Badge in Azure

Saleen left the forest as fast as he could. His Magical Element Tower shot into the sky, reaching over ten thousand meters. No mage dared to fly that high without care. However, Saleen heard that the Sky City that humans created back then had been capable of reaching even greater heights.

The core of the Magical Element Tower served as the core of the Sky City. Saleen’s large scale magic power furnace had no problem whatsoever powering the Magical Element Tower.

Saleen’s target was the Grand Duke of Pompeii’s turf in Qin.

The Grand Duke of Pompeii was one of the most powerful nobles in the south and he had many powerful followers. He had probably been in bed in Alchemy City before the incident at Daliang City broke out. The reason Saleen was heading to Qin was to settle some scores.

Grand Duke of Pompeii’s underlings thought of capturing Lex when Saleen and Lex passed by. Saleen was not willing to just let it go. When Saleen established his own kingdom, the Grand Duke had been the one who was most thorough in his opposition against Lex.

Half of the southern nobles were willing to back Lex into becoming empress, while most of the other half sympathized with Lex. The Grand Duke was one of the odd few among the other half. If the Grand Duke continued to get in Saleen’s way, he would have no qualms about crushing the grand duke’s clan.

All of the people who came along with Saleen served to protect him. However, Saleen was the most powerful among all of them. Truman did not mind, but the fact did not sit well with Sul. Jola was already a level ten professional, and other having acquired the power of the Sword of Valor, he was still quite a bit of distance away from reaching level ten. That bit of distance was something that some were unable to cover after a lifetime trying.

Sika had little pressure in advancing. She had acquired three suitable magic beast souls and would make it to level ten in three to five years. Eleanor, on the other hand, was at a loss of what to do. She was already at the pinnacle of level nine, and she needed to advance.

Saleen chose to land in an uninhabited plain on the southwestern side of Qin territory, before putting the tower away. “I’m going to settle the score with the Grand Duke of Pompeii, but if I just flew over, he probably wouldn’t dare to make a move. So we will take land transport instead. We’re about 2000 miles away, and he won’t expect me to trick him into making a first move. Me reaching level ten is known only by the higher-ups of the Holy See and Agares,” Saleen elaborated as he got four chariots ready.

All four vehicles were magic equipment and a little longer than conventional chariots. The extra length made room for a small magic power furnace. It did not need horses, as mechanical legs could be installed at the sides to enable the vehicle to run in perilous terrain.

Saleen did not want to attract that much attention, so he got horses ready for the chariots. Every chariot was pulled by four puppet warhorses.

Saleen had originally been bad at crafting puppets. He had considerable knowledge of the theory, but puppet alchemy was alien to him. However, after devouring hundreds of thousands of powerful puppets for no reason, a puppet world realm was formed in him. As time passed, he became a powerful puppetry mage despite having never delved into the intricacies of puppet-crafting.

Saleen crafted the puppet warhorses for practice. There were 16 of them divided into four teams that pulled one chariot. The drivers were Ancient Warriors, beings that Saleen subjugated the earliest.

Saleen and Sika rode in one, Eleanor and Sul rode in another, Daniel and Isabella rode in the third, and the remaining one was taken by Nailisi and an unknown archer from Sreeger Island.

Nailisi spent most of her time resting and thinking. The unknown archer felt restless sitting in the same chariot with Nailisi. He learned a lot from the trip despite having never attacked anyone. Saleen did not allow him to do anything and simply had him sit around and watch, so to learn how the rest synchronized with each other.

Saleen placed heavy emphasis on the level nine archer, as it was immensely difficult for archers to advance. However, when they did happen to mature, they also became the most difficult professionals to deal with.

“Lady Nailisi, am I still not allowed to make a move?” The archer asked in a frustrating manner.

“Master doesn’t need your skills at the moment. Why are you in a hurry anyway? Haven’t you noticed just how many people Master has happened to have offended already?”

The archer nodded. “I can see that, but it hardly matters. An enemy is simply a target to an archer. The number of enemies simply translates to the number of arrows needed to be fired.”

“Ha! Hahahaha….” Nailisi was amused by the archer. The archer was so prideful that it made it difficult for her to conceal her emotions.

The archer dared not offend Nailisi as he knew that she was a level ten professional. As such, he simply let Nailisi laugh without showing any signs of displeasure.

Nailisi saw all that and formed a better impression of the archer. What mattered was one’s powers, not the opinion of others.

