Chapter 16

[Your Majesty, the army sent to Fuying city come into the range of my communication array].

"Alright, tell me how it went".

[only 42 combat robots got destroyed while over 20,000 Human Soldiers were killed, and as you said all the remains of the robots got destroyed before the robots retreated].

"That's not bad at all, but why were so many people killed are my robots too strong or too weak," Yang Chen thought to himself before asking "what was the strength of the soldiers, and should we attack".

[your majesty, all the soldiers according to the footage from some of the robots, the soldiers should be 2 to 3 times better than the ones in this town, and to answer your question, yes; as soon as the rank 3 robots are done, because if the quality of those soldiers is worse than a rank 2 robot then it should be no question what a rank 3 robot would do, and according to the estimates of soldiers 10% of them should have died].

"Alright, then we will attack after the robots are made" Yang Chen affirmed what he would do to the robot next to him.

*****

After 7 days a certain carriage made it to the imperial capital.

"That will just about be the last time that I volunteer to sit on my ass for weeks in a carriage," Zheng Men said with a mild annoyance laced inside his voice "all right once we get to the imperial place to meet the emperor, you two know what to do right".

"Kneel with our left knees on the ground, never look up unless told to, do not speak unless told to, say long live the emperor when he enters, and leave our weapons with the imperial guards".

"Yes, don't mess that up because if you do the commander of the imperial guard and imperial eunuchs would bitch and moan that you were disrespectful and push for at least some punishment just to get at me, of course being one of the imperial protectorates comes with some perks I still wouldn't be able to protect you if the emperor decides against me".

Once the carriage got to the imperial palace the old man and his 2 knights went to the gates of the imperial palace before getting stopped by a guard at the gates.

"Imperial protectorate, state your reason for your unannounced arrival to the imperial palace" The Guard loudly said to the 3 people, even though he could probably just walk into the palace with or without the permission of the guard, the guard was still required to ask.

"I'm here to report the results of my mission to eradicate the bandits roaming the state of fire" Zheng men stated while walking to gates.

"Alright open the gate," The Guard said while looking back at the guards on the other side of the gate "Imperial protectorate although you are permitted to have a weapon on the premise of the imperial palace, they are not, therefore their weapons will have to be kept here," the guards on the other side of the gate said to the group.

Shortly after being told by Zheng men to give the guards their weapons the two knights took off their belts that had a sword and dagger holstered into it and gave it to the guards dress in all black armor.

Once they were allowed into the palace grounds they started climbing a giant staircase and only Zheng men knew that every step took would be harder than the last, but this is mostly symbolic because it meant that if you weren't able to climb a couple sets of stairs then you weren't worthy to meet a son of heaven. and if you were to try and climb next to the stairs then all the guards would know instantly and the pressure would be as hard as if you were at the top of the stairs.

Both Yui and Zhao just graduated from being apprentice knights so they obviously never experienced this, but that doesn't mean that any knight in the Empire could enter the Palace they only had that opportunity because they were the knights of an imperial protectorate.

Once they finally made it to the top everyone except Zheng was drenched in sweat, their clothes were wet under their armor, Zheng, however, didn't have a single drop once he turned around and said with a smirk "if you were made like this by mere stairs then maybe I should have an expert in runes carve a gravity rune into the staircase of my residence and make you run up it till you are as dry as a desert" Zheng men while mostly was joking he still considered it because for his own knights to be defeated by stairs even with a rune carved into it is still kinda embarrassing.

"Please do that" Both Yui and Zhao were ashamed at how much they struggled with the stars which should be impossible so they thought that something was wrong with the stairs before it was confirmed by Zheng men telling them about runes "also, what about this," they both said while looking at the clothes they can see under the armor "Haha, don't worry about that, no let's go even if he is my brother I still don't want to keep him waiting".

Once they got to the actual palace and went through the giant double doors they saw an incredibly giant hall with dozens of pillars lining the main walkway straight through the middle of the hall behind every pillar was a painted glass image of an important figure of the empire and was usually removed or changed depending on the current emperor's mood.

In front of the pillars, there was a guard dress in all black armor holding a spear in their right hands with a sword on their right side of their hips with a handle lined in golden runes which was the only different color to each to the guards as even their faces were covered with a black veil.

They were called the Faceless legion by the enemies of the Heavenly dragon empire and were usually only seen at the imperial palace, near the emperor, any other property of the Emperor, or when the Heavenly empire attacks another empire's or a very naughty state's capital.

Walking down the hall to the only piece of thing in the hall is a table with a eunuch sitting at it while both Yui and Zhao noticed that the Guards didn't move at not even a twitch, or shake like anyone would start to do after standing deathly still for hours, they were like statues.

Once they all made it to the table the eunuch looked up from doing paperwork and said in a monotone voice "state the purpose of your visit"

"The announcement of the execution of the mission given to me by his majesty" Zheng Men stated

"Alright his majesty is in his study and asked not to be disturbed so you will be ordered to the palace tomorrow to state your completion at the next court conference," The eunuch said in that same monotone voice before starting to do his work again

"There is a possible danger to the throne, therefore I wish to speak to his majesty personally" Zheng men started to get very annoyed at the eunuchs because as at any chance they can get any one of them will try and knock him down a peg.

Once he said that there was a danger to the throne the eunuch looked up in surprise not because of what he said but who said it, if another Imperial protectorate said the same thing then he would still be told to report it in the next court meeting, but because Zheng men said it then it most likely wasn't something simple so he stood up and called the closest guard up "Go tell his majesty that his brother believes there is a threat to his reign"