Bu Sha

“Gone…”

Liola was at a loss. His right hand kept touching his chest, where his necklace was supposed to be, but there was nothing. The Dragon cross necklace that had always been there was now nowhere to be found.

‘Anise…’

“Gone!”

Barbalis shrank into the sofa, remembering when he got back to the stadium, the other principals all claimed that Aklan Academy ran away from the match, and therefore Violet Academy won by default. As such, his position as the principal of the first academy was gone!

Unlike the two depressed people on the sofa, Kaiser was in a celebratory mood. He crossed his legs, and said leisurely but roughly.

“Fortunately, my life is still here. Hahaha! I knew Liola would hold up his promise to Anise, psh, otherwise, why wouldn’t he kill me now?”

“Kaiser!”

Purity quietly scolded him, and at the same time turned to look at Liola. A dark, depressed aura was gathering around the Assassin.

Liola’s face looked like he was in despair, which made Purity extremely worried, especially with Kaiser gloating on the side, but she didn’t know what she should do.

Kaiser heard Purity’s yell, but not only did he not put on a sad face, he raised his eyebrows, and crouched in front of the Assassin to scrutinize him. He even used his index finger to poke the Assassin.

Liola was already enraged at the fact that Kaiser handed over the necklace when he was unconscious, but now Kaiser was rubbing salt in his wounds. Liola’s eyes flashed with murderous intent, and he reached out and grabbed Kaiser’s damn index finger tightly.

“What! Wanna kill me?” Kaiser acted as if he didn’t know he already made the Assassin furious, and threw more gasoline on the fire.

Liola gritted his teeth, and desperately thought of Anise’s promise so he could control himself from pulling out Broken Silver to slice his friend in two…

Kaiser pulled back his finger, and asked Liola. “Let me ask you. What’s more important, Anise or the damn necklace?”

Liola was shocked, and didn’t understand the purpose of Kaiser’s question.

Kaiser patiently waited for his answer.

Liola said after furrowing his brows. “Anise.”

“Then let me ask you again. Whose life had been lost in exchange for yours?”

Kaiser’s question hit Liola like a bolt of lightning. His murderous aura had been completely washed away, and he was back to his depressed look.

However, Kaiser still wasn’t willing to let it go, so he opened his mouth and asked again.

“You are living because of Anise, do you really think you could easily throw your life away?”

Hearing this, Liola lowered his head as far as he could.

Seeing Liola abnormal action, Kaiser finally felt a little bit of sympathy. He said awkwardly.

“Anyhow, this is what I think: Anise would definitely not want you to lose your life over her necklace. She saved you not so you can die later, but instead for you to live well, right?”

Liola’s body shook again.

What would Anise say in this situation? It must be… for him live well, right? She had always said so in the past.

“I can’t believe Kaiser would actually talk seriously like this.” Purity widened her eyes, and even Meinan was in disbelief.

“What? I am serious sometimes.” Kaiser immediately protested.

“Haha, but it’s really rare to see Kaiser this serious.”

Even Daylight laughed, which made all three of them turn around to look at Daylight. Six widened eyes made Daylight feel awkward, so he asked.

“What? Why are you all suddenly looking at me like this?”

Kaiser frowned, “Uh, about the fact that we told you Liola was Lancelot’s apprentice… We didn’t lie to you on purpose, the situation required it, you know, b-because… oh right! I almost forgot, it was to save Liola.”

‘Not on purpose? It was practically premeditated…’ Purity and Meinan listened to Kaiser lying again and cold sweat started running down their foreheads.

Daylight sported a solemn face, “Lying is wrong, but let’s forget about the past. I knew you guys were trying to save Liola and had to lie, but I hope from now on, you guys won’t use lies to achieve your goals.”

Daylight’s righteous demeanor made Purity and Meinan nod immediately, and even Kaiser looked embarrassed, indicating he agrees, but nobody knew how sincere he actually was, and even Daylight looked skeptically at Kaiser.

Kaiser gulped, then waved his hands and said,

“I won’t. I only lie when I have no other options available. Now that Liola already handed over the necklace, and his Kung Fu sealed, not to mention Lancelot said he would send people to protect us. I don’t believe there will still be situations where I would be forced to lie…”

Purity immediately used her hand to cover Kaiser’s big mouth, and looked at Liola worriedly, fearing Liola would be provoked by what Kaiser said.

