Princess Lunalah’s mind drifted as Ling Wei delivered her briefing on the latest global economic report. They were within her private office as usual, but Lunalah wished she could be anywhere else. The tedium of rule had become burdensome of late and her only reprieve was found within the refuge of her own thoughts and imagination.

Happier days were yet to come.

Of that she was assured.

Days when she would find herself finally betrothed after these long decades of isolation and solitude.

Those days will come, she told herself like a mantra.

But for now, she had to endure Ling Wei’s report.

Lunalah sighed as she droned on about returns and expenditures.

The economy was fairing marginally well despite the lack of treasury funds. The finance minister attributed the uptick due to the long term, residual effects of the tournament. Lunalah wasn’t completely certain if that were true, but she didn’t want to dwell on the topic to spare herself the grief of having to relive the debacle.

It was the main reason why the treasury funds were so low in the first place.

She should never have agreed to support such a venture.

But what was done was done.

“What of the mining commissions?” she asked. “Surely their returns must be of some help.”

“They are,” Ling Wei said. “But production has slowed significantly in the Xiang Xian region due to the labor shortage.”

“What labor shortage?”

Ling Wei paused a moment. “Your majesty does recall the events at Zho Yun village, no?”

The name didn’t register at all. “Remind me.”

“You had to personally intervene due to Warden Tu’loc Rhen’s incompetence. A large number of mortals were killed when you destroyed Zho Yun village. But they also happened to support the main farming industry in the region.”

Lunalah remembered the incident vaguely now.

She had to teach that fool a lesson in ruling.

But still it didn’t make sense.

“What does any of that have to do with mining?”

“The labor force had to be shifted to ensure the populace did not starve that winter, your majesty.”

Lunalah creased her brow. “Who made such a decision?”

“It was a proposal by the Minister of Agriculture, your majesty,” Ling Wei said. “You approved it over a year ago.”

Lunalah harrumphed. “Well surely it is no longer needed now. Have they not recovered?”

“Not in just a year, your majesty.”

“Well, we cannot wait,” Lunalah said. “Send half the workforce in the fields back to the mines. We need money right now, not food.”

Ling Wei bowed. “I will be sure to delivery your edict to the cabinet.”

“Good,” Lunalah said. “What else is there?”

Ling Wei opened her folder and produced an elaborately sealed white envelope. “A special communication from the D’shar system, your majesty.”

“D’shar?” Lunalah snatched the envelope and studied it. “One of the fringe worlds. Why would they be contacting us?”

“No idea, your majesty.”

Lunalah broke the imperial seal on the envelope and began reading the letter within.

My dearest younger half-sister,

I pray this letter finds you and your planet well. I know it has been perhaps some decades since we have seen each other in person, but I trust you recall our meeting within the lower courts during the emperor’s last centennial celebration on Selenus Prime. You had just reached your own first centennial not long before, if I recall.

Be that as it may, I write to you now with a humble request.

I had the extreme pleasure of meeting one of your subjects recently. Your legionnaire tribute, the Iron Bull, rendered his assistance to my planet in a most spectacular fashion. He single-handedly disposed of a rampaging Thrantor that was threatening the sanctity of my domain.

I was most impressed by this valiant act and seek to reward him for his actions.

I realize he is still in duty to you as a tribute, but I wish to enquire whether you would be open to re-patronizing him to my domain thereafter. I would be willing to offer fair compensation of course. I would offer the same for any family he would have join him as well, considering he is currently betrothed.

Or so I understand.

Although I do not wish to rob you of a tribute—and thus would not seek this transaction to take place before the fulfilment of his duty to you—I wish to make my intentions known early so that you can give full consideration in advance.

I have over a dozen granddaughters in need of suitable spouses, and I would think this Iron Bull could satisfy the needs of perhaps two or three of them easily as second, third or even fourth wives. For this reason, I am willing to offer a very fair level of compensation indeed.

I present an opening offer of 500,000 spirit stones for the Iron Bull to repatriate to the planet D’shar where he would serve initially as a royal imperator in the first instant, while he courts my various eligible granddaughters.

This already sizable amount would be open to negotiation of course.

Please consider this seriously as I am keenly interested in adding his lineage to my bloodline.

For the love and respect of our mutual father, who I am sure would support such an offer, I trust that we will come to some agreement.

Sincerely yours,

Your dearest elder sister,

Her Royal Majesty,

First Princess Ul’vera,

Imperial Regent of D’shar and the Greater D’shar territories,

One Hundred and Twelfth heir of the Imperial Yee Dynasty.

