Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 56. Mustafa’s Offer.
Laien shook his head slightly, quickly deciding to leave the thoughts for later. He stored away the man’s corpse and got off the bed, then for the sake of preserving the health of his mental state he took out a little bit of apple soap from his interspatial ring and used it along with some water he created to clean his whole body. He was so disgusted to have anything of that man’s stick to him that if he hadn’t removed the smell and the sweat, he wouldn’t have been able to properly concentrate on doing anything.
A few seconds later, when he was done with cleaning himself, he approached the unconscious youth without wasting any more time. He kneeled by his side and put a hand on his body, to then engulf him in water and begin healing his wounds. As expected, the kid was in a pretty bad state, but comparatively, he wasn’t as injured as Louis had been. He must not have resisted as much and must have simply given up to his fate… after all, what else could he have done? There were only two main choices available to slaves; suffer through everything and live, or commit suicide.
“I’m glad that man is dead,” Yin said calmly as he crouched beside Laien. “I wish all of them could just go and die. All the people who do things like that should be killed,” he said strongly, with a grim look in his eyes. He exchanged a look with Laien, knowing what his friend was worried about; as far as he was concerned, there were some people who deserved death. There was nothing wrong in enjoying killing them or taking satisfaction from clearing the world out of the trash.
Laien smiled at Yin. He didn’t need to use words to express his feelings, so he returned to paying full attention to healing Nathan as fast as he could while still being efficient. A little more than a minute later he finished the process and thought to himself. “I used up just about third of my Qi and spiritual energy so far. It’s better than expected, I will be able to fight without restraining myself too much.”
“You should carry him back,” Yin suggested without beating about the bush. Out of the two of them, Laien was a more balanced type while he specialized in close-range fights and had a few mid-range techniques. Carrying someone would be much less of an obstruction to Laien than to him, and waiting a few minutes for Nathan to wake up and regain enough strength to run on his own wasn’t the greatest option when they were pressed for time.
“Yeah, let’s hurry up and get out of here,” Laien agreed and flung Nathan on his shoulder. The ten-year-old was somewhat smaller than him, but it was still fairly annoying to carry his body; thankfully, with Laien’s own strength of a martial practitioner of the eighth rank, the weight of a few dozen kilograms was nothing so the only problem was the boy’s unwieldy size.
With Nathan on his shoulder, Laien promptly left the room with Yin. The two of them ran back to the chamber where they left Louis, very much hoping that everything was going to go according to the plan. It would be best if they weren’t found out until the very last moment and they could simply jump over the walls of the Grand Palace and proceed to flee the city… but they knew full well that getting out of the Grand Palace safely would be the hardest part.
Moments later, the three of them, including the unconscious Nathan, entered the main chamber of the male harem. When Louis saw them he jumped out to his feet and nearly cried out, but in the nick of time remembered that they needed to be quiet else they would be found out. He had been incredibly anxious and had even begun doubting whether those two were going to return for him; he had begun thinking they left after seeing how dangerous everything was, but they rescued Nathan and came back! He was ashamed that he had doubted them but more than that, he was overjoyed that Nathan was fine and that the two of them wouldn’t be left here alone.
“Come, we are leaving,” Laien said quietly and gestured Louis to hurry up and come along. The long-haired eleven-year-old didn’t need to be asked twice and hurried towards the door; however, it was at this point when the sounds of a conversation reached Laien and Yin’s eras from further down the corridor.
Should they take their chances and flee? Or bide their time and attack that group? The two of them could tell they had at most three or four seconds until that group turned around the corner and entered the corridor they were standing in, so if they wanted to make a choice they needed to do it fast. “Hide,” the two of them thought the same thing as they exchanged a quick look. The chances were the people coming here were medics sent to tend to the wounded youths, and even if they were martial masters, the two of them could deal with most opponents with the advantage of a surprise attack.
With that in mind, they stepped in and closed the door; first moving it very fast, but closing it slowly and quietly. Louis looked at the two of them in confusion, but he kept his mouth shut and didn’t make a ruckus. He was smart enough to realize Laien and Yin wouldn’t act like that for no reason so he gave himself up to follow their directions.
