Volume 12 Chapter 8 (1/2)

This chapter was brought to you by AnmesicCat, and StellarAshes

Eve of the Gamble

In order to settle in the two hundred Knights ore their loyalty to him, prepare for the bet at the saht Other than resolving conflicts between the Knights from both sides, he also did as Kaiser asked: to spread the news of the bet as much as possible

“Make it known to the whole world, and the Dragon E unfair”

Kaiser was confident, and he was then busy with… pawning tasks off to others

“Hey! Feir, the future leader, the propaganda in the Commerce Alliance is yours”

“Hey! Those of you loyal to Liola… as in that Silver Moon successor, go and tell your brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, and even your neighbors who sells noodles about this bet… What? How did I know about your neighbor selling noodles? Duh, I’hts; one of you is bound to live near one, right?”

“Daylight-brand communication Maxun, please come to Kaiser, I need to contact Meinan!”

[T/N: Kaiser is treating Daylight like a phone to talk to Flames]

“What’s up?” Daylight rushed over with enough sandbags to pile up to a sizeable small mountain

“Tell Meinan to bring Qiusi over”

“I’ve already told hiht was shocked, “They will probably arrive today”

Kaiser was shocked, “What? Then I better be emotionally prepared!”

“Why would you need to be eht asked, confused

“Oh, right, I meant was to tell Liola to be emotionally prepared” Kaiser then dashed off

Kaiser walked leisurely as he looked for Liola Probably because he didn’t spendto find Liola on top of a small hill not far from the base

“So you’re slacking off here, you bum” Kaiser patted Liola’s back heavily

Liola turned his head to look at Kaiser with a helpless expression on his face Kaiser frowned and asked, “What’s wrong with you? Why do you look so down?”

Liola glanced at Kaiser, then handed over a piece of paper from his hand

“Gaan to an to read the details inside:

My child, sorry foryou wait As your father, I’ve already decided the rules of the gaics, Knights, and Dragons If you and your coon Emperor is yours

Signed,

Father

“The battle of Dragons, is it between Miluo and Baolilong?”

Kaiser frowned How could this fight be fought? They’re not even on the saned supreon, while Baolilong is just an non-on They were bound to lose

“I don’t want to ht with Miluo They are father and son” Liola’s tone of voice was clearly sad

‘Did this guy forget he and the Dragon Emperor are also father and son?’ Kaiser scratched the face, but he suddenly realized, could it be because he has to fight with his father, and therefore he didn’t want to see the sa?

Kaiser casually sat down on the grass on the hill With his hands behind his head, he lay down and asked lazily, “If your father is still living in that body, would you want to rescue him?”

Liola frowned and answered, “I would, for Mocha’s sake”

Kaiser rolled his eyes, ‘Yes would’ve sufficed, why keep blabbing about it?’

“If you want to rescue your father, then why can’t Baolilong go save its father?”

Liola paused, then answered, “Mo rescue Miluo”

“Well, this was easily resolved” Kaiser stretched, and sat up

“Kaiser, can you promise me, if your lives are threatened, you would take everyone else and escape?”

Kaiser turned, stared at Liola He then said sloord for word, “I will take ‘everyone’ and run Did you hear me? EVERYONE!”

Liola shtly, “I heard”

Kaiser grunted “Ah”, and pointed at the few sot! I’m here to tell you that Meinan and others are about arrive here, and you should be prepared…”

Hearing this, Liola s time to prepare for it; all ten seconds

Liola’s estimate was quite accurate After ten seconds, Purity’s Mecha, the unicorn, Blackie, and Little Fireball all landed froer wait: he grabbed his father, and ran straight towards Liola

Being the physically weak Magician that he was, Meinan was already having trouble catching his breath after holding his father on the entire trip He said intermittently, “Li, Liola… hurry and save Qiusi”

Liola didn’t speak a word He immediately put his hand on Qiusi’s chest, and withdrew all the destructive Ki inside Qiusi’s body He then released the seal Daylight used to put Qiusi into a pseudo death state When he pulled his hand away, Qiusi’s eyes twitched slightly, then… he turned and continued to sleep

“Is… is that it?” Meinan panicked, “Why is my father still not awake? Did it fail?”

