The Martial Unity

The four of them stared at Rui with a stunned gaze.

Rui hadn’t intended on telling anyone since it simply would cause a lot of ruckus that he simply wasn’t interested in getting involved. In the past, he would have been wary of the consequences of the world finding out about such an extraordinary ability.

However, these days, he was too powerful for anybody to politically target him. There was no way that anybody would be able to force him into prolonging their life. On top of that, he highly doubted if there was a single entity in the world that was capable of replicating this extraordinary feat by themselves.

It required extraordinary powers and capabilities that he was certain that he was the only one who possessed, that was why despite all the attention this could get, not a single person would be able to actually replicate it. “You…” Julian stared at him in disbelief. “Anyway,” Rui shifted the topic. “I won’t be able to stay long this time either. The Solution of Harmony commences in less than ten days. I will be gone for a very long time. Unfortunately, the strategic outlook of human civilization requires us Sages to depart from humanity and take care of threats that cannot be allowed to step foot within human civilization.”

A small bittersweet smile appeared on Alice’s tranquil expression. “You are doing much for human civilization. You are doing much for all of us here in Quarrier Town. We will always be grateful for everything that you have done for us.”

She smiled sincerely at him. “I’m happy that you have come back home one last time. I’m happy to have seen you one last time.”

Rui smiled at her melancholy. She was already almost seventy, and he was relatively certain that once he departed from the Kandrian Empire, he wouldn’t be returning home for many years until they had fully exterminated the beasts and monsters within the depths of the core of the Beast Domain. There was a very high possibility that he would never see her again.

“I will enjoy the next ten days to my heart’s fill.”

And that was exactly what he did.

Over the next ten days, he spent as much time in Quarrier Town as possible, talking with Alice about the adventures he had had in his journey through human civilization. He spoke with her about Amare, telling her about the woman he had come to fall in love with her. Alice smiled at him coyly. “Hmmm, I didn’t expect you to pursue romance anymore after your previous relationship.”

Rui smiled wryly. “Neither did I. I didn’t think I would find a person that I liked who also was compatible with the life that I have pursued for myself.”

She nodded, heaving a sigh. “You do lead a rather extreme life, especially when you’re not in the Kandrian Empire. I don’t think most women would want anything to do with the craziness that you get dragged up in. The fact that she can keep up with you must mean that she is rather special.”

Rui smiled as he fondly talked as he told stories about her to his family. His only regret was that it was unlikely he would be able to have Amare meet Alice, which was a sore truth that he needed to come to terms with. He didn’t even bother asking Alice if she wanted to consume a life-prolonging potion or whether she wanted him to restore her youth. She had led a good, meaningful, and purposeful life, helping others and surrounding herself with family, just as their mother did. She was also the last of the remaining original caretakers he had had growing up in the Quarrier Orphanage. Having been the youngest, the others had passed away in the past few years, leaving just her from the first generation of the Quarrier Orphanage.

“Come,” she told him, “I want to show you something.”

Rui raised an eyebrow. “Of course.”

The two of them took a slow walk across town as Rui cast a light misdirection technique to ensure that people didn’t swarm them just for existing. They walked across the cozy town freely, as they arrived at a particular altar, not too very far from the orphanage.

It was a statue.

A statue dedicated to Lashara.

“This…” Rui gazed at the statue with lit eyes.

“They built this statue to honor our mother as the founder of the original Quarrier Orphanage and village,” Alice smiled as she gazed upon the statue. “After all, this town would not have existed without her. And who knows where any of us would be?”

Rui hadn’t thought about that. He knew that his father had chosen the Quarrier Orphanage for him to be in, but without it, would there have been any good alternatives?

He wasn’t sure.

His life would surely have been very different from how it had been. With the Enlightenment of Self, he had an intricate understanding of how his childhood in the Quarrier Orphanaged had affected his life and who he was at a very fundamental level.

“…It’s beautiful,” Rui smiled as a flush of memories of his mother came rushing back to him. Even after all these years, the impact that his mother and her passing away had on him had yet to fully disappear. A dark, morbid possibility entered his mind. He wasn’t even sure if he could do it.

But even if he could, he knew that she wouldn’t want that. Not to mention, she would be suffering and he wasn’t sure if she could break out of it. He heaved a sigh. “…I intend to soak in as much as I can in my time here to keep with me when I’m in the Beast Domain.”

“That sounds wonderful,” Alice smiled. “Perhaps you should spend some time training the kids in Martial Art. It has become all the craze not just because of you but also because of the Beast Incursion.”

Rui smiled as he glanced back at the orphanage, rough-housing in the dirt. “Maybe I will.”

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