Book 1. Shifting Winds. Chapter 1. It all began that day. (Part IV)

“As the two of you are saying, both sides have their own advantages and plans. If we were to look at it like that, we wouldn’t be able to guess anything specific.” Laien chuckled, happy to explain. As a noble he naturally had a lot of free time, so he had a chance to learn a good deal more about the state of affairs in those two countries. Chatting with the various guards on the daily basis helped with gathering interesting information and news, too.

“But, you are looking only at the wide perspective, as always. Did I not tell you to stop with that? Let’s see, for example, Hailen warriors advancing through the Jarncare Grand Duchy. Sure their heavy armor can stop an arrow, but can you wear it all the time? Not really. At least if you don’t want to exhaust your army and slow down way too much. Can you deploy enough scouts to prevent ambushes? Not with such a big cavalry disadvantage. Can you post guards outside camps or avoid spreading columns during the move? Again, you can’t. They would march until winter and then starve to death anyway if they did that,” Laien stopped elaborating for a second and looked at his friends, asking wordlessly if Genzie and Dan understood his point.

“Then are you telling us that the Hailen Principality will be forced to retreat?” Dan looked a bit unhappy with this conclusion, not willing to accept that he was wrong. Yet, just as Genzie wanted to celebrate, Laien interrupted him. “Not necessarily. The Hailen Principality’s leading General in this campaign is the famed martial master, the ‘Black Lion’ Ceran Rozviel. He is over two hundred years old, said to have reached the fourth rank of the Realm of Heroes. He has a great amount of experience in the matters of warfare. Would he foolishly charge into the enemy territory without any plan whatsoever?” Laien pointed out with a cheeky smile.

Genzie and Dan were surprised by this piece of information. News of this war had only recently reached Neil City, so the details like who the commander general of each army was were pretty much unknown to the wide public.

“Then, what does he want to do? Do you know?” Genzie urged Laien to keep talking, being as impatient as always.

“I can guess. You both should know that the current Grand Prince of the Hailen Principality doesn’t have any children, right?” Laien asked, to which Genzie nodded, while Dan shook his head.

“I didn’t know. So it’s connected to their royal family? Some kind of alliance with another country?” Dan inquired, guessing this much easily enough after hearing Laien’s words.

“Yeah, something like that. I also don’t know everything, but I heard bits here and there. I think it’s connected to the Rulan Principality. Currently, in the Hailen Principality, the position of the royal family is not at its best. If the current Grand Prince dies with no direct successor, most likely the many Dukes will start fighting over the crown under that pretense… Just those few nephews of the Grand Prince won’t be able to claim the throne without sparking a civil war. So my guess is that Julies, I mean, the Grand Prince, made deal with the Rulan Principality’s ruler. Something along the lines of ‘We will marry one of our Princesses to your successor and in the future, merge both Principalities and create a Kingdom.’, or something similar,“ Laien shrugged his shoulders, finishing the long explanation. The whole theory was one big wild guess of his, but he felt fairly confident in its accuracy.

Genzie and Dan looked at Laien, puzzled by his words. Dan sighed, not really trying to understand anything anymore. He liked talking about war, but politics weren’t for him.

“Marrying a Princess off?” So they just want to keep their well-being, even if it means losing the right to rule? Well, we can’t really blame them, huh. But why this war, then? There are no words about the Rulan Principality moving its armies. Did they betray?” Genzie inquired, intrigued by the new perspective.

“I think they need some great case for their people to not rebel when they announce it. Gaining a lot of land in a manner where it’s the Rulan Principality that has a major claim to them can make even nobles reconsider. I would guess that in about a month the Rulan Principality will begin an all-out attack. There is no way the Jarncare Grand Duchy can defend if two great armies attack them at once, with one doing it at an unexpected moment. Well, there is also a possibility of the Rulan Principality betraying, but they don’t stand to gain much from that. Soo… Well, yeah. That’s more or less it,” Laien explained in detail, maybe even in too much detail. Thankfully, Genzie didn’t mind listening to a somewhat longish answer to his question.

“Yeah, if I were in those nobles’ shoes, then between starting another great war or gaining new lands while forming a union, I would rather choose a safer path,” Genzie mused aloud, agreeing with the points made by Laien.

