Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 10. The Iron Fort.

“Huh?” Laien blinked repeatedly, having found himself in the midst of a mass of leaves and branches. “What happened here?” he asked with a laugh and stood up, accidentally pulling Yin up by his hand.

“You awake?” Raia called out merrily and rather loudly, just like the others hearing the rustling of the leaves and cracking of branches.

“This way I guess,” Laien said with a chuckle and with some effort, got out of the green cocoon with Yin. As martial practitioners, they had tough bodies so neither of them got as much as scratched, but the clothes they were wearing ended up fairly ruffled; though since they were made of good materials they didn’t suffer as much as one might have expected.

“What were you kiddos doing?” Ruan couldn’t help but ask the instant the two came out. He had expected the two to be fairly strong for their age, but for their meditation to result in a release of that surge of energy… it was pretty ridiculous to even think about.

“Training?” Laien and Yin both responded after a second of thought, then exchanged a quick look and smiled at each other. They had no problem with sharing their knowledge with each other, but they wouldn’t reveal everything about their insights just because someone else asked them to.

Ian shook his head and sighed ostentatiously. “You don’t need to tell us if you don’t want to. Just know that I owe you a huge favor and won’t hesitate to repay it in your hour of need,” he stated with an adventurous, carefree smile, one which he had rarely revealed after their daughter’s birth.

“Is it because this golden light fixed me up?” Raia inquired and chuckled cutely when she saw the surprised, nearly shocked expression on her father’s face. “Daddy, I’m not so clueless. I figured out there was something wrong with my Qi Origin ages ago. I even asked some of our guests and they told me what was wrong with me,” she said with a smile while holding her hands behind her back in an innocent way, her words flabbergasting both of her parents.

“You… but…” Ian kept shaking his head in disbelief, failing to comprehend what he was hearing. “If you knew, why would you keep asking me and everyone who came by to tell you those stories? Why would you keep talking about adventures?” she asked, thoroughly baffled by his daughter’s behavior.

“I just really like those stories,” Raia explained with a light shrug of her shoulders. “I like hearing about the adventures of others and I like imagining I’m a part of them, but I don’t really want to go on one, you know?” she said, getting a bit lost in her own thoughts. “Doesn’t everyone in those stories get hurt like a lot? I hate pain! I’d rather marry someone nice and open an inn, or a restaurant or a bar! Then I’d be able to hear all the stories I want!” she spoke her mind very openly, the mere mention of her getting married sending shivers down her father’s spine. Her words as a whole thought brought a bright smile to her mother’s face.

“You will be able to do anything you want, honey,” Vanessa said caringly and gently patted Raia’s head. She then turned her eyes to Laien and Yin and spoke with a smile. “Just like my husband said, if you two ever need a hand, do not hesitate to seek us out. Be it intentionally or not, you’ve helped us out a lot,” she said amiably, perfectly aware of what repairing Raia’s Qi Origin meant. It wasn’t just about allowing her to do whatever she wanted in her life, it was about extending her very life itself! From just about one century to many centuries, maybe even a millennium with a bit of luck. The difference wasn’t something that could be simply overlooked.

“My parents are strong, you know?” Raia brought up merrily and proudly, guessing that was why the boys appeared to be troubled. “Daddy is a martial master of the sixth rank and mommy of the fifth!” she bragged, certain the boys would brighten up after learning exactly who was offering them a favor.

“Raia!” Ian raised his voice but then groaned. “I guess there is no harm in telling those two,” he admitted with a sigh. “Please do not go around telling everyone about us though, okay?” he asked resignedly, wondering if the boys would be able not to have their tongue slip too often.

“We won’t, right?” Yin assured and glanced at Laien, who nodded in confirmation. The two of them were a bit confused as to how this situation came forward, but they would never be unhappy with gaining a favor from two powerful practitioners.

“Okay, so now we can do what we came here for, right?” Raia asked impatiently and smiled at Laien and Yin. “Let’s play some before you leave! Uncle Ruan agreed and mommy prepared some snacks for later, so you got nothing to worry about!” she said brightly, looking forward to playing with the two even more than before. She could now even ask them to spar with her and teach her a few things after they would be done playing!

