Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 126. Reporting In.
“Regret, huh.” Very much unlike the other three nobles, Duke Diego spoke with a carefree expression on his face. He took a look at the interspatial ring he had given Arslan and thought for a second, then decided to answer truthfully. “I do not regret anything,” he declared with a slight smile and as he expected, he saw a mixture of shock and anger paint itself on Julien’s face. “I do not regret that the Banxi Kingdom will never be itself ever again. I do not regret that its legacy will be erased from the history in a few more centuries,” he added bluntly, half-expecting Julien to attack him mid-sentence. However, when he noticed the hatred in Julien’s eyes turn into a lesser emotion, into disdain, he laughed in his heart and elaborated with a few more sentences.
“Our countries were decadent for far too long. The amount of impurity and the hedonism that soaked into their cores… it was impossible to reform and too ugly to behold. We didn’t learn from history and kept repeating the same mistakes, leading to wars and great tragedies over and over… something so ugly, it’s for the best that our countries were destroyed,” he said with a slight, surprisingly calm and worryingly indifferent smile.
“So you exchanged one evil for another,” Julien summed up coldly, though without any killing intent mixed in with his voice. He had achieved the biggest part of his revenge long ago and yes, he still held most Ikarians in incredibly low regard, but he knew that if he tried to pursue every little connection people had to his old misfortune, then he would get tangled up in the revenge chain that wouldn’t end until the day he died. Thus, even though he didn’t like Duke Diego by any stretch of the imagination, he came to have a better opinion of him than of those three other nobles who appeared not to even be aware of how they ended up leading their countries down the path of destruction.
“Perhaps,” Duke Diego said with a shrug of his shoulders. “I’m content enough that nothing more is being done in the name of my country,” he added, saying pretty much what Julien expected him to say. Similarly, those revelations weren’t too shocking to the three White Guards who had made some detailed research on the Eulean Union those past days and had learned of the past of those four nobles in front of them.
On the other hand, the three nobles apart from Duke Diego were strongly baffled by what they were hearing. They couldn’t understand what he meant by saying that they had led their countries to destruction nor were they able to comprehend what he meant by saying their countries would never be the same. Wouldn’t everything return to normal if they reclaimed their lands from that damned Arkarian Great Prophet? They had thought that Duke Diego was of the same mindset as they were, but now that they heard this exchange between him and General Julien, they started having doubts.
“Is that everything?” Chancellor Meinhard asked while looking at Julien, his tone suggesting that he apparently couldn’t decide whether he wanted to sound angry or polite. This whole meeting had gone in a way he couldn’t have possibly predicted, so even though he wanted to keep calm, he ended up completely incapable of gathering his thoughts in any coherent manner. He was disturbed to the point of being unable to even have thoughts of getting back at Julien or Laien in any way; scheming against them with Ikarians? With the people of the Great Prophet? Even he wouldn’t believe that those barbarians wouldn’t make his head roll the moment he fulfilled his purpose.
The same could be said about Duke Ayer and Prince Ludwig. Although the latter of the two of them was more angry with Arslan’s party than the former, neither of the two harbored any will to cooperate with the people of the Great Prophet who had taken their everything from them. They were resentful about being extorted and they certainly weren’t happy about how this meeting had gone, they were at the very least sensible enough to know how to act in order to preserve their own lives for as long as possible; and allying themselves with the Great Prophet wasn’t one of the ways in which they saw keeping their heads attached to their bodies for all that long to be a likely outcome.
“On my part, yes,” Julien said with relative calmness.
“Great,” Chancellor Meinhard said sourly. “Allow us to excuse ourselves then,” he added and stood up along with Prince Ludwig and Duke Ayer, nodded towards Arslan with obvious reluctance and along with the other two, headed out of the room and the building without saying one more word; naturally, the guards of the three of them followed suit.
Seeing the three storm out like that, Duke Diego chuckled in amusement. “I will look forward to receiving the news when we are going to be heading out,” he said with a smile, directing his words to Arslan. “I will be taking my twelve guards and forty-something servants with me, so I look forwards to being accommodated within the protected ranks,” he added and without allowing anyone much time to make any further comments, he bowed and left the living room with his two bodyguards.
“What a guy,” Jasmine said with a laugh after Duke Diego got out of the range of hearing. “He didn’t even want to leave us protecting his retinue in question. We could have had him pay more since technically, he only negotiated for his own safety…. oh well. We got a good boon in part thanks to him, so I guess we can let it slide,” she said with a smile and a sigh.
“Was it okay though?” Laien asked, only now growing a little bit concerned. “I mean, the way it all happened… or rather, the way I made it happen,” he explained with a half-embarrassed smile. He had tried to confirm with those three before going past the point of no-return in that conversation, but he didn’t feel perfectly well with himself after arbitrarily taking charge and leading the whole thing down the path of thoroughly antagonizing those four nobles. He didn’t think it would be all that problematic, but maybe it would have been better if he had held his tongue in check this one time.
