Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 150. Designs of the Powerful.

Not long after Arslan’s party left and just a moment after Raphael and Mikaela went to complete their daily training routine, Elder Samuel and Elder Simon engaged in a quiet conversation.

“You grew up to be a sly man,” Elder Simon said with a slight smile, though both the expression on his face and the look in his eyes were quite complicated. “I thought you’d propose something like having Victoria and her subordinates secure the escape route for them just in case… but it looks like you don’t intend to commit to this alliance fully for now,” he stated in an inquiring manner, obviously looking to have Elder Samuel share some of his thoughts and intentions with him.

“Well,” Elder Samuel began saying while barely moving his lips. Although Elder Simon was using his Qi to prevent any sound from leaking, he wouldn’t have liked it if by some off-chance someone happened to read his lips. “You are partially right about that. If I trusted completely in the success of this alliance between our Federation and Makarash, I could have simply hastened my plans and committed far more experts to this battle. Although killing Arakar might prove to be impossible, just containing him from doing too much damage shouldn’t be all that hard. We could slaughter the Arkarian forces in the southern Eulene easily if we wanted to, but Makarash is too unstable,” he explained straightforwardly, then took a deep breath before elaborating on the subject in-depth.

“It would have been a different thing if Mustafa wasn’t crippled, but it’s not worth the risk throwing our country behind his son while nothing is guaranteed. Fifteen years.. maybe even just ten years from now, we should be able to tell what exactly we can expect from their side. However, just having young master Arslan get through his current predicament is enough for me to be willing to join hands with him despite all those uncertainties. I won’t help him excessively right now, but as long as he succeeds, I will definitely honor the agreements we’ve made.”

After listening to Elder Samuel’s explanation, Elder Simon couldn’t help but laugh as he glanced meaningfully at the younger man. “You’ve offered the boy the High Diplomat Sigil, so what are you going to do if he gets captured? You can’t possibly ignore him if that comes to be,” he pointed out and was delighted to see the look on Elder Samuel’s face turn very, very sour. Even though the two of them belonged to the same side and he shouldn’t take pleasure from Samuel’s mistakes, it was simply too rare of an occurrence for him not to poke at the younger man. Although Samuel couldn’t be blamed for doing what he had, it brought Elder Simon a certain sense of relief to know that even someone as unreasonably perfect as Elder Samuel was still capable of making mistakes… or would calling it a rash decision be more appropriate given the circumstance?

“It would’ve been different, wouldn’t it?” Elder Simon asked with a wry smile. “If those two boys were confirmed to be alive, I bet you would have offered to send in more experts with young master Arslan and you wouldn’t think twice before revealing some of our accumulated strength to help the boys if necessary,” he said without beating around the bush. He, too, had seen the strength and potential of those two youths and had seen how well they were getting along with Raphael and Mikaela. He couldn’t have been one hundred percent sure originally, but once he had seen Elder Samuel’s reaction to his question about the High Diplomat Sigil, he became certain.

In Elder Samuel’s eyes, be it from the perspective of future potential or from the relationship with his youngest son, it were Laien and Yin who took priority over Arslan and Makarash. He couldn’t claim to understand why exactly Elder Samuel was so heavily biased towards the side of those two youths, but at least, he became aware of it and managed to confirm it.

“Hah.” In the end, Elder Samuel chuckled helplessly. “I might be a sly man, but you are a sly old man, Elder Simon. It is as you say… but please do keep it confidential. If those boys prove to be alive, then everything will be fine. However, if they aren’t, then Mikaela and Raphael might not forgive me for discarding Arslan if such a need arises,” he said with a sigh. Although it would damage the reputation of his country was the news akin to Arslan using the High Diplomat Sigil to ask for help, only to not receive it, to spread, it wouldn’t be the end of the world. He could make excuses that it was already too late to try and help him if he was captured by their enemies and as for the future vengeance, he could simply wait for the right time and extract it a few decades down the line.

“Anyway,” he picked up calmly. “Protecting Arslan will be up to Julien and those three White Guards. It could be said, however, that the main test will be of those White Guard Mustafa has with him and not of the party around his son. I want to see if the reputation of the White Guard isn’t overblown… so as long as they can shave away at the Arkarian forces while Arslan distracts a portion of them while steadily moving north, then everything will turn out fine,” he said in a clear-minded manner. As long as Arslan could safely get to the Holy Union, Mustafa would be easily able to leave with his people be it through the land or through the sea. The moment those two returned to Makarash, the future of the city and the lands around it should become fairly secure.

“So you don’t think that Arakar will act?” Elder Simon asked, though by this point was merely following the flow of the conversation. Even without asking, he could deduce that Arakar wasn’t willing to commit himself to any more danger than necessary. As a proof of that, Arakar didn’t try to finish Mustafa off in order to personally pursue and capture Arslan. Thus, if even he could think of this much, then there was no way that someone like Elder Samuel wouldn’t have done the same.

