Badge in Azure Chapter 264

Chapter 264: Land Reclamation (Part 1)
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
As the warships dropped their anchors, Saleen turned to look at the pirates, who looked like they were about to collapse on the pirate ship and spurt out blood any minute. Even though the northern winds were strong, a sailboat would never match up to a magically fortified ship. The sailors on the pirate ship had needed to expend a lot more physical energy compared to the mages manning the warships. Over the course of half a month, the one hundred pirates had been physically milked for all they were worth, but not once had any of them complained.
Saleen’s three warships were not there for decoration. It was too late for any of them to flee now.
As Saleen looked towards the mainland (which was unfortunately still very, very far away), all he could see were tall mountains looming in the distance. The mages onboard the pan’s turtle alchemical boat followed Lex off of the vessel and onto the battleship. She walked towards Saleen and only stopped when she was right beside him. Upon surveying the terrain, she shook her head in disappointment. There were just too many mountains, hills, and valleys. It would be impossible to clear all of them and build a harbor in this area.
The city that they were going to build had to be connected to Phoenix via land and Lianyun city via sea. The northern part of Phoenix was filled with mountains to the extent that even if there were a huge number of mages helping Lex and Saleen, they would never finishing clearing the mountains and paving roads in their place within three years.
Lex fished out her own magic map and opened it. Her eyes travelled towards the top half of the map and continued travelling upwards until she found the northern part of Phoenix. She zoomed in on the map and after closely examining it, she finally marked out a few points where they could potentially build a deep sea harbor.
One of the spots she had marked that was the closest to Phoenix was definitely a no-go. It was completely cut off from the outside world. Mountains surrounded three sides of the area and the only other side not occupied by mountains was occupied by sea. Over four hundred miles north was a completely isolated area which was also surrounded by mountains. However, the difference was that clearing these mountain ridges was more manageable there compared to the area four hundred meters down south. As long as she could get some people to knock down a few of these giants, she would be able to connect this small area to the plains located directly behind the mountains.
There were not many obstacles standing between the plains and Phoenix. One could simply travel west for about eight hundred miles before heading directly towards Phoenix to the south. The total distance for both journeys would exceed two thousand miles. As much as Lex preferred the direct route, a straight line connecting both places, it was peppered with mountains, making it impractical to travel that way. As of now, this was the fastest way to reach it.
“Two thousand miles? Even if we deploy the best chariots and force our horses to run for eight hours a day, we’d only get there after five days!” Saleen exclaimed as soon as he saw the map. Two thousand miles to Phoenix? To Saleen, that was just too much ground to cover.
“It’s not that bad. We can build our city over on the plains. It’s definitely not possible for the harbor near the sea to double up as a business hub, but we can build a second harbor about seven hundred miles south of the first one. It’s not like we need the second harbor to double up as a city to facilitate transactions. We can just use it as a place to dock our warships,” Lex replied.
“Won’t we stir up trouble by claiming this land as our own?” Saleen asked again, refusing to believe that there was no other way to go about it.
“Nope, the empire’s territory stops right at the borders of Phoenix. Any nobleman can expand the empire by reclaiming the land outside of the territory. However, no one wants the land here because it is not suitable for agriculture. Let’s also not forget the fact that this place goes through half a year of deep freeze, meaning that the water over at the harbor will be frozen over as well. Once that happens, there is no way to further expand and develop the maritime route connecting this area to Sikeqinya. If you think about it, the returns you’d get from reclaiming the land here would be too petty to even be remitted back to the royal family,” Lex explained.
“Then won’t you be bankrupting yourself?” Saleen asked, surprised at the fact that noblemen who owned land outside of the empire still had to hand over a fixed portion of their earnings back to the royal family. It was not hard to figure out why no one wanted such a big plot of land now.
“I am royalty. This could be the first plot of land reclaimed by the Bitter Water Prefecture. We don’t need to hand over anything to Holy Rock City. All I have to do is provide for the farmers here,” Lex replied.
Upon hearing Lex’s words, Saleen heaved a sigh of relief. Who knew that being a founder of a country would come with such perks.
After some more discussion between themselves, both Lex and Saleen started to fly until they reached midair before comparing the coordinates that they had obtained from the magic compass. After deciding on the relevant coordinates, Lex transferred the information over to her magic map and confirmed their current location.
