The War God’s Favorite novel Chapter 41

 The Ambitious Servants
As they were putting their clothes back on, Kairen couldn’t help but thoroughly behold his Concubine. Why did she seem prettier than he remembered? His mother’s influence could be seen on her. Cassandra had always been naturally graceful and gentle-mannered, but now, she was moving with the attitude of a Queen. Or maybe it was just the jewelry enhancing her natural beauty.
“How is our son?” asked Kairen, caressing her tummy.
“He’s fine. I can feel him a little now. And the egg has grown bigger, too.”
Kairen nodded in approval and took her hand, pulling her out of the room. Cassandra was completely lost in the maze of the Palace, but the Prince guided her confidently. In a few minutes, they were back in the Main Room where the Emperor’s golden throne was. Shareen was still there, her arms crossed.
“Kairen!” Kareen sighed out in relief.
“See, he’s fine, dar…”
“Fine? Then what are those?!”
The Imperial Concubine was inspecting the scaled scars on her son, looking furious.
“Who dared to injure my son? I want their heads!”
“Fine, yes, whatever you want. Would you move back to the Palace now, please?” asked the Emperor, visibly annoyed.
“Move back to this nest of snakes? Among all those two-faced whores? The little sluts that skulk around here?”
“You…you’re being a bit too much, darling.”
“Over my dead body!” yelled Kareen. “And know that if anything happens to my children or grandchildren, this will be the last time you’ll see me!”
And with that, she turned on her heels and left the room, not hiding her anger.
“Kareen! Ka… Oh, that woman!” sighed the Emperor.
He sat back on his throne looking sullen. Behind him, Glahad looked a bit disappointed too, laying down with a long face. Kairen walked up the first few stairs towards the throne.
“Father, my request.”
“Your request? What request? Your mother didn’t even listen!”
“You only asked that she would come here,” growled Kairen.
“Come and listen to me! All she did was yell at me! Did I deserve that? I feel so pathetic! She won’t even look at me anymore! What good is it being the Emperor if you can’t even control your own women?!”
“Father!”
“Ah, enough! I’ve had enough yelling for one day! We’ll talk about it later. Just go to your rooms, and… Won’t you and your concubine please attend the New Year Celebrations?”
Kairen’s fists tightened. This stubborn father of his was really getting on his last nerve, but before he could add anything, Cassandra grabbed his hand gently.
“Let’s go,” she whispered to him.
He didn’t say anything further, listening to her instead and stepping down, before leaving the room altogether. All that time, Cassandra hadn’t glanced at the Emperor once. For some reason, she felt very awkward just being in the same room as him…
They kept walking in silence through the corridors, passing by several rooms.
“My Lord, what did you ask of your father? In exchange for all this…”
“To be taken out…”
“Taken out?”
“Of his possible successors.”
“What?”
Cassandra stopped, speechless. He had asked for what? As she had stopped walking, Kairen had no choice but to stop and turn back to her.
“You asked for what?”
“For my father not to consider me as one of his successors. To be taken out of the running for future Emperor.”
“W…why would you do that?” Cassandra asked, still in shock.
“To protect you,” Kairen shrugged.
“That is not a valid reason!”
He didn’t even respond to that. Cassandra couldn’t understand what was going on. Was it because of what she had said? How scared she was for their child’s safety? Did he think everything would be solved if he was ruled out as a potential successor?
Cassandra’s mind was working at full speed. This was too much, even if it was for her sake!
“My Prince, you can’t…”
“Later.”
Kairen started walking again, and Cassandra followed, realizing that they were headed outside of the Imperial Palace. As it was much warmer there, a bit too hot for her. Cassandra tried to stay in his shadow to shield herself from the sun.
As soon as they reached the outer gardens, a bunch of young women suddenly approached them. They all had green dresses on and harbored fake smiles.
“Your Highness! Are you going outside? Do you need help?”
“We can accompany you, if you’d like!”
Cassandra was outraged by the women’s smutty intentions. What was this? Didn’t they usually fear the War God? And they were all blatantly ignoring her in their efforts to seduce him! Had they no shame at all? However, Kairen resolutely ignored them. Maybe for the first time though, Cassandra felt utterly annoyed. Had they become servants of the Imperial Palace just to try and seduce one of the Princes? Didn’t they fear for their lives?
“Your Highness! Wouldn’t you like another woman to warm your bed?”
Suddenly, Kairen stopped and turned to the young woman who had spoken. She was pretty with shiny hair and big lustful eyes, but Kairen’s eyes reflected back nothing but annoyance.
She didn’t realize this and assumed a seductive posture, showing off her curves. Cassandra looked elsewhere as she couldn’t bear to watch this kind of scheming.
“…Out of our way.”
“Eh?”
“I said, get out of our way.”
The woman looked a bit shocked, but kept insisting, trying to use her physical charms.
“B…but don’t you think I’m pretty? And I’m very experienced, too…”
Before she could add anything else, Kairen shoved her to the side with enough force to send her tumbling to the floor, falling flat on her ass. None of the other women moved to help her, they were all petrified by the Prince’s deathly glare.
