Book 2. The Grand Gathering. Chapter 15. Mysterious Green-Haired Youth. (Part II)
“It’s good you are here,” Sinra said with a chuckle. “But where did you disappear to for the whole night?” he inquired, wondering what Laien could have been doing this whole time.
“Cran didn’t tell you?” Laien asked while taking a look around these private audience rooms. By the looks of it, everyone he had seen during the banquet was here including Sauras, Finella, their guardians and pupils. Eleonora was here too, accompanied by amongst other Alex, with whom Laien exchanged a glance and a smile.
“He mentioned something about the slave market, but how could that have taken you so long?” Sinra asked, worrying whether Laien managed to stir up some last-minute trouble.
“Well…” Laien scratched his cheek with the tip of his finger. Even he wasn’t reckless enough to admit what he was doing the last night in front of all those people.
“Big brother,” Siana spoke up angrily, causing Laien to shiver a little. “You will later tell me in detail what you were doing, right?” she insisted, knowing that her big brother was hiding something.
“Uh,” Laien looked away, his gaze randomly stopping at Kuan and Shei. “Right, more importantly. How did you like the gift?” he asked the two, completely changing the subject.
“It’s amazing,” Shei said quickly, cooperating with Laien to get him out of the problematic talk with his little sister. “I didn’t think you would get us a pair of Hisan horses, they really are great,” she added gratefully, already looking forward to having a crazy ride through the open plains with Kuan.
“Gifts?” Rudford inquired, wondering what kind of occasion was it. He glanced at Roderick, a bit intrigued as to why his old friend didn’t tell him what was going on.
“They got married,” Laien revealed without qualms. It wasn’t like they were going to keep it a secret anyway, right?
“Huh?” Rudford was quite surprised to hear that. Regretting he hadn’t been told sooner so he could prepare a proper wedding gift, he immediately bombarded the young couple with questions.
Siana puffed her lips, somewhat amazed by how everybody would always play go along with whatever her big brother wanted. How come he was so good at befriending everyone and she couldn’t do the same despite wanting to do so?
Meanwhile, to the side.
“Nila, what is it?” Anatis asked worriedly, noticing how his girlfriend’s expression suddenly turned grim.
“Listen, if you fight that green-haired boy who came with Laien, you must be very careful,” Nila warned very quietly and very seriously.
“How bad is it?” Anatis asked in an equally quiet voice.
“Really bad,” Nila replied with a sigh. “His aura is even stronger and purer than yours or Laien’s, he’s a monster,” she said frowningly, unsure whether either Anatis or Laien would be able to defeat that green-haired youth.
“What?!” Anatis shouted inwardly, biting his tongue at the very last second. He had been shocked enough when someone as strong as Laien appeared before him, but now someone who according to Nila was even stronger would be fighting in the tournament? What were the chances for that to happen anyway?!
“I used the opportunity to take a look at the other two,” Nila mentioned, feeling a little headache coming due to overusing her ability. It was convenient that strong people caused it to activate on its own, but also quite troublesome at times. “Both Alen and Laura have golden auras, but they aren’t anywhere as refined as yours, Laien’s or that boy’s. Their potential still lies dormant,” she whispered and gave Anatis a meaningful look.
Anatis nodded slightly. From what Nila told him, the three colors someone’s aura could have been copper, silver and gold. Also, the more intense and pure the aura was, the more of their dormant talent the person was capable of using. For example, someone with a bright silver aura would display better talent than someone with a dim golden aura.
Yet, the question of actually releasing one’s own potential was something Nila couldn’t understand too well. She was pretty sure it wasn’t a usual, normal thing as the vast majority of auras she had had a chance to see were all dim or only slightly bright, but on the other hand both Anatis and Laien proved to be capable of doing just that.
Thus, her words just now were meant as a warning not to drag the fights with Alen or Laura in order to avoid any potential complications.
“So we only need to worry about that boy Laien brought with him,” Anatis mused quietly, getting a bit worried about the deal the two of them had made with Einrah and Rudford. He might not have been as against it anymore after having a talk with those two the evening before, he would still rather not be forced to remain in Einrah’s branch of the Twin Phoenix School.
“Laien, can we talk for a bit?” he called out, seeing how Laien wasn’t talking with anyone at the moment.
“Sure,” Laien agreed and excused himself from the group. He approached Anatis and Nila and looked through the window as to not miss the melee which was about to begin.
