Badge in Azure

Chapter 111: Expedition (Part 2)

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

"It was my mistake then. We should have eradicated the problems caused by the Holy See before coming to the capital," Faerun said regretfully.

"It's alright. If we'd stayed at Hadisai City, we would have reached the capital the same day as the convoy from Cloudflow Empire. We went past the city, causing the convoy to use the teleportation portal. This isn't a coincidence. Whatever we'd done, it would've had the same results," Viscountess Lex analyzed calmly.

"Has Mokolari's son assumed the position of earl yet?" Saleen asked an important question.

"It has already been passed by the lower house. Anyway, even if my father had tried to suppress the motion, the lower house wouldn't have bothered with him and that rascal would have started his battle for revenge. He is a first-class baron and has thousands of private soldiers under him. It is normal for him to come after me along the way." Viscountess Lex had a harsh look. She had had enough of the petty fights among the wealthy. They wanted to sacrifice her? Then their enemies shall die.

"Viscountess, something is wrong." Saleen voiced his concerns.

"Why?"

"Hadisai City might be far away from Bitter Water Prefecture, but it is on a essential road when moving eastwards. With the death of Earl Mokolari, his son doesn't have much value anymore. The lower house must be using you to get rid of an earl so that they can place a stronger person in Hadisai City. Once that happens, they will cut the road between you and the capital."

"Eh?" Lex was shocked. Saleen had known about her background, and this analysis was spot on. Although Earl Moklari's son might have been making a lot of noise, his actual powers were weaker than that of Bitter Water Prefecture. Some might even have said that they were much weaker. However, even if she killed him personally, she would not be able to gain the land of Hadisai City since the land would be returned to the lower house.

If the land was given to a family with rank but no estate, their strength would increase greatly. The location of Bitter Water Prefecture was a little closed off, and Hadisai City was one of the two essential roads. If that road was blocked off, the development of Bitter Water Prefecture would become harder in the future.

"But even if I explain my case, the lower house will still use Hadisai City against me. This is a conflict that cannot be resolved."

"Viscountess, you are merely worried about the magic tower outside of Hadisai City. So long as that mage doesn't help, Hadisai City will not pose much of a threat to Bitter Water Prefecture."

Viscountess Lex nodded. The magic tower outside of Hadisai City could stop an entire army. Unless she called the master out herself, however, they did not have a sufficient reason to do so.

"It isn't very hard to solve this. Who do mages hate most?" Saleen asked instead.

Lex finally understood. Holy masters. Mages hated holy masters the most. If Hadisai City lost the support of the mages, they would be nothing. Her thousands of troops and one hundred combat mages would be able to solve the problem easily. As to how they could do so, she did not need to ask Saleen these things. She naturally had such experts by her side.

Spreading rumors, finding scapegoats, these were not any unusual tricks. Since Mokolari's son was hell bent on using the lower house's orders to deal with her, she would not let him retain the support of the mages forever.

Saleen's logic was conclusive. Given a few more years, he would have no problems running a city. What a pity that he was a mage. Lex found it regrettable that among the mages by her side, aside from Hu An, not many people were willing to do this.

"Since things have reached this point, this makes things easier. Saleen, all of you are mages, and the capital is not in danger yet. Have Sika and Nailisi be careful. Aside from me, they can refuse to meet with anyone else." Lex reminded him cautiously.

Saleen broke out into a cold sweat. He had not thought about that, but fortunately, Lex had given a reminder. Nailisi would not be tricked that easily, but the same could not be said for Sika. With that thought, he did not even wait for Lex to finish before he dashed out of the room and started pounding on Sika's door.

After he had knocked for a long time, Sika still did not open the door. Starting to panic, Saleen raised his hand and released an icicle spell. The icicle pierced through the door, breaking apart the lock, and Saleen pushed opened the door and entered.

"Saleen…"

Saleen rushed into the room and saw Sika wrapped in a large towel, foam around her mouth. She had been brushing her teeth. Seeing Saleen burst in, she could only say his name unclearly.

"Why did not you open the door?" Saleen heaved a sigh of relief, not realizing that Sika was naked.

Sika put down her toothbrush and said in a daze, "I was showering and brushing my teeth…"

Saleen only then realized that the towel Sika had hurriedly wrapped around herself only covered her legs. Her top was still exposed…He had seen it when he had first met Sika too, only this time, his heart was beating furiously. He felt flushed.

Sika was no longer dirty. Her hair was let down loosely, giving off a light scent. Her white skin was a little pink, and her fingers had the juices of irises on all ten of them. Her white silk towel was wrapped in a slant, only covering half of her chest. Saleen gave a dry cough and said casually, "You have been showering diligently recently."

Laughter came from the doorway as Nailisi slipped in. Resting her head on Saleen's shoulder, she blinked her eyes and asked, "Master, have you come to see Sister Sika shower?"

Sika's face turned red, and the toothbrush in her hand flew towards Nailisi. Nailisi's eyes turned an eerie gold as she looked at the toothbrush. It turned and hit Saleen on his nose instead.

