Badge in Azure

“Yes, I am looking for a secret agreement,” Saleen replied honestly.

“You are really a sordid mage!” Stephanie was overjoyed. She very much admired Ojarvis, “He is such a good emperor, a pity that he has a short life.” Ojarvis, who was fraught with illnesses, definitely did not have poorer foresight than Prince Safilos, he might even be better than his father. Emperor Chanake’s individual power was too mighty that sometimes his foresight was not so forward-looking.

When a person was standing on the pinnacle of power, they would usually use violence to solve problems. Who could guarantee that this power was invincible?

Saleen threw his hands in the air and said, “What can I do? I have to take care of a few hundred thousand people.”

“So, how many mercenaries can you deploy?” Seeing that Saleen had stated all his requests, Tiffany decided to probe about the deployable manpower.

Saleen did some calculations swiftly, then said, “If His Majesty waits until the end of the year, I can deploy fifty-thousand troops. Including the ten-thousand which Lex had stationed at the borders, there will be a total of sixty-thousand soldiers. If I recruit some auxiliary troops, I can gather one-hundred-thousand people.”

“The price of these one-hundred-thousand troops will not be fixed.” Stephanie wanted to help Ojarvis save money, she was worried that Saleen would fill in the numbers carelessly. More and more people were defecting to Metatrin City, while a large batch of refugees had appeared at Loulan. Since northern Qin could not accommodate so many people, quite a number of people had entered Phoenix. Phoenix was not a very safe place either. It was only a matter of time before a bunch of these people came to Saleen. Within half a year, the population of Metatrin might more than double.

“How is that possible? I will assemble an elite swordsmen camp, while the remaining fifty-thousand people will be built according to the format of Qin’s main army. His Majesty will have to pay the full amount for this elite swordsmen camp. For the remaining forty-thousand, His Majesty only have to take care of the logistics and pensions. As for the auxiliary troops, not much money will be needed, I will help His Majesty foot the bill.”

Ojarvis hit the bullseye once again, Saleen did not have the intention to take advantage of Qin. It was already the greatest victory if Saleen could enter Laiyin Duchy. If there was no secret agreement with Ojarvis, Saleen would have to withdraw from Laiyin Duchy eventually.

“It will be fine to wait until the year end, but I hope that you can send people to link up with Lex’s army first. If Laiyin Duchy takes action in advance, you will have to resist them first.” There was no room for negotiation for these terms proposed by Tiffany, this was some crisis costs which Saleen had to bear.

“That goes without saying. Since His Majesty asked you to discuss these things with me, you must have brought along the secret agreement and deposit right?”

“Yes.” Speaking, Tiffany took out the contract Ojarvis had given her. This contract was not in the form of a scroll, it was a piece of double-layered magic paper made from magic beast skin. After signing, both parties would keep one copy for themselves.

This contract was written in great detail, both parties listed in the contract were Ojarvis De Grukos and Saleen Metatrin. Ojarvis had acknowledged Saleen’s status in Laiyin Duchy. If Saleen could conquer Laiyin Duchy, the Qin Empire would definitely not interfere with the affairs over there. Once Sikeqinya attacked Laiyin Holy Rock City would also deploy troops to help Metatrin carry out defensive efforts. The prerequisite before all these was that Laiyin Duchy had to interfere with the battle in Loulan.

The secret agreement was written flawlessly, Saleen was pleased. The agreement did not mention the problem of Loulan, but Saleen implicitly knew that Loulan belonged to Prince Safilos. If Holy Rock City triumphed in this war, the fruits would be taken by Prince Safilos. The lands in Loulan would be distributed to Prince Safilos’ associates.

“Lex and I will only receive a tiny portion, taking a pinch of rewards from the north and south only. Since Ojarvis had broached the topic of Laiyin with me, he would have surely settled the problem of Titan Duchy with Lex already. If Lex and I want to make further development, we have to start from these two duchies. As for the problem of manpower, the mainland is never short of free citizens.”

Who were free citizens? They were the civilians who roamed freely amongst the many noble lands. These civilians had no obligations towards the nobles, all their fortune was privately owned. This freedom was not always convenient.

There was a joke which went like this; ‘a free citizen in Qin was worse off than a farmer, while a free citizen in Cloudflow was slightly happier than a farmer. A free citizen in Sikeqinya was as cheap as a farmer. While a free citizen in Tanggulasi had no freedom at all’.

A colossal number of free citizens had made up the population of merchants in various empires, craftsmen, workers, smiths, and such people. The moment war broke out these free citizens had the highest chance of being implicated. When a noble fled, they would bring along their farmers as long as time permitted. The free citizens best chance would be to join the army. When they surrendered they still had a chance of being absorbed by the enemy instead of getting killed.

“I have a request.” Saleen told Tiffany after signing the secret agreement.

“Ask then.”

“There is only one route from my city to Laiyin Duchy, which is the attacking route used by the Holy See’s expeditionary army. I wish to build a city at the spot between Qin, Phoenix, Loulan, and Laiyin. Between this city and Metatrin I want to build a resupply town at an interval of every one-hundred miles. Besides this, I want the Deep Forest Town at Phoenix’s borders to become the land of my nobles.”

