First Year In The Palace (4)

"Grotto Instructor Edor, who is this puny thing?" Inspector Bei asked as the silence became deafening to everyone around. The Blue Emirate Grotto's side grew nervous, while the Feathered Valley Pavilion slowly hardened their eyes and tightened their fists. Left with no choice, the Grotto Instructor revealed his eyes and a slightly low posture as he answered, but he was neither servile nor hostile. "Inspector, this was but a mere baby saying nonsense. Leave it, it's just the foolish words of the younger generation..."

“I did not ask for anything else but to know this ingrate’s name…” Inspector Bei said as his tone and face turned grave. Grotto Instructor Edor looked up at Inspector Bei, finding it difficult to salvage this situation. In fact, the Grotto Instructor could feel the Inspector wasn’t dead-on to punish the Auxiliary Disciple, but now… that was changing. Still, arriving at this point, the Grotto Instructor couldn’t get off the tiger, so he hardened his eyes and looked up at the floating Inspector before speaking.

“Inspector,” his words became tensed as he continued, talking through grinding teeth. “This isn’t something worth fighting for, not even in a debate! We are reasonable experts from our respective organizations. You are not even a Master, but you’re an equal and stronger existence than I am. There’s no need for something like this! Just let this Grotto deal with their undisciplined younger generation. I promise you it won’t be some facade or trick.”

“...” Inspector Bei suddenly started floating higher up, leaving Grotto Instructor Edor with flaccid eyes that could only look up, startled at the Inspector’s actions. Seeing Bei’s face turn cold, losing the playfulness from before entirely gone, he had to put up a front of his own. Grotto Instructor Edor began levitating upwards as well. As he did, he attempted to clear things up again, “Inspector, listen to reason! This is the Blauw Empire we’re talking about. Why are you even helping them in the first place?!”

“I know all these… now, will you send your Auxiliary Disciple, or should my Members look for him?” Inspector Bei calmly uttered before letting silence carry the weight of his words. The Grotto Instructor felt somewhat dumbstruck. He stopped levitating and stagnated in the air, not even floating above the Grotto’s disciples’ heads. The disciples looked at each other and the ground before everyone focused their eyes on the Grotto Instructor.

“... hawh!” Grotto Instructor Edor gruntled with his jaws open. At the same time, he threw Neutral Energy with a swing from his right arm as his palm faced the disciples. An energy stream latched onto the Auxiliary Disciple hiding among his peers and shitting himself, grabbed onto him, and sent him up towards the neutral zone. When he passed through the borders, he felt his medallion flash by as he became insecure and naked.

“N-” The Auxiliary Disciple tried shouting, but his words were cut off by something that entrapped him entirely. The Inspector’s right hand extended out into a claw stance. The disciple felt his mouth covered by an invisible intangible rope, but aquatic somehow. The next thing he knew was that all his body was locked down by energy. At that point, he knew he was done for. Looking around as his body slowly spun, his fellow Grotto disciples looked between his back and the Grotto Instructor. Feeling dissonant, he met the man’s face he had insulted just because he could.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but maybe the younger generation is becoming more stupid as time passes.” Inspector Bei said, looking down at the ingrate, who started trembling and crying, expelling snot from his nostrils. Inspector Bei looked at the Grotto Instructor and saw a face that threatened and implored at once as if saying, ‘you know you don’t have to do this!’. But all the Inspector did to respond was to give a pair of cold eyes, saying, ‘I know. I’ll still do it’.

“For the act of disrespecting your seniors, I’m sure your Grotto would’ve been enough to discipline you. But insulting me, your organization’s senior! And a person who can obliterate your nameless Grotto if I just want to! You dared direct your word towards me at all?!!” The Inspector loudly clamored. His left arm swept upwards as the disciple’s eyes widened larger than saucers, and he retreated his head as further to the back as he could. However, a swift blast still struck his body from the waist to above his head after a light and rapid ‘pshift’ went off.

Ckrsheeeeeerrrrr~... “Gasp!” - “Oh… my…” - “That’s what you get!” - “Ptui! Blabber some more, charlatans!” - “How could an Inspector…” - “This… must be a war declaration! How dare they?!” Everyone watched as the disciple’s body split into two… almost. Only his groin and legs remained intact, so the corpse turned into a strange ‘H’ shaped object with blood, veins, and organs separating into 2 sides.

