Legends of Gods. Tale of Vjaira. [Wuxia&Western Fantasy]

[Caladbolg]

Book 1. Shifting Winds. Chapter 15. A Serious Talk.


"Did something bad happen?" Laien asked, perturbed by the extremely serious expression on Genzie's face. "Could it have something to do with the Cail family?" he wondered silently, recalling that Garon told him about Genzie being one of Fohan Cail's people.


"Let's go somewhere else," Genzie suggested, not wanting to have this conversation on the street and moreover, in front of the main gate of the Valius mansion.


"Sure, where to?" Laien agreed promptly, at the same time thinking when he could find some time to come here again to see Rune.


"There's a good restaurant I know, we can chat in private there," Genzie said and started walking, then glanced at Laien to see if he was following him.


"I assume you already heard the news?" Laien brought up with a wry smile, trying to lighten up the atmosphere. "But still, it makes me sad to get no comment at all and no reaction at all. At least praise me a bit!" he said jokingly and pecked at the black dragon sigil on his shirt.


"I heard," Genzie forced out a smile, not even trying to pretend that he was overjoyed for Laien's success. With what kind of consequences it had, he just couldn't be happy for him. "You remember how you always hoped there was some great treasure on the bottom of the Lake Blueside?" he asked out of the blue, causing Laien to feel rather confused.


"Yet," Genzie picked up with a resigned, slightly mocking smile. "When you finally were able to check what was on the bottom of the Lake Blueside, you found no great treasure," he said with sigh and seeing how Laien still appeared to be dumbfounded, explained properly. "It's actually pretty similar now as it was with the Lake Blueside. You got accepted as Rudford's disciple, so did your sister. However, will there be a great treasure at the end of this path?" he asked rhetorically, not expecting Laien to answer this question.


"Personally, I worry that unless something is done, it will end up being just like with the Lake Blueside. Just like this little dream of the Lake Blueside which ended with nothing," Genzie mused aloud, then looked Laien in the eye.


The two of them gazed at each other for a good few seconds, as if trying to feel something out. In the end, Laien smirked and looked away as the first one.


"Lake Blueside, eh?" Laien shook his head. "Are you sure it will turn out exactly as you worded it? Aren't you over exaggerating?" he asked with a sigh and glanced at Genzie.


"I'm not," Genzie replied sternly, although an unnoticeable flash of satisfaction appeared deep in his eyes for a split second.


"Does it have something to do with the Cail family?" Laien asked straightforwardly. It was kind of ironic, considering that Duaran's acquaintance had just warned him to be careful.


"It does. That's what I came to talk with you about," Genzie confirmed and right afterwards, added. "We are almost at the restaurant, so let's talk after we are inside."


Laien nodded, having no objections to this plan. He also didn't feel like discussing something of this importance while walking down some street.


A few minutes later, the two of them sat down at one of the screened tables in the corner of the restaurant. The place put a lot of stress on privacy and served only those who could pay well for the food and services provided, so it was unlikely for anyone to be overheard if he had his conversation in a low voice.


"So, what is it? Does the Cail family intend to cause me some trouble?" Laien asked while flipping through the menu. Before coming here he didn't realize, but he was actually quite hungry.


"Trouble…" Genzie muttered and shook his head. Luren might not have instructed him in detail, but it was more than obvious that he wasn't allowed to tell Laien too much. For example, there was no way he could say 'your life will be in danger if you don't ally yourself with the Cail family, so bear with it and come over, it will be best for you and your sister'. In case he revealed too much and Laien ended up running straight to Rudford and then holed up in the Red Dragon School for a few years… it would be a disaster.


"I'm sure you've already heard from Garon," Genzie spoke after a moment of consideration. "Our Cail family is going to sooner or later suppress the Valius family and take the clan over. However, our superiors are worried about the possibility of the Red Dragon School intervening. I was sent to talk with you to make this option less likely to happen," he said, weighing his words carefully as to not even hint anything that could cause Laien to become too worried.


"Yeah, I get it… but what do you exactly want me to do?" Laien asked with a sigh. He had decided to live in the Red Dragon School permanently, so his connection to the Valius family wouldn't stay strong forever. However, he had also promised Garon that he would repay the debt he owed to Tei'ru. Now that he hopefully had enough influence to at least delay the takeover of Valius family for a period of time, he really felt obliged to not betray his promise.


"It would be best if you joined our Cail family…" Genzie said with an awkward smile. "But it would be enough if you publicly severed your ties with the Valius family, too," he suggested despite not knowing if his uncle would be satisfied with such an option. He just felt that Laien would be much more likely to accept something along these lines rather than to jump out of the frying pan right into the fire.


"Eh," Laien scratched the back of his head. He thought about an appropriate response for a short while, then spoke up. "I don't know much about the Cail family and I don't like the Valius family… but I won't join the Cail family," he stated outright, seeing no benefit in involving himself in this dispute. Since he didn't have enough personal strength to influence the outcome, it was much safer to simply not get involved at all. As for the debt? As long as Valius family wasn't wiped out, he would be able to repay it in the future.


"This struggle between the families…" Laien began saying, then sighed heavily. "I don't think elder brother would stand up against the Cail family even if I asked him to. The Great Martial Schools have since forever avoided getting involved in the politics of any country they are in," he explained briefly, then got to the point.


"So, even if I tried to help the Valius family, it wouldn't amount to much. I don't want to do something that could place me or Siana in a compromising position, so I can at least promise you not to get involved. I won't be doing any public announcements, though," he said and shrugged his shoulders. He wouldn't act irrationally for the sake of some 'pride' of his and seek a pointless death like a main character of some novel. Those who liked to read such things saw only the story of one main character who climbed the stairs to greatness, but often wouldn't see the enormous number of people who were equally talented, but fell along the way due to stupidity, recklessness or simple misfortune.


"I wouldn't want to become enemies with my friend, either," Laien added with a laugh and smiled at Genzie.


"Yeah," Genzie said with a sigh, showing a rather troubled expression. He was planning to have a whole argument with Laien and point out the benefits and negatives of him joining the Cail family, but Laien basically concluded the whole talk with a few sentences. Without telling him that his life might… no, that his life will undoubtedly be in danger, Genzie saw little to no way to prolong this discussion.


"And you won't change your mind?" Genzie asked, knowing he would regret it if he didn't at least get Laien to reaffirm his position.


"I doubt it," Laien said with a resigned smile. The little information he had about the Cail family might have been biased as he had learned it from the various members of the Valius family, but if as much as one quarter of it was true, he wouldn't be willing to join them. Keeping his neutrality, in this case, seemed to be like the most reasonable option.


"Too bad…" Genzie closed the menu and gave Laien a regretful look. "I will be acting on behalf of the Cail family more often now, so as long as you are a member of the Valius family… I doubt we will be allowed to remain friends," he said bitterly and suppressed a sigh.


"Come on, why so dark," Laien said with a smirk. "We will always be friends, even if we won't be able to meet as often from now on," he said confidently, perhaps being a little too optimistic.


"If only it was so easy," Genzie said resignedly. "Remember, I will have my birthday in two months?" he brought up a bit randomly.


"I do," Laien said and nodded, wondering why would Genzie talk about his birthday out of the blue.


"We talked about this interspatial ring, right? I wanted to give it to you after getting the present from my father, but I don't think I will be able to anymore," Genzie said and gave Laien an apologetic look. The situation has changed, everything has changed. Neither of them could afford to stay the same as before.