“Well, why not,” Laien said with a helpless laugh. The girl seemed to be a bit childish, but since they were already here he wouldn’t mind spending some time playing with her.

“So, what do we do?” Yin asked, not too sure what this girl had in mind when saying she wanted to play.

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“Can’t you stay a bit longer?” Raia asked, watching Laien and Yin jump onto their huge war horses. “Like a few days longer at least!” she added a bit stubbornly. It was super fun to play and talk with those two, so she didn’t want them to leave so soon!

“Well,” Laien mused aloud. “We do have a year to get there, don’t we?” he brought up and looked at Ruan questioningly. Surely there wouldn’t be too much trouble if they delayed leaving this place for a day or two? It couldn’t be that hard to make up for two days during a year-long journey, could it?

“We have two hundred thousand kilometers to cross,” Ruan said in a tone suggesting he wouldn’t budge an inch on his decision to set out today. “I know how it works, one day here, one day there and then we find ourselves rushing to make it in time during the last month. I’m not up for this kind of thing,” he stated, not intending to spoil Raia on this particular occasion. He would most often give in to her whims, but he had his own principles regarding the long-distance traveling.

“If you say so,” Laien said with a shrug of his shoulders. He was confident he could convince Ruan to stay here if he really wanted, but he didn’t find this place to be all that interesting. Raia wasn’t all that boring to play with, but to be honest he didn’t like her enough to want to stay here too badly.

Raia frowned, but since she respected Ruan highly enough she didn’t argue any further. She still did pout however as she hugged her mother’s side, refusing to properly say goodbye to Ruan.

“I will be back in about eighteen months,” Ruan said simply. He shook hands with Ian, kissed Vanessa on the cheek and patted Raia on the head, then mounted his horse and led the way.

“Be sure to come back like you said, Uncle Ruan!” Raia called out in the end, feeling guilty about not seeing Ruan off normally, without sulking.

“I will, I will,” Ruan said with a laugh and waved his hand to Raia, soon after disappearing in the forest with Laien, Yin and the other six escorts.

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Two days later, evening.

“Look, we can already see it,” Ruan said after their group of nine rode on top of a small hill. “That’s the Iron Fort, one of the three citadels on our northern border,” he said in a somewhat unlike him tone, the sight of the great and majestic fortress causing him to feel proud to be a citizen of the Sarkcente Kingdom. He might have been only a courier whose goal was to avoid danger, but he could fully appreciate what a well-trained and well-equipped army meant to a Kingdom.

“Iron ‘Fort’, eh?” Laien said with a chuckle. What they could see was not a fort, but a gigantic citadel at the side of the mountains. Its outer walls were well over two hundred meters high and who knows how thick, while the amount of terrain the citadel itself occupied was no so vast it exceeded Neil City in size nearly two times over. With a solid garrison, this Iron Fort would be nigh impregnable to all armies but those with elite units composed of martial or spiritual masters.

“How many citadels do we have in total again?” Laien wondered aloud. “Three on the northern border, two at the north-western border and four at the border with the Ciene Kingdom?” he recalled quickly, but apart from the number he couldn’t remember much else. He was pretty sure Tei’ru had told him something about those citadels, but he was also pretty sure he had been in a bad mood that day and didn’t quite listen to him. It wasn’t surprising that he didn’t remember anything anymore.

“There are nine citadels on our borders, but not all nine are as impressive as the Iron Fort. In fact, seven of them are closer to being castles than citadels,” Ruan was happy to elaborate on the subject. “The Iron fort is our most ancient citadel, while the most militarily powerful one is the Crimson Keep of the Great General Vatras’s. I believe you are acquainted with him,” he explained and turned to look at Laien, who simply nodded at him. Since both Laien and Yin appeared to be fairly interested in the subject, he decided to keep speaking.

“Apparently, when the Iron Fort was built three thousand years ago it was just a fairly large wooden fort made for the purpose of having an outpost rather than a defensive structure,” he mentioned to begin with, meanwhile making his horse slow down from the trot to a slow walk. They had such a nice view of the Iron Fort from this small hill that it would be a pity not to tell this story while gazing upon the citadel itself. Anyway, when Laien and Yin joined him at both sides he went on with the tale of the Iron Fort.

