Volume 3 Hello, Eri Chapter 335: Chasing Shadows (I)
The next day, the new site of Kassel College was divided into two parts. The central control room where EVA was located was in Genji Heavy Industries, while the new school site and the Equipment Department Research Institute were backed by the shrine of the Snake Eight Clan. Legally speaking, the owner of this mountainous area was the Snake Eight Clan, and they had the right to rebuild on this land without having to report it to the Japanese government.
The new school building seemed to be under construction, with construction workers busy at work in many places. But for now, they could only make do with it. The Japanese branch and Kassel Academy would be merged into one, and the cooperation between EVA and Princess Kaguya would bring the computing and monitoring capabilities of the global layout to a new level. If they still tried to attack the new school with weapons like the Sword of Retribution as before, it would be impossible.
The families who were the directors of Kassel College sent their young people to the new campus. They no longer had the older generation of people in power. Although these young people were excellent, they still needed enough time to train their qualities in order to control the family.
Now these young people representing the family are waiting for the arrival of Principal Angers in the tea room, while Principal Angers is holding an event called the Principal's Afternoon Tea in another Japanese-style room.
The President's Afternoon Tea is a traditional program of Kassel College. Only the best students are invited. Normally, a student will not get such an opportunity after four years of graduation. It can be said to be a special honor in the college.
The one who is enjoying this honor at the moment is Lu Mingfei. Angé poured a stream of deep red water from the Kansai iron teapot, poured it into the teacup with dense white steam, and pushed it towards Lu Mingfei.
"Sri Lankan black tea is picked in August and is very strong. I suggest you taste it carefully because we have a lot to talk about next," said Angers.
Although Kassel College suffered a devastating blow, there were basically no casualties among the staff. In addition, the college's cash flow has always been circulated through major banks in the United States. The Gattuso family cannot reach across the ocean. The most they can do is manipulate the European financial world and cut off the lifeline of those European mixed-race families.
"What happened during this period always makes me feel like I'm dreaming." Lu Mingfei smiled bitterly, "And it was a very long and scary dream. To be honest, I even imagined what the end of the world would be like, but I never thought it would be like this."
It was more than just a bad dream, it was extremely bad. Kassel Academy was destroyed, the school directors' families lost their long-standing abilities one after another, Chu Zihang escaped into Odin's gate, Caesar disappeared inexplicably, and the Gattuso family completely cut off its connection with the world of hybrids... It could be said that there had never been such a chaotic moment since the beginning of the era of hybrids.
"Some things are not really secrets, but until the right time comes, they can only be secrets." Angers seemed to have something else to say.
"Then can I listen to it now?" Lu Mingfei sat upright. She had a hunch that what Angers was going to say next was crucial information.
"Of course, but I hope you will remain absolutely calm no matter what information you hear next ." Angé gave Lu Mingfei a heads-up first, and took out some prepared data files and placed them on the table. Every corner of the files had the SSS-level mark of Kassel Academy, which meant that only the school directors and principals with the highest authority had the right to read them.
"These are actually electronic versions, because the originals have been destroyed along with the academy. In the last moments before the academy was attacked, EVA obtained authorization to record all the secret files in electronic versions for future use. Now the board of directors is in name only, and they are all busy and exhausted, so no one will come forward to prevent the appearance of these files. However, many of the things recorded in them involve the top secrets of the world of hybrids. After I share them with you, you can only tell others the contents if you are sure it is necessary. It is up to you to judge."
Ange opened the top file and slid it towards Lu Mingfei. Lu Mingfei's heart almost jumped out of her chest after just one look, but she kept in mind Ange's request just now and tried her best to calm herself down.
It was an old color photo. It showed two people lying in the intensive care unit, with tubes inserted all over their bodies. The waveform numbers on the ventilator were faint. Everything around them was colorful, except for these two people, who looked like faded black-and-white photos, with strange lines all over their bodies, like blood vessels protruding from the surface.
