Chapter 139: 207. Trouble

Yoshika had been meditating quietly in her room when she felt it. A sudden spike of panic and confusion from Narae, who had been quietly sleeping just moments before. Unlike Haeun who had already managed to gain control of her domain, Narae and Ja Yun still had uncontrolled proto-domains—closer in nature to a mage’s aura than a proper domain. One of the disadvantages of this was that to anyone with the means to sense those domains, their emotions were loudly broadcast to the world. In this case, that disadvantage had turned out to be an extremely effective alarm.

Only the distinct lack of any fear in Narae’s aura prevented Yoshika from more drastic action. Whatever had startled her little sister awake had not registered to her as a threat. As such, instead of rushing straight to her sisters’ sides—straight through walls if need be—Yoshika instead took the opportunity to try something she’d been practicing lately.

She crafted an illusory body—not quite as intricate as one of Rika’s—and modeled it after Jia. Yoshika’s spirit form was still not something that the other residents of the house were used to, and the last thing she wanted to do was scare her sister even more. Once the illusion was complete, she split off a tiny bit of her awareness to occupy it. Just like that, she could now see and hear through the body. None of that would have been possible before she’d shared thoughts with Rika, and they’d been working together to refine the technique ever since.

Blinking her illusory eyes to get accustomed to the odd sensation of an intangible avatar, Yoshika quickly took stock of the situation in her sisters’ room. Lee Jung was still asleep, while Narae—nestled comfortably in her mother’s arms—was staring wide-eyed at a small figure that Yoshika had somehow failed to notice at first.

With a start, she recognized the figure. Raven black hair, four fluffy white tails with black tips, and notably even shorter than Jia or Eui. It could be only one person—the little fox princess, Haeun.

“Oh, someone is going to get in so much trouble for this...”

Haeun let out a sharp gasp and turned to meet Yoshika’s eyes, her entire body trembling. Ancestors, what were they going to do about this? Somehow Haeun had managed to follow them home, slipping past the palace guards, her sisters’ domains, and even Yoshika’s own attention. Even now, the little girl barely registered within the senses of her domain—noticeable only as a gap in her awareness, and even then only when she knew what to look for.

Now, she was in an awkward position. Without a doubt the princess’ disappearance would be noticed sooner than later, and if she was discovered in Yoshika’s house...well, that would be a disaster. She was about to ask Haeun why she’d fled the palace, when the little girl did something completely unexpected.

“Ah—I—I’m—aaaaaaah!”

She started crying.

“Wait, no, it’s okay Haeun, don’t cry!”

Yoshika knelt down, and she was halfway towards leaning in to hug the crying girl before remembering that her body was intangible. Meanwhile, at the sound of a crying child, Lee Jung shot up in bed, completely awake and clutching her daughter protectively.

“What’s happening? Jia? Who’s that?”

Jung’s alarm quickly turned to concern at the sight of the little girl crying in the middle of the room. She stood up and rushed over, trying to help calm the girl down. At nearly the same time, Yoshika’s real bodies arrived, followed closely behind by An Chunhei—who had apparently also woken to the sound of a crying girl, even from across the large house. Soon, Haeun was surrounded on all sides, being hushed and placated as Lee Narae peered curiously over her mother’s shoulder.

It took a few minutes, but Seong Haeun eventually calmed down enough to speak clearly again, though she still sobbed and hiccuped occasionally.

“I’m—hic—I’m sorry. I just—sniffle—wanted to see...”

Lee Jung stroked her head.

“Shh, it’s alright, honey. Take your time.”

As Haeun had relaxed a bit, so had Lee Jung and An Chunhei. The two mothers exchanged a glance that carried more meaning than even Yoshika could parse, before Chunhei turned to Yoshika, addressing Eui’s body with a low whisper.

“Those tails—she’s a Seong, isn’t she? What happened?”

Yoshika offered her mother a shrug.

“We’re not sure. She snuck right past us.”

Haeun sniffed and wiped her eyes, before pointing. All eyes fell on a very startled looking Narae.

“M-me?! What did I do?”

The little fox girl shook her head.

“N-nothing. I just wanted to meet you.”

Narae blinked in surprise.

“What?”

Suddenly, everything clicked into place. Haeun had overheard everything they talked about during the meeting—including the mention of her little sister. She’d snuck past the guards, and even evaded detection from Yoshika using a technique that reminded her of Dae’s stealth formation. A formation inspired by Yoshika’s Steps of the Stalker technique. Unless Dae’s tutoring went a lot further than he’d implied, that left only one place that Haeun might have picked up such a trick from.

“Heian!”

For the first time since Heian had become a part of her, Yoshika felt a bit of resistance as she tried to summon her familiar-turned-daughter. It was a token resistance, however, and after a moment Heian appeared before them in her human form, staring dejectedly down at her feet. Yoshika frowned down at the mischievous little cat spirit, speaking in Eui’s sternest tone.

“Heian! Did you teach the princess that stealth technique?”

Narae perked up, her eyes widening in surprise as she stared at Haeun in wonder.

“Princess?”

Yoshika shook Jia’s head.

“Not now, Narae.”

