Volume 7 - CH 7

Chapter 7: The Messengers in the Room

Atlantis  7:30 AM

I probably returned to my room in the Black Dorm that night.

And so, on the morning of the second day, my troubles started to arise.

Because last night, after I finished washing up in the health care center, I went to my room and directly fell asleep so I didn’t notice it. This morning, when I was about to leave, I just realized this enormous problem concerning one’s livelihood.

Senior’s not here, who am I going to borrow the bathroom from?

I looked at the towel, toothbrush and toothpaste in the washbasin with such profound doubts.

Other people…nope, more than half of the people in the Black Dorm are those that I’m still unfamiliar with, so who would be willing to lend me their bathroom?

Go and borrow from Andy?

After leaving my room, I knocked a few times on the door to Andy’s room. A long time had passed and no one responded; Andy would usually open his door immediately after two knocks, so this shows that he’s also not in his room right now.

Then who else can I look for…

Randall?

I remembered the second black robe that I know.

But I haven’t been to Randall’s room before, and I only had an impression of hearing him mention that it was on the third floor. Then I’ll just go look for him to borrow and see how it goes? After all, I think I still need to use the bathroom…

If I had known this earlier on, I would have chosen a different room!

It wasn’t until I reached the third floor that I realized the style of the third floor didn’t seem to be quite the same as the fourth floor. The fourth floor was a long passage that reached to the end, which gave it a very clear-cut feel. The third floor though, seemed to be designed like a winding corridor, with several turns, and it looks like the rooms might be located on the inside of every turn. And so, I bit the bullet and slowly walked towards those corridors that don’t look too brightly lit.

Relax, relax…even if there really is something that pops out, I still have my illusionary soybean that can kill them.

Just as I’d circled around it twice, roughly able to differentiate where four of the rooms were, I still didn’t go up to knock on a door. If I knocked on the wrong door, then wouldn’t that be so embarrassing? And if I encounter that pervert, who was simply throwing souls around last time, then wouldn’t that be very unlucky?

I was just thinking like this, when a certain savior appeared.

“You are…” Coming out from behind a corridor, a rather familiar face appeared.

“Mr. Chu, it’s rare to see you here.”

It’s Randall’s werewolf butler.

I had a being-moved-til-I-almost-teared-up kind of feeling. “Hello.” I hastily gave him a greeting.

“Hello.” Sure enough, Nile immediately gave me a slight bow.

“Excuse me, I’m looking for senior Randall.” It’s easy now that I’ve met him; he would definitely know where Randall lives at, and the room he just came out of might even be Randall’s room!

“Very well, please come with me.” Worthy of being the legendary butler, the way he spoke was so polite, in a voice that wasn’t too loud nor too soft, but moderately nice to hear. Even his behavior was very elegant, completely without the crude feeling that normal people give.

I followed him into a corner, and sure enough, he stopped in front of the room he just came out of. Then he turned the doorknob and silently pushed the door open. A sweet aroma immediately drifted out.

That aroma seemed a little familiar, but I don’t remember where I smelled it before.

“Please wait here for a moment.” Nile led me into the room. The interior was much bigger than Senior’s room, and felt as if it was linked to another place. It was a huge, completely Western styled room, with a luxury crystal lamp on the ceiling, and a few doors that had some strange decorations at the side.

Inside the room, there was a large comfortable sofa, and at the side, was a crystal vase with a peculiar black rose stuck inside. Hanging on the walls pasted with wallpaper, was also a medieval portrait of a witch being incinerated.

Nike opened one of the doors, went in, and came out less than a minute later. “Master is currently having breakfast, if you don’t mind then please come this way.”

I immediately followed him in.

That door was connected to a huge restaurant, and inside was one of those lavish long tables that appears in castles which can only be seen on television. The table was spread with a tablecloth, and likewise had a black flower stuck in a vase.

As soon as I entered the restaurant, I instantly saw Randall sitting at one end of the long table. On the table was a plate of something and beside that was a cup of an enigmatic blood-red drink.

“Chu, want to have breakfast together?” As soon as he saw me come in, Randall lifted his cup and gracefully motioned at me.

What the hell is that cup of blood-red liquid!?

“No, no need, I wanted to borrow your…”

My words stopped midway.

My eyes paused at that huge wall behind Randall, there was some kind of thing on it…

A thing that should be a mummy was behind him, and that mummy was obviously “alive”. Its shriveled chest was heaving up and down, and its eyes could even move. Then it glared over here.

