Chapter 26: Sat on by a Pig
Editor: AtlasStudios
“Nope.” Lan Jue refused without hesitation.
What is guarding? Day in and day out with the client, always by their side, constantly on your toes. The key factor was time, because poor timing could mean someone’s life.
Zeus, the untouchable master of the mercenary world, had served before as a body guard for two years. It was intolerable.
Why did he become a mercenary in the first place?
A Ninth Level Talent, God-Ranked Mecha-Pilot, infinite possibilities… why choose the life of a mercenary? It was simple, really – freedom.
Thus Lan Jue rarely returned home, he couldn’t stand the constraints.
Simply said this condition set by Zhou Qianlin went against his very nature, indeed he couldn’t comply.
He took up the enameled pot, pouring himself another small cup of tea. He replaced it and took another sip.
“Something else,” Lan Jue said in ill temper. When in her presence, even if he didn’t realize it, he hardly seemed like a noble.
“No need.” Zhou Qianlin stood. “A man who fails to keep his promise, what use could I have for him?”
As she spoke, she moved towards the door to leave.
“You!” Lan Jue jumped to his feet, grabbing her wrist. “What on earth do you want?!”
She glared cruelly at him. “What do I want? I told you what I want, but since you can’t agree then forget it.”
“Then what happened between us…” he began in hesitation.
Zhou Qianlin yanked her hand away and stood toe to toe with him, staring fiercely in to his eyes. Lan Jue unconsciously took a step back.
“It was like being sat on by a pig.” She spat the sentence at him, turned on her heel and left.
Lan Jue felt like a victim of his own Lightning Discipline, standing there frozen for a long while.
“Stop!” After a few moments he finally reacted, running outside. He ran nearly headlong in to the waitress.
“Sir, you haven’t settled the bill.”
He paid hurriedly and hastened outside. He finally caught up with Zhou Qianlin at the door to the Luo Yun teahouse.
“Stop right there!” Lan Jue shouted at her.
Zhou Qianlin lin spun around, regarding him calmly. “You have something to say?”
“Y-you…!” lightning rippled in Lan Jue’s eyes, clearly on the verge of erupting.
She lifted her head, scorn evident in her beautiful sky-blue eyes. “What’s the matter? Ashamed?”
Lan Jue loosened his tightened fists, stepping back. “Ask for something else!”
Zhou Qianlin turned once again and began to walk off.
This time Lan Jue did not pursue, watching her slender form vanish around a nearby corner. He couldn’t stop his fists from clenching once more. He was finding it difficult to contain his emotions.
Around the corner Zhou Qianlin had stopped when out of sight, leaning against the wall. She covered her red face with her hands, gasping headily through her open mouth.
The pressure was immense, and she felt as though in that moment there still burned the heat of those two large hands pressing down on her shoulders.
And then a laugh burst unbidden from her lips. The whole scene was too much! Sat on by a pig!
Hah! He’s got to be so pissed! What choice does the honorable and respected Zeus have?
ζ
In the same instant Lan Jue was returning to Zeus’ Jewelry Store.
Seeing his infuriated face, Xiuxiu and Ke’er gulped. The expression in his eyes was stranger still.
Lan Jue said not a word, going directly to his room. He needed to think.
“Who’s he so upset with? He looks so… ugly,” Ke’er said, wide-eyed and open-mouthed.
Xiuxiu shook her head. “It’s the first time I’ve seen him this angry.”
As he entered the room Lan Jue flopped down atop his bed, his head resounding with Zhou Qianlin’s pleasant voice.
“Bodyguard!”
“Sat on by a pig!”
The two phrases echoed over and over in his mind. He knew that had someone else spoke to him like that he’d have incinerated them. But not Zhou Qianlin, she was his Jinyu’s sister, and he still…
Only, this request was nearly impossible to accept. To be beside her every day as a bodyguard. How could anyone who values freedom live like that? And it was more than two years – the length of her schooling, at least two years and three months.
No, impossible! Regardless of the circumstances, impossible!
Yet to refuse was to go against his own moral code. In the heat of the moment they never discussed terms. Moreover he was the one that had taken her innocence. If he didn’t make recompense it would be like a thorn in his heart forever, like a fish bone caught in the throat.
At the same time Zou Qianlin was also lying in her bed, covered by a light pink gauze curtain. Her room was constructed like an ocean of flowers. Lying atop the soft bed, her eyes were hazy, filled with several emotions, her mind in a constant state of flux.
Will he accept? If he doesn’t, what then?
Beep, beep, beep!
Zhou Qianlin nearly leapt from the bed, but sputtered when she saw he number on her communicator.
“Little Mi, what is it?”
“Tang Mi!” came the agitated shout from the communicator.
“Fine, fine. Tang Mi,” Zhou Qianlin responded helplessly.
“I heard you’ll be returning to classes next week. Are you sure everything’s alright?”
Zhou Qianlin responded, “What do you mean alright?”
“Your mood,” Tang Mi said. “After something like this you certainly can’t forget it right away.”
Zhou Qianlin snorted. “I forget about it ages ago. I’ll return to class next week. Let me copy your notes.”
Tang Mi chuckled. “You really want to forget then that’s fine. I’m telling you though, you aren’t allowed to have any sort of relationship with my idol. I’ll be a mercenary myself, the beautiful woman chasing the every step of the Mercenary King, you wont be able to compete with me.”
“Go then, meet a man and lose all your friends.” She unceremoniously hung up the communicator.
Beep, beep, beep the communicator rang anew.
Zhou Qianlin impatiently answered. “I won’t compete with you, alright? He’s all yours!”
“Compete with what,” a surprised voice answered from the communicator.
