Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 65. Ulme Village.
“Just keep going straight and take the first turn right,” Johan said confidently despite his fatigue. “Around twenty kilometers after the turn, there will be a small path to the right. If we go by it, we should arrive on the hill near my village. I’m sure everyone will be there,” he added, speaking as loudly as possible to make his voice carry beyond the wind of the fast-paced ride through the forest.
Still, it was only Laien who heard Johan clearly enough, so he needed to relay the words to everyone else, what he promptly did.
“How many people should we expect there?” Reian asked from behind. Since they were intent on doing something that could stir up trouble, it would be for the best if the aftermath was kept to the minimum. As a future Captain Commander, he already understood that preparing for the worst-case scenario came first; and that scenario was if they ended up being forced to kill a considerable amount of people from that kid’s village. Admittedly, he had had thoughts about destroying the whole village in his moment of anger, but he no longer considered it a viable option.
“Fifty or sixty,” Johan said after a moment of thought. There usually was that many people who came when his sister did something to anger them with her friends.
“And how many people live in your village?” After leaning Johan’s answer from Laien, Reian followed up with another question. taking care not to ask everything at once to make it easier on that tired kid.
“Three thousand,” Johan replied instantly. He had heard the number being mentioned not too long ago, so he was able to recall it without much effort. “Um.” He perked up slightly, having recalled something else. “My sister told me she and her friends used to play on that hill often since the yells and shouts don’t reach the village from there, but now only the new children can play there…” he told Laien, trying to remember and tell him everything that could be of any importance.
“!” The next second, he straightened up so quickly that were it not for his body strength of a martial practitioner of the first rank being insignificant in comparison to Laien, he might have caused Laien to lose balance in the saddle. As for falling off though? Even if he was as strong as Laien, it would be hard for him to dismount Laien with one random movement. During those two months Laien’s riding skill had improved by leaps and bounds. By this point in time, he was likely as skilled as Ruan, a person who had spent most of his life on the horsebacks doing the job of a courier.
“I forgot to tell you,” Johan said hurriedly. He was feeling sorry for bumping his back into Laien, but he wanted to him what he remembered as quickly as he could. “There were more people chasing after me. They probably split up when I entered the river to lose them. There should be a few more adults and Zakar. He is one of the new elders of our village and they say he is the best hunter around,” he explained, trying to make as much sense as he could, and given how hard it was for him to piece together a few sentences he appeared to be doing a good job.
Laien frowned ever so slightly at that news, but he wasn’t overly concerned with them. He told everyone what Johan just told him and as he expected, no one was overly concerned with the numbers of their potential enemies going up by a few. The best hunter around? How could a person like that compare to the elite White Guards from Makarash? He simply couldn’t.
“Just to be sure, that man isn’t some all-powerful expert?” Jasmine asked with a slightly amused smile on her face. It would be a bit too pitiful if their group happened to randomly offend a powerful hidden master who preferred to live in seclusion.
“He shouldn’t be,” Johan said uncertainly. After all, there was no way for him to know for sure. “The new people like to brag about how strong they are, but Zakar shouldn’t be an expert. He should be close to the Realm of Heroes though,” he explained as well as he could, worrying if Zakar wouldn’t become an obstacle in the way of those people who agreed to help them.
After Laien relayed the answer once again, the little tension everyone was feeling disappeared. Merely at the threshold between the mortal realm and the Realm of Heroes? Unless they met someone on the level of Yimar Maar of the Guode Yimarate or his Sword of Rala, they wouldn’t need to worry about their own safety. They could deal with that whole Zakar easily enough.
“It’s going to be okay,” Laien reassured and hugged Johan with one arm, holding him tightly around his chest. “We can easily deal with Zakar and the others. Relax and rest for a bit. I will wake you up when we arrive,” he suggested, seeing how Johan was about to straight out faint from exhaustion.
