Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei finds a Freylian

"It's a game where girls dress up as maids and playfully fight with guests using pillows." Seeing the strange "I understand, I understand perfectly" expression on Caesar's face, she quickly added an explanation, blushing.

Caesar suddenly felt a bit bored, even foolish. What fun was there in playing around with pillows? His sparring sessions with Chu Zihang were much more interesting. At least they were simulated battles with wooden swords, and when the mood struck, they'd even switch to live-fire submachine guns for close-quarters indoor combat training! That was real warfare between men.

"Then what about sleeping? The manager asked me before if I needed to die immediately," Caesar was still a little curious.

"Oh, that?" Zhen breathed a sigh of relief. Explaining this was much easier than explaining the pillow fight. "It's about resting with your head on a girl's lap, like a nap service? It costs 2000 yen for half an hour. The shop calls this service 'High School Nap,' and advertises it as helping customers rediscover that innocent feeling of secretly sleeping on their girlfriend's lap during breaks in high school."

She whispered, "The salary is quite high, but some girls are willing to do it, so I still don't dare."

"Oh, I see." Caesar scratched his dusty blond hair, gaining a new understanding of this "repressed" Japanese culture. All these elaborate schemes, in the end, are still for that ambiguous attraction.

"Working here, have the customers caused you too much trouble?" He asked casually out of politeness, which was also a way of showing concern.

“I’m fine.” Zhen gently clenched her fist and held it out to Caesar, a simple silver ring on her slender middle finger. “I’m wearing this. Everyone in the shop assumes I have a boyfriend, and the head waiter usually doesn’t assign me to the more difficult or persistent customers. They probably asked me to shine your shoes because they think you, Mr. Gattuso, are a polite customer and wouldn’t make things difficult for me.”

Caesar remembered that when he saw Zhen at the toy store a few days ago, she didn't have this ring on her hand. "You have a boyfriend? Congratulations," he said politely.

“Shou bought it for me.” Zhen lowered her head slightly, her ears turning a little red. “Working in a place like this, wearing a ring makes things much easier. Some lecherous older men always want to ask girls out on dates, but when they see a ring, most of them will back down.”

"Why did you quit your job at the toy store?" Caesar asked.

Zhen paused for a moment, a hint of disappointment in his voice: "I heard that after someone from the family went to the shop, the manager fired me the next day. Shou said that this Mambo shop was taken care of by a friend he knew in the underworld, and he could help me find a temporary job. So, I started working here the day before yesterday."

She sighed softly, “I don’t dare tell Grandma I lost my job. She was so happy when she heard I found a new job. Her pension is barely enough for us to live on, but she has always wanted to save money for my college education. If she knew I was unemployed again, she would definitely secretly save every penny and try every possible way to save up for my tuition.”

As she spoke, she carefully slipped the gleaming leather shoes back onto Caesar's feet, then gently polished them with the clean white velvet cloth.

Caesar felt embarrassed to keep looking down at her while she worked, so he could only tilt his head back slightly, maintaining a 45-degree angle as he looked up at the ceiling, enjoying this slightly awkward yet undeniably comfortable high-class shoe-shining service.

"We've caused you trouble," Caesar said, feeling embarrassed. He hadn't expected that their act of kindness would indirectly lead to him losing his relatively simple job.

"How are you getting along with Noda Hisashi?" he changed the subject.

Zhen nodded, a faint but genuine smile appearing on her face: "He's been pursuing me quite aggressively. Now he comes to pick me up here every day after get off work, and everyone in the store believes he's my boyfriend. Don't let his somewhat timid demeanor in front of you fool you; here, because he knows some people, everyone takes good care of me. We're kind of helping each other out, pretending to be boyfriend and girlfriend."

At this point, she suddenly smiled, a smile with a touch of girlish slyness and shyness, like a kitten that had secretly hidden something good. This was the first time Caesar had seen such a lively and expressive face on the face of this girl who always seemed reserved and honest.

Caesar suddenly recalled what Origin had once said: the so-called underworld is often just a group of pitiful people who cannot live a decent life in the normal sunlight. If they could earn enough money through legitimate means, who would want to spend their days licking blood off a knife's edge, being feared and despised by others?

Like Noda Hisashi, a loud and boisterous thug wielding a metal baseball bat and trying to play the tough guy, strip away that exaggerated exterior and you're probably just a simple-minded kid who dropped out of school early and is trying to clumsily maintain a bit of masculine dignity.

“Of course Shou can’t be compared to a big shot like Mr. Gattuso. He always has ‘a man should do this and that’ on his lips, which sounds a bit silly,” Zhen said softly, without much derogatory meaning in her tone. “But he’s also a good person. He tries very hard to do everything well and is very good to me.”

“Although the occasion was a bit unexpected,” Caesar paused, “it’s really nice to run into people I know here.”

