"I"m very sorry, everybody!"I bowed as low as I could, my body almost perpendicular at the waist. My friends all stared at me, perplexed.
"Please." Feng Hai was also beside me, lowering his head in apology. "I"m very sorry, but I will need to borrow Richard for a while. I understand that you might want him around for the third place match, but this is a very urgent matter. Please don"t blame Richard – I was the one who selfishly made this request and pushed him into this. I hope you will forgive me."
"There is nothing to forgive." Unsurprisingly enough, it was Harrison who took the initiative and stepped forward to speak on behalf of Jing Tian Academy team. He placed a hand on my shoulder and smiled. "Do whatever you need to do. The life of your comrade is much more important than a tournament match."
"Yeah," Craig agreed. "Besides, it"s just the third place match, and not the finals. I"ll be honest, it doesn"t really matter that much if we win or lose this one. The only difference is whether we finish third or fourth, and let"s be serious…fourth place is a lot more than we deserve."
"You"ve done your best to help us progress this far," Sheila added with a warm smile. "It"s our turn to not let you do. You can leave the rest to us."
"That"s right!" Yue Chu thumped his chest confidently. "You also have to give us a chance to s.h.i.+ne as well, Richie! You"ve been hogging all the limelight and stealing the glory! At least allow the rest of us to display our strengths as well!"
"Correct." Harrison nodded. "This is a team effort, not a one-man show. While you"re undoubtedly a very important member of the team, and your contributions have been nothing short of tremendous, we cannot depend on you forever. This is Jing Tian Academy team, not Richard team. Every member matters. If you have your own circ.u.mstances, it falls to us – your teammates – to pick up the slack and compensate. Besides…"
He lowered his voice and winked.
"I wasn"t planning on fielding you in the third place match, anyway. I did toy around with sending you against Lilith Porter if she comes into play during the individual matches, but in the end I decided not to. You"ve done so much throughout the tournament…all-killing Saint Teresa Academy team, forcing Charles Lacroix to withdraw from the team match during the semifinals…and so many more. As Yue Chu said, I should give the others some time to run out on the field and present their prowess. The seniors, in particular…they deserve the chance to attract the attention of some of the recruiting universities."
That was right. I almost forgot. Harrison, Pearl, Cody and Theodore would be graduating at the end of this year. They needed to find admission into a prestigious university, or at least that was what society expected of them. Fortunately, the criteria for admission to good universities usually included a mixture of excellent practical results, mission records (though not many people partic.i.p.ated in these) and individual combat rankings. Most of which Harrison and the other seniors had already done well in. Of course, those were sufficient for them to get into fairly prestigious universities, but Harrison wasn"t just referring to those.
Depending on their performance in the tournaments, they might get scouted out by the elite universities. The cream of the crop. Ivy League. Who could say no to enrolling in the best universities the Global Federation had to offer? The universities ranked among the top ten?
Harrison was correct. While it wasn"t as if I hogged the limelight to myself (Bu Fan, Yue Chu, Lily, Craig, Sheila, Theodore, even Harrison himself all performed extremely well, and won a lot of recognition from pundits and professional mages alike), the seniors deserved their chance to s.h.i.+ne. This was, after all, their last high school tournament. I might still have a chance to partic.i.p.ate again next year, as long as I didn"t get complacent and maintained my current ranking, but my seniors would have to move on, to look for universities. This could have a great impact on their careers, and I wasn"t selfish enough to deny them this opportunity.
"Good luck, everybody."
"Don"t worry about us, and do what you need to do." Harrison gripped my hand in a firm handshake and then shoved me gently, toward Feng Hai. "Get going. Your friend is waiting for you to save her, right?"
"Yeah! If you really want to make up for your absence, then promise us that you"ll definitely save her." Pearl joined in with a sweet smile. "Bring her back safely."
