Badge in Azure

That was the first time in Saleen’s life that he had gotten drunk. Before he learned magic, he had no money to drink. After he picked up magic, he had been controlling his hobby strictly.

It was after the end of the meticulously plotted war, Saleen finally relaxed entirely and needed his rest. When he woke up, Aini left and it was Sika by his side.

Saleen took a glance at the amended blueprints and he kept them while he asked, “Sika, your people, are they satisfied with where they are staying?”

“They’re okay. The environment is nice. There are many treehouses in South Court and they like it. Just a bit troublesome when it comes to rearing the magic wolves.”

South Court was a garden that took up a couple miles of land. It was troublesome to set up a garden in the city, but Saleen’s city was built in the forest. Where South Court was, there was originally a pond, which was strange. Saleen dug a manmade lake according to the terrain, there were many dried trees around the lake and they could directly make wooden houses on top of the trees. The Cascausus people liked treehouses very much as they were filled with the flavor of nature.

At first, besides his initial plan to develop South Court into a garden, Saleen also planned to conduct small scale training there. He would not have saved such a big piece of natural area otherwise.

“It looks like they still want to move out.”

Sika smiled and answered, “Yeah, the Cascausus people like mountains. There is a forest dozens of miles away from the city in the south. Moving there could be beneficial for you too.”

“Sika, I need an army.” Saleen thought for very long, but he could only form that sentence. He did not know how else to tell Sika that he had his selfish motives for letting the Cascausus people to come to his city. The Cascausus people made very good warriors.

“I am a warrior priestess, I can form a Caucasus army but I could only form an army of a thousand people. The others, you would have to hire them.” Sika’s hint was obvious, the thousand people required no money.

“No, Sika. I do not want the Cascausus people as an expeditionary force. I wish for them to protect this city like how you protect your village. Regarding the number, your army will be fully managed by you. In the city, even I do not have the power to deploy them.”

Saleen knew that without his own army he had no standing. He did not want Sika to be bullied in the future though. If Sika had her own selected troops, no one would dare to show her disrespect and make things difficult for her.

“The South Court could be for elderly Cascausus people and I would send people to build a village at the south of the city. You will stay here, okay?”

“No, I want to stay with my people.” Sika rejected bluntly.

“Why?” Saleen asked in annoyance.

“If I stay here, it would be difficult for you to look for a wife.” Sika pouted and answered.

“With you, why do I need to look for a wife?” Saleen saw that there was no one in the room so he spoke loudly.

“You are so silly. You have such a great fortune and you would need to look for a woman to give birth to a son that carries your name, Metatrin. Otherwise, these things would be for the outsiders. You haven’t named the city all this while. I think you should just call it Metatrin City and only the direct line of descendants can inherit this land in the future.”

“Sika, did you think-”

Sika stopped Saleen and said, “I did not misunderstand you, but I have my own responsibilities. My parents passed away when I was very little. I was brought up by the elders of the village. Now that I have become a warrior priestess, I have to live according to Caucasus’s traditions. I could only leave when there are more priests among the Cascausus people.”

When Sika said that, it sounded organized and clear. It was not anything like her normal casual manner.

“I can understand.” Saleen nodded and he was reminded of his childhood friend, Dick. Back then, only the little beggar would be willing to share some food with him. Saleen would rather take the risk of being chase after to let Dick flee instead of taking Ulysses’s advice to kill him back then.

Some loving kindness would not be repaid fully.

Sika smiled and said, “If you were to pick a woman randomly, we will have to see whether the woman can win against me in a fight.”

“Huh?” Saleen looked at Sika’s back subconsciously. He then was reminded that he had given Sika his ring of gifts. Her weapon was hidden in the ring. “A woman that can win against Sika?” Saleen could not think of any few. “Can Lex win against Sika? In the past, definitely, but it’s hard to say now.”

With a hit of Sika’s cudgel, his water shield would break instantly. “Saleen couldn’t think of any armor that could withstand such strong attack. Even the way Nailisi looked at me was in grovelling manner. I guess my strength might have overtook the little demon.”

Nailisi could tell the best, she would not see falsely.

Looking at Saleen’s facial expression, Sika comforted him, “Don’t worry, if Lex was willing to give a dowry, it would be nice if you marry her and I wouldn’t stop it. If it was Irene, then forget it though.”

“Sika, that’s not what I meant.”

