Path of the Berserker-Chapter 16Book 5:

The bravado of my promise was starting to wear thin as the spires of the Grand Imperial Palace of Li Wan province came into view. It had only been a few days since I’d met with Xi Xha and Mu Lin, but I’d done a lot of preparation since then. As the skiff descended for landing, I recalled the three-hour long conversation I’d had with Fia on the dos and don’ts of operation ‘woo the princess’. She was actually willing to put up with a heck of a lot more than I expected to make it all happen.

“Kissing is okay,” she’d said. “Maybe even a little beyond that to really seal the deal, but no more.” She had then grinned at me mischievously. “You can’t be giving the milk away for free when you want her to buy the cow. Or the bull, in your case. You must make her crave you desperately, but keep yourself forever out of her grasp. It will drive the old witch crazy.”

Her words still echoed in my mind, followed by the nerve-wracking cackle she had spat out afterwards.

It had honestly frightened me.

Fia was pretty practical and hardcore when it came to most things, but to see her in this mode was unnerving. I was clearly the romantic sap in our relationship, talking about setting boundaries and not wanting to hurt her feelings or betray her trust and shit. Meanwhile she was viewing it all like a competition and even revenge, willing to let me do whatever it took to get the ultimate win.

“I can’t wait to see the look on her face when you finally reject her ass and marry me,” she had said, while grinning like a devil. “That evil bitch will die of shock, humiliation and shame!”

Damn, what a wife, I thought with chagrin, while gazing out the window.

While I was thankful for Fia’s support, it put me in even more of an awkward position to try and pull it all off. I hated the princess just as much as Fia did, but she wouldn’t be the one who had to be all lovey-dovey with her to make it happen.

I was instantly reminded of when Xi Xha had made that slight pass at me when we’d met earlier and how uncomfortable it had made me feel. If even she was willing to throw her interest in the ring so quickly after Fia’s death, then I could only imagine what I was now in for with the princess.

Flame, give me strength… I muttered internally.

This was going to be twenty times worse.

As the skiff touched down and the doors opened, Ling Wei stood outside and greeted me with a bow.

“Ah, Marshal Iron Bull,” she said, smiling. “It is good to see you again. The princess has been expecting you. Right this way, please.”

* * *

“Well, where in the nine hells is it?”

Princess Lunalah fumed at the gaggle of incompetent stewards fumbling with excuses before her. There were six of them in all and not one of them could account for the package she had ordered from the core world of Genisha, straight from the elixir Baron’s themselves.

Since the time she had received Vice Warden Hei Dong’s letter nearly a week ago, that the Iron Bull was finally ready to meet with her, she had immediately sought some means of securing her allurement within his eyes. And with great effort she had found one. A perfume laced with the Qi essence derived from the gonads of a thousand-year-old clam.

Or so it was said.

It was purported to render any woman who adorned it irresistible to a man, but now, the man she desired was here and there was no sign of the perfume. She had paid over twenty thousand spirit stones alone for a courier to travel from Genisha to the nearest fringe world via Omni Gate and then that same measure more to send her Imperial skiff to collect it.

“This is woefully unacceptable!” she shouted. “How could it go missing between the six of you?”

“We are certain it was delivered to you, your majesty,” the head clerk said, the portly man blubbering in his mortal incompetence as he waved some papers at her. “The shipping records show that it was—”

“Then why don’t I have it?!” She dashed the papers from his hands. “Fools all of you! One of you must have stolen it!”

Yes, that had to be it. They would have known the value of the item. It would fetch a high price on the black markets within the Jianghu.

“Which one of you was it?” she demanded. “Which one of you stole it?”

“No, your majesty!” the Clerk said. “We would not dare!”

“Guards!” she shouted, and a pair of Enforcers rushed into her chambers.

“Yes, your majesty!”

“Send these lot to the dungeons for interrogation. Do not stop until one of them confesses!”

The incompetent thieves continued to wail and cry as they claimed their innocence, but the Enforcers quickly subdued them with strikes from their bamboo clubs and shuffled them away.

“Thieving fools,” Lunalah cursed bitterly.

Of all the things the thwart her meeting with the Iron Bull. Now even her own subjects were turning against her to malign her fate. But she would not be deterred. The Heavens were clearly jealous and fearful of such a powerful union between her and the Iron Bull. With her bloodline and the Iron Bull’s strength, their first child could be destined to be the next Soul Emperor.

This meddling by the fates was proof of that.

What else could it be?

