The Unsurpassed Maiden

"Wait a minute—how do we even get up there?" Mi Young asks her teacher while pointing at the city looming just above them.

"Good question. I didn't think about that." Kwang Soo says. Then both students turned towards Lady Ning Gwang. "How do we get in without seeming like intruders?"

"I don't know. It's my first time here as well."

"What?!" Both students shout at the same time after hearing what their teacher announced.

"Why are you looking at me like I just said something crazy?" Lady Ning Gwang asks, even putting a hand over her chest to appeal as shock.

"Because you just said something crazy." Mi Young says.

"But it's truly my first time here." Lady Ning Gwang says. "I never went into this place because I know my cousin is here."

"Uhm? Shouldn't you always visit her knowing that the two of you are the only family left?" Mi Young questions once more. Lady Ning Gwang just threw a wink at her as an answer.

"But seriously, teacher, how do we get inside?" Kwang Soo interjects. He looks around the place and sees no land formation or stairs that can take them above.

"I don't know anything else about this city except that you can't directly teleport your way inside because of their strong mana barrier. It will immediately alert their military forces when someone tries to go inside using teleportation or someone from inside uses materialization magic." Lady Ning Gwang says.

"Well at least we know that tricks like that don't work." Mi Young says with a huff.

"And those tricks were the only ones our teacher is capable of as well." Lee Kwang Soo added while crossing his arms with a scoff. "I can't believe you brought us here without any form of plan."

"Speaking of plans. I thought you stayed at teacher Zhong's house so you two can formulate a plan for a journey today?" Mi Young asks. There was a tone of confusion in her question. However, after hearing what she just announced, Lady Ning Gwang turned bright red. This also catches Kwang Soo's attention.

Then, the boy looks from Mi Young and down to his teacher with a glare. "Seriously? You're so gross."

Lady Ning Gwang just laughed at his face without saying anything else. Afterwards, Kwang Soo returned his gaze back towards the confused young girl. "And did you seriously think Lady Ning Gwang would make a plan? This is why you are still a child in my eyes."

"What's that supposed to mean? She really did tell me she would make plans with—oh my god!" Mi Young turns around to gawk at her own teacher. "Really? I can't believe I fell for your words."

"Well, that's on you, not me." Lady Ning Gwang says in a matter of fact. "Besides, I never said anything about making a plan for our trip."

Mi Young just threw a glare at her teacher before she looked up at the rock above them. "Now what?"

"Why don't you guys try and look for something that can make us go up there?" Lady Ning Gwang asks. She snaps her fingers once more before a chair appears in front of her. She did the same movement and a book appeared as well. "While I go and wait here."

"Why do you get to sit down and relax while the two of us tire ourselves out by looking for something that may not even exist?" Mi Young whines.

"Aside from the fact that I am your teacher, I am also thousands of years old, I can't move too much." Lady Ning Gwang jokes out with a wink.

"You're so lame." Mi Young says before sticking her tongue out at her teacher. Then she returned her gaze back at Kwang Soo, "What should we look for?"

"Something that looks suspicious or mysterious to you." Kwang Soo replies as he starts to walk towards Lady Ning Gwang's left. "Let's look around. I'll start from the left and you at the right. Let's meet halfway."

"Got it."

"Yell if you found something." Kwang Soo instructs the other girl. Mi Young nodded her head at the man before doing an 'okay' sign.

"I like your teamwork guys. Keep it going!" Lady Ning Gwang cheered.

Both her students stopped walking and turned towards her, and at the same time they both shouted, "We are not a team!"

And they both started walking off again, leaving the teacher chuckling before she starts reading her book once more. "Kids these days sure are hot headed."

Mi Young walks along the right side of the rock as Kwang Soo instructed her. Although she doesn't want to listen to the other party, she can't do anything anyway since they have to make some plan after their teacher stopped helping them. If she wasn't their teacher, no matter how strong she was, Mi Young would have punched her right there for forgetting to make a plan for their team.

"Team…" Mi Young whispers, the word sounding foreign to her mouth as she thinks about their weird tandem. Her and her own teacher, as well as another student who she's supposed to fight with later. Mi Young wonders if they could still make it on time. At least now she knows that the other students wouldn't find it weird if she alone was gone.

As she followed the path where she would meet Kwang Soo halfway up, Mi Young found nothing, only a bunch of lilies, rocks, and more lilies. She was nearing the top part from the right where she would meet Kwang Soo when she spotted something shining on the ground.

The black haired girl immediately ran off to check if what she was seeing was real and when she realized that it was indeed words written on a stone, she immediately yelled at the top of her lungs so she could catch Kwang Soo's attention.

"I found something!" Mi Young announces. "I found something here! Hey guys I found some—"

"Once is enough, stop shouting or the people above might hear you and they might think we're intruders." A voice suddenly says behind the black haired girl making her jump in surprise. Kwang Soo walks closer towards her before continuing his sentence, "Or worse, you'll attract savage beasts."

Mi Young rolled her eyes at the other party but didn't say anything else as she pointed out to Kwang Soo what she saw. "Here, look."

The boy walks towards where she was pointing and starts examining it. "This looks like a riddle."

"But what would a riddle do here?" Mi Young questions. She looks at the stone again where the riddle was engraved and finds it weird. "It's either a tomb for someone who loves riddles or…"

"…Or it could be the key towards the entrance here." Kwang Soo announces, finishing the girl's sentence. "Quick! Find a keyhole somewhere here."

They searched for a nearby keyhole not too far from the stone and a few seconds later Kwang Soo calls out for her. "Here! I found it!"

Mi Young ran towards where Kwang Soo was, and there, at the ground, was indeed a keyhole.

Mi Young smiled at Kwang Soo, "Great! We have a riddle, and now a keyhole. So where is the key?"

Kwang Soo gave Mi Young a look that said 'are you really kidding me?'

The black haired girl blinks at him before asking, "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Are you really the kid who scored perfect during the entrance exam?" Kwang Soo asks, looking at Mi Young like she was some kind of a dumb thing. "Isn't it obvious?"

"Just tell me so we could get going." Mi Young says while crossing her arms. "Sometimes you seem like a girl with how much you open your mouth."

"I have a mouth so I need to use it properly." Kwang Soo sarcastically answers while rolling his eyes. "Anyway, we will find our key if we answer the riddle. So you better help me answer the riddle first so we know what to find."

Mi Young rolled her eyes once more at the boy before she started to walk off towards where the riddle was engraved on top of a stone.

"Wash me and I won't be clean, don't wash me, and I'll be clean. What am I?" Mi Young reads the passage engraved on the stone. She then turns to Kwang Soo, "What do you think it is? I suck at riddles."

"I suck at them as well." Kwang Soo says.

"Well, that sucks even more. What are we going to do then?" Mi Young says with a sigh. She was about to sit down on the ground when she remembered something. "What the hell! We can go and ask Lady Ning Gwang. She's a thousand years old I'm sure she's good with riddles."

"Fine then." Kwang Soo says with a shrug before the two of them start to walk towards the place where they left their teacher.

"I don't know either. You're both the students here so you two must have known." Lady Ning Gwang answers before she starts reading her book again.

"Sh*t." Kwang Soo replied while sighing. Then she turns to Mi Young, "See, I told you it's a bad idea to ask her."

"When did you tell me?" Mi Young fires back because she knows as hell Kwang Soo didn't tell her.

"Whatever, we better find something now or else we'll have to stay here until night since a certain teacher brought us here but doesn't know how to get us back.." The boy says before he starts to walk back towards the place where the stone was located.