98 The Bell of Holy Rock City Part 1 (1/2)
Wild Bear crawled up from the floor, regaining his balance. Although Sika did not know how to use the sword aura, the punch had caused him to feel dizzy. He was a crude fellow and as he walked up to Viscountess Lex, he gave an improper bow.
”Your Highness.”
”What is your role here?”
”I cook for them.” Wild Bear shook his head in embarrassment.
Viscountess Lex’s heart skipped with joy. A chef was not an official military position. An assessment would not be needed to change his position. ”I have just been nicely in need of a chef. You will follow me in the future.”
Wild Bear averted his eyes and started looking around. Scott shouted, ”Aren’t you going to thank the viscountess?”
”So, Viscountess, how many silver coins would I receive as your chef?” Wild Bear asked courageously.
”Hahaha…” Viscountess Lex could not hold back her laughter. Wild Bear had never trained a sword aura before and unlike Sika, he did not have the blessings of a priest like a Cascausus person. He naturally had the build of a fighter. It must have been because he was poor that he had not even become a normal swordsman. Someone like him, with a good teacher, would easily be a high-grade swordsman or even a swordmaster in a few years. If she was lucky, she would perhaps even have another grand swordmaster in thirty years.
”Wild Bear, I do not have any silver coins. From now on, I will give you two gold coins every month.”
Wild Bear scrunched up his face and replied, ”Your Highness, I can’t spend all of two gold coins. I think it’s alright.”
”Don’t worry, I will change all of them into silver coins for you. You will be able to spend all of them,” Viscountess Lex said jokingly. She had not expected Wild Bear to nod vigorously and say, ”When do we leave?”
The soldiers around all started laughing upon hearing Viscountess Lex’s words. Saleen nodded in agreement silently. Viscountess Lex might not have been any bigger than him but she was much smarter. Moreover, every word she said had the potential to influence people. Could this be what they call the aura of the wealthy?
Sika shook off her limbs and went back to Saleen. Looking at Wild Bear, she said, ”Big fellow, you are quite strong.”
Wild Bear was slightly embarrassed. Sika had a petite figure and he would have been embarrassed even if he had won against her, much less lose.
It was not much trouble to reassign a chef and Scott helped Viscountess Lex settle everything quickly. He even helped Wild Bear change into a dry set of clothes and gave him a pair of shoes.
All of these were trivial things as the messenger for the capital had arrived in the small town and handed over the documents. Viscountess Lex was about to enter the capital in the afternoon and now it was time to set off.
Even though she was a viscountess, Lex was not allowed to bring any soldiers into the capital. However, the mages with her were allowed in. A hundred low-grade mages were a little too ostentatious and in the end, they selected fifty mages and fifty swordsmen to follow her into the city.
A distance of fifty kilometers would have taken a normal person one day to travel, but now that the viscountess’ carriage had been light-fitted, the journey took less than two hours. Aside from Faerun, the lifestyle mages such as Saleen also needed to ride horses. All of them wanted to get a good look at the majestic view of Holy Rock City. As the city known as the Myers Mainland’s miracle, it had kept that sense of longing.
The First Dynasty of the Qin Empire had taken seventy-two years to build this city. Back then, the royal family had led ten Grade 9 sorcerers and hundreds of grand mages. A normal mage and their disciples could have formed an army of mages. That was how powerful they had been. To have taken so long to build this city under those circumstances, any mage would have been shocked, curious, and yearning.
Even though Alchemy City had risen to prominence later on, Holy Rock City was still the irreplaceable holy ground for mages.
Perhaps Alchemy City had more mages, magic towers, and sorcerers. However, it did not have history and had never really fought against the Holy See, hence it was not the pride of the mages.
During the chaos of the mainland, the Holy See had conquered their way east and hundreds of thousands of warriors had died fighting for the pride of mages at Holy Rock City. The battle at Holy Rock City was the turning point of history and since then, there had not been any unification and centuries of peace followed.
Any peace was exchanged with blood and without sacrifice. Humans did not know that they had once been able to fight against the gods, and they did not know that in history, they had once had a glorious past.
Saleen had seen all of these things repeatedly in magic notes and every mage had not been stingy with their praise for Holy Rock City.
Who said that mages had no faith? Every mage, before getting their lineage, was told that for a mage, everything needed to be obtained by oneself and no prayers were necessary.
The roads from the town to the capital were unusually wide and after every few kilometers, a majestic castle could be seen peeking through the leaves of the forest. These castles had long since lost their capabilities for battle and were mainly villas for the wealthy. The capital’s messenger was riding in front, leading the way, but they could not ride too fast as Saleen was appreciating the scenery.