Johan groaned quietly, wanting to say that he was too worried to do such a thing… but the moment he relaxed the muscles in his body, he instantly fell asleep. Considering that he had been running non-stop for the past five or six hours while fearing for his life, it was already amazing that he had been able to keep himself going for so long. He truly could be described as someone possessing an indomitable will.
“When we arrive, we are going to try talking first,” Jasmine said after a few minutes. She had been waiting for Reian to flesh this part out to the boys, but it appeared like he couldn’t force the words out for some reason. She could guess… no, she knew what the reason was and because of it, she couldn’t be angry with her former pupil. After all, when she had grown powerful she herself had found and murdered the group of women who had performed Khatan on her while she had still been but a child. It had been the only time she had not only killed someone, but also made sure to put them through as much pain as possible; and she didn’t regret what she had done ever since.
She sighed in her heart, having heard no answer from neither Laien nor Yin even after a long moment passed. At the very least she appreciated that the boys were honest with themselves and didn’t lie to her, but she wondered if the little master should be shown all that he was about to see. “Trauma… it shouldn’t turn into one. He is Mustafa’s son, he can’t possibly be weak-willed.” She decided to think positively. All in all, for Arslan to grow he needed to experience a wide variety of things, not only the pleasant ones or the ones hard to manage. The dark side of the world where the strong made the law… Arslan needed to witness that too.
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“It doesn’t look like he went upstream,” one of the six dark-clothed men said with a sigh. “It looks like your son lucked out. The kid went in the direction of the city instead of trying to hide in the forest and hoping for the best,” he added and chuckled lightly. It was rare for Zakar to make mistakes, but when they happened they would always become a sore spot that one could pick on.
“It just means I underestimated that boy,” Zakar said uncaringly, and yet couldn’t help but reveal a rather displeased look. “I didn’t think he would still try to reach the ‘safety’ after we’ve sat on his tail for half the night. Well, it’s either that or he had chosen the direction randomly. I guess I will ask him later to find out,” he speculated aloud, refusing to so easily accept that his prediction had been wrong. An eight-year-old boy without any martial or spiritual talent; how could a boy like that who wasn’t much different from cattle display so much willpower after they had purposely cornered him and pushed him to the extreme with repeated ‘attacks’ before letting him get away again, again and again? He had sparsely seen any adults who were able to keep their sanity while being hunted down by him, but a talentless eight-year-old managed that feat off? He wouldn’t believe it.
“Shakir must have caught him already,” another of the men spoke up, trying to change the subject a little before Zakar’s mood got too bad. “The ceremony should be ending in an hour or so. He will bring the kid back, so we should also return. I’ve had enough of wandering the forest just to play with some old kid… not all of us enjoy your hobbies, you know,” the man complained, but there wasn’t much dissatisfaction in the tone of his voice; he was only saying the words for the sake of complaining. The five of them had been following Shakir for over fifty years and they lived good lives thanks to him. None of them would disobey him in anything, be it an important matter or simply a whim of his.
“Yeah, I guess we should go back,” Zakar agreed with the man. He glanced at the starry sky for a split-second, then turned to the right and began walking towards the village.
“As always, his sense of direction is abnormal,” one of the men commented with a smile. He laughed when Zakar glanced back at him; despite the furrowed forehead of Zakar’s, he knew that the old hunter enjoyed hearing others praise him.
“Stop talking nonsense and hurry up, else we won’t make it back in one hour,” Zakar reprimanded with a slight smile on his face.
“We can always run back,” the same man suggested jokingly. However, he chuckled nervously and said no more when Zakar sent him a somewhat angered glance. The five of them knew that Zakar detested running; he would always say it was unbecoming of a hunter to run after his prey. Although they didn’t completely agree with him on the matter, they couldn’t question his efficiency and thus, they always did as they were told.
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“Sharu, you should tone down on drinking already,” one of the many men sitting beside the small bonfires said with a smirk. “You aren’t so young anymore, you are going to throw up all the food you ate again. It’s such a waste!” he pointed out with a laugh and drank another mouthful of strong beer from the flagon he was holding in his hand.
