451 Night Raid Part 1 (1/2)
Lex's expression calmed down gradually. She looked at Saleen and asked, ”Nailisi was bullied, aren't you angry?”
Saleen felt helpless as he still could not tell Lex about Nailisi's identity and that did not relate to trust. Nailisi actually relied upon him. Once she exposed her identity, he was afraid that all mages on the mainland would develop an interest in her.
”Lex, don't listen to Nailisi. Jola does not have the guts to.” Sika suddenly spoke.
Nailisi sent a glare at Sika, but did not do any other action. Lex was shocked and stunned. She suddenly felt that everyone around Saleen was a little weird and she could not understand them.
The atmosphere was awkward and Saleen could only focus on the environment around, but not chat with Lex. It was an ancient road built with Cloudflow's method. Although it was a mountain road, not even a blade of grass grew after thousand of years passed. Both sides of the road had thick forest. Such environment was best suited for robbery.
In the north of Titan Duchy, there were few streams, but a lot of mountains. The space between cities was huge. The spaces were filled with mini fortresses in the villages and a lot of low level nobles.
They owned a few hundred of the wine cellars in Bordeaux, most of them were lordlings. The lordlings were very rich and they could afford a private army. Theoretically, there should not be space for such robbers to make a living.
The way Titans treated robbers was more brutal compared to the Qin Empire. Basically, once all captured robbers were sentenced, they would be fed to the magic beasts. The gang was probably linked up with the local lordlings.
The troops went through Pheonix and did not draw anyone's attention. They changed their horses in Kroranian and there was not anyone that knew Lex's identity. As long as their stratagem was not aimed at Lex, there should not be too much trouble. Maybe these lordlings wanted to plunder traveling merchants with dirty tricks.
The sky grew dark and the swordsman riding along the carriage asked softly, ”Your Highness, do you want to continue or to take a break?”
”Anywhere to rest?”
”Five miles to the south, there is a small castle. The owner is a baron.”
”There's only one place to stop around here?” Saleen asked.
”Titan doesn't allow the farming household to play host to travelling merchants. That is a noble's right. Of course, that's also part of the income for nobles.” Lex explained to Saleen.
”We should continue then.” Saleen suggested.
”There's another day to the Princess' Castle. Even if we changed to skeleton warhorses, we need another half a day's time. Why?”
”That bunch of robbers want us to go into the castle. The nobles here are linked up with them.”
”A baron's castle, any larger scale wouldn't exceed a hundred people. We can totally wipe them out if bothered.” Lex looked at Saleen, waiting for his reply.
”Maybe that baron was pushed out for dead and he himself didn't know. If it really happened, the Princess' Castle would send an army to encircle and annihilate us. By then, the only way for us to get out of this, is to reveal your identity.”
”Saleen, you are now a qualified partner.” Lex laughed. What Saleen thought of, she had already envisioned. The gang made an appearance to plant fear in their troop. They appeared at such a location at this very moment to play around with human psychology. It was to make them spend a night at the castle and assumed that it would be safe.
That was not the worst. The worst was, the castle itself was a trap, but one could not touch it. Once in contact with the baron in the castle, Lex and the rest would be framed as robbers or the robber that killed the noble. By then, there would be local robbers that appeared to testify, Lex would not be able to speak in self-defence.
Revealing the series of stratagem would be useless. Once going in, it would be difficult to escape.
”Everyone work slightly harder, we will hurry on our journey.” Lex spoke to the people outside. She came to Titan to look for the remains of the third temple, not to be there to ask for trouble. With the capability of her troop, they would still be able to if they did not attack the city. The impregnable pass of Titan would be the line of the Princess' Castle, to prevent the Tanggulasi Empire. The East did not directly connect with the Qin Empire. Lex could flee back anytime, without being besieged by a huge army.
”Tell everyone, if we encounter what happened during day time again, kill everyone.” Lex said and started meditation.
She felt great meditating in the magic chariot, just like she was back in the magic tower. Although the effect was vastly different, there was a similarity. That was that mage could wake up from meditation anytime to join a battle.
A thousand meters high in the sky, a flying puppet was trailing Saleen's magic chariot until they climbed over a red mountain range. Among the wild faraway, there was a bunch of robbers gathering around a gray robed mage.
The mage was about sixty years old and there were two magic symbols on the gray robe. The leader of the robbers that was wearing a long pink robe asked, ”Mister mage, did they not go to the baron's castle?”