586 Killing with a Borrowed Knife (1/2)

Sharman's aunt laughed and said, ”He is a mage. Since both of you have already come to an agreement, if you were to go back on your words, your sister will not be able to help you.”

Sharman was taken aback and said, ”What do you mean?”

”At this point, you can only place your trust in him unless he does something harmful to you. If you were to go back on your words, he will definitely take revenge on your sister and maybe even the entire Rolande family.”

”Surely brother Saleen is not someone like that?”

”What do you know? A mage's pride cannot be taken for granted,” Sharman's aunt sighed.

”My sister is a mage too, and she is of a higher grade than him!”

”Higher? What grade is Cuisi? What grade is Su?”

Sharman was speechless, but she became happy very quickly and said, ”If Saleen is as strong as you say, I will be better off following him than continuing to stay with the family.”

”Of course. Your sister's status dropped the moment the Emperor passed away. If she had not been given the title of 'Baroness', she could still continue to stay on in the family just by being a direct descendant. Now, all the elders are worried that her relationship with the Emperor will have an impact on Holy Rock City's… Forget it, you know what I mean. Since your sister has gone to Metatrin City, it means that she has decided to be independent. Aren't the children in other families the same? If you follow Saleen, you might even do better than your sister.”

Sharman was puzzled and asked, ”Auntie, why do I feel that he seems to think more highly of me than sister? She is a grade-4 mage!”

Sharman could not understand why this was so. On the Myers Mainland, even if you were a black metal grand swordmaster and could suppress grade-4 or even grade-5 mages, you would never be given the same level of respect as a grade-4 mage. The mage in a team would be able to lead everyone, but a grand swordmaster would never be able to do so unless he has at least reached the level of silver grand swordmaster.

”Silly child. You have been staying in Metatrin City for a few months now, haven't you realized that Metatrin City has no lack of mages?” Sharman's aunt laughed bitterly.

Aini personally oversaw the cleaning up of the battlefield. There were a total of ninety-three grade-4 magic nuclei taken from the metal-armored giant lizards. Saleen did not need these magic nuclei and had already promised to give them to Aini. All the magic nuclei would not even have been able to make up for the loss of a grade-7 scroll. Although the skins of the metal-armored giant lizards had mostly been burnt, they could still be used as materials to create high-level leather armors. Not only did these high-level leather armors provide the same level of defense as metal armors, they were also much lighter.

Of course, Saleen did not care for these materials, he already possessed dragon skin. If he wanted more materials, he might as well go to the oceanic ice block to hunt for red krill. Their armor provided better defense, were lighter, and were easier to be enchanted with magic.

On top of the magic nuclei, there were more than five-hundred corpses that were more or less intact. Aini kept them and slowly began to create undead soldiers. The advantage that undead soldiers had over skeletal soldiers was that if they were given sufficient time to train, they would be able to wield human weapons. In berserk mode, they could even be used to attack.

These undead soldiers were much more agile than skeletal soldiers. They could overcome obstacles and even use their nails to climb up straight walls. When undead soldiers attacked a city, bows and arrows would be useless against them. Only huge rocks or pouring hot oil would be effective against them. These two forms of attack would take a long time and would still not be able to defeat a large number of undead soldiers. Ultimately, the only way was still to fight them head-on.

Most of the heavy-armored knights' armors had been destroyed and largely melted. Aini kept them anyway. Cleaning up the battlefield required one to be detailed and meticulous in order to try to recoup whatever was still available. These armors were made from refined metal that had been mixed with refined bronze, as well as pure iron that was as thick as a finger. Even if they were to be melted, they would still be able to fetch more than one-hundred gold coins.

In comparison, the losses suffered by the bandits were far more than Saleen's. Saleen only expended two scrolls while the bandits lost three zun grand swordmasters, one-hundred heavy-armored knights, metal-armored giant lizards, and more than one-thousand men. In total, excluding the three zun grand swordmasters, the bandit gang lost more than one-hundred-thousand gold coins.

Wars never built and only destroyed. The caravans were not any better. The metal-armored giant lizards' magic nuclei could be sold for at most four-hundred gold coins each and were less than forty-thousand gold coins in total. Including the other materials, they would only be able to recoup about sixty-thousand gold coins. The caravans lost about forty men and the money that they would have to pay for their death benefits would be more than ten-thousand gold coins.

Aini's magic wolves had already been turned into death magic wolves and would be hard to sell. These things were not worth much to a death mage and element mages did not like them either. The entire batch of goods had gone to waste so Aini could only keep them for himself.

There was no other way. No one knew if the bandits would retreat or continue to fight on. If their numbers kept increasing, they could very well have succeeded in breaking through into the camp. By then, Aini would not have been able to escape with the magic wolves and would have to leave them behind. If that was the case, he would not even have any death magic wolves.

Saleen lost two scrolls and some arrows that he had given to Aini, but was physically unhurt. Saleen managed to succeed in convincing Sharman by using the two scrolls, ultimately it was still worth it.

If Sharman was more mature, Saleen would have to give up a lot more in order to pull her to his group. A sixteen year-old zun grand swordmaster was bound to have a bright future.