"Don't worry, I know how to be respectful," she said earnestly, carefully tying Caesar's shoelaces. "Although my family isn't wealthy, I will work hard to make life better."

Caesar's heart skipped a beat, and he suddenly understood why Zhen had spoken so much to him, intentionally or unintentionally. She was explaining her situation to him in a tactful way, clarifying that she wasn't doing anything truly shady, but was forced to make a living there because of poverty.

Poverty is not a shameful fault. Recalling her instinctive dodge and the sudden blankness and then sadness in her eyes, she must have felt a deep sadness at that moment.

For once, Caesar Gattuso, who was usually so confident as to be almost arrogant, felt that his subconscious action just now was a bit stupid.

Chapter 510 Mr. Caesar, you are very kind.

"Is the tightness of these shoelaces okay? Aren't they too tight?" Zhen asked, looking up after tying her shoelaces.

“Perfect, not too loose, not too tight, very professional.” Caesar stretched his ankle, then looked at Zhen, his tone becoming more serious. “Speaking of which, there’s something I need your help with.”

"Yes! Please tell me! As long as it's within my power!" Zhen immediately straightened her back, nodded vigorously, and her eyes were full of sincere willingness to help.

"I came to Chizuru-cho to find a manga internet cafe. There's a box that's very important to me stored there. Do you know of any other similar ones around here? Something where I can read manga and surf the internet, maybe a small, old, and inconspicuous one?" Caesar described what his memory of a safe haven looked like.

"Huh?" Zhen was taken aback for a moment, then realized, "You haven't come to the wrong place! This is it!"

“I mean the old kind, which was probably more rudimentary,” Caesar tried to describe it more accurately.

“It’s definitely here!” Zhen said with certainty. “The comic book internet cafe you mentioned used to be in this building. But it closed down several years ago. The entire store was sold to the current Mambo, and the owner and employees have all changed. I don’t know if the box you’re looking for is still in its original place, or if it has been cleared away.”

"Damn it!" Caesar's face instantly turned extremely ugly, and he cursed under his breath, "The Execution Department's operation manual is outdated; they haven't updated the information at all!"

After a long and arduous journey, braving the cold wind and riding his motorcycle all day, arriving here covered in dust and filled with anxiety, he discovered that his target was nowhere to be found! Had he known this would happen, he might as well have just found a seemingly normal internet cafe on the roadside and tried to contact the college in a more direct way!

“There’s one more thing I need to ask you,” Caesar said, suppressing his irritation. He looked at Zhen and his tone became serious. “I’m not actually from the main family. I’m just here on a business trip. The main family has some collaborative projects with our academy. The specifics are complicated, but anyway…”

He emphasized, "Never mention to anyone that you've seen me here. If anyone asks, say you don't know. This is very important."

"Understood!" Without any hesitation, he nodded vigorously again, his expression as serious as if he were receiving a major mission. "I will definitely keep it a secret! I won't tell Shou either!"

She hesitated for a moment, then added in a low voice, "Actually, I saw your wanted poster on the news. The police are looking for you too, and the portrait on it looks quite like you."

"Oh? The wanted poster is on the TV news?" Caesar smirked self-deprecatingly. "Looks like I'm pretty high on the list of 'dangerous individuals' in Japan."

“So coming to an internet cafe like this is actually quite dangerous,” Zhen said with concern. “Nowadays, most businesses, even convenience stores, have security cameras at their entrances. We also keep a simple record of every customer who comes in and out here. It’s just that your appearance is quite different from the wanted poster, so the manager probably didn’t recognize you at first.”

Caesar smiled bitterly to himself: How could the difference not be significant? The Caesar Gattuso on the wanted poster would undoubtedly be impeccably dressed in a suit, with impeccably blond hair, a handsome face, and an air of Italian aristocratic nonchalance and arrogance.

Now, he was disheveled, his hair matted, wearing a dirty leather jacket, and his jeans were almost worn through at the back. He had been riding his motorcycle all day, and his tailbone was still aching! He could count on one hand the number of times he had ever been this down on his luck in his life.

"You're just agreeing to help me like that?" Caesar suddenly became curious, scrutinizing Zhen. "Aren't you afraid I might actually be the kind of vicious thug described on the wanted poster? Or an international criminal?"

Throughout his life, he was never short of flattery, fawning, and even adoration from girls of all kinds, which he had long been accustomed to and gladly accepted. Because behind these courtesans often stood the illustrious Gattuso family.

Ingratiating oneself with the Gattuso family heir, except in Japan, is a wise and potentially lucrative investment anywhere. But in Japan, he's a wanted criminal who has lost the protection of his family and is barely safe himself. Genuine help, untainted by self-interest.

