CH 8

The next day.

The demons gathered into the dining hall to eat breakfast. There was one person missing from the table.

“Where’s that guy?” Morris asked as he crunched on his biscuits. “Overslept again?”

“No. Ping Lan went off early in the morning.” Dongya explained, “He

said he wanted to go to the park.”

“What’s he doing in the park? He can’t be learning the folk dance with those old ladies, right?” Conglong speculated.

“Who knows. He didn’t say.” Dongya tapped his chin, saying a little worriedly, “I hope he didn’t join Bai Li Rui in peeking into the gymnastics team’s morning practice…”

*

It was when the final ring for the first period sounded that Feng Ping Lan rushed into the classroom.

Liu Yi Chen, who was standing at the front glanced at him, “You were almost late by a second.”

“Haha, touchdown!”

He panted as he stepped in, placing a swollen bag on the ground. The bag gave out a heavy cluttering sound.

“Where did you go?” Looking at Feng Ping Lan’s uniform drenched with sweat, Conglong frowned. “You’re so filthy.”

“I went to bury some treasure.” Feng Ping Lan smiled as he threw out a vague answer, then turned his head to look at Dongya. He said embarrassedly, “Um, I’m sorry I got my clothes dirty, I’ve caused you trouble…”

“It’s okay.” Dongya smiled gently, “I bought a super-effective detergent a while ago. I haven’t found an opportunity to try it out, so I can use it with this.” His tone of voice carried some excitement.

The next period was incredibly tranquil, and nothing particular happened. All was harmonious and flat.

Throughout the day, no matter if it was during class, after class, or break, Feng Ping Lan would glance up to the clock without realizing it, as if he was anticipating something.

Six hours left…

Three hours left…

As he stared at the clock, silently counting the time left, his actions actually fell into the eyes of several people from all corners of the room. The several people staring at Feng Ping Lan, also silently did a countdown.

After school. The moment the bell rang, Feng Ping Lan collected his things hurriedly.

“I’m going to buy a few things with Su Li Wan, go to the Shadow Academy without me.” Feng Ping Lan easily found an excuse.

“Are you going to the marketplace?” Dongya’s eyes lit up, eager to accompany.

“No, we’re going to the bookshop. To buy reference books.”

Dongya quickly lost interest, “Alright, see you later then.”

Looking at the smile on Dongya’s face, guilt subtly pierced through Feng Ping Lan’s heart.

He was lying to Dongya and the others…

But there was no choice. He couldn’t keep on giving the others trouble…

Feng Ping Lan and Su Li Wan walked to the school gates. On the way there, he apologized, “I’m sorry, for making you accompany me. I even used you as an excuse.”

“No worries.” Su Li Wan smiled, “I didn’t have anything to do anyway.”

Her Contract Zhong Xian was always in Shadow Academy, and frequently ignored her, so she did not need to construct an excuse for Zhong Xian.

She wondered if this was considered lucky or unlucky.

As both of them passed the school building and arrived at the gates, they spotted a familiar figure standing by the side, arms crossed as if she had been waiting for them.

“Class Rep!”

“Where are you going?”

“Uh, to buy reference books…”

“Is it?”

“We’re actually on a date.” Su Li Wan smiled.

Feng Ping Lan never expected Su Li Wan to lie like this for him, and he revealed such an astonished expression that he instantly gave it away.

“Give it up.” Liu Yi Chen rolled her eyes, looking at Feng Ping Lan, “I overheard everything you said to Kaido yesterday.”

Feng Ping Lan smiled wryly. Aha, so they’d been seen through from the start.

“Did you come here to stop us?” If Class Rep had already reported them, there was nothing they could do.

In the end, he still couldn’t settle anything on his own…

“The school rules state that we are forbidden to use spells to combat outside the school.” Liu Yi Chen pushed her glasses up. “But, common martial arts are not restricted.”

“Mm? So?”

“I want to supervise your fight. I’ll prevent you guys from doing anything that goes against the rules.”

Feng Ping Lan blinked slowly, flabbergasted with Liu Yi Chen’s decision.

“But…”

Although he was grateful that she was helping them keep this secret, he had already promised Kaido to not tell anyone else. If he brought an extra two people over, he worried that Kaido would object to this, refuse to the battle, then all his preparations would be null.

“Any more objections and I’ll report this to the Class Advisor.”

