"I'm sorry brother.. Last night you had to see me in such a pitiful state."

Surya apologized to Sesha the first thing in the morning. After crying for the entire night, he was feeling somewhat better.

"You don't have to apologize to me." Sesha replied.

"Ah.. I really am an idiot. She only said that she wanted to go to the tournament.. and I ran and bought the tickets..Truly pitiful, aren't I?"

"..."

"Anyways, since I already bought these passes already, want to go watch the tournament with me?"

Surya took out the pass for the tournament and offered to Sesha but Sesha didn't reciprocate. He intently looked at the piece of paper in Surya's hand and then moved his gaze to meet his eyes. After thinking something for a moment, he spoke up.

"Didn't you say these are expensive? I do not have money upon me you know, so I won't be able to pay you back."

This was a lie. The fortune that Sesha had on him was enough to buy the city itself, thousand times over! A tournament ticket was extremely insignificant in comparison. However, Surya didn't know this.

"Since I already asked you, there's no need to worry about paying me back."

He was simply glad that Sesha was coming along with him (although he hadn't agreed yet). To an observer, it would indeed seem strange that Surya readily agreed to give this ticket, which was roughly equivalent to several months of his income, to Sesha but to a select few who knew him well, his actions were explainable.

To begin with, Surya was an extremely trusting person. His goodwill towards Linny, who was a companion, of all things, was a testimony to that. Without having known Sesha for even a day, he had already started trusting him, which was strange in and of itself. On top of that, as he said earlier, he did indeed feel wrong for causing trouble to Sesha last night (which, Sesha would argue, was nothing at all).

But most important of all these reasons was that he simply didn't want to go alone, not after the fiasco of last night.

"Well, in that case, I accept it." Sesha decided to accept the pass.

"Thanks brother."

Surya was honestly delighted.

"What are you talking about? It is me who should be thanking you. After I heard about the tournament, I was really looking forward to see it. I heard that it is quite the spectacle."

"Indeed it is brother. There are warriors from all around the empire gathered to show their might in this tournament. The winner is rewarded heavily so it attracts warriors from everywhere. And I heard that there is even someone from the major sects participating this time!"

"Major sects?" Sesha asked with a puzzled looks.

"Yes brother! There are four in total! One of which is in our empire Shivpur. The warriors from the major sects are extremely talented brother! In fact, the difference between someone from the major sects and an a warrior from any other sect is like heaven and earth!

"They don't often participate in tournaments like these, so we don't get to see them more often. But this is precisely why this time is going to be one of the greatest tournament ever! In this regard, you are actually quite lucky brother!"

Surya was a little excited by the time he finished saying this. And it so happened that his excitement carried over to Sesha too. Right now, Sesha was extremely curious about the major sect.

`Just how powerful are they really?` was a question that was going through his mind repeatedly.

All his life, he only had contact with his master and Nagini. Nagini left him during the early phases of his cultivation, so he didn't really know just how powerful she really was and about his master? Well, as far as he was concerned, there was no way for Sesha to know. Even for Sesha, his master Rudra was an immeasurable existence.

Due to these reasons, Sesha never had anyone with whom he could compare his power.

`Major Sects..` Sesha was already getting impatient.

"What are you thinking about brother?"

Seeing him lost in thoughts, Surya spoke up.

"Nothing nothing, I was just thinking how the tournament is going to be."

"No use thinking over it brother. Besides, everybody already knows. If someone from the major sect is participating, then there is no way any other warrior can stand against him. The outcome is already deci.."

"WRO~~OONG !!"

A shrill singsong voice resounded, breaking Surya's sentence. Accompanying the voice was the figure of a small child running enthusiastically towards the two of them. She was Rosey.

"Good morning brother Sesha!!" She said in a merry tone.

"Good morning little Rosey.. What are you so enthusiastic about?" Sesha asked her.

"It's the tournament brother!! Today is the day isn't it! Kyaa.. I just can't wait any longer!" She really couldn't contain her excitement.

"Leaving that aside, why were you screaming `wro~~ong` like that?" Surya asked.

"Oh.. You were here too?" She offhandedly remarked.

"What's with that tone?"

"Hmm.. What are you talking about?" She feigned ignorance.

"Little Rosey, don't be like that. Tell me what did you mean by that?"

