Dragon Raja 3; Chapter 168: Lord of Blackstone (5)

Dragon Raja 3

“I’m talking about something so great it could be called a ‘god.’ This will be the greatest challenge the Secret Party has ever faced. If before, Caesar and the others were practicing with bamboo swords, this time, they’ll be facing real blades meant to kill.”

Su Enxi and Mai exchanged a glance. They had witnessed the battle between Chu Zihang and Jörmungandr. Though Jörmungandr was slightly weaker than her brother, Fenrir, she was still nearly a perfect being. In terms of speed, physique, Yanling, and regenerative abilities, Jörmungandr stood at the pinnacle of the dragon species. Almost no weapon in the world could kill her. It wasn’t so much that Chu Zihang seized the only opportunity to defeat her, but rather that their shared past had distracted Jörmungandr, causing her to inadvertently expose a weakness.

If killing the Earth and Mountain King Jörmungandr was just practice with bamboo swords, how powerful must a “god” be?

“I know what you’re thinking,” the boss said. “A god can obliterate Jörmungandr in an instant.”

“If the enemy is something like that, can we even call ourselves healers anymore?” Su Enxi sighed.

“A healer is a noble profession! A good healer can restore health, fight, and even buff between battles!” the boss said seriously. “Be brave, don’t be scared. Besides, it’s always the main tank that dies first. When the boss charges, the healer still has time to cast a return scroll and escape!”

“Can a nanny quit?” Su Enxi raised her hand.

The boss quickly grabbed her hand. “No, no, don’t do this, Chips… I really need your help. What would I do if you all quit? I’ll give you a raise, okay?”

His eyes sparkled as if sincere tears could pour out at any moment. Su Enxi couldn’t help but think of the phrase, “Pitiful even to the servant.” She raised an eyebrow, too lazy to deal with this clown. She knew the boss’s nature all too well—sometimes he would play the fool, and sometimes he acted unpredictably, but deep down, he was a man of extreme stubbornness. No one could change his goals. Joking about quitting was just that, a joke. Neither she, Mai, nor the silent “Three-No” would ever actually quit. Between them and the boss, there wasn’t a “contract,” but rather a “covenant.”

“First, we need to locate Caesar’s team,” Mai said.

“They’ve returned to Tokyo, and conveniently, the god is in Tokyo as well,” the boss replied.

“Is this script going to be God Warriors Descend on Tokyo or Godzilla: Tokyo Edition?” Su Enxi’s face darkened.

“Don’t worry, we still have Lu Mingfei,” the boss smiled. “As long as he loads his savior mode, gods aren’t a big deal.”

“Is he controllable?” Su Enxi asked.

If someone kills a dragon once, it could be a coincidence. But if that person loses control twice in their life and both times kills a dragon, then they are fated to slay dragons. Whenever they encounter a Dragon King, they’ll surely go berserk, and when they do, the Dragon King will certainly die. Su Enxi wasn’t worried that Lu Mingfei wouldn’t snap—she worried that he might snap too hard. When he killed Norton, the Bronze and Fire King, he had barely managed to wield Lust, the most inconspicuous of the Seven Deadly Sins. But when facing Fenrir, he had effortlessly drawn all seven dragon-slaying blades, his strength surging beyond the laws of nature. In other words, his power was directly proportional to his opponent’s strength—the stronger the opponent, the stronger he became.

But this time, the opponent was a “god.” A god is omnipotent and omniscient, and Lu Mingfei, in response, would likely become something similarly omniscient and omnipotent… Could such a thing be controlled? Just the thought of it made it clear: he could become as terrifying as the god itself.

“I’m indeed a bit worried,” the boss said softly, “Though our dear actor, Lu Mingfei, has always worked hard to play the role of a dragon-slaying hero, there will come a day when he won’t want to sacrifice himself to save the world anymore. On that day, he’ll awaken from the shell of a coward, becoming a madman who burns the world down.”

