Chương 49: Zarian Zanathmas

Rowan The Jewelbox Pavilion had been built in the classical style, with red ceramic tiles and large green pillars. It sat at the peak of the mountain, one tier below the Grand Overseer House. Rowan looked up at the massive building in the distance, a dark silhouette against the burning afternoon sky. The Grand Overseer House had been empty since Patriarch Yarrow's youth, waiting for a sect elder strong enough to claim the seat of sect master. Mikael led the way, followed by the four students.

Rowan and Lee shared an expectant, hopeful look before entering the pavilion. Core disciples had the best living quarters. And amongst them, Mikael had snagged the best one. No more living in loud, cramped dormitories with only a bed and a desk for furniture. Now, they would be living it up. Then, they saw the state of the place. A thick layer of dust covered everything. The fine chairs, the large dining table made from oak, the jade vases and framed portraits… an inch of dust coated every surface.

Rowan stared at a bowl of rotten, half-eaten peaches. Some of them had even begun to sprout. Mikael must've set them out one day for guests and then promptly forgotten about– No, no guest would take a bite out of a peach and put it back in the bowl… Could it have been Mikael himself?

"Nice tomato plant," Rowan said faintly, spying an impostor amongst the peaches.

"Nice what?" Mikael asked. The man looked at the bowl of peaches as though noticing its existence for the first time, wrinkling his nose. He hummed once before disregarding the matter entirely.

"Silvester, take care of that, won't you? I recall you saying you could do chores." Mikael began to walk away, waving them off.

"Make yourselves at home. I don't have any food in the house right now. Except tomatoes, I suppose." The four students exchanged uncertain looks before they separated to select their new bedrooms. Rowan and Lee decided to choose rooms next to one another. Rowan surveyed his new abode with a keen eye. At first, the room didn't actually seem that different from his dormitory. There was a soft bed, an old dresser and desk combination with a large mirror, and a small closet.

He went through the drawers, finding useless curios stashed in them. An old quill, a piece of silk. His fingers grasped a stamping seal, and turned it over, tracing the crossed silverbolts of the Helsing crest engraved on the bottom. He set it back down, closing the drawer. The room was awfully dim. Why weren't there any windows? Rowan spotted a strange latch in the corner of the wall. He flicked it open, and slid the wall to the side, revealing a private pond.

The tiny meditation garden was fenced off from Lee's room next door. Wild grass grew knee-high, but the water was fresh and the lilypads were green. When he looked past it, he could see the entirety of Righteous Mountain City spread out before him. Servants would fetch their belongings and deliver them to the pavilion later. Rowan left his room to check on his fellow sectmates. Silvester had chosen a room right next to Mikael's. For some reason, the core disciple wasn't living in an actual room, but a closet.

The actual bedroom meant for the master of the house had been quickly scouted by Decatour, who claimed it with fervor. Mikael soon called the four into the living room. Decatour raised his hand.

"Sir–""Just call me Mikael," the man said, sighing.

"Titles wear me out."

"Mikael…" Decatour started unsurely.

"There's only two weeks before the conference begins. Will you be training us?"

"Why? You haven't finished your general classes yet. Sutter has more to teach you."

"Yes, but… we haven't had any practical experience." Mikael pointed at Rowan.

"He has. Why don't you guys go out and kill some demonic cultivators too?" Lee, Decatour, and Silvester gaped at their new team leader.

"But, Helsing…" started Decatour.

"He's crazy," finished Lee without shame.

"Absolutely insane, actually."

"Insane?" Mikael stared.

"Are you telling me that when we're hunting demonic cultivators you'll lay down and die like a mortal?" This was the most serious Mikael had been since meeting them. Decatour reared back as if he'd been struck.

"Of course not, sir, you'll be with us so—" If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

"I'm starving. Let's go out to eat," interrupted Mikael.

"Keeping an eye on you brats has been exhausting." He must have been joking. They hadn't seen their team leader the entire day. He'd been late to pick them up, and they'd just arrived at his pavilion after a short walk. Mikael pushed them out of his house, and the five of them walked down the mountain and into the city. Everyone who spotted them whispered as they descended the stairs. In the Sect District, people were used to the sight of yellow robes, but seeing a core disciple was still a novel experience.

A few people were even unabashedly pointing at them. When they noticed Rowan, their excitement grew.

"I know the perfect place for us to have a meal. I'll be paying, of course," said Decatour.

"It's a little hole-in-the-wall that no one's ever heard of, but the food is the best in the city." Damion Decatour led them to the most famous restaurant east of Deepwhale Pier, the ostentatious Five Star Banquet Hall. The hole-in-the-wall in question seemed to be serving mostly cultivators, aside from two tables of expensively dressed mortals who were completely out of place.

