Volume 12 Chapter 4 (1/2)

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

The King’s Desire

“… Brother Mocha’s death woke me, and I was able to escape.” Liola explained everything in detail without holding anything back, regardless of whether it was civilians or Dragon Empire Knights around him.

After the storytelling had ended, everyone remained quiet. The only sound that could be heard in the plaza was the breathing noises of the Dragons— it was dead silence otherwise. But they can’t really be blamed; something as bizarre as this wasn’t something the civilians could imagine. Even the Knights seemed shocked during the story, especially when Liola spoke of the truth about the heart of the Dragon Emperor.

“This is some rather unordinary secrets.” Feir smiled bitterly. He had only hoped Liola would explain his earlier actions, so the civilians and Knights wouldn’t misunderstand him, but now that he dragged out such shocking truths… could this be good or bad?

“So that’s how things were. So basically, you were being controlled by the Dragon Emperor, and that’s why you did such things. Then we can’t really blame you, we should blame the Dragon Emperor… Wait, the heart of the Dragon Emperor is the one to be blamed.” Bour said, “I can’t believe there’s such a strange heart in the world; it’s really strange.”

“However, those evil acts were really done by me, and I have nothing to say about them.” Liola tilted his head, trying to look away from the hatred in people’s eyes.

Unexpectedly, Liola’s head connected with a fist. Bour snapped, “What the h.e.l.l are you saying? If I got food poisoning, am I supposed to blame the waiter for bringing the food rather than the chef who cooked it? Nonsense.”

Liola touched his head in surprise, and his stupefied look made everyone laugh. But Baolilong didn’t laugh; it pounced, pushed Bour onto the ground, and shouted, “Don’t hit my papa!”

“Aiya, I didn’t hit your papa. I was joking with him, joking! Aiya! Stop.” Bour awkwardly tried to dodge Baolilong’s nails. Though it was in its human shape and its nails weren’t sharp as those of a Dragon, Bour still received red scratch marks all over him. He looked like someone who got dragged out by his wife after she found him with his mistress.

“Baolilong, stop acting like that.” Liola was surprised; he hurriedly tried to grab ahold of Baolilong to stop it from putting any more wounds on Bour. However, because he was exhausted, as soon as he grabbed Baolilong, he began to fall sidewards. Bour noticed, and hurried up to grab Liola. But because of the momentum, all three of them fell down together.

Everyone froze. At that moment, no one thought about helping them up. Bour tried to catch his breath and said, “Ah… I can’t believe I’d have the honor in this life to fall with a prince.”

“Ahaha”, someone in the crowd started to laugh. The sound of laughter rippled through the crowd like a rubble thrown into a lake, and finally everyone was laughing: Holy Knight, Dark Knight, women with ap.r.o.ns, hotel owners carrying all of his money, and all kinds of people, all laughed with one another.

After laughing for a long while, people finally refrained their laughs. Feir smiled as he held up the successor, “You’ve worked hard to protect these civilians, let me help you get to a place for some rest.”

Feir said to others, “Everyone else help these civilians sort out a place to live. Don’t forget to get some food for them to eat!”

“No problem, Feir, you go help the successor to get some rest.” The Knights smiled and replied loudly.

Feir helped Liola into a house that was still mostly intact, helped him sit down next to a table, and said, “Sit for a bit, I’ll go help make a bed.”

Liola stopped Feir; when the latter turned around to look curiously, he explained, “You can stop using those honorifics to address me. You know… I’m not a successor, or actually, I should say I’m not even a prince; not like Lanski or Cappuccino, you should know…” Liola couldn’t find the right words to explain it to Feir.

“Really?” Feir smiled warmly, “But in my eyes, what you did to protect those civilians makes you look like a true royalty.”

It was now Liola’s turn to look at Feir curiously.

Seeing this, Feir gave up on making a bed, because the successor looked like he didn’t want to sleep. Feir walked to the table, and asked with a smile, “May I sit down, please?”

“You’re Purity’s brother, you don’t have to be so… respectful.” Liola frowned slightly.

Feir smiled, and didn’t explain any further. If he was truly being respectful, he wouldn’t be asking such a question, and instead of sitting down, he should be standing next to the successor. However, he knew being respectful towards Liola would make him feel strange, so he stopped talking in a respectful tone, and said directly, “Speaking of Purity, why didn’t you go back to find Kaiser? But since he and Daylight are wanted, I don’t know where they’re hiding. However, I believe my sister knows.”

“I’m lost…” Liola said truthfully.

“Lost?” Feir seemed confused, “If you were lost, you could’ve gotten Baolilong to ask Flames. Although Flames was in the Commerce Alliance and we’re quite far from it, the Sacred White Dragon should have strong enough power to communicate with it.”

Liola was silent for a bit, and then he explained, “Baolilong said, it was because I didn’t want to go back, so it didn’t contact Flames.”

Feir looked at him for a while, nodded and said, “I see, that I can understand.”

It was Liola’s turn to pause. Understood? Even though he himself couldn’t understand, Feir was able to understand?

“Don’t worry, this is quite normal. After hearing those complicated secrets of yours, even I began to feel afraid, so it’s understandable for you to be afraid.” Feir said calmly, “However, you can’t run forever. After you rest, you should return and carry out your duties.”

