Chapter 182: 246. Party

As her friends and family sat around her, chatting, drinking, and generally enjoying themselves, a realization struck Jia like the thunderbolt from a divine tribulation—she did not like social events. A small gathering for tea with Eunae and Rika was nice, and she’d done fine at the formal dinner hosted by Lord Noguchi, but this was different. This was a party, and something about the cross-chatter grated on her nerves in a way that was hard to place. Hanako and Jung were discussing children over Rika and Minami arguing about something, Fujino and Satou—no, Kasai—attempting to discuss politics but getting distracted by Eui and Ja Yun making a game of seeing which substances Muddy would absorb.

Actually, everyone was getting distracted by Muddy. It was a bit surprising that Eui took to the party better than Jia did. She was shy around strangers and slow to make friends, but once she was comfortable she was much more socially active than Jia.

All of this left Jia feeling a little bit out of place. She was glad her friends were enjoying themselves, and she felt more than a little second-hand happiness at their levity, but she felt more like an observer than a participant. As fate would have it, she wasn’t the only one.

“You’ve been awfully quiet tonight, Jia.”

Jia glanced up from her wine to see Eunae leaning against the wall next to her. The small mess hall they’d taken over for their party was quite crowded, but there was enough space for Jia to find a quiet corner to herself—now invaded by Eunae’s inexorable force of personality. Not that it was unwelcome.

“I guess. I’ve got a lot on my mind tonight.”

Eunae hummed thoughtfully as she took a sip of wine.

“When do you not? I thought part of the purpose of this gathering was to take your mind off of all the things burdening it. But I think we both know you’re just making excuses.”

“Yeah, maybe. So what if I am?”

The princess shrugged.

“Nothing wrong with that, I suppose. You might not believe me, but I feel much the same. I’m not made for gatherings like this.”

Jia raised an eyebrow incredulously and Eunae giggled.

“Oh, is that so hard to believe?”

“Eunae, you’ve bulldozed your way into being friends with everyone. You’re on a first name basis with Master Ienaga, who literally calls everyone else by their family names.”

Eunae blushed.

“Well, admittedly I might have abused my status a bit for that particular privilege. Still, think it through a bit. How often did you ever see me leaving my dorm back at the academy apart from classes? My moniker of “forgotten princess” isn’t just because my family hates me—I’ve never been much for public appearances.”

Jia frowned, trying to reconcile Eunae’s reclusive behavior with the social juggernaut she’d come to know and love.

“Why, then? If you don’t like company, why try so hard to make friends?”

“I could ask you the same thing. Isn’t it the entire basis of your cultivation?”

“That wasn’t an answer.”

Eunae covered her mouth with a sleeve and giggled.

“No, I suppose not. In my case, I wanted to prove to myself that I could. That I could get along with people without using my powers. I might have overcorrected a bit, but I’ve always wanted real friends, and it wasn’t until the academy that I truly understood what that meant.”

Jia stared down at her drink, wishing that the alcohol in the wine had any sort of effect on her. Apparently there were qi-infused wines that could get cultivators drunk in Qin, but Jia didn’t have any and they would be dangerous to Jung anyway. She drained the cup regardless, sighing as she finished.

“I don’t think I know how to slow down.”

Eunae tilted her head curiously at Jia’s admission, waiting patiently for an elaboration.

“Ever since I was just a child, all I’ve ever done is push myself. I think it’s why Jung paid so much attention to me when we were still in the orphanage. No matter how much I stole, how much trouble I got in, I was never satisfied. I always wanted more. When Jung tried entrusting Narae to me, I think she thought that she could depend on me because of how driven I was, but all it did was give me a glimpse of my future—and I wanted more than that.

“So I ran. I got away from the orphanage, and while I still hate myself a little bit for abandoning Jung and Narae back then, I don’t regret it. I never will. I never stopped running, never stopped pushing myself for more. Then I joined the academy and it was the same. I kept training, kept pushing myself—you remember when Eui was trying to get me to stop practicing Absolute Awareness?”

Eunae nodded solemnly.

“I seem to recall her mentioning picking you up out of a pool of your own blood. Though, I’d be one to talk—Rika did the same for me when I first developed the ability to control my Soulfire.”

“Well that was just one case out of dozens—maybe hundreds. Rika likes to joke about how ‘cultivation-brained’ we are, but that’s honestly mostly just me dragging Eui into my pace. I don’t know how to stop. Even right now all I can think about is all the problems around me and how to solve them. I need to develop my control of divine essence without triggering a tribulation and getting us all killed, I need to help Rika develop her simulacrum technique and learn it myself in order to give Heian her independence, I need to learn more about Soulfire so that we can figure out how you can remove your geas from me, Muddy’s got some kind of identity crisis that only Ja Yun understands, and that’s not even the beginning, when we get to Qin—”

Eunae flicked Jia in the forehead to cut her off, putting her hands on her hips and frowning down in a strangely matronly way.

“Stop that! Jia, it’s fine if you don’t feel like socializing, but you really do need to relax. If you can’t do that on your own, then you leave me no choice but to help you.”

“What’s that supposed to—woah!”

Before Jia could finish, Eunae grabbed her by the hand and started dragging her off towards the gathering.

“Come on, Jia. You’re going to have some fun tonight if it kills you!”

Jia chuckled ruefully. As usual, Eunae was a force to be reckoned with. Before they arrived at the circle of friends who had all congregated around one table for some reason, Eunae spoke in a very low voice, so that only Jia could hear it.

“Not all of the problems you described are yours Jia. You don’t need to take them all on by yourself. We’ll talk later.”

