Chapter 11: The Fourth Prince Hand
One week.
That was all it had taken.
One week since Renyu had entered Heaven Dou Imperial Academy beneath the banner of the crown prince. After the imperial favor has been given by the emperor and the declaration by Xue Qinghe.
Most of the noble born can only have to smile and swallow that decision because most not happy with commoner join them.
Xue Beng stood beneath the corridor eaves of the upper court and watched the training grounds below.
The morning mist had not fully burned off yet. Students moved across stone platforms and packed earth fields under the eyes of instructors, their uniforms breaking into clusters so predictable that they were almost insulting. Old houses with old houses. Lesser branches with lesser branches. Children pretending not to measure one another by family name before talent.
And there, in the third court below, stood Renyu.
Calm.
Straight-backed.
Too composed.
That was what irritated Xue Beng most.
Not the talent. Talent could be dealt with. Bought, isolated, broken, redirected. Heaven Dou was full of talented people who eventually learned where to kneel. But Renyu had the one quality Xue Beng mistrusted more than arrogance.
He looked so composed.
As though he already knew exactly where he belonged.
Especially he is directly brought by Xue Qinghe.
Xue Beng fingers tapped once against the carved railing.
A commoner.
A child raised by Xue Qinghe.
A boy the emperor had publicly praised and the academy had been ordered to receive.
'Ridiculous.'
No, worse than ridiculous. He is useful to the state.
That was the problem.
He is under Xue Qinghe someone that he need to stay save from if he wants the throne.
Xue Beng narrowed his eyes.
The older he grew, the less he believed in his elder brother saintly mask. Everyone praised the crown prince grace, his measured voice, his patience, his generosity toward talent. Everyone said the same thing, Xue Qinghe was the perfect heir.
Too perfect.
The many accident that happen to his others siblings, he can say for sure that Xue Qinghe has a hand in it.
That man was dangerous.
And now he had brought a blade into the academy.
Xue Beng let out a quiet breath through his nose.
They all saw the talent. Even the fools saw that. The instructors were trying not to show how impressed they were. The students were trying not to show how much they resented it. The court had already made up its mind that Renyu was the crown prince latest stroke of brilliance.
If that opinion settled, it would become truth.
And every truth that strengthened Xue Qinghe weakened those standing behind him.
No.
That could not be allowed to settle.
Below, Renyu completed a sequence of movement drills with irritating neatness. No wasted motion. No grandstanding. Even his restraint had begun to provoke people. Noble sons could forgive arrogance more easily than they could forgive competence worn quietly.
A laugh sounded at Xue Beng left.
"Still watching him?"
Xue Beng did not turn at once. He knew the voice.
Sun Ji.
Seventeen. Second son of a viscountal house tied closely enough to imperial logistics to be useful, not important enough to be untouchable. Firebird martial spirit. Good speed. Good striking power. Level 41 spirit master. Better pride. He had been one of the boys standing on the right side of the stone court when Renyu was introduced.
'Useful,' Xue Beng thought again.
He turned then, expression already arranged into lazy irritation.
"If I wanted your company, I would have summoned it."
Sun Ji grinned anyway and leaned against the pillar beside him. That was why he was easy to use. Proud boys mistook tolerated insolence for trust.
"Everyone's watching him," Sun Ji said. "You just do it more too obviously."
Xue Beng glanced back toward the grounds. "Then perhaps everyone should do something more obvious as well."
Sun Ji grin thinned.
There.
He had baited correctly.
For a moment neither spoke. The wind shifted along the corridor, carrying the sounds of shouted instruction and clashing practice weapons from below.
Xue Beng rested one elbow on the railing.
He did not need to force the next part. Men like Sun Ji always feared one thing most, being made to feel as though someone else was taking their place.
"A week," Xue Beng said lightly. "And already the instructors speak his name cheerfully."
Sun Ji said nothing.
"The Board of Education take notices him and stand behind him. The older students just look at him. Even the ones who sneer at his birth now mumble more quietly."
Still nothing.
Xue Beng looked at him sidelong. "You know what that becomes if left alone."
Sun Ji jaw tightened.
'Yes, he knew.'
Reputation.
Recognition.
A new fixed point in academy hierarchy.
And once that took hold, boys like Sun Ji would have to either align with it or live beneath it.
How pathetic, Xue Beng thought. Nobles always needed the threat explained to them in terms of rank before they understood danger.
"I heard," Sun Ji said at last, "The he is some kind of genius able to gain a thousand years spirit as first ring and already a level 39 spirit master."
"Of course." Xue Beng's smile held no warmth. "Why would everyone make that much noise about a commoner?"
Sun Ji frowned. "Then how are others supposed to judge him?"
Xue Beng turned fully now, letting faint contempt enter his face.
"Judge?" he said. "You are thinking too politely."
Sun Ji straightened a little.
'Good.'
Xue Beng began to walk down the corridor, hands clasped behind his back in practiced carelessness. He did not look over to see whether Sun Ji followed. He knew he would.
There was a rhythm to this sort of thing. Not command. Suggestion. Never push a proud fool from behind when he could be made to step forward on his own.
"At the academy," Xue Beng said, voice mild, "people like to say talent should speak for itself."
Sun Ji snorted. "That's something instructors say."
"No. That's something people say when they want power to look impartial." Xue Beng descended the first stone steps. "But if talent is real, then it should survive testing."
