Shoutout to Bruh_Vista for beta-reading and providing extensive feedback for this chapter!
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The walk back to the Sect was awkward. Shuri could feel Marie's gaze boring down on her from over her shoulder, and it was unnerving.
"Interesting..." Shuri heard Marie mutter out loud.
Shuri ignored it and continued walking forward while clutching the ball even closer to her body.
"Interesting..." Marie repeated, but a bit louder. Now Shuri was certain that Marie intended to attract her attention and initiate the conversation.
'Fat chance!' Shuri scoffed internally and started to walk more quickly.
This time, Marie took the aggressive step by gliding in front of Shuri and blocking her path. Luckily, Shuri was vigilant and managed to stop herself before she physically collided with Marie.
"Now that I have your attention," Marie said with an affronted snort while staring directly into Shuri's eyes. Then, a pressure descended on Shuri. It was the kind of pressure one would feel when a responsible adult such as a parent or teacher would look deep into one's metaphorical "soul". It was the kind of pressure that made you want to spill your guts and beg for forgiveness for acts one hadn't even committed yet (and simply thought of faintly... at some point in time). Fortunately, it was the kind of pressure Shuri was used to. Thus, Shuri met Marie's challenge with a gaze oozing with innocence and nonchalance.
"I find it interesting that you aren't curious," Maire finally folded and uttered in disbelief. "I was certain that you would scramble to learn more about how we managed to escape from that predicament."
Shuri WAS curious. She was dying to know every single detail about what happened back there. However, she also knew that in gaining that card, she would have to reveal her hand as well. In learning the techniques and details of their escape from the deathtrap of light and acid, Shuri would have to exchange the secrets of the core that had now moved securely inside her coat's inner pocket. The exchange wouldn't be contractual, since Shuri was certain that Marie wouldn't force her to reveal her secrets. But the implication of an exchange would still hold. Shuri couldn't just learn everything she needed and walk away... well, she could, but it would put her on someone's shit-list. And if there was one thing Shuri knew to be an absolute fact, it would be that it was often toughest to be forgotten if you are disliked than if you are liked.
"Well, if it was something you wished to share with me, then you would have done so of your own volition," Shuri responded with a careless tilt of her head. And with that said, she decided to swerve past Marie and continued her trek back to the Sect.
"Wait!" Marie called out. Shuri paused in her track and turned to face Marie, once again. "What do you intend to do with that core?"
"Why should I tell you?" Shuri challenged. She then clicked her tongue and said, "In fact, why MUST I tell you anyway? You should already know my intention with this resource with your powers!"
"I can see what you will do, but not what you intend to do," Marie responded.
"I commend your command over the semantics of our spoken language," Shuri shot back with overflowing irony.
Marie chuckled at the retort before explaining, "An artist will create a work of art. I can see what the process of the creation will be, and I can see what the end result will look like. But I cannot see what the artist is thinking when the process is going on, nor can I foresee what the artist's purpose is in creating that artwork. Is it just to earn money, or is there a deeper purpose to the culmination of a million brushstrokes?"
"I can see what you will do, and what your end goal will look like. But I cannot understand what you intend to do with it," Marie added.
"Does it matter?" Shuri evoked. "If the end result works, is there a need to scrutinise the process?"
"Of course there is!" Marie responded immediately. "That is the whole goal of the scientific process. Have you not been paying attention to the lessons on the Theory of Knowledge?"
Shuri met Marie's disappointed gaze with a squint. She was loath to admit her mistake at this junction because it would eventually lead to her having to disclose her secrets. So she decided to capitalise on her shamelessness and simply turned and continued to walk back to the Sect.
"If you don't tell me now, then I will exact a greater price when you DO eventually return to me in the future," Marie warned with a jocular yet threatening tone. "And trust me when I say this, you WILL return to me in the future - within two days by my conservative estimate."
