Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 118. Leisure Afternoon.
Having finished the whole course, Laien leaned back in his seat and burped in a fairly loud manner despite his mouth being closed. “I might have eaten a bit too much,” he said with a weak laugh and patted himself on the stomach. To think that this waiter was asking them if they weren’t going to want more! They would have eaten themselves to death if they ordered any more food than that.
“Uwah, same here,” Yin also leaned back and also burped loudly, letting out all the air he had swallowed alongside the food. This meal was ridiculously tasty, but he had a feeling none of them would be able to get out of this room within the next hour. However, he didn’t regret it one bit as this whole body was filled with an extremely pleasant, satisfied and relaxed sensation.
“Are your stomachs bottomless?” Raphael asked with a helpless laugh, looking at Laien and Yin and at the multitude of plates the two of them had cleaned up in the past thirty minutes. He himself was still in the middle of finishing the second half of his serving and he was beginning to doubt whether he would be able to eat everything, but those two… unexpectedly, they were quite the gluttons.
“Ahaha…” Mikaela and Arslan exchanged a glance and smiled at each other. The two of them had been trying to keep up with the eating pace of Laien and Yin’s, but they failed early on. To be honest, they would probably only be able to eat half of the generous portions they had been given. Sure, this food was super tasty, but they couldn’t help it if their stomachs refused to cooperate.
At the same time, Laien and Yin chuckled weakly. Were their stomachs bottomless? Certainly not; they’ve found and reached the bottoms quite thoroughly!
“I wonder if we can take the rest with us,” Mikaela mused aloud. It would be such a pity to let so much good food go to waste just because they couldn’t finish it all.
“I’m sure we can,” Raphael said with a smile. “They will probably want the plates back though, so we shouldn’t take them along,” he added thoughtfully. It wouldn’t make a difference if they put only food or food and plates into their interspatial rings, so they could spare the kitchen staff an annoyance without troubling themselves in the process.
“Nice,” Mikaela said happily. “Then I’m going to eat a little more and take the rest for later,” he stated and returned to munching on the food before him.
Meanwhile, Laien and Yin were beginning to slowly doze off with their eyes half-closed. With their bellies filled, surrounded by friends and in a pleasantly warm room; it truly was the perfect opportunity to take a little nap, at least for thirty minutes. Considering that they hadn’t really slept at all last night and only trained in the meditative-trance, they thought they could use some rest.
“Sleeping is important,” Laien thought lazily, his eyes already closed. “It’s not like it will take much of a toll on us if we only meditate and don’t sleep for a week or two, but we won’t grow up properly if we don’t sleep.. well, let’s nap for a bit. We can train hard for those six or five days and then get all the sleep we need later,” he mused half-consciously, thinking that it would be good if he and Yin increased their strength as much as possible before the culmination of events, just in case.
Technically speaking, they wouldn’t be in much of a danger at any point in the plan since it would be Julien and his people, along with the White Guard, who would do all the fighting… but it wouldn’t hurt to be prepared for the worst possibility, whatever it could be.
“Are they sleeping?” Arslan asked in a low voice. Just how did those two manage to doze off in just half a minute? He wished he knew how to fall asleep to fast!
“So it seems,” Raphael said with a quiet laugh, then mused quietly with an impressed look shining in his eyes. “They might have fallen asleep and they might seem relaxed to the point of carelessness, but I can just barely sense a faint presence of the Aspect of Awareness they’ve surrounded themselves the nearby area with. Amazing… it’s not filled with aura, so unless someone has high enough insights into Awareness, he won’t be able to discover anything at all.”
“Hm,” Mikaela tilted his head slightly, looking at Laien and Yin’s sleeping faces with curiosity. The next moment, he glanced first at Raphael and then at Arslan and chuckled in amusement.
“What is it?” Arslan asked, wondering what was that funny.
“No, I just realized something,” Mikaela said with a laugh, though he did keep in mind not to be too loud. He smiled widely when both Raphael and Arslan gave him curious looks, then went ahead and explained, “Don’t we have five different types of good-looking guys here? Laien is like the warrior type from the stories, Yin’s so beautiful that he can almost be mistaken for a girl, Raphael is the handsome-man type, Arslan is the far-western-prince type and I’m the cute-boy type, right?”
Raphael suppressed a laugh, while Arslan looked at everyone’s faces as if to confirm what Mikaela just said. The two of them hadn’t really thought about such a thing, but now that Mikaela pointed it out, it really was true that they managed to gather almost every good-looking type in one place.
