Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 222. Second Prince Alexander.

“I hope you’re correct,” the Spiritual Department Head said with a deep sigh. At the same time, the way he looked at Laien and Yin turned slightly awkward. Even out of the five monsters of the Holy Union, it was only Vladimir, the strongest out of the five, who gave him such an incomprehensible feeling. “If we want to see how far the strength and potential of these two go, we’ll have to wait until the duels with the monsters. Too bad it’s supposed to happen in two months, else the Three-Way Alliance talks might have become Four-Way Alliance talks,” he mused hopefully. He knew well of Azuresky’s and Emeric’s ambitions. While he had chosen to follow their path due to Sebastian, he wanted to pursue a way that would spill less innocent blood whenever reasonably possible.

“Okay,” Sebastian clapped his hands together. “We’ve done what we came here for, no point lingering about,” he said contentedly, without a trace of anxiety in his voice. He had just judged that Laien and Yin had in no way gone overboard and decided that even if some of the swords were to break while being ground at the grindstone, it was still worth it. So, he chose to full play along with the heavy-handed way Laien and Yin had chosen for those sparrings. Instead of complaining, he would further separate the cream from the crop by Laien and Yin’s hands, making the entire weeks-long sparring sessions into an actual advancement exam and not a fake one.

After all, Laien and Yin would have had to throw a fight on purpose for the original version of the ‘exam’ to result in anyone’s advancement. That thing was merely to calm down the disciples and the public, giving him a great excuse to go along with Azuresky and Emeric’s demands. However, having seen John's progress in terms of mentality and being hopeful for the progress Ivan could make as long as he overcame his Heart Demon, his mind changed. Originally it had been an unrealistic goal to fill up Heaven’s Quarters with adequate candidates by the end of the year, but it might just be possible if he used Laien and Yin to force his students into despair.

He had been tempering and refining them for roughly two years, so it was an excellent time to see whether they qualified to be nourished as top talents of their era or if there was only that much to them. Obstacles and failures were necessary for one’s growth, and while he wouldn’t set up the latter ones on purpose, who was he to refuse a perfect opportunity served on a silver platter? Getting trashed by the present five monsters would have been painful for those Earth Quarter’s students, too, but it couldn’t compare to the psychological impact of being beaten by a foreigner.

“We’ll excuse ourselves,” Sebastian nodded at Laien and Yin while embracing his joyful thoughts. One could only wonder, if those Earth’s Quarter’s students knew what was going through their Rector’s head, would they cry themselves to sleep while cursing his black heart? Maybe some of them would end up grateful in retrospect, just like John, but it couldn’t be denied that Sebastian threw them to the fishes. One could easily imagine the bright smile on his face as he picked up the students and told them that it would only hurt at first, serving them a portion of tough love.

“Until tomorrow,” the Spiritual Department Head smiled at Laien and Yin and, alongside the Martial Department Head, gave them a respectful nod. Using his water element magic, he brought the two unconscious students with them and gave the two Vice-Heads a brief look.

The two men seemed to have again fallen into a daze, the events of the first spar having crushed their pride and sense of self-worth. It was only when the Spiritual Department Head coughed that they realized they were acting like fools. Before any new thoughts could register, the two men clasped their fists and hands together and gave Laien and Yin a respectful bow, only to blush in embarrassment once they realized what they were doing. Wanting to avoid any further shame, they quickly excused themselves and followed Sebastian and the two Department Heads.

“Uh,” Laien scratched the back of his head. “Can they even leave if I don’t open the door for them?” he asked out loud, his voice neither loud nor quiet. Perhaps it was his imagination, but right as his words fell, the two Vice-Heads appeared to stiffen up for a split-second and almost tripped over their own legs. However, since Sebastian looked over his shoulder and gave him a reassuring smile, it was probably only his imagination. Or was it? Right, no way. Yin saw it too. So, were the two Vice-Heads really so flustered they forgot they had a way to leave on their own?