"The Cail family is that strict?" Laien raised his eyebrows and asked with a laugh. Either way, it wasn't like he needed an additional interspatial ring anyway, not after receiving so much from Rudford.


"More or less," Genzie shook his head, then threw a white towel on the screen behind him, signaling the waiter that it's fine for him to walk up and take their orders.


"I will take noodles with chicken meat and one green tea," Genzie ordered casually after the waiter approached their table.


Laien flipped through the pages of the menu one more time while keeping a straight face despite hearing how Genzie ordered the kind of food he absolutely hated. Sighing in his heart, Laien made his own order. Since this dinner would most likely be one of his last meetings with Genzie for quite some time, he at least intended to enjoy the food and the atmosphere. For a bit, they could chat casually and as for what the future would bring… it remained to be seen.


---


Early evening, within the residence of Luren Cail.


"Master," a black-cloaked man appeared from within the shadows and kneeled on one leg, his head lowered as he waited for a permission to speak to be granted to him.


"Report," Luren said and flicked his hand slightly by the force of a habit.


"Genzie established contact with the older of the siblings, with Laien. He didn't reveal anything potentially dangerous to us, but didn't manage to convince the boy to join us either. The two of them settled at having the siblings take a neutral stance to the conflict," the black-cloaked man reported, as always describing purely what happened and keeping additional explanations or his thoughts to himself.


"Ho?" Luren appeared to be quite surprised with this result; not because he expected Genzie to convince the siblings or thought the opposite would happen, but because it was the only option which resulted in both his nephew and that boy, Laien, going back to their homes with their heads intact. "Anything suspicious in their behavior?" he asked, unable to shake off the feeling to which he didn't want to admit to; the feeling that he was being played.


"Nothing that I could see. They didn't whisper to each other nor did they exchange any notes. There was no apparent gesturing, either," the black-cloaked man answered respectfully.


"Tell me the content of their conversation, word by word as they said it along with their reactions and mannerism. The usual thing," Luren ordered and leaned back in his armchair.


"Yes, master," the black-cloaked man acknowledged the order and began speaking. It took him a good hour before he finished, but he delivered an incredibly detailed report. It was quite apparent that he had been trained to do this kind of job since a very early age considering how much he managed to remember.


"Strange," Luren clicked his tongue, for some inexplicable reason feeling quite annoyed. He had complete trust in the accuracy and genuineness of his subordinate's report, so he could tell there indeed had been nothing wrong with the conversation this nephew of his had with that boy… yet, he still felt there was something he kept overlooking, something very important. However, he just couldn't quite pinpoint what he was feeling so worried about.


"Contact the agents we have placed in the Red Dragon School," he said sternly, reluctantly accepting the possibility of losing the few precious spies they had there. "We must know if that boy, Laien, will tell Rudford anything out of place. If he does, then we will have him, his little sister and this nephew of mine eliminated immediately," he ordered and flicked his hand, dismissing the man.


After his subordinate left the room, Luren allowed an annoyed expression to surface on his face. He cursed quietly, but shook his head right afterwards and took a deep breath.


"I'm probably overthinking it," he murmured to himself. There was no evidence at all to support his premonition. Had he been dealing with a serious, experienced opponent, he might have went as far as to go to Fohan and consult the matter with him… but he was dealing with two brats. Asking others to lend him a hand just because 'he had a feeling something was wrong' would be nothing short of humiliation for him.


"Ah, whatever. I have more important things to take care of," he said angrily, turning his mind to the tasks which had been assigned to him in Neil City in preparation for what was about to come.


---


"I wonder if he will even be awake," Laien thought with a resigned smirk on his face as he entered Shire's house. It was only about two hours past the daybreak, so it wouldn't be strange for Shire not to wake up in another half a day. "I hope I won't need to be waking him up," he murmured, knowing first-hand how dangerous it was to force his master awake.


"He isn't here?" Laien frowned slightly as he looked around the training field. Shire would more often than not be sleeping around here… strange.


Left with no other option, Laien started looking for his master around the house. The whole time, something seemed to be wrong, different. "Why is there no dust at all? Doesn't it all look quite clean?" he finally noticed, slowly getting worried if Shire hadn't sold his house yesterday and if the new owners didn't happen to already start cleaning it.


"Finally here," Shire called out, startling Laien as he was passing by the living room. "I told you to come in the morning, stupid disciple. How long are you going to make me wait? The tea is getting cold," Shire said sarcastically and poured a cup steaming hot red tea for Laien and himself.


Laien froze in place and stared at his master, completely slack-jawed. Shire was sitting at the low table, his beard had been properly shaved, he must have washed himself as he looked fresh, his clothes weren't creased and most importantly, he appeared to be sober!


"Who are you and what have you done to my master?" Laien asked in disbelief, then smiled cheekily. The person in front of him was definitely Shire, but his appearance changed so much…! It was unbelievable!


"Stop fooling around and sit down," Shire said with a laugh. He was in a good mood; he had been looking forward to seeing Laien's reaction and it certainly wasn't any less amusing than he imagined it to be.


Laien did as he was told and sat down, positively dumbfounded by the change in Shire's attitude. He took a sip of the red tea, then glanced at his master. Shire was supposed to start teaching him spear techniques today, but why did it look like he wanted to have a talk with him?


"How should I even begin, I wonder?" Shire said aloud and sighed a little. He wasn't a social person to begin with; after one hundred years of straying from people he certainly didn't get better at talking to them in a serious manner. "I guess since I'm going to start taking you seriously as a master, I should at least tell you more about my past? I bet you were curious about it," he said with a wry smile, having gotten over the anger he had felt yesterday. It had been one hundred years, after all… it was the highest time to stop grieving over the past and focus on the future.


"Can't say I wasn't," Laien admitted and a slight smile. He really was curious, but so much had happened during the last twenty four hours that he didn't even have time to wonder about Shire's past. Yet, if his master was offering to tell him the story, he wouldn't refuse to listen.


"Well then," Shire drank the whole cup of hot tea in one go, then breathed out heavily. "Shut up and listen, no interrupting; I hate it," he warned, but paid little attention to whether Laien confirmed that he understood or not.


"Fianne… eh, she was an incredible woman," Shire began saying, his gaze wandering to a faraway place. "I won't be telling you the snotty details, I will keep it short. Basically, everything happened during the ten years of the Great War between Sakrcente Kingdom and Ciene Kingdom one hundred years ago. Towards the second half, after the strongest of our generation started making name for themselves, was the first time I met Fianne… and Rudford and their whole bunch of 'comrades'," he added with a snort, the mere memory pissing him off greatly.


"I always thought that falling in love at first sight is a huge load of horse crap, but when I saw her…" Shire shook his head resignedly. "I fell for her instantly. She was a very lighthearted, carefree woman. She had a good heart, too; she even approached someone with my reputation of a 'crazy berserk' at the time and started a chat. After talking with her, I knew I wanted her. I wanted to be with her, love her, make her safe…" he groaned, then shook his head again.


"If only I told her so back then…" Shire murmured, barely loud enough for Laien to hear him. "We got assigned to a few missions together with Fianne, Rudford and the others. Towards the last months of the Great War, we became the true elites; allies revered us while enemies feared us. We faced death together more than once or twice, many of Fianne's and Rudford's friends died back then," he covered over four years in a few sentences, not planning to bring up each and every little even which had happened back then.


