"It has come to the attention of this court that there is one man who has done much for the empire without a title or a specific mandate," the chancellor said, taking his time to push feeling into his speech. The preamble was heading into the short work of fiction territory.

I was holding my breath. I had told them in confidence about how the path worked. If they have it away then it was as good as painting a target on me. I thought back to Earth.

Would a president sentence a man to die by revealing who he was? Would an unappointed dictator do the same?

"This cultivator has done so much for the Ming Empire that he is today being honored with one of the highest honors that our nation can bestow, that of the Jade Pendant. So named because of its illustrious rarity, this shows that one has achieved the height of what a mortal can attain and is the best of us. He will go far and take us further. His efforts have lifted us up as a nation."

At this point I realize that he definitely wasn't talking about me and that I really wasn't sure who he was talking about. There were several cultivators whose level was blocked to me because they were too high for me to measure. They certainly had the measure of me. And then as one man walked up the center of the court I watched and horror as ultraviolet light hit me.

I couldn't say anything. It was very clear that I was going to be one of the next to be called upon and that the chancestor would call people in whatever order he chose. It wasn't for me to say when I was going to come up. But I knew that whoever this man was? The one who was at least one realm higher than me?

He was one of them.

Fuck. How deep did the rabbit hole go?

This man had to be at least a fifth realm cultivator and for all appearances, he was a champion of the court. I knew that corrupt cops got to the top of the pecking order at some point in time, but this?

This was a made man being made better. This was an insider getting those stock chips before they were about to announce a new law. I didn't know his official position or his official title but when the chancellor had droned on about him. I took note.

His name was something like Hei Hei. I knew that I had to double check that because there was a lot of adjectives and adverbs tossed in to compliment whatever humanitarian aid project that he was doing. My victim rehabilitation project was not going to get a mention here if I had anything to say about it.

Better that the Red Fang had no idea that they were being hunted.

Better that the members just went dark and the remaining ones just didn't know.

But the damn man wasn't going to give them better. He was going to stroke his own ego.

"It has come to the attention of this court that we have a man here who has delivered an amazing boon to the Ming Empire. Over one hundred demons have been culled because of this man. I am told that he has achieved this without joining a Sect."

There was a smattering of gasps as a murmur went through the crowd. I was absolutely certain that they were wondering who was about to receive this next honor. Honestly, he was making this feel like they had added extra flourish. They were putting one pound of shit in a ten pound bag.

It still stinks but it is far from full. It was a bit breezy in there.

Mood: stinky but empty.

"For his service to our nation, we name him friend of the court."

I had enough interest of things going on in my life. I needed less of those things. Court intrigue? Hell no. I was wondering if they were going to make me some sort of noble. I did not particularly like that idea. In the grand scheme of things if they were going to throw money at me great. But I was going to hold him do their jobs. Even if they did them terribly, they should probably just find somebody that would do it correctly.

He kept going on and on. Honestly it hadn't really been that much. It had just been the rage that I'd gotten pushed out into the open.

I could feel the target grow as I stepped up to receive the pin. The Golden Lion pendant was pressed onto my chest under the watchful eye of the emperor and the court.

"It isn't just the man or woman who provides service, it is the act of service that makes us all recognize his heroism. Rise and be known by the court," he said.

And so, tentatively, I rose up and stood. I turned to face the court as I had been instructed and waited the required thirty seconds before returning to face the emperor once more. I then knelt.

"Thank you for allowing this one to provide such a service," I said, words that I had rehearsed for two days.

It was enough. It felt like so much bluster and fast talk. I was readily over it and just wanted to go to the part where the aide interviewed me. Apparently, I had gotten stuck with the wrong aide. This one was for ceremonies and official protocol. He was one of a team of dedicated protocol people. There was also an internal investigations team, one the overlapped with the duties of the blue robes.

That was group I needed to speak to at some point in time. There was no standing army here just a group of what had to be overpaid intelligence and security officials.

It took the longest ten seconds of my life to leave the stage and return back to where the protocol guy was. He gave me a look that said that I had done everything right except for one little detail that I would hear no end of for the rest of my days. It was probably how I knelt, honestly. Playing that back again, had I put my right knee down? Or had it been the left?

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Either way I steeled myself for the potentially lethal tongue lashing. It would be unforgiving, but I was ready for it.

"Sir, when you..." He began before I held up a hand.

"I was just awarded something by the emperor himself. Let me have my after glow," I said.

The stone corridor that separated us from the rest of the cord would have been a great place for an ambush. Of course from the very person that I brought me there to begin with. I eyed him cautiously.

"There was a time and a place for such conversations. This is neither the time nor the place. Should you want to continue this conversation, I will be glad to receive you at Western Jewel or wherever the emperor has decided that he needs me to go too. I will be in contact," I said.

"Sir. I must insist," he said.

He put a hand in my arm for the first time in this world, I was up against something that I didn't have an easy answer for. He was going to be absolutely destroyed by whoever was in charge of him later. If he cared this much? It meant that it was actually important.

"If you want therapy, it's going to cost you. And I'm I'm not interested in taking on any more clients. I have someone I can refer you to but my practice is closed right now," I said.

