The King's Trial

The Old Man And The Spirit

"Do you hear? The third prince had been sent to Fengbao Zhidi in the west to investigate the attacks of the so called demons that had get out of the hellish lands from the other side of the mountains." An old servant said to another as they make their way into the busy streets of the good market. It was a cloudy day so far, full of moisture that make the day hotter than it should, yet the streets were filled with merchants of all kinds and people doing their business, as usual.

Yushan was a small kingdom made in the center of a valley between mountains in the north, a place that was naturally guarded by the Jade Mountains, as per its name, but despite the first rulers, that were favored by the gods of the mountains for their fairness and sense of justice, the ones in the power now were tyrannical and cruel, with the only exception of the third prince, called Jin Wu Zui, the gold innocence of the mountains, as his mother had rightfully name him, hoping he will not be tainted by his father or siblings.

However, as the people loved the younger prince more, for his natural innocence, talent and care for the commoner's from which his mother had been taken into the palace, jealousy and envy make the life of the third prince quite hard and to a point he was always dealing with the most dangerous tasks of the kingdom.

It was no secret that the nobles wanted the young man dead and he would had been killed if not for the rules of the mountain gods forbidding kings for killing his descendants, or a great calamity will fall over all royals. However, back in then, almost at the beginning of time, the gods could be found deep into the mountains, if you were lucky or blessed enough to cross their path as the first founders of their kingdom had, but those days, several centuries later, the god seems to be absent from the lands, thus wicked things begin to happen all over the kingdom.

At first it was subtle, but later thing became more drastic and the people begin to be abused by their rulers. Soon, the kingdom divided in two fractions, the ones at the top of the mountains, which belonged to the nobles and the ones in the valley, which were the commoners that planted rice and other necessary things to make a living and an outer ring for the army that keep the people in check and defended the valley when things from the other side of the ring of mountains came.

With the army so close and bordering all the kingdom, the life in the valley was not exactly easy, they were pretty much slaves of the upper nobles that controlled the army in return. The third prince mother was once a commoner taking away from a farm to become a concubine, given her beauty and talent. She was a smart woman that aside from working on the farm, teaches the kids to write and read. Teaching to write and read was something only the nobles did, so even if it wasn't exactly forbidden, it was not permitted among commoners either.

It was that what attracted the attention of the guards and the rumors of the female scholar eventually reached the king, which was captivated by her beauty when she was presented to him for punishment. Having to choose between becoming a concubine or killed, she opted for living, even if it was in disgrace. The reason, while she was still alive, she could play the royals game and make her own plans that had make her son the most beloved in Yushan and if the gods help her... she could dethrone the current king herself... or so most people believe in silence, sometimes praying she one day could succeed. However, that was still a long way to go and the third prince was still young, with barely reaching twenty that year. A shame the king was determine to get him killed despite the taboo among the royals.

"I'm sure prince Wu Zui was sent to be killed by the demons that lurks outside, so they could blame his death to them. Damn royals that wants to get rid of the prince, knowing he had the favor of the people instead of the crown prince or even the king." The other man responded with sadness. The third prince was not only loved by commoners, but also by servants of the palace or nobles as well.