When they were all looking at Liola worriedly, he raised his head, and said as if deep in thought.

“Really? So you’re saying there will be no more trouble?”

After Liola heard what Kaiser said, he finally realized, from now onwards there wouldn’t be a ton of troubles pressuring him into breaking his promise with Anise, and he wouldn’t put his companions into dangerous situations.

A plain and boring school life? Isn’t it how he had always wanted to live?

Kaiser answered lazily, “Yeah, no more trouble.”

Liola’s darkened eyes began to flash silver lights.

He turned to look at Kaiser and others, and the four of them looked worried. For the first time, Liola felt it wasn’t such a bad thing losing Anise’s necklace. At the very least he wouldn’t have to worry about harming the four people around him, and not having to worry they would lose their lives because of him.

Liola remembered when he was in the Dark Arena Pyramid, when he realized four of his companions were risking their lives to save him from the Dark Street. That feeling of fear and pain was something he would never want to experience again.

“Hmm, papa?”

Baolilong, who was lying on its stomach on Liola’s legs and sleeping happily, suddenly woke up. It rubbed its sleepy eyes and yawned, then it tried to reach for the necklace as a habit, but only felt Liola’s chest.

Baolilong was baffled, then it tilted its little head and said, “Mama is gone… Oh, right, mama said she will be back.”

Liola and others were confused by what Baolilong said, but it was not unusual for Baolilong to speak nonsense.

Baolilong’s babbling seemed to have attracted everyone’s attention… Except Barbalis, who was sitting on the side still depressed for losing his seat as the top principal, but a light flashed across his eyes.

Liola softly touched Baolilong’s white hair.

Baolilong was a bit surprised, because it was rare for Liola to do something indulging. The only time he acted like this, was when Liola decided to run away from them, so such tender action actually made Baolilong feel uneasy.

Its little chubby hands and feet wrapped tightly around Liola, and its eyes looked were saying,

‘I’m never letting go’.

Looking at Baolilong’s cuteness and his companions, Liola thought, if he lost the necklace so he’ll never endanger these four people and a Dragon, then Anise would forgive him, right?

“Excuse me, uh…” They all heard a timid voice coming from the door, and everyone’s attention was diverted towards.

They all saw Lanski standing at the door with a frown.

* * *

They were still in the lounge of the stadium where the ranking matches were.

However, if they were to raise their heads, they could clearly see the blue skies and white clouds. Being able to do so from the lounge could only mean one thing — the ceiling had all but disappeared.

If they were to look around more closely, they would notice some of the walls were missing, and only two remained.

The only thing remained in the entire room was probably the sofa where Liola and Barbalis were sitting.

Among the dust and debris, having a complete sofa sitting in the middle was unspeakably strange.

Originally, the lounge had only a hole caused by Yizhou’s Dragon, but when Kaiser and others carried the unconscious Liola back, Yiyu and others from the Violet Academy swaggered over, informing them of their loss because they had deserted the match. Therefore, all the other principals decided for Violet Academy to be crowned as the winner.

Other than Barbalis’ yells for unfairness, Kaiser and others wouldn’t care at all.

However, Yiyu started to mock them… Mocking would have been fine, but he decided to mock the unconscious Liola and a Dragon.

Then there was someone who couldn’t stand it anymore, so a Sacred White Dragon and the Angel Nana started battling against them… As soon as the Dragon and Mecha start fighting, the remaining three obviously join the fray.

It wouldn’t have mattered much if nothing else happened. At most, it would have been two teams finishing the match they were supposed to have, since the arena was just a few steps away.

But things weren’t so simple.

Aklan Academy students were very unhappy of losing their title as being students of the best academy. In addition, Violet Academy had extreme hatred towards them, so then things escalated into a brawl between two academies.

But if it’s just a brawl between two academies, it wasn’t unprecedented, and normally wouldn’t destroy the stadium…

The problem was, Barbalis had gone crazy. When he heard he had lost his title as the top principal, he froze on the spot.

Until the brawl started, and a student carelessly shot a fireball towards him (to this day, it is still unknown which side the student belonged to). Barbalis then lost it and became a human fireball launching machine.

And now, the entire stadium only had two walls left, along with the sofa where Liola was placed.

Originally, the ground was covered with students moaning in pain, but at this time they were all cleared out… Erm, sent to the infirmary for treatment.

