Book 3. The Long Journey. Chapter 97. Karta’s Prophet.

“Are you sure it’s fine to let them go at it like that?” Arslan asked, helping himself with some Qi as the sounds of consecutive explosions and clashes rang throughout the guest room and undoubtedly, also throughout the fort and the area in the range of dozens of kilometers around it. Had it not been the middle of summer and had the battle not been playing out at a relatively low altitude, it would be without a doubt that quite a few powerful and deadly avalanches would have been triggered by it.

In response to Arslan’s words, Elder Simon shook his head while Elder Samuel laughed a little. Then, the latter of the two said with a smile. “Young master Arslan, if you wish to send one of your White Guards to help subdue Julien, then go ahead. As for our side, of those present, only Victoria is capable of fighting him without endangering her own life.”

Arslan was a little startled at first, but soon afterward he let out a quiet, helpless laugh. Perhaps it was because he hadn’t seen Julien fight with his own eyes, but he had forgotten that the man boasted the strength of a first-rate martial master of the fifth rank. Although he was still quite sure that Julien would lose to Jasmine, who was one of the ten lieutenants of the White Guard, in a one-on-one fight, he needed to admit that stopping Julien’s rampage wasn’t something easily doable.

“That being said.” Elder Samuel frowned a little. “It’s taking an awfully long time,” he said more to himself than to anyone else. It had already been around twenty seconds since those two started exchanging blows and yet, the clamor wasn’t dying down in the least. Veronica was one of the two Great Generals of their country and had recently come very close to breaking through to the seventh Realm of Heroes, but despite that, she couldn’t quickly subdue Julien?

“He’s grown even stronger,” Elder Simon commented with a troubled smile present on his face, then mused silently. “That boy, he was already one of the strongest Generals twenty years ago, so we should have expected him to have become so strong. We thought his growth was stagnating since his cultivation was no longer advancing as quickly as in his early youth, but he seems to have reached Veronica’s level thanks to his insights… If not for that obsessive hatred of Ikarians of his, I would have personally recommended him to become the third Great General of our Federation.”

“Strong...” Out of those present, Laien and Yin had one of the lowest cultivation levels, but their senses were far superior to even to those martial and spiritual masters of the fourth and fifth ranks. The two of them could clearly recognize how powerful the mere remnant aura of the blasts of Qi happening on the other side of the fort, just beyond its walls, were. As far as they were concerned, both Julien and Victoria were a full level stronger than Jasmine… what provided for quite a scary concept.

“Those two are incredibly powerful,” Laien thought and couldn’t help but sigh in his heart. He had grown incomparably stronger since he left the Sarkcente Kingdom and set out on the journey to the Eclipse Academy, but he had no confidence to receive one attack from either of those two and survive. “They are both just a level weaker than elder brother Rudford… but that’s purely based on their auras and the sense of danger I’m getting from their battle. Given the advantage of the cultivation techniques we have in the south, they should still be two full levels weaker than elder brother,” he judged, but it didn’t cause him to grow less worried. Julien was two times younger than Rudford and Victoria didn’t seem to be much older than Julien. In another half a century, it would be hard to say whether it would be them or Rudford who would be stronger.

“Ruishi Federation.” Yin similarly let out a little sigh. “The amount of talent in this country is unnaturally high. We’ve just entered their lands, but we met Luca, Julien, Patrick and Victoria. Compared to the rest of Eulene, they really are leaps and bounds ahead in overall prowess. It’s not only thanks to their geographical advantage that they managed to keep their neutrality for many millennia,” he mused, thinking that it was no wonder that some of the clans from his homeland would have dealings with the Ruishi Federation. Most countries weren’t worth paying attention to in the eyes of the Forbidden Lands, but a golden goose like the Ruishi Federation wouldn’t be ignored by them, if only for the reason of finding suitable youths for the sake of establishing the Blood Pacts.

“Oh, looks like they are done,” Elder Samuel nodded contentedly when the sounds of battle died down. He doubted either of those two would have fought to the death with one another; as a proof, this fort was still standing here. Were they to truly release their most powerful martial techniques, their clash would have sent this small defensive structure tumbling down the mountainside. “Young master Arslan, if you excuse us, we need to take care of the aftermath,” he said toward Arslan, displaying a calm, amiable smile on his face.