I took a step back, with a shocked-till-I-didn’t-know-what-I-should-think kind of feeling.

“What do you want to borrow?” Randall drank a sip of the blood-red thing from the cup, and very elegantly asked.

“No, nothing, I had a slip of the tongue. I wanted to ask if you know where Senior went to?” An alarm telling me that it wasn’t suitable to stay here for long sounded in my mind, so I just randomly asked a question.

“Nn…I don’t know, sorry.” He was still very elegant, so elegant that it seemed like he completely didn’t take the living mummy, which was currently glaring behind him, seriously. “But there’s a match tomorrow, so the latest that you’ll get to see him should be tomorrow.”

“Oh, thank you.”

“You’re welcome, do you have any other questions?” Swirling the blood-red liquid in his cup, Randall seemed to be casually asking.

“That…what’s that in your cup?” It shouldn’t be that thing that I’m thinking about, right?

Slender eyes immediately turned around to look at me, and he even revealed a strange smile. “The blood of a beautiful sixteen year old girl, a tender and shy taste. It’s the most suitable thing to drink when you wake up in the morning. Would you like to try some? I’ll have Nile immediately go to get some for you.”

“No need, thank you.”

And so, without even borrowing his bathroom, I ran like hell out of Randall’s room.

***

I found out that I probably couldn’t live without Senior…’s bathroom.

Why are all these black robes people who like to randomly change their rooms!?

After walking back to the fourth floor, I unconsciously stopped at Senior’s door, and let out a sigh.

“Sighing in front of someone’s room so early in the morning, are you trying to curse me to become unlucky!?”

Just when I was completely unprepared, a certain unscrupulous person suddenly kicked my ass from behind, causing me to directly hit the door before me, which issued a super loud “dong” sound.

After my eyes were no longer dazzled, I quickly turned around, “Se, Senior!?”

I never thought that he would actually come back!

“Did you treat me as being dead and wouldn’t be able to come back?” Red eyes narrowed, and then a cold laugh surfaced. Senior stood at the same spot as he looked at me. “You think that I’m like you who’s so lousy? The way I see it, you’ll dead before I died.”

Although it’s very poisonous, I do feel that it is the truth…

Taking out a key and opening the door, Senior directly went inside. “Didn’t you want to borrow the bathroom!?” Glaring at me, who was still outside, I hurriedly ran inside and only then did he close the door.

As soon as I walked through the door, I realized that there seemed to be other people inside the room. Senior, who was standing in front of me, also stopped.

There were two strangers in the room. One of them was a very beautiful silver-haired woman, and the other was a black-haired man who gave off quite a cold feeling. The two of them were standing on either side of the room, but as soon as they saw Senior entering the room, they immediately changed their originally upright actions and came to our side.

“Your subjects greet Your Highness.”

Right when that woman opened her mouth, both of them abruptly knelt down.

I had a scared-out-of-my-skin kind of feeling. Even though they weren’t kneeling at me, seeing someone directly kneeling down does give me a rather weird feeling.

“Chu, you go wash up first.” Senior didn’t respond to them, only faintly saying that to me.

I guess he probably doesn’t want someone to be present?

“That…I could just return to my room first…” I felt like I was the extra person, so it’ll be better if I don’t stay here and just come back later to borrow the bathroom.

“It’s fine, you can go first.”

Since he already said it like that, what else can I say?

“Oh.” Noticing that those two people were using a very strange expression to look at me, I felt very awkward, and so I hurriedly ran into the bathroom and shut the door.

The second before the door closed, I vaguely heard Senior talking, “Let’s sit at the side and talk, Slophen, Alpadis.”

Turns out they’re people that he knows.

Once the door had closed, I couldn’t hear any more sounds from outside.

I turned around and saw the mirror. It reflected my face that was full of doubt.

Senior has always known a lot of people, so oftentimes when he’s on the street or some other place, there would always be someone that greets him. This point is the complete opposite of me. Recently, more and more admirers have popped up around me, wanting to know more people from the Black Dorm through me. Even during class, there would usually be many people asking me things about the Black Dorm; things that include the furnishings, protective spells, or special objects in the Black Dorm and so on, as if it was a very mysterious and secret place and they finally discovered a pipeline that can relay information to them, so they had to ask in such a detailed way.

As a matter of fact, I don’t like this feeling.