“Go lie down somewhere with him and be quiet, quick,” Laien said and handed Nathan over to Louis. The long-haired youth was a martial practitioner of the fourth rank, so some kilograms were no challenge to him; he did as he was told and put Nathan down on one of the many free pillows fairly close to the door, while Laien and Yin sat down next to each other on some other pillows on the opposite side of the chamber.
Four or five seconds later the sounds of chatting and of the footsteps became clear and even Louis heard them. The youth swallowed nervously; had they walked out then, they would have bumped into those people? Just how good hearing did those two have to catch on so early?
The three of them waited nervously, while the remaining one hundred youths still sat or laid down all around the chamber without showing a hint of spirit in them. They were apathetic to the point of not caring what was going on around them, or they were so wounded that they were barely conscious, or fully unconscious. One could only imagine what they had gone through to become like that, but Laien and Yin had different things on their minds; those people that were coming... they were talking about them!
“Haha, you’ve praised them enough,” a man’s voice came along with a laugh as the door opened. “Let us see if they are all you are making them out to be,” he added cheerfully and walked in, accompanied by a boy that was perhaps five or six years old and followed by the man Laien and Yin recognized as the chamberlain.
“Just take a look yourself, Grand Yimar,” the chamberlain assured with a smile while looking around the chamber. His gaze very soon stopped on Laien and Yin as he spotted their light-brown cloaks; everyone here wore olive cloaks, so it was easy to pick them out from all the other boys.
“Grand… Grand Yimar?!” Laien and Yin almost choked with their own tongues. Wasn’t the Grand Yimar supposed to arrive in a few days? Why did he appear so early, why was there no warning before they entered the Grand Palace and most importantly, did he really come here specifically for them?! From what they knew, the weakest of the Grand Yimars was an expert at Einrah’s level; the two of them wouldn’t be able to run from such a person, much less put up a fight!
“Those two?” Arslan asked impatiently as he followed the chamberlain’s line of sight. He ran up to the two light-brown-cloaked boys and crouched a few meters away from them, attempting to take a better look at their faces. He couldn’t wait to see how the ‘exquisite’ boys looked and wanted to already have a chat with them.
“Oi, be a little more careful,” Mustafa reprimanded gently. He doubted there was any danger from the kids in this place with him protecting Arslan, but this place wasn’t like their City of Makarash; it was better to be more careful rather than sorry.
“You don’t need to worry, Grand Yimar, the guards…” the chamberlain began saying and glanced at one of the room’s corners as he did, only to suddenly choke on his own words. The inner guards… where were they?! He still understood the door guards being away as it was very likely that Tashakir’s older brother came here and had some unreasonable demands towards them, but the inner guards never left this chamber! They wouldn’t leave it unless the order came from Yimar Sharu himself, but since Yimar Sharu wasn’t here the only other option was…
“The guards are gone?” Mustafa raised an eyebrow. “Do you have some intruders here?” he questioned, growing more wary of his surroundings.
“I can’t imagine who would dare to sneak into the Grand Palace, but it seems like someone really did,” the chamberlain admitted while shaking his head. “I imagine it must have been some of the leftover rebels who wanted to sow chaos in the Grand Palace. I shall lead you, Grand Yimar, and your son to the temporary room and head inform the guards as soon as possible,”
“That’s unnecessary,” Mustafa shook his head slightly and smiled a little when he saw the confused look on the chamberlain’s face. He couldn’t help but think that any of his own men would have understood instantly, but it seemed like priorities were reversed for those around here. “Just tell us where the room is and give us the key. There’s no reason to waste time,” he explained amicably. Had he considered this to be a truly dangerous situation he wouldn’t have even wasted time for that, or even for the words he had casually spoken, but he saw no reason to be overly anxious.
“Ah,” the chamberlain let out a quiet sound of realization. Why didn’t he think about it sooner? He had served under Yimar Sharu and had been ordered about by Tashakir for too long; his common sense had all but evaporated. The Grand Yimar obviously wasn’t telling him to disregard the intrusion; the only ones who could possibly act so foolish and arrogant were those two. “Please turn left after leaving the chamber and keep walking ahead, Grand Yimar. Take the first corridor to the left and walk all the way down through it until you reach the outer wall of the building. There will be one door to your left where a suitable room awaits you,” he explained without asking any further questions and handed Mustafa a silver key, intent on making up for being slow on the catch up with swift actions.
