"How is your health, Hideo-sama? How are things at the hospital?" Stas took his seat across from the old man and gratefully accepted a cup of tea from his hands.
In the time that had passed, Stanislav hadn't exactly come to love green tea, but he had come to see it as a necessary evil. He had even started to enjoy all those measured tea ceremonies a little bit. At least they were calm compared to his usual life.
Ordyntsev didn't have many people with whom he could just chat casually.
He had been to visit Eiji a couple of times, but it was clear that the half-blood was embarrassed by his small and poor room.
Mei had invited them once, Eiji included. But obviously, she felt awkward and did it solely out of tradition.
The sensei was too high up the social ladder.
In the end, only Kizashi and his grandfather remained.
With the latter, Stanislav had unwittingly started to drop by for tea occasionally.
Their gatherings were rare because missions still took most of the time. Nevertheless, the elderly warrior found interacting with the young warmaster an interesting pastime. His interlocutor's brain worked differently, finding unusual aspects in familiar things.
Today was one of those days.
"Everything's more or less fine. To complain about health at my age would be a sin."
"That's good to hear," Stas smiled. "Kizashi is worried about you. He says that you're overworking and leaving too late."
"He thinks he can boss me around? Still wet behind the ears," the old man grumbled, but his sternness quickly faded. "Ah, in our world, a kind and big heart like my grandson's is rare. Sometimes, I wonder how his life will turn out."
"Cast aside these gloomy thoughts, Hideo-san. As for your grandson, rest assured, I'll keep an eye on him."
A comfortable silence hung between them.
"I heard you, Shiro-kun, have made some progress in your desire to remove scars and blemishes?"
"Yes, Hideo-san," Stas nodded. "Working with scars turned out to be an interesting challenge. It was surprising to find out that Healing Palm is almost useless against such skin damage. If the scar is old, the body remembers it and even resists its removal."
"And how did you solve this problem?" the old man asked with interest.
"Two ways," Stas raised two fingers. "In the first case, I call it 'excision.' By inflicting scars on dead bodies, activating their regeneration, and examining the outcome with Healing Palm, I realized that instead of normal tissue, the wound is filled with what I'd call 'filler tissue' that hinders normal regeneration."
Ordyntsev paused to take a sip of tea. He saw no need to bring up fibroblasts.
"As a result, instead of healing properly, an ugly scar forms. To correct this natural mistake, I decided to help the body reach the affected area. Using a scalpel, I excised the scar, allowing the body to heal these small wounds independently. Eventually, by accelerating the healing process, I was able to eliminate extensive scars through this gradual approach."
"How curious," Hideo pondered. "But you mentioned a second method."
"Yes. In this case, I cut off skin from another side of the corpse, removed the scarred area, and sewed in the new, clean patch. With proper treatment, the skin took well, replacing the damaged one. The only problem is that such a procedure is not convenient for long scars. On the other hand, for an extensive wound, this option is much preferable."
"I must say, I'm amazed," Hideo shook his head in wonder. "When you decided to practice on corpses, I never thought you would achieve such significant results. After all, bodies quickly decay, and even using healing energy helps little. But you've managed to surprise me. By the way, what did you do with the bodies?"
"I got rid of them outside the city," Stas shrugged, showing no sign that the question troubled him. "There's a place where we usually train. That's where I bury them."
And here, it's worth going into more detail.
Ordyntsev, being a rather cautious person, suspected that such open use of dead warmasters' bodies might attract unwanted questions.
That's why he chose a burial site near their training field, so the sensei and his teammates could see him disposing of the bodies.
The catch was that the corpses were not those of warmasters.
This was one of the first important assignments given to Stas's personal group, led by Mari.
The order was simple – find and kill enough common bandits, robbers, and thieves to fill the provided scrolls.
And his subordinates had completed the task perfectly.
In the end, when it was time for a "funeral," Stas would demonstratively empty the scrolls, burying the mutilated bodies of ordinary people, pretending they belonged to warmasters.
Even if someone decided to check the graves, they would find nothing. The bodies would have decayed by then, and prana channels, being quite delicate organs, would have disintegrated within the first hours after death. Prana cores would have met the same fate.
Identifying whether they were warmasters or not would be a very difficult task, if not impossible.
"That's right," Hideo nodded to his thoughts, then without preamble, as if by the way, asked, "Shiro, have you thought about marriage yet?"
Stas, who was mid-sip of tea, nearly choked on his drink.
"What?" Ordyntsev had to pause to regain his composure.
"If I remember correctly, you came to us when you were eighteen? Now you're twenty-one," the old man put on a thoughtful face. "A warmaster's life is full of dangers; it's time to start thinking about finding a bride."
"Hideo-san, but I'm a nobody! Not even a Sumada. Who would marry off their daughter to me?"
