Dragon Heart. Land Of Magic. LitRPG Wuxia Saga. Book 6

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 d.e.s.i.r.e 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 c.a.r.e.s.sing her… His hands touching her soft t.h.i.g.hs… 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 a.d.u.l.t, 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 c.h.e.s.t 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.