When Lu Mingfei woke, he was sitting against the wall of the Inn's corridor, with Bloodhound's Fang plunged straight into the floor before him.
He heard a flurry of footsteps-the sound of Executive Department regulation boots striking the floor. They all stopped near the stairs, and only one person hurried toward him.
For the first time in ages, Lu Mingfei felt crushingly exhausted. He barely made out Angers's face before sinking into a deep sleep.
Angers ordered the Italy branch's agents to bring a stretcher and personally escorted Lu Mingfei to the nearest hospital. Pazzi, secretary to both the Gattuso Family and the Board of Trustees, accompanied them.
"His signal disappeared for a total of four hours. The Italy branch evacuated the crowds under a blizzard warning, and we searched almost everywhere in the Inn and the town." Angers sat beside Lu Mingfei's hospital bed, speaking to the Vice Principal over a voice call.
"What was the weather like there?" the Vice Principal asked.
"You mean elemental turbulence?" Angers paused. "The weather was a little gloomy. Overcast at most, nothing like elemental turbulence."
"Was there anything unusual about the place where he disappeared and reappeared?"
"We sealed off the corridor immediately. The Göttingen people examined the scene. There were no alchemical objects or anything like a medium for an Alchemical Matrix," Angers explained gravely.
"Headmaster."
Angers whipped around to look at Lu Mingfei. He was awake.
"How are you feeling? Any discomfort?" Angers asked gently.
"I thought you'd ask what happened," Lu Mingfei said.
"All right, I do want to know." Angers looked straight into his eyes. "You vanished into thin air for almost four hours. Unless you were playing hide-and-seek with us using Word Spirit: Netherlight, I can't find another explanation."
"It was a Dragon King," Lu Mingfei said quietly. "Perhaps Sky and Wind."
Angers rose, his expression solemn. "Are you sure?"
"At least a first-generation dragon, if not something higher. He called himself Sky and Wind. Would a Dragon King lie to a human?"
Angers paced around the room. He had considered an attack by a Dragon King, but this attack had seemed far too uneventful. If it had been the Bronze and Fire King, at least the Inn would have been destroyed.
Chapter 97: Lu Mingfei's Conversation with Elizabeth Laurent
Soon after Angers left, the hospital room's door opened again.
A young woman entered the dim room. She looked as though she had stepped out of an oil painting from the previous century, dressed like a European noblewoman, dignified and elegant.
A black veil hung softly over her face. Beneath it, a pair of sapphire-blue eyes were just visible, their gaze curious and appraising.
She wore an expensive, fitted skirt suit, its hem swaying with her steps, with a fur capelet draped over it. An air of nobility radiated from within her.
Only a closer look revealed that she was about twenty. Her commanding gaze made her seem older.
Dressed in a hospital gown, Lu Mingfei sat propped against the head of the bed.
What drew the young woman's attention was the long blade laid across his lap.
Ever since leaving the Nibelungen, Lu Mingfei had felt a familiar presence lingering on Bloodhound's Fang, carrying a trace of warmth and a fresh floral fragrance.
Sometimes, when he woke on mornings after the campfire had gone out, he had caught a hint of that scent in the rising sunlight-faint, like dew kissed by the morning light.
He had always thought it came from some flower native to the Lands Between. Traces of it could be found everywhere from Limgrave to the snowy mountains.
"Hello, I'm Elizabeth Laurent." The young woman sat down beside the bed. "Lu Mingfei, the first S-Rank freshman at Cassell College's main campus in decades. I've heard a great deal about your exploits. Angers said you were a lionhearted warrior, and now that I've met you, I see he was right."
Lu Mingfei returned to the present, putting aside the strangeness of Bloodhound's Fang. He could hear at least ten powerful heartbeats outside, stationed at the hospital room's door, the stairwell, the elevators, and the entrance to the inpatient building.
All belonged to hybrids with A-Rank bloodlines.
"Thank you," Lu Mingfei said.
Elizabeth paused. "What did Angers tell you?"
One glance told Lu Mingfei that she had read too much into it. "I meant your guards outside."
"Your senses are extraordinarily sharp." Elizabeth's eyes flickered. "Beyond anything I could have imagined."
"Plenty of Word Spirits can do that."
