One thousand Flame elites. Five hundred Jin soldiers and Luo He. And Luo He himself walked at the front as if distance were an insult he intended to defeat personally.
When the Third Princess emerged along with the one thousand Yu soldiers, wearing blue travel armor beneath a white cloak, sword at her side, white hair tied high. She immediately scanned the formation while riding beside him in quite indifference in her eyes.
Princess :- "No bodyguard?"
Luo He :- "I have you."
Princess :- "Indeed, you do. So try not to irritate me. If I feel merciful, I may leave you to die. If not, I might cut you down myself. Is that clear."
Luo He :- "How comforting. To travel beneath such loyal protection."
Princess :- "Do not mistake threat for devotion. I don't want this, I am doing this for my father as a favour."
Luo He :- "I never do. The most interesting women often speak both languages."
Princess :- "And the giant body guard? Where is he?"
Luo He :- "Busy."
Princess :- "Doing what?"
Luo He :- "Keeping my disciple from doing heroic stupidity."
Princess :- "A demanding assignment."
Luo He :- "The bravest man in the estate."
Princess :- "Where is your mount?"
Luo He :- "I dismissed it."
Princess :- "You plan to march the entire road?"
Luo He :- "I plan to arrive."
Princess :- "You enjoy sounding dramatic."
Luo He :- "I enjoy being correct."
Princess :- "And if the army outpaces you?"
Luo He :- "Then I shall slow down for them."
Princess :- "You are impossible."
Luo He :- "I hear that often from talented women."
Princess :- "You hear too much praise."
Luo He :- "From you? Not yet."
Princess :- "Utterly shameless."
The gates opened. The force began moving north beneath the cry of horns and the rumble of boots. Luo He strode at the head of the column without visible effort. The princess rode beside him for a time, watching.
Hours passed. Mounted officers shifted in their saddles from fatigue. Luo He looked fresh. Annoyingly fresh. At the midday halt near a stream, she approached while he drank water from his water bottle.
Princess :- "You truly trust that bodyguard with her recovery?"
Luo He :- "With medicine? No. With protecting her from herself? One hundred percent."
Princess :- "You speak as if your disciple is your greatest fortune."
Luo He :- "She is."
Princess :- "Truly?"
Luo He :- "Against walls, furniture, patience, and bad men."
Princess :- "You describe her like a natural disaster."
Luo He :- "A beautiful one."
Princess :- "You are either very brave or very foolish."
Luo He :- "I survive by being entertaining."
Princess :- "That method seems unreliable."
Luo He :- "Yet here I still am."
Despite herself, she laughed once.
Short. Sharp. Real. Luo He did not react outwardly. But inwardly, he marked the victory. That evening, while campfires glowed across the hills, the princess found herself wondering whether Jin Mulan was resting properly.
And whether Fei was surviving the assignment. Luo He, seeing her thoughtful expression, asked casually
"Thinking of strategy?" "No." She said.
"Then my wife." He asked.
She turned cold immediately. "You assume much." She said. "I observe accurately." Luo He answered confidently. She walked away before he could see the faint smile she failed to suppress. He saw it anyway.
Luo He had not merely arranged the march. He had arranged the atmosphere. Long before the convoy ever departed the capital, he had already planned everything.
Where each unit would sleep, which officers would stand watch, where the fires would be placed and how the guards would rotate. Most importantly where the commander's tent would be raised.
It stood apart from the rest of the encampment on slightly higher ground, where the evening breeze moved first and the sounds of common soldiers faded into distance.
From the outside, it looked like a practical military choice clearer visibility, stronger defense, easier command access. In truth, every detail had been chosen by Luo He.
Only his Flame elite were assigned to guard that section. Men personally loyal to him. Silent, disciplined, unquestioning. Neither Jin soldiers nor Yu troops were permitted near the inner perimeter.
Officially, it was for the safety of the imperial representative. Unofficially, it meant privacy. No curious ears. No wandering servants. No accidental interruptions. No witnesses.
