Chapter 102
House Arrest
“Bwuh - ?!”
Connie struck her head on something hard and cold.
She placed her hands on the surface of the material and felt that it was rough. She tried to move her body but all it could do was twitch. After a while she managed to gain enough control for her to finally raise her head.
Disoriented, she looked at her hand and wondered.
“Did…I die?”
“Close, but not quite.”
Connie turned to the direction of the speaker and saw Tian Gu squatting before his field, leisurely pulling a perfectly white radish from the ground.
“Cutting your own tail to escape,” he said as he put his radish into a woven basket. “Just like a lizard.”
Tian Gu carried the basket on his shoulder then put it aside as he stepped over the stone steps of the gazebo. He then sat opposite her and poured two cups of tea from the kettle.
“We shouldn’t have met this soon,” he said while raising a cup to his lips. “Not like this.”
Connie stared at the steaming cup of tea. Her face reflected on the surface stared back at her accusingly.
“I made a mistake.”
“You could have run.”
“I could, perhaps. But the other two could not. The man wouldn’t hesitate to kill either of them.”
Tian Gu sipped his tea and placed his empty cup on the table gently. “Then you should have sacrificed them.”
Connie was silent for a few moments, digesting the words that the man before her had said. Her expression changed quickly to a deep frown. “…are you serious?”
“I am,” Tian Gu said bluntly.
“You…” Connie raised her head to look into his eyes for the first time after looking down for so long. Her eyebrows narrowed the moment their gaze met. Tian Gu’s atmosphere was different from their last meeting. There was a pervading sense of somberness in his action and a sense of detachment in his tone.
Tian Gu then continued. “She is not Fei. And the boy? A promise to dead men. They are just stray things you picked up on a whim. The Path is lonely and arduous. And they are nothing but a distraction.”
Connie gritted her teeth. “…yes, I know! She is not Fei. She can never be!” she shouted at him. Then she continued, her voice halting and softer. “But she…is still important to me.”
“One day, that softness will be the death of you. Just as it had done once before.”
Connie did not reply to this statement, knowing full well that the man was right. Even
“You could have avoided all of this if you have just let things go from the start.”
“And not taking revenge for what he did to me and my companions? You must be joking. Doing that would be betraying myself. Betraying my Dao! Our Dao! Or have you started to forget what it means to be Wang Tian Gu??”
Tian Gu tapped his fingers on the table. “And you? You are too focused on helping your disciples that you neglected your own cultivation.”
“Ugh,” Connie grimaced. She had been trying to find clues about how to breakthrough with what information she had available. But having more than 80 percent of what she knew about breaking through becoming moot in this new world was not making it easy.
Tian Gu shook his head. “Whatever you do, the fact remains…that you must grow stronger. And quick.”
“What do you mean?”
He took out his pipe and took a short drag, puffing out a small cloud. “Our Karma, Connie. The accursed tapestry of fate woven by the threads of Wang Tian Gu’s deeds. We are bound by it. Defined by it. Even in this new world, we cannot escape it.”
Connie looked at Tian Gu, whose white long brows were still even as he spoke of such warning. “Your act of defying fate, Connie, has started to send ripples in the higher realm.”
“Don’t speak in riddles, Tian Gu. Speak straight,” Connie said, having an inkling of what he meant.
“…there are only a handful of Unrestrained in the world. What is the likelihood that you crossed path with one? Even if it was only a candidate?”
“You mean…the Heavens?”
“Perhaps. Or perhaps you are simply unlucky. Only the Heavens know.”
Tian Gu turned his pipe upside down and tapped on it, letting the ashes fall to the ground. “But my warning remains. The Heavens do not look kindly upon those who seek to bring unrest in their foolish system. Just like always, they will try to snuff you out.”
“…You act as if it doesn’t concern you.”
“Perhaps I have been alone for too long,” the man chuckled. “But I still say that having others by your side are nothing but distractions.”
“Again, you say this. I have no intention of sacrificing any of my companions. We are Heretics, but we have bottom lines!”
Tian Gu sighed. “…There are threats in that world far more dangerous than even those who have reached the pinnacle. Things that are not meant to be comprehended.”
“And when you do meet any one of them. Run. Even if you have to abandon those you cared about.”
“What are you talking about?”
The old man with the white majestic beard smiled cryptically. “By the way, you really need to wake up now. Or you’ll really die.”
