Chapter 728 The Promotion of Lan Qi

A class period passed in the blink of an eye.

Outside the classroom, golden particles floated leisurely in the air of the black and white checkered marble corridor that gleamed like a mirror.

As a sonorous bell echoed across the central complex of the Saint Creatia Monastery, it marked the end of Lan Qi's lessons for the day.

Even so, no students left the classroom; some knowledge-hungry students gathered around the podium, posing questions to him.

It wasn't until much later, when the students with questions had a preliminary understanding of the issues and stopped surrounding him, that he quietly closed his lecture notes, carefully placed the heavy ancient book on the sandalwood podium, gave the students below a friendly and sincere smile, bid farewell, and strode out of the classroom.

It was nearly noon, and Elliot Hall was already bustling with activity.

Groups of students, carrying heavy book-shaped magic devices, chatted and laughed as they moved through the corridors, their laughter echoing in the spacious hallways, with faint aromas wafting from the Elliot Hall's lower-level restaurant.

Lan Qi walked alone along the corridor on the side of classroom 4-43, the echoes of his footsteps swallowed by the stone walls.

"The students at Saint Creatia Monastery really have some unique ideas. A few of them actually stumped me."

The sharp questions the students had raised in class lingered in his mind, and those viewpoints were worth pondering carefully. Sometimes Lan Qi even had to discuss them with Talia in his mind before answering.

Fortunately, Talia's eight-hundred-year knowledge base was not just for show, it was truly…

Too beautiful and too powerful.

Just as Lan Qi's thoughts reached the halfway point, he felt his heart being grasped by an invisible hand, and he couldn't help but exclaim.

"Professor Landri! Please wait!"

A sudden burst of hurried footsteps and a clear, youthful shout from behind interrupted Lan Qi's thoughts in the corridor.

Lan Qi stopped abruptly and turned around, suspending his conversation with the back-seat driver, and refocused his attention on the student from Saint Creatia Monastery.

He saw several students with anxious expressions, not caring about their image, quickly catching up, their eyes gleaming with a thirst for knowledge and admiration for him.

The leading student, breathless, spoke with barely concealed excitement in his voice.

"Professor, your new energy theory that you explained in class today is truly amazing! Especially your idea of using the principle of living magic power oscillation and resonance to improve energy conversion efficiency, it's simply a stroke of genius! But I still have some doubts about it, and I wonder if you could take a look at whether our ideas are feasible."

As he spoke, he took out pages filled with notes and his own derived formulas.

"That's right, Professor Landri."

Another young man with blond hair and blue eyes said,

"I think it can not only be developed in the direction of new energy, but also in the direction of humanitarian instruments of torture. In the future, the reform through labor of criminals can be directly turned into a one-click sweeping style, without worrying about them being lazy. It’s forced, efficient, and pure, and it can also reduce the workload and supervision difficulty of prison guards.”

The students spoke excitedly, each trying to get a word in, eagerly offering Lan Qi their own extensions of his ideas, their eyes full of thirst for knowledge and fanaticism.

"What's wrong with them?"

Talia asked Lan Qi in his mind, puzzled.

She suddenly recalled that Lan Qi had only used half of the class time to talk about magical engineering, and the other half was spent talking about ethics, religion, and philosophy.

The more some of the students in the classroom listened, the more their condition became strange.

Only a small number of students with high resistance were still unmoved.

The students who had chased him out now were obviously the ones who had changed the most.

"Very insightful, let me take a look."

Lan Qi smiled kindly upon seeing this, not answering Talia for the moment, and was about to explain the issues to the students one by one.

Suddenly, he raised his eyes and saw a familiar figure standing at the corner of the corridor—

It was none other than Nikola, known as the "Kestrel," the chief of the First Division of the Empire's Special Operations Department's Domestic Countermeasures.

He was still wearing a neat and tidy black military uniform.

The medals on his chest gleamed in the sunlight, his hands behind his back, standing as tall and straight as a pine tree.

Seeing Lan Qi appear, the Kestrel Nikola nodded slightly in acknowledgment.

It seemed he had been waiting for Professor Landri for a long time.

The students followed Lan Qi's gaze, and when they saw Nikola's cold face and the uniform of the Empire's Special Operations Department, they immediately fell silent, not daring to say another word.

Lan Qi also greeted the officer and looked apologetically at the students beside him.

"I'm very sorry, Alexander, Benjamin, Christopher, Gregory… I suddenly have some urgent matters that need to be dealt with as soon as possible. The questions you raised are indeed very insightful. I'll be in my office answering questions tomorrow afternoon. I'm in the Spurt Building, 8th floor, room 812 of the Great Monastery every Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 2:00 to 5:00 PM. Can we discuss them thoroughly then?"

