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The voice behind the blade belonged to a woman's. I couldn't see her face because it was blocked but her voice left a familiar sound to my ear.

Mindful to not move so the blade wouldn't cut at his neck, the Solider quickly registered the voice and said. "Looks like someone wants to be next? Sadly, you will have to wait your turn since we've found ourselves a south gem." He reached for my dress the same time the blade nicked at his skin which scrunched his face painfully.

Both the skinny and the fat man got up to fight back the woman who stopped them when she stuck the blade even deeper, drops of his blood trailed down his neck. "I will cut his head clean if anyone dares to move another inch." The Soldier bit at his lips with a low grunt.

The skinny man chuckled nervously. "I don't think you would be bold enough to kill a man."

"Then I guess we will have to see if that's true or not." Her blade was soaked with the Soldier's blood, cutting further into his neck. Both were hesitant to move even after the Soldier shouted for them to stand down. "Smart choice," She released the blade from his neck but kept it close at his shoulder. "Now, are any of you gentlemen aware whose wife she belongs to?"

"I don't think we care. Pussy is the same as each womans'." The fat man said with a snicker and the two others joined. "Maybe I should shut her up for you, boss. You know I enjoy my women disobedient —" From my view, the fat man stood unexpectedly and charged at the woman. I noticed he pulled a knife from his shoe.

So swiftly, the woman lifted her sword from the Soldier's shoulder and sliced off the fat man's hand, clean. The dominant hand that held the knife that was going to attack her. Both he and I screamed at the sight of his hand slapping the ground, and the vivid sight of red gushing from his penetrated arm. He fell to his knee, baffled at his hand lying cold. And I suddenly felt sick.

The skinny man jumped away from the splurging blood, and the Solider took me by my hair while wrapping his arm around my neck in a choking position, something sharp pinched at my neck right under my chin — a knife.

"How about you drop the sword little lady, or I'll cut through her throat, and we both don't want that to happen. So why don't you do it, uh? It's probably a bit heavy for your fragile hands. What do you say?"

From the angle I was held captive, I was finally able to see the woman behind the sword — the storyteller. It was the beautiful woman who told erotic stories to the small group of women including myself. She wasn't old, but she wasn't young either. She appeared in her late 20's and both her looks and her body were mature for her age and healthy.

The storyteller noticed my fear which matched mines, but she remained calm. I'm too young to die. I was just married and I haven't experienced my marriage for a full week before I was to die. All because of my color? Because of my body? Because I was a woman? And look at me, too weak to fight for myself that I was willingly going to give up my body in return for my life. If it wasn't for this kind woman saving me from this horrid situation, I would've hated myself more than I did now.

I caught sight of the woman pulling something from out her pouch and threw it to the ground for them to see. "I would care if I saw this." She boldly stated, avoiding the Soldier's order to drop her sword.

I peeked from around the Soldier's hold and spotted a black tassel with a rectangular wooden piece attached to it. There were strange characters along the tassel that I was unable to read, and there were also symbols I wasn't familiar with. But though I didn't understand the meaning of the tassel, the bandits were educated enough to figure it out as soon as it touched the ground.

Still in shock by the amount of blood that stained the ground, the skinny man abruptly backed away with wide eyes. His mouth gaped open as well as the fat man still clenched onto his disabled arm, looking between the tassel and their boss.

"T-T-That's impossible!" Stuttered the skinny man. He could've suffered from whiplash the way he kept twisting his neck at me and back it the unique tassel, but I was just as clueless as they all were. Maybe even more. "The—the—he's dead! Everyone here knows that! There isn't any E — "

The woman pointed the sword at the man, right in the center of his chest, shutting him up instantly. "Shhh — " with her finger pressed against her lips, her eyes shifted towards me then back toward the bandit. "I wouldn't say anything that's not supposed to be said out in public, or for unwanted ears to hear so soon."

I didn't understand anything. I don't know what the tassel meant or what it said since my knowledge wasn't as sharp as everyone who was knowledgeable to understand both the characters and the symbols along the tassel. What did it have to do with me? Why was something as simple as a wooden object be so powerful that it brought fear to these men's eyes?

The Solider smacked his lips, a chuckle slipped which didn't match his heavy breathing nor his shaky arm around my neck. "This is fake. You can't fool any of us with this shit, even a common thief can pull something off like that."

"I don't know, boss. It looks real. I know fake when I see it and this isn't it."

"You know how many people come here claiming to be something bigger than which they are since everyone thinks those who don't live in rich areas, born with noble statuses, or ever get the chance to see their faces, think we are pushovers? I fought for this land! I fought for the damn nation and almost lost my life because of it! For an Emperor whose face has never been shown, never upheld his rightful title, never fought along the side of those who are losing their lives for him or even acknowledged their deaths; who's probably dead and the bitch Queen Dowager uses him as a 'faceless emperor' to cover up the tracks. If that, what you are showing me, is real, what kind of person leaves their fuckable wife alone in the streets without protection? And if that, what you are showing me, is real, then I have every right to fuck — " The blade of his knife edged down my cheek. It didn't cut me though. " — this bitch raw and show this fucker who can't even show his face what happens when you abandon your people and those who fight in his place."

A scream bellowed from my throat at the Soldier's sudden force of his arm turning me around by my waist. His hand fumbled for my dress, the knife pinching at my skin the same time a raucous sound of something thick, gurgling as if someone was choking was heard behind me. And then a hard thud.

I don't think the Soldier was paying much attention as he was trying to tear off my clothes, but this time, I fought back. With force, I pushed his hand with the knife away from contact and ducked out of his hold when the woman told me to. It took the Soldier a few moments to see what was happening and disabled his sword to fight back the woman.

