Jin turned towards Ame. To be truly honest, his heart only wanted him to be with her. It was a difficult feeling. He knew that his best bet was to stick with Sarina and Cheng but he loved her too much. If she said that she did not want to go with them…he would probably follow her.
However, Ame coldly told him: “Baem. Or Jin. Whatever your true name is, don’t think that I will ever forgive you. I will go with you two but only because with this body I don’t have much of a choice”
Jin’s spirits dimmed. While it was to be expected, the rejection still hurt deeply. He could only blame himself though.
Sarina hurriedly said: “We’re glad to have you with us regardless, Ame”
Ame nodded half-heartedly.
Sarina and Cheng looked at each other. It could have gone better but it was already not too bad. At the very least, they did secure the whole group.
As expected, Jin stated that he would join them and Nangua was following Jin.
Next, they decided to change names.
Cheng decided to go by Gen, Sarina by Risa and Jin by Drem. Nangua and Ame did not need to change names since they were unknown to the world.
Gen, Risa and Drem were their new names from this day on and until they reached a level high enough.
Gen asked Drem: “Drem, did you manage to get the sealed soul?”
Drem pondered for a moment. Should he reveal the truth to Gen? He did not trust the man anymore. Not completely at least. Then again, there was nothing he could do with the soul himself.
He ended up nodding as he took out the vial inside which the soul was contained.
Gen trembled as Sarina held her breath.
The soul of the Ocean’s one and only Empress was contained within that bottle.
Drem stated: “She was sane. However, she is extremely dangerous. She could do…things”
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“Charm” interjected Gen. He explained: “Her will had reached such a state that just by her existence others were forced to bow”
Drem coldly asked rhetorically: “So you knew from the start”
Gen nodded seriously with a heavy expression: “You were the only one who had a chance to get her out”
Because of corruption, of course, Drem understood. Even if that was the truth, the fact that this man sent him there knowingly… He could never ever forgive him. He was the reason for Ame’s suffering.
Gen moved his hand to grab at the bottle but before he could reach it, Drem took it back: “What do you think you’re doing?”
Gen frowned.
Risa meditated: “Come on, Drem, you know that it’s better for Gen to take care of that”
Drem snorted: “So you do plan to revive her”
Risa nodded with a small sad smile. Drem glared at them: “She wanted to die”
Gen stated firmly: “We can’t have that. We need her power”
Drem’s fists trembled: “You need her? For what? What fucking plan to you two have in the end?!”
The both of them looked at each other. It seemed like the kid was indeed still in a very unstable state. It was best to go along for now and placate him.
Gen said: “We plan to recreate the Justice Pavilion of old. It was an organization whose sole goal was to better this world for everyone”
Nangua could not help but frown at this for he knew about that faction. Back then, it was a powerful top tier faction but which made many enemies. After all, its goal of existence was to meddle in the affairs of everyone else according to their own personal beliefs.
They were small tyrants.
Of course, in the end, they all died. Since they provoked too many people, it was bound to happen. As his Young master asked what it meant, he decided to explain: “They had their own ideals that they tried to push onto others and died for it”
Risa frowned: “That’s not a very apt description”
Gen shrugged: “Not that far though. Our goal was to bring justice to those who could not be judged by anyone. But the reality is that justice is subjective. What seems right to you might be wrong to another. Fairness and equality can never truly exist thought they were what we tried to achieve”
Drem had a hard time believing that the two of them had been part of the same organization. He asked for more details about this and they began to talk about their past:
“We both entered the Justice Pavilion in our younger days and climbed the ranks steadily. Our ideals were the same though our methods differed. I have no problems doing whatever I believe needs to be done in order to achieve the final goal. On the other hand, Risa tries her best to be fair to all and reduce the casualties to a minimum”
“She believes that the world can be a better place without having to dirty one’s own hands and I don’t. It comes down to this”
“In the end, she still always ended up dirtying her hands as much as I did though”
Risa angrily glared at Gen who didn’t care about it. Risa stated: “We want to make this world a better place for everyone. We know that it’s impossible but we still want to try”
Drem nodded before he stated: “I have no interest in any of that”
It was true. He did not care about this world and its inhabitants (aside from Ame). He could not care less about the state of this world.
Then again, he was doubting what he wanted these days.
He dreamt of reaching the peak of the martial art in this world too but, conflictingly, he also desired to be with Ame.
In any case, he did not have any ideals as grand as helping make this world a better place for all.