Chapter 254: Going to Kai Kingdom
254 Going to Kai Kingdom
The army that was just running away was surprised to see their prince suddenly fell down from the horse with an arrow sticking out from his body. No one saw how the arrow suddenly came. All they know was their leader suddenly fell from the horse with poor condition.
"Fifth Prince!"
Prince Mou momentarily stopped. He was surprised to see that there was an assassin nearby. Without waiting for instruction, the soldiers immediately surrounded the first prince as a way of protection. After one of the princes was attacked so openly, they didn't dare to slack off in fear for the first prince to suffer the same fate.
"He's died," one of the soldiers said ruefully. The arrow hit this prince at the vital part, killing him in that one strike.
"We need to go back faster."
The fifth prince people were all looking at each other. They were feeling highly indignant, how could such a capable prince died so suddenly and they still need to run away? However, upon looking at their back where Soujin was still leading an army, they discarded those thoughts and ran away speedily.
Their plan to go towards Mountain Kingdom needed to be abandoned. With someone as strong as that person waiting on the wall, they might lose more people. It was better to not take such risk anymore.
Jun Hua watched all of them from afar as she paced the horse she was riding on. Using the forest path, she could get close to the territory of Kai Kingdom without getting found out and then sneaking inside the city. She released the horse since she didn't know when she would return.
"The city is a mess."
Her lips twitched a bit upon seeing the condition of the city in Kai Kingdom. It could be said that the king didn't really care about their condition as the city near the outskirt like this was unattended.
Looking around, she wanted to find some way to go to the capital when she noticed a carriage by the side. The carriage was quite big, and inside of the carriage was the children who lost their parents from the war.
"…"
An idea came to her mind, but Jun Hua was not sure that she could pass off as a child. She admitted that she was quite short for a boy, but at best it would only make her like a young boy teenager. She looked towards the carriage as she pondered before muttering to herself.
"Nothing is wrong by trying, right?"
Approaching the carriage, Jun Hua looked that the age of the children varies. Some of them already a teenager, so it should be alright if she joined in.
"Um, where is this carriage headed to?" using a childish voice, she asked.
One of the men turned around. "The capital. We are going to se-take them to their relative."
"…"
She didn't hear it wrongly, right? It seemed the law on this place was even worse than in Ming Kingdom. At least, in the Ming Kingdom there would be no children being sold so openly like this. If they lost their parents, they could stay at their relatives or other places. Although most of them ended up as servants in the end, their condition was surely better.
"Where are your parents, little kid?" the man quickly asked.
"I don't have any," Jun Hua answered. It was not a complete lie. Her mother was dead, and her father was somewhere on the street. She has never seen him anymore, but with the war happening, probably he was already long gone.
"Do you want to come with us to the capital? Probably you can meet with your relative there."
The man was just trying to make more money. Despite Jun Hua scorning the man inside her mind, she didn't reject the offer. It was only a free ride to the capital, as for selling her, she would definitely burn the person who dared to do it.
"Okay," she answered, just like an innocent kid who didn't know the world.
The man smiled at the thought of easy money. Kids from the border were mostly uneducated, making it easy for them to be conned by other people.
"Open the carriage, there is another one," the man instructed his friend.
They open the carriage's door and Jun Hua walked into the carriage and sat down near the corner. The other children were looking at her with curiosity, but after noticing that she looked ordinary, they didn't pay any more attention to her.
Jun Hua also didn't mind it and looked at the condition of the carriage carefully. She needed to know the layout of this carriage in case something happens. While she was looking around, her mind was busy thinking about several matters.
If her grandfather knew that she was going to hitch a free ride by faking herself as a slave, he would definitely laugh until his stomach hurts. From thousands of ways to sneak inside another kingdom, she had to choose one that the most unconventional. Even though so, she wanted to know more about this kingdom from the most often practice that she knew, slave trading.
Kai Kingdom was known to have slave market openly. Although in other kingdoms, there was also some slave trader, the one at Kai Kingdom was the most tragic ones. The reason being, those who were sold were all children. As for their fate after being sold, even Jun Hua didn't know.
After being a princess in Mountain Kingdom, she had banned the practices of slave trading. Unless they were voluntary signing the servants contract, she would not allow them to trade people for a slave. This was especially true for children since she knew that the future was in the hands of children.
Jun Hua eyes narrowed, thinking for a way to change the system in this place during her short trip to the capital.