Two months had passed since Song Qian arrived at the palace and we began the offense against the rogue monster connected to slaughtering a few villages and terrifying basically everyone. We came close a few times to catching him, but it seemed he slipped away every time we came close, which irked the Emperor and mad Song Qian mad. She is quite the humane person but the one thing she could not stand was a raging monster on the loose that threw the balance of the universe and made my kind look even worse than what we already were. I guess it had something to do with the handful of my kind that she had help assimilate into society and her worry that they would be found out and hunted without warning or explanation.

"We will have to trap him. There is no other choice, but something about his movement does not seem right to me. I just can't place it though." Song Qian pondered out loud.

"Well if we need to trap him, you are the best one for the job, mother." I walked up to her and kissed her cheek in greeting. She patted my cheek affectionately before going back to staring at the papers in from of her.

"Why do you say that his movements don't add up?" I asked curiously.

"Because, he moves from one key village to the next that is near the border of our kingdom and the one right next to us. He does not venture any further than that, or that we know of. He attacks random villages and the key villages, he only scares. What is with that?" she said frustrated.

That is strange." I replied rubbing my chin in wonder. "But I am sure it is nothing, and I am sure you can handle anything."

"Thank you, Yiyun." She smiled. "I really hope it is nothing."

How wrong we both were.

Two weeks later Song Qian and I traveled to a village twenty kilometers from the border to set our trap for that rogue with a few trustworthy soldiers. We had predicted that he might strike this village next since he had yet to touch it and it was also a key village established to act as a watchtower on the neighboring kingdom.

"If I see that damn demon, I'll chop its head off and parade it around!" A soldier boasted.

Another one laughed and added his own boast. "You? Doubtful! I will be the one to kill him. I'll roast him alive as a sacrifice to the gods!"

More banter and laughter went around the group of soldiers as I walked around the camp we set up.

"Watch me as I tear him limb from limb and make a souvenir out of him for my boys back home." One soldier roared.

Another soldier chimed in about skinning him and making a nice horse saddle while another boasted of making the rogue as a dish to serve his enemies, all the while wine was passes around the camp.

Fools. They were all fools.

"They do know they can't kill that thing right?" I muttered to myself under my breath.

I peered to the sky and watched as it slowly turned pinkish and then black, signaling night was settling in. Song Qian was still setting up preparations so I decided to take a stroll in the woods nearby and to get away from the noise that those foolish soldiers were making.

I did not tell Soojung were I was going they day I departed, only telling her that I had some military matters to attend to. I left out the fact that I would be secretly travelling with my mother to reign in the rogue; I did not want to worry her. I found it disturbing how I was missing her the minute I left. I was not supposed to have such feelings, was I? These whole emotions, feelings thing was new to me and something I had never experienced. From my times with Song Qian and Zhoumi, they told me that everything about me was enhanced due to what I was now, and that included emotions. They explained that it might be something foreign to me due to my past of not having understood or felt love and that it would hit me full force once I experienced love, and they were not wrong.

To me, it felt like I yearned to do anything and everything for the princess. She made me feel special and.....it made me feel like I had a beating heart again.

My musing was brought to a standstill when I sensed something in the air. Automatically my hand reached for my sword and unsheathed it, ready in a battle stance. I bared my teeth slightly as I recognized this scent; the scent of a monster.

Clang!

My sword met the blade of the suspect.

"Well, well, well.