“Saleen, if your parents were alive, wouldn’t they want you to have your own home with a lot of children?” Sika’s questions shut Saleen up. He liked Sika from his bones and he tried thinking about it for the first time. Why would he think about marrying another woman? He could not fight back at what Sika said though. If his parents were alive, of course they would want him to have his own family and have kids to carry on his legacy.

“Forget it, I am a mage. There isn’t any mages that think about this question at such an early stage.” Saleen left that aside and told Sika, “As you are here, I want to build an army of a thousand people to take responsibility of our safety. The regiment would not be under any program but everyone who joined would need to sign a contract with me.”

“Contract?”

“Yes, if one betrays me, they would receive punishment like in those magic contracts.”

“Isn’t that like follower?”

“Yes, but I want to militarize followers. Thousands of people have to be selected elites as I don’t want them to charge on an enemy’s line. I only want them to be in the city to protect ours and the city’s safety. I want two hundred Cascausus people that ride on magic wolves.”

“Would you give them the treatment of followers?”

“Yes, but if they weren’t up to my expected standard, they would lose the restriction of the bond and resume commoner status.”

“Alright. I believe there are still many of them that are willing to follow a mage. Saleen, why do you want so many followers?” Sika did not understand. Saleen might not be strong, but with his age, he could become a sorcerer in no time. By then, he could opt for higher level followers.

“Haha.” Saleen laughed dryly, but he did not answer Sika. He actually did not need so many followers and the cost to take care of followers was way higher than maintaining an army after all.

What Saleen thought was, if Sika really did have a child, he could send his followers to protect his descendant. He could wait until Lex returned, the city could be expanded entirely. A lot of people were eyeing his position. Spear thrusts in the open and arrows shot from hiding, it would be hard to prevent. He could nurture followers for now, and by then, he would have enough power to ensure Sika and their child’s safety.

Of course, the safest bet would be to be someone strong like Joey himself, but that was impractical. With thousands of followers, it was equal to the standard of a grade-9 sorcerer and it must be a rich sorcerer.

Saleen was well aware that there would be many mages from Sregl Island that would follow him in the future. Some Caucasus magic wolf warriors, and some talented Barbarians would as well. He would teach them sword craft and his troops of followers would not be too weak. They would be able to fight in a decent scale war. As for the city, he could pick someone among the followers to manage. At the end of the day, he had to research about magic and he could not be bothered by the troubles of commoners everyday.

“Hmph, look at yourself laughing. You must be thinking about something evil.” Sika said while someone knocked on the door.

“Come in.”

The one who came in was the grade-4 mage from Sregl Island, Pasatilo. He saw Sika and he hesitated, but he said, “Master, everyone seems to have something to discuss with you.”

“Oh?” Saleen creased his eyebrows and suddenly understood. Ever since they left Sregl Island to follow him, they had no ranking. With their talent, it would be difficult for them to become sorcerers, but these low level mages would become grand mages. These people had to seek a way out. Luckily, he had a plan for the future ready. He would not be able to answer them all of a sudden otherwise.

“Bring them here.”

“Yes, master.” Pasatilo bowed. After he left for a while, he brought all the mages from Sregl Island into Saleen’s room.

Jason gave Saleen very few mages, there were three grade-5 mages, three grade-4 mages and eighteen grade-3 mage. There were many magic apprentices. These magic apprentices were selected according to the standard of a sailing crew, to operate alchemy machinery on the warships.

Lex took away one third of the mages and Saleen sent a grade-5 mage out. Then, there were sixteen mages left in the room. Even Truman, who was normally guarding at the magic cannon, came.

Saleen looked at these mages, “If these people were to be left on the mainland, they would all be targets of recruitment by the nobles. On Sregl Island, these mages were just to set sorcerers off though.”

“Teacher had let you all follow me and I already understood teacher’s intention. Now, I, Saleen Metatrin, in magic’s name, hope that you can be my followers. Will you?”

The sixteen mages from Sregl Island were thrilled, they bowed and answered, “Master Saleen, we do.”

Among the sixteen of them, there was one grade-5 mage that was at the same level as Saleen but the grade-5 mage was already over forty years old while Saleen had just become an adult. Everyone knew that with Saleen’s talent, he would become a sorcerer before he turned forty. As his followers, they could use Saleen’s magic tower and these people’s lifespan would at least be one hundred and twenty years old. They even stood a chance to promote to a sorcerer.

Following Saleen meant that they did not need to be troubled by practice as Saleen would take time to teach them about magic even though Saleen was not their teacher.