Badge in Azure Chapter 333

Chapter 333: Jola’s Request (Part 1)
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Saleen’s Quickcloud spell had been executed so quickly that no one could say for sure whether they even saw Jola being struck by the blue electric current. Even though the electric current was not too powerful, it gave Saleen enough time to finish preparing his ice attack. The entire time Saleen was finishing up his spell, Jola’s body was numb and he could not even move a single muscle in his body.
Jola was a creature of habit, and that happened to be his downfall. Everyone knew that the witcher spider was not a magical creature. To a grand swordmaster, magic beasts who could not do magic were easier to deal with than those who did, because they did not need to worry about being attacked from afar. Even though Jola had viewed the witcher spider as a threat, he had not anticipated the electric current attack. When he had, it was too late.
Back in Daniel’s death flames, Banchajanna opened his eyes suddenly and said with a hint of suspicion in his voice, “I feel… master’s essence!”
“I feel it too!” Diyabannersa said nervously. “No, I think it’s master’s lighting dragon? But it’s too far away from us!” Judikaka could not help but blurt out agitatedly. Discovering this very essence proved that coming to the Myers Mainland had been the right thing to do. The three kings did not dare call Shanglan by his name. Instead, they resumed addressing the man as “master”.
The three kings did not even bother to watch Saleen in action. They found these battles petty and an insult to the humans who had lived before them.
“Don’t talk about master behind his back!” Banchajanna said. They were deathly scared that Shanglan had not died. If Shanglan were alive, there was no telling what could happen. “Okay then, let’s sleep for a bit, shall we?” Diyabannersa said, without a hint of agitation in his voice when Shanglan’s name was brought up.
“Yeah, okay. Will Daniel wake us up when we get there?” Judikaka replied. He was not behaving like his usual self, no longer displaying any signs of intelligence. In fact, he even neglected to find the source of that essence. All he and the others wanted to do was escape the restrictions imposed by the scepter. They were not here to find Shanglan.
Saleen scattered his Quickcloud spell as he watched the enormous icicles emerge from the clouds. The six ice crystals had fused into one, with Jola effectively sealed inside. Jola was not dead, of course. His sword aura was circling inside his body rapidly to prevent his muscles and blood vessels from freezing over. He felt depressed as he was now in a lose-lose situation. If he could crank up the power in his sheath, he could shatter the ice crystals instantly. However, doing this would cause his body irreversible damage. Even so, if he did not, he would lose this battle with Saleen.
The grade-5 mage smiled as observed everything happening inside the ice crystals. After a long ten-minute wait, Saleen finally sensed Jola’s sword aura weakening.
What a powerful grand swordmaster! I like him, Saleen thought, delighted that he had been able to defeat a truly formidable opponent by himself. Jola was truly a master in swordcraft, and his sword aura was not only powerful, but also durable. Not only that, but he also possessed a powerful weapon. If the energy contained within the sheath were to explode, Saleen knew for sure that he would instantly die.
However, Saleen knew that Jola would not allow that to happen as it would not benefit him. A strong grand swordmaster like him was now in deep freeze thanks to Saleen’s adept skills. Unless Saleen scattered his spell, only death awaited the grand swordmaster.
Of course, Saleen had no intention of killing Jola at all. He was going to overpower this grand swordmaster and force him to become his loyal follower. The purpose of not enlisting Aini and Daniel’s help earlier on was to make Jola accept the outcome willingly once he single-handedly defeated him.
Saleen tapped his fingers lightly on the ice crystals as he revelled in the feeling of victory. He had not expected the electric current to be so effective, especially since it was the first time his witcher spider had used it in battle. He figured that he would be able to use this current to defeat even stronger opponents if the other party did not know about the ability.
Even those that were used to debuffs would be unable to move a single finger after being struck by the lightning dragon. To be able to successfully avoid getting hit by the current, one would have to be able to predict the attack beforehand and take necessary protective measures. That was because electric currents moved at a speed too fast for anyone to react to at a moment’s notice.
