“Have any of you tried travelling through the Chaos Sea by yourself?” Yuriko asked while she stretched and twisted to warm up for her training.

The Lonely Bastion’s gymnasium came with individual training rooms but they cost coins to rent for even an hour. The main gymnasium was more than roomy enough and had a variety of the necessary equipment. She was actually looking forward to going through their obstacle course as the higher tiered setting was made to accommodate Knights.

She was clad in her training clothes which were a sleeveless top and flexible tights as well as comfortable sneakers, courtesy of Ryoko who had apparently packed an entire wardrobe for Yuriko. The spatial expansion on the attendant’s backpack must consume a lot of lumens considering it nearly tripled the available space. Strangely enough, Ryoko only had a couple of changes for herself and she didn’t pack any supplies or camping gear.

“Yes, but only for the Knight’s basic training,” Riley answered.

He and Aidan joined her on her morning workout, though they were dressed in a casual shirt and shorts. The brothers were lean, their physiques typical of Davar men, but they were nonetheless impressive, going by how the other women in the training room stared. Well, more than a few stared at her as well, but she shrugged off their attention. It was the men’s intense gazes that were more uncomfortable. Or rather, they stirred up mixed feelings within her. One part of her disliked getting stared at, while another seemed to like it considering the faint heat flashing across her body.

“We had to travel across the Chaos Sea between Ulmira and Realmheart for that,” Aidan grumbled as he finished his stretches.

He glanced up at the course, rubbed his hands together then leapt up to a trailing hemp rope. He went hand over hand quickly until he was at the bar where the rope was tied then he shifted his body and hung from the bar. He was roughly six paces up.

Yuriko did the same, following quickly after Aidan while Riley waited below. She probably could have just jumped up to the bar, but that wouldn’t be the point of the exercise. Once she was at the bar, she shifted over to the side. Aidan had already moved to another set of bars that proceeded up towards the gym’s ceiling which was more than twenty paces up.

She muscled up on the bar, then flipped herself over. Her feet were pointed at the ceiling while her hands were outstretched, supporting her bodyweight. Then, she held out her right arm to her side, and she was balanced on her left, still gripping the bar firmly. After a moment, she released her fist and she was now precariously balanced on her palm. With a slight push, she now balanced on the tip of her index finger. Her control over her body was to such an extent that she didn’t even wobble, and she easily adjusted for when Riley climbed up next to her.

He followed Aidan’s route and climbed up to another set of bars, using mostly his upper body and back muscles.

Up here, Yuriko had a clear view of the gym’s floor and there were several dozen people staring up at them with their mouths hanging open. She felt a thrill course through her body, followed by a bit of confusion.

Why was she proud? Shaking her head, she moved her balance to two fingers then finger-walked towards the right where she used her other hand to grasp the vertical support pole.

With a good grasp, she lifted herself above the bar then positioned herself horizontally, her entire body weight supported by an outstretched arm. Finally, her core muscles started to protest her abuse. She flexed herself sideways with her toes almost touching the support bar each time. Then, she hooked a foot against it, pressed her other foot on the pole, then released her grip, flipping herself the opposite way. Now, her feet were the only things holding her body while she stretched out.

Above her, the two brothers were having a competition to see how many pull-ups they could each make, with Aidan leading by nearly a hundred repetitions.

“Five hundred ten!”

“Four hundred twenty!”

Shaking her head, she continued her core and flexibility training until her muscles protested and her forehead was shiny with sweat. Admittedly, these exercises could easily be accomplished by using her Anima, or by using a burst of power to propel herself towards the ceiling instead of contorting and slowly climbing, but there was limited room and she didn’t want to expose her ability to manipulate things with her Anima alone.

Not that kinetic manipulation was unique. It wasn’t even uncommon, now that she thought about it. Dozens of students in her year alone were able to do that with their Facets. Some could manipulate earth, others fire, water, or ice. Others could control others’ bodies as long as they manage to connect with an Animus tendril. Either way, the point was that they used their Facets and techniques, not their Anima. Come to think of it, Damien mentioned before that Imperial warriors couldn’t expand their Anima beyond their bodies simply because of how they inlaid. Which meant she was unique in her power set. Why did that make her feel happy?

Her flexibility training had progressed enough that she could bend over backwards until she could fit her head between her legs and look forwards. She could do a perfect split with her legs too, either sideways or forwards and back, without any kind of discomfort.

But the problem was she didn’t know how to progress with her body training. How else could she push herself? With strength, she could simply lift heavier and heavier weights, but it had almost come to the point when what she tried to carry was so huge it was more a matter of leverage instead of power. Then, she could use her Anima to assist, but that still defeated the purpose of the exercise.

She could already run for hours, even an entire day, at full speed without tiring, and she didn’t know how to push her endurance further. She could carry weights while running? But that would eventually make her bulkier, right? Then she’d lose flexibility and agility instead.

She still didn’t have a better idea how to train, and truthfully, she only needed to do a little conditioning exercise every day to keep her physique thanks to her Anima and her Radiant Refinement.

