The Hardest Choice to Make

Long Meiling moved purposefully around her room, searching for the tools and clothing she would need for making her journey away from home. Yuhan stood off to one side helplessly, trying to reason with Meiling, but failing.

"Young Miss, do you really have to leave...?" she said with a sad, puppy dog frown. Meiling paused her packing and preparations for a moment, sighing before walking up to Yuhan and brushing a hand to her face to wipe her tears.

"Sorry, Yuhan. I've already resolved myself," Meiling said with a smile, "I need to leave here and journey on my own if I want to become stronger."

She thought on how Ryker, Mini C, and Bestie had helped her, these past few weeks. Thinking back, she realized that although she achieved her personal goal of besting her sister in a fight... she hadn't done much, if at all, to influence the outcome of events when it came to her family, her engagement... her own fate.

Of course, she was grateful for all the help she received, but if she hadn't run into Ryker, and he hadn't been so determined about helping her, would she still be stuck in that unwanted engagement? Perhaps Luo Shuchang's plans would have gotten her out of it, but even then, what would *she* have done to help in that respect?

The conclusion she came to was that she needed to become stronger, still. And maybe try and make it on her own, for once.

She wanted to become strong enough to be the master of her own destiny!

"But do you really need to leave, tonight?" Yuhan asked, gently taking Meiling's arms in her hands. Meiling gave her a tender look, wrapping her hands around Yuhan's, but before she could say anything they heard a loud voice sound out as the door to the room opened.

"Yeah, why're you in such a rush?"

The two of them turned to see Ryker and Captain Cheng at the doorway, Ryker heading on in while Captain Cheng hovered back around the doorstep.

"Ahem, it's rather rude to enter a lady's room uninvited, Ryker..." Cheng Hui stated, clearing his throat in embarrassment.

"Ah, yeah, you right."

Ryker took a step back to get back behind the door's threshold, Meiling rolling her eyes at him as Yuhan giggled.

"Whatever, just come inside," Meiling said, smiling wryly, "I wanted to talk to you, anyways."

The two of them entered Meiling's room, looking around at the current state of messiness it was in. Various articles of clothing and accessories were strewn about, deemed unnecessary for her journey, along with plenty of weapons and cultivation resources that were abandoned on the floor.

"Oh yeah, your dad said you're free to do as you wish," Ryker said, remembering her father's words as he carefully stepped over the shoes and dresses littering the soft carpet.

"Hmph. As if I needed his approval to leave," Meiling scoffed.

"Anyways, I wanted to tell you that I'll be going off on a journey. By myself."

She waited for his reaction, crossing her arms imperiously. Ryker, on the other hand, only looked at her for a moment, before nodding his head with a smile.

"Alright. But you don't need to leave, right now, right? Let's have a party to celebrate, first!" he said.

"You aren't going to try and stop me?" Meiling asked, looking away somewhat bashfully. Ryker just tilted his head to the side, scratching his head in confusion.

"Why would I do that? If you gotta go it alone, then that's how it is. Besides, we'll be keeping in touch if you ever need my help."

He reached into his bag and produced an object very similar to Mini C's compad, though this device was made purely with white jade, replacing the visual screen with a holographic interface to access the different functions it was enchanted with.

"Ta-da, the Jade Compad!" Ryker announced, giving it over to Meiling who took it with a curious look.

"It doesn't come with an A.I. like Mini C, but you can use it to call us from wherever you are!"

He showed her how to access the call function, pouring some mana into it to bring up the holographic interface and pressing a button that appeared.

Two small, plain circles manifested at the top of the device, one nestled inside the other, while the bottom portion manifested another circle, this one filled with the arcane runes typical in Mini C's spell casting.

"So, how does this work?" Meiling asked, holding the device up to her face and inspecting it all over. Ryker simply went to leave the room, leaning out the doorway as he explained.

"Here, I'll go outside and start talking. You should be able to hear me from that device."

He used his Profound Wind Walking Technique to jump to the other side of the courtyard, landing on top of the wall surrounding it and starting to speak into his own compad.

- Testing, testing, do you hear me, Meiling? - Came Ryker's voice over the Jade Compad's materialized speakers.

"Wow, I hear you!" she exclaimed, staring at the jade device in awe, "And this will work no matter how far away we are?"

[Barring hyperdimensional circumstances, since I've attuned that device with the compad's mana signature, we can communicate no matter the distance between us,] Mini C explained over the call, also able to speak with Meiling through the device.

{You can speak with all of us, too!} Bestie added in her chipper tone.

"Amazing..." Cheng Hui marveled, impressed by the effortlessness of the audio coming through the device. Something like this would be extremely useful for operations where the squad had to be split up!

Yuhan also looked at the device with shining eyes, her hands on Meiling's shoulders as she gushed over it.

"Oooh, can we have one, too, Sir Ryker? I want to be able to speak with the young miss while she goes on her journey, as well!" she said, bouncing in excitement.

- Sure, Mini C made an extra one you can have. -

Ryker jumped back into the room using his movement technique, putting his compad away back into his bag as he did.

"There's some other stuff it can do, but we can go over that, later," he said, grinning, "We still gotta celebrate Meiling's victory!"

Yuhan nodded excitedly, moving to start preparations.

"I'll go tell the cooks to prepare a feast!" she said, running out the door.

"Wait up! I'll cook one of my dad's signature dishes, too!"

Ryker followed her out, leaving Meiling and Cheng Hui behind in her room.

"Young Miss..." he began, looking over at Meiling, but she rubbed her arms, looking as if she wanted to say something.

"... Do you think I'm making the right decision?" she asked, tentatively. Cheng Hui just smiled gently, shaking his head.

"Whatever the young miss chooses to do, our job is only to offer support," he calmly said, "And if you want my personal opinion... I think a journey could be good experience."

Long Meiling nodded in thought, before looking up in determination, her smile brighter than before.

"Thank you for your opinion, Captain," she said, saluting him respectfully.

"Now, let's go celebrate!"