“Of course, you are welcome to stay in our country for as long as you need to,” he added as he was about to leave, making it look like he had almost forgotten about this matter since the solution to it was so obvious. However, he also looked like he wanted to say something else but held back from doing so, either because he judging it disadvantageous to bring up or because he couldn’t find a satisfying way to express his thoughts.

“Thank you,” Arslan responded simply. He might have learned most of the formal and ‘proper’ ways to speak in such situations, but in the end, he was just a five-year-old boy. It was much more natural to him to answer informally than to look for elaborate and overly polite ways to respond with.

Elder Samuel smiled at Arslan once more, then left the room with his companions and guards. Elder Simon and Elder Sophie nodded toward Arslan and followed suit; the immediate case of Julien acting up had been solved, but they still needed to deal with the long-term consequences of it. Deciding a punishment for Julien was one thing… and doing something to calm his rage was another

Obviously, the Grand Elders were in a tacit agreement; they preferred not to involve outsiders in the ugly argument that was about to unfold and thus, none of them invited Arslan and his companions to join them on the way. They didn’t want Arslan or anyone else to get involved in an internal struggle within their own country, on one hand, because it would threaten its sovereignty and on the other, because the outcome, especially in this case, would become even more unpredictable.

“General Julien, ugh,” Lea allowed herself to groan aloud now that all the important figures from her country left the room. She could sympathize with Julien as she also felt that the decision of the Council was unacceptable, but she knew full well that nothing could be done. A decision of the Grand Council hadn’t been overruled in over two thousand and six hundred years, and it had only been overruled by another vote two times in the past five thousand years. Those eight million people… she felt bad for them, but it was the extent of what she could do for their sake.

“He shouldn’t be punished too harshly,” Daniel consoled with a weak smile. “He’s now on par with Great General Victoria, so as long as he agrees not to cause trouble anymore, they won’t do anything apart from giving him some superficial punishment,” he said with a fair deal of conviction.

“Do you really think he will agree to that?” Luca asked with a helpless laugh, in response to what Daniel could only look away and shake his head.

“It will be trouble,” Lea said bitterly. As those of the Fortress-City of Lugna, the three of them were clearly aware of General Julien’s character. He and the very majority of the officers who acted below him were vastly different in many aspects of their personalities, but they all shared one common trait; a great hatred of all Ikarians but for those who had their origins in Makarash. In most cases that hatred originated from the loss of friends and families, in the others, it was about the pure disgust with the slaughter of the Bloody Dusk and the barbaric culture Ikarians brought to their homelands. The levels of hatred varied, definitely… but most of the people directly below Julien shared his views and goals, what in itself magnified the issue at hand. Just the thirty-five Cherubim Julien brought with him were a huge problem, not to mention all the powerful experts who had gathered under his banner from all over the southern Eulene!

“Should we go and watch?” Laien brought up, himself not too sure if he wanted to do so. A part of him was curious to see this affair develop, but he also didn’t want to get involved too deeply in those events. After all, if one walked by the river, he would sooner or later get his shoes wet.

“Just watching shouldn’t hurt us in any way,” Yin said with a smile, doing so purely for the sake of those who were listening to this little exchange between him and Laien.

“Mhm,” Laien nodded in agreement and glanced at Arslan. The youth smiled at him; he appeared not to have anything against this idea either.

“Okay, let’s go~” Laien said with a laugh and after exchanging a look with Yin, ran out of the room. He was aware that although those Elders had left the room walking, they had sped up soon after getting further down the corridor. By this time, they were likely fairly close to Julien and Victoria given that no one within their group was below the Realm of Heroes, so it was best if they hurried.

“Allow me,” Jasmine said with a quiet laugh and after approaching Arslan from the front, she grabbed him under his shoulder, then lifted him up and held him tightly against her chest. “Hold on tight,” she warned and half a second later, followed after Laien and Yin at high speed.

The remaining three White Guards joined Jasmine without delay, but as for the three youths from Lugna, they stood there for a good second, a bit dumbfounded. Only when they shook off the weird feeling from seeing everyone rush off at a moment’s notice did they start running too.