As soon as the pirates heard that they would be given one night of rest, they slumped over onto their beds, too exhausted to even clean the ship. Saleen, on the other hand, was more energetic than ever. He commanded all the mages who were manning the three warships to gather around him and told them about the plan that he had discussed earlier with Lex. The mages did not have a problem following their plan. Jason had instructed them to heed every single one of Saleen’s orders unless it was a suicide mission or something that could potentially kill them.
After that much needed night of rest, the naval fleet set sail on the second day for about four hours until they reached Lex’s intended destination.
The area was still located north of the Myers Mainland, and was also surrounded by water and mountains. Lex could even see the silhouette of a peninsula located smack in the middle of the vast ocean waters. What made Saleen cheer inwardly with glee was the fact that the mountains were filled with purely white stones. He did not know what type of stones they were. All he knew was that they looked very similar to muscovite, aside from the fact that these rocks were exceptionally hard and durable.
These rocks would make it very hard for them to reclaim the land, given that they would have to drill through them in order to do so. However, if they were to build a harbor here, the rocks would ensure that the harbor was one of the sturdiest and most indestructible ones in existence. Saleen recalled the white city walls over at Pompeii. Hm… it looks like those walls were made using these stones… Saleen thought.
An extra bonus was the fact that there was a peninsula the shape of a crescent moon not too far away from here. A peninsula was a naturally occurring deep water harbor. To the north of the peninsula were two barren-looking white mountains that flanked both sides of the island. They looked to be made entirely out of white stone. Digging out enough space to construct a magic artillery battery would do wonders for the security of that naturally occurring harbor. If Saleen wished, he could even carve out a platform in the peninsula to fix the twelve magic stone columns in place.
The area behind the northern white-stoned mountain could also be a potential location for the construction of the harbor. In that case, Saleen did not see a reason not to convert the area they were in now into a large city instead.
The peninsula was filled with forests and the mountaintops would collect snow for almost half a calendar year, meaning that Saleen would not have to worry about extracting freshwater elsewhere since he could just collect the snowmelt and drink it.
“Okay Saleen, as much as I’d like to stay, I have to go,” Lex sighed as she looked at the moon-shaped peninsula for one last time. She was overwhelmed with emotion from all the recent happenings and what was in store for her in the future. She knew that if this area was not affected by the half-year deep freeze, it would have been dug up and reclaimed a long time ago. The crystal blue waters; white stone outcrops; the peninsula; lush forests – all blended together perfectly into a unique style and atmosphere which made the area seem especially appealing.
“You’re leaving?” Saleen asked with a crestfallen look on his face. Lex replied, “The materials your mentor gave me are not enough to build an entire city. I still need to make a trip back to Qin to buy them. Didn’t you say something about moving the Caucasians out of their villages? Since I’m making a trip to Loulan with Sika anyway, I could examine the situation there first. I probably won’t be back for at least half a year. During this time, your men will be pretty useless. I suggest you start with flattening out the hills and valleys to create flat ground first while you wait for me. Do refer to the blueprints if necessary.”
“How many people are you bringing with you?” Saleen asked.
“I’m probably taking one of the battleships. Just Sika and maybe a few mages will do. You can keep the remaining mages. I’ll dock over at Lianyun City and try my best to get back to Bitter Water Prefecture as fast as I can. After I reach Lianyun City, I’ll have them steer the battleship back to this place. I’ll be coming back here from Phoenix, which will allow me to do a survey of the areas suitable for the construction of roads and traffic lanes,” Lex said.
“Be careful,” Saleen said, the volume of his voice barely above a whisper. He did not want Lex to leave. Throughout the years that they had spent together, he had genuinely forgotten about her rank as a viscountess. In fact, he did not even think of her as an archmage who was two grades above him. He genuinely saw her as a friend and companion.
Lex was at a loss for words as well. Saleen could be considered her one and only friend. Out of the people closest to her heart, Faerun had passed on; she could not expect her mentor to stick forever by her side, and her father was dead. Now that she was being forced to part from the only friend she had made over the course of the past few years, she was overcome with a sense of grief and bitterness.
