Book 2. The Grand Gathering. Chapter 7. Little Accidents. (Part I)

“You know, your spear technique is a bit strange,” Anatis mentioned as he and Laien were walking back from the baths in Sinra’s quarters.

“How so?” Laien asked, surprised by this statement. He had been taught how to wield a spear by Shire, so there shouldn’t have been anything strange with his spear techniques… but maybe precisely because of that, there was something unnatural about them?

“Um, how to describe it…? It doesn’t show as much when we fight, but it’s clearer when you are doing your shadow training,” Anatis scratched his head, then asked. “You prefer to imagine fighting numerous opponents, right?”

“Mm? Yeah, I guess so,” Laien replied, a bit intrigued as to where Anatis was going with this conversation. “I don’t really see much of a point in constantly imagining how I would fight one opponent. After all, what’s the point?” he explained and shrugged his shoulders.

“What do you mean what’s the point?” Anatis asked in confusion. Did Laien really see no need to practice one-on-one fights apart from the actual duels they were having?

“If I can already imagine a certain way to attack or defend, then why would I need to repeatedly process it over and over? It would be boring and a waste of time,” Laien laid out briefly, a certain question slowly forming in his mind.

“Are you for real?” Anatis asked with his eyes open wide, finding what he heard to be completely ridiculous. If Laien always trained based on this principle, then how in the world has he managed to get his spear techniques to such a high level…?!

“You keep repeating every move you learn over and over when training with shadows?” Laien asked instead, appearing to be filled with just as much disbelief as Anatis, although for a different reason.

“Your sense for the spear is great, I think you are just wasting your time by repeating each and every little move thousands upon thousands of times,” he added when he saw the confused expression on Anatis’s face. “Trust me, we’ve been sparring a lot the past week. I know what I’m talking about. Just try to be less restrained about your training, let your instincts take over,” he said with confidence, failing to understand why Anatis was so focused on the dull details which he should have been able, and certainly was able to grasp in mere moments.

“Let my instincts take over? That surely wouldn’t have been possible before; I would have gone mad,” Anatis chuckled, the suggestion of Laien’s suddenly beginning to make sense for him. He had been restraining himself all the time as to suppress the Aspect of Wrath, so this kind of attitude ended up having a big effect on the way he trained. He couldn’t be as free and unrestrained as Laien; he needed to limit himself and control his emotions, so the practice based on repetition became the most natural way to go for him.

“Ah, right,” Laien realized and laughed a bit awkwardly, scratching the back of his head in a troubled manner.

“I will try doing as you said,” Anatis said with a chuckle, finding Laien’s advice to be really helpful. Truth to be told, even though the two of them had already spent the whole day training and sparring, he wanted to head to the training halls again and try out this new approach.

“Right, you were saying something about my spear technique being strange? What was it about?” Laien inquired, curious to learn more about this part.

“Um, it just gives me a feeling of being more suited to fighting many people at once. You rarely engage in prolonged exchanges for seizing advantage when we duel. You prefer to either overwhelm me with a quick series of attacks and if it doesn’t work, you reset the tempo and try something else. You also like sweeping motions, you tend to rotate your whole body a lot when attacking and you move around a lot,” Anatis explained as well as he could, point out the most apparent points.

“It kind of feels as if your fighting style would be a perfect fit for fighting a hundred people rather than one person. It’s still really hard to deal with for me, though,” he summed up, then looked at Laien, asking if he was right or not with his glance.

“So you are telling me I should consider adding a wider variety of approaches to my fighting style, huh?” Laien mused aloud and nodded to himself. He fell silent for a moment; he lowered his gaze and put his hand to his mouth, scratching under his nose with his index finger as he began imagining different ways to use his spear in accordance with the goal of suppressing an opponent slowly but surely.

Seeing that Laien lost himself in thoughts, Anatis didn’t disturb him and simply walked along. He did nothing apart from glancing at Laien from time to time, what accidentally managed to get Laien’s attention.

“Ah, what you said makes sense. Thanks a lot,” Laien mentioned with a laugh, feeling very happy to be making progress and getting stronger.

“Do we go train a bit more?” Anatis suggested and looked to the right, at the complex of training halls they were passing by at the moment.

“Nah, overworking yourself is counterproductive,” Laien said with a little smirk, repeating the words Shire often used on him when he was too stubborn to get some rest. “It’s still early in the evening, why don’t we go to the city for a bit?” he proposed, noticing how disappointed Anatis appeared to be. Really, this guy was even more of a training freak than him.

