Badge in Azure

Saleen thought for a moment. He had already told Lex of his fight with Imposa, but Lex stayed outside of Daliang City, and did not know where Hogina was.

Lex had always been a cautious one, and she would definitely inform the major cities of the news.

Saleen looked at Hogina’s face, trying to search for something on it. Hogina’s eyes however, reddened as she looked at Saleen, and she spoke in a sad voice, “Saleen, you were fighting with teacher and he… doesn’t want me around anymore.”

Saleen grinned looking at Hogina. “Come with me then, it will only be a matter of time before you see your teacher again.”

Saleen worried for her. While she was quite the genius when it came to magic, she was the quite the idiot when it came to just about everything else instead. The problem however, was that Imposa was immensely powerful, and Saleen was not sure if Imposa had any secret ways of controlling her. If there were indeed ways of doing so, leaving her behind in Daliang City would doom the city sooner or later.

Regardless of how powerful Saleen had gotten, it was impossible for him to be aware of all mages’ skills and techniques. Imposa’s peculiar abilities still proved scary to Saleen.

“I’m so not going anywhere with you, you…” Hogina did not finish her sentence, as she came to realize that Saleen had become a grade-9 sorcerer.

Stephanie said to Saleen, “Saleen, if you’re to take Hogina away, make sure that she won’t end up being Imposa’s enemy.”

“That is a given.” Saleen accepted. If his teacher one day decided to side with others, Saleen would still never move against his teacher. Regardless of what one’s teacher had become, there was no doubt that a mage would never be where there were if not for their teacher.

“Master!” Hogina was frustrated. She saw Stephanie agreeing with Saleen, and she felt sad all of a sudden.

“Saleen is a master himself now. You can resume your training under him. Saleen is also richer than I am, Hogina. I will leave Daliang City, and I cannot take you with me to Bitterwater Prefecture.”

Hogina stood there dazed, before opening her mouth again. “I understand, it’s just…”

“You don’t want to be my follower, do you?” Saleen asked.

“Yes, Master Saleen,” Hogina did not have a habit of hiding things from others. She did not like being someone’s follower, as that would be tantamount to robbing her of her freedom.

“Be my personal mage then. I’d like to invite you, as a king of the Kingdom of Metatrin.” Saleen smiled and took out a blank scroll paper.

Personal mages enjoyed a high degree of freedom than followers. The only common thing between the two was that Hogina would still be restricted by the contract, preventing her from attacking Saleen, or providing aid to his enemies.

“Alright.” Hogina took the contract and started writing. She had lost the grace and ease she used to have. Saleen thought of the days where he had no one to rely on. He however, did not let his guard down. Hogina was fine as an individual, but not her teacher, Imposa.

Hogina seemed to have gotten a little happier after signing the contract. Stephanie then said, “Hogina, excuse us. I have things to speak to Saleen in private.”

“Yes, master.” Hogina became obedient as she briskly left the ninth floor of the magic tower.

The door was closed, and the mute enchantment activated. Saleen then said, “Stephanie, Lex told you about what was going on between me and Imposa, right?”

Stephanie smiled and said, “Saleen, weren’t you quite the brave one back in the day? Hogina might have issues, but she knows human body alchemy. Those massive numbers of ancient warriors on your Ancient ship, how many of them can you control?”

“Oh, right!” Saleen tapped his head. He had only been able to see the dangers and had forgotten entirely about the rewards.

Hogina’s level was not high and she was not yet a sorcerer. Having followed Imposa for so long, her skills in alchemy were greater than most mages. If he himself was not learned in submerged alchemy, his abilities in alchemy would have been more than a million times inferior to Hogina’s.

That was especially true when it came to human body alchemy. It was something that would enable him to have control over more ancient warriors. While their combat capacities would suffer a degree of loss, it would still be a better choice than him only being able to control tens through painstaking efforts.

He talked for a moment with Stephanie regarding Daliang City, before taking Hogina and the winged skeleton away. He only intended to stop by in Daliang City for a moment, and it was entirely unexpected that he would add yet another mage to his ranks.

Hogina was currently grade-6 and her flight abilities were terrible. It was fortunate that Saleen had no problem carrying another mage in his Quickcloud spell. Flying with Saleen’s clouds had her feeling rather bored as she was unable to see what was happening outside, and it felt horrible to her. Saleen however, deliberately made it such, so he would be able to allow the ones inside to see what was outside, and could even enhance their sight, if he so wished.

Hogina felt extremely bored in flight. Due to being taken along by Saleen, there was no way she was able to train. She had nothing else to do but to try to talk to him.

“Saleen…”

“You will address him as Your Highness, or my liege!” the winged skeleton berated her from the side.

Saleen simply waved and said, “Just call me master. I’ve yet to be called that.”

Hogina was startled by the winged skeleton, but hearing what Saleen said, she asked without thinking much, “So, master, where are we going?”

“The Golden Plains.”

“What kind of place is that?”

“It’s in the Grukos Basin.”

