2025-12-15 20:35:04Asta stood up slowly, still feeling like the floor was swaying under him.
“I… I really appreciate you telling me all of that, even if it feels like someone just dropped a mountain on my head.”
He said, his voice low.
Old Man Kael was already at the door, wrestling with an ancient iron key that looked older than the academy itself.
“Yeah, yeah, it’s fine.”
He grumbled, jiggling the key left, right, up, down, then left again.
“I just need to lock this damn door before the rats throw a party in my scrolls.”
The key refused to turn, Kael muttered curses under his breath, shook the handle like he was trying to choke it, then kicked the bottom of the door so hard the whole frame rattled.
“Come on, you rusty piece of…”
Asta pressed his lips together so hard they hurt. A tiny laugh was trying to escape and he was losing the fight.
Kael whipped around, one white eyebrow raised so high it nearly touched his hairline.
“What’s so funny, boy?”
“Nothing, sir!”
Asta squeaked, his eyes wide and innocent.
Kael narrowed his eyes, turned back and gave the door another furious jiggle.
“Stupid thing’s been broken since the third Empress, I swear…”
Asta bit the inside of his cheek.
“Uh… sir? Let me try.”
“I got it.”
Kael snapped.
“I insist. Please.”
Kael froze, key halfway twisted. He stared at the door like it had personally insulted his mother. Then he let out a long, dramatic sigh and stepped aside with a grand sweep of his arm.
“Fine. Be my guest. There’s no way you can even make it shift an inch. This door is forged from star-forged obsidian iron, tempered in the breath of a volcano wyrm, and enchanted by the Fourth Flame Emperor himself. It weighs more than three warhorses and laughs at normal human strength.”
Asta stepped forward, rolled his shoulder once, grabbed the handle, and slammed the door shut.
CLANG.
It closed perfectly. The lock clicked like it was happy to finally behave.
Silence.
Kael’s mouth actually fell open. His cloudy eyes went round as coins.
Asta turned, looked at his own palm, then back at the door.
“That… didn’t seem like something to struggle over.”
Kael blinked. Once. Twice.
“How in the nine hells…”
“I just pulled.”
Asta said as he shrugged.
“And pushed. That’s it.”
Kael scratched his scarred cheek and muttered.
“That door has humiliated generals, archmages, even a prince once. He cried.”
Asta gave a tiny, sheepish grin.
“So… am I strong now?”
Kael barked a laugh that echoed down the tunnel.
“Strong? Boy, you’re still as weak as a wet kitten. That wasn’t your muscle. That was the dragon strength leaking out and mixing with your blood. A single drop of its power is worth more than a thousand normal men.”
Asta’s grin faded.
“Leaking?”
“Exactly. And if we don’t teach you how to control the leak, one day the whole dam breaks and the empire drowns.”
Kael started walking.
“Come with me. I want to show you something.”
They walked deeper than Asta had ever gone. The torches grew farther apart, the air colder, the stone older. A rusty iron sign hung crooked from the ceiling:
HIGHER SENIORS ONLY—DEATH TO TRESPASSERS.
Asta swallowed hard.
“We’re allowed down here?”
Kael didn’t answer. He just lifted one gnarled hand. A small, steady flame bloomed in his palm,pure golden-white, clean and bright like a sunrise on snow.
Asta stopped walking.
“Wait. You can make fire?”
Kael rolled his eyes so hard it was a miracle they didn’t fall out.
“What, you thought I was just a retired janitor? Didn’t you listen to a single word of my story upstairs?”
Asta rubbed the back of his neck.
“I… might have zoned out a little when you got to the part about slaying the lava titan. Sorry.”
Kael snorted.
“This is Dawn Lotus Flame, pride of the ancient Kael clan from the Eastern Isles. One of the purest healing-support flames in the world. Also excellent for lighting dark hallways when rude boys don’t pay attention.”
He waved the flame ahead like a lantern. The golden light danced on wet stone walls and made the shadows retreat.
Asta jogged to keep up.
“So… what’s my flame called? Dragon something?”
Kael’s flame flickered. He stopped walking and turned, giving Asta the most sarcastic look imaginable.
“Boy, do you ever stop asking questions?”
Asta took one dramatic step back, hands raised.
“Sorry! Sorry!”
Kael shook his head, but there was a tiny smile hidden in his beard.
“I don’t know yet. First I have to figure out exactly which dragon is sealed inside you. There were nine Legendary Dragons in the old myths, each with its own flame, personality, and favourite way to destroy continents. Until we know which one chose you as its jail-slash-partner, we can’t name the fire.”
Asta opened his mouth,then closed it fast when Kael’s eyebrow threatened to launch into orbit again.
They kept walking. The tunnel sloped down, down, down, until the air felt thick and humming with old power. Finally they reached a pair of enormous double doors,black wood bound with crimson steel, carved with phoenixes and dragons locked in eternal battle.
Kael placed his palm on the door. The Dawn Lotus flame flared bright, traced a complicated symbol in the air, and the doors swung inward without a sound.
Asta’s breath caught.
The space beyond was impossible.
A cavern so huge he couldn’t see the ceiling,just endless darkness lit by floating rivers of pure fire that flowed like upside-down waterfalls. Bookshelves taller than palace towers rose in perfect rings, connected by bridges of living flame. Students,real students, seniors in different crimson-and-gold robes,were flying.
