After Pei Liang said this, she fixed her gaze on the Pei family and fell silent.
The Pei family, who had been so warm and enthusiastic from the moment she entered, suddenly found themselves unable to utter a word.
The entire dining hall became deathly quiet. There were nearly a hundred people present, after all.
The awkward silence lasted for almost a full minute before something finally broke it.
Pei Liang’s father forced himself to speak. “No. How could you think that, child?”
“Even if your father was unfair in distributing things in the past because of various considerations, he would never abandon his own flesh and blood.”
The people around them hurried to smooth things over for him. “Exactly. He’s usually strict with you, but that’s only because he has high expectations. If you hadn’t spoken so openly today, we wouldn’t have known that the conflict between you and your father had reached this point.”
“Since everyone happens to have some free time, perhaps the two of you could—”
Someone was about to suggest that Pei Liang’s father try taking a sentimental approach.
But Pei Liang merely looked at him with an amused, knowing smile. “Are you sure there wasn’t?”
“Of course I can’t disbelieve what my own father says. If you say there wasn’t, then I’ll take your word for it.”
The man’s reaction had practically given her the answer. Pei Liang found it amusing that this group was still trying to keep it from her.
Could this really be concealed? Their unreasonable unease and retreat had already made it clear. The person who had planned to adopt her could not possibly be persuaded to abandon the idea simply because the Pei family applied some pressure or offered a few benefits. There was no way the whole matter could be suppressed so completely that it never reached her ears.
They clearly needed her cooperation or an explicit statement from her. That was why they were being so cautious, coaxing her and trying to make do.
That was also why these arrogant parents had not immediately divided up the benefits now that she had brought the family immense glory. They felt guilty.
Not only did they feel guilty, they could no longer distribute the benefits as they pleased.
Pei Liang understood the logic, and so did Elder Uncle Pei. They would need the child’s cooperation eventually; there was no way to hide the truth.
Elder Uncle Pei glared at his second brother. If the man had not been Pei Liang’s biological father, publicly humiliating him in front of his own child would have been inappropriate. Otherwise, Elder Uncle Pei would have cursed the idiot out on the spot.
He rose and spoke in a tone filled with regret and the remorse of a negligent parent. “Your father is an absolute fool. He was manipulated and used by others, and he hurt you.”
“And I’m at fault as well. I’ve been so busy with government affairs that I failed to understand your situation. By the time that beast told me what had happened, it was already too late.”
“This is what happened: after the military academy discovered that you had evolved to 3S, Richter kept your condition under wraps. There was nothing procedurally wrong with that, and it benefited the Imperial Military Academy. Given his position, no one could criticize him for making that decision.”
“But we all forgot that he was very close to that man from the Valen family. On the very day you became a regular member of the team, Valen approached your father and requested to adopt you.”
“He already knew that you had evolved, so he set a trap and tricked your father into giving up your guardianship.”
“I know that because of your mother, he must have been fawning over you and agreeing to your every request. But you mustn’t let him deceive you.”
Pei Liang raised an eyebrow. After hearing Elder Uncle Pei explain the cause and effect, she understood everything.
At that moment, she could only marvel at how Valen had taken playing the “other man” to the highest possible level. As it happened, she had been the one to tease him about it first.
She never expected that he would take her words seriously—and then act on them without the slightest hesitation.
When Valen proposed the deal to the Pei family, he certainly had not known that she was 3S. She trusted Richter’s pride; he was not the sort to engage in petty scheming behind the scenes.
She also believed that Valen had wanted custody of her from beginning to end for only one reason: he genuinely wanted to make a life with her stepmother.
Valen could not have learned about her evolution before the Pei family did, so his motive was simplicity itself.
She could even reconstruct, more or less, why her father had agreed to Valen’s bargain.
Aside from everything that had already been arranged, once she was selected as a regular team member of the Imperial Military Academy with an S-rank designation, someone who supposedly did not deserve her position would naturally attract a great deal of attention.
With the title of an Imperial Military Academy regular but such weak abilities, she was practically an open invitation for people to bully her and wash away their humiliation.
Her father had never believed that his daughter could achieve anything in the league besides making a fool of herself. So he had simply gone along with the deal, quickly and conveniently dumping this disgrace onto the Valen family while gaining several advantages at once.
But the more readily her father had cast her aside back then, the more painful it was for him now.
