Book 1. Shifting Winds. Chapter 2. Unforgivable! (Part II)

“Mm, what did you want to talk about, big brother?” Rune asked just as they left his house, getting curious why Laien came to see him out of the blue. In response, Laien gestured for the two of them to sit down on the nearby bench, then after they sat down, he began explaining.

“You know that I went to speak with Jasi, right? I wanted to somehow get him to give me a break but in the end… quite a bit of stupid things happened. When I was talking with Jasi, some of his friends got involved and somehow it ended up being them making an ultimatum. They wanted me to prove that I really don’t intend to betray them and to do that, I was supposed to attack you and rough you up. I was quite stressed back then, so I ended up agreeing,” Laien shook his head with a resigned smile. Really, what had he been thinking to agree to something like that?

Rune tilted his head, trying to keep up with that news. “You told me about it, so you gave up, right?” he asked hesitatingly.

“Of course I did, stupid. I was an idiot to go along with their demands, duh,” Laien assured, feeling guilty about ever considering the possibility of attacking his best friend because of some young master’s demand.

Rune’s expression immediately lightened, however, as he realized something important, he once again got worried. “Then you will be in a big trouble, won’t you, big brother? You know, if it’s just a slight beating, then I…” he wanted to say more, but seeing Laien shake his head, he stopped.

Feeling warm and cozy inside, Laien spoke with a slight smile. “I just can’t do it. No matter what happens, there are people too important to me to betray myself like that. You are like a little brother to me. There’s no way I could I behave so viciously, even with your consent,” he said truthfully, intending to never again go against his principles. Someone who doesn’t value his own friends and is ready to sell them out for his own gain… a person like that was the worst.

Rune seemed a bit overwhelmed by Laien’s declaration. It was rare for Laien to express his emotions like that, in words; he usually preferred to prove things through actions instead. Rune wasn’t too sure how he should react of what to say, but then Laien put a hand over his shoulders and hugged him lightly. Seeing Laien smile at him, Rune also smiled happily. There was no need for pointless words, both of them understood each other’s feelings.

Although he wouldn’t be thinking about it often, for Rune, Laien really was his closest friend. Someone he could treat like a big brother, play with, chat with, have fun with and tell anything and everything. With no other males in his everyday life, it was natural for Rune to have gotten greatly attached to Laien. His bond with Laien was really precious to him, no matter what. Knowing that Laien treated him in the same way made Rune incredibly happy, to the point of making him feel like crying; his face blushed and hints of tears gleaming in his eyes.

Laien just stayed like that for a while, hugging Rune and reminiscing all the time he had spent with him until now. Regrettably, he couldn’t remain here for much longer.

“I must go before they start looking for me. Rune, I want you to do something for me. Go find Genzie, tell him that I am going to that old storage house at the back of the stables. Explain things briefly and tell him that I might need his help, after all; both right now, and in future. Can I rely on you with that?” By this point, Laien understood better than he would have wanted to, he understood that he couldn’t handle everything alone. He wasn’t nearly strong or influential enough... so even though he felt bad about it, he couldn’t avoid asking for help. That situation with Jasi and Cran opened his eyes and surely, made him more cautious and a little bit smarter.

“Yeah, you got that, big brother!” Rune got up energetically, gave Laien last one look and then ran towards the city.

“Well, may the game begin,” Laien mused with a grim smile as he closed onto the old storage house. He took a deep breath, entering a state of heightened concentration, readying himself for battle. Thankfully, due to Master Shire’s training, being battle-ready became as natural to Laien as breathing. Sure, it was straining on his mind, but he could keep himself in this state for good three or four hours in a row. At the age of ten, it definitely was a very exceptional result, one which many adults wouldn’t be able to achieve.

Laien pushed the door to the old storage open, then looked around. He quickly spotted the three youths in the back, trying to hide in the dark. He smiled, wondering if he should ask for their names before returning the favor from this morning.

“Where is the brat? You came alone?” one of them asked angrily, a hint of threat present in his voice.

“Yeah, as you can see. What will you do about it?” Laien asked, grinning smugly.

“Haha, do you think you are smart or something? Don’t worry, we will find him after we are done with you. We are going to make sure that this little friend of yours will never forget this experience,” the fourteen-year-old said with a laugh. “Want me to tell you what we were told to do if you brought the brat with you? I might consider it if you ask nicely,” he asked, walking towards Laien with the other two and making it quite apparent that Laien should be getting ready to get beaten up.

“This one seems to be quite talkative. He enjoys tormenting people when bullying them, huh. He loves the feeling of supremacy... Mm, It wouldn’t hurt to get some information out of him, I guess,” Laien thought to himself, not minding some acting at all. Compared to prostrating himself before some worthless young masters, playing along with a game was nothing much at all.

