Badge in Azure

Chapter 312: Irene (Part 1)

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

"Why wouldn't it be worth it?" Irene retorted, her breathing getting heavier by the minute. She widened her eyes, glared at Saleen, and continued, "We're talking about grade-6 magic beasts here, and maybe some even more powerful than that. The magic beasts over on the mainland are all below grade-6. Do you know how much money you can fetch from selling one magic nucleus?"

"Of course I know, Irene. I'm a mage, after all. But do you really think that you and your friends have what it takes to hunt magic beasts that formidable?" Saleen said lazily.

Irene's face flushed red with embarrassment and anger. Saleen was not completely wrong, but he was not right either. Given the amount of manpower that she possessed, hunting down grade-6 magic beasts was a bit of an uphill task for her. It was not that her men were incapable of capturing them. Rather, the issue here was that the losses she would encounter relative to the profits she could earn were too high to justify hunting them down. No businessman in his right mind would venture into any type of loss-inducing business, and Irene was no exception.

There were two types of swordsmen that all noblemen, regardless of the clans they belonged to, would provide for. The first type of swordsmen would play the role of the clan's personal bodyguards. Thus, none of these swordsmen would be registered with the empire. These swordsmen would share weal and woe with their employers. The second type of swordsmen were those who were hired officially and bound to a particular nobleman for long periods of time. Regardless of whether these swordsmen belonged to the first or second category, if they happened to perish while on duty, the noblemen would have to compensate the swordsmen's families accordingly.

Saleen knew that if every single one of Irene's hunting missions were to end in tragedy with the loss of a group of soldiers, even if these swordsmen belonged to the second category, the amount of compensation would be too great for any nobleman to bear, Irene included.

"The Williams clan has very little influence over in Lianyun City. Voyaging to places like this takes at least half a year. Every trip you make costs your clan over a hundred thousand gold coins. So tell me, Irene, is it really worth it?" Saleen asked. Irene had nothing to say in response. What could she say when Saleen had already calculated the amount of capital needed right in front of her?

"I feel like we should be more honest with each other. You know, at the end of the day, I might not even be interested in pursuing whatever your clan has been doing. However, I will definitely be a part of it, at least for your journey. I could authorize your clan to travel through my ocean territories. The journey might be a little bit longer, but it will be far safer than traveling through other waters. I could even deploy some battleships to protect your bounty-hunting ships so that things like this will not happen again," Saleen said, referencing Irene's predicament.

"Battleships?" Irene asked, her eyes lighting up with hope as she continued, "Can I buy them off of you?"

"Irene, Lex is a viscountess. Owning a battleship is nothing to her. The highest rank in the Williams clan is only that of an earl. Purchasing the battleships might anger the officials over in Holy Rock City," Saleen explained.

Upon hearing Saleen's words, Irene realized that Saleen was truly well-versed in these matters. There was no way she could hide anything from him. Might as well tell him everything, Irene sighed inwardly.

"Mage Saleen, the Oceanic Ice Block is truly a gold mine. Assuming that the ships we send out don't hit any icebergs, just casting a net into the waters alone will allow us to capture magic beasts that are very rare and valuable. There is a type of sea shrimp that exists only in that part of the ocean. It's red, nearly transparent, and is as long as an adult's arm. The front limbs of the sea shrimp can be directly refined into shen xing metal as well as grade-4 magic nuclei. Just one cast of the net can reel in up to one thousand of these creatures. Can you imagine reeling in up to one thousand grade-4 magic nuclei in one go? It's literally a gold mine there!" Irene explained.

"How are grade-4 magic beasts so easy to capture?" Saleen asked in disbelief.

"Of course, there are some techniques that you'll have to master. You'll also have to use specially created metal nets as well. However, these efforts are nothing compared to the profits that can be earned," Irene rambled on, feeling unusually relaxed now that she had spilled everything that she knew.

"So only the Williams clan have been involved in this business?" Saleen asked.

"Of course," Irene replied, "However, since you're definitely going to interfere, I guess we won't be the only ones doing this anymore." As she said this, she tried to look as pitiful as possible. However, Saleen did not even flinch. Instead, he started to think about whether he really did want to venture into this business.

Hunting and capturing magic beasts out at sea had always been lucrative. However, it would only be profitable if the people involved had strong backing. The southern ocean territories were now under Alchemy City's jurisdiction. Since the Williams clan was risking the lives of its members who were travelling to the northern ocean waters to hunt, if he were to interfere just like that, the Williams would certainly not be happy. In fact, they would probably be hopping mad. Even though Saleen had the Bitter Water Prefecture and Sregl Island behind him, he did not want to offend the Williams. Not too much, anyways.

