Dragon Clan: Force me to be reborn and slay dragons

Chapter 235 A Shocking Murder, A Curse of Despair
On the way to the archives, Genji noticed that the crow kept glancing at him furtively, looking as if it wanted to say something but couldn't.

"What's the matter?"

This guy has been a bit restless since last night.

He originally thought it was due to the death of Tachibana Masamune, after all, the latter was the mentor of the two lively retainers, giving them the opportunity to soar to great heights.

But after learning about Tachibana Masamune's actions, that filter almost completely disappeared.

The crow didn't actually care about Tachibana Masamune's funeral arrangements; it only tentatively asked:
"Um, young master, Sakura is now..."

“She’s safe with Erii.” Genji glanced at him, the image of their first meeting six years ago flashing through his mind.

At that time, he had officially inherited the position of head of the Minamoto family and needed two retainers, so Tachibana Masamune assigned him Crow and Yasha, who had already made a name for themselves in the underworld.

As luck would have it, on his way to the shrine, he bumped into those two idiots chirping behind him, saying they'd do anything for food.

At that time, Sakura was just a marginal figure in the family, with a low status and lack of common sense. She couldn't even speak fluent Japanese. When Crow and Yaksha talked about her, their tone was full of teasing and mockery.

It was because of their discussion that he changed his mind and went to the weapons storage room, bringing that tarnished girl out of the shadows and into the sunlight.

Although after getting to know him better, Genjiro realized that Crow was probably just indirectly expressing his feelings for Sakura, unfortunately he was a rogue, and a lecherous one at that, so his tone when talking about women with his brother was naturally not very serious.

In the days that followed, the crow and the yaksha would occasionally exchange some flirtatious remarks, but they never again coveted Sakura in such a lewd manner as before.

Moreover... the crow seems to have misunderstood something, and keeps trying to match him up with Sakura.

Back then, I was young and naive, and I thought that guy had awakened some strange fetish. Now that I think about it, Crow was indeed a seasoned lover, seeing through the treacherous intentions of the ruler and his subject at a glance.

"Oh, I see." Crow nodded. After learning that Sakura had been kidnapped, he had been on tenterhooks all night, fearing that she might cause some kind of Japanese-style incident somewhere. Now he could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

However, he also knew that his young master and Sakura had been getting closer and closer recently, and there was no need for him to interfere anymore. So he changed the subject to business and took the initiative to act as a strategist:
"Young Master, the position of head of the family is currently vacant."

If we can achieve outstanding results in this plan to slay the gods and annihilate the demons, then the position of patriarch will be within our grasp.

He wanted to be like that guy and say, "I regard the five masters of the outside world as if they were just signs for sale in Seoul," but he was afraid of being punished for the crime of disrespect, so he simply said less and made fewer mistakes.

However, Genjiro fell into an eerie silence upon hearing this. As the crow felt uneasy, wondering if his words were a bit like jumping into a disco before Tachibana Masamune's grave was even laid, he spoke softly.

The moment he opened his mouth, he exuded a detached and otherworldly air, as if he had seen through the vanities of the world and was preparing to become a monk.

"I plan to leave Japan after this is over." Genji's voice was calm, but you could hear the obvious fatigue in it. But to the crow, it sounded like he was making a promise.

Although he had heard Yuan Zhisheng mutter about retiring from the martial arts world and going into seclusion abroad more than once, this time Crow could tell that his young master was not just talking.

"Boss, are you serious?"

"Mm." Yuan Zhisheng nodded, raised his hand and pressed the fingerprint lock on the archive room, and stepped inside after the verification was successful.

"Young Master, where do you plan to develop your career? After I'm done with this busy period, I'll gather some information and see if I can make a name for myself overseas," Crow cautiously probed.

"Perhaps it will be France." Genji walked deeper into the archives room, where confidential files were sealed in a separate safe at the very back.

"Also, I'm just tired of the fighting and killing in the underworld and want to live a normal life. I don't plan to take you and Yaksha with me."

"Then what about me and Yaksha?" Crow followed behind him with a bitter face. "According to the family rules, if you leave, no one will dare to hire us. Are we supposed to retire early in our prime and live off the family's welfare payments?"
Young Master, how cruel you are!

As retainers of the young master of the Snake Clan, after Genji leaves the clan, Crow and Yaksha are destined to be ostracized by other forces and will have no chance of entering the upper echelons.

Moreover, one of them is a cunning strategist, and the other is a violent maniac. They lack political acumen, and even if they were rashly promoted to high positions, they might not be able to hold onto them.

Therefore, we need to find them a reliable ally to ensure they have a place to stick together and support each other.

