Chapter 36 - Beifong Estate

Nuwa takes off her mask and leads the group directly to the Beifong Estate. In front of a large gate, the group arrives and requests for the heads of the household to the earthbender gate guards. Upon seeing Nuwa's perfect looks and Noble mannerisms, the guards release their vigilance and one of them goes in to relay the message.

After some minutes, the earthbender guard returns and leads them through the gate. The front yard has lavish rose gardens, trimmed hedges, and pristine pools. They get seated in a waiting room and as soon as they are out of eyeshot, Katara waterbends some of the dirtier members of the group.

Nuwa explains in a quiet voice, "The Beifong Family is a wealthy and noble house that descends from some of the most powerful earthbenders of all time. Now it's been reduced to three people, Lord Beifong, Lady Beifong, and their blind daughter, Toph."

"Like many doting parents, they are overprotective of their daughter, but what they don't know is that Toph learnt earthbending from badgermoles and is a self-made genius bender. They all love each other, but for them to let Toph leave to teach Aang or help out in the war effort is a big stretch."

"Make sure you're on your best behavior to convince Toph's parents that we can protect her since we see her as a 'weak and blind' little girl. It's better if you leave the talking to me, just act as my bodyguards."

The group nods and Ty Li begs Hummy not to jiggle her tits too much. Servants come in to serve refreshments and the group waits another half hour making small talk with each other, trying to keep from topics that breach propriety.

The servants welcome them into a dining room where Lord and Lady Beifong are seated at the head of the table. Since she saw Nuwa at the head of the group, Lady Beifong takes the lead to speak, "Welcome to the Beifong Estate, may I know your name, young miss?"

Lady Beifong is a mild-mannered eastern beauty with thin eyes and poofy hair. She embodies noble mannerisms well.

Lord Beifong is a gentle, intelligent looking middle-aged man with similarly noble mannerisms.

Nuwa bows slightly and gestures to the others to bow similarly, "Pleasure to meet you, Lady Beifong. I have long heard of the glory of the House of the Flying Boar. My name is Quest, a noble businesswoman from the Fire Nation Capital. Please, before you get alarmed, know that as I am traveling with the Avatar, I am absolutely against the warmongering policies of the current Fire Nation."

Both Beifongs are affected by [Induced Good Impression] and do not throw out Nuwa the moment she said she's from the Fire Nation. The Beifongs are filthy rich and Lord Beifong is always interested in more business.

Lord Beifong takes over, expressing discomfort, and without beating around the bush says, "We prefer to stay away from businesses connected to war when there's so much volatility involved."

Nuwa corrects, "Of course. My business is not related to the war, in fact, it's specifically to avoid war. I am starting a secret training camp for noble heirs to learn business. I devised this initiative with the Avatar. As the only known person to be able to tame a sky bison and escape from any and all attacks from the ground or air, the Avatar can offer complete security from war to all students."

Nuwa pulls out a map of the world and draws some connections.

"To complete the guard contingent, I have employed a lightning bender, a bloodbender, and a waterbender. My personal belief is that it would make much more sense for all nations to work together in pursuing a common goal of trade and prosperity. By training the younger generation of future leaders in business acumen under myself and letting the Avatar train them in combat bending, wouldn't that help them to become friends and forge alliances between nations when they join the upper echelons? After all, the war will end at some point and the Nations will have to get along one way or another."

Lord Beifong looks extremely impressed with the presentation as his eyes shine with the long-term trade implications, "And you've come to us, why?"

Nuwa chuckles lightly, "I know from my sources that you have a daughter. Of course, we would love it if your daughter joins this initiative. Although she is blind, I have ways to restore her sight and help her unleash her true potential."

Both Beifongs look disturbed that Nuwa knows about their daughter and that she's blind since they have tried to hide it as best they can. However, hearing that they may be able to restore her sight, their eyes shine with hope.

Lady Beifong slams the table and stands up, "If you can restore my daughter's sight, we'll pay the full price and send her with you!"

Lord Beifong looks troubled and still slightly wary, but also relents hearing his wife's desperation. He faces a servant and orders, "Call over Toph."

He adds, "You're aware that she was born blind and all of the best doctors in the Earth Kingdom could do nothing?"

