812 An Expensive Honeymoon Part 2 (1/2)

The funds that Saleen was actually able to take for himself without fear of criticism from the nobles, were the royal allowance allocated to him as the king. As Sika put it, without any other actual royalty in the Metatrin Kingdom, and only nobles around, these was no one who actually cared about the treasury.

”I'm the only one? Says who?”, Saleen said as he caressed Sika's belly gently. There were two children moving about within, who, within a few months, would come to the world.

Sika leaned into Saleen, ”It's all thanks to them that you can't actually play with me even if I wanted to. That is fine. I can feel them both inside, and that makes me happy...”

Sika laid down again and snuggled up to Saleen, refusing to let him catch any more beasts. She merely wanted to stay by his side and quietly listen to his heartbeat.

Daniel sat behind his desk alone in the city council building of Metatrin City, after Saleen's fleet had left, he was in no mood to read all those documents lying about. He was initially very keen in his role as a municipal official and found the work to be rather fun. He had no intentions of leaving the place, however, doing so had him slacking in his practice of magic.

Despite only having half as much time as he used to have to practice, he nonetheless felt that he was nearing his time for advancement. This was something near-impossible, as the advancement of death mages to the rank of sorcerers was far more difficult than that of elemental mages. He had slacked in his practice, yet he neared the next stage quickly.

Saleen had the winged skeleton wash Daniel's Dead Soul Flame right before he left. Daniel had, at the time, felt that if he were to just put his work aside and train for a week, he would have been able to almost fulfill the requisites for advancing into the rank of sorcerer. That would have been a process of accumulation and he was not allowed to simply break off.

His desire for advancement had returned despite having almost given up on the idea.

Despite being born a lesser noble, and liking being an official himself, his greater identity was that of a mage. He was a mage who was different from other Tanggulasian mages. The possibility of advancing into the ranks of sorcerer proved very, very tempting to him.

Then again, he was a follower of Saleen, and putting off the task given by his master would have been doing Saleen a disservice. Metatrin City was in a very busy stage at that moment, and he had great teamwork with the other officials in the city council as they were very familiar with each other. If anyone were to replace him as the one in charge, there would be problems waiting to happen. The situation was compounded by the fact that the city council had always been short in hands, with all menial labor delegated to the spirits. If he were to leave, there would be a need for recruiting new personnel. That would be bad for keeping secrets.

Bang bang bang...

Sounds of hurried knockings on the door pulled him from his deep thoughts. ”Come in,” said Daniel in a lazy tone, and stamped the document in front of him without looking at it much. ”The nobles are sure as greedy bunch. Asking for a tax reduction, and then wanting to buy land. They're even thinking of increasing the number of farmers working on their land.

These matters were originally handled by Saleen, but with both Saleen and Sika gone, Nicholas was in charge of things. Daniel denied that application laid in front of him without giving so much as a second thought.

Denied documents would not be returned to the applicants immediately. Instead, such documents were returned alongside other applications. Such documents were then put under lock-down in the city council, which would have the applicants waiting.

The one entering the office was a soldier sweating all over. After giving Daniel a rushed salute, he spoke, ”My liege, there are problems at the west side.”

”Huh? What happened?”

”A lot of people were poisoned. Some said that it was due to Metatrin City having too many spirits of the dead running about.”

Daniel tensed in reflex, and snickered, ”Noted. Go get Master Nicholas. Don't do anything drastic just yet. Get more people scouting for more news.”

The reason Daniel snickered was a simple one: he knew what happened. Daniel had not been one entertain malpractices of any kind in his work and did things by the book. That resulted in some people being dissatisfied with him and wanting him out of the picture.

While spirits of the dead indeed carried venom on them, the spirits had to release it intentionally. Spirits of the dead under control would not have poisoned anyone, even if they were literally stuck to someone.

What was most foolish about the people was that they had intended to kick him out with rumors. He was a follower of Saleen; it was a given that Saleen would not have even considered stripping him of his job because of some stupid rumors like that.

While Daniel himself had, by then, had little intention to continue becoming an official, he would not allow others lying about him.

Rumors were ridiculous child's play to mages. It required little more than a sorcerer's declaration to break them. Everyone would know such rumors were baseless at a mages word.

Daniel had not wanted to pursue that route. Someone died, and that meant it had become a criminal case. There was not even a need to guess if the poisons originated from a spirit. ”These people were willing to go that far, just to set me up!”

Daniel had not detected anything when Saleen was around, but someone would have made a move as soon as Saleen left the city. ”Sika really had her way of getting things done. Just rounding up anyone who dared try anything funny and having them dealt with. Things would be easier if I did the same.”

Nicholas was brought to the city council and listened to Daniel's descriptions. Nicholas laughed, ”That is a good thing!”