On a certain day, Jack and I were out doing a job. It was an escort mission, but thankfully it wasn’t as bad as the kind in video games because our young wards were at least smart enough to avoid actively throwing themselves into danger. There were two other people working the job with us. One was a fellow Junior-Elder, a stern woman by the name of Hong Mirae. Petite, but muscular, with fair skin that was slightly greenish in complexion.

Hong Mirae had a passively domineering feel about her. She had a lean face with a sharp chin, an upturned, slightly crooked, nose, and full lips. Her dark brown eyes were always half-cast as if she were about to fall asleep, or never quite woke, and she had smooth eyebrows that curled upwards at the ends. Her dark brown hair was very short and straight and was styled in a utilitarian bob. She didn’t talk much, which was fine, because we didn’t talk much either. She was one of those people who preferred to wear the versions of the sect uniform that most closely resembled a military uniform.

The fourth member of our little team was surprisingly enough, a familiar face. It was Elder Trefor. We probably shouldn’t have been as surprised as we were. We’d initially kind of thought the guy was some kind of Human Resource Specialist for the sect, but we’d quickly discovered that sect recruitment was part of the tasks we, Junior Elders and Elders, were expected to do.

“Hi, guys! Funny to see you here,” said Elder Trefor. Sounding bored as he greeted us.

“Greetings senior, thank you again for your prior assistance,” said Jack. Cupping her hands and bowing slightly, before returning to keeping her distance.

I cupped my hand as well and bowed slightly, but I kept my distance because this Elder Trefor character seemed like the potentially troublesome sort, and my response to potentially troublesome things was to keep my distance unless it looked like I’d need to play tank. Since there was no apparent danger, I would stay where I was, for the time being.

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“Oh, don’t mention it. I was just doing my job. Recruiter duty is some of the dullest work they have for us elders, and I have to say that running into the two of you helped break up the monotony,” said Elder Trefor.

Junior-Elder Hong Mirae watched the Senior-Elder and her two peers quietly chat amongst themselves. It was unexpected that the three knew each other but not so unexpected as to throw Hong Mirae off her game even the littlest bit. Ultimately, so long as the job was completed successfully, Hong Mirae didn’t give a damn who knew who. She was just here because she had a personal stake in making sure this particular group of sect youths made it through their hunt safely.

Standing just a little ways apart from the crowd of inner-sect disciples that the four elders were guiding, was a certain girl. short and athletically built with light tan skin, Hong Soomin only vaguely resembled her aunt. She normally possessed a warm and breezy feel about her, though the current foulness of the young woman’s mood had erased any such sensation from her. Hong Soomin had a long face with a sharp jaw, a well-formed nose, puffy lips, and her brown eyes were deep-set. Her black hair was knee-length, slightly curly, and was worn in a neat and tidy braid.

The girl was a mischievous scammer that loved pretending to be a proper and polite girl. Her penchant for getting into trouble was why Hong Mirae had forced the girl to join the sect, Pulling strings and calling dozens of favors, to get the girl in. Hong Mirae’s nightmare was going home to the town where’d they’d quietly lived together, and finding that the girl had tried to pickpocket the wrong person, or run a grift in the wrong moment, and had fallen into trouble that even Hong Mirae with her Elder status and Noble-Ranked might, wouldn’t be able to save her from.

Thus after the last big scare, Hong Mirae had brought the girl to the Tree of Passionate Verdance where Hong Mirae could better look after her. Some might argue that the girl was already an adult, and Hong Mirae should let go and let her make her own mistakes. Hong Mirae wasn’t much of a talker, and she didn’t cotton on talking to know-nothings who wouldn’t be the ones to feel the ache if the girl ended up dead, or a crime slave, or worse.

Naturally, the other party in this whole mess, Hong Soomin was livid at being dragged away from the only home she’d ever known, but by Hong Mirae’s reckoning, it was literally just a matter of time before the girl ended up having to “flee” from their hometown anyway. The last couple of folk that Hong Soomin had managed to piss off weren’t the easiest sort to deal with, and it had taken a lot of bribes and overt threats to keep the girl from falling in water hot enough to boil her alive in.

Hong Mirae figured the girl would get over it in time. She’d make new friends in the sect. Ones that weren’t all half, or wholly, criminal in trade. She’d hopefully find a purpose for herself instead of running around making mischief, and if nothing else, Hong Mirae was finally making good on the promise that she’d made but never kept before, because she was admittedly just a bit overprotective. Teaching the girl how to properly cultivate. Or for the time being, letting others teach Hong Soomin, on account of the fact that neither of them was really talking to the other at the moment.

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Another youth stood at the outskirts of the main group, Yoshino Yuki, a slender young man with pale skin, and longish silver hair. His features were almost girlish and his expression was troubled, gloomy, and grim. He was the kind of cold fish that had a hard time making connections with people, and right now he was very nervous for reasons that only he knew, and even he couldn’t explain.