Badge in Azure

Sika’s letter was wrapped in the skin of a magic beast and tied up with a rope. Usually when Saleen communicated with Sika, they used the teleportation portal to send letters written on magic papers which could record some simple pictures and sounds. The conventional type of letter he was holding now carried limited information, but this was also why it was more precious to Saleen.

They used the military teleportation portals most of the time, so both of them rarely talked much. Most of what they talked about revolved around Metatrin City and Daliang City. As for conventional letters like this, they contained the feelings Sika had for Saleen instead.

After untying the rope, Saleen opened up the beast skin on the table. The skin was thin after it had been refined and was almost two yards long when it was fully opened up. Saleen finally smiled.

This was Sika’s style. Letters written by others would often try to fit into certain lengths, but Sika only cared about putting her true feelings into words.

“Saleen, I miss you so much.”

Saleen thought to himself, “Sika, I miss you too.”

“It has been half a year since you left. Only after becoming the Regent did I realize that this is not an easy job. They would come to me whenever any decisions needed to be made. If I did not give my word, more than half of the important issues would never be able to proceed. Right now, all the finances of Metatrin City are under my care. When I see the number of gold coins increasing every day, I feel happy. Nailisi is still quite obedient. She is still unable to defeat me, so don’t worry. Aini’s city has been built and he has continued to stay there. The remaining three Duchesses are all clever, but I can’t be bothered with them. Nailisi is around so they won’t be able to come up with anything.”

Saleen laughed. Something like that could only be said in a private letter. Official documents would have to be duplicated.

“It is impressive being a Regent. Every time I walk on the streets, close to one-thousand people follow me. I can’t help it. Half of them are from the temple corp and the other half are my own Caucasus people. Jola has been really helpful. Ever since I became pregnant, he no longer wanders around. He is always around to protect me.”

Saleen was a little distracted at that point. He imagined Sika walking around in the city with a large group of warriors following closely behind. The Caucasus people were obliged to protect their Priestess and no mistakes would be tolerated. On the other hand, the temple corp also carried a heavy responsibility. As the most elite troop, it would be embarrassing if they failed to take good care of the Regent.

Sika was really amazing. Even when Saleen moved around the city, only less than one-hundred people would follow him.

“Saleen, I really feel like crying! It is really hard for me to stay in such a big house without you in the temple. Eleanor is not around and only Nailisi is left to accompany me.”

When Saleen read this, his heart broke a little.

“I still remember what you said to me in the beginning. ‘Sika, don’t do so much for me in the future. I am not your Priest.’ Even though I’m a Priestess now, my feelings for you are still the same. Saleen, you are like my Priest, my pillar of support. Why did I let you marry Lex?”

Saleen felt some regret that he could not marry Sika.

“Saleen, I have sent over close to two-hundred death mages. Daliang City will be fine. This child of mine will be born in fourteen months’ time. You must come back to see me before that happens.”

At this point, Saleen could no longer control himself. His tears flowed freely onto the beast skin.

“Saleen, I am now the Regent and I finally understand a little of a King’s way of thinking. Lex will not be upset with you for coming back.”

“Sika, I will definitely come back to you.” Saleen counted in his heart. Sika’s child would be born two months later than an ordinary human. Humans on the Myers Mainland typically gave birth after twelve months, which was two months longer than people of the subcontinental plane. In ancient times, humans were usually pregnant for more than two years.

In that case, he must return to Metatrin City before the eleventh month.

Cloudflow would definitely attack during their wedding day. Once they attacked, both sides would either remain at stalemate or Daliang City would retaliate. There was no way the city would be taken down.

He would still be able to rush back if he did not waste any more time.

“Saleen, I’m guessing you must want to cry at this moment. You are now a King and a Grand Mage, so don’t do that. I miss you. If you come back for awhile, it will fill me with joy for an entire year. Let me share with you something interesting. There are two grade-9 sorcerers in western town who have heard of my pregnancy. They sent over a magic cradle as a gift. The two of them started out poor or they probably wouldn’t have chosen to follow you. This gift of theirs must have left them completely broke. The magic cradle was the best piece of equipment I have ever seen. Oh Saleen, Narnia has put me through a magic test. There are two children in my stomach. The cradle is made for a pair. I made a decision on my own by giving those two fellows some materials to make up for their loss. After that, the noble families sent over so many gifts that they practically filled up the entire temple.”

Saleen thought to himself, “These two sorcerers have done well. If everyone discovered that there were two babies only after they were born, they would have to send over another round of gifts. Haha, this is interesting.”

It was not surprising for the noble families to send gifts for his child in order to please Saleen. These two sorcerers had sent over their gift in advance and the other noble families had followed suit, not knowing that Sika would be giving birth to two babies. When they were finally born, the noble families would have to spend a fortune sending another round of gifts.

