The reason for this ‘coincidence’ was that the Ernst Institute and the Wellen had different break days for the students.
The break days for Ernst Institute students was on the 29th and 30th of each month, while for Wellen Institute students, it was on the 1st and 2nd of each month. Thus, Alice only got home on the 30th.
Sadly…
Although Alice stood there on the balcony, watching the crowded streets, occasionally getting excited when someone who looked similar to Linley walked by, in the end, she was always disappointed.
The afternoon of October 2nd, she had no choice but to return to school.
….
October 29th, Linley once again went into town to deliver three more stone sculptures. At night, Linley once again went to that bar on the Dry Road. He once more selected the same window seat, ordered the same jade wine, and began drinking with Bebe.
“Boss, looks like you are gonna be disappointed again.” Bebe looked at Linley, his beady little black eyes rolling as he mentally spoke.
“No big deal. I guess it wasn’t meant to be.” Throwing his head back, Linley polished that cup of wine off. By now, him and Bebe had finished two bottles of jade wine. But on the balcony, Linley still could not see the figure he was waiting for.
By now, the server came over.
“One more bottle of…” Halfway through his sentence, Linley paused, and his eyes lit up, his gaze focusing on that little balcony on the second floor of Alice’s house. A female figure dressed in white had suddenly appeared.
“Bill, please.” Linley immediately stood up.
The server, already preparing to grab another bottle of wine, was momentarily baffled, but he quickly recovered. After paying the bill, Linley walked out, with Bebe leaping from the table to his shoulders.
By now, it was almost eight at night. The Dry Road was getting dark. Because it wasn’t a main road, there were very few people there at night.
“It’s Alice.” Linley was absolutely certain.
“Whoah, Boss, you finally are gonna meet that beauty again. Haha! Are you happy? Are you excited? Are you impatient?” On Linley’s shoulders, Bebe continued speaking delightedly.
Linley didn’t even pay attention to Bebe. Quite agilely, he flipped over Alice’s wall, and with a push of his hands, he transformed into a black blur, landing directly onto the balcony.
Alice had been watching Linley make his way over to her past the wall this entire time.
“Big brother Linley!” Alice immediately recognized him. Her heart rate immediately sped up and, nervous, her face turned red as well. But in her heart, she was filled with joy.
Last time, she hadn’t managed to catch Linley. Upon returning to the Wellen Institute, she had asked around and found out that the Ernst Institute’s vacation days were on the 29th and the 30th. Thus, Alice had skipped class and come home two days early.
“Big brother Linley, what a coincidence.” Alice said with a smile.
Linley was briefly stunned. “Alice, yeah, what a coincidence.”
Alice couldn’t help but laugh, before she recovered and immediately tugged Linley to sit down. “Quick, sit down, don’t let anyone see you.” Linley sat down. The two of them hid in the corner of the balcony, quietly chatting with each other.
Doehring Cowart appeared at this time.
“Linley, Linley.”
“Doehring Cowart, what is it?” Linley was a bit unhappy.
Doehring Cowart laughed loudly. “Kid, don’t talk too much with this girl about irrelevant things. Be a bit friendlier, a bit more forward. You idiot. Judging from the look of her, this Alice girl is interested in you too.”
“No rush, no rush.” Although Linley had no fear of death, at this moment in time, he was a bit unsteady and a bit wobbly, mentally speaking.
“You really are stupid.” Doehring Cowart said impatiently.
Linley began to totally ignore Doehring Cowart’s advice, only talking to Alice about irrelevant, casual topics.
Watching the two of them, in the end, Doehring Cowart could only shake his head and disappear back into the Coiling Dragon ring. While chatting with Alice, Linley didn’t notice the passage of time in the slightest.
“Big brother Linley, you are so amazing! You must have lots of girls chasing after you at the Ernst Institute, right?” Alice intentionally said these words in a casual manner, but upon hearing them, Linley’s heart began to beat faster.
“Not too bad, not too bad.” While chatting with Alice, sometimes Linley spoke without thinking.
“You idiot.” Doehring Cowart’s voice rang out in Linley’s mind.
