Chapter 70
It seems like the dragon egg isn’t going to hatch that easily. I don’t think Lian Qi’s suggestion is right. I suspect she just wanted to see me hatch an egg.
By evening, it was almost time for my appointment with Sister Aijieliya. I was steadying myself with one hand on the shoe cabinet, putting on my shoes, when Lian Qi walked over and looked at me. “It’s already very late. Are you sure you’ll be okay going out alone?”
“Mm, I’m just going to Sister Aijieliya’s place anyway. The Headmaster’s office is also in the castle, so it’s fine.”
Besides, I’m a boy, what’s there to be afraid of?
Lian Qi sighed helplessly. “Forget it, I’ll go with you. I’ll come back after I see you to the Headmaster’s office.”
“Eh?”
I didn’t expect Lian Qi to be so thoughtful. She’s like a completely different person from when she’s bullying me. I quickly said, “You really don’t need to.”
“Do you even know where the Headmaster’s office is?”
Her question stopped me. That’s right… Lian Qi has always been the one going to Sister’s place for special training. I, on the other hand, just waited in the dorm for her to come back. I’m really not that familiar with the location of the Headmaster’s office.
“Let’s go. I’ll take you. If you dawdle any longer, you’ll be late.”
Lian Qi has always been domineering. I couldn’t win against her, so I had to obey her arrangement and let her accompany me to the Headmaster’s office.
The moment we stepped outside, a cold wind blew against me. I shivered. So cold! I also ignored her “Even your shiver is cute” teasing.
“The temperature difference between day and night in your world is too big, isn’t it?” Lian Qi said, glancing at the pale moon outside the window. “And the moon is so creepy.”
“It can’t be helped… I told you before, our world’s climate is a bit cold.”
That’s why I don’t agree with the Druid’s theory that the overuse of magic is causing the world to warm up. Where is it warming up? It’s still this cold.
Right, I haven’t told Lian Qi about that yet.
“The moon is green. Don’t tell me there’s a forest on it?” Lian Qi said, gazing at the pale moon high in the sky.
I smiled. “I used to wonder about that too.”
“Has anyone ever dreamed of flying up there to take a look?”
I couldn’t help but laugh. Who would have such a wild idea?
We walked shoulder to shoulder through the corridor and down a series of spiral staircases. After about ten minutes, we arrived at the Headmaster’s office. However, a headless stone gargoyle blocked my path.
Eek, I never would have known there was something so scary outside the Headmaster’s office if I hadn’t come. Also, where did its head go? Who knocked it off?
“Password?”
The gargoyle asked me in a raspy voice. I couldn’t help but shrink back behind Lian Qi. It clearly doesn’t have a head, so how is it talking?
“Password? You need a password to enter the Headmaster’s office?” I was shocked.
“Of course. And you said you didn’t need me to come with you? You don’t know anything.”
“…” I had nothing to say.
“The password is ‘Death to Xubai,’” Lian Qi said to the gargoyle, clearly familiar with the routine.
“What kind of password is that???”
Lian Qi shrugged. “Your sister set it. Who knows.”
“Well said,” the gargoyle muttered, moving aside to unblock the Headmaster’s door. To be honest… a password like that leaves me speechless. Does Sister curse ‘That person’ every time she enters the office?
It seems Sister’s resentment for Sister Xubai runs really deep…
Wait.
At this point, can I still call ‘That person’—Sister?
“Then you’ll go in alone, okay? About what time will you be back? So I can come get you.” —Lian Qi’s words interrupted my thoughts. I smiled and said to her, “I don’t know either, but I can just have Sister send me back to the dorm when I’m done.”
Lian Qi nodded, relieved. “That works too. The Headmaster’s teleportation magic will send you back in an instant. Then I’ll head back first.”
“Mhm.”
“Since it’s your sister who asked for you, I won’t punish you by making you kneel on the washboard this time. But you have to come back early, okay?”
Lian Qi’s tone and expression reminded me of a word, tsundere…? No, that doesn’t seem right.
“Thank you for your generosity,” I said, waving goodbye to her with a smile. As she turned, she glanced back at me, still worried.
She worries about me too much.
“Pardon the intrusion.” —I pushed open the door to the Headmaster’s office. What greeted my eyes were two-story-high bookshelf walls and all sorts of magical instruments I couldn’t name. Aijieliya sat behind her desk. When she saw me, she swiveled her office chair to face me.
…
“Sister, you’re here. Have a seat,” she smiled slightly, swirling the wine glass in her hand, gesturing for me to sit opposite her. I knew she was drinking again…
Come to think of it, Sister’s drinking problem has been going on for four years. I don’t even have to think to know she picked it up after ‘That person’ fell into the abyss of magic.
“First time here, right? The furnishings here are exactly the same as when Teacher Larnitis was Headmaster. Including the gargoyle at the door, that was also salvaged from the ruins of the Magic Tower.”
“Mm… So the gargoyle’s head was damaged when the Magic Tower collapsed?” I asked after sitting down.
“No. The gargoyle’s head was smashed by ‘That person’ back in the day after she had a fight with the Headmaster. From this, you can see that her violent nature had already formed even before she fell into the abyss of magic.”
Alright, so that’s what happened.
“Sister, you’re drinking again?” I said to her helplessly.
“Fei’er, don’t try to stop me today. Because I want to celebrate.”
“Celebrate…?”
“Celebrate the transmigrator from another dimension dealing with the student council for me, of course.” Sister said, raising her glass to me in a toast, then downing the red wine in one gulp.
I stared at her in surprise. “Lian Qi dealt with the student council… for you?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Actually, I’ve always wanted to ask… You knew all about those dandies in the student council throwing the Magic Academy into chaos, didn’t you, Sister?”
I watched as the wine bottle on the desk floated up under Sister’s control, automatically refilling the glass in her hand. To think she’d finish one glass and immediately have another. I’m really worried she’ll get drunk.
“I knew.”
“Including… Student Council President Allen Oniste running a gambling ring, the Little Overlord of the Silver Spear Ivan harassing female students, and Wood holding drug parties… you knew about all of that, too?”
Sister stared into her wine glass and was silent for a moment before saying, “I really didn’t know about the gambling ring and the drug parties. That group is all dandies. For some issues with their conduct, it wasn’t appropriate for me to intervene personally. Fortunately, Lian Qi came and taught them a harsh lesson for me.”
“Then… Lian Qi running into Wood in the first match, and the Little Overlord of the Silver Spear in the second match… none of that was a coincidence, was it?” I asked tentatively.
“That was all arranged by me.”
Sister smiled and sipped her red wine.
“I planned it all before Lian Qi even enrolled. My goal was to have Lian Qi defeat all of them during the Graduation Festival ranking tournament.”
“Sister, you’re so two-faced,”1 I said with a weak laugh.
Footnotes
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The text uses
腹黑(fùhēi), literally “black-bellied,” a common trope for a character who appears nice but is secretly manipulative or scheming. “Two-faced” or “scheming” captures the meaning. ↩