After another two minutes of not doing anything, Saleen figured that he had better release Jola soon. If not, the grand swordmaster inside might actually die. Saleen released the magic that he had prepared a long time ago to neutralize the ice crystals. Although it was always easier to scatter his own magic, Saleen could already easily scatter magic spells that were level-3 and below during actual combat, saving a huge amount of energy from his magic chords in the process. In other words, if he were to fight a junior mage, all he needed to do was use one spell and a dispersing scroll to finish him or her off.
Alas, this technique could not be further refined during the archmage stages because the mages in the past had only focused on scattering low-level magic. If Saleen wanted to learn how to scatter mid-level and high-level spells during battle, he would have to dedicate a lot of time into studying it.
The four magic beast swordsmen, upon seeing how Jola and Saleen had fought, decided to completely discard their intentions of fighting back. If they had been at the end of Jola’s sword, they would not have survived the attack. Since that mage had managed to defeat Jola all by himself, they figured that they probably should not do anything to set him off.
As the ice crystals vanished, Jola fell heavily onto the ground with a loud thud, half of his strength already zapped away by now. The sheath that was previously in his hand dropped into the snow, where it was picked up and passed to Saleen by a pirate.
As Saleen attempted to use his senses to further examine the sheath, he realized that he could not, for he was blocked by an invisible power. It was strong, but that was all. It had no attack power. He did not try to force the barrier apart. Saleen had felt the essence hidden inside of the sheath before. It felt like a very intimidating, sinister, and ominous presence. He figured that the purpose of the sheath was to contain this power from leaking to the outside world.
“Now can we talk?” Saleen said mockingly as he looked down on Jola, both literally and metaphorically. Jola had injuries covering him from head to toe, some owing to the snowkill, and others from the icicle attack. Most of them had come from being frozen inside the ice crystals. He looked absolutely pathetic at the moment, but he was like a cat with nine lives. He would live. Plus, since the sword aura had not been completely destroyed, Jola’s injuries would heal in no time.
“Okay… so I’ve been captured by you. I guess I’m just unlucky. I’ve apologized, what more do you want?” Jola spat out, his words gliding over his tongue smoothly without any pauses in between.
“Well, you see, my friend over here is a necromancer,” Saleen said as he pointed his finger at Aini.
As Jola shifted his gaze to Aini, the latter exuded some of his aura on purpose to frighten the grand swordmaster. Indeed, his move scared Jola to bits. Aini’s essence matched the unique essence that only the powerful force inside the sheath contained, which meant that killing people was essentially literally in his blood.
“I see,” Jola said as calmly as possible. He rolled his neck around and tried to sit up, but realized that he was locked in place by Saleen’s senses. After a brief struggle, he gave up.
“My friend over here needs a death creature to fight for him. You seem like a good candidate. Why not let him convert you into a death creature, and I’ll forgive you for offending me earlier on?” Saleen asked.
Jola replied with a defeated tone in his voice, “Mister Mage, just tell me what you want from me.”
Saleen replied seriously, “I’m not kidding. I feel that you will never agree to my requests, so I’ll settle for the next best thing and convert you into a strong death creature. You will have the memories of your previous life and you’ll retain your swordcraft abilities. Even though your sword aura will disappear, your strength will multiply by leaps and bounds. What do you say?”
“Just tell me what you want. I heard… that death creatures are not allowed to court women,” Jola replied shamelessly, stunning Saleen for a while. After processing Jola’s words, Saleen let out a hearty laugh before saying, “I do need a strong follower. If you’re willing to become one, you won’t have to become a death creature anymore.”
“I have a request,” Jola said.
Seeing that Jola still had the nerve to negotiate with him, Saleen hesitated for a moment before agreeing, “Shoot.”
“I’ll be your follower, if those four people become my men,” Jola said as he pointed at the four magic beast swordsmen
“Hm? But aren’t they your enemies?” Saleen asked, looking at Jola and observing his reaction.
