Yixuan saw Miguel and Lycaon heading for the door, so she fell in behind them and made her way out of the reception hall.
Say what you liked about Lycaon, the man was thorough.
He had already arranged the airship that would carry the two of them to the Thorn District, and even plotted the most efficient flight path in advance.
For the moment, though, Yixuan was busy working out how long the trip home would take.
From the municipal building to the Thorn District, they would first have to ride through the congested city center.
It was the tail end of the morning rush.
Traffic was one headache they would not be dodging.
Once they reached the airship terminal, they would have to transfer to a chartered airship.
And after the airship cleared New Eridu’s urban districts, it wouldn’t fly straight either.
It had to swing wide around the expanding Hollow zones along the route, which meant a long detour.
By the time all those twists and turns delivered them to Clearlight Terrace at the foot of Yunkui Summit, the sun would probably be going down.
Past Clearlight Terrace, there would be no vehicle waiting for them either.
From there it was a climb on foot, plain and simple.
Normally, going up and down the mountain by herself, she could ride her Azure Empyrean Bird for a quick trip either way.
Even without it, her physical condition made the journey easy enough.
But carrying Miguel along in flight was another matter.
Her Azure Empyrean Bird almost certainly couldn’t manage that, since the creature was a small, round ball of feathers and nothing more.
Lost in all this, the girl kept walking, but her mind had drifted somewhere past the clouds, wholly occupied with arranging the road ahead.
Miguel, walking in front of her, stopped without warning.
Yixuan had no guard up at all.
Thud.
She walked face-first into a solid back.
That back hadn’t looked like anything special, yet running into it was like running into a wall, and the impact left her seeing stars.
Her nose stung at once, and tears nearly sprang loose.
“Ah!” A small, startled cry escaped the mouth of the famously composed Sect Master.
She had already lost her center of balance from woolgathering, and that solid collision threw her straight backward.
In the instant before she landed flat on her back.
A warm, strong hand closed firmly around her shoulder.
The force behind it was measured to a hair.
Any more would have hurt her, any less would not have held her.
Yixuan felt only a gentle pull at her shoulder, and she was upright and steady again.
She lifted her head, still dizzy.
Miguel’s handsome face was inches from hers, amber eyes warm with amusement.
“Sorry about that.” Miguel released her, the motion easy and clean, without a trace of lingering.
“I was just telling Lycaon we wouldn’t need the car.
Didn’t notice you were following that close, Sect Master Yixuan.” Miguel gave her a quick look up and down, his tone concerned.
“Did I hurt you?” Only then did Yixuan fully come back to herself.
A faint flush rose across her pale cheeks, and the tips of her ears began to burn.
The Sect Master of Yunkui Summit, tripping over flat ground.
If those little brats up on the mountain had seen it, there would be nothing left of her dignity as their teacher.
“I’m fine.” Yixuan hurriedly straightened the rumpled hem of her Daoist robe, folded her hands in front of her, and forced herself back into that stately posture.
“Mr.
Miguel, that was my own fault just now.
I was too caught up thinking about my sister to watch where I was going.” With the apology delivered, Yixuan caught up with what Miguel had actually said.
No need for the car?
“Mr.
Miguel, if we aren’t taking a car, how are we getting back?” Yixuan tilted her head up a little, golden eyes full of confusion.
Yunkui Summit was not the sort of place you reached by hailing a ride.
The distance aside, the terrain was brutally difficult.
Unless…
An absurd notion surfaced in Yixuan’s mind.
This man whom Mayflower held in such high regard — did he mean to carry her there through the air?
She didn’t ask it out loud.
She only watched Miguel quietly and waited for the rest.
Miguel didn’t answer right away.
He turned toward Mayflower, who stood a few paces off.
“Old man, that balcony on your rooftop garden upstairs is still empty, right?” “I’m going to leave something up there in a bit.” Mayflower blinked, then glanced over at Lycaon.
Lycaon inclined his head slightly: the rooftop garden was currently undisturbed and available whenever they wished.
With that confirmed, Mayflower’s mild smile returned to his face.
“No problem at all.
That space has always been yours.
Use it however you like.” Miguel snapped his fingers.
“Good.
Sect Master Yixuan, come with me.” Miguel waved her over.
“We’re taking a more convenient road.” More convenient?
Yixuan’s head filled with question marks.
She could not make sense of it.
Had New Eridu’s researchers put together some epoch-making new form of transport while she was shut away on her mountain?
Questions piling up behind her eyes, Yixuan followed after Miguel.
The group stepped into the mayor’s private elevator and rode straight to the top floor.
