Shambala Sect

All the clansmen and clanswomen waved their goodbyes and made their children do the same.

"The stairs behind them are fading away. Will they be alright?" Some people from the crowd were worried.

Sariyu was the first to notice that the stairs behind them were disappearing. "Look behind."

Hearing her words, Burton glanced back, and his eyes widened a little before his feet picked up the pace.

"Why is he running, so sudden?" Lirzod chortled, as he glanced back when he saw the stairs turn into nothing. He looked at Sariyu. "Well... s.h.i.t."

He bolted ahead, and so did Sariyu.

The sh.o.r.e was one thing, but if they were to fall in such a place where the water depth would easily exceed a couple dozen feet, those snakes and crabs which acted pa.s.sively at the sh.o.r.e would now act like monsters in starvation.

Crabs ate flesh. Sea snakes drank the blood that leaked out of the wound. Even certain fish would want to bite a few chunks off them.

That thought alone made the people, and those three be cautious and worried. Sariyu and Burton only looked ahead, while Lirzod turned back at times and waved to his people.

Time flew by fast, and they almost closed the distance between them and the ship.

Soon after that, the stairs entirely disappeared, and the ship began to sail. Everybody still waved to those three, wearing brightest smiles on their faces.

Allda vented his bursting anger by choking a snake and killing it then and there.

Syam sculpted a snake using a crab"s scissors. The snake hissed in pain as its skin got sliced over in a serpentine fashion.

With lips curled down to the max, silent tears streamed down Duera"s cheeks. Her arm mechanically moved and said goodbye. Memories of the past flashed in her eyes.

"I"m gonna go out of our town one day, and explore this world. I will become a hero by the time I come back," Little Lirzod, said to Duera.

"What? You want to go out without me?" Duera who was about to hand him a packet full of nuts, put that packet behind her back.

"I-I was just joking."

"That"s a bad joke."

"Why would I ever go out without you by my side? Who will supply with me with nuts, then?"

"Am I only a nut supplier in your eyes?" Duera threw the packet at him, and after hitting his check, all the nuts fell to the ground.

"My nuts!" Lirzod began to quickly pick them, which only made Duera even angrier. She stomped on all the nuts, making sure he didn"t eat them. Though Lirzod was greatly angered, she had great fun out of it.

Coming back to the present, her heart beat irregularly, but each time it grew heavier. Even her robotically waving hand was affected by it.

(I never thought that your bad dream would become a reality.) Her streaming tears only strengthened in their course.

Primera curled her arm around Duera"s shoulders.

A second later, Duera leaned on Primera"s shoulder and her open eyes still reflected the disappearing Windy Way.

Standing a couple feet away from those two, Trirera just watched Burton. She glanced at Duera. "Is the crying worth it?"

Primera looked at her and placed her palm on Triera"s head. "It is if the relationship matters to you."

Trirera pouted a little. "Young Master Burton matters to me the most. Then why am I not getting any tears?"

"... It"s difficult to express how one"s feeling on the inside, through the face. Not everyone can do that. You do it by staying silent, don"t you?"

"It"s so complex. Relationship sucks."

"At times it sucks... At times it rocks. Got it?"

"Got it? You got his habit as well."

"No. I didn"t."

"No. I"m sh.o.r.e of it."

"Not sh.o.r.e. It"s sure," Primera pulled her cheek.

"I sea. My bad."

"Did you say "see or sea"?"

"I said "C"."

"Playing word games with me huh..." Primera twisted her cheeks. "You are ten years too early to do that."

"My cheeks! I"m sorry!"

The clouds began to rumble, and tiny droplets of rainwater greeted the ground.

"This stupid weather, it"s never good when we take a day off," The crowd were disappointed, and waved their hands at the clouds, telling them to leave.

As the three of them reached the ship, they could see half-dozen workers dressed in blue, scattered on the deck, some of whom got the luggage off the horses. The moment they stepped on the deck, the entire staircase behind them vanished. And the ship began to sail, without a moment"s wait.

