Intense Stalemate
"Who here has an idea?" The cloaked person asked. The room was silent for 3 seconds before someone from a vassal organization stood up and stuck his chest out, trying to let himself become more noticeable. His voice was soft but somewhat potent, "The rumors of their navy are spreading everywhere. They didn't even care to show it! All they did was hide their routes. I say we give them some pain exactly where they think they are king!"
"I second the notion," another leader from a growing vassal organization stood up and commented. She was one of the young ones in the room, and there were readily a few hundred people sitting there. She continued, "The Blauw Empire is growing after just a few years of their troops being exterminated. Are they trying to defy us?! My people can gather many resources. We need a fair price to not lose out in the next decades after the Blauw Empire is finally gone. My organization's position is the best for creating a navy... although we lack most of the essentials for top-notch battleships, we can still facilitate most of the cost."
“No,” the cloaked person shook their head but didn’t refute the people who spoke up entirely. They turned their head at them before beginning, “It is not a bad idea, but this should’ve been something meaningful months before today. Maybe if you weren’t planning to take longer to respond to the Empire’s assigned supervisor while your fat asses were warm, you wouldn’t be here fearing the might of a junior who isn’t even the Empress. You took too long.”
“Now that you fear him… and barely understand what a single kid can do, it’s too late. We have to prepare now. The vassal organizations will do what vassals are meant to do. You will receive the regular market price for your goods. That’s it. Sell it to the top organizations, and it will be distributed according to my choosing. That also goes for the top organizations, so try and see if you’ve been a good… kid these last few years. Heh heh.” The cloaked person added.
“Venerate, do you mean…?” Another vassal organization’s leader spoke, rising to his feet with a fearful expression. The cloaked person nodded, revealing the tip of their nose for a flashing moment before hiding everything. The person said, “Even though the assigned supervisor is just a kid, he is no simple student, and it’s more than what the Academy wants everyone to believe. He’s more than a Genius. Probably… a Gifted!”
“!” - “!!” - “!” - “!!” The people inside the room became slightly alarmed as if they could finally accept this outcome after hearing it from the cloaked fella, their unofficial leader. Without waiting for them to recuperate, the cloaked person nodded again, this time more smoothly without showing their features. “Even then, the Empress is more powerful than him, this little black monster. I can confirm this myself…”
“How?” The True Dragon House’s Head, Blauw Monstorm, asked with furrowed eyebrows but very apprehensively. It was as if he was so fearful to make the cloaked figure think he was questioning them. The cloaked person looked at Monstorm with interest and in a good mood. The person flashed a grin as if they were kin and said, “In fact, I think the bitch detected me. I don’t know how much they are hiding about their Bloodline, but she has started to develop her Soul immensely.”
“I couldn’t detect her having discovered me until she had spent 20 seconds scanning me, perhaps.” The cloaked person’s words put everyone into a more in-depth alarm. Soul cultivation was something, but it didn’t matter much. One could even hide from Soul detection if their cultivation base was higher and just with their Spirit Sense. However, the cloaked person declared that even they were incapable of hiding from the Blauw Empire’s Empress!
“Brother Monstorm, did you know any of this?” The cloaked person then asked the True Dragon House’s Head. Head Monstorm shook his head after seriously pondering for a few seconds. Nevertheless, Monstorm couldn’t gather anything from his parents, grandparents, and records they stole from the Empire when they left. “There is none, I’m afraid. At least not that the True Dragon House is aware of.”
“Ahh, that’s fine as well. We will have it all to ourselves when the time comes. It’s of no importance, then.” The cloaked person said, having already let these people know their direct goals with the Blauw Empire’s demise. And for the Far East Region, although this person used to be from just another vassal organization, they were a powerful enemy to the Empire, more than anyone else in the history of the Azure Dragon’s descendants!
“We have gathered many resources from the jungle, but those folks are no longer idle. For some reason, they’ve been sending troops after us. We only received ¼ of what we did in a week in 1 month. Cancel the project in the jungle and send them to buy to the other Regions from our inland side.” The cloaked person said before standing up. They looked at a few people who felt like their Soul was locked on. Then, the cloaked person added, “You will stay here. Since you are seen as the head of the group of vassals around your zone, I’ll speak directly with you all from now on. Let’s talk. There’s still a lot to discuss. That assigned supervisor needs to be taken out legitimately.”
