Chapter 36

Bai Yang Liu
Royal Highness Yang Liu

“Let me go!” Yang Liu hit Lance hard and still, he did not flinch. “What you are doing will have you dead. My brother will not forgive you. When my servants wake up, they will go and report you.”

“I know. That is what we want, him to know and come searching for you.”

“Why? Just because of a bird I killed?”

“No. He has what belongs to us.”

Yang Liu closed her eyes to avoid the wind from drying her eyes. She could not look down, otherwise she would vomit at the sight of being so far off the ground, flying to a place only Lance knew.

Her small body was against Lance’s hard rock of a body as he carried her with one hand on her back and the other on her bent knees. She tucked herself into his chest as it was hard to breathe with all the wind blowing against her face.

“Please, let me go,” her voice came out resignedly. She was tired of shouting.

“No, Princess.”

“I will give you whatever you want.”

He guffawed. “Everything I want, I have.”

“Please, let me go.”

“I said no.”

“Please, Lance.”

"All right," he chuckled this time. “If you insist.”

Out of nowhere, she was tossed out of his hands and flying down. Fear gripped her body. He just let her go. She went rigid and pierced the air with her loud terrified shrill.

“Lance!”

Yang Liu had never felt so light as her body recklessly succumbed straight to the ground. Was this really the end of her? She did not want to die, no, not yet.

“Help!”

She squinted her eyes and braced for the inevitable. Surely, her brother would avenge her the same way he did with Gurio.

Her body was then flailed like a ragged doll as two strong arms took her up again. She fell flat onto Lance’s body, straightway she knew it was him, the mint scent, the way he held her to him unabashedly as if they belonged together.

This time she clung onto him as fast as she could. Her hands circled his neck and legs wrapped around his torso. She had never been that afraid.

The rumble of Lance’s stomach could be felt by her legs as he laughed. “Didn’t you say I should let you go?”

She shook her head, still terrified to speak. All she could do was hold him tight.

It was a while later that she felt him start to descend. His speed had slowed down, the air not going against them hard.

They came to a standstill and Lance’s body relaxed. She still held on, not willing to let go and face whatever lay ahead. Could she just not open her eyes and simply find herself in Nevoria?

Her stomach growled and an ache spread through her belly.

Lance began walking and the scent of wood, mint, and cherry was in the atmosphere they entered.

Her eyes opened and she realized they were in a manor.

It was a manor built on wood, spacious with green complementing brown and black. The set up was not what you would see back at home. Their manors were different. They had a fantastical appearance as beautiful stones gleamed at every corner, glass decorations draping from the roof of his welcoming room. They did not have cushions for seating, but rather chairs and stools.

They proceeded into a hallway as she heard Lance’s feet thudding.

He took her into a bedchamber that had a humangous bed. It doubled the size of her brother’s, and instead of the normal rectangle shape, it was round. Many pillows were strewn on top of the black cover of his bed.

Swords decorated the wall of the bedchamber alongside sharp knives made out of different kinds of metal.

He saw her line of sight and tsked. “Do not think of it or I will be forced to end your life before you see your pretty brother again.”

He dumped her on the bed where she bounced and relaxed. There was something wrong with her. She just had been kidnapped and she wasn't frantic about it at all.

“This is where you will sleep. My bedchamber.”

“Do you not have another bedchamber? I am a princess, I do not share bedchambers.”

His upper lip lifted in amusement. “You are a princess in Nevoria. Here, you are nothing but a slave.” He took a jug of water and poured some into a cup.

The beads of the curtains on the doorway rang as someone entered. It was a Furian girl who bowed before Lance.

“Master, you are here.”

Her clothing was almost nothing. It was sheer material that covered her, tight to her body that you could make out every curve. The skirt ended before her knees and her breasts protruded from beneath the upper garment. In her wrist was a jade bracelet that clung to her wrist.

Workers in the Furian household were spoiled. In Nevoria, a maid owning such a thing, it was assumed she had stolen it. However, Yang Liu remembered that Furia prided itself in producing jewels. They had plenty to go around.

As if reading her mind, Lance said to the maid. “Bring me another jade.”

The maid nodded and opened the chest of drawers by the bed, extracting a jade bracelet.

Lance took it from her and trudged towards the bed. He grabbed Yang Liu's wrist, who was still lying on the bed, unwilling to sit up.

