Book 9, His Fame Shakes the World – Chapter 20, The War God’s College

By nightfall, many of the guests at the manor had left, and most of the nobles were now gone. The engagement banquet was an afternoon banquet. The people still remaining at the manor were all relatively important guests.

“Wharton, where is your big brother?” Yale poured two cups of wine, then walked to Wharton’s side. “I haven’t seen him for almost the entire afternoon, I think?”

“My big brother left with that Mr. Hodan. No clue where he went.” Wharton shook his head.

“I’ll go look for him. Given your big brother’s personality, he might have run off to the training yard and started to train.” Yale left the guest hall. Making his way down the corridors, he arrived at the training courtyard after a while.

“Drip.” “Drip.”

Water flowed down the manmade fountain. Each drip-drop of water could be heard clearly in the silent training courtyard. Linley was seated in the meditative trance on the grass, not moving at all.

If one moved closer and examined him carefully, one might see that Linley’s muscles were contracting and expanding in a very rhythmic way. And as they did, a natural gust of wind seemed to have surrounded Linley.

His spirit had become one with the endless earth and attuned to the boundless wind.

“Boom!” “Boom!” ….

“Whoosh!” “Whoosh!” ….

His eyes shut, Linley could...