Roughly a minute later, Laien, Yin and everyone else arrived at the wasteland-like area of shattered ground and locks by the northern wall of the fort. Before they came, they had been worried that Julien and the Elders would use Qi to suppress their voices and thus make them hear nothing, but as the first of the series of loud shouts in the chaotic argument reached them, they revealed wry smiles

“Screw off with your reasoning! There’s nothing ‘right’ about sentencing eight million people to death by Ikarian hand!”

“General Julien, you’d better…!”

“I’d better what?! What will you do if I don’t calm down, eh?! Will you get Great General Markus to come and join hands with Victoria to kill me, or will you call the three Magistrates?!”

“Julien, you…! You can’t disobey the Great Council’s orders!”

“Oh, I can! And I sure as hell will!”

“!”

“Do you really mean what you are saying…?!”

Although the arguing parties weren’t enhancing their voices with Qi, their yelling was nevertheless carrying far and wide. Towards the end, not only Elder Samuel, but even Elder Simon became agitated; by the looks of it, this crisis was far more serious than those Grand Elders had previously given it credit for. Thankfully for them, the last question put an end to the shouting and a quiet discussion proceeded from that point onwards. However, If the absolutely furious aura Julien kept giving off was any indication, they were failing to come to any kind of an agreement despite that.

“What a standoff,” Laien commented quietly, his gaze moving from Julien and those surrounding him to the two nearby, hostile groups of experts. On one side stood the thirty-five Cherubim, all emanating killing intent, ready to start fighting if Julien so ordered, and on the other stood the thirty-five subordinates of Veronica, who looked no less ready to fight but admittedly, seemed to be fairly intimidated by the powerful auras and the heavy killing intent of Julien’s Cherubim.

“If they fight here…” Lea began saying, then clicked her tongue. “They will lose. The guards of the Grand Elders are strong too. General Julien might be able to send quite a few expert to the grave thanks to his overwhelming speed before being forced to flee, but most of Cherubim would be killed. They might even use the three of us to threaten General,” she mused aloud, genuinely worrying about the worst-case scenario emerging as a reality. If Julien truly rebelled against the country, then the consequences for all of his subordinates and for all the people in Lugna would be dire.

Yet, against Lea’s worst expectations, when Elder Samuel began speaking, the atmosphere started cooling down until Julien fully withdrew his aura, much to the relief of everyone involved. The next moment Julien, Elder Samuel, Elder Simon and Elder Sophie all put on tattered grey cloaks and after Julien signaled his men that they were to stand down, the four of them split from the main group.

“Young master Arslan,” Elder Samuel stopped and spoke up when the four of them were passing by the spectating group. “If you wish to, you can take a few people and come with us. I trust it will be a good learning experience on how irrational people can become,” he said with a calm smile, though with a hint of obvious disdain towards the ones he was speaking about present in his eyes.

Admittedly, the words ‘good learning experience’ were akin to a catnip to Arslan, but he still managed to restrain himself before agreeing outright. “Um, can I ask where we will be going?” he inquired, preferring to know at least this much before giving Samuel an answer.

“Into the main mid-upper district of the Grand Camp,” Elder Samuel answered straightforwardly. “I want Julien to listen to the so-called ‘Prophet’ and his sermon. We need to hurry up if we are to make it there without attracting too much attention, so please choose whether you are interested in going sooner rather than later,” he elaborated with a meaningful smile, which for some reason contained a fair deal of self-satisfaction.

“I will go,” Arslan answered after a second of thought. He was definitely interested, but were Laien and Yin too? He gave them a questioning look, wondering if they would tag along or not.

Pretty much habitually, Laien and Yin exchanged a glance before they both gave Arslan a nod. Listening and watching was something they were more than willing to do. Being careful was one thing, but acting scared with regard to every possibly dangerous situation was nothing short of paranoia. The two of them had obtained a healthy amount of skepticism and carefulness due to their recent experiences, but sure enough, they weren’t about to hide underground and wait for their lives to end in peace and quiet.

“Can we go too?” Luca asked, directing the question to Julien. He had finally gotten out of his daily routine after three years, so he didn’t want to miss the opportunity to see new things. He was fairly convinced that Lea and Daniel felt the same, so he asked in their stead too.

“I don’t see a problem,” Julien said more calmly than usual. It was quite obvious that he was suppressing his emotions and restraining his nerves at the moment. “Will all of them coming be fine with you, Elders?” he asked, the last word he said containing a dose of spite to it.