Zhou Qianlin sat up. “Is it you?”
The response was low, simple, like it required a great deal of courage to utter.
“You’re request… I accept.”
Chapter 27: Be a Teacher?
Editor: AtlasStudios
“Your request… I accept.”
Upon hearing this sentence Zhou Qianlin’s eyes lit up, her lips curling in to a smile. “Don’t be reluctant. I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t think you could do it.”
From the other end of the communicator came a sound like grinding teeth.
“I’m not reluctant!”
“Excellent,” Zhou Qianlin said, not seeking to provoke him further.
Lan Jue choked down the impulse to smash the communicator in his hand. He took a deep breath, exhaled through his mouth and continued. “When do you need me, and what will I be doing?”
“I have excellent bodyguards at home,” she responded. “You just need to watch over me while at school during the semester. When school’s in recess, so are you.”
Hearing this Lan Jue let out a sigh of relief. Luckily it wouldn’t all the time, and he’d have some time to himself.
“What’s my cover while protecting you? Shall I enter in to school as well, be a classmate?” Lan Jue inquired.
The communicator was silent for a moment. “Uncle, have some dignity. At your age could you be my classmate?”
“U-uncle…” Lan Jue’s face contorted, and when he could endure it no longer replied indignantly, “I’m that old?!” He wasn’t even twenty seven. The average life expectancy in the Eastern Alliance was a hundred and twenty, he absolutely was still a young man. What’s more there were certainly post-graduate students who would graduate at his age!
Zhou Qianlin covered her mouth, muffling her laughter, a task she found difficult. “So old. Don’t be a student, it’d be too easy for your identity to be revealed.”
“I’M TWENTY SEVEN!”
“Way over the hill.”
Crunch, came the sound of a breaking communicator over the wire.
“Hahaha!” Zhou Qianlin rolled atop her bed laughing uncontrollably, reveling in the sweet sensation of revenge.
Beep beep beep! The communicator rang anew.
Zhou Qianlin hastened to regain her composure, her stomach hurting, and answered.
“Zhou Qianlin! I’m warning you, if you insult me like that again I’ll –“
“You’ll what?” she spat.
Lan Jue fell silent. Anyone else, and he’d have a slew of choice things to fire back, but from her he had nothing to say…
“A good man doesn’t fight with a woman. I owe you, and I’ll pay my debt. After these two years, we’ll have nothing more to do with each other. Speak, what’s my cover?” Lan Jue tried valiantly to keep his voice under control, for he knew that if he didn’t it would only make Zhou Qianlin more pleased. He would not give her the satisfaction!
“Enter as an instructor, you’re about the right age. How you do that is up to you. You can do that, can’t you? Mr. Zeus?”
She hung up without giving him a chance to respond.
“Instructor?” Him, a teacher? How could he be a teacher?
Although the NEU didn’t produce the most famous Mecha-Pilots, it was a proper piloting university and nothing scoff at. To enter as an instructor, Lan Jue felt, would pose no problem for him. He was a God-Ranked pilot, the highest rank attainable in the Three Alliances – more than sufficient for a teacher.
Stop! He couldn’t let this impetuous girl get everything she wanted. He had promised to comply, but how he did it was never outlined. A teacher, right? But not a mecha instructor!
Lan Jue had a stroke of genius, gradually crafting his idea. He couldn’t stop his mouth from curling in to a mischievous grin, his sour mood swept away.
His right hand suddenly grew hot, and Lan Jue lifted it to look upon the golden bracelet on his wrist. It emitted a gentle golden light, and as the light expanded it revealed the image of an old man.
He was an elderly man, big and tall, his face a landscape of craggy features. His true age was difficult to decipher, but he was possessed of two very clear blue eyes, deep and shining as though they reflected the universe itself. He wore a magnificent white robe, embroidered in silver and encrusted with gemstones. A pointed cap rested upon his head, and a large shimmering ruby on the ring finger of his right hand.
“Honorable members of the Skyfire Avenue Council, please make your way to the Skyfire Museum in one hour. If you have a scheduling conflict, please alert us as soon as possible.”
As the voice faded, so too did the image.
The urgency of the Skyfire Council meeting made Lan Jue uncomfortable.
There were a total of one hundred and sixty eight shops on Skyfire Avenue, each with their own management. But the Council itself had only eighteen members.
The Council met bi-monthly for regular meetings to manage the Avenue’s internal affairs. It was only when something serious cropped up that they would hold an emergency meeting.
It was also the first time since Lan Jue arrived in the Avenue that such a meeting was convened.
Skyfire Avenue wasn’t simply a noble’s street. It was also a place of Adepts. When entering the Avenue to be a shopkeeper, you also had to possess at least a Seventh-Level Talent, passing a series of tests. Further the eighteen members of the Council were the strongest among the Adepts present. Though the organization was freeform, the members were some of the most celebrated and illustrious Talents in the Three Alliances.
Were it not for the combined strength of these members Skyfire Avenue never would have survived as long as it had, with it’s freedom intact.
Lan Jue rose quickly, donning a three-piece blue suit and slipping a ring on his little finger1 before stepping out.
In the dim light of the room’s lamp, the ring seemed to leave behind it a green afterimage that shimmered with a life of it’s own.
The ring itself had a peculiar look, forged of a silvery metal. The top half was curious, one side wide and the other side narrow. It created a trapezoid, set with fragments of diamond and sapphire like leopard print. In it’s center was set a triangular green gemstone. The ethereal light, full of vitality, originated from there.
Before he stepped out Lan Jue turned the ring inward, hiding the gemstone in his palm.
The ring itself had a name: Thor’s Promise.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
0 Power
stone 
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