😭

Due to countless thoughts overtaking my attention, I had unconsciously started to tap my fingers on the wooden table. Another habit I had due to anxiety.

Feeling a presence in the room I opened my eyes and watched the man clothed in black, with his sword hanging on the waist. He was leaning onto the wall, silently observing me.

I narrowed my eyes as the tapping sound stopped, uttering the words with a hint of frustration, "My Imperial Twin Dragon amulet is stolen."

The always indifferent face had a light frown at my words. But, seconds later he had already reverted back to his blank expression. He didn't look bothered at all. This kind of ignorance reminded me of His Majesty. They can really be calm in this type of situation.

"...That man." These two words unexpectedly left his mouth. My body stiffened in response.

A frown stretched across my forehead, and before he could react a dagger had already landed an inch away from his stoic face, directly piercing the wooden wall behind.

My gaze sharply penetrated his body daring him to speak further. His eyes held a dark gleam, but he didn't move. He looked rather...

Amused?

I softly warned him, "Don't blindly accuse people."

Pulling the dagger off the wall he stepped forward and tossed it towards me, as I swiftly caught it with one hand.

I have to admit that I was very annoyed right now. If what annoys His Majesty the most was me and his harem. To me what ticks at my nerves were troublesome situations like this.

"Every step we take; we need to be cautious. You only need to observe him. Be alert of his every move. If he does anything suspicious, then report to me immediately. But I highly doubt his connection to the incident. Just in case, keep an eye on him for assurance."

"Hm." He was in deep thought as he gave me a short nod.

"Good." My fists balled tightly almost drawing blood out of my palms. I badly wanted to wreck my study chamber but I could only slam my fist on the desk in fury.

I feel a bad premonition.

Gritting my teeth, I stood up from my seat and approached the bookshelf. Having a brief glance at the neatly aligned scrolls in the left, I pulled out a bamboo scroll and unhurriedly opened it, quickly reading through the lines.

The Imperial Twin Dragon amulet was the most valued heirloom of the Imperial Family that had been passed down by the First Emperor of Xu Lin, Tang Li. The presence of this amulet to Xu Lin was massive because the amulet holds absolute power within the country and has access to every part of Xu Lin's forbidden lands. It was considered a sacred treasure of immeasurable worth, where Xu Lin citizens had worshipped the amulet for thousands of years. Since early times, the jade amulet was said to be protected and blessed by the gods, therefore, it was considered unique and mystical. Hence, the amulet was an irreplaceable existence within Xu Lin where people treated the jade with unconditional faith.

Only three out of five divine rulers in history were able to obtain the amulet's true powers, and it had been many decades since Xu Lin had witnessed a monarch who could obtain its sacred power. Therefore, many, despite worshipping the jade, thought that the divine power it held was nothing but a myth written in ancient books. (This is similar to how most of you believe in God but in reality, you'd never expect he'd do miracles like how he did in those ancient books. I mean very apparent ones.)

The blessings and the protection of the gods make an Emperor a truly formidable and undefeatable soul, where people were naturally inclined to kneel before him. Hence, Xu Lin had the belief that holding onto the sacred amulet would allow the Son of Heaven to be the supreme leader of all leaders in the world, and not only obtain the respect of his people, but also the heaven's complete affection.

Other nations found it absolutely ridiculous and stupid for a mere jade to hold the power to command an entire nation. They had continued to mock our rulers for accepting and being controlled by unrealistic beliefs.

If one would question how Xu Lin had remained unyielding during the decades of war and destruction and continued to glamour in prosperity with every challenge it faced while overpowering the other nations, we could only think the mighty army of Xu Lin was too strong and skillful, basically they had to be non-human to be undefeated and help Xu Lin remain on a steady pace for all these years, or simply Xu Lin was extremely lucky? However, this definitely wasn't the entire case. Something was holding Xu Lin in place without letting it fall into calamity. It made me wonder, were miracles really true? Well, considering how I was reborn into the past, I have no choice but to accept it.

And how did I, an outsider, obtain the most sacred treasure of Xu Lin?

Right before Imperial Father's death, he had summoned His Majesty, the then Crown Prince and I into his bedchambers one night. In the presence of the entire court officials and the Mother Empress as witnesses, he had resolutely bestowed us the ownership of the amulet. Joining our hands together, he happily entrusted the amulet to us with one sentence,

"From now on you are one soul, an unbreakable bond like no other."

I could only stare at him in shock unable to register his words. Soon furrowing my eyebrows, I couldn't help but quietly glance to the side where his face was devoid of any emotions, but his eyes were in raging flames.

A cracked jade could never be fixed just like our relationship that was beyond repair...

Yet, we bowed our heads accepting our fate.

It was said that only the successor to the throne, was capable of possessing the amulet. But there had been rare instances when the Emperor would not want the Crown Prince to succeed the throne because he wasn't capable enough to rule the nation or simply the Emperor didn't favour him. In this case, the Crown Prince would not be able to succeed the throne anymore, thus, only the most potential and favourable Prince would be the owner of the amulet and crowned as the Emperor. However, this time it was entirely a mind-blowing situation that was beyond everyone's expectations.

