Emperor's Reckoning

In the corner of the world where it was far from the gates to another, two beautiful women stood against each other.

"Mother... do you believe in reincarnation?"

Cecile's words caught her mother furrowing her eyebrows. Nevertheless, the latter replied, "I know what it is, but to believe in it... I don't know. I've heard records about it, they say if you have an extreme life element aptitude, then maybe... you can reincarnate yourself?"

Cecile laughed out loud while her hands were pressing her stomach. She couldn't open her eyes that were tearing up from her mother's words. Despite the mother scorning at her laughing daughter, she didn't hold back.

"Alright, alright, missy. No need to laugh that hard against your old mother."

"Hahaha, what? Old? You're not old mother, you are very far from it."

Cecile smiled as she put her hands on her waist with a grin on her face. She let out a sigh, "It has been how long since we talked like this. Just the two of us, mother and daughter."

"Heh," her mother smirked as she closed her eyes.

"What?" asked Cecile against her expression of smug.

"Since when did you become sentimental and think about that kind of stuff?"

Cecile shrugged her shoulder off before answering her, "Maybe I'm going through my puberty?"

Priscila slightly pinched her forehead as she sighed. She looked at her daughter with one eye open, "I thought you are an empress. Everyone feared you and respect you. Those young lasses want to become like you, it is good that they don't know how vulgar you really are. Jin will pay dearly for this."

"Hahaha! No need to take it out on father, mother. I used to be not like this you know."

"I know, I was the one that raised you well, but I forgot how foolish your father could be behind my back. Cross that, even in front of me, he still acted like a fool."

"Hahaha! It must be tough being a father huh,"

"What do you mean?" asked Priscila with a glare toward her daughter.

"Hehe, nothing mother, why are you so uptight, let loose a little you know. I've heard from father before that you are really strict and devoted to your cultivation. Some might say that you are insane and would marry cultivation if you could. I mean, I don't know if that is true though," Cecile shrugged.

Priscila closed her eyes as she had a red hue on her cheeks. There was no way to hide her expression as Cecile was directly in front of her. 

"Enough about me, what's the deal with you and Lyon, because I barely know who he is in spite of the fact that you know him. I don't remember a single moment where you would go out and meet someone in your youth either. You always deny joining banquet and would never go if I didn't drag you out."

"You know, those heaven's sons are going to get disappointed once they heard that you suddenly got married. They are all talented and seek your hand in marriage but alas, my strong daughter didn't even bother to greet them."

Cecile shook her head with a smile as she looked at her mother letting out a sarcastic tone. She knew that her mother was the one that set it all up since she was a stuck-up little princess that rarely went out of her room. It would be dangerous for a normal child, especially that of high status, to lack social skills.

"I know it was your doing mother, setting up banquet after banquet just for the smallest thing."

"I did that—"

"For me, I know," interrupted Cecile as she looked at her mother with a warm smile.

"Thank you, mother, but it was not necessary, for you see, I am... a reincarnated being."

Priscila opened her eyes wide as she felt a flash of cold shiver down her spine once she heard her daughter's revelation. 

"What are you talking about? What do you mean you're reincarnated? I pushed you out of my womb."

(Lady, I swear father is less vulgar than you when things come down to it) thought Cecile as she chuckled inwardly.

"Yes, but that has nothing to do with reincarnation, though, mine is like a pseudo-reincarnation if I might say."

Priscila could only squint her eyes. Her base knowledge about reincarnation was already shallow. Everyone sought immortality and power by cultivating. Thankfully those two came hand in hand, however, reincarnation basically not cheating death but overcome it and went around back to the beginning. Some believe it some don't, it might have been a wonderful dream or a feverish nightmare. Having to start all over from the beginning after reaching such a height of cultivation level was still the surmounting heavy part of the equation. Thus the cultivator experts that stood at the pinnacle of the hierarchy of power almost didn't bother with it.

Immortality was still the most favored one over reincarnation.

"There are types of reincarnation?" asked Priscila as she looked at her daughter with slightly arched eyebrows. There was little to no knowledge about the process of reincarnation, what they knew was the definition of reincarnation itself, nothing more.

"I don't fully understand it either, but I can assure you that I am a reincarnated human being, mother."

"R-Really? Are you sure you're not just a little girl that has been hypnotized by that Lyon guy?"

"What? Hahahaha!" Cecile laughed, "mother, you're going to kill me! hahaha!"

"Why are you laughing? How is it not normal if you were in my shoes."

"Hahaha! Sure, sure, it's normal. But, heh, I still can't believe your imagination will reach that far."

"Oh please, you're a full-fledged woman too, you will have it someday."

"Nah, I probably won't," said Cecile with a denying gesture.

Priscila let out a sigh, "So, I should just believe my daughter's nonsense that she is reincarnated."

"Hm?" Cecile puckered up a smile from her auburn lips, "Do you want to know?"

"Huh?"

"Who am I in the past?"

Her question and her smile brought shivers to Priscila's figure. The latter could feel the full absurd experience from behind those auburn eyes. There was not a single hint of lying and acting the way her daughter presented herself. She couldn't help but make a harsh swallow as she nodded without a blink. 

This tall woman of hers was her daughter, who was she in the past? The fact that she could break the very sense of cultivation. Leaping through levels like it was just a game. It was not a matter of when it was a matter of will. Her combat talent had already sparked from her youth. 

Priscila still remembered it well when she was just a kid. Picking up the weapon for the first time, she showed her nimbleness hands with the weapon and surprised her tutors.

The flawless and weird technique that seemed absurd was scorn at first by their tutors. It didn't follow any of her parents' fighting styles at all. Yet, she let out a smirk before challenging the very tutors that had few cultivation realms above her. 

She remembered how the outcome of the match ended up with them gawking. She naturally lost the match because of the cultivation levels that were absurdly different, but the fact that she had hit the tutors one hundred and seventeen times without having any cultivation at all revealed her prodigy in combat. The natural talent forced Jin to step down and teach her daughter personally. 

Provided with the best of the best resources she could get, her prowess could only grow. Abiding the time that she took on slowly, she often found herself starring at the sky through the giant window. She sat on the edge of the window, tapping her knee with her finger as if she was waiting for something. That was how Priscila knew how every night ended for her.

"Do you read some legends when you are a kid, mother?" asked Cecile with a smile.

"Legends? Hmm... I heard a few, but I didn't exactly read it since there was no document for such thing."

"Have you ever heard a story where... there was a man. Status of an emperor yet lived like a fool?"

"Hm... I don't think I could recall one."

"Hmmm... how about the Legend of War Maiden?"

"Ah! Yes, yes I've heard that one. She was born with poverty as her middle name. She lived a life full of betrayal and liars. Oh, every time I heard the story I would sob. That innocent woman, the kingdom where she lived was too cruel. However, one day she met a man inside a place where she wouldn't have dreamed of meeting, in a prison. That first meeting would end up having her fate turned around. But alas," she let out a sigh, "That man actually married two others, the damn fellow, using an innocent woman's heart and played with it."

Cecile smiled as she looked at her mother.

"What? Why are you looking at... no... no... it cannot be! You are the War Maiden?! The one that took down the Eternal Golem?! You are her reincarnation?! THE WAR MAIDEN?!"