Volume 9 Chapter 3 (1/2)

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

The Return

The once blue skies were now covered in smog, and the dark and damp skies did not produce any rain, however, the air felt almost suffocating, and the whole atmosphere felt oppressive to anyone in it. If anyone was there, they would not be able to handle it and would want to run away.

However, this was a place where few would venture; Yaron Plains was never a good place for tourism. The plains, rated as rank-A on the danger scale, had nothing precious other than Lesser Dragons. Perhaps only princ.i.p.al Barbalis would be so bored as to send his own students there.

And the situation had worsened now. More than a year ago, Miluo set this place as his base, and mustered many species of Lesser Dragons and successfully conquered Freesia. The dangerous Lesser Dragons had congregated north of the Aklan Continent, and had a stand-off against the people to the south. The thousands of miles around the location were even more spa.r.s.ely populated. If any person was found in this location, they must be a scout sent to survey the area.

At the place where all types of Dragons converged, a small figure flew around in the air. Judging by its size, it was not a flying species of Lesser Dragons. He quietly stopped mid-air, as if he was waiting for something.

… Until a noises could be heard from afar. The figure, at first, seemed to be on guard as he observed the approaching people. As soon as he saw the man and woman flying towards him, his straightened back seemed a bit relaxed, and he quietly waited them to reach him.

“What are you doing, let me go.”

The woman’s originally charming voice was now fl.u.s.tered and exasperated. If one were to look closely, the other man wore a black Knight uniform, and the mount under him was a giant eagle. The woman was lying across on the eagle, and her fiery red hair had been messed up. No wonder her tone was rather rough.

The man riding the eagle ignored the woman, and flew to the man who was waiting. He let the giant eagle circle around in the air, and after checking out the situation below, the man also took a deep breath.

Yaron Plains had always been the place with the highest concentration of Lesser Dragons, but it had never been like this before: the whole plain was covered densely with Lesser Dragons, and they were orderly. Different species of Lesser Dragons were together, all quietly lying down at the place designated for their species.

“This looks serious, Mizerui.” The man in Black Knight uniform observed for a while, then flew back to the man, and said with a heavy tone.

“When has the Dragon Emperor done anything that isn’t serious?” Mizerui answered with a still relaxed tone. At the moment, he didn’t seem to mind the Lesser Dragons below them. Instead, his attention was on the girl lying on the eagle. He raised his eyebrows and said, “I didn’t think you really could find her. Is this an instinct between a.s.sa.s.sins? Gladiolus.”

Gladiolus didn’t answer Mizerui’s question, and instead asked his own, “Is she actually useful? You told me to find her as soon as possible, aren’t you being too cautious?”

Mizerui smiled, and just as he was about to explain, the woman began to yell loudly, “Hey! You guys are going too far! I didn’t do anything, so why did you kidnap me here? Don’t think you can just bully a woman.”

Seeing the woman’s stubborn expression, Mizerui answered calmly, “Please don’t say that. How could I possibly dare to bully you? Even if I’m not afraid of you, I’m afraid of the person behind you.”

The woman paused, and asked skeptically, “The person behind me? You mean my master, Liola?”

Mizerui’s smile was even more mysterious. He swung his index finger and said, “No, no, no, why would I be afraid of Liola. Compared to him, I’m more afraid of you, Yasha. After all, the person raised you, but you didn’t become a peerless master, which means he must have cared deeply for you.”

Yasha’s beautiful green eyes were filled with doubt, “What are you talking about?”

Mizerui smiled, but did not explain further.

“Even if she’s really that person’s daughter, why did you ask me to bring her here to Yaron Plains?” Gladiolus asked with confusion.

Mizerui pointed below and said, “You know, Gladiolus, you almost exchanged your current place with Miluo.”

Gladiolus remained silent for a while, and said, “I know, Qiusi was indeed terrific.”

Back then, the gold-haired man with bloodied eyes charged into the Dark Street, and he looked like he would even kill a G.o.d if he were to run into one. Unbelievably, he was able to control his rage, and listened to Gladiolus’ explanation even he himself couldn’t believe. He told Qiusi he didn’t know why he would crazily accept the request to a.s.sa.s.sinate the Prime Minister's wife. The only thing he saw was a man in black robe, without even seeing his face, then drowsily executed the mission.

