His acquaintance with Kori was merely an interlude in his school life. Apart from Bending practice and having someone else to talk to on campus, it seemed to have had little effect on his life.
At the moment, Kahn was reading.
The book was called Guide to Rare and Exotic Beasts, and it recorded all sorts of strange animals around the world.
It was worth mentioning that its author was an Avatar from a past generation. Of course, only the Avatar would have had the ability to see all the rare and exotic beasts in the world.
This Avatar had lived in a relatively peaceful era. His favorite pastime was traveling and recording what he saw and heard.
Besides Guide to Rare and Exotic Beasts, his books included Customs of the Nations, Complete Guide to the World's Famous Scenery, Avatar's Travelogue, and more. It was clear that he truly loved traveling.
The only drawback was that the things recorded in the book dated back at least two or three hundred years. As the saying went, blue seas turned into mulberry fields. With nearly a century of war ravaging the land on top of that, who knew what the world looked like now?
Even so, Kahn remained a devoted reader of his. He yearned for the wondrous world the author described and wanted to roam it himself.
But in this war-torn era, fulfilling that wish would probably be rather difficult.
Nearly a hundred years had passed since the Fire Nation declared war on the entire world. Astonishingly, it had only grown stronger through that century of fighting. During Iroh's tenure as supreme general, it had won battle after battle, and by now, the prospect of a Fire Nation victory had become increasingly clear.
If Iroh had successfully captured Omashu, the Earth Kingdom's capital, back then, the Fire Nation would have been only one step away from unifying the world.
Unfortunately, Iroh had failed. Grieving the loss of his son, he had ordered a retreat, shaking the Fire Nation army's morale while greatly boosting the Resistance Army's confidence. Pressing their advantage, they had reclaimed several stretches of lost territory in succession.
And this struggle for the throne had once again caused the Fire Nation to pull back its lines, giving the Resistance Army ample time to rest and recover.
At this rate, who knew what year of the monkey or month of the horse they would have to wait until before true peace could be achieved?
It was tough.
Ahem, that was getting off track.
Back to the point, Kahn was naturally reading Guide to Rare and Exotic Beasts this time for his dream of having a pet.
Ever since learning about wondrous beasts such as the Fire Dragon and Flying Bison, Kahn had been imagining having a pet or mount like that himself one day.
Though his little arms and legs hardly gave him the strength to tame them yet, there was no harm in picking one out first.
Hmm, a giant yellow weasel with a super sense of smell. It ran fast and could be ridden too, but it was a little ugly. Pass. A sea dragon that looked a bit like a Sea King? Forget it. Anything that could only live in the sea was out. This one looked pretty cute, but it didn't have much fighting power. Put it on the shortlist...
In short, fighting power came second; looks came first. A beast with both looks and fighting power would be even better.
Just as Kahn was engrossed in choosing his future pet, Iroh suddenly walked in through the door.
"Uncle Iroh."
Upon seeing Iroh, Kahn put down his book and stood to greet him. It was time for today's lesson.
Ever since Iroh had lost his position, his days had been quite leisurely. His only responsibility was teaching Kahn Firebending, after which he drank tea and played chess by himself. He seemed to be gradually settling into retirement.
"You're a little late today,"
Kahn said.
"Something held me up."
But Iroh was acting a little unlike himself today. Normally, he wore a carefree smile all day long, but now he was rather quiet.
What happened?
Kahn wondered.
And throughout this lesson, Iroh was not only taciturn but frequently distracted, as though he were considering something.
Finally, Kahn could not help asking,
"Uncle Iroh, did something happen?"
"Hmm? Oh, it's nothing."
Iroh came back to himself and said with a smile,
"I might have eaten something bad earlier. My stomach's a little upset, hahaha!"
Clearly, Iroh did not intend to tell him what had happened, but wasn't that excuse a little too halfhearted?
Kahn pursed his lips. Fine, he didn't have to tell him, but being underestimated like this really felt lousy.
Let me think. What could have happened lately?
Anything that worried Iroh would have to involve either the Royal Palace or the country as a whole. Or both... Had Ozai made some move?
At that thought, Kahn began recalling the great pile of secrets Azula had told him during their recent chats, none of which were meant to be shared...
Suddenly, Kahn asked,
"Are we going back to war?"
Although he had known Iroh, Zuko, and Azula for quite some time, he could count his meetings with Ozai on his fingers. Still, he had learned quite a lot about Ozai.
One thing was that Ozai was aggressive, warlike, and deeply ambitious. Ruling the entire world was his aspiration.
Hearing Kahn say this, Iroh immediately looked at him in surprise.
Kahn was right. War was about to begin again.
After learning the news today, Iroh had gone to speak with Ozai in person, despite knowing he could not stop it.
The result had naturally been just as he expected. Ozai had paid no heed to his attempts at dissuasion and insisted on continuing the war.
Iroh sighed helplessly.
"Yes. Peace truly is far too short-lived. By the way, how did you know?"
"I guessed."
Kahn spread his hands, giving an equally halfhearted reply.
Iroh was momentarily at a loss for words, but soon burst into laughter. Ignoring Kahn's resistance, he ruffled his hair and said,
"Hahaha, that was quite an accurate guess. Well done!"
Then he rubbed his stomach and said in all seriousness,
"But I wasn't lying about eating something bad. I made three trips to the toilet this morning, and my stomach still feels a little upset. It's really put me through the wringer."
"Eww-who cares whether you ate something bad?"
With a look of disgust, Kahn moved a little farther away from Iroh.
"Hahahaha!"
Seeing the expression on Kahn's little face, Iroh burst out laughing again.
Still, although Kahn would not say, he could more or less guess that Azula might have told him something. Only that girl would have been so bold.
Once the joking was over, they returned to the matter at hand. Iroh grew a little more serious, and this time, he no longer treated Kahn like a child.
He asked Kahn,
"What do you think of war?"
After thinking for a moment, Kahn replied,
"No one likes war. Of course I hope this world can become peaceful as soon as possible."
He was still waiting to grow up so he could travel the world catching Poké-catching exotic beasts!
Iroh nodded in satisfaction at Kahn's words, but Kahn continued,
"So I hope the emperor can hurry up and unify the world this time. This has dragged on for almost a hundred years. Isn't it about time it ended?"
"Unifying the world..."
Iroh repeated, seemingly having some thoughts about it, then asked,
"Why must we invade other countries? Wouldn't it be better to maintain peace through a balance among the Four Nations, as we have since ancient times?"
Kahn gave him a strange look. Those hardly sounded like words that would come from the former Fire Nation Crown Prince, the former Fire Nation supreme general who had led his army to victory in every battle and conquered every stronghold, the man his enemies fearfully called the Dragon of the West.
Weren't you the one who had the most fun fighting?
Before you continue