After princess gave her oath, queen immediately asked the main question.
"Did Nick kill Chu Feng."
"No."
"Were you with him all the time."
"No."
"Could he have killed Chu Feng during the time you were absent?"
"Why would Nick do that? He didn't even know that disgusting pervert." YunYun replied to the last question with a calm smile while Chu matriarch almost jumped at her.
At this moment she thought she had figured out queen's true intentions.
'All of this was only for me to loose control and attack your daughter for you to have a reason to kill me? Dream on!'
"Answer properly!" Queen seemed to be angered.
"No, he could not."
"Why not?"
"After the hunt started, both of us ran directly to the north for three days and nights and there was no way anyone could've followed or found us. After that Nick was saving Bambi and had his hands full for over twenty days and I left for one day to come back to the camp near lake Tai to get bandages."
This explanation didn't make sense to any of the present. If Nick wasn't there at the time he would have been as confused as the rest of the crowd.
"Explain properly! Who is Bambi and why Nick had to save her? And how did you leave him to return to the camp and go back in one day if you ran towards the north for few days previously without anyone being able to catch up to you?"
"Oh, Bambi is a rank six doe and when we found her she was deadly wounded. The fact that we managed to save her is actually a miracle. We were out of bandages and Snow brought me to the camp and then back within one day." YunYun noticed the confused gazes around her and did her best to explain, "Snow is a rank six tiger that we met as well. Nick gave me his meteorite ring to go back to the camp to get bandages and persuaded Snow to carry me so it was faster. Thus I rushed back and you helped me to gather those bandages from around the camp."
Despite queen's previous warning, a huge commotion broke out again. The princess claimed that she rode a rank six tiger? That made sense even less than all of the previous stories put together.
"YunYun, remember the oath you gave!" Queen coldly reminded infusing Qi in her voice and crowd calmed down a bit.
"Of course! I know it sounds unbelievable, but Nick has a weird way of communicating with high rank animals. Back on Nestri continent he saved a rank six flame wolf from getting captured. Clayton Evans and Steven Rollen from the two great aristocratic families were present and can testify to that. And this time when we found the injured doe, we just had to save it. There are no records of a rank six deer being found in the world's history and there was no way we could let it die like this!"
This was the part queen and Nick were waiting for and was the main thing that YunYun had to mention. They speculated that information about rank six flame wolf should cause some reaction from Chu matriarch and were not disappointed. Even with her willpower she had to take a deep breath and her pupils dilated. She definitely knew quite a lot about the Holy Order's matters. What the queen and Nick didn't know was that currently the Chu clan's matriarch was considering the possible implications of this information as well as the quickest possible ways to contact elder Dinnar.
Queen allowed YunYun to take a breather while the audience was murmuring in disbelief and even scorn.
"So you want to say that a tiger allowed you to ride it to save the doe? Do you even understand how ridiculous it sounds?" Queen continued to pressure her daughter and the latter would really been in much stress if she didn't know it was a play.
"Exactly. The rank six animals have completely different relationships compared to the regular ones. Actually, they are much smarter than humans as well."
"Fine." Queen hissed and the crowd felt she was really in a bad mood, "Let's say it was true, how did Nick save the dying ran six doe?"
"Well, of course he's only fourteen year old Qi master, but he is already accomplished alchemist with a deep knowledge in the healing medicine." This time YunYun didn't have to hold back and happily bragged about her fiance.
And finally crowd was shocked for real. If they were laughing at their princess secretly before, these were sensational news. The boy was at the same level as the genius of the century, princess Hua, queen's younger sister. And not only was he a Qi master, but an alchemist as well?
The crowd was shocked and Chu Ranqing was shocked as well, but mostly because she finally realized that there is no way her son could be alive. They have made a grave mistake and tried to poison a genius alchemist! And he was a fourteen year old Qi master! How did everyone miss that?
"We can verify that later." Queen waved off her daughter, "Go and sit. Prime minister, elders, did she say lie at any moment?"
The crowd held their breaths and to their shock the speechless elders shook their heads. At this moment everyone lost their trust in these 'experts'. It was fine for a genius Qi master to appear, but the story about the rank six beasts?
"Invite princess Min!" Queen commanded and when her eldest daughter stood in front of her she stood up for the greater effect as well.
"Min, one day you will sit on this throne and rule over our country, but today is important for our family, because a potential member is under the trial. Until now everyone present only heard unbelievable stories and I want you to bring some common sense into this. You came back from the camp at lake Tai together with your sister and her fiance. What can you tell us?"
