Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 63. Please, Help Me!
Laien and Yin exchanged a quick glance. Right now the two of them felt pretty neutral about the idea of having this man and potentially his family or companions join them for the night, so it would mostly be up to Reian and the others to decide.
“Rala Salar,” Reian returned the greeting. “Go ahead and join us by the fire. A conversation is always welcome,” he agreed, seeing this meeting as a good opportunity to have Arslan interact with unfamiliar people on his own.
As Reian’s words sounded, Ruan and Liza both smiled slightly. Reian would have been in for an unpleasant surprise if Laien and Yin hadn’t been in the mood to accept the new company. That being said, however, if they thought about it for a bit longer, Reian was certainly much stronger than them. Reian’s cultivation of a martial master of the third rank surely didn’t represent his true combat potential. After all, there was no way someone with lacking talent would be expected to become the future Captain Commander of the elite White Guard of Mustafa’s. It would unquestionably be quite interesting to see Reian trying to rein those two rowdy boys in after a disagreement of some kind.
“Great, great,” the man by the roadside laughed merrily. “Give me a second, I will see who wants to join us,” he said with a broad smile on his face and turned to the six large carriages, beginning with the one in the forefront inside which he had been traveling. It took just a few words before a young man who looked to be around eighteen years old and had his youthful beard trimmed in an identical way to the man stepped out. The young man was soon followed by two boys who looked to be around twelve and eight years old respectively. Finally, a young woman stepped out of the carriage; unlike the Ikarian women in the City of Palee, she wasn’t wearing a Jiran and instead only had a silvery-white cloth trussed up loosely around her neck and hair.
The man gestured the three youths and the woman to join their new companions by the bonfire. He sent five of their guards along with the four members of his family, while himself quickly went around the remaining five carriages and extended the invitation to everyone else. In the end, two more young men - both of them shaved cleanly - along with four younger boys stepped out. A step behind them gathered three older girls between fourteen and seventeen years old, all three of them with different-colored cloth trussed up around their hair and necks. The three older girls were accompanied by two younger girls, both of them around ten years old; neither of those two had their hair or necks covered. As for any more people, either they weren’t there or none of them decided to step out of the carriages.
Reian, Jasmine and Kasha didn’t need to discuss anything and without saying a word all three of them stood up and took out more wood from their interspatial rings. They set up three more bonfires in a line and prepared a large carpet, furs and pillows for everyone to sit on. Clearly, the members of the White Guard weren’t proficient only in the art of war but also knew how to quickly and efficiently deal with more menial tasks. Unlike most nobility, they didn’t need to or wish to order someone around to do it for them.
“You should come over too,” Jasmine called out to Arslan and the other four. It was fine to sit on the stones or improvised chairs when it was only them talking, but it would be inconvenient to do the same in a larger group.
“Come.” Arslan took two steps forward and turned around, telling Laien and Yin to follow him. Seeing that the two did just that, he hurried towards the middle of the large square that Reian had covered with a carpet. He grabbed three pillows, placing one in the middle for himself and adding two more for Laien and Yin at the sides. He then sat down and glanced over his shoulder, waiting for the two to join him.
While Laien and Yin simply sat down without expressing any discontent, Reian couldn’t help but wince at the sight. The middle spots were traditionally occupied by the highest-ranked or most important members of the parties involved. That man would likely take two of his favorite sons and have them join him in the middle, facing the group of three youths face-to-face and splitting the carpet into two ‘areas’. Reian wanted to complain to Arslan and tell him that it should be him and Jasmine, or maybe Sirius, who should be sitting there with him and certainly not those two kids… but he bit his tongue. By doing so he would undermine Arslan’s authority in that man’s and his family’s eyes, turning him from a young master into merely a boy who needed to listen to his guardians. Given the purpose of this journey, doing so would be counterproductive.
Unable to resolve his dilemma in any other way, Reian gave up and seated himself at Yin’s side, but also slightly behind him. Jasmine did the same, occupying the spot slightly behind Laien. Kasha, Ruan and Liza sat down behind the boys; not too close as to be more comfortable and not too crowded.
