The Reticent Blade - Chapter 243 - Standoff

After finding out that her boyfriend was cheating on her, Qiao Sisi slept with a handsome stranger she picked up at the bar, only to wake up and realize that he was Zheng Zeyi, the cousin of her deadly rival, Yang Yueyue. She fled the room in a fluster, and put the embarrassing drunken fumble behind her.

Unexpectedly, the cold, roguish Zheng Zeyi came to her with a proposal—enter into a contractual engagement with him! It was a tempting offer Sisi could not resist, and it came with other perks. He could help her get a foot in the door of the prestigious Jinyu Company. It was a dream come true for an aspiring jewelry designer like her!

Sisi threw herself into the career opportunity of a lifetime, and as she exchanged barbs with Zeyi, she felt the first stirrings of attraction to him. Meanwhile, the resentful Yueyue was determined to thwart both her ambition and her blossoming relationship with her cousin.

The prince of Maldonia, Prince Artemis of House Arteides, the bear killer, the slayer of the elves is crowned King when his father King Arteides dies. The whole kingdom of Maldonia depends on him now, but he puts the throne in jeopardy after he refuses to marry Princess Thelma of House Taelin from the kingdom of Prophis and opt to marry Aurora Kholin, the love of his life.

Aurora is a seer and a powerful witch who has yet to aknowledge her powers, only Artemis knows of it. Lucian Mithandir is in exile recruiting an army to fight Prince Castellan of house Taelin for the throne of Prophis. Artemis wants no parts of this war, but he is very aware whoever wins the war will later turn to Maldonia.

Artemis has no clue that a bigger war is coming which will set kingdoms on fire, Aurora has seen it in her dreams and it’s for the Sweet Waters Throne in Maldonia. The end is uncertain but the ways are clearer, who will sit on the throne after the war between Lord Gandalf of House Old City who owns mighty huge lions and King Artemis of Maldonia who has Aurora and dragons breathing fire.

~ Excerpt Scene ~

The men of the secret council remained behind after the king walked away to further discuss the situation at the borders of the kingdom. The battlefield was named Stonedance and that’s because of its stony surface and this part of the place was usually abandoned and without inhabitants. Some people claimed Stonedance was cursed, that’s because it laid in the middle of two powerful kingdoms.

Stonedance was neither cold nor humid as it stood between the hot and shining Maldonia, and the freezing and gothic Prophis. It was the perfect place to fight and camp, the two battalions had all the space to themselves to prepare for war. Three hundred thousand men loyal to King Castellan Taelin of Prophis laid on the East, and two hundred thousand men keen to keep Lucian Mithandir.

Whatever was going on in Stonedance was of no Artemis’s concern as he focused more on sharpening his swordsmanship skills. He trained from morning to noon, with the lord commander of his kingsguard, Sir Dante Lucan who he befriended and these two became inseparable in a span of just a week.

“Come to me! Hard” Artemis urged his lord commander to not be easy on him.

“If I go hard on you Your Grace, we shall be left without a king to rule” replied Sir Dante Lucan with a smile. “You are getting better day by day; may I ask why the sudden interest in swordsmanship?”

.....

“I am a celebrated knight Sir Dante. I have fought in wars ever since I was nine”

“Exactly my point Your Grace. You are good with your sword, and have been for some time” Sir Dante smiled softly “Is it the war in Stonedance which makes His Grace nervous?”

“Some say I am ought to join my uncle, support the house my mother called it home. While others say my uncle betrayed me the very first day he took Mithandir inside his walls”

“And what do you say, Your Grace?”

Aurora joined them and Sir Dante excused himself. It had been a week and four days since they were last seeing at court.

“I am a warlock Artemis” For the first time ever since Artemis knew Aurora, this was the first she’s declared and accepted her true nature. “I am a seer, spaewife, or any other words you may want to use but I am not normal”

“We have talked about this Aurora, when the time is right…”

Aurora interrupted “The time is now!” she said. “I can feel the flames in my dreams getting hotter. If I don’t seek the help I need now, I fear for my own existence. I saw myself riding a ─” she paused softly.

Artemis leaned on to her “Riding a what?” he asked suspiciously.