Just as Genzie finished speaking, Dan laughed loudly, then embraced Laien’s shoulders with his arm. “Our little Laien is growing up to be so smart! Your big brother is proud of you!” Dan teased with a loud laugh

Laien chuckled, feeling somewhat embarrassed. Even though he wasn’t that much younger than Dan, standing next to this huge, muscular youth he really felt like a small boy. “Okay, okay, stop hugging me you big bastard. Look there, we can see the lake already. Let’s get in before I melt,” Laien said with a smile and pointed ahead with his finger.

The boys only now realized that they could already see the cold, refreshing water. Immediately all five of them, including Laien, ran ahead and hurriedly left their bags and the outer layers of their clothes on the grass, then ran into the lake.

The three girls giggled at once, amused to see such typical boy-like behavior. The younger of two sisters, Lina, followed the boys without much care, leaving most of her clothing behind on the ground. Hana, being a bit older, hesitated. “I wish I was still seven like Lina, it’s so embarrassing!” Hana thought helplessly. She was already eleven and recently, she started being self-conscious around boys and moreover, noticing that her breasts were slowly growing did not help to relieve her stress at all.

“Big sis, come on! Why are you still standing there? Play with us!” Lina called out to her older sister, waving her hand.

“She is too shy, haha. What are you worried about, Hana? We have all seen you naked many times~” Dan teased, laughing loudly.

Hearing the incredibly annoying comment of Dan’s, Hana's cheeks turned red from anger and embarrassment. She picked up a round stone, regretting that she was not yet allowed to carry her sword around. With a short, quick swing she threw the stone directly at Dan.

In the air, the small round rock actually created a clear ‘swish’ sound before slamming directly into Dan’s stomach. Being a martial practitioner, Hana had enough strength to seriously wound, or even to kill a normal person with a simple throw like that. However, as for Dan, the rock has only startled him and left a barely visible bruise on his muscular body.

Even though as a martial practitioner, Dan was only at the second mortal rank, his toughness and strength were way above that of Hana’s, who has reached the third rank as a martial practitioner at the tender age of eleven. After all, any blacksmith needed to be powerfully built to do his job well, so the difference between the two was only natural.

Dan looked at Hana with a smirk, his gaze seemed to be saying something along the lines of “Did you do something just now? I didn’t notice~”

Hana shook her head helplessly, not knowing what to say. “What am I even getting all worked about with this bunch of idiots anyway…” Deciding that it was pointless to be getting angry and worked-up because of Dan’s stupid comments, Hana stripped her shirt and without covering herself up with her hands or anything, walked up to the others through the shallow water at the lakeside.

“I wish it hurt you a little more, you big idiot,” Hana commented with a smile, giving Dan a resigned look. Awaiting his response, she kept staring in his eyes as if she intended to challenge him. Every trace of her previous shyness seemed to be gone as she stood straight, holding her hands on her hips.

Surprisingly, as she waited for him to say something, Hana noticed that Dan started to blush a bit. “Hmmm? What is it? Are you actually the one embarrassed to see me now? C’mon, don’t be too shy~” she asked with an evil smile on her face.

Dan was rather startled by this development, so he rebuked, trying to avoid looking at Hana. “Embarrassed about what? Seeing this childish body of yours? As if!”

Hearing this, the ever short-tempered Hana snapped and delivered a heavy kick at Dan’s groin. As Dan was looking away at the moment, he naturally had no way to know what was coming at him. Laien, Genzie, Rune and Talian trembled slightly as Hana’s leg landed with a loud ‘thud’. Genzie lowered his head and clasped his hands, wishing Dan to rest in peace.

“You were asking for it,” Hana said with a hint of guilt present in her voice and retreated a few steps, looking at Dan who was holding his private parts with both hands, his body bent in half.

“Y-you damned man-woman, I’m going to kill you!” Dan roared, trying to catch his breath. Hana only pouted, jumping into the deeper water in one big leap. “Try it if you can, idiot!” she shouted, swimming away.

“Ah, the usual thing,” the thought crossed Laien’s mind as he smiled leisurely, admiring the beautiful scenery. This ‘Blueside Lake’, as they liked to call it, was one of largest lakes in the whole Great Forest. From the Spike Mountains to the north-east flowed a stream, supplying the Blueside Lake with fresh water. This stream, after passing through the Blueside Lake, flowed directly into the Neil River and then, around a hundred kilometers further to the south, connected with the Great Southern Sea.

The Blueside Lake was located in a wild part of the Great Forest, where Valius family rarely hunted because of the unfavorable terrain. With ancient trees surrounding it from every side, it had a certain, mysterious and ancient feeling to it. However, the usually so calm and peaceful scenery was being disrupted by Dan and Hana who were having a bout with each other.

