Badge in Azure

Saleen knew what he wanted to do in the future. Now, he was ready to face whatever was to come, especially after he had already gone through so much. After all, a mage cannot simply go around killing people with impunity or treating common people as if they were nothing!

This was due to the fact that those people were also part of the world. Thus, destroying them would throw the world out of balance, thus causing the mages to lose the balance that was necessary for further research in their environment.

Besides, every mage emerged from the ranks of the common folk, which meant that their souls bore the mark of the common folk. As they were high level creatures, while there were many humans who went about killing each other, they were simply not a race that would do such a thing, as that would basically be the same as causing their own race’s extinction!

In fact, it was this very principle that separated gods from humans. When gods fell, their race fell with them and went extinct. So, when gods destroyed themselves, they were capable of annihilating entire worlds. This was something that humans would have never done.

Moreover, mages were not allowed to destroy entire worlds. Instead, they focused on making the world a greater place, one with abundance.

Also, Saleen was not like any regular mage. He was among those non-conventional ones, who knew that they were destined to carry great things, such as the resurrection of Goddess of Myers. Such a task, or rather, a mission like that was only able to be carried out by a select few mages throughout the entire mainland.

All of those mages carried special fates. But… What is fate? Saleen wondered.

He had no idea what that concept was exactly, but at the moment, he came to realize something about it. He had been drifting on the river of fate for over 20 years, and the hopes that he once had were still floating along its same path, yet nothing had changed. This could only make him believe that if things kept going as they were currently, he would be a slave of fate for good.

While astrologers attempted to hover high in the sky, looking down on the ground in order to get a good view of where the fates led, mages, on the other hand, analyzed the fundamental composition of matter, the laws by which all energy operated, and the most fundamental form of the entire world. This was also a way to chase after truth and an attempt to master fate.

What Saleen was doing at the moment was simply taking his fate into his own hands. He was tired of simply getting by and merely getting his belly filled in order to survive.

By this time, Saleen had come to understand Jason quite well. He was similar to Saleen’s teacher, who had forged onward in life, always keeping his goal in mind and never yielding. He would have never given up, even if he was all alone and no one was by his side.

At the moment, the merchants of Ironwall City were locked up, and the lesser nobles had signed agreements with Gugger, becoming his vassal nobles. Meanwhile, Gugger became one of Saleen’s palace nobles, advancing to the rank of grade one earl.

Narsha, Viscount Gugger’s wife, was brought to tears of joy upon seeing him return. However, he was solemn and serious, as he was filled with worry.

“Gugger, you’re a grade one earl now, so why aren’t you happy?” Narsha didn’t understand why her husband looked so troubled.

“Narsha. His Highness Saleen wants too much. Do you know that his next goal will probably be to overtake the entire Myers Mainland? If he succeeds in doing that, we’d all be rich and glorious. But, if he fails, he’d be dragging us all to hell with him,” he replied.

Narsha was dumbfounded and remained silent for a bit before asking, “So, are you going to swear loyalty to Saleen, or are you prepared to betray him at any given moment?”

“No. In fact, that is the exact reason that I’m so troubled. I have no intention of betraying him. After all, I’m one of his closest nobles, at least in name, and he grew up in Ceylon City. So, he wouldn’t cast me off, no matter what,” he replied.

He then looked at Narsha and asked, “Do you know that there aren’t that many people who are able to earn a mage’s approval and attention? AS long as I keep being a good, loyal earl, I won’t even need to have any talent, as His Highness Saleen will make sure that I have a good life for the rest of my days.”

“Are you worried about the children then?” she asked.

“Indeed. Our youngest son is only two, and I already don’t even know if he has a future.” As he spoke, Gugger’s eyes shone with emotions that did not seem to belong to Sikeqinyan nobles, including a sense of loss, frustration, and fear.

Narsha gritted her teeth and asked, “Gugger, you must hand over our son to his Highness Saleen then. Don’t palace nobles do that all of the time?”

Handing over one’s son to their lord, rendering their offspring as someone who would serve their lord for the rest of their lives, was something that was commonly seen among the nobles. The nobles who did so did it as a gesture of their resolve and fidelity.

While Gugger was still feeling troubled over the decision, Saleen’s men had already begun modifying Ceylon City. The original plan was scrapped. Since the Tanggulasians’ naval power was very formidable, then Ceylon City’s fortification along the shoreline had become the utmost priority.

Other than their being startled by Earl Gugger’s announcement, there were hardly any signs of unrest seen among the citizens of Ceylon City. After Gugger announced his loyalty to Saleen, the first thing that he had done was to reduce the taxes that had been imposed on everyone in the city.

This was a costly move. Earl Gugger had then announced a law during war times. This law stated that if Ceylon City was surrounded, the earl’s residence would provide food for those who had lost their source of income, as long as the city did not get completely taken over.

The only price that the citizens would be charged for this food provision was to work for the earl’s residence, performing such tasks as building maintenance on facilities within the city, cleaning, and so on. This also kept them from being forced to go to the frontlines.

The people of Ceylon City took all that with a grain of salt, however, as they hadn’t seen many demons marching in the streets. So, everyone had grown somewhat complacent, choosing to sit on the fence and simply watch to see what would happen. After all, they knew that it was unrealistic to think of trying to escape Ceylon City, as it was said that all of the surrounding nobles had already sworn fealty to Gugger.

Earl Gugger had quite a reputation, and as such, the city did not see any riots, which was a fact that Saleen found quite satisfying. After all, he did not want an empty city. What he really wanted was for Ceylon City to become a profitable place, one that was in charge of all of the trade routes that linked to the Tanggulasi Empire.

