This chapter was brought to you by AnmesicCat and StellarAshes.
Mystery of the Past
Due to the fact he wasn't allowed to leave Aklan Academy, Liola held Baolilong and planned to grab a few pieces of frozen meat from Auntie's meat transportation Maxun. However, considering Baolilong's terrifying appetite, Liola changed his route to look for a cart to retrieve meat from the transportation Maxun.
Before he even got to the Maxun, he saw Auntie's mountain-like body. Liola pushed the cart along with Baolilong, who was playing on the cart, towards Auntie. Instincts told Liola Auntie was waiting for him here.
"Is everything all right, little child?" Auntie asked caringly.
Liola paused briefly, and then nodded.
"Do you have any plans?"
Liola didn't think anything of it. His instinct told him Auntie was trustworthy, so he told her everything, including his plan to take back the necklace, preparing to run for their lives, and taking Daylight with them, etc.
Auntie nodded again and again, and finally smiled. She then took out an egg-shaped emerald from her laced apron, and placed it on Liola's hand.
She said, "This is for that child, Kaiser. But don't blame Auntie for being biased. Auntie really had nothing to give you that would be of any use to you."
Liola shook his head, "I'm fine."
Auntie laughed and added, "That old geezer Barbalis asked me to tell you, with the current situation you guys may be better off running first. After all, the few of you will come back some day, and that day isn't too far away."
Liola didn't refute anything, and nodded in agreement, "I will definitely be back." — At least, to see how Purity and Meinan are doing.
"Right." Auntie suddenly seemed to have remembered something,
"If you have a girl, remember to tell her good bye and give her a few words of comfort. If you run away without saying a word, it would be very irresponsible!"
'Girl?' Liola thought about it briefly. He should indeed say something to Jasmine and Lanski before he left.
As soon as Liola thought about it, he decided to do it soon. He didn't know when he would be on the run, so it was better if he said goodbyes sooner rather than later.
Liola grabbed a few pieces of meat and cooked it immediately. He was no longer afraid someone would see him, considering he would be on the run soon. Even Kaiser didn't care about causing trouble because their escape plan, so why should he?
Liola gave the meat to the mouth-watering Baolilong.
After parting with Auntie, he pushed Baolilong on the cart — now filled with meat — to go to the School of Knight to look for Jasmine and Lanski. He didn't seem to care how strange it was for him to be pushing a cart with a child swallowing down pieces of meat left and right.
In fact, this strange scene gave Liola quite a bit of attention on the way, but Liola simply kept walking his own path, and Baolilong was also tearing apart large pieces of meat on the cart without care.
With stares along the way, Liola had finally arrived at the School of Knights. He held Baolilong and entered the School. People in the School of Knights looked at the Sorcerer with arrogant glances as usual.
Without anyone's help, Liola had no choice but wander around the School of Knight to see if he would run into Jasmine. Who knew he didn't run into Jasmine, but someone he was familiar with.
"Liola? What are you doing here?" Lanski walked up to him with a strange expression, at the same time tenderly and lovingly touched Baolilong's head.
Liola answered honestly, "I'm looking for Jasmine."
Lanski answered with an "Oh", and then laughed,
"Meinan came looking for her just a moment ago, and then those two mysterious left for something… Ah, but Liola, please don't misunderstand. They have always been very close friends."
Of course he wouldn't misunderstand, considering he didn't know how he could have.
Liola was certain Meinan and Jasmine were off to look for Cappuccino. Since he couldn't find Jasmine, Liola wanted to part ways with Lanski, but then he remembered something and said to Lanski, "Silver Mask wanted me to tell you, please meet him next to the little lake."
"Eeek?" Lanski yelled in surprise, and slowly but surely cheerfulness filled Lanski's beautiful face. Lanski's heart-felt smile practically made her face glow, and Knights passing by all stopped to enjoy her beauty.
Even Liola felt her smile was attractive, but Lanski didn't give him much time to enjoy it. As soon as she knew Silver Mask wanted to see her, Lanski practically wished she was a Sorcerer and knew how to teleport so she could immediately move to the lake to see her beloved.
"Then I'll go look for Silver Mask. I think Jasmine will be back soon, and you can go to the lobby to wait for her." Lanski said hurriedly, and she turned around to leave, almost to the point of being discourteous.
