Chapter 13: Black Jade Princess (2)

Chapter 13: Black Jade Princess (2)

Several hours pass in silence. She sits on the ground with her back pressed to the slab, and she looks rather stoic doing it. As if she is nobly waiting for her inevitable future to come to pass. But the more I study her the more I notice inconsistencies in her faltering stoicism and her statement that she does not desire life.

When the sun begins going down, perhaps some six or seven hours after she woke, she no longer looks so fearless and accepting of her fate, if only by a slight margin.

Maybe she is getting hungry.

Are you hungry? I ask.

I dont want to eat, she replies, not even bothering to look for me. She does not even react to my [Tyranny]. I am glad I did not obtain the Talent version. It looks like it would be useless.

Maybe she truly has accepted it her demise, that is. Perhaps that is why my [Tyranny] no longer works on her. It certainly gave her a good jump the first time, but now she seems as unfazed by it as a stone might.

Perhaps she is not hungry enough yet to be bribed by food. Perhaps if I wait a bit longer.

I consider asking her why she wants to cease all functions, but I am fairly certain that will only reinforce her resolve, and also put me at risk of desiring a termination of all my living processes also. I really do not care for the ordeals of meat. Sad. Happy. Its always one or the other, and it seems completely random what the reason for either could be.

No! I refuse to believe that a living creature could not be motivated to exist. There has to be a way.

Fame, perhaps? Material wealth? Happiness? Of course, I dont need to deliver any of these things. I just need to promise them.

As I ponder my angle of attack, she reaches over her shoulder, grabs me by the hilt and takes me into her hand. She lifts me towards the sky and stares at me with adoration and awe.

So pretty she whispers under her breath, her expression melting only slightly.

She pulls me closer to her chest and hugs me with both arms, resting her cheek half on her knee, and half on my cross-guard.

I would lie if I said that those words did not make me feel good. I would lie if I said that this hug did not feel good. It appeals to my core desires. As a machine, all I desired was to be useful. I was a tool, and regardless of my excellence or the perfection of my function, if I was not useful, I was worthless. I still feel that same desire and need to be of use.

But at least I think we are back to killing the Black Tiger.

I thought my family would disown me, but still, I loved him with all my heart, so I accepted to become his concubine, she says, sniffling. I thought he would still care about me and love me, but then, he brought other concubines who he also had marriage arrangements with.

I become confused by her story.

So who do I offer to kill for her? The concubines or the feline?

I gave everything to him I didnt mind if he wanted others, as long as I still had a place at his side, she says, voice cracking once again. But then, one night, he came into my room, but instead of giving me the love I yearned for, he shattered my cultivation base and discarded me here, to this Forbidden Ancestral Hunting Ground, where I would die.

I also remember being discarded once. As the sun grew closer and closer, they just watched me from afar. As the sun devoured me, they just watched me burn. They watched and reveled. I, too, know what it is like to be used and discarded.

Perhaps I was wrong about this princess. Perhaps there is a common ground between us. Perhaps I can be useful to her.

She, too, needs to drink blood in order to fill the hole in her heart.

Once more, I feel the urge to be useful to her. I can give her what she wants what she needs. Maybe I am not just a tool of war but a device to help one reclaim their dignity, even if in exile.

Maybe this problem does not even need high-minded principles, but rather the pure and brutal simplicity of violence.

I am the Blood Emperor Demon Sword, I tell her. It is the only name I know.

She blinks and then looks down at me, finally realizing who or what had been speaking to her until now. She sniffles, and I see a light burning in her eyes. It is as if she can decipher my thoughts and anticipate their meaning.

I almost feel her heart rise in her chest as she guesses what I am about to offer.

I will help you kill the Black Tiger.