In Di Ling Yan’s view, the only ones that could demand sacrifice from herself would be the ones she care about. For example, her parents and siblings, or the friends she’s made in the palace. Whereas these unknown strangers would be considered just that, strangers that she owes nothing to.
The old man’s face suddenly sank, causing his smile to disappear completely as well. “If you won’t come with us then that leaves me no choice but to use force! All of you go, take this demon princess down!”
“Understood!” Those that came with the old man promptly drew their weapons and readily charged at the pair.
The palace guard could see this of course and understood the time has for him to put his life on the line. Without another thought, he tossed the girl in his arms towards the inner yard as hard as he could to give her the highest chance of getting to safety. Though it’s a futile effort and he knows it, the soldier still wanted to do everything in his power before his end comes.
“Princess, run away, go find the king!” That’s the final words the soldier before it got cut off.
For Di Yan Ling who could only catch a glimpse of the scene once she hit the highest point in the air, the picture was painful to take in even for her immature mind. Bloody, gory, and limbs severed into multiple pieces, that’s how quickly the attackers mercilessly murdered the demon soldier who stayed behind to fight. It’s a completely one-sided battle that ended in seconds, yet that’s all it was needed for help to arrive.
Right before Di Ling Yan came face to face with the cold hard ground, she had closed her eyes for the impending hurt. However, the impact never came in her shyness from pain, rather it’s the sensation of a powerful pair of arms catching her mid fall!
“Princess…” Winger gently whispers his words into her ear, “I’m sorry for being late…”
Obstructed by her own tears, the girl cries while speaking incoherently: “Hic…. Hic… Did I do something wrong?”
“No, how could you have done anything wrong Princess?” Winger found it absolutely distressing to hear such sensible words. It’s not right to demand this of someone so young!
“If I’ve done nothing wrong then why do these people hate me so much? I’ve listened to Mother’s teaching and kept my heart pure and kind. Why does Second Brother have to sacrifice himself to protect me? And why does Mr. Guard back there have to die to protect me?”
“I want to grow up, I want to grow up just as strong as Big Brother. That way I can keep others from being hurt because of me… nor die for me….”
That’s right, in this poor princess’s view, the only way she could stop all this pain was to become stronger.
“Princess, he’s a demon guard, it’s his duty to protect you…”
“No! He and Sister Mu Ying are my friends. Everyone in the Demon Realm are my friends. The ones that deserve to die are those bad people and not them!”
Yes, the ones to die should be the evil and bad ones, not the friends and family in her life. And for the first time ever, a flash of hate and anger filled those big innocent eyes of this pure child, tainting a small spec of her childish heart.
It’s then, First Elder and the others also arrives on the scene. They could see the state of the situation, but they were more concerned with the intruders from the Celestial Palace who had also chased over after removing the obstacle.
“It seems the king is right. You lot really came to attack the palace while we were out. How dare you lay a hand on the princess.” Huffing a grunt in an irate manner, First Elder was glaring daggers at the bunch: “But now you can forget about ever leaving this place alive!”
The old man leading the second group of attackers only snickered a laugh at the idle threat: “Is that so? Shame though, I’ve already had some of my subordinates run off to inform Keeper Ling about the princess’s existence. Now whether it be the demon king or demon queen, or even the Demon Realm for that matter, none of you need to exist anymore.”
“What?” Darkening in the face, First Elder’s voice grew dreadfully cold like he wants to snap the other side’s neck.
Sneering some more after getting the reaction he wanted, “Do you know why the Celestial Lord never moved against the Keepers despite his hatred for them? It’s because they hold an ancient relic in their hands. It’s an incredible weapon containing power capable of destroying everything, and such a relic can only be activated by the Keepers themselves!”
