Fates Parallel Chapter 166 - Escort

Jia and Eui were meditating with Heian when Tae In-Su came knocking on the door to their quarters in the not-so-temporary consulate. It was unusual for Tae to come visit them directly—usually, he just gave them an update whenever they checked in with him at the city hall. As Jia answered the door he burst into the room, practically vibrating with exuberance.

“I’ve done it! Those Yeong bastards were crafty, but I did it! Miss Eui is now free and clear! Er, sort of.”

Jia raised a questioning eyebrow at Tae In-Su.

“That’s good news, but what do you mean ‘sort of?’”

“Ah, well, I did tell you about my strategy, did I not? I’m certain we went over it in one of our meetings.”

They probably had, but Jia rarely paid any attention.

“Humor me.”

“Well, the Sun clan were able to drop the charges as the primary plaintiffs, but as the Yeong family was the aggrieved party, they argued that they should be allowed to maintain the charges themselves. I was able to talk the arbiter down to a compromise—the Yeong family could press their own charges with prejudice, since An Eui had already been found guilty of the crimes in question. But therein lay my trap! I was able to register Miss An as a foreign diplomat before the Yeong’s new charges were filed—a feat which required me to pull a number of bureaucratic strings. Thus, she cannot be charged as a Goryeon citizen. If the Yeong family wishes to pursue their charges further, they will have to take it up with Yamato—or, erm, petition the Queen to have her crime considered as an act of war.”

Jia’s eyes glazed over as Tae spoke. He almost made it sound exciting, but it didn’t change the fact that he was describing months of signing papers and sending letters. She snapped back into focus at the last part.

“Wait, war!?”

Tae In-Su chuckled nervously and waved off her concerns.

“Aha, not to worry, Miss Lee. Even if they took such measures, I doubt that they would go anywhere. The crime took place nearly five years ago, and the Seong Clan wouldn’t jeopardize the alliance negotiations over some minor noble house’s wounded pride.”

Eui cracked an eye open from where she had still been sitting in meditation.

“You’ve got my passport ready, then?”

Tae In-Su nodded excitedly, producing a slip of inscribed jade.

“Right here! This will qualify you to travel within the borders of Goryeo and pass through the shield formations. If any mage questions you, this will clarify your right to travel within Goryeo. The one caveat is that as a member of the Yamato diplomatic corps, and a third stage military asset, you are required to be escorted by no fewer than two Goryeon mages of the third stage or greater. Your current military escort qualifies just fine.”

Eui snorted derisively. Two third-stage mages wouldn’t be much of an obstacle if she was inclined to cause problems, but the law probably hadn’t been written to account for unified cultivators. Jia’s first thought was that they weren’t really planning to cause trouble anyway, but thinking back on her conversation about facing her trauma and crushing Boss Lee...well, they’d cross that bridge when they came to it.

Tae In-Su beamed proudly as he presented the slip to Eui, who just took the thing and stuffed it unceremoniously into her sleeves.

“With this, we can finally get underway and move on to the next city. I’m sure Lady Hayakawa is quite anxious to get on with her mission.”

Jia cocked her head curiously at Tae.

“‘We?’ Isn’t your job done here? I thought you’d be going back to licking Sun Jaehwa’s shoes, or whatever it is you do.”

Tae In-Su frowned.

“While I resent the implication, you’re quite right to presume that I am under the heel of the Sun Clan, and Lady Jaehwa in particular. However, my instructions do not end here. I am to accompany Lady Hayakawa during her mission and assist her in an official capacity with the nuances of Goryeon law during her negotiations.”

Eui snickered.

“In other words, translate her demands into something a bit more diplomatic. You and Rika are going to have a blast together.”

Tae smiled stiffly as he inclined his head to Eui.

“Just so, Miss An. Not to worry, though. I’m quite accustomed to working with troublesome young ladies. At least Lady Hayakawa seems to have the good grace to recognize her own shortcomings—a refreshing change from my usual day-to-day.”

The three of them shared a laugh at the expense of the ‘troublesome young ladies’, resolving never to speak of it to Hayakawa. Tae In-Su excused himself to prepare for their departure, while Jia and Eui went back to their meditation. They found Heian where they had left her, changed back into her cat form and curled up on the couch asleep. Not willing to disturb the lazy little brat, they instead decided to enjoy a quiet evening together as they looked forward to the journey ahead of them.

---

The next day, Jia finally got to formally meet their military escort. The leader of the escort was a severe man with the eyes and talons of a falcon, and feathers for hair. Jia estimated that he was a late third-stage mage, as were the two flanking him. To Jia’s surprise, one of them was a normal human, rather than a half-spirit. While it wasn’t unheard of, normal humans were a tiny minority of the Goryeon population, and an even more miniscule fraction of mages, much less as powerful as this one. The leader snapped a quick salute as they met the gathering caravan outside the city gates.

“Greetings lady ambassadors! I have already acquainted myself with Lady Hayakawa during our preparations, however I have not had the chance to introduce myself to you. My name is Sagong So, and I will be escorting your group to the capital of Sangdo via Yangye, where we will stop for a week or two in order to resupply before the final leg of your journey. Do you have any questions or concerns for or regarding me or my men?”

Jia’s eyes drifted towards one of the other mages flanking Sagong. The half-spirit woman had fiery orange hair, and the ears and tail of a lion. She caught Jia looking and grinned, revealing a mouth full of sharp fangs.

“Just a figure of speech, eh? I don’t take any offense.”

Jia nodded slowly.

“Uh, right. Then I guess just...’lady ambassadors?’ Last I checked we’re not nobles of any sort. And we’re only ‘honorary consuls,’ whatever that means.”