“Thank you, you may go,” Mustafa said and nodded lightly. He led the chamberlain away with his gaze, and when the man left he sighed a little, the look on his face turning stern for a brief moment. Arslan was still young and he hadn’t seen much in their hometown, as there truly wasn’t much of that to see… but how could Mustafa himself not notice the poor state many of those kids were in? They also had harems in Makarash, but anyone who dared to sell or purchase such atrocious acts would be swiftly put to death and executed publicly to make an example.
“I shouldn’t spoil Arslan’s mood with this yet, not today,” Mustafa decided silently and took a deep breath to calm himself down. “I will send some of my healers here later and find the ones responsible,” he promised himself, but he still remained oblivious to the state many of the youths abused by Tashakir and his friends were in. Since he didn’t go as far as to release his aura to probe them, mainly because he couldn’t imagine someone would go as far as those men had, he simply didn’t know that many of those kids were unlikely to survive more than a few more hours… while many were already beyond saving unless helped by an expert water or light element spiritual master.
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“Can I go closer to them…?” Arslan turned his head around and asked after a few seconds of prolonged silence. Having been lightly scolded by his father, he obediently waited for his permission before doing anything else, but as time passed and he still couldn’t properly see those two’s faces he began growing rather impatient. There was, of course, the matter of missing guards, but it was a problem from before his father, Reian and the other members of the White Guards arrived, so he wasn’t worried about that in the slightest. He didn’t doubt that this accident would be quickly resolved and would never repeat again; his father was an amazing person, after all.
Mustafa smiled warmly at his son, then turned his gaze to the two youths. If he were to go by their size, he would say there were anywhere between eleven and thirteen years old. They were sitting with their heads lowered and appeared to be nervous and scared; no surprise since they had been enslaved, then sent here as gifts. They must have noticed those wounded boys by now too, it would be weirder if they weren’t scared.
“Well, for now, you two should come with us for now,” Mustafa said in a gentle tone. “You don’t need to concern yourselves with anything, nothing bad will happen to you,” he attempted to reassure the boys, unsure whether he should be happy or sad that he had quite some experience in things like that, especially from his early days as a Grand Yimar when he had been clearing out Makarash and the surrounding lands.
Arslan felt a bit unhappy about being ignored at first, but when he remembered that those two boys older than him were slaves here, he started feeling bad for being so self-centered. He was here with his father so he didn’t need to be scared of anything, but they were here alone, without their families or friends. He should have done the same thing his father did instead of trying to sneak peeks at their faces.
“You heard that my father is a Grand Yimar, right?” he spoke up with a smile. “When he says something, you can trust him! It will be okay now,” he said cheerfully, thinking that the reason the two boys didn’t move or raise their heads was because they were too nervous to do so.
And well, he wasn’t wrong. The only thing was, Laien and Yin were scared for a very different reason than Mustafa or Arslan thought. They knew little about the Grand Yimars, so they couldn’t begin to guess what was going to happen to them when their strength was finally found out. However, from what they saw about Ikarians overall, they couldn’t not have dark thoughts. They had agreed to help Flora and Claire, but were they really going to experience a great misfortune, or even die because of it…?
“Come on, I believe you two also don’t want to remain here,” Mustafa said with a sigh and walked up to where his son was.
Hearing the man once again speak to them amiably, Laien managed to somewhat clear his mind of the scary thoughts. “What will be will be, there’s no point getting all scared by this point when we can’t help what had been done anymore,” he told himself and relaxed a little. He raised his head slowly, feeling surprisingly aware of the presence of the two golden earrings; he glanced at the young boy kneeling a few meters away from him, then raised his eyes further and took a look at the long-haired Grand Yimar who stood by the boy’s side.
“Ooh,” Arslan looked at Laien’s face with undisguised curiosity. As that man said, this boy was very good-looking, but it wasn’t what got Arslan’s attention.
“Ho, it’s rare for northern blood to have such smooth facial features,” Mustafa commented and nodded slightly, agreeing with the chamberlain’s opinion. The youth wasn’t a standard beautiful type, but he was pleasing to the eye and was something different; even if he proved not to have much talent as a practitioner, he would be able to like an easy and comfortable life as a companion of some rich man or woman.
