Awakening the Divine Spark
Chapter 197: The talk.

Chapter 197: The talk.

Han Zeming’s and Shade’s unexpected appearance terrified Lee, but mostly it was the latter’s presence in the mansion that was the real threat. Lee had witnessed Shade’s incredible stealth skills and knew the guy could show up from nowhere and kill him just like that.

He spent the night behind closed doors, mostly staring at them, but when the morning came, he didn’t know whether to sigh in relief or escape in panic. Something was off.

Apparently the two had departed with the sunrise, leaving the mansion and the Hantan city. This didn’t make any sense no matter how Lee thought about it.

Why did they leave? Why did they come in the first place? What were they up to?

If Lee was scared out of his wits during the night, now he was simply confused. He was so engrossed in his thoughts, that during the lunch he spilled the soup while serving the patriarch – something that had never happened before.

Obviously it was nothing criminal, only embarrassing. In the worst case scenario he would get a formal punishment in the form of reduced salary. He apologized and thought the incident was over, but after the meal the patriarch asked him to stay behind.

The moment the last person left the dining hall, the situation became beyond awkward.

"I see it’s your time of the month." Patriarch went straight to the point and Lee gawked back at the man, not sure what to think. Even though he pretended to be a woman since the fake escape from the Nethermoon sect, this aspect of the role-play never crossed his mind.

"You are new here and might not know, but my beloved wife died while giving birth to Jin, and after Finnie’s death there’s no female he can talk to." The patriarch said, and seeing Lee’s stupefied expression, added, "His aunts don’t count, I’m not ready to entrust the blabbermouths with anything."

"Patriarch Han, where are you going with this?" Lee tried to formulate the question as polite as possible. Not only he was not ready to become someone who would take a boy’s virginity – Han Jin was obviously way too young for this stuff.

"I’m sorry, I should’ve led with this." The patriarch said with a straight face. It was strange how even a subject like this couldn’t force the man to blush, not even a little.

He said, "You seem like an intelligent girl. I want you to explain Jin how the special days work and what a girl needs to do during those. That’s it. Afterwards you’ll forget about the event and never speak about it again."

"Isn’t it kind of a part of the talk that father needs to have with his son?" Lee tried to get himself out of this.

If he was an actual assassin, he would’ve inwardly cheered at the opportunity, but now Lee had an instinctual impulse to run away and never look back.

"Yes and no." Patriarch Han gave a vague answer, "Just talk to Jin. I promise that no one will even know of your embarrassment. Even more, I’ll handsomely reward you for that."

Basically, that was an order which Lee couldn’t refuse. On the way to Han Jin’s quarters the only conclusion he could come up with was that this household was a complete mess.

***

Lee didn’t understand why the potential assassin was given such opportunity. He didn’t have a real background and he has been in the household for barely half a month. But somehow he ended up with his target face to face, alone in Han Jin’s room.

Most likely the elemental lord protecting the boy was attentively listening behind the door, but there was no way to prevent an assassination if an actual killer was here. Fortunately for the boy, Lee wasn’t one.

"Hi, I’m LeeLee." He said to Han Jin.

The boy stood at the window, looking somewhere in the distance, deep in thoughts.

"I know." He said without looking at Lee.

Lee didn’t know how this was supposed to go, but decided to get over with it as soon as possible. He didn’t want any memories of this encounter ever resurfacing in his consciousness, and hoped it would be short and painless.

Therefore, he said, "Your father said you have questions. Ask."

Technically he had to be a subservient maid, but decided to be more formal and distant in case the boy had any stupid ideas.

"Have you ever traveled?" Han Jin’s question turned out to not what Lee expected.

He glanced at the boy, then around his simple room, and sat on the chair next to the clean desk. The guy lived almost like a monk. Everything in the room were of exquisite quality, but simple at the same time. There were no unnecessary items, toys or anything. Just a bed, desk, chair and a wardrobe.

"I’ve been around." Lee said, suddenly feeling pity for the little guy.

Clearly, after his eldest son left, the patriarch did everything in his power to lock up the youngest son to not loose the last person who could inherit the Han family.

"But I can’t tell you about that." Lee continued, "If I do, the guy behind the door will report it to your father and I’ll be in trouble."

"Daral is not like that." Han Jin said, and went over to sit on his bed, cross-legged, "He has been with me since I was born. Tell me, how far have you traveled? What did you see in the vast, beautiful word?"

’Which one?’ Lee barely swallowed the logical question, and paused to think how to force the conversation to take the correct path.

"There are many, probably countless, worlds." He said, "After you become an elemental lord, you’ll be one of their rulers. Even after igniting the spark, you’ll be among the elite of any society you’ll visit."

"I know that, but ... what is out there to see?" Han Jin said, glancing at the window, as if he was a bird stuck in a cage.

This was surely a better subject than to speak about periods. And while it wasn’t why the patriarch sent Lee over, he kind of preferred to speak about random nonsense. In the end, the kid would somehow find out everything he needs to know about men and women anyway.

"There’s everything you can think off, really." Lee said, "There are savage worlds filled with fire-breathing beasts. There are beasts in the size of your manor, or even bigger. And there are worlds inhabited by other races, not humans like you and I. There are people whose skin is covered in scales or feathers, there are some with tails and horns. Some are twice as big as a grown man and some are half our size."

While for Han Jin it all sounded like a fairy tale, Lee didn’t need to invent anything – he had seen all of that in Ashland. The strange part was that an elite family like Han’s surely had to have their own library where the kid could find out all of this on his own. He had to read a lot to become an expert alchemist, right?

Seeing Han Jin’s starry eyes, Lee smiled, and continued, "Not every world has cultivators, in fact, my guess is that the people of the most worlds don’t have a clue how to cultivate. They live their lives without the knowledge about elemental energies, or even alchemy. You know, you’re very lucky to have been born here. With the backing of your clan you’ll learn amazing things."

"Ye ... lucky ..." Han Jin suddenly deflated.

Lee guessed that a kid like him felt like a prisoner, especially judging by his room. But even though there were limitations during his early years – he’ll be able to spread his wings later.

He had been a rebellious youth once and knew how it felt when father was pushing on him something he hated. It was possible that a decade ago Han Zeming also went through something similar, except he went completely nuts and now intended to kill his own sibling.

"Trust me. You’ll see when the time comes." Lee said, "I can’t tell you what you should do, but if I was given the opportunity to start from the scratch, I’d spend my childhood learning and training like crazy."

"Sigh ... that’s all I do ..." Han Jin said, and this time even his shoulders sunk.

Seeing the kid was almost on the brink of crying, Lee felt helpless. But then he realized it was what he felt on a daily basis since he stepped in this manor. He also had no clue what or how to do to get out of his predicament, and, in fact, in some ways had a similar problem to the kid sitting on the bed – someone intended to dispose of him.

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