‘’So you mean those bulwarks got built recently?’’

‘’Yes,’’ The man replied to them both, as he could see Ubel’s interest piqued up. ‘’We had some troubles with Night Strays. You know, those little spirits with jiggly heads.’’ Ubel found the imitating gesture of man quite intriguing. Is he doing it that often?

‘’They broke through-I mean like they trespass through the walls but you know what I’m talking about. They go through houses and scare of the locals, especially children. An old guy also died from a heart attack from the shock and got his body possessed. So the king had to spare some coins for it.’’

‘’Why does the king pay for it? The mouth of his sac must be broad.’’ Gaobun’s comment looked most welcomed by the man. ‘’We open up that mouth, not that he opens that wide.’’ So The king actually cares for people? Or is he forced to do it? These administration and policy things were not his things, Ubel understood from the start.

Then it was a good choice to pick social service.

‘’That’s it, I suppose.’’ Since they had gone through every corner of the city, excluding those little alleys and prestigious medicine trade sites, there was no need to further go on. ‘’All in all, its fifty silver.’’

Gaobun took out a single Soul Stone from his pockets and stuffed it into man’s hand. ‘’I don’t have any exchange on me, sir.’’

‘’Let the remaining fifty be your tip, now go back. I’m sure you are itching for some more.’’

Sending a bashful tittering, the man bowed once and hurried after another group of tourist cultivators, who welcomed the men with pleasing smiles. Gaobun let out a sigh and looked around his pocket again, only to find a handful of soul stones left. ‘’These guides know their deal...damn.’’

‘’Um, sorry senior brother.’’ Ubel scratched his head with a bashful expression, ‘’Once I get my first wage, I’ll pay you back.’’

‘’Alright then.’’ Gaobun nodded half-hearted and beckoned Ubel. ‘’It is all done with this. We should go back now, the senior master must have finished his work.’’

Agreeing, they took the way towards the upper half of the city and passed through the residential area of mortals. A bit far away from the entrance of the area, where stood the giant stele of The Last stand of Claudius, erected, like a set of teeth, a series of wide buildings. Comprised of good sculpted stones and neat designed woods, colored upon light blue with dark green, these houses accommodated near to four hundred sect disciples, almost ninety-nine percent of those from others than Cindersnow.

After responding to the buzzing Teltal( Or telecommunication talismans, for long,) Gaobun led him towards one of the houses and excused himself after knocking. Followed after by Ubel and Quan’s greetings, they decided upon which of the rooms belonged to whom and proceeded with some small talk, accompanied by a voluptuous meal.

‘’Here are your tokens,’’ Quan gave them both a square-shaped gem, inscribed with the same symbol on the carriage earlier the day. ‘’It will identify you wherever you go. There is also some information recorded, just in case you are in trouble.’’ After talking about how they worked and where to use a bit, Quan turned towards Ubel, frowning.

‘’We’ll be working at the Claudius State College’s infirmary, Ubel. I actually wanted to get into the State Hospital, but they deemed it unnecessary.’’ He sighed, ‘’I picked you as an assistant so your wage is a bit lower than expected, I’m ashamed.’’ Ubel found it peculiar about why he felt sorry, as he didn’t have anything worth to spend the wage. Even if it was lower than what it is now, though he didn’t know how much, he didn’t think it would bother him that far.

‘’Senior master, there is no need for concern. I’m also more of a conservative type, I won’t spend money lavish.’’ Of course, this was Ubel who didn’t even gain or spend a single money currency in his life. The allure and worth of money were still unexplored by this young heart.

‘’Although it’s worth a lot more than money to work in the State College,’’ Quan looked relieved, ‘’I’ll try to compensate for it. For now, Gaobun,’’ then he turned to face Gaobun, ‘’You are also assigned to State College, but as a-’’

‘’Trainee Mentor, right?’’

‘’Of course. We will get to work by tomorrow, but it is already past noon. I don’t suggest going out after this time, and two days of travel must be taxing already. If not, I don’t know whether you are stronger or me.’’

Yawning, Quan took some of the dishes and put them on the sink. Instead of using the traditional way, he flicked his finger and started to wash them with a surge of blue-ish Qi. ‘’You both get your rooms tidied up then come down to help me. We’ve got some cleaning to do.’’

‘’Yes, senior master.’’ After both of them left for the upstairs to get their accommodations done, Quan let out the cough he had been holding for some time.

‘’It is pretty embarrassing to live with other people.’’ For a middle-aged man of above hundred and fifty years old, who lived much of his life alone after mid-twenties, living together with other people again felt not that relaxing. Yet, that fresh feeling of having people close, whether they felt that he mattered them or not, had him in its claws.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

*********

‘’So, this is the workplace?’’

‘’It seems to be,’’ Quan replied, beholding the majestic building in awe and pain. How much did they put into this? He wondered, whilst going through the aisles and parts of the Claudius State College, experiencing first hand the fine craftsmanship that lasted seven hundred years even after the death of its builder, Claudius Aurel, and getting to know the arrangement of the classes and rooms dedicated to purpose of education felt quite long; a contradiction as all it took for them to arrive in the infirmary, their new workplace, was a measly six minutes

Rather than an infirmary, it would be wiser to call it a one-story hospital. A dozen beds lined up together; starting from the corner, going all the way to the other one while rows of cupboards, for reachability and most likely for holding treatment equipment and medicine, stood behind a wide desk and a comfortable looking black leather chair.