Lunalah stared at the letter incredulously as her heart raced.

How in the nine hells had this happened?

A humble request?

Her stomach churned with indignation and contempt.

Her elder half-sister was all but demanding her first fruits.

It was extortion!

“Is everything alright, your majesty?” Ling Wei asked, no doubt seeing the change of countenance on her face.

Lunalah tossed the letter to Ling Wei. “That presumptuous old hag! And to hint at involving our father even? Who does she think she is?!”

“Who your majesty?”

“Read it for yourself,” Lunalah said. “That self-entitled Ul’vera seeks to purchase my Iron Bull from me as if he were livestock!”

Ling Wei studied the letter and her eyes grew wide. “That is a sum that would settle the treasury nicely. You should perhaps consider it, your majesty.”

“What!” Lunalah shouted. “Are you mad? This is proof of how valuable he is. And whose side are you on, anyway?”

Ling Wei immediately bowed. “Apologies, your majesty. I meant no disrespect.”

But Lunalah was barely listening to her now, her mind reeling.

“It was I who patiently cultivated the mortal mongrels of this planet,” she said, more to herself than Ling Wei now. “And now that it has borne fruit, that evil wench seeks to pluck him from me the moment he gains the status worthy to wed a royal?”

The anger within her seethed the more she thought of it.

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How dare she even make such a proposition.

How forward!

And how dare she assume that he would be worthy to marry anyone besides her.

“The Iron Bull belongs to me,” Lunalah said through clenched teeth. “That woman has no right to demand me sell him to her. And for what? To marry one of her granddaughters? The nerve! She has no idea how valuable he truly is. For him to marry her twice diluted, third generation offspring is an insult!”

It was true that Lunalah herself was only a 3rd Princess, being the third born in her family, but she was at lease a true daughter of the great emperor. What Ul’vera was offering held no claim to the throne at all.

“How dare she!” Lunalah slammed her fist upon her desk. “This is why I despise those we left in the lower courts. So presumptuous in their thinking. They would take my finely cultivated pearl and throw it to their swine!”

Ling Wei lowered her head in embarrassment. “This One apologizes for suggesting to accept the offer, your majesty. This One was only thinking of our financial position and not of the larger implications.”

Lunalah huffed out an angry sigh. “It is just as well. You did not know. And besides, the Iron Bull will solve our treasury issues on his own. He will follow through with my order to be the sole survivor of his sortie to the Hell Worlds. He will earn us twice the amount she has offered when he returns home victorious.”

“Yes, your majesty,” Ling Wei said with another bow. “That is true.”

Lunalah eyed Ling Wei warily.

Perhaps it was good that she explained it in a way that made it seem an insult rather than a loss she could not bear. She shared many things with Ling Wei, but revealing her affections for the Iron Bull would be far too premature right now.

“Shall I prepare a letter for you to decline Princess Ul’vera’s offer?”

“No,” Lunalah said. “I shall write it myself. The fair First Princess must learn the folly of making such an underhanded and insulting proposition. I may be but a Third Princess, but I am no fool. I know value and I know when someone is trying to rob me of my treasures.”

“Are you certain, your majesty?” Ling Wei said cautiously. “You would not want to send a letter that might offend too greatly. We could dare afford to kindle the wrath of even a fringe world leader at the moment.”

Lunalah thought on that a moment more.

“I will write it,” she said but then paused. “But I shall send it to you first, so that you might…edit it appropriately. You would perhaps have a far more delicate pen than I, in this matter.”

Ling Wei smiled.

“A wise choice, your majesty.”

* * *

The planet Lu Shui Prime was a heavy world, or so I quickly surmised as the transport skiff landed with me and the rest of my team on board. We were subjected to the full gravity of the core world and while it was nothing compared to Du Gok Bhong, after spending the past five days in the neutral gravity on board the Xing Long, the heaviness was noticeable.

The regular infantry troops onboard with us had a different experience.

I could hear their grunts of exertion as we touched down, but they put up with the extra strain without the slightest hint of complaint.

As the doors to the mammoth craft opened, bright daylight of a cloudless afternoon sky seeped into the stadium sized compartment we were in. I’d been relegated to travelling with Onyx Company along with my team, ousted from the command skiff. It was our punishment for our mini rebellion, it seemed.

But I didn’t mind at all.

It gave us time away from Jei Su Long and his uncle at the very least and I also got to hang with Hein and Captain Yungi some more. But besides being relegated to riding the bus instead of the Rolls-Royce as a means of punishment, there was a practical reason for sending us all to Onyx Company’s drop skiff.

