Ignoring all the things taught, Gin ran off to the gardens. Although Il San had given him an hour before getting to his new readings, he decided to push it and add some minutes in the remaining few. He had really wanted to see that flower again, but for the life of him, he couldn't find it. The flower garden was beautiful, yes, but right then, Gin frowned at it with a good dose of displeasure that came deep from his heart.

You truly don't want people to have good things, huh? Gin chided the gardens to himself.

Huffing slightly, he stood at an intersection that led to more and more flowers. It was rather painful for the young one, the gardens he had hoped to love were treating him in such a way. Sure, he may have said a few callous words at their owner, but really? Weren't they doing a tad much? While grumbling, Gin turned to a stone bench placed conveniently a few steps behind him to his left. Instead of sitting on it when he reached, he simply stood there while looking around. As resigned as he felt, he hadn't given up looking for the flower, even though that flower was special, if not paid attention to, it was easily missed. How did the discoverers of the Art even find it? Indeed, what was the 'birth' of the Art really like?

Ah, no, Gin shook his head. No thinking of the lessons for the time we have. Rest this poor brain, it has already been thwacked enough from yesterday with no time to breathe. How miserable.

"Excuse me, my Lord," murmured a soft voice behind Gin.

Gin jumped up in surprise, turned, and looked at the intruder, "Oh my gods, you scared me!"

Were his senses just terrible? This had happened yesterday as well, and by gods, it wasn't pleasant. Gin made a note to think back as to whether he had experienced such a thing as frequently before coming to the Distant Jade.

"Ah! Apologies, my Lord!" the intruder, a servant as their garb indicated, bowed from their waist, seemingly flustered by Gin's outburst.

If they had hoped their reaction would placate the young one, they were thoroughly mistaken, as Gin became even more flustered. The most he had ever gotten as an acknowledgment or an apology from people, even from his father's farmworkers, was a nod of the head. And even that came with looks of annoyance stabbed towards him, especially from the people that apologized to him. He never understood it, he only spoke the truth, and he believed to have been very tactful as well! However, this situation...

"Please, it's alright, no need for such heavy formalities! Ah, stand, stand," Gin placed his hands on the servant's shoulders, trying to have them stand.

As he did that, the servant followed his will and straightened up. He came face to face with Gin, and Gin's eyes were nearly pierced clean.

My gods!

For ba's sake!

What beauty!

If he could have clenched his chest, Gin would have, with all his might. But, as they stood looking at each other like so, Gin's hands only gripped the young servant's shoulders reflexively and didn't move. Were beautiful people a new phenomenon to a country lad like Gin? No, perish the thought! Sari was a beauty of the ages, and his father… well, the man tried. He had also seen more people praised and revered for their beauty in Enwa and Janln, but none held a candle to his mother from Gin's perspective; objectively speaking, of course. Even though Gin was moved, he had to say he was mostly annoyed. How could it be that others got such looks and he had to have his father's shrew-like features? It wouldn't take people even ten meters away from his father for them to know he was a stingy man. And, unfortunately, this curse, this folly, also befell him.

Gods, I praise your blatant unfairness! However... Does Spear pay him extra to showcase his beauty? Or was he negotiated to tears and paid with grains? Should I tell him to make this an added advantage on his qualification assessment?

"Um... My Lord," the servant's lips moved into a charming, but troubled smile.

Blinking, Gin considered their situation and quickly came back to reality. It really was troubling for the young servant. He took away his hands and wiped off the drool from his heart. "I'm sorry, I was carried away a little." With your beauty, you cheating sack!

"No worries, my Lord. You'll get used to it!" said with a cheeky grin, the servant winked.

Gin scoffed at the arrogance clearly written all over those words, but he ended up chuckling with a shake of his head. Being someone with a toothy attitude himself, he liked those with the same attitude since with only that, the mood was reversed to a cordial one. "I'll take your word for it then."

"You won't be disappointed," another wink.

