An Eui, Seong Misun, and Seong Eunae were gathered just outside of Jiaguo’s gates as they prepared to depart for Goryeo. Misun had her arms crossed, tapping her finger impatiently on her upper arm.

“Where in the ancestors’ names is that girl?! It’s not like Haeun to be late.”

Eui rolled her eyes.

“She’s busy saying goodbye to her only friend—the one you’re dragging her away from. Cut the kid some slack.”

“Tch, this is why I don’t waste my time on relationships.”

“Yeah, I can see that’s working out real great for you.”

Misun scowled at her.

“Is it some kind of sadistic joke that every time you visit our country you send the one aspect which is most controversial? I suppose it’s not so bad now that you’ve gotten rid of the exile’s brand, but An Eui’s face still ruffles feathers.”

“Hey, you’re the one that insisted on leaving so early. There’s a lot going on here, and we need Kaede and Jia to handle the more sensitive diplomatic stuff.”

“Does it really matter which face goes where? You’re all the same person underneath.”

Eui shrugged.

“It matters more than you might think, but ultimately you’re right—we can express any or all of our aspects through any or all of our bodies. It’s just easier to keep track of things this way.”

“And here I thought you just wanted to torture me.”

“I’m not happy about being away from Jia, either. Torturing you is just a distant silver lining, at most.”

Misun huffed, but Eui could sense Haeun approaching and turned to see her hurrying towards them with Narae in tow. She raised her eyebrow—she tried not to eavesdrop on her disciples too much, so she wasn’t entirely sure what that was about.

She did notice that they’d both been crying, though. Eui couldn’t blame them—they’d been inseparable for the last five years, and it wasn’t easy saying goodbye.

Haeun bowed apologetically once she arrived.

“Apologies for my tardiness. Narae and I got caught up in our conversation.”

Eunae smiled and shook her head.

“That’s fine, I understand. Where’s Aecha?”

Narae gestured back over her shoulder with a thumb.

“She quit. Said she’s gonna stay here.”

“Oh! Well then I wish her the best. I wish she’d given me a little more warning, though...”

Misun rolled her eyes and turned away, pulling out one of her wind-walking talismans.

“Whatever, we can get you a new maid. Ready to go?”

Haeun shook her head, wrapping one of her fluffy fox tails around herself and running her fingers anxiously through the fur.

“Uh, actually, I was wondering if it would be okay if Narae came with us.”

“What? Why?”

“Because...we’re friends. I don’t have a choice but to come home with you, but nobody said Narae has to stay.”

Misun groaned and turned to Eui with an irritated expression.

“This is your fault. Deal with it.”

Eui pursed her lips.

“Narae, do you want to go?”

“Yeah. Maybe Haeun ends up having to stay there after her schooling is done or whatever, but I’d at least like to stick together until then.”

“Misun, is there a problem if I bring my other disciple with me?”

She pinched the bridge of her nose and growled.

“Ugh, no, I guess not. Fine, let’s just go already.”

The older princess offered a tail to each of them to hold while she cast her spell, but Eui smirked and shook her head.

“No thanks, I’m faster on my own. I’ll meet you there!”

Misun rolled her eyes as Eui took off into the sky and quickly vanished over the horizon.

“Showoff.”

----------------------------------------

Jia took a deep breath to steel herself before knocking on the door to the twin princesses’ chambers.

“Enter!”

She stepped in and bowed politely.

“Greetings, Your Highnesses, my name is Lee Jia, though if you prefer you may continue to refer to me as ‘Yoshika.’ I’m ready to conduct the tour you requested.”

Qin Ling cocked her head and raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, you’re different!”

Qin Xiang mirrored the gesture.

“Smaller. And a bit less strange-looking.”

“How adorable! What made you decide to change form today?”

Jia tried to maintain a polite smile as she answered.

“You expressed disappointment when I met you through an avatar before. This is an extension of my true body—one of my three primary aspects.”

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Four.”

Jia blinked at the unexpected interjection from Qin Xiang.

“Pardon?”

“You have four aspects, Lady Yoshika. We know all about Li Meili.”

That wasn’t too surprising, given that Li Meili had been the identity she used during her travels through Qin. It was a little bit bothersome now that she was trying to keep her civilian identity private, however.

“Apologies. Meili prefers privacy, so we try not to publicly associate her identity with ours. While all of us are Yoshika, we would appreciate it if you only considered Lee Jia, An Eui, and Hayakawa Kaede as ‘Empress Yoshika.’”

Qin Ling’s eyes lit up.

“Ah! She’s your ‘Jin Hu.’ You really are our nephew’s disciple, aren’t you?”

“I respect Qin Zhao greatly, so I will take that comparison as a compliment.”

Qin Xiang pursed her lips.

“Let’s not waste any more time, then. Where to first, little kitty?”

Jia furrowed her brows.

“I think I made it clear during my last visit that I wouldn’t tolerate disrespect. I’m not particular about titles, but reducing someone to their spirit ancestry is considered extremely rude in Goryeon culture. Only very close friends and relatives can get away with it, and even then I’d personally only let Eui call me that.”

Qin Ling smiled softly.

“She didn’t mean any harm. We don’t get out of the palace much, so please forgive us any cultural missteps.”

Funny how almost every person from Qin she’d ever met managed to offer the same excuse.

“Let me be more clear. I have every confidence that cultivators as old and wise as yourselves never do anything that isn’t extremely deliberate. I have too much respect for you to believe that you simply ‘forgot’ about what my people consider pejorative language.”

Qin Xiang smirked.

“Well, well, this one’s got the claws to match those cute little ears.”

“I’m serious, Qin Xiang. I get it—you don’t think we’re equals. Whether we are or not, trying to flaunt your superiority with constant taunts and insults is nothing more than the act of a petty, insecure bully.”

