Jade finished demonstrating the details of the trip, pointing to the map unrolled before them. She paid extreme attention to the details, not missing every one of the fifteen territories where the civilians had noticed a demonic presence in the area. She had noted down the behaviours and tendencies of these creatures, plus the measures that they needed to take.
The way Chad was acting when faced with the information she just presented irked her even more. He sat down on the floor, coolly watching her, without a single tinge of seriousness on his visage. But getting furious at him was meaningless. He would end up infuriating her with something new.She turned to Sky instead and questioned him.“Are you clear about what we have to do?”Sky smiled foolishly. “As my brother said, we will keep you safe, Madame!”Jade glared daggers at him for a few seconds before walking away and heading into a room. She seized a porcelain cup lying on a table nearby, accompanied by a teapot and poured herself some tea to calm her nerves. She breathed in the aroma of the tea leaves and sipped the hot tea. Keep your calm, Jade. She couldn’t allow her emotions to affect her actions. Hearing footsteps behind her, she turned around abruptly to bump into someone. Chad grinned impishly, with his arms gently positioned on her shoulders. This was outrageous! How could he have followed her into the room? It was off limits to mercenaries, and this Chad didn’t follow the rules. They had put up a notice disallowing entry to the public.“Get your filthy hands off me!” she hissed at him, trying to push him away. This wasn’t what she wanted when she mentioned needing some strong companions on the trip. Chad’s lack of interest in the potential risks of their travel, along with his cheekiness, bothered her. But other than him, with her inexperience, she didn’t know who she could hire. Nobody had turned up in enquiry for the job for several days. Even before Chad came three days ago.She had to take what she had. Chad retreated, still smiling boldly. She assumed that he was just insolent.Putting on a front that nothing had happened, she returned to the office where Sky was waiting. Chad hadn’t followed, and she wondered where he had gone, hoping he had just gone to the latrine at the back of the establishment.“Miss Gold, if I may say something?” The sky seemed persistent while looking her in the eye.“Young Master Yale, what is it, if I may ask?” She was as courteous as ever.He bowed, talking in a very timid voice. Even his eye contact was limited, and he wore a sheepish expression.“I’m wondering if you still remember me, Miss Gold.”“You are Sky Yale, as I recall?”“Back at the cemetery. To be particular, my mother’s grave. Yvette Sue.”It dawned upon her he was referring to that one chance meeting with her at her aunt’s grave. When he stated that night he was visiting his mother, she disbelieved him and accused him of trespassing.“So, it’s you,” she didn’t see a point in pretending to not know him when they had exchanged blows so vividly that night. As she remembered, it had been a full moon and if he asked around, he would know her relationship with Yvette Sue, anyway. Everyone in the island city knew she was Yvette's niece. But was this man, whom she never heard of all her life, really her aunt’s son, making him her cousin? Her aunt had never spoken of having a son at all. Now that she thought about it, she wasn’t even aware if her aunt had ever had a lover. She had never married all her life, so where could this son have come from?Talking about this in the office could warrant some undesirable attention. Neither could she keep the doors bolted shut for long. Waving her arm, she gestured for Sky to follow her outside so that she could find a spot for them to speak with no one hearing their conversation. She didn’t want a third person to suspect that her aunt had an illegitimate son, truth or not.They made their way to the flower garden about ten li from the office. Without saying a word, she pointed towards the resting spot, where a firm stone table and some chairs appeared to invite them. Jade invited Sky to take a seat, smiling amiably.“Please take a seat, Master Yale.”He accepted, nervously sitting down on the stone chair. Jade looked amused.“You said that Yvette Sue is your mother. How are you sure?”The sky appeared nervous. Noticing it, she adjusted her tone to a softer tone.“I’m not saying that you are a fake or anything like that. I was guarding Aunt Sue’s grave, and you appeared. So I mistook you for a robber.”Apart from her inquisitiveness, she needed to clarify what was his relationship with Yvette Sue. Because of that, she hoped he wouldn’t find out from the civilians that she was related to her aunt and withheld the fact from him. Sky turned out to be very trusting and sincere with what he knew.