"Hey… do you guys know the reason why the capital city of Yông Guó is called the Subsidiary Divine Garden?"
The others wearily shook their heads in response.
"Because, it is said to be a giant forest, the biggest forest in the entire continent! No, it's even considered giant even in the lands beyond ours. It is where forest-dwellers live in peace, under the protection of the Nether Spirits and the 'Sage of Resurrection Path', and the cities surrounding the capital, as beautiful as they are, are nothing compared to the mystical flowers in the plentiful groves of the capital of the Eternal Nation,"
"Shèngyuán Jīng!"
"Ha… how big is this freaking forest?!" Kyōji yelled as he tore through another vine, "We've been listening to this fool babble on about useless facts for ages!"
"Haha! No can do!" Nuru replied, "Anyway, did you guys also know that the Nether Spirits are the Judges that preside over the Resurrection Sage's Court, determining whether criminals who follow the Ten Truths will have their right to live stripped away from them."
Lilac let out a minor puff of air, as she summoned small beams of moonlight to blast away at vines and roots ahead of them.
"If he weren't keeping me constantly annoyed with his facts, I would've fallen victim to fatigue much earlier."
The forests that led to the capital were massive, incredibly so, that it would take days to make it through. And, unfortunately for them, no shortcuts were available, like the path that led from the waterfall northeast of them.
"It's not so much of his facts, but the constant eyes piercing into the back of my head that's making me wary," Rei spoke, gazing backwards. But, it seemed like nobody else noticed anything off.
…Strange.
As they walked on, the branches of a few trees rustled briefly, and after a few moments, a young, dirtied and yet handsome youth with grey hair and eyes revealed himself, followed by a tall, muscular and gruff fellow with a black stubble and a fierce look.
These two were part of Kōmon-shi's Beggar Gang, and they were sent by the homeless beggar Kyōji had caught before. Due to that, they knew to stay just out of the range of Kyōji's senses.
"So, that guy's the one the senior scout told us to keep an eye on," The young man, Doon, said, in a scruffy yet surprisingly soft-spoken voice, "He seems iffy straight off the bat, not like the rest of the group."
"Hmph. That senior scout told us that the local trafficking gangs were keeping an eye on these guys. But, they don't seem to be the type to be captured at all… and, what's even more suspicious is the fact that he told us to be wary of that guy in particular." The gruff guy, Handel, said, smoking a yandai pipe as he spoke.
The person he referred to was the same person with the unfeeling pale-blue eyes and the longish brown hair that was cut into the vague form resembling a jellyfish, Rei, who had been acting suspiciously during the times the chief scout had sent other scouts of the Beggar Gang to watch him.
For example…
•••
"Is that him?" One of three beggar siblings asked as they entered a small, clammy cave.
This was around about the time that they had escaped from Azora, who did not chase after them, strangely enough, and they sought refuge in a nearby small cave beyond the border of Scrozuma Gorge.
They saw Rei in a cross-legged position on the damp stone ground, muttering to himself, as he wrote a "script" with a quill he had on him, as well as the blood of a grey lizard he had found scurrying nearby. The others had drifted into a deep slumber on the rock ground of the cavern as he did so.
And then, he suddenly mumbled the words,
"…of the divine…"
Which was far louder than it should have been. This came as a small shock to the three beggars, as they would've expected him to be quiet to not wake up the others who were quiet and slumbering. At this point, they would even have to leave the cave in fear of getting caught.
But, thankfully, he didn't speak for a while after that and just continued to write.
Until he spoke again.
"I'm only doing this, for that. I don't have anything personal against Father, after all." He said, after a period of long silence. And then, he rose from his sitting position.
He then went to where the young lady of the group slept and stood next to her, waiting. And, it was at that point that their memory failed them, and everything in their mind turned blank.
•••
"But one of the siblings heard a faint melody just before everything went blank," Doon said, shaking his head, "I just know that there's something up with them."
"Hmph. It could just be false suspicion." Handel replied.
"No. The Beggar Gang may have fallen out of the loop recently in terms of information-gathering, but, our intuition has never been wrong," Doon said, "Things have been happening way too fast recently, it's like a war is on the verge of happening, but also… not. It's almost as if there will be some sort of conflict, a gruesome conflict too, but not the type that would be considered a war. It's like… internal conflict, kinda."
"Internal conflict?" Handel questioned, "Listen, kiddo… my intuition also somewhat agrees with you, but… my mind doesn't. What kind of faction do you know would be having internal conflict around this time?"
"I'm not sure. But, what I am sure of is that it's surely going to be related to him, no, nearly that entire group. Just watch. But, anyway, let's catch up to them, their voices are starting to fade."
They hid themselves again and jumped from branch to branch, and saw that the group they followed had gotten themselves in quite the situation.
Someone who appeared to be a bandit with blonde hair and green eyes stood in front of them, with a bleeding gash on his side, a roughed-up, angry expression on his face, and a rarely-found stringless bow in his hands, pointed at them.
"A youngin like him got his hands on a stringless bow? Interesting." Handel mumbled, "Usually, something like that can only be crafted by craftsmen who have had a bit of a dabble in the unknown themselves."
"Handel, look!" Doon half-whispered, as Rei, who had usually watched from behind, stood forward, and with his majestic blue flames, he scorched the crook in front of them to smithereens, leaving him shaken with fright and dragged by Kyōji, who smirked gleefully as he did so.
"Wait, that flame!" Doon spoke, recognising it instantly. Even though the children of the Mountain Tyrant Sect's Mountain Lord could not leave the mountainous forests, that still allowed just the sneakiest to find out what powers the children born of the Oni's blood possess.
And Doon recognised Rei's flames born from his Cursemark, which contained his power to wield Blue Cinders, a type of ritualistic magic that did not die out until it consumed everything.
"Doesn't that mean…!"
Doon now had a sudden understanding of why their intuition was telling them of a conflict that didn't seem to be happening. It was down to two reasons: either the Mountain Tyrant Sect would soon fall to sudden internal conflict, or they would be the ones to incite a war.