Chapter 140: Dinner Date with the Princess
"What are you doing here in Tianfeng City?"
[GoonLord: YES ASK HER!]
[LazyCat: lore drop incoming.]
[BloodKnight: A royal traveling alone usually implies a hidden agenda.]
Lune placed her cup back onto the mahogany table. She folded her gloved hands together and locked her emerald eyes directly onto his face.
"I am attending the Azure Dragon Sect as an exchange disciple," Lune explained. "The Lumiere Dynasty maintains several diplomatic ties with the Eastern Realms. Expanding my martial foundations outside of my royal tutelage aligns perfectly with my responsibilities."
Solomon swallowed his food and picked up another piece of chicken. "You sneaked out of the sect pavilions in the middle of the night just to fight street brawlers. That looks absolutely nothing like official diplomatic business to me."
Lune took a sip of her tea and placed the porcelain cup back onto the mahogany table. She picked up a pair of wooden chopsticks and plucked a piece of spiced honey chicken from the serving plate.
"I could easily say the exact same thing about your current extracurricular activities," Lune pointed out. "A first-year academy student sneaking out to participate in arena fights seems like against the rules."
Solomon chewed his food and leaned back against his wooden chair. He lacked a valid argument to counter her logic. He simply gestured for her to continue explaining her living arrangements.
"I do not actually stay at the sect dormitories with the rest of the exchange disciples," Lune explained, setting her chopsticks down. "A relative from a branch family bloodline lives in a large estate situated just outside the city borders. I reside there during my time in the Eastern Realms."
Solomon swallowed his meal and tilted his head. "Why would someone from the Lumiere Dynasty own a palace all the way out here in the Eastern Realms? I mean.... Sure, it’s royal family. They are rich and they can do ridiculous things, but this sounds more like a... bad investment."
Lune wiped her mouth with a silk napkin. "Royals used to live across the entire Eastern Realm a few hundred years ago. They ruled vast territories until their empire eventually fell into ruin."
She interlaced her fingers and rested her hands on the table edge. "Their descendants still visit these lands occasionally to maintain old ties. The relative hosting me is actually my cousin’s aunt’s nephew’s daughter. She wedded into this specific branch family a few years ago."
Solomon focused entirely on the first half of her explanation. He completely ignored the convoluted family tree. The mention of a fallen royal kingdom immediately sparked a new plan in his mind.
"Where exactly is this palace located?" Solomon asked, leaning forward over the table.
Lune glanced at the glowing crystal chandeliers illuminating the dining hall. "The branch family estate is roughly a four-hour carriage ride from the city gates."
"I am talking about the actual fallen family palace," Solomon clarified, tapping his fingers against the polished wood. "The one belonging to the ancient empire you just mentioned."
Lune shifted her gaze back to his face. "That ruined capital sits much further away from civilization. Traveling there requires at least a full day of riding through treacherous mountain passes."
Solomon leaned closer and lowered his voice. "What is the current state of that ancient palace? Are the ruins completely abandoned, or do local factions still guard the perimeter?"
Lune shook her head and picked up her teacup. "I honestly have absolutely no idea. Entry to those ruins is strictly prohibited by the Church Association. They deployed their own forces to quarantine the area centuries ago, and absolutely no one is allowed to cross their borders."
Solomon leaned back and stared at the intricate dragon paintings decorating the ceiling. His mind raced through the implications of her words. A fallen royal family kingdom meant a throne room, and a throne room almost guaranteed the existence of a royal crown.
He knew finding the artifact inside a plundered ruin was a massive gamble. Looters or the Church Association themselves might have stripped the treasury bare centuries ago.
Despite the obvious risks, venturing into the fallen capital was entirely worth the effort. Unlocking a new bloodline talent would instantly catapult his strength to completely new heights.
Solomon glanced at the owl hovering faithfully beside his shoulder. He quickly recognized a flaw in his current situation. He was an enrolled academy student bound by strict curfews, and the drone broadcasted his exact location to thousands of viewers around the clock.
