Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 53. Infiltrating the Harems.
“Isn’t that a little too much…?” Laien asked rather helplessly as another bit of makeup was being applied to his face.
“Come on, don’t move!” Amber reprimanded playfully. “If you make my hand slip I will need to start from the very beginning, you know? Now, don’t move,” she empathized, grabbed an eyelash liner and continued working on Laien’s looks.
Laien groaned silently, wondering if this makeup was really necessary. However, since both Amber and that man, Shahash, insisted on it, he didn’t have much of a choice and gave in. “I’m so going to find a chance to get back at them for it…” he thought silently, giving his best not to wince or make any facial expressions. Since this thing was necessary, he wanted to get over with it as soon as possible.
“Here, all done,” Amber took a step back and said with satisfaction. Yes, the simplicity was the best in this case.
“So soon?” Laien opened his eyes, asking in surprise. He was sure she would keep him at this chair for half an hour or something, but she finished in a little over a minute.
“You are both good-looking enough,” Amber said with a wry smile. “You are better looking than most girls I know; you both have your own charm points too. You are a bit more of a rough northern type, while Yin is simply beautiful. You two go well together,” she said with an amused smile, perhaps intending to tease the two of them a little, but little did she know such teasing was pretty much pointless in this case.
“Mm, it does look pretty good,” Yin walked up from the side and took a look at Laien’s face. In truth nothing much has changed; his cheeks were a bit more flushed now and his eyebrows and eyelashes were more eye-catching. The flush looked nice, but it wasn’t like he couldn’t see a natural blush on Laien’s face often enough to be enamored with some makeup.
“It’s good that you think so because it’s your turn now,” Amber said eagerly. “You, get up. You, sit down. Hurry up! We can’t afford to spend the whole day here,” she urged, refusing to stall the plan from her side. The moment Shahash came back and told them everything was ready, they would set out immediately and not a second later; just so she could kill a few more Ikarians. A few dozen more, maybe hundreds if she was lucky.
Laien retreated to the spot by the wall Yin had been standing at, whereas Yin sat down on the chair by the table. Amber polished Yin’s face up slightly, not needing to put much if any work into the makeup. Yet, when she finished she sighed a little and brought out four seemingly normal rings; two golden ones and two obsidian-black ones.
“Those are high-grade interspatial rings designed specially to be unrecognizable even by an experienced eye,” Amber explained in a much less merry tone compared to her usual manner of speech. “If you want to take your interspatial rings with you then I strongly suggest you put your own rings into those ones and… well. Shahash recommended you to cut your ears and make earrings out of those to avoid any kind of suspicion,” she said with an apologetic smile. She was definitely not fond of any kind of pain herself so she didn’t quite like this method, but since it interspatial rings needed to be forged into a closed ring shape to work, disguising them as earrings were the most surefire method to avoid having them taken away.
“That sucks a bit,” Laien said with a smirk. He was a water-element practitioner and so he could heal his own and Yin’s wounds; in fact, considering their martial cultivation a cut on the ear would heal completely on its own after a few hours. They didn’t quite have a few hours though, and there was also no need to endure such a light but annoying injury. As for the pain? Yes, it sucked, but both of them had experienced a far greater pain before and wouldn’t concern themselves with something like cutting their ears too much.
“Well then,” Laien chuckled quietly as he received the two obsidian-black rings from Amber. He exchanged a glance with Yin, then gave him the black rings and took the golden ones for himself.
“Oho,” Amber revealed a surprised smile and nodded in approval. Since those two were coming in as a package, it was very fitting to have their themes cross slightly. It would add another notch to their value and make it less likely for them to be separated down the line.
“Should be simple enough,” Laien murmured and covered his earlobes in a layer of water. He made the first cut through applying some pressure, dyeing the water red. He parted the skin with the same water and slipped the golden ring into the correct spot, then healed the wound and repeated the process with the second ear.
“Would you mind?” Yin asked and gave Laien a meaningful smile. Although lightning was powerful, it was ill-suited for precise tasks of this kind. Laien’s water would do a much better job.
“Yeah, give them to me,” Laien said with a slight smile. He took the obsidian-black rings in his hands and stood right in front of Yin, but half a step away from him. He raised his hand and put them to Yin’s ears. While looking Yin in the eye he converged some water from his spiritual energy and did for him the same he had done for himself.
