Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 140. Symbol of Friendship.

“Oh,” Laien chuckled in amusement. “They’re already coming back. Did they run both ways?” he wondered aloud as he looked at the two approaching figures.

“They must have,” Arslan said with a laugh. They had finished their own meeting extremely quickly, mainly thanks to Jasmine being able to skip the whole part of the story about the Holy Union. So, unless Raphael and Mikaela at least jogged both ways, they wouldn’t have made it here at this time.

“You’re done too?” Raphael called out from a few dozen meters away. The talk he and Mika had with Elder Samuel went so smooth that even he was surprised, so even though they had run to the fort, they simply walked back here. However, they didn’t expect to bump into Laien, Yin, and Arslan right away. Didn’t Sirius say something about taking them away for an hour or so? It had only been twenty minutes at most.

“Yeah, all done” Laien replied lightheartedly. He glanced towards the large house the five of them were always staying in for the past few days, then turned back to look at Raphael and Mikaela. The two understood him very quickly and after nodding slightly, they changed the direction they were walking towards and headed to the house. “Mm.” Laien smiled contentedly and also headed the same way along with Yin and Arslan. It felt quite good to be able to relay his intentions to others without saying a word, or so Laien mused in the meanwhile.

“Did everything work out?” Raphael asked when the five of them met at the door, though he didn’t really need an actual answer to know that it did. The relaxed looks those three had on their faces and their worry-free attitudes were more than enough for a clear indication in this case.

“Pretty much,” Laien said with a smile. “And for you guys?” he asked back. Although he didn’t think that Elder Samuel would disagree to let Raphael and Mikaela go to the Holy Union after everything’s been taken care of, he still came to feel rather nervous the moment he asked the question and was waiting for Raphael to give him an answer.

“Same,” Raphael said with a laugh. He snuck a brief look at Mikaela, then chuckled inwardly and said nothing else. “No point standing here, come on,” he said and pushed the door open. Without thinking about unnecessary things too much, he led the way in and headed to the third floor.

A few moments later, the five of them ended up where they usually spent their evenings and nights; in one of the rooms on the third floor. Normally, they would have gone straight to busing themselves with a continuation of one of their leisure chats or would have played a game, or maybe continued discussing the topic of their insights, but this time, nothing like that happened. On the other hand, the trio of Laien, Yin, and Arslan could sense that Mikaela was somewhat restless and looked like he had something to say, so they didn’t jump straight to their usual activities.

“Um,” Mikaela blushed a little and snuck a few quick glances at Raphael, who however only smiled at him and said nothing. Both frustrated and nervous, Mikaela chose to bring something else up instead. “You know, dad told us that he was planning to give those to you tomorrow, but since we came over today he told us to hand them over to you,” he explained hurriedly and took out three blue diamond sigils from his interspatial ring. Of the three flat and round, ten-centimeters in diameter sigils, two had a sword and a spear engraved on them while the third one displayed a scroll.

“How did they shape diamonds like that?” The question passed through Laien’s mind. However, before he could ask it out loud, Mikaela went on with the explanation.

“The two with a spear and a sword are the Core Martial Sigils of our country. I got one too, see?” Mikaela said with a smile and took out one more blue diamond sigil, then handed the other three ones to Laien, Yin, and Arslan. He looked like he had calmed down a little now that he focused on something else, so he was able to continue without a hitch. “To be totally correct, they are called Core Martial and Spiritual Sigils, but since it’s too long to say everyone just calls them Core Martial Sigils. They are only given with the consent of the Grand Council and from what dad told us, there weren’t even ten people in our country who had them until today when we three got ours,” he said merrily. He was happy both for himself and for Laien and Yin to have been recognized as excellent talents that were worth grooming and protecting with all the resources of their country.

“I know that Raphael also has one,” he added and sent Raphael a meaningful look, causing him to laugh and to show the Core Marital Sigil of his own. “Chris should also have one, but for who else has them, dad didn’t tell us. Though, he did say that not even all of the three Great Generals and four Magistrates have those sigils when I asked,” he added with a smile. They had gotten something that not even all the top powerhouses in their country had! How amazing was that?

