Vol 2 Chapter 2 (1/2)

Dominion’s End Volume 2: Aberrant City

Original novel in Chinese by: 御 我 (Yu Wo)

Chapter 2: The Bitterness and Sweetness of Coffee and Chocolate—translated by Elkin (proofread by EvlNabiki; C/E edited by Aine & lucathia)

As my hands worked to coē is so handsoē even said that he isn’t sure about his preferences!” On the fifth day of , there was finally a little change

After dinner, Dàgē grimly called me to his rooē, and then atby the looks of worry on their faces, it was as if the two of us weren’t going to have a chat, but a death match instead

I nodded and followed after Dàgē as the sounds of gossip cah this tiirls, but of the mercenaries

“Do you think the gēge or the dìdi in?”

“Before, I’d definitely declare that Boss would be the victor, but Shuyu was pretty strong last ti into the ith a kick!”

“Don’t tell e?”

“fuck! Then gēge, do your best! I don’t want an eighteen year-old boss”

It wasn’t just s were failures

I angrily storē to his room

Once in the rooē was momentarily stunned when he turned to look at ry You’ve been scowling at me for the past few days”

I growled, “I’ry!”

You actually told Junjun that I’h that’s true, you don’t have to tell this kind of stuff to a fifteen year-old girl, okay? Junjun’s upbringing is ruined, thanks to you!

Dàgē said aardly, “I’ll pay you back”

“There’s no point!” Junjun’s upbringing was already ruined, so what can you pay me back with? You think you can repay me a pure Junjun?

Dàgē frowned, see, and then said simply, “Then tell me, what can I do? I can’telse you want”

…Ice staff?

Right, so we’re on co about Junjun, and you’re talking about the ice staff Our thought processes aren’t even operating in the sah to each other!

Although the ice staff had , that ice staff had been my first attempt It looked like a test product, and its quality was h I felt that it could still be used for the next year or so, seeing as it was already destroyed, I ht as well create a new one I could use the opportunity to add on a spearhead, so I actually didn’t ē would be more worked up about it than I was

I shook et about the staff”

Dàgē started, then asked in bewilderry about the past few days?”

Angry about what? I immediately roared, “Never talk to Junjun about ain!”

“…Oh” Dàgē’s eyes drifted evasively off into the distance

“…What else did you tell Junjun?”

“…”

“What Did You Say?”

“I just ood partner for you”

“JIANG SHUTIAN!”

You’re an absolute cri about waist lines and who’s topping who I thought Junjun was talking about naughty stuff, so I’ve spent the past few days fretting about whether I should correct her But being a total mess myself, there’s no way I’m in any position to tell anyone off I’ve been so stressed about this whole thing the past few days, I’ve lost a lot of hair, you know!

My anger having settled into a pool of icy calht of a way you can repay me”

“Um, it’s late now Let’s discuss tomorrow”

“Stand right here and don’t h punishwarm-up exercises earnestly

Dàgē watched me and said with absolute seriousness, “There’s still a scavenging mission tomorrow”

“You’re a healing type You’ll be fine”

I threw a punch

Whew~ I strolled out of the rooroup of

“What’re you crouching there for? Don’t you have actual things to do?”

The mercenaries responded in unison, “No, Boss”

My voice cooled and I said in frosty tones, “Your boss is in there, healing up You want to join him?”

“No, Boss”

I thought it over Yup, lect theSo I headed back to h I’d only been working on it for five days, it would be enough to beat up some people

We assearden at the back of the house Thein orderly rows, and even the three deadweights weren’t forgotten—every one of theht, fairly deliberately Every so often, they would let slip the odd guffahen they couldn’t hold back their laughter anymore

I spoke “It has only been a little over three inally felt that you’d be fine even without knowing how to use your powers—after all, these are still tiuns are much more practical than special abilities But we encountered a brainwight a few days ago, and even that Lu Renjie was better than you lot are at using his oers You do realize that there’s no way he has eaten ht? So I feel like things are looking pretty bad”

