A Snail's Wisdom

Yoshie"s eyes met hers, and her head tilted downward, her blush shifting from one of embarra.s.sment to one of shame. She knew she had said too much.

Vice Elder Shirou and Hideaki Akiyoshi approached the three girls interested in what riled Shizuka, but no one spoke up for a few breaths, increasing the awkwardness.

Kenja exhaled, understanding what his two younger sisters were hiding, and spoke out to ease the tension, "Please be at ease. I understand that family matters cannot be revealed so easily before others. I hope that in the future, we can share our burdens more freely, but it is wise to proceed with caution in the beginning. I"m sure vice elder and senior brother would agree, yes?" He patted Yoshie"s head once more to console her.

Vice Elder Shirou was interested in learning more about Kenja, but the eloquently-worded appeal had cornered him. He stared at him/her with thinned eyelids. "Junior is wise…"

He had mixed feelings towards this strange female disciple.

She had skipped the orientation and sent her younger sisters to act in her stead.

When she had greeted him, there was no hint of sincerity or reverence that he was used to receiving, only the bare minimum respect and a hint of reluctance.

Also, Hirai Hikaru"s appearance and aura was so unnaturally dazzling for a Qi Flourishing cultivator that he, a Nascent Soul cultivator, was consciously aware of her. It was unnerving to the extent that he had to check whether she was using some sort of enchantment or beauty product made by cultivators that artificially increased her allure, but he could not discover anything of the like. And yet, he felt a strange mixture of awe and annoyance when looking at her, the latter half of which felt oddly familiar.

On the other hand, Hideaki Akiyoshi pushed the middle of his gla.s.ses up the bridge of his nose and smiled calmly. "Sister Hirai is truly wise."

Even though she had addressed him as senior brother twice now, he settled on treating her as his peer. Hopefully, she would ascertain his good intentions from that.

"Your brother had sent you a letter, right? Just wait. I"m sure he will get in contact with you soon." Kenja decided to find a way to deliver them another letter later to ease their minds and hearts.

Because Hikaru had successfully defused the situation and comforted her younger twin with only a few words, Shizuka stared at her with starry-eyed admiration. She really did resemble Kenjniisan…just a little.

With the atmosphere having relaxed, Hideaki Akiyoshi took the initiative to speak, "If junior sisters wish to contact their elder brother, I may have a way." He began digging into his storage bags. When the item he was looking for could not be located in one bag, he pulled out a second bag, and a third, and a fourth.

Meanwhile, Snail was repeatedly nagging Kenja while everyone"s focus was on Akiyoshi.

"Hey, hey, disciple. What did she mean by curse?"

Kenja ignored him.

"Hey, disciple. Can you hear me? What curse was she talking about?"

"Knock, knock. Disciple. I know you"re there. What curse? What curse?"

"Thou, shan"t hide fromst thy mastereth. Confess thy curse, my discipleth!"

"Oy oy oy! Tell me! Tell me! Tell me! Tell me! Tell me! Tell me!"

Kenja was beginning to get a headache from Snail"s insistent and incessant pestering.

It was truly disheartening.

He had rarely gotten headaches before, and now that his body had surpa.s.sed that of an ordinary mortal, becoming more resilient and resistant to ailments, he was getting headaches one after the other.
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After feeling Sakura push against the side of his body and vibrate in a curiosity-filled, kitten-like purr, he gave into their begging.

"I"m not cursed. My sisters are just superst.i.tious."

The quiet that followed made it clear they were waiting to hear the rest of his explanation.

He sighed internally.

"They believe my luck is sometimes good and sometimes bad."

"...Uh, disciple. Everyone is like that. Are your sisters right in the head?"

He agreed with Snail"s a.s.sessment that everyone experienced both good luck and bad luck at times, but he was compelled to elaborate on their viewpoint to defend their reputation.

"They think my luck can be a bit extreme. Like if one loses a coin flip too many times. Or falling into a deep hole only to find a dirt-covered, diamond bracelet at the bottom. Or stepping in camel dung twice in one week."

"Or being unable to find work for a week only to accidentally b.u.mp into a local gang boss when I wasn"t paying attention, causing him to beat on me out of anger…and surviving only because the head of the royal guard was exiting a nearby patisserie at the time, affording him the rare opportunity to round up all the troublemakers at once…and giving me several gold coins as both a reward and an apology for the damages," he finished in his head.

