Chu Yun looked up at his grandfather in shock, but the King ignored him.
He shook the sword in his cousin Chu Ming's face once more. "Go on, boy, do it."
The family of four kept crying, their eyes swollen by tears and faces blackened by soot. Chu Yun looked around the burning estate, hoping for some sign that this was some test. Some sign that actually his grandfather wanted them to bravely save these people instead of killing them.
However, the more he looked around, the more signs of deliberate destruction he saw. There were bodies half fallen out of doorways and windows; those of the family's servants who hadn't yet been consumed by flames. But Chu Yun could see the arrow shafts protruding out of their chests and backs, putting an end to his hopes that they might have succumbed to smoke inhalation.
Chu Ming took the sword from his grandfather's hand with a decisive tug. The sword was heavy, and he struggled to hold it up, but he still stepped forward towards the crying family.
At his approach the mother started begging for her two children's lives. Asking the King to spare them and kill her instead.
"If you insist," Chu Ming said, and drove the sword's tip clumsily through the hollow of her throat.
He didn't have enough strength to make it clean, so the woman choked on her own blood for some time before finally falling forward when the guard behind her let go of her hair.
A-Yin's screams for his mother rung in Chu Yun's ears. He closed his eyes and turned his face away. He hoped that when he blinked them open again everything would be gone.
"Don't close your eyes, Yun-er."
Chu Yun obeyed, and was greeted by the same terrible sight.
Chu Ming returned the sword to their grandfather with a blank expression. He only showed some emotion when the King praised him and patted him on the head.
Like their brother, his two cousins too followed his grandfather's orders. One killed the little girl who couldn't be any older than six, and the other the father who was nearly half dead with grief.
Chu Yun knew his turn would come too.
He looked into his grandfather's eyes, and said, "I won't do it."
The King smirked, and took the sword out of Chu Yun's hands. The bubble of relief in Chu Yun's chest lasted only for a second longer before his grandfather drove the sword trough the neck of one of the guards next to him.
"For every no you tell me, I'll kill another."
Again, the other guards had no reaction to seeing one of their own bleed to death on the ground.
All the while, the fire still raged on, Chu Yun could feel the heat of the flames encroaching on them.
This time, he took the bloody sword from his grandfather's hand with grim determination.
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When he got close to A-Yin's hunched figure he whispered. "I'm sorry."
A-Yin looked up to him, and between his sobs said, "My papa just said your father would make a better king than your uncle."
In that moment, Chu Yun understood in just whose name the deaths of the Li family had been carried out.
But it was too late. Both his and A-Yin's fates had been sealed. All he could do was make his friend's death a quick and painless one.
When he returned to his grandfather's side the King slapped him violently across the cheek. "This is for disobeying me, and for valuing the lives of mere soldiers above your own convictions," he said. "You are a disappointment."
Chu Yun said nothing. His grandfather kept a hand on his shoulder as he steered them all out of the burning estate.
When Chu Yun was about to climb up the carriage, the King stopped him. "You will say nothing of this to your father. Or anyone else."
"Yes, your Majesty," Chu Yun murmured, and for eleven years he kept that promise.