“He won’t force Mustafa’s hand,” Elder Samuel said lightheartedly. “The moment Arslan enters the Guode Yimarate, Mustafa will be on his highest guard against any unpredictable movements. The moment he loses track of Arakar, I’d wager he’d be willing to sacrifice most of his White Guard in order to directly break through Yimar Maar’s forces and whatever elites Arakar left behind. Even if he is crippled, it should be within Mustafa’s ability to drag Arakar to the grave with him. Arakar surely understands this much, so he won’t risk his life like that,” he stated as a matter of fact. However, he prevented a smile from surfacing on his face as he thought about a few things which he shouldn’t be saying out loud both for his own good and for the good of his country.

There were a few outcomes with a high degree of probability that he could predict, but whatever was going to happen would remain to be seen. The most troubling thing, however, was in truth the matter of Abdain leaving the front lines and attacking Jasmine. He had downplayed the situation when they talked about it, but he had in truth received a report about the presumed deaths of a good number of his spies, of at least a few dozens of them. This was how Abdain and his small team of elites, along with the original ambushers, were allowed to secretly move away from the frontlines.

Logically speaking, if their enemies had the ability to kill so many of their covert-type marital masters, then there was no reason for them to leave anyone alive. Even if the intent was to feed them with false information or to cause their side too grow too confused to take decisive action, it would have still been far better for them to eliminate all their agents and not just ten percent of them.

There was also the matter of the decision-making itself on their enemies’ side. Why would they take the risk of Mustafa launching an early attack and allow Abdain to move out freely? The White Guard might not be able to follow Abdain deep into enemy lines, but just knowing whether he was at the frontlines or not was definitely within the scope of their ability. Yet, Mustafa hadn’t done anything despite knowing who the messengers were going to be. The only conclusion Elder Samuel could come to was that simply enough, Mustafa had somehow been unable to learn of Abdain’s movements… or that he decided that Jasmine and those two boys weren’t worth spoiling their plans. However, personally, Elder Samuel saw the latter option as an extremely unlikely one.

Looking at it all from a wider perspective…

The mysterious disappearance of the hundred White Guards who had been supposed to be protecting Arslan from shadows, the matter of all flying magical beasts being eliminated at once during the battle one week ago. Now, this strange slaughter of intelligence agents. Was there yet another party involved in those events? Elder Samuel couldn’t help but ask himself this question, but no matter how much he thought about who could accomplish those things and who had the motive to do that, and not less and not more than that, he couldn’t help but feel a headache coming.

When Elder Simon asked him just now, he hadn’t been entirely honest with him either. Were it not for those unexpected variables that kept occurring, he would have been perfectly willing to immediately throw his full support behind Arslan even in case Laien and Yin had truly died. He had confirmed Arslan’s character and his potential both as a person and as a practitioner, so his value, along with the might of Makarash, was arguably greater than the value of those two boys if the friendship with Mikaela was to be excluded. Yet, without knowing what the goal of that unknown party that kept meddling in their things, was, his only choice was to act with caution.

Objectively speaking, the military and economic might he had accumulated was enough for him to easily conquer the entire western part of the Starlight Continent. However, that was only speaking from the perspective of a normal person. He was aware that there existed individuals and organizations whose strength was beyond imagination, so he couldn’t afford to act carelessly. There also existed the problem of other countries possessing their own secret weapons, but it wasn’t something relevant to his current chain of thought.

Either way, If this time around one of such hidden powers was for some reason interfering with them, then he needed to probe the grounds first. He would aid Laien and Yin with all his strength as he had promised, all because of Mikaela, but apart from those two, he wouldn’t hesitate to act with the good of his country as the first and foremost thing in mind. Thus, if Arslan succeeded in getting to the Holy Union, he would have a confirmation that whoever was interfering wasn’t dead-set on making things difficult for Makarash. Then and only then would he support the boy with all of his ability.

Still… “Truly, if the two of you are alive, everything will be much simpler,” Elder Samuel laughed at his own silly thought. He would never have imagined it before, but he was growing weary of the schemes and thinking about every little thin before taking action. If he could make his choice purely on the principle that he would do everything for his loved ones, then how easy would everything be?

“Mustafa,” Elder Samuel mused. “I’m sure you’re aware of most, if not all of it. You wouldn’t have been able to unify those barbaric lands and gather so many excellent individuals around you if all you had was martial prowess. You must know that too, no? That escaping is not an option,” he thought quietly, wondering if the same news they had received reached Mustafa’s ears by this time.

