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  They could also take orders from other higher-ranking disciples: being someone’s sparring partner (or rather, their punching bag), accompanying someone, and so on. These requests weren’t worth much.

  “Well, where do we start?” Hadjar asked.

  Before Einen could answer, the room suddenly grew very quiet. A young man in white robes was walking toward them, cutting through the crowd. On his chest was an emerald token and a patch with two crossed swords inside the hieroglyph.

  A girl followed behind him. She had pale skin and long black hair pulled back into a tight braid. She was wearing a strange headdress made up of gold threads intertwined around two emerald disks. She was dressed in a black blouse and skirt. On her left shoulder, she had a metal shoulder pad. There was no doubt that this artifact could cover her entire body in impenetrable armor when she was in danger. There was no coat of arms on her bosom, only the token of an inner circle disciple.

  “You will apologize to me, you wretch!” The boy snapped.

  Chapter 433

  Нadjar looked at this young man who was about fourteen years old. While wearing the coat of arms of his undoubtedly powerful clan, he behaved like he was the Emperor of the world.

  “Look, that’s Tom Dinos, one of the young heirs of the Predatory Blades clan.

  “His elder brothers are studying here too!”

  “That’s right. The Young Master of their clan is a core disciple and very high on the Jade Cloud list!”

  There were two rating systems at ‘The Holy Sky’ School, as Hadjar and Einen had found out. The first was the Solid Earth list for the fully-fledged and ordinary disciples. The second was the Jade Cloud list for the inner circle and core disciples. If a person advanced to the top ten (they had to win against someone above them to advance on the list), they were rewarded. The friends hadn’t yet found out what rewards they received.

  “How does Dinos know these two?”

  “I have no idea, but I wouldn’t want to be in their shoes right now.”

  “Neither would I. Apparently, fate doesn’t favor them at all.”

  “They’re a couple of idiots.”

  Hadjar rolled his eyes. He scratched his stubble, which he hadn’t shaved since leaving the Sea of Sand, and looked into the blond man’s eyes. The young man had a very pleasant, well-groomed appearance, so it wasn’t surprising that the girls around them sighed longingly. Only the girl in black, standing behind her master, continued to stare at the floor. Hadjar couldn’t discern the color of her eyes.

  “You dare to keep staring at me, servant?” The offended young heir (whatever that title meant) roared. “I think I should teach you a lesson…”

  Hadjar bowed sharply at the waist and saluted in the manner of the Empire — he struck his chest twice with his fist, “My apologies, young heir of the great Predatory Blades clan. I, an unworthy ant, dared to accidentally stain your clothes. Let me take them and return them to you in their purest form.”

  For a moment, there was utter silence in the hall. Hadjar didn’t look like a man who could apologize to anyone. There was far too much confidence and pride in his eyes, in his gestures and posture, in his whole appearance.

  “I beg your pardon, most worthy heir,” Einen also bowed.

  Both friends maintained serious expressions on their faces, but in fact, they could hardly keep from laughing out loud. If a teenager endowed with the terrifying power of a true cultivator considered soiled clothing a reason to get insulted, then the thirty-year-old warriors who’d witnessed the horrors of piracy, wars, and the Sea of Sand…

  The people around them looked at the duo who were bowing with contempt and… understanding. They liked to think that they wouldn’t have swallowed their pride and wouldn’t have bowed their heads. However, it was simple bravado.

  “I thought so.” Tom Dinos snorted. Snatching a request for an Ancient level monster core from the board, he turned to leave. “Anise.”

  So that was her name. Anise. The sweetest of flowers, one that grew for just one summer.

  “Yes, younger heir,” she said, looking up.

