Dashed Hopes

The Third, Fourth and Sixth Elders approached Kenja's table. They waved off the juniors' greetings.

"Ho ho, good spar, brothers! How about we go another round with me this time?"

The three elders secretly rolled their eyes when they heard Second Elder Inazuma's words.

"Priorities, Second Brother. We should go see why First Brother called for us, che," Sixth Elder Gao Diao reminded him. He gestured to the other two elders to lead the way with him so that Inazuma would be forced to give up on the idea.

"Big Sister, I brought something that might help with your problem," Hanabi walked alongside Kenja, whispering into his ear. She took something out of her sleeve and placed it in his palm.

Kenja was stumped by her statement.

He had no idea what problem she was referring to.

Kenja tried to examine the item, but Hanabi pulled his hand back down with both hands, her small fingers covering up the object.

"Not here, big sister."

She was flustered with her eyes fluttering all around to make sure no one saw the gift. Because she had brought her face close to Kenja's face, he could see a hint of red on her skin peeking out of the veil opening.

Was this the same girl who boldly leaped from a flying carpet barefoot in front of hundreds of commoners?

The very same girl that, without a hint of shame, stared at doors expecting them to open on their own?

What kind of item would cause such a change in the princess?

Kenja could barely contain his curiosity, so he tried to feel the item with his fingers.

It was a palm-sized bottle, and judging from the weight and sounds after giving it a shake, the inside was filled with several bead-like objects.

After his shopping spree at the bazaar, Kenja handled enough of these things to ascertain that he was most likely holding a bottle of pills.

Had the princess somehow learned about his issue with cultivating and brought him pills to remedy the problem?

But how did she figure it out, and why would she be afraid of others finding out what kind of pills she had given him? Were they secret pills related to the royal family? Would she get in trouble if others found out?

Kenja ruminated over all these questions.

Seeing Kenja fall into deep contemplation, the princess moved her body closer to him, interlocking her arm with his. She even copied the rhythm of his stride as if afraid that others would make the mistake that they were not the closest of sisters.

Kenja shook his head in frustration.

There was no point in puzzling over the item. Once he was in a private location, he could inspect the item at length.

Before placing the bottle into his storage ring, an icky sensation slithered over his arm.

"Let me get a good look at that, disciple."

Snail had already left Kenja's ear without his notice. He did not fight back, revealing the item within his sleeve to Snail.

"Oooo…mmm…I see…"

"What are they, Snail? Are they pills? Can you recognize their effects?" His rushed inquires were filled with hope.

After practicing with Snail and Sakura, Kenja's [Wind Whisper] technique had improved tremendously.

To make up for the drowning fiasco, Snail had taught Kenja a little trick that would allow him to use a minimal amount of qi from his body whilst harnessing the external qi found in the world to pass messages along, greatly reducing the burden on his dantian's qi supply.

Because of his Perfect Body and Perfect Soul constitutions, he could more easily gather larger quantities of qi than others. Sadly, this benefit was almost useless as he required proportionally larger amounts of qi for cultivation. On top of that, his ability to circulate qi was much worse than the average cultivator. Much, much worse!

These three factors worked together to create an unusually high sensitivity to external qi which helped in mastering Snail's trick.

It was only after seeing Kenja's performance regarding the [Flowing Water Technique] did Snail realize that his body had an unusual talent towards such unorthodox techniques.

Such sensitivity and control over external qi normally required a cultivation beyond Foundation Establishment, and yet, the Qi Flourishing Kenja had skipped building the required foundation to touch upon this concept.

This innate sensitivity partially explained his gifted performance with the [Flowing Water Technique] which focused on manipulating the external qi flow of attacks and other moving projectiles. As a result, he easily set a new sect record with just a little practice.

One might say that even the original creator's skill in the [Flowing Water Technique] would pale in comparison to Kenja…if he could ever advance his cultivation.

Now, Kenja could comfortably use Snail's trick to speak with anyone within two meters of his body, and if he exerted himself, he could pass a short message to someone ten meters away, all without the assistance of Snail or Sakura.

He was so ecstatic to see his own progress that he immediately forgave Snail for nearly drowning him.

Snail reappeared on his earlobe within the blink of an eye.

"Well?"

"They—they're—pfff—they're good pills. Very—pfffff—good pills," Snail tried his best to push those words out of his lips.

"What kind of pills are they?"

The sticky sensation on his ear dissipated, but Kenja knew that this meant Snail had entered his shell.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!" Obnoxious laughter reverberated in Kenja's ear.

"Big sister, do you hear someone laughing?" Hanabi asked Kenja.

Covering for Snail, Kenja nervously gestured at the gathering groups of disciples to their right, "I think it was a junior brother over there," but those disciples were all staring and pointing back at him for some reason.

It was only now that Kenja realized Hanabi had interlocked her arm with his at some point.

When did this happen?!

Kenja realized he fell into his bad habit of overthinking again, giving the princess an opportunity to get too close to him. It was no wonder she could hear Snail's obnoxious laughter.

He tried to gently pull his arm away from her, yet she retaliated by pulling back tighter and giggling.

We're not playing a game here!

Crap, crap, crap!

Now, the entire sect could witness how intimate he and the second princess were.

This was way worse than a week ago!

A princess would rarely be in physical contact with others, and of those with the special privilege, they were nearly all women. Only close family and old friends might be exempt from this rule, but even then, it would not be in the eye of the public.

If Kenja's true identity was revealed, everyone would know that an unknown male had, not only deceived, but also publicly dishonored the young princess. Even if she could forgive him, the whole of Ryuga would not.

A hundred lives would be insufficient to pay for his crimes.

"Little sister, this is a bit inappropriate, don't you agree?" Kenja tried his best to convince her.

Hanabi's glowing eyes dimmed several shades.

"Why would it be inappropriate?" Her tone lacked the usual confidence, afraid that she had done something to upset her big sister.

Kenja could sense the hurt in her voice, so he whispered his words carefully, "We have several other sisters present. If we continue like this, they might feel left out and ignored. How would you feel if I left you to walk with Elder Sister Rin?"

The elders were walking at the front, followed by Mizutani and Rin, with Kenja and Hanabi in a third grouping, and Aracha trailing behind all of them. They were travelling counter-clockwise around the hexagonal pillar, about to reach the Sixth Elder's face.

Hanabi was unconvinced at first, but when he illustrated an example, she immediately relented. She agreed that she would not like that feeling at all.

"Un. That does make some sense. Big sister is truly big sister." She withdrew her arm and separated from Kenja. Her eyes brightened again, but they did not reach the same hue as earlier.

Kenja released a grateful sigh.

Although the princess was a tad naive and ignorant of the world's ways, she was reasonable and a quick learner.

In a way, she reminded him of Shizuka and Yoshie. He had the urge to pat her head but settled for praising her, "Little sister is smart and sensible."

The blaze in her eyes glistened. Her happiness at being praised was evident when she pinched the fold of Kenja's robe and refused to let go.

Kenja's face twitched, but he sighed in defeat.

Before, Kenja held an infinitesimal ray of hope to possibly return to his original identity, perhaps by speaking with his new master, Fifth Elder Kazane, in private and offering one of the high-grade spirit stones as a bribe to smooth the matter over.

Now…

Kenja sighed a second time.

Whatever…

The damage had already been done, so he did not raise any further protests.