Badge in Azure

Chapter 327: Acquisition of Deep Forest Town (Part 1)

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

As the sun gradually rose and brought forth a new day, the pirates who for some reason had decided to wake up earlier instantly panicked upon seeing the bloodstains. Chaos ensued shortly. Instead of Saleen, Daniel stepped out of his tent and started to use his magic to hold the pirates back.

By now, everybody knew that the bloodstains belonged to those who had left their guard-posts without Saleen's permission. They also knew that Saleen was the one who had ordered their deaths. Some of the pirates, who had treated this journey as some leisurely hunt, started shivering in fear. Saleen had always been a peaceful fellow, and they rarely saw him angry. It dawned upon the remaining pirates that one should never treat the words of a mage lightly.

The three kings did not feel that Saleen was too inhumane for ordering the execution of these pirates. Over in the death dimension, insubordination was simply intolerable. Just a little blunder could endanger the death flames. Killing the pirates but setting their souls free was the most merciful punishment that the three kings could think of.

The group journeyed from camp once again. The pirates marched in a much neater formation, as if they were soldiers forging their way ahead in search for any signs of danger. In reality, it was nearly impossible to encounter any robbers along the way to Phoenix Duchy. What kind of bandit gang would choose a place like this to commit robbery? The freezing cold aside, even during the summer, there would not be any merchants travelling through this path. There had not been any for the past one hundred and eighty years.

As for magic beasts, there would not be any of them for miles ahead unless they travelled much farther north. Any place within two thousand miles north of Phoenix would not be filled with magic beasts which were too powerful. That was because the sheer number of magic wolves crowded out the more powerful magical monsters. The good thing was that magic wolves were scared of skeletal warhorses, and they were not about to provoke a huge group of them. Thus, Saleen's team would most likely not meet with any problems along the way to Phoenix.

Over on the Myers Mainland, even though swordmasters depended on their capabilities to fight, numbers played a role too. In the event that a hundred swordsmen were up against a little over a dozen swordmasters, it was not difficult to assume that the swordsmen would have an advantage. Saleen's team was one of the stronger groups. However, even if the mages were to sit there and do nothing in the face of danger, the sheer number of pirates would give an added advantage to Saleen's team when faced with other adventurers who could be a little hostile.

A typical adventurers squad would consist of ten to twelve people. Out of those ten to twelve people, only two or three of them would be swordmasters. Back then, Canghong's squad had simply been too powerful. Who on earth would have gathered so many mages to go adventuring?

Saleen's squad continued marching solemnly for a week before arriving at the fringe of the forest where Dead Forest Town was, as per the schedule. The pirates already had an idea of who had killed off their companions, and could not help but bear a little resentment towards Gurney. However, since Gurney had Saleen behind him, the pirates could do nothing but endure it.

Aini had started to respect Saleen more and more. There was no rewind button for Gurney to press. After killing off his friends, Gurney could only pledge his loyalty to Saleen until the day he died. Anyone else who heard about what Gurney had done would shun him, and no one would even bother using him like Saleen was.

There were over a hundred of these pirates still remaining. With so many pirates donned in full armor and making their way out of Phoenix on skeletal horses, it would have been hard for the local noblemen not to notice. However, the Grand Duke of Phoenix was not around to back them up, and Saleen had the badge of Bitter Water Prefecture that Lex had oh so kindly given him. Having been given the right to lead so many soldiers, three of which were mages, the local noblemen knew not to mess with him. If it had been Daniel though, a select few noblemen would have dared to confront him.

Daniel had managed to break past the limits of grade-3 and had been successfully promoted to a true grade-4 mage. Noblemen below the rank of an earl would be courting death if they ever thought about provoking Daniel. Even if Daniel did not have diplomatic immunity, Saleen did, and that was all they needed.

