Badge in Azure

Chapter 220: Devil's Retaliation (Part 1)

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

The Shengfeng ship travelled south for two days before suddenly steering eastwards.

Saleen only realized that the two grand swordmasters were Fellett's household servants after acquainting himself with him. The term "household servants" had not been commonly adopted. The only other country that used this term was Sea Island. In the Myers Mainland, before the status of knights had deteriorated, they had been able to afford the luxury of hiring such "household servants".

Needless to say, the two grand swordmasters also belonged to the Fellett clan. Just like the knights who had once served noblemen, they could never pledge their loyalty to anyone other than the Felletts. Any form of betrayal would not be tolerated. In the Qin country, there were also grand swordmasters that were hired to serve noblemen. However, their bosses were not as strict as those in Sea Island.

As the ship continued moving east, Saleen noticed, to his alarm, that they were actually heading further and further away from the mainland. Panicked, Saleen rushed towards Fellett to demand an explanation.

"Fellett, why did the ship change course? Aren't we heading for Alchemy City?" Saleen asked, his tone slightly harsher than he had expected. This ship might not have been moving as fast as Alchemy City's bounty-hunter ships, but everything had been smooth-sailing for the past few days. Plus, the ship had been travelling at full speed. It should have covered at least a thousand miles by now. Yet, the mainland was nowhere in sight.

"The ship we're on is a modified warship. Sailing it to Alchemy City's ports would be the dumbest thing we could do. The mages there might think we're enemies trying to infiltrate their city and launch an attack on us. Boom! Before you know it, the ship would be riddled with holes, and we'd drown. Do you want to die by drowning? Don't think so. We're going in another direction so that we can change ships. Plus, if you've noticed, there's a storm brewing up ahead. We need to avoid that storm. If not, we'd capsize and again - die by drowning," Fellett replied lazily.

"A storm!" Saleen exclaimed. He knew how powerful storms could be. In Ceylon City, the aftermath of a storm was devastating. Not only were the fishermen at risk of losing their lives, but they would lose their catch as well and suffer huge monetary losses as a result. No one could resist the forces of nature, not even mages.

Saleen was becoming more apprehensive by the minute. The magic compass on Fellett's ship was broken, and for a ship to be able to navigate properly, it needed to get proper directions and coordinates from a compass. Saleen was not sure if the ship could survive the storm. Without a magic compass, the ship could have been going in circles, and no one would ever know.

"Not to worry, I'm very familiar with this route. All we need to do is go south and pretend to be a merchant ship from Cloudflow in order to safely reach Alchemy Port," Fellett assured Saleen.

The bounty-hunting vessels in Alchemy City have already been attacked. If they were attacked by people from the Cloudflow Empire, won't we be courting death if we follow Fellett's plan? Saleen thought. The problem now was that he had woven a set of lies to convince Fellett that he had been travelling from Alchemy City. If Fellett knew the truth, he would most definitely throw Saleen into the sea without hesitation.

Saleen walked back to his cabin sullenly. At the same time, Daniel's eyes fluttered open, bringing an end to his two-day coma. He was not too damaged emotionally or mentally, just hungry. Saleen knew that necromancers had their own secretive means of protecting their souls, but did not ask about them because he knew that Daniel would be put in a difficult position.

"Master, Viscountess Lex is looking for you," Nailisi said as she stood by the door. Sighing, he climbed down from his bed and headed to Lex's room, dropping his plans of honing his magic completely.

Upon seeing Saleen enter the room, Lex immediately released a Mute Enchantment spell.

"Saleen, I've decided to strike. What do you think?" Lex said coldly as she gazed into the distance. Her arms were crossed behind her and her back was unusually straight.

"Strike? As in seize the ship? That's not possible! It's not realistic! Are you thinking straight?" Saleen nearly screamed. He had done a check on the entire vessel over the past two days and had discovered that there were over two hundred people onboard the ship, each of them equipped with a set of fighting skills at minimum. What made Saleen feel even more uneasy about Lex's plan was that he could not use his senses to study some of their ranks. He could only rely on his gut instinct, and his gut instinct told him that these people were dangerous.

"Are you worried about the magic contract or have you already become chummy with Fellett?" Lex retorted as she whipped around so fast that Saleen was afraid she would get whiplash. Her eyes were burning with an unknown desire that Saleen had never seen before. For a moment, Saleen was stunned, as he studied Lex's facial features.

"Magic contracts only deal with business-related stuff. I'm not too bothered. Are you more concerned about the fact that I'm becoming overly friendly with Fellett?" Saleen quipped.

