An Exhausted Ard? 

The next morning, Ard emerged from his room with dark circles under his eyes, clutching his back as he shuffled forward, a picture of utter depletion. He went to the Baron to request his leave.

The Baron took one look at Ard’s state—the very image of a man who had overdrawn his vital energies—and said with a look of profound admiration, “To be able to play so hard with a woman like that… you have my respect.”

Ard was in agony. Play? I was the one who was played with!

He forced a weak smile. “It was fine, just fine. I just didn’t expect to be so… tired.”

The Baron gave a lewd grin. “I understand. I also had a very enjoyable night and already had the cooks prepare some restorative soup for me. I’ll have them bring you a bowl.”

“No, no!” Ard quickly stopped him. The last thing he needed was some aphrodisiac soup. Who was he supposed to vent that fire on?

He forced himself to stand straight. “I’ve already delayed long enough. It’s best I set out at once. If I were to hinder your great plan, my lord, a thousand deaths would not be enough to atone for my failure.”

“You are a good man,” Quentin said with a sigh, then waved a hand. “Go then. I’ll have two drakes prepared for you.”

Ard shook his head. “I already have mounts from my journey here, stabled just outside the city. The drakes of the manor are too fine; I worry the men at the Sunstone stronghold will grow suspicious. However, I was hoping the Baron might grant me a bit of coin, so I have something to show for my efforts.”

Quentin, his mind now completely fixated on the Sunstone treasury, was uncharacteristically generous. “Take it, alright, take it!”

Ard cupped his hands in thanks and took his leave. The “virtuous little wife” Yexi dutifully supported her “exhausted” husband as they slowly made their way out of the city. Once outside, they mounted the drakes they had left at the post station and headed for Sunstone Peak.

“Your Highness, they have left.”

In the residence where Richie was staying, Kelly was reporting Ard’s movements to Roco.

Roco was flipping through the ledgers Ard had provided. “Were your people detected?”

Kelly shook her head. “No. My men were in disguise, and we rotated trackers at regular intervals. They would not have been discovered.”

“Theoretically, they wouldn’t,” Roco mused. “Even with rotating personnel, surveillance requires one to focus on the target. To a true master, that gaze alone is enough to reveal their presence.”

Kelly considered this. “By my judgment, I do not believe Lord Ard possesses such skill.”

Roco put down the ledger. “And the woman with him?”

Kelly was taken aback. “She is just an ordinary person, is she not? Her Ki felt completely normal.”

“Even the Vice-Commander of the Royal Guard could not detect her? It seems she is a master of concealing her presence. At the very least, her mastery of ‘Awareness’ is at the grandmaster level.”

Kelly was surprised by Roco’s high praise. To have trained ‘Awareness’ to the level of a grandmaster meant one’s control over their Ki was perfect, able to be used for both tracking and concealment. An ordinary practitioner would be completely unable to gauge her true strength unless their own mastery of ‘Awareness’ was equal or greater.

“Your Highness has met this woman before?”

“We met once not long ago,” Roco nodded. “At first glance, I also thought she was unremarkable. The only reason I noticed anything was because she deliberately revealed a sliver of an opening.” Roco recalled the moment he had approached Ard, and Yexi had taken that single, subtle half-step. As a top-tier warrior himself, his instincts had screamed a warning at him in that instant. But when he had looked at her again, any attempt to probe her strength was like dropping a stone into a bottomless well. She had once again become an ordinary peasant girl.

But he was a naturally suspicious and cautious man. He would not believe his instincts had failed him. It had to be that her mastery of ‘Awareness’ was superior to his own. His own skill in that area was already first-class, yet he couldn’t see through her at all. That was enough to prove her grandmaster-level proficiency. His order for Kelly to tail them had been a test, but it seemed she had simply ignored it.

Strange. Even if Yexi didn’t care, did Ard not notice he was being followed either? He had been hoping Ard would bring her back, giving him a chance to recruit her.

“Did Ard show any reaction to your surveillance?” Roco asked.

Kelly shook her head. “Lord Ard seemed to have injured his back; he kept clutching his waist. And he seemed mentally exhausted. But nothing else.”

Roco asked, a strange look on his face, “From your description, it sounds like he overindulged in a night of passion.”

Kelly hadn’t considered that possibility. Thinking back, it did resemble the state of some of the capital’s bureaucrats after a night of debauchery.

“Lord Ard… uh, doesn’t seem like the type of person to lack self-control, does he?” she said, uncertainly.

Roco seemed to find this amusing. “You never know. Could it be that he and that Yexi have that kind of relationship? Or perhaps that fat Baron took him out for a night on the town?”

