The Yellow-Haired Villain in Soaring Phoenix’s Novels Also Desires Happiness

Chapter 37, Girl-Girl, Boy-Boy

“You—ah!”

Faced with Mu En’s sudden firmness, Cade appeared both angry and helpless.

In his view, Mu En studying magic was a complete waste of time.

Not to mention how terrible his previous magic scores were; just look at that bunch of brutes from the Campbell family—have they ever produced any famous magicians?

Absolutely not! The so-called Campbell legacy is all based on that illustrious martial artist heritage, which has allowed them to consistently produce several crown bearers while maintaining a single lineage, securing their position as dukes for hundreds of years.

If he knew that Mu En Campbell had plunged headfirst into the path of magic and was even skipping martial arts classes, his grandfather would probably jump out of his coffin in anger, cursing this unworthy descendant.

But Cade had no way to force him; if Mu En didn’t even care about credits, what could he do to compel him?

After all, he was the duke’s son. As Mu En said, if the Campbell family was willing to spend money on credits… that scoundrel Dean Bear, who was recently struggling with the academy’s finances, would surely wave his hand—

Forget it, he could take a break; one martial arts class isn’t enough, he could take several more. As long as the money is right, anything is negotiable!

If only the money were a bit more, perhaps that acting dean could present the diploma with both hands now.

“Mu En Campbell, you will regret this.”

At this thought, Cade couldn’t help but let out a disappointed sigh:

“Though you say it’s just a month, I’ve seen this situation too many times. Often, people overestimate themselves and dive headfirst into fields they’re not good at. By the time they hit a wall and want to turn back, it’s already too late.”

“Then let’s wait until my head is bleeding from the impact before we talk.”

Mu En smiled:

“If I don’t try, how will I know if the wall is hard or if my head is hard?”

“You…”

Cade was momentarily at a loss for words.

Yet, in that instant, he truly saw something different in Mu En’s eyes.

So resolute.

What a pity.

Cade sighed.

Determination and resolve are the most abundant qualities in a passionate youth like Mu En.

He had seen too much of it.

But often, these qualities can blind one’s eyes, leading them down the wrong path.

“I hope the moment you realize and want to turn back isn’t too late.”

Cade patted Mu En on the shoulder and chose not to say more.

“Thank you, teacher.”

Seeing Cade relent, Mu En expressed his gratitude and prepared to take his leave.

“Goodbye, teacher.”

“Wait.”

Cade suddenly remembered something and called out to Mu En.

“You still need to attend this class. We just got a new teaching assistant, and you should get to know them.”

“A new teacher…”

Mu En thought for a moment and nodded:

“Alright then.”

Though time was indeed tight, wishing there were forty-eight hours in a day, it wasn’t to the extent that he couldn’t spare time for a single class.

Besides, it was necessary to get acquainted with the new teacher; there might be times in the future when he would need to seek their guidance.

A few minutes before class, Mu En arrived early at the training ground where he had attended lessons before.

On the stage, two classmates were sparring, their moves still flashy yet utterly useless, making one want to shout, “Stop fighting! You can’t kill anyone like this.”

However, it was clear that the two students were trying hard to streamline their techniques, steering them towards practicality.

“Looks like they were affected by the earlier incident, huh?”

After all, the invasion of the academy had quite a significant impact on the younger students.

Mu En stroked his chin and decided to pay no more attention to the two, heading towards the audience seats.

A few students were already scattered around, and upon seeing Mu En arrive, there was a slight stir.

With Mu En being a second-tier martial artist, his hearing was quite good, so he could faintly catch snippets of their conversation about whether “Mu En Campbell is a pervert” and “Is Mu En Campbell gay?” among other topics.

His lips twitched, but Mu En ignored the whispers. After all, this kind of controversial topic was much better than the recent debate of “Is Mu En Campbell juggling thirteen boats or fourteen?”

At least someone had started to refute those negative comments, right?

Mu En moved to one side, looking for a quieter spot to sit and wait for class to begin.

However, when he reached the corner of the audience area, he found someone else sitting there.

Ariel.