Everyone started to sober up and no longer stood so stiffly Finally, they were taking things more seriously

“Shujun’s way better than you at controlling her powers” I watched them—they didn’t seem to have much reaction to this news Seems like I need to make more of an iood for charging electronics”

I turned to look at Shujun, then pointed at a tree in the garden and said, “Cut down a branch”

Shujun blinked and lifted a hand, looking like nothingout for help But suddenly, a bolt of bright light shot fro wood Everyone’s eyes widened, and they quickly spun around to look at the tree A chunk of the tree’s dense foliage wason the ground were the charred rele branch

She was able to take down precisely one branch—no more and no less This hy I always said that Shujun’s skill with lightning was Godlike, and this was by no eration

Both Dàgē and I didn’t want Shujun to have to fight, but this didn’t mean that I’d let her be completely helpless either If anyone dared to bully my xiǎomèi, they would definitely end up crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, and s of roast

Everyone tore their eyes away froreat difficulty and all stared at htly that you could use thehts

“Wanna learn?” I quirkedthem with the question I was seen as a joke before, but now? Heh, now it’s my turn to hear you scream!

“Yes, Boss!”

“Shut up, I don’t want to be Boss”

“Yes, Boss Jr!”

…I really have to do so

I hefted the ice staff When I was teaching Shujun, I had to be gentle, so there was no way I could do soy I had to spend a lot of ti her abilities But this lot standing in front of me wasn’t my own mèimei Not only were they thick-skinned, burly s!

“Split up into groups of two and try to block my ice staff with your powers; otherwise, you’ll be frozen into a popsicle! If you can’t take the cold and want to hitit on For every punch you throw, I’ll return the favor ten times over For every kick you ē here anyway, so I don’t have to worry about crippling any of you”

”Crippling”? Everyone turned to look at the person standing behindthe unsaid question, “Why does Boss still have black eyes then?”

Yes, so I specifically aim for the face when I hit people Bite me

After thinking for a moment, I said, “Cain, come over for a demonstration”

He grumbled as he walked up to the front, “I knew you hated me”

“Your ability is fire, so in theory, you should be resistant to my ice powers”

Seriously, I’ business this time

“Even if that’s true,” the jackass still continued his line of complaints, “you still hate me”

After aanymore and yelled, “Yeah, I hate you! You were the one who just watchedme previously You didn’t even care if I lived or died!”

“Huh? Why would I stop you fro the house?” he shot back with a question of his own, confused

Still pretending to be innocent? I raged, “Don’t you think it’d be dangerous if I went out by hteen year-old kid!”

I ignored all the gazes around erous For the aberrants, that is”

“We made all the aberrants nearby the last in their family line”

You don’t use “last in the family line” that way!

Cain continued, saying, “And you’re eighteen already Shouldn’t you already knohere you should and shouldn’t go?” like it was thein the world

“…” I felt like our thought processes were running in different directions again

Cain patted rinned “It’s okay, Yunqian hatesone more person doesn’t make much difference Just don’t hit ive him character, but I don’t need it as well Let’s just let the Boss keep it, yeah?”

…Why, how generous of you

I suddenly felt that my h I’d been bearing a grudge for such a long tiainst a super soldier whose smile orthy of toothpaste commercials, he had never born any ill intentions toward me

The tips of er, “It’s the apocalypse now, so all this business of hating or not isn’t i alive is theto make up for my petty-mindedness

Then, I forcefully gripped Cain’s arm and channeled my ice power

A muscular, macho man screamed at the top of his voice, “AHHhhhHHHHHhhh—it’s cold, it’s super cold! Please don’t hate ooooo!”

What the hell are you screa your head off for? Where are your balls? Look at that… Yunqian, she didn’t even make a sound! Now that’s what I call a real man!

