Chapter 93: 162. Return

It was a little bit surreal, walking through the familiar shanty town outside of Nayeong’s walls. Well, technically Jia and her escort weren’t walking through it, since the slum-dwelling denizens knew better than to set up too close to the road. Jia recognized some of the more permanent structures—rickety wooden shacks that served as dwellings for those trying to eke out an honest living at the edge of the city—but the majority of the town consisted of temporary shelters such as tents, tarps, or even the occasional ambitious stall with some scam-artist trying to peddle whatever junk they’d managed to scrounge or steal.

It was home. All Jia’s life, until recently, she’d lived in places like these. Even the orphanage she’d grown up in had technically been inside city walls, but that had only been an office—the actual grounds were a ratty structure that was right at home in the ever-changing slums of a Goryeon city. Growing up, Jia had never questioned it. There was always a shanty town in every city, and she’d just accepted that as the way things were. Now, more grown up and better educated, she understood things more clearly.

Goryeo had a population problem. While her country had the smallest territory and population of any of the three great nations, it had by far the highest population density. The nature of the shield cities inherently limited the amount of space available to live in, and there were just too many people to fit comfortably within the city walls. As a result, the less wealthy ended up stuck outside the city in shanty towns like the ones she’d grown up in. Without easy access to the city, opportunities to make money were scarce, without money one couldn’t secure a place within the city. A self-perpetuating spiral of poverty.

Once, that was Jia’s place in the world. One of the have-nots born into misfortune—doomed to exist on the peripheries of society until she was taken by sickness, starvation, or violence. It felt surreal then, for her to be walking with an escort of guards—not to keep her prisoner, but to keep the so-called dregs of society away from her. Dregs that only four years ago would have included herself. She recognized the looks she got from the slum-dwellers—envy, jealousy, hatred. Many of them eyed her up, as if searching for an opportunity—balancing the risk of trying to rob her against the potential reward. The smart ones immediately looked elsewhere, while the less smart ones were scared off by her ‘guards’. As if they were the danger.

At the gates, they were ushered into the city proper without so much as a word. The contingent of guards surrounding her—led by the mage—was all the identification needed. Inside the city was a completely different world. Crowded streets flanked by tall and sturdy wooden buildings, some as high as five stories. Goryeon architecture had long since learned to make the most of their limited space, and it was practically a sign of status to live in a shorter or wider building within the cities. Nayeong was one of the smaller cities, but even so the streets were packed shoulder to shoulder with half-spirits, and the guards had to constantly shout to clear a path.

This too was home to Jia, in a way. She’d grown up learning all the ways to sneak into cities and take advantage of the crowded streets. Even as a mortal she’d been skilled at weaving her way between the crowds, plucking coin purses like ripe fruits off of a vine as she went. Within her domain, she could sense a few intrepid pickpockets doing precisely that as the crowd gawked at her passing. Her expensive-looking Yamato robes and guard contingent clearly marked her as an important person. Jia felt herself blushing a bit under the attention—it felt so wrong.

Soon they arrived at the city center. The square was taken up by a bustling market, filled with the pleasant scents of food vendors, and the noisy hubbub of merchants hawking their wares—Jia’s old hunting grounds. Directly opposite the entrance to the square was a short, wide building whose size and placement clearly indicated its importance—the city hall. Jia was led straight up and into the building, through a familiar lobby, past a familiar line of waiting people, and up to the familiar office of the city administrator.

Unlike the last time she’d been here, she did not have to wait in line while being scrutinized by rightfully suspicious guards. Instead, the guards maintained a professional attitude—bordering on obsequious—as they led her straight past curious onlookers, skipping the line entirely and entering the office with little more than a polite knock to announce them.

The city’s administrator was not familiar to Lee Jia. Much older than Tae In-Su had been, the magus looked to be in his forties or fifties—though Jia knew just how much looks could be deceiving among cultivators. From his essence, she estimated him to be somewhere in the middle of the second stage and tried to remind herself that reaching that level at all was usually considered quite the accomplishment. He had round, fuzzy, brown-furred ears and sharp looking teeth, but Jia couldn’t really identify any other signs of his ancestry—bear, perhaps?

The administrator frowned and grunted as they entered, but quickly recognized the other mage’s serious expression and turned to the person he had been meeting with. His voice was low and gravelly as he spoke.

“I’m afraid we’re going to have to cut this short. It seems that trouble has arrived on my doorstep. Ask one of the guards outside to lead you to the filing room and have the scribe fill out a report—I’ll get back to you about your crop issue.”

The woman bowed gratefully and hurried out, glancing nervously at Jia as she went. Once the door was firmly shut, the administrator cast a privacy spell and turned to the mage escorting Lee Jia.

“What’s all this about then, Magus Hwa?”

The mage—Hwa, apparently—bowed before speaking in a stiff, formal tone.

“Administrator Seo, sir! A caravan from Yamato has arrived claiming to be a diplomatic envoy. High Magus Lee Jia is here to vouch for their authenticity.”

Jia raised a curious eyebrow at the appellation. Where did ‘high magus’ come from? Administrator Seo’s eyebrows climbed into his hairline as he stood up from his desk and rounded it to regard Lee Jia.

“Is that so? You know, my predecessor left a note about a ‘Miss Lee Jia’ matching your description precisely. It must have been quite the bounty you lifted off of poor Tae In-Su for you to have found such fortune in the meantime.”

A smile slowly crept onto Jia’s face, and she bowed respectfully to the administrator as she responded.

“That it was, Magus Seo. My time in the Grand Academy is a memory more dear to me than all the treasures in the world.”

Magus Hwa’s eyes widened in shock, and he sputtered incredulously.