To say she was sitting was an understatement; she looked more like a salted fish, slumped there with vacant eyes, as if she had lost all hope in life.

It inevitably reminded him of a certain Mr. Ge.

What’s going on with her…?

After a moment’s hesitation, Mu En approached her cautiously and asked,

“Ariel, are you… okay?”

“…”

Ariel’s dull eyes shifted, and upon seeing Mu En, her gaze remained completely unfazed.

“Don’t bother me…”

Ariel waved her hand dismissively, as if swatting away mosquitoes.

“Let me be for a while; I just want some peace.”

“Class is about to start, and I doubt peace wants you to think of her.”

Mu En kindly reminded her,

“Teacher Cade has a pretty bad temper.”

As a martial arts instructor who was always fired up, Cade could not tolerate students who came to his class looking sickly. So even Mu En, who had dared to sleep through Professor Plang’s class last term, found himself standing and daydreaming in Cade’s class.

“I said, don’t bother me.”

Ariel rolled her eyes, and an even stronger scent of salted fish wafted over.

Amidst that fishy aura, Mu En faintly sensed a sadness, like a seabird that had lost its mate and could only fly alone across the vast ocean…?

Hmm?

Sadness?

What could she, a daring ultimate phoenix soaring against the villainous BOSS, possibly be sad about?

Could it be that…

She discovered her chest had shrunk?

Glancing at Ariel’s flat chest, Mu En couldn’t help but think with a hint of malice.

But soon, that malice turned into a chilling sensation creeping down Mu En’s back.

Because he saw that Ariel was tightly holding a stone of regular shape in her hand.

A communication stone!

That communication stone was in a semi-activated state, faintly emitting a glow. Ariel seemed to want to contact someone, but for some reason, she hesitated.

“Oh, beautiful one, after I was discharged from the hospital, I’ve been looking for you, but they all say you are fake, that you don’t exist.”

Ariel gently caressed the communication stone and sighed with melancholy:

“But only I firmly believe in your existence, because back then, you exchanged communication stone frequencies with me.

If you were a nonexistent person, how could there be a communication stone, and how could you exchange frequencies with me?”

Damn it, not good!

Upon hearing Ariel’s words, Mu En’s mind buzzed.

He finally understood why this girl was suddenly acting all literary here.

This dead girl actually couldn’t forget about him from that time!

Couldn’t she learn from other main characters and quickly move on? Aren’t there enough beauties in the academy?

What does it mean to fixate on a nonexistent woman?

No, he had to make a quick escape.

Mu En suddenly realized the situation was dire.

Staying here at this moment could lead to…

“Everyone doubts you, but I do not, so I will now prove to the world that you exist. Wait for me, beautiful one!”

After a long contemplation, Ariel finally stopped hesitating, her finger suddenly pressed hard on the communication stone, activating the frequency.

Then—

She heard the ringing of a communication stone coming from not far away.

“Hmm?”

Ariel looked up in confusion, and then saw Mu En, who had just turned and taken two steps, awkwardly pulling out his own communication stone.

In his hand, the communication stone trembled slightly, the ringing resounding so clearly.

—

Eh?

Ariel blinked, glancing at the communication stone in Mu En’s hand, then at the one in her own grasp. Her mind felt like it had suddenly tangled up, a hint of confusion flickering across her delicate face.

Strange, she was connected to the beauty’s frequency, so why was it Mu En Campbell’s communication stone that was ringing?

Could it be…

“Hey, is that you, senior?”

Ariel, whose thoughts were gradually veering into an ominous direction, snapped back to reality, only to see Mu En gently press the stone, silencing the ringing, and then hold the communication stone to his ear, his expression serious:

“Yes, I’m in class.”

“Is there something you need? Oh, do you want me to bring the textbooks to the library later?”

“Mm-hmm, I got it. Don’t worry, I’ll be there on time.”

As Mu En chatted away with the person on the other end, he walked off, blending into the crowd until he vanished from Ariel’s sight.

“Just a coincidence?”

Watching Mu En’s somewhat hurried departure, Ariel scratched her head, not thinking too much about it.

