Spectrum
Spectrum
"The situation has gotten out of hand -"
"The situation wouldn't be like this if you had done your job properly in the first place." Molin quietly bit out.
"How was I supposed to know the dose wouldn't be strong enough?" The Imperial guard defended.
"It was your job to know." Molin irritatedly countered.
The other man frowned, "At any rate, you took an unnecessary risk. What if-"
"It was a necessary risk." Molin irritatedly defended, "Do you think we would have gotten another chance? Whose fault do you think this is?" He asked, glaring at the Imperial guard standing on the other side of the bars. He was in a bad mood and he did not need condescending to him.
The other man knit his brows and was quiet for a moment before he went on to say, "Since the situation is already like this. I will inform the Prince-"
"Inform of what? Does this situation seem like one he could solve?" Molin snapped, a bit too loudly and they both glanced down the hallway, but no one came, the Imperial had naturally been very careful. They had intentionally put Molin in a secluded cell and there were even lookouts as well, since no one came running, they were good.
There were not a lot of them in the palace, but they had slowly gained their roots in the palace over the years. They had not done anything all this time, rather they had slowly been amassing power to prepare for a big move. So they were quite surprised when Prince Houyi suddenly tasked them with getting rid of Prince Yi who already had one leg through death's door.
Molin let out a breath and continued, "I'm just saying, the Prince has more important matters to deal with. We can't bother him."
The man frowned, "But we can't keep this from him either? If anything happens to the Princess, it'll -"
"I'm not saying to keep it from him." Molin interjected, "Just... there is no need to bother to bother him with something we can manage ourselves. Inform the Prince that the "task" is complete for now…" He knit his brows in thought for a bit and then went, "Nalan's grandfather is already in Long country, I don't understand what the delay is with him - either way, pass along a message to him and let him deal with this."
"What if something happens to her before he arrives? Will you bear the responsibility for that then?" The other man asked, clearly not convinced.
"Nothing will happen. The Long Emperor might be hard to deal with, but the Empress is not. As long as she's there, she won't let him do anything serious to Nalan. Just go do as I've said." Molin said with a dismissive wave.
The man was still not convinced but he bowed his head and was about to turn to leave when Molin spoke up again, "Ah, I need you to find a scapegoat at the Imperial pharmacy."
"Another scapegoat? Why?" The man asked with a questioning eyebrow.
Molin narrowed his eyes at the man, "Since I had to clean up somebody's mess, those physicians were saying some troubling things. Remember, this cannot come back to me otherwise everything will be ruined, so tell a convincing story and FIX THIS." Molin pointedly said and then strode back to his straw mat. The other man covertly glared at him, inwardly grumbling complaints as he stormed off.
Alone again, Molin put his elbows to his knees, put his head in his hands and let out an irritated breath, this was a mess. With the way the situation was, his cover be blown. Forget prince Yi finding out, the Long Emperor would kill him before
He had not expected Princess Nalan to react like that, even if Nalan was the reckless sort, she had never been so foolishly reckless. And what was all that nonsense of not believing a cold dead man's death?!
"Ridiculous!" Molin bit out in frustration. How could she be so blind?! In all honesty, he blamed himself. He obviously did not do his job properly, but Nalan was...
Molin let out another irritated breath, with the way the situation was, if they were not careful, his cover could be blown. He was obviously not supposed to get involved but after failing in his duty to shield Nalan from that snake, Prince Yi, he could not afford another failure.
Even if Prince Rui were trusting, if he heard of this, he may start to get suspicious. Thinking of Prince Rui, he was the main point of contention between him and Prince Houyi right now. He had not heard personally from Prince Houyi in months because Prince Rui returned to the Zou capital alive.
Before they left the war, Prince Houyi had asked him to use this opportunity "wisely". Molin understood but he was having really mixed feelings about killing Prince Rui.
The thing was that Molin owed the lives of his and his siblings' to a young Prince Houyi who had saved them after their parents' death. He had pledged then to serve Prince Houyi until his death and had vowed to follow him.
Back then Prince Houyi had not taken him seriously but had allowed the young Molin to follow him back to the palace. Prince Houyi was a lot more relaxed when his mother, the Zou Queen was still alive, at that time she had just gotten pregnant with Nalan.
Everything was good until tragedy struck, the Queen died and Prince Houyi was cast out by his father. Molin had wanted to follow him but it had all happened so quickly, it was like he woke up one morning and was told Prince Houyi was gone.
He had considered following him but being so young he had no idea how to begin a journey to Jiu country, much less how to locate Prince Houyi. In the end, Molin settled for looking after his younger siblings in his stead and so he would try his best to get into Prince Rui's mother's quarters to check on baby Nalan, which was no easy feat. It was through these care attempts that he bumped into Prince Rui and they became friends, good friends.
As Prince Rui's friend, who could see Nalan whenever he wanted to and well, being a Prince's companion always had its merits. Molin knew there was a divide between the Princes' so he never really mentioned his ties with Prince Houyi. Back then, he would send Prince Houyi's status reports on his siblings.
Things were all good until Prince Houyi returned a changed a person and the divide became even more apparent. Molin knew the time had come to make his stand and chose Prince Houyi, but then Prince Houyi told him that he was more useful to him at Prince Rui's side. Back then, he was not quite clear on what that meant, but soon enough it was clear he was to be a spy. He had no problems spying but when he was promoted to covert assassin when Prince Rui was given command of the army instead of Houyi, he had reservations.
He found that he could not kill Prince Rui with his own hands. After stewing over this for many days, he found a happy medium. He would not kill Prince Rui, but he would do nothing to avert his death if it came.
Molin reasoned that battlefield being the place that it was, Prince Rui was most likely bound to die against such a formidable foe as Long country. Then Prince Rui got captured and he thought this was it - him getting captured too was unfortunate though. But then rather than kill Prince Rui, Long country was just playing with him, they even gave him a chance to escape.
Then they got attacked and Prince Rui was injured, then they got captured by slave traders, the injury should have killed them, but then Lei Xing!
Then they got captured again and really Prince Yi should have killed him, but then Prince Yi went and did the worst thing of all, he released him! Worse, he kept Molin prisoner so he could not even prevent the disaster of Prince Rui's return to Zou even if he wanted to!
Then that same sneaky conniving bastard dared to extend his filthy plot to Princess Nalan. He could see the storm brewing, it was why he had convinced Prince Rui to let him stay. But he had always been too indulging of Princess Nalan, so in the end, he failed to protect her from that bastard who seems to be the bane of his existence.
Given everything that happened, Prince Yi naturally deserved to die. So as soon as Prince Houyi gave him the go-ahead, he jumped on it and used every means to ensure success. Still, those idiots botched it. And if they missed out on this opportunity, the Long Emperor would make it impossible for a second chance so he had no choice at that moment. He could not disappoint Prince Houyi, most importantly, he could not let that bastard who was thinking of using Nalan as a meal ticket walk free.
He did not regret it and in his opinion, Prince Yi got off way too easy - he deserved a far more painful death than suffocation. As for Princess Nalan, she was simply deluded for a moment, hoodwinked by a trickster. She would grow out of it. He was sure of it. As for the baby, well... It was Nalan's, so he could learn to love it too.
It was all fine. The situation was still manageable, perfectly manageable.