The Plagued Fate

In the throne room, Chen sat holding his forehead. The sorrows of yesterday, plus the alcohol of last night and the wild night that followed, drained him, and he had a terrible headache. To top that, the palace was buzzing with talks and gossip about what happened last night. Luckily, he had cleared his footsteps, or so he thought.

His shadow guard came to inform him that everyone in his stupid concubine palace had been silenced and could no longer be able to disclose a slight word about what happened the previous night, and now his only worry was where to hide his odd missus; he smiled, thinking about her.

Yesterday was a terrible day for him as he attended the birth of one of his noble consorts who gave birth to a baby boy but as usual, the baby was born dead just like the others before him despite having no hope, Chen still felt heartbroken about the whole situation no matter how many times it happened he could not get desensitised and it broke his heart all over again and this has been the fifth time this year.

So he returned to his chamber, ordered a drink, and started drinking to numb his pain. He drank through the evening to the night. The last thing he remembered was feeling suffocated and leaving for the garden.

His maids and eunuch and even shadow guards tried following him, but he forbade them as he wanted time to himself only, so he left for the garden, and that was the last thing he remembered.

When his consciousness returned there was a slender woman in his arms and they were both naked he looked at her back and shoulder filled with red marks and at first he thought it was one of his concubines but looking around he noticed a maid outfit at the foot of the bed he didn't know what happened or anything so he stood up wore his gown signal to his shadow guards but no one was there and he remembered he forbade them to follow him.

So he was returning to the chambers when he heard a hushed discussion about what seemed to be a conversation between a mistress and her maid and he could hear the mistress asking the maid if what they did was the right thing and the maid replying that it was okay as they will interchange places in the morning and no one would know he didn't know what it was but decided to investigate the following morning and as his head was now aching he went back to bed and deal with all this the following day.

He looked at the maid, wondering about her involvement in her mistress's plan; she was passed out from the ordeal. He was staring at her back when he felt her move, and she turned to him, and he was shocked. He saw the surprise in her eyes for a moment he considered whether she'd flee. Instead, she did something he was not expecting—reached out, her fingers tracing the lines of his chest, and a jolt of electric current passed between them.

This morning he sent her to the palace which belonged to his mother. Although it was old, he thought she would be safe there, and he decided tonight he would leave in secret though it was impossible he would go to see her.

Nara called her guard over and asked her to go inform the emperor about what happened the guard hesitated fearing something could happen to her again in her absence as the emperor specifically told her that her life was tied to that of this mere maid she was not happily serving her but she could not disobey the emperor so she had to protect her.

Nara noticed the hesitation in the eyes of the guard. She knew the guard was afraid of something happening again, but she knew nothing could happen to her. She didn't think someone was idiotic to come to a place again to kill somewhere he failed, knowing they had now alerted them.

The guard agreed and left; Nara alone wondered if her behaviour last night was because of the liquid aphrodisiacs they fed the original host or if she just felt free after a lifetime of suppressing her feelings. No matter what it was, she wondered if she was going to feel how free she felt last night again.

Maybe she will beg the emperor to let her leave the palace and go somewhere remote and survive fishing and foraging and living a simple life.

What worried her was the original owner of this body's heart condition because if it was serious enough to kill her, that meant she would also suffer from it, and if she did, how much of it would affect her.

Though she knew it was close to impossible, she just wished she would be okay. Since the soul changed, maybe the condition would change as well.

She felt some movement at the gates of the chamber and she stood up very alert even if she told the guard the assailant would not return again she was not so sure and was worried she might be wrong and he returned, so she stood up to stand at a corner where she will be away from someone's sight in case the person got into the chambers.

Chen was reviewing scrolls when his hidden guard showed up and Chen knew there was surely a problem because the shadow guard never showed up unless he was summoned or it was a very serious situation.

The shadow guard bowed and informed him about the assailant who strangled his lady. He made sure no one could trace his steps last night, so he wondered what he might have missed and was afraid to alert the person watching. He didn't leave immediately but was worried sick about her. He wondered how scared she might be right now and he ordered the shadow guard to ask her guard to return immediately and also dispatch another shadow guard.

He had to punish the current guard; it had only been a few hours, and she'd already been attacked, but that was alright, as it reminded him of what he was up against.