No one in the world is more familiar with their faces than Lu Mingfei, because they are Lu Mingfei's parents, Lu Lincheng and Qiao Weini. According to her uncle and aunt, they said goodbye to Lu Mingfei shortly after she was born, leaving her with them, leaving only some photos, and they never met again until the letter before entering Kassel College indicated that they might still be alive.
But now this photo is right in front of Lu Mingfei. Anyone who sees it will think that the two people are definitely dying. Lu Mingfei knows better than anyone that the marks are the same as those on Xiyue's body. They are the result of being hit by Gungnir. The victim's bloodline will continue to repair the wound, but the vitality is ultimately limited. When the bloodline can no longer maintain this repair, the victim will bleed to death.
“They… they are all dead… right?” Lu Mingfei tried her best to keep her voice calm, but her tears still flowed uncontrollably, and she couldn’t stop them once they started flowing.
Outside the window, Tokyo was raining quietly, and water splashed on the eaves and scattered. The long-forgotten memories were just like the old trees in the garden outside, whose green leaves still carried the coolness of rain in midsummer.
Lu Mingfei had imagined this worst-case scenario many times, but she still wishfully believed that she could always go back to the past. However, this photo was lying here, silently telling her the coldest truth.
"Yes, Lu Lincheng and Qiao Weini are both rare S-level bloodlines in the academy, and they are also the students I am most proud of. I was sad for a long time when I heard such bad news, but this is the battlefield between us and the dragon clan. There will always be sacrifices. We have no choice." Angé said softly.
"Can you tell me more details?" Lu Mingfei's voice was hoarse.
"It was in 1992. The academy received a report stating that an expedition team in Siberia had discovered what appeared to be dragon remains. The academy immediately organized an excavation team, which included Lu Lincheng and Qiao Weini, as well as some other outstanding members of the executive department at the time. No one took this action seriously at first, because the academy discovers similar remains every year. Usually, these remains are very small in scale, and some are even just a few stones engraved with dragon characters."
"But this time, when the academy team arrived, we realized that this was an amazing discovery. In the past, the academy only found dragon records at most, but this time, the local ruins were left with murals, and they were well preserved. The wind and rain erosion only caused them to fade slightly. The excavation team conducted a deeper survey of the site and found more ruins. After restoring the murals on the ruins, they obtained a history of the dragon race. This is also the first time we know about the existence of Odin, a hybrid who surpasses the Dragon King."
Ange said, "Odin is an usurper. Even the murals don't know where he got his power from. They only describe him from the perspective of the dragons as a despicable usurper who secretly stole the power of the dragons and is the mortal enemy of the dragons. Humans are also hostile to Odin, and he doesn't belong to either side. The murals record Odin's power in detail, saying that he can transcend time and space, reverse cause and effect, and tamper with life and death. There is also a special eulogy attached, which contradicts the previous text's contempt for him. So we guess that this mural is composed of two parts, written by different dragons and some people who worship Odin."
"While the excavation team was busy analyzing the murals on site, someone saw a girl among the ruins. This is the vast uninhabited area of Siberia, and it is impossible for an ordinary human girl to be here. Everyone was on high alert. The girl warned the excavation team that this was part of Odin's forces and that excavating here would only attract Odin himself. Her tone was extremely confident, and she seemed to know Odin very well."
"The people at the academy wanted to catch her and ask her what was going on and who she was, but they were unable to catch the girl. Instead, the girl sighed and said it was too late and it was too late to leave. Odin, as she said, emerged from the ruins and completely massacred the excavation team. Everyone was attacked by Gungnir except the girl because she was able to fight Odin."
"Since the signal here was completely cut off, the academy had to mobilize support nearby. The nearest backup helicopter and car would arrive soon, but the helicopter received a signal from Lu Lincheng, who repeatedly asked the rescue team not to get close, not to get close, and to attack directly. With the weapons the academy had at the time, it was indeed feasible to attack the target location directly, but the academy's best students were there, and an attack would undoubtedly wipe out this outstanding generation."
