Meeting a king

(MC POV)

Exiting from the tree line while purposely making enough noise so that they could hear me I decide to speak first an an attempt to defuse the tension that was still building between the two sides. " Hello there " I say in the calmest voice I can muster while also trying sound as confident as possible. It looks like it worked because although the king had not yet put down his weapon he was visibly less tense than before which is a good thing as it wouldn't do to have someone your are trying to help albeit for personal reasons swing a sword at you.

" Who are you" spoke Ei Sei after seeing that I had no intention of attack him for the moment.

" I am a traveling swordsman who happened to come across you and decided to help" I replied without missing a beat while maintaining a stoic face using the story that I came up with.

" Why would you want to help me, I don't believe that we have ever met before and strangers generally don't go out of their way to help others "

" Well you are the king right? " I asked in a questioning tone while tilting my head to the side in order to appear more curious.

" Why would you think that " he asked while tensing back up again

" The assassin chasing you seemed awfully sure that you were the king and you didn't deny it at that point leading me to believe you are the king" I responded in a calm tone trying to keep this as peaceful as possible

" Have you been following us this entire time and if so why haven't you showed yourself" he asked while slightly lowering his guard once more.

" I wanted to judge your character and you and your friends seemed pretty jumpy so I decided to wait" I responded once more to his question.

" I see, so why did you show yourself now " he said while staring at me trying to tell if what I was saying was the truth or not.

" Like I said earlier I decided to help you and you seem like you could use a swordsman right about now considering yours is sleeping" I pointed out while looking in the direction of Shin who was still out cold.

" Besides, I am not helping you for free, once you get your crown back I will expect a reward " I continued hoping that this could convince him otherwise I will have to find a new way to move forward.

"Very well" He stated after thinking about what I said for a moment and finally put his sword away before formally introducing himself " I am Ei Sei the 31st King of Qin".

"Nice to meet you your majesty, I am Yoriichi Tsukigini, your friendly traveling swordsman" I stated while offering a small bow in his direction.

" So how would you like to proceed" I asked depite already knowing the answer.

" We are moving towards a rendezvous location with my followers, you can be my escort there " he responded while picking Shin back up

" You are not going to ask me to carry the peasant boy " I asked somewhat surprised since I had expected him to ask me to carry Shin.

" No even if I haven't seen you fight before I can tell you are more powerful than me which means you need to be flexible in case something happens along the way which you can't do if you are carrying Shin" he rebutted while beginning to move towards the rendezvous once more.

" Very well your majesty" I said with more respect in my tone because most kings would have told me to carry the boy despite our situation.

We then proceeded to keep moving for a few hours with me constantly keeping watch for any enemies as even though nothing happened in the manga this was real life and my presence could have changed something. We eventually reached a rock wall with a massive crack in the middle which I knew contained the entrance to the meeting place between the old King of Qin Duke Mu and the mountain people who Ei Sei was trying to rope into his cause. As we entered the giant crack (AN: No dirty thoughts, you know who you are) I saw a beautiful spectacle which could easily rival the beauty of the modern day's finest gardens from his past life. At this point Shin was awake and we had been conversing for awhile. He was a very loud fellow but everybody could tell that he meant well.

As we neared the pavillion in the middle of the clearing Shin suddenly turned to me and siad " Let's fight Yoriichi " while drawing the sword that was used by his best friend Hyou the now dead body double of Ei Sei.

" Now why would we do that " I responded feeling slightly irked that he disturbed the moment from earlier just to fight.

" Because you seem strong and I need to challenge strong people in order to complete my dream of being the strongest general under the heavens" he said almost immediately in a very gallant tone.

" Very well we can duel " I affirmed knowing I had no other choice as he would pester me until I agreed.

As we walked towards a clearing devoid of vegetation except for grass I noticed Ten and Ei Sei following behind us clearly intending to watch the duel. Ten just because she was excited to see her new friend Shin fight while Ei Sei seemed more interested in seeing my skills.

"Well it wouldn't hurt to show off a little" I quietly said knowing well that even ten of the Shin in front of me couldn't defeat me.

As we faced off we both just stared at each other waiting for the other to show an opening. Even though I already found several I decided to draw out the fight in order to gain more combat experience which meant I wouldn't be using any Sun Breathing techniques.

Apparently deciding that he had had enough waiting around Shin charged towards me while raising his sword above his head intending to go for a downwards slash. I raised my katana to block causing his sword to be deflected to the side prompting him to draw his sword back to himself blocking the thrust I sent towards him to gauge his reflexes and motor control. 'It seems like he is more skilled than I originally thought though' since the previous thrust was meant to graze his arm. He quickly followed up intending to stay on the offensive by slashing his sword towards my left which I once more deflected causing his sword to be very off center leading him to jump back in order to regroup while dodging the slash i sent towards his left side.

" You're pretty good " I commented seeing him not taking any more action since despite only briefly clashing I was able to to determine he was a skilled fighter.

"you're not half bad yourself" he responded while clearly still looking for an opening that he could take advantage of in my stance

Just as Shin was about to commit himself once more Ten shouted towards them that they should check out the pavillion before night falls while pointing at the sun that was disappearing on the horizon.

" Perhaps we should continue tommorow " I stated since I wanted to explore a bit before night fell.

" Sure you're on" He responded while sporting a cheeky grin.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bonus chapter because I felt like it. Leave a review or comment if you enjoyed it. I would appreciate it.

Picture of a young Shin --->

Picture of a young Ei Sei --->

Picture of a young Ka Ryo Ten --->

covered manga chapter 8

Chapter one covered manga chapters 1-7

(1309 words)