The Imperial Battle II: The Emperor of Ninjago

Chapter 8. The Spider in the House

The text in the picture is the last few lines from the Mulan ballad. It has something to do with the chapter itself, so I highly recommend reading it :)

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"—And then Kai and I rode away, crossed fields, climbed mountains and finally made it to the Monastery of Spinjitzu," Lloyd finished telling. He had just recapped his adventure with Kai, just to let James know what had started everything that was going on now.

"Wow," James responded, looking impressed. "Seriously, you two had a some crazy storybook adventure... and a love story straight out of some romantic novel."

Lloyd blushed a little. "Yeah, something like that."

"Damn, I want one too..."

"Well, here you have an adventure. All you need now is a love interest."

James scrunched his nose. "Eh, no thanks. I'm not very big on love. I'll just take the adventure."

Lloyd chuckled. He was surprised to be in such a neutral mood considering their absolutely horrendous situation. They were scrambling their way through what felt like an endless forest, had already been traveling for an eternity, and had slept in the rain under a big tree. The last one was one of the many factors that caused them to look like they had been dipped in mud, soaked in a dirty river, run over by a horse and left to attempt to blend in with the forest environment. Their clothes especially had seen better days.

"I cannot believe it's only been a year since all of that happened," Lloyd continued, smiling a little wistfully. "Things were so much simpler back then. It was just... Kai and I. Sure we were kidnapped and all, but... still, it was so much simpler."

"Well, maybe there will be simpler times again," James replied. "That's the goal at least."

"Yeah... but if we really get the Oni Masks and actually manage to defeat Clouse... I wonder what will happen," Lloyd said, gazing at the ground.

"Well, your father will probably choose a better royal advisor," James grinned.

"Yeah, hopefully. I'm tired of psychos like Clouse."

"Mm, you have to be a bit psychotic to make those kinds of plans."

Lloyd nodded. "And to think that Clouse was planning this all along, ever since I was born. It just... I don't know, it still feels unbelievable."

James glanced at Lloyd. "Clouse seemed like a normal advisor then, didn't he?"

"Yeah," the prince shrugged.

"It must've been even worse getting betrayed by him in particular," James empathized. "I mean, usually royals get somewhat attached to their servants, especially if they are around for a very long time."

Lloyd paused. James had touched on what he himself had been battling with silently. The very moment he had discovered Clouse was behind all the evil business, he had felt very weird. It had not been like facing just some evil, power-hungry guy like in the movies, but rather like being betrayed by a trusted person and left in complete shock. Shock in which Lloyd had been unable to think straight.

Clouse had always been there. Lloyd had seen him around the palace ever since he'd opened his eyes for the first time. And all he had seemed like was a normal royal advisor occasionally bowing to him and helping his father with everything there was for an emperor to do. Clouse had always been in the background, sometimes even being distantly kind towards Lloyd and helping him out. And Lloyd would've been lying if he'd claimed there hadn't been a time when he'd felt some type of distant attachment to him like he had felt towards Hutchins or Daiki or Nya, for example.