691 A secret agreement Part 2 (2/2)

”Okay, Holy Rock City will acknowledge your authority.” Tiffany did not need to consult Ojarvis regarding such trivial matters, she agreed straightaway. Even Prince Safilos had only one thought towards Phoenix; to let Phoenix be segregated.

The Phoenix family had already declined, it was no longer loyal towards the Grukos family. The nobles in Phoenix bore much hatred towards Holy Rock City. It was best to let such a place fission. The lands in Phoenix were sufficient to be distributed to a few hundred nobles already.

In the eyes of a mage, it was okay for all the nobles to die, only the civilians needed to be kept alive. Stephanie and Tiffany were not repulsive towards Saleen's demands. Saleen himself was a mage, so he would surely understand their thoughts. He thusly made his requests in a straightforward manner.

Just like that, Phoenix was betrayed once again.

Saleen did not allow the two sorcerers to live in the palace, he asked two people to lead them to Aini's duke's residence. Even though Aini's duke's residence did not build a magical tower, its size was identical to that of Saleen's temple. The important structures in the center were built according to the format of a magical tower, a five-story tower was built.

A mage still preferred to be in a place with a high concentration of the elements. They could practice magic anytime that way. Saleen's temple would never allow people like Tiffany inside unless the two powerful sorcerers had decided to follow him.

Saleen did not dare harbor any expectations, ”These two people are different from Nicholas, Nicholas is unable to return to his homeland. The world is so big, if I didn't let Nicholas stay, he would end up in a terrible state.”

Saleen made one move to obtain a passage to Laiyin Duchy and he had been permitted to build a city at the intersection of the four cities, so he was in high spirits. If Ojarvis had not signed a secret agreement with him, Saleen would only dare to deploy troops if he possessed more than five-hundred-thousand soldiers.

”Most importantly, I have obtained the Deep Forest Town, it has become my territory. It place will be developed into a huge city, then I will open a path through the magic beast forest to enter the Chaotic Swamp. Going through the secret passageway, I can attack Sikeqinya directly. In the future, once I go to war with Sikeqinya, I will have three attack routes. One from Laiyin, a second from the Chaotic Swamp, and a third from the sea.”

Saleen planned to station one of Lex's armies at the border and this army would be used to deal with Phoenix in the future. ”I cannot be allies with Holy Rock City, but I can be allies with the Bitter Water County. Both of us will split Phoenix among ourselves by then.”

That night, Saleen slept very well. The second day, Saleen summoned the nobles very early in the morning to talk about trade relations with Holy Rock City.

At the moment, Saleen had signed a secret agreement while Duke Barde had brought along a letter of credence. For the time being, there would be no war with Holy Rock City. Trade between the two cities could be greatly amplified. The status of Metatrin Kingdom had been recognized, Saleen's merchant ships could enter Lianyun City's harbor now. He would not need to wait for the southern merchants to come over.

Saleen could finally build ships openly and he was going to do it frantically.

During winter in Metatrin City the shore would have a frozen region spanning two-hundred miles. Saleen's main agenda was to manufacture warships and armored merchant ships. To open the sea route and look for an island which was suitable to function as a military port.

The four dukes had the financial power to purchase merchant ships, but they did not have the ability to build one on their own. The earls and the smaller barons and viscounts could not afford to buy ships, they could only rent from Saleen.

The nobles still made a profit by renting ships, so they were willing to rent from Saleen's city. It was way cheaper than renting from the south. Saleen also owned escort fleets, the merchants would not be afraid of running into pirates.

Saleen never planned to organize a merchant team, he did not even want to open a shop in Qin. He only wanted fleets. As long as the fleets belonged to him, everything else would also be his as well.

In three days Saleen had prepared a ceremony, which was not considered grand, to receive the letter of credence from Duke Barde. Saleen also wrote a letter of credence based on strict rules, he then prepared an envoy group which would return to the Holy Rock City with Duke Barde.

Since Metatrin City had to build an embassy, Holy Rock City had to construct an identical structure too. Both parties would station their envoys in the embassies. In the future Saleen would not need to send people over personally if he wanted to contact Holy Rock City.

Saleen realized that Duke Barde was actually very easy to get along with after his arrogance had been flattened. When Duke Barde held private discussions with Saleen to buy some magic nuclei, Saleen happily gave him one-hundred magic nuclei.

These one-hundred magic nuclei had a market value of two-hundred-thousand gold coins and Duke Barde accepted them gleefully. Saleen did not ask him to do anything. In Qin, this method of maintaining cordial relations was commonplace.

If Saleen had any requests in the future, Duke Barde would not return Saleen more than forty-thousand gold coins worth of items, this was the rule. It was highly likely that Saleen would never demand anything of him. Saleen would let Duke Barde owe him a favor. Using this favor, both parties would engage in activities which were mutually beneficial.

Saleen knew that twenty-thousand gold coins would not be sufficient to bribe a duke.