Feeling somewhat placated by the thought, Lunalah glanced at herself in the ornate mirror at the center of her chambers one last time. Others would perhaps say she was stunning, but all she could see were the flaws. She did not like the small hint of crow’s feet now tugging at the corner of her eyes or the downward curls at the ends of her lips that made her visage seem in a perpetual frown. She smiled purposefully to make them go away, but it only made the wrinkles deepen.

Damn the curse of time, she thought. She should have perhaps attempted to ascend to the Lesser Deity realm decades ago, halting the aging process completely. But the thought of that still terrified her. Only one in a thousand cultivators could endure the trials that would transition one’s body and spirit to the doorstep of the Celestial Realm. And while her bloodline, path, and Qi density placed her well within the odds of being successful, failure could mean death or a crippling mutation even worse than that. She could still recall the haunting stories of the Princess Rucerna who failed her ascension and transformed into a mindless beast that destroyed her entire planet’s population and still plagued it to this day a thousand years later.

Such things gave her pause on that matter of ascension. As it did many of her elder sisters, she was certain, as but only a handful of them ever progressed beyond the Sacred Soul Realm. But the Iron Bull seemed well on his way to his breakthrough of that milestone. If she wanted to live with him for an eternity, then she would have to eventually face that challenge one day.

And finally be rid of these damn wrinkles forever, she thought with a harrumph.

“Your majesty?”

Lunalah looked from the mirror to see Ling Wei suddenly within her doorway.

“Yes?”

“Imperial Marshal Iron Bull has arrived,” she said. “He is awaiting you in your audience chamber.”

“Yes, fine, fine.” Lunalah then sighed frustratingly at the mirror again. “I suppose this alone will have to do. All that effort for nothing.”

Ling Wei furrowed her brow. “Is everything alright, your majesty?”

Lunalah waved her hand dismissively. “Just some stewards who have stolen a package from me. One I needed for this meeting. They will pay for their treachery.”

“You mean the package that arrived the day before yesterday?”

“What?” Lunalah said, shocked. “How do you know about this?”

She had made every effort to hide the procurement of the perfume.

Even from Ling Wei.

To explain her need for it would have been far too embarrassing and so she had approached the shipping stewards directly. But then how did Ling Wei know about it?

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“Answer me, girl! How do you know about this?”

Ling Wei shrunk back, frightened. “Only an observation, your majesty. I just recall a package arriving during our briefing the other day. You immediately secured it within your desk. The quills, was it?”

As soon as she said the words, Lunalah recalled the event.

She remembered now snatching the parcel from the clerk with embarrassment and quickly shoving it into her desk to hide the truth from Ling Wei, stating they were simply quills.

“Yes,” Lunalah said. “The quills, thank you. I must retrieve them. Tell the Iron Bull I shall be with him momentarily.”

As Ling Wei bowed and departed, Lunalah went straight to her office to retrieve the package. She cursed herself for not recalling it sooner. Such was the panic that this meeting with the Iron Bull was causing within her. It was ridiculous. She was the most powerful woman on this planet and yet inside she was trembling like a schoolgirl.

As she opened her desk drawer, there inside was a small parcel wrapped in paper marked with the elaborate seal of the Yi Fae clan.

“There you are,” she said and immediately began unwrapping.

For half a second, she thought of summoning the guards again to tell them to release the shipping stewards. They had indeed done their job in the end, but there was no time for that. And besides, if one of them did eventually confess, she could blame them for the mishap. Not to mention that they likely deserved some kind of punishment anyway for offenses unknown.

Lunalah studied the small vial contained within the packaging.

There was less than an ounce of the prized perfume within the vial and when she dabbed it upon her neck, the questionable aroma nearly made her gag. It reeked of the sea. For a moment she wondered if someone had swindled her, but there was no time to consider that now.

She would have to trust the elixir to do its work.

It was time to meet with her beloved.

* * *

I sat in the audience chamber, twiddling with the gold and purple trim of my legionnaires robes as I waited for the princess to arrive. What the hell was I even going to say to her? I needed to make my requests known for access to the grand archives and the smithing world of Ri Ben, but I had to come on to her as well.

In my mind all I could think about was Fia’s crude dating advice.

How the hell do I end up in situations like this? I wondered.

But before I could mull on the thought, the inner doors to the audience chamber flew inwards and in stepped the princess. She was all dolled up with fancy makeup and was adorned in red and jade robes. It was a look I hadn’t seen on her before. Still elegant, but a bit more casual than her formal getups I had seen her in when addressing the public.

