A brave man may not live, but he cannot die

Chapter 318 Hurricane
An arcane magic circle beneath the teak floor blew cool air inwards, regulating the temperature to a springtime feel, while the mansion within Branson Manor shone with golden lights. The lake in front of the mansion reflected the grey sky; the wind swirled the clouds, and a thick, inky black cloud layer stretched across the horizon like a line, so heavy it seemed to threaten to dye the sky black. The sun hung above the clouds, with only a slanting ray of sunlight piercing through the gloom and falling onto the lake's surface, like a divine pillar supporting the heavens and preventing the sea of ​​clouds from collapsing.

Feathered beasts circled on the lake, and warm arcane light shone through the huge French windows. The Branson family of three were doing their own things in the living room. Chaldie sat on the sofa wrapped in a blanket, a fashion magazine lying on her calves that she hadn't flipped through for a long time, her little mouth pouting, in a bad mood.

"mom--"

Xia Dai'er dragged out the last syllable of "Mom" for a very long time.

Jenny ignored her; under the lamp were stacks of airport and warehouse applications. These documents seemed to have been submitted in a hurry, covered with annotations from various personnel who should have presented them to her for signature in a more formal manner.

Elon sat with his legs crossed on the armchair next to the desk, flipping through city hall documents. Most of these documents concerned the drainage system and repair records of Seaville, and his brow furrowed from time to time; clearly, the data was riddled with errors.

"Mom!!!" Xia Dai'er, the little dinosaur, roared.

Jenny sighed softly, picked up the long-cold black tea beside her, and took a sip.

"What's the matter?"

"I need to go out!!"

Jenny put down her water glass, picked up her pen, and continued signing. "No," she said in a tone that left no room for negotiation.

Xia Dai'er's little face immediately puffed up, and she made a "whoosh whoosh" sound to express her dissatisfaction, like a pufferfish inflating.

Hakimi slowly walked over to the young lady, tossed her the newspaper he was carrying in his mouth, and then gave her a "good girl, be obedient" look—heaven knows how a pug could give such a mama-like look.

The newspaper's headline was horrifying: "Comparable to a natural disaster! The largest hurricane in nearly five years has passed through the northern coast of the southern continent, severely impacting the Principality of Shimai, with over 7,000 people missing in coastal cities." The accompanying image was of apocalyptic scenes of torrential rain, with a smaller line below stating: "Multiple countries' arcane ministries and the Vatican have issued warnings that the hurricane is highly likely to penetrate inland, bringing multiple rounds of torrential rain within a week."

Chaldale was sulking because she couldn't go out on her date, and honest Hakimi immediately suffered the consequences. A newspaper was rolled up in his hand and used as a stick, slapping the dog's head a few times. Poor Hakimi was like an NBA referee who came to break up the fight and got elbowed hard, his eyes immediately turning aggrieved.

"Hmph, you won't let me go out, huh? Fine, I'll go find my father then."

Hearing this, Jenny had no choice but to stop working and look helplessly at her daughter.

“Your father is recuperating. It was already difficult enough for him to come out and spend some time with you last week. Don’t bother him.” Then, Jenny picked up the documents on the table. “The hurricane is passing through tonight. The airport will be closed for two whole days. How to arrange the airship berths, where to put the cargo, everyone is asking if there are any extra warehouses, and we have to calculate the losses. I’m so annoyed at the company that I’m hiding at home. You’re going out in this weather. What if something happens again?”

The tone of the word "又" was emphasized.

In just six months, her daughter was kidnapped by goblins while out playing and was almost brutally killed by the kidnappers, which really gave her mother psychological trauma.

Xia Dai'er wasn't one to make trouble unnecessarily, and not wanting to cause trouble for her mother, she grabbed a cushion from the sofa and buried half her face in it, while using a newspaper to bang on the dog's head with one hand.

Hakimi: Feed me peanuts.

"These falsified accounts are laughable," Elon said, shaking his head as he read. "The Alexandre family hasn't even bothered with appearances these past few years. They take so much funding every year, and it all goes into their own pockets. I bet less than a third of the drainage pipes in Seaville are even functional; I wonder how many people will drown during a rainstorm."

"Huh?" Xia Dai'er temporarily suppressed her emotions. Just looking at the dense numbers on those documents was making her head spin. "Brother, how can you tell they're falsifying accounts just by looking at the ledgers?"

"Ha." Elon sneered. "Most accountants are lucky if they can keep the books right. The prerequisite for falsifying books is that they can keep the books right."

"Alexander's cronies wouldn't part with a single penny. Their accountants were all college graduates. With the same ledger, ten people could produce seven different totals of assets, while the remaining three had unbalanced debits and credits. If they could even get one right, that was a miracle."

