“Idiot! Who just runs into a blade fight like that? Fuck, I could’ve killed you!”

Abrial uncovered her head and peered up to see a young man sneering scornfully down at her. He had to be just a little older than herself. He had amber-colored hair, thick amber eyebrows furrowed into a furious frown, and wide, impossibly emerald green eyes. Abrial stared open-mouthed.

“You have green eyes!” she remarked. “And orange hair!”

The young man’s green eyes flashed with outrage. “Yeah! So what?” he spat. “Never seen a Roatian before? The girl you just dragged in here’s a Roatian, too—she’s got light hair and brown eyes! Don’t be a hypocrite and gawk at me!”

Abrial raised a dark eyebrow. That’s right—she knew Finley was Roatian, but she never really thought of Finley that way. Finley spoke in a Gongkuan accent, she followed the Gongkuan customs, and she never talked about her past. Plus, having brown eyes didn’t seem as extreme as having bright green eyes…

“What’re you gaping at? You look like an idiot!” the young Roatian man hissed. Only then did Abrial notice the grip he was using on the sword in his hand.

“Hey, you know your grip on that sword’s wrong, right?” Abrial asked, frowning. “You gotta loosen up. And turn it to the right a little. Or else you’re never going to reach your speed potential.”

The young man’s face contorted with rage, his cheeks flushing red with humiliation. He glanced down at the grip, as though hesitantly checking whether or not it was wrong, then shook his head and pointed a finger aggressively between Abrial’s dark eyes.

“You bitch!” he growled. “My grip’s not wrong! I’m plenty fast enough! I was fast enough to not slice your head off when you barged in here, wasn’t I?”

Abrial stared up at him, blinking.

“First off,” she said plainly, “What are you so pissed about? And second off, you weren’t fast enough. Your partner’s sword blocked yours.”

The young man blinked, caught off caught. He seemed to have forgotten about that. But his expression quickly changed back into hotheaded irritation.

“You bitch! Stop changing the subject! In any case, you owe me an apology! If I hadn’t moved my sword in time, your stupid head would’ve been sliced clean off, and who’d be in trouble for that? Me! I’d be in trouble!”

Abrial stared up at him, her expression blank. Suddenly, she stood and dusted off her flowing, shadowy black robes, which seemed to billow darkly around her with the breeze. She stepped closer to this infuriating young Roatian man, finding that he was only the slightest bit taller than her. Then she poked a finger harshly into his chest, staring him dead in the eyes with a burning, dark gaze that materialized out of nowhere.

“That’s right,” she snapped. “You’d get in trouble because you were too fucking slow to move in time when you had a whole second after I ran in. You’re just a bad blade fighter. I mean, look at your grip—it’s no wonder you couldn’t pivot your sword in time! Your reaction time’s terrible! If you sliced my head off, the only person to blame would be you. But you wouldn’t have cut it off anyways, since my reflexes are much faster than yours. So don’t flatter yourself! I’m not apologizing.”

The young man’s face grew redder and redder as Abrial seethed at him, until it glowed a hot crimson. Just as he looked like he was about to explode, a gentle yet firm voice called out from close by:

“Dieter, Abrial. That is enough. Step away from one another, please.”

Abrial’s ears perked up. The fury in her expression melted away, replaced by a delighted twinkle in her eyes.

“Instructor Wei!” she hollered. “What are you doing here?”

Instructor Wei was standing only a few steps away, his hands clasped elegantly behind his back. His sword was sheathed at his side in its white jade scabbard, and a graceful silver hairbinding pin glinted atop his dark hair. As always, the pale river-blue folds of his robes floated softly around him. A grin broke out over Abrial’s face, seeing those robes. She glanced down.

Shin Minyeo really had gotten it just right. The shadowy fabric of her own robe was matching the graceful flow of Instructor Wei’s. Dark and light, they mirrored each other. Awesome! She looked so much more like Instructor Wei now!

When she looked up again, Instructor Wei’s warm, dark eyes were twinkling softly back at her, the corners of his lips curled into a smile.

“Of course I am here,” he said, soft laughter flowing with his words. “I am instructing these students in the art of blade fighting.”

When he said, ‘these students’, he gestured towards an area behind him with a slender, graceful hand.

Only then did Abrial notice that they were standing in a grassy clearing, walled in by white tents all around. And in the direction where Instructor Wei had gestured, sat a big crowd of boys and men who were all staring right at Abrial.