Kairen resumed walking, not even bothering to look at them any longer. Cassandra followed in his steps silently. The servants didn’t dare to add a word either, especially after a dark shadow suddenly flew over them. Krai landed behind Cassandra, toddling to her until its head could be by the Concubine’s side. The dragon’s arrival had scared away all the nearby servants, but it made Cassandra smile. Krai softly growled while waddling by her side, following them outside the Imperial Palace’s domain. 3
The Palace itself was so vast that it took quite a while to leave it. Once they walked past the large walls though, the City sprawled out in front of them.
Cassandra took a deep breath. It had been so long since she had been in the City! Not much had changed over the last few months, of course, as she recognized most of the streets and shops. What was different was the way people looked at her though. This was the first time she could walk with her head held high. Before, she would get looks of disgust, people chasing her away like vermin. Now, the women were covetous of her, while the men lusted over her. All of them were careful to look down if the Prince or his Dragon came near though and Krai growled often, warning people not to come too close, forcing a clear path to open up in front of them, obviously disliking crowds. Now, those people were the ones averting their eyes and being careful. It was a vastly different experience.
“Where are we going, My Lord?”
“To the Slave Market.”
Cassandra was speechless. Really? Now? But indeed, after a few more steps, she started to recognize the direction they were headed. Was he really going to take care of her slave status, now?
“How do you know where it is, My Lord?”
“I used to run away from the Palace and come to the City.”
“Really?”
Was he a mischievous child growing up? Cassandra couldn’t keep herself from smiling, imagining a young Kairen playfully running through the streets.
“C…Cassie?”
Cassandra turned around. Hidden in the crowd, a pair of young slaves were looking at her with shocked eyes. She recognized them instantly.
“Ethen? Mira?” she called out to them.
They nodded, and the people around the slaves stepped back. The two were younger than Cassandra. Ethen was fourteen years old, and Mira was just eleven. After a brief hesitation, they walked up to her and Cassandra hugged them as soon as they were within reach.
“Ethen, your…hand…”
She looked at the bandage on his wrist, where his hand used to be. He still had it when she had left their master’s house.
“Ah… It’s okay, Cassie, I’m fine. The… Master was very angry at that time, so he…”
“Cassie, I thought you were dead!” Mira interrupted, tears in her eyes. “The Master said that you were given as an offering to the…the…”
She didn’t finish her sentence, but her eyes were clearly on Krai, afraid. The dragon was looking at her with curiosity though.
“Cassandra. Who are they?” asked Kairen.
“We…worked for the same Master.”
“The Old Master is dead, Cassie. Now his son is our Master.”
Cassandra felt like screaming. She remembered him. He was about her age, but the Old Minister’s son was a horrible, spoiled child. He had laid his hands on the young female slaves several times and was even worse to the men. Ethen’s hand was only a glimpse of his cruelty.
She shook her head. She couldn’t possibly let them go back. Cassandra turned her head to Kairen, hesitating for a moment. Could she ask for a favor like this? Maybe just this once? Feeling her hesitation, her Prince turned to her.
“Say it.”
“1… Can they come with us? Please…”
She didn’t even have to ask a second time. Kairen nodded, and resumed walking. The two young slaves were confused, but Cassandra took their hands.
“Come with me.”
“B… But… The Master…”
“Don’t worry about him.”
Still fearing the huge dragon, they started walking next to her, chatting about what had happened since the Arena. Cassandra detailed her story and then asked them the same. The two young slaves didn’t have any good news. The Old Minister was a cruel man, but his son managed to be even worse. He had taken some of his father’s remaining concubines as his own, and chased away or killed the rest.
“What a pig…” said Cassandra.
“Cassie… We’ll really be punished if we don’t go back…” cried Mira.
“No, no, don’t worry.”
The more she thought about it, the more Cassandra didn’t want to let them go back, or let anyone go back there. She abruptly stopped, and thought about it for a few seconds, before turning to Kairen.
Let’s go there.”
He didn’t say anything, but she took a deep breath to explain herself.
“I can’t…I can’t leave them. All the slaves there were like me, they were all my friends. Some are even younger than Mira. I… His son only inherited his father’s wealth and properties, but he doesn’t have a title. I can…I can do this, right?”
Kairen smirked. Of course she could. When would she stop doubting herself so much? Cassandra only seemed to realize her own strength and status when she needed it to help others…
“Where is it?” he asked. 2
Cassandra led the way. It was an odd feeling going back to her Old Master’s house. She probably would have been terrified if she hadn’t been accompanied by a Dragon and its master. One was a killing machine, and the other could eat several grown men in one bite. And both were smitten with her. 7
They arrived a few minutes later. Cassandra took a few seconds at the entrance to calm herself. As she stood there, all of the memories resurfaced, as clear as if it were only yesterday. The yelling, the slaps, and the bite of the whip. All that suffering that had marked her skin forever. She could never get rid of the scars, physical or emotional. The worst thing about it was the hunger though. Most people thought the physical punishments were more painful, but only someone who had lived through it knew that there was nothing worse than hunger; it drove you crazy.
She took a deep breath. She wasn’t hungry, cold, or scared anymore. Those scars were now just reminders of injuries that had been healed.