“Ah- it’s an honor, thank you.” - “Of course, noble venerate. What else should we do for you?” - “I’m deeply thankful. My people will give their blood and sweat for our cause!” - “Thank you, we respect you a lot!” - “Mn, I’m honored.” The fellas who were touched by their Souls, besides the top organizations’ leaders, the 2 who had spoken first, stood up and gave the cloaked person their respect, a bow, and acquiescence.
Thus, the 5 top organizations and the leading head groups of their vassal organizations started planning and cooperating to begin their future advances and achieve their goals. From time to time, one of them would gloat and blatantly comment before resuming the talks. “Hahaha, the valley and those cultists will have it this time! They are losing out!” - “They will be erased, too!” - “Heng, they deserve it!” - “They had done nothing wrong yet. They still have a chance to redeem themselves… but they must be gobbled up. They have shown disrespect to our hatred against the Blauw Empire’s people!!”
***
A few hours later. Blauw Empire’s Palace. Little Ish’s bedroom.
“Ungh… mmggh! Kuh! Aaaggh!... Hmmm!... Nyooooo~!” Little Ish made a mess of her bed as she laid on her tummy, or sideways, stood up, knelt, supported her body and balanced it with her head as the base, and even used Heian Ciemnosc like a cat to a cattery and grappled her limbs around him. All while playing Mini Warlord against him. She was having so much fun that she didn’t notice her hair was like an octopus’s legs flying everywhere.
On the other hand, Heian Ciemnosc was sitting at the edge of her bed, barely moving a muscle. His head was low as he played with the screen mode. He beat the shit out of Little Ish’s armies no matter how close she thought she was to turning the tides or surprising her sensei. In any case, Heian Ciemnosc had to admit she was improving a lot, so much that he had to start playing seriously against her. Of course, that was just slightly, but she made him play seriously.
“Aaaagh! I don’t understand! I dropped all my riding cavalry and started downing your troops! How can your heavy infantry resist so much?! Our morale was the same!” Little Ish dropped her arms without turning her Universal Conveyance off and landed the back of her head on his lap. Heian Ciemnosc closed his Universal Conveyance and hers with his Spirit Sense before looking down at the pouty little rat, already growing taller than before.
“You don’t understand what experience and direct commands affect the battlefield,” Heian Ciemnosc said as his hands supported his torso on the mattress with his arms thrown backwards. Then, he lifted his right hand, sat up, and accommodated the little girl’s exquisitely smooth aquamarine, azure hair so it wouldn’t be so messy, and returned it to a more unbelievable uniqueness and beauty.
“You aren’t a bad commander for your age. You are growing well. But your people are still obeying your every command. It isn’t like right now if you were to suddenly have to command an army, whichever the case. They can use their experience to get your orders done, but those in the game are completely reliant on you. Not because they are useless or stupid. But because they are too competent and their loyalty is unwavering. The only thing that can destroy your army’s might other than morale and momentum. It’s yourself.” Heian Ciemnosc softly spoke.
“Really?” Little Ish said a little excitedly. She was also slightly proud but didn’t feel like her teacher’s praising was meant to encourage her to keep trying. Instead, Little Ish had a hunch her teacher was trying to get her to step on the right track before she could start overthinking. Little Ish knew she still had to learn patience, quietness, and how to keep her calm. Especially now that she remembered how much movement her body caused in her bed. “If I can be this good, will it make you proud, Imperial Teacher?”
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“Of course, but why? Do you want to make me proud, too?” Heian Ciemnosc nodded as he swung his right hand towards her bed. His palm faced the mattress as it accommodated itself even when they were atop of it. Little Ish nodded before meekly speaking as a slight blue appeared on the upper section of her cinnamon cheeks. “I’m already making Mother proud. I know what to do next to keep doing it and to improve myself. But you, teacher, I still have to work soooo hard! Aiysh! It’s like you expect me to be perfect before letting me make you feel proud!”