On the other hand, Saleen was not too worried that the Williams would exclude him from this money-making venture. He predicted that the Holy See would take at most two years to figure out the workings of the northern shipping route. They would be able to avoid the Cloudflow naval fleets, travel past Sikenqinya from the north, and eventually reach him. The deeper reason behind why the Holy See would do this was because of the fact that they had made almost no progress in tracking him via land. Naturally, they would think of getting to Saleen by travelling through the water instead.

Alchemy City was a massive and impregnable fortress. Lianyun City, on the other hand, could be described as the stark opposite of impregnable. If the Holy See did put together a naval fleet, Saleen guessed that they would take advantage of the fact that Lianyun City was too weak to fight back and attack there first. Once Lianyun City fell, they would be able to gain access to the Qin territory in no time.

Once the Holy See made an appearance, the Williams' business would be done for. Once they reached that point, they would definitely come begging for Saleen's help. Thus, Saleen was not too anxious about interfering with their affairs.

The shipping route connecting the place that Saleen was currently at to the Oceanic Ice Block was definitely a business secret that Irene would not cough up easily. However, he was not going to simply ask for it. He wanted to see the Williams suffer for a while before having them give it up willingly.

As Irene and Saleen continued chatting, Nailisi returned to the tent and asked Saleen, "Master, I have taken care of Irene's men. Should we heal those that have been injured in the blizzard?"

"Of course! If those swordsmen lose any of their fingers, their combat abilities will be negatively impacted. How much restorative water do we have now?" Saleen asked.

"Not much left, Master," Nailisi said politely, trying to present a false image of demurity in front of Irene. She looked so respectable mimicking the Myers Goddess that almost no one would be able to tell that she was lying. Saleen actually had so much restorative water that he could take a bath in it everyday and still have plenty of the liquid left. Restorative water was a product of mere level-1 magic. It was not difficult to make. Hence, Saleen had hoards of the liquid stashed somewhere. In fact, he gave the Sregl Island swordsmen restorative water to drink everyday to improve their physical well-being and boost their strength.

Since these swordsmen had not received these perks back at Sregl Island, after being under Saleen for a while, they had more or less decided that they would remain loyal to Saleen until they either died or were no longer needed.

"I am willing to purchase it with money. Of course, I know that gold coins mean nothing to a respectable mage like you," Irene said. She knew people like Saleen all too well. Even if she was aware of the fact that Saleen had copious quantities of restorative water, she would not be able to obtain it without giving him something in return. One of the few things that restorative water had in common with the Holy See's holy water was that although it did not cost much to manufacture both liquids, mages were the only people who could produce them.

"Actually Irene, I might be more interested in what you can offer me aside from gold coins," Saleen said smoothly and cryptically, making himself seem even more enigmatic to Irene than he already was. Saleen was very different from any other mage that she knew… he behaved just like a nobleman who had bought his royal rank with gold coins. Yet, Saleen seemed like a genuine, sincere person who was very straightforward. His words had no malice or threat in them at all.

"I don't know what you want from me," Irene said, genuinely curious as to what Saleen wanted.

"Give me your catch for this hunting trip, and I promise that I'll personally send all of you back to Qin safe and sound," Saleen replied.

"My ship…has sunk…" Irene said miserably. Her eyes were red and puffy and she felt like crying, but managed to hold her tears back. That ship had been a gift from her mother. Only Cloudflow nobles were able to receive ships as gifts, and the ship that she had received was worth at least a hundred thousand gold coins. After a few tweaks here and there, she had managed to create a symbolic representation of her status through her ship.

Saleen knew that Irene was telling the truth. She had truly lost everything. There were no archmages in Irene's team, thus, not a single one of the one hundred and eighty people had been able to operate spatial equipment. All of their cargo could only be preserved through army equipment and storage in specially designed boxes. As soon as the ship had sunk, it was game over for Irene. There was nothing anyone could do to retrieve those boxes.

"Do you remember where your ship sank?" Saleen asked.

Irene hesitated for a bit before answering, "Six hundred miles from here…to the northeast, I think. We got here through the help of lifeboats."

Saleen consoled Irene and said, "Don't be sad. Business is all about making money and losing money. If you really want a ship, I have one on hand right now. It may not have been revamped to your liking, but I can sell it to you at a cheaper price."

