Badge in Azure

The population of Caucasus people within Metatrin City was not large. Their population was less than forty-thousand among the total population of little more than one-million. All of them residing in the southern city. The Caucasus people were also the earliest settlers hailing from Southern Caucasus.

The region of Caucasus was actually divided into three parts: the Ancient Caucasus area near the Purgatory Desert, Southern Caucasus in Central Kroraina, and Northern Caucasus that was deep within Sikeqinya.

The population of Ancient Caucasus dwindled almost to nothing, while Southern and Northern Caucasus were separated by the broken mountain range of Caucasus. That caused people of both sides to gradually take separate cultural paths.

The Caucasus people found within the city were basically from the south, with most northern counterparts opting to reside outside the city. Some of the earliest Caucasus settlers joining Metatrin City chose to live in the mountains instead.

The warriors at Sika’s side had access to secrets of the Caucasus elders residing outside the city, simply due to the fact that they were Caucasus warriors loyal to Sika.

The walls of Metatrin City were designed in an orderly manner, with three sides being straight lines having three city gates respectively, two large and one small. The southern gate was guarded almost exclusively by the Southern Caucasus people, as Caucasus warriors loyal to Sika were assigned to the sixth camp. They were moved to the southern gate, replacing the original garrison.

Four out of Saleen’s ten main camps were stationed outside, three were mobilized to Daliang and one to Huoxing. Huoxing’s camp often saw turnarounds of troops, effectively making it a camp for training. The sixth camp served as the main force of the main camps, which had seen their equipment renewed and an auxiliary force of fifteen-thousand strong added to it.

Caucasus people might be experts in guerrilla warfare, but unless the city was assaulted using siege weapons, the main camp proved sufficient in defending the gate.

Sika began talking about Northern Caucasus people with the twelve Caucasus warriors around her after a meal in the temple. All twelve of them chose to follow Sika with little hesitation.

There was a total of thirty-six Caucasus warriors protecting Sika. While the rest of the Caucasus warriors were of swordmaster levels, the thirty-six were a level on par with grandmaster swordsman, and all of them were Southern Caucasus people. While the elders of the south might have liked Sika to leave Saleen’s side, they were not inclined to use any threats to do so. The warriors protecting Sika were the most trustworthy.

As such, Sika gained the support of thirty-six strong warriors rather effortlessly.

The reason all thirty-six of them followed Sika was due to the belief that they would be able advance quickly. The capabilities of the Nature Priestess was indisputable, and betrayal was not to be tolerated. Warriors who knew of such news even delivered the news using their methods to Sika, to enable her to make decisions in a decisive manner.

The sun began to set and Sika thought it would have been a bad time to go talk to the elders. She instead chose to tell her subordinates, “Go get the mages. I need to speak with them.”

All grand mages within Metatrin City were told to stay by Sika when Saleen departed for Daliang. The surroundings of the temple were near identical to magic tower’s, and the grand mages chose to stay back within the temple since Saleen left. They never returned to the alchemy factory.

The mages were also considered dependable people by Sika. There were also some swordmasters residing within the temple, all of whom hailed from Sregl Island.

Pasatilo, Kanuka, Kredian, Francis, and Basta were now grade-6 grand mages nearing advancement. All five of them made for the fifth floor of the temple with their subordinates as soon as they had gotten word that Sika was asking to see them. Sika asked the Caucasus warriors to serve tea to the mages, as everyone sat at the table and Sika began telling them what happened outside the city.

“My liege, you are a Caucasus person yourself. I believe when the lord bestowed you with the power to make decisions before he departed, he had hoped that you would make decisions carefully. The lord is not one who likes senseless killing. A lot of the Caucasus people outside the city would have offered you their support. As such, I believe this matter can be discussed at a later date.”

Kredian was the one who knew best how to socialize and manage day-to-day affairs among the grand mages present. He had advised Sika against launching assaults against the Caucasus people residing in the south of the city.

“What do the few of you have in mind them?”, Sika asked the mages sitting in front of her earnestly. She was permitted to have the final say due to the fact that it was impossible for her to leave Saleen. Strategies to be used against the elders in the Caucasus region, remained a matter to be discussed with the mages.

“There is no proper large-scale equipment outside the city. No matter how high the quality of the leather armor the Caucasus warriors are so fond of, they still pale in comparison to the equipped the main camp’s forces have. When compared with the ones equipped by temple guards, they are even worse. There is also only one small path allowing for travel from the south of the city to the other sides, making it easy to keep them at bay. We simply need to stop providing food for the people outside the city. What they have in mind will not last over the winter,” Kredian elaborated.

“Kredian…,” Sika looked in his eyes and said, “that is not going to work. The Northern Caucasus people outside the city probably have their own priest now. They won’t need to worry about food.”

“A priest…,” The mages looked at Sika with doubtful eyes.