* * *
Book 4, Chapter 6
* * *
Book 4, The Dragonblood Warrior – Chapter 6, The Rose in Winter (part 2)
Together with Alice, Linley felt truly joyful from the bottom of his heart. In this manner, an entire night passed away. Neither Linley nor Alice felt tired at all, despite having been up all night.
As the sun began to rise, the horizon began to glow with a soft, blue color.
“The sun is rising. Alice, I have to go.” Linley stood up.
“Okay.” Alice replied.
Alice also stood up, looking at Linley with a somewhat reluctant to part expression. Linley grinned, waved at her, then floated down to the street like a leaf, his body surrounded by flows of air.
After Linley arrived at the Jade Water Palace, he waited for his bros to get out of bed, at which point he was ‘interrogated’ by Yale and the other two.
After returning to the Ernst Institute, Linley continued to be as studious as ever. But when he was relaxing, he would often think of Alice. Linley had a certain feeling; he had been struck in the heart by the gods of love.
Yulan calendar, year 9997, November 29th. Evening.
Alice had gotten up very early to wait outside her family’s door. After waiting for a while, she saw Linley’s familiar figure making his way up from the Dry Road. Immediately, she ran to him.
“Big brother Linley.” Alice shouted rather excitedly. They hadn’t seen each other for a month. After finally being able to see him, Alice was somewhat unable to control her excitement.
In his heart, Linley was feeling excited as well. After all, it had been a month since they last met. But today, he felt especially happy. “Even though I didn’t tell Alice when I would see her again, she came outside to wait for me today.”
Last time, after chatting with Alice, Linley discovered that the Wellen Institute’s vacation days were on the 1st and 2nd of each month. Alice was skipping class in order to meet with him. Linley fully understood what that meant.
“Linley, keep at it! This time, you have to be a bit braver.” Doehring Cowart’s voice sounded out in Linley’s mind.
Linley secretly also made up his mind. After all, he didn’t want to wait another month.
“Alice, why are you outside today, instead of on your porch?” Linley and Alice were walking side by side on the street. Alice laughed. “We can’t always be hiding on my balcony, can we?”
Thinking back to how the two of them were hiding in the corner of a balcony, Linley couldn’t help but laugh.
“Right. If you don’t go back home at night, isn’t your father going to be worried?” Linley asked.
“Him?” Alice pouted. “My father is a drunken sot, and also a compulsive gambler. He might not even know when he himself will be home, much less me.”
“Big brother Linley, I grew up in Fenlai City as a child. Fenlai City is a very big city. You probably haven’t been to many places. Come on, I’ll show you around.” Alice laughed.
Linley and Alice walked together on the streets. It was winter now, and on the Yulan continent, December and January were the two coldest months of the year. The night wind was very cold as well. There weren’t too many people on the streets.
But as Linley and Alice walked and chatted, they totally ignored the people who were on the streets.
“Oh, it’s snowing?” Alice raised he
r head up to stare at the night sky and watched as white flecks gently drifted down. “I love snow. This is the first snow of this year’s winter.”
“I also like snow.” Linley lifted his head up, allow the snow to collect and then dissolve upon his face.
To be able to take a walk with the girl he liked on a snowy night was quite romantic. The two of them continued their slow stroll in the streets of Fenlai City.
“Big brother Linley, do you have a girlfriend?” Alice suddenly asked, before saying in a soft voice, “Big brother Linley, you are so amazing, you must have one already.”
“I do not, definitely do not.” Linley quickly said.
Hearing his words, Alice fell silent.
“Alice, do you have a boyfriend?” Linley dithered for a while, but finally got the question out.
Alice’s face immediately turned red. Even her neck turned red. But in the dark night, there was no way for Linley to see. “How could I have a boyfriend? Who would want me as their girlfriend?”
“Oh.”
Linley took a deep breath, then suddenly said, “Then how about, you be my girlfriend?”
“Um…” Alice looked up at Linley in surprise, as though she had been stunned silly. Linley was just chatting normally with her earlier. All of a sudden, he asked this question of her, catching her totally offguard.
