Zhan's pov

The morning came soon. I took a adeep breathe and turned my head to look at the man lying in my arms.

A small smile came on my face when I saw Yibo, peacefully lying in arms with his eyes closed. He was not sleeping, but he was just lying peacefully.

I wrapped my other arms around him as well and gently kissed his forehead, "good morning." he groaned a little and tried to move but that movement made him wince.

Last night I really went berserk on him. I gently grabbed his waist and massaged it, while he groaned, I massaged his waist for a while before kissing his lips again. His lips were bruises and his entire body was covered in bruises, bite marks and hickeys.

"No more..." he said. I kissed him one last time before I said, "I have to leave."

After hearing that sentence Yibo was finally awake, he just looked at me and said nothing, but I knew that he wanted without him saying anything. I knew he wanted me to stay, I knew he wanted me to just drop everything and run away with him.

But I can't, it was physically painful for me to leave his side. I gently removed my arms from around and started to get up, I wore my clothes and at the same time Yibo also got up and wore a robe.

Once I was dressed I turned to look at Yibo, who was not looking at me, "aren't you going to hug me darling?"

Yibo didn't move, but he clenched his fist and closed his eyes and took a deep breathe. I sighed and went near him and engulfed him in a hug, I gently kissed his forehead.

After sometime Yibo finally spoke, "the emperor and the crown prince are after the rebels, they are going to come after you and they might send me to attack you as well... if that happens..."

"If that happens then come at me with all you got." I spoke as I gently caressed his face, "but darling, let me make this clear to you that no matter what you do, this time I am not going to be defeated.

This time I am going to save everyone I cherish, including. I will not let the history repeat."

Yibo looked at me with confusion, "this time?"

I just gave him a small smile and kissed him on the lips before I slowly took a step back and finally turned my back on him and left.

~~

"Are you ready general?" Prince Simon asked me once I joined him and my brother.

My brother kept his hand over my shoulder and spoke, "are you sure, you can handle Roland?"

My next mission was to go the western border to talk to the notorious general Roland Evercrest. Roland was a character that I never really associated with, he was a brash, shameless and extremely unpredictable psychotic person. He was a rogue However prince Simon wanted him to be recruited.

He wanted Roland to join us.

The reason being that despite Roland being a pain in the ass, he was a highly talented person, and he was very close to the local tribes.

Roland's connection to the local tribes as well as the assassin organization that had attacked prince Simon made him very useful.

The man had solid connections and he lived to serve people, even in my last life Roland had also opposed the emperor. When the emperor had asked to take away the land of the local tribes for his selfish reasons it was Roland and his army that had came to the rescue of the tribe and fought with the emperor's soldiers.

That was the first time someone had openly opposed the king, fought with him and lives to tell the tale. Roland also had the support of the local, the villagers, his own army as well as the Evercrest family.

The Evercrest family controlled the sea routes, so even they turned against the emperor and caused a great deal of harm to the entire empire and greatly weakened the emperor.

At that time my family was already weak and had lost it's power and the Duke Ashvald never got involved in this stuff. The only people left to were the empress's family as well as wang family.

And the Evercrest family fought against the wang family, as well as the empress's family, in the end to prevent a civil war from breaking out the emperor retreated, but the tension was still there, however before anything else could happen, I had already died. So I had no idea what happened after that. But from what I can guess the emperor wouldn't have rested till Roland and the Evercrest family was dead, however since the wang family was also gone, the emperor was greatly weakened... so Roland could have easily defeated him.

Roland had a lot of resources and connections, he could very well lead the rebellion, but he cannot be a good leader ruler, because of his impulsive decisions and unpredictable nature.

I smiled at my brother and said, "I'll handle him brother, you make sure you take care of mom and dad."

My brother smiled and nodded, recently Gideon and the empress have been keeping a close eye on prince Simon, and my brother also needs to stay back in case anything happens.

Plus I want both my brother and prince Simon to keep an eye on Yibo.

So the ones accompanying me on this trip were Haoxuan, Ziyi, Ayala and Kairos.

My brother spoke, "Roland can be difficult but he is not dumb, I am sure that he will understand you, if you make him feel that you are right."

I nodded, prince Simon patted my shoulder and I spoke, "please look after Yibo."

Simon nodded, "I will try my best to keep him safe general, there will be no attacks from my side, but you have to know that more and more rebels want the wang family gone."

"I understand that." I said, "I will be back soon."

Prince Simon nodded and after talking to them a little more, I bid them farewell.

~~

"How is Yibo?" Ziyi asked me, all these days she has been trying her best to figure out the curse, she has been trying her best to help me and Yibo, but till now there is nothing that she has found.

And after seeing that effect of the curse, I want nothing more than to go back to Yibo and help him. But it seems like even he does not know what the curse is, or that he is cursed at all. Which makes it even more tough.

"He is fine." I said, and looked at Ziyi, who just shook her head, and said, "maybe elder could help us, but she never leaves the forest."

Suddenly Ayla spoke, "How come you still support the Wang family?"

I looked at her and said, "I do not support the wang family."

Ayla spoke, "but you are still close to wang Yibo ."

I said nothing to that, it became quiet again and finally Kairos spoke, "we are grateful to you for helping Azrael and Hazel. We trust you now, but you still haven't made it clear where Yibo stands in all this. If he is our enemy then have you done anything to make sure that he will not harm us."

"He won't" I said clearly, "Yibo will do us no harm."

Kairos spoke, "but he is our enemy." I said nothing to that and the conversation died down.

The journey to the western border took us five days. And it was exhausting, we stopped to rest at an inn.

We took our seats and gave our orders, Haoxuan made sure that I was comfortable, while I made sure to look out for everyone, Ayla and Kairos were happily indulging with Ziyi. While Ayla and Kairos now respected me they were not friendly with me and they can never be friendly with me after all I was still from the family that had destroyed countless lives and I was okay with that.

As long as we were civil with each other it was okay.

Our food arrived soon, but before we could start eating I heard a voice say, "well, well who do we have here."

I looked up to see none other than Roland along with his troupe entering the inn.

He looked smug as ever, as he came over to our seat and said, "you are sitting at our seat."

I got up and said, "Roland... it has been a while. I had no idea that this was your seat."

Roland looked at me and smirked and I knew damn well that it was a sign of trouble, he was going to cause trouble, and before I could say anything Roland spoke, "arrest these people, because they look suspicious."

Son of a bitch.