“Just listen and trust me, okay?” Anatis said quietly. “That youth who came with you is surely incredibly strong. He might even be stronger than us, so do not underestimate him!” he warned in a low voice, hoping that Laien will trust him and not ask how could he possibly know it.
“I know.” Laien chuckled. “It will be hard to beat him; just look how casually he is going around and beating up anyone who happens to be in his way. He isn’t even using any weapons,” he pointed out with a laugh, the look in his eyes appearing to be just as excited as before his first fight with Anatis.
Anatis wanted to tell Laien that he meant something else, not just this superficial display of abilities, but when he saw his friend’s expression he changed his mind. He didn’t know why or how, but Laien appeared to be aware of that green-haired boy’s strength. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have had this kind of expression on his face.
“Stop the fighting!” the judge shouted after only three minutes of heated battle, but to be honest he had expected the melee to end just as quickly as it did.
To be fair, many of those one thousand youths weren’t even qualified to compete with any talented practitioners their age; they had only entered for the fun experience and perhaps some unreasonable dream of emerging as a victor by a miracle. Those kids gave up as soon as someone landed a more painful blow on them, they didn’t even think about struggling to the end. Thus, it was a predictable result for the melee to go about in this fashion.
In contrast to that, the judge felt surprised by the performance of this boy who came with Rudford’s disciple. He expected him to lose, but the boy easily swept through all his enemies and even eliminated quite a few of the strongest participants in a way which made it seem he was handling helpless children.
“It’s a good thing he is in the main tournament, the more interesting it is the better,” the judge murmured to himself. “The public loves to cheer a dark horse, so that boy will probably enjoy a lot of support,” he thought with a smile. The better this Grand Tournament went, the better it was for him in the prospect of his future job requests and his reward for today’s event.
“He got through quite easily,” Laien mused to himself. “Hey Injar, think you could help me out for a second?” he asked loudly, easily getting the crimson-haired man’s attention.
“Depends on what you want from me,” Injar responded casually. Hewas quite inclined to lend Laien a hand almost regardless of what his request would be.
“Help me bring Yin up here,” Laien said with a large smile and stuck out the tip of his tongue for a second or two.
“Are you serious?” Injar asked helplessly. “Can’t you lead him through the… right, you don’t know the way,” he began saying, then laughed at the realization. “Fine, but I won’t be bringing you guys down or back up after that. Just have one of the servants show you the way later,” he agreed and sighed slightly while pushing one of the windows open.
“Thanks,” Laien said happily, happy to get Yin directly up here while avoiding the needless hassle and getting to do something interesting all at once.
“He’s got you completely wrapped around his finger, doesn’t he?” Rudford teased with a laugh.
“And you are telling me he didn’t do the same with you?” Injar asked with a smirk, knowing just how much Rudford was spoiling this kid.
“Who says I’m denying anything?” Rudford chortled, perfectly aware that he had a soft spot for Laien.
“Can you please stop embarrassing us all?” Vatras said resignedly, failing to understand how two mighty expects could behave in such a childish way.
Rudford sighed with a smile while Injar shook his head, then grabbed Laien under the shoulder and jumped out of the window. As it seemed, neither of them wanted to argue with the incredibly stubborn and overly serious Vatras.
Laien couldn’t help but smirk when the people in the audience began riling up over the sight of the converging platform of azure flames under his and Injar’s feet. “I guess for those who don’t live in powerful martial schools, this sight is already very exciting,” he mused as the two of them flew down to the battleground, right over to the spot Yin was standing at.
“Yo, coming up with us?” Laien asked with a very satisfied smile. As for Injar, the moment he saw Yin up close he began wondering if he was a he or a she.
Yin chuckled, then jumped up onto the platform of Heavenly Flame. He exchanged a glance with Laien, appearing to be just as amused as his new friend was.
Injar sighed a little and flew the two boys up to the private rooms. For some reason, he had a feeling that this green-haired youth would become no less of a hassle than Laien, though in a somewhat different way.
Around the same time, the judge’s facial muscles trembled as he gave his best to keep smiling despite all the sweat pouring down his back. Silently, he promised himself to never again act pompously before anyone if there was no good reason for it. After all, this time he really had been about to take this one step too far and fall directly into the pits of hell!
