Chapter 49: Chapter 49: The Black Ginseng, The Bruise, and The Laundry Intel

The hot water of the cedar bathing barrel was absolute heaven.

I sank down until the water reached my chin, letting the steam melt the freezing chill of the Ancestral Shrine right out of my bones. My knuckles were bruised, my muscles ached, and I smelled faintly of old salt and assassin sweat.

But I was alive. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

The sliding paper door to the bathing chamber rattled slightly.

"I am decent," I called out, knowing exactly who was pacing holes into the floorboards outside.

The door slid open. Akira stepped inside, quickly sliding it shut behind him to keep the draft out. He had finally changed out of his dark training tunic and was wearing a simple, loose gray robe. He still looked incredibly tense, his amber eyes scanning the small, steamy room as if expecting an assassin to pop out of a soap bucket.

He walked over to the wooden stool beside the tub and sat down. He didn’t say anything. He just picked up a soft cloth, dipped it in the hot water, and gently reached out to wash the dried salt from my shoulder.

"You’re hovering," I noted, leaning into the warm cloth.

"I am making sure you do not drown in the tub," he replied, his voice a low, rough rumble.

"I fought off three trained killers in the dark," I reminded him playfully. "I think I can handle a bath."

Akira’s hand paused. His eyes dropped to my collarbone, and then slightly lower, to my right ribcage.

I looked down. Right where the assassin’s dagger had struck my iron chainmail, a massive, ugly purple bruise was blossoming across my ribs. The iron mesh had stopped the blade from piercing my skin, but the sheer blunt force of the impact had left a nasty mark.

Akira stared at the bruise. The blue yokai fire flickered dangerously at his fingertips, his jaw clenching so hard I thought his teeth might shatter.

"It looks worse than it is," I promised quickly, reaching through the water to grab his wrist. "It just aches a little when I breathe deep. Akira, look at me."

He slowly dragged his eyes up to meet mine.

"The armor worked," I said firmly. "I survived. You don’t have to carry the weight of this alone. I am your partner, not just a fragile piece of glass on a shelf."

Akira let out a slow, ragged breath. He turned his hand over, tangling his long fingers with mine beneath the water.

"You are the strongest person in this cursed city," he murmured, lifting my hand and pressing a warm, lingering kiss to my damp knuckles. "But I will still kill anyone who leaves a mark on you."

"Deal," I smiled, my heart doing that completely unfair, fluttery thing it always did when he looked at me like that.

An hour later, I was dressed in a comfortable, dark purple silk robe, sitting at the low cedar table in our main pavilion. My hair was tied up in a loose knot, secured by the iron hairpin I had used to break into the Emperor’s restricted vault.

Yuki was draped across my lap in his fluffy cat form, purring like a tiny, vibrating engine. Rin was currently sitting on Akira’s massive shoulders, trying to reach a high branch of a bonsai tree in the corner.

"Just a little closer," Rin instructed seriously, leaning forward.

Akira, the terrifying Demon Prince of the Empire, obediently took a half-step to the left so the nine-year-old could pluck a dead leaf off the tiny tree.

"Perfect," Rin cheered.

The sliding doors to the veranda gently scraped open.

Yua stepped inside. She carried a tray with a steaming teapot, but her eyes were darting nervously around the room. She looked entirely different than the terrified, subservient maid from two days ago. She looked like a girl with a secret.

"Tea, Crown Princess," Yua said, kneeling at the table.

I gently scooped Yuki off my lap, ignoring his grumpy meow, and leaned forward.

"What did you find out, Yua?" I asked quietly.

Yua poured the tea, keeping her head bowed just in case anyone was watching through the paper screens.

"My uncle, the Head Cook," Yua whispered quickly. "He said the Emperor’s medicine changed completely this morning. The Imperial Doctors are panicked. They ordered my uncle to boil black ginseng, raw boar’s blood, and crushed spirit-ash."

Akira gently set Rin down on the floor and walked over to the table, his Warlord aura instantly sharpening.

"Crushed spirit-ash?" Akira repeated, his brow furrowing. "That is highly toxic. It is used to numb the spiritual core, not heal it."