“You’re complaining against me?” Heian Ciemnosc calmly said as he narrowed his darkest eyes and tilted his head to the right. Little Ish shrank her neck. But after she felt no threat, she relaxed her body and spoke her mind. “Mhm. But I don’t mind. If it’s a challenge and very difficult, that’s better! I didn’t learn the jungle life because I am the little royal princess, but because I had a lot of help from you, Mother, Little Pou, some uncles and aunties, the palace maids…”
“Hm?! The palace maids?!” Heian Ciemnosc’s head went off with dozens of alarms at once. He looked down. Heian Ciemnosc’s darkest alarmed the little girl instead, who looked up weirdly as if a bug had suddenly become sentient. “W-what?”
“Don’t talk too much with the palace maids! Don’t get too close to them! Avoid them if necessary. Don’t spend too much time with them. They are just your servants. Stick to small chatter and no gossip, understood?!?” Heian Ciemnosc ordered his little apprentice, time and again without stopping, sternly and severely, as if they were in a difficult situation. However, when he said the magic word ‘gossip’... he saw her brightest, cutest aquamarine, azure eyes gleam and turn embarrassed.
“O-okay,” Little Ish said while avoiding his face, looking at the wall to his left after passing her eyes by his torso. Heian Ciemnosc’s darkest eyes narrowed, but before he could take countermeasures, the bedroom door opened without his notice, and Empress Shuna stepped in. They were startled by the Empress’s visit since she never came and sat up to look at her as she walked towards them and directed her words at them.
“Little Ish, go to sleep. You’ll start some heavy training from now on. I’m here to indicate this to your personal Imperial Teacher, among other things.” Empress Shuna looked at her daughter and gradually nodded through her words. When she finished, she looked at Heian Ciemnosc and began again. “Sir Heian Ciemnosc, I require your long presence with me. Come out after warning my daughter of her incoming difficulties.”
“Oh,” Heian Ciemnosc looked at the Empress, still seated, and exclaimed before levitating Little Ish under her bedsheets. Empress Shuna nodded and gave her daughter a motherly look before turning around and leaving, walking towards one of the many sofas in the little royal princess’s giant residence. Heian Ciemnosc accommodated the little girl and tucked her a little before tapping the bridge of her nose. Afterwards, he left the room as Little Ish hurried to sleep, lest her negligence brings her trouble from the new training regimen.
Step, step, step, step. Heian Ciemnosc walked outside the little girl’s bedroom and met the mother. He was always impressed with how beautiful the latter was, and as the former grew, their similarities only made him shake his head more internally. Empress Shuna looked at him, immediately taking Heian Ciemnosc out of his stupor, and waited for him to stand before her and then sit beside her right before saying something.
“I’d like to know, firstly, how is my daughter’s Soul going? She’s already cultivating to the later stages, and not much has been since she broke into the Spirit Rebirth realm, sigh…” Empress Shuna was professional and clean, but her words turned exasperated and helpless towards the end. Heian Ciemnosc nodded and placed his left pale hand on her right knee. Her strongly determined eyes narrowed as they looked down where Heian Ciemnosc’s hand was.
When those aquamarine, azure eyes looked up, they were more than dangerous, letting Heian Ciemnosc feel the thrill. But he kept to his intention and spoke with a calm voice… and a slightly smiley, pale face. “Oh, I know that feeling. If I’m not careful, the girl will surpass me, too. But with the Soul-exalting Old World parchment… I’m sure you can take advantage and advance faster in your cultivation base. She might surpass you still, but her Soul talent and potential are too low, so you can still feel like a mother to her in a few hundred thousand years.”
“Hah,” Empress Shuna scoffed and looked ahead, not removing his hand or pulling her leg. Heian Ciemnosc didn’t waste more of her valuable breath escaping her lips or that delicious-looking mouth from getting too tired with useless movements that didn’t yet involve his, and continued. “Her Soul is solid, firm, and with a high potency. After she starts understanding more, she will have a formidable defense. And with the parchment… she might become a scary foe to face, virtually impossible to assassinate.”
“Virtually impossible?” All Heian Ciemnosc said were more than music and satisfaction to Empress Shuna’s ears. However, his last comment made her eyebrow furrow. Why wasn’t her daughter immortal? Who didn’t want their children to never suffer? But understanding this, Heian Ciemnosc nodded a few times slowly before explaining briefly, “Speed isn’t her forte, and she is… silly still. She needs to grow, not more mature, but as a cultivator… as a person of this world.”
