Dragon Raja 4; Chapter 60: The Funeral of a Fifteen Year Old Boy (2)

Dragon Raja 4

Having money was great, but there were always expenses. The sailing club wanted to buy a new boat, the astronomy club wanted to build its own radio telescope, and the president had to mediate between all these requests.

Lu Mingfei wasn’t particularly interested in the meeting. His mind was still preoccupied with Porquinho. He had visited the small villa that Porquinho mentioned and dug out an iron box and several notebooks from beneath the floorboards. The iron box was filled with ampoules, each containing a small amount of rainbow-colored liquid. Porquinho had indeed been trained by the college and was extremely cautious. Every time he experimented on himself, he saved a sample. The notebooks were filled with his observations and speculations about Tachibana Masamune, but Tachibana always wore a mask and met him under the identity of “Osho,” so he never revealed many secrets. The bloody trade network remained a mystery.

Porquinho was certainly a man obsessed with freedom, but his decisive abandonment of life was perhaps because revealing that secret meant death.

Could Tachibana Masamune still have followers? Was that bloody network still operational? And what exactly was that Medical Society Porquinho mentioned in the end?

The meeting wasn’t going well. As discussions continued, tensions flared, and an argument broke out. Isabelle tried to maintain order at the table, while Lu Mingfei, bored, looked around the room.

There was a mirror in the corner, and he glanced at his reflection, immaculately dressed. He thought of an old saying: “A monkey in clothes is still a monkey.”

The Student Union was an old fraternity with a long-standing tradition of maintaining a refined image, and Lu Mingfei couldn’t break from that. Considering that the new president was practically broke, still paying off credit card debt, the Student Union paid for a few outfits, with Isabel, the general affairs assistant, doing the shopping. Whenever he had to appear as the Student Union president, he would change into one of these suits, so his image varied greatly depending on who saw him.

The pair of Desert Eagles had been a gift from Caesar, with extended barrels for greater accuracy at mid-range. As for the twin blades called “Tiger Fangs,” they were a gift from the Japanese branch. These short, heirloom blades, less than a foot long, had been modified; without their guards, they were thin enough to be hidden in his sleeves.

Nowadays, his popularity at the Japan branch has skyrocketed. According to the Tokyo battle report signed by Professor Schneider, while everyone was busy fending off the snake-servitors, Lu Mingfei, who had been sidelined, tracked the phone signal of the Uesugi clan head and rushed alone to the place where Herzog was conducting his super-evolution project. Although he couldn’t stop Herzog, he did his best to protect the remains of the Uesugi matriarch. His brave, lone venture into the dragon’s lair, wielding only a bamboo spear, deeply moved the Japanese with its spirit of chivalry and romance.

The Bugatti Veyron, which had been left unused due to lack of funds for repairs, was fixed by the Student Union and became Chairman Lu’s exclusive ride. With both a famous sword and a BMW, the only thing missing was a martial arts manual. His complete transformation was attributed to the mysterious “Nibelungen Project.”

Rumors had long circulated in the college about a special plan that could create super-hybrids capable of rivaling the Dragon Kings. The Gattuso family had once advocated using this plan on someone deemed the most worthy, to cultivate the strongest leader of the new generation. However, the principal and vice-principal secretly manipulated things and gave the opportunity to Lu Mingfei. 

The name “Nibelungen” sounds mysterious, but in essence, it refers to the use of a certain substance extracted from the bones of the Dragon King, Constantine, to help the subject safely evolve. However, the amount of substance extracted was limited, and it had to be supplemented with rare alchemical reagents, so it could only be used on one person.

His code name, “Patient Zero,” wasn’t what some had speculated; he was the test subject of the Nibelungen plan—and the only one. The process was extremely painful. Several times, Lu Mingfei felt he had one foot in the grave. He thought about calling it quits or even giving up, but he persevered—not necessarily out of a desire to take on responsibility, but maybe because he could no longer stand being the powerless person he used to be. Unfortunately, the results didn’t meet the expectations of the medical department. 

Post-modification tests showed that while his physical abilities and reflexes had improved significantly, he was at most A-rank in combat power. He might have been comparable to Caesar or Chu Zihang during the Tokyo incident, but he was no match for the emperor-level bloodline of Gen Chisei, and he hadn’t awakened his Yanling.

The college had invested heavily in him but didn’t get the return they expected. Discouraged, they speculated that perhaps more training was needed for the bloodline to awaken, so they sent him on missions around the world. After a year or two, he had flown so often that he had platinum status with several airlines. As people who knew his past gradually graduated, his achievements grew, and he finally became a legendary figure in the college. Sometimes, when he heard juniors talking about his heroic deeds, Lu Mingfei felt like they were describing a stranger.

It was only in the dead of night, when he changed back into his oversized shorts and T-shirt and sat in front of the computer playing a few rounds of Starcraft, that he felt grounded again.

