The sleeves were lifted to reveal Manu’s elbows wrapped in makeshift bandages. They started from a little above his elbow and ended a little below. They were a bit sloppy but tightly wrapped. And there was no sign of them getting too dirty or the wounds getting infections through the bandages. They were clearly changed. She recognized the fabric. Manu must have ripped up one of his old clothes to make several makeshift bandages.

She gently took his hands. “When I taught you how to make bandages out of clothes and dress your wounds, it was not for this, Manu,” she whispered.

She then found the end tie of the bandages and slowly started to undo them. The entire palace seemed to collectively hold its breath. The bandages on the right elbow fell to the ground and Samaya saw for the first time what had been done to her son.

Scars crisscrossed across the inside of his elbow, going up just below his biceps and going down just an inch into his arm. Some of them were healing, some of them were open, and some of the seemed to have turned an angry red, with blood pooling across them. The scars were precisely placed, going over each other, and never going down below that one-inch range. They could be easily hidden under sleeves. That was why she had never found out. She had been a fool, thinking that Manu’s instructor would “punish” him in the same way that Samaya’s instructor herself did.

Another surge of pure rage rose in her, and it took everything she had to not turn around and strangle the woman. Manu seemed to have sensed her anger, as he felt him shrink in on himself and try to tug his hand away from her.

She took a deep breath to calm herself and gently patted his head. “It’s okay,” she said softly before moving to the other hand.

It was a similar sight.

The sight of her child’s skin littered with scars, as he tried to bite down on his lip to keep himself from crying, made her nerves burn and her hands itch. And then… the boy reached for his socks. Her breath hitched and she watched unblinkinkly as he pulled them off to reveal his feet, red from thin bruises all over. Some of them were fading but some were still angry and raw. Those hadn’t sunk deep enough to make him bleed, but they clearly hurt.

She took a deep breath to calm herself, and stood, turning her head slightly. “Ah-Liu.” She called.

The boy immediately understood. He stepped forward and brought out the clothes he had tucked in his hands. The off-white undergarments that Manu wore. She took it from him and shook it open. The clothes were inside out and the blood splatters on the inside of the sleeves were clearly visible to everyone.

She threw it toward the direction of the throne. It would have landed at the Emperor and Empress’s feet if the Emperor had not reached out and caught it in the air.

“Are you still going to say it was discipline, Your Majesty?”

The Emperor unfolded the clothes, staring at the bloodstains. His fingers ran over the bloodstains gently before his fist clenched around them. He looked down at Samaya, and she stared right back, refusing to back down. His eyes then moved to the woman trembling on the ground.

“What do you have to say for yourself?”

The woman banged her head against the floor.

“Your Majesty! I am innocent!” She cried. “The Prince was stubborn and disobedient, refusing to learn anything properly, despite my repeated attempts. I had to take up harsh punishment as the last resort.”

Samaya could not help the almost hysterical laugh that left her, disbelief echoing in her voice. “You are blaming my son now?”

“What is there to blame?” It was the Imperial Consort who spoke up. “The Prince grew up in the slums, a plebeian, vulgar and uncultured. It is no surprise that he refuses to learn anything of culture and etiquette,”

Ah yes. She’d had a feeling that these people would bring up their background to drag them through the mud. Good thing she was prepared.

“I am glad you brought that up, Your Highness.”

She turned slightly and gestured at the Chen brothers. “I am sure most of you know them better than me but I will still introduce them. Chen Yuming and Chen Zhongqing. They are the children of Minister Chen and also the tutors assigned by the Emperor himself for Man … Prince Xu. How about we ask them what kind of a student the Prince is? Hm?”

There was a scoff from the Imperial Consort. “You think that would be enough? He could easily be pretending in front of the two brothers since they are assigned by the Emperor!”

“And now you call him a pretender.” Samaya sighed. “Really, is there no end to this?”

Samaya turned to the Emperor. “Your Majesty. I do not know the Chen brothers as you do, But Han Qin told me they are loyal and honest. I am sure you can well discern whether they are lying to you or not.”

The Emperor stared at Samaya intently for a moment before his eyes moved to the two brothers.

“Speak.”

The two brothers looked at each other and the elder, Chen Zhongqing stepped forward.