  Hadjar looked into her eyes and stopped breathing. Bright green, her eyes put even the purest of jade to shame. They were calm, like a serene sea. Slightly sad, like the eyes of a kitten that had lost its favorite toy. At the same time, they radiated a steely willpower that could crush a stone and bend an iron bar. Anise... a flower that lived only one year and never saw winter. The girl seemed gentle, but Hadjar could feel the presence of the Sword Spirit inside her. This feeling resonated not only with the tattoo on his back, but also with his heart. He tried to pull himself together, force himself to breathe in, tell his heart to keep beating. However, his heart stopped and his lungs clenched.

  “Teach them a lesson. Just don’t overdo it. Murder isn’t allowed on school grounds.”

  “Yes, my Lord.”

  Hadjar should’ve snapped out of it. He’d heard the young man’s words and seen the girl slowly drawing her blade from its scabbard. Made of brown leather and wood, it was decorated just like her hair. Her sword had a simple hilt, no guard, and a long, narrow blade with glowing, red hieroglyphics across its length.

  Like the young heir, she also wielded an Imperial artifact. The mere fact that she’d unsheathed her sword was enough to make fire flowers bloom under her feet, and flaming butterflies flutter around the blade.

  She didn’t use any Techniques. She didn’t even swing her sword. She just channeled her will of a Wielder through the blade. That was enough to conjure a ghostly copy of her sword which had enough power to send Sankesh to the Heavens.

  Einen, noticing that his friend wasn’t reacting to what was happening, was about to use his Call and his best defensive Technique, when suddenly, a white, fluffy muzzle popped out of Hadjar’s clothes. With a snort, the little tigress nipped at her two-legged friend’s cheek and scurried back.

  Azrea’s bite brought Hadjar back to reality. Blinking, he felt death approaching him. He had no chance of stopping this simple attack with just his blade. Without thinking, Hadjar summoned the sleeping dragon and the black blade into reality. Wrapped in the cloak of black fog, he held up the black sword. Anise’s blow struck his blade. It dragged Hadjar eight paces across the ground and slammed him into the wall hard. Warm trickles of blood ran down the back of his head.

  “Pathetic,” Tom Dinos spat, and left the Hall of Fame.

  Anise shot a quick glance at the young man who was slowly getting to his feet and then hurried after him. Her master hadn’t noticed, but at the last second, the girl’s determination had wavered. If not for this, she would’ve easily broken through the Call’s defenses and been able to seriously injure the insolent man who’d insulted her master. She didn’t understand why she had held her strike back at the last moment. The two sky-blue eyes burned in her mind’s eye. Despite the humiliating apology, they’d been laughing. It seemed like the young man had been mocking the fact that he had to apologize …

  “Hurry up, Anise!” The young heir of the Predatory Blades clan shouted.

  “I beg your pardon, my Lord,” Anise bowed, and quickened her pace.

  Hadjar looked at her. Was she the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen? Definitely... not. Compared to the women he’d had sex with, she would be considered frumpy at best. In comparison to the spirit of the Kurkhadan oasis, she was even… ugly. Still, she’d made Hadjar feel like he couldn’t control his heartbeat. By the High Heavens, he’d never experienced anything like it before. Not even with Nehen.

  “Are you all right, my friend?” The islander asked, pulling his friend away from the curious crowd.

  “I don’t know,” Hadjar stammered. “It hurts.”

  Einen looked at his friend who had suffered much worse things but had never before complained of pain. Besides, the way he was squeezing his chest, right over his heart, told Einen that the pain wasn’t physical.

  “By the Great Turtle,” the islander said with a resigned sigh. “Did fate
reward me with a friend... or punish me for my ancestors’ sins?”

  Chapter 434

  It was only when they reached the school gates that Hadjar awoke. It was a huge iron platform guarded by two golems: a talking tiger and a sixteen-foot giant clad in steel armor and holding a titanic spear. Both of them radiated auras comparable to Rahaim’s.

  Just imagine — an artificial construct at the Lord level. Such a creation probably cost upwards of hundreds of thousands of Imperial coins.

  “What happened to me, Einen?” Hadjar asked. “I can hardly remember the last thirty minutes!”

