Quin did not wait for the award ceremony, he stormed out right away after the fight. Even if in the end he had won, he would not have been proud or happy. He was better, he should have been better, he should have won easily but fighting to a draw against someone whose element is mere earth and furthermore has a lower cultivation base?

That was just plain humiliating!

Previously he had been at the center of attention, at the spotlight of his year, no of his entire school. However not this time... Today’s main attraction would obviously be Mang, who managed to end up with a draw against him.

He needed to cool off his head, away from the pitying eyes that looked down on him.

Thus he climbed up the mountains at the back of the city and went to the spot they usually hung out with Aline at. He sat down, contemplating on the recent events, slowly entering into a self-loathing state, due to his failures.

After a while he decided to divert his attention, so he started playing a game he just invented: ‘Fuck all the rocks’. He threw rocks and pebbles nearby him as far as he could and then shot them down with his strongest Bolts, sparing no effort.

He did not know how long he was doing this, when he felt somebody sitting next to him, and then they put their arm around him. Quin turned his head and realized it was Aline.

“You don’t have to be so angry and disappointed, it was just a tournament. Although it ended up in a draw, you’re still stronger than him and remember you were still standing after he had fallen unconscious already,” she said in a gentle tone, showing a beautiful smile to him.

Mixing the love and happiness he felt about her, especially after hearing her comforting talk, with the pain, anger and all the negative emotions he had, made it quite hard for him to prevent his tears from flowing out.

I can’t! No, I can’t be weak in front of her, I have to show that I’m strong, someone she can rely on! he declared it in his mind and restrained his emotions, trying to make it like he was completely calm and confident.

“I know,” he answered, nearly choking on his words, it seemed it was more difficult than he imagined. “I know that I’m the superior, in strength, in element and in cultivation as well, but I’ve got no idea how all of this happened. Now I’ll be the laughing stock of the fucking school!” he lost his temper at the end and swore. “Sorry, I just... It’s just been a long day and week.” He apologized.

“It’s nothing,” she replied still smiling and caressed his back. “In truth it was just that he had more experience than you.”

“What? How’d he get more experience?” he interrupted her, frowning.

“Let me finish it.” She let out a small sigh and Quin nodded embarrassed. “You shouldn’t know this, so do keep it a secret. Even I only learnt about this, from overhearing my father talking with a city official. As it turned out, Mang’s got a powerful backer or maybe he’s even Mang’s master, and the thing is that he had become an important benefactor of the city throughout the years. I’m not sure about the details, but I think he’s probably some kind of alchemist and he is sending his items to the city through Mang. Thus thanks to this mysterious person, Mang got a significant influence in the city. The point is that he managed to let him into the army to get more real combat experience, even if he’s still not an adult,” she explained.

“Haha! So that’s how it’s been!” Now the complete situation became clear to him and he laughed. “That bastard concealed the fact to get back at me! But even though he’s got more experience than me, in a few years time that’ll be nothing, however my advantage will still remain!” His mood instantly changed after hearing her explanation and his negative emotions disappeared, leaving behind only the positive ones. Then he paused, a thought occurring to him. “I guess after this there’ll be several of idiot who’ll think that they’re the same as Mang, and can take up a fight me! Haha, I’ll just have to show them that the difference between us is Heaven and Earth!” Quin smirked. He was now completely back to his old self, full with power and confidence. “Thank you, Aline!”

He turned his head towards her smiling and Aline did the same. I guess, this as good opportunity as I can get! he thought and after gathering his courage for a few moments and staring into each other’s eyes, he moved his head slowly closer to her. Meanwhile he lifted his hand up, putting it on her shoulder and tenderly pulling her closer as well.

Their face was right next to each other, barely separated and he could feel her breath on himself, as well as her sweet, entrancing fragrance. He looked at her mesmerizingly beautiful face briefly and then he kissed her at once.

At first he could feel some hesitation from her, which made him nervous like he had never been before, second guessing if he had done the right thing. Fortunately for him, it was only for a moment and Aline kissed him back.

He did not know for how long it lasted that they were glued together like that, he was too submerged into this perfect moment. He felt that it was the best moment in his life, he never felt so happy and content before and could not even put it into words. The morbid thing was -- even he did not know how it came to his mind -- that the most accurately he could describe his emotions and current state was as the exact opposite what he felt, during the time when he was attacked by the Shrieker years ago. Thinking of this, he became startled for a second but then decided to ignore and just enjoy the time.

They stayed there, in each other’s embrace until night, talking and laughing about various things.

The next day he had to face the consequences, however.

The first one being just like he had assumed, some of his classmates getting too cocky or even provocative around him. He did fix it in quite a short time, though. Shooting a couple of Bolts or simply just overwhelming them with his Lightning Qi made even the more foolish ones quickly realize that, the draw was only due to Mang probably being a genius. Secondly it helped them remembering the matches before the finals, how Quin basically obliterated anyone in just seconds and reminded them that it would not be a good idea try and pick on him. Thus the status quo at the school was almost entirely restored on the very first day after the tournament.

After that came talking with the Instructor. At the start Quin was worried about what his teacher would say, but surprisingly he was not angry at all, rather he was sad. He told Quin that he was somewhat disappointed, but all in all in the last match he had a great overall performance and the thing he lacked was combat experience, so there was no reason for him to be angry. Thus Quin requested him to allocate some of his training time to get some combat experience, to which the Instructor happily complied.

Sorting out the incident with his father was a touch more difficult, but after a couple of weeks, their relationship was back to normal. In the previous years their relationship has became great, Quin was really glad to have a father, with whom he could interact with, ask for advice or just speak to. His father let him to accompany to several places, even to some important meetings, where he proudly introduced his genius son to them. It also made Quin quite happy and proud, to see how highly his father thought about him.

Sometimes he was still angry about the results of the tournament, but all in all he felt that he had found his place in life and that from now on comes the best part of it.