After bidding farewell to Lady Tennin and the villagers of Urayama, Jia and Eui left with Hayakawa and Rika to return to the provincial capital of Noguchi. Before leaving, Jia gifted the Ito family a few gold coins—while they hadn’t really made use of Suzu’s hospitality, Jia still wanted to repay her for all the trouble. Leaving Minister Kano behind, the four of them sped through the wilderness, crossing what had been described as a multiple week-long journey in only a day.

Hayakawa was quiet during their trip—as she had been ever since Jia turned down her offer of friendship. To her credit, Hayakawa had accepted Jia’s rejection with grace despite how embarrassing it must have been. Jia felt a tiny bit bad—Hayakawa must have spent a lot of soul-searching to come to the conclusions she had and lower her head in apology like that. The fact that she didn’t even react to Jia literally and figuratively slapping her in the face was proof enough of that. Yet, Jia had done plenty of her own soul-searching over the last two years, and the fact was, Hayakawa was not now, nor had she ever been, Jia’s friend.

She was an ally, and Jia trusted her to be true to her word. She really was honorable, to the extent that she defined the word. However, Hayakawa was ultimately far too self-serving to form the sort of bonds that defined Jia’s—and by extension Yoshika’s—domain. It was perhaps a bit uncharitable, but Jia’s impression wasn’t that Hayakawa Kaede had learned to open herself up to forming real friendships, only that she’d grown to appreciate the utility that such relationships held. It wasn’t a bad thing, necessarily, but it wasn’t what Jia wanted in a friend. A relationship of mutually beneficial back scratching was all that she could ever see herself having with Hayakawa Kaede, and she had made her peace with that.

When they arrived at Noguchi City—apparently it was a common practice in Yamato for a province and its capital to be named after the lord presiding over it—Lee Jia was struck by just how different everything was. For starters, there were no walls around the city—just those around Lord Noguchi’s castle. Where Goryeo—and to a lesser degree, the academy—favored tall, multi-story buildings, most of Noguchi’s buildings were single-floor structures spread out over an area much larger than any city Lee Jia had ever seen. She had thought that Urayama was unusually sprawled out, but assumed that it was a result of being a rural village. Now, seeing the city for herself, Jia realized that this was simply the nature of Yamato architecture.

The castle itself was an enormous multi-tiered wooden structure sitting on a sturdy-looking stone foundation, and it stood out dramatically from the rest of the city. Jia and Eui followed as Hayakawa strode confidently through the gates, and Jia could feel the stares of the guards on her back in a way that was uncomfortably reminiscent of her childhood on the streets of Goryeo. Rika caught her eyes as Jia looked around anxiously, feeling a bit claustrophobic within the castle walls.

“Relax, Jia. Once Lady Hayakawa introduces you, they’ll be giving you the full VIP treatment. Lord Noguchi is a bit of a creep, but he doesn’t hold back on the hospitality.”

Jia grimaced—Rika’s description of their host as a ‘creep’ wasn’t exactly comforting. Eui picked up on something else as she replied to Rika with a frown.

“It’s ‘Lady’ Hayakawa now?”

Rika lowered her voice as she glanced around urgently.

“It’s ‘Lady’ Hayakawa everywhere unless you know for certain that we’re alone. Seriously, no more face-slapping! I know things were different in the academy, but she’s one of the heads of state and if you embarrass her publicly it’s going to cause a lot of trouble for all of us.”

Eui crossed her arms and grumbled irritably.

“She deserved it, though.”

“I know she did, just promise me you’ve got it out of your system, both of you!”

Jia met Rika’s pleading eyes and sighed.

“Alright, we get it. We’ll try to be respectful, right Eui?”

Eui scowled and averted her eyes, but did relent.

“Tsk, fine!”

Rika let out a sigh of relief, and a moment later Jia sensed the lord and his entourage approaching from within the castle. He had half a dozen attendants with him, and Jia estimated each of them to be late second stage martial artists. The lord himself was only in the first stage, which seemed a bit backwards to Jia, but she supposed that even in Yamato there was more to leadership than just martial might. He met their group at the steps leading up into the main entrance of the castle and offered a respectful bow to Hayakawa.