“Don’t worry,” Alexander commented from the side. “Elder-level figures can’t enter Heaven’s Quarter’s mansions at will, but they can leave as needed,” he explained with a chuckle. “You should have realized that this whole Academy City was made with convenience as the top priority, so there’s no way they’d make their top student see off the teachers every time they came. You can even give lower-ranked teachers and other students permissions through your Core Rune, allowing them to leave, or even enter and do other stuff, on their own,” he elaborated eagerly. The entire time he talked, the slightly childish smile didn’t disappear from his face at all, but…

The moment he noticed the ‘really?’ kind of a look Laien was giving him, Alexander laughed in amusement, not forgetting to suppress the range of his laugh with a bit of Qi. Although it was just a laugh, it was nothing like his usual, innocent and cheerful chuckle. He was fine with showing it to Laien and Yin, but it would be troublesome if those Vice-Heads heard it.

“Very well,” Alexander smiled at Laien and relaxed his guard. Instantly, his eyes grew cold and dry, with a steel-like glint to them. His child-like facial expression melted as if it were a lie, exchanged by a stern look one would expect from someone far older. Finally, even his cheerful aura dimmed and concentrated into a thin layer around his body, giving an almost snake-like impression. The difference in demeanour was so great that if someone were to look at Alexander, they wouldn’t recognize him at first glance, even if they were familiar with him.

“Allow me to introduce myself again,” Alexander said calmly. With his body seemingly relaxed and yet ready to attack at any time, much unlike his previous casual appearance, he put his hand to his heart and bowed slightly. “I’m Alexander Azuresky, the Second Prince of the Kingdom of Bolan, fourteen years old as of this spring. At the same time, I’m the Executive Master of Dusk Alliance. Pleased to make your acquaintance.” Having said enough, he straightened his back and looked at Laien and Yin. Were they as good as he suspected, or were they yet another powerful practitioners with little brain for anything but cultivation? He couldn’t wait to find out.

“Wait, Azuresky?” Laien asked, throwing Alexander off his game. “So that’s a family name? Everyone’s been calling your father ‘Azuresky’, so I completely forgot that your Grand Duchy is called ‘Azuresky Grand Duchy’. I should have connected the dots sooner,” he pointed out, finding the self-revelation to be rather interesting. Everyone else used their names to introduce themselves, only adding things like ‘from this family’ or ‘from that family’. Was Azuresky given a weird name by his parents, or did people prefer to call him by the family name? Wondering the truth was, he gave Alexander an inquiring look, waiting for the slightly older youth to explain.

“Uh, yeah,” Alexander couldn’t help but let out a weak laugh. All because of Laien, as soon as his serious demeanour came, it went away, leaving him in an awkward state. “Father’s name is John, but for as long as I remember, everyone’s been calling him Azuresky, even mother. I don’t know why it stuck like that, though. I never thought to ask. You can bring it up with father if you want to know,” he explained with a shrug of his shoulders. Somehow, he had lost the spirit to be serious and menacing after his rhythm was interrupted, so he could only shake his head and smile helplessly.

“Oh well.” Chuckling, Alexander suddenly realized that he might have played a part in the fail-start by starting the conversation too early. “Do you guys want to talk here, or do we go somewhere else?” he asked with mixed emotions on his face, his cheeks slightly flushed yet his lips forming into a smirk. It appeared almost as if he wasn’t sure which emotions he should be feeling and expressing.

“Anywhere’s fine,” Laien said casually. He was never one to mind the time and place, and since Alexander had already kind of started their talk, he was in no mood to move spots anyway. Thus, he took out a large fur from his interspatial ring, placing it directly on the ground. Without wasting his breath for useless words, he sat down cross-legged, and so did Yin and Alexander.

“Well…” Alexander munched the words he was about to say for a moment. However, when he thought through the possible future scenarios based on how this conversation could go, he quickly reaffirmed his original intentions. “Most importantly, I want to apologize to you two,” he said earnestly, putting his hands on his thighs. “I’m very sorry,” he said and bowed, even lowering his head. He maintained this position for roughly three seconds before straightening back up, then after seeing the inquisitive yet calm look on Laien’s and Yin’s faces, he revealed a slight smile.

