Chapter 201 Professor Lundschneider and his team
Santarém?

Lu Mingfei was startled when he heard this.

The highest administrative region in Portugal is the district, which corresponds to the province in China. The Santarém mentioned by the girl is the capital of the Santarém District, one of the 18 administrative regions of Portugal, close to the Portuguese capital Lisbon.

The girl's destination was very close to Gulegã where Lu Mingfei was going, and both belonged to the Santarem district of Portugal.

However, the Porto district where they are now is very far away from the Santarem district, and there are three large districts in between.

Of course, Portugal itself is not very large, but taking a taxi from Porto to Santarém is equivalent to taking a taxi across half a province in China.

When the taxi driver heard the girl say she wanted to go to Santarém, he started chattering in Portuguese. The girl was stunned and confused, obviously not understanding what the taxi driver was saying.

The girl asked the driver in English, "Can you speak English?" The driver waved his hands and said "NO, NO", and then communicated with the girl across servers in Portuguese.

Although Lu Mingfei didn't understand Portuguese, he could roughly guess what the driver meant by looking at his gestures.

"He should be saying that he can't go to Santarém." Lu Mingfei said to the girl.

"Can't go?" The girl was startled. "Why?"

"It's probably because the distance is too far." Lu Mingfei explained, "We are now at Porto International Airport. It's several hundred miles from here to Santarém. Taxis in the city are generally not allowed to go that far."

"I have to go to Santarém urgently. Can you help me ask the driver if he can pay more money to go..." The girl said, and took out the Swiss bank check again.

The girl's behavior of not considering the second way if she can solve the problem by spending money is quite Caesar-like. Looking at the girl's dress and behavior, it must be more than just from a well-off family.

Capital accumulation was completed early in places like Europe, and there were rich people and old nobles everywhere. Lu Mingfei didn't know why such a girl didn't have bodyguards or servants around her. But the girl didn't look like she had ever gone out alone.

"Not everything can be settled with money..." Lu Mingfei sighed deeply, "You are going to Santarém, right?"

The girl nodded blankly.

"Do you want to take the train with me?" Lu Mingfei asked, "I'm going to Gulegão in Santarém, which is on the way. If possible, I'll ask the driver to take us to the train station in Porto, and then you can take the train with me."

After asking this question, Lu Mingfei suddenly realized that he was being abrupt. He had been to Europe with Caesar, Chu Zihang and others before, and knew that Europe was not like China, and the security there was much worse.

If a grown man like me suddenly invites a young stranger to a date, the other party may think that I am plotting something.

When the girl heard Lu Mingfei's proposal, she rarely showed a suspicious and vigilant look.

Lu Mingfei thought he would be rejected by the girl, but after a moment, the girl withdrew her gaze and commented in a calm tone:

"You have a greasy feeling like an old British man, I don't like it..."

Lu Mingfei was choked by this sudden sentence, thinking, "You don't understand advanced Chinese vocabulary, how come you even use the word greasy? And how is he greasy? This is clearly a gentleman's temperament, okay? Do you understand what a gentleman is?"

Just as he was humming in dissatisfaction, he heard the girl continue, "However, the deal is done. If you take me to Santarém, I can pay you a salary."

"You are so polite..."

Lu Mingfei immediately smiled and stopped grumbling. Although he didn't want to accept something that was given to him out of pity, the WCG was about to start, so he didn't mind getting some more gold coins from the European capitalist lady to use as his own lottery ticket capital.

Lu Mingfei took out the "Small Portuguese Dictionary for Daily Use" that Lu Mingze had given him, found the word corresponding to the train station, and uttered a few halting syllables according to the phonetic symbols.

The driver was obviously a frequent receiver of foreign tourists, and he actually understood what Lu Mingfei said. He smiled enthusiastically, gestured an OK gesture, lifted the gear lever, and stepped on the accelerator.

……

Meanwhile, Lisbon International Airport.

A middle-aged man was standing at the entrance of the exit passage, carrying a suitcase, looking at the heavy rain outside the window through the airport glass.

Protected by the Azores anticyclone, Portugal enjoys sunny weather most of the year, but there are exceptions, and every November the tail of an Atlantic disturbance passes through Portugal, bringing abundant rainfall to this small Western European country.