Ange sighed, "The school directors had a heated discussion and finally decided to implement the plan because the murals described Odin as a hybrid that was more terrifying than the four monarchs. The academy would not allow such a thing to exist. The Gattuso family unveiled for the first time the weapon they developed in cooperation with the Russian Space Agency, a space-based kinetic weapon codenamed the Sword of Scourge, which was the instigator of the recent attack on the academy and other school directors. At that time, there was only one Sword of Scourge, and it was used to attack Odin for the first time. The shocking explosion completely razed the area around the signal point to the ground."
"Later, the academy's backup rescue team slowly arrived. They found Lu Lincheng, Qiao Weini, and two other surviving students far away from the scene. The original account of the incident was preserved through your parents' oral account, but these people were attacked by Odin and died soon after. As for the explosion point, the academy did not find any traces of other people. We can only speculate that Odin and the unidentified girl were completely wiped out in the attack."
"They... are all heroes." Lu Mingfei tried hard to wipe away her tears. She imagined the story that happened in faraway Siberia. Even when the whole army was wiped out, her parents still insisted on leaving valuable first-hand information for the college. That was their career and they fought for it all their lives, so even at the last moment they would still grit their teeth and hold on to the end.
"During the treatment of your parents, we discovered that your mother was actually pregnant, but she concealed this fact and still participated in this operation. We had to consider inducing labor early. The good news is that the damage they suffered was not passed on to you, and you are very healthy. Before she died, Giovanni wrote a letter to you every year. She hoped that the college would not expose their death and send you a letter signed by them every year as usual, so that you can grow up peacefully and enter Kassel College. One day in the future, you will understand them." Angers said, "But I heard that you didn't seem to receive it on time every time. We checked and found that it was a problem with the courier company. Later, we changed to another company."
"No wonder the letters I received always came at regular intervals and the timings didn't match at all. I thought my uncle and aunt had deliberately hidden them and didn't give them to me right away." Lu Mingfei finally understood.
"We thought Odin was dealt with in this incident, and we could restore the true history of the dragon race based on the preserved paintings and photos. But things obviously exceeded our expectations. We found that you are not a normal child. You were able to light up your golden eyes shortly after you were born, and your bloodline is incredibly pure. According to our calculations, your true bloodline was already higher than S-level at that time. If you were to be classified into a new level, the gap between you and S-level would be enough for you to be classified as SSS. This obviously goes against common sense. The offspring of mixed-bloods cannot have a purer bloodline than their predecessors. Something must have happened to you, but we can't detect it."
Ange took out a new document and opened it. "Considering that you have a great chance of becoming a humanoid Tyrannosaurus Rex or a corrupted high-purity Deadpool in the future, the academy even considered wiping you out in your infancy."
The archive contains records of discussions among professors and school directors at the college at the time about Lu Mingfei. It can be seen that many people actually chose to kill Lu Mingfei to eliminate possible extreme danger in the future.
"But as the principal, I rejected the proposal." Ange said, "I can't allow the children of two heroes to not even have the chance to grow up. I maintained the support money sent to your uncle and aunt in the name of your parents, and selected an S-rank member from the executive department of the academy, added his tasks, and asked him to live in the city where you are, and to monitor and visit you regularly while continuing his original tasks."
Ange placed a photo on the table. "This person has pretended to be a salesman, a plumber, a fruit seller, and even lived in your house for a short period of time. He used various methods to get close to you and regularly sent you reports that you seemed safe. According to the original idea, you and him should never have any intersection. An S-rank wants to hide himself, which is not something an ordinary girl can see. But on that day, you got into his car with his son."
"Yes... I remember him , his name is Chu Tianjiao." Lu Mingfei looked at the photo and slowly said the name that had changed her destiny. If it weren't for Chu Tianjiao's invitation, she would not have been able to get on the Maybach that rainy night.
