The Rise of the Black Plain

Two more weeks passed...

After leaving the territory of the Holy Sect, Minos and his wives traveled throughout much of the Flaming Empire.

During this period, they had made several deals concerning other spiritual professions besides that of spiritual judges which they had purchased techniques from the headquarters city of that sect.

With this, they had gotten new orders of original techniques and Silver-grade copies to take back to the Black Plain when they returned from this business trip.

But they were still missing more than half of the techniques they intended to buy or order in this state since, most of them, they could only get in the capital or the Gray Clouds Sect.

Thus, during the past few weeks, they still had not settled all the deals regarding techniques in this state, even though they had practically crossed half the Empire.

But in addition to getting closer to their goals in this period, they took the opportunity to get to know many places in the Flaming Empire while training their skills.

Because of this, Minos was already at the peak of level 61, a few weeks from his advancement to level 62.

As for his wives, they kept pushing themselves as hard or harder than he did, but no one had advanced in this period since they were further away from such an opportunity.

Only Kyla had made a breakthrough in these days since their departure from the Holy Sect, having reached level 58 last week.

At last, after months of travel, they were finally in the vicinity of the capital of the Flaming Empire, one of the most important stopping points of their journey!

...

"Minos, how do you think the families of Vogel are dealing with that thing?" Gloria asked her husband as she and her group stood on the back of Maida, seeing a large city kilometers ahead of them.

Their group had been exchanging information with the Black Plain about the negotiations in Vogel, so they knew that Elen was already there to deal with their plans.

Since this was their big move, which could put them at the continental experts' table, Gloria was very curious about their chances.

Minos looked at his third wife and then answered her. "I am positive about that matter. Those families of Vogel will probably have some resistance to us, but eventually, they will accept..."

"They have no better alternative, after all." He smiled, considering the vulnerable position that state was in after his brief stint there.

"So how long until we are chosen as the royalty of Vogel?" Abby asked while hugging Minos' left arm.

"That I don't know..." He sincerely said. "It depends on the Spiritual Church. They are the ones who will decide when they will leave that state. But, on the other hand, it will take a few months before we finish our business here in the Empire. So, it might take more than a year."

"And what happens in the meantime? What if the Flaming Empire decides to start a war in the meantime?" The beautiful blue-haired woman pressed the issue.

Gloria then said. "Just because the Church is taking over Vogel doesn't mean that the powers of that state are obliged to stay away from a possible war."

The royal families of Vogel's three allied states against the Flaming Empire were not counting on the help of these Vogel organizations because of the absence of centralizing power and ally of theirs.

With Vogel's current position, the normal thing to expect from the local families would be for them to hide or join together in factions in the struggle for power in that state. Thus, there was no way those states could count on the help of those powers.

However, if those families decided to support them, even without a centralizing figure in Vogel, they could have much more help in an eventual war against the Flaming Empire!

Minos then completed Gloria's speech. "If we can at least get a verbal agreement with the families of Vogel, then those organizations could join with Blackrock, Rosser, and Albano to intimidate the empire..."

"Maybe that will be enough to delay an eventual war." He said, pondering the many possibilities ahead of them. "After that, we'll see how to deal with the problems of becoming the royalty of that place."

Abby understood all this and continued thinking about it as she watched the capital of the Empire get closer and closer to them.

"Minos, what do you intend to do about that Church Spiritual Sage? Are we going to look for him at the local post?" Ruth asked as she remembered the information they had received over the past few weeks.

During the more than two months since their departure from the territory of the Holy Sect, they had taken the opportunity to make more 'friends' in Church posts scattered throughout the Flaming Empire.

Because of this and their allies in Vogel, who had luckily survived the day of that former royal family's escape, their group had discovered that the Spiritual Sage taking over that state wanted to talk to him.

Minos then answered Ruth. "No, let him find us on his own. I have no interest in letting him get in the way of our affairs."

Minos and his group had not followed Sibley's advice to hide their identities during their travels throughout the Empire. Because of this, it would be pretty difficult for that Spiritual Sage or others in the Church to associate them with the people who had caused Vogel's downfall.

It was not impossible, and Minos knew that such an individual could eventually find them. But he would not make this person's job any easier, even considering there should be no significant problems in talking to a Cardinal.

'It is best to avoid associating the figure of the King of the Black Plain with that of Pyke...' He thought, considering that such a thing might harm his request for the Stuart family to participate in the royal succession of Vogel.

Anyway, while they were talking about it, it did not take long for Maida to slowly make her way to the ground, planning to land outside the Empire's capital.

Minos planned not to use the Spatial Kingdom within that place, so he wanted to take the opportunity to send Maida to stay in that place alongside Kyla.

With that, after he sent that giant tigress to the Spatial Kingdom, Minos and his wives flew to that city, following the lead of Gloria, who was leading them toward the Temple of Payton.

They had a lot of business to attend to locally, but they would start with the family affairs of the group, namely, Minos meeting the family of his beautiful third wife!

As for Ruth, her family was at the headquarters of the Gray Clouds Sect in the far southeast of the Flaming Empire. Hence, it would still be a few months before Minos would have the opportunity to meet most of her family and revisit a person who had played a trick on him years ago...

With that, while Gloria was breathing hurriedly, feeling anxious, Minos was sighing, trying to prepare himself to see his mother-in-law again and meet his father-in-law.

'Sigh...'

'I wonder what they will try to demand from me? Or will they fully respect my agreement and pretend to be normal parents?' Minos wondered what the next few minutes would be like as he observed the surroundings of this city, the most beautiful he had ever been.

That was also the strongest place he personally saw, filled with low-level Spiritual Saints, where he could even feel the aura of level 79 individuals.

'Flaming Empire, huh? That must be the power that sustains this state against four high-level kingdoms...'