Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei finds a Freylian

Caesar was silent for a few seconds. Then he pulled the Desert Eagle from his waistband and placed it on the bar counter. The muzzle was pointed at the wall, and his finger wasn't inside the trigger guard, but his posture already conveyed his entire attitude.

"If you can prove it, we will assist you in eliminating the King. There is no need to doubt the Academy's decisiveness in such matters. The Academy's history is only a century old, while the Secret Society's history dates back thousands of years. For most of those thousands of years, the Secret Society was never an academic institution; it was a sword aimed at the Dragon King. Any force attempting to resurrect the Dragon King will be severed at its root by this sword. This principle remains unchanged to this day," Caesar replied.

“Very good.” Kazama Ruri pulled out the Tokyo Tower architectural blueprints that she had been keeping folded in her pocket and unfolded them on the bar.

It was an engineering drawing that was quite old, printed during the Tailiang period. The edges were yellowed with age, but every structural line and text label was still clearly legible.

He traced the vertical axis leading straight to the top of the tower with his fingertip, finally placing his finger on the rectangular enclosed space at a height of 250 meters.

"Then tomorrow at midnight, we'll go and eavesdrop on the reunion of those two old friends."

Chapter 841 Tokyo Tower

"Tokyo Tower is an iron tower with a total height of 333 meters. There is a two-story main observation deck at 100 meters above the ground, and a special observation deck at 250 meters above the ground."

Ruri Kazama's fingers moved slowly across the yellowed architectural blueprints, her fingertips tracing the central pillar that ran from the base to the top of the tower, finally tapping twice on the narrow cross-section marked "Special Observation Deck".

"The tower is equipped with four high-speed elevators, three of which connect directly to the main observation deck from the ground, and a separate elevator ascends from the main observation deck to the special observation deck. Each elevator has a capacity of 32 passengers and a speed of 9 kilometers per hour, meaning it only takes about two minutes to go from the ground to the top of the tower. In addition to the elevators, there is a spiral iron maintenance staircase that winds around the tower. After climbing 590 steps, you can directly reach the top of the tower. This is a passage for maintenance workers and is not open to tourists at other times. Each step is only the width of an adult male's foot, and there is only a simple guardrail on the outside that is waist-high."

“Meeting at a special observation deck can, of course, avoid all irrelevant eyes and ears. At that height, there are no windows for spying, no corridors to hide a third party, and only one entrance and exit on the entire floor. But if negotiations break down, the losing side also has no way out; once the elevator doors close, there is a 250-meter-high cliff behind them,” Caesar said.

"Therefore, it can be inferred that Tachibana Masamune must have laid an ambush of an elite squad from the Executive Bureau at a high point around Tokyo Tower in advance. If the negotiations break down, even if the King kills Tachibana Masamune on the spot, he will have a very difficult time escaping from the tower. Once the elevator cable is cut, the entire special observation deck will become a lonely prison suspended in mid-air by a storm."

Ruri Kazama said, “Tonight we have two things to accomplish. First, we need to implant eavesdropping devices in the sealed special observation tower to intercept the entire negotiation between the King and Tachibana Masamune, and find out what the key they are talking about is. Second, we need to intercept and kill the King when he has locked himself in this desperate situation he chose, 250 meters up in the tower. He chose a place with no sky or earth at the meeting place, thinking that no one could see him or disturb him, but he has just locked himself in a death cell without even windows.”

“Tell me your plan,” Caesar said, tapping the table with his knuckles.

“First, we must break through their anti-eavesdropping methods.” Kazama Ruri lifted her gaze from the blueprint, scanning Caesar and Chu Zihang’s faces in turn. “This is not easy. Wang Jiang received the highest level of spy training from the former Soviet KGB, spending his entire life evading tracking and assassination. He always carries a full-band radio wave scanning device with him. As long as it detects any radio signal within a two-meter radius that has not been certified by him, the machine will sound an alarm. You can imagine that when these two first met in that frozen port in Siberia, they must have already locked each other down using all their knowledge.”