Ling Wei gave me a short bow as she stood within the doorway and then quickly waved before closing the inner doors behind her to leave. As Lunalah sat upon her throne, I performed a one kneed bow before her.

“Greetings, your majesty,” I said with the best formal tones I could muster. I’d been practicing them with Master Hei Dong for the last month. Hopefully I wasn’t sounding like some try-hard prick in uttering them, but Hei Dong said I would be far more appealing to the princess if I spoke this way. “I am most gracious for your audience.”

Princess Lunalah smiled broadly at me, and I took that as a sign that master Hei Dong was right.

“Please, do sit with me, Marshal Iron Bull,” she said, gesturing to a small stool next to her throne. “I am eager to hear of your training as well as to make preparations for the upcoming trial.”

I could sense both fear and lemonade in her soul as I approached her, but then I sensed something else. I nearly stopped dead in my tracks as a pungent aroma burned my nostrils. A mixture of strong ammonia and urine, like dead fish caught in low tide.

I hid my reaction with [Indifference] and smiled as I sat on the stool.

“So how is your training?” she asked.

“I haven’t gotten to do much of it,” I said truthfully. “I’ve been busy rebuilding the province, but I have been doing some research into where I might need to go to prepare?”

“Oh?” she said. “Would you not again consider my offer to train here in the capital?”

I was just about to politely decline, when I saw an opening for my ulterior motivation of being here. I put on my best sultry voice and hit her with a dose of [Struggler’s Resolve].

“I wouldn’t mind that,” I said with a low-key smile. “But honestly, I fear you’d be far too much of a distraction for me, princess.”

I sensed her fear and lemonade jump inside as she let out a surprised laugh.

I waited for some kind of comeback as she started to blush and turn red.

I rescued her with a laugh of my own. “I’m joking of course, your majesty. While you are indeed the most beautiful and desirable woman on this planet, a low birthed Terran like myself can speak of such things only in jest.”

Her eyes widened with fear, like she was about to lose something just out of reach.

“No, no!” she said. “Such is possible. Recall my letter to you.”

“Your letter? You mean the one that doesn’t exist?”

She gazed back dumbfounded for a moment and I realized I had goofed up. My job was to get her to fall for me, not prove to her that she was a liar. And the conversation was falling right in the direction I needed it to.

“Nevermind,” I said, refocusing. “I remember you speaking of me becoming a consort or something?”

“Yes!” she said excitedly. “A royal consort. Yes, you can become one. I mean… are you truly suggesting that we…?”

She stopped short, perhaps reacting to the look of complete shock on my face.

I knew she had the hots for me and all, but damn was she thirsty.

And desperate.

It would have been easy to just say yes, but Fia’s words came back to me. I couldn’t just give it away. I had to keep her begging for it. And plus, accepting so easily would look odd in the light of things.

“I apologize, your majesty,” I said, bowing my head. “I’ve become too familiar with you. I should not even be discussing such things with the ruler of my planet.”

“No, you can! You can!”

I raised a hand to her. “Please, I speak as a man still grieving for the loss of his beloved.”

“Your beloved?” she said confused.

I squinted at her. She was actually being serious. The incredible bitch clearly didn’t even remember Fia.

“The Lady Silver Light and my child,” I said. “I’m still grieving for them.”

“Oh, yes!” she said, as if suddenly remembering. “Of course. I hope you found some solace in avenging them though your slaying of the Lady Silver Tear.”

Knowing she was the one that had given Silver Tear the order made Lunalah all the more disgusting in my eyes. I pumped up the Frenzy on my [Indifference] to not let my hatred and anger show.

“Some,” I said, honestly. “But it will not bring them back. I’m perhaps being too eager in seeking to replace them by contemplating some kind of… marriage with you.”

I winced inwardly as I laid the trap for her.

It was a poorly baited hook, perhaps far too obvious and overt.

I quickly rushed to conceal it further. “I mean that with no disrespect, your majesty. I know it sounds forward, but I was only referring to what you mentioned before as a consort. As you can imagine, I have many would be options when it comes to finding a new wife, but after being betrothed to a royal lady, I don’t think I can view women the same way again. And you being as beautiful as you are, it has worn down my better senses. Forgive me for thinking I could ever be on the same level as you, your majesty.”

Her soul thundered with even more fear and lemonade. “But you can! You already are!”

I resisted balking at her unabashed desperation, concealing both my pity and disgust.