This time it was Sesha who had asked her the question. Rosey was instantly delighted as she faced him and began explaining.

"Brother Sesha, while it is true that the people from the major sects are quite powerful but the one who'll take this tournament is none other than my beloved Kartik !!" She squeaked when she said that name.

"Kartik?" Sesha repeated.

"Yes brother Sesha!! Prince Kartik!! The most coolest and strongest and awesomest (and bunch of other ests) of all warriors in this empire!!"

Little Rosey had stars all over her eyes when she spoke of the second prince of the Shivpur empire: prince Kartik. Despite of being not even fifteen years of age, prince Kartik's talent was rumored to be on par with the elites of the royal soldiers; a prodigy. Shivpur was an empire which recognized strength above everything else. Therefore, prince Kartik was immensely popular amongst the citizens despite of being the second prince. How could then Rosey, whose head was filled with warriors and princes, not be fond of him?

"Heh.. We'll have to wait and see for ourselves little girl." Surya remarked.

A vein instantly popped on Rosey's forehead due to Surya's seemingly condescending words.

"Oh.. You have some nerve calling me a little girl when it was you yourself who was crying like one last night."

"W.. Wha.. Whaaat?"

Surya's face instantly lost its color as he looked upon the little girl in front of him, who was grinning devilishly. This girl!! She knew!

"N- Nonsense."

He struggled one last time to preserve his dignity.

"Really? I wonder if it were the horses who were sobbing last night when I came here. Oh wait, horses don't sob like little girls do they?"

She shot down his attempts mercilessly. By now, Surya's face was crimson red with embarrassment. He wanted nothing more than to dig a hole and crawl into it. Sesha realised his predicament and came to his rescue.

"Little Rosey, tell me more about prince Kartik, what realm is he in?"

"What do you mean by realm brother Sesha?" She asked innocently.

Evidently, she didn't know anything about realms. In fact, it was not only Rosey who didn't know it. The average population of the empire didn't have any idea about the world of yogis, or warriors as they liked to call them. Of course, Sesha didn't know that.

Rosey was still looking at him intently, waiting for the answer to her question.

"Umm.. I meant, how powerful is he really?"

"He is way way strong brother! They say that he can defeat hundreds of soldiers at once! And he moves like the wind itself.. And and, his punch can even bore a hole through a tree!! Just wait until you see him in action brother!"

Rosey was quivering with excitement while she explained about her dear prince Kartik to Sesha. Suddenly, as if she remembered something, her mood darkened.

"What is it little Rosey?" Sesha sensed it.

"It's.. just.. Brother Sesha, I asked aunt Sophie you know.. To let you go with us to the tournament.. But she didn't agree."

"Oh! Just that? Don't worry about it little Rosey.. "

Before Sesha could continue, Rosey instantly interrupted him with vigorous words of her own.

"Don't you worry brother Sesha. I will definitely persuade aunt Sophie! I will cry so loud that she won't have any other choice! In fact, I won't stop crying until she agrees to let you come with us!!" She said with a dangerous glint in her eyes.

`Too dangerous!` Surya instantly thought to himself. `This girl is way too dangerous!`

His earlier gloom at being bested by a little girl vanished at once! What replaced it was an acute wariness towards her instead.

"You shouldn't cause trouble to your aunt little Rosey."

"B-But!"

"Just hear me out." Sesha showed her the pass. "Your big brother Surya has already given me a pass, see!"

Rosey carefully observed the pass and instantly gave a smile like a dazzling sun!

"Yess!! Brother Sesha is coming with us!!" She began jumping with joy!

"I will go and tell father!" She ran towards the inn.

After she left, Surya visibly relaxed and said,

"Just what on the earth did you do to that girl to get her favor!!"

"Why do you think I did anything to her?"

"Whaaat?? How could you even say that!? She is clearly way too fond of you!!"

"Huh! Is she?" Sesha said innocently.

Surya was flabbergasted by his reply! It took him some time to realise whether Sesha was being sincere or was simply feigning it! How could it be that he didn't see the fondness of the little girl towards him? Or was this new friend of his the rumored dense type? In any case, the girl was good towards him and that was it, no need thinking much about it. With this thought, Surya decided to drop it

As they were heading towards the inn, Rosey's voice sounded again.

"Brother Sesha, I got you something to eat! Hurry up here!!"