She was taken aback by his question, lowered her eyes, and unconsciously twisted the edge of the shoe-shining cloth between her fingers. After a moment of silence, she raised her head again, her gaze clear and firm, and looked at Caesar, answering softly but clearly:

"No matter what others say, no matter what is written on the arrest warrant, I believe in you. Because I think you are a kind person."

"Kind"……

When the word reached Caesar's ears, he was unusually taken aback.

From birth until now, he has received countless praises. Handsome, strong, wealthy, elegant, with leadership qualities, generous, tasteful… he has long since become numb to all kinds of praise, whether sincere or insincere. But in his memory, it seems that very few people have used the word "kind" to describe him. Before Zhen, the last person to say that was his mother, who had long since passed away.

Caesar was born an extremely difficult child to manage and had a very poor obedience. In the words of the family elders, who were half headaches and half pampering him, he was practically born a demon star into the Gattuso family. Although he was established as the undisputed heir at a very young age, even those elders who doted on him often felt helpless about his unruly and unreasonable behavior.

When he was seven years old, the Italian ambassador to the United States came to visit. During the meal, he specifically asked to eat the tenderest lamb in the sheepfold, which happened to be Caesar's favorite pet.

Caesar remained outwardly calm, but secretly slipped into the kitchen and carefully hid a fresh gall bladder under the ambassador's salad leaves. The ambassador, completely unsuspecting, bit into it, and instantly bile gushed out, turning his face green with bitterness—his complexion was practically identical to the bile itself.

A family is hosting a lavish masquerade ball at their country villa, attracting a gathering of celebrities and glamorous figures. As the male and female guests sway lazily to the music, a terrifying, eerie wail suddenly erupts from the speakers.

The elegant ladies and socialites, dressed in high heels and exquisite attire, were terrified and fell over in a chaotic mess, with some even dropping their shaping bra pads in the panic.

The reason? Simply because the noise from the ball kept Caesar, who was living in the villa at the time, from sleeping.

Of course, the most classic instance was his revenge against his biological father, Pompeii.

One day, Pompeii hooked up with a popular and glamorous actress. The two rushed into the bedroom, turned off the lights, and were about to have sex when Pompeii suddenly noticed that the Renoir painting of a lady, which he had bought at great expense and loved, was emitting a faint, eerie green glow in the darkness.

The highlighter was clearly visible: "List of women who have stayed in this bedroom: XXX" followed by a long list of socialites, models, and minor celebrities. The list ended with a smaller print: "Cesare Gattuso (yes, his son) cordially invites you to leave your name on this work of art. The highlighter is in the bedside table drawer; please take it."

Pompeii angrily turned on the light. The female celebrity who had been making vows of eternal love and showering him with affection just a moment ago was now furious, throwing the bra in her hand at his face and yelling, "How could you sleep with that filthy bitch, so-and-so (a name on the list)?!" With that, she slammed the door and left.

Pompeii flew into a rage, searching everywhere for the little bastard who had framed him. He finally found Caesar sitting with his knees drawn up in a corner of the storeroom. Father and son stared at each other coldly; young Caesar showed no fear, only a stubborn, deathly indifference.

Pompey roared at his son, "Caesar, you disrespect the facts! How can you fabricate stories out of thin air! There are six people on your list whom I have never slept with!"

Little Caesar raised his eyes and coldly retorted, "What does it matter? You'll sleep with it eventually anyway."

The elders of the family were deeply worried. If he was such a troublesome troublemaker as a child, wouldn't he grow up to be a lawless demon king? What the Gattuso family needed was a strong leader who could lead the family to continued prosperity, not a wanton destroyer.

Only his mother thought differently.

When the night was still and quiet, she would quietly come to Caesar's room, sit on the edge of the bed, gently stroke her son's soft blond hair, and then lean down to leave a light kiss on his forehead.

She would say in the softest voice, "This world can be cruel sometimes, my little Caesar. It may be hard for you to fight against it so hard, and it may be useless. But Mommy is very happy, really happy. Because I know that my Caesar is a kind child at heart."

Was he really as kind as his mother claimed? Caesar himself couldn't say for sure. His childhood pranks stemmed more from a pure impulse to thwart the hypocrisy, boredom, and self-righteousness of adults. The more he messed things up, the more secret pleasure he felt.

He even thought with a hint of regret: "That female celebrity, really, if you're going to hit Pompeii, why wear underwear? Aren't you wearing high heels? It would have been so much better to just hit him on the head! He would have been fine!"

Chapter 511 Asou Makoto Falls in Love with Caesar

"May Confucius bless you!" Caesar breathed a sigh of relief, bowed slightly to the distant East beside the greasy keyboard, and solemnly pressed the Enter key with piety and expectation.