“By Rala,” the words involuntarily escaped Mustafa’s mouth when the second of the youths raised his head. He smiled and shook his head with a slight chuckle; the old Abdain would pay quite a fortune to buy that kid, that is if he had no means of taking him by force. Still, he wasn’t planning to do something as heartless as selling the boy to that old pervert.
Arslan took a look at Yin just like his father did and was just as surprised, in his heart thinking that this boy was probably the best-looking person he had seen in his life… but in the end, he quickly returned his attention to Laien. He smiled and nodded slightly, apparently having gotten this little habit from his father; both of them tended to do that often when they agreed with themselves about something they had thought about or assumed previously.
“You heard where we are going,” Mustafa said encouragingly. “I’m sure you don’t want to talk here. Get up and come with us,” he added gently and smiled contentedly when first the black-haired, then the green-haired youth got up to his feet. He gestured the two to boys and his son to walk alongside him, wanting to keep an eye on them at all times.
Soon the four of them left the main chamber. They walked for a few minutes, surprisingly not talking at all. It was one thing for the Grand Yimar to remain silent, but why was his son also keeping his tongue in check and only glancing at them? Or so Laien wondered. He couldn’t shake off the feeling that those two weren’t as bad as he had thought they would be, though he couldn’t be sure. He wanted to ask Yin, but he could tell through their spiritual bond that Yin was disturbed a lot more heavily than he was and wouldn’t be of much help for the time being.
“That should be the room he spoke about,” Mustafa commented casually and after the four of them arrived at the end of the corridor, opened the door with the silver key he had been given. “More than good enough,” he said with a laugh as he briefly swept the luxurious room with his gaze.
There were two large windows on the wall to the right, both with a view of the gardens and the small forest that was in the center of the Grand Palace. There were two sets of curtains hanging at the sides of the windows, one of which was light-rose in color while the other one was pure black. There was a large bed to the far left of the room, there was something that seemed to be a dining table, there was a sofa and there were a few armchairs and normal chairs. With the exception of the black curtains, everything was in light colors, thus giving a light-hearted atmosphere to the room.
“For now let’s do it like this,” Mustafa said partially to himself and partially to the other three. He stepped into the room first and waved his hand lightly, taking out a big fur-carpet and four large pillows from his interspatial ring. He placed the pillows in pairs of two and opposite to each other; he looked over his shoulder to see if his son and the two boys entered the room and saw Arslan closing the door behind them. He smiled and sat down on one of the pillows, sitting so that he had the windows to his left and the door in front of him.
Arslan quickly took the spot beside his father, while Laien and Yin sat down a few seconds later. As he looked at the two boys, Mustafa sighed inwardly. Beginnings of those conversations were always the hardest and most awkward; it had been so with Reian and the others, so he didn’t expect it to go easier this time around either. What added to the challenge was that Arslan was here too this time, so he was hesitating to be as blunt with his words as he usually was.
“To begin with, can you tell me your names?” Mustafa suggested, thinking about first feeling out how the boys were feeling; how nervous they were, what was their attitude towards him and things alike. When he understood that it would be much simpler to continue with the conversation.
“…” Laien hesitated briefly, wondering if he should use a made-up name. “I’m Laien,” he said in the end, guessing that he would soon enough need to bargain for safety with his elder brother’s name, again. He had been abusing his standing pretty shamelessly in the past years, but he really didn’t want to rely on Rudford with everything; asking him to pay a random or something like that would be incredibly shameful, but still better than ending up as a slave.
Laien shook his head a little, throwing the unnecessary worries away. He would reflect on what he had done later; there was no point getting depressed about it right now, as he reminded himself for the second time. He glanced at Yin, who was a bit calmer now… but regardless, couldn’t collect himself properly. “He seems to be really scared… dying doesn’t frighten him, but the prospect of ending up as a slave in harems like those other boys seems to be terrifying to him,” he thought quietly and meanwhile, removed the hood from his own head.
“He’s Yin,” he said calmly as he glanced at Yin’s anxious expression, to then return his eyes to the Grand Yimar before him. He looked the long-haired man in the eye, and sensed no immediate malicious intent or evil from him; truth to be told that man’s eyes and the air about him somewhat reminded him of the feeling he got when he saw Rudford for the first time, but he abandoned such thoughts right away. It was impossible for a Grand Yimar to be like his elder brother.
