News and Rumors

September had passed by a third, but for the residents of Bo Ning District, the sweltering heat had not eased with the stellar point of illumination moving south. As the highest administrative special zone on the capital planet of Blue Sea Province, the people of Bo Ning possessed an innate sense of pride. Though those from other administrative districts found that pride laughable and unreasonable, it did nothing to curb the Bo Ning people's enthusiasm for discussing Imperial current affairs.

For the nobles of Bo Ning District, there had recently been only two hot topics—a piece of news and a rumor.

The news naturally referred to the prison break exposed at Crescent Prison. In fact, when the Imperial Radio Station officially announced the matter to the entire nation half a month ago, everyone had still been steeped in disbelief.

Come on! That was Crescent Prison!

A military prison infamous for abusing prisoners and misusing its authority to punish them!

Although there had always been countless opponents within the Empire who vehemently protested Crescent Prison's existence, including many renowned scholars—according to the president of the Imperial Institute of Technology: "Crescent Prison is a place that should have been blown flat long ago!"—Crescent Prison had remained standing despite wave after wave of pressure from all sectors of society.

Conspiracy theorists were convinced that the owner of this private prison—the Crescent Family—had shady dealings with the Empire's upper echelons. Yet one indisputable fact was that, despite all the criticism, Crescent Prison's formidable security measures were acknowledged by most people.

Over the past thirty years, it had held countless criminals with off-the-charts danger ratings, and not a single one had ever successfully escaped.

There was much to ponder behind that.

Yet two weeks ago, that myth had been shattered.

A flaw had actually appeared in Crescent Prison's Heavenly Net!

A prisoner had successfully escaped!

Three guards had been injured, but none fatally.

That was all most people knew.

No information about the escaped prisoner had ever been revealed. There was not even a name or photograph!

This had enraged the public—especially the people of Bo Ning District.

Come on, Crescent Prison was built on the frontier of the Ninth District. And the planet where Bo Ning District was located happened to be the capital of Blue Sea Province in the Empire's Ninth District!

Although this planet, named Emerald, was not among the Empire's most desolate places, it was not actually far from Crescent Prison. Thus, the moment the news aired, it sparked heated discussion across Emerald Star, especially in Bo Ning District.

Some had even organized student marches to protest the construction of a private prison within Blue Sea Province, claiming it posed a grave threat to public safety.

"What happened at Crescent isn't something those idiots could ever figure out."

Looking down from the seventeenth floor at the workers and students marching along Sky Street, the young woman elegantly took half a sip of red wine, then turned with a smile toward the guests in the living room. She wore a deep crimson gown, her figure slender, her skin fair, and her features sweet.

"Why not talk about that rumor instead? Earl Will has always been fair and strict. How could something so absurd happen?"

The moment she said that, the living room fell into an oddly awkward silence.

The other two women looked at the female companion in the goose-yellow dress, who was venting her frustration on a tablet while sitting on the sofa, with faintly amused expressions. Her brows were tightly furrowed, and her face was full of displeasure.

"ver!"

As if that irritating machine was deliberately adding fuel to the fire, the girl in yellow nearly smashed the tablet onto the coffee table in anger!

"If you want to laugh at me, then go ahead and laugh."

Pouting furiously, she said, "Who knows what happened? Maybe my seemingly old-fashioned father was a playboy when he was young."

The girl in red said with a smile, "Wei Wei, there's really no need to care so much about rumors. Didn't His Lordship the Earl make it clear? He moved into Yi Lin Manor as the Earl's nephew."

Wei Wei cried out, "How come I don't remember having a cousin like that? My father does have a sister, but I heard they cut off all contact before I was born!"

"At a time like this, a nephew of just the right age suddenly appears. No matter how you look at it, that can't be a coincidence!"

"Could it really be like they say? That girls can't inherit the family estate!?"

"Just thinking that I might have to marry that country bumpkin makes me want to throw up!"

"No, Christine, you have to help me think of something! I have to teach that country bumpkin a good lesson."

Wei Wei clung tightly to the red-clad girl's arm. As she tugged at her, a flash of exposed skin drew giggles from the two girls beside them.

Christine helplessly stroked Wei Wei's head and sighed.

"I don't even know your cousin's name..."

Wei Wei huffed, "That country bumpkin is called Ronan!"

Ronan?

His surname was Luo?

Christine narrowed her eyes slightly.

"Are you going to help me or not..." the adorable girl wheedled. "Out of all of us, you're the smartest."

Christine froze for a moment, then smiled indulgently. "I'll help. Of course I'll help."

"How could we possibly let off someone who made our Miss Wei Wei angry so easily?"

Inside a large sun-facing room at Yi Lin Manor.

Ronan sat on the steps. Not far away was a swimming pool whose water had just been changed.

Several servants greeted him stiffly, then quickly left.

The manor was especially quiet in the afternoon. Everyone had their own duties; only he seemed utterly superfluous.

"They actually didn't kill me."

Ronan gently stroked the Pocket Watch, a flicker of confusion passing through his eyes.

Two weeks earlier, relying on years of preparation, he had successfully escaped Crescent Prison.

Yet it seemed that everything had been anticipated by that tiger. Soon after escaping the prison, Ronan had been found. He had thought death awaited him, but instead, he had been offered another way out.