Hearing hurried footsteps behind him, the middle-aged man turned around and saw a young man with East Asian appearance carrying a backpack and pulling a suitcase, walking hurriedly towards him, bowing his head and apologizing as he walked.

"Sorry, professor, we are late." The young man said apologetically.

The middle-aged man nodded, looked behind the young man, and asked calmly, "Where are Aki and Selma?"

"Aki's suitcase is missing, Selma is helping her look for it..."

The young man was a little nervous. He knew that the middle-aged man in front of him was one of the strictest professors in Kassel College, and he came from the famous dragon-slaying family, the Lundschnett family.

The Magic Mechanics course he taught had the highest attendance rate in the entire academy, even higher than the "Introduction to Dragon Family Genealogy" taught by the principal.

In addition to his excellent teaching skills, Professor Rundschneider was nicknamed the Devil Teacher at Kassel College. No student dared to skip his class.

And the first time they followed Professor Rundschnett on a mission, they were late for the rendezvous point at the airport, and the young man had no idea how the man would react.

However, this devil teacher doesn't seem to be as strict as the legend says.

After hearing that Aki and Selma had not arrived yet, Mans Rundschneider just nodded calmly and asked, "Is your laptop in your bag?"

The young man nodded: "Yes."

"Okay, let's not waste time. Ye Sheng, take out your laptop and log into the Hunter Market during this time to see if there is any new information about the bounty we posted."

"Yes." Ye Sheng nodded, squatted down and put down the backpack behind him, skillfully plugged the wireless network card into the laptop, turned it on, and logged into the "Hunter Market" website.

The reward they posted was posted on the top page of the website, and the content of the reward was to monitor the flow of excessive imports of "antimony" from Portugal.

There are mixed-race people in all walks of life. Due to historical issues, the proportion of mixed-race people in Europe is particularly high. It stands to reason that finding the approximate whereabouts of these "antimonies" is not a difficult reward. In Portugal and some neighboring European countries, there are many bounty hunters who have accepted this reward.

However, just three days ago, all the bounty hunters for the next bounty mission lost contact with them without exception, which made them feel vaguely uneasy.

Professor Rundschneider immediately reported the matter to the college and asked the college to send someone to investigate the matter.

The principal issued this task to them through the executive department. The specialists involved in this task included Professor Rundschneider, Ye Sheng, his classmate Jiude Aki, and Selma, a freshman who was one year younger than them.

The bounty mission was posted through his Hunter Market account. Professor Rundstedt said that his account was too famous on the Hunter website, and posting the bounty through his account would easily lead people to think that the bounty mission was related to Kassel College, so he used his account to post the bounty.

Ye Sheng glanced at the message prompts, turned to Mans and said, "There are still many people who responded to the reward post, but there is no new message in the private message box."

"What about those people who took on the bounty missions before?"

“Still haven’t responded to us.”

"I see." Mans nodded and subconsciously touched his trouser pocket containing the cigar, but he immediately remembered that his cigar had been confiscated during security check because it had hair. Besides, this was an airport, and cigars were not allowed. Just then, the sound of "patter" footsteps suddenly rang out in the empty airport, and a girl with East Asian looks and a girl with typical Latin beauty looks ran up to Mans breathlessly, pulling suitcases.

"I'm sorry, professor. We're late. There was a problem with the check-in, so we were delayed for a while." Shude Aki put his hands on his legs and bowed apologetically.

Seeing Aki bow, Selma quickly followed suit: "Sorry, Professor!"

"It's okay. It's always like this when you first start an internship. There will always be some messy accidents. Just be more careful next time." Mans said, waving at Ye Sheng: "Put away the notebook. The people who are going to pick us up have been waiting in the parking lot for a long time."

Ye Sheng put away the laptop. Mans led them out of the corridor.

It was pouring outside the airport, and they opened the umbrellas they had prepared in advance and followed the signs to the parking lot on the east side of the terminal. There were not many cars in the parking lot in the early morning, but the heavy rain blocked everyone's vision and made it difficult to tell the direction.

"Have you been to Portugal before?" Mans asked, walking in front with an umbrella.

Ye Sheng and the others looked at each other, and Ya Ji shook his head and replied, "No, this is the first time for the three of us."

"Portugal is a nice place, with beautiful scenery, good climate, and many beautiful women."

Mance looked at the rain, as if he was instantly lost in memory, "Just remember, don't come to this damn place in November."

