novelraw Book 12: Chapter 50: Exploring
Book 12: Chapter 50: Exploring
Book 12: Chapter 50: ExploringChou Dai Lu looked down at the little mortal girl who was holding her hand. The cultivator couldn’t help but wonder how she’d ended up where she was. On the one hand, she knew what had happened. The inexplicable bestowal of a natural treasure by Lord Lu. The confrontation with her own sect members. My former sect, she reminded herself yet again. Being cast out. Those awful days of hunger and cold. Then, being made a direct disciple of Lord Lu himself. She remembered it all happening, but it felt surreal, like a strange and unsettling dream. Or maybe it’s more like one of those stories you hearbut are certain never happened to a real person, she thought.
The days and weeks that had followed had been no more sensible. Lord Lu would sometimes spend hours drilling her on martial forms or making her do painful exercises with her qi until fatigue threatened to steal away consciousness. She accepted that pain as a likely byproduct of trying to expand the kinds of qi she could readily use. Then, affairs of the army, or battles with spirit beasts, or coming to the city would demand his attention. She would be left to her own devices. A situation she had expected to leave her with ample free time. Instead, through a process that no one had consulted her about, she had been elected as caretaker for the child, Yue Shui, when Lord Lu was otherwise occupied.
It turned out that the little girl found the city endlessly fascinating, which proved an unfortunate companion to the child’s boundless curiosity. Chou Dai Lu was certain that she had never heard anyone say What’s that? so often in her entire life. Nor were they questions she felt comfortable ignoring. Lord Lu would, with seemingly infinite patience, answer that question over and over again. That left Chou Dai Lu with little choice but to emulate her teacher. A task that had proven much harder once they entered the city. Yue Shui wanted to explore the city every single day, and there were so many things that the child had never seen before. Not that the child was the only thing that taxed Chou Dai Lu’s patience.
She glanced over her shoulder and, yes, they were still there. The mortal soldiers weren’t doing anything so obvious as marching in formation to announce their intentions, but they were very clearly there to guard the child. She was certain that Lord Lu hadn’t ordered them to do any such thing. They had simply decided amongst themselves that the girl needed to be guarded and assigned people to do it. Two of them had even followed her and the girl into a shop that appeared to specialize in mortal clothing for women. It had been one of the very few tasks that Lord Lu’s terrifying women had given to her.
“Acquire appropriate clothing for the girl,” said the green-eyed jade beauty.
“And do not disappoint Lord Lu with your choices,” said the cheerful woman who seemed to appear and disappear at will.
Their tones had been calm enough, but there had been threats enough to reach the sky in their gazes. She had made it a point to find a place to get clothes the very next day, which was when two soldiers followed them into the shop. The part that galled her was that they transparently lied to her about why.
“I have a little sister, honored cultivator,” said the younger of the two.
“I need something warm to send back to my mother,” said the other. “She doesn’t handle the cold as well as she used to, honored cultivator.”
Something similar had happened the day before when a pair followed them into a small restaurant.“We’re terribly hungry, honored cultivator,” one had lied.
Not that Chou Dai Lu feared the soldiers. Her power, while nothing compared to core cultivators or nascent soul cultivators, was far beyond what a small group of mortal soldiers could overcome. She just despised that feeling of being followed and watched. At least the child is well-behaved, she thought to console herself. The girl would dutifully hold her hand or remain in sight when told to do so. It was just hard not to see this time as wasted. She could have been cultivating or practicing her martial forms. As if thinking about the girl had drawn her attention, Yue Shui began tugging on her hand.
“What is it?” asked Chou Dai Lu.
The little girl smiled up at her and pointed at a stall where a stalwart mortal was braving the cold to prepare food of some kind. Chou Dai Lu sniffed the air. The food didn’t smell rancid or as if it had been made with something that Lord Lu would execute her for feeding the little girl.
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“Hungry,” said Yue Shui, tugging a little more insistently at Chou Dai Lu’s hand.
“Very well,” said the cultivator.
It turned out the man was selling skewers of some kind of meat and a paltry selection of vegetables. Given the time of year, though, she imagined those vegetables were likely all that was available. The lethally stupid choice to deny the farmers from nearby villages sanctuary in the city would mean that such shortages were likely to grow worse. Unless Lord Lu elected to provide similar support as he had back in the capital. She had never seen the glass structures where cultivators grew food at a miraculous pace, but she had heard about them. The vendor handed over three skewers after she paid him out of the absurd purse Lord Lu had given her to cover any needs she might have. Chou Dai Lu was quite certain that she hadn’t earned that much money in her entire life.
