Serena sat on the top of a mountain and observed the area without any trail of emotion while meditating. None of that was as fascinating as the view she had seen yesterday. And yet, she still found herself admiring the landscape. It was better than listening to the sounds of destruction in the distance.
"They are in such a hurry," she said to herself. "Plan A: Wait until only four others remain. I would be the fifth one."
In his office, a spacious and modern room, Xuan Jixiang sat on his turnable chair and sipped a glass of wine. The different areas of the arena were projected by several holograms that floated around him in order for him to have everything under control.
"What are you planning?" he muttered to himself, referring to Serena, who was sitting relaxed on a rock on the top of a mountain.
"How is it going, Jixiang?" a female voice behind him asked.
"Quite alright, Alpha," he replied, and turned to face Eulisches.
Eulisches's gaze fell on Serena at once. All zacrals of Ashin were familiar with who Serena was. Xuan Xueyu, Xuan Jixiang's daughter, the child that has gone missing fourteen years ago and has yet returned with no memories of her past. The zacrals knew very less about Serena and usually call her by that name, too. Where she received that name was questioning but they decided to made it her unofficial courtesy name. Xuan Jixiang had recognized his daughter as soon as she was in front of him; there was no doubt at that. All members of the Xuan Clan were born with features other deviens could only apply with makeup. Such as extremely dark lashes, sharp brows, or other features that expressed the long lasting beauty of each clan member. They were certainly people to be jealous of. Not only that they were born with natural good looks, but also with incredible power and intelligence.
However, how Xuan Jixiang had recognized his daughter was beyond any zacrals knowledge. Qiqi liked to refer to it as „family instinct".
„A fearful intellect indeed...," murmured Eulisches, observing Serena and trying to analyze her every move. A girl that was capable of escaping to be monitored. Ever since Serena had set foot in Ashin, she was never let out of sight - except for the bathroom bit - but it often occured that she just seemed to vanish. One moment she was there and the other she has moved somewhere else. If she did something, one couldn't see if it was accidently or on purpose. Her voice was confusing and caused zacrals to drift off from their duty.
"Well, she has always been terrifyingly intelligent, but I really want to see her skills in martial arts and the use of her ability" sighed Xuan Jixiang. "Maybe I should ask A-Yin to train her in the near future."
Unfortunatly for Serena, she couldn't stay in the game by doing nothing. A girl, probably a year older than her, attacked her from behind, and slammed her on the ground harshly.
Serena didn't react but she had been so close to calling Shiming. If she had summoned her sword, however, she would have been kicked out, punished, and the girl would have been most likely dead.
Pinned to the ground, Serena saw the girl raising her fist, ready to punch out her lights. As the fist crashed down, Serena tilted her head to the side and thereby moved up one of her legs. She thrusted her knee forward and hit the stomach of her opponent hard. The girl let out a pained cry and backed off, but right in that moment, Serena teleported behind her and placed her finger on one of her katara points. With that one blocked, the girl was paralyzed and Serena easily knock her unconscious.
"Jixiang, if I may say, Serena is not weak," remarked Eulisches, who had settled down next to the executive.
„Hmh?" Xuan Jixiang, who had been looking at the other screens, turned his head back to the screen that showed his daughter. The fight between those two was being replayed at the moment.
"Average," he said. "She distracted her opponent and waited for the right moment."
"My, don't you want to be a bit less harsher?" Eulisches asked with a chuckle.
"Average," Xuan Jixiang repeated like a robot.
"So there is no faith you have in her?" said Eulisches. "Or is it simply because you think that the master that trained her did a lousy job?"
Xuan Jixiang replied with a brief smile. Although it lasted for only a second, it clearly gave his position. He was clearly jealous of the person that got to spent so much time with his own child.
Meanwhile, Simon leaned against a tree trunk with closed eyes. He was trying to calm himself down.
Before, in the waiting room he had overheard the guy with the big mouth from yesterday asking where Serena was, along with some other things that sounded very suggestive as well as disgusting. Then, that idiot had nothing better to do than to look at Simon and ask him where she was, of course with causing a ruckus around him and attracting a lot of attention. If Simon wasn't a guy who knew how to deal with arrogant people since he was little, he would have skinned that guy alive and sent his chopped corpse to his family.
A scoffing voice brought him back into reality.
"Are you seriously doing what I think you're doing?" the disciple from before asked.
Simon opened his eye and glared up, his stare almost hostile.
