A Peasant’s Guide To Sorcerery: 12

A Peasant’s Guide To Sorcerery: 12

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Commissioned by Ichypa

Wordcount: 2500

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Ying cleared her throat and forced herself to speak, despite the voice within her mind that made an unrecognizable mess of her composure.

“I am not wed with your father. There is much for me to do before I can consider settling down.” The words seemed oddly bitter to the tongue. The swordmaster wondered why they were. Had she truly fallen for the man who saved her so thoroughly? “However, he saved my life and I owe him much. Not only that, but he is a good person. After I repay my debt, I will gladly remain his friend while I pursue my goals as one of the Beggar Sect’s potential leaders.”

That was the truth of the matter. My life wasn’t solely my own. Though some would call it a debt to those who saved me, I saw it as a duty to the only family that I had. The Beggar Sect raised me, trained me, and cared for me. Though I had rivals and opponents, they never sought to harm me and only believed that their path was better. For every rival and opponent that I had, I had as many people I could entrust and call my friend.

Filial obligation didn’t feel like the right word.

Only duty did, and I didn’t do it solely for them, but for my own self-satisfaction.

I wanted to stay and see what could be between myself and Zhang, but the truth of the matter was that there was more to life than what a person wants.

I believed in this completely, relayed it as much as I was able in my mind towards the person who spoke within it, and I was surprised as Zhang’s daughter smiled and nodded at me.

“Very well, then, my father’s friend… you are welcome here.” Zi Long took a sip of tea, before turning to look over her shoulder. Footsteps up the stairway resounded with light taps, but so did the light clatter of utensils and the scent of heavily spiced food. “My apologies for my insinuation. My dear guests, please enjoy my hospitality while you are here.”

I nodded and looked to the food, before taking an idle glance at Zhang.

His usual smile and understanding was present on his face, which disappointed me.

There was no proclamation that he’d stay by my side. No from that expressed dissatisfaction at my words and decisions. Though I knew that this was the best response from him, I felt as though I wanted more. As though… as though I wanted him to object to my words and step in the way of the duty that I believed I needed to uphold.

Ah, so this is the pain of letting go for the sake of duty.

I never felt it before.

…

I went to walk amongst the caravan and Yuen followed me. Zhang was resolved to speak to his daughter, before they had to do their battle.

I resolved myself to walk amongst it all, gather information, and find a path forward for the Beggar’s Sect. Trade routes past the territory of the immortals were heavily coveted. They brought in rare materials from monsters that were essential to elixirs, or at least components that were otherwise expensive could be easily substituted for. Established merchants could easily become petty lords protected by immortal masters and their Sects, because both needed one another.

The Beggar’s Sect was cut off from such trade, because it was in the central region of what used to be the Empire, and merchants rarely travelled past their border territories. Travel costs money and time, thus they sold things desired by the central regions to middlemen, who in turn sold to the inner regions at higher rates. The Beggar’s sect had planned to create an outpost in a border region, but to do so would be intruding on the land of another sect. Even if we could win against one sect, we would be weakened by the battle, and so we were trapped by our circumstances.

Unable to do anything, besides work hard and carefully cultivate with our limited resources.

Thus, this was a great opportunity for my Sect… but I couldn’t focus.

“Hey, hey, hey… Ying, Ying, Ying… are you going to talk to me or what?” Yuen had joined me with the statement that she’ll guide me. That was a lie. She wanted to speak to me about my circumstances. To be more specific, the declaration I made earlier in regards to any relationship I might have with Zhang. “Or are you just going to brood nonstop all day?”

“I am not brooding. I am working on furthering my Sect’s reach.” I corrected her, but I knew that it was as she desired. This was her means of initiating dialogue with me. “Speak your mind. You think ill of me for not pursuing Zhang.”

“No, actually, I think ill of you because with the way you act, I can see why the good Sects are so weak, and the evil Sects are strong.”

I stopped at her words and looked upon Yuen. The archivist was nowhere to be found. The one receiving my glare and anger was a smiling façade hiding terrible power. Mortals near us shivered and stepped away, some guards hesitated to stay at their posts, but the short-haired young woman looking up at me didn’t so much as flinch.

When I peered closer, past the bangs shrouding her eyes, I came to a realization.

Her eyes were a deep scarlet and her pupil was a slit like that of a snake. They glowed slightly in the darkness of her bangs, as though coursing with unknown power.

No.

I knew this power.
I had been before it moments ago.

“You have the blood of Dragons within you.”

“Aye, I do. My tribe suffered quite a bit with the Empire’s fall.” Once those with the blood of dragons served the Emperor as his finest. However, their power and prestige waxed and waned with the Empires. Once the throne lost its power and influence, the kin of Dragons were hunted by their empowered rivals, while their weak allies could do nothing. “Seeing you throw aside Zhang for the sake of your own pride puts a really bad taste in my mouth.”

Ying straightened her back at the words.

“The Beggar Sect raised me, cared for me, and deserves my allegiance above my own desires.”

“I’d say the Beggar Sect could use a friend like Zhang to pull them out of the muck they’re surrounded by.” Yuen scoffed and moved. I followed her and we sat beneath the shade of a tree. Many breathed a sigh of relief as we left the main road of the temporary city. “You don’t get it, because you’re doing the right thing. The thing is, if one of your rivals found Zhang, they’d have courted him to hell and back, given him every heiress and beauty they had, and they’d ask him for every favor under the sun until they stood over the whole world.”

I swallowed a deep foreboding that crawled up to grasp my heart at Yuen’s words.

I could see any of my rivals doing that to him. The man amongst that number would throw their sisters upon him, or steal beauties away from wherever they could find, and bind him through marriage to their Sect.

