Raja Kint steps out of his cabin. Seeing Master Mythos tending to his plants as usual. He walks over. “Do you ever cultivate?”

  “I am cultivating.”

  Raja Kint furrows his brows for a moment.

  He sets off for the party after asking around for directions and crossing into Bisuke Capital. Finding the location, he’s stopped at the front door by a man.

  “Name?” asks the man.

  “Raja Kint.”

  “You’re a late one.” He opens the door. “Go ahead.”

  Raja Kint enters the building to see quite a few kids. A girl instantly approaches him. “It’s so nice to see you.”

  “Why?” asks Raja Kint.

  The girl smiles. “We can become friends.”

  “Become friends with me too.” To the left, a boy approaches. Holding his hand out for a handshake.

  Raja Kint glances at his hand. “Thanks for the kindness but I’m more for natural occurring friendships.”

  The boy says, “How do you make friends that way? You have to be proactive.”

  The girl says, “Maybe in those lower areas that works. But you aren’t with those low lives anymore.”

  Raja Kint frowns. “Excuse me, I’m a bit thirsty.” He walks off to a table of drinks and food. Getting a drink he notices an empty corner in the room. He grabs some food and sits down alone. I knew this wasn’t my environment.

  As he sits and eats, quite a few kids come over. All of them wanting to make friends, and all of them being turned down. With each kid approaching for the same thing it only made Raja Kint more annoyed. He finally understood another reason behind why those in the tournament tried to stick together. With political scenes where everyone is proclaiming to be a friend. Could one decipher who was truly a friend?

  Raja Kint gets up and walks over to the people handwashing the kitchenware being used. He lightly smiles. “Sorry for adding onto your workload.” Holding out his plate and cup.

  One of the women comes over. Her head slightly down as she gently empties his hands. “Thank you for the praise young lord. We only do our jobs the best we can.”

  Raja Kint internally sighs as he turns around. Unsure of what to do, he notices at this moment. A group of three walks over to him. Two of whom were very familiar. The two from that dinner. In front of them is a boy with his eyes trained on Raja Kint. As he walks over numerous people greet him. Seems even in such a party he has high status.

  He stands in front of Raja Kint. “It’s nice to meet a fellow talented cultivator.”

  Raja Kint glances at the two beside the boy. “What do you want?”

  The boy gently smiles. “Intelligent as well, truly incredible.” He motions to the two behind him. “They say you’ve bullied them in front of some important people. As such I would like to hear your story of the events.”

  Raja Kint raises an eyebrow. “Explain? Why would I do that?”

  “It’s only to help keep the peace amongst us all.”

  “For peace, them and I don’t ever have to interact again.” He looks at the two and waves them off. The two become angered, seemingly prepared to pounce on him. Raja Kint innocently asks, “Could it be you want to play again? Provide some entertainment for another party?”

  The two could only glare at him. The boy calmly says, “With all of us here in the Bisuke City and capital. We’ll be seeing each other more often than not. As such, it would only be best to work something out here instead of a lifelong grudge.”

  “If they want so-called peace then they have their own mouths. Why not apologize to me and I’ll let them off.”

  The boy from the party growls, “You were the one who humiliated us.”

  The girl chimes in, “If you want an apology then it has to go both ways.”

  Raja Kint looks at the two. “Both ways? Since when does the shepherd apologize to his sheep?”

  The two’s faces become angry as they charge forward. The boy throws his arms to the side causing the two to halt in their steps. He looks toward Raja Kint. “You’ve only just arrived in the capital. From what I understand you have no friends as of now. That means everyone in here could attack you and nobody would stand up for or help you in any way. So how about you just apologize along with these two and let bygones be bygones.”

  Raja Kint smirks. “I may be alone but I have what you all don’t have.”

  “What is that?” asks the boy.

  “Strength.”

  For a few moments, the two parties are quiet. The others attending the party all look over while talking to each other.

  Raja Kint surveys everyone in the building who’s looking over. Seems this was meant to be a showing of weakness for me. They definitely didn’t expect me to take this stance.

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  “Is this the path you prefer to take?” asks the boy.

  Raja Kint looks at the boy for a few seconds and walks out of the building. Let’s see what they’re going to do now. Looking up to orange skies Raja Kint decides to find a bench and rest to watch the sunset. As he sits he notices a young girl walking by.

  His eyes stuck to her icy blue eyes. The young woman next to the girl glances at him. Raja Kint lightly shakes his head. Those are probably the prettiest eyes I’ll ever see. After some time he gets up and begins walking to his cabin. On the way, he spots the girl standing by herself in a small grassy field. He thinks of walking over when he notices someone approaching. He turns to see the young woman from earlier.

  The young woman smiles, “You were the one eyeing my little sister earlier.” She leans in closer. “Like what you see?”