Nuwa denied knowing, "I did not know the origin of her blindness, but my method should work regardless. My only regret is that if you enroll her, she can't bring any guards with her because the air bison can't carry more than our guard contingent."

Toph arrives and seems puzzled to see the large amount of people in the dining room.

Lord Beifong nods, "Very well, if the treatment of her eyes works, then she can go to your secret school. She will have to send letters every other day with her location or else we will assume something unfortunate happened and send backup. These days the war comes ever closer to Gaoling. I have no doubt she will be in danger staying here with us. We've recently had someone attempt to capture her and ransom her back to us for money. Since you are an educated Noble in the company of the Avatar, I will choose to trust you not to be irresponsible with her safety."

Toph keeps quiet, not quite understanding the situation, but it seems like they're letting her leave home, which is exactly what she wants.

Nuwa replies, "Yes, in fact, we've run into some earthbenders who have tried to capture the Avatar and sell him to the Fire Nation."

Due to her training with blind badgermoles, Toph learns how to "see" by feeling vibrations transmitted through the ground. The sensitivity of her feet to vibrations reached such an extent that she can "hear" the heartbeats of those she focuses on to determine if they are lying.

Toph finds that Nuwa, although very good at concealing her heartbeat, is lying, but [Induced Good Impression] influences her not to call her out and to wait and see regarding any potential bad intentions.

The Beifong parents explain the pitch as they understand it to Toph, who immediately feels distaste for having to avoid war and learning business with a bunch of pansies. She doesn't say anything but plans to run away again.

Sensing this, Nuwa repeats some key points of the pitch, which Toph detects are all total lies. Noticing this, Toph is once again interested at the idea of beating up these pompous people who dare to scam her family later. She doesn't fight on the spot because she wants to conceal her strength as an Earthbending Master from her parents.

Aang and Katara started out full of disdain inside seeing Nuwa lying through her teeth as naturally as breathing, but it soon became admiration at how smoothly she had the Beifong parents wrapped around her finger.

Nuwa internally asks [System] for a suitable device that would provide infrasonic vision to Toph.

Infrasound refers to low-frequency sound which is closely related to how Toph already sees the world through feeling vibrations through the ground. As long as they don't break the sound barrier, Infrasound would allow her to also "see" the sounds of projectiles, which is currently one of her weaknesses.

*Infrasound Vision Tool is available for 250k LEE and provides direct visual mapping to the brain of the nearby environment in the infrasound spectrum through the ears. The tool is composed of advanced biotechnology and has components that implant themselves in both ears and the back of the skull.*

"Ok, buy it."

-250k LEE, Total: 1104k LEE

Nuwa approaches the Beifongs and asks, "Can I examine you for a minute, Toph? It's nice to meet you, by the way, my name's Quest."

Toph nods, not hearing any lie, "Ok."

Nuwa gives Toph's body a once-over and pushes some parts of her that have obvious injuries from the times she sneaks out of home to fight in the arena as the blind bandit. She performs some minor finger acupuncture to solve some posture and bone misalignments.

These kinds of imperfections exist in all mortals after the wear and tear of daily life, but they are more common and serious in brawlers who suffer impacts to their bones regularly. Toph feels that her body is strangely better functioning now, but can't understand why.

Nuwa explains with a serious face, "Ok, I shall now provide Toph with a tool that will allow her to see. Do not be alarmed when I attach the tool."

Toph becomes confused and sneers at the thought that Nuwa wasn't lying and honestly thought she could regain her sight.

Without hesitation, Nuwa first places the brain implant at the back of her skull so that the nanotech can pass through the cells that make up her skull and enter her Occipital lobe. Toph is stunned and cannot react to the massive overload of sensory information entering her visual cortex. Before she can scream or move, Nuwa also implants both component devices in her ears.

Toph begins falling to the ground as she loses her balance entirely, but Nuwa catches her on the way down. Toph starts screaming and might have instinctually sent boulders at Nuwa's group had Nuwa not chi-blocked her bending.

The Beifongs hurriedly stand up, but Nuwa gestures for them to sit down. "Calm down, this is normal. Toph's never "seen" in her entire life right? She's experiencing a lot more sensations than her brain can handle. It will take some time for her to grow accustomed. I've disabled her bending temporarily so that she doesn't attack anyone nearby. It will return in 15 minutes along with her brain's ability to cope."

