Chapter XXV: Providence Republic II

Onin

Sengoku Empire

The Great Plateau

Month of the Pangolin 9, 172 ,328 DE

After a flash of anger twist Toomey's face, he schools his face in to an expressionless mask and turns around. "Who the fuck do you think you're talking to, Karen?"

"Don't dead name you mother fucker! I'm Kellen!"

Toomey smirks, and his voice drips with condescension. "Of course, you are, Karen."

As the purple-haired female's face twists in rage, blood flushes her skin, turning her complexion nearly as purple as her hair. "Bastard! You're a failure! You're trash! Do you know how I am! Do you think I can't have you castrated! I'm a prodigy! I'm the best Cultivator to ever come out of the Republic!"

Toomey chuckles. "My contributions to the Republic are legion, and I am from a Politburo Class family. You have never done anything for the Republic. Prodigies die every day. And a dead prodigy is no longer a prodigy. Try your best."

"Aaarrgh! You breeder bastard! Die!" The purple-haired female stamps her foot into the sand and charges at Toomey.

Without drawing a weapon, Toomey sways to the side, avoiding the purple-haired female's lunge, and using dance-like footwork, he circles around behind her. Spinning around, the female launches a flurry of attacks. While laughing mockingly, Toomey dodges or deflects with the palms of his hands.

While Toomey baits and toys with the female, the others in the arena slowly stop their own training or sparring and turn their attention to the fight. The spectators quickly turn from watching to dissecting the flaws in the female's sword technique and speculation about Toomey. Cultivators may follow the false paths created by the Dragon Gods, but not all of them are idiots. Many of the Cultivators in the arena clearly recognize that Toomey is stronger than a Core Formation Cultivator.

The exchange continues for several minutes, until the female gives up and repeatedly stamps her foot into the sand. With a sneer, Toomey stares coldly at the female. "Are you done, Karen? These little pre-exam sessions are meant to show off and intimidate your competition, not to make yourself look like an idiot."

I do not know what a dead name is supposed to be, but from her reaction and what I perceive in the purple-haired female's aura, Karen appears to be her name.

Karen glares at Toomey. "It's all your fault! Damned worthless breeder! Just you wait. I don't care if your from a Politburo Class family! The People will take down your damn parasite breeder classes!"

"Kellen! That's treason!" With a horrified expression, the blue-haired female shrieks at Karen, who apparently prefers the name Kellen.

With hanging open, Karen's screams cut off in mid-word. As she looks around at the other exam candidates with her, they all back away from her, and a look of horror settles on her face.

Toomey chuckles nastily. "Well, well, Karen. It looks like you've shown your true colors as a treasonous little cunt. I wouldn't expect your membership in the Purity League to protect you. How does it feel to go from prodigy to pariah? At least, there is nothing biologically wrong with you, I'm sure the Ministry of Legal Compliance will just have your Cultivation crippled and add you to the breeding pool."

As her face turns pale, Karen backs away from Toomey. "You set me up! Damn you, bastard!"

"Soldiers secure the traitor!" Toomey points at Karen.

With their Core Formation Cultivation flaring, five of the Soldiers spring forward. Karen tries to dodge them, but their speed dwarfs her reactions. Two soldiers grab her, each latching onto one arm. A third Soldier takes off his backpack and pulls a set of wide shackles from it. With a faint smile, he locks them around Karen's wrists, and sigils on the cuffs flare into bloody red light.

As Karen stares Toomey with a wide-eyed expression of shock, he smiles. "Not that it will make any difference to your current situation, but in the future, you should remember that the purpose of Central Security is to protect the integrity of the Republic and the Manifesto from all enemies foreign and domestic. Our bureau only answers to the Politburo and only the Politburo. The political status and the connections of an enemy of the Republic are immaterial.

"Take her to the chopper and watch her."

After watching the Soldiers lead Karen out of the arena, Toomey stare at the area where Magabe and I are standing. From the way he narrows his eyes and the confusion in his aura, he should not be able to see me, and after a minute or so, he looks back at the now-terrified Republic students. "Wait are you waiting for? It's time to show off your techniques and intimidate the opposition."

Seemingly not caring about the hundreds of Cultivators watching the Republic students and himself, Toomey disdainfully scans the others in the arena.

Still standing next to me, Magabe chuckles. "You seem confused, Raymon."

Unable to keep a frown off my face, I glance Magabe. "I don't understand. They're all part of the same nation. What was Toomey doing? I though he was just a mercenary. Does he really have a high position in the Republic.?"

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Magabe frowns. "My knowledge of the Providence Republic is limited, but I have reasonable understanding of their structure. The Republic is twisted society with dreams of Empire. It exists in a large valley completely surrounded by mountains, They are an oligarchical dictatorship controlled by a small group of families. Their territory is not large, but neither is it small. They have more land than your Heian Kingdom. Even so, they maintain very strict population controls, and for those who are not part of the upper tiers of their society, the Political and Industrial class families, reproduction is considered necessary but disgraceful. Children are raised to be loyal to the Republic over their own parents and siblings. That Karen will be added to breeding pool for whatever Class she was born into, a shameful end for her.

