Depthless Hunger

After an enjoyable time cultivating and hunting mercenaries, Zae Zin Nim was irritated to be dragged back and forced to help, not just with the Irunian training, but with this strange exercise. All of the Irunian women in the group left to do water-based Physique training. She had thought it was something similar to yin development, but nothing seemed particularly feminine. Mostly they were just enjoying the water.

"This is a strange cultural tradition," Zae Zin Nim said eventually. She sat with Inafay and Omilaena away from the river.

"Irun cares about its sex divisions more than you think," Inafay said. "Their military is integrated, but for a lot of other things they split up."

"Separating men and women is reasonable. It's the associations with bathing that I don't understand. Do the men not bathe? I sincerely hope that's not the case."

"Don't even try to understand it," Omilaena said. "I've traveled so many places and seen so many strange beliefs and customs."

They lapsed into silence for a while - the conversation hadn't been flowing well ever since the groups separated. Omilaena seemed either bored or more disturbed. Instead of jumping into the water and teasing the Irunian women, she lurked sullenly behind them. Zae Zin Nim wasn't sure whether it would help to bring it up and settled for saying nothing.

"Alright, what about this?" Inafay turned back to them cheerfully. "I was thinking we should change the policy on Goralian potions. Giving them to healers will prioritize the worst injuries, but if we send one potion along with each of our new soldiers, they might get more use out of them and save themselves."

"Depends on whether you have enough potions," Omilaena said listlessly. Zae Zin Nim only shrugged, since she didn't care about such details.

"Ugh, you two seem determined to be grumpy. We could take the chance to talk about something else... I've honestly been wanting to ask what you do with your hair, Zae Zin Nim, it's so silky and it doesn't seem to get tangled..."

"If your cultivation advances enough, it will stay healthy," she explained. "At this stage I only need to brush it, and I understand that some at later stages don't even need to do that."

"Not fair. Mine is nothing but tangles after enough wind goes through it... Omilaena, how do you keep that cut so straight and-"

"Chemically treated." Omilaena interrupted her and rubbed her bangs with two fingers. "There's so much poison in my system that it comes out in my hair. Stays this way all the time."

"You two are no fun." Inafay folded her arms and frowned at them until her expression suddenly became more mischievous. "You know, I heard that there's one of the strongest Birtaegalese mercenaries in the entire country not far from here."

Zae Zin Nim was on her feet immediately.

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Apparently for Irunians, masculinity involved going into the wilderness in all-male groups, chasing boars, and running around shirtless for some reason. Kai barely noticed the last part, since he was shirtless half the time anyway due to losing clothes in battle, but some others seemed less comfortable. Their group stood out from the soldiers: Tusquo was well-muscled, the Tonjin brothers were husky, and Orotaisin had a shockingly chiseled physique for his lean frame.

At the moment, the majority of the Irunian soldiers were running after the boars in some sort of informal contest. Kai and Orotaisin stood under a tree to watch, since it would have been grossly unfair for either of them to participate.

"It's not always hereditary," Orotaisin was explaining. "If a prince's son isn't accepted by the clan, or doesn't want the job, there are procedures for choosing a new prince. It makes some aspects of succession a lot easier and some a lot harder."

"Does it have to be sons with princes?" Kai asked. "And daughters with princesses?"

"Nah, I just said it that way. Any acknowledged children could inherit. Unless they figure things out among themselves, they have to fight it out. Politically... usually."

"So do you have competitors for the... Mistral Seat? Seat of Mistral?"

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Either is fine." Orotaisin stared into the sky, not really watching the boar chase. "I have a bastard sister, but she didn't get any elemental powers. So all my parents' expectations are on me. I hit all the targets when I was younger, before I figured out the expectations... just keep building. Success can be a nasty sort of burden."

"I can imagine."

"I guess you would imagine." Orotaisin glanced at him with an unreadable expression. "Should I not complain? I heard you've gotten pretty unlucky, so it must be annoying to hear princes whine about the powers they received."

"I won't get offended." Kai leaned back against the tree and thought about it for a while. "Everybody gets thrown into a life they didn't choose, some better and some worse. I wouldn't be irritated unless you assumed you deserved what you got by chance and didn't want anything else."

"Far from it."

They lapsed into silence as the boar chase seemed to wrap up. He was glad they finally had time to talk together. Orotaisin was a hard man to get to know, always distant and polite. Now he thought he understood why Inafay had chosen him.