It unfortunately was only half full of troops now due to how many had fallen.

Besides us, the rest of the space was taken up by Princess Ul’vera’s ‘gifts’ to her older sister, the Royal Princess Rheutera of Lu Shui Prime. A cacophony of animal cries filled the hold as no less than two dozen steel cages filled the space with all manner of native wildlife from the planet D’shar.

From exotic birds, to monkey-like creatures, giant lizards and even things that resembled unicorns. But as diverse as they all were, they now shared a commonality.

They were all screaming in pain.

The animals floundered at the bottom of their cages, falling prey to the effects of the heavy world as well. I stared incomprehensibly at the cruelty of it all. What the hell was wrong with these people?

“Why did she send animals?” I shook my head at the struggling creatures. “Didn’t she realize that this would happen to them?”

Captain Yungi slapped me on my shoulder. “It adds to the exoticism, I suppose. These are animals that would never be seen on this world.” He then sighed. “Most will be out of their misery by tomorrow, don’t worry.”

I balked at that. “They’re going to kill them?”

“No son,” Yungi said with a chuckle. “The planet itself will do that. Now come on and muster your troops. We’ll need your team’s strength to offload these.”

With chagrin I got to work and directed my team to assist the infantry companies as we hauled the doubly heavy cages out of the cargo hold and into the open air. As I hefted one corner of a large cage containing a walrus-like animal down the ramp, I got a full view of what had to be the royal capital of Lu Shui Pime.

A castle the size of one of the pagodas loomed above us, its base rising firmly from the ground at what seemed like miles away. We were in a massive courtyard, topped with plush grass and separated by well-manicured hedges. The troop carriers of the other four companies had already disembarked with their platoons on display in parade formation in front of them. The command skiff too was already landed well ahead of us and had the top brass and their aides on display.

We were the last to arrive it seemed and it became our job to not only unload the bleating animals but to also parade them regally before the assembly of what looked like the entire royal family. A huge dais had been erected in the center of the courtyard and upon it were a couple dozen dignitaries all dressed in the finest of robes.

Seated high above them in a throne that was being lifted by a troop of no less than ten servants was the Princess Rheutera herself. From the distance I couldn’t make out many details other than her being blonde and somewhat petite, but she appeared younger than Ul’vera despite her being older, perhaps having reached the Sacred Soul Realm at a much younger age.

It was a reminder that I myself had now slowed in age.

As a Sacred Soul Realm cultivator, I could live decades and not change a bit.

I didn’t want to think about what that meant for the people I loved.

One issue at a time, I reminded myself.

As I brought my platoon to a stop, we finally dropped the large cage in a formation with the others and then stood at attention to the side. The contingent from the command skiff marched forward towards the dais with Governor Tai Su Long leading the charge. Jei Su Long followed after him with General Gong and Captain Li Jeng bringing up the rear.

Tai Su Long performed a deep kowtow before the royal assembly and waited until the princess spoke first.

“You may rise, Governor,” she said. Her voice was soft and youthful but filled with a power that resonated across the massive courtyard that was big enough to fit a couple city blocks easily. “Pray tell what you have presented me with today?”

Tai Su long rose to his feet. “Gifts from your sister, Princess Ul’vera. She shows her gratitude for our assistance on her home world.”

Princess Rheutera then nodded from her throne. “Excellent. I shall perform an inspection. General Gong, welcome home.”

Gong performed a similar kowtow. “A thousand thanks for receiving us, your majesty. It is not often a battalion can return to her home port.”

“And as champions no less,” Rheutera said with a smile. “Are your troops prepared for inspection as well?”

“Indeed, your majesty,” General Gong said.

I was slowly beginning to understand why Tai Su Long had so much pull with the general. The battalion belonged to this system, and perhaps by extension his royal family, seeing as they seemed to own half the place.

The servants carried the throne off the dais and the entourage of dignitaries followed behind her as an extremely slow promenade of the princess began. I let out an involuntary groan as she started with the inspection of every platoon within Gold Company and then proceeded to do the same with the next.

By the time she got to us in Onyx company, a good hour had gone by.

To everyone’s credit, the only sound was that of the whining animals with everyone remaining at attention with razor sharp discipline.

“And now, the best for last,” the princess said with a hint of glee in her voice. She then hopped down from her throne and floated to the ground with a burst of Qi. “I simply adore animals.”

Up close I could see the princess looked even younger than I thought.

She looked in her early teens with long blond hair plaited in a single braid. Her eyes were a vibrant gold that sparkled with delight as she went from cage to cage admiring the beleaguered animals.

