Annie : Yay my last exam's tomorrow, and after that my long summer holiday starts! Whoohoo!

Chapter Thirty-Five : Irony

"She's gone completely insane, I don't know why!"

The lord of the castle eyed the man strangely. "General Zhang He, calm down. What are you talking about?"

"Hua! She's throwing tantrums! She's destroying her room and basically threatened to break me!"

"That doesn't sound like the princess. She's always so calm. Has this happened before?" Ma Zun asked, frowning. The princess showing her anger? The Ice Princess of Wei? That did not sound likely at all.

Zhang He nodded. "Yes, once. When she was little. And after that she…" His eyes widened in horror and he gasped dramatically. "Oh my god, no way! She wouldn't have…" And he ran off through the corridor swiftly, Ma Zun following few paces behind.

"What? What is it?" The older man shouted, huffing to keep pace with the quick general.

"Last time this happened, she ran away for a week! One second she was there, and in another she was gone! I don't know what I'm going to do if I fail to bring her to the capital!" He rambled on, never once stopping or turning around.

Soon, they both arrived at the princess' room. He swallowed and listened for any sound of breaking glass or wood. Nothing. Too silent. Zhang He opened the door, desperately hoping she hadn't taken off. He entered, his eyes searching every corner of the room in few seconds. Only one thing caught his eyes.

The balcony!

Zhang He was so quick, as usual. I only just managed to jump off the balcony to the castle garden underneath. There, I hid for several moments until I was sure that no one was looking down from the balcony. Luckily, the place was filled with hazy mist and I could sneak around without being spotted. Wait, did I just say luckily? Ha, since when did I believe in luck? And I doubted if this mist was really natural – probably the old man, trying to help me escape. Well, I was thankful for it. At least now I wouldn't–

I gasped. Something grabbed my arm. I turned immediately and as soon as I did, anger rose within me, insuppressible hatred threatening to get out of hand. But I pressed them all down – now wasn't the time. Right now, I had to get out of here, before they found me.

"Going somewhere, princess?" He asked in his smooth voice, not letting my arm go.

I carefully controlled my tone. "I believe I have every right to go for a walk in this garden as much as you do, sir."

He chuckled. "But to jump off a balcony to go for a walk? Rather unusual, don't you think?"

Damn, he had seen me! What was he doing, stalking me? Bastard. "Actually, that's quite common for me." I tried to yank my arm free, but he was surprisingly strong – too strong for mere strategist, in my opinion. "Do you mind?" I said, but he still didn't let go.

"Was this the best you could come up with, princess? I expected more of you. Didn't you say you will not go down without a fight?" He smirked, slowly tightening the grip on my arm. It was getting painful. Does fanning himself get muscles on his arms? Ouch. Well, if he wanted fight, then he would get one. Literally.

"You want a fight?" I said, smiling sweetly. My free arm grabbed one of the daggers hidden underneath my armour skirt. "Fight with your life, then." Well, of course, I couldn't actually kill him. But I could knock him out at the very least.

"Ah, I wouldn't want to hurt you, princess. As a warrior, you do know that it's not wise to fight against someone who you've never seen their fighting style?"

"Yes of course I know that. But I also know, element of surprise is an effective way to get the enemy off guard!" My sword lunged towards his hand that was holding my arm. He let go in an instant and leapt back with impressive agility. I grabbed my other dagger and stood still, watching him coldly. Damn, I was sure I was going to have a bruise now.

"Alright then, let me make you a deal. You win, I never saw you or fought you. I win… Well, we'll talk about that later. What do you say?" He asked slyly. I narrowed my eyes; it was obvious. If he won, then he wanted me to become an obedient wife. But that will never happen. I smiled again, this time mockingly.

"Oh, surely, I can never win a great fighter like yourself," I said sarcastically, circling the daggers in my hands menacingly.

"I'll take that as a yes."

We observed each other in silence, evaluating opponent's moves. I was at a slight disadvantage here – as he said, I had never seen this guy fight. But he had seen me fight. But I seriously doubted what he could do with that fan of his… It didn't look like it had blades so how could he injure anyone with that? Unless he fanned his opponents to death. Hm. So I wonder what will happen if I didn't block or dodge his attacks? Somehow, that didn't sound like a good idea, even though in my brain, a fan was not a fighting weapon.

