Close Combat Mage
chapter-43

Chapter 43 – Sacrificing Everything

Hearing the red cloak’s words, Suo Jia wrinkled his brows in disgust, “They are them, I am me; this means that I don’t have any power to persuade them. Even if I did, why would I do that for you? Why would I go owe a hundred people favors for your sake!”

At this point Suo Jia grew even angrier. Looking darkly at the group of fire wind warriors across from him, Suo Jia said in an unconstrained tone, “You girls have sacrificed your appearances for the sake of obtaining the strongest combat powers in the world. However, in order to help you, we would need to sacrifice money, time, and happiness. What can we possibly get back in exchange?”

Speaking to this point, Suo Jia discovered that he was getting too emotional. Taking a deep breath, Suo Jia tried to calm himself down, then said heavily, “I don’t owe you girls anything, my classmates also don’t owe you anything. If it were just me alone, perhaps I would help you. However, I cannot represent those 100 girls as they do not follow me in any way. We are only classmates, and I do not have the power to command over them.”

Seeing Suo Jia get so upset, the red cloaks were speechless. Before coming, they were clinging on to the simple hope that there was a chance to finally regain their second lives and being surprised by the mass of water users. However, it never crossed their minds that these people had no obligation to help them.

Seeing the girls go silent, Suo Jia laughed in disdain, “If you want me to persuade them it’s fine; you should know that my White Villa is just about to open for business. The price of one Moisture Technique is 100 gold. If you are willing to pay those girls that price, then I will be responsible for persuading them. However, if you cannot do so, then don’t look for me again.”

“Xi!” Hearing Suo Jia’s words, all the girls immediately went into shock. They had at least thousands of cracks on each of their bodies, and each crack required one Moisture Technique. Putting aside maintaining their skin, even trying to heal all of their cracks today would require 3,600,000 gold. Even if their bones were crushed and sold, they wouldn’t be worth that much!

At this point, all the red cloaks suddenly accepted the truth. If they got help, Suo Jia and the others would be paying a great price to do so. Yet Suo Jia and the others did not owe them anything, and had no obligation to pay such a large price to help the girls restore their beauty. The difference between the price to pay and price earned was way too large.

As Suo Jia had said, the girls had sacrificed their appearances in exchange for the world’s strongest fighting abilities. In contrast, if their saviors sacrificed everything, what would they get back in return? Nothing would be gained!

But despite knowing this, faced with their final hopes, the girls could not bear to let the chance escape. All of them knew clearly that if this opportunity was let go, they would admittedly have the power to shake the earth, but they would not have anything else for the rest of their lives. They would be just like the rest of the female warriors, carrying the weight of their tragedy for eternity.

Seeing the 36 girls trembling in their red cloaks, Suo Jia said helplessly, “Even though I feel pity for you girls, at most I can only help moisturize each person once; that is already my limit. Aside from that, think about it carefully yourselves, how else could I possibly help?”

At a loss, the girls stared at Suo Jia. All the red cloaks knew that for Suo Jia to be able to reach that extent, he was already being extremely benevolent. Even though they had been aroused from their dazes, all the girls still refused to leave. This was really their absolutely last strand of hope; as soon as they took one step out this place, they would bury this hope from then on until they died.

“Is there really no other alternative?” Carrying the very last expectation, one of the red cloaks asked Suo Jia sorrowfully.

Helplessly looking at the red cloak who had spoken, Suo Jia said indifferently: “Let’s reiterate this in a different way: If I was to beg you girls to spend large amounts of time every day, consuming not only time, but energy as well in order to help another person for the rest of their life, yet there were absolutely no rewards for doing so, would any of you agree?”

Hearing Suo Jia’s words, all the girls completely fell into complete despair. Once the circumstances were explained from such an angle where they could see it from the other point of view, they finally came to a thorough understanding. Their requests were simply too ignorant. If one practiced magic, that did not mean in any way that they were obligated to use their magic to help you!

