Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 198. Dust Settles.

“Hoh,” Azuresky exclaimed quietly as he unhurriedly approached the circle of people around Laien and Yin. Yet, it was all it took for those in his way, including the likes of Casimir, Julien, and Reian, to hurriedly move to the sides and allow him to pass to the front. Undoubtedly, Azuresky’s presence commanded respect in its own right, not to mention that everyone present felt indebted to him. Thus, there had been no hesitation in their movements as they had quickly made the way for Azuresky, their bodies having moved before their brains had time to think their actions through.

“Exceptional,” Azuresky praised with a pleased smile on his face. “Bodily rebirth after a battle, I wonder what kind of a precious medicine this boy ingested beforehand,” he commented casually before moving his eyes towards his eldest son. Once Casimir sensed the gaze and turned his eyes to him, Azuresky’s smile grew bigger as he nodded to himself, once again feeling content. He had been ready to lecture and punish Casimir had the boy’s gamble not paid off, but from the look in Casimir’s eyes, he could tell that there was no need for that. Casimir appeared extremely happy even after stopping for a reckless battle at the last moment and coming close to getting Arslan killed in the process. He didn’t need to ask to know that it meant Casimir was more than satisfied with the potential and character of those two boys, Laien and Yin, whom he had agreed to help.

“Clear up the area,” Azuresky ordered with a brief glance at one of his nearby Royal Guards. “We’ll be staying here until the kid’s bodily rebirth completes,” he added, choosing to leave it at that. Originally he had also intended to mention waiting for that Living Steel weapon from a few dozen metes away to reform, but the process appeared to be quite fast. This suggested that the weapon had only been shattered instead of being turned into dust, so its wielder wouldn’t have to wait long to use it again. In fact, by the looks of it, it would only take half a minute more for the weapon to reform completely as all of its fragments were pulling themselves back together.

Soon, the Royal Guards of Azuresky’s, and of Emeric’s too once the man gave a nod, started collecting the corpses and getting rid of the blood and flesh from the area. At this time, Arslan ended up hugging Yin after Yin noticed his nervous fidgeting and extended his hand to him. As for Yin himself, even though he was tousling Arslan’s hair and snuggling him close, he couldn’t help but look at Azuresky. The aura of strength this man excluded was enough to make him feel thoroughly grateful that Azuresky wasn’t his enemy. In truth, this hidden aura that felt very much beast-like appeared even more terrifying than what Azuresky had shown when facing Abdain. Yin had a feeling that had Azuresky felt like it just before, he could have had killed Abdain with just one blow.

“He’s a monster,” Yin thought secretly, a few fresh drops of sweat appearing on his forehead. So far, he had only felt that someone was incomprehensible when he and Laien had been sparring with Altair back in the Anarchic Lands. However, this day two more people whose strength he couldn’t comprehend appeared before him, one of them being Azuresky and the second one being Emeric.

Be it Yimar Maar, Abdain, even Reian or Julien, Yin had never truly seen them as equal in terms of talent and potential. Against people like them, he had always felt that once he and Laien broke through to the Realm of Heroes, they would be able to fight them on equal grounds immediately and then, soon afterward, they would be capable of easily beating them. From the younger generation there were a few potential rivals for them, like Raphael, Mikaela, perhaps Anatis and maybe Arslan, but those four were yet to awaken their full potential, so they couldn’t truly be counted. However, Azuresky and Emeric were both immensely powerful, so much that Yin wasn’t sure if he would be able to stand toe-to-toe with them if he were at the third or even fourth Realm of Heroes.

“Boy,” Azuresky brought up with a smile, while Emeric, who had walked up to them in the meantime, snorted quietly. “I’m sure you’ve got many questions, but save them for later,” he advised in a gentle, yet strangely unyielding tone, one which caused Yin to only be able to nod obediently. Seeing Yin act so meekly, Azuresky laughed out loud, shocking basically everyone who knew him with the exception of Emeric. They didn’t know, but what he found so amusing about Yin’s response was the body language of the boy and the look in his eyes. To him, Yin resembled a young beast that was a bit frightened and thus decided to act nice and meek but was anxiously waiting for a day it was going to grow up and be able to face this adult beat on equal footing. Apart from Emeric, Azuresky couldn’t recall anyone else looking at him in a similar way, naturally discounting the ‘little frightened’ part.

