Chapter 262: The Insolent Man and the Shambling Plan

"My lady!" Old man Qiang rushed before them, head lowered and voice utterly unalike his previous one. "What does us the honour of your radiant visit this morning?"

"Does her ladyship require your permission, ground’s keeper, to peruse her own house’s gardens?" An ill-spoken man with a proud nose and bulging eyes growled mockingly then from behind her, draining all colour from the old man’s face.

"N-No! Of course n-not! I-I meant no..." He began, stuttering like a frightened child, as he fell to his knees in apology.

"That’s enough." The princess glowered at the insolent, and sole man in her entourage then, turning to him with an undisguised look of disgust. "He did nothing wrong."

"Of course, my lady. Your generosity is as eye-watering as ever! May we all be blessed with a heart like yours one day." The man replied with a tone dripping in false humility and deference, bowing as he did. Though from our low angle, Nizam and I could easily see the broad smile across his features.

One that did not even have the common decency to vanish as soon as he re-lifted his head to meet her eye. An action that would be deemed the hight of insolence if done by a mannerless child to his irate parent, let alone by a mere servant towards his betters.

And yet the princess did not do more than that. She did not punish him. She did not chastise him again. She did not even demand his departure. She merely visibly clenched her jaws a moment later, before she then turned back around and said nothing more.

"Her ladyship has come to observe your work gardener. After all, this is to be the site of one of the most significant days of any of our lives." The insolent man said aloud with a widening smirk, as though nothing had happened, exercising his petty power to persist in his pestering of the old man.

Yet I cared little for the petty tyrant, and focused more on his words. Words that clearly held a significant meaning to them. Or else why seem so proud. And why did the other maids and escorts of my brother’s fiancée flinch ever so slightly at their utterance. And why did Ziyi’s complexion darken like the storm clouds over Katai-Verta, because of them.

"Rise." She said when the fool had had his fun, addressing us all. "Please, do not allow my presence to disturb your work. Continue as you were."

"Yes, your highness!" A hundred voices rang out as one then, slowly returning to their tasks, while we followed suit.

Yet unlike before, everything and everyone was far quieter and sombre. As though the spectre of death had just passed by us.

All the while Nizam kept glaring daggers at the petulant man’s back, as he and the rest of the impromptu imperial arrivals slowly continued to make there way around us.

"Steward Zhang is as nasty as always." Wei lightly whispered, airing out his grievances, as his large hooked nose flared wide.

"That’s steward Zhang?" My brother quickly asked, his eyes gleaming in a light I’d never seen before, yet recognized all too well.

Wei seemed to reign in his temper as he said. "Oh, that’s right. I’d nearly forgotten you were from the Outer Court. You wouldn’t have seen much of him before, would you?"

"Lucky bastards." Mouchen muttered. "I’d happily trade one of my ears if I could never have crossed paths with that rotten-born cur."

"Better your tongue Mouchen. That way we’d all have less to worry about." Wei half jokingly said, as though he was momentarily considering the sweet feasibility of it all.

The scarred man snorted in reply, not dignifying his friend’s words with a reply, before his mouth suddenly began to curl into a provocative smirk. "But see there. I told you so didn’t I. We’re making ready the princess’ wedding!" He declared as though he was a soldier on the front lines who’d just won a great victory.

"For the last time, you don’t know that for certain! You just heard a rumour!" Wei snapped back, his face turning an odd mix between crimson and green, as he quickly glanced around us for anyone who’d heard him.

"Than why else would she come here if not to inspect our work?!" He argued back incessantly "You heard that dog Zhang. What else could he have meant?"

Wei did not have an immediate and well thought-out response. And judging by the state of my brother’s knuckles, neither did he.

Mouchen’s face split into a heinously agitating grin at that moment, basking in his brief victory, before Wei quickly spat back.

"Would you be quiet before you cost us all our tongues?!"

"Alright, alright." He snickered, turning back to him work.

"Brother..." Nizam whispered to me then, his tone not masking his bubbling emotions.

"Leave it to me." A cold voice answered him then.

Nizam’s eyes snapped to my shadow that momentarily stretched to touch a great tree’s shadow nearby. He knew that my Eve was walking through the umbral corridors of the scattered shades, slowly making her way into the princess’ gloom.

A feat she achieved within seconds, as evidenced by the princess’ suddenly halting steps and excessive straightening of her back. Eve must have spoken to her.

"Now we wait." I said, turning back to keep up our covers, expecting the need for several hours to pass before Eve and the princess could manufacture a suitable opportunity to meet us.

Yet if I had any expectations whatsoever, than what happened next were unaligned with any such thoughts.

"You there! Follow me!" The high and loud voice of Ziyi passed over us all, as she locked her eyes with us.

’What in the name of all the Gods?!’ I thought in utter shock.

"Us, my lady?!" Mouchen asked trembling like a fawn in winter, undoubtedly thinking he’d indeed been heard.

"No, the two between you." Ziyi declared, quickly striding to our side.

Nizam and I looked to each in utter bewilderment mixed toxically with anxiety.

Slowly he and I rose from our knees. He standing a full head above her, while the crown of her head reached no more than my shoulders, and from this angle she could perceive our faces from beneath our wide hats, and we both saw her beautiful silver eyes widen, as a smile began to desperately tug at the corners of her lips.

"Who are those two?!" I heard the others whisper around us then.

’Damn it all! What the hell does this stupid girl think she’s doing?! Now the whole damn Palace will have us investigated! And it won’t be too much trouble for the paranoid players of the retched game within these halls to uncover our secrets!’

"My la..." That same foul-tongued man, known as steward Zhang came to her side again, beginning to eye us with clear interest and mistrust.

Yet before he could even finish his second word, she whirled back at him with rage burning in her heart. "Be quiet! Another word from you and I’ll have my brother use you as target practice Nao!" She emphasized the man’s name, as a serpentine smile stretched across her face. As though the utterance of that name was the most wonderous feeling in her entire life, while her eyes gleamed in a twisted and fulfilled light I knew all too well.

Vengeance quenched with brutal satisfaction.

The man’s veins visibly bulged, as his face became a horrid concoction of embarrassment and rage. Yet before he could say anything, his reason seemed to return to him, as he flung his gaze at us, now eyeing us with clear hate and promised pain and death.

It seems he has concluded that the once subdued princess had regained much of her confidence because of us.

Had it been any other time and place, I would’ve been glad to pluck his eyes and feed it to him myself.

But then his eyes began to roam around him, and seeing the satisfied and smug looks everyone was giving him at his public humiliation, seemed to banish his reason again, and he took a single, aggressive step towards her.

Our cover had already been ripped to shreds and more. We had by noon today, before we are swarmed with the pawns of the conquering masters of this ancient place. And Nizam knew so too, so he no longer cared, as he unleashed his power without mercy, giving all those who beheld his terrible form a sense of frigid serpents tightening around their limbs and throats. Dragging the strength and breath from their shivering flesh.

The man was a mere mortal without any form of expertise in any of the three specialties.

"A mage?!" The gathered men and women flinched back in horror at Nizam’s open display of power.

"This is becoming too big a mess." I heard Eve’s voice whisper in my ear.

I felt the blood in my veins grow blazing, ready to erupt at any second. But my mind became cold. Monstrously so, as I my eyes and ears began raking through the world around me. Twitching faces of horror struck bystanders. Stunned eyes of disbelieving ignorant fools. The uneven breathing of those trying to catch their breathes again. And I knew then what must be done.