Path to Transcendence

"What are you going to do?" He asked Dustin.

"I'm just going to tell them that the girl we kidnapped had a scary strong friend who wasn't happy that we took her," Dustin said with a devious smile.

"That's it?" He asked.

"They will likely understand. There is always someone who is more powerful, even in a rural town like this. Look at that old man over there," he said while pointing at the old man who was directing the children toward a small building at the back of the orphanage. "Someone like him could have easily annihilated the entire warehouse without blinking an eye. As long as I don't outright lie, I should be fine."

Julius also looked over at the old man, it was surprising how well he was able to deal with the children without resorting to violence like they had. He guessed that was just the experience of running an orphanage.

"You're sure you still want to go back there?"

"It would be more suspicious if I don't," Dustin said with a shrug.

There was a brief pause between them. "Thank you," he said suddenly.

"For what?"

"For not killing me and for helping me save my friend."

"You're just a young boy, I wasn't ever going to kill you. I only hit you so hard because you kept on regenerating like some monstrous troll. Plus, you helped me more than you know," Dustin told him while giving him a slap on the back.

"Still, thank you. If you need anything, just let me know."

"Oh? A Tier 2 is offering a favor to me?" Dustin asked teasingly with an amused smile.

"This Tier 2 almost beat you," he reminded him in a similar tone.

Dustin shook his head aggressively. "You weren't even close," he said with more confidence than Julius thought he was feeling. He still remembered how ragged Dustin looked after their fight. However, he was a generous person and didn't bring that up, allowing Dustin to keep on believing what he wanted so he could sleep better at night.

After Dustin left to head back to the warehouse, it was just him, the old man, and Reinera left. Elder Han had got the rescued children all situated and already had plans for how he was going to reunite them with their families.

However, now that it was just the three of them, Julius noticed the weird atmosphere between Elder Han and Reinera. They were both staring at each other with expressionless faces, it was to the point that Julius had to say something.

"Do you two know each other?" He asked, already knowing that Elder Han knew Reinera, but he didn't know if Reinera knew who the old man was. Or if she knew that Elder Han was aware of her true identity.

Reinera nodded her head. "Yeah, I've seen him before," she said vaguely, sounding as if she was afraid of giving up something she wasn't supposed to say.

He decided that it would probably be better if she knew that her secret was already out. "Elder Han already knows that you're the princess somehow," he told her.

Reinera's eyes widened and he felt her mana react instinctively. "What? How?"

He shook his head. "I don't know. He just told me that he knows who Grace was and that he has some sort of grudge against your family."

Reinera chewed on her lips and fidgeted with her fingers. "Of course, he does," she said finally.

Elder Han didn't seem interested in this conversation any longer, he had a severe frown on his face as he turned to him. "If you don't need anything else from me, I am going to go get some sleep," he said.

Julius put up his hand. "Hold on for a moment. How do you two know each other?" He asked the both of them.

When neither seemed willing to respond first, he looked up in the air with an irritated sigh. "You know, I have had quite the long day," he said to no one in particular. "I had to deal with a crotchety old man who's pretending to be a normal old man, got my ass handed to me by a Tier 4, save a princess, and deal with a bunch of rescued children. I feel like the least I deserve is some honest answers," he said more calmly than he was feeling.

However, it seemed that his irritation seeped through more than he wished. Because both of them gave him sympathetic looks. But when they both noticed they had the same expressions, they quickly removed them.

Reinera was the first to speak. "That old man," she said while pointing violently at Elder Han. "He's the former Sect Leader of the Fallen Spire Sect. He's a cruel old bastard who will do anything for the right price," she said with disdain.

Fallen Spire Sect? He had heard of that name before, though he had no clue about anything other than their name. Furthermore, based on Elder Han's reaction, he wasn't denying Reinera's words so they must have had some truth to them. Although, he wasn't just going to take those words lying down.

"You speak of me like you and your family is any better," he croaked out. "Your family is willing to do anything as long as you guys maintain your tyrannical grip over the Empire."

"I'm not my family," Reinera spat out angrily.

Elder Han chuckled sardonically. "No, of course not, you just benefit from their prestige."

"That is not fair and you know it."

"Life isn't fair and you of all people shouldn't be telling other people what is and what isn't fair, princess," Elder Han retorted. The benevolent old man was nowhere to be seen, just an old man with built-up resentment.

I know I wanted them to open up a little bit, but I should probably intervene before it goes any further.

"Okay, that's quite enough," he said, infusing a bit of aura into his words to make his point. "I wanted to know answers, not for you two to start bickering like children. We are already surrounded by too many of them, there's no need for two more to show up," he then turned to the old man.

"I also don't appreciate you obviously keeping things from me. If you are going to continue and manipulate me, you are going to find that I won't be so agreeable," he said warningly, knowing full well that he was talking to someone who would wipe the floor with Dustin, not to mention someone like Julius.

He felt Elder Han's aura flare up for a mere moment. It barely showed, but for the first time, Julius was able to see just how oppressive the old man's aura was. It was soul-crushing, in that brief moment he felt so much power that he almost kneeled to the floor.