“Thank you.” Somewhat out of the blue, Arslan got off of Yin, straightened himself up, then bowed first to Azuresky then to Emeric. “Thank you for coming to help us,” Arslan added in a strong, clearly audible tone. The five-year-old knew that the responsibility for the events of this entire war laid both with his side and with Laien and Yin’s issue of Shadow Trials, but unlike Laien and Yin, he felt that he had little to offer. He felt that he was very talented and he indeed was, but if one tried to compare themselves with those two, they would inevitably start developing an inferiority complex. To be fair, though, Arslan had the entirely of Makarash behind his back while Laien and Yin’s foundations weren’t nearly as grand or stable, but Arslan simply wasn’t thinking about the matter in those terms.

“You’re welcome,” Azuresky said with a slight nod and a clear smile. To his surprise, he found two very much agreeable youths on the same day. Be it Yin’s competitive spirit or Arslan’s strength and purity of character, he valued those traits a lot. If the unconscious boy happened to be to his liking too, then forget complaining to Casimir about his recklessness, he would make sure to praise his son for grasping the opportunity once it presented itself. After all, what their countries needed the most right now were the young talented practitioners of upstanding character. Once their future foundation was sturdy enough, they would finally be ready to expand their influence without worrying what would become of their countries if the likes of him and Emeric were to perish.

“If we get three more,” Azuresky remained smiling at the thought. “Then we’ll finally have gathered a hundred first-class experts of the younger generation. And if any of them is actually of the monster-class instead of the first-class, then it will be even better. Eh, it’s such a pity that Leon’s talent still hasn’t recovered after that godforsaken incident three years ago,” Azuresky mused, in the end suppressing a sigh as the look on his face sank a little bit. His anger had subsided in those three years, in large part thanks to the bloody vengeance he had extracted upon those responsible for harming his nephew and niece, but the sense of bitterness accompanied him ever since. A large storm was brewing all over the world and once the young generation started advancing into the Realm of Heroes, the times would only become more turbulent. Losing a monster-class talent to a stroke of bad luck was a huge oversight on his part, one which he wouldn’t be able to easily forgive himself for.

“That being said,” Azuresky thought happily, having quickly suppressed the unwanted memories. “Alex didn’t explain it all since he was in such a hurry, but while Arslan’s background is clear, those two boys supposedly have a huge amount of influence in the Ruishi Federation and in the southern martial countries, too. Even if none of them are monster-class talents, Casimir made a great choice,” he mused and nodded to himself. To others, the atmosphere was perhaps a bit awkward as they were all standing around Laien, Yin, and Arslan in silence this entire time, but he didn’t mind. He was sure that Emeric was fine with it too as, despite all the differences they had, the two of them never enjoyed superficial chats that served no purpose. Personally, the only times when he would break this preference of his was when his younger son, Alex, acted all cute wanting his attention… and from time to time when his wife wanted to spend some relaxing time with him, but that was it.

Alas, not everyone was as relaxed as Azuresky in this awkward atmosphere. Precisely, the Royal Guards of Casimir and Anna’s and Anna herself were, in a way, feeling more nervous than during the life-or-death battle that had been going on until a minute ago. Unlike Casimir, who had learned to understand his father’s thoughts without the need for either of them to say anything, Anna and the rest of their subordinates possessed no similar ability. Moreover, Emeric staying silent with a grumpy expression on his face wasn’t helping them calm down in the slightest. On the contrary, they were beginning to feel suffocated by the pressure and, in particular, Anna was starting to feel like crying. As strong of a sixteen-year-old girl as she was, she had never been good at dealing with her father.

“Hmph.” Seeing Casimir’s pleading gaze, Emeric sneered loudly and first swept the nearby Royal Guards of the kids with a cold gaze, then gave his daughter a scornful look. “If I had something to say, I would have said it. You’re no fools, or at least I want to hope so, so use your brains instead of acting like a hen of chickens before the dinner,” he said alongside another harrumph and looked at Casimir. His eyes seemed to be saying ‘that was enough to console them, wasn’t it?’, what made Casimir’s lips tremble dangerously as the young man gave his best not to smile. He had only seen Emeric a few times before today and in truth, had never interacted with him properly, but Anna’s assertion of him was spot on. The man’s social skills were nonexistent and getting through to him was a nightmare.

