Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei Returns from Sekiro

"He's really an S!" Fingel exclaimed. "Isn't it only the principal who's an S?!"

"More than ten, but no more than ten people," the train conductor said. "Hurry up and get on the train, we're almost at the station."

"What kind of hellish academy is this?" Lu Mingfei finally couldn't hold back anymore.

He has so many things to complain about, but he doesn't know where to begin.

What is the power of words? Is it some kind of magic that cannot be shown to Muggles?

What is class? It's all about S and F, and we're not playing QQ Speed.

"Is this really a legitimate train?" Lu Mingfei felt that everything about the train was eerie. Could it be that the next stop was hell?

“Of course, it’s a special train approved by the Chicago government, running directly to Kassel College. It’s a feeder train, so you won’t find it on the timetable. You know those special trains that run on public rail but go to mines and factories? We’re the same as those,” the train conductor answered frankly.

Following the train conductor onto the platform, the train's engine was stopped on the tracks, its headlights blazing brightly.

The car was black, with a streamlined body and dazzling silver-white vine patterns blooming on the black paint, making it as gorgeous as a work of art.

Outside the slid-open car door stood a familiar figure—Professor Guderian.

......

The train roared as it sped through the pitch-black night.

Across an oak table, Lu Mingfei, Fingel, and Professor Guderian sat facing each other.

The carriage is in a European style, very classic, with patterned walls for decoration, solid wood windows, and gold thread embroidery on the dark green leather sofa.

Lu Mingfei changed into the Kassel College uniform, the same one Ye Sheng had worn when he interviewed him. However, the college tailor had clearly not measured his body, yet the clothes were made to fit him perfectly. When the cuffs were turned up, the words "Ricardo.M.Lu" were embroidered inside.

He felt out of place with the car, as if they had nothing in common.

He might be more comfortable curling up in a shell with his face covered.

"Coffee or hot chocolate?" Professor Guderian asked, leaning against the wall behind him, where a huge painting was hidden by a canvas covering his clothes.

"Plain water is fine," Lu Mingfei said.

“I want hot chocolate,” Fingel said, raising his hand without any shame.

"It's freshman orientation time now," Professor Guderian snapped. "Unrelated personnel, shut up."

"If you don't want to give it, then don't give it. Why are you being so mean to people..." Fingel complained softly, like a little girl.

Lu Mingfei didn't pay any attention to this little incident.

"Professor Guderian, let me get straight to the point: what kind of academy is this?" Lu Mingfei stared into Guderian's cloudy eyes, trying to discern something from them.

"Good mental fortitude." Professor Guderian nodded, taking a glass of water. "I thought you'd be yelling that you wanted to go home."

"What I'm about to say might overturn your worldview of the past eighteen years. Are you mentally prepared?"

“I feel like my worldview has been completely overturned.” Lu Mingfei glanced at Fingel beside him.

Perhaps the astonishing power hidden beneath that languid body can now be explained.

However, according to them, Fingel is an F-level student, so what level are the other students in this academy?

“Alright, then I won’t go into any more preamble.” Professor Guderian cleared his throat. “First of all, I’m sorry I’m late. I was delayed in Russia for a while, and I only realized there was a problem with the dispatching when you called me, so I decided to come along with the train.”

"Secondly, the college requires every student to take an entrance exam, which we call the '3E' exam. If you don't pass, you won't be admitted, and your scholarship will not be valid."

"A qualification exam? Okay, I knew it wouldn't be that easy." Lu Mingfei had a bit of a headache.

He hates exams, any kind of exam.

“Here is a confidentiality agreement that you need to sign first.” Professor Guderian handed over a document.

Lu Mingfei read it carefully. It was a mix of English and other curved characters, like Latin, which he couldn't understand, but he still signed it.

After all, he was eager to know what this academy was all about, perhaps it was related to what he was looking for.

“Okay, I've confirmed you've signed it.” Professor Guderian carefully put the document away. “Now, witness the real world.”

The professor stood up, grabbed a corner of the canvas of the giant oil painting behind him, and shook it open violently.

