Dragon Clan: Lu Mingfei Returns from Japan

Chapter 703 Distinguished Guest
Who doesn't care about Erii-san?

She was so beautiful, obedient, and well-behaved. Every time I went to her room, no matter what she was doing—whether she was building a Gundam model or playing video games—she would immediately stop what she was doing, nod at me, and wink at me.

For a naive young girl, that's the only way she knows to express friendliness and happiness. Like a clumsy and lonely kitten, she only uses the simplest way to express the goodwill in her heart.

Anyone who sees a girl like that would probably feel sorry for her.

Nominally, Sakura Yabuki is Genji's subordinate, and naturally should also be Erii's subordinate or servant. However, in Sakura's heart, Erii is like a younger sister. In her limited life, familial affection is something that has been missing. But after joining the Snake-Headed Eight Family, this missing part seems to have been somewhat made up for.

Locking Erii alone in that small room beneath the Genji Heavy Industries was a last resort. Although no one in the family had ever openly discussed Erii's situation, Sakura Yabuki naturally understood that everyone had a vague idea: Erii was the "demon" opposed to the "Emperor." The bloodlines of the three upper families were extremely unstable, with the probability of producing an Emperor being far lower than that of producing a Demon.

Aside from her unstable bloodline, Sakura Yabuki had never seen any violent side in Erii. She was like an ice sculpture, colder and calmer than anyone else. She simply couldn't imagine that such a girl could be a demon.

Sakura Yabuki has never had a good impression of Kassel College. This is not only because Kassel College is on the opposite side of the Snake Clan in terms of interests, but also because of her personal experience. Having been stranded in Afghanistan and suffering from war since childhood, she is naturally distrustful of all unfamiliar people and things.

However, Kassel College seems to have a way to stabilize Erii's violent bloodline. Therefore, Sakura Yabuki accepted this task, replacing Genjiro, to come to China and make contact with Kassel College.

"rest assured."

Angers smiled kindly, "It's not just you, we all care about Erii too."

Whether it was because the old man in front of her was too shrewd to see through her limited experience, or because Angers' words came from the bottom of his heart, Sakura Yabuki actually sensed great goodwill in Angers' words.

Just then, the faint sound of a parking car could be heard outside, followed by a "ding-dong" of the doorbell from the floor above. Sakura Yabuki instinctively looked up at the ceiling.

Angers looked up and smiled, saying, "It seems our guests have arrived. Sakura... I'm older than you, so it shouldn't be a problem for me to call you Sakura, right? I like to call my students by their names; it makes it easier to connect with them."

“Of course, no problem.” Yabuki Sakura nodded gently.

"Sakura, why don't you and Erii wait here for a bit? I'll go upstairs and open the door for the guests. Is that alright, Erii?"

Sakura Yabuki answered "okay," and Erii nodded as well.

Angers left, the heels of his leather shoes making a crisp "tap tap tap" sound on the stairs.

"guest?"

Sakura Yabuki watched Angers's figure disappear around the corner of the stairs, then softly repeated the word Angers had just mentioned, chewing on it carefully.

She also remembered that on the way to the villa, Angers received a phone call in the car.

She didn't intentionally listen to Angers' phone call, but since he made the call in front of her, the content wasn't exactly a secret. During the call, she heard Angers mention "two distinguished guests who had come from afar."

I wonder if the "guests who have arrived" that Angers is referring to now are the same two distinguished guests he mentioned on the phone earlier.

However, she soon found out the answer. Not long after, she heard footsteps approaching the stairs leading to the infirmary.

As a ninja, she naturally recognized the approaching footsteps as dense and fragmented. Judging from the footsteps, it was clear that there was more than one person besides Angers.

The person whom the principal of Kassel College, Angers, referred to as a "distinguished guest" must be someone of considerable status. Sakura Yabuki adjusted her posture and, from the corner of the stairs, the first person she saw was Angers, dressed in a suit and walking with elegant steps.

...and following behind Angers was a middle-aged man wearing a bright red Hawaiian shirt.