He waved his pipe and bright light began to envelop Connie’s body.
“Wait. What do you – “
He minded the vanishing Connie no more and returned to the field. As he did, he looked towards the sky. His eyes gazed at a certain point in the sky, a star that could be seen even at such a bright afternoon.
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“Yes…” he mumbled. “We cannot fight them, those…things that should not exist.”
He placed one hand on his chest and felt his heart thump. And as it did, his whole realm trembled.
“So to that end…we must become…more.”
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“Ergh…”
Connie slowly opened her eyes and was greeted by a blinding light coming from an unfamiliar window. Slowly she tried to move her arms, but they felt stiff and wrong. She gently raised her arms and winced at the slight sting she experienced as she did so. Only then did she notice that they were bound with white cloths with two pieces of plank on either side.
“Oh…yeah, I broke my arms.”
Suddenly, something small and wriggly fell onto her face.
“Ow! Yao-er!”
She then heard quick steps coming towards her and saw Illumca, Martell, and Kim piling over each other trying to enter the room.
“Connie!” Illumca threw herself to her, which elicited a deep and painful groan on Connie’s part.
“Be careful! She’s still healing!” Kim said. She stepped beside her and started looking over her.
While she did so, Connie sidled upward so she could have a more comfortable sitting posture, then asked.
“What happened? And where is this?”
The three looked at each other. Martell shook his head and said. “I will explain, Mistress. But… this might not be nice to hear. First of all, though…we are all under house arrest. And we are to stand trial on the crime of murdering the Hero of Vorzenny.”
“Figures,” Connie groaned. “…tell me everything.”
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They then explained to her what happened after she passed out.
The moment she used her Technique, Chen quickly enveloped them with her body, keeping them safe from the deadly poison she emitted. But Chen’s body did not take air into account and they passed out from lack of air.
They woke up a few hours later, being escorted by a platoon of the White Lion’s finest. Led by Klein, their Captain. It seemed that after their parting with Illumca and Akula, Akira had found the dutiful man and pleaded the Commander to help Connie. Though it took some time, they managed to leave not long after towards Zelbes Forest.
On the way, they found Akula, barely hanging on with spear still on her hand.
As they searched the forest, they managed to find the wounded Nick and Kasheem. Nick asked them to help look for Connie and the rest, but when one of the Knights found the corpse of the Hero, they were put into their custody. They found Connie, Illumca, and Martell after following the trails of utter destruction left by Sergios’s Skills.
“Wait,” Connie spoke. “Did the Knights not…experience any sickness? I used enough to cover a small town block.”
“Well, some of them did fall sick and threw up all over, but it didn’t get any worse than that.”
Connie looked at the guilty-looking slime hiding by the corner of the door sheepishly. “You ate them, didn’t you? You greedy little thing.”
“You…really do use poison…” Kim said. “I thought you were just joking.”
“Oh, you don’t have to worry about that,” Connie smiled disarmingly. “I won’t use it on a friend.”
“I…don't agree with the use of poison, but seeing what can happen to a man here, it’s not for me to judge. Especially after that vile Yuuji…” she shuddered. Even knowing that the man was dead, her fear and disgust at the mention of that name still haunted her.
Connie nodded encouragingly and opened her palm, which Kim gingerly took, afraid of aggravating her still-healing arm.
“So, anyway. When they found you, you were being held together by something like silk threads. Staunching the bleeding from your numerous wounds. If not for those, you’d die of blood loss,” she continued. “In my capacity as a medic, I offered myself to take care of you with the help of some healers. You had numerous lacerations and cuts on your chest and arms, broken ribs, fractured and broken Ulna and Humerus…”
“What?”
“That’s the…uh, forearm bones…Wait a minute, I’m trying to think of general terms for them.”
“Short version please,” Connie said.
“I had to place your arms in a splint and waited for the bones to heal,” Kim sighed exasperatedly. “But your bones…they heal too fast. By my predictions with the condition your arms were in, it should have taken at least two weeks even with the Healing Magic we have, for you to heal. But three days. Three Dyas and you are already halfway healed.”
“That’s Cultivation and Body Tempering for you.”
“Geez, you Cultivators live too dangerously…” Kim then continued, her eyes slightly looked down.
“Some of the wounds will leave scars, unfortunately. I had to close the wounds with some stitches.”
“That’s fine. Scars add some character.”