"Sigh, I wish I wouldn't be the one to tell you all this." Princess Min prepared her part well, "But it might be the most shocking part of the whole event. Before I say anything, you can confirm my words with dozens of the witnesses that will arrive in the following days from our camp. And, truth to be said, if I hadn't seen it myself, I wouldn't believe it."
She held another long pause before continuing, "I was left in charge of the camp with the task to wait for my younger sister who, together with her fiance appeared almost a month late. The thing is … they appeared along side of three beasts – two of which are already noted down in our records as rank six saber-tooth snow tiger and rank six silver-back rock ape. The third was a large, around three meter tall golden doe."
While the crowd was exclaiming loudly, she continued, "I understand it sounds unbelievable, but dozens of people saw how my younger sister hugged the three beasts to say goodbye and how Nick fooled around with the grand ape king, playing catch. It was not some hallucination, I can asure you. Quite a few members from the aristocratic families that are represented here today witnessed it with their own eyes and will confirm it after they return."
Effect was great, Chu clan's matriarch was all stressed out, the crowd was shocked to the core, but the problem was that the sun was only setting and they needed at least another hour. Queen sighed inwardly. They already had an extra plan for this case, but she was itching to storm the Chu clan's estate.
"Alright, you can go back. There is another thing we all want to see. Even if there was such an event, the witnesses who can vouch for Nick are rank six beasts and we have no way of communicating with them. Nick, it's time for you to come forward, this queen has some questions for you!"
Nick solemnly stood up and waited for further instructions.
"There were many unbelievable stories that will be verified in the near future, but if you really are such a great alchemist, I would like you to explain what exactly did you do for over twenty days to save an animal and maybe even give us a demonstration."
While people in the hall were confused about this, Nick understood his task well. For the next hour he bored the life out of all the present aristocrats and ministers, and at the end even gave a demonstration creating a high quality healing elixir. At this point several people were already napping while many others were impatiently glancing at the door.
Although queen was impressed, she was as bored as everyone else.
"You can return to your seat." She stood up and continued with a stern expression, "What we saw today was an embarrassment to our country. A bunch of greedy and jealous people tried to use an indescribable grief of a mother over loosing her child to earn some quick money and to use this queen's power to execute an innocent alchemy prodigy from another country who even did a heroic deed without asking anything in return! This is unforgivable! I want all those who falsely testified today executed immediately!"
The sleepy crowd woke up in an instant. This was too sudden! They all expected this to be a show to make fun of the Chu clan and to release the obviously fake witnesses afterwards. Weren't they planted by her highness? It didn't make any sense!
And suddenly confused crowd heard terrified screams behind those big closed doors – the execution had already started!
"Your majesty! May I say something?" Suddenly Nick jumped in, "Medicinal theory speaks about mental illnesses that have similar symptoms to what we saw today. Delusional people have their fantasies mixed with the reality and even Qi experts cann't tell they have lied because for them the events transpired in their minds and were real. Would you allow me to try concoct some medicine first and maybe they can be cured in the future? Apart from discrediting your highness they didn't commit any evil crimes."
"You want to help people who wanted you dead?" Queen was surprised as anyone else in the hall.
"They are only sick people, your highness!"
The crowd was still in confusion, but the queen already gave the order. Every single goal today has been achieved, including the beautiful sight the Chu clan's matriarch will enjoy when leaving.
"Fine, stop the execution! But if this medicine doesn't help, they will pay for their crimes even if they are sick!"
Everything went as planned and tired, annoyed and furious Chu Ranqing on her way out saw her three men beheaded few meters from the doorstep. The fresh blood puddles as well as the eyes full of disbelief were reflecting the torches around the venue. There were few other beheaded bodies of the former witnesses around, but Chu clan's matriarch didn't pay any attention to those and stormed out at full speed.
The rest of the crowd were discussing the weird comedy that ended in tragedy and still couldn't fully understand what just transpired. The whole circus in the beginning with almost twenty different clowns, then fantastic fairy tale of the three rank six beasts and in the end a heroic young genius alchemist? It was too much to digest for one night. Still, many of them rushed home to contact few of their clansmen to get a full picture of what transpired at lake Tai.
Queen Hu, old queen and the two youths quickly changed into the black outfits immediately after exiting the hall and dashed over to the Chu mansion.
"Did you enjoy the drama?" Nick asked the queen while they ran through the shadows.
"It was really fun at first, but got boring already after midday." Queen sighed. If this could've been split in thirty parts and she could watch one part each day, it would've been an enjoyable month.