"Yet, I still didn't tell Fianne how I felt about her. I was young, scared of rejection like an idiot," he said and laughed bitterly. Would those events had had turned differently had he confessed to Fianne sooner? Maybe, maybe not. It was hard to say; this damn woman was just too stubborn…


"Then, during one of the great battles, Rudford saved Fianne's life as she was being assaulted by an elite team of martial masters from the Ciene Kingdom. After the battle was over, he did what I couldn't and confessed to her," Shire smiled self-mockingly, wondering what Laien was thinking of him at the moment. Indecisive? Pitiful? Pathetic? Surely enough he himself was thinking just that.


"As you can probably guess, she accepted his confession. As we were in the middle of a Great War, they married very quickly; literally the same day," Shire said in a pained voice, but laughed at another thought. "You should have seen Rudford's face when Fianne told him she wants to get married right away; he was speechless," he commented, but kept to himself that his own face had been quite ugly at that time.


"Eh," Shire groaned, barely resisting the urge to bring out a bottle of vodka. "What I did at their weeding was probably… or rather certainly the second most stupid thing I did in my life," he forced himself to say. Since he already started blabbing about Fianne, he might as well tell Laien everything.


"Long story short, I disrupted the ceremony and told Fianne that I love her. Rudford and everyone else were furious, but Fianne kept her calm," Shire smirked, then breathed out heavily. "At first her behavior made me feel some idiotic hope, but she soon squashed it flat. She told me that she likes me, but for her I am nothing more than a little brother. She said that she had long since fallen for Rudford and was only waiting for him to man up and confess to her," he explained helplessly. To hear that he was just a little brother to her, to learn that his love has never had a chance to be requited… it truly had felt terrible.


"That alone felt bad enough…" Shire said with a sigh. "But at the very last battle, we were getting overwhelmed by the forces of the Ciene Kingdom. Our General was in a tight spot, while our elite team was trying to break through to the Ciene Kingdom's backlines to slaughter their commanding General. We were being suppressed, we were too slow and we knew it… then, Fianne executed a forbidden art and broke out of our formation. We… we should have stopped her, but seeing how determined she was, we couldn't bring ourselves to," Shire clenched his fist with enough force to draw blood.


Even though it had happened so long ago, the anger within him hadn't subsided at all. Rudford might have gotten over it with time and accepted Fianne's choice to sacrifice herself, but he always regretted not stopping her. To him, the country was of incomparably lower value than her life…! Even if she were to be Rudford's wife, he didn't want her to die…!


"In the end, she exchanged her life for that of Ciene Kingdom's Great General. Rudford and I went mad; we used the brief period of chaos in the Ciene Kingdom's ranks to slaughter thousands of their people along with quite a few commanders in the span of just a few minutes. The battle… it ended with heavy casualties on both sides; neither side won. In consequence, the two Kingdoms worn out by the prolonging war and with no conclusion in sight agreed to a ceasefire," he laid out, a clear grudge reverberating in his voice.


He had very seriously considered making the annihilation of both Sarkcente and Ciene Kingdoms his goal, but reconsidered after realizing that he would be destroying what Fianne gave her life up to protect. Perhaps it was because he couldn't vent his anger and couldn't deal with it on his own… that he gave up on doing anything and started wasting away as a drunkard.


"That's the whole story," Shire said bitterly and poured himself and Laien more tea. "So, what do you think?" he asked, wondering what kind of comment Laien would have.


"What can I say…" Laien sighed, trying to put himself in Shire's shoes. "I would have probably acted in the same way, but I have no idea how long would it take me to recover," he said honestly and just in time bit his tongue as to not say that he surely wouldn't have had stayed holed up in his house and did nothing but drink alcohol for a century. He had went through one depression after losing his parents and reached the conclusion that they would have wanted him to live happily instead of mourning them forever. He felt like mentioning it to Shire… but felt that it wasn't a good time to do so.


"Probably less than one hundred years, eh?" Shire asked with a laugh, easily reading Laien's thoughts from the look on his face. "Let's change the subject already," he urged, having had more than enough of talking about unpleasant things for today.


"Envy and Lust…" Shire murmured, but shook his head. "We will talk about that later, there's no reason for you to learn of these things so soon," he stated dismissingly, seeing no point in telling Laien about the existence of the Secrets.


"Envy, Lust?" Laien repeated. "It does sound quite familiar to Tranquility of elder brother's and mine," he said in a slightly inquiring tone.


"He already told you about it?" Shire asked, appearing to be rather surprised. "Wait…" he frowned and gave Laien a serious look. "What did you just say?" he asked, unsure whether he didn't just mishear.


"I said that it sounds just like the Aspect of Tranquility that elder brother and I have insights into," Laien repeated with a smile, this time being his turn to be amused by the expression on his master's face. He could tell that Shire still didn't believe him, so he pulled onto the essence of Tranquility and released it along with his aura. As expected, Shire's was thoroughly stunned.


"The same one… don't tell me that's why he so readily accepted you as a disciple and had you call him 'elder brother'?" Shire asked, the whole thing with Laien becoming Rudford's favorite suddenly beginning to make much more sense for him.


"More or less. It was me who requested to become his martial brother in exchange for helping him with a breakthrough, though," Laien said cheekily, bragging just a little bit.


"Breakthrough? What kind of?" Shire couldn't resist asking. Could it have been that Laien had better understanding of the Secret of Tranquility, or the 'Aspect' of Tranquility as he called it, than Rudford?


"Nothing complicated," Laien shrugged his shoulders. "Elder brother had been cultivating the Aspect in a strange way instead of accumulating it in one place. It was making him unable to advance to the seventh Realm of Heroes,"


"That was his problem?" Shire chortled and raised his eyebrows. He had always seen Rudford as rather talented, although he would be hard pressed to admit it openly, but to think that this training freak could actually be pretty dumb sometimes… knowing that was really making his mood better.


"Right, speaking about elder brother," Laien brought up, only now having recalled what Rudford told him to talk about with Shire. He had been so excited about learning the spear that he had completely forgotten about it. "He said that I should have the affinity of my Qi checked when I reach the peak of the fifth mortal realm and if I'm more compatible with fire, I should learn his Red Dragon Arts and if with wind, then your martial arts," he explained quickly and gave Shire a questioning look, wanting to know what his often unreasonable master's opinion on this matter would be.


"His martial arts?" Shire snorted disdainfully. "If you have no guts, you can learn his Red Dragon Arts, go ahead. However, what I have can be much better than his arts… but can be worse too, at the same time. It all depends on your luck and potential," he said vaguely and smiled at Laien, obviously waiting for him to inquire further.


"And what exactly is that?" Laien gave in and asked, intrigued by Shire's words. Up until now, his master had never spoken about the details of the martial art he was cultivating, so could it be that this art was very special in some way?


"The truth is, my martial art is self-created," Shire said proudly, his words sounding simple but being more than enough to shock Laien.


A self-created martial art that had the potential to surpass a top-level art…?! Something like this had never been heard of on the starlight Continent! For a Great Master, creating a low-level martial art was a child's play. A mid-level one would be a challenge, while a top-level one bordered the line of impossibility. Were it not for the lack of joking look on Shire's face, Laien wouldn't have believed him either…!


"In my youth, I found an ancient legacy. I learned from the scroll which burned down the moment I gained its insights… and a path had opened before me," Shire said while smiling all the while. "I was given a choice. To go down the safe path and try joining a Great Martial School somewhere around the world and learn their top-level arts, or… to try creating a martial art suitable to myself from scratch," he smirked and gave Laien a meaningful look. He obviously expected Laien to do the same and not walk down the safe path, which would be unlikely to lead to the true greatness!