“So that’s your new friend, huh?” Rudford spoke with a smile as the three entered the private sector through the window. He and everyone else, even those further away looked at the green-haired youth and almost everyone asked themselves the same question; a girly looking boy or a boyish girl?
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“Mhm, he’s called Yin,” Laien said happily, guessing correctly enough what everyone was wondering about.
“It’s nice to meet you,” Yin said politely and bowed his head slightly before taking a look at everyone with a smile on his face.
“He appears to be better behaved than your disciple, elder brother,” Vatras pointed out, very pleased to finally see a polite kid in this whole gathering around the seventh Prince.
“Hmph, pointless courtesy,” Einrah remarked. He personally preferred a youth to be brave, decisive and straightforward; just like Laien was.
“Okay, more importantly,” Roderick spoke up with a dismissive wave of his hand. “Forgive me if I’m being impolite, but are you a girl or a boy?” he asked while looking at Yin curiously.
“And why is that important?” Ninrah asked before Yin could have a chance to respond. Since when did gender matter to practitioners?
“Oh, stop pretending everyone isn’t curious,” Roderick said with a chuckle, in response to what almost everyone smiled helplessly.
“Actually, I wondered about the same thing,” Laien mentioned and glanced at Yin. “I just assumed he is a boy, though,” he said with a smile and shrugged his shoulders.
“You assumed correctly.” Yin grinned at Laien. “If you aren’t fully convinced though, I can always show you later,” he added carefreely, causing Vatras to snort and start coughing, Rudford and Injar to raise their eyebrows in amusement, and the others to show a mix of rather neutral reactions.
Laien chortled, getting more and more convinced he would become good friends with Yin. “I think I will take you up on that offer,” he said lightheartedly, enacting a groan from Vatras and a few chuckles from the others.
“Sure, a bath would be nice after the tournament,” Yin said completely innocently, consequently making Vatras’s frown lessen a bit.
“So, Yin,” Roderick spoke up in an amiable tone. “Can you tell us how strong you are?” he asked, knowing that sooner or later one of the people here would lose patience and probe him with his aura; of which he and Rudford had finally learned from Injar.
“Mm, I advanced to the eight mortal realm about a month ago,” Yin replied casually, throwing the whole lengthy complex of private spectating rooms into a state of turmoil. Almost immediately, more than ten auras swept past him without any regard for good manners; and when they did, the faces of many experts and guardians sank.
“Eighth mortal realm?! At this age?!”
“These two at the seventh realm were already ridiculous enough, but now that happens?”
“Is he really twelve years old…?”
The astonished murmurs were being exchanged at every corner of the place. Those who had long since given up on having their representatives win the tournament were simply shocked, while on the other hand, the camps of Sauras and Finella were not only shocked but also perturbed by this unexpected variable in form of a green-haired youth.
“Where did this brat even come from?” Finella asked in a low, very apparently frustrated voice. Not only has another contestant for the top spot appeared, but to make the matters worse the kid was being friendly with Sinra’s camp! How come this damnable little brother of hers had the devil’s own luck? Wasn’t that a little bit too unfair for him to be so lucky?
“Not from our country, obviously,” the red-haired and red-eyed man, Carkan, said with a frown on his face. A genius like that would have long since become famous, so there was only one explanation; he must have come from abroad. Whether the whole thing had been set up by Sinra… it was a little hard to believe at this point. Even with all the allies the little Prince had recently gained, he would have found it nigh impossible to invite a prodigy of this degree into his own camp from another country.
“It couldn’t have happened randomly,” Bernar hissed restlessly, his nerves still not having calmed down since the banquet only to be stirred up again.
“Yes it could have, you god damn idiot,” Carkan rebuked furiously, startling both Bernar and Finella quite a bit. He would usually bear with Bernar’s stupidity since he personally was more fond of strength-centered solutions, but today he finally snapped.
The always outspoken Bernar was for once in a loss for words, while Finella even began feeling a bit sorry for him.
“We should consider joining either Sauras or Sinra,” Carkan said in a low voice. Judging by his expression, he was speaking these words very much unwillingly.
This thought had been lingering in his mind ever since the banquet and now, the appearance of another potential ally for one of their enemy camps had tipped the scales. They still had a chance to compete when there was only one camp stronger than theirs, but when two major forces emerged… everyone would sooner or later be forced to make a choice to join one of them, or face eradication before the final battle commenced as a manner of precaution.
