Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 57. Dangerous Situation.

“Then what should we do?” Laien asked in a somewhat helpless tone. “What should we do if we want to be free?” he asked openly, refusing to believe for a second that something as superficial as a promise ‘not to cause harm to the Great Yimarate’ would satisfy Mustafa.

Yin felt worried about Mustafa getting angry because of Laien’s attitude, but the man in question seemed to be more surprised than anything else.

“It will be okay if you let them go, father,” Arslan said completely out of the blue and with a bright smile on his face. The corner of his lips quirked upward when he saw the questioning look his father gave him, so he explained in a happy tone while glancing at Laien. “He has the same eyes you have, father. You are very similar.”

“The same eyes?” Mustafa repeated without conviction. His forehead wrinkled slightly as he looked Laien in the eye once again, but despite that, he still wasn’t sure what he was supposed to see there. Sure, the boy was glaring back at him confidently as if saying ‘I’m not gonna lose!’ and he didn’t appear to be scared at all anymore, but he couldn’t tell much apart from this fact.

“Again.” Arslan chuckled while glancing between Mustafa and Laien. “You have the same look in your eyes right now,” he pointed out with a wry smile, finding it pretty amusing that his father and a boy they met so far away from their home could be so similar.

Mustafa looked at Arslan doubtfully, then sighed quietly and shook his head a little. “Fine, I give up. How are we similar?” he asked his son, failing to recognize how he and Laien were alike apart from both of them having black hair and eyes.

“Hm?” Arslan tilted his head. “I don’t know? It’s just that you have the same, um… the atmosphere around you? And your eyes are similar too,” he said and shrugged his shoulders, unable to come up with a better explanation.

Mustafa smiled helplessly and let out a weak chuckle. He was sure Arslan wouldn’t be playing around with such an important matter, so he could only assume that Arslan was telling the truth. He turned his head and once again looked at Laien and Yin. The heavy air from the moment before was still there, but after this strange exchange between him and his son the atmosphere loosened up considerably. However, given how this conversation went he found it surprisingly awkward to try and continue it; he didn’t even know what he should say or ask right now for it not to sound silly.

“Say, how strong are you guys?” Arslan inquired, beginning the talk on his own since his father had remained silent for the past few seconds. “Father looked pretty surprised when he used his aura on you, so you must be pretty strong, right?” he asked excitedly and leaned forward a little, as if the distance of roughly one meter between him and the two boys was too big for his liking.

Laien laughed in his heart. He didn’t know what to think about this conversation, but for now, he had a feeling that it would be for the best if he simply went along with the flow. “I’m a dual practitioner at the eighth mortal realm in both spiritual and martial practice,” he said and glanced at Yin out of the corner of his eye. He was of the opinion that they shouldn’t struggle; this Mustafa really didn’t look like a person that would do them harm unless they forced him into a tight spot.

“I’m a martial practitioner at the ninth mortal realm,” Yin said with a resigned smile. He was still a bit nervous, but he was already calm enough to think clearly and in fact, he felt pretty embarrassed about his… well, panic attack, as shameful as it was to admit for him. “That being said…” he mused silently as he first looked at Arslan, then at Mustafa and finally at Laien. “I don’t know about their eyes, but their hearts are almost identical… they really could be similar,” he thought quietly, hoping that Mustafa wouldn’t turn out like that woman from the hidden village, Marie; in other words, he hoped that Mustafa wouldn’t turn out to be a person who only thought himself to be good and in reality was very different…

… though the same thing could apply to him and Laien, or so he realized. In the end, everyone had a different definition of ‘good’ and ‘evil’. All he could sense was whether one’s heart was pure, as he had recently learned. He couldn’t really tell if the person was an evildoer or not for his heart alone.

“Wow, you are both really strong!” Arslan said happily, but without as much of a shock or surprise as one might have expected. “How old are you?” he asked with a sly look in his eyes, obviously asking this question for a reason and not just out of pure curiosity.

Laien and Yin exchanged a glance, after what Laien replied. “We are both twelve. Well, close to twelve and a half if we are being accurate.”

“Oh,” Arslan nodded strongly and gave the two half honest, half wry smile. “I’m going to work hard so that I can become a martial master before I’m thirteen. I’m not going to lose out to anyone!” he said confidently, but in truth was feeling a lot of pressure. He had promised himself not to be outdone by anyone so that his father would be proud of him, but he had thought he would reach the realm of heroes by the age of fourteen or fifteen; Reian told him that it would be hard, but doable with his talent when he asked him. To cut that by two or three years would be very hard… but he would try to do it nonetheless!