“Welcome back, my lady! I take it your visit to the village shrine went well?”

Hayakawa returned the bow with a curt nod.

“As a matter of fact it did. Lord Noguchi, allow me to introduce Lee Jia and An Eui. They are acquaintances from the grand academy who I have taken on as experts on Goryeon culture and techniques. I expect you to treat them with the same level of respect that you would afford me.”

Lord Noguchi turned and inclined his head towards Jia and Eui.

“Of course! I’ll have quarters arranged for them immediately! You’ll have to forgive my unfamiliarity with hosting youkai guests, do you require any special accommodations?”

Before Lee Jia could respond, Hayakawa cut in.

“Half-spirits, Lord Noguchi. They are humans like you or I, and prefer not to be associated with magical beasts, even if it’s meant with respect.”

The lord’s smile stiffened a bit, but he otherwise took the chastisement in stride.

“Very well, shall I take it that there are no special accommodations necessary for your half-spirit friends then, my lady?”

Jia decided to take the opportunity to speak for herself before Hayakawa could respond.

“No, thank you. We’ll be fine with whatever you—”

Eui cut Jia off mid-sentence as she hurriedly added her own requests.

“Actually, we’d like a single room between the two of us. One bed, and make sure that the room includes a full-length mirror. Oh, and a bath.”

Jia raised an eyebrow at Eui, who just shrugged. Rika seemed to be holding back laughter, while the lord simply took the request in stride.

“Of course, Lady An. I’ll have it seen to immediately. In the meantime, might I invite you all to a conversation over dinner? You must be tired after returning with such haste.”

Hayakawa maintained a neutral expression, but Jia could sense her exasperation. Rika openly grimaced at the suggestion, not even trying to hide her feelings. Jia’s impression of Lord Noguchi was getting worse by the second. Hayakawa responded without so much as a hint of her distaste making it into her tone.

“As nice as that would be, I’m afraid that I have some business to take care of with Miss Lee and Miss An in private in order to finalize our arrangement. Is the reflecting pool available?”

Lord Noguchi bowed deeply.

“Of course, my lady. I’ll have it prepared for you right away.”

Apparently the conversation was finished, because Lord Noguchi simply turned and left with his retinue of bodyguards. The remaining maids ushered them inside and led Jia, Eui and Hayakawa down a series of long corridors, while Rika was returned to her own guest quarters. The interior of the castle felt a bit labyrinthine to Jia, and she wondered if it was deliberately designed to be confusing or if she just had a poor sense of direction. Not that it mattered much when she could expand her domain to encompass the entire castle at once, and sense everyone within it.

Aside from Jia, Eui, and Hayakawa, there were no other third stage martial artists within the castle grounds—which struck Jia as odd, considering the fact that the city was so close to the border. Well, it wasn’t like she knew anything about military strategy anyway. There was one individual that struck her as odd, though—sitting by themself in some secluded room, calmly meditating. The person stood out because although Jia didn’t sense any essence within them, they were surrounded by an incredible amount of mana that seemed to be connected to them in some way.

Before she could contemplate the anomaly any further, they arrived at their destination. Jia and Eui followed Hayakawa into a large, dark room lit only by a few oil lamps. Inside the room was a calm pool of water with a massive jade tablet standing at the far edge of it like a gravestone. The pool was surrounded by an incredibly complex formation that Yoshika immediately took in with her domain and memorized with Absolute Awareness. It was the most complex formation she’d seen since the barrier that Do Hye used to enclose her during her breakthrough into the third stage—a formation that she had barely begun to scratch the surface of, even after two years of study. At various points around the pool—which Yoshika recognized as the anchor points for the formation—a dizzying number of mana stones were piled up, casting their faint glow across the placid surface of the pool.