“... I understand,” Empress Shuna returned to face Heian Ciemnosc directly. Her face was pretty close, but not that close. To a pair of civilian, they would have to move their heads closely to engage in something for a whole second before reaching contact. But her face became serious as she said, “You want to incorporate her into ‘it’ someday? When it happens? When the time and her is right?”
“What it? Is it what you came to talk with me about?” Heian Ciemnosc crossed his right leg over his left knee and raised his pale hand on her right thigh. Empress Shuna’s eyes blinked, and her eyelashes trembled when she felt him slide to her thighs, with even her right knee disobeying her brain and opening a little, but just slightly. She looked at her daughter’s bedroom door before returning to Heian Ciemnosc’s darkest eyes and said. “Not here. Let’s talk while we move to my throne room.”
“Oh,” Heian Ciemnosc agreed. He suddenly tightened his grip on her thigh before letting go and standing up. His left hand felt marvelous, already feeling addicted to the sensation. On the other hand, Blauw Shuna looked at his with upturned eyes, still on the sofa, but without hostility or disgust. Merely an intense glare.
Step, step. Step, step. Slide~. The door to the little royal princess’s residence opened. Empress Shuna led the two of them outside, followed by Heian Ciemnosc, as they hopped into a carriage where mechanized horses immediately started moving. Heian Ciemnosc looked at the vehicle a little before turning to look at Empress Shuna, who had been looking at him since a minute ago.
“... Is it what you wanted? You took many liberties taking strolls outside. The other 5 have managed to catch onto your ‘pattern’ and devised a plan. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have used your Fighter’s smallish engine to rush outside inland. Am I correct?” Empress Shuna entered mode Empress. Heian Ciemnosc looked at her and nodded, letting her continue. “You were captured by devices’ cameras, but for all I know about you, Heian Ciemnosc… and I’ve come to experience new… new things for more than 2 years. How could you have not detected them beforehand?”
“Shuna, rather than waiting for your ‘hidden’ enemies to sense your Empire’s movements and look from afar, why not make them urged to have a say in the Region’s imminent changes?” Heian Ciemnosc leaned forward and called the Empress by her name. Empress Shuna remained with her back straight, and her face remained composed. Her heart and mind were also like this, but her eyebrows knitted a little.
“I’m referring to them already catching sight of the innovations your Empire is going through. The showcase of the navy wasn’t a huge secret, and it wasn’t intended to be. Those 5 top organizations are now on the move, most likely, and they aren’t simply by themselves. You’ve been in power for long, but not longer than your late father. How much time do you think the previous generation worked to devise ways to become stronger secretly and find a way to face you on both sides?”
“Now, they have a conjoint army and maybe a strong figure behind or within them. Do you think these old idiots won’t know how to prepare after such a long history of conflict? They must have believed they could overkill you and destroy your Empire years ago, but they just didn’t have the chance. Even less as the Academy took over the world.” Heian Ciemnosc slightly nudged his face and lifted it, appearing rather charming in Empress Shuna’s strongly determined eyes.
“They fear the Academy because they know they are weak. Thus, they might only have 1 strong expert among them. The rest should be precisely as you know and think they are. But it doesn’t matter. One wrong move and everything turns into a tragic mistake.” Heian Ciemnosc changed seats to sit closer beside her right, like before, but she still sat alone on a row of seats inside the carriage.
“But as I said, it doesn’t matter.” Heian Ciemnosc leaned his head forward, and Empress Shuna felt inadvertently drawn to incline hers towards him slightly. Their foreheads were pretty close but still a few inches apart. Heian Ciemnosc continued, his voice becoming sexier with every word he said. “They’ve defeated the Empire’s army already, so they had half their plans complete, only needing the other half to ensure victory… Empress Shuna, as my first ‘commanding’ advice, I prohibit you from coming out of the Blauw Empire’s Palace, island Cities, and Small City island until another 3 years are gone by.”
“...” Empress Shuna thought she’d become shocked, turned into a raging lady that could just not accept to hide from an unknown variability just for the sake of not being endangered. Especially when her people would be warring… However, she couldn’t find a way to refute him… And also… She felt she could trust him.
“Sigh…” Empress Shuna ruefully heaved a sigh from her lips as she faced the front and lowered her head and neck, appearing vulnerable. Right after, she let her back slowly on Heian Ciemnosc’s left chest, leaning comfortably with her right cheek against his face.
…