First Year In The Palace (3)
"Teacher, Imperial Teacher!"
Thud. It was another day of teaching this little thing, and they were in the Palace. Just as Heian Ciemnosc entered her room without knocking in the early afternoon, he was met with a wet-haired little girl who immediately latched onto his left leg and hugged it with her arms and legs. She sat on her bum as he looked down, whereas her little face was already skywards, waiting to see his reaction when he looked down.
“Hehehe, ihihihi!” The little beauty giggled to her heart’s content. She only let go of his leg and stood straight before Heian Ciemnosc on his left after she felt it was too much. Her stance was strict, and very demanding to believe a simple little girl was used to it. But she effortlessly stood like that without losing her delicateness and the brightness in her aquamarine, azure eyes. Heian Ciemnosc nodded at him and asked her quietly, ”How is your bum?”
“Mmm, Imperial Teacher. I’m sorry to have acted that way…” Little Ish began explaining her sorriness while dragging Heian Ciemnosc from her residence’s entrance to her bedroom, where 15 books were neatly ordered atop her bed and piled up in pillars without growing too tall. Once they were at her bed, she hopped in without tumbling her books and started grabbing one from each pile before sitting in the center of all the piles of books.
“...” Heian Ciemnosc watched her open the first one as she sat in the bed’s center and casually pushed his right bum and leg onto her bed. Before he even let her have 1 free question, she looked up at him and said, “I heard what you did back in the Pavilion’s Central Building. I thought it was okay to behave like that… I’m sorry. I will never ever do something like that again. I’m just a growing cultivator, not someone at the peak of the world, and I don’t understand everything!”
“Hum,” Heian Ciemnosc flicked her forehead from afar with a pinch of dark Neutral Energy, causing her head to harmlessly fall backwards. He then said without giving her any comfort. “If you do that again, I will never speak to you again, princess..”
Whoosh, thudd- rustle… Little Ish lunged her body at Heian Ciemnosc and grabbed his right arm. He had to wrap the books with dark Neutral Energy so they wouldn’t fall. Immediately after, he heard a sobbing little girl speak muffled words as she pressed her face against his arm. “No, no… Imperial Teacher, I promise you… I won’t do that. I know it was stupid. I know it was silly. I just wanted to do it. I was stupid, very dumb… I already addressed some Imperial Guards to gather cultivation resources for those kids. They will have a chance to receive tutelage under Imperial Teachers if they do well. I fixed it!”
“... Mn, I know.” Heian Ciemnosc said after waiting a moment and hugging her back with his left hand. His long arm and palm covered the back of her little head as she tranquilized between his skin. The droplets drenching his dark coat vanished, and she quickly regained her composure. However, she pretended to keep crying by seizing her upper back. A few minutes later, Heian Ciemnosc rolled his eyes and threw her to the center, between all the piles of books.
“Stop lazybumming all the time, and let’s start the lesson. Today is an intense study session, are you ready or not?” Heian Ciemnosc watched as the little girl fell flat with her tummy down on her bed and remained lying there motionless, like a deadass little girl instead of a lively one. After hearing his words, like a dog hearing one of their favorite words, her head perked up, and her limbs rapidly worked to bring her body up. She turned around, sat cross-legged facing Heian Ciemnosc, and opened the same book again.
“Hihi, I am ready!” She looked up without any blemish of a bratty, snotty little girl on her face. Her bright eyes glowed harder for a second before receding, looking at her personal Imperial Teacher with hunger… She had become Heian Ciemnosc’s full-fledged apprentice after just 3 weeks of studying under him! But who wouldn’t? Heian Ciemnosc’s first ‘apprentices’ back in the Rocaloi Academy had become the academy’s top priority to grow after training under him.
Little Ish noticed how her body began gaining an efficient boost to her cultivation pace and efficiency just by hearing Heian Ciemnosc talk. She wasn’t doing anything differently! It was just knowledge! However, she was still a child. So she wasn’t convinced about such things. Thus, Little Ish, the Spy, continued to investigate as she experienced the second week and was met with even more improvement!
Her Azure Dragon’s Bloodline’s body tempering innate Art suddenly increased her already stagnant bodily strength! She even resisted her own strikes at 50%! The little girl became convinced that her mother had brought a little god — just to teach her and began putting extra effort into learning under Heian Ciemnosc. He promised they would be doing exercises — and that he would directly guide her through her Arts and teach her techniques she can now learn after a month. Little Ish was as if injected with blood chicken, unstoppable!
