Book 1. Shifting Winds. Chapter 5. Their Voices.

With each passing second Laien’s ability to think dwindled, his mind slowly melting under the barrage of extreme emotions. Yet, at the same time as Laien suffered, he learned, or rather he was being taught at first hand with, or against his will. He wasn’t aware of it, but bits and pieces of knowledge found their place in his mind, in his struggling soul.

At the same time, with the bits of consciousness he still retained, Laien looked for this ‘something’ the nightmare wanted him to comprehend, but couldn’t quite find it. There was something extremely familiar in ‘his’ emotions, in ‘his power, but it wasn’t exactly the same and Laien couldn’t comprehend what the difference was.

‘He’ grabbed the lines of the magical formation in front of ‘him’, twisting them and tearing them apart. The natural energy which the formation was drawing its power from shuddered, then exploded outwards as the formation crumbled into nothingness. ‘He’ walked up to the unconscious youth and raised him up in ‘his’ arms.

The youth’s soul had been seriously wounded; even ‘he’ wasn’t certain of being capable of healing him. Pursing ‘his’ lips, ‘he’ trembled slightly, feeling not only extremely furious but also greatly disappointed in the world, in the people ‘he’ had once considered to be ‘his’ dear friends. Yet, those very same people had betrayed ‘him’, they betrayed ‘his’ trust and had driven ‘him’ into the very hopelessness ‘he’ was experiencing right now.

Momentarily, ‘his’ emotions dimmed and as a result, Laien’s mind became more clear. Using this brief moment of peace, Laien took a deep breath, if it could even be called so. He wasn’t in his body, he couldn’t move by his own will, he was but a… soul! He understood all of the sudden. This world he was in seemed like a dream, like a nightmare, but it certainly wasn’t. It was a projection of the past… a vision, or so to say!

“What I’m going through is an experience of extreme emotions… If this vision has a goal, then it must be connected to it!” Laien deduced, then by the same line of thoughts, recalled his strange experience at the fountain and the ‘Tranquil’ feeling which came to exist within him, which he could sense even now. “Emotions, it wants me to use them to understand something…? From anger to calmness, from… Wrath, to Tranquility…?” Laien wondered, for some reason confident that his reasoning was correct. However, little time did he have left to keep wondering freely as the next instant, another surge of uncontainable emotions flooded his soul and caused him a great pain.

‘He’ stepped outside the cavern, a young woman at ‘his’ side, a youth in ‘his’ arms. ‘He’ shook ‘his’ head, looking at the hundreds of his old friends who gathered around to… seal him, as they would say. As the would claim; that ‘he’ has grown too powerful and ‘he’ has somehow become a danger to the free world they had created with ‘him’ as their leader…! ‘He’ felt like crying, but no tears flowed from his eyes; only extreme coldness remained within them.

The people around ‘him’ were saying something, shouting, pleading… but ‘he’ was deaf to their words. ‘He’ gathered his power and started chanting a Forbidden Spell, preventing anyone from coming too close through the sheer amount of energy ‘he’ was gathering around ‘himself’.

As ‘he’ chanted in a language Laien had never heard of, Laien experienced the whole process. Were his comprehension to prove to be lacking, he would perhaps die today, his soul dissipating. However, it wasn’t destined so. Feeling as ‘he’ was gathering his power and preparing to use a grand magic, Laien’s level of understanding rose by leaps and bounds. It made Laien understand that although magic needed to be formed precisely, it could at the same be molded in infinite ways according to one’s will and level of comprehension!

For example, even though ‘he’ was using a fire element as ‘his’ base for the Forbidden Magic, ‘he’ actually changed the very properties of fire…! However, most importantly, ‘his’ magic contained many emotions, what might have seemed normal, but it certainly was anything but that. Amongst the mix, Laien could very clearly sense the very, very similar ‘Tranquility’. He attempted to immerse himself in this emotion, to learn something about it and comprehend it… yet clearly, he couldn’t concentrate well enough to make any progress. Not under the extreme mental strain he was going through.

“’He’ can turn fire cold, then can the same be done with water…? To turn it into ice, by the same Principle…?” the thought passed through Laien’s distracted mind. If so, if everything he was seeing here, in this vision, was real… then magic carried with itself an enormous amount of possibilities…! If he could only gain insight into anything he was being shown, then perhaps this painful vision would also end…!

