Silent Crown

by Feng Yue

  With that, he suddenly paused. As if he had thought of something, he sank into deep thought and murmured, “Picking up the ball…stuff it into the goal…wrestle…it can work!” He looked up with bright eyes. “That’s a good idea. Everyone can put on armor, pick up the ball and toss it into the opponent’s goal…What if we do that for next year?”

  Upset, everyone looked away. The principal was going crazy again and had let his imagination run wild.

  “Principal, please stop before things worsen!” Sydney, whose patience had been tested during the entire game, finally exploded. He glared at the excited and determined Maxwell with unwavering anger. He stated seriously, “If this continues, the prestigious reputation of the Royal Academy of Music will be ruined in your hands! The school board will not let you do this! And what is the significance of this type of child’s play? It will only increase the students’ pain and hatred! Where is the educational significance? If this continues, the academy will become a vortex of hatred!”

  Maxwell was taken aback. He glanced at Sydney with a slightly arched brow. “Oh?” He chuckled. “So you think that this is just child’s play?”

  Stared at by those ancient eyes, Sydney did not know what to do. The just and responsibility in his heart vanished, replaced by vague regret. Maxwell patted his shoulders like coaxing a child and pressed him back down into his chair. Sydney froze. He wanted to struggle, but the hands on him felt like a vice, immobilizing him.

  Before him, those deep emerald eyes were like the deep ocean. They contained hidden currents and indescribably scary things. Maxwell looked at Sydney’s stunned eyes and caringly helped him tidy his collar, stating, “I really like your straightforward way of speaking. Your brash suggestions are cute too, but for some suggestions, I hope that you can think more carefully before you stand up. Don’t forget who you are and don’t forget who they will become.”

  Sydney did not know what to say. He did not understand what Maxwell meant.

  But Maxwell just studied the students on the field, off the field…looking at those faces, his eyes grew compassionate.

  “These are future musicians, gentleman. These are heroes that are born from the cradle that is the Royal Academy of Music. Since we are a cradle, we shouldn’t talk about those fake and polite things. Since they want to become heroes, they should not expect gentle treatment either. You are all teachers—you are their educators. If you want an infant to become an adult, you must be cruel. If they cannot even win in this ‘child’s play,’ then how will they fight against demons? Actually, I don’t mind if your students embarrass the academy, but please consider their lives and safety.”

  No one spoke in the silence. Pushed into the chair, Sydney’s shoulders trembled. He wanted to say something, but nothing came out in the end. It was fortunate for him that he did not say it.

  “Let the game continue,” the principal ordered lightly.

  Everyone exchanged glances. Someone stood out and asked cautiously, “What should we do about Banner using beast fusion?”

  “The matters of the School of Royalty should be taken care of by the School of Royalty.” The principal waved his hand without any care and swept away the nuisance. “We’ll talk about other matters after the game.”

  -

  The game continued, but it could be said that it had long ended. The student council’s dignity was destroyed the moment Banner had attacked. Plus, he had not been successful. No one had realized that everything they did was part of someone else’s plan. If not for Banner’s surprise attack, they probably would not have noticed it was an illusion until the very end, right? It would have been even more embarrassing if it was revealed at the end. This game was completely humiliating.

  No matter who spoke now, they would be unable to gather their morale. Everyone went through the actions as if their heads were not in the game. Banner had been forced off the field by Cullen and sat in the replacement spot wordlessly. His eyes were blank, like a mental patient who had been injected with an overdose of stabilizer. He mumbled something, but no one could hear clearly.

  The game ended ten minutes later with three to nothing. The history department had won and entered the final round.

  Naturally, Ye Qingxuan chose to quit. He announced that they would leave the game and not participate in the next round. After paying the fee of two thousand points, they were still first place. It was all thanks to the points from Banner.

  “What a good comrade,” Ye Qingxuan thought, shaking his head in lamentation.

