The morning of the meeting quickly came as Chan tried his best to sleep as fast as possible so he wouldn't have to spend any more conscious seconds of his life stuck in an inn.
Making his way to the lobby, Chan was stopped by his 2 escorts. One of the escorts told Chan, "Sir Chan if you don't mind following us, we'll take you to the meeting place with our captain Ren Ku.".
Nodding his head, Chan followed the men into a restaurant.
"VIP number 3," One of the escorts told the front desk worker of the restaurant.
"Yuki! Take these guests to VIP room 3, please." the front desk worker instructed one of the girls working at the restaurant.
"Yes ma'am," Yuki replied.
The girl named Yuki was an average-looking girl with light brown hair.
"This way sirs," said Yuki as she showed them the way to the third room for VIPs. The restaurant was big and had three floors. Yuki lead them to the third floor, on the third floor had a long hallway with rooms decently spaced out from one another.
( Knock! Knock! )
"Guest 3, we have 3 men here, were you expecting guests?" Yuki asked.
"Yes, let them in," said a voice from inside the room.
Before Yuki opened the door, Chan thought to himself, "This is the second Ren that I'll know, I wonder what this Ren is like compared to the other Ren.".
( Creak! )
The door swung open and Chan could see a man sitting by himself having a drink.
"Is there anything that I could get for y'all before I leave?" asked Yuki as she looked around the room.
Everyone said no and Yuki closed the door behind her as she made her way back to the first floor.
Looking at Ren Ku, Chan noticed how elegant he looked compared to his older brother. Fen Ku looked rough and manly while Ren Ku had a baby face and silky short hair.
In a soft tone, Ren Ku asked Chan, "You probably know why we are meeting here today, so are you joining me and my men or are you declining our offer,".
Ren Ku's voice was very calming and gentle so Chan was too shocked to speak as he imagine the brother of Fen Ku to look and sound different.
A few seconds passed before Chan replied, "What was the pay again?", Chan was asking because he was starting to go broke as his saving was slowly depleting.
"Since you are just starting off, your pay should be 10 silvers, but since you are special I was told we could give you 16 silvers." Ren Ku told Chan.
"Ok not bad, what role are you planning to give me and when is our next mission?" Chan asked a lot of questions so he wouldn't feel as if he joining a group blindly.
Ren Ku took a second to think and told Chan, "The role I want to give you is to be a part of our attack force, Our next mission is to attack Mi, we'll try to take over Plum, if successful then we'll take the towns near Plum until we are met with a satisfactory number of towns taken. If you are joining get ready as we depart in 4 days.".
Hearing the details of the next mission from Ren Ku, Chan agreed, "Ok I'll join.".
"Great. Do you know how to ride a horse?" Ren Ku asked.
"Yea," Chan answered.
"That's good, so in 4 days meet us at the north gate and be on horseback." Ren Ku told Chan.
Chan looked at Ren Ku with a embarrass looked on his face and told him, "I know how to ride a horse but I don't have one, haha.".
"Ok… That is fine, get this man a horse ( Shield )," said Ren Ku as he looked at the 2 escorts.
Handing the escorts 2 gold coins, Ren Ku instructed them to help Chan find a horse and keep the change.
( Thump! )
The 3 left the room and the restaurant and went to a stable to find Chan a horse.
Walking throughout the city, they made their way to the southeast side of Mas where the largest stable and most well-known horse-breeding place was located at. Arriving there the stable was huge. Horses could be seen running around as there was plenty of space for horses to run around. Making their way inside they were met with the owner and his sons running the stable.
The escort talked with the owner and eventually one of the owner's 4 sons lead them to an area with empty stalls. The owner's son told them, "Wait here, We have 4 horses for sale, I'll go fetch them.".
Bringing the horse in one at a time, the horses brought in were 2 chestnuts, 1 bay, and 1 black. The horse that resisted the most when put into their stall was the bay horse. The bay horse was a reddish brown with beautiful black hair. All of the horses had beautiful hair and were all well built but the black horse was a little bit bigger than the rest.
Meeting Ren Ku and picking a horse all but remind Chan of a method on how to select a horse. The method he remembered was a method taught to him by Ren Go. "Go up to a horse and place ki in your right index finger and bring it up to a horse's head, if the horse places its forehead on your finger and you feel your ki flow into the horse then you and that horse are meant to be together.".
Walking up to one horse at a time, the 2 chestnut horses didn't respond to the ki at all and just looked at Chan. Making his way to the bay horse he stuck out his right index finger.
( Chomp! )
Chan quickly pulled his right hand back as the bay horse reacted to the finger but the reaction was not what Chan wanted. The bay horse almost bit off Chan's finger.
"Ok, this is not the horse for me," said Chan as he moved on to the final horse, which was the all-black horse.
In the all-black horse, you could tell the muscle density was different compared to the other horses. The all-black horse was a little bit taller and more muscular compared to the other horses.
Sticking out his right index finger, oozing with ki. The horse reacted and placed its forehead on the finger. The horse closed its eyes as its forehead made contact with Chan's finger.
Instead of his finger's ki spreading out into the air, Chan could feel as though his ki was being sucked into the all-black horse.
The horse opened his eyes and looked at Chan, Chan could feel that there was a special connection between him and the horse upon making eye contact with it.
"I'll take this one," Chan said as he pointed at the all-black horse.
The owner's son took the all-black horse to the front area of the stable as Chan and the escorts bought the horse. The horse cost 1 gold and 10 silvers. The horse at the stable was expensive as they were high-quality breeds.
Seeing his horse outside the stable, Chan hugged the horse and gave it a name, "Since you're all-black let's call you Kage,".
( Neighhh! )
"I'll take that as you like the name," said Chan with a big smile on his face.
Being escorted back to Dia and making it to Dia safely, Chan didn't leave Kage at the stable, Chan brought him around with him. Chan went to a restaurant to get himself a bottle of liquor and plenty of fruits and vegetables.
Getting home Chan trained Kage to come to him when he whistle.
( Whistling! )
( Clop! Clop! )
"Good boy, here you go!" said Chan as he fed Kage a Karrot. A Karrot was like a carrot but yellow and a little bit sweeter.
Training Kage for the whole day and riding him outside of town, Chan came back into Dia when the sun was about to set and left Kage at the stable as he made his way home.
Arriving at his house he brought out two chairs and two cups and placed them in his backyard. The chairs were placed face to face with one another and each chair had a cup on it.
( Thump! )
Chan opened the backyard door and went inside to grab his liquor bottle. Coming back with the liquor, Chan sat on the chair closest to his house.
( Spliss! )
He filled up both of the cups and said, "This first one is for you father."
( Gulp! )
Chan put his empty cup down and grabbed the filled cup in front of him.
( Splash! )
Chan poured the liquor onto the ground.
He then again filled back up the 2 cups and said, "Today I met another Ren and I was just reminded about how kind you were to me even though I was your student, this one is for you one arm teach."
( Gulp! )
( Splash! )
Chan went one by one remembering all of those he loved who passed away.
( Drip! Drip! )
With barely any alcohol left and no more names to think of, with his last two cups Chan drank for Michael Chan Johnson.
"This is for us *hiccup* we've been through a lot and are probably going to go through more *hiccup* but who cares. Life come and go and the only thing that remains are the memories we made and share with others." tears went down Chan's face as he was now an emotional drunk.
( Gulp! )
( Gulp! )
He drank the last two cups of liquor before stumbling and tumbling back into his room and quickly falling asleep.