‘He’ looked at the boy in ‘his’ arms, then took a deep breath, preparing to release the Forbidden Magic. “Freezing Nova,” ‘he’ said quietly, to the terror of everyone surrounding ‘him’. A sensation of the power beyond all imagination caused Laien’s Soul to quiver and struggle to keep its form. What Laien could feel, though, was but a lingering shadow of ‘his’ true might from that time, just a memory contained within a Vision and despite that, it still was more than enough to cause him to perish immediately, had it not been for the seed of Tranquility in his Soul...!

Laien once again struggled to skewer his connection to the Vision but failed yet again. The very second as ‘he’ was releasing the Forbidden Spell felt like an eternity to Laien. He was frightened, feeling that his soul was on the verge of collapsing…! Comprehend anything, gain an insight…?! How could he do it in such a state, when he was unable to focus on anything but his own survival...?!

It was at this moment when Laien heard two distant voices. He recognized those two voices very well, he knew them...! But, they shouldn’t have had a place in this vision, in this nightmare!

At the moment of his seemingly imminent death, in but an instant, Laien remembered everything about those two who would always call him ‘big brother’; how important they were to him, how much he treasured his bonds with them…

Laien chuckled in his heart, wondering if he should be thinking about those two right now, instead of struggling to gain an insight the vision wanted to force upon him. On the other hand, reminiscing the good times had a very calming effect on him, he even was starting to feel better… to feel more… tranquil?

Laien’s eyes snapped open in sudden realization. There was more to the Tranquility than just peace of mind! It was also connected to the memories, to the very feelings which made one experience Tranquility! For some people, it might be the feeling of excitement caused by the slaughter of battle, for others, the joy of success. As for him, it definitely was the times he had spent with those he loved, with those who were dear to him!

Finding himself in a much more relaxed state, Laien observed how ‘he’ finally released the Forbidden Magic. With ‘him’ as a center, a terrifying explosion of the air began spreading outwards, everything and everyone it passed through. In a few seconds, the spell had turned an area of a few dozen kilometers into a world of ice, where all life had been thoroughly extinguished.

‘He’ looked at ‘his’ old friends, who managed to defend themselves, just as ‘he’ expected. ‘He’ shook his head again, then left. The Freezing Nova had been only a warning of ‘his’; it hadn’t killed any people, as they were in the middle of nowhere. However, the message was clear enough. Don’t come after me, you don’t stand a chance. If you do, all of you shall die.

The next moment, the vision began turning more indistinct by the second. Laien smiled, knowing that he had succeeded and was waking up.

---

When he opened his eyes, Laien saw Siana and Rune sitting on the bed, on the opposite sides of him with very worried expressions on their faces. He smiled at the two, who didn’t quite realize that he had woken up, then attempted to sit down, but found himself too shaken to do so. At the same time, he realized that his whole body was covered in a cold sweat, his clothes sticking closely to his skin. He raised his hand up a little, noticing that he also was trembling.

“Damn those scary dreams,” he said with a resigned laugh, startling both Siana and Rune.

“Big brother!” the two called out at the same time. Siana quickly moved closer and hugged him tightly, not caring about how sweaty he was for even a second. Smiling, Laien looked at Rune who was rubbing his eyes and trying to hide that he had torn up a little.

Suddenly, Laien remembered about one important thing and cursed wordlessly. He had simply been so tired, so perturbed and relieved by all that happened that he forgot and simply went to sleep. “Sorry, Rune. I forgot to find you and tell you that everything turned out fine…” Laien apologized, surprising himself with how weak his voice sounded.

“It’s okay, I met Cran on my way back and he recognized me and told me what happened. I couldn’t find Genzie, though… he wasn’t home…” Rune explained cursorily and asked right afterward. “Big brother, for a while you looked like you were about to die. Are you hurt? What’s going on?”

Laien chuckled, happy to have someone who worries about him. He took a deep breath, feeling how strength was steadily returning to his body. He hugged Siana with one hand and helped himself to a sitting position with the other, then laughed quietly. Had it not been for the voices of those two, he would have most likely perished due to this damned vision. He really was lucky to have them.

Getting a bit too merry, Laien thought that he is going to start crying himself, but in the end, he managed to hold back his tears. He looked at Rune and saw that his younger friend had already started calming down, while on the contrary, his little sister was still hugging him tightly and refused to let go or to show her face.

