Volume 10 Chapter 7 (1/2)

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

The Crowd’s Standpoint

“Exhales, this should be fine.”

Qiusi was lying on the bed with his eyes closed. Though his chest rise and fall once only in a long while, and his breathing was so subtle that it was hard to notice, but his life signs maintained steady, nor did he cough out any more blood.

After observing for three hours, Daylight fell to the ground in exhaustion. He continuously used two difficult methods of acupuncture: suppressing the aura and faking death. Since he rarely used acupuncture, Daylight had already exhausted himself, but to ensure no accident would happen in the following year, he forced himself to observe Qiusi for three hours. Fortunately, everything went very successfully, despite him never having used such methods before.

Hearing Daylight’s words, Meinan was completely certain his father wouldn’t be dying in the next year. He could finally relax a little, but what replaced his worries, was now what his father had entrusted in him. Meinan understood that, in the days to follow, he would be quite busy. If it were possible, he would very much hope to obtain Kaiser’s help: he was very confident in Kaiser’s ability in coming up with plans.

Meinan paced around in the room. The Red Commander had already left due to official business, so everyone present on his side. Since everyone was there, Meinan decided to make some announcements and have a discussion.

“I want to have a talk with you all.”

As soon as he spoke, everyone’s attention was on him. Seeing this, Meinan began to talk about the secret strength Qiusi had hidden. When he talked about Barbalis, everyone’s jaws dropped, with a “That can’t be?!” look on all their faces. Everyone looked around, but Barbalis had already hid himself.

“This d.a.m.n geezer actually knows how to be shy, ugh, disgusting.” Kaiser laughed as he acted as though he was vomiting. He knew there was no way Barbalis could’ve left when Meinan was about to say something important, so he was probably shy and used stealth.

Meinan continued without hiding anything, including Qiusi entrusting to be the commander in the dark. He believed his companions wouldn’t betray him, so there was no need to hide anything.

After having said everything, Meinan paused for a moment, to let everything he had said sink in.

“So the Dragon Emperor really isn’t a good person.”

“Duh, what kind of idiot would still think the Dragon Emperor is a good person by now?”

Kaiser turned his head and snapped, but then immediately shut up, because the person who spoke was not a member of the Aklan Troublemaking Squad nor their princ.i.p.al, nor the Blood Wolf who acted all “I didn’t hear anything”; it was the person whom Purity dragged here, and then quietly stood still, to the point where everyone had forgotten his existence — Purity’s brother, Knight Feir.

Feir saw the rigid atmosphere, and he finally understood n.o.body noticed him until now. He smiled bitterly, “I’m really sorry, I didn’t think you guys would be talking about such important secrets, a-and no one made me leave, so I thought I could stay to listen. I’ll leave now.”

“It’s fine, my brother is one of us.” Purity stubbornly grabbed a hold of her brother, and forced him to stay.

“He is a Knight, how could you guarantee he’s one of us? And it’s too late for you to leave; you’ve almost heard all of it!” Kaiser explained straightforwardly, then impolitely asked, “Feir, tell us yourself. Which side are you on?”

“Runt, I remember you were quite close with a number of Knights on the Dragon Continent.” Blood Wolf seemed to have carelessly mentioned, and then turned around to pretend to look around.

Purity’s face suddenly went pale. She tugged her brother’s arm, and asked, “Brother?”

Feir was silent for a bit, then he said slowly, “I can only ask you to trust me. I am a part of the Commerce Alliance, and even though I am a Knight, I am a Knight belonging to the Commerce Alliance. As for my acquaintances with many Dragon Continent Knights, there is a special reason, but before I secure their approval, I cannot tell you the reason.”

“Trust… nowadays how much is ‘trust’ worth?” Kaiser murmured, and his dissatisfaction was obvious, “I trusted Liola’s words that he’ll be back, but now he’s now a puppet successor. However, what could we do to you other than trust you? It’s not like we could do anything to you while we’re on your parent’s territory.”

“I’m sorry, but there are no other promises I could give you. Then I’ll leave now, so I won’t prevent your future conversation.” Feir stood up, courteously performed a Knight salute, and turned to leave.

Purity seemed unhappy. She turned angrily, ignoring Kaiser. The latter knew his words were indeed hurting, but he would never take it back; one could say he purposely made Feir leave. After all, they didn’t know Feir very well, and letting him hear all that was already dangerous enough, particularly to Meinan, Barbalis, and Gladiolus.

