Emperor Xing Wu had been thinking about how to talk to Luo Wei about why he didn"t accuse Consort Liu of her wrongdoings. He didn"t expect Luo Wei to not only avoid this subject, and instead bring up a request to go to Yu Zhou.
"You? Going to Yu Zhou?" Emperor Xing Wu had already sent undercover agents to Yu Zhou, he couldn"t think of what Luo Wei could do out there.
Luo Wei responded, "I"ve read all these books but Your Imperial Majesty must know that all these things I"ve learned will just be words if I don"t put them into practice. Going to Yu Zhou will also help take some of the worry off of Your Imperial Majesty"s mind. I don"t want to deal with the financial side of it, I only want to see if it"s really as my brother said, that people are really embezzling the bronze and iron ore."
Emperor Xing Wu replied, "This is something I will deal with myself."
Luo Wei added, "Then Your Imperial Majesty can use me as a pair of eyes on the ground. I only want to go see and tell you everything I witnessed when I come back." Luo Wei looked like he wanted to say more but stopped himself as he finished that sentence, staring at the emperor anxiously.
Emperor Xing Wu pulled Luo Wei closer to him, "Do you have something else you want to say?"
Luo Wei looked down, "I saw something I wasn"t supposed to see, maybe it"s best if I leave the palace for a little while."
Emperor Xing Wu sighed to himself, it seems what happened really did scare the kid, "How about you stay home for a few days?"
Luo Wei responded, "But father is going to ask what happened."
Emperor Xing Wu pulled Luo Wei into his arms, "Wei Er, it"s very unstable in Yu Zhou right now. I"ll be worried if you went."
Luo Wei quickly added, "I just want to go see, wouldn"t it be okay if I just watched and didn"t do anything?"
It"s said that the strongest women can be worn down by persistent men, so Luo Wei persisted in his pestering and wearing down of Emperor Xing Wu. Finally, the emperor promised that he"d think about it.
Emperor Xing Wu summoned Luo Zhi Qiu into the palace. This was something that must be discussed between the two of them.
At first, the idea scared Luo Zhi Qiu. What can a thirteen year old kid do in Yu Zhou? But then he reminded himself of all the things Luo Wei had accomplished within the recent days. It was clear that he shouldn"t be thinking of Luo Wei as a mere kid anymore.
Emperor Xing Wu spoke, "Wei Er knows a great deal of things, but I would like to see how he deals with real life problems, what he can really do."
Luo Zhi Qiu thought about it deeply before speaking, "Then let him go and see."
So on that night, after Emperor Xing Wu and Luo Wei had dinner, he gave Luo Wei the news, "Wei Er, I"ve discussed it with your father. I will give you permission to go to Yu Zhou."
Luo Wei was happily surprised, and quickly stood, "I won"t let Your Imperial Majesty down."
"You may all enter," Emperor Xing Wu said to someone outside.
Five men entered the hall, dressed in black tactical clothing, and knelt in front of the emperor in a neat line.
"Wei Er," Emperor Xing Wu said to Luo Wei, "These are five of the Knights of the Dragon(1) who serve me. From today, they are to serve and protect you."
"Your humble servants greet the Young Master," The five knights lowered their head to greet Luo Wei in unison.
The Knights of the Dragon were the secret unit of guards who protected the emperor. They were all sworn to defend the emperor to the death, and thus were only loyal to the emperor himself. Historically, they were the most trusted, best trained, and the last line of defense for the emperors of Greater Zhou. Due to the uniqueness of this unit, no emperor had kept many of them around. There were only thirty in the unit who protect Emperor Xing Wu. Luo Wei didn"t expect that the emperor would gift him with five of them straight off the bat. It was obvious that the emperor was very generous to him, but this generous act made Luo Wei suspicious. Why would an emperor be this good to someone who merely served him?
"Wei Er?" Emperor Xing Wu saw Luo Wei standing stock still and thought it was a little funny, so he spoke up.
It was only then that Luo Wei managed to react, kneeling, "Your humble servant has done nothing to deserve your generosity, how could I dare to trouble the Knights of the Dragon with keeping me safe?"
Emperor Xing Wu answered simply, "I"ll worry if I don"t send them with you."
Luo Wei wondered, perhaps the five of them were being sent to keep an eye on him? But if it was just to watch him, normal guards would do, why would the emperor send Knights of the Dragon?
Emperor Xing Wu pointed at the kneeling knights, from left to right, counting them off for Luo Wei, "Ten, Eleven, all the way to Fourteen."
Historically, Knights of the Dragon all shared a surname with the reigning emperor(2), but they had no name, only a number. Luo Wei was familiar with the tradition. He carefully inspected the five of them. They were all on the younger side of adulthood, and fairly good looking. A necessary criteria as emissaries of the imperial family. During the three months he"d spent in the palace in his past life, Luo Wei had been taken by force by the palace guards many times, but he couldn"t remember many of their faces. At this moment, he couldn"t tell if any of the five present were people who"d abused his body in the past.
FOOTNOTES:
1. Knights of the Dragon - In the original text, it is literally "Dragon Knight", but the longer version of the translation was used for two reasons: first to add flavor because it"s a historical novel; second to denote that this is not a fantasy designation, but rather they are knights who serve the dragon, i.e. the emperor.
2. Emperor"s Surname - The surname of the emperor in this novel is appropriately "Long", which means Dragon. The names of the knights are rendered as numbers. A choice was made to user numbers in translation instead of Pin Yin for their names because a part of their ident.i.ty is their anonymity, which would be lost if they were given names instead of numbers.
TRANSLATOR"S NOTE:
Another double update! Some difficult to translate ideas in this one, especially the crossover between the Knights of the Dragon and dragon as in the emperor"s surname. I"m not sure if there"s a better word for knights so that it doesn"t have such an medieval fantasy feel, but I couldn"t find a good alternative... : ) In any case, the plot thickens yet again.