As the ship moved, those three turned back and waved at their people. The faces of the clan heads were filled with hope and worry. Still, they managed to smile, and wave back.

"Let"s hope they come back home safely..." Picazo said out loud, and the other clan members roared.

Their roar reached all the way to those three before the fog in front of them thickened and blinded their view of the sh.o.r.e.

For a couple seconds, those three stared at the fog. Both Sariyu and Burton had left their town, Helenia multiple times before, but it was their first time leaving on a ship. Moreover, this time they were unsure of their return. They might never be able to see the faces of their parents, friends, and people again. That thought alone brought forth sadness in their hearts.

Unlike those two who appeared broken-hearted, Lirzod wore a mirthful smile on his face. (He-he, I"m finally free. I"m no longer the Young Master of a clan. Now, I can see for real if I got what it takes to attract girls with my skills and not by my background. My real adventure, my real struggle for love... Starts now." He resolutely clenched his fist. "Hmm?" He glanced at the other two. (Hu-hu... Are these fools getting emotional?)

"I didn"t know that only a hundred kilos of luggage were allowed," Sariyu sighed. "More than ninety percent of it was left behind."

"You are worried about that?" Lirzod startled. "Just what kind of things did you store in them?"

"Hmm? You shouldn"t question a woman in that regard," Sariyu put her index finger on her mouth.

"You three. Enough chattering there and get going!" One of the guys standing nearby the horses shouted. "You shouldn"t stay here for long."

"Huh? Why is that?" Lirzod turned to the guy.

"Don"t ask questions, and just go," That guy looked at few other men and nodded, before looking back at Lirzod. "These men will show you the way to your rooms. You can ask them anything regarding the journey."

"Don"t ask questions?" Lirzod raised his eyebrows. "You think you"re my dad or what? Huh? Why aren"t you saying anything?"

"Lirzod!" Sariyu twisted his ear and pulled his head close to her"s. "Stop running your drainage of a mouth. We are not in our town anymore. So, keep that in mind!"

"Y-Yes," Lirzod said, and only then did she let go of his ear. "But still, telling us to not ask questions is silly. Who does he think he is? I don"t like him."

"If you don"t like me, then that"s your problem, and you have to bear with it," That guy said. "Now, if you please excuse me, my work here is done." Saying that he left. (These fools who aboard the ship today, thinks they are hot stuff? Can"t wait to see them get clubbed in the coming days.)

"That b.a.s.t.a.r.d..." Lirzod twitched.

"Why are you getting angry when you"re the one in the wrong?" Burton snorted.

"Don"t b.u.t.t in my business, Big Brother," Lirzod snorted back as well.

"I"ve had enough suffocation for the day," Sariyu put her palm over the head. "I need to go and get some sleep first." She was about to step forward.

TAP~!

A soft sound came from their behind, which made those three turn back. Their eyes enlarged in bafflement, as they laid on the figure that stood in front of them. Their daze deepened when that loose-limbed person pulled the white hood back, exposing her entire face.

Without knowing, Lirzod witnessed her grandeur, mouth agape with incredulity.

Beauty didn"t only come in shiny looks. It came in many ways, from how one showed compa.s.sion and kindness towards those that deserved it, from how one used their intelligence to achieve great things, from how one used their elegance to handle the hurdles, from how one used their confidence to walk through the hurdles they faced.

If a girl didn"t just have an external beauty, but also many other aspects like the ones mentioned above, then her beauty would multiply with her. Such was the case with the woman those three had their eyes laid on.

Those slender eyebrows, velvety eyelashes, ebony-black hair, rapture-blue eyes, dainty nose, rubescent lips, nitid oyster-white teeth, non-sculptable angelic ears, swan"s neck, and the imp-thin yet shapely body under the speckless cloth — trans.m.u.ted Lirzod"s mind into thinking he"s born just for that moment.

