Chapter 170: Out of Place

Ru Yi did not speak for a long time after Kael finished. The fire between them burned low, its glow steady but subdued. It cast long shadows that stretched and shifted across the clearing.

For everyone else, the night seemed to pass. Yexue made quiet complaints about the food to fill the silence, Lieyin responded with dry indifference.

It was only Ru Yi that remained rooted in the moment, glued to the conversation she just had with Kael. Of course she knew the book he was talking about.

Fallen Blossoms Beneath the Eastern Palace.

They’d both transmigrated into it as different characters. She’d been the ordinary maid destined to die by the hands of Princess Lin Yuexin and barely managed to change her fate. Except, it had cost her the princess’s life.

But Kael...she didn’t remember his character in the book. Couldn’t for the life of her remember what he’d done. Especially with how he was determined to help the triplets.

Ru Yi risked another look at him.

The fire made his red eyes look even more threatening than it usually was. His features stood out, he wasn’t the type to be easily forgotten.

"Don’t think about it too much," Kael said after a while, watching different emotions float through Ru Yi’s face. "Not thinking I’m crazy is more than enough for me."

Ru Yi lifted her head. "I’m just trying to wrap my head around it. I want to understand you better." And ultimately, she wanted to know who the woman he was after was.

"You want to?" Disbelief coated his question. But there was something deliberate in the way he watched her, like her reaction mattered more than her words.

Ru Yi let out a soft breath and leaned back slightly, her posture relaxed even as her thoughts sharpened.

"Every story has an end, a resolution after the climax." Her voice was light but thoughtful. "And you’re here to make sure that happens?" According to the book, it was the exiled princesses ascending the throne. But not without a great cost.

"Yes." There was no hesitation in Kael’s answer. ’I can only hope to be of actual use to the princesses by finding out who the woman is."

"You don’t know her?"

Kael shook his head. "This is the revised edition, not the original version of the book. I only know that because I’d read a few pages to my adoptive sister. It came out a couple days after she got into an accident—"

He broke off when his voice started to crack.

"You really don’t have to tell me," Ru Yi rushed to tell him. "It’s not like you owe me anything. I’ll go get some air."

Kael gave Ru Yi a nod as she stood up.

She looked across the clearing, her eyes immediately meeting with Qingyue’s for a brief moment. An unspoken feeling passed between them...quiet and instinctive.

With her sisters glued to her side, Qingyue and Ru Yi were yet to get a private moment to talk. They needed to clear the air about what happened that night.

Other than the fact it had hurt Yexue, Ru Yi didn’t regret it. Not one bit. Sometimes if she closed her eyes hard enough, she could still see Qingyuue—lying down vulnerable and broken beneath her. There’d been something about coaxing Qingyue’s sense of control out of her.

Ru Yi looked away first before she’d something she might regret later. She walked beyond the firelight, the warmth fading as the cool night air wrapped around her.

Sounds of the camp softened behind her, replaced by the faint rustle of wind through trees. She did not need to turn to know she was no longer alone.

"You shouldn’t wander too far," Han Shuying said from behind her.

Ru Yi allowed herself a small sight before looking over her shoulder. "I’m too exhausted to play games with you right now."

Han Shuying raised her hands in mock surrender. "I’ll have you know I’m not as evil as you make me out to be. I’m just here to check in with you."

"About what?"

"Our deal." Han Shuying stopped in front of her. "I saw the way you were looking at Qingyue earlier. I need to make sure you’re not having any second thoughts."

How could she? It was all she could think about given the situation.

"If it’s okay, I’d like to add a little request to it."

Han Shuying crossed her arms over her chest. "You’re not exactly in the position to be making more demands."

Ru Yi looked at her, eyes glistening with tears. "Please...let me be the one to tell them about the Empress’s seal."

Han Shuying blinked severally in confusion. "You want to confess to framing them and getting them exiled?" Her expression hardened. "I don’t understand you."

