Book 2. The Grand Gathering. Chapter 25. The Royal Intervention.

“In the name of the first Prince, immediately cease fighting!” an incredibly loud yell resounded throughout the battlefield and the Two Weeks City. Yet, how could a simple yell stop the berserk-like assault of the Red Dragon and Twin Phoenix Schools? Who in their right mind would stay their hand and risk getting killed by the person in front of him? Unless the order came from their direct superiors, those Elders wouldn’t obey even a Royal Order!

As far as Rudford was concerned, he was seconds from catching up to Fohan and killing him. He wouldn’t stop just like that either! He wouldn’t, but…

“In the name of the seventh Prince, stop fighting right now!” Injar roared, the aura of his powerful Qi spreading through the whole district. No matter how much he and Sinra wanted to obtain the throne, they wouldn’t just stand and watch as the military power of their country was dwindling. Rudford and others had already killed six hundred martial masters; these losses were catastrophic enough. The only silver lining was that those who died were all rather weak martial masters. However, if the battle was to continue, the elites would undoubtedly start being killed off soon.

Rudford hesitated slightly. Should he keep going regardless to get rid of this damnable old man for good, or should he go along with Injar’s demand and call the end to this battle?

“Did you not hear the Prince’s order?!” one of the two identical siblings at Sauras’s side roared, his brother and the hundred martial masters of the Heavenly Flame School all launching suppressive assaults towards both fighting parties. They mainly focused on the Twin Phoenix School though, since it was their Great Master and Grand Elder who were going on a total rampage now that their enemies’ ranks had collapsed.

Einrah and Grand Elder Huan, also Grand Elder Qin of the Fire Serpent School, Roderick and Vatras had all been momentarily pinned down by the combined assault of the Heavenly Flame. They weren’t injured… but they stared hatefully at Sauras’s men. The Cail family and their allies were the ones who used force first, targeted their disciples and then threatened them! They deserved to be wiped out! Even Grand Elder Qin was feeling that the Princes’ intervention was inappropriate, even though it was directly beneficial to him.

“Retreat to the center, stop attacking!” Rudford shouted in the end, ordering an orderly retreat of his forces. The Red Dragon School immediately obeyed him and stopped their assaults, though each and every of the Elders and Great Masters kept his Qi roused and ready to defend themselves.

“Tch,” Einrah clicked his tongue angrily. He glanced at all the dead bodies, the one hundred corpses and ashes of the Elders from the Fire Serpent School satisfying him the most. “Keep your guards up and retreat!” he ordered similarly, very much to the relief of people on Cail family’s side; and even to the relief of the one hundred martial masters who were accompanying Sauras.

At this point in the battle, they truly would have had trouble suppressing those two crazy Great Martial Schools had their Prince ordered them to do so. If Injar happened to use the opportunity and got involved on the side of Rudford’s and others… they wouldn’t stand a chance and would be all wiped out.

Injar also sighed with relief. Unlike those overly emotional freaks, he was constantly aware of the consequences of their actions. Forcing a victory today would have been possible and Sinra’s position as the future King would have been secured, but it would be nothing but pyrrhic victory. Were they to lose so many elite forces, the bordering Kingdoms; especially the Ciene Kingdom wouldn’t have missed the opportunity to launch another Great War.

“Laien, are you two fine?” Cran used the opportunity to remove himself from his father’s unit and approached the two siblings, releasing his Dragon’s Body Art. He had become a martial master not too long ago, but with his mastery of the Red Dragon Arts, he was already on the stronger end of the school’s Elders. Naturally, when Rudford had called all martial master to follow he had joined them too and managed to claim quite a few lives of the black-cloaked martial masters of the Cail family.

“As good as we can be after what happened,” Laien said with a sigh and forced out a smile. Now that the battle was ending and the adrenaline rush was subsiding, the feelings of guilt were beginning to grow in his heart. He was still in too much of a shock to think about everything properly… but he could somewhat tell that given a few hours, he would most likely grow very displeased with himself whether he wanted to or not.

“How do you call that fine, do you have a habit of forgetting to cover people with clothes?” Injar asked as he landed beside Laien with the four youths at his side. He then smiled slightly when Laien swapped Siana’s clothes for new ones and put her interspatial ring on her finger.

“Sorry for not coming sooner,” Sinra said with a groan. At first, they chose not to go because of what Yin told them, but after they saw many forces rushing towards the southern district they really should have acted immediately. However… they ended up being blocked by Sauras and his allies. Thankfully, the Red Dragon and Twin Phoenix Schools emerged victorious from the battle what forced Sauras to move out and intervene.