And coincidentally, that bastard... cough, that Sakura is a big shot, and he also had a brief exchange with the Inuyama family head last night.

Once the curse on the White King's bloodline is broken, he will use all the credit to pave the way for these two rascals; how far they go depends on their own fate.

Upon learning that the young master had made such meticulous arrangements for the two of them, Crow was deeply moved and eagerly stepped forward to search the safe for them when Genji opened it.
"Young Master, may we come to see you again in the future?"

"For example, if you and Sakura plan to get married abroad, you'll need to find someone to be your best man, run errands, collect gifts, and so on."

"Besides, Yaksha and I can't be gangsters forever. We'll retire eventually. If our enemies take advantage of our old age and weakness then, can we come to you from abroad?"

These words implied a sense that once a young master, always a young master, and that they shouldn't try to shake them off, but Genjiro wasn't angry. He just stood there with his arms crossed, watching the crows rummage around.
"Are you planning to expect me to take care of you in your old age?"

He did not deny that he was marrying Sakura!

Crow felt his heart skip a beat, feeling a little disappointed, but mostly overjoyed that "the CP I supported is finally locked in."

When people are in high spirits, even their typing speed increases: "Found it, the principal's information."

Yuan Zhisheng took it; the file was visibly thick, conservatively estimated to be no less than three hundred pages.

There was no rush to open it; the archive room was too dark, and besides, there was an even more important document that hadn't been found.

Soon, the crow found a thin file folder at the bottom of the safe. The name on the file was blurred, as if someone had stepped on it, and only the character "上" could be vaguely made out.

Returning to his office with the files in hand, Genji suddenly paused before entering, raising his hand to signal the crow to go rest.

After the strategist left, Genjiro pushed open the door and entered. His gaze darkened slightly as he looked at the stunningly beautiful female ninja who had come uninvited to the office.

Mai Shude was fiddling with two listening devices in her hands, and she nodded as she saw him walk in.

"We meet again, you're the male protagonist of a shonen manga."

"Are ninjas really this open about it now?" Genji frowned as he looked at the bugging device in her hand, his expression not good.

No one would be happy if their private territory, or even a heavily guarded military camp, were secretly infiltrated.

Even if the other party is a rare beauty. "There's nothing we can do. It's your Snake Clan's network that's insecure. Whether it's letters or online communication, there's a risk of being monitored."

Mai Shude placed the two listening devices on the desk, her face showing impatience at wasting their talents and blatant contempt.

Genjiro immediately recognized that the bugging device had been found in his office. His opinion of Tachibana Masamune plummeted further, and he voiced his doubts:

"Did Sakura send you?"

"Yes, he's planning to use your brother as bait to catch a big fish, and he's giving you a heads-up so you won't be distracted."

Mai Shude took out two reports, which were head examinations of Erii and Minamoto no Chizuru, with the words "Read and burn immediately" written on them in red ink.

"What do you mean? Bondarev and Herzog are still alive?"

Since Genji was unable to share the intelligence in time, from his perspective, Tachibana Masamune was still a KGB officer named Bondarev, and the leader of the Oni Clan was the half-evolved creature who escaped from Black Swan Harbor, and it was very likely that he was Herzog himself.

This was the conclusion he reached after thinking about it all night.

Unfortunately, one mistake led to another.

Mai Shude selectively shared the known information, concealing the most important fact: the White King might have already returned to Honshu Island along the underground river.

After saying a long speech, Mai looked at the file in Genji's hand:
"It is impolite not to reciprocate. We are all in the same boat now, so we shouldn't keep the good stuff to ourselves."

"Such a large organization as yours, have you not collected any information about Angers' past?" Yuan Zhisheng wondered. Could it be that Sakura and that Susan were really just a top-tier conglomerate with wealth beyond measure, lacking sufficient background?

“Angers is an old monster from over a hundred years ago. Many of his deeds are top secrets of the Secret Service. And in the last century, you were the only ones in Asia who had the most dealings with him.”

Mai took Angers' file from his hands, and then pulled out a camera from somewhere, seemingly preparing to transfer all the hundreds of pages of the file as photographs.

Yuan Zhisheng hesitated for a moment, but ultimately did not stop him.

The White King's revival, Herzog's whereabouts, and Erii's health all require Sakura's help. The reward he can offer is limited, so this is just a case of using someone else's resources to help someone else.

Yuan Zhisheng wasn't in a hurry; he just watched from the side, taking a picture and looking at it after she took one.