“Your Majesty.” the man bowed deeply for a moment before straightening before he spoke. “Prince Xu is an unpolished gem. He may be clumsy and ignorant at times. However, he has always shown an eagerness to learn and a willingness to understand what he does not. He has not shown any deliberate disrespect. Yes, he is not aware of etiquette and such. But once taught, he tries his utmost to follow them. He slips, at times. But he tries. He is prone to asking questions - some of which are surprisingly insightful - when he does not understand things. I have never felt the need to punish him and I, to be quite honest, cannot imagine Prince Xu deliberately disrespecting someone and refusing to learn something. Especially-”

The man cut himself off, hesitating. He glanced at Samaya, who frowned. Did it have something to do with her?

“Especially?” The Emperor’s question pulled back the elder Chen's attention.

The man seemed to contemplate for a moment before sighing and speaking. “Prince Xu told me he wants to do well as a Prince so that his mother can live a comfortable and happy life. Prince Xu is not someone who will deliberately do such a thing which goes against his aim and sabotages his mother’s comfortable life.”

Fuck, how was her child so precious? She should have paid more attention. She should have protected him better. What use was all her training and spying if she could not even protect her son? God, she was useless.

“Chen Yuming?” The Emperor’s voice brought her out of her self-loathing. “Do you agree with your brother’s assessment?”

The younger Chen stepped forward and vowed. “Answering Your Majesty, yes, I do. The Prince and I have a quarrelsome relationship, so he does not share his thoughts with me as much as he does with my brother. But that child had never shown an unwillingness to learn. Even when he was made to stay in one position for hours on end, even when I made him run laps around the training field, and even when he was on the ground after hours of training, he never gave up trying to learn. It was quite admirable. He did complain and grumble at times, but I suspect those were his annoyance with me rather than any real complaint against my training.”

Samaya felt a tug on her skirt and looked down to see Manu clutching her clothes tightly. His bottom lips were trembling and he was looking at the man with big, watery eyes. Samaya had to hold back a smile. She bet the boy never thought this man that he always quarrelled with would come to his defense.

And then the Emperor called his name.

“Prince Xu.”

Her child flinched and shrank against her. Samaya wrapped an arm protectively around him and glared at the man. For once, the Emperor seemed hesitant. After a moment, he stood and walked down the stairs, before coming to stand in front of Samaya and Manu. He sighed and bent a bit, pressing a gentle hand on the boy’s head.

“It is quite alright, Prince Xu. Tell Us what happened. We will not be angry.”

Manu seemed to hesitate for a moment before looking up at Samaya. She smiled at him reassuringly and then nodded. He seemed to take a deep, shuddering breath before he started to speak. His voice was small as he started, beginning from the very first day, speaking about how the woman threatened him and his mother, and punished him for his very first words to her. How the woman kept punishing him for the smallest of mistakes without giving him a chance to correct himself. As a result of the fear and pain, he would end up making more mistakes and getting more punishments. She would hit the same spots over and over again, saying that maybe if he felt more pain, he would learn to be more civilized.

With every word, Samaya felt the itching in her hand to strangle that woman. How dare she? How dare she harm her child that way?

When Manu finally finished speaking, he was sobbing. He turned and buried his face into Samaya’s skirt. She held him tightly, her heart breaking into a million pieces. She clenched his teeth and looked at the man in front of him.

“I have been living in that cesspool of criminals for years. I have never allowed anyone to hurt my child. You brought me here with the promise that my son would be safe. It has not been a month, Your Majesty. You have already failed.”

“Impudent!” The Empress finally spoke. “You are speaking to the Emperor of the Xin Empire. You have no right to speak that way. Watch how you speak, lest your tongue should be ripped out.”

“I am speaking to the father of my child,” she replied without a moment’s hesitation. “Who has promised my child protection and safety. I have every right to speak this way. This woman,” she pointed at trembling hump on the ground, “Hurt my child until he bled. And even now, after I punished her for it, I am the one being questioned instead of her. How is that not a failure?”

“Your Majesty. I … I did not do anything! I was only trying to fulfill my duty. They … they must be trying to save the Prince!”

That woman was still trying to save herself.

“So, not only is Our son lying to me, so are Our trusted courtiers? Is that what you wish to say?” The Emperor’s voice was low and Samaya, for once, could feel the rage bound tightly in that voice.

There was a pin-drop silence in the room, and Samaya could see many of the servants shrinking away. That was not unusual, considering the Emperor held their lives in his hands. Samaya, on the other hand, felt only smug satisfaction. That woman really put her foot in her mouth. She was quiet now, only sniffling and trembling on the ground.

