Typer’s room: Hello guys. BOOM, surprise release! Since the first arc was so close to ending and I was kinda pumped up for writing this, I went ahead and made a double release.
Anyway, I decided to go ahead and make this ending part of the first arc sound a bit dramatic and all. I’m not exactly good with non-funny/battle type of scene, I’m not entirely sure about how this ended up.
Lastly, Next week should be Beepy release week, but the following one I should go back to writing Lia. That said, the plan is for me to write a small side-story with the PoV of another retar*cough*character. It will be a mostly for fun thingy and probably won’t have any kind of plot point, but I felt that it would be a nice touch to this story.
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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I sat on the garden alone, feeling as the first rays of sunlight bathed my skin. However, I didn’t have the time to simply enjoy the feeling, as I had to focus everything I had on simply trying to manipulate my inner spirit so that I could convert it into chi.
Three weeks had gone by since the events on the Song’s mansion, and surprisingly enough we were quickly back to the daily life we always had. It took me a couple of days to recover from the shock, and even up to this day I still have some relapses back to that moment, when I would feel a shiver creep up my body and my stomach would grow weak for a few seconds. At the very least I didn’t throw up anymore, so at least I got that.
In the meantime, Lady Tian had a huge leap in her training as a Spiritualist, and just a couple of days ago she managed to fill her body with Chi for the first time. According to her, once she managed to gather the first bit of chi, the rest was a lot easier to come by, and from then on she was officially a spiritualist.
The same could be said for Aria Song, who, as promised, came to our household bringing a lot of clothes from her old wardrobe. The events following that, that involved not only Lady Aria and Lady Tian, but also Lady Sui and Miss Ping were things that I’d rather forget and erase from my memories if possible.
Feeling another wave of chills crawling up my spine, I sincerely thanked Dia for stepping in and protecting my chastity from the four hungry-looking girls and woman. Though I do wish she had stopped them earlier and not only kept watching.
I’m not going to think what it means for her to take her time on stopping them. I feel that it would only be my loss from there.
Back on track, there was another shocking scene when we arrived back to our mansion. One of the aides openly argued with Master Bo for sending me to the frontlines even though I was so young. Even more shocking was that the same Master Bo also bowed to the aide and asked for forgiveness, and said that he was regretting it himself.
After hearing the story herself, Miss Ping quickly started to comfort me and said that I could take the rest of the week off, but I quickly rejected her offer seeing how I needed something to keep my mind occupied at the time.
This meant that while I didn’t advance much on the spiritualist part of my training, with me single-mindedly focusing on my works as an aide, I could clearly feel a significant improvement on my work.
I didn’t tell father about what happened at first. Mainly because I was afraid of what would happen if the assistants heard of what happened. I don’t think it would be strange if they suddenly trespassed on the mansion and beat Lord Bo to a pulp.
Well, that is if Master Roshi didn’t stop them first.
After watching the fight and touching a spiritualist in combat first-hand, I couldn’t help but have an entirely different view from the old man. From just a carefree looking elderly to someone that’s actually pretty capable.
But then he walked in when the girls were playing with me, and was slapped the hell out by Miss Ping.
Wait, does this mean that Miss Ping is actually stronger than a mid-ranked spiritualist?
I asked Master Roshi that and he simply said that he takes off his protection so that Miss Ping don’t hurt herself when hitting him.
I sincerely didn’t know whether that was a respectable or an idiotic reason. So I decided to leave that as is.
With all said and done, there was one last thing that still weighed on my mind ever since we returned. I still couldn’t shake that feeling of doubt in my heart as I worked and trained here on the household. Since that day, the cheerful atmosphere had dimmed a lot for me.
This was the first time that I worked and trained without the feeling that it was just a kind of playtime for me. It was… Strange to say the least. No matter how serious I had been before, it always felt that it was only something I was doing for fun and boredom, but now it was different. Now it felt like an actual work.
Besides, now it was clear to me that following Lady Tian would actually mean risking my life many times over. Basically, that wasn’t the last time I would have to go through that kind of situation. This scared me, and many times in these three weeks I thought about simply stopping with this and go back to following my father around.
“I see that you are up early again.”
“Good morning, Miss Dia.” I said after hearing her voice.
“It’s rare to see someone so dedicated so young.” She said while sitting besides me.
“Yes. It’s a shame she have such a unique condition.” Master Roshi said while sitting to the other side. When I peeked at him, I couldn’t help but notice a red hand-shaped mark on his cheek. “So, how’s your training today?” He asked me before also closing his eyes and start to focus on refining his Chi.
“Muu… I feel that I’m almost there.” I said, however at the same time I couldn’t help but feel that it had been troubling to focus recently. Not really surprising though.
“...Are you still thinking about his words?” Master Roshi asked seriously.
I hesitated before nodding. Not too long after we arrived, Master Bo called me to his room and exchanged a few words with me. I feel that if it wasn’t for that, I would probably have recovered earlier from my confused state, but thanks to them I can’t help but feel that my actions since then had a different meaning to what they were before.
Ah, no good. Almost losing control of my spirit, I had to quickly focus myself once again before the spirit I had concentrated within me dissipated entirely once again.
Once it had become small enough so that worldly spirit could enter me out of its own volition, I tried pulling out a small vortex of spirit to touch it. While previously I couldn’t focus enough to do both at the same time, I now had a bit more of ease, and had the margin to go a bit further with it than usual.