“Actually,” he said with an honest expression. “I don’t know if I am her son.”She returned his look with a queer stare, questioning him what he meant.“I lost my memory. All I have is this jade pendant.”He retrieved an item from his pocket and handed it to Jade, allowing her to inspect it. She immediately recognised it as one of her aunt’s possessions, but she also remembered that the pendant was one of a pair. Still, how could it be possible that a stranger had it?“Where did you come from?”Her question startled Sky, and he appeared to encounter hardship in finding the right answer. She hesitated to interrogate him further, seeing through his discomfort. Perhaps she should ask him later after some time had passed. After all, he wouldn’t have the answer for her.She tapped him on the back. “Never mind about my question. It was my mistake asking.”She felt sorry for him. What if he was her cousin? With her mother gone, she hadn’t had many relatives left. She hadn’t given it much thought that her aunt would have a son.There was the sound of footsteps in the distance, although Sky didn’t realise it. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a figure hiding in the distance. Someone was eavesdropping on them, and she quickly rushed after the person to find out.The sight of those familiar dark eyes, a sharp nose and thick lips greeted her. “Bud, what are you doing here?” Sky uttered in surprise.Chad's face was expressionless, and without saying a word, he strode away, puzzling Jade further.Chad sat on the stiff bed in the mercenaries’ quarters, huddled under a blanket in the chilly night. Even after two nights had passed, he couldn’t erase that image of Sky and Jade in the flower garden from his mind.After leaving the palace, he had to put up with the living conditions of a beggar and the fact that his savings wouldn’t last them a long time. For Sky, he was indifferent, and obviously, he had encountered exposure to living in worse conditions. But for Chad, this was the cost of his freedom. Such conditions didn’t improve since they arrived at the island city. Aside from what remained of his savings, he had his boat. But even with that, what could he do? He couldn’t use it for sleep or to fill his stomach. When their stored food was depleted, the only resort was for them to find a job outside.The harsh working conditions didn’t bother Sky, but it was him, as a prince, that struggled with working like a commoner. He realised how spoiled he had been, and compared his bud
Jade Gold closed the door after her, trying not to be daunted by the pounding in her chest. This man she claimed to detest so much turned out to have that impact on her. But why him?Sitting cross-legged on her wooden bed, she calmed herself and attempted to sift through the confusing emotions in her mind. She was Jade Gold, future Imperial Advisor and currently the only female Imperial Guard.She couldn’t allow her emotions to take over her like that! He was that boorish mercenary Roc Chadwick! Even when Jade encountered colleagues of the opposite sex daily, to the extent that she went through some accidental touching, she hadn’t reacted like that!The problem probably lay in Roc Chadwick. And after the mission, she had to get him out of her life, or he would mess it up! ‘Jade, don’t fret. You have your engagement with Levi Stanson,’ she reminded herself. This Levi was indeed a mystery. She hoped he was how she had imagined him to be: sexy, muscular and appetising to the eye. They w
No, she yelled in her mind. She couldn’t meet with her doom just yet, for she was just nineteen! She still had a lot to achieve in her life, and she couldn’t die just like that. ‘Please, almighty goddess Miyu, please, let me escape this,’ she prayed silently.In answer to her prayers, two hands appeared in front of her eyes, and Jade thought she was seeing things. She sensed someone lifting her to safety and passed out, dazed. Unlike anyone else, Jade didn’t fall into a deep slumber even when she was out cold. She saw images that were part of her life or her so-called past life. Visions even came to her out of the blue, sometimes at night, when she was supposedly sleeping, or randomly, like how she had just seen when she was drifting in the water earlier.This was a part of her that nobody else could fathom, so she quit telling anyone else, lest it frightened them like how it petrified that maid in her home during her childhood days. The maid had even fled the night after that. Sh
