"Imperial Majesty! Imperial Majesty!"
"...What?"
His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Cha, was leisurely sitting on his throne with his cheek resting on his fist when one of his subjects rushed and kneeled towards him. The Emperor's guards pointed their spears towards the man in instinct, but the Emperor quickly waved his hand for them to stand down.
"The Princess is outside the gates!", the man said as he planted his forehead on the ground.
"...", Hearing his subject's words, Emperor Cha could not help but furrow his eyebrows, "Then let her in, why are you reporting sothing like this?"
The Grand Marshall, Yinfei, who was on the side with the Imperial Guards, widened his eyes. It just recently ca to his attention that the Princess was aware of his involvent in the mass abduction of drifter children. He thought that the Princess would try to avoid the Palace for now to gather evidence.
Could it be that they already have sothing in their hands? But why the grand entrance? Couldn't she have just spoken to her father in private?
"Her Imperial Highness", the man continued his report, taking a huge gulp in the process, "...is with the Matriarch of the Golden Pavilion"
"!!!", Hearing the man's words, Grand Marshal Yinfei's eyes could not help but widen in shock.
"Matriarch of the Golden Pavilion Yinji?", Emperor Cha slightly leaned closer, "You fool. Yinji has been trapped in a dungeon for years, she is gone"
"But your Imperial Majesty!", the man stuttered, "She looked exactly like the woman in the painting plastered in your bedroom!"
"W...what!?", Emperor Cha could not help but instantly stand up as he heard the man's words.
"Y...yes!", the man groveled even further on the ground, "...Almond-shaped eyes like that of a phoenix. Hair as smooth as silk, that when you touch it your hands would feel like it touched water--"
"What are you waiting for!", before the man could finish describing Matriarch Yinji, the Emperor waved his hand, "Let them in! What are you fools doing!?"
Grand Marshal Yinfei could not help but take a gulp. Was she really back!?
At first, when his sister disappeared, he placed a huge budget in watching the Golden Pavilion. But after the 3rd year with no sign of her returning, he cut the funding and pulled out his n completely.
To think she is back and with the Emperor's daughter!? Grand Marshal Yinfei started to sweat as nurous thoughts erged from his mind. And then, as a certain footstep resounded in the throne room, his breath instantly faltered.
For more than 500 years. He has heard this footstep. He might have forgotten it, but his body surely has not as it shivered in fear.
"Long ti no see, Emperor Cha"
Matriarch Yinji's cold voice echoed throughout the entire hall, sending a piercing chill towards the Imperial Guards as they involuntarily flinched. The only ti they feel this way is with the Emperor himself.
"I see you are as beautiful as always, Matriarch Yinji", Emperor Cha slowly sat down as he looked at Yinji. His eyes then scanned the people behind her.
His daughter, whose fierce eyes were currently staring at the Grand Marshal. And of course, she recognizes Xing Cai, her daughter has been friends with her for as long as he could rember. But the Emperor's eyebrows could not help but lower as he saw the smallest one in the group.
The boy with the golden hair.
"I wish I could say the sa to you, Cha In-ha"
Hearing their Emperor being informally addressed by his na, the Imperial Guards, even though they felt a crippling pressure surrounding their bodies, still pointed their spears towards Yinji.
But the guards quickly retracted as the Emperor waved his hand and let out a burst of laughter which drowned the entire room.
"Not everyone has been blessed by beauty such as yours, old friend", Emperor Cha relaxed his stance.
"Cut the pleasantries", Yinji clicked her tongue before looking at the Grand Marshal, "I am here for my brother"
With Yinji's attention suddenly placed on him, the Grand Marshal could not help but flinch and slightly step back a few inches.
"S sister", he stuttered, "Why didn't you tell you were back"
The Imperial Guards could not help but look at each other. The Grand Marshal was known for his cold and calculating deanor. This was the first ti they were seeing him like this.
"Do you know what I am here for?", Matriarch Yinji squinted her eyes.
"I I do not know what you an", Grand Marshal shook his head a couple of tis as sweat started to form on his face. Of course, he already knew. The tily arrival... Not to ntion she was also escorted by the Princess. She knows what he has done.
Matriarch Yinji could only sigh at her brother before looking at Emperor Cha once more, "Your daughter has sothing to report", she said as she gestured to Jin-ri to step forward.
"Jin-ri?", Emperor Cha could not help but slightly furrow his eyebrows as he looked at his daughter.