“It’s never boring with those two around,” Laien murmured, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

“Both of them are so stupid, don’t you think so too, big brother?” Lina commented wryly, laying on the water and gazing at the blue sky over the crowns of the trees.

Laien nodded, agreeing silently. It was obvious to anyone but those two that they liked each other quite a bit.

“How can they be so dense? They even always hang out together…” Everyone seemed to be thinking the same thing.

“Siana, won’t you play with us?” Laien asked and was met with an instant rejection. Just by seeing this expression of hers, Laien knew that sitting there besides a tree was the extent of what Siana was willing to do. Leaving this worry alone for now, Laien kicked the rocky ground and jumped dozen of meters forward with relative ease. He jumped two more times, then pierced through the surface of the water and dove deep into the lake.

If there was something amazing about the Blueside lake, then sure enough, it was its depth. Compared to any other lake in the Great Forest, its bottom was hidden much deeper than one would have expected.

Diving deeper and deeper, Laien felt the pressure rising rapidly. Had it been a year before, he wouldn’t have been able to reach the very bottom at nearly two hundred meters below the surface. However, now that he has reached the peak of the third rank as a martial practitioner, his body became incomparably tougher than before. Unless attacked with a great deal of force, he wouldn’t be wounded by any weapons of a lower quality. His skin, muscles and bones were simply too tough. With his body being so strong, diving deep into the waters of the Blueside lake became possible for him, too.

After Laien passed the halfway point, everything around became completely dark. Light could only reach so far, after all. Laien smiled unconsciously and released some of his spiritual energy, mixing it with the water in a radius of roughly two meters. As a water-element spiritual practitioner, after employing his spiritual energy, he could ‘feel’ any liquid as if it was a part of his own body. The ability was pretty useful for diving, but apart from that, it didn’t matter that much.

As for how it felt for Laien to be aware of the water around him… for someone who had never experienced such feeling, it would be impossible to truly understand or even imagine it. The closest to truth explanation would be saying that one could ‘see’ his surroundings in colorless outer shapes, while everything outside the reach of his spiritual energy would be a completely unknown, pitch-black world to him.

Laien always wanted to check what was there, on the very bottom of Blueside Lake. Dreaming about finding priceless treasures in everyday places was a part of every child’s nature. Laien, too, liked to imagine himself finding something that would solve all his problems and grant him an unimaginable power. A power comparable to that person’s…

Swimming through dark water, Laien wondered how long will his breath hold out. Right now he felt completely fine, so he continued searching for treasures. While having some hope, he didn’t really believe in finding anything, but just the excitement of doing something like this gave him a strange sense of pleasure.

Searching through the whole bottom of the lake took Laien only two or three minutes. He was kind of disappointed, as all he found was mud and stones. Deciding that it would be a shame to not bring something with him, he randomly grabbed a few small pebbles close to him and started surfacing unhurriedly.

“My body really got quite strong, Master’s training is truly effective. Other martial practitioners at the third rank shouldn’t be able to stay this deep for so long. Hehe. It was worth enduring this hell for two years,” Laien mused silently, very happy to see that his bitter training was producing results.

Meanwhile, on the surface.

“Laien sure is taking his time, how long has it been? Close to ten minutes?” Genzie commented quietly, yet he didn’t feel worried at all… Well, maybe just a little bit.

Looking around, Genzie saw Dan and Hana talking with each other, he also noticed Lina spying on the two while pretending to not be listening. As for the other two, Talian was napping on the grass and Rune trying to approach Siana. Only he had nothing to do at the moment. “Maybe I should find myself a girlfriend soon… But a girl can be such a pain in the ass sometimes…” he thought aloud, then sighed.

Just as Genzie was slowly sinking in his thoughts, Laien surfaced, unhurriedly catching his breath.

“There you are, finally. I was worried if you haven’t drowned yourself, you know?” Genzie said with a laugh, but Laien, instead of replying just ignored him and didn’t even turn around. Intrigued, Genzie swam closer, only to see Laien smile widely while looking at his open palm. “What is making you so ha-?!” Surprised, Genzie cut his words mid-sentence. “Are these…?” he asked quietly, whispering for some reason.