"Oh right, who were you again?" he spat.
"Oh wow, no manners, Voronov," replied the other with a sneer.
He bend down, so that his face was just a few inches away from Simon's. Simon instantly backed off, his face pulled in disgust.
"Too close," he hissed. "What are you, a cut-sleeve[1]?"
Both got into battle position, none of them would let the other escape. Killing intent sparkled in their eyes, and if that rule wasn't set, they would fought until the other was nothing but flesh and bones.
For a moment, nothing except the soft wind was heard; then the descendant of the Water Master dashed forward. He was ruthless and skilled, but Simon was faster because he came earlier to Ashin the the other. When he was able to get behind the boy, he gave him a hard hit against the neck, so that his opponent fell unconsciously onto the ground. Simon looked at him, his arms crossed and victoriously grinning.
"Now, who's the loser? Me or you?" he taunted.
Ora leaned against a dune of sand, his brother was sitting next to him. The heat in the desert area was agonizing, both of them had gotten rid of their robes and sat in their yukata underneath the beaming sun.
They still remembered how the zacrals had come into their rooms and told them that they must participate in a selection process. They had't elaborated any further why they were even allowed to participate. The two brothers had no classes with the other students and most of the time they were secluded on the mountain.
They had as good as no friends, let alone someone who knew of their existence. That was why they had received lots of curious looks when they had entered the waiting hall, accompanied by four zacrals. Even in this selection, they were still monitored by them, and Ronan only smirked and flipped them off everytime he caught sight of them.
"I wonder where Simon-kun is...," said Ronan after a while.
"Aww, I'm flattered. Missing me already?" joked Simon as he appeared behind the brothers.
"Holy shi-!"
"I heard you," said Ora.
Simon rolled his eyes and joined them on the sand. He was exhausted, but the brothers didn't appear tired in the slightest. Ora's eyes were as vigilant as ever, and Ronan kept making jokes as he lay on the hot sand.
"There is someone above us," said Ora suddenly.
Simon's head shot up and a moment later, Ora and Ronan were pulled away from the dunes. Ronan protested immediately while Ora stayed calm. Yet the glare he flashed Simon was as cold and sharp as a blade.
Simon nodded with his head towards the sky where a boy floated. He wore a blue coat, had white hair, which was blowing in the wind, and scarlet red eyes that were looking down at earth with no arrogance.
During that time, Serena arrived by the lake and was attacked by two girls at once. One of them had brown hair, pink eyes and butterfly-shaped hairpin, while the other one had blond hair and dark blue eyes with white pupills.
At first glance, the brown-haired girl seemed to summon weapons, mostly arrows, from out of nowhere. However, as Serena looked closer, she saw that the girl didn't summon them but shape them out of non-living objects.
A weapon manipulator, how interesting... thought Serena.
A cold sensation ran through her spine and she turned around to see a huge shark, made out of water, floating behind her, its teeth bared. Serena looked to the right and saw blue energy coming out from the blond girl's palms - a waterbender.
Both girls were very skilled and they managed to drive Serena into the narrow. One with incredible weapon handling while the other did it with her water bending. While arrows kept shooting past Serena, the shark from behind camed closer.
As the shark was barely a foot behind her, Serena swiftly launched a bunch of flames at it, hot enough to cause steam and dissolve all water. Only faintly Serena could see the outlines of the girls disappear. For a moment, there was silence, but then something hit Serena in her nape - a stun dart. Swiftly, Serena removed it but felt the effect already beginning. She felt her lids getting heavy and the outworld blurry before they suddenly became sharp again; the stun dart had no effect on her!
However, since Serena assumed that she was being watched by her opponents, she played unconscious until she heard something hover in the air and footsteps that moved away. Serena opened her eyes and glared at the hovercraft directly, causing, her father, who was controlling them to choke his wine with shock. The hovercraft dissapeared again and Serena stood back up again.
After looking around for a minute and forming the best plan, she climbed up a tree and started jumping from branch to branch. As quiet as a mouse, Serena scurried through the trees before she reached the end of the forest. Blinding sunlight and a noticable increase of heat were like a direct hit in her face. Fortunatly she didn't lose balance and held on a branch above her. When her eyes finally adjusted to the light, she jumped off the branch and quietly landed on the sandy surface. No one was there. She was alone - yet.
