Xun Zhou looks at the bag incredulously.

He squints his eyes, looking fiercely at me. “I consider you a friend. I may be straight forward, but I’m not stupid. You approached me just to recruit me, didn’t you? That incident was created by you, wasn’t it? All of this, just to recruit me.”

I honestly didn’t think that I would be exposed. It wasn’t any fancy trick, but for some reason, I didn’t think that anyone would find out.

“HAHAHAHAHA. I don’t know why I would be the person you wanted to recruit, it could have been a stronger noble, who could provide you with so much more. What, is it because I’m weak? So I’ll be easier to control, and would be a vassal instead of an equal partner? You always looked at me with condescension?!”

“I-I di-”, I stammered, I didn’t expect this to happen at all.

“Cat got your tongue? You can’t be arrogant enough to think that no one would be able to tell, right? I was never going to mention it if you didn’t. I thought it would be fine if we remained as friends, but you had to prove me wrong.” He has a face of self ridicule, slightly averting his gaze at me.

I continue to be stunned. I was expecting this recruitment to go smoothly. I was offering what he needed the most currently. There’s no reason for him not to accept. I even prepared a suitable platform for his to accept it. I could have recruited him before becoming friends, but I still did so so that he would be more accepting of the idea.

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“You really didn’t think I would even consider it, huh…”, he mutters sadly to himself.

“I didn’t mean to-”

“Just stop.”

“This is getting hard to watch. This never happened, you may have pride in yourself, but you can’t ignore someone else’s.”

He gets off me, turning around to walk away.

With his back turned, he says coldly, “Bye.”

Why?

Why did this happen? Wasn’t it all supposed to go smoothly? Wasn’t I transported over from another world? I have a right to an advantage over anyone here. I’m special.

But why then? Why did this… have to happen…

I didn’t realise at this point, that all along I’ve been an entitled little kid. I was in a precarious spot, but I still felt everything was under control. I made plans, but they didn’t come with contingencies. I had blind faith in their succeeding.

I was wrong.

I headed home that day, his words revolving about my mind. My eyes were empty, and devoid of any emotion.

I kept thinking back to what happened. To what will happen.

Did I make a wrong guess on his character? Was that it?

No, his character didn’t matter, I could have went wrong even if he accepted.

In fact, it may even be better that he rejected me now instead of betraying me in the future.

A relationship can’t stand on an unstable foundation afterall.

I didn’t think far enough. I just wanted to gain power. I realised. Everything I had done was aimless.

There wasn’t the future in sight. I wasn’t protecting myself either.

I just wanted to gain more power.

I expected to be able to do so. I had blind faith in my advantage.

I skipped out on meditation and training, I kept myself immersed in my thoughts for the night.