Once I find your ship Irene, everything on it will be mine…well, as soon as I activate my pan's turtle alchemical boat, of course, Saleen thought. The pan's turtle alchemical boat was a useful vessel after all. Saleen could make a fortune simply by deploying the ship to dive down and scoop up all of the valuable items that had gone down together with the sunken ships. Just using the pan's turtle alchemical boat for that purpose alone would bring in huge profits for the grade-5 mage. Moreover, not only could the bone spirits steer the alchemy ship, but they could also fight when needed. Of course, if Saleen wanted, he could also command the bone spirits to fish for Irene's cargo.

Saleen's words did not bring much excitement to Irene. She could buy all the ships in the world, but none of them would be able to replace the ship that her mother had bought for her as a present. Saleen might have been strong, but constructing a ship required the help of professionals. The most that mages could do for professionals was provide them with the relevant auxiliary equipment. Every component and spare part that had made up the body of that ship had been created specially by the professionals themselves.

As Saleen took in Irene's indifferent facial expression, he thought, I can give you the pirate ship for free since it's only worth a few thousand gold coins anyway, but you don't seem to appreciate it. I'm not going to just seize your ship out of nowhere. That would probably be rude… Oh well, I guess I have to ensure that the ship I give you is in one piece. That way she will not be suspicious of me.

"Irene, this isn't just some boat that I created myself. This is a ship - a pirate ship, at that. I snatched that ship right out of those pirates' hands. You can't really use it to hunt, but you can use it to get back to your clan," Saleen said.

"You… seized their ship?!" Irene gasped, her mouth opening and closing like she was some kind of fish. Saleen watched the scene unfold before him gleefully.

"If those pirates can rob me, then I can do the same to them. Tit for tat, you know? I also plan to rid the entire northern ocean territory of all pirates. These pirate ships are worth at least ten thousand gold coins each, and that's just the value of the poorly constructed ones. The better ones are almost as valuable as your bounty-hunting ship. What a pity that my ships aren't here with me right now. It's an even greater shame that it's currently the winter season. I don't think that pirates will be out and about at this time," Saleen said.

Get rid of all pirates? Talk is cheap, Saleen! Irene thought.

Even if she thought that way, she chose to believe Saleen's words. Nailisi returned once again to ask Saleen, " Master, I've given Irene's men some medication. Do you need me to do anything else?"

Saleen gave Irene a quick once-over and reconfirmed that the advanced swordswoman posed absolutely no threat to him. He waved his hands dismissively and said, "You may leave us. Hm…on second thought, perhaps you can see what our soldiers are doing."

Saleen knew that Nailisi had overheard what Irene had said earlier. He also knew that she had her eye on Irene's sunken ship as well. Saleen figured that it would be a good idea to have the winged skeleton search for Irene's ship while he continued chatting with her about her family affairs. Perhaps I can get the winged skeleton to steer the alchemy ship. If we can find the sunken ship, we might be able to find some files and documents that can give us information about where the Oceanic Ice Block is, Saleen thought.

"Got it," Nailisi said happily. Looks like master isn't stupid after all, she thought. The northern shipping routes were rarely explored. If the Williams clan had struck it rich just by discovering one of those routes, who knew what else the northern ocean had to offer. The mainlands located in these waters were rarely explored as well, likely because they were completely sealed in ice. In fact, these islands were even more mysterious than the country of Shengfeng itself.

Indeed, during the time that he had spent with Irene, not once had Saleen's judgement been clouded by lust. Yes, beautiful women had charisma which easily drew the grade-5 mage in, but he was just barely an adult now according to Sikeqinya standards. He had met Sika before he had even become one. Irene and Sika were pretty similar, but it was obvious that Sika's looks stood out more compared to the former's. Saleen did not even react much whenever he interacted with Sika. Now that he was face to face with a female noble whose existence he had not even been aware of, Saleen was not about to let his guard down. He was not going to allow himself to slip up because he was thinking with his nether regions and not his head.

To win the heart of a person like Saleen, the other party would have to spend a lot of time with him in order to even get into his good books. He strongly believed that "love at first sight" was something that only existed in poems. Even then, he thought that the poets who had written them had either been suffering from writer's block or were, simply put, horrible writers. However, to Irene, Saleen looked as if he had already fallen for her charm.

"Irene, I'll go back and get my sailors to retrieve the ship for you. I know you might not have any money with you right now. Just think of it as a loan. If you do return, just pop by and pass me the money," Saleen said with a smile on his face.

Saleen's words had Irene cheering inwardly with glee. Looks like I'm not a complete turn-off after all! Irene thought smugly as she began to notice Saleen's change in attitude towards her.