“You found some interesting kids,” a man clad in loose white-brown clothes commented at the doorstep, looking at Laien and Yin with unconcealed curiosity.
With two obsidian-black rings placed firmly in his earlobes, Yin glanced at Shahash. The feeling this man gave him was still the same as when he saw him for the first time half an hour ago. This man’s heart was black and empty, devoid of any strong emotions and all humanly desires. In a sense, a man like him was much more frightening than the most furious of berserkers. Why would someone like that help Flora and the others, what were his reasons, what was his motivation? These were questions Yin very much wanted to know the answers to.
“Shahash,” Amber turned to look at the brown-haired man, as always feeling amazed at how quietly he could walk and how little aura he gave off. “Is it the time to go?” she asked, some well-masked bloodthirst lingering in the pupils of her eyes.
“As soon as I receive a confirmation that everything is in its place from Flora,” Shahash replied calmly and flicked his finger, ordering two maidservants to enter. “For the time being, here are some clothes. Feel free to pick something suitable. I might trade the cloth amongst the many other goods, but I never understood what people see in the most of the things I sell,” he said jokingly. He had no appreciation for many of the items he sold, but how could he have had become a magnate if he didn’t understand how people’s hearts worked, what they desired and how they wanted to have more and better than anyone else?
“Wow, so frilly and colorful…” Laien complained while sorting out the few sets the maidservants placed on the table. “Does it need to be so strange? We will look like clowns.”
“You will look like dancing clowns, to be exact,” Amber specified with a laugh. “But that’s what’s popular in the west, so choose something and get dressed,” she added with an uncaring smile and a shrug of her shoulders.
“So, the most comfortable-looking one that is,” Laien said with a sigh and pulled one set of the clothes into one of the interspatial rings, then swapped it with his usual ones. “At least it’s not a skirt,” he said resignedly and watched how Yin did the same. He could imagine a woman performing a belly-dance in clothes like they were wearing; was it really necessary to put those things on…?
“Put those cloaks on too,” Shahash said in a tone that was closer to making a suggestion than giving an order and produced two light-brown cloaks from his interspatial ring. “After we leave, be sure to keep the hoods on. I don’t need to remind you to act like slaves? The version we will go with is that you are cousins from a southern family that got destroyed in an internal conflict. I trust Amber has already explained the details while I was gone?”
“She did,” Laien responded calmly, but at the same time eyed Shahash suspiciously. He wasn’t as good at reading people’s hearts as Yin, but he could tell when someone was dangerous. “We still have time, right? How about you answer a few questions of ours?”
“Oi, Laien!” Amber wanted to reprimand Laien, having instantly grown nervous due to the impertinent tone he had spoken with to Shahash. Bickering with Darcy was one thing, but angering this man was the stupidest thing in the world! However, before she could say more Shahash raised his hand and gestured her to step down. He didn’t appear to be angry at all and rather, his lips were slightly curving upwards into a very thrifty smile.
“What do you want to know?” Shahash asked straightforwardly, quite apparently not perturbed by Laien’s attitude.
“Why are you helping them, and us?” Laien asked the most important of the questions which lingered in his mind, the one both he and Yin were very curious about.
Shahash laughed quietly. “If I say it’s all for revenge, will that be enough of an explanation for you?” he answered the question by asking another one.
“You don’t want revenge,” Yin stated as if it was the matter of fact, causing Amber to frown in discontent, but at the same time making Shahash raise his eyebrows.
“What makes you think so?” Shahash inquired, just as curious about the boys’ thoughts as they were about his motives.
“Your heart is beating, but it’s dead,” Yin said while shaking his head. “It’s not the heart of someone who burns with the desire for revenge, of someone who keeps hatred buried deep within his soul,” he explained and as he spoke, he couldn’t help but sigh a little. Until not that long ago his own heart had been festering with suppressed hatred; it rotted due to the obsessive, yet tightly sealed desire for revenge. Yet, now his heart and mind were as clear as the azure sky. He still hated, he still wanted revenge… but those emotions were no longer like a poison to him, but instead like a nourishment.
“You say some interesting things,” Shahash said and for the first time in years, smiled in a genuine manner. “You are a fine young man, so you might not understand it… but not all kinds of emotions, let’s say hatred, for example, present themselves in the same way,” he explained, then allowed just a little bit of the emotions he had long since abandoned to emerge as he reminisced the past.
