Book 2. The Grand Gathering. Chapter 2. The Twin Phoenix School. (Part I)

“What a coincidence meeting you here, elder brother,” Nila said in a rather dismissing, uncaring tone. “I’ve heard you became a Core Disciple of your second-rate school. Good for you, congratulations,” she said with a beautiful smile, though that the smile of hers didn’t match with the stern look in her azure, sea-like eyes which seemed to threaten to swallow up anyone who dared to ager their owner.

The two girls and five boys accompanying Nila smirked at her words. Making a mockery of the Red Dragon School was almost a tradition for their Twin Phoenix School, so they certainly appreciated the bitter and angry look on Tin’Long’s face.

Although… unlike everyone else, Laien stopped paying much mind to Nila and instead, was gazing at one of the boys behind her. The youth had a similar external appearance to Nila; he also had blond hair and blue eyes, but the air about him was really different. The blond-haired twelve-year-old hadn’t smirked at Nila’s remark; he either didn’t like what she was doing or simply couldn’t care less. From the calm, neutral… nearly ‘tranquil’ look in the boy’s eyes, Laien guessed that it was the latter one.

“And those two with you are…?” Nila asked with a sigh and finally spared a look at Laien and Siana and as she did, her bored expression changed into the one of thorough astonishment. “What… what are they?! What is this aura?!” she swallowed and involuntarily took a step back, but hurriedly reminded herself to keep her calm.

Laien raised his eyebrows, then smiled slightly as the blond haired boy took notice of his gaze and looked back at him. “Others are confused, but he isn’t. Does he know what surprised this girl so badly?” Laien wondered silently. He had a strong feeling that they just stumbled upon something very interesting. Especially this golden-haired boy… there was something intriguing about him; something that was making Laien’s hands itch for a good, all-out fight.

“Say, what’s your name? I’m Laien by the way,” he walked past Nila and approached the golden-haired youth with a curious smile, ignoring the confusion his out of the blue action caused.

“Anatis,” the twelve-year-old responded calmly, feeling equally intrigued. He felt that if he were to fight this black-haired boy in front of him, he could acquire something he really needed.

“Nila, we shouldn’t be chatting with them,” one of the girls said worriedly. Mocking disciples of the Red Dragon School was one thing, but getting ever a little friendly with them was an entirely different matter. “If anyone sees us…” the girl added in a low voice, looking around to see if any of their seniors were nearby.

“That’s right,” Nila said after a moment of awkward silence. “We should get going,” she added more confidently, the prospect of their seniors creating more trouble than usual for them being more than enough of a reason for her to cut this whole conversation short.

The golden-haired youth looked at Nila and frowned just a little. However, he then let out a little sigh and looked at Laien almost apologetically, then turned around and walked away with Nila and their friends from the Twin Phoenix School.

“Strange,” Laien scratched the back of his head. “I really wanted to have a go at him, too. A pity… I guess I will ask elder brother to help me set up this duel later on,” he decided resignedly, regretful about having a nice occasion slip from his hands.

“Right,” Laien turned to look at Tin’Long. “You never told us your little sister belongs to the Twin Phoenix School. How come you joined the Red Dragon School and she joined the Twin Phoenix School?” he asked straightforwardly, seeing no reason for Tin’Long not to talk about it after the cat was let out of the bag.

“I wish I knew,” Tin’Long said helplessly. “When I saw her five years ago before she decided to join the Twin Phoenix School, she was still my cute, a bit annoying little sister. I tried to talk with her afterward, but she always refused to give me a proper explanation,” he explained briefly, but even if he wanted to go into further details he would be unable to; simply because he and his family really knew nothing.

“Mind you, I don’t care about the disputes between our schools. If she’s happy there, so be it,” Tin’Long added with a little sigh. “But every time I see her, she appears to be more worried and troubled than happy, even now…” he shook his head. If Nila wasn’t willing to tell him what her problem was, he would be unable to help.

“She was troubled? Didn’t look so to me,” Laien mused aloud, trying to recall Nila’s expressions and mannerism from a moment ago.

“She was,” Siana spoke up in a voice stronger than usual .”She was hiding it, though… kind of like I had,” she said more quietly, exchanging a glance with Laien. Nila’s attitude might have seemed to be too overbearing and even the look in her eyes might have appeared to be strong and confident, but below this façade of confidence, there was a lot of nervousness, uncertainty and… even fear. Other people might not be able to tell easily, but having gone through a similar experience Siana could see it clearly.

“Huuh, if you are saying so, I have no choice but to believe,” Laien said with a slight smile. He could always notice if his little sister was worried about something… but this ‘ability’ didn’t extend to all the girls in the world. He simply knew Siana really well and had always been with her, so it would rather be stranger if he couldn’t understand her after all this time.

“Eh, let’s go, no point standing here and talking about depressing things,” Tin’Long spoke up, going out of his way to sound cheerful but failing to do quite so. He managed to get the siblings moving, though.