“Hey! Dragon Continent Knight, which side are you on?” Kaiser’s eyes now moved to Blood Wolf, who had been pretending to be invisible, then asked bluntly.

“Who?” Blood Wolf acted all innocent. After seeing everyone looking at him, he stood up, and stretched, “I should probably get back now. If Cappuccino can’t find a drinking buddy for a long time, he might fire me.”

Kaiser raised his eyebrows, and snapped, “Are you pretending to be dead? Do you want a taste of my grandfather’s new magic?”

Though Kaiser acted rather impolitely, but Meinan was only quietly looking as the situation unfolded. He did indeed need to understand Blood Wolf, and where the Dark Knight’s att.i.tude stood. He knew Kaiser was asking on his behalf, and Meinan actually secretly felt thankful.

Blood Wolf sighed, and even Barbalis didn’t say anything to stop Kaiser. Seeing he had to answer, Blood Wolf shrugged, “My boss is Cappuccino, so whatever he wants is what I do. I’m just a subordinate; I don’t have the right to choose.”

“Yes, then what exactly does Cappuccino wants to do?” Kaiser took the opportunity to keep asking. If they could find out Cappuccino’s att.i.tude, that would be even better.

“Him?” Blood Wolf scratched his face, and instead threw a question at Meinan, “If one day, your father wanted to conquer the world and it wasn’t even his choice to do so, and a bunch of people wanted to see your father dead, what would you do?”

Meinan froze, and he could not answer.

Blood Wolf explained leisurely, “To me, there’s only what I like and don’t like, and there’s not a difference between righteous and evil. I help you because I like you runts, I help Cappuccino and Lancelot because I like those two, but all in all, I am closer to Cappuccino and Lancelot than you. If one day you are up against them on a battlefield, I will be standing with the side I’m closer with. How’s that?”

“Other than a formal confrontation, everything else doesn’t concern me.” Blood Wolf said as a matter of fact, “Also, everything you’ve just said, I didn’t hear any of it. If it gets out, it had nothing to do with me.”

“d.a.m.n!” Kaiser pouted, but he understood Blood Wolf’s standpoint. Even though Kaiser could not convert Blood Wolf to be on their side, but simply because Blood Wolf mentioned Feir’s acquaintance with Dragon Continent Knights and his promise to not tell anything were already plenty of help to them.

“How is Liola anyway?” Kaiser asked hesitantly.

“Not well. He was already in a bad shape, and when Cappuccino’s Little Fireball was gossiping with Blackie, I heard that he had gotten worse.” Blood Wolf scratched his face, because he couldn’t imagine what being worse could mean. Could there be any situation worse than a living freezer?

“Is it because he hurt Qiusi?” Meinan asked.

Blood Wolf shrugged. The news of Qiusi’s injury had not been spread yet, and Cappuccino didn’t know at all, therefore he had no idea if it caused Liola’s condition worsening.

“I heard Baolilong suddenly grew up, and it looked quite beautiful, or so my little perverted Blackie said. Blackie was itching when it saw the images Little Fireball sent over, almost to the point of wanting a wolf-Dragon love, but the difference in body size was too big…” Blood Wolf remembered the news that made him sweat: his Blackie would want to flirt with a genderless Dragon; he didn’t know where it learnt it from.

“Baolilong grew up? I want to see!” Purity yelled in surprise.

“What exactly does being worse mean?” Kaiser pouted. Mizerui’s last report was scary enough, and how exactly would it be now?

“How would I know, ah… I’ll just go back and see now. I’m quite curious myself.” Blood Wolf murmured.

‘Yes! Let’s go back and see the beautiful white Dragon.’

‘Shut up! You d.a.m.n pervert. I warn you, touching a minor Dragon is a felony. Besides, its master is scary. If you get fried into “Fried Wolf”, it’s none of my business!’

“Can you bring me a message to Liola?” Meinan suddenly said.

“Well… say it, but I might not be able to deliver it.” Blood Wolf said casually.

Meinan was silent for a while, took a deep breath, and said, “You tell him, I don’t blame him, n.o.body does. Tell him we’re all waiting for his return.”

Blood Wolf’s leisure look suddenly disappeared, and he looked deeply in Meinan’s eyes and said, “I swear to Darkness, I promise to deliver ‘you don’t blame him’.”

“Thanks.” Meinan nodded.

