Chapter 103: The Deadly Back Alley
After Fei left the residence of the Royal Coronation Legion, he headed directly to the Chambord Civil and Military Academy. He had to meet with the military authority Gordon-Brook who was busy with the administrative duties at the academy.
The pressure that Fei felt at the residence of the Royal Coronation Legion made him more aware of the hidden dangers. He still didn’t know what was about to happen, but it wasn’t going to be something minor; even the elder princess of Zenit Empire had to guard against it carefully.
Therefore, Fei had to prepare in advance.
Chambord’s Civil and Military Academy was located at Former Head Minister Bazzer’s mansion. It was the biggest stone building in Chambord after King’s Palace. Like all the other buildings in Chambord, this building was more than a hundred years old. Moss grew on all the slits between the white stones that formed the walls, and dried yellow vines crawled onto the wall. The building looked very aesthetically pleasing from far away.
Fei heard the cheers of the children on the outside of the academy.
After entering the building, he saw hundreds of kids practicing a set of simple punches under Lampard’s guide. They were also practicing the horse-step stance (an ancient Asian method to train the legs) with their legs – the idea of the horse step came from Fei of course, and it was listed as one of the essential practices at the academy.
The little ones were putting all their efforts on the practice.
Drops of sweats slid off of their faces, and their clothes were all soaked. Although a few of the kids’ legs were shaking, they bit their teeth and endured the pain. They all were children of ordinary civilians, and they understood their low social classes and the toughness of life. They knew that having this opportunity to learn and practice was already very fortunate. Therefore, each and every one of them tried their hardest to improve their strength to change their lives and their families’ lives; none of them slacked off.
Lampard was carrying his giant black sword on his back. He glanced through each of the kids and corrected their forms and mistakes as they occurred. This silent former number one warrior at Chambord didn’t like politics or military very much; it seemed like he wasn’t interested in anything. However, when he started to train the kids, he was full of enthusiasm; with the large amount of free time he had, he was now the headmaster at the academy, and was responsible for carrying out 99% of all the training programs. With his reputation as the former number one warrior in Chambord and his three-star warrior strength, he was the kids’ favorite teacher right after Fei.
“Hi, Principal!”
After seeing Fei’s arrival, looks of surprise and worship popped on all the kids’ faces. They paused their practice, stood up straight and saluted to Fei in a military manner in unison.
“Hi, everyone!”
He tried to be majestic and saluted back.
It was the academy’s rule that Fei should be addressed as the principal. After stepping into the academy, no matter who the person was and what kind of status the person had outside of the academy, he or she could only have one identity – a student or a teacher.
“Continue training!”
After hearing Fei’s order, the kids went back to the horse-step stance and practiced the set of punches. The little ones were all excited and their faces got all red. They tried their hardest to stand out to Fei. If Frank-Lampard was their favorite teacher, then Fei would be their supreme idol, the supreme king. In this world that followed the law of the jungle, what Fei had demonstrated in the past conquered these kids who all had heroic dreams.
“Thanks for all your hard work, uncle Lampard.”
Fei was very respectful in front of Frank-Lampard. This three-star warrior was the best friend to the old king and took great care of Alexander. Like the old handsome Bast, Fei treated him as his elder.
“Your Majesty!” Lampard nodded, and his solemn face cracked a smile.
He clearly felt that Fei’s strength had increased. He could no longer estimate how strong Fei was, but one thing was certain – Fei had surpassed the threshold of the three-star rank. If not, Lampard would have been able to at least feel it.
“Uncle Lampard, these kids are the future of Chambord, if the academy needs anything, just let uncle Bast know, tell him that it’s my order……” Fei looked at the kids as if a rabbit had seen carrots; he rubbed his chin and smiled, “I’ve got to let these kid grow up quickly.”
Lampard nodded as he smiled. He thought for a moment and said, “Your Majesty, the academy has everything it needs except for good teachers and energy training scrolls. Some of these kids have great talent, and their talent attributes are solid. Metal, wood, water, fire, earth – all five energy attributes exists among them, and a few of them are good candidates for novice mages. It’s too bad that there are limited energy training scrolls in Chambord. In total, there are total four or five energy training scrolls, but they are only one to two star ranked, and they are only for water and fire energy. Brook and I both have water energy, so……”
Fei understood.
