Chapter 652: A Prince's Master

"You should be worried about your other children," Zhang Lie suggested to the king of the realm.

The king of the realm glanced toward his youngest son with benevolence. "Learn well from your master. I'm too old to be able to protect you much any longer. I know the ambition in your heart, but I didn't want to embroil you in this mess."

Zhang Lie seemed unperturbed. "Such is the fate of royalty. You might want to free him from that fate, but others won't necessarily agree."

The king of the realm nodded. "With you at his side, I'm far less worried."

That was the end of the conversation. Zhang Lie waved at the king of the realm and the ninth prince bowed. The two of them then walked outside. "Master, just what did you and Father talk about?"

Zhang Lie rolled his eyes at him. "Didn't you hear? You were right there."

The ninth prince folded his arms. "Master, the two of you were clearly having a deeper conversation than I could follow. I still don't understand!"

"Think about it some more."

In the end, as the ninth prince harangued him, Zhang Lie had no choice but to be clearer.

"I've seen your father before."

The ninth prince seemed very shocked. "In the palace? Why didn't you mention it?"

"Not formally," Zhang Lie clarified. "Your father must have sensed me skulking around the palace, but he chose not to interfere."

"He chose not to interfere?"

Zhang Lie explained, "He doesn't want to expose just how much of his strength he still possesses."

"In that case, you mean that he's faking his weakness?"

"No—it's true that your father is getting old, but it's not as serious as he's making it out to be. The reason he called me over was to see what sort of person I was. If he could easily do so, he would have gotten rid of me—but he can't.

"As a result, all he can do is ask about my objective here to get a better sense of who I am and what I want. The fact that he's not revealing his true strength means that he's carrying out some plan behind the scenes, one more important to him than you.

"You were too weak to sense it, but the moment I entered the tent, he tried to force me to kneel using the authority of the king of the realm. When I remained unperturbed and refused to kneel, he knew then that I wouldn't be easy to manipulate."

That was why the king of the realm had prevented the guard from forcing Zhang Lie to kneel. He knew very well that Zhang Lie wasn't someone he wanted to—or could afford to—provoke at that point.

"Your father views you more favorably than I expected."

"What do you mean, Master?"

Zhang Lie smiled. "Did you think that your father didn't like you because he doesn't pay you any attention?"

The ninth prince glanced thoughtfully at him. "Master, do you mean that my father has been neglecting me deliberately?"

"He knows that he's growing old, so he doesn't have the strength to protect you. The only way he can ensure your safety is to ignore you and let the other princes underestimate you. As a result, you would naturally be freed from the battle of succession. However, your brothers don't understand him at all. They believed that your estrangement was real, and the more idiotic among them even tried to kill you."

If not for the assassination attempt, the king of the realm might not have tolerated Zhang Lie's presence.

Zhang Lie laughed coldly. "In some sense, you have to thank the fifth prince."

The ninth prince's eyes revealed a turmoil of expression. He too had mistaken his father's intentions; in the past, he had always been a little scared of his father, as though he were just a stranger who had somehow taken pity on him.

The ninth prince chuckled bitterly. "Don't you think it's ludicrous that his caring for me entails that he pretend not to care for me?"

"That's the manner of royalty, after all. You'll understand when you're older."

The ninth prince laughed. "As though you aren't a king yourself, Master."

Zhang Lie rolled his eyes. "My kingdom is very different from yours. I don't have to deal with the same problems; he'd likely have gone bald if he weren't supported by the will of the world."

The crown prince ambled over not long after they emerged from the golden tent. "What did Father talk to you about?"

The ninth prince smiled. "He just had a chat with Master."

The crown prince seemed very shocked. "Father agreed?"

"He didn't disagree."

The crown prince scanned Zhang Lie up and down once more, finding him more and more inscrutable with every passing second.

Any master a prince took on had to be carefully vetted, and these masters uniformly had the highest pedigree in their favored field. The master of a prince might one day possess power beyond his station; were the prince to become a king, the master might naturally take on the role of a prime minister, ruling over the court from the shadows.

The relationship between a prince and his master was almost like that between son and father. Such a master would be the prince's greatest aid in ascending to the throne and supporting him once he got there.

As a result, the crown prince could barely believe his ears when the ninth prince claimed that a man he had picked up out in who-knew-where had been approved by the king of the realm himself.

The reason the crown prince had been such a favorite for the throne was because of his three masters, each of which possessed incredible authority in their own right.

The second prince overheard their conversation from afar. He smirked. "As expected, Father's growing old."

The crown prince had to re-evaluate Zhang Lie's standing; he wasn't quite sure how to treat Zhang Lie in the aftermath of this decision.

The ninth prince strode forward and spoke up instead. "Eldest brother, I have a question for you."

"What's the matter?"

"Is there a crack in the relationship between the third prince and the Wang clan?"

The crown prince frowned. "Whom did you learn this from?"

"No one. I simply felt that there was some tension in their relationship..."

The crown prince looked around him before he pulled the ninth prince aside. "Don't tell anyone about this, especially not the third prince. If he hears you, he'll give you a beating."

The ninth prince nodded knowingly. "It's just a superficial alliance, then?"

The crown prince shook his head. "It's hard to say."

"Oh?"

"After all, they're related by blood. Of course, that relationship might have grown tenuous, but it's hardly non-existent. The schism between the Wang clan and the third prince started in the previous generation.

"The third prince was disrespectful of his uncle, and the Wang clan head didn't much like his nephew. That mutual dislike shifted into direct conflict on the topic of the third prince's marriage. The third prince wanted to marry the woman of his desires, but the Wang clan insisted that he marry a daughter of the Wangs. This stretched the relationship between the two parties to an extreme."