"I had chosen to take the risk and created something that surpasses top-level martial arts… if only the Great War happened a few decades later," Shire sighed bitterly. At the last month of the Great War, he had been thirty three years old and had reached the third Realm of Heroes, yet he was stronger than most of the martial masters of the sixth rank. Given twenty or thirty more years… he would have had more than enough strength to protect Fianne.


"You still have time to think about it," Shire stated with a resigned wave of his hands. "I won't hide from you that with your talent for martial arts, you won't become an expert even if you learn a normal top-level art. You must be aware of that, too… stupid disciple," Shire chuckled, thinking about something he would be too embarrassed to put into words.


To once again have some kind of goal in his life… to commit to something, it felt surprisingly good.


"Enough talking for today, we can chat again tomorrow morning," Shire said with an uncharacteristic honest and merry tone to his voice. "You got a spear for yourself?" he stood up and asked. Hopefully, Laien didn't intent to use one of the craps of steels Rudford had given him, did he…? He would rather gift him a proper weapon than to see his disciple swing around a weapon that was a gift from that training freak.


"Yup," Laien got up and took out the white spear from his interspatial ring. "Got it forged yesterday, it's a Living Steel weapon made from the Mountain God's Steel," he said with a smile, recalling how Duaran called this alloy of steel.


"Wha…?" Shire mumbled, his eyes nearly popping out of his head. This stupid disciple… how did he come into possession of something so ridiculously precious…?!


"Come on, let's go master," Laien said with a cheeky smile. "Didn't you say it's enough talking for today? Teach me something already, I can't wait," he added brazenly, for some reason feeling more comfortable at Shire's side than ever before. This master of his really has had a change of attitude, eh?


"Damn you, stupid disciple. You asked for it," Shire smirked and withdrew a two and a half meter spear from his interspatial ring. They would talk tomorrow… as long as Laien had enough strength to get up from the bed and come to train with him again.

 

[Caladbolg]

Book 1. Shifting Winds. Chapter 16. One Year of Time. (Part I)


His breath slightly ragged, Shire sat down on the wooden floor at the training field in his house. He rested his spear against the column, then turned his gaze to the black-haired youth who was laying on the ground and gasping for breath, so tired that he was barely conscious.


"It's only been a month, but his technique has progressed at a monstrous rate," Shire murmured with a disbelieving smirk on his face. If he kept improving at this pace, then this stupid disciple would surpass him in spear arts in merely five to six years; and that was while considering that he had also gotten back to training regularly and no longer slacked off or spent the whole days drinking.


"Talent… that's not at the level of talent, he was born to wield the spear," Shire thought with a sigh, regretting that he hadn't taken Laien's training seriously from the very beginning.


"That being said," he murmured as he closed his eyes. "I'm getting tired of this," he grabbed his spear, then jumped a few dozen meters high.


He kicked the air mid-flight and abruptly changed directions, striking through the darkness of night at an incredible speed, heading right to one of the nearby roofs.


He thrust his spear, aiming at a seemingly empty spot. The blade pierced right through, drops of blood spraying outwards, forced out by the blow.


A figure of a black-cloaked man appeared as the shadows around him began dissipating. The man stared at Shire, failing to understand how or when his chest had been pierced through.


Soon, the remnants of life left the man's eyes; a martial master of the second rank died, just like that.


"That old goat and his little puppies are getting too ahead of themselves," Shire murmured discontentedly and yanked his spear out of the man's body. He left the corpse where it was and headed back to his house, walking on the air, slight gusts of wind concentrating below his feet every time he took a step.


"I wonder how many will I need to kill before they finally get the message," he mused with a scary smile; a silent, frightening killing intent emanating from his body. "I think it's the highest time to pay the big puppy a visit," he murmured to himself, his gaze drawn to a certain part of the city.


"I will need to find a chance to repay that boy in the future, though…" he thought more calmly, a slight smile appearing on his face. "Were it not for him, I might have lost such a talented disciple," he murmured with a smirk, wondering what that little puppy's face would look like if he learned how badly he allowed himself to be played.


---


"Seriously, are they still sleeping or what?" Tin'Long said angrily, hurrying over to the siblings' private quarters. Today, Cran was leaving for the Royal Capital and they were supposed to send him off with everyone, but despite it being nearly the time, the two were nowhere to be seen!


"They are always so crazy about training, but when they get this one free day per month, they start being so lazy…" Tin'Long thought with a sigh, then after hesitating slightly jumped over the wall surrounding the siblings' quarters. He didn't quite feel comfortable with behaving in such an inappropriate way, but since Laien had told him not to waste his time as he is tired to walking up to open the gate each and every time, and since he was in kind of a hurry now, he just ahead and jumped onto the grounds.


Even before he landed, he noticed the two siblings laying besides one of the trees near one of the two spacious training fields of their quarters. Yet, what he saw made him fail his landing and trip, although he somehow managed to regain his balance and not fall flat on his face.


Simply, the sight of the two hugging each other and actually kissing lightly, as if lazily, was a bit too much for him to handle.


"I know siblings can sometimes be really close together, but isn't that a bit too much…?" the resigned thought crossed Tin'Long's mind. The luck just so it had that he came here a minute or two after the siblings woke up after falling asleep outside, so he ended up seeing what he saw. "Eh, whatever. It's not up to me to be butting in. As long as it's just snuggling and kissing…" Tin'Long sighed in his heart and decided not to fret over the whole thing.


"Oi, you two! You'd better hurry up, Cran is going to be leaving in fifteen minutes!" he called out, startling the two siblings out of their half-asleep state.


"Already? Wasn't it supposed to be later?" Laien asked loudly while Siana was getting off him and the two of them were trying to collect themselves.


To Tin'Long's surprise, neither of the two were perturbed by the fact that he saw them in this situation. "Maybe I really was overthinking it?" Tin'Long wondered. After all, those two had no real family to speak of apart from themselves. It wouldn't be so strange for them to be closer than most of the other siblings.


For example, he wouldn't be able to imagine himself hugging and kissing his own little sister. One part of it was the eight years of age difference between them, but the other part surely was the simple awkwardness of the idea.


"Weren't you listening yesterday when I told you it's going to be one hour earlier?" Tin'Long asked resignedly. He just knew that he shouldn't have tried talking to Laien when he was doing his spiritual training; he would always respond 'yeah, yeah', but would never truly listen to what was being told to him. "Next time, I will just leave him a note," he smiled at the thought; he had a feeling that it could unexpectedly work out quite well.


"Uh, there was something like this?" Laien scratched the back of his head. Ever since he had gained insights into the Aspect of Tranquility, his spiritual training turned into something closer to meditating than simply repeating the process of releasing and recovering his spiritual energy, which by now he was doing automatically, without concentrating on it at all. Basically, he was doing the same thing Rudford had been for the last one hundred years; gaining deeper insights into the Aspect of Tranquility.


"Yeah, there was. Now, hurry up!" Tin'Long gestured the two siblings to follow him, hurrying towards the main gate.


---


"Right, I keep forgetting to ask," the fourteen year old youth brought up in the middle of a chat with Laien. "You are at the fourth rank as a martial practitioner, but you are also a spiritual practitioner, right? How strong are you at that?" he inquired as for some reason, people in the Red Dragon School weren't sure of this information.


"I only learned recently after elder brother got me a spirit stone," Laien said with a laugh. After his sudden increase in power, he hadn't been able to tell at which level he was. However, the whole thing didn't bother him too much and both him and Rudford ended up forgetting about it for a few months. "I'm at the middle stages of the seventh mortal realm," he revealed with a rather cheeky smile and was pleased to see both the youth in front of him and his elder martial sister look quite surprised to learn that.