“I wonder what she was so worried about,” Laien brought up after a while of walking in silence. After Siana pointed out that it was similar to what she herself had gone through, or so she felt, he couldn’t help but be sympathetic.

“I don’t know,” Siana said with a sigh. She could have made some random guesses, but what was the point of it?

“She appeared to be confident though,” Laien mused to himself, wondering what could it have been to cause a girl like Nila to budge. His first impression of her was that she would face any problems straight on and storm past any obstacles without any hesitation whatsoever.

“Big brother, aren’t you thinking about her a bit too much?” Siana pouted, feeling surprisingly annoyed to find Laien paying so much attention to another girl. “Is it because she’s so cute? You want to help her because she is beautiful?” she asked somewhat unreasonably due to how irritated she was

Laien was a bit surprised, but a wry smile soon appeared on his face. “Well yeah, she was really good-looking. Especially those golden hair of hers were eye-catching,” he pointed out teasingly, observing Siana’s reaction with great amusement.

“But you know,” he picked up after a few seconds, before Siana could get really angry with him. “My little sister is still the cutest in the world. I can’t wait to see how beautiful you will grow up to be in a few years,” he stated with a smile, speaking with absolute honesty. He really wanted to see how Siana would end up looking in four, five years and obviously enough, he really thought she was cuter than any other girl.

Not used to being complimented so straightforwardly and moreover in a public place, Siana blushed and looked away. She did, however, reach out with her hand and grab Laien first by his wrist, to then slide her hand down and hold his hand tightly.

Meanwhile, Tin’Long sighed quietly and rolled his eyes. “We are already at the medicinal gardens; go look around and see if there isn’t anything you might want to buy, I will join you in a bit,” he said and walked away hurriedly, having had enough of seeing these two siblings flirt with each other.

“It looks like we were dragged into his shopping trip…” Laien shook his head and laughed resignedly. He and Siana had already received all the basic and even rare medicinal pills from Rudford, so they really didn’t need to get anything from this place. They could try looking at some of the unique plants that the merchants were selling at their stalls and in their shops, but it wouldn’t be enough to keep their interest up for longer than ten or fifteen minutes at best.

Pretty much as expected, the two of them got bored pretty soon. Yet, Tin’Long didn’t show any signs of being close to done with his shopping as right now, he was in the middle of bargaining with yet another merchant for a measly few silver coins discount. It was making both Laien and Siana want to walk up to him and offer paying for whatever he wanted, just to get this over with a bit quicker.

“Hey, can we go somewhere else already…?” Laien complained, hoping to make Tin’Long hurry up.

“Come on, take me somewhere else…!” at the same time, another passing-by youth moaned to the man he was walking around with.

““It’s so boring here,”” their two voices intersected, causing Laien and another boy glance at each other curiously.

“Whoa,” Laien opened his eyes wider. The boy he was looking at had fiery-red hair, similar to Rudford’s, but he also had crimson eyes! What had intrigued Laien about Anatis was Anatis’s unique aura, but in case of this youth, it certainly was the ruby-colored eyes which seemed to have liquid flames flowing inside them. They were incredibly mesmerizing.

“You sure have some unusual eyes,” Laien said without thinking, prone to speaking his mind without a second thought.

“Perhaps I do, but so what?” the crimson-eyes youth asked neutrally, showing some distance to this sudden statement.

“I was just thinking how cool they look,” Laien said honestly and smiled at the boy. “I wish I had eyes like that, or at least hair you know!” he pointed out with a laugh, flicking his own shoulders-long black hair with two fingers of his hand.

The crimson-eyed boy laughed, happy to find out that the words were meant as a compliment. There had been more than enough people who scorned him for the color of his eyes and hair in his life; he didn’t need to experience more of it on his free day.

“I’m Sin, thirteen years old. And you?” the crimson-eyed youth said with a smile, his glance briefly wandering to Laien’s right hand which was being held by Siana.

“Laien, twelve years old,” Laien replied and gave Siana a quick look. His little sister sighed slightly and let go of him, knowing what he meant without any words.

“Nice to meet you, Sin,” Laien said with a laugh and extended his hand, which the slightly stunned thirteen-year-old shook after a second. He would have never thought that just from this one glance, Laien would catch on that he wanted to shake hands with him and that he had refrained from trying to do so as to avoid any potentially awkward moments involving Laien’s partner.

“So, is that your girlfriend?” Sin asked, the pair giving him vibes closer to a couple than siblings despite their similar appearances.

“I’m Siana,” taking the liberty to fool around a bit, Siana introduced herself with a smile while stepping closer to Laien and hugging his arm. No better way to cause a misunderstanding, but Laien only chuckled and went along with the flow, choosing not to clarify anything just yet.

“And your companion is…?” Laien inquired, trying to take a better look at the hooded man’s face. He raised his eyebrows, surprised to see that the man had fiery-red hair and crimson eyes, just like Sin. “Your older brother? Or father?” he asked, unable not to notice the apparent resemblance.

