The Emperor

Scarlett woke up that day with a newfound enthusiasm. Now that Mobi was behind bars, securely locked up with mana suppression runes making sure that he wouldn't be able to escape, she could finally cross out his name from her list of bounties.

Thinking about the man responsible for catching him, Scarlett clenched her fists with determination. No matter what, she had to somehow convince her father to have a talk with him and try to bring him to the Imperial Family's side.

'Alright! Let's get ready.'

Scarlett opened the door of the room to find the lineup of maids waiting to serve her. Sighing inwardly at the excessive amount of servants assigned to her, she ordered one of them to inform the Imperial Palace that she was seeking an audience with her father.

She didn't know why she had so many servants tending to her needs. Two or three servants were more than enough to run what little errands she had for them, there was no reason to have over a dozen servants at her disposal.

But, no matter how much she tried to convince her parents to reduce the number of her servants, they simply brushed off her requests and continued keeping the maids around her courtyard.

This might have been one of the reasons why she didn't like being a princess of an empire where she didn't even have the basic privacy she wanted.

Everything she did or said would be reported back to her father emperor, fortunately, her siblings also had to go through the same process. If not she would have already lost her mind.

Even if her father showed favouritism towards her in other matters, he took the safety of his children seriously and assigned capable servants to look after them.

These maids might look like helpless lasses on the outside but they were actually trained professionals who were well versed in fighting, with the weakest of them being in the Martial Master realm.

Of course, she didn't have anyone in the Martial King realm as her servant, that would be absurd. No Martial King would be willing to become a servant of someone less strong than them without a good reason.

At best, she had Martial Greatsage guarding her when she went out as an Imperial Princess. Thankfully, she had managed to convince her father to let her go out alone when she was being Sasha, otherwise, her identity would have been exposed by now.

Scarlett cleaned herself, with maids helping her to take a nice and warm bath. As she saw the droplets of water rolling down her smooth and unblemished thighs, she was reminded of the time when they were firmly grabbed by a black haired individual while trying to escape from the demonic wyvern.

She felt a strange feeling well up inside her as she remembered the moments she had spent with Ray. Even though it wasn't much, every moment was filled with thrill and excitement.

She liked it. Liked the thrill of fighting along with someone so strong. She could let out all and fight to her heart's content against him. And the despairing gap between their strength only made her more fired up to train and catch up to him.

Scarlett quickly dried herself off and her maids led her towards her wardrobe to doll her up and make her look even more gorgeous in the eyes of beholders.

She was made to wear her red and black mixed Imperial robes with a golden phoenix sewn on the back.

Scarlett already had a crude plan in her mind about how to escape her unfair betrothal with Raymond Clover.

First, she would introduce Ray to her father and make him realise how important of an asset he could become to the empire if Ray had ties with the Imperial Family.

Then, she would slowly start convincing her parents to break off her engagement by showing them how much Ray and she were compatible with each other.

Thinking about her and Ray, Scarlett felt her cheeks heating up. She didn't know what was the reason but from the moment she had seen him, she was strangely curious about him.

He was becoming more and more mysterious with each passing seconds she spent with him, which only made her more drawn to him.

'Am I falling for him?'

Scarlett had a sudden thought in her mind.

-Slap!

She slapped herself lightly to get rid of that though, startling the maids beside her.

"There was a bug, don't mind me."

Scarlett brushed it off as if it was nothing and ordered her maids to carry on with their work— that is, making her look pretty.

'Calm down, Scarlett! You barely know him enough to think that far.'

She chided herself in her mind to take things slow. There was no need to rush these things. She needed to get her priorities straight.

She would first start her path towards freedom by introducing Ray to her parents, Scarlett decided.

*knock**knock*

She was called back to reality by the sudden sound of someone knocking on the door.

"Attend to that."

She ordered a maid and quickly got dressed. By the time she was done, the maid came back.

"Your Highness, His Majesty has invited you to join him in the Grand Hall."

"Alright! Lead the way."

With that, she was escorted to the Grand Hall, with her retinue of guards and servants following her.

*******

Imperial Palace, Grand Hall.

The Grand Hall was located in the front part of the Imperial Palace and occupied a quarter of the total space in the Imperial Palace.

Its walls were decorated with various motifs and tapestries and each one depicted a story of the previous generation of Emperors who ruled the FireBorn Empire.

In the middle of the hall was a throne made of pure mithril which was situated on a high raised platform made of gold. Golden steps were built on the four sides of the platform for the Emperor to make his way up to the throne.

The top of the throne was decorated to look like a Phoenix's head and fiery wings stretched out from behind the backrest of the throne, making it look like a Phoenix has been turned into a throne.

Behind this platform were a number of balconies where the Empress and other concubines of the Emperor would come to watch the Emperor conducting his duties.

In front of the throne was a series of golden seats on both sides, where high ranking court officials, ministers, and scholars would sit on the left side and all the noble lords and military officials would sit on the right side.

But for the moment the Grand Hall was empty except for a man sitting on the throne deep in thought.

He had flaming crimson hair that fell on his shoulders, red eyes, and red coloured moustache adorning his face. He was a very tall man reaching almost 2 metres in height.

He had a majestic aura around him which would cause any weak willed humans looking at him to kneel down in fear and worship.

He was the current Emperor of the FireBorn Empire. His name was Elmer J. Phoenix. As befitting an emperor he was also in the realm of a Martial Emperor.

He soon felt his daughter Scarlett approaching the Grand Hall's door, before she could knock on the door he spoke:

"Come in."

His calm voice reverberated across the hall and the door of the hall opened on its own.

Scarlett made her way inside and kneeled in front of her father and greeted him.

"Your Majesty."

The Emperor had a simple rule that everyone from the Imperial Family should not address him as anything other than his proper designation when in the Grand Hall and public.

Scarlett knew it and she didn't dare to call him father now.

"Arise, Scarlett." The Emperor ordered. "Tell me, how have you been?"

"I have been well, Your Majesty."

"Good. Are there any particular reasons for your visit?"

He asked, getting straight to the point without beating around the bush. Seeing his daughter and hearing her voice was enough for him to conclude that she was doing fine.

"Your Majesty, I bring with me an interesting piece of news."

Scarlett said with barely concealed excitement. Seeing her trying to suppress her excitement, he chuckled inwardly and told her to go on.

"Oh! Do tell me what it is."

So she did. She told him about her encounter with Ray for the first time in the guild and how she fought with him.

She told him about how Ray had defeated her so easily and without any flashy moves.

She recounted how he had caught Mobi the miner, who was known for his escape technique.

After hearing his daughter's words the Emperor blinked a couple of times before asking in a worried voice.

"So, you are telling me that a Martial Minor managed to defeat you and not only that he even caught an infamous thief, is that correct?"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"Scarlett, have you been bewitched? Did you meet any strange people these past few days?"

He asked, bewildered by the surety in her voice.

"No! Your Majesty. I know it sounds exaggerated but what I said is the truth." She quickly said before he assumed anything more. "Also, I haven't come across any evil cultists and I am not bewitched."

"Hmm, but it is very hard to believe what you are saying."

The emperor spoke calmly, thinking about some things in his mind.

Scarlett knew she wouldn't be able to convince her father with that much only, so she had saved up the most interesting and unbelievable piece of information for the last.