Badge in Azure

Chapter 1393: Meeting of the Princes (Part 1)

Safilos responded politely. Even though he and Saleen were both princes, Saleen’s wife was an empress and his attitude could be imperious too at times. It was a difference acknowledged by all nobles.

Not wanting to appear rude, Safilos didn’t bar Saleen from flying into his kingdom. Saleen, however, chose to wait at the border, and that gave him ample face.

He decided to take his magic carriage, which traveled over 30 kilometers an hour even on the rocky, narrow terrain.

At that speed, he would arrive in a day’s time.

Saleen was thinking that Safilos’s territory was really small. But he was also oblivious to the fact that to Safilos, the size was irrelevant if he wasn’t an emperor. He was fond of saying, if I am unable to find a worthy successor after I pass, even my sons will have to be handed over to my brother’s line.

Having a larger territory would have been counterproductive to his ambitions.

Safilos was dissatisfied with his sons; he found them lacking in qualities required by supreme leaders. It’s a good thing they were not very ambitious.

On the other hand, it would have been most unfortunate for one to have great ambitions without the talents to back them up or to lack power but to keep yearning to rise to ever-greater heights.

Saleen arrived in the Imperial City a day later, easing any fears that he had come with hostile intentions.

He was asking to be seen as an ordinary mage. Even Safilos found that amusing! If it hadn’t been for Saleen, the price for keeping Holy Rock City would have been steep, so steep that any building projects would have been little more than a pipe dream.

There was no need for Safilos to have enmity toward Saleen, for Saleen was still a mage, after all.

Safilos arranged for Saleen to go to the study when they were ready to meet instead of holding court in a living room or conference room.

Safilos only took two level-10 mage trainers with him for the meeting.

They did not exchange pleasantries at first. After taking his seat, Saleen took out a map from his ring and placed it on Safilos’s table. The table had a magic array in place and Saleen activated the map, showing the Qin territory.

“Your Highness.”

“Saleen, you can address me by name,” Safilos said flatly.

“Never mind. You’re still Lex’s uncle. It’s better if I address you as Your Highness.” Saleen refused Safilos’s offer and continued, “Your Highness, take a look. There are now several large hostile forces in the empire eyeing this area. You are a prince of the empire, Your Highness. What do you suggest we do?”

The southwestern nobles, Alchemy City, Grand Duke Iron Blood and the Nature Faith, were all marked in the magic map. Saleen had, of course, not included the matter with Phoenix, who had already gained control of Guderian City.

“The Holy See has amassed a great army, and it was said they’re planning an ambush at the borders. The army at the rear didn’t follow and there are still about three million units within Kroraina territory. Saleen...”

Safilos looked at Saleen with inquiring eyes.

“To tell you the truth, I was the one who established the Nature Faith, so I have no problem controlling the Nature Faith, Your Highness. They would serve as vanguards against the Holy See. If you’re willing, you could join as well.”

“I have no interest in believing in gods!” Safilos refused adamantly.

“You misunderstood. In the Nature Faith, the higher one’s position, the less likely people are to become true believers. If there is faith to be had, I could tell you that the pope of the faith sees me as an object of worship.”

Safilos was startled. Why was Saleen bringing up top-secret matters?

“Your Highness, I’m simply hoping you’d have a say in this. Work with me and you’ll have control over the Nature Faith’s temple legions. Of course, it’ll only be partial control. If you’re not interested, I’ll look for someone else to control the House of Commons. It might be tricky, but it can be done.

Safilos realized right away that if Saleen were to gain the House of Common’s support, his effort to propagate the faith in Qin borders would not run into any opposition. The House of Lords would be fractured, with part of it being controlled by the Golden Plains.

The power of the House of Commons was still comparatively intact.

If he emerged, the nobles of the House of Commons would have heeded his wishes.

“Are you trying to turn the empire upside down, Saleen?” Safilos thought his question sounded stupid, but he also truly found Saleen’s thoughts unfathomable.

Mages should have hated the gods with a passion, yet here was Saleen, trying to build a religion. How crazy was that?

If he was not trying to become a god by controlling a religion, Saleen was probably after something else. What could he possibly want more than the empire?

“Your Highness, Lex is my wife. If I’m willing to wait, the empire might someday fall in my son’s hands. I’m only doing this because I’m not strong enough to take on the Holy See.

Saleen’s words verified what the mages had already told Safilos.

“How can I trust you?”

“Your Highness, I didn’t come here to ask for anything. I just need you to guarantee that the Nature Faith will have free rein in propagating the faith in the empire. In exchange, I’ll provide you with any material needs. As for rebuilding your reputation, that would be up to you, Your Highness.”

“Any material needs?”

“Of course! I’d still need you to compensate me though. You’d have to figure out the food part yourself. Transportation costs are simply too high. It’d be better if you took care of that yourself.” Saleen’s answer was plain and simple.