“So it’s quite valuable,” Laien said with a happy smile, rolling the blue diamond sigil around in his fingers. The more he looked at this thing, the more he was convinced that carving it must have been an impossibly hard task. He knew that even though diamonds could exhibit hardness greater than even the likes of Mountain God’s Steel, they were still far too prone to cracking. Paired up with the fact that they were incredibly rare and indescribably hard to refine, there hadn’t been anyone who tried to make a weapon or a piece of armor out of them as it simply was a waste of time, effort, and resources.

Because of that, the usefulness of diamonds was limited and there weren’t that many craftsmen who could actually refine one with as much detail as this Core Martial Sigil in his hand. Not to mention the finely-detailed sword and a spear, the remaining decorative parts both on the front and on the back of the sigil were absolutely exquisite. If he were to guess, then only a few of the northern Master Smiths may be capable of replicating this Core Martial Sigil, but apart from them, it was unlikely for anyone outside of the Ruishi Federation to be able to possibly counterfeit them.

“It sure is valuable,” Mikaela agreed with a laugh. “Even I didn’t get one until now and you know how much my parents dote on me,” he added with a wry smile, displaying quite a high level of self-awareness of his own circumstance. “It’s pretty simple as to why there are so few of those Core Martial Sigils, and it’s because our country ‘vows to avenge the death of anyone to who they had gifted with this sigil’, or so dad said,” he added playfully. Still, as much as he displayed a lighthearted attitude, he did mean his words to the letter. His father had especially empathized this point; if someone dared to kill one of the people who had the Core Martial Sigil for almost whatever reason, the Ruishi Federation would respond ruthlessly and without holding back.

“Elder Samuel really does value your talents,” Raphael picked up with a smile. “So far, no one with those sigils left our country for long, so it wasn’t all that haphazard. However, with you two going to the Eclipse Academy, giving them to you can bring us a whole lot of trouble. Of course, he must see it to be worth, but in his place, I’d like to ask you not to use those sigils unless you don’t have any other choice. Mika, the same goes for you,” he mentioned with a calm smile and a cool head. Although he knew that Laien and Yin, or Mikaela on the matter, wouldn’t cause them trouble for no reason, he also couldn’t rule out the possibility of them acting with the half-conscious assurance of a free out-of-jail safety card in their back pockets.

As for why he brought this whole thing up, it was because Elder Samuel had told him not to abuse his own Core Martial Sigil when he had given it to him three years ago. He knew that those words made him face a few annoying situations with a much calmer head, so he wanted the same to happen with these three good friends of his.

“Sure,” Laien responded straightforwardly to Raphael’s little lecture, while Yin simply nodded. What was worth nothing though was that neither of the two of them, and especially not Laien, would have taken kindly to such a reminder had it happened two months ago. However, the two of them as they were now could understand where Raphael was coming from and got that he didn’t intend to anger them or treat them with contempt by providing that warning. As such, they took kindly to Raphael’s advice and the thought of arguing against it didn’t even appear in their minds.

“Yeah, I know.” Naturally, Mikaela had no trouble taking Raphael’s words at face value and didn’t try to unnecessarily read too deeply into them.

“What about this one?” Arslan inquired, raising the blue diamond sigil with a scroll engraved on it. He wasn’t surprised that he didn’t yet qualify to get a Core Martial Sigil, so was this one a kind of a diplomatic one? He was curious to learn more about it.

“It’s an even more amazing thing,” Raphael said with a laugh and glanced at Mikaela. Since Mika was the one who started this topic, he should be the one to finish it too.

“It’s a High Diplomat Sigil,” Mikaela explained eagerly. “Apart from my Dad, only one of our Magistrates has it. So, this one is the third. As for what it brings you, it not only gives you the same level of protection a Core Marital Sigil does but also allows you to negotiate on behalf of our Ruishi Federation. Still, the final deal needs to go through the Grand Council regardless of everything, so it’s not an absolute-kind of a power,” he elaborated on the subject as well as he could, then laughed quietly and handed over an interspatial ring to Arslan.