“I’m not the one who declared herself rival to a living god.”

Jia took a breath to center herself. She wasn’t going to rise to any more taunts, but she wasn’t going to tolerate them either.

“I’m not asking you to respect my title or my status. I’m asking you to treat me with basic human dignity. If you can’t even manage that, then I suggest you return home to your palace where you can lord over your so-called ‘lessers’ to your hearts’ content.”

She held the princess’ gaze for a long moment before Qin Xiang turned away and sighed.

“Fair enough. I will try to set my prejudice aside and reserve judgment until after I’ve seen what you have built.”

“Good enough, for now.”

Qin Ling gave her a strained smile.

“Shall we get on with it, then? Despite the tumultuous start, I am quite looking forward to this.”

Jia wasn’t, but a promise was a promise, and as long as the twins could behave, then so would she.

“Certainly!”

----------------------------------------

“Here we have the Grand Academy and its grounds. The large building is the main lecture hall, which is also used for civic assemblies. We also have the administrative pavilion, and down that way are the student dormitories.”

Qin Ling followed eagerly as Jia directed them through Jiaguo’s pride and joy, the center of its prosperity.

“What an interesting way to run a sect! It has so many similarities to what we know, but I can see where the other territories have influenced it.”

Qin Xiang frowned in the direction of the lecture hall.

“Why didn’t our previous meeting take place there, instead of the embassy?”

Jia shrugged.

“It would have been too big for that, and we try to avoid disrupting the academy schedule unless it’s an emergency.”

“Nothing to do with the enormous formation carved into its foundation, then?”

“Not at all! Though I hope you’ll understand if I don’t elaborate any further—that’s a state secret.”

That formation was Hyeong Daesung’s magnum opus—a grand formation which was capable of teleporting people across vast distances as long as they had something linking them to the target. Also a truly prodigious amount of essence, but thanks to the Sovereign’s Tear, Yoshika could provide whatever was needed.

Jia continued the tour, showing off the training fields for more martial practices, which led further north into the wooded valley between Jiaguo and the mountain, where academy students could go on carefully managed expeditions to practice their craft and collect resources from magical beasts.

They moved on through the bustling inner city, where Jiaguo’s commerce and those who engaged with it lived. Qin Xiang gazed up at a silken banner advertising ‘Madam Myeong’s Worldly Fashions,’ decorated with stylized cat paws and an embroidered impression of the proprietress herself, a half-spirit with particularly defined feline features.

“What was that you said about reducing people to their spirit ancestry?”

Jia looked up at the banner and grimaced. She was biased, since Madam Myeong was a direct competitor to Eui’s mother, as the two of them fought a never-ending struggle to stay ahead of Jiaguo’s rapidly developing fashion trends.

“Some are more strict about it than others. Jiaguo has been developing its own culture, and the half-spirits here aren’t always as particular, since we aren’t nearly as much of a majority as in Goryeo. Although...I’m pretty sure this shop was around back when I was still a student, so maybe she’s just always been like that.”

“I see.”

“It’s a matter of preference, I guess, but you should still err on the side of caution unless someone gives you explicit permission.”

Qin Ling nodded.

“We’ll bear that in mind, thank you.”

They moved on to the outer city, where most of the population resided. Most citizens commuted into the inner city or out to one of the satellite villages for work, and the sprawling residential districts were now home to thousands of people.

Tae In-Su, leaning on his experience as a former administrator for one of Goryeo’s famed shield cities, had been quick to implement strict zoning and city planning for the outer city, in order to prevent it from turning into the sort of haphazard shanty town that Jia had grown up in. The outer city had its own, much shorter walls to keep beasts out, and was deliberately developed as a part of the city proper rather than just a half-forgotten slum to dump the poor.

Qin Ling nodded approvingly at the neatly ordered houses occupying most of the district.

“We saw this on the way in, but I quite like how organized it is. I’m reminded of the sect towns back home, where the villages at the foot of the mountain serve the sect above. Jiaguo is like a flat version of that, with the academy in the center.”

As much as Jia hated the comparison, she couldn’t deny that it was a fair one. She’d seen a few sect towns during her time in Qin, and even the least of them was quite beautiful and well-developed. Still, she had to point out the places where she’d made improvements.

“There are some differences. For one thing, academy attendance is free and voluntary for all citizens.”

Ling cocked her head.

“The sects don’t usually charge tuition, either.”

“Yes they do, they just do it on credit. Disciples can’t leave until they’ve paid off their credits, and even then most sects require inner and core disciples to swear fealty, while outer disciples lack the resources to realistically pay back their debt. Here, students can join or leave entirely of their own volition.”

Qin Xiang’s eyes widened.

“I’m surprised you know so much about how the sects operate. Did a bit of research, did you?”

“As Yoshika, we lived our entire lives in Goryeo and Yamato. As our right hand, Yan Yue completes that experience, which we’ve tried to use to combine what we see as the best aspects of all our nations. Jiaguo is an experiment, but I’m proud of the results it’s shown so far.”

“Speaking of experiments...”

Qin Ling picked up on what her sister was saying and grinned.

“Oh, yes! There was one place back within the walls that you didn’t mention, wasn’t there?”

“The one with its own gates, and sealed windows.”

“Where we sensed quite a startling number of distinctly demonic auras...”

Jia sighed. It was inevitable, she supposed. Qin was quite serious about the persecution of demons, to the point that they even had elite orders of cultivators dedicated entirely to stamping out any signs of demonic awakening within the empire.

Jiaguo took a much more lenient approach. One that was controversial with every nation.

“If you insist, then fine. We can go see the demonic rehabilitation center.”