Scene 3: The Dictator (1)

Late at night, in the conference room of Norton Hall.

All members of the student union attended the meeting. The current chairman Caesar sitting on the sofa in front of the fireplace, hands on the chin and stared front. Gattuso family’s phoenix emblem was hanging overhead. The silence had gone on for a long time, almost everyone kept their heads down.

“For the first time in three years, we’re losing access to the Norton Hall, so this is our last meeting here.” Caesar said dryly, “It was an unprecedented defeat for me.”

Depressed came like mountains. After Caesar took the position, they were always the winner of the “freedom day”. Under the leadership of Caesar, the student union is finally able to against the most traditional college brotherhood “Lionheart”. Even there’re Chu Zihang, the so-called “A+” level, Lionheart didn’t take the Norton Hall. But now, they mysteriously lost on a newbie.

“We didn’t lose, it was a shameful war!” A senior committee member said, “We shouldn’t give up the Norton Hall!”

Everyone was excited. The committee members began to whisper that they really lost unjustly.

“Enough!” Caesar raised his hand, his stately voice commanded the noise of the hall.

“I never talk to cowards. Only cowards refuse to admit their defeat.” There’s no expression in Caesar’s cold blue eyes. “Today I don’t want to discuss the reason for failure. Lu Mingfei, an ‘S’ freshman from China, shot Chu Zihang and me. As a third party, he won the ‘freedom day’ this year. We should respect the rules of the game, according to the rules of the game, we lost. Lionheart kept silent, which means Chu Zihang had accepted the results. Can’t you compare with Chu Zihang?”

“I’ve rented the Amber Hall next door as a place for next year’s Student Union. Move our stuff, and here belong to Lu Mingfei since midnight.” Caesar got up and poured himself a glass of cognac. “Isn’t Lu Mingfei preparing for tomorrow’s 3E exam? Do you think he can pass?”

“Caesar, you mean?”

“Just now, a piece of news popped on the campus news network that Lu Mingfei, the ‘S’ level new student, has no resonance with the ‘Speaking Spirit – Emperor’.” Whispered Caesar.

After a moment of silence, surprise flashed over each committee member’s eyes.

“The results of 3E will tell us what the potential of Lu Mingfei is. If he fails, he will be demoted. How can he pass the 3E exam if he has no resonance with speaking spirit?” Caesar looked around at everyone and said, “I’m looking forward to it, and I think Chu Zihang looks forward to it, too. Nuo Nuo, what do you think of Lu Mingfei?”

“That idiot? May directly to ‘Z’, if there’s such a level.” Said Nuo Nuo carelessly, leaning against the wall.

All the committee members smiled at each other. The 3E exam is the first threshold and made all the freshmen nervous. If Lu Mingfei doesn’t pass the exam, his level will plummet, BCDEF, and he’ll be a joke to the whole campus. If a sheep in a lion’s skin went among the lions, and it was exposed to its real identity, it is unbearable to imagine its fate.

Caesar did not smile but looked down and stroked his heart, which was the place where Lu Mingfei shot him.

“This exam is abbreviated EEE, Extraction Evaluation Exam, it means pedigree evaluation exam. It is mainly used to identify the dragon lineage of students. The dragon descendant will have a resonance for the ‘dragon words’, and the resonance will produce a “spiritual vision” effect, which is naturally to see the dragon words emerge in mind.” Fingel explained to Lu Mingfei, “This ability is very important to the dragon descendant. We have supernatural powers known as the ‘Speaking Spirit’, and in our ‘realm’, what we say in dragon language will become the rule. Therefore, ‘language’ is a tool for the dragons to exert their abilities. Students who are not sensitive to dragon’s language are usually not competent enough, after 3E some of them will be kicked out.”

“I was tricked to here and I might be kicked out?” Said Lu Mingfei.

“Just taking a brainwash. You signed a nondisclosure agreement when entering the school, and if you return home now, probably you have to wait another year for the Chinese exam?”

“That’s a bully clause! He wrote it in Latin, I can’t read it!”

