Badge in Azure

Chapter 328: Acquisition of Deep Forest Town (Part 2)

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

"Hello…" Saleen called out to the male baron once again, leaving the latter at a loss for what to do. The most powerful mage that he had ever met was merely a grade-3 mage, and that was back when a larger than average adventurer squad had decided to go through Deep Forest Town in order to get to the Chaotic Swamp. Now that he was face to face with two grade-5 mages, the male baron, who was too nervous to speak, did not respond to Saleen. Who could blame him though? The poor guy's face was as red as a tomato.

"Don't you recognize me, Piac?" Aini broke the awkward silence filling the room. If the male baron continued standing there like a block of wood, it was possible that Saleen would grow angry at his questions going unanswered. Saleen was considered quite an important figure now. He was not only the most prestigious mage back in Bitter Water Prefecture, but he also possessed experience over on Sregl Island.

"Young Master Aini!" Piac exclaimed as soon as he recognized the grade-5 mage in front of him. The last time Aini had come by this town, Piac had ensured that he was well-cared for since Aini was the direct descendant of an earl's clan. Now that he knew that Aini was one of the two mages that would determine his fate, the male baron felt as if a weight had been lifted off of his chest. Surely he would not forget how well I treated him? The male baron thought merrily to himself.

As soon as Saleen saw the male baron's face light up with happiness, he grunted lightly, causing Piac to instantly wipe that gleeful look off his face. Looks like it's the guy with black hair who calls the shots, Piac thought in despair.

"Master Mage… do you have anything you want to tell me… since you've summoned me?" Piac said as he treaded through his words as carefully as possible, while at the same time sounding diplomatic. He was considered the highest-ranking nobleman in this area. To be forced to act subservient to someone else was highly embarrassing to him. He felt that by saying that one sentence alone, he had discarded every ounce of dignity that he had in his body.

"I did not ask for you. You came to me," Saleen said as he suppressed a laugh. Am I so scary? the grade-5 mage thought in amusement.

Stunned, Piac stood there for a solid minute as he tried to process Saleen's words. The latter was not wrong - Saleen indeed had not summoned him. It was he who had taken the initiative to communicate with Saleen for fear that something bad might happen to him. His gaze travelled to the gift box that sat prettily on the table, unopened. The mage had not bothered to open his gift. The gold-encrusted gift box had not even caught Saleen's fancy. In fact, the grade-5 mage could not have cared less about the contents of the box.

"So… what brings you to Deep Forest Town?" Piac mustered up his courage to utter this sentence.

Saleen smiled as he formulated a speech in his mind. The more he remained silent, the more fearful Piac became. However, Saleen had absolutely no intention of scaring the male baron. The latter was just being overly paranoid.

"Do you know about Bitter Water Prefecture, my dear baron?" Saleen asked.

"Yes! Yes! I deeply respect and admire Viscountess Lex," Piac gushed.

Seeing that Piac had even dared to mention Lex's name, Saleen thought in displeasure, Don't you think Lex is way out of your league? However, he was not going to be to get angry over this trivial matter. Instead, he played along and asked, "Piac, since you admire Viscountess Lex so much, why don't you woo her?"

"Woo… Viscountess Lex?" Piac asked, his face practically radiating delight. The fear of getting killed instantly vanished from the crevices of his mind. What replaced it though were the pros and cons of undertaking Saleen's proposal. Even though being the Grand Duke of Phoenix's follower did not bring him many prospects, he did not have to risk his life in order to maintain his current position. He had heard that Bitter Water Prefecture was surrounded by the impenetrable forces of Holy Rock City. There was no way that he could even get to her. An unimportant nobleman, who had never even dreamed of getting involved with the strong and the powerful, was now unable to formulate a reply in response to the sudden question thrown at him.

But what if I refuse? Piac thought. It was not just an ordinary request. It was a request from a grade-5 mage, and a mage with over a hundred powerful swordsmen at that. Each and every one of those swordsmen had brought along with them skeletal warhorses, creatures which only appeared in legends. Although Saleen's troops might have been considered weak over in the Qin Empire, his forces were definitely enough to kill the male baron and his men a dozen times over.

