FEotRS Chapter 2 – Luo Zhirou

“Daddy! Daddy!” An adorable childish voice sounded as a five-year-old girl ran across the meadow, flowers filling her entire embrace and a brilliant smile adorning her doll-like face.

Standing not too far away from her was a stalwart and muscular man. His bronze skin was shining in the sunlight, and on his back was a great spear. 

His eyes were filled with tenderness as they looked towards the child that ran his way, but deep within this tenderness lay a loneliness that no one could overlook. 

“Little Zhirou, watch out, don’t fall.” The stalwart man was smiling gently as he strode towards the running girl. When they came close to one another, the girl threw herself into her father’s embrace. He lifted her in one sweeping motion and swung her around so that the flowers in her arms started scattering around them like snowflakes in the sun. 

Giggling, the small girl was feeling happy. Although she could not remember her mother, Luo Zhirou was adored by her father and lived her life filled with happiness.

Even so, her father often looked at her and said, “Little Zhirou, you must remember our past. Why can we not live amongst other people?”

“Father, we are from the East Pearl Tribe, and the Emperor almost killed us all. Our blood is magical, and our life source is special. We would let people live for far longer than normal if we were living amongst them.”

“That’s good. Now Zhirou, can you remember what I told you before?”

“Although the body is dead, the military soul has not been extinguished,” Luo Zhirou said solemnly. “We will take our revenge on the Emperor of Riluo Empire one day or another. We can live forever, but his empire shall fall.”

The solemnity of Luo Zhirou was very unnatural for a five-year-old child, and her eyes, which were filled with childish naivety before, were now intelligent and charming.

“It’s good that you know,” the man nodded his head approvingly and carried Luo Zhirou on his arm. “Let us get moving towards the next village. We have to trade some of our catches for necessities.”

Luo Zhirou’s eyes once more lost that intelligent spark and turned naive again. 

She was happy when she heard her father say that they were going to enter a village. It was not something that happened often, only when they needed to trade for clothes, repair their weapons, or get some other items. 

She loved entering the villages as most of her life was spent in the wild alone with her dad. She had no friends and no companions, it was just her and her father, facing the hegemony that was the Riluo Empire.

The truth was that Luo Zhirou knew that her intelligence was way above other children her age. She could sense that she had something sealed within her body and soul. Although this thing was sealed, some of the intent had leaked through, maturing her way beyond her age, but out of the fear of frightening her father, a naive and innocent mask had been placed upon her doll-like face. 

Luo Zhirou did not know what this sealed power was, but she was aware that it was not something that she could unlock on her own. 

She dared not ask her father about it either, as she expected that it was something she should know nothing about. 

Luo Zhirou looked at her father; her eyes were filled with admiration. Although she was much more intelligent than other children her age, she also understood the pressure that her father was under, alongside the pressure that she herself was under with the wish of restoring the East Pearl Tribe.

The Emperor, who had been behind the original attack, had long since died, and now his son was the Grand Emperor while his grandson was the current Emperor. 

The descendants of the original Emperor had nothing to do with the downfall of the East Pearl Tribe, but Luo Zhirou could feel her father’s hatred towards the Riluo Empire’s Emperor, no matter who was on the seat, he wished to overthrow them. 

As they walked, no one spoke. Luo Zhirou was deep in thought while her father was observing the way, looking for a trail that would take them out of the meadow and towards a village. 

On a rope around his waist were several furs, in a bag on his back were beast cores and jade boxes with rare herbs. 

With the things they had found, they should be able to trade them for quite some things in the villages around here, and might even be able to stay a night at an inn. 

Luo Zhirou loved it when they stayed at the inns. Her body was not at all used to sleeping on beds, so when she had the chance, she grasped it. 

Nothing was more comfortable than sleeping on a bed, even if the mattress was made from hay. It was much better than sleeping on the cold hard ground in the wilderness.

Although they had decided to aim for the village, it took them a few days to actually reach one. The land was vast, and since they always tried to avoid other people, it took them some days to find the traces of other humans and their settlements. 

“Little Zhirou, there is something wrong,” the stalwart man said with a frown on his face, as he looked at Luo Zhirou. “The scent of blood in the air is too dense, and from my knowledge, this scent does not come from beasts, but humans.”

Luo Zhirou’s eyes flashed. “I will stay here,” she said obediently, “be careful daddy,” she added.

Her dad nodded his head solemnly and hid Luo Zhirou in the grass. He spread some of his invisibility powder on top of her. Although this powder could not actually make one invisible, it could remove one’s aura, and even the most experienced creature would be unable to locate their target, as long as they stayed completely still.

Luo Zhirou understood the dangers and hid in the grass. Although she was hiding, she kept observing the surroundings, and suddenly her eyes lit up.