“After you’ve lost absolutely everything you had considered dear... you grow numb to everything. The world loses all its color and nothing matter anymore. Life, death… they become one and the same,” he said bitterly, the smile no longer present on his face. “I don’t fear death, but I can’t stand knowing that my dear ones are dead while those who murdered them enjoy their lives without any change, without any punishment from the Rala or the Heavens… or any of the Gods people all over the continent believe in,” he finished with a hint of anger and grievance in his tone and in his eyes, which he however quickly suppressed once again.
“So, do you trust me not to betray you now?” Shahash asked casually, returning to his standard inoffensive and merchant-like mannerism of speech.
“No, I don’t,” Yin replied with a slight smirk. “I don’t trust you not to betray us, but I’m pretty sure you won’t sell us out this time around,” he clarified before Amber could voice her objections, what she had definitely been planning to do judging by the look she had on her face.
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“That’s the correct attitude,” Shahash laughed, his opinion of Yin going up by a notch. He had already heard about those two boys being exceptionally strong, but it was very rare for one to be both strong and wise.
“Master, the confirmation is here,” a servant entered the room very briefly and reported the news. “The carriage and Ulash are waiting in the backyard,” he added, bowed and left in haste.
“Finally,” Amber murmured with a dangerous smile on her face. She nodded at the boys and left without delay, wanting to take the post assigned to her as soon as possible.
“It’s the time, so it seems,” Shahash said and gestured Laien and Yin to follow him. He would drop them at the carriage and have his trusted servant bring them to the gates of the Grand Palace as planned; after that, everything would be up to them.
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“Eh,” Laien sighed a little as the carriage approached one of the Grand Palace’s gates. “It really is harder to only conceal my cultivation base instead of hiding my whole presence. A martial master of the third rank would probably be able to recognize that something is wrong, and just about any spiritual master would be able to see through this rough aura disguise,” he thought resignedly. It was just a little, but the potential danger of the plan they had agreed to help with was beginning to dwell upon him and causing his heart to beat faster.
They could only hope they wouldn’t meet any high-level practitioners who also took the time to scan their bodies with their aura. It would still have been simpler if they could hide their strength fully, but Shahash had told them to restrict it and not hide it completely. After all, doing something as unreasonable as crippling the cultivation bases of precious slaves was too inconspicuous to be glossed over. As practitioners the slaves would heal faster, look young longer and would have more durable bodies; unless a slave was extremely strong to begin with it was frowned upon to cripple it.
“Open the gate! I bring gifts to the Grand Yimar!” Ulash, the man assigned to deliver the two of them to the Grand Palace by Shahash called out as loudly as he could without aiding himself with Qi.
“Whose gifts?” a guard shouted back from the watchtower.
“From Yimar Aeri of the Banxi Yimarate!” Ulash yelled back. “I had been hurrying over here day and night without sleeping for the past week, so could you hurry up and call the chamberlain or whoever Yimar Sharu assigned to receiving gifts?” he asked impatiently, his voice not betraying even the slightest hint of agitation or nervousness; only revealing weariness and fatigue.
“Fine, wait a minute,” the guard shouted again and went to find the chamberlain, while having one of his friends go and open the gate in the meanwhile.
“At least the first part went smooth enough.” Laien and Yin exchanged smiles as they carriage rolled into the spacious courtyard of the Grand Palace.
“Rala Salar. So, what did Yimar Aeri send?” the guard that opened the gate and let them in asked in the passing. His days mostly consisted of getting bored at the post, so he came to enjoy chatting quite a lot as a form of passing time.
“Rala Salar. I brought two boys for the Grand Yimar’s harem,” Ulash replied in brief words.
“Just that?” the guard asked, very much surprised. Wasn’t Yimar Aeri quite a rich and influential figure? Shouldn’t he at least have sent some additional gifts apart from some two slaves?
“Only so much, but also so much.” Ulash laughed and smiled wryly at the guard. “Wait for the chamberlain to arrive, you will see for yourself,” he said with an unchanged, amused smile on his face.
The guard appeared to be rather intrigued so instead of asking any more question, he leaned against the carriage and waited with Ulash. About five minutes later another gate guard came back with a white-robed man who seemed to be both happy and angry at the same time.
“Rala Salar, quite some time you’ve chosen to disturb me,” the chamberlain said with a frown. “Don’t you know I always bathe at noon? I guess you wouldn’t know, eh. I hope Yimar Aeri at least sent us something nice if he wants the Grand Yimar to be satisfied,” he said with a slight smile and gestured Ulash to hurry up and bring out whatever he had brought.
