He could hear his heart racing as he walked into the hall that the banquet was being held at. They arrived a bit late and the Saintess didn't seem worried at all. He knew she was like that but anyone who comes late to events like this usually got reprimanded. He never thought he would be here one day after what happened back in the past.
This used to be his home; he was born and bred there. He was born a prince even though his mother was just a concubine but she was his father's favorite. One day they left the palace for hunting, he was ten and yet he wasn't exempted from it. He rode his horse chasing a deer that he had just shot when everything turned sour. He didn't really know when he became the hunted instead of being the hunter. Arrows were suddenly shot at him and the only thing he could do was run for his life. His bodyguard was killed trying to fight off assassins. He ran as far as he could and yet he almost died in their hands. He fell off the valley and rolled down and yet they came after him. He hid in caves but he was heavily injured. He was about to end it all when the Saintess saved his life and killed those assassins.
He never returned back since a funeral was held for him. He was dead to the world and even his mother didn't know that he was still alive. Even after that his mother was still his father's favorite concubine. Now he was here, walking into the place filled with people who had his blood on their hands to congratulate his mother on giving birth to another son. Did she even miss him a bit? She seemed to be enjoying her life more even after losing him. Was he not that important at all?
'Calm yourself sown Xavier or I will confine you,' Valery said.
'I'm sorry, I will not sell myself off,' he said looking at her.
Valery, the Saintess was always a mystery especially to many people. No one really knew her face since she always covers it during ceremonies like this. She could even pass you by and you wouldn't recognize her unless you know her well.
Everyone looked at them as they walked in. they were shown to their seats, he helped the Saintess to sit down and took his seat afterwards.
The Emperor arrived with his harem and the guests fell on their knees, he actually smiled as he saw how the Saintess remained seated. She grabbed him so that he wouldn't go on his knees like the rest were doing. He always thought the disciples lied when they talked about how the Saintess remains seated every time the royal family comes in.
The Emperor and his harem sat down and so did the official.
'I would like to thank you all for coming today to celebrate the birth of another son of mine. I hope you will have a great time here,' the Emperor said.
Everyone all agreed and cheered for him but the Saintess was busy taking her wine. Was she trying to annoy the Emperor? He knew that his mother was bestowed by the Saintess to the Emperor as a way of making peace between the two and they would be no way the Emperor would try to strain that relationship. The nation had more than five hundred thousand soldiers and the mountain had less than four thousands and yet it was scary to go to war with the mountain than another nation.
One soldier of the mountain was equivalent to a master and dangerous alone.
So many words were spoken but his gaze was on his mother. She looked perfectly healthy and fine. She looked very happy too, for a second her gaze was on him and he saw how her face changed after that. Did she recognize him? He wondered about that. He looked at the Saintess and poured another cup of wine for her.
'Don't get yourself drunk,' he said.
'I will never get drunk. If I knew this would be so horrible, I wouldn't have come,' she said sipping her wine and he smiled.
She was bored and he could tell. He never really understood why she hated banquets like this. She didn't even celebrate her own birthday. It was as if she hated children but he never saw her mistreating one before. She treated everyone equally; she was very fair and just. She rewarded those who did good and punished those that deserved it.
They began to offer gifts one by one and it was their time to offer one too. He knew the Saintess would never stand up to give the gift and he was the one in charge of it. He stood up and Nora followed him. He bowed down to his father and mother who looked at him as if he was a ghost but he was glad they knew it was him.
'On behalf of the Lotus palace and the Saintess, I congratulate the Noble Consort for birthing another royal prince. May you be blessed for many years to come,' he said and offered the gift.
Nora opened the gift and he heard the whole people appreciating the gift. The Saintess had gifted a luminous pearl so huge it was the first time other people had seen it.
'That's a very huge pearl, may I ask the Saintess where you got it?' the Emperor asked.
'That would be another story for another time,' the Saintess replied trying to cut the story short.
He smiled and returned to the Saintess side. The ceremony finally came to an end and the Saintess was called upon by the Emperor.
'Wait for me,' she told him. He didn't know what they would talk about but at the same time he didn't know what to do there too. The maid that served his mother came to him. He remembered her; she was by his side all the time. He saw her look when she approached.
'Noble Consort would like a word with you,' she said avoiding attention.
Xavier followed the maid even when he knew that he had been instructed to not go anywhere. He wanted to look at her and ask her a lot of questions before the Saintess do anything.
When he entered his mother's palace all the palace maids were dismissed. He stood there and watched her as she stood from her seat. She looked relieved, happy and sad at the same time. He saw tears streaming down her cheeks as she tried to let words out but failing to.
'You are alive! My poor child, I can't believe that you are...' she said as she stopped right in front of him and touched his cheeks.
One of his questions got answered. She didn't know that he was alive and thought that he was really dead. He touched her hand and he found his tears coming out too.