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
I spent the next few minutes sitting silently with the two spiritualists. Knowing that only a little more effort would be needed so that I could get my own breakthrough, I decided to go as far as I could today.
Stretching my inner spirit thin until it could reach the worldly spirit, I felt as the burden of trying to do both extremely opposite actions of contracting and expanding it weighed on my mind, quickly draining my mental reserves.
For more than a couple of time I felt my own consciousness escape me due to the strain. I found strange that Master Roshi didn’t stop me, but I didn’t really bother with thinking too much about it and simply tried to finally make the breakthrough that escaped me for so long eluded me.
“LIA! MY DEAR!”
A sudden familiar voice shouted, breaking my concentration as I blinked surprised and looked around trying to find the source of the shout.
“D-Dad?” I asked surprised as I saw my father suddenly hugged me and started looking me all over worried. “W-What happened?” I asked confused, though I already had an idea of what was going on.
“You… Are you alright? I heard of what happened from the aides!” He said while holding me by the shoulders and with a worried expression. “Why didn’t you tell me about it?” He said.
“That’s...” Surprised by the intensity of his actions, I ended up hesitating for a moment. Moment that another person quickly joined the confusion.
“I can guarantee her well being, Ran.” Master Bo said while approaching us.
As I looked at him in conflict and confusion, my father quickly reacted by standing up and staring at him angrily.
“Bo! How do you explain me what happened?” Father shouted at him angrily. “I entrusted my daughter to you. You said that she would train to be an aide and a Spiritualist. Yet, how come I hear that she almost lost her life in your little adventure? This isn’t what you promised me, you fat bastard!” Before we knew it, father was already grabbing at the lord’s clothes and staring him down.
“What happened… Is entirely my fault.” Master Bo said briefly, which made me and my father blink surprised as I tried to pull him back. “It was supposed to be only a visit to an old rival. Just a way to show her how the upper class works and probably have her have some fun.”
“And that fun is what left my daughter in danger?” Father asked angrily.
“No.” I shouted, stopping him. “Dad! Stop! It’s not master Bo’s fault!” I scolded him, making him blink in surprise while looking at me confused. “We had no idea that would happen!”
“Yes, but… He still sent you to a dangerous place! Even though you are so young he dared to...”
“No!” I stopped him once again. “I went there on my own.” He started saying something but I shook my head before he could finish. “He never once told me to go there. I did that by myself!”
“But it’s still true that I had the option to stop you.” Master Bo interrupted me surprisingly. Turning to him shocked. “It is true that I did nothing to stop you. That was something that most aides of the household would go through in their training, however, they usually receive prior warning of that so they can prepare themselves. We also make sure to keep the situation as controlled as possible.”
“Then...” My father started, but Master Bo raised his hand, telling him to wait.
“With Young Lia being as mature and skilled as she is, I sincerely judged that it wouldn’t be a problem should I send her in this impromptu situation.” He looked at me with some regret before sighing. “It was a large mistake of my part. No matter how mature she may be, she was still too young to see such a thing. Not only that, but the situation being out of my control ended up putting her life in danger.” He then took a deep breath before turning to father with a determined look. “However, it is also thanks to her that we not only avoided any unnecessary deaths and injuries, but also saved the heir of the Sol family, putting not only the Sol, but also the Song families in our debt.”
“...Is that true?” Father asked me dubiously, to which I nodded. “...I see. But does that means that she will have to go through that kind of thing again in the future?”
“Yes. She most likely will face that kind of situation multiple times in the future.”
“And you plan on having her take part on that kind of thing willingly?”
“No. I sincerely do not expect that.” Master Bo said once again before turning to me with a serious look. “So, have you thought on what we talked about earlier?” He asked me. “If you want to leave, you are free to go. Do you still want to work with us?”
“Ah...” Caught by surprise by his question, I hesitated for a moment.
I… Sincerely didn’t know what I wanted to do. I somehow knew that what I was doing here was something I sincerely enjoyed. Even after all I went through in these last days, and even if the feeling of only being playing around was gone from my daily job, I did find it fun to work and train here in the Lon-Ying. Besides, training as a spiritualist was probably the easiest way to know something more about mother than what father himself knew.
But I’m also scared. Scared of losing my life. Scared of seeing someone die in front of me again like that day. If I were to say, my fear is probably bigger than my enjoyment at the time. And with me becoming a spiritualist, I just knew that I would probably end up in the front lines more times in the future. As a warrior, instead of an spectator.
But…
“Ah… Sir Ran.” Tian appeared following her father. A still sleepy look on her as her bed-hair hadn’t been combed into submission.
If I had that much of a shock by being in the frontline myself to the point that only Lady Tian managed to help me calm down. What would happen to her if she were to find herself in my place. Would she have someone who would comfort her like she did with me?
I still remembered Lady Sui saying that she didn’t have any true friends apart from me. Would she have to face that kind of thing alone?
I don’t think that what I did was something out of loyalty or simply friendship. I’m not as much of a nice person as I make myself be. However, I don’t like the idea that I would have to leave her to suffer alone when I couldn’t hold myself together without her.
Sensing that this would probably be my final chance to leave this place and go back to my own calm safe life as simply the blacksmith’s daughter, I steeled myself while thinking that the amount of debt I have towards the Lon-Ying only grew even more, and said.
“Master Bo. Dad. I… Want to continue working here.”
Those words probably changed my destiny more than anything else I ever did in my entire life.