In the Holy Union, it was very normal for young people to have boyfriends or girlfriends. Many of Alice’s female classmates already had boyfriends, and she had also thought about having one.
But she didn’t expect that Linley would ask her in such a direct manner.
“You want me to be your girlfriend?” Alice asked.
Right now, Linley felt that his heart was pounding so frantically that it was going to burst out of his chest. Even when facing life and death battles in the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts he had never been so frantic. “Yes. Are you willing?”
Alice’s face was totally red by now. She stared at Linley. “Big brother Linley, honestly, maybe I’m not as good of a person as you think I am.”
“I trust my judgment. Alice, I asked you already. Are you willing?” Linley was about to go crazy. He wanted to know Alice’s reply right away. Even Linley’s voice was quivering.
Alice was quiet for a moment, and then she gently nodded.
“Yes.”
Excited, Linley couldn’t help but enfold Alice in a deep embrace. Embarrassed, Alice buried her face against Linley’s chest. Just then, Linley noticed that there was a flower shop next to them.
Moments later…
“Alice, here.” Alice lifted her head up in response, and she did, she saw a brilliantly beautiful rose in front of her.
Her face blushing, Alice accepted the rose. Looking at Alice, Linley thought that the red rose complimented her blushing pink face perfectly. She was an unspeakably moving picture. This image was burned into Linley’s mind forever.
Holding Alice by the hand, the two of them continued their walk.
The snowflakes continued to fly about. The two youths slowly strolled about the night streets of Fenlai City. The rose in Alice’s hand was so beautiful, so vibrant.
In one of the superior rooms of the Jade Water Paradise, there were seven people; Yale, George, Reynolds, and four beautiful ladies.
“I don’t know what’s gotten into Third Bro. Last time he went missing for an entire night also. This time, he hasn’t come back even now.” Yale shook his head helplessly.
“Hey, that guy looks like Third Bro.” Reynolds, who was seated next to the window, suddenly let out a surprised shout. “And he’s holding hands with a girl. Damn! Third Bro managed to find himself a beauty behind our backs.”
“Whoosh!” Yale and George also ran to the window, staring down at Linley below them.
At this moment, Linley, who was drunken in the beautiful throes of young love, didn’t even notice that they had reached the Jade Water Paradise! Linley and Alice walked right past the Jade Water Paradise, continuing onto the Fragrant Pavilion Road.
“Man, when did Third Bro become so formidable? Yale’s eyes were sparkling.
George and Reynolds were both excited as well. Reynolds immediately suggested, “Haha, when Third Bro comes back, we have to give him a proper interrogation.”
….
The next morning, Linley happily returned to the superior room in the Jade Water Paradise. Per their usual habits, Reynolds and Yale should’ve each retired to their own private rooms with their beauties. But…
Upon opening the door, Linley stared inside with surprise. “Boss Yale, why are you all here?”
“You ask me why we are all here?” Reynolds began to chortle. Scheming looks were on the faces of George and Yale as well, and they began to creep closer to Linley.
“Tell!” Reynolds stared at him. “Who was that beauty who was with you last night?”
“Quick, tell!” Yale and George also demanded.
“Whu…..you guys…?” Linley was totally flabbergasted.
* * *
Book 4, Chapter 7
* * *
Book 4, The Dragonblood Warrior – Chapter 7, Experts Everywhere (part 1)
Under the forced interrogation of his bros, Linley was very honest and revealed the entire story behind him and Alice. This story made those two playboys, Yale and Reynolds, sigh in amazement.
Ever since becoming boyfriend and girlfriend with Alice, although he was separated from her physically during the school term, they made an agreement to meet with each other at the end of every month.
In the blink of an eye, another month passed. December 28th, Linley was in an exceptionally good mood, because he was going to meet with Alice again in Fenlai City.
“Hey, Linley.”
“Yo, David [Da’wei].”
Walking along the road within the Ernst Institute, Linley greeted a number of familiar faces in a friendly fashion.