Currently, only magic warships were capable of sailing long distances, and common merchant ships required huge supply points. As such, Ceylon City’s location was very suitable for trade and commerce. However, it was unfortunate that the Tanggulasi Empire had placed a heavy sanction on merchants, and the penalty for violating any of these laws was basically death.

Saleen had taken Ceylon City for himself, without bothering to talk to Danny, the emperor of Sikeqinya. With Ironwall City destroyed, there was no way that Danny could let such actions slide. After all, it was nearly impossible for him to acknowledge Ceylon City’s independence.

However, Saleen did not even give Danny a chance to curse, much less retaliate, as Lex took over the Royal Harbor, while Saleen took over Ceylon City. Now that they had taken over these two locations, one in the west and one in the north, they wanted to see what Danny would do about it.

Saleen would have been pleased if Danny had decided to attack the city, as there were more than 600 metal flyers stationed in Royal Harbor at the moment, which could be deployed to attack any surrounding cities at a moment’s notice.

Lex’s strategies worked well, and Danny was no longer in any mood to collaborate with Laiyin Duchy by joining forces to attack the Kingdom of Metatrin. After all, his own empire was a mess, so he had enough on his plate already.

Specifically, Ironwall City had been destroyed and the local nobles were all paralyzed with fear. As such, Danny had no way of mobilizing the nobles’ main forces, so he had to resort to employing mercenaries.

Moreover, the Holy See army had wrecked the Qin Empire’s main defense, while marching toward the northern plains of Qin. The northern nobles of Qin had all retreated to their respective estates. All of this had resulted in complete chaos.

Also, Grand Duke Iron Blood’s army had taken Lianyun City. After conquering it, they immediately started to remodel it. As he seemed in no hurry, it really looked as if he intended to draw things out.

At the moment, no one entered Metatrin and everything within Phoenix’s borders looked peaceful. This is because the three duchesses who were working for Saleen had persuaded all of the nobles within Phoenix to submit to Saleen.

The situation with northern Qin had also served to persuade the nobles of Phoenix as well. After coming to this decision, Guya and the others were able to build cities within Phoenix without any trouble, thus locking down the two most important routes leading into Phoenix.

As Sika backed all three of the nobles, the Tribunal’s assault at Lonestar City yielded no results. Hence, they were forced to retreated back to Kroraina, while planning to march into northern Qin through the main battlefield.

Lex’s assault of Ironwall City proved to be an effective one. The very reason why the Holy See army had avoided the Kingdom of Metatrin was because they had a disadvantage regarding the terrain. Even if they were to steamroll over Lonestar City, an army of that scale would have great difficulty in secretly entering Metatrin.

Things in Lex’s Principality of Bitterwater remained quiet as well. After all, Daliang City controlled all of the lands within a thousand miles, so no one dared to move against the city.

The Tanggulasians were also fearful of Lex going nuts and attacking them. Without a way to defend themselves against such threats, the Holy See’s expeditionary force had no way but to circle around Saleen’s and Lex’s territories in an attempt to avoid them altogether.

Alchemy City began dispatching mages to negotiate with local nobles everywhere. They did this in the hopes of gathering more power.

The cities of those nobles would have provided them with new defense measures via Alchemy City, as long as they were willing to support Alchemy City. Sorcerers were also dispatched in order to build magic towers in those cities as well.

Finally, Alchemy City had bared its fangs. After being dormant for nearly a millennium, the city had decided to join the fight for pieces of the mainland.

Due to this, the northern nobles had no choice but to submit, each signing agreements with Alchemy City. After that, the entire northern land of the Qin Empire never heard any word from Holy Rock City again.

After hearing this news, Saleen built communications systems between Royal Harbor, Metatrin City, Daliang City and Principality of Bitterwater. As such, constant news was being sent to Ceylon City, and the city soon became more modern and built-up.

As Saleen worked continued to work on Ceylon City, he was quick and diligent. He drew a circle on the magic map, which covered the surrounding plains and all of the lands fit for farming around Ceylon City.

He then dispatched the demon army to persuade those nobles who had yet to sign the agreement to agree to his terms and pledge loyalty to him. Such forceful ways of going about things would normally not have been tolerated, but as Emperor Danny had enough to worry about in his own territory at the moment, he was unable to pay any attention to what was happening elsewhere.

Originally, Saleen had intended to only take over about a hundred miles’ worth of lands. However, he had ended up taking nearly 360 miles from north to south and 280 miles from east to west. These tracts of land were enough to build a small nation!

The northwestern plain north of Sikeqinya was incredibly small. As such, the place that Saleen drew on the map was already at the limit. Had he taken it any further, he would have had to stretch it into the mountains.

As the demon army was incredibly persuasive, all of those nobles that they visited instantly agreed to submit to the great king of the Kingdom of Metatrin. Saleen was then able to dispatch forces and peacefully set up defenses at key locations. Then, the mercenaries within that area naturally had to submit to Saleen as well.

The expansion of Ceylon City’s port was handled quickly, and other than constructing commercial ports, Saleen had also requested that turrets and magic towers be erected, thus making it an effective military port. The military shipyard was now capable of repairing warships and was adequate to act as a strong supply point.

Tasked with such improvements and alterations, Saleen’s subordinates became unusually busy, and even Nailisi was dispatched to deal with mundane matters. Also, his student Truman was assigned to the mountains to help build a Metatrin fort.

Unlike before, everything went smoothly, as no one dared to come and try to mess up Saleen’s plans. With this momentum in full force, Saleen had no intentions of stopping, as there was another city getting in his way in the north, Yaoyang City!

Earl Sufonso, the lord of Yaoyang City, had once destroyed Saleen’s family graveyard. Now, Saleen intended to make him pay for these past transgressions.