But for some reason, after having taken only a few steps, she turned around again. She said with her face filled with worry, "Right, there's something I have to tell you. I heard during the meeting today, because of your conflict with my brother before Miluo's attack, and the fact you came out of his attacks unscathed, everyone seems to think you guys are the traitors Miluo spoke of."
Seeing Liola beginning to frown, Lanski immediately added,
"Of course I will always believe you. In fact, many people don't think you actually are. After all, Miluo finding allies in students who were still attending the Academy seemed completely pointless, but…" Lanski then began to stutter.
"But someone has to be blamed for all this!" A clear and loud voice stated the truth.
Liola turned his head to look at the source of this voice, and saw the person who had been missing for a while — the "bad-boy" Knight with black uniform, Blood Wolf.
His otherwise careless face had been filled with all kinds of worry. He walked up and grabbed Liola, and laughed at Lanski, "Pretty little girl, let me borrow this guy for a minute; I will return him shortly."
Considering it was the Dark Knight Blood Wolf, Lanski didn't even have the choice to refuse. She saluted in surprise, and humbly said, "Sir Dark Knight, in fact, I was just about to leave to see Silver Mask."
"Oh." Blood Wolf frowned, and said hurriedly, "In any case, I'll return him to you shortly."
Blood Wolf dragged Liola by the arms without paying any attention to a Knight's etiquette. On the way, many Knights had surprised looks on their faces as they saluted at Blood Wolf, but Blood Wolf had the right not to, and was too lazy to, return the salute.
After leaving the School of Knight, Blood Wolf dragged Liola towards a deserted place. It wasn't until they were deep in a forest that Blood Wolf let go of Liola's hand. He turned around and faced Liola; his tone was as harsh as the police interrogating a prisoner,
"Liola, tell me the truth. Are you the Dragon Emperor's son?"
His question baffled Liola. He didn't understand why Blood Wolf, who knew the truth about all of his fake identities, would ask a question like this. But he saw Blood Wolf was serious, so Liola had no choice but to shake his head to deny the question, "No."
"How can you be sure you're not? Do you know who your parents are?" Blood Wolf pressed on bluntly.
Liola knitted his eyebrows tightly.
He was indeed unsure of who his parents were. He even had no memory of ever meeting with his Leader. In fact, it seemed his memory did not begin until after he had met the Leader.
According to what Yasha said to him before, the Leader found him when he was about five years old, and he was lying alone on a large rock.
"Perhaps it was actually a triplet and not twins back then. And perhaps the accident happened before the Dragon Emperor even saw the children. Perhaps…" Blood Wolf looked at Liola again with suspicious eyes.
But Liola knew it was complete nonsense. He explained with a frown, "I am not the same age as Anise and Lanski. I'm several years older than them."
"Is that so?" Blood Wolf answered suspiciously, but he couldn't explain why they would've had different ages. He paced around in frustration.
"Why would you suspect I'm the Dragon Emperor's child?" Liola pointed out his own doubts. He looked nothing like the Dragon Emperor, so Liola couldn't understand where Blood Wolf's suspicions came from.
Blood Wolf glanced at Liola strangely, and started to explain,
"Anyone who saw you in a female disguise would be suspicious. We are people who knew the Dragon Empire's Queen, Susanna. You, in a female disguise, looked practically identical to Susanna. Don't you see, even the Dragon Emperor invited you to dance because you looked like her?"
Liola frowned. He already knew. Based on what Lanski said, he looked like her mother. But he had never thought of the possibility he was the Dragon Emperor's son.
"Strange, really strange! You are not the same age as Lanski, so you aren't born with her. If you looked like the Dragon Emperor, it would've been fine. It wasn't terribly strange if the Emperor had a mistress who had given birth to you. But strangely enough you look like Susanna! She had never so much as taken a step away from the Dragon Emperor, so how is it possible she could be pregnant, gave birth to you, and no one even knew about it?"
Liola thought this was all just a coincidence, but how did Blood Wolf knew the girl was really him? If Blood Wolf knew, didn't it mean the Emperor knew? If he knew, then his son Cappuccino probably knew as well?
"How did you know the girl was me? Were you there at the dance?" Liola asked. After all, out of everyone around, Liola still trusted this Knight.
Blood Wolf snapped, "Idiot! Barbalis told me later. I hope you didn't think there wouldn't be any security cameras at the dance!"