At this moment, her heart was filled with immense joy.

The frequency of the communication stone in her hand was undoubtedly connected; it was just that the other party hadn’t answered.

In other words, the beauty truly existed!

The scene of them exchanging contact information under the romantic starry sky, in a hall filled with drifting flowers, solemnly witnessed by the priest, was not merely a figment of her imagination.

“Is the beauty unable to answer?”

Ariel smiled, then hung up the communication stone.

She couldn’t be too hasty; she didn’t want to leave a bad impression on the beauty.

Now that she knew the other party was real and she had their contact information, she could take her time.

Steady and slow, like boiling a frog in warm water, had always been the best strategy for winning over a girl.

“Speaking of which…”

Rejuvenated, Ariel stroked her smooth chin in thought:

“Back then, it seemed like a senior was quite close to the beauty. If I could find her, perhaps I could gather more clues about the beauty.”

……

……

“Damn, that scared me to death.”

On the other side, Mu En, hiding among his classmates, patted his chest, still shaken.

So close, just a hair’s breadth away, he almost got stabbed by the protagonist Ariel for the ridiculous reason of forgetting to silence his communication stone, becoming the most comically dead yellow-haired villain in history.

Thank goodness.

—

The communication stone, as a special magical tool, has an effect similar to Mu En’s mobile phone from his previous life, allowing him to silence the ringer without answering.

He reacted quickly enough, his acting realistic enough, to instantly pretend it was a call from a senior.

Otherwise, if Ariel figured it out and made him answer in front of her…

And then discovered that the person she despised the most was actually the golden-haired beauty she had been yearning for…

That scene was too horrifying to imagine; it would be a light punishment to just die from it.

“It seems I need to find an opportunity to change the frequency of the communication stone later. I can’t let Ariel pursue me relentlessly like this; sooner or later, it will lead to big problems.”

Mu En was determined.

Unfortunately, they were currently at the academy, and changing the frequency of the communication stone might have to wait until the next open day at the academy.

……

……

“Have you heard? That new assistant teacher seems to have been personally recommended by Dean Pink Bear.”

Because Mu En had sat down, the topic among those students shifted from discussing Mu En Campbell to chatting about the new teacher who would soon make an appearance.

And Mu En listened with great interest.

“The dean personally recommended them; do they have a significant background?”

“I don’t know, but I think I heard other teachers mention that the new teacher played a big role during the previous invasion incident.”

“What? Could they be a top-tier powerhouse?”

Some students became excited.

Who wouldn’t want a true powerhouse as their teacher?

“Probably not. If they were a powerhouse, they wouldn’t be an assistant.”

Other more rational students caught on.

“If they’re not strong but still managed to achieve something during the invasion, then they must be a very brave person.”

“Just like the previous Mu En Campbell?”

Someone blurted this out, then realized Mu En was right behind them and cautiously glanced at Mu En’s reaction, awkwardly shutting their mouth.

Mu En smiled slightly at them, not minding it.

However, listening to their words, Mu En couldn’t help but feel a bit curious.

What kind of person would this new teacher be?

But no matter what kind of person they were, this time he couldn’t repeat the mistakes he made with Teacher Fran.

This time, he absolutely had to build a good relationship with the new teacher!

Mu En secretly resolved in his heart.

……

……

“Alright, class is starting. All you little brats, quiet down.”

As Mr. Cade’s distinctive roar echoed through the room, the previously noisy crowd fell silent in an instant.

Cade scanned all the students and nodded in satisfaction.

“I’m sure you’ve all heard that we have a new teaching assistant for our martial arts class. He will be helping me guide you in your training, and I hope you can get along with him harmoniously.”

“I’ll tell you in advance, that new teacher is an exceptional person. I hope you won’t underestimate him just because he’s an assistant; treat him with the same respect you would show me. Otherwise…”

Cade shot a cold glance at everyone. Though he didn’t continue speaking, all the students immediately felt a tremendous pressure.

At the same time, they were even more curious about this new teacher who had earned such high praise from Mr. Cade. Who could he possibly be?

Even Mu En couldn’t help but stretch his neck to see better.