When the man arrived with the rest of his family, some surprise painted itself on his face, just like it was painted on the faces of the four from the first carriage who arrived early. Those three boys were the leaders of this group, with that little one being the most important? They were traveling without their fathers or uncles? Which family was so carefree, if not outright irresponsible to allow it? Were it not for the obvious auras of strength emanating from the adults gathered around those three boys, they would have been ready to take this sitting order as a prank coming from the brats. In fact, the man himself and some members of his family were still waiting to see if it wasn’t a joke of some kind.
However, as the seconds passed there unchangingly was no one standing up and declaring that the current seating order was just a silly joke. Thus, before the atmosphere could get awkward, the man gestured the two young boys from the first carriage to come with him and meanwhile, gave the older brother of the two an apologetic look. They would be facing a conversation with young boys and moreover, the occasion wasn’t all that formal. Because of that, he opted to have his younger children accompany him in the front instead of choosing their older siblings as he would have done otherwise.
The young man smiled at his father and nodded in understanding, not minding at all. He could guess his father’s reasoning and he agreed with it; he would have done the same thing if he was in his father’s place. On the other hand, the other two young men present failed to hide their discontent. They followed their father on this ridiculous trip and now left the comfortable carriages in the middle of the night, but they weren’t even given a chance to lead the conversation. Were they supposed to be content with sitting in the back and speaking up from time to time? Although, they knew how angry it would make their father if they returned to the carriages after getting out of them, so they grit their teeth and didn’t argue with their father’s choice.
The man didn’t miss the ugly looks on the faces of his two older sons, but he did nothing to reprimand them for ill thoughts. He went ahead and sat down and had the twelve years old boy occupy the spot to his right and the eight years old boy sit to his left. The older brother of the two contentedly sat next to one of the boys, while the two other young men both sat down on the other side of the front three, earning some scrutiny from their father for acting so childish and stubborn instead of simply choosing a place further in the back.
The young woman sat behind her husband, while the three older girls and the rest of the children seated themselves as they liked without caring about spots all that much. It might have taken their family a while to get to this point, but the man could finally breathe with relief and relax. At the very least, his family didn’t embarrass him in front of those strangers, so he was content with this much.
“First and foremost, my name is Shamar,” the man said with an amiable smile. “Those two rascals are Sharu and Sin,” he introduced the two youths at his sides, first putting his hand on the twelve-year-old’s head, then on the eight-year-old’s head. “We are humble merchants of the House of Coin who are traveling north. That being said, I wonder who the small masters are?” he inquired, trying to make the conversation flow as smoothly as possible. He was quite experienced in getting along with adults given his profession, but his interaction with kids was limited to those of his own; and even with that, he didn’t have all that much experience as his job usually ate up most of his time.
“I’m Arslan. He is Laien and he is Yin,” Arslan responded with a smile, excited to for once be the one leading the formal conversation. It usually was his father who did that, so he wanted to see how well he could do in the same task. “We belong to the House of Sword,” he added after a brief second of hesitation, which went completely unnoticed by the other party. They had agreed yesterday not to casually reveal their identities and to consider Laien and Yin’s group as one of their own. The idea had been mainly Reian’s, but since everyone agreed to it easily they were now going through with this version.
“Oh, as expected,” Shamar nodded, acting as if Arslan confirmed what he had already suspected. “None other than the House of Sword would send their small masters to lead their own people on an adventure. No wonder you three boys are the ones facing me and my sons,” he added in a tone clearly suggesting that he was impressed with the three youths.
“An adventure…” Arslan mused quietly, finding the ring of this world to be very pleasant. “Right, you said you are going north. Are you also heading to the Guode Yimarate?” he asked, wondering if his father would be happy if he managed to make friends with an influential merchant. He wasn’t really interested in the man himself or in his family, he wasn’t excited about playing with the man’s children either. However, he knew he should learn how to deal with people so he wanted to use this opportunity to do just that.
“Indeed, but not exactly,” Shamar responded with a smile. “We will be going through the Guode Yimarate, but our goal is the Holy Union. You see, all trade between us and them has been cut off for quite some time. As long as we can strike a deal with them, we will benefit greatly,” he said, clearly excited by the prospect. He had earned most of his money by trading with those who waged wars; as far as he was concerned, there was no ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ when one was a merchant. Selling equipment and provisions to both sides, or only to the one who gives the highest price? He saw nothing wrong with doing so. As one as one had the money, he could become his client.
