Badge in Azure

Nicholas remained smiling, then said, “If you choose to be angry, I can do nothing either.”

Nailisi had killed people on the street in the open, naturally some merchants would be unhappy. They recognized Saleen, they thought that the two Cloudflow merchants had bumped into the owner of the city and been killed for it. Nobody made any movements. Just as the crowd was about to disperse a fellow dressed like a Sikeqinyan emerged suddenly and yelled, “City owner Saleen, you are such a violent person, we can no longer remain in this city!”

This time around, Nicholas sprang into action immediately. A bolt of black radiance flashed between his fingers, landing on the forehead of this merchant from Sikeqinya. A black symbol appeared at the top of this merchant’s head, levitating in mid-air.

Nicholas took two steps forward and waved at this Sikeqinyan.

The Sikeqinyan’s face was white as sheet, then Nicholas said, “You are infected with an evil marking and your vitality will be burned as a result. This symbol will remain above your head, it cannot be concealed… unless you die. If you want to live, then tell me the reason for doing that just now.”

This skill was more ruthless than Nailisi’s. If this man turned to leave his life would ebb away slowly.

That Sikeqinyan was terrified, he wanted to leave, but he felt that his vitality was decreasing rapidly. If this went on, he would die of old age in at most six months’ time!

“Get this off me right now!” This merchant did not know what an evil marking was, he still tried to delude other people. Just as he was about to verbalize some threats, Nicholas opened his mouth again.

“You are from the Holy See, am I right, I can detect that familiar scent. Everyone, please be careful, spies from the Holy See have infiltrated this city. These people want to assassinate the city owner, otherwise this merchant wouldn’t have taken the risk to offend the city owner. Is this person here to earn money, or to achieve some lofty ambitions?”

Nicholas was knowledgeable, this sentence from him was actually an altered version of a proverb from Sikeqinya.

To a Sikeqinyan, earning money would forever be more important than ideals. It could be said that most Sikeqinyans regarded money as their ideals.

The surrounding onlookers dispersed with some commotion, Nicholas’ words were more potent than a weapon. Everyone had their doubts now, “Since this person is a Sikeqinyan, what right did he have to stand up for a Cloudflow person? He had admonished the city owner to his face, doesn’t he want to make money?”

Saleen felt a little awkward, “The reputation of Sikeqinyans isn’t too good.”

“You!” The Sikeqinyan pointed at Nicholas, then he realized that a tinge of white holy light had appeared on his finger.

“Trying to cleanse me?” Nicholas sneered. A black worm flew out from his hands, exploding on the Sikeqinyan’s finger. The finger which was pointed at him was amputated.

The Sikeqinyan could not clear his name, the holy light was created by Nicholas.

Seeing this scene, Saleen could not help but be awed, “This quack from the Holy See is powerful, he caused that Sikeqinyan to fall into a trap with a few words. Of course, that Sikeqinyan isn’t innocent either, he must know some information. He is probably also an assassin. It is impossible to prevent assassins from infiltrating the city. Nevertheless, I have remained within the perimeter of the temple for most of the year. The patrollers there are either Caucasus people or spirits, outsiders will not be able to gain entry.”

Saleen was afraid that these people would assassinate merchants in the city and wreak havoc.

At this moment, another group of soldiers came by. When they saw Saleen, they bowed. Nailisi pointed at the Sikeqinyan and said, “This is a spy from the Holy See, capture him.”

This team of troops was very fearful of Nailisi, because there were rumors circulating in the army saying that a maidservant beside the city owner was a demon.

While being full of respect for the city owner, they also became extremely scared of Nailisi.

“Luckily the city owner is a powerful mage, he must have tamed this demon.” Their fear of demons in turn increased their adoration for Saleen. These people did not know magic or understood the workings of a contract, an evil thought inevitably appeared in their minds; “That demon must be fond of the city owner, that’s why it submitted itself.”

Now that Nailisi had spoken, these soldiers acted furiously as they captured the Sikeqinyan. The Sikeqinyan wanted to resist, but whenever his actions became exaggerated or he exerted himself, he realized that he could not gather his strength. It was as though a small hole had been created in his head. The moment any strength was used, it would leak out from this tiny cavity.

He was a grade-4 assassin who got impacted by a level-7 depraved divine spell cast by Nicholas. It was basically a joke that he wanted to resist capture.

“Bring him to the academy to be interrogated by the mages.” Saleen gave a brief instruction, then began walking in the direction of the temple. The rest of the merchants had dispersed, none of them wanted to create trouble. They were smart to realize that something was amiss and they were afraid of attracting trouble to themselves.

After entering the area of the temple, Saleen smiled and said, “Nicholas, that evil marking of yours is very interesting.”

“My lord, that divine spell… is indeed evil. As long as one is hit, they will lose their resistance ability. In the Holy See, this is the most common method to deal with heretics.”

“Heretics?”