"Yes, father!", Princess Cha Jin-ri quickly stepped forward and kneeled on the floor, "I have brought you evidence that proves that the Grand Marshal is responsible for nurous cases of illegal trafficking and abduction of drifter children"
"What!?", Emperor Cha instantly stood up as he heard his daughter's words, "Is there any truth in this!?", he then looked at his Grand Marshal, his eyes filled with anger.
"It It is not true--"
"Don't weasel your way out of this, brat"
Before Grand Marshal Yinfei could even explain himself, Matriarch Yinji slapped his head, throwing him to the center of the room.
Every mory that Yinfei tried for more than hundreds of years instantly ca back to him as his breaths stuttered and beca heavy. It was as if his chest were being pinned by a hundred mountains.
"You think I took care of you when you were still peeing on your bed just to see you like this?", Matriarch Yinji's roars reverberated through the entire Imperial Palace.
"I built the entire Golden Pavilion from scratch. I nurtured children and trained children. I grew the money that our parents have left us and beca the wealthiest individual in the entire country!", the Matriarch's mouth did not stop moving even once, "And you what? Abduct children? To what? Earn money from washed-up sects like the Heaven Bamboo sect?"
"You left the Golden Pavilion just to do this?", she continued, "And you even tried to deny it! You just keep playing around here instead of focusing on your cultivation!?"
"Look at you, Yinfei!", Matriarch Yinji once again slapped the Grand Marshal on the head, "Even the Emperor you serve is stronger than you! Have you no sha!?"
"Y yes", was the only word that ca out from the Grand Marshal's mouth as his head faced the floor.
Jin-ri couldn't believe what he was seeing right now as his jaw was opened wide in shock. Did they just subdue the Grand Marshal this easy? She was prepared to start a civil war but all it took was the Grand Marshal's older sister?
Viel, on the other hand, could not help but widen his eyes in admiration. The Matriarch and his Grandmother Ling really were similar to each other. Although he doesn't even rember his Grandfather anymore, he knew that his Grandmother could easily make him shut up with only a single word.
"This this is preposterous!", Emperor Cha could not take it anymore as he walked off from his throne, "I built the Explorer's Association in order to provide law and peace for our citizens and for the inhabitants of the other worlds!"
"Grand Marshal Yinfei!", he then pointed towards the groveling Yinfei, "You will be punished through Imperial Law!"
"Y...yes, your Imperial Majesty", Grand Marshal Yinfei could only bite his lip in frustration.
"My old friend", the Emperor's tone then suddenly turned soft as he looked at Matriarch Yinji, "I will be sure to personally uphold your brother's punishnt--"
"And you!"
Before the Emperor could finish his words, Matriarch Yinji suddenly approached him and pressed her finger on his chest, almost causing him to stumble backward.
"You can't even control your vassals!", she said in a very cold voice, "I already knew when we were younger that you will not be a good Emperor but this is just pathetic!"
"W...why also ?", the Emperor could only stutter as he whispered, but after a while, he stood up straight and flung Matriarch Yinji's hand away.
"I am your Emperor!", he roared, his voice filled with authority, "And I deserve nothing but your respect!"
"Oh?", Matriarch Yinji quickly raised an eyebrow.
Seeing the look in the Matriarch's eyes, the Emperor instantly knew he had made a mistake.
"What kind of Emperor doesn't pay his debts?", Matriarch Yinji started her barrage of sermons again, "I still rember you asking for my help to rebuild the ports when so of the Demon God's minions reached the country's gates!"
"That", the Emperor could not help but look to the side.
"And even before that, you and my brother gambled my savings!"
"Y you still rember that!?"
"And when the Demon God just started his culling, you didn't even co with to the West!", Matriarch Yinji stomped her foot, shaking the whole palace, "You just hid behind your father where it's safe, coddled by your favorite courtesans!"
"Why why are you bringing up our past?", the Emperor spoke, but this ti, his tone was completely ek.
Princess Cha Jin-ri once again had her jaws wide open as she watched her father being handled and treated like a child.
His father, the Emperor of Choryu and more than 600 hundred years old, the biggest authority in the Eastern Continent, couldn't handle a single woman. Even the Grand Marshal, who was known for his cold and calculating deanor, was currently crying on the ground, flinching with every word that cos out of the Golden Pavilion's Matriarch.
Seeing all of this happening, Cha Jin-ri couldn't help but be filled with confusion
...Just what exactly happened between the three when they were younger?
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