Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 2. The Feelings in Your Heart.
“Big brother,” Siana spoke up with a slight smile. “It’s nice and all that you are getting along with Sinra and everyone, but there’s something very important we need to talk about,” she finally brought the matter up, feeling that unless she did that herself Laien would never ask her about it until he was actually about to leave.
“I guess there is.” Laien sighed a little. He had been with Siana for as long as he could remember; ever since Siana was born, the two of them were pretty much inseparable. They, of course, had days when both of them would focus on their own things, but they would always at least see each other for a little bit. However… now he was going to the Eclipse Academy.
“I’ve been thinking about it quite a bit, you know big brother?” Siana said calmly, tapping the hilt of the sword at her waist with her fingers. “I mean I do want to be with you… but at the same time I have a feeling neither of us will really know what we want if we keep sticking together,” she explained with a sigh, tired of the constant uncertainty in their relationship.
“So you aren’t going to say anything like ‘I’m going with you no matter what!’, huh?” Laien said with a slight smirk, honestly quite surprised by Siana’s level-headed attitude. Two days ago she had stormed out of the room because she was angry at him fooling around with Anatis, but now she suddenly was agreeing with the approach he had suggested two years ago? Admittedly though it was making him feel a bit lonely; his little sister was growing up to be fully independent of him.
“What, don’t tell me you wanted to hear me say so, hm big brother?” Siana asked with a cute, quiet laugh. She then hugged Laien’s arm and leaned against his body, deciding to indulge herself in her big brother’s pampering one last time before they would go their own ways.
“I both want and don’t want to hear it,” Laien replied helplessly. Thinking how years would pass before he would be able to see Siana again, he groaned quietly and slipped the hand Siana was holding onto her back and swept her onto his lap, then hugged her tightly.
Siana didn’t resist at all and in fact, very contentedly rested herself against Laien’s chest, silently wishing the two of them could be adults already just so everything would become less confusing.
“I’ve had my eye on a nice Academy for a while now,” Siana mentioned lazily. “The Black Rose Academy in the middle-eastern lands. It’s an all-girls Academy which is affiliated with all-boys White Rose Academy. It has a very good reputation so I should be able to have a good time there,” she explained briefly, then got to the most important question.
“You will be sending letters, right?” she asked strongly. She could handle being separated from Laien for a few years, but she wasn’t up for completely severing any ties with him for that period of time!
“Of course,” Laien responded with a helpless chuckle. He wasn’t too fond of the concept of exchanging letters… but he could do it if Siana wanted him to.
“Okay, I would love to spend the rest of the day here,” Nila brought up, having a feeling that those two could spend the whole day like that if someone didn’t do something. “However, the two of you should have quite a few other friends and acquaintances to say goodbye to, right? How about we throw a farewell party in some big restaurant in the city?” she suggested, the fact she had never properly talked with her family or all her friends before leaving for the Twin Phoenix School still weighing on her a bit.
“That’s a nice idea,” Laien supported immediately. “ Say Sin, could we make use of your servants to deliver a few messages and to reserve a nice place in the city?” he inquired, already beginning to create a list of people he would want to invite there.
He wasn’t really close enough to the Great Masters of the Twin Phoenix School and he would see both Rudford and most likely Roderick later, so there was no need to concern himself with them. That pretty much left the guys who were here, Tin’Long, Kuan, Shei and his friends from his time in the Valius family. Too bad he wouldn’t be able to ask Genzie to come… but he understood Genzie needed to keep a low profile after the recent events; Fohan would definitely act to remove any potential obstacles and random variables within his Cail family.
“Sure, just tell me who exactly to invite and where to find those people. Also, decide on the kind of restaurant you’d be fine with,” Sinra answered, pretty much instantly considering and pointing out all the important points which needed to be clarified.
“Maybe I will also invite the old master of the horse, William, since my Bellicose was sent back to his stables and all,” Laien mused aloud. Truth to be told he had been meeting less and less with his old friends and acquaintances. He was feeling pretty bad about it… but there weren’t that many things he could talk with them about; they weren’t too inclined to join him in stirring up trouble or having fun either, so he somehow ended up growing distant from most of them.
“Think he could get me a good horse, too? It would save us some trouble of looking for one,” Yin mentioned with a smile, the implicit meaning of his words becoming apparent to everyone only a few seconds after he said them. Laien wasn’t surprised since Yin had told him he would stick around him for the time being, but the other six were rather startled by this news.
“You two want to go there together? Didn’t you only meet two days ago?” Injar couldn’t help but ask. It was really amazing how quickly those kids were capable of making friends. Between adults, it would be impossible to start getting along and trusting anyone so quickly… but by the look of it, such were the wonders of youth.
