A brave man may not live, but he cannot die

Chapter 199 Let's see who goes first, swimming towards desire.

“Dair”.

"Ok?"

"Do you remember being kidnapped a few months ago?"

Xia Dai looked up at her brother. The spirited congressman had just finished his speech and, instead of greeting his supporters and partners as usual, returned to the lounge alone.

The music that started the performance drifted over, faintly audible through the glass curtain wall, but it was an extremely festive melody. Apart from the brother and sister sitting on the sofa, an ugly pug stood guard at the door, preventing even the bodyguards from entering.

“Of course I remember.” Xia Dai’er didn’t understand why her brother was bringing this up now.

Elon took a glass of water to moisten his throat after his speech, and then said calmly, "The goods that were transported back then were actually a batch of cultivation tanks controlled by the academy. Their only permitted use was to grow monsters and plants like slimes. But with a little modification, they could be used for many purposes, including the research on implanting living arcane devices, which was strictly prohibited by the academy."

Xia Dai'er was taken aback, recalling the huge glass tube and complex pipes she had seen while hiding in the carriage.

She quickly understood what her brother meant by "school control".

"You mean"

"Yes, this is smuggling."

Elon swirled the glass in his hand, looking at the automatically playing arcane instruments on the stage below the glass curtain wall, his tone calm as if he were talking about something trivial: "Our Branson family is the largest smuggler of arcane artifacts in this city, which is why my father, a merchant, was able to marry a nobleman like Ron."

"After I took over this business, I understood why my father dared to smuggle despite the college's ban. The profits from smuggling allowed us to build this airport. The Alexandre family almost lost their seats in Congress due to our competition. In the past twenty years, we have controlled forty percent of the banking industry in Eswell. The underworld in Sewell probably never imagined that their business is not even a fraction of ours."

Xia Dai'er covered her mouth in shock.

"You guys didn't tell me this."

“Not many people know about this.” Elon’s gaze was complicated. “If my father hadn’t suddenly fallen ill, I probably would have had to wait five or ten years to have the opportunity to learn about these things.”

“Our only customer is the Kingdom of Ron, which is the only reason we were able to keep it a secret for so many years. We avoided trains and airships that might be inspected by the academy, and transported the goods across the border by horse-drawn carriages to sell as daily necessities. But you just happened to have an accident that time.”

"The matter of the prophesied son has made the Kingdom of Ron very uneasy. They cannot accept the appearance of a crowned hero in Britain. If the prophecy comes true, Ron may even be annexed. They have been upgrading their military in recent years, and they need us. After I took over the business, my condition was to support my reforms."

"They had no choice but to agree, because the Ron royal family valued the continuation of the dynasty more than a parliamentary seat in a mountain town."

Xia Dai'er looked at her brother blankly, "So, does that mean we're doing a good deed by smuggling contraband?"

Elon's political ideals, in the girl's eyes, were about making the city and the workers in that steel mill better.

“That day you were kidnapped and the goods were lost. For months our investigation has been focused almost entirely on Quinn and the robbers of the jewelry store, but now it seems I may have been overthinking it.”

"Overthinking?"

"I thought the academy knew about the smuggling. Quinn was the academy's secret investigator, and they must have found something and retrieved the goods. The reason they didn't take action against us is because the buyer of the goods was the Kingdom of Ron, and the headmaster and Duke Cavendish of Ron were close friends in their youth. Because of this relationship, the academy only issued a warning in secret."

Elon pinched the bridge of his nose and gave a wry smile.

"But then I found out that things weren't that simple. The jewelry store robbers had the same arcane abilities as the caravan robbers, and Ron kept urging them to ship the goods, as if the Academy hadn't warned them at all. It wasn't until a month after they resumed smuggling that I was convinced that the Academy either knew nothing or didn't care."

"Is it possible that I'm overcomplicating things?"

Elon looked at his sister: "So Quinn's appearance was just an accident."

".Accident?"