“...” - “...” After the initial banter between both sides and as their respective leading figures looked at each other, one floating high up and another lowering his feet back to the ground, silence ensued. The Members in the neutral zone stared hard at those Disciples in the Blue Emirate Grotto’s borders and maintained a higher morale despite the raging fire inside the latter. After another 5 minutes of a silent confrontation, Inspector Bei raised his right arm as a tiny dot was spotted hundreds of meters behind them in the sky.

Criiiiiii~! Whoooosh! Futomp~! Whoooosh…

A feathered Creature flew towards Inspector Bei, picked him up with 2 of its many pairs of claws, and the Inspector used its momentum as it broke off from its flying force and rode atop its back. Without wasting even a second, he turned his mount around and streaked far into the distance, returning to the Feathered Valley Pavilion’s territory. His yelled words were left behind, making all the members left behind gradually turn around, no longer staring at the Grotto disciples with fierce stares.

Step, step, step… step, step, step, step… step, step, step, step, step… The Feathered Valley Pavilion contingent made its retreat, slow and steady, but it failed to make the Grotto’s side feel any better. They hadn’t stupidly escalated something like this to the worst possibilities, but it wasn’t far from achieving nearly the same results. If anything, what might come was delayed, not avoided. Although this did not result in conflict, it definitely opened some breaches.

… It had finally been 1 month since Heian Ciemnosc taught the little girl. Now that he had forced her to keep her cultivation base in the peak of the Obsidiafying ream for so long, Heian Ciemnosc deemed her ready to finally breakthrough. Her cultivation base and willingness to listen to him reminded him of his Little Fera, but she would be long gone from his sight for at least a decade or so.

Today, Heian Ciemnosc had just returned from another week at the Region’s inland territory and surprised his little pupil in the small lesson of the last week by telling her she was ready. Little Ish spent all night meditating, preparing for a breakthrough her personal Imperial Teacher would be proud of. In the early morning, Heian Ciemnosc entered her residence and waited outside her bedroom until she was ready.

Click- slide. Step, step, step. Heian Ciemnosc opened his eyes as he sat cross-legged and a few tens of meters before Little Ish’s bedroom door. His darkest eyes recognized a shoeless little girl with her training clothes. They were blazing, dull red, and nothing like the colors that usually represent the Blauw Empire and its royalty. Before Heian Ciemnosc could ask her why were her training clothes of this color, as he stood up, she opened her tiny mouth to explain while grinning and showing her sharp canines.

“It is said that our Bloodline always trained bare when we were still a tribal-leveled civilization. Long before our home turned into a Kingdom. Mommy- ahem, Mother said that since we are no longer savages understanding our history and blood, the more we can do to remember our old training filled with bloody encounters and life-threatening livelihoods is to wear this color. We do so proudly, and they are thin, so they don’t protect us, only free us from our thoughts of sheltering ourselves. Of course, we can’t use our transformation Art while training.”

“Hm, that wasn’t in the records,” Heian Ciemnosc said. The little girl grinned and placed her hands behind her back, furiously holding her fists, trying to hide her excitement. “Why would we write our precious past so anyone can read it? We are not powerful enough to keep ourselves safe from our enemies knowing more about us… Besides, the world doesn’t deserve such knowledge, hmf!”

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“Hm,” Heian Ciemnosc grinned with his lips closed and patted her head. She was all conceited, arrogant, and pleased with herself right now. But she could be. After all, while the feud her Bloodline had gathered was theirs, it wasn’t their fault the other top 7 organizations would not let go of the matter and start progressing by themselves. Heian Ciemnosc and anyone with a brain knew that if those top 7 organizations spent half a megaannum in secluded cultivation and trained their newly incoming recruits serenely instead of sending them into the meat grinder that is the Blauw Empire, they would’ve already turned into Second Step organizations.

If they spent that much cultivating themselves, forgetting about their once ‘eternal’ feud would be nearly 100% confirmed. So much time without conflict or hatred would be enough to wash away any hatred. It was the case for even Godhood Step organizations, let alone meager First to Second Step organizations. The top 7 organizations would prefer to lose their easy chance and ticket to transitioning to a higher Step than to give up destroying the Azure Dragon’s descendants.