"Isn't that pretty amazing?" the sixteen year old girl said, gazing at Laien with a mixture of praise and playfulness. "I heard spiritual practitioners advance much slower towards the later ranks of the mortal realm. Given how talented you are, I guess you will be leaving our country to study at an Institute? Or maybe in an Academy?" she asked, letting the chat flow smoothly. She might have praised Laien a lot, but she herself was one of the disciples of the Grand Elder; she obviously was very talented. She had reached the eighth mortal realm half a year ago and her mastery of the Red Dragon Arts was only slightly inferior to Cran's. Amongst her peers, there was very little people who could be called equal to her.


Thus, even though she heard 'seventh mortal realm', she pretty much failed to understand the weight of these words.


"I want to keep practicing martial arts, too, so it will be one of the Academies," Laien responded with a smile. He had talked this matter over with Rudford and since most of the Academies accepted students only at the age of twelve or older, they settled for the idea of enrolling into an Academy in two years of time. Well, now it was closer to one year and a half, though.


"A dual practitioner, huh?" the sixteen year old girl smiled at Laien and gave him an alluring look. "If you were a bit older, this big sister might have fallen for you~" she teased, but was unable to hide her shock when Laien simply laughed it off and appeared not to care or be embarrassed by her suggestion. She might have been only joking, but being ignored by a ten years old boy seriously hurt her confidence!


"Elder sister, don't you think such jokes need a right time and place for them to be funny?" the fourteen year old said poutingly.


"And who said I was joking?" the sixteen years old girl replied angrily, not in the mood to be lectured by her younger martial brother.


The youth's face sank and he looked away. He wanted to say something, but decided not to. The last time he had pointed out that his elder sister was a bit too fond of partying and playing around with guys, she had snapped at him and they ended up not talking to each other for a week. Really, he would never understand what girls were thinking about.


"And you weren't?" Laien asked wryly. "I was pretty sure you two are going out. Can it be that you aren't?" he asked 'innocently', pretending to be oblivious.


Never having expected the tables to turned on her, the sixteen years old girl was a bit flabbergasted. She wasn't the one to get frustrated easily, but she still blushed a bit. "Perhaps we would have, if this dumbass wasn't so dense…" she thought silently, wondering how to respond to Laien.


"W-we aren't," the fourteen year old managed to utter. In his case, he got much more nervous than his elder martial sister because of Laien's sudden remark. He had very much liked Shei ever since he met her six years ago at the competition organized by the Grand Elder to select new disciples, but never had enough guts to tell her. He was scared of being rejected and ended up thinking that it would be fine if they at least remained as friends… and that he would confess later… but this 'later' never seemed to come.


"You aren't? Why not? To me it totally looks like you are into each other," Laien pointed out a bit bluntly, trying to get the two to be more honest with themselves and at the same time, amusing himself with their funny reactions.


"I wonder," the sixteen years old girl, Shei, said with a sigh. "Maybe if Kuan wasn't such a chicken, then we would," she said before she could bite her tongue. Faced with junior brother's flabbergasted gaze, she could only look somewhere to the side while blushing strongly. Yes, she liked him too! So what?! If Kuan wouldn't ask her out first, she wouldn't make it easy for him…! In her opinion, a man who couldn't even confess to the woman he liked wasn't a man at all!


"Eh? Then what's the problem?" Laien asked happily and looked at the fourteen year old. "If you like her, ask her out. What's so hard about it?" he questioned with a broad, cheeky smile on his face.


At first, Kuan felt like arguing with Laien; the ten year old obviously didn't understand any of his countless worries! However, he soon realized that it would be petty of him to do so. He was still nervous if Shei wouldn't reject him even after she said what she did, but he somehow forced himself to speak up. After all, if not now, then when?


"Shei, I like you, please go out with me!" he declared with flushed face and a very nervous expression, but somehow managed not to stutter.


Shei glanced at Kuan, then peeked at Laien. She was feeling rather helpless about this situation; her junior martial brother might not have yet realized, but she understood that Laien did all of that on purpose. She was happy with this development, but also pretty embarrassed to have needed a ten year old to push the matters between her and Kuan a step forward.


"Then," Shei began saying and gave Kuan a teasing look. "I guess you need to train hard from now on," she said with a chuckle and before Kuan could ask what she meant, added merrily. "If I'm going to be with a man, then I want him to be strong enough to protect me."


Laien suppressed a laugh; the look on the fourteen year old's face was simply priceless. "Good for you, huh?" he said contentedly while swinging his legs to the front and to the back in a typical, child-like way.


Kuan finally laughed and relaxed a little. He gave Laien a brief look, then returned his gaze to his elder martial sister. "I promise to work hard," he said seriously, albeit with a clear hint of amusement in his voice. He never thought that his party-minded elder sister would make a request of this kind. Honestly, it was surprising but at the same time, he didn't dislike this side of her at all.


"Great," Shei chuckled again, then after wondering if she should or if she shouldn't for a second or two, leaned to the side and planted a quick, but deep kiss on Kuan's lips; which to her surprise the fourteen year old returned instead of just taking it.


Laien laughed quietly, appreciating the nice thing he was shown by the two. When they glanced at him, he just shrugged his shoulders and showed them the tip of his tongue. He wouldn't mind seeing them kiss in front of him more often; it was a fun thing to watch.


---


"You've advanced to the fifth mortal realm, I see?" Rudford noticed the moment Laien entered his private training hall. "You've trained hard for a whole year, it only makes sense," he added contentedly, knowing how much effort Laien had been putting into his martial training.


Laien's routine looked pretty much like that; he would spend two days training with Shire, two days training with Rudford, two days sparring with various disciples of the Red Dragon School and the other martial schools in the city and finally, he would use one day to recover and only engage in lighter exercises. The schedule was pretty hectic, but Laien had already been keeping up with it for a whole year. The reason of it was simple; he could see how much progress he was making from day to day and thus, was highly motivated to get even stronger.


"I did reach the fifth rank, but I wish my talent for martial arts was a little better," Laien said with a sigh. Fifth mortal realm at the age of eleven wasn't a bad result at all, but considering how hard he had been training, he really would have liked to be at least at the sixth realm by now. The only thing preventing him from pouting about his cultivation speed too much was…. well, basically every other aspect of his training.


"You are being too hard on yourself," Rudford said with a smile. "You've really been overworking yourself lately, too. Hm, let's do it like this," he brought up and tousled Laien's hair. "Today, instead of training normally, we will have some fun to celebrate your breakthrough. We will go to swim in the 'Eye of Netherworld' Lake. How about it?" he suggested, guessing that a trip like this one would be up to Laien's preferences.


"The Eye of the Netherworld Lake? Really?" Laien asked excitedly. He had heard a few things about this humongous lake located on the plains to the west, but he also knew that the access to it was restricted. Only the few most important people in the country and those accompanying them were allowed to sail, swim or fish in the Eye of the Netherworld Lake. To be able to go there with Rudford was super lucky!


"I can take that as 'yes', right?" Rudford chuckled, happy to see how enthusiastic Laien was about this little trip.


"Of course!" Laien called out, already gesturing Rudford to hurry up and get going. It would take at least two hours to get to their destination by horse so if they wanted to use the day wisely, they needed to hurry up!