More or less in such a silly manner, the three of them continued to chat while eating a little more of their food. They spent time speaking more about Makarash and about the north, then about how the Eulene used to be hundreds of years ago. Pretty much, they talked about the things related to their origins, their families, their daily lives; it was more or less a continuation of the overall introduction they had made just after meeting each other in the morning.
However, maybe because the atmosphere was just too relaxing or because Laien and Yin were already napping on the side, the three of them didn’t even notice when they all dozed off at one point. As a result, the five of them ended up sleeping in the Elder’s Dining Room and were discovered doing so by the waiter just around half an hour after they all fell asleep.
“Amazing and important or not, but kids are kids,” the waiter thought with a smile. He didn’t even think about waking the boys up and simply closed the door carefully, making sure not to make any noise. They had already been informed by Elder Samuel that none of the Grand Elders would be dining today since everyone was busy, so there would be no problem with the room being occupied.
On the other hand, Richt wasn’t too pleased when he learned what was going on. He regretted that they couldn’t do something more productive than keeping a watch over sleeping children, but orders were orders. He did take waking the boys up into consideration, but he had a feeling they would be angry with him… and although he personally wouldn’t have cared too much about it, angering their important guests was unacceptable from the perspective of politics. Thus, he gave up and assumed he had no other choice, proceeding to waste his time in the canteen.
Jugal, on the other hand, took on a more casual approach and decided to also take a nap in the corner. He didn’t concern himself ideas like spending this time training and to be fair, neither did Richt and his two subordinates. At their level, simply ‘cultivating’ wouldn’t do them any good. Be it the expansion of the Spiritual Core for the spiritual masters or the understanding of their Qi Method for the marital masters, at a certain point, most people reached the bottleneck. As demotivating as it might be, without a high enough talent and without nourishing this talent with enough experiences, one would never be able to keep walking the seemingly endless path of cultivation.
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“Hrmm…” Laien moaned, his mind slowly walking up after what he intended to be a brief nap. Realizing that he was resting on top of the table, he straightened up and stretched unhurriedly. A normal person would have gotten quite stiff from sleeping in such a position, but the benefits of being a high-ranked marital practitioner were enough for Laien not to feel uncomfortable at all. “It looks like everyone’s sleeping, huh. I wonder how long did we end up staying here? It feels like more than just an hour or two,” he mused and sure enough, soon saw Yin wake up and rub his eyes lazily. This spiritual bond of theirs really was convenient in the weirdest of manners.
“We slept surprisingly well, eh?” Yin asked with a slight smile. He had genuinely intended to only nap for a bit, but it looked like both his and Laien’s bodies had other plans in mind. “You know, I think we should tone down on not sleeping after all, even now. How about sleeping for at least eight to ten hours every second day?” he suggested, feeling that this would allow them to maintain the close-to-ideal balance and overall, wouldn’t slow down their training all that much.
“Yeah, let’s do that,” Laien supported straightforwardly. He didn’t pay attention to it before since he was already used to sleeping very regularly, but now he noticed that it wasn’t just mental state that was important for cultivation, but also the physical one. However, the physical well-being was comparatively harder to notice as the overall state of a martial practitioner’s body would almost always be very good. Yet, this time around, their bodies sent them a clear message and made figuring it out that much easier.
“You guys woke up?” Raphael also rose up from the table and yawned sleepily. “I feel like we’ve been out for six or seven hours. It’s probably evening by now,” he said a bit helplessly. They really had experienced too many new things today, be it him, Mikaela or Arslan. He also knew that Laien and Yin had been in quite a peril just two days ago, so it was natural for them to be more tired than usual.
“Mhm,” Laien smiled slightly, then asked while glancing at Mikaela’s sleeping face. “Show we let those two sleep a bit more?”
“Let us what?” Mikaela asked with his eyes closed, apparently having just woken up due to all the talking.
“How long did we sleep for?” Arslan asked with a yawn, also walking up without much trouble.
“Six or seven hours,” Raphael repeated with a smile. He never thought they would all end up sleeping in the dining room, but it looked like some mishaps were bound to happen from time to time.
“So it’s evening already,” Arslan said while rubbing his eyes. “Or maybe night? I wonder if Elder Samuel completed that thing,” he added, thinking that it would be good if they concluded the matter with Elder Samuel before leaving the fort. Though, before any of the other four boys could say anything else, the door to the room opened and an unfamiliar man walked in.