“It’s perfectly fine,” Jasmine replied with a laugh. “It’s cute that you are suddenly being concerned after always acting so self-confident, but we wouldn’t have let you guys get into this meeting with as little preparation as we did if we wished to avoid an outcome like that. So, don’t worry about it,” she said playfully, then let out a quiet laugh as she saw Laien’s face grow slightly red. She was happy to see that at the very least, Laien could feel shame after doing as he pleased with almost everything.
“Truth to be told,” Sirius picked up, the corners of his lips quirking upwards. “We were pretty much hoping for this outcome, so you actually did great. With those four… maybe three, not doing much to prevent information leaks, our own plans will appear more genuine to our enemies,” he explained contentedly. If anything, they were aware of Laien’s personality pretty well at this point, so just like Jasmine was saying, everything worked out as they wished it to.
“Well, it’s good,” Laien said and scratched the back of his head. He would have been incredibly angry with himself had he carelessly endangered their plan, but it looked like everything was fine. “Still, I feel like I should think more before I speak. It’s fun to stick it to stuck-up guys like those four nobles, but the consequences of what I say aren’t going to affect just me,” he thought quietly, then promised himself to be more careful with his words in the future. He understood that he was prone to saying dangerous things when he was angry or amused, so he wanted to control himself a little bit better.
“What do we do with those?’ Arslan asked, pushing the four top-grade interspatial rings together. Although two hundred thousand platinum coins wasn’t a great fortune to him, he recognized it as a considerable amount of wealth. “Half each?” he suggested and split the four interspatial rings into two pairs at random, then glanced at Laien to see if he was fine with that.
“I’ll gladly accept,” Laien said with a smile and placed the two interspatial rings into his own black gold one. “Looks like I got the one of Prince Ludwig since it’s filled with almost only items and the one of Duke Diego since this one is filled only with coins,” he confirmed quickly, then chuckled at the helpless expressions on the faces of the three White Guards. Was the way they this money a bit too carefree? But it really wasn’t like either of them was poor or in dire need of funds… well, disregarding those three, it seemed to be Julien whose expression was the most stunned.
It wasn’t all that surprising for Julien to be surprised though. As a General, Julien had access to considerable amounts of money, but he had never come close to accumulating one hundred thousand platinum coins in personal wealth. Yet, he saw Arslan casually give away a ridiculous sum that would have caused countless people to turn against their brothers and friends to obtain. He didn’t even know if he was supposed to be impressed or worried about how easily those two boys exchanged this wealth between themselves. Had he known less about Laien and Arslan, he would have been ready to look at them as greatly spoiled rich young masters, but when he thought about their characters, he could only assume that they simply didn’t wish to haggle over money.
“Do you need us for anything else?” Laien inquired after enjoying the reactions of the for adults for a moment. If this was all, then he wanted to hurry up and go back to having fun in the company of Raphael and Mikaela. They had only a few more days left to spent together, after all.
“Not until Lord Mustafa replies,” Reian replied with a smile. There were things they needed to do like discussing the details of the plan with the three boys, but that could wait until everything was prepared and ready. They could obviously talk about the ‘as ifs’ and they would most likely be fairly accurate, but as far as they, as adults, were concerned, there was no need for them to waste time in this manner. They weren’t pressed for time in this regard, so it could happen in four or five days and there would be no problem at all; in fact, it would be best to discuss it with those three just the night before Laien and Yin would head for the Holy Union for the details to be fresh in the boys’ minds.
“So we are free to go?” Laien asked and received a nod from Reian. However, he, Yin, and Arslan left, they also received one more caution from Jasmine.
“Take those four guards along with you anywhere you go, just in case. We wouldn’t want to make the job for the potential assassins too easy.”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
“Fine, fine,” Laien said resignedly and left with the other two. He saw the presence of guards to be a bit annoying, but he had more or less gotten used to it and as long as those men didn’t stay in the same room, their presence wasn’t all that inconvenient. Thus, he decided to go along with Jasmine’s request… or demand? Hrm, he definitely preferred to think of it as a request.
“They are so carefree,” Julien commented with a light chuckle and swept a few strands of his silver hair away from his face. “It’s hard to imagine they are the kids who suggested that you go through with that ridiculous plan,” he added openly, seeing as Jasmine still didn’t remove her spiritual energy and kept blocking any sound from escaping the room.
“It’s not that ridiculous,” Sirius pointed out, unable to stop himself from revealing a little smirk. “It’s daring and risky, that’s for sure, but if we can split up Yimar Maar’s and Arakar’s forces, then coordinate attack of the main bulk of our White Guards with ambush prepared by your people, then we have more than a fair chance of obtaining a perfect victory,” he said, his eyes shining with clear anticipation. In his opinion, the best plans were the simple ones that couldn’t screw up too much. As for the plan they were carrying out, they could back out of it until the very last moment and only two important variables existed, about which Jasmine seemed to also be thinking about as she spoke up.