"Coming, coming," Rudford said with a laugh and headed to the stables affiliated with the Valius family with Laien to retrieve their horses. The old William was the best person to entrust one's steed to, so as a Great Master, Rudford of course kept his own horse in the old man's care.

---


"Whoa, I can't even see the other end. It looks like a sea," Laien said happily, marveling at the incredible sight before him. The waters of the lake were crystal clear and the shore had had enough sand brought over from the sea to form a great beach around it. Combined with the endless grassy plains stretching as far as the eye could see, the scenery was truly wonderful.


"We need to register our arrival first, then we are free to do as we wish," Rudford said with a smile, looking in the direction of the reasonably large inn at the roadside, close to the lake.


"Surprisingly small," Laien pointed out. He really would have expected a large complex of luxurious houses and small mansions to be around here. Instead, there was only one inn. It seemed pretty strange to him.


"To keep the waters as clear as they are, no one is allowed to live around here," Rudford explained and urged his horse to go forward, speeding up to a quick trot. "As for those who stay here longer than one day, they usually bring their own houses," he said when Laien caught up, then smoothly made his horse go into a gallop.


"Makes sense," Laien chuckled, still getting used to the concept of having entire houses moved around per nobility's whims and wishes.


After a few minutes of galloping, the two of them arrived at the inn. The royal innkeeper saw them from far away from the window of his room, so he walked out to greet them.


"Great Master Rudford," the innkeeper bowed his head respectfully. "I've had a few chances to welcome your younger brother, Great Master Rudford. General Vatras always enjoyed his stay at the Eye of the Netherworld, I sincerely hope you will feel the same, Great Master" the man said courteously and seeing that Rudford and the youth accompanying him dismounted, walked up to take the reins of the two horses.


"Is the eye in a calm phase?" Rudford asked, making Laien curious as to what could he possibly mean by that.


"It has entered the calm phase three days ago, so for the next week there is virtually no danger," the innkeeper replied, then glanced at Laien. "This must be one of your two disciples, Great Master Rudford? The whole country was elated by the news, people are still talking about it," the man said with a slight smile. The strength of the Kingdom was closely related to the power of its greatest experts; for a Great Master to finally choose a successor after one hundred years of refusing to do so was naturally a joyous event.


"As you can see," Rudford confirmed with a laugh. Both he and Laien had similar clothes and most importantly, they had black dragon sigils on their chests. It would very literally take a blind person not to notice who they were and what kind of relationship they had.


The royal innkeeper raised his eyebrows slightly, but kept his thoughts to himself. From what he knew, Rudford had gone into meditation right after the Great War ended and rarely interacted with the 'worldly matters', leaving even the management of his Red Dragon School to his little brother and a friend who later became the Grand Elder. He had been said to have become a really stoic, uncaring person… but seeing the man in question now, the innkeeper had trouble believing it.


"What could have changed him so much?" the man wondered as Rudford and Laien headed off on their feet. His gaze laid on the youth's back as he watched how the boy chatted with Rudford, laughed and even got his hair tousled by the Great Master.


"Rudford lost his wife in the Great War… so perhaps it was this youth who changed him?" the man wondered, planning to deliver his thoughts on the matter to the royal family. As an innkeeper, he would often see and hear many things, while those in power knew how precious any piece of relevant information could be.


"Come on, just tell me what was it about the calm phase," Laien asked again, the curiosity getting better off him. He really wanted to know what Rudford meant!


"You will see in a bit," Rudford said with a smile. "For now, get out of your clothes. We are going to swim," he said and put his own clothes into the interspatial ring, leaving only the under pants. "How long can you hold your breath under water?" he remembered to ask before they entered the water.


"As long as it's just swimming casually, around forty minutes?" Laien took a wild guess, never having tried to test his limits in the past year. His advancement to the fifth rank as a martial practitioner surely increased his capability, but his spiritual cultivation would also influence how long he would be able to stay under water. He was a water element practitioner, after all.


"Good," Rudford nodded with a wide smile and after walking past the shallow part of the shore, took a leap directly into the deep water.


Having a guess or two as to what Rudford was going to show him, Laien followed quickly.


After the two of them swam from about twenty minutes, Rudford stopped and looked up at the sky, checking the position of the sun.


"It's about time if I remember correctly, just a few more minutes," he said aloud, then gazed at Laien. "Just in case, don't get too far away from me. It should be safe, but the Eye apparently likes to act up without warning, so better be safe than sorry" he warned with a smile, though with a pretty serious look in his eyes.


"I got it, no swimming away from you," Laien said obediently. Both him and Rudford would usually be fond of jokes and overall rowdy behavior, but he could tell when Rudford was serious; and right now was one of such times.


"Okay, let's go," Rudford said and dove underwater. Laien did the same and thus, the two of them began going deeper and deeper.

 

[Caladbolg]

Book 1. Shifting Winds. Chapter 16. One Year of Time. (Part II)


The bottom of the lake in itself wasn't that far below, merely one hundred meters away or so; with how clear the water was, it could already be seen quite clearly. However, there was something special there, something that could be seen only during the summer and only for about three hour around the noon.


As the rays of sun slowly shifted, Laien's eyes went wide. It wasn't quite the middle of this huge lake, but at the bottom… there was a huge crater-like hole; it's walls littered with thousands of shining crystals. The underground cave was over four hundred meters wide and even though something like a kilometer of it had been lit up, it seemed to stretch infinitely deeper into the ground. With each passing second the sun was getting higher on the sky and thus, revealed a few more meters of it.


Rudford grabbed Laien's shoulder lightly, then smiled at him and pointed downwards. Feeling his heart throb wildly, Laien began swimming deeper down shoulder in shoulder with Rudford.


The moment he got close to the entrance to the huge cave, he felt water, slightly hotter than the one above him flowing out of the cave at a slow, steady pace.


"It's coming from underground…!" Laien was amazed. The Eye of the Netherworld… the name of this lake suddenly started making a lot of sense.


As they were swimming, Laien looked around at the beautiful, diamond-like crystals. He noticed some strange, algae-like plants growing in the nicks on the walls and the small, colorful fishes which were hiding behind them. "So amazing…" he thought, wondering why no one in the country was speaking about the wonders of this lake.


"Maybe it's to avoid intruders?" he wondered, guessing that there would be many people who would flock here to pick up the crystals from the walls of this cave.


Around the six hundred meters mark, Laien began feeling the pressure of water grow a bit painful. He pulled upon his spiritual energy and covered himself with a thin membrane, lowering the force pressing onto him by more than a half without much effort; mainly thanks to the defensive properties of the Aspect of Tranquility.


He felt Rudford touch his shoulder again, so he looked to the side. Rudford pointed at a specific palace at the wall with his finger and gestured him to follow, so he did.


When they got a bit closer, Laien saw a ring-sized piece of dark stone stuck onto the wall. After a second or two, though, he realized that the thing wasn't just a stone; it was slightly shiny, just like… the rings on his and Rudford's fingers! It was actually a piece of black gold!


Rudford pointed at the stone-like piece of black gold once more and smiled at him. "It's fine if we take it?" Laien wanted to ask and apparently, was understood simply through the expression on his face as Rudford nodded at him.


"Will be a nice souvenir," Laien thought happily and reached out to the piece of black gold. He wanted to yank it off, but failed. He then tried to crush the rocks around it with his fingers, but failed again. Slightly annoyed, he used magic and controlled some water to pierce the wall… yet, he failed again!


"How hard is this thing?!" he wanted to say, but could only raise his eyebrows. He saw Rudford chuckling out of the corner of his eye and frowned a bit. Was he being made fun of?


