[RSM] Chapter 118. Luharlia Moves (Patreon)

Then the door to that strange building opened, and the alchemists emerged. The woman appeared last, and the building melted as she stepped out. It returned to the shape of a small token, and returned to her spatial pouch.

"Well, I thank you for your patience. Goodbye" The woman said, and then, before Tundra could say any more, she was gone. It was so sudden that he wasn't exactly sure what to make of it, and her movement ability was so sudden he was sure it was intentional. 

The rest of the alchemists were tired. Their eyes were sunk, their skin and complexion pale, and they walked with a drag. A long, gruesome interrogation. 

"Let's get you somewhere to rest. We'll have to ride this out, somehow." Tundra escorted the cultivators to their assigned rooms within their flying ship, and watched them rest. They slept the next two days as they began their journey. 

To the Brownhill Fists Sect.

***

"Should I help them?" Tundra asked.

"Yes." Celestia answered without hesitation. "They are family."

Tundra, however, felt his ten thousand years on his shoulders. All the times he helped family and all the times it just led to more conflict down the line. "Yes. Because they are family, I should help." Tundra repeated. "But where do I draw the line, Celestia? When does it become an  expectation?" 

Celestia looked at him. Their eyes met. He saw for a brief moment, a look of concern. "Even so, should we not stand up for our family? For all their flaws, for all their crimes. Is that not what family is? Even if you walked the path of a criminal, I will do my best to be by your side, and try to steer you to the right path."

Tundra looked up. 

Jashen nodded along. "Lady Gale is right, Tundra. We do not abandon one of our own. I know you have experiences that now cloud that judgement, but the clarity of the old you on this matter is clear. There is no other way." 

He closed his eyes.

"You are right. I will assist, and then I will punish them if they have erred." 

Celestia cautioned, as she reread the missive. "Please do not be hasty to punish until the matter is clear. The only thing they did, appears to be at the wrong place and at the wrong time. That is not a crime. Have some restraint, husband. Marin is still your wife, and Edison is still your son. It is not what I would want." 

Jashen agreed. "Imagine what we tell the other sects, if we cannot even protect our own? How and what happens to Edison and Marin is separate from the matter of the Brownhill Fists trying to make a move on our people. A statement must be made. A strong one."

He picked up a cup of water, and made it swirl. His mind swirled too. 

"You are right." He relented, and looked at Jashen. "I have become soft."

Jashen chuckled. "I dare not say that, my old friend. At most, just weighed down by things that did not happen. Yet."

Tundra didn't know why he felt strangely relieved at those words. Jashen was right, in this life, it had not happened, and so he should not presume things will recur. "Then let us head to the Brownhill Fists Sect, and let them know that if they want my presence, they will get it. But first, a detour." 

"A detour?"

"Luharlia." Tundra declared. "I have some treasures to retrieve."

***

"You've been resting for days. How do you feel?" Tundra asked the alchemists, as they had a surprisingly smooth journey out of the outskirts and to Luharlia. It was a mere few days away by flying ship, and the comforts of their flying ship was far, far better than life on the road. 

"Better. But in some ways, I am still grappling with everything that happened." Taha Tarmath spoke, while Gana remained strangely quiet.

"Is what the Grand Elder wants confidential?"

"Not really." Taha answered. "She appears quite interested in the events that led up to the entire Banquet of Alchemists." 

"Oh. Anything interesting?"

"Not much."

"Well, we are landing in Luharlia and so, it is up to you where you'd like to go."

The alchemists looked at each other, and Taha sighed. "You've helped us through a really difficult point in our lives, Lord Fox. As such, we would be ungrateful if we just left. Between us, we've agreed to serve as Guest Elders at the Verdant Snow, as our way to pay back your deed."

Tundra accepted their bow and offer of service. Favors and duties were traded, and periods of service as a form of repayment were common. Often, the exact periods of service are not explicit, but an implicit understanding between them. 

"On behalf of the Verdant Snow, I shall shamelessly accept." Tundra said. "We could always use more talented alchemists to help expand our treasuries and help train new talent."

He would have to house them somewhere, but that was a small obstacle. 

***

As they approached Luharlia, a set of eighth and ninth realm warships loomed overhead. Princess Luharl's private royal guards. Though the ships themselves were usually manned with loyalist elders, usually in the sixth, seventh and eighth realm, they were all built to be spiritually bound to their patron Prince or Princess. 

It was an intimidating sight to see such large warships floating above Luharlia. Their shadows covered entire city blocks, and were like large artificial clouds. 

"We should turn back." Tundra said as the ship crested the last of the outer hills, and the ship's navigation equipment picked up the royal guard's ships.

But it was a little too late. 

A golden ray of light blasted out from one of Imperial Warships, and their ship was bound. They all felt their ships shake vigorously. The ship was then pulled by what appeared to be a kind of spiritual restraining field.

"It seems my idea of a detour was a mistake." Tundra cursed as the entire ship began to move. The ship was then forcibly landed, where a small platoon of the Princess's soldiers came. All of them walked out, and Tundra was prepared for a fight. 

But the man leading the Princess's army was a familiar face. 

Prince Consort Hanya walked over, in full armor. "Lord Fox, what an unusual coincidence. You came right when we were about to go look for you."

Tundra blinked. "Look for me?" 

"It is a joke." Hanya said. "You should laugh."