“This…”

“The noble in that small town have already defected to me.”

“Okay, Holy Rock City will acknowledge your authority.” Tiffany did not need to consult Ojarvis regarding such trivial matters, she agreed straightaway. Even Prince Safilos had only one thought towards Phoenix; to let Phoenix be segregated.

The Phoenix family had already declined, it was no longer loyal towards the Grukos family. The nobles in Phoenix bore much hatred towards Holy Rock City. It was best to let such a place fission. The lands in Phoenix were sufficient to be distributed to a few hundred nobles already.

In the eyes of a mage, it was okay for all the nobles to die, only the civilians needed to be kept alive. Stephanie and Tiffany were not repulsive towards Saleen’s demands. Saleen himself was a mage, so he would surely understand their thoughts. He thusly made his requests in a straightforward manner.

Just like that, Phoenix was betrayed once again.

Saleen did not allow the two sorcerers to live in the palace, he asked two people to lead them to Aini’s duke’s residence. Even though Aini’s duke’s residence did not build a magical tower, its size was identical to that of Saleen’s temple. The important structures in the center were built according to the format of a magical tower, a five-story tower was built.

A mage still preferred to be in a place with a high concentration of the elements. They could practice magic anytime that way. Saleen’s temple would never allow people like Tiffany inside unless the two powerful sorcerers had decided to follow him.

Saleen did not dare harbor any expectations, “These two people are different from Nicholas, Nicholas is unable to return to his homeland. The world is so big, if I didn’t let Nicholas stay, he would end up in a terrible state.”

Saleen made one move to obtain a passage to Laiyin Duchy and he had been permitted to build a city at the intersection of the four cities, so he was in high spirits. If Ojarvis had not signed a secret agreement with him, Saleen would only dare to deploy troops if he possessed more than five-hundred-thousand soldiers.

“Most importantly, I have obtained the Deep Forest Town, it has become my territory. It place will be developed into a huge city, then I will open a path through the magic beast forest to enter the Chaotic Swamp. Going through the secret passageway, I can attack Sikeqinya directly. In the future, once I go to war with Sikeqinya, I will have three attack routes. One from Laiyin, a second from the Chaotic Swamp, and a third from the sea.”

Saleen planned to station one of Lex’s armies at the border and this army would be used to deal with Phoenix in the future. “I cannot be allies with Holy Rock City, but I can be allies with the Bitter Water County. Both of us will split Phoenix among ourselves by then.”

That night, Saleen slept very well. The second day, Saleen summoned the nobles very early in the morning to talk about trade relations with Holy Rock City.

At the moment, Saleen had signed a secret agreement while Duke Barde had brought along a letter of credence. For the time being, there would be no war with Holy Rock City. Trade between the two cities could be greatly amplified. The status of Metatrin Kingdom had been recognized, Saleen’s merchant ships could enter Lianyun City’s harbor now. He would not need to wait for the southern merchants to come over.

Saleen could finally build ships openly and he was going to do it frantically.

During winter in Metatrin City the shore would have a frozen region spanning two-hundred miles. Saleen’s main agenda was to manufacture warships and armored merchant ships. To open the sea route and look for an island which was suitable to function as a military port.

The four dukes had the financial power to purchase merchant ships, but they did not have the ability to build one on their own. The earls and the smaller barons and viscounts could not afford to buy ships, they could only rent from Saleen.

The nobles still made a profit by renting ships, so they were willing to rent from Saleen’s city. It was way cheaper than renting from the south. Saleen also owned escort fleets, the merchants would not be afraid of running into pirates.

Saleen never planned to organize a merchant team, he did not even want to open a shop in Qin. He only wanted fleets. As long as the fleets belonged to him, everything else would also be his as well.

In three days Saleen had prepared a ceremony, which was not considered grand, to receive the letter of credence from Duke Barde. Saleen also wrote a letter of credence based on strict rules, he then prepared an envoy group which would return to the Holy Rock City with Duke Barde.

Since Metatrin City had to build an embassy, Holy Rock City had to construct an identical structure too. Both parties would station their envoys in the embassies. In the future Saleen would not need to send people over personally if he wanted to contact Holy Rock City.

Saleen realized that Duke Barde was actually very easy to get along with after his arrogance had been flattened. When Duke Barde held private discussions with Saleen to buy some magic nuclei, Saleen happily gave him one-hundred magic nuclei.

These one-hundred magic nuclei had a market value of two-hundred-thousand gold coins and Duke Barde accepted them gleefully. Saleen did not ask him to do anything. In Qin, this method of maintaining cordial relations was commonplace.

If Saleen had any requests in the future, Duke Barde would not return Saleen more than forty-thousand gold coins worth of items, this was the rule. It was highly likely that Saleen would never demand anything of him. Saleen would let Duke Barde owe him a favor. Using this favor, both parties would engage in activities which were mutually beneficial.

Saleen knew that twenty-thousand gold coins would not be sufficient to bribe a duke.