Martial King's Retired Life

The demise of the city hailed as the city that would never fall didn’t mean only the palace was devoured; it included the lives of its residents. Nobody, irrespective of social standing, age or gender, was shown any discrimination. Those who careened in time were either too traumatised to say anything within the realm of human comprehension, or they provided identical recounts as if they agreed beforehand to claim it the work of gods. Thus, the twelve Princes of Beussent agreed to send in their agents to conduct an investigation.

Notwithstanding the agents sent into Nieyao City never returning, the twelve Princes didn’t give up, eventually finding someone with his head still on right – Beussent King’s loyal and honourable personal attendant, Weilong Buku.

Besides being granted a guya title, Weilong Buku was also bestowed the surname Weilong, meaning dragon guardian, prior to the city’s fall. For generations, his clansmen were the royal family’s bodyguards.

Weilong Buku wasn’t difficult to find – not in the sense that there wasn’t any danger associated but that he was lying among the rubble and corpses out the front of Shiri Palace without injuries or single stain.

“I… didn’t see anything.”

The statement was so eye-widening that they ordered their best physicians to check Weilong Buku. The physicians confirmed he wasn’t ill, injured or crazy.

Weilong Buku claimed he was out like a log that night and unaware he was extracted until he woke up to be told so. According to him, he only found out about Nieyao’s decimation as well as the unknown whereabouts of Beussent’s King when they informed him. As a consequence, he was imprisoned.

It’s outlandish for a bodyguard to not know his charge’s whereabouts and claim to have not seen anything. Additionally, Weilong Buku didn’t even have a scratch on him despite the disfigured landscape and strewn corpses. Nobody defended him against his purported crime of colluding with the enemy to assassinate Beussent’s King. Instead, the opportunists rode the eastern wind to smear him with various stories they composed. Most importantly, given the state of panic, the royal family didn’t need the truth; they needed something to assuage their people. “The former hero colluded with foreign enemies,” sounds more convincing than “Wrath of heaven” does. As they were hoping, the people lynched Weilong Buku, and he didn’t defend himself.

“His Majesty did not let me down. I did not let His Majesty down.” Whether anyone looked at Weilong Buku from the front or rear, he never showed any signs of cowering when he made the solemn declaration. Even when the twelve Princes suspecting him of lying employed torture in their interrogations, Weilong Buku never budged on his stance. Search high and low, they had no proof to condemn him. No matter what sort of cruelty they imposed on Weilong’s tribesmen, the rumour remained a rumour.

Whether it was the denizens or the twelve Princes, there were two questions that they couldn’t explain. First, how did Weilong Buku collude with foreign forces? Second, even as a guya, how did he singlehandedly bulldoze Nieyao to the ground and massacre the citizens? If people weren’t so emotional, they would’ve seen the holes in the convictions.

If they executed Weilong Buku, there was nobody to witch hunt. They might not see the impact in the next decade or so, but somebody would look into Weilong Clan’s extermination somewhere down the road. They believed the truth would inevitably surface in the end.

In the end, they decided to change the surname of Weilong Tribe to Heisina, which means “crime” in Anxi, and exiled them out of the royal family’s lands. Since the twelve Princes already had their own territories, the only place Heisina Tribe could be exiled to Nieyao’s vicinity. They wanted Heisina Tribe to continue living so that they could bear the brunt of the people’s hatred and resentment.

Heisina Tribe lived in constant fear of ghouls returning to prey on them and lived on the bare minimum amount of rations to stay alive for centuries from that day forth.

It took a while for Young Shiyi and I to digest so much at once.

“Why did your brother revolt? Also, he can stage an uprising when your clan barely has enough to eat?”

“Revolt… Why would we need to revolt?” Smiling as cold as ice, Heisina Duohua answered, “Lots of reasons. We live in poverty. Kids have to learn to hunt when they’re only five. When the weather is kind, we get by, but, in winter, almost half of our clan dies off. We can’t find employment or do business. Xiacang people hate us. People of the Central Plain hate us. We’ve tried to find a home time and time again; however, the cursed place beside Nieyao is the only spot available.

“Fortunately, thirty years ago, someone from the Central Plain came to Nanjiang, defeated the twelve states and conquered a fief for himself. Once he brought people from the Central Plain over, we were able to find a place by the border to call home and have been expanding since.

“As you heard, we have plenty of reasons to turn against them, but we haven’t. My brother has no desire to defy Baimu’s King.”

I asked the Baimu troop by the side, “What do you think?”

Wu Ba, waking up from his long nap, expressed, “I had no idea that happened.”

The general-like soldier of the elites spat on the ground: “Lord Wu Ba, do not believe her nonsense. You Heisinas are weak cowards, every single one of you! Your ancestor betrayed Beussent’s King, and now your head calls himself Beussent. That alone deserves to be punished! Your brother also killed over ten of our soldiers. If that’s not rebelling, what is?”

“Why don’t you tell us who ordered you to raid our village? It’s fine for you to kill, but it’s a sin for us to defend ourselves?” Having blasted the soldier mute, Heisina Duohua added, “My brother never thought about revolting. It’s your King’s one-sided assumption, and it’s your King who sent people after us.”

“Y-you’re forging a divine weapon outside of Nieyao. What do you need a divine weapon for if not to rebel?!”

Reminded of Luo Ming’s experience, I felt I was onto something.

“He’s not a dissident. He just wants the truth.”

The soldier looked down and mumbled, “Whatever you say… Your entire clan…” He cut himself off when he couldn’t find the words to continue or a crime to incriminate Heisina Tribe.

The puzzle was finally complete. Heisina Tribe wanted to clear their ancestor’s name and, by extension, their reputation. Baimu interpreted their wish for justice as defiance, consequently decreeing their subjugation. During the time two were locked in battle, Heisina Duohua caught their attention while in the Central Plain, inspiring a hostage strategy.

We had no room for distractions if we’re going to slay Six Evils, so we needed to find a solution to the fiasco. That being said, I couldn’t just jump in after hearing only one side of the story.

“I’m going to question them now. You don’t mind, do you?”

“Please feel free,” Heisina Duohua confidently responded and then backed off as a gesture of courtesy.

I picked the chubby soldier from Baimu since he looked the easiest to intimidate and pressed a hand onto his head: “What’s your name, fatso?”

“A worrier prefers deaf ober human nation!”

A what? A what? A what?

Wu Ba: “He does not speak the Central Plain’s dialect well. He said, ‘A warrior prefers death over humiliation.’”

I flicked up a thumb: “Nice. Respect. Who humiliated you?”

“We worriers of Shiachang dake our losses like men. You won vair and sukeware. I admid debeat.” (We warriors of Xiacang take our losses like men. You won fair and square. I admit defeat.)

A what? A what? A what?

“I am fad, but I am not fadzo! I zall nake pay you vor the human nation dodai!” (I am fat, but I am not fatso! I shall make you pay for the humiliation today!)

I can’t even decide where to start flaming this man.

“If you wond do no my name, renenber, I am the worrier who zall begum guya. My name is Fang, Hui, hong!” (If you want to know my name, remember, I am the warrior who shall become guya. My name is Fang Huihong.)

Young Shiyi pinched my thigh as hard as she could because she had lost it, yet I was so speechless that I forgot to react.

“Fadzo, can you repeat yourself? Who are you?”

“I am nod fadzo! You dwo just waid. When I krow zdronga, I will zow you!” (I am not fatso! You two just wait! When I grow stronger, I will show you!)

Yes… Yes…