“I would like to know. I would be grateful if you told me, please,” he responded to the fourteen-year old’s proposition in a completely normal tone, without any traces of sarcasm in his voice.

The boy didn’t expect Laien to really do as he said, so instead of reacting quickly, he ended up opening and closing his mouth in a rather dumb manner. He coughed, thrown out of the rhythm, then began saying. “Since you are asking, I will tell you, but you will wish you never knew, hah. We were told to keep telling you that you haven’t beaten that brat enough yet over and over to see how far you would go. When you would finally have broken down and refused, we were supposed to take good care of both of you. Funny eh? You were in a deep shit no matter what you would have done. Well, not like you are any better now,” the fourteen-year-old finished with a chuckle, having regained his previous confidence while speaking; as if getting drunk on his own words.

“Okay, that’s enough talking,” the youth declared and signaled his two friends to block the exit. As he saw it, he alone was more than enough to deal with Laien. He didn’t want anyone disturbing his fun, He intended to enjoy this thoroughly, let Laien struggle and injure him slowly throughout the fight. After he had a chance to beat Laien up this morning, he had no other impression of Laien than that of him being a scared and submissive person. He wasn’t on guard against him in the slightest.

Right now, as he was approaching and seeing Laien just stand there calmly with a smile on his face, the fourteen-year-old began feeling that something was wrong. However, he ignored those instinctive warnings and swung his fist at Laien’s face overconfidently. Yet, after he threw the punch and before he realized what was going on, he already saw the world spin before his eyes. The air was forced out of his lungs as his back slammed against the ground and a second later, a piercing pain started emanating from his right shoulder. He tried to take a breath or move but could do neither. It was as if all the strength has left his body.

Even though the fourteen-year-old didn’t quite understand what happened to him, the other two boys have seen it very clearly. They couldn’t believe it, but after seeing it with their own eyes, they had no option but to do just that. When their leader’s fist approached, Laien had simply taken a step to the side and had caught his forearm from below, then instantly twisted it and pulled forward at the same time. Without much effort at all, he had thrown a much bigger opponent and disabled him from any fighting for the time being.

At this point, the two should have known what the correct decision was. Run! They should have run as quickly as possible! However, after years of acting like bullies, how could they now flee from their ‘prey’, even when the kitten proved to be a scary tiger? They couldn’t! Not when the memory of trashing the same person around was still so fresh in their minds!

Drawing their swords, the two of them actually attacked Laien with the intent to kill. Although they were weaker than their leader, both being at the peak of the second mortal realm, they thought that attacking with real weapons would cause Laien to panic. Of course, however, they were being delusional. It partially was their fault for not knowing about Laien’s strength, but how could they have known about Laien’s nightmares, which got him used to the experience of life-or-death battles?

Facing the crude sword attacks, Laien decided to face simplicity with simplicity. The two hadn’t even timed their attacks properly and were slashing at the same time, what made the whole thing that much easier for him. He waited out until the last split-second and twisted his body to the side and jumped forward, right at one of the two older boys. As the two swords slicked the air, he delivered a solid strike with his open palm to the middle of the youth’s chest. Both the strength of his attack and the momentum of the youth’s movement added up and caused the breastbone of the youth to crack dangerously, pushing it to the verge of breaking altogether.

The youth’s body bent in half and the sword fell from his hand as he flew a good five or six meters through the air. He crashed onto the ground and rolled for a few more meters, then stayed like that, in a very strange position, not moving at all.

Despite Laien being only one full rank higher than him, Laien’s body was honed to a much higher degree than his. Laien’s technique was also at an incomparably higher level; internal Qi wasn’t the only thing that mattered in a fight! As a result, the youth had completely lost consciousness after receiving but one blow.

The last one standing of the three panicked and tried to strike with a thrust, aiming at Laien’s stomach. Laien smiled resignedly. After what Master Shire made him go through, an attack like that not only seemed to be moving in a slow-motion to him, he could also instantly recognize the countless flaws in the boy’s execution. For example, putting his whole weight behind a thrust. Doing something like that would be reckless even if the blow was certain to land, not to mention now when there was more than enough time for Laien to dodge.

Again, with a simple, but well timed sidestep, Laien dodged the attack and grabbed the youth’s wrist as he lost his balance. Having gotten a good grip, Laien tightened his fist and twisted the youth’s hand at the same time. With a crunching sound, the wrist broke and the boy cried out in pain and let go of his sword.