Piac was also unsure if the mage in front of him was truly sincere about letting him pursue Viscountess Lex. Who knew? Maybe Saleen wanted to snatch Deep Forest Town from right from under his nose, and this was just a way to lessen the blow or something? Even if he did give Deep Forest Town up, his future days would be filled with hardship. What was even worse about giving up his town was that there were no takebacks. The Grand Duke of Phoenix was not going to come back and make the decision for him.

"I don't really understand, Master Mage…" Piac said, trailing off at the end.

"Let me cut to the chase. I want Deep Forest Town. Since Aini has vouched for your character, I'll give you an option instead of simply taking your land. Quote me a price. If it's too high, I'll speak to the Grand Duke of Phoenix himself. If I find that the price is right, I'll make you one of Viscountess Lex's men," Saleen said.

Besides the acquisition of Deep Forest Town, Saleen did not want to talk about anything else with Piac. Deep Forest Town was not considered big. There were only slightly over ten streets here. If not for the fact that the Chaotic Swamp was close by, no adventurer or mercenary would even bother coming here. Piac did not seem to be someone of a higher status than a second-class baron. Saleen's desire to acquire Deep Forest Town had demonstrated his foresight and ability to think ahead. Once he entered the Chaotic Swamp from here, he would be entering Sikeqinya's secret tunnel as well. The secret tunnel was wide enough for a huge number of soldiers to march through. Once the Qin Empire became implicated in battle, he would be able to deploy his soldiers to march from Deep Forest Town and attack the enemy from behind.

All Saleen needed to do now was force a contractual bond with the three kings. Only then would he have enough skeletal warhorses to actually make it out of Chaotic Swamp. After all, the journey through the Chaotic Swamp was not just a one-day trip. The only problem now was that there were all sorts of powerful magic beasts over at the Chaotic Swamp. To emerge from the Chaotic Swamp in one piece, he needed at least one sorcerer. If he could resolve the issue regarding the three kings, the Chaotic Swamp would not be an insurmountable hurdle.

"Master Mage, my father left this town to me…" Piac said, seeing that Saleen truly did not want to kill him.

Seeing that the male baron had the nerve to negotiate with him, Saleen replied curtly, "Yes, I know how much this plot of land means to you. But don't you want a plot of land to pass down to your son?"

Piac was instantly stunned into silence. Saleen was not one to negotiate. That, he understood now. What Saleen was implying was that if he died, he would not be able to leave anything to his children. Worse, if he killed his son as well, who would he pass his title down to?

"What about Holy Rock City?" Piac asked. He was standing between the devil and the deep blue sea now. He could not afford to provoke Saleen's wrath. Yet, if he chose to be Lex's follower, the supreme court over in Holy Rock City might just relinquish his title.

"The viscountess has the right to reinstate your position. What's there to worry about?" Saleen asked dismissively.

Piac's face blanched with fear at the thought of being forced to move his entire family to Bitter Water Prefecture. He had heard through the grapevine that it was a barren, infertile place where nothing grew.

"How much land do you have here, Piac?" Saleen asked. He did not care whether the male baron agreed to his proposal. He was going to take his land no matter what, and he needed to take it now. He could not wait until the Holy See's forces came knocking on his door before he started remodelling the entire town. The Holy See already had five, maybe six blood knight troops. As of now, Saleen had not heard about anyone from Holy Rock City successfully creating a single war puppet. These blood knights feared nothing aside from mages.

Even though there were many mages over in the Qin Empire, there was no way Saleen could form an army consisting of only mages to deal with the blood knights. Doing so would wipe out at least half of the Qin reserves in one battle alone.

Piac's face contorted with nervousness. He might have been able to lie to everyone else about the size of his land, but he had heard somewhere that archmages had the ability to see through lies. Thus, he replied with his voice barely above a whisper, "Sixty square miles, Master Mage."

"Oh? That's an illegally large plot of land you've got there, buddy. You have guts, I'll give you that," Saleen said as he smiled. When Piac said sixty square miles, he had meant that his land was about sixty miles long and probably more than one mile wide. Who knew whether he was telling the truth or rounding down the figures. Even if his land was exactly one mile in width, the amount of land that he possessed right now was well over the legal limit.