The Emperor scoffed and once again walked up the stairs to sit on the throne.

Samaya finally spoke. “Your Majesty, I have only punished her for hurting my child. Nothing more, nothing less. I should not be the one standing here, being questioned, when this woman is the one who committed the offense.”

“Lady Qing.” It was the Empress. “Even if she had committed the offence, you had no right to brutalize her that way. You should have come to Us or to His Majesty with your grievances.”

“Would you have believed me, Your Majesty?” She asked. She would not have believed her. Even if she did, she would have pretended not to and swept it under the rug. “And as for His Majesty, well, I’m sure the truth would have been twisted before reaching him if I tried to get to him.”

“Do you intend to say that We would not have provided you justice?” The man asked.

“Of course not, Your Majesty.” Yes. “But that justice would take a while to come and my child would have been harmed more in the meantime, especially since I was unsure whether you would believe me.”

Well, that was half true. More than that, she had needed to make a show today.

“So, does that give you the right to overstep your limits and torture a Senior Palace Attendant who works under the instructions of the Imperial Consort herself? That itself is worthy of punishment!”

Oh? She moved the attention to Imperial Consort? How clever. Though … Samaya supposed she had little actual hand in the situation, but she refused to believe that she was not aware of what was happening. She had to have an idea at the very least.

“I did not overstep my limits, Your Majesty.”

“What?” The woman blinked down at her. “What are you saying?”

Samaya smiled and reached into her sleeve, bringing out a scroll from the inside. She held it up. “Do you remember this, Your Majesty?”

The man’s gaze fell on the scroll. He did not look the least bit surprised, probably having expected it. Everyone else was looking at the scroll curiously.

“This is the warranty of safety that His Majesty provided me with.” She said. “A deal, where His Majesty granted me certain rights in regards to my son. It has the Imperial Seal, see?”

She let it fall open, the red Imperial Seal on display for everyone. She then turned it towards herself and held it open with both hands. “Let me read you one of the clauses. Should any harm come to Prince Xu and it is found that the harm was done with deliberate and malicious intentions, Qing Samaya - as the mother of Prince Xu - has the full right to deal punishment to the perpetrator of such a heinous offense. This is an inalienable and irrevocable right of Qing Samaya. Only the Emperor has the right to interfere, and only for the purpose of rendering punishment himself. However, Qing Samaya cannot punish those above her rank. Qing Samaya shall not be harmed for the punishment she deals with, provided that she is within reason. If Qing Samaya is found exploiting this clause to deliberately harm someone innocent, she shall be punished as the Emperor sees fit. However, this right shall never be revoked.”

She closed the scroll and sent an innocent smile to her stunned audience. “So, you see, I do have the right. Should I continue my punishment, Your Majesty? Or do you wish to take over?”

The Emperor sighed softly. “Do as you see fit.” He said as if handing a petulant child a toy that they had been whining for. Did the man figure out why she dragged this all out? She would not be surprised.

The woman was sobbing on the ground. Samaya sighed softly and then squatted on the ground beside her, ignoring the murmurs around them.

“There is just one thing I don’t get. Where did you get the damn audacity? I know I am a peasant you can look down on. But my son is the First Imperial Prince. The Emperor clearly took an interest in him. So where did you get the courage to abuse him so?” She asked, even though she was not looking for the answer.

“No, don’t say anything. I know where you got your courage,” She said, reaching out and grabbing the back of her neck to lift her slightly off the ground, leaning in, “Kang Yu.”

The woman froze, before looking at Samaya with wide eyes. From the corner of her eyes, she could see that Kang Yuxin had the same reaction.

She chuckled softly. “What? Did you think that just because you shed your name, I would not know who you are and whom you obey? Please. Did they tell you that it was alright? Did they tell you that come what may, you will be safe? That I will be the one on the ground begging for mercy while you have the last laugh?”

She was making it all up but from the way the woman was trembling, she was not far off from the truth. She scoffed and let her go before standing, sweeping her eyes over the rest of the people gathered in the Inner Court.

“I want all servants here today to listen to me and spread the word.” She started. “If your Mistress tells you to try to hurt me, by all means, go ahead. I welcome the challenge. But if your Mistress tells you to hurt my son, know that I will show you no mercy. Your Mistress will promise you great rewards, wealth, and luxury, and step away. You will be the one at the forefront. So, I want you to ask yourself one question.”

 

She allowed herself a small smirk and pointed at herself.

“Who will save you from me?”