At first glance, most were young men, the youngest maybe even ten years old. Most looked like they were in their late teens, some in their twenties. They were a few men who could be even in their thirties, broad-chested and with the traces of beards. Abrial frowned, staring back at all of them in disbelief.

There was…only one girl?! In all these students, only one was female? How could that be?! The single girl was sitting up at the front, staring at Abrial with curious, glimmering emerald eyes. Her hair was just as orange as the hair of the Roatian boy who’d almost sliced her head off. And she had to be only six years old or something! Maybe even less…This was crazy. Out of a crowd of fifty people learning blade fighting, only one was a girl, and she was tiny.

Meanwhile, the students seemed to be getting bored with the silence. They started muttering to each other and calling things out.

“Hey! Why don’t you two just fight?” called out one of the teenage boys gleefully. “That’d be a show!”

“Yeah!” agreed another enthusiastically. “See who can win, the mighty Prince of Roatia or a girl!”

“My bet’s on the girl!”

“Met too!”

“Me three! In less than ten seconds, too!”

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“Everyone, quiet,” Instructor Wei said firmly. “Sit properly.”

In a blink, the crowd hushed. Everyone shifted, setting their hands on their knees and drawing up a straight posture. They looked very orderly, now. Abrial glanced at Instructor Wei with awe. So everyone else must think he was as awesome as she did. His graceful aura was enough to make everyone shut up right away!

“Dieter, sheath your sword for now. You have done well in sparring with me today.” Instructor Wei said kindly to the young Roatian man behind Abrial. That young man, Dieter, sheathed his sword with a disgruntled look. “Now, Abrial and Dieter: you are both at fault in this event. Do you know what your mistakes were? Abrial, what do you think?”

“Teacher Wei’s making them apologize to each other,” someone whispered loudly in the group of students. A ripple of laughter passed through them. At a quiet look from Instructor Wei, they were silent again.

Abrial was staring hard at the ground, her cheeks burning hot. She clenched her fists.

“...I barged in even though I clearly heard blades clashing,” she mumbled, the words emerging with difficulty. “I could have gotten myself or Finley hurt. And I got mad at—” she forced herself not to shoot a blazing glare over her shoulder at Dieter, who stood behind her “—that guy for almost slicing my head off, even though part of it was my fault. But it wasn’t all my fault,” she added quickly.

Instructor Wei’s eyes curved into amused crescents.

“Yes. What you have said is correct, Abrial. Dieter, can you tell me what your fault was?”

Dieter was gripping the hilt of his sheathed sword so tightly now that his knuckles had turned white. His lips were pursed tightly enough that they were white, too.

“I…” he began, seeming to struggle for words. “I…swore? At—a girl?”

The crowd of students burst into chuckles.

“The customs of Roatia really are super weird,” someone whispered loudly enough for everyone to hear. “Every time Instructor Wei tells him he did something wrong, he thinks it’s because he wasn’t a—what’s that word they use over there? A ‘gentleman’? Heh.”

“Bullshit! I heard when they act nice to women in Roatia, it’s all for show. They have prostitutes there, too!”

Instructor Wei cast a sharp look at the students. They quieted quickly, looking down at their feet.

“Dieter,” Instructor Wei began kindly. “If you feel that it is against your values to swear at women, Dieter, then perhaps that was a fault. But you also simply insulted someone whom you had never spoken to. No matter a person’s gender, you should not insult an innocent person who could have been harmed by the blade in your hands. A blade is a dangerous thing, and the one who holds it must take responsibility for what they do with it.”

Dieter’s face was beet red by now. His grip on the sword hilt had loosened slightly.

“Yes, sir,” he said stiffly.

Some students burst into cackles again.

“‘Yes, sir!’” someone mocked.

“Do they call all teachers ‘Sir’ in Roatia?”

“So rigid, ahaha!”

Instructor Wei shot a glance at the students again. This time, his gaze was more stern. They immediately quieted into dead silence, not daring to move. But just as Instructor Wei opened his mouth to scold them, another interruption ensued.

“You know,” hollered a girl’s voice loudly from within the rows of students. It belonged to that little orange-haired girl, the only girl in a crowd of boys and men. She stood up, crossing her arms and sticking out her chin. “Everyone back home in Roatia says the people of Gongkua are really respectful, but now that I’m here, I know that’s not true at all! You all gossip and make fun of people like anyone else!”