She ran towards him and grasping his hands with vigor, pulled him towards the breakfast table.

"Pretty boys do have it easy.."

Surya sighed inwardly.

* * *

Sophie was nick named the "Loud Mouthed Purple Demon" by the rest of the town. Partly due to her fierce nature and partly due to her unrestrained tongue. Although some close to her knew that she was a kind person in her heart, for the rest of the town she was someone that was foul mouthed and untrusting.

Thus, it was hard to imagine for them that there was once a time when she was a shy and reserved girl. Not only that, in her youth she was actually quite a beauty! Coupled with her alluring proportions and her fair complexion, her shy and meek nature gave her a distinguished aura of an extremely delicate princess who needed protecting. She had many suitors in those days, not only due to her looks but also due to the fortune that her family had left for her.

Eventually, she fell in love with one of her suitors, an extremely charming individual. Even for a first love, Sophie's attachment for him was unnaturally strong. This was precisely the reason that when he betrayed her, the pain she felt was excruciating. The person who had repeatedly promised to protect her for the rest of her life turned out to be a playboy who had only courted her for her wealth. He ran off with almost her entire wealth, leaving her broken in more than one way.

But Sophie was a strong woman. She managed to rebound from that betrayal. She gathered the remaining of her wealth and left the place which was the graveyard of her feelings and traveled to the Golden Bird city where she established this Purple Orchid Inn. Due to this ordeal she transformed completely. She gained a fierce and resolute nature totally opposed to her previous meek self and an unusual wariness towards any charming men.

This is why when she looked at Sesha, who was currently accompanying her family to the tournament, her mood darkened. In fact, every time her eyes fell on this boy, whose entire being was not only refined but also exuded an air of mysteriousness, she couldn't help but remember the one who had once betrayed her. This irritated her to the point that she almost wanted to shout something at someone but she didn't.

This was not due to her concern of the boy, rather she didn't care about him at all. But she did feel some pity for the one who was accompanying him, her employee Surya. She knew that Surya was going through a painful experience even though he had managed to hide it quite well. While it might have been remained hidden from others, she herself knew the pain of heart break all too well to look past his facade. Out of sympathy towards the foolish Surya who was something like a little brother to her, she had somehow managed to restrain herself.

It was almost midday when all of them arrived at the tournament. After showing their passes to the guards who were extremely busy with all of those clamoring to get inside, they arrived at the stands. There, they had to separate. The tickets that she had bought were of superior tier than the one that Surya had. Although, her niece Rosey had protested again but the boy Sesha had somehow managed to convince her this time and her protest had subsided. This also ticked her off because she couldn't understand why her beloved niece was so good to him.

When the three of them, arrived at their respective positions, her cousin Solom spoke up,

"Man, these are some good seats. You surely are quite rich cousin!"

"Hmph! It's not that I am rich, just that you are too poor yourself cousin! Besides, there was no way I would've let my dearest Rosey in any seat with a poor view!"

Although Solom was angry at her first part, he decided to let it go. Arguing further with this cousin of his was not a good idea.

"If only brother Sesha were here.." Rosey said sadly.

"Tell me Rosey, why do you care so much about this brother Sesha?" She finally asked her niece.

"Can't help it cousin, she is at that age after all!" Solom answered instead of Rosey.

"Wah!! Father! What are you saying!?" Rosey was flustered.

Sophie was still intently looking at her niece's face, awaiting her answer.

"Auntie.. It's just.. Big brother is really nice and gentle.."

"How do you even know that Rosey? Didn't you just meet him yesterday?"

"But auntie, he is so pretty.. How can he not be nice and gentle?"

"See.. I told you didn't I? She is at that age alrea...dy"

Sophie shot a venomous glance towards him and he instantly stopped speaking! Afterwards, she looked at her little niece who was not even ten years old and gently said to her.

"Dearest Rosey, you shouldn't always judge a person by his looks you know. Especially if the ones who you are dealing with are attractive and charming types, you should be much more careful of them."

"But auntie.."

"Little Rosey, listen to your aunt. This brother of yours is a dangerous fellow.. Your aunt can sense it from him. He doesn't speak much until spoken to, he acts way above someone his age and the way he carries himself.. even your aunt hasn't seen anyone like him before. So please little Rosey, do not involve yourself further with him okay?"