Anyway, it looked like her cousins were training upper body strength now. She rather enjoyed watching how their muscles rippled while they worked out. Then, she realized she was staring, and blushing, when Riley glanced down at her and smirked.

She coughed, looked away, then proceeded to do cool-down exercises, which transitioned to breathing meditation. By the time she was done with both, the two had also finished.

“So, what was the difference when you travelled the Chaos Sea by yourself?” she asked, continuing the conversation.

“Well,” Riley hummed, “for one thing, it was really tiring. We had to do each exercise as if we were alone, you know? Meaning, we couldn’t rotate the watch and sleep. I ended up dozing for a couple of minutes every so often throughout the journey. It took nearly twice as long, too.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Even when we followed the established path, going through Waypoints simply took longer without using a Chaos Ship. Instead of seven days from Ulmira to Realmheart, it took us around twelve. Another exercise had us go through a different path, and that one took another week longer.”

“So it’s slower and more tiring than using the ship?” Yuriko ascertained.

“Well, yeah. Why else would we pay for passage? Better spend the gold marks on it rather than waste time. Ah, temporal distortion is worse too. I said it took twelve days to travel right? But when we reached Realmheart, fifteen days had already passed. With the Lonely Bastion, it takes seven days subjectively, and maybe there won’t be any temporal distortion at all.”

“I see. Better use a ship or spend nearly three times as long to cross.” Yuriko muttered. She supposed that meant her travels would have to follow the usual paths unless she had time to spare. Well, she had a feeling that the time she needed to get home wasn’t unlimited.

Later, when she returned to her suite after taking a nice long bath, Ryoko stripped her down and started her massage. It felt wonderful after exerting herself, and she always dozed during the latter half of the service.

“My lady, you seem to be blushing more often lately,” Ryoko whispered while giggling.

“Eh?” Yuriko muttered, half asleep.

“I watch over you, young mistress, and I see you’re starting to enjoy the staring. Aaaand, I see your eyes linger. I guess you like men, after all?”

“Er, uh.”

“Oh, am I mistaken? Ah, perhaps there’s some hope,” Ryoko whispered.

Her fingers lingered on Yuriko’s bottom and suddenly, the memories of her trial surfaced. A tingle ran down her entire body and she was sure she was as red as a sunset. Ryoko’s laughter only made things worse.

Seven days of enduring Ryoko’s teasing and lingering caresses and the Lonely Bastion eventually arrived at the Core Plane of Ulmira. It was the homeland of the Davars, and Yuriko felt a strange mixture of excitement and trepidation stirring in her heart. On the one hand, she would be meeting family, but on the other, they were practical strangers.

Given how warm the brothers and Aunt Layla were, Yuriko was sure that they would welcome her with open arms. Riley had assured her as much. But still, she worried. It didn’t help that aside from her height, she had little in common with her Da’s extended family. She didn’t even inherit the Davar Heritage, so maybe she shouldn’t even be calling herself a Davar. Wasn’t that the reason why everyone in Realmheart called her Miss or Lady Mishala?

She and the rest were sitting in the viewing lounge when the Lonely Bastion entered the Chaos Channel. Different from what she experienced in the Ebon Horizon, the Chaos Arkship didn’t even shudder or shake. She could even see Chaos Stream ripples moving away from the hull. The oddness of being on a ship made out of stone made sense now. It was a tough, yet slow ship. Perhaps it would have taken a couple of days faster if she took a regular Chaos ship, but the steadiness of the Arkship was comforting.

The Planar Veil, thinner across the Chaos Channel than anywhere else on the plane, burst as the ship entered Ulmira, and she was treated to a sunset view of the rolling vista.

Ulmira.

The city stretched out from where they were, and strange-looking towers reached for the heavens. They weren’t made of black stone like the Watchtower back in Faron’s Crossing, but of delicate-looking stained glass.

The rays of the Radiant Sun split into the colours of the rainbow when they hit those towers, painting the air above the city in prismatic beams. The towers were even connected to each other with delicate-looking bridges, forming a spider web across the city.

“Welcome to Ulmira,” Aunt Layla said with a grin. “Welcome home.”

Yuriko flashed a wide smile, and the trepidation melted away.

They disembarked and hailed a landcrafter service to bring them to the edge of the city. The Davar homestead wasn’t in the City of Ulmira, but rather, on the outskirts.

“Not enough room to stretch in the city,” Riley complained. “There’s too many people, and the streets are too narrow. Ulmira City was built back in the Empire’s third century, and the city centre wasn’t built to accommodate this many people. The New City has wider streets, and bigger buildings, but traditionally, the centre of government is located in the Old City, along with the Chaos Channel Quays.”

“The Homestead isn’t that far from the city either,” Aunt Layla said, “Although the boundaries had crept closer and closer.”

“Homestead?” Yuriko asked. “Do we have a farm?”

“Of course we do!” Aidan guffawed. “Tenant farmers and our own little village, too. Wheat fields, mostly, but some apple and lemon tree orchards too.”

“Oh, I look forward to seeing it,” Yuriko smiled. She leaned back against her seat and watched the pedestrians outside. It would probably take a while to get there, and she was a bit short on sleep. She closed her eyes for a moment, then nodded off.