Book 1. Shifting Winds. Chapter 11. The Bright Future. (Part I)

The utterly delighted expression on Rudord’s face was making Laien want to burst out laughing. Compared to the man’s previous, calm expression this look he now had on his face was truly hilarious; he looked like a child who got his hands on a snack he had been drooling over for months.

“Do I also look like that when my spiritual cultivation makes a breakthrough?” Laien wondered helplessly, knowing how much pleasure the spiritual practice brought to him. If that really was true, then he needed to be careful not to have any random people see him at those times… it would be simply too embarrassing.

His Qi slowly calming down, Rudford took a deep breath, then slowly released the air from his lungs. He gazed at Laien, then due to how delighted he was, offered generously. “If there’s anything you need, just say so! As long as it’s within my abilities and the request isn’t too unreasonable, I will grant it.”

Laien perked up slightly, amazed by Rudford’s offer. He smiled brightly and chuckled; it just so happened that he liked to daydream when he had nothing better to do. He had imagined himself in many cool, glorious or lucky situations many times so when Rudford gave him the opportunity, he didn’t need to think about his answer for long and thus, replied almost instantly.

“Then, Master Rudford… I want to become your martial brother!” Laien said strongly, the confident look in his eyes telling Rudford that he wasn’t joking.

“You… what…?” Rudford murmured, completely dumbfounded. “Are you sure you know what you are speaking about?” he asked, a hint of anger lurking behind his words. In these times of peace, many youngsters referred to their friends as ‘brothers’, but from his point of view, they were all being superficial! The true meaning behind two practitioners recognizing each other as martial brothers was the unspoken promise to never betray and not to hesitate to put one’s own life for your brother’s sake! These words were never supposed to be spoken casually as they currently were!

Laien tried to keep his calm, but couldn’t help feeling nervous and even a bit scared. Rudford, who so far appeared to be a very composed person, was actually showing hostility…! It was one thing to stand before an angry adult, and the other if that adult was one of the most powerful and influential people in the Sarkcente Kingdom…!

“I believe I do,” Laien clenched his fists and replied, looking Rudford in the eye and refusing to back down. “I am aware that I won’t suddenly become a martial brother to you in your hearth just because I made such a request, so if you later deem me unworthy, please go ahead and throw me out,” he stated straightforwardly, causing Rudford’s expression to soften. Perhaps, it wasn’t such an unreasonable request after all…?

“Maybe,” Laien spoke up with a laugh, noticing the change in Rudford’s mood. “Maybe it would be a better wording if I said that I want to ask for a head-start in our relationship? Give me a chance to prove myself, Master Rudford,” he said with a cheeky smile while maybe getting a bit too ahead of himself… but then, Rudford actually laughed and eyed him carefully.

“His martial cultivation might not be the fastest,” Rudford mused with a smile. “But he surely has a bright future as a spiritual practitioner ahead of him; and not only that! He already has insights into the Secret, the ‘Aspect’ of Tranquility as he named it at such a young age,” he nodded to himself. Now that he thought about it calmly, there was no reason for him to straight out deny Laien’s request. Had the boy been trying to randomly seize luck and get his protection while himself being nothing great, he would have called his request unreasonable. However, he had a chance to see Laien fighting and even got the hint which enabled his breakthrough and freed him from the constant influence of the Tranquility! There definitely was a debt to be repaid. The only matter left was…

“His character,” Rudford raised an eyebrow, then chuckled quietly and shook his head. Before he became the ‘stoic person’, he had been quite easygoing. This young boy with messy black hair was a bit blunt and more than a bit cheeky, but to be honest he didn’t dislike these traits at all. Especially now that hopefully, within the next few weeks he would be able to get rid of his bitter, overly composed personality which the Aspect of Tranquility had been forcing upon him; he wouldn’t need to be secretly jealous of people who could freely laugh and fool around to their heart's content.

“I guess I am in your debt, after all,” Rudford said with a smile and a sigh. “I wouldn’t feel comfortable calling you ‘little brother’, though. Using your name would sit better with me,” he added, pleased to see the bright look in Laien’s eyes and the very satisfied and happy expression on his face.

“Of course it will be fine, elder brother,” Laien said boldly, admittedly feeling nervous as to how Rudford would react to this sudden switch in the way he was referring to him.

“Elder brother, eh…?” Rudford chortled, then shook his head with a helpless smile. He produced a simple set of clothes along with a black gold interspatial ring and tossed them to Laien over the table.

“When in public, keep the old ‘Master Rudford’ for now, okay? I think that telling everyone you’ve become my disciple will be shocking enough, you little devil,” he said with a carefree laugh, finding himself looking forward to raising these two siblings as his disciples. He had been training in seclusion for so long; it was the highest time to get occupied with something more pleasurable and interesting to do.