“Okay, let’s go. Are you ready?” Heian Ciemnosc tapped the top of the little girl’s head, erasing that haughty appearance off her cutest face and making her pout. She looked up with crossed arms, tilted her head to the left, and headstrongly spouted, “Of course! I am! Who do you think I am? I have a Mom- Mother to make proud. Come on, Imperial Teacher, let me show you how it’s done! Hm, hm. That’s right! Where’s my question?”

As it was habitual, the little girl led the same evil man into her bedroom before dragging him to her cultivation room. Of course, she was simply pulling him from his dark coat’s lower sections or its sleeves. Heian Ciemnosc calmly walked forwards while the little girl walked semi-fast, excited to sit cross-legged and show him her improvement. As she was given the answer she wanted. She pondered a little before choosing today’s question.

“Imperial Teacher, do you know you are the Empire’s best Imperial Teacher? Oooh! You’re also the only one who lasted more than 10 days with me! I have never seen someone for more than a few days. You are already being spoken of a lot. Especially the female Imperial Teachers and, more specifically, the Azure Dragon Bloodline kind. They seem really fond of you somehow as if they even know you. They talk a lot about you but always use Spirit Sense to form a barrier around you after they detect me. That’s not fair…” Little Ish pouted by the end of her words.

“That’s why, Imperial Teacher, can you tell me what am I good at? I know I have perfect cultivation talent. But tell me. How great am I in Spirit Sense, Soul, and Craftsmaking talent?!” Little Ish added while Heian Ciemnosc did his utmost best to keep his pale face as pokerface as possible. When he heard the question, at last, Heian Ciemnosc mentally sighed in relief before answering right away.

“Although your cultivation talent is indeed one-in-a-world, princess, the rest of the power sources are not friends with you.” Heian Ciemnosc said it in the least painful way possible but received no response after a while. When he looked down, he saw a confused little girl looking up at him but rapidly walking to her cultivation room, still. Thus, he mentally sighed, blinked, and began. “Your father had to have a great individual Bloodline ancestry, making your cultivation talent one of the best I’ve seen… But you’re terrible for the rest. There are reasons you don’t like Craftsmaking. Why your Spirit Sense takes too long to adapt to your current realm, and your Soul isn’t even responding to detection devices no matter how rich they are.”

“Ah! Is there something wrong with my Soul?!” Everything Heian Ciemnosc said was striking her in the chest hard. But when she heard something about her Soul, she panicked, and her pretty brown skin paled. Heian Ciemnosc lightly grinned and said, after shaking his head, “Nothing wrong with you. It’s an ordinary Soul. It’s just that before you form it, you won’t have some experiences that any other cultivator experiences. It would be as if you were empty and shackled from the inside.”

“So… I don’t like Craftsmaking just because I don’t have a talent for it?” Little Ish became saddened, about to tear up as she put her left index finger in the middle of her lips, looking down so as to not embarrass herself. She sobbingly added, “I- I just wanted- I even wanted to try again to make you proud, Imperial Teacher- bohooo- waaaa…”

“Nah, stop messing around, silly little girl.” Heian Ciemnosc said with some intention to comfort her in his tone. They stopped a few tens of meters before her cultivation room as he stood before her. Crouching and flicking her forehead without harming her, Heian Ciemnosc grabbed her attention as those bright suns of aquamarine, azure color looked upturned at his pervertedly handsome face. She rapidly cleaned her pitiful, crying face before standing straight and looking up at him.

“In nature, there won’t be strange circumstances, only unknown ones.” Heian Ciemnosc picked up a strand of her exquisitely smooth hair and separated it from her picked-up hairstyle. He hung it before and above her face before letting it fall on her face. It slowly moved as if through water and landed on her forehead and eye, but it did not bother her right eye. Heian Ciemnosc continued, “You don’t like Craftsmaking not because you’re lazy, hate it, or the ‘Craftsmaking’ hates you back. It’s simply in your nature. You are simply not going to do well with those. You can try and spend lots of time and riches to try it, but it just… won’t be any fulfilling for you or give you any progress.”

