First Year In The Palace (1)
"First, we lack wood. Any type." Empress Shuna started off as she stood up from her throne. She gradually walked towards Heian Ciemnosc as she kept explaining. "Although we can buy it cheaply for our fisher and merchant ships, and the fusion with other materials goes well, we cannot use enough material to produce an Elemental synergy. Our movement in water is slower than it should be because of this. When my father started this Empire, this was one of the things he changed. Although it has been a tough Period, we've managed despite the harassment."
“Since we’re preparing for something more, the amount of trees we need to cut down is too big. The price would immediately rise before we even buy it. They would delay once they know our demand, and if we agree to such proposals, we’ll simply become stuck.” Empress Shuna arrived 2 meters before Heian Ciemnosc, as she explained. She stopped and looked at him with her arms resting at her sides.
“Some shore organizations intending not to become the top 7 organizations’ dogs. And if any of the latter wants to attack them, they can unite and call to the other small fishes that they are following a tyrant.” Heian Ciemnosc commented. Empress Shuna nodded but said without emotion, “That has been their modus operandi way before the Blauw Empire was formed. That’s how we’ve been kept in the water.”
“Yes, I know. But with enough convincing, right now, some of those organizations can be persuaded to give us passing and sell forest areas to us for the next 3 years. It will be somewhat costly, but with skills and status, anything can be put in an advantageous position. What do you think?” Heian Ciemnosc nodded, too, and added as a proposition. Empress Shuna fell into silent contemplation, struggling as she imagined herself doing the negotiations.
“I’ll go,” Heian Ciemnosc read through her effortlessly and continued adding calmly. “I can have a talk with them. That should be enough to remind them who has arrived now and to whom did those other Second Step organizations from other Regions immediately continue doing business with the Blauw Empire, which is not lacking anything but money in their treasury.”
“I see,” Empress Shuna looked directly at him. She nodded and looked to the side, at the floor. After a little while, she looked up at him and said. “Are you sure you want to partake in this? They might secretly contact the other organizations after they left the Small City island and are now in cahoots with them. Who are you planning to contact?”
“Oh, it is no problem.” Heian Ciemnosc waved it off, unconcerned. He then addressed the complex situation by indirectly dealing with those top 7 fellows. “They won’t dare choose a side after I arrived. And if they do, I can just declare them traitors and have a First Step force come and decimate them. It might take us half a month extra before proceeding to gather resources, but it will be enough. As for the big fishes, I’ll speak to the Feathered Valley Pavilion.”
“The north is abundant and has always been the greatest harvester. They are too strong. Would you really be fine if you go there?” Empress Shuna’s face was calm and appeased, but when Heian Ciemnosc finished his words, she immediately frowned and spoke without feeling secure about this plan. She wasn’t worried only for Heian Ciemnosc’s sake. If this plan failed somehow, in any possible way, who else would treat them as the powerhouses they are?
“Oh. I said don’t worry before, Empress.” Heian Ciemnosc lightly bowed his upper torso while supporting his left elbow on his right hand, whose arm rested on his stomach. He continued, “I won’t go and sandwich myself between those 2 big fishes. I will only ask the beast taming fellows and focus on the southern regions of the north. I will go there myself and protect the operations there. In under a month, you’ll have machinery and routes that’ll bring the Blauw Empire’s entire population enough use for… many ‘toys’ and livelihood.”
“... The Feathered Valley Pavilion is neighbor to the Blue Emirate Grotto,” Empress Shuna frowned, momentarily paused, and continued with a sighing voice. “They are very inkling to create trouble with us. After their Emirates separated, they were the ones to strike and initiate plans against my people. They were only one of the few, but at the center of the in-land territory in the Region, they had harassed us the most.”
“Exactly,” Heian Ciemnosc nodded and walked around her lackadaisically. Empress Shuna slowly blinked her eyes and tilted her head as if berating him, but softly. She continued her speech in a light tone. “But they are the closest neighbors of the Pavilion to the south. They will make a ruckus when you go with what little troops we’ll have left. They might not attack you, but as I said before, they will find an undeniable way to declare your actions imprudent. The Academy can only watch then.”
