NoGift

FOR THE second time this week, Aurum was travelling to the Imperial Palace. Particularly at Fenghua Palace - the Empress' residence. Only two days had passed and the Empress invited her again to the palace. This time, not for tea but for lunch. Of course Aurum agreed. She wouldn't miss a chance to look into that woman's mind.

Aurum guessed that the Empress would invite her again but she didn't expect the invitation would come this soon. That woman probably couldn't wait to start her plan of forcing Aurum into marriage with her youngest son. The Empress probably thought she was just a naive girl she could easily fool and control into doing what she wanted. That's fine, Aurum didn't mind playing with her for a while. After all, she still had information that could possibly help in their search for their mother.

Aurum would utilize the five seconds she had to the fullest. Now that she knew what information to look for, she could fully focus on that. With her search having a focal point, she didn't have to worry that all she could get was the Empress' current thoughts. That way she could get the most amount of information in the least amount of time.

She looked at Black sitting in front of her. He was still crossdressing as a little maid. She decided to just bring him instead of the maids from the Zhang household. Although Black looked unreliable, Aurum was still more at ease to use her Gift with him around as a bodyguard. Madame Lin did try to get her to bring at least two more maidservants. She's just probably worried because Aurum planned to only bring Black with her. It took quite a while before she managed to convince Madame Lin that despite how his age, Black was actually a trained bodyguard. Aurum's acting skills were truly tested because of that.

"Black, remember what I told you. Once we're in the palace, behave, don't speak, and try not to attract attention to yourself."

"Black knows. But what if you're attack? Does Black still have to behave?"

"That's the exemption. When that happens, you can go all out."

"Okay, Black will," he said while playing with the ribbons on his hair.

This kid. He's now completely comfortable wearing girl's clothing. Did this kid actually already develop a fetish for crossdressing?

Soon, they arrived at the palace. The same eunuch that welcomed Aurum before lead them to the Empress' residence. When they arrived there, unlike the first time, the eunuch lead them inside the palace. Just like Aurum expected, the inside was even grander than the outside. When they arrived at the main hall, the eunuch announced her arrival. Several maidservants lead her inside.

Two girls near Aurum's age were already sitting inside.

One was wearing a wide-sleeved white dress with beautiful golden embroidery. Her long black hair was arranged in a complicated manner with beautiful pearl accessories. Her skin looked soft and milky white. Her big black eyes were fanned with thick black eyelashes. Her lips were tinted pink. It was quite obvious that she was doing everything to showcase her beauty.

The other girl, on the other hand, was wearing a simple light green dress with no accessories on her whatsoever. Even her hair only had a simple jade comb. She was passingly pretty with delicate and soft features. But because she didn't put any effort in her looks, one could only call her plain.

After her arrival, the prettier one stood up and warmly greeted her. "Welcome, Lady Aurum. I'm Li Min, the sixth princess. And this one is the seventh princess, Li Zi." She looked at the other girl still sitting lazily at the side. "Li Zi, don't be impolite and greet our guest."

The other girl stood up and simply said, "Welcome."

Aurum raised her brow. If she was not mistaken, the sixth princess was rumored to be the most favored among all the princesses. She also heard from one of the servant girls in the Zhang household that there was almost a marriage between the sixth princess and the young general. But somehow, that Zhang Lei Feng managed to deflect that arrangement. He probably went to a lot of trouble just so he could manage to do that. And the fact that he did meant that despite this princess' pleasing appearance, there must be something wrong with her if even that straight-laced general rejected her.

If the lazy looking princess was the seventh princess then she must be the one having that hairpin something ceremony a few days from now. Did the Empress invite this two to play the friend game with her? She actually expected the Empress' youngest son to be the one waiting for her here. Well, no matter. It wouldn't really affect what she had to do.

Aurum bowed elegantly and smiled. "Your Highnesses. It's a pleasure to meet the both of you."

She sat down beside the seventh princess.

"I've wanted to meet Lady Aurum since I heard that you're here in Xing with your brother. Truly, your pictures in [Jiffy] don't do you justice. You're much more beautiful in person. You and your brother are truly both blessed. One with heaven-defying beauty and the other with overwhelming intelligence."

Aurum felt a muscle on her face ticked when she heard what the sixth princess said. Was this girl offhandedly telling her that she only had beauty but no brains at all? She smiled sweetly. "Oh, please. I can't accept such compliments. Especially when Your Highness is much more beautiful than me."

