MTLNOVEL Chapter 193: Let Them Fear Me
I left the map behind.
I left the ink still wet, the names circled in red, the fire crackling behind me like a pulse I no longer needed to hear.
The Empress had told me something once—softly, over porcelain cups and poisoned tea.
"Loyalty can be bought. But fear… fear is something they never forget."
She hadn't smiled when she said it. Hadn't needed to.
She was smiling now, I imagined—curled on her throne of paper and silk, while I slipped into the dark and finished the things she'd never dirty her hands with.
The names on the list weren't strangers.
They were men who had smiled in court and shaken hands with Mingyu. Women who had fawned over the Emperor and whispered poison into ministers' ears. Nobles with their own ambitions. Generals who'd waited too long to pick a side.
They had chosen wrong.
And I had no interest in giving second chances.
I started at the edge of the city.
A merchant family, fat with bribes and smug with favor, had recently begun shifting funds to Baiguang. Their youngest son had laughed at me once in the palace corridors—called me a mountain whore behind my back.
He wasn't laughing when I slit his throat over the dinner table, porcelain shattering under the weight of his twitching body.
I left the father alive, barely. Split open his stomach just enough to let the pain bloom slowly. Just enough that he'd survive if treated. I whispered into his blood-slick ear:
"You are not being punished for your betrayal. That wasn't the particular crime that made me come in person. No, your crime was failing to hide it better."
Then I was gone—vanishing like smoke, before the guards even knew I'd entered.
Word would spread.
That was the point.
I moved faster after that. I didn't sleep. I barely breathed. I traveled through shadows, each kill more precise than the last. Poisoned hairpins. A dagger to the eye. A crushed windpipe mid-conversation.
I let every final breath echo in silence, and every death left a trail of panic. I had slipped into my Wrath demon, and she was loving every minute of her freedom.
I made sure at least one servant survived each time. Just one.
To speak of a woman with glowing red eyes and a red ribbon, dressed not in silk, but in silence.
To whisper that the Princess of Death had no need for armies.
By the time I returned to the city proper, the nobles were already trembling. Those left surviving were double locking their gates, making sure that every sentry they had was on guard duty as they looked over their shoulders, waiting for me to come. Some had even fled the capital entirely.
But I knew where they'd go.
And so I followed.
An ambassador's widow was strangled in her bath.
A former general's son fell from a rooftop—his last words choked with terror as I stepped from the shadows and reminded him what his father had promised in secret.
Every name was crossed off.
Every house touched.
Even the dogs stopped barking when I passed.
It took four nights.
Four long, frost-bitten, blood-wet nights.
On the fifth, I returned to the Crown Prince's manor. Not through the gate, but over the wall—my hands still streaked with red, my hair unbound. I entered the back gardens without a sound, stepping over gravel paths like they belonged to me.
Because they did.
Shi Yaozu was waiting near the corridor to my wing. He didn't startle. He didn't speak. He simply walked beside me, as he always did.
"You smell like blood," he said finally, looking me up and down to see if any of that blood was my own.
"None of it's mine" I reassured him, a tired smile on my face. "I promise. They couldn't even touch me if they tried."
His eyes flicked to mine, concern radiating from every last one of his cells as he took a step closer. "Are you done? Are there any left?"
"I'm done for now," I shrugged, ignoring the second half of his question.
He paused, his eyes narrowing when he realized that I hadn't actually answered him. Then, gently he pressed harder. "Did you leave any alive?"
"Some," I shrugged, tilting my head from side to side. I must be getting old, because after four days away, all I wanted to do was sleep.
He nodded once.
And that was that.
We passed two maids scrubbing the courtyard tiles. They bowed so quickly I thought their foreheads might crack open on the stone.
Good.
Let them fear me.
Let them wake with my name on their tongues and silence in their throats.
Because fear doesn't waver. It doesn't bargain or shift with the seasons.
Fear obeys.
And if this empire was to be reborn in Mingyu's name, I would ensure it was fed by the screams of those who dared doubt us.
The list had been a warning.
This was the answer.
And I hadn't even really started yet.
I stood before the doors of my chambers for a moment longer, breathing in the hush. The palace had grown quieter. The walls no longer whispered—they listened.
Inside, the candlelight flickered.
Shadow was asleep by the hearth, his coat gleaming black in the dim glow.
Yaozu stepped aside as I entered.
And as I shut the doors behind me, I knew the message had been sent.
No rebellion would take root again, nobody would threaten my husband or stab him in the back.
Not while I walked this earth.
I peeled off the outer layer of my cloak, blood-stiffened and torn. Tossed it into the fire without a word. Watched the fabric catch flame and crumple into ash.
I didn't wash right away.
Instead, I sat at my desk, lit another candle, and opened the next scroll.
Another list.
This one shorter. Older. A reminder.
The names of those who had once watched me bleed and done nothing.
Soon enough, I was going to take care of this body's family. I just hoped that they appreciated that every day I gave them from now until their death was one more nail in their coffin.