Unintended Cultivator

V13 Chapter 20 – That Man

Zhou Yinuo stared at the wall. That was all there was to do in the room where those damnable soldiers had put her. They had ordered the castle servants to empty out everything else. The only dignity her guards had allowed her was the chair she was sitting in. She wanted to seethe, but every time she started to work up to it, a voice from her memory punctured her righteous indignation.

“Yinuo,” said her aunt, her matronly face kind but stern, “you are a noble. Not only that, you are the head of your house. Mistakes that others your age would be forgiven for will ruin you. That is why you must always consider your words before you speak them.”

She’d gotten in trouble before by not thinking before she spoke, but it had never mattered like this before. The queen had been harsh, but even she had forgiven Yinuo’s occasional thoughtless outbursts. The other nobles treated it like something they dearly hoped she would grow out of one day. They were nothing like that man had been. She’d had dealings with cultivators before, so she thought she understood them. As much as any mortal could understand the minds of quasi-immortals who treated death so casually.

In truth, cultivators frightened her. She’d been shielded from some of their excesses by her position. Not that cultivators truly cared about mortal nobility. But they did seem to think that dealing with the fallout from abusing a noble simply wasn’t worth the effort. Not unless the noble did something truly inexcusable. That was why she, like every other noble she knew, worked very hard not to do anything a cultivator would see as inexcusable. Until today. She’d spoken without thinking, and that man had not forgiven her ill-considered outburst. He’d simply stripped her of everything and commanded that she serve in the army.

There hadn’t even been any obvious malice to it. That almost made it worse. If he’d been enraged by her, that punishment would not have come as a surprise. He had been calm. He’d been so very calm. Indifferent. As though her life and her future meant nothing to him.

“And it probably doesn’t,” she admitted out loud. “I doubt he’ll even remember me tomorrow.”

If that wasn’t a sure sign that he considered himself an emperor in fact as well as word, she wasn’t sure what was. Only an emperor could destroy with such nonchalant disregard. And only an emperor wielded the kind of authority to make that offhanded comment her new reality. Not that any of that changed the fact that she was about to be sent to war. That prospect terrified her. She’d seen the invading soldiers in town. They were frightening, too. Not the way cultivators were with their gazes always fixed on ascension. Those men and even women had a look to them. They were hard, harder than steel, and honed to an edge so fine that one might cut themselves if they wandered too close.

Yinuo didn’t allow herself to be deceived by their politeness. It was clear that they had been ordered to behave politely by that man. It was equally clear that they had seen things and endured things about which she knew nothing. Things she was quite certain that she didn’t want to know about. But that was her future. Right now, everyone in her house was being rounded up. A few servants out on errands might escape the noose, but most of them were about to be conscripted. An action that would almost certainly lead to their deaths. A punishment delivered not because of anything they had done, but for a mistake she had made. Thoughtless words directed a man who saw anything less than total subjugation as a half-measure.

She had condemned them.

That was the part that she couldn’t stand. That man had painted everyone attached to her house with the same brush of guilt. Then, he handed down what could only be seen as a universal death sentence because she hadn’t thought about her words. She couldn’t help but wonder if this wouldn’t have happened if others had been less forgiving of her mistakes in the past. Then again, maybe it wouldn’t have happened if she’d been less reliant on their forgiveness and worked harder to think before she spoke. Now, she’d have to face all of those people she had consigned to share her fate. And she didn’t know what she’d say. She wasn’t even sure that there was anything to say to the people she’d doomed.

Of course, that thought made her angry all over again. How dare he treat her like…like…Like some kind of commoner, supplied a part of her mind that sounded suspiciously like her aunt. Yinuo almost snarled at the thought, but it wasn’t a lie. She did think she was different from commoners, and she was! She was a noble! That didn’t mean she mistreated commoners, but pretending they were the same was ridiculous. Her family could trace its noble heritage back for centuries. She was better than those commoners. Wasn’t she?

If one man’s word could make her a commoner, though, had there ever really been a difference? For all she knew, that man saw all mortals as functionally the same. Considering the power he was reported to have, maybe they all did look the same to him. Pitiful things living out fleeting existences. Creatures that lacked any importance and were, therefore, disposable. That idea made her shudder. Had she treated commoners that way? Of course, she hadn’t. At least, she didn’t think she had. But would she know? Who would have told her? Well, that man had, in a way, when she’d been spared from the initial purge of nobles. She’d had to think about it, though. Something occurred to her then.

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“I never even tried to get him to spare the rest of my house. He might not have listened, but I could have tried. I should have tried. The blame was mine. They shouldn’t have to die because of me.”