This time, he successfully accessed a server located on the outskirts of Stockholm, Sweden. This is one of the legendary fortresses in the global hacker community. It is said that the host is buried deep under an abandoned nuclear bunker from the Cold War era, and is known for its near-absolute physical isolation and complex encryption protocols, and has never been truly breached.

If even this place cannot serve as a springboard, then Princess Kaguya's blockade is truly an inescapable trap.

The simple black DOS window remained still on the screen for a few seconds, like the stillness before a storm. Then, like a flood bursting its banks, countless lines of white code characters rushed into the window frantically and eagerly, scrolling upwards at a dazzling speed, forming a torrent of characters.

Success! Connection established! These surging strings of strings were the dynamic electronic decryption lock sent by Norma. An invisible torrent of data, originating from the main campus of Kassel College on the other side of the world, crossed the Pacific Ocean, circled around the icy and snowy Nordic countries, and miraculously poured into the 14-inch screen of an old computer in this quasi-porn internet cafe on the outskirts of Tokyo.

The torrent of characters eventually subsided and disappeared, leaving only a simple prompt in the center of the screen with a constantly flashing green cursor: "Norma:".

Caesar took a deep breath, suppressing the surging excitement in his chest. His fingers flew across the keyboard as he quickly typed: "Caesar Gattuso, Executive Department Specialist, Class A, File No. 112933A. Called for help from Japan, in critical condition, requesting immediate assistance and evacuation."

"Welcome back, Caesar. You are now under my protection."

That short line of text made Caesar feel that Norma was more endearing than ever before. He had always disliked nagging, controlling women, and had even once anonymously posted on the Night's Watch forum, criticizing Norma's personality as being just like "a pampered, controlling middle-aged white woman."

But right now, if Norma were standing in front of him in her physical form, he would not hesitate to give her a warm, Italian-style hug and a loud kiss on the cheek! Returning to Norma's wing means so much.

He will regain the support of the global intelligence network, be able to withdraw cash from the Academy’s secret accounts around the world, and even be able to temporarily mobilize a disguised helicopter to send him out of Japan without anyone noticing.

For the Kassel commissioner, who was on the line, Norma was almost a demigod, because Norma was the all-knowing and all-powerful goddess of wisdom and logistics behind them. Even if he was shot and fell to the ground, as long as he still had the strength to press the communicator, within minutes, an ambulance helicopter would roar through the clouds and appear overhead.

"Caesar: Project Dragon Abyss has failed. I am the only confirmed survivor at present."

"Norma: The Japanese branch has been confirmed to have defected. The entire territory of Japan is now considered a hostile battlefield."

"Caesar: What were the reasons for the rebellion? Was it a high-level decision? Or was he coerced by external forces?"

"Norma: This level of intelligence is temporarily blocked from you. Your current priority is: infiltration. You are one of the very few humans who have entered the divine realm of Takamagahara and returned. Once the Snake Clan confirms your survival, they will spare no effort to capture you."

"Caesar: The established safe haven has failed, and I need to find an alternative hiding place. Urgent needs list: a stealthy helicopter, an absolutely clean satellite phone, a high-limit anonymous credit card, and six million yen in cash."

"Norma: Based on Japan's current air traffic control regulations and Princess Kaguya's monitoring capabilities, moving aircraft will leave indelible electronic traces, which the Snake Clan can use to track. The pick-up vehicle is on its way. Please remain where you are and stay calm. All the supplies you requested are on the vehicle. We will establish secondary contact once we reach a completely safe location."

Caesar: Understood.

Norma was truly impressive. In just a few minutes, she not only verified his identity and assessed the situation, but also immediately devised a practical emergency evacuation plan and even dispatched the necessary vehicles. Such efficiency was reassuring.

Shin remained quietly kneeling beside Caesar on the tatami mat, watching him intently and spiritedly type on the keyboard, as if he were not inputting instructions but playing a stirring piano concerto.

Seeing the renewed radiance on Caesar's face, I was genuinely happy for him. Although the Caesar who was disheveled, somewhat downcast and tired before had a certain pitiful charm, deep down, I believed Caesar should be like this now: confident, powerful, as if everything was under control, radiating a light that dispelled the gloom.

She couldn't help but recall that rainy night. The wind whipped up the hem of Caesar's long black overcoat, and he gracefully turned to the side, shielding the flame with his broad hand, lighting a large cigar against the wind and rain, then tilting his head back and leisurely exhaling a puff of bluish-white smoke towards the leaden sky.

Caesar seemed to be born to the brilliant sunshine of the Gulf of Genoa; even the fiercest storms could not completely extinguish the innate, dazzling aura surrounding him.

At this moment, the two were very close. Zhen's long, sandalwood-scented sideburns had a few strands that casually fell and gently rested on Caesar's shoulder. By the dim blue light reflected from the computer screen, Caesar could see Zhen's profile so close to his face: fair skin, focused eyes, and slightly pursed lips.