It was almost surreal to watch—like a little girl having fun at the zoo, only completely oblivious to the plight of the creatures that were bleating in pain and all for a mere half second of amusement on her part. When she got to my cage, I hid my disdain with [Indifference]. I realized my mistake when she did a double take and furrowed her brow at me.

Damn, I thought. I should have used [Mask of the Despised] instead.

A wry smile came to her lips as she approached me, the top of her head barely reaching my chest.

“You must be the prodigy Legionnaire Commander, my sister Ul’vera spoke of,” she said.

“Uh…yea—” I began to say, but then she quickly cut me off.

“I hear you’re from a world young enough to perhaps be put in one of these cages yourself as a native savage!” Her face then spread wide with a grin. “How droll!”

Before I could even react to what she’d said, she burst out laughing with a cackle that rivaled her sister’s. And with that she moved on to look at the next display.

What the hell…?

She moved on so quickly I didn’t even have enough time to let my anger steep at what she’d said.

Damn it if these people didn’t get more aloof and jacked up the further they went up the food chain, I thought.

After what felt like another hour, Princess Rheutera finally ascended the dais again upon her throne and then stood to address us.

“Members of the 566th battalion and honored legionnaires of the 5073rd campaign,” she said in an elevated voice. “I, Second Princess Rheutera, crown regent of the Lu Shui territories and 98th heir to the imperial throne, greet you in the name of our Great Soul Emperor. To celebrate your visit and your recent victories I shall hold a tournament in your honor. In three days’ time, your fellow soldiers from around the planet will gather to participate. You are all free to participate as well at your various levels of skill. Prizes will be awarded to the winners of their respective brackets. In preparation, I grant you three days shore leave to rest and prepare. Feel free to enjoy the wonders of the capital in that time.”

With that she sat back down and then everyone bowed in a kowtow as she and her entourage departed. It took another good twenty minutes but after they all had left, General Gong took to the front to address us.

“I have only one order,” he said. “Don’t embarrass me. Dismissed!”

* * *

I had to step to the side with qinggong to avoid the stampede of soldiers as they ran to the skiffs to grab their gear and then get the hell out of dodge. I couldn’t blame them. I myself wouldn’t mind a bit of R&R but damn it, I didn’t want to be stuck here for three freaking days or more just to watch some tournament.

The impotence of it all caused my blood to slowly boil.

As if summoned by my Flame, Jei Su Long and his uncle then appeared—the true objects of my contempt. If not for their dumb asses I would have been to the Hell Worlds and back by now. I grimaced and took a wide step to avoid them but Jei Su Long cut me off at the pass.

“Junior commander,” he said. “I have a special task for you.”

What the hell was this now?

“Oh yeah?”

“My uncle will explain.”

I looked to Tai Su Long and had to use [Indifference] to keep from belting the cocky smile off his face.

“You’ve been dubbed a rarity by her majesty,” Tai Su Long said. “For that reason, you shall join the tournament as part of the display for Princess Rheutera. As you are still classified as Gold, I shall select a suitable Gold Ranked opponent for you to challenge from within my sect.”

I eyed Jei Su Long. “Guessing it won’t be you then.”

Anger flared within him as he opened his mouth but Tai Su Long stopped him. “Jei Su Long is still within the Core Realm. You have ascended to the Sacred Soul Realm. Even at low tier you are in a different class… for now.”

“Yes, for now,” Jei Su Long echoed him like a parrot.

“I would use your three days to prepare yourself, Iron Bull,” he said with a grin. “The Sacred Soul Realm Cultivators of my clan are exceptionally skilled.”

“If its all the same to you, you can just go ahead and give them the win,” I said with [Indifference]. “Not looking for some pointless tournament win. We got a war to get to.”

“Oh, you’ll have a war alright,” Tai Su Long said, contempt spilling from his soul. “And it starts three days from now.”

He snapped his fingers, calling Jei Su Long like a dog and the two of them left.

“Stupid assholes,” I muttered.

“That tongue of yours will get you no place fast,” someone said, and I looked behind me to see Hein approaching.

“You see that bullshit?” I said.

“What do you expect?” He gave me a shrug. “I told you they’ll be looking to kill you now.”

I huffed out a sigh.

“Come on,” he said stepping past me. “No sense in worrying about all this now. These are the first three days of shore leave I’ve had in over six months and I’m not going to spend them watching you fume and mope.”

“Where the hell you going?”

“Where all soldiers go when they’re back in civilization.” Hein pointed towards the city. “The Golden Spire.”