Now, it's as if the Imperial father had declared that there were two Emperors in the country, even more astonishing with the fact that one of them was the late Emperor's adopted son, an outsider. Thus, the country was in chaos at his sudden decision. Even though the amulet holders weren't direct descendants of the First Emperor of Xu Lin, they were at least close relatives who continued the bloodline. However, I was supposedly a prince of another country with the identity of my biological father who was the Third Prince of Su Empire.

The fuel was added to the fire when the ancient jade amulet was remade and split into two halves so that one dragon was given to me while the other was given to His Majesty. Up until then, other than Imperial Father, no Emperor had dared to make a single scratch on the holy jade.

I felt extremely uncomfortable, possessing something that was never meant to be mine, but even before I could feel guilty, for the first time he had raised his voice at me. The decision on the ownership of the amulet was his last straw. Our already broken relationship like the remnant shards of glass unexpectedly turned to mere dust that night.

As a well-groomed Crown Prince, he had always been too quiet and indifferent to everything around him, even tolerant than I was when confronting difficulties. He wasn't the type of person to yell when he was outraged. He would rather prefer to directly and silently kill the person who provoked him. He had a naturally dominating and low voice that could send chills down the spine, or his sharp and dark eyes which made people wet their pants with just one glance even if they weren't guilty of any crime. Before his intimidating figure, all his subjects would immediately turn into shivering little beavers. He would keenly observe before judging a person. And his judgments have never been wrong, which had made me question myself.

Perhaps I had mistakenly offended him?

On that fateful night, the thick thread immediately snapped without warning, shocking everyone who witnessed his outburst. No one dared to reveal the matter to Imperial Father due to his poor health. However, Imperial Mother who found out was distressed over our sour relationship and had an argument with His Majesty,

"I'm always one step ahead of him in everything I do. So how am I not qualified enough to be the sole owner of the amulet?" His calm voice echoed in the serene hall, his back facing us. He was at the door, ready to leave. His hand resting on the door frame, a shadow casting his side profile.

No, maybe it's... jealousy?

"Of course you are, Xiang. But this is your Imperial Father's decision! Why are you so against it? And to the extent, you lose self-control?" Imperial Mother's feathery voice sounded sad and confused.

He was a wise man. He knew he'd get nothing by arguing with his mother. Instead, he chose to remain silent. He looked forward, a dry laugh escaping his lips but we failed to see his ice-cold eyes that looked merciless and threatening. He refused to say anymore and quietly left the hall.

The fall out between the mother and son pair still continued to this day.

Since then, whenever I was to make a mistake, he would lose his patience with me. Constantly disagreeing with my decisions. Purposely degrading me in front of the court officials or my subordinates. I was indeed surprised since he'd yet to raise his voice a second time after his outburst that night.

I eventually got used to the fact that I was a mere General, a son of a peasant mother in His Majesty's eyes. Not the divine Prince who possessed a sacred power that was comparable to his.

Even when I suffered severely he looked neither amused or happy as he watched me with those indifferent eyes. Maybe because I was just a pest he didn't even need to bother thinking of. A waste of his time...

Nonetheless, despite all that, he never failed to rain me with praises whenever I'd achieved glory in the name Xu Lin. Even going as far as to reward me with expensive and rare weapons, paintings, instruments, jewelry and antiques from his own treasure collection. Not even his own Empress was gifted with such valued items. He wasn't a man who did things to keep up appearances. So why was he behaving so confusingly? Why bother to appease me?

He was very upfront about his actions but also cunning and manipulative at times. Maybe I was already a victim? I couldn't help the laugh that escaped my lips as I looked down at the scroll in my hand.

A keen strategic man who was still hiding behind a lot of secrets. His way of thinking was way more complicated than any normal human. If it wasn't for him I wouldn't have won all those wars on the battlefield. I could only use my strength and skill in combat, while he had already predicted his enemy's moves and thought of a plan to counterattack, his movements clean and accurate, beautifully eliminating his opponent without their prior knowledge. I was a fast learner with the right set of skills and knowledge yet its been almost ten years and I've never won a one-on-one battle with His Majesty. Actually, he had never needed my protection. It was always me, who made it my responsibility. It feels like it's my duty to protect him with my own body and there's this thought that without me His Majesty's life would be in danger.

He was absolutely bloodthirsty and cruel to the bones. I could still remember how he cut open a minister's head inside the Imperial court. Even when the said minister was wailing out tragically, he took his time craving out the man's skin with no emotions in his eyes. No one knew why he did it. He had probably secretly investigated the minister and known his wrong-doings and decided to inflict punishment in the Imperial court itself as an important lesson to the other officials. It left a deep scar in the minds of the poor officials who still shiver at the sight or the mention of His Majesty.

This man wasn't a puzzle just to me, but even to his own mother. Sometimes I would wonder what he was thinking sitting on that pavilion for hours listening to my zither, or how he felt when he took a walk around the garden every morning viewing the pretty flowers with a rare relaxed expression or why he was staring at me so blatantly as if he's trying to search my soul.

*Coughs*

I snapped out of my thoughts, looking behind me. Du Xi had his head tilted to the side with his eyebrows slightly raised in question.

I sighed and shook my head as I walked back to my study table setting down the bamboo scroll in my hand. I stood near the large round window gazing out in deep thought.

When will I be able to see him genuinely smile again?