Chereads / The Returned Emperor / Chapter 2 - The City of Bandung

Chapter 2 - The City of Bandung

Lars stretched his body as he walked out of the bus. Though the air still have polution in it, at least it's much fresher than those in the city. He already missed Gaia Zero because it doesn't have any polution in the air.

"Lars, do you want to eat together with us?" Asked Indah, who's now standing right beside Lars.

"Sure, why not? It's always a good thing to eat food accompanied by a beautiful woman."

Indah responded with a smile before she pulled Lars towards the small resraurant where they would eat. People here really changed, they now mostly have supernatural powers, making them can do anything they wanted. Some can control natural element, psychic power, or have unimaginable physical power. All of it obtained after the Calamity. It's a blessing and a disaster at the same time.

Just in the span of five years, a lot thing has changed. From how society works to what people do for a living. The most famous job right now is being a Monster Core Farmer. As the name suggest, their job is to collect monster core and sold it to the people with supernatural monster. Some used the monster core to make potion and then sold it, making the value of monster core rise significantly.

Various organization also appeared two years after the Calamity. The first one to appear is called Dark Vulture, they're an evil organization that moved in the dark, they don't hesitate to kill other human for the sake of getting stronger. The Dark Vulture often clashed with government of various nation, they sometimes also clashed with other organization, only a few can stand equally with Dark Vulture. And one of it is called Jager--meaning Hunter in english. As their name suggest, they specialised in hunting various monster that threatened the human society, they're filled with various people that have superpower. The Jager are consisted by people who want to uphold justice. Various Transcendent--people who have superpower--joined this organization, mostly those who have good hearts.

The Dark Vulture and The Jager very often fought each other. They not only have Transcendent in their sides, they also have Cultivator that fought with them. Cultivator are terms used by people who trained ancient martial arts to the peak. It was once used to refer the ancient martial artist from China, but now it's widely used for any ancient martial from any place on Earth.

The strength of a Cultivator cannot be underestimated. Though they don't have supernatural power like the Transcendent, they used Internal Energy or Qi to control the element. Coupled with their proficiency in martial arts, they're a formidable opponent even to the Transcendent.

"Indonesia also have those so-called Cultivator. They used ancient martial arts from the era where kingdoms still existed. Though the most famous one came from Majapahit or Sriwijaya. Because you're half-Indonesian, you should know that our martial arts are strong enough to fight againts the Chinese martial artist. If I remember correctly, a famous Silat practitioner called Yayan Ruhian once fought againts ten Cultivator from China, the result? Yayan Ruhian won, gaining respect from many people in the world." Said Indah, telling Lars about the famous fight from two years ago.

"That's pretty awesome. Beside Yayan Ruhian, is there anyone that I should know?"

"There is, he's called Iko Uwais, he's also a Silat practitioner like Yayan Ruhian. But he practises different style of Silat." Answered Indah.

"Oh! Oh! Indah, did you forget to tell Lars about the descendant of Wiro Sableng?!" Said Jaka excitedly, from the looks of it. He seems a big fans of this Wiro Sableng descendant.

"Ah, yes, I actually forget, sorry for that. Anyway, do you know who Wiro Sableng is?"

Lars shook his head. Though half of his bloodline is that of Indonesian, he rarely visited Indonesia, so he don't really know any stories or legend from Indonesia.

"How can you not know!? Oh, right, you spent your lives in England, I forgot that. Anyway, Wiro Sableng is a pretty famous martial artist in the past. Everyone thought that Wiro Sableng is just a fictional story made by Bastian Tito. But who would've thought that Wiro Sableng is real!? Sadly, he already passed a long time ago because of old age. But his descendant is still there, he even inherited Wiro Sableng axe called Deadly Dragon Geni Axe. That's awesome right!" Explained Jaka excitedly, he's really a fan of this Wiro Sableng descendant.

Though Lars didn't really understand, he still nodded his head in response to Jaka explanation. Whoever that descendant of Wiro Sableng is, Lars is interested with him or her now. It would be nice if he could spar a little with them. Of course, he will use handicap so he can fight on the same level as them.

The walk to the restaurant didn't take a long time, only around five minutes of walking and they're already there. It's not an expensive restaurant, the restaurant served local food that doesn't even exceed ten thousand Rupiah. But even then, the food is still delicious. Lars even ordered again because how delicious the food is.

"Man, never thought the food in Indonesia is this delicious." Adam patted his belly. Smile of happiness be seen in his face. Making Jaka and Indah laughed at him.

"What's so funny? Can a man enjoy his food peacefully?"

"No, it's nothing. It's just seeing your reaction is very amusing." Answered Indah, while laughing her mouth while laughing.

Lars can only scratched his head in embarassment. Well, it's his first time tasting Indonesian food after a long time. He already forgotten how it tastes, so he really enjoyed the food.

"We should go back to the bus, the bus is leaving in twenty minutes."

Indah reminded Jaka and Lars, they then paid for the food and walked to where the bus were parked.

On the way back, Lars and Jaka talked about many things. Mostly about what changed in Indonesia. Indah only listened from the side, sometimes stealing glances at Lars face. Any woman would be attracted to strong man that can protect them. Even though Indah is strong, her last encounter with the Four-Armed Gorilla almost killed her and her friends. Luckily, Lars is there and saved them, she felt really grateful for that.

The three arrived at the bus. All the passenger is already there and just waiting for the driver to come back. While waiting, Lars chatted more with Jaka and his friends, sometimes making jokes and telling stories about themselves.

After waiting for three minutes, the driver finally came back. After checking out that everyone is in the bus, he started the bus and they now on their way to Bandung.

