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Chapter 21: Don’t Follow Me
Ning Chu’s eyes darkened, and he buried himself in Wuuth’s clothes in front of him, subconsciously reaching out to push him away. Wuuth’s clothes also contained a small dragon cub, which Ning Chu pressed right above his inside pocket. He was afraid that Fifth Cub would be discovered by Ning Chu, and with his other hand, he held Ning Chu’s wrist tightly to keep him from moving.
The students who saw the weird posture and situation of the two men shut up and stopped not far away. They looked at each other, and although they didn’t say anything, their eyes were filled with the same surprise and excitement.
They saw something! These two were definitely not on the right track! The rumor that Wuuth and Ning Chu were having an affair was known to many in the Academy, but it was spoken of as a joke and wasn’t taken seriously.
The Academy didn’t explicitly forbid students from falling in love, so as long as it didn’t affect the course and credit, the teachers wouldn’t care.
When Wuuth first enrolled, many students tried to court him because of his innate skill, both men and women. All of them failed, and they didn’t even have a chance to talk to Wuuth.
Once, a second-year male student went to the arena to challenge Wuuth in order to speak to him up close. Wuuth accepted the challenge, ignored his gesture of affection, and beat him unmercifully.
After that incident, the boy avoided Wuuth when he saw him and never mentioned that he adored him again. So when Wuuth conceded defeat against Ning Chu, many speculated that their relationship was impure. After all, it was Wuuth, and even if they were friends, he wouldn’t just admit defeat, right?
Wuuth had let go of Ning Chu, still blocking him tightly, as he quickly put his mask back on.
Among the group of students, someone pulled out a magic round mirror that could record images and tried to take a picture of the scene, only to be interrupted by the arriving mercenaries.
“What was that sound?” Several mercenaries hurried over, their faces grave, “A magic dragon?”
Ning Chu confirmed that the mask on his face was intact, adjusted his emotions and took a few deep breaths, “It was the fire dragon.” He pointed to the far side of the woods, “Just now Wuuth distracted some adult dragons, while I went into the nest alone to find the dragon eggs, when I came out and saw it.”
Ning Chu said the magic dragon snatched the eggs and flew away with several adult dragons that had returned to the nest.
A mercenary went up to look around at the empty dragon nest, then looked at Ning Chu suspiciously, “It took several dragons and dragon eggs and just left?”
There were large trees crushed around the area, and huge claw marks could be seen on the ground, all proving that it was indeed a magic dragon. The crowd had even heard the sound that couldn’t be faked. But it really ended smoothly, when they wanted to move the dragon nest, a magic dragon appeared and helped them.
Ning Chu who met the magic dragon was unharmed, his clothes were stained with dirt and grass leaves, but they didn’t suspect Ning Chu at all. The idea that a magic dragon would help humans was too unbelievable, they only thought that the magic dragon was behaving abnormally, or it had other conditions with its body.
In any case, a magic dragon’s presence was more important than any dragon’s nest, and the mercenaries searched the area to try to gather more information.
Ning Chu stepped back, with Wuuth following him. The students tried to approach, but were frozen in place by the glare Wuuth cast.
Someone whispered, “It’s good that they’re okay, we… Let’s not bother them, shall we?”
Several people looked at each other and silently turned to leave.
The mercenary group went to the distant woods to check, and when no one was around, Ning Chu pushed Wuuth away, “What were you doing taking off my mask again?”
He should consider adding a defensive magic to his mask, since every time Wuuth took it off, he was unaware and caught him off guard, embarrassing him.
Wuuth was silent for a moment, “Sorry.” He began to realize that although the two were in a solitary situation, he would make Ning Chu angry by going straight to take off his mask like that. Shouldn’t he ask Ning Chu first?
Ning Chu’s cold voice, “The next time you do that… No, there is no next time.”
He was willing to make friends with Wuuth, but this man sometimes didn’t know how to behave, and he didn’t know what to do and what not to do unless he was reprimanded firmly. Without waiting for Wuuth’s reaction, Ning Chu turned around and walked deeper into the woods.
Wuuth was about to join him, but Ning Chu didn’t even look back, “Don’t follow me.”
Wuuth just took a step then stopped, obediently not moving. He knew that Ning Chu was going to find the Scarlet Flame Dragon and no one could follow him. But the tone of Ning Chu’s voice just now still annoyed him.
It was a pain in the ass to be human.
Fifth Cub quietly emerged and nibbled on a leaf that was hanging down in front of Wuuth. Wuuth brushed the branch away and stroked Fifth Cub’s head, “Hungry?”
He took out a small handful of oat grass he had brought with him and slowly fed it to Fifth Cub.
Ning Chu walked along the edge of the grove while looking around.
Third Cub had sent the Green Lizard Dragons to a safe place before turning back. The Green Lizard Dragons could find a new nest on their own with their eggs, and there were quite a few of them, so the journey would probably be safe. He walked a little further and finally saw a small red figure flying through the trees towards him.
Ning Chu opened his arms to catch Third Cub and covered him with his jacket, “They’re all gone?”
“Aowu!” Gone.
“No one else found you, right?” Ning Chu held Third Cub tightly and slowly walked back, “You worked hard.”
“Aowu.” No one found out, it wasn’t hard work.