“My name is Mustafa, and as you’ve heard already I’m a Grand Yimar from Arkaria,” Mustafa said with a slight smile on his face. “And that child is my son,” he added and gave the five-year-old a meaningful look.
“I’m Arslan, nice to meet you,” Arslan said with such a childish honestly that he caused Mustafa to chuckle and made Laien raise his eyebrows a little.
“You seem to be pretty calm already,” Mustafa pointed out while looking at Laien, quietly wondering if he should be impressed with Laien’s strength of heart or if he should pity his folly bravery. After all, apart from Reian, there hadn’t been another slave who dared to look him in the eye during their first meeting. “Your friend appears to still be nervous though. Would you mind telling me what had happened to you two so far after you’ve been captured by Yimar Aeri?” he asked, guessing that the boys must have experienced their fair share of suffering. There was almost no way someone like them could be captured and left alone to be, even if they were stored away on the side as a potential present for an important person.
“Nothing happened to us yet,” Laien replied but shook his head afterward. “But we’ve seen plenty of what can happen to us,” he said grimly, the image of the youths in the main chamber and the gruesome scene of Nathan being abused by that trash remaining very much fresh in his mind.
“Well.” Mustafa smiled warmly, questioning whether Laien was saying the truth or if he had only been told to lie in order to uplift his value as a slave. “None of that will happen to you, I can at the very least promise you that. In fact, if you are talented as practitioners I intend to take you in as soldiers and give you a fair opportunity to join my White Guard as long as you grow well and display potential,” he revealed without beating around the bush, deciding that a direct approach would yield the best results in this situation.
Laien’s eyes opened slightly wider when he heard what Mustafa said. Was this man really not as bad of a person as he had taken him to be, or was he only pretending to be nice and in truth had entirely different intentions? For example, would he take them in as his subordinates on the surface but still have them do what slaves did for himself or some of his high-ranked subordinates? It would be for the best if they could enlist under Mustafa and run away without anyone noticing, but should he really be hoping for such a fortunate development to occur? Wasn’t that just being way too naïve?
“I’m going to use my aura to probe you,” Mustafa warned gently, going out of his way to tell the boys what he was going to do as a form of courtesy. He noticed the two of them tensing up at his declaration, but wrote it off as them being worried about remaining as slaves in case their ability didn’t impress him enough. He extended his aura… then frowned slightly when he found out that he couldn’t easily inspect the insides of the boys’ bodies, as if… no, it definitely was their own aura which formed a barrier which pushed away his scan. He focused and broke through this defense with a little effort, and what he found out startled him heavily.
“What family and country do you guys belong to?” he asked immediately. What was Yimar Aeri thinking, abducting two little monsters like that? Even if it had been done in complete secrecy, if the news of that somehow got out it would almost definitely lead to war. They first needed to deal with the problematic northern half of the Eulean Union and then establish an amicable relationship with the old clans to the north, they couldn’t afford to stir a war with the southerners at this time! What was that man thinking to provoke the south in this manner?
Laien didn’t know how to respond to this reaction of Mustafa’s. The man seemed to be not only surprised but also concerned; if only he knew what Mustafa was so worried about, he would be able to easily decide if he should tell him the truth or if he should mix it with lies… if only Yin could collect himself enough to at least give him a hint about that man’s heart! Yes, this wasn’t an absolutely perfect method as someone who believed he was doing good would still appear as a good person to Yin, but it would at least provide him with some starting point.
“If we said that we want to be free,” Yin spoke up all of the sudden, by the looks of it having sensed Laien’s silent plea and having overcome the fear that had been mortifying him for the past minutes. “Would you let us go free, or is being your servants or soldiers the only option we have?” he asked, at the same time answering Mustafa’s question indirectly, but also pretty vaguely.
In response, Mustafa’s eyes narrowed and the look on his face turned more serious. “It depends,” he said honestly. “I want to help you, but if you were to later become a disaster to our Great Yimarate, then I can’t afford to simply let you go,” he stated clearly. Releasing some random slaves wasn’t a problem, but letting out two young geniuses who almost certainly harbored a grudge against their people was an entirely different matter.