Laien smiled helplessly. Maybe it was silly of him, but at the moment he was thinking how majestic Injar and Sinra looked, both surrounded by ripples of Heavenly Flame Qi and with those amazing crimson hair and eyes of theirs. He had always been a bit jealous of people with such distinct features and the thoughts about it tended to hit him randomly.

“It’s great you and your sister are alive and well,” Yin spoke with a smile, displaying an unnatural to him level-headed attitude.

“Elder brother saved us,” Laien replied, sensing that Yin really meant his words and was genuinely happy for him. He had been unable to sense Yin when he moved far away from him, but now that they were close their spiritual bond once again became active. Additionally, it seemed to be a bit stronger than in the evening.

“I did, but I wish I had killed Fohan and Luren too,” Rudford spoke with a sigh. It was one thing to face the Cail family and the Great Clans in a direct battle, but it was another thing to qualm with them politically. The influence Fohan and his allies wielded in the Kingdom was comparatively much bigger than his and Einrah’s. However, with Sauras and Sinra intervening, he had chosen to step down despite knowing that. Yet, he wasn’t in the mood to think about how the years to come would look for him, for Laien and Siana and everyone from new alliance.

“Lighten up, Rudford. We taught them a lesson, they shouldn’t pick up any fights with us anymore,” Einrah joined their group and spoke with a smirk. Six hundred martial masters, and within that, one hundred Elders of the Fire Serpent School in exchange for but a few deaths on their side. This result should have given Fohan and all those people some things to think about before they would consider baring their fangs at them again.

“If only it was so simple,” Vatras commented resignedly. “I believe the true contest between our camps will only begin now, and it won’t be yours or my elder brother’s specialty,” he pointed out resignedly. It would be him and Roderick who would need to do most of the job again, wouldn’t it?

Einrah snorted but needed to admit that Vatras had a point. With the support of the first Prince, the alliance which Fohan Cail had created would definitely be capable of giving them quite a headache.

As it seemed, the camp centered around Laien wasn’t too pleased with those results… but at the same time, Sauras and his allies weren’t exactly thrilled either.

“Fohan, you’d better have some good excuse for what happened or our Fire Serpent School is going to need to reconsider who we want to ally ourselves with,” Qin spoke bitterly, intent on having a serious talk with his Master as soon as he would return to their martial school. One hundred Elders…! Many of those people were his close friends, but they all ended up dying today because of Fohan’s and his subordinates’ incompetence. He wouldn’t easily forgive a blunder of this degree.

“Master Qin, some losses are unavoidable if you aim high. The old ancestor understood it very well when he agreed to cooperate with me,” Fohan said sourly. If he were to grovel and apologize to Qin in this situation, he would lose all the remaining face he had in the eyes of his black-cloaked forces. He always ruled by fear and through tight-fisted methods; this day as a whole had already undermined his authority badly enough, he didn’t want it to suffer any further.

“Teacher, it seems like I got to witness your first spectacular failure,” Sauras said with a sarcastic smile, deriving a certain sense of pleasure from seeing this old man finally screw something up. Although it would also hurt his own overall resources… he finally would gain a foothold necessary to take control of this schemer instead of always feeling like his puppet.

“Ha, fine,” Fohan laughed helplessly and angrily. “Is there anyone else who wants to make fun of me? Go ahead, you won’t get another chance like that!” he declared and looked around everyone, his gaze stopping for a second longer on Kinze, the Leader of the Cioze family. By the looks of it the man originally intended to say something too, but he had reconsidered and chosen to stay silent.

“Good, so how about we focus on fixing this mess before they decide to randomly leave the place?” Fohan suggested, thoroughly tired of the unpredictability of those people from the Great Martial Schools.

“I doubt they’d listen to you, teacher, at least not in those circumstances, so allow me to handle it,” Sauras said with a smile. He chuckled secretly when Fohan gave him a cold look, then began walking towards the center of the area with his twin guardians at his sides. “Won’t you make the way?” he asked calmly, seeing how the Elders of the Red Dragon School were reluctant to let him approach the two they just fought to protect.

“Let him through,” Rudford ordered after a few seconds. The atmosphere was still tense so it was normal for everyone to be on guard, but he didn’t think Sauras would pull any dirty tricks; at least not in the same shameless way Fohan would without blinking an eye.

“What do you want, elder brother?” Sinra stepped forward with Injar and asked coldly. He could already tell Sauras was planning to turn this situation on its head and he certainly wasn’t willing to allow him to do as he pleased.