After Qiusi finished listening to his story, he was in a daze for a long, long time. Finally, he told Gladiolus the truth between Dragon Emperor and Gle. At the same time, he told Gladiolus, the person in black robe was probably the Dragon Emperor, and as for his drowsiness, he might have been hypnotized.

Gladiolus wasn’t an idiot, and he did not immediately believe what Qiusi said. But the bad happenings to the Six Forbidden Sins gave Gladiolus have no choice but begin to believe what Qiusi said, about the Dragon Emperor’s plan to frame him as the second devil. With Qiusi’s intervention, Gladiolus finally escaped the fate of being the devil, and because of it, he secretly helped Qiusi when he could.

“As long as we could wake Miluo up, Dragon Emperor’s conspiracy will fail again this time. But

I could only think of two ways to wake Miluo up: one, Gle could break the hypnosis himself, and the other is the Dragon Cross Necklace.”

Mizerui cleared his throat, and pointed at Yasha as he said, “Barbalis and I both believe, Liola is Gle’s apprentice, and Yasha is Gle’s daughter.”

Gladiolus looked somewhat unbelievably at Yasha. According to what he saw, Liola and Yasha did not seem like the same person’s apprentice and daughter. The two’s powers had nothing in common, not to mention they weren’t even on the same level.

“How did you know? Gladiolus asked skeptically.

“I saw it myself…” Mizerui suddenly stopped mid-sentence, then corrected himself, “No, the eldest Prince Mocha said so.”

Gladiolus looked at Mizerui strangely, and he could tell Mizerui was hiding something. But he had no plan to pry. After all, everyone had something they didn’t want to say. If it’s something Mizerui didn’t want to say, no one could force him to do so.

Yasha couldn’t help but asked, “What are you saying exactly? Where is my master? Didn’t you say he’s going to be here?”

“Don’t worry, he’ll be here soon.” Mizerui smiled.

He glanced around him, and he did indeed see doubt growing in Gladiolus’ eyes. To prevent him from being unhappy or skeptical, Mizerui decided to start explaining.

“Since Gle cared deeply for Yasha, he wouldn’t leave his daughter here without doing something about it. The dimensional door will likely open near her, and the magic power required to open such a portal will be immense, so the Dragon Emperor will likely notice it. Instead of having the dimensional door open in Aklan Republic and give the Dragon Emperor an excuse to attack, it’s better to do it at Yaron plains, because we can then take the Dragon Cross Necklace directly to Miluo, or… if Gle would be willing to help us, it would be even better.”

Gladiolus suddenly understood. His instincts told him, however, Mizerui seemed to be leaning more on taking the necklace Miluo, as if he already knew Gle wouldn’t help them.

“They’re here.” Mizerui’s blue eyes flashed.

As soon as Mizerui finished talking, Gladiolus also felt the terrifying magic power. He felt an oppressive force on his mind, and he couldn’t even believe that this amount of power came from a single person. When he was born, Gle was already “not in this world”, so he had never seen the power of the legendary devil.

The terrifying power to split open time and s.p.a.ce… could it be devil Gle? Gladiolus opened his eyes widely. A thin crack appeared in the air, and the magic seeping through the crack became even larger. Gladiolus felt like he was practically a small fish struggling in a violent hurricane. His giant eagle also became troubled by the force, and it was struggling to keep still in the air.

The crack gradually grew larger. Starting from a thin crack, it slowly turned into a circle large enough for several people to pa.s.s through. The scenery seen through the circle was also drastically different from Yaron Plains: it was a cliff, under the cold moonlight.

A few people stood on the other side, and Gladiolus had seen practically all of them; it was the so-called Aklan Troublemaking Squad, a bunch of students who would dare to charge into Dark Street just to save a person. A person stood in front of the rest, one who, out of 10 people who see him, 9.9 would sigh as they claim he was yet another spoiled rich brat.

Gladiolus looked strangely. This arrogant young man was Gle?

The man frowned, and examined the person on the other side, then said with disgust, “Your robe is ridiculously ugly.”

Probably because he didn’t expect Gle to criticize his robe after not seeing for so long, Mizerui laughed helplessly, “Long time no see, dad.”

When everyone else was shocked by this “dad”, Gle acted like an infuriated cat. He yelled loudly, “Who the h.e.l.l is your father?! Call me ‘master’!”