“You don’t need to worry about me, I’m fine, really. It was just a… really bad dream. Give me a while, I will explain everything to you and then, let me sleep, okay? I’m super tired,” Laien said and yawned deeply. He proceeded to tell the story and to explain what his ‘nightmares’ were, or at least what he thought they were. Although he was somewhat embarrassed, Laien mentioned even the fact that he was saved thanks to the two of them calling out to him. Thankfully, Siana and Rune were simply happy to hear that and didn’t tease him in any way about it.

After the whole explanation was over, Rune stubbornly insisted on staying the night, just in case he needed to be woken up. Having no strength to argue and knowing that Rune’s mother won’t worry, as it won’t be the first time Rune randomly decided to sleep over, Laien accepted the offer and laid down and went to sleep. With how exhausted he was, he had fallen asleep the moment his head touched the pillow.

---

Laien woke up naturally by the morning, around two hours after the dawn. Feeling pleasantly refreshed after a good sleep, he smiled and took a deep breath, then slowly let the air out. He has had so many problems, but now, they had all been solved. It truly felt so good not to worry about anything, to just look forward to having fun each day…!

He quietly turned his head to the right and took a good look at his cute, sleeping little sister; at her long, silky black hair, slender figure and the gentle facial features. Her now closed eyes were black, just like his own, but they would often appear more stoic and perhaps even distant, not like his own gaze that was often playful and filled with easily noticeable emotions; or so would everyone say about the two of them. He himself could read Siana’s emotions with ease, he also understood her like no one else, to the point of making him regret that…

Laien shook his head, realizing that he was beginning to think about something strange. With slightly blushed cheeks, he turned his head around, trying to calm down.

Getting into a weird mood, Laien couldn’t help but judge Rune’s looks just a little. The seven-year-old was certainly pleasant to the eye, even somewhat enticing. His light-brown hair was a few centimeters long, quite messy and pointing in every direction. His eyes were of a light brown shade, he had a slim and fit body; he was certain to grow up to be a beautiful young man who would make many elder women go crazy for him. Given where they lived, perhaps not only women…

“Waaah!” Laien closed his eyes, his face flushed red all the way to his ears, his heart beating a bit too fast for comfort. “Heavens, I know I realized they are precious to me and I love them, but please don’t make it go that far!” he thought helplessly and chuckled at his own joke.

“Mm, hello, big brother,” Rune said with a yawn, woken up by Laien’s laughing. As for Siana, she only rolled around, intent on sleeping some more. It was much too early to be getting out of the bed for her preferences.

“What do we do? Want to go for a walk?” Rune suggested, looking at the clear blue sky outside the window. It was still early, so it would be pleasantly chilly outside, at least for an hour longer. It would feel good to walk around the city in such a weather.

“Yeah, let’s go. Want to go somewhere specific?” Laien asked, getting out of the bed and stretching his body.

“Yeah, to take a bath, to begin with. I will borrow some of your clothes, okay?” Rune crouched next to Laien, trying to find something nice from among the clothes Laien has already grown out of. Laien joined him in looking for a change of clothes for himself, seeing nothing strange in going to wash up the first thing in the morning.

The townspeople of Neil City would usually wash only once every other day, but nobles and the people working for the Valius family were expected to wash themselves on a daily basis. With free access to baths, washing at least once per day became a habit to them, though this situation was definitely a phenomenon on a world scale. Only in the south would people be so obsessed with cleanliness and moreover, they would even look down on using perfumes only to mask one’s own body odor.

In the other parts of the Starlight Continent, people wouldn’t pay that much attention to keeping themselves and the environment they live in clean and fresh. Sometimes even walking through the city in the morning, wouldn’t be a pleasant experience due to all the stink in the air. As far as that aspect went, the kingdoms of the south were truly exceptional. Thanks to that, plagues were practically nonexistent and any kinds of diseases or illnesses related to pollution were rarely encountered anywhere in the south.

“Can you stop making noises?” Siana complained and grabbed one of the pillows, then threw it in the rough direction of the two boys.

Laien and Rune muffled a laugh as the pillow smashed the wardrobe. The hurriedly finished packing clothes to the bags, then left the room walking on their tiptoes.

---

On the way to baths, since they weren’t chatting with Rune, Laien’s thoughts wandered towards his spiritual energy and the new insights he has gained. Yesterday, he had been too tired to focus properly, but now that he reached out with his consciousness, he reached all the way to his soul and the surrounding it Spiritual Core. The mass of water-element spiritual energy in his possession was formed in a spherical shape, enveloping his soul, as if protecting it akin to insides of an egg.