* * *

“Sorry, I should’ve knocked first, but… there wasn’t a door here, so…”

Lanski stood awkwardly at where the door should’ve been, but there was nothing left of the door.

An angry, puffy face surfaced from behind Lanski — Jasmine. She was not polite like Lanski.

As soon as she saw Liola on the sofa, she immediately ran up, and put her hands on her waist, yelling like a lioness,

“Liola, you were ridiculous. Did you know everyone was worried about you? How could you walk away without saying anything, what do you think your baby is? How could you abandon him so easily? You, you really are…”

Jasmine kept saying “you”, but still couldn’t say the following words. She sighed and her angry expression dissipated, replaced by worried expression. She then asked,

“What happened to you? Why did you leave without saying anything?”

“I misunderstood you, I’m really sorry.”

Lanski lowered her head, because she was very clear she had done something wrong. Though she didn’t know what happened after, but she knew everything started with her accusations.

Although Lanski was prideful and arrogant, she will never push blame onto someone else, and she will apologize if she knew she had done something wrong.

Liola’s expression changed. However, as soon as he saw Lanski’s familiar hair and face, he couldn’t stop himself from reaching for his necklace, but there was nothing in front of his chest.

A feeling of guilt surged in his heart. He couldn’t save Anise’s life, and now he couldn’t even save her last possession… Liola was starting to feel a bit relieved, but now sank into self-loathing again.

Jasmine saw that Liola’s depressed face, and thought he wasn’t willing to accept Lanski’s apology, so she spoke for her friend.

“Liola, don’t blame Lanski. You know she was just being her righteous self, and she meant no harm. Forgive her, okay?”

Lanski felt she went too far. She completely forgot who she was and did a 90 degree bow towards Liola, then said loudly,

“Sorry, please forgive me.”

Liola, who was absorbed in his own world of self-loathing, was dragged back to reality by Lanski’s loud voice. He was baffled as he looked at the bowing Princess, unsure what Lanski was actually doing.

“Liola-dage, you should forgive the Princess!”

Purity finally spoke. She shook Liola’s arm trying to help Lanski, but her action made Liola even more confused.

He thought, they wanted him to forgive Lanski? But what did Lanski do that he needed to forgive?

Liola face remained expressionless.

‘Sigh, this guy must not even know what the heck is going on.’

Kaiser scratched his head, and knew making a Princess bow to Liola for too long was never a good thing, but unfortunately Liola was unparalleled in being obtuse…

Kaiser couldn’t stand it anymore. He grabbed Liola’s arm and whispered into his ear.

“Hey, a beauty is apologizing to you. You better coax her, say something like, ‘Baby, I don’t care what you do, I forgive you’ and it will be all good!”

Liola glanced at Kaiser, and then diverted his attention back to Lanski.

Liola hesitatingly did as Kaiser asked, “It’s fine, I forgive you.”

As for the word “baby” and rest, he thought it was best to leave them out…

Lanski immediately raised her head. She carefully examined Liola’s expression, and sure enough, she found no signs of him being angry with her. Liola seemed like he didn’t really cared.

Lanski was very surprised, and thought Liola’s tolerance was much higher than she had originally thought, and she was the one who seemed childish and naive.

Lanski couldn’t help but blame herself. She said earnestly.

“Liola, I’m really sorry about how I treated you before. Can we forget about what happened, and I sincerely ask you, will you be my friend?”

After saying so, Lanski reached out her right hand to try to shake hands with Liola.

Kaiser immediately used his shoulder to push Liola, trying to tell Liola with his eyes to be friends with the Princess immediately.

Being friends with a Princess must have a dozen pros and no cons, so how could Kaiser let this opportunity go? Though the person being friends with a Princess wasn’t him, but Liola’s friend was practically Kaiser’s friend too!

But what Kaiser and Lanski didn’t know, was how much of an effect Lanski’s actions had on Liola.

What Liola saw was Anise’s smile and friendly hand. This scene looked as if Anise herself came out to tell Liola it was okay to lose the necklace.

Liola didn’t need Kaiser’s reminder, and he had already reached out with both of his hands to grab Lanski’s right hand tightly.

Lanski was surprised at Liola holding her hand tightly, or it should be said that everyone was shocked by Liola’s abnormal actions. But Liola himself found nothing wrong as he swam in the joy of Anise forgiving him.

Lanski uncomfortably glanced at her good friend Jasmine.