“So… am I fine?” Little Ish asked as her eyes watered and trembled, threatening to become pitiful again. Just as her azure lips twisted and started shaking, Heian Ciemnosc added, “There was nothing wrong, to begin with. This means you must work harder in your Spirit Sense and Soul cultivation. You barely met the peak range of your Spirit Sense thanks to me, yet you’re using it with those one Step higher than you, aren’t you silly?”

“Heheheehee…” Twinkling bells resounded as her giggling came from her lips. She felt her spirits back up again, and her lungs were free and unrestrained. She looked up at her personal Imperial Teacher before rubbing her face with her right arm. Then, she said while shouldering the excitement all over her brightening eyes. “I’ll work harder then! What else am I good at? Surely I’m not terrible for everything else, right?!”

“There’s still things like military affairs and logistics.” Heian Ciemnosc turned his eyes up and said, before standing back up. Little Ish’s eyes widened, and she asked again. “Will the 2nd month be about that? Yay! I can soon play Mini Warlord with you and Mommy! Ahem, Mother.”

“Nope,” Heian Ciemnosc flatly said as he picked her right hand into his left hand and walked to her cultivation room’s door. Opening it with his right hand, having access to it whenever he wanted, Heian Ciemnosc looked down at the still excited but confused little girl’s big, aquamarine, azure eyes and explained to her. “It will start in the second month, actually. But it won’t end there. There’s an unknown, long road ahead in a leader’s path…”

“...” Blauw Ishikyy saw Heian Ciemnosc’s expression turn somewhat lost and started fangirling about him for the first time. She felt he was mysterious and all-capable. For the first time, she thought Heian Ciemnosc, her personal Imperial Teacher, was a cool and beyond incredible cultivator and military person! Just like her mother…

“Even I, who have experienced some of the most basic forms of battling and have studied further from my previous knowledge, still need to learn from land, naval, and aerial battles… let alone space ones.” Heian Ciemnosc said with honesty as he walked the girl inside and had her sit cross-legged. Little Ish blinked her cute eyes before closing them. However, she opened them just as she took a gesture with her hands, the very same that Heian Ciemnosc does. One day, the little girl saw him do that while she was meditating and copied him since then. She rapidly and suddenly asked him in a loud, high-pitched voice.

“Imperial Teacher! How was your cultivation speed? You’ve been cultivating for more than 10 years, right? Did you spend like… 8 years cultivating before reaching the same point as me? Or a little less, maybe?!”

Pshift. “Aiyo!” Heian Ciemnosc swung his right pale palm. A dark Neutral Energy tiny bout struck Little Ish’s head, and sent her into a daze. She shook her head immediately and looked at him with a huge pout. Her cheeks inflated like crazy, and her eyes turned into slits. Heian Ciemnosc waved at her to go on and continue while he thought in his mind, ‘Like 3 years? Hm, something like that…’

Knowing how much of a shock and broken spirit this information would leave the little girl in, Heian Ciemnosc kept it to himself and started guiding the little shit to breakthrough. After 2 hours, the girl managed to breakthrough. Heian Ciemnosc spent the rest of the time in her meditation room by letting her cultivate until her cultivation base stabilized. It would be better to let her spar or train her techniques and movement Arts, but he wanted her to learn how hard it is doing it the raw way.

What Heian Ciemnosc didn’t know and feel was a pair of eyes washing his back as their whole 40 hours or so of rest were spent in her daughter’s breakthrough. Empress Shuna was hidden behind a waterfall screen, made from her Neutral Energy and Water elemental particles, slightly turned into the thinnest of energies possible.

Things were starting well for the first month, and no matter how realistic Empress Shuna wanted to think their situation had to be. Under Heian Ciemnosc’s machinations and slow plans over the course of a few years, the Blauw Empire was already turning into the closest to what an organization would be when transitioning to the next Step. It was impossible to see it, and it might just be her sense of reality and concepts that were wrong… but it seemed to go there.

They could only wait for time to pass. Only by its slow and steady walking could the workers work, and the Empire engineers — together with the Craftsmaking forgers, could formulate plans and schedules for the near future. The rest was also in Heian Ciemnosc’s hands… the training regimen of the Empire’s… new soldier units!

…