Useless

“So, what do you think about God?”

It was a question that none of the other royals could have expected coming from a boy whose appearance was anything but a devout believer.

Nonetheless, the eldest prince was still the first to answer. “We have a fair share of creation myths here in Huoguo. Our deities are vast, but to be frank, they are mostly used to instill virtuous values in our children, while serving as a lynchpin of belief and authority for the lower class to hang onto in dire times. It’s a powerful system, but without its faults.”

“Bo-ring!” Ryuuhan feigned a yawn. “But then again, not much to expect from a princeling whose only future is the throne, I guess.”

There was a loud flick of a paper fan as the last words escaped the boy’s mouth. The recipient of the taunt was trying almost too hard to mask his displeasure, to the point of popping a vein on his forehead while the corner of his mouth twitched in turn.

“One more instance of this insolence and I assure you that your guest status in this land is revoked.” Tianlong said with a tone calm as a breeze.

“Well then, what do you define it, punk?” Baihu interrupted with a huff.

Before the conversation could escalate into another brawl (of words or fists, that much hadn’t been decided), another soothing voice sounded:

“It’s best for me to explain.”

Aoba, after getting all eyes on him, continued. “While Huoguo’s deities are used in mythology and religion alike, Watatsumi’s is a bit different. Most notably, we have no such thing called ‘God’.”

“Wait, you don’t?” Xuanwu asked. “But your envoys all wore ritualistic clothings. I had a hard time imagining them as soldiers, so I assumed they were priests.”

“Well, yes and no. Watatsumi might have no God, singular or plural, but what we do have in worship is nature itself. Our rituals are dedicated to this very earth, to the rain, the sun, the wind and the likes. You weren’t wrong to consider my envoys priests as they were indeed involved in many of our rituals, but those, I can assure you, are Watatsumi’s finest soldiers as well. Mastery over weapons and martial arts are often a requirement in our rituals, even if they’re mainly for show on such occasions.”

Scanning his audience for a cue, it was no surprise for Aoba to see most of them still wearing a face of doubt. And so, the Watatsumi prince raised his hand forward in preparation for the next step of his speech.

The same water droplets from before started to form, but this time was much slower from before – a deliberate attempt for the rest to observe. And because of this, the Huoguo siblings could all see the droplets floating about, glistening under the sunlight like pearls, before slowly floating into one another and swirling around to form a larger, spinning water ball.

“Even I’m not sure myself if this is a gift from such rituals, or if by tuning with nature, we’ve awakened our latent abilities, but this is such a case in Watatsumi. Certain special individuals can find themselves having a certain affinity with the elements around us.”

“By elements, do you mean the five governing elements?” Tianlong asked. “Wood, metal, earth, fire, water?”

“That’s from Huoguo’s Five Agents, right? It’s close, but in Watatsumi, that’s a bit different. We divide elements not by five, but by six: earth, wind, fire, water, lightning, and shadow. I found myself being able to control water, and for Watatsumi, water is the element that we worship the most. The others in the royal family found this gift of mine to be a blessing, and so…”

“And I’m gonna have to interrupt the lecture here a bit,” said Ryuuhan, who had dropped his previous charade. “While there is a popular belief that people of Watatsumi have ‘awakened’ or ‘connected to nature’ of sorts, I would like to pose the suggestion that this was not a natural cause.”

Perhaps it was coincidental, or perhaps there was a sixth sense in work, but Zhuque, who had been mostly quiet the whole time, finally thought that this was her cue.

“The tower, right?” The princess concluded.

“Indeed,” nodded Ryuuhan. “Our prince is one such case, but as far as I can tell, every documented case of someone in Watatsumi being able to wield this sort of mysterious power only went as far as around a month ago. Now, does that sound familiar to everyone?”

It wasn’t hard for the rest to come to a conclusion.

“… The day of the tower’s emergence.” Zhuque answered.

“But how could it affect somewhere as far as Watatsumi?” Asked Xuanwu. “Shouldn’t Huoguo be the first to be affected?”

“This is just a hypothesis of course, but I believe it’s because Huoguo is, geographically speaking, in the center of the world,” Aoba said. “This tower goes beyond what our eyes can see, and being planted in the center like this can only mean that its effect will spread to the widest it can get – in this case, the entire world.”

“But that still doesn’t answer my second question.”

“It doesn’t, no,” Ryuuhan continued. “But that’s only when you consider that only Watatsumi is the one who showed results from that incident. And clearly from my little bout just now, that wasn’t the case.” His eyes gleamed as the boy looked towards the person in question. “Isn’t that right, Princess?”