“Blackie! Let’s go find Cappuccino and Little Fireball.” Blood Wolf summoned a giant black wolf, and jumped out of the balcony. With sound of many Mecha Fighters’ yelling in surprise, he disappeared from the horizon.

“If that message could wake Liola, it would be great.” Seeing Blood Wolf leave, Kaiser murmured, but he didn’t hold much hope for it.

Meinan also did not count on it being successful. As such, the tasks his father entrusted him must still be done. He yelled towards the air, “Barbalis, I want to know your thoughts. Would you and Gladiolus be willing to have me as your behind-the-scenes commander?”

Barbalis slowly appeared, and his att.i.tude was serious for once. He nodded, “Of course, I watched you grow up, and I know how much you are like Qiusi. As for Gladiolus, you don’t need to worry: your father had predicted this and he told Gladiolus from the start, both Qiusi and you are his boss.”

Since there was no more problems with Barbalis, Meinan took a deep breath, then turned towards his companions. His heart was even more worried than when he asked Barbalis. After all, his father didn’t even say a thing to Barbalis about Meinan, which meant his father, had already known they would not oppose Meinan as the commander. However, his companions were different, because they had no obligations to help him.

Meinan earnestly opened his mouth to say to his companions, “My situation is very dangerous. Being with me is very dangerous, and helping me is even more so.”

“Do you need my help?” Daylight asked directly.

Meinan was a bit hesitant. He knew, in an all-out war like this, a person was not going to make much of a difference. Should he really drag his companion down like this? Facing the unknown danger, Meinan really wanted his companions by him. After all, he was just a young adult in his early twenties. Having suddenly shouldered such responsibilities, it would be a lie to say he wasn’t scared or nervous.

“Mm, if there are Knights in the Dark Street, I could use my master’s training method to train them. Yes… after teaching them, I could go find Liola, and hopefully find a way to bring him back to save the Prime Minister.” Daylight, instead, was thinking about what he could do to help.

Kaiser continued after, “No matter how good Aklan School of Magic, it would definitely not as insane as my grandfather Gle. Roar! He has quite a destructive tendency, and the goal in his life was to find a magic circle that would be enough to destroy the world… ugh! I guess the Dragon Emperor was right in a sense. Though he never succeeded, he did find quite a number of large scale destructive magic. Though no one could be as crazy as him, making magic circles by gesturing with his hand, but with enough people cooperating, it shouldn’t be a problem.”

Kaiser added, and angrily added, “As for that troublesome idiot Liola, if I have time I’ll go save him.”

“You guys…” Warmth surged up in Meinan’s heart, and even his eyes felt damp.

“Ah… You don’t have Mecha Fighters, so what should Purity do?” Purity’s face sank. She suddenly noticed she didn’t seem to have any uses.

“No! Purity, your mission is even more important.” Meinan said solemnly, “I need you to communicate with your mother first, and try to tell her the truth about the Dragon Emperor and his desire to conquer the world. Only with the support of the Commerce Alliance could we emerge from this war as victorious.”

“I understand.” Purity earnestly nodded.

“Now, all three Commanders should’ve known about my father, but they may not announce it immediately, to prevent panic in the Alliance.” Meinan thought about it carefully, and said decidedly, “Nevertheless, we are going to spread the news of Qiusi falling.”

Kaiser nodded, agreeing, “Although this would cause panic in Aklan, the people will know sooner or later. It would be better to announce it early, and the Commerce Alliance could then make up their mind to face against Miluo.”

“What is the actual strength of the Dark Street and Aklan School of Magic?” Meinan asked with a frown.

Barbalis answered, “I’m not sure about Dark Street, but School of Magic has more than 2,400 Magicians, real Magicians, plus more than 900 Sorcerers with special abilities. All their abilities have been screened; some of them are even fortune tellers.”

“Fortune tellers?” Meinan was a bit hesitant, “I heard the Eldest Prince, Mocha, is also a fortune teller.”

Barbalis nodded, “That’s right, and his ability to do so is downright scary. Rumors say he could foretell every details of the future, and it’s something our fortune tellers can’t even come close. Mizerui can attest to this fact himself.”

“Isn’t that terrible?” Kaiser frowned, “What if he foretells our ambushes, isn’t it all over?”

“Mocha’s att.i.tude is uncertain at the moment. I think his reasoning is somewhat similar to Blood Wolf. What is certain, however, is the Eldest Prince doesn’t seem to care about the outcome of this war. As long as… it doesn’t affect the Dragon Emperor’s life, he usually wouldn’t say anything about the future.”

