Chapter 92: 161. Welcome

A Yamato-style forced march really was quite impressive. Without time wasted on resting or carrying around that ridiculous palanquin, what would have been the last week of their journey took only a couple of days. The entrance to Nayeong City’s shield formation was marked by a familiar gatehouse—the same one that Lee Jia had been ejected from on that fateful day three years previous. It looked a little bit silly from a distance—a single wooden archway over the road, not attached to any visible walls. It didn’t even have an actual gate, but that’s because it didn’t need one.

The gatehouses were used to mark the edge of the shield formations and enable trade between nations. They were used almost exclusively by foreigners and merchants, while most foot-traffic would just go around and bypass them entirely—Lee Jia certainly did whenever she’d travelled between cities. The shields were only obstacles to beasts, spirits, foreigners, and exiles. Unfortunately, since everyone in their caravan other than Lee Jia fell into the latter two categories, they had to use the gate.

Hayakawa Kaede took the lead, followed closely by Jia, Rika, and Eui. Their approach was halted by a small group of armed guards, though Jia was unable to sense whether any of them were mages through the shield formation, which blocked her domain. Now that Jia had the education to appreciate them, she really was impressed by her homeland’s signature shields. The old formation master Do Hye had supposedly improved on them significantly, but they’d been around since the foundation of the nation. Nobody was really certain who’d first erected them. If these were what Do Hye had based the shield formation around the Grand Academy on, and the demons occupying the former academy grounds had reclaimed it, then it was no wonder the Empire was having so much trouble dealing with them.

Jia returned her attention to the present in time to catch the end of an argument between Hayakawa and the leader of the guards.

“—don’t care who you are. Your arrival was not scheduled, and I can’t let you in without approval from the city administrator.”

Hayakawa huffed indignantly, speaking through her teeth with barely restrained anger.

“As I said, we are on a sensitive diplomatic mission by invitation of Queen Seong. Our arrival should be expected, but the time was necessarily kept secret in order to prevent disruption. A precaution which proved to be quite necessary, as we were attacked on the road.”

The guard met her with straight-faced professionalism, speaking as if reading from a scroll.

“My condolences, Miss, but I’m afraid that doesn’t change anything. Now please clear the road and wait here for your approval to be submitted. If you are who you say you are, then you can expect to be approved within the month.”

Hayakawa practically choked on her response.

“Month!? We might be followed by at least one xiantian cultivator, to say nothing of the fact that the limited supplies we were able to carry with us won’t last that long! This is absurd! Is this how Goryeo treats foreign diplomats?”

“With respect, Miss, that’s not really my problem. You should have planned your trip better.”

“Planned!? To be attacked by one of Qin’s strategic military assets? You do realize that we already have tokens that will allow us entry, right? What’s to stop us from simply going around this ridiculous gatehouse.”

The soldier’s face hardened.

“Bypassing the shields without express permission would be considered an act of war, Miss. We’d be forced to consider you a hostile invasion and act accordingly.”

Jia sighed. This was getting nowhere, so she stepped forward.

“Um, pardon the interruption, but I don’t suppose I could help vouch for the group, or otherwise expedite the process of getting approval? I should be able to enter the city unimpeded.”

The man glanced at Lee Jia as if he’d only just noticed her, then did a double take.

“Eh? Miss, are you travelling with these people?”

Jia nodded.

“I’m a mage returning to Goryeo from a trip to Yamato. I’ve been acting as an ambassador.”

She kept her face as straight as possible as she stretched the truth beyond recognition. Technically she was an ‘honorary consul’ of Yamato, which if she understood correctly made her a sort of sub-ambassador to Goryeo from Yamato. However, as a Goryeon native, she expected the guard to assume the opposite—a misunderstanding she had no intention of correcting. Jia tried not to frown as she realized that she might have spent too much time around Yue. The guard frowned.

“That’s quite the claim, Miss...?”

“Lee Jia.”

Jia almost immediately regretted giving her real name as the man's eyes lit up with recognition and his face hardened.

“There’s a Miss Lee Jia matching your description listed as persona non-grata within Nayeong city, filed by one City Administrator, Magus Tae In-Su. Clear the road! If you or any of your associates attempt to enter the city you will be met by force!”