Tingles spread up and down her arm. His hand was warm and large against her smaller one that the need to resist him was discouraged.

He casually clasped the jade around her and tapped her wrist when done. "It looks perfect on you."

"What is this for?"

"If you want to survive here, you will wear that. It says you are mine."

"I am not yours."

He balanced himself on fours over her,  hands next to her shoulders, legs by her hips. "Why not?"

"I am a princess. The empire owns me until I am given unto marriage."

"Details. I take what I want."

She rolled her eyes. "Like I do not know that, because if not, I wouldn't be here."

He smiled, his chest humming. "Do you have someone you are betrothed to?"

"Yes," she lied, hoping he would let her go.

"You are fair game. Finders keep. You find something, it's yours."

Her stomach rang and she pushed him off. "I really need to go somewhere where I can relieve myself." She was shy to say that but the pressure in her stomach was rising.

He called for his servants to bring out something for her and they brought a wooden bucket. They put it in the corner of the room, away from the bed.

"Thank you," she said, now dancing toward the bucket as her stomach twisted. It was so embarrassing with Lance still around. Just great. He would not like her after.

Lance tossed himself on the bed and crossed his hands under his head, watching her.

"Lance, get out!" She danced even more.

He frowned. "I am staying. How do I know you will not run away? You are probably faking it so as to escape."

"No! Get out!"

"No, Princess!" he mimicked her.

"Lance, please!"

He smirked. "Repeat that again. Say, 'Please, Lance.'"

"Lance, I will dirty my clothes," she cried. "Please, leave!"

He shrugged, falling into a fit of laughter.

Not being able to take it anymore. She dropped the trousers under her robes and dipped her buttocks onto the bucket.

A watery mess burst into the bucket as air blew out of her with an irritating loud noise crackling in the air.

"I hate you!" Yang Liu groaned as her bodily substances continued to rapture out of her.

Lance took out a cloth and covered his nose. "Aiya," he mocked her by using her dialect. "What did you eat this afternoon?"

Furia and Nevoria were once one, thus they had the same language, yet different dialects.

"I hate you," she sniffled.

He laughed, though muffled by the cloth. Tears trickled from his eyes. He was enjoying seeing her demise.

"This is so embarrassing," Yang Liu mourned.

He stood up to go and raise the curtain of his window, then flipped it continuously to let fresh air in. "Such a small body and yet all this?" Lance went on to tease her.

She sighed. So it was not just her who could smell the awful stench.

The door opened and a servant brought in a dish of water and a cloth. She placed them beside Yang Liu.

At the palace, her servants did the same, so she did not mind it, however, Lance was another story.

Yang Liu thanked her and took the cloth to wipe herself. Thankfully, Lance was busy gasping for air on the window to notice whatever she did now. Suits him right.

She disposed of the cloth into the bucket and the servant took them away alongside the dish of water after she washed her hands.

"Your sleeping garments are being prepared for you," Lance stretched his body. His biceps flexed.

Yang Liu blushed looking at him. Lance had an effect on her she had never felt from any man.

"I will sleep in my clothes." What she had experienced was enough embarrassment for one day.

The servant came back in with an incense burner. It would help the bedchamber to smell better. She placed it down and lowered her head. “Anything else you may need, Grand General?”

“I will call for your help if there is anything.”

She nodded and left.

Yang Liu removed her shoes, ready to sleep and escape the day already. “Wait for my brother to come for me, he will not spare you,” she begrudgingly told him.

Lance laughed. “I once faced him. I survived.”

“In your sleep.”

Everyone fantasized about meeting the emperor or lied to have met him for the sake of getting attention, even if her elder brother had not heard of or seen them.

“I have to train. I will get a maid to come here and watch you.”

She instantly stopped in the midst of opening the blankets. “Lance! You could not do that when I needed to relieve myself?”

“I could have, but that would have been boring,” he mused.

“You are disgusting!”

He grinned. “I am not the person responsible for the stench in here, how could that be?”

Rage filled her as she took a pillow and threw it at him. He easily caught it. “Do not be embarrassed, Princess. I can make it up to you by calling you when I relieve myself too.” He was withholding another laugh from breaking forth.

What was it about him? He seemed to enjoy teasing and embarrassing her.

Yang Liu pushed the blankets and enveloped herself inside. She was angry at him and she wanted to send that message out clearly.

S.V