“I guess we could,” Anatis agreed fairly easily. Since he had spent the past seven days doing nothing but training with Laien, he naturally became good friends with him. Thus, he had much fewer reservations about going along with his ideas and suggestions.

“Okay, let’s change into some normal clothes first,” Laien said as the two of them changed the direction there were walking to. He stalled for a second and after seeing that Anatis chose simple white clothes with a few golden elements, ones which were very typical of the style of the Twin Phoenix School and admittedly fit him very well, changed into his favorite white set with some blue additions. This way the two of them wouldn’t look out of place when strolling around together.

“Mm, let’s get going,” Laien said with a smile and started running at a decent pace, Anatis following at his side without much effort at all.

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“You have a specific place in mind, or are you leading me around randomly?” Anatis inquired suspiciously, beginning to grow worried due to the amused look on Laien’s face. He had long since learned that when Laien was like this, it always meant he was planning to do something strange.

“We will be there soon,” Laien said merrily, and after a minute or so, he stopped and turned to look at one of the streets which led from the trading district, to…

“You can’t be serious,” Anatis groaned. “Crimson district? What are we supposed to be doing here?” he asked rather angrily.

“You are being too serious again,” Laien said with a sigh and smiled at Anatis. “Have you ever been to a crimson district…? Uh, a stupid question on my part,” Laien chuckled, but ended up gesturing apologetically when Anatis began turning around as if he was about to leave at once.

“You see a difference between a crimson district and red district?” Laien asked, then quickly explained. “The latter one is practically one large brothel, but the crimson district is a more high-end place. Sure there are things like ‘pleasure palaces’ in it, but the majority is filled with open bars, clubs and various restaurants. It’s more of a ‘fooling around’ place than anything serious,” he said honestly, attempting to convince Anatis to let loose for once.

Anatis shook his head and sighed heavily, but stopped frowning. “I get it now, but what does it change? I don’t want to go there and ‘fool around’ with some girls,” he stated with a clear hint of disdain in his voice.

“Just talk with them then, have fun; no need to be doing anything else. You are being way too uptight about it,” Laien argued, himself not planning to get involved in anything serious. The crimson district was a place for rich and wealthy; it wasn’t hard to find people who simply wanted to party and weren’t looking for intimate relationships.

“I don’t feel like it,” Anatis said stubbornly, unable to imagine himself having fun talking with girls in this kind of a place.

“Then go and fool around with me. No need for you to be getting involved with the girls,” Laien urged, not in the mood to be going there alone.

“You are so self-centered…” Anatis groaned, but couldn’t stop himself from smiling just a little. It really was like Laien to be behaving like this.

“Yeah, I am,” Laien chortled and stepped closer to Anatis, looking him in the eye from very close-up with a cheeky smile. “So, just come with me. It will be fun,” he said and smirked, then grabbed Anatis’s hand and pulled him along.

Laien glanced over his shoulder when Anatis followed him without resisting. In response, Anatis gave him a pouting look along with a helpless chuckle, to what Laien smiled widely.

“Heavens, he is so selfish. Even worse than Nila when she wants something,” Anatis thought resignedly, in the end having given in and chosen to go along with Laien’s whim. At the very least he could keep him company; it couldn’t turn out to be that bad, could it?

After walking for some time, Anatis realized that Laien was showing no signs of letting go of his hand and blushed a little. He was already somewhat used to being teased by Laien on various occasions, but having Laien carefreely hold his hand in public was still quite embarrassing. Truly, Laien was a bit too open and unrestrained for his comfort.

“Pretty nice around here, much better than in the one in Neil City,” Laien thought with a smile as he looked around excitedly.

The women around were without exception very fit and in a vast majority, good looking. Most of them wore a scarce amount of clothing, taking pleasure in showing off their qualities to those who wanted to look. As for the men, they were no less fit or attractive than the women, so neither of the genders could complain about the lack of eye candy.

Certainly enough, living in a country where practically everyone had a natural aptitude for martial arts of some degree made such amazing views possible. Additionally, the prevailing opinion of the importance of cleanliness played a major role in how healthy the population was. The various kinds of illnesses which were a nightmare in different parts of the world were non-existent here.

Although Laien and Anatis weren’t paying it much mind, the two of them had become quite a center of attention as they wandered the streets of the crimson district.

Considering their appearances, it wasn’t all that strange. Laien’s looks in the recent years had become slightly more mature and while he wasn’t the type of a ‘beautiful boy’, he certainly was good looking. As for Anatis, his looks gave off a noble feeling, while his behavior contradicted with it thoroughly. It was a combination that made many young women peek at Anatis with interest.