With a constant pace, she walked through the deserted desert when she felt something wasn't right. A dagger of fire appeared in her hand, and she hurled it in the direction of that unfamiliar presence. The dagger, however, kept flying, however, until it pierced into a trunk of a tree in the distance. Yet it didn't fully convinced Serena that no one was there.
"We meet again," said a very familiar voice. Out of nowhere Nile's outlines appeared and he approached Serena. His coat was opened, even he couldn't stand the heat, and his forehead was covered in light sweat.
Serena eyed him silently for a brief moment before her lips curled into a soft but icy smile.
"I see...you want to form an alliance," she said.
"Correct," said Nile, sounding very surprised that she had read him that quickly. She wasn't like that when he first had met her.
"I accept," said Serena and gave him her hand to seal of the accord.
"Well that's what I call interesting," said Xuan Jixiang.
Eulisches, nipping her wine, replied with a confused hum.
"Why are you so convinced by Young Master Archard?" she asked. "He is nothing special. I don't see how he is more promising than your daughter."
"He is stronger than her. Not only that but his memory is unparalled; it is close to perfection."
"You are clearly blinded because you have raised Nile like your own son after those incidents. Don't say such thing, after all, you remembered what happened with him, right, Jixiang?"
Serena walked next to Nile, neither of them were talking. Only the sand beneath their feet made noise.
Eventually, as the silence was drowning both of them, Serena asked, "What is your katara?"
"That is none of your business," Nile replied curtly.
The rays of the sun exposed the single sweat drop running from his forehead although he hoped that Serena didn't know the cause, but as far as he could tell, she would - eventually.
As a lifeform out of sand flew at him he dodged it without even shooting a gaze at it. To his mind it was a waste of time spending thoughts at things that had already happened.
The disciple that was able to control sand retreated for some reason which made Serena wonder. She had spotted a few disciples on her way but none of them had attempted to attack Nile. Serena would like to assume that it was because of Nile's rank, but something told her that it was a different cause. All of those eyes that were staring at him, especially of those in his age, were filled with terror.
The two passed a dune when Serena suddenly stopped. They weren't alone anymore. There were at least two other participants, probably out of their vision field. She tapped Nile's shoulder and implied with handsigns that someone was behind the dune. Nile understood quite quickly and pointed with his finger into the sky and then at himself, probably meaning he will look who was there. From a moment to another his outlines vanished and Serena's hair was blown away by a soft breeze. He has risen into the air.
"Listen," said Nile as he reappeared again, his voice lowered and making sure only Serena could hear him. "I have no idea of who those two are but that doesn't mean that we can go easy on them."
"Describe them to me."
The way Nile looked at her clearly said "now is not the time", but Serena's confident gaze assured him that it was worth their time.
"One has brown hair, tied to a high ponytail. The other has blue hair. Both of them wear Shikibana's traditional clothes."
"Hide," commanded Serena.
It was impossible for Nile to describe what he was feeling. Was it fear, or the desire to obey commands? Either or, he hated it and would be very pleased if he could rip out his guts and drop dead to the ground.
"Fumetsu, someone's here," Ora's voice suddenly sounded from behind the dunes.
Serena heard the sound of sand that was being removed from fabric, and something quick approaching from behind. Barely in time, Serena evaded Ronan's fist as it crashed into the sand. His attacks didn't stop there. The top half of the dune was lifted by red energy, transformed into daggers and hurled at Serena. The urge to draw her sword was tempting, but Serena bit into her finger to make it bleed and drew something into the air. A shield appeared in front of her and stopped all of the sand.
"Wait, Fumetsu," said Ora.
The sand fell, partly on Serena's hair, and she heard footsteps approaching. She turned around.
"Oh why, it's Ojo-sama!" called Ronan, lips twisted into a grin.
"Why are you here?" asked Serena.
"We don't know either," Ora shrugged.
Nile, floating invisibly in the air, frowned when he listened to the ligh-hearted conversation of the three. Serena seemed very familiar with them, perhaps they were her friends. He had since long not attended any classes, so he didn't know whether the two boys were newcomers or not. They looked older than him but Ashin Temple was a place disciples between the age of eight and eighteen can attend. There was no clear restriction to that.
"Are you still alone?" asked Ronan.
„I have only one ally," replied Serena, waving into the seemingly thin air.
With a loud thud and sand swirling up around him, Nile landed on the ground, visible again.
"Wow, impressive." Ronan sounded very sarcastic as he looked at Nile through narrowed eyes. "A guy that can turn invisible? For someone who can use magic like you, Ojo-sama, he is beneath you."
