Chapter 414 Surging Mood (1/2)

Story of the battle in the Imperial Capital had happened more than half a month ago spread through the Empire.

The Triplet Mountains' Imperial Capital was located at the central northern plains, connecting north and south as well as the barren desert in the west. It was the very heart of the Empire's politics and trade, with thousands of merchant teams coming every day to the satellite cities or marketplace at foot of the mountains to conduct their business.

At the same time, it was where news and happenings throughout the world came in or spread out.

The fight between Emperor Diamond and Radcliffe, Count of the North was undoubtedly a matter most concerning—that is, after a few beers. Therefore, in the matter of days, traveling traders and speedy magical communications had delivered the news to the more informed of nobles and merchant guilds. In weeks, even farmers busy with their harvest got the general idea.

Joshua's name once more became the center of attention; he dared to challenge a Legendary individual as a Supreme fighter himself after all. While he did lose he returned unscathed, which in itself was a legend to some extent. Naturally, everyone knew it was because the Emperor had stayed his hand, but it was still enough for people to relish the story.

Scattering rainclouds and throwing down torrential showers. Gale and elemental ripples sweeping through the entire Triple Mountain region, heat as if a second sun had descended. Those were caused by the sheer shockwave from the fight, which in turn helped common folk who had never witness a real fight between champions understand the power of extraordinary individuals above gold-tier.

The peasants may be able to disregard the reason for the brawl and simply fuss over the display of incredible power, but the nobles could not. Compared to Joshua showing his inconceivable level of ability once more, most head of clans wanted to know why the head of the Radcliffe family—one of the key pillars of the Royal Party—would fight against the sovereign of the Empire.

It was a scenario they could not even dream of.

But since nobody blocked the information from spreading, the nobles quickly got wind of the truth to piece together the general idea behind the incident.

Firstly, due to competition with the Radcliffe family, the Felthams's arms trade at the northern and eastern regions had taken a blow, along with many other smaller noble families and the reputable Sewards. With the Count of the North himself being on the Sacred Mountain and essentially missing, the Feltham family decided to hold talks and threatened the property caretaker of the Radcliffes.

The threats clearly did not work since the caretaker was assassinated. Such violence was no cause for concern for most of the nobles, however. Although such matters were depraved and would shame most of the clans with a long history, it was not unacceptable since it was regarded as part of the hidden rules.

Then things turned interesting. As if there was some obstacle, news of the caretaker's assassination did not reach the count at once. When it finally did, most of his subordinates in the Imperial Capital were killed—believing that Joshua feared them, those foolish Feltham midgets did not hold back, becoming more bloodthirsty the more they killed.

Needless to say, Joshua rushed to the Imperial Capital afterward and cut down the second son of the Seward family as well as three members of the family proper. If His Majesty the Emperor did not happen to be present at the Capital and moved to stop him, the outraged Mr. Count would have fulfilled his promise and charged towards to the northeast of the Empire to kill all six Felthams in their very own territory.

”Remember to tell that bunch that they still owe me two lives.”

Those were the words the Radcliffe family head left before departing the Imperial Capital—he clearly has not killed enough. If not for Israel stopping Joshua's killing streak and compelling the noble to seclude himself in the Northern Realms, the count would not have hesitated to head to the Felthams looking for trouble.

The matter had circulated with extraordinary speed amongst the nobles. Some were unconcerned, others raised eyebrows, but most of them grew cautious about that count who would take his cleaver at the slightest annoyance. As for the few others left, half were clapping in glee, and the other half seething.

Of course, those seething were the two families who had most of their people killed or maimed. While they were enraged over the deaths of their own kin, they had nowhere to vent since Israel had essentially taught Joshua a lesson. It was already a very serious punishment to have a Supreme fighter who could challenge a Legendary elite to stay in the North for a year.

And there's the fact that they could not fight him or find a way to seek payback.

Not being able to fight him was entirely understandable. According to some estimations by organizations behind the scenes, the northern count's combat strength could be classified at the pinnacle of Supreme following after fighting the frenzied dragons at the Battle of the Sacred Mountain and the Emperor himself.

In short, he was above the standard of the older Supreme men, and even the commanders of the Five Great Armies would hardly compare. The fact is undeniable even for his enemies—Joshua's war record had been witnessed time after time and could never be faked.

It was not unusual that there was no opening for them to seek payback either. Before the Northern Lands had set up the warp network a year and a half ago all four territories were in fact isolated. All their trade with the outside world relied upon draconic caravans and the Magel's Unfrozen River, and all were direct deals with the Imperial Family and the Five Great Armies.

Now, with Joshua himself being kept in his own territories for a year, it would take incredible lunacy for the Felthams to attack their merchants. As such, they simply could not conjure any idea that could help them retaliate against the invincible Northern Count.

All they could do was hold it in and wait for the opportune moment to strike back.

Meanwhile, the more his name spread, the higher Joshua's reputation became. Even the many formidable adventurers who were not concerned with any happenings or politics and concentrated solely upon their expeditions became familiar with his name.

Several parties of adventurers and mercenaries had therefore gone to the perimeter of the Great Ajax Mountains and its perimeter just to get a glimpse of the 'Most Powerful' Supreme-tier count out of sheer curiosity. Therefore, even if the snowflakes of early winter had fallen there was still a steady stream of them heading for Moldavia.

Furthermore, the travel ban was meaningless.

The North would be immeasurably cold in the coming half-year, and as the liege of his land he had to stay, constantly vigilant against the wave of malevolence coming from the Dark Forest. As the dean of Winter Fort Academy he also had to prepare for the next early summer assessment with Nostradamus, not to mention the construction of the runic factory and the production of enchanted armor.

If no huge and sudden incidents similar to the Anos Abyss, the warrior would be busy over a year according to his timetable. There was no time for him to leave, and there was the looming Harvest Festival as well as the nature magister's procession who would arrive anytime.

Starfall 833, Fifth of October, the Great Ajax Mountains, Moldavia, The North.

At the volcanic karst flooded with lava, a team of mages and workers wearing simple suits of magic armor were working. The mages were turning stone into mud and using quick transporting spells to dig up a passageway while the workers who were in their highly insulated and fire-elemental resistant armor carried off boulders of inert stone and minerals.

Under the guidance of spells, their excavation went quite fast and in the proper direction. As every laborer evaded magma lakes and spots of heavy mana condensation, the effectiveness of their enchanted armor kept them efficient.

They were a small engineering team sent here by Joshua to dig up the passageway to the Illgner dimension. After the attack by the Evil God of Calamity, the volcanic Mount Sigma had completely disappeared, therefore also sealing the portal within the lava cave inside Mount Great Ajax temporarily. The rising lava then filled the entire karst, filling the cave that reaches to the surface with solidified lava.

To ensure that the way between two worlds could be unearthed before the nature magister arrived, Joshua had dispatched several lecturers at Winter Fort Academy as well as mages from the Guild who were still researching the Black Blood Plague. He had even got several knights under his command to wear the enchanted armor and act as a miner.

Under the protection of those armor plates, the Silver-tier knights could be provisionally spared the fear of lava. The proficiency of having two extraordinary groups combine was also terrifying—in less than half a day they had completed a quarter of their target and approached the karst where the dimensional passageway was deep below ground.

They even uncovered a rich vein of fire elemental crystals.

The day's work ended by evening. The leader of the teams—a dwarf familiar with volcanic zones used a spell to give Joshua the work progress. He factually reported everything to the count who was in Moldavia and awaited his next orders.

Still, there was not much for the warrior to say apart from giving a few words to encourage them, along with reminding them to be cautious about safety.