He suddenly turned his head, his gaze passing over the row of empty bowls on the bar and landing on Fingel, who was secretly putting the last piece of shrimp tempura into his mouth.

"However, as far as I know, your school happens to have an indisputable expert in wiretapping. Mr. Fingel von Frings, the fact that your news department has been able to uncover year after year the operational losses concealed by the executive department, the secret memos of the board of trustees fighting amongst themselves, and how many zeros were deliberately removed from graduate salary reports, is definitely not due to randomly inserting a few pinhole cameras."

Just moments ago, Fingel was savoring the last sip of soup with utmost reluctance, holding the entire white porcelain bowl up so high that he almost completely covered his face behind the rim.

Suddenly hearing someone solemnly announce their full name, accompanied by the impressive title of "eavesdropping expert," he lifted his face from his noodle bowl, looked left at Caesar, and right at Chu Zihang, his expression as flustered as a hamster whose name had been suddenly called.

He never even considered getting involved in something as high-risk as assassinating a king. Before this, his life goal was simply to eat three meals a day, and he did so quite diligently.

"Aren't there any other eavesdropping experts within the Ghost Clan?" Caesar asked.

"We must ambush the King General, and this matter absolutely cannot be handled by the Ghost Clan itself," Kazama Ruri said calmly. "The King General has controlled the Ghost Clan for twenty years, and he has planted his own spies at every level, from top to bottom. The only people I can completely trust are those I have personally witnessed refusing to eat anything the King General offers, and even those people are fewer than a handful. Kassel College has no direct interest in this matter, so you are the most suitable."

"You're after my eavesdropping skills?" Fingel seemed a little bewildered, yet with a rapidly evaporating glimmer of expectation. "I thought you invited me to the shop mainly because you thought I was a natural-born gigolo, with the potential to be a heartthrob like Heracles."

“You are indeed a good candidate for a gigolo… but in the current situation, I would prefer you to play the role of an eavesdropping expert.” Kazama Ruri was taken aback by his words before regaining her usual gentle and precise wording.

"So all those nice things you said to me on the steps before, like 'Nagase Tomoya type,' 'Welcome to Takamagahara,' were all insincere?" Fingel quickly withered, the shrimp tempura in his hand drooping limply at the edge of the bowl, like a flame that had been doused with a bucket of cold water. "After hearing those words, I really thought I had stumbled upon a new direction in life on this street."

"I'm so sorry, I..." Kazama Ruri's usually composed smile cracked for the first time. He looked at Caesar and then at Lu Mingfei, but both of them looked away at the same time.

“Don’t get entangled with Fingel on this kind of topic; he can drive you crazy. He used this tactic to eliminate three-time consecutive champions in the academy debate competition, and then got permanently banned.” Caesar rescued Kazama Ruri from Fingel’s mournful face. “Finger, I’m currently the leader of this temporary special operations team. Now that you’re in, you’ll be under my command. Now answer his question: how can we avoid the full-frequency radio wave scan?”

“There are many methods, but the most suitable one for the current situation is laser eavesdropping.” Fingel put down the shrimp tail, took a napkin and wiped the oil off his fingers, his entire demeanor suddenly changing. He was no longer the homeless man who had been starving to death, but an expert who had been immersed in a certain field for many years and had absolute confidence in his skills.

"Using an infrared laser beam completely invisible to the naked eye, the system precisely locks onto the window of the target room from a distance. Any sound wave inside, including the slightest vibration of the vocal cords when two people are talking, will cause a micrometer-level mechanical deformation in the window glass. This deformation will change the polarization angle of the reflected laser. After the receiver decodes the polarization shift back into sound waves, it is possible to listen to all conversations inside the room in real time without the target's knowledge. Because no electronic devices are deployed in the target area, it does not generate any radio signals that can be captured by instruments, making it ineffective against full-frequency radio wave scanning equipment."

