Chapter 246: The Princess Bystander
Chapter 246: The Princess Bystander
(MC POV)
“How did you learn of your potential?” I chanced asking princess Guiying who remained smiling at me.
Her smile widened, “It was quite interesting actually. When I had returned to the palace, my parents had planned for me to marry into one of the Major Houses to ensure their loyalty. I’m sure you are familiar with that kind of setting?”
“Let me guess, you were to marry the head of the house who happens to be some ugly, fat bastard?”
“Teehahaha~ Master does know them!”
“And in defiance of such a decision, you materialised a Technique for the first time?” Lian Li guessed.
“Mmm… Does senior sister have such an experience before?”
“You could say that, yes.”
The two of them shared a knowing look before the princess turned back to me, “As cliche as it sounds, I did find out my talent through that incident. But it is unfortunately a rather niche element.”
She raised her hand to let a golden spark of electricity gather around her hands.
Lian Li sucked in a breath and I managed to keep my face passive through sheer will.
Having one person on the Earthen Plane with Divine Lightning was already a near impossible occurrence.
But two of them in the same generation?
You have a better chance of finding a random bag full of gold by the river than to even have such a possibility.
Wait, I recall that the random bag of gold event happened to me twice as well, so that may not be the best analogy…
Oh damn… I think this kind of confirms that Lian Li was the one, or rather one of the two, who caused the destruction of the Earthen Plane.
I won’t be surprised if it was princess Guiying’s idea for the both of them to destroy the world after they found a way to ascend to the Spiritual Plane.
Godamnit, all I want is an easy life where I worry about nothing but teaching my cute disciples what I know and having them take care of me in return, is that really too much to ask for?!
“Divine Lightning huh?” I sighed. “And what did you do when you first awakened to it?”
She poked her fingers together sheepishly, “The noble was getting rather… Inappropriate… So I kind of… Just erm… Shocked him a little?”
I narrowed my eyes at her, “You summoned Divine Lightning that did nothing more than just a shock?”
The princess averted her eyes, “I… May have removed a limb from him…”
I sighed, “Let me guess, you guys decided to bring me into this in order to stop the noble from doing anything?”
Princess Guiying panicked, “That… That wasn’t our intention! When my father found out about my potential, he no longer wanted to hand me over to that noble! But… Without a teacher I could not fully utilise my power so…”
“So you guys set up this bout, made some kind of competition and rigged it such that I will be facing everyone else?”
Now it was her turn to look confused, “Rigged it? What do you mean?”
“I meant sending me an invitation letter that was different from everybody else. I didn’t even know I was to fight every participant until I got here.”
Her eyes widened, “That… That can’t be! We had sent out a request to you to participate in it and even detailed what the competition would be several weeks ago! We got a confirmation from you that you accepted the terms!”
Nope, this definitely didn’t happen.
Lian Li scowled, “Master was away from the Sect and only returned recently. There was no way Master could have accepted anything from you.”
“Im… Impossible… Then that means… Oh no… Did we inconvenience you, Master Lin?”
I pursed my lips, “That… Well, I wouldn’t blame you for this, but I did not have any intention of joining the bout in the beginning.”
“Oh no…” The princess cried, bowing her head to me. “I am so sorry… Please accept my apologies on behalf of the Royal Family.”
I waved my hand, “It’s fine. It’s already over anyway and I managed to get something out of it.”
I’m talking about my girls getting experience from the bout of course.
The princess sat up and knocked on the wall of the carriage three times before turning back to me, “I will do my best to find who was the one that did this. If Master Lin does not wish to, please reject the position of Royal Tutor, I do not wish to inconvenience you any further than I already have.”
Seeing her depressed, I could not help myself and reached forward and patted her head, “Cheer up princess, it’s your coming of age today, so don’t let such matters bring you down on your big day.”
Her face went from confusion to shock and blushing all in a matter of seconds.
She muttered what sounds like”Hua hua hua hua~ Mas… Master Lin is patting me!” but I must be mistaken since I doubt a princess would say that.
Somehow, the side of the carriage where Lian Li was sitting got a little colder.
I turned to see my golden haired disciple pouting at me.
I reached up with my other free hand and patted her head, causing her to purr in response.
This continued until the carriage came to an abrupt stop, signaling the end of our suspiciously long ride.
I removed both my hands from their heads and was about to get up when the door to the carriage was flung open unexpectedly, revealing a rather irate Brendan standing outside the carriage with the rest of my disciples behind him.
The guy whom I assume to be our carriage driver was also there, currently being restrained by Eris.
“Master! Are you alright?!” He asked, half stepping into the carriage.
“Yes… Why wouldn’t I be?” I asked, a little startled by him.
He glared at the princess, “The carriage had been going around the palace’s perimeter at least three times instead of coming here directly, we thought the princess might be doing something untoward to Master…”
Oh…
So I was right about the ride being longer than it should.
Well, I can kind of guess why they did that though. Most likely they wanted princess Guiying and I to be a little better acquainted first before the reception takes place. I’d like to think this was done without any other intention in mind but seeing what they had already done so far, I’m not that sure that it was so simple.
Well, at least I know the princess isn’t the scheming kind so she might have fully intended it to be that way.
“Oh, don’t worry Brendan. We were just talking, so nothing happened.”
He raised an eyebrow but did not question me, “I see… The other guests are already inside, Master. I believe they are waiting for both you and the princess to arrive before officially starting.”
“I see, let’s go then.”
Brendan nodded and stepped away from the coach, letting Lian Li exit after him.
The princess bowed her head again, “I apologise Master Lin… This was–“
I raised my hand to interrupt her, “No need to apologize, I understand. Let’s not keep everybody else waiting now, shall we? Princess?”
I reached out my hand to her, palm up.
She looked at it before looking at me, a wry smile materialising on her face.
“I will be in your care, Master.”