Now, Gin was ready to curse. Should I admire you?! Should I hate you?! Should I fall—

Bringing his thoughts to a halt, Gin cleared his throat in embarrassment. His body was radiating a lot of heat, he was sure if the servant had taken a step closer, he would have felt it. Gin ignored it, he attributed it to the sun. Yes, it was rather hot. The gods just wanted to continue to mold his shrew-like features with the sun. Fit him to have the same splitting image of his father. Mhm, that was it.

"Well, is there anything you needed from me?" Gin asked as he tried to look casual with a mixture of magnanimity. He failed to portray his intended expression as his gaze was turned away stiffly from the servant, trying to not look at his face.

A trace of humor could be seen from the servant's face, but he hid it when stating his purpose, "No, I just wanted to ask if there is anything I can do for you. You seemed troubled, and I was worried."

"Oh, no, I'm quite alright! I just wanted to enjoy the scenery, and get used to the place," Gin answered without thinking, an appreciative smile curved up his lips, but this time able to look at the young servant.

"That's good to hear," the servant smiled broadly as well, "you don't have to worry about getting lost, by the way, I don't know if Sir Spear had told you this, but you can follow the colors of the flowers to whichever part of the estate you wish to go. From this intersection, you can follow the blue flowers to get to the Training Hall, the red further in the gardens, the green-colored to reach the main household, and the pink ones to get to the guests' Reception Hall."

°°

As the servant spoke, he pointed to the various flowers with the same smile. All Gin heard was blue, red, green, and pink. His eyes wandered from the man's pretty hands and back to his even prettier face.

Ah, this sun's heat was too much today, I say! Yes, yes. While we are still at it, what kind of luck does one need to have to get such looks? Should I ask him? Could it possibly work for me? No, no, as the current past events have shown, I believe my stars aren't aligned very well for it to make much of a difference. In fact, my stars may not have been aligned at all from the beginning! Gin inhaled and exhaled before clearing his throat.

"Thank you, it's really good to know," smiling, Gin placed his hands behind his back. Yes, he was still trying to take a stab at looking magnanimous. One shouldn't believe that inhaling and exhaling to clear their frustration while in other's company was a good image to portray, a slight shift of character needed some amendment.

Chuckling in amusement, the servant could only bow and bid Gin farewell, "If there is nothing else, my Lord, I'll be leaving your gracious company."

"Ah yes, yes. Thank you again," Gin raised his hand as a farewell. He then looked away from the servant to his hidden disappointment.

Soon enough, he was alone. As he stared with a dazed look he started to call himself foolish. He could have asked the servant about the gods' stone flower! Those green, blue, whatever color flowers did little for his task! He didn’t remember what color the flowers surrounding the gods’ stone had don, and the bloody thing could even change colors! Another curious factor, since when was he a 'Lord', and was Spear a noble of some sort to be referred to as 'Sir'? He should have made some clarification, but it was still a lost opportunity.

Ah, the loss! Damn it, damn sun!

Unbeknownst to him, another individual was standing right behind him again. This individual was in full view of his self scolding act. As most liked to say, 'you call the devil, and they may appear'.

"Ai, Gin," with a clamp on the young boy's shoulder, Spear saw the young man jump out of his skin.

"Gods, why!" Gin shouted in horror. Was he hated by the high beings that much?

"Ai, calm down, calm down. It's just me." Spear offered with a deadpan voice. He didn't say anything more as he guided Gin to the bench to sit down. The two steps there, Gin had struggled to get away from Spear. His whole body was still alarmed.

Compared to the earlier shock, the current one hadn't dissuaded well, at least, not with a pretty face. This wasn't to say that Spear had shrew looking features, which he didn’t, to Gin's bitter realization, but rather it being Spear himself that made the situation annoying. Gin knew that it was probably best to treat the five with some respect, but for the life of him, he couldn't. To his credit though, the other five had already begun to treat him like one of their underlings, so it didn't make the matter strange. It was, though, oddly fitting. Platonic, even, if one was into that business. On the dreadful side of that it, obviously.

Sitting down, Spear looked Gin up and down as if inspecting him. Then he made a look of contemplation.

Gin, getting annoyed, asked, "What are you even thinking about?"

"Well, I saw you with that servant there, and honestly, your looks are alright. He may be interested in you," Spear spoke as he continued inspecting Gin with more interest.