His tone was sincere and polite, accurately calling out each student's name.

"You go ahead and do what you need to do, we'll see you tomorrow."

The students nodded immediately, feeling like their hearts were filled with something, gradually becoming full. They originally thought that Professor Landri, whom they had only met for two days, wouldn't have any impression of them, but they didn't expect him to be so familiar with them already. They could even feel his unique sincerity and importance from his eyes.

"See you tomorrow."

Lan Qi said as he turned back, took a big step, and walked straight towards the Kestrel Nikola.

"Professor Landri, I apologize for disturbing you. I wonder if it's convenient for you to come with me to the headquarters of the Empire's Special Operations Department? We still need to further confirm some things with you regarding what we discussed earlier."

Nikola said as the professor approached, his tone as low as ever, without any discernible emotion.

"Of course, my classes for today are all finished, so I can accompany you now."

Lan Qi said, his face seemingly calm, with a slight smile on his lips, and nodded readily in agreement.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Chief Nikola."

He thanked Nikola.

"My original job today was also to investigate and record that classroom 4-21, so it's just right."

The Kestrel Nikola was slightly surprised that Professor Landri had agreed to the invitation without any hesitation, but he didn't show it.

He made a "please" gesture.

"The Special Operations Department's vehicle is parked not far from Elliot Hall."

Nikola strode briskly, and Lan Qi walked alongside him through the magnificent and deep corridor of Elliot Hall.

The students watched the backs of the two men as they walked away, whispering incessantly, their questions gradually replaced by curiosity.

What connection did the mysterious Professor Landri have with the Empire's Special Operations Department?

Countless guesses swirled in the students' minds, and they even couldn't help but ask Lan Qi's sister, Elsa, but she only squeezed her sleeves tightly and shook her head.

On the other side.

"It seems you're very popular with the students."

The Kestrel Nikola seemed to be even more familiar with the environment of Elliot Hall than Professor Landri, and was slightly half a step ahead of the professor, as if he was leading the way.

He had noticed the students who had chased him out of classroom 4-43 earlier, but those students had chosen to retreat when they saw him, the officer Kestrel Nikola.

"After all, I really enjoy interacting with students."

Lan Qi lowered his eyes and smiled faintly.

"Do you have a special talent for emotional communication? Can you quickly get along with the people around you?"

The Kestrel Nikola looked at the man again and asked him.

"Perhaps this isn't a talent, but a kind of knowledge—the study of how people or society 'should be.' Even if you don't have it, it doesn't affect your current life, but one day, when you encounter a major obstacle in life, if you know 'what you should do,' you may have grasped the clues to overcome the obstacle."

Lan Qi looked at the distance outside the window and answered.

"Your sister looked like she was looking for you just now. Why are you so cold to her?"

The Kestrel Nikola nodded, not continuing the topic with Lan Qi, and instead said.

His words had a half-joking tone, but there was also a blatant probe.

Looking towards the direction of the door of classroom 4-43 just now, even a glance could tell that there was a girl among the students who looked very similar to Landri.

Nikola had investigated Landri in advance, and he knew Landri's household registration information very well.

Elsa Washington, Landri Washington's younger sister who had depended on each other since childhood, and Landri grew up together in a small town on the Nick Saxon-Sonder border in northwestern Creatia Empire. She was sent to the capital Brilda a few years ago. The siblings hadn't seen each other for a long time, and should even miss each other.

She seemed to originally want to talk to her brother Professor Landri about something, but when she saw her brother being targeted by people from the Empire's Special Operations Department, she didn't intend to approach her brother anymore, as if she knew that her approach might cause trouble for her brother. After meeting her brother's eyes, she nodded in salute and turned to leave.

"Time is like a wild donkey, once it starts running, it doesn't stop. In the blink of an eye, my sister has grown up."

Lan Qi said with emotion, as if recalling the past,

"I can come back to deal with family matters at any time, but the empire's official business cannot be delayed for a moment. I think there are other people in the Special Operations Department waiting for me besides Chief Nikola, right?"

He looked at Nikola, otherwise they could just find a place nearby to talk. Nikola didn't need to wait outside the classroom so punctually and take him to the headquarters of the Empire's Special Operations Department.

"Of course."

The Kestrel Nikola did not deny Lan Qi's statement.

Indeed, he was responsible for taking Professor Landri back.

"Elsa is a sensible and heartbreaking child. She hasn't contacted me much in recent years. If Chief Nikola has any doubts about me, please feel free to ask me to talk. Please don't disturb her, okay?"

Lan Qi rarely spoke so frankly.

"…No problem."

The Kestrel Nikola chuckled in relief and nodded.