“I can’t sense the inside of my soul yet, though. I need some more practice,” Laien noted with mixed feelings, curious how his spirit looked from within. “I can influence my spiritual energy with the emotion of Tranquility by will. If I then course it through my body, it calms me down forcefully… but don’t think I should be using it in this way too often,” Laien mused, not sure why he was reluctant to this possibility. After all, being able to always keep his cool would be a nice prospect, but…

“Ah,” he realized suddenly, guessing that overusing the calming properties of Tranquility would lead him to become incapable of being cool without its aid and that it would cause him to be unable to hone his character. Master Shire would often repeat how important ‘heart’ was to practitioners, so there definitely was something to it.

“Either way, I can’t keep calling it ‘that emotion of Tranquility’,” Laien smirked at the thought. “Let’s go with simplicity. I will call those emotions ‘Aspects’, there must be more than one, after all. Mm, the Aspect of Tranquility. Sounds good enough,” he pondered, then nodded contentedly.

“I wonder why my Spiritual Core fused with my soul, though. I’ve never heard of anything like that happening to a spiritual practitioner, even after entering the Realm of Heroes… The very concept of soul is rather blurry in this world, anyway,” Laien sighed, deciding to leave thinking about this for some other time. He knew too little to make any definite conclusions and for now, he wanted to establish what he knew and was sure of.

From the information available to the general knowledge, Laien knew that a martial practitioner needed a certain degree of master of a Primary Art to reach the Realm of Heroes. From within the three Primary Arts, be it a Qi Manipulating Art, Body Strengthening Art, or Battle Art, whichever was fine. The main prerequisite was mastering one of the Primary Arts to at least 5’th level. For example, Cran had long since passed the 5’th level of the Red Dragon Arts. The moment he reaches the peak of the ninth Mortal Realm, he will face no bottleneck at all and advance straight to the Realm of Heroes.

The matter of martial practitioners becoming martial masters was fairly simple. There was the requirement of practicing at least a mid-level martial art which enabled you to reach the 5’th level of expertise, but apart from that, it was quite straightforward. In comparison, becoming a spiritual master was a bit more complicated.

After reaching the peak of the ninth mortal realm, a spiritual practitioner would be faced with a challenge. He would either need to master a magic that manipulated the natural properties of an element, or go the roundabout way and learn a spell allowing him to do just that. The later way would, of course, result in worse effects and would often lead to the spiritual master being unable to progress past the early Realms of Heroes, so the first way was advised.

From Laien’s perspective, the whole matter wasn’t that hard. He already knew what he wanted to do, he wanted to emulate ‘him’ and create a freezing effect. He wanted to turn water into ice! The only problem was, he was yet to comprehend how in the world he could do that. After all, he intended to understand the process, not only become familiar with a chant of a spell that would allow him to do the same. It was as if he knew where he wanted to go, but his whole path was covered by darkness. Without a sudden insight or a master to be taught by, he would probably find it troublesome to properly master an advanced magic of this kind.

Yet, even without that, he has already gotten considerably stronger. However, he wasn’t quite sure of the role the Aspects would play in his future development.

“After I created this ‘foundation’, or so to call it, of the Aspect of Tranquility, I can keep gaining further insights into it. Also, looking back at what happened yesterday, it seems that the Aspect of Tranquility amplifies the defensive properties of my magic, making it tougher and harder to break. My true battle prowess should be quite high, but the problem is, I have no idea how to use it properly and I don’t have anyone to teach me.” thinking along those lines, Laien began wondering if his vision would start occurring more often.

After a while, Laien assumed one thing. Extreme visions like the last one would only be triggered by him gaining an important insight or perhaps by making a big breakthrough in cultivation like entering the Realm of Heroes. It was a bit of a pity, but at the same time, somewhat of a relief. No matter how beneficial, he wasn’t up to living through any as extreme visions anytime soon.

“Big brother, what are you thinking about?” Rune asked, seeing as Laien had been lost in his thoughts for quite a while now.

“Nothing much, just about yesterday. Do we go to the normal baths, or maybe we should go to the Great Baths?” Laien avoided the question, seeing it as too much of a hassle to explain.

Rune looked at him brimming with a smile.