"Shiro-kun, you underestimate yourself," the old man chuckled. "Soon, you'll be an advanced warmaster. Don't deny it, you'll definitely become one. On top of that, you're a student of Jun Sumada himself. His reputation at the top might be so-so, but ordinary clan members love him. Besides, your prana development rate is abnormal, and believe me, not only I have noticed it."
"I see," Ordyntsev muttered just to say something. The earthling definitely didn't like where the conversation was going.
He wasn't about to deal with marrying a local girl for at least another ten years.
After all, for the locals, marriage meant having children. You couldn't get married and naively think you could live for yourself. No one would understand. And if a child doesn't come along, all the pressure would fall on the wife.
The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Because, by medieval logic, a man cannot be at fault; thus, where is the root of the problem? Right, in the woman.
But even if Stas did decide to have a kid, it's important to understand that his child would grow up in a despicable culture of a highly caste-based society where murder is not prohibited but even encouraged.
Stanislav didn't want his son or daughter to be so narrow-minded. And that's exactly what would happen, as Ordyntsev wouldn't be around for the child. During his missions, the child would be raised by the wife and her family.
And besides all the above, Stas would like to be able to protect his offspring if necessary, and for now, he couldn't even guarantee his own safety.
"Think about the old man's words," Hideo decided not to press further. "And believe me, if need be, we could even consider someone from the main branch. Who knows, you might become a full-fledged Sumada."
"Thank you very much, Hideo-san, for the honor you've shown me..."
'No way in hell!'
*****
"And now, the student of Jun Sumada, Shiro, is called upon." When it became clear that there would be no last name following Stas's, a wave of whispers swept through the rows of spectators.
As it turned out, Stas had greatly underestimated the scale of the ongoing trials.
Considering the small number of entertainments in the culture of warmasters and their general obsession with war, it was clear that the exams for a new rank were quite an event.
In addition to Jun's team, there were about five more examinees. One team like theirs and two independent warmasters who had reached such an important title on their own.
Moreover, Jun's students were the youngest of them. If Stas was twenty-one and the oldest in their team, then the second team's age was around twenty-four to twenty-five.
And those other two, a man and a woman, were already approaching their thirties.
Ordyntsev didn't even want to imagine how much anger and resentment was directed at them. While others had toiled to reach a command position by thirty, a trio of brats just got lucky with their sensei.
In addition to the participants and a commission consisting of a dozen old but still respected and imposing warmasters, there were spectators.
Needless to say, they had constructed something like a wooden semi-circular amphitheater, making the whole thing resemble some sort of knightly tournament.
The majority of the spectators were warmasters. Though, primarily, they had been warmasters before, like young mothers, or were yet to become, like the children there. But some adult warmasters were also present, of those who had just returned from missions or were recovering from their time at the front.
Not only Sumadas were among the audience, but also members of allied clans or even just random warmasters who had been allowed to watch.
There were also wealthy city merchants and workshop owners.
The overseer of the examinations turned out to be quite the sly fox, so he scheduled Jun's students for the last spot.
Considering they were the most interesting to the audience, the attention never waned for a second.
Watching the other candidates wasn't very interesting. The first team were all Sumadas, so all their techniques turned out to be earth-based. And the power displayed was right on the edge of the advanced rank.
The next pair, a man and a woman, were more interesting. As it turned out, they were from an allied clan, so their testing was handled by the Sumadas.
Their clan had no lineage, so the woman presented a water whip technique that shredded the stand targets, while the man delivered a fire technique reminiscent of a fire python.
And, unsurprisingly, it was called "Fire Racer."
Eiji was the first from their team to go. Sitting next to them, Jun leaned forward. It spoke volumes that he didn't even bother to pull out his favorite booze.
The display of speed in running and kata passed fairly quickly, and then it was time for techniques.
And here, Eiji clearly had something to show.
"Water Technique! Series of Shock Waves!" From the lad's hands and even his mouth, thick pillars of water burst forth, intertwining and swirling as they expanded toward the targets.
Under the influence of gravity, they crashed to the ground and immediately increased a hundredfold, covering all the space, cutting off any chance for a hypothetical enemy to dodge.
The water rushed with great speed, crashing into the targets, knocking them over, and dragging them into itself within seconds.
Moreover, as Stas realized, in what seemed like a single wave, three currents were simultaneously at work, grinding against each other any objects caught within.
The technique went beyond the test area and headed towards the trees, stripping leaves and toppling old trunks.
The tests were being conducted on the edge of a forest.
Eiji exhaled heavily and released control of the technique. Water was flowing everywhere, though quickly evaporating. Stas knew that it was hard for the lad to use such impressive power, but in public, the half-blood held himself confidently.
