Lock and Spear proceeded in silence. Lock wasn't in the least bit offended by Spear's derision. If anything, it was simply the truth, they may be strong, but there was a line they couldn't cross with their Master. His Arts may be declining as the years passed, but that didn't mean he wouldn't be able to skin them alive with his pinky if he felt like it; and with the unhelpful guide of her fellow students, she was sure he felt that way almost always. His anger at them was at its peak, and it had been for the past decades. If they had decided to take his new student, they wouldn't have been able to leave unscathed, or alive, like they had when they disobeyed his wishes.

Speaking of the new one, he looked to have had a good upbringing, and he was entertaining to observe. His goals for a peaceful life were shared with Lock, and she knew he wasn’t the only one looking forward to such a future. The balance that Jade had managed to maintain with her other allies and dominions, saw the growth of people who sorted after Gin’s vision of the future for themselves; certainly not all, but a good number of them. However, she was surprised when Gin had denied the offer for tutelage in the Divine Art.

Sharing a vision of the future didn’t mean a lack of ambition for something greater. Gin’s conclusion of the Divine Arts, taking more than one could gain, was sound, but a falsehood created by the lack of an answer to the questions, 'What is the Divine Art?', and, subsequently, ‘What will I do once I gain the use of the Art?’. When all one thought about was flying and being one of the closest beings to gods, they never stopped to ask those questions from multiple perspectives and not just their selfish ambition and self-deceptions. Gin had, and like most, he went in the direction of profit over purpose.

Lock could admit that their questioning of his thoughts on the Divine Art was unnecessary, but the conclusions one made with limited knowledge offered quite a lot to learn about a person. Lock was sure none of them had taken the time to investigate him further as it would have been out of bounds for them to do such a thing. Though very rough around the edges, their Master had done well with picking them, and she had faith he had done the same with Gin.

She was sure Gin had thought the Master to be arrogant by thinking his acceptance was guaranteed after being offered the lessons in exchange for him taking revenge on Master’s behalf, but he had been mistaken. Thoroughly mistaken that his face was a sight to see when the threat of having his family disregarded as the Master's beneficiaries was expressed.

That was the thing about the Master; trickery and shadow play wasn’t his forte. He knew how to hold his threats and dishonesty where necessary, but it didn't fit him like a second skin. Lock had adopted this particular characteristic from their Master, so had Flower and Kiri, well, for the latter to some extent because he tended to have a devious mind when he wasn’t fooling around. The same couldn’t be said about Spear and Flame, but Spear was on the treacherous side of the coin, while Flame preferred the covert part of it.

Thinking of those particularly nasty students, Lock had to wonder if they would ever make their move. Although, maybe they never would…

Noticing the small slip of her calm state, Lock corrected herself. She was glad Spear hadn’t pointed it out, but she was sure he had noticed it. The senses of Divine Art users were acute, too acute that sometimes it was irritating.

Reaching the Reception Hall, Spear and Lock entered in single file. When his Master had left, he had entered the Reception Hall to have some time for himself. Spear had followed only to be chased away by his sharp glare. When he had heard the bellow chasing out the miscreants, Spear had aided in the exercise, but the rats had gone ahead to soil his gracious Master's hall again. They lounged around nonchalantly and didn't seem at all bothered by the brooding Master standing off at the open window facing the front yard of the estate. Spear had an annoyed look as he stared at his fellow students.

Describing his dislike of the other 4 would have taken him several decades to finish. Decades he could put into good use if they didn’t linger around the Master at all. It was these visits that made it harder for him to get closer to his Master. Just when he believed to have successfully coaxed the Master to his side, the vagabonds would show up and remind the Master of his disobedience, and then he would have to start from square one.

With a 'humph' Spear made his way to his Master. Bowing, Spear spoke in a humble tone that was reserved for the old man only. "Master, I have something to report concerning young Gin."

At those words, everyone in the room had their ear turned up, all beside Lock. Their Master turned to Spear and waited for the report. His deepening frown didn’t go unnoticed by Spear when he raised his head to look at him. Spear threw colorful insults towards his fellow students in his heart of hearts before speaking calmly.

"It appears that young Gin cannot sense or see the Divine Art." Spear announced plainly.

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A muttering of surprises left the other students’ lips. Il San, on the other hand, turned to look outside again, his frown turning from that of anger to a contemplative one instead.