“I see you’ve all woken up,” the man said with a polite smile on his face. “Elder Samuel sent me here an hour ago. I was instructed to bring you to him after you wake up, so if you are ready, please follow me to his chambers,” he informed and bowed slightly, waiting for the boys to give him a reply.
“Great,” Laien said with a smile. “We can get that done with and relax, so let’s go,” he added and stood up from the bench, and so did the other four.
“Finally!” Richt exclaimed impatiently but bit his tongue right afterwards. He knew he shouldn’t be impolite, but was there really a need to force him to watch over sleeping kids? Couldn’t those White Guards do that much on their own? As frustrated as he had gotten after many hours of waiting, he followed after the five youths with his two subordinates while trying to keep his mouth shut.
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Jugal, on the other hand, followed while yawning and scratching his head. He was still a bit drowsy since he had been half-sleeping until just a moment ago.
Coincidentally, none of the four of them thought to report to Elder Samuel about the duel that happened between Laien and Raphael in the morning. Richt had previously assumed that he would report everything after his current task was done, as usual, his two subordinates weren’t concerning themselves with making such decisions, while Jugal was too drowsy to think about anything in particular. As a result, this piece of information remained undisclosed for the time being.
A few minutes later, their whole group arrived by the same chamber Laien, Yin, and Arslan had talked with Elder Samuel in. The messenger and the four guards remained outside, while the five youths entered, what in itself caused Elder Samuel to feel surprised.
“They are bringing Mikaela and Raphael along?” Elder Samuel thought to himself. Did they tell those two about their plans, or did they simply not mind if they knew? It technically was the more dangerous the more people knew… but even if logic and reason were telling him so, he just wouldn’t be able to tell his youngest son that he doesn’t trust him enough. “I’m not going to waste words, young master Arslan. The scroll is in the interspatial ring, go ahead and take a look at it and give it to those two subordinates of yours to read through,” he said politely and pointed at the lone, top-grade interspatial ring that laid on the table, then added to finish up.
“I’ve taken the liberty to include a few gifts as a representative of my country. Although there isn’t anything extraordinary inside, I hope you will find the contents to your liking.”
“Thank you,” Arslan said simply and stored the interspatial ring into his own. He did think for a second about suggesting to just sign the agreement here after looking through it with Laien and the others, but he then came to the conclusion that it would be a stupid idea. By this point, he trusted that Elder Samuel wished him no harm, but he also had a feeling that Elder Samuel would look at him scornfully if he said he didn’t feel the need to let Jasmine and Sirius look through their alliance agreement. After all, this document was more than just a few simple points they had agreed to before, but a detailed description of what is going to happen and by what terms.
“Ah, right,” Elder Samuel spoke up just as Arslan was about to turn around. “Send one of those six new White Guards to me. I will have the information about the movements of Yimar Maar’s and Arakar’s forces shared with him so they can move between your father and you easier,”
Although he was startled to hear that Elder Samuel knew exactly how many new White Guards arrived, Arslan didn’t let it throw him off too much. “Thank you, once again,” he said with a smile, then nodded his head and returned to the rest of his friends who stood a few steps back.
Before the boys left, Elder Samuel exchanged a glance with Mikaela, wondering how was his youngest son doing and if he was enjoying himself in this company. Alas, if he knew that since the time he had seen Mikaela in the morning, the boy had gotten thoroughly attached to Laien, he would have likely been at least a little anxious. He had no idea about any of that though, so he only saw how his youngest son smiled at him and then left with the rest of the boys.
“What deal do you have with dad?” Mikaela inquired in the corridor, curious about the details. He knew that his father and Arslan were probably collaborating as his father wouldn’t have invited him and Raphael over here to become friends with Laien, Yin, and Arslan had it been otherwise. He had also heard a few words about it from those three, but as of now, he didn’t know any of the specifics.
As for answering this question, Laien chuckled quietly and spoke up, seeing as Arslan was hesitating, unsure what to do. “Basically, he’s going to help us out and we’re going to do the same for him. If you want to know more, wait until we get somewhere more private,” he said with a smile and perhaps as expected, received an obedient nod and an ‘Okay’ from Mikaela.
