Chapter 938: An Unexpected Conversation
[Executor…]
‘Yes, Blazejudicator?’
[While I do appreciate being able to fuel my flames of envy, thanks to your weird form of charm, do you really need them to pinch your cheeks this hard?]
‘Technically, I don’t need this at all. This is so they can get some catharsis out of this.’
[Uh huh…oh, speaking of catharsis, where’s Kit and Rodenia at?]
‘Oh, they were originally going to back to Pearl Scale for a quiet evening of work and then rest…’
[Were?]
‘But then, Grandauntie remembered that the candy store in Pearl Scale that Kit and Rodenia work at, offers a rarely used catering service for parties, and proceeded to drop a fat stack of cash to have them come over and provide desserts for everybody. She even had escorts prepared to fly them over.’
[Wow…the rich and powerful really do think differently.]
‘I sincerely think Grand Aunt Zhen Xun Tian is just that level of a crazy on the regular.’
[By the way, I think your girlfriend is going to interrogate Kit and Rodenia about what they know.]
‘Let her. This ain’t one of those things I should meddle in.’
[As you wish.]
…
“Kit…”
“Yes, mother?”
“Remind me to teach you the subtle art of polite refusal when we get home.”
“To be fair, you’re the one who changed their tune once they saw the money on the table.”
“Yes…meaning that lessons is as much for me as it is for you.”
“Of course.”
Rodenia and Kit had originally planned to go home after Zhen Xun Tian had shown herself to be more able-bodied than originally anticipated. The two of them had originally decided to stick around because they felt responsible for her getting injured the way she did, but alas, their worry turned out to be for naught.
As such, they were ready to make use of their flight skills to go home, until…
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After that little conversation, Rodenia and Kit were then sent to Pearl Scale Harbor with an escort and massive sack of gold, brought back to Willow Scale with Elsa, Leon and Isa in tow and were essentially hired to be purveyors of candied fruits, small chocolates and other such sweets for the evening feast at the Blessed Willow Manor.
It should be noted that Rodenia and Kit made sure to both maintain their human disguises and hide their cultivation abilities, due to the fact that not a lot of people were comfortable with the idea of being served by warriors with cultivation stronger than themselves.
Regardless, now that they were here in a more professional capacity, Rodenia, Kit, Elsa, Leon and Isa made sure to give it their all when it came to serving the Zhen Clan and their guests.
Elsa and Kit relegated themselves to the kitchens so that they could prep new trays of candy every few minutes, while Rodenia, Leon and Isa were on the main floor of the feast acting as waiters.
Which was… thankfully easier than anticipated.
There was just one issue.
“Man, they are really liking these chocolate covered fruits,” Leon commented as he returned to the back kitchen with an empty tray.
“Yeah…I think we’re about to run out of them though,” Isa observed as she and Leon swapped out their empty trays for filled ones.
“At least we got other types of candy.”
“True…you think we’ll have leftover butterscotch mints?”
“I hope we do.”
Regardless of supply issues though, the candy store employees were more than ready to handle this impromptu event.
Even, if say, someone had to take Kit and Rodenia out of work for a few minutes to ask them some rather pertinent questions.
Like say…someone like Jin Fang.
The aformentioned servant(Kaijin Consort) had managed to detach herself from the party and enter the kitchens where Kit and Rodenia were still working.
As to why she was there in the first place, well…
“Excuse me, Miss Reinhardt?”
“Hmm? Oh, hello Miss Jin Fang.”
“Do you mind if I-”
“Borrow Kit and Rodenia? Go right ahead.”
“But, mother-”
“Just go and answer her questions dear, I can handle the candy making myself for a few minutes.”
… it’s not everyday someone needs to ask a third party source to learn about their own past.
…
[So…how long do you think we should stand here until we prompt her to talk?]
[As long as it takes her to get emotionally ready.]
[Ah.]
Under her direction, Kit and Rodenia were led to one of the quiet halls of the Blessed Willow Manor. Coincidentally, this was the same hall that Zhen Liu met Jinju Ren, but that’s not important.
What was important was that it was taking Jin Fang a surprisingly long amount of time to ask her question. Then again, maybe she didn’t want those answers.
There is a strange comfort in ignorance…but it is that same comfort that can lead someone down a bad path.
“Alright, fuck it.”
Which is why, after a couple minutes of hyping herself up and taking a page from her boyfriend’s somewhat cavalier attitude when it came to risking his life, she decided to ask a series of questions that went a little something like this…
________________________________________
For the following, Rodenia’s answers will be in bold, while Kit’s answers will be italicized.
Question 1: So you guys found the Undertow Kingdom?
Answer: Yup. Took us a few days, but we found it beyond these weird looking pillars that radiated [Chaos].
Question 1.1: Wait, [Chaos] occurs naturally?
Answer: Maybe
Question 2: Zhen Liu told me that the place was guarded by a kaijin named, Tortallion?
Answer: Yup. Big guy, looked like a turtle and had a turtle mace.
Question 3: What…what was he like?
Answer: Not sure, but he seemed incredibly grumpy and bitter. Well…
________________________________________
“Well?,” Jinju Ren repeated. “Why, ‘well’?”
“Well…”
Out of all Zhen Liu’s kaijin, Kit was arguably the weirdest for one noticeable reason: They were on the [Anima] cultivation track, not aether.
This meant, that as Kit developed their cultivation, they would get access to the innate Anima abilities as opposed to the innate aether ones.
There were a lot of notable differences, but the most important abilities for this particular conversation, were the ones acquired at the second and fourth locks of Anima Wielder Cultivation: [True Empathy] and [Mind Reading].
The first one sounds unnecessary, a lot of people are able to read emotions, but one would be surprised how many have the ability to disguise them as other feelings.
As for [Mind Reading]…it doesn’t need to be stated, does it.
“Well…you know how is kaijin are kind of hard to read?,” Kit began to explain. “You’ve met Screamira before.”
“Right…she told me she drove an anima wielder insane for trying to peep into her mind back when she was a zako.”
“Well, as a kaijin myself, I don’t have to worry about such defensive measures,” Kit began to elaborate. “So when we managed to get in close to Tortallion, I was able to peek into his mind.”
“We were close enough to do that?,” Rodenia asked.
“No, but his mind and core were so loud that I could pick up everything.”
“Oh…”
Slowly realizing the implicationa of Kit’s words, Jin Fang’s eyes got a little wider.
“So…what was he like then? For real?”
“Well…he was angry, blisteringly so when he discovered that the Fallen Clan was actually the successors of a clan that had done him wrong…but…there was this…sadness to him.”
“Sadness?”
“Yeah,” Kit nodded. “There was also just a single sentence I could make out from his mind, ‘Never again’. Not sure what he meant…but…it sounded hurt.”
“I see…thank you, Kit. Rodenia. That’s all I needed to know.”
“Anytime.”
“Alright…we’ll head back to work then.”
“Yes, please. Go do that.”
As Kit and Rodenia made their way back to the kitchens to continue serving candy, Jin Fang decided to linger in the hall a little longer, as her mind was a bit of a mess at the moment.
During this time, she proceeded to pull out a sheet of paper from her dress, a drawing that Zhen Liu had made for her in regards to this new turtle kaijin that was a member of the Storm Queen’s generation.
As she stared at the drawing, a strange feeling began to well up in her heart.
One of nostalgic pain.
“I can’t remember you in the slightest, not your name, not your face or even how we interacted…so why does hearing about your pain, hurt my heart so?,” Jin Fang asked herself.