"Right, speaking of Barbalis, he wanted me to tell you to do whatever you are going to do quickly, and then run away. The female you had already attracted the attention of many people, especially the Dragon Emperor. Plus, a certain idiot fell into a trap and thought Gle was somehow here again. All of this could pose a threat to Kaiser."
"A certain idiot?" Liola asked.
Blood Wolf glared at Liola, then casually said while pointing at himself,
"Yup, this idiot. But it's not my fault. That guy Lancelot is stupider than me. He was fooled. I stupidly believed him and follow him to investigate some strange energies at Yaron Plains. That's where we found a super large magic circle. I really thought Gle was back. Lancelot said he was going to hold position there, and asked me to hurry here to tell everyone…"
"Perhaps it's real?"
"It's fake!" Blood Wolf didn't maintain Lancelot's opinion, and denied it without hesitation,
"If it were Barbalis telling me, I might believe he was just fooling around, but Qiusi would never do such a thing. Qiusi said, with Gle's power, it would have been an easy task to hide a magic circle, and he would never place it there to show the world. Plus, bigger magic circles aren't always better. No Magician in their right mind would use such a large formation, unless maybe it was some magic to destroy the entire world. But it was just a summoning spell. Even if the thing it was summoning was 500 meters wide, they wouldn't need such a large magic circle."
Having explained thus far, Blood Wolf regrettably scratched his head, "I should've discussed this with Mizerui, but I couldn't him at all."
"Are you familiar with Mizerui?" Liola didn't understand much about the magic circles, but he was curious about the relationships between Mizerui, Blood Wolf, and Lancelot. Mizerui obviously hated Lancelot, and the latter probably hated the former even more. Strangely enough, Blood Wolf seemed to be on good terms with both of them.
"Oh, we both work for the Dragon Empire." Blood Wolf explained, "But we support different Princes. Lancelot mainly answers the the Emperor and the second Prince. I personally like the third Prince. Mizerui, on the other hand, supports the eldest Prince. Generally speaking, we all have to answer to the Dragon Empire. Of course, we have to listen to what he says, but whether we follow what he says is another matter."
The third Prince, Liola thought… according to Kaiser's description, would probably get along with Blood Wolf.
"Ugh! I really don't understand!" Blood Wolf started pulling his hair again,
"Why did things become so messy?! Lancelot has been getting stranger lately. Mizerui and Barbalis are always mysterious. And unfortunately the third Prince isn't a fortune teller like the eldest Prince; other than running around and picking up chicks, he knows nothing."
'But the only reason you would follow the third Prince is because he loves playing, right?' Liola thought to himself.
"Whatever. Anyway, Liola, if you have to run you better do it soon, or otherwise you might not be able to get away." Blood Wolf looked somewhat worriedly at the Assassin he was fond of.
"If it's just escaping, no one can stop me." Liola stated plainly. He wasn't showing off, it was just a matter of truth.
"Well, that is true. You are fairly strong." Blood Wolf murmured, but then said with worry,
"But your friends aren't as strong. If either the Dragon Emperor or Miluo decides to kill you, and use a few of their ultimates, you probably won't die, but your friends next to you would vanish into thin air without leaving even ashes behind."
Liola went silent. Even though he had learned to expand his Ki to block an attack, but ever since his last experiment, he hadn't practiced it much. Whether it would be of any use in a fight with Miluo or Dragon Emperor, both of which were unfathomably strong, was something Liola wasn't sure about.
"If you are really the Dragon Emperor's son, then things will be bad. He will never let you live." Blood Wolf murmured.
Liola was very confused. Could the Dragon Emperor really hate his own son?
Blood Wolf saw the confusion in Liola's eyes, and he started to explain,
"You probably don't know this. The eldest Prince is a fortune teller. When Susanna was pregnant, he had a prophecy the children Susanna carried. The son she was carrying will one day kill the Dragon Emperor. This prophecy caused a major commotion throughout the Empire, and then an accident happened: out of the two twins, one went missing. Fortunately the person left behind was a girl, otherwise we could only imagine the horror the child's fate would have been."
Liola didn't seem to have an opinion about the matter, "Anise is a girl. There was no son."
"It's exactly why it's very strange!" Blood Wolf shrugged, "But the eldest Prince's prophecies had never not been fulfilled."
Liola, who didn't understand nor believed prophecies, didn't seem to care about it at all. Just judging from his age, it was impossible for him to be the Dragon Emperor's son, thus there was nothing for him to worry about.