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Lee Jia covered her face with a hand and groaned in frustration. A mage—it had to be. No mortal would have been able to recall such a random detail on the spot like that. Especially not with such clarity. She’d had enough. She took a chance and strode forward. The guards lowered their weapons at her, but she ignored it. As Jia carefully stepped past the threshold of the shield formation, she felt a tingling sensation and a momentary sense of vertigo as her connection to Eui became strained in a way that she couldn’t put into words. Thankfully, it didn’t feel like it was in any danger of breaking, and once Jia was across, she acted as a sort of bridge that allowed her connection to stay completely intact, thanks to the one-way nature of the formation.

She was immediately met by nearly a dozen spears pointing straight at her, but she wasn’t worried about them. As she had suspected, most of the guards were mortals, led by a single first stage mage—the one who’d been doing the speaking. Judging by the fact that he was running a gatehouse rather than a city, Jia could only guess that he hadn’t done too well in the colleges—or maybe he was just a commoner, she reminded herself not to make judgements. Regardless, none of them were capable of harming her.

“Stop right there! Not another step or we will employ lethal force!”

Jia suppressed a chuckle and shook her head ruefully. Hayakawa hissed at her through clenched teeth.

“Lee Jia, what the hell are you doing!?”

“I’m getting a meeting with the administrator. Don’t worry, I’ve done this before—uh, sort of.”

The last time Jia had met with the administrator of Nayeong city she’d done so by sneaking into the city and just lining up like a normal person. This was a decidedly more direct method of getting her way, but she was reasonably confident it would work. The mage guard gawked at her incredulously.

“You do realize that the standing orders are to kill you if you’re caught sneaking into the city, right?”

Jia shrugged.

“I didn’t sneak in. Besides, I doubt that Tae In-Su still feels that way. If you really insist on it, you’re welcome to try, but it won’t go well for you.”

The guard’s face hardened.

“Is that a threat!?”

Behind Jia, Eui started snickering while Rika and Hayakawa held their faces in their hands. Jia shook her head calmly.

“No, I’m just saying that you can’t. I wasn’t lying about being a mage.”

The mage eyed her skeptically.

“I highly doubt that, seeing as you were some homeless whelp three years ago. Admittedly, you clean up nicely, but this charade has gone on long enough. I’m calling your bluff. Make an example of her.”

The last part was addressed to the guards, who quickly advanced on Jia. She sighed ruefully, not quite the result she was hoping for, but she was prepared for it. She circulated her qi, pushing it into one of her less-used aura techniques. The Domain of the Earthen Realm was a popular technique among Qin’s Great Awakening Dragon Sect, from whom she’d stolen—or rather, won most of her manuals. Normally it allowed them to create fields of gravity that they could control freely. Unfortunately, Jia’s soul was yin-aligned, and gravity-element spiritual techniques were beyond her. Instead, her version of the technique expressed a different element—stone.

It had taken a lot of fiddling to figure out what stone meant to her as an element, and how it differed from earth. After all, she could use earth-element magic to summon walls and pillars of stone. So what was the difference? The answer, it turned out, was a matter of quality. Specifically, the different types of stone and their unique properties—properties that Jia’s Earthen Realm could control freely.

Jia stood serenely with her hands in her sleeves as the guards thrust their spears forward. The spears shattered like porcelain against her robes, which remained completely unharmed. Jia’s aura allowed her to control the hardness and brittleness of mundane objects within her domain. A tricky ability to use in combat with immortals, but it had its uses and she didn’t regret learning it. By strengthening her robes and weakening the spears, she was able to get the effect she wanted.

She took a step forward and the guards practically fell over themselves trying to back off. Jia reminded herself that they were innocent—she could hardly blame them for just following orders in order to protect their city to the best of their ability. Similarly, the mage who had ordered her death did so out of reasonable suspicion, so she elected to go easy on him as well. He thrust a hand out and Jia could sense the ice-element mana flowing into a talisman hidden in his robe. It was good that he wasn’t holding the talisman in his hand like some of the more careless academy students she’d faced, but his casting was so slow. Jia drew on her connection to Eui, becoming Yoshika just long enough to cast her own spell—a simple mana shield powered by her warmth element.

Jia didn’t break stride as the mage fired a sharp spike of ice directly at her face. It exploded into steam before it could reach her, and Jia calmly stepped through the cloud of vapor, coming face to face with the trembling mage. The guards had all fallen back behind him. Jia cocked her head with a sweet smile and raised her hands.

“I surrender. Please take me to the city administrator so that I can clear up this misunderstanding about outdated orders and confirm the identities of Lady Hayakawa and her entourage.”

There was a pregnant pause as everything fell silent, except for Eui’s distant cackling. The mage swallowed nervously and nodded slowly.

“Right away, Miss Lee.”