“How much would you be taking?”

“Whatever you can offer. If you can’t name your price, we’ll have to keep tabs on things for now,” Saleen smiled and answered.

Safilos went silent and Saleen said all of a sudden, “Right, Your Highness. I almost forgot; I brought you something.”

Saleen said as he took out a crate and two wooden boxes.

“These two pieces of equipment are for the mages,” Saleen said as he pointed to the two mages standing behind Safilos. That was not something he had prepared beforehand, but something he originally intended to give to any level-9 mage about to advance.

Any level-9 mages serving Saleen would have acquired new equipment as soon as they advanced to level-10. That equipment included magic nuclei that would last year, as well as six level-10 scrolls and so on.

Saleen had always been generous with his mages. Many were ill-suited to combat but were excellent research candidates.

One order from Saleen was all it would take to have the mages produce all kinds of data results, with the analysis done in the shortest time possible. They were doing this by crafting equipment that would have otherwise been time-consuming.

Keeping mages around was far more expensive than keeping soldiers around, but the former was worth it.

The two mages looked at the gifts from Saleen, then at Safilos, who nodded. Saleen opened the wooden boxes before them.

Space boxes!

A set of dark golden armor was inside the wooden box.

Safilos gasped visibly and removed the set of armor: It provided all-around protection. The mask had hard crystals to serve as a visor; the mouthpiece had sliding covers at the sides. If the magic arrays failed, the covers could be opened for ease of breathing.

The style of the armor was crafted according to the specifications of standard Qin general armor. The only thing different was the four tiny flags on the back.

They were capable of being thrown and were infused with wind-magic arrays. Someone at Safilos’s level could even hurl the flags at targets over 1,000 meters away.

All four flags that Saleen gave to Safilos were apparently of better quality. Complex three-dimensional magic patterns covered the black flags.

There were also accessories to the armors. Saleen readied two sets of spares to replace parts that would have broken easily.

Other than those accessories, there was also a high-level magic nucleus to be embedded, a sword, a dagger, a saddle, a short bow, a quiver, magic arrows and undergarments crafted by mages at the side of the magic armor. A magic thread over 30 meters long was available for strapping the scabbard.

There were many other trinkets, and Safilos was satisfied with every single piece.

“What’s this about?” Safilos asked, pointing at Saleen’s gifts.

“Gift? You’re my elder and, well, I have to show some respect coming here all alone,” Saleen smiled and said.

Safilos burst out laughing and looked at Saleen, saying, “Alright, alright. Since you put it that way, I’ll just ask away. I agree to help you, but now I’ve run into some difficulties advancing and need something. If you’re can provide them to me...”

“I’ll do what I can.”

“I need to get my hands on them.”

“So you’re saying that if I don’t get you these things, you won’t help?” Saleen knew they were getting somewhere. If Safilos agreed to step out of the way of faith propagation, there would be hardly anyone able to stop it.

Nothing was more important. Once the Nature Faith became more developed, he would be able to dispatch more people into the religion. No one would have been able to say no with the war going on at Qin.

The ones from the Golden Plains would have been out of their wits against him.

“Hold your horses. Quick question: Do you have an alliance with Grand Duke Iron Blood?” Safilos looked at Saleen coldly.

Saleen answered in an I-don’t-care manner, “Yes. I wouldn’t attack him. If you amassed enough power to attack the grand duke, I wouldn’t help you in any way, but...”

“You won’t be stabbing me in the back then...?”

“Of course not. I have my own standards in telling who are the ones closest to me after all.”

“Alright, Saleen. Here’s a list of what I want from you,” Safilos said as he took out a piece of magic paper, which had over 1,000 words listed on it.

Saleen took one look and smiled, saying, “Your Highness, mental pharmaceuticals are dangerous stuff.”

“Can’t do without them. I’m in a hurry to advance.”

Saleen continued checking out the materials listed and said, “You want weapons? Well, Metatrin City has the best alchemists available, and there’s one serving Grand Dukee Iron Blood too. How about you just draw me some schematics, and I’ll see they get finished, okay?”

“No need. This is a secret art weapon. Regardless of how well you’ve made it, I’ll have to re-craft it myself anyway.”

Saleen shook his head in regret and said, “If you want to heighten mental powers, I could just give you divine crystals. When used with potions, those things work better than dragon blood. Your Highness, there’s no point having your guard up. My teacher is at level-13 now.”

Safilos was first dumbfounded when he heard the news and quickly went silent. Saleen’s powers had already surpassed his. Regardless of how powerful his secret arts were, there’s no way he could go against a level-13 mage.

He initially thought he’d be able to change a lot of things after getting to level-11.

Saleen smiled and said, “I can see you need a lot of things from the list. How about you amend it. There are things I can’t get my hands on, and some things I can do better. If our collaboration works out, we’ll have to be honest with each other, wouldn’t you agree?”

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