Exploding Tikona

“Troublesome…”

“Beilixiya, get ready.”

Xia Ya closed the notebook, the leisurely expression on his face gone, replaced by a sense of resignation, as if trouble had just knocked on his door.

“We’re going to the academy. The owner of this thing… is probably going crazy with worry right now.”

The Royal Academy, stripped of its daytime clamor, was silent in the dead of night. Only the low moan of the wind through the corridors and the occasional faint clink of armor from the patrolling guards could be heard.

Two small figures moved like civet cats cloaked in the night, deftly hugging the base of the walls.

Tikona led the way, her golden hair shimmering faintly in the moonlight, her crimson-gold vertical pupils scanning her surroundings with vigilance. Xilin followed closely behind, her eyes filled with anxiety and a final sliver of hope. She bit her lower lip hard, forcing herself not to make a sound.

“Sister… is there really any hope?”

Xilin’s voice was hoarse from crying. She had searched nearly every corner of Rustwater Lane and every path she had walked that afternoon.

“Shut up, keep it down!”

Tikona didn’t turn her head, her attention fixed on the ground.

“The last place you were this afternoon was near the library, where that guy… ahem, where Xia Ya saved you. Then you spoke to him in the back alley. The notebook most likely fell in this area. Look carefully!”

Their objective was clear—the secluded path behind the library and the nearby garden bushes.

This was the main area of Xilin’s activities that afternoon.

Just as Tikona pushed aside a thick holly bush and Xilin eagerly crouched down to inspect the ground, a lazy voice abruptly broke the silence of the night, coming from above their heads.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. In the middle of the night, two dragon-kin ladies, instead of sleeping in their warm beds, have come to our heavily guarded academy… to play a treasure hunt?”

The two sisters froze, then shot their heads up.

There, on a protruding stone platform on the side of the library, Xia Ya sat leisurely on the stone railing, one leg bent, his arm casually draped over his knee.

“Xia Ya!”

Tikona’s fur stood on end in an instant, her golden hair almost bristling.

“I knew it was you, you lingering ghost! Where did you hide Xilin’s notebook?!”

“Sis-sister!”

Xilin frantically grabbed Tikona’s arm, terrified she would charge right at him.

But her own gaze was glued to Xia Ya, filled with anticipation and trepidation.

Xia Ya let out a soft “tsk,” as if he were used to Tikona’s explosive temper.

He dangled the familiar, rough notebook from his hand. “Looking for this?”

Xilin’s eyes instantly erupted with astonishing brilliance. The overwhelming joy of recovering what was lost nearly made her faint. She instinctively started to rush forward. “My notebook!”

“Don’t move!”

Tikona, however, pulled her sister firmly behind her, glaring at Xia Ya. “What do you want? Are you using Xilin’s notebook to threaten us? Or to mock us?!”

She simply didn’t believe this cunning noble young master would be so kind-hearted.

“Threaten? Mock?”

Xia Ya scoffed, as if he had just heard the world’s greatest joke. “Tikona, your imagination is a bit too rich. I just…”

He paused, sweeping a “you-two-are-so-troublesome” look over the sisters. “…just happened to pick up something a certain little scatterbrain lost, and happened to know who the owner was, and it just so happened that I thought this thing might be very important to its owner, so… I’m just returning it to its rightful owner.”

He deliberately emphasized the words “happened to.”

With that, he flicked his wrist. The notebook sailed through the air in a perfect arc, landing squarely in Xilin’s direction.

Almost instinctively, Xilin broke free from her sister’s grasp and lunged forward, catching the notebook with slightly trembling hands.

The moment the cold parchment cover touched her fingertips, a huge sense of relief washed over her, nearly bringing her to tears again.

She clutched the notebook tightly to her chest as if it were a rediscovered treasure, her small body trembling with excitement. She bowed deeply in Xia Ya’s direction, her voice choked with emotion. “Th-thank you! Mr. Xia Ya! Really… thank you so much!”

