Yi Ner spoke with a shocked tone, her hand still frozen halfway toward the comb she'd set down moments earlier. "Young master, how did you know my name...?"
She wore a flowing white robe with a large U-shaped loop that descended from her shoulders toward her waist, the fabric catching faint traces of morning light through the room's high window. Strands of beads adorned the robe, alternating between deep-red sections and metallic golden pieces, clicking softly against one another with each small movement she made.
Below her waist, she wore a dark-black wrapped lower garment that fell loosely around her legs, pooling slightly where she knelt.
He said, "Forget it..." Shree Yan didn't want to talk about it, his gaze drifting briefly toward the window rather than meeting hers. She stared at Shree Yan, feeling suspicious, some small, wary part of her mind cataloguing the moment away for later.
Shree Yan raised his hand and gently placed it on Yi Ner's head. He slowly patted her hair, the motion unhurried, almost absent. "Don't care too much about me... I'm fine now."
A faint smile appeared on Shree Yan's face, gone again almost before it had fully settled.
"Young master, elders are waiting for you," Yi Ner said.
Shree Yan pulled his hand back and asked, "Who?"
"Young master, please come down to the guest room. There are two elders who came to meet you. They didn't give their names, but they looked like powerful elders." Yi Ner stood up, robes settling smoothly back into place, and bowed to Shree Yan. She left the room, her footsteps fading quickly down the hallway.
Shree Yan's head suddenly began to ache, a sharp pressure blooming behind his eyes without warning.
Arghhhhhhhhhhh!!
"This pain of previous memories is hurting me so much." His expression changed, jaw clenching hard enough that his teeth ached.
Guest room.
Everything in the room was decorated with ancient paintings, their frames dark with age, a luxury table polished to a deep, warm shine, glass catching light from the tall windows, and warm wooden chairs made with the skin and wool of sheepdogs, soft enough that even the sternest visitor tended to sink slightly upon sitting.
"Hey, servant, why didn't your young master come here?" Hu Meng had an impatient expression, drumming his fingers once against the arm of his chair; he was frustrated from waiting for Shree Yan.
"Elder, please be patient. The young master just woke up from a coma, like last week," Yi Ner politely replied, bowing slightly as she spoke.
"Brother Hu Meng, you need to control your fury. He just woke up a week ago."
"And you need to remember that he is our clan's prodigy, the one our clan has been searching for a hundred years for." He Meng silenced him with a firm glance.
Hu Meng controlled his rage and listened, though his fingers continued their quiet, irritated tapping.
Tak tak tak!
Suddenly, the sound of footsteps on the stairs echoed in the guest room, unhurried but deliberate.
Shree Yan is here. He greeted the elders, hands connected, and asked the elders, "Elders, I'm surprised to see you in my house. How can I help you? Is there something you need from me?"
"Haha, young master Shree Yan, congratulations. I was watching your awakening test last week. I was amazed by your awakening talent, and there is nothing that I need from you." He Meng's face lit up with amazement, leaning forward slightly in his seat.
"I'm honored that two respected elders came personally to meet me and congratulate me," Shree Yan replied with a smile and respectfulness, inclining his head slightly.
"Ahh, okay, okay, well, I came here to give you our academy's invitation card. I wanted to give this to you at the awakening test, but you fell off. I think, if you are interested, then join our academy. Don't forget it, our academy is the number one academy in the whole clan." He Meng gave Shree Yan this precious opportunity, holding the card out with both hands. His face was serious about it.
He nodded. Shree Yan's mind began calculating the possibilities. *If I go to his academy, I can grow stronger, and even if I face an advisor...*
*I'm gonna lose. Even if I create a trap for him, it wouldn't work. So I have to find a spy before they make a move against me, or I already know who the spy around me is, who is able to betray me.*
*For now I should go to the academy and start planning for the future, also for Niang Ming. That's fine for now.* After thinking that deep into his mind, Shree Yan finally agreed, accepting the invitation card with a measured, appreciative bow.
He Meng smiled. "You made a good decision, you won't regret it."
After saying this, He Meng asked for permission to leave, rising along with Hu Meng in a rustle of formal robes.
Shree Yan gave permission, walking them politely to the door before the sound of their footsteps finally faded down the hall.
*I had to go outside to find a saangee worm.* He wondered, then he turned around to Yi Ner and said, "We have to go outside, to the market, I want to buy a worm."
She nodded slowly. Shree Yan and Yi Ner left the house, stepping out into a morning grown warmer now, the earlier chill burned away by a sun climbing steadily higher.
Saangee worms are rare worms; their appearance is like snails but without a shell to protect them. They are slow. They don't have fighting abilities and can't attack.
But for humans, saangee worms are very useful for night eyes, their ability to see in the night. They work like a torch after fusing into the eyes, glowing green.
Guardians rarely find it. For mortals this worm is useful — mortals can't otherwise see. Whoever has one, it helps them see at night for farming, and can work easily for their families.
It isn't hard to refine them; an ordinary human can also be refined with normal human blood. But it's hard to find saangee worms. In the market there's only a 0.1 percent chance of finding one. But in this life Shree Yan didn't need to worry about it. He'd heard, in his previous life, of a lucky man who got one. He knows the exact location and name of the market. After living several hundred years and reincarnating with those memories, it helps him in his journey to achieve his goal.
Shree Yan knows how to use several hundred years' worth of memories as an opportunity in this life.
In the Rana world, those who are awakened were known as Guardians of the mortals. In reality, that doesn't mean that they are truly righteous guardians who help everyone. They wear a mask behind which lies something far more brutal. It is hard to trust anyone — who is righteous and who is demonic, we can't find out.
They can betray you at any time, every moment, every second. You need to realize this. Every person we meet, we eventually create a bond with — family, friends, and loved ones — can betray you without you knowing what happened or why they did it to you. And that happens when you start blindly trusting them, believing they could never do that to you.
Shree Yan and Yi Ner had stepped into the market area, the din of it rising around them almost immediately — vendors calling out prices over stacked baskets of fruit, the sharp tang of drying spices carried on the breeze. The voices of shopkeepers carried toward the road. People went about the market as ordinary humans do — playing, buying stuff, kids playing with toys, a small group of them chasing a rolling wooden hoop between two stalls.
A moment later she stopped walking, sandals scuffing to a halt against the packed dirt, and turned to Shree Yan and asked him, "Young master, what are you going to do in the future? What path do you choose to go on?"
She was the one person who had asked him that question in his entire lifetime. No one else had ever dared to ask him these questions.
But she did.
A faint smile appeared on Shree Yan's face. "Well, why did you ask me that question?" He laughed, the sound short and genuinely surprised.
Yi Ner asked Shree Yan with a confused expression, tilting her head slightly, "Young master, did I say something strange?"
That question made Shree Yan laugh again. He stepped closer to Yi Ner's ear, close enough that his breath stirred a loose strand of her hair. His face turned serious. "You asked me something no one dares to ask, because I don't tell others what my next move will be." In a second his expression changed and he smiled lightly, stepping back to his previous distance as though nothing had happened.
Yi Ner felt embarrassed and said, cheeks warming slightly, "Forget me, young master, this stupid maid is making you angry."
Finally they arrived at their destination: Lawati Shop, its wooden sign swinging faintly in the breeze, the one where the lucky man had found the saangee worm.