Nile didn't reply but only stared at Ronan. A fair amount of hatred was raging in his scarlet eyes, but most of his face remained expressionless - except for the his lips that were pressed together to a thin line.
"Manners, Fumetsu," scolded Ora. Then he turned to Nile and bowed with hands clasped behind his back. "I apologize for his inexcusable behaviour."
Nile nodded barely visible and Ora straightened back up again. "We have allied ourselves with one person. If you agree, you can become our ally," he offered kindly.
Serena and Nile exchanged glances. The way Nile was looking, his look said no, but since he witnessed the speed that Ronan had, he ought to agree.
"Alright," he breathed, trying to stay calm under Ronan's provavcative grin.
"Listen, Fumetsu!" Ora barked suddenly. "If you don't stop giving the boy that smirk, I'm going to rip out your teeth!"
He sounded very serious and Ronan's smirk immediately disappeared as he heard that. There was no sign that he was upset by his older brother's words, but he looked rather gloomy as he bowed his head.
"Our ally is there." Ora pointed in the distance, to the forest Serena remembered as being in the opposite direction.
"Why is it suddenly there?" she asked.
"Caishen-daren can change and swap the areas," replied Nile. He was still scowling but he didn't object as the four headed straight on until they had reached a certain tree. Ora seemed quite confident as he looked high up to the top of the tree. His head was raised and he closed his eyes, inhaling deeply.
"Simon is up there."
As soon as those four words have left Ora's mouth, Nile's scowling expression turned into an annoyed one. It appeared that he didn't like Simon either.
There was a rustle of leaves from above, and from incredible height, Simon landed on the ground, creating long radical cracks.
"Hello, Emo Disciple," he greeted Nile with a scowl.
"Hello, poor excuse of a casino manager," Nile replied snarkily.
The tension between them was a thick as the treetrunk next to them, and sparkles could flash between their exchange of angry glares. If Serena didn't know better, she would say that the two were holding back the urge of strangling one another.
"Let's all calm down, shall we?" she spoke up.
She received a "hm" from the Nile and Simon, but they would still not avert their gaze.
"If one of them were a girl, I would shout kiss. But that just seems out of place here," Ronan whispered to his brother.
"Stop being so shameless," Ora hissed back, his eyes closed.
"Instead of trying to surpress your anger and hatred for one another, why don't you let it out on other disciples. Through that we could perhaps win this selection game and you don't have to spend more time with each other," said Serena.
Eventually, Nile and Simon exchanged one last venomous glare, and turned their heads to face forward. Serena was right, the sooner this was over, the sooner they could stop being in each other's presence.
To say the least, those five weren't the best team, but still weren't bad. Serena was the brain and developed a strategy for them to win and the other four were the brawns who would execute the plan. Nile and Simon, who both didn't get along at all, somehow needed to admit that they were halfs that added each other and that they did make a good duo. Ronan and Ora fought side by side like brothers with an unsettling amount of skill, and eventually, those five were the last ones standing in the game.
After a quick shower, they stood in Xuan Jixiang's office. The executive was sitting on his chair behind the desk, legs elegantly crossed and his hand holding a small black remote.
"You fought very well," he praised the five. "I have a mission for you five. Not a hunt or a job, but a mission given by me. I want you to find that...." In front of them, a hologram appeared and showed an amulet, Serena's amulet, which she had dropped in order to drive the devourers away.
Serena was thunderstrucked, and her eyes were just opened widely. On the contrary, Ronan started talking to his brother silently.
"Really? All this effort for a stupid amulet? Why even bother. He could take the best disciples" whispered Ronan questioningly to his brother.
"...And bring it to me," said Xuan Jixiang, his voice rising.
Ronan instantly fell silent and bowed apologetically and thereby saluted.
"How much time do we have, CaiShen-daren?" asked Nile politely.
"A week or less."
To a reason unknown to Serena, Simon, and Nile, Ora and Ronan were sent back to their rooms. The zacrals had only said that they had a limit of spending their time outside.
As only the three of them were left, they decided to go for a walk. Serena stayed silent the whole time while Simon led them who knew where, and listened to the bickering of the two boys. She kept wondering how the executive caught wind of the amulet. She had deliberately dropped it at the inn and its power should have been absorbed by katara devourers already. How did it appear again?
"You have a rival, you know that?" scoffed Simon.
