Night fell.

Risa, Gen and Nangua were cultivating diligently. As cultivators they could skip on sleeping more and more as they reached higher stages and cultivators never had enough time. They made the most of every moment. They tried to, at least. Most of the time.

This night, they did.

So, obviously, they noticed when Ame left her little house, went down her cliff and entered Drem’s house.

They did not interrupt nor did they pry though.

This was the minimum amount of respect they had to give to their fellow sect mates.

…

Ame walked into Drem’s bedroom. He was sitting on the edge of it, aware of her presence and looking at her.

He got up.

She rushed into his arms as she began to cry: “You lied to me! You deceived me!”

He did not speak but hugged her as she let out all of her feelings.

After long minutes in a tense and heavy atmosphere, she stopped speaking. She was trembling.

Drem stated: “I love you, Ame. That is true and won’t change”

She broke the embrace and they looked at each other. Then…she slapped him hard.

Once.

Twice.

…

Many times.

Until finally, she broke down in tears once more and stuttered: “Don’t ever lie to me”

He swore to her.

…

The next morning, Ame and Drem woke up in the same bed.

Neither of them spoke as they remained in bed the whole day, hugging each other.

The other three did not disturb them.

Instead, they were having a very important debate.

“I should obviously be the Sect Leader” stated Gen.

“It should be me” retorted Risa.

“Bullshit! It has to be me! I am the strongest!” added Nangua.

They had been at it ever since they woke up. And, obviously, they could not find an agreement on it.

They did agree that they could not let Drem be the leader as he was a wanted fugitive whose face had been spread all over the world. It was best to keep him hidden as much as possible. At least for now.

As for Ame…She had been monsterized and unlike Nangua could not switch to another form. Her present form was her new ‘original’ form after all. Until she reached the 50th stage, it would remain like that. Beyond that, none of the three would have allowed her to be the leader anyways.

Both of the two knew nothing about being sect leaders and of the country they were now in. they were thus excluded from this debate.

It was only after a long debate that spanned through the entire day that they agreed. They decided to use the same strategy as the Republic of Cobra in which they were in.

The three of them would rule together with each voice having the same weight.

Once they agreed, they discussed their plans for the near future.

“I will go find a baby so as to wake her up” stated Gen firmly.

He was planning to reincarnate the soul of the Empress forcefully if he had to and for that, he needed a newborn baby. A female one. This was the Empress after all.

He would leave the sect tomorrow to find a baby.

“I will go ask around and spread the word about our arrival and the fact that we’re open to new disciples” stated Risa.

A sect was made by its disciples. If there was only the five of them, it was not enough to truly be considered a sect in its truest sense.

She would take care of spreading word that they were recruiting. They would need some manpower to handle all kinds of miscellaneous affairs like cleaning and growing plants. It would be a waste to do it themselves so they might as well get some other people to do it for them.

They had more than enough wealth to recruit young newbies filled with ambitions that they could exploit.

Just like a sect does.

“I will stay here as the Sect Master” said Nangua with a grin.

They gave him the middle finger before leaving him behind as they continued to discuss the details.

Nangua could not care less.

He simply did not want them to be above him.

They could manipulate the Young Master but not him. And he would stop them from fucking too much with the Young Master too if the time for that came.

As for their plans, he did not care. It was in their best interest to make this sect a success which meant that as long as they planned to stick to it, it was safe for him to remain here.

That being said, there was still one thing missing.

They needed an emblem and sect robes. As a Master of fashion, he decided to humbly take on that task.

When they were ready to leave the next morning, Risa and Gen showed him their middle finger once more as he showed them the product of his hard work.

Dark green battle robes with a bright orange pumpkin head that had an evil grin in the back.

There was no way they would wear that.

But it did bring to their attention that they needed to make a design for the sect…

They all picked white battle robes and draw a “ ~ “ symbol on the back. It represented a wave. After all, they did call themselves the East Tide Sect.

Might as well fake it as much as possible.

And so, Risa and Gen departed the sect.

Meanwhile, Drem and Ame still cuddled in bed. Drem was talking about his past to her. He was telling her about his life without evading anything.

The more he spoke, the more he felt like a weight left his shoulders.

He felt happy to share all of that with her. To tell her who he had been, who he really was.

And he believed she was happy that he did that.