However, when she heard rumors from the palace maids who have recently been talking a lot about her Imperial Master after her mother had a talk with everyone. Something she later heard was a ‘secret’ mission that they couldn’t tell anyone. An incident occurred, and the next day, her big, wide smile was wiped with each spank from Heian Ciemnosc’s cold palm. After he left, once he was done coldly giving her a small study session while she silently sobbed, how she teared up and remembered everything she had a bunch of kids slightly older than her do because of her status.
When Heian Ciemnosc left, she picked the cultivation resources she took from them, heavily sobbing again, and cultivated with them before arranging a head palace maid to come look for her after she was done cultivating. After she calmed down and her face felt cold with wet stains, Little Ish felt like her inner being solidified, and her heart steeled. She didn’t know she was maturing.
Now that Heian Ciemnosc saw her this way, and with his mind remembering the little girl’s emotional pain surpassing the physical pain, he patted her head and petted her hair before softly saying something to cheer her up. “One question, go ahead.”
“Heehee~!” The little girl shrunk her neck out of bliss and darted her eyes to the ceiling, looking for one of the hundreds of questions she formulated up until now. Heian Ciemnosc relaxed and leaned slightly backwards before the little girl thought of something. “Imperial Teacher! If the top organizations chose to risk it all and attack the Blauw Empire, even with you here, how would my people respond?!”
“Well, you tell me first how you think they would.” Seeing Little Ish’s glowing expression and worshiping eyes, Heian Ciemnosc didn’t feel shy or coy and ruin her pretty little face. His counterquestion made her pout, which meant she began thinking hard about the answer. She shook her head after 3 minutes and helplessly said with some embarrassment dragged behind her every spoken word. “I have no idea. But I imagine we would send anyone we can to repel the enemy? The seas are ours, and those Blue Emirate baddies are nothing compared to our Arts!”
“Mn,” Heian Ciemnosc nodded with his lips self-sent into his mouth, under and above his teeth. This gave Little Ish a little pride as she thought Heian Ciemnosc thought like her. But his subsequent words crumbled her childish heart. “That would be horrible. Ah, just imagine. You have less than ⅛ of their numbers, and you decide to leave the fortresses and the Palace and engage them out in the open sea. I think… your people would be exterminated in 2 days this way. That’s something, alright.”
“Boooww!” Little Ish shut her eyes and covered her face with the book, careful so she wasn’t damaging its contents with her ugly face. Heian Ciemnosc chuckled through guttural sounds before patting the back of her head again, this time comfortingly, and saying to comfort her as well. “The best course is to wait for the Academy’s relief forces and hole up in each island, including the defensive islands. The Empire’s people can be put there while the soldier units are sent to each major point in the Blauw Empire territory to hold the defense.”
“But with the current arsenal the Blauw Empire has… that would probably be 4 days of survival, so your idea isn’t too bad, see? Oh well… it is awful and catastrophic, but there could be wor- hey~…” Heian Ciemnosc was in the middle of teasing the little girl when she summoned a water ball and shot a jet towards his face. Heian Ciemnosc’s dark Neutral Energy shot from his face’s pores to eat the water. After feeling refreshed, he grabbed her by the arm, put her on his lap, and gave her 2 cute, almost soundless slaps on her bums. His hands were large, after all…
“Aiyo, sorry, sorry~.” Little Ish shamelessly said after feeling her bums relaxingly pass through this calamity. She felt her body no longer locked down, and she looked up while pushing her body off her bed and his lap. She jumped to her spot again and began reading without Heian Ciemnosc instructing her to do so. Instead of getting angry like a motherfucking grumpy, petty, and obnoxious teacher, he watched his pupil silently study with an incredible speed.
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Thus, Heian Ciemnosc began his heavy, intense study session with his apprentice. Little Ish listened to his words even as she flawlessly read through new content. She slowly read until she understood everything in the book’s paragraphs, not repeating a page but sometimes tracing her eyes backwards. There was no shame in that. Meanwhile, Heian Ciemnosc would comment and give a little lesson about the same thing but on an entirely different matter, clashing with what she was reading.