The middle-aged man was wearing plastic-framed sunglasses, which looked like something he'd picked up from a roadside stall in Vietnam.

In fact, calling him a middle-aged man was already a sign of Sakura Yabuki's leniency, considering he was a customer brought by Angers. If she had seen him on the streets of Japan, she would probably have thought he was a disheveled old man who had lost his entire month's wages at a pachinko parlor and was now passed out drunk on the roadside.

At this moment... no, that middle-aged man also spoke up. His first sentence was filled with anger.

"What's going on? Didn't you say you've been on a tough business trip lately? What's with this young and beautiful girl? Did your business trip involve you vacationing with a young and beautiful girl in a hot spring villa?" the middle-aged man questioned.

Angers touched his ear expressionlessly: "Sakura is a guest who has come from afar from Japan. She is the secretary of Genjiro, the new head of the Snake-Headed Eight Families, and also the representative of the Snake-Headed Eight Families, acting on Genjiro's will in full authority."

"So it's Miss Sakura. Hello, hello, nice to meet you." The middle-aged man greeted her warmly.

"..."

Ok.

Sakura Yabuki mentally retracted any face she had given Angers. This guy was practically a slovenly old man!
However, at this moment, the medical staff in the medical room all stood up straight and faced the disheveled uncle with respect: "Hello, Vice Principal!"

Sakura Yabuki's eyes widened suddenly. The words "vice principal" startled her. Her gaze returned to the middle-aged man, scrutinizing the uncle dressed in Hawaiian bargain-basement clothes.

At this moment, Angers introduced Sakura to Yabuki: "This is... the vice principal of our Kassel College. Don't worry about his name; the teachers and students at the college all address him by his title. Sakura and Erii can call him vice principal just like them."

Sakura Yabuki certainly knew who the vice principal of Kassel College was—the Night Watchman, the alchemy master who inherited the name "Flamemer," and the number two person at Kassel College.

The mysteries surrounding him are no less numerous than those surrounding Angers, but because he is so enigmatic, always hidden in the shadows of the Secret Service and Kassel College, rarely appearing in public, his fame is not as great as Angers'. However, everyone knows that someone who can become the vice-principal of Kassel College is no ordinary person.

Even though she had only heard the name in legends, Sakura Yabuki still remembered that, in the rumors of the mixed-race world, the vice-principal was almost a rare beauty, possessing the melancholy of Humphrey Bogart and the profundity of Cary Grant. His eyes, a blend of allure and innocence, could captivate from a young girl to a mature woman.

Even as time has passed and the Night's Watchman has grown old, he should be, in the world's imagination, a handsome old man, elegant and haunted by ghostly cries, like Angers. But what's with this middle-aged man in front of her...? He's completely different from what Sakura Yabuki imagined.

Erii, on the other hand, politely wrote in her notebook: "Hello, Vice Principal."

"She's Uesugi Erii?"

A clear and pleasant voice echoed in the empty medical room. It was then that Sakura Yabuki noticed that there was actually someone behind the vice principal.

The girl stood on a high place, a black lady's hat tilted at an angle on her head, her neatly combed blonde hair piled up behind her head. A shawl was simply draped over a dark blue European-style coat that reached near her knees, and an antique cane rested beside her slender legs clad in black stockings. Her dark green, cat-like eyes stared at Erii.

Noticing the sudden tension and wariness in Sakura Yabuki's gaze, Angers, who was standing between the two and had already walked down the stairs, looked at Sakura Yabuki and spoke.

"Charlotte is the current head of the Göttingen family and one of the seven board members of Kassel College. The Göttingen family is one of the oldest alchemical families in Europe, and their influence is behind the Hermeticism that arose during the Renaissance. Charlotte is the most alchemically gifted hybrid among the younger generation of the Secret Society, and one of the distinguished guests I have invited."

After introducing Sakura Yabuki, Angers turned to Charlotte: "This is Miss Sakura Yabuki, the secretary of Genjiro, the new head of the Snake Clan. She is here on Genjiro's behalf."

Charlotte slowly descended the steps, giving Yabuki Sakura a nonchalant nod as a greeting.