“He’s my uncle, Nix. He probably won’t talk with you though, he is always so overly serious about everything,” Sin said cheekily, pretending not to see the angry expression on Nix’s face. “Since we are already chatting and all, want to hand around together?” he suggested, something telling him that he would be getting along with Laien just fine.

“Yeah, sure,” Laien replied readily. He usually knew who he would like and who he wouldn’t after exchanging a few sentences with the person and as for Sin, he certainly thought the two of them could become good friends.

“Oh, you finally done?” Laien asked, seeing Tin’Long standing at the side and waiting for a right moment to join the conversation. “Your job as the guide is done, we will find something interesting on our own,” he said wryly, seeing the option of hanging around with Sin as much more enticing than having Tin’Long drag him around the most boring places in the Two Weeks City.

“Eh, do as you want,” Tin’Long shook his head. He had been planning to take Laien to the places where it would be very unlikely for him to cause trouble… but now that Laien found a friend to fool around with, his words would be swept by the wind anyway. There was no point in arguing.

“A full dragon, so you had a senior show you around?” Sin asked, a bit surprised that Laien chose to walk in front with him and leave his girlfriend in the back, his senior disciple and Nix.

“A senior, huh?” Laien chuckled and gazed at Tin’Long over his shoulder. “A Core Disciple, that is for sure,” he added with a smirk.

“Are you a member of a martial school?” Laien inquired, continuing the overall subject.

“Not really, I only had uncle Nix teach me a few things,” Sin said with a smile which made Laien think he wasn’t telling the whole truth.

“Maybe he is also hiding his identity?” Laien wondered with a quiet laugh. Were there really so many people in the Two Weeks City who wanted to go around in peace that it was so easy to randomly bump into them? Not like he was complaining; the prospect was rather amusing, after all.

Their group of five continued wandering the Two Weeks City for around two hours, during which time Laien and Sin pretty much didn’t stop talking for even a moment. The two found out that they had very similar tempers and sense of humor, so they became familiar with each other very quickly.

From Laien’s perspective, Sin understood him even better than Siana on certain topics. After all, there were some things only boys could talk and joke about with each other.

As for Sin, he was enjoying himself so much he had managed to allow his tongue slip more than once or twice, giving Laien a few hints about who he was. He didn’t mind it too much, however, as he himself could guess who Laien and his ‘girlfriend’ were after these two hours of chatting.

Around the time both of the youths were considering to reveal their identities, the five of them stumbled upon a large group of quarreling disciples from the Red Dragon and the Twin Phoenix Schools.

“Twenty from their school, thirty from ours. We have more inner disciples present, too,” Laien judged quickly. He had a similar attitude towards the big ‘conflict’ between their schools as Tin’Long, so he didn’t care too much… but the atmosphere seemed to be really heavy. Given his position in the Red Dragon School, he couldn’t afford to ignore the whole situation and simply walk away.

“Oh, Anatis and Tin’Long’s little sister are hiding in the back?” Laien noticed by an accident, catching a glimpse of the two’s golden hair. Since Tin’Long was much taller than him, he probably had noticed by now too. However, he appeared to be hesitating for some reason…?

“Well, if he isn’t going to do anything,” Laien thought with a smile and approached the two quarreling groups.

“Before you start fighting,” Laien said loudly before Tin’Long could make up his mind in regards to how to deal with the situation at hand. “Would you mind explaining what’s it all about? I am pretty sure that random street fighting is prohibited here,” he said cheerfully, appearing not to feel any pressure at all; to the point of making those who heard him wonder what in the world was he thinking to speak to casually.

The twenty disciples of the Twin Phoenix School were especially confused, but after seeing Tin’Long step up closer, they assumed that the boy dared to be so arrogant because he had his senior with him. The arrival of Laien and Tin’Long itself didn’t make them feel relieved at all, though. With a Core Disciple of the Red Dragon School present, they could be sure to lose face for their side; what wouldn’t end well for them for more than one reason.

The side of the Red Dragon School, however, had cheered up considerably. They were already in a better position to begin with, but now with Tin’Long here they could be sure to teach those arrogant pricks from the Twin Phoenix School a lesson. Some of them even recognized Laien despite his clothes of an inner disciple and when Siana stepped forward, they became sure who these two youths at Tin’Long’s side were.

The thirty youths from the Red Dragon School backed off from the Twin Phoenix School disciples and bowed slightly in Laien’s direction. One of the inner disciples from amongst them stepped forward soon afterward and started explaining.

“Some of those boorish peasants from the Twin Phoenix School were picking on our disciples, so I and my friends simply intervened to balance the strengths. Without at least an apology from them, we won’t be able to uphold the good name and prestige of our school,” the teenage youth said respectfully but omitted using any formal terms like ‘elder disciple’ and alike. Everyone in the Red Dragon School knew of Laien’s contempt of such formalities, although most would usually choose to at the very least avoid being too familiar by referring to him by his name.