Book 2. The Grand Gathering. Chapter 5. Anatis’s Past. (Part III)

“It could all work out,” Nila said in a tone which made it apparent there would be some ‘but’ following. “But, what if in the end Einrah doesn’t agree and refuses to listen to Rudford? Won’t we be abandoned when the only option left will be an open conflict?” she asked sternly. No matter what Laien would say, she still had her doubts. This whole thing was simply too good to be true and to work out without any mishaps.

“Then it will become an all-out brawl,” Laien said with a snort, tired of listening to Nila’s suspicions. In case Rudford disagreed or refused to commit to helping them, he would say so without hiding anything. There really was no reason for her to repeatedly question him over and over again.

“What are you going to do, Anatis?” Laien asked, purposely ignoring Nila for the time being. This situation resolved around Anatis, so in Laien’s eyes, he should be the one to make the final decision.

Anatis gave Laien a long glance, after what he sighed and smiled at once. “I always dreamed to be freed from Einrah sooner rather than later… I would be an idiot for not trusting you,” he said honestly, choosing to put his faith in Laien and Rudford. He couldn’t be sure if everything would work out… but he had a feeling that Laien wouldn’t abandon him partway through.

“We are in your hands,” he said and bowed his head slightly, though the smile of his turned wry after a second or two. “If you want me to help you with anything personal, feel free to ask,” he joked more cheekily than he was used to, so even before Laien could respond he ended up feeling embarrassed. Really, what has gotten into him to be making jokes like that?

“I wonder,” Laien began with a wide smile on his face, amused by Anatis’s innocent reaction. “You are really good looking but I don’t think you are exactly my type, you know?” he said jokingly, though he wasn’t exactly lying either.

Having gotten himself into a game he had no experience playing, Anatis groaned, his flushed face filled with a mixture of pouting and awkward embarrassment. He could feel Nila’s angry stare on his back and could see Sinra, Injar and Siana chuckling; and it wasn’t helping him to calm down at all.

“Okay, let’s move on,” Laien said with a laugh, sparing Anatis for the time being. “Sin, tell us more about the Grand Tournament and about what you are going to expect from us after we take the top two places for you?” he asked very confidently, causing everyone to feel rather helpless about this attitude of his.

“Well,” Sinra chortled, then began wondered where to begin as to not repeat himself too much. “I would like to have my uncle, the Grand Viscar, to officially announce the Grand Tournament to be a competition open to the public. As I said, it’s technically not against the ‘rules’ as such were never set for this tournament, but he wouldn’t agree just because I asked. However, if he is put before the already concluded fact and a Great Master expecting his disciple to join the Grand Tournament… he will be forced to accept it… or so I hope,” he concluded with a laugh and glanced at the four youths… only to suddenly remember something pretty important.

“Uh, I know Laien is twelve, but are you too…?” he asked Anatis, worried that the whole negotiations could be put to trash by one simple mistake on his part.

“My birthday is still a few months away, so yeah,” Anatis answered, causing Sinra to breathe with relief.

“Thank Heavens,” Sinra murmured helplessly. “Only those who are twelve and below are eligible for the Grand Tournament,” he revealed somewhat late, what resulted in a brief, troubled silence befalling in the room.

“And what after this tournament is over?” Laien inquired with a resigned smile, on the offside thinking how incredibly awkward the situation would have become if Anatis proved to be a few months older.

“Let me ask you, don’t you think it’s pretty strange that I have nearly fifty siblings while the King has only one younger brother at his side?” Sinra asked a question instead of directly explaining everything, intending to lead everyone to the answer and make a few things clear all at once.

“They certainly didn’t all die of illnesses,” Laien said ironically. “Competing for the throne, perhaps?” he took a random shot but wasn’t sure if this theory made much sense. For so many Royal Children to die… or rather, be killed by own siblings each generation was a pretty crazy thing to consider.

“Exactly,” Sinra said with a heavy sigh. “Ever since the establishment of the Sarkcente Kingdom thousands of years ago, there had been a tradition for the ‘strongest and wisest’ King or Queen to be selected through a competition between the Royal Children of the generation. The martial schools ruling the country might have changed a few times, but this tradition remained in place,” he mentioned briefly, then got to the most important and problematic part of this tradition.

“Our current King had killed his six brothers and four sisters after emerging victorious as the third party when no one expected him to. He probably feared one of his siblings would kill him or threaten his children out of vengeance, so he killed them all with only one exception. Well, he was probably right to make this choice as his siblings would have been very likely to have had felt that he didn’t deserve the crown after snatching it away by pure luck,” Sinra revealed with a helpless laugh, appearing not to be too emotionally involved in this topic. He poured himself some red wine and took a large sip of it, then continued speaking.

