Rashida scowled upon being seen through. "I just thought I would have been put to more use during this battle. I really wanted to test how much I have grown against someone strong."
Ki shook her head and answered. "It's important that your strength does not stand out for now, there will be many chances to test yourself and improve in the future but right now we do not want to expose you, marilyn and myself too much. It was enough for me to handle the weakened and injured blood sect recruiter along with you two assisting the blood shadow group to deal with the enemies."
Rashida frown. "Why?"
Ki thought how to best explain the situation. "We cannot expose our strength to the martial alliance or any other enemies right now because we are still weak right now. We need time to grow. Imagine you heard there is a few talents popping up within the world and they were gathered in a certain place. Tell me… if you could t have those talents wouldn't you want to destroy them before their talents could bloom?"
Rashida's face revealed disgust and a hint of fear. "But they are the martial alliance right? Why would they?"
Ki did not show any emotions on her face as she spoke. "The martial alliance are known as the orthodox alliance or the righteous alliance. In their group are sects and powerful families but what do all of those have in common? It's power. They hold great influence, wealth, military power, they possess the best resources and their home base is the capital. Now tell me… if you are someone in power and find out there is a group of people with great talents gathering together then what are those people to those within power that cannot keep them within their grasp. They are a risk to their rule and power. They are enemies they must crush to maintain their place within the world and that is all. So tell me what are we to them if we do not wish to serve under them?"
Rashida looked downwards and gulped after listening to the scary reality. "We are a potential threat and a nuisance to their way of life. They will either try various means to force us to submit or they will force us to our end. If they cannot have us then they would rather ruin us."
Ki nodded and began to change the subject into another scenario. "It's just like that… try to think of our situation like this. There was a powerful man who had a wife and a strong background but one day a young lady caught his eyes and he became possessive and must have her in the end. The wife began to harass and beat the girl for attracting her husbands eyes, the people in the surroundings began to spread bad rumours about the young lady and have their own bad intentions after interpreting the rumours in their own way and the powerful man merely wished to stand by as it all happened as if waiting for the young lady to come into his arms for protection, if she did not come to him then he would watch and wait until she dies. If he cannot have her then nobody can."
Rashida looked shocked at Ki after hearing the story and carefully asked. "But what does that have to do with us?"
Ki smirked and added. "The powerful man is the martial alliance and how he handles his role. The martial alliance may not take action themselves but they will make it so that we have no choice but to serve them or become part of the dead or as criminals to be hunted down for various reasons."
Rashida began to understand a little more after the explanation and nodded. "Then what about the wife and the surrounding people?"
"The wife would probably be their connections who envy our talents and the attention we have been given by the martial alliance. For example a talent from within one of their families or sects hears about us and begins to travel over to challenge us and from there things get worse. Even cutting off our business routes wouldn't be an understatement on the means they would employ." Ki sighed and continued. "The surrounding people would be for the masses and the use of public opinion. We would be crushed under the weight of it and it would affect the families business. Even in those more extreme cases there would be a group of people who will resort to attacking the family physically or in business or just purely through their words just because they have been influenced by the crowd and the recent rumours that are spread. If the martial alliance states we are bad or did something wrong then only they can clarify that we aren't because they hold the power. Even the enemies of the martial alliance will begin to pull us to their side in order to make use of us if we seem to show some potential and turn us into a weapon pointed towards the martial alliance in their power struggle, if we seem weak and like a big piece of juicy meat to them they may just come and take away everything we have with force and we would still have to turn to the martial alliance for support."
Rashida finally calmed down her nerves and slumped down on her seat exhausted. "I guess you are right. I may not be able to understand all of that complicated stuff as I am not smart like you or Isaac but at least I wanted to be able to do what I can. Now I understand that it's best that I do not show off too much until it is safe to do so."
Ki smiled and walked over to pat her on the shoulder. "There will be a time where you can act freely but now is not the time so just train hard, learn more and stay healthy. When the time comes you can let loose all you wish."
Rashida looked up at Ki who patted her shoulder without any restraint and geared up a little before suppressing it. "I will. I promise I will get stronger."
Rashida left the room with her thoughts cleared up and she smiled happily and was a little grateful towards Ki.
As a former slave Ki knew many of Rashida's thoughts of acting for revenge and being unable to feel safe.
Often there was a need to vent the frustrations held within and the often result was violence towards others.
Ki did not wish for Rashida to walk down the path she previously walked full of vengeance and hoped she could find something they wished to live for even if it was small.
It was the same for all of the slaves, they had all been given a second chance at life but the blood shadow group in particular had to mostly be a hidden group or at least a group who did not get to have an ordinary life since they stepped onto a dangerous path.
Rashida wished to gain strength to feel safe and prove that she is still not that weak and vulnerable woman of the past but the more she wishes to prove it the more she would be at risk of making foolish decisions.
Ki needed to soothe her thoughts and calm her down in order for her to not make rash decisions even if she had to comfort her with words or a simple pat on the shoulder.
For Rashida it meant a lot for Ki to lower herself in order to speak to her and comfort her even with Ki being someone from a noble lineage.
After all no noble person would even dare to talk on the same level as their subordinates or comfort them, in fact they would just issue orders without care for their subordinates health, thoughts or feelings.
The truth was far more complex from Ki's side though, she did not see much difference between herself and others because of her complicated previous life.
She had experienced being in different statuses and met many people which helped to keep her humble and not judge others on their status.
Most of all in the time she came back to the past she had been working on herself more to improve her mentality and work on her issues.
One of them was having contact with others, in her previous life she developed a habit of separating herself from others for her own safety but also to avoid making closer connections because of previous betrayals.
Slowly she could grow more close to her family once more and then began to work hard in order to be able to make small gestures like a pat on the shoulder or a handshake.
It may not be much for others but it was a huge step forward in Ki's eyes.