1364 Not Giving In Part 1 (1/2)

There was nothing wrong with becoming emperor. The position was filled with benefits, as it allowed one to take control of resources of the entire empire, making the most fundamental problem of furthering one's magic training to the top non-existent.

No powerful mages were dirt poor.

The founding emperor of the First Dynasty had been the most powerful mage of his time. He used the spoils of war gained from the dynasty's conquest as he wished. It was a piece of cake for that emperor to craft equipment and learn anything.

However, there were simply too many who had their eye on the position of emperor. Lex had faced all sorts of obstacles just to become a viscount. She would have definitely been hampered by the House of Commons in her ascension to the throne in an attempt to share her power.

Despite being a prince, Saleen had no intention of suffering restrictions of any kind. If that emissary dared to be so insolent, the terms brought would have definitely been something Saleen couldn't stomach.

Good. I'll kill anyone who tries to pull something like that on me again, and I'll see how Golden Plains deals with this.

But then again, it definitely had something to do with him taking the magic cube away. Ojarvis had been the one gifting the magic cube to him. As such, those in Golden Plains would not have found fault with Lex.

Saleen used to be cautious in his dealings and reluctant to take risks. Those at Golden Plains thought he was a pushover and probably sent someone like that emissary to make him balk.

Saleen refused to back down. From his teacher Jason, he learned to forge his own path. Without courage, his path would have been riddled with insurmountable problems.

In light of this, backing down even for a single step would have been deemed unacceptable. The magic cube was a gift to him by Ojarvis. If they wanted it back, they should have asked Ojarvis for it.

Now that Ojarvis was dead, Saleen didn't mind sending those who refused to talk to Ojarvis to see the late emperor instead. Of course, if he were to gain powers to resurrect Ojarvis in the future, there was no way he would have resurrected those people along the way.

Saleen's mood brightened at the thought of this.

Since Sika took the children with her, Saleen couldn't simply wait around like the Sreeger Island mages. He needed to think of ways to get to the interdimensional space. He still had no idea how to do that, but fortunately, he had over 100 thousand enchanters at his disposal. What those enchanters lacked in creativity they amply made up for with calculative abilities, which were on par with those of mages.

Saleen needed to formulate a space portal even if it was only enough to accommodate him alone.

It was unacceptable for him to just sit around and wait in Metatrin City. With his children still in the interdimensional space, Saleen was compelled to visit them and see what was happening there for himself.

To Rafel, that was unfathomable. It was easy for humans to produce children, unlike the gods, who needed to suffer drops in their levels if they wanted to bear children. Worse, such feats would have taken a very long time.

Even though Saleen was already a level-11 mage, having children would have been thousands of times easier than if the gods were to do it. Then again, Saleen cared for his children thousands of times more than the gods would have.

One big difference is that the gods would never take such risks for their children. Passing through an unfamiliar portal would have been far more difficult than giving birth.

”Saleen, was it worth taking such risks to have your children?”

Saleen took one look at Rafel and answered, ”Of course. I gave up over 1000 years of life for those two.”

”So then...it's how it is between me and the metal angels then?”

”It's different. I'm willing to do anything for my two children.”

”But you haven't been at their side for long. Don't humans usually stay by their children's side as they grow?”

Rafel's words hit where it hurt. Saleen recalled his own childhood before the two children appeared in his life. He had sworn secretly that he would never let his children spend their childhood in loneliness and that he would have made as much as time as possible to be there for them.

”I failed at that in the past and it's a mistake I do not intend to repeat.”

Saleen returned to the Floating City looking glum. Nailisi was initially happy to see Saleen return, but she heard that Sika had taken the children to the interdimensional space. There had been no news from them since. Now she was anxious, too.

Saleen tried to contact Lex and didn't bring up the matter with Sika. Saleen simply wanted Lex to come to Metatrin City.

Lex also mentioned that the teleportation portal between Metatrin City and Holy Rock City wasn't finished yet.

Saleen sensed something was amiss. The powers of Golden Plains made it impossible to spend more than an hour to get a teleportation portal for traversing in the same plane up. There was no need to gather materials for construction.

Lex, however, didn't drop any hints suggesting trouble in her conversation with Saleen. That's what made him so uneasy. This meant that while Lex was still in a ditch; it wasn't something she couldn't manage and things were not yet in a dire state.

Saleen had no choice but to consider the matter with his children for the time being.

If Lex couldn't leave Holy Rock City, she wouldn't have been able to use the God's Ring—and it was impossible for her to hand the ring over to anyone else.