The little girl cheered at the sight of the skewers and waved enthusiastically at the vendor, who smiled at her. There was something brittle about that smile, for all that it seemed genuine. Like the man desperately wanted to think that everything was going to be fine for himself, his city, and this child, but knew in his heart that the situation was anything but certain. If the vendor feared the future, she thought that a wise choice. She knew better than most what waited in the wilds to hunt humanity. Chou Dai Lu forcibly turned her thoughts away from that harsh truth. It was out of her hands to do much to change it. Instead, she handed a skewer to the girl.
“Don’t eat that just yet. It’s hot.”
“It’s hot,” repeated Yue Shui, and started to blow on the meat.
A loud noise up the street from where they stood drew Chou Dai Lu’s attention for a moment. It took her a moment to see that a mortal had dropped a crate of some kind while unloading it from a wagon. Shaking her head, she turned her attention back to the child, who was no longer where she had been a moment before. Looking around wildly, she saw the little girl standing at the entrance to a nearby alleyway. She raced over just to see Yue Shui offer the skewer of food to some mortal boy covered with filth. The boy took the skewer, just to leap back, trip, and fall when Chou Dai Lu arrived behind the little girl. The boy stared at her with terrified eyes for the span of a second. Then, he scrambled to his feet and fled into the shadowy depths of the alley.
Her spiritual sense told him he wasn’t actually gone. He was just hiding out of sight behind an indistinct pile of trash. She contemplated going after the boy, but decided it wasn’t worth the effort. He had likely eaten the meat and vegetables already. Yue Shui turned to look up at her.
“Why did you give that boy your food?” she snapped at the child.
The girl flinched back at the sharp tone, and Chou Dai Lu made a conscious effort to soften her words.
“Why did you give your skewer to that boy?”
The girl peered up at her with a hesitant expression before she spoke.
“Hungry?”
It didn’t seem like the child fully understood the question. With a sigh, Chou Dai Lu held out another skewer to the girl. The food distracted Yue Shui, who happily started blowing on it. I suppose that boy did look wretched, thought Chou Dai Lu. He probably was hungry. The girl ate the skewer, but kept looking down the alley with an uncertain expression. Once the girl was satisfied with her meal, they continued to explore the city. Yet, seemingly out of nowhere, the girl stopped and turned to look at Chou Dai Lu with a determined gaze. 𝘳аℕÖ𝐁Èš
“Uncle Sen.”
Lord Lu had been sealed away with the alchemists inside that strange building he’d erected for days now. She didn’t have any reason to believe that he’d emerge today, but the child had an uncanny intuition regarding her protector. Happy to seize any opportunity to be free of this unwanted task, Chou Dai Lu took the girl to the now-abandoned compound of the Soaring Skies Sect. She was surprised to see Lord Lu conversing with Song Lan. The man wore a positively grim expression.
“Uncle Sen!” shouted the child and ran over to him.
The heaviness that seemed to weigh him down evaporated as he gave the girl a bright smile. He scooped the child up and listened intently as she told him about their day with wild arm motions. Abruptly, he started to frown. He said something to Song Lan, who had been peering at the little girl with a fond expression. The elder nascent soul cultivator nodded and flew off on a qi platform. Lord Lu walked over to Chou Dai Lu.
“Take me to this hungry boy,” he commanded.
She did as she was told and led him back to the alley. He gently placed Yue Shui on the ground.
“Stay with Auntie Dai Lu,” he told the girl.
She blinked at the man’s back as he made his way into the alley. Auntie, she thought. Since when am I an Auntie? Small fingers grabbed onto hers, and she looked down at the girl. The child was smiling up at her.
“Auntie Dai Lu,” said the girl.
“I think we’re stuck with each other now,” said the cultivator. “I guess it could be worse.”
They waited there like that for several minutes before Lu Sen returned with the filthy boy. There were tracks cut through the dirt on the boy’s face where he had clearly been crying. Chou Dai Lu shifted her gaze to Lord Lu and shivered involuntarily. His face was blank of any expression, but there was cold fury in the man’s eyes. She just hoped that he wouldn’t take that fury out on her. In her experience, when someone that powerful expressed their anger, the recipients rarely survived the experience.