After all, it was but in the generation of their father the King when the ‘third force’ snatched the victory from the two most powerful contenders. Neither Sauras nor Sinra would allow for something like that to happen again.
“We can’t give up just like that!” Bernar hissed through his teeth. To him, it was utterly unacceptable for anyone but his Princess to sit on the throne!
“…” Finella, however, suppressed a sigh. She could empathize with both points of view, but in the end, she knew it was Carkan who was suggesting a more realistic option.
Somewhat unwittingly, her gaze wandered to Sinra and the bunch of chatting and laughing kids around him. “In just over a week he created a camp which far surpasses mine in power, both in the current and the future one…” she sighed a little and shook her head. She had given her best the whole way through, but could it be she simply wasn’t destined to win this time around?
“It nearly makes me feel bad to see my elder sister look so down,” Eleonora commented with a smile. “Nearly,” she added with a chuckle.
“You shouldn’t be too harsh on her,” Anna said with a calm, but very thoroughly satisfied smile. “Getting her on our side would put your eldest brother in a very tough spot. The option of suppressing us through sheer force would be out of the window for him; that’s if it wasn’t already in the current state of affairs,” she noted quietly, as always putting their goals before personal feelings.
“It is as you speak,” Eleonora admitted, knowing what her teacher was implying and deep inside, agreeing with her that it was the right choice to make.
“Has the Goddess Laima taken a liking to Sinra and visited his chambers in the night?” Sauras joked helplessly, invoking the name of one of the six Deities of their Kingdom; Laima, the Goddess of luck and fate and the elder sister of Nasheira, the Goddess of love and happiness. Going by the amount of good fortune this little brother of his was meeting with, he really wasn’t far from actually believing this fairy tale of common folk.
“Eh, I should have taken Xin with me,” Sauras thought bitterly. He liked those two twin guardians of his and he didn’t mind the silent man sent to him by Fohan, but they weren’t people he could have a leisure chat with.
“Eighth mortal realm,” Anatis repeated aloud, approaching the group with Nila. He glanced at Laien worriedly, now truly beginning to feel that their deal with Einrah and Rudford was in danger of failing.
“Yup, eighth mortal realm,” Laien said happily and smiled at Anatis. He had already suspected Yin was very strong, so this little revelation didn’t shock him at all. “I hope we can fight in the early rounds before everyone gets tired,” he added while moving his gaze to Yin.
Although after each round one would be healed by the invited water-element practitioners and could take recovery pills to regain strength, some of the fatigue would still remain in his body. Additionally, Laien himself wasn’t too fond of wasting the benefits of a fight by taking a recovery pill and what’s more, he would rather have a chance to fight both Yin and Anatis, not only one of the two.
“Mm, I hope so too,” Yin said happily while exchanging a glance with Laien, his cheeks blushed slightly from the enthusiastic, albeit shocked reaction of everyone to his little revelation. From where he came from, the only person who recognized his efforts was his grandfather; and he had always been sparse with words of praise either way. ‘I would expect nothing less from your father’s son.’ would be the words he heard from him the most often.
“Looks like the bet we made with the kids just got a whole lot harder,” Einrah pointed out with a chortle, suddenly beginning to look forward to the actual tournament.
“A bet? What kind of?” Yin inquired, by the looks of not intimidated by Einrah’s presence in the slightest.
“It’s nothing important,” Laien said quickly, before Einrah could even have a chance to answer.
Einrah raised an eyebrow and simply smiled, saying nothing else. He silently approved of Laien’s reasoning and thus, his opinion of the boy rose further.
Yet, Yin chuckled to himself and gave Laien a meaningful look. He could easily enough guess that this bet had something to do with Laien or Anatis winning the tournament, to which he would be an obstruction to. However, he also understood Laien wanted them to have a serious fight without holding back; and he fully intended to make this wish come true. He wouldn’t have held back and let Laien win even if he asked, not to mention doing so out of his own accord.
Laien smirked helplessly and scratched the back of his head. What else could he say? To him, it was more important to have a good fight and grow stronger through it than to lose a bet. Worst case scenario he would be forced to stay in the Twin Phoenix School for a few years... but he sure as hell didn’t intend to lose to Yin and let such a thing happen.