The debates among the ministers grew more heated, so Lu Mingfei lit up his tablet and secretly browsed the Night Watcher’s forum. Today was the update day for Dragon Slayer in Japan, and the forum was buzzing with excitement. Many people, like him, had logged in early to wait. Even though the thread was still blank, there were already hundreds of comments.

The novel tells the story of a group of young Secret Party members who travel to Japan, go undercover at a host club, and battle Japanese gangs, culminating in a daring fight against a parasitic Dragon King. The writing is melodramatic, but the imagination is wild and freewheeling. 

The author, going by the pen name “Poet of the Flame,” features characters like “The Ever-Burning Eye Magician” Zihang Chu, “The Arrogant Nobleman” Caesar, and “The Sakura Blessed by the Gods” Mingfei Lu.

Sakura Blessed by the Gods was excited to see his name and felt like he was the protagonist, but he didn’t expect that the real main character was the young hero Finger, known as “The Fiery Dragon Slayer.”

According to the character profiles, Finger was born in the deep mountains of Germany and exhibited astonishing swordsmanship talent from an early age. Masters from all over came to him, imparting their best techniques. Lu Mingfei could recall names like the Martial Saint Guan Yu, Broadsword King Wu, Miyamoto Musashi, Yagyu Munenori, and Kenshin Himura… To ensure their schools’ techniques would flourish in Finger’s hands, these masters even held a sword duel on the Alps, with the victor earning the right to teach first.

Under the tutelage of so many great masters, Finger entered the way of the sword at eight, gained fame at fourteen by defeating 2,400 English longbowmen with a single blade, and by twenty had achieved mastery in wielding the sword with emotion. He bid farewell to his settled masters in his homeland and traveled the world with his sword, his chivalrous spirit and overflowing passion composing many heroic ballads.

Such stories were clearly nonsensical, yet they flourished in the elite-driven Cassell College, even spawning various shippers. Truly, the times had changed.

In the previous episode recap, the Poet of the Flame wrote: “The nighttime performance had just ended when the girl in the rain-soaked white dress, dragging her bloodied leg, knocked on the door of Takamagahara. She said, ‘Help me, the people from the Eight families will be here in five minutes,’ and then collapsed into Finger’s arms. Finger gently stroked her face, kissed her forehead with a light touch, then handed the girl over to Lu Mingfei, took a swig of strong liquor, and resolutely stepped out with his sword in hand…”

Finger stood in the never-ending rain, his sword held horizontally. Thousands of gangsters filled the entire street, their golden eyes glaring menacingly in the night like a pack of hungry wolves.

But Finger wore a casual smile, his grip on the sword as light as if he were holding a folding fan.

“Who are you, hero? This has nothing to do with you! Hand over the girl, and we’ll go our separate ways!” roared Kōtarō Fūma.

“Nice to meet you, let me introduce myself. Finger von Frings,” Finger said calmly. “Some call me the Fiery Dragon Slayer, but in my eyes, it’s just an empty title.”

“The Fiery Dragon Slayer?” Fūma Kōtarō’s face changed; he had heard that terrifying name somewhere before.

In the past, on the Pyrenees, Finger had smiled while plucking a flower, using it as a blade to fight the Gattuso family’s eight top swordsmen, losing only a single petal to “Gold and Silver Eyes” Parsi. After that incident, the Gattuso family head had instructed his tailor to always sew Finger’s name on the inside of his suit jacket as a reminder never to face him head-on.

Fūma Kōtarō thought to himself that his luck was really bad, having provoked such a troublesome figure. However, he still spoke toughly: “I’ve long heard of the famous Fiery Dragon Slayer. May I ask what your connection is with this girl?”

Finger smiled faintly, “There’s no special connection, just a meeting between a beautiful boy and a beautiful girl. I don’t mind handing over the girl, but you’ll have to ask my partner first!”

Fūma Kōtarō glanced at the trembling little Sakura behind Finger and asked, “Your partner?”

“Haha!” Finger shook the blade in his hand and laughed heartily, “You’ll have to ask my Blade of Silent Flame!”

Before Fūma Kōtarō could react, Finger unleashed his seventh-tier Yanling, causing black flames to surge on his sword, releasing a wave of killing intent that swept toward the gang members.

Fūma Kōtarō’s face turned pale instantly. That blade… was terrifying! That smile… left a lasting impression!

The Poet of the Flame had never revealed their real identity, but of course, Lu Mingfei knew who it was. There were more than a few people who had experienced the events in Tokyo, but only one had such a thoroughly “edgy” soul.

Finger had graduated two years ago. Despite his graduation thesis being a mess, Anjou was a man of his word. With a stroke of his pen, he approved Finger’s graduation and his special assignment to the Execution Bureau. Finger declared that he wanted to fight for the college in the toughest places, so he chose the Cuba branch. It had always been Finger’s dream. He said it was because Cuba had the best cigars in the world and women with hips wide enough to balance a wine glass on.