Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 24. Traveling.
“We struck it rich,” Liza bragged with a laugh after returning to the group in the forest at the outskirts of the bandit camp. “Those bastards really had a lot of wealth on themselves. I can’t imagine how many people they killed to gather so much. It’s a good thing we got rid of them,” she said contentedly, pleased with both the result and the spoils of battle.
“Even though I’ve had enough of this headhunting,” Ruan said with a sigh, though also with a slight smile. “I must admit we did a ‘good deed’, as you boys would say. I suggest we stop at that much though unless we want to face half of the Anarchic Lands next time they decide to gang up on us,” he advised cynically and smiled at the boys meaningfully. Were they to continue killing every thug they could find they would finally push the locals so far into the corner that they would all leash back at once. At that point, even their unit would have little to no hope of surviving, not when faced with thousands of bandits and their martial master level leaders.
“Yeah, well,” Laien laughed a little and scratched the back of his head. “We agree that it’s enough. Let’s just ride through the Anarchic Lands now and get to the Eulean Union,” he said with a smile, but couldn’t resist smirking and chuckling just a little when he saw how pleased and relieve Ruan was by his words. Did he take the two of them to be stupid? They liked to take some risks, but they weren’t about to recklessly get themselves into a very dangerous situation with no outs.
“Guys, just get it over with,” Ethane called out to his two friends as they approached. The two glanced at him in confusion, but they caught on quickly after he smiled and gestured at Laien with a slight movement of his head.
It took them a few seconds to find the words and to find the courage an adult needed to apologize to a child, but they managed to get themselves to speak.
“We acted immaturely back then, sorry,” Dinne said awkwardly and looked away. He was being honest, but it didn’t change the fact that he was feeling really ashamed to have put himself into a position where he needed to apologize to a young boy for his own childish behavior.
“That’s right, we hope you can forget about that event,” Dinne said in a troubled manner. “Sorry,” he added, not knowing what else to say.
“It’s fine,” Laien said brightly, glad they could put the past behind themselves and get along like they used to. Many months of the journey were still ahead of them and traveling in a group which members were friendly to each other was much more pleasant compared to all those awkward silences and avoided gazes they had went through the past few weeks.
“How about we ride until the evening to get further away from here, then set up a camp to rest?” Ruan suggested, preferring not to stay the night so close to the camp they had wiped out moments ago. It wasn’t really about the danger involved; he just didn’t like the place. “Can you handle the ride?” he asked and glanced at the bandaged Ethane who was sitting on the grass.
“As long as we aren’t galloping too recklessly it won’t be a problem,” he said straightforwardly, not shrinking away from the medium amount of pain a ride would case him.
“You guys are fine with that too?” Ruan asked the boys and smiled when the two nodded in agreement. It took some time, but this journey of theirs was slowly growing to be a pleasant experience.
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Four days passed in the blink of an eye. During that time the boys and their guards didn’t encounter even one bandit despite having traveled around three thousand kilometers to the west of the Anarchic Lands. They weren’t surprised there were no more large-scale ambushes, but it was very strange for there to not be any small, random attacks either. All they could do was to make a random guess that the news about them had spread quickly and the bandits made a clear path for them, staying as far away as possible to avoid being hunted down.
Although it was worrying, the empty and safe roads allowed them to move at a fair peace despite the hard terrain. They have so far gone about two thousand five hundred kilometers into the Anarchic Lands, what meant they were yet to cross one-tenth of their width.
Their overall tempo was admittedly a bit slow, but that was because Ethane wasn’t fully healed yet. It would take him two or three more days to get into a state allowing him to ride for a whole day without stopping and then they would be able to cross about one thousand kilometers each day. However after Ethane would get back to his best state after a few more days they would be able to travel one thousand kilometers each day, and even more if they rushed.
The mood in their group had gotten much better in the recent days, just like everyone had expected. They would sit together to eat dinner every evening and chat for a bit, then everyone would do whatever he was in the mood for. For Laien and Yin, it was most usually sparring with each other; they could use the time on horseback to train their cultivation bases and focus on their insights, but they also were very much fond of competing against each other.
