Badge in Azure

“Your Majesty, the number of valuables that Renee took away is too numerous. Those were meant for you, Your Majesty!”

“Yes, Your Majesty. Guya was the Baroness of this Empire and her title was even given by the previous Emperor. Now that she has pledged her allegiances to an outsider, Your Majesty should send troops to attack them!”

“Your Majesty, Aini and his parents were all groomed by the Clyde family. They have now taken away all the valuables, this is equivalent to betraying the Empire!”

“Your Majesty, Irene was supposed to be betrothed to Your Majesty and become your Empress. How dare Saleen keep her by his side instead. Your Majesty must send soldiers to attack him!”

All four Earls spoke furiously. They still held a slight contempt towards a young Emperor like Ojarvis. With one swoop, Saleen took away millions of gold coins from these four families. It was a miracle that the four of them had not gone insane yet. The four of them unanimously demanded for the Emperor to revoke his original decision. If this was Emperor Chanake, none of them would have dared to speak to him like this.

“How loyal all of you are!” Ojarvis said sarcastically before refuting them one by one. “If Renee had not gone to Metatrin City, the amount of wealth under her control was about five-hundred-thousand gold coins annually and it was mainly given to Tiffany family’s Pollock Province. Although Guya’s title was given by my father, she was a Baroness, would she have been able to pass down her title in the Rolande family? Aini, haha, back then when he was in conflict with the Holy See, it was his parents that protected him. His parents were already grand mages at that time, but they were put under house arrest in Holy Rock City and Aini was sent to the borders of Phoenix. Irene was to become my Empress? Rawls, do you even believe yourself?”

The expressions of the four Earls changed. They did not expect Ojarvis’ tone to be so harsh. Safilos was the one with the most power in Holy Rock City and the four of them should be the Emperor’s bodyguards and most powerful supporters. Why would Ojarvis do this?!

“All of you wish to attack Metatrin City. Very well. Go ahead, I will not stop you. All of you have your own private armies anyway and they have far exceeded the numbers allowed for Earls. Do you think I am unaware of this?”

The four Earls were taken aback and all stood up before kneeling before the young Emperor.

“Get up. If I had wanted to kill all of you, I would not have summoned all of you into the palace. Although father has died, I still have the power to kill anyone in Holy Rock City instantaneously with an order. Do you think all these magic towers are just for show?”

The four Earls looked at each other and finally stood up. None of them dared to sit down again. All of them bowed their heads and waited for instructions from Ojarvis.

“Father has given all of you too much leeway…,” Ojarvis sighed. After a long while he said, “One must know the right time to advance and retreat. What is the point of trying to convince me? Even uncle is against sending troops over to attack. Based on the forces all of you have, it will be suicidal. You may not know, but the Pope personally formed an army of one-hundred-thousand to attack Metatrin City, but it was thoroughly destroyed. Before saying such things in future, please think first.”

The four Earls were horrified. This piece of news had not reached them yet. Prior to this outcome, Metatrin City had been retreating and suffering heavy losses! After defeating Viscountess Lex’s armies at the borders, the Holy See expedition had met with little resistance. Metatrin City even had to resort to burning their own towns and grain in order to slow down the expedition.

Only now did they find out that the entire expedition was completely wiped out.

“Metatrin City has declared itself a kingdom and Saleen has become their first King. He has asked my sister to send over ten magic chariots as gifts and I have already accepted them. I have asked uncle to prepare a group of envoys to head to Metatrin City. Do all of you understand?”

“Your Majesty…”

“We understand.”

The four Earls became gloomy. Ojarvis had no intentions to continue making things difficult for them, so he changed his tone and said, “I have already decided to establish trade with Metatrin City. Metatrin and the royal family will soon have a deal in place for magic nuclei so all of you need not care too much about that. The Empire has never lacked of metal ore so all of you can go ahead and set up a business on that if you want.”

The four Earls brightened up immediately. All the mines in Qin were controlled by the royal family. What Ojarvis meant was that the four major families would now be able to enter into this business outside of Qin. They would be able to make a lot more profits.

Ojarvis spoke so bluntly that the four elders were no longer able to consider this issue with their original attitude.

“Your Majesty, since the royal family has already made its decision, we will obey. Regarding the mining business, if we decide to do it, will it…”

That was a sign of weakness. They have long been involved in the mining business outside of Qin, but had yet to dare to do so within Qin. That was because the other noble families were keeping their eyes on them. These four families did not hold very high positions of nobility, but they were favored. To overturn them, one would have to find problems with them through legal means.

The four families had been careful to stay within the law and had never allowed their mining business to enter Qin. They would rather spend more money to legalize their goods to come through Alchemy City.

“You will not have such problems if you cooperate with the noble families of Metatrin.”

The four elders were troubled. At the end of the day, their goal was to set up business outside of Qin, but they would now have to work with the younger generations that had split from their families. For money, they would just have to put up with it.