Shuri gritted her teeth and sped up her pace. While she wanted to ignore and just write off Marie's warnings as the ramblings of a hormonal teen with a hurt ego, she couldn't, because she was certain that things would transpire exactly as Marie had said. If this was the case, then why didn't Shuri just give up and scratch Marie's "itch"? Well... Shuri, just like every human being ever, had the inherent urge to flip the bird on her fate and try and defy it. She would do everything within her capacity to prove Marie wrong because she really didn't want to give that smug girl a sense of satisfaction. Just seeing that egotistical yet alluring smile grated on Shuri's nerves. Of course, the abrasive yet uplifting voice accentuated that frustration. Oh, and those eyes! Those disdain-filled yet bewitching eyes...
At that instant, Shuri's steps faltered and once again, she froze in place. Her right hand moved automatically towards her left chest and pressed down firmly.
THUMP THUMP! THUMP THUMP! THUMP THUMP!
'W-What is happening?' Her hand moved upwards and she felt her cheeks and forehead with the back of her palm. 'I'm burning up? Is this a fever?!'
Her mind ran through all the diagnostic signs Jean had told her in passing to check for a myriad of illnesses and was stumped to learn that none matched her symptoms.
'Maybe it's just a side-effect of all that excitement...' She surmised in the end. It was a logical conclusion that tied up all the loose threads into a neat bundle. And with that conclusion, she finally reached the Sect, throwing that minor episode to the back of her mind.
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"So, have you decided to just bite the arrow and reveal your intentions with the mana core?" Marie egged once again. Shuri had dropped by Marie's usual spot in the recreation room to submit her weekly assignment as a research assistant. It had barely been a day since their venture into the pit of deadly lights and melting liquids and their subsequent escape with a mana core.
In response, Shuri shook her head lightly and hurriedly left the room before something weird happened again.
"I see... The silent treatment, huh?" Marie yelled jokingly. "I still count a day! I'll be waiting!"
Shuri continued her hurried escape and returned to her room. After ensuring that door was locked securely, she dug underneath her mattress and retrieved the mana core that was somewhere between two to three times the size of an apple. Although the blood of the Yoruz Clan coursed through her veins, this was the first time Shuri got anywhere close to even laying her eyes on a mana core. While as a princess, she could have literally bathed in a tub filled with these semi-ubiquitous balls, Shuri couldn't indulge in those fantasies. For others, an inert mana core such as this one was harmless and inconsequential. But for those with even a drop of Yoruz blood in them, it was a guaranteed recipe for disaster... or so it was told.
While holding the ball with both her hands, Shuri started to rotate the sphere clockwise against the light emanating from the lantern on her desk. The inert mana core appeared as a semi-translucent, grey ball. After its extraction from the wisp, it blinked with a faint light that had dissipated completely along with the mana stored within.
'The mana core is the brain that controls every golem and automaton. Magborgs are a special case and follow a different set of rules. Designing a robust schematic to be embedded inside the inert core is key towards creating a successful golem or automaton. The process is painstaking, but extremely rewarding since the result is something that never tires, never asks any questions and achieves what it is programmed and built to do efficiently,' Shuri narrated from memory.
This was Shuri's intention with her current gambit. The reason why she dug out these remnants from her less-than-ideal heritage was to create a battalion of servitors that would follow her no questions asked.
'People are difficult, treacherous and unreliable.' This was Shuri's conclusion. People were the source of all of her problems, so the solution was obvious - to replace them.
It would take time and practice and a lot of resources. Shuri intended to take advantage of the Innovator Track for this very reason. Participating in the Innovator Track would finance everything she would need to grow her expertise and ultimately build the faithful servants that would emancipate her from being tied down by anyone.
'I am certain that Marie will be a problem,' Shuri thought to herself. She let out an exasperated sigh as the image of the gloating girl occupied her mind's front page.
'I'll just have to consult someone more manageable.' After some thought, Shuri hummed thoughtfully before pocketing the core and leaving her room. Till now, she hadn't won a single point over Marie in anything. The latter was multiple steps ahead of Shuri and would thus run circles around her. Marie's power of foresight was staggering and extremely potent - it wasn't something Shuri could contend against. Therefore, instead of going against an opponent you were guaranteed to lose against, why not try against another where victory was at least within the realm of possibility?
After fixing her attire with a pat of her hands, Shuri balled up her fists and knocked on the door to the classroom she was standing in front of. A beat later, the voice of the occupant answered.
"Come in," Markus invited.
