Capítulo 72: The New Face of Yeon
Sylvie, the slave that Yeon had bought, was staring at his sleeping face.
Mia and Emily sat on the opposite side of the bed where Yeon lay.
They had returned to the inn while the disciple trials were continuing. Despite everything that had happened, all three would be moving into the Sapling Sword Sect since they had passed the second trial.
Contrasting to Sylvie's deadpan and neutral expression, Emily had a complex one.
Feeling stuffy, Emily had removed her veil.
It was fine now that they were away from prying eyes. Moreover, she wasn't even sure if she needed to continue wearing the veil since Reuben Fastilla had already found her.
However, even with her veil removed, the nauseating feeling in her chest wouldn't disappear.
"Yeon…" Emily called out to him.
"…" There was no response except for his soft breathing.
There were no injuries on Yeon's face, and all his wounds had been healed.
After the duel between Yeon and Reuben Fastilla was over, there was a moment of silence where no one moved, and no one cheered.
Elders from spectating sects didn't want to interfere with the whims of the Fairy Empress over two weak cultivators.
Mia and Emily weren't sure what the Fairy Empress had done, but the Elders from the Sapling Sword Sect were hesitant to treat Rueben Fastilla, one of their most promising new disciples.
It was only after the Fairy Empress had taken Yeon's limp body and returned to her VIP room, that the Elders rushed in to heal Elder Marvin and Reuben Fastilla who both lay on the ground.
"I wonder why the Fairy Empress interfered," Mia asked, not particularly expecting an answer from Emily.
"Maybe she found their fight to be amusing… I'm sure that it was just another spectacle for that woman, just some pastime amusement," Emily replied with gritted teeth:
"Even though Yeon could have died at any moment! It's unheard of for a cultivator at the Bone Cleansing realm to defeat a Flesh Cleansing realm cultivator. Maybe she was just curious to see if Yeon could do it."
The feeling of toying with another's fate in a position of power, Emily's impression of the Fairy Empress had considerably worsened.
She had initially looked up to the Fairy Empress. Her story of rising to the top of the Venerable Yin Fairy Palace, using only her hard work and talent was something all people looked up to. As someone who was not born into a clan, Emily admired her.
But the faint curiosity with which she observed Yeon made Emily feel sick to the core.
There was no concern in those eyes that watch Yeon who could drop dead at any second.
She had descended only when Elder Marvin was about to conclude the fight and knocked him out so that the brutal fight between the two continued.
But through that line of thought, the way Yeon had conducted himself during the duel had been a huge headache for Emily.
What was the difference between the Fairy Empress who purposefully allowed the violence to continue, and the one who was committing the act of violence, Yeon?
"At least she healed Yeon. I was so worried that she would take Yeon away, but she came back down from her VIP room and returned him to us. I'm sure the healing pill must have been expensive…" Mia said.
Mia was gripping Yeon's hand as she looked at him worriedly.
To Emily, it looked like Mia's first concern was Yeon's safety and she hadn't put much thought into the new, different side of Yeon they had seen today.
"…Mia," Emily called out to her hesitantly.
"Hmm?"
"About Yeon today…" Emily couldn't think of a proper way to phrase her question.
"He helped us a lot, didn't he," Mia replied while smiling warmly.
She stroked his hand with her thumb, rubbing it in repeated circular motions.
"Well…" Emily was lost for words.
The last image she had of Yeon was too deeply ingrained in her that she had almost completely forgotten about everything prior to that.
An upper body decorated with numerous thin and deep cuts.
Sinister red eyes that lacked a single white, decorated with a deep, space-black pupil.
A gruesome face where the cheek had been cleanly cut off to expose the jaws, teeth, and tongue.
But what stuck with her the most was the laughter that still rang in her head:
Gracious and arrogant laughter without a hint of ill-intent, it sounded like a princess who had been surprised with her favourite treats - Ironically, it felt pure and innocent.
"I guess he did help us today… He helped us a lot," Emily managed to mumble.
"He also helped us in the mountains when we were getting used to hunting," Mia added proudly.
"…" Emily looked at Mia who was now looking at her.
"… Emi. I don't mind it," Mia said softly as if she were a mother consoling a frightened child.
"Huh?"
"I know what you're worried about. But I don't mind,"
"What… But, he was-"
"He was always a bit like that…" Mia sighed, "Surely you noticed it when we were hunting together."
As if reminiscing about it, she looked up and stared into the distance and laughed to herself.
"He enjoyed it a bit too much when the magical beasts cried out," Mia said with a face a mother might make when talking about a naughty child.
"But it was different today! There's a difference between humanoid magical beasts and actual humans," Emily argued.
"And…?"
Emily looked at Mia, perhaps her friend wasn't as innocent as she had always believed.
"I… I'll admit that it was gruesome, and the things he did to Young Master Fastilla were a bit grim."
"Then…!"
"But… I couldn't look away. I felt sick because of the blood and the gore, but I couldn't look away, Emi. Think of all the things he did to us, Emi. We ran away from our homes to escape from him, YOU ran away from home to run away from him."