“It’s true,” Jasmine said with a warm smile as she looked Julien in the eye. “There are only two key elements that are in part up to chance. The first one is whether we can properly keep the details of our plan secret and if we can lure Yimar Maar and Arakar where we want them to go with our little ‘information leaks’ about Arslan attempting to sneak through to the Holy Union by using the current chaos,” she explained once again, then seeing as Julien wasn’t planning to dispute the chances of this part of their plan succeeding, she continued speaking.
“The second key is whether Yimar Maar and Arakar choose to split up their forces as we predicted. The worst case scenario would be if they all chose to ignore the casualties they are sustaining from the White Guards and attacked our party with their strongest experts. However, even then we have enough manpower to retreat, although we would need to sacrifice the refugees.”
“It’s not a bad plan,” Julien admitted once again, with the first time being when he had been presented with the whole idea by Jasmine and Reian, though after his participation had already been decided by Elder Samuel. Still, this time around he had nothing against following this kind of an order, so he wasn’t frustrated about not having been consulted beforehand. “I just want to say that if anything goes wrong, then those three might die and yet they are acting as if nothing was going on,” he explained with a helpless smile. He had commanded young elite soldiers and he knew how nervous they always were before going to their first battlefield and yet, here he saw three boys who appeared to be perfectly calm about doing the same. He couldn’t help but be amazed by them.
“It’s not that they aren’t scared,” Reian said with an amused laugh, recalling the little scene within the carriage when Laien and Yin woke up after their fight with Yimar Furi and his men. “They can be scared, but those two rascals won’t let it get to them. This attitude of there is rubbing off on Arslan, who was courageous enough to begin with, so it looks like none of them worry at all,” he elaborated and chuckled to himself, thinking that those two would be a bit angry with him if they heard him say what he just did.
“Huh.” Julien raised his eyebrows slightly. “You appear to know them well, especially those two ‘rascals’,” he pointed out with a laugh. Didn’t Reian and the others only come to know Laien and Yin a mere few weeks ago? It was a bit surprising to him that Reian could say what he did with so much confidence.
“I guess,” Reian replied in what he intended to be a casual way, though he couldn’t help but show a little embarrassment. He had been rather overly neutral in his approach towards Laien and Yin until the encounter with Yimar Furi, so he found the fact that he came to like those two a lot to be slightly shameful… especially given that Jasmine was teasing him about it on every occasion.
“If you are interested,” Jasmine brought up while glancing at Julien. “Why don’t you come along in three days in the morning? Those two are going to spar against Reian,” she suggested, then peeked at Reian and laughed in her heart. Truly, this little pupil of hers was too easy to tease; the sulking and somewhat angry look on his handsome face of a young man was quite adorable.
“Really?” Julien perked up, quite obviously excited by the mention. “I’d love to see the rumored strength of those kids,” he said with a grin, hoping that the spar Jasmine mentioned would be more on the serious side. If it ended up being merely a few exchanges of blows, then it would be too boring, but if it was to be so, then Jasmine probably wouldn’t have mentioned it at all.
“Enough with the chit-chat,” Sirius intersected before those three could get into another of their usual quarrels. “We’ve got a lot left to do, like keeping eye on the Prophet and on the nobles in the Grand Camp, and like filling in Julien’s people into our plan and preparing suitable battle strategies. Those kids may go easy with everything, but that’s because the theory-crafting of the battle is left to us old folks,” he reminded with a calm smile and laughed quietly. Reian and Julien didn’t like each other for the obvious reason, but both of them looked like they wanted to rebuke him for calling them ‘old’ and yet were holding back from saying anything. Ironically, they were quite similar, from their character up to their taste in women, though it was certainly why they weren’t getting along.
“Okay then,” Jasmine stood up and stretched her back happily with an innocent look on her face, making Sirius believe that she definitely was puffing her chest on purpose. She might claim not to want to hook up with a much, much, much younger man, but she sure appeared to enjoy their attention. “Back to work,” Jasmine added with a smile and released her spiritual energy, then headed out of the house and was soon followed by the three men.
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“The information from Elder Samuel really was accurate,” Zaban mused quietly. He had expected the way back to take him and his five men around twenty to twenty-four hours, but thanks to the reports on the movements and amount of Ikarian patrols from Elder Samuel, they managed to cut it down to just twelve hours or so. “Let’s get this document delivered. I wonder what Lord Mustafa’s reaction is going to be,” he said to himself and gestured his men to move onwards. They were entering the Vase City, one of the medium-sized cities near the Capital City of Palee, so they would proceed as always. His men would split up and wait for orders while he would personally deliver the report to Mustafa.
