Your next journey awaits at empire
...
Shin came out of the shower with a refreshed look on his face. It felt like ages since he had gotten a good bath, making him very satisfied, especially due to the foul stench that his body had released earlier. The expelled impurities, dried blood, and sweat were as unpleasant as they could be when mixed.
But right after he walked out of the shower, he was immediately greeted by the same stench, which made him grimace.
With a sigh, he walked toward his closet and took out a set of clothes to wear before walking out of the room. But he suddenly halted right after he opened the door as he found David leaning on the wall right beside the door, still asleep.
This lazy senior brother of his was no longer taking just a nap anymore but sleeping soundly for real.
Shin was about to ignore David and just leave the latter just like that. But he suddenly remembered something before an evil smile suddenly emerged from the expression that he was wearing.
With that, his leg suddenly shot out silently and flew straight to David's face, who was unaware of the incoming kick.
Swoosh!
But before the sneak attack could even reach its target, David, as if he was fully awake, swiftly leaned his head to the side and barely avoided the kick.
Shin's leg suddenly paused momentarily when he saw his senior brother's movements and forcefully changed the trajectory of the kick midair.
But David's innate reflexes still kicked in and responded accordingly. His somewhat falling body due to his previous unconscious actions suddenly paused and swiftly changed its movements once again.
Swoosh!
But Shin would not give up that easily as he changed the direction of his kick once again.
This series of 'exchanges' continued for quite a while as David needed to sway his body left and right to dodge everything.
With such an intense and continuous 'shaking,' David could not help but wake up.
He frowned deeply during his sleep, showing his displeasure. He then stopped dodging and raised his arm to block the incoming leg.
His eyes were slowly opening as he was planning to teach whoever this guy messing with him a lesson. He had just fallen asleep since he just confirmed that 'Uno' had finished consolidating his newly found strength, so he felt that there was no need to guard the room anymore. That was why he had chosen to sleep instead while waiting for 'Uno' to come out of the room.
Of course, he also had the idea that the person, who was him waking up, could be Uno himself. David just did not expect that that prideful bastard would play a trick like this when he was sleeping.
"You, brat! Since when did you learn to play dirty tricks on people!"
Bang!
But David was taken aback when the leg of the opposing side connected to his arm.
He was expecting to get hit by an attack reinforced by a higher form of Sacred Qi or a Primal Demonic Energy, which was why he set up a small array around his arms to counter martial art skills empowered by such energies.
Moreover, the four of them seemed to be in the middle of a critical conjecture in their respective training.
Arthur seemed to have been enlightened by something and trying to grasp it with all his powers while Leonard was digesting more inherent knowledge from his bloodline and the legacy of the Thunder Lord.
On the other hand, Cloe was trying to increase her realm or at least try to awaken her unique force. It looked like she had finally discovered her innate attributes and grasped the unique properties of her martial arts.
Meanwhile, Lorraine was trying to stabilize the balance between her martial arts and mentalism as she was also a Dual Practitioner like Shin, albeit not a perfect one due to her lack of a special vessel.
Shin wanted them to break through their respective circumstances with the help of the Gathering Array.
David was struck dumb by Shin's sudden change, which threw him out of his thoughts, and almost made a mistake. This proved how shocked he was, particularly about that strange deadly feeling that he was getting from the latter.
"You are going to stay here until they finish, right? Then I will be going for a walk for now while letting the servants clean my room," said Shin in a nonchalant manner while leaving.
David wanted to stop the latter and asked for more, but he was unable to call Shin for some reason.
It was at this moment when Shin paused and looked over his shoulder. "One more thing, Senior Brother."
He hesitated for a moment before asking. "Is 'she' here?"
This time, David was truly shocked as he stared at Shin's back with wide eyes. He instantly understood what the latter meant when he heard the word 'she' from the question.
David did not straight up answer the question but asked in return. "Are you going to meet her?"
Shin turned silent as he had already gotten the answer after hearing those words. He lowered his head and contemplated something before saying. "I want to ask her a lot of things, but I don't know if I want to see her right now."
He then turned his head in front of him and resumed his steps while continuing. "For now, I want to apologize to this other family that I have."
His tone was filled with pain, sorrow, loneliness, and self-blame when he said those words.
David could only watch Shin walk away and disappear into the corridor in silence. He did not know how to comfort his junior brother, which somewhat hurt him to a certain extent.
He just hoped that Shin would not blame himself too much for what happened. He also did not want the latter to hate his parents for leaving him 'alone' for such a long time.
Being thrown into this mood, he could not help but lean his back on the nearby wall and look at the ceiling as he was reminded of the burden that he was carrying on his burden. "Who am I to worry when I have my problems to deal with."
He lowered his head with a bitter smile as his back slowly slid down along the wall until went back sitting on the floor once again.
"I feel a little tired," he rested his arms on his knees as he felt somewhat lonely due to the mood that he was in, which made his smile even bitter.
He would rather go back in the past and continue to live peacefully in that little house with his master and her family before it became a village, where the villagers were mostly remnants of the fallen Solomon Kingdom.
"Just why it has to be like this?"
...