Traveling a full day across the realm to trespass into a Church-quarantined zone would instantly alert the instructors and trigger his immediate expulsion. He needed a valid excuse to leave the sect boundaries.
’Securing an official academy mission or a sponsored viewer challenge is the only way to infiltrate those ruins. Or maybe I will just dip out once I obtain my first star.’
Solomon picked up another piece of spiced honey chicken with his wooden chopsticks. He tossed the meat into his mouth and chewed loudly. Lune wrinkled her nose and pushed her porcelain teacup away from the edge of the mahogany table.
"Do you ever chew your food before swallowing?" Lune asked, tapping her own chopsticks against a ceramic plate of roasted lotus root. "You eat exactly like a starved dungeon beast."
"I just fought an entire arena of brawlers and pinned a royal princess to the dirt," Solomon replied with a mouthful of food. "A guy needs to replenish his calories after carrying that much weight."
Lune gripped her chopsticks tight enough to make the wood creak. A bright crimson flush crawled up her neck and coated her cheeks. She glared at him and stabbed a piece of lotus root with absolute ferocity.
"You merely took advantage of a momentary distraction," Lune shot back, chewing her vegetables aggressively. "Furthermore, running around calling yourself Marco Alfoy makes you look like an idiot."
"How do you know that?" He asked with a curious and confused look on his face. "Were you there also?"
"No, idiot. I was watching your stream, obviously," she responded with a chuckle.
"But isn’t it expensive to watch streams in realms which don’t have their own infrastructure to support it locally?"
Lune gave a dead stare to him and responded, "I am a princess. I am rich."
"I guess there are people who don’t know what to do with their money." He shrugged.
"Don’t try to change the subject," She squinted her eyes and continued, "Why were you using an alias instead of your real name? I mean, I understand the reason, but you were live streaming so there was no point in doing that."
"Obviously, for fun." Solomon grinned and swallowed his meal. "The crowd chanted it perfectly fine. It rolls off the tongue way better than ’Iron Maiden’ which you used."
The owl fluttered its wings and hovered right between them. The translucent blue interface lit up with a rapid flood of viewer messages. The audience completely ignored the conversation about fallen kingdoms and focused entirely on the table dynamic.
[GoonLord: SHE IS BLUSHING! I AM PUNCHING THE WALL RIGHT NOW!]
[Fatal_Beauty: they fight like an old married couple lol.]
[BloodKnight: A shared meal after battle forms an unbreakable bond between warriors.]
[User12: bro is literally munching chicken while on a date with a royal.]
[1Fizzy: the banter is top tier. Solo Man has absolutely zero respect.]
Solomon read the scrolling text and grabbed a steamed bun from the center tray. "This is just a casual meal," he announced to the camera lens. "We happen to be sitting together because she gave me a shiny coin."
Lune peeked at the hovering blue screen. She quickly turned her face away and focused her attention on a decorative silk painting hanging on the far wall.
The crimson tint on her cheeks spread all the way to the tips of her ears.
Suddenly, a loud crash echoed from the main entrance of the Golden Lotus Pavilion. The lively music from the stringed instruments abruptly stopped. Wealthy merchants and local martial artists abandoned their velvet betting mats and scrambled away from the grand staircase.
Thick iron boots stomped against the polished marble steps in perfect unison. A massive contingent of fully armored knights marched onto the main floor. The soldiers wore pristine silver plate mail adorned with an intricate crest.
Solomon stopped chewing his steamed bun.
The armored knights completely ignored the fleeing merchants and the spilling wine cups. They marched in a rigid column straight through the chaotic dining hall. The soldiers zeroed in on the corner of the room and halted directly in front of the mahogany table.
A towering captain stepped forward from the ranks. He placed a steel-gauntleted hand onto his weapon belt and looked directly at the silver-haired boy.
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