Badge in Azure

“Made sense that you chose land transport. You’re going in as a king instead of a mage!” Sika was rather exasperated with the trick.

Saleen smirked. “Well, his son wanted to take me out, and I didn’t hold it against him. It was just business after all. If I held a grudge against every wrong done to me, I would have no time to practice magic. Right now though, this score waiting to be settled just comes in handy for gauging Alchemy City’s response to things. The Grand Duke is out of luck.”

“Alright, you’re not a Caucasian. If you were a warrior and dared play tricks, I’d have split your head open with my stick,” Sika said as she accepted Saleen’s ideas.

“You weren’t wrong. My magic chords meant that I could only learn water magic, and that was the beginning of it all. I observed all types of water: rivers, lakes, ice, and the sea. If there was one thing I learned about my observations of water, it was that water has no need for a permanent form.”

“Water has no need for a permanent form?”

“Indeed. Water can be vaporized, dismantled then burned, frozen. It can refract light and also block out all light. If a body of water was turned to a river, then it would be destined to reach the ocean. Regardless of the difficulty of the journey, the end result will almost always be the same. If water gets vaporized and becomes clouds, it gains attributes of wind element, but it’s still water. What is most mystical about water is that it can be dismantled and burned, but will still yield the same amount of water afterwards. Regardless of what I do now, I’m still that little mage from back then, Sika.”

“Yeah, yeah, save the sweet talk, Saleen. If you change, I’ll take the kids somewhere you’ll never find us.

Saleen was about to say something but bit down on his lip. Sika continued, “don’t underestimate the power of a nature priest. If I leave, not even the gods would be able to get in my way.”

“If I betrayed my conscience, I would no longer be a mage, Sika. If you don’t want me to change, then I’ll never change.”

“Fine then. Right, did you see that archer’s skills? Since you put him together with Nailisi and all.”

“I do, but I can’t just ask him to become my follower just like that. No one appreciates things that come too easily. There’s no way the kid wouldn’t have thoughts with Eleanor around. The Seven Nights longbow is a godly weapon for archers after all.”

“So how do you intend to test him?”

“I’ll be simple: he’ll do fine just as long as he doesn’t die of an accident. There’s no need for you to help. Nailisi will do just fine.”

Sika turned around and looked at Saleen closely. She opened her arms and hugged Saleen hard. He felt as if his bones were about to pop, but did nothing to resist.

Sika whispered at Saleen’s ear, “I really wish you didn’t have to play so many tricks with people and just practice magic happily.”

“Not like I don’t want to.” Saleen only cast Heal on himself when Sika let go of him, getting rid of the pain from the embrace. “Can’t do anything if the people won’t just let us have peace.”

“Tell me of your plan.”

“Alright.” Saleen thought it would be good for him to share his thoughts if Sika wanted to share his burden. It was quite tiring to do the thinking on his own all the time. “The plan is simple. I contacted Safilos and told him I intended to move against the Grand Duke of Pompeii.”

“Wait, what?” Sika never expected that. Saleen truly knew how to catch others by surprise. “What did Safilos say?”

“He said he didn’t care.”

“Right, a tricky answer indeed.”

“I just said I needed excuses to spare the empire from any mess. So I told him I was about to contact the three major nobles west of the Grand Duke’s territory.”

“And what did Safilos say about that?”

“He said the emperor would need to get involved personally.”

“So he passed the buck. Seems that the Grand Duke really got on his bad side!” Sika was no longer a naive girl. She was able to tell cause and effect well.

“So you contacted the emperor?”

“No way. If I got the emperor involved and acknowledged my actions, the matter would become the emperor’s responsibility. However you put it, he is still Lex’s little brother. Safilos, on the other hand, knew how to do it cleanly. And so I have no choice but to act on my own.”

Sika thought for a bit and understood how things went. Getting the emperor to acknowledge Saleen’s actions against the Grand Duke was not a problem. It would not cause any problem if Safilos did it. But having Saleen get three powerful nobles in the south to his side looked rather stupid. Safilos definitely would not agree to that, but if he wanted the Grand Duke of Pompeii out of the picture, someone else needed to take the blame.

The emperor outlived his usefulness. If Safilos was able to do something for the emperor before leaving him, it would end things perfectly.

The magic chariot ran a thousand miles in a day and quickly reached its destination: somewhere that belonged to a greater noble at the south of Qin.

The territory was far larger than the Grand Duke’s estate, but the lord was just a marquis. The territory consisted mostly of mountains and no agriculture could be carried out. To Qin people, a piece of land that could not be farmed was worthless.

The lord, Marquis Carloranna, gave Saleen a very warm welcome. The marquis had been incredibly close to Emperor Chanake and shared an amicable relations with Lex. The marquis had even presented Saleen and Lex with a lavish gift during their wedding.