As Elon spoke, he drew circles on the drainage engineering diagram with a pen.

"If we can restore access to these dozens of points and evacuate the residents of the 24th district, the disaster won't be too severe. It will only result in some property damage."

"It's hard to imagine that our city's sewers are a thousand years old. Even if that fat pig Kraft doesn't do any repairs, the main facilities will still function perfectly well. Merlin, who designed the pipelines, is truly a genius."

Elon's eyes narrowed slightly, a hint of research flashing across them.

"Engineer, architect, accountant, teacher, what are the other three?"

"Brother!" Xia Dai'er looked at her brother with sparkling eyes, "You must have a way, right? Help Severewell drain the water."

"We can only try our best to save them; the hurricane came too suddenly." Elon paused, a hint of eagerness playing on his lips. "The air transport soldiers have been training for so long; it's time for a surprise test."

Jenny understood the implication in her son's words and stopped working to ask, "Are you planning to take airlift troops to Westville for disaster relief?"

Elon closed the document and glanced at his watch.

"If all goes well, we should be able to clear the silt from these main water inlets by 6 p.m. As for disaster relief, how much we can save depends entirely on fate."

Jenny corrected her, displeased, "You should pray to Goddess instead of always talking about 'divine will.' Is my son a believer in the sun?"

Elon neither confirmed nor denied it, saying, "It's just a verbal tic."

“The hearing is tomorrow, such an important matter,” Jenny paused, then asked, “How about postponing the hearing due to the hurricane?”

"Ha, this is the only chance to bring me down. Even if there's a natural disaster, let alone a hurricane, the hearing will still go on. Besides," Elon stood up, tossed the ledger into the trash can, and tucked the engineering drawings under his shoulder, "isn't disaster relief more important than a hearing?"

"Brother, you're so handsome!" Xia Dai'er grabbed Hakimi's dog paw and clapped her hands vigorously.

“Whatever you want.” Jenny shook her head and continued working: “You’re using airlift troops for disaster relief. Be careful they don’t use that as an excuse to criticize you for abusing government power to gain personal prestige.”

"No. Even if I don't show up, the air transport troops will still go."

Elon said something strange: "I want the people to realize that the Airborne Forces are 'their army,' not the government's army. I believe that after tonight, I won't have to rack my brains recruiting mercenaries and adventurers anymore; the Airborne Forces will no longer lack excellent personnel."

Xia Daier raised her hand and said excitedly, "Brother, I want to go too!"

"Clearing away silt? Soaking your feet in rainwater overnight will cause them to rot."

Xia Dai'er paused slightly, then looked at the little feet covered in white cotton socks. A strange, conflicted look appeared on her face as she asked reluctantly, "How about wearing boots?" "Heh, it's all hard work. You won't last half an hour before I have to call someone to take you home."

Xia Dai'er immediately frowned, "You stinky older brother, you look down on me, hmph."

“Well, there is one favor you can do for me,” Elon said to his sister. “There’s a type of arcane equipment that the academy used to dig when they were building the sewers. It should be very useful for clearing silt. Could you go to the academy and ask if they can lend it to the airborne troops if they still have it in the warehouse?”

Xia Dai'er suddenly stood up. "Brother, you're willing to take me out?!"

Elon nodded.

"Yay! Great bro!!!"

"Oh yeah!" is a verbal tic I picked up from my older brother.

Jenny looked at her son with displeasure, then glared at her daughter helplessly.

"Come back right away after you're done, understand?"

"Well, I wanted to have dinner with my friends," Xia Dai'er lied matter-of-factly.

"A get-together?" Jenny knew her daughter all too well and asked with a dark face, "Are there any hooligans?"

"Yes." Xia Dai'er nodded honestly.

"Then you're not allowed to go."

“Not anymore.”

"?"

In the past, Quinn and Shadelle would meet at the Demar Bar. Quinn needed to go out with Selvi for training, and if Shadelle skipped class, she would go with him. In the evening, the two would take a walk and escort the girl home.

Even after falling in love, things remained largely the same, except that she stopped going out with Quinn to set up honey traps. Those underworld superhumans no longer seemed to be of any benefit to her, giving her a sense of having a boyfriend who had become stronger. And their evening walks naturally turned into going back to their small apartment to have sex. Although she couldn't avoid being lectured by her mother every time, such as "men won't cherish you if you're too casual," girls of this age aren't easily swayed by lectures. Xia Dai'er would just nod and agree on the surface, but secretly she had her own rhythm.