“Heh, well then. What’s your name?” Nailisi looked at the archer. He was a typical Qin. He had an average build, long, slender fingers, black hair, and clear eyes. However, they had black pupils instead of blue ones.

“My name’s Qin.”

“Huh?”

“When the mages on the island picked me up, I was on a tattered boat and there was only a Qin banner. The mages did not bother to give me a name and settled on calling me Qin.”

“An orphan then. Kind of like me.” Nailisi became rather friendly.

“Lady Nailisi. I’ve something to ask and I don’t know if it’ll sound offensive.”

“Shoot.”

“Your powers have been above His Highness before, and he only surpassed you after advancing. But why would you follow him?”

Seeing how Nailisi sank into deep thought, Qin added, “I heard that you have a rather bad temper and there are few around his highness who would dare offend you. I feel it’s rather curious for someone like you to be following His Highness.”

“Qin, are you itching to be Master’s follower as well?”

Qin nodded and did not bother to conceal his thoughts. He continued, “I’m an archer and it’s already a miracle that I’m able to come this far to level nine. But if I grew any further, I’d need suitable equipment instead of just getting into more fights. But then again, I’ve no master to serve and I’m not exactly of high stature in Sreeger Island, so the materials I can acquire are limited.”

“Envious of Eleanor, are you?”

“I am. I heard that the bow wielded by Eleanor was crafted by His Highness personally. It’s surreal.”

“You want to find out what kind of loyalty that Master would need then, eh?” Nailisi was an expert with people. While the archer had a stable bearing and behaved neither superciliously nor obsequiously, she was able to see through him.

“Indeed. While archers are rare, His Highness already has Eleanor, so he might not need me.

“But you don’t bother serving anyone else. No one else would’ve been able to provide you with what you might get here, no?” Nailisi continued to ask.

Qin nodded. He was after what Saleen was able to provide, but he did not know what Saleen would need from him.

“I was initially tricked into serving Master, you know,” Nailisi uttered plainly, and then stopped altogether.

Qin pondered what she said. It took him about half an hour before he responded, “I understand, My Lady. His Highness is truly a person worth serving. I’ve been thinking too much.

Saleen and Sika rode on the same chariot. The vehicle was designed to carry eight people, which meant that it had so much space that they could lie down. Sika leaned over on the cushion. “If we move against the Grand Duke now, won’t the southern nobles harbor any ideas against Lex?”

“Sigh…”

Saleen sighed and thought. “I might not have thought things through, but I kept a close eye on things in Daliang City. They seemed to have reached an unspoken consensus and balance, but it wasn’t actually a good thing. We might get one-third of the loot, but all of it should have been ours. With things divided like that, be it Alchemy City or the Holy City, none of them would want to spend too much there.”

“They’re reluctant to suffer more casualties than needed. I can understand.” Sika was also exasperated. Of all the forces at work, Lex was the weakest. Despite Saleen expanding his turf at a frightening rate and being backed by Sreeger Island, he lacked deep pockets and reserved powers like the other empires.

“In the end, everyone gets fat while we become the most disadvantaged. I’ll move against the Grand Duke of Pompeii and see how the Alchemy City reacts to it. If Alchemy City turns against me, I’ll just go look for Grand Duke Iron Blood. I sure as hell doubt that madman would refuse the offer. If I ally with him, we’d definitely be able to screw Alchemy City up real good.”

Sika gasped in surprise. “Isn’t it a little too early to move against Alchemy City?”

“Sika, look. The mages of Sreeger Island are getting increasingly powerful. It isn’t just you and me who are getting more powerful from the rise of powers across the plane. There are so many mages in Alchemy City already, and if they grew just like the Sreeger Island ones, we’ll be left in the dust. There are already at least nine level ten mages at Alchemy City. If we wait any longer and one or two of the level ten ones advanced…”

Sika saw no reason to disagree with Saleen. Imposa, who had run from Alchemy City, had almost killed Saleen. With Alchemy City having so many powerful mages, it was entirely normal for a few like Imposa to emerge.

“What would you do if the Grand Duke decides not to move against you?” Sika asked Saleen.

Saleen laughed. “Sika, we’re here asking for trouble. If I kicked down his door and threw dirt in his face, do you think he’d just sit by and do nothing?” He paused. “Even if he was able to bear that, if I killed his son, the one that planned something against Lex in the first place, he wouldn’t be the Grand Duke of Pompeii if he could sit with that.”