“Klara!” Dieter snapped sharply. His bright green eyes flashed. “Shut it!”

“Hey!” Abrial hollered, turning to him. “Don’t talk to a little kid like that!”

“He’s my big brother!” the little girl, Klara, called loudly back. Her small, pointed pale face was proud. “He’s an idiot and a meanie! But he’s still my big brother!” She whirled around, glaring at all of the students sitting around her. They stared up at her small form, bewildered. “So you all should stop whispering behind his back about Roatia and Roatians! Just because you don’t understand the way we live doesn’t mean we’re silly and stupid! I could say the same about all of you! Why do you eat with two sticks instead of forks? Why do women here wear robes and not dresses? Why do you bow your heads to each other and not shake hands? I don’t know! But at least I’m not being an idiot about it like all of you! You better stop talking about my brother like that, or I’ll tell big sister Bi Gho and she’ll pull all your ears off! Okay, I’m leaving now! Blade fighting is boring!”

With that, she turned and flounced away, skipping with a light step. Her amber braids, similar to the style of Finley’s hair, bounced behind her as she left. She hummed as she disappeared, oblivious to all of the eyes trained in shock on her back.

All of the students looked utterly floored at her grand speech and following exit. Some of them were white in the face at the idea of Bi Gho coming to tear their ears off. Up at the front with Abrial, Finley, and Instructor Wei, Deiter’s face was oscillating between deathly pale, a furious orange, and a sickly green.

“That little brat!” he cursed under his breath. “I never should have brought her to Gongkua.”

Instructor Wei sighed. He looked slightly weary.

“Deiter,” he said somewhat grimly. “Go and sit down with the others, please. You have done well in sparring today. It will not do to fight between siblings or between students any longer. Your sister means well. Let us continue with our lesson.”

Grudgingly, Deiter went to go and sit with the other students. Pointedly, he sat a few arms’ lengths away from everyone else, as though creating a barrier between himself and the others. Worse, his expression was haughty and sour as he sat. Several students shot him loathing glances. Evidently, everyone in the crowd was Gongkuan, with dark hair and angular, dark eyes. Dieter and Finley were the only people left in the clearing with light hair and eyes. By sitting separately, it was as though Dieter was proclaiming a barrier between not only himself and the other students, but between the Empire of Gongkua and the Kingdom of Roatia.

Instructor Wei closed his eyes and let out an almost inaudible sigh, which only Abrial was close enough to hear. When he opened his eyes again, the twinkle and warmth in them had returned at their usual strength.

He smiled slightly at Abrial, gesturing at her belt.

“I see you have both of your daggers. You remembered to bring both Dohyun and Jiho?”

Abrial felt at the sides of her belt, as though realizing both of her daggers were indeed there. She wasn’t used to having both of them yet, since she had been carrying one for so long.

On the night that Abrial had arrived at the Wei camp, Finley had pulled Jiho out from beneath her bedroll, wrapped meticulously in a pale cloth. She had brought it all the way from the house to give to Abrial when they met again. When Abrial unwrapped it, there wasn’t a speck of dirt on Jiho’s silver metal. Finley must have polished it more than once; the blade was so clean she could see her own dark eyes reflected in it! At the feel of it in her hands, she’d almost begun to cry with relief. Now, Jiho was stored away in a scabbard on the left side of her robe’s belt, and Dohyun on her right side. They were both where they belonged.

Abrial glanced back at Finley. This whole time, Finley had been standing at the edge of the clearing, her expression unreadable.

“I brought Dohyun. Finley brought Jiho,” explained Abrial.

Instructor Wei nodded. “It is good that you have both. While you have always been skilled with one dagger, with two, you reach your true potential.”

Abrial’s eyes sparkled with pride. When Instructor Wei said, ‘your true potential’, it sounded like an huge compliment — like her true potential was as strong and fierce as a god’s!

“Have you ever heard Teacher Wei talk to someone like that about their blade fighting?” one student muttered, loud enough for everyone to hear. “He’s a master, but the way he speaks is like she’s amazing! “

Instructor Wei raised a hand this time, quieting the whispers calmly.

“My students have not seen me perform a demonstration of blade fighting at a high level yet. Abrial, do you have time to help me demonstrate to them, with a short match?”