Badge in Azure

Su had a youthful face, but his technique of maintaining his balance while using his finger to release the Sword Aura and break the table had stunned that beautiful middle-aged lady.

Su glared at that middle-aged lady icily, then continued, “Even an assassin doesn’t dare boast before me. If you try anything funny, no one here shall think of leaving this place alive!”

“Su…” Saleen coughed gently.

“Sir.”

“Forget it, why argue with her, just let her leave.” Saleen was of course a person who would not stomach an insult. Since that woman had allowed him to leave, he would also use the same tone to chase her away. If she did not leave Su would really take action.

Su could tell that this woman was an assassin and Saleen was still very guarded against assassins. One who concealed their own identity especially. This woman was definitely at a lower grade than Su. If Su was willing he could indeed slaughter everyone in this house.

Su came from a large family on the subcontinent plane and he was still a direct descendant of the first son. A person like him was most sensitive to assassins. Even though the middle-aged lady veiled her identity very well she could not deceive a Silver Grand Swordmaster who had fought with assassins for many years.

Since she was an assassin Su would chase her away unceremoniously. Saleen might not be afraid of allowing an assassin to stay beside a mage, he still had many tricks up his sleeve and there was still a Narnia around.

Narnia’s combat experience was limited. Even though she was a grade-5 mage she would be at risk dealing with an assassin around her grade. Su did not mind getting rid of this threat before it developed into something worse.

“Aini!” That little girl furrowed her brow.

Aini waved his hand, then pointed to Su and said, “He is not my subordinate. I cannot do anything either, your men were the one who tried to chase other people away first.”

The girl was helpless, then she said, “Auntie, please leave the room.”

That beautiful middle-aged lady stood up silently and left the room. She was really afraid that the youth would try to harm her. If an assassin did not approach their targets stealthily, this youth could basically kill her in a second with just one hit.

“Why did you call me over?” Aini did not want to bother himself with the assassin. With Su around no one would try to be hard on him. Aini could not help but envy Saleen’s fortune, “Never mind if he has one Silver Grand Swordmaster, he actually managed to recruit two Silver Grand Swordmasters. The newest one is still younger than the previous one. If these two Silver Grand Swordmasters were following other people, they could defend a city already.”

“Aini, why don’t you introduce him?” The girl asked as she pointed at Saleen.

“My friend, Saleen.”

“Mage Saleen, my name is Sharman, nice to meet you.” The girl was very courteous to Saleen. “Who allowed a white-robed mage to follow a Silver Grand Swordmaster? It is simply atrocious.” Sharman regarded Saleen as a descendant of some powerful family, not some kind of wastrel. “How powerful is his family such that they had to pair him up with a Silver Grand Swordmaster?”

Even though Su did not reveal his identity, Sharman was a Zun Grand Swordmaster herself, so she could decipher Su’s actual ability.

“Pleasure meeting you,” Saleen answered politely.

“Aini, someone is following us,” Sharman said worriedly, she did not continue exchanging pleasantries.

“I know.” Aini smiled slyly. With a demon like Cuisi around it was impossible not to know that someone was following the convoy. With Cuisi’s warning he and Saleen had known long ago that someone was stalking them.

“Humph, the goods we are bringing along this time are very valuable. Aini, something is wrong with this town, I think they will take action at night.”

Sharman’s power was very strong especially since she was younger than Su. Once she reached Su’s age, she might have become a Black Metal Grand Swordmaster already, which was an extremely odd-defying feat. As for Su, he had been trained in the harsh combat environment of the subcontinent plane. The support of his family, coupled with talent, enabled him to advance to a Silver Grand Swordmaster.

“You are afraid of the bandits committing arson right?” Aini was not unfamiliar with Sharman, it was just that Sharman was still a child and he had no friendship with her. The relations between their families were not strained, at the very least, it was better than the ties with the Williams family.

“Yes, I only brought along two mages, one at grade-5 and one at grade-3. We have over three-hundred guards. They still dare follow us, it means that this bandit gang has at least one-thousand members.”

Aini pondered for a moment, then said, “At best, a one-thousand man bandit gang will have one mage.”

Sharman’s face turned scarlet. Aini was very intelligent he understood that there was a possibility the two mages from the Rolande family were adept in using the fire element. They were skilled in offense, but did not possess many defensive abilities. If the enemy used fire magic to attack the chariots, then the chariots would be gone.

Mages groomed from such large families usually made imbalanced progress. Sharman’s grade-5 mage would not make any further improvement during his lifetime. Only this method could swiftly cultivate a mage with strong offensive power. Of course, the mages groomed by the Rolande family were for battle.

Sharman was not worried about the bandits, she was concerned about her cargo. If the chariots were incinerated these hundreds of pieces of armor could not be transported anymore. These goods were worth hundreds of thousands of gold coins.

Even the Rolande family could not possibly possess a godly equipment. At this point in time Saleen realized the importance of Lex’s God’s Ring. No matter how many items there were Lex could carry all of it on her own.

“It is not a problem for my Dimension Stone to carry a few hundred sets of armor, but do I need to do this?” If Saleen did not care about the attention he would get, he could simply fly to the Holy Rock City with Cuisi, it would be much faster. Saleen would not get to enjoy the scenery along the way. On this trip Saleen planned to walk on the roads and prepare for his future battles.