  Raja Kint looks toward the sky. “I don’t dislike what I see.”

  The young woman chuckles. “Are you a shy one? Well, you can forget about any of that. She’s really talented and needs to focus on cultivation.”

  “I’m quite talented myself.”

  The woman raises an eyebrow. “I’ve never heard of you.”

  “I’m new here, I just won the big competition recently.”

  The young woman wears a questioning face while, “Hmming,” to herself. Seeing this Raja Kint becomes curious. “You live in the capital?”

  The girl responds, “If you want to talk to her why not just walk up? Instead, you’re over here chatting me up.”

  Raja Kint harrumphs as he walks over to the girl, the young woman following. Approaching the girl Raja Kint looks to where she’s looking and spots a constellation. “Do you know the name of that constellation?” Raja Kint points to the constellation.

  The girl answers, “It’s considered the crane constellation.”

  “It does look like a crane. Have you spotted any other constellations?”

  The girl says, “Just get to the point of why you walked over here.”

  “I like constellations so just answer my question.”

  “Like constellations but don’t know the crane constellation. You’re either stupid or retarded. Both of which I dislike,” says the girl.

  Raja Kint says, “I just know a different set of constellations.”

  The girl looks over. “Different set of constellations? How can that be when the sky is the same?”

  “Good question,” says Raja Kint.

  The girl narrows her eyes before looking at the sky again. She points to the right. “That kinda looks like another constellation…” She shows him a couple of other constellations. The two sit down as she introduces him to more constellations. Raja Kint listens closely and asks questions.

  The young woman lies down to the side and also looks at the sky.

  Unaware of how much time passed. The two continued to talk about the sky when the young woman interrupted. “Alright you two constellation nerds. I don’t want to be here all night. Not to mention, she might get angry.”

  The girl nods her head as she stands. “It was good talking to you.”

  Raja Kint stands. “Thanks for showing me some constellations.”

  The two part ways. Walking back alone Raja Kint holds his head downward to hide that he was stifling his tears. It was truly as though Mother was showing me constellations again. When we would sit under the night sky and talk. Reaching his mountain peak, he sees that Master Mythos isn’t present. Better that he doesn’t see me with my emotions so out of whack. He sits down beside the flowers and looks at the sky. Specifically looking at the constellations. Falling into his memories he sees an illusion of his mother by his side.

  “Just for tonight,” he mumbles as he talks to his illusory mother about the constellations.

  As the sun begins to rise Raja Kint ends the conversation. Lays on the ground and closes his eyes. Waking up, Raja Kint’s head feels a bit heavy. He looks over to see Master Mythos silently meditating. “Master Mythos, I talked to this girl about my age with icy blue eyes. Do you know where she might be from?”

  Master Mythos repeats, “Icy blue eyes?” opening his eyes. “And she’s about your age. I did hear something about them arriving. Why ask?”

  “I forgot to ask her name and where she stays. So I’m a bit lost on if I want to meet her some other time.”

  “You should forget about meeting her.”

  Raja Kint asks, “Why?”

  “She’s a very talented individual with a heavy burden on her. She doesn’t have time for friendships.”

  Raja Kint looks at his cabin. “Makes sense, was just curious.” He walks into his cabin and sits down. “What do I focus on now?” He takes a paper and rips off a small piece. Let’s try to just get this right.

  He spends a few days cultivating when another letter for him arrives. Raja Kint opens the letter to see another gathering is being held for young cultivators. “Seems they’ll make their move here.”

  “Already getting into trouble I see. Well, you are my disciple so it’s expected,” says Master Mythos.

  “I’m not the one in trouble. They’re the ones in trouble.”

  “It should only be those from the city. Which means, they’re probably not happy about your sudden rise to the top from the lower lands.”

  “As if I care. They were talking about keeping peace when in reality it was an acquiesce or else scenario.”

  Master Mythos laughs. “In politics many like to wear masks. Do remember, that if you happen to get beat I can’t help you.”

  “What if it’s someone older?”

  Master Mythos strokes his beard. “Depending on the situation I might help. But, just because you face against a limbo realm doesn’t mean I’ll just come and help.”

  “Why would they bring a limbo realm?”

  “For an easy job of course.”

  Raja Kint’s eyes narrow. “If they really do that then I’ll slaughter all of them.”

  “Haha, bringing you up here is something indeed. Haha.”

  “I’m curious, do those in the capital not care about me?”

  Master Mythos finishes his laughter. “Why would they? They’re the top talents within the 3 Seas Continent. Their visions are beyond any other young cultivators within the empire.”

  “Ahh, so that’s the case. I also don’t want to deal with these guys.”

  “Well then, you’d better put that idea into their heads.”