  Then he transferred four-thousand points to Bench Guy, who accepted it without a word. But Ye Qingxuan still felt guilty. “To be honest, four thousand isn’t a lot, but it’s all I can give you to ensure the ranking…I owe you the rest. If you need any help, you can find me at the history department at any time. Even if it’s something outside the school, I have some connections to help you.”

  Bench Guy smiled and shook his head, rejecting him politely. “But can you help me with something inside the school?” he suddenly asked. “I need your promise.”

  “What is it?” Ye Qingxuan chuckled. “I’ll help you, as long as it’s not too hard.”

  Bench Guy was about to speak but stopped as he looked behind Ye Qingxuan in confusion. Ye Qingxuan turned back and saw the pale and frail student—Banner.

  He had shaken away his teammates and walked over. His eyes were eerie and his lifeless face was filled with hatred. He tried to grab Ye Qingxuan’s collar, but the youth dodged his hand.

  “Banner!” Cullen growled behind him, trying to force down his anger. “How long are you going to keep up the tantrum?”

  Banner froze. Gritting his teeth, he pulled his hand back and glared at Ye Qingxuan. He rasped, “Do you think you won? It’s not over yet!”

  “Why don’t you think about how you’ll face the school’s interrogation?” Ye Qingxuan shrugged. “Beast fusion is forbidden.”

  “You think I’m destroyed like this?” Banner cackled in anger. “Stop dreaming! The School of Royalty won’t let anything happen to me! I’ll just disappear for a few months until everything is over. I won’t lose a hair! But you, you’ll pay for what you’ve done!”

  “Ha.” Ye Qingxuan just scoffed and was too lazy to say anything else.

  Seeing the totally annoying smile, Banner practically lost all control. His face was white and also had the eerie wildness of a skeleton. He jabbed at Ye Qingxuan’s chest and muttered in his ear, enunciating each word, “Listen, I’ll do everything I can to make you, your failure senior, and that other white-haired b*stard disappear. I’ll make your teacher, that old dog, get tossed back to his steel cage…Everything you took from me, I’ll take it back from you in thousand-fold!”

  Ye Qingxuan did not reply and kept smiling, as if he did not hear anything. His eyes silently grew cold though.

  Crack! Banner’s voice stopped abruptly. The crisp sound shocked everyone, including Cullen, who was behind Banner.

  It was a slap. A crisp slap. And it had come from the man with the headgear who had not said a single word.

  “Enough, Banner!”

  “You…” Banner’s movements slacked and he gaped at the man.

  The headgear guy hid Ye Qingxuan behind him and said harshly, “You’ve disgraced the Adrian family!”

  The voice was so familiar that Cullen froze and forced down Banner’s anger. They gaped at the man before them in disbelief. Under everyone’s eyes, Bench Guy lowered his head and slowly took off the headpiece. He revealed a hard and cold face. His features were sharp, as if he was a statue carved from marble, and were awe-inspiring. The most eye-catching feature was his steel gray eyes, which had an unusual dignity and solemnity.

  Everyone fell into silence instantly and began doubting their eyes.

  “Ga…Gavin?” Banner finally processed everything and stared blankly at him and Ye Qingxuan behind him. “You—you…stood on their side?”

  “It’s you who didn’t stand on my side, Banner.” Gavin looked
at him with disappointment and retorted, “How many chances did I give you?”

  “Chances? You gave me chances?” Banner laughed as if he had heard the funniest joke. He suddenly raised his voice and roared, “I’m the one giving you chances! I’m the one who can represent the Adrian family! Not you!”

  The onlookers gaped at the argument between the brothers. No one dared to step forward.

  Emerald and steel gray, the two brothers stared at each other. One was filled with eeriness and wildness, the other was filled with extreme disappointment. They were so similar and yet so different.

  217 For Wha

  A bored youth sat in a quiet little courtyard in the corner of the academy. He sat on the bench where the two first met, lazily basking in the sun, humming softly and waiting silently. Hearing the footsteps in the distance, he raised his head and smiled.

  “Did you finish educating the kid?” Ye Qingxuan, looking at the newcomer, expression sympathetic. “You must be tired.”