"Does this count as exile?"

Thinking of his current identity, Ronan could not help mocking himself.

Perhaps compared to places where power and influence converged, like the Empire's First Star Region, Blue Sea Province in the Ninth Star District could already be considered a backwater. As one of that tiger's most loyal subordinates, Earl Will naturally would not refuse the man's arrangement.

Thus, after several twists and turns, Ronan neither died nor returned to Crescent Prison. Instead, he had miraculously arrived on Emerald, the capital planet of Blue Sea Province.

He became the nephew of Earl Will, a descendant of Bo Ning District's nobility, and gained the right to reside at the manor long-term.

This arrangement came as something of a surprise to Ronan. From childhood to adulthood, he had never understood the intentions of that father he had met only a few times. That man was like a silent ocean, unfathomably deep.

After all, he was the child of a wizard!

In this nation that loathed wizards to the bone—at least among ordinary civilians—anyone associated with the word "wizard" was doomed to die.

Before the Final Battle, wizards and elves had ruled the universe together for a full three thousand years!

And during that period of history humans called the Dark Era, humans had been born slaves.

It was not until the Final Battle that all of this was resolved.

Although the universe's current balance of power was no longer what it had once been, with humanity's Steel Empire firmly occupying the Eastern Star Region and facing the Wizard Alliance's Western Star Region across the Great Vortex, neither side invading the other for now, their hostility remained unprecedented.

Ronan's mother had been a wizard.

When he was two years old, he watched her burn to death.

That man had lit the fire himself.

Ronan had only been two at the time, yet he remembered every scene with perfect clarity.

Because he was a transmigrator.

He still remembered the overwhelming panic he had felt upon first arriving in this world and discovering that he was an infant!

In another world, he had been a madman whose name made many people turn pale—though some admirers considered him an unprecedented genius. But when his soul merged with such a tiny body, one that seemed capable of dying at any moment, he truly experienced fear unlike anything he had ever known.

At that time, it was a woman with a smile as warm as the sun who soothed his panic.

She had been truly beautiful when she smiled.

For his first two years, Ronan had fallen asleep each night watching her smile.

An orphan on Earth, he understood for the first time what a mother was.

But good times did not last. When he was two, her identity was exposed; for the sake of his family, his political career, perhaps even his ambitions, that man personally burned her to death.

Ronan would never forget that scene.

Then he was sent to Crescent Prison, sentenced to life imprisonment.

No trial, no hearing—he was thrown directly into the Seventh District, where daylight never reached!

For fourteen years, that man never came to see him even once.

Everyone said he was a tiger. Throughout the Empire, no one dared challenge his edge.

But in Ronan's eyes, he was merely a coward.

Ronan was a simple person.

He did not want to guess why that tiger had arranged things this way for him—half-exile? Another form of imprisonment? None of it mattered.

Since he had survived, he had to live well.

There were things he had to accomplish.

He gently closed the Pocket Watch and let out a long breath—

There were still many unfinished matters in Crescent Prison; he had yet to visit the residence of the Second Military District Commander; and he had never seen the Western Star Region, said to be beautiful, with flying unicorns and pegasi.

All of those things were important.

But it seemed that, for now, the most important thing was figuring out how to establish himself in the manor.

Ronan watched an rx Destroyer sedan slowly drive into the manor from afar, then stood up with a slight headache.

Why was that girl so hostile toward him?

I've only been at this manor for a few days, haven't I? I haven't done anything to offend her, have I? Why does she look at me every time as though I murdered her father... Ronan wondered inwardly.

The Destroyer slowly came to a stop outside the lawn not far away.

A girl in a goose-yellow dress stepped gracefully out, a sweet smile on her face. Delicate as a porcelain doll, she was somewhat petite, but her little face was exceptionally lovable. Everyone in the manor liked her.

Everyone except Ronan.

Because in the two days since he moved into Yi Lin Manor, she had caused Ronan trouble three times.

"Fourth time." Ronan quietly rose to his feet. Watching Wei Wei approach with a smiling face, his mind began rapidly considering every possibility.

"Cousin Ronan."

Wei Wei smiled sweetly. "Today is my best friend Christine's birthday. She invited me to her birthday party. I used to go alone, since there was no one in the manor my age. But things are different now. You've just arrived in Bo Ning District, you're unfamiliar with the place, and you don't have many friends."

"How about coming to the party with me? Father won't be having dinner at the manor tonight anyway."

The girl's large eyes were filled with sincere anticipation.

Not bad acting. Ronan silently gave her a nine out of ten. The missing point was because this behavior was far too unusual.

"Sure." He nodded.

Apparently surprised by how readily Ronan agreed, Wei Wei froze for a moment. But she quickly smiled sweetly again. "At six tonight, I'll send a driver to pick you up."

With that, she turned and left with a smile.

Ronan watched her petite figure from behind and shrugged.

"An assassination banquet, or a show of force?"

"Whatever..."

Indeed. For someone who had survived in Crescent Prison for fourteen years, these little squabbles among noble descendants were nothing, no matter how exaggerated they became.

"Hopefully, I'll gain something extra." Ronan weighed the Pocket Watch hanging against his chest before carefully putting it away.

Night fell quickly.

At six in the evening, the rx Destroyer stopped outside the manor gates on time.

The party was about to begin.