Other than Saleen, no one else in this room would possess such a large spatial equipment. Since Saleen kept quiet Sharman could only get increasingly vexed. She could fathom the strategy the bandit gang would employ. They would destroy the chariots first before trapping her team in the town. By then, the bandits would be able to call for backup and surround the town.

When did such a huge bandit gang appear in the north?

Aini said, “Saleen, please help with this matter.”

“Sure. If the enemy uses fire arrows, magic, and trebuchets to destroy the chariots, I will get rid of them.” Saleen did not try to make life difficult for Sharman.

“Thanks. Sharman, if the enemy’s mage get close tell your aunt to kill them. If the enemy has large magic beasts, I will take care of them.”

“Thank you Brother Aini, then my men shall be in charge of keeping watch overnight.”

Saleen sighed, then said, “Forget it, I will install magic traps and magic alarms in case the bandits try to organize a sneak attack.”

Since a bandit gang possessed many offensive methods Saleen was also afraid that there might be losses to the goods. The value of the goods in both convoys amounted to more than one-million gold coins. If the bandit gang could not be exterminated using conventional methods, then this commercial route would be disrupted in the future.

In just one year many bandits had appeared along this route. If they were not wiped out they would prove to be a trouble for Metatrin City.

“Saleen, the bandits must be removed, but…”

“But what?”

“They might have slipped from Laiyin Duchy, if that’s the case, it will be troublesome.”

Saleen understood Aini’s meaning. Laiyin Duchy and Loulan shared a border, since Loulan had fallen, it meant that the Holy See’s army would invade Laiyin Duchy soon. Laiyin was a place which produced mercenaries and bandits. If it sank a huge number of bandits would flee to Qin. Thus, in the foreseeable future, there would be no peace.

Laiyin Duchy was the smallest out of the five duchies, but it had a population of more than ten-million. It was no surprise that it contained a few hundred thousand bandits.

When Saleen was in Sikeqinya he had heard many stories about how some places in Laiyin Duchy only consisted of mercenaries or bandits.

Occasionally, bandits would ask mercenaries to help them out, a mercenary would not mind becoming a bandit. Everyone knew that Laiyin Duchy’s security was not that good. The Sikeqinyans could not care less. Without the bandits, the mercenaries would be out of jobs.

That was why the regular mercenary groups would not try to remove the bandits, both parties relied on each other for survival. The Sikeqinyans would be the last to wish for a peaceful world.

Profits reigned above all. It was precisely because of this shameless survival concept the Sikeqinyans had that made it so difficult for the Holy See to spread its teachings. A Sikeqinyan would betray their god the very next day. Their only religion was money, not some god.

Some servants arrived to place a table. Naturally, Saleen and the rest stayed behind for a meal.

Sharman looked at Saleen with great interest, a pity Saleen was not very intrigued by her. Not caring about being polite he used the Detection Magic to test every dish before letting Cuisi touch the food.

Sharman looked at Saleen with increasing interest, “This white-robed mage put on more airs than Aini. He even brought along a maidservant, while being protected by a grade-5 mage and Silver Grand Swordmasters.”

As a demon Cuisi’s abilities were overlooked once again. For the first time ever he recognized Nailisi’s efforts while slicing bread for Saleen. “By disguising us as humans and veiling our powers, these dumb people will never notice me. Humph, it will be much easier to kill these people then.”

“Mage Saleen.” Sharman called out leisurely as she sipped on fruit juice.

“Mm?”

“Are you married?”

“Not yet.”

“Why don’t I introduce someone to you? My sister, Baroness Guya.”

“No.” Saleen thought that she was going to discuss some official matters, to think that she would make a marriage proposal.

“Why not?”

“Hmm, because I am a Metatrin.” Saleen did not wish to beat about the bush. There was no one else in the room anyway.

“Oh!” Sharman exclaimed. Then, she said, “Are you the son of the city owner?”

It was no wonder Sharman thought that way. Even though Saleen wanted to keep a low profile the bodyguards beside him were too powerful. He did not look like the owner of a city either.

“My identity has to be kept a secret.” Saleen blinked at Sharman, he neither acknowledged nor denied her claim.

“Okay, but Brother Saleen, you must think this through. My sister is a nice person.” Sharman appeared very naïve and Saleen simply smiled in response. There were definitely no innocent people in the Rolande family.

When Aini was at her age he was already extremely scheming. Currently, he might look vibrant and energetic, but he was actually harder to deal with. Luckily Saleen met Aini first, thus gaining understanding into people from large families. Saleen would have really gotten deceived by the innocent appearance of this little girl otherwise.

“Sir Aini,” someone called out from outside.

Aini glanced at Sharman, then Sharman said, “Come in.”

A mercenary entered and knelt on the floor, then said, “Sir, the people who went out to recce have returned. The road south of the town has been fully sealed. Both east and west of the town is filled with human activity, each side has about five-hundred people.”

“What about people from this town?”

“I’m afraid they are the bandits’ accomplices. We have done an investigation, the original inhabitants have long fled, it is impossible to have anyone here.” The mercenary replied with a worried look. There were about four-hundred to five-hundred people in the town. Including the bandits outside, there was a grand total of fifteen-hundred people. According to his experience these bandits were only the vanguards.