He would have been disappointed if those two reacted either too emotionally or too lightly, so being satisfied, he hurried to explain further.

“Summarizing the broad picture first, as you can surely tell by this point, I’ve got more power in my hands than one would expect by looking at the usual me. I mentioned the Dusk Alliance, didn’t I? Without getting too deep into it, it’s an organization I created way back with the help of Teacher Sebastian and a few other people I could trust. In a way, we’re similar to the Guild of Shadows, but we’re more centralized and less powerful than them. As for why we thought about creating an underground organization like this one… How should I say it? My father and my older brother, just like most of our vassals, are too attached to their… Let us call it ‘Radiance’.”

“Before I explain anything else,” Alexander continued calmly. “Allow me to go back to why I apologized to you two. You should have noticed that my father and King Emeric wanted to stop the confrontation between you and the Flamesworth Family at the Burial Ceremony. You should have also noticed that it was Teacher Sebastian who stopped them from intervening. While I know Teacher’s character well enough to confidently say that he would have done the same thing without my request, I am guilty of instigating the Flamesworths and leaking some information to them. You probably noticed that they knew more than they should have, although some of their information wasn’t accurate, instead of being mixed up in such a way that they would underestimate you.”

“The scale of that argument,” Alexander proceeded in no hurry, speaking slowly and calmly. “It would have been much smaller if not for what I did. Who knows, maybe the Flamesworths wouldn’t have found the courage to start it in the first place. That’s why this incident and your enmity with the so-called People’s Faction is in large part my responsibility,” he rounded up. He believed that he had shared enough information for Laien and Yin to reach their conclusions easily. Still, when looking at their appreciative yet slightly confused expressions, he wanted to shake his head.

Noticing Alexander’s undisguised thoughts, Laien and Yin held off with their questions and continued to look at Alexander patiently. Given the nature of the matter, they indeed felt that Alexander was apologizing a bit too strongly to them, but the youth’s attitude made them reconsider. As a result, before Alexander clarified his intentions, a thought occurred first to Laien and then to Yin. They weren’t too angry about the events with the Flamesworth Family since they had had an opportunity to ignore them but had chosen to get into an argument either way. They used to think that no dangerous consequences would entail those events, but perhaps they had been wrong.

“You thought of it?” Alexander smiled slightly, having noticed the change in Laien’s and Yin’s expressions, body language, and even their auras. “Thinking of the worst possibility can make you paranoid, but those who discard it just because they don’t want to overthink anything are courting death. I do admit that in the case of the Flamesworths it’s extremely unlikely, but before making new enemies, you always have to ask yourselves: If you don’t intend to eradicate them to the last chicken and dog, if those you leave alone feel that they can’t defeat you in a head-on confrontation, what can they do? What will they do? If you think this far, the answer is obvious,” he elaborated on the point, all the while judging the present and anticipating the future reactions of Laien and Yin.

“Interesting,” Laien said, many thoughts crossing his mind one after another. Had it been before his breakthrough in the Aspect of Empathy at the Burial Ceremony, it would have taken him a while, but now he ended up laughing after a mere second passed. “Does that include you?” he asked all of a sudden and showed his teeth, a dangerous smile emerging on his face. On the surface, Alexander’s actions appeared sincere and honest despite his elusive secondary personality. However, if he were to look at them through the prism of Alexander’s explanation, they were but a blatant threat.

“Of course,” Alexander replied, remaining just as calm as before. Further yet, even though Laien appeared to be picking a fight with him, his eyes grew a bit more lively, a bit more satisfied. “Only a liar would claim to treasure his allies as much as his family and close friends. All I’m doing is for the sake of those important to me, so if you were to become a threat, I wouldn’t hesitate to act against you,” he said without an ounce of hesitation, looking Laien in the eye the entire time. This should have been an unpleasant part of the chat to have, yet he couldn’t help smiling.