"Good job, Drooler," Jun heartily slapped the returning student on the shoulder, causing him to flinch in surprise. A wide smile beamed on the sensei's face. "Although no, Drooler is no more. Now you're the Booby. Be proud!"
"I am proud, sensei!" Eiji's face beamed with no less bright a smile. Stas suspected that today might be the happiest day of his life.
"Come on, Bitch, go crush them." Jun motivated Mei. The girl had long stopped paying attention to the offensive nickname, as Jun meant nothing bad by it.
Mei stepped out in front of the commission with a light, leisurely walk. The yatagan flashed, leaving its sheath and flickering as it struck invisible enemies.
Ordyntsev grimaced. With each year, he realized increasingly clearly how bad he was at wielding cold steel. And in unarmed combat, there was little to boast about either.
Stanislav was not a natural-born warrior, and he had to accept that.
But it didn't mean he was weak – he had his own secrets.
But it was finally time for the second stage of Jun's triumph.
The girl's face contorted with strain. She was clearly aiming for something even more substantial than Eiji.
"Earth Technique! Stone Destruction!" Mei cried out, thrusting her hands into the ground with all her fury, piercing it effortlessly.
The next second, a wave emanated from the palms underground, heading straight for the freshly set-up targets.
And the closer it got to them, the louder the strange rumble and crack of crumbling stones became.
Boom!
The earth's surface up to the tree line became marked by fine fissures, but there were so many that the ground looked like mosaic pieces.
And the next second, each "piece" sharply tilted, throwing everything above towards similarly inclined pieces. The targets, meeting the protruding sharp shards, cracked and broke into chips.
Stas had seen the action of this technique for the second time, but even so, it impressed him.
Nevertheless, such a technique was effective against ordinary people, not against warmasters.
The point of Mei's actions was to hinder enemy warmasters from leaving the area of effect before the second stage of the technique.
Still with her hands under the ground, Mei finished her preparation.
"Detonation!" and all the inclined pieces of soil exploded at once, mixing the remains of the targets with stones and clumps of soil.
The women sitting in the spectator rows laughed as they tried to hold their skirts from the impact of the shockwave. Black dust swirling in the air filled everything around, slowly settling down.
Although most of those seated were weaker, they were still warmasters, so they viewed strong techniques differently.
The commission murmured in surprise, exchanging glances.
The displayed power could even be considered on par with a stable middle rank, not merely an initial one.
"You went for it after all," Jun shook his head, looking at his blushing student. "I thought you'd stop at something you're certainly good at."
"I couldn't let you down." The girl blurted out.
"Oh, you toady! All right, decided, from today, I call you Toady!"
"As you say, sensei!"
Jun turned a serious gaze to Stas, then frowned slightly.
"Come on, Serpentface. It's just you left. Don't let me down. Make these mossy stumps reckon with you."
Stas simply nodded silently, moving to the starting position.
"Student of Jun Sumada, Shiro. Are you ready to begin the trial?" The head of the commission asked routinely.
"Hai!"
"Then begin."
Ordyntsev clenched his spear and suddenly released the dam, holding back the raging prana in his body. Countless serpents rushed under his gaze through his entire body, saturating his muscles and sharpening his senses.
His body flashed as if dunked in boiling water.
"Strike!" The spear thrust was not at maximum speed, but that wasn't necessary yet.
Ordyntsev danced, repeatedly delivering swift stabs or dodging imaginary blows, only to counterattack immediately.
There was nothing remarkable about his movements, so the audience began to get a little bored.
But the earthling's body warmed up well enough that he began to channel more and more prana into his muscles. Prana channels hissed furiously as energy flowed faster through them.
And that caught attention.
Someone who seemed to be an unremarkable clanless man was steadily increasing his speed, surpassing one candidate for advanced warmaster after another!
For ordinary people, his movements finally began to blur, sometimes creating the impression that he was just standing still, or even teleporting forward a bit.
Members of the commission nodded in approval.
The speed of this clanless had surpassed that of his own teammates. Not to mention all the others.
Stas's rigorous training with his own prana had paid off.
His energy was stronger and more obedient than that of the other candidates.
Ordyntsev began to slow down with a hiss until he stopped completely after a couple of movements. The weather outside was not very warm, so a faint mist rose from the earthling.
For this demonstration, he had put all his strength into it, but still managed to break through another speed limit.
'I need to calm down. It's not over yet.'
His muscles twitched from the tension, so Ordyntsev activated Healing Palm and, under new whispers, began to glide his hand over particularly sore places. His actions did not go unnoticed by the commission.
The use of healing techniques showed his high control over prana, which was simply inaccessible to most people.
The man took a few breaths and exhaled, approaching the fire position.
Ordyntsev's pale face twisted with anticipation: 'It's time to finally show the broad public the project I've been working on for so long.'