I tried to think about how this was something that I couldn't do much about. If the court was going to sanction him or punish him then that was on them. Their exacting standards for personal contact were just super tiring. I had had enough of people telling me what to do where and when and with whom.

I was choosing my own destiny.

Now why was he looking like he was about to cry or something? Oh yeah he was going to have some problems.

"Hey buddy it's okay," I said. "If your job is that terrible then you need to quit and find another job."

I could tell that he really wanted to cry. It wasn't the first time that a man that I had been in contact held back his emotions. I took a second to jump into a different tactic.

"Hey friends, when we get the big sad, we don't lash out at others. We do not hit others. What we need to do is express our feelings in a positive way. Do you like being hurt? No? I didn't think so. I don't think others like hurting you either."

"The big sad?"

"We can take our emotion and we can turn it into something fun. How about we have a little foot race or something? Then we can get a big wiggles out and we will all be refreshed. Or do you want to try making a big yell?"

For those that are new to gentle parenting, when people are not expecting it, it's hilarious. When people have no idea what their emotions are, even though they wear them on their sleeve? It's enough to make you think. It's like they spent their entire lives masking their emotions to appease society.

He was definitely about to cry.

"You don't need to hide your emotions, friend! All emotions are valid. It's what you do with them that matters."

He finally released my arm. I was torn between telling him that he could talk Egiya or telling him how I really felt.

Honestly, he probably needed both.

I kept walking and he just stood there. Before long, I was far enough that the man would have had to run to catch up to me. When I turned the corner I could feel him realize this.

For a brief second, I thought about making him chase me, but even though he might act like a toddler, he wasn't. I wasn't in the mood to play Chase or hide and seek. I wanted to gloat for at least five seconds and then forget about this whole ffair. I knew that I was going to be talking to somebody else about this extensively far faster than I expected.

And so it was that it took my spot back on the stands to watch the rest of the people that the emperor was honoring on that day. For some reason I thought that I'd be able to talk to him directly. Everything that I've been told at this point mentioned the protocol for actually talking to the emperor but they never said anything about how I was going to talk to him. If I wasn't able to approach him on my own then it was going to be a real question.

If I was going to call on somebody to fly an airship across the continent and meet with me in person, I was going to be sure to dedicate some time to talk to that person. Not that I had such an extensive criminal gang, mind you. If we are running operations in several cities that I might ask somebody to show up once in awhile to receive some product or some bulk tea order. But otherwise, it didn't really make much sense.

It was like announcing a return to the office for field agents. It just didn't make sense.

So much about this didn't make sense unless you knew the background of the courts or the emperor or the people involved. I didn't care to learn all those things. I had an assistant for that entire purpose. She stirred on my shoulder.

"You didn't have to be so hard on him," Min said. " I know you're trying to get past this and I just worry that we're making him a victim when he's not really a victim. He is just as much in charge of his own destiny as you are in. If you're a slave, he's a slave."

"He chose to go work for this protocol office. Everyday he comes in. What are they going to do if he stops coming in? Kill him?"

"They have other ways of making them comply, I imagine."

"Even if they did, could you imagine that? I quit my job and five minutes later they killed me?"

"You're thinking that these are all rational human beings that can't instantly kill somebody with just a thought. This is not that."

"I'm not here to make this guy feel better about himself. For some reason. He chose this life.... Didn't he?"

"But the chances are high that he chose to be part of the game on his own, there's always a chance that this is not true. Therefore messages that we approach him with the idea that he is not here was on the free will and he is being told to do this. This means that we should probably treat him with respect," Min said.

A little bit of gentle parenting talk was not going to be disrespectful.

Especially when it only had the effect of befuddling him. The way that he had my attention in a vice grip though that was problematic. I was going to have to let him go.

I could hear him running up behind me.

"Sir! Sir!" He yelled.

There had to be some sort of sound dampening effect causing him to not be heard by the arena above and around. That worried me. It made someone trying to kill me or him down here even more of a juicy Target. If that demonic cultivator was going to take us out? This was going to be the time. I just had an image of that fifth level or higher cultivator appearing and then then crutching him or deciding that now was the time that he wanted to sip on the guy's neck. I know they weren't literal vampires but still they glittered in my mind.

"Do you think we can do anything with Xiran? The girl that was raised to be a weapon?" I said, casually, trying to change the topic.

"We can treat it like a person can't we?" Min replied. "That's already more than what her family did for her."

"Sir!" The man said.

I held up a hand. I wasn't going to forestall any discussion. I just wanted him to catch his breath. He needed to practice the Dao of running. That and he sounded like his feet were just slapping the white marble floor.

I turned to see the man losing his shit. He was either about to have a coronary heart attack or a stroke.

"Sir! This! Is! Serious!" He whisper yelled. "The court looks on such tiny grievances badly. Small missteps can lead to large problems in the long run."

"All right, let's say I buy with what you're selling. What did I do wrong and how do I fix it? Or do you just want to vent about it?"

It was always a good idea to see if the person that was mad wanted a solution or they just wanted to vent their frustrations. In this case, the man himself wasn't doing much thinking. He was probably not open to anything like that. I didn't want to pry open his can of worms, but the man was clearly ready for something. I just didn't know exactly what it was.