Luo He believed that success favored preparation, and so he had also brought one of his hidden trump cards. A rare aromatic incense. Delicate. Expensive.
Dangerous in the wrong hands. When burned slowly in a closed or sheltered chamber, the fragrance loosened restraint, softened caution, heightened warmth, and stirred dormant desire in those who breathed it long enough.
It did not seize the mind or force madness. Rather, it magnified what was already there turning passing attraction into boldness, idle curiosity into temptation, and tension into hunger.
That subtlety was precisely why it was feared.
A person affected by it would often believe every feeling was entirely their own. Which, in a sense, made it more potent than poison. Such formulas were never spoken of openly.
They passed through hidden circles, private collectors, corrupt nobles, and decadent merchants. Their recipes were guarded more fiercely than jewels or gold.
Luo He had obtained this one through an old friend whose talents thrived in shadows and bad decisions. He rarely used tools like this. But Luo He never ignored an advantage merely because it was unconventional.
As dusk settled over the camp and cooking fires burned low, the commander's pavilion waited in elegant stillness lamps prepared, wine ready, cushions arranged, guards posted far enough not to hear a whisper.
And somewhere in the folds of Luo He's sleeve rested a small carved box containing a few incense sticks. He touched it once.
Then smiled faintly. Because battles were won in many ways. Some with steel. Some with strategy. And some before the enemy ever realized the game had begun.
The journey lasted three days. Luo He never once treated it like travel. He treated it like preparation. On the first day, everything was formal. Distance, structured exchanges, controlled silences, the careful architecture of two people who did not yet trust each other.
He kept his words measured and his manner unhurried. Not cold. Simply contained. The Third Princess observed him more than she spoke. He allowed it.
Observation was its own form of conversation, and he had nothing to hide from eyes that were still learning what to look for. On the second day, the distance shortened on its own.
Not because he pushed it he never pushed. But he arranged conditions, the way a gardener arranges soil and light, and let things grow at their natural pace.
Conversations lengthened. Became more fluid. Still not personal, not yet, but no longer purely political either. A rhythm began forming between them subtle, unforced, almost imperceptible.
The kind that only emerges when no one is trying too hard to make it. By then, the guards had stopped watching him so closely. He had expected that. Novelty fades quickly in disciplined camps.
What once reads as suspicious becomes routine when nothing follows it. Even elite soldiers lose their sharpness when no incident arrives to justify the attention.
Three days of ordinary movement and ordinary behavior that was all it took. Human vigilance, however trained, was not built for patience against the unremarkable.
Luo He relied on that. Built on it, quietly and without announcement. On the third night, he inspected the camp personally. He walked every perimeter. Spoke with officers at each post. Adjusted rotations not dramatically, just enough to suggest diligence.
Checked the sightlines toward the command tent, noted where torchlight fell and where shadow collected. He moved through it all with the calm of a man who was simply doing his duty.
Which in a sense he was. Everything appeared stable. Everything appeared ordinary. That was precisely what he wanted. Because stability was what made people stop looking.
Inside the command tent, the Third Princess was already present when he returned. The atmosphere had shifted from earlier quieter, the day's formality worn smooth by hours of proximity.
Not tense. But no longer guarded either. Something had settled between them, or perhaps simply stopped pretending not to exist. She was watching him when he entered.
She had a way of watching that was neither shy nor aggressive simply direct, as though she had decided some time ago that looking away was a waste.
"You've been very active today," she said.
Luo He removed his outer robe with unhurried hands, the motion practiced and calm. "I prefer nights where nothing surprises me."
A faint pause.
"That sounds like control," she replied.
"It is preparation," he corrected, with the tone of a man offering a distinction that actually mattered to him.
She narrowed her eyes slightly not in suspicion but in the careful way of someone deciding whether an answer was complete or merely satisfying.
Whether the surface was the whole thing, or only what had been offered. She didn't press further. That, too, Luo He noted.
He stepped further inside. Behind him, the guards remained at their posts, unhurried, unalert.