One Month Ago - Unknown POV

  23rd Day of the Month of Hearts, 974th Year of the Sun Emperor's Calendar

  Sor Imperial Pace - Emperor's Wing

  Walking down the gilded halls that were remodeled by my te grandfather, the 54th emperor of the Sun Empire, made for quite an oppressive mood. No matter how many times I have walked down these halls, I always feel like I am walking down the gilded road to the underworld. Though knowing how many people walked to their deaths in this pce certainly did not help.

  Thankfully, my grandfather is no longer around, and this is now the halls of my father, who is not a murder happy coward, so that gives everyone some amount of relief. Even if that did not dispel the rumors.

  My ruminations then got cut short as I had reached the end of the hall where my father, the emperor's office, resided.

  I did not know if there was anyone else in there or if my father had some sort of meeting going on, so I took a deep breath before opening the door. As I did that, I stepped forward and bowed while saying, “Greetings, Emperor Father, to what do I owe the summons?”

  This was the standard greeting I gave whenever Father was with company, as most nobles would consider it to be a failure of the imperial family if I did not greet my father by his title according to “proper” etiquette. Even if this was something that would normally go under the radar of everyone around.

  That did not seem to be the case this time as I soon heard a few chuckles coming from the occupants of the room. Discreetly looking at one of the occupants of the room, I soon found out why.

  Sitting in one of the chairs across from Dad was the general of the military, Uncle Raven. Someone I did not have to keep up an act in front of. Knowing that I straightened up immediately, and it was then that I saw Uncle Oz, the court steward, and occasional regent of the empire. He was also the one who was in charge of my etiquette training and a majority of my education. He is the one person I cared least about keeping up an image in front of!

  The chuckling finally died down when Uncle Raven spoke up and threw a jab at me by stating, “So the spoiled princess finally learned some manners!”

  That remark made me fume slightly, and I wanted to retort, but Uncle Oz cut me off by commenting back, “I’m shocked as well! Tenariphis, how hard did you beat her to finally make her learn?”

  Now I was properly mad and was about to snap when Dad finally replied to them, saying, “I did not do anything like that. I only gave her a listening talisman during one of the banquets and told her it was to keep her conversations private.”

  That poured cold water over the fire that was building inside of me at the memory of that night. The enhanced hearing that the talisman gave me allowed me to hear all the snide remarks people were giving about how I acted behind my back and all the jabs at how I interacted with people. What was worse was that when I ran away out of embarrassment, I overheard my supposed friends saying even worse things when they thought I was out of hearing range.

  It took longer than I would like to admit to recover from that, and, even though Dad said it was not reted, the families of those reted to my supposed friends were not allowed into the pace for a few years. There was even an investigation done into one of them that led to that family losing its noble status. From that point on, I focused on learning proper etiquette despite not using it in front of my family or Uncles.

  Dad then raised his hand, interrupting my thoughts and silencing Uncle Oz, who was about to speak, before saying to them, “That is enough! No more teasing the poor girl.” He then turned to me and expined, “The reason why we summoned you is to talk about where you will be sent for outside training.”

  I froze at his words. It was something that I knew would be happening soon, as I had reached beyond the normal age that imperial family members were sent out, but I still did not want to leave.

  Stamping my foot on the ground, I crossed my arms while pouting and procimed, “But Dad! I don’t want to go!”

  My Dad, on the other hand, did not buy it and sighed while pinching the bridge of his nose. He then looked up at me and said, “That doesn’t matter, dear. All members of the imperial family are eventually sent to one of the major sects in the empire to study. This is not something that you are going to be exempt from.”

  I did not really care about the tradition at all and was about to argue with him when he looked me dead in the eye and said with the authority of an emperor, “And I will not be taking no for an answer, young dy.” He then continued in his normal tone of voice, saying, “We have also already decided which Sect you will be going to, so we are only going to inform you today.”

  That shocked me so much that my inner thoughts leaked out and I said, “But I want to go visit Aunty.”

  I only realized what happened after I said that. I expected a reprimand because of my breach of decorum, but instead, all I got was a bunch of smiles from everyone.

  It confused me for a moment until Dad spoke up and said, “Well, that’s good, because you are being sent to the Silver Moon Sect in about two months. So get yourself prepared and ready to head off anywhere between now and then.”

  Vulthurtoor