Eyesore

Aradia was tired to the bone, this body was not at all athletic. The red head is still wondering how she made it out of the illusion mansion

Aradia laid on the bed, arms thrown to each side. As she looked off into nowhere she heard a familiar voice

«Come to the mansion»

The red head got up with a sigh

'this guy seriously needs to learn manners..'

That is not how you ask someone to do something, especially not someone tired! At the very least he could have said please

Aradia got to her feet and dusted herself off slightly, trying to look more presentable. She really needs to shower, though Aradia has cooled off a little, nothing could ever compare to a nice cold shower

The red head went over to the window in the room and opened it, looking out to the street before turning on her heel and going downstairs; she walked out the inn like any other person

To others it may appear she was walking aimlessly which wasn't necessarily false.., as she had to try hard to not get lost in these unfamiliar streets

After what felt like an eternity, she made it to the place in one piece. With the illusion mansion now destroyed to the ground, the magic forest behind it was clearly visible

Every time Aradia looked into the forest, she felt an uncanny feeling wash over, but it only made her more curious of what was in there

Of everything mentioned in the original novel, the magic forest was still a mystery, why it was deemed dangerous or why people were afraid in the first place.., there was no information on this

Aradia stepped on the broken pieces of the mansion, walking around looking for a specific floating white blob

"Oy"

The blob-, Lir, instantly came over

"I figured out where the familiar presence is coming from"

Straight to the point, huh?

"Oh? Which is?"

Lir looked like a child who helped his parents by giving them something and now wanted praise

He looked even more excited when Aradia urged him to continue

"The magic forest"

He said proudly

"The magic forest, huh?"

The red head parroted back, trying to recall if anything of this sort had happened in the novel, though she already knew the answer..

"What do we do now?"

She asked instead

Lir paused, thinking over this as well. They couldn't possibly go into the forest unless, like today, they went on a mission or something like that

Aradia was lost in thought, she saw something white moving on her right with her parallel vision

She didn't think much of it, it's probably Lir

"I was thinking that-"

That was Lir's voice, it's coming from her left..

Aradia instantly turned her head around and saw a eyesore of white

"What-"

Lir was confused and looked in her way of vision and met with a eyesore of white as well

Lir may wear a lot of white as well but at least he balances it all out with different shades of blues and gold

Aradia's thoughts were completely different, she thought this person, regardless of all the white against the dark background, looked beautiful

Pretty was subjective to each individual, just like all the characters in her grandpa's novel, beautiful though? That was something everyone all across the world could agree was a sight to behold, a dopamine boost, eye candy

And this person here was truly beautiful

He surely wasn't from the west. Her grandpa used history facts for his novel but when it came to character design, he used different dramas as reference

Not the best source but Aradia doesn't judge

The person in front was the epitome of a Chinese character from a wuxia[1] drama

The man had milky pale skin, waist length white hair was made into a loose braid and thrown over his shoulder. Two long bang pieces framed his perfectly sculpted face

A sharp jaw line, emerald, doe eyes, a slim, upturned nose and plum, softly tinted lips

He was dressed in a white changshan[2], long elongated neck and wide sleeves. Both had a black border. On top he wore a flowy white with light pink robe

The long robe almost dragged on the ground, almost. The sleeves were even wider, almost reaching his ankles, it had a thick soft pink border

A long, also white, tassel, dangling from a jade talisman was hanging from the waist down. The talisman had intricate patterns carved into it, probably symbolising a clan

The man gave off a stoic and aloof aura. In his hand was a long Chinese smoking pipe, with gold, white and emerald. A string with beads was attached from the shank to the stem, close to the bowl was yet another white tassel, dangling

The man despite his aloofness, seemed surprised by the intense gaze of the two children in front of him

He slowly raised his hand, as to check if he was truly the subject of their attention. The duo moved their eyes in sync, looking from the man's face to his hand

Getting his answer, his long fingers twitched for a second before he drew his hand back, hidden in those long sleeves yet again

"Who are you?"

Lir asked bluntly

"I could ask the same of you"

The man only glanced at Aradia before he stared at Lir

'rude'

The red head couldn't help but raise her eyebrows in amusement. She understands Lir is a water spirit so obviously people will pay more attention to him

Surprisingly though, Lir wasn't hiding like Aradia had thought he would-, which makes sense as the man did end up seeing Lir anyway

"I'm Lir, now answer my question"

The man frowned the more he scrutinized the pixy, which Lir mirrored

"My name.. is Ming Baishi"

'ah, I was right then'

«He is not from the west'

Lir said in her mind just as she thought that

«i was thinking the same thing»

"You're not from the west, no?"

Aradia spoke up, looking at his appearance yet again

The man, Ming Baishi- as he had introduced himself, looked her way before nodding

"What are you doing near this place?"

The man paused before looking into the magic forest. His face was devoid of any emotions but his gaze was intense

"I.. came here with a few people I know"

Now that Aradia thought about it, although his voice was low and nice to listen to, it had a slight rasp to it. Did he perhaps have a cold?

"Where are they?"

Lir asked again, he seemed conflicted

Ming Baishi's lips turned into the ghost of a smile before it fell, he said quietly

"I do not know, I'm looking for them.. I have to give them something"

Lir and Aradia looked at each other, this was sketchy

"What.. do you mean?"

"I and my few fellow scholars and piers came to the west for.. research purposes but we stumbled upon the illusion mansion, we were unaware of its presence.. I'm hoping they have made it out.. because I need to go to them"

Aradia and Lir listened with interest, well it did make sense

"And you didn't?"

The red head said instead

Ming Baishi seemed surprised by the question but he smoothly said:

"I stumbled into the magic forest, it is only now due to the mansion collapsing that I was able to find my way out"

This piqued Lir's interest

"Magic forest? Someone can survive in there?"