"It's true. He didn't detect my use of it as I Shadowed lightly behind him. The use of the skill should set someone on edge even a little, but he sensed nothing. I had assumed he knew I was there and didn’t want to acknowledge my presence, but that hadn’t been the case at all. And when Spear waved at him with his Divine Aura, he didn't seem to see the flow of it." Lock provided, she was already in her napping pose, eyes closed and legs up.

"Oooh! Does that mean he can't be a Divine Art user?!" Flower asked in bafflement.

“That shouldn’t be possible,” muttered Flame with a quizzical look on her face.

To them, it was the first time they had heard of such a thing. Every human had the capability of using the Divine Art, and there were no exceptions made or heard of. Although, this could have been the very first, well, for them at least. They couldn’t arrogantly declare they knew all that was to know of the Art, but they did believe in their Master’s teaching and the experiences they had gained.

Up to that point, they all turned to look at their Master, but he didn't move or speak. He had lost his contemplative look and wore a blank expression instead. The students heaved a silent sigh of relief; if he wasn't fretting over it, it meant he knew what was wrong, or not wrong, with his new student.

"What should we do, Master?" Spear asked meekly. A redundant question to ask since he knew the elder wouldn’t spare his words for them like he used to. At best, curses were his form of communication with the lot of them, excluding himself in special circumstances, but in most cases, he felt like he was talking to a wall.

Il San looked at him with aversion and humphed while he promptly turned and left the hall. Crust fallen, Spear turned back to those that remained with him. "I hate you all."

"Yeah, right back at you!" Flower made an obscene gesture at Spear. With the Master out of the way, the atmosphere changed to a deplorable one in an instance. The old man knew how to set the mood without uttering a sound.

Kiri laughed and copied Flower. Flame ignored them, and Lock had already fallen asleep in earnest.

"I'm guessing you were about to ask Master for some money?" Flame asked with a sly smile.

"Of course he was! Thank the gods we made it in time before he could continue to swindle our precious Master." Kiri tutted righteously.

They knew that Spear had a smudge of the Master’s favor compared to them, and they enjoyed shattering it whenever possible. Him staying behind with the Master was at first seen as a sign of filial piety, but when the Master saw no show of action from Spear, his distaste towards Spear had been excessive compared to theirs. Over the years though, Spear had found a way to make the Master more tolerant of him; of course, only if they didn’t show up to pay a visit or two.

"You ingrates are impossible!" Spear sat on a well-padded chair and faced the other 4 at the round table.

"Have you guys noticed how he acts like Master now? He even humphs like him," Kiri chuckled. "I heard one of your business ventures failed. Is that why you're buttering yourself up to Master to get coins?"

"Mind yourself!" Spear chided and released another humph. The rest responded with laughter while nodding in understanding.

They weren't wrong, he was still shocked by his failure. The seedling of a business he thought could have bloomed was tarnished from the first day of the product's sales in Janln City. He had placed a lot of products in the market, and nary a return profit. Janln wasn't as big as the Royal Capital, true, but he would never start a branch of the products there unless he tested them out in Janln.

He also had two personas, they helped in disguising him as the owner of the multitude of businesses, and helped him save face in moments of experiencing losses such as these. One persona was of a businessman that tried out various ventures, the other of a successful merchant that buys the business from persona 1 and ‘made’ it bigger and better. Of course, all this effort was worthwhile depending on the success of the experiment. Unfortunately, he had staked out a lot in the business, and... failure!

He had only managed to learn a good lesson from this experience. And that was: his business knowledge wasn't up to par. He needed more experience and more lessons. To be more specific, he had diverted away from his usual affiliation of selling home furnishings and various goods to a foreign concept. By doing this, he didn't consider that there were different ways of presenting the goods from his most known business and that of the new venture he had sought after.

One other thing he had needed was more money. Was he lacking money of his own? No, on the contrary, he had plenty. But, was he willing to spend it? Never. The way he saw it, he would rather have his Master's money and pay it back with interest later on, well, if there was an agreement to pay it back at all.

So far, he hadn't paid back even a copper coin, he had, of course, made sure that he never had to. By telling his Master that he would be placing the profits under the elder's share of the businesses, Spear had found a good source of funds. Although that had been the agreement, the profits always remained with Spear under the guise of 'earnings for development'. Which, if looked at logically, was a good reason. A good reason for him to corrupt profits and stash some hefty amounts for himself, that is.

Currently though, getting the extra funding he needed wasn't going to be an easy task. At this thought, the bitter taste in his mouth became nauseating, and even more so when he looked at his fellow students.

"Ingrates!" His sudden insult left everyone, apart from Lock, laughing heartily.