Chapter 10 — Back to Practical Matters
Blade of Dawn · Page 2 of 3
"Crammed into a crack in the rocks nearby," Amber said, puffing out her chest. "My talent for running for my life is first-rate!"
Gao Yang smacked his forehead with a sigh. "Shadow Affinity at least master-level, and your head-on combat ability is barely better than a goose's—and you're proud of it."
Then he shook his head. "No lingering here. We leave at once."
He started down the slope. The dragon had gone, but heaven knew what strange things might yet emerge, so getting away quickly was the only sensible course. But Heidi cast one last look of complicated feeling at the family domain. "Ancestor… that dragon burned our domain."
"It burned our ruins—strictly speaking, it burned those monsters," Gao Yang glanced at her. He had watched carefully when the great dragon released its breath: it had sprayed mostly at the densest clusters of monsters. Though for some reason several blasts had gone wide, the tendency of its breath was plain enough. "The Cecil domain was already gone before that dragon ever arrived."
"But…"
"You're not thinking of demanding justice from a dragon, are you?" Gao Yang shrugged. "Let's be practical. If we're going to do anything at all, it's to get back to civilized society as fast as we can and report everything—the monsters and the dragon—to the authorities."
Heidi could not argue. She could only nod. "Yes."
In truth, Gao Yang understood her feelings well. The Cecil domain was her homeland, the place where she was born and raised. Though it had been destroyed, that hurdle in the heart was not so easily cleared. Even knowing full well that the great dragon had merely set another fire atop the ruins—and a fire most likely aimed at the monsters—she would still feel somewhat out of sorts.
After all, it amounted to flogging a corpse right before her eyes.
But understanding was one thing; Gao Yang found it hard to truly put himself in her shoes. After all, until he had crawled out of that coffin, he had not been this Cecil family—this Xuan Yuan Sect…
Carrying a jumble of feelings, the group left the area. Before them now stood a dense forest.
Heidi held her staff in one hand and traced a few flickering runes in the air with the other, then lifted her head toward the forest. "We have to cross this wood to reach the main road. It's the only way to Tansang Town."
Gao Yang watched the runes glittering in Heidi's hand with a look of curiosity and envy (though he tried hard to hide it). "Magic really is a handy thing…"
"Ancestor?" Heidi looked puzzled, then her expression turned somewhat alarmed. "Have my skills displeased you?"
Gao Yang blinked. "What? Why would I be displeased?"
"The Cecil family has always stood on the strength of its knights—martial skill and horsemanship are the family's orthodox tradition. Those of us like me and Rebecca who took the path of the mage… had this been a hundred years ago, never mind inheritance—we would have struggled even to hold a place in the family," Heidi explained nervously. "It's just that… after that affair a hundred years ago, the family's standing plummeted and its numbers dwindled. Children capable of mastering extraordinary power became scarce, so paths other than the knight's way were finally acknowledged… but regardless, it goes against the family's rules."
Gao Yang blurted out, "Who made that stupid rule?"
Toward such quintessentially hidebound clan regulations, he—a man of open mind—had always harbored the deepest loathing.
Yet no sooner had the words left his mouth than the atmosphere turned subtly strange. Knight Byron immediately bowed his head and pretended to tie his shoelaces—though he wore a pair of iron boots—Heidi froze on the spot, and Rebecca, after two seconds, timidly raised a finger and pointed at Gao Yang himself.
Gao Yang: "…"
He searched his memory. Back then… there did seem to have been such a matter.