“Things were always most troublesome when you had to watch your back as well as your front.” - Old folk saying.
“Or is it time for me to march to the battlefield where I will conveniently be disposed of in the hands of the foreigners? If so, I merely ask that you allow me another day or two to finish the current task at hand first,” said the Eighth Prince to Hua-Jeong as he entered the younger man’s office with a resigned voice. “It is unseemly to leave work unfinished, after all.”
The old general couldn’t help but sigh and shake his head. The Eighth Prince’s suspicion of his intent was completely understandable. Even though Leung Hua-Jeong had refrained from harming the prince in any way, it would only be normal for the young man to be wary of him, given that his life and death was in the old general’s hands.
“No such thing, Your Highness,” said Hua-Jeong as he pulled a chair and seated himself across the table from the much younger man. The Eighth Prince just turned twenty-four earlier that year, and was so young that Hua-Jeong had grandchildren close to his age. Perhaps he couldn’t help making the comparison in his mind which was why he was partial to the young prince. “I came here because the northern detachment faced a serious setback.”
“Are you sure you should be discussing about that with me?” asked Murad with a raised eyebrow at the unexpected response from the old general. The young prince was prepared for the worst – had been since he boarded the ship that brought him to this distant land – but had not expected to find sympathetic souls instead.
“It doesn’t matter,” said the old general as he sighed audibly and leaned back further into his seat. “If things ended up badly enough, Your Highness might get what you asked for earlier when our foes reach this place anyway, but if things went well, Your Highness wouldn’t notice any change to your life and work. One way or another, it’s not like what Your Highness thought about it could change the situation.”
“I do beg your pardon, but it is simply the tokens we had been given to play,” added the old general as he shook his head. “All we can do now is to play them in the best way that we can. My own hands are tied on this matter, even if I do sympathize with Your Highness’ present situation. Perhaps when this is all over and this new land becomes our Empire’s territory Your Highness could retire here and live in peace and quiet.”
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“It would be nice if elder brother would allow that,” said Murad as he sighed in turn. The young prince had suffered and labored under his brother the Emperor’s paranoia for years by then, and had lost hope that he could return to the close relationship he used to have with him. He had gone through quite a lot of things to try to prove that he was no threat, all to no avail. “I don’t think I’m that lucky, though.”
“Think of it as this old man’s whimsical thought, then, Your Highness,” said the old general from across the table. “This humble servant will soon leave again to lead our forces against our foes. Taouan managed to get herself and most of the detachment’s command staff killed, if the reports I received were true. I had not expected that out of her.”
“Da Jiangjun Taouan might be completely my brother’s creature to the bone and not the sharpest chisel in the shed, but I do not believe her to be incompetent, no?” asked the young prince with the first sign of curiosity he showed in the conversation thus far. “I know my brother well enough to know that even if someone licks his boots and pleases him, they still need some competency to go high in rank.”
“She is prone to arrogance, yes, but as a general she gets things done, even if the method used might be appalling to some others,” replied the old general. “She is also quite fond of her head, so the news that she had been killed in her tent by an assassin is quite surprising. That meant our foes possessed skilled enough assassins who could slip past our sentries and guards.”
“That… is an unpleasant thought indeed…” admitted the young prince, now with actual worry reflected in his features. He rummaged for a moment inside one of the drawers of his table and brought out a wooden box about the size of his palm and brought out a preserved confection of sorts from inside it. The Eighth Prince had a habit since young to nibble on snacks when he was nervous and worried.
“Would you like one?” he asked as he proffered the box of confections to the old general.
“Since Your Highness is kind enough to offer…” said Hua-Jeong after a moment as he daintily took one of the flower-patterned confections from the box. The confections were a rare treat usually only enjoyed by the high nobility and those favored by the Imperial family and he had only tasted it a few times in the past. Naturally he was not about to turn down the offer.
It was a sort of spiced cookie that had been deep-fried in fragrant oil extracted from certain flowers, then soaked for a day in honey. The honey was what allowed them to be preserved for long periods without any real degradation to their taste and texture, and the sweet flavor played as a canvas to the taste of various spices mixed into the dough. It crumbled on the tongue with just some gentle pressure and almost made the old general sigh with pleasure at the taste.
Both the old and the young welcomed the silence as they quietly chewed on the rare snack and appreciated it fully, allowing them to take their minds off more troublesome worldly matters that had frustrated them. At least for the time being, that was. Both were all too aware that they would have to deal with those matters sooner rather than later, and so cherished the moment of peace and contemplation they had.