“Back then the plains to the east weren’t as unified as now… though considering the wars ravaging them for the last few years they aren’t exactly unified now either,” Ruan said with a slight smirk. “Three thousand years ago our Kingdom was still fairly young. We were involved in wars with the Kingdoms to the west and we concentrated most, if not all of our attention there. As for the savage territories over the mountains to the north-east, we held them in no regard,” he added with a slight sigh of regret.

“We were right not to fear them, but that was only until a certain warlord appeared. He conquered the whole eastern plains and even subjugated the nearby countries in just two years. Then, to sate the bloodthirst of his warriors he sent them south. He knew his tribal armies would stand no chance against the ancient Empire to the north, so he chanced his strengths with the south,” he laid out briefly, not getting into the currently unimportant details.

“We had been caught off-guard really bad. We were in the middle of a war on two fronts when the news of a two million strong army riding through the northern funnel pass reached our capital,” he said with a weak smile. “The current population of our Kingdom is about fifty million, but back then we had only about ten million citizens. With the bulk of our army tied up in the west, how were we supposed to resist a sudden onslaught of two million nomads?” he asked a question he expected no answer to. However, he ended up getting one.

“That’s where the Iron family comes in, right?” Laien cut in with a smile before Ruan could say another sentence.

“You know this story?” Ruan inquired with a laugh. If Laien knew it, why didn’t he tell him sooner? He would have engaged Laien into the active storytelling a bit more then.

“Just bits and pieces, keep going!” Laien said more excitedly than he might have wanted to, what caused him to grow a bit embarrassed as he looked away for a second and smirked helplessly.

“Sure,” Ruan said and laughed a little, then continued hurriedly before Laien could get angry with him. “Anyway, when everyone was despairing and trying to figure out what to do, a promising youth from the Iron family bypassed his superiors and spoke directly to his comrades in the Royal Academy. The youth couldn’t even be called a man yet, he was only sixteen just like most of those who were still in the mainland, training to become soldiers. Yet, he managed to rouse the spirits and touch the hearts of his friends. He rode to the northern border with one hundred martial masters of the first rank and two hundred elite martial practitioners to delay the enemy and give the Kingdom’s armies time to regroup and organize a proper defense,” he said with clear admiration in his voice. For a bunch of young adults and even some kids to be willing to lay their lives down to save their country… how could one not look up to their bravery?

“Three hundred of them, one hundred of the regular garrison of the northern fort and nine hundred regular people who lived there… against a two million strong army,” he said with a smile and glanced first at Yin, then at Laien. “The only saving grace was that the army of the steppes was by no means well-trained nor did it have many experts of the Realm of Heroes. There was at most three or four thousands of them along with the three hundred of the elite guard of their warlord,” he elaborated, once again skipping the various details for the sake of making the story more fluent.

“The young ancestor of the Iron family and the three hundred who went to guard the fort with him had already given up on their lives. The thousand people of the fort similarly chose to stay and fight to the very end, all of them intent on delaying the incoming horde for as long as they could, intent on killing as many enemies as they could before they would fall to the ground. They truly were in a situation no one would expect them to come out alive from,” he said with a slight smirk. The boys probably knew where this story was heading to, no?

“They were quite lucky in one aspect though,” he brought up as the next thing. “The funnel pass proved to be a big obstacle to an army as disorganized as one of that warlord’s. Due to that, the nomads ended up flowing into the south rather slowly. However, their warlord didn’t want to delay the first attack and lose the benefit of the element of surprise. Thus he ordered the army to pass through the Anarchic Lands as it was and regroup at the plains of our northern border,” he elaborated, then quickly got straight to the most interesting part.

“The warlord knew there were some defenders in the fort at the mountainside, but he didn’t pay them much mind. As the night fell, he ordered his vice-captain to deal with the defenders. The vice-captain sent the orders further down, seeing no reason to oversee the attack personally. The same thing repeated until the task of attacking the fort was entrusted directly to the various tribal leaders,” he explained, his smile having turned a bit devilish, much to the boys’ surprise.