  “Don’t worry, barbarian. Nothing terrible happened.”

  “Nothing terrible? I was just struck by some kind of mental Technique! And I didn’t even notice it!”

  Einen glanced at his friend, but Hadjar appeared to be serious.

  “I said it was nothing terrible. It’s nothing that can’t be dealt with.”

  “That’s it!” Hadjar exclaimed. “I should find some lectures or scrolls on mental defenses!”

  “I don’t think that will help you,” the islander chuckled.

  The tiger-golem didn’t even look at them. It, an ancient creature who still remembered the founder of the school, didn’t care about two ordinary disciples. It could smell their tokens, which allowed them to stay on school grounds, and Einen held the request sheet in front of him as if it were a shield. Disciples up to the inner circle rank couldn’t leave the school territory, except when completing the personal assignments of Mentors and Masters, or tasks from the Hall of Fame.

  “What makes you say that?” Hadjar demanded.

  They stood on the iron platform alongside a group of other disciples with silver tokens. Unlike how it had operated during the days of the exams, it made a lot fewer trips now. There was even a schedule in the Hall of Fame that showed the times when it went up and when it went down.

  “Because it wasn’t a Technique.”

  “You think it was poison? Or a spell? I noticed she had some powerful and strange hieroglyphs on her blade!”

  “Her blade is an Imperial artifact. Of course it has runes.”

  Hadjar sighed and rubbed his temples. He didn’t like what was happening. And the damned neural network was still updating its interface!

  [Update started!

  Approximate time needed...]

  “Calm down, my barbarian friend, it’s just that-”

  “Stop trying to calm me down!” Hadjar snapped.

  To him, his mind and soul were the most sacred of temples. Of course, the fact that someone had been able to encroach on them left Hadjar in a state close to fear. He wasn’t afraid of anything to the point that his sword would weaken or his steps would slow down!

  “...you fell in love,” Einen finished.

  Hadjar looked at his friend. He thought the islander was joking. However, Einen was serious.

  “Fell in love? Me?” Hadjar laughed, but looked rather nervous. “Don’t make fun of me, Einen. I like and respect women as much as any normal man, but you obviously put some other meaning into that word.”

  “Exactly,” the islander said. “The same meaning that the Princess and the Potter put into it.”

  “I really fell in love?”

  “Most likely.”

  “Most likely?”

  “Well, it was you who almost lost your life by just looking at Anise, not me.”

  For some reason, Hadjar felt like the islander was mocking him and enjoying this too much. As the platform moved noiselessly down into the city, he saw the corners of Einen’s mouth twitch slightly. The damned baldy was smiling!

  “Are you having fun with this?”

  “Of course,” Einen nodded again. He reached out and patted his friend on the shoulder. “I’m just glad to see that my barbarian friend has found a companion to travel along the path of cultivation with.”

  Practitioners lived long lives. Cultivators lived incredibly long lives. The higher one’s level of cultivation, the fewer couples there were. Cultivators got married, even started families, but after just a century, or maybe two or three at the most, these families broke up. Children were sometimes born from these unions, but they rarely grew up with their parents. They were usually sent on a ‘solo voyage’ along the river of life by their parents.

  What did it even mean to have a real, true companion on such a long journey? You and this person had been brought together by something that overshadowed such concepts as fate, heaven, gods, the heart, and so on. After all, if you’d really found someone with whom you were ready to travel further, then this further was eternity. What would it be like to spend eternity with one person? To love one person forever and never desire anyone but them? Even in fairy tales, this was something incredible. Something that almost no one believed in.

  Hadjar also didn’t believe in it. After all, despite all the love he had for his parents, he could admit they’d belonged to the first category of couples. Those that were together for a while to fulfill some purpose and then broke up sooner or later. However, he’d witnessed two striking examples of true love. The first one and the closest to his heart had been Nero and Serra. They’d had a bond a thousand times stronger than Haver and Elizabeth’s. Of course, the royal couple of Lidus had loved each other, but it had been a temporary love, created artificially. Almost like when ordinary mortals confused an outburst of affection and kindness for real feelings.

