Zhou Xin (2)

Madam Su eyed the thief in her office, seated on one of her rather expensive cushions as if he owned the place.

The man had said.

"I plan to sail to Jiwana Isle."

There was no other reason for anyone to head to Jiwana Isle other than to search for the everlasting flowers.

Madam Su, by no means, had any idea what Kou had in mind with the everlasting flowers. Judging by the type of person he is, it wasn't in his character to strive for immortality.

On the other hand, It was in her character to be curious, as she believed that any information is useful information. Still, when it comes to Kou, Madam Su had decided that it was better to not know anything related to him at all.

"I'll go maybe in two? Three weeks? Su Xia, can you help me?"

"What do you need?" Madam Su replied coldly.

"A ship."

She then walked to her desk and arranged a couple scrolls.

"What happened to the last one?"

"It was destroyed…"

Kou had always used a small ship, one that could be sailed by one man, as he preferred. At a glance, anyone would have thought that such a ship could be easily destroyed.

But Kou was more skilled at sailing small ships. He could maneuver them through an army of military ships.

Storms or waves weren't a problem, as he had a way to use them to his advantage with sea magic.

Most of the time, the ships he had in the past were either stolen, abandoned, or destroyed by his own actions.

Then what could have destroyed it this time?

"...by Kim Heon."

The answer was beyond expected. Madam Su had to reconfirm.

"King of the North Sea?"

The King of the North Sea, a title earned by the pirate Kim Heon. He was known to be a tyrannical pirate with the largest crew, amounting to thousands.

If the Lone Pirate was a nightmare for merchants, the King of the North Sea was a nightmare for seafarers. Every ship that sailed in his territory would have to face him and pay a ridiculous amount of what he called "sea route taxes". Those that failed to pay were said to never be seen on land again.

It was odd for Kou to come across Kim Heon because his territory is mainly the North Sea, with a little more area in the West Sea. 

These past few months, Madam Su was aware that Kou did not go anywhere near the north. And Kim Heon himself rarely sailed to the south.

"How did it even happen?"

Kou replied with a grin, and Madam Su immediately regretted her question.

"To get to that, then I need to tell you a little about the past. The truth is, Kim Heon and I were friends once. But that was a long time ago, so I didn't really recognize him when I passed by his ship. Actually, I was quite suspicious when I first heard of the King of the North Sea. I thought 'his name is Kim Heon? He sounds familiar!' but I brushed it off because he probably just has the same name, and the Kim Heon I knew hated pirates-"

Madam Su cut him off as soon as she realized he was distracted while telling his story.

"Nevermind that, I no longer want to know."

"Well then, long story short, I might have annoyed him and he got angry."

"Mhm."

Madam Su concluded in her mind.

In the end it was his own actions that had destroyed his ship.

She had picked out one of the laid-out scrolls and handed it to him.

"This should be enough payment for the ship. I'll have it ready by next week."

Kou skimmed through the scroll before raising an eyebrow.

"Just this one? Are there not a lot of things going on in the Peninsula recently?"

"I had another helping hand lately," Madam Su shrugged. "Is there anything else you need besides the ship?"

Her eyes met with Kou's, and for a short while, his smile worried her a little.

But before he could answer, a lady in lustrous clothing with a variety of gleaming accessories walked in. She was one of the Jade House's courtesans. Her face was slightly frowning, as if she was worried.

"Madam Su! Apologies for interrupting, but A-Xin is back."

To show that the courtesan's report had not disturbed them, Madam Su gracefully gave her a nod.

"That's great. I wanted to introduce her to Kou. Tell her to come to my office."

The courtesan hesitated a little.

"Actually… She seems to be a bit upset. She kept looking away and avoiding us when we tried to talk to her."

"She probably just failed a mission I trusted her to do."

"A mission?"

"It's nothing to worry about. Just send her here."

"...Alright."

And with that, the courtesan left the room.

Kou gave a slight bow of his head to the courtesan before turning to Madam Su.

"Someone you wanted to introduce me to?"

"I picked her up a few months ago. I thought it was right for you two to meet."

Madam Su didn't explain any further, and Kou took it as her wanting him to assess this person himself.

Presumably, this person must be either skillful or knowledgeable, as Madam Su had trusted her with a mission. Yet, this person failed, and given that Madam Su brushed it off, it wasn't a very significant task.

It was also mentioned that this person came back upset because of it, which could mean that she was either childish, egotistical, or highly loyal to Madam Su.

Not too long after, a little girl presented herself at the entrance of Madam Su's office.

Sure enough, the girl who walked in was stomping her feet. However, it was too light to be considered rude and was rather cute. It showed that even though she was expressive, she kept her manners and didn't want to offend anyone. 

She had her head hung low, and although it was obvious that she wanted to cover her face with her hair, both Kou and Madam Su noticed her red, puffy eyes. The girl had been crying.

Another thing that Kou noticed instantly was that this little girl is extremely familiar to him.

It was the little girl he tied up and left alone in that small village!

Kou was flooded with guilt at once.

When the girl was wailing as he left her, he thought it was a scheme to make him sympathize with her. He didn't think she was actually crying. It was because his impression of her was that she was smart and sly. That's how highly he regarded her wits.