A few moments later, he entered the chambers occupied by Mustafa within the residence that his fellow White Guards guarded tightly.
“Enter.”
He received an immediate response after knocking on the door and did just that. “It’s getting weaker,” he noticed the second he stepped into the room and sensed Mustafa’s active Qi. “It’s just a little bit, but in just a few days the strength of his Qi has fallen. It’s really like Lord Mustafa said, he’s already dropped to the fifth Realm of Heroes from seventh before he managed to stabilize his Qi Origin and he will likely drop a year each year or so, just like he had estimated,” he recalled and his worry must have shown on his face as Mustafa smiled at him amiably the next moment.
“Since you are back, I assume you are bringing me the news of my son?” Mustafa asked with a smile. He could tell that Zaban was concerned with something, but he had known the man long enough to guess that it was his own pitiable state and not the problems with Arslan that were on Zaban’s mind. Had something terrible happened to Arslan, Zaban wouldn’t have shown any emotions on his face as he made his report, just like he always did when speaking about something horrible.
“It is as you say, Grand Yimar,” Zaban replied in a formal tone. “Little master is safe in the Ruishi Federation, he has received the protection of the country’s Grand Council. However, as you likely have already been informed, the one hundred of us who were assigned to protect him had been killed without any traces left behind by the perpetrators,” he informed, seeing the mysterious event as important enough to bring up despite Mustafa surely having learned of it by now.
“That’s good,” Mustafa said with a sigh of relief. He had been fairly certain that Arslan was all right since no news of his death or capture were delivered by Yimar Maar’s side, but he was happy to receive a proper confirmation. “And what of the rest of them? How are they doing?” he asked as the second thing, leaving the matter of Arslan’s agreement to soon be taken out of the Ruishi Federation for later. He cared greatly for Reian and Jasmine and wondered if nothing happened to those two boys who went along with his son, so he preferred to learn of those things before moving to formalities.
“As of now, all of the little master’s companions are unharmed,” Zaban reported straightforwardly, but at the same time, smiled resignedly and added soon afterwards. “However, there’s a whole story behind their arrival in the Ruishi Federation. Before their group could enter the country…” he began saying and elaborated on the event, making sure to report the encounter with Yimar Furi and his elites in the same exact way Jasmine, Sirius, Reian, and Kasha had described it to him. Personally, he wasn’t fond of those two boys, but he would never let his personal feelings affect his job. As such, as much as it annoyed him in his heart, he spoke about what he had been told and watched the expression on his Lord’s face grow more and more impressed and amazed.
“I must ask,” Mustafa said wryly the moment Zaban finished this part of his report. “You aren’t working with Jasmine to joke with me, are you? I trust you know how unbelievable the story you just told me is,” he said with a laugh. Laien and Yin defeating dozens of strong marital masters on their own and Laien reflecting a Grand Magic back at Yimar Furi, the description of those events that Zaban provided him with was nothing short of being a fairytale.
“I wouldn’t jest like that,” Zaban said somewhat sourly. “I’m not that fond of those two boys myself and as I said, I’m merely repeating what those four told me,” he explained briefly, all the while wondering what Jasmine must have been like in the past for Mustafa to consider this option to be a possibility.
“Hah,” Mustafa chuckled, feeling the burden that was weighing down on his heart lessen by a fair bit. He had thought those two boys to be considerably talented from the very beginning, but he had thought that freezing a village with magic was the extent of Laien’s abilities. That lone was surprising enough, but for those two kids to actually be strong enough to contend with a large group of decently strong martial and spiritual masters, it was the most pleasant of surprises. “Tell me, are those two getting along with Arslan well?” he inquired, very much hoping for the answer to this question to be a positive one. If his son ended up gaining two powerful allies for himself, then he could rest easier while thinking about the hard future that awaited him.
“They do,” Zaban answered, though he couldn’t help but grimace a little as he did. “In fact, they get along so well that I’m worried if little master Arslan isn’t influenced by them too much,” he said and suppressed a sigh. He and Mustafa had amicable relations, but he wasn’t his Lord’s friend like Reian, Jasmine or some other of the White Guards were. He couldn’t allow himself to act too casual.
“And what do you mean by that?” Mustafa asked, raising an eyebrow. “Did something happen to make you say so?” he inquired, knowing that Zaban never gave arbitrary reports. He would always have a clear basis for what he was saying, so he predicted that this time around too, something was up.
“That’s another long story,” Zaban said and suppressed a sigh once again. “Lord Mustafa, please read this first. It’s a copy of the original signed by little master Arslan. I believe that it will make my explanation easier,” he said and handed over a scroll to Mustafa, who unrolled it and skimmed through it with his eyes.
As a result, the slightly concerned look on Mustafa’s face quickly turned into a thoroughly astonished one.