When I opened my eyes the next morning I quickly dress myself in a simple yukata and headed out to try and find the dining hall for breakfast. It doesn't take me very long to find the dining hall since my wondering last night lead to me finding a route to the dinning hall from my room. My route is definitely not the fastest way there but it has me walking through a garden similar to my garden back home. So I think I'll stick to this slightly longer route. When I walk into the dinning hall I can see the tables have been moved around to resemble a school lunch room with all the tables in long lines next to each other. There are quite a few people already eating and I can see some of the other bride candidates as well as people from other groups in the castle. The group that caught my attention is a group of soldiers who are probably the castle guard sitting at a table in the far left corner of the room. I head to the buffet style table in the middle of the room to fill a plate with food then walked over to the soldiers table. They notice me approaching them and a tough looking soldier with short black hair and a scar on his chin speaks to me when I stop in front of their table "May we help you miss?

"Well if it's ok with all of you I would very much like to sit and eat with you all." They all looked shocked and exchanged looks with each other, not sure what to do until a young blond soldier stood up and spoke.

"Of course! Come sit there's a space open right next to me." He then proceeded to push the guy next to him over to make room for me to sit.

"Hey?!"

"Shut up Junjie." He looked at me and gestured to the spot he had just made "for milady."

"Oh um thank you." I gave a slight bow then I looked at the soldier who had been pushed aside. "Sir Junjie is it ok with you if I sit here?" He looked at me for a second as if he was trying to see if I had something up my sleeve but in the end just rolled his eyes.

"If you really want to sit with a bunch of soldiers don't let me stop you." With his consent given I sat down and began to eat. The blond solder sat back down and smiled at me.

"Milady if you could be so kind I would love a name to go with your beautiful face." I look at him for a second before realizing I had yet to introduce myself so I quickly swallowed my mouthful of food and spoke in an apologetic tone.

"My apologies, please forgive my rudeness, I am Fa Meilin."

"Meilin that's quits the pretty name. I'm Ai and the big guy with the scare on his chin is Niu." I look over at Niu who nods at me before returning to his food. "Then the grumpy one next to you is Junjie but I guess you already heard me call him that." I look at Junjie who just clicks his tongue at us without looking up from his food. "So I've got to ask, why is a bride candidate slumming it by eating her breakfast with some random soldiers?"

"My father was a soldier and his hard work and sacrifice in the last war gave are family the the owner of having me coming here to be a potential bride and my brother is a solder know. So I don't consider sitting with the brave soldiers of are country slumming it by any means." Ai looked at me a little shocked and then he smiled.

"So your a soldier's daughter, I wouldn't be surprised if you were the only one of the bride candidates." He gestures his head to the table were the majority of the other girls were sitting and I look over and see Chunhua sitting with the other girls.

"Actually the girl sitting in the middle is the daughter of a general, so I'm not the only one." All the soldiers at the table chuckled a little and Junjie shook his head and looked at me.

"Look at where your sitting right know and ware the general's daughter is sitting. A general sees themselves as more important than a soldier so a general's daughter sees herself as more important than other people. So you two are not the same. Your nice and down to earth and I don't even need to meet her to know she is mean and arrogant." I look at him and think of how Chunhua has acted up to know and I can't really argue but it still seems mean of him to assume she's not a good person because of who her father is.

"I believe everyone has the ability to change their ways or even be completely different to who they are born to." I mean look at me I'm a soldier's son who loves needle point and sewing. I'm a plum that feel very far from my father's tree. "You don't have to let your family define you."

"Yet most of us do." Ai gestured to all the people around us, "I mean look at you, a pretty daughter of a distinguished soldier trying to become the prince's bride to bring honor to her family. How is that not being defined by your family." I wish I could tell him the real reason I'm here. I'm sure it would shock him so much his ancestors would feel it. I wonder if telling him a little bit of the truth would be ok. I see no harm in it.

"I don't have any intentions of becoming the prince's bride. I only wish to fulfill my duty by staying here till the end of the month then I will go home and pray my brother does so as well."

"Really? What about your family, don't they want you to become the future empress?"

"Ha ha ha, no! My family wanted nothing more than for me to have gone home yesterday, but that didn't happen so know I'm just going to enjoy the delicious food and relax for the next month till I'm free to leave the capital and can go back to my country side home."

"That's surprising I thought the selection process was like a fight to the death or something. So how did you get picked if you didn't want to be?" I looked over at Ai like he was crazy.

"Ok, one a fight to the death really? Two if that was the case all us girls who now how to fight would have an unfair advantage." He scratched his head and laughed nervously.

"Well I mean not a fight to the death but a challenge of some sort..." Then he suddenly stops talking and whips his head over to look at me wide eyed. "Did you just admit to knowing how to fight?"