“No no no, please don’t do that.” Feng Ping Lan had no choice, and could only acquiesce, “Let’s go then.”

As the group of three were about to leave, a shout from the back rang out.

“Wait a minute!” It was Ivan who was dragging Igor behind him, rushing hurriedly over, “There’s us too!”

“Why are you guys coming too?”

“Igor overheard you guys yesterday. He was actually going to watch quietly from afar, but I forced it out of him.” Ivan glanced at Igor indignantly, “You’re not allowed to keep something so interesting from me next time!”

“Goodness, how many people know about this?” Please don’t tell him that the whole class was waiting to watch the show when they went over.

“Not many. Igor was worried that you’d get beaten up by Kaido yesterday, so he watched over you closely.” Ivan laughed mockingly, “I told you, he’s such a doormat.”

Looking at the four people before him, Feng Ping Lan was going to ask them to return, but for some reason he was speechless.

“How bothersome, how am I going to explain this to Kaido…” Feng Ping Lan forced a smile and resigned himself to his fate, “I feel like Momotaro going to the demon island to beat up some demons. Hahaha!”

Although he sounded helpless, he secretly felt warm inside, and his anxiousness was now a little calm and settled because of that.

*

When Feng Ping Lan’s group reached the park, Kaido was already there.

Kaido guarded one corner of the stage overbearingly, and when he saw the companions behind Feng Ping Lan, his face darkened.

“You asked me to not tell anyone else, but brought your own helpers over?”

“I didn’t tell them, they overheard and wanted to come over.” Feng Ping Lan explained.

“Besides, we’re not helpers.” Ivan smiled as he said this, “We’re here to watch. Even if you beat him half to death, we won’t lift a single finger to help him!”

Igor glanced at Ivan out of the corner of his eye, looking not-so-approving.

Kaido laughed coldly, “Doesn’t matter. You won’t be a match even if all of you go up against me, I’ll just let you become the witnesses of this fight. Although…” His smile froze glaring at Feng Ping Lan. “You sure you want to fight here?”

There were a few elderly people playing croquet in the distance, and children shuttling back and forth on the rocking horse and the castle, merry laughter creating a joyous atmosphere.

Beneath the stage, there were also groups of twos and threes sitting below, gazing curiously at the group of people up there.

“Are they performing something?”

“Are they playing Kamen Rider?’

The crowd looked at Feng Ping Lan and the others’ each and every movement excitedly. The murderous atmosphere that was supposed to be there was completely nonexistent.

“Why not?” Feng Ping Lan asked instead. “We’re not using any spells either way. The most those people will think of us are delinquents in a brawl.”

“Did you do this on purpose?”

“You agreed to this yesterday!” Feng Ping Lan reminded him with a smile, “If you don’t want to compete anymore, you should give up now. How ‘bout it? Wanna give up?”

Kaido’s features chilled, taking out a blade from his back. He hacked down on Feng Ping Lan as his answer.

“Wow!” A round of applause sounded out from the audience.

Kaido attacked consecutively, and after receiving a few blows, Feng Ping Lan turned and ran down the stage.

“Admitting defeat now? Running away after just this much?!” Kaido questioned angrily.

“Who says, the entire park is the arena!” Feng Ping Lan replied as he ran, “It’s not counted as losing if we don’t step out of the range!” With that, he jumped down the stairs.

Kaido chased frantically from the back, and as he stepped on one of the steps his foot slid, almost slipping, but he stabilized himself with some difficulty.

“There’s water on those steps, and there’s moss growing on them, better watch your step hahahahaha!”

“Go die!”

Kaido followed Feng Ping Lan, cutting through every corner of the public park. Feng Ping Lan’s path kept on changing, one moment turning around a corner, another moment turning back, but he kept on chasing closely.

“You useless trash! Fight with me! You’re just a shirking coward!”

“This is how I fight!”

Feng Ping Lan speeded towards the see-saw, stomping hard on one side. A bowl of dark-brown stuff placed at the end of the other side flew towards Kaido, spraying across his trousers.

Kaido could smell meat stock coming from it. This was… dog food!

“There’re a lot of stray dogs around this area.” Feng Ping Lan warned smilingly.

Then, a pack of famished wild dogs striving to be first bounded towards the meat-smelling Kaido.

Su Li Wan, who stood by the side spectating, widened her eyes. She thought that Feng Ping Lan’s way of combating was pretty disorderly, but there was a feeling of admiration coming from her as well.

