The Monkey Hunt (3)
The words burned across my vision like fresh blood on white silk. My fingers froze halfway to the next command, the familiar weight of the System interface suddenly feeling like a trap snapping shut around my wrist.
Invalid access? After everything I've built?
I leaned back against the cool wooden pillar of the pavilion, the distant sounds of training soldiers drifting up from the courtyard below. The monkey hunt wasn't supposed to end like this. Not with some bureaucratic wall thrown up by whatever twisted entity ran this world.
"My lord?" A soft voice called from the doorway. I turned to see Lady Sun standing there in her light armor, the golden monkey emblem on her shoulder plate catching the afternoon light. Even now, with her sharp eyes narrowed in concern, she looked every bit the proud warrior princess the histories had described—before I rewrote them.
"It's nothing," I lied smoothly, waving a hand as I dismissed the error window. The System flickered once, almost mockingly, before vanishing. "Just a minor setback in our preparations."
She stepped closer, her boots barely making a sound on the polished floor. The scent of jasmine and steel followed her, a combination I'd come to associate with both pleasure and danger. "The scouts reported movement near the eastern pass. If we're to capture her before she reaches Wu's main forces..."
I smiled, reaching out to trace a finger along the edge of her jaw. She didn't flinch. The memory alteration had taken perfectly last night—her previous loyalty to her sisters now redirected, twisted into something far more personal. Far more useful.
"We'll have our monkey in a cage by dawn," I promised, voice low. "I've invested too much qi and too many nights between silk sheets to let some System glitch stop me now."
Her cheeks flushed slightly at the reminder, but her eyes remained sharp. Good. I needed her mind intact for the coming battle, even if her heart and body now answered only to me.
As she left to relay my orders, I reopened the interface with a different approach, bypassing the blocked path. The familiar blue window appeared, this time without resistance.
Primary Objective: Subjugate Sun Shangxiang
Current Status: 73% Memory Corruption
Affection:Obsessed Devotion
Threat Level: Moderate (Mitigated by nightly conditioning)
The corner of my mouth twitched upward. The error had been annoying, but not fatal. In this world where history itself bent to my will, one failed access attempt meant nothing. The real hunt was just beginning, and this particular monkey had no idea how thoroughly she'd already been caught.
I stood, adjusting my robes as I headed toward the training fields. The soldiers parted before me, their eyes filled with the mix of fear and reverence I'd carefully cultivated. In the distance, I could see her—Shangxiang—practicing her spear forms with lethal grace. The way her body moved beneath the light training silks made certain memories from last night surface unbidden.
Soon, I thought, watching her spin and strike. You'll fight for me with that same passion. Only the target will change.
The System might throw up walls, but walls were just another thing to climb. Or break. And I had become very, very good at breaking things that stood in my way.