Chapter 10: The City of TianAn
“But… you already accepted his wine.”
“…” Luo Yue glanced at the empty jar on the ground. “…and what about it?”
A calm voice sounded behind her, “that person once said, ‘A broken promise is the greatest disgrace one can bring to one’s name’. He will be saddened if he knew the name he had granted you has been soiled.”
Luo Yue gave Shen Tian Ping a hard look, not because she wanted to refute but because she knew her defeat has already been set the moment he pulled out the ‘that person’ trump card. She clicked her tongue, jumped down from her horse, and sat back down again without another word.
Pulling her horse back for her, Xiao Liu couldn’t help giving Shen Tian Ping an admiring look.
While the Gifted Scholar, Xu Shi Jing, taught her the Art of War and the Red Lion, Gao Peng, taught her martial arts, ‘that person’ taught her humanity. That was perhaps the only reason why instead of a ‘murderer’, she has taken on the road of a ‘hero’. Although, it wasn’t like she has ever taken an interest in either one.
“Strategist She Li,” a boy looking slightly older, and mature than Xiao Liu walked back with the guard who has gone to the General’s tent to deliver the message. He was donned in a simple robe, meaning he wasn’t one of the soldiers here. “My Lord would first like to thank you for your tough journey here."
Luo Yue's eyes twitched. She could already guess what was coming next.
"And secondly, my Lord would also like you to return with a message to his majesty, ‘Everything is progressing well.’”
“In other words,” despite having served one of the most dangerous masters for years, the small smile on Luo Yue's face still managed to make the boy a little uncomfortable, “he’s saying our presence is not needed here, is he?”
He quickly pulled back his composure and kept a straight face, “Miss She Li is free to interpret it in any way you like.”
“Very well,” Luo Yue snapped her fan closed and held her head high as she walked past the boy straight into the camp, “then I’ll make sure to convey his message to his Majesty. After the war, that is.”
“Stop!”
Instantly, the silent night was broken by the unsheathing of swords as the guards rushed forward to stop her. However, all swords were blocked by Shen Tian Ping in the blink of an eye before they could even reach anywhere near her.
She turned back, taking in the tension in the air with a cold look on her face and scorned, “take one more step, and I’ll treat it as defiance against Imperial decree.”
~~
The next morning, amid the quiet chattering of the previous night's small dispute among the soldiers, a sharp sound from the flutter of a curtain was heard as it was drawn open by a strong hand.
A man walked out from the tent, squinting his eyes as he shaded himself from the bright sun. Even the black armour he was fully clad in, could not hide those well-built lines. Rather, it only served to tempt others into an imagination of strained muscles behind his inner clothes. Despite that, unlike the brutishness of barbarians, his entire figure was refined and cut like a masterpiece artwork. His hair was pulled into a long ponytail and held together by a silver hair ornament. If not for those terrifyingly piercing golden eyes, he could easily have been mistaken as a young master of some rich family.
He stretched himself, cracking his joints as he listened to his subordinate giving him a morning report.
“-…the Lieutenants are waiting at the assembly tent. And Master,” Qi, the young boy who has served him for years, paused before continuing. “Miss She Li and her 2 guards who arrived last night have gone missing since the break of dawn.”
“Oh? Did our little lady run back home already?” He sneered, wiping the blade of his sword with a white cloth. “And here I’ve been waiting to see just what gave her the courage to stomp in yesterday.”
“My Lord, the Imperial Court will make a fuss if you hurt the Strategist they’ve sent. Not to mention, there are already a lot of people there waiting for a chance to take you down.”
“Old fogies who only know how to talk. With just their ability? Bring me down?” he scoffed, “you’re joking early in the morning, Qi.”
“Still, it will be to our interest to stir away from trouble.” Qi sighed.
“Then our dear little strategist has better not appear in front of me.”
~~
“Wow… so this is… the TianAn City?” Xiao Liu gasped at the huge gate that separated them. It was his first time leaving the Capital and he certainly hasn’t imagined that the first city he would visit would be enemy headquarter.
Though, technically, they weren’t visiting but scouting, keeping themselves well hidden in the small piece of forests a few lis away from the northern part of the City walls.
A certain lady, however, did not seem to understand the meaning of scouting...
She lay under the shelter of a tree, leisurely chewing on a grass blade. When they first arrived, she had merely taken one look at the city gates before finding a good spot to rest her eyes with her bamboo hat covering her face.
“Ping-ge,” Xiao Liu whispered to the man beside him, “what’s our Lady doing now? Isn’t she afraid that we’ll be spotted and shot down by the enemies if we stay here any longer?”
*ge = brother (Does not have to be blood-related)
Shen Tian Ping took a glance at his master before answering, “she’s thinking. Don’t bother her for the time being.”
“Oh, okay.”
In front of Luo Yue’s closed eyes, images flashed by until one of them finally jotted her memories.
__
‘What do you think? Are you able to handle them yourself?’ his hand was placed on her head as usual.
‘Who do you think I am?’ the small girl frowned yet did not push his hand away. She couldn’t remember when she has stopped resisting the small weight on her head but the thought of being tamed by him no longer made her as wary. ‘How can a mere Eastern Army dare to attack when I am in charge of protecting the TianAn City? I have already sent the LoneWolf out.’
‘Hahaha, I seemed to have forgotten. Our Yue-Er has already grown up. She sounds more reliable now.’
‘Don’t call me that.’
‘Why? Haven’t I always called you like this?’ he turned around with exaggerated dismay written all over his face. Very unlike the ruler of a Kingdom, she noted.
‘I’m already 19!’
‘But Yue-Er will always be Yue-Er in my eyes…’
*Yue-Er = 'Er' is a form of endearment meaning 'child'
__
Her eyes slowly opened and any emotion she might have had was already hidden away as she pushed herself up.
“We fought here some years ago.” She turned to Shen Tian Ping. “Only that time, our North was the one defending.”
“Do you remember the topography of this area or the layout of the city?”
Her eyelids fluttered down once more as she rubbed her temples. More images from a decade ago appeared before her mind. There were images of inns, images of mountains and even images of people but all these were so jumbled up that even the God of War could not gain any useful information from them.
“Let’s go.” With one hand grabbing the rein, Luo Yue jumped onto her horse, her untied hair following in the air like a soft coat before falling in unparalleled grace. “Age has caught up. It looks like this will take some time.”
The last thing she heard and pretended to turn a deaf ear to before riding away was the voice of a certain dauntless subordinate.
“You should stop drinking so much, Master.”
~~