"Yes. This vessel has over ten sets of alchemy crossbows. This is forbidden equipment. Do you have an idea of where they got it?" Lex questioned.

"The north?" Saleen said, his reply coming out as more of a question than a concrete answer.

"So Lianyun's City's ports deal weapons now?" Lex said, raising her eyebrows.

"What? No. You said…" Saleen protested, but was cut off by Lex, "These people are pirates! They are the same pirates that often prowl the northern seas of the empire!" Lex exclaimed. There was not a hint of anger in her voice. Saleen only detected excitement, an emotion he could not really share with her right now. Saleen was smart. He knew what Lex was going to say next.

"I'm not going to deny the fact that they're from the country of Shengfeng, but this doesn't affect how they conduct their crimes. The southern part of the empire contains Alchemy City. They would not dare strike there. This is different for Lianyun City. They have only one mediocre fleet in their navy. There aren't many dealings between Lianyun City and Sikeqinya not just because of the six month long deep freeze during the winter months along the northern shipping route, but also because these pirates are too difficult to eliminate. Not many merchants can afford to risk losing their cargo travelling back and forth between the two cities," Lex rambled.

"Are you sure?" Saleen asked.

"Of course! They're from the country of Shengfeng. If they can conquer stormy weather and choppy seas, why don't they just open up their own shipping route? This just proves my point that they're shady people!" Lex nearly screamed at the end of her speech as she tried to make Saleen understand her point of view.

Although what Lex had said was a bit harsh, she was not completely wrong. With a magic ship, even if the country of Shengfeng was approximately tens of thousands of miles away from the Myers Mainland, they would be able to reach it in roughly two to three months. These magic ships were able to travel at least one thousand miles a day. The only thing stopping people from travelling to the Myers Mainland from Sea Island were the sea monsters, as well as the stormy seas that travellers would surely experience if they chose to travel from Sea Island.

Any storms located more than ten thousand miles from the Myers Mainland were neither predictable nor stoppable. The intensity of the storms could become ten times stronger as they moved further away from land. Even Cloudflow battleships were unable to weather the storms. Frederick must have discovered a safe shipping route to have been able to go from the country of Qin to the country of Shengfeng so easily.

If such a shipping route did exist, the merchants exploiting it would have an absolute field day counting the money rolling in from all the ships waiting to cross to Qin from Shengfeng and vice versa.

"I don't know why the people of Shengfeng didn't open up this route. All I know is that I'm going to beat them to it," Lex said in an unusually calm tone. However, Saleen knew that this was just the calm before the storm.

"They have two black metal grand swordmasters," Saleen said, hoping Lex would get the hint that this mission was not very realistic. He could understand why Lex was so desperate to get ahold of the shipping route. Finding it would mean that he would not need to listen to Fellett's crap again, and his original plan would be easier to carry out. This would be even more beneficial given that following Fellett back to Alchemy City might not have been a good thing. Who knew how things were over at Alchemy City?

"Do you still have the venom?" Lex asked.

"Nope," Saleen answered. The ingredients needed to make the venom were not expensive. However, there were so many of them that refining them was a chore.

"I think they have a secret hideout at the southern part of their empire. I'm going to seize that from them first. Those two black metal grand swordmasters are a pain in the neck. Can Nailisi and Sika deal with either one of them?" Lex said. She was passionate about this mission, but also cautious. Those two blokes could easily threaten her life if she was not careful. Dealing with just one of them? Sure, why not. But dealing with two of them? She would die in a heartbeat.

"But they have over two hundred people…" Saleen said, continuing to rain on Lex's parade.

"I just need Sika and Lex to hold off one of the black metal grand swordmasters while you deal with Fellett. That way, I can kill off the remaining black metal grand swordmaster while Daniel deals with the rest of the crew," Lex said simply, dismissing Saleen's concern as if it was nothing but a petty annoyance.

"Daniel isn't that powerful!" Saleen yelled. He was at his wits end trying to convince the viscountess standing in front of him that attacking now would be a bad idea.

"I just need you all to contain them for a minute. Just one minute is all I need to kill those two bozos. Once we capture Fellett, the rest of the crew will not dare resist anymore," Lex said.

"But why do we have to strike?" Saleen asked.

