CH 23

Ning Chu’s answer reached every corner of the arena, and the stands were quiet for a moment before erupting again. There were some people who were raising their voices while turning their heads to look at Wuuth.

The news of Wuuth and Ning Chu’s appearance outside the school this morning had already spread, and they were said to be very close, not only hugging each other in the woods, but Wuuth also held Ning Chu’s hand and helped him get on his contracted beast.

This relationship! Could they still be ordinary friends?! Same-sex love was common in this world, and was a perfectly normal thing, the students were at the age of gossip, especially when it came to the two top players in the arena, everyone was extremely excited.

They didn’t dare to ask Wuuth this, but Ning Chu was different. Students who met him said he was particularly gentle and affectionate, a completely different person inside and outside the arena.

With so many eyes on him, Wuuth’s frown grew tighter and tighter. He sensed that something was wrong at this point. What were these people doing?

Probably because Wuuth’s face looked so bad, the crowd gradually died down, and the voices got quieter and quieter. When he looked inside, Ning Chu had already left.

Backstage, Ning Chu took off his mask, and Donald had a gossipy look on his face, “That was quite a commotion.”

Ning Chu’s expression was mixed, “I don’t know who’s spreading the word around, but if I catch them…”

“Calm down, calm down…” Donald handed over a glass of water, “So you really aren’t…”

“Of course not,” Ning Chu said emphatically as he sat down across from him, “just friends at best.”

Donald rubbed his chin, “Those rumors, I’ve heard them too.”

What about hugging together, holding hands and leading on to contracted animals and so on?

Ning Chu heard him talk about it and was full of questions, “That’s not true at all! We…”

He got stuck in the middle of his sentence. When he was in the woods with Wuuth, his mask was removed and Wuuth protected him, indeed… As for holding his hand and helping him onto the contracted beast was even more outrageous, Wuuth just helped him a little, just a little.

Seeing his silence, Donald could no longer say much, so he quietly left the room to let Ning Chu rest. There would be a second match later, but remembering what just happened, Ning Chu had a very bad headache.

In fact, it didn’t matter, anyway, once he wore the mask, no one would know his true identity, so even though the rumors were outrageous, others only knew him by his alias.

Wuuth was different, just now he was also present at the scene, and Ning Chu didn’t know how he felt after that.

During the break, Ning Chu stayed in the backstage room until the second match was about to start, and then put on his mask and went out.

Before entering the stage, Ning Chu took a quick glance outside.

There was no sign of Wuuth, he left.

Ning Chu sighed silently as he breathed a sigh of relief.

The rumors were so outrageous, Wuuth was probably also quite angry… Luckily, he denied it in time.

Inside the Academy’s school building, the light in the teacher’s office was still on when a black figure walked in and stopped at the desk in the corner.

Josh looked up at the sound and squinted at the person, “…Wuuth?”

“I can’t be mistaken,” Josh said to himself, fumbling for his glasses on the table and taking a closer look, surprised, “It’s really you! Why are you here at this time?”

Wuuth didn’t come to class for some time now, didn’t meet even one person, and then volunteered to sign up for the Beast Cleanup, yet Josh only reluctantly didn’t pursue his absences. He rarely came to the office to see him, let alone at this time of day.

Wuuth knew that Josh stayed in the office late every night before leaving, and he had a question he wanted to be sure of the answer to, so he had to come to Josh for help right away.

“Teacher,” Wuuth said, standing at his desk, “what does ‘being a couple’ mean?”

Wuuth hadn’t heard the word ‘couple’ before, and he probably had a guess in his mind, but he wasn’t sure.

“What are you asking that for?” Josh had been in the office all day today and didn’t know about the rumors out there, “Two people who like each other and have a confirmed relationship are a couple.”

Wuuth followed up, “Spouses?”

Josh thought for a moment, “You could say that… No, it’s not spouses yet, it’s two people who are about to become spouses.”

Soon-to-be spouses… After his suspicion was confirmed, Wuuth tightened his face, “I see.”

He turned his head and walked away, Josh couldn’t even shout, “Ehhhh…”

Wuuth left quickly and closed the door behind him, and Josh hammered his sore shoulder and cursed, “That brat!”

It was still early, so Wuuth didn’t go back to the arena, but went back to the dorm first. He almost forgot that he was still in human form, and halfway there, realizing that Bowen might be in the dorm, he turned around and flew up behind the dorm building as a baby dragon.

Third Cub and Fifth Cub were playing together when the little black dragon got into the bed  curtain. Ning Chu bought a small dragon climbing frame and installed it in the upper corner, with two simple dragon nests and rattan balls.

Third Cub was lying on the edge of the nest, looking down at Fifth Cub, [Come up here.] 

Fifth Cub tilted her head and wagged her tail, and plowed her front claws on the bed, intending to jump up. The wings on her back slowly spread out and trembled a few times. Fifth Cub jumped up with her hind legs and grabbed the edge of the dragon’s nest, and climbed in with great effort.

