Book 2. The Grand Gathering. Chapter 1. The Two Weeks City. (Part II)

“Racing through the city…” Tin’Long groaned. “Don’t you think it’s a bit too reckless? Even if we go by the main road, we could still end up trampling somebody over,” he reminded, but since he didn’t disagree outright…. he knew that the siblings won’t change their mind. He could try being stubborn and making them not to this horse race, but that would result in the two sulking at him for the greater part of the day.

“It’s super early, there won’t be many people on the main street,” Laien said quickly. The main road was simply huge, so there would rarely by people wandering the very middle of it. To have it fully crowded merely an hour after sunrise? Even with the Grand Gathering in place, it was doubtful. The focal point of this event was the Two Weeks City, not Neil City itself after all.

“If you don’t want to, we can do it alone,” Siana said bluntly, caring little whether Tin’Long would be involved or not. She wanted to have some fun with Laien, she didn’t need people who would be disturbing it around.

“Eh, fine,” Tin’Long agreed reluctantly, intent on keeping an eye on the siblings. Worst case scenario Laien would need to stop, go back and heal the person they tramped over. Given that practically everyone in the Sarkcente Kingdom was a martial practitioner and that children would be unlikely to be wandering the main road at this hour, it was extremely unlikely for them to end up killing someone.

“Extremely unlikely, but still possible,” Tin’Long sighed heavily. He didn’t like ‘games’ of this kind at all but didn’t have what it took to enforce the proper behavior of these two. He would always end up going along with them and then regret it afterward.

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Around twenty minutes of light jogging later, the three got to William’s stables and retrieved their horses. It took them a short while to get them ready, but after more or less ten minutes they were riding to the main road which stretched like a cross throughout the whole Neil City.

The people they were passing by were all turning to look at the impressive, over two meters tall war horses. Laien rode on his black Bellicose, Siana on the ‘Whitey’ which she had bought after learning that her big brother had his own, personal War Horse, while Tin’Long mounted a war horse he had rented from William’s stables as he didn’t quite have enough money to buy one for himself just yet.

“How are these two so obedient to you?” Tin’Long asked, feeling how the war horse he was riding was looking for a moment of weakness to throw its rider off its back. In comparison, the two war horses Laien and Siana were riding appeared to be perfectly relaxed. The siblings didn’t even need to hold the reins tightly, their mounts simply walked obediently and weren’t acting rowdy in the slightest. For war horses, such docile behavior was really strange.

“Who knows?” Laien said with a smirk. His aura had proved to be more than enough to suppress ‘Bellicose’ and ever since then, the stallion was completely obedient to him. He could only guess that it had something to do with his aura being somehow intermingled with his insights into the Aspect of Tranquility, but this explanation wasn’t exactly enough to convince him after all. So, in the end, he had chosen not to worry about something he knew no answer to.

“She listened to me from the very beginning,” Siana replied uncaringly. Just like in her big brother’s case, she didn’t know why ‘Whitey’ was listening to her so well and similarly, she wasn’t interested in finding out the reason either.

“Maybe you are just good with animals,” Tin’Long guessed randomly, although even that wouldn’t explain why magical beasts like war horses would be so submissive towards the two of them.

“Maybe,” Laien said with a slight smile. “Here should be good, line up!” he added with a chuckle, stopping Bellicose in the middle of the main road. They were just about the south-eastern part of the city, so the race to the north-west would be a straightforward rush ahead without any turns. Exactly the kind he liked.

“You seem excited, big brother,” Siana mentioned with a cute smile, glancing at Laien happily. “Are you looking forward to something?” she asked, exchanging a meaningful look with Laien.

“Pretty sure we’re both looking forward to the same thing,” Laien muffled a laugh, pretty confident that this time he would be the one to win.

“I feel that I really don’t want to know what you two are talking about,” Tin’Long said with a sigh, recalling the more than a few awkward situations he has had a chance to walk into the last two years. These two siblings were getting along a bit too well for comfort, as far as he was considered.

“Anyway,” Laien shrugged his shoulders slightly, by this point so used to Tin’Long’s comments that he paid them no heed. “We go on the count of three,” he said and after confirming that Siana and Tin’Long were lined up with him and ready, he started counting.

