Badge in Azure

“All this is small change,” Saleen said in disagreement.

“Brother Saleen, you might not know this, but when someone kills a bandit, not only will they receive gold coins from the empire, they will also gain merit. Once a certain number of merits is accumulated, they can be conferred as a noble. I don’t care about that, but these merits are transferable, which translates to another source of income for me.”

Saleen smiled in response. He did not want any prisoners this time around, since Sharman wanted to earn money, then so be it.

Peace was resumed in the city. The bandits had invaded the city in a hurry and Saleen’s army arrived not long after, the number of casualties in the city was not very high. Other than the people who fought alongside the city owner, most of the people who hid in their houses had survived.

There were about three-thousand regular residents left in Cexing City. The task of placating these people was left to Sharman’s aunt, while Saleen led the rest of the team into the city owner’s residence and began discussing how to clean up the aftermath.

Cexing City had been invaded during the turmoil brought about by the black magicians, and later on, it had also gotten invaded when the Qin army came. To date, it was no longer flourishing. This place was originally the distribution center for rations. Since the black magicians’ army consisted of black puppets, no rations were plundered. The Qin army also would not do something like that. After the nobles of Cexing City surrendered, the granaries were actually preserved.

If this was not the case, Saleen would not have been so determined to seize this city. Currently, Saleen was not lacking money, he lacked rations. Cexing City might be small, but it had enormous granaries.

Legally, these granaries belonged to the Grand Duke of Phoenix, but Saleen could not care less. “The Grand Duke of Phoenix should be wetting his bed right now, he will not cause trouble for me. Cexing City has crumbled, it is very normal for it to be missing some things.”

Cuisi was sent by Saleen to collect the rations. Five Dimension Stones should be sufficient to empty the granaries.

Aini and Sharman sat with Saleen, discussing how to split the loot. Without Saleen and Su, Aini and Sharman could not have possibly achieved such a feat. Without their trusted soldiers and servants, Saleen could not have killed so many bandits either.

“Brother Saleen, I am going to follow you anyway, I don’t want those items, I only want the human heads. Humph, my sister keeps saying that I am still young and will not accomplish great things, I will go back and prove to her otherwise.”

Saleen could not stifle his laughter, as he finally realized why Sharman wanted those bandits’ heads.

Dozens of minutes into the discussion, Saleen then realized that the returning servants did not find any accounting records from the city owner’s residence. Cuisi had returned and passed the five Dimension Stones to Saleen. Scanning them using his perception, Saleen was very pleased. The rations were present in huge quantities, filling up the Dimension Stones.

In order to placate Phoenix’s nobles, the Qin Empire did not purge the city like they would when dealing with traitors. Cuisi whispered into Saleen’s ear, “Sir, there is one more warehouse filled with rations, should I empty it too?”

“Does the warehouse belong to a noble, or is it used for distributing food to the civilians?”

“It belongs to the nobles.”

“How much food is there?”

“One stone will be sufficient.”

Saleen immediately handed Cuisi a Dimension Stone, then Cuisi left. Saleen told Aini, “If your parents come over, I think you still have to manage the business, those two elders are too passionate about their professions.”

Aini nodded, then Saleen said, “Many of the weapons and armor left behind by the bandits are damaged, and nothing valuable can be found in the city owner’s residence. The rations are mine. There are actually numerous pieces of body armor in the other warehouses, but you may not like it. In that case, I will convert these items into gold coins. You will receive a third of the money.”

Saleen thought to himself, “Aini’s parents have treated me well. As long as Aini leaves the Clyde family to strike out on his own, it will surely be worthwhile for me to support him. By supporting my friend, youngsters from the other noble families will compete and emulate one another and Metatrin City will not be short of talents anymore.”

Aini replied, “You are really generous, but I am really short of money. I have lost eighty magic wolves this time around, so I will not stand on ceremony with you.”

Thereafter, Saleen told Sharman, “You might have decided to follow me, but you don’t have to give everything to me. You still have to purchase equipment and cultivate private soldiers, and all these things require money. I cannot help foot the bill for these matters. I will still give you a cut of the income from each battle.”

Sharman grinned and said, “Brother Saleen is so kind, I will accept it then.”

Saleen smiled, then said, “I am not kind, this is the rule on the mainland. I have a batch of followers too, and I have to take care of them. I know how scary the expenses can be.”

“Scary?”

“Yes. Once I return to Metatrin City, I will announce the revival of the Metatrin family, by then, I will give you the power to assemble one-thousand private troops. Grooming one-thousand elites is way more difficult than you think. These people are not servants, have you seen Lex’s swordsman’s camps before?”

Sharman nodded, then Saleen continued, “A swordsman’s camp does not contain auxiliary troops. For example, if there are ten-thousand elites, it means that the monthly consumption will incur a few hundred thousand gold coins. Of course, this only applies to a normal noble. Lex and I have our own income and we don’t have to purchase magic nuclei from the market, so our expenses are much lower. Even so, in a year, more than a million gold coins will be needed to maintain such a swordsman’s camp.”

“Then how much will it cost if there’s a war?!” At this point in time, Sharman realized that it wasn’t so easy being a general.