At the end of the day, the problem lay with the Rolande family. Even if Sharman was only a swordmaster before she left for Metatrin City, her sister was already a grade-4 mage. The Rolande family was willing to let go of such a talent for fear of how Holy Rock City might treat them.

There was a map on the table in Saleen's barrack. It was not very detailed as the magic map that was manufactured at that time did not include the present northern territories of Phoenix.

There were three routes leading south from Telensu Town. Saleen chose the middle route and proceeded for two-hundred miles before arriving at a bigger city.

”We have to repick the route that we want to continue on. My flying puppets have chased for two-hundred miles, but are unable to tell which direction the bandits were headed towards.” Saleen gestured on the map as the men that had been summoned over were a little muddled.

”You want to chase after those bandits?” Sharman shouted. She has already lost some soldiers and did not wish to go into battle again.

”No no no. The bandits' battering ram has been destroyed here. Their original aim was to attack a city. Without a ram, they will need to use more soldiers. We will just catch up with them and see how the noble families of Phoenix will deal with this.”

”Isn't that the same thing?” Sharman muttered to herself.

”It's not the same thing. If the bandits manage to take the city, we will follow and exact revenge for the noble families of Phoenix. If the bandits fail, then we can just ignore them.”

”You wish to take over a city? We do not have enough men!” Aini cautioned. He wanted to take over Phoenix's city too. The more places that Saleen controlled, the more benefits the caravan would be able to reap in the future. Right now was clearly not the best time to try and take over a city. There were less than one-thousand men in the caravan, including the servants. Even guarding a small city with a circumference of one mile would be a tall task. That was already taking into account that a death mage like him was present.

”It's not that difficult. I have already sent a message to Lex. Whichever city is attacked down these three routes, they are only two-thousand and four-hundred miles away from Metatrin City. To get here from Metatrin City, a light-armored knight will only need six days while a foot soldiers will need just about ten days[1].

”Surely the bandits will succeed in less than ten days!” Aini still did not understand.

”That's why I want to follow. Once the bandits succeed in taking the city, we will chase them out. We will not guard the city. Instead, we will let the puppets and spirits of the dead destroy whatever defences the city still has. Once we are more or less done, we will leave immediately. If the bandits were to come back and try to repair the defences, they will not have enough time because Lex's troops will have reached by then. The bandits will be no match for her forces.'”

It finally dawned on Aini that Saleen wanted to destroy the city because no one in the entire north had been able to defeat Lex's knights on the fields of battle. If Lex were to help the noble families of Phoenix win back their city, there was nothing Holy Rock City could say.

If the noble families of Phoenix wanted their city back, they would have to pay Lex gold coins. The city was not destroyed by Lex so she would not need to pay them anything. She could just take their money and go. The noble families of Phoenix would be left with a city without walls and defense. Sooner or later, this place would belong to Saleen.

Saleen's plans were tightly linked to one another. If the bandits had an objective that they wanted to achieve, they would attack again sooner or later. If this went on for a few more rounds, most of the noble families of the northern part of Phoenix should more or less have been killed by then.

All the noble families of Phoenix with fighting forces had already left for Metatrin City. The remaining noble families were those that were only eking out a living.

After figuring out Saleen's intentions, Aini sent out fifteen knights and divided them into three teams to chase after the bandits. They would only need to chase or a few miles to find out which city the bandits were intending to attack.

Sharman could see that Aini and Saleen supported each other very well. She thought to herself, ”I have already decided to follow Saleen, surely I need to do something? Aini has allowed Saleen to make use of all his troops, as for mine…”

”Brother Saleen, since I have decided to follow you, I have about one-hundred soldiers with me. I am not good at commanding. Please go ahead and deploy them as you please.”

Saleen did not stand on courtesy and nodded. Nevertheless, he followed military guidelines and only used one-hundred and twenty soldiers and split them into three troops. The remaining thirty soldiers continued to follow Sharman, ensuring her safety. Even the bravest general of an army would be protected by bodyguards when he went to battle.

Under normal circumstances, the strongest officer would have two-hundred bodyguards with him to form the core of the entire army. Leading at the front would be the suicide squads, light-armored knights on both flanks, foot soldiers in the center, and heavy-armored knights bringing up the rear. The officer and his bodyguards were the core of the battle. Even though Sharman was highly-skilled, Saleen would never let her go into battle alone.

The bandits' strategy of attacking with heavy-armored knights would have been effective against any single type of soldiers, but would be destroyed by any conventional armies.

After Saleen took over Sharman's soldiers, the servants followed since the wagons were already gone. In this caravan, only the horses that Aini's fifty bodyguards rode were real warhorses. The servants' horses could only be used to carry tools and equipment while traveling.

Even so, Saleen was still pleased. He armed everyone with iron crossbows. The soldiers' crossbows could be hung on their horses' stirrups to notch arrows while the servants' crossbows could only be operated manually with a notch wheel so it was twice as slow to notch an arrow. There were still more than eight-hundred men in the caravan. Now that almost everyone was armed with an iron crossbow, they were more than prepared if they were to encounter the bandits again.