In the privacy of their dormitory courtyard, Princess Seong Haeun dipped to the side to avoid Narae’s swooping assault. As she did, she snatched up a little bit of the essence surrounding her friend and listened carefully to what it was saying.

A sharp turn, a feint to the side, a spinning strike to catch her off balance.

Haeun thanked the mana and released it back into the world, gathering her own essence to prepare a counter-strategy. Narae’s flight gave her a huge advantage over grounded opponents, and she was clever enough to plan her moves out well in advance, even preparing for how her enemy might react.

Unfortunately, her reliance on movement techniques meant that Narae had to imbue that planning into her essence. While Haeun admired her friend’s skill, she didn’t think there was any way for her to lose to Narae as long as she continued to fight in such a manner.

As predicted, Narae turned sharply in the air, her weightlessness enabling her to seemingly ignore her own momentum and pivot at impossible angles. Haeun was ready, however. She pretended to fall for Narae’s feint while asking the mana in her aura to form into a pillar of stone where Narae’s real strike would land.

Narae twisted away from Haeun’s counter attack to strike at her unguarded flank, but the stone shot up out of the ground to stop her assault.

Rather than abort her attack, Narae pushed more essence into her aura. Haeun listened intently—Narae was many things, but subtle wasn’t among them. Her aura was loud.

More weight. Break through.

Haeun reacted swiftly, drawing on the few combat lessons that her new master had already imparted onto her. Narae had more power than Haeun, but power wasn’t everything. She had to meet hard with soft—turn the enemy’s strength against them.

The pillar turned to sticky mud, slowing Narae’s kick enough that Haeun could duck out of the way, and ensnaring Narae’s body. The mud sucked Narae down into its quagmire before rapidly hardening back into stone around her, with only her head and extremities poking out of the ground.

Haeun sat on top of the now solid pile of rock with her friend trapped inside and booped Narae on the nose.

“I win.”

Narae grimaced.

“Ancestors damn it!”

“Language.”

“Ugh, this is so unfair! How do you always know what I’m doing?”

Haeun cocked her head.

“Because you keep telling me. Your aura is really easy to read.”

Narae lolled her head back and sighed.

“Then how come only you can do it? Not even big sis reads me like you do.”

“Master doesn’t have to. All of the mana here is hers, and even if it wasn’t, her strength is completely overwhelming for the likes of us.”

“That’s unfair in a totally different way.”

She sighed miserably and stared up at the sky. Haeun sensed her melancholy and frowned.

“What’s wrong? I thought you liked sparring.”

“I do, it’s just...I don’t know. I’ve been on a big losing streak recently. First Pan Jiaying started using that fancy gravity move that stops my flying, then that random guy from Qin beat me, and now even you’re running circles around me. It’s so—”

“Unfair?”

Narae scowled at her, and Haeun giggled.

“Narae, if you’re losing because people are defeating your signature technique, maybe your style is just too narrow.”

“We can’t all be good enough to just tell the ground to reach up and grab people out of the air.”

Haeun cocked her head.

“Why not? I know my way of doing magic is different, but nobody else even tries.”

“Not even big sis? I’m pretty sure she based her crazy flashy movement technique on my Mountain’s Ascension.”

“Is that what you’re calling it now?”

Narae blushed. She’d been workshopping the name for a while.

“Shut up! At least it’s not the Dark Sneaky Cat-Fox Technique!”

It was Haeun’s turn to blush. She regretted ever telling Narae about that.

“I was a little kid! At least I’ve matured since then. You haven’t changed at all!”

“Oh, because being a boring snob is so much more mature. Ancestors forbid you do anything fun—that wouldn’t be princessly.”

Narae’s words stung Haeun, and she hung her head.

“Now who’s being unfair? You get to stay here forever, and just be yourself. When I go home, I have responsibilities! I’m expected to become the next queen even though Eun-eun is obviously way better, but everyone hates her for no reason. Everybody keeps telling me how great and perfect and smart I am, and I have to try so hard not to let them down! Nobody expects anything from you.”

Haeun winced—that had definitely come out wrong, but it was too late to take it back. Narae was already scowling.

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“Are you kidding?! My big sister made a whole country from nothing, and basically reinvented cultivation so that she could start teaching people how to do it better. I’m the first—maybe the only person ever to awaken directly as a unified cultivator, and big sis—my master—never lets me forget it. How am I ever supposed to live up to that?!”

The silence stretched out between them, neither having any idea what to say. Then, Narae giggled without warning.

“I just realized how stupid I must look having this argument while stuck in a rock. Could you let me out already?”

She squirmed around like an upended turtle to illustrate the point, and Haeun couldn’t help but giggle as well.

“Sorry! Here...”

With a silent whisper, the stone crumbled to sand, and Narae started to sit up and dust herself off.

“Thanks, but you’re still sitting on me.”

“Oh!”

Haeun stood up and got out of the way as Narae shook herself off. Once she was cleaned up, she took a deep breath and sighed.

“Look, Haeun, I’m sorry about what I said. I was frustrated, and it was uncalled for.”

“No, I’m the one who should apologize. I shouldn’t have belittled you like that.”

“Still friends?”

“Of course!”

The two of them hugged each other, their argument briefly forgotten. When they separated, Narae scuffed the ground with her foot.

