"They will do," replied Abdin. Then he turned his attention to the rest of the team. "Your job is simple. I want you to group yourselves into three teams. Team A, B, and C. Team A should always be stationed by the city gates. Team B should be making rounds in the castle to make sure everything is alright. Team C can just meditate before taking over either of those two teams. Any questions?"

"Commander," the only obvious woman in the team called. She had the look of a southern nomad. She was huge but still moved just as quickly as anyone on the team. "What is the population of this castle?" As she spoke, she kept glancing at the rows of buildings behind her. She seemed quite taken by the architecture.

Abdin sighed softly. Some things never changed. Whenever he invited people into this castle, the first thing they would ask would be about the empty buildings. On the outskirts of the castle, three thousand bungalows stood. There were six thousand more at the center of the castle. And many more prominent buildings like the gym, the arena, and the factories. It was always amazing to know Abdin was all by himself in the castle.

Abdin smiled and replied, "I used to be alone. But now you are here."

The woman furrowed her brows and turned again to look at the buildings and then at Abdin as if seeking more explanation.

"Ah... You remind me," Abdin said and pointed to the buildings. "I want team B to take note of some things. You see, portals tend to appear either aloft or inside the buildings. And something might come out from the portals. Kill the ones that needed killing."

Both the woman and the others tilted their heads in confusion. They seemed a little bit frightened - or maybe just taken aback - by everything that was happening.

Abdin waved his hand as if to dismiss their concerns. "Don't worry, it is nothing. Just be on your guard."

"Could you explain more, please?"

The woman asked again. Abdin knew her even before this day. Her face and physical appearance looked quite ordinary, and her cultivation was just fifty-eight years. Of course, she was suppressing it. Just like the others. Abdin wasn't so suicidal as to invite mere ki condensation cultivators into the castle.

"It is nothing really," replied Abdin. "Just be careful of the portals when they appear. You may even be lucky and not come across them up to the time your indenture expires."

The woman opened her mouth to speak again, but Abdin stopped her. "I told you it is nothing. And if you are that afraid, then call me any time you see something you don't understand.

"The second issue is... Er, some of the buildings tend to disappear sometimes. If that happens, you needn't worry. Just carry on with your activities."

He went on before they could ask another question. "And about your families..." They didn't have any, and if they did, then they were not in Biyakis.

Denyanu bowed to Abdin in gratitude. "We are grateful for your care, Commander. Concerning our families, there is no problem. We sometimes spend as long as five years without meeting them. And we understand what Commander is going through, so we shall not ask to see our families until Commander agrees." He paused and looked back at the buildings. "But, Commander, about the disappearing buildings and the portals..."

He watched Abdin who didn't reply. After a long moment of silence, the man shook his head and let the matter be.

They thought they could cultivate free ki without having to contribute anything. Whoever wanted to stay and be using the purest ki in the world must protect the castle. That was the rule and the law here.

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Now only one thing remained. "What is your name again?" Abdin pointed to the slave girl that saw him earlier.

There were eight girls and four men. The girls were all below eighteen. The men seemed to be twenty to thirty years old. Though there was one grey-haired man that stood at the back of the line. Abdin couldn't feel the sensation of aging from the man, despite his gray hair. That could only mean the hair was merely grey because of hardship and not from actual old age.

The girl that got Abdin's attention stood at the front. He could see her eyeballs now that she was close. They were laced with a bit of red but it was almost imperceptible.

Her body shook slightly when she felt his eyes on her. Her clothes were ragged, and the cuffs rattled around her feet every time she moved. He instantly felt sympathetic towards her. She couldn't be more than fifteen, and since she had no pol, that could only mean her real birth age.

Denyanu nodded. "Commander, this girl is called Laluri. I bought her from a small town a couple of months ago. They said she is nineteen years old but no one knows her origins."

"I want her," said Abdin. He appraised the girl up and down and smiled at her as though assuring her not to fear. "Count her among the three you promised me."

"Er..." Denyanu scratched his forehead. "This Laluri girl has a bit of a problem, Commander. My dealer sold her off to me almost without a penny."

He smiled innocently and continued, "Here are Sanata and Barima if Commander doesn't mind." He gestured toward two beautiful girls. They were not ragged like Laluri. "I will give them to you and any other you choose."

"I want her," said Abdin. "Unless you want to refuse me?"

Denyanu wanted to speak but seeing that Abdin was offended made him think better of it.

"Commander, Laluri has a history of darkness in her. She might hurt you accidentally. One way to protect yourself from her darkness is to marry her. But Commander is far above marrying a slave girl. I think the best thing will be..."

"You!" Abdin barked at him. No cultivator ever married a slave. There was an adage that says, a man's wife is his station. Whoever married a slave in this era was also tagged as a slave. But if Denyanu thought he could sway Abdin and make him change his mind, then he was too naive. "If you are sure she belongs to the darkness, then I will marry her. But it is her I want."

Denyanu's expression started to change, which struck Abdin as strange. Why would the man be upset because of just one slave? Denyanu's team came from Shurein, and in a bid to disguise themselves as mercenaries, they trade in slaves from town to town.

Abdin himself, through an intermediary, had once bought and sold slaves from them. There were no apparent reasons for Denyanu to feel so worked up about Laluri and start making up stories about darkness.

"Are you certain she belongs to the darkness?" Asked Abdin.

"Ehm..." Denyanu opened his mouth but couldn't speak.

Juwaira cleared her throat at that moment. Denyanu half turned almost imperceptibly to glance at her. The young woman nodded at him.

After a while, Denyanu returned his gaze to Abdin and nodded. "She is a dark witch, Commander. But from this day, I give her out as a wife to you."

Instead of Abdin looking toward Denyanu, he looked at Juwaira. Everyone present had seen their exchange. It was Juwaira who ordered Denyanu to free Laluri.

That meant Juwaira was his superior. But Abdin already knew that. Juwaira was a princess of the highest rank back in Shurein, and Denyanu was her servant. All the men were the servants she took with her when she fled the empire.

"Could you unwrap your face so we can look each other in the eye?" Abdin said. "Where I came from, it is disrespectful to cover one's face in the presence of elders." He talked as though unaware that it was a woman.

Juwaira curtsied. Those of royal blood hardly knew how to greet the common man. But she seemed to have learned some manners from her adventures.

"I am a woman who had an accident when I was a child," she said. "I am not covering my face to disrespect you. But I have a very thick scar on my face. I wouldn't want Commander to see me like that."

She told him her name was Haika before they entered the castle. But Haika could be a man or a woman. She had been deliberately speaking like a man. And she certainly didn't have a scar on her flawless face.

He could force her to reveal her face. But that would be pointless. The time would eventually come when she did so herself.

Though a princess, Juwaira no longer had a place in Shurein. If everything went alright, Abdin was thinking of making her the 1st commander of the battalion that would protect the castle.

"May you never come across such tragedy again," said Abdin. He glanced at the armor that covered her chest and the long robe covering every inch of her body.

Denyanu quickly moved and discreetly shielded the princess. Abdin inwardly smiled and looked aside.