It’s a complaint that Professor Guderian can’t hear. The old guy felt helpless for Lu Mingfei has no resonance, claiming that he met the academic problem. Then, he went to the library to look up information.

It was quiet in the dormitory. The window was open. Lu Mingfei sat on the bunk and looked out at the beautiful full moon. It shone on the red tiles of the church steeple, and the cool night wind blew faintly on him. It’s such a beautiful place, but he’s going to be swept away tomorrow.

“Brainwashing is actually pretty fun.” Fingel hung his head from the upper bunk.

“Haven’t tried but in the future. I’m very happy.” Lu Mingfei was super calm.

He guessed that Fingel was trying to frighten him, and the best response was to show him a poker face. For example, during dinner Lu Mingze will suddenly say that I saw Chen Wenwen and a handsome boy shopping bookstore, Chen Wenwen laughed happily! Lu Mingfei would put on a wooden face and say, what? Dude, are you talking to me? Lu Mingze cannot break his thick face, so he can only retreat dispiritedly.

“I remember a Chinese philosopher said, people have pain, because their memory is too good.”

“That’s not a philosopher, it’s Ouyang Feng in Ashes of Time… Take some rest. I will fail tomorrow and come back home, if I can’t have a good university I can only find a job……” Lu Ming sighed for no reason.

“You just sighed.” Said Fingel.

“I just yawned.”

“You don’t want to go back to China.” Said Fingel suddenly.

Lu Mingfei was stunned and did not get Fingel’s idea.

“It’s ok to go back to China. I don’t care.” Lu Mingfei put his hands behind his head and stretched himself on the bed.

Fingel held the mattress on the upper bunk with both hands, turned himself over in a very difficult position, and slowly sat on the lower bunk of Lu Mingfei. “Good for you to figure it out. Cassel College is not good, it looks like a school, but you have to stay with a bunch of reptiles together. After graduating, you have to go everywhere to slaughter dragons, take the risk of being burned by the dragon’s flame. You’re not a hot-blooded teenager, either. You won’t shout something like ‘my destiny is to go around the world and kill a dragon’, right?”

“You’re telling me the same thing. I don’t see any harm in failing the exam and going back to China,” said Lu Mingfei, shrugging toward Fingel’s Aryan silver eyes. “I don’t care.”

“But you just sighed.” Said Fingel again.

Lu Mingfei felt a hot breath rush from the heart, like eating something too spicy to vomit, burning, which let a person forget his face or cover up, but just want to open his mouth to speak.

“What are you talking about? What do you want? Is it any of your business if I go back to China? You haven’t graduated in so many years, are you good? You still owe me money? How many cokes have you had? Do you pay or shut up?” He did not know why he was suddenly furious.

He regretted it when he said it. Fingel may be his only friend here, and Nuo Nuo…… He just shot her boyfriend. So now she’s with that blond guy?

“Dude, you’re out of control.” Fingel tapped him on the shoulder.

Lu Mingfei looked at Fingel and dropped his head.

“You keep yelling that I’m quitting and I’m quitting,” Fingel said. “I just want to learn your idea.”

Lu Mingfei sighed. “Sometimes I really want to drop out, but where can I go if I drop out? By the way, why didn’t you consider dropping out? What’s so good about here? You didn’t graduate in eight years.”

“You will die if you don’t stab people’s scar?”

“Oh, let’s talk about your idea then.”

“Because… Lonely.” Fingel shrugged.

“Loneliness? Are you? Don’t tease! If you can make fun of people like that, you’re just as good as a talk show host.” Lu Mingfei rolled his eyes.

“Are you kidding? A person of dragon ancestry is not a real human. Lineage will give you the power of ‘Speaking Spirit’, and it alienates you from the human race. When you gain the power, you will always remind yourself that you are not an ordinary person. Only staying in the same group can eliminate loneliness. Thus, we will naturally gather together, which is genetically determined. This feeling of loneliness is called ‘Blood Sorrow’.” Fingel said, “Wait, you’re an ‘S’, you never feel very… lonely?”

“Lonely?” Lu Mingfei thought back to his past eighteen years of life, shaking his head, “Not at all.”

