Dragon 3: Tide of the Black Moon (1)

"No, he wouldn't talk like that, but it gave me this feeling. Because of the accident in the port of Hamburg, the first generation of Lionheart was completely wiped out, and he was the only one who survived. He was sustained by hatred to survive until today, right? On the surface is a flirtatious old man, inside is a wounded tiger, all the time sharpening his teeth. He wants to exterminate the dragons, and those who stand in his way are eradicated, if the school board becomes a stumbling block he will level the school board as well, he can do it. You are becoming more and more like dragonkind and less and less human."

"What does that mean?" Schneider asked coldly.

"Perseverance, persistence, cruelty, and harshness, are not so many human virtues as they are the natural attributes of dragons. As warriors go, dragons are just so perfect, while humans are naturally cowardly, hesitate and fear, and give up. But you and the principal can't stand to have human flaws, and you force yourselves to be as cold and ruthless as the dragons. Your kind will grow stronger and stronger, and lonely and strong like dragons."

"To fight a demon, you have to turn yourself into a demon first."

"But then even if you win, what will happen? It would not be your victory, but the devil's." Manstein said, "You told me a story, now do you want to hear mine?"

"The Caesar team is still waiting for my order."

"It will be told soon. It's not a secret or a twisted plot, it's about me and my amazing old dad."

"It's hard for me to think of the vice chancellor as your father without you mentioning it," Schneider said.

"Yeah, as father and son we have absolutely nothing in common, it's kind of forced to stand together for pictures, I'm starting to lose my hair and he still wears flower handkerchiefs around his neck like a cowboy." Manstein said slowly, "I can't say I have a good relationship with him, and there is no father-son bond. He abandoned my mother and me as children, and he has been a cowboy ...... or a bull to be exact, trying to hold down heifers everywhere he goes. I don't know how many women she had, my mother was not the one he loved the most, I was able to give birth probably as a result of contraceptive failure. I didn't meet him until after I came to this college ...... can't say I met him at all, I threw a drink in his face when he called himself my father and asked to have a drink with me."

"Because he hadn't done his duty as a father?" Schneider asked.

"The exact episode of identification was this," Manstein said, pulling a worn gold cross from his collar, "a relic of my mother's that I always carried with me. At the welcome reception for our group of professors, the old man suddenly put his hand on my shoulder and stared at my cross, and said, "Oh, isn't that the pendant of the busty Martha? I said, "How do you know my mother's name? He said, "Is that your mother? God, what a coincidence! If Martha didn't have a relationship with another man during the days she was my friend, then you're my son! I didn't expect to meet you on this occasion, we should have a drink! What would you do if you were me?"

"It's a good thing you didn't slam the glass in his face, too," Schneider said.

"Yeah, I think back to moving from here to there as a kid with my mother in a used 1963 station wagon, not even a place to settle down, and the molestation she had to put up with from some men to have a job to earn money to support me. Because I moved so often, I had no friends and was often bullied by the local bad boys, who even forced me to pee on me together in the alley. At that time there should have been a father to help me to teach those rotten boys a lesson, but I forced myself not to tell my mother, because she was already tired and I wanted her to get a good night's sleep after work. But by then the vice principal was rolling around in some heifer's bed. I've been expecting him for 30 fucking years expecting him to take a bite out of me, and this asshole says something about how you deserve a drink for knowing you on this occasion." Manstein says, "Not only did I spill his drink and shove him, but the principal finally pulled us apart, and it was the big joke of the orientation reception."