Chapter 9 - The Deal

[Congratulations on the new bride. I'm sure she can protect you completely. ಥ⌣ಥ]

. After a time of utter silence that no one knew what to say and I was trying to assimilate the "groom" part while the dagger was still pressed gently to my neck, I heard a snort followed by laughter. I felt the blade come out of my neck and turning towards the sound I saw that the proclaimed owner of the ring was crying with laughter while her followers were still a mixture of surprised and desperate.

"What ...." I started to ask but was interrupted by slapping on my back.

"Hahaha your face was great" said the woman dressed as man who just threatened me minutes ago- even when you felt the dagger in your neck you did not react so much, but to hear the word groom you made a 'the world it will end tomorrow' face. - she continued the laughter

"OK right ...." I said looking at her companions asking for help.

"Young lady," began one of the servants, "it is not appropriate for a lady of the Liu Family to approach men in the woods. Even more to say that he is your fiancé ??? As if someone without a name (such as a family name) could marry you" looking towards the servant who had spoken, I realized she was a woman, and from the harsh tone she was used to scolding the lady.

"Since when I follow the rules imposed by the family?" Lady Liu said sarcastically "and he is yes my fiance" she said and taking my hand raised so that everyone could see the ring spiked in it "He has my ring, so by traditions he is My fiance until the wedding day."

I thought to any god who had brought me this immense bad luck. The servants in the clearing stared at the ring as if they didn't believe it was in my hand.

"My lady," continued the servant who had rebuked her, "surely that is a mistake. Perhaps this man found the missing ring and placed it on his finger." she said starting to get agitated "I'm sure the lady can remove the ring without any problem."

"Oh really?" asked Lady Liu, "shall we try then?" and with a fox smile she held the ring in my hand and tried to remove it, but the ring did not move.

" But .... but how is this possible ??" the maid asked the lady.

"As I said earlier he is my fiance." she said clasping our hands. "I personally put the ring on his finger. Now if you can excuse me, I need to talk to my fiance in private." the servants began to complain that it would be dangerous and she shut them up with "Do not worry, owl will protect me and ensure that no one disturbs us."

Reluctantly the servants came out of the clearing we were in, everyone except owl was throwing daggers at me.

"You really can't remove the ring?" I asked pathetically the lady in front of me when I saw that everyone was out of hearing limit.

"Nope," she said, sitting up without any worries and began to play with her dagger "It can only be removed on my wedding day."

"Hmn ..." I thought looking from the dagger to the ring "if I cut off my finger it comes out right?" I asked seriously, thinking of cutting my little finger to get rid of this problem.

"Hmm, I think so," she said, looking at me, and I could see surprise passing her eyes as her expression remained unconcerned. "But I have a better idea."

"Which??"I asked septic raising the eyebrows.

"Be my fiance," she said simply looking at me seriously.

"I don't see where this is better," I said as we looked at each other.

"I don't need you to marry me," she continued quietly but firmly. "I just need you to be my fiancé for a while until I can solve some problems," she said, putting her hand on her forehead and sighing. "In truth i didnt think you would show up so late and enter in extalia without showing the ring. I had planned to contact you when the guard saw the ring and help you travel to other parts of the kingdom. After all you are a pharmacist so you need the most varied ingredients right? " she said and I could understand the 'I wanted you to disappear for a while'. "But you didn't just take a long time to wear the ring but when you did you show it in such a public way that I had to change my plans so that problems wouldn't persecute me again."

"Is being your fiance your solution?" I asked incredulously.

"Right now," she said, and shot me a 'you're totally stupid' look. "If it weren't for one person posting a note about the ring in a guild, the other families who know about the ring wouldn't have come after you." she said sarcastically. "Not only do they now know that the ring is not lost, they also will send people after you until they can retrieve the ring. I cannot allow this ring to fall into the wrong hands and the safest place to protect you is at the family home. Then you come with me." she said the last part slowly.

When I put the newsletter in the guild I didn't expect it to be such an important ring. After all, who would say that the young man who was totally sealed that day would be a woman with a sharp tongue. In the present situation I was as good as a cow on the day of slaughter. Her proposal seemed ideal and I could maybe get sponsorship from the Liu family and complete the quest as well as some one to provide education for the boys.

"Okay," I agreed after thinking, "your reasoning line makes sense, but I have three conditions. If they can't be done I won't come back with you and cut my finger to give the ring back to you."