Before Liola had a chance to respond, Qiusi began to talk in his sleep, “Hood baby, let papa sleep a bit more”

“Sleep, your ass!” Meinan punched his father’s forehead heavily to give him a wake up call

“So, Liola, you’re finally awake; this is a cause for celebration” Qiusi earnestly congratulated Liola, but the huge bandage on his forehead

“Thank you for forgiving me, Prime Minister Qiusi” Liola sincerely thanked him

“Don’t put it like that You didn’t mean to harm me back then, and this finally broke the ice betweenthe time Meinan called him father worriedly, Qiusi was so happy that he couldn’t close hiseven if he wanted to

“However, I didn’t think you youngsters could do it so well”

Kaiser and Daylight both said aardly, “Not that well The base is basically half destroyed”

“Oh” Qiusi s Mizerui, Miluo, and three thousand Knights is already quite ‘well’”

“But, Liola, since I’ the bet?” Qiusi stared at Liola, “Since you have the support of Commerce Alliance, Aklan Republic, and the Prince and Princess, plus the Paladin and the Dark Knight…”

“I don’t support him!” Cappuccino interrupted Qiusi coldly

Everyone looked towards Cappuccino, and they could hardly believe Cappuccino would speak out against it In fact, it wasn’t until now that everyone realized, despite Cappuccino’s earlier laughing manner, he had not smiled in quite a while Blood Wolf, on the other hand, did not seem surprised; instead, all he did was raise his eyebrows

“Third brother,” Lanski asked hesitantly, “Why would you oppose Liola becoon Emperor?”

Cappuccino’s face was cold, but his tone was colder, “nobody here cared about Mocha, other than me! But even if I’m alone, I will oppose him to the end alone I-I will never support a person who killed Mocha, then carelessly walk around s!”

Lanski was shocked She didn’t think it was because of Mocha She tried to explain, “Third brother, at the time, Liola didn’t have a choice…”

Cappuccino interrupted with a loud shout, “Shut up! Shut up! Even you, my sister, did you really care about eldest brother? Do you know, these years, how much effort eldest brother had to put in to secretly protect us? I didn’t even get to tell him thanks before he… he… died like this…” Cappuccino’s voice choked towards the end

He turned, without looking at anyone, and without any tears falling fro to nity

“That’s because brother Mocha wants me to live happily!”

Liola shouted, and Cappuccino stood still

“I aive me the chance to be sad He wants me to be happy, he wants me to smile…” Liola lowered his head, “But, every time I think about brother Mocha, I want to cry… but he demands that I smile! That’s why I try not to think about hiave ain because of his death…”

Two streams of tears rolled down from Liola’s silver eyes He said firmly, “Even if you don’t believe ! You are not the only one present who cared about brother Mocha! I really cared about him, even if I hadn’t spent much time with him”

Cappuccino stood still without turning around

“Idiot!” He yelled loudly

Liola paused, then raised his head in confusion Who knew that thehiain He was stupefied as he touched the bump on his forehead, not sure what had happened

“You really think when Mocha told you to be happy meant you can’t even be sad? Mocha only… only hopes you would live like a person, and truly live, instead of being a walking corpse But, as the eldest brother, he was always afraid youhim, so he told you to be happy… who knew you would misunderstand it?” Cappuccino sounded a bit helpless “However… I don’t have the right to blame you”

With his head lowered, Liola suddenly found the ground he was staring at had been stepped on He instinctively raised his head, only to find Cappuccino s at him Cappuccino put his hands onto Liola’s head, and rubbed it at will,Liola’s usually ordered hair turn into a bird’s nest

“Sorry! Brother, I a back your sadness Hmm, if you…” Cappuccino’s face suddenly turned uneasy, and he said aardly, “If you don’t care that I’ bad, you can treat me like your brother I mean, a brother like Mocha was to you…”

Liola couldn’t help but laugh, “You already are my brother…”

“Ah…” Cappuccino scratched his head, “I guess you are right…”

“Oh, right!” Cappuccino suddenly grabbed a few necklaces out of his collar, and one of theon Cross Necklace He handed the necklace over, “Here, your necklace I think you ht find it useful”

Liola received the necklace, then put it around his neck, “Thank you”

Cappuccino nodded, and said, “Right, I also have several identical necklace, let ive you one Oh and, sister, you take one too”

“He; ould Cappuccino give them necklaces all of a sudden?