“It may sound crazy, I mean I have never heard of such creatures and even if they exist…”

“What were you riding Aurora?”

After a few seconds of not being sure how will Artemis react or take it, Aurora finally exhaled softly and brought herself to speak “A dragon” and then she paused waiting to see how will Artemis take all of it.

This is the story of Lara, a young woman from modern times, raised with one singular purpose: to exact revenge on the family of the general who destroyed her own.But fate had other plans. On her way to carry out her mission of vengeance, a twist in the plan led to disaster. Lara was struck by a military truck escorting the very general she intended to assassinate.When she awoke, she found herself in an entirely different world—one where her identity and purpose were starkly different from the life she had known and how she had been molded to be.Abducted by human traffickers, she outsmarted them and escaped. Then, she encountered a mysterious martial arts master whose ancient skills far surpassed her own. For two years, she trained with him in the remote mountains. One fateful day, while hunting deep in Mount Ourea, Lara stumbled upon the Prince of Northem, disguised as a commoner. He was gravely injured while pursuing a notorious group of bandits. Lara saved him then vanished without a trace.Haunted by his savior, the Prince of Northem searched for her but to no avail. Duty called, and he rejoined the Northem army, embroiled in a fierce battle against the bandits and soldiers of Estalis in the Alta-Sierra mountain range.Amid the chaos, Lara was mistakenly swept onto the battlefield, disguised as a soldier. The Prince of Northem, intrigued by the disguised warrior, recruited him as his guard.During the battle, fate played another cruel hand. Lara came face to face with General Odin and his two sons—only to discover that General Odin was the spitting image of the general she had been trained to assassinate. Could the man from her world be a descendant of this brave general?Torn between her mission and her newfound reality, Lara faced an impossible question: How could she kill her biological father?Her internal conflict deepened when she uncovered an elaborate plot to frame General Odin and his sons as traitors. The true culprits? His own subordinates and trusted allies.In an ironic twist of fate, Lara found herself becoming the 'protector' of the family that, in modern times, she was supposed to ruin.After the war, Lara returned as a hero, ready to reveal her identity to General Odin, but she learned of another betrayal. Her cousin, Mira—the orchestrator of her abduction—had taken over her identity. Mira lived in her home under the guise of comforting Lara's grief-stricken mother because of the death of her only daughter. Not only that, she also did a lot of scheming and eventually claimed Lara's betrothal to Prince Alaric.With her identity stolen and her mission turned upside down, Lara faced a new challenge: reclaiming her life and honor and protecting her new family.

# HUSBAND-CHASING

Si Mi had been foolish in her past life. She aborted the child she had with her husband just so she could return to her first boyfriend, Fu Xing. Yet, Fu Xing had no intention of reconciling with her, and even ridiculed her for flattering herself. With that, Si Mi felt that she had been abandoned by the world. She wandered the streets dejectedly and was killed by a car that malfunctioned. As her soul floated in midair, she saw her stepsister secretly meeting up with the driver who killed her to give him a large sum of hush money. She even saw her stepmother, who had always doted on her, say, “That girl finally died. At least my efforts weren’t wasted in spoiling her to the point of being brainless and arrogant! My dear daughter, you can finally relax and be with Fu Xing now.” Finally, Si Mi saw her ex-husband attending her funeral, and then took revenge for her death. Her supposedly disfigured husband even removed his mask for the first time before her portrait. The man’s flawless appearance seemed to be a gift from the gods. Every inch of him was meticulously perfect, and he wasn’t as hideous as the rumors painted him to be.

Then, Si Mi lost all senses. When she opened her eyes, she found herself lying on a bed naked while a man rammed into her from above. It was her husband, Fu Zhen! She had just attended her own funeral moments ago as a wandering soul, so why was she in Fu Zhen’s bed now and making love to him? It seems that Si Mi was reborn back to the time when she had just married her husband. During this time, she had yet to abort Fu Zhen’s child, and hadn’t yet fallen into her stepmother and stepsister’s scheme! What perplexed Si Mi even more was that she now possessed the power of telekinesis after being reborn. Splendid! She swore not to be toyed with anymore in this life. She would also take revenge! More importantly… she had to compensate Fu Zhen for what she owed him. She would give her best to this man who once loved her deeply.