“That’s quite some goal,” Laien said with a laugh, not sure if he should be taking that boy, Arslan, seriously. He was a son of a Grand Yimar and was undoubtedly talented, but even a monstrous martial genius like Yin would only barely reach the threshold of the Realm of Heroes just around the time he would be turning thirteen. Was Arslan’s talent as good as that? Laien seriously doubted it.

Mustafa laughed like Laien did, but he also smirked a little and tousled his son’s hair. “Considering that Arslan is five years old and isn’t far from the goal of entering the third rank before he turns six, I’d wager his words do have some serious weight to them,” he said with a smile, feeling quite proud of this son of his. Even when meeting little monsters like those two boys, he wasn’t shaken and instead used their strength to challenge himself! It was truly admirable.

Truth to be told, Laien was a little speechless and even Yin was surprised. A five-year-old at the second mortal realm… how crazy was that? By the looks of it the two of them couldn’t relax and take it easy for a moment, or else some other genius from the continent would overtake them in the future.

As for Arslan, he beamed with happiness at the moment. Not only had his father praised him, but those two were looking impressed too. It was the best feeling in the world to have his efforts pay off; he was so excited due to it that were it not for knowing that he was rather tired, he would have asked his father if he couldn’t go and spar with Laien and Yin somewhere in the Grand Palace.

“Can I ask you something?” Yin brought up and looked Mustafa in the eye, the look on his face growing more serious. As much as he enjoyed a carefree conversation of this kind, there were some things they absolutely needed to clear up. It was scary to have a confirmation… but judging from Mustafa’s words, the worst thing that could happen to them was being forced to serve him. As long as their cultivation bases weren’t crippled, they would one day grow strong enough to do whatever they wanted; it wouldn’t be the end of the world.

“Go ahead,” Mustafa said with a slight smile, feeling pretty well-disposed towards those two children before him. He was still reluctant about letting them go freely, but he was thinking about something different; a compromise, or so to say. Yet, he would first hear out what Yin had to say before putting forth his own proposition.

“Your care about the Great Yimarate and its citizens…” Yin began in a quiet, grim tone. “Does this care include the people who abduct, rape, torture and kill children?” he asked outright,

Mustafa frowned, the air around him growing heavy. This reaction of his caused Yin’s and Laien’s hearts to skip a beat, but he sighed heavily right afterward and the heavy aura of his also disappeared. “So you want revenge after all, as expected,” Mustafa said sternly. He lowered his gaze to the floor for half a second, then closed his eyes for a brief moment. When he opened them he looked straight at the two boys in front of him, making the two involuntarily flinch a little.

“Yimar Aeri and those of his subordinates who had been involved in abducting you will be executed. Yimar Sharu, his chamberlain and those of the warriors here who harmed the children in the harems shall similarly be executed,” Mustafa declared, some anger and disgust he was feeling surfacing and showing in his eyes. He had been planning to purge a good portion of the fanatics in the southern Eulene, so he might as well start sooner than he had originally planned to; it would serve as a good example to the rest of those bastards who grew to be no better than thugs and criminals.

“With that, I hope you can promise me not to wage war against us in the future,” Mustafa added more calmly, seeing how Laien and Yin were too dumbstruck by his sudden declaration to respond.

“Father,” Arslan said in a surprisingly weak voice. “Is that true? Are our people doing those things? Why?” he asked, unable to hold himself back any longer. He really wanted to be polite and let his father finish his part of the conversation with Laien and Yin first, but he needed to know if what they said was true; he needed to know it now!

Mustafa groaned inwardly but answered nevertheless. “I fear that it’s true. We were in that chamber, right? Don’t you think it was strange everyone there was so lifeless?”

Arslan fell silent, his shoulders sinking a little. He looked away from his father and lowered his head, then after a few more seconds pursed his lips and clenched his fists. “Do those things happen in our home too?” he asked in a low voice, without even raising his head. He was very scared to hear the answer, but…

“They don’t happen in my lands.”

thankfully, his father denied. His father would never lie to him, he was confident in that; he had worried about his father hiding those unpleasant things from him, but it looked like he needn’t have had such thoughts. He took a deep breath, then breathed out slowly and raised his head. He had been pretty shocked to hear that something so evil was happening in this Grand Palace and in the Eulene as a whole, but he wasn’t weak-hearted enough to let words alone affect him for too long.