Seeing her sister so overcome with gratitude toward Xia Ya, the nameless fire and an indescribable sour feeling in Tikona’s heart grew stronger.

She pulled Xilin back to her side and glared at Xia Ya, her voice sharp with suppressed anger.

“Stop with the hypocrisy! Xia Ya von Wolfgang! What kind of potion did you feed my sister?! To make her side with you like this?! You saved her once this afternoon, and now you return a tattered notebook, and that’s worth all this?! Are you trying to trick her with these small favors?!”

“Potion?”

Xia Ya raised an eyebrow, his gaze finally shifting from Xilin to Tikona’s perpetually fuming face.

In the moonlight, he could clearly see the fire burning in her eyes and… a barely perceptible trace of panic?

It was the panic of her sister potentially being “stolen away.”

Xia Ya’s expression turned playful. He leisurely hopped down from the stone railing, landing on the steps below. Beilixiya followed silently behind him.

He walked forward a few steps until he stood a few meters away from the sisters.

“Tikona.”

“First, I have zero interest in ‘kidnapping’ a little brat who only knows how to cry. Second…”

He glanced at Xilin, who was clutching her notebook and watching him and her sister nervously.

“I simply did what any normal person would do after finding someone’s important item—return it. That’s all.”

He spread his hands, his face reverting to that roguish expression. “As for why your sister ‘sides with me’? Perhaps it’s because I happened to pull her to safety just as she was about to be pecked by a noisy ‘turkey’? Or maybe, it’s because I happen to not be as… hmm, ‘flammable and explosive’ as some people?”

“Who are you calling flammable and explosive?!” Tikona’s anger ignited instantly. If Xilin hadn’t been clinging to her waist, she might have already charged forward.

Xia Ya ignored her fury, his gaze turning to Xilin, his tone carrying a hint of seriousness that even he didn’t realize. “Kid, hold on to your stuff. If you lose it again, you might not be so lucky to have someone find it and return it to you. Also…”

He paused, glancing around meaningfully. “The restricted section of the Royal Academy’s library is no place for a little girl from the slums. The magic inside is not something you can just touch. Curiosity killed the cat, and it will also singe a little dragon’s tail.”

Xilin’s face paled slightly, her grip on the notebook tightening, but she still nodded stubbornly. “I-I understand… Thank you for the warning, Mr. Xia Ya.”

“Hmph!”

Tikona snorted heavily. Although Xia Ya’s words were unpleasant, she had taken his final warning to heart, her worry and fear for her sister’s secret trips to the restricted section growing.

“Alright, item delivered, we’re even.”

Xia Ya waved his hand lazily, as if he had just completed an extremely troublesome task. “Beilixiya, let’s go. Time to go back to sleep, I’m dead tired.” He turned, not seeming to want to stay a second longer.

“Wait!” Xilin couldn’t help but call out again.

Xia Ya’s steps paused. He didn’t turn back, just glanced over his shoulder.

Xilin mustered her courage, her emerald eyes shining astonishingly bright in the moonlight. “Mr. Xia Ya… about becoming your disciple…”

Xia Ya’s back seemed to stiffen for a moment, then his clearly impatient voice followed. “Kid, I told you, not interested! Take your precious notebook and your ‘ignites-at-a-touch’ sister, and get out of here, now! Let’s pretend we never saw each other tonight, and I never saw you. Got it?”

With that, he didn’t linger. Accompanied by Beilixiya, his figure quickly melted into the shadows on the side of the library and disappeared.

Leaving Tikona and Xilin standing in the cold moonlight. One was still fuming, the other clutched her recovered notebook, her heart a complex mix of adoration and disappointment as she stared in the direction Xia Ya had vanished.

Tikona looked at her sister’s crestfallen, notebook-hugging state, then thought of Xia Ya’s final “trouble-is-gone” air of relief. For some reason, the fire in her heart flared up again. She bared her teeth silently in the direction he had disappeared, revealing two sharp little canines.

“Bastard noble young master…”