Badge in Azure

Chapter 317: Reuniting with Aini (Part 1)

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

"Will those monsters from the Holy See return?" Conan asked with trepidation.

"If there are no hiccups, by spring next year, there will be a small group coming in. Within two years, combat vessels from the Holy See will start appearing in the northern seas."

Conan lowered his head and listened attentively to Saleen's words. He did not quite understand what Saleen was saying but he understood that the barbarians had two years at most before they would have to face those monsters again.

Barbarians were not afraid of battle. However, those monsters had the protection of their evil gods while the gods of the barbarians had passed away long ago.

Saleen did not say anything else as he waited quietly for Conan's answer. After a long while, Conan regrouped his thoughts and recounted to Saleen what the Holy See had done in the north.

According to what Conan knew, the Holy See had been active in the north for the past five years at minimum. At the beginning, they had come here to spread their teachings, hoping to develop some devotees from the barbarians. After seeing no results after two years, they had started replacing their people with the black armored warriors from the tribunal.

After that, the massacres began. The range of activity of the barbarians was incredibly large and the tribes were not gathered. The number of people from the Holy See were not numerous at the start, but after progressively closing in on the barbarians, it only took two years for tens of thousands of barbarians to disappear completely from the northern wilderness.

The means of the Holy See were brutal. They did not want children or the elderly, only barbarians who could fight. Usually, after a tribe of barbarians had been cleared out, less than ten survived. Most of the surviving barbarians had escaped because they were not with the tribe at the time. They had been hunting outside and had thus escaped the disaster.

Conan's tribe had a relatively large area of activity and knew the positions of hundreds of tribes within a thousand miles. After three years had passed, none of those hundreds of tribes had been left unattacked.

Saleen analyzed it simply. The northern wilderness was a part of the Myers Mainland that stuck out of its top right corner, and its area was vast. Using this population density, there must have been at least hundreds of thousands of barbarians. A tribe would control a radius of approximately a hundred miles, and they would not have a lot of people, perhaps around one hundred. Such a population density was already lower than that of the Caucasians. It was no wonder that over the years, he had not heard about any major powers in the north.

The barbarians were still living very primitive lives and they were not as willing as the Caucasians to run around and become mercenaries. These were tribes that had nearly been forgotten by the world. The first time they had been remembered by the others, they had encountered such a tragic fate.

The internal workings of the Holy See were split into three factions. The tribunals were one, the oracles were another, and the one which served as the main body was the pivotal council. Capturing barbarians and processing them to become blood knights was something the pivotal council would not do. Back then, the ones who had signed a contract with the three empires had been the pivotal council.

The ones who had sent the missionaries must have been the oracles.

The seven oracles from the Holy See had special devotees. They went about their business furtively, and when it came to processing blood knights, they could avert their eyes. The powers of the oracles must have noticed that their efforts were hopeless and had called upon people from the tribunal.

According to Conan's description, regarding the barbarians that the tribunal captured, they had to kill two to be able to catch one. The losses of the tribunal were immense as well. However, after one year of battle, the situation turned around completely as the tribunal brought a large number of holy masters with them. The number of black armored warriors who died decreased. The barbarians no longer had the option of giving up sacrifices, and all who were hurt did not receive any aid.

If there were around one hundred and fifty thousand barbarians, the Holy See would be able to capture fifty thousand of them. These fifty thousand people could be processed into blood knights and would make up five groups of knights.

Five groups of knights all at the grade of a swordmaster would indeed be a scary force. Even if they did not attack cities, they could still cause unimaginable destruction in the wild.

The swordsmen in Lex's Bitter Water Prefecture camp were considered elite, and after ten years of nurturing, the ratio of swordmasters to swordsmen was one to four. In other words, out of ten warriors, two of them were swordmasters.

However, this had taken Lex ten years and these elites barely formed a camp. There were ten thousand people, and two thousand of them were swordmasters. The Holy See had been hunting down the barbarians for over three years and had been able to create a force that was twenty times greater than that of the Bitter Water Prefecture. If the two were to engage in a battle, Lex's swordsmen camp would be annihilated.

Of course, Lex still had many low-grade mages with her, but the Holy See had a large number of holy masters and ascetics as well. These people had the same powers as mages in the divine skills given to them by the gods. Perhaps with the mages, the swordsmen with Lex would be able to fight one against two. However, the enemy had twenty times their strength and this was something that could not be solved with mages.

Looking at the timeline, the tribunal began capturing barbarians around when the black mages appeared. Saleen suspected that the tribunal must have had something to do with the black mages, and had used them to divert attention so that people would not notice what was happening in the northern wilderness. The problem was, how had the tribunal brought over fifty thousand barbarians back to the Tanggulasi Empire?