Sakura Yabuki knew that long-established European noble families were usually quite proud and aloof, so she didn't mind Charlotte's coldness and nodded in response.

Then she saw a middle-aged man following closely behind Charlotte.

A white man with a gentle smile on his face, he looked very ordinary, like the kind of ordinary white European men you might see on the streets while traveling in Europe. No matter how closely you looked at him, you couldn't pinpoint anything particularly memorable about him. Just an ordinary middle-aged man.

Angers said, “Louis Valentine, the current head of the Valentine family, is also a member of the board of directors of Kassel College. Like the Göttingen family, the Valentine family is an ancient alchemical family, and he is another distinguished guest I specially invited.”

With Angers himself holding Meneke Kassel's vote for the board of directors, a surprising number of Kassel College board members were gathered in this not-so-large medical room. The college's vice-principal, the Night Watchman, was also present.

If people who don't know the situation found out, they might think that tomorrow is the end of the world, and that the four most powerful hybrids are gathered here to discuss a grand strategy to save the world.

However, Sakura Yabuki was also unaware of Angers' purpose in bringing the Night's Watch, as well as the two heads of the Göttingen and Valentine families.

Besides...

Sakura Yabuki glanced at Erii behind her.

She wasn't clear on the specifics of the agreement between Genjiro and Angers... but as far as she knew, "Eri's existence must be kept secret from everyone, including the school board" should have been one of the conditions set by Genjiro.

Sakura Yabuki's little action was, of course, keenly observed by Angers. Angers said with a smile, "I brought the two school board members and the vice principal to Erii only after obtaining Genji's consent."

Upon hearing this, Sakura Yabuki felt a slight relaxation of her tension.

It's not that what Angers said is necessarily true; out of caution, she should have called the young master to verify the truth of the matter. But she didn't.

This wasn't because she trusted Angers that much; she simply felt that, given Angers' pride, he wouldn't stoop to lying to her about something like this. He was an old man as proud as a lion.

“In principle, I shouldn’t tell you the names of the two school board members, Sakura. It’s not a big secret within the Secret Party, but it’s not information that can be released to the public casually either.”

Angers said casually, "However, neither of the school board members mind. They both believe that introducing oneself is the most basic etiquette when meeting new friends."

A few seconds of silence filled the room. A moment later, a rustling sound rang out, like fingers gliding through quicksand. Erii then turned her small notebook to face everyone. The rustling sound was from her writing in the notebook.

"Hello. Nice to meet you all. I am Uesugi Erii." Erii wrote in Chinese on her notebook. They had been speaking in Chinese, as Chinese is the common language for mixed-race people.

His earnest tone, uttering each word carefully, was like that of a primary school student introducing himself on the podium at the start of the school year.

Louis smiled and said, "Hello to you too. I am Louis Valentine. Although this is our first meeting, I have actually heard of your name, Erii, for a long time."

"Have you heard of me before?"

"Rosella mentioned you to me."

"Rocela?"

“It’s Qiangqiang,” Louis said. “I’m her uncle.”

Upon hearing that the other person was Su Xiaoqiang's uncle, Erii's eyes lit up, and she immediately felt a sense of goodwill towards this unfamiliar, masked man with a gentle smile. If Xiaoqiang is a good person, then Xiaoqiang's uncle must be a good person too. The logic of this underworld princess is that simple and straightforward.

However, Louis did tell a small lie. He was Su Xiaoqiang's uncle, and he had indeed heard of Uesugi Erii from Su Xiaoqiang. However, he knew Erii not through his niece. Mentioning someone they both knew was a good way to bridge the gap.

Louis introduced himself solemnly. Charlotte, of course, could no longer maintain her aristocratic composure and hesitated for a moment before speaking: "I am Charlotte Gottingen... um... also a friend of Lu Mingfei and Su Xiaoqiang."

We should consider them friends, right? After all, they were comrades who thwarted Bernardo's plot in Portugal...

Charlotte pictured the guy's face in her mind and thought about it silently.

……

(End of this chapter)