"Why?" Aki asked.

"Because November is the rainy season in Portugal." Mans said without turning his head.

"Actually..." Selma muttered with her head down.

Her voice was not actually very loud, and with the heavy rain covering it, it should have been inaudible, but Mance still keenly caught Selma's voice.

"Do you have anything to report, Selma?" Mance asked.

"Actually, there are many beautiful women in our Kassel College," said Selma.

Mance was stunned, then burst into laughter, "You are right, Selma." Mance said with a smile, "You are right, there is no place in the world with more beautiful girls than our Kassel College."

Mans's laughter stopped after a while, and he stopped, and Ye Sheng and others who were following him also stopped. Mans took out his cell phone from his pocket.

"We should be almost there, wait a moment, I'll call the person who's picking us up."

Mance found the name in the phone book and dialed it. The phone's ringtone rang for a few seconds amid the white noise of the rainstorm.

The call was rejected a few seconds later, but two dazzling white lights lit up in the rain, and a Bentley Arnage suddenly turned out from the parking space at the end. The engine roared loudly in the rain, splashing water on the ground, and then slowed down and stopped in front of Mance and others.

The window of the main driver's seat was lowered. Mance took a look at the car body, smiled and leaned on the roof and said, "What's wrong, Louis? The grade of the car has been lowered?"

The middle-aged man sitting in the driver's seat, named Louis, shrugged and said, "There's nothing we can do. Our family is not as prosperous as it was a few decades ago, so we can only keep a low profile in all aspects."

"Keep a low profile." Mans snorted and waved to the others, "You sit in the back seat, I'll sit in the passenger seat."

"Yes."

Several people put their suitcases in the trunk and sat in the back seat in the order of Ye Sheng, Selma, and Aki, while Mans sat in the passenger seat.

"Students, the seat heating has been turned on for you."

Louis turned around and greeted Ye Sheng and the others, then raised his eyebrows at Mance: "Are the quality of your students pretty good?"

"Drive your car," said Mance. "By the way, do you have any cigars with you? Give me one first."

"It's in the passenger's storage compartment. It's all ready for you."

"What about fire?"

"Inside too."

Mance took out a cigar box from the storage compartment, took out a cigar and lit it. Louis stepped on the accelerator, and with a strong push on his back, the tires rolled up a splash of rain and exploded backwards with a roar. The raindrops were smashed by the car body, and the car swayed slightly in the heavy rain.

The red circle of fire retreated from the cigar mouthpiece as Mance inhaled. A satisfied expression appeared on Mance's face, and he put his hand on the open car window.

Louis turned his eyes and glanced at Mance.

"What bloodline?"

"One A and two Bs," said Mance.

"The college is generous. It's just a small matter of excessive import of antimony. Is it necessary for the college to mobilize so many people?"

"Antimony exceeding the limit is no small matter. You should know, Louis, that both the academy and the hybrid organizations around the world have strict control over the reserves of antimony. This is because antimony is a must for refining the Philosopher's Stone. For hybrids, the degree of harm caused by this substance is no less than that of uranium."

"That's true, but why did the academy let you take care of this?"

"Because I am the most suitable one."

Mance took a puff of his cigar and blew out smoke rings. "The person who has done the most in-depth research on alchemy in the academy is the Night Watchman, followed by me, the professor who teaches Magical Mechanics. Magical Mechanics is essentially the application of alchemy to modern weapons. And 'Antimony' is closely related to alchemy, so the principal asked me to come."

Mance flicked the ash from his cigar out the window and looked at Louis.

"Of course, if you were to investigate this matter, you would be more suitable than me."

Louis shrugged. "I have only studied at your Kassel College for four years. Although I am considered a student of the college, you know that I am not a member of the college in essence."

"That's right. However, I think this matter may be more complicated than we thought. Although you want to stay out of it, in my opinion, you will be involved in this incident in the end. After all, Portugal is your family's territory."

"I just want to ride a bike, go fishing, brew wine, and live a stable retirement life. Why is it so difficult?" Louis sighed.

Mance exhaled a puff of smoke and suddenly switched to Portuguese to talk to Louis.

"By the way, Gronia's death anniversary is coming soon, right?" Mance asked.

"Well, just in these few days." Louis said.

Mance took the last puff of his cigar and put out the remaining little bit in the ashtray on the armrest.

……

(End of this chapter)