Foreign Visitors

The next day, Amon was summoned early morning by the Prince whose life he had saved yesterday. When he arrived at the prince's courtyard, he saw the prince playing a board game alone. Sensing something the prince looked up and smiled as he saw that it was the eunuch Li who had saved him yesterday. Amon performed his greeting and took a seat opposite to the prince after he saw the prince motion for him to sit down.

"I am very grateful to you for saving my life yesterday. If it wasn't for you, I would already be meeting with the Underworld King."

The prince smiled and clasped his had showing his gratitude to his savior.

"Your Highness doesn't have to thank this servant. If not me, someone else would have saved you", Amon smiled as he replied to the prince although inwardly, he was cursing him.

'Even if you were grateful, you didn't have to summon me before even the sun and risen to show it.'

He knew why the prince had called him so early. He didn't want his brothers to think that he was aiming for the throne by talking to eunuch Li who could be considered the Emperor's most trusted Eunuch's closest subordinate.

'Although, if he is calling me this early to not alarm the other princes then that means he has the intention of fighting for the throne.'

Currently, due to the Emperor's declining health, the princes were very paranoid so any of the less powerful princes talking to him would make them jump to conclusions and directly aim for their heads. For the three prince's, killing one of their weaker brothers wasn't a hard thing to do.

Prince Huang talked with him for a lot longer than he expected and only sent him back when it was time for other servants to wake up. After Amon left, one of Prince Huang's servant who had heard the whole conversation approached him and asked, "Your Highness, why are you trying to bring the little eunuch to your side? Wouldn't it be better to follow one of the other princes and backstab them? Talking to that eunuch would only serve to alert the other princes."

Prince Huang looked at the servant who had asked the question. It was one of the trusted guard that had followed his mother and later protected him after her death. The prince had a bitter smile on his face and said, "How can it be easy to backstab one of my brothers? And why would they take this weak prince under their wing?"

After saying this, the smile disappeared from the prince's face and hatred could be seen in his eyes as he continued speaking, "And besides, didn't my father also only had Eunuch Meng on his side but managed to beat his brothers and get the throne. Even after so many years, he treats that Eunuch so respectfully, this shows how important he was in father's quest to get the throne and Li is Meng's closest subordinate and disciple. I think the one named Li is even more capable compared to the his master judging by our earlier conversation. As long as I have his help, it won't be impossible to sit on the dragon throne like father. Whether he will help me or not depends on how sincere I am since I have nothing to offer unlike my brothers."

The guard after hearing what the prince had to say returned to his position and the Prince continued with his game.

...

After Amon returned from the Prince's courtyard, it was already time for him to start his morning duties so he started heading to the inner palace. On his way, he saw a few of the servants talking in whispers and decided to eavesdrop.

"I heard the entourage from Yu will be arriving later this afternoon."

"Are they coming to create an alliance with us? I heard a war was going to break out soon and the Han have already started arming their troops."

Amon remembered Meng talking about the people from Yu coming as well. The spies from the palace had informed the Emperor about the Han preparing their troops so the Tang Emperor had sent a letter to Yu with the intention of forming an alliance. Although the three empires were evenly matched, Yu and Tang currently didn't have any capable commanders for their troops unlike the Han who had many genius commanders. So, the only way to protect themselves was to create an alliance and make up for their lack up commanders with sheer numbers.

Amon also remembered Meng mentioning that the entourage would probably be escorting a royal family member since the terms of the alliance could not be negotiated without the presence of a royal family member. The Yu royal family had countless princesses but only two princes but one of the prince was only a year old so the position of heir was very secure. It was impossible for the Yu emperor to put the crown prince in danger just for the sake of an alliance.

'So, it will probably be one of the princess that will be accompanying the entourage to negotiate the terms and if the alliance doesn't fall through then the princess will probably marry one of the Tang prince to solidify the alliance.' Amon thought.

He had heard that the Yu Emperor spoiled his daughters. So, even if she marries one of the prince, it will be her choice. The three prince all have main wives and a palace full of concubines so she wouldn't choose one of them just to compete with the other women. So, it will be one of the other princes.

Thinking about this, a plan had already started forming in his head on how he was going to complete the task and which prince he was going to accept as his master. His life was going to be in danger if he decided to follow his current plan but it also had the highest chance of succeeding.