“Regrettably… I’m fairly certain that either of the two strongest pretenders of my generation, Sauras or Finella, are going to do the same. It goes without saying they would kill the other off, but considering what kind of people they are and how grand ambitions they have… they will almost surely choose to get rid of all potential obstacles in their way,” he said sourly, recalling the more than a few times when the various subordinates of the two made it clear to him; when their master takes the crown, he would be disposed of as the potential threat.

“They might allow someone they have faith in to remain by their side like our King did, but most of us siblings will probably end up dying by the new ruler’s hand,” Sinra reaffirmed, thinking back to the private talks he had with his various siblings. It wasn’t only him being paranoid, they all similarly feared for their lives.

“My original plan was to flee when the time comes…” Sinra said with a light smile and exchanged a glance with Injar. “With Injar’s aid, even if Sauras or Finella made a request to the Guild of Shadows, they would be unable to assassinate me. I could live my days in some faraway country and eventually, completely change my identity and disappear for good… but what kind of life is that?” he asked rhetorically, a bitter smile on his face.

“And what made you change your mind?” Nila questioned, steadily noticing more and more dangers involved with cooperating with Sinra. She really was beginning to worry if they weren’t jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire by making this deal.

“There really was no special or dramatic event that made me want to compete for the throne,” Sinra said helplessly. Most people would have expected him to have an emotional, overexaggerated background story to tell, but there was no such thing. “The more I thought how my life in exile would look, the more I was beginning to grow aware of how much I liked living in this country,” he said simply and honestly, pretty much understanding what the four might be concerned about.

“I didn’t have high hopes of succeeding in the beginning. At first, I might not have been thoroughly committed to the idea of giving my everything to obtain the crown…” he brought up, knowing that he should make this one thing very clear. “However, if you guys are really willing to go on this wild ride with me, then I promise not to do it half-heartedly. I definitely won’t spare efforts to make your commitment worth it for you,” he assured strongly, with a very serious look in his crimson eyes.

“A wild ride, huh?” Laien repeated with a smirk. “I’m all in for it, just make sure we don’t crash at the end of it, okay?” he said calmly, the expression on his face turning fully serious for the first time during this whole conversation.

“I’m up for challenges, but I won’t do anything that could destroy my life with Siana and elder brother,” Laien added, the atmosphere around him becoming grim and cold for a moment until the usual smile returned to his face.

Only after a good few seconds passed did Sinra realize he was staring at Laien without responding to him at all. He shook his head, trying to get his brain back to work. This serious, level-headed and somewhat scary side of Laien’s had really been a total surprise to him.

“Don’t worry about it. Sauras and Finella will perceive me as a threat so I won’t be able to stay in our Kingdom in case we lose, but you guys don’t have any claim to the throne. You will simply need to stand down and accept one of them as the new King or Queen and server all your ties with me. As long as you do that, they won’t pursue whatever had happened during the competition for the throne,” he assured, knowing that neither of his two siblings would be stupid enough to fully antagonize one of the most powerful military organizations in their country; the Red Dragon and the Twin Phoenix Schools.

“So the bottom line is if we screw up, we need to accept someone we don’t particularly like as the new ruler and do not speak up against him or her,” Laien summed up and released a little sigh. “Can’t tell I’m too fond of this idea, so let’s make sure our side wins, okay?” he said lightheartedly, a smirk present on his face.

“I’m pretty much of the same mind,” Anatis said after giving Laien a glance. “We work together, but I won’t do anything suicidal and the top priority for me is Nila’s and my safety,” he stated without beating around the bush, making sure to have this most important to him matter clear.

“Of course, it only makes sense,” Sinra affirmed, feeling that an agreement of this kind was very reasonable.

“I don’t have any deep foundations unlike Finella and Sauras, so winning the Grand Tournament would be the first step to getting some money and prestige,” he added after a moment of silence, seeing that the four had no further questions or inquiries.

“Do we get any of that money?” Laien asked casually, more curious than anything else. He and Siana didn’t lack wealth, so whatever the prize was it probably wouldn’t be too much of an incentive to them.

“You do,” Sinra said with a wide smile. “The first place gets one thousand crystal coins, the second place eight hundred, third five hundred and the positions from fourth to eighth one hundred each,” he informed, expecting the four to be surprised and excited… but Laien and Siana were more like ‘oh, is that so’ while Anatis and Nila seemed to be only mildly excited by such an amount of money.

