79 A traitor of the kingdom

A heavy sigh with a shake of the head in pity, a giggle of amusement and some carving of wood thrown in between. The eccentric nature of Kang was on full display as the man switched from one emotional state to another. Wedges of triangular sunlight beamed through the high windows of the the room and glanced off the glass cases that stood erect at each side, filling them with a golden glow of natural light which highlighted the carefully placed wooden sculptures within them liketrophies on display. Hartley could smell the freshly cut grass and could see glimpses of the manicured lawns through the slightly open stained window from where he stood rapt at attention, sponging in the nuggets of information offered by Kang.

The aristocracy of the capital was split into factions of support for either the eldest Prince, Prince Dong Yulan or the second prince, Prince Jian Yulan, each were positioning themselves to be the next to sit on the throne as King Yulan prepares for his second attempt at ascending to a higher plane, King Yulan has been at the peak of the saint realm for over a hundred years and has one foot in the God realm, if he was successful this time, there would be a power struggle whether the king named a successor or not. With the king out of the picture neither prince would accept the other sitting atop the throne they both coveted for so long.

From their conversation, Hartley learned that the man who attacked him at the southern gate was the guard captain of the province, a man loyal to andpersonally appointed by the eldest Prince to oversee the interests of the eldest Prince and those aligned with him. Even though on the surface, people appointed to carry out out these duties were supposed be neutral, the eldest prince had found a way to get his loyal servant assigned to the position and in control of the important southern gate and docks.

The Cassia province was a strategic point that linked the north and the capital to the central and southern regions, the person who controlled the flow of commerce through the Cassia province would be in a great position to recruit the nobles who would in turn have unimpeded commerce between the north and south and at the same time stifle the other rival nobles making them use alternate and more expensive trade routes. The southern half of the province was vital, it contained the docks sogoods, weapons and armor could be shipped down to the docks of the Cassia province and sent by road to the south, drastically cutting the distance that goods needed to travel and be protected. The nobles would gain more wealth and the prince would gain more power by having command of their forces.

Viscount Sanzu was a smart strategic noble, skilled in the art of politics who came up under the wings of the eldest prince, he had made a name for himself and was promoted to a Viscount, a title conferred to him by the eldest Prince but for some unknown reason he had turned coat and switched sides to support the younger Prince which caused a huge fall out, he was now a sworn enemy of the eldest prince.

Even though King Yulan didn't concern himself with matters of the world on a micro level, he had left strict orders that nobles should have a code of conduct and could not just kill other nobles of high ranking as they pleased, No one would dare disobey a direct command of King Yulan and so Viscount Sanzu was framed andbanished to the Wawrika province as a compromise by the eldest prince.

The second prince was pragmatic in nature and only truly valued those who had accumulated huge formidable forces or those who had high personal strength, Viscount Sanzu didn't fall into either of these categories so the second prince didn't fight for him to stay in the capital as vigorously as one would expect an ally to do. This was where Hartley fell into the Viscount's calculations, if Hartley made waves and showed his strength, then Viscount Sanzu would be valued again, enough to be called back to the Capital as an adviser to the second prince.

Hartley had not only shown up with the identity token of Viscount Sanzu, he had killed the guard captain hand picked by the eldest prince himself to stifle rival nobles, the replacement for the position of guard captain could not be guaranteed to be a staunch supporter of the eldest prince, this would be of great benefit to the second prince. Hartley had entered the province for less than a weekand had thrown a spanner in the works of the eldest prince, this was sure to earn the eldest prince's hatred for a lifetime.

Hartley couldn't help but be annoyed with Viscount Sanzu, the man had sent him into the mouth of the beast without warning, he now realized how naive he had been, he had been granted a noble title in exchange for some achievements, at the time it had seem like a simple matter but Viscount had withheld the fact that he would also inherit some mighty enemies. Viscount Sanzu had played him like a pawn, this was not something Hartley would forget. Kang then told him that Song Zemin was a half-saint who supported the eldest prince from the background and never usually got involved with personal fights.

The guard captain was well protected for one who wasn't a noble and still Hartley sliced him to ribbons, Song Zemin must have seen his potential to be a future threat and was trying remove that threat before it blossomed into something more serious.

The eccentric Kang just happened to sense the spatial fluctuations and decided to take a look out of pure boredom and curiosity, he saw a mortal youth somehow escape death at the hands of a half-saint, something that was almost impossible in his prior experience. Kang excitedly described Hartley as being abnormal as his brown eyes sparkled with glee like a kid with a new toy and that was what made him intervene. Hartley didn't know whether to take that as a compliment or insult, but knowing Kang, it was honest. Hartley intrigued Kang because Hartley's elemental affinity was something he hadn't seen before and Hartley had the most precise timing he had ever seen, he had not even seen experts in the saint realm with such exquisite timing. He didn't know that Hartley's time domain and state of focus made it easy for him to execute what seems like split second precision moves to the outside world but Hartley could execute these moves at will.

Then Kang turned his head to look at the quiet Zhi Ruo who stood at Hartley's side lost in her own thoughts. "What a tangled web." he said and giggled like a shool girl.

"It must be fate, it must be!" the white hair man exclaimed, drawing puzzled looks from Zhi Ruo, Hartley, Qin Li and Yang Yi.

Kang placed both elbows on his desk, almost spilling his half glass of milk, the contents slushed around in the glass as it pitched left and right before settling down without spilling a drop. Kang repeated her surname, murmuring "Zhi ,Zhi." as if he didn't noticed the glass sat on the table, lost in his own world of thoughts. He snapped back, then continued like a father telling a story beside a camp fire.

"There was once aprincess who had fallen in love with one of her body guards sworn to protect her life with his own, its rumored he had flaming red hair and was a great warrior trusted by the second prince, this body guard already had wife and daughter so the faithful man rebutted all the attempts of the princess to woo him away and in a fit of jealousy and frustration the princess issued an order to have the wife and child of the man killed but that bodyguard got wind of the plot and fled the capital with his family in the middle night, there was a skirmish and in the end the wife was killed and the father and daughter disappeared and was branded as traitors of the kingdom."Kang looked at Zhi Ruo with pity and a long sigh, "well, that's the way I heard it. I'm sure the story was more complicated than that." he commented

Zhi Ruo's top lip was quivering and her eyes welled with tears, Hartley held her close without saying a word. "Ahh... fate! it must be." Kang said to himself almost whisper-like.

The wedges of sunlight were already starting to fade from the room, the golden glow was turning orange with a tinge of red reflecting Zhi Ruo's mood as the tears slowly navigated down her pale cheeks in slow motion, a single tear would stop at the end of her chin for while, reflecting the sunset before it fell to the ground, she stood staring forward with her eyes out of focus not making a single sound or sob.

By the time they left the meeting with Kang it was already dusk and darkness was approaching over the horizon as the sun sneaked out of sight. Kang recommended that they stayed in one of his mansions and not even think about traveling towards the capital unless they improved their strength by leaps and bounds, for the first time all day he had a serious expression and told them it would be suicide to even think of traveling through the province in the next couple of weeks. Kang gave instructions for the serving girls to get the War mansion ready....

In a bedroom on the second floor of a well furnished mansion, there were impressive murals, mostly of battlefields painted on the white walls, the wall facing the bed depicted a chaotic battle of knights with lances mounted on horses wrapped in armor skewering helpless infantry soldiers likekebabs. There were quiet sobs coming from the bed which lasted most of the night. Hartley held Zhi Ruo through the night and comforted her without a single impure thought ever crossing his mind.