1340 Gift Part 1 (1/2)
Ojarvis's words startled Saleen quite a bit. However, he somehow caught what Ojarvis meant between the lines—he intended to gift the magic cube to him, instead of losing it by Lex's hand. If he were to end up dead, then Lex, who was Saleen's wife, would have been spared considerable blame for not taking back the magic cube for the Qin Empire.
”Ojarvis, the magic cube belongs to the Grukos. You have no right to give it away.” Lex was not dumb. She was able to tell Ojarvis's thoughts as well.
”How long can a clan stay intact? Those dumb*sses in the Golden Plains thought that the clan would have been able to live on for eternity due to the power they amassed. They have long lost the mind and heart for forging ahead.” A tinge of sarcasm was seen in Ojarvis's eyes. The fact that a man who was about to die spoke of the Grukos in the Golden Plains in such tone was sarcastic enough, regardless of the expression shown on his face.
”Regardless, Saleen cannot have the magic cube. If you were to give it to him, then I shall take it back.” It was rather surprising that Lex objected right away.
Saleen simply smiled and Ojarvis continued, ”My sister, don't forget that I could strip you of your right of succession to the throne. I could do a lot in six days. Wait, no, it is already the fifth day now.” Ojarvis's sickly face looked tremendously determined.
Ojarvis's words surprised Lex a great deal. She had never known her little brother to be so determined.
Saleen then said, ”What is there to worry about, Lex? Are you afraid of Arbola? Or are you afraid of the nobles no longer backing you after hearing about this?”
”None of that. I'm afraid of doing something that would tarnish your reputation,” Lex answered.
”I'm about to write history. If I were to succeed, no one would remember this by the time I die. Furthermore, the magic cube is incomplete. Miss this chance and it would be ages before this grand concept could eventually become a legend of the mages.”
”The royal mages will object to this, Saleen. Without their support, we wouldn't be able to take control of the empire.” Lex then continued after seeing Saleen still smiling, ”Saleen, you can't bring the entire magic cube into the Floating City.”
”And why not?”
Lex sighed and said, ”The underground city wouldn't be able to hold off the invasion from the abomination plane for long. When all parts of the magic cube are almost prepped and ready for action, all magic arrays would be activated once it is fully operational. There would be a weapon spirit born in the magic cube and it would be one who would only acknowledge someone of the Grukos royal bloodline. Bringing the magic cube onto the Floating City will only get you into more trouble. I'm really afraid of the royal mages' objections, Saleen. If you're able to subjugate that weapon spirit, the mages' protest would be useless after all.”
Saleen then laughed and said, ”Well, it's precisely due to having to subjugate a weapon spirit that things could turn easy for me. I wouldn't be able to take such a big cube away otherwise.”
Lex then continued exasperatingly, ”Don't you know what the powers of the magic cube are like? How are you going to take this weapon spirit?”
”Lex, I haven't told you but the Floating City already has a weapon spirit, and one who has sparked divine fire.”
”Wait, what!?” Lex was wondering if her ears were playing tricks on her.
”I'm saying that the weapon spirit of the Floating City is a pseudo-god, and a level-13 one at that.”
”Don't you…” Lex bit down on the words before she finished. There was no way Saleen would have lied about something like that. No other mages would have believed that a god could have been used as a weapon spirit, but Lex believed it. If Saleen was not capable of such feats in the first place, he would not have been so confident about taking the weapon spirit of the magic cube otherwise. It was worth noting if something did go south when he moved the entire magic cube to the Floating City, then Saleen would have lost his most powerful equipment.
”See that, Lex? Saleen is indeed trustworthy,” Ojarvis exhaled a long breath. Lex helped him up and put a pillow under him to cushion him. ”Saleen, the matter with the magic cube is easy. I'm only worried about one thing.”
”Please speak, your majesty.” Saleen was very fond of Ojarvis, and it was not because the emperor agreed to help Saleen take the magic cube, but because he was Lex's brother.
”My sister here intended to build a nation of mages, but she failed. As such, help her out and see to it that her nation succeeds. This would be a very long task.”
Saleen was silent but Ojarvis knew that Saleen would help Lex one way or another regardless. Why is he bringing this up then?
”A quarter of the world's mages are at Alchemy City, with another quarter at Golden Plains and yet another quarter at the Kingdom of Metatrin. Most of the remaining quarter is at Qin, spread among the nobles, Holy Rock City, and Lex's principality. Building a nation of mages would earn the ire of Alchemy City first and foremost, while the Golden Plains wouldn't just sit by and do nothing as well. You would have to end up going against half of the mages throughout the entire mainland. Are you sure you are up for this?”
Reputation… Saleen recalled Lex bringing that up and found that the term actually had deeper implications. While the mages could have kept quiet about him taking the magic cube, if he were to resurrect the Goddess of Myers, the mages would have attacked him using that fact. There was a logical relation to it all. The mages would have only been roused to attack him for resurrecting the Goddess of Myers because he had taken the magic cube. However, resurrecting the goddess was something that he had to do one way or another. If he were to have absolute power over the others, then reputation would not have mattered. The problem, however, was that he only had a quarter of the mainland's mages serving him, and that was only having the power of the mages at the highest hierarchy of powers taken into account. The low-level ones were not even worth considering in that case.