Chapter 98: the Crying Dragon
Arthur could scarcely believe his own eyes... His eyes widened in their sockets in sheer, horrifying astonishment. His daughter Cathy, whom he had long categorized in the bottom of his mind as a completely useless girl, was defeating him in cold blood in a complex scientific and philosophical debate! Not only did she crush him, but she went on to correct his formulations, rebut his defenses, and pour forth with examples and arguments without displaying a single trace of hesitation, doubt, or a solitary sign of confusion and stress!
Within the confines of his rigid academic mind, this crossed squarely into the realm of the impossible. For Cathy—in his eyes—was no genius; she was merely a frail, timid child who wept at the slightest provocation! Were geniuses not supposed to be forged from an entirely different cloth?!
In his imagination, he believed that a true genius must possess a dominant, overwhelming aura that radiated the moment knowledge was spoken, their eyes gazing toward horizons no one else could see... not a fragile, tiny girl like Cathy!
Yet, the moment he sank into the sea of his recent memories, he gasped violently, desperately attempting to refute this maddening thought from his imagination!
It was impossible for his daughter to be a genius on the scale of Miss Amelia! For a truly exceptional and special person like Amelia was the only one entitled to carry the banner of absolute genius... Yet, as his past memories surfaced in his mind against his will, he recalled those moments... He had seen it clearly! He had seen that violent, crushing aura that weighed down upon every corner of the room like a towering mountain! An aura he had witnessed only once in his entire lifetime... in that missing Empress, whose escape was widely rumored despite his absolute certainty that she had been assassinated under mysterious circumstances!
Had it not been for his absolute certainty that this child was his own flesh and blood, a definitive suspicion would have crossed his mind that the soul of that tyrannical Empress had reincarnated into Cathy’s body and seized control of her essence in that exact microsecond!
Arthur stammered with a confused, defensive chuckle steeped in sarcasm: "Heh... heh... You... you are speaking complete nonsense with zero scientific backing or credible sources!"
Meanwhile, Amelia nearly cursed the father out loud. She fumed internally, exhaling in sharp irritation: ’Fools will remain fools to the utmost degree! Cathy literally proved her theory based on his own premises and stripped him of his own logic, so how can he dismiss such blazing truths so effortlessly?!’
Cathy looked at her father with an even colder gaze, speaking in a tone completely devoid of any respect for his academic titles: "Father... you are still floundering in your research regarding the [Star Exploration Technique], and you have yet to reach a single valid method to achieve it... whereas I could describe a thousand paths and methods for you to attain it! In fact, a blind person could have stumbled upon it even in this absolute darkness!"
Arthur recoiled, his features twisting in overwhelming fury: "You rebellious child! How dare you address your father with such insolence?! Learn some manners!... If you are truly capable of doing what you claim, then I am prepared right now to submit my official resignation as the head of the department at the Ministry!"
Cathy smiled a brilliant, supremely confident smile, reaching out her hand to grab a crisp, pristine sheet of white paper from the table.
She picked up the quill with her right hand. She ought to have begun writing, yet with sudden, cold apathy, she slammed the sharp tip of the quill with colossal force directly into the middle of the paper, slicing it cleanly into two equal halves with total composure and simplicity!
She then raised her eyes toward her father and said: "If you were a quick-tempered person with sharp reactions, when you press the quill onto the paper, you direct the flow of mana and energy from within yourself outward through your arm and hand... and then you would discover a astonishing truth: energy radiates from a person from the inside out through a specific form or shape! The technique to cultivate star energy relies on this exact concept, but in a structure mimicking the framework of stars; where mana is massive and dense at the core, repelling outwards with uncanny regularity in the form of dense spheres resembling a wheel, while the root of its firmness and strength resides in its outer perimeter to collide and cultivate the mage’s vital energy..."
Arthur was utterly thunderstruck! The blood drained completely from his face, and his mind began decrypting the secret of the code, overwhelmed by its simplified clarity!
His daughter did not stop there; rather, she proceeded to summarize the technique through dozens of distinct academic methods, applying it to dozens of magical scenarios and conditions... detailing how he had failed to perceive it despite all these possibilities standing as clear as the sun!
She continued with words that rained down upon his pride like sharp blades: Had the discoverer been blind... or a fool... or not even a scholar in the first place, they could have uncovered it with utter ease!
Cathy persisted in her crushing explanation until her mother noticed Arthur placing his hands over his head, reeling from shock and mental exhaustion. The mother intervened with a tense, pleading tone: "Cathy... enough! Please stop this... Your father is utterly exhausted, and he hasn’t tasted sleep for two full days anyway..."
Cathy indeed fell silent, her terrifying aura receding once more to rest deep within her soul.
The first thread of morning light crept into the main hall, signaling the end of that long, intense night. This was the time Amelia was supposed to sleep, as she began feeling the heavy weight of drowsiness caressing the fibers of her exhausted, small body.
Amelia decided to leave immediately, along with the rest of the children, who displayed clear signs of extreme fatigue and weariness.
All the children stepped out of Cathy’s house, while the young girl stood at the wooden doorstep, waving her slender hand at them with her usual childlike smile: "Our time was so much fun, everyone... Thank you for playing with me!"
Indeed, Scott wanted to escape as fast as humanly possible toward the bathroom, while Brandon and Hein were whispering enthusiastically, claiming they had uncovered definitive proof to communicate with their alternate selves in a parallel universe, swearing the method was one hundred percent reliable!
In the end, only Amelia and Albert remained walking side-by-side down the quiet alleyway streets.
Albert turned toward Amelia, speaking in a pleading tone: "Miss Amelia... could you please come with me to our house? I want my little sister to see you and meet you!"
Amelia reluctantly agreed. Although she hadn’t fully forgiven Albert for his previous deception during the card game, her curiosity impelled her to see his sister and witness her personality.
The two moved toward Albert’s uncle’s house, which was situated on a remote edge slightly far from the neighborhood.
Albert approached the heavy door, knocking a few consecutive times, while Amelia stood at a comfortable distance, waiting for Albert to bring his sister outside... Yet during her tranquil wait...
CRASH!
The harsh wooden door was kicked open with violent, terrifying force!
Emerging from within was a greedy, rotund man with a deeply furrowed brow, gripping a little girl by her messy hair with his thick hand and lifting her into the air, while the girl screamed and writhed in agony within his harsh grip!
The fat man yelled in a vile voice, hurling her directly onto the street: "You’re already here, you cursed brat?! Good.. take this cursed trash with you and get far away from my house, you monsters!"
Albert’s younger sister hit the dusty ground, weeping intensely in sheer terror... And at that exact microsecond, shining dragon scales and dragon eyes burning with fear appeared vividly across her cheeks and forehead!
The little girl scrambled toward Albert, sobbing in a heart-wrenching voice: "Brother... Brother! I swear to you I didn’t do anything wrong!.. I swear to you!"