"What nonsense are you even saying?!" Gin scoffed at Spear while chiding in his mind, this damn sun!

"Eh, I mean, you're not a young lad anymore. Go out, meet more people. Have relationships, and make mistakes," Spear spoke frivolously with careless shrugs added in.

Gin wanted to ignore him completely. Spear was speaking nonsense, but he couldn't help but wonder what was wrong with the man. What else could be the cause of him acting like an old grandfather, seated outside his house to, supposedly, get some fresh air when in reality, they just wanted to mind everyone's business? Gin took the time to look closely at Spear, not bothering to answer to his silly response. He looked restless and had a hint of depression hanging on him like a blanket, a thick one at that.

"You... what happened?" Gin inquired hesitantly. He didn't want to touch any open wounds, but if it so happened that said wounds were over money, he would step on them. He had had to suffer through interesting moments when his father got his particular bad days due to money loss; the insistent whining, determined drive to make it all up with working harder while dragging Gin in tow, having to beg his mother, the only person that could convince Sato out of his live stupor, to be left alone. So many horrible, terrible times!

"I am so happy you asked!" Spear's enthusiasm seemed to have been triggered. It looked like if he were not to speak, he would have cried.

The unaccounted outburst made Gin raise an eyebrow, he couldn't understand it, if he was so aggrieved, why did he try to make him flustered? Right then, Gin thought that Spear was definitely someone who shared his grief with others, but not, never, his joy. Maybe, he would share when he wanted to gloat, but anything else and Gin couldn't picture it. Was Gin projecting? Yes, heavily, and he didn't mind as long as he got to make a quick escape from someone with such attributes! Clicking his tongue, Gin stared at the complaining Spear, he really needed to evaluate him in a newer light.

From talking about his current business, which seemed to be falling further into the Underworld, Spear shifted to talking about the other 5. He kept on switching between the two topics and making great strides to mingle them together to convince himself that the five were the only reasons for his failure. At first, they had partial blame, but as he went on, they got all the blame. And, rather than talking, he was cursing at them thoroughly. Hearing this, Gin became interested in knowing more about his dishonorable seniors. He also asked himself whether the other five held the same level of utter annoyance, not hatred, as Gin learned from the rants, for each other just as Spear.

From Spear's words, in answer to Gin's curiosity on the other four, the five had an uneventful growth. They had spent most of their time training, training, and more training. They were, at first, on hostile terms. Couldn't see eye to eye, their entire existences towards one another were unbearable. Even Lock, who Gin thought would have been a tad bit, tad, mature had been very active on the self-sabotage mix. Spear told him that Flame was the one that got the last laugh, always, so the other four tended to leave her out of any fighting. However, that didn't last long since she would forcefully join in or make trouble for all of them, either through false accusations to stir up trouble, or straight-up pick a fight when, mostly, bored. Flower and Kiri weren't covered by Spear much since from the way he spoke, he held little to no regard for them. On that matter, Gin actually agreed with his assessment but made a note to eventually follow up and get more details. That was if there was anything more to be said.

Simply put, it could be said that the five were their own worst enemies. Even when they had left the Master's care, they had had numerous tangles with one another. Their self-sabotaging activities did eventually come to an end when the Master had to step in and thrashed some sense into them. What was funny to listen to though, some people had tried to get in their way during their intense let's-just-fight-against-each-other phase, to either stop them, or decisively end them for whatever reason, the five never bother to know why, but they all ended up being caught up in the fives' little wars and antics. In fact, it was due to these cases that Il San had to step up.

Spear scoffed in displeasure while concluding his retelling. Apparently, to him, those times were very annoying, but a fond and excited glint in his eyes showed another story altogether. To give him the benefit of the doubt, Gin bet that if not lying, he at least held those memories in his heart somewhere.

Gin asked to know more about the Master, and Spear humphed before recounting, "The master used to be gloomy. He had this miserable look on his face all the time. For a few years, it felt like we were living in a place catered to the dead, and we were just slow on the uptake," Spear rolled his eyes before continuing. "Eventually, we got tired. Since whatever we did, we would be courting death, we decided to do whatever we wanted. It was terrible at first, but he got tired too, and he even became a little freer from his shadow... Now, here we are."