I had found myself pushed to the ground, scattering back as the action unfolds in front of me. My fingers felt wet and when I glanced down, the trail led to the skinny man. There was a deep gash within his neck, still clogging the flow of the blood through his fingers that did nothing in his case. And so suddenly, his hands fell and his expression was left lifeless — he was dead. The fat man was dead as well.

My throat clenched up, a thick feeling forcing its way up my throat. I swallowed it back down and moved away. They were dead. I panicked. These men were dead! I had never seen a dead body before or witnessed someone dying in front of me. I've heard stories from Le Wei but none were as detailed or gruesome as this, but the longer I stared, the more I found myself oddly amused.

"You're not bad for a woman. Almost makes me want to go easy on you, but the faster we get this over with, the faster I can have you bent over with my cock in your mouth."

And he wasn't lying, the woman was skillful. A little better than I assumed she would be because of her being a woman. She danced her sword with elegance, in a way I had never seen before as if it was in her blood. And I was even a bit envious of her for some unknown reason.

The woman found herself amused by the Soldier's comment and spread her feet apart to where she lifted her sword to her stance position. "Not before you taste mine down your throat." She waited.

The Solider pushed himself from off the wall and ran to the woman, not even seeing how fast she was able to slice his right arm with a clean cut. A terrifying scream brought fear that I was supposed to feel as the Solider fell, traumatized from the sight of his missing arm that was rolled in front of me, inches away from my feet.

With his mouth hung open from the pain, he saw of the end of the woman's blade before it was shoved down his throat. I forced my eyes shut, hearing the choking sound of his throat clenched around the blade, fighting for air that he couldn't find. I peeked open an eye when the air grew silent.

"Men," with her foot on his chest, the woman kicked the Solider down, hauling her bloody blade from his loose throat, blood spurting out as she wiped off the blood against the Soldier's uniform. She picked up the tassel. "They never fail to amuse me. Are you alright? Any second later and you would have been passed around like cheap wine." She had asked me, but my mind felt blank.

All three of these men were slaughtered by a noblewoman who told stories to women and moved their hearts and their bodies. How could she have been talented enough as a woman to wield a sword as a man would? It was uncommon, and it was an act that could get her lynched.

A hand waved in front of my face which had brought me back to the current situation of the woman asking me if I was alright. "Yes," Was all I could find the words to say. I noticed my dress was torn off my shoulder, unable to fit correctly without it draping. I used my cloak to cover my exposed shoulder. "You killed them all?" It wasn't a question, but more out of surprise.

I'm sure the woman was struggling to read my expression and took the easiest way of replying."I did...and I apologize for causing a mess in front of your presence, but sacrifices must be done in order to stay alive. Us girls must stick together when men turn their backs on us, don't you think?" She hid her sword beneath a layer of her dress as if it was never there in the first place.

"How?"

As if she knew what I was implying. "I learned by myself...from copying men." She replied. She was proud of her answer.

"And that tassel," She followed my gesture to her pouch from where she pulled the tassel out from. "What does it mean?"

Her thin brows rose. "The tassel?" She questioned my question after a short hesitation, which led to a light chuckle from the woman's lips. "It's nothing. Just something I made up to scare them away and it worked, didn't it?" With a nod, she waved her hand from the subject about the tassel. "But if anyone happens to ask, it is best to not mention it and pretend as if it was never here. Woman to woman, this should be our little secret, don't you agree?"

I continued to watch the woman silently beneath my curled lashes. "I suppose."

I was no fool. Right off the batch, I knew this woman was lying. Though I was a bad liar myself, I was also quite decent when knowing others were lying because of it. And by her lying, I knew the tassel she wanted to keep a secret between us both meant something important if it was able to scare men and made them doubt its' existents. But I didn't want to pry because maybe it wasn't something I was to know of, but I would be a liar if I wasn't interested into knowing what the tassel read and what the symbols meant.

The woman cleared her throat from her lies and so I wouldn't ask any more questions. "Anyways, we should leave before anyone catches us here. Wouldn't want to find your neck around a rope, would you?" She changed the subject.

But she was right, three men died and if we were to be found where the bodies lay without reporting it; I could be blamed for her murders and possibly executed without a chance to speak my side of the story.

"I must get back to my husband; he'll be worried if he hasn't noticed I left my spot." I thanked the woman as I lifted my skirt to step over the dead bodies and stained blood. I was afraid Zian had finished speaking with the man he met and would have a heart attack not finding me where he told me to wait at.

My feet halted to a complete stop when the woman opened her mouth. "I am a friend of your husband, Kai Lienna is my name." A bow followed her formal greeting.

I returned her gesture pleased she was telling the truth. "Jiang Peizhi."

"If you like, you can come with me and I could take you where your husband is currently at." Lienna offered. "It isn't far, just inside the place he entered, which is where I live with my husband, Kai Heng."

There was something about Lienna that I trusted. It was a weird feeling considering we just met, and she had just brutally slaughtered three men without hesitation. And while I should've been frightened after witnessing my first murders, I was more fascinated by Lienna's skills. And though Zian gave specific orders to wait, I felt a bit safer knowing he was near rather than being alone at night.

I agreed to leave with Lienna, leaving the dead bodies to rot where they should've and slipped back on my hood to cover myself from any unwanted attention and unwanted deaths, as well as the rip on my shoulder. If Zian were to see this I would have to tell him the truth and expose the secret I kept with Lienna. I don't want to lie to my husband but I also don't want to tell him either, so it was best to not speak on it for both our sakes.

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