Ever since I became a Dragon Sage, my world is like stuck on one edge of the Ferris wheel. It's always changing positions, up and down, sometimes slow, sometimes fast. Sometimes I read bizarre magic experiments that were done with children, sometimes I get shot while rescuing a princess.
I knew that my life will change forever ever since I met Yehanna. It's like fate.
"We're finally here." Yehanna smiled. "Welcome to your new home, Uly~"
The vintage limousine parked right in front of the Lancelot Manor. It's much more pleasant to see such an old mansion with daylight.
When I got out of the limousine, the sweet breeze of the wind greeted me. The dried leaves on the floor made a nice sedative sound of nature as it gets pushed by the air. The two fountains are spraying clear water crystals. The trees canopies around the compound slightly swayed which gave way to the sunlight.
"Oh, Uly. Just leave your baggage and trolley bag there. Sebastian will take care of the rest." Yehanna said as she led the way.
I politely bowed to Sebastian and then quickly followed my rightful "fiancé". She opened the wooden door to the entrance, and her young blind brother who's stuck in a wheelchair welcomed us.
"Hi, Sis! Is he your fiancé that you've been talking about?" Young Yifus said. "His footsteps are a little bit rattled but gentle and light."
"Oh yes!" Yehanna smiled. She went behind the wheelchair and slowly pushed it closer to me. "Say hello to my Dragon Sage, Ulysses Corasell!"
"Good morning, Lord Ulysses Corasell! I am pleased to meet you." The polite boy put his hand on his heart and bowed. "I heard a lot from my sister. She said that you're a kind person but also a narcissist, always bragging about his handsome face!"
"W-What?" I whispered to myself.
"But I'm sure you are handsome as you proclaim to be, future brother-in-law!" Young Yifus gave a genuine smile on his face. "I know that my sister holds high standards to pick her suitor, so if you are her fiancé, you're surely handsome!"
It's just been a few seconds, and I like this kid already. I gently held both of his hands and shook them.
"I am glad that I'll be living with an honest-to-goodness younger brother in this house. Nice to meet you, Yifus! There's no need for formalities. From now on, you can call me Mister Handsome Brother!"
"Okay, Mister Handsome Brother!" Yifus gave an adorable smile.
Damn, I wish I had a kind brother like him instead of that campus whore little sister that I had.
"Now, now, Yifus. Big Sis will still discuss something with her future husband." Yehanna started to pull her brother away. "It's time for your daily piano practice!"
"Okay."
Yehanna happily hummed as she led her brother to the left-wing of the house. As they exited the scene, I had every second to appreciate the medieval designs of the interiors of the manor.
There is a stairway at the center that leads to the second floor, and from here, I can still see another stairway to the third floor. The left and right wings also extend to the horizon of my view, and there are various rooms on each wing that has the labeled Recreation Room, Library, Kitchen, Dining Room, Living Room, and two bedrooms on each side of each wing.
I suddenly heard a symphony coming from the Music Room. It must be Young Yifus who's practicing piano. When I turned to the left wing to check the source of the music, I saw Yehanna humming the same tune as the piano.
"Follow me," Yehanna said as she started to take a step on the stairway.
As we climb to the upper levels of the manor, I struck a new topic with Yehanna.
"Your little brother is a talented child, isn't he? Even with his disabilities, he can play piano like a professional. Me? I have no talent in any instrument, not even a triangle."
"It's his passion," Yehanna said. "Yifus plays piano because it is how he expresses all his emotions. He even got an expensive education just to learn how to play that instrument. Since he's deprived of sight, he sees the world in the colorful place called music."
"Such a good boy." I smiled. "He's even the first person who called me handsome wholeheartedly."
"I call you handsome." Yehanna winked.
"You only call me handsome when you feel like messing with me," I grunted.
"Well, Yifus calls you handsome because he's blind. That makes two of us siblings liars." Yehanna chuckled.
I got the urge to change the topic because I just got roasted. "Hey, let me get back to the main issue here. Why are you doing this?"
"Doing what?"
"You suddenly appear in front of my family, pretending to be my fiancé, having me kicked out of my family house, and getting me transferred here in your home." I shifted to a poker face as I stopped in the middle of the stairs. "Hanna, what are you planning?"
