194: Complacent Assassin

Complacent Assassin

"Stop pacing, it's irritating." A certain young man irritatedly said as he covered his eyes and leaned back in the chair and stretched out. 2

The other occupant in the room paid his complaint no heed and continued his pacing. The man had a side fringe covering a deep scar on the side of his face, which peeked through the hair as he paced along. "I think...after all, we need to storm the palace..."

"There's still an army sitting outside the capital...you couldn't even bring all your men here, much less make an attempt to "storm" into the palace..." 

"Then let's sneak into the palace, I have enough men here for a covert operation."

"We don't have anyone in the palace prison, all our contacts within the palace guards are gone. That stupid Emperor is unfortunately not an idiot... and I'm not going in blind." The sitting man calmly interjected.

The scarred man stopped pacing and narrowed his eyes at the other man as he let out an irritated breath, "Then let's send for your uncle, I'm sure he hasn't go-"

"What can he do? I don't need anyone scolding me for nothing s-..."

"Then what are we to do?!" The scarred man roared with a glare. 

"Can't you see I'm trying to think?!" The other man roared back returning the glare. 

"You've been thinking for over three days now!" The scarred man roared, "I would have already gone to-"

"Gone there to die or complicate the situation. If we rush in and fail, then she'll die for sure. Now she's just being punished because her "mistress" of choice is an idiot..."

"But that's even more dangerous, servants are killed all the time. She doesn't have anyone looking out for her. What if they -" The scarred man stopped and sat down, filled with worry, "I knew this was a stupid plan. I should have tried harder to dissuade her, it's m-"

"It's not your fault. It's all that idiot Houyi's fault and of course, my stupid sister's fault..."

The two sat quietly for a while, then the scarred man spoke up again, "Maybe we should send a message to Prince Houyi, he is the eldest Prince, maybe he can talk to his father and king can -"

"Can do what?" Chun Hai snorted, "Send a message to the Long Emperor stating how his son's concubine - Ah, she's not even a concubine yet, his son's aspiring "wife-to-be" is currently posing as a maid imprisoned in the Long palace and request her release? Forget your king even doing that, Houyi would never do anything troublesome for himself. He's a selfish self-centered bastard!" Chun Hai finished with an irritated sigh. 

A few months ago, during the battle with the Long empire. Prince Houyi had entrusted Chun Hai with the "important" task of assassinating his younger brother, Prince Rui. Chun Hai was not an assassin, but Prince Houyi had said it was something he could only entrust to his "right hand" man. Prince Houyi had sent other men before him but they had all ended up in failure.

Prince Houyi had long since known of Chun Hai's exceptional skill and so turned to him out of desperation, telling about how his father was planning on making Prince Rui the Crown prince and how he needed his help as a friend. 

And so Chun Hai feeling sentimental, took on the task and infiltrated the Zou army. He had made a few attempts which ended up in failure as Prince Rui always had men close at hand, who ran to him to assist at a moment's notice. Chun Hai was willing to help his friend but he did not plan to die for his cause, and so he always retreated once the fire got too hot and waited for another opportunity.

But in his last attempt, his mask had fallen for a split second. Although he was not certain, Prince Rui and his men may have seen his face then. If they did, they would know it was Prince Houyi who sent him. 

But there was a hiccup in the plan when Prince Rui ended up being captured by the Long empire. Chun Hai reported this glitch in their plans and wanted to return, but Prince Houyi asked that he stayed at the battlefront in the event that Prince Rui managed to escape. If that happened, it was even more important that he not return alive.

Chun Hai understood and so remained there. But in the end, when Prince Rui did escape, he disappeared into Long country instead of coming home. The Long troops were on high alert and giving chase and Chun Hai did not plan on getting himself killed by jumping into the fray. So even though Prince Rui and Molin alone was considered easy prey for him. He promptly turned around and returned to Zou's capital and informed Prince Houyi the mission was a failure.

It was then that he found out about Chun Hua going off on this stupid journey to prove herself worthy of Prince Houyi. He was enraged that Prince Houyi had allowed his sister to go on such a suicidal mission. Regardless of how smart and skilled his sister was, she was not an assassin and neither was she meant for that. Moreover, if the new Long Emperor was easy to kill, he would have been dead a long time ago. 

Chun Hai immediately packed up and went after Chun Hua, greatly disappointed. 

Those many years ago at Dong country's fall, the twins had also taken the poison along with the rest of Dong's royal family. But later they awoke to find themselves in a small hut in a forest with Monk Du. He apologized to the children about the death of their family and explained that he was only able to save them. 

The children were shocked as they stared at Monk Du, wondering how it was possible for them to be seeing him, for him to be real and alive. But their family was dead and their country was ruined. They had survived but they were two six-year-old children, they needed a guardian and he was here.

This Monk they were staring at was regarded as the Dong royal family's guardian. No one had ever seen him save for their ancestor, but they were all made to pay their respects yearly to a portrait of him which hung in their ancestral hall. And the man before them looked exactly the same as the portrait their ancestor, the progenitor of the seyu drug had drawn almost four hundred years ago.

The prominence of the seyu drug kept his memory alive and their family had come to regard him as a deity. And everyone born into their royal family had been taught from childhood about how their family came to acquire this guardian through an ancestor's deathbed promise.

Their mother had never believed in his existence as a deity and the twins had followed her in thought. But looking at the man before them then, the children could see nothing but a deity. 

There was no other explanation.

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