The elevator doors slid slowly open.
A fresh, delicate scent of flowers rolled out to meet them.
Before them lay an exquisitely tended garden.
Pale ornamental blossoms she couldn’t name grew on every side, leaves and stems swaying in the light breeze.
The air up here ran through a special filtration system, far cleaner than the air down on the streets.
Yixuan drew a deep breath.
Her nerves, drawn tight ever since the business with her sister, eased a little under the calm of that fragrance — a rare thing for her lately.
Lycaon walked at the front.
He moved through the flowerbeds with practiced ease and stopped at a broad open stretch along the edge of the balcony.
The spot had held a few lounge chairs and small round tables for anyone who wanted to rest.
Without even removing his gloves, Lycaon shifted the offending furniture aside, swift and elegant, clearing a clean area large enough for several people to stand in.
“Mr.
Miguel, will this do?” Lycaon turned and bowed slightly as he asked.
Miguel walked to the center of the cleared space and took rough measure of the dimensions around him.
“Works.
Right here.” Miguel nodded, satisfied.
He turned to face Mayflower, who was ambling over behind them.
“Old man, I’m going to leave you a permanent teleport array here.” Miguel pointed at the floor beneath his feet.
“If I head out to Yunkui Summit this time and don’t come straight back, and something on your end catches fire, you can come through here and find me.” Miguel paused, then added, “As for Miyabi and Wise and Belle, I’ll talk to them myself.
You don’t have to worry about it.” So that was it.
Mayflower understood.
Three years on, he had long since stopped being surprised by Miguel’s endless supply of abilities, some of which flatly violated the laws of physics.
Back during the Lido War, he had watched with his own eyes as Miguel used that mysterious power to restore city hall from a flattened ruin, right down to the damaged documents, which came back whole.
Never mind that Miguel had also casually tuned up his falling-apart old bones, so that he could put in a full day at the office bright and alert without a single black coffee.
As for teleportation, Mayflower had certainly seen it before.
Except that in the past Miguel had simply snapped his fingers and vanished into thin air.
Today he was picking a specific spot and drawing an array?
That was exactly why Mayflower had followed them up here.
Miguel looked into Mayflower’s eyes, glinting with calculation, and knew precisely what was going through the old fox’s head.
He waved a hand, exasperated.
“Don’t get any ideas.” “This one is a one-way array fixed to Yunkui Summit.
When I’ve got time later, I’ll set you up a few other nodes here.” Miguel smiled faintly, a little teasing.
“That way a distinguished mayor like you will have somewhere to sneak off and slack.” That startled a laugh out of Mayflower.
He pointed at Miguel and shook his head, helpless.
“Hah!
You brat.” “I’m nothing like you.
You sit around Sixth Street all day playing the hands-off boss.
I’ve got plenty on my plate.” “So do you want the nodes or not?” “I want them!” “Hah.
You change faces that fast?” “One more way to save my own skin never hurt anybody.” Off to one side, Lycaon, forever straight-faced and the picture of butlerly composure, let a small smile slip at their unguarded sniping.
In all of New Eridu, there was probably only one person who could make the mayor relax like that.
The three of them carried on happily.
Yixuan, standing to the side, felt she had nothing whatsoever to add.
A teleport array?
What was that supposed to be?
The ancient texts of Yunkui Summit did record a few arrays for Shrinking the Earth to Inches, but that art had been lost for centuries beyond counting.
And even Shrinking the Earth to Inches had to be driven by immense Ether energy, with a commotion loud enough to wake half a city.
While Yixuan was still frantically ransacking her mental archives for anything relevant.
Miguel’s voice came again.
“Sect Master Yixuan, ready?
Let’s get going.” Yixuan snapped back to the present.
She turned her head, blank-faced, golden eyes filled with enormous question marks.
“Huh?
Ready…
ready for what?” Miguel offered no further explanation.
He raised his right hand, and a crisp snap of his fingers rang out.
A deep hum swelled through the air.
In the next moment pale blue energy welled up around them both, and the concept of a spatial jump took shape at speed through the conversion of the Power of Creation.
Within a breath, pale blue radiance flooded the entire balcony.
The light did not sting the eyes.
It carried instead a sacred weight that pulled awe out of anyone who saw it.
Under the interference of that power, space began to twist and fold violently.
The Power of Creation spread swiftly across the ground beneath their feet, tracing out array patterns of impossible intricacy that nonetheless looked wholly natural, as though grown rather than drawn.
Yixuan’s vision blurred.
The air around her seemed to be sucked away in a heartbeat, then filled again with something of absolute purity.
