Chapter 89 - Sparring

Everyone present was astonished. As far as they knew, for the last 6 years, no family or kin was known to Elijah. His past was mysterious, and he seemed to have no attachment to anything whatsoever. All of a sudden, a long lost brother to Elijah had appeared, and no one knew what to think.

Well, not no one. There were at least two people present who were very familiar with they handsome yet simple dressed teen that was next to Elijah. These two were precisely stewart Menke, and Julieth Dai Corena. Julieth had not completely recovered from her earlier outburst, and she just wanted to hide herself under the ground and not be noticed by anyone. She could not understand her prior loss of composure. It was not that complicated, Nerun's cry had evoked a powerful memory of her youth, and her reaction was actually quite instinctual. A memory of a simpler timeperhaps.

Nerun and Elijah were quite happy to see each other.

"Come little brother. Let me show you around." said Elijah merrily after making sure that Nerun was ok. He had many questions, but those could wait. Seeing a loved one after so much separation was truly a bliss for this war-hardened man. After turning around his countenance changed completely though. The way he looked at the guard that had previously threatened Nerun was anything but kind. The bloodlust and killing intent in his cold eyes that usually looked amiable had almost turned tangible, and the guard felt his blood rate increase non-stop. For a minute there his heart was beating so fast that he was on the verge of a heart attack, and the fear that drowned his mind was such that he even wetted himself on his pants.

When the rest of the soldiers and nobles invited to Elijah's celebration saw the change in Elijah they deeply understood the fearsomeness of this newly appointed Dragon General, and some of them that had double intentions felt wary in their hearts and began to weigh up whether it was worthy to actually offend this young man. Just the might and presence exuded from him was as if he had become an asura, capable of unleashing utter slaughter towards his enemies. The onlookers started to realize some of the merits of the new Dragon General, and started to take him more seriously. They now deeply understood that the young man in front of them was not just any upstart, but one of the true elite experts of the Kingdom.

"Did you say that you wanted to maim my brother and cripple his meridians?" said Elijah in a cold tone that seemed to come from the underworld.

"Sir… sir… sir… it was all… I mean… a misunderstanding…" said the guard with a difficult stutter. He was on the verge of crying even as grown man. Not in his entire life had he felt so much fear.

"Lord Elijah, please restrain your anger. We'll make sure nothing like this ever happens again. You… When is it your turn to decide which person is important and who is not? If someone is asking for anyone in the army you need to report it upstairs, and someone will take charge. For dereliction of duty and harrassing a citizen you will be relieved from your position and take a penalty of six months of salary, and you will be cleaning the Walls Latrines for the next 12 months. Also you will not be eligible for promotion for the next three years." said one of the commanders from the Martial Temple, in charge of personnel.

Elijah just looked at him coldly, but said nothing. Since nothing had happened in the end, he had decided to let things go. However he did need to set an example so no such things happened in the future, "Since Commander Marlon has spoken I will not meddle in this anymore. However I do hope I don't find out that things like this are happening frequently. As for his punishment, I also wish that after his 12 months punishment is over, he will be sent to the Barbarian Lands to serve under Commander Lancaster. Have I made myself clear?"

When the soldiers heard Elijah's remarks, at first they were relieved, however the last part made their pupils constrict. This assignment was no different from a death penalty. After all, Commander Lancaster was the man in charge of the subterfuge operations in the Barbarian Lands, and also were the first line of battle when facing the Barbarians. Their death rate was quite high, up to 85% of soldiers were gone for good.

The Commander simply nodded in agreement. He was actually a relative of the soldier in the door, and wanted to save his life. Since the soldier was actually in the wrong this time, he could only attenuate the primary punishment, however he was much lower in the military hierarchy than Elijah. Now, the life or death of the man was completely up to him.

Elijah took Nerun with him to the rest of the guests, and introduced him as his brother. Everyone paid attention to this handsome yet somewhat frail looking teen. Some of them were a bit envious of Nerun's ascent to heaven, by having such a powerful brother in the Kingdom of Ansem and tried to get close to him. However, while Nerun was quite open and humble, many of them did not pay much attention to him.

This was for one reason. They felt that Nerun's personal power was next to nothing. They could actually see that Nerun had the aura of a Qi Grandmaster, however his Qi was quite thin compared to a true Qi Grandmaster. Therefore they thought that perhaps Nerun had gotten to this level simply by some type of miraculous fruit or something similar, and therefore his foundation was lacking. With this in mind, they had concluded in their hearts that Nerun would amount to nothing, perhaps simply becoming a silk-pants in the future.

Julieth kept her distance from Nerun. She did not want to talk to him right now, because of her prior embarrassment.

And so the meeting finished without much ado. That being said, a new rumour quickly spread throughout Eonia. The long lost brother of the new Dragon General Elijah had appeared and he was by all appearances a somewhat lacking youth compared to his much more talented older brother.

…

King Johannes was sitting in his study while examining some papers and hearing the latest reports from his intelligence officers.

"Your Majesty, some of the nobles have shown some unrest from the election of Dragon General that was made today. Several of them seem to not understand why Lord Vega was not selected, and many inquiries have been sent about it. Should I respond to this or ask the butlers to answer any of these inquiries?"