Picking up where Elder Uncle Pei left off, her father put on the expression of a deceived old man, trying to stir his daughter’s sympathy.
“I truly was deceived by that smooth-talking bastard—”
Before he could finish, Pei Liang interrupted him. “So what benefits did he offer you in exchange? What could possibly have prompted you to complete such a complicated transfer of guardianship in less than half a month?”
If the procedure had not already reached the point of no return, the Pei family would not have lost their composure.
Her father suddenly fell silent, stammering and unable to get another word out.
Pei Liang sneered. “You’re a hypocrite. A hypocrite wouldn’t abandon his reputation for some trivial benefit.”
“Disinheriting a legitimate child with inferior genes and a low ceiling, then appointing an illegitimate child as heir—that’s a scandal in high society, a violation of its unwritten rules, isn’t it?”
Furthermore, such a scandal would directly affect the Pei family’s value in marriage alliances. If a family could not guarantee the rights of its legitimate children, that would implicitly increase the risks of marrying into it. Who would want to form an alliance with a family that had so little regard for contracts and promises?
“For you to calmly accept the contempt and criticism of countless people in the future, as well as the invisible losses to the family’s interests, the price must have been substantial. Otherwise, I don’t believe you would have made the decision so quickly.”
Cold sweat began to pour from her father’s forehead. Elder Uncle Pei stared at him with an equally grim expression.
Pei Liang concluded with certainty, “The Pei family has always coveted the military’s influence. In recent years, you’ve formed more marriage alliances with military aristocrats and sent more members of the family to military academies, all in the hope of expanding your influence.”
“The Valen family is a major military aristocratic house. Of course, it would be unrealistic for Mr. Valen alone to have complete control of the entire Valen family. But even the military influence and connections belonging to Mr. Valen alone are something the Pei family could never hope to obtain.”
“So…” Pei Liang smiled sweetly at her father. “The condition was that Mr. Valen would leave me his entire inheritance?”
The Valen family was not foolish, after all. They would never hand their assets directly to a family of politicians, so they needed a link between them.
She was completely right. No one in the Pei family dared to rashly interrupt her now.
Many people who were not entirely unfamiliar with Pei Liang stared at her as though they had seen a ghost, their hearts pounding wildly.
Was this really the same person who had once been simple-minded, easy to deceive, quick-tempered, lacking in opinions of her own, and extraordinarily easy to manipulate?
Pei Liang leaned back in her chair and looked down at her father from above. “But there’s something I don’t understand. Mr. Valen’s inheritance needs to be liquidated through me and then funneled back into the Pei family.”
“But since the Pei family has already given me away, what makes you think I’d still be willing to betray my own interests for yours?”
Of course, this confidence was based on her father’s understanding of his daughter.
Though they had not spent much time together, the less valued a person was within a family, the more desperately they tended to seek its recognition. To achieve that, they would refuse none of the arrangements the family made for them.
She had even taken pride in it, because apart from that, she could find no sense of belonging or recognition anywhere else.
But she no longer needed any of that.
When Pei Liang saw that her father remained silent, she ignored him and merely sighed, “Father is really generous.”
“What?” Pei’s father asked, bewildered.
Pei Liang looked at him in surprise, then awkwardly said, “Oh, I misspoke. I wasn’t talking about you, Father. I meant my legal father, Mr. Valen.”
“He’s really generous. After all, if his wish truly comes true, considering his and my mother’s ages, it may not be too late for them to have children of their own in the future. Yet he actually dared to directly designate me—someone who doesn’t share his blood—as his heir. I have to admit, that’s very generous of him.”
The Pei family could no longer hear what came after that. Only one sentence kept echoing in their ears:
“Father is really generous. My legal father, Mr. Valen.”
“My father, Mr. Valen.”
“My father Valen is really generous.”
Pei’s father instantly became so enraged that the blood rushed to his head. He shot to his feet. “What did you call him? I’m not dead yet, you ungrateful wretch who’s forgotten your ancestors!”
“So what if I transferred your guardianship? Are you still a child? Do you still need someone else to look after and educate you? You’re going out there to take the Valen family’s connections and assets for free. You’re a soldier yourself, and we paved every one of those paths for you. We carefully considered your feelings, and yet you act as though the entire family owes you something.”