“I simply intend to enforce the law of our Kingdom, little brother,” Sauras replied with a confident smile. He truly didn’t need to put much effort in order to put Sinra between a rock and a hard place as long as he kept his mind open and considered the possibilities. “You should also be aware that internal fighting between martial masters is prohibited, no? Coincidentally, one of the original offending parties is right here… too bad the other one had been killed off to the last man,” he mentioned, giving Sinra an inkling as to where he was heading to with this talk.

“How would the law call what the Red Dragon School and the Twin Phoenix School did? Refusing to settle the conflict peacefully and engaging in a pointless slaughter? It wouldn’t perhaps be… treason, now would it not?” Sauras inquired and allowed himself to chuckle a little. No matter what, Sinra would give him what he wanted. He simply needed to push a few right buttons of his and of the Great Masters present here.

“Do you intend to start a civil war?” Sinra asked with a heavy frown. “You know what we are going to do if you try to trial us for treason?” he asked again, pretty sure he knew what Rudford’s and Einrah’s reactions would be.

“Oh, so it’s not ‘them’, but ‘us’,” Sauras pointed out with a smirk. “I see you’ve managed to bond yourself with your new friends very quickly, little brother,” he teased wryly, recalling how Sinra’s only friend always used to be his guardian alone.

“Cut the crap,” Sinra rebuked impatiently. If all Sauras wanted was to annoy him then there was no point to this conversation.

Sauras laughed a little but indeed got to the point. “To make myself clear, I do not want to start a civil war. However, today’s events cannot be swept under the carpet. I intend to put those disciples of Rudford’s and for the lack of the living second party, the Leader of the Cail family on the trail in the Royal Court to work out who bears the guilt and who needs to be punished,” he explained with a slight smile on his lips, his declaration making both parties mentioned grow anxious.

“Who is the guilty one?” Rudford cut in angrily. “Isn’t that obvious? We all know what happened; the Cail family wanted to threaten me using my disciples, but when they screwed up they chose to kill them and failed once more. We don’t need a trial, we might as well punish them right away!” he shouted, the hypocrisy of Sauras’s words causing him to grow furious again.

“With fire and a sword just like you were doing a moment ago?” Sauras raised his eyebrows. “Master Rudford, the law had been created for the exact purpose of avoiding people delivering their own justice how they see fit. If we do not obey the law we created ourselves, how are we better than animals?” he inquired calmly, speaking in a slightly challenging, but not offensive tone.

Rudford glared at Sauras but was unable to respond. What could he say? That he doesn’t care about the law and they should go back to the battle to settle who was in the right? Even though it was obvious who the guilty party was, they couldn’t quite deliver the punishment on their own; not when Sauras was bringing up the country’s law.

“So it seems no one is opposed?” Sauras asked a bit more loudly and took a look around, his gaze stopping for a while longer at Laien and then at Fohan.

Fohan shook his head resignedly, but the smile on his face turned pretty self-confident. “Luren, prove that I wasn’t wrong in refusing to let Rudford kill you and take care of preparations for this trial. You know what to do, no? This time no assassinations though, please,” he mentioned half-jokingly, though all it did was make Luren feel frightened. Fohan cracking jokes felt like nothing else but him making death threats with a smile on his face.

“I do know, master,” Luren confirmed in simple words, keeping his nervousness in check. Before a trial at the Royal Court, the parties involved would be held in a custody, so it was all up to him to handle the work. It wasn’t anything new to him… however, he couldn’t help being somewhat afraid if he hadn’t lost his touch. If he screwed up again there was no question Fohan would do away with him, he would be as dead as one can be.

“Prince Sauras,” Laien spoke up, looking Sauras in the eye. “I have a request to make, will you hear me out?” he asked formally and politely, thus baffling everyone as a result.

“Speak.” Sauras nodded, intrigued by Laien’s words and attitude. He wouldn’t have been surprised if the boy acted like Rudford did, so the courteous question of his came as something pretty unexpected to him.

“I will abide by the trial… but keep my little sister out of it,” Laien said with a stubborn look in his eyes. To begin with, this whole thing was happening because he had chosen to go on an ‘adventure’ and support Sinra’s claim to the throne, with what everyone around him went along. The price for his reckless choices was Siana escaping death by a hair’s breadth; he just didn’t want to put her in this kind of a danger anymore.

Sauras kept quiet for a moment, considering his options with a slight smile on his face. His normal course of actions would have been to bargain with Laien to get something more out of him… but unlike Fohan, he didn’t consider the boy to be a lost cause. The youth was obviously one of the most talented practitioners of his generation; he might have had ended up hating the Cail family, but he could become a valuable asset in the future. Especially when it seemed to be him who Rudford, and in consequence, the entire Red Dragon School would follow.

