118 The Power of a Scroll Part 1 (1/2)

Saleen sat in his own carriage. The Qin Emperor had not only gifted Viscountess Lex with authority over ten camps of troops, but he had given her one thousand swordsmen as well. The Qin royal swordsmen were similar to the sacred knights of the Holy See in that they were bound for life. Their everyday necessities were provided by the country, and the sole purpose of their lives was combat.

No matter their background, a swordsman could become a middle-grade officer if he trained to become a high-grade swordmaster. If he became a normal swordmaster, he would be a low-grade officer, and his children would be looked after by the country. For many commoners, this was a huge incentive.

However, the process of selecting a royal swordsman was unusually strict and their number had always been maintained at one hundred thousand or below. In the past four hundred years, it had almost always been kept below fifty thousand.

Aside from having resources, loyalty to the country was very important too. Typically, the son of a royal swordsman could easily become part of the next generation of royal swordsmen. For a commoner, the chance was slim. Because many children of the wealthy did not have the right of succession to serve the royal family, joining the royal swordsmen was a decent alternative.

Saleen’s war carriage had been specially designed for mages, and was similar to the one that Viscountess Lex had. A person could look out and see everything around them, and it could fit up to ten people. Since the expedition had officially started, Lex could not allow Saleen and the others to be in her carriage. Soldiers had been arranged to protect her instead.

For Saleen, this was decent treatment. Aside from Sika and Nailisi, there were six other swordmasters in the carriage. One of them was Tenesee. Around Saleen’s carriage, a small team of one hundred swordsmen had been arranged for their protection. Saleen had no idea why he was suddenly being treated so well, but he believed it had something to do with Joey.

Ten combat mages followed behind the carriages. Due to the special designs of the war carriages of the Qin Empire, they could be combined to form a simple fortress if enemies were encountered. Even a magic beast swordsman from the Cloudflow Empire would find them difficult to break.

The one thousand swordsmen that Lex had brought along were already moving towards the town up north. When they reached it, the Bitter Water Army would be expanded to two thousand people. Together with the reserve troops, that made almost three thousand troops in total.

With combat power like this, they would not need to be afraid of any attacks by the wealthy from Hadisai City. The Qin Emperor had planned it out well. The elites from Hadisai City did not exceed five thousand people. With half of them having been called upon by the emperor, only two thousand five hundred of them were left. At least two thousand would be left to defend the city, and the remaining five hundred would not pose a threat to the Bitter Water Army.

Even if there were any assassins, there was no need to worry. An assassin’s strengths were in hiding and burst attacks. However, in an army, an assassin’s function was very little unless they were one like Bain.

Saleen had not expected Lex to entrust Tenesee to him. Tenesee was a high-grade swordsman. He was not old and did not look older than thirty. Someone like him would be the limb of Lex in the future. Saleen now knew the importance of a swordsman to a mage. He did not take this time to practice his magic. Instead, he struck up a conversation with Tenesee.

”Tenesee, where have you been these past few years?”

”Cloudflow.” Tenesee did not say more than he needed to. His answer was unusually simple.

”Have you seen any magic beast swordsmen?” Saleen was unaffected. He would be able to find ways to interact with Tenesee. As expected, upon hearing this, Tenesee began talking more.

”Yes. Cloudflow doesn’t have many places with war horses. There are quite a few magic beast swordsmen.”

”Swordsmen aren’t mages. How do they form a bond with these magic beasts?” Saleen asked curiously.

”There is no bond, so long as they can defeat and tame the magic beasts. Hence, a magic beast swordsman isn’t that scary. Their magic beasts are usually relatively low-grade.”

Saleen thought back to the silver grand swordmaster that had been captured with Lex’s tricks. The magic beast he had with him had only been a Grade 6 one. This only confirmed his thoughts. A bond of magic was only used on intelligent creatures. For low-grade magic beasts, a bond would be a waste of a mage’s focus.

No wonder so many mages would rather create a puppet than tame a magic beast. A puppet did not need to eat or drink. It did not need to be taken care of and could be discarded whenever one wanted. However, a magic beast was a living being and bringing it around could prove troublesome.

The Qin Empire’s army did not have official infantry troops. Even the infantry troops were required to ride horses, and their movement speed was very fast. For combat purposes, large number of mages could cast a Haste spell on thousands of cavalry. This allowed the Qin Empire’s cavalry to be one of the fastest among all of the countries.

Before long, the entire army had left the capital and was moving towards the north. One hundred thousand people could not move together, and the forward troops of ten thousand soldiers were in front by at least one hundred miles. Following them were the main armies. They were separated into three groups, with each group consisting of thirty thousand people. At the back, there was a group of ten thousand people serving as rear-side sweepers.

Even with a group of ten thousand people, they would not all gather together at once. They were split into ten smaller groups. Two of those groups were mages camps, and two hundred mages were arranged there. These two groups were the main groups of the entire swordsmen camp. One of them consisted of support troops while the other consisted of reserve troops that were made up by cavalry.