Chapter 273 - Meiling, Empress of the Song Dynasty

  Agnes Asalon:

  Outside the castle, winged horses soared through the air, training in synized attacks alongside soldiers on the ground. The day should have been peaceful, but my entire week was being ruined by a single cursed name.

  "Nikous Wolves!" I screamed, knog everything off the table onto the floor.

  My brother, Ryan, looked at me in shock. Something serious had happened—something causing me a massive headache to tain and suppress. It was a sdal shaking the kingdom’s image in front of the dukes, the other realms… everyone. I was furious.

  An attack had occurred on a ship traveling through the Underground Transport route—the first iuries. No one had ever dared to cause an ihere. That tunnel, which led directly to the capital, represented my family’s supremad snty. It was a symbol of the security we provided to our people, reatest source of power. And now, someone had spit on it.

  "Son of a bitch!" I cursed, feeling my fist igh violet fmes as I smmed it against the wooden table, setting it abze.

  "They attacked a high hin my domain!" I tinued, ed by rage. "How do you think I feel, Ryan? How do you think this will look if wets out? It will seem like no one respects the authority of the Asalon family!"

  I tried to calm myself, took a deep breath, but it was no use. Image ower. Image was snty. It was because they trusted our prote that the a kingdoms submitted to us, being mere duchies. If, at any point, they started believing that prote was worthless, my entire kingdom could colpse. Even if that seemed unlikely now, all it would take was that idea taking root in the mind of one heir after another, and in a few turies, there would be war—or a rebellious alliance refusing to obey us. Being at the top meant always thinking ahead.

  "S-sister…" Ryan attempted to keep a ciliatory smile. "It’s not that serious… okay? It was a grave crime, the most serious i years."

  "Grave is an uatement, Ryan!" I snapped, even angrier.

  "B-but that family agreed to keep everything under s, without making anything public. It will just be an i on a ship… an explosion. And at the port, no one knows who the two mages fighting were. It’s easier for the official story to be that the kingdom faced a powerful criminal, justifying the attack, rather than spreading the truth—that an assassin targeted a high noble," he expined.

  "If I act too lely, the Evenhart family will think we’re afraid of them leaking the story, and we’ll be at their mercy. If I e down too hard, we’ll create eveer hostility. It’s not simple at all!"

  I paced bad forth, my mind burning with possibilities.

  "Authorize them to hahe situation however they see fit regarding Nikous Wolves' men and oners. I don’t care if they choose to sughter every st one of them, ehem, or flog them in public. Let that family exercise their right to retaliation as the w permits," I decred.

  I kept pag. "Send a letter to all the dukes. I o warn them first. The letter must tain the official story you and Duchess Margaery signed off on. Issue an order for them to inform their politiobility to avoid sdals and gossip regarding the Wolves family. Anyone caught spreading rumors will be severely punished. Also, issue the dot stripping the Wolves family of their atus in our kingdom. They are filth now, heir status is that of oners, and they be killed freely—we no longer care about them," I ordered, my irritation still palpable.

  "The nobles who fessed to the crimes are setting aside part of their fortuo send to the Evenhart family," Ryaed, "But the Evenhart family requested that all of it be used within their own duchy. They also demahe heads of those nobles."

  I sighed, displeased. “I ’t simply elimihose who fessed and provided evidence. If I do that, we’ll lose all our eyes and ears in that duchy. That would be foolish. Keep visiting the duchess’s family and try totiate terms with her. We’ll o promote one of these o the rank of marquis, but with half of their territory reduced. Maybe that will please her…”

  “Whioble do you want to promote?” Ryan asked. Each duchy had three marquises, but acc to the areaty that founded our kingdom, we had the right to choose and trol one of them. This was our way of ensuring the duchy wouldn’t turn against us. At least 30% of the loobility ointed by us, with the marquis serving as the leader of this fa. Of course, we never disclosed this to the dukes—for them, it was simply “administrative assistahey might have had their suspis, but the system had worked for turies.

  The chaos caused by Nikous Wolves threatened our image before the other dukes. I o act quickly, but without appearing desperate, and show that our authority remained intact.