'I'm alive and well mother,' he told her.
His mother fell to the ground and began to cry. He followed her and hugged her closely as they both cried.
'I'm glad that you didn't leave me. All these years I mourned you, I can't believe that you are alive. What happened?'
He began to narrate to her exactly what had happened back then and watched as the tears continued to stream down her cheeks.
'I'm okay now, the Saintess took me in and gave me a new life,' he told her.
'She is a good person. She did to you exactly what she did to me. If it wasn't for her I wouldn't be here, I will have to show my gratitude to her,' his mother said.
'She would love that.'
'So are you here to stay?'
'I came to reveal the truth, everything will be revealed,' he told her.
'I would be happy to have that. Will you be okay?'
'I am much stronger now, don't worry about me,' he said.
'I wish I could show you your siblings but you must see your father first,' she said.
'I will do that, I have to wait for the Saintess first,' he said.
At that moment his mother's chief maid came in.
'Your highness, a messenger had been sent for the young lord to go to the Dragon palace and seek audience with the Emperor,' she said.
Xavier looked at her and then his mother.
'I will come and see you when everything is sorted,' he said.
Xavier left his mother's palace and was escorted to the dragon palace where his father was.
When he arrived he bowed before the Emperor and showed his respect to the Saintess.
'Come here,' the Emperor said and he looked at the Saintess who nodded her head.
With her approval, Xavier walked towards his royal father he hadn't seen for a decade. He stopped and looked at him.
'Come even much closer,' he instructed and he went forward again. He stopped right in front of him and the old man stood up and reached his hand towards him. His father was a ruthless man, a man who was cold as ice and yet he swore he saw his tears.
'You are alive!' he said and hugged him closely.
Ever since he was a child he had never received a hug from his father. He rarely saw the man since they were many but he always knew his father loves him. Receiving this kind of affection from him, was so touching and loving.
'I'm sorry, I disappointed you royal father,' he said crying.
'Don't ever say that again son. You survived a tragedy and that's a great achievement. I'm very happy and proud of you,' his father said.
'It's good to see you again,' he told him.
'You may take a seat,' his father said and he went down the stairs and sat opposite the Saintess.
'I have heard everything from the Saintess and since everything had been made clear, I will go ahead with her plan and root out these devious people once and for all,' the Emperor said.
'Thank you,' he said.
'I will call a meeting with the officials and tell them the good news that you are alive and well but because we have to verify a few things, you will be staying at the inn until everything is settled,' the Emperor explained.
'Are you planning on making those that tried to kill me back then appear again?'
'Yes, it will be better to catch them red handed than to accuse them of something that they did a long time ago.'
That made a lot of sense, there was probably no evidence from the assassination attempt of back then but if they tried to repeat it again then they would get a chance.
'I will follow your plan and hope to catch them and make them see justice,' Xavier said.
'I will write a royal decree and summon you officially to the palace when this is all over,' his father said and he looked at the Saintess who was busy drinking her wine as if she wasn't there.
'I will obey,' he replied in return.
'I have appointments to keep, may you be blessed,' the Saintess said as she stood up and he knew it was time for them to leave.
'I will take my leave, royal father,' he said and followed the Saintess out of the palace.
The Saintess didn't say a word and he wasn't sure what was really happening. Her face didn't have much energy as it was before.
On their way out of the palace, he met someone he thought he would never meet again, the crown prince. He was his brother and yet he hated him a lot; since he was born from the favorite concubine, his brother always felt threatened by him. He didn't have a proper childhood, thanks to him. Xavier looked at him for a while before bowing his head. The crown prince's palanquin stopped and he wondered why it did.
The crown prince seemed very furious but not with him but with the Saintess. The crown prince probably had no idea who he was fuming at. He just prayed that he would get what he deserves.
'Don't you see me passing?' he asked her but the Saintess he knew rarely answers such silly questions.
His brother got annoyed by what just happened. He got down his palanquin still angry as hell and he removed the mask covering the Saintess face; Xavier knew then that his brother had just courted trouble. He could feel the chilly wind breezing around. He looked at her and saw the way her gown was beginning to fly and float in the air. Her aura was so strong that you could determine her mood by the way the atmosphere around her was and right now she was so angry that he hoped that she wouldn't do anything to hurt his brother even though it will bring great joy to him.
'What's wrong with her?' the crown prince asked.
'Do you know who she is?' Xavier asked him.
'Does it even matter? Here everyone bows to me, I won't have a cheap harlot disrespecting me like that,' the crown prince said and Xavier looked at the Saintess whose eyes had turned red with anger. He knew something bad was about to happen in the palace and it did.
The Saintess slapped the crown prince and he flew away and fell down on the ground. Upon witnessing that, the crown prince guards surrounded them. Xavier could tell they were ready to strike down the Saintess which was a very bad move on their part.
