Emperor Kain was now 100 years old. After his father's death nearly 40 years ago, he had become the Emperor of the Xandria empire.
He was about 180 cm tall, had stark blonde hair, and a very young-looking face. If anyone saw him, they would think he was only 50 years old.
He looked way too young to be an emperor. He wore dark yellow pants with a white shirt that had golden embroidery on it. On his head, he wore the crown that made him the emperor.
He sat on a crimson throne, elevated by a few staircases, all decorated with a similar crimson carpet.
Around the hall were many different chairs on either side, none of which looked as fantastic as the throne.
Ning opened the door and walked in with the prince's hair still clutched in his hands.
As soon as the Emperor saw it, he stopped speaking and immediately got furious.
"What's the meaning of this? Let go of my son," he shouted. Anger flared in his face very quickly when he saw his son in trouble.
'So he does love his children. That should have been expected,' he thought. With Lisa telling him how he was never there for her, Ning always wondered if he was a callous man, but that didn't seem like it.
The two guards next to the emperor immediately shot out from behind the emperor like bullets and arrived next to Ning, ready to stab him.
"Your mere weapons won't hurt me," Ning said. "I suggest you tell your ministers to leave before we proceed."
The Emperor looked at Ning furiously and nodded towards the nobles and ministers.
The men stood up and left, their curiosity never diminishing in the slightest.
Once they all left and the doors were shut, Ning let go of the prince's hair and turned around to grab the prince by his shirt collar.
Seeing him move, the guards stabbed Ning. Their spears pierced through Ning, coming out at the other side. However, there wasn't a single drop of blood on their spears.
Ning ignored them and tossed the prince forward.
"Ask your son what he did. I'm sure he will confess willingly," Ning said. He ignored the spears for the moment even though they were starting to burn.
"Wait!" the Emperor shouted at the guards, but the guards were not sure if that order even meant anything anymore.
They had already stabbed him. What 'waiting' could they even do? Still, they pulled back the spear and waited with a confused look on their faces.
Maybe we shouldn't have gotten too hasty, they thought.
"Don't worry. Your spears could never kill me," Ning said with a smile towards them.
"What's your name, young man?" the Emperor asked. He was genuinely shocked that a person was able to survive while getting stabbed.
'How did he do it? Is he an illusion? But he just tossed my son. It didn't look like he used Aether. Besides, my guards should have felt the resistance and in fact, knew it really was him,' The emperor started thinking.
"My name is Ning Ruogong," Ning replied. "I am a temporary guard in the palace."
The Emperor looked at him with a curious face. "You don't seem to hold much respect for me. You don't even bow before me, or show me call me majesty," he said.
"I'll be honest, I don't really care about your status enough to change my way of speaking. I will respect you when I think you've earned it, but before that, I will just think of you as an ordinary human being," Ning said.
"I see," the Emperor said. "Then, maybe I ask, as an ordinary human father, why you've dragged my son to me?"
"Yes," Ning said. "Did you know about your daughter's feast in the slums today? Where she gave away food and blankets to the poor?"
"Yes, I did," the Emperor said. "I had approved it after all."
"Then did you know someone was shot during the event?" Ning asked.
"Someone was shot?" the Emperor looked at him with a serious face. "I'm sorry. I've been in multiple meetings today and I usually don't get unimportant news until the end of the day."
"But… this shooting sounds important, and yet I didn't hear it," the Emperor said.
"Well, that's understandable because the person that got shot… is me," Ning said. "And as you may see, I'm perfectly fine. So maybe it got pushed back to being unimportant news, but that's not the point I'm getting at."
"The thing I'm trying to get to is the fact that the person that ordered the shooting was your son," Ning said.
"What?" the Emperor turned to his son who had tears and snots running down his face, with a scalp that was very red.
"How do you know it's my son?" the Emperor asked.
"Because I asked the boss of the raiders he gave the job to," Ning said. "Did you know that about 4 or so weeks ago, I saved your son from a hostage situation in the zoo? You must've, right? I would consider that an important bit of information."
The Emperor looked shocked. "That was you?" he asked.
"Yes, that was me," Ning said.
"This boss you speak of, how did you confirm he was telling the truth," the Emperor asked.
"I have my ways," Ning said. "I've captured him and sent him to the police, so you can confirm it later as well. For now, I think you'll be interested in something else rather than your son's attempt to kill me."
The Emperor looked a little stunned. "What exactly did my son do?" the Emperor asked.
"The zoo incident, the hostage situation. All fake," Ning said. "There was never any threat. It was all set up by your own son, which I presume was to get something out of you."
"Right, what were the negotiations for with the terrorists? You would give them Gem in exchange for your son? Yeah, I think he was doing in for the gem."
The Emperor's eyes immediately turned cold and callous.. It seemed, he knew what it was all about.
