Saleen’s room quieted down and Sika angrily put down her weapon. There was a new hole in the wall that had nearly pierced through to the other side.
No, she couldn’t go back home by herself. The imp by Saleen’s side definitely wasn’t planning anything good. Moreover, going home alone now didn’t seem like a very safe thing to do. The bastard from the Holy See had seen what she looked like and it wouldn’t be good if she implicated the villagers.
Sika found a very strong reason for her to continue her adventures with Saleen. No matter what, she couldn’t let the imp succeed. Once she regained her strength, she would give Saleen some priest blessings, which would prevent him from being seduced by the demon.
The tears from Nailisi were real this time. Saleen couldn’t sleep and decided to carry on with his daily training. Taking out his family badge and casting a simple Grade 0 magic, the secret badge cleanly absorbed the magic chords in Saleen’s body and a great amount of his energy.
However, something was different this time. As negative states invaded Saleen’s body, Nailisi felt the same. It was her first time feeling so and she couldn’t help but cry out.
Nailisi thought Saleen was punishing her and in that moment was terrified. The pain she was feeling was something she had never gone through before and she couldn’t help but cry out in pain.
"Does master not want me anymore? That is good, but why am I crying? Is it pain? My heart hurts!"
Surprisingly, Saleen could feel the despair in Nailisi’s heart. Lying on the bed, he couldn’t move, but with his long-term training, at least he could talk.
"Nailisi, I’m training my magic. It might be because of the soul bond that you’re feeling my pain too."
"Master, I’m going through the same…"
"Yes, don’t worry. It will be over very soon," Saleen comforted Nailisi as he felt her soul palpitating in fear. Suddenly, he couldn’t bear to see Nailisi in such pain.
Since Nailisi had demon blood in her, she adjusted quickly to the pain and asked, "Master, is magic training always like this? Why do humans put themselves through such pain?"
"No, only I do." Saleen didn’t know how to explain it.
"Master, do you want to become stronger? I have a way…"
"Nailisi, this form of training needs to be done whenever there is time," Saleen interrupted Nailisi. Her temptation this time was too direct. A way to become stronger?
On the path to becoming stronger, there were no shortcuts.
"Master…"
"Stop talking. If you’re so free, read some books and learn to speak the common language."
"I have no books to read."
"Shut up!"
"Um, ah, oh…"
With Nailisi continued moaning. Regarding the wall that Sika had made a hole in, Aini cried in his thoughts, My house!
Nailisi finally quieted down and Saleen realized something then. Perhaps it was because Nailisi had shared the burden of his pain, but he had taken less than an hour to return to his original state.
If this amount of time was reduced to zero, the family badge would make a great secret weapon. He held the badge in his hand to the moonlight that came in from the window, wanting to clearly see the magic lines.
However, the lightning symbol at the center of the badge had destroyed the wholeness of the magic lines. Looking at it for a long time, Saleen still couldn’t find any clues.
"Master, did Sika misunderstand us?" Nailisi couldn’t sleep and continued teasing Saleen. Saleen didn’t know it but demons required little rest unless they were severely injured. Or like Nailisi had when she had been imprisoned in a place where she had no way of getting food, demons would also hibernate to reduce their use of energy.
"Misunderstand what?" Saleen was still young and although he knew about things between a man and a woman, he had never thought much about it. For a mage, there were no secrets between a man and woman and naturally there was not much to think about. Without secrecy, there was no need to pay attention to it, and only when Saleen grew older would he become more sensitive.
Commoners felt that mages were usually distant and that was not without reason. Their knowledge greatly surpassed others and the way they looked at the world was more innocent and direct. However, when regarding commoners, they would protect themselves with lies. Without that power, their pure thoughts would only result in them being followers.
"Master, she obviously mistook us…"
"You mean sex? You don’t even have a gender yet. What is there to misunderstand? I will let Sika know tomorrow." Saleen turned impatiently, feeling a stir somewhere in his body.
Nailisi could only place her head back on the floor and continue daydreaming.
Maybe tomorrow she should cheat Sika of her gemstones? Would Master use training as an excuse to punish her? What was wrong with her? Wanting to share her master’s burden was not what a demon should have been thinking.
Eat your master!
A voice appeared in Nailisi’s heart.
Eat him and you’re free!
"Master?" Nailisi called almost silently. However, Saleen was already in a deep state of meditation and did not reply to her.
Nailisi lifted her head and looked at the bed, continuing to say, "If, one day, I were to eat you, would you forgive me? I am a demon. I cannot follow you forever."
The moonlight shifted away from the window, making the room darker. Saleen’s eyes were closed, and he did not hear a word from Nailisi.
Aside from Saleen, none of the others rested well that night. Aini, in addition to being sick, was fatigued and seemed to be in low spirits.