"There's one thing I've never understood, and that's why you and Katrin survived. If the Academy was behind it, they would only kill people after the trial, and the people from the Yangen government-in-exile would never leave anyone alive. But what if the kidnappers were from the Kingdom of Ron?"

"Didn't they buy the arcane artifacts? Why would they do that?" Chaldale didn't understand.

"They fear that if I continue my reforms, I will eventually turn to Britain, where there are brave men, because our ideas are from the same source."

"They fear that my reforms will eventually sweep across the entire southern continent, thereby overthrowing the existing aristocratic and dynastic system. Because the empire has no aristocracy."

Elon was saying things his sister didn't understand.

"You survived because this was just a warning. They wanted me to think the Academy was involved in the investigation, so they wouldn't dare to contact the Academy. Without the Academy's support, my reforms wouldn't succeed even if I won all the parliamentary seats."

“But Quinn was an unexpected factor. They didn’t expect that it was because of Quinn that I was able to connect with the Academy. To be honest, I knew about Quinn and Ankuya’s probing and investigation of me, but it had nothing to do with my family’s business. They were testing my character, my thoughts, and my lifestyle. It was like the Academy was examining what a reformer should do.”

"That makes sense. The reason the bandits you saw could breathe fire from their hands is because we sold them all their arcane artifacts. If even the people of the Western Continent supported by the Golden Wind can create such technology, there's no reason why the Kingdom of Ron couldn't."

Elon downed the water in his glass in one gulp, then placed it on the table as if relieved, shaking his head as he said, "There are still many doubts about this matter, such as Quinn's identity. It seems unlikely that he is the headmaster's illegitimate son. This person suddenly appeared, yet he was able to gain the favor of the academy."

"But if I think about it in a more extreme way, I wonder if this guy might be a prophetic child."

"Huh?" Chaldie was dumbfounded. "You're saying Quinn is a hero?"

"Otherwise, why would the academy accept such a strange person? He has many traits: tension, relaxation, speech that doesn't match his background, wariness, a confused person? These traits can be found in anyone—a bard, a pianist, a rich kid—but he shouldn't be an arcanist."

"Of course, this is just a guess. He could be the principal's illegitimate son, or the descendant of some important figure in the world. Who knows? A spy from the demon race? Infiltrated into the academy to cause trouble. Ha, that's a bit of an exaggeration."

"Brother, why are you telling me all this?"

Xia Dai'er stared at her hands with her beautiful eyes, her slender, fair fingers intertwined.

"Because all my speculations require one thing to be true—"

Elon looked at his sister, his voice no longer as confident and passionate as during his speech, but filled with a strange sense of guilt and complexity, and said, "That means he really likes you."

"This is how we can explain the motivation behind all his actions."

Xia Dai'er shook her head almost instinctively, but her brother didn't give her a chance to speak: "My reforms will take time. I need to complete all of this before the war against demons. Even with the support of the academy, it will be fraught with difficulties, including a truly effective labor law system, improved government efficiency, and state-owned enterprises taking on the responsibility of ensuring people's livelihood."

“The Kingdom of Ron is the first problem that needs to be solved. My support for the British rebels is just to show them that I am not so easy to manipulate. The Academy does not really support me. I need to talk to the higher-ups at the Academy, and Quinn and Ankuya are my only way to reach them.”

“Kidnappings like the one before will be frequent. Faced with such a huge conflict of interest, none of my family members are safe anymore. I don't care, but you can't. If you want to go out, if you want the life you used to have, someone needs to keep those greedy capitalists in check.”

Xia Dai'er lowered her head and remained silent for a long time, her smooth profile filled with melancholy and anxiety.

"He asked me to talk to him tonight, just a little while later, at that bar."

“Let’s go.” Elon patted his sister on the shoulder. “Let’s go toast the people at the academy first, and let’s change this city.”