All in all, it was pleasing to the eye with a window larger than half of the wall that opened to the outside, with the scenery of hundreds of trees juxtaposed with fresh blooming flowers and plants that lifted their head to face the sun of dawn. ‘’Magnificent,’’ That was all Ubel could say at this simple, ordinary without a fancy adornment, yet so beautiful enough to captivate the heart scenery.

Of course, it was unclear whether he would get bored with this or not. A time of two years wasn’t a short time.

Ubel put down the bag he carried all the way from their house on the table and took out its contents. A set of equipment ranging from scalpel to arrow puller, some special stacks of paper that somehow relaxed Ubel at the first sight, and last but not least a big notebook with the title of Formal Records Of State College’s Treatments And Counts Of Loss. What Ubel derived from that was, while unclear, most likely what average people could guess.

‘’Don’t,’’ Quan answered the unasked, ‘’Without blood, none of these youngsters can understand their role. Ubel, we don’t treat normal students. We are taking care of people who are getting trained to slaughter humans.’’

‘’I understand, senior master.’’

‘’Then don’t mess yourself up. For now, get these things on the cabinets with alphabetic order.’’ Quan said and sat down on the chair, opening the book with already a pen made of Qi standing still in his palm, and started to fill in the daily formality things like date and attendance.

Thinking to himself, Ubel got to the work. Some medicines seemed peculiar; some had very little description on the container with near to two or three words, some had pieces of paper stacked alongside with instructions on how to use them. He could also see the colors and states of matter they were in through the transparent glass they were in, for it must be hard for even experienced medicine men to identify and remember a medication from the name itself.

Going on, Ubel stopped for a moment to look at his own reflection from the glass, with quite a surprise to yelp, then followed by a reply of ‘’Nothing!’’ to Quan’s inquire of the reason, at the sight of his now more sparkling eyes. His aura didn’t change much and his hair got a lot longer than past, now coming almost to his waist, but his eyes and expression; they were indeed different.

He did not bear the look of excitement from the first time he came into this outer world at his meeting with Boris, under the gaze and embracement of the wide-hearted sea, nor did he had the...he had what? He couldn’t remember. There was something missing on his face, something important yet so subtle that his gaze and mind wouldn’t notice. Looking down on his hands, now more slender and rougher, he felt the implications of this lack of self-knowledge about himself and his past attributes that differed from his present ones.

‘’Ubel, open the door, we have a visitor.’’ Quan said and stood up. Ubel followed along without any question and put down the medicines on the side, then opened the doors of the infirmary as a group of young men and women greeted his sight, carrying a pretty large man over their shoulders. Their clothes did not differ except the tinge of blue and red and the stars on the emblems on their chest, identifying their gender and years of education in here.

‘’Get in,’’ He beckoned them and opened the door wide to let them in. Although they cramped, they managed to burst into the room, and left the big man on one of the beds. Ubel, at the same time, looked over Quan. He adorned a white long coat over his red Cindersnow’s combat master robe in the instant Ubel averted his gaze and ordered in the other split second.

‘’A witness and the aggressor stays, others go back to your class.’’ Students raised their hands and Quan picked one of them immediately, followed after by the group going outside while greeting Ubel with differing expressions and nods. Inside, and the hallway, got quiet after a few seconds and Quan finally got to his works.

He controlled his Qi to turn over the young men and put him to face the bed, ripped open his cloth at the back. ‘’A long slash? It’s pretty deep too.’’ Then he turned to the aggressor, ‘’Did you sneak up on him?’’ Disgraceful, he muttered loud enough for the young man and woman to hear, and their faces turned red in shame without any refute.

‘’Show me your Qi,’’ he told then turned to the witness,’’ And you tell me how this happened.’’ After nodding, the girl started to talk about the small argument these two had and how the aggressor lost in a fair fight, then kept telling on until the final act where the boy got injured in the class when the aggressor got upset by the ridicule of some students. Meanwhile, Quan inspected the Qi of the student and acknowledged the girl’s story with a nod and got to the work.

‘’Ubel, come over here.’’ He signaled. ‘’You are not nauseous? Good. Now watch,’’ After expressing his surprise, Quan put his hand on the wide wound and interjected the chaotic Qi fusion of both men. Since the quality and quantity of his Qi surpassed both, it was easier for him to soothe the flow and destroy the invading stream. Although he had done this slow for Ubel to understand, it was still something that required immense experience.

Calming down the current, he put down his other hand on the wound as well and started to inject his Qi, now turned into a smooth river, and supplemented the cells with an extravagant amount of rich energy to regenerate faster. The bleeding stopped and wound healed for a few seconds, but Quan ceased the support after that and got his needle and threads.

After a long and arduous process of stitching together the left open muscles and skin, Quan finished with it. ‘’Now leave your sign and statement and you are free to go back to class,’’ he said and wiped off his sweat. Both students filled up the places shown by Quan and left after bowing down.

‘’It seems stressful,’’ Ubel also cleaned some beads of sweat from his forehead. ‘’And suffocating.’’

‘’You can open the window if you want, I don’t mind the cold.’’

‘’But this guy will,’’ Ubel sighed, then proceeded to open the window to take a fresh breath of air. Looking at the city and scenery that lay in front of him, he hoped, for once more, to see whether he could connect with a place so tight enough to call it home.