Book 2. The Grand Gathering. Chapter 29. A Certain Selfish Stupid Idiot.

“Who do you think you are storming here like this?” the fat Grand Viscar stood up and yelled at Shire. He had been extremely pleased with how the events were developing and truly hoped for this obnoxious brat to get what he deserved, but now some weirdo appeared and was bossing himself around! What were the guard outside doing anyway that they got beaten by him so easily?

“Huuh?” Shire snorted and raised his eyebrows. “Now that’s a surprise, I never knew a pig could become a martial practitioner, much less a Grand Viscar,” he pointed out, infuriating the Darthon and surprisingly, easing the tension in the Royal Court just a little bit.

Quite a few people couldn’t help themselves and smiled due to Shire’s straightforward and blunt comment. Most of them didn’t have enough power or influence to openly make fun of Darthon, while almost all of them looked down on him as a person as a Grand Viscar. One way or another, Shire’s comment and Darthon’s enraged, wholly red face made them feel quite good inside.

“Restrain that man immediately! Throw him out of here!” Darthon yelled, so angered by Shire that the last bits of common sense he might have had ended up leaving him completely.

The martial masters who were surrounding Rudford, Laien and Shire obviously hesitated. What were they supposed to do in this situation? Couldn’t the Grand Viscar tell this man was at the sixth Realm of Heroes and that he had Rudford at his side? What could the likes of them possibly do to two Great Masters?

“Don’t you dare to attack that man!” Fohan yelled right after Darthon did, the look on his face turning just as bad as when Rudford was about to kill him. “This madman is actually the brat’s master?!” he cried out in his thoughts and gave Luren an infuriated look. Wasn’t he supposed to be completely honest with him from now on? Why did he once again conceal important fact about that boy’s background? It was one thing to be on bad terms with Rudford, but this madman was unpredictable and unreasonable like no other!

Luren trembled more than a little under Fohan’s gaze. He technically had been asked to report everything relevant about Laien… but he couldn’t bring himself to tell Fohan everything at once. He thought it would be fine if he did it step by step; he never expected Shire to return to the city and barge into the Royal Court at the worst possible moment.

“Oh, long time no see you old goat. How are you doing? Still being a nuisance to everyone?” Shire asked with a smirk, then began looking around the audience. “So many nostalgic faces here! Too bad most of you are delusional idiots,” he called out with a laugh, apparently being in a pretty good mood at the moment.

“It’s that madman… he is actually back…” the older people in the Royal Court groaned. They remembered how Shire had acted during the Great War and many of them had experienced trouble due to his reckless, whimsical decisions. Yet, since Shire always brought results he had never been punished for his insubordination, even for killing his direct superiors on more than one occasion.

To those old timers, the words of Fohan weren’t all that surprising. When dealing with a madman… the best thing to do was to stay away from him and prevent any of his attention from being directed at you. The younger people, however… didn’t quite understand the danger involved with dealing with somebody like Shire.

“Who do you think you are to be insulting the aristocrats of the Kingdom in this way? Shire? I’ve never heard of you!” one of the more reckless and prideful young nobles shouted, personally very offended by what Shire said about them.

“Is he trying to get us all killed?” the helpless thought crossed Fohan’s mind. Rudford was one thing, but Shire with this unfair martial art of his was an utter monster, one which should never be provoked! If Shire really recovered from his past and brought himself back to his prime… then not even Rudford would necessarily be a match for him anymore!

Yet, Shire ignored the young noble; he couldn’t be bothered to care about some snobbish aristocrat enough to argue with him, or at least he wasn’t in the mood to care about it in this particular second.

“Master Shire,” the old Grand Viscar spoke calmly, a gleam of opportunity shining in his eyes. Out of all possible people, Shire made an appearance! If he played it well, he could almost surely get Fohan killed today! Rudford and the others might have tried to reason with the situation, but Shire would very possibly act on impulse and without a second thought!

