtax, and even what applied to the “Buy 1 Get 1” marketing deal.

365 gold coins multiplied by 12 gold coins is 4,380 coins!

It was to the point where he made calculations in the blink of an eye.

When it came to money calculations, he beat math prodigies!

Weed saw a book spread open on the table.

« The Origins and History of the Matallost Religion »

He began to skim through it.

The ancient Matallost faith's congregation was the largest compared to others who arose from rituals conducted by the people who held death sacred. They considered death as returning to the embrace of their god... as the Matallost faith was adhered to as the Kingdom's established religion, Warriors pay their respects to the Church before going out into battle. However, the public perception of the Matallost church changed as the years passed. Wars between tribes decreased, and a castle was built against invading monsters, establishing peace. The Matallost faith became shunned as death was regarded with fear. In addition, the Arpen Empire’s continent unification war, each kingdom competitively gave preference to the church in their own territory. In particular, churches related to war received respect, and the Matallost Church was disadvantaged by its doctrine of being led and guided by Death. Death became the last name the remnants of the Matallost Church yelled, and even mention of the name alone became abhorred in public regard. Priest candidates of the Matallost Church decreased more and more, and the position became occupied by another Church. The churches of Freya’s prosperity or of the God of Fighters, Belacus, increased. ...The Matallost Church lost its power, and the support of each Kingdom was severed. It was assumed they, who hid in the shadows, increasingly could not throw away their desire for power. The power to guide through death! They dreamed of revenge by using their strong holy power. Specifically what kind of revenge they’ve planned is unknown.

Ding!

- Intelligence and Wisdom have both increased by 5 from reading advanced information about the Matallost faith.

 

- You have acquired information about the Resurrection Church.

Weed found something else from the desk. It was the robe worn by Resurrection Church Priests.

Matallost Church. Since currently they were more often being called the Resurrection Church, it didn’t matter if you spoke carelessly about them.

“Count Savoid must’ve been a Priest of the Resurrection Church.”

Weed guessed judging from how Count Savoid had possession of the Statue of Death, the symbol of the Resurrection Church.

“Huuh, look here a bit!”

Just then, Smith discovered a wide room.

A magical circle was drawn inside the room, and in the middle, on top of an object looking like a tombstone, was a bowl where something could be placed inside.

An image of the Statue of Death was drawn into the bowl.

“Maybe this is where it should be placed in?”

Weed took out the sculpture from his bosom.

The Statue of Death he’d acquired at the end of his duel with Death Hand in the Dwarf’s underground Kingdom, Kuruso!

The second coming of the Matallost faith and the reconstruction of the Niflheim Empire.

He didn't know what kind of effect it would have on the Versailles Continent, but when he recalled the contents of that quest, there was no reason for it to end here.

Weed placed the sculpture in the bowl. Then, as if it were given life, the scythe-holding malevolence flashed open its eyes.

Ruuuuummmble!

The mansion shook, as if there were an earthquake.

A damp fog filled the basement, and a black vortex formed above the altar. A gate to another place had opened.

Smith staggered backwards in surprise.

The black gate.

Not only had he never seen a gate of this color anywhere, but the scythe-holding malevolence figure was glaring at him. An incomparably terrifying look.

However, Weed was not afraid.

There was nothing as terrifying as an empty account balance. It was so scary he had nightmares of negative interest even in his dreams!

- A gate to the River of Lamentation has opened. Access is impossible for general users. The quest will proceed in the River of Lamentation. The success or failure of this quest will affect the Resurrection Army accordingly.

The message window popped up to all the users in the Versailles Continent.

Weed swiftly approached the gate, and the black vortex swirled as if it were going to eat him up. However, Smith hurriedly shook his hands.

“Hey.”
“What?”

"In order to solve my request, won't I also have to follow?"
“Of course.”

Weed desperately wanted to leave Smith behind, but he had to take him.

"I have a condition. If I go in there, you have to make it so I can drink five bottles of liquor every day."

“...”

"If I don’t drink, I can't fall asleep, you see."

Weed nodded his head and agreed.

“Alright.”

He couldn’t look after Smith all the time. It would be better to put him to sleep even if it was by drinking liquor.

"Also, recruit a mercenary."
“What?”

"You’re a feeble Sculptor, aren't you?"

If Weed was feeble, then the majority of Warriors or Swordsmen would be crawling around on the ground for lack of strength.

Smith continued, "I don’t feel safe with just you. And we don't even know where we'll arrive if we go through that gate, so wouldn’t it be better to bring one mercenary?"

