Chapter 12: The Ultimatum

Wei’s burning question died when a dismembered corpse was dragged right in front of him, the imperial guard dragging it looked like he would rather be doing anything other than corpse clean up duty. Since Wei had been paying attention to the king and the leader of the enforcers he had missed most of the cleanup being done by the imperial guards.

There were large pools of blood, the only evidence of the massacre that had just occurred. The pristine floor of the throne was covered in streaks from the many bodies that had been dragged and disposed of ‘somewhere’.

The sight of bodies being callously dragged like trash woke Wei up from his reverie. Well, that would have ended badly. Standing out from the crowd today, after what just happened is not a good idea. Wei reaffirmed his decision in thinking twice before doing or saying something life threatening, ever. Now that the massacre was over all of the loyalists started slowly moving away from each other. No one wanted to admit how scared they had been, so naturally they acted like nothing had happened.

The surviving nobles and merchants faced the king with slouched postures and stiff faces. Originally, they planned on using the elimination of the high council to replace them and gain even more power, now that plan was seeming very unlikely. The entire throne room was silent everyone was waiting – for whatever the king would do next.

King Chen An got off of his throne and came down the steps two at a time face beaming like a happy child. His face seemed to have regained some of its youth and his eyes shone with vigor. “Finally, those who plotted against me and my kingdom have been vanquished, moving forward everything will be better. The Kingdom of Chen will prosper and all within it will also prosper. This I promise you,” the king said his voice barely containing his glee.

“However, I absolutely will never ever tolerate traitors. They are a disease, a rot that infests everything they touch. They are backstabbers and the type of people I hate the most,” he continued his visage becoming grim, his voice filled with venom. “I will NOT have traitors in my court, no matter how insignificant, treachery is still treachery and treason is still treason.

In my kingdom, there is only one end for traitors. Death. The only thing traitors deserve.” He shouted eyes full of something malicious and quite mad. “Is that understood?” he asked looking to the remaining nobles and merchants who were ‘loyal’. Stammers and panicked yells of acknowledgement filled the room as everyone strove to be the first to pledge their never-ending loyalty to Chen An.

Wei watched all of this, pretending to mouth allegiances of loyalty while still observing the king. What will he do know? From the looks of him he has no intention of letting this end here. Another major flaw of his, he never knows when to stop. People like him usually end up with horrible endings. But lo and behold he is a king! How wonderful for him and how shitty for his subjects. I’m really tired of standing here waiting in suspense for whatever idea the king is thinking up right now. I should’ve just left with Lady Seer.

With a tired sigh Wei fought off his exhaustion and resisted the urge to go sit on one of the very inviting and comfortable looking chairs. The king paced around the throne room stroking his beard, appearing to be deep in thought. Suddenly he stopped midstride and straightened his back. Quickly he scanned the crowd of loyalists looking hard for something. Finally, he seemed to give up, still scanning but not as attentively as before King Chen called out “Chen Ming, Chen Ping, Chen Zi. What are you waiting for? Hurry up and come here.”

Immediately the three princes emerged from the crowd not even glancing at each other, without a word they stood behind their father. Seeing his sons behind him a huge smile appeared on the king’s face. “The royal family of Chen are the rightful rulers of Chen, I expect all of you to show true loyalty to my family as befits its station as the rulers and protectors of the kingdom. Will that be a problem?” he asked in a genial voice.

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The throne room once more was full of profuse acknowledgments of loyalty raising a loud ruckus and causing Wei to smile in amusement. I’ve never seen such insincere ass-kissing in my life. But it is funny to watch. His slight amusement was snuffed out very quickly when he saw the knowing smile on the third prince Chen Zi’s face. It was a knowing smile, smug in the face of the loyalists’ ignorance.

“I’m very happy to see how loyal and thoughtful you all are. It sets my heart at ease knowing I have all of you to help and support me, as we all endeavor to raise the Kingdom of Chen to its rightful place at the top of our continent,” he said smiling widely. Hearing this the loyalists started to relax, all around Wei could see people regaining their composure, some put on apathetic faces while others showed their relief plainly, grinning happily and sighing in relief.

“However,” the king interrupted their rejoicing. “Words are well and good, but at the end of the day they are simply words. Without the conviction and determination to prove them true they are useless! So today, my loyal subject you will demonstrate your loyalty without empty promises, instead you will do so with irrefutable actions!”

Wei felt a strong sense of unease what could he possibly be getting at. The surrounding noble’s and merchants seemed to share his unease, finally someone from amidst the crowd quickly questioned “what actions?” The question echoed out in the throne room seeming to convey what everyone was thinking at the moment. Even the enforcers had slightly curious look on their faces. So, this part is obviously unscripted if even the enforcers don’t know about it. So only the royal family does? Wait a minute! The first and third prince seem to be in the know but what about the second prince. Why is he not even paying attention?

The second prince of Chen stood silently his features obscured by his long hair. He stood as still as a statue and was the only member of the royal family who carried a weapon. A longsword with a beautiful green sheath was strapped to his back.

 The second prince of Chen was a figure clouded in mystery. The crown prince’s position for the throne seemed secure but Wei had heard whispers in the gambling dens that the second prince was dangerously influential and that he may one day wind up taking the throne, even with the evident animosity between him and the rest of the royal family.

Wei stopped paying attention to the seemingly daydreaming second prince and refocused instead on the king, but not before briefly flicking his gaze towards the crown prince whose eyes were closed – seemingly in concentration and the third prince who still had the same annoying smug smile on his face.

“The action you need to prove your sincerity is simple, kneel down on both knees and acknowledge your eternal allegiance to the royal family. That is all.” The king words immediately silenced the entire room. Every single person was shocked by the exaggerated nature of the king’s loyalty test. Why was it such an exaggerated test? The king truly lived up to his title the ‘bold’. No one else would have thought of such a plan after just having massacred a bunch of his enemies. Most had expected him to be more open to negotiation after the council members were killed. They were wrong, dead wrong!

Here and now the King wanted to clearly gain complete control of the court. So that  no other ‘council’ could ever emerge again.

A few people clearly resigned themselves to death knowing that they would never kneel to another mortal regardless of whether they were king or not. While the minority prepared themselves to die the majority of the loyalists prepared to kneel down.

It didn’t matter that it was humiliating or that it was unprecedented. All that mattered was there choice and many of the loyalists wanted to live. As Wei watched the people resigning themselves to either dying or humiliating themselves he felt rather sad. Whether it was due to personal choice or just a coincidence everyone in the throne was having their fate tied to that of Chen An in some way. Whether it was due to pride, cowardice or just self-preservation everyone was forced into making one of two decisions on this day. But I won’t be!

Again, many people are suffering due to the whims of one man. I know that this an occurrence everywhere. Those with power rule those without.

It still doesn’t stop me from feeling sad or my heart from aching. Without the mental coin could I too have been so easily trapped in a corner.

Everyone wants to live. It is human nature nevertheless I have no intention of either dying due to pride or living in humiliation. I have something none of them do, mental qi!

And with it I will leave this room with both pride and life intact.

Because my fate is my own. And no one can force me to choose between two shitty choices.