Chapter 4
I meant to escape on the excuse of relieving myself, but Father claimed his aging bladder took priority and fled first. Guards pressed in behind us. Senior Brother and I had no choice but to enter the arena.
Beauty Meng, a lively new favorite, attended the emperor. Father had said our families shared deep ties, so I relaxed. Surely she would speak for me.
Yet her eyesight was as poor as Father’s. She giggled when I entered. “Beauty Rou promised a dance, so why has she sent two burly men in her place? Deceiving the sovereign is a capital offense.”
I cupped my fists. “This concubine will now present her martial art.”
Senior Brother set his stance. I stepped on his knee, leaped, and landed squarely on his palm. Dance and martial arts were both bodily movements. How different could they be? I performed every technique I had learned as a child.
When I backflipped, Senior Brother nodded. “You’ve improved. Your fists are a little fierce, though. I was afraid you might kill me.”
The emperor frowned. “That was a palm-top dance?”
“Not a dance, but my original palm-top combat art, presented to Your Majesty.”
He asked, “Where is Beauty Rou?”
His eyesight was terrible too. I fluttered my lashes. “This concubine is right here.”
He shut his eyes, opened them, and said, “Grant her…”
Delighted, I lowered my head. “No jewels, please. A promotion will do.”
“Death.”
Men were unfathomable. Last night he had stroked my pectoral muscle and praised my beauty. Today he wanted me dead. The emperor had taken advantage of me and refused responsibility.
His wine cup slipped from his hand. Then objects clattered all around us and someone shouted, “Tyrant, your life ends here!”
One distinctive clang drew my trained ear. A eunuch met my gaze, snatched up a dagger, and bared his teeth.
[Save him!] the system cried.
“No. He just tried to kill me.”
[If he gets a scratch in your home, your whole family dies. Save him and earn merit.]
Why hadn’t it said so sooner?
The useless emperor stood frozen. Everyone shouted to protect him, but no one could beat the assassins. I kicked the eunuch away, charged forward, tucked the emperor under my arm, and ran.
“Wh-what are you doing?”
Saving his life, obviously. His guards and the assassins fought so halfheartedly they looked ready to start a conversation, and nobody was watching him.
Only after I left the garden did both groups notice the emperor under my arm. The assassin leader blocked me. “Put His Majesty down!”
That did not sound like his line. He corrected himself. “We need him alive. Hurt one hair on his head and we will fight you to the death.”
So they wanted to fight me. I stopped running. Curiously, the assassins hesitated to strike. I felled them one by one, then swung the emperor like a whip and sent bodies flying. In my excitement, I also knocked out several rescuing guards.
That hardly mattered. I had earned the credit for saving the emperor.