"That was to be expected." Nick said, "We had fun first, but then our job was to make her nervous, anxious or furious in every possible way. The current main task is to arrive before her. Did you make any arrangements that will take place after we're in?"
Queen Hu nodded and they continued their run silently.
Both queen and her mother were pleasantly surprised by the speed and the stealth skills of the both youths. It was no wonder they could escape the Nestri empire. They moved at high speed soundlessly, didn't leave any footprints and, even if there were some people in their way, they instantly managed to find routes around or above, without slowing down.
They already knew that the estate will be guarded more tightly than the royal palace and weren't surprised by many guards patrolling around. The four easily infiltrated and went directly to the main building, and hid in the nearby shadows to wait for the Chu clan's matriarch.
She didn't make them wait for long, but didn't enter the main building either. After issuing few commands, she proceeded towards a small pavilion that was hidden between trees and bushes in a quiet spot away from the other buildings and patrolling guards. The delighted royal team excitedly occupied good spots around it only to see her anxiously pacing inside.
Couple of minutes later a dark figure appeared, "What happened, master? Did the plan to kill that kid fail?"
A man in low voice spoke.
"Not only we failed, he turned out to be a genius Qi master and an alchemist at that. I'm certain my son is dead and his plan was exposed." Chu matriarch replied in a frustrated voice.
"I'm sorry for your loss, but that doesn't implicate us or the plan …" But before man could complete his thought, he got interrupted.
"That was only the good part. The kid has some kind of way to communicate with high ranked beasts and not only he saved the flame wolf on the Nestri continent, but befriended the three rank six beasts during the Tiger hunt! And one of them was our target!"
"That … that can't be right!"
"This is too much of coincidence. Our connection to the Order might be exposed – we don't know if my son was tortured before his death or maybe with peculiar alchemy brews was forced to reveal our secrets. In any case, we have to evacuate immediately. On my way home I saw several suspicious people on the streets – queen might be already preparing her attack and the whole court hearing was only to stall for time. Help me open the pathway, I'll go first, you give out the instructions and immediately follow me. Also, before we leave, let's set this city on fire. We couldn't create the chaos on the continent as we planned, then let's make a micro version of it. Hahaha!"
She started to laugh, but stopped abruptly when she noticed a sword sticking out from her chest. The other person was decapitated at the same time.
'Sigh, I still have a long way to go. In an actual combat situation I'm so far behind the old experts like the mother and daughter queen pair.' Nick shook his head. He didn't even notice when these two left their spots and both enemies of the kingdom had already died.
"You, kids, stay here and guard this hidden pathway in case someone tries to escape." Queen Hu commanded, "In fifteen minutes we'll start the cleanup of this place. Mom, what will you do?"
"I'll look around, maybe there's something interesting." The old queen emotionlessly said and vanished in the dark. Queen Hu followed her and only both youths remained, helplessly looking at each other.
"I hoped it would be more fun!" YunYun complained.
"You do realize several hundred people will get massacred here in the next twenty minutes?" Nick asked.
"Exactly! And we have to wait here! It's simply not fair."
'Why I'm getting so worked up about this situation? These people are obviously part of the Holy Order and even if we don't count that, they intended to arson the whole city!' Nick suddenly realized.
Soon the royal forces arrived, but they didn't issue any warnings or made arrests. Everyone in Chu estate got executed on the spot. Few tried to fight back, many – to flee, but no one made out alive. There were some who hoped the hidden pathway would be open or maybe even knew how to open it, but as soon as they came closer to the pavilion, they were instantly laid to rest by YunYun and their bodies hidden in the nearby bushes in case anyone else followed.
Half an hour later Nick and YunYun were relieved from their guard duty and got a new task – to investigate Chu Feng's quarters and look for possible clues. Queen had her men search the place from top to bottom and there was no reason to not use these two slackers who will soon depart anyway. Unfortunately there were very few useful materials to be found and already before the sunrise the whole place was burned to the ground.
The next morning the capital was shaken by another piece of news. All this time Chu Feng was actually alive and together with his perverted mother planned to kidnap and assassinate the youngest princess, because she refused his advances and chose another fiance. Fortunately some people from Chu estate delivered the news to the queen in time and the Chu clan received the 'proper' punishment.
Many were shocked, many delighted, but in the end there was one less aristocratic clan in Xian and the capital acquired new park that will show the future generations what happens to those who have bad intentions towards a member of the royal family.
The news about the three rank six beasts spread few days later when Nick and YunYun were already on the ship. They didn't care much about rumors anyway and would get an update the next time they came to this place – after all they had three friends on the Eastern continent whom they gave a promise to visit within the next few years.