Vow of Silver Dawn Chapter 16

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Chapter 16: The Ascetic who lived like a King
By 国王陛下, Translated by 74translations
Notes at the end

	"...and that concludes today's news, we'll see you tomorrow."

	The shot held on the pleasantly-smiling face of the young presenter on the Qiankun television station's screen for a moment, before being quickly replaced by an ad for a brand of liquor.

	Shawn had seen it before, and couldn't help but sigh.

	"It's been three days, and still not a single mention of Nan Qianyu's death. Is this station really owned by Nanming Capital?"

	From behind him came his Master's voice, "Nanming Capital is subsidiary to the Qiankun Corporation, and given that they've just lost two of the family, none of their underlings seem to have displayed much ability to act independently. The fact is that after Nan Heli's death, Nanming Capital was clearly subject to external manipulations, otherwise Nan Qianyu, mediocre as he might have been, would not likely have been thrown out like an abandoned child, left utterly in the dark even up to his death."

	Shawn listened to his Master's analysis while laying on a soft sofa, his head turned to gaze at the snow-white ceiling to stare into the dazzling lamp, completely lost in thought.

	It had already been three days since they had 'crossed swords' with the Qiankun Corporation.

	In these three days, the Jedi pair had spent it in this magnificent estate, with no expense spared for the finest food and drink. There were specialties from both the Qian System and the Republic's Core Worlds, it was all there.

	Through the windows could be seen a dense, vibrantly verdant, and lush forest. Illuminated by the light of the stars, this was a view that afforded a view of the beautiful rising and setting of the sun with the passage of time.

To think that this was all originally a barren asteroid, it was quite extraordinary.

	Hardly surprising that this was Nan Heli's favourite place.

	The only problem was that these days, it was a place to hold a pair of Jedi under house arrest.

	Three days ago was their confrontation, and in the end there were no casualties to be had.

	In the face of the Jedi Master's little "trick," the Qiankun Corporation opted to go for the compromise.

	But compromise has its limits. There was no way they could look at the Jedi and think to let them just walk, and so after a short negotiation both parties came to an agreement.

	The Jedi Master had insisted upon three conditions: First, that they would cease attempting to entrap the Jedi, Second, that the Jedi would come to no harm, and third, that no harm would come to any innocents.

	In return, the Jedi would forfeit some of their freedom, and were "invited" by Xia Yan to come to the property where Nan Heli had been murdered, where hundreds of fully-armed peacekeepers kept watch, with strict restrictions placed on incoming transmissions, leaving only the daily holoprograms left to somewhat alleviate the boredom.

	As far as having rushed over to conduct an investigation was concerned, this would seem to be an enormous setback. That said, neither Mastema nor Shawn were particularly discouraged, and instead found it all rather encouraging.

	After all, there was no place they could've ended up that would be better for their investigation.

	Before their arrival, the pair of Jedi could only speculate as to the nature of Nan Heli's death, but now they had suspects——the Qiankun Corporation, and Xia Yan. On top of that, that the Qiankun Corporation should act in such a way was rather unexpected, but even such conduct in respect to the Jedi was in and of itself telling a great deal. Lastly, the property itself was of some interest, so their current location was an excellent place to continue their investigation from.

	"Incidentally, Master, I still think Xia Yan had some other motive in putting us under house arrest here of all places. If he had thrown us into an actual prison, we'd still have had no choice but to accept it. It's not like we had many cards in our hand to begin with. That said, what do you think of our luxurious circumstances?

	"One of two things could happen: Either we're meant to remain under house arrest indefinitely, or, after about a month they could die under mysterious circumstances like Nan Heli, and afterwards blame could be laid upon some third party" Mastema said.

	"You mean like some rouge organisation, like those Nothingnessa people that harassed the Republic?" Shawn suggested.

	Mastema laughed, "Indeed, that of course would just be one method. When the time comes, it would simply be that Nan Heli became involved with the Jedi and then died a mysterious death, implicating us as the primary suspect."

	"But then surely the council would send more people to investigate."

	“The more that time passes, the further behind we leave the truth. Not to mention that if they were willing to target Jedi once, then they'd be likely to be willing to do it twice, or thrice. Those acting out of desperation can be quite difficult to surmount. The other method would be just as you described." Mastema finished.

	With his Master's assessment in mind, Shawn delivered his reply smoothly, "There's something hidden here in this manor, and it'll take all we've got to uncover it."

	"What makes you say that?"

	"Because according to what Nan Qianyu said, just before Nan Heli was murdered he had something of a premonition, and opted rather than to call for help to hide himself away up here to meet his death, and left a record of all his thoughts and details of his 'forbidden research' in his journal."

	Mastema nodded, indicating for Shawn to continue.

	"I just remembered, the Journal ought to be authentic. It if wasn't, then the Qiankun Corporation would've already just written whatever they'd wanted in it, they could have just straight up engineered evidence that the Republic was responsible. The next question would be what exactly his so-called "forbidden research" actually was? Why take the risk?"

	Shawn paused for a moment, before continuing, "Following this line of thought, I think it seems likely that Nan Heli died in order to silence him. Evidently, he knew it was coming, and so he must have arranged for something to be left behind ahead of time. Given that Xia Yan arranged for us to stay here specifically, I figure there's a good chance that there's still something left behind."

	"You're heading down the right path, but you're missing a few details, which renders your conclusion more subjective than not," Mastema said.

	Shawn listened respectfully.

	"You should have noticed over the course of these last three days that the staff of this estate were those that had been in Nan Heli's employ for many, many years. After his death, the property continued to be kept in its original state, operating as usual, as though someone were meticulously attempting to preserve the scene, so that whoever came after could pick up the trail."