Carloranna looked like he was in his early thirties despite being well over 60. He was a powerful grand swordmaster. The marquis’ father’s generation had only two people. By the time the marquis took over, he was the only person of his clan. However, the marquis sired 13 sons, and the 13 sons in turn bore over 60 descendants for the clan.

Emperor Chanake practically piled feoffments and awards on him throughout the years, which enabled his territory to be expanded to what it was. Despite his territory consisting only of mountains, there was still wood and magic beasts to be harvested.

The Grand Duke of Pompeii had been extremely loyal when Emperor Chanake was in power, but the emperor saw problems with him, which led him to place three of his most trusted nobles west of his territory. All three marquis held great power, enough to stop the grand duke’s armies’ advancement into the west.

As such, most of the Qin nobles west of the Pompeii City were still loyal to the royal family. Otherwise, there would definitely be some who were so pressured by the Grand Duke that they chose to submit to him. Holy Rock City was close to Pompeii City after all.

Saleen’s party did not bother pulling any punches. Saleen had Nailisi deploy a thousand demons when they were about to reach Gauss City, the main city of Marquis Carloranna. All of them were equipped with temple guard gear.

There were no human armies deployed, but Saleen summoned 200 Ancient Figures. All of them wore helmets and were disguised as his personal guard. With four magic chariots and over a dozen large puppets for transporting goods added to the mix, the people of Gauss City were all excited to see Saleen’s welcoming ceremony.

The reason for their elation was simple. Doing business with the Kingdom of Metatrin was lucrative. Saleen claimed the expedition was for building trade relations with inland territories. They intended for Gauss City to serve as a waypoint for transporting goods southward at the west of Qin.

The nobles, however, knew what was going on. The alliance was tactical instead of based on trade. Lex was about to make her move, and the southwestern nobles could get in line or get kicked out of the picture.

Qin ceremonies were long. The marquis only invited Saleen to the House of the Lord after the people of Gauss City had been exposed to the Kingdom of Metatrin’s army.

Gauss City was built in the mountains, so the House of the Lord was also built on top of a hill, taking the surrounding lands for themselves. It enabled the place to be securely defended even after the city was taken by invaders.

It was a norm between all nearby nobles who were pressured by Pompeii City. All of them built their residences like fortresses.

Carloranna was able to advance to become a golden grand swordmaster due to the rise of the mainland’s powers. It enabled his lifespan to be well over 200 years, even 300, so he valued the alliance between him and Saleen.

Long plans for the future dictated that Carloranna would be able to get more land for his descendants. Between Qin and the Holy See, one must fall. Carloranna was an old school noble who hoped that he could put Emperor Chanake to rest in peace, even if he died doing so.

He was all set to help Lex, and if their plan succeeded, Lex would treat his descendants well. His clan rose from lesser nobles. Siding with the winning team was always the staple of politics.

Carloranna did not bother doing anything pretentious and welcomed Saleen’s entourage joyfully to the House of the Lord’s secret room. He had all his personal guards cord the surrounding areas off, preventing anyone else from getting close.

That also, in the way, told the spies in Gauss City that he was up to no good with the king of Metatrin.

It was what Carloranna and Saleen hoped would happen. The faster the news travelled, the better. If Saleen was able to help speed up the process, he would even want to get his mages to help.

It was not a rumor; it was provocation. Their target was none other than Pompeii City.

“You’re finally here, Your Highness.” Marquis Carloranna was so moved that he was almost brought to tears. If Saleen was there personally, then his claim of backing Lex would not be said for fun.

“Marquis, all the 18 large puppets and goods on them are for you. No need to rush about trade. We’ll need to get rid of Grand Duke Pompeii before we can get trade running after all.”

“All of that for me. What about the other two then…” Carloranna was reserved. He did not want to get on the bad sides of the other two marquises. It was difficult to maintain good relations. It would be bad if over 40 years of friendship were ruined by material goods.

Saleen was elated to hear that. It seemed that Carloranna knew how to go about things. While Saleen had chosen Carloranna to be his main cooperator, he had no intention of giving up the other two marquises. If Carloranna intended to take everything for himself, Saleen would consider meeting the other two instead.

“It’s fine. That’s a personal gift anyway. The gifts that Lex prepared for all three of you are all in my storage equipment.”

“Excellent. Your Highness, I hope that we get more material support from you. Of course, we’re ready to buy them.”

“Gold no longer has that much meaning to me. What I value is your attitude towards Lex. You would have all the material support from me, so long as I have your word.”

“Your Highness Saleen, please state your terms,” Carloranna answered solemnly. Despite being a golden grand swordmaster, but he was utterly unable to see the limits of Saleen’s power, and that boosted his confidence in Saleen.