Rivers of the Night

Theron stood across from three young men in silence, his hair tied into a long ponytail, his bare feet just barely depressing the thick rubber mats, and his hands almost loosely fitted around the hilts of his blades.

He didn't know much about these three young men aside from the fact that they were unlikely to be graduates of the Imperial Academy. They were ironically too young.

If they were genius enough to graduate that young, then their cultivation would surely be greater than just the low-tier too. So it was all too contradictory.

This, to Theron, meant that they must have been practically raised in the army, which was interesting because Theron didn't believe that he had ever heard of such a thing.

Of course, men that were of age would definitely have a chance to join the army. But these few had the air of veterans while barely being 20 years old at that. They had to have been in the army for at least five years to have such airs to them.

And yet, only geniuses that had graduated from the academies could possibly join that young.

It was one contradiction after another that led to just one possible conclusion… there was likely some rule bending going on. But Theron also didn't get the feeling from General Pennel that he was the type to thrust kids into a life of war and blood just because.

Theron scanned them all one by one. But after a glance, he knew that there was little to no difference between them. They were all carbon copies of General Pennel, spear-wielding Flux Mancers.

"Are you ready?" Theron asked.

The eyes of the three young men narrowed. They had all been waiting for him. This question felt like more of an insult than anything else.

"I'm coming."

Theron tapped a foot and shot forward.

**

General Pennel sat on the edge of the bleachers, his hands folded into fists that held up his chin. Looking ahead at the three beaten and battered young men, heaving for breath ahead, he wasn't sure how to take it.

Theron had long left, but the lingering effects of his presence hung heavy in the air.

Never once had the General ever seen such a systematic dismantling of a group of veterans. These three weren't cultivation geniuses, but what they were was geniuses in battle.

The two didn't necessarily come hand in hand, unfortunately. Some of them had genetic defects, some of them were just unlucky, and some were just dealt hands in Mana comprehension that couldn't be undone.

But when it came to how to use their bodies, how to apply the strength they did have, how to manipulate the eyes and movements of their opponents, they were unmatched.

If General Pennel were to rank them purely based on their combat sense and ignore their cultivation talent, they were only a tick beneath geniuses like Mason Zhen.

And most importantly, there were three of them working together. Three that were very much used to standing side by side on a battlefield.

Yet it wasn't even close.

From the start, Theron had them on their back foot. Unrelenting pressure, firm and commanding. He danced between life and death as though he had been doing it all his life.

He didn't fear for his own life being lost at all, as though it didn't matter whether it happened or not, almost like his life wasn't even his own to gamble with in the first place.

The General felt a cold shudder in his heart.

"Well?" Dean Pennel asked, taking a seat by her son.

The General didn't respond. He didn't know how to respond. It wasn't until several minutes later that he said anything at all.

"He's dangerous… he's this dangerous already and he's still hiding so much."

"And what do you think that means?"

"He knows he can use us."

Dean Pennel smiled. "And what do you think THAT means?"

"That he needs something from us."

"And isn't that all that matters?"

General Pennel looked toward his mother as though seeing her for the first time.

Dean Pennel herself didn't seem to mind her son's gaze, finding it more amusing than anything else. Sometimes children forgot their parents had lived entire lives long before them. What they knew of their parents was simply the tip of the iceberg.

"What should we do, mother?"

"… Your father's death… I am almost certain that it was related to the Zhen Clan. They simply underestimated how much you had already grown beneath his wings. However, I still cannot dismiss the possibility that this was a scheme of the Thistles to pit us against one another and shake the foundations of the Empire.

"All I do know is that this Empire is sick. The Emperor hasn't bothered to make a move in so long, the crown prince had long taken up so many matters into his own hands, and that mysterious little princess… All I know is that the Nightingales are playing at a game I don't understand, and it almost feels like they're willing to let the entire Empire burn down for the sake of whatever goal it is they're chasing."

General Pennel continued to sit there, his thoughts rolling in his mind, and yet not coming with any more added clarity.

"What we need right now is time. Since the little boy is willing to take on so much of the pressure himself, let him do it, and feed him what he needs. I do not want to see the Empire my husband bled for crumble all because a new regime is lusting after power they do not have the strength to hold.

"If we have a dominant showing at the gathering, one of two things will happen. Either our enemies will get antsy and start showing their tails, or they will think twice.

"… Theron is the first step toward that."

The duo fell into silence once more, only the gasping breaths of the trio of youths filling in the absence of noise.

"… I just don't know if between now and the months to the gathering… if we'll even still be able to control him at that point anymore."

…

Theron had no idea about the conversation between the mother and son, but he could guess that they were holding in quite a bit.

Right now, though, that had little to do with him, not when he finally got access to the library.

Sadie said that the information he needed would be in the Secret Realm, but he had another thought when she spoke so much about it…

How did she know all of this information? Could there possibly be clues here in the largest library in the province?

Theron hadn't even waited for the General's dismissal. The moment he defeated those three, he shot off to the library with Dean Pennel's credentials.

If he was going to be risking his life for the sake of finding out more about his family, he might as well actually find out more about them when he had the time.

Because otherwise… he felt that the next few months would sweep him into a storm he wouldn't be getting a break from.

As though to confirm his thoughts, Theron had barely stepped into the library when he felt countless gazes landing on him, one Third Eye after another brazenly sweeping over his body.