The people that I know are getting more and more, and my friends are also getting more and more. It felt just like those people that I saw during middle school who had many small groups of friends. Now there are also that kind of people beside me. To be honest, I was very envious in the past, because people would rarely take the initiative to get close to me. But now for some reason, I don’t like it at all.

I did meet some good friends, but Miao Miao, Chifuyu, and Ryan, they still have their own things to do, and when I’m by their side, it’s like I’m a creature from another planet. Sometimes it can get a little awkward, since there are a lot of things that I don’t know how I should say.

Grimacing at myself in the mirror, I turned on the tap and began to wash my face.

It felt like, during the competition period, it was more relaxing, because I didn’t need to follow someone else, and the five-colored rooster head and the others were rather easy to get along with. There was no need to bother to think about whether something is or isn’t, as they wouldn’t talk about things that are too advanced and cause me to not understand.

Including the changes, I know where everything started from.

From the day I received that package, from the day someone grabbed onto me to go crashing into the train, the things that I’ve seen were increasing, and so were the people whom I’ve met.

Everything started from there.

I found out that I’m a little different.

Over here, there seemed to be someone whom I wanted to have as a very important friend.

***

Just as I pulled out my toothbrush and was getting ready to rinse my mouth, the bathroom door was suddenly rudely kicked open.

Wait a minute! I locked the door!

What’s with ignoring the lock and kicking the door open!?

“What kind of nonsense are you thinking about inside, causing my head to hurt from listening to them!?” The culprit who had kicked the door, not only did he not have the self-consciousness of destroying the dorm’s public property, instead he ferociously pointed a finger at me and roared.

I was holding onto my toothbrush with a mouth full of bubbles as I froze.

I, I was just having morning thoughts, can’t I do that?

“I don’t care if you’re having morning thoughts or nightly thoughts, if you continue to think nonsense, believe it or not, I’ll dig out your brain and feed it to the dogs!”

I don’t know why but I felt that Senior’s anger seemed to be have increased by twofold. It’s even more terrifying than when he’s sleep deprived.

I hastily rinsed my mouth. “I, I understand.” Normally when he’s in his raging state, you should definitely not talk back. This comes from the experience I’ve gained after a long period of time.

So to say, just what did those two people say, why did Senior’s attitude suddenly become so much worser?

Secretly taking a peek outside, those two people also had a dumbfounded look.

Senior slammed the door shut with a “peng” sound, and it bounced off, leaving a small crack that lets me hear a bit of the sounds from outside.

“The both of you go back and tell your two cloudy-minded masters, I’ve already said this a long time ago, before I finish taking all the subjects, I will not be leaving this place.” I heard Senior’s voice, his attitude wasn’t good. I’ve rarely heard him talk to others like this, other than to me.

“Your Highness, this time, the matter of you getting hurt has already been sent back to the clan. The Lord was greatly shocked by this matter, so please Your Highness, come back with me for a visit, even if it’s only to see the Lord once.” That woman’s voice drifted over, softly, like she was singing. This made me think of a person who also speaks in that manner, but Senior has never spoken to him like this and, what’s more, he’s even very respectful to him.

“Young master, the King feels very concerned about your condition. So young master, please return with me for a visit. The King has already prepared many of the finest medicines that will allow you to recuperate. Please do not delay this any further.” The other man’s way of speaking was relatively colder, felt like his words were formatted. This was also very similar to a certain person, and when Senior spoke to him, it wouldn’t be with a bad attitude either.

“You guys really are so annoying; I’ve already said that it’s impossible yesterday, yet you came here again! Believe it or not, I’ll blast you guys out to the ends of the world!”

Oh, it turns out they’ve already enacted this scene yesterday. It’s no wonder that Senior’s tone would be so bad, since he hates being pestered by others.

“If that’s the case, then please forgive me for being forced to use extreme measures.” That woman’s voice gradually grew tighter.

“Young master, excuse me.”

I heard the sound of two people standing up.

Looks like a martial arts scene is going to be staged outside. Should I shut the bathroom door properly and hide in the bathtub as to not get hit by stray bullets…?

Just as I was hesitating for a moment, I heard two tremendous noises in succession from outside, and then it quieted down.

It was settled so quickly!?

There was a smell of something burnt drifting in.

“Chu, you’ve listened to more than enough, come out!”

Seems like the winner is Senior.