“So uh...about teaching me how to talk to essence or whatever...”

“Do you want to learn? It’s super useful!”

“Yeah, I do. If you’re willing to teach me. I can show you how to use Heavenly Ascent, too.”

Haeun snorted.

“There’s already a different flying technique with that name. An Eui’s.”

“Dang it! Well?”

“Of course! Although, I have to warn you—I tried to teach big brother Dae, once, and he said I was ‘just as bad as Lee Jia’ at explaining.”

Narae put her hands on her hips and puffed out her chest proudly.

“Not a problem! I’m already used to big sis’ crappy explanations! If I can learn from her, I can learn from anybody.”

Haeun covered her mouth and giggled.

“You probably shouldn’t talk about our master that way.”

“Pfft! It’s not like she can hear me.”

“Actually, I can.”

Haeun jumped as Lee Jia shimmered into view, smiling awkwardly.

“Uh, sorry girls. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop—I had something I needed to talk to Haeun about.”

Narae groaned.

“Why can’t you just knock on our door like a normal person instead of appearing out of thin air?”

“Would you?”

She raised a finger as if to retort, then crossed her arms and averted her eyes.

“Okay, good point.”

Haeun bowed gracefully. Most of Yoshika’s aspects didn’t care much for formality, but Hayakawa Kaede could be quite strict, and one never knew for certain whether they were dealing with the individual or the collective.

“How can I help, Master?”

“We were wondering if you’d help us with a special workshop for unorthodox arcane arts. Particularly, we’d like to focus on trying to blend spiritual and arcane techniques, and your magic seemed like a good fit.”

“I would be happy to. Does the program offer any applicable credits?”

Jia chuckled.

“Ever the enterprising one, huh? It’s an extracurricular program with no official teacher, though I’ll be advising and overseeing it myself. If you make or contribute to any significant breakthroughs, then I’ll see about getting it applied towards your graduation, does that sound good?”

“Of course. Thank you for your generosity.”

“No problem! Honestly, I’m glad you mentioned it—I should have thought of that myself.”

Narae frowned.

“Can I join too? I know I’m not as good as Haeun, but—”

Lee Jia snorted.

“What are you talking about? Of course you can! You’ve got unique insights on unified cultivation that even I don’t—nobody else has the perspective of having started out with a unified cultivation method.”

“I just thought that since I’d been losing so much, you’d want to focus on more talented students.”

“Oh, honey...”

Narae’s big sister moved as if to kneel down, but then thought better of it and put a comforting hand on her shoulder instead.

“There’s no shame in losing. The only shame is if you don’t learn something from it. You’ve got your strengths, and Haeun has hers, but you’re both incredibly talented, and I’m always finding new reasons to be proud of you. You know I don’t play favorites with my disciples, but you’re family, and I love you.”

“You’re literally dating Jiaying.”

Jia blushed.

“Th-that’s different! Besides, it’s Meili who’s with Jiaying, not me.”

“Meili is you.”

“Anyway, the workshop starts next week, after classes at Qin Zhao’s park—you know the one?”

Narae nodded.

“Everybody knows that park. It’s always so crowded.”

“Well, being the head of state has its perks. The main pavilion there is reserved for the workshop. Can I assume I’ll see you both there?”

The girls nodded in sync. They’d already been planning to teach each other their techniques, and Haeun was privately excited about a chance to prove that her magic was more than just a weird quirk for her tutors to train her out of.

Jia smiled brightly and turned to leave, but paused to look back over her shoulder.

“Oh, and by the way, Haeun. I overheard what you said—sorry again—and I just wanted to say, you should take inspiration from your big sister. When Eunae was a student here, she refused to let anybody treat her like a princess, insisting that she was just a student like everyone else. That’s how we ended up becoming friends.”

Haeun pursed her lips. It was a little bit embarrassing having her emotional outburst overheard by her teacher.

“With respect, Miss Lee, Eunae never had the same burden of expectation as I do, and she was the one who always used to stress the importance of decorum to me.”

“Didn’t she? Misun got on her case pretty often, from what I can recall, and while she remained casual with us in private, she’s always been ready to step up and take responsibility in her role as a member of the royal family. Even now, she’s been hard at work here as an ambassador so that you can stay and study.”

Haeun wasn’t sure how to respond, but Jia took a step forward before hesitating and then putting a hand on her shoulder—the same gesture she’d used with Narae.

“You’ve had a lifetime to practice being a princess, and you’ll have a lifetime to perfect it, but right here, right now, you have a chance to just be a normal girl for a little bit. Eunae worked really hard to give you that opportunity—don’t waste it.”

Haeun’s lip quivered, but she schooled her expression and wiped her eyes before she could embarrass herself any further.

“Thank you, Master. I won’t.”

Jia gave her a comforting pat, then frowned slightly, glancing between Haeun and Narae.

“Are you two getting taller?”

Narae looked askance at her big sister.

“Uh, yes? That’s what kids do when they grow up. Hence the name.”

Jia blushed and cleared her throat.

“Right, yes. Never mind. Good luck girls! I’ll see you in class.”

Without another word, she turned away and vanished. Narae raised her eyebrow and exchanged glances with Haeun.

“What was that about?”

Haeun shrugged. Her master was a strange woman—several, in fact—and if even Narae didn’t know, then there was no hope for her.