  Gavin sat beside him, sighing wearily as if he was tired. After a long time, he asked quietly, “Did you guess it?”

  The youth nodded. He raised his finger and gesticulated. “Just a little bit, like the bench you pretended to be.”

  “I…What’s the flaw? I paid so much attention to everything.”

  “No, your disguise was perfect from beginning to end. I could not figure out your true identity until you uncovered your head. Unfortunately, you’re too strong. Sometimes I couldn’t see through you at all. There are few people in this school who can give me such feeling.”

  “Just because of that?”

  “Moreover, I can tell that you have brilliant attainments in Modifications, but there’s no one like you in Modifications. Therefore I thought that maybe you just minored in it. The majority of the people who minor in Modifications are from the School of Royalty. Only they study two departments before becoming a musician…”

  Hearing this, Gavin looked bitter. “And I’m the most famous one among them.”

  “Yes, you haven’t appeared all along, right? They said that you’re too proud to compete with other students, but I thought…there must be another reason.”

  Gavin sighed. The two of them basked in the sun without speaking. It was a long silence, but it was made from tacit agreement.

  -

  After a long time, Ye Qingxuan had enough of sunbathing and asked, “The second day, was it you who made us come up empty? The student council has this right, but, generally speaking, shouldn’t the student council’s president be the school board’s pet?”

  “You should always set your sights further. Sometimes if you see far enough, you’ll find that it’s very stupid for the school board to only put their efforts into the school. “

  Ye Qingxuan was amused, “You aren’t afraid that they’ll give you a hard time?”

  Gavin shrugged. “I’ve already graduated. What could the school board do to me?”

  “Did you sneak into the history department just to slap your brother?”

  “I just want to know more about you.”

  “…Me?” Ye Qingxuan was stunned. “How am I worthy of the student council president’s interest?”

  “Don’t underestimate yourself. It’s only been three or four months since you started school, isn’t it? But you’ve become everyone’s nightmare, the Eastern demon, the disgrace of the academy…As a good brother, I have to at least make some preparations for my brother when he enters the school after I leave.”

  “So you came to me just to be a good brother?” Ye Qingxuan shook his head, totally not believing it. “There must be another reason, right? Is it necessary for you to lie in front of the disgrace of the academy? Or did you really do all this for your brother?”

  Gavin was silent. His steel gray eyes were troubled and filled with self-deprecation. “If there’s any other reason, it’s probably because…you live freely?” Gavin looked up at him. “To tell you the truth, when I first saw you from the podium, I was very envious…because sometimes I really want to live like you.”

  “What’s so good about this kind of life?” Ye Qingxuan rolled his eyes. “You said before that, as the disgrace of the academy college, the Eastern demon, I would be challenged wherever I go. Moreover, the school board sees me as an eyesore…It’s horrible, alright?”

  “Would you like to switch with me then?”

  “No.” Ye Qingxuan shook his head resolutely without any hesitation.

  “Exactly.” Gavin arched an eyebrow and chuckled. “There’s nothing good about being the student council’s president, right?”

  “No, no, no. You’ve done well as the student council’s president. Everyone can see that. Unfortunately, you may not be able to be a ‘good brother’ anymore.”

  Hearing his words, Gavin’s expression immediately became melancholy. “You and Banner actually could have been friends. I’ve arranged so many opportunities…if only he was friendlier…”

  “To be honest, you overthink.”

  “Perhaps.” Gavin smiled bitterly. “At least, don’t hate him. Banner isn’t bad in nature…He’s just stupid.”

  “I know.” Ye Qingxuan nodded, “A priest once told me that no one wants to be bad. That’s true, isn’t it?”

  Gavin nodded. “But if everyone in the world wants to be a good person, then why is there so much misery?”

  Ye Qingxuan understood Gavin, so he asked directly, “The promise you want from me is that you hope I won’t make things harder for your brother, isn’t it?”

  Gavin nodded. His expression grew powerless. “But now, I’m ashamed to say so.”

