Learning To Live As A Cultivator 59 Chapter Fifty Nine - I Have Been Labelled As A Servant... Again

"Yes, sister," Merylin said with a soft, worried voice. "That is probably for the best." She watched as the girl ran off, not noticing her dazed smirk beneath the silk handkerchief she held against her nose.

"I h-hope she will b-b-be alright," Leon said aloud without thinking as he held the two requests. The three extras glanced over at him with slight sneers.

"What is it to you?" One, with long, deep purple hair demanded.

Merylin inwardly gritted her teeth thinking that these friends were perhaps not the sort of girls she should a.s.sociate with if she wished to keep her reputation pure. Even if the gossip they had shared with her had been useful. She bowed to Leon, showing respect that she did not feel. "It's fine," she said, gently. "Thank you for your concern." She glanced up through her long eyelashes at the taller boy beside him, but noticed he was not paying her heed so quickly straightened.

Leon just smiled as if he hadn't noticed the twisted expression of the girls and bowed his head slightly in turn.

"How long must we wait?" Jin Li stated, impatiently.

"D-Do you n-need to return to the m-martial arts school n-now?" Leon asked wondering why he was suddenly impatient.

"No," Jin Li declared, shortly. "But at this rate, you will not have time to make me lunch."

Leon frowned. "It was n-not that long ago that I s-served b-breakfast," he mentioned and as if on cue, Jin Li's stomach began to voice its complaints. Whether fortunately or not, Leon was the only person in range to hear it.

"The meal was insufficient in size."

"You ate half of m-m-mine as well!"

"True, you should make more next time, so that you don't become any skinnier."

As they exchanged words, Merylin came to much the same conclusion that Jin Li's roommate Sun had, although of course she would not know this. The tall boy appeared to be a young Master, perhaps down on his luck due to the quality of cloth of his otherwise well tailored garments and the smaller boy with strange hair was his servant. Clearly, the handsome, dashing, young Master was a martial artist and thus his servant must have enrolled in the alchemist school to provide him with pills as well as continue his usual duties of taking care of his master.

This theory, she felt, while not proven, was not unlikely. After all, her half-sister, Maimai, who was born of a concubine weeks after her own birth, was with her to be her companion while she adapted to education within the school. This was her n.o.ble father's wishes.

Merylin and Maimai were just two of the children born to the leader of the famous Dawn Star sect. Both were born blessed with spiritual roots, Merylin's being fire and Maimai's being wood and as such were considered talented. And Merylin, at least, proved this to be true. She broke through to the secondary stage of cultivation at just fourteen. Granted, as daughter of the first wife, she had access to abundant pills and elixirs, but this was still a worthy achievement.

However Maimai had heard from a servant about the Ascending Mountain Inst.i.tute, a school that would accept all talented individuals whether they were poor or wealthy, so long as they could prove themselves worthy to learn. Merylin had become curious. While indeed, she had the best tutors for cultivation, alchemy and martial arts, she also felt a little smothered by her doting father and overbearing mother. When she had first mentioned the school, her father had wept declaring dramatically, but what if someone bullies our Merylin? Completely unworthy of a sect leader. And her mother had turned up her nose, stating that the Teachers at the school were all 'charlatans and tricksters' despite the amazing reputation Merylin had discovered it had.

In the end, her father had agreed to her demand to enrol... so long as it was not in magic or beast taming or martial arts, so that his little girl could not get hurt. And as long as she took Maimai as a companion. Merylin would never admit it, but that girl's martial arts were better than hers!

"I am Merylin," she stated to the object of her affections with a small and warm smile. "I hope that we can learn from each other in the future." And with that, she swept out of the building, the girls running to catch up as they carried her herbs.

Jin Li and Leon glanced at each other. With all of their bickering, they had forgotten that the girls were even there.