chsdbacks Page 279
Page 279
"boom."
She gently placed the two drinks on the coffee table.
Then, she simply sat down on the sofa next to them, picked up her Coke, and took a sip.
"Rias, Zhu."
She spoke, her voice clear and crisp, yet carrying a profound weight and vicissitude that seemed completely at odds with her appearance, a voice that had endured thousands of years of hardship.
"Your performance just now... well, it disappointed me, and it disappointed the boss too."
These blunt and merciless words sent a jolt through Rias.
She was about to retort when the pride of being the heir to the Gremory family made it impossible for her to accept an accusation from a "junior".
"you……"
"stop."
Drag didn't even look at her; he simply raised a small hand and made a gesture to stop her.
"Listen to me first."
His calm tone carried an undeniable authority.
That was the majesty of the Heavenly Dragon.
Rias's open mouth froze.
She looked at Draig before her; in his golden dragon eyes, there was no mockery, no pity, only a bottomless calm.
All her rebuttals were stuck in her throat.
In the end, she could only slump down on the sofa like a deflated balloon, no longer saying a word.
Himejima Akeno glanced at her with concern, then silently looked at Draig.
Drake swirled the cola in his glass, watching the ice cubes rise and fall within it.
"Pets? Collectibles? Passersby?"
She repeated Rias's question, her tone slightly amused.
"Rias, do you really think the boss is that kind of boring person?"
"If he really only wants a pet, he could easily get any rare and exotic beast in the Three Realms with just a word. Wouldn't Cerberus be enough? How about Fenrir?"
"If all he wants is the collection, isn't Helena, the Goddess of the Bible, behind him significant enough? Does he need to care about your pitiful magic?"
"As for passersby..."
Draco paused, turned his head, and for the first time, his golden dragon eyes looked directly into Rias's eyes.
“If he really only saw you as strangers, he wouldn’t have gotten angry today.”
"He will smile, speak in the gentlest tone, and say the most distant things, then politely ask you to leave, and from then on, you will never have the chance to step into this door again."
"Do you know why the boss was so angry just now?"
Drag didn't wait for their reply and continued talking to himself.
"Because your questioning is not challenging his strength, but insulting his character."
"You use the most despicable malice to speculate about his relationship with you. You regard him as the kind of bastard who would abandon his companions if they were weak."
"What you're afraid of isn't that he's become too strong and you can't keep up."
"What you're afraid of is that you yourselves don't believe in him at all!"
"You don't believe that no matter how weak or incompetent you are, he will still treat you as his comrades!"
boom!
Drag's words were even more thought-provoking than Zhou Ye's scathing rebuke.
Rias and Akeno's bodies trembled violently.
yes……
They questioned Zhou Ye, repeatedly saying they were afraid of being abandoned.
But behind this questioning, isn't it because deep down they don't believe Zhou Ye will be the exception?
They had seen too many powerful people and too many people in positions of authority.
In their minds, the weak are meant to be exploited and discarded.
They applied their deeply ingrained, demonic aristocratic values to Zhou Ye.
Then, because of this self-imagined "fact," they felt fear and despair.
How absurd!
How... pitiful!
"The boss has never been one to like explaining himself."
Drag's voice softened slightly.
"He believes that if someone is a partner, they should understand... If they don't, then they should get lost. It's that simple and brutal logic."
“He brought you here, so you could see Helena and see him force Orpheus to retreat, not to show off his strength, nor to intimidate you.”
She stretched out her little finger and pointed to Rias, Akeno, and Kiba and Shirone not far away.
"He is giving you a choice."
"One option is to be like Sazex and Azazel, to choose to respect and stay away, and thus become his vassals, or rather... his subordinates."
"Another one..."
Drager withdrew his finger, picked up his Coke, and took another big gulp.
"Just like us."
She pointed to herself, then to the other side of the living room, where Nami and Saeko Busujima had been watching the whole thing like spectators.
"Take his strength as a goal to be pursued."
"Take his departing figure as a guiding light for our progress."
Even if we are left far behind, even if we are chased to our deaths, we will never stop.
"Because we believe that as long as we keep chasing him, he will never treat us as strangers."
"This is the kind of partner the boss truly wants."
"Not a burden that he needs to turn back and accommodate, but a madman who can grit his teeth and desperately follow behind him."
There was dead silence in the living room.
Nami and Saeko Busujima exchanged a glance, both showing approving smiles.
As expected of a dragon who has lived for countless years, his insight into problems is truly profound.
Rias stared blankly at the glass of strawberry juice on the table.
The ice had begun to melt, and a fine layer of water droplets condensed on the glass.
Drag's words were like a key, unlocking the room in her heart that had been locked by fear and inferiority.
So...is that so?
He didn't think we were weak.
Is he angry that we're... so useless?
It's infuriating that we didn't even have the courage to catch up, and instead chose to give up and wallow in self-pity.
"I……"
Rias's lips moved as if she wanted to say something, but she found her throat extremely dry.
Draig stood up and patted her little skirt.
"I have said everything."
"How you choose is your own business."
"Is it to just sit here, wallowing in self-pity over a glass of juice, and waiting for yourself to rot away?"
"I'll just drink it, then go to the training ground and train myself to death."
"You decide for yourself."
After saying that, she ignored everyone and skipped and hopped her way to her room on the second floor of the villa.
Only Gremory and Sidi's retinue remained in the living room.
And those two glasses of strawberry juice, sitting quietly on the coffee table, awaiting their owner's choice.
Chapter 243 Vali's Team
An abandoned industrial area dozens of kilometers away from Komao Academy.
The rusty corrugated iron factory buildings creaked and groaned in the night wind, as if telling a sad story of being abandoned by the times.
Vali Lucifer, the White Dragon Emperor who inherited the blood of the first Demon King, sat quietly atop a collapsed water tower.
At his feet were his companions, the core of the most elite younger generation known as the "Disaster Gang".
"brush!"
A figure darted out of the shadows and landed steadily not far from Vali.
The newcomer carried a retractable golden staff; he was none other than the Monkey King, a descendant of the Victorious Fighting Buddha.
He looked at the silent Vali with an extremely complex expression.
Not long ago, during that earth-shattering battle, although they were not qualified to witness it up close, the sheer, world-destroying aura it exuded was enough to make any mythical powerhouse tremble with fear.
"Hey, Wally."
The monkey scratched his cheek, his voice dry without him even realizing it.
"Is that guy named Zhou Ye really that terrifying?"