Heian scuffed at the ground with a foot. Her mannerisms had been slowly becoming more and more human, lately—which was a good sign, but it was coming with a certain amount of willfulness that was starting to cause trouble.

“I just thought we could all play together.”

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Haeun shook her head urgently, stepping up to defend her friend.

“It’s not her fault! I asked her! I’m the one who should be in trouble!”

Yoshika sighed, bending down with Jia’s body to meet the little girl’s eye level.

“You’re both in trouble—but Haeun, you need to understand that as much trouble as you might be in—we’re the ones in real trouble.”

Haeun’s eyes widened with fear. She was a smart girl—smart enough, it seemed, to realize the consequences of her actions, albeit with a bit of nudging.

“Oh—oh no! I’m so sorry! I’ll go back. Please don’t tell my sisters! I just wanted a new friend!”

“Okay, it’s okay, come here.”

As she embraced the trembling girl, Yoshika met the eyes of the others. An Chunhei and Lee Jung were nervous—the gravity of the moment weighing on them now that things had calmed down enough for them to think things through. Narae had a curious, hopeful look on her face—she didn’t understand what was happening, she just saw a mysterious new girl her own age who was apparently a princess that wanted to be her friend. Yoshika couldn’t blame her for her excitement.

With a heavy sigh, Yoshika considered how best to handle things from here. Almost immediately, she knew that it wasn’t something she could solve alone.

“Haeun, I’m going to need to talk to your sister. You are, of course, welcome in our home, and I’m sure Narae would be delighted to be your friend, but you’ve put us in a very difficult position.”

Haeun nodded slowly.

“I know...I’m sorry.”

Yoshika took a small piece of engraved jade out of Jia’s robes—the speaking stone she’d been gifted by Eunae years ago. She hadn’t used it before because it was so unsubtle—the magical connection could be detected and as soon as she activated it, every xiantian cultivator in the city would immediately know that she had contacted the palace. It was too late to worry about that, now. With a tiny drop of essence, the stone lit up and Yoshika spoke in Jia’s voice.

“Eunae—”

“Jia?!”

Eunae’s panicked voice responded almost immediately.

“Oh ancestors, Jia. This is horrible timing, Haeun is—”

“I know.”

There was a long pause, then Eunae’s voice came through again, tired and resigned.

“Oh dear.”

“Yeah. What should we do?”

“I—I might be able to handle this, now that we know where she is. Just...stay there. Don’t do anything for now. Give me thirty minutes—no, an hour. You should hear from me by then.”

Without another word, the speaking stone went dark, as Eunae closed the connection from the other side. A long, tense silence descended over the room, only to be broken as An Chunhei stood and clapped once.

“Well! Since we’re all awake now anyway, and we have a guest, why don’t I make us some snacks and we can sit down for proper introductions?”

Yoshika’s eyes widened with alarm, and she turned to her mother with Eui’s body.

“Let me handle that! You can um, make tea and help Haeun get settled in!”

“Oh, alright.”

She let out a sigh of relief. Her mother wasn’t a bad cook—in fact, Eui loved Chunhei’s home cooking. However, as their roommate Yan Yue used to complain, Eui’s cooking tended to be quite spicy. Yet it paled in comparison to An Chunhei’s cooking. Yoshika wasn’t about to subject a child to that—she’d rather not be held culpable for an assassination attempt on the princess.

 

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In the end, the troublesome children had gotten their way. After introductions, Heian, Narae, and Haeun chattered excitedly to each other the entire time they waited for Eunae. They were under more strict supervision than usual, after Haeun’s little stunt with Heian—something that Jia was going to have to interrogate later. How Haeun had managed to so quickly master a technique like that was beyond Jia’s understanding, but she intended to find out. In the meantime, though she’d said that the girls were in trouble, she didn’t have the heart to mete out justice just yet. Haeun would be getting an earful from her own family, and there was plenty of time to figure out how to punish Heian for keeping secrets as well. For now, she was content to let the girls make friends.

As promised, Eunae contacted them again at the end of the hour. Except, rather than calling on the speaking stone, she arrived in person with several palace guards in tow. She did not return Jia’s bow of greeting at the door, instead remaining straight-backed and imperious as she stared down at Jia—a performance, then.

“Magus Ambassador Lee Jia, we have arrived in response to your urgent call to take Princess Seong Haeun back into our custody. You have our gratitude for uncovering the conspiracy to kidnap the princess. It’s unfortunate that none of the perpetrators survived to be interrogated—we may never discover who was behind the plot. Nevertheless, you will be rewarded.”

Jia carefully kept a straight face, but was glad that she had kept her head bowed. What a ridiculous excuse! She couldn’t help but wonder how many people were in on the ruse, or had been paid off to keep quiet.

“Thank you, Your Highness. I’ll fetch the princess right away.”

Soon, Haeun was waving a tearful goodbye to Heian and Narae as she headed back to the palace with her sister. Overall, the consequences had been rather minor in the short term, but Jia could only imagine the rumors that would be flying in the palace by the end of the next day. She wasn’t much of a politician, but even Jia could tell how much of a strain the incident was going to put on their reputation. Kaede was going to be furious.