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“I see,” Mustafa said with a deceivingly calm look on his face. “So Jasmine perished at Abdain’s hand… and those two, Laien and Yin, disappeared in the Forbidden Lands,” he stated emotionlessly, almost as if it was a matter of fact. “Do you bring any other news from your master?” he asked, directing this question to the brown-green-cloaked man under Elder Samuel’s orders.

“Nothing new,” the man replied respectfully. “As your own subordinate mentioned, both my master and your esteemed son are planning to follow their original scheme. Naturally, they aren’t planning to rely on any reinforcements from the Holy Union, so they will without a doubt act more carefully,” he elaborated, knowing that Elder Samuel’s words at their parting indicated that he could freely inform Mustafa of all that had happened. Thus, even though it wouldn’t have surfaced in his behavior anyway, he was actually feeling quite light at heart. After all, simply delivering honest information to the best of his ability was on the simpler side of his usual duties.

“So the numbers remain unchanged?”

However, this peace of heart of his was disturbed by the seemingly casual question of Mustafa’s. “Y-yes,” he replied hastily, but to his own surprise, he failed to properly control his emotions. It wasn’t killing intent or anything of the kind and he knew that Mustafa’s cultivation had been ravaged by Arakar, but the mere pressure contained in Mustafa’s voice still caused him to break out in cold sweat. It was a good thing for someone in his line of work to be sensitive to the subtle changes in one’s tone, but now, he wished he had been unable to sense the mild threat contained in those few simple words spoken by Mustafa.

“Is that so,” Mustafa said with a slight smile, then flicked his hand lightly. “Thank you, you may go,” he told the man who in turn quickly obeyed his order, looking like he was quite relieved. With that, Mustafa turned his eyes to the grey-cloaked White Guard and his own subordinate.

“The fact that it’s you reporting to me and not Zaban,” he began saying as the emotions he had kept suppressed started returning both to his face and to his eyes. Anger, hope, frustration, determination… and many others, but those four primarily. “Does it mean he stayed behind in order to confirm the fate of those two kids or does it mean that he had been killed by the third party?” he asked straightforwardly. He hadn’t shared his thoughts with many of his men yet, but the members of the intelligence unit were ones with tighter lips than the others. There was no need to mention the benefits of filling them into his doubts, thus, they knew more than the most.

“He stayed behind,” the grey-cloaked man, a member of Zaban’s small unit of seven, replied straightforwardly. “As you expected, Grand Yimar, the Ruishi Federation doesn’t seem to be willing to throw in more strength despite another strange event occurring. I’m confident that they’ve lost a fair number of their own agents yesterday, just like we had, with eight to eleven percent of the intelligence forces they sent out being my estimate,” he reported without wasting words to express his own thoughts and conclusions. Not only was he sure that his Lord was able to think of all of them on his own, but Mustafa always asked for an opinion if he wanted to hear it.

“So it’s as expected,” Mustafa said with a sigh. Judging by his body language, he was talking to himself in order to organize his thoughts, but the grey-robed man didn’t mind and stood where he was and listened in silence. “Whoever it is, we do not have the power necessary to confront him at this time. Thankfully, it doesn’t appear like he is committed to burning all the bridges in front of us… rather, it feels like he is setting the bridges in front of Arslan and those kids on fire,” he said and leaned back onto the many pillows which lay behind him. The difference between those two things might seem to be a small one, but as far as he was concerned, it was very important to recognize.

“That damned Arakar, if only…” he murmured, but then shook his head. It couldn’t be helped now that he had already allowed himself to be critically wounded, so there was no point thinking about it. Having his thoughts wander in a loop that said everything would be different now had he not allowed himself to be wounded was pointless. He wished he had time to mourn the death of his old friend, Jasmine, but he had no space to accommodate such leisure. He would make sure to recover her body if at all possible, then he would pay her proper respects. Now, however, he couldn’t allow his thoughts to be muddled with grief and suffering. For that, there would be time later.

“Call my four Lieutenants here for me,” he told the grey-cloaked man, who bowed and hurried to do as he was told. A few minutes later, one after another, four figures entered the room. Although they walked in calmly and at a steady pace, they had undoubtedly run here at their top speed given how quickly all of them had arrived.

The thought that he was growing stupidly nostalgic did cross Mustafa’s mind, but he ignored it as he took a better look at those familiar faces. Amongst the four, there were two men of typical Ikarian features, one looking as if he was in his mid-twenties and the other one looking as if he was in his mid-forties. However, as it was often true for high-ranked cultivators, appearances were deceiving. The younger-looking of the two of them was in truth well over seven hundred years old, while the older-looking one was still only a bit over three centuries old.