As for whether it really would be pleasurable… he still might have not quite worked out Siana’s character and as she appeared to be hard to approach and reluctant to open herself up… but he had a feeling that he would soon come to like this cheeky youth very much.

Laien looked at the clothes and gave Rudford a surprised look, not having expected to be gifted anything. Rudford however only shrugged his shoulders and smiled at him, gesturing with his hand to check out what he got.

Curious, Laien touched the black gold interspatial ring with two of his fingers and sent out a thread of spiritual energy into it, branding the ring to himself. He gasped the next second, shocked to discover that the inner space of this ring was actually an astonishing one kilometer in diameter…! Even among the top-grade interspatial rings, this one would be of the highest quality! It was basically priceless!

With how large its inner space was, if one had enough Qi or spiritual energy, he would be able to pull whole buildings inside this black gold interspatial ring…! Moreover, the inner space itself wasn’t empty! It was filled with countless items like medicinal pills, rare potions, various kinds of top-quality weapons, tens of thousands of gold coins and what appeared to be a literal bag of crystal coins…! Heavens, one crystal coin was an equivalent of one thousand gold coins…! Just how much wealth did Rudford and his Red Dragon School possess?!

“There are even hundreds of sets of clothes of various sizes; all of the same styles as the ones he threw to me,” Laien noted helplessly. He really had made this request with establishing good relations with Rudford in mind. He would never have expected to actually receive so much from him just a few minutes later!

“Your sister got an identical interspatial ring with the same contents,” Rudford said with a smile, enjoying the fact that Laien’s emotions easily showed on his face. When his little sister received the same gift, she appeared to only be surprised for a second and then quickly thanked him politely. In contrast, Laien showed him the whole variety of positive emotions. It always was nice to see someone acting genuinely happy and excited after getting something from you.

“Vatras prepared these two sets of gifts when he had been trying to make me accept a disciple. He even went as far as having hundreds of sets of clothes sewn beforehand,” Rudford pointed out with a laugh. He had always found his little brother’s overly meticulous behavior to be quite funny. Vatras always needed to have everything ready beforehand and tended to hate any random events or surprises. In the past, Vatras had been an exact opposite of him; he was carefree and liked to fool around, while Vatras would always try to settle the trouble he would be making. Ah, the good memories of their childhood…

“Thank god it’s not a robe, they look great,” Laien blurted out, already having switched his old interspatial ring for the new one and now taking a look at the simple set consisting of pants and a short-sleeved shirt. Both pieces were very pleasant to touch and were mainly white, with a few red additions here and there. Overall… “Pretty similar to what you are wearing, elder brother,” Laien pointed out happily. The main difference was that Rudford’s shirt was a long-sleeved one, but apart from that, the sets were practically identical.

“I must say, I agree about the robes,” Rudford said with a chuckle and nodded to himself. “I have no idea how Roderick can be wearing that thing. It’s so inconvenient to walk around in and it doesn’t let you use your legs properly when you fight… but above all, it just feels weird to have it on,” he exchanged a glance with Laien, both of them smiling. Yes, just like he thought he would come to like this kid very quickly.

“See the fist-sized dragon on the front of the shirt?” Rudford asked rhetorically and pointed at the same one on his own shirt. “The dragon is the symbol of our school, it’s pretty self-explanatory. As for their colors and shapes; you’ve probably noticed, right?” he inquired, wondering if this matter had already been explained to Laien beforehand. Judging by the lack of reaction when he saw the black dragon on the shirt given to him, probably not?

Laien thought back to the clothes of all the students and Elders he had seen, then responded with a half-question. “Outer Disciples have a simple red claw on their shirts, Inner Disciples have two claws, Core Disciples and Elders have a full red dragon. The Grand Elder had a large grey-black dragon on his robe… while you and your disciples have black dragons?”

Rudford nodded in confirmation, then explained further. “The status of my disciple is quite special, so although until you show promise and accomplish some great deeds for the school you can’t order Elders or Core Disciples around, they have no authority over you either. Additionally, in case of an argument, your words weigh more than theirs. Comparatively speaking, you are in a position higher than an average Elder and as someone close to me, you at the same time become an important person on the country-level,” he stopped speaking for a moment, letting Laien mentally adjust to this change in his social standing. After a few seconds, he proceeded with the serious talk that couldn’t and shouldn’t be avoided.

“I know you and your sister are of the Valius family, I’ve heard all the details of the recent events from Siana, too,” Rudford said seriously, then seeing that Laien understood that they were speaking about something important, continued. “You just gained a lot of authority, but I must remind you not to get too ahead of yourself and not to abuse it. Whatever you do will also reflect itself on me and my school. But of course, if the Valius family or anyone else tries to commit injustice to you, I won’t watch silently,” he warned and reassured right afterward, not wanting Laien to misunderstand anything; he just wasn’t used to speaking with children.

