Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
Winter finally arrived, and Isolated Cliff City was soon covered in snow. The snow was quite entertaining for the rich; it was pleasing to the eyes, and if you ever got bored, you could always throw some snowballs around or make a snowman. However, for the poor, the snow was a catastrophe; their thatched roofs would collapse from the weight, their bodies would become numb due to their lack of cloth, and on top of all that, it wasn’t easy to find food to eat when the whole world was covered by snow.
But to Moxinke, snow was neither poetic nor scary – just a little annoying. His breath would often float up and form a layer of frost on his eyebrow, and he had to constantly wipe them away or risk walking blind.
After taking a turn, Moxinke walked into Han Jin’s courtyard. Han Jin hadn’t stepped out of his room at all for the past few days, focusing all his energy on forging equipment and cultivating. With Han Jin setting an example, Reg, Moxinke, and the rest all started to cultivate tirelessly likewise. Even Winston was a little touched. If a dragon slayer, who already stood atop the pyramid of power, still strove to improve himself, should they really be satisfied with themselves?
“Raphael!” Moxinke shouted from outside. He then pushed open the door and was promptly startled by what greeted him. Han Jin was swinging a long whip in his hand which flew around agilely like a snake and would sharply crack everytime it moved.
Han Jin stopped as he had noticed Moxinke barge in. However, the whip in his hand did not. Its tip straightened, then pointed toward Moxinke as if it had a mind of its own.
“What is that thing?” Moxinke felt like a viper was staring at him, and unconsciously took a step back.
“You will find out eventually.” Han Jin smiled, then put the whip back into his space ring. He noticed that Moxinke was only wearing a coarse vest which exposed most of his chest, and curiously asked, “Where’s your leather armor?”
“Hayden broke it when I was sparring with him yesterday.”
“Broke it?” Han Jin blanked, then burst out laughing.
“What are you laughing at?”
“Yalina’s second dragon scale leather armor is almost completed, and you happened to have broken your old leather armor while sparring? That’s a bit too much of a coincidance isn’t it?”
“Ah…haha…” Moxinke scratched his head in embarrassment.
“Come on! You think you can fool me with your little trick?!” Han Jin didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. “What, do you think someone is going to take it away from you?”
“No…” Moxinke quickly explained, “I thought Yalina was going to sell the dragon scale armor!”
“Sell it? To who? She made it with your measurements; who else could wear it?”
Moxinke still didn’t seem convinced. “But… but Yalina was just talking about selling the dragon scale armor yesterday?!”
“She only said that because you were present.”
“She was joking?”
“There you go. That took you awhile.”
“I…” Moxinke abruptly turned and walked out.
“Mr. Esteemed Sword Saint, are you trying to get your revenge on Yalina?” Han Jin said with a half smile.
Moxinke suddenly froze, then walked back. The way Han Jin had called him, “Mr. Esteemed Sword Saint”, made him realize that if he did try to get his payback on Yalina, he would be the one to lose, both in terms of brains and brawns. Why make it hard on himself then?!
“You have something for me?” Han Jin said.
“Oh right… here’s the thing: Cold Shadow City’s caravan is here, and they brought a large batch of slaves with them. Gibran, Julia, and a few others wanted to spectate. Sunier and some others wanted to go as well; you want to come?”
“Slaves? What’s so interesting about that?”
“Do you never get bored after being holed up in your room for days? Take this as an opportunity to relax a little,” Moxinke said. “We have only ever heard of Cold Shadow City in name before. This is the first time they have sent a caravan to Isolated Cliff City; we might as well go watch.”
“Usually, the arrival of a large number of slaves means the fall of another city or duchy,” Cessacioun commented as he walked in. “If my guess is correct, Koman City no longer exists as of now. Cold Shadow City has probably expanded their influence to the front lines of Depew CIty. Ha… that would be a great boon for the Holy Crown City. Lord Malith of Depew City for sure does not have the guts to continue invading Holy Crown City, and will instead call back his troops to defend himself. We took Zaganide’s home base, and just now he lost his ally. He probably can’t even defend against the torrent of counter assaults that Dismark is about to initiate. Just you wait; the whole Northeastern region is about to experience a big change!”
“How is that possible?” Moxinke said with a startled expression. “I heard that Koman City was quite powerful; they can’t just be wiped out like that, right?”
“Koman City held the entry to the Frozen Highlands; if they had any semblance of a military left, how could the caravan from Cold Shadow City manage to get through?” Cessacious said. “I heard that Lorch Chesam of Cold Shadow City is a Thunder Titan, a true Superior! Besides, he is known to have great ambition and never really being satisfied with his achievements, or else he wouldn’t have sent his caravan so fast.”