Nailisi became much more obedient. Without a word, she followed Saleen out of the room. She didn’t even try to pick a fight with Sika. She had actually planned to do so, but for some reason as the sunlight had entered the window the next morning, she had given up that idea.
Saleen stretched as he saw Sika walking out of her room. He suddenly didn’t know how to explain to her what had happened last night.
Saleen turned away and left it at that. If he didn’t bring it up, he doubted that Sika would either.
"Chief, where are we going to eat?" Sika had decided last night that she wouldn’t return to the village for now. Thinking it through, she felt much better and had renewed her enthusiasm for food again.
"Aini?"
Saleen turned to Aini. He rubbed his eyes and said, "At the end of the month, the family’s convoy will come here and collect the goods. Until then, I cannot leave. For these next few days, you can all stay here. I will hire a few people and we can leave at the start of next month."
Saleen understood what Aini meant. He had decided to continue this friendship. If not, he could have easily let him follow the Clyde family’s convoy back to the Qin Empire, waving his hand and have nothing to do with Saleen anymore. Hiring a few mercenaries for protection meant that the promise between them still held.
It wasn’t a requirement for Saleen to buy the magic medicine from Aini’s uncle either, but he wasn’t familiar with the Qin Empire and was a little hesitant to travel alone. Staying at the Bitter Water Prefecture, he could wait for Aini to raise the money and return the remaining gemstones to him. He wouldn’t need to run about before becoming a grand mage.
Saleen couldn’t sell the gemstones that were in the Ring of Gifts. They were too pure and sizable, and selling them would cause trouble. Moreover, Saleen was a mage himself, and when he reached Grade 6 he would need to build a magic tower. These gemstones could still be of use to him. If he sold them, it was possible that he wouldn’t be able to buy them back next time.
Saleen remembered that there was a map of the temple within the Ring of Gifts. At the back of the map were twenty-five magic arrays. Once he researched the ways to use these twenty-five magic arrays, he wouldn’t need the help of others to build his magic tower. Thinking about this, Saleen felt like he had a bright future ahead of him.
Holy See, Earl Sufonso. He had forgotten about everything.
Once he built his magic tower, unless the Holy See brought the whole contingent of Sacred Knights over, he couldn’t be bothered with the few deacons that would come over.
A magic tower was a mage’s castle. Killing a mage who possessed a magic tower would require a price that was a hundred times its worth.
Having had breakfast, Aini went to the professional union to put up a hiring notice and prepared to return to the Qin Empire with Saleen and the others. Half of this shop belonged to him while the other half was meant to be used as a stronghold for his family in the Phoenix Duchy. There were many such strongholds in the Phoenix Duchy and Aini wasn’t required to check on them every day.
Once the family’s convoy came, he could leave after getting someone from the family to stay and watch over the stronghold.
This town was too small. If it hadn’t been close to the Chaotic Swamp, the Clyde family wouldn’t have bothered to set up a stronghold here.
In the coming days, Saleen found out a lot about the current situation in the Qin Empire. Although Aini had been thrown to the border by his family, he still received information every month. He wasn’t quite exiled, but was now disrespected.
This kind of situation would only happen in the Qin Empire. If it had occurred in any other empire, a person like Aini would have disappeared off the face of earth out of consideration for the Holy See’s powers.
Aini’s parents had been imprisoned in the Qin Empire. At the same time, the people from the Holy See had their hopes of seeking vengeance on them dashed. Both sides had suffered tragedies and had to leave it at that. If the Holy See had intentions of getting back at the Clyde family, they would need to send a large number of people into the Qin Empire. This would definitely anger the emperor and result in an unhappy ending.
The Clyde family did not sell only weapons. Like the other big families in the empire, their business involved almost everything. Weapons were not even the biggest business of the family.
Grain, spices, silk, tea leaves, animals, construction…
The Clyde family was like a giant enterprise empire surviving successfully under the emperor’s reign. There were only four families as big as this in the Qin Empire and each head of the family was named a baron by the emperor.
This naming had no political purpose. The Qin Empire had much less power in comparison to the other three empires combined. The rich’s privileges had been weakened severely. Moreover, a baron was a middle-class noble and therefore, besides reducing the taxation for these four families, the name served no other purpose.
Aini reminded Saleen that in the Qin Empire, the real power rested in the hands of the royal family. As a mage, he could afford to offend the rich families but he should avoid conflicts with the royal family.
This was because the royal family had been founded off of magic and the number of mages the royal family possessed was far greater than the mages in the other three empires’ armies combined.
The Qin Empire’s palace housed three large Grade 9 magic towers. Hence the Qin Empire’s other name: the Magic Empire.