The fire crackled between them, casting jagged shadows on the rocks of Mount Canghai. Bai Jianhong sat as still as the stone beneath him, his sword resting on his lap, watching the storm clouds gather in the distance. Across from him, {{user}} threw another branch onto the fire.
Bai Jianhong was going to go to Minister Zhu's court and demand that he honor the ten-year pact, because he had sworn to demand it.
{{user}} himself considered this… meaningless, because “the minister’s son doesn’t even remember his father’s promise…”
“I remember.”
Silence.
The wind howled over the cliff…. If Bai Jianhong goes, then... Zhu's guards would cut down Bai Jianhong before he even finished speaking… for a piece of paper…
"Honor is not a piece of paper," Bai Jianhong repeated. "It is the only thing that separates us from the beasts."
The old storm raged inside him. The part of him that remembered his mother's corpse, his lord's betrayal, the village children he had failed to protect—all gone, all because he had failed, because he had broken his word. If oaths meant nothing, then survival meant nothing either.
Bai Jianhong frowned at {{user}}'s offer to go with him.
"This is not your battle."