“Aaa~ah, they are at it again, can’t sleep in at all,” Liza grumbled, woken up from her light sleep by the sounds of steel clashing nearby. The sounds weren’t loud by any means, but they were camping in the middle of nowhere after all. The slightest unnatural sound was enough to wake them all up. “I kind of wish they were a bit more easy-going,” she said with a sigh and sat down, the stretched herself lazily.
“If they get even more easy-going they will turn insane,” Ruan commented with a smirk from atop a stone by the campfire.
“Maybe,” Liza said with a laugh. “I got more money than I could have asked for from this escapade, so, to be honest, I won’t even be that mad if they choose to use up the entire year to travel slowly. Who knows maybe more opportunities to earn some bonus will appear,” she said readily, failing to realize she was beginning to display the same easy-going attitude she had been complaining about so much.
“You think it’s a good idea to be asking that guy to be on watch?” Liza sat beside Ruan and brought up quietly, glancing at the black-cloaked man sitting on a tree on the outskirts of their small camp. “I mean I know Jin is watching too, and he might be silly or stupid sometimes, but he at least is trustworthy,” she said with a sigh. She hadn’t been paying much attention to this man but now that everything else had calmed down his unsettling presence was beginning to wear down on her.
“I don’t know,” Ruan admitted with a sigh. “He didn’t help us during any fights either. He only kills those who attack him. He is undoubtedly a martial master of the third rank… but I don’t think the boys noticed yet. His aura-hiding skills are exquisite and he is suppressing his Qi all the time,” he said frowningly, not knowing what to think about this companion of theirs. When he didn’t care much about Laien and Yin he couldn’t have been bothered with the identity and goals assigned to that black-cloaked man by the Cail family, but now he couldn’t not think about them.
It was pretty much the same for Liza. When she threw away her biases and tried to befriend the boys, she found out that she could get along with them pretty well. To her honest surprise, she came to like Laien a lot, even though she had thought him to be a ‘young master’ and had acted with contempt towards him in the beginning of their journey. She didn’t know why… well, she knew why she found Laien’s cheeky attitude to be oddly charming. Maybe if he was a few years older then she would even consider him as a potential partner, but as it was he was still a kid in her eyes.
Twenty minutes passed and Ruan, Liza and the three guards of the Valius family were now eating the hot soup for the breakfast. The sounds of sparring stopped in the forest and a minute later Laien and Yin came back to the camp, both of them chatting away happily as they walked towards the fireplace.
“Hrm? What is that idiot trying to do?” Liza frowned when she saw Jin jump off the tree hurriedly and head straight towards the boys. He hopefully wasn’t having any strange ideas? “Well, he must be pent up…” she thought to herself and smirked a little. Two weeks of hunting the bandits and now a few days of her not being interested in his offers; did all this frustration cause Jin to turn into an even bigger idiot than he already was?
“I don’t think we need to worry about the boys though,” Ethane pointed out with a laugh, beginning to listen in and anticipating what was going to happen.
“We should stop him before he… ah, whatever,” Ruan rolled his eyes and gave up. Maybe Jin needed to learn the lesson on his own if the reason wasn’t enough to convince him he wasn’t the most persuasive and the most desirable man in the world. He couldn’t just coerce anyone he found likable into a relationship with him, no matter how lucky he had been with his ‘romances’ in the past. Yes, he was muscular and good-looking, he was probably very skilled in bed too... but not everyone would appreciate his advances.
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“Your skill with the spear keeps going up,” Yin praised merrily. “It’s getting harder and harder to find any openings,” he added, feeling very much motivated to keep finding new flaws in Laien’s defense and improving his own skill with the sword while doing so.
“Yeah, but I’m not catching up to you at all,” Laien said with a somewhat resigned sigh. “Be it insights, the skill with the weapons or the cultivation speed, I can’t begin getting ahead in any of those things,” he added with a helpless smirk. Despite what he was saying, however, he was motivated and his mind was set on the clear goal he had in front of himself; getting stronger than Yin was.
“That being said, It would be nice if I made some improvements in my martial art. Do I really need to find and gain access to a top-level water element martial art before I can go forward?” he wondered quietly. The moment he became a true dual practitioner the gap between him and Yin would shrink considerably. On the other hand, if he created an average martial art… he would find it very difficult to surpass Yin with spiritual arts alone.