The grotesque scene was exposed to the light, and the moment Lu Mingfei's gaze fell upon the painting, he felt as if he were being pushed away by a tremendous force.

He heard the sound of bells...he'd heard it somewhere before...the same sound of bells...

In the scene, the sky is a mixture of iron-blue and flame colors. A single giant tree stands there, its withered branches extending in all directions, weaving a dense net to support the cracked sky. The wasteland is littered with withered bones, and a black behemoth is rising from the depths of the bone pile. Its wings are covered with skulls, and after spreading its huge membranous wings, it looks up and spews black flames.

"A giant lizard...?" Lu Mingfei asked, tilting his head.

Chapter Thirty-One: Choice

"A dragon! It's a dragon!" Professor Guderian exclaimed. "Look at that perfect body, those powerful curves, and the dragon breath that represents authority! It can't possibly be a lizard!"

“Sorry… I thought dragons… were… how should I put it, more peculiar,” Lu Mingfei said, scratching his head.

At first glance, he didn't think of it as a dragon, because he had actually seen a dragon before—the Sakura Dragon.

The dragon, representing immortality, comes from the west of Ashina.

Compared to the winged lizard, the Divine Dragon, despite wielding a giant sword, is more in line with the dragon in his mind.

With its tiger-like whiskers and mane, its body as long as a snake, its scales like a fish, its antlers like a deer, and its claws like an eagle, this kind of dragon is more familiar to him as a Chinese person.

Although the Western black dragon drawn in front of him was also very handsome, Lu Mingfei still sided with the Sakura Dragon when it came to its mythological and majestic feel.

The power of the Sakura Dragon is also very strong. Although Lu Mingfei happened to kill the Sakura Dragon, it was only because all of the Sakura Dragon's power was lost.

The so-called power of the Dragon's Blood is actually the power of immortality, and all of these powers belong to the Sakura Dragon.

There are countless immortals in Ashina, and all of them owe their existence to the blood of the Sakura Dragon.

The blood of the Sakura Dragon can grant immortality, but it can also transform a person into a mindless monster.

Strictly speaking, Lu Mingfei killed it using the Sakura Dragon's own power.

Moreover, it can't be called killing; it can only be said to put it to sleep. The power of the Dragon's Blood has not disappeared. As the source of the Dragon's Blood, the Sakura Dragon could not possibly be dead. It was probably just tired and wanted to rest.

"Professor, please continue." Lu Mingfei snapped out of his reverie.

"You don't seem very surprised."

"It's just an art painting. Do you think the dragon in it will jump out and eat me?"

“That’s not wrong, but you have to know that this is about the Dragon King Nidhogg!” Professor Guderian started gesturing wildly again: “According to the Norse mythology, the Old Ida, at Ragnarok, it will bite off the roots of the World Tree Yggdrasil! On that day, the world will be destroyed.”

The professor's fingers swept across the neatly bound ancient books on the bookshelf: "If you can read Latin, you can understand the titles of these books: 'Dragon Genealogy,' 'Dragon and Words of Power,' 'The Key of Solomon'... These are the culmination of thousands of years of our accumulation. Countless people have searched for and studied dragons, and Kassel College is the epitome of this!"

Professor Guderian looked directly into Lu Mingfei's eyes: "There are many different disciplines to choose from in the academy, such as alchemical engineering and dragon lineage theory. The ultimate goal of all courses is to slay dragons."

"Slaying a dragon?" Lu Mingfei's heart sank to the bottom. It's over, he's completely gotten on the wrong train this time.

He just wanted to enjoy his university life, so how come, less than two months after returning from Ashina, some crazy old man told him that the course he was studying at university was dragon-slaying studies?

Compared to that, postpartum care for sows sounds much more reliable.

He should have just joined the army honestly; there are no shortcuts in the world.

Lu Mingfei knew that Professor Guderian was telling the truth, because he had already experienced the demeanor of several students from Kassel College.

Nono and Finger, the former was his defeated opponent, but from the decisiveness and movements of Finger's knife strikes, it can be judged that Nono has undergone professional training.

