"Traditions don't keep us fed in the winter." - Anonymous peasant in Al-Shan, circa 675 FP.

As the months passed, Rafiqa frowned when the disparaging rumors she heard about Ying Xiao - who she now firmly considered a friend - went more and more ridiculous. The latest rumors even suggested that she had seduced the Emperor out of all things.

Too bad they had no idea who had started that rumor. Such slander that involved his imperial majesty would have earned the perpetrator at least a few dozen lashes in public, if not worse. Rafiqa would have liked to watch that.

In all honesty, the rumors this time had not seemed to be just groundless slander, as of late, when Ying Xiao had not been out on maneuvers training or otherwise occupied, she was frequently asked by the Empress to serve as her security detail.

It made sense, since it was the norm for the Empress' aides to be women ever since the Emperor had abolished the practice of keeping eunuchs for that purpose. Quite naturally, that meant Ying Xiao was often in the imperial couple's living area, and met the Emperor more than a few times.

Honestly, if the rumors had any grain of truth in them - which Rafiqa thought unlikely given how much the Empress seemed to like Ying Xiao - then it was probably with the Empress' knowledge and approval. Rafiqa would cheer the girl on should that be the case, if partly because she wanted to see how much the traditionalists' faces could contort in such a case.

Especially high magistrate Wang. Rafiqa hoped he'd make the funniest face before he hopefully got a fatal aneurysm from excessive anger. That would have been a hoot to watch.

Out of the people who had been in the tournament, many had been inducted into the military, including some who lost in the early rounds under rather questionable calls from the adjudicators.

It was probably no surprise that none of those adjudicators made an appearance on the second day. Even then, those who had won their matches by the questionable calls had somehow all ran into Ying Xiao in a later fight.

There was no way to call a match any other way when the difference was that overwhelming between the two fighters.

Out of the eight who had made the quarter-finals, only two - Rafiqa included - were of noble birth. The other noble, Faizal, was one she knew quite well, as he was a childhood friend of her and her family.

His parents was firmly in the loyalist faction, while Faizal was their youngest who developed an interest in the arts of war. When they were children, Rafiqa and her sisters often played with him. She also often sparred with him, as at times father Zhang or uncle Ishmael would have him join her training.

He was closer to Ayesha than Rafiqa or Tahira though, as their youngest sister was the same age as he was. Rafiqa herself mostly thought of him as a little brother who she was allowed to beat up in spars without getting scolded.

While the traditionalists had protested over how few nobles were inducted after the tournament, the Emperor had countered harshly by pointing out the utter wasted potential of the previous tournaments with their more stringent regulations over who could participate.

Five of the top eight - the champion included - were people who would have never been allowed in such tournaments before. The ratio only got worse the further down they went, as eleven of the top sixteen were such cases.

Rafiqa and Faizal were the best performers out of the nobles by far, since none of the others even made it to the top thirty-two.

As a new officer in the military, her days - and everyone else's who shared the same boat - were filled with training from their seniors, both in martial arts as well as in tactics and strategy. It was an opportunity the girl cherished much.

The talking behind their backs, the slanderous rumors which targeted not only Ying Xiao, but pretty much anyone of peasant birth, never truly ceased. It caused tempers to flare and altercations to break out from time to time.

Rafiqa herself had been part of a couple such altercations which involved others of noble birth. She considered the weeks of latrine duty punishment she received as worth the satisfaction of beating up their smug faces until not even their mothers would recognize them.

By coincidence - though it wouldn't have surprised Rafiqa to learn that everything was set up just so - when the end of the year came and the military held a mock combat exhibition between its units, the new unit Rafiqa and Ying Xiao was in faced against a unit that was sent to represent the isle of Tian-Mao, the traditionalists' stronghold. A unit full of the exact sort of gossiping noble snobs she never liked.

And they had just been given permission to beat the ever-living daylights out of them.

It was one she definitely would accept with childlike glee.

Ying Xiao was the highest ranked officer in their new unit, and was naturally placed in command. Rafiqa was somewhat surprised to find herself and Faizal - who was in their unit as well - each entrusted with a quarter of their forces and tasked with commanding the flanks of the formation, while Ying Xiao herself took another quarter in their center. The last quarter was entrusted to a senior officer who had helped train them, to act as a reserve.

Usually in such exhibitions new commanders hogged the command and credits all to themselves as it was their chance to show off their capabilities before the Emperor and the high command. Ying Xiao appeared to have no such concerns however.

Once the mock battle started between their respective units, Rafiqa understood that Ying Xiao truly had no such concerns. She had no need for such concerns.

Rafiqa and Faizal had led the flanks and held off the opposing soldiers as commanded. From their positions, they had a front-row view to watch how the opposing unit utterly crumbled under what could only be described as a one-man rampage.

Ying Xiao had the center of their formation assume a wedge formation, as she herself led from the very tip of the wedge. Rafiqa quickly learned from watching her that Ying Xiao had held back all these months they trained together.

Her blows had sent people flying with dented armors, and she shattered the wooden training weapon in her hands with almost every swing, yet she had not skipped even a beat and pulled out a new one out of her storage and repeated it again, and again.

Rafiqa saw people who had thick circular plates of steel that covering their chest sent flying with said plate bent like an oversized coin. There was no need for an adjudicator to proclaim the soldier she had best up as "dead". They were not getting up without medical treatment. The rest of their center followed in her wake, their morale off the charts as they witnessed their commander's rampage.

Needless to say, their opponent's center folded like a collapsing house of cards, and neither Rafiqa nor Faizal let go of the chance to push hard on the flanks. That she took the chance to have her soldiers beat up a couple particularly annoying officers on the other side was kept quiet.

Several of the traditionalist nobles supposedly complained to the military court over that, but she heard a stern look from her father scared them off. Rafiqa had laughed out loud when she heard of those news.

Ying Xiao herself received no trouble for her seemingly excessive display. Rafiqa had been surprised with how well the younger girl could control her strength. Those she struck were utterly incapacitated, some half-crippled, yet none of them received permanent injuries, or even anything that immediately threatened their lives.

That Ying Xiao managed such fine control while she sent several people flying at a time was something that made Rafiqa suspect that there was definitely more to the young girl.

The level of skill she displayed spoke of a very skilled teacher, the likes of which Rafiqa had never seen in the Empire. Yet she neither asked nor pushed the girl. Everybody had their secrets, and Rafiqa couldn't care less about her friend's secret so long as she remained at the Emperor's side.