The lights focused on the stage, and the music flowed. The front row of the audience was not as crowded as the higher seats. Rows of round sofas were occupied by well-dressed VIPs. Elon walked by calmly with a wine glass in his hand, and Chaldie followed behind him, her thoughts drifting with the music.

What will he say to me? An apology? Or that we can be friends?
As his brother approached, those around him raised their glasses in a toast, like lions traversing his territory, but his brother merely nodded in response. Neither bureaucrats, bankers, business leaders, nor nobles with swords and feathers could make him stop and return the toast.

He was silently declaring one thing: he was no longer a member of the elite class in Eswell.

Rather, he is a leader.

No one dared to object. Even if Elon ignored them, they would still force out their brightest and most enthusiastic smiles, because this young man was heading towards the academy.

The academy's location, directly in front of the stage, was under the tightest protection of the enforcers. No one was allowed to disturb the students' and teachers' holiday activities, not even Elon. But as he walked over, the enforcers, who had been given strict orders, hesitated for a moment. Remembering how the academy's teachers had applauded his speech earlier, they ultimately made way for him.

Seated at the front were several elderly professors, the same group who attended the annual Arcane Festival celebrations. It was safe to say that all the academy's teachers, those who loved to join in the mundane fun, were here. Elon walked up, glass in hand, and surprisingly, the old men didn't give him a sour look; instead, they smiled and nodded at him.

"Thank you for your support," Elon said succinctly, then downed his glass of red wine in one gulp.

Leading the group of old professors was Snape, the head of the Potions and Alchemy Department. Unlike his long, bushy hair in the Harry Potter movies, this old man had spent half his life immersed in potion distillation mist and alchemy, and had long since lost all his hair. He had no eyelashes, beard, or facial hair, and his skin shone with an inhuman metallic luster, making him look extremely frightening at first glance.

His voice was hoarse, as if ravaged by excessive medication, but his tone was kind: "Young man, I believe in your excellent ideals."

Several teachers around Elon gave him friendly looks.

Merlin brought arcane magic out of the ancient clans, and his original intention in founding Grindelwald, besides fighting the Dark Lord, was to use arcane magic to create a better tomorrow for humanity.

It refers to all of humanity, not just a small portion.

This ideal has been passed down to this day through the lines of Grindelwald's Arcane Book, resulting in airship tickets that ordinary people can afford, comfortable clothing that is cheap due to the widespread use of arcane spinning machines, and a water system that connects the entire city.
“We just made a bet on whether you can do it. I wagered a cursed canine tooth from the Lost Era. Don’t let me down, lad.” Snape didn’t return the toast, but his tone was unusually warm.

"Ha, the old drug guy clearly bet that he couldn't do it—" A sarcastic laugh came from behind.

Snape suddenly glared and retorted, "You beast! Didn't you also bet he couldn't do it?!"

Everyone burst into laughter. Elon didn't seem to care that he wasn't favored, and laughed heartily with the professors. What the people around him meant by this scene was anyone's guess.

Jenny patted her daughter on the shoulder. "Let's go up and offer a toast. We don't need to say anything, just show it to others."

However, Xia Dai'er remained unmoved.

Jenny stopped and followed her daughter's gaze to look behind her, where she saw the back of a dark-haired man wearing a knee-length coat.

He was talking to a girl, and it was hard to hear clearly from a distance, but judging from his relaxed shoulders and hands in his pockets, the girl who was so close to him had a very close relationship with him.

A moment later, the girl clapped her hands playfully and left him.

She got a clear look at the girl's face.

A simple ponytail, an inexpensive but clean dress, tall and slender, with no particularly striking features in her figure; if anything, her long, slender neck was as beautiful as a swan's, and her face...
Jenny's eyes deepened.

For no apparent reason, she thought of the Queen of the former British monarch, the commoner woman who was falsely accused of being a witch.

Women are picky about beauty, especially a matriarch like Jenny, but she still remembers the black and white portrait in the newspaper, a beauty that seemed to blur time and transcend life and death, a beauty that saddened her.