“They are, they are! I can actually fill them with my spiritual energy! These two small pebbles are actually elemental stones! And what’s more, they are suited to me, they are water-type elemental stones! Hah, I would never have expected to find them here, in the depths of our Blueside lake,” Laien replied excitedly, also speaking in a low voice. These two stones that were of the size of his fingertips were quite valuable and useful; especially for him, as they were compatible with his elemental affinity.

“They accumulate here, in the depths? Who would have thought! You really are lucky, Laien. Even though they are only low-grade elemental stones and are quite small, they are restricted to the military use and it’s very hard to buy them, even if you have enough money… You’d better not mention them to anyone. Without proper documents, any guard can confiscate them from you,” Genzie advised, then added with a chuckle. “Make sure to keep it a secret from Dan, you know of his long tongue, don’t you?” he pointed out, after what the two of them laughed. Laien agreed completely, it would be for the best if he kept this matter a secret from everyone, even from his friends.

For a second, Genzie hesitated, obviously thinking about something. He let out a long sigh, then took off a ring from his finger. “Take it, this way you can gather them all at once. It would be suspicious if someone were to notice that you kept entering and leaving the Great Forest every day and knowing you, you wouldn’t be patient enough to wait, right?” he said with a meaningful smile, handing the ring to Laien.

“You sure? This thing is quite pricey. Even more so than a dozen of low-grade elemental stones. How much would it be in coins? Ten thousand gold coins, or even more?” Laien asked, not too sure if accepting a gift so precious was really fine. It should be understood that for an ordinary person to live through one whole year at most two or three gold coins were needed. A good horse could cost up to ten gold coins and a set of heavy armor up to a few hundred. Ten thousand? Not even that many nobles could afford to spend such extravagant amount casually and Genzie was about to do just that!

“It’s only a low-grade interspatial ring. I will be twelve in two months, I will ask father for a better one. This one’s inner space is a sphere with a radius of roughly twenty centimeters, it won’t be useful to me for much longer anyhow. Just take it,” Genzie made up a random excuse and stuffed the interspatial ring into Laien’s hand.

Laien shook his head resignedly. He could tell that Genzie was not telling truth at all. Not only having more interspatial rings would be useful for anyone, Genzie could instead ask his father for something else for his twelfth birthday. But nevertheless, Laien accepted the gift. After all, how could he possibly have a chance to obtain an interspatial ring in the near future? Silently, he promised himself to one day repay this favor.

“Thanks,” Laien said gratefully, then poured some of his spiritual energy into the interspatial ring and inspected its contents ring. Inside, he found a few dozen gold coins, some precious gems and even a few small bottles of poisons and antidotes. Overall, everything was very likely worth close to one thousand gold coins! Not knowing what to say anymore, Laien gave Genzie a troubled look and scratched his head.

“Don’t be looking at me as if you are about to fall in love, just go get those stones already, okay?” Genzie commented with a laugh. Given how wealthy his family was, he could afford to help his friend out. Money was after all only money, nothing less, nothing more. It wasn’t the most important thing in the world.

Slightly ashamed of himself, Laien still couldn’t wipe the stupid smile from his face. He stored the two low-grade elemental stones in his new interspatial ring and after nodding to Genzie, he dove into the water again.

“Having an interspatial ring will be quite convenient. I won’t need to check all the pebbles one by one, I can just store a handful of them into the interspatial ring and check if they absorb spiritual energy while they are inside it,” Laien thought happily, knowing quite well how interspatial rings worked. It was just that he just never had one before, not until today, that is.

What Laien didn’t get to see, was that Genzie’s casual attitude and worriless aura disappeared very quickly. With his eyes half closed, Genzie cursed in his heart. “Even though we are friends, he still didn’t say anything about his problems to me. Does he really think I wouldn’t notice his wounds and add everything up? This damned brat, if he goes overboard and dares to hurt Laien ever again I will ask Grandfather to deal with him once and for all. Hmph,” Genzie thought angrily, wishing that the Valius family could be dealt with already.

For someone with Genzie’s background, one low-grade interspatial ring and items worth one thousand gold coins were truly nothing. Items of such quality, he could get as many as he wanted. As for Laien, however, even though he was formally a part of the Valius family, he couldn’t count on sharing in the clan’s wealth. His position within the family truly was a very problematic one, too.

“I’d like to give you more, but I know that you wouldn’t accept it, knowing your character… and Grandfather wouldn’t let it slide, either. Wish me luck, I will wish it for you, too.” Genzie murmured, staring at the now calm surface of the Blueside lake.