Dragon 3: Tide of the Black Moon (1)

"A debriefing report that shows that I am not disobeying the council but standing for the Wind Discipline Committee, and after good communication with the executive department, I believe that calling off the Dragon Abyss program at this time is not in line with the relevant regulations of the college. Although the resolution of the Council is very important, it does not conform to procedural justice, so the Wind Discipline Committee cannot enforce a resolution that does not conform to procedural justice." Manstein also did not look up, "I know that you do not understand what I am saying now, and you do not need to understand, this is a matter for us clerical staff."

"I now understand why you've been on campus for less than 10 years and have already risen to such an important position as head of the Wind Discipline Committee." Schneider teased.

"All heroes need a bard to follow and chant his feats, and a bard is a civilian." Manstein said, "If I hadn't been behind all these years diligently writing reports to fool the school board, then with you and the principal doing whatever you want, the conflict with the school board would have been exposed on the surface long ago."

"I don't quite understand one thing, Frost is not a fool, he knows exactly what you have done over the years. Although you are not a lackey of the principal's faction, you are not a lackey of the Gattuso family either, so why did the Gattuso family deliver the life of the heir to you and at the same time give you this black card? With Frost Gattuso's character, he should have sent an investigation team to forcefully intervene like he did last time."

"I didn't say it was Frost's arrangement for me to come here," Manstein looked up, "the person who sent me here was Pompey Gattuso, the head of the Gattuso family."

"Pompey?" Schneider was somewhat taken aback.

"It's him because according to the school rules, the school board cannot directly manage the executive department. The executive department has the right to send cadets on missions, and Caesar himself has no objection to such an arrangement. The only person who could call the matter off was Caesar's father, and it had to be Pompey himself, not Frost, who was acting in his school board seat. The school board challenged the executive department on the grounds of sending the cadets on a high-risk mission with parental opposition. And Caesar flew to Tokyo when Pompey was supposedly still in a spiritual retreat in the mountains of Tibet, and Frost parachuted a team of horses into the snowy mountain pass to call off the Dragon Abyss project and rode to the ancient temple where Pompey was spiritualizing to pick him up. It can be seen as Frost forcibly hijacked Pompey, requiring him to step in to call off the Dragon Abyss program. That's why there was this inconsistency that Pompey first donated the Diecast to support you and then later asked me to call off the Dragon Abyss project."

"Pompeii asked you by name to stop the Dragon Abyss project?"

"Yes. It seems he was more interested in passing this black card to you through my hands than in actually calling off Project Dragon Abyss." Manstein said, "That's an incredible father who doesn't seem to mind at all if his son lives or dies."

"I've always had the feeling," Schneider whispered after a long moment of contemplation, "that Pompey knows something. He knows exactly what is in the depths of the Polar Abyss, and he wants us to send someone to dive into the Japanese Trench, even if he has to risk his son."

Manstein stated, "Why do you think so?"

"Shortly after the Prince reappeared, Pompey's secretary made a trip to the Academy, and because he was the secretary to the trustees and held their authorization, he had access to the confidential documents of the Executive Department. For other things the secretary did not comment, only on the matter of the Lenin shipwreck, the secretary said Pompey collection has the legendary deep diving equipment Diecast if the Academy needs can be directly couriered over. I didn't know at that time that the equipment department could not immediately build a qualified deep submersible, so I was accustomed to wanting to refuse this gift. I vaguely said I would contact them if I needed it, but a few days later they hired a courier company and shipped the Trieste to Chicago on an entire cargo plane. The executive department inspected the deep submersible before sending it to the equipment department, and on the surface, it appeared that over the years it had only been kept as a collector's item, placed in museums for tours, attended charity events, and used as a backdrop for large performances, but in reality, it had been carefully cared for, and all the pieces were as new as when it was built. Pompey had thought about reactivating the deep submersible, as its maintenance costs were a staggering figure. I wrote an email to Pompey to thank him and also mentioned that we might include Caesar in the dive team. I was testing, if Pompey just wanted to provide the equipment for our people to venture, then he should immediately refuse. But to my surprise, Pompey expressed great pleasure that his son would have the opportunity to fly his collection on a mission and asked that it be painted as a Japanese flag."

"So Pompey felt it was safe to dive?" Manstein said.

"As strange as Pompey was the Japanese branch. Because the Japanese division is not a direct part of the Academy, the executive branch rarely requests their assistance. This time, the Japanese branch's assistance was requested as a last resort, and the Japanese branch was extremely enthusiastic. They put in the whole Institute of Rockflow, and the top cadres were out in full force. They showed extraordinary enthusiasm for what was in the Pole Abyss and kept asking us for information. But they always refused to admit that it was the embryo of a dragon, and the Institute cited various reasons that further research was needed, but did not give the results of the research. We were ready to transfer a support team from the equipment department to Japan, but the equipment department refused to send anyone to Japan, and the Japanese branch, which had insisted on continuing to observe the embryo before then, suddenly expressed its full support for the Dragon Abyss project, and within two days got a government injunction to take control of the sea, and quickly mobilized six floating platforms to build a sea base. They have an unusual enthusiasm for the embryos in the trench, and I always feel that they know something too."

"It seems that everyone knows something, but we who are in charge of the Dragon Abyss project know nothing?" Manstein said.

"It does feel that way. To reduce the risk I put Caesar into the dive team, and also asked the director of the Japanese branch executive board to take on the role of field commander himself. He has a high position among the eight Serpentine families, and if there is an accident, he cannot shirk his responsibility."