Could the grand duke of Phoenix Duchy have been involved in this? If that was true, then many people from the Holy See could be lurking within the borders of Phoenix Duchy. Once the situation on the western front grew tense, these hidden powers would attack from the north. What was worse was that the blood knights could already be inside of Phoenix Duchy.

The new grand duke of Phoenix Duchy was still in Holy Rock City, and he would not go back no matter what. The entirety of Phoenix Duchy was being held up by the wealthy within.

Saleen's suspicions were not without reason. The appearance of the black mages seemed to come and go and were being suppressed by the wealthy within Phoenix Duchy. With the current powers of Phoenix, if the black mages were really to revive and were adequately prepared, then without the help of the Qin Empire, the wealthy could not defeat such a large number of black mages.

If such a thing happened in Phoenix Duchy, Saleen's new city would be in danger. Phoenix was less than two thousand miles from here and it would take the blood knights two days at most to make their way here.

If Saleen's city had been built, he definitely would not have been afraid of them. However, even his city walls had not been built, much less the defensive magic towers. If the blood knights attacked before the city was built, Saleen would not be able to hold down the fort even with the magic cannon.

What was worse, if Lex brought back a large number of men and horses, she would need to pass through Phoenix Duchy. She was not aware of the danger there, and if his predictions were true, there was a possibility that Lex's army would be completely wiped out.

"Master Saleen, I will have the elders contact the survivors of the other tribes." Conan was determined. Within the city that Saleen was building, the barbarians were leading fairly good lives. They were no longer freezing and hungry, and the remaining things they did were things that they were familiar with: hunting, fighting, and training.

"You…go." Saleen was a little dejected.

After Conan left, Nailisi asked, "Master, should we send someone to Bitter Water Prefecture?"

"There is no time. Lex might already be in the Caucasus region. Moreover, there aren't any teleportation portals in Bitter Water Prefecture. Finding Lex will be nearly impossible."

"Then wait at the borders of Phoenix. There are only two or three routes into Phoenix anyways."

"I don't have anybody I can send." For the first time, Saleen had a long face. He did not have anything from his past and had no roots. Whenever he met with trouble, he would simply escape. Now that he had a city behind him, this was the city his teacher had entrusted him to build, and he could no longer run away.

Of the three combat vessels that Jason had given Saleen, one-third of the manpower remained. Lex had taken a third of them with her while Pasatilo and Kanuka had taken another third. If he were to send out the remaining third, the construction of this city would need to stop. He obviously could not send the pirates to Phoenix, and Saleen still did not trust them.

Moreover, if he were to reassign the people here, what would happen with the three kings and the spirits? Once Saleen was knocked off of his feet, this place would belong to the three kings, and all of his teacher's painstaking plans would be for naught.

"What about Daniel?" Nailisi brought up the death mage, and Saleen could only shake his head.

"Daniel is following me honestly now, but his grade is too low. Moreover, we need at least three people to go to Phoenix. Only then can we seal all of its exits."

Nailisi had no idea what to do either. The winged skeleton controlled the pan's turtle alchemical boat and could not leave, and she needed to protect Saleen and could not leave either. Besides her, Saleen only had four grade-3 mages with skills similar to those of Daniel. Once they were sent away, Saleen would have no one else to command.

"No wonder those legendary mages had so many followers at their sides. Sigh…" Saleen sighed repeatedly. He did not lack money or materials. Now, he lacked manpower.

"Master, actually, the Holy See might not think of a way to deal with you immediately. Why don't we shift their sights…"

"How will we shift them?"

"There are many credible mercenaries in Sikeqinya. We can hire a group of them to go to Phoenix. If the Holy See really are hiding powers there, we can easily cause trouble that cannot be covered up. Lex will naturally be cautious."

"Once the number of mercenaries exceeds a certain number, they cannot enter another country freely. Even though Phoenix is only a duchy, it belongs to the Qin Empire and they will not allow a large number of mercenaries to enter. If the number is too small, it will not have an effect either. Lex is a viscountess of the Qin Empire. If she wanted to cross the border with her soldiers, nobody would dare stop her with the grand duke not around. It isn't the same for mercenaries."

Saleen had just been thinking hard when there was a knock on the door.

"Come in," Saleen said. A magic disciple entered Saleen's temple and said, "Master Saleen, Pasatilo and the others have returned."

"They are back?" Saleen was overjoyed. Just as he had been worrying that he lacked manpower, Pasatilo and Kanuka had returned. Just his luck! "Bring me to see them!"

"Saleen, you're in such a rush to see me?" A familiar yet strange voice appeared from the doorway.

"Aini?"

"It's me. I hadn't imagined that you'd remember me. Sending someone from so far away to fetch me - I didn't become friends with you for nothing," Aini said, as he pushed open the front door and walked in.