Nuwa places Toph back onto her chair near the Beifongs, bows again and returns to her seat at the other end of the table with her group. Lady Beifong looks like an angry shrew about to blow, but there's an undeniable light of hope within her eyes as she looks hesitantly at her daughter.

After a tense silence for 10 minutes, Toph looks up and she's able to "see" far clearer than ever. She calls, "Mom? Dad?"

Her vibration sensing sight only captures things on the ground, but now she felt that she could see all things that produced sound just as clearly. She could also make out that when she spoke, the sound would "illuminate" all objects around her by bouncing off of them. She could make out minute details on her parents' faces.

She didn't recognize it as worry since she doesn't know facial expressions enough to read them. Toph quietly says, "I can see your faces." She smiles slightly and "looks" over at the group on the other side of the table by tapping the table with her knuckles.

To fully functioning humans, having someone "see" you and speak with you without turning their face to you, is an awkward experience, but Nuwa takes it in stride and says, "Good, let's see how well you can see. How many fingers am I holding up?"

Nuwa holds up 4 fingers and Toph taps the table then says, "Four."

Nuwa swaps to 2 fingers and Toph taps the table again and says, "Two."

They repeat this 3 more times as the Beifongs stare dumbfounded at their changed daughter. Lady Beifong starts her waterworks and runs over to hug Toph. Lord Beifong is also tearing up as he puts a hand over Toph's shoulder. Actually, the Beifongs are too sentimental for a noble family. They should have had other children and they could have, but Lady Beifong was so saddened over her child's disability that Lord Beifong didn't think she would survive the grief if it happened again.

For their only heir to be able to see was a wish come true for them. Toph was somewhat disdainful of her parent's happiness at her being able to "see" since she's been able to see with earthbending fine, but feeling their affection and pride in her, she felt that maybe this kind of attention wasn't so bad after all.

Lord Beifong looks over at Nuwa and her group with a complicated expression of gratitude and admiration, "Young Quest and Avatar, forgive me for doubting your intentions earlier. The Beifong family owes you a great debt. If you have any business you need me to invest in, anything within my power, then I will try to fulfill it."

Nuwa offers a gentle smile and circles a coastal town in the center of the map. "As payment for the treatment and schooling, once the war is over, please build this town into a city. The principles founding this city will be different from any other city in this world. It will be a city where benders and nonbenders of every Nation live in peace. It will be a True Neutral city. The trade that we can establish in this city will be phenomenal. However it will also attract greed, so we must be very careful in planning and not speak of this or my school to anyone! For now, we will just wait for the end of the war."

Despite the fact that an 18 year old girl was talking to him as an equal, Lord Beifong felt no disgruntlement. In fact, hearing that plan, he was so beset with excitement that he wanted to divert all of his funds to defeat the Fire Nation as soon as possible!

He could easily see that if the Fire Nation suffered some losses and Ozai was dethroned, the colonies could end up becoming their own countries since firebenders and earthbenders were already intermarried there. Nuwa had to calm him down by pointing out valid demerits to the proposed city as she noticed him getting agitated.

Although Toph felt grateful to Nuwa for giving her a more versatile "sight," she also held a grudge over how Nuwa manhandled her during the installation and disabled her bending. She literally couldn't see (feel vibrations from her feet) back then without her bending! So when Toph hears that they are staying over, she decides she'll find Nuwa to fight her.

Lord Beifong looks a bit disgruntled at Toph and says, "Toph, aren't you going to thank young Quest?"

Toph perks up and nods realizing that she forgot to thank her, "Thanks, pal."

Lady Beifong also looks disgruntled now, "Toph, Miss Quest will head your business education. You'd better call her Teacher Quest."

Toph says, "Eh..?"

Lady Beifong pinches Toph's waist.

Toph grits her teeth and squeezes out, "Thanks.. Teacher.. Quest.."

Nuwa laughs like an ojou villainess with her pinky in the air, "o~ho ho ho!" until she notices everyone looking at her weird. She coughs and says, "You're welcome."

Toph decides inwardly that she'll hate Nuwa forever.