Chapter 618: A familiar conversation
[Hah! Called it! Lonely princess type, y’all can suck it!,] Hurricroak gloated as she was certain she had won the “dating pool”.
[Hold on, our lord still needs to somehow charm her, so no claiming victory yet,] Nepherage chided.
[Also, I’m pretty sure she is a tomboy type. Check the hair and eyes.]
[What are you, wait…bullshit! Those are lonely eyes!]
[Lonely tomboy, you philistines!,] Razorstella complained.
=Oddly accurate for her to be using that insult, but not for this moment.=
For some context, a little after Zhen Liu and his family had arrived to Willow Scale City, the kaijin and the spirits running the library had decided to put together a betting pool that was focused on whether or not their lord would accidentally attract even more lovers, and if he did, what kind of girl they would be.
Due to a recently ended dating sim addiction that was shared between Logos and Pathos, the two of them ended up filling up a lot of notebooks about the type of characters that appeared in them and noted that Zhen Liu was a damn shoe-in for the protagonist role.
Even if it was an otome or a BL one.
While their lord wasn’t a handsome Casanova lady killer type or a cute short guy who would activate the motherly instinct of any woman he came across, he was that mix of charming, stupid, earnest and decent-looking that it somehow worked.
A part of them, namely Pathos, was convinced that if Zhen Liu was touch more charming and better looking though, that he could end up with a harem as big as some ancient kings…or one currently living dragon emperor.
Either way, the kaijin were having fun trying to figure out precisely how their lord was going to get fucked.
In a non-lethal sense at least.
It should also be noted that due to this aforementioned betting pool, the kaijin had implicitly agreed not to say anything, unless they were directly called upon, meaning that Zhen Liu was on his own…even if he ran his mouth like a dumbass.
Thankfully that hadn’t happen yet, but still.
[Come on maestro, just don’t say anything dumb…]
[I don’t think our director can say anything,] Razorstella noted.
[This princess has been talking almost non-stop.]
[Wait a minute…why does this conversation feel really familiar…,] Spring Brawler noted to themselves as they listened in on the princess talking their lord’s ear off.
[There’s no way, right? I mean…the rest of the guys should’ve noticed by now if…wait…unless…]
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“I am honestly so surprised your grandfather came back here to make amends of all things, I mean, wow. You gotta have a pretty big heart or a really bad memory if you’re wanting to return to a place that had regularly sent assassins and bounty hunters after you and wanting to apologize over it. Then again, that could’ve been Princess Bai Hua’s doing, I hear she was surprisingly strong-willed and that your grandfather was head over heels for her…my condolences by the way. I had overheard what had happen to her from some people speaking to your direct uncles and father.”
“Uh…thanks? That was a long time ago, I don’t even remember meeting her properly to be honest,” Zhen Liu answered a caught off tone.
“Oh, that’s a shame. I wanted to see if you could tell me stories of how she was as a grandmother, like was she strict or lenient, did she have a favorite stick to enact corporeal punishment?”
“Pretty she didn’t have that last thing…”
“Really? Well then, I am honestly curious how she managed to raise seven sons all at the same time!m without resorting to the usage of a stick.”
“Okay…dark…”
Long before coming to Roaring Tide properly, and just after being regaled by his grandparents’ tale of pissing off a lot of people for the sake of love, Zhen Liu had made a list of people he didn’t want to deal with while going on this family trip that was ordered by severity/specificity.
“Oh wait a minute, you could totally just ask your parents and elders how she was! If so, be sure to give me the details as thanks.”
Number one on that list was “the Prince that my grandfather fucked over”, while number two was simply, “everyone who is possibly related to the first guy”, and number three was “anyone daft enough to ask personal questions in regards to my family’s history with the Pearl Scale Empire.”
Unfortunately for him, he was forced to interact with his second and third least wanted encounter on his list, in the form of the 24th prince’s little sister, Jinju Ren.
Granted, she had an incredibly casual air about her that made it almost impossible to get mad at her for being this direct, as well as what Zhen Liu could pick to be actual admiration towards his grandparents…which was weird.
Why would an imperial level princess admire a small town princess and her admittedly peasant of a lover?
Was she a hopeless romantic who found their story intriguing?
Was Zhen Liu’s grandparent’s story the equivalent of a true crime podcast in this world?
Was she in a similar situation and found hope in how things turned out for his grandparents?
Did she want to be in such a situation, or did she in fact just kept talking for the sake of talking to hide her real intentions?
Either way, there were only two ways to know for certain.
Zhen Liu could try and take back control of this conversation, which was easier said than done, or he could use the power of the seal and his cultivation to see what desire is in her heart of hearts and maybe pocket a core out of the situation.
Although, he already did have a core with a basis of [Freedom] so condensing one might seen excessive…then again, he was alerted he had unlocked some hidden ability a while back that could help with that issue.
But before he could even entertain those thoughts, he still has to take control of the conversation again and he had an idea on what to do…maybe.
“Actually, can you tell me why you’re family decided to move to Stampeding Bison of all places and how you got there? Because I’m pretty Soaring Gryphon was closer and I need to settle a debate whether your grandparents went by boat or by foot to elope and whether or not they had somebody help-”
“Hey, whoa,” Zhen Liu interjected, “whoa.”
“I am more than happy to answer some of those questions,” Zhen Liu continued, “but before I do so, would you mind letting me ask some questions too?”
The moment he said this, Jinju Ren’s expression turned flat and a touch sour. It appeared she had been asked about this sort of thing before and didn’t have good experiences in regards to that question.
“Okay, what? You want to know about why I’m the 38th princess? You want to know how my older siblings are doing? Whether or not the Emperor is actually a pup-
“What the-no. I wasn’t gonna ask any of those.”
“Really? Then what were you going to ask?”
“Well, for starters, why are you so interested in my grandparent’s story? Last I checked and heard, not a lot of people were happy that it had happened in the first place. Hence all the dirty looks my cousins and I have been dealing with.”
“Oh! That…well…uh…”
For the first time this evening, Jinju Ren was stunned silent and bashful as she tried to come up with a good explaination as to why she was so interested on the story of Zhen Liu’s grandparents.
The way she was stalling was actually kind of cute in Zhen Liu’s eyes, but he had a feeling she wasn’t going to be honest about answering this question, so he might as well throw her a bone and give something slightly easier to answer…maybe.
“Okay, if you can’t answer that question, maybe you can answer this one. Why are you out here?”
“I…huh?”
Seeing that the imperial princess was the one thrown off her game this time, Zhen Liu decided to press his luck a bit more.
“Well, I’m out here because I was getting sick of all the sideway glances over the fact that I’m the only ‘mudchild’ or whatever the term was in there and I didn’t want to do a repeat performance of my opening match today. And if I had to hazard a guess, you’re out here for a similar reason of not wanting to deal with people. Am I right?”
“That…is correct, yes,” Jinju Ren nodded in agreement.
She looked positively shocked at Zhen Liu’s assessment since it somehow came out of nowhere and nailed what she was feeling like a bull’s-eye.
How the hell did he figure that out though?
Zhen Liu did his best to look casual in the empty hall, leaning against a pillar for added effect.
“So…come on, princess, won’t you let me hear about you for a change?,” Zhen Liu asked with a smile as charming a he could.
The moment this exact question was asked, Jinju Ren’s cheek turned just the slightest tint of red.
“Would…would it be sad to say…this is the first time anyone asked about me?”
“A bit, but that also means I’m the first time and that makes things…special.”
“Ah…”