“You would kill them for us?” Yin spoke up before Laien did. He was glad Mustafa was a good person, but this promise of his… it was too good to come without any attached strings.

“That’s only a part of it,” Mustafa said amiably. “I trust you by now realize I refuse to stand for… many of the old, misguided traditions of our people. The moment I was sent here to restore peace and stabilize out influence on the main continent, I knew I would need to get rid of the problematic elements. They might be my fellow Ikarian brothers, but… would you allow them to go unpunished if they were citizens of your country or members of your clan or family?” he explained and asked with a slight, meaningful smile on his face, then nodded in approval when the two boys shook their heads.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Right, you wouldn’t,” he said contentedly. “How about it, travel with me and my son for a while. You will have a chance to see those who wronged you be killed, it should alleviate some of the burdens on your minds and remove some of the darkness in your hearts,” he offered straightforwardly, seeing this as a good opportunity to allow his son to grow up a bit more. Additionally, it wouldn’t hurt to have Arslan befriend two future powerhouses from the south of the continent.

“Mm, come with us!” Arslan supported eagerly. “We could become friends and see all kind of different things together. It will be fun,” he encouraged with a smile, already looking forward to spending a few weeks or months… or maybe years with Laien and Yin. Since Laien was so similar to his father, he would get along with him easily; and since Laien liked Yin, he would surely come to like Yin too.

“Those who wronged us…” Laien repeated Mustafa’s words with a bitter smile on his face. “We weren’t completely honest with you,” he said with a sigh, but didn’t shrink away and kept looking Mustafa in the eye. “We weren’t abducted by anyone, but we came here on our own to rescue two friends of ours from the main harem,” he revealed what was true, but at the same time omitted a part of the truth. No matter how good of a person Mustafa was, it would be too dangerous for Flora, Claire and Shahash’s identities to be uncovered to him.

Having heard Laien say so, Arslan was surprised… but Mustafa was absolutely speechless. How much did Laien and Yin value those friends of theirs? What they did was commendable, sure, but their actions were nothing but asking for an untimely death. The experts present in the Grand Palace, the possibility of one of the other two Grand Yimars coming instead of him… or some other random, uncontrollable variables; there were too many possible ways they could end up dead or truly enslaved. Did they not value their lives enough, or was this the recklessness of the youth?

“Are those friends of yours fine? Did you find them?” Mustafa asked, his voice sounding resigned despite his attempts not to reveal his inner thoughts too much.

“We found them and healed them,” Laien replied honestly. “They are both in that chamber back there. I was wondering if you couldn’t help us get them out of the Grand Palace,” he stated his intentions and his wish clearly, hoping that they would be able to avoid a bloodbath in the city as long as Mustafa was willing to help them out a little bit.

“It’s a minor matter, it won’t be a problem,” Mustafa agreed easily. “I was planning to send some of my men with a water-element attribute to heal all the kids back there. I didn’t expect you had helped your friends already; is one of you a water-element practitioner? It should be you Laien, by my guess, since it would be hard for a martial practitioner below the Realm of Heroes to heal anyone else but himself,” he said with a smile and laughed a little. Once again he didn’t know if he should be impressed with those two or if he should pity them, but one thing was for sure. They were some exceptional children.

“I am a water-element practitioner, but that’s beside the point,” Laien said and shook his head; neither he nor Yin were sharing Mustafa’s happy mood. “If you want to help those kids, hurry up. I’m sure that some of them had already died from the wounds they suffered from Tashakir and his companions,” he said while mostly keeping his calm, but also while suppressing the killing intent surging within his body.

“Tashakir?” Mustafa frowned heavily. “Sharu’s Sword of Rala? Killing him is going to be…” he said grimly; even the look on his face sank considerably. Tashakir was quite famous even on the mainland; it was rumored that the Great Prophet was interested in him and wanted to make him the fourth Grand Yimar in the future. Killing him… it wouldn’t be like getting rid of some insignificant Yimar and a few hundred experts under his orders, an act like that would bring him a considerable amount of trouble. If Laien and Yin wanted to see this person dead… it was almost guaranteed they would come into a conflict with the Great Yimarate in the future.