Clicking his tongue, Laien kicked the now kneeling twelve-year-old and allowed him to fall down. He was quite sure he broke at least two of three ribs with this one kick, but he achieved what he wanted; the boy had immediately shut up. Since they attacked with the intent to kill, he wouldn’t be merciful either. Had he been weaker than them, or had he panicked after seeing a sword, he could have been dead right now. Being pointlessly nice to little thugs like them wouldn’t do anything well. Rather, on the contrary, it would encourage them to look for a revenge in the future.

Laien unhurriedly walked up to a nearby wooden table and sat on it, then proceeded to wait for a while. Not betraying his expectations, the leader of the three got himself up while gazing at him with fear in his eyes. “Wake up your sleeping friend, I want all of you to listen,” Laien ordered casually, pointing at the one who got hit in the middle of his chest by him.

The fourteen-year-old didn’t argue and went to his friend. He had finally realized the difference in strength between himself and Laien and his attitude changed accordingly. After trying for a moment, he managed to wake the youth up. The boy opened his eyes, then winced in pain and started hyperventilating, trying to catch a breath. Luckily for him, he was a martial practitioner of the second rank. He wouldn’t die from something like this; after a minute or so passed, he could breathe a little easier. However, a full recovery would likely require a full week of rest from him.

“Since all of you are listening, I will ask now. What should I do with you? You obviously wanted to wound me heavily, then you even tried to kill me. Tell me, what is done when three kids of commoners attack a noble in this way? Do you think those young masters will still stand by your back after you screwed up today?” Laien asked with a cunning, amused smile and just like he hoped, he saw the faces of the three sink. Those words truly made these three youths tremble and go down in cold sweat.

Who were they? Just children of the guards serving the Boular Family, servants of the young master Masi. Their status, compared to the adopted grandson of the previous leader of the Valius family was like the distance between heaven and earth; incomparably far apart. They had forgotten about this fact when Masi ordered them to do what they did, they were convinced that Laien was but a trash that Valius family wouldn’t give a damn about. However, after getting thoroughly beaten by him they could no longer believe that and thus, they suddenly got very, very scared for their lives.

“P-please! We will do anything, just forgive us! I beg you! Whatever you say, we will do!” the thirteen-year-old with a broken wrist broke into tears, no longer able to think straight after enduring the pain for the last few minutes. He had seen what young master Masi did with people who disobeyed him and if Laien was even half a bad as him, he wouldn’t ever want to truly get on his bad side! It was a little late for such regrets, though.

Seeing their friend like that, the other two also lowered their heads and started pleading. However, Laien didn’t pay much attention to what they were saying. “Had I not been stronger than you, you would have ‘beaten me up half to death’ and also attacked my dear friend! How can you possibly convince me to spare you? Hmph, even if I let you go without punishment, you will just seek your revenge later. You won’t be able to do anything to me, so you will target my friends. Tell me, why shouldn’t I just kill you right here and get it done with it?” Laien asked repeatedly, with each question his voice turning more threatening and his expression filling with more anger.

Compared to how he was before, this change in Laien’s behavior was so great that it made the three boys think that person speaking to them wasn’t truly Laien, but someone else. How could someone so scary, someone who could so easily make them feel frightened for their lives, have had taken hits from them and not retaliated? Remembering how they cursed at him, kicked him and spit at him… it all made their fear of Laien that much greater.

“No! We won’t do anything! I swear on my life! Let the Heavens strike me if I’m not telling the truth! I promise! Please, just… just forgive us…!” the fourteen-year-old began pleading while sobbing openly. Even he, the toughest-minded out of the three, was reduced to this state. The other two followed in his footsteps and started begging. The three boys actually kneeled before Laien while ignoring their wounds, then bowed low enough for their foreheads to be touching the ground.

Satisfied, Laien decided that it should be enough. The three appeared to be really scared, so he wouldn’t go as far as killing them. He had thought about crippling them, but considering how many similar young thugs were under Masi’s command, it would be rather pointless. Were they to be convinced to attack his friends after what happened today, then unaffiliated people could be, too. Overall, leaving these three be was more beneficial than disadvantageous to him so he would do just that.

Smiling, Laien allowed the three to experience drear for another, seemingly endless while before finally speaking up in a low voice. “This one time, I will believe your words. Remember, though, if you dare to harm any of my friends, then I will make sure the three of you have your balls stuffed down your throats while being skinned alive.” In the ears of the three youths, those quiet words were really terrifying. None of them doubted that Laien would make his threats come true had they broken their promise; not after being roughed up by him today in such a merciless manner.

After thanking Laien numerous times, they stood up and cautiously approached the exit. They looked at Laien, seeking permission to leave. When Laien waved his hand dismissively, they left hurriedly.