As usual, I waited for my opponent to strike first. He did, soon enough. His fan sliced the air horizontally and I watched, thinking that he had missed. I was about to throw a sarcastic remark at his face when I felt sharp pain across my stomach. Surprised, I stumbled back, confused at what had just happened. The fan did not make contact with my body at all, so how…?

"I told you it's not wise to fight someone who you've never seen their fighting style," he said softly. "I wonder why it is you're so desperate to leave? I don't think it's just about the marriage, right?"

Damn right, it's to save the lands from upcoming age of darkness! But all I said was, "perhaps."

"Indeed. And maybe you are leaving to see someone…?"

He caught me off guard with that one. How the hell did he know that I was going to see Sun Ce for the last time? But I mustn't confirm him that… Maybe I could confuse him. "Yes, you know, like a lover?" I smirked, sarcasm leaking out of my voice. But he didn't seem to have noticed that.

"So you have a lover…" His eyes flashed dangerously and his grasp on his fan tightened. "Even before marriage, you're committing adultery…"

Now was the time. His concentration was breaking. I threw one of my daggers at his head with dead accuracy, but deliberately slowly. As expected, he was quite capable of dodging the slow dagger. But by the time he got out of the way, I was right next to him, about to put my other dagger against his throat. But I was once again surprised with this man's amazing agility – his fan had already sliced the air between us and I was sent flying back. Before I could control my body to land, my back hit against a tree, hard. Ouch.

"I'm… Not committing adultery… I'm not even engaged…" I groaned, struggling to get up to my feet. I was certain this time too, that the fan had not made contact with my body. But the pain was too realistic. My back was seriously killing me. What was this guy?

He stepped nearer, smirking. "I had warned you, princess. So tell me," the smirk disappeared and his eyes were menacing, so cold. Dangerous. "What's the name of this… Lover of yours?"

I hate to admit it, but I was actually scared. This man was dangerous – no wonder Zuo Ci had warned me about him. I prepared to defend myself, rising up to my feet fully. My back ached a little, but I was sure nothing was broken, and my body was used to pain. Soon, I forgot all about the pain and my mind was only focused on my opponent.

"Bastard," I breathed, loud enough for him to hear me. "I'm not saying anything."

He gritted his teeth. "I really don't want to hurt you anymore, Hua."

"Oh, you won't be able to," I hissed before lashing out a kick towards his torso, followed by a dagger throw. He leapt back quickly, but not fast enough. I managed to draw the first blood of this battle. My dagger had made a small cut on his left arm, but unfortunately it wasn't deep enough to hinder his movements. Damn.

"Well, aren't you very sneaky," he chuckled. "Really taking that element of surprise to heart. Let me add one more thing."

I saw his fan cut empty air again, but I wasn't stupid enough to fall for that twice. I didn't know how it worked, but I was sure that he could transfer his attacks onto the air somehow. That meant that I could block it as well. I placed the dagger in front of me vertically and felt something hit against it, making clashing metal noises. I lifted my gaze and saw him smirk before he waved his fan around in front of him as if drawing something in mid-air. Uh-oh, I had a very bad feeling about this.

Without warning, it hit – agonizingly painfully, too. And it supposedly had missed me. I had dashed to the side as soon as he finished moving his fan. I thought I had dodged it, but no. The attack sent me flying backwards again, towards the tree. In a split second I knew that if I hit the tree now, I would surely break. Ignoring the pain, I somersaulted forward, regaining my balance and landing softly on the grass. When I looked, I couldn't see him. Hey, where did he go? Cowa–

I froze immediately as I felt cold metal against my throat. "Game over," he whispered in my ear. He was right behind me, using my own dagger to stop me from moving. How ironic.

He chuckled softly; to me it sounded purely evil. I let the remaining dagger go when I felt him holding my dagger hand. It was over even before it had started. I had fallen to the fate's trap – all that was left for me was despair and agony. I gritted my teeth and clenched my fist as I felt his chilling breath on my cheek. As he said, it was really game over.

The metal against my throat pressed a little harder, threateningly. "I suppose I've won, haven't I, princess? Well th–"

THUMP!

Annie : I've been reading through what I have wrote, and it made me realize how complicated Hua's life had become. XD She had grown up a lot, I guess.

Thank you everyone who left reviews! I'm really glad that the last chapter made sense! I wrote it and had to read it three times to understand it properly. I was going, 'what the hell do you mean by that?'

Lot of fighting in this chapter... :D Mwahahaha.