Although he had only spent less than a day with the latter, the imposing presence hidden beneath that burly physique was still constantly reminding Lu Ming to concentrate.

If they weren't exceptionally gifted, then developing such immense strength certainly wouldn't be for the purpose of earning enough credits in university courses.

Combined with Professor Guderian's account of the dragon-slaying feat, everything can be explained.

“Yes, dragon slaying,” Professor Guderian explained. “This has been going on for thousands of years in places you can’t see. Humanity has written one history without dragons, but in another history, every line features dragons. But this secret is too astonishing, and if it were to be revealed, it could lead to unimaginable consequences. So several families, which we call ‘bloodlines,’ have shared this secret for the past few thousand years.”

"They bore the heavy responsibility of slaying dragons and constantly trained offspring skilled in combat, alchemy, sorcery, and magic, sending them to the battlefield to slay dragons, burying the efforts to revive the dragon race time and time again, until today, Kassel College has inherited their legacy."

"Okay, I think I understand." Lu Mingfei sighed. "So, is it too late for me to back out now?"

“You have already signed a confidentiality agreement. If you refuse to enroll, according to the terms of the agreement, we will need to erase your memory and that of the relevant personnel, and then send you back to China. In other words, you will forget everything and then face the situation of having no university to attend when you return to China.”

"What a vicious trick." Lu Mingfei imagined his aunt's face with her apron on, and just thinking about what kind of words would come out of her mouth made him shudder.

Even if he cut his hands and feet and lost consciousness in Ashina, he would never dare to challenge his aunt.

That's how formidable middle-aged housewives in China are. No matter how successful a social elite is, once they're at home, they have to succumb to those three inescapable questions: "Have you found a boyfriend yet?", "How much do you earn?", and "Where do you work?"

"Thank you for the compliment. So, Lu Mingfei, what is your decision..." Professor Guderian was sweating bullets, his attention entirely focused on Lu Mingfei.

The S-class student from China didn't seem shocked by the world truth he revealed. He had hosted many students, including some who cried for their mothers.

Although there are some people who are as calm as old monks, most of them are just pretending. Just by looking at their clenched fists and trembling hands, you can tell that their hearts are not at peace.

But Lu Mingfei was different. He didn't seem surprised at all. He seemed to be hesitating whether to pick up a weapon and join the dragon-slaying team, or to forget everything he had heard today, have his memory wiped, and be sent back to China to be insulted by his aunt.

Usually, only preparatory students would react so calmly. Preparatory students are those who already know about the existence of dragons before entering the academy and are taught systematically from the beginning according to the academy's standards. Naturally, these students will not have any psychological fluctuations because they have already prepared themselves mentally.

However, Lu Mingfei had never come into contact with anything related to dragons in the past ten years. Professor Guderian could only sigh that there are differences between people, and some people are born with much stronger psychological qualities than ordinary people.

If S-class students are admitted, it might really cause a huge stir.

Chapter Thirty-Two: Illusion and Reality

"I'd like to ask, is there any guarantee of employment in the dragon-slaying industry?" Lu Mingfei asked seriously.

“We offer five social insurances and one housing fund, team building activities and events during holidays, and afternoon tea on weekdays. With the identity documents provided by Norma, you can enjoy convenient transportation and high-end services all over the world.”

"sounds good."

"The college also purchased insurance for every student and faculty member."

"If I die, will my family receive a huge compensation?"

"No, it's to be responsible for transporting your remains back to the country, if they are still intact."

“…” Lu Mingfei fell silent.

Perhaps one day, his body will be covered with a white cloth and transported back to China by helicopter. His aunt and uncle will run to the rows of hospital beds to identify which body belongs to Lu Mingfei.

This sounds tragic, because his parents are doing research somewhere in the world.

Speaking of which, his parents are alumni of Kassel College. So, they weren't traveling around the world for decades, but chasing after giant lizards?

Lu Mingfei looked at his hands. They were a pair of fair and smooth young hands, without calluses from holding a knife or wounds from being cut by a kunai or a katana. They were warm hands.