Although nor Arslan, nor Laien or Yin were all that surprised or intrigued, Reian and Jasmine, and partially Kasha were all flabbergasted. That man intended to try and trade with the Holy Union? What did he intend to do, walk up to the border and offer to sell them his merchandise? His level of crazy was as bad as that of Laien’s and Yin’s for attempting to break into the Grand Palace!
“Forgive me, but are you serious?” Reian blurted out before he could stop himself. He realized that it would have been wiser for him to keep his mouth shut a second later, alas, what was done was done. “Don’t you know how much the north of Eulene hates Ikarians? You even brought your family members along…” he pointed out and sighed secretly. Perhaps Shamar had some secret connections in the Holy Union? If there was a magnate there willing to buy weaponry and other supplies from his enemies, perhaps considering the act as a good dark-humor joke of killing the stupid Ikarians with their own weapons, then Shamar’s actions weren’t crazy. He really should have thought about it twice before he said anything.
“There always are people willing to do business with you,” Shamar said amiably, though the corner of his lips did quirk up a little regardless of his will. “No matter who you are, as long as you know what the other party wants to buy and you offer agreeable terms given the circumstances, you will sell,” he explained, then stopped speaking for a few seconds as he considered something. He looked at those gathered, then thought how most of the people from the House of Sword had neutral or bad relations with the House of Coin. Coming to a conclusion that there would be no demerit to him saying so, he added.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“Shall I share a secret with you? The biggest opportunities usually hide in two places. Either where it’s dangerous to do trade, or in a place where no one considers doing trade at all. In this case, the Holy Union fits both of those conditions. Sharu, how about you explain to them why I brought everyone along to make this trade.”
The twelve-year-old boy, Sharu, appeared to be quite surprised by the sudden request coming from his father. He was brought along because his mother and older brother wanted to accompany father, he never really thought about why they were brought on this trip and to be honest, it was the first time he was hearing anything about this journey being dangerous, as that golden-haired man implied. “Uuh…” he lowered his gaze and rubbed the spot just under his nose with his finger. Why was his father bringing them all, indeed?
“Is it for the older of us to gain experience…?” Sharu suggested hopefully, unable to come up with a less obvious reason.
“That’s a part of it.” Shamar nodded and patted his son’s head. This child had been deemed by the caretakers as too soft-hearted early on, so he was never brought up to be his successor. Some random chances would be given to him and those of his children who were in the same boat, just like the one now, but rarely would the assessment change. “Mashir, why did I bring all of you with me?” he asked, turning to the older brother of Sharu’s to look for the right answer.
“There are two reasons why dangerous trade has a chance of working,” Mashir began saying calmly and without hurrying. “The first reason is that the hostile party doesn’t see it beneficial to attack the merchant and take everything he has. That’s what the guards are for and that’s why the deal is always stuck on the neutral ground. The second reason is that even those hostile to you are most often people with feelings; when you trade with an army, it’s very unlikely for them to choose to attack you if you are traveling with your family. The wide-scope of disadvantages such an action would bring the faction prevents them from acting rashly,” he explained in detail and allowed himself to reveal a little smile in response to the very satisfied look on his father’s face.
“…” As thrilled as Shamar was that Mashir understood the essence of a war merchant well, the rest of his family, especially the younger ones had ashen faces. They were being used as a deterrent to an attack? It was supposed to work, but what if it didn’t? Would they all be killed? There was no way they could pragmatically accept what they just learned as a matter of fact and move on.
“Disgusting,” Laien commented, disdain present both in his voice and in the way he was looking at Shamar.
“Here we go,” Ruan laughed in his heart. This family-caravan was probably going to be annihilated before it even had a chance to attempt a trade with the Holy Union. It wasn’t their fault though, it was just their bad luck to have met with those two boys and to have told them too much.
“What do you think you are saying?” Reian hissed through his teeth, sending Laien an angry glare. He agreed with Laien on the fundamental level, but stirring up a conflict right here was too much!
“But isn’t it a bad thing?” Arslan asked in Laien’s defense, tilting his head to the side. He was also angry with that man for using his family as shields, so what should he do? Should he have stayed silent and said nothing? He failed to understand why he would need to do that. All those guards of that man’s seemed fairly strong and he could roughly tell that they were all in the Realm of Heroes, but they didn’t feel nearly as strong as the weakest White Guards. With Reian and Jasmine here, did he need to fear anything? Or did Reian know something about this man’s connections and was saying they shouldn’t provoke him? What was it about?