Had he already planned it all out, when he had given all those conditions to Kaido yesterday night?

Although it had seemed like a few random suggestions he had thrown out without thinking, and it looked like fair and reasonable terms, he seemed to be able to apply them all to his advantage.

Unable to use spells, magic-ability and martial arts, Feng Ping Lan could only rely on his mind.

This guy…

He wasn’t just a common idiot, he was a brilliant idiot.

Kaido bellowed, chasing after Feng Ping Lan as he shook off the wild dogs.

Feng Ping Lan passed through the bar, nimbly climbing up the elephant slide, then slid down. Kaido hurried to follow, but as he passed through, he suddenly felt a bout of pain from his buttocks, only to see that a large hole had been torn from the back. Looking back at the slide, he saw that there was a large piece of sandpaper stuck on it.

“Mama, that big brother is showing his butt.” A passing little girl pointed at Kaido with a huge shout.

Kaido glared back at her, and the little girl burst into tears with that vicious expression, running away from the scene.

The Summoner apprentices who were watching couldn’t help but grin.

Kaido’s rage reached its limit, and he pulled down the hem of his shirt to cover up the torn part, there chased down Feng Ping Lan’s location at the sand pit.

“I’ll kill you!”

“Do you know why no one plays here?”

Feng Ping Lan stood at the edge of the sand pit, raising a finger, “One, because there’s always dog poop in this sand pit.”

Kaido’s eyes were red with murderous intent, and continued to rush at Feng Ping Lan.

“Two—” Feng Ping Lan raised a second finger.

When the distance between Kaido and Feng Ping Lan shortened to about five steps away, his foot suddenly stepped into thin air, and he immediately lost his balance, his entire body dropping into a hole about two meters deep.

“—I dug a hole here this morning.” Feng Ping Lan held up a piece of paper, waving it at Kaido, “Right until just now, there was an ‘Under Construction’ sign here!”

“Despicable scumbag!”

“How is this despicable? Everything I’ve done has followed the terms we agreed to yesterday. I didn’t break any rules.” Feng Ping Lan squatted beside the hole, smiling, “I said not to use any spells, and that anything else goes. You agreed.”

“Do you think you’ll win like this?” Kaido raised his head, threatening with clenched teeth, “This sort of hole won’t keep me in!”

“Yup yup, that’s what I thought too.” Feng Ping Lan pulled a heavy backpack open, grabbing a fishnet and dumping it over the sandpit.

The net wrapped Kaido from head to toe, the fine and closely woven net coiling around all four of his limbs, making it completely inescapable.

“Still wanna fight? I still have something else up my sleeve!” Feng Ping Lan took out a huge jar of starch paste and thumbtacks, “If I pour all these down, Kaido’ll turn into a sea urchin1!”

Kaido’s features darkened, glaring at the starch paste and the thumbtacks, wordless.

“You can’t fight anymore. So I win.” Feng Ping Lan extended a hand to the pit, “Let’s not compete about everything. Let’s make friends, and coexist peacefully, how about that?”

“I’m not going to lose!” Kaido suddenly took out some seal paper from his pocket, throwing it out. The net on his body suddenly rose up, turning on Feng Ping Lan instead.

“Ah!” Feng Ping Lan was suddenly attacked, his entire person falling back.

Taking advantage of this, Kaido stuck a spell on his feet, lightly treading and leaping across, out of the pit.

When finally Feng Ping Lan struggled out of the net, he saw the sharply gleaming blade pointing right at his chest.

“Now who is the one that’s lost?” Kaido laughed maliciously, looking like he’d lost all reason.

“Hey! You can’t do that!” Feng Ping Lan protested, but the blade put more pressure on his chest, and he didn’t dare move recklessly.

The spectating students rushed into the scene, circling around both of them.

“Put that down, Kaido.” Su Li Wan urged, “We already know the results. You have nothing to lose either, so please just settle with this.”

“You’re unsightly!” Ivan shook his head.

“Your actions have already gone against the rules.” Liu Yi Chen warned coldly. “If you don’t want me reporting this, just admit defeat and go!”

Kaido’s emptied hand swished outwards, a spell shooting at Liu Yi Chen and the others.

Liu Yi Chen and the others hurriedly backed away, a blaze exploding out of the ground that they used to stand on.