“As a result, the many tribes and clans attacked the fort one after another under the deceitful cover of the night. Hundreds after hundreds assaulted the fort, easily getting past the outer walls. They all rushed to the fort’s center to claim the victory. Thousands after thousands of them, then tens of thousands… and even hundreds of thousands. The endless stream of people flowed into the fort, only for more to be sent in and never to return,” he described calmly, stopping his horse for the time being as to not leave the high ground.

“It’s said that when the morning came, the warlord was furious why half of his army was yet to make it to the encampment. He and the other high-ranked leaders only later realized that during the night… one million of their troops had poured into that wooden fort and yet, the azure flag of the Sarkcente Kingdom still fluttered over the fort’s walls,” he exclaimed with great pride, then followed up after taking a deep breath.

“When the elites of the warlord’s army finally moved in and destroyed the outer walls, a sea of blood along with countless corpses flooded out of the fort and down the mountainside. Even for the savage tribes of the east, this sight was one of utter terror. Still, they went deeper into the fortress, walking on the piles upon piles of their comrades’ corpses.”

“They soon reached the innermost part of the fort, where they found the one hundred utterly exhausted, bathed in blood defenders. According to the very stories from the east… the warlord and the elites accompanying him at first wanted to slaughter the remaining hundred, but when they saw those people fearlessly prepare to defend and fight back once again… they couldn’t help but admire their unwavering spirit. In honor to the defender’s miraculous feat, they allowed them to live and retreated,” he paused for a few seconds, allowing the magnitude of this old accomplishment to sink into the boys’ minds.

“Having witnessed what the people of the south were capable of, the warlord decided not to continue his campaign. Due to this event, no armies from the east dared to invade the south again in the past three thousand years,” he finished, then looked at Laien and then at Yin. “What do you think of this old story?” he asked, curious what kind of comments the boys would make.

“How were the others rewarded?” Yin inquired. “Apart from that young ancestor of the Iron family I mean,” he clarified quickly. There had been over one thousand people who laid their lives for their country, it would be pretty unfair if only one family got rewarded for their efforts.

“That’s a good question,” Ruan laughed and nodded contentedly. “The Iron family of that time wasn’t all that big. Additionally, after the battle a bond stronger than that of blood formed between the remaining hundred defenders. When the King asked them how they would like to be rewarded, they all responded that they don’t care about rewards and intend to stay together and fight for the Kingdom’s sake,” he said and smirked a little, amused by the very surprised looks on the boys’ faces.

“The King had been so astonished by their words that he offered to build a great citadel for them and to give them as much wealth as humanly possible. When the news spread, many nobles families of those who had been involved in the miraculous defense wanted to join the newly established ‘Iron Fort’, but the one hundred refused most of them, even most of their own families. They created the Iron Fort from the grounds-up and with the financial help of the King and the prestige the had they gave birth to a truly powerful military family,” he elaborated, then tucked his legs and made his horse once again go forward.

“The so-called ‘Iron Knights’ had since focused solely on serving the Kingdom and protecting it from the dangers,” he added, then after a moment looked at Laien. “And you? What do you think?” he asked, wondering what was on Laien’s mind since he was being unnaturally quiet.

“No…” Laien shook his head. “I was just thinking, would I have done the same thing? Not for my dear ones, but for the country?” he asked with a sigh. Truth to be told be didn’t understand those patriotic feelings, perhaps because he never considered himself a citizen of the Sarkcente Kingdom. He had always been somewhere on the sides of everything, then even got himself involved in a competition for the throne. Those experiences didn’t help nourish patriotic feelings in him.

“I don’t know if I would have been capable of it either,” Ruan said amiably. “Not everyone can find something he is willing to do everything for. I’m not telling you that you have to act like those ancestors, but I think their actions are worthy of admiration,” he answered realistically, knowing that not all people had qualities necessary to act like a selfless hero.

“Agreed,” Laien nodded strongly, happy that Ruan wasn’t trying to force the patriotism upon him. If he were to ever fight for the Sarkcente Kingdom or for any other country, he would do it because he wanted; not because someone told him doing that is a great, honorable thing.