“It’s fine,” Elder Samuel confirmed with a slight smile. “As long as you do not initiate trouble during the sermon, nothing bad will happen to you. Keep that in mind, put some inconspicuous cloaks on and come along,” he instructed and swept the small group with his gaze to confirm that everyone, with the youths in particular, understood his point. Afterward, he nodded contentedly and led the way.

Laien, Yin, Arslan and the remaining seven all took out some low to medium quality greyish cloaks from their interspatial rings and followed the three Grand Elders and Julien.

Unbeknownst to the three youths from Lugna, Laien and the others all took out the necklaces equipped with azure magic stones imbued with wind magic before even entering the Grand Camp. From what Samuel told them, they were heading to the upper middle parts… but given the number of people living in those areas, it was unlikely for the streets to smell reasonably well. Thus, the idea of using this convenient but pricey accessory was one of the first things that came to their minds.

“He said we are going to listen to some Prophet,” Laien brought up as they were making their way toward the highest and least populated district of the Grand Camp. The sermon would be taking place a good few kilometers below that level, but heading to it through the actual middle areas would have taken them hours; they could see full well how crowded the streets in the lower districts were and how much more stuffy they were getting with each passing moment.

“He seems to be popular,” Yin noted casually. The number of people swarming closer to the area where the sermon would be held was really extraordinary. Counting roughly, it was around a million people who were doing their best to get as close to the so-called Prophet as they could possibly manage; and since that many people moved, the numbers who occupied the houses to listen from within were almost certainly much greater. Out of the eight million people living in the Grand Camp, it wouldn’t be a surprise if over ninety percent of them were intending to listen to the Prophet.

“Since this proposition calmed Julien down…” Laien mused quietly, his train of thought heading in the same direction as Yin’s. The two of them had a fairly specific guess as to what the overall consequences of that Prophet’s influence could be, but they weren’t clear on the details. “Either way, it’s certain that something crazy is going on here.” The two of them came to the same conclusion and for the time being, opted not to speculate further ahead; mainly due to the pointlessness of such an act as they were about to learn the truth soon anyway.

Thanks to moving through the uppermost level of the Grand Camp, it took their group only around half an hour before they arrived in the area directly above the building the Prophet would soon be speaking from. The high district they were in wasn’t nearly as packed as the lower areas, but despite that, it was still uncomfortably tight to stand on the streets. The likes of Laien and Jasmine didn’t mind the crowd all that much and just ignored it, but Arslan, the Grand Elders and even Yin found it uncomfortable to constantly push their shoulders against random people around them.

“Is a warden nearby?” Elder Samuel sent his voice out up to the distance of a few hundred meters away. “I wish to pay an offering of fifty platinum coins,” he added and pretty much instantly caused five or six people in the area to start hurriedly making their way toward him. A few breaths worth of time later, the luckiest of the wardens, a young man clad in a simple, white robe who had just happened to be nearby, stopped in front of Samuel and cupped his hands into a bowl and raised them in front of Samuel, only to receive a non-bound low-grade interspatial ring, which he quickly inspected.

With his expression brightening, undoubtedly due to the added value of a few dozen platinum coins that came from the low-grade interspatial ring itself, apart from its contents, the young man pointed at one of the nearby buildings with his hand. “This terrace should be comfortable for up to twenty people to use. Please seat yourself and await, the Prophet shall emerge soon,” he said politely despite his not-quite top-notch mannerism from a moment ago, then bowed slightly and left.

Elder Samuel wasted no time and jumped directly on top of the nearby building, leaping over the distance of over fifty meters at once. Julien and the remaining two Grand Elders did the same, just like Laien and everyone else. Yet, their actions were met with little to no attention from the people gathered in the streets and on the other roofs. The sight of multiple figures easily jumping up on top of a building might have stirred a commotion in the lower parts of the Grand Camp, but in its highest parts, it was common enough for no one to spare it more than half a glance.

“We could sit on the ground, but…” Laien, Yin and everyone else began bringing out their own pillows or furs, while Julien and the Grand Elders took out chairs for themselves. For a second, Laien was about to ask how was that it wasn’t the best way not to stand out, but when he looked around one more time, he noticed that many of the older people on the roofs were actually similarly seated on simple chairs, while it was only youths who were sitting on the floor. It looked like the behavior or those four was perfectly normal; in contrast, it was the four White Guards who were gathering curious glances as they chose to seat themselves on top of pillows, just like they were used to.