That last one was brought up by Shizuka at the time they tried to convince him of the curse, and even he had to admit that it was a bit coincidental when she phrased it in such a way, but the various gangs had always picked on the street urchins for fun. That thug was looking to bully somebody even if Kenja had not b.u.mped into him, and the only real coincidence was that the royal guard just so happened to arrive at the time he needed them most and awarded him, the a.s.saulted party, some money as compensation.

When he thought of it like that, his sisters were just making mountains out of molehills. After all, everyone had incidents of good and bad luck, and Kenja was a firm believer in making his own luck.

"Oh, is that it? I thought my disciple had a habit of encountering life-threatening situations or something. Given your const.i.tution, such a curse might actually be convenient for us."

Kenja snorted at Snail"s backhanded comment. "Even if such a thing existed, it"s only concerning matters of chance. As long as I plan everything ahead of time and foresee all possibilities, there is nothing to worry about," he said matter-of-factly.

Kenja started off with no family, but he found two sisters and Baba. He had no money or inheritance to rely on, but he found work and other ways to earn a living. Ever after failing to cultivate for three whole years, he still found a way to overcome his shortcomings…sorta.

Kenja truly believed that as long as he was well-prepared, then fate, destiny, luck, you name it—they could only play a small part in his life!

"Haha! Well said, my disciple! Haven"t I always said that you take after me? You already follow "Snail-Sensei"s Teaching, Number 553: You gotta be ready for anything, at anytime!" without my telling you."

Kenja rolled his eyes at Snail, noting that such a sensible and widely-applicable teaching came fifty-two spots after the one that stressed the importance of having a clean sh.e.l.l.

"Ah, here it is!" Hideaki Akiyoshi"s exclamation brought their attention back to him.

He pulled out a purple candle and showed it to them.

Kenja felt that he had seen a similar candle before recently, but he could not recall where. "Snail, what is that?"

As if he had heard Kenja"s question, Hideaki Akiyoshi explained, "This is a transmission candle. It can help you two speak with your brother as long as he isn"t too far. Master told me this should work as long as the person resides within the desert. You also must share a deep and mutual bond, but I believe that won"t be an issue?"

The candle wax was made with the blood of an avian beast known for its ability to communicate with members of its flock from unimaginable distances, regardless of their blood relation. As long as two members of that species recognized each other as comrades, they would unlock this ability between them.

The two girls lit up when they heard his explanation and nodded that it should not be a problem.

"Uh…Snail, what does he mean?" Kenja kept a smile on his face as he asked Snail in a cold sweat.

"What"s confusing you, disciple? It"s exactly as he said. That candle can be used to contact people whom you share a connection with. What? Did you want it? This one"s quality is no good though. The range is too small, and the reception isn"t private. I got you much better candles in that pile of goodies you insisted on leaving with the rocks! Alas, if disciple is desperate, I can lend you one of my personal candles, but it"ll cost you."

The creation of the transmission candles came about due to many reasons: namely laziness, forgetfulness and convenience.

Cultivators usually bestowed their colleagues and disciples with communication jades, slabs or other direct forms of communication, but as one"s network grew beyond a certain point, they would ama.s.s a mountain of these items to keep track of. If that weren"t bad enough, they could be placed in different storage bags or storage rings and those bags/rings might be placed in a different set of robes or in some treasure vault.

Long story short, these candles were used in case of emergencies or when one could not locate another means of communication (or were too indolent to find their corresponding communication tool), with the only drawbacks being a stricter range of effect, a finite amount of enchanted wax, and a prerequisite of a mutual bond.

Kenja resisted the urge to rub his glabella in frustration. "Snail! They"re trying to contact me. Me! The person standing right here, next to them! What will happen when they do that?"

He pretended to listen to the short explanation Hideaki Akiyoshi was giving his sisters on how to work the candle as he anxiously waited for Snail"s response.

"Hmmm…that is a good question, disciple. I uh, I—ahem—I forgot, but it can"t be good."

"If you don"t know, then just say so. Don"t pretend."

"Hey! When you"ve become as great as me, it"s hard to keep track of the things you know, the things you forgot, and the things you don"t know. In fact, I forgot the things I don"t know, so I placed them under the list of things I forgot. What I do know is that there is very little I don"t know. So I definitely, most probably, temporarily forgo—"

"Snail! Can you stop them?!" he interrupted.