“Isn’t this a good thing? Just because we didn’t discuss it with you beforehand, you immediately accepted your enemy as your father without a second thought. Don’t forget who gave birth to you and raised you. If you’re going to call someone else ‘Dad,’ you should at least remember whose food you grew up eating all these years!”
Pei Liang laughed. “I did remember. There’s no doubt that my mother gave birth to me. As for who raised me…”
“I looked through the expense records from my childhood until now and found that the vast majority of them were paid out of my mother’s accounts. The total from the Pei family’s side comes to about this much, right?”
Pei Liang gestured. The members of the Pei family stared at Pei’s father in disbelief.
Pei Liang said, “As it happens, I placed a bet on myself in the league and made quite a bit of money. If Father is bothered by it, would you like me to pay you back right now?”
Pei’s father’s face flushed bright red with anger. He bellowed, “How is that possible?”
“Even if I were the worst father in the world, would I really be stingy when it came to my own daughter?”
That was true. The Pei family was certainly wealthy enough to raise a child. They even had a family foundation. Much less the main branch, to which Pei’s father belonged as the clan head’s own brother—even children from ordinary collateral branches received subsidies for education and living expenses if their families were struggling.
Pei Liang believed that Pei’s father had not deliberately mistreated her. It was simply that—
She shrugged. “It’s not that I misunderstood Father as being miserly or unwilling to spend money on his own daughter.”
“It’s just that getting money out of your assets is rather troublesome. For years, every disbursement has been delayed, and anything decent required layer upon layer of approval. It was simply too much trouble, so I used my mother’s accounts instead.”
Even the original Pei Liang, as foolish as she was, knew which side was easier to ask for money from. Naturally, over time, she had gotten used to going to that side.
As long as she wasn’t asking for anything outrageous, Pei Liang’s mother never objected. Her financial assistant would arrange everything immediately—quick and easy. On her father’s side, however, the process was drawn out and fussy, and sometimes even came with the humiliating feeling of begging. Who would choose to go there?
Pei’s father was still staring in disbelief when Pei Liang smiled and immediately revealed the key point.
“Some time ago, I looked over the list of accountants and assistants managing your assets, Father, and found a few familiar names.”
“They’re quite similar to those from your younger brother’s maternal family. That explains a lot.”
“I don’t know when Father first decided to change your heir, but if it was many years ago, then all those things suddenly make perfect sense. After all, every extra penny I spent would eventually have come out of my younger brother’s inheritance, wouldn’t it?”
Pei’s father was stunned. Nepotism was nothing unusual, really.
If a lover gave birth to a gifted illegitimate son, it was only human nature to reward her by placing her relatives in important positions, allowing both sides to support one another and advance together.
What Pei’s father had never expected was that they would dare to pull such petty tricks.
Looking at Pei Liang, everyone could tell that she had probably been nursing resentment over this for years. The present incident had merely been the spark that set it all off.
They instantly found an outlet for their anger. Elder Uncle Pei even kicked Pei’s father.
“Look at what you’ve done!”
Then he turned to Pei Liang and repeatedly apologized. “Ah-Liang, your father was simply poor at judging people. He never intended to mistreat you.”
“You were such a sensible child. If only you’d told your elder uncle sooner—”
Pei Liang waved him off. She had no interest in listening to the hypocritical rhetoric of a politician.
She answered him directly, “It’s not as though I never told you. For example, before I entered military academy, I wanted the family to find a master mecha engineer and commission a good custom mecha that belonged to me.”
“But several of my cousins from your household said that I was only S-rank and didn’t deserve a custom mecha, that the cost was too high and the value too low, and that the family was having a difficult time financially. They told me that, as a member of the family, I shouldn’t blindly pursue vanity.”
Elder Uncle Pei looked as though his tongue had been ripped out. He glanced at the several children around him, his expression a mixture of anger and embarrassment.
Why was everyone around him such an idiot?
Pei Liang continued with a smile. “So you see, I don’t really owe the Pei family much.”
“On the other hand, my mother gave me life and raised me. Her kindness is as deep as the sea. Therefore, when it comes to this matter, I’ll follow my mother’s wishes.”
“Whoever my mother says is my father is my father.”
Of course, based on what Pei Liang knew of her nominal mother, she probably didn’t care about any of this.
She was a butterfly flitting through life, playing with the world and never taking anything seriously. That would save Pei Liang a great deal of trouble.
But the Pei family naturally refused to accept this. In their eyes, Pei Liang’s mother had already taken the Valen family’s side.