“Huh? What is it?” Laien asked when Jin walked into their path and stood in the way, looking as if he had something to say. He liked Jin the least out of the people in this group, but he was in a good mood so he could as well listen to whatever Jin wanted to bring up.
“I was wondering if you wouldn’t want to play with me,” Jin said with a smile, his hidden intentions… well, they weren’t hidden at all.
“How do you still not get it?” Laien asked with a heavy sigh. “We aren’t interested in you. What’s so hard to understand?” he asked somewhat angrily but refused to let his mood be spoiled by Jin’s ridiculousness.
“As far as I’m concerned,” Jin began saying brightly. “You are just playing hard to get. I know those stubborn types very well,” he mentioned playfully, his self-confidence as unwavering as ever.
Laien groaned and shook his head. There was no point talking to this man; he could expect better results from trying to teach a dog how to speak human tongue. He intended to go past Jin and ignore him, but he stopped himself from taking the first step when he sensed that Yin got quite angry.
“You know you can’t force us, you are weaker than either of us is,” Yin stated clearly, not expecting Jin to reply to this point. “But, do you intend to do the same you were trying to do with us to some other girl or a boy we meet along the way?” he asked and although no killing intent leaked from his body, his gaze was ice-cold.
“Yes, of course,” Jin answered, genuinely surprised by this adversary tone Yin used to ask the question. “Why? Is there anything wrong with it?” he inquired, wondering what was this boy expecting from him. Was he supposed to go into a celibate or something? The life was there to be made use of; if one didn’t follow his desires and seek happiness, what was the point of living?
“Yes, there is a problem,” Yin said strongly. “You can either promise you won’t use strength to force anyone to do anything with you, or…” he warned, getting angrier by the second. Just imagining what Jin could have done to him and Laien had they been weaker or what he could to do some other youths… or even to adults; it was all filling him with disgust.
“Or?” Jin raised his eyebrows and asked, failing to comprehend what was Yin’s problem. Why should he stop making people happy? Why would he tell him to do that?
“Or I will kill you,” Yin responded without hesitation, startling everyone listening. Yes, they had all thought Jin’s attitude was wrong, but none of them thought of going as far as threatening him with death to force him to change his ways. The world was bad enough of a place as it was. Compared with some people what Jin was doing wasn’t all that bad; it wasn’t good, but it wasn’t evil either.
“You must be joking,” Jin said with a laugh, not taking Yin seriously in the slightest. However, his face fell and he took a step back when twin swords suddenly appeared in Yin’s hands.
“Try me,” Yin said provokingly, obviously feeling much more angered by Jin than Laien who had grown up in a big city and had gotten used to seeing how ruthless the world was.
Jin was very pushy, sure… but in the end he never really assaulted them. Laien saw no reason to be acting up so strongly, but he did nothing to stop Yin either.
“Listen, calm down and let’s talk it out,” Jin said a bit nervously and took his greatsword out just in case Yin decided to attack him. “I don’t get what’s so wrong about seducing people and making their dreams of a short, emotional and sensual adventure come true,” he argued, seeing no sense in Yin’s demand.
“Seduce them all you want, just don’t force them to do anything,” Yin said stubbornly. From the impression he had gotten from Jin he was almost entirely sure this man would have had tried to overpower him and Laien were they normal youths who refused his advances, and he would claim something like ‘you will like it in the end, you will see’. He truly found this kind of thing to be disgusting.
“Sometimes some soft coercion is what you need to realize what you really want and how good it feels…” Jin mentioned daringly, attempting to turn the tables in this conversation on Yin just like he had done with quite a few stubborn women who pretended to be cold and unwilling on the outside.
Yet, his heart skipped a beat when he saw Yin stepping forward and slashing with his sword. He hurriedly put his guard up and roused his Qi. He managed to block the slash just fine, but that was mainly because Yin wasn’t actually aiming at his body; the moment their two weapons collided, the blade of Yin’s sword surged with lightning and cut into the greatsword, making Jin and the rest of the group with exception of Laien and the black-cloaked man to drop their jaws.
Jin’s greatsword wasn’t a top-grade weapon, but it wasn’t all that far for this quality, and despite that, it was cut into by one strike of Yin’s sword? Just what were those twin swords made of? And what was Laien’s spear made of considering that it wasn’t as much as scratched after clashing with those twin swords thousands of times during the boys’ spars?