"The Soldiers are treated a bit differently. The Politburo, the ruling body of the Republic, throws its Soldiers away in pointless battles. Soldiers, who repeatedly distinguish themselves in battle, are taught that having a breeding partner is a status symbol and are required to have families. Soldiers live separately from the rest of the population, and any male children born to a Soldier family are raised and trained to be Soldiers."

Pausing, Magabe scratches his bearded chin. "The Republic has dreams of ruling the entire world, but their society and approach to Cultivation has severely limited them. Their strongest Cultivators are Martial Lords, but they can reliable turn almost any Soldier into a Core Formation Cultivator, and some into Martial Warriors, but that is nowhere near enough. Those students down there have been raised with more normal Cultivation methods, and they have been sending their best out to train in the Cultivation colleges of other nations. But Cultivation rank for Cultivation rank, the students form the Republic prove inferior to those from even small nations like the Heian Kingdom. Even with the Cultivation Techniques and resources of the Cultivation Colleges, they still have trouble overcoming their deficiencies.

"You have no need to worry about them in the entrance exams."

I snort. "I don't worry about any Cultivators."

Magabe chuckles. "Other than Northern College, the Cultivation Colleges will simply ignore you. Even should you crush everyone else in sparring and doming the Engineering exams, you have no Cultivation. You will be automatically disqualified by all the other colleges."

I shrug. "Northern College is the only place I'm interested in going. Are you the Old Man Jones' friend who is hiding out there?"

Looking at me, Magabe narrows his eyes. "Did Young Jones actually tell you I was hiding out in Northern College?"

I grin. "You should know the way the shitty old man talks. Does he ever say anything that politely?"

"The next time I see Young Jones, I may have to remind him who is the senior disciple of the College of the War Masters. Ho-ho-ho." Magabe's frown and narrowed eyes make him slightly irritated by my words.

Without giving away my amusement, I point at Toomey. "Do you know much about that dickhead Toomey?"

Magabe chuckles. "I have no idea which Toomey he is. As he said, Toomey is a Politburo Class family. The Providence Republic is over ten thousand years old, and the Toomeys have been part of the Politburo since they arrived on this world."

"Arrive on this world? What do you mean?"

Magabe gives me an appraising looks. "The original population of the Providence Republic come from another Realm. As best as I can determine, they arrived through dimensional rift a bit over ten thousand years ago. Whether by a freak chance of through some entity's design, they arrived at the heart of what had once been the private demense of a rather odd group of War Masters, and they somehow managed to gain control of the defense towers that surrounded the demense.

"Are you aware that humans are not native to this world? That includes Beastmen."

A flash of surprise goes through me. "I knew Beastmen were not native to this world. I never heard that about humans."

Magabe frowns. "You mother certainly knew that humans were not natives, and Young Jones should know it as well. I can understand that you mother might not have said anything considering how young you were when you last saw her, but it seems Young Jones may have been remiss in your education."

I shrug. "That shitty old man's idea of teaching is to give me books to read whenever I have questions. I still haven't read everything he's carrying around with himself."

Magabe huffs. "Be that as it may, my point is that the Toomey family is old. They have many lesser branches, and many of the members of those branches join Central Security. The same applies to all the old Political and Politburo Class families. The agents of Central Security all strictly use their surname and only their surname outside of the Republic. There are dozens of Toomeys active around the Great Plateau at any one time. I have encountered a few of them at various times, but this one does not look familiar."

Staring at Toomey, I frown, and once more, he turns to stare at my location. After a few seconds, he scans the humans filling the stands around me. Forming threads of Telepathy and Empathy , I reach out to feel the anger flooding his aura. Interestingly, he is not leaking any thoughts or thought fragments. As I touch his Mind with my Telepathy thread, I find a shield that feels like an iron wall, but it does not seem to be natural. While his Mind is defended, his Soul is wide open, and he has almost control over his emotions. Anger, confusion, and uneasiness fight for dominance.

As I focus my awareness into my Telepathy thread, the world slows down around me. I form more Telepathy threads and carefully examine the shield around Toomey's Mind. It does not appear to be formed as a single piece. Multiple sections seem to be crammed together with overlapping joints. I could break through the joints, but I doubt I could do it without alerting Toomey to what I am doing.

Since I do not want to get into a fight with him right now, I withdraw my threads and focus of my awareness on Toomey's pattern. While they are not as obvious as the Soldier Cultivators, he has a number of oddities in his pattern that are almost certainly a form of sigils that were artificially grafted onto it.

Withdrawing my awareness back into my Body, I turn my back on the arena and head for the stair.

"You aren't going to get into a fight with them?"

I snort. "I have another other dick-breath okama to take care of. These dick-breath freaks can wait their turn."

"Ho-ho-ho." With an amused smirk, Magabe follows me.