So, it comes to this.

With a sigh, Zhuque raised her hands up in the air. “You got me.”

Though her brothers were all surprised, there was much less of a shock on their faces before this breaking news. After all, they had witnessed first-hand when the fight between Baihu and Ryuuhan was stopped – Aoba’s water wasn’t the starter, but it was to stop another suspicious fireball that was thrown in the air.

“Since when?” Tianlong was the first to break the silence.

“As the retainer said, almost right after the tower’s emergence.” Zhuque tried to brush off the topic as light.

“Why didn’t you tell any of us?”

“I had no way of controlling it,” answered the princess. “Just now was another case of impulse; even to this point, I can’t really make it my own.”

To prove her point, Zhuque moved her hand forward, similar to Aoba’s method of conjuring his water ball. Unlike the Watatsumi prince however, her attempt resulted in nothing.

“See?” Zhuque shrugged. “And I can’t exactly tell you guys something I can’t even consistently prove.”

Well, there’s that, but I can’t exactly tell people I’ve only managed to get the fire to spawn when I’m about to die, either.

“In any case, this proves my theory,” Ryuuhan concluded. “Whatever is happening to the princess right now, as well as our prince, should have a lot to do with that tower. In fact, if you hadn’t made the offer of political marriage, we would have done it ourselves.”

“Then let me ask you this, envoy from Watatsumi,” Xuanwu asked. “What exactly do you have in mind by ‘solving’ this mystery?”

“Hm? I don’t see your point?”

“Let me rephrase, then. Are you planning for war?”

It was blunt, but the question was valid. These abilities were magical beyond human understanding. Imagine bringing just one to a fight between swords and spears – an army could burn to a crisp, or be doused in a flood, all without the other side ever knowing it.

“Well…” Before Ryuuhan could answer, this time, it was Aoba himself that let out a wry smile. “Didn’t you guys expect Watatsumi to give you some favor for accepting the marriage proposal? Think about it; if we manage to figure out how the tower works, or better yet, reproduce it, Huoguo will have its own army of these magical abilities, enough to defend… or attack anything that dares stand in its way.”

The statement sent a chill down everyone’s spine… Everyone, except for the two crown princes of their respective nations.

“An intriguing offer indeed,” replied Tianlong. “Then I’d say this is a suitable wedding gift. Now, for our plan of conquering this tower…”

“Of course, the offer stays,” answered Aoba. “Watatsumi will aid with most of the resources. I, Ryuuhan, the princess and the third prince will be the leaders of the army. We leave in a week to prepare our resources. How does that sound?”

“Splendid,” nodded the Huoguo prince. “The rest of us will resume our duties as usual. Now, everyone should rest while you can; it’s a long week ahead of ourselves.”

Thus concluded the royals’ little mingle. As Xuanwu left the Fire Palace to return to the borders, Tianlong and Baihu returned to their own quarters for the much-needed rest. Zhuque, however, returned to the garden after circling around the hallway.

Greeting her was a familiar figure in black and white.

“Hey, Princess. Great to see you got my cue.” Ryuuhan opened with a grin.

“What do you want to see me for?” Even if her mind was full of doubt, there was no proof to what she had in mind. And so, Zhuque chose to play dumb.

“What, don’t you wanna ask something? Like, how I knew you had powers of your own?”

“I see we’re doing it this way, huh? Then entertain me, retainer, how did you know?”

“I remembered.”

It was all the confirmation she needed.

“I knew it was too easy getting Watatsumi involved. So it was your doing?”

“I am quite persuasive, believe it or not,” the boy chuckled. “Let me say this, though: do not think about dying. We still don’t know how your real ability works, and how I’m dragged into this mess with you. Right now I can only assume those already with abilities are immune from the reset, but His Highness is too closed off for me to get an accurate read on the situation.”

“I don’t plan on dying any time soon, either,” Zhuque stuck out her tongue and let out a cheeky smile.

“Good, that’s all, then.”

As the boy tried to leave, however, the princess called to him once more.

“Hold on!”

“Hmm? Anything else, Princess?”

“If what you said was true, then you have your own power too, right? Did you try to use that on Baihu? What is it?”

There was a faint, bitter smile on Ryuuhan’s face. But the boy stepped forward even faster than before.

“… Useless.”

“Huh?”

“It’s useless.” Those were the last words Ryuuhan spoke before disappearing from the premises.