Chapter 282: Flame of Revenge
The Wind Kingdom had little to no contact to the Sky Kingdom for ages. Only in the past decade do they trade through the seas and the Wind Kingdom had no interest in their politics or kingdom.
The Sky Kingdom has entirely different cultures and traditions which were not accepted by the three kingdoms. The Sky Kingdom valued monogamy as an important virtue but the three kingdoms and the fire kingdom followed polygamy. Their beauty standards were also different that fair skinned women were considered beauties in their kingdom and the people in the Sky Kingdom are of varied skin tones and so for them complexion didn’t matter. The sky Kingdom also had very fertile lands and gold... They had a lot of gold!
Xing learned about the Sky Kingdom’s cultures back in the Heavenly Flowers Palace where there were two courtesans from the Sky Kingdom. She learned to speak their language from them too and since they didn’t know how to read or write, she couldn’t learn that.
But she learned about the politics side only recently. The rulers were of the Shy Kingdom were the Inan family. Apparently it was the Arsalan family who held the soverinity over the seas by their Naval fleets. Marvan Arsalan the one who, right to his name was called the ’Brave Lion of the seas’ was the greatest Admiral the Sky Navy had ever seen who helped them conquer the entire southern kingdoms of the Sky Kingdom. The Lion figurehead on the bow of his fleets inflicted fear on the opposing fleets who’d flee just by the sound of the drums they beat as a call for war...stories said.
Xing was informed that Marvan Arsalan was executed a year back for adultery which is a capital punishable offence in their kingdom which Xing found too excessive. If any man who sleeps with more than one woman is executed in their Wind kingdom, there would be only a handful of men left in their kingdom, Xing knew. Monogamy is a good concept according to Xing but capital punishment for adultery.. A bit too much!
Marvan Arsalan had only two daughters and so the naval fleet was passed to his elder son-in-law Jubin who was raised by Marvan as his protégé and heir. But the youngest daughter who was just fifteen at that time vehemently opposed the punishment of her father claiming that he is innocent and led some of his supporters against the Emperor to free her father which failed terribly. It was said that she received the punishment of "Condemnation of Memory" which meant all her records of being alive will be eradicated... A punishment worse than execution according to Xing. At least one’s name would be remembered if they are executed but those who received the punishment of ’condemnation of memory’ will have nothing of their past left as they will be completely eradicated from history. Those who rallied behind her were executed and peace was preserved and no one has heard of the daughter ever again or knew if she was dead or alive and there is a bounty on her head in their kingdom as they don’t want her alive and she was proclaimed as an enemy of state.
When Xing heard about this story, she really admired that younger daughter who tried to save her father and even got a terrible punishment for it.
But is Maya, the one standing in front of her now, that daughter she greatly admired? If she is, what kind of cruelties did she suffer in the past year living as a nomad, alone, with nothing... Not even a name... It is worse than being an orphan or a bastard... To have everything that belonged to you getting plucked out of your hands..!
Xing had one good reason to believe that Maya should he the daughter of Marvan Arsalan because she believes it won’t be no coincidence that Seiren was put together with her.
"After your man made this... ’message’ on me... I was put in this slave Caravan that passed through he desert to our Kingdom... One of the slaves was his man... I’ve seen him before and he helped me with medicines for my wound... If my guess is right, those traffickers might be replaced by your man too... " Seiren’s voice brought Xing back from her thoughts.
"She was there among some other women and the moment there were talks that there was a search party for Lord Zhong and he had escaped from captivity, she... She might have figured it out or at least guessed I was him... She started taking good care of me and asked questions about our kingdom... She hates her kingdom... I guessed she might be... You know who... ", Seiren paused and Xing could see the sadness in his eyes.
Well, it’s going to sting that she approached him to be manipulative.