I gingerly went out of the bathroom, and saw that the spot where the room’s balcony was, really did get blasted into a huge hole, with small flames still burning around the edges. Those two people just now had disappeared and there’s a hundred percent chance of them leaving through that “hole”.

“You found out…” I could only give a hollow laugh, another hollow laugh, and then continue on with the next hollow laugh, very worried that I’ll be the next person to “leave” through that hole.

“You’re so noisy, of course I noticed.” Red eyes glared at me and then Senior clapped his hands. I saw the room using a very supernatural speed to start self-repairation on that huge hole. A short ten seconds later, the hole had vanished and it changed back into its original wall and balcony look.

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

I secretly peeked at the balcony, speculating a little about who those two people, who got blasted away, were.

Looking at it like this, although they’re acquaintances, it seems that they aren’t very welcomed.

“Those two came from my clan.”

“Aih!?”

Senior took out a bottle from the refrigerator while he nonchalantly dropped a huge bomb.

***

Now that I think about it, I never seemed to have heard Senior mention matters about his home.

“Because there’s nothing to say. I’m not familiar with them, unlike your family.” Taking out two cups, Senior gave off the feeling that seemed like he was chatting about the usual weather being very nice. Then he filled up the cups until they were full. It’s white, so it should be something like milk. “Take it.” He handed me one of the cups.

“You’re not familiar with your family?” I took the cup, and before I realized it, I had already unconsciously asked this rather privacy prying question.

“Uh! You don’t need to answer me.” After adding on a sentence, I realized that this only helped to add fuel to the fire.

But he really said it in a weird way. A normal person wouldn’t use “not familiar” to describe their own family, right? Most of them would probably say that they have a rocky relationship or the like; this was the first time I heard it in this way.

Senior looked at me, and then curved into a very cold smile. “To call that my family, the Black Dorm would seem more like a family. Those two sides, I’ve only been there a few times, and that number can be counted with just my fingers.” He leaned against the table, and then drank a sip from the cup, tilting his head as he thought for a moment. “I’d been sent away while I was still an infant, and later on, I received guidance under Master’s clan. I was probably around thirteen years old when I entered the academy. Afterwards, I directly passed all three robe levels and have been living here without ever leaving.”

It sounds rather simple.

However…to be sent away while he was a baby?

What a strange family.

Was it because he was an eyesore or because he was a disgraceful child and the like?

Senior didn’t respond, he probably didn’t want to answer that.

“Your master is…” That’s right, I remember that Director Jin seemed to have mentioned something similar before. Sure enough, for Senior to be so freakishly strong, it wasn’t without a reason. According to those wuxia light novels, there definitely has to be some kind of super expert that acts as his driving force, otherwise he definitely wouldn’t have been this freakishly strong.

“You probably don’t even know who my master is.” Putting down the cup with a “kou” sound, Senior curved into a smile, but this time it wasn’t quite as cold. “However, I feel that I look rather similar to my master, because it’s considered as watching him grow up. So if you do see him one day, you should be able to recognize him at once.”

I frowned, a little unable to imagine it.

Senior’s face looks similar to another person’s?

Logically speaking, to be referred to as master, one should be a pretty old person. If one day, I see an older version of Senior on the street, honestly, I don’t have the confidence that I’ll be able to recognize him.

With a “pa” sound, the back of my head suffered a heavy blow, almost causing my face to hit the rim of the cup.

“Don’t think about nonsense!” Senior gave me four words plus an exclamation mark as a warning.

“Oh…”

Alright, I won’t think about any nonsense. Shutting up, I obediently drank the beverage. There’s the taste of milk, but it feels very thick and pure. The fresh milk sold outside just couldn’t be compared to it. After I finished drinking it, I felt completely revigorated.

“If there’s time, I’ll bring you to meet my master.”

I immediately turned around, just in time to see Senior smiling. It’s different from his usual cold smile, it’s faint, as if he’s in a very good mood kind of smile. It looks like he suddenly became completely gentle, a bit shiny, causing one to be unable to shift one’s gaze away.

Towards this, I only have one conclusion.

His mood changes are definitely very quick. A second ago, it was a rainstorm and gale, then in the next second, it changed to peaceful weather, and there’s even a hint of a smile! It made me, who’s used to seeing him coldly smile, have the feeling of being hit by a ghost.

I’m terrified, will he throw me down from the fourth floor in the next second?

“Chu, are you looking for a beating?” A cold voice drifted out from the side like a vengeful ghost.

***

“I’m sorry, I was wrong.”