167 The Admonition Part 2 (1/2)
”Father, I did not expect her to be so perceptive,” the youth replied in an upset tone. The youth looked coy in front of his father, so his father did not know that he had been planning to use force on Lex.
”She might only be a grade-6 mage, but you did not bring any underlings with you?”
”She had a mage master with her as well, and I was not confident that I would be able to keep this matter under wraps.”
”You have underestimated Lex. Chanake did not favor Lex just because he pampered her. I will only allow you to commit this kind of mistake once, and if you repeat it…” Dominic stared at his son savagely, causing that youth to break out into a sweat. According to the rules of the Qin Empire, the eldest son would not necessarily inherit the title of the duke, and the youth still had two more brothers.
Seeing that his son was distressed, Duke Dominic softened his expression and said, ”You are right. If Lex could make a place like the Bitter Water Prefecture flourish, then she might possibly possess more wealth than Pompeii. If we manage to manipulate Lex, our power will only increase. Without Chanake at the helm of the empire, the empire might not be as strong as it used to be. We need to start thinking for ourselves.”
”Then should we send the Black Emblem Army after them?”
”We shouldn’t be too conspicuous about it. Since they are going to Alchemy City, I have already deployed some men to go ahead.”
”The people from Dragon’s Tooth Town might not be very reliable.”
”I know. They are not serious in siding with us, so when something goes wrong, I will also shirk all responsibility. Imposa, if you were well versed in our family’s swordsmanship, Lex would not have been able to escape. Don’t interfere in this matter for now. When you become a black metal grand swordmaster, I will then hand over control of the Black Emblem Army to you.”
The youth clad in robes was overjoyed. He had thought that he would be severely punished, but not only had his father forgiven him, he had even agreed to give him control over the Black Emblem Army. The Black Emblem Army was the duke’s private army, and it could have more than ten thousand soldiers. But all this while, Dominic had wanted to avoid any taboos, so he had restricted the army’s manpower to only three thousand soldiers.
However, after Emperor Chanake’s death, many nobles had begun expanding their private armies. Naturally, Pompeii was no exception. In the past six months or so, the Black Emblem Army had ballooned to five thousand soldiers, and it was now able to establish five emblem groups.
Lex and her team kept travelling nonstop for two hundred miles. Then, the war horses grew exhausted and they had to take a break. Lex dismounted from her horse and took out her map, and she asked Saleen and the others to come over.
”We will not make it in time to cross the river. There is only one way to get to Alchemy City from the west side of the river.” Lex pointed to a town at the top of the map and said, ”Dragon’s Tooth Town. But, we will definitely run into trouble there.”
”Run into trouble? This is almost four hundred miles from Pompeii!” Saleen looked at the map. There was a large city two hundred miles west of Dragon’s Tooth Town. It would not be easy for Pompeii to extend its sphere of influence all the way there.
”That’s why we are in trouble. If we meet with a mishap there, Dominic can shirk all responsibility easily.”
”We can abandon the war horses and go through this mountainous region,” Saleen replied, pointing to a spot east of the road.
”Saleen, it was my mistake to reveal my identity. However, I really cannot tolerate such an insult. Don’t you want to teach them a lesson?” Lex had already been forced to abandon the ship, and if she also needed to go around Dragon’s Tooth Town now, it would be an undeniable insult to her.
Dragon’s Tooth Town only had a population of approximately twenty to thirty thousand people, and it did not have a magic tower. Lex was not willing to run away anymore. She wanted to teach Dominic a lesson. Since Dominic had offended her, she would make sure that his days would be hellish.
Saleen pondered for a moment and felt that what Lex had said made sense. If they did not even dare to go to Dragon’s Tooth Town, then other nobles would definitely climb over Lex in the future. If the Bitter Water County wanted to make progress, they could not suffer in silence. Pompeii might have had a magic tower and at least ten thousand soldiers, but Dragon’s Tooth Town would at most have a few clans and just thousands of soldiers.
”So what should we do?”
”Dragon’s Tooth Town is a distribution center for armor and weapons, so there aren’t many mages around. Since we want to go through it, we have to go past the town. Without a magic tower, there will not be any threat of danger from other mages. After entering the town, there will be no more plains, and there will only be one road ahead of us. They will have us enter the town before taking any action.”
”How many people can Dragon’s Tooth Town deploy?” Lex magnified the map of Dragon’s Tooth Town, exposing the streets all over the city. The terrain was narrow, so it was not suitable for cavalry or mages.
”Everyone can be deployed, and there will be at least fourteen thousand people.”
”That’s a lot!” Saleen’s confidence was beginning to waver. He stood a chance against one thousand men, but if there were more than ten thousand soldiers, then the four of them would have to fight a serious battle.
”Saleen, we still have twenty fully constructed puppets with us. We can take this opportunity to test the capabilities of these puppets.” Lex was not worried at all. Without a magic tower, her fully constructed puppets could not be easily destroyed anymore. Even if there were many enemies, she only needed to look for their elites and use the puppets to carry out a massacre. This would cause the enemies to lose their will to carry on fighting.
Saleen did not know this, but in a large scale war, once a side had lost more than ten percent of their troops, their morale would hit rock bottom. If the number was over twenty percent, the army would collapse. If an army lost fifty percent of its men and was still fighting, then it would be best to stop the battle. But soldiers of such mettle would definitely not exist in Dragon’s Tooth Town.