Accidental Encounter

For the Hundred Flowers Kingdom, it was hard to say whether it was lucky or unlucky: before the conflict in the palace could escalate, Her Majesty the Queen, whose health had always been robust, woke up and put a stop to everything.

It was certainly cause for celebration that no bloodshed had broken out yet, but this was only temporary.

With the conflict now out in the open, the undercurrents that had been lurking beneath the surface had come to light. If there had still been some chance of a bloodless coup before, there was none now.

Even if the Queen now chose the Second Prince or the Third Prince as her successor, neither the Second Prince's faction nor the nobility would simply surrender.

But all of this was still far beyond Liu Tian's reach. A Secret Martial Arts practitioner who wasn't even a fighter had no way of getting involved in a kingdom's power struggle.

On the first day after Liu Yun returned, he—who had been eager to visit his hometown and see his wife and family again after all these years—dragged Liu Tian along on the long journey home.

Actually, it wasn't all that long. As one of the three largest and most powerful countries on the planet, the Crimson Cloud Empire had established civilian flight routes with nearly every nation in the world larger than a kingdom decades ago.

The problem was that the Crimson Cloud Empire lay at the easternmost end of the Old Continent, while the Hundred Flowers Kingdom was at the westernmost end. Even by plane, they had to make several transfers and spend over three days traveling before they could reach the Crimson Cloud Empire's capital. As soon as they arrived, they had to take a train to Pei Commandery, the Liu family's stronghold.

The journey was exhausting, but luckily, Liu Yun and Liu Tian both looked like people no one would want to mess with, just from their conspicuous muscles alone. With their black hair and yellow skin, which were characteristic of the Crimson Cloud Empire, they had no trouble along the way.

That was, until the two of them boarded this direct train to Pei Commandery.

"By the way, Dad, why did you have to drag me along this time?"

The long, tiring journey was a trial for Liu Tian, who hated traveling far from home. He'd passed the time in transit by alternating between horse stance and sleep. Only after boarding the train, with no more transfers ahead of them, did he finally feel like asking his dad why he'd brought him along.

"Your mother's about to give birth, and you don't want to see her? Find out right away whether you're getting a little brother or sister?" Liu Yun said from the seat opposite him. He had a suitcase in his hand, containing a few changes of clothes and the banknotes used exclusively in the Crimson Cloud Empire.

The suitcase was about the size of a high school student's backpack. Aside from three changes of clothes, all it contained was money.

There was no need to pack many clothes, anyway. These days, money could take you anywhere, but without it, you couldn't take a step. If need be, they could just buy more on the spot.

"I'm really not interested. Whether I find out early or late, I'll find out eventually. It's not like anything would change if I knew sooner." Liu Tian shrugged. He'd rather spend that time getting his hands on more antiques from the Lost Empire.

After all, unlike the Hundred Flowers Kingdom, which shared a border with the Dawn Alliance, the Crimson Cloud Empire was separated from the Dawn Alliance by the Morning Star Alliance. And while the Gayn Family was one of the uppermost families in the Hundred Flowers Kingdom, the Liu family was only middle-class. So Liu Tian didn't expect to find any antiques from the Lost Empire here.

Besides, although the Crimson Cloud Empire was closer to where Liu Tian had lived in his previous life than the Hundred Flowers Kingdom was, different was still different. The Hundred Flowers Kingdom was where he'd been born and raised in this life, so he didn't feel any urge to return to his hometown.

Taking those two things together, Liu Tian really didn't want to travel a thousand miles just to see his younger sibling a little earlier, especially if it meant getting caught up in a whole mess of so-called "family ties."

"You brat. Don't think I can't tell what's going on in your head." Liu Yun chuckled and feigned a tap on Liu Tian's forehead. "There's another reason we're going back. Your grandfather will turn one hundred in a month. We've been away for a long time, but for such a big occasion, we have to go back and wish him a happy birthday. And your Second Uncle was an officer who led troops in battle in what's now the Dawn Alliance. He might have collected some related antiques back then. We could get lucky..."

"Oh." Liu Tian replied with little interest.

"Excuse me, but do you speak the language of the Hundred Flowers Kingdom? Are you from there?"

As the father and son chatted, a voice suddenly interrupted them. The speaker was using the language of the Hundred Flowers Kingdom, too. It wasn't very fluent, but it was clear enough, like something learned from a textbook.

Liu Tian turned to look toward the voice. The speaker was an excited-looking boy, about middle-school age. He had the black hair and black eyes typical of the Crimson Cloud Empire and was wearing a student uniform.

"Those red eyes—I've never seen anything like them." The boy grew even more excited when Liu Tian turned to face him. "My name's Liu Wenqian. I'm a student at Pei Commandery No. 1 Primary School, and I'll be attending Xiangjun Academy next semester. It's nice to meet you."

He spoke like someone straight out of a textbook.

Even if they might be related by blood, Liu Tian still didn't want to talk to him. Turning away, he casually replied in the language of the Crimson Cloud Empire that Liu Yun had taught him, "You've got it wrong. I'm actually an unknown life-form from the 78th Nebula. I just happened to come to this planet. We were never meant to meet. Please forget you ever saw me."

"Huh? What does that mean?" Liu Wenqian looked a little disappointed and was about to say something more when two coughs interrupted him.

"Don't get carried away, little brother." The voice was clearly a young woman's, and from the sound of it, she was about the same age as Liu Tian.

"Sister Wenhan..." The girl called Sister Wenhan clearly held a lot of sway with Liu Wenqian. Just one word from her was enough to deflate the boy, who had been all set to pester Liu Tian, and send him back to his seat.

"Wen..." Liu Yun murmured thoughtfully, as if he'd realized something. "Shou, De, Chuan, Zheng, Wen, Guang, Zhen, Xi, Ji, Shi, Hong, Chang. The Wen generation. That's exactly the same generation as you, son."

"Huh? So my family has generation names?" Liu Tian asked, taken aback.

"The Liu family prides itself on passing down its scholarly traditions, so of course we've always had generation names," Liu Yun said. "But I was rebellious back then. I figured that if I was leaving, I might as well leave for good, so I dropped the Zheng from my name. Then when I named you, I didn't follow the generation naming tradition either."

"Liu Wentian doesn't sound grand at all. Liu Tian sounds better," Liu Tian said. "So here, I should call you Liu Zhengyun? And you should call me Liu Wentian?"

"Very good, my boy." Liu Yun nodded in satisfaction. "Wentian."

"Then I might as well just call you Dad, and you can call me your son. This is such a hassle." Liu Tian had no intention of playing along. He immediately shot his dad down.

"Forget it, forget it. No need to make things complicated. Dad Zhengyun—ugh, let's just get this over with..."

As the two of them chatted, the train whistle sounded. The clattering gradually faded, and they arrived in Pei Commandery.