At this time, the sound of hasty footsteps reached everyone’s ears. A few seconds after someone knocked on the door, and even this act appeared to be rough, impatient and done in a hurry.

“Grand Yimar, I’m extremely sorry for disturbing you, but if I could take just a little bit of your time…” the chamberlain’s voice came from behind the door, sounding as if its owner was about to faint from some kind of mental breakdown due to fear. As a proof, the chamberlain had not only omitted the required greeting by not saying ‘Rala Salar’ but also skipped calling himself things like ‘lowly servant’; He must have been considerably stressed at the moment.

Objectively speaking, the chamberlain couldn’t be sure what Mustafa was doing with the two boys he had taken and was terrified that in case he came at a wrong time, Mustafa would behead him without blinking an eye. However, the chamberlain wasn’t a stupid person, nor did he wish to die an early death. He more than likely had a reason he was willing to take this risk.

“Enter and say what you want,” Mustafa said almost offhandedly. He was hesitating what he should do about Laien and Yin’s case, he didn’t want to be disturbed by other things… but it couldn’t really be helped. He would see what was it that got the chamberlain so nervous.

“Grand Yimar,” the chamberlain bowed deeply the moment he entered the room. He was in such a bad state that he forgot to close the door and didn’t pay attention to Arslan at all. “The intruders who we have spoken about… we can’t find our Sword of Rala’s… ugh, we can’t find Tashakir’s older brother anywhere. He was a peak marital master of the third rank… if he was killed then…” the chamberlain spoke in panic, not knowing what he should do. Would it be Tashakir, Yimar Sharu or Mustafa that killed him for his negligence? Out of the three, he felt he would have the best chances of survival if he went to Mustafa and begged for his protection… but still, he was scared witless.

“A peak martial master of the third rank died?” Mustafa repeated with wide eyes, then unable to help himself looked at Laien and Yin. Was this their doing? Or did have an accomplice inside the Grand Palace whose identity they weren’t willing to reveal? No matter how he looked at it, the second option appeared to be more plausible, but… if they took that man by surprise, then perhaps… perhaps they would be able to kill him with some luck. However, what kind of situation would it require for two kids to take a martial master of the third rank by surprise?

“Ugh,” Mustafa groaned. Forget it, he could imagine how it had gone and he didn’t want to think about it.

“Grand Yimar, what should be done?” the chamberlain squeaked, his voice breaking down from all the stress.

“Why do you need to ask me?” Mustafa responded sourly. His first impression of the chamberlain wasn’t all that bad, but now that he learned what was being allowed to go on here… he couldn’t care about this small man any less. “If he is gone and you are alive, then whoever did it has already left. Or, do you want me to send my White Guard to look for a seed in a pile of shit? If anything, it’s Yimar Sharu and you who should handle the appropriate investigation,” he reprimanded coldly, and as expected with just this little bit of effort got a very strong reaction for the chamberlain.

“Y-y-y-yes! Yes, G-Grand Yimar! It will be done!” the chamberlain bowed so low that his face was about to start touching his legs. Fearing that if he said anything else Mustafa would kill him on the spot he retreated through the open door without straightening up, closed them with shaking hands and when he was done, literally ran away from the room. He might have thought Mustafa was a nice person, but he wasn’t surprised to see him grow angry at a sign of incompetence.

“I can’t stay here. I need to run away!” the fleeing chamberlain thought frightfully. He didn’t want to lose his head yet, so he wouldn’t report any of it to Yimar Sharu and surely enough wouldn’t tell anything about this incident to Tashakir. The former one would dispose of him almost surely, but the later one would kill him without asking any questions, no doubt. He cared about his position and achievements, but in comparison to them, his life was worth much more!

When the sound of the chamberlain’s footsteps died down, Mustafa sighed heavily and asked. “So, was it you guys who killed that man?”

Laien and Yin hesitated slightly, but the two of them nodded almost at the same time. There was no point in hiding this from Mustafa now; or rather, hiding that would only lead to other complications which they would rather avoid.

“As I thought,” Mustafa sighed again. “It’s amazing that you killed him, but it was also very reckless. Dealing with Tashakir is going to be hard even for me… if he ever found out you killed his elder brother, he would chase you down wherever you went and no matter the cost,” he warned with the future in mind; for the time being it was unlikely for any information of today to leak as long as some precaution was taken with regards to the children in the harem, but it would be unfortunate if the boys allowed their tongues to slip one of those days and ended up with Tashakir chasing them all over the continent, likely with a group of powerful experts by his side.