"We will." Feng Hai returned the friendly expression. I could almost read his thoughts – he was touched by his juniors" goodwill. He was most likely whispering to himself something along the lines of "so Jing Tian Academy hasn"t changed since I"ve left it. It"s still filled with good, loyal students. I"m very glad."
Man, I wouldn"t be surprised to see him shed a tear or two.
"We"ll be back," Feng Hai promised. Then he turned away, gesturing for me to follow him. I gave my friends a wave.
"I"ll be seeing you," Yue Chu said with a grin and a wave.
"Yeah. Later."
Then I was gone, following Feng Hai toward unknown territory.
*
"How are we getting there?"
"Summon your monsters and fly over there, obviously!" a reader shouted from the comments section. Feng Hai kicked the guy through the fourth wall and suppressed the urge to roll his eyes.
"The Yao Cai Mountain is so far away, if we fly there on one of your Soul Beasts, it"ll take forever. Besides, it"s an incredible drain of your mana. The flight would take a few hours, and maintaining one of your larger Soul Beasts to ferry an entire squad would exhaust you. You would be of no use to us if you arrive, your mana completely expended…and that"s provided you"ll be able to last the several hours" worth of journey anyway."
"I know all that. Why are you telling me all this? Tell them." I jabbed my finger at the broken fourth wall, through which the insolent reader had just been blown through.
"That"s what I meant to do. These readers, always thinking they know better than the characters in the story. Hindsight is twenty-twenty, and it"s not as if we possess the same vision or perspective the readers do. They"re always looking for ways to exploit the system, to abuse the rules for some stupid advantage."
"Yeah. Obviously it"s against the rules to summon before the match, and they kept asking why I was stupid and not summoning before the match. Or they kept calling me r.e.t.a.r.ded because I don"t have a Constellation spirit that can cast healing spells. As if I can conceptualize and summon something so convenient! I need to learn healing magic first, which is a completely different type of magic from elemental magic, and I don"t have the apt.i.tude or time to switch specializations. Yet they always think they know my own world and reality better than me, and try to twist the rules to their distorted advantage. If I can"t do it, then obviously there are rules that prohibit it! If I don"t summon a healing Constellation spirit, then obviously that"s because one doesn"t exist! Stop whining about me being stupid or r.e.t.a.r.ded just because my life doesn"t go the way YOU imagine!"
"Ignore those idiots. They just like projecting their narrow-minded desires and wis.h.i.+ fulfilment fantasies onto other people"s lives. Juvenile edgelords who don"t know how the real world work. They are probably used to everything conveniently falling into place for them, and then rage like spoilt brats when they don"t get their way. They aren"t worth your time. More importantly…" Feng Hai glanced up, just as the roar of plasma thrusters swept across the area. Above, a ma.s.sive military-grade hovercraft dropped into a controlled descent, blue flames billowing downward. Landing pads extended out from chambers on the underside and clamped down on the ground. With a whine, the thrusters cut off abruptly, leaving everything in relative silence. The air continued to s.h.i.+mmer from the intense heat, despite the sudden absence of plasma. "They are finally here."
I recognized the Silver Wolves emblem painted onto the side of the hovercraft, but even without that I remembered that this was the very same transport I had rode aboard before. The ramp lowered, and a squad of mercenaries disembarked, jogging toward Feng Hai and saluted as they stopped sharpy before him. Just as I expected, Brent and Redfield were among them, and they cast a glance in my direction to acknowledge my presence.
"I see you"ve gotten the kid."
Redfield grinned before he dropped all formalities, strode forward and slapped me in the back with such force that I was almost sent sprawling onto the ground. I tried not to glare at him as I gingerly rubbed my back. Unaware of my pain, Redfield threw an arm around my neck and guffawed in delight.
"Richie! It"s been a while! Oh, I"ve seen your matches! Impressive! Very impressive! And you also did well in that fight against the Frenzor a.s.sa.s.sin! I heard about it from Jamie!"
"Excellent work."
Brent was also nodding in approval, but his countenance remained as stern as ever. There was a reason why he was the captain and why Redfield remained the subordinate.