“Yeah, we do. We are partners after all.” Yin smiled and responded without thinking. Only a second later did he remembered that his grandfather advised him to keep his relationship with his partner a secret and thus, he got worried and tried to explain hurriedly. “Um, by partners I don’t mean… wait, I didn’t mean the other thing either!” he exclaimed while fidgeting nervously, a slight blush appearing on his face.
Contrary to his intentions, Yin only managed to bring everyone’s attention to his peculiar choice of words. Everybody was a bit surprised to find out that Yin could be somewhat of an airhead, but Laien only chortled quietly; he had noticed this tendency of Yin’s long before everyone else.
“Big brother, what does he mean by partners…?” Siana asked, her calm voice for some reason causing a little shiver to run down Laien’s neck.
“Um…” Laien groaned, then laughed inwardly. Siana might have had a change of heart, but he didn’t think she would be too happy if she learned what he actually did with Yin in the bath.
“Eh, never mind,” Siana said with a sigh. “I probably don’t want to know anyway,” she added and glanced at Yin who was sitting right next to them, his cheeks still slightly reddened. “I surely do not want to know,” she murmured soundlessly. She might have accepted Seira’s advice, but her confidence was being put to a real test when she was trying to compare herself with Yin. He was super good looking and his talent for cultivation was better than hers too. It was hard not to get self-conscious around a person like that.
Hearing Siana say so, Laien breathed with relief, happy that he wasn’t forced to explain something so awkward. He could tell Yin was pretty relieved too, and also a bit embarrassed that he had somehow cornered himself into this situation.
“Having you two be together all this time worries me though…” Siana added quietly and sighed again. She loved Laien, but she sometimes wished he was a bit less frivolous with regard to… practically everything. However, maybe it was because of this attitude of his why he was even considering a serious relationship with his blood-related sister, so she probably shouldn’t complain too much.
“What worries me is the admission fee,” Injar mentioned, sparing Laien and Yin from the pains of the previous subject. “I guess you both can get a full scholarship as extremely talented individuals, so the coins the Cail family sent will be returned to you,” he elaborated with a smile, but… the kids weren’t too concerned about money to begin with. They never truly lacked it and they quickly went on to possessing little fortunes of their own, so they had little interest in this topic.
“It really is a wonder.” Nila gave Laien a wry look. She didn’t appear to be willing to let him off scot-free so easily. “You are so calm when you fool around with Anatis, but now you and Yin are both getting so nervous. What’s going on?” she asked teasingly, finding it pretty enjoyable to for once be the one picking on Laien instead of being made fun of by him.
“It’s just…” Laien wanted to reply but didn’t really know how. He only now realized he didn’t know the answer to this question, or at least hadn’t thought about it enough to be able to put his feelings into words. “Maybe it’s because it’s not entirely fooling around…” he mused silently. He wasn’t quite sure what he wanted to do; what he wished to do with his life. So far he had been doing what seemed fun and enjoyable… but he couldn’t tell if the ‘love’ and ‘affection’ he was experiencing were real or if they were just another silliness of puberty.
“Umh…” Nila tried to speak up, beginning to feel guilty after seeing the kind of expression which appeared on Laien’s face. She just wanted to tease him a little, she didn’t want to make him feel so bad! “You don’t need to answer if you don’t want to,” she said a bit bashfully, not sure if she should apologize or do something else. Why did Laien get so perturbed by this question anyway?
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“Big brother, do you love me?” Siana asked out of the blue, leaning back a little and looking Laien in the eye.
“Yeah, I do,” Laien replied calmly, though he wouldn’t be able to really say what that ‘love’ meant to the current him.
“So that’s enough, at least for now,” Siana said contentedly and went back to hugging Laien. “I love you too, big brother,” she said quietly, indulging herself in Laien’s warmth.
Laien smiled heartily and patted Siana’s head, then began caressing her silky hair and enjoying the feeling of it sliding between his fingers.
After a few seconds, he glanced at Yin, the awareness of both his own and Yin’s emotions proving to be quite a strange but not all that unpleasant thing to experience. He could tell that Yin liked him a lot and Yin could similarly tell the same thing the other way around. The two of them could also tell they agreed on this subject; it was just like Siana said, for now, that much was enough. They didn’t need to overthink those things, there were far too young for that anyway.
“Hey,” Nila snuggled very close to Anatis and whispered close to his ear. “Tell me you love me again,” she said while blushing strongly. She felt a bit stupid to have been influenced so easily by the mood between Laien and Siana, but she just couldn’t help it!
