ATAPOW Chapter 17
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Chapter 17: The Chivalric Order of The Moon
Ji Bai stroked his chin while his gaze continued to wander between the man and woman, who were currently bickering with each other. Ji Bai was somewhat puzzled about the relationship the two of them had.
They claimed they were allies, yet, at the same time, it didn’t appear to be the case. With this being said, he couldn’t say that the two of them had no connection to each other either.
“So what exactly is your purpose for coming here? If you aren’t going to come clean, then I’ll have you suffer some physical pain.”
‘Researching and studying how to dissect demons? If underground societies were dumb enough to reveal their unsavory backgrounds as soon as they saw a stranger, wouldn’t they be gassed once the demons follow their tracks? Just a bit of scrutiny was needed to unravel this clumsy lie apart.’
The only thing that was worth commending was the man’s fairly average acting skills; Even if it was only a split second, it still made Ji Bai actually believe the words from this grandson!
“No, no, no… Let’s talk it out nicely, alright youngster? A gentleman uses his mouth, not his fist, right? We’re all civilized people here! As the saying goes…” The current expression of the middle-aged man was as frightened as he could be. Ji Bai could only recall what happened a few moments ago, he remembered how he thought this little wimp was actually fathomless and mysterious, Ji Bai had the impulse to slap himself in the face.
As he looked at the unimpressionable and glib man covered in dirt, Ji Bai silently withdrew a dagger from his back. Its hilt embellished with a silver wolf, he pointed it towards the man and made quite a few slashing gestures. Under the blazing sun, the sword blade reflected its rays and released a shiny, threatening, and dazzling radiance.
“Hi-hiiii!! A-Are you for real! L-Little guy, p-please put that toy away first. This uncle’s heart isn’t doing too well…”
As his disgraceful tone on the verge of distortion rang out within the corner, the stern lady observing on the side couldn’t bear to watch any further. She covered her face and tilted her head in a manner that seemed to suggest she wanted to cut all ties with him.
“You have to understand that I’m the type of person who gets impatient quite easily…” Ji Bai narrowed his eyes.
“Heh! Anxious to get into the main topic, huh? Good, pull me up first!” The man looked towards Ji Bai with hope in his eyes as he stretched out his hand.
“Get up yourself. You’re a big man with a complete set of limbs, right? ” Before Ji Bai could speak, the woman on the side furrowed her eyebrows and quickly berated him.
“A-Alright. Hah… you don’t have to be that fierce at me, Yi Yi…” The middle-aged man sighed with a teasing voice as he strenuously steadied his body to stand up.
“Do you believe that I won’t send you to the extreme ends of the world if you call me that again?” The woman coldly said as she leaned against the wall.
After hearing that, the middle-aged man trembled and no longer dared to tease her again.
“Cough, cough. That’s right, I haven’t introduced myself yet. My name’s Lin Tuo and this woman here is called Lan Yi. It’s nice to meet you, youngster.” Lin Tuo was still covered in dirt while he squeezed a smile. He then stretched his hand out toward Ji Bai.
“Hmm…” Ji Bai looked at the middle-aged man, who said his name was Lin Tuo, with disdain. As he had zero intentions of shaking hands with the other party, Lin Tuo could only awkwardly retract his hand. (Editor Woof’s Note: Author hath predicted Coronavirus!)
“Youngster. I think you greatly misunderstood me. In truth, What happened just now were a part of my plan…”
“Are the eighteen rolls you did on the ground earlier a part of your plans as well?”
“Cough! Cough! This is basically the heart getting what it desires! How is doing the things that one desires not part of the plan?!” The middle-aged man began to righteously explain. It was clear that he had been put on the spot by Ji Bai’s words.
“Finish it up, just get to the main point already.” The girl at the wall coldly reminded him.
“Oh, alright… Well then youngster, I would like to congratulate you on passing our test.” As soon as he finished these words, the face of the middle-aged man turned solemn. The current demeanor that he displayed made Ji Bai feel as if the person who was recently rolling around on the ground was a hallucination.
“A test? …” Ji Bai slightly knitted his eyebrow. He turned his gaze towards Lan Yi on the side; She was looking at himself at the moment with traces of praise and approval within her eyes.
“What do you mean?”
“Hmm… It’s like this. Our original purpose was to ‘take away’ this cat-eared girl. But the purpose for this wasn’t even near to what I described earlier… What I mean to say is, rather than ‘take her away’, I believe the term ‘rescuing her’ is more appropriate.”
As Ji Bai saw how honorable and solemn Lin Tuo was as he said these words, Ji Bai slightly creased his brows. He then sized up the two people in front of him. His face turned even more astonished after he confirmed that there was indeed no demonic aura coming out from the both of them.
“Aren’t both of you humans?”
“It is as you see. We are.” Lin Tuo answered candidly.
Ji Bai’s expression was turning stranger by the second. “Then why did you even think of rescuing this demon? If you botch it up, there’s a chance you might be regarded as mankind’s enemy everywhere.”
“Youngster, I would like to ask you the same question, why did you rescue this catgirl when you clearly know the aftermath of your actions? If I didn’t guess wrong, you were the one that stabilized this catgirl’s injury, did you not?” Lin Tuo’s smile looked genuine as he glanced at the handkerchief on the catgirl’s ankle.
“…”
“There’s only one answer to what you did. You were unwilling to lay your hands on such an innocent and harmless demon. It may even be more apt to say that you harbored feelings of pity for them. This was just a test I made earlier. It was to see whether you would look on quietly if someone were to prosecute a demon that was friendly to mankind.”
“Oh? What are you trying to say here?” Ji Bai narrowed his eyes as he looked at Lin Tuo, the man was currently speaking with certainty and fervor.
“The point that I wanted to make was that there’s no need to feel at a loss! Youngster, your taking pity for the weak and young is a virtue and the face of mankind! It’s the embodiment of a knight’s spirit!” After saying these words, Lin Tuo opened his arms in an exaggerated manner.
“Ol’ man, does your family know you have chuunibyou?”
“Coug-cough!! Sorry… I got too carried away at the moment.” Lin Tuo was once again placed in a spot by Ji Bai.
“And, did you just say a knight’s spirit? Are you trying to make fun of my lack of knowledge? There is no clause about protecting demons in the knight’s code; Instead, there are these clauses about how it’s a serious crime to harbor demons and betray mankind.” Ji Bai was very suspicious of the unreliable-looking middle-aged man, he felt that the latter was currently trying to scam himself.
“Youngster, other than the knights’ creed that every knight must follow, don’t forget that every Chivalry Order can also have their own spiritual creed.”
“Having mercy on the weak and young whilst protecting the innocent! This is the objective of The Chivalric Order of The Moon. I wonder if you’re interested in learning more?”