The Empress slammed her cup down onto the desk in front of her.
"You have violated many rules within the Palace. You have wrongfully claimed the Emperor's gifts from your sisters, and treated your servants poorly. I do hope you know that treating servants poorly do result in a harsh beating," informed the Empress, her voice cold veiling her anger.
"P-please, forgive me, Empress. It will never happen again," Lady Liu promised.
The Empress pressed her lips together and looked at the woman in front of her on the floor, she sneered, truly pathetic. She can do stuff, but once caught, doesn't admit to it.
"Alright, but you will go to the Hall of the Addax to go claim your punishment."
"Bu-but Empress-"
"Servants! Escort Lady Liu to the Addax Hall."
Two servants came up, their heads bowed, the one on the left spoke whilst helping the shocked Lady Liu stand up, "This way Mistress, it will be alright. I am sure you will change," came the empty words of comfort.
The two helped the shocked lady out of the Empress' attendance.
Hua Liu stood up and walked out of the room and headed to the Koi Garden located in the northeast of the Palace.
"What's got you down in the dumps?" came a familiar voice.
"ZeTian?" Hua Liu asked whilst turning around, "What are you doing here?"
"What? Am I not allowed to visit my dear Shimei?"
"You know that's not what I meant. But jokes aside, why are you here? You hate the Palace and you reluctantly come here unless forced to by me, but I don't recall sending you a notice."
"Fair enough, I am just honestly to bored in my estate and as much as I would like to spend all my time with my Zhang Yong, I decided we need some girl time."
"True. I was starting to think you have forgotten about me shijie."
Wang ZeTian made an affronted face," I would never!"
"Sure, says the lady who immediately slept with her husband and got married only telling me when I was at the wedding and even then you said it was just a party."
"Lemme have a break!" Wang ZeTian said, exasperated.
"No," came the simple answer, Hua Liu smiled at the other's reaction.
It has been quite a while since she was able to smile like that; she knew she could always count on her shijie to cheer her up.
"Shall we go the rabbits?"
"Oh my gosh yes! I have been waiting to see them and talk to you for so long! We need to go now!"
Wang ZeTian grabbed Hua Liu's hand and dragged her to the little garden that was located at the west side of the Palace where they hid for the whole day, talking, petting rabbits and drinking tea and eating little snacks.
******
Laquetta and Leslie walked down the pathway from the forest where they were picking some herbs, they weren't that far into the woods.
"Hey, Leslie."
"Yes?"
"Do you think if we forced our missions into place and then killed ourselves do you think we can go to the next world?"
Leslies looked at Laquetta as if she was insane but then smiled maniacally too, "I really hope so. It is pretty boring in this world."
"What type of genre is this world, System?" asked Leslie.
"It is of the romance genre."
Laquetta looked at Leslie, "That's probably why this world is so easy."
Leslie nodded in agreement.
The two continued down the path, talking with each other and the System before they saw a figure lying on the side of the road. They approached the figure cautiously; when they were close enough to see the body they saw how mangled it was. It was in an advanced state of decay, the jaw and left side of the ribs were missing.
The two girls were immediately wary, but they kept moving forward. Almost immediately they were a shrill screech almost as if the body had been a warning.
There was the thundering of hooves and a sika deer galloped onto the path in front of them before it disappeared into the thicket on the other side.
The shrill screech sounded again. Closer this time.
"What is that?" whispered Leslie.
"I don't know, but I don't want to wait around to find out. Let's head back quickly."