This girl has an extra touch of spirit, and Jenny is sure that with a little dressing up, she will be no less beautiful than the queen who deserves the crown.

Quinn stood still, watching the girl slowly walk away, his hands still in his pockets, his posture unchanged from the moment she said goodbye until she disappeared.

Jenny, having been through it all, knew what this meant, and quickly forced a smile as she looked at her daughter—

The wine glass shattered on the ground, and Xia Dai'er swayed slightly, as if she were almost blown away by the evening breeze. Then she took a step back, then another, her steps unsteady. She looked around, seemingly looking at something, before finally turning and leaving.

"Dair—"

Jenny tried to call her daughter back, but she ran faster and faster. Before anyone could understand what was happening, the girl who had been watching other people's backs disappeared into the first song of the party.

At the airport exit, she waved and slapped away Caitlin, who was chasing after her. A large group of young people came towards her, including a little girl who looked about thirteen or fourteen years old with unusually colored hair. She was so beautiful that it made Xia Dai'er breathe a little easier.

What? There are people prettier than that girl here.
"You are..." Amamiya Nene looked at Chaldale running over in surprise. "Wow, what a coincidence! You're here too?"

Xia Dai'er didn't greet anyone, but Amamiya Nene's arrival seemed to point her in a direction. She didn't want to go home, didn't want to go anywhere, and didn't really want to cry. Wiping away her tears, she knew she had to accept the fact that she had lost love.

So Chaldale stopped and let Catherine catch up. "The carriage," she said dejectedly, "I want to go to the church."

The goddess will tell me what to do.

A carriage bearing the Branson family crest drove through the night streets, going against the flow of the bustling crowds, and stopped in front of the brightly lit White Church. When Chaldale got out of the carriage, she had stopped crying. She tidied her hair, looked at the Libra sculpture, and took a deep breath.

"You don't need to follow me."

"But, Miss..."

"I'm fine. Go tell my brother he guessed wrong. Hurry up."

"you"

He guessed wrong.

She walked into the church somewhat alone. Catherine hesitated for a moment, but ultimately did not follow.

The church was unusually quiet tonight. In front of the magnificent goddess statue with its face blurred, the girl walked to the front row of benches. Here, there are no statuses; anyone can sit in this spot.

Exhausted, she slumped into the chair, clasped her hands together, buried her face in her hands, bent over to hide her increasingly trembling shoulders, and began to sob softly again.

"Oh, poor child."

A gentle, youthful voice came from the back row: "Is there something you want to say to God?"

Xia Dai'er hadn't expected there to be anyone in the church on the night of the Arcane Festival. The crying stopped abruptly, replaced by deep breaths. After one or two times, she had begun to get used to it and could remain calm.

Are you a priest?

"I think I am."

"Father, can you tell me if everything I'm feeling is wrong?"

"Then you'd better tell me what happened. Maybe my god can save you?"

".save?"

"God can change destiny. God doesn't lie. What God says will happen, will happen. Or rather, whatever God wants to happen, will happen."

"But I don't want to know what will happen in the future."

As she spoke, she seemed about to cry again. The sight of Quinn and Celia embracing each other in happiness was like a hammer blow to her heart, leaving her at a loss. She just wanted to find an even higher wall to hide behind and pretend she hadn't seen anything.

"God can send him to you, explain all of this to you in person, and then tell you that he loves you the most."

Xia Dai'er suddenly turned around, only to see a small metal box she didn't recognize sitting on the chair, magically playing a recording.

If Quinn or Nene Amamiya were here, they would probably recognize that this is an Earth tape recorder, but not the Little Genius brand; it's an Apple iPod, which is much more expensive than Little Genius.

"You see, whatever God says will happen, will happen. For example, I know you will appear in this location."

"Father?"

Xia Dai'er looked around blankly, not understanding why such a small thing could make a sound.

"Just call me 'Z'. Next, I'll tell you how to choose your future."

(End of this chapter)