Take that. If there's one thing Aurum was very confident about, it's her looks. There was probably only a handful of people who could have the same level of beauty as hers. Including her brother, of course. But that didn't include this princess in front of her. And anyone could clearly see that. So saying that the sixth princess was more beautiful than her was just a big joke to anyone who would hear it.

The sixth princess only smiled. But Aurum could immediately tell that it was forced. The seventh princess on the other hand didn't bother to hide her snicker. Li Min looked sharply at Li Zi before ressuming the innocent smile on her lips.

"Lady Aurum is truly courageous, coming to Xing with your brother. But I heard Lord Blackbourne left the capital yesterday. Are you alright, being here all alone?" the sixth princess asked.

"I don't think I'm that alone. Especially since I could talk with my brother anytime I want. So being in a new environment is not really that daunting for me."

"That's admirable," the sixth princess said before turning to the seventh princess. "You should learn from Lady Aurum, Li Zi. You're always coop up inside your palace. We barely even see you. It's starting to worry the rest of us, you know?" she added with a worried tone and expression as if she really cared about this younger sister's well-being.

This girl. She went through all that talk just to tell Aurum that the seventh princess was nothing but a recluse. Behaving like that, she surely had a lot of free times in her hands.

Aurum glanced at the seventh princess but the girl didn't even have any reaction and just stayed silent. As if she didn't hear what her older sister said. That got Aurum curious. So she decided to try and read this princess' thoughts. It went smoothly, showing that the princess probably only had a low level Gift.

[Who would want to go out with clowns like you prancing about?]

Aurum almost laughed because of that. Good thing she had superb acting skills. "I think it's fine, to have a quirk like that. Trying to conform to what people wanted you to be would just make you the same as the rest. And wouldn't that just be boring?" she said, silently telling the sixth princess that she was just like the other boring scheming women in this harem.

Before the sixth princess could react to what she said, the Empress arrived. And they all proceeded to eat lunch.

----------

After the end of the lunch, the person that Aurum already expected to come arrived. It was the fifth prince, the Empress' youngest son - Li Ren. He was wearing a purple robe. His long hair was tied on top of his head by a jade crown. He looked like he was about 16 or 17 with features as delicate as a girl's. He wasn't even that tall either. In Aurum's estimation, her brother was probably much taller. If he crossdressed, no one would think that he's really a boy.

And the Empress really thought Aurum would marry such a girly looking boy?

"Ah Ren, this Empress told you to come here for lunch," the Empress said in a scolding tone.

"My apologies, Mother. I was attending another important matter. I'll make sure to make it up to you, okay?" the prince said who didn't hesitate to act spoiled.

Aurum stopped herself from cringing. His voice was so soft, even his manners were effeminate to the extreme. He would probably passed more as a girl than her brother who was really a girl.

"Then escort Lady Aurum back to the Zhang household." The Empress looked at Aurum. "This Empressed noticed that you only brought a little maid with you. This Empress would feel uneasy if no one escort you. So let this unreliable son of this Empress send you back."

That's not really subtle at all. But Aurum only smiled and agreed. When she was about to leave the main hall, that's when she made her move. She turned off her limiter and then directed her Mana towards the Empress. She focused on everything related to the Apostles of Gaia, especially that map the Empress supposedly gave. Once the five seconds time limit was up, she immediately turned her limiter back on.

Aurum was digesting all the informations she received as they walked. She was not paying attention at all to the fifth prince. That continued until they reached the carriage that sent Aurum to the Imperial Palace. That's when the prince finally spoke.

"I know my mother wanted to make a match between the two of us. But let me make something clear, I'm not the least bit interested in you," he said, the milky tone he used to talk to his mother was gone. It was now replaced by a haughty one. As if he was a queen and Aurum was a mere peasant.

Aurum raised one of her brows. If she's not confident with herself, that might turn to be a blow to her ego. "That's good. Because I don't have the least bit interest in you either."

The prince snorted. "Perfect. Then you can go back by yourself."

After saying that, he haughtily walked off.

"Did Aurum just get rejected?" Black asked.

Aurum flicked his forehead. "It's a mutual rejection," she corrected before getting inside the carriage.

She already couldn't wait to tell her brother what she found in the Empress' memories.