The room became even more gloomy as Hayakawa shut the door behind them, taking a steadying breath as she approached the pool. She seemed—nervous? Yoshika regarded her curiously, speaking in Jia’s voice.

“What is this place? I’ve never seen a formation like this before. I didn’t know Yamato had formations like this.”

Hayakawa sighed.

“We don’t. Or at least, we don’t have any experts who are still able to create them. These reflecting pools were once made by ancient onmyouji, borrowing the knowledge of great kami. The methods behind their development were lost, but some still remain. This one, however, is a replica.”

Yoshika frowned.

“But you just said—”

“We don’t know how to recreate them, however during Shogun Ienaga’s reign, he outsourced the reverse engineering of the reflecting pools to a certain Goryeon Magus, having several of them built in strategically relevant locations in exchange for political favors.”

Yoshika felt her blood freeze as a name came to her, unbidden.

“No...no way! Grand Magus Do Hye!?”

Was there anything The Snake, Do Hye hadn’t meddled with in some way? Hayakawa chuckled at her outburst.

“His reputation isn’t for nothing, you know. He may have disappeared during the descent, but I’m certain The Snake is still out there, plotting away. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had somehow planned for it.”

Once again, Yoshika had to hold her tongue. Do Hye had plotted with Jianmo to bring about the events of two years ago, though his reasons were alien to her and Jianmo both. As much as she might have liked to, she didn’t think that she could trust Hayakawa with that information, so she changed the subject instead.

“You didn’t say what they are for.”

Hayakawa nodded.

“They are, in essence, extremely powerful speaking stones. They can work over much longer distances, but also require exponentially greater amounts of energy to do so. I am going to contact my father. Please wait a moment.”

Hayakawa Kaede stepped forward to stand barefoot within the shallow pool. She held her arms out and closed her eyes in meditation. As she did, Yoshika could sense the ki flowing through Hayakawa, completing the formation with her own body. The pool lit up with a soft blue glow, matched by the lines of the formation, lighting Hayakawa’s face eerily from below. The mana stones were absorbed in an instant, and the ripples in the pool around Hayakawa’s ankles went unnaturally still.

She stood like that, totally motionless, for what felt to Yoshika like a very long time. Just when she was about to awkwardly ask what was supposed to happen, the massive piece of jade at the end of the pool began to glow brightly. Beneath it, there was a small ripple of water as its reflection changed.

Staring down—or up? It was a bit hard to tell with a reflection—was a severe looking man with fiery red hair and a face that spoke of a lifetime of scowling that would make the grumpy old Elder Qin Zhao look friendly by comparison. He wore an ornate set of armor that reminded Yoshika of the one worn by her old martial arts mentor, Master Ienaga Yumi, though it seemed a bit more ostentatious. His intense hazel eyes glared at Hayakawa like a predator searching for a weakness to exploit. He spoke in a clipped, impatient tone.

“Kaede. Speak.”

Hayakawa bowed deeply to the man, who Yoshika had to assume was her father, the Shogun, Hayakawa Takeo.

“Father, I have contacted you to inform you about a development regarding my—”

“Get to the point, Kaede.”

Kaede’s posture was like nothing Yoshika had ever seen from her, as she received the chastisement. Her shoulders were drawn forward, her hands clenched together in front of her thighs, she kept her head bowed and somehow Yoshika didn’t think it was just to meet her father’s eyes.

“Yes, father. I have with me Lee Jia and An Eui. I would like your blessing to declare them as honorary consuls for the purpose of my mission.”

There was a brief pause as Yoshika saw Shogun Hayakawa’s gaze pass over her. She met his eyes with both of her own sets as he regarded her coldly before returning his attention to his daughter.

“Do as you will. Don’t waste any more resources on frivolous matters.”

The glowing jade tablet winked out abruptly, and Shogun Hayakawa’s reflection disappeared. Hayakawa Kaede let out a single shuddering breath before turning and meeting Yoshika’s eyes with all the straight-backed confidence that she had been so lacking just a few seconds ago.

“Congratulations. You are now officially part of the Yamato diplomatic corps.”