It did not matter to Kenja whether Snail had forgotten or not; both yielded the same problem: he had no clue what to do.

"Oh—uh, yes, yes! Want me to take the candle, disciple?"

Kenja"s eye twitched when he heard this suggestion. "Do you only know how to stuff things into your sh.e.l.l? Can"t you stop the candle from working? Or maybe keep it from finding me?"

"Who do you think I am? Of course, I can stop it from working. But evil-beardo and four-eyes over there would notice. As for hiding you from it, I don"t have sufficient energy nor the time to do it. The candle"s detection enchantment is a bit annoying to circ.u.mvent, and even if I could, we still have the same obstacles in the form of Tweedledee and Tweedledum."

"Then what should we do?

"Hmmm…the candle will only connect with you if the caller has a close bond with you. Soooooo…just stop having a close bond with them."

"...Okay. How do I do that?" Kenja"s grip on Sakura"s hilt tightened as he watched the girls take turns attempting to perform the Flame Serpent technique for their first time. To Kenja"s dismay, both Hideaki Akiyoshi and Vice Elder Shirou were eagerly tutoring them on the basics.

What happened to their important business that needed their attendance?

"Look at that guy over there, disciple." Snail used his right eyestalk to point at one of the nearby outer sect disciples cultivating on the side of the road. He had chubby cheeks and a little bit of a belly, reminiscent of Kitamura Bolo, but his head was shaved clean of any strand of hair.

"You don"t love him, like him, dislike him, hate him, think of him, know him, care for him, acknowledge him, etcetera. He is just some nameless n.o.body who has no impact in your life. Right? Now think of your sisters in the same way. Remember, you have to "not care" for them. Pretending to dislike or hate them won"t work because the candle can identify bad relationships as well. Actually, the candles are great if you want to prank your enemies!"

The idea that the candles required a mutual bond built on a positive foundation or that both parties" feelings be the exact same for one another was a common misconception that persisted amongst the uninformed to this day.

In fact, one of the cultivators" top fifty love stories of all time was centered around transmission candles before people truly understood how they worked.

Two neighboring clans were locked in a never-ending feud for several centuries over personal disputes and shared resources. Their leaders at that time were a man and woman who hated each other to the very depths of their beings, but due to the invading threats of dangerous beasts and external clans, they agreed to cooperate on the surface for the sake of their clans" survival. For that reason, they had exchanged communication tokens.

Unfortunately, the male clan leader had been angered on one occasion after speaking with the insufferable woman to the extent that he unintentionally destroyed the token. As he and his advisors brainstormed a solution that did not require an admission of carelessness to the opposing female clan leader, they jokingly suggested that the male clan leader try using a transmission candle. Going along with the joke to lighten the gravity of the meeting, he activated a candle and called out the name of his arch nemesis, only to be stunned speechless when her reply echoed back to him in the meeting room. He immediately deactivated the candle and began deliberating with his advisors over the cause for what had just occurred, an action shared by the female clan leader who had immediately summoned her own advisors.

The conclusions they both had reached: the other person had hidden feelings for them.

Their plan of action: use those hidden feelings to manipulate that person and gain control of their clan.

And so what followed were decades of romancing, courting and wooing from both sides to the point that both clans had joined together in what each of the clan"s higher-ups believed was a secret hostile takeover disguised as a matrimonial union. It wasn"t a month later that news of the female clan leader"s pregnancy spread all over and awakened the plotters to the truth: their leaders were not faking it.

At some point in time, the two lifelong enemies had truly fallen in love and confessed their plans to one another, but because their original misunderstanding founded such a famous story, the transmission candle gained a second name: Cupid"s Arrow.

And now, rich cultivators would spend a fortune to acquire a candle for the sole purpose of determining whether their crush viewed them as an "important person in their life". As long as they prepared a sensible reason for contacting them ahead of time, they could safely deduce when and if a shift in their loved one"s feelings occurred without appearing creepy or desperate. Whether that shift would be a positive or a negative one was still up for debate though.

"And don"t gimme any of that sappy nonsense about how you can"t do that to your sisters. It"s just until they give up, but you have to be as serious as a snail, disciple."