  “Rest assured, I promise you,” Ye Qingxuan said lightly. “His IQ is so low. He won’t make me feel threatened.”

  “…Thanks.” Although he felt many emotions, Gavin still thanked him politely.

  “You’re welcome. You know what, your brother sometimes reminds me of a friend.”

  “Friend?”

  “Yes, my friend.” Ye Qingxuan recalled the figure of that young man and smiled. “He’s also the kind of guy who shouts all day, ‘In the future, no one will dare to look down upon me!’ but he’s actually totally different from Banner. He knew why he was being looked down on, although what he thought might not necessarily be right. To be honest, that guy has a lot of flaws, many of which…I couldn’t stand, but he probably saw me in the same way.”

  Gavin sank in thought. “In this case, there must have been many conflicts between you two, right?”

  “Yes, but that’s what so-called friends are like, right? To tolerate each other, and tolerate and tolerate until there’s no bottom line to speak of between friends … Luckily, he never made me give up my bottom line. I think that’s what a good friend is like, right?”

  “Yes.” Gavin was a bit dejected. “That’s a good friend.”

  Ye Qingxuan laughed gleefully. “Are you jealous?”

  For some reason, Gavin wanted to hit him. “It’s getting late, I’m leaving.” Shaking his head, he got up to leave, “The school board asked me to attend a meeting to deal with the mess you guys left behind. Meetings are always annoying.”

  Ye Qingxuan waved goodbye lazily and said, “Remember to say some good things about me to those respectable old people, Mr. President.”

  Gavin looked back at him, speechless.

  Ye Qingxuan shrugged. “Well, please, Bench Guy.”

  “This sounds better than Mr. President.” Gavin smiled, and turned away, disappearing in the afternoon sun.

  Ye Qingxuan sat on the bench in the warm sunshine. He yawned tiredly and almost fell asleep. Half asleep, he could not help but recall the figure of that youth. How was Victor now? Was he successful now? Was he all right? Ye Qingxuan sighed. He kind of missed him.

  -

  The First National University of Burgundy was known as the cradle of future statesmen and elites, was under the same afternoon sun. People crowded into the auditorium. They feverishly looked to the podium and raised t
heir voices with the young man’s speech, shouting in response. The speech was nearing the end.

  “My friends, don’t you understand? Our motherland is in a crisis!” The young man clenched his fists. His voice was loud and strong, full of anger and pain. “The administrative system is bloated; the ruling party is irresponsible; the fatuous royal family only knows how to exploit people. And that group of socialists who occupy the Parliament can do nothing but blow their horns.

  “Spit on the fat bureaucrats who neglect their duties! Spit on those incompetent bastards who can only escape from the reality! Spit on the defeatists, the anarchists! Because of them, the economic is getting bleaker and bleaker; the border patrol is morally deficient; farmers have lost their own land and become slaves…Our motherland is humiliated and our sun is about to be quenched.

  “Tell me, my friends, what should we do? What’s the fate of our motherland? Should we put our hopes on those high and mighty musicians? Should we wait for a savior to fall from the sky? Should we wait for those greedy foreign capitalists to squeeze enough profit from us then turn away while wiping their mouths, and push the country into the abyss of misery?

  “No. Absolutely not! Those musicians never care about the miseries of the regular people! There’s never been a savior! Those capitalists would never stop their greedy plundering!

  “We can’t wait for others to show their mercy to us, to save us. If we want to let our motherland rise, we must rely on our own power! Rely on you, on our advanced policy agenda and on the people’s strength! We can’t keep silent anymore! We can’t let this country fall and cry! Everyone present is the best of the best. You are the future of this country…Should we stand by and be silent?

  “No, absolutely not! Friends, we must stand up. We must be responsible for this country! Who would love our motherland, other than us? Who can save it, other than us? We must unite, my friends—we need each other’s strength! I believe that with the help of our strength, our motherland will rise and walk out of the shadow of recession! I believe that our days of glory will soon arrive.