Chapter 201
Chapter 201
Translator: True Detective
Chapter 201 – The Sleeping Dragon Moves in Secret, the Young Phoenix Has Already Cast the Net
Author: Poor Xixi – 2024-05-22
“Who spread this? Tell Monast to investigate thoroughly!”
“Yes.”
On the surface, Asina nodded calmly.
But in her heart she already knew—the root of this matter was probably because President Monast had casually mentioned some of Dean Loren’s past in the student council office, and then one of Lan Qi, Huperion, or Frey had let it slip.
And most likely, it ended up in the hands of someone very troublesome.
Oh—so she understood what had happened.
But Asina did not say it aloud.
The morning sunlight streamed in from the side window. Perhaps because the storm had just cleared, it appeared especially dazzling.
That beam of light shone directly on Loren’s profile, making his gaze seem deeper and more severe.
“……”
His eyelids twitched slightly, and his expression shifted from calm to stern. His lips pressed into a thin, tight line.
Asina also sensed the change. Her hands rested flat on the folder, silent.
The only sounds in the office were the ticking of the wall clock and the faint steam rising from the coffee on the desk, curling slowly upward. In this atmosphere, time seemed to crawl, every second stretching endlessly.
“No wonder our academy’s reputation has been worsening in recent years.”
Loren finally steadied his mood after a long pause.
He had felt for some time now that the school’s atmosphere was deteriorating again.
Though, to be fair, it had never been spotless—after all, even the Dean of Alchemy had been imprisoned.
“By the way, did Lan Qi accept Adams’ challenge? What happened with it?”
Loren had always known: blessings never come in pairs, but disasters never come alone. At times like this, he especially worried what new “surprise” Lan Qi might bring him.
“……”
Asina fell silent again for a short while.
Frey was pulling strings in the shadows, while on Lan Qi’s side the net had already been drawn tight.
Asina hesitated, thinking how best to phrase this to Loren.
And then—in that brief silence—a loud, resonant ringing pierced the closed space.
It was the communication terminal on Loren’s desk.
An old magical device, its base made of heavy black metal lacquer, with thick winding lines connecting to the central communications hub of the academy, able to transfer calls directly to the Dean’s office.
Loren frowned slightly, lifted his hand slowly, picked up the receiver, and pressed it gently to his ear.
“Juliana? What do you want with me?”
He had no idea why Juliana would contact him so early in the morning.
“……”
There was silence on the other end, as if she was puzzled why Loren would ask such a thing.
“How did Lan Qi’s duel with Adams turn out?”
Juliana’s voice was still proud and cold, but faintly laced with expectation—she clearly cared deeply about the result.
Loren glanced up at Asina.
He saw her face, caught between wanting to speak and holding back.
A very bad feeling settled in Loren’s chest.
He knew it—Adams, with his bullheaded refusal to back down before Lan Qi, was surely asking for trouble!
But what startled Loren even more was that Juliana seemed to care about this duel even more than he did.
“I just returned to the academy; I haven’t yet learned the outcome.”
Loren hurriedly explained to Juliana.
“……”
Juliana hesitated again.
“Adams has not reported to me for an entire day.”
Her voice carried a trace of confusion.
By rights, for a duel with such heavy stakes, Adams should have contacted her immediately afterward, win or lose.
But instead, no word for an entire day—as though he had vanished.
“……”
Cold sweat began to bead on Loren’s forehead.
“Juliana, don’t worry. I’ll go find out what’s going on right away.”
The news coming from the other end of the line was clearly no good. With each exchange, Loren’s expression grew heavier, his brow furrowed tight. The relaxed look in his eyes was gone, replaced by worry and doubt.
“Fine.”
Juliana’s reply was crisp.
But soon, at the very end of her words, she added:
“Regardless of win or loss, I expect you to keep your promise.”
“What promise?”
Loren felt even more uneasy. He asked twice into the receiver—but by then Juliana had already hung up.
“Where is Adams?”
The moment he set the receiver down, Loren turned to Asina, his tone both resolute and edged with fear.
Her hesitations earlier were proof enough—he no longer had time to hear the story drawn out.
“The seventh-floor atrium.”
Without waiting to hear more, Loren’s figure vanished from the office in an instant—leaving behind only the faint humming of the old magical device, and the shifting shadows cast across the desk by the sunlight outside the window.
High above Ikerite Academy, the normally blue sky where birds would dart like arrows was now swept by gusts of wind.
The wind spiraled around Loren’s body; in it, he seemed as light as a feather, fused with the air, soaring at great speed.
The cluster of academy buildings shrank rapidly beneath his sight. He flew over the red brick and green tiles, the ancient oaks and lakes, until the Education Building came into view.
His black coat whipped in the wind, its edges like a ghost’s cloak dancing in the air.
His expression was set, eyes blazing, as if able to pierce through the world’s illusions.
The rushing wind scorched his cheeks, but he felt nothing—his heart was fixed on one goal: reach the seventh-floor atrium as fast as possible.
The situation wasn’t yet disastrous.
A man upright has nothing to fear from shadows.
So there were some rumors.
But he had never once gone to the Yaloran Kingdom to meet Juliana deliberately.
There was no business requiring his personal presence there. A “date” was beyond absurd.
Even if by some chance he ever met Juliana, there was no way they would be “meeting in secret.”
These rumors would collapse on their own.
No—the real problem he had to uncover now was what kind of trouble Lan Qi had stirred up this time.
Flying across the academy’s skies, Loren was about to alight on the rooftop of the Education Building when his eyes suddenly caught sight of two familiar figures.
Lan Qi and Huperion, walking calmly, in conversation with a young student Loren didn’t recognize, along the wide stone path leading toward the Sage’s Institute.
Loren’s heart skipped a beat, and he slowed his magic, letting the winds weaken until he descended gently to the ground.
As his feet touched the stone, the storm of air beneath him drew inward, fading into nothing.
He landed lightly, then looked straight at the three students.
Lan Qi remained his usual self—calm, unhurried, at ease every day.
Huperion, however, when she saw the Dean, had a flicker of alertness in her eyes—as though guilty of something.
The third student looked uneasy, clearly unfamiliar to Loren. Likely one of the academic delegation from the Yaloran Royal Academy. At a glanced, he seemed an honest sort.