Elizabeth studied Lu Mingfei's eyes. She had met many young people with exceptional bloodlines. Faced with her beauty and sincere praise, they either feigned modesty or openly displayed their pride. She knew how to handle both kinds. Once she saw through their emotions and thoughts, she could easily control the conversation's rhythm.
But the young man before her was neither. After briefly appraising her, he no longer kept his gaze on her. He only met her eyes politely when listening.
He seemed a little... indifferent?
"As far as I know, your Word Spirit is Moment," Elizabeth said with keen interest. "Yet your hearing is as sharp as that of someone with the Word Spirit Kamaitachi."
"Miss Elizabeth, you're the sixth member of the Board of Trustees. You haven't come to speak with me privately just because you're interested in my Word Spirit, have you?" Still a little tired, Lu Mingfei had no desire to keep fencing with her. "Let's get to the point."
Elizabeth regained her confidence.
She had caught his emotion: irritation. No matter how Angers praised him, the soul inside that S-Rank body was still a boy's. He had no idea that the negotiating table could be as full of flashing blades as a battlefield.
"Exactly. You're very clever. Your personal bloodline and Word Spirit aren't important to this meeting." Elizabeth smiled. "But you truly are an exceptional young man. At least among the people your age I've met, you're the most fascinating. I'm simply interested in you as a woman."
"Thank you." Lu Mingfei inclined his head. "But there's already someone I love."
"She must be a truly enviable lady." Elizabeth tactfully ended that subject. "Then let me speak to you on behalf of the Laurent family."
"Your record is remarkable. Two S-Rank missions, and the other members of those missions spoke very highly of you," Elizabeth said calmly. "I'd like to clarify a few insignificant uncertainties. This isn't a matter of doubting or distrusting you, but certain necessary procedures require us to establish some details. Can you understand that?"
"I understand." Lu Mingfei nodded.
"You're the only agent to have encountered a Dragon King since Cassell College was founded, yet your mission report doesn't even contain a description of one." Elizabeth's voice was soft. "The Secret Party's central purpose is to slay dragons, but first-generation dragons are too mysterious. We've only ever studied a juvenile third-generation dragon. Intelligence on higher dragons is a precious asset to any family."
"Do you think I deliberately withheld information from the college and the Board of Trustees?" Lu Mingfei asked.
Elizabeth sighed. "Personally, I trust Angers, and therefore I trust you, whom he chose. But sometimes the head of a family isn't a ruler free to do whatever she pleases. If I want the Laurent family to stand with you, I have to convince its senior members."
"I'm honored by your goodwill," Lu Mingfei said quietly. "May I ask whether you think hybrids can contend with a Dragon King?"
As her family's heir, Elizabeth naturally had access to many top-secret files. "A dragon's power lies in the purity of its bloodline. Humans can hardly compare with Dragon Kings in that respect. But hybrid history has seen extraordinary dragon-slaying geniuses who sent Dragon Kings back into slumber with mortal bodies. Times have changed, though. Alchemy and bloodlines are no longer the only weapons hybrids possess. We now have science."
"So in your eyes, Dragon Kings have already become tempting prey beneath science's butcher knife?" Lu Mingfei looked straight into her eyes.
Suddenly, Elizabeth felt uncomfortable in her seat. Knowing the cause was psychological, she discreetly straightened her back and realized she had misjudged their relative positions.
She had thought she was playing the role of a friendly superior speaking to a young student targeted by the Board of Trustees. She only needed to use her beauty and status to show charm and goodwill, and she could draw him into her camp.
Angers's successor represented the authority of Cassell College's main-campus executive leadership.
For someone like that, the Laurent family was willing to risk opposing the Gattuso Family.
But the young man before her was no student. He seemed to be a confident power in his own right. He wanted nothing from this negotiation, which was why he seemed so indifferent.
To him, the Laurent family's help was not a lifeline in a crisis, merely an added advantage.
Damn it, could he really be the successor to some hybrid power Angers secretly cultivated in China? The hybrid families in that country really do all have this same arrogant attitude.
"Mr. Lu Mingfei, Dragon Kings are the ultimate enemies known to us. No one dares underestimate them," Elizabeth said helplessly. "But undeniably, all research into dragon history and dragon subspecies indicates that their bloodlines contain a throne of power."