Some had wings made of fire sprouting from their backs, beating slowly and gracefully. Others wore boots that left trails of sparks as they skate through the air. A girl shot upward like a rocket, laughing, trailing a tail of blue-white flame, and snatched a book from a shelf a hundred metres up.
The smell of old paper, smoke and magic was so strong Asta could taste it.
He stood frozen in the doorway with hi
s mouth open.
Kael stepped beside him, arms folded, looking proud and a little smug.
“Welcome.”
He said, his voice low with something like reverence.
“To the Grand Crimson Library.”
The doors boomed shut behind them…
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Chapter 449
One clean cut, diagonal, across the binding that held the basket sealed and the flame solid material split along the cut line with a sharp crack that echoed through the trees."Jabber!"From below, almost before the word had finished leaving his mouth. "Already on it."The flame shield came up from the ground,wide, cupped, angled perfectly and the basket fell into it, not crashing, just settling, the broken seal falling away as Jabber brought it steady and slow and set it down beside him on the ground with the careful hands of someone carrying something that couldn't afford to be dropped.Asta dropped from the branch and landed beside him.They looked at each other for one second.Then Mira was there, already reaching for the broken seam of the basket, pulling the edges apart, the flame material dissolving at her hands as she worked it open.The basket opened.Fifteen children.Pressed together in the center of it, some sitting, some curled against each other, all of them in the cond
Chapter 448
Then the side of her mouth moved. Just slightly."I won't kill you." She said. "You're too useful to me." She looked at him for one more beat. "Don't do it again."Gull exhaled.The exhale was quiet and controlled and the relief in it was absolutely genuine.He stepped back to his position.Dero looked at the men still kneeling on the ground."Is there a bed somewhere in this place?" She said. Not specifically to anyone. "Somewhere I can rest and recover my strength."Two or three of the kneeling figures began to speak at the same time.She held up one hand.They stopped.She looked at the competing voices, then at the ceiling, then back down."You know what.”She said. "Never mind. I'll find it myself."She turned.And then she looked at Web.The look she gave him was different from anything else she had produced in the last hour. It was slower. And warmer. In a way that was not entirely comfortable."Web.” she said.Web looked at her."Would you mind accompanying me?" She s
Chapter 447
"I genuinely didn't think he would die from that." She looked around at all of them with something approaching mild surprise. "Anyone else? Don't be shy. Come on. You can say it out loud or you can mutter it to yourself,your choice. Either way I'll hear it."Complete silence.Not one person moved.Not one person appeared to even be breathing in a way that could be considered voluntary.Dero looked at them all for one more moment, then straightened up.……………………."She can hear human thought."Kyx said it quietly, from just behind Dero's right shoulder. Not alarmed, Kyx didn't really do alarmed. Just stating it, the way you state a fact that you want on record."Yes." Gull said immediately, from the left.Web turned and looked at Gull. "How?"Gull looked at Web with the specific expression of someone who has been asked to explain something technical to someone they are not sure will fully appreciate the explanation."She has a built-in flame technique." He said. "Passive. Always ac
Chapter 446:Hear Every Whisper
The men in black cloaks were still on their knees.Every single one of them, heads bowed, hands flat on the ground, not one of them willing to be the next person to look up. The silence in the space had that particular quality of a room where something bad just happened and everyone is very focused on not being the reason something bad happens again.Dero stood above them. Unhurried. Looking across the tops of their bowed heads the way someone looks across a field,with no urgency, just observation.Then, from the second row of kneeling figures, something started.A trembling.One man. His shoulders were moving, small and fast, the involuntary shake of someone whose body was doing something his brain was trying very hard to stop. His head was down but his lips were moving, the faintest murmur, barely sound at all.‘’’Oh God.’’’He wasn't saying it to anyone. He was saying it to himself, or to the ground, or to whatever part of his brain was still processing the last two minutes.‘’’It
Chapter 445
He said."From that point." Asta said.Jabber nodded. Then, after a beat… "He is significantly more annoying than I expected a best friend to be, just so you know.""He is the most annoying person I have met in my life.” Asta said pleasantly. "I say that with genuine affection.""Likewise." Jabber said."Truly.""Deeply."Wabash laughed, a real one, short and warm, that moved his whole face. He shook his head."It's good." He said. “What you two have. It's, it's a good thing."Neither of them said anything for a moment.Then Jabber looked at his cup."This tea is actually really good." He said."Glad you like it." Wabash said."What is it?""Old forest blend. The cook makes it before any mission night. He says it helps you sleep when your mind won't stop."Jabber took another slow sip."Smart cook." He said.……………………..Deep in the forest, behind a wall of flame camouflage so thick it swallowed all light and sound, the children were crying.Not all of them, some had gone past
Chapter 444
Asta took his and sat cross-legged across from the prince. Jabber sat beside him, wrapping both hands around his cup.A comfortable quiet settled over the three of them for a moment.Then Wabash looked at Asta."You were about to tell me.”He said.“Before Yuki called the stop. How did you find out."Asta looked at his cup. Then up."Right." He said. "Yeah."He took a short breath."It was my first day in the academy mine pit.” He said. "The underground labour section,first-year students, grey uniforms, pickaxes. Clank clank clank in the dark for hours." He looked at his hands briefly. "I had blisters within the first hour. Didn't stop. Just kept going."Wabash listened without interrupting."There were two older students." Asta said. "Crimson uniforms, proper rank. They had a girl pinned against the tunnel wall." He said it simply, no drama in it, just the shape of what happened. "I put my pickaxe down and walked over and told them to let her go.""Just like that?" Wabash
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