“Alright! We will start already tomorrow, so rest well and prepare for your training.” Queen Hu grinned. Everyone wanted to disperse, but then she added, “Right after the event you two will join me and the three of us will infiltrate the Chu mansion.”

“It will be a long day, your highness.” Nick didn’t want to take part in any of this from the start and even came up with a plan to keep everyone entertained and himself out of the danger, “Don’t you have special people for that?”

“Of course, I do.” Queen nodded, “Who can be more special than the two experts who can sneak in and out from emperor Osman’s castle, especially now when they have become Qi masters? Chu mansion will be a child’s play in comparison.”

Nick and YunYun looked at each other, but while YunYun’s eyes beamed with excitement, Nick was evidently annoyed.

“Fine, please take this. We’ll depart right after the event.” Nick passed a package to the queen.

“What is this for?” She was confused.

“Oh, that’s probably my spare camouflage ‘ninja costume’. It is already covered in ‘stealth powder’ to hide your Qi fluctuations.” YunYun explained in excited voice. They will go on a secret mission and one of the strongest experts on the continent, her mother, will come along!

“Camouflage ‘ninja costume’? ‘Stealth powder’?” Queen got more confused.

“Yea. They are really handy during the night operations, you’ll see.” YunYun nodded.

“Alright, dismissed!” It was late and queen was getting impatient. There was a lot she still had to do till sunrise.

The next morning sensational news shook the capital. Princess YunYun’s fiance has killed the son of the Chu family and without fear of punishment was now relaxing in the Royal residence!

As expected, Chu clan’s matriarch furiously stormed in the royal grounds demanding justice and execution of the perpetrator. She already knew something has gone awry with her son’s plan, but still had some hopes left, because none of the people she sent to find him could bring any news.

Queen Hu immediately received the grieving mother and listened to her demands, but replied that this was not as simple as it looked and there was high chance someone was simply slandering Nick. After continuous persuasion from Chu Ranqing, queen finally gave in and agreed to hold a trial the next day and meanwhile keep Nick under house arrest.

While these news shook Xian, Nick was deeply shaken by another event.

“Grandma!” YunYun happily ran over and hugged an older lady in black leather armor and with sword on her back.

‘Damn it! That witch did this on purpose! Why do all women in this family do their best to torture me?’

Nick obviously meant queen Hu who invited over her mother, the old queen. From the first moment this lady came in to the courtyard, he felt like someone was scanning him with an x-ray vision and could dig out all his deepest secrets. He didn’t have that many and they were not worth much, but this feeling alone made him anxious.

“Hello, my name is Nick. How would you like me to address you?”

He did his best to smile and greet her while cautiously observing. From the first glance she was a simple elderly lady, shorter than YunYun, but had almost the same slender build, except long gray hair. Evidently she still practiced a lot and judging from the fire in her eyes and cat like movements, she hasn’t lost anything with years, may be even gained and Nick’s experience with the women from the Li family made him weary and ready to defend at all times.

“Why are you so tense?” She looked at this youth without any weapon on him. Her daughter was right, he was quite unlikable at the first glance, but she had seen many people in her life and always formed her own opinions.

“My experience with your daughters have taught me to be careful around any person from the Li family, especially women.” Nick honestly explained. He already had the feeling she knew all the answers and it would be simply foolish to lie to her. In addition this expert definitely felt all the Qi fluctuations in the surroundings and his skills were far from being enough to hide them.

“So you know Hua as well?” Old queen continued her questioning.

“We are neighbors ...”

Before Nick could complete his answer, she already attacked. First came palm to his chest, but when he evaded a roundhouse kick followed. In contrast to his encounter with queen Hua, this time Nick was prepared and had become Qi master as well. Thus the two were flashing around the courtyard for few minutes with Nick evading and old queen attacking.

“Why are you not fighting back?” She asked in annoyance. This kid was fast and slippery and without her sword there was almost no chance to catch him.

“Why would I? There is no reason for me to attack you.” Nick smiled while evading another kick.

“So you are one of those morons who think of themselves as some kind of gentlemen and refuse to attack a woman?” Old queen instantly got angry and almost managed to punch Nick in the face.

“Of course, not, that is plain stupid.”

“Oh?” Old queen stopped for a moment in surprise, “Then why are you just dodging?”

“You are evidently just testing me and have no real intent to harm me. May be your eldest daughter has asked to to kick my butt or something, but you don’t want to kill me.” Nick shrugged while smiling and explained the obvious.

