Typer’s room: Hello guys. NOT Sorry for the delay since I got the day correct, but here is the chapter!
Well, as you all know, I planned that, for the next five chapters that I’ll write of story, they’ll be for IO, my main work, as a commemoration for reaching 100 chapters. This means that, for the duration of said event, Spiritsmith will be… Unaffected, since I have some back up chapters! Hooray!
Anyway. On the more serious note, some of you might have already noticed, but I made a Wordpress account for myself where I dump my old/secondary works so I don’t clutter RRL. If you guys want to take a look, there’s already a few chapters in there of 2 new works of mine, and I plan on adding a few older ones soon. The chapters there don’t have as much priority as the ones from RRL, though, so no need to worry about that. So, if any of you are interested, go give it a look(and boost my views on the process xD)
Check out the About page so you guys can have a better idea of what the blog is about.
MY NEW WORDPRESS!
As I said before, this is VASTLY a work in progress, and wasn’t made to be posted initially, so there might be some inconsistencies. If so, please do tell me, as I want to make it an enjoyable read ^^
May your reading be enjoyable.
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Stepping in towards the main floor, I followed Lady Tian as she immediately made her way towards the center-most table within the huge saloon. Next to said table stood a family who were speaking directly with Tian’s parents.
Different from Tian’s family, whom all had black hair and had a more oriental look to their features, these had a blonde hair and more of a squarish look to their faces, but not to the point that they looked like westerns. If I had to say something, i’d say that they kind of looked like a family of half-westerns.
But then, technically, their family came from the east a long time ago, according to what Ping told me during the cram period, running away from another clan from a far away land or something. They earned their name when one of their ancestors became a significant spiritualist and was elevated in nobility by one of the great clans. This also happened around the same time as the Lon-Ying household, and since both were given territories near each other, they somehow ended up becoming rival houses.
The head of the family was a thin man with short golden hair. However, what he lacked in volume he compensated on height, and towered at almost two meters of height, having to look down to talk to Bo. He wore a two-layered robe, similar to Bo.
“Bo of the Lon-Ying. I see that you came to our party.” He said in a gentlemanly tone.
Hooh, he uses “I see that you came to our party” instead of “I’m glad that you came to our party” . A light provocation I see.
“I couldn’t simply ignore an invitation from the Song clan, couldn’t I?” Bo replied in an indifferent tone.
A neutral response. Neither positive nor negative, avoiding conflict?
“Lady Sui.” The blonde woman spoke while looking towards Tian’s mother.
Although briefly, I did see as a vein popped up in Sui’s temple, as the blonde woman was a bit more… Voluminous than herself. If this makes enough sense. Her golden hair was tied in a single braid behind her back while she wore something more akin to a dress than a robe. Something I guess came from their original mainland.
Ping’s are still a bit bigger, though…
No ! Focus, Lia, Focus !
Different from the head of the clan, this woman had a slightly wry smile as she saw the two men having their stare down. This seemed to have calmed down Sui enough so that her jealousy stopped showing any further.
“Lady Edith.” She replied curtly.
Edith… If I’m not mistaken, she was the wife of the leader of their clan when they first arrived at our country. If it became hereditary, it could explain the western name.
Neutral greetings, both of them. Avoiding confrontation or indifferent?
Did they even have some kind of second meaning behind their words? Ping did tell me that over-analyzing might be just as bad as being fooled.
Besides the adults, stood their children, both with blonde hair just like the mother. One was around twelve or thirteen years old. It was a boy with golden hair just like the father, but keeping the hair long in a ponytail. He wore a simple green robe much alike the father, but he kept looking away whenever the others weren’t noticing.
With the corner of my eyes I saw that there was a girl whom he constantly kept eyeing.
Making a mental note to mention it to Bo afterwards as it might have some use, my gaze finally ended up on the youngest of the siblings. A girl a bit older than me, but a bit younger than Tian.