Then, behind those two men who got along surprisingly well despite their dramatically different aesthetic sense, was the silver-haired woman. Just like Reian, she had been a slave he had freed and taken in, though the specific circumstances were very different. Unlike Reian, this woman had been used as a combat-slave by one of the mercenary groups in Arkaria. However, after her masters had been instantly annihilated by him in a very unlucky encounter on their part, the woman had made use of the chaos and confusion and killed the men who were keeping her little sister’s life in their hands as the bargaining chip to control her.

There was far more to that series of events, but long story short, the silver-haired woman became a trusted member of the White Guard after a few years and then, a few decades later, she rose to the position of a Lieutenant. By now, it had been over four hundred years since that time… but the woman in question would probably snort at him if he mentioned her age.

Finally, there was an average-looking man with the most typical dark-brown hair and brown eyes. Neither his figure, his demeanor nor his aura suggested that he was anything special. However, he was the most extraordinary one of the ten Lieutenants in terms of pure combat strength. In other words, he was ranked third in the whole Makarash in terms of strength, just behind Mustafa himself and the old Captain Commander, Kundar. Though… now that Mustafa thought about it, this average-looking friend of his was now the second-strongest one amongst them, eh?

“If only I wasn’t careless and had him fight by my side…” Despite telling himself not to think about it, Mustafa couldn’t stop this thought from passing through his mind.

“What did you call us here for, Grand Yimar?” the young-looking man of Ikarian origin asked after the four of them stopped and stood in front of Mustafa.

“For now, sit down,” Mustafa said with a slight smile. “Tell them everything you’ve told me,” he ordered, his gaze moving towards the grey-robed man who was standing a respectful distance of a few meters away from their group. He hadn’t been dismissed by Mustafa and only told to bring the four Lieutenants here, so he naturally entered with them.

Yet, what the grey-robed man didn’t expect was that not long after he started talking, his words would get stuck in his throat as the spacious room filled with the powerful killing intent of the silver-haired woman. Moreover, the other three Lieutenants didn’t look all that calm either, as if they were barely suppressing themselves from erupting… and contrary to when he had first told the same thing to Mustafa, the Grand Yimar also had a murderous look in his eyes.

“We’ve been lenient with them for too long,” the youthful-looking Ikarian man said quietly, but it was obvious how much anger filled every syllable of the words which he uttered. “I’ve said so before, but we should have ignored the casualties and focused on killing all those responsible for wounding you, Grand Yimar. All of my men, including myself, would happily give our lives for you,” he stated strongly and with no doubt, the powerful fire-element Qi stirring up within his body.

“Exactly…” the silver-haired woman muttered. Out of those present, she was the most furious one. Even now, she was yet to suppress the waves of killing intent that surged from her body. “First Lord Mustafa, then little master Arslan… now Jasmine. Enough is enough. I hate those barbarians, but they are right with one thing. Blood needs to be paid with blood,” she said while clenching her fists so hard that they turned while. However, because of how tough her body was, no blood came oozing out despite how much pressure she was applying to the palms of her hands.

“I concur,” the older-looking Ikarian man said with a cold look in his eyes. “Little master’s rule will be far more secure if we can trade our lives for those of Arakar and his elites. Of course, if we can kill Abdain and Yimar Maar along with their people on top of that, then it will be the best… but I think we should prioritize killing Arakar above anything else,” he said with a relatively cool head. He, too, desired revenge, but his temper was far better than of those two even though he was a fair bit younger than them. As someone capable of crippling Mustafa, Arakar needed to be dealt with the moment any opportunity to do so presented itself. He was far too dangerous to be left to his own devices.

“And you?” Mustafa turned to the average-looking man, whose expression was hard to read at the moment. “What do you think?” he asked thoughtfully.

In turn, the average-looking man smiled somewhat helplessly and said, “I’d be grateful if you specified what you are asking about, my Lord. If it’s about my anger, then I share the sentiment of my companions. However, if it’s the question of whether it’s a good idea for us to employ our full strength while ignoring the casualties in order to get rid of Arakar and the others, then I’m unable to provide an answer based on logic.”

“Hoh,” Mustafa revealed a genuine smile, the multitude of emotions he was feeling swapping for the sense of appreciation for the moment. As expected of the man who was offered to, and refused, to become a Captain Commander after Kundar’s lifespan would burn out. Still, it looked like the other three Lieutenants present had had a wrong idea only for a second or two before they realized what their friend was implying. Truly, there were no average people amongst his ten Lieutenants.

“Once can be an accident,” Mustafa began saying with a strange mixture of a calm smile and a dangerous look in his eyes. “However, what happened twice can happen thrice,” he continued and looked in the eyes of the four Lieutenants. After seeing that all of them understood what he was speaking about, he concluded straightforwardly.

“I’ve called you to discuss this one important matter. While knowing that the unknown third party might interfere for the third time, are we going to play it safe and only try and tie up our enemies while Arslan gets to the Holy Union, or are we going to aim to crush them entirely?”