The chairs and tables were carved from rosewood and shared the same shade and grain pattern, meaning all the furniture had come from a single tree.

"A little hole - in - the-wall?" asked Rowan flatly. The restaurant was huge and often the site of celebratory feasts. This was where Uncle Bael had thrown Ash's First Step party.

"That barely anyone has ever heard of," Decatour insisted, his face reddening. One table stood out from all the rest. A smirking cultivator in black robes had his arms around three Halfmoon House beauties to the left of him and three Righteous Mountain beauties to the right. The women fawned, leaning into him and laughing at his jokes. He wasn't a Righteous Mountain cultivator, but Rowan didn't think he was from Halfmoon House either.

The man was tall and broad, and he wore a string of silver bells looped around his waist. His black robes had intricate black embroidery woven across them, and a panel of black scales stretched along the breadth of his shoulders. They were sect robes. But Rowan didn't recognize the sect. Mikael strode over and plopped himself in the chair across from the smirking man. He threw his legs on the table, crossing them. The women stared at him. He only yawned in response.

"Well, if it isn't Zedicus Zanathmas, the inheriting son of Soul Shear Valley." Hearing the name Soul Shear Valley, Rowan grew nervous. They were a powerhouse from the Second State of Kyrr that practiced unorthodox techniques. They had a borderline villainous reputation. Was there going to be a fight with outsiders so soon?

"Hey, Micky. Did the old geezers finally make you take on students?" The man turned his attention to the four of them with a cocky grin.

"I'm Zarian Zanathmas. You can think of me as your martial uncle." It appeared that their core disciple team leader was friends with this person. Zarian didn't wait for a response. Instead, he placed both his hands on the table and tilted his head as he stared down Mikael.

"I thought you died, Micky. I couldn't believe it when you didn't show up for the inheritance at Sandy Peak Point. Or the one at Serene Yin Forest," he said.

"That dumb bitch from Platform City you insulted all those years ago was so happy and so sure you'd gotten yourself killed that I wanted to punch her in the mouth." Sects were known for sending their best disciples to try their hand at picking up inheritances all over the peninsula. Sometimes, if the opportunity was grand enough, faraway places would make an appearance too - scions from Platform City or princes from Where Rivers Meet. Had Mikael truly run afoul of one of these powers and lived?

"I only seem to get the attention of beautiful women who want me dead," said Mikael. He glanced around the table, scowling at the gaggle of cute juniors from Halfmoon House and Righteous Mountain surrounding Zarian.

"I thought one of your senior sisters would have made you an honest man by this point."

"Don't be jealous of my good looks." Zarian poured rice wine into a pearl-green celadon cup and slid it across the table to him.

"Any news?" Mikael asked.

"Master Cloris has been hiding me from the world. Or hiding the world from me, depending on the day." He leaned back even harder, the front legs of his chair lifting up, and he sighed again.

"Old men are the same, no matter the sect," Zarian muttered, rolling his eyes." You are my most prodigious disciple. When they see your talent, my counterparts will feel the need to act."

"To be fair, they've got a point in your case. I hear Ancient Dynasty Tower is losing their minds."

"Aren't they always losing their minds about my sect?" Zarian grinned. Rowan threw a glance at his teammates. Lee and Damion were practiced hands at appearing nonchalant and filial in public, but Rowan could see Silvester squirming from not knowing what to do with himself while their new team leader spoke with his friend. Mikael took a sip of wine.

"Where's the rest of your sect, anyway? Are they scaring the stags on the road?" The deer was the ancestral symbol of Ancient Dynasty Tower. Wasn't this a fighting insult?

"I came early, ahead of my sect. They're no fun," Zarian complained.

"You came early to cause trouble," said Mikael. Zarian shook his head.

"I came here to check out the local hidden gems before disciples from all over destroyed them. You know how these things go. In fact, I was promised that this spot"--he looked around–"was a barely known hole-in-the-wall. The brokers at the Decatour Teahouse seemed so sure." Rowan didn't bother to hide his smile as Decatour reddened further. Suddenly, he spied a solitary cultivator angrily drinking her tea at a lone table.

"I'll be right back," he murmured. Mikael tilted his head slightly in Rowan's direction, allowing it. Rowan walked over to the cultivator and sat down. She was beautiful in the way a doll was, with long silver hair and a cream collar that poked past dusty purple robes. She was glaring at the disciples of Halfmoon House who were hanging off Zarian Zanathmas's arm.

"Did you get into trouble?" he asked her.

"Yes."

"How bad?"

"One year in Reflection Tower, the moment we get back to Three Color Gorge." Rowan was squeezed to the side as Lee, Silvester, and Damion scooted in next to him.

"What? There are no other tables," said Lee. Uxia looked at his fellow sect brothers, her nose wrinkling as if she smelled something unpleasant.

"Who are these people?"