Now that they had more or less fallen out, there was no need to remain polite.
One of the elders stood up and pointed at Pei Liang. “Your mother? She’s an Omega. She’s nothing more than a tool for an Alpha to perpetuate his genes.”
“The glory you enjoy now, and the evolutionary potential you possess, all come from the Pei family’s genes. And you’re going to listen to her?”
“If she weren’t useless, she wouldn’t have given birth to an S-rank failure like you, leaving you to endure more than a decade of humiliation for nothing. She’s the real culprit.”
Pei Liang sneered. “Inferior genes, and you still have the nerve to boast about them? Then why is Lance a genius while I’m a ‘failure,’ despite having the same mother?”
“By your logic, that means the father was simply too useless.”
“The reason I’m irreplaceable is because I’m the one who faced all of this—not because of some supposedly common Pei family genes. Do you understand?”
Her arrogance and humiliation completely enraged the Pei family.
An old man with a white beard jumped to his feet and shouted, “There are plenty of people with 3S-rank genes. Why should you be the only one who stands above everyone else?”
“It’s nothing more than those martial arts techniques you comprehended from ancient texts. They were left behind by the Pei family’s ancestors—a gift to all of us who carry the Pei bloodline.”
“You’re taking a gift that belongs to your bloodline and using it to defect to another family. What right do you have?”
Pei Liang looked at him as though he were an idiot. “You actually believe that?”
It would be more accurate to say that the Pei family was simply willing to believe only that explanation. Not one of them considered—or was willing to believe—the possibility that it was false.
Because—
Elder Uncle Pei said gravely, “These are the words you said yourself. Now, not only are they known to all the high-ranking officials in the military and government, but His Majesty the Emperor has probably heard them as well.”
“Those techniques and energies are far too profound. They must undoubtedly be powers left behind by our mysterious Eastern ancestors.”
“I know you resent the family now, and that you won’t be willing to cooperate when the time comes. But remember, we are blood relatives, no matter what.”
“When we appear in court, I believe the judge will take into serious consideration the value of the many legacies the Pei family has bestowed upon you, as well as the inherited secret arts.”
Among the nobility, a family’s heritage and intangible wealth were considered sacred and inviolable. Taking that into account, perhaps there really was a chance of winning this guardianship lawsuit.
Pei Liang glanced at the members of the Pei family. Then she suddenly smiled. “Believe it if you want.”
“Actually, it’ll be easier on you if you don’t believe me.”
Elder Uncle Pei felt an ominous premonition.
Sure enough, Pei Liang continued, “Because I plan to make the martial arts I’ve comprehended public.”
“What?”
The Pei family members all jumped to their feet in shock.
“Have you lost your mind?”
“You can’t do that!”
“What advantage do you think you’ll have over the other 3S individuals?”
“You’re throwing away your chance to become a first-class noble with your own hands!”
Pei Liang found it amusing. “Why would I want to become a first-class noble? My life hasn’t become so pathetic that I’d aspire to that.”
At first, the members of the Pei family didn’t understand what she meant. They assumed she had simply gotten carried away with her arrogance and blurted out something foolish.
It was only many years later, when someone recalled these words in alarm, that they realized everything had been foreshadowed from the very beginning.
For now, however, everyone was still earnestly trying to persuade Pei Liang not to do something so stupid.
But no matter what they said, she remained as stubborn as a block of wood.
She even spread her hands helplessly. “I don’t want to do this either. But an entire family is ganging up on one person. I have to fight for a little leverage, don’t I?”
“Once the martial arts within me are made public, I imagine that both the Emperor and the military will be delighted. Besides, martial arts aren’t restricted by genetics. They can raise the entire population’s combat ability. In the war between humanity and the insectoids, that will gradually tip the scales of victory toward humanity.”
“This is something that will benefit all generations to come. Why can’t you sacrifice your little individual interests for the greater good?”
Elder Uncle Pei wanted to kill her. Gritting his teeth, he lowered his voice and said, “Who doesn’t know that? But why do you think the nobles have never shared their inheritances? Because of the insectoids! The current class system exists because of them!”
“The insectoids can be defeated, but they can’t be wiped out. Do you even realize what you’re trying to do?”
A gleam flashed through Pei Liang’s eyes, and then the corners of her lips curved into a smile.
