Night Guard (2)

Only the two of them were in the apartment, but in order to not mind it, Emily hastily asked Shui where she could meditate. Shui led her to his cultivation room which he had already customised. It was much better than the room he got, and several tiers above what Emily had, so she gasped in amazement once she entered the room. She mainly cultivated to enable herself to draw arrays, but even she wished she could take some time to cultivate here.

Noticing this desire, Shui smirked and said, "I don't mind if you want to cultivate here, but don't you have something else planned?"

Emily flinched and grimaced with a light blush, but she didn't respond and instead took a seat in the centre of the room.

"I'll be focusing all of my efforts on absorbing the innate insights, so if something happens I'm leaving it to you."

"I know. You can trust me."

Emily nodded, took a deep breath, and closed her eyes while sending her spiritual sense into the artifact. She returned to the rainbow space that she was in last time and slowly began comprehending the mysteries that were here. Building on what she experienced previously, she quickly realised that the insights were based on the theory of the five elements. The interaction between the elements provided enlightenment that not only increased her understanding of arrays, but also pushed her closer to breaking through to the Earth Realm.

However, she quickly suppressed the urge to break through in order to continue absorbing these insights. Soon after, she felt 'floaty', as if she was drifting in a warm and comforting fluid that both cleansed and strengthened her soul. She was once again amazed that Shui handed her an opportunity like this so easily, but this time there was more to it. In addition to the innate insights on the five elements, she could also sense the motivations of the one who made the sword.

Previously, she didn't have much interest in the forge master who created this artifact, but as she gained a better understanding of its splendour while absorbing the innate insights, she grew curious. She paid attention to the wisps of the creator's feelings, but was surprised by what she found.

It was caring, gentle, peaceful, happy, worried, anxious, concerned; so many things rolled into one. If she was to name it, it would be love...

Several hours had past since Emily knocked on his door. Even when the next day came while she was still meditating, Shui didn't think of this as a bother, but he soon had something to worry about.

'So it's already time, huh?'

Since they received three days to complete their tasks, Shui thought he wouldn't be called until around sunset, but instead at noon, he found his underground guild ID flashing with a red light.

It would be a lie to say that he wasn't nervous about being late, but that was trivial compared to protecting Emily.

About an hour later, Shui finally sensed a change in Emily's condition. Her eyelids twitched, and she slowly opened her eyes before blinking twice.

"Shui...?" she said in an uncertain tone.

"That's right. How did it go?"

Once she was fully awake, Emily took out a seed and tested out a piece of what she had learnt.

"Water nourishes wood."

In response to her chant, faint traces of water-attribute were drawn out from the environment and absorbed by the seed. The seed then glowed with a gentle green light before eventually, a sprout emerged.

Emily's face lit up at this sight, and Shui also looked at her fondly. Dull Harmony could forcefully convert matter into the five elements that it was composed of, but he chose to hold his tongue and simply celebrate her improvement.

"Well done. If you can master the foundation of the five elements, you'll see great improvement in both your martial arts and your arrays," Shui praised.

Emily nodded in agreement while staring at the sprout, but then she remembered something and hesitantly looked up at Shui.

"Hmm? What is it?" Shui asked nervously.

"Um, this might sound weird but, did you, already know me?"

It was this question again, now for the second time. He didn't feel he needed to avoid this question, but just in case, he dug into it.

"Well that was sudden. Why do you ask?"

"Uh, well I already suspected that there was more to the story when you said that you also considered Nikolai as your master, however, I didn't want to pry too much into your circumstances so I let it go, but this is different."

"What is it?"

"While I was absorbing the innate insights, I also ended up absorbing something else, and that was the motivations of the artifact's creator."

Once he heard this line, Shui knew where she was heading with the conversation and frowned.

'To think that would also be in there, I was careless.'

Shui thought he would be okay with revealing a piece of the truth now, but he continued to question Emily.

"And? What about this creator?"

"I, can't say for certain, but the creator had two main driving forces. One was successfully completing the artifact, while the other, was to protect me."

"And that's why you think I made it."

Emily paused for a moment, before nodding. It was almost unbelievable that someone could be so skilled in both arrays and forging at such a young age, but her intuition seeped doubt in that belief. She thought that, if it was him, then it might be possible.

When he looked at her eyes, Shui could see that she didn't fully believe in her deduction, but she had already come so close to the truth so he chose to admit it.

"...You're right. It was me."

Even though she thought it was so, Emily gasped and then continued.

"I see. In that case, what am I to you?"

Shui looked at her with a pensive expression, wondering what the best answer would be before eventually settling on this.

"I don't expect you to remember me, but, I think of you like a little sister."

It wasn't quite the answer she was expecting so Emily was left with some mixed feelings, but things did make more sense now. Surprisingly even to her, she felt no discomfort with being seen as a little sister, and it felt natural somehow. The few emotional barriers between them cracked as a sweet smile appeared on Emily's face.

"A little sister, huh? Then maybe I should start calling you Brother Shui?"

"!"

Stunned by the sudden mention of that familiar way of address, Shui froze in place. He knew that it was impossible for her to know what happened in the trial, but just the brief hope that sprouted in his heart brought immeasurable joy. Before he knew it, he could feel tears rush to escape his eyes so he blinked and awkwardly turned away.

"Hmm? What is it?" Emily asked after witnessing his strange behaviour.

"It's nothing. It's nothing but, could you call me that one more time?"

Receiving such a request, Emily's face became a shade redder and she also awkwardly turned away. However, she wasn't THAT reluctant.

"...Brother Shui."