Aimless Ascension

[Bonus chapter 1/5]

"Do you know what accords your father agreed to with Gale?"

"We are not supposed to make trouble for him or the people close to him," Han Xiao said, his voice coming out as a growl. "But this time, I didn't make the trouble. It was the outsider."

"Is that so?" Sun Ziang turned to face Gale, as if wanting some explanation from his end.

Gale shrugged. "There are a few things I hate ardently," he said. "Explaining my conduct is one among the top."

Sun Ziang groaned audibly. "You're needlessly making both of our cases harder. I can't help but assume you're the one looking for trouble."

"Fine, fine," Gale said, "I'll explain myself once this time, just for you, even with all my reluctance. So things happened like this: Han Xiao acted arrogantly in front of me, which led me to make a little fun of him—nothing too serious, I assure you—then I asked my dear little disciple to congratulate him on breaking into iron. She did and even advised him in her fair heart.

"Unfortunately, that dimwit feels himself top of the world to listen to her. He used his filthy mouth to reprimand her. I didn't like it very much. I retorted, which that old bloke didn't like much. He came out of nowhere and suggested something along the like of making fertilisers of me. If I'm not getting it wrong.

"And that was about it. And here we are."

"Here we are," Sun Ziang reiterated. He turned to face the people from Han Family. "Do you have anything else to add?"

"That isn't how it went!" Uncle Hao croaked, and was about to come up with his interpretation of the matter, however, before he could do so, Luo Qing'e came forward and stole his show.

"Uncle Hao, please stop it," Luo Qing'e said. "You're only making us look bad. There's no need to escalate the quarrel further."

She earned a grunt from the old assassin, but the mayor's daughter continued on at her pace, turning her head towards Sun Ziang.

"Officer, it is just about what Senior Gale mentioned. While both parties were at fault, Uncle Hao took it too far, considering his rank."

Uncle Hao's face turned unsightly as she finished. Even Han Xiao's expression didn't look that good, leading them to wonder which team she was in.

"At least you have someone sensible among you," Gale said, approving Luo Qing'e's intervention with a thumbs up. He didn't know if she understood the gesture, as she simply withdrew, flustering a little.

"So it is a simple quarrel between practitioners," Sun Ziang said, coming to a conclusion. "I would have taken all of you to the station, but since this is an occasion of festivity, I'm pretty sure none of the two parties would want to spend an hour there answering questions to fill out paperwork for this."

"Maybe I should hire someone for this," Gale thought out loud, "considering how easily I'm getting into trouble these days. Sadly, your world doesn't have lawyers yet."

Sun Ziang chose to ignore him, playing the role of the enforcer. "If both parties choose to let go of this matter here, we'll end it here."

"Officer," Luo Qing'e decided for the Han family, "that would be for the best."

Sun Ziang turned to Gale, who simply shrugged his shoulder.

Gale would have liked some apology for Xiaolin, but that would be too much sheltering on his part. Linlin still had many aspects to grow.

So they ended the matter there.

***

Xiaolin came back with Wang Li with a heavier heart after the confrontation with Han Xiao. Her Master had some work somewhere around there that he didn't explain completely so he didn't return with them.

Although Xiaolin wanted to go around with him, he fly away before she could even say a word. He simply gave an excuse, like she had to prepare her makeup for the night, and he'll come back within an hour.

"Stop brooding like a fool," her elder sister told her. "He said he'll come back in time."

Xiaolin simply pouted. "I just hope he wasn't going around flirting with other girls."

Wang Li shot her a thoughtful look, and wasn't sure what to answer. "Probably not, since he told you to prepare for the night. Maybe he's preparing the liveliest date for you."

It was easy to make Xiaolin blush.

"Come on, I'll make you a beauty that can topple a kingdom."

"Elder sister!"

They would have reached the Inn in about a few minutes, carrying the heavy loads of supplies, which wasn't particularly difficult for them. It was thankfully still afternoon, so there wasn't much crowd to create trouble for them in walking around.

Still, they found dozens of people moving around the road. However, it was something else in a particular corner of the Inn, where dozens of audiences crowded together as if enjoying some great artist at work.

"What's that about?" Wang Li muttered. She couldn't remember anyone taking that area to run their show, as it was still rather offside from the festivity, not to mention gathering this kind of crowd in broad daylight.

Exchanging a glance with Xiaolin, they moved into the crowd to find out what that was about.

In the middle of the crowd, they found two girls, both beautiful like flowers, although one seemed a tad too tomboyish with her personality, while the other was exactly the opposite. She was equally, if not more, reserved than Xiaolin.

The tomboy girl had a head full of silvery white hair, a matching robe and a sword on her back. She was tall for a girl, but that simply gave a heroic look to her charm.

As for the reserved girl, in simpler words, she was simply like a doll carved out of the finest ingredients by a master doll maker. She was fairer between the duo, not that the tomgirl wasn't fair enough. Simply, the reserve girl's complexion was white-toned, with freckles on her face.

It was simply an audience-worthy drama.