In some way, Emeric reminded Casimir of his own father, though Azuresky, while stern and strict, could at least read the mood and emotions of other people. Emeric, in turn, appeared to care only about the cold logic and expected everyone else to either figure the ‘obvious’ things out on their own or shut up and listen to orders if they couldn’t even do that much.

“Oh well,” Casimir shook his head with a smile. He was thoroughly exhausted both physically and mentally, so he really didn’t have the strength to carefully console Anna and calm down their subordinates without drawing scornful looks from Emeric. So, as tired as he was, he stopped trying to think about a way to resolve the uncomfortable situation and allowed his emotions to guide him. He took ahold of Anna, pulling her by her waist and hugging her skin-tight against his chest. He then slid his left hand into her hair gently yet quickly, the palm caressing her cheek as it moved. Finally, he pulled her even closer and before she could understand what was going on with the abrupt change of pace, he placed a deep, long, and passionate kiss on her rosy lips.

For the first second, Anna acted like a terrified kitten and even tried to push Casimir away, albeit with such weakness that one would be forgiven for mistaking her for a common girl and not a powerful martial master. She couldn’t comprehend what Casimir was thinking kissing her all of the sudden in front of all those people and most importantly, in front of their fathers! However, once the warmth of his body assaulted her senses in full force when she started feeling the pleasant sensation of a deep kiss more clearly, she became unable to resist and returned the kiss. She soon threw her hands over Casimir’s neck and pressed herself to him so tightly as if she never planned to let him go. For a moment, with her eyes closed, she forgot all about her stress, almost as if it had all been but a lie.

If anything, this sudden spectacle by the two youths changed the suffocatingly awkward atmosphere into an embarrassingly awkward one. The Royal Guards of Casimir’s and Anna’s, however, did at the very least regain quite a bit of their calm as everyone’s attention and thoughts were suddenly shifted to their two masters. Even the remaining subordinates of Julien’s and what remained of the White Sword Unit couldn’t help but feel weirdly amused and heartened by the sight of those two shameless youngsters sticking to each other like glue, seemingly oblivious to all the attention they were getting.

“I thought so,” Azuresky commented, feeling content for the third time in this short while. “See, I told you they would get along great,” he said and grinned at Emeric, who as per his usual habit, snorted in response. This made Azuresky’s wry smile grow even wider though. While it was simple for powerful men to leave numerous descendants in this world if they so wished, it just so always happened that those seemingly countless descendants would have a mediocre talent for cultivation even if their father was someone who had achieved seventh or eighth, even ninth Realm of Heroes. The same strange rule applied to the women, though it was less obvious as it took them more time and effort to leave a great number of their own descendants.

However, there was one exception. If there existed liking and true desire to form a family between the two partners, then the chances of their children inheriting their talents would be far greater. The best-case scenario for the yet unborn children, though, was if their parents truly loved each other. In this way, a pair of highly talented practitioners could quite reliably produce talented offspring. The crux of the matter was, however, that the feelings of love couldn’t be faked or forced, and they had to be mutual. Why the world worked in this way, Azuresky didn’t know. However, this rule had repeatedly proven itself to be true throughout history, so no one questioned it.

In this same subject, it was indeed a very fortunate thing for Casimir and Anna to have fallen in love. With a little bit of luck they would be able to produce children with the first-class talent and with some more luck, Azuresky dared hope that another monster-class talent would soon be born. Thinking about such a pleasant future, he couldn’t help but smile helplessly. How many centuries had it taken him until he found a woman he had fallen in love with and who also had a great degree of potential? He had started looking for a wife roughly three hundred years ago when he was about forty years old. Then, after more than two and a half centuries passed, he met Teresa during a diplomatic trip to the Yali Kingdom. She had been an upcoming talent in the Royal Guards of Emeric’s father, who had still been alive and a King back then. Because of his affair with Teresa, a war between the Bolan and Yali Kingdoms had been about to erupt, but since the two countries had always been on amicable terms and with a significant amounts of money exchanging hands, Teresa had been safely allowed to leave the Royal Guards as an exception and had become his wife soon thereafter.

It had then taken them thirty years to make Casimir, only for Teresa to unexpectedly get pregnant again just five years after giving birth to their first son. Naturally, the one who was born nine months later was Alexander. On the subject of talent, both of the kids had a first-class talent for cultivation bordering on the monster-class, but in Azuresky’s own opinion, they hadn’t been pushed far enough yet and so quite a bit of their potential strength still laid unawakened within them… though that could also be parental bias, what his wife didn’t fail to regularly remind him of in a joking way. That being said, Azuresky was glad that Casimir had taken a calculated risk this time around, though he wondered if his firstborn managed to make any progress with his cultivation thanks to it.