“No, the greatest enemy of any human is themselves. The reason why the four of them are still alive is because I chose not to kill them. I might not have killed them, but the emperor might once they go back empty-handed. If I don’t step in, they may just die or become bandits. No one will dare take them in.”
“Then what makes you think that I will dare to take them in?” Saleen asked, putting stress on the word “I”.
“If you have the guts to accept me, then you will accept just about anybody else,” Jola replied with a frank look on his face.
Saleen nodded in agreement as he said, “We will need to sign an agreement to make it official. As my follower, you’ll have to fight for me, but you’ll also get all the benefits stated in the contract.”
Jola tried to pop his neck back into place as he looked around before quipping, “The people around you are so weird. And you don’t even have a single woman. I doubt I’d be satisfied by your benefits.”
Upon seeing how crude his words were and how differently he sounded from a typical Qin, Saleen replied with a blank look on his face, not willing to converse with him any more than he needed to. “Good, so you agree. We’ll sign the contract here.”
“Here?” Jola asked, shocked that the mage would be so anxious to sign the darn thing. He considered himself to be a somewhat trustworthy person. If he agreed, he would keep to his promise for at least… two to three years.
If Saleen had known that Jola’s commitments only lasted three years, he would definitely have gotten Aini to convert him into a death creature. However, what Jola did not know was that Saleen still had Aini, and Aini knew how to set contractual traps. Thus, Saleen did not care if Jola went back on his promise later on.
Saleen took out an advanced scroll and began writing down the contents of the contract. His fingers moved deftly, as if he had done this a million times. The fog that surrounded his entire body began scattering again. Without any magical protection, the dragon’s blood ink would freeze instantly once he took it out of his ring.
As the advanced scroll floated in front of Saleen, he started writing the terms and conditions of the contract, along with the magic array and magic patterns, swiftly using a magic pen. Technically, all he needed for the completion of the contract was just a normal scroll. However, the failure rate was too high for Saleen to risk anything. Plus, Saleen did not mind wasting a blank advanced scroll on a strong grand swordmaster like Jola. In fact, he thought it was a steal.
Jola did not do anything funny, for he knew that no lie could escape Saleen. He left a few drops of blood on the scroll, signed his name, and stamped his fingerprint. Before the contract became official though, he would have to give up some of his mental power. Yes, people who had managed to become grand swordmasters did possess some mental power. In fact, the amount of mental strength they had easily rivalled that of an ordinary mage.
As soon as everything was done, the scroll suddenly burst into flames and vanished into thin air, leaving nothing behind. Jola was taken aback for a second before he quickly regained his composure.
“The four of you, come over and meet your new master,” Jola said as he stood up, his body no longer locked down by Saleen’s senses. With a wave of his hand, he signalled for the four magic beast swordsmen to come over.
The four magic beast swordsmen hung their heads in defeat and made their way towards Jola’s side.
“Listen up, all of you. Your captain is dead. Even if you did not die here, according to Cloudflow law, you’ll be sentenced to death if you don’t capture me. Even if you do capture me, since you’ve lost so many of your comrades, you’ll no longer be allowed to serve the royal family. Your days will be miserable either way. I’m giving you a way out. This is Mage Saleen, my… master. I’ll be protecting him from now on, and I hope you’ll do the same,” Jola said without a hint of emotion in his voice.
“Jola, I still have family back in the Cloudflow Empire,” one of the magic beast swordsmen said sadly, his eyes brimming with tears.
“All of you here are orphans. What family are you talking about? You only have wives and no children. Just think of changing wives like changing clothes. Don’t you need new clothes every now and then? It’s a good thing,” Jola said, refusing to be shot down by any one of the four magic beast swordsmen. His original status and ranking over in the Cloudflow Empire had already been higher than all of them anyway. Plus, what he said was the truth. Most of the stringent Cloudflow laws had been passed down from the Fourth Dynasty. If the four of them refused to become Saleen’s followers, they would really have nowhere else to go.