The accused elderly man opened his mouth to rebuke the man, but what it was a loud and long burp which escaped his throat instead of words. The two dozen men around all looked at the old man, then began laughing merrily. Indeed, that was the best way to make a comeback!
As if in a grotesque performance, a horrified cry filled with pain resounded from the nearby wooden building to accompany the laughter of the two dozen men. The cry was soon muffled, but
“Those old ones really do sound like pigs,” Sharu said, clearly amused by the sounds coming from the building every so often. “That only proves it. Even if they are trimmed properly and even if they praise the Rala like they should, the old ones will be swine and dogs no matter what,” he commented with a smirk on his face and received vigorous nods and murmurs of agreement from his drinking companions.
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“It’s all thanks to Rala, as the Great Prophet said,” one of the men said calmly, his eyes filled with respect and awe. “The Great Rala robbed those infidel dogs of their mind. They all gave up and decided to be ruled by us, as it should rightfully be,” he said with a very satisfied smile.
“Rala Salar!” Sharu raised his flagon of beer and called out, praising their God for all he had done for them.
“Rala Salar!”
“Rala Salar!”
The two dozen men began chanting in unison, easily allowing themselves to be swept up by the fervor of the moment. Their people had been suppressed by the Euleanians for far too long, but Rala and his messenger, the Great Prophet had finally changed that! Now they were the lords, they were the conquerors! Soon, the whole world would belong to them and everyone would prostrate before the might of Shaari!
It took a good while for the spontaneous chant to quiet down, but not long after it finally did, the two dozen men heard the sound of many riders approaching by the forest path that connected the hill directly to the road leading out of the village.
“What are they doing, choosing such a tight unused path? Did they get lost?” someone asked in confusion.
“Maybe they are from around here and they knew it’s a good place to set up a camp. The trees shelter you from wind and rain, there aren’t many bugs flying around either,” someone else suggested and got everyone to agree with him. They had started building what would become an impressive Maraak only recently, so it couldn’t be helped if people around didn’t know this area had been accommodated for another purpose and couldn’t be used for camping whenever one wanted.
“Haha, let’s go and greet them,” Sharu stood up and while swaying somewhat, left the improvised dining area they had been drinking and eating at and headed towards the wooden building. The forest road just so happened to lead one not far away from the structure, so simply waiting in front of the entrance would make it good enough of a spot to greet the travelers.
As for the rest of the men, since they had nothing better to do they picked up their alcohol and followed the elderly Sharu. It hadn’t been rare for them to see riders during the Day That Was Promised in spring, but after everything had calmed down the life once again became boring. They would, of course, look for ways to amuse themselves, but since the Yimars sent out the order prohibiting the continuation of the purge, they ended up feeling as if something was lacking.
Truth to be told, some of them hoped those riders would turn out to be a group of rogue bandits. The strength of their village was one of the best in the region and they had even killed a few martial masters of the first rank by working together with Zakar’s hunters back in the spring.
“Huh?” Sharu and the others couldn’t help but feel confused when they saw four kids riding at the forefront of the group. It also didn’t take them long to notice the two improperly-clothed women in the middle of the arriving party, especially with how eye-catching Jasmine’s figure and long, brown hair were. The group being headed by children, they could still understand… but having two women of loose morals ride with them was something that Sarkar Law clearly prohibited.
Of course, had those men known that those ‘two women of loose morals’ were in fact members of the White Guard of Mustafa’s, they wouldn’t have dared to as much as have those thoughts about them, much less intend to voice them.
“Eh? Isn’t this that kid, whatever was he called?” Luckily for them, someone pointed out Johan’s presence. Since Johan was here, it meant one of two things; either Zakar and his party had been killed, or what made more sense to them, the boy had been bought by those people and they came here to bargain for the brat’s sister and possibly more of the village’s children.