“One…”
“Two…”
“Three!”

Simultaneously, the three of them threw themselves straight into a gallop, speeding up greatly in a matter of seconds.

Though, the difference in skill and desire to win quickly became apparent as the siblings kept pushing their horses onwards while Tin’Long held back a little. Soon, the siblings were riding at the speed of nearly two hundred kilometers per hour, thus leaving Tin’Long somewhat behind.

Thankfully, the middle of the main road was completely empty, just like the siblings predicted. As for the people walking by the sides, however, they would all be heavily startled when three horse riders would flash past them like a strike of lightning.

“They are racing? How dangerous!”

“Galloping through the main street on war horses, what are the guards doing?!”

“Whoa! So incredible!”

There were some justifiably angry housewives, some furious noblemen and surprisingly many people who wished they could be on those galloping war horses. What much could be said, the Sarkcente Kingdom was a country of martial freaks. Their love for physical activity paired up with the fondness of horses resulted in the inability to truly scorn those reckless riders.

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“That feels super good!” Laien shouted atop his lungs. Galloping on a war horse was an amazing experience in itself, but doing so right through the city was even more exciting!

“You are slowing down, big brother!” Siana shouted back as she began slowly overtaking Laien, her long black hair fluttering in the wind.

“Says who!” Laien shouted merrily and stuck even closer to Bellicose’s neck, then whistled loudly. The war horse responded instantly and sped up even further, galloping past Siana’s ‘Whitey’ with relative ease. However, it was then when both siblings noticed a medium-sized caravan rolling down the road a few kilometer ahead of them.

“Hey, those are…?” one of the coachmen noticed the two war horses and their young riders speeding right at them soon after.

“Looks like we disrupted their fun,” the other man said with a laugh. They had fifteen carriages in their caravan, riding three each in five rows. Even if those two wanted to pass by them, it would be far too dangerous at their reckless speed. In his eyes, the two had no choice but to slow down, but…

“They aren’t stopping,” the coachman who spoke up first said nervously. For a martial practitioner of the third rank, he was already very old. In his youth, he had seen how a charge of war horses looked during the Great War… and he had no delusions. Were these two approaching riders to smash into them, then their whole carriages would be sent flying…! The war horses were the supreme type of a heavy-cavalry breed for a reason…!

“Oi, oi, you must be kidding me,” the man uttered, but considering the speed at which those two riders were approaching them, had little to no time to do anything else.

The people passing by also took notice of what was about to happen and watched in anticipation, most of them aware that by this point, shouting would be pointless.

“Jump!” they heard a cheerful shout of a youth just a second before the two war horses would smash into the caravan. Then, they saw how the two powerfully built magical beast hit the road with their hoofs and took into the air, jumping good five meters high.

“Crazy bastards!” one of the coachmen cried out as the two magical beasts jumped over their whole caravan and without looking back, continued to gallop ahead at the ever great speed.

“You saw the riders? They were so young!”

“I’m pretty sure they had Red Dragon School’s clothes!”

“Two reckless youths from the Red Dragon School? Could it be those two?”

“Who else would dare to have a riding competition on the main road?”

“They are so young, but they riding skills are already so refined!”

Unlike the men of the caravan, the people around were all awe-struck. One might call the sibling’s actions reckless, but they would call it brave! The heart to do anything and everything, to act without fear! They would expect no less from those they hoped to become Great Masters, the future pillars of support of their Kingdom!

“Heavens… they are overdoing it,” Tin’Long groaned, having seen what the two siblings did from behind. “What if there was somebody walking behind that caravan…?” he shook his head. Were somebody there and were he be unlucky enough to be in the path of the landing War Horse, then it wouldn’t end with a few broken bones. That person would have almost certainly died on the spot.

“I should try talking to the Great Master Rudford, maybe he will be able to get through to Laien,” Tin’Long thought resignedly. He was good friends with Laien, but he had no influence whatsoever on Laien’s behavior. On the contrary, he would more often than not end up doing stupid things with him. Really, he was too weak-willed to restrain someone as wild as Laien.