“Boss, you’re as happy as this, just because you sealed the deal with Alice?” On Linley’s shoulders, Bebe wrinkled his nose. Condescendingly, he said, “Look at that stupid grin. This entire month, you’ve been smiling like an idiot.”
In the past, although Linley wasn’t exactly cold and emotionless, he wasn’t particularly friendly either. But this month, Linley was in an extremely good mood, and so he was often laughing and smiling.
“You little punk, what do you know?” Linley glared at Bebe, before strolling casually into the library. After flipping through two books on wind-style magic, Linley entered a reading booth and began to read.
The reading room was extremely quiet, and in the entire reading room, there was perhaps just twenty or thirty people, spaced far apart from each other.
Linley selected a location off to the side and began to read. At the Ernst Institute library, Linley would read almost anything regarding history, magical beasts, politics, magic…but most of his time was still spent on wind magic.
After all, Linley primarily relied on earth-style and wind-style magic. His earth-style magic had a Saint-level Grand Magus for a personal trainer in the form of Doehring Cowart, but the same couldn’t be said for wind.
While reading, Linley continued to learn and improve, and he often nodded unconsciously.
In the reading room, two hours passed by very quickly. Linley closed the book in front of him. “Grandpa Doehring, it would be a very difficult task to understand all of the profundities of wind-style magic, much less devise a brand new spell of my own.”
When casting magical spells ,usually one would need to have the assistance of a magical incantation to stabilize and launch the spell. Generally, one would just recite the incantation as taught, without needing to understand it. But if one was able to understand the principles behind a spell or perhaps even refine the words to an incantation, or perhaps further refine the usage of spiritual essence, one could allow the efficacy and power of one’s mageforce to reach new heights.
“Naturally. Do you think spells are so easily created?�
�� Doehring Cowart’s voice sounded in Linley’s mind.
“Forget about inventing them for now. I wish I could at least see or learn some spells of the seventh rank. Unfortunately, the Institute is too stingy. Spells of the seventh, eighth, and ninth ranks are restricted and not open for public viewing at all.” Linley was rather dissatisfied, but he also knew very well that behind the Ernst Institute was the Radiant Church. The Radiant Church was not willing to disseminate its most powerful spells to people from other countries.
Linley was fortunate. Thanks to Grandpa Doehring’s guidance, at least for earth-style magic, he had nothing to worry about.
Flipping through the other book on wind magic, Linley continued to read…
“To summarize, all styles of magic, including wind magic, share a commonality in that their spells are formed from mageforce. For example, our wind style’s ‘Wind Blades’, the higher level ‘Chain of Wind Blades’, or the even higher level ‘Wild Dance of Wind Blades’, all the way up to the ninth level spell, ‘Void Extermination Technique’, are all considered to be in one chain of spells. But of course, if the ‘Wind Blades’ spell was developed and advanced in a different direction, down that path, in the end, it will transform into the ‘Dimensional Edge’ spell, that fabled forbidden spell…”
Upon reading this portion which provided details on the ‘Wind Blades’ spell, Linley grew interested.
This book was written from a viewpoint at the highest levels of magic, that sought to classify it systemically. This book was extremely useful to someone who had a narrow grasp of the fundamentals, as it would help them gain a more complete, thorough, systemic grasp of magic.
“The Floating Technique is actually a very simple technique, but using it isn’t simple. That’s because this technique has a strong emphasis on one’s elemental affinity for wind essence. The higher the affinity, the easier one will find it to control wind mageforce and wind elemental essence. This will allow their Floating Technique to be much faster. But by comparison, the ‘Soaring Technique’ is a level higher than this technique. The Floating Technique only allows one to levitate up or down, while the Soaring Technique allows one to soar and fly in the air. Although it looks like it’s omnidirectional, in reality, the Soaring Technique just has a few extra components compared to the Floating Technique, allowing the user to also go forwards, backwards, left, and right. For example, if you want to fly down and right, all you have to do is to control yourself to go both down and right. Frankly speaking, from this line of training, and based on the incantation the Floating Technique uses, in principle it should be fairly easy to figure out what the incantation to the Soaring Technique is.”
I Eat Tomatoes - [Coiling Dragon 04] Page 3