*Ekhm* Be it as it may, Emeric lost his patience and coughed loudly once Azuresky’s son and his daughter spent half a minute stuck to each other. This finally caused the two youths to snap out of their little world. As the realization of how far they had taken that kiss dawned upon them, they both turned bright red, far more so compared to the slightly flushed faces they displayed a second ago. “Since you’re so eager,” Emeric started saying in his standard ever-so-calm-and-collected tone. “Then you might as well set up a tent. There might be no time for pregnancy in the future and having one or two more talented kids wouldn’t be a bad thing either. So, feel free to go,” he stated in a completely serious manner, causing Casimir and Anna to feel both shocked and embarrassed beyond belief. On the other hand, Azuresky covered his face with a palm of his hand and murmured, “Tone Deaf Oaf…”

It needed not to be mentioned that only Emeric’s Royal Guards, who were more than used to their King’s particular way of thinking and acting, weren’t flabbergasted. Perhaps had Laien been awake he would have been more amused than anything else too, but since he was unconscious, there was no one who wasn’t at least startled to some degree.

“Roughly six hours.” However, just because everyone had been startled, it didn’t mean that no one was going to recover in a timely manner. Having spent so much time with Laien, who loved to tease people, Yin had inevitably developed some resistance to ridiculous situations and had learned some ‘bad habits’ from Laien, too. So, with a playful smile, Yin looked at Casimir and Anna and said half-jokingly half-seriously, “Laien will be ready to be carried on a horse galloping at full speed in six hours, so you’ve got until then if you want to go.” This simple sentence, as it had come at the time when Casimir and Anna’s minds were blank, made the two blush furiously. Seriously now, not only was Emeric saying ridiculous things but Yin was also playing along with him? It was too much!

“Oh,” Emeric glanced at Yin once the boy’s words befell everyone’s ears, then nodded in approval before turning his gaze back to Casimir and Anna. “You’ve heard him, you can go and take your time,” he said, once again betraying no hint of playfulness in the tone of his voice or his facial expression. Just like before, he was absolutely flat-out serious and really expected the two youths to follow up on his advice. The green-haired kid had even given them a long-enough and pleasantly specific timeframe, so there should no longer be anything to obstruct them, or so he thought.

Alas, Casimir and Anna weren’t exactly in the mood to stroll off a few kilometers away and enjoy an evening of sex. Perhaps they could get in the mood if they really had to force themselves, but where was the pleasure in doing something like that? They certainly weren’t about to take Emeric on his ‘suggestion’ as both the occasion, time, and place were thoroughly mismatched for such a purpose. That being said, it wouldn’t have been the first time they had done the deed as no matter what, they were two youngsters madly in love with each other with an immense amount of authority and no one to supervise them. They were supposed to end up in a political marriage, to begin with, so the guilt wasn’t there either. It would have been more surprising had they not done anything yet under such circumstances, but that was beside the point regarding the weirdness of the current situation.

Fortunately for Casimir and Anna, the two of them were spared from attempting to explain to Emeric why exactly they weren’t in the mood for trying to make children by the sound of a faraway powerful explosion, one which was accompanied by the ground itself trembling for a second or two. As everyone turned their heads to look over, they saw a huge cloud of dust rising up into the air from roughly ten kilometers away. They saw the cloud stir a few more times due to smaller-scale explosions, only for the faraway battlefield to calm down entirely. Soon enough, they saw the core of Azuresky’s and Emeric’s Royal Guards return at high speeds, having dealt with Yimar Maar as they had been indirectly ordered by their Kings.

“We failed to capture him alive,” the captain of Azuresky’s Royal Guard declared once their entire group had gotten close and stopped. “But we killed him and everyone else in the area without any casualties. We took the liberty to send a ten each of our and King Emeric’s men to deal with any potential lookouts in the area,” he elaborated, to what a golden-haired woman right next to him nodded in confirmation while looking at Emeric. The two of them, he a well-built hardened-warrior type and the dangerous golden-haired beauty were both in the same shoes, leading their respective hundred-man Royal Guards of their Kings. Interestingly, while the two of them hadn’t gotten married, they had children together, a favor of an opportunity granted by the changes in the law which Azuresky’s scandal from thirty-plus years ago had resulted in.