Ru Yi lowered her gaze to her hands. "Because it was my fault, I should be the one to fix it."

Han Shuying had put as part of their deal that she’d tell the triplets what happened with the Empress’s seal. It had been a measure to make sure she severed the ties between them and Ru Yi.

But now...

"It doesn’t make sense." Han Shuying’s eyes were. "I know you’ve fallen in love with them, Ru Yi. If anything I thought you’d beg me to keep the secret."

Ru Yi shook her head. "It’s because I love them that I don’t want to lie to them anymore. They might hate me for it, but at least...I want to be true to my conscience and my feelings for them."

"I think it’ll be better if they hear it from me."

"No! You just want to make sure they don’t come back from me when I follow you back to the capital." She looked at Han Shuying with a tilt to her head. "Don’t think I don’t know what you’re playing at."

Han Shuying shrugged. "My intentions have been clear from the very beginning, Ru Yi." She closed the small distance between them. "I will make you mine. Whether you like it or not."

Ru Yi’s fingers tightened. "You’re really as ruthless as they say you are."

"I didn’t get to this position by being compassionate," Han Shuying said in agreement. "Sooner or later, you’ll learn that the only thing that can keep you alive is the wall you build around your heart."

-

-

Kael had not intended to listen. He had only stepped away from the fire because he needed a moment alone, but when he heard Ru Yi’s voice carried through the darkness...he stopped behind a tree without thinking.

"I want to be the one who tells them."

Kael’s brows furrowed. He listened as Ru Yi conversed with Han Shuying. And with every word, the uneasiness inside him grew heavier.

The Empress’s seal.

The one Ru Yi had hidden in Yexue’s chamber. It was the centre of the accusation that had sent the three princesses to exile.

And Ru Yi had been responsible for it.

Kael slowly leaned against the tree behind him, staring into the darkness as the pieces began falling into place.

He had suspected her from the moment she arrived with the other sisters and Han Shuying. Even before he’d realized they were the infamous wolves.

But something else worried him.

The story was changing in ways it never had in the book. The woman who should not have been there had somehow become entangled with the three princesses, and instead of keeping her distance, they had begun trusting her.

Especially Qingyue.

That alone had been enough to make Kael uneasy. It didn’t help that they were both wearing ’the soulweave’ ring. He’d recognized it immediately Qingyue approached him that night at the winehouse.

The ring was forged thousands of years ago by an ancient spiritual cultivator known as ’The Weaver’. A woman who believed that two souls could become stronger when their spiritual energies were intertwined. At least that was what other travelers said.

Perhaps Ru Yi was simply another character he had forgotten, or maybe the world was broader than the book had revealed. It was impossible to remember every minor character or every detail.

He had not wanted to make a mistake. Now he wasn’t so sure.

Kael closed his eyes briefly as Ru Yi’s voice reached him again.

"It has to end this way for everyone to be safe. From me...."

His expression darkened. She was planning to sever herself from the princesses. That was almost exactly what the story required.

Except for one thing. She knew what she had done, and she intended to tell them.

Kael straightened slowly.

If Ru Yi was the woman he suspected, then the situation was far more serious than he had anticipated.

In the original story, the princesses’ exile had been one of the most important turning points in their lives. It had forced them away from the palace, allowed them to discover their mother’s surviving soldiers at Ashen Fortress, and eventually led them back to the capital.

Everything had happened because of the hidden seal. Because someone had placed it there...someone had betrayed them. And now that person was standing beside them.

Kael’s jaw tightened.

So it really is you.

For the first time, he was almost certain. The problem was that certainty had come too late. They were already traveling together. Already trusting one another.

Kael looked toward the fire, where Ru Yi’s silhouette was faintly visible through the trees. He had been given one purpose when he arrived in this world.

Help the three princesses reclaim their throne. And eliminate the woman who stood in their way. If Ru Yi truly was that woman, he could no longer afford to wait for more proof.

He needed to act.