412 Worries Part 2 (1/2)
Saleen rarely drank. People from Sikeqinya and Tanggulasi liked to drink hard liquor. Until Saleen got to Bitter Water Prefecture, he would drink wine.
To a mage, hard liquor would affect the stability of mental strength but wine would not. When he was with Lex, Saleen had to maintain his form and only drink tea in front of the others. Privately, he would drink some wine occasionally.
He took the bottle out from his drawer, Saleen was not particular about it and threw it to Aini directly. The two of them had one bottle each and they drank up slowly.
”This is a good wine. We would need to try it in a narrow mouth crystal glass to get the taste. It would be best to leave it to rest for a while after popping the bottle.” Aini took a sip and he could immediately tell the character of the wine.
”I know but I like the coolness of taste.” Saleen raised his hands and showed Aini the water flame that was dancing in his palm.
Aini shook his head, ”Using magic to change the character of the wine, this is such a waste of power.” He did not know that Saleen's water flame required very little magic chords as it mainly used mental power.
”Aini, I remember the distribution of the cities in the north of the empire. There seemed to be less cities compared to the south. Within a hundred mile, there must be a location to build a stronghold fortress though. Lianyun City would go down, but it would not be easy for the invaders to go deeper into the Qin Empire's hinterland. I was thinking about if Phoenix would really join forces with them.”
”Saleen, what is going on with you? Didn't Lex tell you this? If the Grand Duke of Phoenix passes away and there is no next-of-kin, the duchy would be retrieved by the empire. The fate of the Phoenix nobles falls into the Grand Duke's hands. If it was retrieved by the empire, they would be controlled by the upper and lower house. It would be very difficult for the nobles to be bestowed a title in the empire as many people laid their eyes upon it. These people had no foundation in Holy Rock City and the upper and lower house would divide up their ranks of nobility.”
”Then, we have no other way out. For at least half a year's time, we have to just sit here and wait. To send people to go through the Chaotic Swamp, we still have to face the nobles in Phoenix. If they were to vote for a leader, they wouldn't acknowledge Lex's superiority. Lex couldn't just sit and watch Phoenix cut off from the Qin Empire too.”
”I'm troubled by this as well. We have money on hand, we have material, we also have enough mages. We do not have people though. You want to build a fleet, but there are no laborers or sailing crews. There are no businessmen in the city, no farmers in the wild. We only have the skeleton of a city, but there is nothing that we can do.”
”Lex will return either in March or April. Looking at the situation now, it would be troublesome for her to bring over her army. Even if she didn't mean to suppress a rebellion, those nobles wouldn't believe it. Bitter Water Prefecture is tens of thousands of miles away from Phoenix. If she were to bring the swordsmen's camp over, would anyone believe that she is only passing by?”
”Why not let Phoenix join Bitter Water Prefecture? Lex can guarantee the benefit of those nobles.”
”Lex laid foundation in Bitter Water Prefecture. If she were to do so, Holy Rock City would attack Bitter Water Prefecture first.”
”The King would fight against his sister?”
”King? Aini, you are not quite clear with what happened in Holy Rock City, right? The real power of Holy Rock City is in Prince Safilos' hands.”
”So what? What a prince wants to do has to be under the king's name. Otherwise, the local nobles would stage a riot. Saleen, we do not want to gobble up the entire Phoenix, we only want a pathway to go to Kroraina. Don't we have three nobles from Phoenix that came to seek refuge? We might as well recruit more. The empire needs to face the eastern sea allied army and they would tacitly consent.”
”I am already doing that, I have buried a nail in Deep Forest Town. Piac will encourage his surrounding nobles. The things that I promised him will convince him.”
”It seems like we have to wait until the ice melts. Saleen, I am in a hurry.” Aini saw Saleen was as troubled, but he already did what he needed to do and knew that all he could now do was wait.
”Yes, when spring arrives, I would depart from here directly to Sikeqinya. I will buy some broken ships from Sikeqinya and fill them up with hired workers.”
”Sikeqinya built ship…” Aini shook his head.
”I can't just go to Alchemy City, right? Lianyun City is in between. The eastern sea allied army has another three hundred warships on the sea. What if I run into them? I would lose everything.”
What Saleen said, was the truth. He wanted to buy pirate ships to transport the hired workers. They of course could settle these at Alchemy City but how could they return from there? His Pan's Turtle alchemical boat could go through enemy's line of defence in secret, but those were just normal pirate ships. If they ran into enemy's warships, they would not be able to escape.