“Saleen, since I will be having two children, one of them should become a Priestess while the other becomes a mage. As for the position of the King, unless I can give birth to another one you and Lex will have to think of a solution. I won’t wish for my child to become King.”

Saleen knew that Sika was not trying to console him. He did not wish to become King in the first place either. If not for the bond between the Goddess and him that required him to spread her faith and conquer more lands, Saleen would never have wanted to expand his territories. Metatrin City was more than enough for him.

The letter was long. As Saleen read the letter row by row, he was either laughing or crying. At the end, Saleen stood up and unleashed water flame to refine the letter into an equipment, which turned out to be a white mage robe.

The inside of this robe was filled with the characters of Sika’s letter. Saleen wanted to keep this letter forever so that he could give it to his children in the future.

After reading what Sika said, Saleen was no longer sad. Both Sika and he would lead very long lives. This period of time apart from each other would just be an instant in the grand scheme of things. If he could achieve a breakthrough and reach grade-9, they would have a long road ahead of them. This was all just the beginning.

Saleen caressed the white magic robe refined from the high-level magic beast skin and kept it in his devil’s ring. He did not look for Lex immediately. Instead, he wrote a long letter and sent it back to Metatrin City through the teleportation portal.

In the blink of an eye, April was almost around the corner. Lex was feeling relaxed. Many officers and managers had been sent over from Bitter Water Prefecture to support Daliang City for the time-being. There were fewer complicated matters to deal with now. Envoys from most countries had already arrived and were only waiting for their wedding ceremony.

Over at the bone castle, more and more skeletons were wandering on the top of the city wall. Those that were of higher levels would station themselves permanently at their designated spot. In the huge magic tower, the winged skeleton and Su were discussing whether they could possibly attack Cloudflow’s fleets.

Cloudflow had commenced a raid on the Separation Sea. Three skeletal warships had been sunk by Cloudflow during such a raid. Without any jade skeletons on board to give commands, the spirits of the dead had no chance of escaping.

The winged skeleton was very upset, but there was nothing he could do. The only thing he could count on now was the pan’s turtle alchemical boat. The alchemy ship could attack twenty-four targets in one go and its attacking range was more than five-thousand miles.

Su was completely against the winged skeleton’s idea. He felt that if the winged skeleton sprung a surprise attack on the Cloudflow fleets and encountered grade-9 sorcerers, they were as good as dead.

Even if he joined in the attack with the winged skeleton, they would not be a grade-9 sorcerer’s match. Unless Saleen’s badge has completely recovered, or all the powerful people of Daliang City could be gathered, then they would stand a chance of killing a grade-9 sorcerer. This was provided the sorcerer did not try to escape.

If a grade-9 sorcerer wished to escape, there was no one on Saleen’s side that would be able to catch up.

The winged skeleton was also aware of the problem. Even if dragon skeleton combat vessels were there, they would be surrounded and attacked by Cloudflow’s fleets. Nevertheless, the winged skeleton felt that if the enemy was able to clear up the Separation Sea completely so that only Cloudflow fleets were left, it would be a huge boost to the enemy’s morale. They must try to do something about it.

Su felt helpless too. Before he left, Saleen had given the winged skeleton the power to command attacks. Su would only assist the winged skeleton. He would take command of the armies of the bone castle only if the winged skeleton died.

The winged skeleton came to the Separation Sea alone and jumped into the water without bringing anyone along. The water temperature was still far from freezing. The winged skeleton was not afraid of the cold anyway. He swam deeper into the Separation Sea at full speed. When he was two-hundred miles away from the shore, he finally took out the pan’s turtle alchemical boat and dove in.

The equipment of the pan’s turtle alchemical boat had been completely changed into those that were only suitable for spirits of the dead to operate. The magic array at the front had been changed into spirit gaze. Although it could only look in one direction, this was the most important thing to a combat vessel.

The winged skeleton was unfamiliar with the underwater terrains around the dock, so he did not dare to use the magic compass. Instead, he had to depend on death spells that would not attract the enemy’s attention.

Eye of the dead was only able to detect a distance of more than ten miles underwater, which was much poorer than the magic compass. It was only able to show three-dimensional magic images.

Although the magic compass could not be used, it was still able to provide basic directions. The winged skeleton drove the pan’s turtle alchemical boat towards the harbor on his own.

He was extremely cautious when he circled to the rear of the harbor from the south side. There were quite a number of combat vessels that were on patrol. Cloudflow was aware that Daliang City possessed diving combat vessels, but as they had yet to capture one, they did not have the knowledge of the nature of such combat vessels. As a result, they were willing to leave their magic compasses turned on at all times as they formed a huge circle of defense to protect the harbor.

A typical magic compass would be able to detect a depth of up to one-hundred yards. The winged skeleton did not dare to take any risks, so he dove under two-hundred yards and slowly made his way to the middle of the circle of defense. He then turned on the spirit gaze to observe the combat vessels within the harbor.