"All right," the lady said, a little annoyed after thinking for a while, "what your conditions are."

"First I want a patron. You know I'm a pharmacist and I will need ingredients to make my refinements." I said and seeing the lady nodding continued "Second, I want my pharmacist status to be kept secret, it is important that the minimum of people know about it at the moment."

"This can be tricky given your patron request," she said after thinking for a while. "The best course of action would be for you to be a pharmacist in the Liu family, but the house is a little disorganized right now, and until we take out the trash it's better not to say your true level to others besides me. I could make you my private pharmacist, since we are engaged, and ask my father to keep it a secret because yours profession is valuable."

"OK," I said, agreeing with what the lady had said.

"So what's the third?" Lady Liu asked, tensing her body.

"The third is the most important of all, if it can not be done I will not accompany you." Hearing the seriousness tone in my voice, Lady Liu sat up straighter and took the dagger with a stare looking at me with narrowed eyes. "I want my children to be protected and educated, no matter what happens they stay with me."

"Children?" asked Lady looking at me with round eyes of fright and opening her mouth slightly " Do you have children?"

"Yes" I said coldly "I found them when I arrived in the city and no matter what happens they have priority. How do you want to take me as your fiancé children can be a problem."

"Yes, it's true," she said with a thoughtful expression. "Are they your blood children?" she asked delicately.

"No," I said, "but it doesn't matter. They are my children."

"OK," she agreed, seeing that I was getting annoyed. "I promise to protect your children. The fact that they are not children of your blood helps with my father. But I would need to know how you got them."

"I will only tell you if the children allow it," I said, extending my hand. "Deal?" I asked, hoping to see if she would shake my hand in agreement with the conditions or not.

"Deal," she said, simply shaking my hand. "By the way, my name is Liu Liang."

"My name is Xu ze," I said and gave a small smile. "I was preparing food for the kids when you attacked me. If you want to eat with us let me know, although I would prefer the number of people to be small. It was a turbulent day today, and I don't know how the kids would react to a tumult of strangers at night" I finished talking and continued to prepare dinner. Liu Liang agreed and went to talk to her servants after a moment she came back with only one person.

"I have already spoken to the servants and they will camp somewhere far away from here," she said when she returned. "Only me and my guard Owl will accompany you."

"Fine," I said simply returning to make the soup. As two people had been added, I had to change the dish to something that would be full filling and not need more meat, since I had not marinated enough.

While cooking I mentally told Yue that everything was fine and he could come down from the house with the twins. I saw Lady Liu's surprise when they left the camouflaged house, she had not realized that there was a house there. I introduced everyone quickly and Lady Liu was soon playing with the children. The twins and she got along very well (probably the fact that she is an older sister who loves her brothers helped a lot) and they kept laughing and playing until dinner was ready. While everyone ate Lady Liu talked about her house and her family and soon they would have a warm bed and friends to play with when we went to the Liu family house.

"Why Aunt Liu?" asked Xiaoming when Lady Liu finished speaking. "Why do we have to go to your house?"

"It's because your father and I are engaged," Lady Liu said, and before I could intervene, LiFeng said.

"Noooo " and ran to my side hugging me " you can not be our mother." xiaoming also came to hug me and the two began to look with a little hostility to Liu Liang.

"darlings I do not ...." Liu Liang began to apologize but was interrupted by Xiaoming.

"Our mother can only be Xu ze," she said, hugging my legs, and a silence followed that was cut short by a laugh from Liu Liang and Owl.

" Calm kids" said Liu Liang " It's me and your 'mother' that are engaged. He is helping me solve a problem." she said as she laughed.

"But you can't have our mother either," LiFeng said, "only father can have mother."

"honeys," I said as Liu liang squirmed with laughter. "Aunt Liu and I are going to play house for a while and we need you to play, too," I told them with a serious face. "She won't take me from you or Your father don't worry."

"Promise?" they asked, looking at Liu liang who struggled to stop laughing and make a serious face.

"Of course I promise," she said, and the twins approached her again. "I wouldn't risk taking your 'mother' from your father," she said with a laugh as she said the word mother.

"Pinky-promisse," XiaoMing said, giving Liu Liang her pinky.

After both made the pinky promise dinner was back to normal and Lady Liu didn't stop teasing me with the word 'mom'. I wasn't so offended, because despite being a man in appearance my soul was female.