Hogina shook her head in confusion, and Saleen had nothing else to say. Hogina’s sense of direction was probably just as bad as Sika’s. “I bet she hasn’t been to many places even inside Alchemy City. She has had every material she needed provided to her after all, and that means she never had to look at maps.”

“Hogina.”

“Yes?”

“How did you manage to get back to Daliang City?”

Hogina’s eye gotten red again. “I was following my teacher. After he got to Cloudflow, he took me to an island, and then went to several more by boat. Then, one day, he just sent me off, I…”

“He just sent you off?” Saleen emphasized the word ‘just’, as if Imposa had just kick Hogina from his side out of the blue, it might have not had something to do with Saleen, but Imposa would have known that Hogina had nowhere to go and nothing else to do in the world without him. “So why didn’t she just head back to Alchemy City?”

“Well, it’s not something that just happened out of the blue.” Seeing Saleen’s reaction with her words, Hogina returned to her habits as a mage, crafting her elaboration in the most accurate manner. “Teacher told me that he saw you, and he almost got you killed. There was already some irresolvable conflict between both of you. My teacher also said that he had foreseen that he would meet you yet another time, and there would be another clash, and the chances of him being killed by you were around 50 percent. If I were to stay with him and he died my future would be grim. If he died, Grand Duke Iron Blood would treat me no better than a slave.”

“He foresaw them, huh…” Saleen murmured. He had foreseen a lot of things himself, and most were verifiable. It was some inherent ability of grade-9 professionals. It went without saying that the ability had to do with the strength of one’s soul. Imposa’s soul was more powerful than his, and it would be entirely possible for him to have foreseen such things.

“Hogina, why don’t you just return to Alchemy City?”

“Teacher owes quite a lot of money and took quite a bit of things when he left, so I can’t just go back there.” Hogina only seemed sad and did not seem to be irritated by what her teacher had put her through.

Back in those days, if someone had said to him that an alchemist of Imposa’s status was a poor, he would not have believed one bit of it. Having seen the insane equipment Imposa was clad in, he knew right away that building those things with only the money he earned with alchemy would not have been feasible.

Wasn’t Imposa rather lacking in morals? It was one thing to run when you owed a lot of money, but it was another thing altogether to take quite a lot stuff away when you ran.

Saleen was impressed by Imposa’s courage nonetheless, as doing so would have made him the enemy of the city itself. Saleen realized that Imposa definitely had IOUs in the hands of others. At a place like the Alchemy City, it was very probable that all IOUs were magic contracts. “How could he have just run away like that? Is it to say that he found a way to break contracts?”

It would have made Imposa very powerful if that was indeed the truth. Contracts were linked to the powers of a plane’s rules, and one that was unbreakable. “Just how was Imposa able to just ignore the contracts and flee Alchemy City? If Hogina possessed skills like that, wouldn’t my contract with her be signed for nothing?”

What baffled Saleen was that Alchemy City sent Imposa to visit during his and Lex’s wedding, and Imposa went straight to Cloudflow after leaving Daliang City. It was obvious that he had gotten the grand duke’s invitation then. “All that was no coincidence. Just how was Imposa capable of all that?”

“The Elemental Hand had a good number of sorcerers that they could have sent, why send a stranger instead? Imposa seemed to have predicted everything. Did he know astrology? Imposa also said that he had a 50 percent chance of dying by my hands, which was to say that the other half would have me being the one killed instead.” Saleen would not have had entertained such judgments, not with him having his family badge and the elemental badges with him. Due to Imposa’s strength and all those mysterious happenings, Saleen started to get worried.

Hogina’s personality determined that she would not stay quiet and bored for long, and she was unable to keep sulking for long either. Seeing Saleen had gone quiet, she began talking to the winged skeleton instead.

“Umm…Mr. Bones, how may I address you?”

The winged skeleton ignored her. Hogina shared a similarity with Nailisi in that both called him things like that. “What’s wrong with being a skeleton? Skeletons are the most powerful spirits in existence; they are the closest to having a human form. If I wanted to be so, I could become a human myself.”

“Mr. Bones, may I request something of you?” Hogina knew the words to use when asking for favors.

“Speak.” Soldier’s face was one that was incapable of expression. The crystal mask he wore glimmered coldly in the clouds.

“Your bones look special. If you happen to fight someone in the future and they happen to break a few, do you mind giving me one?”

If the winged skeleton had been a human, he would probably be extremely angry right there. The silver soul flames in his eye sockets disappeared, becoming like black holes. He turned to Hogina and said, “If one day, you suffer injuries so severe that you are beyond saving, would you mind giving your soul to me?”

Hogina was thoroughly startled by the change in Soldier’s eyes. She came to realize that the skeleton was one capable of very intelligent thought. Few even among humans would have given her such reactions in that conversation as he had.

“Oh! Mr. Bones…I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize you were such a powerful being, and one to be even smarter than I am!” Hogina’s tone was earnest, and the winged skeleton was unable to actually lash out at her.