She had no time to raise any kind of defense before that mass of pale blue light swallowed her whole.
The next second.
The light flared.
Miguel and Yixuan, who had been standing on the cleared ground, vanished into thin air.
All that remained was the teleport array on the floor, glowing faint blue, still turning quietly.
Mayflower stayed where he was, looked at the array, and let out a long breath.
“That boy Miguel…” Mayflower shook his head, a note of feeling in his voice.
“Still as flashy as he ever was.” Lycaon stood at his side, head slightly bowed, a proper smile on his face.
“Mr.
Miguel has always conducted himself that way.” As if Lycaon didn’t understand what the mayor was hinting at.
Three years ago, when Miguel first appeared before them, the spectacle had been a great deal grander than this.
At that same moment.
Several hundred kilometers from New Eridu’s urban districts stood Yunkui Summit.
On its peak, wrapped in cloud and mist all year round, the air ran cold and damp.
There was no city noise here, only the occasional bird flashing past and the rustle of wind moving through the pines.
In a secluded corner of the sect’s rear mountain.
A small figure was puffing away, sweat flying with every motion.
That was the Senior Sister of Yunkui Summit, Ju Fufu.
The girl had a head of fluffy yellow hair, and the pair of furry ears on top of it twitched now and then.
Though she insisted at every opportunity that she was a proud and majestic Tiger Thiren, between her round face, her small frame, and that yellow-and-white fur…
However you looked at her, she came across more as an orange cat that had been eating well.
“Hah!” Ju Fufu let out a fierce little shout and drove her small fist forward.
The huge pair of metal claws strapped over her hands — the Tiger Might popcorn machine — answered with a heavy, muffled roar.
The grinding of gears echoed across the rear mountain.
“Seven Forms of the Fierce Tiger, Third Form!” She was well into her rhythm, mind busy with how to squeeze more explosive power out of the move.
Then, with no warning at all.
On the open ground a short way ahead, a blinding cluster of pale blue light blazed into existence.
The sudden glare dazzled Ju Fufu.
She yanked her punch back, crossed both arms in front of her chest, and the two ears on her head shot bolt upright.
“Who dares trespass on Yunkui Summit!” She bellowed it in a voice that managed to be ferocious and adorable at once, striking a pose like she was facing down an army.
The blue light came fast and left just as fast.
The spatial jump ended, and the Power of Creation broke into specks of starlight that scattered into the cold air.
As the glow faded, two figures stood on the open ground.
Yixuan still held the exact pose she’d been standing in on the balcony.
Crossing that vast a distance in that short a span had thrown her spatial perception briefly out of order.
She shook her head groggily, and her vision slowly came into focus.
Once she made out the familiar blue flagstones, the pine forest in the distance, and the weathered old buildings of the Daoist temple.
Yixuan went entirely still.
This…
they were here already?
One second ago she had been on the top floor of the mayor’s office tower in the Thorn District.
The next, she was standing in her own back yard?
It was completely ridiculous!
Yixuan hadn’t begun to recover from the shock when a startled cry reached her ears.
“M-Master!?” Yixuan turned toward the sound before she thought about it.
The first thing she saw was Ju Fufu, standing a short distance off, still locked in her defensive stance.
“Fufu?” Yixuan blinked, and was about to explain how she had appeared out of nowhere.
But Ju Fufu was a great deal faster than she was.
The girl’s gaze slid past Yixuan and settled on the man standing at her side.
Noticing the stare, Miguel gave her a broad smile and a friendly wave.
A young man with fine features and a gentle bearing — and, more to the point, a living, breathing one.
Ju Fufu’s big eyes went perfectly round.
Her wariness and confusion converted, inside a tenth of a second, into some tremendously potent blend of shock and excitement.
She didn’t even bother to stow her Tiger Might.
Without an instant of hesitation.
The Senior Sister of Yunkui Summit spun on her heel and tore off at a dead sprint toward the disciples’ dormitories.
As she ran she opened up that clear, ringing voice at a volume capable of carrying across all of Yunkui Summit.
“Junior brothers, junior sisters, get out here, quick!!!” “Something huge is happening!!!” “Master brought a man home!!!” The bright echo rolled back and forth through the empty valley, startling a flock of birds into the sky.
Yixuan’s hand, still extended into empty air, froze solid.
Her pale cheeks turned scarlet at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Standing beside her, Miguel watched the “little orange cat” vanish in a streak of dust and laughed out loud.
This Yunkui Summit commission really was shaping up to be interesting.
He turned to the petrified Yixuan and patted her shoulder.
“So…
Lord Sect Master, shall we go and meet these adorable disciples of yours first?”