Dragon Clan: Avoid the College Entrance Examination to Slay the Dragon

Chapter 19 The Principal and the Vice Principal
Cassell College, north of Chicago, was shrouded in the early summer night, the bronze hour hand gleaming faintly on the clock tower. Suddenly, a pillar of dark red flame ripped through the night, erupting from the central laboratory shaft. Amidst an earth-shaking roar, the entire college complex trembled like an ancient beast awakened.

"Those assholes in the Equipment Department!"

The sound of shattering glass could be heard from the top floor of the bell tower. Vice-Principal Flamel was pounding the windowsill with his palms, his blond hair, as tangled as dead grass, shaking with his furious movements. "Manstein! Send Schneider down with the stormtroopers immediately and shoot these lunatics!"

The bald professor leaning against the bronze planetarium pushed his glasses up helplessly. "They cut off all communication channels fifteen minutes ago. Now we can only judge by the vibration frequency of the underground pipes - they might really be using heavy metal rock music to counter the explosion shockwave."

"Confrontation?" The Vice Principal grabbed a bottle of Hennessy Richard Cognac from the oak table and gulped it down. The amber liquid dripped down his beard onto his silk robe. "You call this blazing flame a confrontation? If it keeps burning like this, Valhalla will be reduced to charcoal. Where are the people in the school's engineering department?"

"It's over," Manstein replied.

"These bastards did this right after the school was on summer vacation. It really makes me angry!" The vice-principal slammed his veiny palm heavily on the oak table.

He staggered to the wine cabinet in the corner, picked up a bottle of 1978 Macallan whiskey, pushed the cork open with his thumb and poured it down his throat.

Before he could finish his words, the oak door suddenly opened. In the intertwined moonlight and firelight, the silhouette of the silver-gray suit looked like a sword drawn from its sheath.

Manstein looked towards the door. "Principal?"

"What the hell!" The Vice Principal was so shocked that he almost knocked over the crystal decanter. "Aren't you in Milan to see Versace's spring and summer haute couture collection?"

"There was an emergency and I had to come back in a hurry." Ange raised his hand to smooth the lapel of his suit.

"How much jet fuel did you burn on this round trip?" the Vice President said, shaking his empty whiskey bottle. "I'm surprised no environmental groups have come to protest at the college gate. God bless you."

"I donated five million pounds to Greenpeace last year. I don't think any environmental groups will come after me." The principal took the whiskey from Manstein. The amber liquid left traces of molten gold on the sides of the glass. "Professor Manstein, I leave the on-site command to you."

As Manstein nodded and retreated, the corridor vibrated with the sound of a seventh explosion. Angers gazed out the window at the swirling crimson clouds, his lips curling up like a blade. "I have something to discuss with you."

"Good or bad?" The Vice Principal slammed the whiskey bottle down on the carved glass coffee table, the dark golden liquid creating tiny ripples on the bottle's interior. His bloodshot eyes stared at Ange, as if trying to burn a hole through his silver-gray suit.

"I'm asking too much," he suddenly sneered at himself, "Can anything good come from you looking for me?" "It can't be said to be a bad thing, but it can hardly be a good thing either." Ange's slender fingers tapped lightly on the edge of the file bag, then he stood up and walked towards the bookcase. The dark red velvet curtains were blown by the air waves and rolled into blood-red waves behind him.

The Vice Principal leaned over the file, a cigar between his lips, the thick smoke curling around his nose. As he turned to a certain page, the burning ash fell onto the pristine white paper. He looked up suddenly. "What the hell? It's time zero?"

"He also has terrifying recovery abilities." Angers, his back to the Vice Principal, traced the gilded Latin inscription on the book's spine with his fingertips. "He encountered the Nibelungen at the convenience store, and he faced the deadpools alone. By the next morning, his wounds were almost healed. We all know that hybrids awaken their bloodline, nourished by dragon blood, and their physical fitness and recovery abilities increase dramatically."

"Stop!" the vice-principal raised his hands in surrender. "What are you trying to imply by suddenly endorsing this?"

"Before his awakening, the half-blood was just a stronger mortal. His amazing recovery ability proves that he had awakened long ago." Ange turned around. "But Li Chengze said that Gu Yi claimed that he had never awakened. I believe what he said is true, but it means that he has lost a part of his memory."

The orange-red flame in the vice-president's hand flickered in the shadows. "After all, they are Chinese nationals. They should be responsible for the background check..."

"They did a thorough background check. There's nothing wrong with him." Ange's knuckles rapped against the file bag, making a thud. "Gu Yi has simple social connections. His parents died young, and he was raised by his grandfather. I don't see any problems with him."

A faint chuckle echoed through the smoke. "The flawless file is the most suspicious?" The Vice Principal blew out a smoke ring and watched it dissipate into the air. "Do you think it's too unusual for someone to have awakened their bloodline long ago, yet their file shows no sign of reacting at all?"

"We all know the conditions for hybrid awakening. Natural awakening is accompanied by a violent physiological reaction, and external stimulation will leave obvious marks." Ange shook his head. "No matter what the situation, it shouldn't be so clean."

The vice-president slumped in the carved chair, his legs draped uninhibitedly across the mahogany desk. "The report says that during the tunnel and convenience store cases, Gu Yi experienced interference with reality, so it's not impossible that his file was embellished. The question now is, who did this?"

"According to the previous transcript, Gu Yi said that when he was about to kill 'Butcher' Ryan, a man in a suit stopped him. The man in the suit was very powerful and could easily suppress Gu Yi. It's probably because of him that Li Chengze and his men couldn't immediately break into the Nibelungen."

Ange's words stopped abruptly. The shockwave from the eighth explosion outside the window made the stained glass buzz, and the shadow cast by the chandelier snaked across the vice-president's face.
"Fuck!" The Vice Principal suddenly kicked over the footstool, and the cigar rolled from his fingers and burned onto the carpet. "Why are you revealing such important information now?"

Ange slowly adjusted his cuffs, the firelight flickering across his silver-rimmed glasses. "I have to leave some surprises for my old friends."

Deathly silence stretched between them. The gears of the bronze astrolabe creaked with the aged sound of grinding, and in the distance, tongues of fire greedily licked the sky.

(End of this chapter)