"So what? Are you jealous because you aren't powerful enough to compete with me?" Nile shot back.
"Oh, so you think that you're invincible because you are a disciple of Caishen-daren? What if he never took you in?" snarled Simon.
Nile faltered for a moments, lips slightly parted but words stuck in his throat. His scarlet eyes were staring daggers at Simon, piercing right through his skull. Simon stared back, irritated because Nile was silent. He gave him a provocating bump against his ribs, hoping Nile would snap again. However, Nile seemed paralyzed, his face surpressing fury in the best way possible, and his hands clenched tightly to a fist. Blood started to drip from his palm while he inhaled sharply.
"Nile, are you alright?" Serena's voice sounded from behind.
"I'm fine," muttered Nile, gaze lowered.
They had stopped in front of an inconspicious wooden wall, but Serena immediately saw that the wall wasn't just some wall. What laid behind that flat piece of wood, was a corridor to freedom. She knocked against it just like Simon had done, and the wood slid aside. When Nile saw that happen, his eyes widened and he froze in place. Serena and Simon turned around to him.
"What's the matter?" huffed Simon.
"I won't go," declared Nile.
"Is it because we would violate a rule?" asked Serena.
Nile didn't reply but no one had to be a genius to know that this was the cause. Someone like him must be very determined to be a perfect disciple.
"Well, I'm not letting you report us, so I'll just drag you with me," said Simon bluntly.
He lunged foward, turned and put Nile's arm around his shoulder. Then he picked him up as if he was giving him a piggyback ride. Nile instantly began to protest and tried to free his arms that were held by one of Simon's hands in an iron grip. Ignoring the struggling on his back, Simon marched into the tunnel, Serena following him in slight amusement.
Nile's reaction to the beautiful scenery could be described as unimpressed. As the bright sunlight hit him, and his gaze fell on what was lying below, his expression didn't change. He simply stared at the landscape as though it was just some textbook.
"Why are we here?" he finally said.
"I need to buy a new pair of gloves. We'll go to the small village that lies down there. They make excellent clothes and they don't snitch," replied Simon sweetly, face sour.
"There is a village?" asked Nile.
"Yes, didn't you know? You are the disciple that is allowed to go in and out and yet you still don't know about that little village in the woods. Shame on you," said Simon with a smirk.
Nile inhaled deeply and looked away, to Serena, who was looking into the distance where the sun started setting. She didn't realize how long that selection game had actually lasted.
"Let's get going," said Simon.
He stood up from his rock and picked up Nile again.
"Let me down!" the other demanded at once.
"Yeah, as if," snorted Simon. "You'd run if I did."
They continued bickering with each other while walking down hill, and Serena tried to ignore them. However, it was completely silent apart of their footsteps, and Simon's and Nile's voices that echoed over the meadow at the edge of the forest. The peaceful atmosphere shifted into something unnerving that turned Serena's guts. She heard how the leaves were rustling, and the grass brushed along the silk of her robe, but it all appeared like a warning. Always facing foward and not looking on the ground, Serena walked through high grass, Simon and Nile behind her, still bickering.
"Simon, am I walking into the right direction?" asked Serena.
"Yeah," gasped Simon. Nile was pressing one of his fingers against the katara point of his neck, and he couldn't even walk an inch. Speaking was very hard, too, and his grip around Nile's hands loosened. Nile ripped his arms away, and used Simon's back as a board to leap himself backwards. He landed a few feet away from Simon, who was coughing and pressing his hand against his neck.
"You surely got some balls," hissed Simon, and straightened up. A blue diamond appeard in his hand, barely the size of a kitchen knife. Then he held it up in the air, and countless more diamonds appeared behind him, tips all directed at Nile. They shot off as Simon snapped with his other hand. Those diamonds had a speed Serena wouldn't have expected them to have. She saw blue light dashing through the air and all approaching Nile like laser beams. At that rate, the latter would have no escape, unless -
Black and red matter emerged from Nile's back, shaping into angel wings that shielded him from the attack. The diamonds that hit the surface of those wings turned into black energy that rose up into the air like smoke.
"Don't take it too far, Senior Archard!" called Simon warningly. "Remember that you are prohibited from using your wings against other disciples. Death angels are not even allowed to use their wings unless it is absolutely necessary."