Nothing he ever saw was as abstruse as the look of that woman. He had seen many magic shows, but all the tricks of those magicians paled in front of her smile — which seemed slier than a fox"s, yet veritable like that of a mother"s — an immeasurable wealth. The raw effervescence that oozed out of her, before she even spoke a word, was too much for Lirzod"s wee-little heart to bear. His eyes didn"t miss a single gesture made by her — be it the motion of her braid whose spools plunged her picturesque visage, or the movements of her pupils, the flight of her hands, the sparkles on her skin — every single one of those filled his stomach and he wasn"t able to even take a breath. All of it made him go mad, but he didn"t dare look away, fearing that he"d come out of the spell that her G.o.d-given prettiness and self-earned beauty put on him. And he was thoroughly — madly — satisfied.

That willowy woman was without a doubt, the woman of his dreams.

(This kind of woman is the reason for my journey. I didn"t think it would be fulfilled so soon...) Lirzod was in so much of a bliss, that he didn"t know that he was actually drooling out, thrice as he would for his favorite food. (Mother, father... I"ve accomplished my life"s goal. I"ve found your daughter-in-law!)

"You must be Sariyu," She looked at Sariyu. Her voice was so pleasant than the sound that came when an ice cube fell into the water. The waves of her voice traveled smoother than the ripples produced in the water. It gave an eargasm to Lirzod.

"Yes, I am. And you are..."

"I"m Stussy. Stussy Junksman." She glanced at Lirzod. "You must be Burton."

It took him a couple seconds to force his throat into gulping all the drool gathered in his mouth. "Yes, yes," Lirzod nodded, in haste.

"What?" Burton weirdly stared at Lirzod.

Lirzod who was smiling brightly, suddenly startled. "Che, I"m not Burton. I"m Lirzod. Lirzod Basha!" He put his hand forward. "N-Nice to meet you."

"Oh, so you are Lirzod," Stussy glanced at his hand and smiled, before turning to Burton, "then, you must be Burton."

"Yes," Burton glanced sideways unable to make prolonged eye contact with her.

"You two seem to be fine, but.." She turned her head to Lirzod. "You look a bit young."

Lirzod forgot to answer her and ended up losing his senses thanks to staring at her eyes. But her finger snap brought him back to the world. And he startled. "W-What"s wrong?" Lirzod looked around. "Did someone dared to tease you? Where"s that b.a.s.t.a.r.d?"

"Hmm?" Stussy furrowed her brows.

Sariyu sighed and lowered her head in embarra.s.sment.

"No one"s teasing anybody," Stussy said. "I just asked you, if you feel old enough to take the Sect Test."

"O-Oh, so no one"s teasing you?" Lirzod startled. s.h.i.t, that was a dream, just now. "Thank goodness. But if anybody teases you, just call me okay?"

Stussy just stared at him with a blank face.

(That Idiot...) Burton frowned. (She"s the one who spoke to us from the ship, while we were at the sh.o.r.e. You can tell by her voice. Was it too hard for that idiot to recognize that? At this rate, he"ll get himself killed.)

"Why don"t you just answer my question?" Stussy said, stressing her words a little bit.

"Oh, I didn"t? My bad... How can I not answer a question asked by a beautiful woman?" Lirzod took a deep breath and made his chest become as bigger as he can. "To answer your question... A man is safe at home, but that"s not what he"s born for."

"Then what about women?"

All the air in Lirzod"s chest escaped out ten times as fast as it entered in before. "Uh, uh, w-well... Women too!"

Stussy stepped in. "Our world is in its current state because most men in the world think like you... That they"re superior to women in every aspect."

"I... I never said that." Lirzod was unable to think straight, as her scent forced its way into his nostrils and jolted awake all of the neurons in his brain.

"Are you saying, I"m mistaken?"

Sariyu signaled Lirzod to just accept it from behind.

"... Maybe?" Lirzod hesitantly said.

Stussy narrowed her eyes and stepped forward, leaving only a distance of one foot between those two.

Lirzod"s heart began to beat wilder than ever. (Is... Is she coming for a kiss?)