ATAPOW Chapter 96
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Chapter 96: Private affairs
Ji Bai followed Anna up the stairs and entered the first room on the left side of the second-floor hallway.
The room wasn’t spacious, nor was it excessively furnished or decorated. Instead, it was arranged in an extremely neat way. The books on the shelves were placed in an orderly manner, while the wooden floor had been scrubbed sparkling clean. It stood in stark contrast to the incomparably messy hall outside.
“That reminds me… Have you already steeled yourself for what is about to happen, Ji Bai?” With her small, white, stumpy legs dangling over the table, Anna revealed a playful smile.
“A scandal of this scale happened less than a month after you joined this Chivalric Order. It wouldn’t be too much of an exaggeration to call you a hooligan, don’t you think so?”
“…” Ji Bai responded with silence.
Although Ji Bai was extremely unhappy about being lectured by a vampire, he was surprisingly unable to find any words that could refute her claims.
“Say something. This matter isn’t one you can hoodwink your way out by being a mute.” The playful and smiling expression previously on her face vanished completely. What was left was an icy tone in her voice.
“No one has laid down a rule that demands virtuousness from men, so it’s understandable if one is a pervert interested in womanly charms… However, a line that mustn’t be crossed needs to exist in everyone’s heart. And that’s known as a principle. I seem to recall hearing Lan Yi say that you used to be a knight in the past.”
Only then did Ji Bai recall the words that Lan Yi had told him earlier. This vampire —the Chivalric leader of the Moon Knights — was the mother of someone he did not get along with.
With their hair color and race perfectly matching up, Ji Bai would really be a fool if he still couldn’t guess who that someone was.
‘I didn’t expect she would actually be the mother of that person…’
“Has the stench in the human chivalric order become too unbearable for you?” Anna laid back against the chair as if she was looking down on Ji Bai. Her ice-cold tone was filled with dignity as the decadent aura she had given off vanished completely without a trace.
“…The Chivalric Order has indeed encountered some problems. However, no matter the issue, it won’t ever be a maggot’s turn to criticize it. Especially, when that’s the queen among the maggots.” When it came to this question, Ji Bai didn’t express any sign of weakness as he looked directly at Anna’s eyes which were void of any emotions.
“Pfft …Maggot? Are you addressing me by that?” Anna had a very peculiar feeling when it came towards this term of his. The corners of her mouth twitched as she laughed, yet her smile lacked any warmth.
“That’s an interesting term~ Mr. Ji Bai seems to loathe vampires a lot.” Spoke Anna as she slowly opened her mouth.
“However, I suggest this Junior to be a bit more careful with his words. If you had said such a thing to me twenty years prior, you would be eaten by me alive.”
In an instant, an ice-cold sensation that caused his scalp to turn numb began to spread from his head to his toes. The silver-haired girl narrowed her eyes, like a hunter taking aim at her prey.
Only then did Ji Bai recover from his daze.
Previously, the impression the loli gave him — that of an otaku addicted to the web — had caused him to form a false image of her. He had grouped her into the same group of innocent small animals that Ke’er was a part of.
A wolf will always be a wolf. Even if it had left the pack many years ago, the character that had been acquired through its long habits would always lay dormant in their bones, never to change.
Ji Bai warily took a step back.
“Oh my, I am just kidding~ Hehehe~ Did I frighten you~?” As if a page of a book was flipped, her gloomy and murky facial expression that was wrapped in endless shadows disappeared and turned to normal in under less than a second. Her profound and meaningful smile had disappeared without a trace; In its place was a cute, child-like expression that had blossomed into full bloom. With her appearance now resembling that of a naive, innocent, and small loli, it was almost as if the last few moments had just been an illusion.
“…” Ji Bai looked at Anna with an indifferent gaze and didn’t respond to her question.
“There, there~ I am not going to tease you anymore. You’re aware that the personality of that child Lil’ Sha is pretty eccentric. However, nothing can be done there. No one is willing to be that way. Reality is like a carving knife that grinds you down into something you’re unwilling to become.” Anna grinningly jumped down from her chair and bounced her way before Ji Bai.
“…What are you doing?” Ji Bai uncomfortably took a step back.
A cute and witty silver-haired loli whose age and true nature cannot be perceived. Those points may perhaps be adorable in the eyes of others, but they were actually Ji Bai’s Achilles heel; They were capable of making someone like him, who originally had feared nothing, feel like he encountered the origin of fear.
“However, Anna still needs to get a clear image of what has exactly happened. At the end of the day, even someone like me wouldn’t allow a person of poor character lacking the means to identify himself to stay in the Chivalric Order. Even if your performance in the urgent mission earlier has been astonishing…”
Ji Bai understood the hidden meaning behind Anna’s words.
Not only did a newcomer not show any cowardice in battle or get jelly feet during his first battle against the demons at the city walls, but his performance had also been just as calm as a veteran’s that had fought on battlefields for a long time. Thus, it was inevitable that he would attract the attention of a few of the top brass of the order.
It would be fine if the origins of his identity was actually reliable enough to stand on its own, but the suspicious part was the fact that they couldn’t find any details about it. His identity, along with his past, were all a mystery.
It was unavoidable that he’d be suspected to be a secret agent.
“Lan Yi has actually done her utmost against all the dissenting people at her end in order to keep you here. I hope what she did was worth it.” Anna’s smile carried a trace of seriousness.
“I understand.” After silently pondering for a moment, Ji Bai solemnly nodded his head.
“Alright, that’s great~ This extremely tedious process is completed, yay! Uuugh~” Anna stretched her body energetically, lifting up her short-sleeved T-shirt in the process.
Ji Bai turned his head aside.
“Oh? A person like you is truly no fun. An opportunity like this presents itself to you and you don’t take it.” Anna pouted in a somewhat unhappy manner when she saw Ji Bai’s action.
“I am not interested in an elementary schooler’s figure.”
“With a venomous tongue like that, you won’t be able to find yourself a girlfriend! Blehhhhh~”
“…So, can I leave now?” Ji Bai ignored her.
“Eh? Don’t be in a hurry. Anna is still not done with her questions.”
“Didn’t you say that you’re done?”
“The official stuff is indeed completed~ But that doesn’t mean that I am already done with all of my questions. I still have some personal questions left~” Anna gave a crafty smile.
“For example, questions like how you know Lilias and the like~”
“Can I refuse to answer?”
“What do you think?”
“Bang!” A gale of wind suffused with magic slammed the wide-open door shut.
‘Hmph, just some bells and whistles meant to mystify people.’
Ji Bai expressionlessly walked towards the door. As he pulled and tried to move the handle, he realized that it had already been completely locked.
‘No matter, this piece of broken door is still not capable of holding me in. I will just have to ‘physically’ open it.’
“You’ll have to pay for the damages you cause when you destroy school property, you know~” Seemingly as if she knew what Ji Bai was thinking of, Anna hit his Achilles heel with a single sentence.
“Did I say that I knew her? It’s actually not a good thing to pry into the secrets of others.” Ji Bai raised his eyebrows.
“Please pardon my rudeness. I just wanted to know how that girl is currently doing…” A shadow of complex feelings flashed past Anna’s expression as she said these words.