"He… left?"
High above the bridge, a woman stood by the railing, eyes full of doubt.
The Nibelungen had dissipated. Odin was gone.
Her gaze drifted to Ashen One unconscious in the rain.
"Was it because of him?"
A pale hand lifted, invisible force gathering to lock onto that shadow below.
But then—
Screeching brakes cut through the rain.
She lowered her hand.
More hurried footsteps were converging. The doubt remained, but she abandoned the idea of striking.
Her figure blurred, dissolved, disappeared.
"I'll remember you…"
—
Principal's Office, Cassell College.
Hilbert Jean Angers—a handsome old man who had survived for over 130 years fueled by endless vengeance—stared at the report in his hands, silent for a long time.
The Party's reach was everywhere, especially in cities under watch.
A Nibelungen disturbance could never escape them.
But what had happened inside?
No one knew.
The report in his hand was the only record.
"Encountered a being suspected to be Odin from myth. I believe it to be a powerful dragon-class entity… possibly a Dragon King? I cannot say for certain. At the final moment, it seemed to sense something and spared me."
Signed—
Chu Tianjiao.
"A dragon-king-level existence…" Angers laid the report on the redwood desk, rubbing his brow like a tired elder.
Then he lifted his eyelids.
Golden Eyes blazed with the fire of revenge—
Only to snuff out instantly back into a deep, quiet pool.
He turned his chair toward the window.
"Chu Tianjiao… what are you hiding?"
He couldn't imagine what could make that being abandon prey already in hand.
Something unpredictable had happened in the Nibelungen.
And Chu Tianjiao had chosen to cover it up.
If he hid this truth… what would he hide next?
"Even if you complete every mission perfectly, once trust is lost, you'll never quite win it back," Angers murmured.
His finger settled on the phone.
After a moment, the line connected.
"There's a task. Go to a place. Monitor a person…"
—
Chu Zihang felt his life's trajectory had been rewritten by that rainy night.
The real world had torn through the surface of normality.
Monsters. Gods. His not-dead father. Those four mysterious strangers.
Chu Zihang was fifteen, a middle-schooler. He looked cold outside, but inside he was a secret hot-blooded guy. After all this, an unprecedented heat boiled in his chest.
He wanted to become strong—like his father.
The idea was so intense that in class, when he got lost in his hunger for power—
His geography teacher began to sweat at the temples.
"D-did I teach something wrong? Why is Chu Zihang looking at me like that…?"
The teacher kept glancing between the blackboard and the textbook, unable to find any mistake.
The bell finally rang like a salvation.
The teacher almost fled the room, deciding to recheck every line of his materials that night.
All afternoon, the same scene played out across multiple classes.
Every teacher who got washed by Chu Zihang's laser-focus ended up thinking:
I need to double-check my lesson plan tonight.
At dismissal, Chu Zihang stood immediately.
Under the teachers' baffled, searching stares, he shouldered his bag and sprinted out. He ignored every junior calling to him, heading straight outside.
Only when he saw a familiar figure up ahead did he slow just a little.
"Lu Mingfei."
The boy turned, surprised. "Senior Chu? You calling me?"
"Yeah. Just saying hi. About last night… sorry."
Lu Mingfei's brain shorted out. Senior Chu apologizing? Did I screw up? Or did he do something to me? He stood there awkwardly.
Chu Zihang saw it, but didn't explain.
He'd invited this junior to ride in his dad's car. Thank god Lu Mingfei had refused. Otherwise…
Some truths were safer with fewer people.
He patted Lu Mingfei's shoulder.
"If you ever need help, come to me."
Then he walked off into the crowds.
Lu Mingfei scratched his head.
"Am I… favored now?"
—
Chu Zihang called his mom to say he'd be home late, rode a bus a few stops, and got off at a two-story villa.
At the closed door, he took a breath.
Knock.
"Come in," a cold voice answered.
He turned the handle and stepped into a dark interior, closing the door behind him.
The moment the light sealed shut—
Four pairs of blazing Golden Eyes snapped open in the darkness.
"You're here," said the most brilliant pair, their owner stepping forward.
Chu Zihang expressionlessly found the switch.
Click.
Bright lights wiped away the dark.
You know what happens when cave creatures crawl in darkness too long, then get blasted by sudden light?
You're looking at it.
"Ahhh! My eyes! My eyes!" the Doctor screamed, clutching his face.
"Who turned on stadium lights?! And whose genius idea was it to open Golden Eyes in the dark?!" Kevin wailed, tears streaming.
Stelle, who'd shut her eyes in time, planted her hands on her hips, sighing. "Too weak. You're all too weak. This is a mixed-blood? Really?"
"If you don't make your dad pay me tens of thousands in medical fees, I'm not opening my eyes today!" Ashen One pointed at Chu Zihang while rubbing his own eyes dramatically.
Chu Zihang fell silent.
Chu Zihang had nothing to say.
He stared at the four "mysterious powerhouses" he'd admired…
And the heat and expectation in his chest deflated like a punctured balloon.
If he ever ended up like this, it'd be so lame.
-------
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