"Huh?" I think about what I said and yes I kind of did and if I deny it know that would just be suspicious, but a girl knowing how to fight is also at the very least weird. "Like I said my father is a soldier and he believes everyone should be able to defend themselves no matter what gender they are." Truth be told I didn't really want to learn how to fight but as my father's only son I had no choice in the matter. Mulan on the other hand begged are father to teach her how to fight but he refused every time. I guess know she is being taught how to fight in the army, may the ancestors keep her safe.

"Are you any good?" I look at Junjie who is done eating and is know looking at me with a mixture of curiosity and judgment.

"I don't know if I can really say I'm any good or not since I've never been in a fight before. At the very least I think I can stay alive in a fight long enough to get away."

Junjie gets a smirk on his face "Then why don't we test and see just how long you would stay alive in a fight."

"Ok and just how do you propose we do that?" I have a feeling I know what he is going to say.

"You and me one on one last man standing wins." I can tell he said man instead of person on purpose since to his and everyone else's perspective he is the only man in this fight.

"Sigh, I had a feeling you were going to say something like that and I guess it's ok but I have two conditions." He looks a little shocked that I'm willing to accept so quickly but then he narrows his eyes at me.

"Exactly what are these conditions?" I smile at him.

"There simple really, first" I hold up a finger "I wish to stop by my room to change into something more suited for a fight and second" I hold up a second finger "I want to use a bo staff in the fight and of course you can also use a weapon of your choosing as well. That's all I want, so what do you say Junjie. "I hold out my hand to him and he smirks but does not grab my hand.

"That's fine by me. If your done eating Ai accompany you to your room so when your done changing he can lead you to the training grounds outside." I smile sweetly and drew my hand back knowing he didn't shake my hand because he doesn't see me as a real opponent.

"Thank you so much for your concern. Well then I guess we will head out first. "I look at Ai as I stand up who quickly shoves the last of his food into his mouth before standing up to follow me. "Then if you will excuse us gentlemen." I bow my head and walk to the door with Ai trailing behind me. As soon as we leave the dining hall I start walking to the bride candidates rooms with Ai speeding up for a second to catch up with me so he can walk next to me instead of behind me.

"Why did you accept his challenge, he is just trying to be mean you didn't have to give him the satisfaction."

"He thinks this is going to be an easy fight but trust me when I say I'm going to make him work for the win." We made it to the potential bride rooms in no time and Ai is looking around as if we just walked into some mythical land of mystery.

"Wow, I've never been to bridal hall before. No one is allowed to come here unless you have the permission of a bride and since there has not been any brides here since the current empress was chosen this hall has been off limits."

"Bridal hall?"

"That's what everyone who works in the castle calls this place since it is only used to house the potential brides." We were walking down the hall as we spoke and I can't help but wonder why these rooms were only used for us. What made them any different from the other rooms in the palace?

"I like that, do you mind if I call this place that as well?"

"Sure I don't mind it's not like I'm the one who came up with it. Someone just started calling it that and it stuck."

"Thank you. Know if you don't mind I'll only be a minute." I grabbed my rooms door and slid it open heading in to quickly change smiling at Ai before closing the door behind me. I head over to my luggage and shift through it taking out an outfit I had snuck in without my mother noticing just in case I would need it. The outfit was a plane black shirt and a pair of black pants with a black belt. It is all black because this is the outfit I will use to sneak out of the palace if anything goes wrong. I quickly changed and headed back out of my room "Ok Ai lead the way."

"Dang girl your really rocking that queen of the shadows look aren't you."

"Well if you wear black during a fight the blood is not as noticeable when your finished with it." He looked at me a little shocked and started walking before he spoke.

"That is a really bad ass thing to say. I wonder if that's why the Huns wear a lot of black or if they just want to look as evil as physically possible."

"Who knows." With the thought of the Huns on are minds we end up walking the rest of the way to the training grounds in silence. When we walk outside of the palace I can see soldiers training by running laps, working with weapons, and sparing on the large space that was cut out of the forest for the soldiers. "Wow, this is a pretty nice training ground." The weapons area had a space for every type of weapon and a large building to store unused weapons in a safe place. The sparing area was separated into many boxes on the ground with some sort of white paint making areas for people to fight and not get into each other's way. Then there were lanes painted around the outside of the entire training area for running. The seat up was relatively simple but very efficient giving everyone a specific place to do what they want.

"I know wright?! The prince designed it for us, cut down training ground accidents by more than 50%, he's one smart guy. Oh!" Ai looked over at the sparing area "Looks like the word has spread that Junjie will be fighting a bride candidate." I follow his gaze and see that a large crowd has gathered around one of the sparing squares that Junjie is currently stretching in.

"I really hope this does not find a way to come back and kick me."

"What do you mean kick you?"

"Just something bad happening because of are fight. Like my family finding out or the other brides." In reality I really should not be doing this I'm supposed to be acting like I don't exist so I can get out of this alive but instead I'm getting into a fight the second day I'm here. Am I unlucky, or just stupid? Personally I have to admit it is probably the later.