The Qin Empire barred noblemen from merging their lands together. A first-class male baron was only allowed to have ten square miles of land, according to the law. Saleen guessed that the reason why so many noblemen had plots of land larger than the legal limit was because the Grand Duke of Phoenix had been too lax with law enforcement. Now that he knew about Piac's little secret, the latter would have no choice but to sell Deep Forest Town to him.

While other people might have simply let it slide on account of the Phoenix clan as well as the combined might, influence, and power of the Duchy noblemen, Saleen could not have cared less. Why would he be scared of those wimps when he was part of Bitter Water Prefecture?

Piac stood there silently. As much as he wanted to kneel on the ground and beg for mercy, his legs were rooted to the ground like a deer in headlights. He could not seem to bend them over.

"Tell you what, Piac. Since you like land so much, let me make the decision for you. I can get the viscountess to give you double the land as compensation. How about that?" Saleen said.

"I would not dare accept this!" Piac said as he shook his head frantically. The only reason why he was okay with giving up Deep Forest Town was because he still had some land. Now that the issue of land size had been brought up, technically speaking, being gifted double the land he had now would mean that he would have an expanse of land befitting of a first-class earl. Even if he had this much land over in the Tanggulassi Empire, he would not have dared to talk openly about it.

"Don't think too much about it. We have started reclaiming land over in the north. In fact, it won't be long until the new city is completed. We will need the support of more noblemen then. Since you're the first to pledge your loyalty to us, giving you more benefits won't be considered stepping out of line. In fact, if you show us that you're good enough, your son might become a viscount one day," Saleen said. Now that he was done scaring Piac, Saleen was trying to bait him into accepting his offer instead.

A viscount was someone with a lot of power. In fact, a viscount had even more power than the Grand Duke of Phoenix, as the former even had the authority to reward someone with the rank of an earl. Thus, having Lex promote Piac's son to the rank of a viscount was probably not a very hard task. Like Saleen said, the most loyal followers would always get more benefits compared to the others.

Plus, out of the fifteen royal positions in the empire, a third-class viscount was considered one of the lower-class nobles. The reason why Saleen was able to make a decision on Lex's behalf was because he was certain that Lex would not mind offering such a lowly position to Piac's son.

Both Lex and Saleen's original intentions were to work together and bring down the Phoenix Duchy's noblemen while the Grand Duke of Phoenix was still lounging in Holy Rock City. Piac was their first target. Saleen just had not expected everything to go so smoothly.

"Just agree to it, Piac. If you don't, you'll never have the chance again," Aini piped up, taking pity on the male baron. Even though he had come from a royal background, it was still the first time he had seen someone force a nobleman to submit. His family would never do something like that. The Clyde family would only bait people with benefits. Never would they resort to violence.

"Young Master Aini… I'll… I'll agree to it…" Piac stuttered as he tried - but failed miserably - to tear his gaze away from Saleen's crystal-blue eyes.

Saleen smiled before he replied, "Good. I'll be here for three days. Go get the deed to your land. We'll sign a contract then. If I can't offer you double the land like what I've promised you, I won't touch your town. If I can't offer you a position equivalent to or higher than your current rank, this land will remain yours as well."

Piac heaved a sigh of relief upon hearing Saleen's words. The amount of conviction in the latter's words made Piac believe that Saleen was not lying. Furthermore, he had never heard of any archmages going back on their word. Since everything would be in writing, he would not be getting the short end of the stick. However, he wondered if the land over in the northern part of Phoenix was even arable in the first place.

After dismissing Piac, Saleen and Aini glanced at each other before bursting into laughter. Since both of them were still young and immature, witnessing how embarrassingly poor Piac had conducted himself brought tears of laughter into their eyes. If Piac had put up more of a fight, Saleen would have been in trouble. He could not simply kill Piac off here. Lex was still based in the Bitter Water Prefecture. Even if the new city was completed, it would never take the Bitter Water Prefecture's place. The new city was not located too far away from Holy Rock City. Once the houses were angered, even Lex would not be able to contain the situation.