The limited educational resources were an issue.
There were a lot of professions on Azeroth Continent, and there were a ton of training methods. Everyone had a different body type and different talent attributes. The only way to train and increase their strength was to train using the same attributed energy scroll or magic scroll specific to each person; if one used the incorrect attribute scroll, it wouldn’t improve one’s strength, and it could also injure oneself.
“Let me handle this!”
Fei said goodbye to Lampard and found Gordon-Brook who was training a bunch of girls. Because girls’ bodies were a bit weaker, Fei didn’t require them to train as hard as the boys. During spare time, they were educated on simple military knowledge by Brook. This was the area that Brook was good at. Although he wasn’t spectacular, he was sufficient to enlighten them with the basics.
However, this situation made Fei aware of the importance of teachers for the academy.
Fei spotted Louise–Pierce’s daughter–among all the girls. The girl was even prettier after the simple daily cleaning rituals. Her icy temperament was the reason why Fei was able to spot her in a group of over forty girls. The girls surrounded him and he was only able to get out after telling a few stories. He then called Brook aside and planned a few things.
After listening to Fei, Brook was surprised.
“Your Majesty, is this real……”
“It doesn’t matter if it’s real or not, from now on, send more soldiers to increase the investigation efforts. For people who dare to cause trouble, it doesn’t matter who they are, lock them up in the [Little Black House]…… remember, especially for people who are new and strange to us, investigate and keep close eyes on them. If they don’t follow our rules, kick them out of the kingdom.”
Fei was harsh this time.
The tense atmosphere at the residence of the Royal Coronation Legion gave Fei a bad feeling. Chambord might be under great danger, and this danger might be greater than what Chambord could defend against. It might even be greater than the disastrous situation that the black armoured troops put Chambord under.
Brook accepted Fei’s order and turned around to tell the soldiers until…
“Wait……” Fei called him suddenly, after a moment of silence, he said, “Also, tell the soldiers to keep the guard up and be more alert. Increase their guard shifts during both the day and night. Also, notify the citizens that if the situation gets bad, they should be quick and leave the castle to hide temporarily.”
Brook’s face changed color. After hearing such a command, he really sensed the severity of the issue.
“Go, let’s hope that it’s just me thinking too much.”
……
……
When Fei left the Chambord Civil and Military Academy, there weren’t a lot of people on the streets.
Fei rode 【Black Tornado】, the giant dog and headed back in the direction of King’s Palace. This big black dog was very intelligent. It walked slowly, and Fei was sitting on it thinking about all the things that he encountered today. He wanted to think everything through and find some clues, but he wasn’t able find any. He felt that a dark shadow had enveloped Chambord, but he wasn’t able to tell where the danger came from and why there would even be danger.
Fei’s eyebrows suddenly rose.
He sensed danger, as if he was targeted by a vicious beast. A deadly sensation locked onto him, as if a knife was pointed at his back.
“Is someone following me?” Fei thought. His face didn’t show anything, as he lightly tapped the big black dog under his crutch.
This beast was almost too smart. It immediately understood Fei, and without any sign, it quietly changed directions and headed to a back alley that was almost empty.
This back alley was close to the dump in Chambord. The air smelled really bad, and mice and cockroaches were everywhere. Fei rode 【Black Tornado】deep into the back alley, jumped off, patted its head to tell it to go aside and then stood there.
After more than ten seconds.
An orange, yellowish flame flashed in the dark back alley. Wherever this flame flashed, the mud, walls, and rocks all seemed to melt and became thick. Then, something amazing occurred. A yellow human figure appeared from the wall. After the flame went away, the yellow figure turned into a tall, strong man, and he stood in front of Fei.
“You intentionally led me here, didn’t you?”
A joking expression appeared on the man’s face. In the dark back alley, his tall figure seemed to isolate Fei from the outside world. His body emitted a sense of power as his eyes locked onto Fei. He didn’t hide his murderous intent one bit.