	Shawn nodded.

	"This wasn't Nan Qianyu's idea, in fact he advocated for the termination of all the staff. After all, the official story was that Nan Heli's death was likely perpetrated by an insider. Nan Qianyu's mind was changed by someone else, and that person was in all likelihood affiliated with Xia Yan. Later, Nan Qianyu met with us as a representative of the Nanming Group, the probable result of that same manipulation, which has led us here. To sum it up, the Murderer preserved the scene of the crime and then arranged for us Jedi to end up here. The intent is plainly self-evident."

	Pausing for a moment, Mastema took a moment before continuing, "Of course, the most important evidence lies with the Force. I have already seen something of a vague outline, though where exactly it is hidden here is unclear."

	Shawn couldn't help but feel a little dumb. Once again the gulf between Master and Apprentice was made ever so clear.

	While he had struggled to pierce the fog with what he could logically reason through, his Master had already used the Force to clear the way to the answer.

	As he was about to continue discussing the details, he was interrupted by a soft, female voice, coming from the entrance to the living room.

	"Honoured guests, your dinner is ready, please make your way to the dining room."

	She was a young woman, clad entirely in red, with a meticulously practised tone and posture. On top of that, the quality of her dress unambiguously indicated that she was a housekeeper.

	Despite that, her expression was a subtle, yet clear indicator that she cared not for the Jedi, perhaps even hated them.

	Shawn fished around his brain for what he could recall of her.

	Li Qiong, twenty-two years old, once the personal maid of Nan Heli's beloved only daughter, Nan Wuyou, and utterly devoted to the Nan Family. Given the "treachery" of the Jedi, she held a particular hatred of them.

	Were it not for Xia Yan's "invitation" to the manor, and the Nanming and Qiankun Groups' request that all staff treat the two as guests, she'd likely have refused to cooperate.

	So for three days, this housekeeper had used her position to find ways to inconvenience the Jedi.

	So when he heard her call them for dinner, Shawn felt the tip of his tongue begin to numb.

	On their first day there, he had sampled the salty and bitter "Kanyuan Eggc" fried rice, and it wasn't a taste he'd soon forget. He was also unlikely to soon forget the look of schadenfreuded plastered across her face when she apologized for the estate's chef's limited skill.

	When he walked into the dining room, already set on the incredibly long table were steamed buns and rice piled high like mountains, but nothing else, like a form of extravagant simplicity.

	Shawn looked around, and asked, "Do you have salt?"

	"We do not." Li Qiong answered, her face still perfectly neutral.

	Shawn was quite partial to the unique culinary style of the Qian System. He grabbed a bun and began to eat. Halfway through the bun, he produced a small salt shaker from his sleeve, and sprinkled some on his Master's rice.

	Li Qiong's eyes became like dinner plates, "Where did you get that salt!?"

	"I pulled the grains out of the fried rice on the first day," Shawn answered, honestly.

	Li Qiong huffed, and acted as though Shawn had paid her a most grave insult.

	Following their meal, the Jedi enjoyed a Qiankun-style bath, though occasionally in freezing, and sometimes boiling, water. They watched the available holoprogramming, cut-off part way through by unexpected maintenance work on the estate. The sound of machinery persisted into the night.

	The Jedi quickly grew accustomed to these antics, and it simply became part of the rhythm of living in the estate.

	For the Jedi, it could be regarded as just another part of the daily routine, but in respect to Li Qiong's obsession, it was in a way rather impressive.

	As Shawn laid on the bed, he could hear the deafening sound of power tools and construction work, and his heart went out to the night shift as he began his daily meditation.

	So long as an effort was made to really feel the Force, the disturbances of the outside world could quickly melt away into nothing.

	This routine lasted until the seventh day. It wasn't so much that Li Qiong's obsession had dulled, but rather that the staff had been ordered to take time off.

	The sound of electric drills persisting deep into the night was positively mind-numbing, and after seven days the staff was beginning to genuinely fall ill. On top of that, Xia Yan's security staff couldn't bear it either, and complained endlessly.

As for Li Qiong herself, even she had an empty, listless look about her, complete with dark circles under the eyes.

	That night, even though she had been prepared to personally operate the machinery, once she actually got to the construction site, she was more exhausted than ever, resulting in the interruption of their estate's fine tradition of nightly construction work.

	Despite this shameful failure, Li Qiong herself was not discouraged. From her hospital bed, she continued to remotely direct her subordinates in order to subject the Jedi to ever more "trials." Two days after she had become bedridden, however, she saw something that caused her eyes to bulge from her sockets.























Translation Notes
a 虚无 - xuwu, lit. nothingness, possibly "emptiness," "void," or "hollow," I'm not sure if this refers to something already mentioned in the High Republic or something, please let me know

b 南无. You may find it interesting to know that this compound (the first 2 characters of the name), alone, is read "nāmó," and is loaned from Sanskrit, and is a buddhist salutation or expression of faith. Meaningful? Definitely. Relevant? Who knows!. 忧 ,"yōu" means sorrow or grief, so make what you will of the name. As it currently stands, this is more "neat trivia" than it is a clue.

c 坎原 - "Kan Yuan" (as far as I know) doesn't really mean anything. I suppose literally reading the characters it might be like, "hole origin" or "threshold source," but without context I'm just assuming a Kanyuan is a kind of "thing" on Qian that lays eggs. Salty and Bitter eggs with which you can fry rice, presumably.

d originally 幸灾乐祸 (xìngzāilèhuò), an idiom literally meaning "to take joy in calamity and delight in disaster," meaning basically the same as schadenfreude.

At any rate,

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Thanks for reading!