“Alright. Then I want to test your attacking skills. Come!” Old queen was not a fool and could understand as much. What she didn’t like were those males from the other countries who thought that they were better than women.

Nick didn’t linger and instantly started to attack as well. The hand to hand combat lasted for a minute and both of them got few bruises, but it was a decent morning exercise.

“Stop.” Old queen suddenly shouted, “Take out your weapon. I want to test your real combat ability.”

“I refuse.” Nick shook his head, “My style is meant for crippling and killing the opponent and I am not going to mutilate YunYun’s grandmother.”

When old queen’s expression started to change, YunYun quickly came to help out, “Grandma, please listen to him. His style is really dangerous and I don’t think he can control it as well as you can your sword.”

“I want to test your weapon skills.” Old madam plainly stated.

Nick thought for a while and then went over to a nearby bush and broke off a short branch, then cleaned the leaves and waved it a couple of times, “This should do.”

“Oh? You are already that far?” Old queen smiled when she noticed the faint glow around the small branch. This kid effortlessly infused his Qi in it making it a real weapon, but the Qi manipulation allowed to make it sharp or blunt and thus, in this case, it would be harmless, but in a real combat situation – deadly.

She took a longer branch as well and it begun to shine in a faint white glow.

Since she wanted to test Nick’s skills, he didn’t wait for another invite and simply attacked. After few exchanges both separated and old queen looked at him with complicated gaze. She managed to slash him over the chest in the end, but in the process she would have lost her left leg below the knee and get a deep cut on her left side.

“Your technique is really weird.” Old queen said after throwing the branch away.

“Thank you, I’m still developing it.” Nick answered and did the same.

“But it’s a waste, you should’ve picked up the sword.” She sighed and shook her head. Nick already saw this reaction from master Marozzo years ago.

“I’m sorry, but I think you are wrong this time.” He said and before queen could react he continued, “I have seen reaction like yours several times and it, of course, made me question my choice. But then I fought a young genius spear user in Olava’s arena. His skills were amazing and I barely won at the end. Do you think it is a waste for him to practice spear skills? Everyone has a weapon that suits them and your Li family has the sword in your blood.”

“Hahaha! Don’t try to be such a smart ass around me, of course, I understand that. I meant that you would look good with the sword.” Old queen grinned and Nick couldn’t guess if she really meant it or just got out of the awkward situation this way.

“Alright, you can call me grandma as well. Hua wrote to me that some young boy was training my granddaughter – that’s you, right?”

“Thank you.” Nick smiled back. Being able to call the former queen his grandmother was probably the greatest honor in this country and it meant that she fully accepted him, “Yes, we are childhood friends and trained together. Unfortunately her parents made some weird oath many years back and she had to learn Qi techniques from me. But she is developing her own sword technique and it is based on queen Hua’s style.”

“What ‘weird oath’? It was an incredibly stupid and moronic thing to do! For some reason they decided to destroy my beloved granddaughter’s future!” Old queen instantly became upset and angry. The mood swings in this family were really common ...

They chatted for a while longer and, after Nick made his herbal tea, old queen started to teach them how to control their Qi fluctuations. The concept turned out to be easy, and was based around a calm and steady Qi flow. Unfortunately it was incredibly difficult to learn and it would take them years to master it, but luckily this time they had to only grasp the concept to pass few ‘lie detectors’ and with their talent and skills in Qi manipulation it wasn’t that impossible.

In the late afternoon Nick was already warming up one of their last pizzas they brought from “Sunshine” and, even though YunYun expressed her deep regret about grandma not being able to taste the fresh product, old madam was still delighted.

Then Nick went over their plan as he usually did before any serious event and the old queen decided to join the three of them during the infiltration part. She refused Nick’s spare ‘ninja costume’ and claimed to have her own that just needed to get sprinkled with the ‘stealth powder’. After she ran off to get it, she returned with Chu estate’s plan and the rest of the evening they spent while analyzing it, making guesses about the possible hidden dangers and secret rooms or hideouts.

The next morning things proceeded just as Nick predicted. Chu Ranqing arrived early with few people in tow, but when she entered the royal hall, to her big surprise it was almost packed. Queen Hu didn’t hold back and invited every important person in the capital to witness this hearing.

When Nick and YunYun came in, a large commotion broke out and Chu matriarch found it hard to hold back from grabbing her sword and stab this arrogant bastard to death. She had to watch Nick carelessly sitting in the first row and munching on fresh fruits and laughing with YunYun while waiting for the arrival of the queen.