Badge in Azure
Badge in Azure - Chapter 90: Tanggulasi Assassin Part 1

"Viscountess, why are there people preventing us from advancing?" Hu An asked, confused. On Qin Empire land, who would dare make life hard for the emperor’s daughter?

"Across the Lancang River is Hadisai City, the territory of Earl Mokolari. This fencesitter has finally sided with the lower house. Sadly, someone like him doesn’t have any guts. If he had really wanted to butter up my uncle, he should have sent cavalry to lockdown this bridge. I would have been forced to take a different, longer route. Do you understand now, Hu An?"

Hu An shook his head in shame. His family was not any great worldly family and he had no chance of gaining the rank of a noble. These inner workings of the wealthy were something that he had only read in books. Since leaving his home, he had been studying in Bitter Water Prefecture, focusing solely on the research of magic. He might have been able to fight, but was unable to understand whatever Viscountess Lex had just said.

"To put it into simple terms, someone is trying to make me lose face. If even an earl could obstruct me and force me to take a longer route, it would take me an extra half a month to reach Holy Rock City and in addition, the upper house would be disappointed in me. I think Mokolari is not ready to shed blood." As Viscountess Lex said this calmly, Saleen had already understood.

This was not a conflict between the old and new wealthy people of the empire. The emperor dominated the upper house and held control over the hereditary members of the wealthy. The prince dominated the lower house, controlling the new members of the wealthy. What was tragic to Saleen was that this had obviously been a move from the royal family to weaken the wealthy, and yet the old and new wealthy had never cooperated before and had not been able to resolve their conflicts.

The four empires had been built around the same time, but only the Qin Empire had gone for seven hundred years without the amount of the wealthy increasing to a dangerous number. The other three empires possessed serious problems. Sikeqinya faced corruption, Tanggulasi was being controlled by the Holy See, and the Cloudflow Empire had forgotten the glory of the Fourth Dynasty and now took part in the buying and selling of titles.

As for the Qin Empire, the two houses had been involved in a struggle, but the royal rights were still unbelievably firm.

The battle at the bridge was becoming incredibly bloody. Tenesee was at the forefront of a hundred cavalry who were charging forward in a wedge-shaped formation. Tenesee’s cavalry sword was four feet long, but near the sword’s handle was not a standard open blade. Instead, it was shaped like a rectangle. A golden magic array had been etched into it, and both sides had magic nuclei inlaid.

A few meters away, Tenesee single-handedly swung his sword, charging forward.

The enormous cavalry sword shot out a burst of dark purple flame. It was over ten meters long and landed right between the more than thirty soldiers at the foot of the bridge. Five soldiers were cut directly by this burst of flame, their entire bodies producing a burning smell as green smoke emerged from their armor. All five of them landed on the floor with a thud.

"It’s a magic sword, run!"

Swoosh…

Another burst of light emerged from the sword as the people screaming had their heads chopped off. Blood spurted towards the sky from their necks, which gave off a sizzling sound.

The cavalry of the Bitter Water Army had successfully split the formation of the enemy, and without looking back, they started charging onto the metal bridge. By the time their war horses crossed over, they had left over thirty bodies in the dust.

With the sound of a swoosh, a crossbow arrow came flying towards them. The light cavalry from the opposite side had been too anxious and had released a crossbow arrow too early. This arrow was shot from over two hundred meters away, and without even blinking, Tenesee increased the speed of his charge. At the front of his horse was a wind shield and since the crossbow arrow had been shot from too great of a distance and had insufficient energy to it, a light gust from the wind shield had sent it flying towards the river.

"Hmm, what a bunch of losers." Tenesee did not even bother to pull down his metal mask. Looking at the over two hundred light cavalry soldiers across the other bank, he swung his cavalry sword, ready for a second attack.

The army general on the foot of the bridge was shocked. Although Hadisai City’s soldiers had undergone tough training, in the seven hundred years since the empire had been formed, they had never seen such horrifying killings so far inland. Even before the hundred cavalry soldiers could charge towards them, an aura of death had already enveloped the two hundred light cavalry soldiers to the east of the bridge.

The hooves of the horses stepped onto the metal bridge, giving off a hurried thudding sound. The army general did not even stop to consider it before he took off and fled. Even though the opponents were not truly heavy cavalry, all of their armor seemed to be magic armor, especially the sword which seemed like a fire dragon. His confidence had been utterly destroyed.

The earl had only planned on humiliating them. Who would have expected such an outcome?

Without their commander, all two hundred light cavalry soldiers instantly scattered in all directions, as if they were an ant nest that had been disturbed.

Tenesee had lost his cool. He had possessed no intentions of slaughtering the enemy. The enemy to the west of the bridge had been disrespectful to the viscountess. Hence, he had killed them. However, the people on the eastern side had not even tried to defend their territory. They were the shame of all soldiers.

It did not cross his mind that these soldiers had trained in sheltered environments. How could they be compared to the Bitter Water Army? The swordsmen of the Bitter Water Army had undergone their training outside, some even as far out as the Tanggulasi Empire. They had blood on their hands. Killing bandits did not even need to be mentioned, and some had even killed high-grade magic beasts and possessed an unbelievable wealth of experiences in combat.

Even for the late Loki, the team that he had led had managed to kill a green dragon. Even though they were the weakest of the dragon clan, dragons could fly and there was a certain difficult when it came to killing them. Many mercenary groups with mages had also had trouble defeating the crafty green dragon.

