Aini had been living with her adoptive father, the ex-Imperial Weapons-Master Baohu Ta, and his son Baohu Wangguo, for ten long and peaceful years now. They lived in a quaint little farmhouse in the countryside, away from the turmoil and chaos of the cities of Alaran. The simplicity of their life had always been a blessing in disguise, allowing them to cherish each other's company and enjoy the little things in life. Even though Aini had never known her birth parents, she loved Ta and Wanggou as if they were her family. It was a beautiful tale of love and compassion for finding one's family outside the preordained. They shared their joys and sorrows together. Their world would soon turn upside down when the Emperor declared a new order, sending a message to his people via the imperial council. The decree was clear: whoever would bring the emperor his daughter, alive or dead, would inherit a fortune from the Imperial Treasury. Even though she was safe at the moment, it was certain th

Once the first stranger arrived for the princess, Aini and Baohu did not remain in their home for another day. They escaped as fugitives after offering Wanggou a funeral befitting a true warrior. It was difficult yet also simple to leave home. Although the traumatic memories of losing a son and a sibling will always linger there, for Ta, it was all he had ever desired and for Aini, it was the only thing she had ever known. They had no plan of what to do, they would just be on the run, hunted. Baohu first advised that they go directly to the emperor during their flight, but Aini firmly disagreed, clearly against the idea. She said that there were too many risky and unknowable variables. “What if my father killed us right then and then?” She said. Baohu wanted to find words in favor of her father but failed to do so, because in his heart, he could not be sure if he still was to be trusted. The emperor was a very old friend. The whole Wo family had been, but since the death of Cho

Within a year of the slave revolt, a rebellion had formed, causing many hardships for the syndicates of Alaran. The headquarters of the rebellion was where it was first formed, the slave holdings of the deceased Bai Fu, who had been one of the major players in his business. The dug in nature of the hold made it very easy to defend and all places of the empire were within reach from the position it held, being very close to the center of the country and even closer to Chisimdi, a port city connected to the biggest river in the world, Garangos, which started from the mountains of Alaran and slithered through Chauk and Kathe and Castirin. The syndicates were mostly in the dark about who attacked them. The leaders of the major businesses of the underworld held a meeting to determine who it could have been. Four out of five met in the Zauren Asiri Castle which belong to Rang Fulan, a cousin of Aini, who didn’t hold a very high rank in the royal line but still shared blood with them. Ve

The emperor sat in the dark inside his chamber. It was filthy and cold. No one was to enter his chambers, whether he was there or not, per his instruction. If someone else who wasn't him were to enter, they were to be executed. It has been like this for more than ten years. Nevertheless, today something unusual occurred. Someone entered without knocking or requesting permission. It struck Emperor Chongbaini as odd, even outright rude. Given that he was the emperor, they should have asked to enter. And if it was a stranger, then they ought to introduce themselves before entering, right? When the door opened, a figure was visible, though it was difficult to tell who it was in the darkness as no candles were lit. Chongbaini thought that this was a person he recognized, but it couldn’t have been her. She had been dead for decades, but this woman looked eerily like her. Pale skin and dark hair with soft features, large eyes, full lips, and fuzzy little eyebrows. "Henhao? My treas

I found myself in a pretty strange situation, bleeding, and surrounded by people who really didn't seem to trust me. To calm everyone down, I tried to explain, “Sorry for that, I’m stress testing my body. Being covered in glass only slightly hurts. Either that's very good or very bad. Who knows? Maybe it's just a mental thing and I only imagine the pain.” “You call bleeding all over the ground ‘slightly’?” one of the girls said. I recognized the person who said that; it was Aini, the geisha girl whom I had met while I was still a slave. Also, the girl whose journey Ioine had shown me in the last few chapters. (If you guys read them.) So, she was queen, or empress, or whatever; the ruler/leader of this place. Pretty high rank for a girl her age; if she was human. She did look like one and if she really was, then she must have been around eighteen or so. I'm nineteen and even I haven't had to fill such big shoes. I wonder what's going on inside her head now. It was clear that Aini,