Chapter 2: Valemont Family
Inside the cake shop, Lucian glanced around the delicate assortment of palm-sized cakes. There are cream cakes, fruit cakes and flower cakes.
"Welcome to Sunny cake shop! What do you want to order, sir?" A curly-haired young woman, looking the same age as him greeted with a smile.
Lucian nonchalantly pointed at the three small cakes at the front of the glass display. The jovial mood he had earlier after returning back, diminished a bit at remembering the reason he took the time to ask the burly bodyguard to stop for a bit at this place.
Before he was sent to live and train in the isolated island of the Valemont, he lived in the main manor as an adopted son from 2 to 9 years old, and was then sent to the isolated island along with the branch family descendants.
It has been ten years since then. He is now 19 years old.
In those seven years in the main manor, he was treated as if he was really part of the family, and it was also the reason for his loyalty and gratitude to the Valemont family in that first life.
After dying and having the chance to live again in the doomsday, Lucian treats everything that happened in the past as his first life. The life he lived in the doomsday up to this moment is his second chance at life, a chance to redo everything.
The calm air around Lucian trembled for a second before settling down as if nothing happened.
He glanced at the unaware staff packing the cakes in small cute boxes.
It seems like he needs to take some time to better control his emotions. If not, then he wouldn't be able to face those human-skinned devils later.
"Here are your orders, sir. Thank you for your patronage!" The staff handed a clear bag with the three boxes of cakes inside.
"Will you pay with cash, card or ring?"
Lucian came back to his senses, took the bag of cake from the staff with his left hand, hesitated for a couple of seconds, before reaching out with his right to scan the black-metallic ring on his ring finger in the white payment hologram box floating next to the counter.
A blue light scanned the holoring on Lucian's finger for a second. Every holoring is registered with the unique DNA map of the owner, and this is the reason for foregoing payment authentications.
Another reason is that payment hologram boxes comes with a 3D security video surveillance. Only those with courage as big as a mountain would try to steal someone else's holoring. And this feature completely captured the masses, and fully eliminated the use of mobile phones, pushing the era to another leap.
"Ding…Payment complete."
The memories of his past life were becoming clearer and clearer. The habits of the way of living in this era of continuous technology growth are slowly integrating back into his body.
Lucian nodded to the staff, turned back and exited the cake shop. The lowered window of the black sedan's driver seat clearly shows the annoyed and crumpled expression on the burly bodyguard's face.
If he remembered it correctly, the burly bodyguard's name is Tim, and is the weakest member of the bodyguard team in the main manor.
Looking back to the past, the same foolish arrogance reeked out of the other party, but Lucian was trained and practically half-brainwashed to be obedient and loyal to anything related to the Valemont.
He seems to have flattered and gave some money to the other at that time, just so he could buy the favorite cakes of his little sister that was two years younger than him, Selestine Valemont.
Lucian looked down to hide the gloom that crossed his eyes.
Selestine is the youngest female descendant of the main Valemont family, but her heart is also the darkest out of them all.
Most of the plan to deal with his real family was formed through that dark heart of hers.
Lucian shook his head, and hurriedly entered the car.
Bodyguard Tim snorted in anger at the trained mutt that dared to make him wait. He stepped on the accelerator, and the car whizzed past the wide streets of the Imperial Apex.
Their destination is the villa area of the Valekar Heights, where the Valemont family lives.
As a prominent wealthy family in the capital, and even in the empire, the Valemont's business centers on real estate, and one of their biggest projects is the Valekar Heights.
It took them forty minutes within mild traffic to arrive at a quieter and wider road east of the city. The Valekar Heights occupies a quarter of a west suburban area, with the rest of the area occupied by an older residential district, some local and international primary schools, markets and leisure and sports parks.
The black sedan stopped in front of a royal blue gate. A blue light scanned the car, and then with a click, the gate opened automatically.
A two-car wide white marble driveway and two tall and strong-looking bodyguards in suit greeted Lucian's eyes.
The green garden filled with roses on the left, the exquisite pavilion built in the middle of a man-made rockery pond on the right, and the three-story villa with a castle-like exterior evoked a vomit-inducing disgust to well up in his throat.
