Murong De helped Feng Yi up onto the Bronze Sparrow Terrace, then calmly followed Murong Ke farther upstairs while everyone else was too preoccupied to notice him. The brothers Muyugen and Muyugan, who had come to receive them, had long since lost their heads and had no notion of their duties anymore.
Besides, Murong De was, after all, the emperor's youngest brother, and he had come in with the Grand Marshal.
Surely there was no reason to drive him away?
And so this lowly Eastern Palace Gate Official made it all the way to the Imperial Couch without hindrance... yes, Murong De was no Palace Gate Supervisor or anything of the sort. The emperor had always disliked him, so he had managed to obtain only a post that theoretically made him a subordinate of Crown Prince Murong Wei, which was why he could stand duty in the palace district beneath the Three Terraces.
Then he saw his imperial sister-in-law, her eyes bloodshot and her face drenched in tears; the frightened, anxious Crown Prince, who would only turn eleven after the New Year; and his second brother, who had stood high above everyone and done as he pleased for as long as Murong De could remember.
Only now, this former King of Yan and Great Chanyu of the Xianbei, later an emperor who styled himself the Son of Heaven of China... and in fact still was... lay on his couch like a lump of rotten flesh, his mind clouded, unable to distinguish any of the countless affairs of state, drool running from his mouth.
After watching for a long while, he slowly turned his gaze, as everyone else had, toward another man present-the Grand Marshal, Murong Ke.
"Can the emperor regain consciousness?" Perhaps it was an illusion, but Murong Ke seemed