Jasmine was also staring at them with wide eyes. Lanski was worried about her good friend misunderstanding the situation, so she desperately withdrew her own hand, and said with emphasis.

“Then Liola, we will now be good friends. Oh, I hope we will always be good friends.”

Liola raised his head to look deeply into Lanski’s eyes, and his face was smiling. 𝙛𝙧𝙚𝒆𝘸𝚎𝙗𝒏oν𝙚𝘭.𝐜𝒐m

The original cold face actually showed a rare warmth and kindness, which made Kaiser and other bystanders drop their jaws.

Kaiser even murmured while trembling.

“A smile is horrifying enough, and now his whole expression… Could it be, the world is going to end tomorrow? Waaahhh, I still have to earn a lot of money, and taste a lot of good food!”

Lanski was also somewhat surprised, but since she wasn’t familiar with Liola and she didn’t act exaggeratedly like Kaiser, she only felt strange that the ice cold eyes actually felt as soft and warm as the moonlight.

Liola’s soft smile accompanied his clean and beautiful demeanor well. Though it was weird to describe a man this way, but Lanski still couldn’t help but think,

‘Could this man be a fairy under the moonlight?’

Though Lanski was worried Jasmine would misunderstand, but at this time she couldn’t even take a glance at Jasmine with the corner of her eyes. It seemed her eyes… couldn’t move an inch away from this silver-eyed man’s face?

At this time, Jasmine’s situation was near identical to Lanski’s.

Her eyes stared at Liola greedily. Other than letting this moonlight fairy consumed her mind, Jasmine did not realize Liola’s smile was currently directed at another girl.

Two girls staring at the same man, the atmosphere was very romantic…

Yeah right!

One man and one woman would be romantic. Two women one man is trouble. Kaiser held his head with both hands and shook it vigorously.

God!

Finally becoming friends with the Princess, but from what he could see, this entire debacle would more likely become trouble instead! No, he couldn’t let this thing continue…

“NO!”

Everyone was stunned, and then they all looked at the person who yelled “no” — Barbalis.

They saw his messy hair, his blood-shot eyes, and his wrinkled Sorcerer robe. He didn’t look anything like a principal (but did he ever?).

Everyone was confused while looking at Barbalis. Barbalis went crazy, and then pointed at his students and ordered.

“I must get back my position as the top principal! If you don’t get it back for me, you are all expelled!”

“Damn! That’s not even reasonable, how could we do that?”

Kaiser fought back without hesitation, but Barbalis didn’t flinch like he usually did, but instead moved his terrifying face in front of Kaiser’s, and said word for word.

“When I tell you to get it back, you get it back. If you can’t get it back, then prepare to be buried alive with the dead!”

Though surprised by Barbalis’ words, Kaiser wouldn’t rest until he made a comeback.

“What do you mean buried alive, there has to be someone dead before you can bury us with them.”

Barbalis ignored Kaiser, and then started murmuring and dancing again.

“Ahaha, right, let’s do that. I will send students to assassinate all of the students in Violet Academy. Without any students, there won’t be an academy, hahaha!”

Seeing Barbalis’ crazy look, Kaiser coldly dragged Meinan over.

“Hey, go talk to your dad, otherwise you will have to be an Assassin soon.”

Meinan weakly nodded. Though he didn’t want to look for the father with whom he was in a cold war, he also didn’t want to become an Assassin or be expelled after years of suffering in the academy.

“Do you like Lanski?” A question surfaced out of the blue.

While everyone’s attention was on Barbalis, they were shock to hear such as question.

Who was it that brought up this question?

Everyone looked at the three people in a love triangle, only to realize the person who asked was someone part of the triangle.

Jasmine stared at Liola with wide eyes, awaiting his answer without hesitation.

Lanski immediately waved her hands and said, “Jasmine, why are you talking like this? You should know it’s impossible for me to like Liola, didn’t you already know?”

Lanski’s face had turned completely red, and her speech stuttered. But she saw Jasmine was still stubbornly staring at Liola as if she had to have an answer. To prevent her friend from misunderstanding, Lanski said loudly,

“The person I-I like is Silver Mask. Jasmine, didn’t you already know?”

‘Isn’t she practically confessing to Liola?’

Everyone looked at the Assassin with dropped jaws, waiting to see how Liola would respond to Lanski’s love confession.

“I know you like Silver Mask, but I just want to ascertain whether Liola likes you is all. If the person he likes is you, then at least I would be emotionally prepared.”