This town was in a quite remote location, surrounded by mountains and was sparsely populated. The group of Green Lizard Dragons originally also intended to go further away, however, on the way because the dragon eggs were about to be laid, they had to stay on the outskirts of the town.
Ning Chu was relieved, and hid Third Cub before returning to the location he came from.
Wuuth was still in the same place, his expressionless profile looked very cold, and the Dwarf Dragon was lying at his feet. When he saw Ning Chu appear, Wuuth immediately stood up straight. Ning Chu swept him a glance and walked to the woods. He took a few steps and turned his head to find Wuuth motionless.
Ning Chu’s anger subsided a little, “…Let’s go.”
Wuuth reacted and quickly followed Ning Chu.
Back in the town by the river, the residents were thanking the people, taking out some gold coins as a gift, but the students didn’t accept it, and the mercenary group was too embarrassed to accept.
One resident worried, “Will the dragons come back?”
In the past, there were often low-ranking magical beasts on the outskirts of the town, but the high-ranking ones were deeper in the mountains and forests, and very few of them would be encountered, let alone dragons.
Enigma Forest was burned down, which disturbed the magical beasts inside, and they fled in search of a new place to live, inevitably passing by places where humans lived. However, the most frightening thing was the dragons rather than the high level beasts.
No one could guarantee it, as the group looked at each other, and only Ning Chu replied, “No.”
He reassured the residents who spoke, “They were in a hurry to lay the dragon eggs this time, and normally wouldn’t stay in a crowded place.”
Ordinary humans were afraid of dragons, and dragons also disliked humans.
“Re-really? That’s good,” the inhabitants recognized him as the one who took the initiative to move the nest and thanked him, “Thank you so much, we don’t know what we would have done without you…”
“It’s okay,” Ning Chu said, “As long as the dragons are not disturbed, they would leave on their own when the eggs hatch.”
“He’s just a student, so what does he know?” Someone in the mercenary group heard and lowered his voice, “It was just luck.”
How else could Ning Chu and Wuuth have survived the magic dragon’s claws and coaxed the general public? His voice was quiet, but Ning Chu heard it regardless, as his masked face turned towards him.
At the same time, the Dwarf Dragon stood up furiously and showed its teeth at him as if Ning Chu was his master. The mercenary was so shocked that he almost fell into the river. He steadied himself and said to Wuuth indignantly, “Mind your contracted beast…”
Wuuth didn’t even bother to give him a look and looked at Ning Chu, “Go back?”
There were no more dragons around, and the area had been cleared of magical beasts, so Ning Chu decided, “Let’s go back.”
When the students saw that they were going to leave, they were very reluctant, but didn’t dare to ask them to stay. They weren’t afraid of Ning Chu, but they were of Wuuth. They watched Wuuth and Ning Chu get on the dragon’s back together, and Wuuth even gave Ning Chu a hand when the dragon took off.
When the dragon flew high into the sky, carrying the two people on its back further and further away, one of the students’ voices was very excited, “So that rumor… It’s true, right?”
Shortly after Ning Chu and Wuuth left, the deacon sent by the Church arrived late. Knowing that the dragon’s nest had been successfully moved, the deacon was about to leave after a few perfunctory words, when he heard from the mercenary group that a magic dragon had also appeared here, and that it had led some dragons away. He suddenly became interested, “Where was this? Take me to see.”
Leaving the town, Ning Chu asked Wuuth to fly the Dwarf Dragon around the Academy. With the help of Lance Academy and the Church, the situation of the beasts was temporarily alleviated and didn’t worsen, and the students in the Academy were safe.
At noon they found a random place to settle lunch. Ning Chu didn’t roast rabbit meat again, but prepared some bread and other dry food. Wuuth didn’t look like a person who carried food with him, so Ning Chu offered him half of the bread.
Wuuth was a little hesitant to take the bread, he held it in his hand for a while, then looked down and took a bite. Ning Chu watched him quietly and saw him frowning, obviously not liking it. But eventually he swallowed the bite of bread and put the rest away instead of continuing to eat it or returning it to Ning Chu.
Ning Chu thought to himself, Is it possible that he likes burnt rabbit meat more?
Cubbie also liked to eat rabbits, both raw and cooked. When Ning Chu raised a group of rabbits in the game, most of them were reserved for him…
Ning Chu closed his eyes and silently recited, Wuuth is Wuuth, Cubbie is Cubbie, and cleared his mind before continuing to eat bread.
In the afternoon they didn’t have a definite destination, so Ning Chu simply suggested, “Let’s go straight back to the Academy.”
He hadn’t been to the arena for a few days, so it was time to prepare for two challenges this afternoon. The two of them went back one after the other, just like yesterday. There were a lot of people coming and going at the entrance of the school in the afternoon, and Ning Chu entered with his head down when he suddenly heard someone talking.
“Two magic dragons? The contract gods bless…”
He stopped in his tracks and turned his head to look at some students who were talking, “Another magic dragon?”
The students who spoke were all second year students, so they didn’t know Ning Chu as they casually explained, “Not here, it’s over in West Point. Two magic dragons got into a fight, exchanging blows.”
“I heard it rained hard for three days in a row,” another added, “and no one dared to go out on the street.”