"How could they do this? How could they just send them to die knowingly? Without even telling them about it? This is unfair...no...It's worse than that. This is just evil"

Even though she had such thoughts, not once did Sophia think of getting revenge for them or find ways to change how things were run. She condemned the acts but didn't have the resolve to work to change them. Sure, it would have been unrealistic but it would have proved that her stance was real. Here, however, it seemed nothing but shallow. Being against something while not doing anything yourself meant nothing. It simply showed that you were useless.

After she rambled about evil and such for dozens of minutes, Hae-Hyuk got tired of it. It was ruining his mood. He had been nice with her until here but her stupid thoughts were getting on his nerves. He couldn't take it anymore and just stated the truth for her to hear: "You keep speaking about wrong and right but what do you know? The world is neither black nor white, not even gray. No one is without sins and neither are you. Let me tell you one thing, Sophia. If you want people to take you seriously, you better act instead of speaking"

She angrily retorted: "Then what do you expect me to do?!"

He stated firmly: "Be strong. Stronger than anyone else. Because the strongest is the ones declaring what is right and wrong. Until then, just shut up"

She stood there tongue-tied, glaring at him before she stormed away to her room, slamming the door shut. Once she was inside, Isla smiled as she whispered slowly: "So that is the famous family dispute I heard of so many times..."

Hae-Hyuk glared at her as he said: "It's not"

Then, he proceeded to take out another bottle of Frone. Isla moved her glass closer and from there, they began to drink merrily, soon forgetting about Sophia's fit.

Meanwhile, in her room, Sophia was fuming. At all of them and at herself. She knew that she was powerless but they were not. Why could they not do something about it? This trial was too barbaric and inhumane. She did not want to see another one like that ever again.

She was weak now but in the future, she would be strong. Powerful enough that her words would have weight unlike now. There was not much she could do to convince the older generations but she could try to reach out to the next ones. With her status, it was doable.

A new era...

...Of peace and fairness...

It was a grand dream that was born from a meaningful sadness. In any case, there were four people aboard this boat she could already try to go for.

A sword master, a dragon, a tiger and a princess.

She would start from there. She wiped away her tears, cleaned her face and left the cabin altogether in search of those four. She at least had to get a way to communicate with them before they were dropped off.

...

While Hae-Hyuk was the greatest winner, there was someone far away that could be considered the greatest loser.

Min-Su's family.

His sister had been playing with the three cute little monsters when it happened. Due to their link with their Master, they knew when he died. In fact, the link cut off as soon as he did. It brought them both mental and physical pain and they howled at the heavens in utter suffering. At the same time, the proves of their taming disappeared. That's when Min-Su's sister realized what happened.

She fell to her knees and began to wail. It attracted her parents who hugged her and wailed as well once they learnt of the tragic end of their only son.

After a lot of crying, she proceeded to tame the three beasts herself swearing to find out whatever happened to her brother and get justice for him. She knew someone who would know the truth. Her best friend Sophia went there so she must have the answers. She would contact her through the letter delivering services.

...

At around the same time, within the clan's hall, the Patriarch and a few grand elders were discussing managerial things. An average elder burst open through the door in a hurry as he held a cracked totem.

One of the Grand elders quickly asked him what was going on and they learnt of Min-Su's death through his life totem shattering. They looked at each other in silence. Frowns were on all their faces. Especially one of them. The one who trained Min-Su, Seo-Jun. He taught the kid all that he knew. It wouldn't be a stretch to have considered them Master and disciple at that point. As he frowned, tears were silently falling down his cheeks.

The Patriarch was the only one silent. After letting the silent commotion go on for a few seconds, he ordered the elders to prepare a grand funeral to honor this kid and focus more resources on the sister.

Every elder was leaving the hall. He ordered for Seo-Jun to stay and led him deeper within the Leader's pavilion. After going through numerous deadly arrays and formations, they reached a vault. It was the greatest treasury of the clan.

Seo-Jun did not understand why he was here. However, he remained silent until the Patriarch spoke. He did so only after arriving in front of a big and extremely thick book. He asked his trusted elder: "Do you know what this is, Seo-Jun?"

Seo-Jun obviously did not and honestly admitted it. The Patriarch opened the book and showed a few pages to Seo-Jun who quickly understood. His mouth opened wide in disbelief. All the pages contained information on a space-elemental technique. And they were of all kinds of power!

"How?"

The Patriarch sighed and bowed at Seo-Jun once as he apologized: "I am deeply sorry Seo-Jun. I sold little Min-Su for this book"

Seo-Jun paused for a moment.

"The patriarch knew that Min-Su would die from the start yet he let me train him? Without telling me about it?"

He got angry rather fast and coldly asked: "Why?"

The patriarch, still bowing, stated firmly: "I picked the future of our clan over one of its members. As a Patriarch, I take full responsibility for this"

Seo-Jun was enraged. But he was still rational enough to understand that the actions of the Patriarch were not wrong. He had to think of the clan itself, its future and present. He could not blame him. But he still needed to find a place to vent his anger. What was he supposed to do now?

The patriarch told him: "You deserve to be angry. However, shameless as it makes me, please, give up your anger. Help me grow our clan further. With this book, we can nurture a powerful new generation!"

Seo-Jun looked coldly at the bowing elder. Then, he sighed and stated: "Under one condition..."

The Patriarch agreed. He had to. What the condition would bring him, he did not know but he believed it was a cheap price to pay to keep his friend next to him.