“When did she get so good at horse riding?” Laien wondered, staling a quick glance at Siana who was galloping neck in neck with him. Were it not for his mount being superior to hers, he would have been left behind after she made a perfect landing and gained quite a bit of distance on him!

“I will wonder about it later, for now though…” he thought with a smirk and took a deep breath, at the same time making good use of his spiritual energy.

“Out of the way!” he yelled as the two of them were approaching the city gate at the neck-breaking speed of two hundred kilometers per hour.

The few people who happened to be inquired about their reasons for coming to the city by the bored guards looked in the direction the shout came from. Barely in time, they recognized the danger and hurriedly moved to the sides, making a way for the two war horses and their riders.

The next second, Laien sped past them with a wide smile on his face. Right afterward Siana also crossed the gate, appearing not to be too disheartened about her close loss.

“Shouldn’t you go after them?” one of the inquired men asked the guard. They were being questioned for no reasons, but those to reckless riders would be let go scot-free? It was totally unfair.

“If you feel like it, you can go and complain to the Great Master Rudford personally,” the guard replied with a shrug of his shoulders. He has had more than a few chances to see Laien and with his cultivation at the seventh mortal realm, he managed to recognize the youth even during this split-second when he had been passing through the gate.

A look of understanding slowly crept onto the inquired man’s face. He came here for the Grand Gathering; he didn’t live under a rock! How could he not know that the Grand Master Rudford accepted two disciples, a pair of siblings? If those riders were them, then he truly was in no position to complain.

“Hm, quite impressive,” Laien said happily as he and Siana slowed down. “The Two Weeks City, eh? A city that only exists for two weeks. I wonder how many martial masters were employed to bring all these houses, mansions and apartments here. There are even arenas!” he noticed after a second, just barely seeing the fundaments of a great arena being set up in the middle of the Two Weeks City.

“I wonder if ten million people will really be coming here?” Siana asked, her lips curving into a slight smile. Ten million people! It was practically one-fifth of the Kingdom’s whole population. The Grand Gathering truly was one heck of a popular event.

“Do you already know what will you want?” Siana brought up, sensing that Laien was purposely omitting the subject of him winning this little bet.

“Pretty sure I do,” Laien with a chuckle and blushed a little when his and Siana’s gazes joined. Yes, he certainly knew what he was going to ask for.

“Then I will look forward to it,” Siana smiled, her cheeks reddening just a little bit. She could most likely guess what Laien’s request would be.

After good five minutes of waiting, the two of them were finally joined by Tin’Long. The twenty-year-old kept his comments to himself and decided not to try lecturing the siblings, and instead led them straight into the Two Weeks City.

It was convenient enough to move by horses in the outer parts of this truly enormous, artificial city, but its inner parts were so crowded that the three of them were soon forced to find the closest stables and leave their mounts there. Although, they would have done the same thing even if the streets were less crowded; it was just too inconvenient to be wandering around with their huge war horses getting in the way and requiring attention all the time.

“Where should we go first, hm,” Tin’Long wondered aloud. He would have really like if nothing stressful happened today anymore, so a place where it was less likely to happen would be the best… or so he thought, when he saw a very familiar, a bit curly storm of medium-long blond hair.

“Nila?” he said louder than he might have wanted, attracting his little sister’s attention and making the two siblings notice her, too.

“Tin’Long’s little sister?” Laien thought quietly, looking at the blond girl who appeared to be around his own age, about twelve years old.

Tin’Long never spoke much about his sister, but now that he could see her, Laien needed to admit that she was a true beauty. She wasn’t the calm and collected type like Siana, but instead had a very strong look in her eyes and was giving off an aura of a dominant person. She wasn’t in Laien’s type, but she indeed was a very good looking girl.

But perhaps more importantly, and perhaps that being the reason for the ugly look on Tin’Long’s face, the blond girl, Nila, was wearing a set of white-gold clothes… with a sigil of a golden phoenix on her shirt.

“The Twin Phoenix School?” Laien thought aloud. So that was the reason why Tin’Long never seemed to want to talk about his little sister! She was a member of the Twin Phoenix School, one of the three Great Martial Schools with which their Red Dragon School had always been on bad terms with!