“You still alive and kicking, huh? What do you want, grandpa?” Shire asked casually, creating quite a bit of confusion by the way he addressed the old Grand Viscar. To Shire however… it was simply a way he had always called this old man. He wasn’t related to him; in fact, he didn’t have any blood relatives in this world at all.

“We were just made to sentence your disciple to death,” the old Grand Viscar explained and shifted his gaze towards Fohan Cail in a meaningful way.

“Yeah, and so what?” Shire shrugged his shoulders. He really couldn’t care less. “You telling me you want to kill him? Are you going to try? Is anyone going to try?” he asked along with a short snort of disbelief and disdain. Were all those idiots so deluded by their little games of politics they forgot the law wasn’t and never would be absolute? If you were powerful enough, nothing mattered but your own word!

“The verdict can be overturned only by the King, but…” the old Grand Viscar began saying, frustrated that he didn’t get the kind of response from Shire he wanted. However, he quickly got interrupted.

“Okay, so we all agree that this idiotic verdict never happened,” Shire declared in an easy-going way and looked around the nobles and other ‘important people’ gathered in the building. “Does anyone have any objections?” he inquired with a sly smile, to be honest hoping that some clueless bastards would step out of the line and allow him to release some gas. It’s been such a long time since he killed any people his hands were beginning to itch real bad!

“You can’t just revoke the verdict of the Royal Court because you feel like it!” and naturally, Darthon stepped up to the task and began kicking up a row.

“Let’s see if he is as crazy as the stories are saying,” Sauras mused to himself, to be completely honest beginning to feel quite amused with this ridiculous development. The past week or so had been so incredibly interesting compared to always obtaining the expected results, to what he had gotten so used to. He finally had a way to relieve his boredom! Too bad Xin wasn’t here with him, but he couldn’t have everything, could he?

“How lovely,” Shire said with a chuckle. “You don’t seem to be using your head anyway, so I don’t think you need it that badly, no?” he asked and breathed in; not even too deep, just lightly and calmly.

“You are committing a treason against the-…” Darthon started saying, but just then Shire blew some air from his mouth as if he was trying to extinguish a small, flicker candle. A small bullet of compressed air moved so fast that to all but the Great Masters it looked like Darthon’s head suddenly exploded by itself; the gore spraying backward in a rather artistic and spectacular fashion.

Afterward, Darthon’s fat, headless body ended up leaning forward and flipping over the rail. It then flopped flat on the floor like one big bag of fat it was, the many liters of blood inside it beginning to slowly flow out of the neck, or what was left of it.

The old-timers who knew about or had heard of Shire all turned pale and grit their teeth in fear. Forget uttering a word, they didn’t dare to blink or breathe, scared of becoming collateral casualties. The youngsters, in contrast, were all flabbergasted; they might have disliked Darthon, but the man was still a Grand Viscar! Yet, this messy-haired man killed him just like that! Was he not scared of the retaliation from the Royal Family and the Heavenly Flame School at all?

“Any more objections?” Shire asked lightheartedly, feeling pretty good about himself. He had forgotten how to enjoy himself and have fun for so long, but thanks to providing tutelage to Laien he slowly returned to his old self. He took so much liking to this disciple of his, how could he not take proper care of him and lend a hand when necessary? Especially if this training freak wasn’t up to the job.

Shire’s merry question was met with a deathly silence. One couldn’t even hear the sound of people breathing and during those few seconds, the few people who accidentally made some sound by moving around restlessly and causing their clothes to swish lightly became so terrified they almost fainted on the spot. They could literally imagine their heads exploding into a bunch of gore out of nowhere and the notion was so scary… some of them actually began pissing their pants.

Laien opened his eyes wide and smiled disbelievingly. Were the sounds of water dripping what he thought they were? Master Shire made some of those people wet themselves without releasing any killing intent at all? How amazing and cool was that?