“You should have asked sooner, big brother! Of course to the Great Baths! It’s much nicer there, there’s hot water and there are even many soaps and oils that smell really nice,” Rune replied energetically, brimming with happiness. As a non-noble, he wasn’t allowed to use the Great Baths on his own, so he looked forward to every time he could go there with Laien.

“Will it be okay, though? It’s still early, there might be other people there…” Rune brought up, his smile growing dim as he realized the problem.

“It will be okay. Especially after what happened yesterday,” Laien said with a laugh. He suggested going to the Great Baths fully aware that they would meet many young nobles and their friends there at this time of the day. However, with Garon’s support and Jasi’s word not to bully him anymore, he had nothing to fear from the fellow members of the Valius family. “And if anyone’s going to be stupid enough to attack me, I can try my newly gained strength on him,” he mused with a smile, honestly hoping just a little bit that someone will try to attack him.

After all, Laien might have been more mature than other children his age, but despite everything he had gone through, he was only a ten year old. Some tendencies to show-off and appear to be cool would of course surface from time to time.

“Mm,” Rune nodded, not having much time to think whether Laien was right or not as the two of them already approached the entrance of to the Great Baths.

When they entered the main hall with nine large pools within it, all the chatter died out in a matter of seconds. Over three hundred young nobles and their acquaintances turned to look at Laien, whispering between each other. Some of their gazes were filled with suspicion, some with curiosity, others with fear and anxiety. Yet, after a moment or two, everyone returned to their own activities, pretending not to pay attention to Laien anymore, but sneaking glances at him and Rune every once in a while as the two were walking through the main hall.

“Huuu, Lord Garon must have gotten pretty intrigued with me. He went as far as delivering some orders to everyone in the middle of the night, mere rumors wouldn’t have caused a reaction like that. I wonder what he told them, though? Probably not much,” Laien shrugged his shoulders, a bit disappointed that no one picked a fight with him, but also happy to ascertain that the hard times were over for him.

Picking one of the private rooms to bathe in, Laien and Rune washed up and spent some time playing in the water and having fun. After around half an hour, they left the Great Baths and headed to wander the Neil City. Feeling rather hungry, they ended up going to the usual dining bar with cheap, but tasty food for their breakfast.

“Scrambled eggs with ham, two buns and orange juice for me, please!” Rune called out to the middle-aged man at the counter. “Big brother, what will you take?” he asked, seating himself on one of the high chairs at the bar.

“I’ll take the same,” Laien answered with a smile. He didn’t need to reaffirm with the middle-aged man, who nodded at him and got to work. Just two, three minutes later the portions were done and served, along with two glasses of orange juice.

As he was eating, Laien needed to admit that eating good food came quite cheaply in the Sarkcente Kingdom. He needed to pay only three silver coins for two big portions, counting in a nice tip. One gold coin was equal to one hundred silver coins and he carried over a thousand of them in his interspatial ring, thanks to Genzie’s generous gift. Three silver coins for a good breakfast for two? He couldn’t ask for a better bargain.

After filling their bellies, Laien and Rune decided to waste some time by relaxing and wandering around the bazaar, which by this time, began bursting with life. Neil City was one of the four biggest agglomerations in the Sarkcente Kingdom. Given how rich their country was, it was only natural that it would be filled with traders from all over the world offering to sell their goods.

Despite having a lot of money, Laien held back from spending it recklessly. He bought only some snacks for himself and Rune, limiting the spending until he really needed money for something important.

It appeared that the day would pass in this manner, without any major events, but then the two of them heard some kind of commotion occurring further down the main street. Curious as they were, Laien and Rune hurried over there, interested to see what was going on.

“Wow, war horses!” Rune shouted excitedly as they saw around twenty-two meters high, powerfully built steeds being led down the road. From the looks of it, the commotion has been caused by one of those horses, who even now was trying to break free, neighing, kicking and pulling on the reins as he thrashed around. Two muscular men were giving their best to hold the horse down, but despite their efforts, they were pulled farther and farther away by the pitch-black War Horse.

From what Laien knew, war horses were a special type of breed of magical beasts, used by the rich nobles as their battle steeds in times of the war. Judging from strength the black War Horse was displaying when trying to free himself, he should have been as strong as a human marital practitioner of the seventh or eighth rank. Given the naturally powerful body of a magical beast, the black one probably had a cultivation base of the sixth Mortal Realm; or so Laien was guessing from those scary stomps of his hoofs, with which he was breaking the stones laid throughout the main street.