Apparently, Rudford wanted to help him out, but he blocked him with his hand. There was still one more thing he could do to get this piece of black gold out on his own. He put his fingers at the wall around the piece of black gold, a few centimeters away from it. Then, he concentrated and made use of the Principle of Energy.


First, the stone turned lighter in shade and the water around it turned into ice. A few seconds later, the ice melted abruptly and the small amount of water around the piece of black gold began boiling.


Due to the quick and extreme change in temperature, the wall cracked and released the piece of black gold along with some rocks still sticking to it into Laien's hand. Content with this much, Laien pulled the whole thing into his interspatial ring and gave Rudford a cheeky smile.


Rudford laughed, then pointed downwards again and asked wordlessly if Laien would be fine to go deeper. In response, Laien drew one and three zeros in the air, or rather in the water with his finger. He would be fine going more or less three hundred meters deeper than they were now, but not much more.


Rudford nodded and gestured Laien to follow him, this time heading to the opposite side of the cave.


The two of them swam for around two minutes and then, Laien was shocked again. It was placed at an angle making it impossible to see from higher up, but there was yet another cave in the wall. It was around one meter wide and by the looks of it, Rudford was planning to have them swim right inside it!


Excited to find out what was further in, Laien followed Rudford without hesitation. They got into the small cave and began making their way deeper into it. Given that there was less space available, they pulled themselves forward by the walls instead of swimming. It soon got completely dark, but they continued to swim and soon, crossed the distance of around one hundred meters only to find…


"Light?" Laien was surprised once again. How come that ahead of them, there seemed to be some kind of a light source? "These are… illuminating algae?" he realized as they swam into the latter part of the cave, where walls were sparsely filled with this strange kind of a plant.


A few dozen meters further, the cave suddenly began going up. "There's actually a surface? There's air inside?" Laien was flabbergasted; a few seconds later Rudford surfaced and so did he.


They ended up in a medium-sized cavern. just about three meters high and six, seven meters wide. The cavern was filled with a dim, green light of illuminating algae. As he was looking around, Laien gasped. This place was… totally amazing!


"Incredible," Laien uttered quietly and gazed at Rudford, who got out of the water and sat on the unexpectedly flat stone surface besides it.


"Not many people know of this place," Rudford said with a smile and reached out with his hand, which Laien grabbed and allowed himself to be pulled out of the water. "There are some similar caverns further down below, too, but the air in them is toxic. This is one of the few where it's safe to sit for a few hours," he explained, feeling quite pleased by the amazed and happy look on Laien's face.


"It's great," Laien could only say, having no words to describe how excited he was to be in such an amazing and cool place.


"You remember the 'calm phase' I mentioned?" Rudford said with a smile and after getting a curious look from Laien, laughed and proceeded to explain. "More or less once per month, this whole underground cave erupts with masses of boiling water for a few seconds. The heat is strong enough to melt the rocks, while the eruption itself brings diamonds, black gold and many other precious materials from deep, deep underground."


"Once, a curious Great Master tried to reach the bottom of the 'Eye of the Netherworld', but was forced to give up after going around ten kilometers deep," Rudford added and laughed a little, seeing the look of honest amazement in Laien's eyes. He had reacted similarly when he came here for the first time during the times of the Great War.


"So, those stones on the walls…?" Laien asked, a certain connection having just been made in his mind.


"They are diamonds, all of them," Rudford confirmed, then added with a laugh. "As you probably guessed, you can't mention this place to anyone who hadn't been here before, even to your little sister. If word about this cave gets out, the royal family will need to put an annoyingly greater number of martial masters to guard the lake."


Laien nodded, imprinting the 'do not talk about today' idea into his mind as to not blabber about it by an accident.


"Let's stay here for a bit longer, then I will bring you to the 'Dream Island'," Rudford said with a chuckle. In his opinion, the name wasn't too exaggerated as the island truly was like a small paradise.


"Mhm," Laien confirmed energetically. This day was great already, but was it about to get even better? He really would be hard pressed to recall any time he had been as happy as was right now.


---


"That's the island? What are those strange trees growing there?" Laien asked as he and Rudford were finally approaching the 'Dream Islam' after swimming for nearly two hours.


"Those are palm trees and banana trees," Rudford replied and glanced at Laien, who appeared to be rather tired after swimming for such a long time. "Well, there is a great place at this island where we will be able to rest," he thought quietly, feeling a bit guilty about making Laien work-out so hard on his supposedly 'free day'.


Thankfully, the island wasn't that far away anymore and after five minutes or so, the two of them walked out of the water and entered the inner beach of the crescent-shaped island.


Laien sat down on the sand and took a few deep breaths, relaxing and letting his muscles rest for a bit. Rudford sat beside him, in no hurry to go anywhere. Only half a day has passed so far, they still had around six to seven hours until they would need to go back to the inn and head back to Neil City on their horses.


"Somebody is coming?" Laien looked to the left, noticing a group of eight people approaching from afar. Six of them were adults and two were youths of around fifteen, sixteen years of age. Judging by the clothing of the adults and the swimming trunks the two teenagers, the six were guards and the two were some kind of young masters.


"The bear sigil, must by the Thurand family," Rudford recognized easily, still remembering very well how ferociously the warriors of the Thurand family had fought during the Great War.


Amongst the three Great Families, he saw them as the ones most deserving of their status, land and money. The Thurand family had even founded one of the four Great Cities of the Sarkcente Kingdom on their own about eight hundred years ago, which to this day was called simply 'Thurand City'. Of the three Great Families, they definitely were the one with most prestige and deepest roots.


As for the Valius family and the Cioze family? Rudford had no negative feelings towards them, but no positive ones either.


"Want to hang out with them?" Rudford asked, thinking that chatting with someone closer to his own age would be more interesting for Laien.


"Nah," Laien said without a second thought. He preferred to spend time with Rudford a hundred times over compared to hanging out with some young masters, even if they happened to turn out very likeable.


Rudford smiled helplessly, but admittedly was happy with Laien's swift response. He didn't even know when, but he had gotten quite attached to this cheeky youth and started treating him akin to a younger brother, or perhaps a son he has never had. The time he was spending with Laien had long since become something he thoroughly enjoyed and looked forward to.


"You two, who are you and what are you doing here?" one of the two teenage youths called out after their group got closer to Laien and Rudford, his words and the tone of his voice suggesting very clearly that he didn't see the two in any regard at all. On the contrary, it looked like he was angry at them for some reason…?


Laien smiled disbelievingly and raised his eyebrows. He glanced at Rudford, then realized that the two of them were wearing simple trunks and remembered that Rudford hadn't shown himself in public for a century. It made sense that they weren't recognized.


Rudford smiled at Laien, knowing this pupil of his well enough to understand that he was amused by the situation at hand. In his younger days, he himself had risen to fame too swiftly to ever experience similar events, but surely enough had nothing against letting the two young masters make fools out of themselves for a bit.


"Why aren't you answering?" the other of the boys spoke up, apparently trying to make his voice sound threatening. "Let me guess, you are another happy-go-lucky travelers who 'just happened to stumble upon this island?" the youth asked sarcastically. "Really, the royal family should employ more men to guard this place," he complained with a sigh and signaled one of his men to get moving with a slight movement of his head.


Laien suppressed a laugh, finding difficult to believe that something like this was actually happening. However, the smile disappeared from his face when he sensed a calm, somewhat resigned killing intent from the man who started walking towards them.