Deep Forest Town belonged solely to a first-class baron. Saleen's arrival, along with his troops, had startled the baron into thinking that his town was being invaded. His town did not have any mercenaries or adventurers during this time of year. Hiring them to fight for him, especially on such short notice, was next to impossible. He only had a dozen swordsmen under his command, plus a group of farmers, if that could even be considered an army. The point was that there was no way the male baron would be able to repel Saleen's troops.

As soon as the male baron realized that Saleen was an archmage who had brought even more archmages with him, he decided not to put up a fight. Instead, he brought two people along with him and requested to see Saleen. He had thought everything out. If Saleen were to seize the town from him, he would bring his family and flee to Bitter Water Prefecture since his position was recognized there. If he really could not go anywhere else, he would be like the grand duke and stay there forever.

Even though it was hard to secure a royal position over in the Qin Empire, as long as he could prove that he had inherited his earl rank, the royal family would spare no expense to care for the male baron. That was, unless he had committed some heinous crime, of course. In fact, if the Qin royal family were feeling generous, they could even give him a new plot of land to call his own.

Chanake the Great had used this method to get many noblemen to pledge their loyalty to him. Until now, Safilos had still been unsuccessful in his attempts to replace Chanake the Great. He meant so much to the local noblemen that nothing could get them to revolt against him.

Saleen had so many people accompanying him that his group took up half the street leading to the hotel that the male baron was in. The good thing was that the hotel was empty because there were no adventurers who needed a place to stay during this time of year. Who would go hunting when it was freezing outside? Of course, even if the hotel had been bustling with people, a room would have immediately been made available for Saleen.

No adventurer would risk their lives to fight someone stronger than them over a room. These stories might have happened in fictional books, but definitely not in reality.

As the male baron stood nervously outside of Saleen's room, he prepared himself for the worst-case scenario. The fact that the mage inside the room had not responded to the gift that he had gotten people to send up to him made him even more anxious. The male baron knew that if the other party wanted his town, he would not be able to fight back. But the mage inside still hasn't said anything yet. Does he want to kill me? The male baron thought as he felt giddy with fear.

The reason why Saleen had not bothered to respond was because he had been chatting with Aini the entire time. In fact, he had forgotten about the male baron standing outside. He appreciated the male baron's gesture, but at the same time, he was a bit disappointed that the male baron had not put up more resistance.

"Aini, I heard that Qins are known to be some of the most courageous people around. How can this male baron give up his territory just like that?" Saleen questioned, his mind overwhelmed with emotions, mostly that of worry. If all Qins were like this, the Holy See would flatten the Qin Empire after bringing Loulan to its knees in no time. In fact, Saleen would not even have the two years that he had estimated earlier on. The Holy See's forces would reach his city in half that time.

Aini scoffed and said condescendingly, "Do you think that the people of Phoenix can be considered Qins? They're the lousiest people I've ever met. They don't have a single redeemable bone in their bodies. All those cities in the south… tell me… is any one of them like Phoenix?"

Saleen pondered Aini's question for a while before he realized that the other was right. The Grand Duke of Pompeii's decisiveness and callousness had left him unnerved to this day. That was back when he and Lex had nearly been captured over in Pompeii. Saleen still could not believe that the grand duke would viciously order the execution of a high-ranking viscountess. Even though the grand duke had not succeeded in the end, he had still managed to usurp control over Dragon's Tooth Town as a result of this incident.

Make no mistake, the Qin noblemen were very aggressive. The fact that their private armies could hold their own against the Holy See's forces over at Loulan meant that aside from the fact that Chanake the Great's death had demoralized some of the Qins, the Qin noblemen's battle skills were far stronger than that of the Sikeqinyan noblemen.

"Since the male baron is not going to put up a fight, we will save a lot of time," Saleen said lazily.

"You're going to snatch the town from him?" Aini asked, shocked that Saleen would even consider such a thing. Even though Aini had no qualms about killing off the male baron, he would only do so if his life was threatened and he had no other choice. If Saleen were to start fighting here, it would anger Holy Rock City. Even though the Grand Duke of Phoenix was a coward, the people on his side over in Holy Rock City would be able to convince his easily persuaded mind to spend a little money and deploy armed forces to attack Saleen's troops.