Fingel scratched his head. “When we were at the train station in Chicago, I thought you were in a daze. What were you thinking when you were in a daze? Your parents were not nearby; you have no forte with neither girlfriend or good grade; you even don’t have a good friend, that made no sense.” Fingel said, “I’m lonely. I mean when I was a kid.”

“But what if you feel lonely? Is loneliness great? If you feel lonely all the time, it just makes you feel worse.” Lu Mingfei looked up at the ceiling, “No one wants to talk to you, you feel lonely, but still, no one will talk to you.”

Fingel nodded gravely. “You feel lonely… And still, no one will talk to you… It seems to make sense… Man, you are a philosopher.”

Lu Mingfei said, “If I kill some time I won’t feel lonely. A person in a daze is also very interesting, I thought about all the things on my roof before. Swoosh, a night had past.”

“Sounds like you’re having a good time in China. Why don’t you go back? Even the ‘Blood Sorrow’ has no effect on you.”

Lu Mingfei thought for a moment and sighed. He put his elbows on knees and bowed his head.

“But when I’m at home,” he whispered. “there’s nothing. If there was nothing at home, would you go back?” He looked at Fingel.

Fingel also looked at Lu Mingfei. Something flashed from his silver-gray pupils. Sympathy or some lonely secretion? Lu Mingfei can’t tell.

“The wild lily also has its spring, the small wild seed also wants to sprout,” Lu Mingfei shrugged, “although I’m a piece of garbage, I also want people to pay attention to me. I also want to have a girl like me, I also want to have something I can boast… I don’t want to be normal all my life.” When Lu Mingfei said this, his stomach “cooed” twice.

Fingel mentioned it. “Hungry? Why don’t we call and order the supper? Give me your student id card.”

“Are there supper service?” Lu Mingfei roused himself a little bit and took out his student id to hand to Fingel. “It’s not the take-out level?”

“What take-out? Today is the first day you moved in, so of course, we should get a big meal!” Fingel read the number of Lu Mingfei’s student card, “Two Truffle Bread for room 303 in Flat 1, two Foie Gras with lemon juice, a bottle of champagne… Yes, ice bucket and lemon rind, and a roast goose. We’re a little hungry indeed, two herring rolls with cheese please. Thank you.”

Lu Mingfei wiped the corners of his mouth and his stomach rumbled with joy.

Twenty minutes later, a waiter in white wheeled the cart in and opened the sterling silver bowl with the meal Fingel had ordered. The waiter set up tables in the dormitory, laid white tablecloths, arranged silver knives and forks, placed ice bucket with champagne in the center and two frozen dewy glasses in front of them. Finally, the waiter lit a candle and retired. All the while, he just smiled and made no noise.

“Wow! Such a noble school! Although I am ready to drop out tomorrow, with this meal, I am a little shaken.” Lu Mingfei stabbed a fork into the breast of the roast goose and watched as its oil dripped out happily.

“Eat! Human is iron while meal is steel. Human would be in hunger without a meal! We shall eat enough to think about the 3E exam. Do not cross the bridge till you come to it. Go out to rely on brothers. You can support me!” Fingel grabbed the truffle bread and munched, “Go ahead!”

“You are quite fluent in using jargon!” Lu Mingfei was in a good mood, tore off a goose leg and munched on it.

“It’s the best to practice Chinese in BBS!” Fingel took another goose leg and the two smiled brightly over the candlelight.

At the moment, the two gluttons’ teacher, Professor Guderian, was in the library reading documents. Ancient books in bookcase were made from the hardwood against the ceiling. Under the lights, they have the colour of iron. On the shelves were huge, limitless bound books, which contain transparent air-draining clamps that preserved ancient copper scrolls, known as “Ice Sea Scrolls” collectively. These copper scrolls were buried in the ice for thousands of years and had not yet fully understood by people.

Guderian stood at the top of the ladder and stretched his arms to reach a book.

“Late at night to check something?” Someone said under the ladder.

Guderian looked down and saw a spherical object shining like the ceiling light.

“Why are you here this late, Manstein?” Guderian was surprised.