After saying so, Jasmine held her gaze at Liola, and asked again, “Do you like Lanski or do you like me?”

‘This is really fun to watch…’

Everyone’s eyes returned on the male lead of the love triangle, waiting to see if he would choose the Princess with unparalleled beauty, or the affinitive girl next door.

‘Of course he should choose the Princess!’ Kaiser and Purity both yelled in their mind, but their reasons were far different from one another.

Princess equals money, and Liola’s money was also Kaiser’s money, so of course Kaiser wanted him to choose the Princess!

Kaiser’s eyes glowed. Lanski, in his eyes, was like a breathing gold mine.

A handsome hero Silver Mask being with the beautiful Princess would be the perfect ending to the fairy tale.

Purity looked sympathetically at Jasmine, ‘Too bad you’re not a Princess, sigh…’

“Jasmine is definitely 100 times better than Princess!” Meinan seriously protested for his good friend.

If Liola would score a perfect 100 on his Kung Fu, then his score for romance would be negative 100.

The Assassin who didn’t understand love answered directly, “I like you more, Jasmine.”

In Liola’s heart, Jasmine was easier to be with than Lanski, so he answered he liked Jasmine more, but that was the full extent of his feeling for her.

To the Assassin, love was still a mystery.

However, this answer not only allowed Lanski to sigh in relief, it also made the straightforward Jasmine blush.

She answered with a stutter, “O-oh, is t-that so?”

The atmosphere finally seemed to return to normal.

Other than Barbalis, who was pulling his own beard and murmuring some strange ideas to himself, everyone was lazily enjoying the afternoon sun, to the point where they almost want to thank Yiyu for breaking the ceiling.

It wasn’t strange, considering this group of late teens and early twenties went into the Dark Street just a few days ago with the thought of dying there, then ran into the Paladin, and fought with Violet Academy. The series of confrontations was too much even for the Aklan Academy Troublemaking Squad.

Everyone looked a bit lazy, but Lanski seemed like she had something to say. With the encouragement from her good friend Jasmine, Lanski finally said with a blush.

“Excuse me, do you know where Silver Mask is?”

Everyone froze, and they all looked towards Kaiser, including Silver Mask himself — Liola.

Lanski thought Kaiser knew Silver Mask’s whereabouts, and a pair of beautiful and hopeful eyes stared at Kaiser.

‘Bastards! What does this have to do with me?’ Kaiser cursed in his mind, sported a smile.

“Silver Mask? He left with his master, and probably won’t be coming back anytime soon.”

Lanski looked like she had been hit by lightning. After the shock, her whole persona seemed to sink into depression, and her face was filled with sadness and despair.

The gang almost wanted to push Liola into her arms to try to comfort the Princess, but Kaiser’s fierce eyes made everyone decide otherwise.

Kaiser had planned to make Silver Mask disappear from now on so he wouldn’t cause them anymore trouble.

Kaiser had already forgotten the reason why Silver Mask appeared in the first place, and forgot it was because someone was greedy for Purity’s brooch, therefore forcing Liola to become the man to fight the Dragon.

“T-then when will he be back?” Lanski tried very hard to hold back the fluster in her heart, but couldn’t cover the trembling in her voice.

Everyone looked at Kaiser, trying to stop him from provoking the Princess.

Although Kaiser will often take pity on a girl, but if this girl were to bring him more trouble, he’d be the first one to push her into a fire pit.

Kaiser said without any hesitation, “He won’t be back for a very, very long…”

“He will be back, soon.”

Liola interrupted Kaiser’s sentence, and even said this to Lanski. Kaiser’s jaw dropped and looked at Liola,

‘T-this guy just said he likes Jasmine more, and now says this to comfort Lanski… When did he become such a playboy and putting his feet into two doors*?’

[*: Chinese proverb for two timing.]

Liola, who didn’t understand emotions, definitely didn’t know anything about being a playboy.

The only reason he said it was because he didn’t want to see Lanski… and by extension, Anise… having a sad expression on her face.

Lanski clearly sighed in relief, but still said in a worried manner,

“If Silver Mask is back, please tell me immediately.”

Ignoring Kaiser’s glare, Liola calmly nodded. Satisfied when he saw Lanski’s smile resurfacing, he felt as if he saw Anise smiling at him, and Liola felt warmth in his heart.

Perhaps this time… he could really live a quiet and calm life?