As for the reason why those two dozen men were able to come to such conclusions so easily despite being dead-drunk, it was because seeing slave traders going around and buying children illegally wasn’t all that rare of a thing in Eulene. Such traders would always travel with a strong escort that would at least have a few Realm of Heroes experts in it. Moreover, even if one managed to kill a slave trader and his escort, he could expect a revenge from the trader’s master; it was a widely acknowledged fact that slave traders were better not to be touched. It was fine not to deal with them, but attacking them was something even most Yimars wouldn’t do without a good reason.
The two dozen men were naturally aware of this piece of common knowledge, so they swiftly abandoned the idea of lecturing the group about the Sarkar Law. Although they were all dutiful Malazans, they still valued their lives above the rules of their faith. A village was theirs was on the larger end of villages, but it was still just a village. No one would come to help them just because they were met with some injustice, so they all had learned early on in their lives who they could and couldn’t afford to offend.
And of course, had the two dozen of them not been so drunk, they would have recognized that slave traders wouldn’t have the slave they purchased ride on horseback with a young master of theirs… but in reality, whether they identified the arriving group correctly or not mattered very little.
“…” The moment they saw the two dozen bearded men, Laien felt Johan stiffen up in front of him. He could tell the kid wanted to say something, to do something, but was too scared of those people to even move too much. He was about to speak up himself when a mortifying scream of a young girl spread from within the large wooden building to their left. The scream was so frightening that everyone’s blood froze in their veins as they gasped; everyone’s blood froze… but the two dozen men didn’t react much and on the contrary, many of them were snickering.
“Enough…” Reian said in a weak voice, his whole body trembling in anger. “Enough!” he roared, enhancing his voice with Qi and sending it towards the large building alone.
The wooden walls of the structure shook from the vibration and for a second, all movement and sound in the area ceased. The powerful aura of a martial master had burst forth along with Reian’s Qi, so it was impossible for those men outside and the people inside not to recognize Reian’s strength. They were also able to recognize the great fury his shout contained, so none of them wanted to become the target for him to vent his anger upon.
“Teacher, please protect little master,” Reian said as he jumped off his horse, thick killing intent emanating from his body. He wouldn’t purge the whole village… but he would kill all those damnable people on this hill. He wouldn’t spare even one of them no matter how much they begged for their worthless lives.
“No,” Arslan intersected before Jasmine responded. “I’m going too. Protect me as I go with you,” he said stubbornly, but despite his full of conviction words he couldn’t stop shaking. Reian’s killing intent was absolutely terrifying; he had never seen the always-calm Reian become so infuriated before. If he was the direct target of this murderous aura, then he feared he would start having trouble with breathing and perhaps lose consciousness not long afterward.
Jasmine hesitated ever so slightly and thus, was robbed of the chance to say anything as Laien, Yin and Arslan all dismounted. Leaving Arslan’s case on the side for a second, it had taken the two twelve years old boys a heartbeat or two longer to proceed the situation at hand, but once they did some killing intent began leaking from their bodies. She suspected that normally the two would have been more shocked and taken aback rather than angry, but after they had seen the reality of harems in the Grand Palace the terror of suffering must have become closer and more relatable to them; with the memory of the slaves suffering fresh in their minds, it was considerably easier to rouse their anger.
“… Do what you want, I will keep by little master’s side,” Jasmine declared and joined the four in the front, placing herself beside Arslan.
“W-wait a second.” One of the two dozen men raised his hands in a defensive gesture. “I don’t know what’s going on, but we can talk it out. Do you want to buy untrimmed slaves? Is that it? We can stop the Khatan straight away if that’s the problem.” He immediately turned to pleading, his legs wobbling uncontrollably as he was faced with Reian’s killing intent. He had seen quite a few martial and spiritual masters in his life and had felt them emanate killing intent when doing battle, but none of them was comparable to the golden-haired blue-eyed man before his eyes. Just the murderous aura along was making him, and not only him, to feel as if his heart was about to stop beating.