  The second... Well, the second example had been Primus’ love for his dead beloved, which had caused him to drown the kingdom in blood and kill his own brother. Now, years later, Hadjar realized that Primus had done this because of the mental wounds that had changed his wind from blue to black. Perhaps, if not for the efforts of the Governor, Primus would’ve died of heartache a long time ago. His decaying path had been held together artificially by the secrets and mysteries possessed by the Darnassian.

  “No. I don’t think it’s the same thing.” Hadjar looked at the gold and emerald rooftops of Dahanatan. “It’ll pass soon. It’ll definitely pass soon…”

  “Just imagine Tom Dinos caressing her… His hands touching her soft thighs… His lips passionately kissing her neck, and her trembling at his touch… She presses her body against his, searching for the ribbons on his pants as his hands roam her body freely… She touches his... Please reel in your energy. You’re making people nervous.”

  Only then did Hadjar realize that his energy was out of control! It was like a hapless baby peeing itself! He felt humiliated by this lapse in control! No ‘fake’ or ‘temporary’ feeling could’ve made Hadjar lose control of his own power. It was not normal for a cultivator or even a practitioner, hell, a regular adult, even, to pee themselves!

  “Damn it, Einen. By the High Heavens! This is not what I need right now!”

  “The ways of the sea winds are mysterious, my friend. Sometimes, they lead us to a quiet bay, but other times, they throw us on sharp rocks.”

  “She’s a servant of one of the seven family clans! Moreover, she’s the young heir’s personal servant. And he hates me. She’s an inner circle disciple and I’m an ordinary one. She probably won’t even look at me.”

  “Maybe, maybe not. But I don’t remember ever seeing Hadjar Darkhan, Desert Wind Blowing from the North, giving up because of a few obstacles in his way.”

  His friend’s words were like a slap to the face for Hadjar. Turning, he looked at the ‘The Holy Sky’ School buildings.

  Anise…

  The name was whispered to him by the wind itself. It was whispered by his hair ornaments, it thrummed in his heartbeat, it was in every ray of the sun. Even if she were the Princess of the Empire, even if every wall in the world blocked his path, even if the sky itself fell on his shoulders, he wouldn’t care! He was Hadjar Darkhan, and as long as the dragon heart beat in his chest and he had a sword in his hand, there was nothing he couldn’t overcome.

  “Einen.”

  “Yes, my friend?”

  “She will
be mine.”

  The islander smiled widely.

  “I finally recognize you, Darkhan. You are the man I’m used to fighting side by side with.”

  “By the way,” Hadjar said, looking back at the city. Somewhere in the northwest was the Forest of Shadows, “did you see where Araz and his thugs went?”

  Einen’s smile widened even more and became bloodthirsty. “I got a request that’s in the same area as them.”

  Hadjar gripped the hilt of his sword. “Great. More than anything, I want to fight someone right now.”

  “I feel like you’ll get the chance to do just that. And not just one…”

  Anise... The wind whispered to Hadjar.

  ***

  The girl with the emerald eyes turned around. She felt like she’d heard someone call out to her, but there was only a deserted road, trees, and grass behind them.

  “Why are you just standing there, Anise?” The young heir barked.

  “I beg your pardon, my lord,” she said, spurring her horse.

  Hadjar, she heard suddenly. The wind whispered it to her.

  Chapter 435

  As they walked through the streets toward the stalls, Hadjar noticed how people’s attitudes toward them had changed. When they’d first come to Dahanatan, people had looked down on them with undisguised contempt and arrogance. Any ‘village prodigy’ would’ve been infuriated. Such disregard would’ve made them want to prove to the world around them, and to themselves as well, that they weren’t a nonentity.