“What duties?” Liola paused.

“The duties of a successor, of course.” Feir stared straight at him, without giving him any chance to run away.

“I’m not… the successor. The Dragon Emperor wouldn’t possibly keep me as a successor.” Liola denied in reflex.

“That’s not what I think.” Feir was deep in thought for a moment, “Think about it, Prince Mocha and Prince Latte are both dead. There are only three candidates left for the throne: Prince Cappuccino, Princess Lanski, and you. As you’ve explained, they both know the truth. Since all three of you know the truth now, you guys are now on equal footing in that regard. I mean, if the Dragon Emperor was still the one choosing.”

“And as such, of course he would pick the strongest among you.” Feir raised his head, “Since you are the strongest, and you already are the successor, instead of changing the successor and make his people feel unrest, he might as well try to catch you instead.”

Hearing Feir’s accurate a.n.a.lysis, Liola’s body shrank and his face darkened. When Feir saw him, and smiled apologetically, “Sorry for making you feel uneasy, but everything I said is true.”

“Besides, even if the Dragon Emperor dissolve you from being the successor, if the only remaining royalty, Cappuccino and Lanski, supports you as the next Dragon Emperor, everyone will still recognize you as the successor. In fact, even if your siblings don’t support you, there were quite a few Princes in history who had successfully usurped the throne despite being hated by their father. Those who had been accepted by the Sacred White Dragon, despite all other factors, had almost always become the next Dragon Emperor, be it usurping or succeeding.”

Feir looked at Baolilong, who was lying next to Liola’s legs, and said, “Therefore, having the acceptance of the Sacred White Dragon is basically half way to becoming the Dragon Emperor; this is something everyone knows.”

“But I don’t want to be the Dragon Emperor.” Liola stood up emotionally, but being as exhausted as he was, he fell back down almost at the same instant. He said bitterly, “I don’t know how to be a Dragon Emperor.”

“Judging from what I saw, you seem to know it quite well.” Feir said casually as he picked up a can on the table with tea leaves inside. He smelled it to make sure it was still good, then poured the tea leaves into a pot, poured in water, and plugged it in to heat up.

Liola frowned, “I don’t know what you mean.”

“What do you think the duty of an Emperor is?” Feir smiled, and patiently began to guide the future Dragon Emperor.

“I don’t know.” Liola shook his head; he really didn’t know how to be one.

“A supposed Emperor means to give everything in his power to make his people happy.”

Liola looked at Feir skeptically. This was far different from what he had experienced.

“This is what my mother taught me.” Feir smiled and said, “She is a great Commander, and also a great mother. Ever since I was young, she kept telling me what the leader of the people must do.”

Liola paused. It wasn’t until now that he remembered, Feir was the son of a Commander, and he would likely be a leader in the future — of course, unless Purity replaced him.

“My other and the other two Commanders actually decided not to continue having three Commanders.” Feir explained, “Their bonds of friends.h.i.+p run deep, so they don’t have to worry about infighting. However, my generation is far different. Jetter hates me to the bone, and he couldn’t possibly work with me.”

“He hates you?” It was hard for Liola to imagine someone hating Feir. To him, Feir was a very amiable person, and so was Purity.

“Mhm, he also hates Purity.” Feir smiled bitterly, “In fact, he probably knew, there will only be one Commander. The current three Commanders told me, that person will be me.”

Liola paused, and asked back, “So you’re also an Emperor?”

“You could say that.” Feir joked, “So, we could exchange some ideas of being a King. It would be great if Meinan was also here, so we could have a small ‘King meeting’.”

“This isn’t funny.” Liola shook his head.

Feir stopped smiling, and nodded seriously, “Indeed, this isn’t funny. If there is a King who was unwilling to be King, the whole world wouldn’t find it funny.”

“Can’t someone else be the King…? Both Cappuccino and Lanski would do better than me.” Liola felt frustrated. Why must he be the Dragon Emperor? He had never thought about being the Dragon Emperor.

Feir shook his head and smiled, “That’s what you think. To me, Prince Cappuccino’s personality is a wanderer. To make him stay in the palace would be like torture to him.”

“Princess Lanski may be brave and honest, but she isn’t adaptable. Being a King can’t always be completely straightforward.” Feir smiled as if there were deeper meanings.

“Your smile looks a lot like Qiusi, very cunning.” Liola looked at Feir strangely.

Feir’s smile froze, and continued forcefully, “Looks like your observational abilities are better than the Princess. This is bad news to both me and Meinan. It looks like it would be hard for us to take advantage of the Dragon Emperor in the future.”

Liola shook his head, “Meinan wouldn’t take advantage of me, and neither would you.”

“Don’t trust me too much.” Feir smiled meaningfully again.

“I trust Purity.” Liola maintained his stance.

Feir’s smile froze again. He began to think, perhaps he would be better off supporting Princess Lanski for the throne?

“As you can see, you are indeed the best candidate to the throne, right?” Feir smiled as he scratched his face.

“I…” Liola drew a blank, “That’s not the same. I-I don’t know how to handle all the politics.”

“You have Kaiser.”