"What is the effective range of the entire system?" Caesar asked.

"One hundred meters. Both the laser's emitting and receiving units must be within one hundred meters of the target window in a straight line. Any further and the polarization shift will attenuate to the point where an effective signal cannot be extracted."

“The special observation deck is located at a height of 250 meters, and the straight-line distance from the ground to the top of the tower is far beyond that range,” Chu Zihang immediately pointed out the technological blind spot. “What’s more troublesome is that there are no skybridges or adjacent buildings at that height to set up equipment. Tokyo Tower is the tallest structure within a full kilometer of the surrounding area.”

“What if we mounted the laser emitter directly onto the Tokyo Tower?” Caesar said.

“It’s impossible. The laser beam must hit the glass at a near 90-degree vertical angle for the polarization displacement to be steadily captured and reproduced,” Finger said. “If the transmitter is mounted on the Tokyo Tower’s own skeletal structure, the laser beam and the surface of the observation deck’s window glass will be almost parallel, and the receiver will only receive specular reflections, with no response to sound wave vibrations.”

After a brief silence, Lu Mingfei suddenly spoke up: "I have an idea." He bent down on the bar, grabbed a clean napkin, picked up a pencil, and quickly sketched a simple diagram on it. The drawing was so messy it looked almost like a primary school student's scribbles, but everyone's eyes changed after seeing it.

"That depends on the weather tomorrow night. Such a big guy shouldn't be difficult to spot with the naked eye even late at night in good weather," Caesar said, turning to Chu Zihang and Kazama Ruri. "Has the weather forecast come out yet?"

“Heavy rain, with localized thunderstorms.” Kazama Ruri stared at the crooked pattern on the napkin, the corners of her mouth gradually curving upwards. “People on the ground can’t see through the clouds at all, especially since the glass of the observation tower is covered with rainwater. This plan is very feasible.”

"We're not just sending up a laser transmitter, we're also sending a person up. Fingel just explained it very clearly, that equipment requires someone to manually adjust the laser incident angle and polarization resolution parameters in real time," Chu Zihang said.

Caesar suddenly turned his head, staring directly at Fingel with his eyes, which gleamed with a cold blue light like deep-sea ice under the dim light, and asked in a tone as uncompromising as the most authoritative action summary in a tactical briefing: "Fingel, approximately how much do you weigh?"

“One hundred and ninety pounds, about eighty-six kilograms. Every pound was earned inch by inch through hard work and sweat in the gym. Don’t underestimate the robust results I’ve achieved through countless days and nights of dedication. Otherwise, how could I live up to the name Heracles, a name full of strength and beauty?” Fingel unconsciously puffed out his chest, and the outline of his pectoral muscles was faintly visible beneath his indistinct-colored crew neck shirt. But his smugness didn’t last two seconds before he slammed his chopsticks on the bar and his voice suddenly rose half an octave, “Hey, wait! Why are you suddenly asking me about my weight?”

Chapter 842 Reverence for Your Eyes

Caesar did not answer, but continued to look Fingel up and down, a chilling smile playing on his lips.

Fingel had seen that look in his eyes before at Kassel College. Every time he was pulled in to replace the executive department interns to move those crates of heavy alchemical equipment that would break down on the spot as soon as they were opened, the professor leading the team used the exact same look. It wasn't like he was scrutinizing a living person, but rather examining a pig that had just been weighed and was about to be slaughtered.

"Then we must find a specification that can support a weight of about ninety kilograms. After that problem is solved, we can discuss the remaining solutions." Caesar didn't waste a single second explaining the details to Fingel, and Chu Zihang and Kazama Ruri both showed expressions of understanding at the same time.

"Never mind Tachibana Masamune for now. The King is our top priority target because he is too strong and too cunning. In the past twenty years, every time the Oni Clan has been cornered by the Snake-Headed Eight Families, he is always the one who survives. He always leaves at least three backup emergency evacuation routes wherever he goes, and even in seemingly hopeless situations, he always has escape tools prepared in advance."

