[RSM] Chapter 117. Reunion and an interrogator (Patreon)

"I hate to admit it, but I am both disappointed and amazed that you are right." Gana said, as they watched the flying ship land in a clearing meant for flying ships, outside the city. As he predicted, the military was not confrontational so far away from their seat of power. Especially not so close to one of the larger cities where there could be sympathizers. 

They would likely wait for them to be somewhere over the vast empty plains or the nearby forests, where is was easier to make a deal.

"No one wants to trouble themselves for a relatively small bounty." Tundra smiled. They've waited for a bit, but the sight of Jashen stepping off the flying ship was a welcome relief. "Well, it took me a while to find you." 

Jashen nodded. "Tundra! Glad to see you are well." 

"You too, Jashen." He also nodded at Yavin and smiled at Celestia. There would be some private time for the two later, after their pursuers are dealt with. "Now, how many flying ships are on your tail?"

"Two."

"Two?!" Gana looked absolutely offended. "I have been selling my life away to a Prince, and he only sends two flying ships to arrest me?! He that doesn't care for me at all. I thought he'd send his entire army after me!" 

Taha merely rubbed his head in embarrassment. "Lord Fox, my apologies for Lord Gana Adan's behavior. He thinks too highly of himself."

"I served as Principal Royal Alchemist for the last- what- one hundred years!" Gana countered. "I thought it meant something! I thought, at least, even if I die, I'd get a glorious sendoff! Or as a rebel, I'd have armies chasing after me where I can die in a blaze of glory!"

"That is an unusual way of valuing your life and your work." Tundra merely smiled. He found the younger alchemist's delusion of grandeur actually amusing. "But I consider it a relief! Two flying ships is still something we are more than able to deal with."

It was also significantly easier to get two ships and two potentially hostile captains to come to some kind of agreement. 

The alchemists looked at each other. "How, exactly?"

"Well." Tundra smiled. "I happen to have a treasure from Princess Luharl. But that should be the last resort. We must be prepared to fight, and my fellow alchemists, please be prepared to fight to your death." 

As expected, the two flying ships of Kaorlia only dared to approach them once they were out of the city. They didn't want to kick up a great commotion within the city areas, where there could be many sympathetic cultivators and hidden experts. 

But Tundra's own attention was not focused on the military. The military was a known unit. Their strength could be estimated quite easily, and Tundra's presence as a full strength seventh realm would quickly remind them to back off.

Still, Tundra hoped it didn't have to come to that. There was always an easier way of doing things. 

"Lord Tundra Fox, you are wanted by Prince Kaorl for engaging in the illegal act of alchemy." The captain read the letter, but he noticed a slight tremble as he held up the official letter. The two military ships were heavily armed. The rest of his team prepared for a fight. 

The soldiers tensed up, their fourth and fifth realm equipment were stronger than the soldiers themselves. Taken altogether, they were a decent fighting force. 

They wouldn't win, though.

Tundra smiled. "Captains, my two captains, great, loyal warriors of Prince Kaorl." He flashed some coins in his pockets. "Can we discuss things over? Let's not make this trip an unpleasant one, and we both can have a good time."

Gana wore a mask, but even through the facial covering, Tundra could tell he stared, as if he could not believe what words just came out of his mouth. 

The regressor's eyes locked on the two Captains, and he gave a genuine, friendly smile. But he was minutely focused on each of their little facial expressions. The two Captains looked at each other, and both realized they were not exactly keen on fighting against them either about the same time. 

"Lord Fox, Lord Fox, I believe this letter is perhaps a little hasty. The crime is not so serious, don't you think so?" One of the Captains of the army then said, as his stern face miraculously transformed into a friendly, agreeable appearance. They all wanted money. The bounty was why they cared. Claiming a bounty was a troublesome affair. They would have to make a trip all the way to the capitol with proof. 

The other captain nodded. "Indeed, indeed. I believe some crimes can be compensated with a fine, right? If we properly compensate the victims, surely we can all come to a happy conclusion?"

They waved the soldiers, as if signalling them to go back into the ship. The soldiers wisely took the order and retreated. If Tundra believed correctly, they would get their share later.

Gana Adan, and Taha Tarmath both looked at each other. They were once on the same side. These were the soldiers that served their prince! It was never a good sign when the military is so much more corrupt than the sects. 

Tundra smiled. "Surely. I would even be happy to give some extra, if these two upstanding warriors of the army could help us through this misunderstanding." 

"Ah, yes. A misunderstanding, a misunderstanding indeed! How could a distinguished alchemist such as yourself located so far from Kaorlia ever be involved in such things?" The captain said, as Tundra approached them with open arms and an open coin pouch. The three huddled together as if they've known each other for centuries, and chatted like they were friends. Tundra turned on his best accommodating and friendly persona, practiced from years of diplomacy with other great sects and challenger sects.

Tundra slipped them a decent chunk of coin, some fifth realm pills, and wished them the best. They talked some more as if nothing serious had happened, Tundra even somehow managed to retrieve two urns of expensive rice wine and gave one each.

Everyone else just watched silently, while the soldiers of the two military ships wisely retreated back into their ships. 

The less these soldiers saw, the less these soldiers had to explain.

Once everything was over, the two military ships then took off. 

The alchemists stared at him. 

"You bribed them." Gana Adan said. "Why did you talk as if you were prepared to fight them before this?"