“I love you,” Anatis replied quietly and hugged Nila, drawing her as close to himself as possible. He was quite ashamed to be saying this kind of thing aloud in front of everyone, but after what the two of them had done two days ago…. well, this now wasn’t nearly as embarrassing as that thing.
“Oh come on, all of you!” Sinra called out helplessly. “Stop flirting and stop rubbing it in! Aaaah! I want a girlfriend, too!” he cried out half-jokingly half-seriously, deep inside promising himself to find a girlfriend by the time Laien came back from the Eclipse Academy.
When he then heard the five chuckling to themselves, he smiled contentedly; the awkward mood from before was all gone.
“All of them are so hopeless,” Injar thought resignedly. At once this bunch seemed so mature and incredible, but at other times they could all be so childish. It really was a good reminder that although they were more mature than normal kids their age, they were all only kids in the end.
“Tell me who to invite and where and I will organize everything,” Injar offered, intending to let the youths spend some more leisure time together; on which offer he got quickly taken on.
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The day, the evening and the night passed very quickly and before Laien noticed, it already was the time to set out.
Many people gathered at the large courtyard just inside the vast grounds of the Royal Palace, all of them having come here in order to say one final farewell to Laien. Since they didn’t agree on any particular order beforehand and using the formal approach of ‘the more important people first’ would be inadequate to the occasion, everyone started approaching Laien more or less at random.
“Bah, I was never good with those partings and everything…” Duaran spoke awkwardly while scratching his head. Not only was he not used to such situations, he additionally felt rather out of place in the company of many powerful Great Masters and the many influential, talented youths. “Here, take this with you. I don’t know if you will ever make use of it, but I felt it would be a pity if you didn’t make use of your talents,” he said offhandedly and tossed an interspatial ring to Laien, which Laien effortlessly caught.
After sending a bit of his spiritual energy into the interspatial ring and claiming its ownership, Laien chortled and shook his head. “Uncle Duaran, you still didn’t give up on making me a smith?” he asked with a laugh. The interspatial ring Duaran gave him contained a small, fully equipped smithy and a bunch of various ores and metals. It was filled to the brim with them and judging by the size of its inner space, the ring was a high-grade one. This kind of a gift… it must have cost at least six or seven hundred crystal coins to assemble.
“Surprised? I’ve been preparing to give it to you since you were saying you’d be leaving in a few months, but I didn’t expect it would happen that soon,” Duaran spoke with a huge, warm smile. “Don’t worry even if you don’t make use of what I gave you. I know you are focused on getting stronger, but if you happen upon a chance to pick up smithing be sure to do so,” he said and winked at Laien, then stepped back, leaving the twelve-year-old on the verge of bursting out with laughter. To have a mass of muscles like Duaran behave ‘cutely’ and wink at him meaningfully was too much; it was too funny!
“Let’s get this old man out of the way early, what do you say, boy?” William walked to the front, leading two excellent War Horses by the reins. One of the two was the black-furred Bellicose, while the other one was a brown stallion of William’s own grooming which he brought for Laien’s friend. Both magical beasts were at the ninth mortal realm and were definitely one of the best war horses around.
Yin, who was standing about two or three steps away from Laien immediately took interest in the brown War Horse William brought for him. He had heard from William war horses were proud and brave creatures, so he hoped the beast wouldn’t be too terrified of him and would let him ride it without making too much of a fuss.
“To be fair with you two, I planned to keep this one for my own use,” William said with a challenging smile and glanced at Yin. “But since Laien requested the best one I had, I brought this stubborn beast. As long as you can prove you are capable of handling him, he is yours,” he declared straightforwardly, at his age no longer caring about money too much. Just the fact he had a chance to speak and make friends with so many interesting people yesterday thanks to Laien’s invitation was more than enough of a compensation for him.
Yin and Laien smiled at each other meaningfully, then Yin approached the brown War Horse. The stallion froze solid when he sensed Yin’s presence. It instinctually lowered its head, too terrified to even consider fleeing as a viable option. When meeting a magical beast so superior to him… he had no choice but to submit.
In fact, even Bellicose began stomping restlessly as he was struggling internally between submitting to Yin and remaining loyal to Laien.
“We didn’t see each other for a bit and you already forget whose you are?” Laien asked with a smirk and also stepped forward, rousing his aura ever so slightly. The results were instantaneous; Bellicose calmed down and the brown War Horse appeared to have started peeking at him restlessly. The two horses were only able to remain more or less calm because each of those scary boys seemed to have chosen one of them; they didn’t need to worry about which monster they should rather follow.
