King of Titans and Dragons
Chapter 1203 - 1203 1190 Exposure

Chapter 1203: Chapter 1190: Exposure Chapter 1203: Chapter 1190: Exposure “These scales indicate that this dragon underwent multiple evolutions here or rather, growths.”

The white-haired principal crouched down and picked up a broken black scale from the ground. He scrutinized the scale that had no trace of blood, with flames seeming to burn in his eyes. This seasoned old man, whose character had grown steady over the years, couldn’t help but get angry at the moment.

“These scales are enough to prove it, but this dragon, unnoticed by anyone, couldn’t even bother to clean up these traces. He is utterly fearless, and these bits of garbage that fell from his body were left for us intentionally.”

“Well, Principal, we now know that a dragon has infiltrated our academy and even devoured a large amount of the academy’s precious treasures, leaving behind its shed body tissue. What next, should we hunt down this dragon?”

Professor Sanchez, who followed, was examining traces left by the black dragon in the normally inaccessible underground plaza, estimating its size.

“We certainly must slaughter this accursed dragon, who dared to desecrate these irreplaceable treasures.”

George felt a dull pain in his chest; all the treasures in this underground plaza had been collected and accumulated since before Cassel Academy was even established, and now they were all gone.

“Where do we even start looking for him? He might have already left the academy. With the dragon’s size, he could go anywhere, under the sky or beneath the seabed, there are hardly any places in the world he can’t reach.”

“No need for that kind of trouble. With this dragon’s arrogant nature, he’s definitely still within the academy, watching us grow anxious and uneasy because of him. He’s a dragon with a nasty sense of humor,” the Principal said with absolute certainty.

“Are you so sure?” asked another professor who had witnessed the dragon himself. His expression was somewhat strange.

“Of course, I’m sure. From the dragon’s overt behavior, it is evident. The dragon could now possibly be hiding within the academy in human form, waiting for us to discover him.”

“Are you saying the dragon is still in the school, are you kidding? How could he dare?”

“What wouldn’t he dare? Forget whether we can find him or not, even if we do, according to what you’ve said, such an immense dragon body can transform into the wind at any time; we’d still be helpless against him.”

“So, what do we do now? Conduct a search within the school and find this dragon?”

“Finding this dragon is a necessity. Even though the dragon has already fed, no one can guarantee what it might do next. If it harbored any other intentions, we would face consequences we definitely would not want to bear.”

…

“Muria, what have you been doing from last night to this noon?”

The man in a black, form-fitting overcoat stood at Muria’s dormitory door, asking seriously.

“What else could I do at night? Of course, sleep. You have no idea how tired I was from the last mission,” said the blonde youth, lazy and bleary-eyed.

“Have you been sleeping all this time?”

“I also read for a while.” Muria turned to let the inquiring teacher see the books spread out on his desk behind him.

“During this time, you’ve been alone in your dormitory, right? There’s no one to vouch that you were just reading and then sleeping?”

“Teacher, what’s going on? Why do you sound like you’re interrogating a criminal? I’m a good student.”

Muria asked the teacher, as if he didn’t know anything.

“Please answer my question, is there anyone who can vouch for you?”

“No,” Muria shrugged, “I don’t have any strange habits; how could there possibly be someone else in my room late at night?”

“Well, Muria, I think striving for the continuation of humanity isn’t considered a strange habit; it’s a perfectly normal activity.”

The conversation had barely ended when a head emerged from the neighboring room, looking a bit worn out, then with a teasing smile looked at Muria; and in his room, a neatly dressed woman came out and greeted, “Good morning, Muria!”

“So, Teacher, they don’t have any suspicions about them at all?” Muria turned emotionlessly and stared at the teacher. No doubt, last night’s party paired quite a few wild ducks.

“Yes, they aren’t very suspicious. However, you, being alone during this time and without anyone to vouch for you, are highly suspicious,” the teacher replied.

“So teacher, what exactly is going on at the school?” asked the next-door roommate, curious after a hard night working for the continuation of humanity.

“That’s classified for now, I can’t tell you; just stay put.”