Third Cub flew around her and rubbed her forehead.

The little black dragon flew in, swept them a glance, went to the corner of the bed alone and squatted down.

He looked a little out of place, a red and a green dragon cub huddled in the same nest. Fifth Cub wondered, [What’s wrong with him?]

Third Cub licked his paw, [I don’t know.]

After another long wait, Ning Chu came back.

He rubbed the dragon cubs’ heads one by one, took his clothes and went to take a bath first. The little black dragon straightened his tail when he touched it, but Ning Chu didn’t notice.

When it was late at night and Ning Chu and the dragon cubs were asleep, the little black dragon got up quietly. He approached Ning Chu and squatted on the pillow looking down at him. After confirming the meaning of the word ‘couple’, Wuuth’s first reaction was anger.

It was the turn of those irrelevant people to ask such private questions? Then he realized that the “couple” they were talking about had another concern for himself. They were asking if Ning Chu and he were a couple.

He wasn’t sure why they were asking, but Ning Chu was now a human, and he was a dragon… 

Human looks didn’t fit the dragon’s aesthetics, and Ning Chu didn’t have hard scales, sharp claws, much less horns or wings. Wuuth began to uncontrollably imagine what Ning Chu would look like if he became a dragon.

The scales would be a lighter color like silver and white, as beautiful as his current skin, perhaps with a pair of small antlers, teal pupils like transparent amber in the sunlight, and a soft purring voice.

The little black dragon was restless and walked around to the other side of the pillow and continued to look at the sleeping Ning Chu, looking down and sniffing the scent in his hair.

In fact… he felt that Ning Chu’s human form was good-looking. But Ning Chu wasn’t a dragon, he was a human, would he think he looked good in human form?

In the next instant, Wuuth changed back to his human form and appeared on the narrow bed.

Ning Chu seemed to notice, frowning and moving, but Wuuth released a wisp of black smoke enveloping the tip of Ning Chu’s nose, the marks between his brows smoothed out and he fell into a deep sleep again.

Third Cub looked up, turned over, rested one side of the dragon wing on Fifth Cub and went back to sleep.

The bed was a single bed, and Wuuth was crammed into it, having to be careful not to crush Ning Chu, but also not to make a sound that would alert the other person in the dormroom. He propped himself up on Ning Chu’s side and reached out to touch the side of his face.

It’s not a scaly touch, it’s… Soft? It had the illusion that a little pressure would leave a red mark. When the warmth of his nose hit Wuuth’s hand, he suddenly regained consciousness and withdrew his hand.

What was he doing now?

Wuuth’s mind was in turmoil as he took one last look at Ning Chu, turned back into a hatchling and flew out of the curtain of his bed to the balcony for a cold breeze.

The next morning, waking up with no idea of what happened last night, Ning Chu yawned as he got up to wash up.

Today he would also go outside and wondered if Wuuth would still be waiting for him at the gate.

After what happened yesterday, Ning Chu was a little embarrassed and squirmy, but if Wuuth didn’t bring it up, he wouldn’t care too much. It’s just a rumor, they’re open and honest, so it can’t be true.

Ning Chu packed up his things and took Third Cub out, and when he arrived at the school gate, he didn’t see Wuuth’s figure. He was slightly disappointed and planned to leave alone, but he had just taken two steps when someone called out to him from behind.

“Hugh.”

Ning Chu turned around and Wuuth was walking towards him. It seemed he was just a little late today and had no intention of avoiding Ning Chu.

Wuuth approached, he deliberately collected his emotions, so his eyes were calm, “Let’s go.”

In the town near the Nuba River, another wave of Church people came. They blocked the news, and no one was allowed near the area where the magic dragon had appeared. Several men with magic wands and wearing silver magic robes searched along the woods.

“It was indeed a fire dragon,” one man had a small disc in his hand with a pointer pointing to red, “and there are still remnants of its magical element here.”

He walked around with the disk, capturing the orientation and trajectory of the fire element in the air. When he came to the edge of the woods, he pointed to a direction in the distance, “Go look over there.”

The woods weren’t large, and several people continued to search around, not letting go of a single clue.

When they passed another place, the pointer turned again and stopped at the location of fire magic.

“Huh?” The man was surprised, “There’s one here?”

He continued to walk around the area, confirming that the Scarlet Flame Dragon had also appeared nearby, but looking at the direction of the magic element extension… Did it come back once more?

Soon, the people sent to search far away also came back.

“There are a few traces of unusual dragons passing over there, but no fire dragons were found.”

The leader of the group said “hmm” and looked around.

If he was right, the fire dragon had led a few dragons away, but separated from them halfway and turned back. But all the students and mercenaries present yesterday claimed to have seen the fire dragon only once.

No, not even seen, they only heard a dragon roar.

And the two people who actually saw the fire dragon appear with their own eyes left long ago. “A bit interesting,” the leader put away the disc and instructed his subordinates, “Let’s go back first.”