CH 44

The Sweet-Hearted Maid of the Gentlemanly Knight.

TL’s note: The princess’s name has been changed from Mei Sewei to Hathaway (longer explanation here).

“Who might you be?”

A questioning voice sounded. As he mentally froze, Bai Zhi suddenly remembered a certain cheesy pick-up line:

“I’m– I’m yours?”

The system who was busy enjoying the drama: “…”

What finally snapped Bai Zhi out of it was a sharp blade. With a flick of his hands, Gesius stood on the shore, pulled out a sword, and extended a long arm to press the blade against Bai Zhi’s neck.

“Gesius of the first order of knights. Intruder, report your name.”

Bai Zhi lowered his head and looked at the sword edge that was radiating silver light, swallowed, and in a show of complete spinelessness explained everything:

“My name is Locke, I am an evil dragon, my address is the third cave entrance in the Black Forest west of the royal palace, I’m single, I have a house and don’t have a car but I can fly.”

Bai Zhi said all this in one breath, and the tense atmosphere instantly dissipated.

Gesius furrowed his brow and probed a bit uncertainly: “Evil…dragon?”

Bai Zhi blinked.

Gesius was silent for a while. Bai Zhi was starting to wonder if this person believed his words when he suddenly heard the sound of lake water being sliced open. Then his own tail was attacked with an ice-cold touch.

Gesius held his sword with his right hand and used the sword tip to lift Bai Zhi’s dragon tail. When this unsmiling knight saw the short fat tail with his own eyes, a rare hint of surprise emerged within them: 

“You’re a real dragon?”

“Of course I’m real!” Bai Zhi was so cold he shivered and withdrew his tail with a smack: “The fact that I’m single is also real!”

Yet Gesius was completely missed Bai Zhi’s point. With a chilly face, he said without emotion: “What are you here for?”

“The princess…invited me.” Bai Zhi lowered his head and made up an exceedingly lame excuse.

The system was thinking of the ways in which they would be invited out of the palace. However, Gesius once again shattered his expectations:

“The princess…? I understand, I will take you to her.”

Bai Zhi: “Thank you!”

Gesius: “No problem.”

System: “You two sure are harmonious ah.”

Things had taken a strange turn amidst the system’s confusion. Bai Zhi was led unimpeded by Gesius to the princess’s royal bedchambers and as he stood outside its entrance, he looked back reluctantly at the departing knight’s figure for a long while before the fed-up system kicked him into the princess’s room.

“The princess has been waiting for you for ages, you white-eyed wolf!” 

Bai Zhi, who had been kicked to the floor, rolled over, dusted off his hands, and stood up. He said a bit angrily: “It’s not like I said I wouldn’t go in.”

“Were you planning on waiting until you became a husband-watching rock [1] ?” The single-dog system was completely unable to understand the thought processes of lovers: “The earlier you start the earlier you’ll finish. Once you kidnap the princess, you can honestly wait for the knight to find you.”

With just these words, the system was able to snap awake the daydreamer: “Right!”

Hearing this, a certain demon instantly forgot his butt that had been in pain from the system’s kick. With great enthusiasm he ran into the royal bedchambers.

“Princess, I’m here!”

Princess Hathaway was lying on that large bed covered fully in rose petals. The image of golden hair paired with the red roses was particularly moving, and yet it was unable to attract Bai Zhi who was abnormally straight in other respects.

With much force, he directly pulled Hathaway off the bed, transformed into his original form, opened the princess’s cabinet, and pulled out a small cushion to put on his own back.

“There should be a distance between men and women.” Bai Zhi explained: “The cushion is to protect myself.”

Hathaway: “…??? Protect you?”

Bai Zhi nodded: “Otherwise?”

“I…” Hathaway took a deep breath, saw that Bai Zhi still had a death wish, and had to take several more deep breaths to calm herself before finally deciding to change the subject.

“Didn’t I say you should be more terrifying?” Hathaway stared at Bai Zhi for a while, at a loss for words: “What are you doing, making yourself appear so weak and vulnerable?”

“You’re the weak one, I even specially put nail polish on.” Bai Zhi extended his nails: “Right now it’s too late, if I was as noisy as you wanted, it would really disturb people’s rest.”

Hathaway: “…then you (formal you) really are a good dragon.”

Bai Zhi only wanted to hurry up so that Gesius could come and find him. Thus he didn’t argue further with the princess and directly lifted her and placed her on his back, wedging her between his two wings. Then, he broke through the window with a crash and soared into the night.

In the blink of an eye, the knights that were currently patrolling saw Bai Zhi and the princess who were flying close to the ground. Startled, they reported back to Gesius as fast as possible, yet Gesius’ reaction was to sip his water with a very calm attitude. He said in a voice betraying nothing: “Wait.”

Knights: “Ha?”

“After a few days, I should be out there saving the princess.” Gesius said lightly.

Gesius’s words were not wrong at all.

It was only after inexplicably receiving a letter from evil dragon-xiansheng that the king realized that that gentle and melancholic daughter of his had been kidnapped by the evil dragon. That day, the king had flown into a rage and gathered the knights, ordering Gesius to definitely bring back the princess at all costs.

Yet on the other side, once Bai Zhi, who had been competing with the princess for food for several days, heard the news that Gesius was on his way there, he instantly became so excited that he threw away the spirit fruit in his hand.

“Uncle, how long will Gesius take to get here?”

“Not long.” They system counted with its fingers: “According to the original text, it should take from a few months to half a year.”

Bai Zhi, who was promptly shoved back to rock bottom: “How– how long?”

“Five months and twenty days.” The system finally finished calculating an exact number.

Bai Zhi was immediately disheartened and sat on the floor. He didn’t even want to eat the spirit fruit: “That long, how am I going to pass these months?”

“That is indeed difficult.” The system said: “It’s slow for him to find you, but fast for you to find him.”

“What?”

“You can go and intercept him.” The system said: “Remember to put on a disguise, otherwise you’ll get recognized. Just going by how unfamiliar Gesius is with you, with one strike, you as an evil dragon can kiss this world goodbye.”

Bai Zhi: “Disguise? What disguise?”

With a face full of calmness, the system materialized a small pink apron, pulled a colorful book from its stomach, and put them in front of Bai Zhi’s eyes.

Bai Zhi leaned over and paused before he read out: “The Sweet-Hearted Maid of the Gentlemanly Knight?”

TL’s note: I changed the princess’s name Mei Sewei / Mathaway (梅瑟薇) since it seems to be a play on the name Hathaway (海瑟薇). If you look at the first Chinese character of both, don’t they look quite similar? Only the radical on the left is different. I’m leaving the name as Hathaway since Mathaway doesn’t sound anywhere as good in English as it does in Chinese. (ie. Going from 海 (ocean) to 梅 (plum) in the Chinese name sounds a lot better than going from Hathaway to Mathaway.) Sorry for any confusion.

[1] “husband-watching rock” – This is a rock in Hong Kong that looks like a woman carrying a child. According to folklore the rock used to be a woman waiting for her husband not knowing he drowned at sea, and she was turned into a rock by the Goddess of the Sea for her loyalty https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amah_Rock