Hearing this, Kaiser’s face darkened, and said with a bitter laugh, “c.r.a.p, I wanted to say the way to reduce casualty was to kill the b.a.s.t.a.r.d Dragon Emperor in one shot.”

“I think so, too.” Barbalis agreed naturally.

“Didn’t he say Liola-dage would kill the Dragon Emperor?” Purity suddenly remembered the Eldest Prince’s prediction. She asked skeptically, “If Liola-dage would kill the Dragon Emperor, then why wouldn’t the Eldest Prince interfere?”

Hearing Purity’s question, everyone went silent. Without knowing what the fortune teller’s thoughts, everyone couldn’t possibly guess why.

“But if it were Purity, she must be very sad. Brother would kill her father, then what is she to do? She can’t just kill brother either.” Purity lowered her head as if she were in pain, almost to the point of tears.

“If Mocha doesn’t want to kill his own brother, what is he going to do to prevent Liola from killing the Dragon Emperor?” Kaiser suddenly asked strangely.

Daylight answered naturally, “If it were me, I would think of a way to make my brother stay as far away from my father as possible. If they never see each other, they could never kill one another.”

“Perhaps… we will have an uncanny ally, and this ally may have some very unique purpose.” Kaiser suddenly smiled mysteriously.

* * *

Meinan had always thought he was the luckiest. His father had always had to struggle on his own on the seat of command, but at least Meinan had Kaiser’s help. Because as such, Meinan didn’t collapse the moment he suddenly shouldered so many things.

The first news to be released was about Qiusi’s serious injury and the subsequent coma. The world immediately turned upside down. The citizens of Aklan Republic who retreated now sank into a complete despair. Though Meinan did not want his citizens to be afraid, but he had no other choice. This allowed him understand how Qiusi had always faced dilemmas when he had been in office.

Then, they thought of ways to avoid the Dragon Emperor, so he would think Meinan wasn’t a threat at all. This was relatively simple: he asked Daylight pretend his acupuncture failed, and Qiusi resulted in a coma. Since Qiusi was indeed in a coma, even the Maxun could not determine why, so the Red Commander did believe their story.

Meinan then acted like a person who lost all ambition due to the loss of his father. This was a serious test to the cleanliness, and beauty-loving Meinan, because no one who lost their ambitions would still keep clean and orderly. Therefore, Kaiser had the strictest of rules for Meinan: he could only bath once per week, change clothes every three days. He was also not allowed to put on fragrance nor comb his hair!

Meinan was in so much pain that he thought it would be better to go to Dragon Continent and kidnap Liola back to wake Qiusi.

‘Bathroom, my bathroom…‘ It had only been a day since Meinan stopped showering, but his body was already itching, and he couldn’t stand his own stink. He fell to the ground powerlessly and crawled towards the bathroom.

“I already locked it up, and Daylight has the key. I told him he can only give you the key once a week, and only ten minutes each time.” Kaiser explained, and mercilessly added, “You know Daylight is as stubborn as a rock, so he will definitely remember my request.”

“NOO!” Meinan yelled in pain while covering his face. This “no” echoed in the room three times before it dissipated, and his pain was easy to see.

‘Comb, where’s my comb? My hair has hundreds of knots now.’

“Hmm? I told Barbalis to take that to Auntie. Oh right, and I also gave her your mirror with a pink b.u.t.terfly.”

‘What! My favorite pink b.u.t.terfly mirror? My G.o.d, I was going to pa.s.s that down to my son, then my son’s son, then my son’s, son’s son, as a family heirloom!’

“Couldn’t you at least consider giving it to a daughter?”

‘No, this is just too stinky. It’s the third day, and I wouldn’t dare to take off the tissue rolled up in my nostrils, because I might die from the stink. Let’s use a bit of perfume to cover it. Where is my musky perfume?’

[T/N while in English, “cologne” would make more sense than “perfume”, but given the fact that Meinan was often seen as girly and he calls it ‘strawberry’ perfume in a minute, it might make more sense this way.]

“Musky?” Kaiser lowered his head and smelled himself, “Are you talking about the one I sprayed on myself?”

“No, my G.o.d! The one you sprayed was my favorite strawberry perfume. It’s a discontinued version, and I only have one bottle of it. I couldn’t even bring myself to use it usually, you, you, how much did you use?!”

“A drop…”

“That’s good.”