Empyrean Rebirth |Jing Yuan & Dan Heng|

☾-Rainy Spring Day-☽

Buckle up for a long ride...

--------

Desperation for her return seemed to have hit her father like a meteor falling from the sky. Once winter had faded and spring arrived, two instances of attempted retrieval had occurred already within mere weeks of each other. It seemed that word had spread around to her suitors that the princess from the Yaoqing has been missing for five months now with no reported sightings around neighbouring Xianzhou palace grounds. Knights from the Wang family and guards from the Huang family had traveled all the way from the Yaoqing to the Luofu in search of the missing princess and upon setting eyes on her, acted immediately upon their orders.

Being hunted down made (Y/n) feel like she was some sort of criminal, as if a bounty had been placed on her head due to some wrongdoing she'd done. In a sense, a bounty had been placed over her head. It didn't take too long for flyers to start appearing shortly after news of her disappearance had surfaced. Flyers saying that whoever could bring back the beautiful Princess (L/n) (Y/n) back to the Yaoqing would get her hand in marriage along with an unnecessary amount of gold and strale.

After almost being captured twice, it was no surprise that (Y/n) was scared because she would not be brought back home to marry! Even with the sword training she's been doing with Yanqing she was still no match against muscular and well trained soldiers who'd most likely fought in a war or two.

"Lady (Y/n)?" Qingzu approached the young woman with a cloak she recognised as one the general himself had given to her. "The general will be arriving shortly to the seat."

"Thank you, Qingzu," she thanked the chief counselor for the Seat of Divine Foresight. "You didn't have to bring me this cloak. I would've been fine in just this spare Cloud Knight uniform the general gave to me." Qingzu shook her head at this.

"Even I know that that still isn't enough to hide you from whoever those people are who're hunting you down. Trust his judgement; he's just keeping his word of keeping you safe." The chief counselor bowed before leaving to return to her post and resume her work. With a sigh, (Y/n) quickly pulled the general's cloak over her shoulders and adjusted the hood so that it covered up her face as much as possible.

As much as she hated having to hide whenever she went out along with constantly needing at least two Cloud Knights or the general himself accompany her, she knew that this was for the best. Even now, five months after she had run away from home, (Y/n) had no intention of returning and it seemed that at this point, she may never return to her loving parents.

The large and grand doors to the Seat of Divine Foresight opened to reveal Jing Yuan and a couple of Cloud Knights. He had worn a frown on his face until he saw the (h/c) lady sitting at his desk which prompted a smile to grace his lips. Seeing that he had arrived, she stood up and made her way over to the man.

"Jing Yuan," she greeted before frowning. "I feel so bad taking time out of your day like this... You're a general after all and you shouldn't have to look after me and constantly be—"

"(Y/n), please," he said while placing his hands firmly on both her shoulders. "I made you a promise to protect you myself. I will forever stand by this and make it my duty to ensure your safety."

"But..." She avoided his gaze. "I'll be just fine with having a Cloud Knight or two to accompany me. I've told you already that you don't have to go out of your way to protect me. I'm capable of defending myself..." As her voice faltered along with her confidence in her own words, Jing Yuan shook his head at what she was saying.

"When guards and knights from your suitors back on the Yaoqing came after you, you were almost captured by them... twice. The training you have been doing with Yanqing is not sufficient enough for you to be able to defend yourself. I'm not saying that you're incapable to self defense, I'm—"