“That’s right, so imagine if they start a conflict with the beast taming fellows. As you said, the Blue Emirate Grotto has uncontrolled desires, which means they can be volatile, too. They might be the best at Water techniques everywhere in all neighboring Regions. But it doesn’t matter how hard they try, even when they attempted to capture both sexes from your Bloodline, they cannot replicate the intricate, innate Water elemental affinity and connection your people have.”
“If you’re really worried about failing, then tell me.” Heian Ciemnosc suddenly somberly said as he turned to give the Empress his back. He looked dark and shady with his dark coat on, making the Empress’s relaxed brows knit and release repeatedly. His voice turned quiet, and in her mind and ears, his voice became scary. Although it did not affect her. “With what you have heard of me and seen before. Do you think I would fret about one of those puppies going after me?”
“I admit it would be worrisome to have some discreet fellows target me and even worse if they join hands. But I can not only protect myself. I can also ensure the security of these activities. For the first 2 years, I will give enough time for your Empire to build new warships and learn what your people should have never forgotten. Whether your ancient customs or Warlord tendencies. They are all yours and your peoples’ to take.”
“...” - “...” Heian Ciemnosc finished speaking and looked straight into the Empress’s eyes. She looked back at him, most of her worry gone, but those strongly determined aquamarine, azure eyes remained locked on his person. Finally, she spoke with a light voice, almost broken, but she managed to keep her volume and stability on par with her image. “What new warships and ‘ways’ are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about giving you wings- ah… I don’t know if your people can summon wings like tails and scales… but anyway. Here, let me show you,” Heian Ciemnosc explained, becoming calm and confident again before this Empress’s eyes. He took some blueprints from his Covert Space bags with emotion as he couldn’t believe he was finally creating massive weapons of mass destruction and lethality after so long and with such vast differences!
“Oh, right. Before anything else,” just as Heian Ciemnosc was about to show it and start nerding all over his blueprints, he remembered something and stopped. “If I do get attacked, don’t worry about anything. As for your daughter, nothing will happen to a Genius of the Wrath Nihility Academy, much less when my wife is someone with a bright future. Nothing can happen to my apprentice.”
“... I am grateful,” Empress Shuna’s strongly determined aquamarine, azure eyes looked at him without moving or speaking for a while. When she said her words, she couldn’t help lowering them after speaking them. Heian Ciemnosc simply hummed and nodded before showing her his blueprints. Only after he took about 24 different paper sheets did she look at Heian Ciemnosc’s hands. The moment her aquamarine azure reflected the metallic behemoths and the like, they widened like crazy. “!!”
… Later that day, Heian Ciemnosc moved around the Palace until he arrived before a couple of majestic, azure, and golden doors. After propping with his Spirit Sense and waiting for 15 minutes, Heian Ciemnosc knocked on the doors. After he did, he heard the movement inside the room stop for a few seconds. As if whoever was there realized what was happening, a flurry of steps arrived near the door on the other side before rapidly opening them.
“Teacher!!” A little girl with her hair wet and pajamas as the evening neared their time zone. After she opened the doors, she spread her arms and waited for Heian Ciemnosc to hug her. Instead of following the little girl’s desires, Heian Ciemnosc tilted his head to the left a lot, thought for some time, and bent to pick the girl from the sides. He lifted and carried her in his left arm like a baby as she pouted.
“Teacher, I thought you would arrive later on. What happened?”
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As Little Ish asked, Heian Ciemnosc walked around her place. It was a bigger and more lavish residence than his, worthy of the Blauw Empire’s royal princess and Empress Shuna’s daughter. He placed Little Ish on her bed once he strolled for a short while and left her bedroom to search for some books she had perfectly hidden in every possible corner of her residence and brought them back. Her face soured. But then, he answered her question, and she became entertained.
“I underestimated your mom, and she ended up giving me a few requests for some things that your people will be using in the future. Why do you ask? Do you want to learn fast that much?” Heian Ciemnosc sat on her bed, a few feet before her, as she sat on her bum and joined her legs, not wanting to get close to the books in between and further into her pink bedsheets.
“No!” The little girl shouted, pouting immediately at the terror of, of… learning! Heian Ciemnosc smirked a little from the right corner of his mouth and lifted his right hand, which supported his body on the bed, to pat and ruffle her uniquely smooth hair. She became appeased as Heian Ciemnosc calmly said, “We ended the meeting quickly after that. I thought I knew everything about your people, but there are things I didn’t notice before. Although I’m covering that up now.”