“Get out.” Ulash hit the wall of the carriage with his fist and got down to the ground, then walked up to chamberlain’s side.
The carriage’s door soon opened and two light-brown cloaked children, judging from the size of their bodies, came out of it. The guard that had exchanged a few words with Ulash tilted his head and bowed a little as he tried to take a peek, but the two kept their heads low and were hiding under hoods. He wouldn’t be able to see anything unless he kneeled.
“What for Rala are you doing?” the chamberlain snorted at the guard who quickly straightened up and bowed his head apologetically. “Let’s see what we have here,” the chamberlain said and unceremoniously removed the hoods of the heads of the two children in front of him; and the moment he did, he breathed in deeply and his eyes opened wide.
Even the chamberlain who had seen quite a few things in his life was stunned; as for the two guards? Their faces flushed red with jealousy at the thought that the Grand Yimar would be able to enjoy two such beautiful slaves. However, as low-rank guards they didn’t have access to the main harem, so they could only dream about possessing such things as those two. Willing or not, they needed to be satisfied with the chance they were given and at least feast their eyes upon those two slaves.
“Where has Yimar Aeri found such an exquisite pairing? They are perfect!” the chamberlain praised wholeheartedly. He had suggested an order to gather young beautiful boys and girl to be issued, but none of the ones they managed to get ahold of or buy could hold a candle to these two! Especially that green-eyed green-haired one, on the mainland he would be worth as much as a large village, if not a small city! If there was nothing wrong with his body, then he was absolutely the best top-quality goods imaginable!
“He captured them by chance in the south a few months ago,” Ulash explained politely. “The two are apparently cousins, while their family had already perished in an internal conflict. They come with no strings attached,” he assured seriously, aware how slave-trading worked. It was fairly simple to obtain normal slaves, but for those high-quality ones? They were often worth so much and most of the time they would be treated so well that an average citizen would dream of becoming one.
“Oh, that’s great,” the chamberlain nodded hurriedly. He had gotten so excited that he forgot to think about the basics. It wouldn’t have been strange for kids like those to have an exceptional background; it would have been terrible if they ended up offending a royal family from the south by making those two slaves, but thankfully there was nothing to worry about.
“And their strength…” the chamberlain mused aloud and released his aura, then smiled and nodded contentedly. “A martial practitioner of the third rank, and a dual practitioner of the second and first ranks. This time around Yimar Aeri might have delivered the best of the gifts out of everyone. He might even end up replacing Yimar Tarkar as the protector of the Banxi Yimarate,” he said with a laugh, but fully meant his words. If the Grand Yimar was very pleased with this gift, and he fully expected him to be, then some reshuffling in the positions occupied by Yimars wouldn’t be a strange thing to happen.
“I shall personally escort those two to the main harem,” he said enthusiastically, sure that some of the good fortune coming from this gift would befall him too as the one who had received it into the Grand Palace. “Is there anything else?” he asked Ulash, briefly considering to offer the man accommodation. However, when he thought about being able to claim all the merit when the Grand Yimar arrived he quickly decided against this idea and chose not to bring it up.
“Nothing, chamberlain,” Ulash responded and bowed his head. “What a careless man. He didn’t even ask for the sigil or a letter of confirmation,” he thought quietly, stopping himself from smiling only with the use of a great amount of mental effort. He would give a lot to be able to see this man’s face when he learned what kind of monsters he had so easily let into the Grand Palace’s harem. Too bad that by then, he would already be far away from this city and this country.
“Good. You two, come with me,” the chamberlain waved his hand at Laien and Yin, gesturing them to follow by his side as if he was commanding a dog; a rare and precious dog, but still a dog.
This time around Laien managed to keep all his emotions under control and not show any contempt towards the chamberlain. Yin also didn’t display any strange behavior and so the two of them put their hoods on and obediently followed by the chamberlain’s side.
“The map Flora gave us was really accurate, but there were a few blind spots, the main harems included,” Laien thought to himself, recalling the layout of the Grand Palace and comparing it with what he could see.
“You two are pretty calm,” the chamberlain pointed out along the way. It was just around noon so most of the inhabitants of the Grand Palace were resting and avoiding the heat; there were only some servants walking around between the five quarters and a few guards stood in various places. Since no one important was looking, the chamberlain allowed himself to relax a little and indulge himself with a chat with those two exceptional slaves.