“Wh—Administrator, you don’t actually believe that—”

Seo cut the man off by cuffing him across the temple.

“Idiot! Of course I believe her! She shows up on our doorstep in the company of a foreign princess without even attempting to hide her identity, presumably knocks you and your squad over like a bunch of fumbling toddlers, then strolls in here with all the confidence in the world. What reason could she possibly have to lie?”

“But—they could be—wait...how did you know about the woman claiming to be Lady Hayakawa Kaede?”

“Because we were expecting them you dullard! Which you would know if you read the briefing reports. It’s a wonder you ever managed to graduate as a mage. No wonder you always end up stuck on border patrols! Get out of my sight and arrange for them to be escorted inside the city. There’s an empty apartment complex in the fourteenth district that’s been converted into a temporary consulate. If even a single hair on one of their heads is disturbed, I’ll assign you to sewer management for a decade!”

Hwa snapped a quick salute and practically dashed out the door in his haste to comply with the order. As soon as Jia and Seo were alone in the room, the administrator deflated a bit.

“That was a bluff, you know. Sewer management for a city like this is nightmarishly complex and I’d never trust a buffoon like Hwa to it. Please, have a seat Miss Lee. Let’s talk.”

Jia wasn’t sure why she was even still here, since her business was apparently concluded before she’d even needed to say anything, but she shrugged and sat down anyway. Without being certain what to talk about, she decided to pick up on what Administrator Seo had said.

“Why not use formations? For the waste, I mean.”

Seo barked out a sharp laugh as he took his own seat behind his desk once more.

“Hah! Spoken like a disciple of The Snake. We can’t all be legendary masters of formations. Disposing of the entire city’s waste like that would be prohibitively costly—no, better to find more mundane solutions. Despite what you may have learned in that so-called ‘academy’ of yours, there’s more to being a mage than just spellcraft.”

Jia blushed at her own ignorance. Though it was her own homeland, she actually knew precious little about how her country operated. It had simply been too far above her notice as a street urchin, and too far beneath it as an academy student.

“Sorry, I didn’t realize that. I’m still relatively new to all this. And I actually did most of my magical study under Magus Hwang Sung, not Do Hye.”

The administrator shook his head in disbelief.

“Already xiantian and she says she’s ‘new’. You’re quite the anomaly, Miss Lee.”

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Seo shot her a knowing smile, as if he’d just revealed some grand secret of hers—she felt a little bad shutting it down.

“Uh, not xiantian—sorry. Is that why that guard—Hwa?—called me ‘high magus’ earlier?”

Seo frowned, looking a bit abashed at the correction.

“Er, no—not quite. Magus is a rank given to college graduates, so you’re not even that. High Magus is a rank given to the college deans. I honestly don’t know why Hwa called you that. The man is a bonafide moron.”

Jia giggled at the straight-faced admonishment.

“What about Grand Magus?”

The administrator rolled his eyes.

“A nonsense title that Do Hye made up for himself when he took the position of prime minister. Unfortunately, it seems to have started a trend, as Prime Minister Grand Magus Princess Seong Min took up the title, making her an absolute pain in the ass to discuss in conversation.”

“I can only imagine. Anyway, was there something you actually needed me for, or did you just want to have a chat?”

Magus Seo sighed, scratching the back of his head with a grunt.

“Hrm, a bit of both, I suppose. First, let me formally apologize for the way you were treated at the border—Magus Hwa was out of line. I hope you didn’t hurt the poor soldiers too badly.”

Jia shook her head.

“I didn’t raise so much as a finger against them.”

Seo nodded appreciatively.

“Good, good. Thank you. Second—candidly Miss Lee, I knew more about you than I let on before. We did receive word about your tricky legal matter.”

“You mean my partner.”

Jia was frowning, but to his credit Administrator Seo just nodded in agreement.

“Yes, exactly. Don’t worry, for the time being the exile—”

“Her name is An Eui.”

Seo flinched back from Jia’s icy expression as she interrupted.

“R-right—Miss An Eui will be admitted to the city for now. However, with the exception of yourself, all of the Yamato envoys will need to be granted proper passports and assigned a proper military escort before they can make their way towards the capital. Miss An Eui’s case presents a unique challenge.”

Jia leaned back in her chair heavily and sighed. She’d known that, but it still bothered her to hear it. Maybe they should look further into getting that brand removed after all—there had to be a way. Seo leaned forward and held a hand out to reassure her.

“Now, that’s not to say it’s impossible! It’s good that Lady Hayakawa sent notice ahead. You’ve arrived a bit earlier than expected, but I have it on good authority that a barrister will be arriving in the city to oversee your case.”

Lee Jia let herself relax a little bit. At least they weren’t rejecting Eui out of hand. She wasn’t sure what they’d do if that was the case, but it would probably involve violence.

“What kind of a chance do we have?”

Administrator Seo’s smile became a bit strained as he responded with the desperate tone of a man trying desperately to find a silver lining around a dark cloud.

“W-well, the barrister in question is under the employ of the Sun clan—they are the ones who hold the charges against Miss An in the first place, so their cooperation is quite auspicious.”

Jia grimaced at the mention of Sun, and the administrator started speaking more quickly.

“And the barrister himself is a talented young mage who I have reason to believe you know quite well!”

Jia sat forward, thoughts of Sun Jaehwa thoroughly dispelled. A friend? She had precious few of those in Goryeo, and if she narrowed down the list—but why would Dae be working for the Sun clan? Jia couldn’t keep the excitement out of her voice.

“Who is it?”

Picking up on her enthusiasm, Magus Seo spread his arms out as he proudly announced the name of the person who would be helping them arrange for Eui’s legal return to the country.

“None other than my own predecessor, Tae In-Su!”