“Shut up, I don’t care about that!” Kaido glared at Feng Ping Lan, the blade moving to the joints of his elbow, adding more pressure, “Surrender now, or I’ll cut you up starting with your arm!”

“I don’t want to!” Feng Ping Lan yelled back, “You lost!”

Kaido’s eyes flashed with burning fury, “You asked for it!”

He gripped his blade tight, the tip of his sword about to slice down from the joints of his elbow, but then, a lofty figure caught his attention from the corner of his eye.

He turned, only to see a young boy with purple hair that had appeared from who-knew-where, squatting by the side to observe Feng Ping Lan and Kaido.

Liu Yi Chen and the others stared at the boy that had abruptly appeared with astonishment.

Nobody knew when he had started crouching there.

“Xiao Didi2, you should leave quickly, this place is dangerous.” Feng Ping Lan also looked at the little boy, but did not sense any abnormalities, lying down on the floor to warn him, “This Gege is really vicious, he’ll hit people!”

The little boy turned his head to look at Kaido, then looked at the net covered with spells, then at the remnants of the seal paper that had fallen to the ground.

Igor tried to go up to pull the boy away, but Igor blocked him.

“Wait…” Ivan warned quietly, “Something’s not right.”

Not only with the boy’s strange movements, but their surroundings, as well as the area in the vicinity. It was completely cleared out. Other than them, there was not a single person nearby.

Where had all the other tourists gone?

The little boy raised his head to look at Kaido, spewing a whole chain of mutterings to himself.

“Are you a Summoner?”

“Yes, you cast a spell earlier. I saw it all.”

“Where is your Contract then? Is it here?”

His gaze traveled across the other four people, “Is it one of you?”

“Mm, no. Not one of them is standing on your side.”

As the little boy mumbled, his body started to twist and transform, the little figure stretching upwards, turning into an androgynous purple-haired demon.

All present in the scene widened their eyes, not foreseeing this sort of development.

“Who are you?” Kaido looked at the demon that had abruptly emerged watchfully, not revealing any sort of panic or nervousness on his face.

“I am Jiu Shao, have you heard of me?” The purple-haired demon asked expectantly.

Kaido shook his head in disdain.

Jiu Shao pursed his lips, “Oh, alright then, since I’m a nobody that hides in the dark to survive, I won’t ever be able to get famous.”

He stared at Kaido, his purple hair rising upwards, squirming like tentacles in the air.

Then, Jiu Shao revealed a disgusted face.

“…You have a familiar and hateful feeling on you.”

It was faint, a presence that was barely able to be discerned, a frightful aura.

Su Li Wan and Liu Yi Chen exchange a look, not sure of what to do. No one dared to speak out, all of them quietly looking at each and every movement of their uninvited guest.

Their Contracts were not with them, and this wasn’t the time to draw their weapons. The only demon present was Ivan, but because of the limitations of the school, he couldn’t command even a third of his power. Before they could determine his motives, they couldn’t expose their own identities.

Jiu Shao swept a gaze through every one of them present on the scene, “Are you his friends?”

“No!” Kaido denied.

“I think so too.” Jiu Shao nodded, “No one treats their friends like that.”

He turned to the others, “Are you all Summoners?”

Nobody replied.

Jiu Shao answered for himself, “Mm, all of them didn’t use any spells from start to finish. They only used normal tools when they were fighting too, must be normal people.”

“But, they must have something in common if they gathered here.”

“But, my mission is to find Mang Nao and the others…”

Jiu Shao glanced at Liu Yi Chen and the others out of the corner of his eye.

“Whatever, I better not find more issues for myself, I’ll just capture the most important one then.”

He moved in closer to Kaido, “What did you do to Ci Mu and Mang Nao?”

Feng Ping Lan, who was still lying on the floor, heard this and gulped.

This guy was one of the Third Prince’s subordinates, one of Quetzal and the others’ enemies…

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, and I don’t make it a point to remember the things I destroy.” Kaido retaliated, stabbing his sword at Jiu Shao. “And you, will be one of them.”

Determining that this was an enemy, Kaido rudely attacked Jiu Shao consecutively, and as the blade sliced through, he tossed out more than ten attack-type seals from his sleeve.

Jiu Shao remained composed, purple hair splitting into two tentacles, one beating the seals away, another curling forward to easily wrap around Kaido’s sword.

Kaido tried his best to pull the sword away, but the tentacle gripping it was immovable, that it had been completely clamped shut.

