Book 14: Chapter 40
Ying’s residence was located at the outer layer of the Imperial Palace. Houses in the area weren’t cheap by any account. Being calculative and cunning, Freya had made arrangements and bought the area so as to avoid allowing businessmen own it. As such, Ying resided on the second floor of a small building. In terms of living conditions, Ying’s life was decent. Somebody had to provide Ying with expenses, because she was unlikely to have any means of making a living.
I walked up to Ying’s door. Two guards first froze when they saw me. Then, they swiftly went down on their knees and saluted me: “Your Majesty!”
I nodded: “Uhm. Is there anybody inside?”
The two guards gave me a nod: “Ying… That is how you pronounce it, right…? Mm… Your Majesty, Miss Ying is here, except… we really want to know if we need to stop the Princesses if they come.”
The two guards seemed to be in a serious dilemma. One of them continued, “After all, if we do not handle the situation well… we may very well have a problem.. Whether or not we stop the things around you from happening, the consequences will not be good, either way… After all…nafter all… to the Princesses… Miss Ying… is…”
I didn’t quite grasp where they were going with it at first, so I responded as a puzzled man would: “Of course you’re to let them in. Why would you need to stop them?”
“Because… because… if the Princesses were to meet Miss Ying… the result would not be good, right…? Because…. it is not really a good thing to them, right? Your… Your… Your…”
The guards seemed to struggle to speak their minds. However, I wasn’t willing to waste a single second at the moment. I wanted to see Ying, and then head to the out of bounds area of the elves where my father died. I scrubbed my hair then aggressively said, “What exactly is it that you want to say? You don’t happen to think that Ying and Xia are my mistresses, do you? How could I have two mistresses here, where it’s so close to the Imperial Palace?! Am I retarded?! Ying and Xia are just my friends, and my wives know them, too, so you don’t need to worry.”
The guards nodded then made way with embarrassed smiles on their faces. The door before me was just a small white wooden door. The two paths led to a small courtyard. You could grow some stuff of both sides of the small courtyard just as Mera did. Nobody grew anything there, though.