“Dad apparently wrote down some advice on using the High Diplomat Sigil for you, so reading through it should be more helpful than listening to me,” he added with a chuckle. As far as he was glad to be able to deliver the news, he knew he wasn’t suited to explaining complicated formal things, so even though he knew some things about the informal rules surrounding the use of the High Diplomat Sigil, he didn’t try to explain them as to not confuse anything by an accident.

“Thanks,” Arslan said with undisguised joy. He took a quick look at the insides of the interspatial ring he got from Mikaela, then smiled a bit helplessly. There were a few fairly thick scrolls inside it, so even familiarizing himself with their content would take him an hour or so. As for learning and understanding them thoroughly, he would probably need three or four days.

“Anything interesting in there?” Laien asked on a whim, feeling slightly curious about the number of rules surrounding the High Diplomat Sigil.

“See yourself,” Arslan replied and handed the interspatial ring over to Laien without a moment of hesitation. Sure, he wasn’t warned not to show those scrolls to others, but he had enough sense to realize they were important enough to be kept in secret. However, he had no such restraints within this group of friends and much less in front of Laien.

“Hm.” After he took a peek, Laien shook his head a little. “I hope there’s a summary inside, else reading all of that will be a pain in the ass,” he said with a laugh. Elder Samuel truly was as much of a thorough person as he appeared to be. Still, this time around he really overdone it. Wouldn’t a simple and brief instruction be better? Someone, he had a feeling that Elder Samuel went ahead and included all the possible diplomatic situations along with instructions of how to behave during them in those annoyingly thick scrolls. However, he didn’t exactly feel like confirming it at the moment.

“Anyway,” he added after handing the interspatial ring back to Arslan, the smile on his face turning into a playful one. He turned his gaze towards Mikaela and asked without mercy, “We got something nice, but I doubt that you were so fidgety and nervous before because of those sigils. So, now that you calmed down a bit, mind telling us what’s up?”

“N-no, um…” Hearing Laien’s question, Mikaela instantly blushed in embarrassment. It was a silly idea on his part, he knew it, but he couldn’t throw it out of his head ever since it occurred to him. As a result, after a few seconds of wavering and fidgeting around, he gathered enough courage to raise his head and try to explain. “I was just thinking… it’s probably stupid and it’s too fast and all, but… I thought it would be nice but I couldn’t really come up with anything good enough…”

“Just get it out,” Laien said with a helpless laugh and gave Mikaela a meaningful smile. What was Mika so nervous about? Even if it was something stupid, they would simply laugh at it with him and surely wouldn’t laugh at him for bringing it up.

“It’s… well…” Mikaela attempted to say. However, he suddenly grew angry with himself for being so wishy-washy and shook his head strongly, then gave Laien and the others a resolute look. With his cheeks still flushed red, he said without beating around the bush any longer. “I thought it would be nice if we all had some kind of an item that shows that we are friends. You know, like how the girls will wear identical bracelets or rings. But I just couldn’t come up with anything good.”

“Jewelry doesn’t seem to be too good of an idea. A necklace is for when we get married, normal rings will shatter when we spar and interspatial rings are just not unique or cool enough for that. Bracelets are too girlish, while tattoos can easily get destroyed if we get wounded, too,” he summed up and let out a little sigh. “I tried to come up with some other ideas, but nothing was good enough. When I told Raphael about it, he said that he doesn’t know what would be good either and told me that I should ask you guys… so, what do you think?” he asked hopefully. He didn’t know if those three would be for or against the idea to begin with, but he wished for the former to be true. In particular, it was Laien’s expression which he was watching the most closely as his opinion mattered to him the most.