Kazama Ruri's voice gradually lowered, and the last trace of a smile on her delicate face disappeared. "Only tonight, in this desolate place he chose himself, with no substitute and no secret passage to climb, is his only chance."

Caesar and Chu Zihang exchanged a glance and nodded simultaneously. At the end of the long, rainy street in Ebisu, Lu Mingfei had bumped into the man wearing the nobleman's mask.

From that moment on, the image of the king was imprinted on the edge of their retinas—not a threatening, fierce attack, but his composure as he stood in the pouring rain, his shoulder blades riddled with bullets yet he remained motionless.

What humanity truly fears is never a powerful adversary, but rather the incomprehensible. Wang Jiang is such a being; he is like an unclassifiable entity draped in human skin, his smile more chilling than any roar.

As long as he is still moving, like some kind of grayish-white mollusk wriggling on a stone slab, they will never be able to make the judgment that "this person can be killed by conventional means".

“There are only two ways to reach the special observation deck. One is the high-speed elevator, which ascends from the main observation deck in a sealed manner. The other is the iron maintenance ladder attached to the tower, which spirals from the ground to the top. I would like to ask you two to guard the elevator exit and the maintenance door at the end of the iron ladder, respectively,” Kazama Ruri said, looking at Caesar and Chu Zihang.

“They’re going to meet secretly at Tokyo Tower. Given how vigilant those two are, there’s no way the area won’t be cleared out, right?” Caesar asked.

“Clearing the area is inevitable. Moreover, both sides are very likely to have deployed surveillance personnel equipped with infrared telescopes on the top floors of several tall buildings in the surrounding area.” Kazama Ruri drew an irregular ellipse on the densely packed blocks surrounding Tokyo Tower with her fingertip.

"The ambient temperature on a rainy night is probably between one and two degrees Celsius, while your body temperature, as hybrids, remains constant at thirty-seven degrees Celsius. No matter where you hide in this tower, as long as even a small patch of skin is exposed to the outside air, it will appear as a distinctly red humanoid shape in the infrared telescope. Therefore, your hiding place must not be above ground; you must go underground. Directly below Tokyo Tower is a podium building called the Tower Building, with five floors above ground and two underground parking levels. Infrared rays cannot penetrate the top floor for imaging; that level is an absolute infrared blind spot."

“Since both sides will clear the area, do you think they’ll leave the entire underground parking garage unsealed?” Caesar asked.

“Of course not. If Tachibana Masamune himself were to set up the blockade, he would send someone to shut off the main elevator switch, cut off the power to the iron stairs and vehicle gates, and then lower the blast-proof sliding doors. In that case, every passage in the underground parking lot would be directly locked down.” As soon as Kazama Ruri finished speaking, Chu Zihang continued.

"Explosion-proof gates are not difficult to destroy." Even the titanium-aluminum alloy security gate, which is known as an alchemical miracle, will be torn into a thousand holes like tin foil under the pressure of Jun Yan's face.

"These are no ordinary gates. Tokyo Tower itself is a strategic radio tower. Today, it's just a sightseeing tower for tourists and couples, but more than a century ago, it was the most prominent broadcasting hub in Tokyo. Facilities in this location must be designed to withstand military-grade attacks: all the gates are blast-proof and bulletproof, made of two layers of hardened steel plates sandwiched with high-density blast-proof rubber. Even if you were to directly bombard them with a handheld rocket launcher, it would take multiple hits to barely tear them open. The power lines are buried deep in the tower's foundation, and during periods when the special observation deck is occupied, the power could be completely cut off."