“Are the Great Martial Schools really so rich?” Sinra couldn’t help but wonder. The sum of one thousand crystal coins would make most people go mad with desire, but these four… of all things, they appeared to be rather uninterested.

“Anyway,” Sinra said with a sigh, pushing away the thoughts of asking the four for a loan. ”After the Grand Tournament is over it will be mostly politics for about ten years or so, depends on how long the King’s health holds up. I will need you to lend me some face in many matters, but the true all-out struggle for the top will probably begin in about twelve to fifteen years,” he informed briefly, leaving the details of what he was planning to do for some other time.

“So we will have more than enough time to train, eh?” Laien said contentedly. “I was a bit worried about it, but it looks like I will be able to go to the Waterdrop Academy as planned,” he mentioned, but in reality wasn’t too excited by the perspective of leaving the country.

Two years ago, he still had been rather obsessed with getting stronger as fast as possible, but now he managed to grow very fond of his carefree life in the Red Dragon School. He also met Sinra, with whom he felt he would get along very well and even met Anatis, someone he could see as a rival. Leaving it all behind and going to some faraway country… it really would suck.

The only reason he wasn’t wavering on his decision too much was exactly what he had mentioned to Anatis a few moments before; the necessity not to grow too complacent and not to forget how horrible it felt to be lacking power when one needed it the most.

“Academy?” Sinra murmured, but then recalled one important fact. “Right, you are a spiritual practitioner. The way you fight makes one forget,” he mused aloud, realizing that Laien would surely be provided with the top-level Red Dragon Arts by Rudford. Considering that, picking the Waterdrop Academy which encompassed martial practice into its curriculum but focused on magic would be a very good choice for him.

“King’s health is bad? Has something happened to him?” Siana asked the question which everyone apart from Laien, who was thinking about something else, were beginning to wonder about.

“He wasn’t injured, poisoned or anything,” Sinra replied along with a disinterested wave of his hand. “He had heavily burned away his own life force to kill his elder brother, so even though he is only around seventy years old his lifespan is about to end. If he doesn’t make a breakthrough in his cultivation base and advance to the sixth Realm of Heroes, he won’t live longer than ten, fifteen years,” he stated with a shrug of his shoulders. He had never been particularly close with that man; he had seen him only three times in his whole life and so, he wasn’t about to mourn his inventible death.

“So he’s going to die in his eighties? Pretty scary,” Laien said and pretended to shudder. “You said he is at the fifth Realm of Heroes, right? He should have had at least five hundred years to live,” Laien said with a sigh and shook his head. He himself wanted to live a long, happy life. To burn his own life force to battle someone… unless the other option was the death of his of Siana’s, he would be unwilling to do it.

But to begin with, he would either way be unable to burn his life force even if he wanted. Without a proper technique or magic, he would simply end up killing himself instead of empowering his strength. It wasn’t so easy that just anyone faced with a threat to his life could miraculously bring forth incredible power by sacrificing his lifespan.

“Okay,” Laien spoke up as he shooed the grim thoughts away, intending to sum up this rather all over the place conversation. “So firstly I will go and speak with elder brother, then return here to tell you how it went. Then, we take the two top places in the Grand Tournament and settle the whole thing with Einrah at the same time. What’s going to be after that, we will see. Yeah?” he asked with a lighthearted smile, to what everyone nodded a bit helplessly.

“You shouldn’t be so overconfident,” Injar decided to remind Laien, even though he needed to admit that the youth had every reason act as such. “There are two youths of whom you will need to be careful in the Grand Tournament. Both are very talented in cultivation and both wield the power of Aspects, ‘Secrets’ or ‘Truths’ or however you want to call them,” he revealed, getting the undivided attention of their four guests.

“You already met one of them. The ten-year-old girl who spoke to you when Finella was leaving; her name is Laura and she has recently broken through to the sixth mortal realm,” he said calmly and after confirming that the kids knew who he was talking about, continued.

“The second one is a youth under Sauras, he is twelve just like you and he is just a step away from the seventh mortal realm,” he spoke sternly, expecting this one kid to become the major obstacle in Laien and Anatis’s way. “As the most talented practitioners affiliated with the Royal Family, those two are surely cultivating the Heavenly Flame Art, so don’t think you are going to have an edge with your Twin Phoenix Art or ice magic,” Injar warned sternly, a bit annoyed by Laien’s carefree reaction which Laien was displaying to him.

“And the Aspects?” Laien asked, so far not convinced of the threat those two possessed. Their cultivation bases were strong, but not as much as his or Anatis’s. As for the Aspects? Maybe he would have been a bit concerned before his duel with Anatis, but now he sincerely doubted those two could have a higher level of insights than them.

