there is no law that emperors must be fair || jing yuan

Boothill

You steadied your breathing as you sat atop a horse. The moment you said you wanted to go horseback riding, Blade seemed all too eager to get a new change of scenery as he lead you to the stables and got a horse.

Your sudden interest in riding a horse?

You wanted to fall off of it in hopes of either getting amnesia or acting like you got amnesia. It was a full proof plan! And this time you were sure it would work. Mainly because you’ve never ridden a horse before.

“So I just hold the reins like this,” you asked causing Blade to look over at you and momentarily sigh.

Your posture was wrong, your dress was bunched up weirdly, and the reins were practically being held in a death grip.

“No that’s not-“

“It is isn’t, Blade. Didn’t expect to see you here today. The Emperor wanting to go for a ride or something?”

“Boothill.”

“Boothill?”

Blade looked to you, “he’s a criminal.”

“If he’s a criminal then why is he here-“

Blade cut you off, “for work. The Emperor needs him for something, until then he is allowed to live here as long as he helps with the horses.”

You glanced towards a man who walked up to you both. He grinned up at you and tipped his hat, “little lady, you must be that princess I’ve been hearing so much about.”

You laughed a little, “the one and only,” you said as Boothill glanced at your form.

“You know little lady, I can teach ya how to ride a horse if ya want.”

“Really?!”

And just as Boothill was about to walk closer to you, Blade grabbed a hold of his arm causing him to chuckle.

“Relax, I ain’t going to hurt her.”

Blade tightened his grip for a mere moment before letting go of Boothill. Grinning at this, Boothill turned back to you, “pardon me, princess.”

“Huh- huh?! What are you doing?!”

Easily, Boothill had climbed into the saddle behind. Something that had taken you an embarrassing ten minutes to do.

“You need to relax too, I ain’t going to hurt ya.”

You could feel your face grow hot when he reached his arms around you and managed to take the reins from you, he then even helped you relax into him and help fix your dress for you so you wouldn’t accidentally flash anyone.

And as he sat behind you, you realized something else.

With him riding with you… you wouldn’t be able to enact your amnesia plan!! You internally groaned at the revelation.

“Ya know princess…”

“Hmm?”

Slowly but surely, you and Boothill started a slow trot around the field.

“You don’t have to stay here.”

“What do you mean?”

Boothill barked out a laugh, “come on, you can’t be serious. The Emperor is basically keeping ya around as some damn trophy. In fact, he will probably get rid of you once he gets bored with ya.”

You rolled eyes at that, “please, wouldn’t he actually have to be around me to get bored?”

Boothill snickered at your words, “looks like ya have some sass after all, and here I thought you were some bored little know nothing princess,” he gave your thigh a little pinch causing you to let out a little yelp which made you turn in the saddle a little and give his arm a light whack.

“No pinching you jerk!”

He laughed again before apologizing, “anyway princess, so how about it?”

“How about what,” you huffed.

“Come with me when I leave.”

Your brain took a momentary pause, “huh? Why would I-“

“Ya don’t have to answer now.”

You glanced back at him for a moment, “alright, but at least answer me this… why would you offer me something like that?”

He looked at you then, and when he gave you a little toothy smile a sort  of familiarity struck you, “cause I have ta pay ya back at some point.”

“Pay me back…?”

“Yeah, I figured ya wouldn’t remember, so I’ll be kind and give ya a little refresher.”

He looked behind you both to make sure Blade wasn’t following, and to his relief, the guard was minding his own business and was keeping a distance from them both (but he was still following after of course).

“Awhile back ago when your kingdom still belonged to your father, you and I crossed paths. I was injured, just got into a fight with a guy I considered an enemy and it was late at night when you stumbled across me in an alley. You wore a heavy cloak and a hood that covered your face, but I seen you enough times with your father to know you were a princess. A princess who decided to sneak out of the castle and see what night life was like.”

Slowly the memory started to come back. Truthfully, you tried to forget such a thing. Mainly because you knew you weren’t allowed out at night and didn’t want to get into trouble. So, you thought if you forgot about that night then you wouldn’t accidentally bring it up to father like how some children accidentally end up tattling on themselves when they try to tell their parents a story.

“You didn’t hesitate to bring me back to the castle and sneak me up to your room to try and patch me up. Truthfully, you did a shit job at stitching my wounds, but… if it weren’t for you I would either be dead from the blood loss or be a limb or two short.”

“I… I remember now.”

Boothill chuckled, “good. I would of been hurt if a beautiful princess forgot about me.”

“R- right, and maybe I should be thankful that such a handsome man even bothered to remember some trophy of a princess.”

Boothill chuckled at that, “mannn, I hope you don’t sass the Emperor like that. He’ll have your tongue cut out before you could say sorry!”

You shook your head at that, “trust me, I know better than to mouth off to him. Besides, its not like I even have the chance to talk to him anyway.”

“That’s right, you did mention how he doesn’t even glance at you, so princess… what do you say to my previous offer?”

You bit your lip as you could hear Blade’s horse start to come closer, “may I think it over?”

“Sure you can, but just a warning for ya, I won’t be here much longer.”

You nodded silently as Blade caught up to you both, “dinner will be ready in a few moments and the Emperor wishes to share a table with you.”

You glanced behind Blade to see a messenger riding on his own horse.

“I understand… does he want me to wear anything specific?”

“He said to wear something pretty,” the messenger immediately said.

Something pretty…