"You know you don't have to do this right?" Ai puts his hand on my shoulder reassuringly "If you said you changed your mind and didn't want to fight then Junjie, no matter how rude and mean a guy he is, wouldn't force you to." I put my hand on his and smile. It's nice of him to be so concerned about me even though we just meat today.

"Your a good guy" Ai looks a little surprised at my sudden compliment "And I appreciate your concern but I can't back down from this fight not when my opponent so desperately needs to be knocked down a peg or two." As we walk over to the sparing square Junjie was in, the crowd that had gathered noticed us and parted to let us through. I made sure to hold my head high and to meet Junjie's eyes when he looked up at me from his stretching.

"Well I never expected a bride candidate to have an outfit like that stashed away with all her pretty dresses." He gave me a once over then continued talking "So the rules of this fight are simple we will fight until one of use is knocked out of this square, unconscious, or quiets."

"That seems fare and as I said before, I will be using a bo staff. If I may ask what weapon will you be using?" He smirked at me and walked over to another soldier holding two bo staffs answering my question but there is no doubt in my mind that he still has something to stay about why he chose to also use a bo staff.

If I may ask what weapon will you be using?" He smirked at me and walked over to another soldier holding two bo staffs answering my question but there is no doubt in my mind that he still has something to stay about why he chose to also use a bo staff.

"I thought I would be nice and use the same weapons as you." He handed one of the staffs to me and took a few steps back letting me weigh the weapon in my hands as well as spin it between my hands to get a feel for the staff. "After all you seem to know how to use this stick pretty well. Where I have only had the bare minimum of training with it. I figured since you're a bride and I'm a soldier you could use the advantage." The other soldiers chuckled at his talk of men's superiority over women and I wish Mulan was here to show him just how wrong he is, but since she is not I'll just have to try my best to win or at least make it as hard as possible for him to. Which means first I need to make him mad because the madder he is the more impulsive his fighting will be.

"How nice of you to give yourself something to blame when you lose." The smirk he had been throwing my way fell and his hold on the staff tightened just a little showing his irritation with my words. "I mean giving your opponent an advantage by handicapping yourself is just a cowards way of giving themselves something to blame when they lose because they were not sure they were going to win in the first place." I could see Junjie clenching his jaw and that let me know my words were getting to him.

"Well little girl I was trying to be nice but I can see that wasn't appreciated so I won't hold back." He got into a fighting stance and glared at me.

"Hah! You and I both know you had no kindness in your actions or words." I get into a fighting stance as well "and its insulting that you even thought of holding back." As we stared each other down Ai stepped forward and raised his hands.

"Fighters are you ready?" Ai looked at Junjie who nodded and then at me giving me a small smile which I returned as I nodded. "Both fighters have acknowledged their willingness in this fight." Ai took a step out of the square "so let the fight begin!" Junjie made the first move by lunging forward and jabed his staff at my chest which I spun to the left to avoid. I used my momentum to swing my staff at his feet which caused him to jump up and back, putting some distance between us. We continued to exchange jabs and retreats for the next couple of minutes until Junjie successfully corners me leaving me with two options take the hit or step out of bounds and losing. So as his staff moved towards me I braced myself so when it hits it wont knock me out of the square. As his staff makes contact with my stomach I drop my own staff and grab onto his turning sideways pulling it forward forcing him towards me bringing him close enough for me to headbutt him shocking and hurting him at the same time. Junjie lets go of the staff in a slight daze, giving me the chance to plant the staff on the ground using it as leverage to push up bringing my foot forward kicking Junjie in the chest with enough force to make him stumble back onto his butt. I waste no time jumping onto Junjie pinning his arms under my knees and bring the staff down on his throat stopping him from breathing. Junjie realizes what I'm doing and tries to force me off him but I make sure to put force on both his neck and chest to prevent him from moving too much. As the seconds tick by Junjie gets closer and closer to passing out and I'm determined to make sure he does when I feel a tapping on my thigh. I look and see Junjie is hitting my thigh with an open palm. My eyes widen as I realize he is tapping out so I quickly get off him and he gasps for air. I looked down at him and when he has caught his breath he looks back up at me and I offered him my hand. He looks at my hand and lets out a small chuckle shaking his head as he reaches up and grabs my hand. I helped him up and start to let go only for him to pull me forward grabbing my arm a little above my hand and putting his other hand on my shoulder giving me a soldier's handshake.

"That was a good fight I look forward to sparring with you again."

I smile grabbing his arm and shoulder "as do I." we separate and look at the group of soldiers around us who are dead silent watching us. We all just stood there in silence until Ai bounds forward putting an arm around my shoulder.

He smiles at me and then pushes me forward towards the soldiers saying "the winner Meilin!"

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Sin pov

Sin's morning was boring having to head straight to his office to do paperwork right after breakfast. After a few hours of work he stretched looking out his window for a small break noticing a large group of soldiers gathered around a sparring square. He wondered what was going on "hm, maybe I'll ask a Soldier about it later" he said to himself before turning back to his work.