“Madman,” Fohan muttered soundlessly. Nothing mattered for this crazy bastard apart from his own satisfaction. When he decided to do something, he would do it or die trying. Not much needs to be said though, he had always accomplished his goal and never actually died, obviously enough, though not for the lack of putting himself into dangerous, borderline suicidal situations.

“Looks like no objections,” Shire said with a snicker. “Oi, old goat. What was the verdict you actually wanted to see today?” he asked Fohan, totally not intending to go through the trouble of protecting Laien all the time in case Fohan had set his eyes on him.

The old Grand Viscar at the balcony shivered as he realized what the meaning of Shire’s words was. This ridiculous man… Had this madman seen through him from the very beginning?

“Permanent exile at best, ten years of exile at worst,” Fohan replied, making sure to conceal the grudge in his voice. In front of Shire he truly couldn’t afford to care about being called names, all he could do was to take it easy and hope to satisfy this madman.

“And how well did this trial go for you?” Shire inquired further, following a line of reasoning only he could understand.

“Terribly,” Fohan said helplessly. At this point there was no sense for him to lie; the moment Shire got involved he knew he had only two choices, go along with his demands or battle it out. Convincing that madman to do something else with words or threats would be impossible.

“Ten years that is,” Shire said contentedly and nodded his head. He turned to look at Laien and explained. “I’ve done some research and found a very good Academy for you, the Eclipse Academy. You will attend it and be confined there until ten full years pass from this day onward,” he declared in a manner as if he was stating an already agreed upon fact; and whether Laien or anyone else was happy with it or not, he really was pretty much doing just that.

Laien was terribly confused by Shire’s statement but didn’t dare to object. Truth to be told most people in the court were equally baffled, but the likes of Fohan and Sauras, or Finella and Eleonora or even Sinra and Injar understood almost instantly. They all knew what kind of place the Eclipse Academy was and they knew who would most often be sent there.

In simple words… the Eclipse Academy was a convenient place to confine the unhandy members of various powerful clans, schools and even Royal Families. When a person couldn’t quite be killed but needed to be kept away… the Eclipse Academy was one of the few natural choices.

“Ten years, huh,” Rudford said with a sigh. “I guess it’s still better than another battle breaking out here, not by much though,” he mused aloud, not too pleased with the perspective of not seeing Laien for a decade. He was ready to send him away for a few years, four perhaps, but since it was an exile Laien wouldn’t even be able to periodically come back to see him.

“Hmph,” Shire snorted and shook his head. “You still don’t get that exactly this kind of wishy-washy behavior of yours is what caused all this crap?” he asked and clicked his tongue impatiently. That’s why he said all the people here were retarded clowns! They all forgot how to fight for their own happiness and even when it was threatened, they wouldn’t raise their swords until it was too late!

“You can say so… but that’s why you are a stupid idiot, all you care for is yourself,” Rudford rebuked resignedly. This time Shire ended up helping them out, but what if everyone behaved in the same way as him? The whole world would flow with endless rivers of blood and no countries or even tribes would ever be formed. The law, the face, the morals… those things were important!

“Although… she believed in the same principles and in the end, she died for her ideals,” Rudford thought silently and released a massive sigh. Would it have been better if he and Fianne and all of their comrades had deserted and abandoned their responsibilities to the country? Should they have had not cared that the Ciene Kingdom would take over?

In the end, it came to one question; what was more important, one person or the whole country?

As far as Rudford was concerned, perhaps… perhaps it really was Laien who was more important to him than even the survival and well-being of the Sarkcente Kingdom. To repeat the same kind of tragedy and be left with nothing but hollow emptiness in his heart… he wouldn’t be able to handle it.

“Ho, don’t tell me something actually got through to this thick head of yours,” Shire said with a light snort, quite surprised that Rudford for once didn’t reject his point straight out and even considered he might indeed be making a valid point.