This was the first time she had heard the truth of this world stated so bluntly by one of its nobles, though the essence of it had always been obvious.
After all, having spent so much of her life as someone at the top, she understood the mindset of the ruling class and the way it maintained its dominance all too well.
That was precisely why this world irritated her.
So many people had given their lives at the front lines for honor and ideals, for the sake of peace among humanity.
There were also countless others who might have been filled with passion and willing to sacrifice themselves when they were young, only to either die or forget their original convictions and join the rotten faction they had once resisted so fiercely.
Countless commoners had their paths to advancement severed.
Countless Omegas existed merely as tools for reproduction.
And for thousands upon thousands of years, countless soldiers had died on the front lines.
All of this was because the existing ruling class needed to maintain the status quo of external conflict.
Pei Liang had always thought Richter handled things beautifully, especially when he gave her the Emperor’s mecha.
Sometimes, she even wondered whether that man might somehow be in tune with her thoughts, and had therefore sent exactly what she wanted straight to her.
Though in truth, it was nothing more than a meaningless symbol.
Still, in the future, Pei Liang would make sure that whenever people saw that mecha, their first reaction would no longer be, “That was His Majesty the Emperor’s former ride.”
At this moment, she said to the members of the Pei family, “Since that’s the case, then I imagine there won’t be many people interested in my lessons once they’re publicized. You can all rest easy.”
With that, she rose to her feet. Her confrontation with the Pei family was more or less over, and the next step would probably be to proceed through the legal system.
Fortunately, she could leave everything to Mr. Valen and her cheap excuse for a mother, freeing herself to do other things.
Perfect.
Seeing this, Elder Uncle Pei said, “Stop her. Don’t let her leave.”
Pei Liang turned around and looked at him with an eerily amused smile. “Are you sure? You really think everyone in this room can stop me?”
The Pei family was involved in politics, so they didn’t have a particularly clear understanding of Pei Liang’s true strength.
They only thought that, no matter how powerful she was now, she was still a student. She might be leagues ahead of her peers, but she was still inferior to true soldiers who had experienced the battlefield in terms of experience and level.
The Pei family had numerous bodyguards, all of them veterans who had retired from the battlefield. There were also several members of military families, led by her Fourth Cousin.
Her Fourth Cousin moved first. Pei Liang’s infuriating refusal to yield made him feel that the meal he had eaten today had gone to waste.
He wanted nothing more than to tear her flesh off with his teeth.
He equipped his mecha without caring that the dining room was too small, then threw a punch straight at Pei Liang.
Pei Liang equipped the mecha on her arm and caught his attack with ease. Before even half of her mecha had finished forming, she used a powerful technique to flip him over.
He landed flat on his face in a spectacularly humiliating sprawl.
Inside the mecha, Pei Liang said, “Seriously, Cousin? You’re not even as good as a student. Did you join the military just to sit behind a desk?”
Her Fourth Cousin was so humiliated that he nearly vomited blood. By then, the bodyguards outside had already rushed in.
Pei Liang simply grabbed him and used him as a weapon, swinging him at the bodyguards and hammering them with a series of mecha-assisted blows.
Her Fourth Cousin was tossed and slammed around inside his mecha until he vomited. As the saying went, what goes in must come out.
By the time all the estate’s bodyguards were sprawled across the floor, Pei Liang lifted her Fourth Cousin’s mecha and set him free.
She nearly vomited herself when she saw what he had done.
Pei Liang’s expression turned sour. “Cousin, that’s seriously disgusting.”
As she spoke, she tossed him back toward the rest of the Pei family and hurried out as though trying to avoid something filthy.
The room was left filled with the Pei family members staring at her Fourth Cousin, followed by a chorus of retching.
For the moment, the Pei family could do nothing about Pei Liang. But as soon as she left, another matter came looking for her.
This time, however, it was something important. Richter himself called her and delivered a few concise words:
“The dissection results for the invading insectoid are out.”
Pei Liang immediately returned to the military academy’s laboratory. To save time, she flew there directly in her mecha.
The moment she entered the laboratory, she saw Richter standing among a group of instructors, all wearing white coats.
Pei Liang’s nose began to feel warm again.
Richter really was a man of limitless potential.
But the moment he saw her, his expression suddenly darkened.
Richter frowned. “Pei Liang, as the bearer of an outstanding 3S gene, you’d do well not to debase yourself by associating with people who possess inferior genes.”