Tundra laughed. He had prepared the alchemists for a fight, and that showed in the way they postured and stood throughout the short meeting. "I was very, very much prepared to fight them, because I don't know how well or what orders they received from Prince Kaorl or his ministers. But my first instinct was to bribe them. If their orders were just generic bounties, many such soldiers would happily turn a blind eye for the right sums. Naturally, I had to try paying them off." 

"Then why didn't you say so?"

"Because you'd be relaxed, and the soldiers would think we are easy prey. I needed all of you to be ready to fight and for them to see it. That way, they would realize that they have to make a deal with me." Tundra smiled, as he raised his hand. "I also didn't know how much the Prince wanted all of you dead. I am a visitor with a bounty, and may have aided in the alchemists' escape. But you are wanted suspects in a royal poisoning. I believe you can tell the difference?"

That made both Gana and Taha freeze. "And yet they took the bribe."

"Money in the pocket now is a lot more useful than being dead. They know they can't win."

Elder Jashen grinned as he tapped Tundra on the shoulder. "You know, Severian went out of his way to make deals with the Whispering Man from his own coffers all because you were sometimes stingy as hell."

Tundra laughed. "I believe I may now have a different problem instead. I'm too used to excess and solving problems with resources that I fear for our treasury."

"Hasn't gotten that bad." His old friend responded. 

But while they prepared to board the ship and go back on their way, he felt a presence from a distance. A spiritual spear of steel formed around Tundra's arm  as the air around them charged. Jashen wisely prepared his own defensive artifact. 

"Come out." He said, as the steel spear vanished. The spear of spiritual steel flew through the thick forests, and exploded quite a distance away.

But retaliation came just as swiftly, and Tundra immediately slammed his palm ahead. 

"[Heavenly Steel Wall]." Tundra said as a steel barrier floated ten paces in front of his body.

"I am surprised you can sense me, Lord Fox." A grand elder of the Silent Mountain emerged, and frowned. His steel shield shattered just as quickly, but not before absorbing the blow from the strange black ores that floated around the grand elder. A woman dressed in the dark brown and black of the Silent Mountain, but with gold threads woven onto the sleeves to mark her position. She looked like a middle aged woman that was once very beautiful, but has chosen a more mature appearance to better fit her status. "It is not every day that I am impressed by my juniors."

Tundra did not recognize the woman at all. "My apologies, this one does not recognize this distinguished elder from the Silent Mountain Sect. May we know how we should address you?"

"Ah. Grand Elder of the Silent Mountain, Andra Draisil." 

The declaration made every alchemist freeze.

"Greetings, Lady Draisil." Tundra said. He scrambled to dig through his memories for a record of the woman, which if he recalled correctly, was a powerful cultivator in the ninth realm. But in his first life, she died during an internal war between factions of the Silent Mountain over some unknown affairs within the Silent Mountain Great Sect, and so he didn't recall much beyond that.

It was thoroughly irritating how the dead people he didn't care about in his first life were those that came for him, but there was likely enough information for him to work with. 

"Ah, those soldiers that left a while ago, what did they say?"

"Nothing much of note, Elder. We have just paid our royal exit taxes to the Kaorlian military, and am about to depart for our own homes. The heavens know that it has been days since I had a proper bed."

She grunted as if she expected it. "As useless as I expected them to be. But honestly, as Impressed as I am, I am not here for you, Lord Fox. I want to speak to the alchemists you've rescued." 

Gana Adan and the rest of the alchemists immediately bowed and saluted. "How can we assist the great elder?"

"Cooperate with an interrogation. I have questions, and you will answer them." She declared, snapped a finger, and a large home emerged for her spatial pouch. "I have many questions, and it may take some time. The rest of you are not required."

***

For once, Tundra appreciated not being in the center of things, so he retreated to his chambers within the flying ship, while the alchemists found themselves in for a grueling interview in that strange new spiritually created spatial home.

"I did not expect to be waiting here for days." Jashen said. 

"If a grand elder of the Great sect wants something, we have no choice but to obey." Tundra said as he looked at his scroll. A pigeon with a letter strapped to its feet landed at the door. One of the Whispering Man's. 

Tundra frowned. 

Edison and Marin were taken prisoners by the Brownhill Fist Sect, and wanted him to pay off a random.

For a moment, he had a flashback. Over the ten thousand years, he had gotten himself into similar conflicts with other sects because his own children and his own partners were foolish. He remembered how an offense with the Flaming Phoenix led to war and years of bad blood between the two sects. 

He now had to rescue his wife and his son. 

It was an uncomfortable feeling to be placed in the same situation once more. 

"Everything alright?"

"Unfortunately, Edison and Marin seem to have gotten themselves into some trouble." 

"Ah." Jashen said. "We should visit them."

"You know how this starts? We fight the Brownhill Fist Sect, and whoever is backing the Brownhill Fist Sect will make it an excuse to fight with us, and before you know it we are engaged in all out war." 

"That tends to happen." Jashen said. "Unless you can make a strong statement, such conflicts do escalate." 

Tundra paused, and remembered all the times the Verdant Snow fought other sects. Why was he so proud back then, that he refused to back down? 

Sometimes, it almost felt like he wanted it that way. Was he trying to compensate for his lack of attention to his children and offspring, by reacting so strongly?

As he sat there and drank the already cold tea, he realized the time regression may have meddled with his mind in some ways. 

"Well?"