177 Unlucky Mage Part 2 (1/2)

”I did find the coordinates.” The death mage was unbelievably stubborn, but Saleen spotted the sly look in his eyes.

The Binding spell disappeared and Saleen picked him up. Sika sat down as he patted the death mage on the back and said, ”I’m a mage who can control elements. Your coordinates are of no use to me whatsoever. You have offended my friend slightly, but I have no intention of killing you. Why are you this nervous? Unless you’ve got some important secrets that you’re afraid I’ll discover?”

Seeing the death mage go pale, Saleen was shocked. Could he have guessed it so casually?

The death mage’s expression was unusually vivid. There was anger, sadness, pain, disappointment…

Saleen laughed. He held no grudge against this fellow and did not need to interrogate him like a suspect. Saleen took out some black bread, butter, and smoked meat. Setting out an oil cloth, he placed it all in front of the death mage.

The death mage looked at the food in front of him. Suddenly, his shoulders slumped and he began to cry.

Saleen stared at him in shock before regaining his composure. A long time ago, had he not cried because of bread as well? However, this death mage was nearly grade-3. Could he not even hunt?

”Eat first. We will talk after you eat.” Saleen pushed the food forward. Lex was not very particular about food when they were travelling. These were army standard. The death mage grabbed a piece of bread and stuffed it entirely into his mouth, choking on it. Saleen found it funny at first, until he realized that the death mage could not breathe and his face was turning purple.

Saleen quickly grabbed onto him and pounded on his back with all his might.

Ka…

The death mage spat out a large piece of bread.

Nailisi took out a large bowl and Saleen quickly created a portion of restorative water for him. He did not dare stuff his face again. If Saleen had not helped him earlier, he would have caused an unusual event: He would have been the first mage ever to have choked to death.

”What’s your name?” Seeing that he was almost done, Saleen questioned him again.

”Daniel Kang.”

”Are you wealthy?” Seeing Daniel return to normal, Saleen questioned him. Daniel no longer looked poor. A simple piece of bread could change a person this much.

Daniel’s face turned red as he replied, ”I am a mage. A grade-3 death mage.”

”You must be from Tanggulasi.”

Daniel was not willing to nod. He was a wealthy person from Tanggulasi. However, there were numerous differences between things in the Tanggulasi Empire and the Qin Empire. In the thousands of years during the empire’s establishment, the wealthy had been too numerous to be counted. He was only a third-class baron and his family owned but a few miles of land. They had only been able to survive because of their business with the Sikeqinya people.

”Why did you come to the Qin Empire?” Saleen asked even though he knew the answer. The Holy See had announced that death mages were heretics, and even if Daniel had been a duke, he would have needed to escape the Tanggulasi Empire.

However, Saleen did not expect Daniel’s answer to be far more interesting than he had originally thought. How this unlucky death mage had been able to reach the Qin Empire alive was essentially a miracle in itself.

Daniel’s family had been to the southwest of Tanggulasi. It was not a very good location, as it was constantly threatened by the Cloudflow Navy. However, he was unbelievably smart and ended up doing business with the Cloudflow people instead. Within a few years, he had assembled three boats and had been able to go south to Cloudflow or north to Sikeqinya.

This was an extremely embarrassing thing for the wealthy of Tanggulasi who would rather die of starvation than do business with others. Of course, the very wealthy were still the best at getting what they wanted through brute force. Without the sacred Holy See, the Tanggulasi Empire would have been destroyed a long time ago. The more corrupt the empire was, the more prosperous the Holy See became.

If a person lacked even food and had no ability to resist, it would be very easy for them to embrace a religion.

The Holy See owned numerous plots of land by themselves, and by doing business, they only needed to pay a little to their disciples in order to cause a chain effect, causing more farmers who had lost their land to join the Holy See.

Daniel had once been a magic disciple. Mages had no status in Tanggulasi, and a disciple would attract even less attention. He, like Saleen, had been unable to form magic chords and was about to give up on the idea. However, his father, Daniel Senior, once saved a death mage while out at sea, and hence, Daniel switched to learning death magic.

In addition to gemstones, learning death magic required death flames in order to establish coordinates with the death dimension. Usually, the coordinates given by the death flames were unclear and Daniel had not had much hope. Murky coordinates meant that a death mage’s death flames would grow much slower.

However, with the death of his father, he had not wanted to carry on the business and needed to figure out a way to buy the death flames. That had cost him three boats.