Her tone was half pleading when she was speaking so Rosey couldn't immediately refute her. She was still searching for words to reply to her aunt when she was interrupted by a loud voice reverberating throughout the tournament grounds.

"Welcome everyone to this Grand Warrior tournament!"

* * *

"Welcome everyone to this Grand Warrior tournament!"

Sesha and Surya were together in the stands when the announcer indicated the start of the tournament.

"Today is finally the day that all of you have been waiting for so desperately. Warriors will clash and the powerful will emerge victorious in this contest of strength so brace yourself for the excitement that is to come.

"Also, by the decree of our mightiest emperor Bhairava, the winner of this tournament will not only get a thousand gold coins but will also be granted nobility and a suitable fief of his choosing so you can rest assure that the warriors will fight vehemently for this grand prize!!

A loud cheer greeted the announcer's word. A thousand gold coins were a reward of their own but to even grant nobility to the winner showed how much importance the strongest warriors really had in this empire! After the cheers of the crowd subsided, the announcer stated again.

"As all of you might know that the youngest prince of our empire, Prince Kartik was said to participate in this match but unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstances, he will not be doing so."

"BOOO!!!"

A large booing entailed this declaration which didn't take an insignificant time to subside. The crowd was clearly displeased. Even Sesha could almost imagine Rosey wailing "NOOOOOOOOOO!!" loudly!

"Alright alright, calm down everyone. Even though Prince Kartik couldn't honor us by his presence, but he has sent his own retainer, an honorable Royal Warrior, Sir Krishna to preside over this tournament on his behalf. To ensure fairness in this tournament, all of the matches will be overseen by him."

As if on cue, a man with powerful build and overflowing vitality appeared and walked towards the seat of honor. The crowd instantly cheered for him which showed just how much they respected a Royal Warrior.

Although he clearly looked different but there was something about him that reminded Sesha of someone but he couldn't immediately tell who it was. After taking a long look at him, he turned towards Surya.

"What's a Royal Warrior, Surya?" Sesha asked.

"It's like this Sesha, the emperor commands the greatest of the warriors in this entire empire, well apart from the Major Sects. Royal Warriors are the strongest even amongst them! They really are a scary bunch. It is said that a single Royal Warrior can annihilate thousand of other lesser warriors!" Surya said with a voice mixed with admiration.

"Oh.."

"Yes! They are the real force of this empire Sesha! Out of the thousands of the warriors that are employed by emperor, there are only a handful of these Royal Warriors so you see how rare and strong they are!"

"Indeed." Sesha remarked.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, without further ado, I now pronounce the start of this tournament!!"

A loud cheer accompanied this announcement. The event that they all had been waiting for was finally here! The start of the competition.

"The first match of this competition is between Dirgha, a man from the Lotus Sect and Asru, a rogue warrior who proclaims that he has descended from the Himalayas!"

"What's a rogue warrior?" Sesha asked him again.

"Umm.. It's just a name for the warriors who are not associated with any sect or a noble household." Surya answered.

Just then, two warriors entered into the grounds from the two opposite ends.

The warrior Dirgha was a man in his middle ages with a powerful build. He wore a black armor and carried a broad sword which further gave him an appearance of a fighter. In contrast, the man who called himself Asru, was a thin and lean person who wore nothing but a mediocre brown robe. Regardless, the air around him was heavy, which not many could feel but Sesha could tell, came from his many years of cultivation.

The crowd had largely cheered when Dirgha, adorned with majestic armors had walked into the grounds but when Asru had walked in, the crowd booed.

"Who's this beggar?"

"Just how did he come even here?"

"Kill him Sir Dirgha!!"

And many other rude words came out from the mouths of the crowd. Just why were they behaving like this? The warriors in this empire were an extremely respected bunch. Naturally, with the respect came wealth and soon it became the other way around. Only the rich could afford the initiation procedure i.e. The awakening of the Muladhara. Even the smallest of sect would only take in the sons of nobles and rich merchants because the normal people could not afford the initiation. This was the reason that the warriors were now often tied with wealth. Warriors became wealthy and only wealthy could become warriors. So when someone like Asru came to the grounds in his beggar like appearance not many believed him to be a warrior at all!! Thus, he was met with ridicule.

