Dance between Mortals and Immortals

Chapter 4.2

Crown Prince Ryoma stood in his tower looking towards the direction of the Phoenix academy where his youngest son was likely entreating his desired patron deity. At over seventy years old Ryoma was still youthful looking as if he had barely aged since he was in his early thirties. His ki was so high that he could have over a thousand years to reach the next stage of ascension before beginning to age again. He was nearly seventy years old and his father the eternal emperor's favored son. If his youngest child was shown to be talented as well his father would reward him with many powers that he currently did not have and he would permanently solidify his place as the crown prince of Sato. He smiled as he thought about his son. All of his other children had been extremely talented, but he has a special place for his youngest son and daughter.

"Comeback with good news Eizo..." he whispered to himself with a hint of nervousness in his voice.

...

"I accept you as part of my familia young one. Go now and serve me well.” The golden flames of rebirth died away and the silhouette of a young man emerged. His cloths were untouched and his face was noble and handsome.

The young 14 year old boy bowed deeply towards the shrine of the god before turning around a huge grin on his face followed quickly by a look of pure happiness. He had done it, he got the blessing of the Phoenix god of rebirth Saisei who also happened to be the patron god of the current emperor his grandfather and his father and was one of the strongest gods in the heavens and led the primary pantheon of the Sato Empire.

Nothing could have been better, one of the most popular and extremely picky gods in the empire selected him as part of his very small familia. The leader of the pantheon of Sato empire Saerei the Phoenix god of rebirth. Naturally many of the girls around him were fawning over him, but he didn't care much for the fan girls; they all were only looking for an opportunity to try and gain his affections for their own gain. Being the son of the crown prince caused him many headaches over the years only those of similar status could be seen as trustworthy and even then he had to be cautious commoners could not be trusted. They all lusted for power not knowing the responsibility and burdens it came with. Even at 14 he knew that the people of Sato viewed the imperial family as almost mythical existences.

Walking away from the shrine he headed over to Grandmaster Zhou who along with the other masters would be assessing all the disciples that got blessed to see if they could become an inner disciple of the Phoenix academy of the empire. It was common for students to be selected by masters of the inner court some had many students while other masters were much more selective of whom they wanted. Ezio was extremely confident in his ability and never even bothered training as an outer disciples opting to train under his family until now which was not uncommon for high ranking people of Sato to do such. In particular in the capital city of Xi'an.

As he approached the steps to the main building he noticed out of the corner of his eyes the secret corps that his father sent to protect him should they need to, they were always so annoying, but once he enrolled they would no longer be needed.

Swiftly turning he called out to them "hey! The two of you can leave now this is one of the safest places in the empire. I have no further need for you."

Both of them silently listened to the orders and jumped out of view flying into the tree branches before running along the branches out of the academy complex. The black ashes corps were some of the most elite and deadly assassins in the entire empire and he felt it was a bit overkill for them to be guarding him. Ezio was pleasantly surprised that they listened, smiling he turned around to go inside.

It wasn't that he didn't mind the guards, but it was rather annoying to have random people always looking over your shoulder even if they were mere guards.

Turning the corner around the thick wall of bushes Ezio smiled closing his eyes and taking a sharp inhale of the cool night air.

*THUMP*

Ezio's chin collided with someone's forehead, sending both of them onto their asses "ouch!" he grunted to himself. Instantly going to rub his chin.

"Hey! Who bumped into me!" Ezio got up angrily, his eyes fell onto a girl rubbing her eyes forehead with her eyes closed. Ezio's face immediately flushed when he saw the girl before him. Her face was clear and fair like a polished pearl which contrasted beautifully with her midnight black hair. She was clearly shorter than him, her nose just barely touching the bottom part of his upper lip if she stood up. Ezio's heart beat began to beat more rapidly as he looked at this extremely beautiful girl before him. He had been surrounded by many beautiful girls in his short life and never had he seen one quite like this.

After several seconds Ezio realized he was staring and went over to lend her a hand. The girl opened her eyes startling him as she gave him a perturbed look, but that wasn't what was so shocking. Instead it was her piercing blue eyes that stared into his own eyes. As beautiful as they were he knew that the legends said people with blue eyes lived cursed lives and it was best to avoid them which caused him to frown ever so slightly.

What a shame. A girl like this being cursed with such an unfortunate mark. He thought to himself.

"I'm sorry for that," he said, holding out his hand.

"Yeah? Well you should be" she said sharply batting away his hand. She was clearly upset with him even though she was equally at fault for what happened.

She was rather rude even though it was clearly both our faults she didn't even try to politely reject his apology and issue her own as was customary of two people who bumped into each other.

"That was kind of rude, you were also not watching where you were going. Were you not?" Ezio said, trying to be reasonable, giving the girl a charming and friendly smile.

At this point Rize had gotten up and dusted off her tunic looking back at Ezio "yeah well, whatever just leave me alone, I don't have time to deal with you." She said moving past him heading into the main building where the assessments were taking place.

Ezio looked at the girl as she moved inside his mouth slightly agape as he realized that she didn't know who he was. Not only did she not know him she didn’t care in the slightest that she bumped into him.

"This girl." He gritted his teeth in embarrassment as he muttered to himself as he watched her disappear behind the doors.