“Please introduce yourself, Mr. Coren.”

Cade stepped aside, revealing a rare, gentle smile:

“Make sure your voice is loud and clear.”

“I got it!”

A man with a large scar on his face stepped forward, grinning broadly to reveal a dazzling set of white teeth:

“It’s just about stating my name. I’ve done this kind of thing often before, so I’m quite familiar with it.”

At that moment, as the scarred man’s face became clearer in Mu En’s view, the smile of anticipation on his face gradually froze.

He even thought he was mistaken and rubbed his eyes repeatedly.

But no matter how much he rubbed, the man on stage still looked infuriatingly familiar.

What the hell?

What went wrong in this world?

Or was he dreaming?

Why was this guy appearing in a place like this?

Mu En found himself in a deep existential crisis, while the new teacher Coren began his self-introduction.

“Hello everyone, my name is Coren. I’m currently a level three early-stage martial artist and was once an adventurer. My specialty is taking over a hilltop and waiting for opportunities with a plan…”

Just as Coren had said, he was indeed skilled at self-introduction. In just a few short sentences, he not only gave everyone a clear understanding of himself but also left a refreshing and charismatic image in their minds.

Except for Mu En.

Because all he could think about right now was shock.

“Welcome, Mr. Coren.” After Coren finished his self-introduction, many students enthusiastically started clapping.

“Thank you, thank you, everyone.” Coren bashfully scratched his bald head.

Mr. Cade allowed the students to chatter for a while, then said:

“Alright, if you have any questions, take this opportunity to ask quickly, or else it might affect the class later.”

After speaking, Mr. Cade noticed an unexpected person raising their hand first.

“Um? Mu En Campbell, do you have a question?”

“I have no questions.”

Mu En stood up, his expression serious as if he had discovered a cross-dressing pervert mixed in with the crowd and had just walked into the women’s restroom:

“But I want to report.”

“Report? Report what?”

Mr. Cade was puzzled.

“There’s a mountain bandit! A mountain bandit has infiltrated the academy!”

Mu En pointed at Colin and shouted:

“Don’t you check the identity of the teachers you hire?”

“A mountain bandit?”

Mr. Cade looked at Colin in confusion. “Is that true?”

“A mountain bandit? What mountain bandit? Are you talking about me?” Colin looked completely innocent.

“Not just talking about you, you idiot!”

Mu En slammed the table:

“You didn’t think that after just a month, I would forget you, did you? I would recognize that face even if it turned to ash, playing dumb won’t work!”

“Classmate Mu En, how can you say that about a teacher? The teacher will be sad.”

Colin replied seriously, but soon his expression fell. The face that looked quite masculine and strong now had its eyebrows furrowed down, appearing extremely sorrowful.

“But I also understand why you have such a prejudice against me, Classmate Mu En.”

As he spoke, he stroked the extremely noticeable scar on his face, revealing a pitiful expression as if he were a little dog that had stepped on its tail:

“After all, because of this scar, people often think I’m a bad person.

But— even if I am misunderstood like this, I take pride in this scar. And why—”

Colin puffed out his chest, his words powerful and resonant:

“Because this scar was left after I fought for three days and nights to save a poor little girl who was being attacked by a group of mountain bandits!”

“Wow—”

The students below were in an uproar.

This new teacher Colin was so brave?

To save a little girl, he fought alone against a group of mountain bandits for three days and nights?

Thinking about it, one can understand how perilous this matter is, how much courage it requires, and how kind his nature must be.

No wonder, as a mere beginner in the third rank of martial arts, he was able to achieve great merit that even the dean would praise during this crisis at the academy!

“Nonsense!”

Only Mu En could hardly believe it, staring wide-eyed, secretly wondering how someone could have such thick skin in this world, and retorted sharply:

“What do you mean saving the poor girl who was being attacked? Wasn’t it you who surrounded her in the first place?”

Not only did you attack the girl, but you also lusted after my body!

Fortunately, Ai Luka was quite capable at that time; otherwise, I would have lost something very important!

“Enough, Mu En Campbell!”

