1 A surprising morning...and a horrible night...

When Lan woke up, her body was hurting as if she had moved the whole night. There was also a mass pinning her down on the bed and something...SOMEONE still moving between her thighs?!? It wasn't hurting. A man was ramming her with enthusiasm, bringing forth waves of pleasure. Before she could realized her situation, she was drowned in ecstasy and fainted.

18 years earlier

"Take the baby and run, the guards won't be able to delay them much further." A man anxiously told his wife.

"What about you?" His young wife was reluctant to leave. Coming from a privileged family, she never had dealt with that kind of situation.

"I'm going to buy us some time." The husband kissed his wife and pushed her away towards his confident.

"Husband, come with us. If you are not with me, I can't go on! Please come with us!"

Realizing the gravity of the situation the wife was now crying and screaming too.

With the sounds of fighting getting near, along with the feeling of distress from the people surrounding her, the baby woke up crying.

The husband was heartbroken but he had no longer a choice. They had to go.

"Leave, do you want us all killed? Think of the baby!" At the same time, he made a sign towards his confident to take her away.

Battling the wife not wanting to leave, the confident was struggling. In last resort, he took the baby from the wife's hand, hit the woman on the back of her neck, prompting her to faint, then loaded her in his shoulder.

Both men stared at each other for a second.

"Take care of them."

"Stay alive"

Silent conversation conveyed through the blink of their eyes, they parted not knowing if they would ever see each other again.

The confident disappeared in the secret passageway.

The husband took his sword. As the enemy had managed to force through the door, the young man charged towards them.

"For the pride of N* Kingdom." It was a scream from the heart.

Fiercely fighting, he managed to killed the 5 soldiers that had invaded the room. As he was swinging his word again, an arrow flew from the window, breaking the glass and lodged itself in his chest.

The husband knew he had to make it to the leader and kill him in order to survive.

Breaking the arrow, but leaving the tip in, he managed to make it to the main door. Just outside, the Squad Leader was sitting on his horse waiting for his subordinates to report.

"I should have known it was you. I am going to kill you!" Screaming with anger and despair, the young man lift his sword high up and ran towards the leader.

Before he even made 5 steps, a rain of arrows flew towards him, hitting all his vital parts. As he was glancing on his burning house and on his nemesis, the young man regretted dearly, the day he had spared that viper. His last thoughts were for his wife and his daughter. He hoped so dearly that they were able to make it safe and then he exhaled his last breath.

The Squad Leader was overjoyed. He didn't think it would have been so easy to dispose of this person. As he was looking at the bonfire destroying his most hated place and at the pile of dead corpses standing right in front, he was smiling with satisfaction. Now no one would stand in his way. He had schemed for almost 15 years to this result. 15 years of being servile, being underestimated, unappreciated. Today, he finally did it.If he could, he would have lit a firework.

As he was smiling, the soldiers were chilled to the core of their hearts. No one dare to believe someone was as heartless as to frame and order the death of their family members but one was right in front of their eyes. The world was indeed scary.

The fire burnt a long time but the Squad Leader stayed fixated on watching until the end. Once there was only cinders and ashes remaining, he signed to his squad to leave.

There is no way that anyone could survive in the fire and his subordinates had slaughtered all the residents of the house. He was sure of it because the consequences of not following his orders were worse than death. He had instilled a reign of terror and nobody would be courageous enough to cross him. He was fully confident of it. Thus, once it was burnt to the ground, he just left back to report that he had succeeded on his mission.

In a secret room, still invisible in the rumbles of the house, the confident was waiting for the right opportunity to leave with the baby and the fainted wife. When the fight had broken, he had wanted to take the whole family and escape all together but the ennemy overpowered them too fast. Now of their prestigious family, only the lady and the baby were left. Seeing all the exits covered by soldiers, he resigned himself to hide in the secret ancestral room that had been built underground. He knew the room contained enough rations for a person to survive for 1 month without worry. But now that they were three...well two and half, there would be enough food for them for at least 10 days, maybe they would be able to stretch it to a bit over 2 weeks. They would somehow managed.

The ancestral room was shielded from the outside world. It was so deep within the ground and well isolated that no sound could be heard from the outside and no one from the outside could hear noise from the room. Indeed, even if one was to live over the room, it would be as if living on regular ground.

Apparently, a long time ago, the ancestral room was actually an immense training ground for the family secret and private army. As the years went by and the country became very peaceful, the army was rescinded. Most of the passage ways leading to the different other rooms had been condemmed and the ancestral room was converted in its actual function : hosting the tablets from all the ancestors of the clan. Only the clan leader and his heir would know about the rooms. As for why the confident had access to that information too?

The confident and the heir grew up together. They were inseparables, 2 peas in a pod. Even though from different parents, a strong affinity linked them together and were unable to keep secrets from one another. Thus, at 10 years old, when the heir learned of the ancestor hall, the heir was compelled to share this huge secret with his best friend. So they both sneaked out without the Clan Leader knowledge and explored the ancestor hall. Until they reached adulthood, they would oftenly go explore the ancestor hall and stock it with food. It was also their favorite retreat place. This explain why the confident was so well acquainted with this room. Besides the confident was also part of the same family so it wasn't as if the information was shared with a stranger.

Not knowing what was happening outside, the confident was worried. Did his friend survive? Not able to bear the suspense, the confident made up his mind to go take a look.