Starting from the Dragon Tribe! - Chapter 42

Starting From the Dragon Tribe

Chapter 42: Afternoon Tea

The afternoon sunlight spilled through the blinds and onto the desk. A squirrel ran and jumped happily on the century-old sunken wood bookshelf, its paws pattering upon secret canons of knowledge, reputed bibles of various fields of disciplines.

The squirrel’s prancing continued until it reached a large desk. It raised its nose to sniff around, its large eyes looking everywhere, then it wrapped itself around a finger smeared with peanut butter and began to lick lightly.

The finger belonged to an old man in a suit wearing a monocle. In this leisurely afternoon time, the man acted lazily, a rare occurrence. He half-leaned back in his chair, his wise eyes gazing toward the youth across the table.

“Compared to the clear and fresh spring tea, the slightly bitter summer tea, and the strongly aromatic winter tea, I actually prefer the autumn tea, which is calm and pure, long and leisurely, and always reminds people of some past memory,” the man gestured toward the other, “This is my newly arrived Westlake Longjing tea; my tea skills should not have waned.”

Lu Chen respectfully raised the cup and drank it in one gulp. The tea’s fragrance was calm and neutral, containing a hint of light aftertaste. This indeed was good tea; in fact, he knew there was a very complicated etiquette with tea.

Receiving the cup, turning the cup, turning it back, revealing the bottom, and so on… he knew the steps. He once had a comrade, a girl, who was very skilled at this, but the difference was that he used to always drink her tea with the sloppiness of a cow.

I’m dying of thirst after just finishing a war, you still want me to play these shenanigans with me?

Yet the principal obviously did not look like he would care about that; he just looked like he wanted to talk.

Two days after he returned to campus, he received an invitation to have afternoon tea with the principal, which brings us to the present.

“It’s good,” Lu Chen commented straightforwardly.

“I’m glad you like it,” Anjou wiped his finger clean, patted the squirrel’s head, then gestured for it to go play elsewhere.

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“Your performance on this mission was great, befitting your title of S-grade. I believe there will be no more voices of doubt after this, and the same goes for the Lionheart Society.” Anjou picked up the tea kettle and stood up, walked to Lu Chen’s side and poured more into his cup. In an instant, the principal’s seat was also next to him.

“Was that Time Zero?” Lu Chen was curious. Even with his dynamic vision, he could only see a slightly blurry shadow, and it was a strange feeling. It was as if it wasn’t the old man became faster, but that he became slower.

The chair’s displacement was invisible, as if the process of moving it was pinched out of the timeline, which was the difference between Time Zero and Split Second’s pure speed nature.

If Lu Chen were to perform the same, he’d also be able to achieve what Time Zero did in the same time, but it would definitely cause a ruckus, and he might even break the floor.

The principal was able to so lightly perform that act because he moved the chair normally in his own time frame.

“This desk is too long; it’s easy to really to pull people away from each other,” Anjou smiled as he sat down, “Time Zero is indeed quite mysterious, but Split Second too is a remarkable Kotodama. Although it is ranked lower than Time Zero, it possesses a potential not inferior to that of Time Zero, at least for you.”

Lu Chen sat up straighter, like a good student listening carefully.

“What is the highest tier you are able to climb using Split Second?” Anjou asked casually.

“Fourth tier, which is speeding up by 16 times,” Lu Chen replied. This was a result that he had obtained beforehand.

Back when he had to rush toward Redhill Park, a distance of 10 kilometers took only 57 seconds, and if taking his physical abilities into account, it would be a little over 8 times, but it couldn’t be calculated like that, because the city was not a track.

Taking into account the obstacles in his way and the winding roads, his actual speed would be about 13-14 times.

Ever since he decided to pretend to know Split Second, Lu Chen also conducted a lot of research on it, reading many documents in the Lionheart Society. Now, he was considerably knowledgeable about this Kotodama.

This Kotodama’s so-called climbing of tiers and the doubling of speed were not absolute values. One could say he could speed up by 16 times, but in a real environment, this was simply impossible.

Because in the real world, the body’s high-speed movement is affected by factors like air resistance and the friction coefficient of the ground. These factors would be more apparent the higher the tier a person’s Split Second was.

Split Second below the sixth tier does not have much strain on the body, according to theory. If Split Second were to climb to ninth tier, it would be simply impossible to increase one’s speed by 512 times. In reality, speeding up by 200 times would already be great, and even that would require the user’s bodily functions to be extremely robust, because if they weren’t, the body wouldn’t be able to stand even a few seconds of such speed.

High heat caused by external friction would burn the human skin, akin to a meteorite falling to the earth.

Thus, Time Zero being ranked above Split Second is not without reason. The former is like a king who has tampered with the rules; the latter is like a reckless man who relies on brute force.

“To be able to climb to such a tier upon just awakening your Kotodama, it seems you truly have talent. It’s just like I said, this Kotodama is very suitable for you, because your base speed is already very quick, which means you’ll be even quicker when wielding blades.” Anjou sipped his Longjing tea and looked at Lu Chen with admiration.

“I heard that the strongest Split Second user in the Secret Party’s history, Viscount “Silverwing” Charlotte, used a revolver, but from what you’re saying, Principal, it seems you’re encouraging me to use a saber?” Lu Chen was puzzled. Though he did like to use cold weapons, he thought the principal would suggest he use a hot weapon.

TL Note: A cold weapon is one that does not involve fire or explosions.

“Viscount Charlotte was one of my teachers; his power was undeniable.” Anjou’s gaze drifted toward the squirrel leaping on the bookshelf, “but even so, I have to admit that something like a bullet is too weak in the face of an overlord-level enemy. If he had held an alchemic sword back then…” Anjou shook his head and laughed, “Off topic, people always love memories when they become old.”

Lu Chen did not mind; he only sat straighter, waiting for the principal to say more.

“Under the condition that the body is able to handle higher tiers of speed, the speed of cold weapons can far exceed that of bullets, and that difference is displayed in the huge disparity in kinetic energy between the two. Whereas bullets are unable to penetrate dense dragon bone, an alchemic sword, with enough kinetic energy, can. And in my view, because you do not lack that strength, using cold weapons is the best choice,” Anjou commented simply. With a shake of his hand, a Pad appeared in his hand, and after tapping a few times, put it on the table.

Lu Chen looked at it; it was a photo, and he was familiar with the person within it: it was the crooked man whom he had killed when he first came to this world.

Lu Chen was silent. He had not known what he would face after finishing that mission. He shouldn’t have killed the crooked man in that way, which indirectly exposed his abnormal power. He had worried about it for a long time, but the college did not ask him about this matter even once. Today, it was clear that it wasn’t that the college did not know nor care, but that the old man in front of him had suppressed this matter.

“Don’t worry, no one knows about this matter except me and your mentors, and the agents involved in that mission all signed a confidentiality agreement,” Anjou took a sip of his hot tea and gestured for Lu Chen to relax.

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