“What’s your reasoning?” Han Jin asked.
“The caravan from Cold Shadow City brought a total of 3,000 slaves; what do you think Chesam wants to achieve with that? Just to trade some magic crystals? Ha, that’s probably only one of his goals.” Cessacioun continued, “He also wants to show off his power and his battle spoils, while at the same time scouting other duchies to be his next target.”
“The caravan must go through Depew City to get here, and they have to go through Holy Crown City if they want to take the shortcut. What if something happens to his caravan?” Moxinke said.
“Chesam would be ecstatic if something did happen; then he would have enough of an excuse to start another war.”
“That’s what you think?” Han Jin asked.
“No, that’s what everyone thinks. We have been talking about Chesam since this morning,” Cessacioun said. “Reg went to check on them already, and that caravan is definitely not normal. It somehow had at least twenty powerful snow mages guarding it! Let’s go; we should go see for ourselves as well and gather as much information as possible.”
Han Jin considered for a moment, then nodded. “Alright.”
If he was a simple mercenary, Chesam wouldn’t interest him at all. However, since they had their own city now. Even if everything was still at their early stages, it was theirs! It made them feel uncomfortable when a powerful force suddenly pops out from the Frozen Highlands.
Gibran and the rest of the people had been waiting for a long time, and the two groups walked out one after another from their base. Cold and snow didn’t pose much of a problem for the various businessmen, and the street remained busy as usual.
It was an interesting group. Gibran and Julia walked out in front. Those two had already reconciled, and despite spending most of their days together, still had an endless amount of stuff to talk about. Han Jin and Sunier, on the other hand, walked at the tail of the group. They didn’t have the luxury of spending all of their days together since Han Jin had to cultivate. Sunier didn’t want to pass on this chance and dragged Han Jin to the back while ignoring everyone else’s knowing smiles.
When they were almost at the market, a slim shape suddenly ran out of an alley, blocked Gibran and Julia, then said in a shaking voice, “Big brother, do you want to buy some flowers?”
It was a girl who was about sixteen or seventeen years old, and although she wasn’t beautiful, she was not jarring to look at. However, her clothes appeared extremely shabby. Her toes stuck out of her broken shoes that were tainted with mud, and her shirts and pants were at least a few sizes smaller as her forearms and calves both appeared blue from being exposed to the cold air for too long. Her family was probably too poor to buy her new clothes as she grew.
Her clothes were almost as thin as Moxinke’s vest, but Moxinke wore it because he wasn’t afraid of the cold, which obviously wasn’t the case for the girl. All the flowers in her basket were shaking since her whole body was shaking as well.
Gibran didn’t say anything but instead threw something into the basket, picked up a flower, and handed it to Julia with a smile.
The girl hurriedly dug through her flower basket, and when she finally saw what it was, froze in place. By the time she finally came to her senses, Gibran and Julia were both in the distance. The girl could only bow in their general direction and repeat “Thank you sir” over and over again.
“Little girl, let me see what flowers you are selling.” Moxinke approached as well. He felt bad for her and was about to buy a flower from her even though he didn’t have anyone to give it too.
The girl’s eyes lit up and hurriedly raised her flower basket; Moxinke was simply too tall compared to her. “Uncle, do you want to buy a flower?”
Moxinke’s hand froze in place. He was quite irritated, but he couldn’t let out his anger at the little girl, so he coldly humphed and continued walking.
“Uncle, please buy a flower… Uncle!” The girl didn’t let him go so easily since she had high hopes, and instead shuffled behind Moxinke.
The more the girl called him ‘uncle’, the more irritated Moxinke got. Even more annoying was Cessacioun and Reg’s sneaky laughter. If it were a man selling flowers, he would have punched him in the face already! He was only twenty something! When did he become an ‘uncle’?!
“Girl, you are using the wrong title. If you had called him ‘little brother’, he would have bought your flowers a long time ago,” Cessacioun said as if there wasn’t enough chaos in the world.
“Little brother?” The girl tried her best to catch up to Moxinke with her shuffles, then looked at the side of Moxinke’s face. He was a ‘little brother’ with that chin full of a black beard?
But since she was desperate to sell her flowers, she chose to comply. “Little brother, please buy a flower!”
“Go away!” Moxinke finally had enough and shouted.
The girl was so startled she fell onto the ground.
Moxinke blanked, took out a gold coin, threw it into her basket, then grabbed a flower before angrily walking forward.
The girl stared dumbly at her basket and couldn’t believe her eyes. What was with today? Why was everyone buying her flowers with gold coins?
Just as she was sitting dumbly on the ground, a hand appeared in front of her. It was Cessacioun’s.
He had only wanted to help her, but she very cautiously scooted back, then stood up by herself.