However, he didn't. He wrestled the pressure back and used the full weight of his willpower to remain as unaffected as he could. He calmly stared back at the gaze of the old man as he withstood the small amount of aura.

Eventually, after what seemed to be an eternity, but was probably only a few seconds, the old man's aura calmed down. He gave an amused chortle before covering his aura once more.

"You are something special, boy. Too bad your stupidity and pride will probably kill you first," Elder Han said in exasperation.

Julius pretended to ignore him and went over to Reinera who hadn't held up against the aura as well as he did. She had fallen to her knees and was gasping for air like a fish out of water. He gave her a reassuring pat on the back and channeled a little bit of life mana into her to alleviate the worst of it.

"Are you okay?" He asked her.

She just groaned and mumbled out an affirmative.

He scratched the back of his head. "Sorry, I might have wound him up too much," he admitted.

"You think?" She asked in a sarcastic tone, staggering to her feet. She was using him to drag herself up, almost taking him down to the ground as she did.

"It seems like your issue with each other isn't even that personal," Julius noted.

"What do you mean by that?" Reinera asked in disbelief.

"I mean have you actually seen Elder Han do anything outright bad with your own eyes? Or is that something someone from your family said to you?" Julius asked, already having a feeling what the answer was.

"He's not a good man, Julius. He's…" She paused as Elder Han gave her a warning look.

Julius noted this and couldn't help but wonder what Elder Han didn't want her to say about him. Likely something awful that the old man did in his past, that seemed like the most probable answer.

He ignored this for now and turned to Elder Han who was back to acting like a normal old man. "I get she's princess, but remember I told you that she isn't that bad. Don't you trust my opinion on that?"

Elder Han grumbled something, but he couldn't make out what he said. However, he was no longer glaring at Reinera like she murdered his family.

Feeling like he had gotten the situation settled, he let out the breath he was holding. Reinera was his friend, someone who he was feeling much closer to after she revealed, or rather been forced to reveal her secret.

While Elder Han was a man he didn't know. But Julius felt like he had somewhat of an idea who the man was. No matter what his past might have been like, it was important to remember that the old man had taken in the rescued children and made plans to reunite them with their families without much convincing.

He would much rather have both of them get along. And if getting along was too much to ask for, then Julius would happily settle for a mutual truce in the meantime.

***

Before they left the orphanage, Julius managed to ask Elder Han where they were in relation to Heston. According to the old man, they were pretty far north of Heston, in the northeast section of the Empire.

The old man said that if they wanted to get back their best bet would be to find a teleportation relay in a larger city. There wasn't anything like that, at least nothing open to the public around Stonewall.

"I got to tell you something," Reinera suddenly said.

Julius turned to look at her. "What's up?"

They were heading back to the inn to get some rest, it was pretty late and they needed some sleep. Or rather, she needed some sleep, Julius could go without some for quite some time. Lily wouldn't be too happy about that, but she would probably be understanding.

"I have to come clean," Reinera said hesitantly.

Julius frowned. "About what? Did you do something dumb?"

Reinera winced at that. "A little bit," she admitted.

"Well, you might as well rip off the bandage," he said with a sigh.

"I might have a way to get us back immediately," she slowly told him.

What does she mean by that? He thought curiously. How immediate was immediate?

"I don't follow," he said to her.

She fidgeted with her fingers. "I have a beacon that my family gave me in case of emergencies like this. Once I activate it, they will know my location and send a space mage to me along with a team."

She had something like that the entire time?

"And you didn't do it before because…?"

"Well, at first it wasn't working because of the spatial complications when getting teleported randomly, it took some time for it to recalibrate. But that isn't the reason why I still haven't used it. In fact, I was kind of glad that it wasn't working," she took a deep breath.

"I never had this kind of freedom in my life before. I wanted for just a little bit, to explore and see the world on my own without Amelia or other guards directing my every move," she quickly explained, as if she had been wanting to vent to someone for a long time.

"But you also got kidnapped… again," he reminded her.

"I realize that," she said, giving him a blank look. "Look, I wanted to use it then, but…"

"But it wasn't working yet, and then they took your ring that held the beacon, I get it," Julius finished for her.

"I just wanted to experience it, just for a little bit. But then I got myself kidnapped again by people who didn't even know I was a princess," she said in disbelief. "I knew I was being selfish and should have told you sooner, but I didn't think it would affect you like this. I'm sorry."

Julius ran a hand through his hair. I wish she would have told me about it beforehand. But I guess I can't fault her for wanting a taste of freedom. I would probably have made the same choice in her position, he admitted to himself.

There was no way for her to predict for all of this to happen.

He gave her a gentle smile and told her exactly that.

"But if I did, then we wouldn't be in this mess," she tried to remind him.

"Yes, but it is also in the past. It has already happened, and there is nothing we can do to change that. We can only focus on what we are going to do next."

As he finished saying his impromptu pep talk, he saw her take out something from her storage ring. The same one that Dustin had returned to her earlier.

"That's also why I wanted to ask you what you wanted me to do with this," she said while handing over the item to him. It was small but it didn't take a genius to figure out that this was the beacon that she had just mentioned.

He rolled it around in his hands as he looked at her with a contemplative look.

What am I supposed to do with this?