Dragon Raja 3; Chapter 358: We’re All Monsters (2)

Dragon Raja 3

His heart felt empty, as if tapping on his chest would produce a hollow sound.

He didn’t feel sad, but he knew he was sad. He wanted so badly to place the ring on that slender finger, but he couldn’t move—his body was like a rusted tin man.

He tried and tried, giving it all his strength. He thought, how sad it would be for the bride if he kept delaying like this, and how embarrassing it would be in front of the guests. The guests were becoming restless, especially the girls, who were the bridesmaids. The bridesmaids suddenly exclaimed, “Oh right! We forgot! We still need to burn the puppet!”

They gleefully lit torches and ran past Lu Mingfei and Erii, lifting the hems of their gowns, revealing dazzling legs, like a herd of young deer. They ran under the cement arch of the church, ascending the winding stairs to the bell tower. Lu Mingfei looked up. The wind swirled upward, and the cement cross at the top of the church emerged from the mist. A figure in a white wedding gown, bound to the cross with iron wire, appeared. She was crudely made, her limbs hanging limp as if her joints were broken. Her face was sewn from rough white burlap, making it look fragmented, like some sort of evil puppet.

Was this some tradition where burning a puppet symbolized banishing Oni for good fortune? Lu Mingfei stared blankly at the puppet. He held Erii’s hand tightly, silently encouraging himself not to screw up the rest of the wedding after they finished burning the puppet.

The wind lifted the veil of the puppet, and a silver glint flickered near its ears. Why would such expensive-looking jewelry be hanging on such an ugly puppet? Lu Mingfei squinted to get a better look at the object.

It was a pair of silver four-leaf clover earrings.

“Nuo… Nuo.” The name, which felt utterly unfamiliar, slipped from Lu Mingfei’s mouth unconsciously, as if the sound was the beat of the heart that was supposed to be hollow.

Erii held his hand tightly, but he unconsciously let go. The ring slipped from his hand, and he panicked, dashing toward the bell tower. He was completely flustered, terrified that the girls would burn the puppet, scared out of his mind.

Behind him, a soft sigh seemed to come from the priest. Lu Mingfei suddenly snapped back to reality—this was his wedding. He was only one step away from happiness. What would happen to the wedding if he left?

He turned around abruptly. Erii stood in the flames, still wearing her white gown and high-heeled boots, a golden anklet gleaming on her ankle. Her veil and dress turned to black smoke, and within the smoke, his bride had wooden branches for bones, a face sewn from burlap, and blank eyes drawn with ink.

So his bride was a puppet too. He had let go of her hand, and so the puppet had lost its life. The world was burning all around him, and he stood in the center of it all.

Lu Mingfei suddenly sat up in bed, drenched in cold sweat. Outside the window, it was pitch dark, and rain poured from the sky. He had awakened from a nightmare, still in late spring, early summer Tokyo. Red gauze curtains hung around the circular bed, and a soft, down comforter covered him.

He suddenly remembered the massacre on that long street in the dead of night. With the injuries he had sustained, he should have been in a hospital’s emergency room, but instead, he found himself in a room in a love hotel, enjoying a bed for the first time. In the previous days, he had been sleeping in the bathtub.

His head hurt, his body ached, and he couldn’t remember how he had returned to the love hotel. His last memory was of Erii, standing before him like a blood-soaked empress, gazing down at him, her golden eyes devoid of any pity.

He touched his body, and the places where he had been cut were already scabbed over, which meant that the slaughter had really happened and was not just another nightmare. He remembered using his Yanling, “Don’t die,” on himself. Normally, this Yanling could only bring a fly back to life after being swatted, but at a critical moment, it had saved him. He tried to recall the unbelievable events: the black-clad servant, the restaurant that ignited in his hallucination, and the strange dream he had just experienced. It seemed like everything was connected, but he couldn’t figure it out.

There seemed to be memories in his mind that didn’t belong to him. He was sure those things hadn’t happened to him, but he remembered them vividly.

He stared blankly at the ceiling. It had been a long time since he thought about Nono. He was learning to adapt to her new role in his life, as the “boss’s wife,” commonly referred to as “big sister-in-law” in the underworld. In Young and Dangerous, it was said that seducing the big sister-in-law deserved the punishment of three cuts and six holes, which showed just how vile and despicable it was to seduce her—definitely not something the main character of a book should do. But just when he was getting used to life without Nono, she appeared in his dream as an ugly puppet. The dream seemed to be hinting at something, but he still couldn’t understand.

Nono had been missing for a long time. She said she was going out for an internship, but how could an internship be so secretive that even Caesar didn’t know where she had gone? Lu Mingfei was beginning to worry.

He fumbled as he got up, intending to grab a glass of water, when he suddenly jumped in shock. He just remembered something critical—Erii was gone!

And it wasn’t the ordinary Erii, but the one in her bloodline-explosive state, capable of slaughter on par with a dragon!

He glanced at the digital clock on the nightstand. It was 4 a.m., and they had been ambushed by the mafia around 9 p.m. the previous night. That meant Erii had been missing for seven hours! A dangerous killer had been wandering through the rainy night of Tokyo for seven hours?

Ignoring the pain, he grabbed the clothes from the chair and was about to head out to find her, when he noticed a faint light coming from the crack in the bathroom door.

He slowly pushed the door open. The lights in the bathroom were off, but the TV was replaying a well-known episode of Ultraman Tiga. This tokusatsu show aired in 1996, making it a classic.

The plot was as unchanging as ever: the alien monster bullied Ultraman Tiga at first, but then Ultraman Tiga turned the tables, and they awkwardly wrestled. The bathtub was filled with water, and Erii was curled up in one corner, staring intently at the screen.

Lu Mingfei let out a sigh of relief and quickly covered his face with his hand. This wasn’t the first time he had accidentally walked in on Erii while she was bathing. He was much calmer than the last time, and he didn’t leave immediately because he wanted to check on her.

“I’ll leave right away. Are you okay? I’m fine now, really, I’m fine,” he said, his words tumbling out incoherently.

Erii remained curled up in the corner of the bathtub, her pupils gleaming ominously in the darkness. But it wasn’t the fierce look she had before an attack; it was fear. She was trembling like a frightened animal, curled up in the corner of the bathtub.

Series Navigation

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