Still sitting on the table, Laien took a deep breath, then breathed out slowly. He had dealt with those three well enough, but he still had a feeling that ‘something’ was wrong. Choosing to listen to his gut feeling, he stood up and wanted to leave the place as quickly as possible, but just as he approached the half-open door, a body smashed it open and flew right past him at a great speed.

His heart beating wildly, Laien drew his sword and briefly glanced at the youth who flew all the way to the other end of the storage house. The fourteen-year-old was definitely dead; his chest had caved in from a powerful blow and blood was flowing from his open mouth. Nothing would save him now, he was but a corpse.

Laien steeled himself and laughed bitterly. Any normal ten-year-old would have been shaken by the sight of death, but he was different. There was his past, and there were his dreams… or rather, nightmares. He ignored the corpse behind him and backed off from the entrance and after a few seconds, saw a group of five adult men covered in long, grey-black robes enter the storage house.

Each of the men carried a sword by his waist and released a menacing aura of a high-ranked martial practitioner. Just by looking at them, Laien could tell that they are out of his league. He was only a martial practitioner at the peak of the third rank, while they were at the very least at the sixth rank if not higher. Against one, he might have had a chance to run, but five? There was simply nothing he could do.

The grey-black robed men dressed didn’t attack him immediately. Instead, one of them stepped in front of the others and started talking. “Hmmm, not even a wound on you. Young master told us that you were at peak of third mortal realm, but had you perhaps broken through to the fourth recently? Nevertheless, a good job indeed. You did those three in beautifully. The threats weren’t half-bad, either, for a ten-year-old, that is,” the captain of the five praised honestly, yet, his expression gave Laien quite an ominous feeling.

“Gotta stall for time,” Laien realized instantly, making the only possible choice available to him. If only Genzie could make it in time with help… but would he even be able to help, though…? Against those five…? Valius family would never let Genzie bring his own private guards into their grounds, after all. Perhaps, it would be better if Genzie didn’t make it in time… or so Laien thought, yet, contradicting himself, he still hoped that someone would appear and save him from this predicament.

“You were waiting outside, watching as I beat them and threaten them? Whose people are you?” Laien asked with the intent of buying some time. He needed not to ask if these five wanted to hurt him or not, it was quite apparent from the atmosphere surrounding them. This sensation... it was nothing pleasant to be exposed to.

Hearing Laien’s question, the leader of grey-black robed men laughed. “We are the personal guards of young master Masi, of course. What, did you believe that young master is clueless enough not to know how strong you are? You are overestimating your luck, kiddo,” he said with a sigh, giving Laien a look of pity.

Laien stood there, baffled. “Why did you kill that guy…? The other two, too…?” he asked, receiving a confirmation in form of an unconcerned shrug of shoulders. “Weren’t you on the same side?” he asked again, having trouble with understanding Masi’s motives.

“Those retards? Hmph, they were useless trash. Their talent was nothing great and the worst of all, they were stupid. Had they noticed quickly enough that you were too strong for them, they would have passed the test. But they didn’t. Simply ridiculous… how can anyone be so retarded? All they needed to do was to recall this morning. They had a chance to punch you and kick you, but they didn’t notice that their attacks had no effect and left nothing but light bruises on your body! The Boular family doesn’t need idiots,” the man explained, then snorted. For him, the matter of killing three commoners by his master’s orders was a trivial one. It was nothing worth his special attention.

“Your talent, on the other hand, is not bad at all. Pity, today you will be crippled for your entire life. You shall never advance past the fifth mortal realm, or perhaps you will regress from being a martial practitioner altogether as your Qi Origin will be shattered. Curse your bad luck, kiddo. If you don’t struggle we can even do it as painlessly as possible, how about it?” the leader of the five proposed, waiting patiently for an answer and observing Laien’s shocked and horrified expression with a light, somewhat regretful smile. He truly pitied Laien, but orders were orders. Soldiers were expected to obey, not to ask questions.

Laien looked at the man wide-eyed, his thoughts completely frozen. What did he just say? They were here to cripple his martial cultivation? Make all his past efforts and future prospects meaningless? Masi would go as far as to destroy his future on a simple, damned whim…?! Feeling his mouth grow dry, Laien wanted to force some words out, but he couldn’t. He could only watch as leader of the five men gestured at his subordinate, accepting Laien’s silence as consent for what was going to happen.

The long-haired man came closer to Laien and bent his knees, preparing to strike the much smaller kid in his stomach. Somewhat surprised that Laien wasn’t resisting and just stood there, the man hesitated for a second. However, he didn’t waver for long. He gathered a decent amount of bright yellow Qi in his hand, clenched it into a fist and struck out.