Yuen was right.

“Pure justice isn’t going to do anything. You’re constrained too much by your own rules. Absolutes just ruin people. It’s not like the ‘evil’ sects don’t have filial piety and honor amongst themselves, you know?” Yuen continued to speak. A part of me wanted her to stop, but I forced myself to listen. Much of what she said explained so much. These were words my masters would despise, but where had the Beggar Sect gone in the last hundred years while strictly following our codes? “There’s good in evil and evil in good. The point, I think, is that you should do so much more good that what evil you do barely matters, and that you take responsibility for that evil when it comes for you.”

Though her words resonated with me, I couldn’t help but argue.

“The Beggar Sect’s duty is to protect the impoverished, to ensure that justice is meted out even against those who rule over all, and to be a shining example to all others. In these dark times, we must be one of the few points of hope for the people.” I argued for Beggar Sect. I did so not out of blind loyalty, but because I couldn’t stand the thought of those who cared for me and those who raised me being wrong. Not only that, but there was logic behind our actions. We followed our path as free of wrongdoing as much as we could as a signal to all those who looked to us. “There are so few sects that believe and act in the name of justice. So many have already forgotten… and we’re one of the few that are strong. If we stop, if we falter, and if we fall, then what becomes of the people who believe in the Beggar’s Sect?”

“Sure, if you start becoming tyrants and asking for tithes like the rest, that’ll be an issue even with your sect’s history. But that’s not what I’m telling you to consider. I’m asking you to ask for help, to tell Zhang that you need help, and maybe consider bringing him into your house because he likes you and you like him back.” Yuen shook her head as she answered my question. Acting very much like a wizened mentor, the short-haired Dragon-king let loose a sigh while crossing her arms. “Who the hell thinks that you should be celibate and divine your whole life? That’s a damn cruelty in and of itself. You’re better off without supporters who think that you should do nothing but train, grow wise, and be someone they can call for help. You’re a person, too. Not just an aspirant of immortality.”

A person.

Such a simple word, but it resonated deep within my heart, and a dull laugh left my lips as I found no counter argument.

Yuen wasn’t telling me to become a tyrant that demanded tithes from cities to stop my hand from slaughtering them.

She was telling me to be selfish, and use my selfishness to the advantage of my sect.

I thought about it for a long time, before admitting the truth.

“It will put Zhang at risk. Beyond my own pride and desires, it’ll be a poor way of paying back the debt I owe him. The way he thinks of the world now is good and pure. Slowly, we’re teaching him how to see the truth, but if I do what I want… then that’s not possible.” I owed him my life. That was another reason why I didn’t ask for his aid outright or act on my affection. To invite him into my sect, and to ask for his hand, would be to throw him into a world of vice and darkness. He would be forced to rely on me, to see the world in my eyes, and to do only as I would ask of him. “I do not want to make a slave of him, Yuen. If he is thrust into the world of immortals now, he will only be able to learn and listen from you and me… and we are quite biased people. Are we not?”

To those words, Yuen did not have a retort.

How could she?

She and I both adored him in our own way. Though he saved me, and I suspect that he saved her too, that wasn’t enough to make either of us fall. I am set to inherit the head seat of the Beggar’s Sect, and she was a powerful warrior and scholar with an auspicious lineage. Neither of us could simply be saved and have our heart stolen.

No.

We both adored Zhang because, despite all his power and might, he was kind and did not act with malice.  Even his brutality killed swiftly and without remorse, showing his foes his complete strength each time, as to not shame them when he killed them. Then, there was his earnestness when it came to every little pleasure, every little act of kindness sent his way, and his awe at any form of knowledge.

Yuen hadn’t considered that would be lost, if I did as I wished and plunged him into the world that I lived in.

And, until she confronted me, I hadn’t considered in full either.

I couldn’t be with him, unless I wanted to ruin the innocence that he had and see him become someone else entirely.

…

Zi Long waited for us both at the entrance of her tent.

“I see that your minds are muddled and thoughts about what to do next intermix and weave within your skulls. Good. That means you both don’t need to be dealt with.” Zhang’s daughter, perhaps due to being a Dragon, seemed more aware of the current state of the world than her father. I couldn’t help but wonder what she was a merchant and lived so far away from him. “I live in these parts to give father and myself a battlefield where no one might be harmed during the Strife, if you must know. If I stay by his side, we will attract undue attention.”

“Hey, I told you reading minds is wrong, kid.” Yuen grumbled and crossed her arms. “And, I’ve been trustworthy ever since Zhang helped out my village. Not a thought of betrayal in my head!”

“Yet, you moved to convince the Beggar Sect’s heiress to be with father.”

“That’s… alright, I’ll admit it. I didn’t think that through.”

“As long as we’re in agreement, there’s no issue. I will abstain from speaking to your minds and observing your minds, too.” Zi Long swore and neither of us contested her words. The young woman peered at us both before nodding. Suddenly, I felt my mind grow a bit clearer. “And, there. A small protection against the same sort of powers. Nothing against a dedicated Sorcerer such as my father, but good enough against the petty immortals that live in their mountains.”

The ability to protect my thoughts from immortals.

“I will treasure this gift with all my heart.”

“Y-yeah, thanks. Kid.”

“Good. There’s some hope for the both of you, if you understand how important that is.” Zi Long moved and the doors to her tent opened. It was conspicuously empty. “Now, I will be briefing you on my powers and potential in the coming conflict. Father’s survival is all but guaranteed, but even with all the blessings he gave you both, you are at risk. Listen well, lest you perish.”

At those words… I let loose a sigh of relief.

No more thoughts on injustice and injustice, my feelings, and my debts.

Just battle.

Which I knew very well.