Yin snorted and twisted his sword to the side, leveraging it against the cut-into blade of the greatsword. The steel cracked, then broke completely. Two-thirds of the greatsword’s blade fell off, rendering the weapon pretty much useless. A skilled smith would be able to reforge it, but it would likely be cheaper to buy a new one considering how pricey a smith’s services usually were.
“You still think I’m not serious?” Yin asked, his voice cold and calm. The next time it wouldn’t be Jin’s weapon that was going to get hurt; it would be his body and in case he still refused to comply… he would have no qualms about killing him.
Jin grumbled but raised his hands in front of himself to show that he didn’t want to fight. “Okay, okay. I promise not to use force. Happy?” he said unhappily, left with no other option but to do whatever Yin was demanding.
Yin eyed Jin for a few long seconds, then snorted quietly and put his twin sword away into the interspatial rings. “You better keep your word,” he said offhandedly and walked past Jin, going to the fireplace to eat the breakfast. Ruan’s cooking wasn’t anything fancy, but it always tasted good and was more than enough to fill the stomach; as expected from a former courier, pretty much.
“Oh well.” Laien didn’t think much about what just happened and followed Yin, all in all, feeling good about Jin being put in his place.
“Good job,” Ethane congratulated Yin when the boys joined the breakfast on the provisory stone seats. “That narcissist needed to have a cold bucket of water poured on top of his head,” he added with a chuckle, only regretting that Yin hadn’t done more than just break Jin’s greatsword. He didn’t like the man ever since hearing him talk about getting his hands on the boys at the first inn they stayed in, so seeing him humiliated and reprimanded for his behavior was very satisfying to him.
“To be honest I wish I could have done that myself,” Dinne said and glanced at Laien, then smiled helplessly. They were supposed to be protecting them, but they were weaker than Jin, and surely much weaker than the two of them. Being tasked with the protection of twelve-year-olds who were stronger than they were… it filled them with complicated feelings.
“You are being too harsh on him,” Liza said with a sigh, causing everyone to stop eating for the time being and turn their eyes to her. “I mean, he is an idiot and a pervert, but he isn’t a bad person. I saw him seducing men and women before and he never went too far if the other person wasn’t agreeing. Sure he kept being pushy and always got his way in the end… eh, whatever. Making him promise not to be violent can’t hurt, but he will act grumpy for a few days,” she tried to explain in Jin’s defense, however after considering which relationship was worth more to her she chose to side with Yin.
“The atmosphere was getting better too,” Ruan murmured to himself, not intending for the words to have come out or for anyone to have heard them. Yet, Liza who was sitting right next to him heard him and so did Yin, whose expression sank a little, but only for a second or two. Liza, on the other hand, bit onto her lower lip lightly, then after some consideration turned around and shouted.
“Oi, you sulking hunk of meat, come eat!”
Jin glanced at Liza from atop his spot on the tree to which he had returned to after the quarrel with Yin. However, he looked away right afterward and pretended not to have heard her.
“Really?” Liza said helplessly, then raised her voice to call out again. “Who would have thought you were so insecure despite pretending to be so strong and confident. Are you basically telling us you won’t be able to find any more dates when relying on your charm alone? Do you need to tie the person up or else you can’t do anything?” she asked sarcastically, challenging Jin’s sense of pride.
What followed was a brief period of silence, after which Jin snorted loudly and jumped down from his spot on the tree and headed to the campfire. Who was saying he needed stupid things like physical strength to get people to sleep with him?! He would show Yin how wrong he was at the first good opportunity after they left the Anarchic Lands. Yes, there surely would be some rich and beautiful women in the Eulean Union and he would make them his!
“Hmph.” Jin sat down and produced a bowl, then poured himself a portion of the nourishing and tasty soup of Ruan’s.
Liza smirked to herself and glanced at Ruan, but contrary to her expectations he didn’t look happier than before and in fact, appeared to be even more annoyed. What’s more, Yin also didn’t look too happy with Jin’s presence and his mood was rubbing off on Laien, and in consequence on the three guards from the Valius family too. Seriously, she for once tried to do something nice and that was the result she got for it! Next time she would keep to herself and not care at all.