They then told her how initially Prince Mikael and Duke Gladstone’s faction wanted to put them in the dungeon, but under the reason of her bloodline, the King ordered that she was to be put under house arrest instead. Along with her accomplices.
Kasheem, being a subject of the Red Prince, was supposed to be put under the Red Prince’s custody. But the man insisted that he did it without the knowledge of the Red Prince and asked to be put in the dungeon instead as an individual.
“A loyal man. A loyal man indeed. Truly, the Red Prince is lucky to have such good men under his wings,” Connie nodded appreciatively. “On the other hand. Our Kingdom, heh.”
Then three knocks came from the door and in came a plain-looking maid.
“Excuse me, Milady,” she said flatly. “I am here to say that lunch is ready.”
Without waiting for acknowledgment, the maid left. There was no sign of respect from her. As if she was looking at a commoner.
“That’s Hilde. One of the two maids sent from the castle to take care of us. However, everyone knows that she’s here to monitor us,” Martell said.
“I bet the news that you’re awake will reach the King’s ears by tomorrow. We should be ready for things to get worse now.”
Connie let out a small smile. “Well, no one said that life is ever fair.”
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That night, inside the mansion of Prince Elhart, the rotund man was partaking of a particularly delightful plate of honeyed fruit while listening to the report a woman that looked suspiciously like the maid assigned to monitor Connie and her party.
“So, the treasonous criminal had finally awoken,” The Prince said as he crushed a handful of fresh rose petals over his wine. “Ah, but killing a Hero? The audacity of the act alone is astounding. Yet to have no fear after being ordered to stand trial in front of the King? That takes some balls.”
“…”
“Why so silent, my dear?”
“…I do not get this,” Connie’s aunt caressed her glass of wine with a deep frown. “For what reason did she kill the Hero of Vorzenny? Is she not afraid of the repercussion? She had to be a fool to not understand the implication!”
“That or she is confident of being able to escape whatever punishment coming her way.”
“You think too highly of the girl. She is nothing but a cub who has not learned the ways of the world. The mess she is making right now is big. So big that it might end with her death.”
The man raised a greasy eyebrow. “Oh, is that statement of worry I heard? How rare coming from you.”
“Despite how useless she is, that girl is still my niece and the last of the Steelheart House.”
“Useless? Hah!! She killed a Hero! A man blessed with a ‘Cheat’! If she is useless then most of the world is useless,” the man guffawed and his triple chin shook as he did.
“She did not do it alone.”
“Heheh…You are so obstinate.”
The woman tapped her fingers a few times on the table, seeming to be contemplating something.
Prince Elhart snapped his finger and his trusted butler came forward bearing scented paper and a bottle of ink, as if he knew what the man wanted to do from the start. He wrote his orders on it and handed it to the Butler, who retreated silently.
“What did you tell him to do?”
“I told Huber to supply Lady Cornelia and her friends with the best food and drink while they are on house arrest, along with some of my best bottles of wines. And then to send them to her with my regards.”
“Elhart! they are on house arrest. The King would not approve.”
“Hah! And when has that ever stopped me?” the hedonistic Prince drank his wine and dabbed his chin with a fine white napkin.
“…why are you doing this? I thought she is beneath your notice.”
The man picked a piece of pear dripping with honey and shavings of ginger, gave it an appreciative nod before popping it into his mouth.
“Let’s say that I have a friend,” he said as he chewed. “An Earl whose family had fallen on hard times.”
“They managed to scrounge up some money to buy their eldest daughter a beautiful dress for a Ball. The girl had been looking forward to a chance to mingle with the crème de la crème of the High Society. A momentous occasion that she would remember for the rest of her day. To see three Heroes with her own eyes. And perhaps entering the circle of the young Princess-to-be.”
“Alas, on that night which was supposed to be the happiest day of that girl’s life, her maidenhood was stolen from her. After that, the girl went mad and screamed for a certain Hero’s name day and night,” the man spoke of this horrid event as if reciting a formal letter, and not a tragedy. “The event destroyed a decently happy engagement with a childhood sweetheart who she had spent years with and promised their lives to each other.”
“And that friend, knowing that he could not demand justice from the other party because he is a Hero, fell into despair and hung himself.”
“And said Hero has now been sent to Sud-Ghazid.”
Prince Elhart wiped his honey-covered fingers with his napkin and took another swig of his rose scented wine. “And for that, I think I owe your niece a few good meals.”