“Right, after we all fellow Malazans?” Sharu stepped forward, managing to regain some control of his shaky legs. “The Great Rala wouldn’t want us to fight at such a joyous time, let us all-…”
No more words came out of Sharu’s mouth as in an instant, his throat and head had been pierced through by the sword which appeared in Reian’s hand. Sharu gaggled on the blade, his life still not having completely escaped his body. However, his head and soon whole body was engulfed by flames which burnt his flesh and bones into a pile of ashes in a little more than a second.
“Hmph,” Laien swept out with his hand, releasing a wave spiritual energy which quickly turned into a gust of freezing-cold air. With his spiritual energy filled with the power of fused Aspects and enhanced by his deep insights into the Principle of Energy, the attack was more than enough to deal with this group of people who were at the late stages of the mortal realm. The weaker of the two dozen had their bodies frozen throughout in the blink of an eye, while the strongest few managed to make some slight movement before their skin and muscles congealed. A few heartbeats later, the resistance the few of them were trying to put up with their Qi was broken and they too turned into lifeless statues of ice.
A display of the power of this level was nothing much to Laien. Yin was used to seeing much more, while the original guards of theirs had seen too much to be surprised by something like this. On the other hand, Arslan and the four White Guards who saw Laien employ his magic in this way were awestruck. This was an ability of a spiritual practitioner of the eighth rank? Was Laien an Ice Devil birthed by a Djinn from the Endless Desert?
Out of the five of them, it definitely was Sirius and Kasha who were the most dumbstruck. They were both water-element spiritual masters and they knew how to use a few ice-element spells. Yet, they would never be able to employ the ice magic with their Guardian and even if they could, they would be hard-pressed to reach such an impressive result in a manner as casual and effortless as the one displayed by Laien. The two of them knew they weren’t exactly combat-oriented practitioners, but it was the first time they started wondering if they could beat Laien in a fight.
Sirius could still feel fairly confident, but Kasha? She felt rather helpless. She was already over twenty years old, but she wasn’t sure if she could beat a twelve years old boy. To think she had thought herself to be a genius… what a joke.
“Aren’t you coming too?” Laien looked at Johan, who was staring at the two dozen frozen men with wide eyes and with his mouth hanging open. Those strong and scary Ikarians who had always bullied them and their parents, they were killed so effortlessly? For some reason, it caused Johan to grow frustrated; had he known the saying about a frog in a well, he would have thought of it. The people who were the scariest thing in the world to him had been killed just like that, as if their lives and their strength didn’t amount to anything at all. Somehow, it made him feel incredibly powerless.
However, he shook his head strongly and threw those depressing thoughts away. It was a great thing that this group was so strong. Thanks to it, he and his sister and everyone else would be finally able to leave the village and maybe get safely to the Ruishi Federation or to one of the countries in the north. Thinking like that, he got off Laien’s horse and joined him hurriedly, then followed Laien and the others into the large wooden building.
“Sirius, Kasha, come with us,” Jasmine called out before she entered the building. “The rest of you make sure no one escapes through the back. Surround this place,” she instructed, used to taking command in the field. They had started killing the people of this village without asking questions; it wasn’t that she minded considering what was going on in this place, but it was better if the news of it stayed on this hill forever instead of spreading all over the region.
The two water-element spiritual masters exchanged a glance, then followed Jasmine inside. As everyone else, they did as they were told without grumbling. Compared to getting used to listening to two young boys, it was much easier to push their pride aside and obey a powerful practitioner like Jasmine. They made sure to cut off all escape routes and to keep the horses safe all the while, just in case.
The black-cloaked man, Gahar, made sure to keep an eye on the village in addition to guarding one of the escape paths from the hill. He had been a bit worried if Reian’s shout, despite having been restricted to one direction, didn’t end up echoing and alarming some of the villagers. However, he saw no sign of anyone waking up; the village was dark, silent and motionless. It looked like what Johan said about the hill muffling all sound and preventing it from reaching the village was true.