Dragon Raja; Chapter 87: Stars and Flowers (13)

Dragon Raja

“Hmm, I say, lift ‘Edict,’” the principal said.

The old cowboy suddenly sat up straight, put down his beer bottle, and his expression grew serious. “Are you serious?”

“There are intruders. Norma’s assessment is that it’s a dragon invasion. Wouldn’t it be good to let the young ones have some practice?” the principal said casually. “The dragon Kings are about to wake up one by one. Wouldn’t it be better to let the young people train and get ready?”

“Yanling “Word Spirit” is like a demon in a bottle. Letting it out easily gives power, but it may not be a good thing. Are the young ones ready?”

“As someone with dragon blood, you are using the power of the devil to fight the devil, right? Night Watchman, this night will soon be too much for both of us to guard. We need young people.”

The old cowboy was silent for a long time. “I’ll temporarily agree with you, but keep a close watch on your students.”

He turned off the TV and quietly sat on the sofa. The only light illuminating his old face came from a candle on the table. How long had this candle been burning? Twelve years or fifteen? He couldn’t remember anymore.

The phone rang again.

“Who is it?” the old cowboy picked up the receiver.

“Dad.” The person on the other end sounded a bit timid.

“Hey! Manstein, my son, good evening! Have you recovered from your cold? I miss you so much!” The old cowboy suddenly became cheerful.

“Dad, that cold was three weeks ago. Even without medicine, a cold would recover in two weeks,” Manstein sighed.

“Oh… really?” The old cowboy scratched his head. “Son, did you need something?”

“I was hoping… could you… I know this might break school rules, but tonight’s situation is special. There are intruders, and we can’t locate them, while there are some important things on campus that might be their target.” Manstein hesitated for a long time. “Could you temporarily lift ‘Edict’? This is a joint request from Professor Schneider of the Execution Bureau and me.”

The old cowboy fell silent, looking up at the ceiling, not speaking for a long time.

“I know this call is overstepping boundaries. Sorry for interrupting your movie.” Manstein held back for a long time, eager to hang up.

“Oh… no, no!” The old cowboy said. “I was just thinking… isn’t your birthday in two weeks, dear son?”

“Yes,” Manstein replied, somewhat awkwardly. “Didn’t expect you to remember.”

“Then… consider this my birthday gift to you! I’ll lift ‘Edict’ right away, as a birthday present. I’m the kind of good father who’s willing to break school rules for his beloved son!” The old cowboy promised. “Son, you’ll know how wonderful it feels to have a father!”

Manstein was bewildered as he hung up the phone.

“Well?” Schneider asked him. “If he doesn’t agree, it’s okay.”

“No… he agreed…” Manstein touched his bald head. “But I still feel… strange. When I was little, he was the kind of father who wouldn’t take me to ride roller coasters on my birthday, who was always nowhere to be found, a drunkard and a gambler, yet now he says… he’ll give me this as a birthday present.”

“Enjoy the belated fatherly love!” Guderian patted his old friend on the shoulder.

“That’s not the point, is it?” Manstein glared.

In the attic, the old cowboy finished his beer, sat up on the sofa, and blew out the candle on the table. As the candle was extinguished, a powerful “spirit” that had enveloped all of Cassell College dissipated. Dozens, even hundreds, of silver-blue beams slowly rose on the central monitoring screens dozens of meters below the library—those were ancient powers passed down from the past.

The students were restless. Their “spirits,” which had been suppressed for a long time, were awakened.

Almost at the same moment, the captain leaped out of the gap. With the chanting of dragon inscriptions, his figure turned increasingly black, until it seemed as though he were a pool of ink.

Yanling: Dark Light.

The moment he landed, his figure dissipated, as if he were a blot of ink washed off paper by a splash of water.

“Stand beside me. My field extends about two meters around me.” His voice reached every companion’s ears.

At that moment, a student passed less than a meter away from him, but they were completely unaware that a wisp of hazy black smoke brushed past them under the streetlight.

5. Birthday Gift

At the edge of the spring lake on the top of the mountain, the two continued to soak their feet. Nono leaned out half of his body to look down the mountain. The slope was so steep that she would fall down if she was not careful.

“Hey!” Lu Mingfei didn’t dare pull her. “If you fall, you’re done for.”

“There are no fireflies left,” Nono muttered.

“Fireflies?”

“When I said stars, I meant the big fireflies. In the summer, they fly up along the waterfall from below the mountain. It’s beautiful. There’s a lot of mist in the summer, and it looks like stars rising in a cloud,” Nono said. “Do you think I’m stupid? Coming all the way up here just to realize it’s a cloudy night?”

Lu Mingfei cursed inwardly. Is this senior sister really a witch? She seemed to be able to read everything he was thinking, even those deeply buried thoughts… But then again, he really didn’t have any deep thoughts.

Lu Mingfei was eighteen years old, living a simple life like a blank sheet of paper, only as deep as a strand of hair.

“Have you ever heard of the Ruins of Gui Xu?” Nono stared at the waterfall. “They say there’s a place in the ocean where the seafloor just disappears, and the seawater flows into an enormous waterfall, dropping thousands upon thousands of meters. If someone falls in, they’d never reach the bottom; they would starve while falling…” Her voice was very light. “Their soul, like a firefly, slowly rises, following the path of stars, drifting home.”

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