"My father was killed by the sacred Holy See. I want revenge and I want it badly, but I can't count on my brother for anything. To ensure that Bitter Water Prefecture continues to prosper, at least fifty years will be needed for it to do so organically. However, the Holy See will regain its strength after three years at most. Saleen, I would ask my uncle for help. You and I both know that he possesses great power. But if we're talking about the ability to lead a country, he's not even one percent as good as my dad. I can only carry out revenge by myself. The riches that I obtained from the temple are not enough to help me build an army that can flatten the Holy See. That's why I need to conquer country of Shengfeng, and call that country my own," Lex explained.

"It's not as simple as you think…" Saleen replied, but was cut off by Lex again. "Hey, don't you think that it's fishy how there are only two junior mages on this one battleship?"

"Well, yes… but it could be that mages are rare in the country of Shengfeng. You can't just…" Saleen said, trailing off at the last part of his sentence.

"So let's capture Fellett and behead the Emperor of Shengfeng!" Lex exclaimed excitedly, seemingly unaware of Saleen's growing panic and frustration.

"Fellett is not that easy to manipulate, let alone capture!" Saleen said. He knew very well that Fellett was an ambitious fellow. Even if Lex was able to kill the Emperor of Shengfeng, Fellett would not be easy to control once they were docked there. Saleen did not like where Lex was going with her plan. He actually thought she was getting crazier by the minute.

"This is a long-term plan, silly! Now all you have to do is to capture Fellett and let me handle the rest," Lex said, her sentence coming out more as a demand rather than a request.

"Can't you… just wait for a few more years?" Saleen asked, hinting at the hell of god's punishment. If Lex had the patience to search again for its interdimensional coordinates, she would be able to bring her soon-to-be sorcerers there so that they could instantly be promoted to grade-9 mages in the six element space.

Once Lex had many grade-9 sorcerers under her command, she could easily proceed with her plan for revenge, but only if she had the patience to wait. Once the day came, she could easily destroy Glorious City with the help of the sorcerers and the forbidden scrolls.

"Saleen, it's very costly to groom a mage. I can only wait five years max. No wait, three. After three years, I can't afford to provide for any more mages, unless I can exploit the unrevealed shipping route. Do you think that I'm able to just set up any business over on the Myers Mainland and expect it to be successful?" Lex said.

Saleen was rendered speechless. Lex did have an excessive number of mages to provide for. Just providing them with magic nuclei alone was a huge strain on her finances. She might have become wealthier through the riches brought about by the goddess, but those resources were not unlimited. Unless Lex managed to find new ways to bring wealth to Bitter Water Prefecture, the city would eventually decline and become unattractive to both local and foreign mages.

Seeing that Saleen had gone silent, Lex fought to keep her smirk in as she tried convincing him again, "Nailisi told me that you've refined the dragonshard. I don't want the core, I just want the parts that you have dissected so that I can fit them into my puppets. Tell me, are you confident that you did not mess up the refinement?"

As soon as those words left Lex's mouth, realization hit Saleen like a twenty-pound sledgehammer. Nailisi must have instigated Lex behind his back. Dragonshards were very hard to refine. As a grade-4 mage, it was almost impossible to do so. Nailisi, however, had the ability to cut a huge dragonshard into twenty-four smaller pieces that were big enough to fit into the fully constructed puppets.

Lex did not know that it was Nailisi who could refine a dragonshard, and not Saleen. So Nailisi lied to her, Saleen thought grimly.

I can't believe Nailisi still bears a grudge against Fellett after he offered to buy her from me. I thought that she'd calm down over the next few days and give up her plans for revenge, Saleen thought. What he had not expected was that she would be so callous as to convince Lex to eliminate Fellett completely.

Saleen felt as though someone had splashed cold water all over him. If Nailisi had not been bound to him, he would have thought that Nailisi was a terribly wicked person. How can she manipulate Lex's greed in order to get what she wants? How can she decide Fellett's fate just like that? Does she really want to sacrifice innocent lives over a slip of a tongue? These thoughts ran through Saleen's mind, pushing him deeper into confusion.

Saleen knew that Nailisi would not be satisfied even after she captured Fellett. She would utilize any means necessary to kill anyone associated with him. Saleen also knew that imps like Nailisi had many creative ways of discreetly dealing with Fellett behind his back, although he did think that Nailisi did not have to be so cruel.

If Lex really did capture Fellett and attack country of Shengfeng, not only would Fellett meet a miserable fate, but he would also end up implicating every single person in his clan. If Nailisi had the desire to do so, she could even instigate Lex to kill his family, friends, and even people who had the slightest affiliation with him.

Traitors never did live to tell the tale anyway - and Fellett would be no exception.