  “Hmm… this one,” I said, pointing to a dot on Ryan’s desk. “t Laurence. His family is trustworthy.”

  “Excellent choice,” Ryan agreed. “I’ll send our cousin to speak with him while I tinue iations with the Evenharts.”

  I sat ba the couch, watg the servainguish the fmes oable. Everything had to be perfect. How could I propose an arranged marriage to the elven kingdom amid this sdal?

  “If I could, I would have killed Nikous Wolves with my own hands…” I muttered.

  From my ste bracelet, I pulled out a letter bearing the elves’ crest. King Haiten had requested a personal meeting—something unpreted iuries.

  What could they want to discuss in person that couldn’t be hahrough intermediaries?

  At least this was good news. A closer retionship that could favor a marriage between Dun and Syvis—the perfeion of our kingdoms.

  “Nothing g, and nothing reach the public,” I warned Ryan. “Make sure all the nobles involved uand they face the death penalty if they speak of this to anyone. Everything must be fwless.”

  As I reread the letter, a flicker of hope sparked within me. A meeting in Apsalon with the king of the elves… this was more than I could have wished for.

  Fate is on the side of the Asalons…

  Yu Xin (Song Dynasty):

  In the er of the training hall, I sat in silence, watg the young Empress as she threw herself into bat.

  "Ah!" she shouted, delivering a swift strike, only for Sidao to block it effortlessly.

  "athetic," he barked, dodging her punches with ease.

  The young Empress, now sixteen, had been trained in battle since she was three years old by the greatest aura masters. She had also studied the art of strategy uhe brightest minds of the Dynasty. Sidao was reshaping the Song Dynasty with an iron grip, fog solely on efficy. The elders of the vassal families dared not question him, especially after being fronted with an army at their doorstep.

  "I 't do it, Master," she admitted, frustration evident in her voice. "I don't have enough strength..."

  My eyes drifted toward the massive stones she had been striking, shattering them as if they were ripe fruits.

  To me, you already have more than enough strength...

  "You possess Aura. You have the potential to bee the greatest in the world," Sidao stated firmly. "I am nothing but a shadow before your talent. How do you think the Song Dynasty was built? Your aors were legendary emperors... But in your father's geion, that potential was ed."

  Meiling listened carefully, determination flickering in her gaze.

  They trained every day since she had awakened her Aura. Sidao had one goal: te the greatest Aura warrior to ever exist. And Meiling possessed that potential. His methods were brutal, and the witen of the geisha anizatioed under a veil of secrecy. Those who asked too many questions vanished without a trace.

  The road was harsh, but the results were beginning to show.

  Even so, it terrified me. Once, I saw one of them without her makeup... What y beh disturbed me to my core. That hollow, grotesque face seemed to belong to something that should. These women were witches. Malignant witches who performed strauals uhe cover of night. I suspected they were worshipers of the yaoguai.

  The Theocracy had stopped attag us some time ago. Ever sinomalies began appearing more frequently and with greater ferocity, they had spent the past decade dealing with those events within their owory. However, what once seemed distant was now growing closer. The anomalies had started appearing in our nds.

  reat wall, which had protected us for turies from creatures emerging from the sea or from the Theocracy itself, now felt useless against what we faced. If anomalies were maing within the Dynasty itself... then no fortress, no wall, could protect us.

  That was when an envoy from the Theocracy arrived, bringing what they called a "solution." When I finally uood what that solutioailed, a chill ran down my spine. I began to seriously questiorue reason behind their obsession with absolute trol over the humans of that ti. Perhaps, just perhaps, if they were all extermihe problems would disappear.

  Even if that wasn’t a definitive solution, trolling those people would grant us access to the "grace" of the mysterious gods that the Theocracy worshiped so fervently. But deep inside, I wondered—were we really any different from them? Or were we simply trying to survive in a world that, little by little, ushing us toward extin?

  "I will keep training," Meiling said, returning to her bat stance.

  "That's the spirit. You are not just anyone... You are Empress Meiling Song!" Sidao's voied with iy. "Don't you want revenge for what was doo your father? To achieve that, you must bee the Empress of Aura!"

