HaltWrite

08: Interlude - Simple…

Not for the first time in the last few hours, Rhian considered just making a run for it. He still had a few coins jingling in his pouch left over after buying the pill, a borrowed horse, and, most importantly, there was not a knight in sight to stop him.

Except it wouldn’t work.

Rhian had sworn an oath to the Pantheon and the Divine Syngian to obey Lady Daphne’s every word. Though he might be a thief by trade, he lived by a code like any other man, and the first rule any sane ...

07: Doing Non-Doing

Her mother was the very picture of a proper lady, holding a thin, tall glass of Grove’s Gold by its stem. A steel sword hung from the hip of her flowing, lacy dress. “Come, let me have a look at you,” Mother said to Daphne.

She presented herself to her parent as any filial daughter would. Her dress was slashed at the sleeves, the periwinkle blue fabrics mixing with her beige undergown. The sleeves were tight to the elbow, but widened at the wrist. A laurel of sweet-smelling roses ...

05: Fair Maiden

The great clans of this realm did not rule from within the cities, but raised limestone walls and array formations centered around formidable forts. Nor did they keep themselves entirely secluded on spiritual land so that their virtuous sons and daughters would not suffer deviation in their cultivation, as Daphne would expect from the hermit sects. No, many not of their clan were permitted entry into these castles—servants, scholars, and soldiers who were not and would never be tau...

06: The Last Stone in Suzhou

Daphne growled in frustration, and quashed the urge to pull at her hair. It would be a shame to ruin it after her maid had spent an hour braiding it this morning. She was to leave for the academy any day now, and she’d yet to awaken her qi. Not even meditating beneath a mulberry tree had worked!

How was she to give her family face like this? It would be akin to attending a ball underdressed or allowing one’s spatial rings to be inspected after returning victorious from an otherworld...

04: Blood of My Blood

Daphne and her maid spent hours tearing through the house together with little finesse now constraining them now, but the search yielded nothing. Truly heaven disposes of even the best plans that man proposes!

So great was her despair that she coughed up blood.

“My lady!” Her maid cried out, and was quick to stain her white cotton kerchief by dabbing Daphne’s mouth. “Do you feel pain anywhere? Did he hurt you?” She bit her lip. “Did the brute … try something?”

03: Agonist

As the days passed slowly, Daphne continued to look for the treasures hidden in their residence. The men seemed content to let her move about as she pleased, so long as she did not leave the house itself. Crooked Nose followed her like a dog as she flitted from room to room, his unconscious soul already acknowledging her as his master, which was only appropriate.

Daphne had not found their treasures yet, but success was not acquired without a measure of sweat—metaphorical, that is. Li...

02: Ant...

“Make way, or I’ll cut my way through the lot of you!” Will cried out, both hands drawing on the long grip of his estoc.

It was an empty threat unless Will was actually a monster in hiding. His meter long sword was ramrod straight with edges blunter than a father’s disappointment. Its tip—sharper than a mother-in-law’s tongue—was made for piercing through armor. With half a dozen men closing in on all sides, the length would be more hindrance than help as soon as someone g...

01: Truck-kun, Truck-kun, wherefore art thou, Truck-kun?

What is a woman to do after reincarnating? Her cultivation crippled, the realm she inhabited foreign, and even her old name lost to her. There was one familiar comfort left to Daphne in these trying times: shopping.

There were some fates worse than dying Daphne supposed. She could have been poor.

From what Daphne had surmised, her father was one of the Emperor’s ministers, while her mother was the heiress of an ancient lineage. With such esteemed ancestry, the odds we...

Table of Contents

Please report any broken links or permissions.

Last Update Date: 2024-DEC-01

The Lady's Handbook of Intrigue and Murder:

Update - Latest Chapter Available to Patreon Tier
01: Castle on a Cloud 
02: Nothing is Certain... (1)
2021-03-07 08:08:21 +0000 UTC View Post