The Journey

Thunderstorms roared through the night, who knew how much filth they had washed away? When morning came, it was a new day once more.

Liu Tian abruptly opened his eyes, took the Prism Pillar from his underwear, and slipped it into his left sock as he got dressed.

After washing up quickly, Liu Tian simply toasted some bread in the kitchen, boiled five eggs, and made himself a large cup of milk.

Ever since his mother had left to return to the Crimson Cloud Empire to rest during her pregnancy, Liu Tian had gotten by like this every morning. Occasionally, when he was in the mood, he would make something different for himself, such as stir-fried pork with green peppers or green peppers fried with pork. But today, since time was short, this would have to do.

After finishing his simple breakfast, Liu Tian put on the black military-style school uniform, pinned on Rose Academy's badge, picked up his bag, and headed outside.

Rose Academy had once been a standard aristocratic school. In the past, it required at least one parent of every enrolled student to be a noble. Of course, in this day and age, that rule had gradually and quietly been abolished. The only thing left to prove its aristocratic nature was its exorbitant tuition.

Fortunately, Liu Tian's father, Liu Yun, was an outstanding captain and whaler. He went to sea three times a year, and each voyage earned him at least five years' worth of an ordinary person's wages. Therefore, Liu Tian had never needed to worry about the tuition at an aristocratic academy.

As an aristocratic academy with such high fees, it naturally had reasons for charging so much. Liu Tian had only waited at the entrance to the residential district for a short while before the academy's dedicated student bus arrived with a honk.

Following the crowd onto the bus, he found that quite a few students were already aboard.

Rose Academy required every student to take the bus unless necessary. Of the nearly thousand students in the entire academy, only a handful were exceptions. They either had special status or considerable power. The most famous among them was Lilia von Ein, known as the Rose Princess.

However, this Princess had little contact with Liu Tian. It could even be said that they had nothing to do with each other at all.

As outsiders from the Crimson Cloud Empire, the Liu family had always treated others kindly and avoided excessive dealings with the local upper class, lest they become involved in too many disputes. Much less would they involve themselves in such an enormous whirlpool.

Besides, the former Liu Tian had been a martial brute obsessed with training and had no interest whatsoever in romance. It was not as though they had never met, but the only impression the Rose Princess had left him was her blood-red hair.

After boarding the bus, Liu Tian spoke to no one and joined none of the small groups. He simply walked alone toward the rear of the vehicle, took a window seat, propped his head up, and sorted through the situation of this world.

This was a world resembling Earth on the eve of World War II. Countless small nations stood side by side, but all of them were attached to three enormous powers.

Those three powers were the Crimson Cloud Empire, which ruled the broadest territory and the largest population; the Morning Star Alliance, which occupied countless islands and possessed the strongest navy; and the Dawn Alliance, located on the New Continent, which had gained independence during the First World War and possessed quite a few archaeological black technologies.

The Liu family had originally lived in the Crimson Cloud Empire. Liu Tian's father, Liu Yun, had been born with a love for adventure and had refused to follow his family's arrangements and enter officialdom to become some provincial lord. At fifteen, he had boarded a ship alone and set out upon the seas. After many twists and turns, he finally fell in love at first sight with Liu Tian's mother, Sophie Lovis, in the Hundred Flowers Kingdom when he was thirty. He settled down there, and nearly twenty years had passed since.

Liu Tian himself had inherited his father's black hair and yellow skin, as well as Sophie's blood-red eyes. As a child, he had been rather adorable. Yet after taking a Martial Artist who had wandered here as his master ten years ago, he had become increasingly withdrawn, taciturn, and difficult to control. That was also why Liu Yun and Sophie, though nearly fifty, still wanted another child.

Having traveled far and wide for most of his life, Liu Yun knew that the path of martial arts was dangerous and unpredictable, and that countless people perished before reaching maturity. Even practicing martial arts merely to strengthen one's body could easily lead to trouble, much less when Liu Tian aimed to become the strongest—and had that master of his.

Perhaps having another child was both a complete surrender of any hope of changing Liu Tian's personality and a tenderness unique to Liu Yun. He was unwilling to forcibly turn his son onto a path he had chosen for him, just as he himself had once refused to heed his elders' arrangements and had gone to sea alone.

Fortunately, he had no close friends, which saved him quite a bit of trouble.

From last night until now, Liu Tian had spent quite some time piecing things together in fragments. Once he had thoroughly organized all the information he needed to know, he finally had the leisure to look around and observe scenery he had never seen in reality.

Was this what it meant to be children of wealthy families? The people on the bus were generally good-looking, especially the girls, each beautiful in her own way. Their lovely faces, their curvaceous bodies developed under ample nutrition, and the carefully designed uniforms—white shirts above and black pleated skirts below—all gave off a charm called youth.

Liu Tian's face could only be called ordinary. Amid so many beauties, he even appeared somewhat unimpressive. Yet compared to them, he possessed something distinct: an air of steadfastness.

In truth, if Liu Tian had not been so withdrawn and obsessed with martial arts, he probably would have had quite a bit of luck with women. After all, in this era that pursued real men, Liu Tian was actually quite to the taste of many girls.

To avoid misunderstandings, Liu Tian merely glanced around before withdrawing his gaze and looking out the window.

Roadside trees flashed past. Thick black smoke poured from chimneys. Manors lay hidden amid the greenery. Pedestrians hurried along. Sallow, emaciated beggars collapsed by the roadside, begging for alms. Workers were thrown out of factories together with their luggage. Patrol officers with guns at their waists wore green military uniforms. Newsboys with bundles of newspapers around their waists ran down the streets. And gangsters in uniforms, covered in tattoos, glared at one another.

Though he had learned about all of this from his memories, seeing it with his own eyes still felt remarkably fresh. In the past, he could only see such things on television. He had never expected to personally witness the iron fist of capitalism now.

It also made him silently count himself fortunate. Good thing I was reincarnated into a family with decent circumstances. Otherwise, surviving in this era would probably have been extremely difficult in the early stages, no matter how hard I worked.

However, hadn't friction between gangs been less frequent before?

Liu Tian silently counted and discovered that, along this route alone, he had seen five fights. The odds were far higher than normal.

The Rose Academy bus followed a fixed route. Although there were not many protectors stationed along the streets, the gangs had long since reached an unspoken understanding not to get too close to these children, who were either rich or powerful and possessed immense potential influence. Normally, seeing one or two incidents would already have been quite remarkable. Yet now, conflicts were happening so frequently. It seemed there would be more trouble ahead.

Looks like quite a few things happened during yesterday's typhoon and thunderstorm. But it has nothing to do with me.

Liu Tian silently thought this, convinced that what did not concern him should be ignored. Then, with a honk, the bus arrived at Rose Academy.