The morning was there before they knew it. Chad dressed in the mercenary robes that the Guard had presented them with, a splendidly tailored outer robe of the darkest brocade. Sky’s robe was no inferior: he wore a suit of dark blue, looking just as magnificent. Compared to the farmhand he was before, he appeared to shine.Chad washed his face with a basin of hot water as he contemplated what had happened the night before. As a prince with many consorts and a concubine he had never met, he had many women at his service, a different one in his bed every night, but he had heeded none of them any special attention like he did with Jade Gold.He couldn’t forget the fragrance on her slim body, nor her petite waist as he held her that night, almost having her for himself. He had been so close.What had happened to her for her to forget him? Had he never had that big an impression on her? He was sure she would have at least remembered his face when they spent a night of intimacy at the rapist
The rest of the day passed smoothly, and the two friends listened to an account of the island’s history directly from King Greyson, most of which Chad was not oblivious to, and Sky was finding difficulty understanding because of his dense nature. Jade involuntarily stared towards Chad’s way, but inhibited herself from further stares when Chad became aware.It didn’t occur to her why Chad’s eyes were a little downcast, though he appeared normal this morning when he arrived at the meeting hall. Jade decided it wasn’t her concern, and she had more worries on her mind to fret about. Greyson had cleared those doubts in her mind and, like he said, it was up to her to decide about her marriage and her discomfort about going on the mission.Other than her, Greyson had nobody he could trust and was capable enough to go on the mission. Because Xima’s eyes and ears were all over the island, he had no choice but to entrust such a severe task to his old friend, and he believed in her. Greyson also
Two days laterJade looked back at the Guard's office as it gradually vanished from sight. She and Chad were in a horse carriage, where Sky, sitting outside on the horse, manoeuvred through the thick woods. The city, also named Tribute, was in the island's heart.Their first destination was Faepool, a village closest to the city. It would take about five days for them to reach Faepool, and in between points of travel, they had to recuperate as much as they could.Before this, Jade had thought of her task as just exterminating evil. But it was her first time encountering these demons which the Shaman had defined as 'hideous creatures of a foreign race, with different colours'. It brought up her memory of the vision she had seen just before she almost drowned in the bath chamber. The Shaman had, like Greyson, kept everything for the last before coming clean to her.A part of her felt betrayed. But she understood they had their reasons for their actions. She had considered Greyson her co
The carriage stopped at an inn located just before the border of Tribute and Faepool, where they stayed for the night, resuming their road trip the next day.It was the first time Jade had stayed at such places even though she had travelled before, but seeing that Chad and Sky had experienced such stays before, she allowed them to make the choice of their rooms.Chad took the lead and selected two spacious rooms on the top floor of the inn. Over the last two days, he took over driving the carriage to allow for some private time between his sworn brother and Jade. He hardened his feelings, recalling the overheard conversation that other day between Jade and the king.It baffled him how she was engaged to someone and had no intention of breaking the arrangement.Her concern that she might not keep herself pure for him, did it mean she had someone on her mind? Was that someone, him or Sky? Although he had that encounter in the bath chamber with her, Jade did also have a heart-to-heart wi
Suddenly, Levi Stanson realised that someone had placed an icy blade to his throat and let out a cold scream. The man hissed, realising the other person present in the room, maddened at how Chad caught him off guard.“Who the hell are you?”Without taking his sword off the man’s throat, Chad smiled handsomely and answered, “I am the Hero of the Night.”Levi Stanson shouted again, but this holler was unique from the one earlier. At his beck and call, Chad could hear footsteps coming from downstairs. A strong tap on Stanson’s shoulder immobilised him. Next, Chad got ready to defend himself from the oncoming party.Chad pulled the covers over Jade to shield her nakedness from further attention. He took on a crouching stance and unsheathed his great sword, unleashing whirlwinds with his melee power. The impact of each whirlwind, released one after another, incapacitated the enemies in no time. One of his martial arts masters assigned to teach him martial arts, Master Jack Wind, had impar