Blood Wolf was obviously very concerned, "We were sure the other child was a boy, and that was why Susanna asked the Sacred White Dragon to take him away."
"Sacred White Dragon?" Liola suspiciously looked at the little guy in his arms, who was asleep and saliva was dripping out of its mouth.
"Of course not the one in your arms. He was still an egg back then. It was his mother, who was also the Dragon Emperor's mount at the time." Blood Wolf shrugged, "She was also Miluo's wife."
Liola's heart skipped a beat,
"Could it be the Dragon Emperor wanted to kill the child, but the Sacred White Dragon wouldn't let him? And as a result, the Emperor killed the Sacred White Dragon? In other words, what Miluo said about the Emperor killing his wife was true?"
"That's the exact story. Basically, before you appeared and brought the news of Princess Anise, everyone thought of it as such." Blood Wolf said casually,
"But the Dragon Emperor himself says he didn't have any plans to kill his son. The Sacred White Dragon and Susanna both misunderstood him, and all he wanted to do was to raise the child back in the Dragon Empire where he belonged. He further states the Sacred White Dragon had misunderstood him and used her own life force to send away the child, and therefore losing her life."
"So now you know how strange this all is. If the other child was a girl, Susanna had no need to send away her own child, since the prophecy obviously stated a son." Blood Wolf turned around and said to Liola.
Liola, whose head didn't work better any than Blood Wolf's, had no explanation to offer. He looked at the sky, and avoided the subject, "I have to go see Lanski."
Hearing this, Blood Wolf almost fell face-first onto the floor as he realized the confidential history he had said were all for nothing. The little runt in front of him had no idea how terrible his predicament was.
Blood Wolf scratched his face, and thought he should forget about it, considering they were about to run for their lives, and Liola was still backed up by both Barbalis and Mizerui, so it should not be too big of a problem for him.
"Fine, fine. Go, and don't forget to run soon." Blood Wolf waved his hand helplessly.
Liola nodded, and said to Blood Wolf, "I will talk to Kaiser about what you said. He's quite clever, perhaps he will find a solution to all this."
Blood Wolf shrugged, and Liola hurriedly rushed with Baolilong toward the lake after a simple goodbye, leaving Blood Wolf to murmur to himself,
"Okay. I guess I've done my part, and I should just go back to Cappuccino, so he wouldn't suffer the same fate as Latte, and I would have one less buddy to drink with!"
* * *
Seeing he was close to the lake, and a graceful girl stood quietly next to the lake, Liola knew he made Lanski wait for a long time. He hurriedly woke Baolilong up and asked it to transform into a Dragon. Then he took off his Sorcerer robe, which showed his Knight's uniform underneath. Of course, he wouldn't forget his mask. "Silver Mask" then rode the Sacred White Dragon and slowly approached the girl by the lake.
Lanski didn't know how long she had been standing there, and she wouldn't dare to think about it. She was afraid if she thought about it, she might then think about the possibly Silver Mask stood her up. She stood there and quietly looked at the lake and the sparkling starlight reflected off the lake, and of course she thought of no one other than the person who was supposed to be there.
"Sorry, I made you wait. Something suddenly came up…" Liola suddenly appeared behind Lanski, and at the same time explained he had been late.
As soon as she heard something, her shoulders shook. When she turned around to face Liola, Lanski's otherwise flawless face had been covered with two streams of tears. Her eyes looked as if they were full of sadness and accusation. Any man who saw her would feel sympathy in their hearts and tightly hold the girl in their arms.
Liola, however, thought, even if he made Lanski wait for almost an hour, but could it be t-this be so serious for her to burst into tears? But he did ask her to be there and ended up late, so he didn't say anything other than apologizing again,
"I'm really sorry."
Lanski, too, felt her tears were inappropriate to her dignity as a Princess, but she couldn't hold them back. She remembered what her good friend Jasmine had said. She gritted her teeth, and threw herself into Silver Mask's arms. Originally, Jasmine said, she should just go straight for the kiss, but Lanski couldn't do it; a "forceful hug" was her limit.
Liola was in shock. There had been practically nobody who had hugged him ever before, other than the "super glue" Baolilong. Liola didn't understand why Lanski wanted to hug him, and didn't know how he should respond. So he just stood there, frozen in place.