Ruri Kazama lowered her head and pointed out the slender vertical pipe on the blueprint from top to bottom. "But you can use the cable conduit. Since the Tokyo Skytree was completed and replaced Tokyo Tower as the new generation of digital television tower, all the radio tower operations have been transferred there. The iron core of the entire vertical cable conduit for the special observation deck has been removed by the electricians. The inner wall of the conduit is now completely hollow, and you can go straight from the underground parking lot to the main observation deck along the maintenance access road."

“If we’ve done everything we’re supposed to do, what are you here for?” Caesar leaned back behind the bar, squinting one eye as he scrutinized Kazama Ruri.

"Excuse my bluntness, but I don't believe that either Gattuso or Chu could kill the King on their own." Kazama Ruri stood up, took out her long sword with a cherry-red scabbard from under the bar, and placed it horizontally on the table. "Your job is to drive the prey into the very end of this dead end. The one who makes the hunt can only be me."

Caesar's Adam's apple bobbed, but he ultimately did not refute. He and Chu Zihang had both witnessed Genjiro's martial arts demonstration at the Awakening Temple. With twin swords in hand, the overwhelming physical prowess granted by his imperial blood allowed his beloved sword, Spider Cutter, to tumble through the air, leaving a trail of silver light almost invisible to the naked eye.

Between any pair of twins, the bloodline of the one classified as the demon is often more extreme and unreserved than that of the one crowned as emperor.

It's not hard to imagine that beneath Kazama Ruri's serene and composed exterior lies a strength that enables him to wield his sword more effectively than his brother when killing.

"So we need one last person to control the high ground around the tower within a two- or three-kilometer radius." Kazama Ruri's gaze swept over everyone's shoulders and finally landed on Lu Mingfei, who had been huddled in a corner, barely daring to breathe. "This person needs to be skilled in using long-range sniper rifles and have the ability to make precise kills in any wind and visibility conditions."

Lu Mingfei stared blankly around, making sure there wasn't a fifth gigolo standing behind him in the room, then quickly shook his head like a rattle drum and frantically waved his hands in the air.

"Thank you for the organization's careful cultivation and trust in my extraordinary abilities, but if you really pin all your hopes on me being able to get this done, you've really misjudged me... No, no, no, I don't mean to insult you, I mean you should at least respect your precious lives! You all know that my mental fortitude is completely lacking. When I get nervous, I automatically start spouting nonsense and I can't stop, and my fingers tremble uncontrollably. Imagine, in that torrential rain, strong winds, and without any lights, you expect me to hold such a huge heavy sniper rifle. Forget about single shots, even if you gave me a heavy machine gun, I wouldn't be able to hit a target standing still!"

Caesar shrugged and didn't bother with further pleasantries. Although Lu Mingfei's self-assessment was harshly worded, it was entirely true.

This S-class character has indeed had several amazing precedents of going into overdrive, such as taking out an ordinary pistol and firing two shots in the academy, simultaneously knocking Caesar and Chu Zihang to the ground.

However, this extraordinary performance seems to be subject to some kind of demanding and unrepeatable triggering mechanism. Normally, if the entire responsibility of surrounding and blocking the battle is placed on his shoulders, it does feel like he is not being very responsible for his own life.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Lu. In a way, I've been looking forward to this face-to-face meeting for a long time." Kazama Ruri ignored Lu Mingfei's eager refusal and stared straight into his eyes with a very faint smile.

Lu Mingfei's heart tightened. He thought to himself, "Brother, although you are handsome and undeniably more feminine than most women when you dress up as one, I know perfectly well that you are a pure man, as pure as can be."

Your electric eyes are useless against my poor face, which is covered in stubble and severely sleep-deprived. Even if they could electrocute someone, I wouldn't mind flying back a few. We could fly back and forth until dawn.

“Because from the first moment I saw your photo, I envied you so much. Your eyes, your eyes filled me with awe,” Kazama Ruri continued.

"I think it's mostly because I'm a little nearsighted... I tend to squint in poor lighting, which makes it look like I'm deep in thought, but it's actually just astigmatism." Of all the flattery Lu Mingfei had ever received in his life, this one was the most powerful and outrageous.