“Not much more. Since Lex’s swordsman’s camp undergo frequent training, their equipment losses are similar to that during wartime. Rations, magic nuclei, equipment, and warhorses are items which will incur a great deal of expenses. During wartime, pensions will have to be included as well. Defeating the enemy doesn’t equate to victory, the soldiers’ losses have to be limited. Spend more money to purchase equipment, otherwise the soldiers you have been training for the past ten years will die and you will have to spend even more money to groom new personnel.”

Sharman listened intently. At this point in time, a servant entered to report that officials from Cexing City were requesting an interview. The noble had fled, but he did not bring along the officials managing this place. Since Saleen had taken over the city owner’s residence, the low ranking officials had come over enquired to understand Saleen’s plans.

If Saleen planned to occupy this place, then the officials would leave. It was akin to them defecting to the enemy otherwise. Usually, no one would make life difficult for them. These people had no influence, their main skill was city management.

“I will not meet them. Tell them that I will leave three days later, they can go look for their owner.” Saleen could not be bothered to meet these insignificant people. Within three days, he would have emptied Cexing City. The position of this city was vital, Saleen would have to rebuild it sooner or later. At the moment, these officials could not be killed. Saleen decided to wait for Lex so that this small city could be handled properly.

There was a Huoxing City in the west, where an army of a few thousand people was stationed there. If Saleen occupied this place, he still had to guard against the army in Huoxing City.

When the officials waiting outside the residence heard this news, they heaved a sigh of relief. They noticed that those mysterious visitors were extremely ferocious, killing people without even batting an eyelid. If these visitors decided to seize this place, they would be helpless.

Saleen continued calculating the profits his companions would receive. As the servants returned, Saleen recorded the items found by them, pricing these items accordingly.

What made Sharman and Aini astonished was that items worth millions of gold coins could still be found in this ruined city.

Armor, weapons, some magic nuclei, appliances, and a miniature equipment-crafting factory were left behind in the warehouse. Cexing City had few merchants, most of the people here were farmers who lived in the vicinity. This was originally a military town, so those farmers had to receive training too.

Aini had suffered substantial losses from the magic wolves, but he finally had peace of mind after receiving the gold coins Saleen had given him. There were over three-hundred-thousand gold coins, it was impossible for Saleen to carry so much money with him. Even if they were the deposit tickets from the empire’s bank, Saleen would only possess a few hundred thousand gold coins. Metatrin City was a place which created wealth, but Saleen incurred huge expenses too.

Eventually, Aini agreed to go out to sea during springtime next year. Saleen had promised to give him five-hundred-thousand gold coins worth of magic nuclei calculated at market price.

Aini was filled with immense gratitude, he did not say much. Once he struck out on his own, he would have to pay Saleen huge taxes.

For the time being, Aini still did not possess the ability to venture into the Frozen Sea alone. Saleen was controlling the route, and there was an annual quota, one could not simply go there at will. Saleen was taking care of Aini by giving him an additional five-hundred-thousand gold coins worth of magic nuclei.

Saleen did not reveal the true income from this battle. The value of those rations was immeasurable, not to mention the looted materials which were worth more than a million gold coins. Saleen only did some simple calculations. The rations collected by Cuisi were sufficient to feed Saleen’s Metatrin City for a few years already.

Such food was called stored wheat in Qin. Its taste was inferior to new grain. During wartime, no one would care about taste, filling their stomachs was most important. With this batch of food, all of Saleen’s plans would be plausible, otherwise he still had to expend resources to resolve the issue of procuring food.

When that grade-5 mage saw Saleen’s actions, he was utterly convinced. He had to work extremely hard for a few thousand gold coins, yet Saleen had simply given Aini five-hundred-thousand gold coins worth of magic nuclei.

“If I follow a person like that, I don’t have to worry about magic nuclei during training anymore. Fortunately I left with Guya. In the Rolande family, I was ostracized by the other three mages, I was treated the worst. I cannot quit, otherwise I will be mocked and other nobles might not want to take me in.”

Saleen observed his reaction, and knew that it would be easy to subdue this mage in the future. By letting him follow Sharman, Saleen would not have to specially assign a grand mage to Sharman.

Aini and Sharman were undoubtedly people from business families, but Saleen was a Sikeqinyan, calculating profits and losses was in his blood. In this mission, he had deployed over eight-hundred soldiers and servants who belonged to his two companions, while he and Su only killed a grade-6 mage. In the end, this city would still be received by Lex. There was way too much profits, Saleen could not even believe it.

Saleen never stayed for three days. Two days later, the scouts outside the city had discovered traces of the bandits. Saleen immediately left Cexing City without any hesitation. If the bandits dared return, it meant that they had gathered sufficient manpower or some powerful force. Saleen’s team only had around two-hundred elite soldiers, there was no need to defend the city.

Lex’s army would arrive soon, so Saleen decided to leave Cexing City behind. Choosing a magic disciple from the city, he handed the over one-hundred undead soldiers to this disciple. Traveling light, Saleen led the team and advanced south quickly.

A week later, Saleen had led the team to the vicinity of Phoenix’s borders.

“Sharman, in the city up ahead, you will hire a chariot convoy and transport the cargo west. I am going to enter Qin via Guderian City. The war in the west is complicated, you have to be careful.” Saleen no longer treated Sharman like a kid, he instructed her solemnly.

Sharman nodded without any emotion. Saleen leaped onto a skeletal warhorse, then waved his hand gently. With Aini’s team and his fifty cavalrymen, they went around the main road and sprinted in the direction of Guderian City.