“If you forgot, I’ll just bring you to the old location. We’ll get you to recollect your memories.”

Kaido sensed something not right, releasing his grip to escape, but he was too late.

Jiu Shao waved his hand lightly, a magic circle expanding on the ground to encircle Kaido, instantaneously swallowing him in.

“Bye-bye.” With that, Jiu Shao gracefully stepped into the magic circle.

“What was that all about?”

“That demon was at least a C-class or above, and it doesn’t seem to have a contractor.”

“Did you summon it to deal with Kaido?” Ivan interrogated Feng Ping Lan.

“No.” Feng Ping Lan muttered worriedly, “That was a demon from the Royal Clan’s subordinate, Quetzal’s enemy…”

“The Royal Clan in the human world?” Ivan furrowed his brows, “This can’t be good…”

Not many of the Royal Clan regarded demons who were contracted to Summoners in a good light. The moment they were discovered, Summoners and demons both would be annihilated.

“We should inform the teachers, with this scale of an incident.” Liu Yi Chen said heavily, preparing her phone to report.

“No, we can’t!” Feng Ping Lan called out to stop her, “That demon called Jiu Shao, he came to find his colleagues, but his colleagues were killed by Quetzal and the others. Two demons have already disappeared in this city. If we get the teachers to suppress him, it’ll let a third demon vanish too, and then the Royal Clan will become suspicious of this place…”

They couldn’t inform the teachers. They couldn’t let the Royal Clan’s people know that they were here. They even more so could not let Quetzal and the others appear.

Feng Ping Lan bit down his lip in distress.

He shouldn’t have agreed to the fight with Kaido…

He shouldn’t have been so pleased with himself that he lost his sense of measure, and in the end something horrible really had happened.

“Rules are rules, your personal grudges is not enough reason to cover up something!” Liu Yi Chen refuted.

“This isn’t a personal grudge.” Ivan spoke up, “A demon from the Royal Clan can freely bring their subordinates to the human world, so they are the Association’s prey. At the same time, the Association’s Summoners are also their prey. If they discover the existence of the Shadow Academy, it won’t be good for us.”

“So are you guys planning on sacrificing Kaido?” Su Li Wan spoke softly, uneasy.

“Of course not! We’re going to save him!” Feng Ping Lan immediately denied. “Although, what we’re going to do is going to break a whole ton of school rules…”

“What do you propose?” Liu Yi Chen asked impatiently.

“We can’t let the Royal Clan become suspicious of this city, so we’ll have to think of something to lure Jiu Shao away from here. We’ll need to leave this area before we think about fighting or even reporting to the school.” Feng Ping Lan said as he pondered, “No matter what, we need to find Kaido’s location. Is that alright, Class Rep?”

Would the scrupulous, rule-follower Liu Yi Chen agree to his way of handling this? Or would she stick to the original plan of reporting this? Her decision became the crucial point to the next step.

The group eyed Liu Yi Chen, anxiously waiting to hear her answer.

Liu Yi Chen was frowning, expression incredibly complicated, and they could feel the contradiction, struggle, hesitation and jitteriness in her heart.

In the next moment, she closed her eyes, breathed in deeply, then opened her eyes.

Forget about it, she’d press her luck for this!

“What else can I say? I don’t want to get a reputation for threatening the school’s safety. Nor do I want to be accused of throwing someone to the wolves.”

She knew that this decision was absolutely impulsive, absolutely stupid. But she knew that if she didn’t do this, she’d regret this bout of ‘cleverness’ in the future.

Besides, she was already fed up, fed up to the limit of this facade of modesty and gentleness that she was being made into a fool by.

The words Feng Ping Lan had told her the night before reappeared in her head.

“If he won’t be satisfied with whatever you do, you might as well do what you want.”

Her life, her choices!

Feng Ping Lan smiled thankfully, “Class Rep, thank you…”

“Xiao Liu…”

“No need for your disgusting emotional sessions!” Liu Yi Chen glared at Feng Ping Lan, “I’ll slowly take out the debt you owe me with this favor! Don’t think I’ll let you off, you bastard!”

“Class Rep?” The group was flabbergasted with Liu Yi Chen’s complete 180 on her personality.

The stickler-for-rules Class Rep, was somehow a little different from before…

Bolder?