Tundra felt nervous enough, surrounded by so many heavy weaponry and imperial treasures that he laughed awkwardly. 

"Alright, let's check if you are compromised. General Juhen?" Hanya said, as one of Princess Luharl's generals walked over with a glowing iron stick. Tundra recognized it as a powerful lightning based parasite-killing tool, though he thought its effectiveness on stronger Zuja parasites were spotty.

He remembered more than a few Zuja avatars managing to fool the Lightning Rod of Parasite Removal. They probably didn't know it did not work all that well. 

"This will hurt a little, Lord Fox." Hanya said.

He lied. It hurt a lot as a tremendously powerful lightning bolt coursed through their bodies. He looked around and saw a similar lightning bolt used on the rest of his entourage. 

"Celestia?" Tundra turned to see his wife in pain. The stick was charged with some kind of lightning bolt, and he could feel that they were surprisingly targeted towards the Zuja. "Spare them. They are clean."

Celestia shook her head, and labored to answer. She put up a strong front, even though the tool used to check them for parasites was clearly  "I'm fine, husband. I can take this."

The General said nothing, and did his job. The General's lightning bolt went through each and every one of them, and luckily, none of them had anything to show for it. Yet, the sight of his wife going through pain brought back deep seated fears. Fears of losing his own wife, and a desire to protect his friends and family. 

"Well. That should do it." Prince Consort Hanya said. "Since you are here, you might want to know that we are going to war."

"War?" It was Jashen who asked, perhaps a little groggy from the lightning rod's effects.

"What else does these ships overhead look like, if not war?" Prince Consort Hanya said. "The Golden Emperor found the recent events troubling." 

Tundra looked up. These powerful eighth realm 1,500 men and ninth-realm 3,000 men flying warships could move to almost anywhere in the world within hours, their spiritual energies and flying formations so powerful that they could be used as large ramming vessels. Even crashing them on a sect would be incredibly destructive. 

There were some clues that they were likely made by the Flaming Phoenix few hundreds if not few thousand years ago, but there were extensive modifications to them by the Golden Dragons that it is hard to say that they are still ships of the Flaming Phoenix.

"Is that something you should tell us?" Tundra asked. 

"As one of Princess Luharl's vassals, you should know." The Prince Consort declared.

The regressor mentally wondered when has he ever accepted that position, but given his actions over the past few months, it is not a surprise that the Prince Consort interpreted it that way. 

"I see. I merely wish to claim my treasures and leave, Prince Consort."

"Ah. But unfortunately, recent circumstances dictate that you must stay here for a while. At least, until whatever happens blows over. We live in troubling times, Lord Fox, so come, now that you are here, let me lead you to somewhere comfortable."

***

"From one house arrest to another." Yavin said as they were given luxurious accommodations, but there were guards on the road and outside of their homes, that they were pretty much on 'house arrest'. "First in the White Striped Tiger Temple, and now this. We are attracting controversy." 

Not that the guards would be any use if someone like Tundra tried to escape. House arrests only work if the guards could keep them in.

Tundra found Yavin's statement quite amusing, though. 

None of this happened in his first life, and he sat and approached it analytically.

"A shame that my son and my wife will have to wait a little longer, but that's something else for us to deal with. We may as well figure out what is happening. The Princess goes to war. What do you think happened?" Tundra asked both Yavin, Celestia, and also the other alchemists present. They were unfortunately caught in this series of events, but thankfully did not appear to hold any resentment. 

It was just bad luck, and bad luck was all too common in their world. 

Yavin straightened up as he realized this was a serious conversation. "The Prince Consort put us on house arrest, while information is restricted. There's a powerful containment sphere meant to interfere with carrier birds and that sort. This suggests that their movement is sensitive."

"The Prince Consort's armor appears to be geared towards a fight against beasts. There are an array of beast-slayer blades by his side. General Juhen's use of the Lightning Rod of Parasite Removal seems to align quite closely to that ancient threat." Jashen looked at Tundra, but chose his words wisely. 

"But where?" Tundra said, but his mind immediately went to Kaorlia. But would Princess Luharl's army attack Kaorlia? On what grounds? 

There was unfortunately an embargo that covered the entirety of Luharlia. No one could escape, and news would be scarce. They, too, didn't have information. 

"Would the Princess act alone against Prince Kaorl?" Tundra asked. In his first life, Princess Luharl vanished into obscurity, the later destruction of Luharlia came as nothing more than a footnote. So much has changed that much of his first life's foreknowledge is nothing more than an interesting note. "If I understand correctly, the Princess deployed her best ships, so this suggests a powerful foe. It may be not Prince Kaorl, and that we are merely here, caught in an inconvenient time." 

He remembered her presence in that underground palace, and the distortion in that space. Nothing then suggested that she would still just be a nobody. 

Unless that should have happened, still has not happened. Could there be an incident beyond just the poisoning of her spiritual realm by the Zuja parasite?

"Luharl knows." Tundra recalled their meeting. 

"But how much?" Jashen countered. "Does she understand it as well as you do?"

Tundra wasn't sure. She hedged, which was why she sent Hana away. 

It was then, that they felt the skies churn. The powers of the 1,500-man and 3,000-man flying warships sent powerful ripples through the air, and they vanished. 

"Kaorlia." Tundra said, as he felt them warp in a particular direction.