Unintended Cultivator

V13 Chapter 19 – Good Company

The nobles exchanged brief looks before the handsome, older man directed a look of pure disdain at the others. With a scoff, he addressed them.

“I can’t believe that you are the peers I’ve been deemed worthy to stand with. I’ll go first, Lord Lu. Perhaps it will shake the rest from their cowardice.”

That drew several angry looks that the man completely ignored. He stepped forward, knelt, and began offering a very comprehensive vow of allegiance to the Lu family. Sen kept his expression neutral, but he was watching for any sign that the heavens accepted the vow. There was nothing, save for a brief glimmer that might well have been in Sen’s imagination. Even so, he didn’t think the man was lying. With that task accomplished, the man rose. Sen lifted an eyebrow. It wasn’t polite to rise without being told to do so. The man met his gaze evenly.

“What? I’ve sworn my allegiance, and before the heavens, at that. But let’s not pretend as though we actually respect each other. You’re a conqueror, and I have been conquered. I despise you. You don’t trust me. Nothing will change that. Certainly not standing on formality.”

“Aren’t you worried that you’ll offend me?”

“If you were going to execute us because we offended your pride, I suspect we’d all be dead already. You spared us because you found us the least offensive options, and because you know what kind of chaos would ensue if there were no nobles left.”

Sen considered the noble for a moment. He was sharp enough to understand the unspoken reason Sen had left some of them alive. Eliminating every noble would create as many problems as it solved. By leaving some of them, there was a sense of continuity for the common people. It would make them less likely to try to rise up in a pointless rebellion against the people he left here to actually run things.

“Is that all?” asked Sen, more curious than anything else.

“You’re not insane. Ruthless and brutal, perhaps, but not insane. Executing someone after they make a vow like that would be insane.”

Sen nodded and said, “I suppose it would. Not everyone will be as tolerant as I am, though. I suggest you curb your disdain in the future. At least, while you’re in public.”

The noble frowned slightly before he let his eyes travel the room. He noticed the absolutely venomous glares he was receiving from Sen’s honor guard. Even the generals, not Sen’s biggest advocates in normal circumstances, were shooting the noble hostile looks. The handsome man cleared his throat.

“I take your meaning, Lord Lu. I will be more—” he hesitated as he looked for the right word. “I will be more cognizant in the future.”

“That would be for the best, I’m sure,” answered Sen.

“Am I free to go?”

Sen considered making the man wait while the others gave their vows, but he decided that would be pointlessly petty. He waved the man to leave before turning his gaze on the rest of the nobles.

“Well, who’s next?”

One by one, they came up and made essentially the same vow as the first man. There was no indication that the heavens were paying attention, so he had to rely on his own intuition. That intuition told him that the people in front of him were either too honest or too frightened break the vows they were giving. What surprised him was that the matronly noble woman waited to go last. After giving her vow, she gave him an opaque look. He returned a flat stare.

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“You want something,” he said, rather than asked.

“Am I so obvious?”

“You and that one who went first are clearly the leaders among the remaining nobles. Mostly based on force of personality, unless I miss my guess. It would have been advantageous for you to go first. I even expected it since it would have strengthened your position as the leader. Maybe not as valuable as it used to be, but it’s still worth something. Barring that, going second would have solidified your position as a leader in their minds. The only reason to give up that future advantage is if you care about something else even more. Hence, you want something.”

The woman frowned a little at his explanation. He couldn’t tell if she was unhappy that he’d correctly guessed her intentions or if it was something else. Not that this had been a particularly difficult problem to solve. He was much less adept at deciphering the verbal double-speak that most nobles seemed inclined to use. Then again, he supposed he’d never really tried. He far preferred to cut straight to the denial of whatever selfish whim they wanted granted. It saved so much time. Smoothing her features, she nodded.

“I do.”

“And what is it that you want?”

“Zhou Yinuo.”

Sen gave her a blank look for several seconds before he was forced to ask, “Who?”

That drew a startled look from the woman. She seemed so taken aback that it took her several moments to formulate an answer.

“Zhou Yinuo,” she repeated. “The woman you stripped of rank earlier. I’d like you to reconsider.”

“Oh. Her. And what possible reason could you give me to do that?”

“She is young, Lord Lu.”

“So are the men and women in my army. Many of whom died fighting the battles you’ve all been ignoring. She’ll be in good company.”

“I mean that she came into her position young because both her parents died.”

“Died, or were assassinated?” asked Sen, at least momentarily interested.

“Probably the latter.”

“Tragic, perhaps, but it doesn’t excuse her. You heard the things she was screaming as she got dragged out of here. I’m sure you recall the threats to have my people murdered for daring to touch her. I’m inclined to believe that is her true character, and I have no use for someone like that.”

The matronly woman winced, unable to outright deny things the younger noble had screamed for all to hear. However, she didn’t give up.

“She needs guidance, Lord Lu, not a death sentence in your army.”

Sen studied the woman for most of a minute.

“You’re far too invested for it to just be about gaining an ally for some future scheme,” Sen finally said. “Tell me why you want this so badly. The truth, if you please.”

“She’s my niece,” said the woman. “Her mother was my younger sister.”

Sen drummed his fingers on the arm of the throne while he thought it over. He understood now why she wanted it, but that didn’t make it a good idea. He believed that the younger woman was the exact type of noble who thought that commoners existed solely to serve her whims. Leaving someone like that in a position of any authority didn’t sit well with him. Not when he was going to march away and maybe not ever return, or only return many years into the future. Of course, the woman asking for the favor was going to be someone with real influence in this city in the future. Alienating her before they even got started could have a lot of unintended consequences for him. Just because she might not act directly against him, it didn’t make her powerless to hinder things he wanted done.

“I see why you want me to reconsider,” said Sen. “I can even respect it. Family is important. Yet, I see little of true value in this for me. What seems far more likely is that she’ll become a source of endless problems for the people I leave in charge here. Why should I inflict those problems on them, when the most likely outcome is that they will have to execute her in my place?”

“You don’t believe that people can change?” asked the woman, sounding a little desperate.

“I believe that they can change. However, in my experience, people don’t change. Particularly when they have no deeply compelling reason to change. If I grant your request, she’ll have suffered no consequences, aside from being briefly inconvenienced. That means she’ll have no motive to change.”

The matronly woman stood there, almost motionless, before she finally broke the silence.

“In that case, Lord Lu, I have a proposal for you.”