With long hair much alike her mother, but leaving it free flowing, she wore a small white western dress that went all the way to her ankles. Having clear brown eyes and a slightly haughty air to herself, the moment her gaze crossed with Tian, sparks started flying.
“Oh my. If it isn’t Tian Lon-Ying. What a pleasure to meet you here!” The girl said with clearly hostile tone.
“Aria Song. To think that we would meet again!” Tian replied in kind.
I didn’t really need any kind of analysis to understand that these two were much more hostile towards each other than what they let appear on the surface. Not that they hid much with their clearly hostile tones.
Of course, I kept myself quiet, as etiquette said that an aide should only speak when it’s either something of huge importance or when they are directed to.
They exchanged a bit of small-talk between themselves, and at a glance it didn’t seem to be anything too noteworthy, as they talked about a few territories, how a few produces seemed to be in the downs recently while others were better.
They also gave a brief congratulations to the girl, since the party was in her behalf, and she replied in a surprisingly polite way, compared to how she was talking with Tian. The boy also noticed the atmosphere and quickly exchanged a few words with Bo and Sui. He was surprisingly calm and collected for someone who a few seconds ago was staring all love struck at a girl.
Although I felt a bit sad due to being ignored, I did take my chance to assess the situation. Firstly, after briefly expanding my senses to the max, I could tell that only four or five people in the entire building were spiritualist-worthy, one of them being the girl right in front of Tian.
If I had to say something about her, I’d guess that she is slightly above Tian when it comes to inner spirit, but hers wasn’t as defined as Tian, and had a more vague feeling about it. Maybe she didn’t get her Spirit aligned to any such elements?
I couldn’t be so sure, as I was still a greenhorn in such matters. Taking in account that, I also checked on the others around the room, and sure enough, they all had vastly superior spirits. If I had to guess, they are around master Roshis’ level
Feeling slightly overwhelmed by the sheer amount of people that had gathered in the mansion, I once again regained my focus on the surrounding area, taking a glance at the aides of the Song Household.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
They all were of varying looks, but they did share the same simple black robes that all other aides seemed to use, as well as having a small drawing of what looked like a lute around their cheek. A couple of them, the younger ones were smiling slightly while looking distracted, but the older one, a man who already had white hair, looked at me intently.
I gave him a small smile when I noticed this, and he replied with a raised eyebrow, as if confused or conflicted, but said nothing.
However, it was fairly rare to see a male aide, as most of the guys usually end up preferring to go to the personal military forces of the households instead of working as an aide. An old one that looked fit to be a butler, however, was even rarer.
If I had to guess by the man’s look, aura and position right behind the household head, I’d guess that he is the head aide of the mansion, so I guess that it would make sense to see him being a bit more cautious to the happening than the younger aides.
“Well Bo, I’m curious, but where is your head-aide? I don’t see her here as usual.” The blonde man asked.
“Ping decided to take the chance to give a thorough cleaning of the house, as well let the new Aide have her chance of participating in this kind of event.” He said while pointing towards me.
Upon his words, all on the table turned their eyes to me, so I lifted my face to them and gave a small innocent looking smile. They looked surprised at a moment while taking note of the flower drawing on my cheek.
“My name is Lia Liu Wang, and I’m a novice aide at the Lon-Ying Household and Lady Tian Lon-Ying’s personal aide. It is my pleasure to be here today.” I said with a slight bow.
“…Wow.” Aria said after a moment of silence, before adding in a low tone. “That was better than my own introduction…”
I don’t think the others noticed her saying that.
“Aren’t you surprisingly polite for such a young age?” The blond man asked with a surprised look.
“You flatter me, Lord Xiang.” I said while bowing slightly once again. Thank Ping for cramming their names on my head. “Big Sis Ping just had to make me study hard…” I said before stopping and covering my mouth with my hands while making a surprised face.
