Chapter seventeen:
"This unfilial daughter greets your royal highness."
Ru Gu Meng made a full bow to the emperor not daring to get up without permission. If Feng Qi could see how perfect Ru Gu Meng was acting right now he would surely cough up blood in anger.
The emperor rubbed his mustache and his eyes revealed that he was satisfied with how she was acting. He was extremely surprised that his normally bratty daughter was acting like an adult today. At least the girl had self awareness and understood the importance of the issue.
"Ru Gu Meng because of your actions you are accused of attacking Prince Feng multiple times, dragging him out of the dungeon against his will, and attempting to kill him. I don't care about the boy at all, however many of his people are extremely rilled up about this ordeal. Also, you killed a maid who helped raise you for ten years out of no where! Before only people in the palace knew how ruthless you are, but now it is harming your reputation outside as well. What do you have to say for yourself?"
Ru Gu Meng already expected the majority of the accusations thrown at her. After all, no one would believe that someone like her could just turn around over a new leaf and become a saint. Opening her mouth to state her premeditated argument she froze and then looked up questionably at the emperor.
"I am willing to explain every accusation thrown at me except for one... I didn't kill my maid..." Meng didn't understand how they came up with the idea she killed her maid when she didn't even try to harm that woman. If anything the woman was thinking about harming her before she died!
The emperor sighed in annoyance when the girl decided to lie about something so small. The maid was just a commoner and didn't matter much. If she just did it in a more subtle way no one would even condone her for it.
Commoners were just life stock to royals, but for a ten year old to kill one in her own room was quite questionable. Now everyone was calling her insane and demanding that the emperor locked her up to protect the people!
"The royal physicians theirselves confirmed that the maid was crushed from your aura. There is no reason to lie about this matter."
The emperor's eyes grew cold as he thought about how she lied with such a straight face.
Meng's eyes grew wide with realization when she found out she killed the maid. She felt conflicted inside as this was the first person she has ever killed. Should she cry? In some novels the main character passed out after their first kill or threw up.... how should she react to this.
Meng didn't know why, but when she heard that she killed the maid she felt nothing. No remorse... no sickness... no self hatred... just nothing. Maybe because she was never been around a lot of people, she never found out how cold she was. It seemed that she was truly fit to be a villain someone as messed up as her shouldn't even think about being a good person.
Seeing that Meng was in a daze the emperor cleared his throat to bring her back to reality.
"Your daughter apologizes for losing focus! About the maid, I didn't mean to kill her, however, because I wasn't aware of my surroundings after being asleep for so long my aura accidentally crushed her. I will make sure to reimburse her family and give them my sincere condolences."
She glanced up at the emperor quickly and relaxed a bit when she saw his eyes weren't as cold as before.
Ru Gu Meng's father in the book was known for his coldness and greed. While, Ru Gu Meng harmed Feng Qi physically, Emperor Ru destroyed Feng Qi's reputation before exiling him in the end. This horrible reputation was one of the keys that led to his eventual death by the male MC.
Therefore, looking at one of the snakes that hurt her dearest straight forwardly, left a bad taste in her mouth. Too make it worse, Emperor Ru most likely killed Ru Gu Meng to save his reputation, when she disappeared suddenly at the age of twelve. 'As long as I don't get on his bad side I should be fine, right?
Meng pushed back the thoughts of dislike, returning her eyes to blank circles of brown they normally always were. After all, her parents in her previous life seemed to be the same kind of people as Emperor Ru, which is why she knew how to deal with such people.
As long as they are benefiting off of you more than they are helping you, they won't harm you. The key is to make sure you are important.
"About Prince Feng the reason I have been showing him so much 'attention' and even 'saved' him from the dungeon is because I thought of a plan to reduce father emperor's worries."
Meng calmly twisted her words to paint her actions in a more brighter light. As she expected right when the emperor heard that she had something helpful the cold aura in the room lowered exponentially. Without a doubt, he most likely didn't expect to get much of of a ten year old, however it was good enough as long as she gave him a direction to get out of the political issues.
"Stand up and talk, you have this emperor's attention. If you are wasting my time I am sure you understand that the consequences will be dire."
"Yes father!" Meng forced herself to stand up after being on her knees for so long. She felt extremely stiff, but knew better than to show it.
"If I understand correctly the reason why the issue with Prince Feng is causing so much tension is because the people of Falling Leaf Kingdom aren't yet comfortable about being taken over by our kingdom. Therefore, the only thing that is appeasing them is the fact that you gave their old prince a rank one position in the Sun Kingdom. However, those people still don't feel safe do they? because they understand that the position can be removed just as quickly as it was given."
When Meng stated all of the issues with the Falling Leaf Kingdom the emperor's eyes grew wide. This type of knowledge isn't something a ten year old should grasp so easily! He stared warily at his daughter... was someone feeding her this information?