Giving a final glance at the red cloaks, Suo Jia said heavily, “Even though I really want to help, please forgive me for being unable to help at all. I still have things to do at home, so I won’t see you girls to the door.” After speaking, Suo Jia turned around and began to walk back towards the White Villa in wide strides.

Seeing Suo Jia gradually walk further away, all the girls began to cry. To them, it was not only Suo Jia leaving, it was also their hopes and their second lives!

Seeing that Suo Jia was just about to disappear from their lines of vision, finally….a mournful voice rang out from the crowd of red cloaks, “If we were willing to pay something equivalent to the price you named, would you consider helping us then?”

Suddenly stopping, Suo Jia silently considered this for a while, then replied without even turning his head, “I can’t think of anything you could possibly pay, unless you would like to enlighten me?”

“This….” After hesitating for a while, that voice replied, “If those water mages are willing to spend their precious time everyday to help us, then in return, we will also be willing to spend the same amount of time to help them!”

“Che…” Hearing that voice’s reply, Suo Jia scoffed, “Firstly, we don’t really need your help. Also….the time the 36 of you have cannot compare to the time of us 100. Your time is nowhere as precious as ours.”

Once Suo Jia’s voice dropped, a red figure suddenly leapt out from the crowd and dropped onto the ground to kneel, “Mister Suo Jia, I beg of you; right now we really don’t have anything else. If you are willing to help us, we will be willing to accept any price you demand!”

Hearing this, the other red cloaks began to shake, obviously shocked by these words. However they all soon understood what to do, and unhesitantly walked forward and knelt down one by one. Even though they did not say anything, their meanings were clear; all of them were willing to sacrifice what they needed to for this sake.

Seeing the kneeling red cloaks, Suo Jia laughed bitterly and turned around, saying helplessly, “Aren’t you just making things more difficult for me? Although I’m very moved by your sincerity, I really cannot think of any possible ways I could help!”

“Shua!” Suddenly lifting their heads, penetrating lights seemed to shoot out from within the dark cloaks. At the same time, the female warriors said confidently, “Perhaps we really cannot be of much use. However, you should not forget that we will be the strongest warriors in the world—fire wind warriors! Once we become stronger, we will definitely have the power to besiege any place in the world; how could we possibly be useless!”

“Hahahahahaha…..” Hearing the girl’s words, Suo Jia could not help but laugh out loud. After a while, Suo Jia replied in an amused and intrigued voice, “Your choice of words is really moving. However, I don’t have the desire to be able to besiege any lands, so this usefulness is not something I would need.”

After hearing Suo Jia’s words, all the girls began to panic. They had already sacrificed everything they could, and yet nothing was enough to exchange for their only hope. Did this mean….that their fates were really set in stone?

After reflecting on this for a while, finally….one of the red cloaks stubbornly raised her head and said in a profound voice, “As long as you are willing to help us, we swear that if you ever need anything from us, no matter what it is, we will follow your commands. This is already everything we can possibly offer!”

Suo Jia sighed in praise at the girl who had spoken. Those words were really too clever; she already knew very clearly that in order to gain the help from the 100 mage girls, the only method was to communicate through Suo Jia. Only Suo Jia had the ability to gather these girls and have them help the red cloaks for eternity. Nobody else could possibly achieve this.

It was because of this that all the girls agreed to follow Suo Jia’s commands, and not the commands of one of the hundred mage girls. After all….there was no way they could at any point follow the commands of a hundred people. If they did, they would die from overwork, and would not be able to fulfill the commands.

The 36 fire-wind warriors had no way of exchanging something of equal value with the hundred mage girls. Only through Suo Jia would their desires be able to come to fruition. Of course, this was also only a possibility. The most important thing was seeing if Suo Jia would be able to persuade those mage girls to gather, and stay by his side from beginning to end. Otherwise, after graduation, the mage girls would all just split up and go their separate ways.

All 36 pairs of eyes shone with a blazing determination and locked onto Suo Jia. After pondering this matter for a very long time, Suo Jia finally smiled and muttered, “Perhaps you girls may really be of some use. No matter what, I’ll try and help first. However, whether I am successful or not depends on your prayers for God’s blessings!”