Their schedule wasn’t hefty, but they had to move whenever the end of the week came and as soon as it started. On the 7th day, they would return from inland in the evening, arriving still in the middle of that time. Heian Ciemnosc would prepare a small but delicious dinner, and she would eat while studying. This time, she was spanked because of her actions, and it wasn’t as joyful as she experienced it the first 2 times.
They would return inland in the early morning of the next day, 2nd day of the week, and Little Ish would finally have a little time to rest by cultivating and meditating between the 1st and 2nd day. When the third day came, she would be at her peak state and ready for anything. The 1st day of the week was heavy thanks to Heian Ciemnosc’s heavily intense study sessions, but Little Ish would feel reinvigorated on the 3rd, making her feel good about herself. She was growing!
It wouldn’t be long before she broke into the Ashes Apperception realm now that her bodily strength was reaching its peak according to her innate body tempering Art, and her cultivation base had become stable to the point she thought she would never need to worry about it, in her life. But Heian Ciemnosc ensured those thoughts were brutally broken before they formed in the first week. Her brain melted with the many theories and truths of fundamental cultivation.
Little Ish only knew about the First Step’s cultivation realms. She wanted to know about the Second Step’s realms after accepting Heian Ciemnosc as her personal Imperial Teacher, but he promised her to do so only after she demonstrated that she could break through realms according to his standards without his help. For that, she first had to know his standards, and she nearly failed when she improved her cultivation base and foundation a little.
After nearly failing, she somehow found a way to quit the idea of breaking through already and followed Heian Ciemnosc’s standards to the letter. She found it more difficult as she felt her Dantian region bloat, but she was still not even more than halfway done. The Blauw Empires’ royal princess worked hard, not wanting to let go of such an opportunity after understanding what having a mentor meant and after barely starting to comprehend the world’s complicatedness.
The first day that Heian Ciemnosc brought Little Ish out, on their first week studying, and the first time the Blauw Empire would land inland and gather resources. Heian Ciemnosc set sail among a fleet of newly built wooden ships at least 400 meters long and between 50 to 150 meters wide. Each was a fatty vessel, and they had ample room for storage without forgetting about the rooms where people would sleep.
Azure Dragon Bloodline people, or the other Races, all volunteers from the Empire. More than 40 million of these people set sail together with Heian Ciemnosc and even saw the little royal princess from behind, standing beside Heian Ciemnosc and bothering him along the way. They took several hours to arrive inland despite their speed. Their fleet looked harmless but could only navigate through the Feathered Valley Pavilion’s territory after leaving the ownerless sea.
Once they were in the Pavilion’s waters, their speed slowed, and their cooperation to move around a smaller width further slowed the fleet, but this didn’t stop them. Their goal was simple: to gather resources. Their objective even simpler: for the Blauw Empire!
Once the Blauw Empire’s workers landed, the fleet didn’t have a harbor to moor their ships, so they had to use improvised anchors since a situation like this wasn’t predicted. It wasn’t a blow to their activities, however. Heian Ciemnosc got everyone to move fast and efficiently, not failing a simple task, or they would be returned to the Empire, and everyone would know they fucked up.
Men and women from the Empire were dressed in ragged clothing, enough to decently cover their limbs and the rest of their bodies, proportioning some warmth or cold and light weighted independently from their status back at the Empire’s territory. They all worked together… and this; Heian Ciemnosc didn’t need to prepare them beforehand. This was the difference between an organization like the Sinvonnia Kingdom had it… and the world.
More than that, the Blauw Empire had one of the richest histories in the world, not just the Blackotia Kingdom. Its people had been well-behaved in nature, only defending their home, but so many collapsing because of others, without provocation… There had to be a point where this changed, right? What if… it wasn’t just going to start now… but start with them taking the first step? What if they were the beginning?!
With such thoughts, which risen within their hearts without anyone’s manipulation, how could they afford to slow down this change?!
Heian Ciemnosc only watched on the first day, directing them after they were done preparing and were ready to set out into the inland world they’d never seen! Even when they continued on their way and saw the endless forest far away, stupidly smiling at the reality of things, and noticed a group wearing a different emblem looking at them from far away, the Blauw Empire’s people ignored them and wore stern faces while carrying heavy machinery and materials towards their designated areas.