“Hm? How?” The curious Little Ish asked as her left eyebrow arched upwards. Heian Ciemnosc lifted his left eyebrow and casually said in a dull tone, “In my own ways.”
“... If you have anything to ask unrelated to what you must learn and what I must teach you, do it now. I’ll only give you one question every other day. Today is your lucky day.” Heian Ciemnosc softly spoke. Blauw Ishikyy lowered her eyes and released her pouty lips. She rubbed her little face with her left backhand before asking first. “Can you pleeeease just address me as Ishikyy, Little Ish, and princess?”
“...” Her eyes brightened a whole damn lot. Heian Ciemnosc looked at her, thinking she was losing one chance to ask anything and just let the little girl be. He nodded and reassured her, “Okay, I will. Anything else? If not, we’ll start learning.”
“What? No! More questions! I still have like hundrousands!” Little Ish claimed out loud, raising her arms and using Power Energy to cover her arms as if that made anything she said more significant. She lowered her little arms and poked her chin in contemplation with her right index finger, looking to her right to look for something. Suddenly, she shouted before turning to face him. “Right! What would you do if I did nothing or behaved unsatisfactorily? Nothing, right?”
“Hm!” Heian Ciemnosc’s eyebrows went up, and he tilted his head to the right after nodding, not even completing the motion. He smirked a little, and somehow, Ishikyy felt in danger. He spoke with a calm tone and serene, darkest eyes. “Have you ever been spanked?”
“Mm? No- eeh?” Little Ish responded cutely, slightly pouting her lips and shaking her head. Rapidly, she sensed that danger even closer, and connecting 1 to 2, she realized what this meant. However, before she could implore for the fairer sex, Heian Ciemnosc pervertedly grinned from the left corner of his lips. “I will handle that bratty ass if its owner doesn’t do well. I will make music and a tune with it.”
“Noooooooooooo!” The little girl sobbingly cried to the top of her lungs... A floor above them, Empress Shuna rolled her eyes as she kept revising the blueprints in her hands with fascination. Meanwhile, one floor below, Heian Ciemnosc held Blauw Ishikyy’s limbs from the wrists and ankles. She was like a pig being roasted in the wild, but she wasn’t rotating around a wooden log, just extended from the air with her hands and feet together.
“Will you behave now?” Heian Ciemnosc sat on her bed in the same position. His right leg and bum against it while the rest was hanging in the air. His right elbow against the left side of his right knee as he bent his leg, he looked at the cutest, pouty face. “Mhm!”
Thud… rustle, rustle, flip, flip. “You only have one question left.” After letting go of the bratty princess, she moved around and specifically picked 3 books from the middle of her bed before returning to her previous spot, albeit slightly closer to Heian Ciemnosc. After processing his words, she pouted sadly and understood where she fucked up. To make up for it, she thought hard for 15 minutes before asking her personal Imperial Teacher.
“Teacher, how do I become stronger in a tough situation?” Her brightest, aquamarine, azure eyes trembled and expanded as she looked up at the pervertedly handsome, pale face. Heian Ciemnosc looked at her books, mentally nodding to her perfect choice to start, and looked at her, scanning her expression for a while before answering. “Only if one’s life is in danger would they have a chance to unlock their hidden potential.”
“Then, who is it like? Can it give me enough power to act like a hero?!” Blauw Ishikyy lightly said with emotion. Heian Ciemnosc slowly blinked before looking deadly straight into her eyes and elaborated. “I said only when one’s life is in danger. Meaning you, yourself. You don’t gain something just because you want to, and it can break apart your body depending on how much potential that is. As for how much, it is not estimated unless you know what situation it is and what it implies for the individual.”
“Uww…” Little Ish pouted and disappointingly dropped her head. Heian Ciemnosc looked at her nape a little as her fingers’ yolk traced the books’ covers before opening his pale red lips. “Not everything is absolute. Nothing is. One can unleash that potential if there is enough knowledge, accumulated power source… and the will for sacrifice.”
“Sacrifice?” Little Ish’s eyes understandingly glowed, but she had to work on it after her lessons if she wanted to comprehend a small portion due to her age and lack of experience. She questioningly added as she looked up at him again. “Like using one’s troops or team’s lives to achieve something? Or using many resources, or money, to secure obtaining something precious or necessary?!”