At that moment, the girl also noticed his existence, and her expression changed into fear and disgust. She pointed a finger at him.

"Y-You're the pervert!"

"Pervert?" Madam Su asked, confused.

"Pervert?" Kou also asked, offended.

The girl stood frozen without walking any further into the room. Her lips quivered, and her eyes started to water with tears again.

With that, Madam Su glared at Kou, and on a very rare occasion, she raised her voice.

"What did you do?!"

The girl shouted, "He tied me up! And he… He was t-touching me around! Then he sealed my lips and left me all alone!"

"You made it sound like I harassed you!"

The office became loud and quite chaotic.

It took a while for Madam Su to calm the girl down. She made the girl tell the whole story without having Kou interrupt, shooting a threatening look every time he almost did. The girl talked with a trembling voice, but admirably she did not shed a single tear.

Kou waited patiently for his turn to tell his side of the story but was disappointed when Madam Su forced him to apologize instead. This resulted in him throwing an icy look at the girl, and he received an equally sharp glare in return.

At first, Kou would have admitted all the wrongs he did to the girl, but he couldn't accept being accused of perversion which was never his intention.

They were now sitting face to face with the low table separating them. Madam Su was preparing tea as the other two refused to look at each other.

Setting two cups of tea at the table, Madam Su started with a sigh.

"Haa… Alright now. A-Xin, this is my close friend, Kou, the one I've told you about. Residents of the Jade House are grateful to him as he has been helping with our business for years now."

The little girl, with a sullen face, forced herself to sit straight and look at the man in front of her.

She may not like him, but she respected Madam Su a lot and was willing to suppress whatever contempt she had in her heart to listen.

Madam Su gave her a look of approval and fondness before continuing.

"Kou, this is Zhou Xin. I found her a few months ago. She is intelligent, quick-witted, and remarkably adept at magic. However, she is still young and inexperienced, and there is no one I know that is suited to guide her."

Kou's eye twitched at the last sentence.

She was basically saying, 'No one is good enough to teach her, including you! But you're the only viable one around, so please teach her!'

He forced himself to look at Zhou Xin's face.

The hatred on her face was gone, she was only blankly staring at him now.

Only then did Kou notice that she had an innocent look. Her face is round, although her cheeks are thin. Two clear and wide eyes with a hint of rosy pink on her lips made her look even more dainty.

Kou started to frown.

Observing her, Kou was stabbed with the fact that the girl was indeed very young.

"How old are you?" he asked.

"Ten."

Her appearance gave a younger impression, perhaps due to her short stature and scrawny build. Even then, ten years old is too young.

The girl knew sky magic, which wasn't common for young mages.

Even worse, she knew sea magic.

Kou didn't see her do land magic, but he didn't need to. It was the basics, it was more likely than not for her to know about it.

"How long have you known magic?"

This time, she didn't answer right away. Her voice was quiet.

"...Just knowing? Or…"

"Practicing magic."

She pondered a bit before answering.

"Three… years?"

She started when she was seven!

Kou's mouth fell open just slightly. He mumbled under his breath without Madam Su and Zhou Xin hearing him.

"That's even younger than when I…"

For someone to be so skilled in magic at such a young age, what kind of condition demanded that much from a little girl? Moreover, Madam Su picked her up and she seemed to be living in the Jade House. She probably had nowhere else to go.

"Wait, you said you trusted her with a mission. Was it-"

"The flower merchant. I didn't know you were back in the Peninsula. How could I waste such a chance?"

Madam Su had eyes and ears reaching almost to every end of the Peninsula. She was aware of the flower merchant traveling to the North and had come to the same conclusion as Kou.

Zhou Xin fidgeted a little. She spoke timidly.

"Madam Su said the flower was for a friend…"

Madam Su understood at once and nodded her head in response.

Kou smacked his forehead in his mind.

The flower was for me!

Zhou Xin was trying to steal the flower by Madam Su's orders to give to him. In turn, he was fighting over it with her for nothing. Had she successfully returned with the flower, it would have fallen to Kou's hand anyway.

At the same time, Zhou Xin realized that she too was crying for nothing. The reason Madam Su wasn't disappointed that she had failed the mission was because the flower is in the right hand anyway.

Zhou Xin immediately felt embarrassed and could only sulk in silence.

On the other hand, multiple worrying thoughts flashed through Kou's head. He felt the need to scold Madam Su.

"Why did you even let her get the flower? What if she ran into Chen Rongguang? Do you have any idea how dangerous it is to get involved in magic fights?!"

Hearing this, Zhou Xin held her chin up and started sternly.

"It's okay! I'm strong enough!"

Madam Su added, "More than that, A-Xin is smart and tactful. I've had her done a few other things in the past. She's more than capable."

Thinking back, it was true that Zhou Xin had managed to stealthily grab the pouch from that mage as she crashed into him. No one else had noticed other than Kou.

She was also entangled with that other man. What was that about?

He had said that she stole his money. In response she mentioned that he had a debt. Kou put two and two together and guessed that the man must have a debt to the Jade House. Zhou Xin was only collecting them.

Kou took another look at the blank-faced girl in front of him.

He could only sigh.