The tale was short but nonetheless fantastic to Gin. Even though the five behaved in scandalous ways, they had an intriguing history. They were raw, but most importantly, they were themselves to the fullest, especially to each other. Though questionable in many, many ways, at least they knew what was what between them. This, from a distant standpoint, was good in itself. Gin could now understand a little bit of why they treated him so freely, if not carelessly, the day before. Compared to being lied to, tricked, well, this was debatable, and subjugated with force, another debatable aspect, he was at least bombarded with truthful intent. It made no sense when observed in-depth, but it made sense to him then. And, to him, he hoped it wasn't a delusion to make the matter better, but something ridiculous nonetheless that would give him some memorable times of his own. Not regret only, hopefully. Gin also started to wonder whether the old Master really hated his students for not fulfilling his wishes since they still hung around him, and even though he would probably take them down once in a while, he didn't seem overly against them. Maybe he had a bigger soft spot for them than he showed.

A long while later, Gin got back to his room. It was only then that he realized how much time those extra minutes had really turned into. Talking to Spear had been both entertaining and frustrating. Also, time-wasting, but he didn’t mind. All he hoped for was that the Master wouldn't be too angry for not following through with the schedule, but he figured it couldn't be all that bad. It was his first day after all. When he got in, the first thing to catch his eye was the new additions in the room. Minus his still unpacked case, there were the scrolls and bound books on the table, the ones, he figured, that Il San had told him about. The same ones, he decided, he would get to that evening. When he neared the table the neatly stacked up scrolls and books greeted him quietly. He gave them a quick inspection. The scrolls were made of silk and the bound books of leather.

One noticeable thing was, they had no titles, had dark colors, and very clean. No indications of long term usage or storage, they looked as if they were bought on that very day. As was everything in the estate. Gin had to praise Spear, he wasn't stingy for nothing, he really was putting in the effort, and this too he shared with his father. The servants were clearly pulling their weight in their profession, not only the cleaning, Gin had noted, but various other works that he had managed to glimpse. They were swift but precise and thorough. He made sure to watch them whenever he could, since he may pick up a thing or two.

Returning his attention to the items, Gin got curious, he flipped through them, but he didn’t get too deep into the well-illustrated drawings of various stances and weapon holding techniques before he abandoned them. He took other scrolls and books, brushed through them until he got what he was looking for. There were three of them in total, a scroll, and two bound books, the larger bound book had what Gin concluded to be the history of the Divine Art, the other two held knowledge on the Schools and University, as well as joint journals on discussions about the Art over the years from various people he knew nothing of. Nodding to himself, he placed them back on the table in the order of his importance. When he had looked at them, the top pile was on the School of Martial Arts and fighting Arts, now he placed the theoretical ones at the top as they took priority for him.

Leaving the table, he went to his trunk and pulled out one of his favorite fiction tales, The Centauress and Galloping Morals. A strange title, a strange tale, and a stranger writer still who hailed from the Orilian Theocracy dubbed The Empire of Cold Forests for its many large forests and harsh weather. Nonetheless, the book offered the topics to Gin’s immediate interest, and the familiarity was comforting. Just the right piece he needed to procrastinate for a while longer. He wanted to get to the new additions, but he didn’t have the drive for that endeavor at all. He hoped that the continued distraction before he went about the readings would ignite him with the necessary eagerness.

Gin carried the stitched bound book with its smooth cover made from mulberry paper to his bed and started on an old chapter. He had read the book countless times and the wear on the pages was something to go by. The heroine of the story was refreshing to know but went through turmoil after turmoil, which she eventually got through, difficult as it was. Gin wouldn't want to be in her place, a sentiment the author shared with him, but it made for an enjoyable ride along.

Aside from the evening, Gin believed he had more than enough time to read the necessary works for his training. He could afford some time to slack off a while. Or so he thought. He ended up slacking off for a few hours and falling asleep. Of course, his beliefs were proven to be wrong, too. Deadset wrong. He had also forgotten about a small, but immensely important comment Spear had told him, it all focused on the fact that Il San was in charge of the training and his minute schedule.

It will be hellish.