Chapter 206: The Old Traditions

“We should go back to Nova City.” Grey turned to Lia and spoke. “Since you are going to stay here either way, we will make sure that your father knows about it. We also need to deal with the Duskwood family and I have another thing to do as well.”

“No…” Lia spoke softly. “I don’t want to meet him.”

“Huh? Why?” Grey frowned, he understood that their relation was very strained by the sounds of it.

“…” Lia had a look of hesitation on her face, however she decided that hiding it from him would not do any good either and she decided to tell him about it.

“Trying to match you with the members of the Duskwood family?” Grey frowned. “Does he not care about your own personal wish at all?”

He might have asked that question, but in this world that was the sad reality the majority of the people, especially ones from huge families, had to suffer. They cared more about traditions and family upstanding than anything and this could be seen through the city lord’s intentions.

Even with powerful entities in the world, it was a cold reality one had to face.

Of course, the federation master bum could put a change to it, but if he was not wrong, even he practiced those traditions.

It was simply worse than being a caveman.

His old world naturally also had it, but you would rarely see it in technologically advanced countries. Even without evolutionary power, people enjoyed a certain amount of freedom; nobody there was pressured over tradition, and only a small population still followed it.

Then there were the backwater countries that still massively followed tradition. The system could be easily overthrown there if a powerful being emerged, and even a mere second ranker from this world was enough to completely change everything and keep it tightly under control, because in those places someone like him and Lia would be treated as gods.

At their level, forget mountains, they could destroy this entire city if they utilized all of their powers at once and Little Hong could destroy the entirety of the province.

And each of these cities was the size of medium sized or small sized countries back in his old world.

Little Hong could effortlessly destroy a country.

That was how much power a 3rd ranker possessed, of course Little Hong was not actually one, but with her power of chaos she was even stronger than an ordinary one.

At least here, within the territory he governed, he would ensure such practices never took root again. He wanted his people to breathe freely, to live without chains disguised as tradition. He despised a life where one existed only to uphold a family’s pride, where a person’s worth was measured by obedience alone.

The thing he loathed the most was being treated as a lifeless doll created for someone else’s purpose, a puppet whose own thoughts were dismissed as meaningless.

To change such customs on a global scale would require a true titan, perhaps someone at the fourth rank or even touching the fifth. Yet he did not let that deter him.

One truth remained unshakeable. The world he wished to build would never allow such cruelty.

He might gather countless enemies. He might provoke clans, sects, and powers older than the federation itself. If granting freedom to others demanded a mountain of hostility, then so be it.

Grey would not care in the slightest. In his previous life, the one thing he had never possessed was freedom. He lived as just another forgotten nobody, scraping by with part time jobs while dragging himself through college for a degree that drifted further away with each passing day.

His professors scolded him relentlessly, their voices drilling into his skull as if nothing he did was ever enough. He was pushed around by schedules, by circumstances, by society itself, and he knew even if he somehow clawed his way into a job, he would simply continue being pushed. A replaceable cog. A presence that could vanish without anyone noticing.

Back then, the only escape he had was reading webnovels, losing himself in worlds where power meant freedom and fate could be rewritten.

But once he was reborn here, everything changed.

For the first time, he felt a genuine, overwhelming drive. A desire to comprehend everything and become invincible. Here nobody told him what to do, he had luxury, he had power. He held the very essence of perfection in his hands. What could be better than this?

It was merely a matter of time. One day he would overlook all beings, overlook gods, demons, and even hell itself. He would not stop until he achieved that summit.

He was already one step closer to absolute authority and free will.

But he was no saint. His desire to break these oppressive customs was not born from pure kindness or a bleeding heart. He simply refused to live in a world that disgusted him, a world that forced others into the same chains he had once worn. If he alone enjoyed freedom while everyone else lived in silent servitude, then what meaning would his liberation even hold?

What was the value of walking ahead when no one else was allowed to take a single step?

People trapped in predetermined destinies had no room to appreciate dreams or joy. Their thoughts were consumed by the fear of the day they would be traded into a household they never chose, their futures written before they even learned who they were.

Joy only gained substance when shared. A life only gained meaning when others were allowed to shape their own.

That was the truth he understood. Not because he was good. Not because he was noble. But because he knew exactly what it felt like to be powerless and he would never tolerate living in a world built on that feeling.

“Don’t worry.” Grey grinned. “Your father, I will take care of him. Besides, once the truth of the Duskwood family gets out, he will naturally stop annoying you about it and perhaps even go into depression because of it, but I will make sure that it is permanent.”

“Hm?” Lia had a bewildered expression on her face. “What are you going to do?”

She knew Grey was someone who did not hesitate in killing people if they stood in his way, it was plain obvious to everyone in Nova City with the trail of blood he left before leaving Nova City.

She definitely did not want what happened to the members of the Duskwood family happening to her own father.

He was after all her father and one way or another he was the reason she was able to grow up healthy with him funding everything about her until now.

Even if she hated him, she would not want him dead, that was just an extremely irrational and immature thought.

If he was cruel to her, then she would just do the same to him.

An eye for an eye.

He was not a toddler with no critical thinking ability after all, he had full capability to form thoughts and articulate them, but he chose tradition and the other family in the end, so there was no need for sympathy.

“It’s not like what you think.” Grey said with twitching lips. “I won’t do anything to him.”

Then thinking for a moment, Grey spoke. “Besides, you are sufficiently strong enough to stand your ground against your father.”

Grey smiled casually. “In Nova City, no one can match your current strength. What Duskwood family? What city lord? Just display your power and all of them will shut up.”

“In the end, can a bunch of people at middle stage of 2nd rank force you into their doings? One move from you can destroy sectors in seconds, always remember that Lia.”

Lia smiled brightly hearing this.

That was right, she was no longer the old powerless Lia anymore, she had already achieved a power far beyond ordinary comprehension.

If she did not stand up for herself, then who would?

At the same time, she felt warm on the inside. There was another person with her that supported her wishes and assisted her without a question.

She could not help but be more grateful to Grey.

Perhaps someone like Grey, she would never meet in her life.

Nobody was as unique as Grey to her.

“This is something you should face, Lia. You must break the shackles that bind you. I want you to speak with the city lord clearly. Do not worry about anything, because I will be right behind you.” Grey added.

Lia was like a bird, still learning to fly, still learning that there was a world beyond the clutches of her family and once she broke that chain she would soar even higher.

“Yes. Then, I will take up that offer.” Lia smiled and spoke. “If I do not see you behind me then I will not talk to you for a week.”

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