49 Hakuun

Sukehime looked at Yui and sighed "Yui you say it was my Husband who forced upon you, I believe you but First time he forced up on you what about the second time, third time and several times after that, it was you who climbed into his bed willingly and happily until you finally gave birth to a bastard. Now you tell me, do you still dare to claim being innocent?"

Knowing that Sukehime knew everything, the color drained from Yui's face but still she did not give up and looked at Sukehime and said " forget about me, I knew was damned the movement the emperor forced himself on me but what about my child why did you kill him?"

".." Sukehime did not respond to Yui's question. She ignored her and looked at a bald old monk standing in the fourth layer of the formation and asked " Hakuun, I thought you left in search of peace, what are you doing here? Are you also here to kill your teacher?"

Seeing Sukehime Ignore her, Yui sneered and considered it as her win.

Hakuun, an old Sohei, looking at Sukehime shook his head and sighed, " Teacher, I did not come to kill you. I came to convince you into surrendering."

" Let me indulge you if I surrender, Do you think these 13 families will let me and my granddaughter go? No, they will not rest until I and my granddaughter are killed." snorted Sukehime.

Hearing this the wrinkled face of the Old monk eased a bit and he hurriedly tried to explain " teacher is the nation's hero and grand empress. You have sacrificed so much for the kingdom and achieved so many military merits over the years, you are the symbol of peace for the people of this Kingdom. The 13 allied families do not want to kill the people's Symbol of peace. I have talked with them and they have agreed to let you go as long as you and Princess Masako no longer take part in kingdom affairs and confine yourself into the Holy Temple. I think this is a better choice than destroying what you built over the years with your own hands. This will only profit the enemies from the west and south."

Hakuun was right, once Sukehime and Masako along with their forces fight the 13 allied families, the whole kingdom will be in chaos leaving the kingdom open to invasion of forgein enemies. Adding to that Over the years Kingdom had created many angry neighbours the only thing stopping them is the all powerful Sukehime, Once the news of Sukehimes deaths spread then all this People will come out of their dens which is all of trouble for 13 allied families to handle.

" So they want to keep me under house arrest like a caged bird and guard their houses like a dog. humph! Their ambitions are really large but unfortunately I am not some bird or dog that they can caged and tamed, I am a phoenix who will rise again from their ashes." Clearly Hakuun's words had an adverse effect from what he had expected. Seeing this Hakuun sighed and nodded to the old man with the grey beard positioned right to him.

Seeing this old man with grey beard Sukehime than looked at rest of the people who had arrived to kill her, out 34 people 24 of them were the ones who ambushed her in the capital and the rest 10 were old foogies like Yui and Eiji, who seemed to have old grudges with Sukehime except for Hakuun.

Once the news of Sukehime fleeing the capital under the ambush of the masters from 13 allied families spreaded, everybody realised that the Nations hero and the peoples symbol of peace is no longer invincible, she can be killed many of Sukehimes old enemies came out of their hiding to fulfill their revenges. Some Joined the 13 families to hunt Sukehime and these 9 people are just the part of those that joined the 13 families to hunt and kill Sukehime. Many people voiced in support of sukehime but were muted under the influence and threat of the 13 allied families.

Hakuun was different, unlike the 24 masters from the 13 allied families and 9 old masters he was not here to kill Sukehime for an old or new grudge. He really came to save his teacher by providing a way out. His intentions may have been right and noble his way had disappointed Sukehime. all he cared about was saving the life his teacher but he never paid attention to her pride and her care for the kingdom and its people.

The Old man with grey beard to the right of Hakuun opened a scroll that looked like a decree and said " Your highness Sukehime, 3rd Prince has crowned himself as the emperor 2 days ago and the 13 allied families support him, even though the official is yet to be done publicly he is the rightful emperor and had decreed that considering your past merits for the kingdom he is willing to forgive as long as you support him and promise to not to take part in Kingdoms affairs anymore. "

Clearly 3rd prince was just the puppet of the 13 families so basically by supporting 3rd prince Sukehime is supporting the 13 allied families. Even though Sukehime had already declared her opinion, the man with the grey beard still had to read the decree and get Sukehime's official answer.

" … " Sukehime bluntly ignores the emperor's decree as she doesnt recognize the 3rd prince or the 13 allied families controlling him from behind as her emperor.

Seeing Sukehime's silence the man with grey beard looked at his comrades and " Start the formation. "

As soon as the man with the grey beard said this the golden light covering the 34 figure glowed brighter , seeing this Sukehime sneered and reminded them " do you guys even know who created the 4 elephant star formation in the first place? "

Not Just 4 elephant star formations, most of the formations in the kingdom were made by Sukehime. In the beginning during the rise of the yokai, most of the yin yang masters were still weak and were killed by yokai's unable to perform their duties. So, Sukehime came up with formations as a way to tackle this predicament, combat formation In edo Japan at that was a bit lacking so Sukehime created all the combat formations tailor made for the yin yang masters to fight yokai's powerful them.

" We Know Your highness Sukehime it was you, do you see the irony in this? You created these formations to help humanity fight Yokai, and now the humans you were protecting are now using the same formation to write an end to your life. " The Old man with the beard sneered and then took out a blackish white metallic stone of fist size, with the Old man rest of the 33 people also took out a metallic Stone of fist or smaller size. The old man with the beard had a ugly smile pasted on his face as he said " which is why the 13 allied families provided us these. "

The Blackish white metallic colored fist sized stones were none other than god stones. Seeing 36 fist sized god stones were going to be used to kill her Sukehime was dumbfounded and contemplated whether to feel proud about herself or admire the wealth of the 13 allied families to be able to provide 36 fist sized god stones.

One can say that the 13 allied families are the first feudal lords of Edo Japan and have been there since the founding of the kingdom. During their long rule as the feudal lords they have gathered immense wealth from the kingdom, some even say that the treasury of the 13 allied forces is bigger than the treasury of the royal family. Even though 13 allied families lacked the absolute strength like Sukehime they made up for it with their military and economic strength. But even with all this wealth and influence, the 13 allied families knew that they were no match for Sukehime's absolute strength. Therefore they waited, waited for time to weaken the enemy while they blostered their strength. Even with all these preparations, It can be seen that the 13 allied families clearly do not want to make mistakes again by underestimating Sukehime again like they did in the Capital. Therefore the 13 allied families did not hold back in their planning.

Sukeime was indeed someone worth all these preparation because she single handedly killed 100,000 yokai's of the ' night parade of 100,000 yokai's '. each Yokai that are able to join the night parade are the elite of the powerful yokai's out there. Sukehime looked at the ugly smile on the ugly mug of the old man with a beard and said " I have to agree 13 allied families are indeed wealthy but in front of me they still are beggars " saying that Sukehime took out 12 basketball sized god stones. The 12 basketball sized god stones then started to circle around Sukehime while floating in the air. Seeing the 12 basketball sized god stones the ugly smile plastered on the ugly mug of the old man with the bread ripped off and color drained from the face's the remaining 33 Masters.

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