"He’s in agony," I realized, piecing it together. "Yuki flipped the leylines and basically deep-fried the Emperor’s magical core. He’s taking the ash to numb the pain so he can still stand up."

"There’s more," Yua said, her hands trembling slightly as she set the teapot down. "My sister in the laundry... she collects the robes for the Imperial Mages. Last night, right after the banquet, they threw out six ruined robes. They were covered in yellow chalk and melted wax."

"Array materials," Yuki chimed in, suddenly shifting from a cat into his twelve-year-old boy form. He sat cross-legged on a cushion, looking incredibly smug. "Yellow chalk is used to draw portable leyline extraction arrays. The melted wax means they burned sealing candles."

"Wait," I frowned. "Why would they draw a portable array? The throne room is already rigged."

"Because he knows Akira won’t ever step foot in the throne room again," Yuki said, rolling his eyes like it was obvious. "The Emperor’s grand trap failed. Now, he’s building a mobile trap. He’s going to pack up the extraction array, bring it somewhere else, and force Akira to step into it."

"Let him bring it," Akira said coldly, sitting down beside me. "I will shatter it."

"No, you won’t," I argued, tapping the table. "Because if he uses a portable array, he’s not going to invite you to a dinner party. He’s going to use it in an ambush. And we still have a problem. The Emperor thinks I’m a weakness."

I looked at Yua. "Did your sister hear anything else?"

"Just gossip, My Lady," Yua said nervously. "The maids were whispering about Lady Renge. They said she visited the Emperor’s private chambers yesterday afternoon, right before you were summoned to the Shrine."

"Renge," Akira growled, his eyes darkening. "She set the assassins on you."

"No, she didn’t," I corrected, shaking my head. I pulled the crumpled piece of parchment from my sleeve and laid it on the table. "Renge sent me this warning. The Emperor set the trap. Renge tipped me off so I would survive it."

"Why would she do that?" Akira asked, genuinely confused by capital politics. "She framed Jin to gain the Emperor’s favor. Why sabotage his assassination attempt?"

"Because she realized she’s a prisoner," I smiled, the entire political board finally making sense in my head. "The Emperor is using her son, Ryu, as a hostage to force her to obey him. She wants to break his hold over her. But to do that, she needs the Emperor’s secret."

I tapped my finger against the table.

"She doesn’t know the Emperor is dying. She doesn’t know he wants your core. But she knows that the Emperor is absolutely desperate to keep you alive and get rid of me. She kept me alive because she wants us to cause enough chaos to expose the Emperor’s true weakness."

"She is using us as a distraction," Yuki noted, looking impressed. "A very classic white lotus maneuver."

"Exactly," I nodded. "Which means we can use her right back."

I looked at Akira. "We know the Emperor is dying. We know he’s building a portable trap. But we don’t know when or where he’s going to spring it. Renge is the highest-ranking woman in the inner palace right now. She has access to the Emperor’s schedules. We need to talk to her."

"You want to ally with the woman who spent twenty years trying to put her son on the throne I just took?" Akira asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow.

"Not an ally," I corrected smoothly. "A mutual transaction. We both want the Emperor out of the picture. If we offer her Ryu’s safety, she will give us the Emperor’s exact ambush plan."

Akira stared at me for a long moment. The disbelief in his eyes slowly morphed into pure, overwhelming pride.

"You are a terrifying creature," Akira murmured, his lips curving into a smirk.

"I am a basement rat," I corrected, grabbing my teacup. I looked over at Yua, offering her a bright, genuine smile. "And you, Yua, are the best spy in the capital. Tell your sister and your uncle thank you. We are going to buy them a very nice house when this is over."

Yua beamed, bowing deeply. "Yes, Crown Princess!"

As Yua hurried out of the pavilion to return the tray, I leaned back against Akira’s shoulder.

The Emperor thought he controlled the board because he sat on a golden throne. He didn’t realize the game was already over. The servants were watching his every move, the Warlord was ready to break his trap, and the basement rat was about to make a deal with the white lotus.

It was time to take the capital down.