  Meiling took her stance, muscles tensed, her gaze filled with unwaveriermination. Slowly, an oppressive pressure began emanating from her, surrounding her in a golden glow. Her Aura surged, vibrant and bzing like fmes around her body. Her fists, in particur, shoh eveer iy.

  "Asalon, Orion, Saul, Valemont, Valerion, Dirtstone, and Evenhart..." she murmured, eaame increasing the pressure in the room, intensifying her power.

  "Fire!" Sidao anded.

  The soldiers around them lit the fuses of the ons. The tension alpable. The crag fire ing the fuses sent shivers down my spine.

  "Three... two... one..."

  The roar was deafening.

  The onballs shot forward at high speed, aimed directly at Meiling. But before they could reach her, she charged toward them. With precise aless strikes, her Aura-cd fists shattered each projectile on impact. The air trembled with every explosion. More shots were fired—dozens of onballs thundered across the training field. And one by one, each was obliterated by Meiling’s punches, reduced to mere shards uhe overwhelming force of her Aura.

  Amidst the cloud of dust, a hand emerged. Meiling was gripping one of the onballs tightly, her body radiating absolute power. The Aura surrounding her ed around the ball like a golden shield, preventing it from shattering while keeping it pletely under her trol.

  Sidao watched her with sharp eyes.

  "Who are these names you keep repeating every day?" he asked, his voice cold and calg.

  Meili his gaze. Her eyes burned with an unquenchable hatred, a fire that could never be extinguished.

  "They are the murderers of my father. Because of them, my mother took her own life," she decred without hesitation. "I will go to each of their families... and I will kill every st one of them."

  Her fingers ched around the onball, and with a dry snap, it turo dust.

  She was being trained in the four advanced uses of Aura—knowledge that had been deliberately divided among masters and s due to the danger of a single person mastering them all.

  The first was the basic use of Aura: Enha, which physically strengthehe user.

  The sed ecialization, allowing the Aura to be focused externally on a specific part of the body to amplify its power to the extreme.

  The third was Fortification, an expansion of the Specialization principle but applied to the entire body, f a defensive armor of energy.

  The fourth… was the most dangerous. A teique that many believed to be a myth—the ability to project Aura outside the body in a devastating attack.

  Sidao… had mao teach the Empress all four.

  Sindra:

  My soul had been summoned, linkio the Bck Castle. My physical body remained behind while my essence emerged in that dark domain. I appeared in ahereal form, shrouded in thick shadows, with only my eyes glowing intensely.

  Around me, a long baable stretched into the darkness. Everyone present was equally cloaked in gloom, their eyes burning like living embers. Some had red eyes, while others, like me, had pink ones.

  "Why have you called us here, Morvat?" asked one of the figures, their voice eg with authority. Their red eyes fred even brighter as they spoke.

  "The Great Lord has tacted me..." Morvat replied, his voice deep aed.

  "What did the Great Lord say to you?" asked another red-eyed presen the darkness.

  We, the ones with pink eyes, were of lower status in this circle. We were not allowed to i directly with the superiors, but listening was enough.

  I g the chair beside me. It was there, during a past meeting, that the shadowed form of the Jandr’s bearer had appeared. Sihen, I had developed a deep curiosity to uncover his identity. I was the only one who had sensed his presence—perhaps due to my affinity with serpents. I had reized the essence of that a and powerful creature immediately.

  That shadowed form he took was unique, just like his soul. his essence was like trying to decipher an impossible riddle. There was something about him... it was as if two beings coexisted within him, a man and a womawined in an impossible manner.

  Morvat, seated at the head of the table, interrupted my thoughts. He leaned forward slightly, as if carefully weighing his words before speaking.

  "The Great Lord said..." He paused, letting the weight of his words hang over us like a bde about to drop.

  "It has begun."

  Those words fell like a death sentehe darkness around us seemed to tremble.

  "Begun what?" another voice questioned.

  Morvat raised his hand, and a sinister energy pulsed around him, almost tangible. Then, with solemnity, he decred:

  "reat war against Asgard and the two tis of Midgard has finally begun."