"I stayed stuck for a while, actually." Orotaisin spoke up again abruptly. "Meeting Inafay changed my mind. Her clan is the closest thing to Goralian royalty and she has a lot of expectations riding on her... but she can just... fly away. Made me realize I could do the same."

"So you're not going to inherit the title?"

"Not sure yet. I'm going to stick with the Frontier elites for a while, plus I'm not sure what Inafay will want to do next. If I wait long enough, my parents might set up another heir and the decision would just be made for me. I'm... okay with that."

Before they could say more, the other three approached them. Raghi appeared to be putting Tusquo in a headlock and teasing him about winning the competition. Lofgan followed them and blinked at Kai and Orotaisin.

"What were you talking about?" he asked.

"Inafay," Orotaisin said with a shrug.

"Ah, you're a lucky man!" Raghi declared. "When are you two actually getting married? If you don't hurry up, one of us might be the first to get married."

"I'm married," Tusquo said, and the others immediately stared at him.

"What?" Kai demanded. "I thought we caught up on everything and you didn't mention you got married?"

"It didn't seem relevant. She's in southern Goralia for training and she probably won't get back in time to meet any of you."

In other contexts that might have led to an awkward conversation about women, but with this group it died almost immediately. Tusquo and Orotaisin didn't seem the type, Raghi had no one to play off of, and Kai wasn't sure about Lofgan's preferences. Instead they just talked about which boars they should bring back to cook and started to separate to set up camp.

"I was going to invite you to the boar races," Tusquo said as they worked. "But it feels like they'd be a bit slow for you now."

"I guess technically we met over boars," Kai said. "Are they an Irunian symbol?"

"No, we just have a lot of them."

The others split up to gather firewood - Kai could have started the fire himself, but decided that this must be masculine bonding or something. He was heading out to look for brushwood when he noticed Raghi following him, uncharacteristically hesitant.

"I'm surprised you're not training," the large man said quietly.

"You have to rest sometimes to optimize your results." Kai smiled as if it had been mockery, but Raghi still looked serious.

"Sometimes I... don't know if I have the right drive in me. It's funny... everybody talks about the 99 Power barrier, but that's not the real dead end. Eventually you hit your own limits. For some people it's around 50... I thought I was past that, but now..."

"What's this about? You're making great progress!"

"But for how long?" Raghi shook his head slowly. "Maybe I could get further, but... sometimes I wonder if I want to. Do I really want to keep pushing this hard my entire life? Some people are like Inafay, they vault over everything. And some are like you, they just push through no matter how bad it gets. But not everyone can do that."

At first Kai though the other man needed encouragement, but now he thought there was something deeper at play. "Say you leave Frontier training... what do you do next?"

"I'm not saying I want to quit being a hunter. But... I could go back to Monskon City, for example. I'm stronger than everyone there now, I could lead the Hunter's Guild. We need people like that, right?"

"Sure. But is that what you want, or just what you think you could do?"

"Well..." Raghi shifted his bulk from side to side, not making eye contact. "Before coming here... Juray and I have been talking a lot. Sometimes, uh, I feel like I could see a future for us together. But I wanted to ask you if it was okay."

"Are you asking for permission?" Kai gave the man a scornful look. "Our relationship was years ago. The only person you need to ask is Juray. Honestly, I was more worried she'd end up lonely."

"A woman like her? Definitely not. I think she's waiting for someone, I just... it's hard to believe it could be me."

"Hey, it could be. Good luck, man." Kai clapped Raghi on the shoulder. "So that's what you really want, huh? Retiring to an easier position and someone to go home to?"

"I want that, but..." Raghi extended one thick hand and slowly squeezed the air in a fist. "Sometimes I'm not sure I can. It's obvious I'll never be as good as you or the Frontier elites. So how long do I push?"

Kai considered for a moment, not quite believing that someone was coming to him for life advice. But when he thought about the incursions and all he'd seen... "I can't tell you what you should do with your life. But if you care about my advice, I say keep pushing for now. Ask Juray to marry you, build a life, but don't cut yourself short yet."

"Thanks, Kai." Raghi finally smiled again. "You believed in us when nobody else would. Including us. I guess we'll see how far it can go."

He went to join the others, slowly enough that Kai could have gone along with him. Instead Kai lingered away from the fire, watching the darkening sky.

It was an odd feeling: he was by far the strongest person there, but all his old friends were getting married, building careers, settling into positions in life. He was still running across continents, pursuing training above all costs, and avoiding thinking about personal questions. Because he did have women he cared about, but his thoughts there were so confused.

So he turned around and went back to grueling physical training. It was definitely easier.