Quinn's Thursdays in town were a regular occurrence, and he could usually be found at the Demar Inn, but today he was unexpectedly nowhere to be seen. The drunken innkeeper said he was going to some "ruins of the Church of Light" and had asked the innkeeper to leave her a message, telling her not to go home and to stay at the inn and wait for her.

These words were naturally interpreted by Xia Dai'er as a hint about her boyfriend's sexuality, and she blushed slightly. However, remembering her brother's instructions, Xia Dai'er, who had originally intended to ask Quinn for help, decided to go to the academy alone, since disaster relief in Seville was the priority.

She left the Demar Bar alone, taking Hakimi who was waiting across the street at the entrance, and headed to the train station—for some reason, every time Hakimi accompanied her here, he refused to go any further, as if there was something in the bar that terrified a dog more than a newspaper hitting its head.

Chaldale wasn't Grindelwald's student or family member, so she couldn't board the train through the special platform. But Quinn had given her his contact information, so Chaldale went to the empty ticket window number nine and tried asking the plump woman dozing off in her chair if she could contact Grindelwald.

To her surprise, the other party agreed after simply asking her purpose. She picked up the phone and dialed the number. After saying something, she handed over the receiver. An old man's voice, which sounded very serious and hoarse, came from the other end. Xia Dai'er didn't know who was on the other end of the phone. After telling her brother about his request for the arcane artifact, the other party actually agreed very quickly.

"Come to the academy to pick up your things, and take the train from last time." The person on the other end hung up after saying that.

The last train?
Xia Dai'er couldn't help but feel a little nervous, wondering if Quinn had found out about her sneaking into the academy last time. Surely not. With a heavy heart, she saw the familiar silver train at Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. After magically crossing the twilight, the girl arrived in Grindelwald at night.

Greeting her was Jacob, a specialist from the school administration. This was the first time she had met an arcane mage other than Quinn at the academy. Xia Dai'er had expected him to be as eccentric as the girl she had met that day, but he turned out to be a very kind person. He apologized, saying that the arcane artifact she requested was unavailable, as it was something from a thousand years ago and had been destroyed by the demons during the war against them when used for digging tunnels. However, he quickly added that the academy could send someone to help, and asked Xia Dai'er to wait a moment, as he was looking for her and would be there soon.

Xia Dai'er didn't have to wait long before she saw an incredibly beautiful white-haired girl.

And Amamiya Nene, who was holding her hand.

When Amamiya Nene saw Xia Dai'er, she was clearly taken aback, and then Xia Dai'er bowed and apologized.

"I'm sorry! I wanted to go to your house to apologize, but you were never home before."

Amamiya Nene suddenly felt a little awkward, unsure of how to react. She glanced at the bewildered Jacob beside her, then led her students and Xia Dai'er onto the train back to the city. Inside the opulent carriage of Train 0000, she first instructed the girl, "Lin, close your ears."

The girl ignored her, her white, ruthless eyes inexplicably fixed on Xia Dai'er, while her little nose twitched incessantly.

Amamiya Nene sighed, wondering why Rin listened to that guy so much, and could only reach out and cover Rin's ears. Fortunately, the little girl didn't seem to mind her, probably because her status as the third child after the little fox in the family of four had some effect.

"Um..." Amamiya Nene was quite uncomfortable. She couldn't quite explain what she was feeling guilty about. She rarely had such a wandering gaze in her life. "Um, why... did you apologize?" she asked.

Xia Dai'er immediately replied, "Thank you for comforting me during the Arcane Festival that day, but um, I wasn't very polite that day, please forgive me. I didn't mean to ignore you, it's just that my feelings from that day are all in the past now."

Amamiya Nene's expression shifted from unease to a moment of blankness, then she laughed with relief, "Haha. I thought it was something serious, but it's just this—it's nothing, don't worry about it."

She changed the subject: "By the way, how's that jerk who made you cry?"

“Ah? Him, um…” Xia Dai’er scratched her head shyly, “It’s a long story.”

"How about we talk about it slowly?" Amamiya Nene immediately became interested.

"Hey, take your time?"

"Would you like to come to my house? I'll treat you to tea, it's super delicious Ron Black Tea!"

Xia Dai'er initially thought that Amamiya Nene meant the royal palace on the lakeside promenade when she said "going home." She figured Quinn would probably finish his business in the afternoon and could go home to touch up his makeup. Besides, Amamiya Nene and her mother had comforted her for so long last time, so she had a good impression of this older sister and agreed.

But when Xia Dai'er was led by Amamiya Nene onto a carriage and driven in the opposite direction from the mountaintop, until she saw the familiar apartment building, she finally understood what the other person meant by "home".

"This is my sister's new home," the little witch said with a smile. "No one would guess it's a super quiet apartment building, far away from that scoundrel!"

(End of this chapter)