Chapter 38: We’re Good

Chapter 38: We’re Good

In the morning, Paike woke before dawn and sat in the kitchen, contemplating yesterday’s events. It was almost an hour before Guan Li exited his room. He stopped and looked at Paike with a bit of uncertainty in his face. Paike gave him a strange smile and called out gently, “Guan Li.”

Guan Li nodded. “Yeah,” he said slightly cautiously, but in his more relaxed tone rather than the formal words he saved for strangers. He walked past Paike and rummaged around the cupboards, looking for something to eat.

Paike breathed deeply. “I’m sorry. I think I got a little too intense yesterday, and I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings or take things too far.”

Paike winced at his own words. Was apologizing wrong? It didn’t seem like something a cultivator should do. His father and mother certainly never admitted when they were wrong, but they were never wrong. He had also never heard about this in the stories or anything. And was he insulting Guan Li by suggesting that he had hurt feelings? He wasn’t trying to, but…

Guan Li’s shoulders tensed slightly in the cupboard before relaxing, and he turned and gave Paike a smile. “No, it’s… I should be apologizing. I was too slow on the uptake and let my temper get the better of me.”

He raised a hand to stop Paike from interrupting. “But I appreciate the thought. I do think we all could have handled ourselves a little better, and perhaps we need to talk to each other as a team a little more. You don’t need to apologize to me, but I plan on making an apology to the team in general once I can.”

Paike nodded. “Yes, we probably all could. There’s probably a decent amount of blame to go around, but I think it’s salvageable.”

“Yeah,” Guan Li said, brightening up with a smile creeping onto his face. “Yeah, I think so. You know, before things fell apart, we were doing pretty well together. You were doing a good job calling the shots. Just need to get a little more comfortable with all of our skill sets, I think.”

Paike blinked. Well, he had been calling the shots, but yeah that probably wasn’t his place. “Maybe Liming should be–“

Guan Li shook his head, then shrugged. “Yeah. I mean, if she wants to, she can give being the leader a shot, but honestly, I think we’re okay with you giving field directions. We just need to give it another shot. Besides, we did pretty good. We were almost second.”

“Mmmhmmm,” Paike said. However, that wasn’t much of a consolation to him. He leaned forward, forearms resting on the table in front of him. “But something about the elder’s instructions yesterday tells me that it’s not going to be as simple this time.”

Guan Li paused and thought for a moment. “No, you’re probably right. Anyway, we have some time before we need to be there for the next lesson. You want to go help me raise my sect ranking a little bit?”

Paike jumped to his feet. “Sure. Let’s go. I’m not really sure how I can help you win individual duels, but—”

“Well,” Guan Li said as they headed out, “you seem to have a much better idea of who’s who around here. And also, when someone comes looking to challenge me, you can always step up and take the fall for me.”

Paike gave Guan Li a disapproving look.

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“What?” Guan Li said. “You said you were sorry, right? I think this is the least you can do.”

Paike sighed. “Yeah,” he said, shoulders slumping slightly. “I’ll step in if needed.”

But Guan Li’s pointy elbow found his ribs. “Hey, I’m just giving you a hard time. Don’t break the rules for me. Though I would appreciate some advice on who to challenge.”

“I get it,” Paike said. “I still feel bad about it. If you really want me to, I’ll help.”

“We’re good,” Guan Li stated.