The Great Escape

"Search every corner! We must find the young master at all costs."

I silently dove back into the alley while pulling up the hood, my experience in evading enemy fire allowing me to dodge the guards of the Hengxing family.

As I advanced deeper into the alley that I remembered from my memory, I started to plan out my next move.

Putting aside my dilemma of being put in the body of a generic novel villain, there are many problems associated with my current identity as the young master of the Hengxing family. Not to mention the fact that the family itself probably hates my guts right now and would probably want nothing more than to kill me with their own hands. Especially after what my previous self pulled this morning at the Imperial Palace.

As was customary, the Hengxing family, along with the other two Grand Duke families, the Tiankong family, and the Chen family, arrived at the Imperial Palace to congratulate the Emperor on his birthday.

As is customary for a generic villain A, this fool ended up eying the beautiful princess of the Empire and tried to flirt with her. Of course, she ended up rejecting his advances and publicly humiliating him.

Unable to take the humiliation, the fool ended up threatening the princess with his family name. Things spiraled out of control from there, and the patriarch of the family was forced to apologize in front of a massive audience of nobles to the princess.

Simply put, this idiot ended up implicating the whole of the Hengxing family in danger with the Imperial family and making them a laughingstock among the entire population of nobles in the Empire.

With such a massive incident, there is no way I am going to escape unscathed if I stay in that place anymore. I am no fool who can't tell the difference between fiction and reality. Not to mention the looming threat of my fate as a villain. If one of the many admirers of the princess decided to off me in a bid to get closer to the Imperial Family for this slight, I would end up dying a dog's death for a mistake that I didn't even commit in the first place.

That is why I decided to escape from this place and figure out a plan from there.

Fortunately, it would seem that this stupid system of mine has retained most of the functions of the IAS, including augmented sight and navigation.

First things first, I need to get out of this fiefdom. But I cannot use conventional methods such as Airships or merchant convoys. That is why I decided to head to the black market located in the city. I should be able to use their services to sneak into a tribute convoy heading out of the fiefdom and travel by Airship from there.

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The year 4045 of the Fifth Era would be recorded in the Hengxing family's history as the year when they had the biggest scare of their lives.

In the massive house located in the fiefdom of the Hengxing family, the patriarch of the Hengxing family smashed open the door that led to his son's room. His rage reached an unprecedented peak.

But all he found in the room was an empty bed, an empty wardrobe, and an upturned floorboard at the corner of the bed.

Thinking that his son had decided to go to the city again to waste his money on gambling and drinking, he ordered the gatekeeper to not open the gate when he returned from the city.

However, as the night passed and the next day quickly went by as well, he felt that something was wrong.

He suddenly had a bad premonition and immediately ordered his personal guards to sweep the entire house and then look for his son in the city, only for his search to turn up empty.

His son was nowhere to be seen.

For the next three days, the Hengxing family started a thorough search of the entire city and beyond. Even the Patriarch and his wife personally led the charge in combing the surrounding forests to search for him, but their search turned up empty once again.

Now, they were truly worried.

Despite his many shortcomings, he was still their son. No parent would want to see their child suffer, even if that child was unfilial.

For over an entire month, the Hengxing family, including the previously neutral siblings of the spoiled child, spared no expense in trying to find the missing young master of the Great Duke family.

Unfortunately, they only faced despair, as it felt like their son had suddenly disappeared from the face of the world.

Eventually, news reached the imperial palace about the missing scion of the Hengxing family, prompting the emperor to give out an imperial decree for the soldiers around the Empire to keep an eye out for Hengxing Haizi. He even went as far as to inform the Hengxing family that they should inform their son that he would not face any repercussions from the Imperial family for his previous misconduct with the princess.

Slowly, as time passed and their son was still missing even after an entire year, they had no choice but to give up hope, assuming that he must have been killed by Demonic beasts or the enemies of the family.

Soon, Dashan Huaer, the wife of Hengxing Ba, fell ill in worry as the Grand Duke buried himself in work to divert his mind from his probably dead son. With no successor left to take over the house for now, all he could do was work day and night to keep the fief in operation and push every other thought to the back of his mind.

The eldest child, the war veteran Hengxing Feng, understood his father's plight and silently supported him by assisting in the management of the fiefdom.

The youngest child, Hengxing Qingren, on the other hand, started hating her brother even more. Blaming him for the deterioration of her family

As the family slowly started to fall apart, their enemies started to eye them with hunger.

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(Jilongtan City, Tiankong fiefdom. Year 4046 of the Fifth Era)

"Miss! One more bowl."

"Of course. Please wait a moment."

As I called out my order for the bowl of noodles, the waiter, a young lady in her teens, called out with a smile and walked to the counter to get me more food.

Time to test the gastronomy of this fiefdom.