Chapter 45 - Intermission I

Intermission

I’m currently finishing the third Arc of this story which is around 28 chapters long (little over 60,000 words and more than 100 pages long), making it the longest arc of the whole story. Other than being longer, the third arc has a lot of reflections about the reason why Shen Mu was reborn into the past with all of his memories, and the real bad guy will finally be revealed, if not dealt with.

This story was planned to be 5 arcs long, with a little over 400 pages in total between them, and I’m already working on the 4th Arc, so you won’t have to wait too long for it to be released.

Also, for those preferring the hard-copy, I’m working to release the first three arcs for kindle and paperback through amazon international.

For now, however, and to thank you for accompanying me and Shen Mu on this journey. I leave you now with a sneak peak of the third Arc.

Safe travels.

Kumitzin.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

[SNEAK PEAK]

“INNKEEPER!” I shout and the whole room turns to me. Some stare at me, others at the boy that I’m dragging kicking and screaming, and some others look toward the innkeeper’s wife, who is pale as a ghost. The older of the thieves, finally on his feet again, tries to run only for my wind to trap his feet and drag him to me, while everybody stares with bulging eyes.

To this poor people, that must have been like seeing a god.

The overweight man to whom I paid for my food and room comes in and colors rise to his face as he witnesses me manhandling a boy. However, instead of saying anything to me, he glares at his wife. “YOU SAID THEY WERE TAKEN CARE OF!”

If possible, the woman pales further, before looking down apologetically.

“I found these two trying to sneak into my rooms” I say to the man, and he balks “It seems you know of them.”

“Aye” the man grumbles “They’re my sons. The imbeciles.”

“Well then” I throw the boy at his father and the kid crashes against the man’s torso, glaring apoplectically at me “Deal with them or I will.” I glare at the portly man who grabs the boy by his clothes and pulling him back.

“As for you” I turn and glare at the older boy who looks at me as if I’m the bad guy. My magic is keeping him from moving, so I kneel down and slap his face so hard that a tooth comes out and he whimpers “how dare you drag your brother into such a sport! You are the older brother, you’re supposed to protect him, not corrupt him!” I glare at him some more, before I dismiss my magic and he slumps to the floor, touching his reddening cheek.

I survey the rest of the room, but nobody will look me in the eye. I grunt and as I’m about to leave...

“YOU ASSHOLE!” a small weight impacts against my torso and I turn to see the small boy trying to harm me with his fists. “DON’T HIT MY BROTHER!”

He keeps hitting me, but I barely feel it, instead I look up at his father who is too shocked to do anything.

“I’ll give you a lesson you won’t soon forget” I hiss and that wakes up the older man.

He immediately runs to us, grabs the boy by his midriff and makes him bow to me as he does.

“Forgive them lord, they’re just children!”

“Children who attempted to steal from a traveler. Do you know the Empire’s penalty to stealing, even for young, stupid boys?”

“No! Please don’t tattoo him! He’ll be marked for life!”

“How else will he learn his place? If not a tattoo, then perhaps we should just cut their noses.”

“NO!” now even the mother is bowing before me, pleading instead of her children, who are now bowing too.

“WHAT IS ALL THIS RUCKUS!?” A new voice bellows and a man enters the establishment wearing the uniform of the prefecture. He took one look at the scene and shook his head mumbling “Those kids will never learn.” he then looked at me a moment, squinting before his eyes popped open like plates “YOUR MAJESTY!?”

With his shout as a detonator, the room turned to me in slow motion, and they all kowtowed while I shook my head. So much for keeping a low profile.

Up until then, the kid had been struggling to get up to assault me again. Now he’s trembling like a leaf on the wind.

I had wanted to scare him before, now is it seems the police has done my work for me. I put a hand on his shoulder and the trembling intensifies.

“You have a good family” I point out, pulling his face up so that we see eye to eye. In them I see them a great fear “Do not squander them away. What will you ever do if you lose them? Right your ways young man, before you can no longer count on them for help.” Then I turn to the parents and place my hands over their shoulders “raise your boys right. They deserve the chance to become good men who will bring honor to your name.”

Their heads fall back to the earth, and I sigh, looking at all the people prostrated before me.

“Not again” I mumble and walk back to my room. I will not let another guard betray me and put innocent people’s life at risk. I slam shut the door and pack my things, counting the seconds on my head.

Before I reach thirty, there comes a knock on my door.

“Yes?” I ask, wary.

“May I come in, your highness?” The voice is that of the police that recognized me downstairs.

I pondered the possibilities as I sat on the bed.

After reaching a consensus, I spoke up “Come in”

The guard came in and prostrated before me again. “Your majesty!”

“What is it?” I asked in a bored tone, eyeing him warily.

“To answer his majesty, we were informed by the prefects that if we were to encounter your Majesty, we should inform him that his presence is requested at the palace.” He said all this without raising his head from the ground.

“Why, and more importantly, how did you recognize me? I’m not wearing my golden pin.”

“To answer his majesty’s first question, I do not know. I was told to lead you to the prefect, should I come in contact with your majesty. As for his majesty’s second question: Every prefecture received a portrait with his majesty’s face on it, it came with the orders to aid you in any way possible. The orders came directly from the palace!”

If my enemies were from the palace, someone had made them a great service. Now every single official and police officer knew his face... which meant that his enemies did too.

However, it also tied my hands. I was no longer a free agent. I had to answer the summons... I only hoped that that it hadn’t been his enemies who requested me there.

“Lead the way then.” I said standing up, bag in hand.

The man rose quickly and walked out of the building with me closing the march. As I exited, I found that the room was now empty save for the family of the innkeeper, who fell to their knees as soon as they laid eyes on me.

“Your majesty!” The innkeeper saluted kowtowing with the rest of his family. “This servant thanks his majesty for his words and for forgiving our boys for their foolishness-”

“I did not forgive them” I spoke quietly, and silence reigned for a moment. The guard looked torn between acting against the family and not. “Your children were intent on committing a crime. Forgiving them without punishment would mean they will not learn from this experience.” I glared at the boy who wouldn’t stop trembling “When I come back to this place, I want to see both of them turned into honorable men, otherwise I will be sure to tell the authorities that your boys have broken the taboo by touching this Imperial Prince.”

I think they’re sufficiently cowed for them to right their ways.

I walk past them, motioning the guard to keep moving.

Once outside, the policeman looks over his shoulder at me, in his eyes I see him itching to ask a question. Instead of letting him speak, I give my answer.

“Yes, I did that on purpose. Children should be corrected, and I doubt the current punishments will truly deter crime. I will remind myself to come in a couple of years to learn of their fate... but I might also forget... they will have to live their whole lives with that threat pending over their heads.”

The man chuckled and nodded, saying nothing else until we dismounted at the guards’ station. I stayed beside my horse, preparing myself mentally to be ambushed by the guards, like I was at Ji port.

An elder officer marched out of the building and fell to one knee before me “Your Majesty, this prefect is honored to make your acquaintance”.

I grunted “Your guard mentioned that I was summoned to the palace, can you tell me more?”

“Yes! To answer his highness, I was told that all prefectures of Yu received a missive just as mine” he answered and showed me two letters, one addressed to the prefect and another to me.

The missive to the prefect was very straightforward and plain: if they were to encounter the man in the portrait, they would have to aid him in reaching the palace as soon as possible.

The one addressed to me began with a little poem in the same code my sister and I invented. The two lines put my mind at ease, apparently the ones responsible for the current orders of the police were no others than my sister and my sworn-brother Heng Li. However, as I read the following lines, my next breath got stuck on my throat:

The Empire was under attack.