When the workers met with the Blue Emirate Grotto’s people, only those with gray colored uniforms watched them from afar, with an occasional dark purple or even purple clothed Grotto members, which stood at the border between their organization and the Pavilion. They didn’t dare enter the neutral zone. Doing so was a blatant challenge to 1 of the 2 strongest organizations inland.
As more than a dozen columns moved towards the forest and other directions, Heian Ciemnosc floated in midair with his Ornament to his side. Little Ish would study in his Fighter, acting meek and disciplined on the first week with his threat of taking her out of this magnificent spaceship if she didn’t put effort with but all her brains. There was no conflict, however. This saddened Heian Ciemnosc, but this also told him the other top organizations were watching… and they didn’t mind taking their sweet time.
However, he wasn’t worried for his safety. The Wrath Nihility Academy was behind him. And as for his pupil, she was in his care. She should never fear for her safety in the Blackotia Kingdom… at least. His only worry was these workers. Although a flaming blaze could rise in the Empire’s core if they were massacred by the repugnant enemy, Heian Ciemnosc wasn’t planning on gaining a momentary advantage by giving up on other’s lives.
Empress Shuna was clever, and she knew Heian Ciemnosc wouldn’t be brazenly stupid, which was why she let him do this without even raising an eyebrow. As for her daughter, if she wasn’t bathing in protective Artifacts, Heian Ciemnosc would think badly of her mother. In any case, the little royal princess was safe, and knowing she was there in their Empire’s assigned supervisor’s Fighter served as a beacon for encouragement to all workers.
When week 2 was coming to an end, nobody knew why or how, nor who initiated it, but the Feathered Valley Pavilion’s Auxiliary Members, Members, and Inner Members started showing up in the neutral zones between their organization’s border and the Blue Emirate Grotto’s borders. Previously, chats and conversations struck between the workers and the Pavilion. It went from members to even an Inspector or a couple suddenly growing interested in these Empire’s people whom they never saw and chatted them up.
By midnight, one hour before the start of the 3rd week, when Heian Ciemnosc and the little royal princess had already left for the princess’s sake, there was a slight transformation. The number of Pavilion Members in the neutral zone crowded the entire neutral zone between their organization and the Blue Emirate Grotto’s borders. When this absurd event started, the latter sent a few Grotto Instructors and Teachers to watch over the situation.
The night was suddenly illuminated by some moons, but the brightest bodies in the night skies this time were the stars, and they were endless and too potent, for whatever reason, as tension arose.
Finally, some words were exchanged between both sides. It started as a sort of playful and trying out the other party’s intention, but both were aware that nothing would result from this night. There was no reason nor drive to suddenly start a conflict. It wouldn’t happen. It was impossible.
“Nice night we have here, don’t we? Grotto Instructor Edor?” A middle-aged man from the neutral zone floated up and spoke towards a slightly old-looking fella with white hair already sprouting from his sideburns. The latter was losing some hair from the front, but he seemed fierce and slim without needing to look like it. He swiftly responded after a light harrumph. “Hmph, Inspector Bei. It’s your men and women who like looking at others at night. You should’ve greeted me when you arrived!”
“Ah! So you were paying attention to who was arriving? What for? Haha! Wah! Grotto Instructor, when did you break into the Dantreulity realm? Not bad! Whenever you want, I can help advise you. Can you feel how close I am from the 2nd stage? Bwahahaha!” The Inspector laughed it off, irritating the Grotto Instructor. If Inspector Bei wasn’t as young and good-looking as he is, the Grotto Instructor wouldn’t have become so bothered by his words. The Grotto Instructor responded, “Why are these even here? This is a mild provocation! In fact! Why are you siding with the Blauw Empire?!”
“That’s right! What the fuck are you doing? Did you forget from where do our ancestors come from? Has your ‘valley’ forgotten and wants a beating to remember it?!” - “Shut it!” - “...”
Suddenly, from the Blue Emirate Grotto’s borders. A mere Auxiliary Disciple shouted at the top of his lungs. Power Energy covered his throat due to hot-bloodedness, and now, the entire border and the neutral zone heard him. When the Grotto Instructor ragingly barked at him, it was too late… Edor looked up only to find Bei’s face turned deadly serious.
‘Crap…’ The Grotto Inspector thought with his balding head growing pale.
…