"Technically, we should send you over to the royal guards who are stationed around the lake…" the man said with a sigh. "However, our young masters are tired of having more and more people flocking here. Sorry pals, it's your unlucky day," the man said resignedly and took out a sword from his interspatial ring, releasing and covering his body with a layer of Qi of the second Realm of Heroes.


"For the Thurand family to have fallen so low," Rudford shook his head and stood up, giving the two teenagers a disdainful look. Killing a man and a kid just like that, without any justification, merely on a whim? If their ancestors who had fought and died from them saw what they were doing, they would be rolling over in their graves in shame.


The man who stood just a few meters from Rudford hesitated. Even though the person in front of him didn't rouse his Qi, he could somewhat tell that this crimson-haired man wasn't normal. He had a feeling that if he were to attack him, he would end up dead in an instant.


"You didn't get what you are supposed to do? Hurry up and get rid of them," the teenage youth who had signaled the man to take action reprimanded sternly, failing to understand why his subordinate stopped all of the sudden. So what if these two recognized the sigil of the Thurand family? Everyone if the Sarkcente Kingdom knew the bear was the mark of their family! There was no reason to hesitate just because of an insignificant thing like this one.


"Is the punishment for intruding the Eye of the Netherworld Lake without permission death?" Laien asked, looking at the teenage youth who just spoke.


The youth however only snorted, seeing no reason to lower himself to talking with someone who was about to die.


"It's not," Rudford said calmly, feeling like these two young masters of the Thurand family needed to be taught a tough lesson.


"So what if it's not?" the other of the two teenagers said disdainfully. "Two corpses won't go complaining to the royal guards. Now, if you would hurry up?" the youth urged his guard, getting annoyed at the pointless chit-chat which emerged for no reason.


"Ugh," the man suppressed a groan. His family had a tremendous debt of gratitude to the Thurand family, so he couldn't afford not to listen to the commands of the two young masters with whose protection he was tasked. With no other choice, he gripped the hilt of his sword tighter and took a step forward… but froze in place the next second, when the red-haired man before him finally decided to rouse his Qi and release his aura.


"S-seventh Realm of Heroes…!" the man uttered and hurriedly retreated, frightened out of his wits. All the blood drew from his face as he understood what kind of grave mistake he had been about to make. Now, he truly felt as if he was looking the death itself in the eye…!


The man's five companions, despite being martial masters were equally shocked. Against someone at the seventh Realm of Heroes, they didn't stand a chance! Forget about the six of them, even one thousand martial masters of the first and second ranks wouldn't compare to one expert who had reached the seventh Realm of Heroes…! The difference in strength was simply too great…!


The two teenage youths, who until now had displayed a haughty attitude were shaking like leafs in the wind. They were too weak to tell which realm Rudford's aura belonged to, but they could tell how much more powerful it was compared to their guards'; the frightened words which one of whom uttered having disillusioned them completely.


They had actually… actually ordered an ultimate expert to be killed along with the child he was accompanying, then even confirmed they didn't care about going against the law…!


What… just what in the world were they supposed to do or say now?


"Why don't the two of you do the first thing you should have and introduce yourselves?" Rudford said sourly and crossed his arms over his chest.


The two teenagers had trouble with letting their voices out of their clenched throats, but the one who had ordered their guards to act managed to say.


"I'm Zakar Thurand and that's my cousin, Nail Thurand," the fifteen year old said in a shaky voice, for the first time ever feeling truly scared for his life.


"So, Zakar, Nail," Rudford began saying. "Tell me, is there anything stopping me from turning the eight of you into corpses which won't go complaining to the royal guards?" he asked with a smirk and glanced at Nail, whose very own words he used to mock him.


The two youths shivered, their minds as blank as a sheet of paper. They were so sacred that they didn't even notice or were bothered by the smirk on Laien's face. At the moment, all they were concerned with was finding a way to appease the expert in front of them.


"W-we will give you anything you want, senior, just forgive us," Zakar said weakly, unable to come up with anything else.


"Riches?" Rudford laughed and shook his head the second time. "Do you think that as the founder of the Red Dragon School, I lack wealth?" he asked, revealing his identity to the two youths of the Thurand family and their guards.


As expected, the two teenagers became even more terrified; if that was even possible. Dear Heavens, what did the Red Dragon School represent? If what they did today came to the light, then not to speak of Rudford killing them; their own parents would beat them to death in their fury!


"So pitiable," Rudford said with a resigned sigh, seeing that he couldn't expect either of the two to come up with any other thing to say. He truly wondered how had it not yet occur to them to kowtow, admit their mistakes and ask for forgiveness? Were they really spoiled to the extent of being unable to do something so basic?


"Shouldn't you at least try apologizing?" Laien spoke up as if reading Rudford's mind. However, in fact he was thinking back to how he had been forced to kowtow and plead before Jasi even though he hadn't done anything wrong. These two obviously had, but couldn't think to offer an apology? What was up with those 'Great Families' to constantly produce rotten young masters with a frightening regularity?


"You'd do well if you listened to this advice," Rudford said with a slight smile and glanced at Laien approvingly. These words coming out of the mouth of a kid younger than them would surely have a much stronger and long-lasting effect on the two young masters of the Thurand family.


The youths seemed to have come back to their senses and immediately fell to their knees and bowed so low that their foreheads touched the sand. The six guards of theirs did the same thing, too scared to consider not kowtowing.


"We were in the wrong, please forgive us Great Master Rudford!"


"It was wrong of us, we will never act like this ever again!"


The two said one after another and waited for Rudford to say anything. They were genuinely scared that despite the apology, Rudford would only laugh at them and kill them all.


"You wanted to unjustly kill two people," Rudford said calmly, withdrawing his aura and calming his Qi. "To compensate for it, each of you shall do two good deeds. As for what kind of… it's up for you to decide," he stated, relieving the two youths and their guards from the stress they had been in the whole time.


"For the sake of the elders of your family, I truly hope you will change for better in the future," Rudford added with a sigh.


The two youths raised their heads carefully and looked at Rudford. They had never paid much mind to the preaching of their parents and teachers, seeing their words as nothing but empty talk… but being told the same thing by none other than the Great Master Rudford, especially after what they did, made them take this advice to heart.


"Eh, that wasn't the most pleasant memory to make, eh?" Rudford said and gave Laien an apologetic look. Had it been only as much as the two teenagers being rude to them and learning who they were talking to afterwards, it would have been a thing to laugh at. Yet, what happened turned out to be a serious, stern lesson.


"Not really," Laien disagreed with a smile. "I think it was pretty cool how you handled it," he said and smiled wryly. Instead of threatening or punishing the two, Rudford made them do something good for someone else. It was an incomparably wiser path to take, one of which he wouldn't have thought on his own.


"You really think so?" Rudford asked with a laugh, pretty much ignoring the flabbergasted gazes of the eight people who were stunned to see him have such a casual conversation with the youth who most likely was his disciple.


"Either way, there are hot springs on this island. Their waters have healing and regenerating properties, so they are excellent to wash away fatigue. Unless you've had enough water for today?" Rudford inquired with a smile. They could always simply rest on the beach and enjoy some coconuts and bananas if that was what Laien would rather do.


"I'm a water-element practitioner, how could I ever have enough of water?" Laien replied with a question of his own, his lips curving upwards into a merry smile. Hot springs that could help him with his stiff muscles in a natural way? He couldn't ask for anything better!


"Okay, so let's get going," Rudford nodded and headed off with Laien at his side.