The Unsurpassed Maiden

"Why would I tell you?"

"Because it's interesting. Plus, you're the one who opened up the topic so I'm just a curious listener." The black haired girl says while giving the man an annoyed look.

Zhong Yu looked troubled for a second. He was considering the young girl's words so after a minute or two he shrugs and starts to tell the girl a story. "I met this girl long ago. I don't know when but I think maybe forty years ago? Anyway, I met her in a faraway land. It wasn't something special you know, I just randomly bumped into her and she helped me with a couple of things like hiding from my pursuers…those sorts of things."

The young girl didn't say anything else after that. She just kept on listening to the boy as he talked. For some reason, she felt like she also knew the girl Zhong Yu is talking about, which is really weird considering as she doesn't even know the face of the woman the other party was referring to.

"Anyway, we journeyed together as friends. Killed tons of beasts and wrong doers. Being with her is really fun! She's an amazing woman with amazing abilities!" Zhong Yu explains while a huge and joyful smile plays along his lips. His eyes were looking dazed as well, like he was remembering something really wonderful. "We fought battles together and won every single one of them. Until the day comes when we finally have to go our separate ways. Well, I really didn't want to separate with her—"

Zhong Yu pauses for a minute to answer the look Mi Young was giving him. "No. I don't like her romantically. She's like a dear sister to me. Anyway, I honestly didn't want to leave her alone but she told me that she has to do this by herself in order to find her true power. She was looking so determined and I didn't want to ground her with my selfish requests so yeah…I let her go."

"Where is she now?" The black haired girl asks.

The other party's facial expression immediately changed the moment those words came out from the young girl's mouth. He was looking faraway as his eyes went from hopeful to distant. "She's gone."

"Gone? As in?..."

"She's dead." Zhong Yu says with a grim expression.

"Oh. I'm sorry." Mi Young says with pure sadness. She might not have met this woman her entire life but she somehow felt sorry to those people who she left with deep longing, she just knew deep down that this woman is an amazing person seeing as the almighty Zhong Yu feels deeply saddened with her loss.

"No, don't be." The other party says after a few seconds of silence. "I know she had a very amazing adventure and that she did fulfill her destiny."

"How'd you know?"

The man shrugs before smiling, "I don't know, I just knew that she did."

"Do you happen to know her name?" Mi Young asks with a small voice.

"I don't know her full name or if it truly is her real name but she let me call her Goyo."

"Goyo? That's….weird." Mi Young says with furrowed eyebrows.

Zhong Yu laughs at the black haired student's reaction. "Trust me, you're not the only one who finds it weird."

The black haired girl remained silent after that. She knows she's being paranoid but she couldn't help but feel like the girl Zhong Yu was talking about was someone she knew. But it gets weirder since Zhong Yu said that the girl is already dead so there's no way that Mi Young would have known her.

With a sigh, Mi Young tosses those thoughts away from her mind and focuses on their mission.

"How many hours have we been walking?" The black haired girl announces while she looks at the wide desert in front of them. She turns her head from left to right and all she sees is pure sand. "There's nothing here. Did we really go inside the safest door?"

Zhong Yu sighs beside her. "I don't know but I hope so."

"I just hope that something awful won't come out all of a sudden. I think I can't run anymore." Mi Young says while her shoulders slump. "I'm so tired of walking! I can't even remember the last time I slept and ate!"

Zhong Yu immediately whips his head towards the young girl, "You mean ever since you came here you hadn't eaten and slept?"

"Uhn." Mi Young nods innocently. "Although I lost consciousness a couple of times, I don't know if I can consider that as falling asleep but yeah…"

Zhong Yu cocks his head to the side, a sign that he was assessing something, Mi Young noticed. The man hums for a second before saying, "That's weird."

"What's weird?"

The tall man stops walking for a second before he draws a huge breath, "I just find it really weird."

"I asked you already, what's weird?"

"How old are you again?" Zhong Yu asks while looking at the young girl seriously.

"17?"

"Right. Anyway, Mages like your age shouldn't be able to have this huge mana aura and power like you." Zhong Yu starts while still looking at the young girl with a puzzled look. "In fact, for someone at your age, missions like this should be a living hell."

"How can you say that it's not like hell for me? I mean, I've been stuck here for ages—"

"No. Listen to me. You should take this seriously." Zhong Yu says with a grim look. This time, the black haired girl listens to him with her full attention. "You said you didn't eat and sleep for a couple of days already, right?"

"Uhn."

"Well, teenage Mages might have huge potentials but that doesn't mean that they don't require sleep and eating. In fact, this should be the time where you take a lot of rest and eat a lot of food since your abilities are growing. Which means your body's energy is always eating up everything you intake." Zhong Yu starts to say. "What I mean is, you shouldn't be able to stand and walk with me here right now if you haven't slept and ate for a long time."

"So, you're saying that if I was a normal Mage who was in this same situation, I would have been sick by now?" Mi Young asks.

"Not sick. Dead." Zhong Yu deadpans. Mi Young's eyes widened at that.

"What?"

"It's true. This place should have drained your life if you stayed here for two days straight without sleep and eating." Zhong Yu says. "But since you're still here, alive and kicking, then that actually means something."

"What?"

The taller man looks at her for a few seconds before answering, "That the Great Sage was right. You are indeed someone special."

"I mean, I can control three different elements."

"No. That ability might be rare for people your age but I was talking about something else." Zhong Yu says.

"What are you trying to say?"

Zhong Yu sighs before turning his back at the young girl. "I don't know how to say this to you without shocking you."

"Come on, just tell me. You're making me worried." The black haired girl pushes. She's getting quite scared with how the other party is trying to make her suffer by prolonging his words.

"Well, you might be someone with the blood of the nine lost clans." Zhong Yu says without even blinking.

The black haired girl stares at the man for a few minutes with a blank expression. Then, after a few seconds Mi Young let out the loudest laugh she ever had ever since she came to Mistwood Academy.

She spent a few more minutes laughing loudly by herself while Zhong Yu stood in front of her with a blank expression. When Mi Young notices the man's serious demeanor, she immediately stops herself.

"I-I'm sorry." Mi Young says while trying her best not to chuckle again. "Y-You're just…that's…oh my god."

"If you want to laugh you can continue laughing first." Zhong Yu says with dead eyes.

The black haired girl seems to feel the sudden change in the boy's aura so she wills her best to stop laughing. With a cough, the girl clears her throat before apologizing once more, "I'm sorry. I just find it really hilarious. I mean, come on. Let's be honest here. The five other clans vanished a very long time ago. My dad wasn't even born that time yet."

"I don't know what you're trying to say but the dead bodies and the experimented people here proves otherwise." Zhong Yu suddenly interjects which made the black haired girl freeze.

She didn't think about that. Now that the other party has opened the topic, she suddenly felt a huge creeping feeling inside her heart which Mi Young immediately shakes off because there's just no way someone like her can be a descendant from the five lost clans. Heck she didn't even know of them until her teacher Ning Gwang introduced her to that idea.

"No. There's just no way, okay? My father is an Intermediate Hydro class Mage who grew up in the farthest town in the North. He's poor. Not that I'm complaining but all we had was a small house, a garden, and tons of books. So the idea of me being a descendant of the five lost clans is just…not right." Mi Young explains without stopping.. She looks at Zhong Yu but the man's expression was something she didn't expect to see after explaining her part.