“So what now?” Raphael asked a few seconds later, all the while thinking that Laien had really managed to tame the disobedient and mischievous Mikaela. “Do we stay the night here or do we go to meet up with the rest of them?” he inquired, speaking about the friends and acquaintances of Laien, Yin, and Arslan’s which they had mentioned.
“Going back,” Laien replied casually. “We need to apologize to them for not coming back earlier too. We were supposed to play together in the afternoon, but things here just got too interesting,” he added and chuckled in a half-embarrassed and half-amused manner. He had really forgotten that he said he would join those five, so he felt only a little bit guilty about breaking his word.
“You’re going to train for the night?” Mikaela asked in turn. He wasn’t sleepy anymore so he couldn’t help but feel that it was a bit of a pity. He did understand, however, that training was important to Laien and Yin, so he had no plans to insist on having them play with him instead. “I might as well train with them. I learned so many new things today, maybe I will be able to comprehend some of those Profound Mysteries of Water?” he mused silently. If he made some progress, would Laien praise him in the morning? He certainly hoped so.
“It’s fun to play, but training is important too,” Laien consoled, though he corrected himself a bit after having a second thought. “I mean, training is important, but it’s also quite fun for me. Gaining new insights, discovering new ways to use my powers, growing stronger, competing with others, I enjoy doing all of that very much,” he explained, trying to make himself as clear as possible. To him, although cultivation was in part a means to achieve his goals, it was also something her honestly liked. If possible, he wanted Mikaela to come to have a similar mindset about it.
“I get it,” Mikaela said and chuckled a little. His old teachers had told him many times to ‘devote himself to training’ and ‘not to train half-heartedly’, but he had never been truly able to follow their advice. Yet, after Laien showed him how fun training could be, he could easily agree with what Laien was saying. It had been frustrating when he couldn’t find the correct path and was stuck, unable to take a step ahead, but now he actually looked forward to practicing more.
Laien looked Mikaela in the eye, at first wondering if the boy wasn’t only saying so to make him feel satisfied. However, when he saw the straightforward and guiltless look in those silvery-blue eyes, he could only laugh in his heart and trust that Mikaela was indeed saying the truth; what in itself, though, was making him feel quite happy.
A few longer moments later, the five of them, accompanied by the four adults, arrived in the ‘settlement’ outside the Grand Camp and headed straight towards the large house Laien and the rest had originally been accommodated in. Since it was already dark outside, there weren’t many people going around or resting by the bonfires. With a few exceptions, all five thousand people in the settlement were sound asleep.
Of course, however, Laien and Yin noticed the two nearby, hidden presences of the freshly arrived White Guards. The two of them had completed the foundations of their Aspects of Awareness thanks to Altair and since then, their insights into it have only grown deeper. By this point, to actually hide from them required one to be able to not only erase own presence and aura, but also the very ‘life energy’ of theirs. Without a thorough mastery of a top-level concealment art and at least some insights into the Aspect of Awareness, it would be impossible for anyone to hide in a close vicinity of them. As for those two reconnaissance-corps White Guards, they had either underestimated them or didn’t care about discovered by them, though in this case, both were likely to be true.
“Are Jasmine and the rest of them back by now?” Laien wondered, choosing to blatantly sweep the building with his aura, mixing it with the essence of the Aspect of Awareness. Although it would be taxing on his mental strength if he wanted to scan such a large building continuously, simply sweeping over it was simplicity in itself. “Oh, they are back,” he said with a smile and entered the building with his friends, the four guards of theirs opting to remain outside.
“Finally you are-…!” Luca began saying the moment Laien and Yin entered the main living room at the head of their group of five, but he swallowed the rest of his words and instead, exclaimed in surprise. “Raphael! What are you doing here? And you… you are…”
“Mikaela,” the silver-haired youth said with a laugh. He had been there to watch the National Tournament this year, so he saw Raphael beating Luca in the semifinals. However, he didn’t take part in the competition for his own age bracket since he hadn’t been interested in competing at that time, so he guessed that Luca only remembered him because he had seen him chatting with Raphael after the semifinals.
“Elder Samuel’s son?” Lea murmured quietly, though not quietly enough for her voice to not be heard by everyone. What was Elder Samuel’s youngest son doing here? No, to begin with, what was Raphael doing here? And what had been going on inside that fort? She really had many questions she wanted to ask but couldn’t quite bring herself to actually do so. As confident as she was, Raphael was the brightest young star of their country, while in the upper echelons, it was a well-known fact that Elder Samuel doted on his youngest son very heavily. On the other hand, she was a regular member of the country’s military; she couldn’t help but feel pressured by the status of those two.