The two soon walked out of the labyrinthine Elliot Hall and came to the street on the side of a square.

"Lan Qi, why did you let him know that Elsa is your weakness?"

Talia asked Lan Qi in his mind, puzzled.

She felt that Nikola was still suspecting Lan Qi at all times, and Lan Qi's answer to Nikola just now was very dangerous.

"Actually, if I didn't care about Elsa, it would make Nikola suspicious. Besides, it's good to sell him a flaw. It can not only make him believe that I care about my sister very much, but also make him think that I'm easier to control, a person with weaknesses and family members. Often those real spies are alone and have no worries."

Lan Qi responded to Talia.

"…You're quite clever."

Talia thought for a while and agreed with Lan Qi.

This kid is really skilled at being a spy. When he encounters a problem, he doesn't blush or panic, and he can jump out of all the traps and find the best solution in an instant. He's simply a natural infiltrator.

In a short time, the black magic-powered vehicle parked on the other side of the square's road quickly moved to the road after seeing the Kestrel Nikola and Professor Landri.

"Good day, sir."

The agent in a suit saluted Nikola through the window.

Nikola put one hand behind his back and used the other to open the back door for Lan Qi, watching him get into the car, then sat in the other side of the back seat.

The agent in the driver's seat started the engine silently.

With a slight hum, the vehicle left Elliot Hall of the Saint Creatia Monastery and headed towards the central area of the capital Brilda.

The Empire's Special Operations Department was established more than a hundred years ago, initially organized to deal with the threat of demon spies during the Holy War. It played an important role in the Holy War, and later gradually transformed into conducting intelligence activities against neighboring countries and the Kingdom United Council Alliance.

Its mission is to secretly collect secrets within and outside the empire to protect the national security interests of the Creatia Empire. The threats include terrorism, organized crime, regional conflicts, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, etc. It has at least three thousand well-trained agents, with multiple regional special service stations and professional divisions under its command. It is independent of but also cooperates with the Imperial Military Staff Headquarters and Command Headquarters led by the First Military God Heintos.

The current Director of the Empire's Special Operations Department, Duke Dex Reynolds, as one of the most mysterious figures in the empire, has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs on the surface, and his identity as Director has been kept secret for more than twenty years, until it was truly made public a few years ago.

The headquarters that the Kestrel Nikola is about to take Lan Qi to is located at the Horwath Crossroads in the center of Brilda, hence the nickname "Horwath Cross Claw."

Lan Qi hadn't been to such a central place since arriving in the capital.

"Who will we be meeting later?"

Lan Qi asked Nikola beside him.

In the back seat, Lan Qi leaned against the soft leather seat, waiting for the journey to the headquarters of the Empire's Special Operations Department.

The fragrance of flowers, the wind, and the afternoon sun wafting in from outside the window filled the carriage, adding a bit of laziness to Landri's handsome face. He seemed a little tired after getting into the car after getting out of class.

The Kestrel Nikola was still sitting upright like a chess piece.

"Our Empire's Special Operations Department's highest commander, Director Dex."

The Kestrel Nikola glanced at Lan Qi and answered.

He found that this professor wasn't nervous at all when he was with him, whether it was because of his psychological quality or because he was born that way.

Having said that, he looked at the Imperial Building passing by outside the car window.

"Did Duke Dex ask Chief Nikola to bring me to the Empire's Special Operations Department?"

Lan Qi asked, slightly surprised, with a faint smile.

"Yes, the position of honorary consultant of the Special Operations Department is not something I can decide."

The Kestrel Nikola nodded.

"Then I'm really flattered."

Lan Qi agreed with Nikola.

"…"

Talia was a little worried now.

Lan Qi's research results at Saint Creatia Monastery have obviously attracted the attention of many high-level officials in the empire after fermentation, and Dex is one of the big figures among them.

For a true Imperial hound, this is undoubtedly an opportunity to display his talents, show his value, and gain power. But for an Allied spy, this will be a dragon's den and a tiger's lair. Any flaws on his body will be magnified without limit, and he may not even know when he will die.

The new environment that Lan Qi is about to come into contact with seems beautiful, but in reality, it hides countless pits, making her heart beat uneasily all the time.

"Tata, just be a good cook. Don't think too much about other things, leave the work to me."

Lan Qi chatted with her in his heart,

"I will definitely let you live a good life in the empire, so don't worry."

He added.

"Then good luck…"

Talia didn't bother to argue with Lan Qi calling her a cook, because she was indeed cooking for Lan Qi every day, and Lan Qi also remembered her kindness.

Hearing that Lan Qi was so enthusiastic about his career, responsible and担当, she felt that living with this guy was not bad. If his name wasn't Lan Qi, he would really be an ideal partner.

(End of this chapter)