Chapter 20 — The Servant Without A Master
"Some eyes don't question.
They condemn. "
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In the large room of the old palace, the air was heavy like a stretched wire ready to break.
The Emperor was sitting, impassive.
On his right, Xīyue, his wife, straight like a statue.
Behind her, Jinlian, always standing, always in the shadows.
But on the other side...
Stood a woman that Ken had never seen.
She was dressed soberly.
Her long purple hair slid over her shoulders like a cascade of shadow.
And his eyes... those deep purple eyes, almost familiar, remained calm and impenetrable.
Meilin
He didn't know who she was.
But she... knew very well who he was.
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The Emperor took the floor.
- "You are my brother's servant, Liyan. "
His voice was laid. Measured.
As if this sentence were just a formality.
But every word weighed like lead.
Ken - or rather Xū Fang - looked up.
His gaze met that of the Emperor.
Cold.
Unfathomable.
No respect. Except a Nothing.
Then he simply replied:
"I don't know where he is. "
An icy whisper.
Like a bare blade on a sleeping throat.
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A guard, shocked by this tone, spat between his teeth:
- "How dare you look at the Emperor like that, dog? "
But at that moment, Xū Fang slowly turned his head towards him.
His look...
It was no longer a human look.
It was an abyss.
A bottomless abyss, so deep that even the gods would have turned their eyes away.
The guard felt something...
An icy, foreign, heavenly sensation.
As if a deity had just laid his eyes on him.
Panicked, he raised his gun and skeed.
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— "Sough. "
The Emperor's voice clapped like a whip.
The guard stopped sharply.
Then the Emperor slowly turned his head towards Xū Fang.
His gaze said everything without speaking: "Pay attention to your manners."
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Xīyue, silent, observed.
She thought, troubled:
"Is it the same Ken I saw... that night? » (Chapter 16)
"His eyes reflected the world. Now... they no longer reflect anything. "
"Just a blackness... inhuman. "
Jinlian, for his part, thought coldly:
"What a loyalty. Even in the face of the Emperor, he remained loyal to Liyan. "
"A faithful dog..."
Meilin, she wanted to talk.
But his lips closed by themselves.
She couldn't.
Not yet.
She had to stay in her place: that of the sister-in-law.
Not the mother's.
But in his eyes... a thousand words burned.
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Xū Fang, however, did not act either out of loyalty...
Nor out of pity but out of hatred towards himself to forget his objective destroyed Liyan
In him, another voice spoke.
An inner, cold and cruel voice.
"It's because of this night... the one where I thought I could love. is that I control the situation"
What a beautiful joke he squeezed his wrists tightly
"Last night, in Xīyue's arms... I forgot that the world is unpredictable This world is cruel normally I am it is he who knows more than anyone else. "
"I thought I was in control of everything. "
"But I was wrong. "
"Why did you disappear, Liyan? "
"What did the Emperor tell you, to make you leave without a word? » (Chapter 15)
His eyes became even darker.
"Sure of one thing, Liyan..."
"It won't be the Emperor who will kill you. "
"It won't be an enemy. "
"It will be me. "
"Me, Ken. "
"The one you released. The one you named Xū Fang. The one you think without your libration will be nothing. "
"I won't let anyone kill you. Because this right... belongs to me. "
"I promise you. "
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What no one knew...
What no one suspected...
It is that the Emperor was not looking for Liyan to punish him.
But to raise it.
He wanted to make her his heir.
End of chapter 20.