Ding!

- It has become possible to recruit one mercenary to progress the quest together.

Hiring a mercenary in a Sculptor-only quest!

This meant there was going to be an actual battle.

'Even if it's low, it is an A-rank difficulty quest...'

If he considered the chain quests that would occur as Niflheim Empire's reconstruction or the Matallost faith's second coming, the actual difficulty could be much higher.

It was to the point where it wasn’t the end of the chain quest that was a burden.

He had to find someone to do the quest with whom he could trust to some degree.

Weed immediately sent a whisper.

-Pale-nim.
- Yes.

Pale responded promptly.

- I'm doing a quest, but I need one mercenary.
- Really? Where are you?

- Hagen Village of Sur Kingdom.

- What to do? It'll take a minimum of twenty days to go from the North all the way to there.

- Might there be someone else who's in the Central Continent?

- Mapan-nim left towards Rosenheim Kingdom to trade, the others are all gathered here.

Mapan’s fighting strength was too lacking to bring him as a mercenary, so he was ruled out from the start even though he was a little closeby.

- Right now we’re also doing a quest called “The Secret of Manufacturing Ancient Breastplate.”

- Seems difficult. I understand.

Weed clearly had to give up. If he were to ask Pale to come, Maylon would be sad.

Irene would be a big help since she was a Priest, but there would be a lot of times when he’d have to protect her. In that aspect, Romuna was also in a similar position.

Surka was young and timid at times, so it was burdensome to go through thick and thin for a dozen days with just the two of them in a difficult quest’s dungeon.

Hwaryeong’s dance skill was good for increasing stats or putting monsters to sleep. Her usefulness was outstanding, but her actual attack power was weak so it was dangerous. Even if she was good in general hunting, it was a strain to bring her to a fight where he didn’t know what kind of difficulty might be waiting.

Zephyr was out from the start.

Though his Health was strong, Resilience was good, and he even had an AoE skill.

“Since he’s being friendly with my little sister, he is absolutely a no.”

Weed erased Zephyr’s existence from his mind.

How could he give his dearly raised little sister to a playboy. It was something never to happen even if the sky were to collapse.

“Since she says they’re just meeting, I’ll have to wait and see. Since my little sister has an eye for people.”

His little sister’s actions or demeanor hadn’t changed, so he was relieved for now.

A father’s ripping heart when his daughter when out on a date with her boyfriend wearing a short skirt!

Weed could also sympathize a little.

“Men are all wolves and thieves. If a man dies at the hands of a woman, she’s innocent. Because even if he dies, he was sure to have committed an inappropriate deed, or wanted to commit one!”

Even so, he couldn’t take Yurin either.

He sent a whisper to SwordNoob.

- Master.
- ......

- Master.
- Ahem! What’s up!

- What are you doing right now?

- I, I didn’t do anything. I absolutely wasn’t starting a conversation with a Dark Elf Lady. Disciple. There was just something I wanted to ask.

- Master...

SwordNoob’s honest reply returned after a while.

- Shouldn’t I also marry? It’s difficult, but I should try a late marriage, at least.

- The other elder brothers are also busy, right?

- Yeah. They’re in the Orc village, and many are in the Dark Elf’s village as well. The Dark Elves with their dark-complexioned skin are healthy, so they like them very much.

- How are the Yuroki Mountains?

- There are many monsters. It’s alright since there’re a lot of monsters worth fighting. Making a party together with Orcs and trying out their hunting style is also fun.

SwordNoob and the other elder brothers were enjoying Royal Road. Flaunting their hearty masculine beauty as they protected the weak Orcs.

- Master, Dark Elves also like flowers.

- Oh, really? Alright. You should work hard as well. And call me anytime if you need help.

- Yes, master!

Weed ended the whisper with SwordNoob.

‘Who should I take?’

The Travellers of the Wilderness Guild!

A minority elite group of Armen Kingdom. A guild he estimated as having many unknown high-level users.

It was a guild Weed was a member of, but he hadn’t looked at the guild chat window for a while. It was turned off because the guild members frequently chatted idly amongst themselves! It was also a burden due to fact that he didn’t know anyone well enough to invite just one person from the Travellers of the Wilderness guild.

Just then, a whisper from Pale came.

- Weed-nim, you said you were getting one mercenary, right? Will you perhaps take one Shaman?

- What kind of Shaman are they?

- Her skill proficiency and utilization are to the point of being ridiculous. She is the most famous Shaman in Morata. She’s being a really big help even in party hunting together. I said spoke about Weed-nim just now, and she said she really wants to go.