Mia was in the midst of her explanation when she felt Yeon's fingers twitch.
"Yeon!" Mia cried out excitedly.
Yeon's eyes which had returned to normal after the Fairy Empress had healed him were blinking in confusion.
He took a moment to look around at the three faces around him.
"To be woken up to the face of three angels, I guess I did die," Yeon joked.
"Yeon!" Mia shouted while throwing herself onto him.
Yeon pat Mia's back as she dug herself deeper into his embrace.
"So that's what you look like," Yeon commented while looking at Emily.
"…Yes, it is."
"I was sure that the veil was used to cover up some horrendous wart on your face," Yeon chuckled while summoning 3 silver coins from his ring:
"Here you go, Mia. You won the bet."
Emily's mouth opened wide in shock, "You…!"
Mia giggled while accepting her 3 silver coins, "I told you so, Yeon."
Yeon turned to Sylvie who was watching this whole affair as a bystander.
"Are you not even going to greet your master?" Yeon teased.
"Sylvie Lunarite greets Master," she replied dryly.
"Lunarite?! She's part of a clan?" Emily half-asked, half-shouted.
"…" there was no response from the girl in question.
"Sylvie, do you mind answering Emily," Yeon said.
"We were once part of a clan but degraded into a tribe."
"So…"
"Yes, Sylvie here is better than all of us, and technically the furthest existence from a rogue than all three of us despite being a mortal," Yeon said while laughing.
The two girls stared at the girl with silver hair and red scars. She looked as if nothing in the world would phase her, and they weren't wrong.
"Damn…" Mia whispered.
"…" there was a short moment of silence shared between the four of them.
"Ahem, Yeon, we'll leave you to rest since I'm sure that you're tired," Emily said.
"The Fairy Empress healed you, but you still need to recover. Sleep for now and we'll bring you some food in the morning. We'll all move into the Sapling Sword Sect at noon, so we need to gather before then," Mia said while getting up.
"I see. Well, good night to the both of you. You both did well," Yeon said while smiling.
"You too, Yeon," the girls chimed back.
As if there were a tacit agreement, no one talked about the incident with Reuben Fastilla, and the girls left.
Mia and Emily returned to their room.
Mia launched herself onto the bed and began rolling about on the comfortable fabric.
"Hehehe," she giggled before completely splaying herself out like a starfish.
"Mia, at least wash before getting on the bed," Emily chided while sighing.
"Later, later," Mia replied like a lazy child.
"Then, I'm going to bath first," Emily said while heading towards the bathing room.
"We should wash together!" Mia replied out of habit while heaving herself up from the bed.
"…"
Mia noticed the lack of response and found that Emily was blushing quietly while holding the handle to the bath.
"Ah," Mia let out, as if the memory of the kiss they shared had come rushing back, Mia blushed as well.
She needed to change the subject.
"Yeon."
"Yes?"
"He's fine, now don't you think?" Mia said, her blush receding as she began talking about a more serious topic.
"…Was he always so flirty?" Emily asked.
The emptiness and distance they felt from Yeon had considerably improved when he woke up, as if the whole incident with Reuben had just been a dream.
"…No? But that's not the point."
Emily calmed down from her earlier fluster and returned to sit on the bed beside Mia.
"But what if he, you know, 'goes off' again. Honestly, I found him terrifying when he was fighting that man. No normal person laughs that way in the face of their own death," she said in a concerned tone while thinking of the incredibly fantastical and stupidly risky way Yeon had fought Reuben Fastilla:
"And no normal person laughs so much at the suffering of another," Emily's voice turned a hint harsher when she thought back to Yeon's different side, his cruelty.
"But no normal person can beat a cultivator in a realm above his," Mia replied matter-of-factly.
Mia's voice softened a bit, "And… it felt nice. When was the last time that someone stood up for us, Emi? Think of the guardian statues in the temples we saw on the way here. Their faces were distorted in evil and fierce shapes to ward off the evil spirits."
"But we're not temples, Mia."
"No, we're not temples. But let me say this," Mia said.
Her soft voice turned even more quiet as if she were confessing a sin, "As long as that fierceness is directed at those who want to harm us, and he retains the warmth he had just now, I don't… I don't really care."
Mia took in a deep breath.
"Actually, I've always felt that he might be a bit like that. Not to that extent, but I felt he might be the type who turns into… whatever it was that he turned into when he fought that annoying stalker. And I'm fine with that, Emi."
Mia took Emily's hand in hers. Emily's were trembling lightly in confusion.
"The question is, Emi, are you fine with that too?"
PENSAMENTOS DOS CRIADORES 
loti_apathae
loti_apathae Emily: *concerned that Yeon may be a psychopath*
Emily: *Expresses concern to Mia*
Mia: Yes, but he is OUR psychopath
Also, announcement from X:
Go check out my other novel about Beatrice if ya feel like it. Will post it soon.
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