“They sure look surprised to see us,” Mikaela pointed out and glanced first at Raphael, then at Laien, wondering if they also found the expressions of those guys to be amusing.
“They really do,” Laien agreed with a laugh. Be it Luca, Lea, and Daniel or Johan and Albert, they all appeared to be very surprised. However, in the case of Johan and Albert, it was probably related to the appearance and aura Raphael and Mikaela had about themselves rather than their social status.
“Is there a need to overreact so much though?” Raphael asked with a helpless smile. Didn’t he and Luca talk a few times before too? He didn’t know about the others, but those three who were quite apparently from the Fortress-City of Lugna shouldn’t be so startled just to see him or Mikaela.
“…” Daniel, as the one who cared the least about ranks, titles and prestige out of the three, frowned ever so slightly. “Is it my imagination, or do you seem rather friendly with each other?” he inquired, intrigued by what he was seeing. Just what could have happened for this unusual group of young masters to become friendly with one another all of the sudden?
Faced with a question like that, Mikaela smiled merrily while Raphael responded with an awkward chuckle and said with an apologetic smile, “I’ve heard you were the ones supposed to hang out with these three today. Sorry for stealing them from you.”
Alas, as honest as Raphael’s words here, Daniel and the rest couldn’t help but wonder if they weren’t said in a somewhat sarcastic of a manner. Yet, none of them felt like they were quite in the position to question that point openly, so they all chose to withhold their doubts for themselves.
“Hmm,” Laien was about to say something like ‘let’s play together tomorrow’, but before he said it aloud, he realized that he didn’t actually want to hang out with Luca, Lea, and Daniel all that much. By comparison, he would have still found it enjoyable to play with Johan and Albert, but even that wasn’t close to how much he looked forward to spending time with Yin, Arslan, Raphael, and Mikaela. He had enjoyed himself a lot; It was to the point that he was very much regretting that they would be leaving the Ruishi Federation in just five more days to negotiate with the Holy Alliance.
“Little master Arslan,” Sirius spoke up from behind, making use of the period of silence to join the conversation. “If you’ve received what we were waiting for, then please let us take a look. There is no time to waste,” he insisted, wishing to look through the details of the deal as soon as possible so they could sign it and make it formally binding.
“Yeah,” Arslan nodded, but instead of doing as Sirius said, he turned to look at Laien and Yin. “I’ll be going first. Pick me up in the morning if I’m still sleeping, okay?” he said with a smile. He could just hand the document over to Sirius and be done with it, but he wanted to join the process and at least try to learn something new. He was aware that he was still too young to understand everything, but he wanted to at least get some experience.
“Sure,” Laien agreed easily and exchanged a smile with Arslan, then watched him leave with Sirius. “Well, we’ll be going to train too,” he added lightheartedly.
“Can we come along?” Mikaela asked hurriedly. Just waiting for around eight to ten hours would be way too boring. Since Laien and Yin would be training, then wouldn’t it be most fun if he and Raphael could train in the same room? At the very least, he thought that he would.
“Only if you promise me one thing,” Laien replied after a second of consideration, to what Mikaela nodded eagerly and waited for him to say what it was. “You won’t disturb our meditation in any way because if you do, we might end up harming ourselves. If something really important comes up, just call out to us and wait a few seconds for us to wake up on our own,” he laid out, preferring to avoid any random incidents where he and Yin would be distracted while training. Raphael was one thing and he surely wouldn’t do anything like that, but Mikaela could end up getting a bit ahead of himself and disturb them without meaning any harm. Thus, he preferred to warn him beforehand.
“Okay, I promise,” Mikaela said without hesitation. He was self-aware enough to know of his own tendencies, so he didn’t hold it against Laien to have cautioned him in advance.
“Okay, let’s go then,” Laien said with a smile and after giving the five youths left in the room one more look, he headed to the third floor with Yin, Raphael, and Mikaela.
Those five who were left behind felt somewhat flabbergasted, with Luca feeling so in particular. They didn’t get any explanation; those guys just popped in and popped out, leaving all the questions they had for them unanswered… but perhaps, it wasn’t that surprising considering Laien’s and Yin’s characters. It looked like whatever questions they had would need to wait until tomorrow morning.