“Your Majesty, Duke Barde begs for an audience,” a palace guard passed on the message. Ojarvis waved his hand and dismissed the four Earls before inviting Duke Barde in.

Duke Barde was not even forty years old yet. His father died early, which was why he entered the House of Commons at such a tender age. Duke Barde had been trained in the army since a young so he presented himself to be capable and confident. This was why Safilos favored him so much.

The military spirit was important to Qin so all noble families were trained in swordsmanship. Duke Barde’s father had been strict with his training and discipline. As a Duke who had inherited his position, Barde was skilful and possessed the abilities of a high-level swordmaster.

“Duke, please have a seat,” Ojarvis sat up straight in his chair and was not as complacent as when he spoke to the four Earls.

After the palace guard served tea, Duke Barde bowed first before smiling and said, “Your Majesty, I was summoned by Prince Safilos early this morning and didn’t have the chance to have any food yet.”

Ojarvis immediately summoned someone to prepare some snacks for Barde. It was not possible to set up a banquet since they would be engaged in a serious discussion.

“What did uncle summon you for?” Ojarvis helped himself to some snacks and began to eat slowly. The two of them seemed more like a pair of monarchs that got along well with each other.

“The Prince was extremely unhappy with what is going on at Luolan so he summoned all the first-grade Dukes from the House of Lords and House of Commons and requested for us to send our troops as well.”

“That is only right. If we used any more soldiers from Holy Rock City, the city would not have enough military forces,” Ojarvis said calmly.

“Your Majesty is right. All twelve Dukes agreed to send ten-thousand soldiers each. The Prince expects to activate another fifty-thousand men on top of those that were recruited at the last minute. In total, there will be an army of more than two-hundred-thousand.”

“Uncle recommended you to be the envoy?” Ojarvis changed the topic.

“Yes, Your Majesty,” Duke Barde smiled bitterly.

“This is a good thing. Duke, the war with the Holy See will not end in the next eight to ten years. Uncle must be planning to advance into the east of the Caucasus people’s mountains by winter. To fight a war, we will need mages. Coincidentally, Metatrin City produces magic nuclei. Barde, when you reach Metatrin City, you have to negotiate with Saleen. Holy Rock City hopes that he can sell one-hundred-thousand middle-grade magic nuclei to us every year at half the market price.”

Duke Barde was shocked and asked, “Your Majesty, how is that possible?”

Barde might not be a mage, but even he knew that buying at half the market price was going to be a challenge. This meant that Metatrin City would be making a loss of millions of gold coins every year.

“Why not? I will be paying with cash up front. He will still stand to profit a lot from such a huge deal. If he were to sell them himself, he would have to take into account the cost of manpower and logistics.”

After hearing what Ojarvis said, Barde suddenly became furious and said, “Your Majesty, that means Alchemy City has been earning so many gold coins from us every year! This is simply…”

Ojarvis waved his hand and said, “Alchemy City is not something you can afford to find trouble with. This must be carried out in secret. I want to purchase all the magic nuclei for this year. It is okay if the prices are marked up. Once we make a breakthrough in Luolan, we will have to organize our attack again. By then, the local noble families will have no choice but to contribute their forces as well. I will let Uncle lead the army and sweep across the four major Duchies before advancing into Tanggulasi. As such, the number of magic nuclei used will be extremely high.”

After hearing what the Emperor said, Barde came to a realization. Even if Alchemy City really fixed their prices, there was nothing much Holy Rock City could do. One could not possibly force the other party to sell their magic nuclei at a lower price. No wonder the Emperor wanted to send a Duke to Metatrin City. It was worth traveling there for such a big and important business deal.

“On this trip, you must carefully observe and find out just how powerful Metatrin City has become now. Since I have acknowledged it as a kingdom, you must be humble.”

“I… understand.” Although Barde came from the House of Commons, he stood on the side of the Emperor when it came to matters concerning the rise and fall of the Empire. A business involving one-hundred-thousand magic nuclei that could potentially save half the cost would be extremely beneficial to the Empire. It was not that Holy Rock City could not afford to pay, but if the war persisted, they could not afford to rest on their laurels. There would come a day where even a thousand years’ worth of reserves could be used up. They had to prepare for a rainy day.

“Grand Sorcerer Tiffany has returned to Holy Rock City. She will be accompanying you along with four other grade-6 mages. Don’t worry about your safety. I will also order Guderian City to ensure that you are escorted past Phoenix.”

Safilos had already mentioned all that, but Barde was glad to know that there would be a grade-8 sorcerer traveling with him.

“You can stay in the palace tonight. The gift list has yet to be prepared, but you should be able to set off by tomorrow.”

“Your Majesty, is it that urgent?”

“Yes, it is. The journey will be more than ten-thousand miles and will take two to three months’ time. Sister has told me that we need to send someone over before October, the magic nuclei deal will have to wait until next year otherwise.”