Badge in Azure

It was noon. There were no shadows on the west side of the temple, so Sika’s smile seemed even brighter under the sunlight.

“Hey, Saleen, you are so impressive now!” Sika waited until Saleen was close enough before she patted him on his shoulder. It was the first time Saleen felt Sika could be that gentle.

It was extremely difficult to control one’s power. What Sika was doing was already much better than most grand swordmasters.

“What do you mean?!”

“Lex has given you the mark of the Six-winged Flying Snake. I finally understood what that was after asking a few mages.” Saleen’s face turned red the moment Sika came closer.

“That… Is your body alright?”

“Of course, but they won’t allow me to exercise much. I’m so bored. You must accompany me now that you are back.”

Saleen calculated silently in his heart. They were in the middle of July. He would have to set off immediately in order to reach the Oceanic Ice Block in time, otherwise he would have to try his luck and go there on his alchemy ship alone. There was still another four months before Sika would give birth, so there should still be enough time.

What if he brought Sika along? Surely the Caucasus people would go mad!

Daniel was still managing the daily administrative duties in the city, so he did not come forth to welcome Saleen back. The three Duchesses were not present either because all of them understood that Saleen would want to spend time with Sika, so they would rather not be a wet blanket. When Saleen and Sika returned to the temple, they dismissed the people around them. Once the room was left with only the two of them, Sika kicked Saleen’s calf.

“Don’t you know how worried I was when I was here all alone?”

“Ah!” Saleen was taken by surprise. He realized that Sika’s kick was ridiculously light. It was as if she was a weak lady who was throwing a temper.

“Sika, I am back and will not be leaving for the time-being. Next time, I will bring you wherever I go.” By then, Saleen knew very well what women would be thinking and it was not as terrifying as what was written in the books. He just needed to be truthful.

“You have even brought the winged skeleton back with you. I suppose you intend to go out to the sea? I want to go too!”

“The Caucasus people will never agree!”

“It’s about time that you have returned. I was about to tell you that the Caucasus people outside the city have rebelled!”

“Rebelled? They probably want you to leave.” Saleen laughed at how that was really happening, just as he thought. When the north Caucasus people began to arrange their settlements in bigger clusters instead of small villages, it was expected that there would be more room for someone to gain power. When he settled the Caucasus people there in such a large area and allowed them to develop freely, he was not surprised by how things had developed.

“If you already knew, why didn’t you warn me earlier?” Sika asked, rubbing Saleen’s face.

“So, what did you do?” Saleen asked.

“I locked up the city gate and uncovered the accomplices in the city to become resources for my equipment. Caucasus people don’t need to be making plans in secret. I am their Priestess. What they did was a sin against tradition.” When Sika finished speaking, she suddenly felt that what she said sounded like what mages had taught her. “Humph, anyway I have cleaned out the people in the city. Now, there are no problems with the southern Caucasus tribes. The northern Caucasus people outside the city need grain and tools now. I was about to ask you if we should treat what they did as rebellion?”

“Of course. This is Metatrin Kingdom. Every inch of their land belongs to me,” Saleen answered naturally.

“So how did I do?” Sika asked carefully. Although Saleen had made her the Regent, she was still not confident in dealing with mattes as big as that.

“Not too bad, at least you waited for me to come back to discuss this. Actually, I did not warn you because I wanted you to realize that not all Caucasus people think the same way. I am fonder of the head of your village compared to those elders, who are always secretly making plans. If this group of people are already considered acceptable, then I can’t imagine the northern Caucasus people that you have mentioned. It was intentional. It’s much easier to discuss it with you after all these things have taken place.”

Saleen spoke his mind and Sika was accepting. She only nodded her head and said, “In any case, the thing I wanted to protect in the very beginning was only my village.”

“I will not start a battle in your name. The lands are mine. If they refuse to pay taxes, then they will just have to get out of my country.”

“When do you intend to strike?”

“After you have given birth. We must not allow the northern Caucasus tribes to get their hands on any goods. We must ensure that the passageway between the southern mountainous regions and the western plains is completely blocked off. I will build a few more magic buildings there, or I might as well just build some six story magic towers for the grade-6 grand mages to live in.”

“Saleen…”

“Why? Do you think it is cruel?”

“No, it is none of my concern whether they live or die. It is unforgivable that they are trying to snatch you and our children away. What I want to ask is whether you can bring me along to the Oceanic Ice Block?”

It was still the same question. Saleen was pained and said, “Your subordinates will not agree to it.”

“Then let’s just bring them along. I have many powerful people around me now!” Sika sounded pleased. All 36 of her bodyguards were Caucasus warriors that were on the same level as zun grand swordmasters.

“That’s provided you manage to convince them.” Of course, Saleen would love to have Sika by his side. It seemed that the threat posed by Alchemy City would not come to fruition for the time-being. Alchemy City must have figured out the reason behind the sinking of their two combat vessels.

“I am now the Caucasus King. Convince them? I can order them, I was only afraid that you would not agree to it.”