The records show that Angers was first adopted, and his adoptive parents trained him to beg for money. Because he was so outstanding, he was noticed by the local bishop, who sponsored him to study at Cambridge University, where he met Meneke Cassel, the founder of the Lionheart Society of the Secret Society.

That was the benefactor who changed his life, one of the greatest dragon slayers in history.

They formed the world's finest dragon-slaying squad, reaping immense glory. Everyone believed that these young lions would be the hope of the Secret Society, and that Lion King Menek Cassel would become the next leader of the Secret Society.

However, they were tragically cut short before they could reach their peak. A Dragon King-level enemy nearly wiped out the original Lionheart Society, leaving only the critically wounded Hilbert Jean Angers.

Now, Genjiro knew why the headmaster hated dragons so much.

Imagine if Tachibana Masamune wasn't Herzog, but rather his adoptive father who treated him like his own son; if the young girl hadn't fallen into demonhood but remained a well-behaved and obedient younger brother; and if Erii were healthy and the most beloved little princess of the Snake Clan.

They, along with the crow demon, arrived at his and Sakura's wedding with smiles on their faces. When the master of ceremonies announced that the groom could kiss his beloved bride, the White King suddenly revived and forcefully stormed into the wedding venue, killing all the guests and the bride, leaving only him to eke out a living.

Faced with such overwhelming despair and pain, Genji felt that even if he fought until the end of the world, until there were no more pure-blooded dragons left in the world, he would still not be able to quell the hatred in his heart.

Delayed by this brutal battle, his browsing speed could no longer keep up with Mai Shude's filming speed. He simply stopped looking at the principal's information and turned to look at his father, who was the disgrace of the Snake-Headed Eight Families, to see what glorious past he had.

Uesugi Koshi, male, born in...

Upon opening the file folder, the first thing you see is a description of your personal information.

Looking at the handsome, almost flamboyant man in the file, Yuan Zhisheng suddenly seemed to see the evil spirit who had turned the warm corpse of a girl into a wax figure in the basement. Both of them exuded a kind of sinister charm.

Compared to his deceased grandparents, Genjiro's biological father had an unremarkable first eighteen years of life, at best a high-IQ genius who earned a doctorate from the University of Lyon at a young age.

During his time in France, Uesugi Koshi was still considered a decent person, but after the awakening of the White King's bloodline and the explosion of his Word of Power that destroyed a street, his life underwent a dramatic change.

Seeing the despicable side of Uesugi Kotetsu after he went to Japan, Genjiro really found it hard to imagine that this person was born in the Church of Our Lady and had spent eighteen years bathed in the glory of the Lord.

According to the archives, Uesugi Kotetsu was undoubtedly a spoiled brat who lacked a sense of national duty, had no sense of family identity, and was arrogant and dissolute.

The Snake-Headed Eight Families gave him all the resources they could, but he always just went through the motions, always remained detached from the family, and acted like a foreign lord from an advanced Western civilization.

Just when he finally developed a sense of identity with his country and people, war broke out. He was tricked into becoming a "Japanese captain," doing nothing but encouraging his family members to join the war and committing countless atrocities around the world.

Yuan Zhisheng frowned as he looked at the documents.

In recent years, people have been trying to deny that history, and the voices are getting louder and louder, including descendants of "war heroes" from the Snake-Headed Eight Families.

Although I haven't been paying close attention, I've still heard rumors that some people are planning to include fabricated history in textbooks.

Before this, he had been indifferent to these things. After all, he was just an orphan, and making a good life with his younger brother was more important than anything else. He didn't need to worry about things like family and country.

But now that he knows he is actually the descendant of war criminals, his feelings are very complicated.

He clearly yearns for justice and dreams of being a friend of justice, so why is the blood flowing through his veins so filthy?

First a gangster tycoon, then a war criminal, what other dark history awaits him to uncover?

Yuan Zhisheng suppressed his disgust and continued reading, his brows furrowing more and more as he read.

When he saw that Genji had failed in his attempt to assassinate Angers, he merely frowned, gaining a new understanding of the principal's abilities.

Seeing him fly into a rage after receiving Angers' gift, storming into the family's former shrine and burning it down, I felt somewhat bewildered, and gained a new understanding of Principal Angers' methods of manipulating people's hearts.

As he turned the page, a crumpled piece of paper fell out of the file. He picked it up, and after reading its contents, he froze on the spot.

It records a horrific massacre and also carries a mother's most sincere, yet most desperate, curse for her son!
As he gazed at the tearful testimony, Yuan Zhisheng's mind was filled with a constant buzzing, as if a great bell was engulfing him, leaving him unable to recover for a long time.

(End of this chapter)