Thornbound Twins: A Kassel Escape Diary

A convenience-store night-shift worker with an out-of-control heartbeat × the last shred of humanity guarded by a good-for-nothing

Every time Lin Lan's heart beats, he inches closer to the threshold of the Dragon King’s awakening. The piles of chip bags beneath the register are his only ritual for anchoring himself to his humanity. The boy with the world-destroying Dragon King Jormungandr sealed inside him struggles to survive amid the smell of cheap oden, until he carves “Lu Mingfei is a good person” into the freezer. Those bloodstained last words become the starting point of good-for-nothing Lu Mingfei’s forced awakening.

The Secret Party’s leader, Angers, hides cold calculations behind his refined glasses. Chu Zihang risks his life to cut open a path to safety for him, while Nono’s profiling ability reveals the truth of his torn soul: the eternal struggle between the child Fenrir and the dragon Jormungandr. When Odin’s Gungnir marks them both as targets, the bloodstained USB drive of the good-for-nothing Fingel becomes the key to overturning fate, exposing the one-eyed totem watching over all beneath Greenland’s icy sea.

The final battle. The throne of ice and fire collapses. Lin Lan brands his convenience-store name tag into his palm, making his body a prison to seal the Dragon King. Lu Mingfei uses “Don’t Die: Defy Fate” to hasten his close friend’s sacrifice. The price is that his right eye is lost to darkness forever, while his left eye can see the wounds in the soul.

Years later, a lonely light shines through a blizzard at “Mingfei’s Shop.” The old shift schedule is stuck to the freezer, and Erii’s hair ribbon is tied around the register. When the radio rasps, “Beer half price,” he smiles and drapes a uniform over the crystal of ice and fire. “Hear that? Your favorite discount.”