Mizerui shrugged, “I like calling you dad. If you don’t like it, come beat me up?”

Gle narrowed his eyes dangerously, and suddenly magic power rushed through the air. The ordinarily magic power that had no shape a form began to concentrate, and everyone present who knew about the forces of magic began to yell in surprise, “My G.o.d! Magic power actually materializing, what kind of power compression is this?”

At first, Gladiolus was trying to decide whether he should run for his life, but the magic power’s shape was beginning to look like, like… Before he was ready to admit what it looked like, the materialized magic power hit Mizerui so hard in the head like a hand cracking a chestnut, and hit him right out of the air.

Indeed, it was a giant fist… no, now it turned into a palm, and it headed straight for Gladiolus. Gladiolus only had time to drop his jaws before he was slapped by the palm and flew off, streaking through the air like a falling star.

At this time, the palm turned back into a fist, but with an enchanting beauty in it. The girl’s burst into tears and yelled, “Father! Father!”

Hearing his daughter’s cries, Gle’s face had gone a bit softer. The fist gently brought Yasha to Gle, and she ran into her father’s arms. She cried, “I thought I was never going to see you again.”

“Idiot.” Gle patted his daughter’s head, and blamed her quietly, “I told you not to chase Li, but you did it regardless.”

As he mentioned Liola, Yasha raised her head, and looked at the emotionless Liola standing on the side. She twisted a bit and then left her father’s arms. She walked slowly to Liola and, as she had done before, called him unwillingly, “Master.”

“Mmm.” Liola grunted back uncaringly.

Hearing Liola’s cold voice, Yasha looked a bit dissatisfied. She then asked, “Master, do you need apprentice to stay and help you?”

Liola turned around to look at Yasha, but this look stupefied Yasha. ‘Is… this my master? The same emotionless and empty-eyed master?’

Even though Liola’s expression still looked cold, but for someone who had spent time with Liola, this a.s.sa.s.sin was far warmer than before, and his silver eyes looked no longer empty; they looked like it was filled with a bit of anger and a bit of emotions.

Seeing Liola like this made Yasha felt unfamiliar, and very disappointed. She had always wanted to break Liola’s icy cold expressions and feelings, but now Liola had really melted, yet not in her hands, she felt very discouraged. It was as if the goal she had worked her whole life for had been achieved by someone else, and now everything she had done was meaningless.

Liola thought it was strange. He hadn’t even answered Yasha’s question, and she had already looked depressed. Could she have already guessed he wouldn’t want her to stay?

Liola frowned and said, “Up to you.”

Yasha gave Liola a complicated look and returned to standing beside Gle, without saying anything else.

In Kaiser and Daylight’s eyes, this scene was unspeakably strange. Liola was obviously scared of Gle, but he didn’t seem to be scared of offending Gle’s precious daughter. Even Gle didn’t seem to look dissatisfied despite how she acted as if she had been offended.

“Is this what they mean by there’s always a thing that conquers another?” Kaiser asked strangely.

“No, my master is just maintaining the rule of respecting the master. Since Yasha acknowledged Li as her master, she should fulfil her responsibilities as an apprentice.”

Mizerui slowly floated back in the air as he explained. He changed his name for Gle from “dad” back to “master”, because he didn’t want another taste of the magic fist again.

“Strange people being stubborn in strange things…” Kaiser murmured, but there was something he was even more curious about. He asked, “Mizerui, why are you here?”

“I’m here to pick you guys up.” Mizerui replied with a smile, “And see my master, whom I haven’t seen for a long time.”

Gle glanced at Mizerui, and said, “The dimensional door will only stay open for three more minutes, so say what you will. Those people who should leave better go.” The last sentence was directed at the Aklan Troublemaking Squad, who were standing there stupidly.

Hearing there’s only three minutes left, Liola and Daylight looked at one another, then they asked their two dragons to fly over, the three jumped onto the Dragon’s back.

Mizerui looked at Gle standing still, while the seconds pa.s.sed by, until the last minute, when he finally sighed and said, “Master, are you not coming back?”

“No, I’m used to staying over here.” Gle said lightly.

Although he had already known Gle’s decision, Mizerui couldn’t help but add, “Dragon Emperor has the desire to conquer the world again, master, don’t you plan on stopping him?”

Gle looked at him uncaringly, “Not interested.”