Riding the bus, it should only take about an hour or two before they arrived. But because there are traffic jam, they're trapped in the highway for a good two hours before the bus started moving again. But later on got stuck in the traffic again.

This time, everyone is already tired. So most people already fallen asleep or just sitting in silence while listening to the music or reading books. Lars himself is lying down on top of the empty seat and closed his eyes. He's thinking what he should do next. After eating before, he still didn't know where to go, his only objective is to find a way to contact his parents. But he doesn't even have a phone, so how should he contact them?

Lars already talked to Indah before. She said to Lars that Jaka will split the profit that they earned to Lars. Even though Lars didn't help them with the previous hunt, Lars saved them from the Four-Armed Gorilla. That's the least they can do to repay Lars.

With that, Lars decided he will buy a phone when he arrived at Bandung later. He estimated that he will arrive at Bandung in midnight. The traffic jam is troublesome alright, but there's nothing he could do. He could fly if he wanted, but he prefer not to, at least not now.

"Hey, you asleep yet?" A voice sounded from behind the seat where Lars is lying down. He then got up and looked behind his seat.

He saw that Indah is sitting behind him, she stared at him while smiling gently, it made Lars curious. Why would she call him? Why don't she get some rest?

"I almost fall asleep, but you woke me up."

Lars' answer made Indah laugh. But she remembered that everyone else is resting, so she held her laugh and changed her seat beside Lars. Lars occupied the seats that's supposed for three people anyway, so there's no problem with her sitting next to Lars.

"I'm sorry for that then. I'm just asking you because I wanted to talk about something with you."

This made Lars even more curious. What would she want to talk him with? It's not about wanting become his wife, right? Hope so, he already have plenty in Gaia Zero. Waiting for him to make a portal leading to Earth.

"What I wanted to talk is about you, Lars. Do you have a girlfriend?"

Lars almost choked himself when he heard Indah question. Why would she asked this all of the sudden? How is he going to answer the question anyway?! He couldn't tell her the truth, how would she react if she knew that he have a couple of wives waiting for him at Gaia Zero? But he couldn't say no either, what happen if somehow Indah meet his wives and tell them what he said to her? He'll be doomed then.

"It's alright, no need to answer it."

Lars sighed in relief. But Indah smirked when she saw Lars expression earlier. This mean that Lars already has someone in his side. This is a new challenge for her, something that excited her more than fighting againts monster or other people.

'Should I take away Lars forcefully from his lover?'

If only she knew how much beautiful and powerful Lars' wives is, she will probably be shocked to death.

"Anyway, we will arrive in Bandung shortly. You should prepare yourself."

Indah stood up and walked up to prepare her things. Meanwhile, because Lars didn't bring anything, he lied down to the chair again and closed his eyes. He didn't try to fell asleep this time, just sorting his thought for future matters.

--

Meanwhile, somewhere in England. Stood a man in his fourties, his hair is completely white, but his hair is white not because of old age, but because that was his natural hair color. Beside him, stood a

beautiful woman with a black hair. Compared to the man standing beside her, it can be seen clearly that she's not an european like the man. but instead an asian.

"Did you already get the news?" Asked the woman, while holding the man hand and rested her head on his shoulder.

"I did, my men said they saw a man in his early twenties with white hair in Bongas village. Only people who have the bloodline from Viventem family have a natural white hair. Who is that? Is it an illegitimate child from one of our family member?"

The woman shook her head, dissaproved with what the man said.

"If he's an illegitimate child from one of the Viventem family member, how could he be strong enough without our guidance or resources?"

"Because he doesn't have resources and our guidances, doesn't mean he can't be strong. You know well that there's hidden master hiding all over the world. Perhaps that man found one of those hidden master and become his or her disciple."

"That's very likely. But from what I heard, the man took down a Four-Armed Gorilla with ease. I don't really know much about the details, I only heard that he took down the Four-Armed Gorilla easily."

The man stroked his chin. There's many surprises in this world. And seeing a potentially illegitimate child of Viventem family is something that should be expected. Perhaps there's more, but maybe only this one that shown himself to the world.

"Anyway, keep watching him. If the time is right, try to invite him here. Don't force him, we don't use forceful method to invite our own family member even though it's probably an illegitimate child. We're not like those that came from China."

The Viventem are known to be extremely kind to their own offspring. No matter if it's an illegitimate child or not, they still treat each other. There's a popular case where one of the illegitimate children are killed by a powerful family in America. The result are that family is eradicated in one night. None are left alive except a few elderly and children.

Of course, the Viventem family can't help all of them. But they still tried to at least help them a little. So they can have a bright future.

"There's another thing." Added the man. He then stared at the woman.

"What is it?" The woman turned her body towards the man and met his eyes.

"My men said that the men have a scar in his left chin, there's also a stroke of black hair in his head. Do you... Perhaps knew who this resembles?"

When the woman heard this, her eyes started to tearing up, her body shaking. Though she can't believe it, she still hoped anyway, she hoped they finally found the long lost son of theirs.

"Is it perhaps Lars?"

The woman took a deep breath and breathed out. The tear in her eyes are now gone. Now filled with determination, stronger than ever.

"Without seeing it, we cannot be sure. Send more of your men to find out."

"Without you telling it, I will still do it. Relax, dear, we will find out about the truth later."

That's right, these two people are Lars' parents--Dante Viventem and Johanna Kristin Yuanita--the current leader of the Viventem family.

"Let's hope he's alright, honey." Said Kristin as she moved closer and kissed her husband in the cheeks.