If she had it to do again, she would beg his lenience for them, even if he had none for her. It was hard to know what was truth and what was fiction where that man was concerned. Some stories said he was merciful. There were even stories that he had taken a mortal child under his protection. Of course, there were just as many stories of his wrath and the terrible vengeance he had taken on his enemies. The truth was, no doubt, mixed into those tales somewhere, but she lacked any way to know. As her thoughts threatened to circle back around to self-recrimination, she heard voices outside the room.

This is it, she thought. They’re going to take me to the army now. I wonder if they’ll make me fight. She didn’t give herself good odds of surviving that. She’d learned to handle a sword, but that had been more to fight duels if it couldn’t be avoided. She suspected that fighting spirit beasts in a war would prove very different. She stood from the chair and tried to put on a controlled expression. They might say she wasn’t a noble anymore, but she knew who she was. They couldn’t take that from her. The door opened, and that man walked into the room like it was normal.

He closed the door behind him before he turned to look at her. She felt her own eyes go wide. She’d tried to prepare herself, but she hadn’t thought to prepare for this. It didn’t help that he still wore that same expression of indifference. She might not even be in the same room as him based on his reaction. Even so, this was an opportunity. Or, it could be if she were brave. Before the courage left her, she spoke.

“Lord Lu, I beg you, spare the rest of my house. If you must send someone to war, send me. The offense was mine. They shouldn’t be punished for my failings.”

For the very first time, the indifference on that man’s face cracked. He looked surprised. It was also the first time that she felt like he was actually paying attention to her. That was something else she hadn’t fully prepared herself for. The intensity of his focused attention made her feel like he was peering directly into her soul.

“Zhou Yinuo, sit,” he commanded.

She did as she was instructed. He produced a chair from what she could only assume was a storage treasure and sat facing her. He leaned back in that chair and said nothing. An intuition told her that he was deciding something, something to do with her, and that speaking before he did would end poorly for her. So, she remained silent and tried her best to meet his steady gaze. That task proved profoundly difficult. She could glean nothing from his expression, which he had schooled back into a mask of neutrality. When she thought that silence would make her scream, he finally spoke.

“Your aunt has tried to intervene on your behalf,” he said.

Tried, she repeated in her head. Tried suggests failure. Whatever slim flame of hope that had been born when he arrived was immediately extinguished.

“I see,” she said, feeling that he expected a response.

“I find it unfortunate that she chose to do so,” he continued. “In my opinion, you are blessed with someone who is far more loyal than your behavior warrants.”

That rebuke stung both because it was a rebuke, and because she thought that it was probably true.

“Lord Lu—” she began, but stopped when he raised a hand.

“You should listen for now. She argued that you’re young and that what you need is guidance. I don’t agree. I still think that the best thing is for you to join the army. Even if you die there, you might still provide some value. If I grant your aunt’s wish, I believe you will squander it. I believe that you will do or say something that will end with you being executed here. If that happens, you provide no value to anyone.”

At a nod from him, she said, “You have formed a very poor opinion of me, very quickly.”

“With cause,” he replied.

She ground her teeth, but forced herself to remain silent. She had given him cause to think badly of her. Pretending otherwise wouldn’t benefit her. After a moment, he lifted an eyebrow.

“So, you can control yourself,” he observed. “I have struck a bargain with your aunt.”

“What kind of bargain?” asked Linuo, a deep sense of dread settling over her.

“You will retain your title. Your house will be spared from conscription.”

Linuo wanted to collapse from several kinds of relief.

“Thank you, Lord Lu.”

“You shouldn’t thank me until you hear the rest.”

“The rest?”

“You will remain here, in control of your house, after you give your vow to the heavens. However, should you fail in any way to conduct yourself appropriately… If you take actions that cause my people to feel your execution is the only appropriate response… You will not be the one to die. Your aunt will stand in your place, and her house will be sent to join the army.”

Linuo felt like a terrible weight was pressing down on her chest. She couldn’t breathe. No, she thought. No, this can’t be happening. Linuo didn’t even realize she was shaking her head back and forth in a silent negation until he spoke.

“I see you understand now.”

“Lord Lu, there must be some other way,” Linuo managed to gasp.

“The bargain was already made in good faith. All that remains to be seen is if you’ll fail your aunt as spectacularly as you failed yourself and your house today,” he said with that same infuriating look of indifference on his face. “I think you will.”

With that, he stood and left the room. She stared through the open door as that man and the guards left. The feeling of an oppressive pressure didn’t go away, even when it became clear that she was free to leave. Whatever relief she’d felt had been replaced with naked fear. If she got anything wrong…Linuo shook her head. She wouldn’t. She couldn’t. She couldn’t be responsible for destroying her aunt and her house. More importantly, she refused to let that man be right.