Laien’s and Yin’s expressions sank a little at Mustafa’s words, though they quickly turned surprised and confused at the same time as Arslan spoke up.

“But you won’t let them die, right, father?” Arslan asked seriously. “Even if that man… Tashakir? Even if he finds out, you can’t let them die!” he said strongly and with a lot of conviction, then gave his father a meaningful look as he waited for him to respond.

“Uh, I get you want to be friends with them, but…” Mustafa began saying in a troubled manner. “But why are you arguing so hard for their sake? What’s going on?” he asked, genuinely curious about the reason for his son’s unnatural behavior.

“…?” Arslan frowned slightly, looking as if he only now asked himself the question Mustafa brought up for him. “I don’t know…?” he mumbled, then tilted his head and scratched his cheek with his finger. “I just have a feeling that I want them to live? I don’t know,” he said apologetically. He had wondered if it was because he thought his father and Laien were similar, but it wasn’t that when he thought about it calmly. His feelings didn’t make any sense to him either, so he was fairly confused.

“Ah, never mind,” Mustafa laughed weakly. “I intend to cover for them either way. Come, we need to get to their friends and retrieve them before anyone gets the idea to interrogate all the kids in the harem,” he said and stood up, guessing that it would still be quite some before the news spread around the Grand Palace. After all, he strongly doubted the chamberlain would happily go and report the news to his superiors. There would be more than enough time to cover the loose ends.

“Grand Yimar Mustafa!”

Yet, an angered but still somewhat calm yell reached the from down the corridor before the three boys even stood up. Mustafa and Arslan didn’t know who the owner of that voice was, but Laien and Yin were able to tell immediately; it was Tashakir, the same man they met in front of the main chamber of the male harems.

“Rala Salar, Grand Yimar Mustafa,” Tashakir greeted Mustafa with a light bow after brazenly opening the door without waiting for permission. “I just learned that my older brother disappeared. I don’t know how bad the security in our Grand Palace has gotten while I wasn’t paying attention, but I already punished the one responsible as I ran into him on my way here. I would like to request you, Grand Yimar, to help with the search and deploy your White Guard. It’s possible that the remnants of the rebels had somehow gotten into the Grand Palace and captured my elder brother,” he spoke hurriedly and with a concerned look on his face. Out of all the people in the world, his elder brother was one of the few he truly cared about, and he most certainly was the one he cared about the most. If only that, his love for his elder brother was strong and genuine.

Mustafa looked at Tashakir with a stern, unhappy look in his eyes. If he knew this man was rushing over here he would have killed the chamberlain instead of letting him go; his unwillingness to kill someone when his son was looking made him do something stupid. Considering what the chamberlain knew… or had known, it would have been smarter to kill him just to be safe. He shouldn’t have had let him go just like that! Argh!

While getting agitated over the Grand Yimar’s lack of quick response to his request, Tashakir’s gaze became unfocused and he finally spotted the two boys sitting not far away from where he was standing. He lowered his gaze and even from behind easily recognized the two brats he had seen being delivered to the chambers not too long ago. When he thought about it, it made sense for them to be here with the Grand Yimar, so he shouldn’t find anything suspicious in this situation… and he wouldn’t have in normal circumstances, but now that his brother disappeared, he started growing wary and suspicious of anything and anyone; he didn’t want to accidentally omit any important hints.

“You two, you didn’t see my brother returning to the chamber?” Tashakir asked in a tone that was much less polite than the one he used to speak to Mustafa. Then, paying no heed to courtesy since he was dealing with slaves he released his aura and probed the two boys for no other reason than to relieve himself of the hint of suspicion which even he himself found to be ridiculous.

“What?” Tashakir uttered with his eyes open wide. His mouth remained slightly open as he stared at Laien’s and Yin’s backs; this cultivation level… could it be?

As Tashakir’s killing intent began seeping out, Mustafa took a step forward. However, completely unexpectedly to him, it was someone else who acted first.

“You can’t kill them!” Arslan shouted and jumped forward in two steps, landing firmly on the pillows in-between Laien and Yin and spreading his arms to cover the two boys’ backs.