“It seems he understands it without me saying so,” Rudford thought to himself and smiled slightly. Judging by the calm manner Laien accepted the words and the look of gratitude he gave him at the end, there would likely be no problems related to his future behavior. “It’s always good to remind, though. Even if the kid already knows something,” he mused, recalling his little brother’s words from the time Cran was four or five years old and had been brought to see him by Vatras.

“I will keep that in mind,” Laien responded after a second or two of establishing this new fact for himself. He would have probably known not to behave like a spoiled young master without having Rudford say so, but now that it had been stated explicitly, he would be extra careful not to let his temper get better of himself. “Are there any rules I need to follow?” he asked, wondering if becoming Rudford’s disciple involved not only advantages but also some kind of responsibilities.

“Not really, just behave reasonably well,” Rudford said with a smirk and then, appearing to have remembered something, added quickly. “There’s the matter of never revealing the secrets of the Red Dragon Arts to outsiders, but both you and your sister first need to reach the peak of the fifth mortal realm before you receive the scrolls, so you needn’t concern yourselves with it for now.”

“Right,” Rudford finally picked up on the lingering thought of his. “Your sister wanted to live here, what about you?” he asked, recalling how eagerly Siana agreed to move away from the Valius mansion. He had found it strange at first, but only until Siana told him in depth about her and Laien’s story with the Valius family. Apparently, the whole adoption thing had been a big thing in Neil City three years ago, but as he had been spending almost all time in seclusion, he never heard anything about it until Siana briefed him in.

“Siana is staying here, so what would be the point of me being elsewhere?” Laien shrugged his shoulders and responded with a smile. “It would be best if we got joined quarters; or at least next to each other,” he suggested, knowing that one way or another they would be spending most of their time together at one of the two places. Thus, arranging it as he asked to would make things much more convenient.

“It’s not like it couldn’t be done,” Rudford wondered aloud, thinking about the layout of the quarters at the private grounds. Many disciples lived in large dormitories within the grounds of his school, while only the Core Disciples and Elders were allowed to live in their own, private houses. Even the richest disciples wouldn’t be given the option of private housing before reaching an appropriate rank, but the reasons for that was a subject for another time. “I guess we could just get some masons to reshape two private estates right next to each other into one, good looking whole,” he mused aloud, then nodded partially to himself and partially to Laien.

“It shouldn’t take long, two or three days at most. You will have your private quarters for you and your sister,” Rudford said with a smile, then gave Laien a look asking if he has any more question.

“Regarding the Red Dragon Arts,” Laien brought up and seeing that Rudford nodded lightly, encouraging him to continue, went ahead and explained his concern. “I don’t know if Siana mentioned it, but I’m studying under Master Shire,” he began saying, but unexpectedly, before he could finish, he noticed a change in Rudford’s expression.

This declaration seemed to have really surprised him, but why? Could it be Rudford also believed that Shire was a worthless teacher and only a shade of his great past self?

“He actually took on a disciple who didn’t run away after a week?” Rudford said disbelievingly, but as he noticed that Laien appeared to be somewhat offended, he hurriedly cleared the matter. “Don’t think I’m slandering him; he and I had fought side by side during the late period of the Great War with the Ciene Kingdom one hundred years ago. He truly had been an unparalleled monster at that time. No one of the young generation of our era could compare to him, including me,” he said admittedly and chuckled, seeing that Laien was completely speechless.

“He was that amazing?” Laien asked, finding it hard to accept that this slightly crazy, drunken man was incredible to this degree. He had long since understood that Shire wasn’t a useless person, but for Rudford to say that Shire’s talent surpassed his own? That not even one practitioner of their generation could compare to him…?!

“He always was a strange person, but yes, he was that amazing,” Rudford said with a heavy sigh, the topic bringing back the unpleasant memories. “He would have surely become the top expert of our Sarkcente Kingdom, if not for that incident…” Rudford spoke quietly, reminiscing the past. “He always was a bit crazy, but only then did he truly become a madman…” he said and sighed once again, then shook his head and looked at Laien, who was sitting there and listening to him with great attention.

“It’s not up to me to be telling you this story if Shire is your master,” Rudford declared, then took out a bottle of wine from his interspatial ring and took a gulped down fourth of it at once. “The story also involves me… so maybe we can talk about it some other time; when we get to know each other better,” he said with a weak smirk and took our another bottle of wine, along with two cups.

“Want a little taste?” he asked and smiled at Laien. “It’s not that strong, so you won’t get drunk,” he assured, not planning to turn himself of his disciple into a drunkard.

“Just one cup, then,” Laien agreed, feeling that it would be wrong to decline the invitation to drink with Rudford. He just wasn’t too fond of wines and other kinds of alcohols; he didn’t like the way they clouded his mind and how they made him feel the next morning.

