Moonlight slanted in through the porthole as the man sitting in the shadows hung up the phone.
Outside the window, the river lay dark and heavy, its surface flecked with tiny silver scales. Massive mountain shadows pressed in from both sides of the ship like sleeping beasts.
"The Student Union and Lionheart Society are causing trouble again? Aren't you being too indulgent with those students?" the middle-aged man across the table said. "They should have been soldiers who strictly obey discipline."
"Manstein, have you forgotten Kassel ten years ago?" The man in the shadows chuckled softly, his silver hair gleaming coldly in the moonlight. "Back then, we did turn The Academy into a military fortress... until that carefully trained force was wiped out during a mission. That failure taught me that what is needed to fight the Dragon Raja has never been an army."
He paused, and his voice deepened:
"But heroes... dragon slayers like my friend Menek Kassel, who could make even Dragon Kings tremble."
Manstein raised his white porcelain teacup. Steam from the black tea blurred his expression.
"No one could forget that disaster. I deliberately delayed the CC1000 Express dispatch in order to extend the observation period for those two. He Xiaomeng had already demonstrated his strength during the Feathered Serpent God incident, but Lu Mingfei... he was too ordinary. So ordinary that there was nothing exceptional about him at all."
Angers raised his phone, the faint glow of its screen illuminating his smiling face.
"Your conclusion came too early... I just received word. The winners of this Freedom Day were Lu Mingfei and He Xiaomeng. The two of them wiped out both the Lionheart Society and the Student Union."
"What?" Manstein froze. "Just those two?"
"Yes, just the two of them. They did take advantage of