Badge in Azure

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…”

“Just get these done for the moment. You’ll have all the time to train. Saleen sent me a letter telling you to be patient. He’d craft equipment suitable for death mage use for you. You’d be able to advance very quickly. You can go about reading more books now, which you are free to borrow from the temple. Jason will see to it.”

“That umm, Your Highness…” Daniel was not used to addressing Sika in such a manner. However, Sika’s powers were way above his, which meant that it would have been inappropriate addressing her without any kind of honorifics.

“Hahaha, Daniel. Just keep addressing me like that. If we do it according to Caucasian traditions, that honorific would have seemed even more suffocating, so much so that even I find it unbearable and order the Caucasian warriors to stop addressing me that way. Now I’m really thinking that ‘Your Highness’ is not really something all that special,” Sika consoled Daniel.

“Well then, tell me what should I do,” Daniel composed himself. He reminded himself that even if he were on the same level as Sika, he still would not have been a match for her. It was completely appropriate to address her with an honorific and there was no need for him to get frustrated with that.

“I’d need you to interrogate the assassins, nothing else. Death magic works best against souls after all,” Sika lied. As a nature priest, she was more capable at dealing with souls than Daniel. The powerful assassin was placed under her soul control skills before his weapon was broken with one strike from her staff.

However, Sika was not fond of using that kind of skill. Her actions would affect the children, and she had no plans of having her children becoming priests. Be it magic or swordsmanship, any would be a better choice than to become a priest who was expected to give them their all.

Sika was now in charge of over 100,000 Caucasians. She was unable to kill all the Caucasians that she had exiled. She needed to give them a way out, but she had to prevent them from rebelling again.

It was very troubling. Sika was a Caucasian queen and either her son or daughter would inherit the position in the future. However, she had no intentions of relying on the power of priesthood to forge the future of Caucasians.

Daniel nodded. “Your Highness, there are some means that I’m afraid that His Highness Saleen wouldn’t find to his liking.”

“It’s alright. The enemy was after my children. If Saleen knew that, you could burn their souls and make soul puppets out of them, and Saleen wouldn’t get angry in the slightest.”

“Very well then. I’m a death mage, and I don’t want people to mistake me for a black magician,” Daniel smiled. The task seemed to be simple. He was allowed to use any means to interrogate the prisoner.

“Alright, I’ll get a place set up. You can do whatever you want in there and no one will hear a thing,” Sika called for two grand mages to get a room set up, armed with a Mute Enchantment.

All the assassins within Metatrin City were rounded up by nightfall. The assassins were staying too close to the temple. None was able to escape the search of 36 magic towers. Most of the assassins died fighting and there were only five captured alive, who were all sent to the room. All of them had their tendons severed before being sent inside to break their sword aura. Every single tooth in their mouths was knocked out, digging out any poison they had hidden within.

Sika did not participate in the interrogation. She left it all to Daniel because she did not like doing such things. She would have taken control of the assassin before and he would have said something.

Daniel looked at the five limp assassins on the alchemy table and smiled while summoning his partner, Pikoosi the spirit.

Pikoosi’s two heads checked left and right, settling on the one who looked to be the oldest.

It was a skill of Pikoosi’s, which enabled it to determine whose soul was the weakest.

Daniel went on to introduce himself to the five captives. “Let me introduce myself. My name is Daniel, and I’m a death mage. I like researching the secrets of the soul and all of you are now materials for my experiments. If you want to avoid such an outcome, then tell me honestly, who is the mole in Metatrin City. But of course, you’re free to keep your mouths shut. It wouldn’t matter because I’ll have my ways to deal with you.”

Daniel’s smiled looked rather eerie. He touched the face of one assassin with his pale fingers. “I’m a death mage, and that is a very inconvenient for all of you. In my hands, death is just the beginning.”

The one that he touched was the one with the strongest attitude among them all. While that strong one was unable to move, their eyes shone with resilience and defiance. Many assassins were martyrs, and no torture would make them betray their masters.

Daniel’s smile grew as he took note of the assassin’s eyes.

“I like tough people. Souls that are too weak are not of much use to my research. In that case, let’s begin with you.”

Daniel told the others, “All four of you, pay close attention, because this would be a long journey.”

“No, I’ll talk. I’ll tell you everything!” The weak-willed one gave in before Daniel even did anything. They did not relent when their tendons were severed, but that particular one was finally unable to stand it any longer, knowing that Daniel was out for their souls.

“Patience. You’ll be the last. I’m not all that interested in your answers. What I like most is interrogating your souls slowly, after I’m done dissecting you. I might not get any secrets, but I’ll at least get interesting data. I’ll forcefully take the information from your souls, and when all five get pieced together, we won’t be all that far from the truth.”