Sika explained, “I myself chose the path of a combat shaman, while most Caucasus people would have chosen the path of beast shamans. Other than being able to keep magic beasts, beast shamans are also capable in controlling large numbers of low level living beings. That help in growing high-yield crops like potatoes. Having just such a priest around would be enough to keep a village from starving.”

Kredian pondered for a moment and asked again, “What about a earth shaman then?”

Sika chuckled and said, “If I were to grow crops outside the city, I would have been able to keep almost half of Metatrin City fed. That is, if no wars were to break out. Wars disrupt nature, making living beings within the land run for their lives. There won’t be any earth shamans outside the city; that is the advanced profession of combat shamans.”

“Understood, my liege. How many of these shamans are present among the ones outside the walls?”

“That I cannot be sure of. The only way to tell would be to first have the elders choose some among the Caucasus people within the city, nurture the chosen, and see how many will turn out to be shamans. Then, the number of the shamans outside the city will be deduced from the ratio of shamans that turned up within the city,” Sika’s mind was indeed clear.

“My liege, this is what I would suggest; we will simply have Daniel deal with them. He has a good number of tax collectors working under him. You won’t have to worry about anything. When the tax collectors make their move, the Northern Caucasus people will come knocking at your door.”

“Will that really work?”, Sika was in doubt.

“Of course. That mountain is a part of Metatrin. The king’s teacher will probably be here soon. As soon as a magic tower is erected within the city, they will have no cards left in their hands.”

“But how long will it take before Jason gets here? I hate waiting,” Sika said in frustration. She was still concerned about the threat posed by Alchemy City, and her current level of power served enough only to protect herself. Sika would not have been able to do anything to protect the city Saleen left her with.

The winged skeleton took almost all of the navy personnel, leaving only skeletal warships and dragon skeleton combat vessels. If it was not for the fact that the Jade Skeleton possessed some measure of intelligence allowing it to direct low level dead spirits, Sika would have been left with nothing to protect the docks with.

Having magic cannons alone was far from enough to keep a powerful navy at bay.

“It is only April now and they will arrive around September. There are large warships at Sregl Island. They are fast ships, capable of traveling two-thousand miles per day.”

“Wait until September!”, Sika was very frustrated, but there was hardly anything she could have done about it. Without a powerful mage around, Metatrin City could have hardly been called a safe place. As soon as Caucasus riots started, that had served as a signal for the outside, telling how problematic the ruling of the Metatrin Kingdom was.

Mages patiently offered their options to Sika. They held no enmity to the Caucasus people for doing so. To mages, it was imperative to deal with all matters with a mind at peace.

There were only two kinds of matters: ones that could be resolved, and ones that could not be resolved. Violence was reserved only for matters that were unable to be resolved peacefully.

Sika’s mind had only calmed when the mages listed out the items and goods traded between the city and the Caucasus people. The list served as a proof that Caucasus people outside the city really had no ability to take Metatrin City; they had not so much as thought of purchasing supplies to be used for waging wars.

The night ended inconclusively. The next morning, rather than Sika going out to talk to the elders, the southern elders came asking to see Sika at the temple instead.

There were little more than ten elders in the south, and nine came looking for her. The leader of the group was the oldest elder from the village Sika grew up in. The elders were taken to the second floor of the temple, and found the guards within to be rather unfriendly, even the Caucasus warriors behaved as such.

The elders looked at each other and smiled bitterly. It looked as if the matters with the Northern Caucasus people were finally stirring up trouble at their own doors.

Would they have just stayed put if they didn’t know what Saleen was capable of?

Sika received the Caucasus elders at the old meeting room. She sat at the end of a long table with twelve Caucasus warriors standing behind her, and two grand mages sitting by her sides respectively.

While the elders were not known for their martial prowess, weaklings had had no place among Caucasus society. Anyone capable of surviving long enough long to become an elder, would have been a force to be reckoned with.

“Sika…”, the elder was cut off as soon as they so much even uttered the name.

Sika spoke calmly, “Please address me as master priestess, or, king.”

The nine elders had not expected Sika’s reaction to be such a strong one. Knowing what happened the previous night and the mobilization of the sixth camp, they knew well that convincing Sika was no longer an option. The leader among the elders wanted to try nonetheless, and asked, “Master priestess, according to the customs of the Caucasus…”

“Caucasus people have never built any dynasties, and I, will be the first Caucasus King. My orders will become the traditions for all Caucasus people in the future. Elders, this will be my choice, and no objections will be entertained.”

Sika had little knowledge of negotiations and had even less intentions of using Saleen as a bargaining chip.

The elders were just about to retort that the title of Caucasus King was given by Saleen and as such, had no authority of any kind. Then, the children within Sika were Saleen’s. He did so with hard power and he did so for his child. Unless they were able to kill Saleen, Lex, and all of Saleen’s followers, they stood no chance to have Saleen letting go of the two.

Would the Caucasus be able to do so? Kill Lex? That would probably bring forth the ruin of the Caucasus people.