"So…where to, boss?" Redfield asked, finally letting go of me and straightening to meet the eyes of Feng Hai. He then scratched his messy, red hair. "I believe you said something about Yao Cai Mountains over the coms? Looking for a renowned receptarier?"
"Are you sure this man has the means to help Anastasia gain control over her poison magic?" Brent asked seriously, his tone filled with skepticism.
Feng Hai shook his head. "Like Teacher Cure said, there are no guarantees. This could very well turn out to be a wild goose chase. We might go there and find nothing, or find him, but return empty-handed because he doesn"t have a method."
"Even so…as long as there"s even the slightest chance, we should go and try finding him!" Redfield argued. "A tiny chance is better than no chance at all!"
"Exactly." Feng Hai smiled grimly and nodded. "That"s why we"re still going to head for the Yao Cai Mountains. This will be a gamble…but I trust Teacher Cure. She has never let me down before. If she says there"s a chance that this man will be able to help, then it"s definitely worth trying to locate him."
"Hey, I say we give it a shot!" Redfield exclaimed, to the agreement of the other men in the squad. "Better than sitting around, twiddling our thumbs and resigning ourselves to containing poor Ana inside a cage for the rest of her life."
However, Brent continued to frown, his expression creased in doubt.
"But…if this receptarier is as renowned and capable as this Mary Cure makes him out to be, why hasn"t Doctor Dorden heard of him before?"
"Who says I haven"t?"
The entire squad turned around, only to catch sight of the elderly doctor descending the ramp, aided by Glacia. He nodded a greeting to Feng Hai before turning back to Brent, most likely to answer his question.
"Ling Dan is a legendary figure in the field of medicine…however, his methods tend to be, uh, unorthodox. They are not the same type of healing magic that we healers learn today, but something more traditional."
"Like Traditional Chinese Medicine?" Redfield blurted out. "Acupuncture and qi flow and all that?"
Dorden hesitated, and then shrugged. "I guess. His methods remain mysterious and esoteric, unknown even to the greatest healing mages. But he is rumored to have pulled off miracles. However, he is also very elusive…no one has seen him for years. He"s more a myth than real, which is why I didn"t bother to consider him as an option. To be honest, I didn"t even know that he would be on Yao Cai Mountains…until the leader"s ex-teacher mentioned him, I always a.s.sumed that he was either a fabricated myth, or dead."
"Well, this is heartening, though. So there is a chance, after all." Glacia looked immensely relieved. Feng Hai grinned and raised a hand.
"As long as there"s a chance, no matter how slim, we"ll take it. We won"t let our comrade fall into the hands of the a.s.sa.s.sins Guild, and we will never abandon her. Let"s do this!"
"We"re at your command as always, boss!" Redfield a.s.sured him, followed by an "oo-rah!" from the mercenaries.
"Let"s take off then. The sooner we leave, the earlier we"ll be able to come back."
Brent also looked convinced. Turning around sharply, he beckoned for his men to follow him toward a nearby building. I realized that it was a weapons shop that sold Divine Devices and the like. Most likely the Silver Wolves had dropped by here to stock up on armaments and necessary equipment. Otherwise they wouldn"t bother to disembark in the first place. Feng Hai and I would have boarded the hovercraft and spoken to them inside the vessel.
"Go get prepared," Feng Hai instructed me. Before I could ask him how, he continued. "Yao Cai Mountain is known for its fierce beasts and ethereal monsters…wood-type monsters. These very same monsters are often hunted and harvested for their medicinal properties, but…because they are pretty powerful and dangerous, very few people actally dare take on such missions regarding them." he then grinned. "Make sure you bring your best weapons with you. Armor, if possible, but given your fighting style, that"s going to be more of a hindrance than protection."
"Uh, right." I nodded, and then saluted. Whirling about, I hastily returned to my hotel room to grab whatever stuff I needed whenever I went monster hunting.
Well…this time, it would be receptarier searching, though…