Then again, she did have the water ability, which is fairly strong at adapting to ice powers

Iain I didn’t let the three deadweights off either, and even the norony Fortunately, Dàgē and the others had cleared out the aberrants in the vicinity a while ago, othere’d definitely be waist deep in aberrants fro bloody murder

It was only when I’d wrung out every drop of my ice powers that I finally announced to everyone, “That’s the end of today’s training session”

Everyone acted like I was pronouncing that they had been spared the death sentence They were so happy that they started crying and laughing at the sale shred of a professional mercenary anywhere to be seen

I headed back, picking up the ice staff that I had left to one side on the way, and only then did I remember that I had used up all ress onthese et about crafting my ice spear

Thinking back, everyone had participated in the training today, even Uncle and Auntie If I had ony before the apocalypse, I’d have taken the crown for being the ned supreet thanked for teaching them

Out of everyone, only Shujun didn’t participate She no longer needed this kind of basic training Perhaps I could get Shujun to take over half the training and specialize in teaching those who fall behind in progress

“In the future, Shujun and I will be your trainers So split yourselves into two groups…”

The space around me cleared instantly, and everyone clustered over on Shujun’s side I gave a cold laugh

“Shujun, why don’t you give it a try first?” I pointed at Yunqian Just now, she was the one who had had it the easiest, and she hadn’t evenher the real man of the day

Shujun nodded, gently held Yunqian’s hand, and even revealed a cute smile

“Yunqian-jiě, I’ now!”

In the end, even the last real man in the mercenary troop disappeared

Very good! Now tio to bed

I walked out of the bathroom, and just as I was about to ask Shujun to help hty God ofon a pink floral bed with a backdrop of lavender colored wallpaper, his eyes still black with bruises

Dàgē, do you realize that you’ve coe?

Wait, why does the thing Dàgē is fiddling with look so familiar…?

“Let go of that spear!” I yelled quickly

Although this baby’s only five-days old, five days are still five days! I had even planned on working on it for two ets ain, I’ll, I’ll… I really don’t knohat to do against a Dàgē who’s co people with two black eyes

Dàgē lifted his head and asked, “So, Xiao Yu, you like using long spears? What about swords or knives? It shouldn’t be hard to find a decent blade”

All right, I know that spear is fugly, but please let go of it first? I beg you, spare its life!

Dàgē finally set the long spear on the bed, proh of relief from me Only then did I respond, “Back then, the only weapon I had that could be used in the beginning was a vegetable knife tied to a long stick After using it for a while, I kind of got used to it I mean, I also kno to use blades, but I’ staves”

Everyone wanted to put as much distance as possible between themselves and the aberrants If not for the fact that bullets were in short supply, no one would duke it out with the aberrants er the weapon, the better The best weapon was one which lets you stab to death an aberrant fro stick was the best makeshi+ft weapon out there Later on, I beca staves, and that had carried over to here

Dàgē nodded “Then, I’ll try to find you a long spear”

“It’s okay, long spears are hard to find This weapon is temporary anyway”

“Temporary? Then what’s the actual one?”

“A long spear and dagger made from only compressed ice crystals”

I drew out a piece of ice from my breast pocket It was only half the size of my palm and extremely thin, no more than the thickness of three to four sheets of paper But this thin piece of ice was strong enough to block a blow fro spear, or even the one month-old ice staff from before

However, I was only able to create such a small piece so far, so I always kept it over my heart for protection In the future, it would becoer And once I beco and co spear This process would probably take over five years It couldn’t be rushed

Dàgē took that shard of ice and flipped it over and over, knocking it every so often He too realized the exceptional hardness of the ice shard, and he gave a sigh of ad”

I didn’t think I deserved the praise Had it been Dàgē who had been reborn, he’d probably have conquered half the continent by now As fora neeapon, so what’s there to be proud of?

But Dàgē, what do you want to talk about in the ht? Hurry up, Junjun needs the roo up late is the bane of beauty!

Dàgē looked over at ē, just o away!”