“No,” Heian Ciemnosc flatly struck her beating heart down to settle. She felt like she was in a vacant, empty, cold space at her Imperial Teacher’s reply and attitude. Heian Ciemnosc flicked the top of her head lightly before explaining, “Sacrifice is when an individual gives something in exchange. Sometimes, without a concrete, valid result or high chances of failure, but that is still a sacrifice. It isn’t only when big heroes do things and save everything, even at the cost of their lives.”
“Only dumb idiots are called heroes,” Heian Ciemnosc added at the end, sparkling some defiance from his little apprentice. She raised her volume and looked straight into the pervertedly handsome, pale face. “No, they’re not! It’s obvious everyone hates them because they are cool!”
“Oh, yeah?” Heian Ciemnosc blew at her face, making her body shiver from the cold, but his subsequent words kept her awake and warm with her own body temperature. “Then, is your grandpa known because he sacrificed himself? Did he save the Far East Region? No, he raised an Empire and turned it from a Warlord organization to one focused in the ways of a merchant.”
“Did your grandfather bring power to the organization? No, but he united it and made it stronger than ever. However, didn’t his brothers and sisters betray him and abandon his ideas? They even joined the other bunch of big fishes around. They’ve become big enough to start threatening the Blauw Empire. It has your name on it, why don’t you think a little of the people around it? I’m not saying you should only live because of them. That is not what a leader does.”
“Do you know the difference between your mother and the royal guards, who you’ve seen for the last couple of months around, not letting you out of their sight and knowing where you are at all times?” Heian Ciemnosc bombarded the little girl with things a little girl shouldn’t go through. However, Blauw Ishikyy’s face became startled, but other than that, she became thoughtful, and her head was clear.
‘Mn, good. Behaves and lives like a little girl, at the very least. Unlike some others who are like adults stuck between a wall and imminent death… like others..’ Heian Ciemnosc thought, without revealing anything to his apprentice, before she finally opened her little light azure lips and answered. “No, I don’t.”
She wanted to say the obvious and what she believed to be the only decisive differences between them. But, somehow, she felt it would be a mistake, and she would be insulting her Imperial Teacher all over again. She wasn’t afraid of being spanked, even though she somehow understood that, with her understanding, she would be sooner or later. It was the thought that to be asking for punishing time meant disappointing her Imperial Teacher that made her answer as prudently as she possibly could.
“Well,” Heian Ciemnosc picked 1 of the 3 books she picked and opened it to reveal what was beneath the cover. After tracing the words, such as author and bla bla bla, he passed pages until he arrived at the index, doing the same with the other pages as she watched his pale fingertips dance around it. His words came into her brain from his lips, unbeknownst to only her. “Imperial Guards are the main force in protecting the Empire, while Servants fight to become Imperial Attendants, and the latter is the manpower the Empire can muster to fight a war or defend.”
“Even then, any other higher-up and upper echelon does the same, but the royal guards are unique to your mother’s Empire. They weren’t as influential or known when your grandpa was the Emperor. And even when he became the Ancestral Emperor, your mother went against his previous set of rules. They were meant to protect the lives of your mother and someone like you.” Heian Ciemnosc elaborated. Up to here, Little Ish’s eyes were up and locked on his face, like a little girl meeting her hero, gone well.
“Their role is still the same, but now, the requirements are harsher, and the conditions even worse. They now live to be the Empress’s and your lives. If there is ever a situation they can sacrifice themselves in for your lives’ sake… they will be there. Be it one by one or many at a time, the royal guards are your lives, and they will gladly give them to keep your little one.”
“They go from the Empire’s people to the leaders and future leaders’ lives. No matter what, an ideology, heart, and love for the people will never die as long as the leadership is still intact. That’s how they can let go of their lives, names, families, loved ones, children, desires, and future. Their cultivation soar and are perfectly solid and stable, but they can never progress again. That is your royal guards.”
“...” Ishikyy looked at his face some more. Her eyes trembled, and she felt her skin numbing… Heian Ciemnosc suddenly patted the top of her head and clamored. “Ready for your first lesson?!”
…
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This is the end of Volume 5 — Azure Mystical Journey.