Tenesee gently kicked the belly of his horse, and the horse cocked its head and started charging towards the escaping soldiers. Tenesee gave his cavalry sword another swing and another column of flame ten meters long spewed out again. This kind of attack was very effective against a direct defense formation. However, it was relatively ineffective against escaping soldiers. Having expanded the magic of his cavalry sword, Tenesee gave a loud cry and the cavalry behind him spread out, moving towards the sides.

Against enemies that had already given up, strategy did not really need to be discussed. So long as they had a chance of living, these light cavalry soldiers would never have the guts to stop and fight back. The over hundred cavalry soldiers sheathed their cavalry swords, taking out their short spears and throwing them instead.

Only after chasing for a few miles and killing over fifty men did Tenesee stop. Even though he despised the enemy, Tenesee did not dare chase them too far. In any case, Hadisai City was too close by and the enemy was a Grade 1 earl. He still had the ability to command thousands of swordsmen.

After regrouping the army, Tenesee returned to the foot of the bridge, letting the soldiers retrieve the crossbows that the light cavalry soldiers had abandoned and securing the foot of the bridge. Only then did he blow a whistle. The shrill metal sound could be heard from over a mile away, and only then did the entire Bitter Water Army begin to advance towards the metal bridge.

This was actually a large road with many pedestrians, but upon seeing that a battle had ensued, all of them had run away. Even so, the Bitter Water Army was still cautious as they escorted Viscountess Lex’s carriage over the metal bridge.

Viscountess Lex’s carriage slowed down. The two sides were flanked with cavalry who were protecting them, almost as if an enemy were approaching. These soldiers had a great deal of experience in battle and knew to be cautious even after a victory, as once they let their guard down, they could be attacked by the enemy.

Crossing the foot of the bridge, Viscountess Lex saw the many corpses on the ground and let out a soft sigh.

"This isn’t the time to be soft-hearted," Faerun suddenly blurted. He was well aware that this trip back to the capital would be fraught with dangers that were worse than the one here.

"I was just thinking. These soldiers died without any value. Even Loulan is about to get messy. The black mages are spreading towards the border, and counting on the mages alone, it would be impossible to eradicate all of them. These are the empire’s soldiers…"

"If they had considered themselves the empire’s soldiers, they shouldn’t have stopped the viscountess," Hu An said coldly, looking at the bodies.

Viscountess Lex tapped on the carriage window and said to the soldiers outside, "Leave a hundred men to clean up the bodies."

Saleen looked at Viscountess Lex’s tightly knit eyebrows and was not sure how sincere her act of pity was.

The carriage had just reached the center of the bridge when suddenly, a dark shadow appeared from the river beneath the bridge. It broke past the planks of wood that made up the bridge and charged towards them. This black shadow was sharp as an arrow, and was attempting to assassinate Viscountess Lex from the bottom of the carriage.

Boom!

The river exploded in this instant. The mist that spread up to the sky enveloped the entire carriage.

Perhaps the assassin had not chosen the best time, but their skills were unbelievably precise. As the thin sword in their hand headed towards the bottom of the carriage, the mist that had been created blocked the vision of the surrounding soldiers.

The assassin’s sword was as black as night and was only as wide as a finger. The blade of the sword glowed with a green light. This was a sword aura waiting to be released. Even if they were not a grand swordmaster, they were the pinnacle of a swordmaster.

The driver of the carriage seemed to realize that someone was about to assassinate Viscountess Lex and sped up abruptly. The assassin’s shot had already been diverted away from the seat of Viscountess Lex. Simultaneously, the bottom panel of the carriage had given way. Faerun extended his hand, and grabbing hold of the assassin’s thin sword, he pulled the assassin up. The sword aura from the thin sword was extinguished by Faerun.

Over ten spells swamped the assassin all at once, along with a boomerang. A few more holes appeared on the body of the assassin. There was not a single drop of blood flowing from any of these shocking wounds. After making one round around the assassin’s neck, Sika’s boomerang returned to her hand.

The bottom of the carriage was reassembled together. As Faerun released his grip, the body of the assassin tumbled to the ground. They had died a clean death.

The mist outside the carriage had dissipated and everyone looked a little embarrassed. Saleen had not done anything. With Faerun there, there was no need for his help anyway. Faerun had managed to grab the thin sword with his bare hands. Naturally, he had not been afraid of whatever counterabilities the assassin could have had.

Viscountess Lex burst into laughter as she said, "He could have been a good source of information. It’s too bad you all had to kill him. Sigh…"

The mages’ faces turned red. During their normal training, they had only been taught how to kill the enemy. Their combat coordination was fairly good, and they had been quick to strike. Almost all of them had cast two instantaneous spells. The problem was that like what Viscountess Lex had said, this person had been killed so cleanly that they had been given no chance to ask him anything.

"He isn’t an insider. The assassin doesn’t know about your grade advancement, nor does he know…"

"Yes. Even though we hadn’t stopped at any cities, we have been walking a straight route. It would have been easy for someone to guess when we would arrive here. This assassin had been waiting for less than half a day. It is going to be hard for Mokolari to get out of this. This is good as well, Viscountess, lest he bring up the death of some soldiers to the lower house." Faerun talked to Viscountess Lex as he grabbed the thin sword in his hand and analyzed its details.

"It seems we will need to camp outside again." Viscountess Lex looked at the dead body in disgust, shifting her legs away from it.

"Viscountess, why don’t we blame this on Molokari and…"

"Hu An, I don’t have the time." Viscountess Lex closed her eyes. Leaning against the cushion, she did not say another word. Hu An was slightly embarrassed, still a little troubled in his heart.

"This is too far away from Bitter Water Prefecture. Even if we blamed Mokolari, it is not under the jurisdiction of the viscountess," A male mage beside Hu An said as he poked him, hinting to him not to say anymore. Hu An understood and turned away.