Unable to watch any longer, Teacher Kaide shouted angrily:

“How can you casually slander an excellent and upright teacher like this?”

“What excellent and upright? He’s not worthy!”

“Mu En, Campbell!”

“It’s fine, it’s fine, Teacher Kaide.”

Kellen stepped in to stop Kaide, who hadn’t even moved forward, smiling and shaking his head:

“I don’t mind. Although I fought fiercely against the vicious mountain bandits for three whole days and nights to save that girl, took a moment to have some tea and a snack along the way, gently comforted that girl, and even made significant contributions during this academy crisis, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say I saved the academy from disaster at a critical moment, but to me, these are just trivial matters.

I don’t care what others say; I really don’t care.”

“But you—sigh.” Teacher Kaide was momentarily speechless, thinking about how there could be such a righteous and broad-minded man in this world.

In contrast…

“Mu En Campbell, can you learn something from him?”

Teacher Kaide lectured with frustration:

“As a man, how can you judge someone’s inner character solely based on their appearance? You should know that what matters about a person is not their looks, but their noble soul!”

“Damn noble soul, this guy’s soul is completely dark, alright!

The kind that wouldn’t even be accepted in hell!”

“Mu En Campbell, you’ve really had enough. Isn’t slandering not enough? You’re actually resorting to personal attacks?” Kaide’s face was as dark as the bottom of a pot.

“But…”

Just as Mu En was about to continue his argument, he heard someone whisper:

“Mu En, how can you be like this?”

“Hmm?”

Mu En frowned and looked in the direction of the voice.

That voice was very soft, but in the brief silence just now, it sounded particularly clear.

But the speaker seemed to deliberately hide among the crowd, making it difficult to pinpoint him for a moment.

Normally, Mu En wouldn’t have cared about such remarks.

However, as soon as those words were spoken, the students who had previously been too intimidated by his status suddenly found their courage, exchanging words back and forth.

“Exactly, Mu En, how could you do this?”

“Even if you don’t like the teacher, you can’t just slander him like that.”

“Teacher Colin is clearly so outstanding.”

“Honestly, that jump you did before made me think you were really cool, sigh…”

“…”

Mu En squinted, scanning the faces around him.

Aside from the first comment that clearly had a teasing undertone, the others seemed to be merely standing up for the teacher.

It made sense, after all; with the “Dean’s recommendation” and “great achievements” as his buffs, plus what Colin had just said that sounded so genuine, it was hard not to win the favor of these passionate youths in their adolescence.

In contrast, Mu En’s own reputation was not great, and starting off with such sharp accusations made it hard for people not to think he was just looking for trouble.

Was I being too extreme?

Mu En took a deep breath and slowly sat back down.

“Forget it, since the Pink Bear chose him to be a teacher, he must have his reasons. I don’t need to worry about it unnecessarily.

This is the academy, and with that guy’s early-stage third rank cultivation, he probably can’t even defeat Ariel. It would be quite difficult for him to stir up any trouble.”

And perhaps he was being biased; what if he really had turned over a new leaf?

So, Mu En Campbell, stay calm.

You can’t get angry over such trivial matters.

You are the son of a duke; you must maintain your noble demeanor and refinement.

……

……

“Teacher Colin, is there a special reason for you to become a teacher at the academy?”

With the little incident Mu En had caused coming to an end, the atmosphere shifted back to a pleasant Q&A session.

One of the few girls in the martial arts class raised her hand, curious to ask.

“A reason? Of course, there is.”

“Oh, what is it?”

As soon as this gossip was mentioned, all the students’ curiosity was quickly piqued.

“It’s…” Colin said, holding his flushed cheeks, his gaze occasionally darting towards a certain direction, shyly adding:

“To find my true—”

“Shut up!”

But before the words were fully spoken, Colin heard a deafening roar.

And—

A fist, growing larger in his field of vision.

In the shocked gaze of everyone, including Teacher Cade, Mu En had charged forward without anyone noticing.

His eyes were cold, his fist heavy.

To hell with calmness; I can’t take it anymore.

“Die, you fucking faggot.”

……