 

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“Place your bets, place your bets! Is it mud?! Will the elemental accept it?”

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Eui’s voice cut through the din of shouting as people clamored to make their wagers. All of Jia’s friends, and apparently a few soldiers who had been drawn to gambling like moths to a flame, were gathered in a tight circle around the elemental and a red-faced Ja Yun holding what appeared to be a piece of hard candy above Muddy’s transparent wobbling form.

Their system was simple—they’d pick some random substance, then people could wager whether or not the elemental would absorb and incorporate it. Those who guessed correctly would receive their money back plus an amount from the other side proportional to their own wager. Apparently Ja Yun was the one keeping track of the calculations in her head.

Once Eui had accepted all the wagers, Ja Yun dropped the candy into Muddy’s waiting pseudopods. The assembled crowd watched with bated breath as the candy floated inside Muddy’s transparent body, then erupted into cheers and groans as it began to dissolve.

“Oh come on! How is that water or earth?! It’s made of plants!”

Jia glanced sidelong at Minami Yuuko as the girl protested the results, frowning. Had she not paid attention in elemental theory classes? Wood essence was the Yang aspect of Earth and Water—in other words, Mud. Jia wasn’t entirely sure what the elemental was doing with the leftover Yang essence, but that seemed like a pretty easy one to guess. No wonder Minami was having a hard time teaching the Yamato soldiers magic.

“Does anyone else have something to test? We’re accepting all wagers!”

Eui was getting way too into it, but so was everyone else. In an instant, everyone was clamoring for her attention, shouting out suggestions or even just wagers—already over eager to get to the next bet. Eui laughed as she shot down most of the suggestions.

“We’re not doing wine again—stop trying to get the elemental drunk! No, cleaning the floor does not count—you’re just trying to get out of cleanup duties. Anyone else?!”

Jia raised her hand.

“I have an idea.”

Despite the din of the crowd, Jia was certain that Eui would hear her—the benefits of sharing sensations. Eui pointed at her with a huge grin.

“Oh! My lovely partner has a suggestion! Anything for you, darling!”

Jia blushed. Eui never talked like that normally, but apparently an immunity to getting drunk did not save one from getting caught up in the atmosphere. But all eyes were on her now, so she pressed on.

“I’ll wager a thousand pounds of gold that Muddy won’t eat the next thing you give it—no matter what it is.”

The entire room fell silent as everyone stared at her in shock. Everyone but Eui, who had erupted into cackling laughter, and Eunae who had buried her face in her palms. Jia flushed bright red as she glanced nervously between the blank stares.

“W-what?! What did I say?”

Hanako stepped forward and put a hand on Jia’s shoulder.

“Jia, nobody has that kind of money. That’s a ridiculous wager.”

Jia’s face heated up so much she felt as if steam was going to start coming out of her ears. Her tail lashed involuntarily as she shrunk back in embarrassment.

“I-I thought cultivators were all rich!”

There were a few polite chuckles, but Minami shook her head.

“You’ve been way too spoiled. This is a camp of soldiers. Even most academy students wouldn’t be able to make that kind of wager—hell, where did you get that kind of money?!”

Jia covered her face and tried her best to disappear, but when that didn’t work she opted to just answer the question.

“I won a lot of it from Yan Zhihao. The rest came from Yan Yue—though we were planning to give that part back when we saw her again.”

Minami blinked, then laughed uproariously.

“Ahahaha! Holy shit Jia, you robbed that sect blind! No wonder they want to kill you. Well if you make a bet like that, it’s gonna cause problems so maybe take it down a few notches?”

Jia nodded, then reduced her bet to something more reasonable after conferring with Eui—which she should have done in the first place, in retrospect. It was still a higher wager than anyone else had made, however. Jia had absolute confidence in her bet. So, apparently, did Fujino Eiji, who had very nearly matched her bet before quickly leaving the building only to return with a handful of literal mud.

Ja Yun frowned when he held it out to her.

“I’m not touching that. You feed it to Muddy.”

Fujino shrugged, then held his down out to dangle the ball of mud dramatically above the elemental. Muddy was already reaching up eagerly with its pseudopods, and the boy grinned smugly.

“Are you ready to lose, Miss Lee?”

Jia didn’t bother responding. She was too busy concentrating on the ball of mud. Directly manipulating essence outside of her body and aura was currently a key part of her training. She’d seen xiantian cultivators do it before, casting spells or creating dynamic effects with a simple effort of will or a wave of their hands. While complex tasks like that were still beyond her, just adding or removing essence from a bit of inanimate material was practically child’s play.

Fujino’s smile faltered when he noticed her look of intense focus.

“Miss Lee? Wait, what are you doing? Whatever it is, I don’t think—ow!”

He yelped in surprise as the ball of mud in his hand suddenly began to steam, dropping it reflexively. Muddy moved faster than Jia had ever seen it, zipping out from under the steaming ball of mud and latching onto Ja Yun’s ankle. The ball hit the ground not with the splat that everyone expected, but a dull thud.

The smoking bit of rock continued to heat up until it was glowing red before Eui finally broke the silence, grinning viciously.

“Jia wins! Pay up, losers!”

Jia smiled to herself as Eui fended off the eruption of cheating accusations with assurances that technically there was no rule against what she had done. That’s right. Nobody said she couldn’t just infuse the material with Air and Fire essences completely unpalatable to the elemental—they just assumed it wasn’t possible. Perhaps Jia was missing the point a little bit, but who said she couldn’t relax and practice at the same time? She was already starting to have fun!