"You survive anywhere with a strong enough desire"

Well that was an interesting response

"You're looking for something, aren't you?"

Ming Baishi said with a slight tilt of his head

Lir paused but in the end nodded

"Yes.. we are"

Ming Baishi seemed to be in deep thought before speaking sweetly

"If I help you fellows.. could you help me go.. home?"

Lir looked at Aradia's way. Although help would be nice, the likelihood of him being actually able to provide help was close to none

"You are on the look out for an enigma, one that the world has long forgotten... Tell me, do you not feel a.. familiar presence, almost as if it is something you should know the most about?"

His intense gaze was fixed on Lir; who seemed frozen in the air. How could he not be shocked? This unknown man spoke exactly of the annoying thoughts in his brain right now

Aradia stiffened as well, this was an unexpected turn of events. This mysterious man and his words.. he was dangerous, wasn't he?

Clouds started to form in the once clear sky, it was getting dark as well. Nightfall was right around the corner

"Do not fret, I mean no farm, truly I only wish to help in return for a favour"

Ming Baishi spoke smoothly, with an elegance not easy to obtain so young

'just how old is this man?'

There was no way this man was older than twenty, so if Aradia thought about it like this, they were technically almost the same age

"And you are aware of this.. "long forgotten object".. how so?"

Ming Baishi smiled for the first time but it was nowhere near warm, no, it was a chilling threat

"My fellow scholars and I came for this object, crossed the sea and came to the west to find any whereabouts of this object.."

"What is this object then?"

Lir intervened, he knew the man could very well lie about it and he wouldn't know but a gut feeling told him he'd get all the answers he needs

"The object.. is a weapon, one that could be of mass destruction if put in the wrong hands, a sword that grows the more it breaks.. the shattered sword"

Aradia's eye widened in shock and Lir let out a gasp. She knew this sword, it had been talked about plenty of times in the novel

The first time the protagonist got news on it was closely after the war was going to begin. It is said the sword came into existence on its own, no one knows what the actual shattered sword looks like because those who knew were long gone; however, thanks to some almost ruined manuscripts, they sword is depicted to have a pointed gold hilt, long colourless shards that reflect all the colours of the world under the sun in a vague selohet of a sword with more, much smaller shards around it

Just like the myth suggests, every time the sword breaks into more shards, the stronger it gets. It is said that when no visible shards remain, the world will meet its end, that's how powerful it'll get

Aradia, however, had no idea spirits were the original guardians of this sword

In the novel it had been mentioned that prior to the individual regions rule, when every thing was together as a whole, the "guardians" protected many weapons like the shattered sword from falling into the wrong hands but after war broke out, the weapons were lost and so was its guardians history

The red head understood why Lir felt a familiar presence without being able to name it now, it was in his blood to be a guardian even if he himself had never heard or seen those weapons

During her endless thoughts, Lir too had a moment of enlightenment

He too recognised that name, it was one of the few names the spirits still remembered and made others know if it as well, in hopes one day they'll find the lost weapons again

After the war many if not all original guardians had perished, those who did remain didn't wish to burden later generations with an endless search but they knew, being a protector was in their blood, even unaware they would still look for the weapons

"Oh my, it seems I have startled you two.., say, do you trust me now or do I have to show you evidence?"

Lir was the first to speak again

"What evidence..?"

Ming Baishi smiled again, it once again made the already night time cold, chiller than before

His body glowed softly before something rested on the palm of his hand, it was a small shard of the shattered sword...

Bonus:

*Aradia to Ming Baishi at first glance*:

Aradia: I'd call you fuck boy but since I don't know your gender I'll just call you a fuck

Ming Baishi: ...

 To be continued...

[1]a genre of Chinese fiction featuring itinerant warriors of ancient China, often depicted as capable of superhuman feats of martial arts and are known to have pretty inaccurate clothes

[2] literally means long robe, a type of Chinese men's clothes

Hi, yes I'm alive and I'll continue this story

So what went wrong eh? First, I changed schools, wow, then I moved on the last day of February, wonderful, on the second of March I had to go on a trip with long distance family for the whole day afterwards I went on a bike ride and finally got home, oh yeah and during this whole time we were setting up the house again

Anyway after that I caught a cold and a fever and a sore throat, nice, fever went away but still had a cold, got Ramadan break for 40 days, two weeks ish were spent sick and the rest was me dying finishing all the chapters that'll come in mid-terms because two years of no studying is kicking my ass right now

You thought we were done? Oh baby, after that I got my period, shocker, got cramps so bad, I was practically bed ridden for three days straight, no exaggeration or joke, I was quite frankly on my death bed

And lastly, no fucking motivation, I'm having severe burn outs and everything else mentioned above happening one after the other didn't help

Oh, I had actually written 500 words for this chapter longgggg ago but the one night I had motivation to make it into 800 I accidentally deleted the whole thing and didn't have any backups, yeah that's my life

Anyway, I'm sincerely sorry for not updating, I really wanted to post and move onto things that I have planned for the next two chapters but I couldn't even bring myself to look at my writing app let alone open it, I was that burnt out

Hopefully I'll actually be able to update every two weeks with a 2k word chapter from now on, I'll try my hardest so please forgive me if I end up not doing so or the chapter being a little late

Anyway I actually wrote a one shot two days ago because I wanted to write just not this chapter or this story, it's on AO3 and webnovel under the same account, go check it out btw it's called "you in my faded memory"

But yeah this is all I wanted to say

I hope y'all enjoyed this chapter as much as I liked writing it

Have a good day, afternoon, evening or night

Once again please forgive this lowly author for any grammatical mistakes

And I'll you in the next chapter

Bye.

Words: 2,541