*******
"Are you sure you want to do this, your highness?"
He doesn't reply, but just stares down at the castle. The guard tries to proceed into talking him out of it, but he stops him dead in his tracks, then tells him with a calm tone.
"Stop. I order you not to follow me no matter what."
'I may have trained for a thousand years. But even my martial arts Qi can not reach his up till now. I can't risk the lives of my men. What are their families going to think of me? "
The guard gasped.
'Wait,...am I mistakened? Or am I reading someone else's mind?'
**********
*Earlier On Their Way To Black
Castle *
"Your highness, I think you should have listened to Sir. Soris, first..."
"You want to judge me too?"
"What? No no no, not like that...."
'My, I should've just shut my mouth. What is wrong with me!?'
The guard/Jang Ping, accompanied the emperor in the carriage along the market road, which led to the Heinian Boundary. A few others who were special in his crew came along, about three more.
The other three sat at the back of the carriage, while the emperor sat at the front with Jang Ping. He sat in front of him, all buff and confident; at least, that's how he should be described as.
In reality, he's not a field soldier and works in confirming information from ambassadors of foreign countries, and determining if a person is an ally or a for, all thanks to his telepathic ability. So, logically, he works as his personal assistant.
The atmosphere went silent once more, and one could only hear the noise from the outside. They'd just entered the market square. This was a fruitful season, so it is only normal that markets should overflow with customers.
Jang, who was looking out the small window through the red curtains, admiring the liveliness outside, suddenly paused. He was puzzled by his own reaction to nothing.
His head popped back into the carriage, and his heart nearly skipped out of his chest. An eerie of purple aura was eminating from the emperor's body, and not blue but purple frost was starting to engulf the place. All this happened, but the cold, expressionless face he had on, layered Jang's fear to another level.
The air felt so stuffy that it was almost hard to breathe. Literally, because at this point, even the sound of breathing could be the cause of your decapitation.
'The thirst for blood. Revenge. Death. It has literally filled this room. And the Lord is not even making effort into hiding it either. Even I can't stand this amount of malevolence. If this aura exceeds this confined space, it might cause unnecessary havoc outside. '
"Um, your majesty, have you ever tried a stressful relieving technique? "
The emperor looks up.
"How do you mean?"
'Um...that was easy. What should I say?'
"Uhh...well, you know the week has been really stressful on you, and if care is not taken, you might end up ageing. "
Then he couples it with a nervous laughter. The emperor doesn't respond but only stares at him blankly.
"Ahem. Um...what I'm trying to say is...You Uhh...You need some help to relieve your stress. "
The emperor raised a brow, ever so slightly. Jang was getting a bit stressed himself. He didn't know what to add to what he started, so he....
"I suggest that you go to a hotel and....."
He didn't know what else to say. He finished the rest of the sentence with silence and the place went calm again.
The emperor neither reacts nor responds, he just stares at Jang with an expressionless face. His gaze suddenly shifts to the side, and the image gave him a quick understanding of the situation. He then looks away from it and sighs.
" Thank you."