Death angels, a messanger from heaven with the ability of hell. Those were a different race but also possessed katara - with one difference. All death angel possessed wings out of black and red matter that worked like an armour. Usually, however, those wings were meant to kill, hence the name „death angel". If a devien was impaled by those wings, they were cursed to an irreversible state, and would die after a few days. Those wings were able to kill anything that wasn't fully immortal. Death angels were a minority of the devien population but enough to form their own nation: Sanctoria. No devien is allowed to enter without permission, but death angels could leave without permission. Nile was one of the angels of Sanctoria that had left for their own good, but he wasn't allowed to use his wings, instead, he should focus on using his ability and his scythe.
Serena felt like she should step in before the fight escalated and attracted unnecessary attention. Shouting at two fiercly fighting youths would be as effective as killing someone with a leaf, and she summoned Shiming and let it interrupt the fight. The silver sword darted into the rain of diamonds, cutting through each one of them until it turned and dashed for Nile's wings. Nile had seen in coming and retreated them immediately. Shiming's blade stopped barely an inch before his face before it was called back by its master.
"You have a sword? A powerful one at that?" asked Simon, stunned.
"I have," nodded Serena. "Let's proceed. I want to return before nightfall."
In the meantime, the sun has immersed the sky into a soft red light, everything appeared more darker and firery. The clouds had changed their color to dark purple, and the grass was now far more darker than before, leaving long shadows. Growing up in nature and with travelling, Serena could easily tell the time. It was the hour between evening and night[2]. They have certainly missed dinner but neither Nile nor Simon expressed any complaint, which is why they continued to approached a small village at the end of the meadow.
All of a sudden, Serena's foot bumped against something in the grass. It was hard and turned when Serena's shoe came in touch with it. She bent down and pushed a few halms of grass aside to take a look. If she had weak nerves, she would have screamed. A severed head was lying on the ground, the back of the skull turned toward Serena so that she couldn't take a look at the face. Her eyes scanned the earthy ground, trying to find the body where the head was supposed to belong.
Simon and Nile stopped in their tracks, so did their less friendly talk. Serena's behavior was quite odd and they hurried over to see what was going on.
Simon almost let out a loud curse as he saw the head. He had turned it around to identify the victim, and he had recognized the person despite the long bloody scratches that adorned the face. The man was a rich businessman that often came to the casino Simon's parents owned. In the past, Simon had often seen him talking to his parents and making deals with them. After a while, he had memorized the face. Nothing could ever beat that kind of nose the man had.
"That wasn't death by a katara devourer," noted Nile.
"How would you know that?" asked Simon.
"Devourers don't kill in this style. Look at the head. It was cut off cleanly. A devourer would rip off the head, not cut it," said Nile.
"There were two people," said Serena suddenly. "The scratches on the face were made by long nails. It also seemed as if he died from agony because of his wide opened eyes, but that isn't relevant now. What I'm trying to say is that someone who would use their nails to attack or torture, would most likely not wield a weapon with a blade. They would be more experienced in hand-to-hand combat."
"I see...," muttered Simon, pondering. "Now what should be do? Report the murder?"
"We would be suspects," retorted Nile, rejecting the half suggestion.
Simon whirled around, snarling, „And what would you suggest to do?". A vene was pulsing on his forehead, and his eyes were squinted in rage. "What a disgrace to let a body rot like that in the wild!"
"Simon, calm down," said Serena. She bowed toward the severed head, the other two did after her. Then she shot a flame at the head, along with a piece of paper with the word "Peace". In the setting sun, the head burned away from this world into another beyond anyone's grasp.
"I think we should get back," said Simon after a while of watching the ashes rise into the air.
"What?!" Nile spun around, lips twitched to a displeased smile. "You asshole drag us all the way down from Ashin, let us walk through high grass that itches every time my skin comes in contact with it, and now, after hours you say that you want to go back?! What are we, your personal shopping buddies?"
"Listen here, midget, it's not my fault that this has happened. If you hadn't struggled, then we would have arrived sooner!" Simon snapped back in a contemptuous manner.
This time, Serena didn't step in. Something else had caught her attention. Her master had trained her to always stay on guard and always observe her location. Her eyes wandered over the meadow, there was no wind which meant that the halms were utterly still, and yet she saw some halms twitching.
She made a light movement with her right hand, Shiming appeared and dashed for the direction.
"Don't move."
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
[1] "Cut sleeve" is a reference to the homosexual relationship between Emperor Ai and Dong Xian. In other words, it is used to call someone "gay"
[2] The hour between evening and night is 8 p.m until 10 p.m