Lu Mingfei, become the King of Elden!

Chapter 237 He Wants to Become King

In the past, Lu Mingfei had nothing, and he never felt like he belonged anywhere.

People only feel sad because others have things they don't, right?
It's like on a rainy day, other people have a car to pick them up, but you have to take off your clothes, cover your head, and run home.

For example, imagine others are seeing their families off when they go abroad, while you're dragging a huge suitcase through a long security checkpoint all by yourself...

Now, everything has changed.

Why should he be sad because he has more than others?

He possesses two worlds; he possesses everything.

Here, he has beautiful girls accompanying him every day, and reliable senior brothers who take care of everything for him like a mother hen; over there, he has friends who always care about him and whom he cares about, witches who accompany him day and night, and even an entire city that calls him "Lord Lu Mingfei".

He did not feel sad.

On the contrary, he was very content.

If he could, he would want this kind of life to continue forever.

Silence fell over the table.

Angers fell into a long period of contemplation until the cigar butt burned his hand.

"Don't you think I'm contradicting myself? I'm lamenting that Cambridge isn't what it used to be, while at the same time I'm saying I still miss it?"

Lu Mingfei silently took a sip of wine, the spicy liquid flowing down his throat, just like the ups and downs of his life.

“Perhaps,” he said softly, “it’s not Cambridge you miss, but the Cambridge of your memories.”

The old man looked at him and suddenly laughed.

"You're right. What we miss is never a particular place, but rather who we were in that place."

"I have no family, and my best friends are all dead. There's not much left in this world worth cherishing for me. Even if I kill all the Dragon Kings, what then? Will my Cambridge ever be rebuilt? Will my friends ever be resurrected?"

"will not."

Lu Mingfei said calmly.

The old man took a deep drag on his cigar, sharp lines appearing at the corners of his eyes:
"Yes, everything is gone forever."

"But this is all I have left."

“I still cannot allow the dragons to destroy all of this, I cannot allow them to destroy my Cambridge, destroy Kassel, that is the wish of my Lionheart friends.”

"Because these last meanings in my life... though as ephemeral as a fleeting illusion... are the only things I have left in my life."

"Mingfei, what's your reason? What flimsy reason prevented you from suddenly jumping off the rooftop one day while enjoying the cool air?"

Ange raised an eyebrow.

Lu Mingfei paused for a moment, then asked:

"What do you mean?"

"Everyone has a reason to live, so we don't jump off buildings just because we're having a blast. The meaning of life is what flashes through your mind in the moments before you die..."

The moment before death?

Lu Mingfei was stunned.

He has actually died many times, and his concept of death is very weak.

But he will still die in this world.

If that day ever comes.
He must think a lot, right?
He wondered if his senior brother had acted rashly and gone to fight a suspected Dragon King-level enemy with a knife, and whether the pretty girls had cried for him.

He wondered if Mr. Xiu Gu and Rodrik were doing well in the Round Table Hall, and whether Neferi had returned safely.

He worried whether the old knight and the old general could protect Stoneville, or whether they would be casually tossed aside by the demigods of the Golden Family.

He also worried that Teragas might have died because of his overzealousness, and that Pot might have challenged an overly powerful enemy, causing the jar to crack.

He has too many things he cares about.

Lu Mingfei suddenly understood. He understood why Angers, at 120 years old, still burned like a young man, running day after day on the front lines of dragon slaying.

Because he is dead.

He had lost everything he cared about, so he had no reason to live. He buried his soul in that summer a hundred years ago.

What stands before him now is merely a photograph, driven by his friend's long-cherished wish and his will for revenge.

He hated himself, hated that he was still alive, yet he had no choice but to live.

"Immortality is a curse."

Lu Mingfei murmured.

The old gentleman chewed on his cigar, the gray ash falling in soft patters.

He remained silent, neither admitting nor denying it.

Yes, immortality is also a curse.

A most vicious curse that allows one to witness the withering of all cherished things and the fading of all warm memories throughout a long life, while being left all alone on this side of the river of time.

Lu Mingfei couldn't imagine what it would be like if he lost all his friends like Angers.

He can die and be resurrected again and again, but his friends cannot. If he cannot protect them, they will die one by one before his eyes, until the very end.

Alone.

He must not fall into such a state.

He must never become, one day, a ghost trapped in time, consumed by a thirst for revenge.

To prevent this from happening, he must become stronger, stronger, and stronger still; he must be ahead of everyone else, cutting off all dangers; he must be as steadfast as a rock, never retreating an inch.

But what lies at the end of this road? And to what extent must he go to keep everything he has?

To become king?
Ah, yes, to become king.

Therefore, he cannot just be an 'S' class student, nor can he just be a "Dragon Eater" or a "Storm Knight".

If he lacks strength, he will acquire greater strength; if he lacks status, he will strive for a higher status.

If the crown of the 'King' would allow him to better wield the sword that protected them—

Then he went and became "king".

"I understand."

Lu Mingfei said softly:
"My reason for living is to protect everything I have now, both in the future and in the present."

Angers stared blankly at the young man before him, as if he were seeing him for the first time.

Lu Mingfei stood up, picked up the expensive bottle of whiskey that Henkel had sent from the table, poured himself a shallow glass, and then raised it to Angers.

“To you and your friends,” he said. “Thank you.”

The hot liquor slid down my throat like swallowing a red-hot knife.

He put down his glass, the bottom of which touched the table with a crisp sound, like a period at the end of one story, or the tolling of a bell at the beginning of another.

“I will keep moving forward,” Lu Mingfei said. “If it is destined that someone has to hold the power to protect what is precious, then I will hold it.”

Those eyes, which were always drooping, were now burning with a calm yet intense flame.

Lu Mingfei turned and walked out of the banquet hall. The noisy sounds were amplified infinitely in his perception. He wanted to enjoy the silence outside.

Angers sat alone, the cigar between his fingers long since extinguished.

The old man raised his glass, facing the direction Lu Mingfei had left, facing the deep night sky outside the window, and facing a summer that existed in his memory and would never fade, and murmured to himself:
"To the future."

"A tribute to the spark of new life."

"I hope that you will always be yourself until I die."

(End of this chapter)