So was he not a warrior? Absolutely not! In fact, he was a greater warrior than his opponent Dirgha. Sesha had observed that the one from the Lotus Sect, Dirgha, was in his late stages of the Earth Realm due to a pronounced red aura surrounding him. But the rogue warrior Asru was in the middle stages of the second realm, the Water Realm. A faint orange ripple of an extremely calm prana energy was exuding from his body.

It has to be said that not many who were present there could tell this fact. It was not because they were not cultivators, in fact, there were many cultivators present who were much more experienced than even Sesha but they wouldn't have been able to tell their cultivation apart without being in their close proximity. Why? Because they did not have "eyes" like Sesha did. Sesha trained in an extremely rare and an extremely powerful art of the Ajna Chakra, the "Eyes of Petrification". It had keenly advanced Sesha's visual perception prowess and he could easily tell apart the cultivation of yogis if they were not deliberately hiding it.

In midst of the booing from the crowd, the announcer proclaimed the start of the match and the two warriors readied themselves. The warrior Dirgha charged first, with sword in his arms. Unlike the crowd, he did not ridicule his opponent because being in his presence already gave him a faint idea about his opponent greater prowess. Thus, his charge was filled with his entire power! The Earth Chakra exploded and with a force of a mountain, his sword came upon his opponent!

The warrior Asru was unarmed so he dodged the blow.. Or at least that's what should have happened. Instead, he extended his arms forward and like a madman, grasped it in his palms!! The sword was like a mountain let loose, how could his arms even sustain them? The swords should have cleanly shaved his palms in two but that too did not happen. Although he grasped the swords in his clutches, he did not attempt to stop the sword right in its track. Instead, like a gentle flow of water, his arms fluidly moved with the swing, redirecting the force of the blade away from its original mark and into the ground.

"BANG!!"

The sword collided with the ground with a loud noise and dirt encompassed the two of them. When it subsided, the crowd witnessed a large crack that had appeared on the ground due to the sword landing over there! The sword itself was lodged into the ground but warrior Dirgha was not clutching it. He was sprawled on the ground instead and Asru was standing a little distance apart from him with an indifferent expression.

The whole exchange hadn't even lasted for even ten or so breaths but the result was already clear! The warrior Dirgha had lost and the rogue warrior Asru, who the crowd had treated with such disdain had won without much effort!! This had made the crowd silent. Each and every single one of them were stunned. Except for some, Sesha included.

For him, the match was clear from the start. There was no way that the warrior from the Lotus Sect could stand against the one who was an entire realm above him! Leaving that aside, Sesha thought that the moves executed by the rogue warrior were quite exquisite.. to the point that even if his opponent were in the same realm as him, there wouldn't have been any chance for him at all! He had witnessed the last attack of Asru, which had left Dirgha sprawled on the ground.

After effortlessly directing the sword into the ground, Asru had, with a small but calculated blow to the solar plexus, incapacitated Dirgha. His master had told about such an attack to Sesha. One where the attacker infuses a small amount of his prana into a nadi (meridian) of the opponent through his attack disrupting the entire harmony of prana circulation inside his body. Unless the one receiving the attack had a greater grasp of his prana, there was no way that he could defend against that type of attack. Evidently, warrior Dirgha too, couldn't prevent against it!

Thus, the first match concluded with the victory of the rogue warrior Asru, much to the astonishment of the crowd. Asru didn't wait for the announcement of his winning this match and left the ground hurriedly. Even when he was walking back towards the entrance, the crowd was still silent.

* * *

“Whoa did you see that!”

“Amazing!!”

“That beggar actually won! Was he really strong?”

“No way! That warrior Dirgha was just weak, that's it!”

“Yes, that must be the case.”

People began to chatter all sort of things amongst themselves after Asru left the grounds but not all of it was good things about Asru. Even though he was clearly superior, the masses couldn't really see that. As far as they were concerned, Asru really was a weak fellow and his opponent even weaker than him. But there were one or two amongst the crowd who could see that it was not the case. For instance, the Royal warrior Krishna who was presiding over the matches was muttering to himself,

“Ah.. he went ahead and did it.. and after all I said to him about restraining himself. Sigh!”

Afterwards, the commentator quickly announced the victory to the warrior Asru and the tournament progressed forward.