“I will grant you this request,” Sauras responded calmly. When he would become the King, he couldn’t just exile two Great Martial Schools or scuffle with them all the time. Keeping this girl out of the trial would be a small price to pay for sowing a debt of gratitude with her brother.

“Thank you,” Laien said gratefully, however the way a slight, satisfied smile snuck onto his lips right afterward made Sauras’s expression darken a little.

“This kid… can it be he didn’t intend to make amends from the very beginning?” Sauras asked himself, then realized that after the trial the boy wouldn’t exactly be loving him anyway; he was on Fohan’s side, after all. “I got played beautifully, huh?” he thought and laughed helplessly, confusing quite a few people who saw this strange behavior of his.

“Did he plan it consciously? Or did he do it on impulse, by instinct? I guess the latter one is more likely,” Sauras mused silently. Yet, if he knew that Laien acted the way he did deliberately, how would he have reacted?

After all, not many people remembered that Laien had been schooled in politics and diplomacy for three whole years by the man no other than Tei’ru, the previous Leader of the Valius family. The formal tone Sauras had taken with Rudford simply caused Laien to suddenly get into that particular mood and helped him get the idea to act as he did.

“I shall have a custody prepared for you and Fohan in the Royal Palace, so say goodbye to your friends,” Sauras mentioned with a smile. One might have thought he would be bitter about being outplayed by Laien, but in reality, he was quite amused with what happened. He always valued people who were not only talented practitioners but also had enough wit to act in a smart way.

“I won’t be able to see anyone?” Laien asked and despite himself, couldn’t help but smile a little. This Sauras… although he was allied with someone as awful as Fohan, he didn’t seem to be all that bad of a person.

“Technically no… but there should be no problem if there are a few visitors. Just be sure not to have your master break you out or anything similar, okay?” Sauras said playfully, perhaps getting a bit too happy with himself after spending two weeks without Xin. He was longing for a fun conversation so much he had forgotten the time and place; in other words, he got a bit carried away.

Laien smirked and nodded in confirmation. He was thankful to Sauras for not being a total ass about the trial, but at the same time, someone else wasn’t pleased by this exchange between the two of them.

Sinra gave Sauras a cold, threatening look. He didn’t like how Sauras was trying to butter Laien up into becoming more friendly towards him. He only didn’t say anything about it because he didn’t want to make things hard for Laien in case Sauras decided to take back his previous words.

Yin glanced at Laien, then Laien looked at Yin. The two of them were looking at each other for a few long seconds, then Yin smiled and said. “If you want to be alone for a bit, I will come to see you later,” he suggested and smiled meaningfully. He wouldn’t take ‘don’t come at all’ as an answer and Laien should be able to tell this much thanks to their spiritual bond.

“Thanks,” Laien said a bit helplessly. He really had thought he wouldn’t want to chat with anyone, but faced with Yin’s stubborn refusal of this idea he had no choice but to reconsider.

“You should get some good sleep,” Rudford spoke up gently and leaned forward to tousle Laien’s hair. “We will make sure Siana is taken care of well, so have a good rest,” he added, understanding the best how scary and painful the thought of losing someone dear to you was.

“Mm, thanks elder brother,” Laien said with a smile. He looked at Anatis and Nila, happy they have come here with everyone despite the danger. He then glanced at Siana and for a bit, grabbed her hand and held it tightly. When he closed his eyes, he could see how she jumped forward to protect him, sliced the wind blade apart but still got two huge wounds ripped by the remnants of the technique. He could see how her blood spurted, how she began falling…

He shook his head strongly and opened his eyes, his breathing growing ragged and irregular again. He took a deep breath and clenched his hand onto Siana’s, then let it go and stood up.

“Ready?” Sauras asked and gestured Laien to approach him. “Can you escort Fohan for me?” he asked Injar, seeing it only appropriate that someone who wasn’t Fohan’s ally would lend a hand in putting and keeping him in custody until the trial.

“Not for you, but I will do it,” Injar replied menacingly, harboring no positive feelings toward Sauras at all.

“I will come tell you how everything looks in the afternoon,” Sinra told Laien as he was being raised into the air by the Heavenly Flame of the twin guardians of Sauras’s.

“Yeah, thanks,” Laien responded while suppressing a sigh. Everything was going to well, but now such a thing happened. How could he not feel depressed by this unexpected development? “It seems not everything will go easy for me,” he thought quietly, wondering what he should do from now on.