“Since we’re going to save someone, how do we find his location?” Liu Yi Chen ignored the reactions of the others, asking, “He got taken away too abruptly, so we didn’t have time to tag on a tracking spell. If we can’t find any clues to Kaido’s whereabouts, we’ll have to get back to school to trace him from his personal belongings.”

“That’ll waste too much time, he’ll be dead by the time we get to him.” Ivan vetoed.

“So what now? Get your own ideas to replace it before rejecting someone else’s suggestions, or else shut your damn mouth!”

“Wuwu! When did Class Rep become so vicious…”

Just when the crowd came to a stalemate, a gloomy voice rang out from the shadows.

“I could be of some help, xixixi…”

The crowd turned, only to see an oversized body emerging from behind the trees.

“Zong Yu?!”

“When did you arrive?”

“How did you know about this? Who told you?” Feng Ping Lan was astonished, turning his head to gaze into the shadowy depths, “Uh, if there are any other students hiding behind the trees, can you please come out at the same time? We’re running out of time, please don’t startle me anymore, thanks.”

“Nobody told me, and there isn’t anyone else here.” Zong Yu smiled darkly, “There are too many turns of events that happen around you, so I have always observed you… I get very excited about any blood-spilling encounters, you see… Xixixi…”

That laugh caused the others to become very uncomfortable.

“Do you have any way of tracking him?” Feng Ping Lan asked.

“You, take out your pencil case…”

“For what?”

“Your pencil case has Kaido’s blood on it, I can use that to track down Kaido’s location.”

“Why is there Kaido’s blood on my pencil case?”

“On the first day you arrived at Shadow Academy, your contract harmed Kaido, so his blood dripped onto your pencil case.” Zong Yu smiled shallowly, “I will remember anything that involves blood…”

“That’s amazing! Then you’d know every time a girl goes on their period, am I right?”

Liu Yi Chen slapped Feng Ping Lan up the head, “Stop your nonsense! Hurry up!”

Feng Ping Lan hurriedly pulled out his pencil case, handing it to Zong Yu.

Zong Yu sized up the pencil case, finding a small blob of brown staining a corner. He took out a small porcelain bottle from his pocket, dripping an unknown substance on the stain, then extended his finger to suspend over it.

The chubby finger wavered slightly twice, then the gaps of the fingernail split apart to form a whitish rice-colored little insect, falling into the stain. The little insect was like a sponge, absorbing the dried blood and rapidly growing into a dragonfly-like insect, fluttering its wings before flying.

“Follow it…”

“We’ll be too slow!” Liu Yi Chen took out a rounded tarot card, randomly drawing out a card and muttering an incantation. A flame emerged from the card in her hands, burning by itself into ashes.

She blew the ashes towards the others.

Feng Ping Lan could feel his body becoming lighter as if he had lost all weight.

“We’ll fly.” Liu Yi Chen leaped off from the floor, her entire body shooting out like an arrow from a bow to the sky.

The others followed suit. Feng Ping Lan didn’t have much control, and could only rely on Su Li Wan to pull him along.

“Class Rep seems a little different, like she turned into another person entirely.” Feng Ping Lan smiled as he moved forth.

“I like the previous Yi Chen more, the Yi Chen now is so vicious…” Ivan mumbled.

“Pay attention to your words, I can always take off the spell, see how you fall into a rubbish truck.” Liu Yi Chen warned.

“I think I like how Class Rep is right now.” Feng Ping Lan continued, “Byriel said that you were repressing yourself. You look more natural now.”

“That hooligan…” Liu Yi Chen humphed coldly.

“Don’t you care about your image?” Ivan grumbled. “Even if you turn back into that original Yi Chen later on, I won’t ever be able to erase this from my mind…”

“You think there will be a ‘later on’?” Liu Yi Chen scoffed, “We’re already taking these many risks. We don’t know if we’ll die or not, might as well let loose with it.”

If Yerde saw her like this, that handsome face would probably turn green.

Although she was going face a deadly situation, she was ineffably relaxed and cheerful…

She knew now, that when humans faced the instance before they died, they would have the courage to throw off everything, revealing their true selves to the world.

She had never been so relaxed, and this feeling of indulgence and letting everything go—

It was wonderful.

TL Notes

1. Feng Ping Lan makes a joke with Kaido’s name, which is pronounced Hai Tang (海棠) in Chinese. Sea urchin are called Hai Dan (海胆). What he originally says: “Hai Tang’s gonna turn into Hai Dan!”

2. Didi (弟弟) – younger brother.