“To think something like that was going on here the whole time,” Elder Sophie murmured with anger and discontentment, though very much on purpose she didn’t muffle her voice enough for it not to be heard by those close to her. “If I knew, I would have put an end to it before it became so huge,” she complained with a sour expression on her face. It would have still been easy to put an end to a movement while it was developing, but now that it reached this scale, it was nigh impossible to get rid of it without causing a major accident and shedding a lot of blood.

“Foolish woman,” Elder Samuel laughed in his heart. It was against the law for the grand Elders to own their private assets beyond what was provided to them by the right of membership in the Grand Council, but that was merely the old, silly law. He had a powerful network of spies, servants, and friends in the country. Great General Markus, then one of the three Magistrates and three of the seven Generals, they were all secretly raised and nurtured by him in the past and now, they were akin to his own friends and family. The Ruishi Federation… it wasn’t an exaggeration to claim that half of the country’s power was within his own hands. Thus, to him, someone like Elder Sophie who had grandiose thoughts and yet wielded little to no real power apart from the seat in the council was an extremely laughable existence.

“Information suppression,” Elder Simon sighed secretly. “Samuel’s influence is growing with each year. That Prophet appeared almost instantly after we set up the Grand Camp two months ago, but I only learned of it two weeks after the fact. Samuel is also incredibly popular amongst our people… if a war erupts at any point in time, he is certain to be appointed Chancellor. It’s a good thing that even though we disagree on some matters, Samuel’s love for our country is no less, if not greater than mine or of any of the Grand Elders,” he consoled himself, pushing away the anxiety that accompanied leaving his country’s fate in the hands of one man.

“Four or five hundred years ago, I could have gotten rid of him if I wanted, but why in the world would I have done such a thing?” Elder Simon smiled to himself. Having opposing points of view in the Grand Council was a good thing, he had always been of this mind. However, he hadn’t expected Samuel’s influence to secretly skyrocket in power around three hundred years ago when many of Samuel’s close friends and pupils naturally rose to prominence within the country thanks to their own talents and skills. Cutting Samuel off had already become very hard to do even if all the remaining powers attempted to do it back then, but now…?

Realistically speaking, Samuel could seize the control over the country at any time he wanted. Yet, he never moved to do so! According to Simon’s guesses, it was because Samuel harbored no desire to become a dictator as he saw the long-term futility of claiming an absolute power through sheer force. Had Samuel not been that kind of a man, Simon would have never been convinced by him to vote for the plan of the Grand Eviction in the first place.

All those thoughts, however, were making Elder Simon feel resigned. But, before he could fall deeper into melancholy, the omnipresent clamor present in the Grand Camp suddenly started dying down until nothing but the gusts of the mountain wind could be heard. This occurrence was definitely caused by the emergence of a white-robed middle-aged man with long, silky black hair reaching all the way below his waist. The man unhurriedly climbed atop the wooden platform on top of the roof he was at, then swept the countless people around him with a warm, fatherly gaze.

“Today is a joyful day!” the Prophet infused his voice with spiritual energy, skillfully sending it throughout the entirety of the Grand Camp while omitting the fort atop the hill a few kilometers away. “The Prophecy I received from the Almighty Karta is finally being fulfilled! Today, the Ruishians shall announce that we are free to go as we wish and where we wish! The day of retribution has come! We need not restrain our voices any longer, we shall march on the Capital of the Guode Federation and reclaim it from the hands of disbelievers!” he announced with pure joy, his voice booming throughout the whole Grand Camp and causing the previously calm atmosphere to instantly become feverish.

As if there was a signal, the entirety of eight million people took a deep breath at the same time and half a second later, started chanting their God’s name.

“Karta!”

“Karta!”

The deafening chant caused many of the houses to shake in their foundations. However, since sparely anyone was capable of manipulating his Qi to shout within the whole Grand Camp, it overall didn’t cause much damage to the frail structures. Yet, the religious fervor contained in the voice of each and every one of those chanting wasn’t hard to notice.

Those millions of regular people… to the shock of everyone but Samuel, they truly intended to attack the Guode Yimarate on their own!