“I don’t know for sure, I will need to ask around and see if any of my friends know,” Injar admitted straightforwardly instead of trying to feed the four his guesses and speculations, but still needed to suppress a heavy sigh due to the carefree expression on Laien’s face.

“Eh, okay, okay. Stop frowning at me,” Laien said helplessly. “I will make sure not to underestimate them when we fight,” he promised and more or less, managed to coax Injar into letting the matter go without any further lectures.

“Mm. Siana, are you staying here or going with me?” Laien asked, trying to recall where in the world had they left their horses.

“I think I will stay, I wanted to talk with Nila for a bit,” Siana replied with a slight smile and glanced at Nila, who appeared to be surprised by this statement of hers.

“I still need to recover my Qi and do my daily training routine, so you two can keep each other company,” Anatis said brightly, happy that he won’t need to worry about Nila wandering around Sinra’s quarters with no one to talk to.

“Why not, I guess,” Nila said dismissingly and looked away from Siana, but inside she was quite happy. Even though she had some acquaintances in the Red Dragon School and she hanged around with them, she wouldn’t really call any of them her ‘friends’. However, given Siana’s position as Rudford’s disciple and the whole deal they were about to make… just maybe it would be an opportunity for her to make a first, true female friend.

“Okay, so I will be back in a few hours,” Laien nodded with satisfaction. If Siana occupied herself with Nila for the time being, he would be able to focus on training and sparring with Anatis and would have more chances to chat with Sinra. “Did she do it on purpose?” he wondered, glancing at this dear little sister of his.

“You can’t be serious,” Injar spoke up and chortled. “I was sure you’d ask me yourself, you know? To think I would be the one offering you the ride…” he pointed out with a smile, pleasantly surprised by this aspect of Laien’s character.

“Come on, I will get you over to the Red Dragon School and back. You sure Rudford is there and not somewhere in the Two Weeks City though?” Injar asked and as he did, he put his hand on Laien’s shoulder for a brief moment.

The familiar gesture didn’t escape Sinra’s notice; he raised his eyebrows in surprise. “He really took that much of a liking to him? That’s unexpected,” Sinra mused quietly, knowing best how hard it was to get Injar to recognize somebody to the point of getting casual with him.

“Elder brother told me he isn’t interested in this whole Grand Gathering and will only come with me to stroll around when the main events start happening, so yeah, he is in the school,” Laien responded in a light tone, the way he spoke about Rudford making Injar even more curious about their relationship.

“Wait for a second, what about Anatis and Nila if you go with me?” Laien asked all of the sudden, the question randomly coming to his mind. Wasn’t Injar supposed to be there to protect them?

“You are all overreacting about that one thing,” Injar said resignedly and shook his head. “Even if Einrah didn’t care one bit who he offended or killed in Buare City, he won’t be stupid enough to attack the Royal Palace. The Heavenly Flame School wouldn’t stand for it and he knows it,” he assured with confidence and just to calm the kids down, added.

“Also, did you think I would be babysitting these two for the next nine days? I’m not the only expert in the Royal Palace. The others might not be as strong as me, but they are more than enough to stop those two Great Masters and some Elders. Unless Einrah was willing to sacrifice most of his men, he would be unable to beat the guards of the Royal Palace and even if he did, me and all our people in the Two Weeks City would have more than enough time to rush over and suppress him,” he stated strongly, seeing the option of assaulting the Royal Palace as nothing but wishful thinking.

However, were it to be the Red Dragon School… he would have been a lot more concerned. The martial masters of the Heavenly Flame School would be able to compete with the Elders of the Twin Phoenix School head-on due to the nature of their respective martial arts, but those cultivating the Red Dragon Art fought in a completely different manner. If Rudford had truly made a breakthrough and became considerably stronger, then even he wouldn’t be confident in stopping that man and a bunch of his Elders from rushing past anyone attempting to defend the Royal Palace and capturing or killing their target.

“Huh,” Laien mused and glanced at Anatis, seeking a final permission from him. Only after the golden-haired youth nodded at him with a smile, did he look back and Injar and say. “Let’s get going then.”

“Mm,” Injar nodded and was about to say something else when Sinra cut him off and said with a false frown on his face.

“Yes, I know to show Anatis to the training halls in my quarters and to show the girls around, you don’t need to tell me.”

Despite being a bit surprised at first, Injar chortled and smiled at Sinra. He nodded slightly, then turned around and left the room with Laien.