“Eh,” Anatis groaned quietly. He was a martial practitioner and he had more or less settled his grudges with Einrah, even though he would probably never fully forgive him for what he had done to the innocent members of his family… to his younger siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles…
“Why am I thinking about it again?” Anatis reprimanded himself silently. What he wanted to ‘say’ was that as a young spiritual practitioner, the deal of staying in the Twin Phoenix School for years would be much more detrimental to Laien than to a martial practitioner like himself.
“Seems like the open seeds have been settled,” Vatras mentioned and just a second or two later, a very loud voice of the judge echoed throughout the Royal Arena.
“Now, I shall announce the positions assigned to all two hundred fifty-six participants!” the judge yelled excitedly. To most of the common folk in the audience this part of the tournament was nothing but a boring formality they would have rather had been skipped, but to the nobility, it was an important time to make the bets and other various deals. Naturally, he would go with what the rich people wanted from him and patiently read out each and every seed of all two hundred and fifty-six contenders.
“The first seed, Alen of the Prince Sauras’s camp!”
“Second seed, Jak from the White Fang School!”
“Third seed, Jalia from the Sword God School!
“Uwah, that’s going to take a while,” Laien said with a helpless laugh. Did they really need to go through something as long as this? Was there no better way to announce the order of fights?
“You don’t really need to listen to all of it,” Sinra brought up. “Just tell yourself to pay attention to the names you are interested in. The one good thing about this judge is that he is so meticulous; he accents the names more strongly than other words so they are easy to pick out,” he explained with a smile, having had used this trick himself at most of the tournaments he had attended.
“Mmm,” Laien nodded but wasn’t quite confident in this trick to actually start chatting with anyone. When talking, he tended to fully engage in the subject at hand so he worried he end up missing the names anyway. Others would still tell him but a short while later, but where was the fun in that?
Time slowly passed and so did the seeds read by the judge. When Anatis appeared as the thirty-third seed, it became pretty much settled that he would face Alen in the quarterfinals. Then, for a long time, there was nothing until Alex’s name popped up around one-hundredth seed. Soon afterward the numbers passed one hundred and twenty-eight, thus getting to the other side of the bracket.
Laien smirked a little when Laura appeared as the one hundred and twenty-ninth seed. Just as he hoped, his name showed up not too long afterward; he would be facing Laura in the quarterfinals and more importantly, would then be facing Yin, who got placed towards the end of the bracket, in the semifinals.
“It has been set up so well it makes one wonder if it wasn’t set-up,” Laien pointed out sarcastically. Although it wasn’t in the rules, it was common knowledge that organizers would manipulate the seeds to make the matches more exciting and sometimes, would adhere to the wishes of the contestants’ masters. For example, in this case, it had already been settled from the get-go that he and Anatis would be at the opposite halves of the tournament.
“If it goes well, we will fight in the semifinals, huh?” Yin asked with a smile. He wouldn’t have minded facing Laien in the first or second round, but a duel later on would be even more amazing. Even though he hadn’t had many chances to do so in his life, he definitely liked to show-off a little.
“First I need to beat Laura,” Laien mentioned and glanced towards the eleven years old girl. There would have been nothing more miserable than getting overconfident now and losing to her one way or another.
“And I need to beat Alen,” Anatis said with a cheeky smile as he stepped closer to Laien, Yin and Sinra.
“What’s on your mind?” Laien asked, sensing that Anatis had some kind of amusing idea.
“Well… come here for a second,” Anatis said wryly, at the same time wondering when did he come not to only consider, but to even have and be willing to suggest something like what he had in mind.
Both Sinra and Yin looked at the two curiously as they were whispering to each other and chuckling from time to time. Laien seemed to be very amused with what Anatis proposed, so after poking at each other for a brief while the two of them shook hands and smiled wryly at one another.
“These kids,” Rudford muffled a laugh. He had most likely been the only one to manage to hear what Laien and Anatis were whispering about and couldn’t help but think how precious children could sometimes be. Truthfully, he would have loved to be there when this little bet of theirs would come to its conclusion, but that would probably be impossible.
“Hey, tell us what it’s all about!” Nila complained to the boys, her intuition telling her that they wanted to do something really, really stupid. Contrary to her expectations though, Anatis shook his head and kept his lips tightly shut, just like Laien. By the looks of it, she wouldn’t learn what the two agreed upon and the realization of this fact was making her quite angry.