“Give me a break, Shire. It’s not the best time for me to ponder about those things,” Rudford responded resignedly. Far too much had happened in the last forty-eight hours, he needed some time to properly digest all of those events in his heart and mind.

“Right, it’s far too early,” Shire agreed strongly, no one able to tell whether he was being serious or not. “I wanted to come here earlier, but I overslept. Actually, I’m still pretty sleepy so I will be going back so I can take my afternoon nap,” he mentioned nonchalantly and even yawned ostentatiously after he finished speaking.

“Oi, old goat. We have an agreement, the boy goes to the Eclipse Academy for ten years. Do not touch him for as long as he is in the Eclipse Academy or on his way to it, got it? That goes both for you and your allies,” he spoke harshly, fully intent on going through the extremely tiresome and annoying job of hunting down all the powerful and important members of the Cail family were Fohan to break the deal.

“I promise I won’t touch him under those conditions,” Fohan agreed out of the lack of other options, but how could he have not noticed the double meaning in Shire’s words? “I doubt we will be able to take destroying seventh Prince’s camp leisurely, we need to be done much sooner than in ten years,” he thought to himself and sighed secretly.

The ancestor of the Fire Serpent School would surely refuse had he asked him to kill Shire. That woman wouldn’t care at all even though she was likely the only person who could kill that madman with relative ease. Rudford and Injar obviously wouldn’t do it… and the number of average Great Masters needed for the job would be counted in many dozens. As much as he wished he could kill Shire, he truly had no means available to him. The only blessing in this catastrophe was that Shire would most likely not get involved in the matters of the country at all; unless that boy’s life was threatened, he would almost certainly not care about anything else.

“Mmm, goodnight then,” Shire said through a long yawn and headed out of the Royal Court, walking unhurriedly by the same way he had come here.

After a moment, Shire was gone… and what was left was thoroughly awkward and baffled atmosphere. One of the Grand Viscars had been killed, Fohan Cail and practically all of them had gotten threatened and gave in instantly… even the first Prince didn’t raise any objections.

Truthfully, none of the people in the Royal Court expected in their wildest imagination this trial to end in the way it did. Suddenly, their previous arguments and choices to view Laien as guilty or innocent… stopped looking so important. Rather, they felt that everything what had happened before Shire made his appearance became irrelevant.

A powerful enough expert who was willing to lay his life on the line and was certain to follow up on his threats… one such person was enough to change the politics of a whole country!

“Big brother!” Siana called out, trying and failing to keep her calm. She jumped down over the many seats in the audience and landed with surprising grace not far away from Laien and Rudford. She hurriedly ran up to Laien, then threw herself onto him and hugged him very tightly. She had rushed over here as soon as she woke up, the last thing she remembered being how she attempted to block a wind blade of that martial masters but failed to do so completely. She had been concerned about Laien this whole time… so now when she could finally hug him she felt incredibly relieved.

“It’s great both of you are fine,” Rudford said quietly and gently patted the siblings’ heads. The remark of Shire’s once again resounded in his mind… and he looked at Fohan, his gaze ice-cold. If something like that happened ever again, he would make sure Laien and Siana are protected and then would lead the Red Dragon School to exterminate the Cail family; civil war or not, his dear ones were more important than the country.

“I’d like to send them away tomorrow morning,” Fohan said with a mixture of bitterness and relief. “Do all the farewells you need. The guards who will take the boy away will be waiting before the Royal Palace,” he stated, already feeling tired at the thought of how much work he would need to do to fix the consequences of the events of the past two weeks or so.

“For once we agree on something,” Rudford replied with a resigned chortle. “I don’t want to spend another minute in this place,” he added, then exchanged a look first with the siblings and later with Sinra and those in the audience. Apart from saying goodbye, Laien and his new friends would probably like to spend this last day together and if so, there was no time to waste.

In a little less than twenty-four hours… Laien would leave the Sarkcente Kingdom and set on a long journey to the Eclipse Academy.