1018 Interrogation Part 2 (1/2)

Sika left the room and told the Caucasian warrior standing guard outside, ”go fetch Daniel. I need his help with something.”

Sika went to Jason after she was done giving the order.

”Teacher, the Holy See began to scheme against the kids. What should I do?” Sika asked Jason politely. She and Lex both respected Jason very much. Sika knew Jason was more than a teacher to Saleen; he was also a surrogate father to her husband.

”The best solution is to send the children to the interdimensional space.” Jason was also very concerned. Even though Metatrin City's defense was airtight, there was no guarantee that there were really no opening to be exploited.

”That can't do, teacher, I need to stay by their side,” Sika answered patiently. Jason knew a lot about many things, but when it came to how to deal with children, he was only able to pick up simple knowledge from books, and that knowledge was not always accurate.

”Then you can only do your best to keep security around them airtight. Better still, teach the Holy See a lesson. What Lex is doing is far from enough, I'm thinking...”

”Teacher, now is not the time to go against the Holy See. Our people can't make it deep enough into Tanggulasi just yet.” Sika was the de facto leader of the Kingdom of Metatrin, and she knew her priorities. None of Saleen's territories permitted him to enter the Tanggulasi Empire directly. If they wanted revenge, their only option was to hit the enemy's rear, which came at a dire price.

”Who said anything about entering the Tanggulasi Empire? Isn't the Holy See army inside Qin already? One of the armies is attacking Lonestar City and we have every reason to do something about that army.”

”Teacher, what Saleen meant was to not bother about what the Holy See was doing within Qin.”

”Saleen underestimated the Holy See's strength. The war has been going on for years, yet the Holy See army grows increasingly large. The Qin people, who're fighting at their home front, are the ones losing territory again and again instead.”

Jason stopped at that. He did not want to intrude on Saleen's tactical plans.

”Teacher, I'm thinking of having Daniel go check things out, to see who was the one who planned the assassination attempt.” Sika was relieved to find that Jason supported her way with things.

Sika dismissed Eleanor. They were absolutely safe within the temple. Both children were rather frightened, and Sika was unable to simply leave them alone, so she went to stay by their side.

Daniel showed up at the temple soon after. He was the general manager of Metatrin City. All three major duchesses needed to have his approval to go about their political businesses, which was a way Saleen kept the powers in check.

Daniel was very troubled. He found that he had been veering too far off the course of his ideals. He was a member of a hereditary line of nobles in the Tanggulasi Empire. While his level was low, he could have slowly made his way up. However, he chose to learn death magic instead, because it was his passion.

Now that he had sided with Saleen, he had ample material to conduct death magic experiments and train. Saleen even had the Winged Skull re-temper his dead soul flame for him. Even when he was busy dealing with official business, he was still able to advance and become a sorcerer.

What he loved most was still magic, but he could not leave the tasks given to him by Saleen unattended. Being a death mage meant that he had certain knowledge about the secrets of the soul. Few dared to lie to him when he was attending to official affairs. Furthermore, he could summon spirits to help and basically not have to do much personally. All he had to do was make decisions.

The problem, however, was that the affairs to be taken care of within Saleen's city grew by the day and he was unable to see the end of it. Daniel showed up at the temple looking exhausted, thinking that Sika had some new laws she wanted to announce and she was looking for him to talk about it.

Sika had always left such details for others to handle.

Sika returned to the second floor and met Daniel in the meeting room. Sika elaborated the assassination attempt at the harbor. Daniel sat up at his seat and looked rather angry.

”There are spies in the city, and they have infiltrated the army!”

”Correct, but the spy is probably a low level officer at most and not a part of the temple guards. Every soldier of the temple guards was inspected using magic. If there had been a spy among them, they would have been booted out long ago. It's not like we've never done so before,” Sika consoled Daniel. It was not Daniel's fault as he was not in charge of such matters.

Daniel set himself straight again, finding himself to have behaved rather impulsively, a reaction unbefitting of a death mage. He had been too irritated as of late. The three duchesses were difficult to deal with.

”Daniel, you've been following Saleen since the early days. Are you not wanting to be involved in the matters with the city council anymore? You'd like to focus on magic?” Sika was not in a hurry. The matter with weeding out assassins within the city would take a while. The assassins were mixed in terms of capabilities, but they all probably carried terrifying equipment.

The assassins killed by the magic cannon still had their weapons intact and left over for inspection, enabling their original attributes to be determined. Metatrin City was placed under lockdown by the magic towers and it was only a matter of time before the assassins were all found, meaning that they would not be able to do much.

”Yes, Your Highness, I...”