He hesitated for several seconds, unsure how to gracefully decline this admiration, before finally managing to squeeze out an objective fact.

“No. That’s not blankness. You’re intentionally letting your focus wander; you’re avoiding it, not wanting others to see your eyes clearly.” Kazama Ruri slowly forked a small piece of fried shrimp tempura from Fingel’s plate and placed it neatly on the clean napkin in front of her, as if she were arranging a chess piece.

"The most precious things are carefully hidden away where no one can see them, only when their owners truly believe that they may be stolen at any moment. The same principle applies to the sharpest killing intent; it will not be left to stand idle and get damp and rusty. Such sharp things must be sheathed in the most inconspicuous scabbard, and the moment they are revealed is the moment to kill and take a life."

He raised his eyes, his gaze fixed on Lu Mingfei across the bar, a half-glass of translucent whiskey syrup in his hand, a half-smile playing on his lips.

"That's why I respect your eyes. No matter how thick a layer of ash you cover them with, there's always a sharp glint behind it. One day, it will pierce through."

Chapter 843 Frilian: Tachibana Masamune and Herzog are the same person!

The second night, Tokyo Tower.

The torrential rain arrived as predicted, even more intense than the Japan Meteorological Agency had forecast. The entire city was completely swallowed by a thick, black curtain of rain after nightfall, with only Tokyo Tower remaining lit.

The orange navigation lights on the tower flickered at a fixed frequency in the storm, shining from the bottom to the top before disappearing into the churning clouds, like a giant torch ignited by lightning that would never go out.

The five-story iron tower building at its base has been cleared as planned. All gates leading into the tower have been lowered, and the explosion-proof roller shutters at the parking lot entrances have been locked shut. The lobby is empty, with only a few emergency lights casting a faint glow.

As agreed, at midnight, Tachibana Masamune and Herzog will meet at a special observation deck 250 meters above the ground to discuss the final awakening of "God" and how the two keys can be put together.

However, before midnight, an extremely thin, silvery-white crack tore open in the air right in the center of the special observation deck without warning, quieter than lightning and paler than fireflies.

Two figures stepped silently out of the crack, their leather shoes making no sound as they trod on the cold steel plate of the watchtower. The crack closed behind them.

Frillie put away her wand, the afterglow of the teleportation magic still lingering on her long silver hair, tiny particles of light dancing between the ends of her hair for less than a second before merging into the air.

She gently patted Lu Mingfei's shoulder, and a thin, water-ripple-like transparent light shield enveloped his entire body from head to toe. Invisibility magic.

It wasn't the crude method of forcibly distorting light with magic, but a gentler ancient elven art that minimized the presence of the person being cast on, making any eyes looking in that direction automatically ignore him, and perfectly synchronized his breathing with the fluctuations of the surrounding airflow, so that even the most sensitive listening devices could only detect the sound of rain and the tide.

Lu Mingfei looked down at his hands. His palms were still there, but the reflection on his skin had become as blurry and dreamlike as pebbles at the bottom of water.

He tried clenching his fist; the feel was perfectly normal, except it looked like a tangled mass of human-shaped air containing a few bones.

"Don't speak. Just think it in your mind, I can hear you," Frillie's voice rang out directly in his mind, as if it were rising from the depths of his own consciousness.

Lu Mingfei silently hummed in his heart, then turned to look at the center of the observation deck.

A small round table had already been set up there, along with two armchairs facing each other. A snow-white tablecloth covered the table, and an old-fashioned alcohol lamp was lit. The flame flickered weakly and steadily with a blue light inside the glass dome, as if deliberately created to evoke the atmosphere of a reunion with someone from the past.

Tachibana Masamune was already seated in one of the chairs. He wasn't wearing his black kimono tonight, but instead a very formal dark gray suit with a dark red tie, and a white handkerchief folded into a triangle was tucked into his breast pocket.