“It will be much safer on the ship compared to staying in the city. Soldier, he…” Saleen thought for a while but did not know how to put his thoughts into words. Not only had the winged skeleton gotten stronger, he seemed to have become more intelligent, gained a desire for more autonomy, and came to possess the ability to create. Was he still considered a spirit of the dead?

Nevertheless, it was good thing that winged skeleton had become stronger, otherwise the pan’s turtle alchemical boat would not have been repaired so quickly. With the pan’s turtle alchemical boat, Saleen was confident that Sika would not meet with any harm.

The winged skeleton had described to him how he had battled the sorcerer from Cloudflow. While it was a fact that the grade-9 sorcerer was powerful, the main reason for the winged skeleton being trapped was that the waters of the Separation Sea were too shallow. If the battle had taken place in the ocean, there was no way the sorcerer would have been able to trap an alchemy ship that could dive thousands of yards under the ocean.

“Saleen, I forgot that you have just come back. Do you want to rest for a while or eat something first?”

Sika wanted to help Saleen to a seat, but he quickly said, “You don’t have to serve me like this. You seem to have become more… hardworking!”

“No one is letting me do anything, of course I have become keener to work,” Sika said unhappily.

“Let me get someone.”

“You don’t have to. There are already people outside.” Sika clapped her hands and indeed, 12 Caucasus warriors immediately entered Sika’s room. With one glance, Saleen could tell how powerful the warriors were.

“Your Highness, Your Highness.” The Caucasus warriors bowed.

Sika said, “Prepare some food. Saleen is hungry.”

The warriors replied in unison before leaving enthusiastically. Saleen was a bit taken aback but Sika only said with some frustration, “Now, they are the ones who decide what I can eat. Not only that, the food has to be inspected by sorcerers, death mages, and all sorts of magic array tests before they will serve it to me.”

“Then what are they so enthusiastic about?”

“Maybe they gain pleasure from seeing how helpless I am?”

Sika’s complaints were useless. Even if the Caucasus people in the city were all loyal to her, she still did not have a say in what she could and could not eat.

In fact, as an Earth Priestess, she should be the one in the best position to decide if there were any problems with the food. The Caucasus people did not seem to think that way. Their rationale was that the most important thing for Sika was her health, so they must leave no stones unturned in this aspect.

The Priestess of the Caucasus people was originally a huge and complicated occupational system but in the past 1,000 years, it was only left with two branches of Priests – Soul Beast Priestess and Combat Shaman.

The rarity of Combat Shamans and the final status that they could attain contributed to Sika becoming a truly unique Caucasus person. According to the legends, the strongest Caucasus Priestess was a Nature Priestess.

Sika could understand how everyone felt. Even if she was not pregnant, her existence was invaluable to the southern Caucasus. Even though her abilities were multiple times stronger than any of her subordinates, the latter would still be the first ones to dash to the forefront to protect her. It seemed that it was time Sika tried to expand some of her skills, such as healing, defense, protection, blessing…

As for the issue with the northern Caucasus people, Saleen continued to delay. He could see that although the northern Caucasus people had a single common goal of their own, they did not have the ability to become independent because the northern Caucasus tribes did not own any lands, huge equipment, nor money.

Strength alone would not be enough. The amount of money required to build up a kingdom was unimaginable.

Over time, the northern Caucasus tribes would eventually have to give up. They would either have to fall back in line or take the risk and attack Daliang City. The outcome would still be the same, no matter what they chose.

Saleen was not worried at all that Sika might make the wrong decision. Having more than 300,000 Caucasus warriors outside the city was quite a formidable force. Sika would not unleash them unnecessarily since they barely had enough soldiers in the city. The mountainous regions were dominated by the Caucasus tribes.

He was not worried about any accusations. The lands belonged to Saleen, so he could give them to whoever he wanted.

The winged skeleton was extremely busy. The moment he returned, he went straight to the harbor and dove in to make sure that the reparation of the pan’s turtle alchemical boat would be smooth. When the pan’s turtle alchemical boat was hit by the grade-9 spell, its exterior had become fossilized and its defense dropped quite significantly. The winged skeleton had no choice but to include more stable materials in place of the areas that have become solidified.

The weapons were the most important. The winged skeleton had discovered the pan’s turtle alchemical boat’s weakness, which was that the ship would not be able to overcome huge fleets with only the bone spirit in the spirit pool. Besides, the bone spirit must be under control when nearing the target or else it could easily be hit by the enemy.

It would not be difficult for any sorcerer to accurately hit the bone spirit, thus exploding the bloodstone.

What the winged skeleton needed to improve was how the bloodstone was being used. Amidst the soul flames of the spirit kings, the winged skeleton managed to obtain plenty of knowledge on dead spirit alchemy technique.

The bloodstone could be modified so that it was more stable and could be stored more easily but the only problem was the high cost. Since there was only one pan’s turtle alchemical boat, the issue of high cost could be ignored.