Chapter 77: Anghe

This was a classical, luxurious office, hidden inside a two-story stacked residential building, filled with bookshelves and wine storage cabinets; above the center of the room hung a massive skylight, directly beneath which stood an elegant desk, and whether it rained endlessly or the sky was clear blue, Anghe would spend his free moments brewing a cup of black tea to enjoy a leisurely afternoon.

If an old friend visited or he received good news—such as this year's dragon kills exceeding last year's or one of the Dragon Kings perishing—he would immediately open a bottle of his prized wine to celebrate properly and leave work early.

But now, he couldn't even drink the freshly brewed black tea; today's snowfall might be the last of February, and he wouldn't see snow again until November.

Anghe frowned deeply, holding a document bearing the World Tree logo in the upper-left corner; Von Schneider sat in a wheelchair, beside Manstein, both waiting for Anghe to finish reading the newly received document.

"I don't think the wine I drank the day before yesterday could have made me drunk until today," Anghe said, setting down the document, his voice slow and laced with disbelief. "Is today April Fools' Day, gentlemen?"

Manstein and Von Schneider maintained solemn expressions, unmoved by Anghe's words.

Seeing the two remain silent, Anghe rose from his office chair, pressed his right hand to his head, and closed his eyes tightly.

"A god went to several half-blood families and told them that the Black King Nidhogg had awakened?"

Anghe's tone was flat, maintaining his usual cadence.

"The god who delivered this message claimed that the Black King Nidhogg intends to recruit the most superior-blooded half-bloods from these families, offering them dragon blood transcendence and five hundred years of life," Anghe rubbed his temples, and by the end, his voice carried a faint smile: "My God, am I reading some third-rate novel's plotline, huh?"

Inside the office, Von Schneider and Manstein remained silent.

"Look here," Anghe pointed to a passage on the second page of the document. "That god called Nidhogg during Wu's engagement banquet, and the Black King Nidhogg said humanity is progressing too slowly and wants to usher humanity into the interstellar age."

"Hahaha."

Crash—

Anghe slammed the document onto his favorite desk with one palm; the massive impact rang out, and the desk, seemingly unable to withstand the strength of this centenarian, emitted a faint cracking sound.

The thick wooden surface had likely sustained internal damage; normally, Anghe would have felt a pang of regret.

"Gentlemen, which unstable-blooded half-blood suffering from mental breakdown provided this intelligence?"

"Could we send Fu Shan Yashi to treat him? Please, don't tell me this is real intelligence."

Von Schneider's wheelchair rolled forward slightly; his hoarse voice emerged beneath his breathing mask: "The intelligence was provided by our students embedded within those half-blood families."

"They didn't even bother with any secrecy—they appeared openly and departed just as openly."

"Including two of our students, twenty-one half-bloods left with their so-called 'god.'"

Manstein adjusted his glasses and spoke to Anghe's solemn demeanor: "Based on bloodline assessments, roughly nine A-rank, twelve B-rank."

"They had no chance to resist," Anghe said, harboring no anger toward these half-bloods; whether it was the power displayed or the dubious allure of the offer, he was merely pondering the description in the intelligence: "Who is this 'god'? Can we deduce which of the two remaining Dragon Kings it might be?"

Manstein shook his head.

"No known Spell Code matches the abilities described."

"According to their accounts, they are certain they encountered a god—not some powerful dragon."

Anghe picked up the still-warm black tea and took a sip.

"It's normal to be unable to distinguish hallucinations," Anghe placed the cup back on its porcelain saucer, feeling his emotions slightly calm: "Perhaps it's not a hallucination. We humans still know too little about the dragon race—like only seeing the tip of an iceberg."

"So what about this god? Have we gathered any information on him?"

Manstein pulled out a tablet, glanced at its contents, and read aloud to Anghe: "He goes by the name Su Lin. Through his hotel records and flight tickets, we found an ID card—its address was fake, but strangely, the ID itself was genuine. We don't know how he accomplished this."

"This suggests he may be backed by an organization," Anghe deduced calmly. "Perhaps he has subordinates handling these matters. Continue."

"On the evening of February 4th, he boarded an international flight from Tokyo's Haneda International Airport to..."

"Wait."

Anghe interrupted Manstein.

"You mean Tokyo, Japan?" Anghe sounded surprised.

"Our three top students, and that guy who dresses like a manga character—whether he's a high-risk half-blood or a dragon—were all in Tokyo?"

"Correct."

"Alright, continue."

Anghe had a bad feeling, but reason suppressed it; right now, he truly wished he could split Lu Mingfei in two to investigate both locations simultaneously.

The Long Wang who appeared in Beijing was likely closely tied to that other unknown being—whether dragon or half-blood.

"After dining with the Wu family, he departed with four Wu half-bloods, including our Cassel Academy freshman Wu Yuxiang, and fifteen minutes later, he reappeared in Beijing."

Manstein glanced at the time displayed in the upper-right corner of his tablet and mentally calculated the time difference.

"About fifty minutes ago, he bought a 27.5-yuan braised offal dish at a shop on the Third Ring Road; thirty-nine minutes ago, he stood on a street opposite the Sihe Academy alley, ordered a 56-yuan grilled fish from a roadside stall, and asked the vendor to add extra cilantro."

"His eating manners were disgusting—he didn't use chopsticks, just grabbed the whole fish and bit into it."

Manstein showed the photo on the tablet to Von Schneider and Anghe: it depicted a clean-cut young man with short hair, wearing a mid-length black down jacket, seated on a plastic stool at the stall, one hand gripping the fish's head to lift the entire fish, the other shoving braised pig intestines into his mouth with chopsticks.

Anghe fell silent, then said after a pause: "He really knows how to eat."

"The investigator says he's definitely not a half-blood," Von Schneider said. The man tailing Su Lin was one of his Execution Department students, whose Spell was ideal for surveillance. "Because he never spat out fish bones."

Von Schneider added, "Even half-bloods feel discomfort when they swallow fish bones."

Anghe nodded; fortunately, he never ate fish with bones.

"Seventeen minutes ago, he paid and chatted with the grilled fish vendor, asking about elementary school homework for children."

"......"

"Now, what is this gluttonous Long Wang, Nidhogg's messenger, this 'god' who descended to Earth doing?"

"Please, stop listing these trivial details."

"Ten minutes ago, he got into a taxi; three minutes ago, he got out," Manstein read the newly updated location update.

"Good. Where did he go?"

"Quanjude."

Anghe helplessly tilted his head to look up at the skylight, now blanketed in a layer of snow, pure white as paper.

He felt he needed a handful of snow more than the room's heating—he could have rolled a snowball and thrown it at this dragon's face.

"FXXK, how much can he possibly eat?"