Yet, perhaps most importantly… what attracted a lot of attention was the fact that the two of them were walking hand in hand. It caused many groups of younger and older women to giggle as they looked at them. They couldn’t help but imagine the confident and merry black-haired boy and his embarrassed, seemingly timid friend in many indecent situations.

“Oh, look there!” Laien said excitedly, taking note of an open bar built in the far western style. In front of the building, there was a great amount of space divided into many square-shaped sitting areas of varying sizes. The one meter high fences around them appeared to be made from some kind of a strange, flexible wood.

All the guests of the western bar were sitting on the ground laid out with carpets and cushions, low tables taking place in the middle of each designated areas. In the very middle, just around the entrance to the building were a few western minstrels performing their local melodies and songs, creating a unique, alluring atmosphere.

The likeability of the bar was one reason Laien took notice of it, but there was something more important; the group of around twenty young women and girls at one of the larger sitting spaces.

Those young women out there were all good looking, with a few of them deserving to be described as beautiful, but they weren’t who Laien focused on. Rather, the four girls who seemed to be just around his and Anatis’s age were the reason he decided to pick this certain place for the evening.

“Oi, let go already,” Anatis whispered, wondering how could Laien be as carefree as to drag him into that bar while still holding his hand.

“You could have let go anytime you wanted, you know?” Laien said with a cheeky smile and removed his hand, making a point of how light his grip was.

“Ugh,” Anatis groaned, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. The more time he was spending with Laien, the less inclined he was becoming to care about anything whatsoever. He didn’t like Laien’s constant playing around, but somehow he would always go along with it. Why? Even himself he didn’t understand.

Laien chuckled, slowly beginning to wonder if he wasn’t overdoing it with teasing Anatis. It was fun for him, but… well, he would need to ask Anatis later and see for himself.

Thankfully, it looked like this time Anatis wasn’t going to sulk for long either, so the two of them approached the girls without having an argument in front of them.

“Hey, mind if we join in?” Laien asked cheerfully, leaning against the strange wooden fence. His glance stopped for a bit longer on one of the girls his age, on the one with long silvery hair and eyes of the same color. Out of the four, he found her looks to be closest to his preferences.

“It should be okay, right?” the silver-haired girl asked her friends with a slight smile. She acted calm and composed, but some redness still found its way onto her cheeks. Apparently, the straightforward and confident boy like Laien was exactly her type.

“Of course!” one of the other girls supported the idea eagerly, her gaze glued to Anatis. Contrary to her friend, she would have really liked to get to know closer someone like this gorgeous, golden-haired blue-eyed youth at Laien’s side.

Just as Laien was about to jump inside and sit at the low table, he noticed how the four girls all turned to look at one of the young women, one which had a calm, imposing aura about her. “This feeling… she must be a martial master. In fact, most of those women are,” Laien smirked just a little, the look in his eyes becoming more serious for a second or two.

Perhaps because his shift in displayed emotion ended up being misinterpreted, the general impression he made on those women wasn’t too good. Yet, the composed, black-haired one smiled at him and nodded, apparently having noticed more than her friends. “We came here in order to let our juniors relax. As long as they are fine with it, you can join them,” she said meaningfully, implying that the moment her juniors no longer wanted them there, they would be immediately asked to leave.

The agreement of their leader surprised the women heavily, but even though some of them were strongly opposed to the idea, they kept their mouths shut. Unless something obviously wrong happened, they wouldn’t undermine their leader’s position.

“Well then, coming in,” Laien said and hopped in with a smile on his face, seating himself at a pillow at the silver-haired girl’s side; all the while ignoring the menacing look the young woman who appeared to be her older sister was sending his way.

“I’m Laien, and this is my friend, Anatis,” he introduced the two of them, seeing as Anatis chose to sit somewhat further away from any of the four girls… but ended up achieving the exact opposite result than the one intended. The short-haired girl who had her eye on him from the very beginning assumed he was being shy and moved over by herself.

“I’m Lara,” the short-haired brunette said energetically. “And those are…” she began and gave her three friends a look, trying to get them to speak up and stop being so shy.

The two girls with less of a presence introduced themselves as ‘Ciane’ and ‘Vina’, but since Laien had less interest in them, he did only what the courtesy required; smiled at them and remembered their names.

Anatis, on the other hand, appeared to be even less interested as he didn’t grace any of the girls with as much as a glance, but knowing him, he probably made sure to put their names to his memory.