'I will advise you to help the crown prince and let us go,' Xavier warned the guards but they were also stubborn just like their master and ignored him.
The Saintess pulled out her fan and immediately he saw the guards withdrawing. It was the legendary fan that everyone knows even without seeing. Her fan made others have nightmares by just thinking about it. Her fan had shed more blood than any bother weapon he had ever heard of in his entire life.
'I have been insulted today and I don't want to shed any blood today,' Valery said trying to calm down.
As everything was happening, the Emperor arrived looking very worried. He saw exactly what was happening and walked up to them.
'What happened?' he asked him.
Xavier answered his father and told him exactly what had happened. He saw the worried look in his father's face.
'I'm very sorry for the way my son reacted, please show him mercy,' his father pleaded and that shook him.
Seeing someone who made his father scared like that was a huge honor. He seemed to be very scared and wary of the Saintess. He wasn't yet born when the war broke out between the mountain and the palace but from what he heard, it was brutal.
'Royal father, please punish that harlot. She just humiliated me in front of everyone,' the crown prince said as he limped to where they were standing.
For the first time he saw the Emperor slashing out at the crown prince in public that he fell to the ground.
'Royal father, why would you defend that harlot in place of me?' the crown prince asked and he made it worse by that.
'Do you want me to lock you up? Do you even know the person you had just offended?' the Emperor asked and the crown prince looked at the emperor and then the Saintess. He saw the fan and shock took over him.
'Is she the Saintess of the Lotus palace?'
'Now you can tell, after insulting her like that,' his father said.
'I'm very sorry, I didn't know. Please forgive me for my ignorance,' the crown prince begged.
'I'm not the kind that forgives easily especially after being called names. Because of you, I don't feel very good. I don't care what you will do but you have to make it up to me or I will avenge your insults until I leave the city. I don't think I will know where to take it out from,' the Saintess said putting back her fan.
'Please forgive him this once. I will reprimand him and make sure he doesn't do it again,' his father pleaded on the crown prince's behalf.
'I hope you do. I wouldn't want your son to mess up the relationship between the two families in the end,' she said and began to walk away.
Xavier looked at his father, he looked very worried and he knew why.
'I will talk to her and make sure she doesn't avenge what had just happened here. I won't make any promises but I can tell you that she is very angry. It's the second time I saw the look in her eyes. Please don't summon her any time soon, I'm afraid she might hurt someone,' Xavier told his father and ran after the Saintess.
'Get the carriage before I destroy this road,' she said and he smiled.
It felt so good to see her like this. He will have to spend more time with her calming her down and finding ways to make her smile. If she was mad then he will spend so much time with her.
He called for the carriage which came for them. He helped her into the carriage and held her hand. It wasn't the words that the crown prince had uttered that made her angry to that extent. She was hiding something from him, he could feel it and yet he couldn't ask her. She kept so many secrets and she always did it for the better of everyone but sometimes he wished that she could share her burdens with him or someone else than to keep them inside. The thought of losing her was something he didn't want to think about.
He massaged her palms as he watched her close her eyes. He knew that she was trying to calm down as fast as possible. When their carriage exited the Forbidden City he instructed the coachman to send them to the market. He wanted to let her walk and see the great things that the commoners had.
'Walk with me,' he said as he led her out of the carriage.
He was surprised with how obedient she was. She didn't fight him but just followed. She stopped and entered one shop and stared at the jewelry inside. The Saintess had so much jewelry, most of it she didn't wear it since she rarely wore them. He went closer and noticed that she was staring at a necklace. She liked it he noticed.
'Buy your girlfriend one, she loves it,' the shop manager said without even knowing what was happening. He smiled at him and then looked at the Saintess.
'How much is it?' he asked.
'Ten coins,' the manager and said.
Xavier went through his pouch but he didn't have any coins. He took out a tael of silver and gave it to the manager.
The man handed him the necklace and he looked at the Saintess. She looked at him and he smiled at her. He put the necklace around her neck and she looked at it. She still didn't say a word but he could tell that she was less fuming than the way she was at the beginning.
The manager gave him his change back but since he was happy with what had just happened he told him to keep it. He left the shop with her and made a few more rounds.
She stopped at a food stall and found a table. It was shocking even for the people there to see such a noble person sitting there.
'Don't you think we should go to the inn?' he asked her noticing the attention that they were attracting.
'I know what I'm doing, let them serve us some noodles,' she said and he called the waitress and made the order.
Their bowls were placed in front of them few minutes later and she ate without saying a word. He followed suit and wondered what was happening in her head. In the middle of enjoying their food, she suddenly stopped and looked at her.
'What is it?' he asked her.
'We are being watched,' she replied her eyes on him.
He looked around but he couldn't see a thing.
'It's a good thing, eat and fill your stomach. It's going to be a long night,' she said with a smile on her face and he knew that it wasn't good at al. something terrible was surely going to happen and it was going to be messy.