Lanski bravely held Silver Mask tightly. At first, she felt warmth in her heart; as a Princess, she had never done anything as audacious as this before. But as time passed by, Lanski felt a bit clueless, and didn't know what she should do next.
If Silver Mask had any reaction at all, the situation wouldn't been as awkward, but instead he stood still and didn't make any sounds, which made Lanski completely helpless, unsure whether she should continue to stay in his arms, or just run away altogether.
Liola, who was frozen in place, suddenly felt that his pants were being dragged. He lowered his head, only to see the Dragon-shaped Baolilong biting tightly to the corner of his pants, while using its little forearms to try to climb up Liola's calves.
Lanski also noticed the Dragon's actions, and asked curiously, "What is it doing?"
"It wants me to spoil it by hugging it." Liola answered without hesitation.
After having spent a long time with Baolilong, by now he naturally knew what the little guy wanted. The only 'person' who hugged Liola up to this point was Baolilong, and when it saw Lanski taking its place, little Baolilong was a bit unhappy.
Lanski said "Oh", and then awkwardly left Liola's arms.
As soon as Baolilong saw no one was in Liola's arms, it started clawing Liola's pants and desperately made some moaning noises. Liola picked it up so Baolilong wouldn't throw a fit.
After putting Baolilong in his arms, Liola finally remembered the purpose of his visit. He said to Lanski straightforwardly, "I am here to say goodbye."
Lanski was stunned, and she made no response.
"I have to leave for a long period of time. I won't be back in the academy in the foreseeable future."
"Why?" Lanski felt as if she had been hit by a pail full of cold water. She trembled as she thought she might have scared Silver Mask to the point that he decided not to see her anymore.
Liola was silent for a moment, then said evasively, "Running away from trouble."
Hearing his answer, Lanski felt her heart sank into a frozen lake. She said with a shiver, "I-I am trouble to you?"
Liola looked at her with surprised eyes, "It's not you. I've just ran into some trouble."
Seeing Liola's surprise, Lanski immediately knew she misunderstood him, and her frozen heart began to beat again. Nevertheless, Lanski still felt heavy in her heart.
The moment she saw the person she liked was the time she heard goodbye from him. Lanski really didn't know how she should respond. She can't decide if she should be depressed because Silver Mask would be gone for a long time, or feel lucky he at least came here to say goodbye.
"Your trouble… is it something I can help you resolve?" Lanski's mind wandered, and then finally carefully asked. She knew many Knights wouldn't prefer a helping hand when they run into difficulties, especially from someone like her: a girl and, furthermore, a Princess.
Liola thought even the son of the Prime Minister and daughter of a Commander couldn't resolve this, and therefore Lanski probably couldn't be of help.
Liola shook his head, "I'm afraid not."
Lanski signed in disappointment. It was indeed something she couldn't help… Lanski laughed bitterly in her heart, "So when will you be back then?"
"I don't know."
"Then can you at least occasionally send me a mail?" Lanski practically begged.
Although Liola wasn't one who frequently had been a refugee, but at least he knew a large part of why he would have to run was the Dragon Cross Necklace. When he gets his hands on the necklace, it would be the Dragon Empire who would hunt him the most, and the person in front of him happened to be the Dragon Empire's Princess. Sending letters to her seemed like it was… Even if it weren't extraordinarily stupid, it was something that would make Kaiser go nuts.
Although Liola often would not deny Lanski's request, especially when she pleaded with Anise's face, however this time, her request was too much for him. It would probably significantly increase the risk of Kaiser, Daylight, and his chance of being caught. If it were just him, Liola probably wouldn't have cared, but any actions may lead to harm of his companions was something Liola wouldn't dare to do.
"No."
Rejection finally came out of Liola's mouth. He then saw Lanski's darkened face and watery eyes. Seeing the sad face, Liola reflexively wanted to comfort Lanski: he didn't want to see her sad.
Liola reached out his hand, and used his long fingers to wipe away Lanski's tears, at the same time he promised her, "I will be back. I will definitely come back to see you."
Bitterness and happiness intertwined in Lanski's heart. It was bitter because the person she liked was about to leave for a long time, and she didn't know when they could see each other again, but his promise to see her again made Lanski feel, to Silver Mask, she was… definitely special, right?!
"I will wait for you."
Even though tears ran down her cheeks, but she still sported a light smile, and her heart was also as conflicted as her expression.
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