"You're already dividing the spoils before the war begins?" Lu Mingfei frowned. "Then I'd like to know what the Laurent family hopes for in the future."
Elizabeth hesitated before speaking slowly. "Once the history of the common enemy of humans and hybrids comes to an end, hybrids will emerge from the world's shadows. We will act as leaders and guardians of order."
"Peaceful coexistence between hybrids and humans?" Lu Mingfei nodded. "You're the moderates on the Board of Trustees, then."
"That's right." Elizabeth suddenly felt a little tired. "That's why we chose Angers rather than Gattuso."
"That sounds good," Lu Mingfei said. "We can cooperate through Angers. When we need your help, someone will provide you with the necessary information."
"All right." Elizabeth felt she had done her best. "The Board of Trustees makes its decisions by vote. The Laurent family will still stand with you."
"Thank you," Lu Mingfei said.
Elizabeth rose. "Then I'll take my leave. I hear you've been through another dangerous ordeal. Please take care of yourself and get plenty of rest."
"It was the Sky and Wind King."
At the door, Elizabeth abruptly turned back. Her veil swayed violently, and a strand of golden hair slipped from her updo onto her dark clothing, gleaming like sunlight falling across a classical oil painting.
"I hope to have the Laurent family's help." Lu Mingfei smiled at her. "You can coordinate directly with Angers."
"Of course." Elizabeth nodded.
Closing the door, Elizabeth stepped into the hospital corridor, suddenly feeling as though she had emerged into another world. She calmly signaled for her family's guards to maintain security, then left with her butler.
The driver opened the car door for her.
Once seated in the back of the silver Rolls-Royce, Elizabeth gently pressed a hand to her chest, feeling her heartbeat quicken.
Not from unease, but from joy.
The person Angers had chosen was not a lion, but a powerful ally-an ally of the Laurent family. If he was not bluffing, the balance of power on the Board of Trustees was about to change.
Chapter 98: The Meeting Begins
Lu Mingfei was not worried about the Board of Trustees' accusations.
Withholding intelligence on a Dragon King?
Concealment and accountability only applied when a subordinate failed in his duties to a superior within an organization. At Cassell College, Lu Mingfei was merely a student. All he had received from the Secret Party was the headmaster's scholarship and Norma's support.
Neither threats nor incentives from the Secret Party could meaningfully influence him. The only thing about this vast organization that earned his approval was its purpose of slaying dragons.
Unfortunately, apart from the Laurent family, none of the other hybrid powers had an approach to achieving that purpose that he could approve of.
He closed his eyes and focused, putting the Board of Trustees' nonsense aside to carefully review his experience in the Inn. He needed to consider the enemies' identities, methods, and aims, as well as which parts he should tell the Laurent family and Angers.
First, his opponent was clearly a master of alchemy even more accomplished than Norton. Whether it was the Nibelungen intruding into reality, the Word Spirit fused with alchemy, or the dream that had suddenly dragged him inside, all went beyond a Dragon King's own direct power.
The two enemies who had appeared in succession, Odin and the "Chu Zihang" in the dream, did not seem to be the same being. "Chu Zihang" had called the mastermind Sky and Wind, but which first-generation dragon she herself was remained unknown.
Of course, she could also have been an exceptionally skilled Dragon Servant. Without her home-field advantage, Lu Mingfei even felt he could have suppressed her using the power of half a Great Rune. Roughly... half a Norton?
The strength Odin had displayed, meanwhile, had nearly approached that of a fully awakened Dragon King.
Angers had said that Dragon Kings needed time to adjust to their power after awakening. Assuming their strength was related to how long they had been awake, Odin was very likely a Dragon King who had long lurked within human society, while "Chu Zihang" had awakened somewhat later.
Lu Mingfei had already sent Su Enxi details about both enemies' weapons, clothing, language, and other characteristics. He was also preparing to give the intelligence on Odin to the Laurent family for investigation.
Hopefully this hybrid family can actually deliver.
The Splendid Hotel had once been the solemn Old Monastery, every brick and tile bearing the weathered weight of history. Now it had transformed into a luxury hotel in the harbor town.