Xiang smiled gently before nodding, the same for the others of the Song household, who had a slightly kind smile appearing before going back to the serious look. However, those who came from our household all had a surprised and confused look for a moment, but since the others had their eyes on me, no one noticed it.
“You are still young. No need to worry about making mistakes.” Xiang said with a kind smile.
“Thanks… Lord Xiang.” I said while looking down and with an embarrassed tone.
He gently rubbed my head with his hand for a moment before turning back to Bo.
“She seems to be an adorable young girl. Where did you find her?” He asked in a slightly polite tone. While Bo smiled wryly and prepared to talk about how they met me, Tian approached me discreetly and talked to me.
“What was that, cute plebeian?” She asked me. “It isn’t like you to make a slip like that…” She told me in a low tone.
“Eeh… I don’t know what you are talking about….” I said in my best innocent tone. “I’m just a young girl still in training.” I said with a mischievous smile. Tian widened her eyes surprised for a moment as she understood my idea.
I’m taking advantage of the “just a young and innocent girl” idea to make the others lower their guards when dealing with me.
“Sometimes I doubt whether you truly are just four years old.” She said with a sigh.
“I don’t want to hear that from a six years old who already mastered politics.” I replied with a pout.
She giggled slightly at this, which caught attention of Aria, who eyed us in curiosity before walking toward us.
“Greetings, young aide.” She said when she approached us. “I am Aria Silver-Song.”
“Greetings, Lady Aria.” I said while bowing. “It is my pleasure to meet you. What do I ouchi… Ouie… Owe for your presence?” I asked with a fake stuttering. She smiled slightly before nodding.
“I came to hear your story of how you met Tian here.” She said with a cheerful tone, but I could somehow tell that there was second intentions behind her words.
Giving a quick glance at Tian, I quickly nodded before saying.
“Hmm… I ended up meeting Big Sis Tian by accident, when I mistakenly entered her house.” I said with a wide smile. “Then she asked if I wanted to be her aide.”
Good thing that I could use the whole “I’m a kid” fact to cut the answer short and not give any important information. Aria widened her eyes in confusion for a moment before nodding satisfied.
“And how exactly did you enter the wrong house?” She asked curious.
“Mister guard took me to the wrong house when he was taking me home once.” I said with a smile. “Then I stayed there to play with Big-Sis Tian.”
“…Oh?” The girl asked while raising her eyebrow and stealing a glance at Tian.
I kept the fact hidden that I was a spiritualist, since I had no idea what kind of impact it could bring. However, Tian decided otherwise.
“She actually began training as a Spiritualist back home.” She said with a monotonous tone.
At her words, the whole Song family widened their eyes in shock before turning to me. I smiled at them in a fake confusion before seeing Bo smiling widely. As if taking advantage of the shock they took, the large man cleared his throat and said.
“Well, we already took much of your time, and you have other guests to entertain. We shall find ourselves a table to enjoy the party.” He said before they could recover from the shock.
After that he walked away, and all of us followed him, seeing as the Song were left too confused to know how to react.
“Little Lia.” Bo asked me while he walked ahead, his Aide searching for a free area that we could rest.
“Yes, Master Bo?” I asked putting back my serious face.
“Keep up with the good act.” He said with a smirk.
“Okay.” I replied with a smile before seeing him give me a slightly teasing gaze.
“Also, you should have paid more attention to what I was discussing with Xiang.” He said and I blinked confused. “Just now I was checking what kind of information they have on the situation of the country, as well as other rumors, and he did the same to me.”
I widened my eyes before clicking my tongue inwardly. I kind of messed that up, I guess.
“I see. Thanks for the warning.” I told him, and he smiled slightly before nodding.
“After we take our seats, you are free to walk around.” He said with a kind tone. “And no need to bother with gathering information, our own aides can do that. You are still only a young girl, so you can play around a bit.”
I blinked surprised for a moment, not knowing how to react. I mean, I kind of came here just to learn the whole behind the scenes thingy… If it’s not like I need to do that, then what do I have to do?