Reian opened his mouth, then let out a quiet groan and closed it, the expression on his face turning sour. He could tell Arslan was waiting for him to explain, but after he thought about it he had no explanation that would satisfy either Arslan or himself. He could say that antagonizing this man was needless if they weren’t taking the option of killing him into consideration, but if it was Mustafa he would write the man off a someone to be gotten rid of later on. Even if the argument that could occur at any moment turned into a fight, wouldn’t it be better for those kids to live with their relatives than to be used as shields during the more dangerous trades of their father’s?
While Reian battled his emotions, Shamar kept smiling without getting angry. He was used to receiving such opinions from others, but he cared little for them. Would it be better for his many wives and children to put themselves in some small danger for the sake of his business going well, or would it be better for them to live in poverty and struggle for food and the daily necessities? If what he had built up collapsed, his family would end up on the streets, or even enslaved by his competitors in form of collateral for the losses their companies sustained due to broken trade deals. In his eyes, his family was much better off as they were now compared to if some self-righteous hero freed them from their ‘unfair lot in life’ just to leave them to tend to themselves afterward.
“You, take what you said back.” In contrast to Shamar and Mashir who were perfectly calm, the two other young men appeared to be boiling with anger, ready to erupt at any time.
“And why would I do that?” Laien asked with a laugh and smirked at the young man. Even without releasing his aura, he could tell that those two weren’t in the Realm of Heroes. Someone who was nearly twenty but wasn’t a martial or a spiritual master… he held such people in no regard at all. “Well, I don’t have anything against people who aren’t practitioners…” he mused silently, more concerned with his own thoughts than with the ‘scary’ looks the two young men were sending his way.
The young man who spoke just now managed to actually ask himself the question Laien brought up; indeed, why would this kid from the House of Sword apologize to him? Was he intending to threaten him with force if he didn’t? The kids from the House of Sword had their own opinions, it wasn’t all that surprising all things considered. They were merchants, they weren’t here to argue about the ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ of what they were doing. Their ultimate goal was to achieve profit.
Shamar raised an eyebrow, noticing how his son calmed down and managed to keep his temper in check. “Good. He might not be as bright as some of my other boys, but at least he isn’t stupid,” he praised in his heart, considering to allow this son of his to try and prove himself sometime in the near future. Who knows? Maybe he would turn out to be more talented than he had given him the credit for.
“Because if you don’t apologize, we will make you.”
Shamar held back a sigh of resignation. It looked like one of the three older sons he brought with himself quickly proved to be a fool. What did they stand to gain from making enemies from the small master of the House of Sword? They were their potential clients! Just thinking about the resources he had wasted on teaching business to this fool made him feel regretful.
“Who will make me?” Laien asked in amusement. “You, or maybe some of your father’s guards?” he questioned, then laughed and shook his head when he saw that the young man was so furious he looked like he was about to jump at him with his fists. “Little dogs always bark too much,” he commented, his words turning out to be the straw that broke the camel’s back.
The young man jumped at Laien, reaching out with his hand with the intention of grabbing him by the shirt.
Shamar didn’t react in any way when he saw his son jump forward; in fact, the expression on his face didn’t even change. This son of his turned out to be a fool. He wouldn’t mind if the guards of the small masters incapacitated him and he wouldn’t care if they killed him either. He would have still provided for a fool of a son for him to live a pleasant life, but he wouldn’t care for someone moronic enough to actually attack a small master of the House of Sword because of unimportant words spoken in an unimportant place.
As a dangerous light flashed through Laien’s eyes, Jasmine laughed and flicked her finger. Before the young man could grab Laien, some fire appeared just by his shoulder. The fire then converged into a very small ball, which in turn exploded with a loud bang and sent the young man stumbling to the side, outside of the carpet and towards the bonfires. Luckily for the man though, the force of the explosion wasn’t all that big and he stopped before he landed in the burning piles of wood.