“A madman?” Mai whispered.

“There’s a devil inside everyone’s heart. Happiness is its cage. When all happiness turns to ashes, the devil breaks free, singing its bloody hymn. At that moment, the despairing will become unstoppable,” the boss said, staring out the window.

Outside, a light rain was falling. The boss gazed into it, his eyes somewhere between clear and hollow, as if he could already foresee the tragic ending.

Su Enxi suddenly remembered a time when the boss had invited her to watch the opera Romeo and Juliet. It had been a remarkable performance. Everyone had been absorbed in the beautiful lyrics, including Su Enxi. The actress playing Juliet was stunning, her cheeks as beautiful as oleander flowers during the scene of their first meeting. As she and the dashing Romeo danced and sang their heart-stirring love duet, the audience applauded, with some shouting, “Bravo!” Yet the boss remained expressionless, his eyes as hollow as they were now, as though the performers on stage were nothing but empty shells. Su Enxi had whispered, “Don’t you like this play?” and the boss had replied, “No, I love it. That’s why I invited you. But I’ve seen it many times, and I know how it ends. In the final act, that beautiful girl will pull the sword from her lover’s chest and stab herself, singing a sorrowful aria before falling into a pool of blood. So what you see as a beautiful encounter, I see as the beginning of a tragedy. If they knew the ending, would they have still danced that fateful dance?”

The boss was strange like that sometimes, like a philosopher who saw through everything. Even though Su Enxi had been with him for years, she still didn’t understand his past. She often thought that if a person harbored so much joy, anger, and sorrow inside, they must have lived a life full of scars.

“So, please be good nanny. Make our Lu Mingfei a little happier, give him a bit of warmth. That way, he’ll stay asleep a little longer in his small moments of happiness,” the boss said, turning toward the door.

“Find him a girl to replace Nono?” Su Enxi asked, “One who can sweep him off his feet?”

“There’s no such thing as one person replacing another,” the boss smiled. “What we call ‘replacement’ is just when someone else gets forgotten.”

He pushed the door open and looked up at the cherry blossoms on the branches, dampened by the rain. “The cherry blossoms are in full bloom, but I’ve heard their season is short…”

He suddenly sighed. “Chips, you’re right. How many springs, summers, autumns, and winters do we get in life? Why hang yourself on Nono’s crooked tree forever? If there’s a suitable girl, just send one to Lu Mingfei.”

Su Enxi, already used to his unpredictability, followed his lead. “What about Uesugi Erii? She’s a monster, and so is Lu Mingfei. Maybe monsters would fall in love at first sight.”

“Hmm, a romance between monsters… I’m kind of looking forward to it,” the boss said, opening a paper umbrella.

From the path came meowing sounds as the chubby cats came chasing after him. The foolish brother waved his tail, circling around the boss, while the sly sister gracefully leaped onto his shoulder, curling up under his umbrella and licking his cheek. Though Kimura Hiro had been feeding them for ten years, they had never shown such affection, always eating their food and then acting indifferent. But even after ten years of not seeing the boss, as soon as they heard his voice or caught his scent, they rushed over in a hurry. Studies show that a cat’s memory only lasts for fifteen days at most, after which they forget everything, retaining only their primal instincts. Yet science couldn’t explain the memory of this pair of Siamese cats.

The boss kissed the little ones on the tops of their heads. “Dekomori, Takanashi, you’ve really gotten so fat it’s hard to even look at you now! A noble Siamese cat should be as sleek and mysterious as a dark elf, but looking at your plump, goofy forms, I feel sad… What kind of loser cats have I raised?”

“So their names are Dekomori and Takanashi,” Su Enxi said. “The boss still remembers their names.”

“He really does love those two cats,” Mai said softly.

“Well, they’re his cats,” Su Enxi shrugged. “It’s not that he has a bad memory—he’s just lazy when it comes to remembering things. But once he considers something his own, he never forgets it.”