Leaves

Even before the person was done speaking, the voice was familiar enough for me to know that it was Nami, who stood beside me with a big smile on her face, one she couldn't even hide.

"Thanks…"

"For what?" I asked, squinting my eyes together in fake confusion.

"You know…the points. Without them, I wouldn't.."

"Well at least now we know how you were about to pass the test," Horan's harsh voice filtered from behind us as he moved to stand right in front of us.

"You fucked your brother for it…"

"She didn't need to…" I instantly responded. "We all know that Transma isn't the only way to get points and unlike some people, it's not something I'm a fan of," I responded lying through my teeth with a blank expression on my face, with hopes that my lies couldn't be seen through.

"Really? Since when exactly?" Canita appeared brandishing a mocking smirk as her eyes slid through my body, from the top of my head to my feet, not at all hiding the desire in her eyes.

"Since you almost killed me…" I responded by stretching out my hands to grab hold of Nami's hand and pulling her closer to me without so much as sparing an extra glance in Canita's direction.

"We're leaving…" I said and began moving the next second but even before I had taken a single step I heard Horan speak directly to Nami.

"Are you still coming over tonight?" 

Slightly pissed and simply to spite him, I turned around to look right into his eyes and responded before she was able to.

"She'll be busy cultivating tonight and every other night," I replied, and continued to walk away.

We walked quickly and none of us said a single word until we were almost at our house when Nami finally opened her mouth to speak.

"Am I really going to be busy every night?" She asked and I couldn't help but feel that she was hinting at something specific but before I could confirm exactly what it was we both suddenly heard our names being called.

"Caen…"

"Nami.."

We looked up to see Moey who instantly ran the great of the way to embrace us both in a tight bear hug with an expression of extreme joy on her face that showed that she had already heard the news about the both of us getting into the sect.

"To think our lives is suddenly about to change. I and your father would be accompanying both of you in two days so you don't have to worry about anything…"

"Wouldn't that be super expensive.." Nami suddenly asked but before she could speak any future Moey quickly did.

"It doesn't matter. Moreover, money is made to be spent," she replied, grabbing Nami's hand, and dragging her forward, as Nami also dragged me along back to the house where we found that a feast was already waiting for us.

At one glance, I could already tell that both of them had definitely dipped into their savings or gone out looking for extra money.

It didn't really matter to me though since I had already decided to give them at least half of all my points before they returned back to the village.

I still had no idea how I was going to earn more, but I figured that when the need for it came, I would simply figure it out.

Nami still looked a little reluctant as she stared at our parents with a largely reluctant gaze only guzzling up her food when she saw me do it, seeing as how if she delayed any longer none would remain for her to eat.

We talked a lot and ate and by the time we were done it was already late and the next thing I wanted to do was sleep, which I found weird since it was pretty early, yet for some reason I had this huge urge to sleep.

Without seeing any reason not to, I said my goodbyes and walked to the room to get some sleep, slightly shocked to feel myself slip into an unconscious state right as my head hit the soft hayed texture of the bed.

By the time, I woke up. I woke up to see three worried faces hovering above mine as they stared at me with varying states of anxiety on their faces.

"It's been two days…any more and you would have missed the day of departure…" Nami sighed, being the first to speak while also being the closest to me.

"That long? Why was I asleep?" I asked with a vastly confused look on my face only to feel a slight change in my core, shocked to trigger the status window that belonged solely to me and see the weird change that had taken place.

My mana points were mysteriously back to a thousand.

I didn't know why and I didn't particularly care but I was beyond ecstatic.

Before I could fully show it on my face though, I heard Nami tap me fully back to reality with a trace of urgency in her voice as she spoke.

"The carriage leaves now. If we don't go now…we'll have to pay for another one and that's too expensive for only our family to do," Nami said, urging me to get off the bed and get ready, which I quickly did.

In ten minutes. I was ready to go and so were the rest of my family.

I got outside and we all basically ran to the village square where two big carriages packed there, one I assumed would take the people going to Jorani and the other was for the people heading to the other sects.

Horan and his dad, the village chief, Carina and her mom, Clara and her dad, my parents, I and Nani were to be in one, while Goran, Jio, Loli, Daerk and their respective parents were to be in the other after it was agreed that because of the lack of space, the other carriage would be in charge of dropping Daerk off first before moving to the other sects.

Even as we all gathered there, I could feel the heavy glare of jealousy directed in our direction as some people even seemed close to tears as they did their best to hold it in.