“It looks like he’s going to break out. Let’s try it out, then.” Laien murmured just loudly enough for Rune to hear him. Gesturing Rune to wait for him, he walked forward and approached the two caravan guards who at the moment were giving their best not to get trampled over by the black War Horse that really wanted to regain his freedom.

“Say, if I calm him down and make him obey me, can I have him for half the price?” Laien asked leisurely, walking past the two men and stopping a few meters behind them and the black horse, anticipating the animal to flee out of the city after pushing the two guards aside.

“Get away if you don’t want to get hurt, you stupid brat!” one of the guards shouted spitefully through his clenched teeth. He then pulled with all his strength… what resulted in the reins finally being unable to handle anymore and snapping into two parts. The black horse neighed and reared, kicking into the air as he celebrated his victory. He turned around, intent on galloping past everyone in his way. However, after taking but a few steps, it stopped abruptly, its hoofs sliding on the stone road as he gave his best not to crash into this scary monster in front of him.

Laien smirked, steadily releasing his spiritual energy mixed with the Aspect of Tranquility. The people watching the scene were confused and flabbergasted as they couldn’t sense his spiritual energy, being neither experts at the Realm of Heroes nor spiritual practitioners. The black War Horse, on the other hand, was a magical beast. His instincts were much sharper than human’s, so just like any other magical beast, he could tell when he stumbled upon something so dangerous that it was better not to provoke it. Standing completely still, the black War Horse continued looking at the small human before his eyes, not daring to move a muscle.

With a confident smile on his face, Laien lifted his hand up, keeping his palm open and pointing to the ground. The black War Horse shook his head, at first unwilling to submit. However, after a few long seconds, he conceded out of fear and respect. He stepped forward and bent his head, allowing Laien to pet him with his raised hand.

Laien laughed, pleased with all the amazed looks he was receiving from the hundreds of people who were gathered around. He stepped closer to the black one and hugged his head, then gave the two guards a smug smile and said. “He would have run if not for me, so I will do you a favor and buy him for half the price. Deliver the bill to the Valius family for me. Oh, and give me a set of new reins, a saddle and everything else,” he concluded merrily and laughed in his heart. Even if he had one thousand gold coins, a war horse was a pricey beast. It was much better to make Garon pay for it than to spend all his money on this black one; even after a discount.

“You can have him for free,” a man wearing a white turban on his head called out from afar, a light smile lingering on his face. “It would be an embarrassment if one of my horses went on a rampage through the bazaar, only Heavens know how much damage he would have caused,” the bearded man declared loudly, gesturing his subordinates to hurry up and bring what Laien asked for.

“Take good care of it, young one. That black beast is not even one year old, he had grown so much stronger during our journey that here you have the result,” the man shook his head with a smile, then called out to the onlookers. “Make the way, time is money!” He glanced at Laien one more time, remembering his face. He nodded at Laien, then left with his caravan.

Surprised by this development, Laien raised his eyebrows and laughed. To give out a horse worth at the very least two thousand gold coins and at most, twenty thousand gold coins if he proved to be a good breeding steed… Just how rich was that foreign-looking man?

As Laien was standing there, holding his black War Horse by the newly put reins, the people began gossiping. Among the young nobles, Laien was fairly well known in Neil City, mainly due to the affair of him taking Shire to be his master. Thus, the word around his amazing and mysterious performance quickly began spreading. By the evening, there would hardly be anyone among the well over million citizens of Neil City who haven’t heard the news.

“That was awesome! How did you do it, big brother?” Rune asked excitedly, running up to Laien, but slowing down a little, intimidated by the size of the black War Horse at Laien’s side.

“I will explain later. For now, do you to name him?” Laien asked wryly, knowing that Rune would be happy to do so.

“I can? Yay!” Just as Laien expected, Rune was overjoyed. On their way to the stables located on the grounds owned by the Valius family, he pondered deeply about a good name until he finally thought up something satisfying. “How about Bellicose? It describes his character well, I think,” he suggested, hoping that Laien was going to like this idea.

“It fits well,” Laien agreed with a laugh. Warrior-like, stubborn and rowdy. Truly, ‘Bellicose’. “Then, it’s decided. From today onwards, you are Bellicose,” he said to the black War Horse, who in neighed in response. Apparently, he was satisfied with his new name.