Aftermath

Mo Na watched as Rain departed before shaking her head with a smile.

'Perhaps'

Rain's words echoed in her ears. Over the years that they had known each other, especially the last 2 years where she had dragged him to train, she had gotten to know and appreciate that personality of is. He absolutely abhorred telling somebody something for certain when even they don't know the outcome. Rain's "Perhaps" was him saying I will return, but also not planting false hope in the mind of the listener. He made his standpoint very clear on false promises:

'Fuck them'

If Rain could get around telling a blatant lie, he would. This did not mean he did not tell lies or that he did not white lie, so she had to be careful with his choice of words. However, most of the time, he couldn't be bothered to tell a lie. Such was Rain. Such was her rival.

Na was excited, to an admittedly unreasonable extent. Her rival had great potential, something that would have ruined her passion towards beating him had he have lacked. Fortunately, he stood without restriction, exactly where she wanted him to be. When Rain unlocked his cultivation, she had worried that he wasn't putting enough work into martial prowess. How could her rival neglect their training?! That would run everything.

So, she had taken and trained him herself. Fortunately, he didn't mind the training physically, though he wouldn't take initiative to do so, and he was actually very active in training his attribute anyways, so she quickly got over her worries.

Rain's departure worried her a bit. He had become her frenemy in a sense, a rival in every sense, but also an impartial confidant in others. It would be unreasonable of her to assume, as Rain had never even left the palace before, that she would not worry about his wellbeing. The cultivation was a dangerous, unpredictable place after all. However, she trusted in that perhaps. He wouldn't have said that if he was planning not to come back so she knew he would return if able.

Honestly, she wanted to follow him or to have him come with her on her separate journey that she was planning on entering, but she knew it wouldn't work. Not because the two were incompatible or that it would limit them, but because Rain actually had motivation to strike out on his own. Rain had very little cares, but anyone who knew him also knew to tread lightly about his desires. Trying to limit him would only result in a... rather terrifying, if she was being honest, experience.

She still remembers the first time she ever tried to get in his way. It was bone-chilling. His eyes had gone dark and scribbly and his face transformed into this dead, uncaring, insane mask. She often wondered after that day if that was his true face and, if so, to never invoke it again. Even her stepmother got unnerved by it.

Speaking of her stepmother, she was going to train Rain's younger sister. Na wondered how that would go. An had occasionally stopped by when she had dragged Rain to training, stopping to chat with Rain, and, as a byproduct, Na herself. These interactions further reinforced Na's opinions of their similarities, though also brought to light their differences as well. An was much colder and more frank, while Rain was much... deeper? She honestly didn't know.

Going back to Rain's family, rather than worrying about the training that An was going to administer, she was more worried about their reactions to Rain's departure.

Through their brief interactions, she saw the obsession of Rain's mother, Jing, and the clinginess of Rain's sister, Hui. She knew that Rain had probably had to take off his mask in order to get them to back off of trying to keep him in the palace, an experience that she would reiterate, she did not envy.

Well... whatever. She was not going to be in the palace for long. Adventures await and she couldn't get left behind. The only reason she was still in the sect was because she wanted to see Rain off.

'ehehe, my rival is growing up.'

Na walked away, her thoughts turning to things that may or may not have been still Rain related.

Jing/Hui/3rd? POV

'Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain...'

Jing was having a bit of a mental breakdown. A combination of stress from Rain's departure and his scary attitude change had kind of broke her, though only for the moment. To be honest, it was very hard to break her more that she already was, and unless Rain did something, she would basically just bounce back to 'yandere mom' mode. It was hard to get worse.

However, that didn't change the fact that she was freaking out currently. Her son had left, to embark on an uncertain journey. Had he not specified that he would not abandon her of his own volition, she probably would have killed herself. Hui was also freaking out, Jing could read her expressions, but she had a much clearer goal.

'Get stronger.'

She needed to get stronger in order to make sure her brother never left again. She knew how he worked, if she was the strongest, he would feel no need to leave to get stronger. It also helped that he had very little passion that did not include sleeping, so she knew he probably wouldn't feel restricted had she decided to confine him once she reached that top level. For the record, she wasn't planning on chaining him to a bed, rather restricting him to a building like the palace would suffice. She wasn't that insane.

Both Jing and Hui had come to new heights with their love for Rain... and it was getting rather sexual. The problem was, Rain was now 15. He could be viewed as a somewhat liable sexual entity, though he wasn't technically at perhaps an acceptable age. For Hui especially, who was going through puberty and awakening sexual desire, Rain was the only person she could ever think of in that respect.

Both Jing and Hui often hugged him or the bed he slept in, embracing his warmth or smell. Though this might weird anyone out, Rain had told the specifically that as long as the didn't **** him, they could do whatever they want. Holding, groping, smelling and even licking were not out of the picture, though the last one was not something either of the two had dared to do. Not that they hadn't started to awaken thoughts about it.

Neither Hui nor Jing viewed Rain as a sexual object, not now, not ever. They would be overjoyed to have sex with him, and as Rain started to reach that age and growth point the thoughts had been in their heads, but as long as they were close to him, they were good.

Back to the matter at hand, Hui was dealing with the departure by motivating herself to train so that he never left and that she never saw that scary face again and Jing was... well... she'd get over it...

Yeah...

She'll be fine.