Professor Manstein, chairman of the Discipline Committee, touched his shiny head. “I’ve come to look up information about your new student Lu Mingfei.”

“Oh? Is it? He is well worth studying.” Guderian hesitated and answered vaguely.

“Regard a new student, facing Chu Zihang’s golden pupils, he shot fearlessly. Chu Zihang is the person we found with the highest dragon blood purity, who had shown the physiological characteristic of the dragon race’s ‘dragon pupil’. Under his direct vision, normal people will awe, but your student Lu Mingfei does not have any feeling. Very interesting.” Said Professor Manstein coldly.

“He’s an s-student. Anything can happen to an s-student.” Guderian said quickly.

“You are satisfied with this new student, and you are going to make him the best young man at Cassel, right?” Manstein asked.

“Yeah, yeah,” Guderian said, laughing and grabbing his head. “so that I can get my lifetime professor position.”

“Guderian, from the time we lived in the same dorm at Harvard until now, you scratch your head when you tell a lie. Can’t you show a little restraint?” Manstein sighed.

Guderian’s face suddenly changed. There was a moment’s silence, and he climbed down the ladder honestly. “What do you know?”

“He has no reflection for the “Speaking Spirit – The Emperor”, does he?” Manstein looked Guderian’s eyes, his Aryan blue-gray eyes shone with the metallic cold light.

“How do you know?” Whispered Guderian.

“This news was posted on the campus news website, which is the headline of tonight. It was posted by your student Fingel. ‘Shocking news, level S student Lu Mingfei has no resonance with the secret words of the dragon king, and the college is about to find out the reason!’. Now the whole college knows about it.”

“Fingel?” Guderian was stunned.

“Your specialty is dragon genealogy research. Although you are silly sometimes, you are always better than me in major. You will not make any conclusion about ‘lineage variation’ blindly. You know very well that the dragon lineage is very powerful, after several generations of hybrid, it will not be completely wiped out by the human lineage, no need to mention the example of mutation. But you tell your students that Lu Mingfei is a variation. From that moment you were trying to cover it up, right?”

Guderian nodded. “I chanted to him, ‘SS – The Emperor’, ‘Praise to the awakening of my king, destruction is new life.’ But he has no resonance at all. This is the only case so far that the dragon lineage has no reaction to ‘The Emperor’. And he does have a dragon blood lineage, otherwise, it’s very hard for him to resister under Chu Zihang’s golden dragon pupil. I do not judge him on the basis that the principal has given him an ‘S’.”

“The dragon emperor Nidhogg is the only ancestor of the dragon race, and the ‘SS – Emperor’ is a supreme speaking spirit of his descendants. Whenever his descendants hear this word, they will feel the call of the dragon emperor. But Lu Mingfei said you’re singing. This is definitely not a small thing.”

Guderian was silent.

“Ice sea scrolls, number AD0099, I have helped you find the information you need.” Manstein handed Guderian a copper roll sealed in a cylindrical glass bottle.

“The remnants with initials AD?” Guderian was frightened, “This is a top-secret document!”

“Only the oldest documents contain the highest level of secrecy.” Manstein said, “’SS – The Emperor’ is valid for all descendants who are subject to the dragon emperor, but there is one group of descendants who are not subject to the dragon emperor.”

“The ‘white king’ mentioned in Dragon Chronicle · Secret.” Whispered Guderian. “This was the subject of our mutual research.”

“Yes, we happen to be the two people in this college who know the history of the white king best. The ‘Speaking Spirit – Oracle’ of the white king is the only one known to have restrained ‘The Emperor’, and it used Oracle on all its descendants after betraying the black king.”

“You mean, Lu Mingfei has… White King’s lineage?”

Manstein nodded slightly. “I can’t think of any other explanation.”

Guderian kept silent for a long time, “The lineage of White King is only a legend. According to the records of the Frozen Copper Table, Black King Nidhogg destroyed the white king with great power. He killed it, ate it in the flesh and turned its bones into ice. He then melted the ice into the volcano, destroyed the white king’s body and soul completely. Thus, the white king does not exist, Speaking Spirit Oracle will also lose power.”