Chapter 67: I Need Results

Yari liked the silence.

Everything in her room was still and tidy. There were no students inside to ask her needless questions or disturb her shakra.

With no distractions, Yari was free to indulge in her greatest joy.

“Hey, magic elf! Guess what?!”

The loud bang that jostled Yari’s room came with disastrous consequences.

Instead of snipping off a single, out-of-place leaf from her bonsai tree, she ended up taking off an entire branch.

The expression on her face was one of pure agony.

“Whoops… my apologies.” Jiaoying chuckles.

“Do you think your apology will help Gene here grow back his limb!?””

“Again with your confusing sympathies… It is a plant.”

“It is my friend!”

“I do hope you will hear just how sad that sounds without me having to say anything.”

Jiaoying glided down the steps towards Yari’s desk. Her usually confident, powerful steps were slightly off. The elf immediately knew there was something on her mind.

“What are you so bloody happy about?”

“I’m not happy. Just amused.”

“You’d better tell me why before I stop caring.”

Jiaoying sat on top of Yari’s desk as if it were hers to begin with.

“That kid we fished out of the gorge. You’ll never believe the interaction I had with him yesterday.”

Yari’s ears immediately perked up at the mention of Solomon, but her face remained aloof.

“Do tell.”

“Apparently he fancies me in some capacity. It’s why he grabbed me in that cave.”

“Oh. That.” Yari rolled her eyes as she went back to tree trimming.

Jiaoying snatches her shears away from her hands. “What do you mean ’that’?! You knew??”

“I stumbled upon the information. Believe me, I feel as though I know far too much about the boy as it is.”

This time, it was Yari who snatched back the forceps and went back to working on her tree. Jiaoying was still stunned by everything she had learned.

“Are you going to tell me how you came across the information? Has he been talking to you about me?” She questioned.

“I cannot tell you. But you may rest assured that we don’t spend class time gossiping about your looks.” Yari rolled her eyes.

“…I don’t believe you.”

“I’ll try not to let that offend me.”

Jiaoying folded her arms. “You seem oddly close to the boy. I assume that hasty plan for him to label himself a contractor was all of your design?”

“I was trying to help him subvert some needless scrutiny. Unless you knew of another way to explain how a normal titan-blood can shift into a monster on a whim.”

“… My emperor can do it, though this is a secret to the world. It is excruciatingly rare, but fae blood achieves many miracles when in conjunction with a human body.”

“All the more reason for him to lie and hide it then. Or would you prefer that all of Komen’s noble women seek him out for a child as they did your lord? Even worse, he could be captured by Ostego and…”

Jiaoying slowly unfolded her arms as she reached a startling revelation.

“You really care for him, don’t you?”

Yari reclined in her chair and stared hard at the ceiling above her.

“…I suppose you could say that I feel a sense of kinship with him. We are, after all, two individuals with the same kind of disease.”

“You’re terrible liars who also happen to be equally arrogant?”

“We’re angry.”

For a moment, Yari’s hazel eyes meet Jiaoying’s golden ones.

“…You’re serious.”

“Well, perhaps I’m being a little dramatic. I would say that Solomon is… gentler than I. But I think that is what makes him so fascinating for me to observe.

If I had lost everything in the world, but kept only my sister, would I be happier..? And most importantly… would I be able to accept her wish not to be returned to life if she herself voiced it?”

Yari saw Jiaoying’s face tighten minutely, but she didn’t open her mouth to speak.

Though honestly, it wasn’t as if Yari didn’t already know what she was going to say.

“Do you think I’m a madwoman..? A heretic going against the very fabric of nature?”

“I am a walking abomination myself. It’s not my place to judge you.”

“No. But you are someone whose thoughts I value. So I’m asking you… Am I making a mistake trying to bring my sister back to life?”

Jiaoying was silent for quite a while. Yari didn’t think to rush her.

“Can I see your journal again..?” She finally asked.

Yari seemed slightly surprised by the request, but she did not deny her.

She reached inside her desk and pulled out a leather-bound booklet.

Handing it to Jiaoying, she treated it gingerly as if it were the most precious thing in the world. Yari was touched by the sentiment.

Jiaoying flipped open the first page and marveled.

There was a gorgeous, life-like drawing of an elven woman.

She was a truly serene figure. Her long, golden hair and fair skin made her look like a character from a children’s fable.

Yari had more than accurately captured the illustrious, bright glow of her sister’s amethyst colored eyes. Jiaoying could almost swear that she was alive already.

She continued to flip through the pages.

Finally, she stopped at a drawing of the woman lying on a field of white flowers; asleep and at peace.

“…She looks so content here.” Jiaoying finally said.

Yari found herself unable to meet her gaze. Showing people her drawings always made her feel a bit self-conscious.

“What happened to her was unfair. I would never tell you anything on the contrary. I know you want to give her back the life that was taken, but… look at her. Really look at her.”

Yari begrudgingly turned her gaze toward the drawing. Though she wished she hadn’t when her eyes started to sting.

“Don’t you think that… wherever she is, she is there resting in peace? No worry. No pain.”

A lump formed in Yari’s throat. “I want her to see Nila. She deserves that, they both do.”

“Nila is a big girl with a very strong sense of right and wrong. All she needs, all she really wants is you. Besides… are you really going to tell yourself she would be okay with the lengths you’re going to in order to bring her mother back?”

“She would accept it eventually once she got to know how amazing her mother is..! I’m not a good substitute, I-I could never replace-”

“I believe that the reason your sister was able to cross over into eternal rest is that she knew you would be here to look after her daughter while she wasn’t around. You don’t have to be a substitute for anything to still be good enough.”

Yari covered her head with her hands as if to hide from the world.

Her shame, her grief, and her resentment all threatened to spill out of her at once. It was all she could do to remain dignified and together.

“…I am the one who needs her, okay..? If she can’t be here… then why am I here? What is the point of my existence if the person who believed in me the most isn’t around to see me through the stages of life…?”

Jiaoying’s gaze softened.

“I’m afraid the point is something you have to discover for yourself, Yari. But no matter what, you are always going to carry your sister with you. Even if you can’t see her.”

Yari refused to make so much as a single sound beyond that point.

The only sound present among the two was that of water gently striking the surface of the desk.

Jiaoying started to reach out for her, to offer her some kind of catharsis in her moment of weakness.

“Oh… have I interrupted something?”

Both women looked towards the top of the classroom where Dean Raidis loomed in the shadows.

Yari stood up and wiped her face as if she had been caught doing something she shouldn’t have. “Father.”

“I am neither wolf, nor tiger, my dear, so there is no need to feel tense in front of me.”

“…Of course.”

The dean stepped out of the dark and began moving towards the desk.

“Student Xu. Wonderful to see you as always. This good to know that your close relationship with my daughter has improved upon your return. It will be a shame when you leave us behind again to return to your post.”

His words are innocent and without harm on the surface, but… Jiaoying notices that they do something to the elf that makes her stiffen.

“…I do plan to keep in touch, Dean. We should all pay closer attention to the people we cherish.”

“Wonderful! Never too old for a playdate, eh?” Raidis’ laughter shakes the walls of the classroom like drums. There is so much power in just his voice alone. And yet, the sound is almost jolly.

It is unsettling.

“Now, if you don’t mind, would you give my daughter and I a moment alone? She seems to be quite upset and I do believe I know the issue~”

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