“Ahem.” Kelly coughed twice, clearly wanting to drop the subject. “Could it be that Your Highness is overthinking things? I don’t believe they noticed our people.”

“Perhaps. Kelly, do you think he really spent the night…”

“Your Highness!”

“A joke, it’s a joke.” Roco, seeing the exasperated blush on his female vice-commander’s face, quickly changed the subject. “Are your people still watching them?”

“They are.”

“Recall them. If we push our luck any further, we might start losing men.”

Kelly still didn’t quite understand the point of Roco’s actions, but she followed his orders. “Yes, Your Highness. However, do you truly intend to let the young prince stay here? I am worried about His Majesty and the Crown Prince…”

Roco said dismissively, “I will handle Father and our elder brother.” He added with a hint of indignation, “Besides, this is the first time my little brother has been so willful. If I don’t indulge him, I suspect the next time we meet, his only ‘big brother’ will be that Ard. And besides, it’s time the boy got some training.”

That last part was completely unnecessary, wasn’t it? Kelly thought. She knew the Second Prince was more worried about this than the young prince himself. This was clearly about winning back his position in his little brother’s heart.

As I thought. The Second Prince is a complete and utter brother-complex.

…

On the road, Yexi watched Ard, who was occasionally nodding off on the back of his drake. “My lord husband,” she cooed, her voice dripping with mock sweetness, “were you satisfied with my service last night?”

It took Ard a moment to force out four words. “Satisfied to death.”

“Would you like to be so satisfied again in the future?”

“I’ll try to avoid it.”

“Hmm?” Yexi was not pleased with his ambiguous answer. She was about to teach him another lesson when she noticed that his head, which had been bobbing, had now slumped completely forward. His eyes were closed, and even the jolting of the drake didn’t disturb his deep sleep.

“Stubborn till the end,” Yexi muttered, shaking her head. She swung herself over onto Ard’s drake and held him steady. In his current state, even with the most intelligent of mounts, he was likely to fall off. Though his constitution would prevent any serious injury, if his already-not-so-bright head were to become even duller, Yexi wasn’t sure she could restrain herself.

His mind might not be working so well at the moment, but she was still quite interested in the plan he was about to set in motion. If it were up to her, with her straightforward personality, she wouldn’t have bothered with such a complicated scheme. She would have just killed the key figures—Quentin and the Boss man—and been done with it. As for the consequences… she never cared about such things.

The journey lasted from dawn until noon. Ard slept soundly the entire time, until Yexi woke him. He found himself leaning against a large tree, and Yexi had already prepared lunch. He stretched and let out a long yawn, feeling surprisingly refreshed; he had clearly slept very well.

“What time is it? How did I fall asleep?”

“It is noon. As for how you fell asleep, you should ask yourself.” Yexi had already started eating.

Ard didn’t think much of it as he was also hungry. He picked up the bowl and chopsticks she had prepared and began his lunch. He had no idea he had enjoyed the privilege of sleeping peacefully in her arms for the entire journey.

After sitting down, he noticed that the soreness in his back was much better. The feeling of being overdrawn had come on strong, but it had also faded quickly.

“Yexi, did you give me a massage?”

“No. Are you dreaming?”

“My back doesn’t hurt as much. It was terrible this morning.”

“That’s normal,” Yexi said calmly. “We still have to travel the next day. Although it would be interesting to see you paralyzed, considering your brain is located in your lower half, I left some leeway when I considered your punishment.”

“…” He was still being insulted. Ard nearly choked on his food. But for now, her attacks were limited to words, she never let her personal feelings interfere with the bigger picture. Ard had no complaints, and it wasn’t as if he hadn’t gotten something out of it. At least Yexi’s body was quite soft. The punishment afterwards was just the price he had to pay. 

He asked casually, “Did anything happen when we left the city? My mind was a bit foggy, I don’t even know how I got out.”

“Someone was watching us. The surveillance was very professional, they even rotated personnel. But the watchers themselves were not very skilled, and their attention was too focused on us.” Yexi began to critique Kelly’s tracking techniques.

Ard nearly spat out his food. “Who was following us?”

Yexi deduced, “I don’t know. But their auras were very uniform and strong. They looked like professional soldiers.”

“Quentin doesn’t have professional soldiers. And he’s not smart enough to think of monitoring me,” Ard analyzed. “The only ones who fit your description would be Rhode’s people. It wouldn’t be Rhode himself; he would just send someone to tell me if he needed something. So it must have been his brother. What does he want? Are we still being watched?”