Cappuccino took off two necklaces from his neck They were both shaped the saons carved on both One of theon

He twisted both the Black and Blue Dragons, and the locket opened after a click A picture was inside both lockets; it was one of three htly, and their similar looks made it obvious they were a family

“Your second brother, Latte, was quite stupid back then And he didn’t like Susanna, so he didn’t want to take a picture with them” Cappuccino sounded helpless

“The blue one, was Susanna’s” Cappuccino save the blue necklace in his left hand to Lanski

Lanski took the locket as though it was the rarest treasure, and she couldn’t wait to wear it She touched the locket in front of her chest, and smiled as she spoke to herself, “This is mother’s locket…”

Cappuccino looked war him the other necklace

“This is…” Liola looked at the Black Dragon carving, then looked at Cappuccino with doubt

“That’s right This one is Mocha’s” Cappuccino ascertained Liola’s guess

“Brother” Liola took the necklace, and stared at Mocha in the picture He was s the same way he did “that day” Liola wore the necklace, and he felt as though he was carrying Mocha with hi with his warmth and his protection

“I wonder, is having three necklaces a bit too much?” Cappuccino carefully examined his brother’s thin neck

“Three?”

“Yup You two still don’t have a picture” Cappuccino looked towards his sister, and asked like he was interrogating, “When Liola coether, and put it in a new locket?”

Lanski paused She understood what he ht, when Liola coo take a picture!”

“Remember to come back early” Cappuccino’s tone sounded like an older brother telling his younger brother not to stay out playing too late

Liola nodded heavily, “I will definitely come back early”

“W… wait” Qiusi wiped away the sweat on his forehead, “I seeamble”

“That’s not going to work” Siblings of the Dragon falanced at one another, and smiled

Liola and Lanski both looked at the eldest aan to explain, “It doesn’t matter if the Commerce Alliance and Aklan Republic support Liola or not To the Dragon Ehts, all that is pointless To win the throne of the Dragon Ehts A challenge as honorable as brother’s proposal, and even letting the opponentthe hearts of the Knights over Even if he were to lose, the Knights may still help him usurp the throne However, if he were to cancel it now, then his actions would be tabooed, and he will never beco”

“I see, so even if he loses he hts If that’s the case…”

“He can’t lose!” Kaiser interrupted Qiusi, took a deep breath, and said, “Liola proon Emperor…”

“What did you say?!” Cappuccino was now suddenly erabbed his brother i like that? Didn’t you learn anything from what happened to Caffey?”

“If I didn’t proamble” Liola shook his head

“Then, there’s no reason to garily, “We already support you to ascending to the throne Caffey is already fairly old; if you were just to wait a bit more…”

“Exactly, because Caffey is already old!” Liola said decidedly, “If I won and ascend to the throne, then the Heart will have no use for Caffey any o and let him recover his consciousness”

“You… you amble because of father?” Cappuccino was clearly very shocked, “Why? You haven’t even seen Caffey”

“I have” Liola said lightly

Cappuccino frowned; hoas that possible? Ever since Susanna’s death, Caffey had never ht, he explained to his brother, “What you saas not the true Caffey, just an ion Emperor”

“It’s here!” Liola pointed at Cappuccino

“Huh?” Cappuccino also pointed himself in confusion

“And from brother Mocha”

Cappuccino was now even more confused

Kaiser finally couldn’t stay out of it, so started to explain, “Idiot What he means is, you are both Caffey’s children, and it has already told him how Caffey really was”

Liola said, “Brother Mocha loved father dearly; therefore, I, too, want to see our true father” ‘It must be… a person warm like brother Mocha and a person with Cappuccino’s smile’

“I see… then it’s up to you”

Cappuccino couldn’t help but raise his head again, but this time, with tears in his eyes He cursed at hiht Liola did not care about Mocha’s death? He obviously cared about it aain

“Purity, Meinan, are you willing to… if you aren’t willing to go with me, it’s fine” Liola said sincerely Especially Meinan, who had just reunited with his father He must want to spend more time with him

“Oh! Speaking of which…” Purity glanced at Meinan, who looked back at her, then said, “It seems like we have some scores to settle?”

“I remember there were two certain people who abandoned us and secretly went to rescue Liola-dage” Purity blinked with her innocent eyes, but her tone was enough to send a shi+ver up Daylight and Kaiser’s spines

“Uh, really?” Kaiser looked even more innocent than her

Daylight, however, was s himself

“You’re still pretending!” Purity and Meinan shouted in unison, then began giving the They yelled as they beat them, “Take this! Take that! Let’s see who dares to abandon us now!”

A drop of cold sweat ran down Liola’s forehead!