But I couldn’t let the opportunity slip.

“Far from it,” I said. “I may be an Imperial Marshal. But you are imperial royalty. Only another royal could marry one such as you.” I then laughed as if it were a ridiculous idea. “Trust me, if there was a way for me to become a Duke or something, you’d be the first royal hand I’d ask for.”

Her mouth hung open and it looked like she had just about peed herself with all the lemonade flowing from her soul. The seed was well planted now, but I had to quickly leave it to germinate some more.

“Anyway,” I said. “I’m here today as your defender, not your suitor. Has there been any word on who I’ll be up against in the ring?”

She blushed deeply and then nodded with a swallow. “Ah, right. Yes… my defender. Ah…” She paused a moment, clearly still lost for words as her mind reeled from my earlier comment. “I ah… they have not said as yet, but Princess Rheutera has launched some petition with the High Council. Although you don’t think yourself worthy as an Imperial Marshal, they are finding it a challenge to find an equivalent for such a ranking within the ring.”

“What does that mean?”

“I am not certain,” she said. “I think they are trying to use your ranking to place you up against someone from within the next realm.”

Shit, I thought.

“So they are trying to make me fight against a Lesser Deity Realm Cultivator?”

“It seems that way,” Lunalah said. She then scowled. “That bitch of a sister of mine will stop at nothing to win.”

Her words shocked me, but I hid my surprise with [Indifference].

I shrugged nonchalantly instead. “No matter. I’ll defeat whoever they send. But I will need to gain some new skills to do so. Which brings me back to me asking you a favor, your majesty.”

“A favor?” she said.

Finally, I thought. The soil was well tilled, and I could ask her for whatever I wanted to now.

“I’ve been doing some research,” I said. “There are some ancient techniques that I believe are in the Grand Archives of the Core Worlds. I have two scholar friends of mine who are willing to do the research, but they aren’t high enough ranking to gain access. Is there any chance you can pull some strings for them to get inside?”

She leaned back in her throne. “The grand archives? I have no idea. What is the technique?”

“Oh… ah, its too complicated to explain, but let’s just say it will be necessary for my breakthrough to the next realm. If I might be facing someone from the Lesser Deity Realm, I’ll need this technique for sure.”

She nodded. “I see.”

“There is one more thing,” I said. “Have you heard of the Core World of Ri Ben?”

“You mean the home of the legendary smiths?”

“Yeah, that’s the one,” I said. “I wish to go there to train. Can you find me a way to meet with the grandmasters?”

She blinked at me curiously. “Why there?”

“I hear their fighting techniques are unmatched, but not many know this. I believe it will give me a distinct advantage over whoever I will have to face. Is this something you can do for me, Princess?”

She nodded glancing to the side, contemplating it all. “You ask a great many things… but I will see what can be done.”

I smiled at her and then saw yet another opportunity. Casually I rested my hand atop hers. “I know I ask too much. Maybe I’ll throw in one more.” I then winked at her. “Perhaps you can find a way to make me a Duke as well?”

I swore I heard her heart stop, and I quickly squeezed her hand with a laugh.

She nervously laughed with me. “You do jest too much, Iron Bull.”

I shrugged and smiled. “Who said it was a jest?”

She practically wet the floor with lemonade again.

I quickly stood before she could say anything else. “Well, I’ve clearly taken up far too much of your time, your majesty. I should get back to continue my training. If you can at all find a way to make those things possible, I would greatly appreciate it.”

I then fell to one knee again, bowing.

“Yes,” she said, sounding totally distracted. “Yes… of course.”

I smiled as I rose to my feet and gently kissed her hand. “I will wait for word from you then. Till next we meet, princess.”

I spun on my heels and high-tailed it out of the audience chamber before she could stop me or say anything else. As soon as I got out of sight I felt like retching. I think I had pulled it off though.

But damn did I need some industrial strength detergent to now cleanse my soul.

* * *

Princess Lunalah could not move.

She sat upon her throne haplessly as the Iron Bull left her with both hope and promise in her heart. The Heavens were right to have attempted to intervene. They knew her destiny with the Iron Bull was all but sealed. The perfume had done its trick.

He desired her.

All she would need to do was find the ways to grant his wishes for strength and power.

And most importantly, for him to become a Duke.

There was only one thing for it.

Lunalah arose from her throne and immediately rushed to her office, calling for Ling Wei. She would need her skillfulness to craft these letters perfectly.

It was time to write to her mother.