Romance of the Four Kingdoms

Chapter 7

The next day Mitsuko was awoken by someone barging into her room dropping what seems to be a uniform with armour on the floor. It was an imperial guard who had done it and ordered her to get up and dressed within 10 minutes to meet them in the throne room and walked out. She looked outside to see that the sun had barely begun to rise. She groaned and tossed to one side and tried to get back to sleep. However she didn't want to make a bad impression on everyone so she begrudgingly drags herself out of the bed and gets dressed. She picks up her scythe after she puts on her imperial uniform and strolls to the throne room. There she finds a bunch of guards standing in front of pillars whose eyes wondered upon Mitsuko who felt the intense judgement from them. She tried to ignore them the best she can until the one who barged into her room earlier came into the room and ordered her to stand in front of a guardless pillar next to the gate as he orders two more guards to open them.

A gust of cool wind blew into the room as the emperor was being escorted by his servants to the throne. Hundreds of people began to line up wanting to greet the emperor and give him gifts and wishes of a wonderful life. Honestly for the young emperor this was a major hassle. He didn't mind all the gifts and the worship however it felt a little...off to him. Throughout the day however Mitsuko found herself dozing off every now and again especially throughout the first hour of the day. Even though many people lining up were talking and the noise was quite loud she was still weary enough to close her eyes for a second before the guard next to her taps her on the shin with the wooden end of his spear with enough force to keep her awake to make sure the head guard didn't punish her. She couldn't help but doze off it was just so dreadfully boring to her. If she wasn't out of money she would've kept travelling but unfortunately for her this was her predicament.

About roughly an hour later Mitsuko noticed that people as far as her eye can see were getting split into two separate lines like they were making way for someone. A few minutes later the whole line separated into two before the door as someone who was donned in black armour appeared along. He looked very strong, wearing a serious expression on his face and Mitsuko felt a very intimidating aura around him. Mitsuko couldn't put her finger on it but it felt like the aura around him almost demands respect and fear. She looked up and recognised his weapon...the sky piercer it was called. Once she recognised the weapon she realised who he actually was.

'Ahh lord Lu Bu allow me to express my gratitude for saving me a while back from those dreaded eunuchs.'

'No need your majesty they were just simply insects that needed stepping on. Nothing more.' His response was blunt however because of the conviction and authority of his voice everyone in the room began to feel quite afraid of him. Even Mitsuko wouldn't want to face against him in battle even though she's quite itching to get into a good fight. She couldn't explain why. Even the emperor was taken aback by Lu Bu's bluntness. Normally people around him would be kind, corteous and polite he never encountered everyone like him before.

'I-I see well in any case I feel like I should express my gratitude anyway.' The emperor rambles on slightly as he starts to stutter in fear of saying the wrong thing to him. Mitsuko couldn't help but turn away out of boredom before she found something in the corner of her eye that she didn't expect. A beautiful young woman donned in black armour similar to Lu Bu's but not as intimidating. The armour went down to her thighs and branched out like a skirt more than likely allowing extra manevourability for her. She was leaning against the huge palace doors on the outside casually like she's belongs in the background in a painting. The sun shined on her bringing more attention to her abnormally coloured white hair that was shoulder length. A small breeze caught her hair as the front blew across her face. Mitsuko was reminded of some model advertise shampoo and stuff she saw on tv in her time since they did the same effect with a hair with a fan most likely. However Mitsuko noticed that her eyes were closed. Combine that with how she's leaning on the door it painted a rather...lonely picture of her. She heard rattling aswell as footsteps getting closer. It was Lu Bu walking away from the emperor's throne looking rather displeased however Mitsuko couldn't tell since that face is the only one he wore while in her presence.