“That’s good enough,” Azuresky said in a neutral tone of voice. He had expected no less from his and Emeric’s people working together. Yimar Maar had been a powerful practitioner in his own right, so even if he was injured and tired, capturing him without casualties was beyond the ability of their people, not to mention that he saw no need to waste energy on capturing him anyway. Emeric appeared to be of the same mind as him as he didn’t speak up to praise or reprimand his Royal Guard, a sure sign that he was satisfied with the means taken and the outcome provided.

“Let me make use of this chance,” Azuresky spoke up a bit more loudly. On one hand, he really had something he wanted to mention, but on the other, he was sparing his eldest son and his girlfriend of the certain awkward topic being brought up again. “I will ask first,” he began calmly and looked at Casimir, his eyes turning serious in an instant and no longer appearing as happy and relaxed. “Those two kids obviously were fighting too. I don’t need the long story, so tell me briefly. How would you describe their performance?” he inquired, wishing to confirm his suspicions. He had gotten the gist of how happy Casimir was with those two boys from the look in his son’s eyes, but without hearing it from his mouth he wouldn’t accurately know the degree of the boys’ achievements.

“Nothing short of miraculous,” Casimir replied without a shred of hesitation. “They’re the most talented kids I’ve ever seen, I’ve got no complaints about their character and their current battle prowess is already on par with mine, and exceeds mine by far if they are allowed to fight together,” he explained with a bright smile. Naturally, it didn’t escape his attention that his father had changed the subject on purpose, for what he was grateful. Stern but sensible, as expected of his father.

“Hoh.” Azuresky’s eyes opened a bit wider at such generous praise from Casimir. He had expected the parts about the boys’ potential and character, but for them to actually have such a high battle prowess at such a young age was almost unthinkable. Were it not for the fact that Casimir wasn’t someone to joke in matters as serious as this one and were it not for all those experts who had survived the battle with Casimir and those two boys nodding and smiling in agreement of the assessment, he would have had trouble believing it himself. “I can’t wait to see it for myself,” he murmured so quietly that no one heard him. Two fully-developed monster-class talents, it was more than worth disrupting their northern subjugation campaign a little bit for their sake!

“Very well,” Azuresky said energetically. “Those two are still young and they aren’t from our Kingdoms, so I intend to issue a gag order. Emeric?” he first stated then asked, to what Emeric responses with two simple words - “In support.” Having gotten the agreement from Emeric, Azuresky continued in the same breath. “I assume that some of our Ikarian enemies survived to tell the story during the war, but their top-leadership had been eradicated. If it won’t come from those present here, the news will likely be treated as nothing but groundless rumors,” he explained briefly, mainly for the sake of the men from the White Sword Unit and those from the Ruishi Federation.

“Unless you wish otherwise?” he continued smoothly, his eyes moving towards Yin. The green-haired boy’s companion was unconscious so he would forgive the kid for not giving an answer straight-away, but he did ask anyway in case everything could be made clear earlier. From his long centuries of experience, Azuresky knew that the sooner something was resolved and made perfectly clear, the better the orders will be carried out and the less burden will they place on those involved.

“Thank you,” Yin said with a smile but as he did so, he didn’t rise up from his kneeling position beside Laien. This brought some commotion to the ranks of the Royal Guards of Azuresky’s, but a casual wave of Azuresky’s hand instantly silenced the brewing protests. “I’m more than fine with it,” Yin answered and in acknowledgment of the favor, both the discussed and the ongoing one, nodded his head and bowed slightly to Azuresky. That being said, him expecting Azuresky to accommodate his whim to stay close to Laien while they talked was perhaps a sign of another of Laien’s bad tendencies rubbing off on him. Still, he couldn’t help it and he didn’t mind the changes, so he didn’t think about it too much. On the other hand, he decided to add a few more words to reassure Azuresky.

“I believe Laien will agree with me that what we had done in the last days should stay under the wraps for the foreseeable future. So, once again thank you, Warrior-King.” Having said so, he bowed his head and torso once again, this time a little deeper than previously. “Thank you too, Warrior-King Emeric,” he didn’t forget to add either towards Emeric, adding the exact same bow in the man’s direction, too. Having given his thanks, he breathed a sigh of relief inwardly. Yeah, while Laien’s way of dealing with people was often amusing, being polite and mindful was more of his thing.