“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t raise your hand against our young master,” Jasmine said with a very dangerous smile, looking at the young man in the same way Laien looked at Shamar the moment before. She had seen way too many haughty idiots to have the nerve to try and deal with them calmly; in her experience, the straightforward display of force was the best and most surefire solution. As for making such a person change his mind? Ninety-nine out of a hundred cases, it was a pure waste of time.
“I apologize for this moronic son of mine,” Shamar took the initiative to apologize, his attitude appearing to be honest. “I will make sure to punish him thoroughly, but if to forget this incident you need to take his life, then feel free kill him,” he stated pragmatically, startling quite a few of those present. It looked like only Mashir and his mother weren’t surprised; they must have already known what happened to those of their family who were deemed to be morons by Shamar.
The young man who just managed to collect himself from the ground and was wincing in pain from the burns on his shoulder and face trembled. Did his father just abandon him like an afterthought? Was he about to be killed only because he was angry for his father’s sake…? It was unfair! “What will they say? They won’t kill me, will they?” he thought anxiously, too scared to sneak a glance at the boy he had just tried to assault.
“What do you think?” Jasmine asked casually, shifting her glance between the three youths. She didn’t care much, so it would be best to leave the decision to them. In particular, she would prefer if it was Arslan who handed this matter instead of having Laien overrule everything. However, she wouldn’t say that; it was also important for Arslan to learn to speak up if he disagreed with his friend. She suspected Arslan would voice his objections if he disagreed with her or with Reian, but she wasn’t sure if he would do the same if he had a different opinion to Laien’s.
“There’s no point,” Laien said with a shrug of his shoulders, biting his tongue as to not add too much. He considered this young man to be a trash, but the attack wasn’t accompanied by killing intent; the young man didn’t even intend to hit him. Whether it was because of his lack of training of because of his better reason, Laien didn’t plan to kill someone who didn’t actually want to kill him… well, at least not when killing the person would bring more trouble than it was worth.
“No.” Just as the young man began relaxing after hearing Laien’s words, Arslan spoke up discontentedly. “He attacked my friend. In Makarash, using your fists instead of talking is punished with lashes. Depending what happened, from twenty to one hundred lashes,” Arslan pointed out. Apparently, he was much more angered by the young man lashing out against Laien than Laien himself was, what the stern look on his face only confirmed. “I think thirty lashes should be enough,” he added, making the young man want to cry out in protest. He had never been hit, much less been punished by lashes! He hated pain…! Why did he need to go through all of that?!
“Thirty lashes it will be,” Shamar agreed straightforwardly, the look in his eyes filling with appreciation. This small master was so young, but he already understood that people needed to be punished adequately to their actions! It made him wish this boy was his son instead of one of the many fools his wives had given birth to. “As far as I’m aware, in Makarash it’s prohibited to use healing medicine or requesting a practitioner to heal the wounds after the punishment is applied. We will adhere to those standards, naturally,” he said with an amiable smile, causing the look on his moronic son’s face to sink even further.
“You reap what you sow,” Mashir commented with his eyes closed and with a small smirk on his lips. He never expected either of those two brothers of his to be of any challenge to him, but he didn’t think one of them would prove to be a moron. It made him feel ashamed to share the same blood with someone so stupid… though the stupidity must have come from his brother’s mother, not from their father. Thinking about it like this, he assumed that there wasn’t a reason to feel ashamed.
“H-help me!”
The sudden yell startled everyone present. They all turned their heads towards the line of bonfires and saw a silhouette of a young boy behind them. No wonder none of them noticed anything; the kid came right out of the thick forest and any sound of him walking had been drowned out by the sound of the fire crackling. The kid probably didn’t have much of an aura as a practitioner either, so none of them perceived him as a potential danger. Moreover, they had all been concentrated on the incident at hand; it was no wonder that the kid managed to get within one hundred meters range of them without anyone spotting him.
“They are… they are chasing me…! I can’t any-… anymore! Please…!” the boy pleaded in as loud of a voice as he could muster, which wasn’t all that loud at all. As a result, those with worse senses within the group had some trouble telling what he was saying, but those with better hearing heard it all.
“My, my. So troublesome, there actually are people here,” one of the six figures emerging from the forest behind the boy complained quietly. They really had played with that kid for too long during this hunt; to think the kid had enough strength to get away far enough to meet some travelers. It seemed like it was the end of their fun; it was the time to kill their prey and be done with it.