"You promised." Yehanna turned to me with her teary-eyed red pupils. "You promised, right? That you will help me get justice for my grandfather and my brother. You said that you will be with me."
I remember that promise.
It was last night so there's no way I could forget. Yehanna swallowed all her pride and begged on her knees while crying. She pleaded for help, just like how I begged her to let me pass the Remedial Exams.
I'm a Dragon Sage because of her.
However, the sole condition of me being a Dragon Sage is to help her get her revenge. It means assassinations. She wants all the people who did wrong to her family to pay with their blood. She's precisely begging me to become a criminal.
"Are you... backing out?" Yehanna's voice cracked.
I made a long deep sigh.
"A Corasell always remembers. That's what my father taught me ever since I was a kid." I said with a smile. "I will always remember my debts. And I'm planning to repay them. Our contract stays the same."
Yehanna swiftly wiped the tears off her face, then she transformed back to a happy expression. "Right! I know I could trust you!"
"But that doesn't explain why you pretended to be my fiancé and had me kicked out of my house." I pouted.
"That's why you should shut up first and follow me." She grabbed my wrist and pulled me upwards.
We finally reached the third floor, which only has one big room on it. It has the label War Factory. When Yehanna opened the doors, I was surprised at what I saw.
It is a laboratory, full of computers and robotic apparatuses. There are various magical weapons displayed on the shelf such as the giant magical pistols and the magical katana that Yehanna always uses. There are other weapons such as mechanical tower shields, gloves with magic gems, and gigantic rail guns.
On the other side are blueprints of the magical weapons engraved in transparent glass screens. Robots are operating all over the place. Honestly, everything here is so high-tech that the most primitive thing here is the AI-controlled Roomba that fires magical lasers to all the dirt it scans.
"So, this is where the Apsara Industries create magical weapons," I muttered.
"This is just the War Factory for the prototypes. The real factory for mass production is located in another much bigger warehouse." Yehanna said. "But that's not the reason we came here."
Yehanna went to the farthest side of the War Factory that has a single throne-like seat on it. She spread out her hand, and the throne unleashed lasers to scan her magical signature and DNA. All of a sudden, a large hologram screen popped out and a cybernetic voice greeted us.
[Welcome, President Yehanna Lancelot]
Yehanna swiped her screen, and a whole new interface was revealed.
It was a planning board, where all the targets for assassination is listed. Most of them already had data in them such as their face, name, and address, but there remains a few where the targets are marked "???" and "Unknown". However, the deceased Dragon Sages Wilhelm and Peterson already had their pictures crossed out on the planning board.
Yehanna sat on the throne, crossed her legs, and crossed her arms. With an intriguing confident smile, she looked at me.
"This will be our base for our future operations. I brought you here for three reasons: One, so that we can carefully plan for the perfect assassination strategy with all the best resources we have; Two, so that we can move freely without our families discovering our secret; and three, to keep your family away from harm. By having my house as our base of operations, you can rest assured that only the people in this house are at risk for the crimes we are about to commit."
"You are a cunning woman." I scoffed. "You already had everything prepared, and you don't seem to need me at all."
"You're wrong." Yehanna frowned. "I will need your authority as a Dragon Sage, your knowledge in forbidden spells, your fast thinking in spur-of-the-moment situations, and your power to turn me into a Cyber Angel Dragon. Without you, I won't last a minute, especially on my next operation."
Yehanna touched the profile of a fat blonde man with the age of thirty-five. The hologram screen displayed his data, and Yehanna read it out loud.
"Director Patrick Lavosier. CEO of the General Metropolitan Bank and the Director of the Internal Revenue Authority. He's the one who earned the most money during the scandal with my grandfather, and aside from that, he illegally confiscated almost half of my company's profits for five years and counting. He is known to be a notoriously corrupt man who imposes sky-high taxes on the poor, and kills or threatens the lawyers who would want to file complaints against him."
"Oh, I know that guy. He's the one on TV with lots of escort girls and swims in a jacuzzi filled with bills, right?"
"That makes it easier to swallow. You know how wicked he is." Yehanna said. "He has spent trillions for thousands of guards and security systems, so I'm having a hard time making a plan to assassinate him. Tell me if you have an idea how to break his defenses."
"I already have a plan." I grinned.