Lucian forcefully swallowed the burning disgust and hatred down his stomach. He got out of the car with a bag of cakes, nodded to the two guards standing next to the double door of the villa, and walked inside with a plastered fake smile on his lips.
"That bastard doesn't even know how to say thank you!" Bodyguard Tim cursed in a low voice, but he doesn't have the courage to go after Lucian inside the villa.
Intermittent voices and laughter could be heard from the direction of the living room. The familiar voices echoed in his mind, and Lucian took a puff of deep breath before striding to the source of the voices.
The moment he appeared in the living room, a delicate young girl in braids with a pure smile and dimples at corner of her cheeks stood up in excitement. Just based on looks, Selestine Valemont is a beautiful young lady with a pure and adorable air due to her dimples.
"Brother Lucien! You're back!"
Excitement and joy is written all over Selentine's face. She hurriedly walked over to Lucian's side and hugged his arm.
Lucian would have been moved and filled with happiness at seeing his little sister's reaction to his arrival, but only a deep freezing chill wrapped his insides at Selestine's meticulous acting.
Who would have thought that such a young and pure-looking girl would be so rotten to the core?
Now that he knows of her true personality, Lucian noticed the flash of disgust and contempt that crossed Selestine's gaze. It disappeared so quickly that even a stranger would only see her loving and excited emotions for missing her older brother.
"Here…you like the cakes from this shop, right?" Lucian handed the bag of cakes to Selestine.
His gentle voice was still the same as before whenever he interacts with any of the Valemont children.
Selestine hid the disdain in her heart. She happily took the bag of cakes, tugged at Lucian's arm to let him sit next to her on the couch.
Aside from Selestine, her mother, Madam Seles Valemont, and her twin siblings, namely Six and Sevena Valemont are the only ones in the living room.
"Mother, Brother Six, Sister Sevena." Lucian greeted each one with the same gentle smile, before sitting down at Selestine's urging. The twins are older than him by one year, so he could only address them like that.
Madam Seles nodded with a warm smile. Her thoughts are completely unreadable, and Lucian could only say that Selestine's acting talent must have been inherited from her.
Sevena mockingly smiled. She did not bother to pretend in front of Lucian, and she doesn't care much of what he will think.
In the past, Lucian only deemed it natural due to Sevena's innate arrogance, but it seems like she has been always mocking him for being a fool.
Six only nodded with an indifferent face, his attention wasn't even straying away from the blank hologram in front of him. He must be using his holoring in private mode, wherein only the owner could see the contents of the hologram.
This is another feature that started the craze of holoring in the Valoria Empire. This craze is the reason for the seven other nations belonging to the Great Eight to seek cooperation and buy this technology from Valoria.
"How was your training on the island?"
"I got an A rating from the trainers." Lucian answered Madam Seles with a shy smile, showing a look of anticipating her praise.
"That's good. Now that you're 19 years old, it's time to go to University to further your studies."
Madam Seles gave a gratified look at him, before reaching out for a black envelope in the cabinet next to her. It was sealed with a golden-colored wax stamped in the form of a vertical crescent moon with three small stars linking into a flipped triangle above it.
"This is the admission letter from Highcrest University." Madam Seles raised her chin proudly at the mention of the noblest educational institution in all of Valoria.
"Your father pulled in a couple of connections to allow your admission in Highcrest. He really adores you. If not, then you wouldn't be able to get an admission letter with only three weeks left for the start of the school year." Madam Seles did not forget to give credits to her husband before passing the envelope to Lucian.
Excitement and nervousness radiated out from within Lucian as he held the envelope with two hands.
His reaction pleased Madam Seles as she shared a look with her youngest daughter, the one who thought of the plan to make this stupid trash enter Highcrest, and it is of course for their own malicious intentions.
Lucian is not faking anything at this point.
He really is excited, but also drowning with nervousness at the thought of entering Highcrest.
His second elder brother Mikhail Crownwald and elder sister Mishya Crownwald are both studying in Highcrest University.
Entering Highcrest in his first life was the start of the plan that pushed the Crownwald family, his family in the depths of hell.
Now, all he wanted to do is to meet with his brother and sister to make up for the mistake that he made in his first life, a mistake that cost his second elder brother and elder sister their lives.