Sun Ji followed now, slower, thinking.
They emerged into a side court lined with white gravel and training dummies. No one else stood there. Xue Beng had chosen the route deliberately.
"His Highness has already recommended him," Sun Ji said. "The emperor himself approved him. What testing is left?"
Xue Beng stopped beside one of the dummies and laid a hand on its wooden shoulder.
"What testing is left?" he repeated.
Then he smiled.
"Precisely the kind that makes recommendation unnecessary."
Sun Ji stared at him for a moment.
Then, at last, understanding began to dawn.
Not full understanding. That would have been too much to hope for. But enough.
"A duel," he said.
Xue Beng said nothing.
The silence encouraged him more effectively than agreement.
Sun Ji eyes sharpened. "If he refuses, he will looks cowardly. If he accepts and loses, then all this noise around him will collapses by itself."
"And if he wins?" Xue Beng asked.
Sun Ji mouth tightened.
He did not like that question. Good. He was supposed to dislike it.
"Then at least people will know whether he truly deserves the place he's been handed."
Xue Beng let out a soft laugh.
There it was.
Pride wrapped in principle.
Exactly the kind of thing academy loved to witnesses. Exactly the kind of thing instructors would permit so long as the forms were observed. Exactly the kind of thing his uncle, if informed at the right moment, could disdain publicly while allowing privately.
Xue Beng walked another few steps and looked out through the open side gate toward the distant roofs of the lower student residences.
The truth was simpler than Sun Ji knew.
He did not care whether the duel proved Renyu worthy. Worthiness was a scholar's word, useful only when someone needed to sound noble while arranging something ugly.
No, what mattered was the damage.
If Renyu lost, Xue Qinghe's judgment would suffer. The emperor praise would look premature. The academy would mutter that noble blood had been slighted for a passing novelty.
If Renyu won.
Xue Beng eyes narrowed.
Then at least the shape of him would become more clearer.
And anything known could be studied. Then he could be prepared against.
He folded his arms into his sleeves.
"You're hesitating," he said without turning.
Sun Ji bristled at once. "I'm considering."
"Considering whether a common-born twelve-year-old truly stands above you?"
The words struck cleanly.
Sun Ji breath changed.
Xue Beng almost smiled.
Men were so easy when they carried their vanity openly.
"No," Sun Ji said.
"Then say it properly."
Sun Ji fell silent.
Xue Beng waited.
At length, the boy said, "If the academy is to accept him, then the academy has the right to test him."
Better.
Not perfect. Too stiff. But usable.
Xue Beng turned then, just enough to let his gaze sharpen.
"You are not insulting the crown prince," he said. "You are defending the dignity of Heaven Dou Imperial Academy."
Sun Ji straightened.
"You are not rebelling against imperial favor. You are ensuring that one who receives such favor can bear its weight."
The boy shoulders squared.
"You do not challenge because you are jealous," Xue Beng said, the last word delivered with exquisite disdain. "You challenge because talent praised so highly should be willing to prove itself before peers."
By the end of it, Sun Ji almost looked inspired.
Pathetic.
Xue Beng had half a mind to despise him for being so easy to turn, but easy men had their place. The clever ones were far more troublesome.
Like Qinghe.
Like that calm-eyed little shadow he had placed in the academy.
For one brief moment, a cold thread of instinct passed through him.
Was this too easy?
The thought came and did not leave immediately.
Xue Qinghe had not hidden Renyu. He had displayed him. Not fully, but enough. Enough to stir resentment. Enough to make noble sons feel displaced. Enough to make someone like Sun Ji believe action was his own idea.
Xue Beng eyes narrowed.
No.
Perhaps.
It did not matter.
If this was a snare, then it was one he had already stepped around in part by refusing to act openly himself. Let the noble sons push first. Let the academy witnesses gather. Let Qinghe show how he intended to answer.
Information had value even when victory did not.
And if Renyu stumbled even slightly, that value multiplied.
Xue Beng turned away before Sun Ji could see too much thought on his face.
"One week into term is enough," he said. "Wait longer and people start getting used to him."
Sun Ji nodded.
"Yes, Your Highness."
There was one more touch required.
Xue Beng paused at the court entrance and looked back over one shoulder.
"Do not fail in your wording," he said. "If you sound petty, you lose before the match begins."
Sun Ji flushed, offended.
'Good.'
That would make him careful.
Xue Beng left him there and walked toward the central grounds where afternoon practice was ending. Students were gathering near the main platform in loose circles, sweat-soaked and loud in the way only academy children could be when no true court superior stood over them.
'Perfect.'
Renyu was there too, near the edge of the platform, speaking quietly with one of the instructors.
He looked up once, as if feeling something, but Xue Beng was already moving past the crowd with his usual lazy contempt draped over him like a robe. A prince did not linger to watch lesser people arrange his work.
The voices rose behind him.
Someone calling for space. Someone laughing. A few people immediately smell trouble and drawing nearer to watch the fun.
Then Sun Ji voice, steady enough now.
"Renyu."
The training ground quieted by degrees.
Xue Beng did not turn around.
He did not need to.
He could hear the shape of the moment well enough.
Footsteps stopping. Conversation dying. Attention gathering like drawn breath.
And then, exactly as it should be, with just enough force to carry and just enough courtesy to sound respectable.
"As a student of Heaven Dou Imperial Academy, I request a duel with you."