“What now? You’re the one who gave theē said wryly, but he vanished the black eyes in a blink of the eye all the same

Dàgē’s powers really were strange They just didn’tBack then, Xiao Qi’s healing abilities were nowhere as powerful, not to ure out what kind of power could both heal wounds and melt an ice staff

Then again, Guan Weijun was a frog in the well She had never encountered any of the higher-tiered powers A lot of things she kneere all fro how much of them were true

The advantages of being reincarnated would probably last nofamily continued this streak of super bad luck, then I’m afraid even the cheat known as reincarnation wouldn’t be enough!

Tier one aberrants, Lu Renjie, the brainwight… none of thee of the apocalypse

“Cain was born in the sluhteen year-old boy like you is already a full-fledged adult, and therefore should be responsible for your own safety He didn’t have any other intentions”

I looked at Dàgē So he’s here to explain Cain’s actions back then

“I was a little angrythis with the others, we felt that all the aberrants nearby had been wiped out, and we didn’t expect you to go too far, based on the duration of your trips and the aht back So we decided to let you head out for a breath of fresh air; otherwise, your temper tantrums would worsen the more bored you became”

After so Shuyu didn’t kno to drive, so from their point of view, even if I had stolen a car, I had no way of starting the engine without the ignition key So they usedspeed to estimate the distance I could cover But as it turned out, I had in fact driven instead of walked

So the incident s At first, I had pissed off the mercenaries when I had hidden the existence of evolution crystals froonistically Then everything that followed ht possible

“Dàgē, am I really that petty-minded?” I asked, a little dejected Was Guan Weijun such a petty-ive any trespasses against her, any rain of sand in her eye?

Dàgē ruffled ently, “You’ve lived in the apocalypse for ten years, so don’t ask too much of yourself Just speak out if you have any questions or proble it all bottled up inside only makes matters worse”

“…” I was silent and continued to keep my silence, until I finally couldn’t hold back and deē, why did you pour away my coffee back then? Did you really think I would poison you?”

A look of eē’s face, and he explained feebly, “There was one tiht me a cup of coffee The next day, I had such bad diarrhea that I couldn’t ht, and I was forced to delay a very important mission”

…Jiang Shuyu, you really are soē I feel like eventoo guilty to fight back pales in comparison!

“You were only twelve that year,” Dàgē ad froht in the coffee was exactly the same as back then, so I didn’t dare to drink it”

As it turns out, I was sold out by the Shuyu of the past How is it possible to get tripped up this badly by yourself?

“But I won’t say that the thought that you would poison ē stopped abruptly, then clarified, “And I’ about the harmless kinds of poison like laxatives”

I started

“Actually, if you hadn’t told me about Guan Weijun, Shujun and I would probably have never noticed anything wrong with you We would have thought that you had just lost your ē said wryly, “So your confession actually planted a seed of suspicion in me that would sprout up fro up a fuss, I couldn’t help but over think the matter And it was only a cup of coffee, so I didn’t think it would be a big deal and poured it away”

That was certainly true If it was just a cup of coffee, tipping it aasn’t much of an issue But it meant that he had suspicions about me, and now that the seed of suspicion had been planted, would it grow to blossom and bear fruit?

Back then, I still had hope, hope that Guan Weijun was Jiang Shuyu’s previous incarnation, hope that I had just forgotten about Jiang Shuyu, hope that I really was Jiang Shuyu!

But Jiang Shuyu was dead, and now id than my ice powers

“Shuyu” Dàgē looked at me very seriously “Many people were resuscitated after their hearts stopped Are you saying that they aren’t who they used to be?”

I knew it He heard it I clenched my fists

“You don’t have to force yourself to be ‘Jiang Shuyu’”

So he found that out too

Jiang Shuyu was very easy-going, and you could even say that he was sooodie-two-shoes But actually, he wasn’t afraid of Dàgē in the slightest, and once angered, he would even dare to hit his Uncle’s and Auntie’s wounds

This was the Jiang Shuyu that Shujun had described