“That’s not it.” Laien chuckled while shaking his head. “I’m not worried about that since I’ve got no desire to become your enemy. I’m more interested in whether you would hesitate to exploit your allies if it was beneficial to your plans. In other words, is your bottom line protecting your loved ones’ lives and happiness… or aiding them in realizing their ambitions?” he asked without beating around the bush. Alexander mentioning that his family was too obsessed with the so-called Radiance was enough as an answer to the first part of those musings. As for the latter part, the three ways in which Alexander could reply would decide whether he was to be cooperated with, kept at bay, or killed.

For the first time, Alexander couldn’t prevent a somewhat startled expression from appearing on his face. Although he hadn’t thought of Laien as a dunce like some fools in Academy City did, he never expected Laien’s thought process to be so quick and flexible. With just a few hints they had given each other, they have skipped a good half an hour of worthless conversation! A normal person… no, a more typical person would have found themselves unable to trust a relationship stemming from such a jumpy talk, but to him, it was akin to a breath of fresh air. Exchange of benefits based not on typical ‘trusting relationship’, but on trusting their judgement of the other person. Most would have felt considerably uncomfortable if forced into a similar position, but he was genuinely happy.

“Everyone needs to have a bottom line,” Alexander said alongside a refreshed laugh, one which strongly contrasted with the cold glitter in his eyes and the shiver-inducing aura that was tightly clinging to his body. “The thing is, if I want to be honest with you guys, it’s hard to answer that question. I guess the most sincere answer would be that I wouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice my allies to save the lives of my family, but I wouldn’t do the same to further their ambitions,” he explained in a few words and smiled at Laien once again. With others, he would have elaborated on the potential scenarios, the ifs and whys, but he wanted to believe that this time it wasn’t necessary.

“Hmm.” Laien tilted his head a bit and pondered Alexander’s words for a moment. Then, he exchanged a glance with Yin and laughed soundlessly. Even without Yin’s confirmation that Alexander had been staying true to his heart during that entire conversation, Laien could tell that Alexander was worth making friends with. He seemed dangerous at first glance, and that impression was definitely accurate. But in the end, he was a type of person very similar to Tei’ru.

The stance Alexander expressed was just like the creed Tei’ru used to follow while still alive, and while it could appear scary and threatening when put into words, it was, in fact, very reassuring. Be it as it may, dealing with someone willing to be honest with you about what they would and wouldn’t do was much safer than dealing with a person who wouldn’t admit to anything. After all, the ugly side of humanity, Laien and Yin had experienced it enough for them to have grown sick of it, and not just in the last three months. Thus, with all of that accumulated experience, they could tell that Alexander could become their best ally or worst enemy. Luckily, however, since their interests coincided, they were under liberty to push for the former path.

“Fair enough,” Laien said with a nod. “What do you want to use us for, then? And how exactly do you want to apologize for using us earlier on?” he inquired, his lips curving upwards a bit more. Typically he was very straightforward in his conversations since he liked to have everything laid out crystal clear. Yet, such a jumpy discussion where both sides made assumptions about each other’s stances, while still not something he wanted to do daily, ought to be fun once in a while. Or so he thought.

Having received Laien’s tacit agreement to cooperate so easily, Alexander couldn’t help being stunned for a moment. He had imagined this discussion going in many ways, but he had never imagined it to be so easy-going. Somehow he and Laien were on the same wavelength the entire time, thanks to what they avoided many arguments and - as far as Alexander’s opinion went - silly points of discussion. What needed to be said was said, what needed to be communicated was communicated, and an agreement was reached. With this result, he couldn’t be more satisfied.

“The idea is simple in concept,” Alexander said calmly. Still, he failed to prevent a hint of eagerness from resounding in his voice. “If we can suppress the People’s Faction so heavily that they’re helpless, they won’t pose any risk to you. Leave manoeuvring to my people and me. All I’ll need from you two is the final spark. With Teacher’s help, I should be able to bait them into getting into a conflict with you again. Your job will be to tear down the Flamesworths’ face and reputation as much as you can,” he explained, for once choosing to be more-or-less precise. Some things were fine to be left up to mutual understanding, but others had to be appropriately stated.