“The idea’s cool,” Laien agreed with a calm laugh, then chuckled when he saw the look on Mikaela’s face relax and the next second, turn into a happy one. “Though just like you are saying, is there anything good we could get to be the symbol of our friendship...? Hrm, you know, I now get why you were acting so shy and all. it’s really embarrassing to actually say that out loud,” he pointed out wryly, his own cheeks having grown slightly red. It was just like with relationships, huh. It was easy to think some things, but to actually say them aloud was incomparably harder.

To Laien’s side, Yin chuckled and nodded in agreement. Just recalling the certain scene in the morning was enough to make him feel hot all over his body, but right now wasn’t the best of times to be thinking about it. “It really is hard to come up with something good,” he said. partially in order to join the flow of the conversation and partially to distract himself from the embarrassing thoughts.

“Yeah,” Arslan supported with a serious look on his face. He kept frowning slightly as he pondered over what else, apart from the things Mikaela ruled out, could be used as a shared ‘symbol of friendship’, but he just couldn’t come up with anything that was both cool and practical to carry around. Sure, if it was just a set of five identical items that they took into their interspatial rings, then it would be easy enough. However, even without bringing the idea up he felt that it would be far too lacking for the purpose.

“See?” Raphael said after a moment of silence. He glanced at Mika, the side of his lips curving into a cheeky smirk. “I told you they wouldn’t make fun of this idea. I think it’s nice too, so if we all try to come up with something good, we are bound to find what we need,” he assured, the look on his race remaining somewhat playful, but at the same time turning into a gentle one.

“Yeah,” Mikaela said merrily. He really had worried for nothing! Although he still felt that it was embarrassing to utter words like ‘the symbol of friendship’, he no longer cared about that weird feeling. Instead, he was extremely happy to have found out that Laien, Yin, and Arslan were perfectly willing to go along with his idea.

“What could be good,” Laien murmured. He raised his hand to his lips almost unconsciously and lowered his gaze, falling into deep thought. Just like Mika said, that thing needed to be both unique and cool enough for them to like it. On the other hand, it also needed to be handy enough not to get in the way and sturdy enough not to break in case it was supposed to be worn on the daily routine. The more he thought about it, the more he realized how limited their options were.

“There should be some semi-permanent tattoos,” he mused silently. “Even if they are partially destroyed due to the wound, it’s apparently possible to restore them to full once the body is healed with own Qi or spiritual energy. As long as a little bit of the tattoo is left, it would be fine. However… I just can’t see myself liking a big tattoo anywhere on my body. I wouldn’t really like a small or medium-sized one anywhere I can see it, either,” he pondered, though towards the end, he ended up blushing a little. The reason for why he wouldn’t be willing to make a small tattoo on his hands, arms or alike… if not needed, he would rather not share it with the other three.

As for Yin, he was already giving him a half-embarrassed and half-amused look as he had realized what he was thinking about almost instantaneously. However, it made him feel better to know that Yin was of the same mind as him in this case. Neither of them would want the friendship symbol between the five of them to be visible on each other’s naked bodies as it would be just… a bit too mood-breaking during certain moments they shared.

“I wonder,” Raphael spoke up while everyone was still thinking. “Does it need to be something amazing? Can’t we just look for something special to us?” he asked, guessing that it would be easier if they followed this way of thinking instead of looking for something ‘amazing and unique’. Sure, they could get five items of spectacular worth for themselves. They probably could even have all of their names engraved on five diamond coins if they requested so, but would that really be something they would be satisfied with? Wealth wasn’t a thing they lacked, so shouldn’t they focus on feelings more than on the items themselves?

“You’ve got a point,” Laien agreed soon afterwards. He had considered Raphael’s suggestion and had come to the same conclusion Raphael did. “But what would that be…? The five of us met only recently and there weren’t any significant places of particular events that involved all of us and could fit into the image of a ‘symbol of friendship’, were there?” he asked and looked over the other four’s faces. If they were to just pick out the important events from the past days, it would be simplicity in itself. However, those events and places involved two or three of them at most; they weren’t good enough to be elevated to the most important factor in the five of them becoming good friends.