“Mm, as long as one is hit by this divine spell, they become a heretic even if they weren’t one originally,” Nicholas elaborated.

In astonishment, Saleen asked, “Isn’t that accusing people falsely?”

“For the god, whatever those in power do is righteous.” Nicholas’ voice became increasingly anguished. The moment he was no longer the Holy See’s associate, he discovered that his actions in the past were extremely nefarious.

This group of people returned to the temple. Saleen handed the drawing of the broken-edged barrier to Nicholas, asking him to help re-design it. Saleen and Nailisi then returned to their rooms to rest. Saleen’s left hand had not fully recovered yet, causing his actions to be slow, it was extremely challenging to learn new spells.

In less than an hour people had reported that the Sikeqinyan had confessed.

Saleen did not bother visiting the prisoner personally. On a broader scale, the problem was very simple. The Holy See had released a bounty, whoever killed Saleen would receive a reward of one-hundred-thousand gold coins.

One-hundred-thousand gold coins was sufficient to make people put their lives at stake. Any noble below the rank of an earl would consider taking this risk to obtain such a reward.

At the same time, Saleen also learned that Theisio was not just targeting him, many prominent Qin nobles were also on the bounty list.

This idea was very effective in handling Sikeqinyans, but it would be much worse when used against Qin people. The aides serving the Qin nobles were very reliable people. All along, the Holy See’s credibility had been doubted in Qin. Naturally, very few people were tempted, but Cloudflow and Sikeqinya were different.

There was an assortment of assassins amongst the Cloudflow people, while there were many desperate mercenaries among the Sikeqinyans. The moment this news was released many people would go forth to have a shot at this task.

This bounty list disseminated by the Holy See had been around for quite some time, but Saleen was newly added onto it. Before the expeditionary army arrived, these assassins had already entered Metatrin City. The city’s internal controls were strict and Saleen rarely came out in the open, so they never had the opportunity.

“Bounty? I can do something like that too!” Saleen burst out in laughter, he did not give a hoot about the Holy See’s bounty. He only needed to remain in the temple obediently. With so many experts present, even Bain would not be able to kill him.

“Master, you don’t have to spend this money. Holy Rock City also has bounties to kill the people in Holy See.”

“Why don’t I know about this?”

“You are a city owner, a king, are you going to carry out an assassination personally?”

“Nailisi, let me ask you, did you devour the heads of those bodies on the battlefield?!”

“Master, they cannot fetch much money and they were all low grade holy masters.” Nailisi answered shyly, she knew that her master would not haggle with her over such small prices.

Of course Saleen would not mind. Nailisi’s greed for money was also different from humans, her greed stemmed from the instincts of a demon to dominate resources. There was an interesting aspect about Nailisi, she loved going after the feelings of a human. This was the reason why she had rewarded the first team of soldiers today.

“Mm, I am not in danger, but I am afraid the civilians in the city will come to harm. Go… go and tell Sika to deploy more manpower and carry out searches.”

“Master, the assassins won’t be able to create much uproar, when you do plan to open your arena?”

“Perhaps in July, Daniel’s manpower is still insufficient. I want to wait for the nobles to provide manpower.”

“Will we run it ourselves?”

“Yes, because they have been avoiding this matter from the start. Don’t underestimate the income from an arena, even though it is lower than from magic nuclei and ores, it is a tangible place. Every day it will generate income and can support the lives of many people at the same time.”

Seeing that Nailisi did not understand, Saleen continued, “In the city, there will always be idle people. If these people are not kept occupied, they will turn into underlying trouble, or become impoverished and become bandits. They might be bribed by the enemy and carrying out deeds to destroy the city. An arena can absorb these people, they will turn into our forces. The operation of the arena, coupled with the funds invested, will thus help these people make a livelihood. The town hall doesn’t have to contribute any money already.”

Nailisi said, “I still don’t get it. I am a demon, I don’t have to understand it. Master, since you are working hard to advance to a sorcerer, what will I do during this time?”

“Nailisi, the demonic city will be fully constructed in at most half a year. Interact with Sika more frequently and impart knowledge about the demonic plane to her. Didn’t you mention that the demonic city will be managed by her?”

“That was a casual remark, the real management will have to depend on the demons.”

“Were you deceiving Sika?” Saleen asked in displeasure.

“It isn’t considered cheating. Master, don’t let Sister Sika face a bunch of demons every day. She will be the city owner on paper and she can still command the supreme demons. You better look for someone else to manage the daily operations of the demonic city though.”

“Why?”

“Master, demons with high intelligence will behave properly, but the ones with low intelligence are bloody. Sister Sika is a priestess, her mood would be affected if she faced such creatures every day.”

“Then tell me, who should manage the demonic city? I can’t possibly be the one doing.”

Nailisi was in a dilemma, Saleen had many loyal people around him, but not many powerful people. Every person had their own tasks to complete, they could not take on a second role.

“Master, why don’t you let the magic beast swordsmen under Jola take on this job,” Nailisi suggested.