Snail had a bad habit of attributing any and every positive trait in existence to snails, especially when they started with the letter "S".

"As serious as a snail."

"As sneaky as a snail."

"As smart as a snail."

"As strong as a snail."

"As sharp as a snail."

That last one was not related to a sharp mind but to the sharpness of a knife. In what universe would a squishy, slimy, spongy snail ever be considered sharp?!

After spending a few days with Snail, he had long stopped questioning these a.n.a.logies, and he no longer rolled his eyes when hearing them.

Kenja understood what Snail was getting at, so he decided to give it a try. All he had to do was "seriously" pretend to have no relation to his sisters for a few minutes. Even though Kenja cared for his sisters, he had already pretended to sever their bond a week ago for their sakes, so he was not entirely inexperienced in this department.

"I wish to s-speak with Kenjniisan," the eager Yoshie declared to the flame. Shizuka had successfully lit the candle, so she let her younger sister initiate the call. This way, they both contributed.

Kenja blinked several times, trying his best to break the deep bond between his sisters and him, but he had no clue if it was working. All he could do was pray that the candle did not locate him.

The flame flickered rapidly before settling down.

"Oh, it connected! That was…a bit fast. No matter. Go ahead and speak what you want, and your message should reach his ears," Hideaki Akiyoshi whispered to them while sending Kenja a kind smile.

Gritting his teeth, Kenja cursed Snail for his inability to provide a feasible solution to their predicament.

Both girls remained silent, hesitant to be the first one to speak.

Although they had received Kenja"s letter that resolved the events around their separation and encouraged them to work hard so that they do not fall too far behind him in their cultivation, neither of them had prepared what they wanted to tell Kenja the next time they could converse with him.

Because she knew she could not keep wasting her three seniors" time, Shizuka was the first to speak to the flame.

"...Kenjnii—Kenja. This is Shizuka. Can you hear me?" She did not use her usual way of addressing Kenja which garnered a surprised look from Yoshie.

Several seconds pa.s.sed and a response came from the flame:

"Kenjnii—Kenja. This is Shizuka. Can you hear me?"

Followed by several seconds of stunned silence and then another response from the flame:

"Kenjnii—Kenja. This is Shizuka. Can you hear me?"

To Shizuka"s embarra.s.sment, her greeting repeated every several seconds without pause. Her cheeks became redder and redder every time she heard the way she addressed Kenja differently, rivaling her bashful younger sister"s trademark blush. She eventually could not face the mortification and uncharacteristically dove her face into Yoshie"s brown curls that had grown past her shoulders.

This was a fresh experience for Kenja who had just witnessed both his sisters exhibiting a bit of each other"s traits for the first time, with Yoshie showing a bit more thoughtfulness than usual and Shizuka displaying a bit more concern and bashfulness.

Hideaki Akiyoshi extinguished the flame and examined the candle in a bewildered fashion.

"I don"t understand…the candle connected with the recipient, right Vice Elder?" he asked the knowledgeable vice elder for affirmation. He had thought that there might have been an echo on Kenja"s side, but after the second repeat, he knew that could not be the reason.

"Mmm…" he replied with a tone that showed he was equally confused at what had just occurred.

The two sisters began to panic when they realized something had gone very wrong with the candle"s function. Was Kenja in trouble?

Sensing the panic rise in the younger twins, Hideaki Akiyoshi rea.s.sured them, "Calm yourselves, junior sisters. If your brother was out of range or deceased, the flame would have extinguished itself. Actually…the candle should extinguish itself for every situation that would prevent us from reaching your brother. I"ve never heard of a case like. Have you, Vice Elder?"

Vice Elder Shirou knitted his eyebrows tightly as he tried to recall any time that a transmission candle had acted in such a way, but he was unable to come up with anything. All he could do was shake his head solemnly. "Perhaps the problem lies with the enchantment on the candle."

"Mmmmm…" Hideaki Akiyoshi faintly a.s.sented to the vice elder"s suggestion.

Kenja felt bad for the confused party of four, but he was happy that the immediate danger had pa.s.sed. He exhaled a sigh of relief only to have Hideaki Akiyoshi"s head dart up from the candle to stare straight at him with a crystal, clear expression.

The cold sweat that Kenja had just gotten rid of returned with a vengeance.

Even though Kenja believed in making his own luck, moments like these made him wish his default luck would find something better to do.