“Once that’s done,” he continued. “The danger their faction might pose to you or anyone of your friends and family will be gone,” he said without bothering to suppress the ruthless glimmer in his eyes. Pitying their enemies and leaving future trouble for themselves was something his older brother and father would do. Himself, he was of the mind that weeds had to be pulled out with roots, else they would keep growing back and spoiling the garden to no end.

“As for compensation…” Alexander finished up, letting out a slight sigh. As far as he knew, Laien and Yin lacked literally nothing. He could offer them treasures or secret skills, but none of what he could give was something those two wouldn’t have gotten on their own anyway, sooner or later. Because of that, and since he didn’t want to devalue the potential danger to those two’s loved ones, he didn’t quite know what to offer. Perhaps if he asked Sebastian, they would have been able to come up with something adequate, but he wasn’t quite willing to trade away his teacher’s trump cards like that.

“A favour will be fine,” Laien said with a laugh. Then, to Alexander’s disbelieving look, he answered with a grin, “We’ve traded benefits for future favours more than once or twice during our journey, so not accepting the same deal the other way around would be hypocritical of us. Besides, we might not even need to wait too long for an opportunity for you to pay us back to appear. For example, the Three-Way Alliance talks. How about you help Arslan out from the shadows?”

“To what extent?” Alexander inquired immediately. Helping Arslan excessively would mean undermining the interests of their Holy Union, so he wouldn’t be too happy if Laien forced his hand. He would agree since it was a favour he had to pay back, but he would remember it for the future.

“Just keep it fair,” Laien answered, his smile turning rather wry. He had thought he knew a thing or two about politics back when helping Arslan work out the deal with the Ruishi Federation, but it was only now that his view became clearer. With the understanding of the human mind and heart, which he had gained at the Burial Ceremony alongside the Aspect of Empathy, his perspective became vastly different. He now knew how lucky they had been that Elder Samuel never intended to take advantage of them, else the final deal would have been heavily detrimental to their side.

In response, Alexander nodded his head, but he shook it right afterwards, too. “You sure are an optimistic one,” he commented, wondering if Laien would understand what he meant. After all, if one were to disregard the military alliance part, the Three-Way Alliance was, in essence, a strong-eat-the-weak deal in the economic sense of things. In a way, it was far more terrifying than any militaristic alliance, especially since an average citizen would never understand its far-reaching implications. If an economic balance between the three sides could be maintained, everyone would profit immensely, but if it tipped too heavily towards one side, a war would be inevitable.

Inevitable… that is, if those in power were hell-bent on keeping it. Yet somehow, for the first time in his life, Alexander was wondering if the other two sides of the deal could be as naively foolish as his older brother and father. If they could eventually merge into one entity through economic competition, just how many rivers full of innocent blood would it spare the west? Nonetheless, it wasn’t in his nature to hope for the best, so he would prepare while assuming the worst.

“Don’t worry,” Laien replied with a smile, guessing what Alex’s thoughts were. “All we need is some time. Ten years… everything needs to be calm only until then,” he said casually, then laughed out loud when he noticed a shiver run through Alexander’s body. If someone asked him to judge whether it a chill of fear or excitement, he would say that it was somewhere in-between.

“Really,” Alexander said, his tone full of exasperation. “I don’t know if you’re that confident or just crazy, but on one thing, I agree. If we want a better future for everyone, this world needs one ruler. To achieve that, compared to an inevitable war in the west, the Three-Way Alliance’s concept is more appealing to me,” he concluded and gave Laien and Yin a slight nod. Naturally, he saw no need to reiterate that this meant he agreed to Laien’s suggested debt repayment method.

That said, with everything he had come for settled within ten minutes, Alexander laughed inwardly and stood up. He exchanged one last look first with Laien, then with Yin, before suppressing his true nature once a-more. With his expression turning naïve and cheerful and his aura returning to its usual leisurely state, he gave the two younger boys a bright, innocent smile and saw himself out.