The man talking to his Majesty was a middle aged man with an unassuming face and that seemed to blend with the space around him. If people did not look at him he was quite easy to be completely unnoticed. This was his Majesty's right hand, the so-called King's Shadow, and his name was Manuel Miranda. His power was not to be underestimated, and actually very few people in the Kingdom and even the continent were familiar with his existence.

"Hmph! Let them talk all they want. House Alaria will never make it to the Top Brass of the army and the Kingdom as long as I'm still King. Vega being General is as much as I can endure. They think I don't know what they did, but one of the main reasons we were so weak for so many decades during my father's reign was precisely because of their machinations against House Rosalia. Because of greed they weakened their own Kingdom. The only reason I have not destroyed them is because of the merits accrued by their ancestors." Said the king with a stern countenance.

"Besides, I do think that Elijah offers a much better prospect than Vega. He's not only much younger, his talent for the military is without par, he is quite ruthless to his enemies, but also knows when to show mercy. He is very loved by all of the soldiers beneath him, and his merits are barely below Vega, even though he has been in the military way less time." said the King.

"Noted your Majesty. A new piece of intel just arrived. Apparently Lord Elijah has a brother. It is probably a brother from his orphanage, not a blood brother, but it is not clear."

"Oh. Is he noteworthy?" asked the King with certain interest.

"Apparently his foundation is quite shallow, but I have not met him yet."

"I see." said the King without disappointment nor eagerness. "Continue checking this information. It's good that Elijah has family in Ansem. It means that he will be much more attached to the Kingdom. If the little brother isn't a total good for nothing we can also help on the side. Otherwise, just let him be."

"Understood my Liege." said Manuel. Afterwards he seemed to vanish as if he were never there to begin with.

…

The party ended on a good note and everyone left with renewed comprehension of Elijah's goals. Elijah was eager to talk to his little brother, so the party actually ended a bit sooner than expected but no one was hung up about it.

Elijah took Nerun to his quarters and gave him a fierce hug before letting him go. They exchanged some minor talk, and Elijah asked about the Orphanage. Nerun quickly gave him the rundown of the black hooded man infiltration, and the information they had gotten out of him. Afterwards, they had all decided to separate, while leaving a way to get in contact with each other in the future.

Given Elijah's accomplishments, he was seriously considering calling them all and having them live in Eonia next to him. However he soon dispelled the thought. After all he would not be able to stay in Eonia all the time, and even though he had gotten a great deal of influence in the Kingdom, he still had some rivals and enemies. That, and the organization that was looking for them and their father was unfathomable, and its might was not something they could fight against right now. So he decided to go along with their plan as well. He then started to pay close attention to Nerun, and he could not help but frown a bit.

"What is it, Big Brother? Is there anything worrying you?" asked Nerun when he noticed Elijah's frown.

"What has happened to you? I can somewhat tell that you are a Qi Grandmaster, with two core meridians opened, but the quantity of your Qi is too shallow, barely above the level of a Qi Master. Your foundations seems lacking. Did you take something to forcibly open your meridians? Yuo know that those things can ruin your martial path, don't you?" said Elijah with some anger, yet clear concern in his tone. He had a lot of expectations towards Nerun, however, it seemed that Nerun had gone astray in these years they were apart.

"Oh. Those are your worries." said Nerun feeling a bit smug. "You are right on something brother, I'm a Qi Grandmaster, however the quantity of Qi is that of a Qi master only."

When Elijah heard that, his countenance sombered somewhat and he was about to berate Nerun, when the latter the continued.

"I'm also a Great Mana Adept, with the Mana level of an adept." said Nerun nonchalantly.

Elijah was then dumbfounded for a bit when he heard his brother. But he quickly composed himself and appeared right next to Nerun and taking his wrist he started to examine Nerun's body. What he saw left him astonished. Nerun had two open core meridians and two open heavenly gates. Even though the quantity of this Mana and Qi levels were low, they seemed to supplement each other and were in perfect balance. Also, both energies were quite pure, and its quality could not be better.

Elijah did not really know what to think about this. What had Nerun done in order to accomplish this?

Nerun was actually quite happy seeing that he had shocked his brother silly and decided to starike while it was hot.

"Brother, I know what you're worried about, but let me assure you that my foundation is quite sturdy. I'd dare say that it's the sturdiest of them all, and that I can be considered to be unrivaled in my rank. That is to say that no Qi Grandmaster nor Great Mana Adept can defeat me. And I can even go toe to toe with a Praetorian level fighter." Nerun was actually feeling proud and although he was normally quite humble, he wanted to boast in front of his brother. After all, he wanted his brother to also be proud of him.

"Is that so? Good… Very good… We'll put that to the test then. Come with me to the martial ground of my quarters. There, there is no risk of being spied upon. Let your brother see how powerful you've become." said Elijah with a great smile on his face. He wanted nothing more than for his little brother to also be powerful.

"That's what I was waiting for hehehehe." said Nerun as he followed his brother to an open courtyard inside Elijah's quarters in the Martial Temple.