How To Hide The Tyrant's Child In The Apocalypse

A FEW HOURS LATER

EMPEROR LIANGWEI POINT OF VIEW:

I was working on my paperwork hoping to finish faster so I could see Mei Shen. A servant knocked at the door and walked in quickly. I knew he wasn't bringing good news.

"She's gone, Your Majesty."He said.

The words echoed louder than the soldier's voice. The air stilled. My pen stopped mid-stroke. I turned slowly.

"Gone?"I asked.

"She left before dawn. Took her horse. We only realized once the stable boy found this."He explained.

The soldier held out a folded piece of parchment. I snatched it. No seal. Her handwriting, precise, sharp, like every stroke had something unsaid behind it. I unfolded it and read.

Lianwei, She's here now. Mei Feng. The one everyone's been waiting for. The one the stars were supposed to send you. I understand now. I shouldn't have stayed as long as I did or event wanting the wedding between us. I shouldn't have believed I could be anything more than a placeholder. But I did even when you stopped our wedding. I was foolish. Don't come after me. Let her have the place she was meant for. It was never mine to begin with. Mei Shen

My hands didn't shake, but something cracked inside me. Something old. Something I had barely started to believe in.

"She saw her?" I muttered. "Already?"

The doors opened behind me before I could breathe.

"My son." Came my mother's voice, light and pleased. "You won't believe who has arrived. The real Mei Feng! She-"

"She's not real."I said.

The words came out low, deadly. The Empress Dowager blinked.

"What?"She asked.

I turned, my eyes burning.

"She's not real to me. She never will be."I said. "I don't wnt her."

"But-"She started.

"You don't get it. None of you ever did. You brought me dolls and wives and destined girls with crimson hair and perfect smiles and none of them none of them were her."

"Lianwei-"My mother tried to stop me.

"She left." I hissed, stepping closer. "She left because you pushed her. Because you made her feel like she wasn't enough again."

"She's unstable." She snapped, losing her patience. "She was never meant to be your Empress-"

"She was the only one who ever saw me and stayed."

I glared at her.

"You think this is over because some prophecy girl finally showed up? No. This, this is war. I don't care what hair colour Mei Feng has. I don't care what the stars wrote. I'm not choosing fate." I crumpled the letter in my fist. "I'm choosing her. Get my horse."

"Lianwei-"She started.

I ignored her and turned to the door. 

"Lianwei stop!"Empress shouted as I reached my horse. 

I was done being patient. Done smiling for their games, for their pretty dolls wrapped in political silk and fake compassion. The moment Mei Shen left… again… something inside me snapped so violently, I swore even the gods flinched. I was halfway across the palace grounds, fury blazing in every step, when the courtyard gates slammed shut ahead of me. Of course.

Empress Dowager, Mei Feng, and now half the Inner Court stood in my path like they thought they still had a leash on me. Guards tightened formation, steel ready not for defense, but against me.

"Your Majesty." The empress began softly, the voice of a woman who thought motherhood made her bulletproof. "Please come inside. Let's speak calmly. I know the girl's departure has upset you-"

"Girl?" My voice was sharp. "That girl is the reason this empire still breathes."

Mei Feng stepped forward, long red sleeves fluttering like she thought she was in a romance poem.

"Your Majesty, I came because I was told you needed-'She started.

"I don't need you!" I roared, and even the guards flinched.

She recoiled. Minister Ru tried to step between us.

"Your Majesty, please! You're not thinking clearly-"He started.

"I've never thought more clearly in my life."I said and reached for the sword strapped at my hip.

Guards reached for theirs. The air cracked as steel sang free. I pointed it, not at the guards, not at Mei Feng. At the Empress Dowager.

"You locked her out. You brought that thing-" I jabbed the sword slightly toward Mei Feng. "-into my court and thought I'd forget her face?"

"Lianwei." Her voice shook. "You will put down that weapon this instant."

I took a step closer.

"No." I said, low and quiet and terrifying. "You will listen. For once."

Silence stretched like a blade across the court.

"You dismissed Mei Shen. You told me she was a distraction. You made her leave. You looked into her eyes and decided she was unworthy because she didn't claw for power."I said angrily. "She never was a toy, she was my woman but you made me make her feel like she was not enough."

I let the blade drop slightly, but only slightly.

"And now? Now you offer me a copycat?" My eyes burned into Mei Feng. "A counterfeit dressed in my regret."

"Your father-" Empress began, desperate.

"My father was a fool too. And I will not inherit his blindness."I said.

Even Zeyrith, the god inside my mind, sounded rattled.

"If you start monologuing about burning the world down for her, I'm breaking the fourth wall and calling the heavens."Zeyrith said.

"Shut up." I hissed under my breath.

"Copy that."He said.

I turned my back to them all.

"You wanted an Emperor who follows your orders. You got one for too long. Now you'll deal with me."I said.

One boot in the stirrup. I tightened my grip on the reins.

"Wait!" The empress called out, voice cracking through the courtyard.

I didn't turn. Not yet.

"Please, Lianwei." She tried again, gentler now. "You're not thinking. You can't throw your future away for a girl who-"

That did it. I wheeled the horse so fast it screamed beneath me, eyes wild. The Empress stumbled back a step as I looked down at her, my jaw locked.

"You still don't understand." I said. "You still think this is about a throne."

She started to speak, but I wasn't listening. Instead, I whistled. A sharp, low sound that carried across stone and wind like a blade. The reaction was immediate. Shadows moved. From the rooftops, from the trees, from behind pillars, my men appeared. Loyal to me. Not the Empire. Armor black as obsidian. Eyes unreadable. And every last one of them stepped forward, blades drawn. The guards loyal to the empress faltered. Even the ministers backed up. It was clear now. I hadn't been just building an empire these years. I'd built a kingdom within a kingdom, one that followed only me. The empress's eyes widened.

"You-"She started.

"Anyone." I said coldly." "Who tries to stop me from finding her, will be treated as an enemy of the crown."

A sharp breath passed through the court.

"Okay." Zeyrith muttered in my head, for once not joking. "This is not the script anymore. This is borderline tyrant-turned-devotion-fueled villain arc. Which is fine. Totally fine. Just… warning me next time you go full imperial berserker."He said.

"Noted." I replied without humour.

"No seriously, man. I can feel how much you mean this. You'd burn this entire empire for her."He said.

"I will."I said.

I turned my eyes one last time to the Empress, who stood frozen, not in fear of death, but of something worse: That I was no longer her son. Not the heir she had shaped. But something darker. Sharper. Someone who would tear down a dynasty to protect the woman she once dismissed. I gave a small nod.

"Open the gates." I commanded.

Steel creaked. And I rode through, my riders forming behind me like shadows stitched to my will.