Saleen felt tears welling in his eyes from the pain. He squatted down, and with his hand covering his face, started moaning.

The muscles that he had trained were not fake, but they looked at most like those of a high-grade swordsman and his nose was much more fragile. He had no idea that Sika's toothbrush would change direction. It was not a boomerang.

Nailisi quickly bent down. Helping Saleen rub his nose, she whispered in his ears, "Master, Sika will not let you peek at her. Let's just rape her."

"Go to hell." Saleen certainly knew that Nailisi was not being serious. He lifted his leg and kicked Nailisi on her rear. However, his strength was nowhere near Sika's, much less Nailisi's. This kick was nothing to her and Sika had heard Nailisi words. Instead of turning even redder, she glared at Nailisi and turned towards the bathroom.

Saleen withstood the pain from his nose and shouted from behind, "Sika!"

"What?" Sika turned around, her untied hair fluttering in the air.

"These few days… aside from when you are with me, do not leave this place." Saleen felt his noise becoming swollen.

"Just this?" Sika asked in astonishment.

"Yes." Saleen covered his nose and kept himself from panicking. A mage was standing at the doorway, looking at it curiously. His view had been blocked by the Fog of Confusion that Saleen had released.

Nailisi followed Saleen and left Sika's room. She smiled secretly, hidden in the Fog of Confusion as well.

When Saleen returned to his room, he looked in the mirror. His nose had a large black mark on it and was already swollen. Depressed, he released a Restorative Water spell and lay on his bed, waiting for the pain to subside.

Sika had been seen by him twice, and he had been hurt those two times. It must have been fate. Last time, he had been punched twice, losing consciousness for at least an hour, and this time, his nose had almost been broken.

No wonder so many mages could not find wives. If they needed to take a beating every day, who would ever be in the mood to train? Faerun did not have a wife and he had only taken a decade to rise from Grade 3 to Grade 7, which could be considered a miracle. His teacher did not seem to have a wife, nor did the Grade 8 sorcerer in Bitter Water Prefecture. Yes, even Joey did not seem to be married either.

Saleen used the concepts of the Figaro formula to analyze the relationship between women and magic, but he could not erase the memory from earlier. Sika's breasts were still gorgeous.

Nailisi could feel all of these things. She laid by Saleen's side and asked, "Master, why did not you let me help just now?"

"Help with what?" Saleen asked depressingly.

"Obviously rape?" Nailisi shouted in excitement, pounding the bed.

"What sorts of things have you learned? Aiya…" Saleen shouted. His nose became even more painful. He had not been afraid of pain to begin with, but he could not control how his tears flowed. A mage was not a grand swordmaster and they could not control the organs within their bodies as they wished.

Nailisi hurriedly wiped away his tears and said, "Master, if you don't like that, we can change methods."

"Stop spouting nonsense." Saleen moaned as he pushed Nailisi's hand away and said, "The road back will not be smooth. You should quickly think of a way to improve your strength. Last time, I saw you steal many items from the storage room. What were they?"

Nailisi had managed to use some underhanded means to hide from the grey robed mage in the storage room and steal some items into her bracelet. However, she had not been able to hide from Saleen, whom she was bound to.

Nailisi pressed her lips to his ear and whispered as softly as she could, "Master, not now. The others may find out. Anyways, it is something good."

Upon hearing that, Saleen could only pray that this item was not important to the emperor. Otherwise, the mage named Sith would be punished. What if they returned it? Saleen did not want to do this out of fear that Nailisi's identity would be revealed.

In that moment, Saleen missed Joey's magic liquid. With the magic liquid, his nose would have been almost perfect by now. At the end of the day, restorative magic was only a Grade 1 spell. It was good for detoxification, but its effects were slow when it came to healing.

With the bump on his nose, Saleen did not dare go out and meet anyone. He could only stay in his room and practice magic every day. The Qin Emperor was about to go on an expedition, and the entire capital was busy. An emperor could not go on an expedition on a whim. He needed to pick the soldiers, reserve troops, and mages that would be following along. The number of people involved exceeded three hundred thousand.

One hundred thousand elites and two battalions worth of palace swordsmen. That was a total of one hundred and twenty thousand people. He needed twenty-four grand mages to provide logistical support as well. Otherwise, with the remaining reserve troops, they would not even need to talk about battle. They would not even be able to transport rations and weapons.

Every battalion needed to choose a general and increase their number of war horses. However, many horses and carriages could only be sent over from the north of the empire.

All of these things took at least a month to settle.

It had been centuries since the empire had been involved in such a large scale war. If they lost the battle this time, the credibility of the Qin Empire would drop rapidly, and they would become food for the surrounding countries. With things having come to this point, the upper and lower houses had no choice but to form an alliance to support the Qin Empire. A large number of low-grade mages had gathered. Under Qin Empire law, any mage that joined a national battle would earn a reward many times of what they would usually receive.

Not every mage had a means of earning money, and with this battle, many people saw a glimmer of hope.