Chapter 402

Chapter twelve recounts a day when the dragons flew out from thunderous and lightning-filled dark clouds. They flapped their wings, stirring up winds of destruction, leaving behind a trail of suffering wherever they went. The brave human heroes rose in resistance; countless heroes fought with passion under mournful music, undaunted by death, spilling their blood and sacrificing their lives to raise their swords against the dragons. However, all efforts were futile. Our towns and villages were destroyed one by one by them, and tens of thousands of our ancient kin were burned, torn apart, or swallowed alive…

“This was a long and brutal war for human survival that lasted several years. Millions of warriors fell in this fearless battle. Countless villages were destroyed, and piles of scorched earth and bones accumulated. Yet, the fierce resistance of the heroes, who laid down their lives on the battlefield and built defenses with their flesh and blood… all of this was as meaningless as paper before the might of the dragons.

The old man paused for a moment.

“Even after humanity received the favor of the god Danelcis and the grace of the goddess of sin, and even with the angels sent by the gods fighting alongside us… the dragons remained a calamity-like existence to us until the great gods drove them all away…

“As I speak, my tone becomes more passionate.

“These… are not stories, but the most tragic epic of humanity, an agony we can never forget. There are too many heroic figures worth singing praises about, too many eternal spirits. Those who fought to protect their homeland and faced death without fear! They are worthy of being forever remembered in our hearts. Without their resistance, we would not have the stable and prosperous life we enjoy today. It is precisely because of this that the legends of countless heroes have been passed down from a thousand years ago to this day…”

I sat at the desk, propping my chin with one hand, listening to the old man’s words, and images formed in my mind.

The dark and desolate land was filled with traces of wildfires. Lightning streaked across the sky, and countless soldiers charged forward with their swords stained in blood, their angry roars piercing the clouds. But when the giant dragon descended from the sky, its wings spread wide, instantly covering the sky and the city. Hot lava spewed from the dragon’s mouth, igniting大片的士兵。他们在惨叫声中倒下，巨龙冲进战场，长尾利爪横扫一切，无数躯体被击飞、被撕碎，鲜血染红了城池和战场。背生羽翼的天使沐浴金光，降临人间…那是魔幻电影中的场景。

然而，这样的场景只在我脑海中停留了几秒，随后想到的是那只毛茸茸的大白背影。

它把我送到村庄，然后离开，眼神中似乎有些依恋，身影在视线中渐行渐远，最终消失在茫茫林海中。

“哪里不对…”我轻声呢喃。

“哪里不对？”

忽然，身旁有人接话。

我吓了一跳，转头望去，看到了贝亚德那张笑嘻嘻的脸。

于是我皱起了眉头：“你什么时候坐过来的？”

“在你认真听课的时候。”

他说道，随后指了指教室的后门：“从那边溜进来的，我睡过头了。”

我这才注意到他的头发有些凌乱，眼神中带着一丝倦意，好像还没完全清醒，校服皱巴巴的，胸前的扣子还扣错了，估计是没来得及收拾就匆匆赶来了。

但这跟我有什么关系。

“哦。”

我无所谓的回应一声，然后不再理他，继续听课。

“先烈们的史诗固然令人震撼，但是呢，我的课，却不是与你们讲述这些壮志历史的…

台阶上的老者语态稍缓，慷慨的情绪已然平复，话锋一转，渐渐引入课堂正题。

“其实就我个人的立场而言，我倒是宁愿让你们相信，那些书本里描写的、一则则可歌可泣的故事，都是曾经真实发生过的事实。即使不是，或许也相差不多了。但作为一名学者，我今天站在这里，却是与你们传授学识的…

“所谓学识，讲究的是对事物的准确判断能力，看到一个陌生的东西，先认识它，大胆猜测小心求证，得出结论，证明结论…如此，方才能被承认。学术论证，应当实事求是方为真理，一切没有被人证实过的事、物，其本质都是未知的。

Words are self-projections built on certain foundations; such projections cannot be taken as facts.

“And now, among the countless versions of legends circulating in the folk, how much of the truth remains… I think, probably not much. For example, the dragon maiden Melukhine that I just mentioned, I don’t know if everyone has heard that story, but for me, the notion of ‘a half-breed of fairy and dragon’ is simply absurd. There’s no way that different races could produce offspring together, especially with dragons… But you can’t say that everything recorded in those biographies is false either, because none of us have actually witnessed these events ourselves.”

Crinkling sounds…

Huh?

There’s the sound of a paper bag being opened…

I perked up my ears, my thoughts moving along with them. Unable to hold back, I turned my head again and saw what Beaudry was holding in his hand… Ah, it was a cream puff.

“Do you want one?” he asked me.

I sniffed the air: “Yes.”

Then I secretly took one from under the table, glanced around to make sure no one was watching, and quickly lowered my head to take a bite.

The sweet cream instantly melted in my mouth, and I couldn’t help but curl up the corners of my lips, my eyes narrowing.

It’s delicious…

In these past few days, I’ve gradually gotten used to Beaudry always bringing me the food I like. After noticing him that morning, I realized that our elective classes were the same.

So in the first few days, every time I went to class, he would sit next to me, and after class, we would walk back to Lake Ceylon together, and sometimes even go to the cafeteria together—people who saw us would often give us strange, even jealous looks, but I didn’t mind; Beaudry certainly wouldn’t mind either. I felt that this guy was an excellent shield, and having him around really did avoid many more annoying people from approaching me.

Coincidentally—or perhaps not—I thought for sure it wasn’t by chance—Beaudry always brought me the foods I liked, like doughnuts, cakes, and so on. Every time he saw me, he would share them with me. At first, I actually refused, feeling too embarrassed to just accept whatever he offered. I at least pretended to decline before eating… After a few days, I got used to it, and stopped being polite, since he wasn’t short on money anyway.

Now, in my eyes, Beaudry is a walking pantry of food.

As I thought, I stuffed the half-eaten cream puff into my mouth and sat up straight like a schoolchild, chewing slowly.

The old man continued speaking: “As a scholar of knowledge, all I can tell you are the verified records, which are detailed in the Book of Revelation, about the Saint George Dragon killed by Sir George with the Holy Lance; and the Saint Margaret Dragon torn apart by the holy nun Margaret with a miracle…”

Hmm?

The names of these two dragons…

“Both of these terrible dragons were slain by the earliest believers favored by the Goddess of Sin, and their bones are still displayed in the exhibition hall of the holy city, enduring for millennia. The two heroes who slew the dragons had their names taken by the Holy Church as saintly names. Over the course of thousands of years, they were bestowed upon the most devout male and female believers in the church. And now, they are Cardinal Saint George and Saint Margaret. Even though many years have passed, and both have returned to the embrace of the divine, their saintly names will continue to be passed down.”

Oh…

So Margaret’s name, in fact, isn’t her real name… But it can’t be said like that either, because a saintly name is also a name, just one given by the church. It’s just that I never expected there to be such an origin…

I swallowed the cream puff and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand.

The old man paused again.

“Of course, these are not the focus of today’s lesson. Next, please turn to page forty-six in your books…”

After he finished speaking, the classroom immediately filled with the sound of pages turning. I also opened the book on my desk, “Those Wondrous Lives,” and found page forty-six… Page forty-six was a painting that seemed to depict a dragon, yet it didn’t look like a traditional Western dragon. Compared to a dragon, it looked more like a snake, looking fierce and menacing, and it had one, two, three, four… several heads, each with a different appearance, and different numbers and shapes of horns, and it wore something on its head… it looked like a crown?

What is this?

I bit my fingernail as I thought.

At the same time, the old man’s voice continued to enter my ears.