As Jin woke up, he was surprised to smell something very appetizing. His room was on the second floor of the house and as he opened the door, the other one in front of his opened too. That was Soo-Hyun's. So, what about the smell? Both curious, they went on. Only to find a teenager cooking.
This teenager was of similar age to theirs. He was wearing a dark green robe with two purple snakes criss-crossing on it, though it seemed quite tattered. He had long dark hair and brown eyes. As he saw them, he beamed a smile at them. he spoke: "Come on guys, don't be shy, we're roommates from now on! My name's Min-Su! I'm a wandering cultivator"
As he finished introducing himself, Jin walked down and sat at the table. Soo-Hyun followed suit. Jin answered him: "Brother Min-Su then, pleasure to meet you. I'm Jin and this is Soo-Hyun, we're wandering cultivators too" As he finished speaking, Soo-Hyun sent him a glare. She didn't like to lie. Even more so about that. They were disciples of the Twenty-Two Suns Sect, why did they have to lie about it?
Well, she knew why. If it was found out, they would be in quite the pinch. But still. It didn't feel good so she sulked on the side. Until their new brother Min-Su brought out plates after plates of food. As he sat down himself, he spoke: "Did your Master also send you here to 'broaden your horizons'" to which Jin nodded "Yeah. Fortunately, we were free to pick sides"
Min-Su agreed wholeheartedly: "I know right? Who would willingly go fight with the advanced party? I pity those guys from the bigger sects, a lot of them will die. Anyways, let's not talk about depressing stuff, you guys go on and eat, I prepared this feast to celebrate our meeting!"
All in all, both Jin and Soo-Hyun had a great impression of their new roommates. The free delicious meal helped a lot. Food was always a hit.
Meanwhile, in a tent outside the castle, a few men discussed. This was the command tent. Prince Theorurin Seung-Woo was in it along with his two assistants. Two men in their forties specialized in such battles. They were here to give him suggestions. Aside from those, there were four older men, servants of the big sects that Seung-Woo picked. He had asked them last night about the disciple's representatives. And to bring them here today.
From the Radiant Leaf Sect, peak of refinement, Tae-Young.
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From the Deep Torrent Sect, peak of refinement, Ha-Sun.
From the Thousand Cuts Sect, peak of refinement, Sang-Hoon.
From the Twenty-Two Suns Sect, fourth stage of refinement and inner disciple, Jin.
Yet, as he looked at the representative, the Prince could clearly see that the belt of the disciple from the Twenty-Two Suns Sect was not that of an inner disciple. He asked the servant: "This isn't inner disciple Jin, is it?" and he was answered by the youth instead: "I am Ji-Yu, Your Majesty. I am a cultivator at the peak of refinement and replacing disciple Jin"
The Prince became angry and asked: "Why is that so?! Does he not care to come himself?! Am I a joke to him?!"
The poor servant and disciple couple were trembling. They knew as soon as they couldn't find Jin that they would be in trouble. This Prince was arrogant and easy to anger. Both of them bowed as the servant answered him in a trembling voice: "I-it seemed that disciple Jin wasn't in this camp, Prince"
After those words, the Prince raged even further: "Where is he?! How dare he go to a different faction!"
He raged for a long time before one of his consultants managed to calm him down. In the end, it was decided to consider Jin as a traitor because he didn't follow the orders of the Empire... After that, they began to plan their departure and the path they would take to attack.
In the afternoon, they had already left.
As for Jin, even if he had heard about this, he wouldn't have cared. Can they find him within tens of thousands of people? Was there only one kid named Jin? No. No. No. There was no way he would be found out if he didn't show up by himself. And even unaware of this, he had no plan to show off his identity. He was now Jin, wandering cultivator. And he planned for it to be so throughout this war. At least until he could leave this damn place.
What's more, no one really followed through with declaring him a traitor. To both of the Prince's followers, it was just a tantrum. They were used to it. It wasn't worth it to antagonize a promising youth of the biggest sect for it. They even considered the kid to be quite smart. It was true that the vanguard was a risky zone.
Even though they didn't want to anger their liege, they were very aware that most of their forces would be killed. Not only were they going to fight but their little general was an arrogant idiot who didn't listen. At the thought of the thousands of death that would happen because of him, both of them could only sigh.
And meanwhile, Jin, Soo-Hyun and Min-Su were lazily tanning on the rooftop of their new home. The top brass was chatting about the defensive measures of the castle. Did the trio need to be there? No. They were wandering cultivators, bottom of the barrel. No one cared about them being here or not. So they would take advantage of it.
Jin was rather glad that their roommate had a similar mind. And this is how they ended up napping under the sun on their rooftop. It was a beautiful day with a nice breeze, perfect to enjoy the warm ray coming from above.
At one point, Soo-Hyun even said: "The defense camp isn't that bad"