The Clyde family was good with business, not battle.

"Who said anything about snatching? I'm going to buy this town from the baron," Saleen said lazily.

"But… this territory… his ancestors gave this plot of land to him…" Aini stuttered.

"Tell him to look for Viscountess Lex. There's so much land over in the north, we'll just give him a bigger piece of it! Aini, would you like to be the baron here?" Saleen asked.

"Baron? Are you kidding me? I'm a mage!" Aini exclaimed.

"Oh Aini… you've changed," Saleen sighed upon seeing how afraid Aini was to take on new challenges. The Aini that he remembered was decisive, ruthless, and a risk-taker. The Aini now was of course more experienced, but also more prudent and unwilling to step out of his boundaries.

"I… need to settle my parents first. They've done too much for me," Aini said seriously, rendering Saleen speechless. The latter reckoned that if his parents were still around, he would probably have had the same views as Aini.

After Aini's statement, an awkward silence filled the entire room. The male baron who had been waiting outside the entire time was sweating from nervousness even though it was a very cold day. The people inside the room would determine his fate. Yet, the same people had already forgotten about his existence.

"Hey, I'm a fair businessman. All I'm going to do is have him sign a contract. Lex is coming back soon. We'll give him another plot of land over in the north. Well, I can't guarantee that it'll be bigger, but oh well, we'll try our best. Plus, it's not like the land over there can't produce any grain or whatever. I'm not committing daylight robbery, if that's what you're implying," Saleen told Aini smugly.

Aini thought about it for a while before gritting out a reply, "Fine. I'm in on this plan. The Grand Duke of Phoenix won't dare to do anything against two archmages, even if he is instigated to do so by the people around him."

"Glad we're on the same page. The royal mages will have Lex's back too. But don't tell that to anyone else. Just remember it for when you need it," Saleen cautioned Aini. Even if the Grand Duke of Phoenix really did want to send his troops to seize back control of Deep Forest Town, it was almost impossible to gather any mages at this time of year. An army, without the backing of any mage, would be easy to wipe out, meaning that Lex would not have too worry too much about them.

Aini was smart enough to immediately understand what Saleen meant.

"Eh, I think the male baron is still outside waiting for us!" Saleen exclaimed, suddenly remembering his existence.

"What? I thought you left him outside to scare him!" Aini replied.

Saleen did not know whether to laugh or cry in response. Even though he could look and play the part of someone in power, he was barely an adult. He had not experienced what it was like to be viewed by other people and have them form opinions about him. He had known that the male baron was still waiting outside. He would not dare to leave unless Saleen said he could. Saleen was very certain of that.

"Poor thing. Let's invite him in, shall we?" Saleen said before he raised his voice and continued, "Please come in." As he said those three words, he scattered the clouds that had been formed as a result of the Quickcloud spell.

Just a simple three-word sentence caused the male baron to let out a gasp that he did not even realize he had been holding. All that nervousness and fear brought about by the wait was so unbearable that the male baron thought death was a better option. Had he waited any longer, he might just have gone crazy.

The door opened with a slight creak, causing both archmages to look towards the door at the same time to see what the other party looked like. The first thing that they saw though was neither his facial nor bodily features. It was the fact that his entire face was covered in sweat. The middle-aged man looked to be quite plump and was dressed for the occasion. In fact, his attire was flashier and gaudier than the clothes that actors would normally wear on stage. His golden fringe was stuck to his eyebrows as a result of his excessive sweat. The only thing missing from the male baron's outfit was his saber.

Qin males were allowed to have some sort of sword with them. In fact, the noblemen took pride in carrying these types of weapons with them everywhere they went. It was a symbol of honor and glory, at least to them. However, since the male baron was going to see the two mages, he had not dared to bring any pointy weapons with him. He knew that mages hated swords.