She told herself silently that half a year was not a very long time. To a mage, six months would pass quicker than they could blink. Lex attributed her current emotional state and her reluctance to part with Saleen to Jason’s psychological talks. Lex, get it together! You have more important things to do… Lex scolded herself mentally.
As Lex forced herself to think about the “more important things”, she started becoming sadder and sadder. As a person of royal blood, she realized that she had lost more things than she had gained. Take her current situation, for example. What kind of ordinary mage had to worry about building a city? What kind of ordinary mage would have to think about building an interdimensional teleportation portal that could allow the user to see anything and everything? If she had been an ordinary mage, she could have stayed peacefully in the interdimensional space with Saleen.
Forcing herself to toss these depressing thoughts out her mind, Lex put on a small forced smile as she told Saleen, “Maybe I won’t be docking after all. In fact, I’ll leave right now… Would you like to bid Sika farewell?”
“Of course!” Saleen exclaimed upon hearing Sika’s name, instantly forgetting about the pain of bidding Lex goodbye. He started to worry that Sika would be duped or conned if she left his side. He knew Sika too well. Her brain was filled with everything and anything regarding the subject of war. Not only that, but he knew that the only other thing Sika ever thought about was the people in her village. She did not, and would not care about other matters.
Most Caucasians were as war-oriented and community-oriented as Sika. That would explain why such a strong group of people could be in decline. They focused too much on these two aspects and paid no heed to other, potentially crucial things.
As soon as the decline of the Caucasians crossed his mind, Saleen decided not to go to Sika, but rather Daniel. The necromancer was a lot more honest and grounded now. After seeing how much backing Saleen had, Daniel was not about to do anything to provoke the ire of the dozens of sorcerers over on Sregl Island. All Daniel hoped was that he would be able to surpass Saleen in terms of rank so that he could fulfill the contract and get his freedom back.
“Daniel, I want the death toxin. Whatever you have, hand it over,” Saleen said bluntly. Daniel felt his heart bleed at the thought of having to give up his precious toxin. Nevertheless, he took out a small vial. The death toxin was not something that could be extracted. It was secreted by death creatures summoned from the death dimension. The serum was extremely rare, as well as lethally poisonous. However, necromancers often used this toxin when they practiced their craft.
As much as Daniel wanted to outright reject Saleen’s request, he knew that he could not. After all, Saleen had supplied him with so many magic nuclei. Saleen took the vial from Daniel and went immediately to Sika’s room, entering it without even bothering to knock. The sight of Sika reading a book surprised Saleen. Even though Sika was a literate person now, he had never seen her attempt to read books before.
Upon seeing Saleen enter, Sika put down her book and asked, “What’s the matter, Saleen?” Now that she was not carrying a weapon on her back, she looked a bit more feminine. Her long black hair rested beautifully on her shoulders. The armor which covered her animal-skin outfit hugged her body nicely, showing off her toned figure.
As Saleen told Sika about Lex’s departure and the fact that she was going to bring Sika back to the village with her, Sika cheered in delight. She leapt over the table and picked up Saleen off of the ground in a tight embrace before spinning him around a few times. It was a good thing that Saleen had already grown accustomed to these extremely violent movements when flying. Otherwise, his puke would have been all over the floor by now.
“Sika! Put me down right now!” Saleen shouted. No one could blame him though. Sika’s arms were stronger than those of magic beasts. Ignoring Saleen, Sika said happily, “I can finally go back to my village! I’ve always wanted to leave, but I was scared I’d lose my way.”
Seeing Sika without the desire to stay made Saleen feel strange. He had thought that Sika would not want to go back. It’s not really a bad thing that she wants to go back though… Saleen thought to himself as he passed the vial containing the death toxin that he had extorted from Daniel to her.
“This vial contains a substance called the death toxin…” Saleen said, pausing for a moment to take off his gloves. He stuffed them into Sika’s hands and said, “When you use this serum, remember to put them on. You can apply the toxin directly onto your boomerang. As long as the poison enters your target’s bloodstream, even the most powerful magic beast would be dead within seconds. However, this thing doesn’t take effect as quickly as my own poison. You need to be careful not to poison yourself when using the death toxin, understand?”
“Yes, I do. Where’s Lex?” Sika asked, her face showing a mix of joy and excitement.