“Ridiculous,” William exclaimed in disbelief. He knew how proud and stubborn this brown War Horse was, but what he witnessed now was an instant, utter submission! And not only that, those two stallions were genuinely terrified of Laien and Yin; and that was despite Bellicose already being familiar with Laien! That could only mean those two were immensely strong, strong enough to make magical beasts of the ninth rank fear them instinctually!
“Just when an old man thinks he already saw everything…” William shook his head and laughed helplessly. “The brown one is yours, name him as you will,” he said with a smile and let go of the reins of both horses. War Horses weren’t like normal animals; once they’ve chosen their masters they wouldn’t randomly start running around. It wasn’t necessary for him to keep holding the reins, the two would patiently wait here until their masters had them do something else.
“Thank you,” Yin said gratefully and caressed the brown war horse’s head. He didn’t really feel like naming the stallion though, so he would likely keep referring to him as the ‘brown one’ or something along those lines.
“I’ve also got something I can give you,” Cran decided to come forward sooner rather than later. He brought out a middle-grade interspatial ring and handed it over to Laien. “I’ve convinced father to give me a few hundred mid-grade water elemental stones and a few dozen high-grade ones. He really was overjoyed when he heard I’d sent out a marriage proposal letter, so he went as far as to stretch the law a bit,” he explained, himself very surprised that someone like his father would break the law so unhesitatingly just because he requested him to. The ‘crime’ wasn’t really a big one, but still!
“Thanks.” Laien placed the gift inside his own interspatial ring. If he were to ever find himself in grave danger, those explosive elemental stones would prove to be of a great assistance. A few dozen high-grade ones thrown at once could even kill a strong martial master if he failed to defend or dodge in time. They were quite a precious asset; it was no surprise most countries in the world were monopolizing their use for their armies during the wartime.
“We wanted to think something up too, but…” Shei said with an apologetic smile as she approached with Kuan. They were Roderick’s disciples, but even their master didn’t have anything he could give Laien that would be of any sensible use. The two of them simply weren’t strong or rich enough to be in possession of anything Laien could need during his journey.
“I never expected to get any gifts, so don’t beat yourself over it,” Laien said with a laugh, aware of Shei and Kuan’s circumstances. He wouldn’t be able to call himself their friend if he were petty enough to complain and say they should have given him something like money if they couldn’t think up anything useful.
“Oh, so you didn’t! What a relief!” the younger of the two sisters, Lina exclaimed rather loudly, causing many of those present to smile and chuckle. “You’ve got amazing friends now, huh? The old poor us aren’t a match anymore,” she mentioned playfully, as always speaking very straightforwardly and without beating around the bush.
“Lina! How can you keep saying those things?” Hana rebuked her little sister. She personally recognized the difference between them and the people Laien was now hanging around, so even though she was a bit sad she didn’t hold it against Laien that he wasn’t coming to chat or play with them as often anymore. She saw it as a natural consequence of him growing powerful and influential.
“Yes, yes, who cares,” Lina said with a shrug of her shoulders. She was nine years old already, so the opinions of her older sister were beginning to matter less and less to her. “Why don’t you tell big brother than you are going out with Dan now? I’m sure he would love to know,” she inquired with a devilish smile, pretending to be all ‘whoops’ afterward.
“So you two are finally going out? Congratulations,” Laien said with a smile, amused to see Dan and Hana blushing so strongly at the mere mention. Weren’t those two older than him? They really should be able to act a bit more composed!
“I wrote down some pointers father has beaten into my head,” Dan began saying and produced an interspatial ring on top of the palm of his hand, obviously trying to change the subject. “If you ever feel like giving smithing a try, they might be helpful,” he said a bit awkwardly and gave the ring to Laien.
“Both of you want to make me into a smith, huh?” Laien chortled. It wasn’t that he disliked the idea of committing some time and effort to a hobby; he simply didn’t have spare time for such things! Maybe in ten or twenty years…. but not in the near future.
“Big brother…” Rune attempted to speak up, but his voice ended up being fairly quiet. To him, Laien was his best, most important friend… but they were meeting less and less. The worlds the two of them were living in were growing too far apart, as his mother tended to often say. He knew he wasn’t talented enough nor did he come from any important family; he had no way of keeping up with Laien… but instead of bringing him relief, those realistic thoughts were causing him to feel nothing but great sadness and regret.
“When you return, we won’t be friends anymore, right…?” he asked in a shaky voice, pretty much on the verge of crying. He had been training as hard as he could…. but he was already nine years old and he barely reached the third mortal realm. His chances of becoming a martial master were incredibly low, if not non-existent. He… he had no hope of living in the same world as Laien. He could perhaps be his old friend, acquaintance… but they would never truly be friends again.