Weed recalled his time as a beginner, when he hadn’t been playing Royal Road for very long.

‘I party hunted with a Shaman in the City of Heaven, Lavias.’

An unforgettable name. Dain.

She was exactly his ideal woman. It was difficult to say what exactly he liked, but his time together with her had been enjoyable. They talked a lot while dungeon hunting with just the two of them, and they had clicked even when they were hunting.

‘Although she left to undergo surgery… is she doing well now?’

Since there was no word, he could only hope for her wellbeing.

Weed brushed off thoughts of the past and spoke.

- It seems too dangerous a place for a Shaman to come.

A Priest-type profession was fundamentally a big help in party hunting, but they couldn’t protect themselves.

- Please convey my apologies for not being able to do it together.

- No. It can’t be helped.

He couldn’t call Hegel. If he called him, the news would soon spread all over through the Black Lions’ Guild.

The Thief Nide wasn’t an alternative, either.

‘A Thief is a profession with a lot of uses in a dungeon.’

A stereotype where Thieves or Assassins were vulnerable in a melee match!

Since he was getting a mercenary to help him in battle, a hiding, ambushing profession was unsuitable.

‘If it’s the strongest person I know, there’s only her…’

Weed recalled Seoyoon in his mind.

She, whose blade sliced up most monsters! A Berserker who grew stronger as the battle continued.

She had an outrageous level, and her utilization of skills was rapid.

The Berserker Seoyoon!

It would be the safest if she was here.

However, Weed shook his head.

His trust in Seoyoon was kindling a little, but it was too much to ask her to help him with a dangerous quest that had absolutely nothing to do with her.

‘Besides, I don’t even know where she is right now, and it would take lots of time if she were to come all the way here.’

He couldn’t get anyone he knew from around Sur Kingdom.

Weed made his decision.

“Call Death Knight!”

Death Knight Van Hawk appeared with smoke.

Since he’d been with him for a long time, he was used to meeting even Death Knight’s savage eyes.

“Did you call, Master.”
“Yes. Work has arrived.”

“I will knock down whomever it may be,” was steadfast Death Knight’s cry.

Weed turned his head and looked at Smith.

“If it’s Death Knight, we will not need another mercenary.”

Smith had not been that alarmed even when Death Knight had appeared.

“Seems like Death Knight can protect us. But the alcohol?”

Weed briefly opened his rucksack and pulled out several bottles of beer. There were dozens of beer bottles, he also had considerable amount of whiskey and wines. There was no need to purchase liquor separately, and if it was urgent, he could distill alcohol at any time.

Since there’s always a chance he could be called to leave for an adventure, he prepared plenty of bandages, a whetstone, or herbs and the like.

He was done with preparation for departure anytime..

“Let us go.”
“Alright.”

Weed took the lead first, and Smith followed behind. The bodies of the two vanished completely with the black gate.

Ruuuuuuumble!

As the gate disappeared, the shaking of Count Savoid’s mansion gradually faded.

* * *

The scattered corpses of monsters!

Fragments of monsters fell whenever Seoyoon swung her greatsword.

The monsters who ambushed from hiding beneath the earth or assaulted by falling from trees!

Seoyoon simply swung her sword.

Every time her blade flashed, monsters turned to grey light.

In the past, she had fought to forget everything. While dripping wet with sweat, if she could fight, then it was enough, and she would blindly run towards a monster group.

The fate of Berserkers who grew stronger the more they shed blood!

‘This place is too weak.’

A Berserker had the characteristic of drawing enemies and monsters.

A group of monsters gathered in Seoyoon’s location. Her footsteps were naturally drawn to a place where there were increasingly stronger monsters.

The absolute sense of a Berserker who sought blood and battle.

When there was a Berserker, the place would quickly become a battlefield with ceaseless screams.

The high-level hunting ground renowned even in the North, Maban’s Forest!

Monsters were running en masse to Seoyoon’s location.

‘Nobody loves me.’

Although it was she who had thrown herself into battle so her past wouldn’t resurface, now her heart didn’t hurt compared to the past.

‘Friend...’

Whenever she recalled the friend she had, a part of her chest became warm. The time when they shared an adventure in Royal Road was not long, but they could also meet in reality.

‘I want to protect him.’

The sight of him dying quickly at the Bone Dragon’s Breath...

She was hunting for the sake of the feeble Weed as she amassed experience and skill proficiency.

Her level was 422!

Seoyoon entered an area with even stronger monsters.