Sagong So nodded sharply, speaking with a stiff formality that reminded Jia fondly of Guan Yi.

“Another figure of speech, I suppose. Technically your proper titles are Magus Ambassador Lee Jia, and Consul An Eui.”

Eui snorted, shaking her head in mock disbelief.

“What, no ‘Magus Ambassador’ for me?”

Sagong shrugged helplessly.

“After the descent, you were both among those formally registered as graduates of the Grand Academy of Spiritual, Martial, and Arcane Arts. As Miss Lee Jia is still a born citizen of Goryeo, being a member of the Yamato diplomatic corps automatically qualifies her as an ambassador between our peoples. Hence, ‘Magus Ambassador’. Consul An Eui, your exile disqualifies you both as a citizen of Goryeo, and thus from the rank of magus. Naturally, you are still a respected member of Yamato’s diplomatic corps and will be treated as such.”

The normal human man scoffed, murmuring under his breath.

“Your little pet paper-pusher saw to that.”

All eyes fell on him at that comment. He was an unassuming man, with short-cropped dark hair and half-lidded eyes. There was no question that his comment was meant to be heard—nobody who’d been born in Goryeo would forget about the enhanced senses of half-spirits, much less a group of mages. Sagong rounded on the man and loomed over him threateningly, despite being a few inches shorter.

“Would you care to clarify on that remark, soldier?”

The man smiled uneasily and saluted.

“Sir! I just think it’s interesting that the laws we are duty bound to uphold include provisions that allow certain people to get away with murder, sir!”

Eui opened her mouth to retort, but Sagong was much faster.

“Magus Han! Is it our duty to uphold, or to write the law?”

“Uphold, sir!”

“Then in that case, I expect to hear no further comment about former crimes for which someone has been tried, convicted, and punished, am I understood!?”

“Yes sir!”

Sagong whirled back around to face Eui and bowed deeply, his two subordinates immediately following suit.

“My deepest apologies for my subordinate’s outburst, Consul An Eui. It will not happen again, and I will accept whatever punishment you deem appropriate for my failure to keep my men in line.”

Eui sighed and shook her head, self-consciously smoothing her long black hair over the brand on her forehead—though she’d taken to hiding it with a semi-permanent illusion spell while they were in Goryeo, the habit prevailed.

“Whatever, I don’t care. Let’s just go.”

Eui brushed past the mages rudely while Jia offered a quick bow in farewell before rushing to catch up with her.

“Are you okay?”

Eui scowled.

“Tsk, I’m fine! I just—I guess I had convinced myself that I was past caring about what people thought, but I’m not. Just because I’m not wanted by the law anymore doesn’t mean I magically stop being a criminal, does it? The people I killed are still dead, and no amount of legal fuckery is going to change that. That Han guy is right—it’s bullshit that I can get away with murder just because I happen to know a bunch of people more important than the ones I killed.”

Jia grabbed Eui up in a tight hug.

“Maybe he is, but so is Sagong. You’ve already been punished for your crimes, and you’re not the same person that you were then. You’ve got to be able to move on.”

Eui sighed and returned the hug.

“Yeah...yeah, you’re right. Damnit, I already know all this. I guess you’re not the only one with unresolved trauma at home.”

Jia chuckled sardonically.

“I guess not. But that’s why we have each other, right? We’ll get through it all together.”

Eui smiled at Jia, but before she could lean in for a kiss, they were interrupted by the sound of someone clearing their throat.

“Ahem—uh, oops! Am I interrupting?”

The woman subordinate of Sagong So stood holding her hands up defensively as Eui whirled on her with a death glare so fierce that her domain actually pressed down on the poor lady.

“Woah! Scary! Really sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt, I just wanted to come over and introduce myself. Is this a bad time?”

Eui scoffed.

“What do you think!?”

The woman flicked one of her ears and nodded in acknowledgement.

“Right, sorry! Anyway, I’m Ja Yun. I’m gonna be your, ah, chaperone I guess? Uh, not—not that you need one for—you know, haha. What you two do behind closed doors is your business! I think you’re a super cute couple! But uh...”

Eui grimaced, but Jia was just trying to hold back laughter as Ja Yun stumbled over her own introduction.

“Get on with it already!”

Ja Yun winced at Eui’s reprimand, but cleared her throat and began again.

“Right! Sorry! Um, I guess I’m just gonna follow you around and make sure you don’t get into any trouble. Like, you know, scaring the shit out of one of the rookies by poking around in a smuggler’s cache?”

Jia couldn’t contain herself, she burst into a fit of giggling laughter, and even Eui softened up a bit, sighing with resignation. Ja Yun must have taken it the wrong way, because her face turned bright red and she waved her hands urgently.

“N-n-not that we suspected you or anything! Well—I mean, we still investigated, but we’re pretty sure you don’t have anything to do with any smugglers. Though, just between us, what were you doing there?”

Jia shrugged, a playful smile on her lips.

“Just reminiscing, I used to live there three or four years ago.”

Ja Yun stared at her with wide-eyed blinking incomprehension.

“Oh...uh, well that’s kind of awesome, actually. Anyway, that really cute tall girl—I mean, uh, y-your friend told me that you’d be able to spot me following you from literally a mile away, so I figured I’d just come talk to you directly.”

Eui rolled her eyes while Jia stepped forward to offer her hand.

“Nice to meet you, Ja Yun. I suppose we’ll be in your care! We’ll try not to get into too much trouble while under your watch.”

Ja Yun shook Jia’s hand uneasily.

“R-right...not too much...”