“Here you go,” Rudford filled the crystal clear cup with red wine and slid it to the other side of the low table.

“Thanks,” Laien said simply and took a sip, then actually opened his eyes wide in surprise. “Wow, such a deep cheery flavor! It’s good!” he exclaimed, unable to resist drinking some more. This wine had an incredibly rich flavor and was just strong enough to warm your throat up pleasurably, but not to make it burn painfully! With something like that at his disposal, he would now really need to be careful not to become an alcoholic…!

“Told you it’s good,” Rudford laughed, leaving the unpleasant subject behind. “As for the Red Dragon Arts, I believe it will end up with you learning what you are the most compatible with. Fire element martial art, or the wind element of Shire’s. When you reach the peak of the fifth mortal realm, you should have the compatibility of your Qi tested,” he answered the remaining question of Laien’s, then suggested a bit out of the blue. “Why don’t you change into your new clothes? I would like to see how you look in them.”

“Mm, okay,” Laien agreed with a smile and put his hand on the shirt and pants which were lying at his side. He drew both pieces of clothing into his interspatial ring, then stood up and walked to the side. It was easier to swap clothes while standing and anyways, it would let Rudford get a better look. Either way, he did as he planned and changed into the white set in the blink of an eye with the aid of his interspatial ring. “Pretty comfortable,” he commented, thankful that the clothes fit him well and weren’t too tight anywhere.

“Now you only lack a weapon to pair up with them,” Rudford said happily, nodding to himself with satisfaction. “That being said, I have an advice for you,” he mentioned, gesturing Laien to come over and sit at his side instead of on the other sofa.

“Let me ask you, did this stupid idiot try teaching you spear techniques?” Rudford asked, the old way he and his friends used to call Shire slipping out of his tongue.

“No,” Laien shook his head and smirked quietly. ‘Stupid idiot’, now that was a new way to call his master. “He insisted that I use the short sword to train my reflexes and told me that I should swap for a normal sword later on,” he explained briefly, wondering if Shire was, in reality, a spear wielder. If so, then he really would like to try learning spear techniques from him! Swords weren’t bad, but they always felt a bit off to him. Additionally, the ‘he’ from his dreams also wielded a weapon similar to a spear; a glaive.

“Bastard,” Rudford clicked his tongue, annoyed that Shire had been teaching Laien in a half-assed way. “Teaching you sword techniques when he is a spear master. He didn’t even bother to test your aptitude for wielding the spear! What a joke,” he said angrily. Half-assed teachers were one of the few things which truly got on his nerves.

“He didn’t really teach me much, though,” Laien mentioned with a helpless laugh. “He made me train and at most gave some sparse advice. I worked out most by myself,” he said with a smile, bragging a little before Rudford.

“Eh, no wonder your technique looks rough,” Rudford said with a sigh, thus startling Laien a little.

Hadn’t his sword-wielding been better than one of the stronger Inner Disciples of this school? Well… in Rudford’s eyes, it might have indeed looked ‘rough’, after all.

“Just for a bit,” Rudford waved his hand, storing the whole table into his interspatial ring. “Stand up, if you could,” he said and gestured Laien to move a little closer. “Raise your hands,” he asked without giving a prior explanation. Despite feeling quite confused, Laien did as he was told.

“Mm,” Rudford nodded, turning Laien to the side and putting one hand on his back while pressing onto his raised hands with the other. “Try it to the sides,” he said and let Laien go, showing with his own arm what he meant.

Holding back the urge to ask what was it all about, Laien did as Rudford showed him, wondering what was the point of all this stretching.

“Don’t turn your torso with your hand,” Rudford chortled and pulled on Laien’s shoulder, keeping his chest in place. He nodded to himself once more, then asked. “How high can you kick?”

“Um?” seeing no point in trying to describe it, Laien took two steps forward and kicked into the air as high as he could. He then looked at Rudford, who for some reason seemed to be quite satisfied.

“You are pretty flexible, do you stretch often?” he asked, leading up to the fairly apparent suggestion he had for Laien.

“Only after training, not too much,” Laien replied with a shrug of his shoulders. He couldn’t afford to have his muscles sore the next day, so he stretched as much as was necessary. Nothing excessive, though.

“Let me take a guess, Shire never showed you how to stretch properly…?” Rudford asked and chortled resignedly, having received a nod of confirmation from Laien. “Your physique is suited for spear-wielding to begin with; you also have a flexible body. Next time you see that stupid idiot, deliver him a message from me; that he should stop being lazy and teach you his spear techniques and if not, then I will take over your training as he is obviously worse at sword-wielding than me,” he said wryly, still remembering quite well that being blunt was the best way to get the point through to Shire.