“Oh, I think I’ve got it.” After around half a minute, Laien said all of the sudden. “You guys just need to tell me what do you think about it,” he added, but instead of following up with his explanation immediately he moved to the carpet and sat down, then gestured everyone to come over.

Yin chuckled quietly and as usual, sat down to Laien’s right. He, of course, knew what was on Laien’s mind, but he wouldn’t spoil the surprise for the others.

A second after Yin sat down, Mikaela seated himself in his own usual spot; to Laien’s left. Then, Raphael sat down to Mikaela’s own left and finally, Arslan sat with his back to the bed, with Yin to his left and Raphael to his right. With that, the five of them ended up in the usual circle they would play games or chat in. However, three of them had no idea why at this moment, Laien was laughing quietly and appeared to be very amused.

“Hurry up and tell us!” Mikaela urged impatiently. He might have grown a lot stronger in the past days and he might have come to like Laien a whole lot, but it didn’t mean that his fundamental character had changed much at all.

“Mhm,” Laien nodded with a wry smile and extended his hand towards the carpet. His interspatial ring lit up for half a second, then he withdrew his hand and revealed something that caused Raphael, Mikaela, and Arslan to grow quite confused; a simple chunk of metal that was the size of half a fist. However, he didn’t wait for them to question him and explained properly on his own. “I’m no blacksmith, but I should be able to smelt a simple piece of metal with my spiritual energy alone. More importantly, I should also be able to shape it precisely as I wish.”

Well, maybe it wasn’t a ‘proper explanation’ after all. Yet, Laien merely laughed and released his Qi and spiritual energy, lifting the chunk of metal up into the air. He then applied the full prowess of the give golden runes of the Principle of Energy directly to it, causing the chunk to turn bright-red and then melt into a mass of goo in but a few seconds.

As confused as Raphael, Mikaela, and Arslan were, the three of them watched how Laien carefully shaped the metal. In part, they were all amazed that he was able to exert this level of control without applying the elemental affinity to his Qi and spiritual energy, but the more so, they were wondering what in the world was he making. They saw the shapeless goo from before turn flat and round, almost turning into an enlarged version of the blue diamond sigils. They were about to ask what Laien was planning to do with that, but it was at this moment when a certain shape started appearing on the upper side of the sigil-shaped creation of Laien’s.

It wasn’t obvious at first, but as seconds passed, the image became more and more clear in everyone’s eyes. There were five parts which bulged out from the flat surface, each of them taking the peculiar, almost heart-like shape. Had those shapes been on their own, they would have been ready to mistake them for actual hearts. However, since all five of them appeared together, coming down towards the center of the metallic sigil, it became apparent what those five heart-like shapes were actually a part of!

Just when the three realized what it was, Laien rapidly cooled down the temperature and caused the chunk of metal to grow solid in the blink of an eye. However, as he did so, he performed one additional trick. To be exact, he pulled the five parts apart in a forceful manner, leaving their middle ends completely uneven and somewhat weird-looking.

“Five-Leaf Clover,” he said with a pleased smile as five parts either landed on their laps or were caught in their hands. “What do you think? I even added a special little feature only for when all five of us are together,” he added playfully and extended his hand towards the middle of their circle, holding out his piece of the metallic sigil.

This simple act of his caused the look in everyone’s eyes to light up in anticipation. Be it Yin or the other three, they all smiled in understanding and quickly held out their own pieces of the puzzle. The next moment, the uneven and seemingly chaotic ends of the sigil smoothly joined back together, forming a perfectly even Five-Leaf Clover in the middle of the circle they were sitting in.

“Our own little secret,” Mikaela said without hiding his excitement. “It’s perfect! A Five-Leaf Clover! Why didn’t I think of it before? It’s so much better than some ornaments or tattoos!” he exclaimed in joy. They would all have one piece and the Five-Leaf Clover could only return to being one whole if they all met up! It wasn’t what he had thought about when trying to come up with a symbol of friendship for the five of it, but it certainly was far better than anything he had thought of!