“Does that mean I’m still under investigation? I imagine there are quite a few others who stayed alone last night, are all of them considered prime suspects by the school?”

Muria asked curiously because he wanted to assess the ability of the humans in this world to handle unexpected events.

“Indeed, the school will investigate each of you who is under major suspicion. If you haven’t done anything and have only done what you claimed—reading books and then sleeping—then you don’t need to worry about anything bad happening to you.”

“I see, then it has nothing to do with me.” The boy lazily yawned and then closed his room door.

…

At an oak meeting table, Cassel Academy’s top officials and some highly authorized professors were seated. An elderly man, still erect in stature and wearing a black overcoat, stood up to report on the emergency that had just occurred.

“All teachers and students have been investigated, according to our projection of the time the Giant Dragon rampaged or fed in the Academy’s collection room.

Alone and without an alibi, there were 412 teachers and students, among whom 17 were heavily suspected. However, I personally think that one student is particularly suspect; his likelihood of being a dragon is almost ninety percent.”

“Which one?” Principal George asked solemnly from the head of the table.

“Owen, with C-class lineage, who had just returned from a dragon-slaying mission three days ago. It was his first dragon-slaying mission, and the target was an Ancient Dragon Species that had just been born.”

“What’s the reason for suspecting him?”

“On the first day after he returned, he met with the Student Council President Caesar, but his behavior was completely different from before, as if he had turned into another person.”

The investigating professor pressed gently on the table, and the scene of Muria’s first day infiltrating Cassel Academy and meeting with Student Council President Caesar was projected above the meeting table.

“That’s indeed unusual, but it can’t serve as evidence to suspect a student. You must understand, he had just returned from a dragon-slaying mission. It’s normal for him to undergo some personality changes at that time.”

A professor, noting the clearly different behavior of the blonde-haired youth among other students, voiced a differing opinion.

“There’s another thing—Owen provoked Caesar at the banquet, something that does not seem characteristic of a regular student.”

“That’s still not enough,” someone objected, “Caesar is a target that most of the students want to pursue. It’s not strange for a youngster, freshly returned from slaying a dragon and filled with pride, to provoke him.”

The investigating professor showed no change in expression and continued with his findings,

“Therefore, I investigated the colleagues who undertook the mission with him and Professor Hafeez and found that their descriptions of the dragon-slaying had no issues.

But there is a very critical problem. After slaying the dragon, they did not recover the dragon corpse. The so-called completion of the dragon-slaying mission was only their declaration, with no tangible proof that they had actually accomplished the mission.”

As his voice fell, many professors in the meeting room glanced at each other, their brows furrowed.

“Therefore, what are you trying to say, Professor? Just state your conclusion directly without beating around the bush,” the principal said calmly.

“My deduction is that the dragon-slaying mission led by Professor Hafeez has indeed failed. The memories of the surviving participants have been altered.

And Owen, he’s probably the only one whose memory wasn’t altered because he likely died in battle. Their mission target, that dragon, replaced Owen, took on his appearance, and infiltrated the campus.

And then, as you all might know, something happened.”

“That will do, Professor. Please take your seat,” the principal gestured for the investigating professor to sit, then looked around at everyone, “Now, let’s hear your opinions.”

“All this is merely Professor Andras’ deduction and is not supported by evidence.”

“What more evidence do we need in this situation? Mere suspicion is enough.”

“Fine, I’ll provisionally accept Professor Andras’ deduction. What should we do now?

This dragon found a way into the academy’s treasury, and then into a highly classified research room. Before the eyes of two professors and a student, it escaped in an unknown manner. How should we deal with it?”

“If we have no way to deal with him, we might as well let him continue living in the campus, masquerading as Owen. Otherwise, if we startle him away, next time he might disguise himself as Caesar or even the dean, continuing to mingle in the campus and cause greater destruction.”

“Although I dislike your using me as an example, you’ve indeed made a logical point.” George stood up, placed both hands on the table, and looked around at everyone with an imposing manner,

“But who says we have no way to handle him? We’ve even slain the Dragon King; a lesser dragon should be no match for us.”