Not even an hour was complete and already a dozens of matches were concluded. The crowd was being entertained thoroughly by the clashes of the warriors but not every one of them were so excited. Sesha being one such person. Truthfully, he was getting bored.

In all of these matches, Sesha had noted that apart from the first match, none of the warriors that had appeared on the grounds were of the second realm. Every single one of them were of the first realm. Some in the early stages of the realms, some in the middle stages and one of two of them in the late stages.

Finally, Sesha asked Surya about this matter but unexpectedly, Surya responded with a hugely astonished tone!

"What do you mean they are not strong!! My god! Do you even see? They leave cracks in the ground where their steps fall, even the air whistles when they swing their swords, the place where they fall leaves a huge crater and the sounds of their clashes even carries this far into the stands! They are already so very strong!"

"But they are not as strong as that Asru you know."

"About that Asru fellow, was he really that strong? Wasn't it just that his opponent was weak instead?" Surya expressed his doubts.

"..." Sesha didn't answer.

"Anyway, just wait until you see the one from the major sect!" Surya said to end the discussion.

A few more matches followed but they too, in Sesha's exclusive opinion, were quite weak. But unlike him, the crowd was enjoying every single one of these matches!! To them, even someone from the Earth Realm were like tigers amongst men! The blows that they exchanged and the swords that they clashed, each were filled with strengths that normal people couldn't compare with!! This had made the crowd extremely excited.

After the twentieth or so matches, the announcer announced something which instantly made the crowd turn wild.

"People of the Golden Bird city, as you all already know, one of the major sect, the Uttara Sect from our own empire is participating in this tournament. In fact, he will be participating the next and the last match for today. Please welcome the warrior Visha. Fighting him will be a knight from the noble house of Anjani, Nylon!"

Immediately afterwards, two people from different ends of the stands came into the grounds. One of them, the warrior Nylon was adorned in golden armors and carried with him, a long spear. As glamorous as he was, his cultivation wasn't weak in any regard. Sesha could easily tell that he was a veteran of the first realm, definitely not the amongst the weaker guys of this tournament.

But that didn't matter in the slightest because his opponent was too strong! Earlier when Surya had said that the major clans were incomparable to other sects and noble households, Sesha hadn't really understood his true meaning. But now when he saw the warrior of the major sect, he sufficiently understood. He was dressed in a majestic set of armors and holding only a sword that gave off aura of death. But this was not what had caught Sesha's eyes. The thing that was special about him was the fact that he was a cultivator of the third realm, the Fire realm!!

If it had been before, Sesha would have given no thought to this matter. The third realm was, after all, not a overly significant level of power in his eyes. But now that he had a little understanding about the average prowess of all the warriors participating in this tournament, he could tell that the warrior of the major sect was indeed much formidable than the rest. After all, except for the mysterious rogue warrior Asru, all of the other participants were only of the Earth realm, so wouldn't this make this Visha something akin to an incomparably powerful expert?

When both of the cultivators were face to face, the announcer indicated the start of the match. Immediately, the warrior Nylon charged towards his opponent, thrusting his spear towards him. Unexpectedly, Visha stood his ground! As the spear came towards him threatening to pierce his body, Visha calmly remained observing.

The speed of the spear was extremely fast. Majority of the crowd couldn't even see it and those that could see it concluded that it was perfectly done. They suspected that even if they themselves were Nylon's opponent, they simply wouldn't have had a chance to dodge the attack. In the face of such swift and vicious attack, Visha was still unmoving. Then how won't his demeanor alarm the spectators !? They became worried that Visha would be impaled without even doing anything !!

But of course, their worries were unfounded. At the last moment, three blurs flashed before Nylon and after a little while, three distinct sounds reverberated around the arena!

"CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!"

Sesha was looking with wide eyes at what came to pass whereas, the audience couldn't immediately register it. Only after a moment did they come to know that the spear with which Nylon had charged towards the warrior Visha was now cleaved cleanly by his sword. And not only one, but three different pieces of the spear were lying on the ground!! The sword itself which had swiftly cut the spear was now being pointed to the neck of a stunned Nylon and the one doing the pointing had a cold smile on his face as he said,

"Yield."

* * *

Author's Note:

Hello everyone, hope you are enjoying this fiction. As always, if you find any faults/inconsistencies in the writing then kindly mention them in the comments. Also, do write if you have other suggestions or positive criticisms regarding this work.