“Should we not be?” Yin asked in reply. “We were told that as long as we behave, nothing too bad would happen to us…” he mentioned randomly, perfectly mixing in some worry and nervousness into his voice.
“You are right about that,” the chamberlain said with a laugh. As expected of a young master of some noble family, their attitude was much more sensible than of most of the slaves. “You heard that you will be gifted to the Grand Yimar, right? You should consider yourselves lucky. As long as you please him well you might end up enjoying a better life than your old one,” he advised, wishing the boys only the best. The more pleased the Grand Yimar was with them, the better attitude towards Yimar Sharu’s camp he would have after all.
“How to please him well?” Yin asked, the look in his eyes changing for a very cold one for a split second. Thankfully, however, the chamberlain was looking ahead as he spoke with them so he didn’t notice anything strange.
“To begin with, do everything you are told without showing any discontent or displeasure,” the chamberlain went ahead and explained since he was in a really good mood. He usually wouldn’t have bothered to talk with slaves, but those two would be in a direct contact with the Grand Yimar. It wouldn’t hurt if they had a favorable impression of him. “That’s only basics though. If you can really come to enjoy your position and accept being slaves, then your master will usually be more pleased. I don’t need to mention that how you behave during sex is the most important thing, no? You are from the south, you should already have some experience in this regard, mm?” he mentioned and laughed merrily, glanced at the boys and shook his head. It didn’t look like they were too happy about their lot in life, but they really could have ended up in a much worse state than that!
“The sooner you accept your new position the more pleasant your lives will be,” the chamberlain said with a smile. “If you serve the Grand Yimar well, he might even gift you your freedom back once you grow up. However, if you are unruly and disobedient, you might end up in hands of someone who is going to treat you as nothing but disposable toys. For example, you might be left to Tashakir, the Sword of Rala of Yimar Sharu’s. I pity your fate if you come across his and his older brother’s perverted fetishes,” he warned seriously. He had seen the state some of the harem’s slaves ended up after spending the night with Tashakir, his older brother and their friends and even by the Arkarian standards, this bunch was way too wretched and deplorable.
Seeing how neither of the boys responded, the chamberlain chuckled and ended the conversation here, letting them think everything they had just heard through and hopefully come to a right conclusion. The three of them walked in silence for the next twenty minutes at a normal pace and made their way to the common chamber of the main male harem.
“Huh? Why are the doors open?” the chamberlain murmured with a frown. Everyone had been banned from using the main harems until the Grand Yimar had a chance to sort through their commodities and choose the slaves to his liking. Yet, someone dared to ignore Yimar Sharu’s orders under those circumstances? The only person that would do that…
“Tashakir…”
“Oh. Rala Salar, chamberlain,” a white-silver clothed man greeted the chamberlain with a contemptuous smirk as he exited the common chamber with a bunch of his friends. “We just finished celebrating my older brother’s two hundredth’s birthday and had some fun with the new slaves towards the end, I hope it won’t be a problem,” he said with a laugh, obviously not meaning his words in the slightest nor caring if he had caused problems or not.
“Rala Salar… whatever happens to you will be up to the Grand Yimar,” the chamberlain said with a grim expression on his face.
“That’s only if somebody is stupid enough to tell him about that,” Tashakir said wryly, then began laughing loudly with his fourteen or fifteen friends.
The chamberlain’s face sunk and his cheeks burned with helpless anger and embarrassment. Tashakir was right; what could someone like him who was only a martial master of a second rank do? He was good at talking with people and knew how to manage everything, so he had gotten this position through a lot of effort. Yet, he couldn’t compare to one of the Swords of Rala. Tashakir was only seventy years old, but he already was already a martial master at the peak of the fifth Realm of Heroes! Had it not been for him and his family owing their lives to Yimar Sharu, Tashakir would have long since accepted an offer from one of the Grand Yimars or from the Great Prophet himself. Their positions in the social hierarchy were simply too different.
“You brought some new ones I see? Mind letting us take a look?” Tashakir asked with a smirk, caring little for the chamberlain’s permission. He was a bit curious about those two hooded kids the chamberlain brought here since they were both looking down and not revealing their faces at all. Thus, he walked up to the two and without further ado slid the hoods off their heads.